Chapter 21

How the Beauty Fell In Love with the Beast

Author's Pre-note: Well here you go! The final chapter of Dreams. I believe that I will be making a sequel as well. I hope you have all enjoyed this story and find it satisfying. Thank you all for the reviews and for following/reading my story! It means so much to me.

Draco held onto Hermione's hand tightly as he guided them towards the battle. The sky was so much darker than it was before and the ground was covered with dead people. As Hermione looked around, she realized that most of them were her old friends and classmates. Looking around for Harry, she finally saw him. Ginny was talking to him so anxiously. Hermione rushed to him, dragging Draco along with her.

"Harry!" Hermione approached the two.

"Hermione," Harry looked over at her. "I really don't have time to explain, but you need to trust me on this, okay?"

"Of course," She nodded in such a loyal way. Ginny stood beside her, unable to take her eyes off of Draco's and Hermione's hands. Draco took note of this and tried not to look too uncomfortable.

"Hermione, I'm the last horcrux."

"I knew it," Hermione said under her breath, as her face became saddened. Tears came to her eyes as she bit her lip harshly. Releasing Draco's hand, she rushed towards her best friend and threw her arms around him. She held onto him tighter than she ever had before and cried onto his shoulder for a few moments. This was what she had been afraid of, in fact this was exactly what she was going to say earlier to him when they were at the boathouse. But she didn't want it to be true.

"I think we've both known it, but didn't really want to admit it." Harry told her. "I haven't seen Ron,"

"Harry, George was killed," Hermione said, still trying to stop the tears. Ginny looked very much the same as Hermione did.

"What? Ginny, I'm so sorry." He looked over to Ginny who now began crying even harder. "But I have to go, I'm running out of time…" Harry said, rubbing his scar. "I have to finish this once and for all."

Ginny quickly turned away and left. Hermione tried to follow after her, but Draco pulled her backwards. She turned to him, looking at her closely.

"Draco, let go." Hermione said.

"No," He shook his head. "You're not getting out of my sight again." He pulled her closer to him.

"Come on," She shook her head with a small smile.

Hermione pulled her hand away and pulled out Bellatrix's wand. She used it as the two continued fighting. It seemed to take hours for Harry to come back, though it wasn't exactly that long. But Hermione dreaded the moment when everyone stopped fighting to see Voldemort approach with his close army. Hagrid was standing among them, holding Harry who was limp in his arms. Ginny cried out so loudly that everyone could distinctively tell what who has screamed. Hermione stood, trying so hard not to cry, but it was far more difficult than she had imagined. Ron stood close beside her on the right hand side, while Draco stood to her left.

"Your little hero is dead!" Voldemort cried out as he laughed. "Here he is everyone! The boy who lived! Ha! He is dead!" He rejoiced so child-like. "Now, the rest of you will either join my side, or you will all die." He paused looking around, "Your choice,"

Some Slytherin's quickly rushed over to Voldemort and stood behind him with the rest of his army. The majority stayed, still not moving from their spots. They weren't about to give up that easily. Holding her wand even tighter, Hermione swallowed hard when she noticed that there were many eyes placed upon Draco. They expected him to move over, they knew that he would, yet he stayed next to her.

"Draco?" Voldemort watched, "Boy, you won't disappoint me, now will you? You have such potential, you know. I had such great plans for you. But you think you're too good for me, now don't you? You left this side for a filthy little mudblood like her?" He laughed and his army joined in. "You are such a foolish child, so naïve and young." He inched closer. "Didn't you have that unbreakable vow?"

"It's been broken." Draco muttered.

"Someone's killed your father?" Voldemort's eyes widened as he turned around to scan through his army.

"It was her!" Nacrissa pointed at Hermione.

"How adorable," Voldemort turned to Hermione. "What a sad, little love story. Especially because in the end, you both die."

Hermione bit her tongue as he raised his wand to her. All of a sudden, Harry sprang up from Hagrid's arms. All attention was turned towards him. Voldemort quickly rushed to Harry and the two began fighting and flying through the air and around Hogwarts. Everyone else soon began fighting again, and many more had killed. Biting her lip, Hermione tried not to think of her friends who were dying around her and tried to think about other things. She tried to imagine what life would be like after the war ended. She tried to figure out how classes would continue, who would become head master and where her journey would take her next. She wondered if Draco and her would last—and if so for exactly how long. She thought of anything that could get her just a moment worth of rest.

After a while more of fighting, a loud thud occurred, making everyone turn to the scene. Voldemort and Harry laid on the ground. But Harry was the only one who could pick himself back up. It was easy to see that he had won and that the war was finally over. But Hermione couldn't cheer or be happy. Instead, she turned over to see Draco who was walking towards her. He was smiling at first, happy that it had all came to an end. But as he got closer, his expression changed and instead became more worried and confused. Hermione tripped over her foot and put her hand over her stomach. Her knees gave way and she fell straight down and thankfully, into Draco's arm which caught her just in time.

When she opened her eyes, she realized she was in the Great Hall. A nurse had just finished bandaging up her waist. She had many pains throughout her body, but she didn't care. All she wanted to do was to see Harry and Ron, and of course to see Draco. But as she looked around the only people who were there with her were Ron and Harry. She felt fear in the pit of her stomach really settling in. Could he have just left her there and went on? Pulling herself out of the hospital bed, Hermione watched the two boys carefully. Both of them rushed over to her and wrapped their arms around her. She gave them a smile of relief and a small laugh.

"Thought you were gone for a minute there," Harry said, "You had me worried."

Hermione just smiled.

"Hermione, can I talk to you for a moment?" Harry pulled her away from Ron and more to the side of the room.

"Yeah, is everything alright?"

"Yeah," He nodded. "I just wanted you to know…that I'm thankful to have a friend like you. You went through so much, things I didn't even know. You have been there with me, through it all. And I couldn't have done this without you. Thank you, for not turning your back on me, for always trying to do what is best, thank you for still caring about me, even when I wasn't so caring towards you."

"You're my best friend, Harry. I'm always going to be there, no matter what." Hermione said, "And it's not all your fault. You were stressed, but everything's fine now. It's all over."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It just seems so strange. Voldemort's dead, he can't hurt us anymore. It just doesn't seem real yet to me." Harry crossed his arms. "Oh, and Draco is waiting out in the hall, just so you know. He didn't feel very comfortable with the idea of us all sitting in here waiting together."

"Thank you," Hermione smiled.

"Oh and Hermione," Harry stopped her once more.

"Yes?"

"I may never understand your love for him…but if he is who you truly love and he loves you back, I'm happy for you, regardless of anything else."

"Thank you," Hermione laughed, "I actually, really needed you to say that."

Ginny quickly appeared and pulled Harry aside. Hermione turned over to Ron for a split second. He had his hands in his pockets and he was looking mostly at the ground. But he turned his head up for a moment, so that their eyes crossed each other's paths. She gave him a smile and a nod before leaving the Great Hall. As she entered into the hallway, she saw Draco sitting down on the floor. It was evident that he had been waiting for quite a long time. He stood up as soon as he saw her and rushed forward to her. He gently put his arms around her to make sure he didn't hurt her and then held her close. Hermione came to weeping. This was the first time that he had held her in such a manner. It didn't matter who seen it, he didn't care and neither did she. Nothing was stopping them from being together, especially like this. And it was a feeling so bittersweet and overwhelming that she couldn't help but to let out a few more tears as time went on. The two stayed in each other's arms like that for a little bit longer before they decided to take a walk through what was left of Hogwarts. There was a lot of explaining that still needed to be done.

"I guess I'll never really understand." Hermione said to Draco as they paced what was left of the halls, "He thought that erasing my memory would be worse than making you kill me?"

"It's difficult to understand. But let's just say, it would be harder for me to live, knowing what I do now and you not remembering me at all." Draco said.

"I know exactly how that feels," Hermione breathed softly, thinking of her family who would never recognize her.

"Hermione," Luna appeared in front of her, giving her a hug.

"Are you alright?" Hermione examined the girl closely.

"Yeah, there's just some blood here and there. The nurses are trying to save the more critical wounds before little scratches like these." Luna explained.

"Those aren't little," Hermione disagreed. "I'm just glad it's all over now."

"Me too," Luna nodded, walking across the hall to find Neville waiting.

"Hey," Ron approached shortly after, pulling her aside away from Draco. "I just wanted to tell you that um, well...you know how you said I would never forgive you for what you did while we were apart?"

"Yes,"

"Well I do forgive you. And I'm sorry, for everything. I loved you since first year, it just took me until recently to figure that out. And it's a shame that it took me so long. But I really do love you, and though I can act so ridiculous and stupid sometimes, it's because I want you to love me back. But more than anything, I want you to be happy. And though I think it's psychotic, and it's unrealistic, I know that you are in love with Draco. And if that's who you love, then that's who you should be with." Ron said, looking down at the ground and then back to her.

"Thank you," Hermione said with a slight smile. She hugged him tightly. "And for what it's worth, I love you too, Ron."

"And I'm sorry, for not listening to you, for not giving you the benefit of the doubt. This whole time all I could think about was us...being together… it was as if nothing else even mattered. I was selfish, and I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing," Hermione said, "None of that matters anymore, okay? It's in the past, behind us." the two smiled at one another.

"I'm so sorry about George." Hermione added.

"Me too," Ron said, "I'm really worried about Fred, he blames himself for all this."

"It wasn't his fault." Hermione sighed, "I just can't imagine what he's going through."

"Yeah..."

When Ron left her, she turned around to see that Draco was still there. She walked closer to him.

"So now what?" Hermione asked.

"Hm?" He wondered.

"I mean, what's going to happen to us?" Hermione clarified.

"I don't know, Granger." Draco shook his head.

"Will you always call me Granger?" Hermione smiled in a teasing manner as she crossed her arms.

"I will call you Granger until the day comes when I can call you a Malfoy." Draco smiled.

"Draco," Hermione laughed.

"What?" He joined in with her.

"I love you,"

"I love you too,"

And this is exactly how the beauty fell in love with the beast.

Author's Note:

I hope you all enjoyed the story and will be interested in reading a sequel! I am very excited to write a second story based off of this and I have many ideas. Once again, thank you all so incredibly much for reading/reviewing.