Aaaah! Guys, I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long! College was draining me and I have the WORST hayfever. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's kind of like an extreme allergic reaction to Canberra. I kid you not. It's the WORST.

Anyway, here we are at the final chapter of the saga of Draco and Hermione... for now. Who knows what kind of new mischeviousness I might cook up for them in the future ;) Enjoy and review!

Chapter 4

And most dangerous of all… hope for the things that still could be.

I hear the preacher say

'Speak now or forever hold your peace'

When the tide of memories finally halted at this last encounter of ours, I came back to myself to find my cheeks glazed in tears. So much for not crying. Yes, the hope had been much too dangerous an emotion; I had allowed myself to hope I could talk Draco out of this wedding, and now I had lost my chance. Now, the hope was threatening do what legions of death eaters and prejudiced pure-bloods and Lord Voldemort himself couldn't do— it was threatening to kill me, slowly, painfully, bit by bit every year, eating away at me. My last chance was gone. I would never have Draco again. All because I couldn't say what I wanted to say on that last night. I collapsed into heaving but entirely silent sobs behind the curtains, not paying any attention to the wedding ceremony still playing out before me. I didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered.

Pull yourself together, Hermione Granger! A side of me scolded. You are the brightest witch of your age. You survived werewolves, giants, three-headed dogs, dragons, death eaters, the Crucio, Dementors and everything else the Wizarding world has thrown at you. And a mere wedding sends you off the edge? Whatever happened to seeing the wedding through even if it kills you? I almost let out a choked laugh as the last thought struck me. Yes, I had promised to see through the wedding even if it killed me, hadn't I? How ironic; it seemed now it would. Nevertheless, I wiped at the tears on my face with my handkerchief and sat up straighter, trying to pay attention to what the little man presiding over the wedding was saying now.

"… if there are any who object to this union taking place, you will speak now or forever hold your peace…"

I stood up like I had been electrocuted. What did he say? Speak now or forever hold your peace. Of course! How could I have forgotten about this particular part of the vows? How? I had to do it. I had to speak now. If I missed it, I would truly lose Draco. The hope came back to me in full force, stronger than ever. If it were crushed this time, I wasn't sure I would be able to survive. Speak now or forever hold your peace. I had to do this.

There's a silence, there's my last chance

I stand up with shaking hands

All eyes on me

The silence dragged on for what seemed like an interminable amount of time, but it must have only been a few seconds. My hands were shaking. Heck, my whole body was shaking. I should have been thinking about a million different things. Like how Draco might not appreciate his wedding being crashed in such a dramatic way, even if he didn't like the girl he was marrying. Like how I had been crying and I would look like a complete mess compared to Astoria, clean and pretty in her (abominable) white gown. Like how this was somebody's wedding I was completely ruining, and not even Astoria (whom I hated) deserved that. But none of that mattered in that moment. The only thing I could think of, the only thing I could see, was Draco. I took a deep breath and, before my nerves could desert me, stepped out from behind the curtain.

Horrified looks from

Everyone in the room, but

I'm only looking at you

Harry was the first to notice me. His eyes widened to the size of saucers and he started motioning to me frantically, mouthing for me to get back behind the curtain. Pansy noticed this and turned in my direction, a grin spreading across her pretty face and a triumphant gleam in her sparkling eyes. She nudged Blaise in the ribs and he turned too, looked in my direction, and gave a whoop and a thumbs up. The wizard in charge of the proceedings noticed me and looked incredibly flustered; and slowly, all across the hall, people started turning their heads towards me, some faces curious, some faces laughing, some horrified. Most horrified, actually. The whispering and pointing started, and finally Astoria and Draco couldn't ignore what was happening behind their backs and turned. Astoria's eyes widened. Her lips started moving soundlessly, struggling to form coherent words. The whispering was louder than ever now, and the Greengrass family were pointing and accusing me, but none of this registered to me. I was looking only at Draco. Draco, who had a strange, blazing look in his face, his eyes fiery and locked on mine, shining like an angel, so perfect that he took the breath from me. He could be mine. If only I could find the right words to say now. I took a deep breath and started.

"I am not the kind of girl

That should be rudely barging in on a white veil occasion

"I… well, I suppose I technically shouldn't be here. I was invited at first, but then without my knowledge I was uninvited. So I guess people can't blame me if I turned up anyway, because I didn't know. I don't go around crashing weddings usually, you know." People in the crowd tittered at this, and my resolve was fortified. Friends. I had friends in this hall.

But you are not the kind of boy

That should be marrying the wrong girl!

"But I… I had reason to crash this wedding. I know a lot about being in relationships that for some reason, don't work. Sometimes it's hard to see. Sometimes it feels so much like the real thing that you don't want to let go of the happy familiarity you have. But in the end, that's just going to hurt the both of you. It's better to let go. I know about this more than anyone. Sometimes it's hard to see when a relationship has gone bad. But sometimes it's easy to see. Blindingly easy. And… I have reason to believe that this couple up here shouldn't marry today, as they are too insurmountably different. It wouldn't end prettily. Draco shouldn't be marrying Astoria."

A dead silence followed my pronouncement, which was immediately followed by an explosion of sound.

"WHO ARE YOU TO SAY HE SHOULDN'T MARRY ME?!" Astoria screeched, just one of many who were shouting at me.

"Why, miss, this is most unusual, most unusual and disrespectful I might add, you are crashing a legally binding wedding for no perceivable reason—" the M.C.—ing wizard said indignantly, and I winced a little at his words. They were true, after all.

"Whoa, Hermione, have you lost your mind?" Harry was asking, purely out of concern for me. I managed a grimace in his direction.

"Go Hermione Granger!" Pansy was whooping, while Blaise clapped exuberantly. "You tell her!"

"How dare you crash my daughter's wedding?" Mrs. Greengrass was screaming, her nails-on-a-chalkboard voice exactly the same as her daughters.

"SHUT UP!" the one voice I wanted to hear most of all drowned the rest of them out, and everyone fell silent as Draco Malfoy turned his glorious silver-grey eyes on me. "Continue, Hermione," he said, and his voice cracked with an emotion I couldn't identify. He took an almost involuntary step towards me, a movement I mirrored unconsciously.

So don't say yes, run away now

"You two are both too unlike for this wedding too work," I said, wetting my lips that were, by now, as dry and cracked as the Sahara desert. "Please, Draco. You know this. Don't say yes. You can't say yes. You'll both be desperately unhappy."

Draco swallowed. "Is that the only reason you have?" he asked, taking another step towards me. I advanced a little more down the aisle as well.

I'll meet you when you're out of the church at the back door

"You don't share the same interests," I said, my voice shaking a little despite trying to speak with conviction. "She doesn't read as extensively as you. She hates travelling. She dislikes sports and she doesn't like classical music. And…"

Another step towards each other. "And?"

Don't wait or say a single vow

"It's magically binding," I all but whispered. "You'll be stuck in it forever. You won't be able to escape, even after she dies." Step. Pause. Another step. Pause. We were barely three metres apart now.

"Is that your only reason for stopping us?" he murmured as well, his eyes intense, focused. I found myself being drowned in a sea of storm-cloud grey. It was then that I realised I needed to say the words. He needed to hear them. Nothing else could get him back. This was the right time. This was the last and only time.

You need to hear me out

"Almost," I said. "But not quite." Another step, and that put the distance between us at two metres. Two metres that we were steadily closing in on.

"And?" he said, his voice barely audible. The entire hall was silent, everyone waiting on baited breath, so quiet you could hear the proverbial pin drop. "Was that all? Why did you stop this, Hermione?" He spoke my name like a caress, and that single word held so much emotion. Fear, love, hope. The most dangerous emotion of all. I could feel it in every crack of my heart, threatening to burst out of me any moment.

And they said, 'Speak now'!"

Another step. We were a metre apart now. Now half a metre. Now thirty centimetres. Twenty. There we stopped, just shy of touching, our faces mere inches away and our eyes boring into the other's. He licked his lips, which were as dry as mine.

"Why, Hermione?" he whispered again, and I closed my eyes and inhaled his scent, which was still uniquely him despite the cloying perfume of millions of flowers. I snapped my eyes open, and saw my own expression mirrored in his: fear, love, hope. It was now or never.

Another deep breath. The whole world rested on this single moment.

"I love you."

And you say, let's run away now

The hall exploded.

"HOW DARE YOU!" was the prevailing and predictable screech from Astoria and her family. But the rest of the people were on their feet, clapping and whooping. Pansy and Blaise were dancing and laughing like lunatics, while Harry stood in astonishment, his jaw down to his feet and shaking his head. Draco had taken a sharp intake of breath when he heard my words, and now he was staring at me with the strangest expression on his face. My heart lurched and dropped. Maybe I had misread his face when I thought it had mirrored mine? I could have sworn I had seen my emotions reciprocated in his. But maybe I was mistaken. Maybe he didn't love me anymore. I looked up at him, imploring. Whatever his emotions were, I couldn't stand not knowing. The suspense was worse than actual rejection. I needed to know.

"— DARE SHE, BARGING IN HERE UNINVITED LIKE THAT, RUINING MY WEDDING, WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS, THAT FILTHY LITTLE MUGGLE-BORN, DRACO, WHY ARE YOU EVEN TOLDERATING THIS, SHE'S NOTHING BUT A SLUT AND A WHORE, A DIRTY LITTLE MUDBLOOD—"

But she never got past that last word. Draco's wand was out and pointing directly at her throat, and she stopped mid-rant, her eyes bulging as she saw the wand directed at him.

"Don't— you— EVER— call her that disgusting word again—" he snarled, flinging an arm around me and pulling me behind him, putting himself in between me and the Greengrasses. "I'm done with you, Astoria. I never really started. I'm sorry to leave you like this on your wedding day, but you just heard what Hermione said—apparently, we are too insurmountably different. You have crossed a line by calling her that. You've just lost any respect I may or may not have had for you. We're through."

"Mr. Malfoy!" the Greengrass patriarch said, thoroughly offended. "I resent your speaking to my daughter like that! You'd take this— this muggleborn's side over my pure-blooded daughter's—"

"I take this witch's side over your daughter's because she is far more beautiful, far more intelligent, far more brave and courageous and loyal and good than your daughter will ever be. The war is over, Mr. Greengrass. And the only thing that counts now in the wizarding world is good character." Draco said, and out of the corner of my eyes I saw Harry shake his head, bemused at how Draco had changed. A tentative smile was tugging at the corners of my lips that I was struggling to restrain. Things hadn't finished just yet. Astoria was turning purple with fury behind her father, and when Draco finished speaking, she snapped.

"I'LL GET YOU BACK FOR THIS, YOU FILTHY LITTLE WHORE—"

She came at me with her wand raised, but she never got the chance. Two pairs of hands belonging to Pansy and Blaise restrained her physically, while Harry and Draco both shouted the same spell that sent her wand flying out of her hand before it went anywhere near me. Astoria was apoplectic with rage. "DRACO MALFOY! YOU BETRAYED ME, YOU BETRAYED ME!"

"Yes, I did," the traitor in question said with perfect composure. "But you already knew I was a Slytherin, darling. And you know what else, Astoria?" he smirked while she shrieked in frustration.

"I despise your dress."

Astoria gave one last scream and fainted. Her family rushed around her, fussing, and her mother fainted too, only no-one caught her like she was expecting and she hit the gilded chairs on her way down. I turned to Draco with my heart in my eyes.

I'll meet you when I'm out of my tux at the back door

"Hi, love," he said casually, like we weren't surrounded by hundreds of people with him in a tux and me in a dress and we hadn't been apart for a year and I hadn't just declared my love for him. Like he couldn't care less about the entire situation and my announcement. His eyes were telling a different story, though. They were shining with the promise of a love story yet to be told. He gestured towards the back door of the church, grinning. "I'll meet you outside away from everyone once I'm out of this tux, or at least the atrocious pink tie."

We were still twenty centimetres apart. Much too far away. I took another incremental step towards him. Fifteen. "Love, now, is it? From Mudblood, to muggle-born, to Granger, to Hermione, to 'love'? My, my, we've come a long way, haven't we?" I mocked, and he just smirked.

"Whereas your nicknames for me have evolved from foul, evil little cockroach, to ferret, to Malfoy, to Draco and then to the love of your life. I think you've come further," he teased. He moved closer. Ten. Everyone else, sans the Greengrasses, was watching, utterly silent once more. Every eye riveted on us.

Baby, I didn't say my vows

Another step. Five centimetres. So close, but still not touching…

"So," I whispered, "did my reasons convince you?"

"I just told my would-be bride I don't like her dress. I'm fairly sure that constitutes an 'I loathe you with all my being' in the female language."

"But you're a Slytherin, aren't you, Draco? We can't ever forget that. Look what happened to Astoria when she forgot." We were doing it again, like we always did when we were this close; leaning in closer to each other, our heads tipping unconsciously, our eyes locked on each other and our faces drawing closer. He growled.

"You're going to make me spell it out, aren't you, love?" he said.

"Don't call people 'love' unless you mean it, darling," I said just as sardonically, and Harry shook his head as he saw us bantering sarcastically even in this most climactic of moments. I bit back a smile. Draco exhaled.

"Well, love," he said, emphasising 'love', "I don't know how else to put it, but I just told my bride that I don't like her dress, disarmed her, told her we were through, yelled at her for another woman, told her the other woman was far more beautiful, intelligent, brave and loving that she'd ever be, and now I'm calling that woman 'love'. Is that spelled out enough for you?" his face was five centimetres from mine. Five. His breath washed over me, sweet and cool.

"You don't know how else to put it?" I cooed, my voice honey-sweet. "That's a shame. I always thought of you as one of the more creative ones…" I leaned in a little closer to him. Four.

"Well, now that you mention it, I might just remember… but I'm not sure, you'll have to jog my memory for a bit…" his head tipped towards me. Three.

"Mmm… I don't know, Draco. Jog your memory? What about butterbeer? Peacock-green? Ginny's wedding?" The smile was fighting to get out now, and I focused on Draco's smoky eyes to keep it from bursting out. Two.

He had no such reservations. He was smiling unrestrainedly. "That definitely is reminding me… I might need another kick, though. Anything else?" he moved another fraction of an inch closer. One.

I bit my lip. "Three months ago," I offered, and he stiffened immediately. I didn't need to explain. He knew exactly what event I was referring to. Three months ago, when he had told me he loved me, when I had turned him out of my office without ever telling him anything. I held my breath, praying that I hadn't made the wrong move.

"Ah, three months ago," he said, so softly that even I had trouble hearing. "I do remember something about that night. Didn't I walk into your office? Saying something to the effect of me not caring about what anybody thought? Something like how you were the best thing in my life and how I wouldn't trade you for the world? Something like that?"

"Draco!" I exclaimed, the smile veritably tearing at the corners of my mouth. "Stop teasing me! You know what I—"

"Ah yes, I remember now," he cut across me, stilling my babbling by bringing his hand up to my cheek. My pulse picked up instantly, my blood singing in my veins, my entire body quivering. "I remember… saying something like…" His other hand came up to my back, and I was enfolded against him, just like that magical moonlit night so many years ago when he had kissed me for the first time. He looked me straight in the eye and took a deep breath. The world spun on its axis.

"I love you."

The smile that had been fighting to free itself finally broke through, my whole face radiant with happiness, love, hope. And his alight with the same beautiful emotions, his perfect features glowing in the fleeting second I saw them before he closed the distance between us and pressed his lips to mine.

Zero.

"I love you, Hermione, always have, always will," he whispered against my lips, making me feel dizzy, but not dizzy enough so as to forget to say the right things this time round.

"I love you, Draco, forever, now and always."

And all around us, everyone (the Greengrasses had snuck away in the middle of everything once they revived Astoria and her mother) was on their feet, breaking into hysterical, tumultuous, happy applause, shouting and laughing and whooping and crying. And it was like that that we kissed again, only this time we didn't need to hold back: happiness, love, and hope.

So glad you were around when they said, 'Speak Now'.