Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my ideas. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: I'm so happy to see that people have stuck with this story! I really enjoyed and appreciated the reviews. I hope that you enjoy this chapter! PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! xx

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Lucky

Meredith could feel herself shaking.

She grabbed Leo's hand in hers and stared down at him. His eyes were still fluttering open and closed, but there was a small smile on his lips. She felt herself grin as tears leaked from her eyes.

"Leo." she whispered. "Oh my god."

"Meredith." he said, his voice quiet. "Wh-what happened?"

She leaned down, pressing her lips against his gently, feeling pleasantly surprised when his own responded slightly. She pulled back, resting her forehead against his, trying to slow her tears.

"You're awake." she whispered. "You're awake."

She heard the door open again and lifted her head, to see the Healer walking in with Teddy trailing behind her, as well as her parents, Harry and Ginny. She reluctantly stood up from the bed, dropping Leo's hand to make room for the Healer.

"Leo. Hi there." she said. "You gave everyone quite the scare."

"What happened?" he whispered again.

The Healer ran her wand over Leo, moving it in complicated motions. Meredith watched, feeling herself shake. She felt Teddy wrap an arm around her shoulder and pull her closer to him, and she was grateful. She couldn't believe that he was awake. All she wanted to do was hold him close.

"Is he okay?" Meredith found herself whispering.

The Healer was quiet for a few minutes longer, continuing her work before turning to Meredith.

"We'll need to keep him here for a few more days and run some more tests on him later, but now that he's awake… he should be just fine. He'll be slow for a little while, due to not using his muscles, but… he should be okay." the Healer explained. "Would you like me to notify his family?"

"Please." Hermione said from the door.

Meredith heard herself let out a squeal, walking over to Leo's bed as the Healer exited the room. She heard her murmur something about there being too many people in the room, but Meredith didn't care. All she could focus on was Leo. She sat back down on the side of his bed, taking his hand in hers.

"The… the last thing I remember is getting ready for your party…" Leo whispered weakly. "I don't…"

"Astoria found you in your room, passed out. It was the same condition your Mum had, Leo." Meredith explained, her voice shaking. "You've been unconscious in St. Mungo's for a few weeks now."

"Th-the same thing my…" he repeated, his voice trailing off as he shook his head.

Meredith leaned forward and brushed his hair off his forehead before kissing it softly.

"But you're okay. You're awake now. That's what matters." Meredith whispered. "You're okay."

Meredith felt him squeeze her hand and she released a new fall of tears — tears of joy and pure relief. All the time she'd spent at his bedside, she'd longed for him to just squeeze her hand, and now he was.

"I love you." Meredith said. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too." Leo said.

Meredith leaned down and kissed him, not caring that almost her entire family was in the back of the room watching. She had been so scared that she would never get to feel his kiss again. She had wasted so much time hiding in her grief over Ava and being afraid of letting him back in. She would never make that mistake again. She would never let him go.

"Please don't ever scare me like that again." she said.

"I'll try not to." Leo chuckled. "But really though… what's with the pink hair, Teddy?"

Meredith heard a chorus of laughter throughout the room and she turned around, finding tears in the eyes of her mother, sister and Aunt Ginny as they all leaned into their significant others. Her mother was leaning back against her father who had his arms wrapped around her waist, a smile on his face. Marley was leaning in James' side, as his arms were wrapped around her protectively. Ginny was standing next to Harry, resting her head on his shoulder with his hand placed on her stomach.

"I've been a bit stressed out, mate." Teddy said. "You scared the shit out of us."

Meredith looked up at her best friend, watching his pink hair change back to it's normal dark brown. He stepped closer to the bed, placing a hand on her shoulder and smiling at the two of them.

"Welcome back, mate." Teddy said. "It's bloody good to see you awake."

Meredith looked back at Leo, grinning. He smiled at her, reaching his hand up to her cheek and wincing as he did so.

"Don't hurt yourself, Leo." she whispered.

He smiled. "It's okay. Come here."

She leaned down closer to him and he kissed her slowly. After a long moment she pulled back took both his hands, bringing them to her lips.

"I thought that I was going to lose you." Meredith whispered tearfully. "I thought…"

"Mer… I'm okay. I'm going to be okay." Leo said. "You're stuck with me now.'

She smiled. "Good."

. . .

"Leo!"

Marley looked up at the door, finding Astoria and Theodore rushing into the room. Astoria already had tears streaming down her cheeks. She watched as Meredith stood up to give Astoria and Theo room, stepping backwards with Teddy. Marley caught her mother's eye who nodded her head towards the door. She understood — they deserved some time together. Marley took James' hand and began to pull him towards the door.

"Mer, we'll be in the waiting room, okay?" Marley said.

Her sister nodded at her, and Marley could see true and proper happiness in her eyes. She felt a weight being lifted off her chest as the family made their way to the waiting room. Once they were there, Marley turned around to look at James, who was already smiling down at her as she locked her arms around his neck.

"Picked a good day to come, didn't I?" James said.

Marley laughed, kissing him quickly. "You planned it out like this, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah. I've had a plan with Leo this whole time." he joked.

Marley pulled him into a hug, placing a kiss on his neck. "Thank you. Even if he hadn't woken up today… thank you."

"It's nice to see you smiling, Marley." James said as they pulled back.

"Well, it's nice to see Meredith smiling." she said. "He's awake, James."

James nodded at her, pulling her close. "He is, M&M. Everything's going to be alright."

"You're right. I think it is." Marley said.

She turned around, watching her parents standing close to one another. Draco had his arms around Hermione's waist, holding her close and she was smiling up at him, nodding. Marley could see the love between her parents and hoped that when she was that age, her and James were still so clearly in love.

And she had a feeling that they would be.

"Well… I certainly feel better." Ginny said.

Marley pulled them closer to the adults, linking James' hand in hers and intertwining their fingers.

"So do I." Marley said. "I know he's not necessarily out of the woods yet, but… this is incredible."

"Did you see how happy Meredith was?" Hermione asked, addressing no one in particular.

"It's been too long since we've seen that smile." Draco said.

Marley felt herself grin, turning back to look at James. He looked down and caught her eye.

"What?" he asked.

She shook her head, kissing his cheek quickly. "Nothing. I'm just… happy."

. . .

Hermione listened to Marley's words and knew that that pretty much summed up the feeling of all of them. She knew that she was happy. Leo was awake which meant the future was looking up for her baby girl. Meredith was going to be okay. Of course Leo undoubtably had a recovery ahead of him, and this didn't change anything involving Meredith's grief, but now she had Leo.

And the two of them together was exactly what they needed.

The smile on her daughter's face was something she was always going to remember.

"She's going to be alright, Hermione." Draco said. "She's really going to be alright."

Hermione turned to look at him, kissing his lips quickly. "Yes, she is."

Sometimes, Hermione couldn't believe how much she loved Draco. It overwhelmed her constantly in the best of ways, even all these years later. She wanted to snog him senseless there and then with all the joy running through her veins, but knew that probably wasn't the most appropriate thing to do in front of her daughter. Draco tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and gently touched her cheek.

"God, Granger. How did we get so lucky to have this family?" Draco murmured.

Hermione smiled. "Excuse me, but that's Malfoy to you."

Draco wrapped his arms around Hermione and lifted her off the ground, twirling her around in a hug. She let out a loud squeal of laughter as he placed her down and kissed her lips deeply. Hermione felt her face flush delightfully as she looked at her daughter, James, Ginny and Harry. They were all watching her with amused expressions.

"Well, that was certainly something." Harry said.

"Shut up, Potter." Draco laughed. "You can't do that to your wife right now, due to her precious cargo and all."

Hermione laughed. "Precious cargo? God, you're a weirdo."

"You knew that a long time ago, love." Draco said, kissing her cheek.

Hermione stepped out of Draco's embrace and took the few steps closer to her daughter. She tore her eyes away from James to look at Hermione and smiled. Hermione reached forward and pulled her into her arms, holding her close.

"What, Mum?" Marley asked with a laugh.

"Can't I just hug my daughter?" Hermione said, pulling away but keeping an arm around her.

"I suppose so." Marley said with a cheeky smile.

Hermione laughed. "I'm glad you're here, Marley. And it proved to be on the best of days."

Marley nodded happily. "Yeah, it really did. I think everything will be okay now, Mum. I really do."

"I hope so, darling." Hermione said, kissing her forehead. "I really hope so."

. . .

Draco watched his wife hug their daughter and smile.

He had a sense of calm inside him that he hadn't had in a while. The holidays had turned so absolutely hectic and sad, that he hadn't been entirely sure if peace would ever come again.

But now with Leo awake, he felt it.

"She'll be fine now, mate." Harry said, clapping a hand on Draco's shoulder. "She really will be. They all will be."

Draco tore his eyes away from his girls to look at his friends. Harry was standing with an arm around Ginny who was resting with a hand on her stomach. He smiled at them.

"Congratulations, Ginny." Draco said. "I just realized I've known for a little while and never actually congratulated you."

Ginny smiled. "Thank you, Draco. I knew Hermione wouldn't keep it to herself."

"Hey! I kept it from Harry." Hermione said, joining in. "I just couldn't keep it from Draco, and you know he wouldn't tell anyone. He's not a complete ass."

"Anymore." Harry said.

Draco rolled his eyes, elbowing his friend. "Shut up, Potter."

Hermione stepped back to him and he pressed a kiss to her forehead, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"We're gonna head back to the room if that's okay." Marley said. "I want to see Meredith a little more before we head back to school."

"Of course, darling." Hermione said. "Tell them we'll be out here, okay?"

Marley nodded and soon her and James were heading off back to Meredith's room. Draco watched his daughter fondly, hardly able to believe just how grownup she was. He looked back down at Hermione and sighed.

"What now, angel?" he asked.

Hermione shrugged. "We try and move forward. Put… put all of this behind us. We try and help Meredith with whatever she needs in terms of… in terms of remembering Ava but all the while moving forward with her life. We try and… we try and accept that Ron is around."

Draco felt the familiar fury in his chest at the mention of Ron, but knew that Hermione was right. Whether or not they saw him, he was around. He would most definitely be involved with Ginny again. He knew just how important he was to Ginny. Now that they had reunited, she wouldn't want him to disappear from her life anymore, and that meant being in Harry's life.

Which meant being in Hermione's life.

In Draco's life.

And he's just have to try and find a way to accept that.

"Okay." he whispered, kissing the top of her head. "I love you."

"I love you, too." she said back, smiling up at him.

. . .

James watched Meredith and Leo interact in soft words from his spot at the back of the room. Astoria and Theo had momentarily stepped out, going to have a proper discussion with the Healers and Mediwitches who were in charge of Leo's recovery.

"I'm glad you two are here." Teddy said, approaching James and Marley. "Especially now. I'm glad you got to see this."

"It's good to see her happy again." Marley said.

Teddy nodded, leaning back against the wall next to James. "Very nice. Bloody brilliant to see both of them smiling. They belong together. They always have."

James looked down at Marley who was already staring up at him, her grey blue eyes wide. He couldn't help but grin at her.

"How the fuck did it take you two this long to get together?" Teddy said.

James laughed, looking back at his brother. "I've asked myself that a lot."

"Yeah, me too." Marley said. "We were too busy arguing."

"Seriously though. You know our parents had a bet going on, yeah?" Teddy said.

"What?" Marley and James said simultaneously.

Teddy laughed. "You really didn't know? Christ. Yeah, they've been betting on when you'd get together for years now."

Marley buried her face in James chest as he just let out a groan and laughed, kissing the top of Marley's head.

"I think our parents won, Marley." Meredith said, looking up from the bed. "But it was close in the end."

The three of them approached the bed, taking in Meredith's red, yet happy eyes. Leo was still quite pale and weak looking, but he was awake, his eyes wide and a small smile on his lips as he looked at Meredith.

"I owe you a birthday present, Mer." Leo said.

Meredith looked back at him. "No you don't, you tosser. You being awake is exactly what I need."

"No, but I have a present for you. It's just at home, I'm assuming." Leo said. "Unless somebody robbed the home of an unconscious man."

Meredith said. "Your Aunt and Uncle haven't spent much time at home, but I'm sure no one's robbed you."

"Good, because it's quite the gift." Leo said. "And once I'm out of here, it is yours."

"I hope you're out of here soon." Meredith said. "Not for the gift."

"Maybe for the gift a little bit." Leo joked.

Meredith leaned down and pressed a kiss to Leo's lips as James turned to face Marley. She was watching her sister before turning to look at James.

"What?" she asked.

"Let me take you out for dinner tonight." James said.

Marley raised her eyebrows. "James, I think you're forgetting that we've got school to get back to."

"It's the weekend, Marley. We can go back late tonight. We're flooing into the headmistress' office. She knows we're here for a family emergency, and I think that since the family emergency is looking up, we deserve to have a night to ourselves." James said. "We've never been on a proper date, Mars, and I want to do that for you."

Marley bit her up in a grin and smiled. "Okay. A date. You've got it."

"Brilliant." James said, kissing Marley deeply.

He had wanted to do this over the holidays once they'd gotten together, but with everything going on, there had never really been an appropriate time. He knew that tonight however, Marley would be happy and able to enjoy herself.

He finally had a date with his beautiful girlfriend.

Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed this! PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! xx