Draco

He placed her back on the ground, his hands lingering on her waist, and she smiled. "I thought you wouldn't come," she gushed.

"I'll always come back," he reassured her, "I never forgot."

Ron stormed up. "Just what do you think you're doing snogging my wife, Malfoy?"

Draco's heart skipped a beat and his eyes widened in shock. "W-wife?"

"Yeah, so you better back off before I smash your face in."

Hermione didn't back down, though. "Look, Ron, I'm sorry, it was my fault, I was the one that kissed him."

He whirled at her. "Yeah, that's true. What were you doing? I work so hard to give you the happy life you deserve, and now you're betraying not only me, but your own daughter."

Draco wanted to say something but he couldn't. Hermione went off and got married. She had a kid. But she'd kissed him. She'd kissed him. With no regrets. What did that mean, if anything?

Hermione looked small under Ron's gaze. She didn't have the fire in her eyes that Draco loved her for. She looked scared. Afraid of her own husband. That was something that he wouldn't let happen.

"Lay off of her, you little--" he started, leaping at him, which caused a loud gasp to sound among the crowd. He raised his fist to beat him, but Harry intervened before anything could happen, pulling them apart. Hermione stepped in front of him, glaring at him.

"Stop." Her voice was enough to make him flinch. "I'm not going to have this happen. Not here. Now," she said, regaining her strength, "let's go back home to talk about this. Talk," she added when Ron growled, glowering at Draco.

She grabbed his arm, refusing to hold hands. He needed answers, but what he wanted to do was take her back to Malfoy Manor and keep her, love her, give her a happy life with him. That wasn't possible right now, he knew.

With Harry attempting to silence Ron behind them, Hermione's voice softened. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't know if you were going to come back, I was scared that you'd forgotten. He was being nice to me." She forced a laugh. "Notice the past tense."

His voice hardened. "Is he hurting you? If he is, I swear, I'm going to kill that bastard."

She clutched his hand now, ignoring the protests from her husband. "He's not hurting me. I just don't feel anything for him anymore. I know that I should, I know that I have to be true to him, but I know that I have to be true to my heart. And right now, talking to you, I am. But I have a daughter, Draco. I don't know what to do." She blinked away tears, looking just as strong as Draco remembered her to be.

"What's her name?"

"Rose. I picked her name."

He squeezed her small hand. "I love it. It's a beautiful name."

Hermione nodded. Turning to face Harry and Ron, she said, "From here we apparate. I'll take Draco, you two come after us."

When Harry nodded, he looked at Draco in a way that said, I don't think you've done anything wrong. He'd have to thank him for that one later.

Hermione faced Draco and looked him straight in the eyes. "Ready?" She said. It saddened him to see that it seemed that all of her teasing ways had been lost when she married Ron.

He nodded and she closed her eyes. The last thing he saw before they traveled through space was her beautiful face.

The house was stunning, that was for sure. It looked like the type of house Hermione would enjoy living in. It happened to be on the edge of Godric's Hollow, far away from the entrance. Hermione led him inside, not bothering to wait for the boys to arrive.

"I wanted to live here," she said in a quiet voice, sounding wistful. "Ron didn't because it was where Voldemort killed our friend's parents were killed. I thought it was sweet that we lived in the same place. Harry thought so too, so we moved here, we built a house. Harry's on the other side of town, but we see each other regularly."

Draco nodded, taking in the clean and neat residence. They stood in a small foyer, the floors wooden and covered with a large rug. A winding staircase stood to his left, near the door, leading up to the second floor. Through a short hallway fell the kitchen, where windows shone the green yard behind the house.

Footsteps sounded on the staircase, and Draco looked up to see a young girl, about the age four, clambering down to meet her mother. "Mommy!" she exclaimed. She held her arms up and Hermione scooped her up in her arms, hugging her tightly. Draco almost felt rude for interrupting such a private moment.

"Who's he?" the little child asked, looking at Draco with curiosity.

Hermione chuckled. "Rose, this is Draco Malfoy. He's a...friend of Mommy's." She seemed to pause when she had to label him a friend. Draco understood, though; a four-year-old wouldn't exactly understand the relationship between the two of them.

"Well, hi, Mr. Malfoy," she said in a high voice, holding her hand up for a high-five. Draco clapped it, chuckling himself now.

Ron and Harry burst through the door, and it was the sight of Rose in the room that made Ron stand up straight, not glaring at Draco anymore. "Hey, Rose!"

"Daddy!" The sweet girl, completely oblivious to the issues between the three adults, rushed to Ron, wrapping her arms around one of his legs. He laughed and unclasped her tiny arms. Next, she saw Harry, and she cracked a grin. "Uncle Harry! How's Auntie Gin?"

Harry smiled and bent down to hug his niece. "Aunt Ginny is wonderful, but she misses you. Maybe you could come over and see her? If that's okay with your parents, of course."

Hermione nodded, and then looked at Draco. She cleared her throat. "Rosie, sweetie, can you go up to your room for a little bit? We need some adult time for awhile, okay?"

Her daughter pouted. "Okay. But don't take long! It's boring in my room!"

She let out a small smile and shooed her child to her room. When her small protests were silenced, Hermione made her way to the kitchen, Draco, Ron, and Harry right behind.

She poured a glass of water for the four of them, and passed them out accordingly. Draco sipped from the glass, anxiety beginning to build.

"I'm not going to stand for this, Hermione," Ron hissed, "I'm not letting you go back with this traitor."

Hermione stiffened. "I make my own decisions, Ronald."

Harry took a breath. "I'll keep Rose busy, but you three must promise to be civil. That said, call for me if anything gets out of hand." He looked pointedly at Ron and turned to climb the stairs, playing with his niece.

"Look," Draco said, "I didn't mean to rise up any trouble, I just needed to find her. We had an agreement at the end of seventh year, we--"

"You never told me about this," Ron said angrily.

"I didn't find it necessary at the moment," Hermione shot back. "I'm entitled to my own secrets."

"Not when they're this important," he snapped.

"Well, sorry," she answered.

"Our agreement was," Draco started, interrupting the argument, "to find each other when we had a job and a steady life in the real world. We knew that handling a relationship right out of the gate would be hard, so we kind of broke it off. I didn't get married, I didn't expect her to."

"I'm sorry," she apologized immediately, "I should've stayed. I shouldn't have made the suggestion."

"No, I'm sorry," Draco answered, ignoring Ron's eye roll. "I went along with it. I'm the one that stirred up the trouble. I'm basically ruining your marriage right this second."

Hermione said "No" just as Ron said "You've got that right."

"There's going to be some changes around here," Draco said, "and I know that I'm the cause. I didn't mean to cause you two to break up. If Hermione loves you, Ron, then she should be with you. I'm clearly just a memory from the past." He held out his hand to shake, "No hard feelings."

Ron's eyes were wide. "You're giving up this easily?" He warily shook his hand.

He shrugged. "Just like you, I want the best for her. Apparently this is it."

Ron nodded. "Thanks."

Hermione shook her head disbelieving. "I'll walk you out." She snatched his elbow and dragged him out of the house. "What the hell, Draco?"

"What?"

"Why'd you do that? Why didn't you stay and fight? The old Draco would have."

He took her hands. "I want you to be happy. If that's without me, then I'm willing to do that."

Tears sprung to her eyes, and he wiped them away out of habit. "Don't leave," she whispered.

"I have to," he said, and kissed her forehead. She pulled away and adjusted herself, so her arms were around his neck, and her lips were against his. It was soft, and the best goodbye kiss Draco had ever had. He didn't want it to be forever, but he knew it had to be.

"I loved you, Draco," Hermione said, "I still do. I always will."

"Always?" He said, staring deep into her eyes.

"Always," she said before turning to enter her house, leaving him to apparate back to Malfoy Manor.