Life Goes On

Chapter 3

Draco could have easily apparated. He could have flown on a broomstick, but he decided to walk to Ginny’s flat and walk with her to the restaurant.

Draco walked up the front steps and called to her on the intercom.

"Hello, this is Ginny Weasley."

"Hi Ginny, it’s me, Draco."

"Hi Draco, hold on, let me buzz you in."

As a buzzing signal sounded, Draco opened the door and walked up the stairs to Ginny’s flat. He took in the surroundings of this building. He knew that the Weasleys were not rich but with Ginny’s fantastic N.E.W.T.S. results, she was able to get a steady paying job and find a nice flat in a wealthy neighborhood.

Ginny had graduated a year after Draco. She was a tall witch with red hair just like her brother, Ron and all the other Weasleys. She had the highest N.E.W.T.S passes at Hogwarts in her year and the Ministry for Magic wanted to train her for the Department of European and Foreign Currency. She would be working closely with Gringotts. Hermione was offered this position first, but when she declined, Ginny felt like she was being asked as second best and decided to apply for a job at the Department of Medi- Witches, where she works in the Potions field. This department is one of the largest health departments in the Ministry. Ginny is also one of the Directors of The Witches and Wizards Foundation of Medical Magic and Charms, (W.W.F.M.M.C.).

Draco, on the other hand, could have worked for the Department of Mysteries as his job was just as much a secret to everyone except Ginny. Draco worked with The Espionage and they set him on one of the most major tasks he will experience in his life, to round up the remaining Death Eaters who each believed they were Voldemort’s second.

Draco now stood outside her front door and was about to knock when Ginny opened it and jumped when she saw him standing there.

Draco thought she looked like a Queen. She was dressed in a tube, wine coloured silk dress. Her hair was done in an elegant bun and her face shone with natural beauty.

"Hello Draco," Ginny smiled as she said this. Draco leaned forward and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. She also noted that Draco looked especially handsome tonight. His hair shone in the semi-darkness of the hall, making it look more like platinum than sliver. She could see her reflection in his icy grey eyes that seemed to smile at her. He was dressed in a long sleeved black dress shirt and tailored black pants. She could see that he wore the sliver chain with the dragon pendant she gave him for his birthday.

"Hey Ginny," his voice got caught in his throat.

She laughed, "Oh come on Draco, do I look that great?"

"No, I can’t believe you look so ugly tonight, I am in complete shock. Go and change that awful dress," he responded with a smirk.

Ginny rolled her eyes. Draco was still the sarcastic, insufferable jackass she knew him to be. He could never change. Even if had a choice, he wouldn’t.

"Thanks for the compliment," she said dryly.

"It wasn’t a compliment, are you that thick now you don’t even recognize an insult when you hear one?" He asked innocently.

Ginny sighed as a sign of defeat then stepped outside, closed the door behind her and left while she slid her arm through the crook of his.

******************************

Dumbledore sighed deeply. What was he going to do? He needed to find professors to fill in the vacant positions once belonging to the deceased professors.

"Seamus, thank you for caring and showing your interest in the continuation of Hogwarts, but nobody wants to fill these positions. Hogwarts needs to be renovated and we don’t have enough hands on deck."

"What about Harry?" Seamus inquired.

"You know as well as I do, Seamus, that Harry cannot be found and neither can Hermione or Ron. Owls seem to reach both of them, but they won’t respond and have put an Trackless charm on themselves so that only Sirius knows of their whereabouts." Dumbledore responded patiently.

"That sounds like the Fidelius Charm."

"Oh, they are of the same brand of magic," Dumbledore said, "The Fidelius works so that only your secret keeper can see you and only he will know of your whereabouts. But the Trackless charm doesn’t make you invisible to all except your keeper, everyone can see you, it only makes your whereabouts a mystery. Nothing will work to find you, not even a locating charm, the only way you can be found is if I run into you on the street." Dumbledore finished wearily.

Seamus still hadn’t given up hope though. "Professor, if we look hard enough, we can find them! It’s not as if they disappeared off the bloody planet, they aren’t dead! The bleedin’ owl wouldn’t find them then," his voice had a touch of impatience. "Professor, don’t lose hope. This place is magical, we need back our school for our children to learn that art and skills of magic. I’ll find them."

Dumbledore smiled, "thank you Seamus." The twinkle now back in his eyes.

********************************

"So Draco," began Ginny.

"What?" Draco asked with his mouth full of food, while spraying Ginny with crumbs of the pastry he was eating. "Hmm," he mumbled thoughtfully, that tart having the same tone as your skin has now covered all the spots on your face. Yes Ginny, I can finally compliment you. You look be-a-u-tiful!"

Ginny sat there for a few moments with disgust written all over her face before she took up a napkin to dust the crumbs off her face. Ginny spent the whole supposed romantic evening with Draco throwing insults at him while he made the most insultive comebacks ever. Despite the fact that he was an asshole he had been gentle and patient with her. They would talk civil then insult, then kiss then insult then talk then insult and the next time they kissed he would pinch his nose and say that during the last kiss her breath smelled like garlic! Other than that everything seemed normal except he played with his dinner and stuffed his face with apple tarts, a food he absolutely despises. This behaviour reminded her of a pregnant woman. Even though he insulted her, it was all for a good joke, unlike when he was a child, he didn’t mean them. He was nice to her and smiled with her as if she was the most precious thing he ever owned.

What?!" Draco demanded scowling at her. "Do I have boogers hanging out my nose, why are you staring at me like that?"

Okay, she thought, some of the old Draco was still there.

As the evening went on, his relaxed expression changed. He remained like that for a long time before she commented.

"Draco, dear, you seem preoccupied."

Draco sighed and she knew she had hit bull’s eye.

"You’re right," he said after a long time of pondering, "I found out last night that my mother was killed by my father. I have grief bottled up inside me as if I am a frigging Jack in the Box! I can’t cry. I never learned. I was NEVER allowed to cry. My father would……he would…torture me, the cruciatus curse and all. My limbs burned and I couldn’t cry. I never shed a tear since I first arrived at Hogwarts. I was taught crying is weak and now, I can’t cry, because Malfoys never cry. I can’t even mourn my mother’s death," he finished soberly.

Ginny stared at Draco with wide, saucer like eyes. Draco never opened up like that to anyone. Draco had extreme mood swings. He would be violently happy one day then bitter and depressed the next. No one knew why he had these mood swings, he never opened up……until now.

"Draco, I don’t know what to say….."

"Say you will come back to my place with me tonight."

After an hour so, Draco and Ginny left the restaurant and set off towards Draco’s.

**********************************

The Next Day……

Hermione slowly opened her eyes. By the way the sun screamed at them this morning she could tell that Harry and she slept late. She had called her office yesterday morning and explained that Harry’s relative had died and she needed to be there for him. Her boss had given her three days off and Hermione was more than grateful to be with Harry as well as to have a break.

Hermione was now wide awake and she looked down at Harry. Harry’s face was snuggled close to her breast, he called them his "comfort zone". He had one arm wrapped tightly around her waist while his right leg was tangled in between both of her legs. He was snoring softly and looked peaceful. Hermione looked up at the clock on the wall and realized it was nearly eleven o’clock and they really needed to get out of bed. She reached for his hair and began to stroke it softly and tenderly. All this seemed to do was make Harry smile contentedly and snuggle even closer to her and moved his head into a more comfortable position among her breasts. Hermione sighed in frustration.

"Harry," she whispered. No response.

"Harry," she called a bit more loudly and he opened his eyes and moved his head upwards to see her.

"Good morning sweetheart," he answered and smiled.

Hermione pried his arms from around her and sat up in bed. She leant forward and pulled his face towards her and gave him a deep kiss soundly on the lips.

"Aack!" Harry said when she finished kissing him. "Morning Breath!"

Hermione laughed heartily for the first time since news of Remus Lupin’s death and made her way to the bathroom.

Hermione stepped into the shower and recalled the last few events within the past twenty four hours or so.

……..

They had woken up in the living room, shivering from the draft entering from the open doors they forgot to close the day before. Hermione was still depressed while Harry closed the doors and made some breakfast.

"Cereal or cooked," he had asked.

"Cereal," she responded.

He took the bowl of cereal to her and sat down beside her and watched her eat.

"Mione," he began.

"Mmm?"

"Don’t let this death business get you down. Thank you for coming home yesterday and taking care of me when you did. I wouldn’t have managed."

Hermione let out a dry laugh.

"Don’t be absurd Harry, you took care of me most of yesterday."

"True, but you also made me feel safe and you comforted me."

"Your welcome Harry," Hermione smiled as she said this.

For the rest of the day Harry and Hermione settled anywhere in the house just talking….and talking about any little thing and every big thing.

"Harry, how many kids do you want?"

"Two. No more no less."

"Me too."

"Herm, I love you."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because you are you."

She looked up at him and smiled. They opened their arms at the same time to embrace each other. Harry then kissed Hermione, chaste at first, but she parted her lips to welcome his. They kissed deeply for a few seconds then their minds were taken over with wild passion and they had sex right there on the library day bed. The did it over and over again for the rest of the day and then night came.

……….

Hermione turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around herself while she stepped out. She saw Harry standing over the sink brushing his teeth with an odd twinkle in his eyes. Hermione pretended to not notice this and joined him at the sink to brush her teeth and cleanse her mouth free from her "Morning Breath."

She walked into the bedroom and sat at the vanity set to brush her hair when Harry appeared right behind her.

"What did you do? Apparate here?" She asked with amusement in her voice.

"Yeah, when all I needed to do was take four strides and I would be here anyways."

"Sarcasm will get you no where with me Mr. Potter!" She reminded him.

"Oh really, and what will you do to me?" He mocked her voice.

"You will sleep in this bedroom and I sleep in the guest bedroom for one week, you know what that means don’t you?"

Hermione laughed at his now frightened and flushed face as he was deeply embarrassed.

"Hermione?" His voice now serious, caused Hermione to turn all the way around and face him.

"What is it?"

Harry reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a navy blue velvet box. Hermione gasped when she saw Harry open it and the most beautiful sapphire ring twinkled at her in the light.

"Hermione, I may not be perfect, but I know perfection when I see it and that perfection is you. They say beauty in the eyes of the beholder, I behold the sight to see within you and I say you will make me happy as I make you happy and I try, believe me, I try hard. Please marry me Hermione, and make me a happy man to know that the woman he loves deeply is not a wife who follows in the foot prints of the husband because I want you as my equal." He smiled at her.

After what seemed like a few minutes, Harry still staring into her eyes,

"What are you saying?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"Honestly," Harry sighed with exasperation, "for someone smart you are sure dumb!"

"Insults will not make me move from this dimwit stage, Potter," she spat back at him with hint of a threat in her voice.

"Well, Hermione right now you are behaving really daft, so I’d say you are definitely going backwards." Harry saw this had truly insulted her. He then smiled. "Hermione, why do you have to look for a complicated reason for everything, when the simplicity is dancing naked in front of you."

"You are not naked."

Harry stared at her, "Are you calling me simple?"

"Right for once Potter," she said with mock disbelief, "simple and shallow!."

Harry glowered at her and this expression made Hermione grin.

Harry then knelt before her, "Let me do this the right way then, since you believe actions speak louder than my simple, true, but simple words," he paused, "Hermione will you be my wife?"

"That was a lot of bull crap you said before you know, Harry," Hermione continued seeming oblivious to what he just said.

Harry screamed in frustration "Herm, I know you are not the person who succumbs to mushy behaviour played by me, but I do love you…..more than you know and I want to make our sleeping in the same bed and having sex out of wedlock LEGAL!"

Hermione watched Harry, on his knees looking like an ass and she saw that if she rejected his proposal, he would probably need to go to St. Mungo’s. Her practical side was trying to reason with her, she loved life as it was with just her and Harry and it would make life simpler if she needed to leave him, but then the same practical side said, that doesn’t count, you wouldn’t leave him anyways so scrap that point. Then her soul was saying that she loved the ass kneeling in front of her and she knew if she rejected she would be crazier than him and probably commit suicide. Hermione learned after years in the world of magic that there was no practical explanation for anything, as far as magic was concerned physics doesn’t count. So she ignored her practical side. Her eyes now prickling with tears she smiled with her response.

"Yes, Harry James Potter, I accept your proposal," and as an off hand gesture, "By the way, I love you too… you dimwit."