I hope our story has a happier ending

just to seal my fate

When she comes to, Draco's hand is intertwined with hers.

"Wha—" she blinks, looking around them.

"Hey, calm," he says softly, bringing the hand in his to his lips. "You're okay, but you still have to take it easy for a few days."

"But you can't be seen with me! It's—"

"Fine, Mia, we're in the very back of the hospital wing and Remus has firmly warded it."

Hermione lets out a deep breath. "Oh, that's—that's good. Is everyone okay? Here?"

"Everyone's okay." Tonks's voice says, and Hermione finds the woman in question sitting at her other bedside, hair a soft shade of lavender. "Most of the Order is out doing damage control as we speak."

Hermione reaches for her immediately, eyes alert. "The baby's okay? Narcissa cast a protective charm, but—"

"The little hitchhiker is just fine," Tonks assures her with a small smile. "Minus having me and Percy for parents, of course. Kid's gonna need all the prayers in the world."

Draco laughs, but Hermione's distracted. "Harry's okay, too?"

(Surely, they wouldn't be sitting here cracking jokes if something had happened to her brother.)

"He's just fine," Sirius's voice promises, and she turns her head just enough to see Harry asleep in the bed beside her, Sirius looking exhausted at the side of his bed closest to her. "You saved him, kitten. Although once you're both well again we'll be having a long talk about charging headfirst into danger and learning our magical capacitates, yeah?"

"That—sounds fair," Hermione says.

Sirius gets up, moving slowly to press a kiss to her forehead—and she surprises herself when the motion doesn't terrify her.

"Love you, twerp." He tells her as he pulls away. "If anything happened to you I would find the Resurrection stone itself so I could bring you back and strangle you myself."

(She knows what he's doing, pairing teasing with the affection so it doesn't send her running—it makes her scowl, but she loves him even more for it.)

(She doesn't say it back—isn't there yet, but nods and hugs him again; he knows.)

She falls asleep again shortly thereafter; when she wakes, she and Draco get a moment alone.

He pulls one of her hands into both of his, holding it to his lips like he's still reminding himself that she's there.

(that she's alive.)

They both just look at each other for a moment, drinking one another in.

Hermione sits up straighter, clearing her throat before saying, "I don't want to hear anything about having given you a scare after you threw yourself in front of a curse, Draco. What if the spell had been fatal? You could have been killed!"

Draco doesn't bat an eye. "Better that than to live the rest of my life without you."

Her heart twists. "And yet you think I could bear to do it without you?"

"No, but Harry needs you. You would push through for him."

Hermione squeezes his hand tightly, forcing him to meet her gaze. He's right, but—she can't stand the notion. "Please do not ever, ever put me in a position to have to."

"I won't. I'll be more careful in the future, I promise, Juliet," he says softly, the nickname soothing the ache the topic has caused in her soul. "You were in danger, and he was the one wielding the wand, and I just—reacted."