Blood Bound

Epilogue

Here we go... the epilogue you've all been waiting for!

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"And you're certain you packed everything that was on your list?" Hermione smoothed back some of the wild brown curls on the little girl's head, memories of her own mother doing the same to her all those years ago flashing in her mind.

"Yes Mum!" The girl shrugged off her hands, cheeks flushing with embarrassment as people turned towards her raised voice.

"And your wand?" The question earned Hermione an eye-roll.  She smiled down at her daughter, chest full of equal parts pride and anxiety. "Okay, yes you're right" she conceded "I'm fussing I know."

"It's alright Mum" the toothy grin Hermione received had a gap from a lost tooth, and she had to stifle her tears at the thought that the next tooth might fall out in the Scottish Highlands without her there to slip the sickle under her pillow. 

"And remember Rose" Hermione continued, trying to stave off the painful sadness she felt as her only daughter stood in front of her with her trunk. "I'll be so proud of you no matter what house you get put into."  Her daughter frowned thoughtfully at her words.

"I'm gonna be a Gryffindor like you and uncle Harry and Uncle Ron"

"Maybe you'll be a Slytherin like Uncle Theo and Auntie Pansy." she retorted, watching with amusement as the little girl's nose wrinkled. "Or," she continued teasingly "you could be a Hufflepuff like Teddy or a Ravenclaw like Aunt Luna"

"No way Mum, Auntie Luna already told me I have snucklepufts like a Gryffindor so you can't trick me." Rose crossed her arms defiantly, staring up at Hermione challengingly. She laughed affectionately at her little lion, already certain of where she'd get sorted. "Can I get on the train now?"

The little girl was doing her best to conceal her excitement as she calmly asked the question, but the way her dark auburn curls twisted and waved from small bits of accidental magic gave her true feelings away.

"Of course, Honey" she bent down to kiss her daughter on the forehead. "I love you, Rosie. You have a wonderful time at Hogwarts, and don't forget to write your father and I after the sorting."

Rose was halfway to the train by the time Hermione had finished speaking, dragging her heavy trunk behind her with some difficulty. Hermione was just considering going to help her lift it onto the train, when a young boy looking to be about the same age ran up.

The young boy looked familiar in a way that was painfully nostalgic. He had pale skin and white blonde hair; but was missing the sneer that used to accompany those familiar features from her childhood. This child was smiling at the curly-headed girl while the two worked together to lift the trunk onto the train.

"I'm guessing by the hair that Scorp's new friend is a Granger?" The aristocratic drawl came from behind her right shoulder. The familiar sound wrapped around her heart and squeezed it in a way that felt both painful and wonderful all at once. Straightening her shoulders and blinking away the memories that flashed behind her eyes, Hermione turned to come face to face with the one part of her Hogwarts years she'd tried very hard to forget.

Draco looked exactly how she remembered him, but he also looked drastically different. He had the same white blonde hair though it was longer than it'd been in school, and his eyes were still grey, but without the coldness that had come from his occlumency behind them. He smiled down at her, the way the skin around his eyes crinkled in the corner showing his age.

"You'd be right about that" she returned his smile, though her own felt tight as she fought back the painful burning sadness in her chest she'd come to expect whenever she thought of him.