"Mummy! Mummy!"

My face broke into a smile as I ran as fast as my heels would permit down the driveway to the refurbished Malfoy Manor - or, I should say, Granger-Malfoy Manor. My eldest, Elsie, took off towards me from the door where her father stood smirking, hands in his pockets, eyes twinkling.

I picked up Elsie easily and swung her around in my arms, kissing her forehead affectionately before setting her down and allowing her to wrap her small, fragile fingers around my hand while we walked up the driveway together. 

"Welcome home," Draco greeted me softly, hugging me tight and kissing my cheek. "How was it?" I rolled my eyes, and laughed, ushering Elsie into the house before closing the door behind us.

"Hectic," I sighed, smiling, setting down my trunk. "When McGonagall told me I was going to be transfiguration professor, I didn't think she meant head of Gryffindor house too." Draco's eyes widened, and he laughed as seven-year-old Arthur came bounding downstairs, wearing a Weasley knitted jumper as usual.

"Hi, Attie!" I smiled warmly as I picked him up and hugged him. I looked down and saw a leatherbound volume tucked under his arm. "What are you reading?" He beamed and offered the book up to me - The Secret Garden.

"Wow!" I breathed softly. I had been in charge of arranging a beautiful library when Malfoy Manor had been refurbished, and was adamant that several hundred original copies of my favourite Muggle books should be kept there. It had been clear, ever since they'd been born, that Arthur definitely took after me, and Elsie rather the other way.

"We've missed you," smiled Draco sadly, pressing a kiss to my cheek. His face broke into a smile again. "Elsie's been begging me to go to Hogwarts a year early. But I've told her she can't go until she's eleven."

"I'm almost eleven!" Elsie protested, brandishing her father's wand menacingly, which she had easily slipped out of his pocket without his notice. She grinned brightly and sent sparks flying from the tip. "In six months," she added firmly, before bounding upstairs and taking her brother's hand. "Come on, Attie!" Elsie yelled. "Let's go and set fire to the loft with Dad's wand!"

I chuckled and rolled my eyes, following my husband into the beautiful living room and sitting down beside him, kicking off my heels. They'd been killing me ever since I'd taken the taxi ride home from King's Cross, and I was glad to finally be rid of them.

As soon as I sat down, my eyes fell upon the framed Muggle photograph from our wedding - at Hogwarts, of course (where else?). As we'd walked hand in hand out of the great hall, my stunningly beautiful white dress flowing behind me, Ginny and Luna had ensured that rainbow-coloured petals had been thrown over the both of us, enchanted to flutter around the outdoor venue like butterflies.

The picture had been taken at the moment the fluttering petals were released. Professor McGonagall could be seen in flowing robes of green tartan, ducking with a smile on her face as the petals were released. Luna, in her favourite yellow party dress, grinning madly at Ginny from across the aisle, and Harry and Ron, both looking ridiculous with petals stuck in their hair and suits.

"I love you," I whispered, snuggling up to Draco, whose arm immediately curled around me.

"I love you too." He hesitated, then asked with a smile, "Is it good? Being back?"

"It's brilliant," I sighed, remembering the feeling of stepping through the doors to the great hall again, not as a student, but as a professor. I'd never expected it to happen - but then, I wasn't sure where I'd be if I wasn't working at my old school. In the ministry, in a little office? Certainly not.

Draco was with the Aurors now - working with Harry and Ron in the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, trying to get on their nerves as much as possible while they rounded up Death Eaters and battled giants in the north, reckless and stupid like always. 

"I know what you're thinking," sighed Draco, kissing my hair as my eyelids fluttered. "And I know. I wouldn't have it any other way than this, would you? It's all worked out perfectly."

I smiled against his neck. "It has," I agreed. "I remember when I thought...I thought I'd end up marrying Ron." I laughed at the thought. "And I thought...how the hell is that going to happen?" Draco laughed.

"I can imagine," he said, smiling. "But I reckon the biggest surprise was Ginny and Luna last month." My face spread into an even bigger grin at the thought of Ginny and Luna's wild wedding. Held at the Burrow, they'd been surrounded by a little gazebo of flowers when they'd married, both worn beautiful multicoloured dresses, and been accompanied by everybody in Luna's mad extended family she could get hold of, all of which were some of the loveliest, kindest people I'd ever met.

"It's all sort of just...happened differently to how we thought, I suppose," I mused. "I thought I was going to marry Ron. Ginny thought she was going to marry Harry. And you thought...you thought you were going to be a Death Eater."

"Instead, I've ended up here," joked Draco, rolling his eyes.

"I can think of worse places to be," I said. 

Surrounded by two children and a husband that I loved to death. I had to admit, things had ended up pretty fantastically.