Fate Always Finds a Way

Chapter 12

"Oh how you frightened me!" she cried. "I never knew how much I loved you until just now, when I feared I was too late to save your life."

"Can you really love such an ugly creature as I am?" said the Beast faintly. "Beauty, will you marry me?"

She answered softly, "Yes, dear Beast."

As she spoke a blaze of light sprang up before the windows of the palace; fireworks crackled and guns banged, and across the avenue of orange trees, in letters all made of fire-flies, was written: "Long live the Prince and his Bride."

Turning to ask the Beast what it could all mean, Beauty found that he had disappeared and in his place stood her long-loved Prince!

The marriage was celebrated the very next day with the utmost splendor, Beauty and the Prince lived happily ever after. The End.

Hermione peered down at the sleeping little boy by her side. His hair was the whitest she had ever seen it. She set her mother's copy of the Grimm's fairy tale Beauty and the Beast on the nightstand. Rising slowly from the bed, so not to disturb him, she pulled the sheets up further around Teddy's small body and kissed the top of his head, his hair changing slightly, adding a few shades of light yellow.

"Good night, sweetie," she whispered, stroking his warm cheek.

Taking her book with her, she switched off the lamp. She walked quietly from the room.

"My-Knee?" His small voice squeaked.

"Yes, Teddy?" She turned at the threshold, facing toward him and his small bed.

"I love you," he said with a sleepy smile.

The words made her heart sing. "I love you too, Teddy. I will see you soon, all right?"

"You promise?"

"Yes, I promise. Now, go to sleep."

His eyes closed, as he drifted off into a dreamlike state, a smile on his face. She pulled the door closed, shaking her head thinking to herself how adorable he was.

Replacing the bedtime story with her journal of her and Remus' transferred conversations from her small, purple, beaded handbag, she settled into the comfortable couch in the family room. She had enchanted the handbag with an undetectable extension charm on it. Inside, there were dozens and dozens of her most treasured possessions. Some of them were items she kept for safety; some were for sentimental reasons. Her Instant Writing Journal being one of the most sacred.

She stared at their hundreds, perhaps thousands of words scrawled all over the parchment pages.

"I love you," he had said looking up. He had looked at her, she knew he did. The moment was on repeat, replaying over and over in her mind. Those three little words that held so much meaning sent her over the edge. But was it just a coincidence or did he actually mean them for her? She didn't know. The idea that they might have been, was enough to fill her body with excitement—and nerves.