"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid Miss Granger is not going to wake up."
Harry felt his heart drop at Madam Pomfrey's words. It could not be. Hermione had to wake up. Voldemort was gone. Peace was finally here in the Wizarding world. Everyone was celebrating. Hermione had to wake up. It would be wrong for her to never open her eyes again.
This was his fault. His fault. He had to rush to Voldemort when he got word of Lupin's capture. He did not want to lose the last remaining link he had with his father. Hermione, however, was not very keen on letting him go.
"Harry, you can't go! What if this is a trap like with Sirius? We don't know if this information is true or not! We just have Malfoy's word! We have to confirm this!"
It was just like in their fifth year. Harry had grown tired of the war. He was tired of seeing people dying. How many people did he lose to the Death Eaters? He wanted no more of it. He did not care if he died or not anymore. All he wanted was an end to the war.
Therefore, when Draco Malfoy gloated that his father and his friends had Lupin captured after the students had finished their N.E.W.T.S., Harry took his chance. Dumbledore and some other teachers were gone. The ones left said they were on an important mission. That was enough for Harry. But not for Hermione.
"Harry, what if this is a trap? Voldemort might kill you! We should wait for someone to tell us what is going on. We can't go rushing into this!"
She had always nagged him before on things. Harry normally ignored it, letting it go on. This time was no different. He just went on, with Ron, Neville, Ginny and Luna following him, trying to find a way to get to where Malfoy had said Lupin was held. Hermione nagged him about it the whole way there. Right up until the opening spells of battle.
Harry had found Lupin. He was with Dumbledore and the others battling with the Death Eaters and Voldemort himself. The Dark Lord quickly disentangled himself with the Headmaster and nearly glided toward the seventh years and two sixth years. Harry drew his wand, stepping forward and the final battle between the Dark Lord and the Boy Who Lived began. Everyone stopped to watch. No one interfered. Harry was not sure how long the battle lasted. All he knew was that he threw every spell he knew against Voldemort and then some over and over again.
It had appeared to be a draw between them. But then Voldemort did the unthinkable. He threw a curse where Hermione was standing, clutching her face in fear. "Douwa!" Two glowing strange shapes flew toward her. They both hit her before she had the chance to draw her wand. She collapsed in a heap.
"HERMIONE!!"
Harry did not remember what came next. From what Ron told him later, he swung a spell, an unknown spell, at Voldemort. The Dark Lord was hit with the spell and exploded in a massive green light. There was nothing left of the one who could not be named by wizards.
Harry did not remember being on his knees, tears starting to come down his face. Nor did he remember Dumbledore approached him, asking him if he was ok. He did not remember answering. He did not remember saying anything on the way back to the castle. He barely remembered the Ministry of Magic coming by, arresting the Death Eaters who had gotten stunned by Order members when all of them regained awareness after Voldemort's destruction.
All he remembered was staring at Hermione's motionless form, being carried by Lupin. All he remembered was hoping that she would be ok; that she would be ok once they were at the castle. Madam Pomfrey would bring her about. She had to. He could not see a future without Hermione in it.
Now, it seemed like there would be no future with Hermione.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid Miss Granger is not going to wake up."
"Are you sure, Poppy? Isn't there something you can do?" asked McGonagall who was right behind Ron.
"I'm afraid not. I've tried everything I can think of. Whatever curse You-Know-Who cast on Miss Granger, it is one I am not familiar with. I'm deeply sorry."
Ginny was crying softly. Neville was shaking badly, his eyes already red from before. Luna was not crying, but had her head down, whispering to herself and pounding her fists against the wall. Ron was sitting up unnaturally straight, looking ahead. He had not spoken a word since entering the hospital wing to check on Hermione.
Harry had his head down. Tears were flowing down his face more freely now. He was tightening his fists to keep them from shaking. He felt Lupin's hand tightening on his shoulder. Finally, he could not take it anymore. He jumped up and slung back his head. "NOOOOOO!!" He then dropped to the floor, on his knees again, and covered his face with his trembling hands. "Noooo. No. Can't. Be. No."
"I'm sorry, Harry." Lupin was hugging him now. Harry buried his face in the werewolf's jumper, still crying.
____________
It was a few days after the battle. It was time for the seventh years to graduate, what was thought to be a happy one
since Voldemort had been destroyed, but one seventh year was not among his peers. Harry was sitting on the bed next to
Hermione's. His own thoughts of the past couple of days threatened to overwhelm him. I should have listened to
her. Why didn't I just stay and wait? Why didn't I listen to her? Why did I ignore her? I should have listened
to her. She would still be here if I had! I should have listened to her!
He always ignored her nagging. Always ignored it. He never understood why she always nagged him. He just responded to it by ignoring it. He knew that she was only concerned for him, but he hated it when she nagged him. Why did he have to hate it? Ignore it? Hermione might be alive right now if I had just listened to her.
"Harry?" Ginny walked up to him, but Harry did not respond. He did not move. He just kept staring at his bushy haired best friend. "Harry, you need to get to the ceremony. It's your time to celebrate. You should be out there with Ron and your other friends."
"I'm not going to the ceremony," he said, not turning toward her.
"You can't stay here forever. Hermione would have never had wanted you to spend your graduation ceremony like this."
"I'm not leaving, Ginny!" he said a bit more forcefully.
"Don't take that tone with me! I'm just trying to help..."
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE." He finally turned toward her, his frustration getting the best of him. She jumped in surprise at his shout. The youngest Weasley looked very shocked at Harry.
Harry turned back to Hermione's bed, ashamed at yelling at one of his friends. He heard Ginny's footsteps walk out of the hospital wing, leaving Harry to his own tormented thoughts and second guesses.
____________
Harry walked into the hospital wing two year later. His black, unruly hair was shoulder-length now. He had not bothered
to cut it in two years. He carried the mail Hedwig had given him that mourning. He brought a house in Hogsmeade as
close to the school as he could so he could come up to Hogwarts everyday to spend the day by Hermione's bed. The
school provided him with three meals when he collapsed from hungry two days after he left the school. He had also been
given Dobby the House-Elf when his clothes started to appear worn and torn from wearing the same thing everyday and not
cleaning them. He just did not care anymore about such things.
Every other day, he found himself facing teachers who tried to pry him away gently from Hermione's side. He always refused, politely as he could. He did not want to have another episode like he had had with Ginny.
Dumbledore came every so often as well. He, however, did not try to convince Harry to do something else. He merely enquired about Harry's health and other things in his life. Since all his life consisted of staying by Hermione, that was always a short conversation. Lupin came by often as well.
His friends did not try to make him leave. He suspected Ginny had told them what happened with her. Ron had started coming everyday after he graduated Hogwarts. He could always be expected around three after work and left around eight going back to the Burrow. After six months, through, he had decided to move on. "Hermione wouldn't want me to be like this," he had said. "I loved Hermione a lot, but she's not going to wake up. Even St. Mungo's doesn't know what spell she was put under! Sometimes, you've just got to move on and not waste away." Harry thought that maybe that was Ron's way of trying to get him to leave Hermione's side as well, but he did not take the bait if it was. After that, Ron started coming every other week.
Neville visited often, too, through, not everyday like Ron had done at first. Ginny and Luna came by every day in their seventh year. Once they graduated, they came by like Ron and Neville did.
Harry sat down on the bed he always sat on and opened his mail. He opened the one from Ron first. "Ron and Luna are going out, Hermione," he said aloud to his sleeping friend and read on. "That's interesting. He says that they get along quite well and that her ideas aren't as crazy as we thought. They found a Crumple-Horned Snorkack together and he says it's like cat. He included a picture." He showed Hermione the picture where the strange creature, Ron and Luna played around. The Snorkack rolled over on it's back very cat-like. Harry half smiled at the picture.
He put Ron's letter and picture away and began opening the next one. It was from Neville. "Ginny is dating Neville again," he told Hermione. The two had been dating on and off for the past year. They never officially broke up, just pausing every once in awhile. Everyone kept asking her why the two acted the way they did. Ginny always said, "It's just something we do."
Harry finished opening the rest of his post, detailing to Hermione everything was in the letters. Then he put the letters on his bed's pillow and knelt down on the floor, resting his elbows on Hermione's bed. "I'm so sorry, Hermione. I should have listened to you. I shouldn't have gone. Everything was fine. You were right. We should have had waited." A tear slid down his cheek. "You were right. I'm sorry."
"Mr. Potter?" It was Professor McGonagall. Harry did not respond. He knew what was to come. Madam Pomfrey stopped scratching her quill to watch, as she always did. "How are you today?"
Harry nodded his head, like he always did. It had been the same routine for two years now. She would ask how he was and he would nod. She would then ask if Hermione had changed and Harry would shake his head. Finally, she would ask how much longer he would stay by Hermione's side. Harry would never responded, just lay his head on the bed, looking toward his friend's coma-like body. It was always the same.
"Harry, has she chang...." she trailed off as someone came in the wing. Harry turned his head and saw Dumbledore walk to Hermione's bed. He was smiling, something he had not done while in Harry's presence the past two years. There was also a twinkle in his eyes again.
"Good mourning, Harry. How are you feeling?" asked the headmaster.
Harry nodded his head.
"Good. In that case, I am hoping that you would be willing to help me in the manner of waking Miss Granger up."
McGonagall gasped. Madam Pomfrey jumped in shock. Harry stared at the Professor. "You've found a way? How?" asked McGonagall.
"It is fairly complicated. It took me the good part of the past two years to figure it out. The curse that Voldemort cast on Miss Granger is one of his own invention. I retrieved all of the parchment he had on his self-made spells (which was a great deal) and began searching them for the unusual curse he used. It was very difficult. He wrote everything down in code and wrote it in a different language, clearly so no one would use the spells against him. It took me a year to go through all the parchment, six months to translate what he had written down and another six months to decode that."
"Did you find anything?" asked Madam Pomfrey. Harry did not say anything. It was all too good to be true for him to believe just yet.
"I did. The curse is called the Fairy Tale curse. The word Voldemort spoke at the battle two years ago was Japanese for Fairy Tale. The strange shapes that hit Miss Granger were the Japanese characters for fairy tale. Voldemort wrote the curse so that only the hero can wake up Miss Granger by kissing her. That hero is Harry."
Harry swallowed. He was the only one to wake Hermione? With a kiss? Why would Voldemort go through so much trouble to design a curse like that?
"There is a catch. While Harry is the only one who can wake Miss Granger up, she must be kissed by her true love. Anyone else tries to kiss Miss Granger will be flown to the other side of the room."
"I don't understand, Albus," said McGonagall. "Why would Voldemort create a curse like that?
The aging headmaster turned to his deputy. "He did so due to information he received from Lucius Malfoy. Mr. Draco Malfoy told his father that it appeared that Miss Granger was in love with Ron Weasley. Voldemort devised the spell so that only Miss Granger's true love could kiss her, but also had it so that the only person who could wake Miss Granger would be the hero, Harry. Voldemort's plan was to divide you and your friends. Mr. Weasley would likely be angry that he can kiss Miss Granger, but cannot wake her. Harry would likely be angry that he has the power to wake Miss Granger up, but cannot kiss her. They may blame the other in the process and fight. Harry alone, with no friends, would be easy prey, don't you think?"
McGonagall stomped her foot. "But you said that you would like Mr. Potter's help in waking her. How is he supposed to do that if the only person who can kiss her is Ronald Weasley?"
"It is my belief that Harry should at least try to wake Miss Granger. We shall try to investigate other means after this if it fails." Dumbledore turned to Harry who was sitting in shock at what he had heard. "Are you willing to do this, Harry?"
Harry stood up. "What if this doesn't work?" He feared that it would not. That Hermione would stay like this forever, never moving, just sleeping. This small gleam of hope that Dumbledore offered seemed completely out there. McGonagall was right. How was he supposed to wake Hermione if the only one who could kiss her was Ron?
"Then we invent our own way to break the curse. All curses are breakable. This one is no different. There will be a way, but we must at least try this one. Are you willing, Harry?"
Harry did not answer. Instead, he turned to his sleeping friend and knelt next to her bed. He would be flung back. Nothing would change. He really did not want to think that Hermione could be awaken and then have it torn away. But something told him to try it. What do I have to lose? Nothing. He would humor Dumbledore. Very scared that he would fail, he leaned over the bed and kissed Hermione gently on the lips.
He was not flung back. He drew back, his breath caught in his lungs. Was it possible that he succeed? But if he did, how come Hermione did not open her eyes? Maybe Dumbledore read the writings wrong? Maybe a person was not flung backward? Hermione's eyes did not open. Harry got up and sat on his bed, his head in his hands, hopes dashed again.
He looked up, unable to believe what he heard. He found himself staring into Hermione's brown eyes, open at last. She slowly sat up in her bed and placed her feet on the floor for the first time in two years. "Harry? What's going on?"
"Hermione?" said Harry, hoarsely. It was not possible. After two years of sitting by her side, after two years of staying a little over 12 hours by her, she was finally awake.
He heard McGonagall sniffling. Madam Pomfrey sputtered, "But how? You said that only Mr. Weasley could kiss Miss Granger?"
Hermione blushed bright red at this. Dumbledore smiled, through. "I said that Voldemort thought Mr. Weasley was Miss Granger's true love. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He, and the Malfoys, thought that her small fights with Mr. Weasley expressed Miss Granger's true feelings. Love, however, is something very unusual. Sometimes, fights can reveal true feelings and sometimes it is much deeper than that. That is the case here, don't you think so, Miss Granger?"
Hermione was still bright red, but she nodded. "I've liked Harry for a long time. Since our fifth year. At the end of our fourth year, Viktor asked me if I liked Harry more than a friend and I said no. He said that I should find out before we decided anything else. So I did. I did find out I loved Harry more than a friend. I didn't even realize it." She laughed a bit, her face growing redder as she did. "I always tried to help Harry. I never realized that it was because I had something other than friendship for him. In our fifth year, all I wanted was for Harry to be happy. He was so depressed during that year. I tried everything I could."
"Your love, Miss Granger, is shown through your devotion to Harry," said Dumbledore. "Love comes in all shapes and sizes. Some show it through small fights. Others show it in different ways. You show it by doing everything you could by making Harry happy. That is something Voldemort could never understand. Love, all kinds of love, was Voldemort's weakness. It also showed in the final battle when Harry struck him down with a spell that only shows itself when the user loves someone more than anything else in the world. When you fell, Harry was able to conquer him."
"Hermione." Harry just stared at her. He could not believe that Hermione loved him. Why would she love him? "Why? Why do you love me? I never listened to you. I hated your nagging so much that I ignored it. Why do you love me when I was the one who put you to sleep?"
She looked straight at him. "Because I knew that keeping you safe was more important than anything. Even if you hated me for it, I felt that you safe and hating me forever would be better than you dying. I didn't think I could handle that." She took a deep breath. "I know you don't love me back, not like I do. I understand that. I - " but she did not finish. Harry stood up and brought Hermione into a kiss.
The last one was full of fear, fear that he would fail and lose Hermione again. This one was full of joy and love. He did love Hermione. He always had. More than anything. The truth screamed in his head. It had just been buried deep underneath because he was always frustrated by Hermione's nagging. He had not lived for the past two years for her, unable to imagine a future without her. Now she was here and awake. They would have a future. Together. They broke apart.
"I love you, Hermione." She smiled. McGonagall was crying on Dumbledore's shoulder now. Madam Pomfrey was smiling, wiping some tears away. "I missed you so much."
"Oh, Harry." They embraced. He felt her crying on his shoulder. Harry felt his own tears flow down his face. This time, they were tears of joy. He was with Hermione.
____________
It was a year later. Harry combed his now short hair, through it was a fruitless effort. Hermione had nagged him on
getting his hair cut after she woke up. It had lasted a week. Harry had wanted his hair short again, but he found that
he missed her so much even her nagging was a blessing so he put it off for a while just so he could listen to it.
There were still times he disliked her nagging him, but he never hated it. He realized that her nagging him was one of her ways of showing she loved him so he dealt with it. It also, more importantly, made him realize how he nearly lost her. He still rushed into things, but he now heeded her words now, instead of ignoring her completely. He thought he had changed a lot, through, Hermione and Ron claimed he had not changed much, through.
"You're just listening more. That's all," Ron had said.. "Through, I guess that is a miracle where you're concerned."
"Harry, we're going to be late! Are you ready?" called Hermione.
"Coming!" responded Harry. They had moved in together in a house Harry had inherited from his parents, one he could not receive until he turned 17. However, since he was more concerned over Hermione's sleep, he never used it until last year, when she woke up. They slept in separate rooms ("What would my mother say?" fretted Hermione in a hushed voice), but all in all, they both loved their new life.
Ron had taken the two of them together well. He said he was truly over Hermione (he had a year and six months to get over her) and wished them well. "Should have known it was coming," he had said with a grin. "I guess it should have been clear that everything Hermione did for you was her way of preparing to be your wife."
At that point, Hermione, having heard it all and her face very bright red, had raced into the room and throwing every curse she knew at the redhead. Harry had laughed as his best friend and lover raced around the room. It felt good to for all three of them together again.
He checked his pockets, making sure he had everything. He did and walked into the parlor where Hermione waited. He smiled at the sight of her in a short-sleeved white dress. Flowers decorated the neck and down the middle to her feet. Her hair was also done in flowers. "You look very beautiful."
"Thanks, but Ginny is going to be dressed this way as well, you know. Luna will be wearing something like it"
"That may be true, but they can't match you."
Hermione blushed at that. She seemed to think that she did not look very beautiful. That was something Harry kept denying. "We better get going. We'll miss the wedding! We can't be late. It would be terrible if the best man and bridesmaid missed the wedding."
"We won't be late. Ron said they were going to start at one thirty-five. It's one-thirty. We have time if we leave now." Hermione nodded, but still looked anxious. He took her hand and they Apparated to the location of Ron and Luna's wedding.
____________
Harry laughed as a baby Crumble-Horned Snorkack ran around the refreshment table. Everyone was enjoying themselves. The
twins were pulling pranks on Neville (and getting told off by Ginny). All his friends from Hogwarts were glad to see
him up and around. Hermione was talking to many of the girls in her year from Hogwarts. It was the first time a lot of
them had been together in three years.
"Liking the party, Harry?" asked Ron.
"I wouldn't be here if I weren't, mate." He nodded toward Luna who had caught the baby Snorkack and was showing it off to people. "Think you can handle her?"
"Yeah, I suppose," said Ron. "She's a bit different when you're dating her. I try to keep her down to Earth."
Harry laughed. "You? Down to Earth?"
His best friend shrugged his shoulders. "I can be. I guess in a way I'm not too unlike Luna. How many times did Hermione shoot down one of my flies of fancy? With Luna, through, I'm kind of like Mum: Dad is always going on with his Muggle fascination. Mum's usually bring him down."
"At least, you don't turn into a saber-tooth tiger," whispered Harry, lest Mrs. Weasley heard him.
Ron gave a shaky laugh. "Yeah, I'm a bit more understanding than Mum. We make a good team, through. When we were hunting the Snorkack, Luna was going after the caves. I suggested we look in the trees because I saw claw marks on them. Sure enough, one was in a tree."
Luna climbed on top of a table. The unmarried women gathered below her. Harry smiled. It was almost time. Luna turned her back on them and smiled at Ron and Harry when she saw them. The two grinned in response. Luna took her white flowered bouquet and threw it behind her. Ginny caught it and squealed. Hermione hugged her friend (she was in front of Ginny).
Harry shook his head. Served him right for expecting it to go the way he envisioned. He would just have to do it anyway. Hermione came toward him and Ron. Harry steeled himself and walked up to her.
She smiled as he grabbed her hands. He kissed her lightly on the lips. "Hermione, you are everything in my life. I love you very much."
"Harry..."
But he did not let her finished. He reached down into his pocket and knelt in front of her. The entire party was silent, watching the two lovers intently. Harry pulled out the ring and said, "Hermione, will you marry me?"
Ron was right behind him and let out a giant whoop. Mr. Weasley was smiling at them, Mrs. Weasley was crying into her husband's shoulder. McGonagall was crying into her handkerchief. Dumbledore had that tinkle in his eyes again, smiling. The twins broke out into huge evil grins, no doubt planning to do to him the same they did to Ron when he announced his engagement. Bill, his wife Fleur and Charlie were smiling and shaking their heads at the twins. Percy (forgiven years ago) was watching the twins with a stern look. His wife, Penelope, had her hands together, jumping in excitement.
Lavender and Parvati were giggling madly. Neville had his hand on Ginny's shoulder, who was faking a furious face, no doubt for Harry proposing when it was her who caught the bouquet (and therefore the next to get married), but she was smiling nonetheless. Dean and Seamus were laughing. Lupin was watching the scene with a very proud look in his eyes.
Hermione smiled at Harry. "Of course, I will!" The entire party erupted in cheers as Harry slid the ring on Hermione's finger and then kissed again. When they broke apart, Ron clapped Harry on the shoulder and gave Hermione a hug, congratulating them both. A smiling Luna came over. "I hope you two are happy. When do you plan to have the wedding?"
"I don't know," said Hermione, "but I would like you and Ginny to be my bridesmaids if you don't mind."
"Of course not," said Luna, her eyes popping. "I would love to."
"Ron's best man, of course." Harry grinned at his friend who was grinning back.
"Mate, I would be surprised if you didn't have me. Who else has been your best friend?" He elbowed Harry in the chest.
There was a loud shriek. Everyone turned to see Neville, glowing bright red, and Ginny, jumping up and down. "Hermione! Don't have your wedding before I have mine!" She waved the bouquet she caught. "It would ruin tradition if you wed before me!"
Everyone laughed which caused Neville to blush more. Ginny took Neville's hand and dragged him over to Harry and
the others. Grinning, she showed off the ring Neville just gave her. Ron leaned over to Neville. "Hurt my
sister," he whispered, "and I'll hurt you. Got it, Neville?"
Their friend gulped and nodded and Ginny whacked Ron on the head with her bouquet. "Ron! Don't do that!"
"What?" he asked, looking very confused.
"Why is everyone proposing at my wedding?" wondered Luna, vaguely.
"The men are envious of Ron and want to have weddings, too," suggested Hermione, grinning and admiring her own ring.
Luna thought about that. "I'll accept that. Men are like that, you know. The Ambrosia in the punch is supposed to make men more envious. Should have thought of that." The band started playing again and Luna's eyes started glowing. "Oh! I love this song! Ronald. Dance with me." She grabbed her new husband's arm and proceeded to drag him to the dance floor. Ron was not putting up much of a fight. In fact, he seemed to be looking forward to it.
As if on cue, the rest of the guests paired up and started to dance as well. Harry took Hermione and they slowly danced on the spot, enjoying their newfound engagement.
____________
Harry and Hermione walked into their house. Ron and Luna were off to Greece for their honeymoon. ("We are going to
find the heliopaths Fudge let loose when he got kicked out of the Ministry," said Luna, excitedly. Ron was
shrugging his shoulders as others were regarding his new wife oddly, but told Harry privately that he was looking
forward to it).
Harry looked back at Hermione, feelings of loss once again filling him as she took off her coat and walked into the parlor. "I'm sorry," he murmured.
She looked at him in surprise. "Harry, I've told you. You don't have to be sorry." She sighed. "I know how you are. You've got a hard head. Lupin told me you inherited that from your parents so I knew how rough it would be. You don't have to be sorry."
"I know, but I can't help it. I'm stubborn, remember?" She smiled at that. "I think about how I nearly lost you, how I spent my life obsessing over it. I should have listened to you." He sat down in a chair, staring at the floor. "The Dursleys made nagging very unbearable. I hated it so I always hated your nagging me. Now, I look back, knowing what I do now and I see that your nagging was very different from the Dursleys. Yours was caring and concerned. The Dursleys were not. Yours was full of love. The Dursleys were not. I see the difference now and I don't hate it anymore. I just wish I saw it sooner."
Hermione walked over to him and knelt on the floor, putting her hands on his. "The world isn't black and white. There are always differences. I don't blame you for not seeing it. You had a rough life. The world was often black and white in your eyes. Everything was in one category or another. Nagging was bad due to the Dursleys so you put my nagging with them. It's natural."
"If I saw it earlier, you would have never had been put under that spell."
"Maybe, but then we would not be at peace today. Voldemort's gone now. His Death Eaters are imprisoned. I think my sleep was a fair exchange for peace. If you had not gone, would we be here today?"
Harry did not answer. He could not. She was right, in a way, like always, but he would give anything for her to not have fallen asleep. Through, one day he was going to mark down the day she was wrong. He slid down the chair into the floor and held Hermione tight. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
They were together now. Forever and ever. Three years ago, Harry could not imagine a future without Hermione. Now, not only could he imagine a future, but he could also imagine them together in it, nagging and all.
The End
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