IMPORTANT Author's Note: Hey there, and welcome to Awfully Wedded… again. This is a fic I started years ago under the pen name of XxXVickyBXxX, before giving up on it and passing it on to the writer 'alosercanwin' (who has been noted that I'm taking it up again). Since then, however, the fic has kind of been in limbo and when I came across it the other day, I knew I just had to continue it again. So, I guess you could say that this is like, I dunno, the third attempt? My second at least.

Anywho, whether you're new or old to it, I really hope you enjoy this fic that I will (hopefully and eventually) complete. I'm not going to lie, updates may be a bit irregular. I'm in Uni now and way too busy for my own good. However, as there are already 12 Chapters, I'm hoping that will help. I'll probably update every other week, maybe once a week – not sure yet haven't decided. But, I beg you, please be patient!

I must also state that I will be tweaking the chapters slightly; this will mainly be mistakes, but in some chapters I make edit things to make it flow better, or because I feel (personally) that it doesn't fit in to where this story is going anymore. All in all, though, I can't see it changing too much.

Well, I think that's about it for now. Happy reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.


If someone had told Hermione Jean Granger thirteen years ago, when she was first starting Hogwarts, that by the time she was twenty-four she would be engaged to Draco Malfoy, then the eleven year old girl would have been highly affronted. Not only would the idea have been absurd for the Gryffindor, but, for Hermione Granger at that age, it would have also been an insult to her person and intelligence.

After all, she was Hermione Granger and to get mixed up with the likes of a Malfoy – and not just any Malfoy, but Draco Malfoy – would cause one to think that she was incredibly stupid. And everyone knew that Hermione Granger was anything but stupid.

So how come, at the mere age of twenty-four, did she find herself in Draco Malfoy's bed, with his engagement ring on her left finger?

Well, according to her three best friends , Ron, Harry and Ginny, it was a simple case of her leaving her senses. Senses which had seemingly not returned – though she could care less about them because, if they were to return, she would probably find herself in the arms of another man. This was something she didn't want happening because, even though Ron had a hard time of believing it, she was actually happy with the Ferret.

In a way, Hermione still couldn't believe that she and Draco were still together after three and half years. When her relationship with the proud Pureblood had started she had honestly believed it to be a simple fling; she had even told Ron, who had been furious at her for agreeing to date him, that they would probably be over in a month or two. Glancing down at her ring, Hermione doubted that month-or-two would ever come.

"And I wouldn't have it any other way," Hermione whispered, smiling delicately, as she turned to face the sleeping man next to her. Hermione's grin widened even more so as she took in Draco's profile. Merlin, he looked innocent when he was sleeping.

Shame he isn't like that all the time though, she thought. Slowly, hoping not to disturb the slumbering Dragon, she lifted her free arm up – the other one was currently crushed under Draco's sleeping form – and gently brushed a strand of Draco's flaxen hair out of his eyes. For a second she thought she was successful in keeping him undisturbed, but was quickly proved wrong when Draco's eyes snapped open, and he snatched for her hand, and curled his fingers around her wrist.

Hermione, blushing as bright as Ron's hair, slowly let her eyes meet those of her fiancé before they trailed down to his lips. She flared as she saw he was smirking – nothing new on that front then – but was quickly distracted as Draco drew her closer to his body, leaning in for the kill. Hermione sniffed in annoyance – she had lost their little game again – and turned her head away so Draco's lips landed on her cheek.

"Good morning to you too," he chuckled, as he shifted his body slightly and freed Hermione's arm. "Seems like someone's woken up on the wrong side of bed this morning." Sitting up slightly, he looked around before raising an eyebrow. His smirk grew into an almost predatory smile. "In fact, by the looks of it, I think that both of us have."

Hermione, still glaring at her fiancé, felt her cheeks burn even darker. "Oh hush," she grumbled, hitting him lightly on the chest. All it did was cause Draco to laugh that bit more, and for Hermione to groan even louder. "For once, Draco, can't you just let me play with your hair for a bit? I'm sick and tired of you waking up, just after I've brushed it out of your face. Why can't you just let me win? You know pretend to be asleep?"

She felt Draco press a gentle kiss to her neck, grinning. "Where's the fun in that, Granger?" He whispered the rhetorical into her ear. "I can't let you win all the time, can I?" He hovered over her, his forehead pressed against hers. "People will begin to think that Draco Malfoy has gone –" a curl of the mouth and nose, "– soft."

Hermione grinned up at him, a knowing look in her eyes. Draco's eyes narrowed slightly, and he growled at her to keep quiet. Hermione took no heed to his silent warning.

"But Draco, you've already gone soft," The man in question quickly snapped that he hadn't done anything of the kind. Hermione, ignoring him, continued. "You've been that way ever since we became friends – four years ago."

Draco scoffed at Hermione's statement and shook his head. "We were never friend's Granger," he stated. "We were just mere acquaintances who decided to skip the friendship stage and go onto the shagging part, falling in love on the way."

Once again Draco found himself rubbing his chest; at this rate the bruises would be permanent. "Oh do be quiet, Malfoy," Hermione said, smirking up at him. "You and I both know very well that we were friends before we started dating. When have you known me to lie?"

"Fifth year," Draco said immediately. "When Umbridge was in charge of Hogwarts – you lied to her then."

Hermione huffed in annoyance. "Okay, that was one time – and nearly ten years ago." She smiled up at him. "I would like a more recent time, and not something that happened in the nineties."

Hermione, thinking that she had caught Draco out, smiled triumphantly back at him. By the looks of it, she had just got her fiancé well and truly –

"When you and I first started dating," Draco interrupted her, grinning just like she. "You kept fibbing to Potter and Weasley about who your new boyfriend was; every time they asked you either changed the subject, or gave them some really random names." He let out a snort and muttered "Atticus Finch" under his breath, before he chuckled even more.

Hermione's eyes narrowed dangerously. "It's not my fault that I said a character from 'To Kill a Mockingbird'," Hermione said, her cheeks growing pink yet again. "It was the first name that came to my head; after all, I was reading it at the time." She frowned even more. "How was I supposed to know that Ginny and Harry had both read the book? Neither of them are the reading type after all."

Draco, still laughing slightly, just shook his head before lifting himself off of Hermione and sitting up in their bed. He ran a hand through his mussed up hair (something that only he was allowed to do, much to Hermione's annoyance) and yawned. Hermione's breath caught in her throat as he stretched and his back muscles rippled. If he didn't get out of her sight soon, then she would be very tempted to make last night's escapade look innocent.

As Hermione watched Draco enter the bathroom – a shower was in order first, as per usual with the Ferret – she found herself drifting back to the past and how she and Draco came to be. Even though Draco wouldn't admit it, it was true when Hermione had said that they had been friends with each other before they had become a couple. Sure, it had only been six months' worth of friendship, but those six months were moments in time which Hermione would never regret. After all, it had been in this space of half a year that she had been able to see what Draco Malfoy was truly like.

Sure he had still been a git, but the malicious side of him had gone to be replaced by a more humorous one. Back then, when their friendship – sorry, acquaintance – had first started he still had his little digs at her, though his tone told her that Draco meant no harm, and not once had he ever uttered the word 'Mudblood'. In the space of two years from their graduation to their meeting again, Hermione had learnt that Draco had done a lot of growing up.

Admittedly, Hermione had been sceptical of Draco at first, and incredibly unsure about his new-found nature for two reasons. Not only was Draco's Hogwarts behaviour to blame, but also the situations which surrounded the beginnings of their companionship too. She had just come out of a horrible ordeal concerning another Slytherin, so she had found it hard to get involved with another one so soon afterwards.

Despite the fact that she was happy when she and Draco became friends, the reason surrounding the beginning of their relationship was something that she'd rather not talk about. The same went for Draco too, due to the fact that he had suffered at the hands of the very same Slytherin.

Another reason that neither of them liked to talk or think about it, was all down to the fact that Hermione was a girl who looked to the future and rarely – if ever – the past. Hermione found that if she looked to the past she would belittle herself and want to correct past mistakes – especially of the ones that concerned him – which she was unable to do. However, as her fiancé had told her countless of times, if she were to look to the future Hermione was able to see all her hopes and dreams waiting for her. If she looked to the future, then she would be able to see her future with her friends, family and Draco.

Hermione's thoughts trailed off suddenly as Draco opened the bathroom door, steam billowing around him, and stepped out with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Hermione gave him an appreciative look up and down, causing Draco to smirk, yet again , before hopping out of their bed herself, and entering the room that Draco had just emerged from. She turned round, blew her fiancé a kiss, and closed the door in his face.

"I'll see you when you're out of the shower then?" Draco hollered, as he dropped his towel and got ready for the day ahead. The last thing he heard, before Hermione turned on the shower, was his fiancé's tinkling laughter.

Merlin, did he love than girl.

/

"So what are you planning to do with your day off, then?" Draco asked forty minutes later, as Hermione sat down at the table across from him. A piece of toast lingered next to his mouth.

Hermione, who had just been reaching for a slice of toast herself, paused and looked up into the dark-grey eyes of her fiancé. At first she thought that his question suggested that he knew something, but one glance told her that Draco was just genuinely interested. Obviously she had been able to keep this secret hidden extremely well.

Shall I tell him? Hermione thought, as she began to spread marmalade over her toast. Or shall I wait? I really don't want to get his hopes up. Her indecisiveness had caused Hermione to forget to reply to Draco, who was now looking at her expectantly – and suspiciously.

"Hermione?" Draco called her name, and Hermione quickly snapped out of her thoughts. She looked up at Draco again. "What are you doing today?"

I'll tell him once I find out for sure, myself, Hermione finally decided to keep the (probable) news a surprise. "Oh nothing much," Hermione told him, with shrug. "I'll probably go and catch up with Ginny, considering I haven't seen her since she had James, and go shopping in London." She looked around their flat. "It's probably about time I added something of my own to this place; everything here currently belongs to you."

Draco, mouth full of buttered toast, merely nodded in agreement. "Sure," he finally said, after swallowing. He looked around their dining room, "I think it will do the house good if it had a woman's touch about it. It'll make the house look more homely; give off the message that a family's about to start here."

Whilst Draco continued on with his speech about what Hermione could possibly do about the house, the girl in question felt her cheeks grow warm. He had just said 'family', whether he had meant it in an indicative way or not, which gave Hermione the hint that he wanted children – with her. A smile tugged at her lips, and Hermione almost gave in to the urge of telling Draco of where she was truly going today. However, due to the fact that it wasn't confirmed yet, she kept her excitement to herself. Draco could wait another couple of hours, couldn't he?

"So, what do you think?" Draco finally asked, sipping his Pumpkin juice. "Do you like the idea of painting the kitchen spring green?"

Hermione, who had not heard a word of what the Slytherin had just said, simply smiled and nodded her head. "It sounds wonderful, Draco," she told him. "I'll get on it straight away." Simultaneously the couple stood up, and began to tidy up the table; it had become a sort of ritual for them to do it at the same time.


Twenty minutes later, everything cleared up and put away, found Hermione and Draco standing outside their house, ready to go their separate ways. Draco was off to work, whilst Hermione was off to Ginny's – even though in reality she was off to Saint Mungo's. They were just saying goodbye to each other – again – and making sure that all the wards were up.

"I'll see you about six, alright, love?" Draco murmured against Hermione's lips, who gave a distant murmur of consent. The girl in question was busily distracted by sorting out his crooked tie. "Do you want me to get something for dinner tonight, or do you want me to cook?"

Hermione shook her head on both suggestions, before returning Draco's kiss. "No, it's alright Draco, I'll cook. Everyone knows that I need to get my cooking skills up to scratch," Her eyes reached his. "Besides, I want to make tonight extremely special." Her tone, full of suggestions, told Draco all he needed to know.

"Right then," he drawled, tugging at his collar, causing it to loosen slightly. "I'll see you tonight." He gave one more lingering kiss on Hermione's lips – a kiss she replied readily to – before pulling away from her, and giving her a tight hug. Finally they parted and went their separate ways; Hermione went left, whilst Draco went right. The smiles on each half of the couple didn't slip from either of their faces as one left for a hospital, and the other work.

"Shame I'm about to wipe those grins off of them," a cold voice hissed, as a figure stepped out of the alleyway across from the house, and followed Hermione with his eyes until she rounded the corner. His lips curled into a sneer of unrighteous jealousy. "It's a shame that I'm not about to let her go this time," the figure continued to mutter to himself, eyes darting to Draco's walking figure. The beetle-black eyes narrowed even more as they studied Malfoy's profile, and a sneer curled his lips. "She's mine, and mine alone, Malfoy; she'll never belong to you – especially when I'm around. I lost her once, but I am not about to loose her again."

After four years of scheming, Blaise Zabini was finally back. He was finally back and ready to take what he believed was his and his alone. Hermione Granger was going to rue the day that she didn't give him a second chance.


Author's Note: Well, what did you think? This chapter is pretty much the same as the original, though with a few adjustments.

I should also add that in this Blaise Zabini originally had dark hair, pale skin and blue eyes. I know he isn't like that in the books, but for some reason this was just how I imagined him when I first began to write this. However, I have now altered his appearance so that it fits in with his actual physical description.

Anywho, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter (again, if you're reading it for the third time), and please let me know your thoughts with a review.

Thanks!

VickytoriaGreengrass