GREETINGS FROM FLORIDA!
Now that that's out of the way (I live in Louisiana so me being a few states over is a big f*cking deal):
Hey guys! So, this one is actually prewritten (most of it, anyway, and it's spring break so I've got loads of time to finish) and I've been writing it for MONTHS. Reviews are greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: any characters you recognize are not mine. All OCs are mine. Harry Potter is not mine, this plot line is mine. This is the only disclaimer you'll get, along with one of the only author's notes. Review and tell me what you think.
(Third Person POV)
"No, Father! I will not marry some Gryffinndor mudblood!"
King Lucius narrowed his eyes. "Remember to whom you are speaking, son. You will do as I say."
"I will not! You cannot force me to marry someone unworthy of my blood! It is madness!" Prince Draco stomped his feet on the floor like a spoiled child as he huffed and fumed.
"Madness?" His mother, Queen Narcissa, laughed bitterly. "What we have offered you is an avoidance of madness, Draco. If you do not marry her, we will fall into war with every kingdom and there will be no throne for you to ascend."
"There has got to be another way around this!" Prince Draco pleaded. "What... what of the eldest Granger girl? She is of pureblood, is she not?"
"Amelia?" King Lucius replied. "She has already been betrothed to the Hufflepuff prince. If you had not waited for marriage like we advised you, you could have had her months ago. Now, you will have to settle."
"I do not want to settle." Draco gritted out through his teeth. "Why Gryffinndor? Why not Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or even Beauxbatons?"
"They have all refused you." Narcissa answered. "Gryffinndor is the only kingdom who will even consider an alliance with us, provided you marry the maiden princess and our people agree to end all hostility. You must do this for you kingdom, Draco, or the deaths of every witch and wizard in this kingdom will be on your hands."
"BUT MOTHER-"
"Do not test me, Draco. You may be my son, but I am still your queen and will be treated as such."
Draco yelled a deafening, frustrated sound and stomped out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him, not wanting to face his parents when he knew he had lost the fight.
He was better than a mudblood, though! His family had been full of witches and wizards for centuries- hell, for millenniums- and he did not want to taint that bloodline by binding himself to a woman who had just lucked out and woken up with magic one day! She probably could not even cast a simple levitation spell!
No matter who she was, she was not worthy enough to marry Draco Malfoy!
Draco stomped into his room and threw himself into his bed, groaning into his pillow at the prospect of his impending marriage. His parents would have already made arrangements before telling him about the mudblood, so it was a done deal. To save his kingdom from being obliterated by war, he would have to do something he promised himself he would never even consider.
He would have to marry the mudblood.
Super.
Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Gryffindor...
"You are telling a joke, correct?" Hermione laughed.
Her parents, King Wendell and Queen Monica, only looked saddened by their daughter's disregard for their words. "No... we are deadly serious." Her father replied gravely.
"Oh, come on." Hermione laughed, the smile on her face fading when her parents did not laugh with her. "You... you are serious? Really?"
"Yes."
Hermione's eyes widened. "WHAT?!" She screamed. "YOU WANT ME TO MARRY THE SLYTHERIN PRINCE?!" Hermione was a moment away from throwing up.
"Daughter, please." King Wendell stood to hug her. "Do not make this-"
"Oh, Merlin-" She began to hyperventilate. "I can not- He- oh Merlin, oh my-"
"Hermione, calm down. Deep breaths." Princess Amelia, Hermione's older sister, wrapped her arms around her sister and shushed her. "Deep breaths."
When Hermione had finished hyperventilating and was sitting at a table, her parents and siblings sat across from her. She was incredibly thrown by their request; she was only a girl of seventeen summers, having only just become a woman. Sure, several suitors- most of a high, noble ranking- had already requested to court her, but her father had turned them all away, saying she was not yet ready to become a wife nor a mother. Now, just a month after her last potential suitor had been turned away because she was unprepared, she was suddenly ready?
Ready to marry a man, around whom many vicious rumors circulated, no less?
"Hermione... we love you dearly," King Wendell put his hand over his youngest's and said gently. "And it matters not that you are not of my flesh, nor of your mother's. I have always said you may marry for love if you so chose, but... the situation is different, now. I hate myself for it, but you must do this to end the madness that surrounds Slytherin."
The Granger family was a close-knit bunch, to say the least. They relied heavily on each other for strength through the trying times and made sure to spend time with each other, lest they never have the chance to again.
Hermione Granger was not a member of the royal family by birth. In truth, she was a muggleborn- the birth daughter of two poor muggleborn merchants who had long ago fled the land for the muggle world they once knew, unable to take care of their newborn daughter when their seven other children were starving.
The story of her 'adoption' was a rather sad one. In the year of Hermione's birth, Queen Monica had lost her third child to disease, her two oldest children, Amelia and Thomas, only just surviving. He had been of three summers, a young boy named Jonathan. Heartbroken by his death, she took to walking about her kingdom during the days to visit some of the poorer families. On the third month of her walks, she encountered a family of muggleborns who were desperate to leave the kingdom.
Queen Monica smiled and waved at a few of the peasant girls who were out doing their chores as she walked along the main road. She came across the house of a muggle-born family whom she had not seen nor heard of in a month. Their house had fallen into a state of decay that not even magic could fix, the grass leading to the house was dead and burnt, and the woman of the house was running around, shoving several things into several bags.
"Excuse me, miss?" Queen Monica said, the woman in a tattered dress before her whipping around and looking frightened. "Might I be of assistance? Are you in need of aid?" The Queen had not been to this part of the kingdom in some time; if she had known their living conditions were this bad, she would have helped them long ago.
"I-I am well, my queen," The woman replied. "I-I would not like t-to trouble you."
"Oh, you are no trouble." The Queen smiled. Just then, four children- looking to be various ages between thirteen summers and seven summers- came filing out of the house with an old, stained bag in each hand.
"Come, children," A man, looking to be in the same state as the woman, came out of the house and hurried their children toward the road. He seemed not to have noticed the queen at all.
"Let me help you." The Queen begged, but the woman just seemed to panic further. "My husband and I will not let you nor your family starve, miss. I can give you whatever you need for your family-"
"W-we can not stay, my queen," The woman replied. "But thank you so very much for your offer. I regret that I cannot take it."
She slung her bag onto her back and made to leave, but a baby's shrill cry made her stop. She darted back into the house and came out with a newborn baby in her arms, a look about her face as if she had just had an idea.
"My queen," The woman said timidly, walking forward and bowing at Monica's feet. "Please... take her."
"What?" Queen Monica asked, shocked.
"Please... my husband and I cannot care for her," She cried. "If we take her with us, she will die. Please, my queen... please, take her. If you want to help my family, take her so that she may live a happy life."
"Are you certain?" Queen Monica said, taking the baby into her arms. "You would part with your child so easily?"
"If it would save her," She replied, giving the child one last look. "I would part with my life." The Queen looked down at the now-sleeping child in her arms and stroked her cheek.
"What is her name?" Queen Monica asked after she had looked up, but the woman had already taken off running toward the road and had turned a corner, she and her family nowhere to be seen.
Queen Monica began to panic as she walked back to the guards whom had followed her out, as they always did. She walked back to the castle quickly and without a word, passing by every person who attempted to speak to her.
"I know, father." Hermione whimpered. "But I cannot marry a man who may hurt me!"
"Then fight back, of course." Prince Thomas, Hermione's brother, said simply, as he were talking to a mere child.
"Thomas!" Queen Monica gasped at her son's words. "That is forbidden-"
"If he is anything like you say he is, you will be able to do as you please." Thomas said. "He would not dare hurt his pride by admitting that his wife struck him. You are a skilled fighter and witch; as far as I have heard, Slytherin does not train its royalty in combat. If it comes to that, you will fight and you will win."
"It should not have to come to that, brother!" Hermione yelled.
"We have bargained for your protection." Queen Monica said gently. "He will not touch you in any way in which you do not invite him to. At some distant point in the future, you will have to have children with him, but you will have grown accustomed by then. I am sure you are making him out to be much worse than he actually is."
"But mother!" Hermione seethed. "He is- I am- I cannot believe you would trade me off as a political bargain!"
"Remember your place, Hermione." King Wendell warned her. "We have taken every necessary measure to ensure your safety and you will be treated well in Slytherin. I have always given you the freedom to do whatever you pleased whilst you grew, but it is time to be an adult, daughter. It is time for you to grow up and take your place as this man's wife. This is your duty, this is your job, and this is what will happen."
Hermione huffed and sprung up from the table, stomping her way out of the hall. Amelia immediately rose and followed her, telling their father to sit down and that he had already done enough. Amelia found Hermione in the courtyard, sobbing into the petunias.
"Sister," Amelia said gently, sitting beside her. "It is not as bad as you believe."
"Yes, it is." Hermione cried.
"Look at me," Amelia turned Hermione's chin and looked into her puffy, tear-ridden eyes. "You will be fine. We will all be fine. You are not the first woman to be drafted into an unwanted marriage." Amelia sighed and took off the ring that had been on her left ring finger, and held it up in front of her sister's face. "I did not want this ten months ago. I did not know Cedric, he did not know me, and I would have gladly cut off my left arm to not have to marry him. I heard many, many vile things about him and I hadn't even met him."
"That's not the same." Hermione shook off Amelia's hand. "Cedric is actually a good person-"
"It is the same, because I thought he was just as bad as you think the Malfoy prince is. People said he was a womanizing, mischievous, all-knowing, emotional mess and I believed them... until I got off of my bloody high horse and met him firsthand. None of those things were true, Cedric is a good, caring man and I could not be happier that I will become his wife in two months. Do you not see, sister? In almost every case, the rumors are just that- lies. You have no idea what this man is like, so there is no use worrying over what may be nothing." Amelia stood up and offered Hermione her hands. "So stand up, wipe your face and march back into that room with your head held high."
"But I can't." Hermione whispered. "I am still a child, sister. I cannot be somebody's wife."
"Yes, you can and you will be. You are the strongest maiden I have ever had the privilege to meet, sister. I have never known you to be a coward, so do not start now."
"But why must this happen now?" Hermione whimpered. "I am just barely of marrying age. I know that tensions have grown between Slytherin and the rest of Hogwarts, but why is this marriage so important?"
"Father has not told you, but I will have to, now." Amelia sat down with her sister and sighed. "You see, sister, the world is not as plain and simple as you may think it to be. When Hogwarts was established and divided into four separate kingdoms, there was peace; there was kindness and no animosity between any of us. Then, when Beauxbatons and Durmstrang requested a peace treaty with Hogwarts, Slytherin declined heartily. It came to light that Salazar Slytherin, whom had founded the kingdom, hated muggleborns and merely tolerated halfbloods. Gryffinndor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff did not like this. Due to the conditions under which Hogwarts was founded, Slytherin could not be forced out of the country."
"Why not?"
"Hogwarts is a permanent, 'civil' union of all four kingdoms and that cannot be broken. Ever since this happened, Slytherin has distanced itself from all of our affairs. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang have individual treaties with all of us, but not them. Now, on the topic of war: the people of Slytherin have since grown hostile towards every other kingdom. From killing animals to destroying property, they commit acts of violence, sometimes treason, against others in an attempt to make themselves seem more superior. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff have agreed to enact a joint strike against Slytherin if this continues, but our father does not want war crossing into his borders, so he has agreed to attempt to dissolve the situation. That is where you come into the picture.
The Slytherin King will not sign a peace treaty under any condition, save for the marriage of you to his son. His son is due to ascend the throne in the next ten years, as the King is getting older, and he wants him to have a wife and family by that time. I would have been chosen for it, but I was promised to Cedric beforehand. If you marry him, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw will not strike against Slytherin, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons will not join them, Gryffinndor will not be caught in the crossfire and Slytherin will not have to suffer a terrible loss. Much as I do not like them, I do not think they deserve to be massacred for a few misguided people that reside within their walls." Amelia touched Hermione's face and wiped her tears. "You will bring peace to a long feud, sister. Do this for your future children, my future children and the child that Thomas and Cho will soon have so that they may grow up in a world without hostility. If you will not do it for Slytherin, do it for them."
Hermione nodded and wiped at her face. "You really think it will be alright?"
"I do." Amelia nodded firmly, then slung an arm around his sister, smiling. "And if it is not, I will storm Slytherin Castle and get a few shots in at the prince." Amelia winked and both girls laughed, momentarily forgetting their situation. It was like they were children again, carefree without any trouble whatsoever.
What Hermione would have given at that moment to be that child again.
"But really, Hermione... trust me." They began to walk back into Gryffinndor Castle, holding each other's hand. "Everything will be alright once it is all said and done."
"Thank you, Amelia." Hermione hugged her sister tightly. "For everything. For being my sister when you did not have to be."
"Oh, shut it." Amelia teased. "It has been a privilege. Now, I believe you have something to tell father, do you not?"
The doors to the great hall opened and King Wendell bolted out of his chair, relieved to see both of his daughters walking back into the room, seemingly calm. "Hermione, listen, I-"
Hermione silenced her father as she made to hug him. "I'll do it." She whispered, holding on to him tightly. "I understand why, and... okay."
King Wendell wrapped his arms around his daughter and sighed. "Thank you, sweetheart. You have no idea of the impact that this will bring."
Hermione nodded as her father kissed her forehead, reveling in the moments that she had. She was still the Gryffindor princess, for a while, at least.
She hadn't come to terms with the 'marriage' prospect, nor was she in any way comfortable with it, but she could rationalize it. She knew, after what Amelia had said, that it was the best for her kingdom, her country and her family.
Of course, fairy tales aren't as easy as they appear on paper. Hermione Granger's fairy tale was no exception.
A/N: Your thoughts? -Nikki a.k.a.- Twipotterfreak28