I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANYTHING RELATED/INVOLVED WITH J.K. ROWLING
A Marriage Law. Premade matches. No escape, penalty, fines, jail…
Hermione Granger's mind was on a focused repeat after reading the morning's Prophet not even ten minutes ago. Her match? Draco Malfoy.
She looked up from her place at Gryffindor table with a calm that came from being numb. Harry, Ginny and Ron were all staring at her with concern. She excused herself; she had to send a letter.
That night in the Great Hall for dinner, she saw Draco smirking at her. She looked back with dead eyes that worried everyone who saw them. She walked over to him.
"Come to ask about preparations, Mudblood?"
"No." her voice was soft in a distracted way, almost as if her voice was reluctant to function. "I've come to give a challenge."
"Oh?"
"Yes."
"What is it then? I haven't got all day."
"I challenge you to marry a corpse, Draco Malfoy."
With that said, she reached into the pocket of her cardigan and pulled out a Muggle gun, already loaded. Putting the muzzle under her chin, she locked her eyes on the Slytherin's confused and apprehensive ones.
She pulled the trigger.
The Great Hall went up in a storm of chaos within seconds; the wall and students behind the place where Hermione once stood were covered in blood and bits of brain matter. Everyone was screaming and looking at the girl lying on the floor at their feet, her head oozing like a popped blister, some of her hair and skull missing.
Suddenly the Great Hall, a small house in Austrailia, a Quidditch Pitch in Bulgaria, and the Burrow were filled with Hogwart's school owls dropping letters on laps and at feet.
Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna, Dumbledore, Hagrid, McGonagall, Padma, Parvati, Lavender, Fred, George, Molly, Arthur, Mum, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Viktor.
Hermione never forgot her friends and loved ones, not even when it was time to say Good Bye.
Two weeks later, those same cherished people gathered in the graveyard at Godric's Hollow, she had asked to be put there since it was so beautiful in the Spring, her favorite season. The same thing was said in different voices and in different sentences, "She was loved, the extent to which she never knew, but we always will."
The head stone gleamed in the sunlight, the rose quarts inlaid in the long stemmed rose glittered while showcasing the inscription.
Hermione Granger
She was loved,
She will never be unloved.
She was known,
She will never be forgotten.
The Devil may fear her,
Chains do not hold her.
Beloved Daughter, War Hero and Best Friend.
She is Free.