How to Marry Hermione Granger 2: Or How Vows are Written
"Quit your job. Stay with me and be my personal sex slave."
Hermione glared at him in the mirror's reflection. "Draco."
"What? I think it's a wonderful way to make a living."
"So am I your sex slave or your sex employee? Either way, I don't think my dad will accept that."
Draco grinned at her and scratched the stubble on his chin. Groaning, he pushed off the wall and sauntered over to his fiancée. He loved calling her that. He pressed against her, letting her know just what she would be missing by going into the office. He breathed against the shell of her ear, smiling against her sweet smelling skin when her breath hitched and she leaned into his body. "Don't make me beg for what's mine, future-Mrs. Malfoy."
More kisses along her nape, kisses that drove her mad, and if they had more time, would have her panting like a beast in heat. He loved doing that to bookish, buttoned up Granger. He bit back another grin as all manner of wicked things they'd done in bed crossed his mind.
"Draco, you know I can't miss work, especially today. I've a new client I'm debriefing in that missing persons case. Besides, don't you also have something important at work today?"
Draco nearly growled. Pulling away, he swatted Hermione on the ass. "Fine, guess I'll have to find some other sex-hungry brunette to satisfy my needs."
Hermione finally turned away from the mirror. Her beauty momentarily stunned him, until she cocked her head and gave him a look that threatened to singe his brows right off. "Try it and it will be the last thing you do as the man I will marry." She smiled when he laughed and brushed a kiss over his lips. "Have a good day, love you," she said and was gone.
Draco watched her until the embers of the Floo died away. He frowned. His heart had started to beat a bit faster as he watched her leave. She was just going to work, and yet he couldn't reconcile the strange fear that she might finally come to her senses in the time she spent away from him and realize he wasn't worthy. He didn't deserve her heart, her astounding love. Sometimes the depth of his feeling for his one-time enemy frightened him. He would never love another and he often wondered if she could possibly love him as much.
Shaking his head to clear his dark thoughts, he undressed and reached for a towel. Perhaps he would go into the office after all. There was no sense in lazing the day away alone. Besides, the bed was too big, the house to cold when Hermione wasn't there.
Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap.
An unfamiliar owl perched on the post outside his window. Thinking Hermione might have sent him one of her little love notes, he rushed to retrieve the message.
He quickly opened it and froze when he read the message then immediately thanked Merlin that Hermione hadn't been here when it came.
My Dearest Draco
Imagine my surprise when I heard you were to wed Hermione Granger. I'm hurt, Draco. You vowed to love me forever. In any case, I can't wait to see you, darling. What was that you used to call me? Oh, yes…
Your forever love,
Mrs. Draco Malfoy
"Shit. Shit, shit, shit." Draco nearly collapsed onto the bed, staring at the note in his fist. Oddly, he could sense that this letter was the omen that would test the limits and depth of Hermione's love for him. Fucking irony, this was. Looks like he'd be finding out how much Hermione loved him after all.
OoOoOoO
"Good morning, Charles. Please bring me a cup of tea , a scone, and why don't you bring the calendar as well. I'd like to get started now so I can leave a little early today, if possible."
"Yes, Miss Granger." Charles smiled and promptly went to fetch her tea. Yes, Hermione wanted to leave as soon as she could manage. She shook her head as she removed her jacket. Damn Draco for turning her on like that.
She was still enjoying her private admonishment of her fiancé when she caught Melvin rushing by her door. She jumped up and called after him. "Melvin!"
"Yeah," he said seconds later as his head poked in her office. He seemed to be in a rush.
"I'm sorry, but I have to cancel this evening. Something's … come up at home."
He frowned and stepped into her office fully. "Is everything okay?"
Hermione's ears burned white hot and she hoped with everything within her that her naughty intentions with Draco weren't written all over her face. "Yes, of course, I-I just have to reschedule. I can come by Sunday evening?"
Melvin tilted his head. "Let's just pick up next Friday, yeah? Nic's marks have improved so much since you've started tutoring him, I think we can allow him one week off without him transfiguring his grandmother into a kettle." He smiled. "Listen, I'm late for a meeting, talk to you later?"
Hermione tripped over her words. "Yes, yes. I'm sorry to keep you. We'll talk lesson plans later."
Melvin rushed out and nearly crashed into Charles. Miraculously, Charles managed not to spill a drop of tea, smiling as he sat her order down on her desk.
Hermione spent the rest of the morning planning her week and preparing for her afternoon debriefing. Much too soon, her stomach growled and glancing up, she realized it was already one o'clock and she was late for her debriefing.
Gathering her briefcase, she threw on her jacket and ran to the conference hall. Through the glass panes, she could see that she was well and truly late. Everyone was present, including her traitorous assistant whom she flashed a death glare as she entered. Charles swallowed.
"My apologies, Miss …" Hermione glanced at her notes, horrified to realize she didn't even know her potential client's name. Embarrassed she looked at Charles who was also frantically searching his notes. Finally she turned to the woman to the right of her.
The woman smiled. "It's okay, it's Greengrass. Astoria Greengrass."
"Pardon me, Miss Greengrass, but are you related to a Daphne Greengrass?"
"Yes, Daphne's my older sister. And please, call me Astoria."
It was completely unprofessional, but Hermione could hardly stop staring. Astoria sat with the kind of confident grace that one only acquired from a lifetime of privilege and lack of adversity. Her brilliant chestnut hair was cut in stylish layers that framed her face and showcased her graceful neck. Gorgeous was the only word to describe her.
"Yes, Miss-Astoria." Hermione glanced at her notes once again. "It says here that your husband went missing just 40 days after your wedding?"
Astoria nodded, dabbing tears. "Yes, that's true."
"I'm sure this must be hard," Hermione offered, glancing at her own ring. "I'm engaged myself and I can't imagine anything happening to him." Astoria nodded again. "Why don't you tell me what happened, in your own words."
As she talked, Hermione became fascinated with the case. She knew without a doubt that she'd end up taking the case. There appeared no evidence of foul play. In fact, everything indicated that the sodding bastard had simply left his young wife, without so much as a note. Besides there was no way that someone like Astoria could have possibly had anything to do with the disappearance of –
"Wait, Astoria, I'm terribly sorry that my notes are so incomplete. What is your husband's name?" Hermione asked.
Suddenly, a commotion outside the conference hall had Hermione on her feet. The door burst open and Draco rushed forward, the security guard on his heels.
"Hermione—"
"Draco Malfoy," Astoria finished, smiling.
OoOoOoO
Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose. The crumpled note was in her other hand. "I'm sorry? You're married to that, that –" It had been on the tip of her tongue point out how devastatingly beautiful that woman was, but it just somehow seemed inappropriate. "Draco, I cannot believe that you did not mention this. I was completely blindsided!"
"Hermione, please…"
"I should have known. You just disappeared after the war, off starting a family apparently and then you just show up here like none of that ever happened?" She looked down at the note again. "Your forever love?" she whispered.
"Hermione, please just—"
"Oh sod off with the 'Hermione, pleases'. I just can't believe this! Draco I feel so stupid. I can't believe you let me walk around telling everyone how wrong they were to doubt you. I defended you to my parents. You are exactly what they feared you were."
And just like that, the wind in her sails died away. She suddenly felt like she'd aged decades in minutes. She sunk into her office chair and fought back tears.
"Are you leaving me?"
Looking up at him finally, her heart completely cracked at the lost, anguished look on his face. His normally sexy stubble was full on scruff. His hair was a mess, he was a mess. "I wanted to be your forever love, Draco. After this, I don't know how I could stay."
OoOoOoOoO
Two weeks later and he couldn't sleep. He'd refused to wash the bedding and wash away Hermione's sweet smelling fragrance. On the rare occasion he could fall into a fitful sleep, he'd wake up shortly after, fucking the sheets and moaning her name.
Hermione.
She had ruined him for any other woman. When his father tried to have that 'move on, son' talk, Draco had exploded. Yelling and asking if he would have been able to move on from his mother if she had left him. Lucius looked stricken and hadn't brought the subject up since.
On top of that, Draco was starving to death, literally. As soon they were engaged, Hermione had made him free Dain, his elf. He dared not go out to eat. Those cock-sucking reporters nearly mauled him to get an official comment to help paint their 'bitter exes' spin on their lives. And he was shit at cooking himself. So, here he was eating a toddler's lunch of cut up chicken bites, an apple and pumpkin juice for the fifth day in a row.
When his sodding mother offered to come over to cook and clean, he'd had enough.
OoOoO
"Sorry, mate, she just doesn't want to see you," Potter said, sadly.
Draco knew he'd messed up if Potter was even being sympathetic. "If she would just talk to me I could…. I just want to tell her that I thought it was anulled, we were kids and had no business being married in the first place." He stopped talking before he spilled his useless guts to the wrong person. It should be Hermione hearing him say these things.
Potter looked over his shoulder, likely at Hermione, and sighed. "I'm sorry, mate," he said again. "She's not budging."
Draco felt like crying. He felt like screaming. He felt like bashing Potter's face in for keeping him from Hermione. Finally, he felt resolve. He drew up his spirits and looked Potter square in his eyes. "Then you tell her this," he said evenly. "She is my forever love and I will not let her walk away from me."
He ignored the fleeting look of worry that touched Potter's features. He was completely aware that he sounded like the worst kind of lovesick, psycho-stalker and it was one hundred percent at odds with his normal private tendencies.
How liberating.
OoOoOoO
Hermione felt arid on the inside, which was funny considering how heavily it rained outside. She poured herself the last of the wine and made a mental note to pick up more from the market. If she could sneak out without the reporters noticing, that is.
She snatched up her mail and her wine and kicked off her pumps. Settling into the sofa, she realized that this was the first time in several months that she'd stayed in her house for several nights in a row. It felt stuffy and cramped. And lonely.
Sighing, she opened the first large envelope that sat on top. It had no return address and she hesitated, thinking it might be from Draco. For the past three weeks, she had vigilantly avoided opening any mail from Draco. Regardless of how completely ruined she was on the inside, she could not be drawn back into his crazy, messed up life. She set the envelope aside and went about opening the rest of her mail. Occasionally, her curiosity would distract her.
Oh, what the hell. Hermione snatched up the envelope, pulled out the documents and began reading through them. Her heart raced the more she read. Finally, she pulled out the letter, handwritten and from Draco himself.
Hermione
These documents prove what I have been trying to tell you all along. Astoria and I were children when we eloped following the war. Our parents took care to have the marriage annulled. I don't know why Astoria fabricated this missing husband story. I don't care.
I love you.
Your forever love,
-D
She reread the letter too many times, her eyes lingering over the six words that shredded her heart all over again.
Damn you, Draco.
OoOoOoO
It was almost a year to the day that she'd sat across from him in Asarai's on their first date. Come to think of it, at this very table. The prat. He had probably done that on purpose. Draco always did unexpected romantic things like that. God, she'd been in such denial of her feelings back then. She'd been afraid of being hurt, apparently for good reason.
"Hermione."
His smooth voice drew her attention back to his face. He stared at her in earnest, seemingly drinking in her features like a starved man. It was a heady feeling. Draco could have any number of beautiful, well-bred women he could want, but he chose her.
"Thank you for meeting me here. I-I've missed you, love." He slid his hands forward to touch hers on the table.
Hermione almost sighed. His touch. "Draco, everything has changed."
He looked sad. "I know. God, have I got a talent for fucking things up with you, yeah?"
She pulled her hand away to think clearly. "I don't care that you made a mistake when you were a kid. Who of us didn't? I was hurt that you didn't trust me with your past. We talked about our past relationships. Why didn't you tell me you had been married before, Draco?"
He sat back in his chair, his normal placid expression coming over his face. She couldn't read him when he was this way. "I was embarrassed." Two bright spots appeared on his cheeks. "This sounds completely juvenile, but I wanted to have sex with her. She came from an extremely conservative family. She said she was saving herself for marriage, so I-I married her."
"So you could have sex with her."
He shrugged and had the grace to look contrite. "I really wanted to lose my virginity."
Hermione pressed her lips together. He should be embarrassed, that was the dumbest reason to get married ever. And yet…. "You were seventeen, a kid, Draco. You still should have told me. Look what not telling me has done."
"Which brings me to my next confession. I would often look at you and think about how much I didn't deserve you."
"What?" He nodded at her likely confused expression.
"Yeah, I love you so much. Sometimes it scares me. Hermione I don't know if you understand that before you, I never really cared about anyone besides my parents and myself. I had never been so afraid of intimacy and yet yearned for intimacy at once. I wanted you to know every part of me and still love me. But I feared that if you did, you would leave. I've done some bad things in my past. Like you said, how could you stay?
"And now, the very thing I'd been trying to avoid has happened. I know what it feels like to wake up knowing that you aren't mine." He took a deep breath and Hermione took note that this was likely the longest, most personally revealing conversation she had ever had with him. "You're right, everything has changed because now you know what I want most and what I'm afraid of losing the most and both of them are you."
Sweet Merlin, I never stood a chance. Tears welled and spilled down her face.
"Don't do this to me, Granger. Don't cry." Draco leaned forward, shielding her from the other patrons.
She looked up at him. His gray eyes burned like molten silver. The look he was giving her could singe her knickers right off. "I love you, too," she whispered.
His nostrils flared and she had a second's notice before he was kissing her. Teeth clacked together and it was a hungry, devouring kiss. His hand was halfway up her thigh before she had the sense to pull away. They were in a public place, after all.
OoOoOoO
Draco's body hummed and twitched in the aftershocks of his orgasm. He stroked Hermione's backside and silently thanked Merlin that he'd had the foresight to clean up a bit.
"Draco, if we're going to work, I need you to be totally honest with me, in all things."
"Even if you look fat in your mother's wedding robes?" Hermione grabbed his nipple and twisted it painfully. "Ow! I was only joking."
"Well, I'm serious." She propped herself up on one elbow, holding the sheet to her body. One side slipped, exposing one round breast, the nipple still distended.
"No, I hear you," he murmured, his attention drawn to her luscious breast. He forced himself to re-focus. This was important. He looked her squarely in the eyes. "I promise to be honest with you, open with you." He frowned. "I also promise to trust you with my heart, though why you want this thing, I'll never know. And I promise to love you forever."
Hermione looked pleased and settled back into her spot, glued to his side. He glanced at her left hand stroking the smattering of hair on his chest.
"Hermione?" he asked.
"Hmm?"
"Will you wear my ring, again?"
She patted his chest before rolling out of bed. He watched her naked body and barely refrained from stroking his cock as she bent to retrieve something from her bag. When she slid back into bed next to him, she held up her hand. The engagement ring sparkled.
"Happy now?"
He sighed. "More than you know."
Just as sleep began to claim him, Hermione whispered, "You should say that."
"What? Say what?"
Your promises. You should say those as your wedding vows to me."
He kissed the top of her head. "I'll say whatever you want me to say, as long as it means you're my forever love."
Draco gasped as Hermione soft hand firmly stroked his cock. "You know exactly what to say to get yourself laid."
He moaned her name when she thumbed the head of his erection.
Yeah, he did.
THE END.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It has been seven years since I wrote How to Marry Hermione Granger. I hope I have grown as a writer in these seven years. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your reviews.
P.S. This has not been reviewed by any eyes but mine, so please excuse any typos.
Disclaimer: I write to learn, these aren't my characters.