So I've had this idea for a while, I'm obsessed with Marriage Law fics and Dramione, but it feels like a lot of them end up with Ron bashing and I didn't want that, so if you love Ron as much as I do hopefully you'll appreciate this!
"I can't believe you're actually supporting this." Harry runs a hand through his messy black hair as he sighs. "I figured you would be more against this law than anyone."
Hermione shakes her head in exasperation. How many times would she have to explain her reasoning?
"I don't support it at all. It's an absolutely awful breach of human rights, but we've already done everything we can do to fight it. It's going to be enforced no matter what we do, so the least I can do is make sure that people end up with the best matches possible."
The Marriage Law was announced four month ago. Every unmarried witch and wizard between the ages of 17 and 40 is required to be betrothed by Christmas, in two months time, and married by Halloween next year. Hermione was disgusted by the announcement but after throwing every argument she could at the ministry, even using her war heroine status to gain an audience before the Wizengamot itself, she knows there is nothing she can do to stop its implementation.
So instead she'd refocused her efforts. She'd gone to every magical library, both private and public, that she could gain access to and acquired many books on spell creation. She was determined to find a way to make sure the matches for her and her friends were as compatible as possible, and a custom made spell seemed like the perfect way to do it. She'd found journals of people trying to do something similar last time the law was enacted, in 1919, and it helped eliminate some issues much quicker than she would have been able to otherwise, speeding the process along. With help from George and Professor Flitwick, she had been able to perfect her project in only two short months.
The first pair she had tested the compatibility spell on was Harry and Ginny. There was never any doubt in Hermione's mind that their percentage would be high. When the glowing number 85 appeared above the entwined strands of hair they had supplied her with, she had smiled. An 85% was extremely good, and she doubted she would find a higher mark between anyone, other than perhaps Mr and Mrs Weasley.
"How many applications did you end up receiving?" Ginny asks her in curiosity, walking into Hermione's living room from the kitchen and plopping herself down on the sofa beside her fiance.
Although she had originally only planned to use the spell on her friends, the bushy haired girl had quickly realised that other people deserved to benefit from the system too, and the more people she tested, the higher chance there was for a decent match.
"Two hundred and six in the first batch. If there are people with no suitable matches in this lot I will allow another round of applications."
"What if nobody else applies?" Harry asks, frowning.
"Then I will send those with lower matching scores the details of their highest match and let them sort it out from there." Hermione waves her wand over a pair of blonde hairs and smiles when the number 78 appears above them. "I just found a match for Luna."
Hermione, George and Flitwick had all agreed, after much reading, that any score above 55% would be an acceptable range to work within. Anybody lower than that would be disregarded and tested against more people. It was a long process, but so far she hadn't had any issues, and could generally find a match within the first 10 tests.
"That's great!" Ginny smiles enthusiastically. "Who is it?"
Hermione checks the card that had been attached to the hair their friend had matched with. "His name is Rolf Scamander."
Harry frowns again, but more in contemplation than concern this time. "I wonder if he's related to Newt Scamander?"
"Who?" Ginny asks.
"He was the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, one of our textbooks."
Hermione's eyebrows shoot up. "I'm surprised you remember that, since I don't think you once picked up that book outside of class."
Harry chuckles. "I only remember because Hagrid knew him. Idolised him actually. He never said as much but I'm fairly certain that Newt was the one who gave him Aragog back when he was at school."
Ginny shakes her head slightly, smile still on her face. "Well if this Rolf IS a relative of Newt then I'm sure him and Luna will get along just wonderfully. Any other matches for people we know yet?"
Hermione looks at her list, though she;d already memorised most of it's contents.
"Lavender matched with Cormac McLaggan at 71%. Dean and Seamus and 82, Cho and Viktor at 63-"
"But Viktor's not from Britain?" Harry interrupts.
"He sent me an Owl saying that if I could find a match above 60% for him he'd take it. Apparently he hasn't found anyone in Bulgaria that makes him happy."
"That's just because no-one will every live up to his Hermowninny." Ginny teases.
Hermione rolls her eyes. "Anyway, him and Cho make a surprising amount of sense I thought. As did another couple I managed to pair…" She smirks. Both of her friends raise an eyebrow as though asking the obvious question and she gives it to them. "Rita Skeeter and Gilderoy Lockhart."
The couple's eyes both widen at the horror of this pairing but at the same time they are thinking the same thing as Hermione did when she saw their match. Liars deserve liars.
"Okay well we should leave you to it." Ginny smiles, standing up. "Is George coming to take over at some point?"
Hermione shakes her head. "He's busy at the shop tonight."
"Isn't Ron there?"
"No, he's out dropping off deposits and checking in on the cake and such." Ginny looks guilty at this statement from her best friend. She knows that, as Hermione's Maid of Honour, she should be helping out more, but between her training for the Hollyhead Harpies reserve team and the planning for her and Harry's own wedding, she just hasn't had the time to think about anything else. "It's okay Gin, I haven't exactly been helping you out much either."
"Thank Merlin we have such wonderful fiance's to take care of things for us." The ginger haired girl places her arm around Harry and kisses him on the cheek. "We'll see you later Mi."
"Bye guys." Hermione gets up and hugs each of them briefly before getting back to work.
"Hey babe, I bought dinner." Ron smiles, dropping a kiss on Hermione's cheek as he enters the apartment and finds her still sitting at the table, casting her self-made charm over and over again, exactly as she had been when he'd left almost nine hours earlier. "Have you even moved today?"
She doesn't look up, still focussed hard on the task at hand. "Gin and Harry brought me lunch."
"That doesn't answer my question." The ginger haired man is concerned for her fiance. Hermione has been at this task for a week now, the same repetitive motion over and over again for days. It's clearly wearing her down and Ron doesn't know what he can do to make her take care of herself.
"Did you decide on a flavour for the cake today?" She asks, deflecting.
Ron sighs and shakes his head, even though he knows she can't see him. "I didn't want to make a decision without you."
"I don't have time to go and do taste tests. You've always been much more into food than I have, that's why I said you could choose."
"I know but it's your wedding too. I know you're not like every other girl who has been planning her wedding since she could talk, but I thought you'd at least want some say."
She sighs, picking up a pen and writing down the newest match on her list. "It's just cake Ronald."
"But it's not just the cake Hermione!" He flops down onto the sofa behind her, running a hand through his shaggy red hair. "You haven't been interested in anything to do with the wedding! You had our Mum's pick the venue and the colours, I know that Luna has somehow ended up organising the flowers and Ginny told me that the two of them are picking out their own dresses. The only thing you wanted any say in is the date and only so that it didn't clash with your Dad's birthday."
"Don't be ridiculous Ron. Ginny, Luna and I looked at the dress catalogues together and I made sure that Mum sent me photos of the venues that they looked at-"
"But it's not like you wanted to go and look at them yourself!"
"I said that I wanted to have it at the Burrow to avoid all of this. You're the one that refused."
"Because I wanted it to be a special day! I didn't want it to be like all my brother's weddings because I thought you deserved better."
"Well it doesn't matter to me!" Hermione suddenly explodes, rising from her chair and spinning to face him down menacingly. "I'm too stressed to be planning a wedding right now! There's too much to do and I just want to fulfill the requirements of this fucking law so that we don't both go to Azkaban or get slapped with a massive fine that not even our Order of Merlin paychecks could cover! You don't seem to understand that the reason I'm working so hard is so that our friends and other members of wizarding society don't end up facing that fate either so can you stop harassing me and let me get back to work."
Ron doesn't know what to say as she sharply turns and plonks herself back down in her chair, picking up two new hairs and her wand to start casting her spell once again. He'd known that this outburst was coming but hadn't expected it to be quite so sudden. All he wants is to make her happy, but he doesn't know how to do this when she refuses to concede to his efforts.
"I'll plate you up some dinner and then I'm going to bed." He offers, not expecting a response. He knows that there's no point in staying up and trying to talk sense into her, so he figured he may as well go watch Hermione's television in her room.
At midnight Hermione is still sitting in the same chair that she had been in all day, though her eyes are drooping and her wand work is getting sloppier by the minute. She really wants to get as many matches as possible done before she has to go to bed and her list of only twenty pairs is discouragingly short after an entire week. She knew the task would be long and arduous, but never expected it to be this infuriating.
Ron's attitude isn't helping matters. She knows that he only wants to take care of her, but she's never been the kind of girl who enjoyed being coddled.
Taking a deep breath she pulls a new snaplock bag from the cauldron she has been using to contain the samples. In the bag, just like all the others, is a strand of hair and a small slip of paper containing a number that won't reveal the name it's attached to until a suitable match had been found. This was a requirement that Hermione felt very strongly about when setting up the project. She felt confident in her ability to remain unbiased, but didn't want to risk her subconscious interfering with the results.
This particular hair is a very light shade of blonde, almost white in it's colour. A part of her brain finds itself wondering who it could possibly belong to as the only person she can think of with that hair colour is Luna, and she had already found a match for her friend earlier in the day.
As she carefully removes the hair and places it on the table beside the black one she had been testing against for the past hour she runs a hand through her own hair, shaking herself awake.
"Para Conventiam." She says, as clearly as she can with her tired voice, waving her wand in the practiced manner she had been using all week.
Her mouth drops open at the bright gold number that appears in front of her eyes, and she has to blink hard twice to make sure she isn't imagining it.
96%. The highest score yet, an almost incomprehensible level of compatibility between the pair in question.
She rushes to pick up the two slips of paper, moving to check the names on them when she catches a glimpse of the hairs on the table.
The blonde hair is entwined with another, but not the black one she had been intending to test it against, as that one still lies in its original place. Instead the blonde is wrapped around a strand of light brown.
Her breath catches in her throat. She doesn't want to jump to conclusions but the colour and wave of the mystery hair is one she would recognise anywhere. It's the same as the ones she is constantly finding on her pillow when she wakes up in the morning, the ones she brushes off her robes on a daily basis. One of her own.
Before she can get herself worked up about it she picked up the entwined strands and carefully separates them. She moves the brown and black hairs out of the way and deliberately pulls a hair from her head. She places it next to the blonde one and casts the spell once again. The same result crops up.
Almost fully in shock now she drops her wand and stands from the chair, walking to her fireplace before she can fully realise what she is doing. She pauses for a moment, knowing she can't call George, although that was her first instinct. She can't call Ginny and Harry either. This result could be a major obstacle in her relationship with Ron, and she couldn't talk to anyone in her family about it until she figured out what on earth to do. Knowing she only has one real option left she throws a pinch of floo powder in and whispers "Quibbler Quay."
"Hermione?" She would usually be surprised to hear Luna speak up before she could call out, but in the wake of her recent discovery she isn't shocked by anything.
"I'm sorry, I know it's late." She almost stutters in her broken voice. "But I need to talk to you. Can I come over?"
"It must have fallen out without you noticing." Luna offers, the same calm, dreamy tone in her voice as always. "You're tired, it wouldn't be that surprising."
Hermione lets out a low breath. "I know, I should have been more careful."
Luna smiles. "Fate has a strange way of working, but it always has a plan." She takes the older girl's hand in her own, squeezing it gently. "And it's up to you whether you follow it or not."
Tears spring to The brunette's eyes once more, thinking of Ron alongside a blank, faceless figure with white blonde hair.
"I don't even know who he is." She breathes out quietly, so quietly she's not sure her friend can even hear her. "I didn't check the name."
Luna nods. "You need to decide how you feel about the situation before you consider how you feel about the person." Hermione looks into her friend's silvery blue eyes as she continues. "If you decide not to pursue him then you can find him another match and you never have to know his identity."
"I'll never find another match as high as ours." The words leave the bookworm's lips before she can think about them, and feels shock overwhelm her as she considers their implications.
"Yours and Ron's rating can't be much lower than that." Luna offers. "What is it? Eighty? Eighty-five?"
Hermione just stares straight ahead, her mind still whirring. "I don't know. I never checked… I was too afraid."
"What of?"
"He cares about me so much, and of course I care about him too, but I'm just not sure…"
"If it's in the same way?"
Hermione has always been surprised by how perceptive Luna can be; it's part of the reason that she has become so close with the younger girl in the two years since they left Hogwarts.
"I just don't know if we're in the same place. We want different things. He wants this big wedding and a big house where our only child can run around and play with all the millions of toys we'll be able to buy them with all our money from his Auror career and my high paying Ministry job but I don't want that. I just want a simple ceremony with you, Harry, Ginny, Neville and maybe my parents. I want a cottage in the countryside where our eldest can sit on the porch and play guitar for the younger ones. I want to work in a bookshop and spend my weekends creating new spells and researching potions and I want someone who can do that with me. I don't think Ron's that guy."
"Sounds like you've made your decision." The blonde girl smiles.
It's 2am when Hermione finally re-enters her apartment. She is tired and stressed but she knows what she has to do so, taking a moment only to tie her hair up, she walks into her bedroom and gently wakes up her soon to be ex-fiance.
"Ron, I need to talk to you." She whispers, her face still tear stained but her expression stoic. She is going to get through this. She has to.
"Mione? Have you not slept yet?" He asks groggily.
She shakes her head. "I found something out. It was an accident, but it's made me think and…" With a deep breath the rest comes out rushed. "I don't think I can marry you."
Ron's eyes widen as he sits up in bed. "You what?"
"I was evaluating a match, it was going to be my last one of the night, but one of my own hairs fell out and I didn't notice and I accidentally evaluated my compatibility with one of theirs instead. It was a ninety-six, Ron. That's the highest reading so far; it's eleven percent higher than Harry and Ginny, he's damn close to being my soulmate."
"You're going to throw our relationship away because of a number?" Ron sounds shocked rather than angry, like he just can't believe what he's hearing.
Hermione shakes her head. "I wouldn't do it just because of that. But it got me thinking. We want different things Ron, even you can't deny that."
"Hermione, I don't care. If it's about the wedding we don't have to do that. I'd give it up-"
"It's not just the wedding Ron."
"Well whatever it is, I don't care. I'd give up anything for you babe, you know I would."
She sighs. "That's part of the problem, Ron. You shouldn't have to give up what you want, and I don't want you to. Especially when I know I couldn't bring myself to do the same for you. If we go forward with this you're going to spend your whole life compromising for me and it's going to make me feel awful and then you'd have this huge power of me. I could never bare to owe someone that much."
The ginger haired man throws back the comforter and stands, rubbing his eyes briefly before taking both of Hermione's hands in his. "You wouldn't owe me anything. I would never hold it over you. But I can tell you're not going to change your mind easily, so do one thing for me." She looks up so her eyes meet his. "I know you haven't checked our rating. I truly believe that it could be that high, maybe even higher, so check our compatibility before you make a final decision."
"Ron, I-"
"Please Hermione?"
She takes another deep breath and nods, dropping her hands from his and turning to walk back into the living room. She sits down in the same chair she has been in all day and, sweeping the other three hairs gently aside, she carefully pulls out another from her head. Standing behind her, Ron does the same and she lays them beside each other.
She pulls her wand from her sleeve and waves it in her practiced motion. "Para Conventiam."
The number that appears above their strands doesn't surprise her, but the sharp ghast from behind her shows that it clearly does surprise Ron.
"Forty-nine percent." She reads out, her voice even now that her thoughts have been proven. "That's below the threshold Ron. I wouldn't match anyone with that rating."
Turning to face him she sees the desperation in his eyes. "Didn't you say that the score can change? Get higher with time? Maybe we could still make it."
She shakes her head. "If it were going to raise it already would have. We've been together almost three years and if we're still not above the threshold I can be pretty certain that we never will be."
He doesn't say anything this time, merely drops his head and walks towards the front door.
She knows she should stop him, chase him out the door, but she can't bring herself to. She knows he needs time to be by himself and process. She's just thankful that she hadn't agreed to move in when he'd asked four months ago.
She still hasn't checked his name.
Something in her is anxious to find out who it is, but another part of her knows that if it's someone she knows, even someone she considers a friend, she won't be able to go through with it. She has to meet him in person first, so that she can react to him genuinely and not just to the name. So she wrote a letter.
Dear Applicant #087,
I'm sorry, this probably isn't the letter you were expecting. I have found a match for you, but it's not another applicant. It is instead, myself.
I wasn't intending to match myself up with anyone as I already had a fiance when I started this project, but in a moment of fatigued unawareness I accidentally evaluated our compatibility and it changed everything for me. Our match rating is the highest I've ever seen at 96% and that is something I can't ignore.
I'm not going to say too much else in this letter, only that if you would like to meet, and I understand if you don't, please Owl me back and we can arrange a time.
I haven't looked at your name yet, I'd prefer to meet before I do, so I'm having my friend Luna look instead and send this to you. You are welcome to Owl me back directly but I ask you to please not disclose your details.
Yours,
Hermione Granger.
"Are you sure you don't want to know, Hermione?" Luna asks.
"No, I think it's better this way. Just send it off when you get home and I'll let you know when he replies.
Dear Hermione,
I must say, I was surprised to read your letter. A war heroine like yourself is the last person I'd have expected to have such a high match.
I'm afraid I will be quite a disappointment to you, but nevertheless I am willing to meet and give it a chance. I don't believe in ignoring what science and magic has proven to be true.
I will be at Black Betty's Coffee Shop in Muggle London at exactly 1pm today if that is agreeable with you.
Yours,
Applicant #087.
A breath of relief that she didn't know she was holding escapes Hermione's lips as she reads her mysterious strangers response. She had been so worried that he would reject based just on who she is and her high profile relationship that has ended because of this.
Re-reading the letter she smiles at the sign of. She had half expected him to make up some cheesy nickname but instead he had done the sensible thing and addressed it the way she had addressed him in the first place.
Looking at the clock on the wall she notices that it's 12.30pm already. She only has half an hour to get to the coffee shop to meet her match, and she needs to stop by the twin's store in Diagon Alley on the way there to drop off the remaining unmatched hairs to George. Having woken up at 11am, extremely late by her usual standards, she has resolved that she needs a couple of days off to recuperate after her late night last night. Plus, in addition to meeting her match this afternoon she will need tomorrow to visit her friend's and see if any of them are willing to use the venue, flowers, and other such wedding stuff that her and Ron had already paid non-refundable deposits on.
She quickly gets changed into a navy woolen dress and grey tights and exits her apartment before apparating to Diagon Alley.
She gets to the Black Betty's at 12:54pm, only six minutes before her meeting time. She goes to the register and orders two Caramel Mochaccinos, her favourite, before finding a table for two, sitting facing the window so that she can see the man the moment she walks in ,and he can recognise her.
While she waits she finds herself wondering about her potential future husband.
It seems safe to assume that he is at least a half-blood, having chosen a muggle coffee shop for them to meet in, though that doesn't narrow it down much with number of available purebloods lower than ever after the war and the death eater's incarceration. The letter didn't give away whether it was someone she knew or not, though considering they addressed her war heroine status it seems quite possible that they could only know her name from the profit and the many issues of Witch Weekly she has appeared in since leaving Hogwarts.
Who knows how many more she will appear in now. Her and Ron's relationship has been the hot topic ever since they got together, even overshadowing Harry and Ginny's at times with all the work she has been doing for the Ministry and Ron's love of fame. The breakup will be juiciest story yet, Hermione is sure of it, especially considering the impending deadline for betrothals.
As she sips her coffee she notices the watch sitting underneath the glass surface of the table, surrounded by other trinkets. 1:02pm. He's late.
Panic surges through her for a moment but she forces herself to take a deep breath and calm down. Despite saying exactly 1pm in the letter, everyone is late occasionally, and there is a chance that the watch is fast.
"Granger?" A familiar drawl forces her to snap her head up.
Standing before her, dressed in black pants and a white button down, the sleeves rolled up, is none other than Draco Malfoy.
A million thoughts race through her head at once, but one is louder than all the rest. Is Draco Malfoy her match?
Then she looks him up and down, rationalising the situation. In the letter her match had called her Hermione, not Granger like Malfoy had done just then, and if he were her match, surely he wouldn't be displaying his Dark Mark to her so openly?
"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" She asks, her hostile tone surprising even herself. She has been working hard since the war to forgive the man in front of her, who she has occasionally had to work with at the Ministry.
An unknown emotion flits through his eyes as he gazes back at her and he opens his mouth to say something before clearly changing his mind and instead gesturing to the chair opposite her. "May I sit?"
She frowns. "I'm supposed to be meeting someone here. He should arrive any second."
"I promise to leave once he gets here. I just want to speak to you while I have the chance."
Hermione raises an eyebrow, which the blonde takes as an invitation and sits down opposite her. "To answer your question, I live around the corner. I've found it much more bearable living among muggles as nobody judges me for this." Her gestures to his forearm and she understands immediately.
"I get that. I considered moving into a muggle community to avoid attention as well, but I ended up settling for a complex full of other Hogwarts students from our year and the one below instead. Ernie MacMillan actually lives in the apartment opposite me."
Draco nods. "Hard for people to hero worship you when they've known you for years I guess… Unless you're Potter of course."
Hermione's eyes narrow, not appreciating the dig at her best friend, though it seemed more lighthearted than the ones he made at school. "So what did you want to speak to me about Malfoy?"
His breath hitches for a moment but he speaks. "I was just wondering if you've found a match for Pansy yet? She applied for your program, and I know that you're not sending out the letters until you've matched up everybody, but I figured since we ran into each other you might be willing to tell me."
"I didn't realise she had applied." The bushy haired woman replies, eyebrows raised. "I assumed she was marrying Zabini. Aren't they dating?"
Draco shakes his head. "They broke up about a month ago. Blaise is actually marrying Astoria Greengrass."
This shocks the brunette even more than the previous statement. "I thought you proposed to Astoria last year?"
He smiles sadly at this. "I did indeed, but unfortunately she refused. Not that that's widely known, we only told our closest friends when we broke up. We figured to the rest of the wizarding population we would just fade into the background. Until this law was announced of course, then we knew it was inevitable that it would get out when the betrothals are announced."
Hermione cringes at this. Any hope of keeping her and her match's marriage quiet will be gone once the Prophet publishes the list. "Well I'm sorry, I haven't found a match for her yet. George has taken over for the next couple of days, if he finds her one I can owl you immediately if you'd like?" Although this would be breaking protocol, she has been telling her friend's of their matches straight away, so she figures it's only fair that she offers this to the man in front of her as well.
"That would be brilliant if you could." He smiles. "I know she's nervous that there's not going to be anyone for her."
"Everyone that I've tried to find a match for so far has been successful, but it's a long and slow process so there are lots of people who haven't got one yet."
"That makes sense."
A silence falls between them as she sips her coffee and he bites his lip. She finds her eyes flicking to the door, still wondering about where her mystery match could be, and worrying about him showing up to see her talking to another guy.
"I'll leave you to your meeting then." He says abruptly after a few minutes, standing up and holding his hand out to her. "It was nice to see you Granger."
"Likewise, Draco." She uses his first name pointedly. After such a pleasant conversation it seems only natural.
He turns and walks out the door, not glancing behind him again.
"How did it go?" Luna asks immediately from her seat on Hermione's sofa, causing the brunette to jump and drop her keys.
"Luna! What are you doing here?!"
"I figured you'd want to talk after seeing him. So how did it go?" She asks again.
Hermione shakes her head. "He never showed up."
The younger woman's eyes widen. "What?"
"I waited for an hour. He never showed up. He must have changed his mind and decided I wasn't worth the trouble, despite our ninety-six rating. I can't say I blame him; it's not exactly fun having your relationship all over the papers and with me it's inevitable."
"That shouldn't stop him, Hermione. Believe me."
"Well something did." She flops down on the couch beside her friend. "I ran into Malfoy though. Did you know that he and Astoria Greengrass broke up almost a year ago?" Luna doesn't say anything, pinching her lips shut in a very odd expression for the dreamy girl. "He was asking me if I'd found a match for Parkinson yet since apparently she applied. I thought she was dating Zabini but apparently not. Ah well, at least I know mine and Ron's breakup won't be the only one filling the papers, even if it is the biggest." A wave of fatigue overcomes her as the stress of the afternoon hits. "Look Luna, thank you for coming over, but I think I'm going to just go to bed. It was a long night last night and even though I slept in this morning I'm still not really feeling top notch."
She doesn't look at the blonde girl's wide eyes again before getting up and moving to her room, knowing her friend will let herself out just like she let herself in.
"Granger?" A sense of deja vu washes over Hermione as she stands at the back of a queue in the Ministry of Magic.
"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" She smirks slightly, echoing her own words from the day before.
He smiles in return, recognising what she is doing.
"May I sit?"
"Well you'd probably look a bit stupid sitting on the floor of the Ministry but go for it."
He pouts slightly, but there is a playful glint in his eyes. "Aw Granger you ruined it!"
"My greatest apologies." She laughs. "But seriously, what are you doing here? I wasn't expecting to see you two days in a row."
Draco's face falls a little at her question. He hadn't been expecting to have to tell her so soon, and was honestly hoping that she would find out from somebody else first. "I'm here to register my betrothal."
She blinks twice, more shocked than she was expecting at this piece of news. "You didn't tell me you were engaged." She stutters out after a moment.
He rubs the back of his neck shyly. "Yeah, well, it only happened last night. I didn't mention it because I hadn't quite made up my mind until I ran into you."
"Something about me made you decide to get your act together?"
He laughs lightly, though his face seems to be almost a grimace rather than a smile. "You could say that."
She frowns slightly but quickly shakes it off. "So who's the lucky future Mrs Malfoy."
"Pansy."
"What? Didn't you say that she applied for a match?"
He nods. "Yeah, that was why I asked you whether you had found a match for her yet. After I saw you I went to Weasley's shop and asked him to pull her name from the matching process. I knew that she would say yes if I asked her, she didn't have much faith in your process if I'm honest, though I have no idea why. The only reason she did it was because she was scared that otherwise she would end up stuck with Goyle or Flint or something." He watches her reaction carefully as he speaks his next words. "How did your meeting yesterday go?"
She sighs, running a hand through her ever bushy and unmanageable hair. "Asshole never showed up. I'm glad I ran into you or the trip would have been completely pointless. Should have offered you his coffee since you rushed out without getting a cup for yourself." She had noticed this tidbit only when reviewing their exchange on her way home, considering how surprisingly not horrible it had been and wishing he'd stuck around longer to save her from the embarrassment of sitting alone for an hour.
He smiles, seemingly sympathetically. "Anyone who would stand you up isn't worth your time. I hope you've terminated whatever business arrangement you had with him."
"I wish it was that simple."
Tactfully he attempts to change the subject, though it's not as much of a change as Hermione would have liked. "So what brings you to the Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages? Registering your betrothal to Weasley finally?"
She winces at his words and shakes her head. "Deregistering it actually. Ron and I broke up two nights ago. The 'meeting' yesterday was with a guy that I had hoped would be my new fiance, though I guess that was a bit presumptuous considering I don't even know who he was."
Draco raises an eyebrow. "You would have married a stranger?"
"I would have married him whoever he was. But I'm not going to marry a guy who doesn't even show up." The blonde doesn't miss the look of sadness in her eyes, and he is about to speak up once more, to comfort her, but the witch behind the desk interrupts them, calling for Hermione to step up to the window and he doesn't get the chance.
"It was nice seeing you Granger." He says quietly, almost shyly.
She smiles gently before stepping forward. "Likewise, Draco."
For the second day in a row she walks in and almost jumps through her ceiling due to an unexpected noise coming from her sofa. This time, however, it isn't her friend, but a snowy white owl, not unlike Hedwig, which causes a slight pang in Hermione's chest remembering her friend's old familiar.
She quickly goes to her kitchen pantry and pulls out a couple of the owl treats she keeps there for this specific purpose before approaching the owl and taking the letter from it's beak and offering the treats instead. It nips happily at her fingers, accepting them and looking up inquisitively as if to ask whether it can stay and rest for a while. She smiles down at it, nodding and gesturing to the kitchen table, for once clear of work. It flies over and nestles down on the back of the chair, chewing its treats and making happy noises.
Glancing down at the letter Hermione frowns. She recognises the handwriting, and she's not sure she wants to read what's inside. But she doesn't have much choice, because if she doesn't read it, she'll spend the rest of her life wondering.
Granger,
I'm sorry. I wish I could have had the courage to be honest with you. I didn't mean for you to be upset, I thought I was saving you from the hurt of realising that I, a Death Eater, was your near perfect match.
I saw the look in your eyes when you greeted me yesterday. It was a look of pure hatred, and I just couldn't stand the idea of the rejection that I knew was imminent if I'd told you why I was really there.
It's part of the reason I proposed to Pansy. I knew I wouldn't find a better match than you, and I didn't want to end up with a stranger when I knew she wouldn't be as good for me as you. So I decided to propose to her so that you wouldn't work out that it was me who hurt you. It was a stupid plan, and I know, as brilliant as you are, that you would have figured it out eventually.
I know that there's no way for me to make this right, but I want to try. I'm going back to Betty's at 1pm tomorrow. If you don't show up then we can forget this whole thing. I'll let you move on, find someone who deserves you, and I'll marry Pansy and live a quiet existence out of your hair. If you do however, I would like to give us a shot. I know I don't deserve you, but I'm asking you to give me a chance.
Yours,
Draco.
She drops the letter out of her hands. She had not been expecting that.
"Malfoy?!" Hermione yells, bursting through the fireplace and into Luna's living room. "You didn't tell me that it was Draco fucking Malfoy that was my perfect match. Are you crazy?!"
"You said you didn't want to know." The blonde replies calmly, still writing her new article for the quibbler up on her typewriter.
"Well yes but Malfoy! I would have thought that your judgement was better than to let me walk into a meeting not knowing that it was my high school nemesis I was going to meet. You didn't even tell me after I came home having thought I'd been stood up. I mentioned I'd seen him, Luna. How could you not tell me?"
Luna just smiles knowingly and doesn't say anything for a long while. "What are you going to do?" She asks eventually as Hermione flops down on the sofa, rubbing her hands over her face.
"I honestly don't know."
It's 1:56pm, and Draco is still sitting Black Betty's cafe in muggle London. He's been there for over an hour already, but he is determined to stay until 2pm, an hour after the meeting time he'd told her in his letter.
He can't believe just quite how badly he's fucked up. He could have had a chance. He could have been happy.
He'd been fascinated by Hermione Granger ever since she'd punched him in third year. He'd kept an eye on her, at first intending to get revenge, but he'd soon figured out that she got enough of a hard time having to make up for where Potter and Weasley lacked in their academics. They didn't give her enough credit for how brilliant she was back then, although that seems to have changed as they all got older.
As time went on his fascination had grown from malice to admiration. She'd beaten him out in every class for their O. , actually she'd beaten out almost everybody, only Potter beat her in DADA. He was shocked when word got to him that she hadn't returned for 7th year, although he didn't go back either. He hadn't been sad though, it had filled him with hope, especially when he found out that Potter and Weasley weren't back either. He just knew that they were out fighting, working to take down the dark lord, and he had been right. He would always be in debt to her for that.
He couldn't believe it when her and Weasley had gotten together after the Battle of Hogwarts; not because he'd expected her to have better taste, as most people did, but because, from watching her all those years, he felt like he knew Granger. He knew that she wouldn't fit the mold of what Ronald Weasley wanted for a life, and he thought that she was smart enough to figure that out.
For a while he'd considered all the people that would have been a better match for her. The obvious thought had been Potter. They were both muggle raised after all, and they both lacked any other magical family. They were in the perfect position to fill that gap in each other's lives. But of course Potter had fallen for the she-weasel and there went any hope for him and Hermione.
Draco's next thought had been George Weasley. He was kind, funny and honestly brilliant in his own way. There's no doubt in his mind that if Hermione doesn't show up for him today, George is her next best option.
But of course, his thoughts had eventually fallen to the possibility of Granger and himself. Once it was in his head he just couldn't get it out. They both preferred being in the muggle community to the magical one, and they both enjoyed a quiet life. He could almost match her intellectually and he knew he could provide for her. He couldn't know for sure, but he thought, from the way she doted on young Teddy Lupin, that she probably wanted a large family and he knows, having grown up as an only child, he wants that too. They could be so good for each other, and he thought, just for a moment, that she saw that too.
2pm. Looks like she's not coming.
The rain rushes down the windows of the coffee shop as he gazes out. He may as well grab another coffee for the road.
Walking to the counter he orders a caramel mochaccino, his favourite, and barely even registers the opening and closing of the door behind him, so when he spins around he is so shocked he almost drops his change.
"Granger?"
The water drips from her hair into a puddle on the floor and she doesn't smile as she speaks, although her eyes seem to light up. "What are you doing here, Malfoy?"
He turns back to the barista and orders another of the same coffee before turning back to her and gesturing to the same table they met at two days ago. "May I sit?"
Recognising his favourite coffee order as her own she can't help but smile now. "Only if I can join you."
Hope you guys enjoyed it!
Please review, it's been a long time since I've written anything this substantial so comments and critiques would be much appreciated :)
Let me know if you think I should continue this - I have a couple of ideas but I'm just not sure...