Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Draco...or any of J.K. Rowling's other characters.
She lay in her bed clutching a teddy bear, though the war was over, things would never be the same. She was no longer the bushy-haired know-it-all of the Golden Trio; there was not even a Golden Trio at all. Just a brokenhearted shell of the former Hermione Granger, but was that who she really was? Not in the slightest was possible. That is now why she had ended up here, in her own room at the Malfoy Manor. As she sat in the chair facing the roaring fire, she reflected back over the previous month.
So much had changed it was nearly too much for her to process. First, the death of her parents or rather who she thought were her parents. Then there was the revelation that she was not a muggleborn at all, but a pureblood, and to top it all off she the daughter of two deceased death eaters from the first war. In addition, what was filling her thoughts right now, the revelations she was to be married to Draco Malfoy, her archenemy from the Hogwarts years. The war had taken its toll; friendless in a now free world was the sacrifice on her part. Few remained of the Order; she, Tonks, Fred, George, Kingsley, Luna, as well as a few death eaters children that did not want to fight, with their ringleader being none other than Draco Malfoy. The Ministry had appointed Kingsley Minister of Magic, McGonagall headmistress of Hogwarts, Luna was now the head of the Quibbler after the passing of her dad. Fred and George reopened the joke shop, but it did not hold the excitement it once did. Kingsley then appointed Tonks head of the Auror department.
Her thoughts soon moved to those who never made it to the Final Battle: Neville, Luna, Lupin, Moody, Cho, Charlie, Fleur, and Mr. Weasley. Then her mind drifted to what she was so desperately trying to forget…the Final Battle.
It had been gory, and she saw all of it, for some reason they thought staying at the back healing was the best option for her. Of course, when it came to end it was Harry versus Voldemort and her to Bellatrix. She saw it happen, the two killing curses collide midair and they died instantly, all right in front of her eyes. The death of her best friend overshadowed any joy at the death of Voldemort. Ginny's blood curling scream still was fresh from the stray ancient dark spell along with the anguish of losing the one she loved. After that she had blacked out only to awaken four days later not in St. Mungo's or even the infirmary at Hogwarts.
She had been in this exact room in the Malfoy Manor. Draco, Ginny and Tonks were at her bedside and refused to leave. Even through her weak state, she felt extreme pain wrack through her body. The pangs of the horrible nightmare still flooded her head.
"Where am I?" she finally muttered.
"The Malfoy Manor," Draco coolly replied.
"WHY?!??!?!" she exclaimed struggling to get out of the bed.
"Because you were injured, and St. Mungo's as well as Hogwarts have no room at all, and to tell you the truth we are all you have left," Tonks finally spoke up.
"I know Harry and Ron are gone I was there for that much, but who else?" she choked out, not wanting to know, but she knew eventually she would find out, and it was best to discover it now.
Ginny choked out a sob, and quickly excused herself to go to work.
"Bill, Mrs. Weasley, Percy, Dean, and Snape…" Draco trailed off at the mention of his favorite mentor.
She and Draco had become closer in their seventh year. They were actually civil towards each other, she just figured it was being Heads and doing the right thing for inter-house unity. A soft crackle of the fire took her back to the pensive state she had been in for the longest time.
"So what has happened since then?" Hermione inquired, suddenly changing topics.
"Well obviously the remaining death eaters were hauled off to Azkaban, they suffered as much if not more loss in the battle than we did. Kingsley has been appointed Minster and I took over as Head Auror," Tonks described the happenings of the past four days, "I'm sorry dear but I must give you your medicine and then I'm off to the Ministry, restoring some order to the wizarding world is proving difficult."
Hermione took her medicine and with a soft pop Tonks was gone and she was left alone with Draco.
"I'm sorry," they said in unison. A small giggle escaped her throat; at least the war had not taken their ability to say something simultaneously. "Well I guess some things never change," she grinned.
"Yeah I guess so," he agreed, "Well I know this is kind of soon, but we might as well go ahead and discuss it."
"Oh okay, what is it?" she was alarmed at his frankness.
"Well now you know you're a pureblood, and that you're the daughter of death eaters."
"Yes that was withheld from me until after the death of my adoptive parents, by request of Dumbledore in his will." She did not exactly understand where this was going.
"Well if that's all you know then I better inform you a little better…your parents were death eaters in Voldemort's inner circle. Marc and Aure Zambini were as close to Voldemort as anyone was. You and your parents were at home when aurors raided your home; in the crossfire, both of your parents did perished. Dumbledore heard about the fight, and showed up and collected you and took you to an orphanage in hopes that you would not fall into the hands of any more death eaters. Everyone just assumed you had died in the fight, but with no body it couldn't be proved, the more shocking part for you will be what your parents determined about your life before their death," he hesitated waiting for her nod before he proceeded.
"One of which was your marriage," the silence was deafening.
"Yes, I know, parts of my life were explained in Dumbledore's letter I receive at the reading of his will," she retorted.
"I figured as much, but it is always better to make it clear," he threw back.
"Well then if you must, go on," this was being drug out far too long in her opinion.
"Before your adoption your marriage was prearranged," he stopped to let it sink in before continuing on, "and I know you're going to scream when you hear this, but it was to me."
She only nodded.
"And I don't know how much you know about wizarding betrothals, but they are unbreakable."
"I was adopted, should that not annul the contract?" she interjected.
"If your adoption had been legally arranged by the wizarding world, yes. Yet your case is the exception, since you were not legally adopted, and there was no body, you were treated only as a missing person."
"So I'm, we're, still required to get married?"
"Pretty much! However, there were conditions to our marriage. As long we're both alive, we have to get married. Yet there was no time limit added to the contract. Therefore, we don't have to necessarily get married, but we're each other's only option to get married. Even if we tried to marry someone else, we have spells placed on us that would cause us to die immediately."
"Okay, so I don't have to marry you, but I can't marry anyone else?" Hermione was still trying to look for a loophole in this whole scheme.
"Yeah, but at least your conditions are a little nicer than mine, I have even more strict rules to go by than you do," He felt bad having to spring on all of this on her.
"Okay well I know you'll understand, but this a lot to process so I hope you don't mind leaving me to think everything through. Within a year I've lost my friends, family, and been told I'm not even who I thought I was, but I'll try my best to make this as easy on both of us as I can," There was a obvious strain in her voice as she tried to stay strong like a Gryffindor, it wasn't working well though.
"Alright, I understand well these are your rooms hope you find them satisfactory." He walked out of her room and shut the door softly.
And that's what she was doing now, standing by the fire looking at her new rooms. They had an odd familiarity to them, not like anything she would have expected at the manor. Her furniture was dark stained and almost the color of midnight. The bedding was white and looked as fluffy as cloud. She sighed. There were two matching armchairs facing the fire with doors on either side of the fireplace. One she discovered lead in to a luxurious bathroom, and the other she squealed in delight when she saw, a library filled with the books she loved. On the table had even been her favorite, Hogwarts a History first edition even. 'I might not like how life is going, but at least it's nice and comfy here,' she was going to have to get used to everything. Then it clicked, he had tried to make her stay as pleasant as possible and the rooms were exactly like her rooms in the Head dorm at Hogwarts, which of course was the only place he had ever seen her outside of the Great Hall and classrooms. 'Hmmmm at least he tried.'