Draco Malfoy was standing in the foyer of a rather upmarket restaurant in one of the side streets of Diagon Alley. It was his 21st birthday and his mother had insisted on taking him out for diner. He wasn't really sure why though. He was of age since he turned 17 and this specific birthday was only significant to pureblooded members of the wizarding community, that had their marriage arranged the old fashioned way, with a binding spell.
He knew for a fact, that he wasn't bound to anybody. He also had always known, that his father had intended to betroth him to a daughter of one of the other pureblood families. For some strange reason that had never happened. He had grown up and was still free. There were times when he seriously worried about this fact. His father had not been the type to break with time honoured Malfoy traditions. What had stopped him?
He glanced leisurely through the lavishly decorated windows into the street outside. There were quite a few couples passing. He smiled. He wouldn't join them any time soon! Out off the corner of his eye he noticed a couple that seemed strange. Though at first he couldn't actually say what was so strange about them. Just a man and a woman walking hand in hand.
And then he suddenly realised that there was a soft glow around the woman. He blinked. She was literally glowing!
'What...?'
His thoughts were derailed by his mother, as she put her hand on his arm asking softly. "Ready to go home?"
He didn't answer. He just stared into space.
"Draco? What is it?"
"Hm?"
He looked at his mother, as if he saw her for the first time.
"She was glowing!" He whispered.
Narcissa Malfoy looked at her son. Smiling. If she thought, that he had momentarily lost his marbles, he didn't let him know that.
"Glowing, dear?"
He looked at her.
"There was a young woman walking down the street with a distinguished soft glow around her whole person."
"Maybe you have just seen how she feels, dear. If a woman is in love, it is said that she glows."
He suddenly felt a bit silly. His mother was still smiling at him.
'Why do I have the feeling she knows something that I don't?'
He would need to think about this. Why though? Why did it matter so much to him, that this poor person had possibly been hit by some kind of jinx and was now looking a bit strange? What was it to him?
"Let's go home." He heard his mother say.
She took his arm and they disapparated.
Hermione Granger enjoyed her life to the full. She had a job that full filled her, a fiancé she loved dearly and they were going to be married in just a few days.
"I love you, Ron."
She smiled at the man next to her. He smiled back.
"I love you, too, Hermione."
He leant down and kiss her tenderly.
