Chapter 2: The Wedding

A/N: Sorry about that peoples, I accidently uploaded the third chapter instead of the second one, this prologue thing is throwing me off.

Thanks for everyone who reviewed! And thanks to Harrypotterluver123 for betaing!

~Frosty

Mrs. Malfoy had gone out and found a team of stylists to make Hermione beautiful. McGonagall led her to the room where she was to get ready, where the stylists were waiting like a pack of rabid wolverines to pounce on her. Both pairs of parents had gone to take their seats and wait for Draco and then Hermione to come down the aisle. They had a bit of a wait yet; the ceremony wasn't supposed to take place for another few hours.

Hermione's eyelids had closed the second the pack had descended upon her with frilly things and many different brushes. When the wolverines stopped poking, prodding and pulling at her, Hermione hesitantly opened her eyes again.

Glancing around the room in panic, Hermione realized that they'd left her alone. Was it normal for them to swarm, attack and then flee like that? Vaguely, she remembered that both the bride and the groom were supposed to be given some time alone before the wedding to mentally prepare themselves for what they were about to do or something like that.

Hermione took off the uncomfortable shoes she'd been wearing and, barefoot, quietly padded over to the door. A quick peek out into the hall revealed that there was no one out there actually making sure she was 'mentally preparing' or whatever it was she was supposed to be doing.

She wandered to the door across the hall and slipped inside the room, making sure to shut the door firmly behind her. Fleeing wasn't an option, but she wanted some time alone without the risk of someone finding her, just for a while.

"What're you doing here Granger? We're supposed to be... something something. I don't really remember, but it's supposed to happen alone." Malfoy was sitting on the only piece of furniture in the room, a fainting couch. He looked a little pale, but unless he was much better at hiding his inner turmoil than Hermione had ever given him credit for, the man wasn't the anxious bundle of angry she'd thought he'd be.

"How come you're not riling against the injustice of having to marry someone you don't like much less love?" She asked as she moved across the room to stand in front of him.

His grey eyes looked her up and down coolly, taking in her wedding robes and elaborately styled hair with something akin to approval before settling on her face. "You didn't notice that there's no love mentioned in the traditional magic marriage vows? For Purebloods, love is one of the few luxuries we're not guaranteed."

Without warning, he leant forward until the top of his head was nearly touching her stomach as he searched for something under his seat. Triumphantly, he sat up straight again holding a bottle of Firewhiskey.

Hermione sat beside him on the fainting couch. "How are we going to manage a wedding Malfoy?"

"One day at a time with ample amounts of Firewhiskey." He took a large mouthful from the bottle, causing Hermione to frown at him. "You should probably stop calling me 'Malfoy',you'regoing to be a Malfoy in a few hours." He added, just to redirect her attention before she could scold him about the alcohol.

Hermione paled and leant heavily against the arm of the couch. She was going to be a Malfoy, part of the family the represented almost everything she'd stood against. It was sickening.

The bottle of alcohol sloshed as Malfoy thrust it under her nose. "Take a drink and calm down a bit Gra- Hermione, I don't want you throwing up on me when we're standing in front of all those people."

Reluctantly, Hermione took a gulp. She flinched a little at the taste and the burning sensation as it worked its way down her throat to her stomach. Malfoy watched her intently for a few moments as she shifted uncomfortably, unused to the close proximity with someone who hated her.

"Better?" Draco asked when he saw that she didn't look quite so green.

Hermione nodded and breathed a huge, shaky breath. "I probably won't throw up on you now." Once the immediate threat of vomiting was done away with, she was free to panic about what would happen to the in the very near future.

"Draco..." She paused to appreciate how strange it was to be saying his first name. "We're actually getting married. The kind of marriage that never goes away, as in, we're always going to be together."

The blonde groaned and covered his eyes. "Let's just get the marriage part over with and then deal with the rest of our lives after. You're not helping me to stay calm and we both need to be conscious to say the vows, so try not to pass out."

"But-" She stopped when he held up a hand to silence her.

"For once in your life, don't ask any questions. Just paste a fake smile on your face, or at least a blank look that hides how miserable and nervous you are-" she opened her mouth to protest, but he just continued. "Don't think for a second the constipated look you've had on your face for the last week has been fooling anyone, much less a room of Slytherins. You're going to paste a fake smile on your face and walk down the aisle, and then we can go back to school and write our NEWTS like this whole mess never happened."

"Minus your whoring around." Hermione piped up, feeling comfortable enough to tease him now. It was strange that he could bring her down from the brink of panic with almost no effort on his part.

Draco was indignant. "A healthy interest in the opposite sex isn't 'whoring around' I'm merely exploring my options."

"Well after today, I am your options; I'm pretty sure there's a fidelity section to our vows."

His heavy sigh drew her attention away from the space on the wall she'd been focusing on and back to the blonde beside her. Hermione glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes to see that he was looking despondent.

Hermione was kind-hearted towards all living creatures –provided they weren't hell-bent on exterminating her friends. She was unable to ignore distress in others, even when it was Mal-Draco. "What's wrong?" She asked him quietly.

When he turned to face her, Hermione was surprised by the intense look in his startlingly grey eyes. "Don't hit me, I have to try something." He said in a low, calm voice. The type of voice people use to keep a distressed animal from lashing out.

Hermione tensed, ready for whatever he was about to do that he thought was going to make her want to throttle him. The brunette discovered that she was only ready for almost anything when he leant closer and pressed his lips against hers.

His hands came up to either side of her face while she was still frozen in shock to keep her where she was. For someone with such a prickly personality, Draco Malfoy had remarkably soft lips. She was just starting to enjoy his ministrations and respond when he pulled her face back and looked at her intently once again.

There must have been something in her eyes that he'd been looking for, because he leaned closer to her and kissed her again, this time dropping her face and using his strong arms to pull her closer.

Hermione briefly wondered what she was getting herself into before deciding that this was the man she was going to marry, and though she didn't love him -or even like him most of the time- she did enjoy kissing him.

They jumped apart like a pair of children caught with their hands in the cookie jar when the sound of voices yelling for Hermione filtered through the door.

"You should probably go before they think you're running from your own wedding," Draco mumbled, not making eye contact.

Blushing, Hermione looked away. "I'll see you at the end of the aisle," she mumbled before taking one last sip of Firewhiskey and slipping out the door. Wonderful, now her forced wedding was going to be even more awkward because the groom had gone and kissed her before he was supposed to!

Draco listened to the exclamations and protests coming from her mother as well as his when they caught sight of the bushy-haired brunette. Apparently they'd thought that the Gryffindor was going to be a coward and flee even though it would have been the death of them both.

He buried his face in his hands and tried to sort out the swirling chaos into which his thoughts had been plunged. When he'd kissed her, he had just been seeing if there was at least a small spark there between them. If there was something there, it would banish the depressing thought that he was going to be forever bound to a woman he'd never want to touch.

Draco had surprised himself almost as much as Hermione when he kissed her again after pulling away. She wasn't supposed to let him do things like that, she was supposed to yell at him for daring to touch her and then slap him like she'd done in third year when he'd pushed her too far.

The door creaked open, making Draco snap his head up, hoping it wasn't Gran-Hermione coming back to lecture him or something. It was someone much worse than the Gryffindor he was to marry, it was his Father.

"Draco, it's time," Lucius said in the cool, unfeeling voice his son had also perfected.

The younger man silently stood up, smoothed out his robes nervously and followed his father from the room. There had probably been walks to the executioner more cheerful than the short walk Draco was about to take.


Hermione was panicking, not only was she about to get married at eighteen –eighteen!-but she had kissed the groom. Willingly! She'd enjoyed it too, but would never admit it, even under torture.

It was just a kiss! Hell, to him a kiss was probably the equivalent of a smile. Well, maybe not a smile since he never seemed to do anything but smirk... He kissed more than he smiled! What kind of person did that?

The brunette groaned and buried her face in her hands in an unconscious imitation of Draco's gesture. She felt the warm weight of her mum's hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry honey, everything happens for a reason." The Muggle woman soothed.

Hermione was tempted to start screaming that sometimes things just happened that had nothing to do with reason. Many many things happened without a meaning any deeper than pure coincidence and Hermione refused to believe that some higher power had a plan for her.

Narcissa cleared her throat. "It's time to walk down the aisle."

The mothers took their seats, leaving Hermione to walk towards the groom alone. They had opted for a traditional Wizard wedding, meaning there was no wedding party, only the groom and the bride.

Walking down the aisle, Hermione focused on putting one foot in front of the other so she didn't trip over the dress or the ridiculous shoes she was wearing. Instead of a sea of happy faces watching her, the audience seemed to be either sympathetic, pitying, or disapproving – some were a combination of the three. Discouraged by the people she was passing, she turned her attention to the person she was walking towards.

Malfoy was looking towards her with a completely blank expression that he had often hidden behind in the past. She strove to emulate the look as she approached.

After what felt like an eternity, she finally reached the front of the room and stood nervously beside Draco. Hermione looked up with scared eyes into his equally scared grey orbs. It was kind of comforting to know that despite his best efforts to hide it, Ma–Draco was no better off than she was. They were both going into their marriage completely unprepared.

It was almost a relief when it came time in the ceremony for Hermione to grab hold of Draco's hand. Her whole body was shaking like a leaf at the enormity of what she was about to do. Dating had always been something she'd told herself there would be time for later, always later. After the Triwizard Tournament, after Harry was less catatonic about Sirius' death, after the war was finished – she'd thought she had years to find someone, now there was no 'later', it was always going to be Malfoy.

A squeeze on her hand made her snap open her eyes – she hadn't even realized that they'd been closed. Malfoy was giving her a look that was almost sympathetic. He was the one in the best position to know how she was feeling about the whole mess, after all. Hermione gave him a small, shaky smile as thanks for the comfort he offered.

The minister looked around the room before speaking. He didn't bother with a speech endorsing love and commitment since there was no love and the vow rendered adultery impossible.

"Do you, Draco Lucius Malfoy, swear to protect and support this woman for as long as you both shall live?"

Draco nodded, doing his best not to look at the sea of people watching his every move. "I do." A band of light surrounded his wrist, just like the one that would appear for an unbreakable vow.

"Do you vow to stay faithful to her from now until your death?"

Cringing a little at how morbid that sounded, Draco nodded again. "I do." The second band that wrapped around his wrist felt like it was constricting his breathing while it gently slithered across his flesh. He knew the panic was the cause of the tightness in his lungs, so he crushed it as brutally as he knew how. He had to stay calm and strong - the breakdown could come later when he allowed the reality to really set in.

"Do you vow to bring her into your family as a partner, and treat her as an equal in all you do?"

Hermione started at the last vow, it didn't seem like something traditional. The surprise on Draco's face indicated that he was surprised by the vow as well. He nodded anyway though. "I do," he said solemnly.

The minister turned to Hermione and administered the same vows. She knew they would later sign the marriage certificate that would bind them to several more stipulations, but that would come after the initial binding and could wait until they were ready to deal with it as the time limit was only on their actual marriage.

She agreed without hesitation when she was asked for her word and watched as the circles of light wound around her wrist. When she finished her last 'I do', there was a bright flash and then the light soaked into their skin and disappeared.

"You may now kiss the bride," the minister said in his droning, serious voice.

Hermione had actually forgotten about that part of the ceremony. If she hadn't recently discovered that kissing Malfoy wasn't as horrible as she's thought it would be, the mere notion of kissing him would have terrified her. As it was, she was only mildly horrified that they were going to have to kiss in front of all those people...

Sensing he was going to have to make the first move, Draco leant forwards and covered her mouth with his. The kiss was a chaste little press of lips that barely lasted two seconds. Hermione was too nervous in front of all those people to think of anything but how mortifying her position was. She just knew that her cheeks were stained red when Malfoy pulled away.

"I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy."

They turned to face the crowd and gave weak, slightly queasy smiles. Hermione didn't even realize she was still clutching Draco's hand until she noticed the venomous look Ron was shooting in the direction of their clasped fingers.

Dropping his hand immediately, Hermione stalked back down the aisle. She only stopped when she was in front of Professor McGonagall, who was sitting near the back of the room.

"Can I we go back to school now?" Hermione asked. "I have to study for my NEWTS." It wasn't really her grades that were bothering her, but it was the best excuse she could think of. There was no sense in lingering in the chapel, and there wasn't going to be a reception or anything of the sort.

The aging professor nodded her head sharply and cleared her throat authoritatively. "If all Hogwarts students would gather in the next room, we're going to return to the school now."

Hermione glanced over her shoulder to find that Draco had followed her and seemed just as eager to leave the chapel as she was. He stepped up a little too close behind her and murmured, "We'll deal with the rest of forever when school ends. Let's just try for a few more weeks of normalcy."

Grateful, Hermione smiled at him and nodded eagerly. She'd give anything to pretend the whole mess had never happened. A few more week of normalcy seemed like a gift. Little did they know that nothing could ever be 'normal' for either of them again.