Chapter Two

Hermione took a deep breath before knocking on the door. Normally she just apparated in, Oliver had told her a long time ago that he didn't mind, but she didn't feel like it was right just to pop in there anymore, not when she was there to tell him something like this.

The door opened to reveal Oliver clad in muggle attire, they had plans to go to a muggle park tonight, it had been her idea and it broke her heart to see him there ready for it. "Hey there, I was wondering if you weren't going to make it." he said pulling her in for a kiss, "What are you using the door for?"

"I just thought it might be better to knock." She said forcing a smile.

"Why?"

"Oliver…we need to talk."

"About what?" he asked his eyebrows rising suspiciously.

"Something neither of us is going to like." She said sitting down on the couch.

"What do mean?" he asked taking the seat next to her.

"You remember the meeting I had with the Minister this morning?" She asked.

"Yeah, you said something about it last night," He said, "But you said you didn't know what it was about."

"I didn't, until I went to the meeting today." She told him.

"And…" he encouraged her.

"And I don't know quite how to explain this." She said looking up at him.

"Then let me guess." He said, "He offered you a job."

"No."

"He's having you arrested." He suggested with a laugh.

"He might as well as." She said quietly.

"What do you mean?" he asked

"When I got there, it was just me he had asked come. Lucius Malfoy was there as well."

"What did he want with the two of you?" he asked.

"He sort of….He blackmailed us into signing a marriage contract." She said quickly, avoiding looking him in the eye.

"What?" he asked rising from his seat.

"Oliver I'm sorry—"

"You're sorry. Hermione you agreed to marry a man when you were dating me. You agreed to marry Lucius Malfoy of all people."

"I couldn't not agree Oliver." She said.

"If you wanted to get out of this you could have." He said angrily, "Your Hermione Granger, your smart enough to talk your way out of any situation."

"Do you think I want this?" she asked her voice rising, "Do you really think I want to be married to that man? I didn't have a choice. I didn't have any choice in this, if I told him no the Minister would have made all of are lives a living hell, including yours. I did this so that wouldn't happen; I did this because there was no other option."

"I don't know what you expect from me Hermione." He said, "I don't know what you want."

"I want you to say that everything will be okay." She said fighting back tears, "I want you to say that I didn't sign my life away when I signed those papers. I wanted you to think of me for once instead of yourself."

"Hermione, I love you, you know I love you." He said, "But I can't do this. I can't set there and watch you marry him. The minute you agreed to marry him, you ended this relationship, this friendship." Hermione reeled back as if he had struck her. It would have hurt less if he had.

"What did you expect Hermione, that you could marry him and continue to date me? It doesn't work like that."

"I didn't….I don't know what I expected." She told him honestly, "I just thought that you deserved to know. Now that you do I'll be leaving."

"Hermione…"

"Goodbye Oliver." She said before disapparating out. She had no intentions on coming back. She didn't think he'd want her there even if she did.

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The tears she had kept Oliver from seeing were flowing freely as she walked towards Harry and Ron's flat. She had apparated close by their flat to enable her a few minutes to calm herself down before she saw them, but it wasn't doing much good. In fact she had only managed to work herself into a deeper hysteria as she thought about everything that was happening.

People were staring at her, casting her pitying looks as she choked out sob after sob, but she paid no attention. She knew they couldn't help her. She knew what she had to do. She knew what was going to happen, whether she wanted it to or not. And no matter how she tried to be positive, no matter how much she told herself that everything was going to be okay. She couldn't bring herself to believe it.

Visions of Lucius and all the horrible things that she knew he had done kept replaying in her head. The stories that Moody used to tell at Order meetings about what he had done in his past. The years of Draco taunting her. The superior look in Lucius' eyes whenever he looked at her. The things Sirius used to tell them about what purebloods like the Black's and Malfoy's did. She didn't want to marry into that. She didn't want to have to fear her husband. She didn't want her husband to hate her, or anyone like her. She wanted to marry for love. She wanted to marry someone with her same interests. Someone she had things in common with. Someone she knew would keep her safe. And that certainly wasn't him.

Hermione wiped at her eyes, taking another deep breath. Somehow through the tears and misery she had somehow made it to the door of Harry and Ron's flat. She knocked gently on the door at first, but when no one came she found herself knocking rapidly, afraid that no one was home. "Answer the door, answer the door. Please somebody answer the door." She whispered.

The door opened revealing a pajama clad Ron looking down at her. "Hermione what—" He stopped mid-sentence, seeing her tears and panicked expression. He quickly ushered her out of the doorway and onto the couch, calling for Harry. "Hermione what happened?" he asked causing her to break into tears again. This was too much for her to handle right now; everything was catching up with her. Everything that had happened that day and she couldn't handle it. She didn't want to have to handle it.

"Oh, don't cry. Don't cry." Ron said wrapping her up into a hug, "Everything's going to fine Mione. Whatever's wrong, we can fix it."

"No we can't." She told him, "I signed the paper Ron, I can't take it back."

"You signed what paper? Hermione, you have to tell me what's wrong. I can't help if I don't know what's going on." Ron said.

Hermione took several deep breaths trying to calm herself down and she felt a glass of water being pressed into her hand. She looked up to see Harry standing there a concerned look upon his face. "Take a drink Hermione." He told her, "It should help."

Hermione took a deep drink but didn't feel better. She took another but she felt entirely the same and completely broken hearted. Apparently it didn't show thought because both Harry and Ron looked much calmer. "Good now, Hermione tell us what's wrong." Harry said.

"You know the meeting I was supposed to have with the Minister today." Hermione said.

"Yeah." Harry and Ron said in unison.

"Well it didn't go very well." She told them unable to stop a sob from escaping her lips. Harry and Ron exchanged a look, both not used to Hermione being in such distress. It must have something big for her to be this upset.

"Mr. Malfoy and Draco was there." she told them. "And the Minister he…he's such a horrible retched man. I can't believe he would do that to us. It can't be legal, it can't…" Suddenly the tears were gone and the anger was back. She wasn't going to let him get away with this. She wouldn't let him do this ever again, no matter what it took.

"What can't be legal? Hermione you're not making any sense." Ron said.

"Hermione I know its hard and your obviously angry and upset but we need to know what's going on to be able to help you." Harry said.

"Minister Trimble…he, he made me and Mr. Malfoy sign a marriage contract."

"He what?"

"We signed a magically bonded contract saying we agreed to marry for six years to help the pureblood and Muggleborn relations." She said numbly, as if hoping it wasn't true. "I signed my life away and I can't do anything about it now. There's nothing anyone can do." The sobs returned as she buried her head into Ron's chest hoping that everything would just go away. Hoping that this was just some horrible dream she would wake up from. She clung to those hopes and to Ron as she cried herself to sleep.

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Hermione groaned as she felt the sunlight hit her face. She didn't want to get up, she just wanted to sleep. When she was sleeping she didn't have to worry about anything.

"How you doing?" Harry asked coming into the room. He had heard her from the other room and had quickly come to make sure she was alright. He had never seen her like she was last night. So upset. So defeated.

"Alright I guess." She said setting up. She certainly wouldn't be getting any more sleep now. He held out a coffee cup for her as he down next to her. She took it gratefully, if nothing else it gave her something to do with her hands.

"It is a lot to take in." he said.

"Yeah….What time is it?"

"Almost noon." He said, "I didn't want to wake you up, I figured that if anyone deserved to sleep it was you."

"Thanks." She said quietly, "Where's Ron?"

"He already left for work." Harry said.

"Why aren't you there?" she asked.

"Well we figured you were more important then work but that the people at work would notice if we both missed a day...so you're stuck with me." He said.

"I could be stuck with worse." She said taking another sip of coffee.

"Hermione…Hermione would you mind talking about it again? I know you explained last night but you were so upset, it was hard to focus on what you were saying at times."

"I'm sorry about that Harry; I shouldn't have come here and unloaded on the two of you. I can't believe that I got so emotional…."

"Hermione I'm glad you came." He said, "I'm not too thrilled with the reason behind it but I'm glad you came to us."

"So, what do you want to know?"

"Everything." He told her.

"It's rather simple really." She said, "I went to a meeting with the Minister yesterday to find Mr. Malfoy there along with Draco. He then proceeded to threaten us until we agreed to the idea of the marriage and had no choice but to sign a magical binding contract. Between the two of us we were able to negotiate a slightly better deal but…it doesn't change anything. For the next few years I'll be Mrs. Malfoy." She said it as if she was talking about business or the weather. She said it like it wasn't her life she was talking about. She seemed detached from it somehow.

"What do you mean he threatened you?" Harry asked, "With what?"

"He told Mr. Malfoy that he would expose his Deatheater activities if he refused and he told me that I would never find a job if I refused."

"A job? Hermione I know you, you could have found a way around that." Harry said.

"Your right, that's what I thought." She said, "Until he threatened Mr. Malfoy the way he did."

"We all did things that we regretted during the war." Hermione said quietly, "I didn't want those things brought up again. He threatened Lucius with a trial; if he had kept digging past the surface we both know he could threaten me with the same."

"Hermione you—"

"I should go." She said standing up, "I have dinner with him tonight at seven and I have some things that I need to do before then."

"You're having dinner with him? Are you sure that that's a good idea?" Harry asked.

"I'm going to marry him Harry." She said, "Eating dinner with him certainly can't make anything worse."

"We could try fighting this." Harry said as she made her way to the door.

"Your right, we could." She said turning back around, "But where would that get us?"

"Hermione…"

"Its fine Harry, everything will be fine…I just need to sort a few things out."

"Hermione you have every reason to be upset."

"There are people with much bleaker future's then mine, Harry. So I'll be married to Lucius Malfoy. It's only a few years and then it'll be over." She said.

"Hermione stop talking like this doesn't mean anything." Harry said.

"Everything's going to be fine Harry." She told him, "I promise." And with a pop she disapparated out before Harry could stop her.

She had gotten too emotional last night, she knew she had. She had allowed her emotions take over her. She would never be able to survive a marriage to Lucius if she kept acting like that. Marriage wasn't the end of the world. She could do this. She knew she could. She would have to.

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Hermione spent the rest of the day in a daze. She kept trying to convince herself that nothing was different. That the meeting with the Minister hadn't happened. But there was a small nagging part of her kept reminding her of it. She wanted nothing more then to throttle that small voice.

She went through the motions of getting ready for her dinner. Picking out black dressrobes, a part of her realizing that it was probably better not to go into the snake's den dressed like a lion. She didn't wear any make-up, she hardly ever did, and she didn't think this situation warranted it. She may be marrying Lucius Malfoy but that did not mean she had to dress up for him.

She paced around her apartment for as long as possible before she knew she would have to leave. Neither Professor Snape nor Mr. Malfoy would appreciate her showing up late. She flooed to the Headmaster's office, she had an open invitation to do so whenever necessary and after a quick hello to the headmaster and deputy headmistress, she headed down to the dungeons.

She knocked gently on the door to Professor Snape's private office, bracing herself for the night to come. "Enter." His voice rang out. She steeled herself before she entered, reminding herself that he was no longer her professor and he could no longer punish her for something that she did or said. She wasn't sure how comforting that was though, as now he wasn't under the headmaster's restrictions and she didn't know how he would act.

"Hello Professor Snape." She said stepping into the room.

"Miss Granger." He said with a nod.

"I'd really prefer if you called Hermione." She told him moving closer to his desk. "After all, I won't be Miss Granger for much longer, will I?"

He raised an eyebrow at her demeanor, far from the student he remembered her to once be, but nodded his head acceptingly. She was right, sooner then they would all like she would be a Malfoy.

"I have a few more papers to finish grading, but take a seat I should be ready in a few minutes." He told her before going back to his papers. Hermione took her seat and tried to act as calm and poised as she could. She didn't need to unravel before she even made it to the dinner.

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Hermione stepped through the fireplace and suddenly felt very undeserving to be there. The room was decorated in whites and greens, with furniture and accessories that screamed money. The tables and furniture were made of dark woods and the dark drapes kept almost any light other then the fire from coming in. She seemed very out of place and she didn't know how she was ever going to fit in there when she felt so uncomfortable so soon after arriving. The Malfoy's hadn't even had the chance to insult her yet.

"Hello Severus." Lucius said walking over to them. "Miss Granger. It's nice to see you again." He said choosing his words very carefully. He took her hand in his own and gently brushed his lips against it, causing Hermione to shiver at the contact. She hoped he didn't notice her reaction.

"Mr. Malfoy." She said evenly, "Thank you for inviting me."

"Of course, dinner should be ready soon." He said guiding towards the dark green sofa. As she sat down the other three men took there own seats around the room, each, she realized, gave them an excellent view of her. Suddenly she was self-conscious in the dress-robes that she picked up. They were modestly cut to her knee but there was a slit that went up each side that went up considerably higher. She hadn't thought much about it before but now she wished that she had paid more attention to something other then the color when she was picking out her robes.

They sat there in silence as they waited for dinner to be ready; the only sound was the ticking of the grandfather clock on the far side of the room. All three men sat calmly staring in her direction, the silence not seeming to affect them. She only hoped she appeared as composed.

There was a quiet pop a few minutes later and Hermione turned in her seat to see a small house-elf standing there dressed in the most elegant tea-rags she had ever seen. In fact she wouldn't be surprised if they were made of silk. "Dinners is ready Master." He squeaked.

"Thank you Talley." Lucius said, "I have someone I would like you to meet. Miss Granger."

Hermione stood up and walked over to Lucius, smiling friendly down at the house-elf. "Talley this is Miss Granger, she will be the next Mistress of the manor." Lucius explained.

"Talley is very honored to meet Miss." Talley said bowing deeply. "Talley will make sure that other house-elves know."

"That will be all Talley." Lucius said, "You may leave now."

"Once we are married," Lucius said as he led Hermione towards the kitchen, "You will receive a house-elf of your own."

"I don't need one." Hermione said quickly. It was one thing to live in a house full of them, but it was completely different to order one around herself. To have one belong specifically to her. She didn't know if she would be able to keep herself from accidentally insulting it.

"Nonsense" he said, "All the women of the manor have had one, you will be no different."

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Dinner was very awkward for Hermione. It was eaten in complete silence as they ate each course. The food was magically put on their plate so there wasn't even the normal 'please pass the…' that she got used to at the Weasley's and when she often had dinner with the boys. There was none of that here. Just silence that then men seemed perfectly content with and unnerved her completely.

Lucius carefully watched his wife-to-be. He had expected to her to be the awkward, overly offensive girl he remembered her to be when he had first met her at sixteen. He should have known from her actions the day before that she wouldn't be but he had just thought that she had been in shock. That once she had gotten home and it had hit her that she would revert back to the seventeen year old girl that he had met at his first Order meeting. He remembered seeing her there, he never talked to her and she had never spoken to him, but he had noticed her. She was quiet, always the one to reign in her own friends and their outbursts, but he had seen her reactions when they had brought up something she didn't agree with. She was always fighting with herself not to say anything, sometimes she lost that fight. But as the years continued as he worked with Order and the war got worse, he saw less and less of her. It must have been those years of war that changed her. The war had changed most people. She seemed much more composed; she was able to control her emotions much better and was much harder to read. He wasn't sure if he liked that. He would much prefer the nervous seventeen year old that he at least knew he would be able to control. He would have preferred another Narcissa, crafty and cunning in her own way but easy to control with a diamond necklace or a new set of dressrobes. He doubted that would suffice with Hermione.

Lucius noticed his son watching her discreetly as well. She had changed a lot since her Hogwarts days and Draco had never been one to not appreciate a good view. Hermione had changed a lot since her Hogwarts days. He would never have imagined the girl he had met in Flourish and Blotts would grow up into the woman who sat in front of him today. He doubted his son did either, as he would have undoubtedly been nicer to her as a child. Maybe not a lot, but at least enough so he would have been forgiven easier.

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As dinner ended Lucius invited them all into the study, offering them drinks. Hermione couldn't help but smirk at the reactions to her drink. She had never been the type for frilly girly drinks like Lavender and Parvarti and she had never been a martini girl like Ginny. Mrs. Weasley said her love of scotch and Firewhiskey came from too much time with the boys. She didn't mind, she always liked to see people reactions to what she ordered. They were always amusing.

As they settled into their seats with their drinks the silence from dinner was broken and the talk began. Not the normal conversation that she was used to from the Weasleys, and Order, but instead the business like tone that consisted of very little substance and hardly ever discussing personal matters. Lucius asked Severus how school was going. Severus inquired how business was for Lucius and asked Draco how Pansy was. Draco brought up the subject of quidditch and Hermione tuned out, her thoughts wandering to more important things. She barely realized when the attention was turned back to her. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" Hermione asked.

"I inquired to how your friends had taken the news of the…engagement?" Lucius asked her. Apparently quidditch talk hadn't lasted much longer then finding out about the Slytherin team.

"Their not thrilled with it, but they're accepting it." She said.

"And Mr. Wood?" Lucius asked his face impassive.

"Collected the few items that he left in my apartment this morning." She said evenly. If he was trying to get a rise from her she would make sure he was disappointed.

"At least it's not a big loss." Draco said, "You're trading up by marrying a Malfoy."

"I think that depends entirely on who you ask." She told him.

"If you'll excuse me, I'd like to powder my nose." Hermione said breaking the sudden silence of the room, "May I use your lavatory?" she asked

"Of course." Lucius said snapping his fingers causing a small house-elf to appear, "Dippy will show you where to go."

"Right this way Mistress." The elf squeaked. Hermione followed her out of the room her head held high, never looking back at the others in the room. She knew if she did, the emotions she had been able to suppress throughout the night would come bubbling back to the surface.

"Granger certainly has grown up." Draco said once she was gone.

"That she has." Lucius said taking a drink of his own scotch. He had to admit, she had surprised him tonight. She wasn't what she thought her to be.

"She certainly doesn't seem to be the know-it-all that I had to teach." Severus said, "I must say, I would have much preferred to teach this Miss Granger."

"For obvious reasons." Draco said with a suggestive smile. Hermione may have changed but that did not mean Draco had.

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When Hermione returned, both Draco and Professor Snape were both gone. Leaving Lucius alone, sipping his scotch by the fire, which was casting an eerie shadow across her face.

"Where's Professor Snape and Mal—Draco?" she asked.

"Professor Snape needed to leave and Draco is showing him out." He explained standing up. "I thought we could take a tour of the manor, if that's alright with you. After all, once you're living here, you'll need to know your way around."

The way he said it she didn't think that she had much of an option, but she nodded her head and consented anyways. So far this evening had been surprisingly civil, she didn't need to change that now, when it when it was so close to being over.

The Manor was even bigger then she imagined when she entered. It seemed to have hundreds of rooms. There was an east wing and a west wing, there was a terrace and a conservatory and a whole room just for Draco's quidditch supplies. There was a setting room and a living room, and a library spanning three floors. The moment Hermione saw the library, she feel absolutely in love. Even Hogwarts library wasn't this big and she was absolutely itching to be able to get her hands on some of these books.

"I thought you might like this room the best." Lucius said with an amused smile. She hadn't seemed very impressed with the amount of guest bedrooms, or the size of what would someday be their room but this, this was something she obviously was rather fond of. He took note of that so that he would remember it later on.

"Yes, well I've always gone weak at the knees for a guy with a library." She told him.

He raised an eyebrow but remained silent as he took a seat near the window, gesturing for her to do the same. "I think we should start our own planning before we meet with the Minister." He said as she sat down.

"That seems like a good idea." She said, "Anything you had in mind?"

"Well when talking to the press, I'm positive they will ask how this…unexpected occurrence came to be."

"I've always found that when dealing with the press its better to tell them as much of the truth as possible. We can just tell them that…We met during the war efforts and kept in contact. Within the last year our relationship evolved and we recently became engaged. They can't find much fault in that."

"No, I don't believe they can." he said watching her closely. Hermione shifted slightly under his gaze. He had been civil tonight when she knew he didn't have to be. He had listened to her idea and instead of ignoring it, he had agreed to go with it. He had treated her like a woman he respected and accepted, not like the lowly mudblood that she had expected him to treat her like. She wasn't used to the attention that he was giving her, not from someone like him. She wasn't sure if she liked it. She wasn't sure that she didn't.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed. I love getting reviews and you all made me extremely happy. I'm glad that everyone's enjoying the story so far and I'm sorry that it took so long to get this out. I just never had the time to work on the story, I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner. (Hopefully anyways.) I apologize for the bad grammar and possible misspelling of words, I don't have a beta and I'm terrible at that type of thing, so I tend to over look it. Sometimes I think faster then I can type and it comes out jumbled and I don't notice….And sometimes I just don't know that I'm not right.

Please please review! I always love hearing ideas and suggestions and what my readers think about the story.