THREE

The usual 'squish' rang in Hermione's ear that let her know they had just landed outside The Burrow, feet squishing in the shallow part of the swamp as Hermione's apparation missed dry land by inches. Hermione groaned, her feet soaked now, and quickly walked out of the swamp and onto hard land, Draco cursing behind her.

"What the hell, Granger? You couldn't have aimed us another foot to the left?!" Draco climbed out with her, shaking his feet one at a time to try and remove the muck. "These were my new shoes." He grumbled.

"Sorry." Hermione said with a sigh. "I'm just worried." Draco finally finished shaking his shoes, and looked up to see the towering, lop-sided, several story house standing before him. It was clearly being held up by some spell, and Draco found himself shaking his head at it.

Hermione had started to walk away towards The Burrows back entrance, and when she found that Draco wasn't following her, stopped and turned to look at him. "Malfoy, you alright?"

He didn't take his eyes off the house, and his response came out slow, his entire concentration on The Burrow. "…Yeah."

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, approaching him.

"I just…-." He cleared his throat, eyes meeting hers. "I didn't expect it to look like this is all."

"Then what did you expect it to look like?" Hermione asked curiously.

Draco looked back up at the house. "My father always made it sound like the Weasleys lived in a small, one story shack, all sleeping in one room. But this…-." He scoffed, shaking his head. "Honestly it's amazing. The structure of everything, and all the magic that was put into keeping it held together and strung up like that. It's like every room was added after each child was born."

Hermione couldn't help but smile at him. "You know, you should tell Mrs. Weasley that. It'd make her happy to think that someone believes she has a nice home."

Draco just stared at Hermione. "Don't look at me like that, Granger." He couldn't help but snap. "Like I'm suddenly this person you didn't think was capable of complimenting someone."

Hermione shook her head, the smile still on her face, and started heading for the house. "Come on, Malfoy. We're late."

"Oh, so now you care about being late.

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Hermione pushed open the barn door that led to the back entrance of the Weasley house, holding it open for Draco who was practically on her heels. She never would have pegged him to be nervous or let a situation affect him, but she guessed walking into a house with people you were taught to hate growing up, and now suddenly needed to accept would do that to you.

"Oh, Hermione, dear!" Mrs. Weasley was the first one to spot her, instantly placing a huge bowl of salad down on the counter and walking over to Hermione, arms outstretched to give her a huge. Hermione could only picture the look on Draco's face as Molly wrapped her arms around her tightly, squeezing her in a loving hug, pot holders adorning both of her hands that now laid around Hermione's upper back. "So glad you could make it! We were starting to wonder whether you were going to show or not."

Hermione smiled at her mother like figure. "Mrs. Weasley, I brought a friend with me, I hope that's alright."

Molly looked up at Draco for the first time, almost like she hadn't seen him to begin with, and what Draco least expected happened. Molly released Hermione and instantly wrapped her arms around Draco. And the look on the Slytherins face was priceless. Hermione had to hold back her laughter and Draco stared at her in shock, eyes wide and mouth gaping like a fish out of water. "Any friend of Hermione's is a friend of ours." Molly said, pulling away from Draco, all the while smiling at him. "Although I must admit I wasn't expect to be hosting a Malfoy tonight."

"Call me Draco, Mrs. Weasley." Draco said, finally getting his composure back.

"Oh no, I forgot the pasta salad!" Hermione said suddenly with a dejected sigh. "I'll have to go back and get it."

"Nonsense dear, we have enough food here." Molly patted Hermione on the cheek with her gloved hand, going back for the salad and grabbing it, heading towards the door leading towards the dining room. "Everyone's in here, when you two are ready."

Draco followed after Hermione as she slowly started walking after Molly, biting her lips nervously. "So, are you going to tell them I'm your 'friend', too?"

Hermione sighed. "I don't know. I haven't figured that part out yet."

"I would figure it out really soon then, Granger. Because you're going to have some explaining to do in about five seconds."

"Yeah, well maybe you can do the explaining then, how about that?" Hermione snapped before pushing open the door still swinging from Molly having walked through it.

It took a few seconds for the chatter to stop, and everyone to notice that Draco Malfoy was now standing before them, directly next to Hermione. All eyes were on him, and you could have heard a pin drop in the room. "What the hell is he doing here?" Rons voice was the first to speak, and Draco couldn't help but notice a girl he had never seen before sitting right next to him. 'That must be the girl….' He couldn't help but think, and one look at the sadness and jealousy in Grangers eyes told him that he was correct.

With Hermione still in what seemed to be shock, Draco decided to speak. "I was invited." His eyes locked with Potters, who was also glaring at him. "Is that a problem?"

"Draco-."

"Maybe you're not welcome here." Ron snapped back, quickly rising to his seat.

"Ronald Billius Weasley!" Molly scolded her son quickly, slapping his shoulder with her pot holder. "Everyone is welcome in this household!"

"But mum, he's-!"

"Staying for dinner!" Molly sighed, walking around to the opposite end of the table where two empty seats were, and pulling them out, facing Hermione and Draco. "Come dearies, sit."

Hermione led the way, taking a seat next to Bill and allowing Draco to sit on the end where almost half the table full of angry guest couldn't see him. The conversation had quickly started to pick back up when the awkward silence of Draco's appearance had become too much, and Draco couldn't help but notice that Hermione, between taking sips of her butterbeer, was glaring at Ron's 'guest'. "You alright?" He asked gently.

Hermione quickly looked away from the couple to stare at her empty purple plate lining the bright yellow table cloth. "I can't believe he brought her here."

"That's the girl he…?" His voice trailed off as he looked at the two of them and saw Weasley's new… girlfriend… looking at him and Hermione with what he could only describe as hateful eyes.

"Yes." Hermione mumbled, taking his attention away from the other girl. "He knew I was coming here tonight. It's like he's rubbing her in my face."

Draco couldn't help but feel bad for his 'fiancé' as she was obviously hurt by what Ron was doing to her. "Don't let him get to you, Granger. He's an ass. And you deserve better."

Hermione slowly looked up at Draco, caught off by the kindness in his voice, but his attention was averted as George quickly called his name from halfway across the table. "So, Malfoy, why exactly are you here?"

"Hermione invited me." He repeated. Nobody said anything for a few seconds, her names sounding strange coming out of his mouth as anything different then Granger.

"Yeah…." George said slowly. "Why?"

"George…." Molly raised her eyebrows at him, warning him of his lack of manners without really saying anything.

"It's okay, Mrs. Weasley." Draco said faking a smile. "Well about a month ago, Hermione came to work and was, how should I put this… heartbroken. So after she explained to me how her boyfriend broke her heart and that they had split up, I decided to console her. We became friends."

Ron was now glaring at Draco, and Hermione couldn't help but stare at him herself, eyes slightly wide and the smallest bit of a smile on her face. He was actually standing up for her. "Really? I broke /her/ heart?" Ron snapped.

"Yes, actually you did." Draco snapped back. He may not get along with Hermione, but Ronald Weasley he couldn't stand. He would gladly stand up for Granger if that meant bringing Ron down a peg. "Maybe you don't remember. Let me refresh your memory. It was /after/ you cheated on her with /that/," He pointed to the girl sitting next to Ron, his whore, and then continued. "And then /before/ you asked her to keep this a secret from everyone because you didn't want the Wizarding World to know that you're a bloody coward."

Harry was on his feet in seconds, everyone's attention, save for Ron who was glaring at Draco, was on him now. "Hermione, can I talk to you? Outside." Without waiting for a response, Harry was already heading for the door, holding it open and waiting for Hermione to follow him.

Hermione sighed. "I'll be right back." She said to Draco softly. "You'll be okay?"

Draco was grinning as he grabbed his glass of butterbeer and leaned back against his chair. He brought the glass to his lips, still staring at Ron. "Oh, yeah. I can handle this from here." Hermione quickly followed after Harry, avoiding all the eyes of the many people she had considered her family a month ago, but now wasn't so sure.

As they left the house, Harry continued to walk towards the garden, Hemiome trailing behind him closely. "Harry, what are you-."

"What about you, Hermione?" He quickly stopped walking, turning around and facing her. "What are you up to?"

"Up to? I don't-."

"Why did you bring Malfoy here?"

"It's like he said. We're friends." She nervously bit her lower lip.

"Kinglsey told me what happened a couple days ago, Hermione. How Malfoy is running for Minister and how he got denied. And then how he suddenly reacted when you walked in the room, telling them how he's getting married… to you."

"Harry-."

"And then, he proceeded to tell me how shocked you looked by the sudden news, but went along with it anyway." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Tell me it's not true. You're not marrying that prick are you?"

Hermione threw her hands in her jacket pocket, not wanting Harry to see the ring on her finger. "Yes, I am. That's why we came here tonight, to tell everyone."

"Are you really letting him force you into this?"

Hermione's eyebrows fell in anger. "He's not forcing me do to anything, Harry."

"Blackmailing you then…."

"No!" She yelled. "Do you really think I would let someone blackmail and use me?! I became friends with Draco when I started working for him, and what Draco said was true before. I went to him for comfort, and because of that we became closer. We started dating. Yes, it's soon. But I don't care. He's not as bad as he was in Hogwarts, and whether I have your approval or not, I'm marrying him." She didn't know why she was standing up for Draco, defending the fact that he was pretty much paying her to marry him for almost a year.

"He's going to break your heart."

"Oh, because that doesn't sound familiar. We take chances, like I took with Ron. If I can't trust my best friend, then maybe I can trust my best enemy."

"Is that why you're doing this?" Realization suddenly hit Harry. "To piss Ron off? To get… revenge?"

Hermione stared at Harry, and in that second, she couldn't help but wonder if what Harry was saying was true. Was she doing this, even subconsciously, to simply piss Ron off, make him jealous? It sure as hell /was/ making Ron angry. And she had agreed to be Draco's wife without so much as an argument, something she normally would have yelled and screamed about prior to her break up, telling Draco he could go fuck himself.

But no, she was doing this because she wanted what he was offering. She could have an amazing life with what he was giving her as payment. A job that actually meant something to her, a salary where she could live comfortably without having to worry about whether she could afford her electric bill that month, not to mention a house.

No, she was doing this because she wanted to. Not to get revenge. If she wanted revenge on Ron, she would have already gotten it.

Angry, she took a step towards Harry, pointing a finger at his chest. "I can't believe you, Harry Potter. After everything we've been through, you're really going to accuse me of that! It's like I said,I became friends with Draco, and in the midst of that, we became more then that and fell in love. If you can't accept that then that's your problem!" Very quickly, without another word, she turned around and was storming back towards the house. Harry didn't think she was going to marry Draco, she'd show him!

She could hear Harry's stern voice calling after her, telling her to stop and that he wasn't done talking to her, but she didn't care. She only had one thing on her mind.

She pushed open the back door and stormed into the dining room, chit chatter ringing in her ears. She looked at Draco, who surprisingly looked rather comfortable in his position, and then cleared her throat, addressing the room. "Excuse me, everyone. I have an announcement."

Harry suddenly came in after her, quickly trying to stop her. "Hermione, wait-."

But he was too late. "Draco and I are getting married." The talking immediately stopped, everyone staring at Hermione. Some looked shocked, eyes wide, while others looked around unsure, not clear as to whether they had heard her correctly. "We got engaged a couple days ago." Hermione held out her left hand, showing everybody.

Everybody remained quiet, all staring at Hermione in shock. It wasn't until Draco broke the silence; "…Surprise…." He said softly, yet loud enough for the people nearest him to slowly turn their heads and stare at him.

Ginny was the first to get up from her seat, walking over to Hermione and grabbing her left hand, examining the ring. "Hermione… this is beautiful."

Hermione stared at Ginny, and Draco could tell from the hard look set in her eyes that Hermione had only come out with the information in the way that she had because she was angry. And he would bet it had something to do with what Harry and her and talked about outside. Slowly, he stood up as well, making his way towards his 'fiance'. "Thank you, Ginny." Hermione said softly, her eyes slowly going and meeting Draco's.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Ron's voice broke the silence. "Is this all some sort of joke?" The second Weasley was on his feet. "I mean, what are you two playing at? You're getting married to him, already?! We broke up not a month ago!"

"Didn't stop you from bringing her!" Hermione yelled back, finally standing up for herself. "Rubbing her in my face!"

"Gabriella has nothing to do with this."

"You're right… she doesn't. Tonight is about me and Draco's news, the news that we're getting married."

In seconds, Ron tore from the room, knocking his chair over and sending it slamming against the hard wood floor. Everything went quiet, and it only took one more glare in Hermione's direction from George, before he was quickly following after his brother, Gabriella following after him.

"Give him time, Hermione." Ginny said softly. "He'll come around. We all will." Ginny turned to look at Draco. "Congratulations. Hermione's a real catch." Ginny slowly turned back to face her fellow Gryffindor. "Although, I always did picture you being my sister."

"Sorry, Gin." Hermione mumbled.

Ginny smiled at her before turning to her own husband. "Harry, tell everyone your news too."

"I don't think now's the time, Ginny."

"Nonsense."

"Ron's not here."

"You can tell Ron later." Ginny said quickly, to which Harry let out a deep sigh.

"You can never win against your wife, mate." Bill chimed in with a chuckle.

"Fine." Harry purposely turned and faced Draco, looking him up and down before saying the words that would forever change the next few months of both Draco and Hermione's life."My application was approved. In a couple months…I'm running for Minister."