Author's Note: Reviews are so much appreciated! I would like to thank everyone who has submitted one so far, they absolutely make my day and give me the drive to keep writing. Please feel free to leave comments. Happy reading!

Hermione strode blindly through the halls tears clouding her vision and nausea churning in her stomach. She couldn't go any further. She collapsed against the wall and fought back the urge to cry. Students passed her, watching and whispering. It was so unfair, too unfair. Life just couldn't be this harsh, this cruel. A small group had formed around her, watching her, and she didn't care. They could look all they wanted. The usually composed Hermione Granger in the middle of a complete meltdown, they might as well enjoy the show. It was as incomprehensible to her as it was to them. After a few moments she heard a stern voice grabbing everyone's attention.

"Back to your business, all of you now. Shoo or it's a weeks' worth of detention for the lot of you. Curfew is in five minutes."

Hermione looked up and saw Professor McGonagall ushering the students away.

"Come, come child, we need to talk." Professor McGonagall took her arm and then led her down the hall and through a doorway into a small sitting room. There was a desk strewn with papers and books and Hermione realized that she must be in Professor McGonagall private chambers. She handed Hermione a handkerchief and she dried her eyes and blew her nose while Professor McGonagall handed her a cup of tea.

"Are you all right Miss Granger?"

Hermione gave a cynical smile. "I'm everything but all right." She felt the urge to throw herself on the floor and cry until this all went away. As each second passed she felt her life slipping away from her. She was watching it, like a muggle movie, as everything fell from her grasp, shattering to pieces.

"Is there anything I can do to make this situation easier for you?"

Hermione sipped her tea and considered. Easy? Doubtful. "Can - can I ask you a few questions?"

"Yes, of course," said McGonagall as she sat down across from Hermione.

"If... if I were to be... infertile, would that nullify the marriage contract?" Hermione asked. She had thought of a hundred ways to get out of this situation and that seemed like a viable option. She wanted to run away but she couldn't do that. She had to graduate, maybe after that she could run away until something changed. She couldn't do that now. The thought of repeating the school year over again made her stomach hurt. Running was the best solution, the only problem was that her obsession with school was keeping her from it.

"There are no spells or potions that I know of to cause permanent infertility," McGonagall said slowly. Hermione had worried about that but she had another plan.

"Well muggles have an operation, it's called a hysterectomy..." She had never really thought about having children. There was so much to get done before she even wanted to think about that. Still, giving up that option was a small sacrifice compared to her freedom. She could deal with the regret later. She needed her freedom now.

"I don't think that would be wise. If you voluntarily had such a procedure the Ministry could view it as a breach of contract. They could take your wand and exile you."

Of course they would. They were talking away all of her choices.

"So it's a done deal then? Unless this law is reversed, in seven days I will have to marry someone that I hate." She clenched her fist, her nails digging into her skin. She did hate him, yesterday she had loathed and despised him but in a few short hours it had developed into a hatred so strong it scared her.

Draco leaned against the window sill, looking out at the dark cloudy night. He should have been in bed hours ago. He was so exhausted, mentally and physically, but every time he tried to lay down his mind kept on going over things. How to fix this mess that his father had put him in.

He'd had many ideas over the past few hours and had discarded all of them. Bribe Granger to go far, far, away and never come back: wouldn't happen, she'd never take his money anyway. Have Crabbe or Goyle marry her by using a polyjuice potion: good idea but it would never work in the long run. Bribe the ministry official who would lead the ceremony to lose paperwork: Too risky because his father would probably find out. Take all the gold he had and run away, never looking back: he didn't have the guts. Kill Granger: he didn't have the guts for that either.

He walked over to the fireplace, there had to be a way, something that he hadn't thought of yet. He could always get Pansy to marry him but because he had already signed the contract to marry Granger it wouldn't be legal anyway. He cursed himself for signing it. If he hadn't then he and Pansy could have jumped on his broom and gotten married. He didn't love Pansy, didn't even really like her, but over seven years he had learned to tolerate her and that was more than he could say for Granger. He collapsed on his bed trying to think of a way to stop his life from crashing and burning.

As far as he could tell there wasn't one.

Once again he cursed his father. Seven days. That was not enough time to fix this. There had to be something he could do. Some way to convince someone that this wasn't the answer. There had to be a better answer.

He nearly jumped out of his skin as he heard a loud tap at the window. He looked up and saw one of the Malfoy owls at the window. Loathe to read whatever message there was he laid there until he couldn't stand the tapping any longer. He opened the window, grabbed the sealed letter from its' leg, and then he slammed the window shut.

From his father. Of course.

He broke the seal on the letter and then opened it up.

By now I am sure that you have been informed of the gift I arranged for you. Is it not perfect? There is one thing I must ask of you. Under no circumstances must you breed your new pet. Pedigree of the highest standards must be maintained. When your pet is no longer of use to us I will have it taken care of.

Draco didn't know whether to feel more relief or more horror. So despite the terms of the marriage contract he wasn't supposed to get Granger pregnant. That in itself was a relief. He went over in his head the part about her "being taken care of". That didn't sound good. He wondered for the millionth time what his father's real plan was. What was Granger's use and exactly how would his father have her "taken care of"?

He knew the answer to that even if he didn't want to admit it.

Hermione Granger was going to die.

Hermione stood outside the portrait to the Gryffindor Common Room trying to work up the nerve to go inside. She was tempted to cast an invisibility spell and sneak up to her room and lock herself away. Unfortunately, this had to be dealt with, and now. She wasn't sure she would have the courage tomorrow.

"Are you going in or not?" the Fat Lady asked impatiently.

"Gillyweed juice," Hermione said, speaking the password. The portrait swung open and Hermione climbed through. The Common Room was deserted but for a few students still finishing homework. Harry and Ron were still awake and sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace. They hadn't seen her yet and she stood there for a few minutes watching them, savoring these few moments before she had to break the news, before this became part of the after, before everything changed. She struggled to find the words and the courage to tell them what had happened. She took a step towards them and then another. "Can I speak with you two upstairs?" she asked and they spun around when they heard her voice.

"Hermione! We've been looking everywhere for you!" said Harry standing up. He could see that something was wrong and he looked worried. She wanted nothing more than to hug him but she couldn't bring herself to ask for one.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice filled with concern.

"I'll tell you upstairs," she said softly. She could do this. They would understand. They would help her. Between the three of them they would come up with a way to fix this. Her friends had never failed her yet. They'd gotten out of worse situations than this

They followed her silently to her room and Hermione opened the door to see that her room was in as much disarray as it had been when she had left it. She felt rather embarrassed that she hadn't thought of making them wait outside while she cleaned up a bit. She led them inside.

"Hermione, who did this?" asked Ron as they stepped into the room.

"I did it," she said simply. Hermione motioned for them to sit on the bed. She felt bad that they had to climb over things and avoid broken glass to get to it.

"What happened after Transfiguration? We haven't seen you all day and then there were rumors..." Harry said, trailing off.

"Rumors? About what?" She wondered if they already knew... If she would be spared the pain of telling them. She still wasn't sure how she was going to make the words come out of her mouth.

Ron looked uncomfortable as he answered, "A few students said they saw you crying in hall and that... that... well..."

"That you're pregnant," finished Harry.

The absurdity of that comment struck Hermione as very funny and she started to giggle. She sobered when she realized that after she was married that might not be far from the truth.

"We don't believe it of course," Ron added hurriedly.

"Yeah, we know you better than that," Harry said.

Hermione decided that she just had to take a deep breath and tell them.

"Someone has petitioned to marry me due to the Marriage Law… and I accepted it."

She paused trying to figure out how to tell them the rest but she just couldn't.

"No..." Harry said in disbelief.

"But they can't do that!" protested Ron.

"Dumbledore has tried to help but there is nothing that he can do. I can go to the Ministry and ask them to appeal the petition but I don't think that will help. I have no choice..." Hermione was proud of herself for being able to get through saying it without breaking down. She wanted them to believe that she was okay. She didn't want them to worry. Once she told them who it was they were going to worry anyway.

"Who is it?" asked Harry pointedly and she knew that he knew it was bad.

Hermione looked away, she feared this part most of all, she didn't want to tell them, didn't want to see their reactions.

She stood up and walked to the window, two little words, all she had to say, but it was so hard.

"I have no choice," she repeated. "If I don't marry him the Ministry will take my wand away and obliviate me and I'll have to go back to living a muggle life... I'd have to leave you two..." she stopped and took a deep breath, working up her courage.

"It's Malfoy," Harry supplied before Hermione could force the words out of her mouth and she knew the look on her face was all the confirmation they needed.

"I'll kill the bloody bastard!" said Ron getting up and walking towards the door.

"Ron, no! You can't!" said Hermione grabbing his arm. "Don't make this any harder, please." Part of her didn't want to stop him. She wanted to lash out at Malfoy, wanted him to pay for what he and his father had done, wanted to watch as he was torn to pieces.

"I'm not going to let you marry him, Hermione!" Ron howled in a rage. His face was redder than his hair. Harry had grabbed onto his arm and was restraining him from bursting out the door and down to the Dungeons.

"Hermione's right. You have to calm down," said Harry. He turned to Hermione.

"Tell us everything."

Draco made his way down to the Great Hall wanting nothing but a steaming hot cup of coffee to wake him. He hadn't been able to sleep at all last night and he was not in any mood to be bothered. He had debated blowing off all of his classes but the thought of an entire day of doing nothing was enough to convince him otherwise. He needed to be distracted, he needed to keep his mind on anything except his present situation. Besides, tomorrow was Saturday and Slytherin had a match against Ravenclaw and he couldn't miss it, the last thing he needed on top of all of this was detention.

Married... he still couldn't believe that in seven days he was getting married. Just the thought of it made his skin crawl. He made his way over to the Slytherin table and sat down, trying to mentally drown out the chattering of his peers.

He glanced toward the Gryffindor table and found Weasel glaring at him and looking like at any moment he was going to leap over the tables and kill him with his bare hands, wands be damned.

Draco glared back. So she had told her stupid friends. Well that was just wonderful, now he was going to have watch his back. He wouldn't put it past them to aim a curse at him while his wasn't looking. His glaring contest was interrupted by Pansy sitting on his lap. He pushed her off but she didn't seem to care.

"Good morning Draco," she said in a seductive voice that, at the moment, grated on Draco's nerves.

"Wonderful," he muttered gulping down his coffee. He didn't feel like telling Pansy that next week he would be a married man. He didn't much feel like telling any of his fellow Slytherins. He had no idea how they would take the news. If they thought that it was funny and a great way to torture Potter it might be alright but if they saw him marrying a Gryffindor Mudblood as a betrayal then he would be in for a lot of trouble and so would Granger... not that he cared.

He looked at all of the food sitting on top of the table and felt nauseous. He turned his attention back to his coffee, trying to think of some way to get through the day. What he needed was a Calming potion, better yet a nice alcoholic drink. He was tired of thinking and if he could just drink away his thoughts, all the better.

He looked over at Pansy and decided that maybe her voice wasn't as grating as he had originally thought. Once his coffee was finished he stood up and with a look she followed him.

He just wanted to forget… everything.

A few hours later Draco walked into Double Potions and took a seat in the far back. Things had gotten marginally better since breakfast. He was still in a rather foul mood but after being distracted, and then having school work to concentrate on, he wasn't dwelling so much on his thoughts. He got out his Potions notes from the previous day. Today they would be making the Skelegrow potion for Madame Pomfrey. It was so complicated that it would take three class periods to complete but he was looking forward to the challenge. Potions was his favorite subject and he was hoping that he could lose himself in measurements and calculations.

That might be difficult seeing as he had to share the class with her.

As class began Snape strode into the room in a flourish of black robes.

"As you all know today we will be making Skelegrow for the infirmary wing. This potion requires intense concentration so to discourage your mindless chit chat I have chosen lab partners for this assignment. After I pair you up you are to get started immediately. By the end of class all of you should be at step seven. If you are not, your potion will be disposed of and you will have to start it all over again... in detention. Am I understood?"

They all nodded.

"Zabini you are partnered with Abbot. McMillan... Weasley. Chang... Goldstein. Potter... Fletchy-Flich. He went down the list and Draco was getting increasingly worried.

"Malfoy ...

Granger."

Shit.