Previously - "Miss Granger, let us be clear. I do not hate you, witch, but it would take me a while to think of you as anything else but annoying and meddling child."

Chapter 4

Next morning found Hermione in a swirl of action. After getting back to her dormitory, she spent most of the night trying to recover from his last comment. Her face burnt with shame and annoyance at his words. He viewed her as "annoying and meddling child". She had never been so offended in her life - even when he insulted her teeth in the fourth year. Deeply she knew that her anger was mostly caused by the fact that this time he had been right. She did something really stupid and hadn't thought through the consequences. But she was going to show him… She was going to prove him wrong, that she was not a child but a woman who would make a good wife.

Her first action was to see Professor McGonagall. She managed to catch her Head of House before breakfast and agreed to meet with her after classes. By the time it was curfew, she had three long lists of things to consider, to buy and to arrange. She also had sent an owl to Professor Snape with a suggested date that was six weeks away. While her letter to him was brief, his reply was an epitome of succinctness. It had only one word. "Acceptable."

Now that she had her to-do lists, Hermione felt much more in her element. On Saturday morning she made her way to Madam Malkin's branch at Hogsmeade to look at wedding gowns. Professor McGonagall could not join her and Hermione decided to start herself. Malkin's shop was very busy and after pointing Hermione to a small section of bridal wear, the manager moved away to service her other clients.

The Gryffindor witch made her way through two rows of wedding gowns and robes, feeling herself getting lost in the myriad of fabrics and designs. She wanted to look good on her wedding day. She needed to look good - to look like a woman, not a child that her husband-to-be referred to.

"You won't find what you are looking for here," a woman's voice interrupted Hermione's thoughts.

The young witch whirled around and froze. In front of her in all her aristocratic glory stood Narcissa Malfoy.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione's hand clenched around her wand.

The older woman smirked, "I am here to help you pick your wedding dress."

"What?" Hermione's eyes widened, "How do you even…" she started, but then realisation dawned on her and her face hardened, "Of course," she said coldly, "you would have heard it at…"

But Narcissa interrupted her by casually waving her hand, "Whatever you might think of me, Miss Granger, I am not a Death Eater, I never was one and I don't attend the meetings that the Dark Lord holds. My source of information is a lot closer to home. Severus told me."

Hermione's eyes narrowed, "And why would he do that?" she asked warily.

For a moment the older witch observed her with cool haughtiness and then, to Hermione's surprise, rolled her eyes. "I've known Severus since he was eleven and I was thirteen. Old friends tend to share this sort of news with each other."

Hermione mentally kicked herself, she knew that Snape and the Malfoys were friends. After all, the Potions master was Draco's godfather. Meanwhile, the older woman continued in a light tone as if she was discussing the latest fashion with a long-term friend, "And this brings us to this moment. You are going to marry Severus Snape and I am here to ensure that you are adequately prepared for your role as his bride, which includes picking a proper wedding gown for you and also enlightening you on a few things you need to know."

Her words snapped Hermione out of her thoughts. This was unexpected. When Narcissa first mentioned helping her pick a wedding dress, Hermione thought that it was just an excuse to spit insults at her. But judging by a serious demeanour of the Malfoy's matriarch, she was really planning on assisting Hermione with her wedding preparations. Suspicion immediately arose in the young Gryffindor, "And why are you being so helpful?" she asked carefully.

In response, Narcissa gave her a condescending look, "And I thought, Gryffindors supposed to be all trusting," she muttered pulling out a wand. Before Hermione could do or say anything, the older witch pointed it to her own heart, "I, Narcissa Black Malfoy, give wizarding oath that I wish no harm to Hermione Jean Granger and only want to help in her preparation for the wedding with Severus Snape. I swear that no harm will come to Hermione Granger, Severus Snape and their marriage through my actions and intentions."

She then pocketed her wand and looked at the brown haired witch. "Is this sufficient Miss Granger?"

The young Gryffindor could not hide her utter disbelief. The whole scene looked like something from a bizarre dream but giving herself a discreet pinch did not results in Hermione waking up in her own bed.

"This does not make any sense," the young girl muttered trying to quench the complete disarray of thoughts running through her head. "Why do you even want to help me?" she questioned, "I can't imagine that you are all that keen on me marrying him."

This time Narcissa's lips twisted into a real Slytherin smirk, which was an unnerving mixture of Snape's and Draco's. "No matter, what you think about Slytherins, Miss Granger, you must know by now that we take care of ourselves and our own. Severus is the Head of the Slytherin House at Hogwarts. This is a highly respectable position in the wizarding world, since he's the one shaping our children and therefore our future. He comes from the old and powerful Prince family and no Slytherin would want to see him being humiliated because his Muggle-born bride does not look or behave as she ought to." Her smile disappeared and her pale blue eyes bored into Hermione,

"Now," her tone became all business, "You will tell Minerva McGonagall that you wish to go to Paris for your wedding dress. There you will visit the salon of Mônsenior Duvales. He will be expecting you and will provide you with a gown, lingerie and all other clothes you will need. On the day of your wedding, I will send you my house elf and she will fix that dreadful hair of yours. Now the only other thing you need to buy is a wedding gift for Severus. I will not interfere in that, it should be your choice - but please don't buy him a book. For one, he would probably already have it, and secondly, you want to show him that you view him as a man, not a Potions master."

During this bombardment of instructions, Hermione's confusion was quickly being replaced by annoyance and by the end she could not contain herself any longer. "Is that all?" she asked not even trying to hide the sarcasm in her tone. "Or should I get a parchment and quill to take notes?"

Narcissa surveyed her with calm confidence, "Please, Miss Granger, irony does not suit you so leave it to your husband-to-be." Not letting Hermione utter a word, she continued breezily. "If the situation had been different, Miss Granger, I would have spent the next six weeks tutoring you in everything a witch in your position should know. Since this is not an option, I will have to rely on that brain of yours that everybody goes on about."

With these words she picked up her bag that looked deceptively tiny and pulled out of it three books. "These are from the Black's library and contain my personal notes," the older witch explained. "The first book is about household magic. It not only contains relevant spells but also describes wizarding customs and traditions. The second one is devoted to the history of the key pureblood families in Britain. And the third…" here the blond witch stopped and her blue eyes bored into the young girl's face.

"This is probably the most important advice I can give you regarding your husband-to-be and if you ignore everything else I say, please listen to this. Severus Snape is not a man who trusts easily and he's even worse when it comes to the matters of heart. He's been hurt before and not going to make himself willingly vulnerable to anybody. Which means you will have to make the first step and, probably, the second and third too.

I would suggest that you start by picking a suitable wedding ceremony. Something that would show your complete trust in him," here Narcissa handed her the last book she was holding. It was a small leather bound tome which looked worn out by many years of use. "I've marked here the one that I thought would fit. It will be your first step towards making Severus trust you. The second step is to be completely honest with him. Don't try to hide things from him, especially not your feelings or the fact that you truly care about his wellbeing. He would soon find out anyway, Severus is a very powerful Legilimens and even without reading your thoughts he'd know you are hiding something." Here Narcissa paused and Hermione got a distinct feeling that the older witch was fighting to retain her cool demeanour. When she spoke again, her voice was a lot softer and quieter, as if she had to force the words out.

"The last and probably most difficult step to achieve is that if you want him to return your feelings, you need to show him that he does not have to fear rejection on your part. Only then, when he knows that you accept and love him unconditionally, will he allow himself to love you back."

These were not the words that Hermione would have ever expected to come out from the mouth of Narcissa Malfoy. The young Gryffindor caught herself that she was gaping like a fish at the older witch and forced her eyes to focus on the book she was now holding. Opening it on the marked page, she skimmed through the description of a wedding ritual and started reading the vows making sure to take in every word. It was a beautiful ceremony but when she reached the end of it her interest turned to disbelief. "But this…this is archaic," she spluttered looking at the other woman in total bewilderment. "It's worse than the muggle vow "to obey". I can't believe anybody would do it nowadays."

The smirk on Narcissa's face made Hermione's tirade seize. She did not like that smirk: it was too smug, "But, Miss Granger," the woman's voice reminded a young witch of the silk tones of her Potions Professor, "we both know that you are not just anybody. You are an overachieving Gryffindor and you would never risk failure, not at something as important as your marriage to Severus Snape."

For a moment the two women stared at each other but before the Gryffindor girl could ask one of the millions of questions milling her mind, Narcissa disapparated leaving Hermione with a whiff of rather unusual and undoubtedly expensive perfume and a feeling that she had just been a subject of a very cruel joke or a turn of fate.

Thank you all for the great reviews. There are some really good suggestions and comments in there, which help me plan further chapters. By the way, I am looking for a beta, so if you'd like to be one, let me know. Enjoy the chapter and reviews, as always, are very welcome.