A/N: Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay in updating. RL got a bit crazy and I didn't have time. I hope you're loving the story. Thanks for all the lovely reviews you've been giving me. Muc love! xx- Kitten.

Little Do You Know

By Kittenshift17

Chapter 7: The Rules

Hermione grit her teeth and turned her attention to ensuring her friends were ok when she realised what had become her fate. She was sitting on Draco Malfoy's lap in the middle of the Great Hall and he had no intention of letting her go. She could tell from the way his hands kept tensing around her. He meant to keep her right where she was, embarrassing her by forcing her to sit on his lap in front of everyone. It became clear to her that he must've carried her. She recalled him stunning her when she'd been about to make a run for it.

It stood to reason that he'd picked her up and carried her over to the Slytherin table. Hermione frowned, recalling suddenly that he'd been behind her before the hat had even paired them together aloud. Meaning he'd been expecting to be paired with her. Had he asked the hat to put them together? No, that would be ludicrous. He was Draco Malfoy. He loathed mudbloods like her. Even if he had been surprisingly decent to her all day with the match and lending her some gear so she could play. Of course he'd also mentally raped her, invading her mind and perusing it at his leisure with apparent ease.

Hermione squirmed on his lap as she held Ginny's hand while the girl cried. She suspected - given Ginny's placid behaviour - that the redhead had been given a Calming Draught. Nothing else would keep her away from Harry and there was no way the fiery girl would ever sit on Blaise Zabini's lap so calmly.

Soon, the last of the people in the room were slowly sorted out, boiling down to same-sex pairings and a few people who were indeed left spouseless for the time being until next year's mess unless everyone pumped out kids in the next year. Hermione sighed in annoyance when McGonagall stood up at the podium once more and called for their attention, demanding that everyone forget their hysteria for the time being while she pointed out the rules of this ridiculous law.

Sets of tea appeared on the table before them all suddenly, clearly the house elves felt they needed a nice cup of tea to brace for the upcoming information they would be receiving. Squeezing Ginny's hand again, Hermione released both her and Luna to fix them all a cup of tea. She poured the tea quickly into the supplied cups, handing Ginny hers before fixing Luna's too.

"Katie?" Hermione asked the still-crying girl.

Katie lifted her head slowly to blink at Hermione through puffy eyes.

"Tea?" Hermione offered her softly.

Kaite nodded shakily, "White with one," she croaked, flinching from Marcus's hand brushing over her dark hair again. Hermione eyed the other boy for a moment and she noticed as she fixed Katie's tea that though he smirked a little as though he was enjoying the way she flinched, the way he watched her so closely made Hermione think that he could grow to enjoy being with Katie. That or he just enjoyed petting distraught women.

When Katie's tea was made, Hermione made Lavender a cup as well, knowing from years of sharing a table and a dormitory how the girl liked her tea.

"Lavender, have a cup of tea," Hermione told the girl reaching for her hand and giving it a squeeze.

"Tea?" Lavender asked in confusion, lifting her head. She looked terrible. Her mascara had run from her eyes and down her cheeks. Her eyes were puffy and her lip was bloodied as though she'd bitten it to contain her sobs of despair.

"Oh Lavender," Hermione sighed, fishing a clean handkerchief out of her pocket and squirming some more on Malfoy's lap until she could reach the other girl across the table. Cupping Lavender's cheek, Hermione wiped at her mascara stained cheeks and cleaned her up as best she could, giving the girl the handkerchief.

When she was finished, Hermione pushed the full cup towards the girl, who took it gratefully and drank deeply. Doing the same, Hermione ignored Malfoy completely while she had her cup of tea, feeling warmer and slightly better for it.

"Going to make me a cup too, Granger?" Flint asked her, leering a little.

Hermione eyed him for a long moment. She didn't want to. He was friends with Malfoy, so she didn't want to be nice or even polite to him. But she'd played a nice game of Quidditch with him just that morning and it would do no good to go about upsetting the people who had recently been decent to her when they didn't have to.

"How do you take your tea Marcus?" Hermione asked primly instead.

"Black with two, thank you," he replied just as politely, grinning a little. Hermione could tell from Katie's expression that she was horrified by the sound of him saying anything that wasn't snarled expletives on a Quidditch pitch and she realised she'd probably not been inclined to speak with him any other time. He'd been in the same year as Oliver, so they hadn't shared any classes. Most likely it was a surprise to Katie that he could form articulate and polite-sounding sentences at all.

Hermione poured his tea and added the sugar accordingly before handing it to him.

"Goyle?" Hermione asked, pleased to see the pot was refilling itself and steeping nicely as she continued.

"White with three, thanks Granger," Goyle replied with a polite smile and Hermione could tell Lavender was shocked at his ability to speak rather than just grunt.

"Hit me with a white, no sugar, would you Granger?" Millicent piped up from where she was sitting next to the Hufflepuff girl from a few days ago – Stacey Wiggins – whom she'd obviously been paired with. They looked an odd pair given that Stacey was barely five foot tall and a tiny little thing while Millicent was easily six foot and built more like a troll. Not disproportionately so, but nonetheless strapping.

She could tell from Millicent's tone that the Slytherin girl had clearly decided after their earlier game of Quidditch that she liked Hermione well enough to be decent to her. Dare she say that if they all went through with this law, Hermione might end up being friends with Millicent Bulstrode?

Doing as she was bid, Hermione fixed the girl her tea.

"Stacey, would you like a cup?" Hermione offered to the terrified looking Hufflepuff.

"Oh… um… just black tea with lemon, if there is some, please," Stacey said, her cheeks turning pink at being addressed and seeming startled that Hermione knew her name. Hermione smiled at her gently in understanding. It couldn't be easy, she imagined, to have been outed regarding sexual preference as a result of this marriage law. To then be paired with someone boisterous and rowdy like Millicent couldn't have been easy to swallow. The poor girl looked like she wanted to melt through the floor and disappear forever.

"White with two, Granger," Blaise put in his order too, grinning from beside Malfoy where he still cradled Ginny's in his arms. For all that she'd learned he was a torment and tease – not to mention entirely too playful for his own good, Hermione could see that he was being very careful with Ginny. He held her loosely enough to keep from hurting her, but tight enough to ensure she was under control in his lap and that she wouldn't just slump forwards into her tea-cup or slip between his knees to the floor. If she was being honest they even looked rather good together and Hermione felt a little like a traitor for even thinking it.

"Theo? Tea?" Hermione asked, snatching up cups as she went and passing them to their recipients.

"Strong and black, Granger, thanks," Theo grumbled broodily from Luna's far side. His was by the easiest match to accept given that there wasn't a mountain's worth of animosity between the two of them, and Luna was delightful, if odd. Yet he seemed a little out of sorts. Hermione supposed she couldn't blame him. As much as she adored Luna, Hermione didn't imagine she'd fare very well at being told she had to marry the quirky Ravenclaw witch.

When everyone else had their tea Hermione elbowed Malfoy, waiting for him to speak up. She had been intending to exclude him from being given the privilege of having her make him tea, but there was little point. She might not much like the notion of having to marry him, but creating additional animosity on top of what they already had simply for the sake of being rude seemed foolish to her. Foolish and illogical.

"I'll get it, Granger," he murmured quietly, clearly shocked she'd offered to get him a cup too.

"Just tell me how you have it, Malfoy," Hermione answered tightly, holding her breath when he jostled her slightly on his knee as though he meant to get it himself.

"White with three sugars. Heavy on the milk," he told her, still speaking in a murmur as though he didn't like admitting to having needs.

Hermione fixed his tea in silence, storing the information away inside her mind of how he had it. She imagined it would come in handy when she had to marry the git. The idea nauseated her.

She was going to have to marry him. Not just tolerate him. Not just deal with having him around and being a git. Marriage. She would be expected to snog him. To spend time with him every day.

"Oh my God!" she gasped suddenly as a horrible thought occurred to her, causing her to drop the teacup she had just lifted to her lips, spilling the last few dregs upon the table and causing everyone to look at her.

She was going to have to shag him. To let him get her pregnant. This law had been instigated, first and foremost, with the intention of replenishing the population. Sweet Merlin, she was going to be sick!

"Hermione?" Luna asked, looking concerned as Hermione made a choking sound, gagging on the mouthful of tea she had taken. She couldn't do it. No! He was Draco Malfoy. The very idea of having him see her naked made her feel stupid. The idea of having him touch her inappropriately made her skin crawl uncomfortably.

"Easy there, Granger," Malfoy's voice murmured as she turned towards him on his lap, stricken with horror.

He put his own cup of tea down much more calmly as Hermione stared at him, her eyes wide. No, no this couldn't be. She couldn't be expected to be intimate with him. She couldn't bear his children. Sweet Merlin, the very notion made her feel nauseas. He had been a Death Eater, for crying out loud! He'd loudly and often in the past wished for her death or her untimely demise. He'd believed whole-heartedly, at one time, that she was less than scum.

How could she be expected to lie with him and let him impregnate her? The horror was too great. Already she was mentally riling against the notion of being expected to marry and begin pumping out babies like some medieval-time victim. Now, to add insult to injury, she was expected to let him have sex with her? She was to smile prettily and just agree to the idea of being naked with him? Of trusting him to be a decent father?

She couldn't do it. She wouldn't do it.

"Hermione, what's wrong?" Luna asked her, seeming concerned by her sudden increased breathing rate and her horror-stricken expression.

Malfoy met her gaze as Hermione peered at him as she began to hyperventilate just a little bit. His brow furrowed in concern when she ignored her friend's question, too terrified and sickened by the notion of sleeping with him. Hermione couldn't tell for certain, but when he leaned a little bit closer to her until their noses were almost touching, one of his hands snatching up hers where she'd begun subconsciously trying to clean up the mess she'd made with her now-broken teacup by hand and so managed to cut herself, Malfoy used Legilimency on her again.

He dipped into her mind with such ease and such stealth that she couldn't actually tell he was poking around in her head until a swirl of emotions and memories and thoughts whistled past her mind's eye. He examined them with apparent ease, directing the process to view what he wished with subtle mental prods in the right direction. Inside her own mind, Hermione felt vulnerable to him when whirrings of the limited sexual interaction she'd enjoyed became apparent.

The memory of him shirtless in his dormitory flickered by a few times as well, all mingled horribly with her fear and disgust over the idea of needing to have sex with him. Of being pregnant. Of being required to touch him and be polite to him.

"I won't do it," Hermione whispered fiercely as he withdrew from her mind once more, somehow leaving it slightly clearer and allowing her to control her hyperventilation.

"You will," Malfoy replied in a quiet murmur once more and Hermione was beyond surprised by the fact that he didn't grow arrogant, smug or cruel. He didn't sneer at her about what he'd learned in her mind. Didn't smirk over the memory he'd witnessed of the rushed and rather brisk round of sex she'd had with Ron before the final battle when they both thought they would be dying the next day. He didn't comment about that being the only sexual intercourse she'd experienced.

"You haven't a choice," he reminded her quietly, holding her gaze for another long moment before breaking eye-contact and frowning down at her cut and bleeding hand. Jostling her slightly, Malfoy fished a handkerchief out of his own pocket and used it to press against the seeping cut to stem the bleeding.

"I won't," Hermione repeated, still staring at him in horror. She even tried to imagine a scenario where she would be expected to share a bed with him. To be naked in front of him. And she couldn't do it. Not without cringing in horror and fear of being humiliated. If there was one thing he was gifted at, it was making her doubt her own self-confidence and making her feel stupid. And for the brightest witch of the age, feeling stupid was not a common occurrence.

"Now then, if I could have your attention once more?" Professor McGonagall's voice cut off his ability to reply while he fussed over her hand, taking the handkerchief away and using his wand to heal the wound she'd made before he repaired her tea-cup, vanished the spilled tea and cleaned the blood and mess from her hand. He did so diligently. Almost kindly. As though he was completely consumed by the task and wanting to make certain she was properly cared for after her own foolishness. Hermione wondered how he could do so when he'd been in her head and felt first-hand the sickening roil in her stomach at the very idea of being intimate with him.

"I would like to take this moment to remind you all of something very important pertaining to this law. I do not doubt that there are those among you entertaining notions of refusing to marry the person the Sorting Hat has paired you with. Entertaining notions of fleeing the law for a time until it is no longer in effect," McGonagall said sternly, "I am here to warn you that every one of your names has been recorded and that a Trace – much like that used on known criminals – has been applied to your magical signature. Should you attempt to flee, you will be pursued. Should you refuse your match, you will be expected to give up your magic and live instead as a muggle."

Professor McGonagall's sharp voice rang out over the hall with a certain finality.

"Understand this. If you do no cooperate; if you do not meet all the requirements of this law or you refuse to go through with the marriage, you will have both your magical essence and all memory of the magical world removed. You will be deposited into the muggle world and you will be expected to fend for yourself once there. None of your experiences within our world will remain with you. No memories of Hogwarts or the War or your friends. You will have no contact with your friends or family within the magical community. You will be just a muggle with no memory of their life pre-dating the time of your Magical Expungance. Is that clear?"

Across the hall a few people who hadn't been crying began to do so then. Even some of the thus far mostly stoic wizard populous within the hall broke down and began to realise the true hopelessness of their situation.

"I trust that the arrangement, repugnant as it is, will be preferable to that," Professor McGonagall informed them, "Now I have been instructed to convey to all of you the clauses of this Marriage Law. The first and foremost of which is that you all have one year, or until such time as both parties have completed their education to be legally married. Is that clear?"

She waited as people nodded and mumbled their understanding.

"The year you have in which to be wed is to allow for proper preparations to be made and to ensure all of you are comfortable with one another enough for the second and most important reason for this barbaric law being passed," McGonagall went one, "Children. All of you affected by this law are expected, from the time of your wedding night onwards, to begin trying immediately and frequently to conceive life with the intention of becoming parents."

Hermione clenched her fists at the mention of the very thing she had just been hyperventilating about. It was beyond barbaric. It was downright obscene.

"All of you have been tasked with the duty of birthing four healthy children to your union," Professor McGonagall told them, raising her voice a little to be heard over the din as people began muttering angrily and some people began to look ill, "This will be achieved by the traditional method of sexual intercourse. Which all of you are to partake in at a minimum of a weekly basis until four children have been born to your union."

"What?" Hermione's head snapped up, her eyes going wide as she swivelled on Malfoy's lap to stare, horror-stricken, at Professor McGonagall. Cries of shock and protest went out across the hall.

"I'm not shagging some stranger on a weekly basis!" someone shouted from the far side of the hall, creating another uproar as everyone grew restless with horror over this barbaric law.

"Hermione….?" Katie asked weakly, more tears streaming down her face, "Hermione I can't. NO! I won't. I won't do it!"

"Easy there, Bell," Marcus said, a twisted grin affixed upon his face, "You know deep down you've always wanted to shag me."

SMACK!

Hermione blinked in surprise when the usually non-violent ex-Gryffindor Chaser turned on Marcus Flint quick as a cat and slapped him right across the face for his comment.

"Foreplay, love?" Marcus growled, his abused cheek turning red with her hand-print and a cruel light coming into his eyes, "I'm a fan of such things, you know? But keep it up and we'll see how well you like it when I return the favour. When I bend you over my knee and spank that tight little arse."

Katie burst into furious tears once more while everyone in the vicinity listened in to their spat.

"Marcus," Malfoy's voice suddenly warned when Marcus made to stroke his hand a little more harshly over Katie's hair and down her back.

Flint paused, his hand poised to touch the bawling witch once more. He glanced over at Malfoy, looking right by Hermione as though she weren't sitting in his lap and looking utterly horrified.

"She's your betrothed," Malfoy warned Marcus in a low voice and there was something about the emphasis he put on the word that stopped Marcus. His jaw clenched, a muscle there beginning to tick for a moment before he lowered his hand back to the table. He held Malfoy's glare for several long moments, his eyes hard before he glanced at the crying witch once more. Hermione watched with fascination when the fury that had been sparking in his hardened gaze suddenly melted away.

In its place was a little frown of concern that wrinkled his smooth brow. Hermione could hardly believe the change in his expression. Moments ago he'd been utterly furious about being slapped and rather indifferent to Katie's suffering as she cried over the idea of having to marry him. As he watched the sobbing witch, her hands hiding her face from view and her breath ragged, Marcus Flint fished a handkerchief out of his pocket before he reached for Katie gently. She flinched back from his touch with a little squeak of what seemed to be fear and Marcus's concerned frown deepened.

Prying one hand off her face carefully, almost gently, Marcus dabbed at the damp side of her face he'd revealed beneath her hand. Katie was shocked into stillness, her breath catching in her chest as the cruel wizard dried the tears on her cheek before peeling the other hand from her face as well and drying the other cheek as well. He didn't offer her an apology, either verbal or silent. In fact, he didn't speak at all. He simply dried the tears on her face before giving her the handkerchief carefully. Then he reached for her empty teacup, refilled it with tea the way Katie had said she liked it and pressed that into her free hand as well.

All while his left cheek glowed red with the shape of Katie's palm.

Katie was clearly completely confused. She blinked at the wizard in utter bewilderment as he was kind to her after what she'd done. Hermione twisted once more on Malfoy's lap, temporarily forgetting that she'd just been informed she was to shag him on a weekly basis until she'd given him four children. She didn't understand the sudden change in Marcus's demeanour. He'd been toying with Katie, amused by upsetting her. Ready to upset her and embarrass her even more.

And one mention of the witch being his fiancé had changed his attitude entirely. Hermione peered into Malfoy's face, raising her eyebrows in silent question. He stared back at her, his face blank and expressionless, giving nothing at all about his understanding of the situation away.

"There are a number of other stipulations that must be met along with this marriage law," McGonagall was saying up on the podium as Hermione tried to read Draco Malfoy's face for some clue to what had just happened, "Including the requirement of daily interaction with your intended and several classes pertaining to married life and family life. Over the coming month all of you are expected to remain at Hogwarts or Hogsmeade to undertake these classes. They will be scheduled throughout the day to accommodate for the requirement of some of you to undertake the rest of your NEWT level studies."

"What about my job?" someone asked, confused.

"For the following month, the Ministry has agreed to subsidise all of you at full-wage for your position while this venture is undertaken, as is it of utmost importance to the magical community as a whole," Professor McGonagall informed them, "For now you all have the afternoon to yourselves. The rest of this week while the senior students are still exempt from regular lessons will be spent undertaking several hours a day of Marriage Law classes. This will include a complete breakdown of the law, a number of sessions where you will be expected to get to know your spouse and to undertake sessions with a psychiatrist individually and together as a couple to ensure these unions will run smoothly. For the time being the afternoon is yours. Please be aware that your families have been contacted and are currently awaiting each of you outside the Great Hall to hear the news about your intended. There are also a number of Aurors on hand for your protection and to ensure no one reacts poorly and tries to flee the jurisdiction of the Ministry."

With all of that said, Professor Minerva McGonagall dismissed them and left everyone sitting in a state of utter shock.