Chapter Seven: The Quidditch Match

Hermione and Ginny walked down the crowded street of Diagony Alley talking animatedly; well it was mostly Ginny talking about her wedding with Harry and Hermione listening. It seemed Draco was right and Ron was engaged but had yet to the woman. Ginny said that Ron didn't leave his room for hours after he had received the letter.

"You know," Ginny said as they stepped into a Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, "I think he's a bit upset that he never asked you to marry him. I mean, you guys did break up ages ago, but I'd rather be married to a friend than someone I didn't know or Malfoy."

Hermione shifted through some robes. "Actually, Gin, Malfoy isn't as bad as he use to be." She said casually.

Ginny stared at her like she grew ten heads, "Really?"

Hermione glanced up at her friend and laughed at his expression. "Well, it's been a few years since school and after everything that happened after the war, he's matured a lot. I'm not saying that he's suddenly Prince Charming, but he isn't the little spoiled prat that we grew up with."

Ginny took in her friend's words and then shrugged, "Well if I had to make a baby with anyone, besides Harry of course, it'd be him." Hermione made a face at her friend's confession. "Oh come on Hermione! Just look at him! If you put aside the whole Malfoy thing and the fact that his family was trying to kill us, he's gorgeous! Back in school I always thought he the most amazing ass in your year."

"Gin, let's concentrate on finding dress robes to wear to the game and not on my fiancée's rear-end, please." She laughed.

"Do I detect a bit of jealousy in your voice?" Ginny teased.

"Oh be quiet." Hermione laughed throwing a robe at her. "So have you started your Christmas shopping yet?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"Hermione, its only beginning of October!"

"You must have started to think about it, at least."

Ginny sighed. "Well, I have. I just don't know what to get Harry. What about you, have you started?"

"I've started making a list of ideas and things to get people, but I'm not sure what to get Draco. The guy basically has everything."

"What about his parents?" Ginny asked, throwing some robes over her arm.

"Oh, I was just gonna get them a gift certificate to a spa resort for the week. I really don't know what to get them individually and I figured the more they're out of the house, the less chance I have to see Lucius. That man still gives me chills whenever I see him."

Ginny gave her a concerned look. "Hermione, you don't…you don't think that he'd try and do anything, right."

Hermione looked up the young girl, carefully choosing her words in case there were unwanted ears around. "I don't believe that Lucius would ever do something as drastic as that, unless seriously provoked."

Ginny nodded in understanding and the two continued shopping. After an hour of searching, Hermione finally decided on a dark teal knee length dress with a scoop neckline and ¾ length sleeves. The dress clung perfectly to her figure, giving her a sexy yet sophisticated look. Ginny, some how, convinced her to buy silver heels to complete the look with a Slytherin edge. Secretly, she wondered if her fiancée would mention anything when he saw her outfit.

As they were exiting Madam Malkin's and heading towards the Leaky Cauldron, Hermione saw an ad in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies. She told Ginny that she would meet her at the Leaky Cauldron and went to take a closer look at the add.

The Makers of the Firebolt

Proudly Present:

Aurora Borealis

Coming this Spring to Quidditch supply stories near you.

After looking over the sleek silver broom and some of the new features advertised on the ad, she walked inside the store to retrieve an informational pamphlet on the broom. Walking out of the store with a smile on her face, Hermione mentally crossed off one of the names on her Christmas list.


A few days later, Draco and Hermione were both getting ready for the Quidditch match and their first public appearance. Hermione fidgeted nervously while Daisy did her make-up.

"Misses, must be still or Daisy might make a mistake!" Daisy scolded in her squeaky voice.

"I'm sorry Daisy, I'm just so nervous. I've never really gotten along with the press before." Hermione tried to explain to the small elf.

Daisy looked at her knowingly. "Master Draco, will be there Misses, so there is nothing to worry about. Master Draco will take care of you."

Hermione took a deep breath and tried to remain calm while Daisy finished with her work. When she was done, Hermione slipped into her dress and was slipping her feet in her silver shoes when there was a knock on the door. She immediately knew it was Draco.

"Come in, I'm almost ready." Draco opened the door, wearing his usual dark dress robes with a silver buttons and a crisp white shirt underneath and his hair casually sweeping across his brow and eyes.

"We're going to be late if you don't hurry…" he started to reprimand, but stopped when he looked at Hermione. She had walked over to the mirror casting a few spells on her hair to make her curls relax and hold a healthy shine.

"Do you think this dress is alright for this evening, Draco?" she asked while fixing her hair and make-up. She glanced at him in the mirror but he was just staring at her, a distant look in his eyes. "Draco did you hear me?"

Draco jumped when she called his name and met her eyes in the mirror.

"No sorry, I was thinking about something…um…for work. What did you say?"

Hermione turned around, trying to ignore the fact that Draco's eyes immediately flew downwards then suddenly back up, a guilty look on his face.

"I asked you if you thought if this dress was okay?"

She watched him, as he seemed to have a mental battle about how to reply to her question. She couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"You look fine. Are you ready to leave yet?" he impatiently asked, rocking onto the heels of his shoes.

"Yep, I'm all ready." She grabbed a thick black cloak and wrapped it around herself. She decided that his sigh of relief was a good thing and smirked to herself.

When they arrived at the edge of the platform that led to the Minister's box, reporters and cameramen flocked to the railing, eager to get a few words and pictures from the couple. Hermione tightened her grip on Draco's arm as they started to walk up the platform.

"You'll be fine, just look straight ahead and pretend they're not there." He whispered encouragingly in her ear. Hermione did as he said and held her head as they walked, ignoring all the calls of her name and the thousands of questions being screamed at her.

Once they entered the safety of the coatroom in the Minister's box, she sighed in relief. Draco chuckled as he removed his cloak and then her own. Once the entered the main area of the Minister's Box, they went around and mingled with all guests. Every now and then, Hermione put some input into the conversation, but mostly let Draco lead. She had no doubt that she could carry on a conversation with any of these guests, she was still a little apprehensive and unsure how a Malfoy would go about things. She decided to listen and watch Draco, while taking mental notes.

As more guests arrived, Hermione started to look around for her friends. Finally she found them in a group by the corner holding drinks and laughing. She looked up at Draco who was talking with an older man named Anthony Gibbson about business. When there was pause between the two men, she cleared her throat.

"Draco, dear, I'm going to go get something to drink."

Draco looked across the room, saw her friends and nodded in understanding. "Of course, sweetheart, take your time."

Hermione looked towards the Anthony and smiled. "It was a pleasure to meet you Mr. Gibbson."

"Oh no madam," he said taking shaking her hand lightly, "It was all mine."

She nodded to them both and quickly escaped to meet up with her friends. As she approached the group she noticed another female, or what she thought was female, presence with the group. Standing next to an unhappy Ron was an beastly looking woman. Her shoulders were very square, as was the rest of her, and she stood slightly hunched over. She had a pudgy face with a square jaw and a mole next to her nose. Her eyes were a muddy green color and her hair was a dark brown. To say the least, Hermione understood why Ron was so unhappy: this was his fiancée.

"Hey 'Mione. You look wonderful!" Harry beamed as he embraced her.

"All thanks to me." Teased Ginny as they hugged.

Ron hugged her too, mumbling "Yea, you look good, 'Mione."

Hermione looked towards the woman standing awkwardly at Ron's side. She held her hand out and smiled. "Hello, I'm Hermione Granger."

"Oh Ron, how rude not to introduce them!" his sister scolded. "Hermione this is Roberta DonnerSchenkel, Ron's fiancée."

Roberta gave Hermione a gruff "Hallo" in a thick German accent.

"So, Hermione, how's life with the Slytherin prince?" Harry teased, taking a sip of his drink.

"Oh its wonderful! Though I am not personally fond dungeon decor, once you get used to that and the rats it's pretty comfortable." She said in a playful voice.

Harry laughed. "Seriously Hermione, everything is going well?"

"Yes, Harry. It isn't perfect but it isn't horrible. As of right now I'm rather content on how things are going."

Harry nodded in understanding the group carried on with their conversion until the game was announced to start. They each took their respective seats in the box, Draco and Hermione in the front row while the others sat behind them. As they took their seats, Draco leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"So who's the ghastly looking girl with Weasley?" Draco smirked.

"Who do you think?" she whispered back, her eyes on the field.

"You've got to be kidding me! Even he doesn't deserve something like that!"

"Draco!"

"Well that explains why he's been staring at you all evening."

"What are you talking about?"

He leaned in closer, his lips brushing against her ear, causing shivers to wash down her spine and butterflies to flutter in her stomach. "With you wearing that dress though, I don't blame him. I'm having the same problem myself." He sat up and watched the game with a smirk, as if nothing had happened.

Hermione's mind was racing. As much as she wanted to deny her attraction to Draco, she couldn't ignore it now. However, her mind raced with what he said. Was Ron really staring at her all night? She remembered Ginny mentioning something about Rob being upset that they didn't get engaged, but brushed it off. Was it possible there was truth to her words? She felt the hair on the back of neck stand up causing Hermione to shift uncomfortably in her seat. She could literally feel someone's eyes boring into her back.

As if noticing, Draco put a protective arm around her shoulders and sent a glance backwards. If there was one thing she learned about Draco from all her years at Hogwarts with him, it was that he hated when someone tried to take something from him.

At half time, the guest got up from their seats and returned inside where there refreshments waiting for them. Draco did some more mingling while Hermione conversed with her friends. There were ten more minutes left until the second half of the game when Ron pulled her aside into an empty hallway.

"What is it Ron? We really shouldn't be doing this. If anyone sees they might get the wrong idea."

"When do you suddenly care what people think, Hermione? We're just talking." He said in a huff. He fidgeted with his navy dress robes for a moment while Hermione crossed her arms, waiting for him to speak.

"Did you want to talk about something?" she asked, in what she hoped was a nice tone. While she normally wouldn't mind talking to Ron, she was just a little taken back by what Draco and Ginny had told and was nervous that someone might see them and start some horrible rumor.

"Um…so how is everything with the ferret?" he asked.

"If you mean, Draco, then everything is fine."

Ron frowned at her usage of his first name. "So you're on first name bases with him now?"

"Well, we are getting married in a few months. I don't expect to call him Malfoy for the rest of my life."

"So you're really going through with it, huh?"

"It's not like we have a choice. They'll take my wand and throw me in Azkaban if I don't, you know that."

"Well, what if you had another option." Ron looked down at his shoes, his brows furrowed together. It took Hermione a moment to understand what he was hinting at."

"What are you proposing Ron? That I make up some excuse about Malfoy being abusive or something like that so I can get out of the marriage and marry you?" He shrugged his shoulders. "And what about Roberta?"

"I'm pretty positive that if Roberta had an opportunity to get out of this marriage, she would jump on the first chance she got."

"Well I'm not doing it, Ron." She stated in stern voice.

Ron looked at her in shock. "Wha…what?" he stuttered.

"I'm not going to make up some horrible story about Draco, just because you were afraid to ask me to marry you before this all happened! For Merlin's sake Percy gave us a month's notice before the law was passed! You had a month to ask me to save us both and you blew it! I'm not ruining an innocent person's life because you're upset with your match." She pushed passed him and headed back into room, hoping he would have the decency to leave the conversion behind him.

"Hermione! You can't be serious!" Obviously that hope was wasted.

Hermione kept walking towards the room, eager for its safety. There was still five minutes until the game continued and the room was fairly crowded. She was barely five feet into the room when Ron's voice echoed loudly through the room.

"You can't be serious about this Hermione! He's Death Eater for Merlin's Sake!"

Everyone seemed to stop what they were doing and stare at Hermione and the red head walking briskly towards her. Several people gasped and were whispering to each other. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Draco angrily push through the crowd, his hand inside his robes to retrieve his wand, and a murderous look in his eyes. Hermione turned around beat him to Ron. The solid sound Hermione's slap made all whispers and movement stop, even Draco. Ron looked down at her, a freckled hand covering the angry red mark on his cheek.

"Ronald Weasley, it is best to keep such thoughts to yourself and to remember that the man you speak of will be my husband very shortly, and I demand that he be treated as such."

By the time she turned around, Draco was already at her side and wrapped a protective arm around her waist. He glared at Ron, who was still holding his cheek.

"I'd be careful the next time you decided to open that big mouth of yours, Weasley. My fiancée might not be there to protect you." He threatened.

Quietly Draco led Hermione out of the room to retrieve their cloaks and head home. He quickly wrapped her cloak around her and walked her to the edge of the platform, ignoring the paparazzi. He pulled her tightly towards him and Apparated back to her the Manor.

As soon as Hermione felt her feet hit the hard wooden floor of Malfoy Manor, her anger doubled. She could not believe Ron had the audacity to not only embarrass her future family, but her, his best friend. Draco had yet to let go of her and she was grateful for it. It kept her from Apparating back to the Quidditch match and cursing Ron so badly his grandchildren would still be having side effects from it. She took a deep breath, breathing in Draco's scent of a pleasurable mixture of expensive soap and male musk. She pulled away once she felt she had regained enough self-control to not cause bodily harm to a certain redheaded man.

"Are you okay?" he asked in a concerned voice. Any other time, Hermione would have teased his show of emotion. At that moment, however, she was touched by it.

"Physically, I'm completely fine." She sighed heavily. "I just can't believe him. Saying something like that in private, maybe, but not in front of everyone. That was extremely uncalled for." She looked up at him to meet his eyes. "I am so sorry you had to go through that. I must have embarrassed you horribly."

He held up his hand to stop her. "You did nothing Hermione, but defend me." He ran a hand through his nervously, his eyed dancing around the room before falling on her again. "I…I really appreciate it. Thank you."

Hermione rubbed her palm at the reminder of the event. Now that the adrenaline had left her system, she began to feel the dull throbbing of her hand. She laughed lightly when she thought about it.

"I bet Ron's going to have a nasty bruise from that."

Draco chuckled heartily along with her. "Yes, if I do remember correctly, you have quite an arm on you." He teased while rubbing his jaw at the memory.

She placed her hands on her hips. "I would say sorry for that, but you deserved it."

He shrugged in defeat. "I won't argue with that."

They chuckled lightly for a moment, relieved to lift the tension from the room. Finally Draco looked at her, a sad curiosity in his steel eyes.

"So besides his idiotic and rude outburst, what else did the Weasel do to deserve you storming away from him."

She turned away from him, afraid of his reaction to her encounter with Ron. Any man would be upset with what he did, no matter the circumstances.

"He was trying to convince me, rather poorly I might add, to tell the Ministry that you were abusive or having an affair or something along those lines so our engagement could be annulled. Then when had his engagement annulled with Roberta, him and I could get engaged." She let out a hollow laugh, remembering their conversation.

"I absolutely refused. I couldn't say something so horrible about you when you've been nothing but nice to me and I told him so." She turned around to face him, looking into his angry eyes. "I don't expect undying love and a 'happily ever after' ending to this marriage, Draco. However, I do see you as a close friend and, believe it or not, I care about your feelings. I could never do anything like that to you."

For several moments they stared at each other in silence, each unsure of what to do. Draco finally moved and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her to him.

"We both know this marriage is going to be hard," he began softly. "but knowing that we can trust each other, as friends, will make it easier."

"Don't you go all soft on me now, Malfoy." She muttered.

He squeezed her when she used his last name. "Don't worry Granger, I'm still the stuck up sexy git you know and love."

"Oh please."

"You can't deny my sexiness." She laughed into his chest and he smiled lightly. "Seriously though Hermione, we're going to have to deal with this." He exhaled heavily. "We're going to have to fix whatever damage Weasley made. I'm going to talk to my parents about the papers, but until this whole thing is settled, I don't want you around him."

They still embraced each other, as she tried to process his words.

"None of them? Not even Harry or Ginny? They didn't do anything and Ginny is in my wedding party!" she started to panic.

"Harry and Ginny are fine, as long as Weasley isn't with them." She huffed angrily into his chest. They broke apart and looked at each other. "I'm gonna go find my parents now. The sooner this is dealt with the better. If we hurry we might be able to stop it from making the morning paper."

"Okay, I'm just gonna take a bath and relax."

He nodded his head and they both started walking their separate ways. Hermione headed down the hall to find the staircase that would take her room and Draco was about to turn the corner before he called out to her.

"By the way Granger," She turned around to see him smirking at her, laughter in his eyes. "never wear that dress out in public without me." He turned the corner sharply and disappeared down the hallway.

Hermione walked back to her room, blushing and smiling, with the feeling that something was about to change.


A/N: Thank you everyone that reviewed! So here is the next chapter like I promised. It took me a bit longer than I thought because I had to redo the entire ending. ^.^ lol. Hope you like it! Read and Review please!