Hey guys, so sorry for making you wait for this chapter (internet probs and just general disliking of how it was turning out) but it's all done now, so thanks for your patience :)

Chapter 11 – The Court Date

Hermione was already wide awake when the butler, Mr. White, came to rouse her and Ginny. The night before had not been kind, and she had seen the sunrise before she saw the backs of her eyelids. She had dozed for perhaps a few minutes, not enough to fall into dreams, which was perhaps, a blessing in disguise.

"Master Kingsley has arranged for you two to have breakfast in bed, are you ready for it to be brought in?" Like the Enforcers, he never smiled.

Hermione looked over to Ginny, who nodded. "Yes, please." She said.

"Very well then, Mrs. Kingsley. I will be right back."

"It's still Ms. Granger." She called as he closed the door.

Ginny sat up in her bed, yawning and stretching. "What time is it?"

"A couple hours past dawn."

"You didn't sleep, did you?"

Hermione shook her head in response.

There was a soft knock and Mr. White returned with two more servants, carrying trays which they promptly set up in front of Hermione and Ginny before exiting again.

"Will you be needing anything else, Miss Granger, Miss Weasley?" He had heard her.

"No, thank you." Hermione replied.

"I could get used to this." Ginny said, already starting in on her food.

"I'm sure you could." Mr. White said before leaving the room.

"Eat something Hermione." Ginny said, after watching her stare at her plate.

"I'm afraid it's poisoned or something."

"He wouldn't poison you on your wedding day."

Hermione wasn't so sure. "I'm really not hungry." If not poison it could be a love potion or something equally horrible.

"Some toast at least. You can't poison toast."

"Actually, there are multiple ways to poison toast."

"You wouldn't be of any use to him if you were dead."

"Fine Gin, I'll eat some toast."

"Fred, you need to eat." His twin said, having arrived at the Burrow early for moral support and briefing on their court mission.

"I'm not hungry."

"It's not going to help Hermione if you pass out in the middle of the appeal."

"George has a point." Their mother said.

"Even Mum agrees with me. I have to be right."

"I just can't stand the thought of her being there, with him, and what he might do to her."

"Hermione and Ginny will be fine." His mother said, subtly reminding him that Hermione wasn't the only one in danger.

"If he's hurt either of them, I'm going to kill him."

"I'll help you." George said, putting his hand on his shoulder. "But right now you need to eat."

"Shouldn't we be heading to the ministry?" He asked, looking at his father.

"It's only eight right now. We'll go at nine thirty, that'll give us some time to find the right courtroom. Also being there a couple hours early is always a good plan." His father replied. "Are Harry and Luna coming to help?"

"Harry refused and Luna is sick."

"Harry refused? Why that little-"

"Fred." His twin said. "Calm down."

"I am calm." He insisted. "Did you see the bruises Kingsley left on her? That man is a monster."

"We know Fred. But getting all worked up isn't going to help." His mother said calmly.

Hermione sat silently as the stylist did her hair. Ginny chattered endlessly, but Hermione didn't speak past what was asked of her.

"Not happy with your pairing, are you love?" The stylist asked with a hint of a Scottish accent.

"Not at all." She replied.

"What's his name?"

Hermione gave her a confused look.

"I mean your boyfriend."

"Oh. It doesn't matter." She said softly. It did matter, but she wasn't sure if she could trust her.

"I was lucky, I was engaged when the ordinance came out so we just had to move up our wedding date."

"Lucky you."

"Smile dearie, it's your big day." The stylist perked up the corners of her mouth in an attempt to make her smile, but Hermione continued frowning after she let go.

"Can I put ribbons in my hair 'Mione?" Ginny asked.

"Whatever makes you happy, Gin."

"Excellent." Ginny said, then turned to her stylist. "Make sure they match my dress."

"Do you want ribbons in your hair too um, Mione?"

"Will it take longer to do that?"

"I'd have to undo everything I just did, but it wouldn't take more than twenty minutes more."

"Ribbons sound excellent. And take your time putting them in, please." Hermione said, clinging to the hope of stalling the actual ceremony long enough that she wouldn't have to go through with it.

"If that will make you smile I'll move slow as molasses."

Hermione grinned, checking herself in the mirror to make sure she didn't look depraved. She did, but there was little helping that.

"You're an odd one dear, but I like you."

Harry apparated to the burrow just as everyone was getting ready to leave.

"What are you doing here?" Fred asked.

"I want to help. Hermione deserves to marry who she wants."

"She did put you down on the proxy form in case you changed your mind." Mr. Weasley said.

"You have to promise to be a help and not a hindrance though. You're not exactly the best with authority."

"Neither are you, Fred"

"Boys, remember what's important here." Mrs. Weasley chastised them.

Fred shot Harry a look but that was it before he took a handful of Floo powder and was the first into the flames. He had to admit, if Harry could keep himself out of trouble, he might be the person they needed today.

Hermione's hair was almost completed when there was a knock at the bathroom door.

"Come in!" Ginny called, and Kingsley entered.

"It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding." Ginny said.

Kingsley shot her a glare more dangerous than a drawn wand. "Hermione, a word."

"I'm busy, Salem."

"Now."

"Do you want bad luck on you wedding day?" Hermione asked coolly, all the while overjoyed that he was bringing bad superstition upon himself.

"Oops. Too late. Get your ass out here."

"Say please."

Instead, he pointed his wand at her, firing a curse that seemed to fill her stomach with tiny needles. She cried out in pain, doubling over and clutching her stomach.

"What did you do to her, you monster!" She heard Ginny shriek.

"Shut up or you're next. That goes for the two of you as well."

Once the pain had begun to subside, Hermione stood and walked past Kingsley and into the hall, where she put on a brave face and waited for him to join her.

"Nice of you to join me." She said, her hand clutching her wand behind her back.

"Put your wand back in your pocket." He said.

Every part of her wanted to disobey, but instead she did as told. "What did you want to discuss?"

"A little birdy told me that you had requested an appeal of our engagement."

Her heart dropped into her needle filled stomach. He knew. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"Only because I had some friends – or rather, employees – at the ministry move your appeal date to today."

"You're bribing officials?"

"Of course I am."

That's why it had been so difficult for her to get an appeal. She scowled back at him but didn't say anything.

"The only place I haven't been able to worm my way into is the court system, which is how I got sent to Azkaban in the first place. I thought I would be fine with your appeal being set to today, but then I realized something. Proxy Law."

She suddenly realized how much trouble she was in.

"I just have one question for you. Don't try to lie to me, I put truth serum in your tea this morning – Did you send a proxy to your appeal hearing today?"

She hadn't drank the tea. She could lie all she wanted and he would believe her. "No." She said. "I don't even know what Proxy Law is."

"Excellent." He leaned forward to kiss her, but she drew back. With a snarl, he pushed her against the wall and pressed his lips to hers. "You'd do well to learn not to resist me." He growled.

She glowered back, wiping her lips with her forearm. "I can be just as dangerous as you, Salem Kingsley." She decided right there that she would go to Azkaban if Fred's plan failed, because she was going to kill him.

"Go ahead, little witch. Try me."

"Which courtroom are we looking for?" Harry asked.

"141b." Fred replied.

"Are you sure that's right?" His father asked.

"That's what the form said."

"There's only a hundred and twenty courtrooms."

"Maybe they built more?" Fred offered.

"They could have repurposed some offices for the use of pairing appeals." George said.

"Let's find someone and ask." His mother said.

Doing so turned out to be more difficult than one would think. Eventually, they found an off duty judge that directed them to a cluster of meeting rooms. Room 141b was written on a piece of parchment taped to one of the doors.

"All proxy forms have to be submitted two weeks in advance." The sleepy looking clerk said when they tried to check in.

"But she got the court date just a week ago." Fred contended.

"I'm sorry, but rules are rules."

"Can you bend the rules, this is for Hermione Granger."

"I'm aware." The clerk gave him an uncaring look. "But I can't bend the rules for anyone."

Harry stepped forward, brushing his hair from his forehead to reveal his lightning bolt shaped scar. "How about for the wizard who defeated Voldemort?"

The clerk sighed. "I'll see what I can do."

Hermione stood holding her stomach as she waited for the cue to walk into the chapel and the gaze of everyone attending. She doubted Kingsley had many friends, so she hoped numbers would be low. There was certainly no one she knew attending, save Ginny, who stood behind her, rubbing her shoulders and whispering soothing things.

"They'll be here any minute now to stop the ceremony. The ministry can't make you marry that creep out there."

"Gin, I know you're trying to help, but please just stop."

For all their stalling, the ceremony was starting only five minutes late. She looked back at her maid of honor, who was upsettingly tantrum free the whole day. Hermione sighed, she couldn't blame her. Who knew what Kingsley would do to her if she tried to throw a fit?

The needles in her stomach starting stinging again just as the ushers opened the doors and the music began to play. She didn't want to move, but did, gritting her teeth and holding her bouquet tight against her aching stomach. There were relatively few people in the pews, she noticed as she tried to look anywhere but at the altar where the beast she was to wed was standing. She tried to walk slowly as possible, pushing the flower petals strewn down the aisle along with her feet.

Too quickly, she reached the altar, taking a deep breath before stepping up and facing Kingsley. His smug smirk reminded her of Draco Malfoy the moment before she decked him, but unfortunately, she was unable to do the same honor to the villain in a perfectly tailored suit that stood before her.

"Proxies for the Granger appeal?" The clerk called, and everyone jumped up. "Courtroom 141b, the judge will see you now."

Fred all but ran for the courtroom door. They were quickly running out of time.

The room was almost set up like a classroom, with a large desk in the front facing two long tables with chairs all turned towards it. There was no one at the large desk when they entered, but a bailiff quickly seated them at the tables.

"Are all proxy defendants present for the Granger appeal?" The bailiff asked in a voice that said he took way to much pleasure in his job.

They all nodded.

"In order of seating, starting with this young man here" The bailiff pointed to Harry, who was seated on the other side of George, "Please state your name and relationship to Miss Granger."

"Harry James Potter, um, former classmate and friend."

The bailiff scribbled something down on his clipboard and went on to George. Fred began to wonder what he should say. Friend, boyfriend?

"George Weasley, friend."

Fred was next. "Fred Weasley, intended fiancé." He decided.

The bailiff gave him a strange look. "What?"

"I am who she requested to be reassigned to marry."

"Was Miss Granger made aware that she could have the ministry reassign her a partner if she won this appeal?"

"Yes, she was made aware." Mr. Weasley answered for his son.

"I am going to have to ask you to leave."

"Me, why?" Fred asked.

"Appeal policy. Requested partners that do not file for joint appeals cannot be present or proxies for the other's appeal."

It seemed like a ridiculous rule to Fred, but he nodded and left the room. As he sat in the waiting room, his family slowly joined him. Apparently the policy extended to his family as well. Now the only one left to defend the woman he loved was the wizard that blamed her for the death of Ron.

As the minister spoke, Hermione kept glancing around, hoping that Fred and the rest of the Weasleys would appear, telling her that the whole thing was called off and she could go. Her hopes began to fade as the minister kept speaking.

"Salem Kingsley, your vows?" The minister said.

"I would just like to say, Hermione, that I cannot wait for our life together to begin." His grin was disturbing.

"Hermione Granger, your vows?"

She suddenly realized that this was her time to stall. So she began talking, spewing whatever she could think of in regards to matrimony and how a bride should feel about marrying someone. Suddenly aware of how fast she was talking, she slowed down, continuing to make the same points over and over with different words, Kingsley growing more and more irritated as she spoke.

Fred couldn't sit still as he waited outside the courtroom, pacing up and down the waiting room till his twin literally dragged him into a chair.

"Fred, please calm down."

"I can't. What if he messes this up for her?"

"He's Harry Potter. I'm sure he can handle himself." George insisted.

"I don't trust him."

"He defeated Voldemort."

"He would have been dead his first year if not for her."

"And that's why he's defending her now. They might not be very good friends right now, but he still cares about her."

What George said was true, but it did very little to lessen the knot of worry that was twisted in his chest. "I don't care if I go to Azkaban, I'll kill Kingsley if they make her marry him. I will. I'd rather rot there and know she's safe."

George sighed and sat beside him. "I'll be right there with you bro. I'm sure it's better than living with Angelina. That woman is worse than a Dementor."

"No boys of mine are going to Azkaban." Their mother said. "Both of you just calm down."

"Yes, mum." George said, but Fred was silent. All this time he had been pushing aside the fear that she would be taken from him, but now there was nothing to do but sit and listen to it growl in his ear. For all he knew the wedding was over, and he had already lost her.

The pain in her abdomen grew worse and worse as she continued to speak, and it becoming more difficult to draw breath. She pressed on, black spots dancing in the edges of her vision and her knees starting to shake before she finished with "And I cannot wait to find out what it means to love you."

"That was lovely." The minister whispered, wiping a tear from his eye. "Now." He continued "If anyone has any reason why these two should not be wed, speak now, or forever hold your peace."

Sorry for the cliffhanger but the chapter was running long, the next few chapters are all written and ready to be put up so I'll try and get them to you soon :) In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed and please remember to review, I love hearing your opinions :)

-Zen