Bond

Chapter 12 by WickedDiSaster

McGonagall was surprised to see him in her fireplace but didn't make a comment. He practically ran past her to his quarters, he knew he'd find her there, he could feel her. He found her sleeping on his bed, looking at her; he was unwilling to shake her awake. She looked so peaceful. She must have felt his anxiety however, because she turned to look at him, opening her eyes.

"Draco," she murmured.

"Is it true?"

She smiled. As if his question confirmed the news, instead of the other way around. She beamed with unshed tear of happiness.

He kissed her, then, kissed her with all his might, with all his being. Had she really fooled him that way? Had she played him like puppet from the start? Why? How? When?

He could hardly process the questions in his head. He was overwhelmed with everything else; he stopped questioning how she had done it to dwell on what it meant for their future now that she had succeeded. He ended up flabbergasted.

He was still kissing her; she was pulling at his hair, crushing him impossibly closer to her. He had never felt her be so happy. He was elated himself. His worshiping kisses weren't near efficient in portraying what he felt. It couldn't be; he'd been convincing himself of it, repeating it like a mantra all these days.

But it was; he could taste the veracity of it on her lips, in each of her touches, in the way she hummed his name like it was a testament to her happiness. As if asking the question himself had not only confirmed it, but made it possible.

They finished that night in a grunt of tears as he worshipped her body, her sacred, holy body shuddering beneath him. He tried to roll off her so as not to crush her but she clawed her nails into his back as soon as he moved to do so. His heavy breathing accompanied the butterfly kisses on her face, neck and chest as he rested on his arms to avoid crushing her. She nuzzled his neck drawing him to her, breathing him in as they came back to planet Earth.

He didn't seem to understand her need for closeness, she wanted to imprint him on her skin and he was holding back. She pushed him to the side, rolling them so she could be on top, so he couldn't keep any distance and yet, her weight could not give her enough pressure against her skin, not near enough to engrave him like she wanted to.

He touched her arms, caressing her back and nuzzling her hair, when she looked up at him. She had never seen him look at her that way. The sole intensity of it shook her to the core and left her breathless.

"Draco," she whispered in a gasp.

"Hermione," he replied, casting the same awe of his regard in his voice.

He pushed a curl that was obscuring her sight behind her ear; she used the opportunity to nuzzle the hand that had just caressed her cheek, whispering softly, "I love you," against his palm, followed by a whispered, "I'm sorry," as she looked at him.

"Whatever for, my love?" he whispered, bringing her towards him to kiss her front.

"I was so stupid, so utterly blind, I,"

He shushed her with a chuckle, "Hermione Granger being stupid; has there ever been greater blasphemy?"

She sighed, "I wasn't thinking, I didn't want to accept it, I was too God damn happy to burst my own bubble, I'm so sorry,"

She would have probably gone on forever but he stopped her stubborn rant with a kiss that soon made her forget her name. "You are perfect, Hermione Granger, you made this happen. You even managed to trick me and astound my father. I was going to blame it on foolishness, on lust-drunk mistakes, but you managed to free me of responsibility, managed to corner my father into forcing us into marriage. My way wouldn't have worked; the first thing he did was pour me a cup of truth serum. You kept me true, through my denial, my innocence and my shock. He figured out your stunt Hermione, before I could even begin to dream it possible, he knew what had happened from the start. I never showed myself off in front of my father, but he managed to see glimpses of the real me – of the level-headed, family loyal me – and I could tell he was impressed. He knew he'd gotten me into this, and even when I rebuffed him and left, I could tell he was proud of what he saw, of what you made of me."

She remained quiet for a long time, processing his words, as she drew patterns on his chest. "He knows it was me then," she spoke, "good, then, that's one less person to face."

She didn't elaborate and he didn't prod her to. He didn't expect her to tell Ginny until he found them in the common room. Ginny's shocked disbelief had been all he needed to see. Had she told her about the pregnancy the redhead would have jumped to hug her friend and promise her to exert revenge on him; but Ginny's stunned silence and recoiled stance had told him enough.

Draco closed the door behind him, announcing his presence with a soft thud. "She told you then," he stated, drawing Ginny's attention to him. She looked positively apologetic and horrified.

"I guess you could say I rub off on people," he continued. "She has been spending an awful long time with me, after all."

The redhead seemed to have trouble finding her voice. He would have stopped her upcoming apology anyhow. "You'll need to polish your act better than that, Ginny, you are her best friend; she wouldn't hide her engagement from you. You have to pretend to have been in the know from the start."

"Eng- engagement?" She gaped, the wheels turning in her head, "a marriage, of- of course." His family name couldn't afford anything else. "You're going to," she swallowed, "you are going to marry."

"Naturally, Ginny. My father will take care of the details; I trust I can confide in you to take care of your family."

If possible, the redhead lost whatever colour she had left. "Don't look so distraught, Weasley, I promise you, I'm not the worst thing that can happen to your friend," he joked.

"No, of course you're not." Ginny looked at Hermione as if she were an impostor.

"I'm going to tell them too, Gin," Hermione voiced.

"I would ask you to narrow your confessions to the confines of this room, I would have hoped there hadn't been any to begin with," Draco told her.

"It's just going to be Harry and Ron, I'll force them into an Unbreakable Vow if I have to," Hermione replied. "It's for the best."

"Alright," Draco begrudgingly gave in, "then I believe my father might have slipped some hints into our upcoming marriage in tomorrow's Daily Prophet."

Hermione stood up at once. "I have to go to McGonagall's then," she said as she rushed past him.

Reading her intentions to contact Pothead and the Weasel, Draco lost no time in warning her, in a no nonsense tone, "You bring them here if you must, you don't go to them. Is that clear?" His over-protective nature made him look as menacing as the iron grip that he had on her hand. She put a hand on his to calm him down, before promising to do just that.

Then he was alone with her friend, trying to control his urge to follow her to the Headmistress' office.

"I'm sorry, Draco," the redhead broke the silence, misreading his moodiness.

Draco couldn't help the chortle that escaped his lips; she was almost breaking his resolve of staying true to his act. "What are you sorry for, Ginevra? I know you didn't have anything to do with it."

"I never thought she'd-, I thought you guys could be together, I misread you at first, I guess. I shouldn't have encouraged her to do anything, Draco, I'm sorry." The defeat in her voice twitched Draco's guilt. When had he grown a heart?

He breathed, covering his eyes with his hands, "You didn't misread anything, Weasley, I did like her; I just thought it wasn't a good idea at the time. Once my father got back his influence, he wasn't going to be so adamant about our relationship. I didn't like the prospect of breaking her heart." Let it be unsaid that he had already done it once.

"Oh, God, Draco, I'm so so-,"

"If you say you're sorry one more time, Ginny, I'm going to make sure you are sorry."

The door to the common room opened and in came the threatening voices of Potter and Weasley. "We'll see who's sorry in the end, Malfoy."

"I knew you couldn't hide your true colours for long, Ferret."

"Ron, just be quiet please, take a seat," Hermione's strained voice interrupted them.

Draco stood up from his couch and crossed the room towards his chambers, crossing Ginny on his path, "Help her out, will you, Ginny? Just give a shout if you think you need me."

Hermione looked at their exchange befuddled, wondering if he had told her anything after she left, but the disappointed look in Ginny's eyes told her all she needed to know.

It took them a while to agree to the Unbreakable Vow before she started; they were never to utter a word of what they spoke.

Once Ginny calmed them down and the silence settled in, she didn't know how to begin. "I," she started, not knowing how to continue; this was ten times harder than her talk with Ginny. "I'm, I'm pregnant," she blurted, and the silence was broken by the astounded disbelieving cries, and promises of retribution. Hermione couldn't quite process a word they were saying until Ron stood up and roared, "I'M GOING TO KILL THAT BLOODY BASTARD!"

She had reacted as fast as she could, yelling at him, "No!" But Harry had trapped her in his arms and it had been Ginny who was the one to stop her brother, with cries of, "Wait Ronald, you don't understand, it wasn't him!"

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as he saw her friend stop his advances, and turn to look at her. "Then who?" he asked, flexing his fingers as if to prepare them for a hard blow.

Hermione breathed, breaking from Harry's grasp, and taking in the heavy weight of her own body. She beckoned Ronald to come closer, and taking a hold of both of their hands, she begged them to sit down with her eyes. They did, and she started again. "It was me," she gulped.

Ginny watched them over their shoulders, ready to pounce if they stood up again.

"What?" Harry broke the silence, forcing Hermione to repeat herself.

"I, I did this, I, I tricked him."

"What?!" It was Ron's disbelieving voice this time. "Is this some bloody sham to cover his arse; are you trying to convince me not to kick him to an inch of his life? Just fucking tell me, who the hell it was, if not Malfoy then who?!"

"That's not what I meant," Ginny broke in, "she's telling the truth. It's just that she," she stumbled over her words, "I never thought she could, I knew she was in too deep, I never thought encouraging her would be, I, I, I knew he liked her too. I just didn't think it through. I didn't see the whole picture," she started babbling, "I thought I could help them be, be together, for real, but then he, he pulled away and well, I thought that meant he wasn't interested and tried to dissuade her from pursuing him but, I, I never saw it coming. I never thought she-,"

"What are you on about?" Harry's disbelief stopped Ginny's rant. "Are you really trying to take the blame from that ferret! What are you saying? That she seduced him?" He was mad enough to spit fire, "That he didn't know what he was doing? If he wasn't fucking interested he knew better than to take advantage of her, we're not fucking children, everyone knows how it bloody works. He didn't even have the decency to cast a bloody spell!"

"Harry," Ginny whimpered, covering her mouth in her hand, "you don't understand."

Harry was ready to retaliate with fury at his girlfriend but Hermione's voice stopped them. "Harry, I," she focused on the hands she was holding, "I tricked him."

"How could you have, Hermione? He knew perfectly well what he was doing!"

"He didn't know, Harry, I never told him. I never mentioned it to him," she took a deep breath, "the way I warned you both during fourth year."

She waited for it to settle in, and felt the realization dawn as their hands tensed in her grasp, and Ronald pulled from her as if she had burned him.

Nor Harry or Ron seemed to find their voice, "Wh- why would you-"

"I'm sorry, Harry, I didn't mean to hurt you, either of you." She gulped.

Harry didn't seem to be able to look at her. Ron wasn't doing any better, glaring daggers at the floor, but he was the one to break the sombre stillness. "He's a Malfoy, Hermione, what were you thinking, you can't expect him to do right by you."

Hermione swallowed, Ginny fumed, but it was Draco who answered his question. "You seem to think I have a choice, Weasley. Have you forgotten why I agreed to this sham in the first place? Do you think anyone would believe Hermione Granger, War Heroine, best friend to the Boy-Who-Lived, played me and not the other way around?" Draco walked over to them, "Do you think they'd care? I belong to one of the oldest pureblood families of this country, Weasel, it doesn't matter if it was a trick or not, we can't afford this now."

Draco had never thought that he would leave Ronald Weasley speechless, and he was hoping to savour the moment more, but Hermione's feelings were bringing him down. It was as if she herself believed her own lies. The only thing she had done was make him the happiest wizard on the planet.

"So to business now," Draco continued, "it's not in hers or my best interests to have the Wizarding world know the truth, so we're all going to pretend to have been planning a Secret Wedding at Malfoy Manor next week. As every bloody secret in this society, it will leak into the media in tomorrow's Prophet, and when word gets out, you will all say it was Hermione's idea to make it a private event. Explain how we've been planning it for months; how you found out during Christmas yourselves, and how she made you swear not to breathe a word of it, but now that the secret's out, there's not much point in not sharing her happiness." He turned to Ginevra then, "I trust you can take care of your family now?"

Ginny nodded firmly, but Ron broke their exchange with, "How do you expect us to convince them to agree on this? We can't tell them what's going on, we made an Unbreakable Vow."

"You are not to breathe a word of this ever, Weasley. As to how to convince your family, I was hoping you'd be able to figure that out yourself."

"You can tell them she's pregnant, Ron," Ginny said, "That will convince them into lying for her. It would be good to invite some members of the Order as well. Harry, you should swear them to secrecy, though."

"I need a list of everyone who's to be involved. Father will take care of delivering robes for the occasion. We can't have anyone ordering their robes this late in the ceremony." Draco looked everyone over, ready to send them out to get things started. If they were to get anything done at all, they needed to move now.

They looked too gloomy and beaten to get them going, however, and their moods were rubbing off on Hermione, which was worse. "Stop looking so devastated," Draco glowered at them, "This is supposed to be a happy affair, remember?" He wasn't having any effect on them. "Fuck it! This isn't the end of the world, you know? Just get over it already!"

Nothing.

If anything, he'd made it worse, neither of the bloody bastards dared direct a look at Hermione, and she was on the brink of tears herself. "Things were not supposed to turn out this way," he thought aloud, looking at her. He had planned for her to be the victim of this, not the culprit. He would have gladly taken his father's rejection over this. She loved them for Merlin's sake. He sighed.

"She didn't kill anyone, you know," Draco started, "she's just too smart for her own good," he continued, coming clean, "she knew we wouldn't be allowed to be together in the long run." He could feel their eyes on him now, as he himself still focused on Hermione. "Granted, I didn't see this coming, she didn't do anything I was entirely opposed to."

He found Potter looking at him as if seeing someone entirely different. The Weasel had looked away from him to turn to Hermione, as if asking her to confirm this to him; and Ginny had finally stopped looking at her as if an impostor had taken over her body. He could already start feeling the stress drain from her body, as she dared look up at him. He smiled. She ran to him and crushed him into a bear hug. He was ready to spill his guts now, if she kept hugging him like that. Draco looked up from her shoulder to find the stares of three stunned Gryffindors. He smirked; or gave as much of a smirk as he could while having her in his arms.

"Hermione?" Potter had found his voice, and Draco relinquished the feel of her as she turned back to her friend.

"Harry," Hermione sniffed.

One would have thought the Boy-Who-Lived actually had something to say to have broken his embrace, but all he did was give her a thin smile. Draco would have wiped it off his face, if not for the beaming reaction from the girl in front of him. She pulled away from him to walk to her friends and they joined in on a tight group hug, which left him feeling neglected; but when they pulled away, she reached for his hand, and it was all he needed.