Thank you for all of your story ideas! They're all really good, I just wish I could write all of them :D
And thank you to everyone who has reviewed/favourited/alerted this! I know that it is not my best work but I really do appreciate everyone! :) xoxo
Another chapter for you!
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"There he is."
"Oh my God."
"I can't believe what he did."
"He's amazing!"
Harry walked through the train corridor trying to ignore the whispers. Did people not realise that he wasn't alone that day? Obviously not.
He reached the compartment that he was sharing with the others and cracked open the door, sliding in. Hermione was once again reading Rita Skeeter's article.
Ministry Mess!
Wizards and witches from all over Britain have been complaining about the marriage law ever since it was announced by 'Cornelius Fudge'. However, as Harry Potter the young wizarding hero revealed, it was not Cornelius Fudge who made this announcement, it was in fact Edward Grant.
Edward Grant is a pure-blood wizard whose half-blood wife was tragically killed by the Death Eaters. He took it upon himself to torture all of the pure-bloods and muggleborns in Britain with this law which would force them to make half-blood children. Perhaps it is symbolic but excuse me if I do not see the romance, it just seems rather cruel to me.
Kingsley Shacklebolt is currently acting as Minister for Magic and is searching for Fudge who Grant decided to send away. The law is set to be abolished and Edward Grant is currently being held... Rita Skeeter article cont. page 4
"I could sing right now!" Hermione cried, hugging the paper close to her chest.
"Never thought I'd see the day that Hermione was singing Rita Skeeter's praises." Ron laughed.
"But she didn't even mention you lot!" Harry said in annoyance.
Hermione shrugged. "It was to be expected, you're much more fun to write about. Who cares? The law's getting abolished!"
"Stop bouncing!" Draco complained with a laugh, placing his hand on her shoulder to try and keep her in her seat.
"Says the ferret!" She sang in response.
The entire compartment burst out laughing, except of course for Draco who sat in a sullen silence. Hermione continued to bounce, seemingly unaware of what she was saying.
"Hyper Hermione is funny." Ron sighed, wiping tears from his eyes.
"Hyper? Who's hyper? I like being hyper! Do you like being hyper?" Hermione asked, watching Ron and blinking far too much.
"Okay, hyper Hermione is scary." He amended, trying to back away from her without offending her.
Everyone's eyes shot up as the door slid open.
"Lavender!" Hermione exclaimed. She flew out of her seat and flung her arms around the scared girl.
Lavender patted her back awkwardly. "Nice to see you too Hermione, can we come in?"
"Of course you can! You and Justin are always welcome with us! Find a seat anywhere!" Her voice lowered to a whisper that, although she didn't realise, carried throughout the room, "I wouldn't sit on Draco's knee though, I think he's in a mood."
Lavender laughed as she saw Draco's sulky expression and pushed Ron, making room for her to sit down. Justin sat in the seat that Hermione had just vacated.
Hermione giggled. "That's my seat!"
"Oh! Sorry." Justin made to stand up.
"It's okay! I'll sit here." She dropped into the middle of the floor, crossed her legs and smiled up happily at everyone.
"So... was there anything you wanted in particular?" Harry asked after a moment or two of silence and everyone looking at Hermione.
Lavender's eyes snapped towards Harry and she looked confused for a second. "Oh yes! We wanted to congratulate you on everything!"
Hermione squealed. Everyone ignored her.
"Yeah, we're just so glad we're not being forced to marry now." Justin said. "But we did get a lot closer when we thought we had to."
Lavender blushed as Justin smiled at her.
"Awwwwwww, you guys are in love!"
"Shush Hermione." Draco said fondly.
"Who gave her sugar?" Lavender whispered, looking round accusingly at the others.
Draco guiltily raised his hand. "I thought she'd enjoy some muggle sweets that I found, turns out they're one of the only ones to still have this blue additive in."
"And of course, she's ecstatic about the article." Lilith added.
Lavender nodded in understanding, whereas Justin said, "You have blue sweets?"
"Yeah we do Justin! They're amazing! You should have some! Look at my tongue! It's bluuuuuue! We can be blue tongue buddies!"
"Malfoy, if you give those blue sweets to Justin, I will personally make sure that you will never sit comfortably on a broom again." Lavender said coolly, sending one quick, lethal look in Draco's direction. He gulped and nodded, shoving the paper bag into his robes out of Justin's reach.
"We should probably get going." Lavender said, standing up and taking Justin's hand. They smiled brightly at them (well Lavender smiled brightly, Justin grimaced, rather annoyed that he didn't get any blue sweets) and exited the compartment.
"We'll be at Hogwarts soon, we'd better get Hermione calm." Harry said wisely.
"Hermione," Lilith started sincerely, "I heard that McGonagall isn't going to be setting end of term tests any more."
"What?" Hermione cried in outrage. "That's preposterous, how are we supposed to know if what they are teaching us is going in?"
Lilith shrugged, "Just what I heard."
"I will definitely be having words with her."
"Mission accomplished." Lilith whispered to Harry.
The rest of the train journey passed with no incidents, Hermione was suitably calm (after yelling at Lilith for lying about the tests) and they entertained themselves with several games of exploding snap.
The train pulled into Hogsmeade and they filed onto the platform, making their way to the (unfortunately visible) Thestral drawn carriages.
"After you." Draco allowed Hermione to step in first and the others piled in afterwards. They began the bumpy journey up to the castle and were soon walking into the familiar building, anticipating the delicious meal that they were about to receive.
"Welcome back!" McGonagall called. "I trust you all had a lovely Christmas." She paused as there was a chorus of 'yes' from the array of students, "As you have most likely heard, thanks to a certain group of seventh years, the marriage law is set to be abolished!"
The Great Hall was awash with cheers and hand claps. Draco stood up from the Slytherin table and bowed, causing a great deal of laughter.
"Yes, thank you Mr Malfoy." McGonagall said lightly, she had become fonder of Draco over the past few months, most likely due to the magic ties he had with Hermione. "Now, I think it is time to eat!"
The food appeared on the gold plates in front of them and everybody tucked in happily (especially Ron of course).
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The next morning Hermione had the shock of her life.
"Hermione!" Seamus called, catching the brunettes attention. "Harry asked me to tell you that they're sorry but he and Ron have already gone down to breakfast." He grinned to himself as though he was proud that he had remembered.
"...What?"
"They've gone down to breakfast."
Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened, Harry and Ron up early? She stood there for a good five minutes before Ginny jumped on her as a morning greeting.
Harry and Ron had indeed got up early, they had a purpose, a goal.
"Draco!" shouted Harry.
Draco stopped on his way to the Great Hall and looked questioningly at them. "Why are you two up so early?"
"We wanted to talk to you." Ron said.
"Well that sounds serious."
Harry replied, "We want to know your intentions with Hermione."
"That is serious. You want me to answer now? Like right now? Fine. I intend to protect Hermione, to spend my life with her, give her everything she could ever want or need." He paused before continuing, "But first, I intend to fall in love with her and to help her fall in love with me."
"You're not in love with her?" Harry asked in surprise, convinced by Draco's behaviour around Hermione, he was certain that he was.
"No, we've been too focused on getting rid of the stupid law. We knew that we wouldn't automatically be in love despite the Veela genes."
"We'll sort things out for you." Ron said beaming, feeling like he would be helping Draco and Hermione a lot.
Draco's eyes widened. "Why does that sound more like a threat than a favour?"
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Not such a long wait for this chapter :) hope you liked it :)
Constructive criticism welcome (I may not like it, but I do want it :D)
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Does anyone have Twitter? Let me knowwwww :) not that I'm hinting or anything but I'm only 5 away from 50 followers :P