FYI: I posted the first chapter to my new Dramione fic "Mind Maddening Mirror" and will soon upload the first chapter to yet another new Dramione of mine and then let you decide on which to continue first. CWP had been on pause till now but will soon be continued as well.

Becoming Mrs. Malfoy

21

It seemed like they walked around aimlessly for Blaise stopped every once in a while to glance into a muggle café before dragging her into a different direction. Bumping into people and having a hard time to hold up with his pace Hermione soon became impatient.

Finally he seemed to have decided for a place to stay. It was a small café with only few tables. They sat down and the waiter brought them the menu. While Hermione already knew what she would order she saw how Blaise glanced out of the window a few times as if he thought they had been followed.

"Um, Blaise … is something wrong?" He looked at her as if he had just realized that she was there.

"Ah." The waiter came and took their order: a hot chocolate and black coffee.

"I must say that I would have thought you would be happier about my letter.", she confessed and glanced at him sadly. The dark Blaise melted in front of her eyes and then her Blaise was back and smiled at her.

"I was over the moon when I read it." Satisfied with what he said Hermione grinned.

"But…. I have to ask something of you, Hermione." Somehow she had a bad feeling about what he would say next and her grin faltered.

"I want you to marry Malfoy."

"What?" She must have heard him wrong after all the coffee machine was quite loud.

"I´m asking you to marry Draco, Hermione." Waiting for him to laugh any second and tell her it was all a joke Hermione stared at him. The laughter did not come and he looked very serious about it.

"You cannot be serious.", she hissed. Pinching the bridge of his nose he sighed.

"I am serious." She wanted to snap at him but he kept her from talking. "I have my reason, Hermione. Please, listen to me first." Although she did not care for his reason she liked him too much not to give him a chance so she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

"I finally found out, Hermione. He is not all selfish about this whole marriage thing and the ring was never to make fun of you." Raising a eyebrow she urged him to explain. "The minute I received your letter I went to visit him. I have known Draco for such a long time that I knew he would be drunk and vulnerable and I was right. Eventually he told me his true reason to get you into this." At that she snorted.

"Malfoy can tell many lies when the evening is long enough. It seems that he never runs out of them." Blaise shot her a glare that made her fall silent immediately.

"I know when he lies and what he told me definitely was the truth." Their order was brought to their table and Blaise took a sip of his steaming coffee.

"Did you know that he stayed with me and my mother for the whole summer holidays?" She shook her head no. "It´s not uncommon among pureblood families although the Malfoys had never done so before but back then I did not think it strange. It was strange indeed. They were hiding. After his father had been caught and imprisoned you-know-who was really upset with them and demanded that Draco made up for his father´s failure." Almost spitting out her hot chocolate in surprise Hermione coughed.

"He´s a De-"

"No, he´s not!", Blaise snapped and gave her a look that questioned her how she could even think of something like that.

"If he had not taken action I bet he would be. Marrying you will keep him safe. But don´t think he is all selfish about this. Why didn´t you tell me that Weasley shoved you so hard that you hit your head and even lost consciousness?"

"How do you know about that?"

"See, that´s what I´m talking about. Ever since school started again he kept an eye on you so he knew that you would be okay." Huffing she crossed her arms over her chest again and stared out of the window. Could this really be true? A long period of silence passed before she looked at Blaise again.

"I think I have to leave." Looking crestfallen he still forced a smile on his lips and paid for them. He even helped her into her coat.

"Well, I have to go this way.", she said and pointed into the direction she planned to go. As an answer he merely nodded and walked off in the opposite direction.

She had just turned a corner when someone grabbed her arm and whirled her around.

"Okay, I know that what I have told you is hard to believe but please think about it." Cupping her face with his hands he gazed deep into her eyes. Not able to move her head Hermione saw the sincerity and the plea in his dark orbs.

"I can´t", she breathed although she knew it would hurt him. Blaise squeezed his eyes shut and looked as if she had just slapped him.

"I care about you, Hermione … but you have to understand that as his friend I care about Draco just as much. Believe me if I did think that he was all selfish about this I would never have asked you to marry him." Seeing the fight for the right words in his eyes she felt bad about not being able to believe him but that she could not change.

Slowly he bent down and she could see that he planned on kissing her so she turned her head in last second so his lips connected with her cheek.

"Good bye, Hermione.", he whispered sadly and walked away never once turning back.

The trial seemed to get to a closure a lot earlier than Hermione would have thought. Malfoy had indeed not followed the protocol needed to truly bind her to him and the judges decided that in her drunken state Hermione´s words did not count. Although she had told Blaise that she could not believe him she could not forget about his words either so she watched Malfoy. He was even paler than usually and looked positively sick. His lips were pressed into a thin line and his view was set somewhere far away. Yet whenever the judges stated one more reason why the engagement was not valid his left eye flinched and he would frown for the split time of a second. They got up from their seats to hear the verdict.

To nobody´s surprise the judges had decided that Hermione would be free. Hearing this Malfoy swayed slightly and grabbed the back of a chair and dug his nails into it. Something really had to be wrong with Malfoy for his mother patted his back affectionately although Hermione thought she tried to hide this gesture from the others for if she had not looked closely enough she would not have seen it as well.

She pitied him.

After years of calling her names and making her life hell she still had it in her to feel pity for Draco Malfoy. Wishing she could stop this feeling Hermione still could not look away. Sure, Malfoy had his usual expressionless mask on but when you saw how deep he dug his nails into the wood of the chair you could see that even though he had done a good job in making you believe he was a heartless monster that he was not. After all he was a human being just like her.

A tap on her shoulder brought her back to reality.

"We should leave, Hermione.", Mrs. Tonks told her and smiled.

"Ah, yes, we should." Looking a little worried Mrs. Tonks scanned her face.

"Is something wrong, dear? You don´t look too happy." Feeling a little caught in the act Hermione blinked.

"Oh, I just can´t believe it yet." When she turned around the Malfoys had already left.

"Um, I´ll be right there. I just want to tell Malfoy something." Although Mrs. Tonks raised her eyebrow questioningly she did not voice her question but merely nodded.

The Malfoys had walked quite fast so Hermione had to run down the corridors that led towards the floo fire places. Like on many other occasions she cursed her short legs.

"Malfoy!" No option expect for shouting had been left. Out of breath she slowed down seeing that the two had stopped. When she finally stopped by them her cheeks were still rosy. Malfoy straightened so he towered over her dangerously and frowned at her.

"Are you here to laugh at me, Granger?", he asked in his cold even voice. Sighing she shook her head.

"No, I did not come here for that."

/ someone said that they could not believe that Blaise was still buddies with Malfoy but I think he is a loyal friend. And he only went to Malfoy after eceiving Hermione´s note to find out about his reasons.

Any thoughts about the chapter? what do you think will happen next? how did you like Blaise´s conversation with Hermione?

Review, please?