Author's Note: The last few days I've done some tweaking to the earlier chapters. All in all I added about 7k words just to fill it out a little better. The only big change is I modified the terms of the Marriage Law. Draco and Hermione can have a child and immediately get an annulment upon its birth, or they must stay married for three years, knocked down from ten, I thought it was a bit much. :p Anyway, enjoy, I tried to fill this chapter with a bit of light hearted fluff that you all seem to have been asking for. Happy reading!
May 16th 1998
The weeks passed quickly and before Hermione knew it May was upon them. As the end of the school year approached she became more and more anxious for it to be over with. Seven years of her life had been building up to this. She wanted to get through her exams and see how well she did, she wanted to figure out what she was going to do after graduation. At the same time thoughts of graduation reminded her that her wedding to Draco would be closer than ever. Most days she didn't think about it, it was surprisingly easy not to.
Things with Draco were going well. They had fallen into a comfortable routine with one another and Hermione enjoyed it. Physically, things between them were moving slowly and she was thankful for that. They stuck to kissing, usually before they fell asleep together. He seemed to know her boundaries and respect them without her having to say anything, which meant more to her than she would ever tell him.
Currently he was snoring softly beside her. She looked over at him and smiled. Last night when they were laying in bed together he had asked something of her and she wasn't sure how to make it happen. The way he had been kissing her had made it hard not to agree to anything he asked. He wanted her to skip lunch with Harry and Ron later today and meet him in the Grand Entrance. She had to admit that she was looking forward to it. She was curious, she was nervous, not only because the request was strange but because she didn't want Harry and Ron to find out.
As silly as it was, she didn't want the looks of disappointment, she didn't want them to think she was picking Draco over them either. Still, she would do it. Draco never really asked anything of her so she figured that this couldn't be too bad.
It was Saturday and Hermione was very much enjoying the opportunity to sleep in, which didn't much matter since she was awake at the moment. It was nice to not have to rush out of bed the moment she woke up though. Draco had gotten to the point where he rarely stirred at 6:30 when the alarm went off. It was automatically set to go off about an hour later and that was when he woke up and by then she was usually already on her way to the Great Hall so they rarely saw each other in the mornings.
This morning she'd been woken up by the sun streaming in through the window. It was a nice day, sunny and warmer than usual. Hopefully the air was going to lose the chill that seemed to linger into Spring far longer than anyone wanted. Hermione yawned and snuggled deeper into her pillow. This was definitely nice.
A few moments later she couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face as she felt him reach for her hand. It was moments like these, mainly when he was half asleep, that endeared him that much more to her. Sleepy-Draco was much different from Awake-Draco. She enjoyed the difference. She enjoyed that she noticed a difference.
As much as she would like to stay in bed, she was getting hungry and she was sure that there were some pancakes in the Great Hall with her name on them. Hermione ran her thumb over his skin. She never tired of the softness of him, it was ridiculous how much one person could enjoy touching another. He was beautiful. Hermione rolled her eyes in annoyance at her mushy thoughts. She was definitely falling into the normal habits of her female peers. It didn't bother her as much as it probably was supposed to.
"Are you awake?" she asked looking at his face. His eyes were still closed.
"No," he mumbled, cracking open sleepy eyes and yawning.
"I was going to go eat breakfast, it's getting late," Hermione said as she caught his yawn and yawned also.
"Bed's nicer," he said, his voice still sleepy.
"I know, but I'm starving," she said as her stomach grumbled in agreement.
"Are you still meeting me around lunch time?" he asked, stretching his arms above his head.
"I'll be there," she said with a hesitant smile.
A little while later Hermione was in the Great Hall, in her usual spot, sitting next to Ron and Harry eating her pancakes. They were busy talking about Quidditch, again, it seemed to be a never-ending subject for the two of them. Hermione actually felt bad that they were done eating, had been done eating for awhile, judging by the fact that when she had entered the Hall their plates had been empty. Still they waited for her.
She ate her pancakes more quickly than usual and soon they were headed up to the Gryffindor Tower to hang out. As they sat around the Common Room, Hermione spent quite a bit of time talking with Neville. He had just finished his Herbology report and had excitedly asked her to look over it. Neville was frankly a genius when it came to plants and Hermione thoroughly enjoyed reading his work.
When she and Neville were finished talking she spent some time with Ron, Harry, and Ginny. It felt like they spent hours talking and laughing, playing games of Exploding Snap. Before she knew it, lunch time was upon them, so she had to make an excuse as to why she wouldn't be eating with them. Which was easier said than done. She really didn't want to lie, and she really, really, didn't want to tell the truth. However, there was only one option.
They were on their way down to the Great Hall and Hermione's palms were all sweaty. Draco was probably waiting for her and honestly she was excited to see him, and find out exactly what he had planned for her. They were almost to the Great Hall when Hermione decided to speak up, telling herself that it wasn't going to be as bad as she anticipated.
"I guess I'll see you at dinner? I have lunch plans with Malfoy," she said, trying to sound flippant. Ron stopped in his tracks and looked… unhappy, to say the least. Harry gave her a look that she couldn't read and grabbed Ron by the arm, and Ginny gave her a small encouraging smile.
"See you later, Hermione," Harry said pulling Ron down the hallway with Ginny in tow and leaving Hermione standing alone. She stood looking after them and with a little sigh she headed towards the Grand Entrance, not as excited as she had been a minute ago. It hadn't gone badly but it left her feeling like things weren't the same anymore and never would be.
Draco was leaning against the stone wall, arms crossed, as he waited for her. Hermione stopped cold. His stance reminded her so much of the Ferret he used to be. It was confident, and elitist, as if the world owed him everything, he looked every bit a Slytherin. Then… then he looked at her and everything changed. There was no coldness, no distance, no cement walls hiding who he was. He was just Draco and he was smiling at her and she couldn't help but smile at him in return.
"I thought maybe you had stood me up," he said opening the door so that she could walk outside. Hermione wondered why they were going outside. It was nice out so she didn't really mind.
The sun was shining brightly and it felt warm against her skin. There was not a cloud in the sky to be seen and the breeze was light and comfortable. It was the nicest day so far this year and she was happy the sun was actually out and not hidden behind heavy clouds. Hermione curiously followed Draco as he made his way towards the path that lead down to the lake. They were walking side by side, a few inches away from one another when he did the most unexpected thing.
He held her hand.
Hermione looked down at their entwined fingers and then looked up at Draco. The only time he ever held her hand was while they were in bed together in the dark. Not even when they were just relaxing in their Common Room together did he touch her.
"What are you doing?" she asked, feeling a blush creep up on her freckled cheeks.
"I'm wooing you," he said with one of his mischievous grins as he pulled her down the path.
"You're doing what?" she asked laughing. Draco was wooing her? This was an interesting development. Why and when had he decided that she needed wooing?
They'd made it to the lake and when Hermione saw what awaited them she laughed, hard.
"What is this?" she asked when she had finally caught her breath.
"As I said, I'm wooing you." He seemed amused by her reaction, as if he understood all the ways in which she found this incredibly ironic and wrong on so many levels.
So many, many, many, levels.
Sitting in front of them, laid out all nice and neat, straight out of a muggle romance novel, was a picnic.
An honest to Merlin picnic.
Draco had obviously lost his mind.
"Are you serious?" she asked suppressing giggles.
"I had a feeling I was getting too predicable," he said with a smirk.
As far as Hermione was concerned, that was definitely no longer a problem.
Draco watched Hermione's face as she saw the picnic and he smiled. He was very well aware that this was incredibly corny, and all sorts of lame, but he wanted to do this for her. He wanted her to have these silly things that all other girls got. She'd never had a boyfriend, never been on a date, and in a little over a month she'd be married to him and never have the opportunity for something like this.
So, even though it went against everything he had ever been taught, he did it anyway. He wasn't sure exactly where he had gotten the idea for a picnic from. He usually wasn't exposed to such romantic ideals. He'd probably seen other students do things like this through =out the years. He'd then probably tormented them for it.
Draco sincerely hoped that no one saw them doing this. It wasn't that he was embarrassed, although he was, it was that he didn't want her friends to know. Potter and Weasley were never going to accept him, so he was trying to stay out of sight out of mind as far as they were concerned.
He walked Hermione over to the blanket that was laid out on the grass and pulled her down with him. He'd had the House Elves pack sandwiches, fruit salad, and two pieces of chocolate pie and after all this work, alright… he hadn't really done anything, he was famished.
Hermione still looked amused and nervous, as if she was waiting for something horrible to pop out at her. Draco was enjoying the fact that he shocked her. Secretly he liked surprising her, he liked letting her see other sides of him that no one else saw. Even in his wildest dreams he could never imagine doing something like this for anyone but her.
They had a nice view of the lake, he supposed that it was romantic, not that he was much of a judge. He was glad that the weather had held up and it was a nice late Spring day. The sun was shining down on the water making it sparkle. The sweetness of it was quite sickening actually.
"Besides the fact that you've gotten it into your head to woo me, what's the real reason for all of this?" she asked as she popped a grape in her mouth. Despite the cliché of it Draco had to admit that the spring sunshine suited her. It made her hair gleam, made her eyes shine a warm golden brown color. He had actually never noticed how prominent the freckles on her nose were. He decided that Hogwarts needed better lighting. He wanted to see her like this all of the time.
What was the real reason for all of this? There were several. Wanting to make her happy, wanting their relationship to have some sort of "normalcy". Above all else… he didn't want her to leave him, as pathetic as it sounded. He'd done a rather impressive job of blocking out all of the darkness in his life, but it was still there, like a spring storm, hovering on the edge of the horizon. Maybe if they made memories together, normal, happy, memories, if… or when… the truth came out about him being a Death Eater she would realize that…
Well… that she didn't want to leave him. He would tell her the truth eventually and then she would realize that things weren't all that bad. That he wasn't a horrible, despicable, person, that he had good qualities, could even be thoughtful on occasion. She wouldn't see him and think of death and deception, but of picnics and sunshine. He needed that, needed her to see him in that way.
"The real reason is because I want you to be happy." He wanted her to be happy with him. He knew without a shadow of doubt that as far as wives went he was never going to find anyone better for him than Hermione. It wasn't a "love" match but he had never expected a marriage to be about that. She understood him as no one else did. She was smart, she made him laugh, which in itself was a sort of miracle. She made him better and no Pansy Parkinson or Daphne Greengrass would ever be able to measure up.
With Hermione he could see a marriage with her as being more than two people who just co-existed like his parents. He could see a real friendship, a real relationship, and for the first time in his life he wanted that.
"Well I am happy. Highly confused, but happy. This was oddly sweet and strangely thoughtful and also a bit scary, but I'm not complaining," she said tossing a grape his way and he promptly caught it in his mouth.
Draco smiled. Before he became engaged, never would he have imagined that making someone else happy could make him feel so good inside.
May 23th 1998
"It's not as bad as you think it will be. Just hold onto it firmly and get ready for the ride of your life," he said with one of those grins that showed he was getting entirely too much pleasure out of this.
"I'm going to fall off," Hermione said between her clenched teeth. Whatever had possessed her to climb on Draco's broom and insist that she could ride it had promptly disappeared the moment her bum hit the seat.
"I knew you were bluffing. All that talk about excelling at everything you put your mind to and you can't even kick off. I think you're scared," he said in that smug way of his, arms crossed over his chest. She hated to admit that he looked quite attractive. The sky was dark with rain clouds and it made his eyes look darker and more mysterious, however that was not the point.
"I think I'm going to have Crookshanks scratch your eyes out if you don't shut up," she said with her sweetest smile. Draco had been gloating over his rising rank as one of the top students in their year. He was still far enough away that she wasn't worried about him replacing her as best student. After all, he was third, that was pretty far away, with one person between them, no cause for concern whatsoever. None at all.
His gloating had prompted her to say that she intended to beat him because she excelled at everything that she set her mind to and being better than him just came naturally. At which point the had laughed, and smugly replied that he could find something he was better at. Having a temporary lapse in judgment she had told him to "bring it". Now she was on the Quidditch Pitch, straddling his Cleansweep Eleven. Which, as he kept pointing out, could go from 0 to 70mph, as in a seven followed by a zero, in ten seconds. She was absolutely terrified.
Give her a nice, sturdy, slow moving Comet 140 and she was perfectly fine. Put her in a situation of life and death and yeah, a broom was no problem. However, showing off on a broom, a racing broom, in front of Draco, was a recipe for disaster.
"It's going to rain soon, we might as well go back inside. It's alright, some of the first years aren't too good at flying either."
Oh no he did not.
With a determined grin, Hermione gripped the broom for dear life and then kicked off as hard as she could. The broom shoot forward and upward and Hermione let out an unintelligible string of words that sounded something like ohsweetmerlinpleasedon'tletmedie, as she flew through the air. Resisting the urge to stop and catch her bearings, she flew in a fast circle, showing Draco that she possessed the skill to at least not fall off by moving.
Compare her to a First Year? She would show him, she wasn't scared of a broom, even one that went as fast as this. She refused to look down, telling herself that she wasn't that high up and there was nothing to be afraid of. Hermione leaned forward taking the broom to the maximum speed as she raced toward the other end of the Quidditch Pitch. It had been awhile since she'd been on a broom, as she used one as sparingly as possible, but it wasn't hard to remember what to do. As long as she didn't think about what she was doing.
Right as she was about to turn around and fly back to him the sky lit up with lightening and then it began to rain hard. She was so surprised that she nearly let go of the broom. With the cold rain drops came the knowledge that proving a point was one thing, getting struck by lightening while riding on a broom was another matter entirely. She dived toward the ground at a rather slow pace and resisted the urge to fall to the ground in gratitude when her feet hit earth.
Rain be damned, she'd walk back to Draco in the rain. There was no way she was going to get back on the broom. Besides, the rain wasn't that bad.
She'd only taken a few steps when the broom flew out of her hands and disappeared into the rain. Hermione rolled her eyes. He knew that she had landed and had decided to Accio the broom so that he could then ride to her rescue. So predictable.
A few moments later he appeared, as dry as if it were a bright summer day. She raised an eyebrow at the need for the shielding charm, the rain wasn't that bad.
"I'll give you a ride back to the castle," Draco said, maneuvering the broom so that she could easily climb on the back. Hermione stopped and raised an eyebrow, no way, no how, was she going to get on the back of the broom so that he could race towards the castle at break neck speeds. However, it was a very long walk back to and the thunder was bordering on deafening.
"I won't kill us, promise," he said giving her one of those rare can't-say-no-to-me grins. With an answering smile she climbed onto his broom and wrapped her arms around him, being sure to get him as soaked with the rain from her clothes as possible. If he minded he didn't say anything. They rode back to the castle at an almost leisurely pace and Hermione had the sneaking suspicion that he was enjoying being her "hero".
He was so full of it.
Draco smiled to himself as they rode back to the castle. He was finding Hermione's attitude amusing. From the way she had huffed and puffed, insisting that she was better than him at everything to the look on her face when he mentioned flying, and then the glare when he had found her soaked as she trudged through the rain. He decided that challenging her was a new favorite pastime.
They got back to the castle and Draco sent his broom back to the shed before following her inside. While he had completely enjoyed the feeling of her arms wrapped around him he was now quite disgusted by his damp clothes that were sticking to his back. By the satisfied look on her face at his grimace of discomfort he figured that was the purpose. Wet, clingy, clothes were one of those things that he just hated. He couldn't help but think that he had met his match in her.
Twenty minutes later they were sitting in the Common Room together, with nothing but the sound of the passing storm outside and the crackling of fire to interrupt the silence. They were both in their pajamas and sitting on the sofa, side by side. She was reading a book and he was flipping through the Daily Prophet because he had nothing better to do.
He had apologized for baiting her into getting on a broom and she had apologized for insulting him and saying that she was better at everything. It had since been amended that she was better at everything that didn't involve a broom, which he supposed he could let her believe. For now anyway.
Draco turned his attention back to the paper. He was flipping through the society pages when he saw something that made him stop. It was a picture of his father and his mother. From the caption it seemed that they had gone to some awards ceremony to honor achievements in the Wizarding World.
They looked the same as they always did. Draco tried to picture himself next to them and the differences were glaring to him. He smiled now, really smiled. Sometimes when he was in the bathroom he would catch a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror, of the smile that would linger from Hermione's presence, and it would surprise him.
Draco looked back at the picture, at the coldness in his father's gaze, the smile on his lips that was more smirk than real smile. He had always been told how much like his father he was. His forearm started tingling and Draco knew it was all in his head. He needed to deal with the reality of the situation and stop conveniently blocking everything out so that when he was reminded he had moments like this.
The problem with that was that the first step always seemed to be to tell Hermione the truth.
"Hermione?" he said attempting to distract her from her book.
"Hmm?" she replied absently, her eyes continuing to scan quickly over the page she was reading.
Draco leaned over and slowly closed her book.
"What are yo-" before she could finish the sentence his lips found hers and he gave her a quick kiss, resisting the urge to let his lips linger.
"What was that for?" she asked with a pleased little smile.
Draco spent a moment trying to find away to articulate things into words. There wasn't a way for him to do it. Words flew at him and then just as quickly slipped away. He reached over and pulled her into a hug. Draco had never been a very "huggy" person, actually as far as he could remember this was only the second one they had ever shared. Despite the fact that it made him feel vulnerable, more so than usual around her, he needed it.
She wrapped her arms around him in return and suddenly he didn't know what to do. He could easily kiss her, hold her hand, and cuddle with her in the darkness of his bed, but the contact they were sharing now almost felt too intimate to him. It wasn't about attraction or lust, she was comforting him, whether she knew it or not, and he didn't know how to handle that.
Draco pulled away and stood up quickly. He was so close to just opening his mouth and letting words tumble out and he knew in his gut that it wouldn't end well. No matter how understanding he believed her to be he didn't see a conversation about him being a Death Eater ending up in any other way but the sound of the slamming of the door as she left.
"I'm going to go to bed," he said turning around and walking into his room. Putting distance between them and taking a few deep breaths allowed him to collect himself. He reached inside of himself and found that pool of self control that he'd been using all of his life. The one that allowed him to push his emotions aside. He climbed into bed and she followed a few minutes later.
Draco closed his eyes, wanting to fall asleep and wake up to a better day when all of his current thoughts would be a distant memory.
"Will you tell me what is wrong?" Hermione asked as she laid her hand on his shoulder. He was silent and her hand moved down his arm, finding his hand and entwining her fingers with his.
"I'm just tired," he said, unhappy with himself for lying to her.
"I wish you would talk to me."
He wished he knew how.
Her fingers left his and he could feel her turn away from him as she settled on the opposite side of the bed. It was the first time in a long time he fell asleep feeling alone.
As always review, it makes me so happy! You'll also be thrilled to know the next chapter is almost half way done already, fingers crossed that it's finished by next Friday!
