Becoming Mrs. Malfoy

29

Although she could feel tears welling up they would not fall and the knot in her stomach tightened up. Only hours after what had happened did Draco return with a healed nose. Some dried blood was the reminder of the punches. For the rest of the ride they sat there in silence and when the train came to a halt Malfoy sent her to their carriage to wait for him. She did not complain and was glad that he was considerate of her.

After some time Blaise joined her in the carriage and told her that Malfoy wanted them to go ahead. Instead of going with her into the Great Hall with the rest of the students Blaise lead her towards the Head´s common room and told her he would be back with their dinner soon. He would return soon with a house elf helping him carry up the plates to find her sitting on the couch her face pressed into the fur of her cat on her lap. A few tears had made their way past her eyes and they still looked red and puffy but he did not say anything, just sat there and ate silently beside her. Afterwards they merely sat there and stared into the fire while they waited for Malfoy to come back.

The fire was already very low and small when the portrait door finally swung open and Blaise stood up to leave. Before he left he put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug.

"Potter will forgive you, I´m sure.", he whispered softly into her ear and disappeared into the dark corridor.

Taking in her still slightly red eyes Malfoy made his way to his favorite armchair and sat down. For seconds he just sat there and watched her unmoving body. Soon she decided she did not need his permission to go to sleep and got up since there seemed to be nothing he wanted to talk with her about.

Just when she had made one step he called her and she let herself back down into the cushioned couch. His stormy grey eyes locked with hers and she could not make anything from the expression on his face. It was empty and still had some touch of thought.

"This won´t work."

Shock made her eyes widen. Was he really implying what she thought he was? It could not be. First she agreed to marrying him and acting as his wife so he would be safe while she lost the trust of her friends and possibly everything and then he wanted to end it. She was just about to sob when he said something she would have never seen coming.

"Potter and Weasel won´t buy any lie you´ll feed them. Those two aren´t that dumb. You may tell them that you did it to help me but not the concrete reason. Understood?" Taking in what he had just said she merely stared at him before she slowly nodded her head.

With a long sigh he sunk into the armchair and snapped his fingers. Out of his room came a floating bottle and a glass. Reddish brown liquid poured into his glass and he pivoted it. A nip later he looked back at her.

"One more thi-"

"What is that?", she interrupted his pointing at his glass. A smirk formed on his lips as he took a big gulp.

"Ah.", he made as he enjoyed the burning sensation of his drink.

"Firewhiskey still is the best."

"We aren´t allowed to bring alcoholic drinks into school." Snickering erupted from him and he shook his head in mock disbelief.

"And there I was thinking about to make you an offer that would make things so much easier for you and you turn all goody-goody on me again." He watched her over the edge of his glass while the meaning of his words sunk in.

"Well, I´ll go to bed now. Night." Without looking at her he grabbed his glass and drowned the rest and walked off.

Offer. This single word had made her feel hope again and she needed it so much she rushed to stopped him. Grabbing the back of his shirt she pulled.

"Stop! I don´t care! Drink whatever you want, how much you want! I won´t say anything again, I swear! But please tell me about the offer.", she spluttered while she clutched the fabric so hard her knuckles turned white.

"Ts, ts, ts. Granger, you should be more careful about your words. Drinking how much I want. I don´t think you would want that." In no time his face was so close to hers that their noses almost touched and she could smell his breath. It was a mixture of smoke and something that made her nose burn.

"I´m pretty sure you remember the last time I drank as much as I wanted." Seeing the shock in her eyes he stood tall again with a satisfied grin on his lips.

"Well, I´ll be good and keep my promise not to overdo it but I don´t want you go around complaining about me consuming alcoholic drinks how you have called it." Still scared from him coming up so closely she took a step back and slightly nodded her head to show him that she would not complain.

"So, what about the offer?", she said so quietly that she doubted he had heard her but the grunt she had earned for her question told her otherwise.

There he stood pinching the bridge of his nose and looked down at her with his silver eyes. It seemed she had asked the question just in time before he changed his mind about it.

"You can see whoever you want. I know you don´t like or even love me. Just keep it a secret and don´t tell me about it." This was more than she could have ever hoped for and she visibly swallowed.

"Really?", she breathed which he answered with a curt nod.

"And your arm?"

Sneering down at her he spat: "Take my offer or leave it."

Already knowing that she would take it he turned and shut his door right into her face. The gush of wind from the door seemed to blow a huge burden off her shoulders.

Still she laid awake most of the night thinking about how to explain the situation to her friends. After all she already knew that at least Ron had not calmed down about it and must feel horribly betrayed. So the next morning she went down for breakfast but sat down far away from her friends watching them. She knew that they would have a long break between transfiguration and potions so that would be a perfect chance for her to meet up with them. Deciding that she slipped Harry a note during transfiguration.

Harry,

Please meet me in the Room of Requirements. Bring Ron along. I will explain everything.

Hermione

Anxious she sat on a dusty old armchair waiting for her friends to show up. What if Harry had changed his mind about wanting an explanation and now hated her? The minutes ticked by on the grand clock and with each tick her hands became sweatier, her throat drier. She was just about to leave when the door finally opened revealing Harry dragging Ron behind him.

There they stood all three staring.

A smile of gladness was on her face and she sat down motioning for them to take place on the two equally dusty armchairs across from hers. Without a moment of hesitation Harry walked towards her and slumped into the chair while Ron remained standing by the door staring at his friend in disbelief. Although Hermione had anticipated him to behave like that she felt tears well up in her eyes and her please was chocked. When that did not have the power to make him sit with them Harry frowned at him.

"Give her a chance." Although he grunted he came to stand behind the armchair clearly keeping some space between him and Hermione.

It hurt, never had he been like this towards her not even during their first year when he did not like her because she was a know-it-all.

"So, explain. I don´t want to be late for potions because of you.", he said roughly. The sound of his voice made her flinch. Maybe her idea of writing her explanation had not been that bad. At least it would have saved her this unpleasant experience. Yet, nothing would be better than hearing the truth from herself.

"I did it to help Draco." Ron´s left eye twitched involuntarily and Harry just kept waiting for her to go on.

"First he forced me into all this and I was so ashamed of myself that I could not muster the strength to tell you. Then when I was freed I found out why he had done it and agreed to help him …", she took a deep breath and her voice faltered. "… by marrying him."

Harry crossed his arms over his chest and sighed.

"What are you helping him with?" Sure, Hermione had thought about coming up with a lie but after lying so much to them and seeing the result of it she decided against it.

"I can´t tell you." A growl came from Ron and she was almost sure he would storm out and never let het try to explain everything again but instead he just stood there and rammed his fingers into the cushioned back on the armchair.

"But he´s been treating me well, Draco really is trying very hard. I even have my own rooms in the mansion.", she said lamely while closely watching Ron´s face turn deep red with anger.

"I know I should not have kept it a secret and lied about it. I´m sorry." Those two could not have reacted more differently. Harry clearly had forgiven her and was trying to understand her while Ron glared daggers at her with his rage-filled eyes.

She was just about to add something when Ron ran off slamming the door shut behind him. The welled up tears made their way down her cheeks and she started to sob uncontrollably.

"I´ll talk to him.", Harry whispered and kissed her forehead before leaving as well.

In potions Blaise pulled her towards his table and forced her to sit with him and be his partner. Her red eyes did not go unnoticed by him. Swiftly he drew a handkerchief out of his pocket and gave it to her. During the lesson Hermione made no effort to answer any question if she was not directly asked which she was not.

Since Snape could not take any house points from her for answering agitated whispering of Harry and Ron was like a feast for him.

5 points for having a conversation, 10 points for not being able to answer his questions, 5 more for not being able to answer the next question as well, 15 points for almost blowing up their cauldron and a lot more for this and that.

For the rest of the day she did not register much. Even the fact that Ginny had joined her for dinner could not lighten up her mood and so she went to bed very early.

When there was a knock on the portrait door she could not hear it and Draco opened it since he was still sitting there and read the newspaper.

"Hello Potter."

"Malfoy." Their greeting was cold as usual.

"Granger is in her room."

"That´s not her name anymore.", Harry pressed through gritted teeth.

At this Malfoy only raised one eyebrow and gestured for him to get in. Without caring much about Potter´s presence Draco sat down again and continued his reading. Much to his surprise Potter did not go to Hermione´s room but sat down on the couch.

After a minute of silence he asked: "I suppose you have not come here to enjoy the comfortable couch, have you Potter?"

"No."

/ finally chapter 29. I know I have not uploaded much lately since I had been working but now I have more time again and will make sure to upload more quickly. So I hope you liked the golden trio part.
since there a whiskys which smell like smoke I thought that Draco´s breath could smell of it afterwards.

next chapter some about what harry and ron have done during their holidays.

Review, please?

F.Y.I.: I put a oneshot called "The Seed" onto , it´s inspired by all those ffs I read where Draco confesses that he had already had a crush on Hermione in Hogwarts.