"You mean to tell me that he proposed and you said no?!" Ginny shouted. Hermione was terribly thankful that she had put a Silencing Charm around them so they didn't disturb Caelum as he slept in his bassinet.
"It wasn't a proposal Ginny."
"No? So he didn't say that he wanted to marry you?"
"Well, yes, he did, but-"
"Ah, ah, I rest my case, thank you very much."
Hermione rolled her eyes and took a healthy sip from her tea. "Regardless, I have control now over when we get married so there."
"You make that sound like some sort of relief." Ginny snorted and then smirked. "All this means is that I'm going to come down so hard on your arse about this until you actually propose."
Hermione laughed. "Of course you will. And you'll probably ask me all sorts of questions like, 'How are you going to do it?' 'Are you going to give him a ring?' 'Are you-?'"
"Oh my Merlin, will you give him a ring?"
"I don't know. Should I?"
"Yes! Yes, absolutely!" Ginny said excitedly. "I can just imagine it now. You with a wedding band in your hand, getting down on one knee-"
Hermione groaned. "One knee? Really?"
"Oh come on, you have to get down on one knee. It's tradition!"
"No, not a chance. Draco didn't even do that when he proposed."
"Yeah, well, he was still half a git when you married him. He's excused."
Yes, yes he was…
"So, the knee?" Ginny pleaded. "Will you?"
"I'll think about it."
"Well, that's a bold move." Theo applauded. "Giving Hermione the reins on the whole marriage thing."
"Yeah, well, now I'm regretting it."
"What? What for?"
"Because now I'm anxious as hell." Draco grumbled. "Do you know what it's like to just wait for something you know is coming but you just don't know when you're going to get it?"
Theo laughed. "Relax, mate. You only just gave her control last night. It's not like it's been a year or something."
Draco's eyes widened. "A year… What if she makes me wait a year? You know her. She can be slower than a snail sometimes and I gave her the say for when we get married? What the hell was I thinking?"
"You were putting her first." Theo grinned. "And there's nothing wrong with that. Besides, I don't even know why you're complaining. You already live with her, and you raise your children with her. As far as I'm concerned –as well as the rest of your friends, by the way –the two of you are already married. You just have to make it official. That and give us all the party of the year to go to."
Draco snorted. "Ah, I get it. It's not about Hermione and me at all. You lot just want to get drunk at a fancy affair."
"Of course. Except Daphne. She's got three more months to go and goes stark-raving mad when she sees me with a drink in my hand. 'If I can't drink, neither can you!'" Theo mimicked, hands on his hips and all.
Draco snickered and shook his head. "Yeah, that sounds like her alright. Well, if it makes you feel any better, you can always drink at my house."
"I would if I didn't think Hermione would somehow slip it to Daph. I'll head to Ron's. It's safer."
"'I'll head to Ron's…'" Draco repeated. "Who'd think either one of us would head to his place willingly?"
Theo chuckled. "It must be a cold day in hell then."
Later that night (or early morning rather) Hermione and Draco were locked in a battle that they were quite familiar with as they heard Caelum's fussing overhead due to a lovely charm that transferred all sounds from his room to theirs. And neither one of them were keen on moving at the moment.
"Please?" Draco begged sleepily as he held onto the bed sheets a little tighter.
"I'm exhausted, Draco." Hermione mumbled. "You go."
"If you go I'll do everything Caelum-related all day. You won't have to do a thing."
"If you check on him I'll wear the outfit that led to Lyra once Healer Tarpley says it's okay for me to have sex."
Draco bolted upright at her words and stared at her.
"Don't toy with me; are you serious? Hermione?"
Hermione didn't answer. She was asleep again and looked peaceful as she slid back into her dreams. Draco wasn't a fool to screw up such an opportunity and so he climbed out of bed and went into his son's room. The fussing that he'd been doing had turned into full cries now and loud enough to wake the dead.
"Your mother knows how to manipulate me like no other." Draco smiled once he was at Caelum's crib. The newborn stopped crying the moment he saw his father and stared up at him with wide, curious eyes.
"We just fed you, so you couldn't possibly be hungry." Draco said as he peered down at him. He bent over and gently picked him up with practiced hands and balanced him on his chest. "I bet it's not even a diaper change. Am I right?"
Draco took a moment to check him and, as he thought, that wasn't the case either. He raised Caelum eye level and grinned.
"You just want attention, don't you?"
The boy gave him what could be construed as a smile. Maybe even a laugh.
"I knew it. You're going to be just like your brother. Never letting me leave your sight, yes?"
Caelum gurgled a little, some drool slipping down the side of his mouth. Draco shook his head and summoned a cloth as he went over to the rocking chair near the crib.
"It's alright. Who needs sleep? A sunrise really is pretty to watch, but can we take a rain check on that one?"
Caelum blinked.
"Good. Thanks. Anyway, I'm actually glad you're up. I need your help. Now, it may not look like it, but your mum and I aren't married. Crazy right? I know, but we're working on it, I promise. That's where the help lies. I know you can't talk yet, but I was hoping that maybe in your own way you could possibly nudge your mother into proposing quickly? I'm not in a rush, I promise. I'm just… Well, your dad's an impatient mess, okay? Let's just clear that up. And your mum? You've met her. She's great, isn't she? I bet you love her. I love her too.
'Actually, no. That's not quite right. Your mother… She means the world to me. After the war, I don't think there was a time where she didn't. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a disaster to really put it into perspective. I'm still quite sorry about that, but not that sorry. You came out of it, but that's one conception story that you will never hear in your life.
'So, I guess what I'm saying is this: your mother is worth waiting for. I can't rush that. I won't rush that. But I'm not opposed to a cute face like yours putting hints out there on my behalf. That alright with you?"
Caelum made a small noise that sounded like a laugh, but probably wasn't. As for Hermione, who was sitting up in her bedroom and listening to everything that Draco was saying, she was crying. She couldn't help it. What he said had to have been the purest, most honest thing that had ever come from him. What was more was that it made her remember why she loved him in the first place.
Hermione wasn't tired anymore. She continued to sit, listening to the charm's effects as it kept filtering in Draco's one-sided conversation with Caelum above her. After what may have been an hour, Draco came back into the bedroom and he paused in the doorway when he saw her awake. He chuckled.
"Exhausted, huh? You definitely owe me now-"
"Let's get married, Draco."
His mouth fell. He stood completely frozen although his insides were going wild. Heart, head, stomach, everything.
"What?"
Hermione motioned to the ceiling and said simply, "Your voice carries."
"Oh. Hermione, I don't want to rush you."
"You're not rushing me." She assured him and took a deep breath. "You...have been my enemy. You've been my friend, my lover, my husband, my ex. You've literally been everything to me. You are everything to me. But the one thing out of the list I regret is that you became my ex. It should've just stopped at husband.
'So, what do you say?" She asked lightheartedly although her stomach was in knots. "Do you want to marry me or not?"
Draco smiled. He smiled not only because she was asking, but also because that was the very way he had proposed to her all those years ago.
"Damn," he eventually laughed. "Is that how I sounded when I proposed? Why in Merlin's name did you say yes?"
Hermione laughed along with him and wiped away a tear before it actually fell down. "Because I was foolishly in love with you. That's why."
"Then I guess I'm foolish too. Let's get married."
"Really?"
Draco nodded and finally walked further into the room, climbing onto the bed with her and cupping her beautiful, emotionally wrecked face with his hands.
"Yes, really." He said softly. "We'll get married and stay married this time. Even if you can be a stubborn shrew."
Hermione shook her head lovingly before kissing him and wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him in although she didn't really have to try.
"A stubborn shrew and an impatient whiner." She replied when she pulled away. "What a pair we make."
"An odd one, yes, but inseparable anyway."
Had the terms of the bet been when Hermione and Draco got engaged, then Ron would've been a lucky man. However, the term was "married," and the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. again had officially decided that no one was going to win. They would get married in January. Granted they could do it much sooner rather than later, but neither of them wanted to have two anniversaries. They had first gotten married on the fourth of that month, and so that would be the date. No formal ceremony though. With three children at home and one being an infant, they didn't want the extra added headache of having to plan. But, as per Theo's begging, there would be a reception held at Malfoy Manor –one that Narcissa had insisted she plan so that it would be "the most beautiful reception one had ever seen." How she intended on topping the first reception they had had was a complete mystery, albeit one they were looking forward to.
Hermione still had her wedding ring which was kept in a charmed box in a faux book in the study. Draco had kept his in the Malfoy vaults, but he wouldn't be wearing it. Instead he was going to get it resized and added to Hermione's ring and he was going to wear the Malfoy ring she had returned to him last year at Christmas. As for the non-formal ceremony, they would go to the Ministry and have a marriage official bind them. It would keep the simplicity that they wanted, not to mention (if they did it in the latest hour of the work day) they could avoid a horde of reporters unlike they had failed to do when Caelum was born. Daily Prophet articles were still talking about them almost two months down the line. It seemed as though they were just as excited as the happy couple, but no more so than their children.
Lyra had nearly broken Draco's back as she gave him a massive hug, thanking him profusely for "marrying mum again," while Scorpius ran around his room screaming, "Yes!" Cassie had been written the news and she sent back an elaborate charmed card that shot out confetti and played music. She really was quite talented in charms. By the third week of October, everything seemed perfectly in order, although it appeared that their children had something on their minds.
"Mum, dad, we'd like a word with you, please."
Draco, who had been sitting in a chair and reading in Caelum's room while Hermione put the boy to bed, looked up in surprise. Hermione turned around, the same curious look on her face as Lyra and Scorpius beckoned their parents to follow them. They complied and met the children downstairs in the living room. Before either of them could get a word in, Hermione was making her way to the fireplace with her eyes held open wide.
"Cassie?" Hermione exclaimed in surprise. "How did you get a Floo connection from Hogwarts to here?"
"Oh, well…" Cassie said hesitantly. Even through Floo flames her blush was evident. "I sort of told Headmistress McGonagall that I had a family emergency and that I had to talk to you."
Hermione's her jaw dropped. "Cassiopeia Alexandra Malfoy! How could you-?!"
She cut herself off when she heard laughter from behind her. Draco was laughing hysterically and had completely missed her narrowed eyes.
"Draco!"
"What? Oh, alright." Draco's laughter died down to a giggle fit as he walked up to the fireplace. "Cassie, what you did was…very…wrong, and… I'm sorry, Hermione." He said as he laughed again. "How can I be mad at her? She pulled one over on McGonagall for Merlin's sake. I couldn't be prouder." Then he added in a mumble, "Gryffindor my arse."
Hermione smacked the bottom of her palm to her forehead and sighed before turning back to her children. "Alright. What's so important that you had to lie to Headmistress McGonagall's face?"
"Well," Cassie, the obvious leader in all of this, began to say. "We don't want you and dad to have a cheap wedding."
Hermione and Draco stared utterly bemused. That was certainly not what they were expecting from their children.
"We know that you love each other." Lyra piled on. "You deserve more."
She paused, looked down at Scorpius and then nudged him in the shoulder. He sprang into action then and said, "You deserve a real wedding!"
"And we all want to be in it." Cassie said with a broad grin. Both Hermione and Draco began to smile as they glanced at each other.
"Did you hear that Hermione?" Draco said with a happy face. "They want to be in a wedding."
"I know, I heard." Hermione replied. "What are we going to do? How can we say no to those ridiculously adorable faces?"
"We can't because we're suckers."
"Complete suckers,"
"So...does that mean you're not going to do it at the Ministry anymore?" Lyra asked with an extreme layer of hope in her voice.
Hermione looked at Draco. "What do you think?"
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I think my mother's going to jump for joy with all the planning she gets to do."
"Does that mean you'll do it?" Cassie asked excitedly.
"Yes, we'll do it." Hermione answered her. "But don't you ever pull a stunt like this again."
"I won't! Gryffindor's honor!"
Author's note: THEY'RE GETTING MARRIED! Lol. Okay, there goes my excitement. I can't name my absolute favorite thing in here, but Draco being proud of Cassie's deceit is one of them :)
Now, I already have chapter 30 written and I'm about to start 31. With that said, I can say with certainty that this story will end on chapter 31. I love how the timing works out because that means it'll be done just a few days before Valentine's Day. And, in my opinion, these two are a wonderful love story.
-WP
Replies to Guests
Jamie: Hahaha, omg, can you imagine? He already freaked out once with Healer Tarpley's suggestion about the "magical snip." Lol.
AB: Oh, when I think of Caelum my little heart just explodes. He's so sweet in my imagination! I think Draco and Hermione are going to have tons of crashed date nights in the foreseeable future haha. A family of 6… That's so much to handle lol! But if you look at this way, one more year and Lyra will be at Hogwarts. Quieter house on the horizon! And look, you got your wish! Hermione proposed! In her own way of course lol. Wahoo for babies and weddings!
Nabee: Yey! I'm glad. Hope this one made you happy too :D
Guest1: Lyra hasn't gone just yet! It's Cassie's who's there. She's got one more year before gets to go :)
