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Chapter 35 -
Hermione stood anxiously outside the house, waiting for her fiancé. Ha! She grinned wider than a cat when she thought of that term, 'her fiancé'. She always wanted to have a fiancé, and here she was only going to have one for an hour. Where was the fun in that? This was all going by too fast, their dating, their love affair, their engagement, and now their wedding. She was not able to enjoy any of it. She thought for a brief moment, should they get married right now, or should they wait? Wouldn't it be just as romantic if they just announced their engagement to everyone, and then got married, say, one year from today?
No, no, no. She was not going to doubt herself now. She should not second-guess herself. She should do what her instincts tell her to do, and just get married. After all, it was being someone's wife that was the important thing, not the engagement, or the wedding. Those things were for other people.
Hermione wished he would come back outside, before she talked herself out of this whole thing. She bent at the waist, and took a deep breath. When she stood back upright, he was right before her. "Did you miss me?" he asked. She threw herself into his arms.
"Draco!" was all she managed to say.
He was confused. What could have caused this reaction? He was gone five minutes, tops. He patted her back and said, "Do you want to know where I went?"
She pushed herself away from him and inquired, "Sure, where did you go?"
"I can't tell you. It's a surprise," he smiled.
Hermione hit his arm. "Damn you."
"Learn to live with disappointment," he mused.
"Is that what marriage to you will be? One big disappointment?" she asked him with a smile.
"I highly doubt it," he said crossly.
Harry came up to the pair and said, "It's 45 minutes to one. If you want to get married at one, we need to know what else you need done."
"Nothing, Potter. I have everything planned," Draco said. "Leave me alone with my wife to be, for a few more moments." Draco took Hermione's hand and led her around to the front of the house. He sat with her on the front steps.
"I really do want to show you what I went to get," he said. He put his hand in his pocket, and withdrew a ring. It was a thick platinum wedding ring, carved with an intricate design. "Now, don't freak out, but I bought this a while ago, for no one, understand. I was in a Muggle antique store, I saw it, and I thought it was pretty, and I knew someday I wanted it to be for my wife. That will be you very shortly. I was going to wait and spring it on you during the ceremony, but I thought you might think it was creepy that I already had a ring, so I wanted to explain."
"That is a little creepy," she said, moving her shoulder into his. "I don't have a ring for you." She reached over and took the small ring from his hand.
"Oh, I wouldn't want to wear a ring, for other women will think I'm married if I do," he said, seriously.
She regarded him for a moment and said, "You had better be joking. I want people to know you are married, especially women."
"Fine, then, I'll wear a ring." He reached in his pocket, and pulled out another, which was larger, but apart from the size, matched the first one exactly. "A match set."
"Just like us," she said.
"Exactly, we are a matched set, not an unlikely pair," he said.
Hermione shook her head and said, "No, we're still an unlikely pair, but it's true when it's said that opposites attract. At least, it's true in our case."
"I suppose so," he said. He took the smaller ring from her hand, and put both rings back in his pocket. "Now, Miss Granger, I wasn't going to bother with this, but then I remembered what a champ you were with transfiguration. Do you think you could transfigure my suit from yesterday, and your pretty little dress, into some type of wedding attire. Something appropriate?"
"I think that could be managed," she said, smiling. She thought that was an excellent plan. She took his hand and led him in the house. She went to the bedroom he had stayed in first. He smoothed out his suit, on the bed. It was a nice, dark grey suit, very stylish, with a white silk shirt and a dark tie. Hermione thought for a moment, then with a swish of her wand, the grey suit turned black, and the shirt changed to a more formal white silk, with larger cuffs, and smaller collar. She changed the tie to purple.
"Purple?" Draco said.
"What? I like purple," she said back.
"I don't, change it to green," he said.
"How cliché," she retorted, rolling her eyes.
"I happen to like green, it has nothing to do with which house I was in during school," he lied.
"Green won't do," she complained. She cocked her head the other way, and changed the tie to red.
"No way! Now that's cliché!" he yelled, pointing at the tie. He started to usher her out the room. "You know what? I can change the colour of my own tie, thank you. Let's go work on your dress."
She put her arms up to block him from leaving his room. "No, I want to do this right and its bad luck for you to see me in my dress before the wedding, so, let me take care of this myself. Also, send Ginny up, for I need to fix something for her, since she will be my witness."
Draco looked worried and asked, "Who will be my witness? There's no way I want Potter."
"Maybe Ron will come back from his honeymoon early," she said with a perfectly straight face.
"That's not even remotely funny," he spat. He slapped her arm.
"You hit like a girl," she said, turning to leave the room.
"You are a girl," he said.
"How is that an insult?" she asked.
"Oh, it's not, I thought we were just stating the obvious," he said as a joke.
"You just put yourself down, you know, with that statement," she laughed.
"Did I?" He acted oblivious. "Now, may we focus on me," he asked. She thought they were focusing on him, but she stood there with her arms crossed, with an expression that begged him to continue. He looked at her intently, and then said, "Who will be my stupid witness?"
"I don't know, Draco. Ask Charlie. He's been full of advice during our courtship," she said. She turned to enter her room and said, "Now, leave me alone, I only have a limited amount of time, and I have to get my dress ready. Don't forget to send up Ginny." She shut the door to her room, and he heard her lock it as well.
"I could enter if I wanted," he said loudly to the door. He turned to walk down the stairs and said, "I just don't happen to want to."
"You don't want to do what?" a voice said from the bottom of the stairs. Well, wasn't that convenient? It was Charlie. Just the man he wanted to see. It was almost too perfect, almost like this was a romance story, being orchestrated by a person unknown; making sure everything fell perfectly in place with each word written.
"Weasley, I have a favour to ask," Draco said.
"Do ask," Charlie said, leaning against the wall.
"Well, I know we don't know each other very well," Draco began.
"Let me stop you there," Charlie said. Draco was worried, as Charlie continued, "I simply can't marry you. I, unlike some people, don't marry someone after one day." He laughed at his stupid joke.
Draco frowned and said, "Never mind," and he walked on down the stairs. Maybe Potter would work.
Charlie said, "Malfoy, stop. It was a joke. Ask your question, please."
"Well, would you like to be one of our witnesses? Hermione suggested it," Draco said. He thought if he said, 'our witnesses' and mentioned that she suggested it, he would be more receptive.
"Great," was his response. He ran upstairs and said, "I hope my suit is clean."
Ginny came walking in the kitchen next, and Draco thought, 'wow, this really is too easy, for I needed to talk to her next'. He turned to her and said, "Hermione wants you upstairs. She wants you to be one of our witnesses, and she wants to transfigure a dress for you."
Ginny jumped up and down, excited. "Do you mean we're to dress up?"
"Well, yes, Little Red, I know this is the Burrow and all, but it's also a wedding," Draco said with fake disdain.
Without another word to Draco, Ginny ran outside, and yelled, "Hurry up, everyone, we have to change clothes for the wedding!" Soon, everyone was entering the house, moving all around, throwing clothes here and there. Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Granger, already armed with the knowledge of the events of the last day by Harry, started getting food ready.
Draco clapped his hands, looked at the hustle and bustle around him, and said, "Let's have a wedding!"
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