Author's note: i know this is pretty late, everyone.so sorry, and Fluffy goodness is... well... pretty far off. But for now there's humor and angst. hee hee hee. lots of fun.
Chapter 15 - Preparations
Draco always envisioned himself with a very large wedding. One of those garish media events that they feature in Witch Weekly (the must read gossip magazine for witches in the know.), or whatever it was called. He knew it was queer of him to even think about his wedding, but he was a pure blood and the thought of marriage was something that every pure blood thought of after school, everyone did it. He had thought that his future bride would be a pure blood, a girl of relative comeliness, a good family name and hopefully a respectable fortune. She would be quite capable of running a household and being respectful and obedient to his wishes. His bride to be was going to be nothing like that.
Hermione granger.
Merlin's balls! How could he have been so stupid?
The Golden Mudblood of Potter and Weasley?
Fucking, Bloody hell.
Too late for brooding, Draco, nothing to do about it now. He thought to himself as he stood in front of the mirror of the Slytherin boy's bathroom readying himself for the wedding ceremony.
unlike the affair he had thought he was unavoidably going to have to suffer through, long tedious with a thousand prominent guests from wizarding society, probably needlessly extravagant that would probably cost a small fortune, his wedding today was going to be a small ceremony with only three people present other than he and his blushing (with rage) bride.
Dumbledore decided that it should be held in the forbidden forest, where he was sure none of the students would chance upon them. Even thought the most complicated of privacy wards were cast upon the small Willow Grove where they were to be wed. Dumbledore also promised to keep the ceremony as short as possible, just in case.
This was all quite fine with Draco, the shorter the better. He had been to his share of wedding ceremonies and he knew how long these things could get. A good friend of his mum's Ludovica Hinkle and Norn Melchowhick's wedding took a full two days.
Draco was surprised they didn't get sick of each other.
Well, it wasn't as if he had to worry about that, he already hated his future bride.
he even had to spend for her. Mc Gonagall had asked that he prepare Granger a wedding ring and an engagement ring, as a surprise. The transfiguration professor was sure that it would thrill the Gryffindor prefect.
Draco mentally snorted.
He knew that Granger would be far from delighted. That and only that was the reason that he prepared them anyway. He knew he would piss her off immensely to know that he had spent money on her. She would have one of those Gryffindor moments and feel as thought she would have to pay him back. Damn Gryffindors, they didn't know how to just accept a gift, they had to pay it all back.
As he slipped into his black dress robes with the silver and green clasps, he idly wondered what she would think about them. Would she like them? Or would she hate them?
Ha! Who cared...the fact of the matter was either way, they achieved what he wanted them to, they would piss her off. He would, however, rather that she liked them, which would piss her off even more.
He fastened his clasps slowly; he liked the systematic feeling of doing something he had done a million times before. For a while it felt like nothing had happened, like he was simply getting ready to go to a function rather like the Yule ball that he was no doubt taking another one of the pure bred girls in the school to.
As horrendous as that sounds, it was more enjoyable that what he had planned for today.
Don't be a ponce, Malfoy. He told himself scornfully. There is no time for wistfully wishing this never happened. Suck it in and move on.
Draco arranged his features in their trademark smirk.
for a single moment, he wished he could bring Gideon down to the forbidden forest with them, he would feel a little more reassured if the owl was there. He knew how pathetic it was to feel that way, rather like a child needing a favorite blanket or teddy bear. Draco was different, he didn't need the security, and he simply wanted it. He quelled the thought immediately. He was going to have to do this sooner or later. It was integral to the facade he and Granger were putting up.
It was too early to be awake, or rather too late. It was way too cold to be a regular spring day even though it was may. it was as if the weather was affected by his mood. And he wanted nothing more than to disappear under the covers, but he couldn't.
Today was his wedding day.
Oh, joy.
On the other side of the castle, in the prefect's bathroom, Hermione got out of the water.
She had been up since three doing her hair, her makeup, readying her dress and then bathing for an hour straight, in scented bubbles.
It wasn't because she was excited, oh no. it was because she bloody well could not go to sleep.
She had tried for hours, going to bed at eight and then tossing and turning until eleven. Around her, all her roommates slept easily thinking that the next day was going to be an uneventful Monday. It was half true, tomorrow was an uneventful Monday, and today had been an uneventful Sunday for everyone but herself and her fiancé and the three teachers who were celebrating the ceremony.
Merlin, her fiancé? The title just seemed completely wrong when pertaining to the sneering prat Draco Malfoy.
Fiancés were supposed to be nice men who one brought home for parental approval and fruitcake of questionable age. It was inconceivable to every see Draco Malfoy in her home, a typical English suburban home, making small talk with her average dentist parents.
Hermione forced herself to take a deep breath.
Stress.
It was stress again.
Stress was bad for the baby.
She looked down at her stomach; she was already beginning to show. Thankfully, Professor Mc Gonagall had already though of an idea to remedy this. Apparently there was a spell that could be performed that hid the swelling of a pregnant belly, pure blooded women going to prominent social functions did it all the time. All she had to do was point her wand at her clothing at say 'Natalus obscuritae'.
"Natalus obscuritae." she said pointing at her wedding gown, a simple ivory gown with billowed sleeves and a straight cut neck line.
She sighed.
It really was beautiful. She only wished that she didn't have to wear it. She'd much rather go in a dark blue potato sack and see what Snape and Dumbledore had to say about that.
but she and Malfoy agreed going into this that they were supposedly in love so Hermione emptied out what little savings she had in her money bank (rather like a piggy bank but shaped like a cookie jar.) and bought the simplest wedding dress she could find my anonymous owl post. She purchased also a platinum band engraved with the words: ego contemno vos
She figured the message would annoy Malfoy.
Her savings were gone but she consoled herself in thinking that she was marrying into he richest family in wizarding history.
Marrying him. She was rather worried about the ceremony. Professor Mc Gonagall had of course given her a copy of what was going to be said, it seemed really, really different from the muggle ceremony. Hermione realized that her wedding was going to be the first wizarding ceremony she had ever attended. It scared her a little. What if she messed it up?
No. she was going to do this.
With a determined glint in her eye she nodded at her reflection. Then, she slipped the dress over her head and forced herself to smile at her self in the mirror. she didn't look gorgeous the way American supermodels did, even with the dress that reduced all her natal weight she was not skinny and had never been. She also didn't have the happy glow that most brides were supposed to posses. She did not, however look tired from lack of sleep and that was good enough.
She slipped her petite feet into the blue formal sandals she had worn a year before in the Yule ball and transfigured them white. Her final touch was a pair of white gold hoop earrings. Her mother had had them for years, and then gave them to Hermione for Christmas just this year, before all of this happened.
"Well, Hermione, its now or never." she said to herself, and then made a face. "Oh Merlin, how I wish it could be never."
She chanced one more look down at her now less rounded stomach.
"You better be nice, little one." she said rubbing it fondly. "Everyone is bending over backwards for you."
With that, she left the prefects bathroom and hurried down the halls. she met Professor Mc Gonagall in the great hall.
"Are you ready, Hermione?" she asked kindly. "Ready to get married?"
It was a rhetorical question but Hermione wanted to scream that, NO she was NOT ready and NO she would NEVER be ready. Well, maybe if the person she was marrying was NOT Malfoy.
She smiled.
"Ready as I'll ever be." she said marveling at how natural that sounded.
"Good." the transfiguration professor replied. "Come now, mustn't be late."
She turned abruptly and walked off, Hermione followed a little less rapidly. She dragged her feet all the way to Willow Grove in the forbidden forest. She wanted to value her last few moments of freedom.