A/N: Meep!
Sorry I haven't been updating for coughs almost a year ((shudders))
I've been doing my A levels, which I can tell you AREN'T FUN (to all Americans, it's the tests you take when you're 16/17/18. I'm just coming out of the end of mine, but all my exams are coming up!)
Anyway, here's chapter Three of this story,
Chapter ThreeAs soon as Malfoy had led Hermione to a safe enough distance from the rest of the school, he dropped her hand, staring blankly at the wall in front of him. Hermione stood slightly behind him, shifting from one foot to the other uncomfortably.
"Thank you," was all she had come up with to say after a few minutes silence.
"Don't mention it," Malfoy replied, half-smiling to the wall. He turned to face her, fingering his wedding band. "It was my fault after all."
"Well, sort of." Their eyes met and she looked away, embarrassed. Needing something to do, she reached back into her robes and fished out the chain that held her precious rings. "I suppose I better put these back on," she unhooked the chain, the rings falling out onto her hand. "I thought the secret would last a little longer than it did."
"You can't keep anything a secret here." She smiled at him and went to put on her rings. "Let me." He stepped forward and she looked at him, surprised. He laughed. "It is my job, isn't it?"
With a little embarrassed giggle she nodded, handing him the rings and holding out her left hand. He quickly slipped the diamond ring on and then the golden band, before kissing her hand and letting it fall to her side.
"It's funny," Hermione raised her hand to her face to inspect it. "But my hand felt all wrong without them." She saw him looking at her intensely and she dropped her hand, letting it fall back to her side. "I see you never took yours off."
"Why would I?" He asked, not breaking his stare. Silence reigned once again, until the heat rose into Hermione's cheeks at his staring.
"I think I need to lie down."
"What a fantastic idea." Malfoy's eyes lit up and he offered his arm.
"No." She said bluntly, but took his arm.
"Fine, I'll just walk you to the illustrious Gryfindor tower." They walked in silence each was looking to the other side of the corridor. When they finally got there, they stopped and looked at each other. An awkward moment followed, where they looked into each other's eyes. Malfoy slowly closed the gap between them when an excited shout came from the end of the corridor.
"Oh my god! There they are." The two looked at the speakers and saw a sixteen year old Ginny and Parvati Patil coming down the corridor. Hermione looked back at Malfoy who looked at her quizzically and she shook her head.
"Just go," he nodded, kissing her rings, and then left amid the sighs of the two other Gryfindors.
"So, go on then," prompted the red head, after watching the blonde out of sight. "Tell us."
"There really is nothing to tell." Concluded Hermione, to which her friends scoffed.
"Nothing, except your marriage!" Parvati exclaimed.
"True." With that, Hermione gave the password and went into Gryfindor tower, moving through the empty common room and up the stairs to her bedroom. The others followed her.
"So?" The breathless Ginny panted.
"So what?" Hermione sat herself on her bed and rooted in her drawers, until she found a quill, took up a piece of parchment, and proceeded to draw random lines, doodling with a faint half smile.
Ginny flopped beside her on the bed with a frustrated noise and shook her friend. "You can be exasperating sometimes, Miss Granger!"
"Miss Granger?" The pen stopped and the girl raised an eyebrow at her. "The second time my name has to be corrected. I am Mrs Malfoy, remember?"
Ginny held her hand to her mouth and giggled. "Slip of the tongue."
"You're veering off subject. What of this marriage?" Parvati glared at her.
"There really is nothing to tell."
"How can that be true? You leave for the summer his sworn enemy and come back his sworn love!"
"His wife, not sworn love, his wife." Hermione corrected reproachfully.
"His wife then, but wait, you do not love him? There is surely more than nothing to tell of this."
"It may be so." To this the petite girl resumed her scribbling. The younger red head pulled the quill from her hand and held it high above her head.
"So tell! How did this come about? How did he propose? You cannot say he did not, I see the ring as clearly as I see the finger it is on!"
Hermione sighed, and laid the parchment on the cover beside her. "Yes, he did propose. It is plain I denied him not, and we were married, there, no more to say on the matter." She grabbed the quill from the unsuspecting Ginny, and then took up the parchment once more.
"Oh, how can you say in so many words nothing! It would be impossible for anyone but anyone with your wit!" Parvati flopped on her own bed, next to Hermione's facing the girls.
"I apologise for your curiosity, but I am done with my story."
"Where did you marry? What was the dress like? Why did he propose?" Ginny prompted.
"Those are my secrets; ask Draco if you wish to know, I'm sure he will fill in the details."
"We cannot talk to him! He may be your love, but I'm sure he detests us as much as if we were old Godric and he Salzaar!"
"Then, let your questions die with you, far into the future, but unanswered." With this concluding statement, Hermione stood, put both quill and newly finished drawing, in her dresser, before entering the bathroom.
The girls once again took to following her. "C'mon, Hermione, please?"
"What?" She asked. Ginny shut her eyes in personal torment.
"Why are you doing this to us? I would have thought you would have at least given us an answer! We are your best friends, barring Harry and my brother of course." Hermione stopped washing the ink from her hands and looked at her rings sadly.
"I'm afraid that it is barring no one, Ron and Harry seem to not care anymore."
"That's not true." Parvati interjected. "They care, I know they do, they are just angry and confused. Give them time to adjust."
"You did not need time to adjust." She flashed a smile at her friends. "Indeed the news had not been out for twenty four hours and you are already following me around like puppies."
"Not true." Ginny crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue. Then shook her head. "Stop it! Tell us!"
"What would you like to know?" Hermione leaned resignedly on the sink. Ginny thought for a second.
"Do you love him?" Hermione let her head fall, so her hair covered her face and sighed.
"That is a complicated question."
"Okay, does he love you?"
"I don't know."
"How can you not know? You married him, did you not! You must know SOMETHING!" Ginny sat on the closed toilet lid.
"Funny that." Hermione turned again and inspected her face in the mirror above the sink.
"So what made you marry him?" Parvati asked. "If you're not sure whether you like him and if he really likes you."
"I can't really say." Hermione answered vaguely.
"Were you drunk?" Ginny received a glare for this question.
"Certainly not." A very put out Hermione strolled back into the bedroom, followed by the two exasperated girls. "Do you think I would do such a thing?"
"Then WHY?" Parvati asked. Hermione smiled to herself, and lay down on the bed.
"I think I want to keep that information to myself for a while." Finally giving up, the pair exchange looks. When it became apparent that wherever Hermione was, it wasn't in the seventh year girl's dormitory of Hogwarts, they left to relate the tiny amount of news they had extracted from her to the other girls.
