Ok, I've been getting heaps of questions, and I've decided to give you a full summary about the AU that's in this story.
Since it's my universe, Draco and Hermione know each other, but only briefly through social events. They didn't go to the same school. Yes, this story does have magic, but it may not be a major part of the story. They are in their late teens to their early twenties.
Even though there is magic, there are no 'purebloods' and 'mudbloods'. Here, status is decided by your money. There will be people from the Harry Potter series, as someone from there is in this chapter, however they aren't the same. Eg, Harry wouldn't be famous. Some characters from the HP series will be left out, I'm sorry if any of them are your favourites.
Enjoy this chapter!
Last Chapter –
Draco stood still in her bedroom. Money didn't mean anything? He repeated to himself. What kind of idiot of a girl would say that? At least if they didn't have love, they'd have anything else they could buy. He knew she didn't want to go into the marriage, heck he didn't even want to. But it wasn't for love, it was for money, power and allegiance.
"Love," he spat, "Who would have thought such a stupid thing existed." His eyes burning with pain, fury and remembrance, he too slammed the door shut on his way out, going downstairs for dinner.
88888
Chapter 3 – A Long Time Crush
It was dinner time. Richard Granger and Lucius Malfoy talked like their was no tomorrow. It was business, business, business. Hermione sat there, eating her vegetables, using her knife and fork politely. In her head, she was visioning that the poor carrot was Draco. She wanted to cut him up, and throw him away. Get him out of her life for once.
Throwing away her politeness, she started to randomly stab at her carrot.
"Hermione, what is the matter?" her mother asked alarmed, "Please…"
"I'm sorry." Hermione muttered, restraining herself from causing the carrot more harm, and decided to chew it instead in her mouth.
CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP
Victoria Granger looked up in exclamation. "Hermione!"
Hermione looked a little ashamed. "I'm sorry."
"You ok?" asked Amanda, "Is it Draco?"
"No, it's not. I'm just hungry." Hermione replied, a little miffed.
Draco was sitting opposite her, and he too looked a little angry. Hermione looked up and saw all the emotions in his eyes. There was anger, frustration, confusion and, was it hurt? She wasn't too sure, because as she saw it, it disappeared as quickly as it came.
Deciding to go back to killing her food, Hermione picked up her fork as if to start, before Amanda stopped her. "I don't think that's a good idea Mya" she whispered, so that the two fathers didn't pick up.
"Sorry," Hermione muttered, "It just makes me so mad…"
"What does?" Amanda smirked, "Could it be because you find him so irresistibly handsome?"
"Quite the opposite actually." Hermione said, politely chewing. "He is so up himself!"
"Most rich boys are." Amanda said nodding, trying her hardest not to smirk.
"I mean, he has no right to -" Hermione stopped herself in the middle of the sentence. It may have been because she didn't want to say anything else, or because he couldn't find any words to fill the rest of her sentence.
"To walk into your life and tell you he wants to have sex with you?"
"How you do you kn -" Hermione started to whisper.
"Trust me, I'm your best friend." Amanda said, sipping a glass of wine. "I'm supposed to know these things."
"Hermione," Richard started.
"Yes father?"
"When are you going to sell your shop?" He inquired, giving her a warning look, which she ignored.
"I'm sorry, did I miss something?" she said mildly, "I'm not selling my shop."
"We agreed that you would sell it to the highest bidder," There was now definitely fire in his eyes.
"No, we didn't father. You agreed to that. It's my shop, I can make my own decisions thank you."
Lucius decided to take a different approach. "Wouldn't it be better if you stayed at home while Draco looked after businesses?"
Hermione had to clench her jaw so that she wouldn't bite back a reply. "No, we would share the roles equally." Under her breath she muttered, "If we were to get married that is."
"I'm sure Draco would prefer you'd stay at home." Lucius persisted, determinedly wanting this woman to not work.
"No, I would like to keep my business." Hermione firmly. "I don't want to sell it!"
"Hermione." Her said threateningly, shaking his finger at her. "Now I know you take pride in your shop but -"
"Don't Hermione me." She snapped, "I don't want to sell my shop! I don't want to get married in a month, and I definitely don't even know if I want to get married."
At that, Draco looked up in shock. He knew they both didn't want to do this, but for her to actually have the guts to tell his father and her own? A sense of respect came through him for this fiery young woman.
He watched this dispute between the two older males, and his to be fiancé.
"Don't speak to me like that young lady!" her father boomed, "Show some respect!"
Hermione opened her mouth, as if to retaliate, but closed it before she made anything worse.
"That's good. Now you know you have to close the shop!"
Draco decided to stop this once and for all. "No, I think it would be alright for Hermione to keep her shop. We'd both cut hours and look after the children together."
Richard and Lucius looked at him in equal surprise. Hadn't Draco always wanted a stay at home mother? Lucius thought, now very confused.
"I don't think I understand." He started, "So, what's happening here?"
Hermione was too shocked for words. Did Draco just stick up for her? Did he just stick up for her for something that meant a lot to her? Did he actually know how much the shop meant to her? Without it, she had no freedom. Without it, she had no life. Without, she had no meaning.
Nobody understood that! Except for Amanda. She could empathise. Unlike her father. Suddenly Hermione turned suspicious. She brushed aside all the thoughts that Draco could be nice, and started to think he wanted something. If he thought that she would give him sex just because he would stick up for her on something, then he was out of his mind!
"I don't need your help." Hermione snapped, "Stay out of this."
A flash of hurt went through his face, but then it was replaced with resentment. "Fine, but you're fighting a losing battle."
"Thanks for your unwanted opinion." She said, giving him a resentful look. "And if you think that I'm going to give you sex just because you stuck up for me then, then your stupider than I thought!"
Draco looked seriously surprised and a little wounded. "Me? Stick up for you because of sex? You've got to be the stupid one then. I wouldn't need to make a girl have sex with me because she felt she owed it to me! Girls have sex with me because they want to."
"Oh yeah, that's right isn't it. Mr. Every-Girl-Wants-Me. I don't think so." She said, pursing her lips in annoyance. "You've got something coming if you think that."
"You're dumber than I thought."
"Stop fighting at the dinner table!" Yelled Mr Granger. "How dare you two talk as if we aren't here!"
Hermione and Draco got the shock of their lives. They had in fact forgotten everyone else was there. When they were fighting, there was only them two in the room, battling it out. One was to win, and the other to lose. Neither was going to back down.
"Hermione," Lucius said with forced calm, "What do you mean? Are you not going to produce us a grandchild?"
Hermione stuttered over her words. "No, I'm not – I mean, not right now."
"But you are to produce an heir after your wedding." Lucius further digged, "Aren't you?"
"I'm sorry father, that can't work out." Draco said, shooting Hermione an irate look. "Hermione isn't ready for it."
"Well you will need to be! You're engagement party is going to be in a week."
"What!" Hermione exclaimed, "That's so soon."
"Surely you would have thought it'd be soon." Mr Granger said, surveying Hermione over his glass of wine. "You already are engaged, so we would have only assumed you'd like your engagement party to be soon."
Throughout this whole ordeal, Mrs Granger kept quiet. When she was to be married to Mr Granger, it was also out of business. However, her parents had hoped she'd fall in love with Richard. They had become close friends, but she had nowhere near loved him. He had loved her, but she never loved him. This was why she had resorted comfort in the arms of the man she loved before the engagement.
She hoped Hermione never did the same. Victoria hoped with all her heart Draco and Hermione could put aside their differences and fall in love. Because of Victoria's affair, she never knew for sure who Hermione's father was. Whether it was Richards, or Amos Diggory's.
Hermione looked at her mother for support, however Victoria offered none. "I'm sorry honey, it would be best if the engagement party was as soon as possible. We were thinking of making it into a ball. You'd like wouldn't you?"
"No." Hermione said firmly, "I wouldn't."
"Now don't make things difficult." Richard Granger said, starting to lose his temper. "When we told you about this betrothal you agreed! I expect you keep your word."
"Yes father." Hermione muttered. Draco watched in slight concern and amusement. He didn't care about this marriage. It was just about money, love had nothing to do with it. That was fine by him. Love didn't exist to him anymore.
Dinner was finally finished. Hermione thought it would never end. She was particularly because Amanda was sleeping over. The only bad thing was…
"Honey, I've asked Draco to sleep over tonight." Victoria Granger said, doing everything in her willpower to make the two get along.
"What!" Hermione exclaimed, "But mother, Amanda is here tonight."
"You can spend time with both of them."
"Fine." Hermione muttered, knowing she would do anything to not spend time with him.
Lucius Malfoy had already left, and Richard Granger walked in.
"Darling, I've just asked Amos Diggory and his son to come over."
Victoria instantly paled. "Amos Diggory?"
"Yes, you know him, we went to school together, remember?"
"I remember." She said shakily, before composing herself "Why are they coming over?"
"Amos and I are going to discuss business as well. He wants to buy some major product I have just released."
"Ok, but why is Cedric coming over?"
"Cedric!" butted in Hermione, "Oh yes! I haven't seen him in ages. I miss him so much." Her eyes glazed over as she thought of her crush. Her thoughts then went crashing down as she remembered Draco was going to be there.
Draco was standing in the doorway, and he saw her reaction when she heard Cedric's name. He had known Cedric through school. He was very popular, though not as popular as me. Draco thought, smirking to himself. He was however a bit put off by Hermione's reaction. Did she have hidden feelings for this guy? He thought worriedly. Something inside him boiled over, and he felt an overwhelming tide of emotions pour throughout him.
"Jealous are you?" Amanda had seen Draco's fists automatically clench, and his jaw harden.
"Why should I be jealous?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.
"No reason," she said, before continuing on her way. Should I be worried and jealous? He thought, confusion coming through his features. He then walked in, and tapped Hermione on the shoulder politely.
"What?" she snapped, turning her head towards him.
He then motioned him to follow him. He had already gotten to know this house quite well, and knew where all the rooms where. He led her into a second den, that was empty.
When they were sitting down, he started to speak. "I know we are already engaged and that you aren't exactly happy."
"Tell me something I don't know." She mocked, crossing her arms protectively around her chest, a thing Draco noticed that she did a lot when she was feeling insecure.
"Well I've decided to make this as real as possible." He said, coming forward and kneeling on knee. "I know we don't know each other very well, but that can change. Everything can change. Hermione will you marry me?" He then felt in his pockets for a small box, and opened it.
Hermione gasped when she saw the engagement ring inside. It was so different from other boring rings she had seen before. It had a beautiful princess cut diamond in the centre, surround by small heart shaped amethysts, her favourite stone. Engraved in the gold was the inscription, Draco and Hermione Forever.
She knew she had to say yes, she had no choice. But she had always dreamed when her prince charming proposed, she actually want to marry them. As she opened her mouth to say yes, a familiar handsome face poked through the door.
"Cedric!" she squealed, leaving Draco alone, looking quite stupid.
"Hermione." He said, scooping her up in his arms and giving her a kiss on the forehead. "You're looking gorgeous like normal."
Draco got up from his position, feeling like the biggest idiot in the world. He then picked himself up and walked out of the room, brushing Hermione and Cedric by, as he left.
Hermione felt his sudden coldness as he swept against her. Instantly she felt guilty. Those feelings were then brushed aside as Cedric started tickling her. Laughing loudly, she forgot all about Draco. However, he couldn't forget about her. Her laughter was haunting him in his head, as he could hear it all over again, as he walked down the hall, the ring tucked in his jacket hidden away. There was a rare chance anyone would ever see it again.
I feel so mean! Hope everyone likes this chapter. I know, I'm still not fully getting into the story, but hints of storylines have been shown in this chapter. Please REVIEW!
At the top, did the information shown help you? If you have any more questions, just leave a review and I'll either try to give you an answer through the text or just with a simply summary again.