The second Hermione stepped out of the floo, she wished she had not come. The floors gleamed, the arches arched, the place literally reeked of money, and she was certain that the modest funds in her purse would not even cover a consultation. No sooner was she thinking about turning right back around, she was greeted by name and welcomed into the sitting room. Apparently, when the Malfoys made an appointment you did not sit on uncomfortable chairs in a noisy waiting room. Instead, you were ushered in immediately and offered refreshments.

Almond Dippant was delighted to meet her and at her disposal. A portly man in a tailored suit with a touch of grey at his temples and kind eyes, he looked very professional which only added to her anxiety. Hermione could barely get out pleasantries because she was so off balance and nervous. She sat uneasily on the edge of her seat and goggled at the mess of files that apparently consisted of her case. He gently inquired if she had narrowed down the suitors she wanted to consider today, and she was quite embarrassed to admit she didn't know for sure the extent of suitors who were still in the running.

Much to her relief, he was prepared for such a scenario and presented her with a magical document that updated every time a bid was placed on her behalf at the ministry. She noted that the Malfoy name was blazoned in gold at the top, followed closely by the Selwyns and the Zabinis. The amount lettered precisely next to each entry was mind-blowing. They couldn't seriously be bidding this much for her.

"Who gets this money?" she blurted out, insanely curious.

"You do."

"This money goes to me?"

"Well, not all of it, of course. A hefty percentage goes to the Ministry in order to pay administrative costs, and a percentage is being donated to restoration funds for damages caused by the war. But, traditionally, a bride price goes to the bride's family. Since your family is all Muggle, that just leaves you."

Hermione scowled. These scumbag Ministry weasels were literally buying people, and making purebloods pay for it, to fund their ministry. She vowed to look precisely into where the percentage that the Ministry was skimming off the top was going. If her love of history had taught her anything, it was that you only needed to follow the money to unearth corruption.

"I've compiled a file for each of your suitors. I am prepared to discuss specific family clauses that will affect you as well as developments that have been made to ministry policy which will possibly affect you in the last twenty-four hours." Hermione compared the towering stack of paperwork on Mr. Dippant's desk to the pile of folders back in her room that Malfoy had brought with him, as well as her own research, and was quite overwhelmed.

He seemed to read her mind. "Miss Granger, I am sure you are overwhelmed. However, it is best to move quickly. Each suitor can only be actively bidding on one bride at any given time. This prevents wealthy bidders from holding a monopoly and driving the price up for everyone. What this means for you is that the longer you delay, the fewer choices you will have. I would recommend narrowing your bidders down to a top ten to make the pile more manageable."

"How long have you had my case, Mr. Dippant?" Hermione asked, wondering if the Malfoys had been privy to advance notice. Why the hell were they so interested in her?

"The Malfoys contacted me immediately after the law dropped. I'd say within thirty minutes."

He'd done all this in a matter of days. Jesus. He must have been burning the midnight oil. "I can't imagine how many billable hours you have put into this case, Mr. Dippant, and I must apologize, but I am probably not equipped to pay for all this. I have a modest stipend from my parents but nothing that would cover this type of expense."

Her face was burning with humiliation and shame and she was planning on giving Malfoy another good smack. It had been a while; he was due. The lawyer smiled again at her, a gentle, accepting smile, with no judgement or condescension at all, and suddenly Hermione decided she liked him.

"The law allows for a potential suitor to be responsible for your attorney's fees, a way to display generosity. The Malfoys have assumed this cost for you."

Hermione frowned, not wanting to be indebted to them. "Does that present a conflict of interest?"

"Not at all, Miss Granger. By law, I only represent your interests, and the clause I'm referring to requires that, once the Malfoys extend credit for you, they must pay regardless of the outcome of the bidding process." He gave her a cheery smile. "They can afford it, no problem. Should we go ahead and start with Mr. Malfoy's contract since he is on top?"

Curiosity overcame her reluctance and she leaned forward. "Malfoy gave me a copy of the contract, and it seems quite reasonable. Is this a standard contract that I can expect from all my suitors or was the Malfoy contract drawn up individually?"

"Get the Ministry involved and nothing goes smoothly," admitted candidly. "For example, your case has already been complicated by Ministry interference. Mr. Malfoy's contract has been contested by the Clause Adherence Committee."

She was handed a long document full of legal garbage for her review and she skimmed while he talked. "The law calls for all family traditions and rituals to be adhered to. The ministry is claiming the tradition clause applies to the engagement contract and ceremony. The Malfoys are proposing a simple handfasting, easily broken, stating that the law only specifies the actual marriage ceremony. The Ministry claims the entire process from engagement to marriage is covered and that the Malfoys must use their ancestral engagement ceremony, which is an extremely binding highly magical process."

He stopped speaking for a moment and patted her hand, a grandfatherly gesture that was almost her undoing. This was just too much! The one thing the Malfoy proposal had going for it was that the contract was reasonable, easily broken, and Malfoy himself was willing to work with her to that end. They couldn't even let her have that small comfort, that small window of time to dispute this whole thing. They were insisting that a big binding engagement ceremony be used immediately.

Dippant continued, "The families typically guard their ancestral magic quite closely, so I only know what has been available to the Ministry, and that is very little. I've been in contact with Mr. Malfoy's legal team first thing this morning to request more information on both the engagement ritual and the marriage rites, and we are awaiting a response."

"I've taken the liberty of placing contracts with less savory elements to the side and more favorable, reasonable contracts here," he said, tapping the pile to his left. "Unfortunately, most of these contracts are running into the same ministry interference as the Malfoy contract. They want to make sure that the engagement follows family tradition. Basically, the families are still thinking that the law may be overturned and the Ministry is discouraging any action that allows for a contract to be recalled in the event that happens."

She slumped, silently staring at her list of suitors, not one of them even remotely appealing. Most of them disturbingly unknown. Why were so many people bidding on her? "Is there some legal advantage to bidding on me?" she asked dully, looking up, trying to read his kind expression.

"No legal advantage, no. Some of these bidders are most likely seeking political advantage. You are extremely well known and will likely have some sort of pull with the Ministry. A favorite in the media, your celebrity status might make you more palatable for the old families. Your test scores, grades, and accomplishments were published for consideration as well. A lot of pureblood families traditionally focus on quality of offspring when choosing spouses. It's not that far off from the normal path for some families who have always had a bride or groom selected by the head of the family."

That explanation did nothing to settle her stomach.

She sighed and decided knowledge was power and started going over her suitors in detail, but she agreed with Mr. Dippant that making a decision without knowing the extent of the engagement requirements was hasty.

The hour struck 11, and she glanced at the charmed parchment with her bidders. The numbers went haywire while her various suitors placed bids. Malfoy had been the high bidder, so he was not able to bid this round. After a mere sixty seconds, the names on the sheet rearranged themselves, and she noted that the Selwyns had edged out in front. She had a one hour window in which she could accept the Selwyn proposal before the bids would be open again.

On paper, the Selwyn family was an excellent match. Neutral in the war, well respected, wealthy. In reality, the thought of marrying a forty-four year old man she had never met who was rumored to be a homosexual left a pretty bitter taste in her mouth. Forcing a gay man to enter into a marriage and copulate with a female to get an heir was an obscene level of evil she was not even going to touch. She set the paper aside. That was definitely not an option.

In fact, most of her suitors went into the "no" pile. She was honestly surprised to see that most of those leftover were people she personally knew. She supposed it was better to go with the devil you knew. The "maybe" pile she was taking with her to look over at her leisure. Mr. Dippant was just making her a new appointment in his book when the hour struck 12, and Hermione grabbed up her magical parchment to take a look.

Draco Malfoy surged to the front of the bidding with an insanely huge bid. How could one person even have that much money? Looking at all of those zeros made her slightly ill. There was no possibility they could even raise enough money for Ron to bid even once. She said goodbye to Mr. Dippant with a heavy heart.


Hermione was very surprised to find Malfoy waiting for her in the waiting room. It had been a two-hour meeting! He had made himself quite comfortable, surrounded by paperwork and sipping tea. He looked up the second she stepped through the door, stood immediately, and began to gather his things. She waited patiently for him as he shrunk the folders he had been looking at and put them in his pocket before taking a hasty last swig of his tea and putting the empty cup down.

It was true that she had known him for seven years. But she didn't really know him. She could count the conversations she had had with him on one hand, half of them having taken place in the last two days. She knew he had been willing to betray Hogwarts and contemplate murder to protect his family. She knew that he was insanely clever. She knew he was obnoxiously good looking. She knew that he was rich. But she didn't know much of anything that the entire wizarding world did not know. When contemplating entering into a marriage, it wasn't much to go on.

He jogged on over to her, a serious expression on his face, and she found herself rifling through her memories to place that look. She'd seen it before, during lessons sometimes, but it was rare. Usually, when she was looking at him, he was looking back with contempt or dislike, and occasional amusement at her expense. None of that was evident in his expression now, it seemed neutral. If he had any emotions at all about the situation, they were being carefully hidden from her. Hermione wasn't very good at hiding her emotions and was irrationally irritated that he should have this advantage.

"Listen," he spoke in a low tone that was not a whisper but definitely intended not to carry. "There is a problem with the contract I gave you."

"I heard." She let her eyes flick to Mr. Dippant's closed door, and he followed her gaze, a widening of his eyes the only indication that he was surprised. She felt an unproportionate sense of relief that he was immediately honest with her. Like their meeting in the library, it felt like he was giving her full disclosure, building trust between them. For a moment, they felt like co-conspirators against the Ministry before Hermione ruthlessly squashed that warm feeling.

That feeling was dangerous. Malfoy was not to be trusted. He might be just as much a victim to this law as she was, but he was already maneuvering for advantage, trying to figure out how to twist things to suit him. She wasn't sure just how she fit in that puzzle. She didn't know him well enough to know if he was a liar. She couldn't recall him ever telling her or anyone an un-truth, but how would she know if he had? He had seemed sincere when he talked about his motivations, but how would she know? He had said several reasons for choosing her to bid on, but he had only given her two. What other reasons would he have?

"Would you like to floo over to my solicitor's office with me to get an update?" he asked.

Much her surprise, when she examined her feelings, she did actually want to go. She also wanted to question him about this super secret engagement ritual and ask again what his interest in her was. She decided to be clear-headed about it though. Distance herself. Besides, the boys were waiting for her, wanting to know what she had learned. Clinging to the hope that there was a way out of things.

"I have another appointment," she told him briskly, repressing the desire to apologize. "I'll see you at 2 to share information."

The look he gave her as he stared down at her was way too knowing and made her want to fidget uncomfortably. "I'll escort you."

"You do what you want," she said with an attempt at nonchalance and started towards the floo. He used his long stride to beat her there and floo away first. She stood there, waiting for the flames to clear so she could go, and seriously considered flooing anywhere else just to flaunt the fact that he had no control over her, but that was just silly and childish.

The walk back to Hogwarts from the pub was brisk and silent, and Hermione was intensely aware that the distance between them had widened several inches from when they had walked the same path to Hogsmeade. They parted ways at the gate without exchanging a word. Hermione watched Malfoy walk away once again with the ominous feeling that she had somehow offended him.


A Big Thank you to Kessymaniak for looking over this chapter! And also to Lightofevolution for stepping in with some grammar correction and dialog help. Her help is always amazing!