Hermione stayed up most of the night fretting about her upcoming engagement ceremony and what it would entail. They only had three days to fulfill the traditional engagement ceremony clause of their agreement, and the thought of entering into a magical binding ceremony with Malfoy of all people had her breaking out in hives. What had she been thinking? She wasn't the type to make irrevocable fly-by-night decisions. She was the level-headed one. What had seemed like such a great logical decision in the library with Malfoy standing a foot from her, breathing her air and making her promises, seemed like a monumentally stupid decision once it was done and she was back in her room.
Most of her night consisted of pacing and wringing of hands. It was punctuated by multiple bouts of almost opening her door only to decide that she didn't need to wake her friends with this and returning to bed.
She should have woken her friends.
This was immediately obvious the second she stepped into the common room and was met by incredulous stares. Granted, she was running a little on the late side, sleeping in a bit after she had finally managed to doze off in the wee hours, but certainly not so late as to cause shocked silence from her peers. She looked around, alarmed, and noticed that several students were clustered around a copy of the Prophet and that her face was on the cover.
Just then, before she could get her bearings, Ron came storming up to her with the paper clenched in both fists in an almost menacing way. "Please tell me the Prophet has made a mistake and you have not accepted Malfoy's proposal."
Hermione would have given up her magic three times over to prevent the look of shattered betrayal on his face as she shook her head no. She rushed to explain that it wasn't a real engagement. It was temporary. There was a coup. Words fell out of her mouth with no filter and no finesse, but he was backing away from her, shaking his head, and the thought of him being hurt by this had her screaming inside. "Ron, please listen, you know this isn't me. It's this stupid law!"
"You signed the papers with him, Hermione! We didn't even talk about it." His voice broke a bit.
Hermione wiped at meddlesome tears that were getting in the way as she tried to explain. "I didn't have a choice, Ron. They left me with no choice. But I'm not going to marry him. I'm going to get this law repealed, and then we can be together. Don't you see that this is the only way we can be together?"
"I gave you a choice! You didn't want to choose me. I can't believe this. I actually don't believe this. How could you!" He threw down the paper and stormed away, leaving her in tears and alone in a room full of people.
She stood there, speechless for a handful of seconds, before Lavender Brown of all people shot to her feet and came to her rescue. "All of you, get to breakfast," she said, making shooing motions at the crowd as Ginny led her to a chair by the fire. Hermione flopped down, still shocked.
"How is this my fault all of a sudden?" she asked. "The other day he was all kinds of grateful that Malfoy was doing me a favor, and now I'm evil and wrong for being a victim to this stupid Ministry law?"
"Hermione, you do realize there is a difference between Malfoy offering to help you and you actually accepting his help, don't you?" Ginny asked, an eyebrow raised as if she couldn't believe Hermione could be this stupid.
"I'm not a moron!" Hermione snapped, angrily drying her tears. She hated that sweet condescending tone of voice. Just because she hadn't dated half the Quidditch team didn't mean she wasn't capable of understanding interpersonal relationships. "I don't need you to explain the situation to me. I'm in it all the way up to my ears! Shouldn't you be explaining to Ron that this stupid law is not my fault, and that the only people we should be mad at are the idiots who signed this into law?"
Lavender and Ginny exchanged a look. One of those looks that let her know that they understood something glaringly obvious and she was being socially obtuse.
"I'm sure he isn't blaming you for the law, Hermione, but you did make a decision here that is pretty serious and affects both of you." Lavender had no business being the person who sounded reasonable in all of this.
Ginny conjured a glass filled it with water, pressing it into her hands, and Hermione took a grateful drink while she actively tried to calm down. This was a nightmare. For several days now, it had been one high adrenaline problem after another. She'd probably alternated between crying and anger and stressed fretting more this week than she had in her entire life. She just wanted to go back to freaking out about ruddy Voldemort and final exams.
"That's right," Ginny agreed with Lavender, nodding and touching her knee. "Ron knows this isn't completely your fault. But you can't expect a heartbroken boy to just jump straight to calm reason, Hermione. He's allowed to be upset. He had planned to spend his whole life with you."
"I know that it was a pretty big decision, but it was the right decision." Hermione nodded, reassuring herself. "This buys me time to get the law repealed. I know how hotheaded Ron can be, and this is upsetting for him, but sometimes I just need him to grow up and be there for me, you know? Just once I'd like him to be a great boyfriend and put my emotional needs first. After last night, I ought to be the one is mad. He ought to be relieved that I found a better plan than the one he tried to rush us into to. I have time now to figure this out. Then we can go back to the way things were."
The girls exchanged looks again, and Lavender put a supporting arm around her that made Hermione very nervous. "Honey," she said, very soothingly, "you do realize that you and Ron just broke up, right?"
Hermione stared flatly at her friend, almost wanting to laugh. That was what she got for thinking that Lavender was being reasonable. No wonder the catty girl was being so sweet to her. She thought a little paperwork at the Ministry had broken her up with Ron.
Hermione shook her head, laughing a little, and took another drink of water. "I hardly think Ron is going to break up with me over this, Lavender. We love each other. This is just a stupid piece of paper, and Ron will calm down about it. He always does."
"No," Ginny was shaking her head, high spots of color in her pretty pale cheeks. "No, you don't get to be engaged to someone else and think you still get to date my brother."
Hermione set the glass down, slightly alarmed by Ginny's very serious tone. "Ginny, this isn't a real engagement. It's just a legal ploy to put off the Ministry until I can get this law sorted. It's not like Malfoy and I are together or anything."
She felt like she was explaining water was wet, and it was doing absolutely no good based on the looks she was getting back from the girls.
"Hermione, you signed papers!" Ginny no longer sounded calm and reasonable, in fact, she was rising to her feet, flushed and angry. "You can't possibly be this naive about the way the Wizarding World works after all this time. You've been here for seven years. The Ministry does what it wants. This isn't your spineless Muggle government. The Wizenmengot has the last say. This law isn't getting repealed, and you won't be getting out of this engagement!"
"Ginny, calm down. I have no intention of marrying Malfoy. I'm not two-timing your brother. I just signed a ruddy paper to buy a little time to repeal this law." Hermione stood to comfort her friend, but Ginny was having none of it, backing away from her comforting touch. "Really, Ginny, just think about this reasonably."
"Life isn't all about reason, Hermione! You broke my brother's heart by doing this. Now, I can understand why you did, and no one can say the Ministry didn't back you into a corner, but come on. Quit being so damn logical and realize that there are emotional consequences here!" Ginny spun on her heel and stomped away, and Hermione closed her mouth with a snap. No sense in fighting with the girl. She would calm down and realize this wasn't as big of a deal as she had thought it was. They could all sit down together and talk about it. Lord knows it always took a while for the Weasleys to see reason.
Suddenly, Lavender was hugging her. She was enveloped in a cloud of expensive perfume, silky soft hair, and butter soft clothes for a moment before she was let go. "For such a smart girl, you sure can be dumb sometimes. I'm going to go check on her."
Hermione watched Lavender rush off, slightly bemused by the girl's sweet concern, and decided to skip breakfast. The table would be all abuzz about her engagement, and she had other things to concentrate on. Like making sure an engagement didn't turn into a marriage.
It didn't take Hermione long to realize that she had severely underestimated just how upset Ron would be by this whole "engagement" thing. It was okay for him to walk out on her in the library and tell her he'd deal with her when she got the law repealed, but then he wanted to turn around and be all wounded and hurt about the way she decided to fight the law. Even the first classes of the year brought little distraction despite the fact that usually it was her absolute favorite part of the year. Ginny's "I told you so" when Ron avoided her all morning and then stormed out the minute she entered the grand hall for lunchtime certainly didn't help matters.
She sat silently through lunch, ignored by her peers, and stewed about the whole mess. Harry was sticking to Ron's side, thank goodness, since he was so upset. She was glad Ron had the support he needed, but that left her pretty much alone with her dark and disturbing thoughts. She couldn't wait to sit down with Malfoy's lawyers to interrogate them about their 13 point plan and bring her own ideas and research to the table. The earliest she could get a meeting though was a full week out. There was no way she couldn't wait that long to do something. She gave up on lunch and stomped out of the hall, a girl on a mission.
She was in full temper by the time she reached the owlery and penned a quick note to Almond Dippant requesting a meeting. This wasn't Ron's fault; she had to remember that. Of course he was hurt and upset. This was a whole upsetting mess. She needed to keep the blame firmly where it belonged. She sent another quick note to McGonagall letting her know she was leaving school grounds to visit with her attorney. Deciding it was better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission she quickly made her way out of the school and started walking briskly towards Hogsmeade.
The walk cleared her head somewhat. She felt reasonably calm by the time an owl swooped down to deliver a reply from Dippant telling her to come at her leisure. Her leisure was in about five minutes; she hoped he was ready for her. She didn't know for sure what his specialty was but his competence at their first meeting had impressed her and that wasn't easy to do. Still, it was an unanticipated visit.
Nevertheless, one quick floo later found her in his lovely lobby. His assistant directed her to a seat and offered her tea, but no sooner had her rear touched cushion than Mr. Dippant was greeting her. She was relieved to find that most of her fearful feelings had evaporated. She felt much more confident and on more solid ground when she sat across the desk from her attorney this time around. A plan and a direction really went a long way towards grounding her. Being at loose ends was never her strong suit.
"Miss Granger, I hadn't really expected to see you again in light of your engagement." He pulled a file, presumably hers, from a pile on his desk, putting his reading glasses smartly on his nose. "Since the contract you signed is not technically finalized until the magical procedure binds you to it we can still bill this consultation to the Malfoys, no worries there."
"Well, my financial concerns are a bit of a moot point now that I'll be receiving that hefty bride price," she acknowledged with a smile. "I would like to go over the legal ramifications of my contract in detail, but I'd also like to engage you for an additional project if you are so inclined."
The look he gave her was downright intrigued and Hermione couldn't help but be pleased with herself. She liked Mr. Dippant and thought he was just the right man for the job.
"Certainly, Miss Granger," He leaned back away from the desk, open and engaged, hands folded comfortably over his middle. "What can I help you with?"
"I'd like to sue Kingsley Shacklebolt, as well as every person who signed their name on this law. I'd like to hold these individuals responsible for my personal pain and suffering, the loss of my future children with Ronald Weasley, as well as damage to my reputation and other interpersonal relationships. I'd also like to explore the possibility of pressing criminal charges for endangering my life and the lives of my future children by coercing my social and legal engagement with dangerous factions."
She knew she was smirking in a very Malfoyesque way but couldn't help it. Still, it didn't feel out of place since the smile she received back in return put her in mind of a cat that just eaten a canary.
Hermione was practically brimming with satisfaction by the time she made her way to her private room, not even annoyed with all the extra stairs. Finally, finally, she was doing something. She felt like she was a totally different person. Empowered and capable instead of afraid and weepy. It felt good. No amount of cautionary stipulations regarding how difficult it is to sue government officials, tort laws, and lack of precedent could dampen her enthusiasm.
Still, looking up to see Ron sitting on her bed with his head in his hands was like a kick to the gut.
She set down the folders of notes she was carrying and immediately made her way to his side, sitting down and wrapping her arms around him. He hugged her back and she just let his warmth wash over her, soothing her jagged edges and hurts for a few minutes. He pulled away first, swiping at his eyes suspiciously, but he wasn't crying, and he wasn't yelling. He handed her a stack of crumpled envelopes.
"I thought you could help me pick out someone to bid on, get the requirement out of the way."
Hermione restrained herself from lunging at him to hug some more and started opening the letters, scanning them.
They looked over his prospects for a while before he broke the silence. "When do you do the engagement ceremony?"
"I haven't gotten together with Malfoy to discuss it yet," she admitted, annoyed that she didn't know. "I'm not even sure what's involved or where it is. I'll need to corner his ferret ass tomorrow to hammer out some details."
He barked a startled laugh and she was relieved to hear it. She hadn't heard a happy sound from him in days.
"I'll go with you," he volunteered. "To the ceremony. Usually, girls bring their father or a brother, but you don't have anyone magical on your side. I'm sure Harry will go too, give you a proper escort."
"You have no idea how great that would be," she grabbed his hand giving it a quick squeeze. "The thought of being alone with those people makes my skin crawl."
She thought about it for a nanosecond before grabbing her wand and silencing the room. "Listen, you can't tell anyone," she started and waited for his impatient nod before continuing. "I've just been to see my lawyer about suing and pressing charges against Kingsley and the rest of those stupid lawmakers who are putting us through this. I'm not going to just let them get away with this."
Ron's whoop of surprised joy was the best sound that she had heard all week.
Thank you to LightofEvolution who did the initial read through on this chapter and Barton81 for helping clean up the grammar a bit. I did do quite a bit of heavy editing after the fact on this chapter so please be aware all mistakes you see are on me.
