Disclaimer: Of course, these lovely characters do not belong to me. I do borrow them for a new idea.
I'll try
April 1998
Hermione stared at her new mother-in-law. She had come to the conclusion that she must still be dreaming and through the pain have the worst nightmare of them all. One day, when the pain was gone she would have a good laugh with Harry and Ron.
She blinked, but the two Malfoys wouldn't disappear. While Malfoy had proceeded to close his eyes once more, his mother was staring at her. It was like the older woman was trying to read and look deep inside her, so Hermione closed her eyes. She heard a sighed.
"Of course, there is a plan to this all." Obviously, there was. "He wouldn't just taunt our blood and make no use of it."
Hermione huffed: "Did anyone ever stop to think, if I wanted your stupid blood in my line?"
She knew that she sounded like an angry toddler now, throwing a tantrum, but surely Narcissa would be used to that, seeing who she had raised. The older witch seemed startled and unsure whether to scold her or burst into laughter, while her son just raised an amused eyebrow, his grey eyes once again on her.
"It's certainly no worse than Weasley's blood. In fact, unfortunately, I'm sure it's overlapping some generations back."
"What makes you think I would want Weasley blood in my line?"
"Really, we are going to go there? HERMIONE, HERMIONE. His screams were heard by our neighbors a mile away." He saw her flinch. "Too bad he never got to you." This part he really meant. He would kick the redhead's butt for leaving her behind to be his problem.
Narcissa had watched the exchange silently, but decided it was time to remind them that she was still present.
"The Dark Lord will let you escape to reunite with your friends. He is keen to use your loyalty to my son for his advantage. You will gather information and report to Draco, and when necessary you will cross Potters plans to positively affect the Dark Lords."
"No, I won't." It was barely a mumble, but Hermione had to put up some sort of a fight. She wouldn't betray Harry, no matter what this stupid marriage bond had done to her.
"You will soon notice that your decisions will readily conform to the greater good of your husbands, who in turn is loyal to our Lord." Narcissa's face held a quiet dignity now. "We don't decide on the road we take. Much rather we make sure our family goes with their heads held high."
"As if there is anything your family has done recently that should be honored with any pride." The young witch was still not ready to give up. She threw a glare at Draco, who just rolled his eyes, growing tired of her defiance.
"My girl, you still don't understand what it means to be the wife of a Malfoy."
"Yes, I do. It means you are expecting me to act like these cowards have actually accomplished something." She once again pulled at her hand but was met with a firm pull back, catching her off-guard. He sat up, as he pulled her out of her pillows closer to him.
"Granger, you might as well agree to it." His voice sounded almost like a hiss. "You are married to me and don't flatter yourself, I'm even less pleased than you are. Now do us both a favor and agree."
"I'm not going to be at the mercy of your moods." She answered bitterly.
"You already are." He yelled the three words at her. All she could do was to stare back at him.
"Agreeing to being my wife will give you at least some sort of support. It will place you within the protecting bonds of the Malfoy name. It will give you the right to one day take my mother's place in this household. It even gives you the damn right to free all of our elves."
He caught his mother's glare and simply shrugged: "If you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for the elves. Do it so you gain the right to host parties in the great halls of Malfoy Manor and torture me by inviting all of the redheads with generations to come. Think about it, agreeing will give you the opportunity to torture me with all sorts of things until death doth us part." And that day surely couldn't come fast enough at this point.
Her glare at him had softened, as she had taken the more serious points of his rant into account. Although she hated the fact, she could tell that his logic was right. She would be sent as a spy and she would be his wife until one of them died, she might as well take the advantages as well. Her eyes rested on him, as her brain wrapped around a completely new concept.
"What if you die?"
Narcissa's chuckle surprised her, through his rant, Hermione had almost forgotten that she had been there.
"Let's just say, if you are not at fault, we will arrange for another suitable husband. If you appeared to have been a good wife to Draco, I might even let you have a say in the choosing process." She paused to make her next point clear: "Should you be at fault or not have done everything in your power to safe him then I won't have to be concerned about finding a husband for you."
Hermione started to grow tired, as she once again was left hanging mid-information. She lifted her free hand to rub over her tired eyes taking in the information she had gotten. However, her brain seemed to have shut down rather rapidly, as it no longer provided her with anything that could give her a point to argue. She glanced back to Malfoy, who looked up at the same time. His grey eyes met her brown and she could tell he hurried to shut down his innermost thoughts as for her not to read.
She closed her eyes to give them some rest. She must have shut them long enough to dismiss Narcissa, as she could hear her footsteps retreat towards the door. She was tempted to give Draco the same treatment, as his voice once more cut through the silence.
"If you kill me, let me die prematurely on your watch, or have me killed the bond will ensure your death." She couldn't see his face and the smirk, as she decided to keep her eyes shut, but she could hear it just as well, as she had seen it often enough coming along with a comment like that. There was no doubt that he enjoyed his personal life insurance quite a bit. She couldn't even let Ron strangled him at the next chance.
Hermione's laugh came as a bitter chuckle. "Of course." The absurdity of this all just wasn't going to end at his death. While she refused to fall back asleep at first, the last bit of her aching body finally seemed to win. With one last attempt she tried to free her hand, but it appeared that Malfoy was still well aware of her and refused to let go.
She slept most of the day, giving in not only to the physical but also emotional exhaustion. When she woke hours later to a moonlit room, her hand was still captured and his tired eyes surprisingly met hers immediately. She sighed.
"Fine, I agree to be your wife." A satisfied smile played on his lips.
"And I'll agree to be your husband." With that, he finally dropped her hand, like a hot stone. Then he stood and began to wander her bedroom. Although she wasn't aware of the whole time he had been there, he had been sitting by her side for a whole day at least. Stretching his legs and fingers, considering his options now that he was married, but finally free to leave for his own room.
Hermione was too tired to ask and eventually fell back asleep. When she awoke, she found her original clothing laid out for her at the foot of her bed with a small note to call for an elf named Mitzi, who was ordered to assist her.
She got dressed and reluctantly called for Mitzi, mainly because she didn't want to run into her new aunt-in-law as she wandered the hallways. The elf was more than happy to escort her to what she called Mr. Malfoys office and Hermione was relieved to find the younger Mr. Malfoy at the desk. As she took him in, she had to admit he looked a lot better than the night before. Probably because he had finally gotten some sleep himself.
"Good morning, darling."
"You know, there I was thinking you actually cared for your wife, holding my hand so diligently…" she wasn't sure where her teasing came from: "And as I agreed to be yours, it's like it never happened."
"I'm sure you weren't expecting me to stay to consummate."
He knew he got her bad, as she started coughing from misleading spit in her throat and couldn't hide the blush on her cheeks. Disregarding her embarrassment, he stood and walked over to a small sitting area with a large couch and a chair. As her eyes followed him, she found that he seemed to have ordered some sort of breakfast for them. He took his place in the chair and waited until she was seated as well to pour tea into the two cups.
They sat in silence, him occasionally nipping on his tea not touching anything else. While at first hesitant her stomach soon indicated that she needed to eat and so she did. Hermione was on her second toast when he finally spoke.
"The hand holding was to ensure you didn't lose your privileges. If I had let go, you would have had no right to the protection that comes with the Malfoy name."
She finished her bite, surprised not just that he freely offered the information, but also what it indicated. After taking a sip of her own tea, she had finally formulated a response.
"I wouldn't have expected you to care about that."
He simply shrugged her response away, leaving his cup on the table and leaning back in his chair. While he had not let go of her hand at first on his mother's orders, he had soon come to the conclusion that it wouldn't hurt to equip his wife with some sort of protection. He gave her time to enjoy some more of the food, which she had to admit tasted so much better than what her friends and she had to eat over the past months. Had she looked up, she would have noticed his amusement, as he watched her eat like she hadn't in months. When she seemed finished, he began to speak again.
"I'm ordered to inform you that you will return to your friends today. As my mother informed you yesterday, you are to be loyal to me in all your doings. You will continue your journey with them and will be informed by me should any alterations become necessary."
"How am I supposed to explain my being healed and well-fed?"
"You are smart. I'm sure you can handle it." He stared at her for a moment and she opened her mouth to ask if she was allowed to tell her friends about the marriage but closed it again without speaking. If Malfoy didn't forbid it, she supposed she was still being loyal telling them.
"I will be returning to Hogwarts this afternoon." A day late, as she might notice if she kept up to date on Hogwarts. Malfoy got up and walked the short distance to his desk to retrieve a small item. He stared at it for a second, before returning to her and handing it over.
"I suppose a ring is ill-advised at the moment. My mother and I went through a great deal of work to find this in our collection." It wasn't until now that she noticed he in turn had a ring on his finger as they spoke.
"Didn't think we would be this formal." She muttered, nodding towards the simple gold on his finger.
"He insists to let the world know I'm off the market" he hesitated for the slightest moment: "and those in the right circles already know of the disgrace that comes with it." He proceeded to hand her the thin necklace. It was a thin gold chain, with the smallest charm on it. She noted an even tinier dragon engraved and looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"Don't get sentimental, Granger." He stood again to return to his desk. "Just wear it."
He had basically dismissed her at this point and hadn't looked up again, until she had left with her hands full of food from his table. They had returned all her possessions to her, before he was ordered to walk her to the apparition point just off the property, a few hours later. The Dark Lord had learned his lesson and placed strong wards on the property not allowing anyone to leave. As the gates shut behind them and they stepped off the property, he handed her wand back to her.
"Aunt Bella was quite disappointed to return this to you. Considering your friends took hers with them."
She huffed, dismissing the painful memory of his aunt, feeling some sense of security return, as her hand, fit its way around the wood.
"You know where to find them?"
"I hope." She truly wasn't sure, but Ron had mentioned a couple of spots she would have to try before she started a wild guessing game.
They stood in silence and a sense of awkwardness spread between them. When she looked up, she wasn't surprised to meet his eyes. However, she was surprised by what happened next.
"I'm not sure how aware he is of this…" she blinked a couple of times, making sure she really didn't see his lips move. "But I discovered shortly after the blood bond that I am able to get into your thoughts. I haven't asked my parents yet if this is a Malfoy thing or his doing."
"Get out."
He chuckled, a bit of the old Malfoy grin shining through. The grin he had worn when he ratted them out to McGonagall during the first year, or the one she had wiped of his face when she had punched him.
"Actually, this you can see." Now she wore a smug smirk, as she kept replaying the memory of her fist colliding with his face over and over again. She could see his eyes roll at her, as he had caught a glimpse of her memory and retreated once again. She took in a deep breath, fingering her wand in her hand.
"Please, don't hurt any of my friends."
She noted sincere surprise on his face, as she made her request. Hermione herself was surprised she had voiced it. She fully expected him to laugh at her and turn the request down or worse to threaten to kill them on purpose.
Another memory had come back to her mind. One of Malfoy refusing to tell everyone else that Vernon Dudley indeed was Harry Potter.
"I can't…" He finally spoke, but she didn't let him finish.
"Just let it be other people, there must be someone I don't know by name."
"No personal hitlist?"
For the slightest moment Lavender Brown came to mind. She wasn't sure if he had actually read her mind or simply guessed by the face she made, but it gained her the softest chuckle, she had ever heard from him.
"I'll try." He finally agreed, surprising both of them. He threw an unsure glance towards the building. "You need to make sure my mother is safe if I can't."
She was as surprised by his request as he had been by hers. "I don't think she will need me to keep her safe."
"But she might need your company, if something was to happen…" He stopped his train of thought, once again retreating from her mind back into his own troubled thoughts.
"I'll try."
