Chapter 7:
"Alright, so all we need to do is find a muggleborn over the age of 17 who is willing to marry Malfoy and then both Harry and Hermione will be in the clear." reiterated Ginny. "We are doomed" moaned Ron theatrically. "It will probably be easier to break into Gringotts again." Ron wore a thoroughly distraught look as he looked forlornly at his sister who had her I-am-ready-for-a-fight face on.
Harry had returned to The Borrow via Floo from the Minister's Office to find Molly, Ron, Ginny and Hermione eagerly waiting for him. Molly had made Harry eat a gigantic slice of cake before allowing the others to bombard him with questions and while all of them had been extremely curious to find out the truth, none of them had remotely expected the reality to be so close to 'the plot of a cheap trashy novel' as Hermione put it.
Molly was currently discussing the issue with Arthur who was making a Floo call from France and so the quartet found themselves alone once more, faced with yet another impossible task. "It can't be that hard. Malfoy is still loaded right?" Ginny asked the gang while pacing the kitchen with long strides that reminded Harry of Professor Mcgonagall's famously scary patrols. "Yea, but he's a stinky pus-filled cockroach" hit back Ron who was furiously chewing on a wand shaped black liquorice that Harry hoped was not one of the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products.
Harry glanced subtly at Hermione as the siblings argued about the existence of gold digger muggleborns. He had told her everything Kingsley had told him without holding back. Yes, it had been awkward to explain that the Ministry expected her to marry Malfoy but if anyone was smart enough to figure a way out, Harry knew that it was Hermione. She hadn't said much regarding the predicament they were in, but she had been furiously taking notes. He was wary of her anger and wished he could see what she was writing or at least have an inking about what she was thinking. Hermione suddenly sat up, disrupting the banter between the siblings and shaking Harry from his thoughts. "I need to send a few owls, can I borrow Pig?" she asked Ron, before running out of the room without waiting for a confirmation. "I absolutely hate when she does that" sighed Ron dragging his hands down his face dramatically.
A loud bang followed by storm of friendly voices signalled the arrival of the rest of the Weasley clan including Percy, Bill, Fleur and Andromeda who was carrying Teddy in her arms. The rest of the night passed off with speculation and suggestions from everyone although no one really knew of a suitable candidate who will satisfy the poena magnus condition. Molly mentioned that Arthur was doing all that he can do obtain intel from inside the Ministry and that he expected to be back as soon as the sensitive issue with the French Ministry was resolved. Everyone had questions about the trial and Harry spent the whole evening being passed around clarifying doubts and repeating the happenings of the entire day. Hermione on the other hand spent the evening whisking different people off to a corner of the room and taking notes with the same level of concentration she would show when revising for her exams. Harry noticed that she had spent an awful lot of time with Percy and was beginning to feel incredibly curious about their conversation. But he would have to wait till the next day for Hermione excused herself early, citing tiredness and returned to Grimmauld Place along with Andromeda and Teddy who had fallen asleep with no concern for the loud chattering crowd.
By the time, Harry returned to Grimmauld Place, Hermione was presumably asleep, although Harry suspected that she was avoiding him and not even Ginny's kisses could soothe his bruised ego and feelings of self-worthlessness at his inability to protect his best friend.
Hermione woke up with a throbbing headache and a lot of loud noises. "Make it stop, pleaaaasee" cried out Ginny from under the covers of her bed. Hermione opened her eyes slowly and located the source of cacophony. Three owls at the window were screeching and fighting over the window ledge. Hermione unceremoniously rolled out of bed, grabbed her wand and silenced the birds. Now, fully awake, she strode to the windows and opened them holding her hand out for the nearest owl. A large snow white owl that reminded Hermione of Hedwig, held out its leg revealing a letter from the Improper Use of Magic office of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Hermione shivered slightly as she stood at the window, letting in Pig next, who nipped at her finger in anger at being ignored for so long. He was carrying the morning paper which was unusual since she no longer subscribed to any papers and relied on Andromeda's Goblin delivery system. Pig flew in with the newspaper and sat on Ginny's pillow, holding his leg out to her instead and so gently sucking her hurt finger, Hermione turned to the third owl. Brown and large, he flashed his nametag proudly at her as he held out his leg. The letter attached was enclosed in a shiny expensive looking envelope with the address on it written in calligraphy. Hermione didn't need to open the letter to know who it was from. The owl was familiar, his name- BASER was also known to her, the pompous letter could be from only one person- Narcissa Malfoy and right now, just thinking of her made Hermione angry and sick to her stomach.
Hermione placed the letters on the bedside table and filled the water bowl for the owls. She was contemplating which one to open first when she heard Ginny gasp. "Hermione you need to see this!" Ginny held out the newspaper. "The Ministry has officially announced that Harry is going to honour the Poena Magnus." Hermione grabbed the letters, made her way to Ginny and crawled under her duvet.
MALFOY'S BRIDE: WHO WILL THE CHOSEN ONE CHOOSE
"Of course it was Skeeter who came up with that lousy heading" scoffed Ginny. Hermione scanned the article quickly with grim satisfaction. "Where are the boys? It may be better to discuss this with them. "Are you going to tell us what you were doing last night and what those letters are?" asked Ginny, with smug satisfaction as Hermione realised that she hadn't been subtle with her tasks the previous night. "I'm one step ahead of you" she grinned, taking out her DA galleon. "I just sent a message, it should have burned now and I know that Harry keeps his galleon close to him". Hermione shivered, this time not because of the cold but because of the memories of the messages that the galleon had carried ever since after the war. Harry and Ginny had used the galleon in the last few weeks to booty call one another and clearly didn't realise that other people also received the messages. She never wanted to see a mention of Harry's bottom and decided that she was going to gift Ginny two lockets with a Protean charm designed just between the two of them to use as they wished. This galleon business had to stop.
Like clockwork, Harry and Ron materialised into the room with a loud crack. Ron looked half asleep while Harry looked like he hadn't slept a wink all night. Ginny wordlessly handed over the newspapers to the boys while gesturing Hermione to explain. "So, last night, after Harry told us about his meeting with Kingsley" Hermione nodded at Harry before continuing, "I sent a letter to Skeeter reminding her of my appreciation for her a few summers ago and how important it is that this appreciation "BE TILL" the end of her career." Ron guffawed loudly while Harry and Ginny grinned in appreciation and awe at Hermione's ability to go from being nice to being terrifying. "BE TILL like BEETLE Haha that's brilliant" huffed Ron still in tears. Hermione giggled at his behaviour while Ginny whispered "You are the boss!" and bowed gently. Harry pointed to the article, "So this was written by you?" he clarified. "Yes, it's essentially an advertisement for any willing muggleborn bride to owl you with their information. Sorry, I didn't ask but I was hoping that you wouldn't mind" she added sheepishly. Harry grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "I was so scared that you were mad at me". "Of course I don't mind. I knew you would come up with something" he added, pulling away.
"I've been thinking about this too" Ron mumbled, sobering up. He got up and knelt down by the side of the bed and pulled out a jelly bean from his pocket. "Hermione, will you marry me?" he asked holding up the jellybean. "Umm, I didn't have a ring, this was the only think I found in my wardrobe." The silence stretched across the room as Harry and Ginny kept glancing at each other and between Hermione and Ron. "Ummm, Hermione?" Ron waved the jellybean in front of her face slowly. Hermione who had until then looked frankly stunned into silence, burst out laughing. She threw her arms around Ron, almost tripping over the duvet in the process. "Oh Ron, this is why I love you" she smiled. "We aren't even together and you would do this for me. I know you mean this well but this won't solve anything. Harry will still be left trying to honour his end of the arrangement unless we can find a willing muggleborn". "So, perhaps we can keep this as a bit of a last minute worst case arrangement?" Hermione cocked her head to the side as she waited for Ron's response. He looked a little surprised at his own proclamation and a little sheepish at her response. What she didn't know was that her consideration of their marriage as a worst case arrangement had hurt and saddened him. "Of course!" he said sheepishly, getting up and helping Hermione to her feet. Embarrassed at the incident, he rubbed his neck awkwardly but was pleasantly surprised when Ginny offered him a chocolate frog along with a mildly impressed look.
"What's this, Hermione?" asked Harry. The letters that Hermione had placed on her lap had fallen onto the ground when she had hugged Ron. "Well you know how the trace tracks underage magic. That means that the Improper Use of Magic office which issues the trace must have a list of all the underage witches in the UK now along with information about their lineage which means...". "We can identify age appropriate witches" finished Ginny, excitedly as she shuffled closer to Harry and hi-fived him. While Hermione tore open the thick envelope, Ron cut in soberly "That's awesome but we still have the same problem, right? Why would any of them want to marry Malfoy?" Ginny threw a pillow at her brother temporarily dissolving the chocolate frog truce, while Hermione opened what looked like it could be 70 inches of parchment. "The bastards" she swore, "they blacked out all the essential information including lineage and contact details." As she unscrolled the parchment further, the others leaned in for a look. There were names of thousands of witches provided in alphabetical order with every information but their names, blackened. "This must be a sick joke" Ginny gasped. "But I wonder if our names are in here" she thought out loud. "Oh my, is that Andromeda!" gasped Harry. Sure enough, they had reached Andromeda Black. "This is useless, this list must include women from the 1800s to be this long" Hermione said between clenched teeth. "Why bother sending it then?" asked Harry, reaching out to gently squeeze Hermione's hand in support. "Because I threatened to play the Dolores Umbridge card and oust the atrocities the department committed if they didn't send it by morning. So they complied with my demand while making it impossible for me to learn anything worthwhile. Ugh!" she practically growled.
Someone knocked at the door just then and Kreacher walked in "The Black mistress wonders why you aren't at breakfast." Without waiting for a reply, he shut the door and disappeared once more. "Why is he so weird?" Ginny asked rhetorically. Ron's tummy growled as if on command. "Why don't you boys go first, we'll get dressed and come" suggested Hermione. "The newspaper article was a great idea 'Mione. It's all going to be fine" Ron comforted Hermione before walking out of the room. Harry squeezed Hermione's hand once more before pressing a soft kiss against Ginny's cheek and running after Ron. "You guys are so sickeningly in love" teased Hermione. Ginny grinned back "Yea but no one has ever proposed to me even if it was with a jellybean." Hermione laughed gently before picking up the last letter. "Oh we had one more letter. I completely forgot. Who is that from?" asked Ginny.
Hermione toyed with the letter in her hands, turning it over and studying it. "Narcissa Malfoy, I think I would like some breakfast before I open this though" she whispered ignoring Ginny's angry gasp at the sender's identity. "Come on, Hermione, you could burn that letter without reading it for all I care. Screw her!" Ginny forcefully pulled Hermione up, thrusting her robes into her hand and pulled her towards the door. "Come on it's breakfast time now." Hermione followed Ginny out of the room after quickly stuffing the letter into her beaded bag. The letter could wait. The time for being nice to Narcissa was officially over.
"It's almost noon" exclaimed Hermione "Why didn't you wake us up earlier?". "You had had such a long day yesterday filled with so much excitement, you needed the rest" nodded Andromeda as she sat at the head of the table eating a salad. "Plus, I may have slept in too" she smirked. "What about Teddy? Where is he?" asked Ginny for the toddler could not be seen in the room which was highly uncustomary. "He is sleeping in too, I sent the boys to check in on him just in case" said Andromeda "The poor boy got up at four and then promptly fell asleep at eight. He really is a handful". Ginny shared a guilty look with Hermione. They had all promised to help out with Teddy but they invariably left him to Andromeda and while she loved taking care of her grandson, she was far too old to be waking up at odd hours and looking after a newborn. "Sorry, Andromeda, why don't you leave him with us today and take a break" suggested Hermione. Andromeda sipped her coffee and gently shook her head. "I suspect, you all have a lot to do, especially regarding the Poena Magnus situation. If there is anyway I can help you, I would be happy to do so. Anyway Harry has already received so much mail this morning, it will take him a while to read through them, although they are probably just fan mail as usual" Andromeda added waving her hands towards the large balcony window at the end of the kitchen. Sure enough, a large pile with tens of letters could be found on the floor. With a graceless jump and a happy shout, Hermione dropped her toast and ran to the pile of letters with Ginny in tow.
When Harry and Ron entered the kitchen, Harry was gobsmacked to find a happy Hermione. "I found one Harry, only one so far but that's all we needed right?" With a meaningless curtsy, she stepped aside for an imaginary person. "Has she gone crazy?" whispered Ron. Ginny gracefully glided past the curtsying Hermione, wearing the same crazy grin that Hermione was sporting, as she loudly announced "Meet the future Mrs Malfoy". Ginny paused theatrically, moving to the other side and bowing low. "The one and only Margaret Jones" announced Hermione, breaking character and waving the letter at the boys. "Girls are mental" Ron groaned half in exasperation at the ridiculous skit and half in relief that a solution to Harry's honour and Hermione's virtue was in sight.
Author's note: Who is Margaret Jones? Is she just a poor muggleborn who needs financial stability or is she something else? What did Narcissa write to Hermione? Will they meet the mysterious Margaret and what does Draco think of her? Next chapter will finally have some Dramione scenes.