Sorry for the slight cliff hanger last week! I'm doing my best not to include them in this project. Our characters are a bit OOC in this story, and I think that shows more in this chapter. Thanks to mcal and dreamsofdramione for all their help. All errors are my own.

He found Potter in his flat, pacing the length of the sitting room while digging his fingers into his hair. "I haven't called Ron."

Draco shoved his hands into his pockets. "No?"

"I know where she is, and I trust Ron with my life, but I think it might be better if we go after her before anyone else notices she's gone." Reasonable. His hair sticking up and Harry's eyes were still wide with panic. "Was anyone with you?"

"Astoria." He nodded. "Given the conversation we were having, I won't be surprised if she..." Draco rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, suffice to say she's not particularly happy with me right now."

Light filtered through the window, stretching across the worn sofa, and putting the flecks of dust in the air on full display. Harry kicked the edge of the recliner and clenched his jaw. "Not that it's new for her to be upset with you—I mean, have you ever met yourself—but what is it now?"

Bristling at the snide comment, Draco chose to ignore it. "She asked me if I wanted to marry her."

His partner made a ridiculous squawking sound.

"Are you alright?"

"You can't just drop that sort of news!" Harry spluttered. "What did you tell her? Did you—"

"Yes."

Harry stared at him. "You told her you didn't want to marry her. Just want to be clear because you've found a way out of this conversation multiple times already."

"Thanks," Draco remarked dryly, squaring his shoulders. "I told her I didn't want to marry her. Tori said she'd have her things moved out, and that's about as far as we got before your Patronus burst into the room. Then she told me to marry my auror credentials."

Harry sniggered.

"Shouldn't we be finding Granger instead of discussing me?" His knee bumped the sofa. "Do you have any idea where she would have gone?"

Digging his fingers into his hair, Harry nodded. "Yeah, I know exactly where she went."

Draco almost choked. "Maybe lead with that next time!"

To arrange a portkey out of the country, they had gone through Lucius Malfoy, who had only sighed when he learned of the reason behind it at all. "Might I remind you," his father's fingers drummed against the desk, "that part of the generous probation the Ministry gave me is not partaking in any unsavory acts?"

Sweat formed on Potter's brow.

Draco had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing.

"Yes, Mr Malfoy, I know, but this is—"

"Important, hmm? What would you be willing to bargain for it?"

He'd only indulge his father's fun for a few more moments before cutting it short. They did have somewhere to be after all.

Harry's voice was strangled as he asked, "Bargain? You just say you were meant to be involved in—"

"Oh, dear. Are you here to tell me that my son is about to commit a crime? Mr Potter, I assure you that Draco is quite capable of getting away with whatever it is. If your intentions are to help him, I might advise that you not go with him. I can assume he has no plans to leave any witnesses." The corner of Lucius' mouth twitched. "But I don't like you."

When Harry shot him a desperate look and mouthed help, Draco cleared his throat.

"You've had your fun, Father."

A sharp huff filled the air. "Oh, alright. I'm sorry, Mr Potter."

"Harry is fine."

Lucius snorted. "I think not. Out with it then, tell me why and don't look at me that way. You can't expect me to hand over a portkey when there's a travel ban in place."

Draco and Harry looked at each other. "Well—"

"Hermione fled the country." Harry said it so fast it almost sounded like a single word.

"Are you out of your mind?"

Rising from his chair and buttoning his suit, Lucius appeared exhausted. "My son is right. After you leave here, I have no choice but to report the portkey to the DMLE, but I believe Robards will be understanding if you manage a quick return."

Clearly, Harry didn't realize what was happening.

"My probation is a gift, Mr Potter," Lucius said smoothly. "One that can be taken back at any time, and I have no choice but to report what I find." Rounding his desk, he motioned for them to take a seat. "I'll have it ready in a half hour. And Draco?" He paused at the door. "Have you taken care of what I told you to do?"

It didn't feel like it had been an hour since he'd talked to Astoria. "Yes, I have."

"Was it the outcome you hoped for?"

He nodded.

From the moment their feet left English soil to the moment they landed in Scotland, Harry had been an absolutely terrible nag. "You never told your father she was a confidential informant!"

"Oh, why don't you yell that a little louder!" Draco snapped. "I don't think the entire country heard you well enough. Perhaps it eluded you, Potter, because God knows everything else does—"

"I resent that!"

"But the key word is confidential." Draco trudged up the hill and came upon a view of the city. "Why would you give her a portkey anyway?"

Wind ripped past them. "Technically, I gave her a house." Harry shrugged. "It was after she graduated. Hermione was unhappy, and not that it's your fault, but she needed time. I told her that she could always come here. If she ever needed to get away, she would have this. I never thought it would come in handy like this."

To be perfectly fair, Draco didn't think any of them could have expected this.

"Why can't you leave her alone?"

Draco's insides turned to ice and he clenched his jaw. Still, it was a fair question, even if he wasn't sure how to respond. "I don't know."

"At the pub?" Harry drew his wand and linked an arm through his partner's. "You dumped your drink on her."

"It was an oversight." He drew a breath. "I meant to throw it at Krum—not the entire ruddy tumbler—but you saw what happened."

The wind shifted as they Apparated from the top of the grassy hill, and Draco hoped he might be spared from the conversation.

He wasn't so lucky.

"Why did you want to dump firewhisky on him?"

"Don't ask questions you already know the answers to." Draco wiped his jacket and stared up at the sky. It was littered with stars. This wasn't a view one could see in London—the Astronomy Tower at Hogwarts, on the other hand, well, that was another story. "I was jealous."

Harry sighed. "There it is."

In front of them, and up a ways, there was a house settled at the top of the bluff. Draco could hear the sea rolling against the rocks below them.

He could taste the salt in the air.

"It doesn't matter. I know where Granger and I stand."

"No," Harry murmured. "I don't think you have any idea at all." He walked ahead of Draco and craned his head back. "She's not going to come back willingly."

That was exactly what Draco had feared. He'd known from the moment the news broke that she wouldn't obey quietly. Combined with that fact that she'd cut her losses and gotten out of the country, he imagined the only way to bring her back safely might be to knock her unconscious and hope like hell she didn't wake up before they got home.

But what would they be bringing her home to? She'd run for a perfectly good reason in his opinion—not that it mattered—and she could hide forever.

Or at least until the Ministry repealed the incentive, and that was surely going to happen. Eventually. However, anything could happen in the meantime.

"Do you have a backup plan?"

"Yeah." Harry climbed the shallow incline. "But you're not going to like it."

Draco's brows shot into his hairline. "Then perhaps you should tell me what this disastrous plan of yours is before she puts you through a wall. And she will."

"No, it'll work."

Draco recognized the property as a former Black residence once they reached the winding stone path that led to the porch. He'd seen it in photographs that his mother kept bundled in a private album, and he knew it had been left to Sirius.

Who, in turn, had left it to his godson. Then, apparently, it had been given to Granger.

Harry didn't knock before he let himself in. Draco hung back for a few moments to see if any stray hexes struck his partner. When there was nothing, he stepped inside and kicked the door shut behind him.

They found Granger sitting on a kitchen island with her fingers wrapped around a bottle of booze, and he didn't even want to know how old it was.

"I figured it wouldn't take you long." She tilted the bottle to her lips, draining it to the last drop.

Draco knew she couldn't stand the taste of liquor and he worked quite hard not to remember how he'd come by that information. Granger always gagged at the taste until she'd downed enough of it to forget how bloody terrible it tasted.

Draco lifted the lid of the rubbish bin and found a bottle of wine already empty, and a small bottle of Muggle whiskey.

Sweet Merlin, she was going to be so fucking sick by the time her stomach caught up to her.

"Sirius kept a healthy amount of liquor here. No surprise there. What's he doing here?" Granger jerked her chin toward Draco. "Worried about me again, Draco?"

Then she smirked.

She was trying to get under his skin, and fuck him if she wasn't going a good job of it.

"It seems I had the right idea," Draco muttered. "In case you've forgotten, you can't handle your booze for shite."

Brown eyes flickered, and he knew—fuck, he knew—that he was in trouble. "I remember everything. Unlike you."

"What is that supposed to mean? Keep in mind that we have an audience, and I don't believe you're into that sort of thing."

While he knew that Granger had every intention of missing, it didn't change the fact that she threw a bottle at his head.

Harry's face drained of color. "Hermione, you can't run away."

She snorted. "Can't I? What are you going to do, Harry? Are you going to take me in for breaking the law? Well," Granger thrust out her arms, her wrists held together. "Do it then because I'm not coming willingly."

Draco shot him a look. "I told you this would happen. Can you really blame her?"

"If you're trying to take my side so I'll let my guard down—"

"Merlin's tits, Granger, I don't care about getting your guard down—"

"Don't you?"

It made his blood boil. He crossed the room in three strides, slamming his palms down against the island. "If I wanted to drag you out of here, I would."

"Fat chance."

"Would you like to bet on that?"

There was that flicker in her eyes again, and her teeth cut into the plush of her bottom lip. "We used to enjoy bets, but no. I'm not so drunk that I can't—"

Draco threw his head back, his laugh loud and stark.

Just to irritate her.

"On second thought, why would I drag you out of here when I could just wait for you to inevitably hurl, probably all over me—"

"You promised you would never mention that!" She gaped at him.

Ever the traitor, her best friend broke into laughter.

"Then again," Granger's eyes dulled. "You promised a lot of things."

It struck him hard, square in the middle of his chest, and Draco realized how close he was to her. He'd leaned toward her, his face not quite inches away from hers, but it was still too close. "Granger, you're terribly drunk, and I know you don't want to say these things because you're a private person. Come home. Whatever is coming next, we can figure it out."

She scoffed. "I can't go back there. It's all my fault this happened." Granger shifted, still sitting with her legs crossed, and threaded her fingers together.

"It's not your fault." Draco crouched down so he could look directly up at her. "Come on, you know none of this was your fault. Your boss asked you to do some research. You couldn't have known what he would use it for."

"It doesn't matter." Granger's voice slurred slightly. "Even if I did come home, they would arrest me for running. The Ministry would love to make an example out of me."

His fingers brushed hers, but she didn't pull away. "We aren't going to let that happen. Potter and Weasley and…" Draco swallowed. "And me. You know that, Hermione. I'd never let anything happen to you."

The truth was out there and she could do with that information whatever she wanted.

It had to count for something that he'd said it at least, right?

"Actually," Harry broke in. "There might be another option."

Granger lifted her head. "I sincerely doubt that."

"If you were to get married…"

Draco's fingers tightened around the edge of the counter.

"And just who would I marry?"

"Uh," Potter rubbed the back of his neck. "I'd marry you, 'Mione. I pulled a ring from my father's vault earlier today—"

So that had been why it had taken him so long to send a message to Draco.

Hermione shook her head. Draco would have been lying if he said it didn't put him the slightest bit at ease. "Harry, imagine me naked. Right now. With you."

Draco choked, earning a curious look from her, and he wished that image had never been put into his head.

With red dusting his cheeks, Harry nodded. "Right, yeah, so, there's another option."

"Did you make a list of my potential husbands today?"

"Malfoy."

Draco honestly wasn't sure if this was the part Potter knew he wouldn't like, or if it was the fact that he had just tried to propose to the witch in front of them.

She coughed. "There's no bloody way." Granger pulled her hand away from him then. "He's an absolute prat—"

Draco waved. "Still right here."

"Not to mention already engaged." Pleased with that point, her shoulders deflated a bit.

Draco beat Harry to the punch. "Actually, I'm not engaged anymore. I broke it off earlier tonight."

Her eyes shot open and her hands closed in his shirt as she hauled him forward. "Did you leave her so you could try to—"

"No, no!" He put his hands up. "Honestly, I had no idea what Potter was planning. If I had, I would have opted to wait for you to pass out before lugging your sorry arse home."

Granger's grip loosened. "The fact remains that I would never marry you, and don't you dare say that I wanted to once."

He hadn't planned to.

"Is marrying me really the worst thing you can imagine?" Draco whispered, but then he saw that they were alone. "He left us."

She padded towards the cabinet before pulling out another bottle. With her back to him—but he could still see her shoulders shaking—Granger muttered, "Go back to her. I don't want you."

It was no accident that he'd said it years earlier.

I don't want this. I'm sorry, I don't want you.

He already knew there was no coming back from that.

"You'll be arrested."

"Then arrest me!" She fumbled with a corkscrew and didn't bother with a glass before taking long gulps.

"I'm not going back to Astoria. Contrary to how this looks, the end of my engagement had nothing to do with you." It might have been a lie, but it hadn't been so he could come here to whisk her off her feet either. "I wasn't happy."

"Good for you then. You deserve to be happy." Granger held the bottle out to him in a mock toast, and then drank enough for the both of them. "It doesn't change anything."

"Listen to me." Draco had to reason with her. He had to. "It's inevitable that this gets overturned. This decision is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of, but in the meantime…"

She stared at him. "You can possibly think this is a good idea."

"It's a bloody terrible idea! I'm never going to be more than the man that broke your heart, Granger. I might make friends with your friends, but I know who I am to you. The fact of all of this is"—he waved a hand in the air—"that I can't stand the thought of someone hurting you. If I were to ever hear that you were forcibly matched with a wizard that would lay a hand on you—"

It was too far.

Too fucking far.

Pretty brown eyes widened as they began to water, and he was just as weak for her as he'd ever been.

"You would what?"

He couldn't ignore the pounding in his ears. "I'd tear them apart. Is that what you want to hear?"

"I just want the truth," Granger said quietly. "All I've ever wanted was the truth."

He slid his hands into his pockets. "Please put the bottle down. We both know that you already blew past your limit with just the wine."

She visibly swallowed. "I don't want you in my life because you'll fuck it up again."

Squeezing his eyes shut, he nodded. "I know, Hermione."

"You never even told me why and it's not that I'm still pining after you, but it's never made any sense." Slowly, Granger let him take the bottle from her hands. "I can't deal with you again. I can't—"

"Listen to me," he whispered. "It's better the devil you know than the one you don't."

"Devil?" Her laugh was miserable. "I'm not going to marry you until the deadline. With any luck, this will be over before then."

He pretended that didn't hurt.

Draco nodded, and suggested lightly that she should lay down.

When she went without another argument, he cleared the kitchen and found her sprawled on the sofa ten minutes later. Draco found a blanket in a spare bedroom, and returned to drape it over her.

Still, he couldn't help himself when he bent down to kiss her forehead. "For what it's worth, and I know it's not much, I've always regretted what I did."

Draco fell asleep in the chair across from her after setting wards in case she tried to escape.

In the morning, Draco slowly woke.

Or, at least, he'd been in the middle of slowly opening his eyes until he spotted her staring at him. Granger was perched on the edge of the coffee table. She tilted her head to the side. "You snore." As an afterthought, she added, "Loudly."

Draco's shoulders dropped. "I'm surprised to see you're awake before me." Pressing her lips together, she offered a cup to him, steam still wafting from the top. "And you made coffee?"

"You put wards up." Granger cut to the point. There were dark circles under her eyes, but he suspected that what was sure to be a terrible hangover really had nothing to do with it. "I didn't try to leave."

He knew that.

"I considered it. Knowing you, I probably still could have gotten out."

Honestly, that was the last thing he wanted to think about, but she was right. Bloody witch was always right. "How's your head?"

"Fine." The subtle twitch of her nose gave her away. "My head is killing me. I can't believe I drank so much. How embarrassing."

He straightened and took the mug from her outstretched hand. "Now that you're sober, we should probably talk about last night."

"Right." She fidgeted in place. "Your—well, for lack of a better word—proposal." Granger dug her fingers into unruly curls and stared intently at the floor. "Viktor already offered to marry me."

Coffee spewed out of his mouth, and by the grace of what luck he had, none of it landed on her. "I beg your pardon?" There was no reason—no logical reason anyway—for his stomach to twist in on itself so violently, but here he was. "Krum? You said—"

"I know what I said, but at the time, I didn't see a reason why I would tell you that. In case it wasn't clear, I told him no, but now…"

Now she was thinking she ought to take the bloke's offer.

Of course she was.

"I can take you to him if you like. Though you'll both have to come to the Ministry to register an engagement, I'm sure. Especially after your attempt to run."

"This can't be what you want either," she pressed. "Unless… this could be a mutually beneficial agreement. Since you ended your own engagement, I doubt you want to search for a match either, much less be forcibly paired—"

Draco drained the cup in long swallows. "I said my piece last night. Whether you want to take me up on it is your choice, but honestly, it's probably one of the better options currently afforded to you. Or you could marry Potter."

"No!"

"Then what will it be, Granger? Either way, if we're not back in England by noon, I'm positive we'll have the brunt of the DMLE breathing down our necks, and believe me when I say it's an uncomfortable place to be."

By the way her knee bounced up and down, he knew something was coming.

"Are you sure about this?" Granger paused. "Tying yourself to me when you could probably have your pick? I don't want your pity, and I don't want your help if it's because you feel obligated—"

"I don't feel obligated. My opinion hasn't changed since last night, so you can marry me and I'll pick out a ring from my vault"—and it's had your name on it since we were broken kids who had matching pieces—"while we hope like hell they reverse this."

Granger's fingers curled in her hair. "And if they don't?"

"Then I'll marry you."

For entirely selfish reasons.

When they landed in the Department of International Travel, Draco realized why his partner had disappeared so quickly the night before. Lucius Malfoy lingered in the corridor, and through the walls, Draco could hear the growing clamor of a crowd.

"I've delayed the reporters." His father eyed them both. "They'll push through soon, but if we act quickly, we'll be able to register your engagement and sneak you out before they get in."

Granger's breathing quickened, growing more and more shallow with each inhale. "How do you already—"

Lucius held up his hand and smiled—even to Draco, it didn't seem forced. "Your friend came to me last night after he left you to explain the situation. Given how well I know my son, I knew the likelihood of this outcome was rather high, and I took the liberty of arranging everything."

"I'm not marrying him today!" Granger clapped her hand over her mouth. "I mean to say that we're-we're waiting."

"Of course. I imagined that would be the case. The good news is that they've agreed not to arrest you immediately—as long as you comply with restrictions already decided by the Ministry."

Draco rubbed her back, he wasn't sure if the movement made her feel better or worse.

She found her voice before he did, and leaned back into his hand. "What are the restrictions?"

Appearing grim, Lucius sighed. "You have to register an engagement, and submit to the compatibility spell before they'll allow you to leave. You'll also have to live with Draco. It was tricky to navigate with the Wizengamot, but given his status as an auror, they'll allow it."

"And if I don't?"

"You'll be kept in Azkaban until you marry."

Draco snaked an arm around her waist and tugged her towards him. "We'll take the first option."

"That's a relief. If you go to the end of the corridor, there's an official waiting to perform the charm."

He froze and looked to his father. "Does Astoria know?"

With a grimace, Lucius nodded. "I told her myself when I knew there wouldn't be time before you returned. I'll warn you that she's still in the flat, but it has only been a night."

Granger pulled away from him, putting one foot in front of the other as she made her way down the corridor.

Even though she hid it well, he could spot the shakiness in her knees.

Thanks for reading this week. I'd love to hear what you think either here or on tumblr at mrsren.