Disclaimer: See Prologue!

It occurred to me that some of you might be a bit confused as to why exactly Draco and Hermione are being so buddy buddy all of a sudden in Potions. When I am assigned a partner in a class- even if I do not like the particular person I'm supposed to be working with, I try to keep up chit-chat with them so that we keep a bit of a truce going. After the project, we may or may not revert back to our old positions on the subject of each other. Draco and Hermione, obviously, did revert back to their hostility.

ALSO:

Thanks to Pink Sakura and XX-Dracos-Dark-Queen-XX for your reviews!

Allison

Chapter 4

"GRANGER! GET YOUR ASS OUT OF THE LOO!" Malfoy screamed at Five O'Clock one morning, his face red enough that he could have been the spokesperson for a commercial on Coca Cola. All they'd have had to do was past the logo on.

"SOD OFF, MALFOY!" Hermione snarled back, "SILENCIO!" She then rolled over to go back to sleep until her alarm clock went off in another hour. The charm would wear off around then, too, so he'd know that she was JUST getting into the Shower.

She'd taken Harry's advice to heart...and eight days of no morning loo-time later, she'd stayed up just until she was certain that Malfoy was asleep before hurrying up to the loo with the next morning's outfit and the rest of her cosmetics. She fully intended to make the best of her use of the showers and make Malfoy wish he'd never hogged the loo to begin with. So when the silencio spell wore off and her alarm clock went off, almost simultaneously, she stretched luxuriously, turned the matress that she'd used the night before back into the bar of soap that it had originally been, and climbed into the showers, turning on the hot water as high as it would go and beginning to get ready. She took longer than she ever did that day, primping herself. She even put on a thin coating of makeup to accent her already natural beauty.

Her hair was straightened, de-frizzed, and curled under at the bottom carefully. She then used a butterfly clip to pull the very thinnest layer at the top back, leaving her face free. She'd never liked bangs, and she felt she looked best without them...so she'd grown them out until they were but another part of her butt-length honey-colored mane. Finishing this, she looked down at herself, nodded in satisfaction, added a minute ammount of clear gloss to her lips to bring them out, slid the gloss into her pocket, and tossed her pajamas into her dirty clothes bin, walking to the door- finally- at seven thirty. The whole time, Malfoy had been screaming obscenities- which she had ignored- and pounding on the door. As she opened it, his fists were descending again and the instincts born of ten years of karate kicked in, making her spin to one side to avoid his hit.

"Bout time, you filthy Mud-" He froze, staring at her.

Casual Dress Friday had been the first Unity Campaign maneuver- though admittedly, it had less effect on the Unity side of things as it did on the Couple side of things. As it was now Friday, Hermione was wearing her casual dress...whereas the week before she hadn't. It was the first Draco had seen of her that wasn't a tight bun and school uniform, and seeing her now made his jaw drop. She was in a pair of stunning midnight blue dress pants with tiny millimeter-wide silver stripes running down them. She was wearing a pair of indigo blue sandals with at least five inches worth of stiletto heels on them, and her toe nails were painted a fashionable midnight blue with tiny depictions of the moon on them in silver. Her suit jacket was buttoned closed over a tasteful midnight blue tank top, should she get hot during the day.

Hermione looked at him for a moment before tsking lightly and handing him a tissue. "Wipe up your drool, Ferret. I know I'm hot, but you, my dear, are so not my type." She breezed past him and down to the common room, picking up her book bag on the way out the door.

Of the four people waiting for her at the table- Will, Harry, Ron, and Ginny- Harry was the only one facing the door. He passed her off as a random girl at first before he did a double-take so quickly that he choked on his omlet.

"Oh for goodness' sake, Harry!" Ginny said, handing him a napkin. "What's that all about?" Still choking, and likely unable to form a coherent sentence if he wasn't, Harry simply pointed. And Hermione, sailing over to them, had the pleasure of seeing the other three Gryffindors completely speechless as well.

"Good morning!" She said airily, sitting down and picking up her usual morning toast. "Are you ready for another hour of Note-Taking in Professor Stryke's class?" She smiled, biting into her first piece of toast.

"You're in a good mood." Harry commented. Having been the first to go into shock, he was also the first to come out of it.

"I feel positively alive this morning, Harry." Hermione said, smiling. "Nothing can ruin my day!"

"Who are you and what have you done with Mione?" Ron asked. "She's never this cheerful because she's always whining about Draco Malfoy's despicable Morning Loo habits."

"I just took Harry's advice, is all." Hermione shrugged.

"Blimey, Mione!" Harry sputtered in amusement. "I wasn't expecting you to actually SLEEP in the LOO! I was JOKING!"

"It worked, didn't it?" She pointed out with a smile. "And it was actually quite pleasant, looking up at the stars before I went to sleep. I slept the best sleep I've had all year- save for an unfortunate incident at five this morning when Malfoy came banging on the door." The other four laughed at the thought. "Really, it was undignified. I think he was at it the entire two and a half hours that he was up, because he was slightly hoarse when I walked out."

"Maybe he was just in awe at your looks." Will teased. "How often can we expect such stunning looks on your part, Mione?"

"As many times as it takes to get my point across." Hermione said, lightly, waving the matter aside. "He picked the wrong girl to mess with if he wanted me to actually give in to him. Anyway!" She stood up and picked up her bag. "Come on, time for History of Magic." It was murder, having History of Magic at eight o'clock in the morning, but as the younger years were more suseptible to boredom- and sleeping in classes- the seventh years got the burden...at least, that was the excuse the teachers used.

"Congradulations..." Professor Stryke said later in the day before she brought up the chalk-boards full of notes. "You are on your last official day of note taking." She smiled a minute, indulgent smile while the entire class cheered and screamed their delight. "HOWEVER!" The silence was absolute. "Now comes the hard part." Her eyes moved to Pansy Parkinson. "It will test your will." She met Draco Malfoy's eyes. "It will test your courage." She met the eyes of Neville Longbottom. "It will test your magical skills." Her eyes moved to Ron. "It will test your patience." Her eyes moved to Hermione. "And it will test what you believe, in your very essense, magic is."

"Using the notes that you have gathered over the past two weeks, you will be learning the very basis of magic as it is known..." Her eyes continued to roam the class, slowly. "Before wands were waved, before words were placed to spells, before magic even had a true name...wandless magic was there." She stood up. "And when I am through with you, I assure you, you will be begging the bell to ring to signal the end of the day. You will be begging it to be a day with potions first thing rather than Defense last thing. This will be the single hardest class that you have all year for one reason: Your knowledge of magic as it has been ground into you for the last seven years will have to be rewritten." The class shuddered together at the gravity of her words. "However..." She said, softly. "It will also, likely, be the single most rewarding. Knowing that you have set out to learn a type of magic that the majority of witches and wizards in your world cannot successfully perform- that you have actually managed to learn it successfully...that will be your reward."

She looked out over the class for a few more moments before, unexpectedly, she flicked a wrist. "But first, you write." And the eight boards worth of notes to be taken that day appeared around the classroom, followed by the simultaneous groans of her best students...the ones she'd made eye-contact with...as they pulled out their Quick Quotes Quills and got to work. Her back to the class, Raven let the wicked grin that she'd been holding back since the beginning of the class hour break out on her lips as she walked up the stairs to her office. Severus had been peering out, an oddly amused smirk on his face, and he stepped back when she came through the door to continue their meeting.

"Are all of these notes necessary, Raven?" He asked, arching one eyebrow.

"Absolutely not." She said, airily. "However, I find that the note-taking intimidates the students enough that they don't do anything that'll blow themselves up in my class." She chuckled.

"Is that a hazard where you're from?" He asked.

She looked at him in amusement. "It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. My two best students blew up a group of bullies when they were eight for picking on the two of them. It took some rapid work on the parts of Owl and I to undo the damage and ensure that there was no psychological damage to the bullies." She shook her head, laughing at the memory. "Titian and Teddy are both very volatile. They hated each other for all of a week before they made friends." Sighing, she sat down.

"You miss it." Severus said, softly.

"Wouldn't you?" She asked, looking at him.

"Yes..." He said, softly. "I suppose I would." He stood. "So, we're in agreement, then?"

"Indeed!" She said, eyes sparkling in a most frightening way. "I will cover your Seventh Year Potions Class next week while you are on...business...when the other teachers cannot."

"I almost pity my Seventh Years." Severus said, dryly, at the look in her eyes. "I'll get my lesson plans to you Sunday night before I leave." He grabbed a bit of floo powder from her hearth and tossed it into the fireplace, stepping in. "Potions Office"

Raven shook her head and walked back out into her classroom to find the class hard at work, too fearful to goof off...there had been a particularly nasty incident on their second day of class when Crabbe and Goyle had started fooling around. Raven had been sitting at her desk at the head of the room and she hadn't even looked up.

"Misters Crabbe and Goyle, kindly sit down and let those of the class competent enough to know an A+ from an F- work." They had ignored her, beginning a wrestling match that they thought was all fun. "Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, this is your last warning." Her voice had gone from mild to attentive. Still, they had ignored her.

"Have it your own way." She had shrugged and the both of them had flown apart and into their desks, finding themselves writing quantum physics notes, over and over again in a looping, flowing script that soon had their hands cramping during the whole remainder of the two hours worth of class. Too fearful to look up, or even glance at the two men, the class had abandoned their Quick Quotes Quills and begun writing notes down just as fast and as legibly as they could...

Crabbe and Goyle had had to use their detention time to make up the notes that they'd missed in class.

When the bell finally rang, Raven watched the lot of them leave, running from the room in fear. She shook her head and hummed softly to herself as she waved a hand, making the chalkboards disappear and the room straighten itself up on its own. She then sighed and picked up the latest missive from the ministry. Obviously the one that she'd sent back, packed in a box with panther dung, hadn't gotten the point across. Nor had the one that had burst into flame when she'd sent it back. Nor had the howler. Indeed, it seemed Fudge was going to be visiting her that very evening.

Just great.

That night, Hermione and Malfoy were walking down the hallways patrolling- she had long since exchanged the Stiletto heels for more sensible sneakers and the suit for short shorts and a tank top- when they entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts hallway and all hell broke loose.

"The marriage law, as you know, Miss Stryke, has passed. Anyone sixteen and over must abide by it." Hermione and Malfoy exchanged looks of horror before creeping closer to better hear. "And you, my lady, are eligible."

"That's LADY Stryke to you Fudge, you asshole!"

"Minister!" He sniffed hautily.

"FUDGE" She sneered in his face. "I will not abide by these laws! I'm telling you, I have Diplomatic Immunity!"

"So long as you follow our laws, you have Diplomatic Immunity, you mean!" Fudge sneered back.

She'd had enough. "YOU DARE!" She roared, her eyes glowing black...the entire classroom and corridor outside of the open door glowing with the terrible light. Fude was flung backwards out of the door of the classroom and into the wall on the other side of the corridor by the sheer power revolving around the tall woman standing inside. "YOUR LAWS DO NOT CONCERN ME, FOOL! I AM THE MOTHER OF THE BLOOD! I DO AS I PLEASE WHEN I PLEASE AND IT'S NOT FOR YOU TO SAY OTHERWISE! I RULE FOUR REALMS, INCLUDING MUCH OF YOUR OWN, AND NEITHER I NOR MY STUDENTS WILL ABIDE BY YOUR RULES! SO BE. GONE!" With that, the door slammed shut and Hermione and Malfoy were left staring in shock at Fudge, who hurriedly put his hat on and ran past them, never seeing them in his fright.

"And we were afraid of her for making us take a few notes?" Hermione whispered.

"She did all of that without her wand!" Malfoy said, stunned.

"Wait a second...the marriage law!"

"Oh no...if what we just heard is any indication, then it passed!"

"We need to call an Emergency Prefect Meeting. It's Friday, we can survive the late night." Hermione said, fighting hysterics.

"Agreed." Malfoy said, nodding curtly.

"Common room? One hour?"

"We can make it thirty minutes if we split up and finish patrolling on our own, then go get everyone else." He said, quickly.

"Right." She turned and ran down one corridor as he ran down the other.

Thirty Minutes Later

"We called this prefect meeting." Hermione said, loudly, to get everyone's attentions. "To discuss something that The Head Boy- Malfoy- and The Head Girl- Myself- saw tonight while patrolling the Defense corridor...as well as a simpler, easier way to call Emergency Prefect Meetings such as this one." When she and Malfoy had met, gasping for breath and practically blue in the face, back at the common room to get their things before coming down to the meeting room, they'd agreed to add this to their agenda.

"Dude, can we get this over with and go back to sleep?" One of the Slytherins asked, angrily. Hermione fastened her dark eyes on him.

"Mr...Shry, is it?" Hermione said, lightly. "Sure. You can go right on to sleep. You're a sixth year, aren't you?" He nodded. "You're sixteen?" Another nod. "Well, then, when your father sends out petitions for you for a wife, don't come running to us, we won't help you. Good night." As she had planned, the entire room went eerily silent at her words.

"Petitions for a wife? That's illegal."

"No, Mr. Shry, it is not." Hermione said, glancing at Malfoy.

The Head Boy stepped forward with the pensieve that they'd created for occasions such as this and he chanted a spell above it. The entirety of the prefect staff suddenly found themselves in the corridor listening to The Minister of Magic argue with their Defense Professor. When the memory had run out, the prefects found themselves back in their meeting room.

"OH MY GOD!" Someone shrieked. Hermione thought it was Padma Patil. "THEY'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO FORCE US TO MARRY?"

It was as if someone had dropped a bomb in the midst of the meeting room...everyone began talking at once, disbelieve and horror plainly evident on their features. Hermione sighed and looked up at Malfoy, tears glittering in her own eyes, before she took a deep breath, shoved the tears aside, and screamed at the top of her lungs. "SILENCE!" The effect was immediate and absolute. Save for the sobs of the girls, the room was deadly silent. "We have called this meeting." Hermione continued. "To discuss a course of action. As all Muggle Borns will be affected, I believe it would be to the benefit of all if we got all mugglborns into a marriage that will protect them." She said, calmly. Malfoy looked at her, hiding his shock at her steel backbone. He hadn't known she'd had it in her.

"Can we go, then?" Pansy Parkinson asked. "Those of us who are Pureblood, I mean..."

Hermione sighed and rubbed her temples. "I wish you could, Pansy...I really, truly do. However, this affects the Purebloods as well. Especially those of you with..." She paused, glanced at Malfoy while searching for a word. "Questionable backgrounds." Sighing, she shook her head. "I'm sorry to have to say this, but this is the time that we must address it. Voldemort will want all of his followers and their children to marry Mudbloods." She said this with a self deprecating look that stunned even Harry and Ron, "So that he may easier eliminate them."

"That won't happen!" Someone said. "The purebloods will be under oath to protect their spouses!"

"Unfortunately..." Hermione said, softly, "Accidents happen." By now, Malfoy was staring at her in open shock. He'd known she was smart...but that she was THIS insightful? Everything she'd just pointed out was right to a T. A silent graced the room at her words, and she sighed before lifting her head. "So...that leaves us with the more powerful pure blooded lines without the more questionable backgrounds. The stronger Muggleborns can go to the slightly more questionable backgrounded purebloods, but we must protect those who may not be able to protect themselves."

"Why should we?" A Slytherin sneered.

"Because, Mr. Lesse, that is what we do." Malfoy said, icily. "The strong must always protect the weak, for we never know when we will need them to protect us. Hermione is right." He used her name for the sake of Unity. Not for the Campaign, but because they needed to show a United front against this war, to show that it would not beat them.

"What if we did what Professor Stryke did?" Lavender Brown asked, thoughtfully. "What if we just tore up the missives and sent them back?"

"Professor Stryke, from what I understand, has a sort of Diplomatic Immunity. Fudge can't touch her." Padma Patil said. "They could actually break our wands if we disagreed."

"They wouldn't!" One of the prefects gasped.

"Wrong." Draco said, softly. "It's one of the consequences that was written down in fine print in the actual law itself. If the Muggle Borns don't marry, their wands are broken."

"I don't know about you." Hermione said. "But I'm just about to get OUT of school. There's no way I'm going to go back to the muggle world and suffer through seven or eight more years of it. Which leaves getting married as our only option."

"At least we'll get to choose who we marry..." A girl in the front said. She was wearing a Hufflepuff Badge.

"It's an illusion." Hermione said, sadly. "The ministry gets the first choice...and they send the contracts to us to look over and choose from. It's first come first serve. I'll get a list tomorrow of all of the eligible Muggle Borns in the school and present it to you tomorrow. It would be nice if you applied for more than one...each of you, so that they'd have a fairly good chance of getting the contracts. Also, your parents must draw up the contract and send it in...so owl them as soon as you get the names. I don't know when the petitions will start being delivered...but I'd like to have all of the Muggle Borns lined up for a protective suitor before they do."

"Hermione's right...again." Malfoy said, softly. "We'll need all of the weaker- outside of this room, use the words 'less capable of defending themselves'- muggleborns safely tucked away in the oldest families...the ones Voldemort respects. Does anyone have any objections to this?" When nobody answered, Hermione smiled weakly.

"That's settled, then. I'm sorry, you all, to spring this on you like this. Had Draco and I any indication before tonight that the law was going to be passed, we'd have given you more time to prepare. Anyways..." She said in that brisk way of hers. "Now on to the second order of business. We simply cannot run all about creation trying to get ahold of the lot of you when we need to call an emergency prefect meeting. Draco and I were discussing it on the way down from our Common Room, and we decided that this is the quickest way." She held up a small box of conjured necklaces.

"They are all exact replicas of your prefect badges, save for the fact that they are on chains." Malfoy said, holding his up. "You will not notice them, such is their magic, until such time as Hermione or I call an Emergency Meeting. So...come up here and get your assigned necklace, and then we can all adjourn and get some sleep, eh?" He grinned at them. The prefects filed up, slowly, when their names were called and got their necklaces, putting them on. When the last necklace was gone, Hermione closed the box with a little snap.

"Right then." She said. "We will adjourn until noon tomorrow. Lunch will be served here. See you then." She said. The prefects nodded and left, each house grouping up and heading for their common rooms...leaving Draco and Hermione to themselves.

"Well...that went rather well." Hermione said, tiredly.

"Better than it might have." He agreed, sighing and locking up the meeting room before they began walking towards their own common room. "They didn't seem too horribly off."

"No...but in their minds, this could still be a joke. Cold, hard reality will set in when they recieve the first of the petitions...or letters from their parents." Hermione said, sighing.

"I suppose we'll have to call several more meetings in the future to be able to get this whole thing settled in everyone's minds." Draco agreed.

"I've a feeling that we're going to have to address the entire school before long." Hermione muttered.

"Well it's about time." Natasha snapped when she saw them. "What, do you think I have nothing better to do than wait up for you?"

"Sphinx." Hermione said, ignoring the portrait, who was still grouching as she slid sideways along the wall. Hermione turned her key and sighed, walking off to her room. "Night Draco."

"Night Hermione." He murmured as he went into his own room after locking up.

Two days later, Draco woke up and stretched with a large yawn, smiling to himself as he realized that it was Sunday. Climbing out of bed, he grabbed a pair of clothes for the day and climbed the stairs to the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind him before a cold voice came at his back. "Hello, Draco."