Author's note.
Helloo. I've finally got an update! has been a real pain recently. I've been trying to upload this chapter since the 20th, and it would not let me upload it! I then found out that not only was it happening with me, but a few other's as well!
Anyway, you have Dramione-Fan 17 to thank, because she informed me on how I could upload this.
I would like to inform you all that I now have Twitter and a Blog. The links are posted on my profile … I would suggest you check them out, because I'll most likely post information about my stories on them.
Thank you all for reviewing last chapter and I hope you like this one!
Chapter Two.
Wednesday 2nd September 1998. (Words: 3577.)
The day seemed to drag on. With having double potions (though Professor Zabini was an extraordinarily good and intriguing teacher who the Gryffindor actually seemed to like) charms, transfiguration and History of Magic.
But finally, it was dinner time.
Walking into the Great Hall and towards their table, Ron immediately piled his plate high with food, moaning about how hungry he was.
"Do you ever stop eating?" Hermione asked, eyeing him with slight disgust.
"What? I'm hungry," Ron said, shrugging as he shoved a spoonful of cottage pie into his mouth.
"I feel so sorry for Luna. She's going to be constantly at that stove, cooking you food," Harry joked, causing everyone to laugh.
"Hello," said a dreamy voice. Speak of the devil, and she shall appear. Luna had just walked up to the Gryffindor table with her plate of food and sat next to Ron. "I thought I'd come over, since we're going to be getting married," she said smiling at Ron.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Ron said nodding, smiling kindly at her. He'd learnt to tolerate Luna over the years. She wasn't as bad as he'd originally thought. Some of the things she actually said was interesting. And she had a huge amount of bravery and courage. It was surprising that she wasn't a Gryffindor.
Once they'd finished with dinner, Professor McGonagall gathered the 7th and 8th years outside the Great Hall. Once she'd done a roll call, she lead them up several flights of stairs to the seventh floor, the corridor on the right, to be more specific.
Once they reached the 'Family wing', which was a long corridor with at least forty moving portraits (much like the Fat Lady),
Professor McGonagall asked them to pair up with their future spouses.
Taking a deep breath, Hermione walked over to Draco who was stood behind a squabbling Harry and Pansy. Well, it was really a one sided argument. Harry just retorted with a sarcastic comment every time Pansy paused for breath.
Malfoy had changed since the war, Hermione decided. He no longer slicked his hair back, but let it hang loose, so that his fringe covered his eyes slightly, and it looked slightly like a longer, blond version of Harry's messy locks. Which was an odd thought.
He also had a long scar down his neck, and he looked more well built than he did before. There was a blank look in his grey-blue eyes. It almost looked dead. Lifeless. Like there was no emotion left in them. Like they had given up.
"Granger," he said curtly, nodding at her as she stood beside him.
"Malfoy," she said quietly, not looking at him. If she did, she might burst into tears. She had to spend the rest of her life with this man. Someone who would hate her. Someone who had watched her withering on the ground in agony. Someone who had tormented her for years because of her blood status.
How could she bring children into that? Bring them into a family with no love in it. How would they feel?
Instead of looking at Draco, she looked around herself too see who else had been betrothed to one another.
There was Lavender Brown and Justin Finch-Fletchly stood awkwardly together.
Then there was Parvati Patil with Dean Thomas, who didn't look to bothered by being together.
Parvati's twin, Padma was to marry Seamus, who was grinning at Dean. It was just like them two to be happy that they were marrying into the same family.
Then there was Daphne Greengrass, the sister of Neville's future wife, with Theodore Nott. They both looked quite
relieved to be marrying each other, both being Slytherin and all.
Millicent Bullstrode was stood next to a clueless looking Gregory Goyle and Eloise Midgen was stood next to an annoyed Michael Corner.
There was a few other's who Hermione didn't recognize, some of them were stood on there own, and she presumed they were marrying somebody who wasn't attending Hogwarts.
Professor McGonagall proceeded to explain the corridor to them. They were to set passwords that both party's agreed on.
At the very end of the long corridor was the nanny's quarters with the large nursery. The fully trained nanny's with a medical degree would not arrive until the first child had been born, which wouldn't be for another ten months, at least.
Next to each of the paintings, Hermione saw, was a little golden plaque. The nearest one read "Jenson."
"Next to each of the portraits, Is a plaque. It will read the groom's surname. If you find the one with either your name or in the girls' cases, their spouses surname, then this is to be your new dorm. Now, go and find your portraits. They will open automatically for you, considering you have not set a password, and I will visit each of you in the next twenty minutes to set the pass word. Am I clear?" Professor McGonagall said, looking over her glasses at them all.
There was a chorus of 'Yes Professor's,' before everyone broke out from their lines and began walking down the corridor, looking for their room.
It only took Hermione and Draco minutes to find their dorm, which was based in the centre of the corridor, in between Neville and Astoria and Pansy and Harry.
Hermione almost sighed in relief at being so close to two of her friends.
The portrait was of a beautiful Greek Goddess. She had long, blonde hair and dazzling blue eyes. She was wearing a white, long dress. She was stood inside a enormous, open clam shell that was sat on the edge of a cliff, with a waterfall just to the side.
When the woman noticed Hermione and Draco stood in front of the portrait, she smiled warmly down at them.
"My name is Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty and sexuality. It's a pleasure to meet you both."
Hermione's eyes widened. She'd read all about Aphrodite. The Greek Gods and Goddesses had fascinated her when she was a child.
"It's wonderful to meet, you," Hermione said, her face flushing in content. She understood why Aphrodite was the Goddess of Beauty. She was gorgeous.
"Would you like to enter?" Aphrodite said softly.
"That would be lovely," Draco said politely. He didn't seem to enthralled by her beauty as Hermione had been. That struck Hermione as odd. But she couldn't quite understand why.
The portrait swung inwards and Hermione and Draco stepped through silently.
They entered into the hallway of a small 2 bedroom dorm with plain white walls and floors.
"It will all be like this until you have your wedding and decide how you would like to decorate it," said a voice from behind them.
Hermione spun around, gasping in utter shock. Professor McGonagall was stood in the entry way of the dorm.
"Professor, you startled me," Hermione said, causing Draco to roll his eyes, which Hermione pointedly ignored.
"That was not my intentions, I assure you, Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall said smoothly. "Now, on the coffee table
in the living area there is a catalogue and a piece of magical parchment. Once you look through it and decide what you want, write it on the parchment and it will magically transform the rooms to look how you have requested. Tonight you will return to your House Dormitories. But tomorrow, while you are in class, all of your belonging's will be brought here and instead of living in the dorms, you will move in here. And also, would you please decide on a password and write it on the parchment. You have to agree equally or it will not work. Now, I'm going to go and explain this to your neighbors Mr. Longbottom and Ms. Greengrass. Please, try and get along," she said giving them an imploring look before she left them to explore their new home.
To the right of the front door was a medium sized bathroom with a copper bath and shower, toilet and sink and next to that room they found what was meant to eventually be the baby's room.
Inside was a cot, a mosses basket, a baby changing unit, along with a small chest of drawers and shelves along the walls which were all in white.
Around the corner led into an open plan living-room. It had two settee's, facing each other with a coffee table
in-between. There was also a empty bookcase and two sideboards. On the other side of the room was a door.
Walking over to it, they discovered it was a smallish kitchen.
Walking back through the living-room, to the left, there was a small hidden corridor with only one door in it which Hermione presumed led to er - their bedroom.
Inside was a large, four poster bed, similar to the ones they had in their dorms, only a double, a large antique
wardrobe, and a vanity table.
"It's so bland," Draco said, looking around in distaste.
"That's because it's not decorated yet, Malfoy," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "Obviously it's going to look plain
when everything's white."
Glaring at her, he sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the opposite wall.
"This is so stupid," he muttered. "Why should we be forced into marriage like this?"
"Weren't you betrothed to Pansy before anyway?" Hermione said, looking out of the bedroom window which was enchanted to look like a beautiful cliff and waterfall. Much like the one in the portrait of Aphrodite.
She was sure she'd read about the betrothal it in the Daily Prophet at one point.
"That's different," he said coldly. "She's a Slytherin."
"As opposed to marrying a mudblood," Hermione said quietly, keeping her eyes on the pounding water.
"You know, I'm not exactly thrilled about this either, Malfoy. But we have to do it because I don't particularly want my wand snapped."
"Well, you'd be all right, your Muggle-born," he said, still looking at the bedroom wall.
"That doesn't mean anything," Hermione said, fuming, spinning around to look at him. "Let's get one thing straight, Malfoy. I'm a witch, I've got just as much magic as you. Just because both of your parent's are magical, doesn't make you any different than me. You wouldn't last five minutes in the Muggle world. I bet you don't even know what a telephone is! So if we're going to be married, you will drop all your prejudice's about my heritage or I might actually murder you in your sleep!" she ranted, shocking the hell out of Draco.
"All right, fine, whatever," he said, rolling his eyes. "And just so you know, I don't particularly give a damn about you being a Muggle born," he told her sincerely.
Hermione stared at him, her mouth gaped like a fish.
"So why, for seven years, did you constantly need to remind me how I'm so inferior to you? Making me feel like I'm not worth the mud on your shoes? Calling me a mudblood every time you see me?"
"My father," he said simply. "You wouldn't understand, Granger. Having been raised all my life to think of Muggles and Muggle-borns like that. And in my house, if you thought any different, then it would be the Crucsiatus curse," Draco said shrugging as though it was nothing.
Hermione was silent for a moment. She kind of felt sorry for him. He had gotten tortured for having different beliefs to his father. That was so horrible. She knew what it was like to be under the Crucsiatus curse, but to think having being tortured like it your whole life. It was awful.
Hermione felt the need to say something, but she didn't.
"Do you want to look through that catalogue McGonagall was talking about? It's only half six, after all," Draco said, standing from his seat on the bed, breaking the awkward silence.
"Sure," Hermione agreed, nodding and both of them walked into the living room.
It was weird for the both of them. Hermione hadn't spoken to Draco since she, Harry and Ron had been captured and taken to Malfoy Manor when they were on the run, and Hermione was tortured to unconsciousness in front of Draco by Bellatrix Lestrange, who was in fact, his aunt.
Sitting down on the sofa's, they started looking through the catalogue.
Nearly two hours later, they had decided what they wanted for each of the rooms.
For the bathroom, they were going for a simple cream colour. Nothing too flashy. For the babies room, they settled for a pale blue colour, considering they didn't know what it was going to be.
The living room, they had decided on a deep purple and vibrant blue for the kitchen.
The bedroom was hardest to decide, because they kept arguing on what they wanted.
"I want brown," Hermione insisted again.
"Well I want cream!" Draco snapped.
"Oh, so everything you say goes, does it?" Hermione said coldly.
"Pretty much, yeah. Get used to it, Granger," Draco said just as coldly.
Practically growling, Hermione was about to speak when an idea popped into her head suddenly, causing her to grin like a mad man.
"I have an idea," she told him.
"There's a surprise," Draco muttered.
Ignoring his jibe, she continued.
"How about we have two of the walls cream and two of the walls chocolate brown?"
Draco thought for a moment. He hated to admit it, but the though didn't sound that bad.
"Not a bad idea, Granger," he said, writing it down on the parchment. After writing down the colours of the
furniture they wanted, they were done.
"Finally," Draco muttered, stretching on the sofa.
"I thought it was going to magically transform into what we wanted?" Hermione looked around her, seeing
everything was still white.
"It will probably do it over night, when we're not here. Is that everything?" Draco said, sighing.
Hermione thought for a moment.
"Well, we still need to set the pass word. Any idea's?" Hermione said.
"I had been thinking about that, to be honest. I thought maybe Eros and Psyche would be good," Draco said, shrugging.
"As in, Aphrodite's son Eros and the human girl he fell in love with?" Hermione said, raising her eyebrows. She didn't think Malfoy would know that.
Draco smiled lightly.
"Ah, so you're familiar with the legend then?" he said, closing his eyes as he rested against the back of the sofa.
"I read about it when I was younger. Greek mythology fascinates me," Hermione admitted.
"Why am I not surprised?" Draco said, not opening his eyes.
"Shut up, Malfoy," Hermione snapped, picking up the quill, dipping it in the pot of ink and writing 'Eros and Psyche' down below the list of their requirements.
Draco stood up, looking down at her with a blank look in his eye.
Hermione didn't like that look. Just moments ago, he'd seemed calm, natural. He seemed human.
Well, of course he was human, but Hermione had never seen him so … relaxed as he had been sitting back on the sofa, eyes closed, a small smile of content on his lips, as though he was remembering something happy.
"Are we done here?" he said coldly.
It was like he'd snapped back to his old self. For those few seconds, he'd almost been a different person.
"Well, we do need to talk about … you know, us," Hermione said hesitantly.
"What about us?" Draco said in a bored tone.
"Well, we are getting married," she hissed. She suddenly felt pissed off all of a sudden.
"We do need to arrange things," she all but growled.
He rolled his eyes at her as though it meant nothing.
Hermione gave him one last glare before standing up and storming out of the dorm, leaving an amused Draco behind.
She muttered to herself about idiotic, good for nothing Slytherin's
all the way to the Gryffindor Tower, which wasn't far from the 'Family Wing', as they were both on the seventh floor.
It seemed, Ron, Harry and Ginny were all waiting for her in the common room when she stormed through the
portrait hole.
"What did he do to you?" Ron fumed.
"I refuse to marry that egoistical, insufferable, arrogant fool!" she said loudly, flumping down into an armchair.
Every one looked at her in stunned silence. Yes, they had seen Hermione in a temper before, but nothing usually ticked her off this much.
"He's so bloody annoying! I cannot believe I have to marry that man! He's been nothing but cold to me all evening. Then when he said to me, 'are we done?' And I said, 'well, we do have to talk about us' … and do you know what he said?" she said this all in one breath in a very un-Hermionie-ish way.
"Er, no?" said Harry, completely baffled.
"He said 'What about us?' completely disinterested. So I told him we're getting married! We need to arrange things! Then I
stormed out. He is such a ... such a Slytherin!" she huffed, crossing her arms, annoyed vigorously.
Everyone was silent for a minute.
"So - er, I take it thing's are going well between you and Malfoy?" Ginny smirked at her best friend.
"Shut up, Gin," Hermione moaned, chucking a cushion at her, which Ginny dodged with her Quidditch reflexes.
"I'm just playing with you, 'Mione," she laughed.
"Yeah I know it's just ... I've gone from hating him for so long, to all of a sudden finding out I'm to marry him and give him not only one but two children. Not to mention the fact that I have to spend the rest of my life with him," she sighed miserably.
"Well, you know we're always here for you, Hermione," Harry said, reaching over to pat her knee.
"Yeah, and on the plus side... he's drop dead gorgeous," Ginny winked.
"Gin!" she and Ron said at the same time.
"What, he is," she said, rolling her eyes.
They were quiet for a little while.
"Oh, how inconsiderate of me," Hermione said suddenly, snapping her gaze away from the blazing fire to look at
her friends. "How are things with you three and your new fiancé's?"
"Well," Ginny started, "Blaise is a lot better than I thought he'd be, considering he's a Slytherin. In fact, he barely even act's like a Slytherin. He's really polite and caring. When we were deciding on what to decorate, every time he saw something he liked, he would make sure over and over again if I liked it too, just to be sure. And on a plus side, he's gorgeous. And when we have kids, I'm going to have a mixed race baby!" she said, a broody look in her eye.
"You shouldn't be thinking about stuff like that, Ginny!" Ron said sharply.
"Ron, have you even read that leaflet? On the night of the wedding, we have to validate the marriage. With no
contraception. And I need to have a baby before the eighteen months is up or my wand is going to be snapped in half," Ginny said in exasperation. Her brother was such a prude sometimes.
"I know, but still ... I don't want to hear my little sister talking about stuff like that ... especially not about a
Slytherin," Ron muttered.
"He's not like most Slytherins. He's really nice. I actually think you three would get along like a house on fire,"
Ginny said, smiling.
"What about you, Harry? How's thing's with you and Pansy?" Hermione asked, turning to look at him.
"She hates me," Harry grinned, like it was the best thing in the world.
"And that's a good thing?" Ginny asked incredulously.
"No, obviously not ... but I like the chase," Harry winked, laughing lightly. "Nah, she's all right, really. Get's touchy at everything you say, is extremely defensive, but she can keep up her side of a conversation, which I didn't expect," Harry said, smiling.
Hermione turned to look expectantly at Ron.
"Oh, yeah, me and Luna are great. At first it was a little awkward, when we looked at the babies room. You know, because we're good friends, and we have to have sex, but she's really great. Still goes on about her wrackspurts or whatever they're called, but it's kinda interesting, I suppose," Ron said, his face turning bright red.
"Great, so I'm the only one who can't stand her fiancé. Great, just great," Hermione moaned.
"Maybe thing's will get better? You might learn to get along? Maybe even start to fancy him," Ginny waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"Don't count on it, Gin," she chuckled before yawning and standing up. "I'm going to hit the hay, it's been a long day, and I just want to get some rest."
"Hit what hay?" Ron asked, frowning.
"Er, it's a Muggle expression. It means go to sleep," Harry explained and understanding dawned on both Ginny's
and Ron's faces.
"Okay, night, Hermione, sleep well," Ginny said, giving her friend a hug. "Don't worry, everything will get better, I can feel it," she whispered in Hermione's ear.
"I hope so, Gin, I really do," she whispered back before pulling away from the hug, giving Harry and Ron a quick hug then walking up the stairs to find Lavender, Parvati and Eloise fast asleep in their beds.
Quickly changing into her pajama's, Hermione fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
End Authors Note.
I hope you all enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed writing it.
So I'm loving Hermione/Draco pairings at the moment. I used to read them before, but not as much as I do now. So if anyone knows any good fics, let me know and I'll check them out.
Thank you ;D x