A/N: Still don't own the HP universe, but I am enjoying putting my own spin on things.
Thanks again to my super-wonderful, absolutely fabulous beta, shealone.
I've taken a serious liberty in this chapter and brought back to life a character who I thought should have lived. Please forgive me if this offends your sensibilities.
Faves, alerts, and reviews are all so very appreciated!
Ch. 6
Room of Requirement
10:00pm, Monday
Hogwarts
The Room of Requirement took excellent care of them, as always. When they opened the door, there was a cheerful fire in a large fireplace with 4 over-stuffed two-seat couches grouped in a semicircle before it. There was a calendar conveniently placed on a table before the fireplace.
Harry looked around. "I'm hungry. Is anyone else hungry?"
"Blimey, Harry, of course I'm hungry." Ron was always hungry.
"Dobby! Dobby!" Harry called out.
Dobby the house-elf appeared with a crack wearing a small stack of knit hats. Those hats looked very familiar to Hermione.
"Master Harry, it is so good to see you, Master Harry. How can Dobby serve Master Harry?"
"Dobby, could you please send up drinks and a late night snack for us?"
"Of course, Master Harry. Right away, Master Harry."
Harry smiled. "Thank you, Dobby."
With another loud crack, Dobby was gone again.
"I'm glad he survived. I thought Bellatrix had killed him." Malfoy said.
"She hit him with that cursed blade. It took almost six months, but he recovered," Hermione said as she absently rubbed her scarred forearm.
Moments later, plates, butterbeer, sandwiches, crisps, and biscuits appeared on the low table beside the calendar. Hermione reached over for the calendar and took it to the nearest couch. Draco paused and gathered drinks for Hermione and himself before he dropped down beside her and looked over her shoulder.
"When are you thinking for the wedding?" He asked.
As everyone else conversed quietly, Hermione pointed out several dates to Draco.
"Halloween and the Winter Solstice would be good dates. The Yule Ball is the day after the Winter Solstice this year." Hermione chewed on her lower lip as she contemplated dates. "When do you want to get married?"
"Honestly, the sooner, the better. The sooner the wedding, the sooner Mother gets released."
"It's going to have to be a formal wedding, isn't it?" She asked.
Draco nodded. "It is pretty traditional." Hermione's eyes rolled at that. "Look Granger, I want my mum out, and she is going to want my wedding, even if it is to you, to be an event to remember."
"That's right, she won't want you to marry a Mudblood like me," Hermione snapped.
"Don't call yourself that. And that isn't why. She just always pictured me marrying Daphne's sister. Astoria is a p —"
"Pureblood?" Hermione's tone was pure acid.
Draco sighed irritably. "I was actually going to say 'picture perfect', but yes, she did want a pureblood marriage for me."
"Arghh. Let's not talk about this."
"Hermione, we have to talk about this."
Every eye in the room was on them now.
Harry cleared his throat, "So, Hermione, what dates are you seeing?"
Thus drawn back to the rest of the room, Hermione said, "I thought one couple could get married on Halloween. That is far enough away to plan a formal wedding, but still give the rest of us time to get married between then and the Winter Solstice. The final wedding could be then, and we could all attend the Yule Ball the next day, here." She looked around the room and saw nods of assent. "Draco and I were just discussing that he would like to get married sooner rather than later because his mother will be released for his wedding."
"Are you in a hurry to get married, Hermione?" Ron restrained himself from deliberately antagonizing either Hermione or Draco. The Silencio in the office appeared to have done the trick.
"No, of course not, but what's the difference between the end of October and middle of December? And I can understand why Draco wants to get married then. Is there anyone who needs or wants the Halloween date?" She asked.
No one said anything.
"Then I suggest we stagger the weddings," she went on. "Halloween, the 2nd Saturday in November, the 1st Saturday in December, and the final wedding on the Winter Solstice. What do you all think?"
Parvati leaned forward, "I think that schedule would work, but I think Harry needs to get married on the Winter Solstice, though." She shot him an apologetic glance.
"Why?" Harry asked.
"Because you are The-Boy-Who-Lived, the Man-Who-Survived. People will expect a huge to-do for your wedding, Harry," Daphne decided to explain it to him. "And the Winter Solstice is a big damn deal. "
"Do you all agree?" Harry asked. There were nods all around. "Fine, Daphne and I will get married on the Winter Solstice. Why don't the four of you," he said, gesturing to Ron, Tracey, Blaise, and Parvati, "decide which dates you would prefer."
It didn't take long. Blaise and Parvati decided to take the November date and Ron and Tracey settled on the December one.
"Where are we all getting married? Should we all get married in the same place or should we choose different venues?" Hermione threw the question out.
"We can get married here," Daphne volunteered first. Harry's eyebrows flew towards his hairline. "What?" She asked. "It makes sense. We all have to be here the next day for the Yule Ball. We might as well go ahead and be here. I'm sure they can find a place for us to sleep. Even if it is in here in the Room of Requirement."
"You want to spend your wedding night in the castle?" Harry was quite frankly a bit surprised at that. He expected she would want a huge, high society wedding with a 5 wand hotel for the evening.
"Harry, it will look good," Daphne explained. "And since we can't Apparate anywhere, staying here makes the most sense. I refuse to use the Floo in my wedding dress."
"Now that I can believe." Harry laughed along with everyone else, finally breaking the tension in the room. Privately, Harry was already planning to arrange a Portkey for their wedding night to the Aston-Fromer, a five-wand hotel, on Diagon Alley. He had no plans of spending his wedding night at Hogwarts.
"I think it is a great plan, Harry. The Great Hall is perfect for a wedding and reception. And all the older students will be there. It will be wonderful show of House unity," Hermione said and then added, "I'm confident Kingsley will approve."
"I'd really like to get married in Italy at the villa, but I doubt we can get that approved," Blaise mused.
"You have a villa in Italy?" Parvati's reaction was priceless. "Can we visit?"
"Of course, pet. You will love it. The view from the bedroom over the sea is stunning." Blaise leaned into Parvati and whispered something for her ears only, but it solicited a blush and a giggle. While the room didn't hear what he said, they did witness the rather heated kiss that followed.
"I've always wanted to get married outside," Tracey began.
"Me too!" Ron finally really looked at his fiancé. "But a December wedding — snow on the ground, too cold, yeah?"
"We are witches and wizards, Ron. We could cast Warming Charms and have tents," Tracey said, smiling at him.
"My mum would love to have another wedding at the Burrow since the last one was destroyed by Death Eaters," Ron said, shooting Draco a bitter look.
To his credit, and Hermione's relief, Draco simply grit his teeth. When Ron didn't look away, Draco quirked his eyebrow and smirked. The smirk disappeared when Hermione smacked his arm. "Behave yourself!"
"What? I didn't say anything!"
"No, but you had that look."
Meanwhile, Ron snickered on the other side of the room. "And you," Tracey took advantage of the moment and gave him the same smack Hermione delivered to Draco, "you need to behave too."
"Oi! Alright. Alright." Ron rubbed his arm where his bride had landed her assault. "So, I can talk to Mum about maybe having the wedding at the Burrow. And she can help with arrangements, no matter what."
"Good. Blaise, Parvati – are you with us?" The couple was still very involved in one another. Hermione dragged the couple's attention back the topic at hand.
"Umm, yeah," Parvati regretfully broke away from her husband-to-be. "So Blaise and I were talking, and we think we should get married in Kent. There is a wizarding village nearby, and my parents are members of the club there. It's on the beach, so the view will be wonderful, but it has a huge hall for weddings and banquets."
"That sounds perfect, Parvati! Draco, do you have any preference for our wedding?" Hermione asked.
"Well, I was thinking the Manor—"
"No," Harry said immediately.
"But —"
"No," Ron added emphatically.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, the Manor —" Draco said, glaring at the duo.
"I'm sorry, I can't," Hermione whispered, cutting him off. "Not the Manor, pick somewhere else. Anywhere," she pleaded.
"— is out for obvious reasons," Draco said, finishing his statement. "But we can't just go to the Court either. Let's face it, our wedding is going to be one of the very first arranged by this law, and both of us are famous; it is what it is. We need a huge venue. Everyone who is anyone will be there."
Hermione rubbed her forehead. "How many people are we talking about?"
"The entire Ministry, all of pureblood society, the entire Wizengamot, current and former Hogwarts classmates, at least three years on either side of us, and all of their families. And reporters from all over the world. Hundreds, Granger. Essentially, the same as Daphne and Potter. Actually more, considering my family's business contacts."
"What do we do?" She whimpered. The sheer magnitude of what was about to happen was overwhelming.
"Why don't you get married at Hogwarts, too?" Harry proposed the obvious solution.
"But... what about your wedding?" Hermione really didn't want to step on Harry's future wife's toes.
"Daphne, do you care if they get married here too?" He asked her.
"No, I can make my wedding reception sufficiently different that the venue is not hugely important," Daphne said, sounding supremely confident.
"One more thing," Hermione said, "I was doing a bit of light reading," — the snorts of laughter solicited a glare from the witch — "and I found out more information on the unitatas sponsus. I know that the purebloods already know most of this, but the rest of us can probably use this information. It's blood magic; during the ceremony each of us uses an enchanted blade and makes a cut in our palms. We grasp hands and our blood mixes." Hermione saw the reason behind some purebloods not wanting to have this type of ceremony. "After our vows, the spell tattoos our ring fingers with matching symbols. After the wedding is consummated," she hurried past that word in as clinical manner as possible, "the union is magically recorded in the Ministry. But, the bond also heightens your... umm... desire for one another, so if you postpone your... umm... wedding night, things will become more difficult —"
"What Granger is stumbling over is that we are going to want to shag like bunnies until we get it done," Malfoy interrupted Hermione's somewhat painful rendition.
Her cheeks flared. "Right, well, yes. And the tattoos are permanent ink. They will fade if one spouse dies, but as long as you're both alive, it's there. But it won't work if there isn't some emotion or desire for the other person. I think that's why the Ministry chose to use the Sorting Hat. It can read who we are. And we do have a little bit of time to get to know each other, if we need to." Hermione paused for breath, "And we can communicate through the bond if there is a true threat. The tattoo acts as a homing beacon. It can't be taken off, either, because it's a blood bond. But if you are unfaithful, that comes through too. I think it varies with each couple on how it actually works."
Draco wondered if she realized that much of what she said actually sounded like the Dark Mark on his arm. He shuddered, thinking about that horrible night when he was branded with that… thing. Thank Merlin he didn't exchange any bodily fluids with that evil freak of nature.
Hermione looked around. "So, are there any questions?" No one spoke up. "Did I cover everything?" She looked around at the purebloods in question. They nodded in the affirmative. "Well, if there are, you can always ask your, umm, fiancé."
Deciding to lighten the mood, Blaise pulled a bottle of Firewhisky out of his pocket. "So, the dates and venues are set. We've gone over the life-long commitment we are about to embark on. We should celebrate. Who's up for a drink?" He asked with a devious grin. "What about another game of Truth or Dare?"
"Blaise, really, this is serious. We don't have —"
"Grangerrrr… " Draco dragged out the last syllable of her name. "Remember how we talked about living a little?"
"No, we shouldn't." Harry stepped in to back up Hermione.
"Why not? Are you... scared, Potter?" Draco knew exactly how to get the best of a Gryffindor. Calling them chickens worked every time. And while Hermione and Ron were leaders in their own right, where Potter went, nine times out of ten they would follow.
"No, I'm not scared, Ferret."
Worked like a charm.
I know this chapter is a bit short, but I do have a rather long one ready to go! Please review if the spirit so moves!