The next two weeks passed without incidence. Hermione found herself slowly settling to life at the Manor. She had completely moved out of the small flat she shared with Harry and Ron, and to her immense relief they were more than understanding about the whole situation. She had expected their reactions to be the hardest to deal with, but since they were the ones that had discovered the curse to begin with they knew that their friend had no real choices. To their credit, Harry and Ron had both devoted themselves to finding a way out, but on realising that it was hopeless, had helpfully diverted their energies to trying to look on the bright side. To Hermione's surprise not only had they tried to make an effort to be polite around Draco, but they also frequently reminded her of his good qualities whenever she was upset about her upcoming marriage.

Hermione had moved into her own suite of rooms adjoining Draco's, as had been decided. She found herself slowly growing accustomed to the strobe-lit breakfasts at the Manor before rushing off to work at the department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry, where thankfully her life stayed the same. Almost every day Hermione went to lunch with Harry or Ron or both, as they were working in the Ministry too, but as Aurors. It was kind of comforting to have some semblance of normalcy in her life after the ridiculous shock of two weeks ago. Her evenings however had completely changed. Previously Hermione would work late and arrive home to curl up with a book or have dinner with Ginny or Luna. These days however, Hermione found herself leaving work as soon as the clock struck six because there was so much to get done and not enough time. Hermione and Narcissa went over wedding plans and the initial ideas for the future remodelling of the Manor to make the Master suites for herself and Draco. They only stopped at dinnertime, after which Hermione and Draco would give Julius a bath and play with him for an hour until it was time for his bedtime story. Once he was tucked in, Hermione and Draco would creep downstairs to Draco's study. It was these hours that were the most interesting and mercurial times of her life. Draco, as it turned out, was extremely social and enjoyed going out of the Manor for at least a couple of hours every night. Over the last two weeks Hermione found herself and Draco meeting up with Blaise at several upscale bars, playing poker with some of Draco's former housemates from Slytherin and even going out to the Wizarding theatre, just the two of them. They spent one particularly pleasant evening with Harry and Ginny at the former Black residence, where the couple was currently living together. To Hermione's surprise everyone -not just Harry and Ron- had been completely accepting of her and Draco. But of course they all knew that she had very little choice.

The best part about all of this was that Hermione had slowly felt herself falling in love. With Julius. That boy was the most adorably devoted stepson-to-be she had ever seen. She found herself easily giving him oodles of affection and receiving even more in return. She had never thought of herself as particularly maternal, but a few hours in Julius' company was enough to make anyone broody. Hermione felt her eyes moisten ever so slightly whenever he called her "mummy" and raised his fat little arms towards her, wanting to both give and receive cuddles.

If her relationship with Julius was blossoming, her relationship with Draco was dying on the vines. Despite many stilted attempts at trying to be polite, Hermione and Draco had found themselves facing each other wands raised on more than one occasion. Draco found himself slowly reverting back to his younger impatient and arrogant self whenever she was around, and Hermione felt her past urges of wanting to slap him across his face returning with full force. When they weren't arguing, there was always an awkward crackling tension between them that forced them to say nothing but the most basic necessities to each other. Every night Hermione wished that Narcissa wasn't forcing Draco to take her out in the public eye just so that they wouldn't be obliged to spend time together. But of course they had to appear in public. And several times. Everyone had advised the couple very strongly to keep the information of the curse confined to their inner circles and present a united front in the public eye. It wouldn't do to have more people cursed by the still unknown Arisen One in this manner. If news reached the Death Eaters that they had failed, perhaps it would deter them from trying again. Which had led Hermione to today-

Their announcement ball was tonight.

Hermione stretched and looked over at the old and heavy clock sitting on her desk. It was two minutes to one. Lunchtime. She flicked her wand, wiping the papers she had been reading clean as a precautionary measure, and left her office. She took the elevator to where Harry and Ron shared a tiny cramped office that they were only ever in to do research, and knocked on their door.

"Told you it's lunchtime!" said Ron eagerly opening the door for Hermione and wrapping her in a tight hug.

"Is it that bad in there?" joked Hermione, her eyes twinkling as she surveyed the mess of papers in their office. Her inner secretary was itching to organise the papers in files and folders and arrange them all alphabetically. She idly wondered what the odds were of Harry and Ron going out to lunch and leaving her to catalogue all their information. She could already imagine the twin expressions of horror if she dared broach the suggestion, so she grudgingly blocked out her need for organisation and tried to focus on what Harry was saying.

"You have no idea. Ron has been itching for this break for a solid hour. To be honest, so have I. Let's go," said Harry. And with that the trio made their way to the Leaky Cauldron.

They sat down in their booth while waiting for their food to arrive and as usual the conversation turned to Hermione's upcoming nuptials with the Slytherin Prince. The boys listened in sympathetic silence as Hermione recounted their last argument, which was this morning.

"Has it ever occurred to you to try and cut Malfoy some slack?" asked Ron, his eyes lighting up as his meal was served.

"Excuse me? Slack? This is Malfoy we're talking about," said Hermione icily. Harry, Ron and Ginny had been telling her to give Malfoy a chance, which was to be expected, but now Ron was actually defending him?

"Well Hermione, even towards the end in Hogwarts he was nowhere as bad as he was when we were younger," said Harry reasonably as he cut up his steak.

"What the hell do you mean?" shot Hermione, her eyes narrowing to slits.

"Well, uh, he could've sold us out when the Snatchers had us yet he pretended not to recognise me," said Harry gulping. No one wanted to incur Hermione's wrath if they could help it. Her proclivity for sending crazy birds after people that wronged her wasn't quickly forgotten. Ron claimed he still had tiny scars in unmentionable places. Harry wholeheartedly believed him.

"And his mother saved Harry," supplied Ron unhelpfully, through a mouthful of food.

"And Moaning Myrtle said he was often in her bathroom crying over his task to kill Dumbledore," said Harry gaining courage to speak up again due to the fact that Ron was still alive.

"I forgot about that," said Hermione softly, looking at her untouched food.

"You'd think he'd pick somewhere more cheery to cry," said Ron, spooning Hermione's potatoes onto his plate.

"Yes, because clearly location was crucial to Malfoy at that point in time," said Hermione sarcastically as she defended her food from her ex. The boys laughed and the tension around the table diffused. They kept safely off the topic of her betrothed for the duration of their meal except for promising to be there at the announcement ball that night.

Hermione found herself unable to concentrate on work after lunch. After an unsuccessful two hours of poor concentration, she gave up on her files and decided to go back to the Manor. A soak before the doubtless torture of the ball was definitely in order. Once inside the Manor, Hermione decided to go quickly visit Julius before she started getting dressed. After dropping her purse and shoes in her bedroom, she padded her way barefoot through the thick carpets of the Manor before slowly entering his playroom. To her surprise, Hermione saw not one but two figures crouched over a miniature Hogwarts' Express replica that had enchanted tracks all over the playroom.

"You're home from work early, is everything okay?" asked Draco, concern flitting briefly over his usually stoic features.

Hermione's response of assurance was drowned out by a high pitched squeal and a small figure hurtling itself into her legs. She saw Draco roll his eyes and thought she heard him mutter something about "ruddy squealing" as Julius told her all about his day almost without stopping to draw a breath. Hermione found herself being coerced into playing with the train set with Draco and Julius. She snuck quick glances at Draco as he played enthusiastically, his silver eyes sparkling and his pale hair mussed. He almost looked like a child himself, the way his eyes lit up as they followed the path of the tiny Hogwarts' Express around his son's expansive playroom while his son chased after it. He looked almost nice-

"Am I making your heart race Granger?" Draco smirked as he caught her staring.

"More like making me fight nausea," she shot back, forcing herself not to blush.

"I would be sick with envy too if someone as good looking as myself was in front of me."

"You really want me to throw up all over you?"

"Only if you're into that," Draco smirked again.

"You're a pig," said Hermione, standing up feeling frustrated.

"Bestiality Granger? My, my," he drawled.

"Just because you like shagging cows…" she muttered.

"Is that what you like to think just so you can pretend you have a chance?"

"Well I'm going to be your bloody wife, if you won't get it from me you can bloody well get very well acquainted with your five fingered friend." Hermione felt almost like smirking at this obvious win. Draco frowned momentarily, conceding defeat for split second, but quick enough for Hermione's sharp eyes to catch and her ego to inflate slightly.

"Are you going to get dressed for the ball soon?" he asked, quickly changing the topic.

"Yeah, I'm about to," she said feeling slightly confused. He had never given two hoots about her plans before.

"Well I have something that I thought you might like," he said matter-of-factly, "It's in my study."

Draco got to his feet and proffered his hand to Hermione, who blinked in surprise. It was shocking how he could be a prat one second and almost gentlemanly the next. Draco helped Hermione up and ushered her out the door, after promising a pre-occupied Julius that he would be back. As they walked to Draco's study in silence, Hermione could still feel her palm slightly tingling from when he'd touched it. She inwardly groaned at herself. Entering his study, Draco tapped his wand on a locked drawer that slid open smoothly, allowing him to pull out a long emerald green velvet box that he casually tossed to Hermione who barely caught it by the skin of her fingertips.

"Shall I open it now?" she asked, shaking her head slightly at his casualness.

"If you want," he said indifferently.

Hermione wanted to strangle him.

Instead, she focused her attention on unfastening the intricate clasps and flipping the box open. She almost gasped when she saw a beautiful pair of earrings nestled inside folds of velvet. They were long -would probably reach her shoulders- and were made of a string of rare sparkling black diamonds that descended in size. The dark diamond that would be fastened to her earlobe had to be at least three carats while the one that would brush her collarbone was about a carat in size.

"This is amazing, are you sure you want me to have this?" asked Hermione, feeling, for a lack of a better word, touched. No one had ever given her something this beautiful and this expensive before. Draco had clearly realised that Hermione herself owned no jewellery fine enough for this occasion and had actually subtly rectified the problem without injuring her pride. Her previous murderous thoughts had fled in the blink of an eye.

"Yes, I realised I hadn't bought you anything since we were promised to each other and it's customary for a wizard to do so. I trust it is satisfactory?" he asked, looking up at her.

"It's perfect, thank you," she said before smiling at him sincerely and leaving.

Draco sat there momentarily in shock. She had smiled at him and not just because of cost of the present but because she was touched that he had arranged for it. Out of principle and pride, Hermione had point blank refused to let his mother purchase dress robes for her, insisting she would manage with what she had, but it was more than obvious that any jewels she could purchase would fall short of what was expected. No one had ever been this sincerely grateful to him before. It was almost, appealing. Draco shook his head and mentally chided himself for these thoughts. He had never thought of himself as the sort of man that needed to be the hero. It was disgusting. He was almost like Potter…

Hermione nervously surveyed herself in the mirror. She knew that she had never looked more elegant or beautiful before, but she was completely unsure as to whether she looked the part of the future Malfoy bride. She was wearing the most expensive set of dress robes she owned -a graduation gift from her parents- which were made from very fine black silk that reflected dark green wherever light hit its folds. Narcissa had insisted that her hairdresser painstakingly pin Hermione's curls away from her face using her own filigree hair combs, and then let them cascade down artfully. Draco's earrings gleamed out against the creamy skin of her neck, as they sparkled with a life of their own, and grazed the few inches of creamy shoulders left exposed by the wide square neck of her robes.

A knock on her door jostled her out of her thoughts.

"Come in?"

Hermione turned to see an icicle enter her room. She blinked. Of course, it was her mother-in-law to be. Dressed in a fur trimmed gown that exactly matched the pale silvery gold of her hair, she looked nothing short of spectacular. Hermione could feel her inferiority complex hurtle back to her immediate thoughts. Narcissa looked everything a pure-blood lady of the Manor should look like: wealthy yet elegantly understated.

"You look nice," said Narcissa stiffly, acknowledging Hermione's effort.

"Likewise," said Hermione, inclining her head. Despite the time she had spent with the woman, Narcissa was still quite reserved around her, barring sporadic moments of confidences.

"There will be a few people that are too central to our circle for us not to invite that might take it upon themselves to treat you with less than perfect courtesy," started Narcissa, looking slightly discomfited, "in that event, you are to immediately locate myself or Draco and make us aware so that the situation may be rectified promptly. You are to be a Malfoy, and no one has ever dared to insult any of our family right in our Manor."

Hermione nodded, swallowing. She had been worrying about precisely this all day. She and Draco had to pull off pretending to be in love in front of some of the most ancient pure-blood families in Wizarding Britain, and a room full of mainly Slytherins.

"Granger will be fine mother," drawled Draco from the doorway. Unbeknownst to Hermione, he had overhead Narcissa's comment to her, "She can more than hold her own in front of those old crones. She actually slapped me when we were in our third year because she didn't like something I said."

Hermione felt herself relax and grinned at the memory. That had been an excellent day.

"And I'm sure you deserved it," said Narcissa smiling affectionately at her son, "You were a bit of a brute back then."

"A bit?" interjected Hermione

"While I'm sure you can go on discussing my shortcomings all day," Draco drawled again, "The party has started downstairs and we should make our way there promptly. Why don't I escort Hermione downstairs while you get Juls, mother?"

Narcissa nodded and swept out of Hermione's bedroom, leaving the two betrotheds alone. Hermione found herself surveying Draco's attire. He had picked a handsome set of charcoal coloured dress robes to wear for the occasion, and somehow they made his eyes look even more smouldering than usual. A tiny silver earring winked at Hermione between fine strands of his pale blonde hair. Normally Hermione wasn't the type to go for piercings, but somehow it looked just right on him. Instead of his regular wristwatch, Draco had a thick silver bracelet on his wrist, and what looked like a matching necklace peeked out from under the neck of his robes. He looked powerful. Hermione's stomach flipped over as she realised she definitely found him attractive.

"You look nice," he said, having completed his own once-over.

"Thank you, it's the dress and the professional help with my hair and makeup," said Hermione modestly. She felt herself begin to blush at the attention.

"Yeah, probably," smirked Draco. Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered "jerk" under her breath. Then again, had she really been expecting a compliment from Draco Malfoy? Wait a second- had she actually been fishing for a compliment from Draco Malfoy? Hermione numbly followed Draco out of her bedroom, still struggling to absorb this realisation. Despite all her intellectual stances against everything that Draco represented, at the bottom of it all, he was an attractive man and she was attracted to him. It was shockingly primal. Hermione felt a flash of irritation pass through her; even when Draco wasn't actively trying to get one over her, he was still winning. Life just wasn't fair.

Hermione was pleasantly surprised to find several of the Weasleys spread amidst the Slytherins in the expansive ballroom when she got downstairs. Maybe the party wasn't going to be a total bust. She walked away from Draco without a word, and went to greet Arthur and Molly, who had both spruced up for the occasion. Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw Draco make his way to a group of former Slytherin girls from her year and a couple of years below her. She narrowed her eyes as she saw them greet Draco enthusiastically, and forced herself to pay attention to what Arthur was saying to her.

"…I found that it made a loud noise and it was almost like a vortex for air. I wonder what it's used for dear?" asked Arthur excitedly.

Hermione inwardly cursed herself for not paying more attention. Her brain quickly wandered over the possibilities of what this mysterious object could be. Aha! "It sounds like a vacuum cleaner, Mr. Weasley. Muggles use them to clean their floors and such."

"That small? I wouldn't think it would be particularly efficient, surely it would just blow the dust around?" asked Arthur, looked confused. Hermione tried to hide a cringe. Clearly her lucky guess had been off the mark, this device apparently expelled air. She racked her mind trying to come up with a reason for why the mysterious object would be used to clean homes when she was thankfully saved by the arrival of Harry and Ginny. She gave her friends quick hugs and excused herself before Arthur could repeat his queries. It was so unlike her to act this way over a boy. Draco was already proving to be a bad influence to her steady ways. Hermione had barely walked four paces when she ran into Bill, Fleur and their baby daughter Victoire, who were talking to someone that she vaguely recalled worked at the Ministry. After a round of greetings were exchanged, Bill turned to introduce Hermione to the Ministry employee he had been talking to.

"I'm not sure if you know Valmont here, but he works with the Ministry too. We underwent part of our curse-breaker training together, but then I was assigned to Gringotts and he was assigned to the department of Security and Training."

"Pleasure to meet you," said Hermione politely, extending her hand. She saw Valmont's eyes darken slightly before he reciprocated the gesture. She didn't know why but there was something about that man that she didn't like. He was dressed in dark brown robes, down to dull brown shoes. There was definitely something odd about him. Before Hermione could say anything else, she felt someone tap her lightly on the shoulder.

"Don't you look like a vision tonight," Blaise's eyes crinkled affectionately as he gave Hermione a hug.

"I could say the same about you," she said smiling back easily.

"Drinks?" he asked. Hermione nodded and once again made her excuses and followed Blaise to the bar top across one of the ballroom walls. Desired drinks magically appeared on tapping the bar top, as Blaise demonstrated. Hermione was impressed in spite of herself. She took the opportunity to survey Narcissa's handiwork. There was an obvious green and gold theme to the room. The marble floors had been covered in a thick emerald coloured carpet, while all the drapes around the massive windows were a dark burnished gold. There were a series of empty circular tables filling half of the room while guests and floating plates of Hors d'oeuvres mingled through the other half. Hermione realised that even the tables were covered in dark green table cloths with thin gold detailing. It was a subtle hint to the upcoming announcement of the Gryffindor and Slytherin's nuptials.

"Nice of Narcissa to include your house colour in the theme," commented Blaise, following Hermione's line of sight.

"Narcissa has been quite welcoming to me, it was completely unexpected," admitted Hermione smiling slightly.

"Ah Narcissa gets a bad rep because everyone assumes that she is basically a female Lucius, when in fact she merely moulded herself into becoming a product of her environment. Narcissa used to be quite the rebel when she was younger, and even now she doesn't take anything she doesn't like lying down. What about Draco?" Blaise asked.

"What about him?" muttered Hermione, glancing over once again to where Draco stood. He was deep in conversation with Pansy Parkinson, laughing about something as she pushed his hair out of his eyes.

"Is he as unexpectedly welcoming as Narcissa?" clarified Blaise, noticing where Hermione was looking and trying to keep his expression neutral. A smug smirk was threatening to spread all over his face at how obviously bothered Hermione was. Women were so easy to read sometimes. Clearly Hermione was having an unwelcome visit from the green eyed monster.

"Not really. He's polite whenever she is around but we still fight almost constantly. It's like we can't talk without trying to make the other feel like their life isn't worth living," said Hermione, tearing her eyes away from Pansy straightening the neck of Draco's robes.

"It really affects you hmm?" said Blaise, understandingly.

"Why should it? It's not like this is a real marriage. He's free to do whatever he likes with whoever he wants," said Hermione a little more forcefully than she had intended.

"What are you talking about?" asked Blaise, purposely playing dumb while trying not to smile. Hermione felt herself cringe. Of course he had been referring to whether their fights bothered her and not the Draco-Pansy love scene unfolding in front of them. There was no way she could possibly turn this into something else. Damn it. Damn him. This was all his fault. She was, by now, no doubt blushing over her slip. Just great.

"Hermione," Blaise said taking pity on her, "Draco and Pans, they're just good friends. I'm sure she had a crush on him when she was younger, but after they went to the Yule Ball together they realised that they were better off just being friends. They've known each other their whole lives and they're pretty much like brother and sister now."

"I don't even know why I care," muttered Hermione, shooting Blaise a grateful look. She felt a lot better after what Blaise told her. They settled back into their comfortable silence and she scanned the room, searching for familiar faces. She recognised Valmont again as he stalked past them stiffly, nodding to some of her co-workers as he worked his way to Narcissa.

"Blaise? Do you know Valmont well?" asked Hermione, trying to shake off the feeling of uneasiness he gave her.

"Somewhat," said Blaise, looking surprised, "why do you ask?"

"He seems a bit, I don't know, creepy?" Hermione admitted sheepishly. Blaise laughed.

"He keeps to himself so he's a bit awkward in social situations, but he's been through a lot, that bloke. He is a pure blood Slytherin and he lost most of his family members in the war. He's related to the Lestranges. Rodolphus' cousin actually, and I'm sure he's distantly related to the Blacks, Notts and Parkinsons." said Blaise.

"So he was a Death Eater?" whispered Hermione in horror.

"You do realise you're betrothed to a former Death Eater, and will be the daughter-in-law of one of Voldemort's right hand men in two weeks, right? Not to mention your future mother-in-law's sister worshipped the ground Voldemort walked on, " said Blaise, giving Hermione an odd look, "Most of the people in this room either were Death Eaters themselves or were related to them, but to answer your question, no, Valmont was decidedly neutral in the war."

Hermione nodded quietly, unnerved by her slip. It was easy to think of people that made her uneasy as bad, but slimy Valmont was never a Death Eater while Draco, in all his charcoal glory was. Appearances were so deceptive. She watched as Narcissa held Julius' chubby hand in her own and showed him off proudly to the three middle-aged witches she was talking to. Julius looked adorable in his miniature grey dress robes. Narcissa, who normally came across as snobby and cold, was completely and utterly whipped by her three year old grandson. She didn't even seem to care that Julius had managed to splatter one of his shiny shoes with remnants of his egg and salmon Hors d'oeuvre, and was sneakily wiping his dirty fingers on her priceless robes. Narcissa picked him up affectionately and gave him a kiss on either cheek before setting him down again. It was absurd just how much love she could exude when she wanted to. Catching Hermione's eye, Narcissa nodded to her subtly, and Hermione excused herself and crossed the room to join her future mother-in-law. A few seconds later Draco did the same.

Narcissa elegantly tapped a gleaming gold teaspoon to her crystal glass of wine to get everyone's attention. Draco positioned himself next to Hermione and gave her hand a quick sympathetic squeeze. Julius raised his fat arms to Hermione, clearly requesting she pick him up. Letting go of Draco's surprisingly warm hand, Hermione obliged the boy and was rewarded by a beaming smile before he settled his soft curly head into the crook of her neck. The warm weight of his head gave Hermione unexpected courage, and his soft breath on her neck soothed her previously overdrawn nerves.

"Thank you all for your attention," Narcissa started, giving her guests a charming smile, "Before we sit down to eat, I would like to share something with all of you that has given me a great amount of joy for the past few weeks. Draco has been seeing Hermione Granger here for a while now, and they have finally decided to take their commitment to the next level-" She broke off as the guests started buzzing. Minus a select handful of Hermione and Draco's close friends, no one else knew the exact nature of their upcoming marriage. Narcissa tapped her spoon against her glass again and laughed prettily, "I'm sure a lot of you are surprised, but after meeting Hermione I cannot think of a more suitable or accomplished young woman for my son. She makes both him and my grandson Julius happy in a way no one else has been able to, and I am happy to announce that they are betrothed and are to wed in two weeks time, in a small ceremony. However, we hope that you will all attend the reception that I will be throwing after their wedding to welcome Hermione into the family."

The buzz of surprised voices broke out again, but this time they were silenced by Draco who stepped forward and to Hermione's intense surprise, knelt down and pulled out a small dark blue box.

"Hermione, when I asked you to marry me it happened so fast that neither of us really had time to think. We both felt the pull to get married so strongly that we almost didn't realise it had happened," said Draco, winking subtly at Hermione, who felt herself grin at the inside joke, "and while I am glad you have promised yourself to me, I would like nothing more than to propose to you properly, in front of my family and friends, and this time offer you a proper engagement ring. So love, will you marry me?"

Hermione felt herself nod as she held out her left hand to Draco. Julius looked down interestedly from her arms, his tiny brow furrowed.

"Why are you kneeling daddy? Are you punished?"

The tension evaporated as the guests burst into laughter. Draco smirked and slid a ring onto Hermione's finger, right above her promise ring. He got up and took Julius from her and affectionately tousled his son's hair. Hermione looked around through the laughter and applause and caught sight of Ron, Harry and Ginny in a corner, smiling supportively. Not too far from them, Blaise gave her a thumbs-up and a wink. She felt Draco put his arm around her waist, and just for a split second she felt as though it was all real. That she was really getting married to someone she was deeply in love with and everyone was being accepting and supportive because it was her choice. Not because they knew she literally had no other choices. Hermione was jolted back to the present as she heard the unmistakable chink of spoons tapping against glasses. The crowd wanted them to kiss… She noticed an unapologetic Blaise joining in with a massive grin on his face. She would have to get him back for this later. She awkwardly turned to Draco as he set Julius down from her arms and gently brought his lips down on hers. They had a chaste peck before he withdrew his lips and smiled at their guests. Hermione was shocked, and slightly disappointed that the kiss was over before she knew it. The guests slowly dispersed, as they made their way to their tables and congratulated the "happy couple" en-route.

To Hermione's surprise, Narcissa's seating arrangements were exemplary. Hermione was at a table with Arthur, Molly, Ron, Harry, Ginny, Blaise, Lee Jordan and Vanessa, the receptionist at her Department. She looked around to find Draco sitting with his co-workers (he ran a very successful conglomerate of potions companies, Hermione had learned) while Bill, Fleur and their daughter were sitting with Valmont and several other people from the Ministry, including the Minister himself- Kingsley Shacklebolt. Narcissa was at a table with arguably the most notoriously known muggle-born haters and to Hermione's surprise, Professors McGonagall and Slughorn. All the Slytherins from her time at Hogwarts had been seated at one table, while Luna, Neville, his fiancée Hannah Abbott, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, George Weasley and Angelina Johnson were at a table together. Hermione actually enjoyed herself through dinner, and was unsurprised to find the other tables doing the same. Lots of laughter could be heard through the room. To her great surprise, Blaise and Lee Jordan got along like a house on fire, while Arthur and muggle-born Vanessa were in a deep discussion about hair dryers, and Ginny and her mother animatedly went over her plans to remodel Grimmauld Place, leaving Hermione free to talk to Harry and Ron. It was comforting to have a semblance of familiarity after an emotionally disruptive evening.

"That's quite a flashy ring you've got there," said Harry, gesturing with his fork towards the little rainbows Hermione's ring kept casting over his face.

"Why am I not surprised? We've always known Malfoy has flashy taste," Hermione replied, looking down at her ring finger. The ring was a shining gold with fiery opals, sapphires, emeralds and aquamarines thrown into a swirl. It reminded Hermione of flecks of sunlight over a ripple in an ocean.

"I'm surprised he didn't get you a giant diamond," said Ron in-between mouthfuls of food.

"He probably thought a single diamond ring was a bit too common," said Hermione thoughtfully, "I've noticed that he really hates things that are ordinary. He doesn't necessarily have to have the best, so long as it is unique. But the best often is the most unique, so I suppose he doesn't have much choice."

"Did you just defend Malfoy?" Harry asked incredulously.

"No! Why would I feel the need to defend him?" said Hermione a little too loudly. Opposite Hermione, Blaise caught her eye and smirked, clearly thinking of her slip up before. He raised an eyebrow as if to point out why it was obvious that Hermione would rush to defend Draco. Hermione pointedly ignored him and busied herself with her meal.

After the dessert plates had disappeared off the tables, the lights in the room dimmed and the music started up. Several couples made their way to the dance floor. Hermione sat contentedly in her chair talking to Ron, who had elected out of dancing. A smile played on her lips as she noticed that Narcissa was dancing with Julius standing on her feet. She watched as Harry spun Ginny around while laughing, a perfect tableau of togetherness. Hermione felt her heart cramp with envy. Unfortunately, any chance of that was taken away from her. Forcing the thought out of her mind, Hermione busied herself in a lively discussion with Ron about his disastrous date the previous night, and was laughing at the fact that his date disapparated halfway through, when she felt a warm hand on her collarbone. She looked up to see Draco standing over her like an angel.

"Mother says we have to dance," he said bluntly, seeing that it was only Hermione and Ron. Hermione reluctantly nodded and got to her feet, and allowed him to guide her to the dance floor.

Hermione felt her body immediately respond to Draco's proximity. She fervently hoped that he couldn't tell how her body was reacting to him being around her. Draco smirked as he placed one hot palm dangerously low on her back, while he intertwined the other with her fingers.

"Move your hands further up Malfoy," she snapped, agitated at how traitorous her body was.

"I do believe you have to ask nicely if you want me to feel you up," he said silkily, trailing his hand painfully slowly up the length of her back, coming to rest just under her shoulder blades. Hermione blushed at the contact and felt her competitive urges rise.

"Oh sorry, was that meant to be sexy?" said Hermione, her eyes flashing with mischief, "You should tell me so next time, maybe then I can pretend to enjoy it. It'll be good practice for our wedding night."

"Thought about our wedding night, have you?" retorted Draco without missing a beat, as he spun Hermione.

"Yes, I tend to dwell on upcoming horrible things," said Hermione smugly, as their bodies rejoined; this time even closer than they were when they started dancing.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you won't be that bad," Draco smirked.

"Sod off, you pompous ferret," she muttered, conceding him his little victory.

"I love when you talk dirty," drawled Draco, his smirk widening at her obvious discomfort.

Hermione needed a quick win. She slowly trailed the hand that was resting on his shoulder up the side of his neck, and gently buried her fingers in his hair. She casually made little circles around his earlobe with her thumb, watching him with satisfaction as his eyes widened and he missed a step in his so far flawless dancing. Men were so predictable.

"W-what are you doing?" Draco asked, taken aback.

"Don't you like it?" Hermione asked flirtatiously, pressing her body against his, making sure that their thighs brushed lightly as they continued dancing.

"I-uh- maybe?" Draco was practically stuttering. He could not get over his confusion at Hermione's sudden behaviour. To his horror, she was moving her face closer to him, her silky curls gently brushing his cheek, as she seductively inched her lips towards his earlobe. Just as he was sure she was going to nibble it, she whispered:

"I win."

Bitch.

A/n: Thank you all so much for the reviews. I really appreciate them! :)