A/N: Thank you guys for the wonderful reviews, they make me so happy! I'm glad that everyone is happy with this story thus far, and don't worry, we'll get to the M chapters soon enough, I just want to set up Draco and Hermione's relationship a little bit before we get there.
Disclaimer: Noooope.
Chapter Three: Very Improper
"Miss Granger, Lord Malfoy requests the honor of your presence at the wedding of Ginevra Weasley to Harry Potter," the messenger read from an engraved invitation. "He invites you to wear the dress that he commissioned especially for that day, and hopes that you find everything to your convenience."
Hermione blushed brilliantly as the messenger passed her a box with a large golden bow on top and took his leave. Ginny rushed to her side.
"He got you another present?" She gushed. "Open it, open it!"
In the weeks following Draco and Hermione's betrothal, he had taken it upon himself to take her to society events, presenting her as his fiancée to the lords and ladies of the Wizarding World, to teas, luncheons, dances, and even on solitary walks with him through the Malfoy Manor gardens, where she was constantly lost in the fragrances of roses and lilies. Ginevra, recognizing a gentleman, immediately changed her attitude toward Draco and encouraged his courtship of Hermione. Hermione, confused by the attention, was forced to accept the gifts and outings in stride, and found that she liked his company so much that she didn't mind.
Ronald, still furious with his former fiancée, was often shut up in his room at Grimmauld Place, refusing to attend society events where Draco and Hermione would be, and had even gone so far as to insist that Ginevra uninvite them from the wedding.
Hermione gingerly untied the bow to the present while Ginevra fidgeted next to her. "Come on, Hermione, open it!" She crowed in excitement. This was Hermione's favorite part of any gift that she got: driving Ginevra mad with it.
She took so long to lift the top of the box that Ginevra was the one who wrenched the top from the rest of the box.
The gown was heavy silk, the finest in the Wizarding World, and a deep plum color, with gold trim.
"The color of royalty," Ginevra said knowingly, nudging Hermione. "You're going to look fabulous in it, Hermione," she added, hugging her.
"Of course she will," came Ronald's sullen voice from the doorway, "Because she'll have all the beauty Galleons can buy."
"Grow up, Ronald," Ginevra replied.
"Don't mind me, I just came down here for food, since I'm apparently a prisoner in my own house," he answered with distaste, pushing past Hermione to get to the kitchen.
"It isn't your house," Hermione retorted without looking at him. "It's Harry's."
Ronald didn't deign to answer her, but instead grabbed a plate of food and retreated back to his room. Ginevra watched him go, disgust evident on her face. As soon as he was out of sight, her smile leapt back onto her lips.
"Come on, let's go for a walk," she said, tugging Hermione toward the door. "We can use the new parasol that Draco bought for you," she said, nudging Hermione playfully.
Hermione chuckled. "I'd love to, but I can't. Draco is taking me to the Manor today."
A loud thud came from up the stairs. Ronald has slammed his door shut.
"Ooh," Ginevra said loudly in her excitement. "You go to the Manor a lot, Hermione, people are going to think you're being improper."
Hermione blushed brilliantly. "I am not being improper, Ginevra Weasley, stop your silliness!"
"She's right," Draco's voice said from the front door. "No matter how much I encourage her, she refuses to be improper."
Hermione laughed. "When did you get here, eavesdropper?"
"Probably a second after Ginevra here accused you of being improper. I have mastered the art of silent Apparition, and it comes in very handy sometimes. Like when I'm spying on my fiancée," he said, kissing Hermione's hand lightly. "Shall we?"
Hermione waved to Ginevra, who winked at her.
"Hold on tight," Draco said from her side. Hermione clutched his arm and felt the familiar uncomfortable sensation of being squeezed through a tube. The Manor materialized beside her and she almost stumbled, but Draco's arm held her upright.
"You're getting better," he said. "Come on, our training room awaits."
He had been bringing her there once a week for the past month. She had begun to finally use her magic in a way that she was comfortable, and never hesitated to hex him when he hexed her. They never used anything that would hurt the other, simply small jets of light and some smaller spells. Draco found he was incredibly interested in the way she moved, the way her body responded to her magic, and how both her body and her magic responded to him.
He turned around to head to his own dressing room when a jet of light flew over his shoulder. He turned around, amused and incredulous, to find Hermione holding her wand up, ready for a fight, still in her dress.
"What?" She said to his expression. "Do you need special clothes to fight? The Draco from the war didn't."
He gave her a smirk and raised his wand. "Fine, if that's the way you want it."
She gave him a smirk that almost rivaled his own before firing purple light at him. He had to jump to avoid it, and she had already spun, planted her feet, and fired another spell. Her firing speed was too fast, and he knew he was never going to keep up with her today. Non-verbally, he put up a Shield Charm and began to fire back, her spells newly blocked. She dodged them all manually, without a shield, and he began to fire them creatively just to see how she would dodge. His Jelly Legs Jinx sent her spinning in the air, her skirts twirling around her, and he found himself impossibly infatuated with the way she moved.
He pushed himself closer to her, in peril of her jinxes, until she was forced to step back. When she knew the wall was getting too close, she attacked Malfoy in a way he never expected.
Muggle-style.
She swept his feet out from under him so fast he couldn't even think to dodge it before he was hitting the ground. In a flurry of motion she was on her knees in front of him, wand poking him in the throat.
"I win," she said superiorly. Malfoy smirked and grabbed her wrist, pulling her to the floor with him. She yelped loudly and crashed to the floor. Malfoy took her original position but placed the wand gently on her cheek.
"I win."
Her chest was heaving with hastily taken breaths, and her hair a wild flurry of curls around her. He found his wand hand slowly going back to his side and touched her cheek with his hand instead of his wand. Her skin was impossibly soft. Her little pink lips parted with her breathing, and he couldn't take his eyes off of them. He felt his body respond and wondered if he would explode if he didn't kiss her.
He decided to test it, and stood up, holding out a hand for her to take. She looked disappointed, but took his hand anyway. He brushed himself off, and watched way too closely as she did the same. He swallowed thickly.
"We should probably get back to Grimmauld Place," she said, her voice hoarse. He found it impossibly sexy. "Ginny will be getting prepared for her wedding soon, and I promised that I'd help her."
Draco nodded because he didn't trust his voice. He held his arm out to her to take and Apparated back to Grimmauld Place.
Ginevra was in the parlor when they appeared. She stared at Draco, and back at Hermione, and back again. "What's wrong with you two?" She asked. "You look like you got Stunned."
Hermione muttered something that Draco couldn't understand and fled upstairs to her room. Ginevra gave Draco a raised eyebrow stare that he couldn't return.
"I'll uh…I'll be back in a couple of hours," he said. Ginevra nodded, eyebrows still raised, and watched him Disapparate.
"Hermione, what did you do to that poor man?" She asked with a laugh in her voice. Hermione, in the other room, groaned in embarrassment and did not reply. Ginevra, sensing gossip, plowed up the stairs gracelessly and shoved open Hermione's door. She was lying on the bed, her face buried in her pillows.
"Hermione, that's undignified," Ginevra said disapprovingly. "Get your face out of those pillows and tell me what you've done."
"I didn't do anything, Ginny," Hermione said, her voice muffled.
Ginevra smirked. "Then what did you want him to do?"
"Ginny!"
Ginevra held up her hands in surrender. "It's an honest question. He looked ready to devour you, and you looked horribly embarrassed, which means you wanted it," she said matter-of-factly. "The best thing you can do is talk about it."
Hermione, face still buried in the pillows, barked a short laugh. "I doubt it."
"Come on, Hermione, you're my only female friend," Ginevra pleaded. "Give me something!"
Finally, Hermione unburied herself from the pillows. "Ginny, how do you make a man…" she trailed off.
Ginevra smiled. "How do I make a man….what, Hermione?"
"You know."
"I do not."
"Ginny!"
Ginevra smirked. "So, you like him now, is that it? I thought all you were hoping for was friendship."
Hermione blushed. "But isn't this what we're supposed to have when we get married?"
"And what exactly is that?" Ginevra asked teasingly.
Hermione buried her face in the pillows again.
"If you're talking about sexual tension, then yes, that is something you want," Ginevra said, dropping all pretense. "You want to be able to do your duty with the man you marry, Hermione, or how else will you have children?"
Hermione's face turned, if possible, even redder.
"I know that you are the girl that always wanted to wait until marriage to lose your virginity, but he is your fiancé, I don't think anyone would condemn you," Ginevra reasoned.
"I am not going to have sex with him," Hermione insisted.
Ginevra gave her a knowing smile. "Well, once you kiss him, you won't be able to stop yourself," she said. "I can see it in your face, and his. Just get it over with, make yourself happy," she placed her hand gently on Hermione's shoulder. "Now, help me get dressed for my wedding so I can make you look so breathtaking that Draco Malfoy is begging to take off your clothes by the end of the night."
"Ginny!"
~DM&HG~
"Harry, do you think I'm an arse?"
Harry chuckled as he fastened the bowtie on his dress robes. "Absolutely, Ron, but why do you ask?"
"I'm serious."
"So am I," Harry turned to face his best friend, who looked more troubled than Harry had ever seen him. "Why, what's going on?"
"I can't let Hermione marry him," Ronald said, his voice dejected instead of angry. "She was supposed to marry me."
Harry nodded in understanding. "Yeah, she was, but this is bigger than you or her. This is about the future of the world. My children, as well as yours, will have a better future because of this treaty."
"I won't have any children without Hermione," Ronald insisted, collapsing into a chair, his limbs spread around him. "No other girl will marry a poor Weasley."
Harry smiled. "Don't let money be the reason you give up on a family, Ron. There are plenty of women who like you, and if you play your cards right, there are plenty of women who would want to marry you."
Ronald looked up, hope shining on his face. "Do you think?"
"Yeah, as long as you court one at a time!"
"I just can't help but think that Hermione is the one I'm supposed to be with," Ronald said, his face falling again. Harry took the seat beside him.
"You can think that all you want, but she isn't the one. You will be alone forever if you keep thinking that way."
Ronald sighed heavily. Harry stood and held out a hand for Ronald to take.
"Come on, you have to help me get married."
~DM&HG~
Draco found himself fidgeting and the bottom of the stairs in Grimmauld Place waiting for his fiancée to make an appearance. His hands, normally steady, were shaky and clammy. He couldn't stop thinking about her flushed face, her wild hair, and her soft hand in his. He ran his fingers through his hair for the umpteenth time in the past few minutes and started pacing.
He knew she was a proper woman, and she would never dream of acting on the lust he saw in her eyes while they dueled. Dully, he could hear the sound of Harry and Ginny's wedding filling up seats; they had invited very few people other than family, but the family that they did invite were boisterous and probably all Weasleys. But Draco decided to attend mainly because Hermione would be there.
A sound caught his attention and he brought his eyes to the top of the stairs once more. But it was Ginevra, breathtaking in a white gown adorned with pearls and lace. As proper as ever, Draco offered her his hand as she stepped down the stairs.
"Shouldn't you be getting ready to walk down the aisle?" He asked.
Ginevra gave him a sly smile. "Yes, but I wanted to see this first."
"See what?"
Another sound, similar to the one Ginevra made, caught his attention at the top of the stairs and suddenly, his lungs were empty. Hermione was wearing the dress he had made for her, and she looked positively awe-inducing. Her wild hair was done up, exposing her long, elegant neck, and her lips pressed with something that made them redder and fuller. The purple made her skin creamy and inviting and Draco was suddenly holding onto the banister to support himself. He heard Ginevra chuckling under her breath, but couldn't find the strength to look at her. He couldn't tear his eyes from his fiancée.
And it seemed she couldn't tear her eyes away from him either. Her chocolate brown eyes were locked on his grey ones so fiercely he felt like they were going to his bedroom instead of a wedding. Her small tongue darted out to wet her lips and he felt his knees tremble.
He suddenly wished this was his wedding, that a trembling Hermione would be in his bed by the end of the night so he could feel like this night was leading to something other than a kiss on the hand. The implications of that thought hit him so hard he almost fell over. He didn't love Hermione Granger, but he knew in that moment that he could. He had never been infatuated with a woman the way he was with her, right then.
She took his hand at the foot of the stairs and he couldn't figure out if she was shaking or if he was. She looked just as troubled by that as he did, and Ginevra finally broke the thick, tension filled silence.
"Right, well, I'm supposed to be getting married so I'm just gonna go," she said, a laugh in her voice. "You two enjoy."
Draco didn't even notice that she left. Hermione's voice was the only one that could break his spell, but it didn't take long before she spoke.
"We should go," she said softly.
Draco nodded and shook his head to dispel the thoughts that had taken up lodging in his mind. If he couldn't shake them, this night was going to become very improper indeed.