Chapter Four.
Hermione stood in front of the mirror, mentally preparing herself for facing the Weasley's. She hated having to lie to the family she considered her own, but she had no other choice. At the end of the day Ron was their actual family and if she told the truth they would take his side and not believe a word she said against him.
"It'll be fine." Draco said, appearing behind Hermione. "It's only a couple of hours, then you can come home."
"A couple of hours where I'll be doing nothing but lying." Hermione sighed.
"Just remember that it's Weasley who's to blame, not you." Draco said, turning Hermione around so they were standing face to face. "You didn't ask for any of this."
"I know." She nodded. Stepping out of Draco's embrace, Hermione grabbed her bag before turning back to her boyfriend. "Will you still be here when I return?"
"I'm not going anywhere." Draco reassured Hermione.
Hermione smiled in relief before steeling herself to face Ron and his family. Saying a final goodbye to Draco she produced her wand and apparated to Ron's flat. Once there she knocked on the door and was ushered into the flat by a smiling Ron.
"Are you ready for this afternoon?" Ron asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be." Hermione sighed.
"Well make sure you look happy." Ron snapped, looking unimpressed with Hermione's lack of enthusiasm. "Everyone has to believe this is real."
"They will." Hermione replied. "Now can we get this over with, I want to go home."
"Back to him, I suppose." Ron sneered.
"Yes, back to Draco." Hermione answered, not bothered if Ron knew Draco was waiting for her. "You might be able to force me to marry you, but you can't stop me from being with Draco."
Ron turned red with anger, but he quickly got his temper under control and set about opening the floo network. "You go first." He said, thrusting the floo powder into Hermione's arms.
Hermione took the floo powder and threw a handful into the fire, before stepping into the emerald flames and travelling to The Burrow. Hermione was standing in the front room, brushing soot from her clothes, when Ron followed her through the fire.
"Ron, Hermione." Molly Weasley greeted, entering the room to see who had arrived. "We weren't expecting either of you today."
"We've got something to tell everyone, are they all here?" Ron asked.
"In the garden." Molly answered.
"Come on, let's go spread the news." Ron grinned, grabbing hold of Hermione's hand.
"Wait." Molly cried, stopping the couple before they left the front room. "Are you two together?"
"Yeah." Ron nodded. "But that's not our only news, let's go outside and we can tell everyone."
Molly smiled widely at Ron and Hermione and rushed out into the garden to gather everyone together. As Ron led her into the garden Hermione placed a fake smile on her face and tried not to pull out of his grasp, which was what she really wanted to do.
"Gather round everyone." Molly cried, drawing the attention of the large family. "Ron and Hermione have an announcement to make."
As the entire family gathered around, Hermione felt increasingly guilty with the charade they were getting sucked into. Ron's family would be thrilled with the news and when they discovered it was all fake she worried they would hate her for not telling the truth.
"What's going on?" Ron's sister, Ginny asked, eyeing up the couple's entwined hands.
"We're getting married." Ron announced.
Ron's announcement was met with a mixture of disbelief and excitement. Molly and Ginny were thrilled and immediately rushed forward to hug both Hermione and Ron. The rest of the family were more restrained, but all offered their congratulations.
"This is sudden." Arthur commented. "I didn't even realise you two were together."
"We weren't." Ron said. "But I've always loved Hermione and just couldn't live without her any longer."
"Aww." Ginny cooed. "That's so sweet."
"So Hermione, do you have a ring?" Fleur asked, taking hold of Hermione's hand and searching for any signs of a ring.
"Not yet." Hermione replied.
"Actually, I have it here." Ron said, pulling a ring box from his pocket.
Making a big show of it, he opened the box and pulled the diamond ring from it. Taking hold of Hermione's hand he slipped the ring on her finger. Then before Hermione could respond he leant forward and captured his lips with hers. Hermione's instincts were screaming out for her to push Ron off, but she knew she couldn't so she just waited until he pulled away from her.
"Let's see the ring." Ginny said, pulling Hermione away from Ron the second he had stopped kissing her.
Hermione was more than happy to let Ginny gush over the ring, anything was better than being near to Ron. Unfortunately all too soon Ron was back at her side, sliding his arm around her waist and placing a kiss to her cheek.
"You're doing well." He whispered in her ear, making it look like he was just being affectionate. "They all think we're in love."
"Then you should be happy, your plans working." Hermione muttered.
"Just make sure you keep it up." Ron told her as Molly announced lunch was ready.
Throughout lunch Hermione kept up her charade of being happy and in love with Ron. Luckily Ron was more than happy to chatter about their engagement, leaving her able to smile and play along with his charade. It wasn't until the end of the meal when Hermione feared she may have let her true feelings appear for a second or two. Molly had asked about when they planned on getting married and Ron's answer had left Hermione totally gobsmacked.
"There's this posh hotel that does weddings and they have an opening in six months." Ron told his mother. "I'm going to check it out this week and if I like it, I'll book it."
"Shouldn't that be we?" Harry Potter asked his best friend. "Doesn't Hermione have any say?"
"Of course, but I'm going to do all the organising and give Hermione the perfect stress free wedding." Ron replied smoothly. He wasn't exactly going to say that Hermione had no interest in the wedding so he decided to make himself look good by taking control.
"That's really nice Ron." Ginny smiled at her brother. "It's so romantic, taking charge and making sure Hermione doesn't have to worry."
"I just want her to have the perfect wedding." Ron replied, throwing his arm around Hermione's shoulders and pulling her towards him.
Hermione continued to smile as Ron planted a kiss on her cheek, even though inwardly she was panicking. Six months gave her and Draco very little time to prove what Ron was doing, there was a good chance he could control his words and actions for six months meaning she would have to go ahead with the wedding. All Hermione could hope was that he slipped up in the next six months and the wedding wouldn't take place.
Ron's announcement that the wedding would be so soon made sure it was the main topic of conversation for the rest of the afternoon. All afternoon Hermione pretended she was thrilled that Ron was taking charge and alleviating her of worrying about the wedding. Everyone seemed to be totally convinced of her act, apart from Harry who managed to corner her when Ron was talking to Bill and Fleur.
"What's going on, Hermione?" Harry asked, scrutinising his friend.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked. She briefly wondered if she could confide in Harry, but she was worried he would believe Ron over her.
"How are you and Ron suddenly engaged?" Harry questioned. "You've made it perfectly clear that you just see him as a friend. What changed?"
"I don't know." Hermione shrugged. "When he proposed it just felt right to say yes."
"Do you love him?"
Hermione faltered under Harry's stare and found she couldn't bring herself to lie to her best friend. Instead of speaking, which she knew would betray her real feelings, she nodded her head.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Hermione." Harry sighed, not sure what exactly was going on between his two best friends. All he did know was something wasn't quite right between them and he was having a hard time believing what they were saying.
"I do." Hermione answered, telling the truth. She knew exactly what she was doing, marrying Ron to save the man she loved.
"Is everything alright here?" Ron asked, suddenly appearing at Hermione's side.
Hermione had noticed Ron watching her and Harry out of the corner of his eye so she wasn't surprised he had shown up to check everything was okay. Ron had probably noticed the atmosphere between her and Harry and was checking their best friend wasn't getting suspicious.
"Everything's fine, I'm just congratulating Hermione." Harry replied, smiling at Ron. "We'll all have to go out and celebrate."
"Yeah we will." Ron nodded. "I'm sure we can find a time soon."
Hermione tuned out as Harry and Ron began discussing possible times to have a night out. She knew whatever night they decided on she would be expected to join them, she just hoped nights out with Harry and Ginny wouldn't become a regular part of her routine. She could act the part of a loving fiancée for the odd hour here and there but she didn't think she would cope very well doing it on a regular basis.
Much to Hermione's relief shortly after speaking to Harry, Ron decided it was time to leave. After saying goodbye to the rest of the family Hermione reluctantly accompanied Ron back to his flat.
"That went well." Ron said, heading to the cabinet in the corner where he kept his alcohol. "Do you want a drink?" He asked, pouring himself a large glass of firewhisky.
"No, I'm going home." Hermione replied.
"Not so quick." Ron called, stopping Hermione as she turned to leave.
"What now?" Hermione asked, turning back to face Ron.
"I just want to remind you to wear the ring in public." Ron said. "I'll be announcing our engagement officially tomorrow, so make sure you're prepared for the congratulations. And you don't need to worry about the wedding, I'll organise everything and when I need you I'll let you know."
"Is that it?" Hermione glared at Ron, not liking the way he was dismissing her and ordering her around.
"For now, I'll be in touch next time I need you." Ron smirked, enjoying the flash of frustration in Hermione's eyes.
Hermione glared at Ron one final time before storming out of the apartment and slamming the door behind her. Once she'd left Ron in his flat she apparated home, where she was pleased to find Draco was still waiting for her.
"How was it?" Draco asked as soon as Hermione entered the flat.
"Awful." Hermione said, collapsing onto the sofa next to her boyfriend and snuggling into him.
For the next few minutes Hermione described her afternoon at the Weasley's and how bad she felt lying to them. She also told him about Ron's plan for a quick wedding.
"Six months doesn't give us very long." Draco muttered. "And I can't see Weasley messing up before the wedding. He wants to marry you more than anything so he's going to be really careful what he says to you."
"I know." Hermione sighed. "Our plan to prove what he's doing is looking shaky."
"What if we find the fake evidence he has on me?" Draco suggested. "If we have the evidence he can't act on it and we'll know what we're fighting against."
"How are we going to get it? He's not just going to hand it over."
"I know, we'll have to find it and steal it."
Hermione sat up and looked at Draco, realising he was deadly serious with his new plan. "How? There's no way either of us will be able to search for it."
"Weasley's probably keeping a close eye on us both, so we need to call in reinforcements." Draco explained. "I was thinking Blaise might be able to help us."
Hermione nodded, knowing Blaise would help them in their quest to prove what Ron was doing to them. "Okay, let's call him and see if he can help. We've got six months to stop Ron, or I'll have to marry him."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Draco replied. Hermione having to marry Ron was a strong possibility but he didn't want to think about it until it was about to happen, for now he was happy to believe they could fix this mess before that day arrived.
A/N – Thanks for all the support for this story, as always I'm overwhelmed by how much people are enjoying the story.
I also want to reply to the reviewer who was asking me about posting on Hawthorn and Vine. I actually have an account there (the same username), and when I first decided to publish my stories I was going to use both sites. However, I just couldn't figure out how to post over there. I found the whole thing really complicated, so I decided just to stick to fan fiction. If I ever do figure the site out, I'll probably post there as well, but for the time being it looks like this is it.