All the characters are property of JKR

Thank you so much to kabg01 for beta-ing this and reassuring me about it.

Hermione leapt out of the chair, looking at her feet, "I'd better be going," she mumbled, making her way to the fire place. She wasn't sure where she was going, she just knew she had to get out of the suddenly too small room as quickly as possible. With the exception of New Year's Eve, she hadn't clapped eyes on that particular member of the Weasley family for over a year and she was in no hurry to see any more of the man, 'no – boy', she corrected herself crossly, who was now glaring at her as though trying to manage a wordless 'incendio'.

She had one foot in the fireplace before everyone else in the room seemed to snap out of the shock of seeing Hermione and Ron in the same room as one another.

"Wait!" shouted Harry. Hermione paused. If it had been anyone else but Harry she would have left but her best friend's voice had a tinge of desperation that she couldn't ignore. When she turned her head, he was approaching her slowly, hands up in front of him, like he was approaching a niffler whilst wearing a tin foil suit, "Just…..wait," he repeated more softly. She stepped back and allowed Harry to lead her back to the chair.

"Ron, please" Harry pleaded, "Can you just sit down for five minutes. You don't have to talk to each other. Merlin, you don't even have to pay any attention to what I've got to say but just let me talk,"

As though he was doing Harry a huge favour, Ron threw down his bag and discarded his expensive looking cloak. Hermione sneaked a look at him through her eyelashes and immediately wished she hadn't. She hadn't noticed at New Year but he seemed even taller than before, his shoulders broader, his arms more muscular. He even seemed to move more easily, as though he had grown into his body. The fact that her heart clenched in response to his presence felt like a betrayal.

"I'll listen," Ron grumbled, "But I'm not talking to her," his tone immediately cast Hermione's mind back to their times in the tent, to Ron wearing the locket for too long. She traced a burn mark on the table top with gloomy introspection. There was nothing Harry could say that would fix things between them – to try was a waste of valuable time that could be used to try and figure out a way to avoid being married off to a death eater.

"You two are my best friends. We've been to hell and back together. To see you two like this, tearing yourselves up, tearing everyone up, it's killing me. It's got to stop. I don't mean you have to like each other, or be friends or anything. I've accepted the golden trio is no more. Even the papers have stopped printing articles guessing what happened between you. But for my sake, for Ginny's – for your family's sake Ron, can we at least get to a point where you can be in the same room as each other for a few minutes without going for each other? We're not at school any more. I can't split my time between the library and the quidditch pitch. Have you got any idea how hard it is for us all to keep you two apart? For Ron to come round for dinner in the week and Hermione for lunch on a Sunday and for us all to watch every word we all say to make sure we don't mention the wrong thing to the wrong person?"

"No one asked you to," Ron muttered darkly but Harry was getting warmed up to the subject now,

"You've got no idea of the eggshells we've all been walking on and the complicated planning it takes to keep you two apart. Ginny had to have two birthday parties last year so neither of you would feel left out. And we all went along with it! We all wrapped her presents back up and she pretended to be surprised when she opened them again. How sick is that? We literally have this whole operation of monitoring your locations and who is doing what with who and when, to make sure you don't see each other and you two just go along with no idea about it. Well I've had enough of it. I can't take it anymore; I'm not going to do it anymore,"

Hermione sat back aghast. She had had no idea of how much her and Ron's break up had affected everyone else. Mortification at what they must have said behind her back to even come up with an idea to stage a second birthday party curled in her stomach, mainly because she could see why they had done it. Ron seemed as though he still didn't want to believe it,

"Oh come on, I mean, I know it's been a bit awkward but –"

"It's true little bro," George laid a hand on his shoulder, "dealing with you two has been like holding a blast ended skrewt in the middle and trying to avoid both ends," Molly and Ginny nodded in agreement.

Ron seemed to sag against the table, all of the fight went out of him, "Sorry mate," Ron apologised earnestly to Harry.

"Yes, sorry Harry," agreed Hermione sadly. At the sound of her voice, Ron looked up at her with icy, sneering indifference. She didn't blame him. She wished the sight of him could leave her as cold. Instead, just looking at him made it feel like white hot rage was bubbling up inside her, threatening to burst out of her mouth and shoot out of her fingertips. The end of her wand glowed ominously and she stowed it away safely in her robes before it ignited. It was clear to everyone in the room that although they were sorry for the pain they had caused their family and friends; they were not and would not be sorry to each other.

"Good. Right," Harry rubbed his hands together, unsure of what to say next. The fight he had been expecting had not come and yet nothing was resolved. All of the techniques he had learned at work to get dark wizards that he was interviewing escaped him momentarily, letting the silence stretch out awkwardly for a moment. He was just beginning to panic when Ron spoke,

"Err, that's all very nice and everything but did you want anything mum? Only I was in the middle of a sales pitch to the Head Auror at the Magical Congress of the USA,"

"How did it go?" George couldn't help himself from asking, leaning over Molly's shoulder.

Ron grinned widely, stretching back to talk to him. Hermione wished that she hadn't seen the flash of his white teeth, the thin sliver of skin at his waistband as his t-shirt pulled taut across his chest.

"They loved it. Reckon they'll be placing a big order soon. They weren't too sure about the improvements we'd made to the sneakoscopes they use but they couldn't get enough of the avada-proof cloaks. I told them, they'll be laughing….as long as they don't get cursed in the head," both Weasley boys finished together, obviously an oft repeated joke.

Hermione gritted her teeth. Being faced with Ron's success infuriated her, especially when she saw him looking at her slyly, trying to gauge her reaction. Well she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing how much being wrong annoyed her. And she could see now that she had been wrong, telling him that leaving the Auror department to go and work at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes was a mistake. It was so much more now than a joke shop. Fred and George had laid the seeds with the defensive charms they had started to sell, but having an ex-Auror and war hero endorsing and developing the products, they had been barely able to keep up with the explosion in popularity of their security line. George had remained in charge of the lighter-hearted side of the business, opening another shop in Hogsmeade as he and Fred had discussed, as well as one in New York and offering the owl order service worldwide; but Ron had taken to selling the defensive products with the enthusiasm and skill that he approached a game of wizard chess. He became the face and brain of Weasley's Security Spells and as far as Hermione could tell, had become almost an informal advisor to magical law enforcement worldwide. She could barely open Witch Weekly without seeing an article about how successful he was, walk down the street without seeing a billboard with his face on it advertising the intruder alarms he had invented for Wizarding homes or similar, and worst of all, she couldn't walk through work without seeing that body orange and purple W logo discreetly set at doorways and on valuable items. As George would put it, the brothers were raking in the galleons.

Arthur cleared his throat, looking between Ron and Hermione diplomatically, "We did want something actually Ron - we've got a bit of a problem. I found out something at work today and Kingsley has just been here and confirmed it,"

Ron's face paled, his freckles showing starkly against his skin - he scanned the collected members of his family as though he was trying to work out who was missing. Hermione knew his thoughts matched the ones she had when she was summoned to the Burrow,

"What is it?" he saw them all glance towards Fleur who was still holding the parchment, "Victoire?" he gasped, already half out of his chair.

"She is safe wiz er grandmuzzer. Eet is this they are looking at," she explained and handed the parchment to Ron.

He read silently, his brow furrowed and shoulders tense before looking up, confused, "What the hell is this all about?"

"We don't know – some attempt to get all the muggle born witches rounded up and married off to pure blood wizards. We aren't sure, but we think, and Kingsley agrees, that it's bad. It could be death eaters behind it, or even if there aren't, there are enough people at the Ministry with their own dark agendas," Harry's face was grave.

"But I'm ok for now. It says it's not compulsory for me to apply? So what's the urgency?"

"It's Hermione we're worried about, you idiot," hissed Ginny, "she's going to be married off to a death eater,"

For a moment, Ron seemed to forget that she was the enemy, and stared at her, panicked realisation crashing in his eyes like a thousand prophecies collapsing into dust. His hand twitched towards her before he collected himself and smoothed his face into bored neutrality. Molly sat down beside him, taking his outstretched hand and patting it gently. Time had started to fade her red hair but her eyes were still sharp as she surveyed her son, "We think, and Minister Shacklebolt agrees" using his formal title seemed to add weight to the argument that she was preparing to mount, "that Hermione is in real danger. We only have a few hours - the proposal is going to be announced tomorrow and the law passed the day after that. The only way she would avoid it, is if she were already betrothed…." She trailed off tactfully.

Only then did Hermione realise why Molly had called Ron back to the Burrow so urgently, why Harry had felt that peace talks were required, "Oh no!" she backed away from the table like a wet cat, making for the floo again, before Harry and Ginny grabbed her by the shoulders.

"It could be him or Goyle," Harry warned. Ron looked blankly at the exchange, having evidently not caught up to why Hermione was so annoyed, or why everyone else was looking at him like he was the last pumpkin pasty in a famine.

"Mum's talking about you," George interjected mischievously.

"Me? No! Look, it's one thing asking me to be civil to the girl at parties and stuff but marrying her?" Ron was careful not to look at her now, wary after letting his guard slip before.

"No one said anything about marrying, Ronald" huffed Hermione in irritation. Had Goyle turned up right now, she couldn't be totally sure that she wouldn't rather him after all. Again she thought of Draco, wishing she could just talk to him for a moment, wishing things weren't moving so fast.

"Oh I'm sorry Hermione, has stupid Ron missed the point? Why don't you explain it to me, just make sure you don't use any long words won't you!" Ron was starting to get overdramatic, one of the sure signs that a row between them was underway.

Harry attempted to insert himself between them to nip the argument in the bud before one or both of them stormed off, "What Hermione means, is that only betrothal is necessary, you wouldn't have to get married. You wouldn't even need to speak to each other. You could go back to ignoring each other, just the same as before,"

"Just the same, but betrothed," Ron stretched the word over his tongue. "It's alright for Hermione but I'm seeing someone,"

The smug smile he didn't quite manage to hide, his casual assumption that she was some lonely spinster that would cramp his style, made her see red, "So am I!" she screamed shrilly.

"Then why not get him to propose?" his voice rattled the ornaments on the mantelpiece.

"Fine, I will!" she shrieked, her voice even louder than his, and disappeared.

oOoOoOo

Hermione apparated back into her own kitchen, followed just a few seconds later by Ginny,

"I would snog Professor Snape before I ever get betrothed to that ginger git!" Hermione raged, pacing the room.

"Oi," warned Ginny, fluffing her red hair.

"Sorry, it's just he gets me so….argghhhh" Hermione ran her hands through her hair, unable to formulate words to describe how much Ron annoyed her.

"So what are your other options? Do you want to sit down and make a list?" Ginny tried to coax her to sit down at the table with the offer of a quill and parchment but Hermione ignored her, "Seeing as Snape is unavailable for snogging practice, what other choices do you have? Would you rather give up your wand than spend a couple of months living with a piece of paper saying you're betrothed to him? I've heard it sends people mad, having to go back to live with muggles…"

Hermione shuddered; she had seen cases of that whilst on a visit to St Mungo's to visit a newly created vampire. It wasn't pleasant, "Would an arranged marriage be that bad?" she mused.

"Depends who to, plus I don't think marriage is the point, I think having babies is what it's all about. That's what dad said anyway. Are you ready to have a baby Hermione? Just think, if you were betrothed to Ron, it'd be like we were sisters-in-law. I've always wanted a sister,"

"Well I'm sorry to inconvenience you but that is not going to happen,"

"What about what Ron said? You know….about asking Draco?" Ginny quailed as Hermione glared at her, furious that she might agree with something Ron said, "He might agree to it just to annoy Ron?"

As much as Hermione hated it, as much as she knew Draco would crow over her forever about it, she knew it was the best option she had. Nodding slowly, more to herself than Ginny, she walked over to the fire and grabbed a handful of floo powder.

As soon as she entered Draco's flat she knew that she had made a mistake. The tinkle of glassware and the low hum of talking that stopped as soon as she entered the room alerted her to the fact that Draco had company before the ashes had settled enough for her to see. Draco seemed to have transfigured his sofa into an elaborately laid dining table covered in a linen table cloth and afternoon tea things. Draco stared wide eyed at her, a sandwich suspended halfway between his plate and his mouth.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Pansy Parkinson growled. Only the other guest, a tall dark haired man that she remembered from school as Theo Nott seemed to remember his manners and half rose from his chair, his expression politely bemused.

"Granger?" Draco asked, suddenly remembering he could move and after folding his napkin onto the table, moved round to her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think. I didn't know you'd have…company," stammered Hermione.

"Draco, I repeat, what is she –"

"Be quiet Pans," Theo cut off the pug faced Slytherin girl.

Draco looked from his friends to Hermione awkwardly, at a loss of what to say. Whilst they had never discussed the covert nature of their relationship and had never shied away from going out in public, they had both declined to tell anyone about what was going on between them.

"Is it...important?" he hissed.

"You had better not tell me that you and that mudblood…?" Pansy was getting shrill now, her hands on her hips. Draco winced apologetically.

Hermione waited one second, two, three, for Draco to say something to Pansy for using that word, to tell her that yes; him and that mudblood were seeing each other. Anything. However, the etiquette that had been drilled into him from a young age forbade him to be rude to a guest. Cursing his breeding, he ushered her into the kitchen hurriedly, muttering "come with me," as he shot Theo a warning look to keep Parkinson under control. A house elf squeaked in surprise and hid in a cupboard at the sight of them entering the room.

"Granger, what is it? Are you alright? Why are you here?" his brow was furrowed in concern, his tone low so they couldn't be overheard.

"I….." she hesitated for a moment as she saw him glance over her shoulder to make sure his friends weren't following. That one glance caused her to gather the tatters of her pride around her. There was no way she was going to beg bloody Malfoy to get betrothed to her in front of Pansy Parkinson of all people. Parkinson, who Malfoy hadn't even defended her to. For all she knew it, he could already be betrothed to Parkinson. Getting to know Draco had somehow made her forget that he was a Malfoy. Of course he couldn't get betrothed to a muggleborn, what would people think? "Sorry, no. It wasn't important, you get back to your guests," she finished tightly.

Draco let out a gusting sigh and pressed her hands with his, "I'll come round tonight when they're gone. I'll get rid of them as soon as I can. There's something wrong isn't there? Is there something you need? Blow what my mother will say, I can kick them both out now if you need?"

"It doesn't matter," Hermione admitted, defeated and before he could say any more, was back through the living room. Theo and Parkinson seemed involved in some kind of tussle, him holding her wand above her head while she hit and kicked him. They didn't even notice her go back through the floo.

Ginny was still waiting for her in her kitchen when she flooed back in. She just managed to shake her head sadly before bursting into angry tears.

"Didn't go well then?" Ginny asked, wiping the older girl's face and rubbing soothing circles on her back.

"That's putting it mildly," Hermione hiccupped, smiling weakly.

"Don't suppose you've got any other boyfriends you can drop in on and ask them to marry you?"

Hermione shook her head again.

"Back to the Burrow then?" Ginny gave Hermione's eyes a final pat with a hanky and cast a quick cooling charm to reduce the redness before gripping her arm and apparating them both back to the Burrow.

oOoOoOo

"She said she'll do it," Ginny announced, before they had even stopped spinning.

"Well thank Merlin for that, your imaginary boyfriend said no then?" Ron intoned sarcastically.

"Oh you just love this don't you Ronald, getting to play the hero!" their argument seemed to have picked up where they left off

"Funnily enough no, getting hauled half way across the world to get yelled at by you of all people, then expected to –"

"Look, if we could just sit down -"

"Shut up Harry!" they yelled in unison at the boy who lived as he tried once again to calm the situation. He backed away, hands raised in defeat.

Focussing their anger on Harry seemed to throw them out of their stride and the assembled Weasleys saw them both take a deep breath and consider what to throw at the other next. Whether sensing a moment of weakness or genuinely upset, Molly burst into noisy tears.

Ron scratched the back of his neck "Don't do that mum,"

Harry tried one more time, "Ron, Hermione, I don't want to see you two betrothed any more than you want to be," Hermione couldn't help herself mutter that she doubted it under her breath, "but right now we don't have a lot of time or options. The Betrothals and Marriages Office will close for the day in…" he looked at his watch, "half an hour and tomorrow might be too late. The way I see it, the two choices are that either you two conduct a ritual now and your dating opportunities are curtailed for the next couple of months, or however long that it takes Kingsley to get the rule overturned, then you two can dissolve it and go back to ignoring each other, or we could be facing the possibility that Hermione will end up married to a death eater. And I suspect they won't need a couple of months to do their worst. Hermione, would you literally rather die than be betrothed to Ron?" she grudgingly shook her head, her arms folded across her chest as she refused to look anywhere in the direction of Ron or Harry, "Ron, you don't even have to speak to each other after today, but are you going to walk out on Hermione when she needs you?" the unspoken 'again' hung in the air.

"Low blow mate," Ron grumbled.

"Well?"

"We wouldn't have to see each other, or do couple stuff?" Hermione didn't want it any more than Ron but hearing it confirmed still stung.

"No," Harry assured

"Alright,"

Hermione's head whipped sharply to look at him. She didn't know what his family had said to him whilst she had been making a fool of herself in front of the wizarding high society but she suspected that it was severe. He was staring sullenly, challengingly at her, daring her to be the one to back out of the arrangement that neither of them wanted. A ripple of shock went round the room that it might actually happen.

"What?" she couldn't help herself addressing him directly.

Ron's face reddened as he wrung out his words with great difficulty, "Well…. Wouldn't you?...I mean, for me? Merlin, I don't want you dead Hermione!"

Harry coughed slightly to mask his shock, "Mr Weasley, are you able to do it now?"

"Now?" Ron and Hermione exclaimed, once again in unison.

"Nothing like striking while the cauldron's hot," grinned George.

"Right," Arthur scratched his forehead with the tip of his wand, looking suddenly nervous, "Right…This should be easy enough, I've already done it for Bill and Fleur, and Harry and Ginny of course. If you start to feel unusual, best step away from each other and we'll start again,"

"What does unusual mean?" Ron asked in trepidation.

"He means that when he did me and Fleur, he caught my shoes on fire," Bill supplied.

"And mine" Harry added, helpfully. Ron stared woefully down at his boots.

"That's enough. I know where I went wrong now. Harry's were barely smoking," Arthur justified, "Now, you two, hold hands. I'm afraid….Oh I am so sorry…..I'm afraid you're going to have to look at each other,"

Molly started sniffling again and complaining to Fleur in hushed tones that if a couple needed to be told that normally she'd be surprised and that she didn't know how things had come to be like that between them.

Ron swallowed visibly before stepping forwards and taking Hermione's slightly clammy hands into his own warm, dry ones with surprising gentleness. Hermione felt her lip tremble slightly but she didn't falter when she looked upwards, wide brown eyes meeting terrified blue.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. He looked as though he was going to say something back but Arthur started the spell, obviously keen to get it done quickly before either of them changed their minds

"Now if I ask you a question, just say yes, otherwise just follow my instructions it's quite simple," he reassured them, although his uneasy tone belied his confident words.

First he placed the tip of his wand on their joined hands. Hermione felt a warmth emanating from it and dared a glance down. Thin gold threads were ghosting out of the end, tentatively extending over their wrists.

"Do you, Ronald Bilius Weasley, wish to be bound in betrothal to Hermione Jean Granger?"

"Yes," said Ron.

The golden strands seemed to solidify as they issued from Arthur's wand and wrapped themselves around their clasped hands.

"Do you, Hermione Jean Granger, wish to be bound in betrothal to Ronald Bilius Weasley?"

"Yes" said Hermione, despite every ounce of her common sense screaming at her that this was bound to end in tears. A second burst of gold filaments intertwined with the first. Hermione could feel them interlinking and spreading. They were up to her elbow now.

"And this betrothal is bound by love, and the intention of entering into marriage?" Ron broke eye contact for a minute to look, panicked at his father. The spell dimmed. Arthur nodded frantically at them both. Ron looked back down into her eyes, his expression unreadable,

"Yes," he whispered.

"Yes," repeated Hermione, barely a beat behind. The golden threads exploded around them, surrounding them, binding them together but Ron's eyes did not leave hers again. It was like looking at the sun. It would have been easier to gaze into the molten core of the golden threads that were burning and twisting tighter and tighter.

"Now you need to…ah…kiss to seal the spell," Arthur's apologetic tones seemed faint and distant over the pounding of blood in her head. The tips of Ron's ears were red and his mouth was set in a grim line as he hesitated. He inclined his head barely an inch and his gaze lowered to her suddenly dry mouth. She licked her top lip nervously, causing Ron's pupils to dilate at the sight of the small pink triangle. Hermione didn't know if it was the spell or just plain non-magical fear but her nerves were alight in anticipation, her heart pounding as though it wanted to escape her chest. All in a rush, Ron seemed to screw up his courage and pressed his closed lips against hers. The glowing strands seemed to focus in on that point; Hermione felt them leaving the rest of her body and shrinking into the connection between the two of them. It could have gone on for a second, or ten minutes, she had no idea, but the moment the blazing died away behind her closed eyelids, Ron pulled away again and she stepped back rapidly to increase the dangerously small distance between the two of them.

"Is that it?" Ron asked.

"Yes", said Arthur, sinking back into a chair in relief, "and your shoes are still intact. I'm sorry I didn't warn you about the end bit, I didn't want either of you to think too much on it,"

"Don't worry, not thinking's my speciality," Ron looked bitterly towards Hermione.

Before she could retort, a large tawny owl swooped elegantly in through the window. The tips of its wing feathers brushed Hermione's cheek as it deposited a large parchment envelope in her outstretched hands, before wheeling away and back out the way it came.

Hermione ripped the envelope open and pulled out the letter. It was a certificate, decoratively lettered and stamped with a golden mark at the bottom. She read tremulously from the parchment

"This certificate of Betrothal doth Decree that on the seventeenth of March 2003 Ronald Bilius Wesley did become bound to Hermione Jean Granger, by decree of the Betrothals and Marriages Office"

"Great," sighed Ron wearily before he gathered his belongings up and disapparated.

"Sister!" Ginny squealed, throwing her arms around Hermione.

To all you Dramione fans, sorry! But there's a lot more Dramione still to come.