Rating: Explicit
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/M
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Neville Longbottom/Pansy Parkinson, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Blaise Zabini
Characters: Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, Blaise Zabini, Luna Lovegood, Theodore Nott, Narcissa Black Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Historical, Royal Prince Draco Malfoy, Pining Draco Malfoy, Draco Malfoy is Bad at Feelings, Spinster Hermione Granger, Accidental Pregnancy, Shameless Smut, Forced Marriage, Eventual Happy Ending, Luna Lovegood and Draco Malfoy are Cousins
Notes:
So, here's the thing. I read Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh, and to say I fell in love with the story is an understatement. However, I had my sole complaint that there was not an accidental pregnancy. Regardless, the book is perfect, and it's a 10/10 recommendation. Shout out to Ceilidhchaos, who turned me onto the Slightly series. Then again, it feels like we do share a brain. Anyway, that is my inspiration for this fic. And so, I do present, The Lady and Her Prince…
Summary:
Hermione Granger is the daughter of a widower baron who somehow has managed to avoid being matched off by age thirty. Draco Malfoy is a prince who avoided marriage and neglected his duty of siring an heir to the throne. With pressure from Her Majesty Queen Narcissa, Draco finds himself in attendance at a ball hosted by The Duchess of Sussex, Pansy Longbottom.
Off to the side, he finds a mysterious guest that Draco doesn't recognize and feels himself being drawn towards her.
Hermione is mortified when the Crown Prince himself approaches her, mistaking her for one of the guest's lady-in-waiting. With the elfish wine flowing, Hermione finds her inhibitions lowered and flattered by the attention she's drawn. In her mind, she will be leaving London by the end of the season to return to her country home to live the remainder of her life. What is one night of shared passion anyway?
A few weeks later, when her monthly doesn't arrive, Hermione realizes that giving herself might have been a colossal mistake...
The Lady and Her Prince
By: SarahFraser
The children were racing around her legs, and Hermione couldn't hold in her laughter as Lily Luna used her aunt's leg to keep herself steady as she chased after her older brothers. It was a hopeless effort on her part, but Hermione wouldn't deter the little girl as she tried to pursue the boys.
"Aunt Mione! Tell them to slow down!" Lily cried, her red hair trailing behind her as she raced down the hill toward the tree, a collision inevitable.
Pulling her wand from her hair, Hermione waved it quickly to apply a cushioning charm to prevent injuries as the four-year-old bounced against the oak tree. Trills of giggles came from the child as she floated back and landed gently in the bed of wildflowers.
Hermione wasn't actually the children's aunt; she was the only child born to the widower Baron of Catchpole and was officially considered a spinster at thirty. However, her father had a sweet spot for Lady Potter, whose husband, the old Earl of Hollow, had left her a widow when her son, the new Earl of Hollow, had been but a year old.
Thus, when Harry and Lily Potter came to visit Hermione and her father for the first time when they were just twenty, they hadn't anticipated the Earl would fall madly in love with Hermione's lady-in-waiting.
So, despite there being no relation between the Baron's daughter and the children of the Earl, Hermione was still Aunt Mione to the trio.
"Boys, come along!" Hermione called out to James and Albus, who were climbing to the top of the same oak tree their younger sister had nearly run into. "Your mother will be expecting us."
"Yes, Aunt Mione," the chorus came down to her, and Hermione could only smile as she watched the boys fall from the tree and land easily into her cushioning charm.
Walking back toward the house with the children in tow, Hermione paused when she saw a carriage parked outside. However, it was not the Earl's carriage but a certain Duchess that, despite Hermione's best efforts, had somehow managed to entrap the spinster into a friendship the two summers prior.
"Willow's here!" James exclaimed, picking up his pace as he raced towards the Baron's house. Hermione's mouth pressed into a line, knowing precisely what the Duchess was here for, and Hermione had already replied, not once but twice, objecting at being pulled away from her country home for the season.
Albus and Lily followed behind their older brother, peels of laughter as they tumbled more than ran down the hill that led them where they were meant to be going. There was nothing Hermione wanted less than a visit from Pansy Longbottom; however, it didn't seem her wishes would be granted today.
The butler bowed and apologized for not giving Hermione more of a warning at her grace's arrival, but Hermione only waved him off. Had she known of Pansy's untimely visit, Hermione would have hidden at an inn in town for the next week, though that was possibly why Pansy didn't forewarn Hermione of her plans.
Treacherous woman, honestly.
Walking into the house, the sound of the children racing towards the nursery, where they were sure to find Willow Longbottom, indicated her arrival home. Walking into the Rose Room, Hermione wasn't surprised to find her friend sitting and looking out the window to the small garden her home overlooked.
While they were titled landowners, they were modest landowners. Having no magical abilities ranked her parents at the bottom tier of the nobility scale, and they would have allowed Hermione to marry as she wished because of this. However, when she was born with the 'gift' as it was called, the list of eligible suitors shrank considerably, and the choice was taken from both Hermione and her father.
Following her mother's death when Hermione was five, the world forgot about Hermione Granger, and her father threw himself into the study of medicine, pushing his duties as the landowner to his steward to handle.
"Your Grace," Hermione said, giving Pansy a curtsy, which had Pansy scoffing and rolling her eyes as she glared at Hermione.
"You realize you cannot continue to refuse me and hide away here so that no one knows you exist," Pansy snipped, and Hermione could feel the urge to roll her eyes but restrained herself. "You're wasting away, playing school teacher to the kids. You need to come back to London with me."
"Pansy, there's not an ounce of me that wants to spend the season sitting in your drawing room listening to you chatter away about whatever ladies talk about. I told you, I'm perfectly content with my quiet life here."
And she was; she had all her needs met, she got to enjoy somewhat of a career that would be denied to her if she were to marry, and she got to spend as much time with the Potter children as her heart desired. She didn't need more.
"Look," Pansy huffed, and Hermione knew that it wasn't good news for her. "My brother is coming back from wherever he's been."
"Bulgaria?" Hermione asked, raising a brow at her friend, but Pansy merely shrugged.
"Anyway, he's coming home and looking for a wife." Pansy continued, and Hermione held her hand up to stop her before she got too carried away.
"I am not marrying your brother, Pansy," Hermione told her friend, rolling her eyes at the absurd idea.
"What? Of course, you're not. You're too old. However, you will help me keep all the debutantes and mamas at bay. They're ruthless, and the title of marquess will have them flocking in drones."
Hermione was silent as she looked at her friend. Strands of her straight black fell from the updo and framed her thin, pale face perfectly, with a bit of rouge dusting her cheeks. Her sage green eyes were calculating and always looking as if she were plotting something, which was very likely. It hadn't been a surprise that Pansy had been matched in her first season, Neville not standing a chance when his eyes fell on her.
Hermione, however, had never been the beauty that Pansy was. With her mother's death, her etiquette and education had been left in the hands of her father, who'd never seen Hermione as a girl but as the intelligent and curious person she was. She excelled at all things academic. The greenhouse she kept to help her father with his medical pursuits ultimately forced Hermione to meet Pansy when the duke insisted on visiting the Granger Greenhouse that Hermione cared for. Neville viewed Herbology as a passion, while Hermione viewed it as something to learn and perfect.
"So, you want me to spend the entirety of the season vetting potential matches for your brother?" Hermione clarified, leaning back on the settee to look over her friend.
"Exactly, I'm glad you see the sense. Now, I've already had your bags packed and the carriage loaded. We leave in the morning. Even with the Abraxan, the trip from here to London takes a few days. You're lucky you live on our way to the city; otherwise, I would have been much more irritated with you forcing my hand. We'll rest here for the night and depart in the morning."
Pansy had already waved away the tea tray and stood from her seat, brushing nonexistent wrinkles from her robes.
"I never agreed–"
"Hermione, you and I know that no matter how many times you tell me no, you'll still be coming with me."