Authors Note: All characters are the property of JK Rowling

Chapter 2

Warm sunlight streamed through a crack in the curtains and fell across one of Hermione's eyes. She shifted slightly in the armchair she was sitting in so that she could continue reading without the sun in her eyes. That was easier said than done, though. The reading. Hermione couldn't stop thinking about the encounter she'd had with her professors just a few short hours ago. It seemed as though Professor Snape would soon be in the same position as she found herself, but he had the distinct pleasure of being spy to the Order of the Phoenix and, as such, needed to be more careful than her. But she, too, needed to be careful. If she did not want to marry Ron, or any of the Weasley's for that matter, she needed to think hard on who she thought would be a good candidate. Definitely not Harry. Definitely not any of the other boys in the 6th year. Someone older, maybe? Someone older in the order? Someone who could protect her and would support her and her education.

Her ruminations were interrupted as the library door at Grimmauld Place was thrown open and the quiet surrounding her was broken. A large portion of the Weasley clan had just arrived and Ron, Ginny, and Harry (who had been spending the last week with them) made their way into the library and spread out on various couches and chairs.

"Hey, 'Mione!", Harry gave her a large grin and he flopped down on the armchair next to her. He was looking happy, well-fed, and slightly tan. It seemed that this summer had been kinder to him than in the past. She was glad for that and the fact that he had another year until this new ministry law would affect him. As he still needed to defeat Voldermort, getting married should be the last thing on his mind. She smiled back at him.

"Hey, guys!", she smiled back at all of them. They started, almost at the same time, to try and catch her up on the parts of their summer that hadn't made it into their frequent letters. A faint smile was playing around her lips as she tried to listen to them all at once and carry on three conversations. When she was about to tell them to please speak one at a time, Mrs. Weasley appeared in the doorway and asked for Harry and Ginny to go and assist her with a task. They gave each other a pointed look, which Hermione certainly did not miss, and went off to "help" with the least fuss Hermione had ever heard from them.

Ron got up from the couch and made his way over to the fireplace that was currently empty of flames. He took a deep breath and turned to look at Hermione…or at least in her direction as he was not meeting her eyes. "Ron, is everything okay?", Hermione asked lightly. Ron gave her a slight smile and took another deep breath. Before he was able to muster up the courage to say whatever he was about to say she spoke. "I've been thinking about who to marry for the new Ministry Act, Ron, and I have decided that it should not be you." Ron went from pleased she had brought up the topic, to shocked by her announcement, to was that anger?

Ron quickly turned away from her and stared back in the fireplace. "Who is it, then?", he asked in a voice so cold she didn't think she had ever heard the tone from him. It made her shiver slightly.

"That's the thing, Ron, I'm not so sure, yet, who I will be marrying."

"But you decided that I'm not good enough. Is that it?" He was getting angrier, and Hermione did not need his temper to get out of hand. She looked him in the eyes and shook her head.

"It's not because I don't think you are good enough, Ron. It's because we would hate each other before a year was up. We are already at each other's throats all the time and I am not willing to see if marriage mellows that out." She took a deep breath and plowed on. "I need someone who will be okay with me wanting to read books during my free time. I need someone who will encourage me in my academic pursuits and not ridicule me for always going to the library. I need someone who wants me for me and not someone they think I'll be." She stopped talking and breathed evenly in and out. Ron's cheeks were a rather dark shade of red, but he still had not said anything. "Well, say something, Ron."

He took a few steps closer to her and said in a voice barely above a whisper, "I could never want you. I have never wanted you. You were a convenient friend, but I never saw you as material for anything more." He got louder then. "My mum thought you would be good for me. You'd ground me and help me 'stay on the straight and narrow'. Even Harry and Ginny thought you and I would make a good pair. I'm glad you were the one to stop the progression of things. I'd never have been brave enough to stand up to my mother, siblings, and best friend. You've done me a favor." Then, with an indifferent look on his face, he turned around and walked out of the library.

Hermione stared out of the window in the library of Grimmauld Place as the sun was reaching its height of the day. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful summer day. Hermione felt cold, though. The red-headed inhabitants of headquarters had been frosty to her all morning after Ron's proposal was stopped by her. Harry was more confused than anything but did concede that she had a point that they would probably drive each other mad. It was nice to know that she had one of her best friends still on her side. She glanced at the floo and decided that talking to Professor McGonagall was what she needed most right now. She had become a sort of surrogate mother to Hermione since, well, since IT happened.

She walked over to the floo, took a pinch of floo powder from the jar on the mantle, threw it into the fireplace, and yelled "Minerva McGonagall's Quarters Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry."

The spinning sensation of travelling through the floo network was still very uncomfortable to Hermione even after so many years in the wizarding world. Stepping out onto the hearth and muttering a quick spell to dispel the soot lightly covering her clothing, Hermione was surprised to see Minerva was not sat in her living room by herself.

Looking a bit startled at her sudden appearance, Minerva's face quickly softened into one of openness and welcome. "Hermione, what a surprise! Professor Snape and I were just sitting down for tea if you would like a cuppa." Hermione glanced in Professor Snape's direction for the first time steeling herself for a look of loathing or, at the last, annoyance. What she saw, though, was the professor moving himself further to one side of the couch he was situated on so that she would have a place to sit. Smiling and nodding, Hermione eagerly accepted. As he was closest, Professor Snape poured her a cup and added one sugar and a splash of milk just as she liked it. When she raised an inquisitive eyebrow in his direction, he merely shrugged as if to say, "well, I AM a spy, aren't I?" Her cheeks pinked a bit.

"Well, Hermione, what brings you to this old stone castle on such a beautiful summer day?", Minerva blew on her tea and looked at Hermione with genuine curiosity in her eyes. Hermione debated whether or not to bring up this subject whilst in the presence of Professor Snape, but she knew he was in the same situation as she was.

"Ron tried to propose today but I stopped him before he could get a word out. He then said the most horrid things to me, but I will not repeat them. I fear have lost his friendship." Her throat constricted slightly at that. She hadn't wanted to admit it to herself and hadn't until now.

"It is his loss, Miss Granger, not yours." Professor Snape had said this so softly that Hermione wondered if she had imagined it, but Minerva quickly put that thought to rest when she said, "Here, here, Severus. What a thick-headed young man. I can see you two butting heads frequently in a marriage." Minerva took a sip of her tea. "May I ask if you have anyone in mind, my dear?" As she asked this, Hermione was looking down to blow over her own tea to cool it off and missed the look sent Professor Snape's direction. She also missed the slight widening of Professor Snape's eyes and the looks of mingled hope and despair that filled them. No, when she looked back into the wise eyes of Minerva McGonagall, hers were filling with tears.

"I fear there may be no one who would be willing to put up with an insufferable know-it-all who is more interested in books than anything. I am not beautiful, I am not sporty, and I do not want to be a housewife. I want children eventually, but not as soon as this Ministry Act will ask of me. I want someone who wants me for me and will marry me before this stupid act goes into effect so I can escape the stipulations and still be able to finish my education. So, what do I have in mind Minerva? A magical," she laughed at that causing a single tear to travel down her cheek, "man who obviously does not exist."

As her eyes were so clouded with tears, she did not see Professor Snape silently set down his teacup, send a pointed look to Minerva, and quietly slip out of the sitting room. Hermione dissolved into bitter, pent-up tears and Minerva moved to the couch to hold Hermione as she mourned her friendship with Ron, her freedom possibly being stripped from her, and, not for the first time, the fact that her parents were not here to see her through this hardship.