Hermione had gotten distracted at the new book store in Diagon Alley. She couldn't help it. She hadn't been intending to go in, she had been running a bit early on her way to meet whoever she was being forced to marry. However when she saw the Grand Opening sign complete with a 50% Off sign Hermione had been unable to resist.

She'd told herself just ten minutes but before she knew it half an hour had passed by and she was now running late.

Her once impeccable appearance - or at least as far as she was concerned it was impeccable - was now a mess. Her wild, bushy brown hair had leaped out of the ponytail she had managed to wrestle it into. Her wooly, hand-knitted, bold red jumper was now askew with one side of the neckline hanging past her shoulder. It was the Christmas jumper that Mrs Weasley had given her for Christmas last year and had a gold ring around the neck, sleeves, and hem line as well as a gold 'H' in the middle. It was one of her favourites since not only was it warm but a couple of sizes too big so she could really snuggle into it. She had a pair of black leggings along with a pair of fluffy, black UGG boots. Her boots were now scuffed and there was wrinkles in her leggings. She had tried to put make-up on this morning as well, the bare minimum of course, but she knew it had to be all ruined by now after rummaging through the library.

She shouldered her large shopping bag filled with books higher onto her shoulder as she reached the obnoxiously expensive and five star cafe. Rubbing the palm of her hand against her forehead she shuffled inside her gaze seeking out where she was supposed to meet her jailor (or at least that was how she saw her soon-to-be-spouse until proved otherwise). Finding the table by the window, she abruptly stopped and stared wide-eyed at Lucius Malfoy.

They couldn't be serious.

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As the door to the cafe opened, Lucius glanced up to see who had come in.

'Just the Granger girl.'

He thought, paying her no mind for a moment before he realized she was staring at him. What? She had seem him before, briefly. Hell, he'd tried to kill her and her friends a few years ago, so why-

And then it clicked.

"Damn the ministry."

He muttered to himself as he realized why Granger was staring at him like that.

They were pairing him with a girl his sons age. Were they crazy? Oh how he hated the ministry, the law, everything. Centuries, generations of careful breeding to get the Malfoy clan were it was, gone, destroyed, tainted by muggle blood. Purity remained through Draco perhaps, but that would only last for so long.

With an inward sigh, Lucius slowly stood up and regally walked over to Hermione. He could not believe this was happening.

"Hermione Granger ... seemed the ministry truly has lost its mind."

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Every instinct she had told her to turn and flee. Run away from him and never look back. However her logical mind, the strongest part of her, told her that such a thing was futile. She belonged in the wizarding world. She had been educated in it. If she was cast out to the Muggle one she would have no qualifications what so ever which of course could only be a prelude to a very bad life. However at this point she wasn't so sure being a Malfoy - Lady Malfoy! - was a better alternative.

"I'll only do it name. You shall not touch me."

She said firmly, her very first words to Lucius Malfoy. After all she'd never really talked to him before. Just shot spells at him or his fellow Death Eaters. Harry had really been the only one to talk to Draco's father. She cringed then, a resounding 'ew' going through her mind as she realised she was marrying a peer's father. A man that could be old enough to be her father. Not only that but he had tried to kill her. A lot. As well as others like her. This was going to be very challenging.

With her piece said she stalked over to his table and sat down, placing her bag of books underneath the table. She was not going to give anyone an excuse to cast her out of the wizarding world.

"Is there a deadline to be married by?"

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"Fine by me, muggle born."

Lucius complied stiffly as he watched Hermione walk over to the table before following her to the table to take his seat once again. This was going to be challenging. Definitely a rocky relationship from the start.

What was he getting himself into? There had to be some other way. It couldn't just be marry a mudblood or get thrown out of wizarding society. But there wasn't.

"Six months."

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"Six months...?"

Hermione gasped, stunned. That wasn't long. Before she knew it she'd be Mrs Malfoy. 'Oh god! I'll be Mrs Malfoy. Lady Malfoy. Draco's stepmother. Oh god! I'll never be rid of Draco now. What will he say?! What will Harry, Ron and Ginny say?'

She couldn't have a panic attack. She couldn't show Lucius any weaknesses. Yet she was absolutely terrified. She hoped there wouldn't be any form of check to see if they had consummated the marriage. Right now the thought of loosing her innocence to this man was something she was determined not to let happen. She hadn't waited this long for Lucius Malfoy to get the privilege.

What on earth would the wedding be like?

'Oh god. I'll have to introduce him to my parents!' Well, she would once she had reversed the memory charm she had put on them.

"Fine. I'll organise the wedding and tell you when as well as where to attend."

She'd definitely make it a small affair.

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Lucius didn't even bother looking towards Hermione as she spoke, merely nodding while staring out the window as she questioned the time span they had in which to marry before the Ministry started hounding them with threats.

He was numb. Completely and utterly numb. This here mudblood, this mere child was to be his wife until the ministry decided to let them get away from each other and divore.

He did turn to her with narrowed eyes however when she mentioned a wedding. Oh, no no no. That was not going to happen, not over his cold, dead corpse.

"We are not having a wedding."

He hissed firmly, venom in his tone at the mere thought.

"We are going to the ministry, we are signing the documents, and that is going to be the end of it."

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"B-but it has to be done properly..."

Hermione responded, shocked he refused to have a wedding. What if this was the only wedding she ever had? It wasn't as if she had a line of men at her door asking to date her let alone more. She couldn't just get married without a wedding. Surely Lucius could be this cruel as to deny her one dream wedding.

She could feel tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She had a feeling her crying and pleading wouldn't get her anywhere with him but she couldn't help her instinctive reaction.

"Please... It'll be a small wedding I promise..."

She pleaded, her voice a broken whisper as she stared at him helplessly. Would he even wear a tux if they went to the ministry? Would she even get a wedding dress?

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Lucius's expression seemed to harden even more if at all possible as Hermione tried to plead with him. By Merlin, he might as well be her babysitter.

"I'm not going through with any sort of public ceremony - wizarding or otherwise - with a mudblood, Granger."

He growled, his tone hushed to keep attention from the other patrons of the cafe away. He had far too little patience and far too much prejudice to even be remotely bothered by how he had insulted her. Maybe the ministry would allow him to petition for a different partner. Doubtful, they%d see it as a waste of their resources.

"I'm not going through with a wedding, I won't."

He'd had his wedding, with Narcissa, and as far as he was concerned, one was more than enough. This mudblood would not be living out her fantacies with him, not for a moment.

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"This might be forever." She whispered, unable to stop the quiver in her voice, "I... I might not marry again. Y-you'd deny me one wedding?"

She ended up forcing her eyes closed as she looked away, trying to smother the feminine need to sob as a way to release the heartache of broken dreams.

Hermione took a deep breath before opening her eyes again to look his way.

The mudblood comment didn't affect her. She'd heard Draco say it so many times that it no longer hurt. It just made her feel sorry for the one who said it. However to deny her a wedding... it broke her heart worse then seeing Ron making love to Lavendar the night the war was won.

"No wonder you are a Death Eater. I'm not even surprised now that Narcissa left you. You really are cold, cruel, and selfish to the core. There will be no redemption for you. I can only hope your son stays far away from you so he can, at least, be a better man then you ever will be."

With that she stood up and turned away, walking for the exit without looking back. She refused to acknowledge the fact she was trembling from her crushed dreams or that tears were - now that Lucius could not see - trickling down her face.

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"If you want a wedding, then you go and plead to the ministry for a different partner, or cry to your friends, not me. I've already been through one wedding, I'm not keen for another."

Lucius shrugged as Hermione questioned his decisions regarding the way in which they were to be married. He was internally cringing at the thought. He was old enough to be her father, how did the ministry even begin to think this would be a good idea?

Something about her Death Eater comment startled him. His hand on the table clentched, his nails slightly digging into the wood as he set us jaw in an even more surly manner. Insolent mudblood, she thought she knew everything, but she knew nothing. Nothing about him, nothing about his past, nothing about why he became a Death Eater.

Lucius Malfoy, however, was not a man who would tell her just what she didn't know simply out of anger or annoyance. If she wanted his secrets she would have to work and work hard for them. He remained silent, and rightly so as Hermione left, though even with her presence gone, he did not relax.

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Hermione fled to her safe haven: the book store she had left just moments earlier. Instead, however, of going straight for all the non-fiction, as was her norm, her aching heart had her fleeing to the romance fiction section. A complete novice to romance fiction she grabbed the first book with a title that appealed to her.

She fled to darkest corner at the back of the book store, sat on the floor with her knees to her chest as she desperately tried to force some control over her almost hysterical looking reaction. The truth was though she'd never felt what she was feeling now before and had no idea how to go about dealing with it. Still, she did as she was used to and read even as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

Whilst Hermione had never been in any way feminine - besides the Yule Ball - a small part of her deep within her heart had always thought she'd be romanced, given a proper proposal where she'd be breathless with love, amazement, and tears of joy as the man of her dreams went down on one knee, and then later had the small but elegant and love filled wedding she'd always wanted. It was the only feminine thing she had embraced, and whilst she had no false visions of a fair haired, jaw dropping gorgeous prince finding anything attractive about her, she had always hoped that maybe, someday, someone would see something of worth in her and want to be her husband. Now it was all in tatters and she had no idea how to fill the quickly expanding black hole this knowledge was leaving.

Where was she supposed to go from here?

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It was a different Malfoy, one younger and far less prejudiced that happened to catch a glimpse of the secluded Hermione as she tearfully read her book. As he slowly drew closer, he could hear her faint sobs and was quickly curious to figure out what was causing them.

"Hermione?"

He asked softly when he finally stood in front of his fellow Hogwarts Graduate. Draco and Hermione had been Head Boy and Head Girl together in their last year of Hogwarts. What they hadn't known was that this meant they were sharing a dormitory, so while they had different rooms, they were sharing a common room of sorts, and a bathroom. Despite a somewhat rocky start, it had taught them proper respect for each other.

"Hermione, what's wrong?"

He asked as he knelt down and turned SK that he could sit beside her.

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Hermione looked up with red rimmed eyes, and whilst normally Draco would have been a sight of comfort now it only made her cry harder. He looked so much like his father that she couldn't help it.

"H-he... he won't let me have a wedding. I said it would be small... I know I'm dirt, worth less then dirt, in his eyes but I might never get married again! I just wanted one day where I could have the wedding I've always wanted a-and maybe p-pretend the man at the other end of the aisle actually wants me, loves me, and proposed. B-but he won't! He wants to go to the ministry. Just sign s-some papers... He probably won't even wear a-anything special and he w-won't want me to either. W-what are my p-parents going to say?!"

Of course she'd have to remove the memory charm first but she knew her parents would be appalled and horrified at their daughter going through with such a cold, emotionless act.

"I-I don't wear make-up. I don't w-wear dresses. I don't twirl and dance or date... I've n-never worn high heels. I-I'm not girly in any way b-but this: I want, dreamt of, a wedding."

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"Woah, woah, settle down 'Mione."

Draco soothed softly as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gently rubbed her arm to try and calm her down. He was incredibly lucky his wife wasn't clingy and jealous like his girlfriend throughout the first few years of Hogwarts had been, otherwise he'd be in hot water whenever he got home.

"Who are you talking about? Who'd the ministry pair you with?"

He didn't need to ask what she was going on about, he knew the law as well as anything, it just didn't apply to him. Thank god he'd gotten married when he had or it nay not have worked out, considering him and Astoria were both pure bloods.

Who couldn't possibly think of who Hermione was so upset because of. Sure, he knew a lot of hard headed wizards, but that was a very broad description, and very hard to narrow down without other facts.

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"Y-your father."

Hermione confessed with a sob before burying her face into Draco's no doubt expensive jumper, her little hands clinging to it tightly as she sought some form of comfort.

"He wouldn't have to do anything or pay anything! All he'd have to do is be there. Thats it."

She added, wanting to make it clear she did not want anything Lucius had or could provide.

""He doesn't have to have anything to do with me! I'll make a small cabin on the grounds somewhere, stay to myself, fend for myself. All I ask is for one wedding that I can plan. Is that so much to ask?"

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