Unrequited

Disclaimer: Don\'t own anything but the plot. And I saw David Thewlis on Ab Fab playing a gay hairdressing pimp. Funny stuff.
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Peace Treaty

I went back to my room. My heart was still racing after my encounter with Malfoy. I felt like a silly, untried girl whose hormones were out of control. Get it together Granger! I hadn\'t been that close to him since that night. He knew me and my reactions better than I thought. I lit a fire in the grate and watched Crookshanks come ambling out from under the bed. He looked at me lazily and not a little disappointed.

\"Don\'t give me that look. What else was I to have done?\" I made a sour face at my cat and flopped on my bed. The scene of the crime, so to speak.

Crookshanks jumped up on the bed next to me and butted his head on my chin. I couldn\'t help but grin. He was so cute sometimes. I rubbed his orange fur and was treated to the sound of his grumbly purring. He sounded like a cement mixer and at the present point, he was my only friend.

I curled up on the bed, watching the darkened sky outside. I hadn\'t given a thought to my duties as prefect and Head Girl. But that was to be expected, I suppose. I wondered who had been taking up my slack during patrols and such for the past week. Well, marriage or no, child or no, I still had responsibilities and I had to live up to them.

I got up and looked at the neatly lettered chart hanging by my desk. Tonight was my night to patrol. Splendid. I figured I could catch a quick nap before patrols started. I settled in and dozed.
*********

I managed to shake off the last waves of heat and pain. It was like recovering from a bad fever. The stunning spell left me with a mad sort of lethargy in my limbs. As I thought about it, my brain somehow settled on the musing \'this is what Granger must have felt like after the owl attack.\' Except that couldn\'t be thrown off with the dissipation or cessation of magic. I i I immediately felt worse than horrible. Some odd sensation welled up inside me and I thought of trying to make some sort of amends. Me, apologize? utt utter rubbish. I swallowed it back down and went to the hospital wing. I opened the door and saw her bed standing empty. Where could the little devil have gotten to? I thought she was under orders to stay here until Madam Pomfrey said she could go back to her quarters.

The silly twit. Going against express orders to keep her arse in bed. What if she endangered my son with her foolishness? I went to the library, no one was there except Madam Pince, who spared me the most horrid look I think the old woman had ever summoned up. I stuck my tongue out at her and went further up the stairs to Hermione\'s room.

Artemis was sleeping when I got there. I gave her the password and she woke up and let me in without a word. I quite liked Artemis. She was far more discreet than the silly old Fat Lady. The outer parlour was quiet, no fire burned in the grate. The door to the bedroom was open and I could see the flickering of the embers in the smaller fireplace.

The fire cast a glow over the room. There, in the herculean bed, she lay all curled up with that monster she called a cat. Still swathed in midnight coloured jersey with her hair spilled all over the pillow she snored - lightly - but still snoring. The little spitfire could make even her snores endearing.

Her features were blurry in the firelight and I felt that strange protective feeling well up again. She moved and curled inn evn even tighter ball. She looked so tiny and fragile, I was loathe to disturb her and so I didn\'t. I left her to her slumber and went to find my own lonely bed.
***********

I awoke from my nap feeling more tired than refreshed but I was determined to get back to normal. I got up and pulled off the dress and got into a pair of jeans and a shirt and a set of robes. Pinning my Head Girl badge onto the front, I left the room. I was perplexed when the breeze from the opened portrait swirled the scent of lime and basil. Odd that, Malfoy was the only male that I knew who smelled like that. But I don\'t think he could get past Artemis. I shrugged it off and continued on my way.

The other prefects who were patrolling that night were pleased to see me back on the job. We set out on our separate ways. I took the lower floors, not including the dungeons. I was wandering about the Trophy Room looking at all the House Cups when I heard a rather loud \"oi!\" go up from the corridor. I ran out, looking to see what student was stupid enough to be in the hallways making this kind of noise so close to lights out.

\"Oi! Who goes there?\" I called over the third-floor railing.

\"Where is everyone? I thought you lot were doing patrols.\" Shit. I knew that drawling, posh voice. And then he came vaulting up to the landing right below me. \"What are you doing out of bed?\"

\"What does it look I\'m doing? It\'s called patrolling, innit it?\"

\"Bite me, Granger. I thought the medi-witch told you to rest yourself.\"

\"I can\'t keep lying about doing nothing. I\'m going mad.\"

He came up to where I was standing so that we weren\'t yelling at each other across floors. \"So, are you all revenge-d out or are you still seeking restitution?\"

I turned away and started walking down the gallery. He fell into step beside me. Malfoy\'s whole manner was conciliatory and I wasn\'t ready to ruin the mood so I said nothing.

\"I take it from your silence that means you\'re done with it?\"

\"Hmm.\" I smiled. \"I have to admit though, I\'ll miss the sight of you flopping about on the flagstones like a guppy.\"

\"Oh, you will, eh?\"

\"Stop for a minute.\" I don\'t know what made me say that. But he stopped as asked. \"Draco, why do you want to marry me? Honestly? I don\'t love you, you certainly do NOT love me. So why are you pushing for this?\"
*********

Her honest question left me at a loss for words. Why *did* I want to marry her? There wasn\'t any definitive answer, just a lot of jumbled up ones. I didn\'t know which answer was the real one. I looked her at her standing below me. Her inquisitive face was turned up, waiting for an answer.

\"Well, Granger...it\'s sort of like this.\" And I proceeded to tell her of my obsession with her from beginning to end. The mad things it made me do and say. She kept her face from betraying what she was thinking during my recitation. Granger was becoming quite the little Slytherin.

\"I had no idea.\" She looked a bit stunned and, in my estimation, a bit disgusted as well.

\"Well, a good stalker is the one that goes unnoticed,\" I quipped. Her lips lifted in a tiny smile.

\"But you still didn\'t answer my question. Why do you want to marry me?\"

\"I don\'t know. I suppose it seems like the right thing to do. I don\'t do very many decent things so if I\'m going to start behaving like a decent sort, I suppose I ought to start off big.\"

She chuckled at that. I think her equilibrium was being restored after all of the fuss of this past weekend.

\"Well, Granger? Why are you deigning to marry me?\"

\"Well, I\'m not about to go break my wand, am I?\" She pulled a face at that notion. \"And now that the whole of Britain\'s wizarding population knows that I\'m pregnant I can\'t very well run out to the nearest NHS and get rid of it, can I? I\'m not about to be treated like a pariah just because of one night\'s carelessness. And truth be told, the thought of having an abortion made me feel as if I\'d swallowed a cup of cold sick.\"

\"Lovely imagery there, Granger.\"

\"Isn\'t it?\"

We stood there in silence for a few minutes, lost in thought. \"So it\'s all about security, is it?\" I asked.

\"Yeah, it is. And when I\'ve had the baby, we can separate and go our merry ways.\"

\"What about the kid, Hermione?\" I saw her start at my use of her given name. \"How are we going to do this?\"

\"Lots of kids have divorced parents.\" She looked mutinous.

\"Not in the wizarding world they don\'t.\"

\"We\'ll arrange something. The typical thing is weekends with the father and the rest of the week with the mother.\"

\"I can\'t see just being a weekend dad. My father wasn\'t a weekends only father.\"

\"Yeah, \" she scoffed. \"And look how well that turned out.\"

\"Hey, he may not have been *your* idea of father of the year, but at least he was involved.\"

\"Yeah, involved in making my life a living hell and spoiling the crap out of you.\" She gave me a smirk I could\'ve hit her for. Then again, they always say that the truth hurts.

I acknowledged it with a nod and nothing more. We began walking through the gallery once again. \"You know, \" I said. \"This is the most civil conversation I can ever remember us having.\"

\"Hmm,\" was all she replied. We continued to walk in silence. \"Draco, what is Vita Mia?\"

I laughed a bit. \"I would\'ve thought that during all of your research, you\'d have discovered what it was.\"

\"Well, I haven\'t, so tell me.\"

\"Vita Mia is when two people are wed, but they are also bonded together during a ritual ceremony. It\'s rather involved and arcane, fairly smacking of dark magic. But the Ministry still allows it. It\'s a Fidelis charm, an Amorous Incantata and an Imperius all rolled into one. It\'s absolutely unbreakable. You\'re marked with a tattoo that reflects the other person. It doesn\'t have be a large tattoo or anywhere conspicuous on the body. If a person who\'s been through Vita Mia tries to be unfaithful, well let\'s say that the consequences are very nasty indeed.\"

\"It\'s a trap, a gilded cage. No, thank you.\"

\"You never know, Granger. You might meet a man who you might want perform Vita Mia with.\"

\"Doubtful, highly doubtful.\"

\"Why do you say that?\" I was genuinely curious and not just being nosy.

\"Because, in my estimation, no man is worth the trouble.\"

\"Aren\'t being just a shade bitter?\"

\"Wouldn\'t you be?\" She quirked an eyebrow at me. Granger stopped her strolling and leaned against the wall. \"I never would\'ve thought I, of all people, would end up pregnant and married at the age of seventeen.\" She shook her head ruefully.

\"Eighteen.\" I cored. ed.

\"How did you know that?\"

\"Granger, I think it was an open secret around the school that you were using a Time-Turner.
\
\"Huh. Gossip does fly around here, doesn\'t it?\" The smirking glare she gave me made me stick my tongue out at her.

\"Look, short of hogtying you and hauling you kicking and screaming to the altar, how else was I supposed to have gone about it?\"

\"You could\'ve come to me and asked.\"

\"I DID ask. You turned me down cold.\"

\"No, you ordered. You coerced. But you *never* asked.\"

I thought a bit and discovered that she was right. Silly know-it-all. \"Fine. Well, I\'m asking now. Will you?\"

\"I think I deserve a bit more than that.\" She crossed her arms and tapped her little foot at me impatiently.

I dug in the pocket of my robes for the little package my mother dropped off in the floo while I\'d been sleeping. She\'d asked me to come pick out something but pre-empted me and made my choice. Mother knew me all to well, the rings she\'d chosen were the ones I\'d have given Granger anyway. Rolling my eyes at this farce, I got down on one knee. And in my best annoyed voice I proposed.

\"Hermione Jane Granger, will you marry me?\" A small puking noise escaped and I saw her trying not to laugh.

\"Yup.\" Was all she said. I looked heavenwards again and stood up, opening the box.

Her eyes went wide at the sight of the gleaming jewels resting on the velvet. \"Good God. If this is what you use for a quickie wedding, I\'d love to see what you use when it\'s forever.\"

I grinned at her reaction. \"If you saw *those* jewels, you\'d faint, Granger.\"

\"Probably,\" she agreed with no hint of irony.

The deep red stones were set in yellow gold and winked cheerily in the torchlight. The largest of the three was well over four carats and flanked by two smaller rubies cut in the shape of trilliants. In the bridge of the ring were diamonds set in the filigreed openwork. It was the ring my grandmother had commissioned when Sirius was put into Gryffindnstenstead of Slytherin. I think he had had his eye on a girl from that benighted house but it never came off. Who knows?

\"Is this the wedding band?\" She had another golden ring in her hand. This one was studded with tiny rubies and diamonds like little stars.

\"Stunning mental leap there, Granger. However do you do it?\"

\"Bite me,\" she replied, but without much heat. She was too busy admiring the engagement ring. She went to put it on, but I stayed her hand.

\"Wait. I\'m supposed to do that.\"

She looked skeptical, but went along with it. I put the jewelry on her hand and looked at it resting there. I have to say, it looked like it belonged there.

\"I know I\'m not supposed to care about such things, \" she began. \"But I have to admit, this is a truly beautiful ring. You picked well, Draco.\"

I bristled with pride at her words. \"Thank you. For what it\'s worth, it looks very nice on you.\"

\"Hmm,\" was all she said, but she was smiling and I quite enjoyed that. We continued our walk in a companionable silence, our tacit peace treaty intact.