Their Greatest Mistake

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**
Monday morning dawned bright and early and found Malfoy Manor in a rush. While Hermione had packed on Sunday, Draco had not, and so while Hermione was able to enjoy breakfast with Narcissa and her parents, Draco was not able to do so as he ran around the manor shooting out Summoning Charms and swear words. He had already met his in-laws, if briefly, but he was not interested in spending a large amount of time with them at this very moment. He never had done well with the parents of his past girlfriends, and now he was married!

But all managed to go well, and soon enough the parents were wishing their children – for that was what they would always be, their children, even if they were married – goodbye as they loaded a carriage with their shrunken luggage and got inside and the winged horses took off for London. The journey was a quiet one and Draco read The Daily Prophet and across from him Hermione opened Advanced Arithmancy For the Advanced Student to page 412, which was where she had left off the night before.

It was when they were about ten minutes away from King’s Cross Station when Draco made a noise that resembled a troll that was both choking and grunting at the same time. Hermione peered at him from over the edge of her book and raised her eyebrows at him, but he didn’t notice, as his eyes were widely examining a section of the newspaper. “Everything alright, Draco?” she asked pleasantly.

“If by ‘everything alright?’ you mean ‘is there a whole section of paper devoted to us?’ then yes,” he finally said. She closed her book shut and moved to sit next to him, so that she could see what he was referring to.

After reading the title, she pursed her lips and said, “Ah, yes, I was wondering when they would feature our party.” He looked at her in shock as she calmly began to read the article aloud.

“The Party – And the Couple – Of the Century,” read the title of the special section of the Prophet.

“If you have been living under a rock recently, then you have yet to hear that fellow students, and this year’s Head Boy and Girl, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger are now married. The rumors began flying after the couple was seen at the Hog’s Head, a pub in Hogsmeade, at the end of July, but it became public knowledge when 400 guests were invited to their wedding party last month.

“The couple have not issued a public statement, or even talked to the press at all regarding their marriage. However, guests at the party, all 368--”

“367 and one gate-crasher,” Draco muttered darkly, causing Hermione to smile a little before continuing.

“--have assured reporters upon leaving that they are very much in love and very happy together. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived To Defeat You-Know-Who, and Ron Weasley, who are close friends of the bride, both were eager to dissuade any rumors of a pregnancy or other reason why the two might have gotten married, aside from love.

“‘They are happy together and very much in love,’ Potter said briefly before Apparating away with Ginny Weasley, the youngest child of Molly and Arthur Weasley, who also happens to be the long-time girlfriend of Potter, very close friend of Malfoy née Granger, and sister of Ron.

“Narcissa Malfoy issued this statement early Saturday morning regarding her only son’s marriage: ‘Do I wish that they could have waited so that I could have been there? Of course. Am I happy for them? Of course. My only regret is that my late husband is not here to help us celebrate this happy occasion.’

“Madam Malfoy was, of course, referring to the late Lucius Malfoy, father of the groom and a Death Eater who died in the Second Great Wizarding War who was well known for his anti-Muggle-and-Muggle-born beliefs. This reporter wonders if he would have taken the news of his Pureblood son marriage to a Muggle-born as well as his widow has.

“To read more on the Malfoy family, see page M2. To read more on the couple’s history, see page M3. To read more on the wedding party, see page M4. To read the predictions of the couple’s future, see page M10. To read quotes about the couple from their friends, family, and classmates, see page M11. Written by Luna Lovegood, originally run in The Quibbler, Sunday morning, August 31, 1997.”

Hermione put the paper down and burst into laughter before flipping through the section to peek at what else was there. On page M2, there was a Malfoy family tree highlighting the more interesting members of the family, especially related to disdain of Muggles. There was also an article, two square inches in size, discussing the Granger family. Per Hermione’s request (for she had no idea that The Quibbler would sell the article to The Daily Prophet when Luna asked her if she could write the article at the party), there was no mention of the royal history, only that Hermione had inherited her title from her grandmother.

The section was, in complete honesty, highly entertaining and hilarious to Hermione. It was riddled with essence of Luna Lovegood, and the only part Prophet-esque was the section on the party. There were many moving pictures of the couple and of the guests and there was a little note at the end of that article that said, “This section not put together by Luna Lovegood or The Quibbler.”

As they pulled into the magical parking space that had been cleared for them at King’s Cross Station, Hermione put the paper down and looked at Draco. “Draco, we’re bloody celebrities,” she said as the realization hit her.

It was his turn to chuckle as he kissed her on the cheek and put a Disillusionment Charm on them both. “Of course we are: we’re Malfoys! Now let’s go before the train leaves without us.”

They gathered their belongings and stepped out of the carriage. Hermione saw a faint shimmer as the Disillusioned winged horses and the carriage itself took off, and the two of them set off to Platform 9 ¾.

* * *

As the train chugged off, Draco and Hermione collapsed into the Head compartment. They had successfully made it to their compartment acting as if they had always been together, and chatting with Harry, Ron, Pansy, Ginny, and Blaise was a completely normal thing to do. It had been exhausting and nerve-wracking, to say the least.

But they only had a few moments alone before the Prefects would join them, they knew that much. So they un-shrunk their belongings and were stowing them when the 22 Prefects began to trickle in, and as Draco finished up, Hermione began roll call.

Once everyone was there, including Ron, Pansy, and Ginny, the meeting began. “Hi, everyone, I’m Hermione Malfoy, and I’m Head Girl this year, and you all know Draco Malfoy,” Hermione said nervously. Ginny and Pansy grinned at her and gave her the thumbs up, which calmed her a little bit. It felt like the first meeting of the DA all over again, except this time she was the center of attention, not Harry.

To give his wife a moment, Draco asked them all to introduce themselves by name, House, and favorite Quidditch team, so they would all get to know each other. When they were finished, Hermione took control again. “Okay, so this year we’ve got the usual activities that we, as the school Prefects, are in charge of. First, there’s the introduction to the Houses, which is done by the fifth year Prefects with the older ones supervising the room assignments. Second, there are the Hogsmeade visits, which are scheduled by the seventh year Prefects. Then there are the decorations for Halloween and Christmas, which are organized by all of us, and, finally, the end-of-year festivities during the week in between exams and when we go home. Those are also organized by all of the Prefects. Oh, and, of course, patrolling.”

She began passing out handouts that had all of this written down while Draco took over for her. “We meet every Sunday in the Great Hall at 4 o’clock, and don’t worry, the Quidditch captains know this, so they won’t schedule any practices during that time, or you will be excused. Also, we” he gestured to Hermione and himself “meet with each of you by year on different days at 8 o’clock. For fifth years, it’s Tuesday. For sixth years, it’s Wednesday. For seventh years, it’s Thursday. While the main meetings will take however long they need to, anywhere for fifteen minutes to five hours, the year meetings will only be half-an-hour, at the absolute most. We’ll just cover any issues you’ve had and we’ll go over your duties and hand out your patrol schedule for the following week.”

The Prefects took all of this in, and Hermione rejoined Draco at the front of the group. “Now, we’ve devised this coming week’s schedule, and it’s on the back of the handout I just gave you,” she said as the group collectively turned the page over. “You’ll notice that no fifth years are patrolling yet, and that’s because at your first meeting tomorrow, which will be a full hour, we’ll go over the basics of patrolling, taking points away, assigning detentions, etc.”

Draco grinned. “You’re all supposed to occasionally patrol the corridors of the train today, but let’s face it, no one ever does,” he said, which got him a chuckle from the older Prefects who knew that was the truth.

They went over a few other basics and reminders before the meeting ended, and then everyone left the compartment except for Ginny and Pansy. The two of them sat down, and Ron stayed just long enough to say that he was going to get Harry and all of their “bloody stuff,” as he put it.

As soon as he left, Ginny turned to Hermione, grinning. “I’ve gotta say, I was a little worried when you first began talking that you were going to crack from the stress, but you did fabulously,” she said, causing her friend to laugh.

Pansy nodded in agreement. “I’m just surprised that no one asked if you were really married, but I’m sure that’ll come up soon enough,” she said.

Hermione sighed and rubbed her eyes as she thought of the stress of the coming week. Draco moved to sit next to her, and Ginny scooted over to give them some room as he wrapped his arms around his wife and she leaned into him, seemingly calming down.

Just at that moment, Ron and Harry arrived, the girls’ shrunken belongings in tow. “Oi, ferret, what’d you do to her?” Ron cried, dropping the items in his arms. Both his girlfriend and his sister yelled “Ron!” and scooped down on their items to inspect the damage. He had the good sense to look a little sheepish, but just a little, and Pansy drew him to her so that she could explain. Luckily for him, Hermione had fallen asleep in Draco’s arms, so he didn’t want to risk waking her up, even if it was to hurt her best friend for assuming that he would do anything untoward.

The rest of the train ride passed in silence, and as they all got into their robes and uniforms, Hermione proudly put on her new tie, which was a combination of red, blue, yellow, and green – for each of the four Houses – and was the sign of a Head Student, as well as the shiny badge. Draco did the same, and when they arrived at Hogsmeade, they joined the throng of students hand in hand, heads held high as they chatted with their friends and ignored the staring of their fellow students.

After the sorting, the speeches, and the feast, the two of them stayed behind so Dumbledore – how they hated that man! Although, truth be told, they were starting to just hate him because they felt that they should instead of that was how they actually felt – could lead them to their new rooms. It was a long, silent walk, and finally they reached the place, which was half-way between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

The painting that guarded the room stood out to both Hermione and Draco. It pictured a tall, blond man who looked mysteriously like Lucius Maloy in his youth (too much so for either of their tastes) and an average-sized brunette who looked mysteriously like Queen Elizabeth II at the time of her coronation. They stood side by side in front of a large curtain with the Hogwarts crest on it, and said nothing, but simply smiled at the three people in front of them.

Dumbledore turned to them, the twinkle evident in his eye. “I had this painted as soon as I knew that you two were married,” he confided. “They aren’t who they seem to be, you know,” he added as an afterthought, which calmed both students significantly. Shaking his head as if to clear it, he said, “Well, the password is ‘Young Lovers.’ Don’t share it with anyone at all. You’ll find that there are two passageways in side of your rooms that can be used to access your Houses, and that you will not need to tell anyone even where your rooms are. In fact, please don’t.” Abruptly he left, and Draco and Hermione looked at each other and then at him as if he had lost his mind.

Of course, they were both convinced that was the truth when he had married them in the first place, but still. It was further proven at this point in time.

Once he had turned the corner, Hermione looked at the couple in the painting and said, “Young Lovers.” They said nothing in return, simply smiled and the portrait swung forward, revealing a door, which Draco and Hermione went through.

They were greeted by what looked to be a very welcoming flat. There was a roaring fireplace, in front of which was an Oriental rug with the Hogwarts colors, two leather armchairs, and a leather couch with a throw that matched the rug. Behind the couch was a rectangular bookcase that was the same size as the couch itself, and was filled with books already.

Three doors branched off of the living room, but two of them were locked. Draco shrugged. “Must be the ways to get into Gryffindor and Slytherin,” he suggested, although why they were locked was a mystery to him.

The third door led to the Master bedroom, which featured a large bed, two walk-in closets, in which all of their clothes were hanging and organized, and a door that led to a nicely-sized bathroom, complete with toilet, bath tub, shower, double sinks with double mirrors, and a full-length mirror. The bedroom had a welcoming air to it, similar to the bathroom, and the color scheme was bright, happy colors: light yellow, light blue, and crème dominated. All in all, asides from the living room rug, there was no House alliance evident in their quarters.

Hermione collapsed on the bed, staring up at the gauzy, crème colored canopy above her. “What do you think?” Draco asked as he moved to straddle her on the bed so that all she could see was his face.

Almost as if of their own accord, her arms snaked around his neck as she pulled him in for a kiss. “I think,” she said after they had broken apart, “that this bed needs to be christened.”

He grinned, and began unbuttoning her robes and taking off her uniform as she did the same to him. “I think that I agree with you, Mrs. Malfoy,” he said, and then groaned as she rubbed her crotch against his. “Okay, okay, Your Grace the Duchess of Winsdor,” he conceded, and she grinned up at him

“And you’d better remember that, Your Grace the Duke of Windsor,” she whispered in his ear before flipping him over so that she was on top and easing onto his cock.

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