Asking

Thanks to LunaSeay for betaing this.



Hogwarts - September 1

Draco Malfoy had a problem. You see, he was going to get married. Now, normally this would not be all that bad. In fact, it would normally be a very good thing. Unfortunately, he was being forced into marriage by a law he considered to be both barbaric and ridiculous. The Ministry of Magic had come to the conclusion that blood status was the cause of the war with He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Geniuses, Bloody Geniuses, they were. Their solution was to force Purebloods to take Muggleborn and Half-blood witches and wizards as spouses. They figured in a generation or two, there would be no Purebloods left and therefore no blood prejudice. It was a logical conclusion; however, it was also the cause for the aforementioned Marriage Law.

Now, Draco Malfoy was a Pureblood, raised to believe Muggleborns a.k.a. Mudbloods were highly inferior to Purebloods. He had, after great consideration, come to the conclusion that was a load of bull. He had the privilege of attending Hogwarts with the brightest witch since Rowena Ravenclaw herself. This incredibly bright witch was Hermione Granger, Muggleborn, and she had bested him (along with everyone else) in just about every subject Hogwarts had to offer. The subjects she had failed to dominate in were Divination (because, like Draco, she found it ridiculous) and Potions (because Snape preferred Slytherins in general and Draco in particular). As well as having been bred to believe in Pureblood supremacy, Draco had been bred to believe that a Malfoy only accepted the best of the best. Hermione Granger was the best of the best. So, based on that logic, Draco had to marry her, he just had to!

Draco was lucky enough to be blond, athletic, handsome and intelligent. All of the these being traits that would normally attract most red-blooded females to him. None were likely to get him Hermione Granger. You see, Draco had been nothing but utterly repulsive to her for the first six years of their acquaintance, he had done everything in his power to insult, demean and belittle her. The rather funny thing was, he hadn't really meant most of it, but he had to put on the act so his father never got word that Draco hadn't bought into the blood war. Now, he wanted to petition for her hand in marriage, situational irony at its finest.

Now the question was how to go about it? There were of course several options he could choose; a) offer to the Ministry for her without warning. Hmmm, considering he didn't want to live his life in a war zone that was not a good idea. b) He could offer for another witch and forget she existed, probably not going to happen seeing as his heart was rather set on her. c) He could swallow his pride and beg her friends to help him. Option C seemed either the most likely to get him hexed or the only one to have any real chance of success. Her friends you ask? None other than The-Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter and his red-headed sidekick, Ronald Weasley, both of whom hated Draco's guts.

Now, you might wonder why Draco didn't just give it up and he had wondered the same thing himself. He just couldn't do it, he wanted her, he needed her and he was damned well going to do everything in his power to have her. Hell, even if it meant begging Potter, Weasley and every member of Gryffindor House for help.

Damn!