Unofficial Portkey Archive

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document.write(''); chapter seven: A Little Nudge

Hermione was miserable. Harry was miserable. They were miserable together, but separately. Of course, seeing as how it was only two days before the wedding and everyone was hurrying in a mad rush to get things together, almost everyone seemed to be oblivious to their mutual misery, and so no embarrassing questions were asked and they were allowed to go on wallowing in their own self-pity.

Ginny observed this for as long as she could bear before finally pulling Draco aside. " What is going on?" she inquired. " Harry and Hermione both look utterly and completely wretched, and I haven't heard a word from either one of them all morning. Something awful must have happened."

" That or they're playing the quiet game," Draco returned dryly.

Ginny merely frowned at this. " Hermione didn't mention to you that anything was going on, did she?" Draco shook his head. " Me neither. It must have been really bad, or she would have told us about it."

" Want me to break Potter's legs?" Draco inquired.

" I hardly see how that would help."

Draco shrugged. " I'm sure it would help someone..."

The conversation might have continued, but Fred and George were eying them warily, and so they hastily split off into two different directions. It was half an hour later before they felt it was safe to talk again, and even then they did it under the ruse of setting up folding chairs and looked at each other as little as possible.

" I think you should talk to Hermione," Draco said under his breath.

" Me?" Ginny returned. " Why not you? You're her pretend fiancé, after all."

Draco looked vaguely uncomfortable. " What if she starts crying or talks about her period? A man can't deal with that sort of thing..."

Ginny rolled her eyes. " I think you would have benefited vastly from having a sister, Draco." She paused, seeming to think about this. " Actually, no. That would be far too cruel a thing to do to a little girl. You'd no doubt be prettier than her, and she'd have all sorts of issues about feeling frumpy and ugly. So never mind-it's best you're an only child."

Draco seemed torn between facial expressions. " Um...thank you?" he said finally.

Ginny smiled at him, then abruptly cleared her throat and looked away. Draco glanced back to see Ron approaching. Uneasily, he wondered if Ron suspected anything. It wasn't that he was afraid of Ginny's six brothers...no, scratch that. He was definitely afraid.

To his surprise, Ron grabbed a few folding chairs and began to set up alongside them. " Listen," he said under his breath, " has Hermione spoken to either one of you about last night?"

Draco and Ginny exchanged a glance. " Last night?" Ginny said finally. " What about last night?"

Ron sighed, and actually gave Draco a sympathetic look. " Listen, Malfoy, there's no easy way to say this...I saw Hermione kissing Harry last night."

Draco tried his best to look horrified. " I am shocked and appalled!" he said melodramatically, then blinked. " All right, do go on. What happened next?"

As Ron furrowed his brow at Draco, Ginny quickly intervened. " Dra-ur, Malfoy and I expected that something had happened. I mean, look at the two of them. They're like walking zombies."

"As opposed to crawling zombies," Draco interjected, " which are actually quite cheerful."

Ron's frown deepened. " Have you been nipping a bit on the side, or something?"

Ginny gave an exasperated sigh. " Ron, please--give us all the details. What did you see last night?"

Ron glanced over his shoulder, obviously not wanting anyone to overhear. "Well, we were at the karaoke bar and everything was going fine. Then all of a sudden, I see Hermione running past crying. And of course, Harry went running out after her--"

Ginny smiled. "Awww...."

Ron glanced at her quizzically, but continued nonetheless. " Well, I thought I'd give them a moment-Harry's always been much better at handling Hurricane Hermione, after all. But when they didn't come back inside, I went out to go check on them, and I saw them going at it--"

" On the open street?" Draco said, his voice a mixture of horror and delight.

Ginny rolled her eyes. " Kissing, Draco." She turned back to Ron. " Well, what else?"

" I went right back inside," Ron said, " but not before they'd seen me. Harry came in a moment later, but Hermione never came back. The rest of the night, Harry was doing his human vegetable impression, and now this morning they're both acting catatonic." He looked at Draco and Ginny suspiciously. " And for some reason, I get the inkling that the two of you know what's going on."

Ginny sighed. " All right, we'll tell you, but only because you might be able to help. You can't breathe a word of this to anyone, Ron." He nodded quickly. " Hermione is in love with Harry."

Ron glanced quickly at Draco. " Shocked and appalled!" Draco repeated, trying to look upset.

Ginny ignored him and studied her brother's face. " You know Harry better than anyone else. Is there a chance that he could be in love with Hermione, too?"

To her surprise, Ron began to laugh. He laughed so hard that he doubled over and his voice became hoarse. Tears were pooling from his eyes.

Ginny glanced around uncomfortably. " Ron, I hardly think it's all that funny..."

" Good grief!" Ron gasped as soon as he was able to regain control of his voice. "Is everyone around here taking stupid pills?"

Draco eyed him warily. " You're certainly doing a good impression of it."

" Harry's been in love with Hermione for ages," Ron informed them. " Simply mad about her. We almost stopped being friends because of it, though at the time he was being too thick-headed to realize that the reason he got so angry at me for dating Hermione was that he's been in love with her since he was twelve. And now...he finally decided to get over Hermione and put her behind him, and she realizes she's in love with him! It's bloody ridiculous!"

Ginny looked at him anxiously. " Well...this is just awful! They're both in love with each other, but too stubborn to admit it! And his bloody wedding is in TWO DAYS!"

This seemed to sober Ron up. " We can't let him go through with it," he said firmly. " We have to make them admit that they're in love with each other."

Draco folded his arms. " Yeah, but how?"

***

Saturday.

Hermione groaned inwardly as she rolled out of bed. It was Saturday. Which meant tomorrow was Sunday. Which meant that Harry would be getting married tomorrow. There was absolutely no point in getting out of bed, this morning or ever again.

But, get out of bed she did. And why? Because, aside from being the love of her life, Harry was also her best friend, and she couldn't desert him now. No matter how painful it might be to watch him marry someone else.

The only solace was that Saturday would be blissfully busy. They would be doing the finishing touches on decorations all morning and afternoon, and then there would be a huge luncheon for family and friends, and then they would rehearse the wedding all night. Hopefully, with so many things to do, Hermione wouldn't have time to be miserable.

The morning passed rather quickly. Kimmy was being completely anal about each and every little detail, but hating Kimmy was better than being jealous of Kimmy, and so Hermione took to it with full force. The luncheon passed by as a blur; she did her best to appear cheerful and thought it probably worked, not realizing that her frozen smile and stiff gestures rather reminded everyone around her of the time she'd been petrified her second year at Hogwarts.

Finally, it was time for the wedding rehearsal. This was destined to be the most painful part of Hermione's day, she realized. Everyone was supposed to wear their actual wedding attire-save be Kimmy, who was sticking to the tradition that it was bad luck for the bride to see the groom in her wedding dress before the ceremony-and so Hermione would virtually be watching Harry and Kimmy get married over and over and over. Lovely.

The only consolation in this was that she got to wear her dress. Her beautiful, Champaign-colored dress that made her look radiant. Always a bridesmaid and never a bride, but at least she'd be one hot bridesmaid. That ought to even things out, right?

She took her sweet time getting ready, grateful to have a room to herself again. They were staying at Hogwarts that evening so that it would be easier to get ready for the wedding in the morning, and she had one of the old girls' dormitories to herself. It was nice really, since she didn't have to explain to Draco why she was crying in her sleep and why she couldn't bear to look at herself in the mirror, even in her beautiful dress.

Almost the second that she'd finished dressing, there was a knock at her bedroom window. Frowning, Hermione crossed over and looked out, stunned to see Ron at the wheel of the old flying car that he and Harry had driven to school so many years before. Staring, she pushed open the window and proceeded to stammer for the next few minutes. " What are you...where did you...? I thought it was lost somewhere in the Forbidden Forest."

Ron grinned at her. " Funny, it always seems to show up right when we need it the most."

" Need it the most?" Hermione repeated, confused.

Ron continued to grin. " Sorry about this, Hermione."

The door to her bedroom burst open, and Draco and Ginny rushed into the room. "Impedimento!" Ginny cried.

Hermione let out a little moan and collapsed, completely helpless. Draco caught her before she could hit the ground and moved her toward the open window.

By now, Ron had turned the car around so that the back was to the window. He popped open the trunk, revealing a similarly frozen Harry inside. Draco set her down gently and then gave her an apologetic smile. " Sorry, luv. You'll thank us later."

And then he shut the trunk with a resounding thud.

***

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