Pretend to be married to me
Granger barreled into him with all the grace of a water buffalo, brazenly grabbing his hands in her own and tucking them close to her chest.
“Frankly, quite forward of you, Granger–”
“Not now!” In one smooth movement, she tugged his signet ring off and slipped it onto her ring finger.
“What are you doing? You’re lucky I removed the curses from that thing–”
“I said not now! Just…pretend to be married to me.”
Before he could inquire any further on the sheer audacity of such an idea, a group of men came around the corner and simultaneously cried her name out in relief. She stared up at him, pleading eyes wide, lips trembling. He nodded sharply and felt his heart stop as her face transformed into one of relief, rewarding him with a smile he had never before seen aimed in his direction.
He felt the brief tickle signaling his magi-translator at work as the others came up to them and started chattering. They seemed very excited about Granger’s presence in Italy and were trying to convince her to join them for dinner.
She pressed herself up even closer against his body, keeping their clasped hands in plain sight for all to see, and angled her head to lay against his chest.
“Draco and I are already running late for our reservation, aren’t we, darling?”
It was comical seeing the men’s eyes bug out of their sockets as they registered their body language and the ring on her finger. Draco decided to take things a step further–just for fun, of course.
“Yes, and I’m eager for my dessert,” he murmured, bringing one hand up to turn her face to his and leaning in close as if to brush his lips to hers. The angle of his approach would ensure they wouldn’t actually see anything but the back of his glorious hair, but that didn’t stop a tiny gasp from escaping her at his nearness. He could see every lash fluttering downward in surrender and hovered for what felt like the edge of forever simply breathing her in. Did she just drink an espresso? What did he smell like to her?
When he finally pulled away to check on their audience, he was rewarded with laughs and appreciative nods before the men moved on and left the two of them alone once more. Granger, in turn, looked stuck in a daydream, her eyes still tracking him with lips parted as if begging another kiss.
“Shall we, then?”
His question jolted her out of whatever trapped her, and she shook herself.
“Yes! Thank you, Malfoy. They just wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and I wasn’t quite ready to cause a scene.”
She tilted her head in question to his proffered hand, before moving to return his ring. He quite liked seeing his family crest on Hermione Granger’s finger, so he immediately dropped his hand on top of hers to stop her.
“Keep it on for now, at least until we get back to the hotel. And I am hungry. Join me?” For a moment, he thought she would say no to him as well. She chewed her lip in contemplation in much the same way she used to always do in school, eyes squinting at him underneath her halo of curls.
The moment she arrived at her answer, she perked up and leaned into him once more, Malfoy signet on full display where she held onto his arm.
“Lead on, husband!”
“With pleasure, wife.”
In the background, a bulb flashed, capturing Draco and Hermione’s first ‘date” for history and signaling the start of the great Malfoy-Granger romance. Alliances were called into question; the financial market went into upheaval; operas took turns praising and damning the couple. But for now, he joked, and she laughed, and the world kept turning as it would continue to do far after their time had come and gone.