Meeting The In-Laws
As Hermione sat there, waiting for the Hat to yell out the decision it reached, she felt everyone in the Great Hall staring at her, like pin-pricks on her skin. She was used to the staring. It made her uncomfortable, yes, but it was a direct effect of who she was. Being the Queen's daughter, came with its downsides.
As she scanned the Great Hall, she saw someone that made her feel infinitely more reassured about the process, multiple someones in fact. She saw Fredrick, Eric and Derek. The three of her brothers who were of age. She hadn't noticed them as they entered. All three of them looked perfectly content with the proceedings to everyone else, but Hermione saw their slightly stiff gaits, and the worry circling their eyes. Mia, however, wasn't worried. All four of them were going to get arranged marriages either way, so they were prepared for the idea of having a spouse they barely knew.
This was another reason, they lived their lives as much as possible. While they never shirked their responsibilities, they had their fair share of fun and rebellion. Fredrick had his sexual escapades, Eric had his tattoos, Derek dyed his hair so much, it was a wonder it hadn't fallen off, and Mia... Mia got bored easy so she had all of the mentioned. She had tattoos all over her arms, and her ribs, all covered by her shirt sleeves as well as her legs and neck, covered by intricate glamours that most people couldn't detect. She had dyed her hair a lot, mostly black, blonde or highlights, but occasionally the bold cerulean blue or purple too.
When it came to sex, she was no inexperienced slouch either. She did have a lot of partners, but she generally hated getting serious. She got hurt whenever she did. Men, women, theys, she didn't really care about gender. Plus, doing what she did, every second of everyday, she needed the stress relief.
Coming back to her siblings, she loved them more than anything. They were ridiculously close and all of them were crazy protective of Mia. Even Derek, who was younger than her. She could practically hear him yelling at her, 'I'm younger by 17 minutes. 17 minutes!'
She heard the Hat draw in a breath. Can the Hat breathe? She added it to her list of things to research. She heard the Hat yell, "Alexander Darius and Draco Malfoy!"
Hermione went numb. She had been expecting Alexander but Malfoy... She for the umpteenth time that day, was conflicted. She got up, her mind spinning. Sure she didn't hate him. She truly didn't. But there were still a lot things that he had done which had scarred Hermione more than anyone realised. Things between him, Harry and Ron might be okay but Hermione could hold a grudge. She knew the marriage would get nowhere if they didn't work things out.
She knew one thing, however. She trusted both of them to at least keep thing interesting. Neither of them would back down without a fight.
She sat beside Ander as Malfoy pushed his was beside him. She didn't know what to do. In the end, she called, "Jen."
Much to the confusion of the rest of the Hall, a house-elf showed up. After the War, Hermione had learned that her vendetta against abuse to house elves was misconducted. They did actually enjoy the work, but she still believed that people should be kind to them. Hence, she politely asked, "Jen, could you get me a coffee, strong and black? By strong, I mean, strong." She emphasized the word, in hopes that the elf would understand her desperation.
The elf beamed at the request and said, "Of course miss. I'll be back momentarily."
"That elf is a god-send."
"You always were happy about how much she helped you." Hearing Ander's soft, apologetic voice made her heart break. She really had cared for him, before he asked for space and a break-up after.
She looked at him for the first time in 3 years and said, "Well, have you met Malfoy?"
"I have not. Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm Alexander." Alexander said, extending a hand. Malfoy looked at it curiously, if not skeptically. He took it and said, "Draco. You two know each other then?"
Hermione looked at Ander as he awkwardly answered, "We dated for a bit back in our fifth year."
Understanding dawned on Malfoy's face. The Slytherin in him seemed to set in and Hermione just knew that he was going to start asking very awkward questions. She would have no trouble answering them, just didn't feel like airing out her feelings in public.
So, she rushed to clarify, "There's no bad blood, we parted amicably." Jen came back with her coffee and Hermione might have professed her gratitude in quite the dramatic manner.
There was an awkward silence between them until they saw Ginny, Luna, Daphne, Theo, Ron, Alex, George and Pansy join them. "Hey," whispered Ron. "You good?" That was his way of asking if she need his help with her emotions. She nodded, as if saying 'no, I don't need you to empath my feelings away. But stay alert cuz I might just collapse momentarily.' She had no idea how they did it but he nodded back at her as if he understood, which he probably did.
Everybody started a conversation. George asked, "Does anyone find it weird that so many of us are paired with Slytherins? Conspiracy theory you reckon?"
Luna responded dreamily, "Of course not, the pairings might seem strange, but look deeper and there are connections there.
"You think that I'm to be paired with this Weasley and Wood?" Marcus inquired.
"I do. Marcus and Oliver have had a rivalry for their entire Hogwarts career, but in Marcus' last year at Hogwarts, your two teams had to train together and you actually got to know each other. After that trick that the Weasley twins played on you, your year was thoroughly disrupted by a stint at St. Mungo's. Most don't know this, but Oliver was extremely worried about you. He tried to brush it off as being about not having a proper opponent for his last year of Quidditch, but he cared." came the reply.
Everyone was shocked that Luna had noticed so much about someone she barely ever talked to, but Mia wouldn't find it impossible for her to just sit and watch people for hours.
"And me?" asked Percy.
"Well, Percy, I don't think we need to talk about your preference to athletes." said Luna.
Percy's jaw dropped at both Luna Lovegood being so crude as well as the comment she made.
Deciding to tease him a little, Harry crowed, "She's not wrong. You dated Penny, she was did track, Oliver and don't tell me you weren't staring at Viktor Krum at the Tri-Wizard Tournament!"
Percy went as red as his hair and buried his face into Oliver's neck. Marcus on the other hand looked very pleased at this new development.
"What about us?" asked Pansy.
"George has always been extremely caring and generous to his partners, Pansy. He's practically a ray of sunshine and I have a feeling you're going to need that in your life," replied Ginny quietly.
Both George and Pansy looked confused. They clearly had a lot to think about as well as get to know about each other.
"Why did I get paired here then?" Daphne didn't look upset, just curious as to what Luna's reasoning would be.
"Ginny and I have always been extremely close. She's been nice to me when everyone else was rude. That being said, both of us tend be a little disconnected from the world and bad at communicating what we actually want. You come in because genuinely, you're the only one that is tolerable enough about our eccentric attributes." said Luna.
Ginny added on, "Look, I don't know how you feel about being married to us, but I hope you give us a chance. It also helps that both of us find you extremely attractive." Her brothers all looked at her disapprovingly. "What?! It's true!" She exclaimed as Astoria and Neville get paired together.
"Really? My sister with Neville Longbottom?"
Harry smiled. "After Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle once made fun of Neville for living with his grandmother in their sixth year, he went to one of the greenhouses like he always does when he's upset. He saw Astoria there, struggling with some plant or the other, because her OWLS were coming up. He asked her if she wanted help, completely expecting her to be snub, like all the Slytherins were with him, but she accepted. He taught her about all the plants she needed to know for hours and hours on end, until they had to leave for curfew. Neville walked her back to the Slytherin common room and left after she thanked him. She's literally the only girl he's talked about since."
"He's like actually in love with her." tacked on Hermione as she nursed her 3rd cup of coffee.
"Why us?' asked Malfoy. Hermione looked at him and he looked as though he thought no one would ever be compatible with him. She did not want to discuss this in public but the gods were not in her favour. She looked at Harry and Ron and glared at them. If looks could kill, they'd be decimated by now. Harry, properly threatened gulped and stayed quiet but Ron being Ron answered just to see Hermione pissed off.
"Well, both of these two are pansexual, if you hadn't figured that out. They dated for around a year and a half and I swear to god, they were like an old married couple." said Ron. Traitorous arse. Hermione was going to kill him. Slowly. She watched as Freddie got paired with some girl she had seen around the castle before, but never met. She forced her attention back to the table's conversation.
"They argued about silly things all the time, but at the end of the day, everyone knew it was only banter. They really cared about each other. And you... There was always something I suppose. If there was no war, I always felt like your dynamic would fit excellently with these two. You would playfully argue too, without it actually hurting your pride." said Ron thoughtfully.
Hermione watched as as yet another one of her brothers, Eric this time, got paired with a girl from Ravenclaw she didn't know. They sat down and chatted as if they were old friends.
George had that mischievous look in his eyes that Hermione had come to dread. "Also, Percy's not the only one with an athlete obsession." Hermione grabbed a spoon and chucked it at George. "Shut up."
Everyone once again looked at her, surprised. Theo asked, "Who... are you?" Hermione just smirked at him.
"No but seriously, there was Tae, Cyrus, Emma, Lauren, Iris, Nick, I could go on and on and on." chimed in Ginny.
"Really?" came a sarcastic voice from above Hermione's head. The blood drained out of Hermione's face as she looked at her twin brother, Derek. She gained her composure as he said, "I'm telling mom." He sat down with his pair, a boy named Aaron Whitlock. Hermione had Runes with him in sixth year.
"No you're not." Hermione shot back.
"And why's that?"
"You tell mom about this and I'll tell mom about the sneaking out."
"So you're blackmailing me?"
"Basically yeah."
"I've missed ya, hun. Castle's not the same without your intimidating presence. You don't tell I don't tell." He hugged her from the side.
"Deal. Guys, this is my twin brother. Derek Granger." Hermione introduced him to the eager group.
The introductions were paused when the last person to be paired had to be detained from hexing their intended.
The Headmistress stood up. "I understand that this is daunting and that this makes you very unhappy, but it is what is going to happen. To help you come to terms with it, there are professionals being provided. There is a member of the Wizengamot who would like to go through everything that will be happening."
An old man, walked up to the teacher's table and started speaking, "Good Afternoon. I'm extremely sorry that it had to come to this, but it happens to be inevitable. There are rules and conditions that must be followed. You may speak to any ministry officials, if you have special circumstances. To begin with, the weddings, to give you as much time as possible, you will have to be married by the end of the year. You are allowed to take care of your weddings financially, but the Ministry will support any reasonable amount. If you would like to, the Ministry will also fund your Honeymoons.
The second thing, living conditions. If you are still at school, you are allowed to stay where you are. However, if you have graduated, you will have to live together in the same place of residence. You will also have to share a bed after your weddings. The rest is up to you.
You are also expected to consummate your weddings on your wedding night. There are ways of knowing if you haven't. To increase chances of pregnancy, you will have to have sex at least once every week. The circumstances are not highlighted. For any polyamorous couples, all must participate at least once a week. You are to have at least 2 children throughout the course of your marriage. If you are infertile, or paired in a homosexual couple, you will be asked to adopt one of the many children left parentless because of the War.
I hope this goes without being said, but abuse against your spouses, whether it be magical or not will not be tolerated."
For the first time during his reading, he looked sympathetic as he said, "All of you are going to be married for the rest of your lives. The least you could do is make sure you aren't miserable throughout it. I had an arranged marriage and I hated my parents for making me do it. I hated my wife too. But along the having kids, raising them, arguing about trust and attention, you realize that you've actually given them a chance and fallen in love. A touch, a soft word, an apology, a nice hot meal, proving you care, goes a longer way than you might think it does. I wish all of you the best of luck."
The Hall was buzzing after his speech. Everyone was weirdly touched that he cared enough to leave such genuine parting words. They still weren't looking forward to getting married to someone they hadn't chosen, but they were willing to give it a chance.
Minnie got up again and this time she looked like she was about to give us good news. "The Ministry believed that you might need some support after today's events, so we have invited your parents to the school, so you can meet them. Muggleborns' parents have been accommodated into the wards as well." The fact that we would also be meeting our in-laws was left unsaid.
The doors to the Great Hall burst open with parents worried about their kids.
"You think she's going to show up?"
Hermione didn't need to ask what Derek was talking about. Their mother loved them and she gave them everything she could, but she was a busy woman. She couldn't be there all the time.
Everyone got up as they saw their respective parents. Derek spotted something and said, "Sit up straight." Not even questioning it, Hermione set her posture right. Ramrod back, shoulders set, yet still elegant.
"Come on." The younger twin started walking towards the Weasleys in an attempt to delay the inevitable. The Malfoys we're here.
It wasn't too late to act as if they hadn't even seen them, and they were going to take that small window. They stopped in front of the Weasleys.
Hermione loved Molly Weasley. She really did. But the woman had a flair for the dramatic that would tire out Lady Gaga.
She was crying about how her children's lives were ruined into her husband's shoulder. The children in question, looked about ready to run away.
Ron stepped up, and kneeled down so that his mom could see him face-to-face.
"We're fine. We're all adults, none of us are completely against this-" well, that certainly wasn't true. "-who knows, this might actually turn out well if we gave them a chance." Hermione saw Ron's eyes glow. The fact that they did showed just how much effort Ron had to put in.
Before Hermione could put in her opinion, she saw Malfoy walk to her. As he got closer, he said, "My parents would like to meet my future partners. They've requested and audience." He looked extremely smug. She looked over too where the Malfoy's we're standing and she saw Ander already there speaking to them with his parents.
She sighed and motioned at Malfoy to lead the way. "Aren't your parents going to be joining us?" He asked her.
"I'm... not sure." She hated to be so vulnerable infront of him yet she found she had to.
He took this information without any comment, much to her surprise. They reached his parents and just stood there.
Hermione wasn't raised in a barn. She knew pureblood customs and Malfoy had to introduce her before she said anything. So she stood there. Waiting. Seething. Muddled.
Before long, Malfoy said something. "Mother, Father, this is Hermione Granger. Granger, Mr and Mrs Malfoy.
Mrs Malfoy stuck out her hand, the picture of grace for her too shake. Hermione took her hand and said, "Pleasure." She then repeated the process with Malfoy Senior.
She then turned to Alexander's parents and before she could even get a word out, Ander's mother wrapped her into a hug. That said more than enough.
She greeted them as Malfoy explained their situation to his parents. As he did so, the doors opened yet again.
This time, the hall for a lot quieter. Hermione turned and shook her head.
The Queen had arrived.