Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. All characters portrait are property of one brilliant J. K. Rowling. Only the plot is mine. I do not profit from this in any way.

Chapter 5 – The preparation

With the proposal sent and waiting for confirmation from the Ministry, Hermione had to focus on all of the other things she still had to do. One of those things was answering both Draco and Professor Snape's letters and as such, once again, for the millionth time that week, she went towards her desk. Since she had already written the letter to the professor the night before, she just sat down to write the one to Draco. This time she would try to spare the owl, by sending both letters at the same time.

Dear Draco,

I have just sent the documents to the Ministry and am waiting for their confirmation right now. I think they will send me your contacts, which is kind of another useless idea of the Ministry, sending us the contacts only after we accepted the proposal. Yes, why would we need them before? It's not like we need to contact and meet our future spouses. Ha-ha.

Well, anyway, the papers are signed.

Relatively to your letter, yes, I would enjoy going out to dinner with you, since last time you had to leave so fast.

Send me an owl with the address and the time and I'll be there.

Hermione

She put her quill down and looked the letter over. It was ok, not too formal but not too informal either. She thought about sending the letter as soon as Meemo came back but the poor little fella had worked so much she just couldn't do it. She would wait at least a few hours.

'After this, I'll be one week without sending anything. It's either that or I'll find another way of sending the letters.'

Not long after this thought, she heard a soft tap on the window, and as she looked up, her small black and white owl hooted as if to call her. She opened the window, picked up the little animal, stroked its feathers and said

'I'm sorry for making your work so much. You can rest now. I'll leave the letters for later.'

Meemo hooted and closed its small eyes very slowly. Hermione gave it water and a few more treats and left it near the window to do as he pleased, which was either rest or go out and hunt.

The day passed by rather fast, while Hermione enjoyed her Saturday, reading in the comfort of her home. Before she realized, Meemo flew by her and landed on her couch's arm.

'You're here already? Are you sure you want to go out again now?'

When the little bird hooted, Hermione put the book "Goblin's Rebellions of the 17th century" down and went to her desk to fetch the letters. She picked them up, brought them to the living room, and then, while talking to Meemo, gave him the two pieces of parchment closed with a wax seal.

'Here you go, little one. One of them if for Professor Snape and the other is for Draco. You don't have to wait for them to answer, just come back when you deliver them. Thank you.'

The owl hooted and flew out the window.

Half an hour after she sent the letters, she received one from the Ministry, brought by their own owl. 'It must be the confirmation' she inadvertently started trembling again 'Oh, stop it! Control yourself! It's not like you can do anything about it. Just put yourself together!' She opened the letter and read

Dear Miss Granger,

We are pleased to inform you that your answer to the marriage proposal has now been set definitive.

Copies of this letter, as well as of your acceptance form, have been sent to your fiancé.

You will now, 16:24h, June 9th of 2001, have precisely 30 days to complete the second stage of the Marriage Law. As such, you will have until 16:24h, July 9th of 2001, to officially marry Mr. Malfoy.

The particulars of the marriage are the responsibility of the couple, being only required that the final documents are signed and sent to the Department of Marriage, within the deadline.

With the best regards,

Serena Johnson

DEPT. OF MARRIAGE

Definitive.

That was the only word Hermione kept repeating on her mind. Definitive. Her marriage acceptance was definitive. She was now, according to the Ministry, legally engaged to Draco Malfoy. That meant that any marriage proposal done to her after that day would be automatically turned down and she wouldn't even know about its existence.

'Definitive.'

'Yes, definitive.' answered her little inner voice.

'Definitive.'

'I heard you the first time. De-fi-ni-tive. What about it?'

'Definitive.'

'Ok, this is getting serious… You're reduced to a word?'

'Definitive.'

'Yes, you're definitely loony. Wake up, Hermione!'

'It's definitive.'

'Ok, we have progress here. You added another word. Good girl. Go on.'

'I'm engaged. Definitely. I'm definitely, legally, engaged to Draco Malfoy!'

'That's my girl! Back to full sentences! Want a treat?'

'Oh stop it!'

'Ah! Finally realized I'm here! Hello to you too, old mate!'

'No, you don't get it. I'm engaged to Draco Malfoy! Do you know what that means?'

'Ahm, yes. You're engaged to The most attractive guy of your generation, you are going to marry him, you are going to have lots and lots of sex with him, and you are going to be the mother of his children. It is not that complicated.'

'Yes. … … … … Wait. Whaaat?'

It was only then that Hermione realized the full extent of what was requested of her. It was not that she didn't know what the law requested. Nothing like that. What she now understood was the implications of it all…

'Repeat? Ok. You're engaged to…'

'Not that. The sex part.'

'Ooh naughty! I like when you show that side of you! Yes, you're going to be very happy making loads and loads of steamy hot sex with the Slytherin sex god. Meow!'

'I'm sooooo screwed…'

'Literally!… Isn't that funny?!'

'Oh get your mind out of the gutter! I had almost forgotten that we are literally being controlled by the Ministry relatively to every single step of the law.'

Like she was saying, Hermione almost forgot that the Ministry does not leave anything to chance. The Ministry does not make a law and waits peacefully for the people to oblige to it. No, no, no. Far from it, actually.

According to the law, after being officially married, the couple has exactly one year to produce offspring. That is explicit in the documents they sent and revealed. What is implicit is that the Ministry has a special charm that is activated immediately after the couples signs the Marriage forms.

This charm has the purpose of verifying if the couple is fulfilling the conditions that are imposed by the law.

Specific conditions.

The sole purpose of this charm is basically to count.

Count the number of times the couple tries to fulfill the law.

No, you didn't understand wrong. The charm is basically a sex'ometer that is magically connected to a database and registers the time the act was initiated, the time each person reaches climax and the time the act is finished.

Yes, that's how perverse they are. And not even in a good way.

Anyway, through this method, the Ministry can precisely know if the couple is really trying to conceive a child or not, and they have no way of countering the records since it's a magical device.

'So, each time me and… Draco… do it, if we do it, the Ministry will know. And they are so kind as to send us a reminder of our duty shall we forget about it for more than a month.'

'That is soooo fucked up…'

'Language!'

'Sorry! But it is! There is no other way to put it. It's fuuuucked up!'

'Well… Yes… I guess.'

Shortly after this "inner" conversation, Hermione received yet another letter, which she supposed enclosed the address where she would meet and have dinner with Draco.

Cha cha cha

17, 21st street

7 pm, Monday

I will be there waiting for you.

Draco

'Cha-cha-cha? Does he even know how to dance? Oh well… I guess it's a date. I will have my first date with my future husband.'

It was settled. Hermione was going to meet Draco, not as a blind date, or even a normal date. She was meeting the man she already knew was going to be her husband. How strange is that? It kind of made her think of the purpose of the date after all. It's not like she could turn back and stop contacting him if the date was a disaster.

No matter what happened, it was settled that Hermione Granger was going to marry Draco Malfoy.

The weekend was used by Hermione to clean up the house, since she didn't bring work home this time. She cleaned, washed, and returned everything to its rightful place during Saturday, and used the Sunday to do as she pleased, without a care in the world.

Monday came, and with it work. She got up early as usual, took a shower, got dressed and went to the kitchen to fix some breakfast. There, she found a letter waiting for her on top of the counter and the black and silver owl she had once seen carrying a letter from Snape.

'Did I leave the window open?'

The bird hooted as if in response to her question.

'I probably did. Well, if I am not mistaken you are Professor Snape's owl, aren't you?'

Just like before, the bird hooted the answer.

'And I probably shouldn't be surprised that you can understand what I say. After all, Snape's your master. He probably found a way to make you understand humans and maybe even transmitting the info back, just like a spy would.'

She went to the cabinet and fetched the owl treats and then gave it to the bird, expecting for it to leave right after. When the bird stood there and stared at her, tilting its head to one side as if trying to understand what she was doing, she concluded it was waiting for the answer.

'Fine, I'll read it now and give you something to take back.'

And so she did.

Dear Miss Granger,

I agree that we should meet so that you can have a different perspective about the man you are about to marry. Although I am certain that he has already shown you that he is no longer the spoiled little kid he once was, I do believe a second opinion is always useful.

I propose we meet at a small tea house I usually attend on Baker's Street, if that is ok with you.

Shall I say, 6 o'clock, tomorrow?

Best regards,

Severus Snape

'Well, well… Who would say the professor knew that small tea house? This ought to be interesting.' she thought, and then started writing. The little owl stood there, looking at the paper, almost as if it could read what she was writing. She could almost imagine the small paw impatiently tapping on the table as she wrote.

Dear Mr. Snape,

I have personal experience in that tea house and I think it's a perfect place for the intended purpose.

I will be there as soon as I leave work.

Best regards,

Hermione Granger

When she finished, she gave the letter to the waiting bird and finally started making breakfast. Today was a big day and she had to get some energy to face it. After all, she was going on a date with her fiancé…

The day went on as normal as ever, except for the part that Hermione's mind was racing. She was simultaneously nervous and excited.

'Oh stop it. You know the guy, you already had a first date and you already accepted to marry him.'

'Yes, but this is going to be our first official date.'

'Does that mean you're going to have some steamy action?'

'Huh?! NO! Gross!'

'Gross? Gross? What are you? A 5 year-old? Shut up! You are going to love having that piece of heaven.'

'Fine! Maybe one day I'll appreciate it… But I don't intend on having intercourse with him on the first date! No matter how attractive he is.'

'Intercourse? Ha! Nice try miss. Look at it 'scientifically' all you want and call it pretty names... But, why not? You already know you're going to have to have sex with him, why not start now? You could practice for the times you will be monitored by the ministry! Ha ha!'

'Oh shush! It's not going to happen.'

When the time came to leave her work place, she gathered her possessions and left as rapidly as possible to go home and change. As soon as she entered her house she ran to the shower, to get rid of 8 hours of work stress and perspiration.

The important moment arrived next, for the decision on what to wear was yet to be made. It was a complex process, the one to find the adequate outfit to go on a first date where she already knew the man was the one she was going to marry. Was there the need to impress him if he had already said he wanted to marry her? After all, this was not, by far, the normal relationship. They were both doing this just to fulfill a Ministry request. They were just some kind of a tool to each other. Each of them was going to have some sort of benefit by fulfilling this request; that benefit being that they would be able to live as a wizard and a witch.

'Ok. Shower, check. Clothing… on the way.'

Hermione perused her wardrobe and started snatching some possibilities out of it. She began with a normal combination of a knee-long skirt, a blouse and a matching blazer. Something she would wear to work.

'No. Too formal.'

A pair of jeans and a polo shirt…

'Not this. Too casual.'

A black ankle length dress, with the back showing…

'Back to formal again…'

'Since when do you care so much about what you wear?'

'I don't. I just think it's what I am expected to do. I am going on a first date and I am supposed to impress the guy.'

'Yeah… Sure. Believe what you want. Anyway, a piece of advice: you need something that doesn't impair your movements.'

'Something that do…'

That's when she saw it. The dress she was going to wear that night. It wasn't too 'nothing'. It was just right. Hermione had never used that dress because she never had an opportunity she thought would fit the dress, for a number of reasons. It was a dress Ginny had given her a couple of years back on her birthday but she never wore it.

'Shower, check. Clothing, check.'

She used a few minutes to put some soft make up, something natural but pretty, without exaggeration.

'Shower. Clothing. Make-up. Purse. Wallet. Keys. Check.'

'Let's go girl! This is it!'

Hermione left her home fifteen minutes before 7pm just to make sure she went to the right place. Not for her surprise, the place had an air of finesse to it that left no doubt as to who had chosen it. She entered and approached the concierge.

'Good evening, Ma'am.'

'Good evening. I believe there is a reservation for two in the name of a Mr. Dr…'

'Draco Malfoy.' finished a voice behind her. Hermione jumped at the sound of the voice so close to her ear she could almost feel the breath that came with it. 'Good evening Hermione. Always on time.' greeted the name's owner himself with a soft smile in his lips and a smirk on his eyes.

Hermione looked back and returned the greeting.

'Good evening Draco. Always coming up second, I see…' she smiled and then blinked one eye.

He just stood there and thought how interesting this evening could become…

AN: First of all I have to apologize for not posting another chapter in half a year. I promised to publish something before the internship but I just didn't. Then the internship begun and all time was gone. Internship + master thesis + internship report = no time + almost no personal life.
I accept whatever you want to throw. This is not the best chapter by far, and I am totally aware of it; and for that I apologize again.

I know this chapter dragged itself but so did I while writing it. I am having difficulty in taking this story the path I predicted for it, but bare with me for a little longer.

If I can make someone smile even once with the siliness I write I will be happy. :) Hope you enjoy reading this.

I will try my best to, at least, don't take another six months to publish again, so don't give up on me yet if you're enjoying the story.

Once again I apologize in advance for any grammatical or vocabulary mistakes I might commit, for this is not my first language.

Thank you :)