If you just realize what I just realized,

Then we'd be perfect for each other,

And will never find another,

Just realize what I just realized,

We'd never have to wonder if

We missed out on each other now.

Colbie Caillat - Realize.

Hellooo dears(: So this is my new fic, my first ever Harry Potter one ;D I've written many Harry Potter stories over the years, I just never thought any of them were good enough, not even sure if this is good enough, but yeah, who cares? (: Any way, let me know if you like it.

Read on m'chickens.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that relates to Harry Potter, it all belongs to the wonderful Joanne Rowling. Unless you see something you don't recognize, then it might be mine.

Set post war, though most of the seventh years have returned to Hogwarts to redo they're final year, so obviously, it's a AU story. (:

Chapter One.

Tuesday 1st September 1998. (Words: 3343.)

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger had just stepped off the Hogwarts Express. It had been six

months since the end of the war, and most of the seventh years from the previous year (now eighth years) had

accepted Professor McGonagall's request to re-do their last year at Hogwarts.

They walked out of the station and got into a Thesteral pulled carriage that would take them to the Castle.

As the carriages drove towards the castle the Harry, Ron and Hermione and many other students noticed that the castle been fully restored in the few short months after the final battle.

The Golden Trio walked through the Entrance hall and into the Great hall, talking excitedly amongst themselves.

When they entered, they walked over to the Gryffindor table, and it was then that Hermione noticed Draco Malfoy too had returned to Hogwarts.

"Look," she pointed out, nodding her head in the direction of the Slytherin table.

"Blimey, didn't expect to see him back," Harry muttered, looking at the blond boy.

"Well, he didn't exactly have a decent year last year either, did he?" Hermione said reasonably.

"Bloody git," Ron glared. It appeared, after everything that had happened, Ron still held a lot of hatred for the Slytherin.

Harry and Hermione too disliked the boy to a certain extent, but were willing to be at least somewhat civil towards him. Harry had even gone as far as to step up at Draco and Narcissa's trial, in order to get them off on a lighter sentence.

Narcissa was on house arrest for six months and had received a hefty fine, and Draco was ordered to complete 200 hundred hours of community service in a Muggle community, much to his dismay.

However, Harry had refused to help Lucius, which was, of course, understandable.

"Ronald, you know full well that he didn't want to become a Death Eater and follow that monstrous, vile man. He threatened his family. What would you do if someone did that to you?" Hermione said sharply.

She didn't exactly forgive Draco for everything that he'd put them through over the past seven years, especially not with what had happened at Malfoy Manor during the war, but she did understand why he did it. She too, would do the same if she were in his position.

"I know, I know. But just because the war is over, it doesn't mean I have to like him," Ron muttered as Professor McGonagall finished up the sorting ceremony.

Once the feast was done with, Professor McGonagall once again stood at the front of the Hall.

"Would all seventh and eighth years stay behind for an important announcement please. Thank you," she said and walked back towards the staff table.

"I wonder what this is about?" Hermione said as a murmur ran across the Hall, students conversing on what it could be.

Ron shrugged. "I dunno, but whatever it is, I hope she hurry's up. I'm knackered."

Rolling her eyes, Hermione saw Professor McGonagall address them again now that the hall was empty of the younger students.

"The reason I have asked you all to stay is because I have one final announcement that will affect you all. There is to be an announcement of a Marriage Law tomorrow and we have been asked to set up a private wing in the Castle for all students that are married to live in," she said, looking at each House.

Every one looked shocked, and some, down right horrified.

"The ministry are putting in place a marriage law for people between the ages of 17 and 45, that states you must marry the person chosen for you and produce one magical child within 18 months and a second child within 5 years or be you will be banished from the wizarding community and have your wand snapped," she continued.

Hermione felt her stomach drop. She was going to be forced to marry someone who she may not know and produce children with them. She was only eighteen. She'd only lost her virginity less than a year ago. To Ron, none the less.

What an awkward experience that had been. She felt herself start to panic. What would her parents say when she told them she was to be married?

And worse, what if she was set up with a wannabe Death Eater? They would torture her, maybe even kill her.

"Tomorrow at breakfast, a letter from the Ministry will be handed out to each of you and a leaflet with more information about the law. A majority of you will no doubt be married to one another, but some of you may not. I know this has come as a shock to you all, but there is nothing I can do. The reason behind it all is to repopulate after the war. You are all dismissed, you will find out who you are to marry in the morning. Good night," she said, turning around and walking back to the professor's table.

The whole room was in stunned silence.

They were going to be married. And it may not be to someone they know. They could dislike the person. Hate them, even.

"She cannot be serious!" Hermione protested as they walked into the common room ten minutes later, to find it nearly empty.

"There must be some law against this. They cant just tell us who we are going to marry! It's ridiculous."

"They've all gone bloody mad," Ron agreed. "What if we get paired off with some Slytherin?" he said in disgust.

"Ron, I think that's the whole point in the whole thing. Partly to repopulate, then to get some sort of unity between us all. Now that Voldemort is gone, there's no reason for half of them to follow his beliefs any more," Ginny said reasonably.

"Well, if I get some Slytherin, I'm going to refuse to marry them!" Ron said, his face flushing in anger.

"You can't, Ron. Or do you want your wand snapped and to be shunned from the wizard world? No offence mate, but you know hardly anything about the Muggle world. You wouldn't last a week," Harry said, shrugging slightly.

Huffing, Ron didn't say any more on the subject.

"Well, why don't we all get some sleep? It's been a long, tiring day," Hermione said.

"Good idea," Ginny said, eyeing her brother's furious look. She knew if they talked about it much more he would start a rant and wouldn't finish until early hours of the morning.

Ginny grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her towards the girls dormitory's in a haste.

Wednesday 2nd September 1998.

The next morning, Hermione rose to her alarm clock beeping.

"God, Hermione, turn that thing off!" Lavender moaned, shoving a pillow over her head to block the noise.

Rolling out of bed, Hermione shut off the alarm clock and stretched.

"You have to get up any way," she told Lavender and Parvati yawning. "Or don't you want to find out who your going to be marrying?" she added as she walked into their shared bathroom and got into one of the showers.

She smirked slightly as she heard her two over eccentric dorm mates jump out of bed and fly around the room in a flurry.

In the boys dormitory's, the five occupants were sat on their beds, talking about the Marriage Law.

"Who do you think you'll get, Harry?" Neville asked, climbing out of bed, putting his slippers on. Yes, Neville may have grown more of a back bone since the war, but he still wore his striped pajama bottoms (though he now decided against the matching top and wore a simple white vest instead) and his blue granddad slippers, as Dean liked to call them.

Well, they do say old habits died hard.

Harry shrugged and ran a hand through his already messy hair, a trait he'd apparently inherited from his father.

"I'm not too fussed to be honest. I just hope it's someone who can hold their end of the conversation and cares about other things that aren't just hair and clothes. I don't think I could deal with that," he said, yawning lightly.

"So basically not Lavender and Parvati then?" Dean joked, buttoning us his school shirt.

"What about you Nev?" Seamus asked, putting his school books in his bag.

"I have the same views as Harry, I guess. Ah, but I think I'll add Eloise Midgen to that list," he chuckled.

"To be fair, though," Seamus said as he got dressed. "She doesn't look nearly as bad as she did in fourth year. Yeah alright, she may not be absolutely gorgeous, like, but she's gotten a lot better over the years."

"Has someone got a crush for Eloise? You sly old dog," Ron joked, and Seamus gave him the finger.

Once they were all dressed, had their school bags packed, and had mentally prepared themselves (to a certain extent), they went downstairs to the common room to find Hermione and Ginny. The other girls had apparently rushed down to the Great Hall. Either eager to find out who they were to be married to, or too nervous to sit around and wait.

Hermione looked hysterical and Ginny looked both nervous and curious.

"Hey," Ginny said as they approached them.

"Ready to go down?" Hermione squeaked.

"Breathe, Hermione. No matter what, we'll be here for you and Gin. We won't let anything happen to you," Harry said, giving his friend a comforting hug.

"Thanks, Harry," she said and they all left the Gryffindor tower and made their way down to the Great Hall.

The Hall was nearly full by the time they entered, full of excited 1st , 2nd , 3rd , 4th, 5th and 6th years, who were eager to start the new school year and nervous and petrified 7th and 8th years.

Sitting down at the table, they made themselves some toast and tea before the heads of each houses began walking up the tables holding a boxes each which apparently held the leaflets and the letter's from the Ministry that Professor McGonagall had told them about.

Once McGonagall got to them, Hermione looked like she was going to pass out, as did a few others throughout the hall.

Professor McGonagall gave them their letters, leaflets and their school timetables with a sympathetic look and carried on down the table.

Hermione sat staring at her letter for a few minutes as the others opened their's.

"Oh my god," Ginny said, her jaw dropping.

"What? Who have you got?" Hermione said, her head snapping up to look at her only girl best friend. She was worried about who Ginny would get. She didn't want her dumped with some psychopathic lunatic for the rest of her life. And yes, it would be the rest of her life. In the wizarding world, there was no such thing as a divorce. One of the many perks of the Muggle world, was divorce.

"Blaise Zambini," she said quietly. Ginny didn't know whether to be petrified of giddy. Well, he wasn't exactly ugly, now was he?

"What?" Ron said furiously, looking up from his own letter. "You can't marry him, he's a Slytherin!"

However, Ginny wasn't paying him any attention as her eyes had diverted to the Slytherin table in search of Blaise. She couldn't help it.

Once she saw him, she blushed furiously when she noticed he, too, was looking at her and gave him a half smile which he returned.

The Zambini's had been one of the very few Slytherin families who stayed neutral during both wars. Not many people had the guts to do that. Especially an all Slytherin family. Ginny held a lot of respect for them, as did many other's on the light side.

"Who have you got, Ron?" Ginny asked, snapping her gaze away from the Slytherin table, instead turning to look at her brother.

"Luna," he said, smiling in relief.

"Oh, congratulations," she said, grinning. They were, after all, very close friends with Luna. She was glad that her brother would at least be the slightest bit happy with Luna.

"What about you Harry?" Ron asked, leaning over to look at

Harry's letter. But before he could read it, a shriek came from across the hall.

"I'M MARRYING POTTER? NO!" Pansy Parkinson screamed, nearly in tears. "I REFUSE TO MARRY HIM!"

She then stormed out of the hall in a fit of rage.

"Am I that bad?" Harry joked, apparently not that bothered by who he was marrying.

He'd been different since the war ended. He closed himself off. Rarely spoke to people that wasn't in his tight knit group of friends. And when he did speak, he had a 'whatever' tone about him. He hid the way he really felt. Broken. Regret. And above all, the grief he felt for all the poor souls that had died because of him.

"Aren't you going to open your letter, Hermione?" Ginny asked

suddenly.

"What?" Hermione said, seeming to have forgotten all about her own letter. "Oh, right. Yeah," she mumbled, hands shaking as she ripped open the letter.

It read:

'Dear Ms. Hermione Granger

As per the announcement of the Marriage Law, the Ministry have paired you with Mr. Draco Malfoy. Your wedding is to take place by September 30th. A ministry official will preside over your wedding and will place the necessary charms on your wedding rings.

Good luck with your marriage.

Regards

Camilla Awbrey.

Head of the Department of Marriages.'

"No," Hermione gasped, putting the letter on the table as though it burned her. "No, no, no!" she repeated, shaking her head with a look of disbelief on her face.

"What is it Hermione? Who did you get?" Ginny said quickly, snatching the letter up of the table.

Hermione didn't answer, only stared at the wall on the opposite side of the room, careful not to look at the Slytherin table.

"Oh my good lord," Ginny said, shocked.

"Who did she get?" Ron said impatiently.

"Draco Malfoy," Hermione whispered, not looking away from the wall.

"What?" Ron yelled, standing up. Spotting Professor McGonagall walking past to them, he scurried over to her.

"Professor, you have to stop this law! Not only is my sister marrying Zambini, but Harry is marrying Parkinson and Hermione has to marry that Death Eater Malfoy!" he said loudly, causing people to stare at him.

"Mr. Weasley, there is nothing I can do about it. They will just have to get over there past feuds and get along with one another," she said sharply before walking to the front of the hall again.

"Past feuds?" Ron said, astonished as he sat back down. "It goes a bit further than that, don't you think? That asshole watched you being tortured by his own Auntie and he did nothing to stop her!"

Hermione flinched, remembering that awful, awful day. She still had nightmares about that. Almost every night. It haunted her every where she went. Even now, she flinched when someone raised their wand near her.

"The ministry has decided to put a marriage law into affect as of yesterday," Professor McGonagall said from the front of the hall.

"All students over the age of 17 have just been informed on who they are betrothed to and the date they must do it by. As you can see from the pamphlets there are several reasons for doing this, the most important being that after the war our population has thinned extremely and the ministry is hoping that this will help to stop the wizarding world in Great Britain from dying out all together. As I informed you last night, there is a private wing in the Castle. You will find it on the seventh floor corridor to the right. This is the 'Family Wing,' where all the newly married couples will live. It will afford enough room for any children born while you are all still in school, it also has a nursery area which will have fully trained nanny's so that you can come back to classes when you are ready. Please read through these pamphlets carefully, even if you are not of age yet as the law will affect you soon enough." Professor McGonagall said to them all.

"Myself and the rest of your teachers will be willing to answer any questions you have to the best of our abilities and welcome you to come and see us between lessons. After dinner tonight, I will take you all to your assigned dormitories. Now off to class," she said sharply, nodding at them all.

"I can't believe she's so calm about this," Neville said as they rose from their seats at the Gryffindor table.

"She can't exactly do anything about it," Harry said. "Who'd you get, anyway?"

"Some girl called Astoria Greengrass," Neville said shrugging.

"She's a Slytherin," Ginny said. "She's in my year."

Neville didn't seem too fussed about this new information.

Hermione, however, finally gave into the urge that had been nagging at her since she'd found out who she was to marry and let her eyes wander across the room, seeking out Draco Malfoy's platinum blond hair.

He was sat at Slytherin table still, holding his letter in his hand with a dumb-struck look on his face. He didn't particularly look too pleased about the arrangement, either.

After being physically pulled from his seat by Blaise Zambini, he seemed to snap out of things, and as though knowing Hermione was looking at him, his eyes snapped towards where she stood. He didn't look angry, but he didn't look delightful either. In fact, he didn't have any emotion on his face whatsoever. He just looked at her blankly.

"Hermione, come on, or we'll be late to Potions, and I wanna see who our teacher is considering Snapes, uh, no longer with us and Slughorn's gone into permanent retirement," Ron said, practically dragging Hermione from the hall and down towards the dungeon's with Harry, Neville, Seamus and Dean.

"I think she's in shock," Seamus said, eyeing Hermione with a worried look on his face.

"Well, you would be too if you just found out you had to marry Draco Malfoy," Dean said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm - I'm fine," Hermione said as they entered their Potions class room to see a tall, dark man wearing dark purple robes.

"Good morning, class. I'd like to introduce myself. I am Professor Zambini," he said in a deep voice. Italian, Hermione thought.

A few of them murmured, looking from Professor Zambini to Blaise, wondering if there was any relation.

Parvati raised her hand hesitantly. Trust her to be the first one to want the gossip, Hermione thought darkly.

"Yes, miss…?" he said, trailing off, inquiring her name.

"Parvati Patil, sir. I was just wondering if you were any relation to -" she started but Blaise cut her off.

"Yes, Patil, he's my father," he said, rolling his eyes and Draco muttered something to him from the next seat.

"Oh," Parvati said, smiling lightly, a look that told them all that she would be spreading that as soon as the class was finished with.

"I'd also like to congratulate you all on your new proposals and I hope you all have happy lives, though it may be an inconvenience to some of you," Professor Zambini continued, looking around at them all.

When he mentioned their marriages, Hermione felt her eyes reluctantly drifting towards Malfoy again to see him looking pointedly away from her, a stony look on his face.

Great, she thought. This was going to be an extremely long life. Why oh why did she have to have Draco Malfoy, the boy who'd loathed her since she met him, out of all people?