Disclaimer ~ As it has been since I started writing Dramione fanfics, I do not own anything but the plot. All recognizable and even some unrecognizable characters belong to their creator JK Rowling.

A.N. ~ Hello everyone. The summer is a busy time for me so my updates will be a few weeks apart. This chapter went through some re-writes because I just could not get it to the standard I wanted, however I just couldn't leave you guys hanging any longer. So here is the next chapter of OSM and I should let you know that the incident that Hermione tells her friends about is based on something that actually happened to Emma Watson while she was attending college here in the States. I'll explain more at the end of the chapter. I also have decided to give a Dramione story shoutout at the end of each chapter, showcasing some of my favorite Dramiones. Enjoy!

One Simple Mistake

Chapter 3: Stipulation

Hermione's Home

5 Cauldron Court, Salem, MA, USA

June 3, 2006

Three years later …

The three years that had passed since Hermione said good-bye to wizarding England had been surprisingly wonderful. She had arrived in Salem and with some help from Abigail, had found herself the perfect house. The three bedroom, sage green colored colonial, had a large yard and wrap-around porch and had everything she was looking for and more. When first entering the home you found yourself in a small foyer with a closet and half bathroom on the left side and the entrance to the formal dining room on the right. If you continued straight ahead you passed a staircase that led to the second floor before entering a large living room, which opened up to an updated kitchen and small breakfast nook. Upstairs there was a master suite, two more bedrooms, one of which she used as her office and the other as a guest room, laundry, and another full bathroom. She loved it so much that she made an offer right there and then and was overjoyed when it was accepted immediately.

With her home taken care of she then went to talk to Minister of Magic Perkins about what job opportunities he had for her, and she couldn't have been happier with the position she was offered. Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic was the highest position you could have in any ministry, a position that placed you second to only the Minister themselves. The recent Undersecretary had been due to retire a few weeks before Hermione arrived, however Minister Perkins was having a terrible time finding someone worthy of taking over the position. When he had received Hermione's letter he knew she would be perfect for the job, not to mention exactly what their ministry needed. She accepted right away, of course, and a week later she found herself in a very posh looking office, directly across from the minister's own. She loved her job, especially all the responsibility it gave her. She liked feeling needed and appreciated and if she was being honest with herself, hadn't felt that way since seventh year when she, Harry, and Ron had been hunting horcruxes. She had been happy when she left England and had only gotten happier with each passing day. Little did she know it was all about to come crashing down.

"So, I realize I forgot to bring my towel in with me, but I figured, hey we're all teammates here, and it's not like any of the other blokes hadn't walked around in the buff once or twice before; so I decide to just go for it and started walking over to where the lockers were. Imagine my surprise when I walked around the corner and there was a group of tourists, cameras and all, being given a tour of the locker room. I'm pretty sure I squealed like a little girl before grabbing the nearest item to cover myself with, which just happened to be a small waste paper basket, before trying to scurry backwards out of the room." Tears of amusement streamed down Hermione's face as she continued to laugh at the thought of Ron's predicament. For the first time in the three years since she left England, Harry, Ginny, and Ron had come to visit her. It wasn't that they hadn't wanted to see her, but with Harry being promoted to Head of the Auror office; Ginny having James to take care of plus her job as senior Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet; Ron's Quidditch schedule (he had followed his dream to become Keeper for the Chudley Cannons); and Hermione's own hectic schedule, finding time for them all to be together had been nearly impossible. They had sent many letters to one another and tried to keep up on each others lives, but it just wasn't the same as hearing it straight from the source. So, after a lot of owling and floo calling back and forth they had finally found a weekend that her three best friends could come and visit with her. They had arrived first thing that morning and had spent the entire day catching up, only stopping for lunch, and even then the stories hadn't stopped. Now they were all sitting on her porch watching the sun set and listening to Ron share a rather embarrassing tale about how a scandalous picture of him in the buff had appeared in a recent wizarding tabloid.

"Oh Ron," Hermione said, after calming herself. "That must have been just awful for you!" Ginny let out a snort.

"Awful for him? I would be more worried about the poor lot who had to look at that!" This made Harry laugh even harder. "The person who sold that photo probably did it to pay for the eye surgery they had to have after seeing that sight!"

"Laugh it up Gin. Its not like you've never had something embarrassing happen to you." Ron said, his face turning a lovely shade of pink. Harry wiped a tear from the corner of his eye before speaking.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist Ron. After all, everyone has had some embarrassing incident happen to them at one point or another." Ron shook his head and pointed his thumb towards Hermione.

"Not our Hermione here. She was always too prim and proper to do anything to put herself in a position of possible embarrassment." Hermione stopped laughing and looked down at the porch slats, her cheeks reddening. "Or maybe she has." Ron said, as he notice the change in their friends demeanor. Ginny's eyes lit up in anticipation.

"Out with it Hermione. What did you do?" Hermione shook her head. "Oh come on now. It couldn't have been that bad."

"And besides. I told you mine, so now its only fair for you to tell us yours." Ron said, leaning back and crossing his arms in front of him.

"It is only fair Hermione." Harry said taking a sip from his glass. "We promise not to judge you." Hermione looked at her friends and sighed.

"Fine, but please try to keep your laughing to a minimum."

"We promise." the three said in unison. Hermione took a deep breath and told them her story.

"Well, there's a bit of a language barrier here, isn't there. For example; what we call a plaster, they call a bandage or band-aid." Her friends nodded. "You see, it was my first day as Undersecretary to the Minister and I was in my office writing some memos that were supposed to have been sent out days before. Now you must understand that the American Ministry is very modern and they prefer to use muggle tools such as pens and pencils instead of quills. I hadn't purchased any yet and was using one that the former Undersecretary had left behind. It was quite gross really. All chewed up and missing its rubber. I was practically done with the memo I was writing when I realized I had made an error. I was in a bit of a panic, being that these documents were already so late, so I hurried out of my office and into the cubicle area and yelled quite loudly that I was in desperate need of a rubber." Hermione stopped then, feeling her cheeks go warm as they turned bright red.

"And ..." Ginny asked sitting forward in her seat. Hermione took another deep breath and blurted the rest out.

"And I was met with shocked looks from most of the women, a few ogling stares from the men, and uncontrollable laughter from the others.

"Why in the world would you get those responses from asking for a rubber?" Harry asked curiously. Hermione dropped her head and mumbled something. "Sorry? What was that?" Hermione looked at them all with a look of complete mortification on her face.

"Because in America rubbers are called erasers and condoms are called rubbers. I basically ran out of my office yelling that I was in desperate need of a condom!" There was complete silence, and Hermione thought that they were actually going to keep their promise to not laugh. She was wrong. All three burst into laughter, with Ron laughing so hard that he fell straight out of his seat and on to the porch where he proceeded to continue to laugh. "It's not funny! I was completely mortified when I was told."

"Oh Hermione. I'm sorry but that is just priceless." Ginny said holding her stomach as she laughed, drawing Hermione's attention to the small bump that she hadn't noticed before.

"Ginny?" Hermione said, staring at her friend's stomach. "Are you pregnant?" Hermione asked.. Ginny and Harry looked at each other and smiled before nodding.

"Three months along now." Harry said kissing his wife's cheek. Hermione jumped up and hugged both of them before turning to look at Ron who had finally stopped laughing and was seated back in his chair.

"Did you know about this?"

"Of course I did. Granted Mum told me before Gin got the chance." Ginny shook her head angrily.

"You would think that after giving the news of her own pregnancies seven times, she would give me the courtesy of sharing my own. Remember how she told Bill and Fleur of my pregnancy with James, not to mention half of Diagon Alley." Hermione smiled at her.

"I'm so happy for you. James must be so excited at the prospect of having a little brother or sister."

"Hes quite happy about it. It's all he talks about these days." Hermione felt her smile drop a little.

"I wish I could be there for the birth." She said quietly, sobering up the others with her words.

"Me too Hermione. I really would have loved to have you there when James was born." Hermione took a sip of her tea.

"I know. I guess I thought that the stupid law would have been repealed by now. You know with all the muggles leaving and such." All three friends glanced at one another strangely. "What was that look for?" Harry rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

"Um Hermione. You're the only person who left."

"What?" Hermione said shocked by the news. Ginny gave her friend a small smile and shrugged.

"The law has actually worked Hermione. There have been over fifty children born just this past year."

"And their have been very few issues with the matches themselves." Harry said. "Only had two incidents of unforgivables being cast."

"I knew it! I knew that the muggles would be in danger! I told Kings ..."

"Actually Hermione," Ron interrupted. "It wasn't the pure-bloods who cast the spells." Hermione's eyes widened in surprise.

"Two muggle-borns had to be arrested for casting the Cruciatus." Harry replied. "In normal circumstances they would have been immediately thrown into Azkaban, but due to the law there were exceptions made. They were placed under house arrest and the Ministry placed magical restrictions on their wands."

"Overall, the matches seem to be spot on." A scoff from Ron made Ginny roll her eyes. "True, some of them did seem strange in the beginning, like Blaise Zabini and Penelope Clearwater "

"Or Pansy Parkinson and Justin Finch-Fletchley, or Astoria Greengrass and Dennis Creevey." Harry added. Ginny glared at Harry and swatted him on the arm.

"As I was saying." She said turning her attention back to Hermione. "The law is actually working out quite well." Hermione shook her head in disbelief.

"But I was so certain that the others would leave. Penelope seemed to be completely against the idea and so did some of the other muggle-borns."

"Well, you see, no one else was … strong enough, to do what you did." Harry said interrupting her.

"Not that we blame you." Ron said. "I mean I sure as bloody hell wouldn't have wanted to marry Malfoy if I were you either." Hermione, who had just taken a large sip of tea, quickly choked on it, spraying it everywhere. Ginny jumped up and gently patted her friends back as she coughed and sputtered.

"Malfoy! They matched me up with Malfoy!" She ranted. "I mean I knew they were idiots when they made that stupid law, but to match me with Malfoy just proves that they are all utterly insane!" Hermione missed the looks that were being passed between her friends. She was to busy trying to understand how she could have possibly been matched up with the ferret. She had to admit that intelligence wise he was right on her level, always coming just a point or two short on beating her in classes. She also would have to admit that based on what she had seen since the war, he had changed his opinion on blood status. He had created multiple charities to help not only wizard orphans affected by the war, but muggle ones too. He had taken Malfoy Industries into the muggle world, buying up companies on the verge of collapse and building them up into profitable organizations. And I guess he's not hard on the eyes. She thought.

"Um ... Hermione?" Hermione looked up at them. "Why do you seem so surprised?" Harry asked her.

"You just told me Draco Malfoy was to be my betrothed! How did you think I would react?"

"But you knew that already Hermione." Ginny said confused by the whole thing. Hermione shook her head.

"No I didn't. Believe me, if I did Kingsley would have heard a few more words from my mouth before I left."

"But Hermione you told us you read your letter." Ginny replied. Hermione shook her head.

"No. I told you I received my letter, however I thought it was ridiculous that Kingsley even bothered to send me one so I didn't even open it. Just threw it in a shoe box with some other random junk." Hermione watched her friends throw looks of worry back and forth between the three of them. "What is going on? Why are you looking at each other like that." Harry stared at Ginny, shaking his head back and forth.

"I told you Gin. We should have said something that day. I knew she wouldn't put someone through that." Harry said, ignoring her words.

"I know Harry but its Hermione. I never would have thought she wouldn't have read the letter."

"I still don't see the problem. Serves the bastard right if you ask me." Ron said with a shrug. Hermione had, had enough.

"Will someone please tell me whats going on?" She said standing up and placing her hands on her hips. Harry sighed.

"Do you still have that letter Hermione?" She nodded. "I think you best go read it." Hermione looked at him oddly. Why in the world would he want her to read a pointless, three year old letter.

"But Harry …"

"Hermione, the Wizengamot met the day after Kingsley spoke to the British Prime Minister. They came up with a stipulation for the muggles if they chose banishment. Its the reason the other muggles didn't leave." Hermione's heart beat faster as Harry's words became clear.

"What was the stipulation Harry?"

Shocked, mortified, repulsed. There really was no answer to what Hermione was feeling at that moment. Harry refused to tell her what the stipulation was and insisted that she read the letter for herself. She had rushed up to her walk-in closet where she kept her Hogwarts trunk, which contained the shoe box with the letter in it. She barely heard Harry enter her room as she sat down on the edge of her bed and turned the letter over and over in her hands. Part of her wanted to appease her curiosity and rip the letter open, while the other part was terrified at what the contents might say. After taking a few calming breaths she turned the letter over, broke the bronze colored seal, and pulled out the letter.

Dear Miss Granger,

As reported in last weeks Daily Prophet, Marriage Law 103179, has recently been put into effect. We at the Ministry hope that this new law will bring a permanent end to the issue of blood purity within our world, while at the same time increasing our population. As stated all eligible witches and wizards have been matched based upon their AWR to insure both biological and intellectual compatibility. With that being said, we are pleased to inform you that your betrothed is

Draco Lucius Malfoy.

You and your betrothed must marry no later then eight months from receipt of this letter and you must decide upon and inform the Ministry of your chosen wedding date no later then two weeks from receipt of this letter. Once the Ministry has been informed of a date St. Mungo's will contact you concerning your required physical.

The law is mandatory and there are penalties for those who choose not to abide by it.

*All non-complying, pure-blooded wizards and witches shall be arrested and locked in Azkaban until they choose to comply with the new law or until their death.

Due to a conflict between Marriage Law 103179 and The Muggle Treaty of 1725 the penalty written in the Daily Prophet for the muggle-borns has been changed. Muggle wizard and witches may keep their wands and their memories, however the following new penalty stands.

*All non-complying, muggle-born wizards and witches will be banished from wizarding England. They may relocate to another wizarding country if they so choose, however know this. Any muggle-born witch or wizard who does choose banishment will be sentencing their betrothed to life in Azkaban. The only way the betrothed will be released is if another muggle-born witch or wizard is matched with them; the muggle-born decides to return and follow the law; or upon their death.

She had stopped reading after that and now she was sitting next to Harry crying into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Hermione." He whispered to her. Hermione pulled back, her eyes red and puffy.

"What are you sorry for Harry? You're not the person who condemned an innocent man to life in Azkaban." She stood up and walked over to her vanity to get a tissue.

"I should have questioned your actions more. I knew you would never deliberately put someone in Azkaban. Even if it was Malfoy." Hermione wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

"I may have never gotten along with Malfoy, and he may have been an absolute prat to us in school, but he does not deserve to be in Azkaban. Not for this!" Hermione ran her fingers through her hair. At the end of the war the Malfoy family had been arrested and placed on trial for their crimes. Malfoy had avoided Azkaban due to his change of allegiance in the final battle and other pieces of evidence including testimony from the trio regarding his reluctance to identify them at the Manor. Malfoy had gotten a second chance at life and unlike some of the others who had packed up and left England, beliefs still in hand, he had gone above and beyond to prove that he was taking that chance seriously. To know that he had spent the last three years of his life in Azkaban due to her actions was eating her up inside. Yes, he had gone out of his way to make her life hell in school, but Hermione could not hold Malfoy completely accountable for his actions. How could she when he had grown up having those ideals drilled into his head and knew of nothing else.

"What happens now?" Harry asked her. Hermione looked up at him. As much as she loved her life there, she knew that she would never be able to move on knowing that Malfoy was sitting in a prison cell just because she wouldn't marry him. With a defeated sigh she answered him.

"Well, it's quite obvious isn't it. I have to go back."

Emma Watson was on Dave Letterman and told a story about how there was a language barrier between her and some of her dorm mates. She spoke about very loudly asking for a rubber when she needed an eraser. She said it was quite embarrassing. If you want to see it just go to youtube and type Emma Watson needs a band-aid into the search. It's really funny. I would love to know what you all thought of this chapter and thumbs up to those who caught on to what the stipulation was going to be.

Story shout out ~ The Request by Redhead414