A Wonderful Fortuitous Love

5. Unbreakable Vow with a Malfoy

Hermione could not remember the last time she had felt this confused. Theories and speculations were swirling around in her head as she tried to make sense of everything that had occurred over the last two days. She would have sooner expected Malfoy to bolt through her office dressed as an oompa loompa than announce the propositions that he had.

“Hurry up!” said ferret snapped impatiently as Hermione slowed down her hurried attempts to follow him through Diagon Alley. “The sooner this is over with the sooner I can…” And he trailed off, his face falling as he realised that the sooner they did get this over and done with, there still wouldn’t be anything to look forward to. After this, Malfoy would have to collect his belongings and move in with her, starting his job on Monday.

He looked as though he were restraining himself from kicking something or screaming, and this only increased her interest. Just what would he get out of this if he so obviously did not want to follow through with it? What was so important?

“Just…” he struggled, “just get over here so we can… can get the Apparition over with.”

Reluctantly she walked over to him.

They stood in front of each other for too long, so long that any effort to hide their discomfort would have been futile. Then, with a disgusted look, he held out his arm and she took it. Hermione didn’t know why he had to look so horrified at the prospect of touching her, it’s not as though her arm was bare or anything. Truthfully, she didn’t like the idea of touching him either, but really, the expression on his face was too much of an overreaction.

With a crack, they were gone.

Hermione felt the horrible sensation of being stretched, squeezed and pulled about, not as awful as it had once felt, but the uncomfortableness as though she were being forced down a very tight tube was still there all the same.

When she next opened her eyes, they were in front of Malfoy Manor. Hermione had forgotten how dark and forbidding the place had looked, how large it was and the completely unwelcoming vibe it sent out. What she had not forgotten, however, was the unfaithful day she had been within those walls and tortured.

Bile rose up in her throat. She was abruptly very unsure about this.

Hesitantly, she followed him to the large door. He either did not remember the day she, Harry and Ron had been brought here, which she thought highly unlikely, or he did not see any reason to acknowledge it, which was the more likely option. She clenched her shaking hands and hoped to god she didn’t look as fearful as she felt.

“Move it!” he snarled from ahead.

Hastily, she jogged up to him and found her voice. “You are aware that an Unbreakable Vow is, well, unbreakable?”

“No Granger, I had absolutely no idea,” he drawled.

“No, I mean you could die if you break it,” she said, exasperated.

He gasped mockingly. “No! Are you sure?”

She frowned disapprovingly but otherwise ignored his immaturity. “Who’s going to be the Bonder, then?”

“My mother or father.” He glanced down at her from the corner of his eye to catch her reaction and was not disappointed. Her eyes had gone wider than they had been, and if she’d been reluctant before, it was nothing compared to this.

“Your…?” She blinked, once again unaware that she was falling behind. “How must they be feeling, shouldn’t they be appalled or – or –?”

“Not quite as appalled as myself by your inability to keep up,” Malfoy growled. “Come on!”

She did as she was told, the uneasiness creeping further into her stomach. They were very close to the stone steps now, where they lend up to the huge dark doors she’d been dragged through only four years previous.