The Eighth Year - Under Major Reconstruction

27 - Cinderella

After coming back from their skiing trip, they both immediately lie down to take naps, they were absolutely knackered from spending the entire day on the slopes. They opted to go home for tonight and they could revisit before the break ends if they felt up to it. 

After napping they had a very late supper made by the house elves. They both stayed awake until the wee hours of the morning as their nap messed up their sleep schedule a bit.

This continued for a few days with a few trips to local places for lunch and dates to spend time with each other and get out of the house. They had decided they would visit St.Moritz the day before they return to Hogwarts. 

They had even popped over to Burrow one day for supper, the Weasleys were slowly coming around to the idea of Draco being a part of their lives and had invited them both for supper the next few nights if they would like.

Everyone was trying to get along with each other for the sake of this bloody law.

Sometimes Hermione was thankful for the law - for bringing Draco and her together, for bringing everyone together, really. It also gave Ginny and Harry the go-ahead to get married, which she was extremely excited about. They were the perfect couple.

New Year's Eve had passed quietly with a small celebration of the pair, celebrating with a bit of fire whiskey and a midnight kiss to ring in the year of 1999.

Draco also knew immediately as they celebrated the new year that he would be proposing any day now, which terrified him a bit. He had talked to Ginny about it several times and they had all of the details down pat and perfect. They just had to play the waiting game now. Any day now.

Currently, Draco was at the Burrow with Ginny as they prepared the final few touches to Hermione's proposal. Only Molly, Ginny, Harry, Hermione's parents, and Draco knew about the proposal. Draco had stopped by her parent's house to get their permission to marry Hermione...not that they had a choice, but he still felt obligated to ask for their permission.

Today was January second, Draco would be proposing tomorrow and he was finally feeling all the nerves that have been building up. He was afraid he would stumble all over his words and embarrass himself when he was actually down on one knee in front of Hermione.

He had wrestled with how to propose to her for a long time - whether it should be flashy and extravagant or small or heartfelt.
Eventually, he went with small and heartfelt, knowing Hermione would like that much better, it would mean a lot more to her that way too; if it was shared with a smaller amount of people and not the entire Wizarding world like their lives normally were.
He figured she would finally like to keep some of her life out of the public eye after being in it for so long with no escape.

\\~//

Today was the day.
Draco was a bundle of nerves.
Ginny was a ball of excitement.
Hermione has no idea what was happening.
All Hermione knew was that they were going on a date like they had been so often the past week.
Draco had planned on continuing their tradition of having walks, then they would head back to the library like they always did, read a book they would pick out for each other for a while, then he was taking her to supper in the field near the manor where Ginny and Harry were currently setting up a small sunroom with a table, chairs and a bookshelf where she would pick a book up to read as that was another tradition they had came up with.
They often read books right after meals.

Ginny and Draco had been going over and over the plan and he knew it would go perfectly now. But that didn't stop the nerves he felt thinking about it. In just a few hours they would be engaged.

\\~//
"Are you ready for our walk?" Draco asks Hermione, pulling into his coat

"Yeah! Let me grab my jumper, then we can go!" Hermione says, running to their room and grabbing a jumper from the wardrobe as it was a bit chilly outside