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A couple of days before the Nott and Potter wedding...
"Granger, you can't be serious. You can't actually be serious. This will never work, never work. No one, especially our friends, will seriously believe that we are a couple." Draco rubbed his hand roughly against his face as he and Hermione sat together for their weekly catch-up in their favourite local Muggle cafe. She sipped her milky coffee and stared at one of her closest friends. "It isn't going to work. Pansy will sniff it out immediately." Draco repeated the statement as he reached forward to sneak an overly large crumb off Hermione's blueberry scone that had just been sitting there since their food and drinks had been delivered.
"Just trust me, Draco. This will work. I swear it'll work." Hermione reassured him. "I know that we both hate the questions that our friends constantly shoot at us about relationships, so to avoid them, we need to appear to be in a relationship to stop the questions. It's simple. They have bets between them all, whether we will get together or not. So, they'll believe that we finally snapped and figured things out between us." Hermione laughed. "I promise, it'll be simple. We can set up rules." She continued speaking, sipping on her coffee.
"Fine." Draco sighed. "Let's do this." Draco rubbed at his face once again.
This was going to go wrong. So wrong. They shouldn't be doing this.
The crush that the blond had on the curly-haired woman was growing every single day and Draco had no control over the crush for Hermione Granger. He wasn't sure whether this whole fake dating and fake relationship idea was a good idea but Draco was willing to see the idea out. But, he wasn't looking forward to the fallout. However, unknowingly for Draco, he wasn't aware that Hermione had also got a growing crush on him and had hidden the feeling away from him since their time together during their Eighth Year at Hogwarts as Head Girl and Head Boy.
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January 8th 2000
Hermione Granger stepped out of the Floo Network with the guiding hand of her fake date, Draco Malfoy, as they moved properly into the stunningly decorated Nott Manor. It looked amazing, incredible. Pansy Parkinson and Narcissa Malfoy had worked tirelessly to get everything ready for the Potter and Nott wedding ceremony and wedding reception. The place looked amazing. Hermione hadn't seen anything like it since the Hogwarts Yule Ball, during her Fourth Year. She smiled, taking a deep breath as she delicately brushed her hands against her short, deep blood red bustier dress, getting instantly rid of the pale dots of soot that had gathered from the short Floo journey over from Malfoy Manor to Nott Manor.
She smiled warmly at Draco as she hooked her arm through his before they moved together as a couple towards where the main wedding ceremony would be held outside in the Manor gardens. It was stunning, not as stunning as Malfoy Manor gardens but it was up there. Hermione and Draco took a large breath of anticipation together before walking towards their mixed group of friends, smiling largely and warmly at all of them as their friends stared in shock at the two of them together.
Ginny Weasley and Pansy instantly stared at the joined together arms before stalking over towards Hermione, and pulling her away before whispering loudly in her ear. Instant gossiping happens between the three of them. Draco's arms were then grabbed by Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott. They were instantly asking him questions about what the hell was happening and what had happened between himself and Granger.
How was he dating Hermione fricking Granger?
"When did this happen?" Pansy exclaimed, smirking as she stared at Hermione, moving closer to her.
"So, how are we claiming this statement the, Granger?" Draco raised his brows, leaning back against the cafe chair and staring at Hermione. He cupped the mug in his hands as he sipped at the honey lemon tea that he always ordered whenever they came here.
"Well, we realised our mistakes and confessed things during a night out. We were both drunk." Hermione pulled her plate closer towards her, guarding her blueberry scone. "Hopefully, we shouldn't have to go into much more detail about things but we could use the excuse that we don't remember much as we were drunk." Hermione smiled.
"When did this happen?" Blaise raised his eyebrows, staring at Draco as he couldn't help smirking at the blond pointy man as the three males stood together.
"How long has this been going on?" The next question instantly followed Pansy's as Ginny almost screamed, catching the eyes of several older Pureblood patrons that were here to celebrate Theodore Nott and Harry Potter's wedding.
"How long has this been going on?" Theodore leaned forward towards Draco, whispering the words to the blond and Blaise, hoping not to draw any more attention from family and friends. Draco stared at his two best friends, breathing heavily with the rush of answers.
"A couple of months?" Hermione nervously questioned Draco's suggestion.
"We've been seeing each other for a couple of months and only made it properly official a few weeks ago. Everything needs to be vague but not vague enough that they get suspicious." Draco explained everything before taking another long sip of his lukewarm drink.
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As snow softly started settling on the ground around the Manor, Harry started speaking his vows. He was smiling warmly at Theo, his eyes remaining on his husband and not moving away from the curly-haired brunette. "Theo, whenever I look at you, I see home. You were one of the first people at Hogwarts to truly accept me for who I was and were surprisingly always there for me, even when sometimes I was a really annoying dick. Whenever I look at you, I see the one that will always have my heart. I love you so much, Theo. Please, never, ever change..." Harry spoke the words in a way that made Hermione realise everything that had been in front of her. She tried her hardest to listen to Harry and Theo spill their hearts out in front of everyone but her eyes trailed over towards where Draco was standing with the other groomsmen.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh shit.
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As soon as Hermione could get Draco alone, she took the opportunity. She grabbed his arm and dragged him into the nearest bathroom. She stared at him, her breathing heavy as her eyes glanced down at his lips multiple times while he seemed to be talking to her. Hermione shook her head, her hands still roughly clutching onto Draco's arms. Her breathing was still heavy as she moved closer, accidentally pushing him against the wall.
"Granger, are you alright? Are you..." Draco furrowed his brows but was stopped mid-sentence when Hermione pushed her lips against his, finally kissing him. Electricity crackled around them as they experienced their first kiss together while in the Nott Manor bathroom.
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