I Choose You

Ch 3 : We

Hermione sat beside Draco as their friends became more and more intoxicated. She still wasn't sure who had the idea to take over the Come and Go Room for a giant party, but given how much alcohol had mysteriously appeared when they all walked in, it was clearly something planned. She smiled at each of them in turn, living it up as though they were on the eve of battle...

She swallowed down that thought because, in truth, they were. They were on the eve of a battle that she was scared they could not, would not win. She was scared because change and progress came at a cost. Peaceful turnovers did not simply occur because you say please. Yes, a few within their group could take up their seats as was their right... Blaise, Neville, the Selwyn heir, Rowle heir, a few others who had a claim to an empty seat they had not yet touched. From there, it would take Draco demanding his seat, with Theo a step behind him - and who were the old wizards to stop them?

And once those with a birthright to their seats had been approved, those with a Muggleborn parent would step in to take theirs. After all, if Blood Purity was no longer a thing, then why should it matter who their father had wed? And from there, they would fill each seat, until slowly but surely, they had emptied the Wizengamot of those that held tight to the old thought of blood purity and power.

This would be a coup. A complete and total coup. And Hermione would remain at Hogwarts, safely within the walls, waiting to hear what happened. Dumbledore, surely, would head to the Ministry once the boys made their move, and then the teaching staff would come for her, and she would remain within this room, along with every other seventh-year girl, and a few sixth years.

They were the ones to wed those leaving on the train, or those that wished but could not, because of the current law. They would remain within this room until Draco sent back word...

Or until she felt the bonds of their marriage fade from her skin.

She felt so scared, she could barely taste the wine that Draco had pressed into her hand an hour earlier.

In the morning, when they arrived in London, they would be joined by those that had come to their cause, older brothers and friends that had a voice that wanted to be heard. They were all Pureblood sons, some Slytherin yes, but also a few Ravenclaws, and one notable Gryffindor, Bill Weasley. Apparently, the eldest Weasley had a Pureblood girlfriend from the continent that he was unable to wed. The others, well, some wanted to wed Pureblood girls of their own, and some just hated their fathers more than anything else.

A few words from the future Lady Malfoy had quickly brought them all to their side.

This was it, this was their future. They were taking it back, taking hold of it, but there was a cost, and if Draco was one of them, if any died because of her...

But if this went well, there would be no more forced marriages, no more betrothals and arrangements. No more Obliviations... Hermione would be the last one forced to give up her freedom to remain in this world.

And that scared her as well. It scared her that, after the law was overturned, Draco would come to regret his decision to marry her so quickly. They could have put off the wedding, perhaps, and overturned the law together. There had been no rush, although once they were both seventeen it was acceptable to be wed, even before they had completed school...

She feared he would regret that they were bonded for life, and that he would wish to have another, a Pureblood, as she had come to learn his father wanted.

Lucius Malfoy had never planned on her staying as the Lady Malfoy. Within a few years, he would have disposed of her while the wheel turned, and the law faded into dust. And then, Draco would have married a Pureblood girl to have proper Pureblood children.