Chapter Text
Hermione finished the last study block of the day.
According to her meticulously colour-coded revision schedule, she was forty-two minutes ahead.
All she wanted now was silence.
It was bad enough that she’d had to Disillusion herself and cast what felt like a dozen Muffliato charms to keep her focus in the unusually packed library. Now that exams were around the corner, most of Hermione's peers had discovered that the library was in fact an efficient study space that did not just offer a myriad of resources but also the quiet pressure of watching everyone else revise.
Hermione could only shake her head in disbelief as she watched Seamus and Dean at a table further cramming star charts for their Divination exam the next day.
As she left the library she felt a surge of relief. Today had gone according to plan, she had not only successfully finished her scheduled revision but also managed to get ahead. She walked through the still busy halls, tiredness creeping through her body.
As she saw Lavender Brown approaching her from the opposite side of the corridor, energetically waving for her, Hermione veered sharply towards the Astronomy Tower. As she was about to turn to the right towards Gryffindor common room she remembered that Ron had asked her for help on his potions assignment and for the first time in her life Hermione did not want to help him. How old did he think he was? Ten? Abruptly stopping she turned, taking the stairs all the way up to the seventh floor.
What harm could an hour or two in the Room of Requirement do? For once, she wanted to indulge in a quiet and peaceful environment that allowed her body and mind to rest.
However, it seemed that a certain someone had apparently had the same idea, because as soon as she stepped into the room and the door disappeared into the wall she noticed him sitting on an armchair, a thick book in hand. The flicker of the fireplace was painted on his face, illuminating his hair. Surrounded by several thoroughly filled bookshelves sat Draco Malfoy.
Hermione froze, unable to tell what to do. Had he noticed her? What was she even supposed to do? How do you act around your childhood bully in an enclosed space with no one around?
"Are you going to keep standing there staring at me?" A deep voice interrupted her thoughts.
She huffed, "Please, as if. I was merely shocked that someone like you felt the need to hide."
"Someone like me?" He smirked and cocked his head in mock confusion, appraising her with a steady look.
Hermione squirmed slightly. "Well usually the bullied people hide, not the bullies themselves." She plopped down in the armchair across the room, keeping as much distance as possible.
She opened her enchanted bag, pulling out her journal and her favourite fountain pen that her parents had gifted her for her sixteenth birthday a year ago.
As she started with Dear Diary, she heard his voice, quiet but steady, "Of course you’d think that, filthy mudblood."
Her pen only stopped for a second and she held her breath, counting to five before continuing. Of course, Malfoy could not survive five minutes without insulting her. What a stupid git indeed. She chose to ignore him, further writing about her daily thoughts and feelings in her journal.
She sort of expected him to leave but for whatever reason, Malfoy stayed glued to his seat, attentively reading the thick book, perched on his lap, the title obscured from view.
As Hermione began to pack her things back into the bag a good hour later, a soft plop disrupted the quiet space, as a small box landed on the small book table in the middle of the room.
"Did you put that there?" She asked, eyebrows drawn together in question.
The flat look he gave her answered the question before he spoke. Regardless, he slightly leaned forward to let his gaze shift over the small mahogany box.
"Should we open it?"
"Are you fucking insane? And they call you the brightest witch of our age! But feel free to touch it, maybe it’ll take you away and I'll never have to see your insufferable face again." He turned away, disgust curling at the corner of his mouth.
Again, she chose to ignore him, swallowing hard.
"Well, obviously we’re supposed to do something with it, no? The room always has its way of doing things." She lifted her gaze back to him, meeting his stare. Why was he staring at her like that? Did her hair double its volume again?
She turned the box over in her hands.
"Revelio."
Nothing happened.
"Specialis Revelio."
Still nothing happened.
"Finite Incantatem."
Absolutely nothing.
"Feel free to ruin yourself as you please, however, I won't be a witness to your downfall, as I don't fancy an Azkaban visit for hexing the golden girl." He stood up, stuffed his book into his bag, slung it over his shoulder and made his way to the door.
Before he was able to leave, Hermione had already grabbed the wooden box.
She hesitated slightly, however, her curiosity won over.
She opened it, and suddenly a blinding crimson light emerged.
Hermione squinted her eyes, trying to see anything at all, and could barely make out the forming of a translucent crimson dome around both of them before it vanished within seconds.
The only thing left was a thin red rope-like line that seemed to connect both of their hands, which too vanished shortly after.
As she was about to close the box she felt a weird sensation on her left ring finger, as she let her gaze drop she found a gleaming ring on her hand. A square-cut stone that very much looked like a diamond, set on a thin white gold band, as well as a thick diamond eternity band adorned her finger.
She gasped, "What the fuck is that?", and recoiled, drawing her hand further to her body and taking her other hand to take it off, however to no avail.
As she lifted her head into Malfoy's direction she saw a confused and disturbed expression on his face. As she neared him she could slowly make out a thin white gold band on his left finger, paved with diamonds, suspiciously similar to the rings currently on her finger. As he too attempted to take the band off but too failed, her stomach dropped, but before she could form any thoughts Malfoy interrupted her thinking process.
"Granger."
"I think you just married us." He said in a cold but steady voice, eyes glued to her left ring finger.
A pregnant pause filled the room.
"Don’t be ridiculous Malfoy," she said, however her breath hitched slightly as her eyes jumped several times between the two matching bands. "Surely there is an easy explanation for this in the library." Her voice quivered slightly.
"Sure." He taunted, "Because of course the fucking golden girl would look for an explanation in the fucking library. Don't be stupid, this is obviously ancient magic. Didn't you see the light? My mother told me stories about it. It was way too powerful to be explained through a bloody book."
She gasped. "Stop swearing so much, and since you’re such an expert on the topic, why don't you suggest your way of fixing this?"
He only huffed, but she could still make out the words that left his mouth, under his breath. "We wouldn't need to, had you not touched the fucking box."
"You were halfway through that door!" She shot back. "You could have stopped me."
"Don't try blaming me now, Granger." Before she could respond, he began again: "Maybe we need to try to take the ring off of each other."
She shrugged in defeat. "I guess it's worth a try."
There was an awkward pause, where neither of them moved. Malfoy stared into the fire and seemed entirely unsure whether to move or not. After counting to five, Hermione closed the gap and stretched out her left arm in his direction.
Malfoy's eyes were fixated on her hand, however he wouldn't budge
"What? Afraid you'll sully your precious bloodline by touching me." She challenged.
He snapped out of his trance and sneered, his fingers enclosing around the shiny bands, slowly trying to pull them off.
As his ice cold hands touched her warm ones his fingers hesitated against hers. Hermione tried very hard not to think about it. However to her dismay the rings did not move but stayed practically stuck to her skin as if someone had placed a permanent sticking charm on them.
"Great." Came from her dryly, as Malfoy opened his mouth, she grasped his hand in hers, pulling it slightly towards her and also attempted to remove the ring on his finger, unfortunately also unsuccessfully.
It took him a moment to react as he froze for a second at her sudden touch before recoiling and quickly pulling back his hand as if she had burned him, the diamonds caught the firelight as he jerked his hand away.
"Dont touch me!" He gritted out and turned to leave before Hermione disrupted his departure.
"Are you just going to leave?"
"What do you expect me to do?" He snapped. "Obviously they won't come off."
"Running away isn't going to solve it." She shot back. Did Malfoy not want this weird thing off of him too?
"Fine." He gritted out. "We each do our research and then meet again here in two days, same place, same time."
She only shot him a glare but nodded regardless.
As she walked the now almost empty halls of the castle the diamonds caught the moonlight, glinting with every movement in the corner of her eye. She hated it. Hermione pulled out her wand attempting a disillusionment charm on the ring - to no avail.
She tiredly dragged herself up the stairs to the Gryffindor girls dormitories, pushing the door to the dorm she shared with Ginny open.
"I was starting to think you’d moved into the library.’’ Ginny stated, eyebrows slightly raised as she quickly let her gaze roam over Hermione.
"Just some extra revision," she answered, flopping onto her bed and closing her eyes, taking a deep breath. ’
"Hermione."
"Why are you wearing an engagement ring?"