The Royal Despise (Completed)

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲

"What do you want Cormac?"
"Ah nothing much, maybe a dance?"
"Sod off Mclaggen"
"I don't think a princess should use that kind of language you know"
"You don't control what I say and don't" she snapped before walking away when she was suddenly yanked back by Cormac by her wrist
"Let.me.go" she said with gritted teeth
"Aw come on Mione, all I asked was for a dance" he said with a sickly smile
"And I told you I dont want to dance with an arrogant brat like you. Now let me go before I punch your teeth in"
"Mione I don't think-"
He was interrupted by a voice coming from behind them, they turned around to see none other than Draco Malfoy.
"If you don't mind, Mione would you like to dance"
She looked between the two and she knew she'll have to dance with either one of them and her answer was as clear as day.
"Of course Malfoy" she said before yanking her hand out of Cormac's grip as Draco and Hermione moved towards the dance floor.

"And why'd you do that?" She said to Draco with her eyebrows raised
"I don't really know, I saw you needed help and decided to cut in"
"I don't need your help"
Draco shook his head at this with a playful smirk
"Are you laughing at me?"
"Well you laughed at me too, I guess this is payback"
"Are you talking about yesterday? Because I can assure you that I'll do worse to you than just laugh at your face if you don't shut up"
"Fair enough"
They danced silently for a few seconds before Hermione spoke up
"Thank you"
Draco raised an eyebrow at this
"You know for helping me out with Cormac, I kind of reacted badly to you offering help didn't I ?"
"Kind of?!" he said
Hermione rolled her eyes at this before replying,
"Alright alright, I'm sorry for overreacting"
Draco grinned at this before taking on a serious expression as he spoke,
"Granger..I wanted to ask something"
"What?"
"Are you okay with all of this? You know the whole marriage thing?"
Hermione's heart jumped to her throat, it's been a while since someone asked her opinion on things like this.
"I...well I don't really know. All I know is that I need to do this"
Draco's eyes furrowed at her words and he spoke, his voice filled with confusion,
"What do you mean? This marriage was strictly optional, it wasn't forced"
"I know, and we chose for it to happen. At least my parents did. I'm guessing you don't know, do you?"
"Don't know what?"
"Our kingdoms dying, and with it our people. There's been so much famines and deaths. My parents agreed to this in one condition, that your kingdom help us out in our situation"

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Draco's world felt like it was falling apart, not that it hadn't already. So she was being forced into this too. He should have been angry at her, for she too was after his money. But for some reason he wasn't, maybe because she wasn't actually behind his money since she was forced into this or maybe it's because she wanted the money for something good, for her kingdom, and not so she can buy fancy dresses or throw epic balls. Either way, all he felt was anger towards his father and to her parents for forcing her to agree to a condition that will change her whole life and she isn't even getting to have a say in this. Weird. He'd never thought that way before, usually he'd just get angry at Granger and call her a gold digger and probably say a few slurs, but at the moment he did none of that. Why, he still doesn't know.

"What?" Was all he could say after hearing this newfound information.
Hermione nodded gravely before replying,
"I don't like this as much as you don't, but I have to do this" she said
Draco had no idea how to respond to this, at the moment he wanted to help her out in any way possible. Yet, marrying him is a way of helping out. But that just seemed so....messed up.

"But..that's just, cruel"
"Draco Malfoy thinks something is cruel?"
"Oh shut up, I'm not that evil"
"I beg to differ"
Draco rolled his eyes at this but couldn't help but smirk. He was beginning to like the company of this young lady, enemy or not. Maybe it was because they spent a majority of their time bickering with eachother ,which was very entertaining, and when they weren't fighting they usually had deep conversations with eachother, Conversatio he started to look forward to.

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As soon as the song ended they let go of eachother and bowed, and Hermione couldn't help but feel the warmth of his body leave her the moment he stepped back, making her miss it for a split second before she shook her head at her thoughts.

She awkwardly walked back to the table to meet Ginny waiting for her bouncing on the top of her legs, how she was able to do that while wearing heels she'll never know.
"Mione! That.was.awesome! Harry asked me to dance! This is the best day of my life..."
She kept on talking in an excited tone while Hermione patiently listened with a smile as she shook her head at seeing Ginny act like a 13 year old who just had a crush.
"...oh! And by the way, where were you?! Where you like dancing with someone or something?"
For a princess, dancing with people are an every-ball thing. Dozens of people ask her at times, and Ginny must've figured another wannabe prince or nobleman might've asked her.
"Oh yeah, Draco asked me"
This made Ginny stiffin and stare at Hermione as if she had gone crazy,
"Draco Malfoy asked you and you said yes?!"
"He was trying to help me out!"
"What do you mean?!"
"Cormac was being annoying and he helped me out of the situation by asking me to dance and of course I agreed"
"What did Cormac do?! Mione are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I can take care of myself too you know" she said, stretching out the word 'fine'
Once Ginny was sure she was fine she said,
"Draco helping someone out? Now that's new"
"Tell me about it"

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Hi guys! Sorry this isn't much, but I've been busy so this is all I could do. I'm not a fan of this chapter, it kinda sounds cheesy and the writings all messed up but I hadn't posted in a while so I wrote this as fast as I could.
Don't forget to tell me what you think of the story till now! (Ginny's mood board/aesthetic above!)