Match Me~ Drinny

Signing Up

Ginny sat in her office watching couples walk out the door, laughing and teasing, arms around one another. Not for the first time, she questioned why she chose a job that so contradicted what she believed in, namely, matching people up.

Or, at least, what I believe in now. That one day had changed everything. She used to believe in love everlasting, true love, and what not. Fairy tales only exist in our minds now. They're not real. She looked up as the door slammed open.

"Hermione?"

"HE PROPOSED!" Hermione was ecstatic.

"Ron?" Ginny questioned. She knew he was going to propose, of course. But he was very nervous about it.

"YES, YES, YES!" Hermione jumped up and hugged Ginny so hard Ginny was almost lifted off the floor.

"Hermione, please calm down – " But Ginny was cut off by Hermione's babbling.

"— thought he was going to do it — " Ginny sighed and decided to wait, looking back toward her papers, knowing nothing was going to get into Hermione's head at the present moment.

"— went all red and it was so cute, it matched his hair — " Ginny signed a paper.

"— then he just knelt down and — " Ginny stared at a form.

"WHAT?" Hermione stopped and stared reproachfully at Ginny.

"D-draco Malfoy," stuttered Ginny.

"What about him?"

"He just signed up for my matchmaking service?" Ginny was still bemused. Draco Malfoy? The infamous Draco Malfoy? Witch Weekly's Bachelor-of-the-Year-three-times-in-a-row Draco Malfoy?

Even Hermione was stunned. "But Malfoy's almost a player, always dating those blonde bimbos. Why does he need a matchmaking service?"

"I don't know. But he did sign up, so I guess he needs someone." Ginny pushed the paper aside. "So what about the wedding. When is it?"

Hermione's eyes turned misty at the word 'wedding'. She started speaking so quickly Ginny could barely keep up. "I'm thinking at the end of June. You'll be my maid-in-honour, of course." Ginny smiled.

When Hermione left an hour or two later, Ginny sighed. Memories were starting to creep up again. She looked at a heart shaped frame containing a blissful picture that, it turned out, never really was.

Why the hell had she been keeping that picture anyway? The anger and sorrow swept over her again. She had caught them together the week of the ceremony, and despite Hermione's fury and urging to break it off, she had thought of all the people who had been invited, the food that had been prepared, the painstaking details and fuss and mess. And she still loved him. She had gone through all the excuses, knowing that it must be a mistake. One last fling, one last...

Ginny was shaken out of her memories when the door slammed open again. Grace, her secretary, practically ran into the room.

"Did you hear?" Ginny raised her eyebrows. "Draco Malfoy." This was said with such a reverence and awe, not to mention with a crush-like air, that Ginny's eyebrows went up another few centimetres. "He signed up."

"Yes, I saw." Ginny showed her the filled out form.

Grace was nearly bouncing up and down. She stopped when she noticed Ginny's complete indifference. "Aren't you excited? I mean. Such a hot guy coming to our matchmaking has to count for something, right?"

"Well, I guess it will make this matchmaking more popular, since he's practically a celebrity." Grace's jaw dropped, unbelieving Ginny's attitude. "Next thing we know, Cornelius Fudge will be looking for a soul mate here." Ginny laughed bitterly. The last time she'd seen Draco Malfoy in person was when he had graduated.

"Ginny, Fudge is married. But Malfoy..." Grace drifted off and out of the office.

Ginny looked at the clock. It was time to go. She had promised Hermione she would go to the Burrow, where Ron and Hermione would be announcing their engagement. She needed to get out of here, anyway. There was too much ado about nothing, in her perspective.

_._._._._._._

Draco was faced with indecision that night and all the next day when he had left his mother's mansion and returned to his flat, only to stare at the Daily Prophet ad and think about his mother's heart condition.

"What to do?" He asked himself, not for the first time. He certainly didn't want to marry one of those bimbos he usually dated. He tired of them in a few months, if not weeks. Spending an eternity with one? He gagged in disgust.

Truthfully, he didn't know what he wanted in a woman. She had to beautiful, of course. Was that entirely shallow of him?

First, he decided, he would check with those Healers at St. Mungos. Maybe they were wrong. There was a crack as he apparated.

Well, that idea failed. The Healers sadly but politely told him that there was nothing that could be done about his mother. All they could suggest was to "not let her over exhaust herself and plenty of rest should help". Despite the manners that were ingrained into him since he was a small child, Draco nearly through a fit at his helplessness.

Would it be too selfish to ignore his mother's last wish? Yes it was.

Back to the pacing in his flat.

The next morning, he arrived at Soul Mates, looking at the flowing inscription that ran around the sign.

Wait for the one who will say "you're the one for me, always"

That was cheesy.

He approached the front desk. "Excuse me, how may I sign up for this –" He was cut off as the witch looked up and gasped.

Her eyes widened. "Broomsticks! Are you Draco Malfoy?"

"Yes?"

"Wow. Are you looking for anyone?" She immediately began flirting with him, twirling her hair around one finger. "Because I'm available."

"Well, I was just looking –"

"— and I, like, absolutely love, like, French food, because you know, there is, like, this place at –"

Draco's ears were hurting from all the likes and run on sentences. "Yes, yes. But can I just sign up for matchmaking. I came here for a reason."

The girl blushed in embarrassment. He smirked. "Right then." He said as she handing him, hand shaking, a packet.

"Here, just f-fill out t-this form and the p-packet is yours to k-keep." He thanked her and gave her a charming smile that caused her to blush harder.

Then he looked down at the papers in his hand. Sitting at the table provided, along with other people who were filling out similar forms, he answered the questions.

Most were standard questions, at least the first page was. Name, likes, dislikes, the standard.

Then there were questions that went "What would you say if..." and finished with phrases like "a girl came up to you and said, 'I want to sleep with you tonight.'

Draco nearly fell off his chair at the questions titled 'Hypothetical Situations."

1. If the girl you were dating nearly ran you over with her broomstick, would you forgive her? Why or why not?

What kind of questions were these? How on earth would they help to find the right girl?

When he finished, he quickly walked away from Soul Mates, running a hand through his already dishevelled hair muttering, "God, if this works, I'm going to be nice to Potter and Weasley and Granger for the rest of my days."