Ten out of Ten by Morriganmercy

Day 9

- NOT MY STORY! All credit goes to @morriganmercy on a03!

Nilly had been clearly alarmed at Hermione's swollen and tear-stained face when she appeared, but she had brought the volumes Hermione requested all the same.

Every book making mention of Malfoy marriage traditions in the Manor library was currently spread across her bedroom floor in a layer nearly a foot thick. Biographies of notable family members, diaries of young Malfoy wives—all of them confirmed what Malfoy had told her. When marriages were made for a multitude of reasons other than love, permanence was a virtue; unbreakable marriage bonds had formed the cornerstone of the Malfoys' consolidation of alliances and power through the centuries.

Though, interestingly, they hadn't become required until the twelfth one. The hopelessly romantic Tenerus Malfoy had decided that any man worthy of the Malfoy name should be so entirely devoted to his wife that he would share his magic with her along with his life. Core binding was still commonplace at the time, and no one questioned the ritual that would force all future descendants to carry on the tradition, regardless of changing norms.

Hermione also found an explanation for the need of joint pleasure to consummate the bond. What Malfoy had told her when he explained it as a Pureblood thing was true in essence, but the core binding was the piece she had been missing. Because Malfoy marriages could no longer be ended, Tenerus had wanted to make sure that no Malfoy wife would find herself stuck with a lifetime of unfulfillment. The binding of their magic would be incomplete until sufficient consummation occurred, giving both spouses an incentive to work toward a mutually beneficial relationship. Though it would take months, if they refused or failed to consummate properly, the incomplete bond would begin to weaken their magical cores. Left untended, it would eventually kill them both.

Hermione slammed closed the book she was reading, and a snowglobe on her shelf exploded. She quickly Repaired the knickknack with her wand, and then picked it up and hurled it at the wall as hard as she could.

Malfoy probably would have explained the last part if she had given him a chance, but with the anger currently coursing through her in white-hot waves, it was probably safer for them both that he hadn't. She wasn't eager to learn what would happen to her if she hexed his bollocks off.

Unless the Ministry was willing to give them a joint cell in Azkaban, their situation had just been upgraded from fuck or prison to fuck or die. They would never last a twenty-year sentence with an incomplete bond. And Hermione only had five days left to decide.

She added another layer of silencing charms to her room and screamed as loud as she could.

Obviously she was going to fuck him. She may be stubborn, but she was never about to go to Azkaban over it, and she certainly wasn't going to let it kill her.

The fact that she would have made the same decision he had chosen for her made her want to burn the fucking house down. He had made it sound noble, like he was saving her from her own vindictive self. Yet, he had conveniently failed to acknowledge that it was his arse on the line just as much as hers. Whether or not he actually gave a shit about her getting sent to Azkaban was entirely irrelevant. Agreeing to this marriage had saved him from prison as well.

From the beginning, he had held all the cards and kept her in the dark. The core bond, Nilly being free. Would he have even told her about the need for her to orgasm if she hadn't overheard the conversation? Or would he have just assumed it would be no problem for the Slytherin sex god and chosen to roll the dice?

"Arrogant, egotistical arse!" she screamed, pummeling one of her pillows.

Her head snapped up as another thought occurred to her. She had just taken him at his word about Nilly. She didn't know that it was true. She had believed him because she wanted to.