Hermione rolled her eyes, "He's allowed to kiss me, Ronald. He is my husband after all." She sat down at her desk, "Now, I'll ask you again, is there something you needed or do you just intend to stand there and ask about my relationship with Draco?"
Ron pulled out some crumpled pieces of paper from his pants pocket and dropped them on her desk before he started pacing her office.
"What's this?" she asked, starting to flatten out the crumpled piece of parchment.
"That," he said, "Is all your fault." He flopped himself onto the empty chair across from her desk, "They are match results," he muttered.
Hermione's eyes widened in surprise, "Match results? You mean a marriage match?"
He grumbled and didn't say anything but he did give a nod in confirmation.
"Who is it?" she asked, still trying to work out the wrinkles of the papers.
Ron mumbled something that she couldn't hear.
"What?" she asked
"I said Parkinson," he said with annoyance.
"Oh," said Hermione, "She was at the wedding. She isn't as bad as she used to be…"
"Not that bad? She's the one who wanted to turn in Harry to You-Know-Who at Hogwarts during the battle!"
"She was scared, Ron! You can't really fault her for that," she said.
"We were all scared, Hermione. But no one else suggested handing Harry over," he stated.
"True," she said, "But Ron, that was a long time ago. What's done is done; It's time to let it go."
Ron crossed his arms and grumbled some more.
"What did you mean earlier when you said that this was my fault?" Hermione asked.
"If you had just accepted my proposal, I wouldn't be stuck with… with her!" said Ron, pointing at the papers.
Hermione sighed, "You can always just decline the match."
Ron shook his head, "We only have an 75% compatibility. I can't risk the next person being any worse."
"Why don't you do what Draco and I did… meet up and talk first?"
Ron scoffed and continued to glare at nothing in particular.
"Look Ron, I'm sorry the match isn't to your liking, but getting pissed off about it isn't going to help either. Neither is blaming me. Either decline her and take your chances on the next match, or owl her and have a civil conversation with her," she said. "Now, if that was all you wanted to talk about, I'm going to have to ask that you please leave because I still have mounds of work to do. Go talk to Harry or something if you still need a sounding board."
"I already did," he said, still grumbling. "He said the same thing you did."
"Then as your two best friends, don't you think you should listen to our advice?" she asked pointedly.
Ron groaned and got up. "I'll think about it, I guess," he said.
He left her office still grumbling, and with a flick of her wand she shut and locked her door. Now hopefully she would be able to finish some of her workload in peace.
When she floo'd home a little before dinner, the first thing she heard was crying. More specifically, a woman crying. And if she wasn't mistaken, it was coming from across the hall from Draco's room. It didn't sound like Narcissa, so Hermione walked quietly over to her door and opened it. She was surprised to see that Draco's door was open and he was sitting on the edge of his bed with a distraught Pansy next to him, some papers clutched in her hand.
Realizing what this was about, she decided to give them space and turned back into her room until she heard someone yell, "YOU!"
She spun around and saw that Pansy was glaring at her. "This is all YOUR fault!" she yelled.
"Why does everyone keep blaming me for things out of my control?" she muttered to herself. She walked into Draco's room and stood before the two, "Good evening to you too, Pansy. Now, can you please tell me what exactly is my fault?"
Pansy stood up and Hermione was glad that she was still slightly taller than her. "If you would have just married that oaf of a Weasley, then I wouldn't be stuck with that blood-traitor!"
"Pansy," said Draco warningly, "Don't go blaming Hermione for this. You're the one who filled out the forms. It's not her fault you don't like the results."
Pansy faced him, her eyes brimmed with tears, "We're supposed to be together! You and me! And she was supposed to marry that Weasel and have a litter of babies like his mother! But now… now…." she started sobbing again as she sank back onto his bed.
Draco sighed and looked at Hermione for help. Hermione shrugged, unsure of what to say.
Hermione knelt in front of Pansy, "If it helps any, Ron came to my office today to talk about this very thing."
Pansy sniffled, "And what did he have to say about all of this?"
"He…. well, he's unsure about it, to put it mildly. But I told him that he should owl you so you two can meet up to talk. That's what Draco and I did and we found that we had a lot of common ground. It helped fortify the decision."
Draco nodded, patting Pansy's back lightly.
"I.. don't know," she said, hiccuping, "Never in my life had I ever even considered being match with him."
"He's really