Author's Note: I hope you enjoy this, I've edited it a bit from last posting it. Beta'd by xslowlyxfallingx. Lyrics by Bright Eyes.
Disclaimer: I own nothing
If you could change your days
Arranging them in some sweet new sequence
Like any new arrangement's gonna to make a difference
'Cause it's the moment that you're living in
And not the one that follows"I can't believe they're doing this." Ron grumbled.
"They're changing everyone's lives, Ronald. They know people are going to be quite furious at the prospect of jump ing into marriage. Surely they must know what they're doing, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. They are the Ministry of Magic after all." Hermione attempted to reason with him.
Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and did you forget they used to have Dolores Umbridge employed there?" Hermione ignored him, knowing his smart remarks were because of his anger about the situation.
She didn't blame him either. He held the letter that led to say their lives weren't going to be the same at all by the end of the week. If things went back to the same way as they were, that was. There was that fear of the possibility that things would never go back to the way they were.
And it was all because of that bloody letter.
Hermione went and grabbed it from Ron, reading over what it said.
Dear Wizards and Witches of the magical community, Due to the recent events of You-Know-Who's downfall, the Wizarding World has suffered many tremendous casualties in our population. Let us not forget our heroes who befell tragedy in the war, but celebrate their honor with new life. It is time f or a new setting, myself and my advisors believe. It is time for a change. One that is in the best interest of all of your futures. A majority rule in favor of a marriage law has been acknowledged. We have come to realize over the last year the startling change the war has had on our world. I am sorry to say that couples that are not married or engaged to be married that are over the age of 20 will be sent in a roster to be wed. I and the others at the Ministry do hope you understand our need to repopulate our world. If we do not, we fear that we may not have a Wizarding World to live in very much longer. Do not fear, you are allowed to choose your partners. We do not want to pressure you both into a marriage neither wants. The male significant other of one's relationship simply needs to go to the Ministry to see the roster and request your name for marriage, thus making it somewhat like an The suitors who are not chosen are given a list of the other available witches to choose from. But remember, a suitor may only reque st one witch - unless he is refused the offer of marriage. After agreeing, both will meet at the Ministry to discuss the terms the marriage afterwards. After choosing a suitor, the pair will have a total of six months to plan the marriage and will need to produce a child within two years of being married to fulfill the purpose of this law. The matter of conceiving a child is exactly why we are allowing people to choose their suitors, for in case they do not wish to conceive with certain people if paired at random. Sudden engagements will not slip past the Ministry, I'm afraid, as we already have a list of the available candidates for the marriage law. We strongly wish that you would comply to the Ministry's wishes. If you do happen to be engaged, then our wishes are that you simply have your marriage in the six months time given to the ones who aren't. Once the population is back to acceptably standard, couples are very much allowed to leave their selected partner. This is merely to ensure the safety of our community. The letters informing of request in marriage will be sent immediately after being processed to the home the citizen is currently residing in, actual home or not. Requests for marriage are being accepted until Friday, then the females shall be informed of their chosen suitors. Kingsley R. Shacklebolt
Minister of Magic
Molly snatched the letter read over it in a fury. "I can't believe this, Arthur. A marriage law? It's absurd! Who in their right mind could practically force children to get married?" She exclaimed, pushing the letter into her husband's hands.
Arthur examined the parchment for a moment before his eyes scanned over it quickly. A sigh escaped him once he'd finished reading. "There isn't much anything I can do about this. It's all in the Ministry's hands." He said, handing the parchment back to Ron.
"I am 25 y'know! Hardly young enough to be considered a child!" Ron glared, insulted at his mother's comment.
Molly then rolled up her copy of The Daily Prophet and smacked Ron on the side of the head with it. He rubbed his head where she'd hit him, still upset. "And barely old enough to be considered an adult! Do you want to know how old I am?" She asked him.
Before Ron could answer, Molly let out a squeak at hearing a loud 'POP!' behind her. Turning around, she let out a growl of annoyance as Charlie grinned, trying to ignore his mother's hitting him repeatedly on the arm with a rolled up paper. "What's with th e violence?"
Molly tossed the paper off to the side. Rubbing her temples, she glared at the letter in Ron's hands again. "Charlie, have you seen this?" Molly practically wailed, pointing to the letter in Ron's hands. "It's absolutely outlandish!" She said in disapproval.
"A bit barbaric, actually." Hermione quipped, still angry as well. "Kingsley must have had some reasonable logic behind this decision. It was a majority vote, too." She added in an afterthought, trying to reason with herself more than the others.
Charlie's expression wasn't readable. "I know, I heard. I think everyone has by now. Plenty of people are already at the Ministry requesting." He said with a shake of his head.
"It's plum stupid, that's what it is," Ron said, finally speaking up. "People are already requesting? It's only been one day!" He exclaimed, shocked that people were reacting so quickly. They themselves had just found out merely an hour before.
"How would you know?" Hermione asked Charlie, and his ears seemed to tinge pink. Her eyes widened. "You were requesting as well, weren't you?" She accused him, and everyone's eyes went to Charlie after she had.
Immediately, his cheeks went even more20colorful, but he kept the charming smile on his face. "Well, yes. I wanted to go ahead and get my request in, seeing as how I couldn't really avoid it. Might as well go ahead and get things done with." He said with a shrug.
Molly clapped her hands together. "Oh, who is she?"
"But it's horrible!" An objection came from Hermione before Charlie even could process what his mother had asked. "What if the women don't even know who the people are that are requesting her? They're forcing children and marriage upon people, some of whom might not be financially able to care for a child." she argued.
She harshly objected to what was happening, but she wasn't going to try and rebel against the Ministry's decision. It was Kingsley! He helped hem hide Sirius, he surely couldn't have a hidden motive behind the law. From what Hermione knew of him, he didn't have much of a selfish bone in his body. There wasn't much the Ministry or he could gain from this decision, anyways.
Charlie held up a finger to Hermione. "That is why they are allowing men to request. A boyfriend or something can also request, and she can simply choose whom she wishes to marry. Most girls are bound to get at least two requests." Hermione's cheeks flamed at this, secretly thinking that she would not be one of these girls.
"Plus, I'm sure they wouldn0t allow the marriage to take place if it were unable to care for a child. If they did, they would more than likely give financial aide to whoever would need it. They can't just throw everyone into this without anything to support them with." Charlie finished.
Arthur nodded in agreement with his son. "Kingsley is a good man, you all know that. He even helped us with hiding Sirius when we needed help. He must have had some idea that this would be in the best interests of the community." Especially since there wasn't a way Kingsley or the Ministry could personally benefit from the situation, either. Not that he would if it were available.
Hermione looked to the floor. "It's still barbaric. What if someone doesn't want to have children?" She questioned. Of course, she had wanted children herself - albeit in a distance from now - but she couldn't say much for other witches. Some people were perfectly happy without children.
"There is always wizarding adoption, Hermione." Arthur said, causing Hermione to glance in horror. "These are simply my theories. Don't worry, I'm sure Kingsley has something thought up. He wouldn't just jump into something as life-altering as this without any idea as to what he was going to do about the repercussions."
"Just wait 'til Harry hears." Ron mumbled. "If he hasn't already."
"He shouldn't worry if he had, anyways." Ginny spoke, entering the room. That was true, him being previously engaged to Ginny before the law was issued would help them. They would not have to change anything to follow this new law.
Hermione felt a twinge of jealousy. If only things between her and Ron had worked out in their previous relationship, perhaps they could get engaged. Then things would be just fine. But Hermione knew Ron well enough to know that he already had his eye on someone to petition for.
"Shouldn't he be here any minute now with Teddy?" Hermione asked, and Ginny nodded a confirmation with a smile.
"Well now, who is she?" Molly asked again to Charlie. "I want to know who my future daughter-in-law is!" A smile came across her face as she said this. "Oh, another wedding. Lovely!" The happiness with the idea of another wedding for the Weasleys (or more than one, it would seem) seemed to cloud over Molly's anger about the law.
"She has to accept me first, mum." Charlie said with a smirk . "But we discussed it this morning before I went, so I'm pretty confident that she will. She's the one that told me to, after all." He laughed. "Her name's Pandora, she works with me with the dragons." Molly nearly squealed with delight.
"Pandora? Sounds a bit foreboding, doesn't?" Ron laughed aloud, and Hermione glared at him. He leaned over to Ginny to whisper something, not as quietly as he'd planned though. "She told him? I wonder who's going to wear the pants in that relationship." Ginny snickered, Hermione sighed.
"I think it's a perfectly lovely name. Oh my, I wonder what George and Percy are going to do.." Molly said, then snapped her attention back to Ron. "Who do you want to ask for then?"
Ron's face went as red as his hair and Charlie began smirking. "I - Uh, I was thinking I could petition for Hermione...so she doesn't end up on a bad string of blokes." He admitted, turning even redder if possible.
"Oh, Ron..." Hermione began. "You can't - "
He cut her off by standing up. Molly and Arthur had retreated from the room, feeling nosy for being around. The feeling did not seem to be with Ginny and Charlie, as they stayed in the room. "Yes, Hermione. That's just it, I can. I don't want you ending up having to choose between a group of tossers. At least with me you know you won't have anything really to worry about."
Hermione looked at Ron in admiration. Both of them knew that he had already had the idea of aski ng about Susan Bones. The two had become good friends at work the year before and it was quite obvious that the two were inevitably going to get together sometime. Much to Hermione's dismay, anyone who didn't see that they were crazy about each other had to be bonkers.
Which pulled at Hermione's heart. He was willing to sacrifice his happiness to ensure her well-being. Hermione knew very well that Ron was in love with Susan. As much as she would have been overjoyed at the prospect of marrying Ron, she couldn't do that to him. There was nothing she wanted more than her friend's happiness nowadays, and if he sacrificed that just for her then she wouldn't be able to live with the guilt. If she let Ron give up his opportunity with Susan, the guilt would gnaw at her day after day.
"There is no way I'm letting you do that, Ronald." She announced. He looked flabbergasted. "However admirable of a notion, I can't let you do that. Thank you, I'll be perfectly fine though. You go and petition for Susan. She's a pretty girl, she's going to have quite a few boys requesting her." At that comment, Ron's face fell slightly. "Ron, you need to just go petition for her now. I'm certain she'll pick you." Hermione smiled reassuringly at him.
Charlie walked over and put a hand over Ron's shoulder. "C'mon, she's right. I'll take you now if you'd like. You won't know where to go, so we can side-along apparate."
Ron nodded along with a shy smile towards Hermione, and the two were gone2 0within seconds, leaving the similar 'POP!' behind.
It was only minutes later that Harry floo'd in with Teddy ranting about what he'd read in The Prophet.
Draco sighed, taking the glasses from the house-elf and handing one to Blaise Zabini. "Thank you, that's enough for now, Jinxie." He dismissed the house-elf with a wave of his hand before taking a seat. Narrowing his eyes, he picked up his copy of The Daily Prophet he had gotten the day before.
Blaise laughed when he took the glass from Draco and began sipping the champagne Draco had had prepared. "That is a shock, isn't it?" He said, pointing his glass towards the article mentioning the new law. "I nearly had a fit when I got my letter this morning. Never would have guessed Shacklebolt would so something like that."
Draco glared before taking a drink out of his own glass. "It's preposterous. Who is this old fool to tell me when I have to get married and have a child, if I even had the intention at all?" He spat, looking at the pic ture above the headline.
"Aye, but what are you going to do about it? You are trying to get into his good graces, after all; Along with everyone else's. It would probably be best if you just went along with this, it would help you in the long run." Blaise replied.
"The long run? Me? Marrying a woman at twenty-five years old and having a child in two years?" Draco hissed.
Blaise shrugged. "You're the one wanting to run for Head of Departments. And you know you're not a likely winner because of the past." Draco winced when Blaise mentioned the war and how the side Draco's loyalties rested on were obviously displayed at his sixth year at Hogwarts. Blackmail or not, the Ministry wasn't going to welcome a former Death Eater with open arms.
"And what do you suggest I do then?" Draco asked, his voice dripped heavy with sarcasm. Everything was riding on him winning this election, Draco had spent tho usands of galleons to fund its beginnings. Even if he knew he wasn't a likely candidate to be chosen.
Well, maybe not everything. But it was pretty damned important. His amount of galleons would be doubled in his Gringotts vault with how much money he could be making. Much of their money was what his father had to pay in fines to some of the many crimes he was convicted of. He was still obviously wealthy, nothing to consider him needing to worry about what he bought. But he still would prefer to have a larger reserve than what he did at the moment
"It could give you some extreme leverage if you chose a muggle-born." Blaise said as if it were nothing.
Draco looked horrified. "You're suggesting I try and marry a mudblood? What the hell did you hit your head on today when you got your letter?"
Blaise chuckled. "Draco. I'm being honest. Kingsley Shacklebolt was an Auror, you must remember that. He fought for the light, he fought for muggles and muggle-borns. It would seem a wise decision in his eyes if you were to step up and choose a muggle-born to be your bride and mother of your child. Hermione Granger, in particular."
"And cause the Malfoy name to be tarnished? Absolutely not!" Draco barked. "You're absolutely mad to think I would ever consider marrying that beaver." He grimaced to remember the brainy Gryffindor. "I would murder her in her sleep, that is if she wouldn't get me first."
"Think about it, Draco." Blaise advised his friend. "She was good friends with Shacklebolt from what I hear, she helped rid the world of You-Know-Who. Plus, she's best friends with the-boy-who-saved-everyone and - "
Draco held up a hand to stop him short of finishing. "I get it, they bloody love her. They'd worship the ground she walked on if she worked in their departments. That doesn't change anything."
Simply the idea of marrying Hermione Granger sent chills up Draco's spine. And possibly, the rising of bile in his throat. Whatever it be, it was obvious showings that Draco did not want to marry her, or be near her in any way possible.
"Sure it would." Blaise said. "If you chose any muggle-born, Shacklebolt mig ht be wondering why you are doing so. He'll find out you're just doing it to get into his good book, he isn't an idiot. You two do have history."
Draco laughed into his glass. "Yes, a history of resisting the urge to strangle the other. I know that Shacklebolt isn't an idiot. He'll notice that it is a ruse and hate me even more. He will not believe the fact that I want to marry Granger. Nor do I even want to."
"But the public Ministry isn't always that intelligent, you forget." Blaise smirked. "They are, after all, the majority of the votes you would receive. All members in the Ministry vote, even the lower classed ones. Every vote counts. Yo u might not fool Shacklebolt, but you could fool the public if you kept your image up around Granger."
Draco looked disgusted, but knew Blaise was right. All he had to do was make a few public appearances with her and make them seem like a happy couple. Though, it would be very short appearances because within minutes later they would be arguing up a storm. But it could still be done.
It just might work if he could pull this off.
Still, did it have to be Granger?
"I highly doubt I could deal with myself to have to conceive a child with that woman. And pregnancy isn't often the first time. There is no way I could possibly even attempt it, or live through, 'doing the deed' with Granger more than one time"
"Use fertility potions. You know she isn't particularly ugly, Draco. She's not the best looker, but she isn't ugly if you look close enough. And she's absolutely feisty, you have to wonder what it would be like with her in the bedroom."
"Then why don't you marry her?" Draco snapped. "I could pick any muggle-born witch for this. It doesn't have to be Granger." Draco tried to prove, but Blaise shook his head.
"I'm not the one running in an election. Granger has all the inside information that you're dying to know. She does the desk-work. The desk-work that includes your mother's case file. Along with your father's. And with her close relations with her society-loved friends, it would help you more." He said.
Draco paused. Blaise knew that would interest him. He was more interested than anything to get Narcissa an appeal out of Azkaban, and Hermione Granger had every bit of information on her case. If he could just get a hold on that file, he could try and help her himself. "I hate you, Kingsley Shacklebolt." Draco glared at the paper in front of him again.
"I take it you're agreeing?" Draco didn't have to look at his friend to notice that he was grinning.
"You're forgetting, Granger has to accept to the suitor. And she's probably going to want Potter or Weasel-bee." Draco said abruptly, angered that the plan had just fallen through.
"Potter's engaged and Weasley already asked for Susan Bones. I saw it requesting for Pansy." Draco looked in surprise when Blaise mentioned his own request. Pansy? "You...you chose Pansy." He mumbled.
"Yes, that shocks you?" Draco merely nodded. "She's my good friend, Draco. I didn't really have anyone else in mind, anyways. Plus, I've always fancied her. Even though she'll be a handful."
"None of that doesn't mean Granger will ever agree to me." Draco said,20getting it back onto the topic. "She hates me almost as much as I hate her."
Blaise just smirked. "I know people that correspond with her. You just leave Granger to me." Blaise tipped his glass to Draco. "To your new campaign."