Title: My Personal Nightmare

Summary: AU. It's bad enough that the ministry has tried to control the lives of Harry Potter and his sister, Holly, from the time their parents died. Now they are altering the lives of every young witch or wizard in the whole of wizarding Britain. Near forcing them to marry someone they don't want to. Multiple pairings.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, never will. I only own Holly.

A/N: This is set in Harry's fifth year - but Voldemort has already been defeated the year previous. All will be explained later in the fic. You'll have to be patient to find out the how, what, when, where and why. Further notes at the bottom of chapter.

It's a beautiful night;

We're looking for something dumb to do;

Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you;

Is it the look in your eyes?

Or is it this dancing juice;

Who cares baby, I think I wanna marry you

– Marry You, Bruno Mars

PROLOGUE

AND SO IT STARTS

It was a warm morning in June when the owls arrived. Harry Potter and his older sister, Holly, were having breakfast in the formal dining room of their family's home in Leeds as they swooped in through the window. Each dropping a letter in front of the Potters and then swooping out again. Holly turned hers over and frowned.

She sighed heavily, "It's from the Ministry."

Harry rolled his eyes with a heavy sigh and pushed his letter away, "I thought we'd have to wait a bit longer for this," he said.

"Well, at least we know what it's about." Holly said, carefully breaking the wax seal and pulling out the letter. She read it carefully, before giving an aggravated sigh and throwing it onto the table.

"That bad?" Harry asked with a grin.

"Worse." Holly groaned, watching as her brother broke the seal on his. Harry's expression, Holly decided, was hard to decipher. Still he handed his letter to Holly. She read it three times, the smile growing wider and wider on her face.

"Luna Lovegood?" Holly said, trying and failing spectacularly to hide her amusement.

"She's kind of cool." Harry said, "Right?"

"I only know what I've heard from Hermione. So I don't know much about her. You're the one that knows her. Hermione called her 'Loony Lovegood'." Holly said.

"Who'd you get then?" Harry said with a sinister grin, "Cormac McLaggen?"

"Draco Malfoy." Holly said, waiting for her brother to laugh.

"Oh, Holly…I don't know what to say to that." Harry said, feeling a little like she'd just punched him in the gut.

Draco Malfoy? Harry let the name roll around his head for a while. Soon he would be Draco's brother-in-law and in turn the union would make his sister, Holly Malfoy. Didn't roll off the tongue like Holly Potter did.

Though, Harry thought, it wasn't like they really had much of a choice in the matter, not if they didn't want to be left with only what they could carry. The Ministry was watching for runners. They had posted guards near Gringotts, watching for anyone making sudden large withdrawals from their vaults. He had heard they had also posted security around muggle methods at well, London Heathrow and the new Channel Tunnel finished last year in particular. Harry was no lawyer, but he was pretty sure that revoking citizenship and seizing the assets of any British magical leaving the country that couldn't prove prior plans or the travel being work related must be against some law somewhere.

But that was a project for later, once he and Hermione could sit down and look over things. Rushing in blindly had nearly cost him his head last year against Voldemort and while this situation wasn't quite as dire, he had...mostly...learned his lesson.

They were to be given an allocated date and time – the Ministry would contact them with that later – and they would marry their elected spouse. Harry thought about his. It really could be worse, he supposed. He couldn't deny he was disappointed he wasn't paired with Ginny. But he hoped she got someone who would treat her well and that was well liked by her family. He couldn't begrudge her getting a guy that would love her like she deserved.

"Morning, Cubs." A voice made the pair look up, Sirius and Remus had emerged from their rooms.

"Good Morning, Uncle Remus." Holly said, with a roll of her eyes.

"We're not children anymore, Uncle Sirius." Harry groaned.

"There's some eggs in the warmer by the stove or there's toast." Holly said, getting to her feet.

"Holly. Sit down, it's ok. Any news from the Ministry?" Remus asked, taking a seat at the table. Sirius disappeared into the kitchen.

"Our letters arrived today. With our elected spouse's name." Holly said, fake cheerful. She wasn't thrilled with her spouse but she didn't have a choice. The Ministry had chosen him and she stuck with him for the rest of her life. Remus gave her a small smile, he could tell she perhaps didn't know or like this person a lot.

"Who's the lucky lady, Harry?" Sirius called from the kitchen, they could tell he was grinning.

"Luna Lovegood, she's kinda cool." Harry said, Remus nodded slowly - Sirius made a noise of approval. He knew of Luna and her father, Xenophilius, and they weren't bad people. It was unfortunate that Xenophilius had lost his poor wife, Pandora, to an accidental spell that went awry. It was just sad that Luna had to see it – she was nine.

"Holly, what about you? Who's your spouse?" Remus avoided saying 'who's the lucky guy' because he had guessed that she wasn't thrilled.

"Draco Malfoy." Remus paled rapidly and Sirius swore, the smashing of a plate told them he'd dropped it in shock.

"Who?" Sirius growled, appearing around the corner.

"Draco Malfoy, Uncle Sirius." she said, "I don't know that much about him, I only know him from what Harry, Ron and Hermione have told me. And I haven't had to deal with him at school - unless he got in trouble with Marcus." Holly said.

"What's your point, Holly?" Harry asked, frowning.

"I don't know him personally. Only by hearsay. So I hear that he's a bully, a git and a proud pureblood. I don't know anything else about him. I can ask some fifth years to tell me about him. Though I might just avoid Pansy Parkinson - she's in his house right?" She asked turning to her brother.

"Yeah, Blaise Zabini, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle. They're his cronies." Harry growled, he really didn't like where Holly was headed with this.

"I'm going to need to get to know him, Draco I mean. Can we reserve judgement until then?" She asked.

"I can put aside past prejudices. But your brother and Sirius might take a bit more convincing." Remus said with a smile, reaching out and picking up one of the letters he began to read.

"Dear Mr Potter," his eyes scanned the letter quickly, his mouth moving with the words, he sighed as he reached the end of it,"With regards, some underpaid Ministry official." He sighed.

"Does it actually say that?" Sirius asked snatching Holly's from the table.

"Of course not. But Michael Oxford is the one who will get the blame when the parents and the witches and wizards complain about it. The poor chap." Remus said.

"Well, maybe other couples night not be so bothered by it. I mean if I had gotten Fred Weasley and Harry had gotten Ginny Weasley, we wouldn't be having this conversation would we? There'd be no reason to. We'd have our happy endings."

"Remember that living with someone is not the same as loving them. You and Fred may have thought you'd have a happy ending, but he's an inventor, right? He'd be spending a lot of time with George and when you got married he'd have to split his time. I know, Harry, you gave your winnings last year to them to start inventing. Admirable, really. Considering that they tried to make you keep it.

"But with all his inventing with George - he'd have to split his time between you and George, and when they eventually get that Joke shop, that Ginny and Ron have mentioned - he'll have three things to put his time and energy into. You, George and the shop. It would eventually either leave you or George or the shop being neglected.

"And Fred doesn't want anything like that to happen. He'd be a lot happier if he didn't have to get married. Therefore could spend all his time between George and the shop and really they are one and the same anyway." Remus said, "It would have been the same with Harry and Ginny. Harry would want to spend all his time with Ginny, but then he'd neglect his studies - then there's you. You'd start feeling neglected. Harry would hate to do that, right?" Harry nodded.

"So what's your point Remus?" Sirius asked.

"My point is, that with Draco being paired with Holly, he only has two things to focus on at school. His studies and her. He doesn't have a sibling who may feel a little left out. The only people who he may neglect are his friends but they are going through the same thing. So they understand. I'm not concerned, it'll all work out in the end." Remus said with a smile.

"She'll be alright." Harry said as he joined Sirius and Remus in the living room.

"Of course she will. The only question is how much it costs after." Remus agreed.

"It almost makes me feel bad for Narcissa's brat." Sirius said as he ran his fingers over a long, jagged scar that 6-year-old Holly had given him.

"I blame you Sirius," Remus offered.

Sirius gave a groan, lazing back on the couch further, "Are we really rehashing this old argument?"

Remus shook his head, "What's done is done. At least Harry is a brooder, he's much worse when he gets going."

After Harry's indignant shout of offense, he turned to the boy in question, "Sorry Harry, but it's true. Last time Holly got really worked up, we had to rebuild part of the house. The last time you did...how many was it Sirius?"

"Twelve, including my dear cousin Bella and her husband. Let's face facts, the world is glad you're a brooder Harry. Holly leaves broken things in her wake, you leave broken people. Not that they didn't deserve it, mind you."

Sirius gave a small snicker as Harry threw up his arms in exasperation as he left.

Remus shrugged, "I did warn you that having Moody train Harry was a bad idea. But you've never listened to my better ideas."

"It worked. And we're all better off for it." Sirius said, defensively crossing his arms.

"We are, despite my misgivings. I still think you made a mistake never marrying."

"Oh for the love of...Moony, it wasn't going to happen. If it matters so much to you, why didn't you?"

Remus gave a long sigh, "You know why. No respectable witch would marry a werewolf, while it would be wrong and dangerous to foist the problem on a muggle woman."

With a quick flick of his wand, two cold beers flew from the kitchen into his open hands. He handed one off to Sirius and the two men cracked them open before giving a light toast for old times' sake.

Taking a sip and setting up a few privacy charms so the teens wouldn't listen in, Sirius set it down as he stated, "As much as I miss James, if I had to choose, I'd rather Lily had lived."

Remus nodded, "You've told me this before. It's why I told you to get married you know."

"I know, I know. But after Marlene died...and then by the time things settled we were busy looking after Harry and Holly. I didn't really have time to spend on dating. But that's a regret of mine, since neither of them grew up with any sort of mother. Harry's turned out pretty well, all things considered, even though he's picked up Mad Eye's belief that restraint in a fight is ludicrous. Holly though…"

"I'm just glad she's taken more after Lily in skillset. Charms is her best class, like mother like daughter. And with her anger if Malfoy does anything to irk her, he'd best duck for cover. She doesn't often miss." Remus said, recalling a pillow she had cursed to fly around hitting Harry repeatedly over the head during the lead up to the summer holidays at school. It was a small couch cushion and she had been around the corner of the room, not able to clearly see the cushion let alone Harry himself. But it had batted him over the head all afternoon until he finally got fed up with not being able to unravel her enchantments and promptly reduced the offending cushion to ash.

"You have to admit though the cushion incident was kind of funny." Sirius said with a chuckle, soon enough they were laughing at their memories of Holly accidently charming things - or doing things at Hogwarts.

Holly sat in her room reading a letter she had received only that morning. It was from Hogwarts, it informed her of the Prefects of that year and that she was Head Girl with Marcus Turner as Head Boy.

Dear Miss Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that the Headmaster had chosen you to be Head Girl of Hogwarts for the coming year. As well as being in charge of your fellow students of Gryffindor you will also organise the patrols of the prefects, this year those prefects are as follows:

Gryffindor: Hermione Granger and Dean Thomas

Slytherin: Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy

Ravenclaw: Padma Patil and Anthony Goldstein

Hufflepuff: Susan Bones and Ernie MacMillan

You will also be assisted by Head Boy, from Ravenclaw, Marcus Turner. We are sure you will both hold you positions with grace and firm but fair authority. Congratulations, Miss Potter.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Holly sighed heavily and ran her hands through her hair. That was slightly unexpected but not entirely unwelcome. This also indicated that their book lists would be on the way soon. They technically tended to arrive in July so that all the students had time to get all their books. Holly gave another sigh, got to her feet - tossing her letter onto her desk - she softly ran her fingers over Pandora's creamy brown feathers.

"Well, Dora, it'll be one heck of an interesting year." Holly said, Pandora gave her an affectionate nip on the finger before burying her head under her wing to sleep.

A/N: In case you were all curious 'Marcus Turner' was the male 5th year Ravenclaw Prefect in Holly's 5th year while she was a Prefect. It is listed on Harry Potter Wiki that Marcus Turner was a prefect in 1993 - which makes Harry a third year at the time. Darth Vulturnus – my BETA and co-author suggested Dean as prefect instead of young Mr Weasley.

I'm also adding in here a HUGE and absolutely MASSIVE kudos and thanks to - well basically my co-author of this - Darth Vulturnus. He has helped me in an indescribable way. Check out his note below to see just how much he has helped me out.

Alpha Pairing:

Holly Potter/Draco Malfoy

Beta Pairings:

Harry Potter/Luna Lovegood

Ron Weasley/Susan Bones

Hermione Granger/Cedric Diggory

Neville Longbottom/Alicia Spinnet

Ginny Weasley/Colin Creevey

B/N: Hi! Darth Vulturnus here. I feel I should state that I have a major hand in this. Stormy wanted to write a marriage law romance story starring Draco and an elder sister of Harry. The alpha pairing is hers and the backbone idea of this fic. When she was bouncing ideas off me, we ended up having me decide all the beta pairings due to convoluted reasons that would take far too long to explain here. Suffice to say, if anyone wants to get pissy about any of the beta pairings, PM me before flaming her for not conforming to your taste, since the beta pairings weren't actually her first choices.