Alright guys. I'm currently in a little writer's block on my other story The Assistant, and I need to sort it out (but it will be quick, I know it). But I was thinking about doing a Marriage Law story, and here it is. Becoming One. Here's a little prologue, to check the waters. I'm planning to do a thing that I did (and still do) with The Assistant: using a total cliché plot (first, it was "Hermione is Severus' apprentice", and now it's the Marriage Law) to make a totally different story in the end.

It's short, I know, but I plan to write longer chapters in the future for this story.

Are you ready for the Becoming One adventure? Let's go then!

Edit: thanks to my amazing Beta, Bluefirefly5 - really, you are, with all the work that I give you with that story... -, this story will be, I hope, better now!

Becoming One

"Hermione, are you awake?"

The voice was just a whisper, but a whisper loud enough to wake her up. The young woman sighed, her eyes still closed, and finally woke up, stretching herself a little bit in the bed. She wanted to stay in this bed forever, but unfortunately, she didn't have this opportunity, she knew it. Today, she had to marry Severus Snape.

Her eyes encountered Ginny's gaze, but she quickly turned her attention to her hands, avoiding the pity that she could see in the redhead's eyes.

"Please, Ginny, can you give me a moment alone?", she asked in a thin voice.

"Of course, Hermione. I'll be in the living room if you need me."

With that, Ginny disappeared through the door, and Hermione let her back drop on the bed. This was a nightmare; it had to be.

Unfortunately it was not, and she closed her eyes, remembering the day, one month before, when she had learned that she had to marry someone in order to fulfill the Marriage Law that had been enacted by some crazy wizards of the Ministry. She had seen red that day, but in the bottom of her heart, she had thought that she had a solution: Ron. Of course, Ron, her friend since she was eleven would help her and marry her. He had to.

But Ron had shaken his head when she had told him about her plan. He didn't want to be married to anyone, and certainly not to her. Since he was a year younger than her and that the Law was for young women of 18 years old and more, and men of 20 years old and more, he didn't have to do it. He was expecting the law to be repelled before he turned 20, and therefore, he didn't want to chain himself to someone after their many years spent at Hogwarts.

Then, Ron left. He left all of them, saying that he wanted to discover the world. And he did. He took a bag, put all his necessary stuff in it, and left one week after she had asked him to marry her. Even his parents were surprised to see him leave the Burrow so quickly, without even telling them about his plan to travel around the world alone. They knew the day he left, and since then, nobody had any information about where he was or if he was okay or not.

Nobody.

And here she was, Hermione Jane Granger, in Ron's former bed, waiting for a miracle to happen. Miracles don't exist, she said to herself, but she wanted to believe in it.

When Ron left, Hermione just had a couple of days to choose a suitable husband. She couldn't ask Harry, of course, since he had been with Ginny for some times then, and even if she was sure that he wanted to help her, she hadn't had the courage to ask him.

She spent this couple of days in her bed, thinking about it. She studied all the Weasley boys in her mind: Bill wasn't an option, since he was married to Fleur Delacour; Percy was away, only Merlin knew where; and Charlie was supposed to marry a Dragon's tamer, a Muggle-born like Hermione, since he was supposed to marry someone too. When he had heard that Hermione wasn't engaged to his brother, he had apologized to her, telling her that he would have married her if he knew that Ron had left. But he didn't know, and it wasn't his fault after all if no one was available for her.

One day, just when she was ready to go to the Ministry in order to let them know that she hadn't found any husband to marry in the time that she had to do it, Severus Snape came at the Burrow. She didn't know that it was him when she went to open the door, and she was as shocked as Molly Weasley who was close to her.

"Severus Snape? What are you doing here?", the Weasley matriarch asked in a surprised voice.

"I'm here to talk to this young lady," he merely answered, his gaze not leaving Hermione.

Hermione nodded and went out of the house with him, taking care to close the door behind her. She was surprised to see him here. She knew that Severus Snape wasn't dead, everyone in the Wizarding World was aware of that ever since the beginning of the month, two weeks ago. She had read in the Daily Prophet that he had been saved by a "phoenix". That was all. A phoenix. There were no other information about it, nothing about the phoenix, nothing about the fact that he was almost dead when Harry left him at the Shrieking Shack, or about the fact that he had been bitten by Nagini, a highly poisonous snake.

But he wasn't dead, and Hermione wasn't surprised to see him alive next to her. She was just surprised to see him, period.

"What do you want from me, Professor?", she asked in a soft voice while they were walking in the garden.

"I'm no longer a Hogwarts' teacher, I'm afraid... You can call me Severus, I guess."

Hermione froze a little. Calling him "Snape" was something, since she had heard Harry using this name all the time, but Severus...

"Well, Severus," she said with some reluctance, "my questions remains the same."

He turned his head toward her, and looked into her eyes with his dark gaze.

"I have a deal to offer you, Miss Granger."

"I guess that you can call me Hermione, since I can call you Severus", she whispered, and he nodded.

"Hermione then. I know that you have to marry someone, and I do not think that I am wrong when I say that you did not find a husband yet."

"What makes you saying that? I know that I don't have a ring on my left hand, but that means nothing, as far as I'm concerned", she replied, a little disturbed by their conversation.

"I heard about the departure of Mister Weasley. Quite a pity, I have to admit it. Leaving the girl that he had chased for some years to go Merlin knows where...", he murmured, still not leaving her eyes.

"I don't think that it's any of your business".

Her voice was harsh, and she was really close to tell him to go to Hell and to go back into the Burrow. He seemed to notice that, because he put a caring hand on her shoulder, taking her by surprise.

"I did not want to hurt your feelings, please accept my apologies."

Hermione relaxed a little, and she started walking again.

"You're right," she finally admitted. "He's gone. He left me here, and I don't know what to do now. I was about going to the Ministry, and just let them pick a bachelor for me, you know... What a shame," she concluded with a dry laugh.

Severus didn't answer back, and they continued their walk for some minutes before he stopped. Hermione stopped too, waiting for him.

"I was talking about a deal..."

"I'm listening."

"As you know, every witch of 18 or more have to marry. But it's also the case of every wizard of 20 or more. As you may know," he said with some irony in his voice, "I'm a little older than 20. Just a little."

Hermione let out a laugh at his words and nodded.

"I'm quite aware of that, yes", she answered.

"That is the reason why I am here," he continued, a strange look on his face.

"You have to marry someone too," Hermione said, realizing what he was asking her. "And..."

"I am sure that you already understood why I am here in front of you, Hermione Granger."

Hermione blinked several times, while Severus' words were taking shape in her mind.

"You want me to...", she began, but her voice seemed to stop to function.

"I need you to marry me," he finished.