Posting Date and Time: 05/01/2014 at 13:04 UTC/GMT/Zulu.

AN: My entry for the HPFC The Marriage Curse challenge. You can find the link to it on my Profile page.

The title is a working title taken from the challenge name. If you can think of another one I'll consider it. Chapters will be posted once a month on the 5th or 6th unless I manage to get more of the story written and edited faster. Please note that this is unlikely as I am working on other projects at the same time. (If you get an update alert and there isn't a new chapter then it's because I discovered a mistake I didn't notice before posting and fixed it.)

If anyone wants to beta read for me that would be brilliant. :)


The Marriage Curse

Unexpected Developments

It was an ordinary day at Hogwarts or so everyone thought. Severus Snape was overseeing a class of fifth year Gryffindor and Slytherins which contained one Harry Potter and accomplices.

He was keeping a close eye on them all when he heard something hit the floor. He looked over to find that Draco Malfoy had keeled over in a dead faint. He hastily waved his wand and put out the lit fires under the students cauldrons.

They would simply have to redo their potion if they had got as far as putting their bases in their cauldrons. He needed to assess what was wrong with his young snake and he couldn't do that if cauldrons were melting because students had turned to see what was going on.

He had just reached Draco when someone else hit the deck. He looked over to see the brains of Potter's troublesome trio, Hermione Granger, on the floor. As he froze in surprise Potter also seemed to fold up and dropped off his stool falling on top of her. Lavender Brown and her friend Parvarti Patil followed and then Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson.

Whatever this was it did not seem to be a student prank as it appeared to be indiscriminate between house and gender. He checked Draco over and found that he was deeply unconscious; almost in a coma state. So were the other students when he checked on them. He couldn't revive them with the usual "Enervate" or any other spells he knew.

"Weasley." He barked.

Ron Weasley nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Go and fetch Madame Pomfrey. Now." He ordered him.

The red head ran off to the infirmary. As he did Neville Longbottom collapsed. Severus Snape felt like groaning in despair. He had never seen anything like this before.


Madame Pomfrey was not in the Hospital Wing and Ron sat down on a bed nonplussed. What did he do now? He decided to wait. There was no point running all over the castle looking for her. He could very easily miss her and not realise. He fidgeted as he waited; picking at his nails.

Madame Pomfrey came in five minutes later accompanied by a worried looking McGonagall with two stretchers floating between them. On them were his twin brothers. There were other stretchers behind those but Ron didn't care.

His brothers were unconscious and looked as though they could have been hurt.

"What happened?" He demanded of Professor McGonagall.

She frowned. "They seemed to pass out Mr. Weasley." She informed him.

"I could not revive them so I sent a message to Madame Pomfrey. They are not the only ones." She added gesturing to the line of stretchers floating behind them.

Ron remembered why he had come in the first place. "The same thing happened in my potions lesson. Sna-" He caught McGonagall's eye. "Professor Snape sent me to get Madame Pomfrey." He said.

Madame Pomfrey returned with him to the dungeon classroom.


When they got back to the dungeons they found that most of the class was unconscious.

Ron went to check on Harry and Hermione. Harry and Hermione looked as though they were asleep. The desks had been banished to the back of the room and the unconscious students had been laid out straight in rows. It looked extremely creepy. He shuddered. There were an even number of Gryffindors and Slytherins laid out as far as he could see.

Madame Pomfrey compared notes with Snape and confirmed that the same thing had been happening all over the school. There were eighty students in exactly the same condition.

Ron felt his jaw drop when she said that and heard Snape make a sort of hissing noise of surprise before he told the students that class was cancelled and they should go back to their common rooms.

Ron left with the remaining students. None of them were talking. It had been too frightening and too reminiscent of second year. Harry, Hermione and Neville were the people he would normally have talked to but they were unconscious. So were Seamus and Dean. If the Professors and Madame Pomfrey didn't find out what had happened and how to reverse it soon he would be sleeping in an empty dorm tonight.

He shivered at the thought. He slept alone at home unless Harry was there and that was fine but he had become used to his room mates at Hogwarts. It would be weird and creepy to sleep in his dorm with no one there.

Potions was the last lesson of the day fortunately. He didn't think he'd be able to concentrate on anything else right now. He couldn't talk to his brothers because all of them were either in the hospital wing or not here.


Ginny flung herself at him the moment he stepped through the portrait hole. She was crying. He caught her and hugged her a little awkwardly. Crying females made him extremely uncomfortable.

"Ron do you know about the twins?" She asked when she could catch her breath.

"Yeah. I was there when they were brought into the hospital wing." Ron said glumly.

"I was in Charms when it started happening. It's so horrible. I've already owled Mum and Dad. Do you think they'll take us out of Hogwarts?" Ginny said.

"I dunno. I hope not." Ron said.

He handed Ginny his handkerchief. It was mostly clean. It had an inkblot on one corner but that was it. She accepted it with a watery smile.

"All the girls from my dorm room are unconscious." Ginny said. "Do you think we could sleep on the sofas here together tonight? I don't want to be alone."

"Yeah sure. I'll grab my blankets." Ron said relieved that she had asked and he hadn't had to say anything.


A lot of Gryffindor house came to the same conclusion. When Ron came back down from his dorm with his blankets he found some of the older muggleborns had brought their blankets and sheets down and transfigured them into sleeping bags. They were doing the same for some of those who didn't know how or didn't know what sleeping bags were and wanted to sleep in the common room too.

Out of the usual roughly eighty people in Gryffindor about twenty had suddenly collapsed and were now in the hospital wing. Nobody knew the exact number.

They had all been sitting in the common room, or fighting over sofas and floor space for their sleeping bags and pillows, for a while when McGonagall and Dumbledore came in.

"Good evening Gryffindor." Dumbledore said and the room fell silent.

"Now I am sure that you are all very worried about your housemates so let me reassure you all that they are fine. We will find out what happened to them and have them back on their feet in no time. We've sent letters to your parents to inform them of the situation and let them know we have it under control." He smiled at them all and Ron felt slightly reassured.

"I have heard rumours that students think it had something to do with Voldemort. Let me reassure you all that this is not the case." He said.

"Voldemort isn't back. Barmy old codger." someone said.

There was a thump as someone else elbowed them. "Oof!"

Dumbledore appeared not to have noticed the remark or the retaliation. McGonagall narrowed her eyes at someone Ron couldn't see but let it pass.

"Dinner will be served in House Common rooms tonight. Please ask Professor McGonagall for updates." He said.

He waved his wand and two tables full of food and drink appeared at the edges of the common room. So did several more sleeping bags. He smiled and left the room.

"Right. If I may have your attention please." Professor McGonagall said.

The Gryffindors turned their attention away from the food and to their head of house.

"As the Headmaster said everything is going to be fine. However as there so many students missing classes are cancelled for the next two days. That is not an excuse to fall behind on your homework. anyone who does will still get detention." She glanced around the common room. "Please don't stay up too late." She said and left.

Ron got himself and Ginny some food while she bagged them sleeping bags next to each other.

Ginny had stopped crying but it was clear she still worried. They didn't speak much but it was not an uncomfortable silence. He knew she understood and she knew he did and the familiarity of each others presence was what they needed more than anything else right now.

Some of the Gryffindors played games or read books but the games were were half-hearted and subdued and the sound of the pages of various books turned was far slower than usual. First Voldemort and Umbridge and now this incident which felt all too like the petrifyings in second year. They Dumbledore had said that this was not the work of Voldemort but Ron didn't see what else it could be.

At that moment there was a morose meow. Ron looked up to find Crookshanks sitting near them. He had obviously realised that something was wrong. He stroked the orange fluff ball. Crookshanks meowed again and looked at him as though he was hiding Hermione in his pocket. He sighed.

Crookshanks got up and stalked over to Ginny. She stroked his back and said. "She isn't here Crooks. She's in the hospital wing."

Crookshanks turned around and stalked away as though he had understood. That was impossible of course. Cats, even cats like him, weren't that smart. He sat down in front of the portrait hole and meowed until someone took pity on him and let him out.


Severus Snape was working with Professor Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing on trying to find out what had caused the student's state when something outside set up a horrible wailing.

Suspecting Peeves he stalked to the door and flung it open wand out to confront the pest. Peeves was nowhere to be seen. Instead an orange ball of fluff streaked past him and into the ward. The fluff ball jumped onto the nearest bed and then started jumping from bed to bed. He moved to catch it.

It moved too fast and finally stopped at the twelfth bed. It sniffed at the occupant and then licked the hand that lay on the cover and gave a plaintive meow. When that received no response the cat grabbed the girl's hand in his mouth and gave a tug at her arm. Then it bit her hand drawing blood. Finally it sprang onto her chest and yowled. Then it flopped down on her chest and put it's head on it's paws.

Severus hadn't remembered that Granger had a cat until he saw it again, this was the blasted pest that had defended Black, but he decided not to remove the dratted thing as long as it didn't make too much noise. It wasn't worth getting mauled. The creature was ignoring him so he'd let it be. Cats were infinitely better company than people anyway. He healed the bite on Granger's hand and reached out and scratched the cat's ears to get it's attention. It twisted it's head around and blinked at him.

"You can stay as long as you don't disturb us." He said to the outrageously fluffy feline.

Like mistress, like cat, he thought with a smirk, before going back to Madame Pomfrey's office. He left the hospital wing's doors, by her office, open just enough for a cat to slip through should the animal want to go outside again.

He didn't see Minerva McGonagall slip through the door in animagus form some time later. She considered carefully and then chose one of the Weasley twins beds. Albus had told her to get some sleep but she was too worried about her students. At least his way she would be nearby if anything happened and if anything was going to happen it would probably happen to one of these two. The pair were such trouble magnets that she was surprised Molly Weasley's hair was still red. It should have gone white years ago.

She jumped up onto the end of the bed. Fred's she thought; although she couldn't be entirely sure. She turned in a circle kneading the covers with her paws and then curled up and went to sleep next to Fred's feet.


Albus Dumbledore found her there a while later when he was leaving to go to bed himself.

"Oh Tabby. What am I going to do with you?" He wondered.

He considered moving her and then decided against it. She would be angry if he did. Maybe angry enough to decide to sleep in her staff quarters, probably for a while. He would miss his wife tonight but one night without her was better than the unknown number of nights he would spend without her otherwise.

He ruffled her ears before he left. She didn't stir. His animagus form wouldn't fit on an already occupied bed, so he couldn't change and sleep next to her, even though he would have liked to. A griffin in the middle of the floor, in a mostly dark ward, would be a serious trip hazard.

He walked slowly up the stairs to his office and through to their quarters. He got ready for bed. Once there he spent nearly an hour trying to sleep but was unable to. He missed Minerva's presence next to him and he was more worried about the students than he had told anyone.

Eventually he gave up on trying to sleep and returned to the hospital wing. He cast a shrinking charm on himself and changed into his animagus form. He would just have to hope he could wake up before someone noticed the miniature griffin, sleeping next to a tabby cat, at the foot of a student's bed.


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