Love by the Law
Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic for the third time running, looked with squinted eyes at the chart in front of him. He sighed deeply and placed it back on his overloaded work desk. He closed his eyes. In all his years as minister he never once had to deal with anything like this.
He glanced back at the chart. Cornelius had received it this morning per owl mail from St. Mungus, the magical hospital. It was data about births in recent years. They seem to have gone up by at least 250 % compared to the current first years about to go to Hogwarts, and it was up to Fudge to do something about it. If not, Hogwarts would be overfilled for decades to come, and, most importantly, they'd make him resign for reason of incompetence.
There was only one solution to this problem: To pass a new law concerning marriage. It sounded simple, but he knew that many people would be against it. Furthermore, if he went too far people would not be in his favor in the next election, and if he didn't go far enough, people, also, would be opposing him. If he didn't do anything at all he shouldn't even campaign. So what was he to do?
Cornelius thought about the limits. How far could he push them? Then he thought about that there were more man who'd vote in the coming election than women, so turning the law in a way that would please them would be in his intention, as well. What did men nowadays want? Young, healthy women to breed with and to cook for them.
The minister's thoughts turned to Hogwarts. There were enough young, healthy girls there, but they were too young to be married, and then he'd have all parents against him, too. No, he had to stay away from Hogwarts. Unless he found a suitable solution to keep the parents on his side…
In Hogwarts, there were probably enough girls for a quarter of the male population, or a fifth. Depending if Death Eaters and squibs should be accounted for. He decided yes. Still, there was the problem of concerned parents.
Cornelius stood up and started pacing about his office.
The door opened and his assistant Wilfred entered, worried.
"I heard you pacing," he said. "Something on your mind?"
"The increase in births," Fudge sighed, standing still. He mustered his assistant, a capable man of thirty-three. He had daughters, Fudge knew.
"A marriage law seems appropriate," Wilfred shrugged.
Angry, Fudge snapped, "I have thought about that too, you dimwit!"
Wilfred wasn't very impressed by the insult. It came almost every day, along with some others too. Instead, he looked quietly at the minister who, he knew, was already making a plan in his head.
Moodily, Cornelius sat back down on his chair and placed his left elbow on the arm rest and his left index and middle finger on his temple and leaned on them, while his thump gave support on his jaw bone. With his right fingers he tapped on the table top, impatiently. What other choice did he have except Hogwarts?
"Say," he said to Wilfred, without looking up. "You have two daughters, haven't you?"
Wilfred nodded. "Anna, six, and Emily, almost three."
Fudge continued after a moment of thought. "If they were in Hogwarts now… are you imagining they are?"
Wilfred nodded obediently. "Yes."
"Good." Fudge sat upright. "Think they are in Hogwarts… what would you say if I passed a marriage law requiring all girls in Hogwarts to be married off? What would you think?"
Wilfred paled visibly. "I'd ask myself if you had gone insane, Minister."
"What if I said it's for the good of the nation?"
Wilfred shook his head. "Even I wouldn't be too convinced."
"Would you have any worries?" Fudge cut in.
"With whom they'd end up with." Wilfred rested his head on his shoulder, looking sideways at Fudge. "And what would happen there to them."
Fudge nodded. "What if I told you that you had a say in whom they'd end up with? And what if there was a potion or a charm preventing them from being beaten and sexually assaulted?"
Wilfred winced. "It does ease my mind in the slightest, but I would still object. I'm sorry, Minister."
Fudge waved his hand dismissively. "Don't be," he sighed. "If it wouldn't be for you, I'd have passed a thousand-and-one crazy, and insane, and mad laws in the last ten years."
"A thousand-and-two now," Wilfred smiled.
Fudge looked at him. "I'm not done with that marriage law, yet," he said shaking his head. He waved his hand again.
As Wilfred left, he frowned.
"Quiet!" Albus Dumbledore said, stilling the muttering going through his office with a wave of his old, wrinkly hand. The headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry looked around his office, and even along the paintings framing his office walls. Everyone was fidgety and angry.
"Fudge can't do this!" Molly Weasley, mother of seven and wife to Arthur Weasley, exclaimed in rage. "Marry off eleven year old girls. Who knows with what perverts they'll end up with!"
Albus raised his hand again and she quietened down.
"I believe I don't have to tell anyone about the marriage law passed by Fudge this morning," he said softly. Again everyone started to rumor, but a third raise of his hand let everyone become quiet instantly.
"I haven't let the Order come together for nothing," he said with a twinkle in his eyes.
Severus Snape, potion master and teacher at Hogwarts, sneered loudly. "Which student will you get yourself?" he snapped. "Maybe Chang, she's young and pretty. Or how about Granger, annoying know-it-all? Wait, isn't the Weasley girl starting this year? I do think she'd be a good catch." He didn't mind that Molly slapped him scornfully.
Albus stayed quiet. In the past he had hit it off with young students, yes, but not anymore.
He cleared his throat and everyone looked at him. "I was hoping some of the male members would volunteer to petition for some of the girls, foremost Gryffindor and Ravenclaw as the Death Eaters will try to get them." Everyone looked at Snape, former Death Eater. No one said anything though.
Dumbledore continued. "Who'd volunteer?" He looked around.
"Me," a pale and exhausted looking man said stepping forward.
An African man did the same, closely followed by the two oldest Weasley boys.
"Remus, Kingsley, Bill and Charlie. Anyone else?" Albus asked, looking at Snape.
Severus grunted unwillingly. "Fine!" he finally snapped. It always tormented him when the headmaster stared at him like that. "Fine…"
"I could divorce Molly to save another girl," Arthur suggested.
Dumbledore nodded thankfully. "I have talked with Fudge per owl," he reported once finished writing down the names. "Each girl and her parents will meet the husband in my office, and then the marriage papers will be signed."
"What if the parents don't agree with the husband?" Molly voiced her thoughts. She wasn't too happy with Arthur's choice, of course. Furthermore she was worried about her youngest daughter who'd start Hogwarts this year.
"Then they get a list of all the other men who petitioned for their daughter and then they can decide whether or not they still want her to marry the present men," Albus answered.
With that the meeting was adjourned.
Molly came to his desk.
"Yes," Albus said before she spoke. "I will make sure that Ginevra gets a decent husband."
Harry Potter, the famous Boy-Who-Lived, grimaced as one of his best friends, Hermione Granger, opened the slide door to the compartment. "I'm so sorry," he said as she sat down. He had spent the last couple of days at his friend's Ron's house, and had thus heard about the marriage law. Normally he lived with his aunt and uncle who despised anything to do with magic, but Ron and his brothers Fred and George had rescued him from there.
Hermione shrugged and waved to a red headed girl, Ron's little sister Ginevra. At the moment she took it a bit lighthearted. "Would have gotten married sooner or later," she said. Secretly, however, she was slightly nervous. Though, of course, she'd never tell anyone.
"Must be hard," even Ronald Weasley admitted. He was the second youngest of seven children. "I mean, they could marry you to anyone, even Snape! And I mean, you're only, like, twelve years old."
"Nearly thirteen," she corrected him. "Eight more days." She pulled a book out of her trunk and began to read. Harry and Ron shrugged.
"At least, Mum was shook up about Ginny having to marry," Ron said. Next to him the girl shuddered.
Like the year before the train ride to Hogwarts took ages. When they did finally arrive it was pitch black and you could hardly see anything. A nervous Ginevra Weasley made her way over to Rubeus Hagrid, a half giant and the groundskeeper, who was waving a lantern about and called, "First years! First years!"
Harry, Hermione and Ron on the other hand joined up with a shy and forgetful Neville Longbottom, a boy in their year. Together the four of them made their way to horseless carriages, like the other students. They got into one of the last ones, somewhat embarrassed as they had never done this before.
"You must be quite worried," Neville said halfway to the actual castle. He obviously meant Hermione. "But my grandma said Dumbledore would never let you fall into the hands of a Death Eater." He tried to smile encouragingly, but it looked rather ill instead.
Hermione shuddered.
"I'm sorry," Neville instantly apologised. Seeing Ron's look he immediately shut up.
"I am actually surprised at the number of girls that showed up," Harry voiced his thoughts.
Hermione shook her head and her curls flew about like acrobats in a circus. "I see you haven't read the prophet. Every girl on the register of Hogwarts from the last year and the new first years added together are to be married, so there is no actual point of not going unless you want to spend time with your husband."
Harry nodded in agreement.
"I see," Ron added.
The carriage rumbled and shook the students through, then it came to a halt. The students exited and made their way to the Great Hall.
"Hey Granger!" came Draco Malfoy's voice through the crowd. "Guess what? My father divorced my mother and petitioned for your cute little ass!" Malfoy was a Slytherin and the son of a former Death Eater.
Hermione started to turn sickly green, as if she was going to throw up.
"Don't listen to him," Harry said quickly shoving her into the hall to get away from the Slytherin.
Severus was still angry about Dumbledore. He had never intended to marry anyone except Lily Evans, the girl of his dreams, but she had ended up dead so marriage had been out of his mind forever.
He sighed, and looked down from the Head Table to look at the students filling into the hall. His eyes fell on the girls, each and everyone walking around nervous and fidgety, as if they had all been raped on the train ride. And somehow they had. They had been raped off their freedom to marry at an appropriate time in their life with whoever they want.
Just outside the hall he heard Draco shout something, but he couldn't make out what. He guessed the moment Potter shoved a sick looking Granger in. Although she was annoying he pitied her, yet he also knew that Dumbledore would never let her end up with Lucius Malfoy.
Severus didn't even know who Albus had petitioned for him. After taking all the names he had vanished to the ministry without telling anyone who would get which girl hopefully. He didn't really care to be honest. After all it'd be for a few years only, at the most, and then they'd get a divorce and he'd be single again, or if the stupid law still existed, Dumbledore would probably ask him to petition again.
He sighed as the hall fell silent. He always found it a big waste of time to sit in, in the sorting ceremony. It was just listening to a poem an old hat took a whole year to make and then watch forty-odd kids put the afore mentioned hat on, who would then yell out their house. A waste of time. This year however he paid careful attention to the girls, those sorted into Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. After all one of them might be his future wife.
The Weasley girl was sorted into Gryffindor. Her mother would behead him if he had to marry her. Then there were another couple of uninteresting girls who'd probably wet themselves whenever they came near him. The same for Ravenclaw, unfortunately. The only girl who stood out was someone called Luna Lovegood, who, on her way to the Ravencalw table, sadly waved at Ginny. Severus prophesied many out of school meetings with her for himself.
Then Dumbledore stood, once Minerva McGonnagal, transfiguration teacher, returned to her seat next to Severus and the Headmaster. Like always Severus only half listened. Only at the part concerning the marriages did he pike up.
"… In the coming months the girls who have been petitioned for, and who are to be married this year, will be called to my office," Dumbledore started the new topic. Many of the girls started wincing and hugging each other. Others just stared blankly at their plates looking like they will throw up the minute their names are called. "There everything will be sorted out and you'll hopefully leave again a married wife." Some of the older boys snorted at the "hopeful". Dumbledore ignored it.
"Some of the teachers in this school have petitioned," he continued instead, knowingly looking across the Head Table. "Those girls who will be married to a professor will remain in their dorms, but will also get a room in the concerned teacher's quarters if they should wish to remain there." After talking to the Order Albus had also had a final word with all male teachers.
"Lastly but not leastly," the headmaster said, quirking form the corner of his mouth, "May I welcome our new DADA teacher, Mr. Gilderoy Lockhart!"
Few girls showered him with charming looks, hoping he'd be their husband. He seemed to ignore that most females in the room looked too sick to even acknowledge him and stood up, grandly bowing five times and blowing kisses to no one in particular.
Severus snorted. Why had Albus even hired that liar and pervert? It was a mystery to him. Lucky for the girls they couldn't be forced upon, but most of them would probably be stupid enough to let him into her pants once and then again and again. Just like charming ol' headmaster Dumbledore.
He didn't notice that everyone had started to eat until Minerva nudged him. It wasn't like him to daydream. This whole marriage law already started to ruin his reputation, and it hadn't even fully started.