A/N: This is for the Insane House Challenge on the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The prompt was 910. Trope - Marriage Law.
Hermione was sat at the kitchen table in the Burrow enjoying a light breakfast whilst catching up with Ginny when an owl swooped in and delivered a letter.
The witch opened it up and as she read the letter Hermione was unable to believe what it contained.
'...you have been selected for the new marriage law… your husband has already been chosen...we hope you and Mr McLaggen will be happy together,'
"Hermione, are you okay? What does the letter say?" Ginny asked concerned at the sudden change in her friends demeanour.
"It's from the Ministry. They have passed a marriage law and I have to marry Cormac McLaggen." Hermione said robotically.
"A marriage law! Can I see the letter, Hermione?"
Ginny took the offending letter from her friends hand and read the whole thing frowning even more as she went on.
"I'm so sorry, Hermione. It does look like it's on official paper. Maybe you should contact Kingsley just to be sure though," Ginny said optimistically.
Hermione nodded.
I suppose it could be worse. It could have been a Death Eater, she thought.
Although Hermione had found Cormac to be annoying and egotistical during Hogwarts she had not heard much about him after the Battle of Hogwarts.
"Do you know what happened to him after the war?" she asked her friend.
"He tried out for a few quidditch teams but he was only good enough to play on their reserve teams. I haven't heard anything about him since and that was about three years ago. I did hear rumours at the time that he was going to work for his father's company, but I don't know if he ever did," Ginny told her.
"I better write to him and ask to meet up. I really hope he's changed. I don't think could cope if he was still an self centred prick!" Hermione said sighing.
"I hope so too. Can you imagine what Ron is going to say?" Ginny snickered.
"McLaggen? He's almost worse than the ferret!" Hermione said mimicking her friend.
Ginny laughed hard at the impression and it soon got Hermione laughing too.
After they had calmed down a little, Ginny took Hermione's hand and said, "No matter what happens we will all be there for you."
"Thank you, Ginny," she said squeezing the other girls hand.
A few weeks later
Hermione looked herself over in the mirror again to make sure that she looked okay before she went to the restaurant.
Tonight was the first time that she would be officially meeting her future husband and Hermione wanted to make sure that she looked beautiful.
The two of them had exchanged many owls during that time and Cormac had even apologised for his behaviour at school stating that he had been a 'spoilt little brat'. After that things seemed to have gone smoothly for them. The only hiccough had been that they had to rearranged their first date a couple of times due to emergencies at work, but both of them understood that things come up and it wasn't intentional.
Hermione left home five minutes early and appeared at the nearest apparition point to the restaurant. She could see that Cormac was outside waiting for her already.
When he noticed her walking towards him he smiled and said, "Hello, Hermione."
"Hello, Cormac. You look nice," she said appraising the navy tailored suit he was wearing.
"And you look divine. Have you eaten here before?" he asked.
"I've never had a reason before."
"I hope you like it then," Cormac said holding out his arm for her and lead them into the restaurant.
Hermione was glad that evening had got off to such a good start and only hoped that things would continue that way. She knew there was a reason her mother said that she should give people second chances; 'you never know when someone might surprise you, Hermione'.