I have read so many marriage law fic's over the years, and i have enjoyed every single one of them, the challenge presented by the idea and the interesting pairing's produced are more than enough to make them an interesting read. However i have always had trouble believing people - particularly Hermione - would submit so easily to such a law. With this thought in mind i produced this. Please keep in mind that I am English, which naturally means i have no concept of how spelling, punctuation and grammer are supposed to work within the English language.
Disclaimer - I wish i owned something, anything really, but alas.
- Quick background information that you should know for this fic
Both Lupin and Snape survived the war (in my mind they will never die)
Percy was a spy for the whole duration of the war
The battle of hogwarts took place in what would have been the month before the christmas holidays of the trio's seventh year.
A month after the battle the wizarding population voted for Fudge to once again become the minister of magic. The feeling of comfort and saftey many still associated with him after the first war ensuring his re-election by a population who just wanted to put it all behind them.
The people currently inhabiting the Burrow were finally beginning to relax, the final battle had been fought their fallen mourned. Although there were still a small number of fights on occasion, these were becoming fewer and fewer with every passing month. Hogwarts was even set to re-open once the summer was over, is finally felt like it was all coming to an end, the war finally over.
Mr and Mrs Weasley were happily relaxing at the dining table, enjoying a rare moment of quite in the usually noisy house. Until Percy burst in, pale and scared.
"Percy?" Arthur jumped towards him, worried by his son's appearance.
The newly revealed spy ignored him passing straight through to the kitchen. Reaching into a cupboard, he pulled out the firewhiskey he knew his father kept there. Not bothering to get himself a glass, Percy drank straight from the bottle. Turning to his parents, Percy finally allowed his tears to brim over.
"Percy?" His mother questioned gently, moving to embrace him softly.
Accepting the hug, Percy cried into his mother's shoulder. This was what he had needed during the war, what he had given up, and it seemed as if some people were determined to make all of his and countless others efforts to have been for nothing.
Pulling back from the hug Percy finally spoke. "Umbridge, she's been conversing with the minister a lot lately. I only found out why today. I overheard them talking, spying is a hard habit to drop it seems, they-" he broke off to swig at the whiskey again.
Wiping his mouth off with the back of his hand, Percy gulped, "they're planning to introduce a marriage law. Muggleborn witches will be forced to marry pureblood wizards of the ministries choosing. They will have to be married within a year of the law or of their seventeenth birthday, if they were underage at that time if not they could be sentenced to Azkaban. Umbridge plans to auction the witches off to the pureblood families." Percy's voice began to waver as he started to cry, "And I have no idea how to stop it, hell I don't even know when they're going to do it. All I did in the war and I drop the ball now," He sobbed.
Soon enough he found himself in his mother's embrace again. "You don't have to Percy. You were alone then you're not now, we will all come up with a solution together, ok?" She whispered reassuringly, exchanging scared looks with Arthur as Percy slumped, defeated against her.
Several floo calls, outbursts of swearing, and bottles of whiskey later, the living members of the Order of the Phoenix sat together around the table in their old headquarters.
"It's no use," Lupin sighed "we don't have the support to take any real action and if we were to announce this publically, the ministry will probably just deny it and thoroughly debunk us before introducing the law at a later date."
"I concur." Snape added "Unless, we had access to the document they planned to legislate, there is little we can do. Even if we did have access, I doubt we would be able to find a solution, none of us have that kind of influence anymore."
Ignoring the collective sighs produced at this statement Lupin turned to Percy. "You need to get your hands on a document if it exists, and we," he indicates the rest of the table "need to start setting up safe houses and escape plans in case we cannot stop it. Is there anyone in the order we need to protect?"
Arthur shook his head "Rebecca Simons, died at Hogwarts and that only leaves Her-" he stopped, raising his terrified gaze to those around the table.
Breaking the silence Lupin groaned in despair, "she will be fought over; her hand in taking down Voldemort, her youth, her intelligence not to mention her connection to Harry and us, they will all want her death eaters or not." Lupin continued ignoring the gasps around the table, "we need to hide her and keep her safe, now."
"Someone's going to notice if the brains of the Golden Trio," Snape sneered "suddenly disappears to go into hiding. They are in the papers every other day, for Merlin's sake. If we try to protect her now, we could blow any chance we have at stopping this."
"And what may I ask, is it exactly that I need protecting from?"
Spinning around they were greeted with the sight of Hermione, lent in the doorway, eyebrows high on her head.
Exchanging glances the order members turned to Lupin, "Hermione perhaps you should sit down," he said gently.
Striding to the table Hermione took a seat near the middle, before turning to Lupin, a questioning expression fixed on her face.
"Well you see, Percy overheard something today, it seems the ministry or at least Umbridge and Fudge are planning on introducing a marriage law. Muggleborn witches will be forced to marry pureblood wizards of the ministries choosing," he said gravely.
Hermione buried her face in her hands. "With no rights for those involved I presume? And I'm guessing the purebloods will have a choice in partner because of their connections within the ministry."
"As far as Percy was able to tell that's the idea yes. They haven't drawn up the bill yet, so our information is sketchy at best. For all we know this law may not even come into effect at all, but we have to be prepared for if it does," Lupin spoke gently.
Hermione nodded, and the order could see the moment her brain kicked into overdrive. "Ok, then I have to agree with the professor," she said eventually. "My sudden disappearance would be much too suspicious, especially with school starting in a couple of months, Merlin knows people will notice if I don't attend. We need to at least try to fix this for the other muggleborns in the UK, besides we can't bring it to their attention that Percy is a spy in their midst. That would likely not end well, for him or any of us for that matter." She rose from her chair, "I need to think. If you manage to get a copy of the legislature, I'd really appreciate it Percy." Smiling at the man, she moved to embrace him "and thanks for the warning, even if this is a horrid situation to be in, I am glad for the chance to do something about it ahead of time." Hermione pulled back and smiled at him again, before turning and briskly exiting the room.
Over the months, the members of the order became more and more frantic as their efforts were met with little success. Those close to Hermione became increasingly worried for the girl and the odd behaviour she had been exhibiting.
After first hearing of the law, Hermione spent much of her time shut in her room, only coming out for meals and to use the bathroom. Mrs Weasley was beside herself with worry, especially after Hermione, politely but firmly, turned down a nervous proposal from Ron over breakfast.
Half a week after Percy broke the news, Hermione emerged from her room again. She began spending her time raiding the Black and Prince family libraries (Nobody could work out how she gained access to the second. She didn't tell anyone and Snape glared at anyone who so much as mentioned it).
When asked, Hermione would only say that she was working on a project and nothing else. After a week of this, Hermione returned to her room once more. This time, though, the occupants of the Burrow could feel the pulse of spells being performed within it. Some of them, recognising the distinct feel of spells being created and tested. When the magical energy emanating from the room finally became more consistent, like that of fully developed spells, the owls started coming.
Throughout the day and night Hermione began, answering and sending so much mail that the girl eventually had to buy five owls just to keep up. Hermione continued sending extraordinary amounts of mail, whilst spending as much time as possible in the Prince and Black family libraries. Up until the day Percy was finally able to bring them a copy of the proposed law.
The assembled members of the order regarded the parchment that lay before them with various expressions of disgust and worry.
Percy looked straight at Hermione, who was reading the parchment carefully, whilst addressing the rest of the room. "They've finally drawn it up, and have already done the necessary work to ensure it will pass, everyone who needs to be bribed or coerced has been; now they are all just waiting. They want to implement it in early October, so that certain persons will be distracted by Hogwarts, and to theoretically give the majority of the death eater trials a chance to conclude."
"They want to ensure that as many purebloods as possible will get to bid, to up the prices." Snape stated turning from the law to Percy he spoke again, "I imagine the certain people you refer to, are the members of us that work as teachers and the 'trio', correct?"
"Yes," Percy nodded. "Most specifically Hermione, it would seem Umbridge remembers the time she spent with the Centaurs and exactly who was responsible for her being there in the first place."
"Well, obviously dear old Dolores does not remember that that particular event took place during a school term as have most of the other challenging events in my life. Over the years I've become an expert in balancing schoolwork and difficult situations, that doesn't change now that Voldemort is dead, honestly," Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well, her loss is my gain."
Standing she put her wand to the parchment, duplicating it. Picking up her copy, Hermione took it and made to exit the room.
"Hermione!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed, worry written across her face. "What are you planning?"
"As far as any of you are concerned I'm not planning anything, this will fall on me and only me if it goes wrong," Hermione said carefully looking each of them in the eyes.
The various members of the order exchanged grim looks knowing she isn't the sort to give up something she has set her mind to. All except Mrs Weasley who only looked at the girl she considered a daughter, with tears in her eyes. "Please Hermione, whatever you're doing, just stop, you can marry Ronald. If you do it before the law is enacted you'll be safe with us. Weasley's protect their own, please Hermione." She begged the girl.
Hermione also had tears in her eyes as she walked up to Molly, taking her hands into her own. Looking into the eyes of the woman who had treated her like her own for all of these years, Hermione shook her head. "I'm sorry Mrs Weasley. I would be honoured to become a Weasley, but I can't. I can't get married knowing what all of the other muggleborns will be subjected to, that's not who I am. Besides Ron is one of my best friends, and I love him very much, however I am not in love with him and neither is he with me. Wizarding marriages last until death. I can't do that to him, I can't take away his chance at happiness, not for anything. Besides, I think Umbridge has set up this law with me specifically in mind, she wants me to suffer and because of that I worry about what would happen to Ron if we were to marry. Please, Mrs Weasley I know you're worried, but I can't afford for the family I have come to love like my own to be dragged into this with me." Hermione looked Mrs Weasley in the eye as she pleaded, "Please, Mrs Weasley."
Mrs Weasley nodded and fell sobbing into the girls arms. Embracing the woman softly, Hermione raised her gaze to meet those of the rest of the room, the determination showed there causing some of them to flinch at its intensity.
The rest of the summer was spent in much the same way as the start. Most of the people around Hermione continued to give her worried looks when they thought she wasn't looking. This only got worse when she started disappearing for hours at a time with no explanation for her absence.
The only person who didn't seem particularly worried by the law was Snape. His uncaring attitude eventually led to the stressed Mrs Weasley exploding at him over dinner with various other order members. At the end of which Snape simply raised his eyebrow, "I can quite assure you that this situation has not been caused by my lack of heart, but rather by something you lack that I possess." Once Mrs Weasley had scoffed and speculated through various differences between the two, Snape had stood, looked her in the eyes and with calm finality delivered the only words that could make Molly freeze "I trust Mrs Granger," before he turned and swept from the room.
When it was finally time for the teens to depart for Hogwarts, Hermione was crushed in many forceful hugs as murmured 'good lucks' and 'come back to us safe's' were whispered into her ear.
As far as anyone could tell most of Hermione's unusual behaviour stopped once she started class with the rest of the newly formed eighth years. She still sent and received unusual amounts of mail, but nothing near the quantity she went through during the summer. Her classwork still gained outstanding's without fail and her homework was always completed on time. In fact the only real change people noticed was how she had stopped launching her hand into the air at every question presented to the class. Any and all changes, however, were attributed to the lasting effects of the war, not because of things that were yet to come.
However, Professor Lupin – who was enthusiastically welcomed back to the DADA post –, Professor Snape – who was once again teaching potions – and the Headmistress, Professor McGonagall could all sense the tension around the girl.
This tension, the teachers had noted, could also be found around several of their other muggleborn students. It was if they were all waiting for something to happen. Eventually, the tension became so strong it could be felt whenever a person entered the castle. The whole student population was unknowingly sitting on tender hooks; waiting for something most of them should not have known was going to happen.
This atmosphere was held over the castle until, finally, the day came that Hermione was summoned to the headmistresses' office. She was greeted with two grim faces and an unnervingly jubilant Snape.
"Miss Granger," McGonagall acknowledged. "I feel it best to warn you that Minister Fudge and Madame Umbridge are here, I believe the day we have all been waiting for has finally come."
"I would say so Professor," she replied evenly.
"Miss Granger- Hermione, please, it's not too late we still have enough safe houses in operation, we can still get you away from this," the headmistress begged her favourite student.
"And, what would become of you and Percy when Umbridge finds out you helped me? I will not doom you all for my own safety. Thank you for the warning and for caring it means a lot to me." She said softly before smiling at them blindingly as she turned to leave "now let's show them the power of the muggleborns."
McGonagall and Lupin exchanged worried glances at this statement, whilst Snape lent back in his chair "You will ask the house elves to supply popcorn for this, I trust, I believe we are in for quite a show."
When the students entered the dining hall that evening they were surprised to see the minister sitting amongst their teachers, the older students – baring those from Slytherin who had slightly fonder memories of the woman – glared distrustfully at the woman sat by his side, remembering her short but excruciating tenure here years before.
Some students, Snape noted, were not looking at all surprised to see the minister within their midst. Some of these were the heirs to the remaining pureblood legacies; however most of them seemed to be glancing towards Mrs Granger, as if reassuring themselves of her presence. Miss Granger herself had taken her seat, and looked towards her plate not moving even to acknowledge the numerous glances being sent in her direction. Noting all of this, Snape smirked and lent back in his chair, disappointed the headmistress had not fulfilled his request for popcorn. What show was really complete without it? He lamented silently.
Professors McGonagall and Lupin had also noted some of their students pre-occupation with the girl. Fortunately Fudge was busy directing remarkably similar looks at Umbridge and Umbridge was too pleased with herself to notice.
Dinner progressed like this, with everyone except perhaps a few of the younger students, waiting in tense anticipation for the proverbial penny to drop.
After dinner Fudge rose to his feet and gave the students a smarmy grin. "Students of Hogwarts, it is a great pleasure to be dining amongst you once again. I am saddened that I have to ruin the evening as the bearer of bad news. I'm afraid the healers of St. Mungo's have catalogued a disturbing trend in the Wizarding world of Great Britain. Non-magical children are becoming more and more common amongst the Wizarding masses, miscarriages and birth defects are also on the rise. With the amount of life lost in the war, the Wizarding population of Britain is at an all-time low. So low in fact that we are running the risk of dying out," he paused for the muttering that followed that statement.
"Fortunately," he said raising his hands in an attempt to calm them "the ministry has found a solution." The older students exchanged glances at this, as did the teachers. "This war, that has cost us so much, was in part the result of gross misunderstandings of muggles and muggleborns by the Wizarding population. In an effort to fix this and our population problems, the ministry is to implement a marriage law, effective immediately."
Murmuring and shouting broke out across the hall at that announcement.
"A more detailed look at the law will be provided in tomorrow's prophet, but the general stipulations will be as follows." He near shouted, raising his voice over the frenzied student body. At the mention of stipulations the noise stopped fast as attention was once again returned to the minister. "All witches and wizards aged over seventeen are eligible to marry." He began, "Any marriages or engagements in affect before this announcement will be allowed to continue once approved by the ministry. A pureblood wizard may petition for the hand of any single muggleborn witch over the age of seventeen. All petitions must go through and be approved by the ministry, if the petition is deemed acceptable, the ministry will accept on the behalf of the muggleborn in question. Once a petition has been accepted the witch and wizard will have a month to marry. If at the end of a two month period, a muggleborn has not been petitioned for she will be assigned a husband by the ministry. Within a year of the marriage, the couple will be expected to have produced or be expecting a child – unless there are acceptable medical reasons preventing this, if that is the case the marriage can be annulled by the pureblood and both members will be reassigned partners. Failure to comply with this law will result in fines, prison sentences and the breaking or removal of your wand."
A deathly silence had overtaken the room with many people looking over at their muggleborn friends in panic and horror, even the purebloods did not look happy, they were not exactly ready to become parents after all.
Fudge looked at the sea of shocked faces and smiled, "just think some of you will be married in two months and have children on the way within a year," he said cheerfully.
Both the teachers and the students look sick at this thought.
And then, finally, Hermione looked up from her plate. Standing, she raises her gaze to look Fudge in the eye and passively but firmly states, "I will not."
Fudge paled considerably, whilst Dolores looked delighted. "Miss Granger," he stuttered "the punishment for not adhering to the law is Azkaban."
Hermione nodded her head curtly "I am aware."
Umbridge jumped up gleefully, "well then, Auror's arrest her!" She shrieked to Fudge's protective detail.
The Auror's glanced at each other clearly uncomfortable with what they were being asked to do but, orders were orders so they stepped forward to do as they were told.
"Ah, yes, how was it Dumbledore put this?" The Auror's froze "Oh, yes, I thought we might hit this little snag." Hermione started to make her way up the room towards the head table. "You see I have no intention of going to Azkaban. Neither do they." She said tilting her head to the side as different students stood from their seats.
Drawing level with top of her house table she stopped her progression. "Don't get me wrong, the idea was on the table originally, after all you don't have the resources to keep the entire muggleborn population incarcerated for long. Not to forget the fact that you really would have a population crisis if you tried, but that route would only lead to chaos, blood loss and a restriction of our freedoms. To be quite frank after the war, I think we've had just about enough of that don't you? Besides why would we submit ourselves to that when there are more luxurious options available to us?"
Umbridge leapt to her feet and sneered at the girl. "There are no other options you either adhere to the law or go to Azkaban. You have no choice but to comply, Miss Granger."
"I'm afraid I'd have to disagree, Dolores," Hermione drawled.
"Oh and what magical, illegal, hair brained scheme have you come up with now," Umbridge scoffed enraged.
Hermione smile turned sharp as she looked Umbridge in the eyes, "Non-extradition."
Umbridge paled a moment before laughing it off. "To be protected by a non-extradition treaty, you would first have to find a country that has one, and then you would have to actually get within their borders. Unless you intend to fight your way out of here and across most of Europe, I suggest you give it up Miss Granger."
"Of course we're not going to fight our way out. That would rather go against the whole 'no bloodshed' thing we we're talking about earlier. Besides even if we did fight our way out, what about the rest of the muggleborns in the UK? It would be rather remiss of us to abandon them. Not to mention, illogical. We can't set about getting this law, amongst others I might add, revoked or changed, if we abandon most of our number before we've even started."
Hermione paused, cocking her head.
"We could have started moving the muggleborn population out slowly over time, of course. However, if we are being honest with ourselves even you're band of idiots would have noticed that. Indeed the only way for all of us to escape, as it were, would be for all of us to leave at once."
Fudge, who was now as white as a sheet, fearfully whispered "You can't."
"We can't what?" Hermione asked politely.
"Y-You can't l-leave all at once." Fudge stuttered, gaining confidence he continued, "H-How will you survive without your possessions, how will you get things like food without any money?"
"No, of course not. If we were to leave we would have to find or create some sort of instant travel system, and we would then have to tie that system into our possessions, so that they would be transported with us. We would also have to endure several negotiations with the Goblins of Gringotts, to ensure we would remain in control of all of our assets. You are correct in saying we would probably need to use our gold if we were to leave. We'd have also needed to set up various villages to make our stay as comfortable as possible. The construction of which would need to incorporate many magical AND muggle innovations. This being necessary to convince the ministries, they would eventually belong too, of their long-term worth. Naturally, all of the muggleborns in the UK would have had to have been informed of, and prepared for this ahead of time. For that we would have had to invent, manufacture and distribute communication devices right under your noses. That doesn't even go to mention the transportation devices themselves; maybe if we had the time we would have made them so they engulfed us in a ball of fire, to emulate the escape of Professor Dumbledore three years ago." At the conclusion of her speech all of the muggleborns around the hall produced feathers from within their robes. Within seconds they had burst into flames, leaving nothing in their place. "He did have style after all," Hermione remarked casually.
Both Fudge and Umbridge turn to gape at her in disbelief, even as Snape grinned gleefully next to them.
Bursting into the hall, a ministerial aid ran up to Fudge. "Minister we're getting reports of people going up in flames all over the country, the muggles are panicking, there have been several hundred reported sightings already."
Hermione smiled at the both of them "I am currently the only un-wed muggleborn in the whole of the United Kingdom. We figured it would be best to take all of the muggleborn wizards too. You know we've been planning this for so long it's weird to think it's all finally happened," she mused to herself.
Snapping out of it she stood straight before the two officials. "Please inform your successors that we are open to negotiation, I am sure they will quickly see how Wizarding Britain suffers without us. If they have brains at all they should be able to find us." She looked them over derisively before turning on her heel "given their predecessors I won't hold out hope." Withdrawing her own feather from her robes, Hermione offered her friends a grin before bursting into flames, like those before her.
I hope that all actually made sense. Criticism expected and embraced ;)