Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters belong to J.K. Rowling. They are used without permission, and no money is being made from this story. Zelia is my creation.
Marriage Laws and the Trouble They Cause
Chapter One: They Told Her She Needed a Husband
Zelia Fierfly put her hand above her eyes in a futile attempt to keep the bright sunlight from blinding her and looked around the Hogsmeade main street for an inn to stay at for a few days. She had already taken her trunk off her broom, but decided to leave the charm that made it very light. After spotting an inn and pub called "The Three Broomsticks", Zelia picked up her broomstick, grabbed the handle of her trunk, and started toward it.
Zelia was a very attractive witch with flawless porcelain skin, pouty pink lips, and a small, cute nose. Her eyes were the color of the night sky, and they sparkled as though someone had taken some stars from the sky and put them in her eyes. Her long blonde hair was shiny, soft, and it was very straight and went down to the middle of her back. Pale greenish yellow robes covered her slender, delicate looking body. She was short, standing at only five foot three.
"Hello. May I help you?" a woman greeted Zelia as she walked into The Three Broomsticks. It must have been a slow day, because there was no one else there.
"Hello," Zelia replied in a soft, gentle voice setting her trunk and broomstick down. "I just moved here, and I need a place to say for a few nights until I find a house. I was wondering if I could please use one of your rooms."
"You just moved here; to Hogsmeade?" the woman asked.
"Yes," Zelia replied, "from America."
"Oh, so that's why you sound so different," the woman replied. "I'm Rosmerta, this is my pub."
"It's very nice to meet you, Miss Rosmerta," Zelia replied. "My name is Zelia Fierfly."
"Zelia Firefly," Rosmerta repeated, but she messed up the last name.
"No, no, it's pronounced 'Fee-air-fly'," Zelia corrected her. "The spelling is very close to Firefly, but it is not, in fact, pronounced the same."
"I'll just call you Zelia, then," Rosmerta replied. "Are you married?"
"Oh no, ma'am," Zelia replied. "I'm only twenty-one; I think I'm still a bit young for marriage."
"You'd better get to the Ministry and register, then," Rosmerta said. "Today's the last day!"
"I'm sorry, the last day for what?" Zelia asked.
"You'd better hurry to the Ministry before it closes. Here, use my floo," Rosmerta said ushering Zelia to a large fireplace.
"But I need to book a room," Zelia protested.
"I'll take care of it for you, dear," Rosmerta said and tossed some floo powder into the fireplace before shoving Zelia into it. "Say 'The Ministry'!"
"The Ministry," Zelia repeated, and before she could ask anymore question, she was moving very fast over a blurred landscape. She began to feel nauseous, so Zelia closed her eyes until she stopped.
Zelia opened her eyes and saw that she had landed in a fireplace that was in a large open room filled with several fireplaces. The only door was on the other side of the room, and next to it was a middle aged witch sitting at a desk. Zelia walked up to the woman.
"Excuse me," Zelia said, and the woman looked up. Zelia quickly read the name plate and learn the woman's name was 'Deborah Quintry'.
"Yes?" Deborah asked.
"Hello, I'm Zelia Fierfly, and Miss Rosmerta from The Three Broomsticks told me I needed to come here and register," Zelia explained. "I'm new to Britain."
"I see. Are you married?" Deborah asked.
"No, I'm not," Zelia replied.
"Then you'll need to be assigned a husband," Deborah replied.
"I'm sorry; did you say I need to be assigned a husband?" Zelia asked; surely she had misheard this woman.
"Yes, I did," Deborah replied calmly.
"May I ask why?" Zelia asked, and in response Deborah pointed her quill to a large poster behind her. Zelia read it:
"The Minister of Magic hereby proclaims that all Witches and Wizards who are of age, or will be of age (that is to say seventeen years old), as of September 1st 2007 must be wed to another witch or wizard depending on one's gender. This is owing to the fact that the wizarding population has dwindled greatly in recent years."
The addendum to the law: "Any Witch or Wizard who has not found a suitable marriage partner by September 1st 2007 must report to the ministry where he or she will be assigned a marriage partner."
Second Addendum: "Any wizard or witch who is of age, but hasn't completed his or her magical training will be granted immunity from this law until he or she completes his or her magical training. Once he or she has left Hogwarts, he or she will have approximately one month to find a suitable partner. Any witch or wizard who falls under this immunity who hasn't found a suitable partner by July 16th 2008 must report to the ministry where he or she will be assigned a partner."
"Well, if it's the law, then I'll obey it," Zelia said. It seemed like a silly law, but laws were put into place for good reason. "Where do I need to go?"
"Go down to the end of the hall and take the elevator up two floors," Deborah began. "Then, go to the third door on the right. The wizard there will assign you a husband."
"Thank you very much," Zelia replied. "Do I come back here to leave?"
"You do," Deborah confirmed.
"Thank you," Zelia replied and walked out the door into the hallway.
The walk to the elevator was longer than Zelia had anticipated, but she kept going until she reached it. She rode it up two floors, and then stepped off into another hallway. She counted the doors on her right, which were about fifteen feet apart. When she reached the third door on the right, she read a sign that said "Marriage Assignments", and went inside.
It was a small office with a bored looking wizard sitting behind an old worn desk. Other than Zelia and the wizard, there were no other people in the room. Zelia entered the room so quietly that the wizard behind the desk didn't even hear her.
"Excuse me, sir," Zelia said, and despite her soft voice, the wizard jumped about a foot in the air.
"Oh, oh my goodness," the wizard said. "I'm sorry, Miss you gave me quite a shock there."
"I'm sorry," Zelia apologized. "I was told I need to come here to be assigned a husband?"
"Not married then?" the wizard asked smiling and Zelia shook her head. "Well, it's no matter. Let me see, who is next on my list of men needing wives?" the wizard scanned a list of names. "Hmm, it seems there is only one left. Well then, Miss, your husband will be Severus Snape, Potions teacher at Hogwarts. He's already signed his part of a marriage certificate, so if you could just sign it too. You'll be legally married then, and you can go meet your new husband."
"Do you…do you think it would be all right if I waited until tomorrow to meet him?" Zelia asked. "I'm a bit tired from my journey, and I would like to be well refreshed before meeting him."
"I don't think that could hurt anyone," the wizard replied and pushed a scroll of parchment and a quill at Zelia. "Now, if you'll just sign by the 'x'."
Zelia bent down to sign the paper that simply read "The Ministry of Magic hereby recognizes that the undersigned are hereby partners in marriage. The Ministry of Magic wishes them the best of luck." She signed her name on the line under Severus Snape's signature and noticed blank line next to her name.
"All done?" the wizard asked, and Zelia nodded. "Then I just sign next to your name as a witness, and that's that. Congratulations Miss," he paused to read her name, "Firefly."
"It's Fierfly," Zelia corrected him.
"Terribly sorry, Miss Fierfly," the wizard replied.
"Please, don't worry yourself about it," Zelia replied. "I'll be going now. Thank you."
"Wait a moment, Miss Fierfly!" The wizard exclaimed just as Zelia reached the door. Zelia turned to look at him with a curious expression upon her face. "We must inform Professor Snape that he has been assigned a wife. We must also inform Professor Dumbledore that you will need sleeping quarters in Hogwarts."
"Wouldn't I be staying with my husband?" Zelia asked.
"Err," the wizard began, and while he continued Zelia noticed that he wouldn't meet her eyes. "Well, I just thought you might be more comfortable with your own space for the first day or two. Until…until you get to know each other better."
"That's very kind of you to think of my feelings. Thank you," Zelia replied.
"I'll just send an owl to Dumbledore, and everything will be set for tomorrow," the wizard replied. "Tell me, if you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?"
"Oh, that's easy," Zelia replied with a sweet smile. "I'd live in a forest filled with deciduous trees; sleep on a bed of feathers, underneath a blanket made of flower petals."
"Lovely," the wizard replied. "That is all, Miss Fierfly, or should I say Mrs. Snape. If you have somewhere else to be, please don't feel obligated to stay any longer."
"Thank you, sir," Zelia replied. "Have a nice day."
She heard the wizard behind the desk mutter a matching response to her good-bye, and then Zelia stepped back out into the hallway. She walked back to the elevator, rode it down two floors, and then walked down the long hallway to the room she had arrived in earlier.
"Things go well, dear?" Deborah asked kindly.
"Yes, thank you," Zelia replied. "I have a husband now I suppose."
"That's wonderful," Deborah replied.
"I am a bit worried," Zelia confessed. "We've never met; what if he doesn't like me?"
"Personally, I don't see anything about you not to like," Deborah said. "Give it time to grow, and who knows what will happen."
"Yes, I should do that," Zelia agreed. "Thank you for everything, but I should get back to the inn. I'll need to get some rest before meeting Mr. Snape."
"Take care, dear," Deborah replied as Zelia stepped into the fireplace.
"The Three Broomsticks!" Zelia announced as she threw down some flew powder.
"Wait!" Deborah exclaimed. "Did you say --!" but before she could finish, Zelia was gone.
Another whirling, twirling, nauseating ride later, Zelia found herself standing in the fireplace of The Three Broomsticks for the second time that day. Madam Rosmerta was serving a table of elderly wizards, so Zelia took a seat at the bar and waited.
"Back already?" Rosmerta asked when she returned to the bar. "I took your things up to a room, but if you need to go meet whoever your husband is, I can go grab them."
"Oh, thank you, but that isn't necessary," Zelia replied. "The wizard who assigned me a husband said I could wait until tomorrow to meet him."
"If you ask me, they should let us wait until we meet the right person," Rosmerta said. She continued to speak as she poured some butterbeer into a mug and handed it to Zelia. "All this bloody nonsense about a decline in our population. What a load of tosh!"
"Would you mind if I changed the subject?" Zelia asked. All the talk about husbands, marriage laws, and populating the wizarding world was making her head start to spin.
"Not at all," Rosmerta replied with a smile. "I didn't mean to scare you, if I did."
"Oh, you didn't," Zelia replied. "I was just wondering if you went to Hogwarts."
"Sure did," Rosmerta replied proudly. "That was years and years ago. Now, I just serve the students on Hogsmeade weekends, and the occasional teacher nearly every night."
"Do you know Professor Snape?" Zelia asked.
"He prefers the Hogs Head, pub down the lane," Rosmerta replied, a look of slight disdain passed across her face. "He says my place is filled with so much adolescent energy that he can barely stand to come inside. Why do you ask?"
"Well," Zelia replied and then hesitated for a moment. "He's…he was the one I was assigned to; he's my husband."
"Oh my, you-," Rosmerta started to say something, but then quickly looked away and stopped talking.
"What's wrong?" Zelia asked looking at Rosmerta concerned.
"Oh, nothing, nothing at all," Rosmerta replied. "I just don't want you to form a biased opinion on Professor Snape before you meet him. I'm sure you're exhausted, why don't I give you your room key and you can get some sleep?"
"That would be very nice, thank you," Zelia replied.
Madam Rosmerta pulled a key out from behind her counter and handed it to Zelia while telling her that she was in room number three. Zelia thanked her and paid for the butterbeer before heading up the stairs to her room.
Zelia opened the door and looked around the small room. It was a very simple room, but also serviceable. There was a large bed, a bureau, a wardrobe, and a small table with two chairs. Her trunk and broom were sitting at the foot of the bed, so Zelia pulled her pajamas out of her trunk and went into the bathroom for a relaxing bath before bed.
(Author's notes: Well, that's the end of chapter one. I hope that if you clicked on this story you've enjoyed what you've read so far. I don't normally post fanfic on the internet because I'm not sure if it's good or not, but if you liked it, please review! I have chapter two ready to go, and I'm planning out chapter three. The more reviews I get the faster I'll work! Thanks for reading!)