A/N: Hey everyone! Since you all wanted a teaser of my new idea her it is! Just to warn you all - I won't be updating this one until my other fic Harry Potter, Harry Snape or Harry Riddle? is finished. I just want to concentrate on one story otherwise I would mix things up in my mind ;)
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling - I just played a bit in her universe.
Thanks to miu-sama95 for prereading, betaing and helping with the storyline ;)
Bonded for Life - Teaser
Words: 1557
„I now pronounce you bonded for life. You may kiss."
Married. He was married. At sixteen. He hadn't even finished school yet. He probably never would. It didn't matter anymore.
Harry felt numb. He didn't even notice when his bonded kissed him and led him down the aisle while all the onlookers applauded them. Onlookers. Because they were definitely not his friends or guests. They just wanted to see the Boy-Who-Lived.
Harry felt completely empty inside. He couldn't believe they left him hanging like this. It wasn't as if it had been his idea to get married to that person. Or get married at all.
All this had begun after school ended for the year. He had – of course – been sent back to his 'wonderful' relatives, the Dursleys. He had hoped that after the trauma of losing Sirius they would let him stay at Grimmauld Place but no such luck. Dumbledore was adamant that he stay in Privet Drive.
The first two weeks in that house had been awful as usual. He was grieving Sirius and woke up the whole house with his nightmares. Usually that resulted in a beating from Uncle Vernon for waking him up.
Then there were endless lists of chores to complete without being fed – as usual – and let's not forget being used as Dudley's punching bag as well. So just the usual. Not that anyone cared. The only one that had cared was dead now.
He had felt completely left alone. Not only had they sent him back there but also his friends didn't write him. Ron and Hermione probably just thought he needed time alone to get over Sirius but they could still write him and ask how he was doing.
Or keeping him up to speed with the wizarding world. While at Privet Drive he was literally isolated. The next wizarding war could break out and he would never know.
Two days ago everything changed. He was weeding the garden when four aurors arrived. He didn't know any of them and was wary of just going with them but since he didn't know what was going on he had to believe them. At least he would get away from the Dursley's abuse.
They told him to pack all of his things and come with them. After one of them was nice enough to shrink and lighten his trunk he left willingly with them with all his possessions in his pocket. They had brought him to the Ministry where finally someone was nice enough to tell him what was going on.
The nice, old witches and wizards in the Wizengamot had decided to implement a marriage law. Apparently killing hundreds of people in a war and inbreeding in the pure blooded families led to an alarming decrease in the wizarding world's population. Fancy that!
Really? How stupid were these people? Of course your population decreases if you wage a war against your own kind. And if you don't give people an incentive afterward they won't produce more children than necessary.
To stave off total extinction of magical Britain they came up with this wonderful law. Every witch and wizard between 16 and 50 that was still fertile had to marry and produce at least four children. All eligible people who were in a marriage had six months to get pregnant or their marriage would be dissolved as well.
Marriages were also being dissolved if one partner was infertile. The other part of the law states that pure blooded people were not allowed to intermarry. They had to marry a halfblood or a muggleborn.
That meant every eligible witch and wizard had until Christmas to get bonded and pregnant. Since the Ministry was 'helping' with the pairing of the couples they insisted that they were to be bonded and thus put together for life. They feared that otherwise people would just split up after producing the required amount of children leaving the children behind.
You may wonder why he had been married already when he just turned sixteen. Meddling old fools was the answer to that.
As far as he had understood it from all the talk he had heard Albus freaking Dumbledore used to be his magical guardian. (The headmaster of Hogwarts was the magical guardian for all students who had only muggle guardians/family.)Used to be being the important part of that sentence.
Somehow after the fiasco at the Ministry they had decided that it was not safe for Dumbledore to be the guardian of the students (not that Harry didn't understand that part – but NOW?). Thus the Wizarding Childcare Department took over the magical guardianship for all students with muggle parents. That would also not be so bad all things considered.
But the big problem was that Harry was not yet of age. Meaning that although he was required to marry he was not allowed to pick just anybody. No, his magical guardian had a big say in whom he married. Thus leaving him to the wolves that were the esteemed members of the Ministry.
The WCD (with major influence from Minister Fudge who in turn was largely influenced by the likes of Lucius Malfoy) decided to make an example of Harry since he was The-Boy-Who-Lived. They wanted to show the good of this stupid marriage law that they had set in place. Thus they married him off as the first person to be bonded under the law and his bonded was – of course – a Death Eater.
Harry still hoped this was all a nightmare and he would wake up back in Dudley's second bedroom with a list of chores to do for the day. He was nearly ready to pray for it. Sadly the more time passed the more he lost hope of ever waking up again.
Most of his friends and family – or those he thought of as family – had left him all alone in this mess. Like usual they abandoned him when things got though. The Weasleys had turned their backs the second they realized Harry would not be marrying their precious Ginny (not that he had ever wanted to). He had received howlers from Molly as well as Ron.
They called him a liar and traitor although he never had a choice. The twins told him they were on his side but they had to stay off Molly's radar for a while which Harry completely understood but didn't help his feelings much.
He had worked up the courage to inform Hermione of the mess he was in and had been surprised by her response. She knew and understood this had not been his choice and encouraged him to make the best of it. But since she was on holiday with her parents she could not be there for him either.
Nobody was ever there for him. At least nobody who was still alive. He understood that other things were more important than him or his problems. That was the way it had always been.
Since his godfather had died Remus had become very reclused and in the last letter before everything went apeshit crazy the wolf had told him he would be taking a trip to the mainland to get some distance from all that was happening in Britain. He had gone completely off the grid so Harry didn't stand a chance of contacting him.
Harry had of course understood and encouraged Remus to go. He would have loved to leave Britain as well but he was stuck at the Dursleys as usual.
He was also grieving Sirius but Remus had known him a lot longer and they had been to hell and back together. Harry didn't have the right to grieve as much as Remus. He had only known his godfather for two years and ever during those they hadn't spent all that much time together.
Harry was so lost in his depressing thoughts that none of the wedding celebrations even registered in his mind. Since he actually had zero guests nobody even bat an eyelash when he didn't talk to them.
Most were part of the Dark Sect anyway; a lot of Slytherins, some of his year mates and their parents were there. But Harry didn't notice any of it.
The only time he rose out of his depressing thoughts was during dinner – not that he ate much of that.
His partner had been leading him around the ballroom all night long and was now eyeing him with concern. They had probably hoped that Harry would either get used to the idea and maybe even deflect to the Dark or make a scene that would in the end portrait him in a bad light.
Harry may have spent some time during the last week with his intended but he knew next to nothing about the person. He knew there were layers of masks to break through to get to the real person beneath it and frankly he was too tired to even try.
He was tired of it all. He hated all that the wizarding world had brought to him. Because in the end everything bad that had ever happened to Harry had been the fault of the wizarding world.
Maybe he should just end it all. He would be doing a lot of people a favor – or at least so it seemed.
So what do you think? Do you want to see more of this?
I also need ideas for a rather strong or dominant Death Eater partner for Harry.
It doesn't matter if they are female or male or in prison or married.
Just tell me whom you would like to see as the partner ;)