Author's Note: This story is for the 100k pairing challenge in the challenges forum. There will be a some clichés in the story, but I will try and make them not seem like one (hopefully). I have written a number of Hermione/Lestrange brothers fics already so I already have a good idea on what I want them to be like. There will be NO character bashing in the story as per requirements of the challenge.
Hermione sat working in her office at home when an owl tapped on the
Carefully turning the letter over, she saw that it had been sealed with the Minister of Magics official seal. It had been what she and the rest of the Wizarding world had been waiting for. With trembling hands she opened it and started reading.
Dear Miss Granger,
after careful consideration the Wizengamot have enacted a marriage law to help repopulate the wizarding world. Witches and wizards who are not registered as being bonded from the twenty first of June this year, and fall between the ages of nineteen and seventy, shall be subject to the law. In addition, each witch and wizard is required to submit a blood sample to help find a compatible match. Those to whom the law applies shall find a second letter with details of their allocated appointment, and procedures if they are unable to attend the prearranged date and time. Any witch or wizard who refuses to comply will face a short sentence in Azkaban. If non compliance continues then an extended stay in Azkaban will occur. If for any reason you think that you should be exempt from the law then please direct your owls to the 'Marriage Law Inquiries'. Evidence will have to be provided, and in case of medical evidence it will have to be verified by a medical examination.
It may also be noted that due to differences in the numbers of witches to wizards, some witches will be paired with two wizards. These witches will be picked from those who have a seventy five percent compatibility rate or higher with their second match, if their second match has not been assigned to someone else.
Due to the purpose of the law a minimum of two children must be born from each marriage, and a minimum of four children from a triad. This is to ensure that the population increases enough to guarantee our survival.
It is unfortunate that the situation has come to this, but doing nothing will only decrease our population until we are non-existent.
Yours sincerely,
Kingsley Shacklebolt,
Minster of Magic, Order of Merlin First Class
Hermione stood there in shock. She had heard rumours that the Wizengamot were planning on trying to pass a marriage law but never thought it would happen. The only good thing was that couples who were already married and those who were going to marry in the next three days were lucky.
She wondered when the letter said all witches and wizards were subject to the law, whether that applied to Azkaban prisoners as well. Hermione shivered at the thought. She couldn't stand to be paired with one of the Lestrange brothers, or even Dolohov, knowing what they had done and who they had killed.
Hermione remembered that there was a second letter in the envelope with details of her appointment in. She opened the envelope and pulled a smaller letter out and started reading.
Dear Miss Granger,
as you are subject to the marriage law passed by the Wizengamot we have allocated you a time and date for your blood sample to be taken. Your appointment is on the twenty third of June at ten thirty a.m. Your employer has already been notified, and will arrange any cover necessary for the duration of you appointment.
If for any reason you are ill on the day of your appointment, please send us an owl before the scheduled time as not turning up will been seen as failure to comply. The punishment for this will be a short stay in Azkaban.
If you think that you may have a medical reason which will exempt you from the law please bring medical evidence to the appointment, and it will be copied and sent to the Marriage Law Inquiries office. If you need evidence to support your claim, then please make an appointment with a healer before your allocated appointment. If this is not possible then please contact your personal healer and ask that they send you or the marriage law Inquiries office the correct paperwork by owl.
Yours faithfully,
Julian Smith
Head Healer of St Mungos
It was about five minutes later that Hermione's floo activated and she heard the voice of Ron Weasley.
"Hermione?" he called.
Snapping out of her reverie, Hermione answered, I'm in my office Ron."
He walked down the corridor and stopped in the doorway. A second later she was in his arms sobbing. Not quite knowing what to do, Ron patted her head and held her as she cried.
"I'm sorry Ron." Hermione said sniffling as she pulled away from him slightly.
"It's okay Hermione. You've got a reason to be upset, we all have." Ron said soothingly trying to reassure her. "Kingsley has called an emergency Order meeting at Grimmauld Place. I think he wants to talk about the law. I get the feeling he didn't want it passed."
"What time?" she asked.
"In about an hour." Ron replied.
Hermione nodded. "Thank you Ron."
"It's no problem," he said wiping he last of her tears away with his thumb.
"How is Ginny taking it?"
"Not very well, you will see her tonight though."
Hermione nodded again.
"I should go; I have to tell Harry about the meeting." Ron shivered
Knowing what Harry's temper could be like Hermione asked, Would you like me to go with you?"
"No, I should be okay. See you later." He said kissing her forehead and walking back down the hall to the floo.
Once Hermione knew that Ron had left she got a parchment and a quill, and began to write questions that she had for Kingsley.
An hour later Hermione flooed to Grimmauld Place. Harry had let the Order keep using it as he didn't want to live there.
When Hermione walked into the kitchen it was packed and there were no seats left so she had to stand.
She waved to the Weasley's and various other members she was friendly with, but there was no sign of Harry. Kingsley Shacklebolt, however, was standing at the other end of the table looking nervous.
"Can everybody be quiet please?" Kingsley asked and the murmuring died down. "Is anyone missing that should be here?"
"No, Hermione was the last one." Bill Weasley replied.
"I will start then. The first thing I would like to make clear is that I did not want this law to be passed. I fought it as hard as I could from the very beginning, but I was overruled by the majority of the Wizengamot. I have added safeguards to make sure the process cannot be manipulated, and I have made sure that once a blood sample is used it is destroyed. I know some of you will have questions for me so- yes Hermione?"
"Are the prisoners in Azkaban subject to the law?"
"I'm afraid so. They will be released, but they will have their magic limited until they have proven that they can live in this society."
"Can one person be paired with two prisoners?"
"Yes, but only if the person have a seventy five percent or higher compatibility with their second match."
"How do you work out who is a match?" Molly Weasley asked.
"Once you have given your blood sample, a set of old match making spells will be used. These have extra conditions such as the witches/wizards must be single, divorced, or widowed, fertile and between the ages of nineteen and seventy. The spell will then produce the names of the three witches or wizards and their compatibility percentages. To make it even safer they have agreed to destroy each blood sample once it has been used."
"As triads are not the norm in the wizarding world, is anything going to be put in place to reduce the stigma of being in one?"Hermione asked.
"Again, yes. We will make sure that no insult, threat, or prejudice will be made to those in a triad by making it clear that the individuals involved had no other choice. We will also take any complaints seriously and punish the culprits severely if they are found guilty." Kingsley answered wondering how many other questions Hermione had.
"What if you end up with someone you hate?" the youngest Weasley asked.
"You have to deal with it. The spell matched personality traits, intelligence and fertility. If the spell says you're compatible then you will be matched. Just remember that you may not like their ideas, or beliefs, but the way they are over them maybe a trait you admire, or even have yourself." He explained.
Ginny nodded.
"Has anyone else got a question?"
"How long will it take before the results are sent out?" Harry asked.
It was the first time Hermione had seen him, and the expression on his face showed that he wasn't happy.
"Around four to six weeks. St Mungo's have already collected blood from prisoners, and have back to back appointments for everyone else over the next two weeks. We also have to sort through those who can be genuinely exempt from the law and those who are making false claims. We need everybody's blood to be collected before we can start otherwise pairing people may go wrong."
"So there's another way of pairing people?" Hermione asked sharply.
Kingsley winced. It wasn't something the public was supposed to know about but knowing the rest of the Order would want an answer he obliged.
"Not exactly. In the case of one witch or wizard being the highest compatible match on more than one list, we do not only have to look at who they have the highest compatibility match with, but also the compatibility of the others with their second match. They would be paired with the person who has the greatest difference in compatibility with their second match."
Hermione gave a slight nod showing her understanding, but thought that it was incredibly complicated and did not know how the Ministry would have the results out in two months time.
"Are there any more questions?"
No one raised their hands.
"Meeting over." Kingsley called.
Hermione went to Ron and Harry after the meeting had finished. They stayed and talked well into the night about how unfair the law was and how they hoped they would end up with someone they liked already.
With a couple of hugs Hermione left them to their brooding and returned to her flat.
Wednesday morning rolled around too quickly for Hermione. She had made sure that she would have to go to her office in the morning otherwise she would be tempted not to go to her appointment, short stay in Azkaban or not.
Hermione had tried to work in the Department for the Regulation of Magical Creatures trying to get more rights for house elves and other magical beings, but her agenda had been met with considerable resistance. After several attempts at getting the laws changed and her own passed, Hermione decided to leave the department and go into developing charms. It was something which stimulated her intellectually and was something she could make headway in. She worked for Johnson's and Partners, the oldest company for developing charms and had rose quickly through the company to be one of their top researchers and developers.
At ten past ten, Hermione started tidying her desk and gathered the documents she wanted to work at home with and left with a quick goodbye to her secretary. She arrived at St Mungo's with ten minutes to spare.
"Miss Granger." A healer called.
Hermione stood and walked to the healer. She was about mid-thirties, young enough to be dragged into this mess Hermione thought. The name tag on her uniform told Hermione that her name was Lucy, and she shot a reassuring smile toward her.
"If you would like to follow me." She said leading to one of the many examination rooms.
Closing the door she said, "My name is Lucy and I will be your healer today. Before I take a blood sample I would like you to answer a quick questionnaire. The answers will only be seen by myself and the Marriage Law Inquiries office, is that okay?"
"Yes." Hermione replied.
"Your full name is Hermione Jean Granger?"
"Yes."
"Your date of birth is the 19th of September 1979?"
"Yes."
"Do you smoke?"
"No."
"Do you drink alcohol?"
"Occasionally"
"That's the basic stuff. The next few questions are about your medical history. Please try and be as detailed as you can if it applies to you," Lucy paused. "Have you suffered from and disease or infection which could have affected your fertility?"
"No." Hermione replied.
"Have any spells been cast on you which have resulted in fertility problems?"
"I'm not sure. I was cursed by Antonin Dolohov when I was fifteen, and he has never revealed which spell he used, or what it was supposed to do. I have had no symptoms, and a diagnosis spell showed nothing wrong with me. The healer at the time however, said that without knowing precisely what sort of spell I was hit with, it was going to be difficult to detect anything wrong with me. I've never been in a situation serious enough to consider children so I don't know if it could have affected me that way." Hermione answered.
"Okay, I will run another diagnostic spell over you to see if it picks up anything new. It has changed in the past three years to include a wider range of curses." She said as she waved her wand over Hermione. The healer looked satisfied when the light turned green.
"There seems to be no problems with you Miss Granger. I will send a letter to the MLI to put a note on your file in case you have problems conceiving."
"Thank you, it's nice to know that whatever he did probably hasn't affected my health long term." Hermione said.
"Okay, next question. Is there any history of fertility problems in your family?"
"Not that I am aware of." Hermione replied.
"Have any of you female relatives have gone through the menopause early?"
"They're muggles so they would have gone through the menopause earlier than most witches."
"What average age did the go through the menopause?"
"My mother and grandmothers were around early to mid fifties when they went through it. I don't know about anyone else."
"Okay, that's the questions over with. I am now going to take half a pint of blood from you in the muggle way. I will give you a blood replenishing potion, but you will have to eat a chocolate bar or something to keep your blood sugar levels normal."
Hermione shut her eyes and let the Healer get on with the procedure. Hermione didn't like the sight of blood as it brought back terrible memories from the war.
"All done." Healer Lucy said.
"Thank you." Hermione replied.
"No problem Miss Granger. The hospital cafe is on level six if you with to get something from there."
After leaving the Healer, Hermione apparated straight to Hogsmeade and purchased the biggest bar of chocolate she could from Honeydukes.
Everything seemed to return to normal in the next few weeks as Hermione and her friends almost forgot the pressure they were under. One morning, around five weeks after she had given a blood sample, Hermione heard another owl tapping at her window. She took the letter and noticed that it beared the an official Ministry seal, but not that she recognised. It was the news she had been waiting for and opened the letter to see her fate.
Dear Miss Granger,
We would like to inform you that you have been matched to two wizards due to your high compatibility rate. The compatibility rate with both of your future husbands was over ninety percent, and the highest we saw in any of the matches. You have been matched with Mr Rodolphus Lestrange and Mr Rabastan Lestrange. As both of your future husbands are in Azkaban you will meet with them at the Ministry once they have had their magic limited. You will be notified of when this will occur within the next few days. Your future husbands have already received a similar letter and have agreed to the terms of the law.
We wish you every success,
James Malburry
Head of the Marriage Law Inquiries office