I hadn't been this near the sorting hat since first year. The ministry was controlling us, but when we heard the news none of us stood against it. I'd expected Wonderboy and his merry men to fight Shacklebolt on this. Unfortunately he seemed to be fought out. He didn't speak up and the fuss the female Weasley and Granger raised wasn't nearly enough to sway the ministry. Maybe if I'd stepped up...that thought plagued me often nowadays. I keep wondering 'what if I stepped up' or 'what if I wasn't a deplorable coward'?
"Quickly now Mister Malfoy." McGonagall was the one administering the test while the Headmaster and Head of Houses watched. My letter from the ministry told me I was to be matched at noon on the third of September. That left me two days to get into the swing of things before my life was turned on its head. I sat upon the stool and ignored the hats probing. Only the men were being matched, that way there were no double ups.
You appreciate the witty and the cunning. He mused inside my head, but you also wish you were brave...who to put you with...maybe a Slytherin? I liked the sound of that, maybe if it were a Slytherin my parents wouldn't be too put out. It would decrease my chance of getting a muggleborn wife and having a half blood for a child. These marriages were also binding. Once I said 'I do' she would forever be my loyal wife and in the interest of the family name I'd forever be her loyal husband. But a Gryffindor would do you good...she could be pure in body and mind...intelligent, witty, clever, and slippery. My eyes widened. I was practically screaming within my own mind. Any house was better than Gryffindor house. He could pair me with Hannah Abbot and I'd consider myself blessed. I struggled to convey that to him without screaming.
They say the hat takes your preferences into account and today I needed him to take my sanity into account. How did he expect me to stay sane with a do gooder Gryffindor on my arm? He was mulling it over, weighing the options of his intended pairing before he came to the decision.
"Hermione Granger." I was off of the stool and screaming before I could stop myself.
"You can't do this!" I turned to Dumbledore, eyes ablaze, "you can't let them pair us up like this! If you sign that notice you're sentencing your Golden Girl to a life of misery! I implore you, match me yourself! Put her with someone who can love her!" I used his love for his Gryffindors against him, he didn't give a damn about us Slytherins and he hated me a bit more than the others. He wouldn't do it for me, but if there was anyone he would do it for, it was Granger. He sighed heavily as if every breath pained his aging heart.
"Mr. Malfoy...I am under oath-,"
"You can't do this!" I insisted. I was done wondering about what would happen if I stood up. Enough was enough, this was more than my own selfish dislike of the know it all. He was sentencing a girl, who fought for a world that rejected her, to a lifetime of agony and I couldn't just let it happen. When Crabbe set the Room of Requirement on fire she and her friends had come back for us. She found me first, but being an abysmal flier she stuck around, yelling and motioning for Potter and Weasley to come around.
They wouldn't have found me without her. In that respect I owed her my life. Still he did not seem to be reconsidering. He looked on me with sheer guilt before signing his approval of the pair.
"You are dismissed...Mr. Malfoy. The papers will be sent to your parents."
For a moment I stared at him in disbelief. He'd truly done this to us -to her. He sentenced his Golden Girl to a life I barely wanted to live, but then I realized something. He was our headmaster, not our friend. He was an old man who was paid by the ministry to look after us until we were old enough to look after ourselves. It wasn't his job to save us and if the rumors going around were anything to go off of it was beyond his ability anyhow. So I picked up my rucksack violently, shot a nasty glare at each of the professors, and stomped out of the Headmaster's office.
****Hermione*******
Malfoy slammed the door shut as he came stomping into Potions. The chalkboard instructed us to read chapter 1 of Potions for Numbskulls, but shushed Malfoy as he entered. Harry tapped my shoulder.
"I was after Malfoy, so I'll see you next class." I nodded at him as he gathered up his book and stuffed it into his bag. Ron took his seat when he left.
"Who do you think Harry will get?" He asked. I shrugged not wanting to get shushed by the portrait, "I've made a list of people I think he's most compatible with." He continued, digging around in his bag. It didn't take too long for him to find it. He written lists for the three of us, trying to work out who would be paired with us. He had paired the three of us in one way or another first, then he began to pair us with outside people. His list for Harry was rather long, but the first six contenders were Me, Luna, Ginny, Cho, Hannah, and Padma. His list was a bit shorter, but it was still too long to read. His first six were Me, Lavender, Pavarti, Rachel (a sixth year Hufflepuff), Carol (a seventh year Ravenclaw), and Pansy. I raised an eyebrow at the last name and he shrugged.
"She's hot. I wouldn't mind, besides as my wife she wouldn't be able to say too much against me without making herself look bad." I rolled my eyes at him and read what he wrote for me. My list was the shortest by far containing only three people: Ron, Harry, and Malfoy. "The issue with you is that you're too smart." He explained as I glowered at him, "you'd need someone who already knew you really well or someone who had an ego the size of Eurasia. Otherwise you'd intimidate them."
Harry was back just as the bell tolled from the eastern tower.
"Who'd you get?" I asked him. It was endlessly infuriating that I didn't even get a chance with the sorting hat. How was it to know who I would be well suited with if it didn't even give me a chance? People broke up all the time because one person didn't love the other. It was unjust and unkind and just awful to force me into a marriage with a man. What if I fancied women?
"Hermione?" Harry snapped in front of my face, "are you all here?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, I got a bit distracted." I admitted. He smiled good naturedly at me.
"I said I got Luna Lovegood." There was a hint of sadness in his voice, he wanted Ginny no doubt, "She's pretty and I know I'll never get bored with her." He said finally, "it's not the end of the world." Ron was scheduled to leave at two so we hurried toward the Great Hall. He'd be grumpy if he missed lunch. The ginger was going on and on about how he would murder himself if he got Millicent Bulstrode. He snapped a celery stick in half in a half hearted imitation of how he would snap his wand and go into hiding.
"Surely she wouldn't be so bad." Seamus interjected, "I like a woman with a little meat on her bones." It was beyond me how anyone could be fat in a school with so many stairs, but it wasn't my business so I continued with my own meal.
"When is your matching?" Harry asked him, "I was just matched with Luna Lovegood."
"She's an odd one." Seamus said as a way of acknowledging Harry's intended, "but she's interesting. No doubt about that. My pairing is at four this afternoon. I don't understand how they did this schedule."
"It was random." I interjected, "they placed the names of every male sixth and seventh year into a bowl and then wrote down the names as they were spit out."
"Well that's one way to do it." I spared a glance at the empty teacher's table. One could only imagine the strain this out on them. How were they (and a hat) to choose a person's entire life? These pairings could break up families and ruin relationships. They hadn't even given us a chance. After the war ended Hogwarts was rebuild. Dumbledore continued as Headmaster with McGonagall right by his side. Then two weeks before school was to begin we were sent a letter from the minister of magic. The letters warned us that all witches and wizards from sixteen to forty five were to be matched personality tests or other means. The other means for Hogwarts students was the sorting hat. After that we were warned that refusal would be punished by execution under to crime of endangering the species. Being me I did my research and I quickly found that immediate family of the executed muggleborns are also murdered.
Ron stuffed a sweet roll in his mouth before taking a quick look at his pocket watch, "go'bba 'o. Bhe Her'ne, bhe 'Arry." We waved goodbye as he rushed out of the Great Hall, wishing him good luck as he went.
*******the chapters will be longer since this one is shorter than Pride Before the Fall. I've got extra time (and this one is somewhat prewritten) so I'll be doing both. No worries. Do review, I enjoy it greatly.***********