Blanket Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter, do you think I'd be posting it for free if I was?
Blanket Author's Note: This story is an combination of my having too much reading and television time on my hands. The idea came to me after reading Ritual of Proof by Dara Joy and watching too much CSI:. This story is VERY ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. If that offends, please READ NO FURTHER.
Seized by Love
Prologue: A Witch's World
Witches had ruled the Wizarding-Witching World for next to seven hundred and fifty years Hermione Granger had been told the moment she was introduced to the other world that lived quite well right along side her Muggle one. There was simply too much counting on the continued magical way of life to be left to the selfish, egotistical male gender that the witches had overthrown the wizards centuries ago to make sure that so called 'Dark Lords' didn't arise and that important agendas were seen to without the bullshit that men spouted. The witches made a decision and stayed with it, after in depth analysis and research of course. Which was why muggle-borns were embraced into the society rather than ostracized. They brought new blood into powerful lines and removed the need of a foul term such as squib. All education was co-ed but very limited in social interactions with the opposite sex, after all, wizards were the weaker sex and had to be watched constantly. Females performed beyond expectations without male interference and the now Witching World flourished. Males were taken back to basics and treated much like the muggle females of centuries past. Guarded fiercely, allowed few independences and guided to becoming matched with a powerful witch. Even the wizards last names were replaced upon marriage to a witch to their female's surname. Weasley to Prewett. Potter to Evans and so on.
As a muggle-born going from a world dominated by males it was an eye opener. Women ruled, period. Muggle-born males were given a choice from the start on whether or not they wanted to be included in the female-run society and many, with the enthusiastic response by their muggle mothers, did. Hermione Granger, who had been given her name by her father, would now be allowed to pass on her father's last name as a rightful heritage for her own offspring. A not-unpleasant prospect. One thing she had found herself at a young age not agreeing with was losing her surname when she was married and now she didn't have to. Though her sense of fairness had her objecting to any male she married taking her name she soon came to grips with it when she married her dear, sweet attentive husband, Harry James Evans.
As was the new custom, witches weren't expected to marry young, if fact it was encouraged to spend at least ten years out of school persuing any educational or career based desires before searching the new 'Marriage Mart' for a husband. Nice, polite young men were ever so plentiful that a female could peruse her would-be spouse at her leisure, have lengthy courtships and drawn-out betrothals to make sure she would marry the correct person she was looking for. Divorce was unallowable. Azkaban now sat as a relic of old, unused and overgrown with vines. Crime was punished by swift sentences carried out within twelve hours of being forensically proven guilty. One thing that the Witches all agreed on was making sure they got the right person for the crime, no expections. To make marriage even more in the hands of the female, spells were allowed to be cast on the couple to make them more in sync with one another to keep spousal abuse as well as embarrassing confrontations to a minimum. No one wanted to witness an outraged wizard accusing his spouse of cheating, after all, a witch needed variety. Illegitimate children were also gone, as the females still were the ones to carry the sprogs and had complete control over their cycles. Potions now allowed a witch to end her child bearing years with a simple drink to block menstruation and pregancies now lastest only three months, a trimester a month.
For most amusements a young witch, who was not ready to settle down or with no commitment to another wizard, could find herself a wizard with no real family and no way to support himself, who had no inclination to become involved in sports (one of the few jobs allowed for males as cleaning/servant jobs fell to paid house elves) could put himself up to the highest bidder-sponsor and become a paramour. These wizards then went to a special school for a year to perfect the art of seduction to keep their benefactor happy and to help attract another when their patron moved on. A much more fun and respectful way to release tension and add spice to life without being the one of many. Bordellos were only allowed if one had three females involved with overseeing the company, as it were, and the men, in dire straits and with no way to attract a benefactor, were given good pay, lodging, medical care and food.
It had taken Hermione overcoming her secret grief at losing her blonde love to another that she, by request of her mentor Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, was sent to Godric's Hollow to mend her broken heart. Godric's Hollow was one of the most beautiful places in the British Witching World, with lavish gardens and parks that lend it to being a piece of heaven on earth, as well as home to the Evans's, with their only offspring, Harry, who was a shy, dark haired boy of Hermione's own age. Sheltered, as most males upper crust males were and kind Harry was a change from the almost explosive, petulant and outright spoiled blonde Hermione had hoped to call her own. Their courtship was swift and Hermione married her young sweetheart on her twentieth birthday.
Hermione's two closest friends; Luna Lovegood and Ginerva Prewett, attended her wedding. Luna was the slightly surreal angel of nonsense and logic she had always been, betrothed to Ginny's youngest older brother, Ronald Prewett. Ginny, on the other hand, had no intention of becoming leg shackled so early in her life and the auburn haired spitfire became London's biggest libertine; keeping both Creevey brothers as her personal bedtoys. Her mother, Madam Molly Prewett, despaired over whether or not her only female heir would ever start producing the next generation of Prewett line. Ginny's older brothers, for she had six, were all married off, Bill being the last (even if he was the first born male) to marry and provide Molly with her adored grandchildren.
The years that followed had Hermione never regretting to marry her sweet one. Harry was an exceptionally involved father, a devoted husband and lover and a gifted listener to all of Hermione's rants from her job as a Forensic Auror, an much embraced cross over from the Muggle world. Harry's parents died not too long after their wedding, a freak accident with a racing broom and it caused a deep grief from Hermione's Harry that his parents didn't get to meet any of their grandchildren. Hermione's parents, her father calling her world the 'Female Liberation Come to Life' had long accepted their daughter's love of magic and that life that when her father found out Hermione's children would all carry her last name, he only smirked in the irritating superior male way that Muggle males did. She was continuing his legacy and that was alright by him. Harry had given Hermione three precious children: Arryan Lily, her heir and named after Harry's mother with Hermione's brown curls and Harry's gemstone eyes; Alexander Sirius, named after Harry's absentee godfather with pitch black hair and amber orbs; and Christopher James or C.J. as he was called, a miniature Harry from his messy hair to his love of Quidditch. Hermione's life couldn't have been more peaceful or full of love.
That was until Harry contracted a rare wizard lung flu and died within days. Hermione knew her life and those of her children would never be the same. And she was right.