Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series or its characters. Any unrecognized plot or characters are mine.

Summary: Lord Voldemort cast a mysterious curse with his dying breath. A curse of his own design that wiped out a large percentage of the Wizarding population. Desperate measures are taken, a Law is passed and the future is written and sealed in an innocent looking envelope.

Chapter One: Matches Received

*~Hermione~*

I held Harry's hand while we waited, tense and alert, side by side on my worn couch.

I clung to his hand like a lifeline, my hurricane of emotions threatened to rip me away and drag me under the flood water if I didn't have him to help center me.

We'd been through worse, I knew this logically.

Still, my treacherous mind also provided me with images and faces on a vicious merry-go-round that never stopped, only spun faster until they blurred. Bone white masks and figures dressed in all black were among them.

"Hey, Mione, you need to breathe." Harry poked me in the side, making me blow out the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

"What if my matches are all Death Eaters?" I whispered, staring down at our joined hands.

"That won't happen, Mione. Kingsley wouldn't let that happen, you know he wouldn't." He assured me, squeezing my hand gently. "You're probably going to be matched with rich blokes who have made all these great discoveries and speak seven languages."

I smacked his arm, fighting down a smile. "Smart arse."

"You know it's true, Mione." He told me with a grin. "You're just too brilliant for us dimmer folk. You should be serenaded with sweet equations from the textbooks of Advanced Arithmancy, and wooed with the genius behind potions that could kill you instantaneously."

"Hah, you think you're so funny." I murmured, rolling my eyes.

I did feel a bit better now.

His more relaxed attitude had helped me to relax.

A hoot from the kitchen wiped the small smile from our faces faster than you could say 'hi.' Another followed shortly after.

Our letters had arrived.

Harry's face changed, the edges of his eyes became tighter and his lips thinned. He tried to smile reassuringly at me as he stood, but it fell flat since I can read the emotions in his eyes.

The most dominant was fear.

I watched him enter the kitchen with rapt attention, and when he came out holding two letters my heart kicked up then jumped into my throat.

He sat down right beside me and placed my letter in my trembling hands. He held my gaze as he poised his shaking hand over the seal of his envelope. "We will open them together, alright? On the count of three."

I nodded, unable to speak.

"Okay. On three. One. . .two. . .three!" He shouted the last bit and we tore into the envelopes, drawing the parchment containing our matches into the light.

I unfolded the parchment as slowly as my hands allowed, part of me wanting to put off reading the names as long as possible.

I heard a sigh of relief beside me, but ignored it in favor of reading through my letter.

Ms. Granger,

The Ministry has run your information and has confirmed your best matches. Under the requirements listed for the Marriage Law, you have three months to marry the men listed below.

Neville Longbottom

Draco Malfoy

Lucius Malfoy

Severus Snape

Charlie Weasley

Arthur Weasley

Wishing you and your future husbands' many happy days,

Mathilda Hodgins

Blood drained out of my face and my entire body went cold.

No.

Not them. Anyone but them!

There had to be an error, some kind of typo or a botched result. I couldn't be matched to them.

Neville wasn't a bad choice. I knew him, I trained with him in Dumbledore's Army and fought with him during the war. He could be a bit of a walking disaster sometimes, but I trusted him with my life.

The Malfoy's had me captured and tortured under their roof. The younger having done his best to make my days at Hogwarts as terrible as he could over the years.

Severus Snape was my Potions Professor!

I didn't really know Charlie, he occasionally showed up at the Burrow for holidays such as Christmas, but I've never talked to him I don't think.

Arthur was happily married to the love of his life. They had decades of love, friendship and marriage. They had had plenty of children together as a result of such a love. They were like love struck teenagers in an older couples bodies. They truly were halves of the same whole, one soul in two bodies and all that super romantic, totally and completely meant for each other nonsense I tried not to take too much stock in.

It was hard to ignore, though, how ridiculously made for each other the Weasley's parents were.

I couldn't be the one to end that.

Oh, Merlin. I would be a dirty home wrecker.

I ran for the garbage bin, then I proceeded to painfully and violently dry heave as there was nothing in my stomach to toss up.

When the heaving finally stopped, I dropped to the floor and cried.

I would hurt the people I love, people who have loved me in return, and I had no choice in the matter.

Molly will hate me the rest of her life, I have ended her marriage and taken her husband, the man shelves, from her. She took me under her wing, cared for me, fed and protected me since I stepped foot in the Burrow all those years ago.

Guilt and shame ate away at my insides.

"Mione? What is it? Who did you get?" Harry asked, concerned. From the closeness I could guess that he was kneeling in front of me.

I handed the letter to him.

"What the does the Ministry think they're playing at?! Half of these are Death Eaters!" Harry growled angrily, his green eyes flashing and his knuckles white around the letter.

"Read the last name." I whispered, knowing he hadn't reached that name yet.

His face paled. "Arthur?"

I nodded, my eyes stinging with tears.

This was where Harry would rant about how I would be ruining the Weasleys marriage, tell me how much of a filthy home wrecker I am, how much of a terrible person I am, and storm out.

I wouldn't blame him for it.

He sighs, running a hand over his face. "Come on, Mione. Get cleaned up, we have to go."

I blinked at him. "What?"

I wasn't expecting that. Where was the yelling? Where was the anger?

"I'm taking you to the Burrow. If the Weasleys don't know you were matched with Arthur and Charlie by now, they will soon and you should talk to them. You will be part of the family soon and it will technically be a family meeting, so that's that." Harry stood and folded the letter, sticking it in his jeans pocket.

"I can't go to the Burrow, Harry! I'm breaking apart our best friends parents marriage, I highly doubt that they would want to see me!" I couldn't believe that he suggested that I just waltz in like I didn't signify the end of something beautiful.

His face turned sad. "Mione, if anyone is to blame, its the Ministry. Not you. You need to talk to Arthur, at the very least. You're going to be married, you need to get used to discussing things with him."

A part of me knew that he was right.

I reluctantly stood from the floor, washed my face and changed into fresh clothes.

I clutched Harry's hand rightly as he prepared the Floo. Oh, Merlin, I was actually doing this.

"Just breathe, Mione. Everything will be okay." He reassured me before he stepped into the fireplace. "The Burrow!"

I watched my friend and support system disappear with a flash of green flames.

Okay, Hermione, you can do this. Harry is waiting on the other side of this Floo trip, he will be there the whole time. I told myself, taking deep breaths to calm myself.

I grabbed a big handful of Floo powder, stepped into the fireplace, squeezed my eyes shut for a bit of Gryffindor courage and shouted the name of one of the last places I wanted to be at the moment. "The Burrow!"

Roaring in my ears let me know that I left my loft.

Loud voices shouting over each other in efforts to be heard first alerted me that I had arrived at my destination.

I creeped toward the source of the noise, the kitchen, naturally . The closer I got, the easier it became to distinguish individual voices and understand what they were saying.

"How in the bloody Hell did I get paired off with Pansy Parkinson?! She's a pug-faced Slytherin!" Dean hollered angrily.

"Parkinson? I got paired with Looney Lovegood!" Ron shouted.

I could picture how his face would probably be blotchy and red, the large furrow in between his eyebrows.

"Alright! That's enough out of the lot of you!" Harry yelled, voice carrying over the din. "Mione and I received our letters just a bit ago, we can all talk about our matches calmly and in a civilized manner."

I noticed that the last part he said to Ron specifically, if the pointed look was any indication.

I edged into the kitchen now that it had settled, glancing around the room, but avoiding Molly and Arthur's direction. Dean was there, Charlie, Ginny, Ron, Harry, and of course Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Everyone was standing around, most were glaring down at their letters.

Charlie stared at me like he had never seen me before, probably surprised by the fact that he'd been matched to his kid brothers friend of all witches.

Oh, Merlin. Molly and Arthur haven't opened theirs yet.

Charlie, the nearest person to the couple, also noticed this. "We've all opened our letters, you should open yours."

No, not here. Not in front of them all. I whispered in my mind, pleading to whatever or whoever was listening.

Merlin, God, or whoever was up there did not hear my pleas. Or if they did, they had a cruel sense of humor.

Molly made a noise between a sob and a gasp, one of her hands lifting to cover her mouth.

Arthur was frozen, his head still bowed over his letter.

"Did you get each other?" A hopeful Ginny asked. Her childlike hope stabbing me in the heart and giving the blade a brutal twist for kicks and giggles.

I stared at the floor, guilt gnawed at my insides with greedy enthusiasm. I couldn't look at any of them.

"No, sweetheart." Molly answered softly. "We have an appointment at the Ministry tomorrow to annul the marriage."

The quiet words were worse than Ginny's hope. They were almost a physical being stomping ruthlessly on the blade in my heart, slicing and cutting the organ to a bloody pump.

I broke apart a family.

I did this.

I was a home wrecker. A terrible, dirty home wrecker.

The kitchen was silent for five seconds before the Weasley children expressed their opinions.

"Why?!"

"What does the Ministry think they're playing at?!"

The others were more. . .creative expletives. One even involved a rather unpleasant scenario with a dragon and a Dementor.

"It's the law now. In order for us to repopulate we need multiple couples and as many gene combinations as we can produce." Arthur explained to his outraged children. "The Ministry fears that the Wizarding population will become completely extinct in less than a century, so they have sunk to extreme measures to prevent such disaster."

There was grumbling and grudgingly admitted statements of understanding.

"Wait, dad. Who did you get, if you weren't paired with mum?" Ginny asked, frowning.

Arthur's eyes darted to me and back.

I shifted nervously on me feet. This was the moment of truth.

He cleared his throat and turned so he was addressing all of us at once. "I have been paired with Hermione."

The kitchen exploded.

Glass shattered, wood objects splintered and voices shouted.

"What the bloody hell is this?!" An enraged Ginny demanded, rounding on me, her eyes flashing. In her anger, her face darkened, beginning to match her vibrant red hair. Her hair looked like it had a life of its own, the uncontrolled web of magic pulsing around the red headed girl. "You were supposed to be my friend, not break up my parents marriage!"

Ron looked like he very wanted to hit something. The color of his face almost rivalries the colour of his hair.

Charlie seemed to be the calmest of the three, at least he wasn't yelling, but even he was obviously not pleased with the news. Sharing a wife with his father, said wife destroying his parents perfectly happy marriage. Neither could be easy pills to swallow.

Each reaction hurt, a lot, but I knew I deserved it.

"That's enough, all of you. Give us the room." Arthur ordered, his face and voice sterner than I'd ever seen it. He was usually the laid back parent who wanted to hear all the details about his children's mischievous adventures.

He waited until the Weasley children and Dean left the kitchen, then banished himself to the back of the room, waving at Harry to do the same.

I turned pleading eyes on Molly, who had been silent since she read her letter.

I couldn't hold the sobs in anymore as I spoke to the woman who meant as much to me as my mother had. "I'm so sorry, Molly. I can't even tell you how sorry I am. If I could change it, any of it, I would."

"Oh, Hermione, dear." Molly sighed, setting her letter down on the counter and walking closer to me. "Its not your fault, sweet heart. You heard what Arthur said, the Ministry created the law they did all this. It couldn't be stopped or changed by any of us. I'm not angry with you, dear, so please stop beating yourself."

I stared at her, shocked. How could she not be angry with me? Even if what she said was true, I was marrying Arthur, the man she loves. "But-"

"Now, now, no buts. Listen to me, Hermione. I am upset, but I'm not upset with you. I'm upset with the Ministry for making this mess and involving all of you. So many of you haven't had a real chance to see the world, experience love, and now you're going to be bound to not one, but multiple husbands." Molly paused and glanced at the two men still in the room. "Could you give us a bit? We have a few things to straighten out."

Arthur and Harry obediently left the kitchen.

My mind was reeling, she wasn't angry at me.

"I have had many wonderful years with that man, all of them full of love and companionship. I have enough happy memories from those years to last me the rest of my life. Now, you will marry Arthur and a number of other wizards. I will marry Cormac McLaggen and a mix of wizards from both our generations." Molly gave me a watery smile. "Please look after Arthur, Hermione, it's not my place anymore."

"Of course I will." I assured her.

"He sometimes forgets his wand, or rather he says he has, and most times it's in the opposite pocket. If you do a roast, use potatoes and carrots, but cube the potatoes and cut the carrots into smaller sections. He doesn't like large chunks or halves of either. Oh, and soak the vegetables in some kind of broth with a hint of seasonings, he prefers basil. He always said that basil brought out the best taste in any meat, vegetable or broth." Her voice broke and became thicker with emotion.

I clasped our hands together, my heart giving a painful twist. "I'll remember, I promise."

"Arthur is very experienced as well, so you won't have to worry about that." Molly said, smile watery but her gaze told me a lot.

I blushed, a small squeak escaping my mouth.

"H-how did you know?" I stuttered, surprised and embarrassed. "I haven't told anyone."

"You didn't have to, dear. I've been watching you over the years, and I know the signs." Molly replied, patting my hand. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, dear, you're not the only virgin your age."

"I-there-" I stumbled over my words, the years flying by in my mind's eye.

"You don't have to explain anything to me, Hermione." Molly tutted, smiling at me. "I give both of you my blessing, I wish you many happy years and healthy children."

The heavy weight I'd had in my chest since I read Arthur's name lifted and relief flooded my veins.

"Thank you. I wish you and your new husbands the same."

I exited the kitchen lighter and more at ease with my situation.

Arthur and Harry were sitting together on the couch talking quietly as they shared a bottle of Ogdens.

I approached, stopping next to Arthur's end of the couch and cleared my throat. Their heads snapped to me, Harry discreetly tried to hide the Firewhiskey behind his back.

"May I?" I asked, gesturing to the cushion separating the two.

"Yeah, go ahead." Harry nodded to the seat, relaxing when I didn't comment on the Firewhiskey. "How did it go with Molly?"

I thought over our conversation, choosing my words carefully. "It was. . . enlightening."

Arthur's eyebrows shot up, disappearing into his hair. Harry gave me a funny look.

"What?" I asked, feeling a little like it was almost time to get defensive.

"Enlightening? Really, Mione, how did it go?" He repeated, his voice betraying that he was anxious.

I noticed how tense Arthur was. I only saw him like that when bad news, danger, or Death Eaters were involved.

I snatched the bottle from behind Harry's back and took a hefty swig, savoring the burn as it went down. "We discussed the whole Marriage Law mess and that it sucked for everyone left in the worl. We talked about women stuff for a little bit-and no, Harry, I won't tell you what that means. She gave us her blessing and wished us many happy years with healthy children."

Arthur's shoulders sagged, the tension leaving him. "Now that that's settled, why don't you tell me who else you have in that letter."

I glanced at Harry, confused. "Harry didn't tell you?"

What had they been talking about that whole time?

Harry shook his head in over exaggerated movements.

"No, he said you should be the one who told me." Arthur answered, glancing between me and Harry.

I took a deep breath, preparing myself for every possible outcome once the names were out in the open and handed Arthur the bottle of Firewhiskey. "Take the bottle, you'll need it."

Technically, he only needed it for just one name. Or two, depending.

He accepted it, his eyes wary.

"The other wizards are Neville Longbottom, Severus Snape, C-Charlie, Draco Malfoy and . . . Lucius Malfoy." I said the last name slowly and reluctantly then immediately hunched in on myself, watching Arthur nervously. His strong negative feelings for Lucius were very well known in The Burrow and among the Order members.

I honestly didn't know how he would react to the news that I was also marrying his son.

Silence.

I picked at my nails, giving him time to process the information.

The silence stretched on.

I bit the bullet, so to speak, and risked a glance at Arthur. Maybe he hadn't heard the last one?

I wasn't sure if I was hoping if he had or he hadn't.

The only visible sign that he had indeed heard me was the firm set of his lips and the tightening around his eyes.

After another moment, he nodded. "Very well, then. Nothing to be done about it. We should call a meeting with the other husbands to be and discuss some important points before we proceed. If you would like to owl them, Hermione, I'll set up a neutral location for the meeting."

I only just then realized that Harry had slipped out, leaving me and Arthur alone in the room.

I returned my attention to my future husband, watching him mull over his thoughts. I noticed how his lips shifted to the side whenever he is deep in thought.

"I believe Diagon Alley should be neutral enough. If you don't mind." He added, nodding toward me. "The Leaky Cauldron was destroyed in the war, but the land exchanged ownership and a new bar was built in its place. The man who owns it didn't fight on either side, so I imagine that's as neutral as we can hope for."

"It could work. Do you know what he's calling it now?"

"The Labyrinth, I believe. I've heard it's supposed to be bigger than the Leaky Cauldron, so there's bound to be somewhere we can meet that's relatively private. A secluded section, maybe."

"Okay. Now we need a time. How is four o'clock?" I asked, wanting to be sure Arthur was free at the mentioned time and that he approved.

"That will do nicely." He agreed, smiling at me.

I wasn't aware how much his approval meant to me until I had it, and I was surprised at how happy and relieved that made me.

"That gives us two hours, so why don't we each make a list of topics we can discuss at the meeting. Go ahead and disclose the suggestion in the letters to make things as equal and fair as possible." Arthur suggested, watching my face for approval.

"Prefect idea. I'm going to go home and prepare mine, I will see you at four o'clock at The Labyrinth." I replied, standing from the couch. He stood up as well, so I leaned forward to hug him goodbye, my mind already bursting with questions and thoughts for tonight.

I would need to shower and probably eat before I left, but first things first.

I had to make a list.