A/N: yea! Wow you guys are great. I post and 12 hours later I have 12 reviews. how cool is that! I am so glad you guys like what I have written. I know at the end of the last chapter I said that this chapter would have things that were something I thought was needed, but then again I looked at the wrong chapter, that is chapter 36, not 35. this is the chapter we find out who is trying out for Hermione's hand and who Severus is going to petition.

Suitors and Suitable Selections (35)

The week following the announcement of the Marriage Law was total hell for Hermione. She had sent off that night for a copy of the Marriage Law, using Headwig, as all the school's owls were not so surprisingly, in use. Harry had not sent for a copy of the law. She had seen him and Ginny in deep discussion later that day in the staff room and hoped that they would finally take the final step and make it official. As happy and interested in such proceedings as she would both normally and would have liked to been, she had her own worries. The very next morning she got her first of what would be a small list of marriage proposals. By the end of two weeks the list had seemingly stopped growing and ended up looking as such:

Ron Weasley

Draco Malfoy

Neville Longbottom

Victor Krum

Vincent Crabbe

Geoffrey Goyle

Oliver Wood

Marcus Flint

Surveying the small list with no great relish Hermione tried to keep what was left of her life from going to pot. The Marriage Law could have occurred at no less of an advantageous time for Hermione. It was the end of the year and she was swamped with endless supplies of tests, paperwork and reference letters. She also knew that as soon as the graduation ceremony was over she would be expected to spend the next week brewing. Now she also had a wedding to plan and a groom to pick.

She had gone to Ginny in a terrible huff a few evenings after the law was passed and ended up sleeping on her couch after crying herself exhausted. She had spent the previous two hours poring over the law and finding not even a pin prick of a loophole. The one good thing that had come from that night though, was a scheme that would land her with perhaps not the best, for there were not that qualified on the list presented, but the most determined of husbands. She knew that if she was going to be forced to marry it might as well be to someone with a back bone instead of a dead fish.

Hermione also decided that if she was going to have to go through with such an activity she might as well get it done sooner rather than later, she did not want there to be any question if she was in compliance with the law or not. Though she could have dealt with any or all of the punishments that the law supplied would happen, she did not relish going back to living as a muggle and having no degree to speck for, at least not something that muggles would understand.

It was decided, and Ginny said she would help, once they gained approval from McGonagall, that there would be a test for each of the suitors. The test would be simple, but by no means did that mean easy. This test would also seek to see what each suitor was made of and how they reacted when faced with adversity.

Hermione was well aware that Ron still fancied himself in love with her. But the volatile relationship that had occurred during their seventh year had proved to her otherwise. One or both of them would soon end up in the Hospital or in the ground if they were to become bonded and she was forced to bear at least six children to him.

Draco, well she would rather avoid not only him, but the name at all costs. She suspected that the only reason that he might have even thought to apply for her hand was really for her bank account. She had been saving, but he would not know that. What he would know about her finances was that the Order of Merlin came with a sizable chunk of change. She knew he was living in a hovel compared to his sumptuous ancestral manor. She would have none of him.

Crabbe and Goyle to her were one in the same, large lumbering buffoons that had once tried to kill her in the final battle. They were still very much Draco's hence men and shared everything with him. She shivered to think that it very well might include her. Besides she did not even want to think about what the vast difference in bulk might be, it would not bode well for her to caught beneath one of them.

Marcus Flint she had watched a few times as he played Quiddutch. She had not liked him then, he was the opposing team caption after all, but there was more to it. She knew that his family was from a predominately Death Eater background and she had witness his cruelty on and off both the battle and Quiddutch fields. He was also significantly larger than her as well and wondered how long she would survive such a match.

Victor Krum would seem a reasonable match save the fact he was who he was. She had learned that the hard way her fourth year. He was already famous beyond reckoning and that relationship had ended when she realized she had become nothing more than a trophy. He had singled her out because she was pretty and just happened to be one of Harry's best friends. She did not want to become a trophy wife anymore than she wanted to become a cash cow for Draco or his minions.

Oliver Wood she had always found to be kind and caring, well that was when he was not obsessing over Quiddutch, and that was infrequent. In the few conversations she ever had with him, all but one had centered on how the team was doing that season. The singular conversation where Quiddutch was not raised was when he had warned her in the hallway not to take a specific short cut, due to some havoc Peeves had raised and Filtch was threatening anyone who came within five hundred feet of the scene with detention. Seeing that he was now on one of the country's Quiddutch teams, very little was likely to have changed.

The only person on the list that she could even bring herself to consider was Neville Longbottom. She liked him, but only as a friend. He was well meaning and kind, but he was by no means the sharpest tack in the box. He knew his plants, there was no denying that, but that was about it. He had passed his subjects, but she knew that it had only been with her help he had passed Potions. Of the list she knew he would be the one to treat her as was to the best of his abilities and strive to love her. Any way she looked at the list she would become a broodmare for someone.

The man she really had hoped to be on the list of suitors was not. She also did not know how to tell him without considerable eggshell walking or opening herself up for the grandest of ridicules that had occurred in quite some time. The only man she found herself now wanting was one she did not believe would ever want her in return. She had over the course of her time working with him, fallen for the cantankerous Severus Snape.

He was a man of considerable knowledge and skill. He would not only challenge her to think beyond what she saw, but allow her to expand on the knowledge she already had. She also had come to find him attractive in his own way and knew he held a considerable amount of power in his being. She had long been attracted to his deep resonating voice against the cold stone walls of the dungeons and would not mind at all finding warmth in the dungeons beneath the presumably green silk comforter in his bed chambers. If she was going to be forced to spread her legs and birth six children she wanted it to be with someone that she respected and in truth, held to some degree of admiration. She had long held his person in regard upon viewing the pensieves, but watching him with her horses she had come to hold him with esteem as well.

Had she had enough time to think about it, she would have realized the only reason she had agreed to the test she would be imposing on the list of suitors was because of him. He had in fact already passed the test where all others had failed. Had she thought about it, she had been putting every man in the castle to the test for nearly two years and he was the only one who not only passed, but helped her to create and elaborated the test as well. But as she was so swamped with deadlines that could not be extended she did not consider it.

Severus' days were not going any better. He had read the Ministry law back to front and in a few hours knew it inside and out. He also had found no way out of the quandary and it left his already disheartened mood, blacker still. He could not bring himself to petition for anyone's hand in marriage, much less the woman he had come to long for, Hermione. He was not only, not marriage material, but he knew that there would be few if any that would ever consider him if he was. He had sat back and considered his options. The only thing he could see that could come out of this was that perhaps the woman the Ministry picked for him would not know of his past. But then again, the Dark Mark was evidence enough to his past, he could not hide it from everyone forever, least of all a woman he was married to. He would never be rid of the reminders of his past indiscretions.

He was not one to give up, surrender or be bullied by anyone; he had stood up to and weathered Voldemort's rages and had survived the usually well meaning if not often misguided meddling of Albus. He had survived the strongest wizards that the Wizarding World had to offer. He would not let such a harebrained scheme as the Marriage Law beat him. The problem lay in that unlike a person, the law could not be tricked, bent to his will or tweaked to his liking.

He had thought of every possible and a few implausible ways to avoid the law and had come up wanting, greatly. The only other option would be to leave the Wizarding World completely and remove himself from the gene pool of forced breeding. While suicide was an option, it seemed bleak and extreme; he had not spent nearly his whole life avoiding death to then bring it upon himself when the real danger of being murdered was over. He could also become a muggle, but he knew better than to believe he could accomplish that. He knew little of the muggle realm that bustled around the magical one and from what he did know he could not fathom being forced to survive as such. Not only was he unschooled in what the muggles did and did not accept education wise, but he was also getting on in years, when compared to a muggle counterpart. The likely hood of successfully surviving muggledom was about equal to himself committing suicide. None of this was appealing at all.

He had finally come to the disheartening and self loathing decision that he would marry whomever the Ministry picked for him. He could not impose himself upon another by asking them for their hand, nor did he think he would have the ability to deal with yet another rejection. His best hope was to have the Ministry pick for him and hope for the best. At least his new bride would be of the same belief as he in matters of picking a mate.

A/N: yes I know, I personally want to go and kick him in the butt too. But that is how he wrote himself and I couldn't really tweak him too much more. Besides, never fear, we aren't done yet and there are a few more twists and turns to consider before I end the story.

as an added bit of fun, for anyone that guesses what the test is, I will dedicate the chapter that tells what the test is to any and all that guess correctly. You may guess as many times as you want, but I won't say yea or nay until I post that chapter. It will only be in 3 more chapters.

Hope you guys enjoy what I have written so far and thanks for the reviews. Dragons Quill