Hermione Granger was shocked after reading the Daily Prophet that fateful morning. All muggle-borns and supremacist pure-bloods who weren't married should be married off with each other because "Differences should be vanished after the war!". Hermione wanted to kill Kingsley Shacklebolt. Apparently who would be married to whom was decided through the Sorting Hat, he would find the "perfect partner" for everyone. Hermione did not believe there would be any pureblood who would be a good life partner for her, after all just a few months ago she was on their hit list. As it was a law there was not anything she could do to change what was going to happen to her life and she was not happy. She was not happy at all. She was the Head of Muggle Artefacts and had a good life-friends, family and a job that paid very well. The first thing she did after getting the job was to buy a manor. She knew most people would have thought a cottage would be the right choice for her but then again she changed a lot during the war and wasn't the naive little girl anymore but a strong woman with character. When she opened the rest of her mail she found a letter from the ministry, she was to be in for the sorting at 10am the next morning, further information would be received after the procedure.
At 9:45am the next day, Hermione Granger found herself in the waiting room with about 10 other witches and wizards. None of the people looked happy in the least, but what did the ministry expect? As far as she knew, no one with her in the waiting room was a pure-blood. She was nervous, the guidelines on what she would be expected to do with her significant other were not given out until after and she was awake the whole night thinking about what she would do with someone like Rabastan Lestrange, she was scared of what would happen as soon as they were alone. She would bet a million galleons that most of the muggle-borns would be dead within a year and the pure-bloods free to do what they want again. Hermione was going to have a long talk with Shacklebolt about what the ministry needed to ensure so that she would agree to their scheme-she hoped she could get hi to understand about the things that the pure-blood employees probably did not think about before coming up with this plan.
"Hermione Granger" the voice of an employee sounded through the room. Hermione got up on weak knees and made her way inside the Sorting Room.
"Hello Ms. Granger, we are sorry that it has to be this way but there is no choice now. Shall we begin with the sorting? Questions will be cleared afterwards." Penelope Clearwater said, she was in Hermione's graduating class at Hogwarts.
"Of course Ms. Clearwater, cannot wait to know who I will be spending the rest of my life with." To herself she thought 'exactly MY life, it will be over soon after this'. The young blonde witch put the old hat on Hermione's head.
"Oh my, Hermione Granger. Haven't had the pleasure of looking through your head in what? Ten years? How you have grown and all those ideas swirling through your head! You have become a brilliant witch, haven't seen anyone this intelligent in around 40 years. You are smart, strong, brave, sensible, patient and loving. I know exactly who I will pair you with. Oh yes it is going to be wonderful, just wonderful. NARCISSA BLACK!" Hermione was stunned. Narcissa Black? A woman? Bellatrix and Andromedas' sister? Draco's mum? Bloody hell, that was not what she would have expected in a hundred years. There was just no way, she wasn't even attracted to women! And Narcissa was a Slytherin! What the hell did she get into?
"Ms. Granger, are you quite alright?" Penelope asked her.
"What? Oh yes, thank you Ms. Clearwater. I just did not expect this." She said with her voice trembling. Slowly, she looked up into the soft eyes of Penelope. "What am I gonna do?" Hermione whispered.
"I need you to listen to me right now, . The Sorting Hat has always made good choices, for decades. I think you can trust that everything will work out just fine. Also, at least you did not get a violent guy from the inner circle of Voldemort's. Narcissa Black is a genuinely nice woman if you get to know her and she wouldn't hurt a fly. You are safe with her. She comes off as icy and aloof but in her heart she is a good person. I know her a little better than most people, she was tutoring me in fourth year. You are brilliant Hermione Granger and she is too. I think you got a good one so don't be upset please." Hermione looked at her and was astonished. She did not think about the complexity behind the woman, she just thought of the obvious.
Narcissa didn't stop the doings of her ex-husband and sister. She watched when Hermione was tortured. Her view on people like her were the same as Lucius' or Bellatrix'. After what Penelope just told her, she began to think of the other sides of the woman. It couldn't have been easy to grow up in the Black household. Having a dark and sadistic sister couldn't have been easy either. Voldemort destroyed Narcissa's life as well. The more Hermione thought about her fiancee, the more ashamed she felt of herself for having made assumptions without ever talking to the woman. In doing that she was no better than Voldemort's followers, they also just believed what was told about muggles and muggle-borns. They also never fact checked or looked at it form a different side. Hermione took a deep breath.
"Thank you Penelope, I really appreciate it. Would you tell me about the guidelines now? That is what I am really interested in." Penelope nodded.
"So, it will be in two days time that you will be wed. After that you are to spend at least 4 hours a day in each others company, sleeping not included. You will live together and sleep in the same are to have sex with each other. Monogamy is obligatory. You cannot physically hurt one another but with words can't be prevented. After 3 weeks of wedded life you will meet each others families. That is all the ministry says and this is for the first year of marriage, after that you will have to come in to the ministry again and your relationship will be assessed and new guidelines will be given." Hermione slumped back in her chair.
There was no way she could escape Narcissa Black and she would have to sleep with her, platonically and sexually...That would be very awkward. Hermione has always had limited contact with women, Ginny was the only girl-friend she had. Two days until she was to meet her significant other. Two more days in freedom.