Your choice.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. That all belongs to J.K. Rowling.

'Welcome Severus, just the man I was looking for.' Kingsley said as he rounded the corner of the café.

'Ah, Kings, good to see you too. What do you need?'

'Let's us go up to my office.'

~o~

'You have heard of the marriage law that is going in to effect at the end of the week, right?' Kings said as he pointed to a chair for Severus.

'Yes, I'm hoping to be passed over.'

'Well that is what I need to speak to you about. I have someone who needs an understanding husband and I was…. we were thinking you would fit the bill nicely. You are loyal, intelligent and would allow her to further her education.'

'Well, no thank you, I would prefer not to be burdened with a wife.'

'Well sorry to say but you will be burdened but you have the choice of three ladies.' as Kings pulled three pages out of a folder and buzzed the office door open.

'Who prey tell are my choices?' as the door opened and Hermione walked in.

'Well, Miss. Lavender Brown,' Kings spoke as Severus huffed.

'Sev-Sev, let me do that…' Hermione whined in her best impression of Lavender, causing Severus to start at the surprise entrance.

'No thank you!' Severus snarled.

'Ms. Deloris Umbridge?'

'Hem- hem, Sev-er-us.' Hermione said in the most simpering Umbridge voice.

'NO! I will not marry that…' Severus growled.

'Well then your last choice is Ms. Granger. I see the two of you able to carry on an intelligent conversation.' Kings said with a smile.

'But... but she is… what about Mr. Weasley?' Severus sputtered.

'Oh, Severus, do you think he would be the best choice for her? Keep her happy and let her finish her education?' Kings asked as Severus shook his head.

'Severus, Ron wants me to cook, keep the house clean and be bare foot and pregnant. I want to get my masters first. I know you won't love me but you would remain faithful and help me get my dreams...' Hermione spoke to her hands.

'What do you mean I would remain faithful? And what are your dreams?'

'Well, every time Ron doesn't get his way or life gets too hard to handle, he runs to Lavender.' Hermione wiped a tear away. 'I want to get my masters in potions and open an apothecary. And I think you are my best chance of that happening.'

'But I'm old and…'

'You are loyal, intelligent and…' she looked down to her hands, 'Handsome.' she blushed at her confession.

'Severus, I think Hermione is your best choice. She is beautiful, I would be proud to have her on my arm and in my bed, but of you would prefer the company of Miss. Brown or even Ms. Umbridge more…'

'Is this blackmail, Kings?'

'No. I'm giving you an out, by giving you a choice, no one else is getting this. I need Hermione to get her masters in potions. We need more potion masters and she is the best choice.'

'But Kings, I'm not even sure I can sire children, too many cruciatus curses.'

'Well we have already discussed that.' Kings said.

'In all reality I'm not sure I want children, Severus.' Hermione interrupted.

'You two will have the reproduction spell on you but I will put a clause on your contract that you will have five years to produce and in very small print there is no child requirement.'

'So I will still have to bed her weekly?' Severus snarled.

'Yes, but you know what, Kings I think I will retract my decision and stay with Ron and he,' motioning to Severus. 'Can "bed" Umbridge or Lavender. I will deal with Ron.' as Hermione got up to leave.

'Fine, I will marry you.'

'Don't sound so put out. You could do worse.' Hermione snarled into his ear.

'I'm sorry this is all just…' Severus proclaimed.

'Tripe! Do you think I'm thrilled to be forced into marriage before I get my dreams accomplished? At least Kings is willing to allow us to decide if we want to try for children at a later date. Everybody else will be required to have children with in the first year. You could be moving in with Umbridge next week and be required to start a family right away.' she growled at Severus, as he shrunk down in his seat and shivered at the thought.

'I'm so sorry Hermione, you are right, I would be a fool not to accept the offer of your hand in marriage. So will you marry me?'

'Yes, Severus, I will marry you.'

'Well now that has been sorted,' as Kings put the papers back into a folder. 'The other thing we need to discuss. Hermione needed a competent teacher to get her masters, so will you?'

'So marry her and teacher her?' Severus looked up in surprise.

'Well if you would rather Slughorn teach me?' Hermione said with a smirk.

'That hack? I thought you said competent teacher?' Severus snarled back. 'Fine I will also teach you.'

'Well I'm glad we got all of this sorted, when do you two want to get married? The notices come out at the end of the week.' Kings said.

'Friday works for me." Hermione said.

'Oh, so soon?' Severus sputtered.

'Well I know Ron will pitch a fit when he hears the news, so the sooner the better for me.' Hermione confessed.

'But won't you want a big wedding?' Severus looked over to Hermione.

'Well no, Harry and the Weasley's are my only family. We all know Molly will lose her shite when she finds out who my husband will be. She has planned for Harry and I to marry Ginny and Ron for years now. And poor Harry… he's not really ready to commit to Ginny yet so this will get interesting for him too.'

'Are you sure about that?' Kings asked. 'Because I could…'

'Oh could you? Who would he be matched with?' Hermione smiled at the thought of a better life for Harry.

'Well let's see.' as Kings flipped thru a folder and found a slip of paper and passed it across the desk. 'This was his match if he wasn't in a relationship.'

'Sev…?' Hermione looked over to him.

'Actually she is quite nice now. She would be a good match for Potter. Unlike Weaslette she does not seek money or fame.' Severus spoke.

'Well should I summons Harry?' Kings asked, receiving a nod from Hermione.

~o~

'Hermione, Harry you two will be coming by later for the match reveals?' Molly asked as she saw them coming down the stairs of Gringotts.

'Yes, ma'am.' they said in unison.

'Good, see you two a five for dinner.' as she leaned in for hugs and left them standing on the bottom step.

'Well this will be fun.' Hermione said with a grin.

'Yea, a blast. How do you think Ron and Ginny will react?' Harry said as he watched Molly walk in to a shop.

'I'm more worried about Molly she has dreamed of us joining the family for years.' as she turned to see their spouses walk down the stairs.

'What did she want?' Severus snarled.

'For us to join them for the great reveal tonight.' Harry huffed.

'Too bad we will miss the fun.' Severus spoke with a smirk.

~o~

'Ok, everybody ready?' Molly cleared the table. 'One, Two, Three… open.' There was a scurry of papers flying.

'Penny' Percy said knowingly.

'Well that was kind of obvious.' Ron snarled. 'I've got Hermio… Lavender. What the… merlins, Mione, I thought we got to stay together?' as he looked over to her, 'Who did you get?'

'Um, Severus Snape.' Hermione whispered as she opened her letter.

'What.' Ron and Molly yelled.

'I'll go to the ministry and fight this.' Ron got up to leave.

'You can't this is the final decision.' Hermione grabbed Ron's arm. 'It's fine, you and Lavender make a cute couple.'

'But Mione we were meant to be together.' Ron whined.

'But Ron whenever you got mad you ran to Lavender so...'

'But I love you… I will go fight this.' Ron bristled.

'Ron you can't…. we'll talk about this later. Let everybody else open their letters.' Hermione said as the twins whooped.

'Angelina.' George hollered.

'Katie.' Fred yelled.

'Ginny?' Molly asked.

'Oliver Wood… but Harry?' Ginny had tears running down her face. 'Harry who did you get?'

'Um,' as he slowly opened his letter. 'Pansy Parkinson.'

"What, no! You were meant for Ginny. What have they done? The stupid ministry, they have ruined this family.' Molly screamed.

'Molly just think you will have the chance for more grandchildren this way.' Hermione tried to pacify Molly.

'I'm still going down to the ministry and try to get this reversed. They will not ruin our lives, they love you two.' Molly growled.

'Molly you can't it won't do any good. We...' Hermione said as she looked at Harry and getting a nod. 'We are already married.' Hermione said the last at a whisper.

'You're what?' Ginny yelled looking between them. 'When?'

'This morning.' Harry answered.

'You married that greasy dungeon bat?' Ron yelled as he threw the chair across the room.

'Yes, Ron, I didn't want you to …' as she motioned to the shattered chair. 'Kings won't have time to listen to you. He will have enough people yelling at him. And to be truthful we would never have worked out. You want house full of kids, and that is not me. I want a career first and then maybe a child.' she walked around to put her hand on his shoulder, he shrugged it off. Just as the floo lit up and Lavender stepped out and hugged Ron.

'Oh Won-Won we matched.' she jumped up and down in excitement. Ron melted into her hug.

'That didn't last long.' Harry whispered in to Hermione's ear.

'Yea, I was hoping she would show up.' Hermione grinned. 'Your turn to start explaining.'

'Merlin, Harry you already married her?' Ginny snarled. 'Did you even fight for me?'

'Gin, you love the spotlight and fame and you know that's not me. Pans is happy to stay home and go to the occasional ball.'

'PANS you really call her PANS how could you. I have loved you from the first time I saw you. How could you?' Ginny screamed. 'How long have you been cheating on me?'

'Gin, we haven't spoken in two months, you have been too busy with quidditch. When I came to practice that last time, you left me in the bleachers after the game to go party with your team mates. I took that as we were over.' he ran his hand thru his hair. 'And I never cheated on you.'

'Yea right.' Ginny snarled.

'We only started talking this week and we exchanged vows this morning.' Harry spoke to the room.

'Is that were I found you?' Molly screeched.

'Yes, we were just finalizing the bank paperwork.'

'Well then I guess you need to get back to your… greasy dungeon bat and the harpy bint then.' snarled Ron.

~o~

'Well how did it go?' as Severus got up to hug Hermione as she entered the room.

'Well it went as expected, Ron threw a chair, Ginny accused Harry of cheating and Molly will be giving Kings an earful for ruining her family.' Hermione sniffled. 'I never wanted it to end this way.'

~o~

'Be with you in a minute.' Hermione said as she poured the last of the potion into a bottle.

'That's fine, I need to look around.' the customer spoke as she roamed the room. Hermione froze.

'Hi Lavender what can I get you?' looking at the woman with one child tugging on her skirt, one on her hip and one on the way.

'Oh, Hermione, hi, I have a list.' as she handed it over to her.

'Oh yes, I have everything here let me just go collect them.' as she turned to the shelf behind her. 'How are you doing?'

'Oh, fine. This is Hugo.' as she pointed to the baby on her hip. 'And that one is Rose.' pointing to the one running to her father's arms. 'And this one is Curtis.' rubbing her belly.'

'Well congratulations, here are your potions and that will be one galleon.' as Hermione bagged up the bottles.

'Oh he has you working. Lavender doesn't have to work, she gets to stay home and take care of the children and house.' Ron said snidely.

'Ron!' Lavender scolded him.

'Oh no it's fine. Ron I work because I want to and…' getting interrupted by Severus as he entered the room.

'And unlike you I let my wife pursue her dreams… a masters in potions and open her own shop. She also gets to enjoy the mind blowing sex before bringing our beautiful smart children into this world. Have you even given poor Lavender time to enjoy anything before falling pregnant? Let's see if I remember right she delivered exactly nine months from your wedding night? Then you got her knocked up yet again and the second one was born ten months later. You really didn't give her time to heal. And now this one.' pointing to Lavenders belly. 'You do know they suggest at least one if not two years in between child births? Mr. Weasley, as I have heard you want a quidditch team, you will need to give her time in between before you wear out her lady bits.' Severus smirked.

'At least we don't live over the shop.' Ron sneered.

'We don't Ron that is just for when we need to brew late into the night. We actually live in Prince Manor, in Lancashire.' Hermione blushed.

'We did not need to have mummy and daddy take a loan out to build a shack for us in the back yard.' Severus sneered again.

'Greasy dungeon bat.' Ron spat as he turned to leave. 'Let's go Lav you are never to step foot in this place again, do you hear me?' as he stormed out.

'But Ron this is the only apothecary in town.' Lavender cried.

'I don't care.' Ron snarled.

'I'm so sorry.' she was near tears.

'Ms. Brown, please know you are welcome here any time and if he gives you any trouble please owl me your order and I will get it straight out to you, ok?' Severus spoke with care in his voice, as Lavender nodded. 'and take this to calm your nerves, it's safe for the baby, ok?' as he put a bottle in her bag.

'Thank you, I am so sorry.' as she turned to leave.

'Well, I guess you're happy you married me and not him.' Severus tried to lighten the mood in the room.

'Oh as if it was your idea.' Hermione grinned.

'It was, I saved you from that.' as he pulled Hermione into a hug.