The owl dropped the Prophet and a letter in front of him. He saw the Prophet's headline first. Well. This was definitely something. He felt bad for the witch that was paired with him if he was even considered eligible. Who would want to be matched with him?

He decided to ignore the rest of the Prophet and read the letter:

Mr. Malfoy:

Your presence has been requested at the Ministry of Magic tomorrow, January 2, at 11:00 A.M. You are to bring your wand and nothing else. Under Executive Order WR:102-3458997 you have been assigned a partner based on the Ministry's new Population Restoration Act of 1998 and the Ministry's renewal of the Amore Vita Registration from the 4th century. Your partner will be announced at this time.

Amore Vita? He wanted to research it right away, but he did not know where to start. With the information being from that early he did not think the library would have anything for him. Where was his resident bookworm when he needed her? His? No. He needed to stop that. He would probably get matched with some other Death Eater's child like Millie that would make his life miserable.

Hermione sat waiting to see when Ron would wake up. Their letters had arrived hours ago, but Ron must still be sleeping off his intoxication from last night. She was concerned as to what the Amore Vita Registration was. She had never come across it in all of her studies. If she were at Hogwarts she could explore the Room of Requirement if it was not too damaged or ask some of the older portraits if they had heard of it. But no. She was here trying to avoid Ron. What if they weren't matched? Would that be so bad?

Ron finally woke after midday to only rant and rave again about the marriage law. He started drinking away from his mother so she would not take his bottle away. George was watching him a little more closely, but there was only so much he could do. Ron was avoiding her. But she was okay with that. That meant he would not hit her. Better than nothing.

All of the eligible members within the house walked on eggshells all day. No one knew who would get matched with whom. Ron kept spouting he would certainly get matched with Hermione, but George was trying to warn him that he might not. Harry and Ginny spent the day together trying to determine if they could handle it if they were not matched together. George talked with Hermione more than anyone else. Hermione was sure it was to keep Ron from getting angry with her, but she was not sure.

The next morning was tense. They were all up early but ate nothing. Mrs. Weasley kept trying to get them to eat, but no one would touch their plate. They all left together and flooed to the ministry. There was a large crowd waiting in the atrium. Hermione recognized many of the people but she could never catch sight of the brilliant blond hair.

Draco saw her before she could see him. He was hidden towards the back on the very edge of the crowd. He and Blaise had arrived together. Blaise was happier than he was. Draco just wanted to get out of there. He never truly felt comfortable inside the ministry, and this situation was not helping matters. He was only let out of Hogwarts for this meeting and had to floo right back to the headmistress's office as soon as he was assigned his match. But damn did he wish he could still be in Blaise's room right now.

Kingsley stood on the platform in the center of the atrium with Percy. There was a glowing scroll between the two that glowed brighter with more people that entered the atrium. At exactly 11:00 AM, Kingsley cast a sonorus charm and began to speak: "Welcome. Today we will be announcing partners. The Amore Vita was a spell created back during the early 4th century that would take a list of people and pair the names with their best matches based on magical abilities and personalities. We do not know exactly how this works, but this was the best form of matching we could find. As you all know, we have lost too many wizards and witches in this last war. There are so few wizards and witches in our community. The population rates have plummeted. Without this matching, this will likely be the demise of the wizarding population within the UK. Each match will be expected to produce one child within the first five years of being matched. Each couple will be evaluated to ensure a child can be produced. If there are issues, this will be handled on an individual basis. Now. Each match will be announced based on age. We will start with the older individuals and work our way down the list. Once your match has been called you will receive a letter from the ministry concerning the dates of your nuptials."

The names were then read off of the glowing scroll. They started with individuals that were in their forties. Draco could not help but imagine how his Uncle Severus would have responded to this should he have lived. He would have been livid to be matched with a witch without having a say. As the list went on, Draco began to sweat. Who would he be matched with?

Hermione could not help but try to identify the quality of the matches. They seemed to be fairly well matched. Well at least the ones she knew. She continued to listen as the older members were matched. Of course they would be the last ones to be announced, Ron kept a tight grip on her hand. And it kept getting tighter. She tried to get him to loosen his hold, but he did not respond. Suddenly her name was called and the world seemed to stop. Kingsley stumbled over her match. "Hermione Granger and ….. Uh …. Dra …. Draco. Draco Malfoy." Ron's grip tightened even farther, and Hermione felt a small bone in her hand brake. Ron suddenly started shouting: "NO!" Kingsley paused. "NO! SHE IS NOT MATCHED WITH HIM!" Ron yelled again, still gripping hard to her hand. Harry and George tried to get him to calm down, but he refused to calm down. He became violent with those around him that tried to get him to stop yelling. Finally one of the aurors on duty stunned him and took him to a holding cell due to him assaulting those around him. Hermione almost felt bad for him, but she was in a pretty high amount of pain due to the broken bones in her hand. It was starting to throb, swell, and turn a nasty shade of purple. She was trying to wrap her head around her match. Draco. He would really be her Draco now.

Draco was struck dumb. Was he hearing this correctly? Him and Hermione? Of course the Weasel would make a scene. But he saw her face of pain. Was that because of him? Before he could follow that thought he saw her hand. It was looking pretty rough. What happened? He slipped from his hiding spot and came up behind her. "Give me your wand and I'll fix that for you," he whispered in her ear. She jumped but looked up to him with wonder in her eyes. Before he knew it, her wand was in his hand. He quickly cast a charm to set the broken bones.

"You'll need to have someone look at that soon. I'll see you soon. They'll be wondering where I went."

Her eyes followed him as he disappeared into the crowd towards the floos. She guessed he was going back to Hogwarts since he probably could not be gone long. She was stunned that he could use her wand. Her hand felt better but it was far from healed. She almost missed Ron's matching with Millicent Bulstrode. He would not be pleased. Harry was matched with Ginny. No shocker with that one. Neville was matched with Hannah Abbott. Blaise was matched with Luna. The others were matched one by one. And while many were separated from their current partners, the world continued to turn.