Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters, I just like to play with them
Draconian
Sirius crawled in just after two in the afternoon the next day, he had planned to tiptoe up the stairs for a shower and change of clothing. Molly Weasley had other ideas; she had been listening intently for the front door getting angrier with each passing minute.
"Where exactly have you been?" The tremor in her voice told Sirius exactly how she felt about his night time excursions although he couldn't for the life of him figure out why she cared.
"Not now, Molly." All Sirius wanted was some of his hang over remedy and a nice hot shower.
"What sort of example is this for Harry?" Her hands were on her hips, if she were a kettle surely steam would be escaping through her ears.
A sound behind them made both of their heads turn. In an instant four heads sitting in the dining room turned back around and looked as if the conversation unfolding before them was of the least bit of interest. The shaking shoulders of Ron and Harry were a dead give away as was the tutting sound emitted by Hermione.
"Later, Molly. You can have my head on a platter, later." Sirius trudged up the stairs without so much as a glance in the older woman's direction. He heard her hissing his name as he made his way to his room and honestly couldn't care less. The fact that he thought she made a fair point was not to be dwelled on at the current moment. He could feel guilty later, right now he just wanted to stop the pounding in his head.
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Many hours later Sirius went in search of Hermione, it was time to swallow his pride and make that apology. He made an educated guess that paid off, finding her alone, studying in the family library.
He chose a seat opposite her and took a deep cleansing breath. "Hermione, can I speak with you for a moment."
Hermione paused, marked the place where she was reading and closed her book. She raised her head and smiled at him genuinely. "Sure, Sirius. What can I do for you."
She was still a little stung from yesterday, they argued often about the elf but he had never lashed out so harshly as he had the previous day. She knew an apology was coming, he would give his, she would give hers and they would resume their normally friendly dialog.
"I was very harsh with you yesterday and I wanted to apologize. You are probably right about the elf, I let my anger get the best of me."
"It's alright Sirius, you know I forgive you. I shouldn't push you about Kreacher. Can you forgive me?"
Sirius stood to leave, "Of course, all's forgiven?"
"All's forgiven." Hermione smiled at him sweetly pleased they had run through their little ritual. With the elf out of the house she hoped that they wouldn't argue so much.
Sirius let her return to her reading, he went in search of a snack in the kitchen. He hadn't eaten that morning or afternoon and was absolutely famished.
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Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were leaning over the banister, a pair of extendable ears hanging just above the dining room door. An Order meeting was about to commence and the members were still filing past. A bedroom door opened and closed making them all jump, Ginny began hastily hoisting the ears out of the eye line of which ever passing adult made their way to the meeting. They all relaxed when they saw that it was Sirius who looked up at them and grinned.
"Better not let Molly catch you with those." He shook his head and laughed at their daring, glad to see the Marauder spirit alive and well in the next generation.
Sirius entered the dining room and chose a seat as far away from Severus Snape as he could. They sat looking daggers at each other until the meeting was underway. Molly glanced about for the children or those ears and seeing nothing she closed the door firmly, casting it Imperturbable for good measure. Albus himself was in attendance, indicating that something serious must be afoot.
"Thank you all for joining us," began Dumbledore. "We had to call this meeting in short notice, please pass along this information to our missing members."
"Has something transpired, Albus?" Remus Lupin was perturbed at the suddenness of the meeting, they hadn't even waited for all members.
"Yes, I think I will allow Kingsley to fill us in on all the details." Dumbledore found a seat as Kingsley Shacklebolt stood to speak.
"It has come to our attention that the ministry is about to go public with a new law. Voldemort has his fingers all through the ministry although I can hardly believe this managed to pass. The new law concerns itself with the marriage of muggleborn witches. It's something Malfoy is sponsoring, effective September the first all muggleborn witches of age must be married to pureblood wizards."
Molly Weasley stood in outrage, "That's ridiculous! What are they thinking?"
Kingsley continued as if he had not been rudely interrupted. "This law does not affect half-blood or pureblood witches or wizards as they may marry when the please. Any muggleborn witch of age found to be without a pureblood husband within a month of its inception will face a year in Azkaban."
There was a sound of shock that could be heard throughout the room as the Order members registered their outrage.
Remus spoke up, "It most certainly does affect half-bloods. What if a half-blood wanted to marry a muggleborn?"
Kingsley took a deep breath, "It only gets worse. This law does not concern itself with procreation; there are no clauses that require pregnancy after a certain length of time. The whole point of this law is the arrest and incarceration of muggleborn witches."
Kingsley cleared his throat, "The worst bit of this law is the required intercourse." Molly was about to stand when Kingsley held up his hand, "Let me finish a thought, please." Kingsley continued, flashing a harsh look at Molly. "They are enforcing this law by issuing charmed wedding bands, if a coupling doesn't occur at least once a week they face a month in Azkaban. The whole point is to discourage these women from opting for marriage, they want them imprisoned rather than married. Malfoy can't seem to conceive of a pureblood being willing to marry a muggleborn. The only ray of hope in this is that current marriages or engagements will be grandfathered in. Those who are engaged must be of age and must submit their intent to marry formally before the law goes into effect."
Arthur Weasley cleared his throat and received a nod from Kingsley, "We have a list of young women in need of pureblood husbands. We have a number of eligible bachelors in the order."
Sirius laughed out loud, "What? Are we going to draw names out of a hat?"
"Actually, yes," said Dumbledore.
"I meant that as a joke," said Sirius.
Remus spoke up, "Well, we can't just let them be carted off to Azkaban."
"These witches will be permitted to make their own choice, they can't be forced into a marriage if they don't want to be." Kingsley delivered the last bit of the new law and sat down. "The easiest solution would be to find them husbands. It might not be pleasant for either of them but at least it wouldn't be Azkaban."
"Not forced? What part of this isn't forced?" Arthur Weasly felt quite strongly about how desperately unfair this all was.
"Ron is of age, he should really be in this meeting," said Dumbledore.
"But he's not in the Order," cried Molly.
Arthur leveled a serious look at his wife who left to hunt down her son. She returned a few minutes later with a terrified looking Ron.
Dumbledore took off his hat, he waved his wand over it, "In the hat are the names of the muggleborn witches currently in need of husbands. I think this should be done without bias or prejudice for any girl in particular…"
Molly stood and interrupted, "What about Hermione! She is one of our own!"
"I am aware of that Molly but she is not the only young woman in need of protection. Now I expect each of you who are pureblood bachelors to reach into the hat, you will most likely not know the young woman in question. I will be in touch with those Order members not currently present. Please come up and choose a name. Also, I will not tolerate any changing of names as it would be disrespectful to these women. This is a rescue mission and should be viewed as such."
Kinglsey stood and reached into the hat and read the name of his wife to be, he gave no indication as to whether or not he was pleased with his selection. Ron came forward, after receiving a hard push from his father, he read the name and wrinkled his nose and muttered, "She's ten years older than me, I've seen her at the ministry with dad."
Remus gave Sirius a nudge who looked at his friend with reproach, "What about you?"
"Werewolf, mate."
Sirius nodded his head, he reached Dumbledore and stuck his hand in. He didn't look at his piece of parchment until he was sitting back down. He open the parchment and viewed it with one eye squinted like he expected something to jump out at him. When he read the name his face became completely unreadable. Remus reached over and plucked it out of his hand. He visibly relaxed when he read the name and handed the parchment over to Molly. She read the parchment and although she cast a hard look at Sirius she was inwardly relieved.
"Hermione is safe," she said. "Sirius drew Hermione."
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A/N: Thank you for such lovely reviews! They truly made my day! Let me know what you think!