Hello my lovely readers! :D I hope you can pardon the long wait for this chapter - but I must say that I can't promise regular updates, as my schedule changes from week to week and I don't know how much time school will take from me :( Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze in some time for writing! :D

Now, last time: We get to hear about the Battle of Hogwarts from Hermione's point of view, and we get a little insight in her feelings about Harry going off to face Voldemort by himself, and afterwards taunting him. George thanks her for saving his brothers, and Harry proposes to Ginny!

Happy reading!

Chapter 5

For one Hermione Jean Granger, the days that followed the Battle of Hogwarts, was chaos. Actually, everything was chaos in the Wizarding World. Hermione, Harry and Ron were hauled from one interview to the other. Hermione had no idea why she was with them, until it was revealed that they had all been seen coming out from Gringotts on a dragon, and had all been recognized upon further inspection. When Harry had heard that, he had – without being prompted to do so – called a press-conference, and made an official apology to the Goblins for violating their property, and breaking into one of their high-security vaults. He stated, that in order to kill Lord Voldemort, he had to have access to the vault, as Bellatrix and Lestrange and her husband had been storing a highly dark, and highly dangerous artefact that needed to be destroyed. Harry said that he would be more than willing to pay for any damages. The goblins had been very offended that anyone dared violating their bank, but upon inquiring as to what the object was and hearing the answer, the goblins readily forgave the trio for breaking in.
"It's against our regulations and laws to store anything so dark; had we known, we would have disposed of it immediately"

Harry had become sick and tired of all the interviews, and so he summoned Hermione and Ron, sat down so they could recount the adventure, and publish it on their own. It had been a very long article, but every single wizard and witch in Britain – if not most of the world – read it anyway, all very eager to know what had been going on, and where the 'Golden Boy' and his friends (also referred to as the 'Golden Trio' though they had only been friends for a couple of months) had been for all those months.

The damages from the war were severe; all over Britain had cities and buildings been destroyed. People were busy raising monuments and helping clean up after the war. The emotional wound the war had left on the Magic People was slowly mending, but it was a process that would require many months – if not years – yet.

It was a long job, rebuilding the Ministry after its disastrous fall, and every member was questioned under Veritaserum by the remaining members of the Order.
Kingsley Shacklebolt was put in as temporary Minister for Magic, and he tried as best as he could to rebuild wizarding Britain, as well as trying to get a proper democracy instated.

Hogwarts had been rebuilt as well, and now a big monument in the middle of the Entrance Hall listed every fallen fighter for the Light. Cedric Diggory, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora 'Tonks' Lupin and Sirius Black were among them.
Hermione always felt saddened when she walked past that monument. She had decided that she would be working at Hogwarts for now, alternating between teaching Potions and helping McGonagall teach Transfiguration, as the older woman had become Headmistress and had a lot of work to do, bringing the first years, who had been denied entry to the school the year before, in, and sorting through all of the other affairs. She, too, had to question all her students under the truth serum, first of all to make sure they weren't Death Eaters in training, second of all to see if they knew where some of the remaining Death Eaters were.

Hermione was very glad she was at Hogwarts for the time being. Harry and Ron had hesitated about going back to school, but had decided in the end, that they would rather start their Auror training right away. They had been requested for the job, so not having their NEWT's was surprisingly not a problem.

With all the stress out of their lives, Harry, Hermione and Ron had become even better friends. They could constantly be seen going out for lunch together, along with Ginny and Lisa. Hermione quickly found the girls to be her friends as well, Ginny more so than Lisa. Ginny was quickly becoming her best female friend, and when Hermione wasn't at Hogwarts she found herself adopted into the Weasley family, and living at the Burrow.
Hermione loved Mrs Weasley, she was such a kind-hearted soul, but still so fierce, all rolled into a small woman with amazing cooking-skills.

Mr Weasley delighted in having her explain all sorts of Muggle things, and she found it amusing. He was a mild-spirited person, kind and with a certain amount of mischief in him, that it was no wonder all of his kids were such troublemakers.

Bill and Charlie were both brilliant; Bill and her kept up long discussions of the spellwork involved in Curse-breaking and other magic-related topics, and Charlie kept pestering about that dragon she had rode out of Gringotts with Harry and Ron.
"Was it ill? How did it look? Do you know where it is now?" but sometimes it was more along the lines of "Did you know what species it was? How was it, to fly a dragon?" all sorts of questions like that. He was the same with Harry and Ron, but they were used to him, so they just laughed.

Fred and George were very busy with their shop; it flourished like never before when the war was finally over for good, but they loved it, and they were always laughing and sharing stories about the customers. Percy on the other hand, had taken some time off from the Ministry, saying that he wanted to travel the world a bit, see the different cultures. He confided in Hermione during one of their discussions, that he wanted to introduce a new class at Hogwarts; World Cultures, so that the wizarding Britain could get an insight into the outside wizarding world, after having been holed up for so long.
Hermione thought it was a brilliant idea. Mrs Weasley was slightly more hesitant at letting her son go; she had just gotten him back again, and she didn't want to let him go.

Hermione was toying with the idea of writing a book about the Muggleborn experience of the war, but was unsure on whether to actually do it or not.
When she had graduated, she had quickly realized what a danger she was in. She often found herself having to hurry away, before somebody recognized her as a Muggleborn. With that revelation, she also knew what a danger her parents were in. A girl she often studied with from Hufflepuff, named Stacy, who was also a Muggleborn, had one day Fire-called her, asking if she could come over. Hermione was startled, because they hadn't been that good friends, but quickly agreed. When the crying girl came through the Floo, she collapsed in Hermione's arms, and sobbingly told her what had happened to her parents. Hermione knew instantly why the girl had come to her; they were both Muggleborns, the other would understand.
When Stacy had fallen asleep on Hermione's couch, Hermione had hurriedly gone to her parents. She had explained the situation, and they had only reluctantly agreed to be Memory-charmed. Hermione had closed down their practice, changed their identities and sent them away on a plane to Australia where they had bought a house. She had only hoped it was enough to keep them safe.

When she had gone back to Australia to retrieve her parents, she was so relieved to find them both alive and well. She had lifted their Memory-blocks, and when they had hugged her close to them, she felt like a little girl again, safe with her parents, and it had felt so unbelievable good, that she had stayed with them for nearly a month before she went back to England. They told her they would follow when they had all their affairs in order, and she nodded, happy that she still had her parents, because she didn't know what she'd do without them. During her time in Australia, Hermione had just laid back and enjoyed a vacation. She knew that once she got back to England, she would have to find work for herself. She really wanted to, though she probably wouldn't need to. The Ministry had offered her a generous 'donation', because of her help in the war.

It was really rather ridiculous.

When she came back though, Wizarding Britain was in chaos. She had had little to no interaction with her friends the past month, due to her telling them she was going to find her parents, and she wanted to be with them for a bit. They had respected her wishes, and left her alone for most part, with the occasional owl to ask her how her parents were doing and a small update on their work and family and so on.
She was appalled when she saw what had everybody so upset. The Daily Prophet had a few days before Hermione returned, issued a piece about the Ministry's idea on how to secure the Wizarding population after the war; a Marriage Law. A goddamn Marriage Law. They were going to force people into marriage, and they were going to force pregnancies.
Hermione could sort of see where they were coming from; Wizarding Britain had lost countless good wizards and witches, with just as many Death Eaters thrown in during the First and Second Wizarding War, in only 28 years. A rise in Squibs had been on the way for a long time now, due to Wizarding Purebloods only marrying Purebloods, most commonly their own cousins. All the inbreeding caused diminish in their magical cores, until they were so weak they could barely pass for a wizard or witch. Their own parents burned them off their precious Family-trees, and cast them aside like they were no good. Squibs had a higher chance of producing Squibs too, and the only way to securely save the Wizarding population, was to mix blood. Muggleborns had a very small chance of not producing a magical child, if they were paired with a Half- or Pureblood. Introducing new blood into society would definitely be a way to be certain that witches and wizards didn't die out. 'But to force us into marriage', Hermione thought, '-is a little extreme'.

After that first issue in the paper, people had been in an uproar, but they comforted themselves in the fact that it was still an idea, and that it might not come through. Hermione knew for certain that every witch and wizard understood the problem; they just didn't want to have their life-partner picked out for them.
But the day after Hermione returned, the idea came through. Kingsley Shacklebolt, the – now rightfully voted in – Minister for Magic stood forward in a press-conference, looking annoyed but hopeful, and announced that the Marriage Law had been voted on, and the majority were for it.
"I realize this is a major inconvenience for most. After much debate and discussion, the Ministry of Magic has come to the decision, that the Marriage Law is the best way to secure our population, our magic. We have tried and tried to come up with another solution, but this was the best idea. Nobody between the age of 17 and 35 who are still single can get out of this Law. That includes Ministry-workers, also myself. The Ministry has a self-updating book that shows marriages and proposals which mean you cannot cheat. You cannot write the Ministry and say you got engaged, just to get out of it. There is no turning your back on this Law. The punishment will be imprisonment in Azkaban. Failure to complete your duty will cause imprisonment or a large fine. In the next 5 years minimum, all who comes of age will receive a letter detailing their marriages. We, here at the Ministry, apologize for the heartache and pain this might cause. We apologize for the inconvenience, but must underline the importance of this law, and why it's been issued. Our population is thinning, and we need a fresh bout of magical children. If we had not proposed this law, we would be distinct, quickly. Thank you for your understanding."
Hermione was just as angry as the next person, but she appreciated his speech. It was good to know that not even the highest ranking members of the Ministry could get out of the law. Hermione knew, that when Shacklebolt had informed them of his own arranged marriage, that he got the sympathy of the people, and they would be less likely to disobey. Besides, many were still terrified of Azkaban, even if the Dementors weren't there anymore.

In the article that followed the Minister's speech, it was explained what would happen. Within the next week, every witch and wizard that was eligible between the required ages would be sent a list of questions. They were to answer them all truthfully. A quill would follow, charmed so that only it could answer the sheet, and for extra precaution, both were spelled to only write truthful answers. When the sheet had been send back (and there was no getting out of this one either; the owl would stay until the questions were answered), all the information would be gathered and some machine the Department of Mysteries had been working overtime in finishing, would choose who the best candidates for you were. A team of Ministry workers that had been stationed in the new office opened called 'Department of Control of Magical Marriages' would go over everything and choose your new life-partner. You had no choice what-so-ever in who was picked; they didn't even send out a list of possible candidates for you to choose from; probably to avoid the same person being picked many times over.

Hermione sighed when she had read through the article. She would be 19 soon, and she had never planned on being married so early on. Let alone thinking of kids so soon. But now she would have to, because that was the whole point of this Marriage Law; to produce children.
To be honest, she had never even been with a man, and now she was forced into marriage with some guy she had probably never met, and it was required of her to have sex with him, and have children. Honestly, what if she didn't even like the guy? It could be that prat, Draco Malfoy, from a year below for all she knew! Seriously! What if she had been gay? What would they have done then? What if the person she was marrying was gay? How did they expect that to work out? Hermione thought it was very insensitive of the Ministry to not think of the men and women, who would suffer even more from the law because of their sexuality.

So, now the Marriage Law has been brought to the stage.. What do you think? :)

Love,

MissH-95