Posted on: 19/03/14 at 20:25 GMT/UTC/Zulu.
AN: Thank you to those who reviewed saraim and Moi. Moi, that's a lot of questions. :) I'll try and answer them all within the story over this and the next couple of chapters. :) If the other 325 people who read this story would like to at least consider reviewing I'd appreciate it. :P
The next chapter will be up on or by 29/03/14.
Noticed an error, fixed it and reposted.
The Marriage Curse
Entangled
It was a very unusual Monday morning, Harry reflected. Breakfast had finished but everyone was waiting for Professor Dumbledore to speak and lessons were cancelled for that day and the next two. Hagrid and Trelawney were both sitting there making it more unusual and chairs had been added to the top table for the Malfoy's, Kingsley, Sirius and Tonks ho were were sitting there too. Umbridge had taken an unplanned sabbatical to St Mungos with a particularly nasty bout of the flu after her fever had got out of control. Everyone was glad she was away and couldn't come back for at least a while in the foreseeable future.
"It's a good thing Umbridge is away sick." Hermione said. "I'm sure any man would rather die than marry the toad woman."
Harry laughed. Ron was sulking because Harry and Hermione were going to have to marry and scowled moodily and stabbed the table with his fork.
The leftovers and the cutlery and plates suddenly vanished and Dumbledore stood. Silence fell immediately. All eyes turned to the Headmaster. He smiled at them all.
"Good morning. I know you are all looking for answers. I hope to be able to give them to you." He began.
"The Aurors and I have been able to study the artefact that caused this and we have discovered several things." He said.
"The first appears to be mostly common knowledge but to dispel any rumours that have been going around let me state it anyway." He said.
Several well known gossip mongers suddenly looked guilty causing Albus' lips to twitch.
"Firstly you are betrothed to the first three people of the opposite sex who you came into skin contact with and will have six months to marry after you become able to father or bear children." He paused as there was a murmur.
"For those of you who are too young to do so," he smiled at the relieved looking younger years, "All you have to do for now is seal your betrothal. You will have to marry when you and one of those you are betrothed to become able to become parents." Several younger ones cheered and began to chatter as they relaxed.
"Quiet please! I won't take much longer and then you can be on your way." He smiled again and waited for quiet.
"If since the curse took hold you have not become betrothed to anyone you will need to find people to become betrothed to." He paused as another murmur ran through the hall and held up his hand for silence.
"The Hogwarts wards have sealed us in until this is resolved. You need not worry as the house-elves and owls can still come and go so we will not starve if this takes a while." He stated.
There were a few laughs.
"This curse does not dissolve previous betrothals or marriages and if you are are already attached you will simply need to find two more people to marry. " He said.
There were some mutters of relief mostly from the purebloods and from some of the older half-blood and muggleborn students as well.
"That's good." Ron said quietly. "There'd be a riot if all the Slytherins betrothals were suddenly null and void."
"Thought you weren't talking to us." Harry snarled at Ron.
"Oomph!" He said a second later as Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.
"Well I suppose it isn't your fault and I have been a prat." Ron said.
"Yeah. Well so have I so I guess we're even." Harry said.
"Shut up!" Hermione hissed nodding towards Dumbledore.
"Settle down please! This won't take much longer and then you can all discuss it to your hearts desire." He said.
"As for those of you who are able to become parents you have two years from marrying to father or bear your first child." Albus said.
"What if you can't have children?!" Someone called out.
"We are still looking into that but in most cases there are a number of potions or spells that can cure most conditions that cause infertility or the inability to carry children." He paused to see if there were more questions.
No one spoke.
"Betrothals are I'm afraid unbreakable, unless you wish to lose your magic, so choose your future spouses wisely." Albus said.
"They must be sealed within three months and once a group marriage is complete everyone involved must agree on that by stating it verbally. Once they have no further betrothals may be made. Betrothals are sealed with a simple kiss on the lips. Are there any questions?" He asked.
There was silence. "If anyone does think of any questions later we will be sure to answer them to the best of our ability." Albus said.
"Now in the mean time I would like all of those who are not betrothed and are undecided to leave the hall to think about and discuss their matches with their families. I would prefer this to be settled within a couple of days so that the wards will return to normal. Those who have decided who they'd like to marry but are not betrothed yet please remain. Those who are betrothed please remain as well." Albus sat down.
About half the student body got up and left. To Harry and Hermione's surprise Ron stayed.
"Who are you marrying then?" Harry asked.
"We're not sure." Seamus said. "Ron, Neville and I thought we could tolerate each other sharing our wives and decided to try and find three girls together."
"Okay." Harry said. He was surprised that they had been mature enough to settle that between them.
When everyone who was going had left Albus asked them all to stand and vanished the furniture. The great hall seemed five times bigger without it.
"Good Luck." Ron said as he and the other two boys moved off to find three girls who'd be willing to marry them.
"We'll need it." Harry replied and he and Hermione moved off to find their partners.
A while later Hermione saw Ron, Seamus and Neville leaving the hall smiling with Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones and Padma Patil. She wished her group marriage was that simple. There were a lot of people already involved and sorting it out was becoming difficult.
"Look Albus, just whom is meant to be spawning with whom!? I am becoming more than a little confused here!" Severus Snape snapped a moment later.
Albus chuckled and cast a spell. Gold and red lines shot everywhere showing links between people. Hermione noticed three red lines joining her to her husbands-to-be.
"Yes well there are rather a lot of people caught up in our particular group marriage Severus but your wives to be are Miss Hermione Granger, Mrs Narcissa Malfoy and," he paused.
"Me." Minerva finished for him with an eye roll.
"Yes." Albus said in a defeated way.
Minerva squeezed his shoulder. "You'll always be the first in my heart Albus."
"How disgusting and sentimental of you both. So I'm stuck with two Gryffindors one of whom is my student and the other who is at least thirty years my senior." Severus groused.
"Well you're not exactly a catch yourself." Hermione snapped at him.
Harry elbowed her. "Can we just work out who is betrothed to who at the moment and try to close the group?" He asked pleadingly.
"Yes. A good idea for once in your life Potter. We don't need any more people in our ridiculously large marriage." Severus said.
Harry's jaw dropped. Ginny giggled and reached out and pushed his mouth shut. Hermione looked around. Gold lines linked the two senior Malfoy's and Dumbledore and McGonagall she noticed. Draco and Astoria Greengrass were also linked by a gold line. It was thinner than the other two gold lines which intrigued her. Ginny caught his eye and raised her eyebrows. They both blushed.
"Well well. You sneaky little snake." Fred said in an amused tone.
"We were already betrothed." Draco said with an eye roll.
"Alright everyone who is not attached to someone in this group please move back. Anyone who has managed to sort out their group should leave." Albus said.
That left fifty people in the room. People moved around the great hall following their lines until they were mostly untangled. Albus asked everyone to spread out in their groups and seal their betrothals. That left eighteen people in their part of the room.
"We need six more people." Sirius observed.
"No we don't Black." Snape snapped. "This is ridiculous enough as it is."
Albus held up his hands. "Please no arguments." He said. Sirius and Severus subsided.
"Please don't choose any of my wives Black. I don't want you as a co-husband." Severus said.
"The feeling is mutual." Sirius retorted.
"I believe everyone else is already taken." Luna said suddenly.
Hermione glanced around. It appeared to be true.
Luna bit her lip and looked around at all the men in their group. This was going to make things far more awkward. However the lines towards a happy future looked good if she asked any of the remaining men except the Malfoys. That was confusing. Normally there was only one clear path to follow. It certainly made it harder to choose. Maybe if she choose a friend it would be less awkward and she and they would be happier faster? Yes. She'd ask Harry first. If he said no she could ask one of the Weasley twins. She didn't think she would mind being married to one of those three.
"Harry. You've always been my friend. How do you feel about having four wives?" Luna asked.
"I don't know if that's possible but if it is I'll marry you." Harry said.
He looked a little awkward as Luna came over to him and held out her hand. He took it.
"Ow!" Luna yelped as Harry grimaced.
She smiled. That was sorted then.
Sirius was having a slightly harder time. There was no way he wanted to carry on the family tradition of marrying cousins even if he didn't think Lucius would skin him. So Narcissa was out. So was Tonks.
Minerva was a possibility until her remembered that she was now bound to Snape. There was no way he was going to spend the rest of his life sharing a wife with Snivellus. He didn't notice that Luna had seen his dilemma.
Luna watched Sirius and tried to focus on his fate lines. Yes. There they were. She looked briefly around at the group and then to her surprise saw a very strong line towards a happy future if he and Ginny married. She turned to the ginger witch who was standing next to Harry. She whispered briefly to her about what she saw.
Ginny gave her a startled look and then eyed her in a calculating manner that Luna wasn't sure she liked. It was as if Ginny was seeing her clearly for the first time. Maybe telling someone what she could see was a bad idea. She'd never told anyone before. Then to Luna's surprise Ginny gave her a half hug and strode over to Sirius and grabbed his right hand.
Ginny winced slightly and Sirius started in shock. Luna beamed at them. Harry made a noise of disquiet.
"Don't worry. We'll all be very happy with this arrangement." Luna said.
Harry gave her a slightly doubtful look and then shrugged. Luna knew Ginny would tell him what she'd told her and everything would be alright. She hummed to herself happily.
Ginny rejoined them and Harry raised his eyebrows at her.
"I'll explain later." She said in an undertone.
He nodded. "So what's your surname going to be?" Harry asked Luna.
Luna tilted her head to the side. "That is a problem isn't it. Luna Dumbledore Black Potter is a bit too wordy I think."
Harry laughed. "A bit yeah."
"I think I'll just have to be Mrs Lovegood and only use my married surnames in their legal capacity." Luna said.
"Sounds like a plan." Hermione said.
"Or we could all pick one family name and name ourselves after that one name." Ginny suggested.
"Too confusing." Fred said.
"Yeah can you imagine Mum's face if we introduced you two as Mr and Mrs Harry and Ginny Weasley?" George said.
Harry and his friends laughed.
"Why not decide who our primary spouse is going to be and take their surname?"Hermione asked.
"Actually in historical group marriages, like ours, they appointed a man and a woman as family heads and everyone changed their name to match their surnames or chose an entirely new surname and used their new married names only when necessary." Sirius said.
There was silence for a while.
"I like that idea." Hermione said. "I suggest we nominate a couple of people as the heads of our family and then take a vote."
Several people around the room nodded.
"I nominate Albus." Severus said.
"I'll second that." Harry chimed in.
"I nominate Professor McGonagall." Hermione said.
It took the group a couple of minutes for all of them to nominate a witch and wizard to lead their new family. By the end of it they had nominated Albus Dumbledore, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Lucius Malfoy and Sirius Black to be the male head of the family. Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey and Narcissa Malfoy had been nominated as the female heads of the family. Albus and Minerva won the vote.
The Malfoys muttered a bit but didn't dissent. Lucius was giving Severus an odd look. He responded with a raised eyebrow.
"So we're the Dumbledore Clan." One of the twins said.
"Neat." Said the other.
"I think we should we take a new name for our clan that we all chose." Luna said noticing signs of disagreement.
"So do I. Take some time to think of one and we'll all vote on it." Professor McGonagall said.
"With that decided can we seal our betrothals, close our group and go our separate ways?" Sirius asked.
"Yes. We'll meet here in a weeks time so we can start planning our marriages and living arrangements." Albus said.
Then the group started to move around. Luna kissed Harry swiftly on the lips and moved on to Sirius.
Hermione fought to stop herself from blushing as she and Harry gave each other a brief and rather awkward peck on the lips. Harry smiled sheepishly. She eyed Lucius Malfoy and Professor Snape a little nervously.
"You're a lioness." Harry whispered to her.
She nodded and straightened her back. "And you're a lion." She returned.
Harry moved off to find one of the other women he was betrothed to and Hermione turned to find her two Slytherins. One betrothed down she could do this she thought to herself as she walked over to Professor Snape. He sighed.
"Let's get this over with." He said.
She nodded and he leaned down and pecked her briefly on the lips. Then he stood straight and turned around sharply. She saw him kiss Professor McGonagall in the same manner and then find a quiet corner of the hall. She breathed a sigh of relief. That had gone better than she expected. She startled when she felt a hand on her shoulder and spun and looked up into a pair of icy grey eyes.
"Why did you touch me?" Lucius Malfoy enquired coldly.
"I didn't know if you were alive or not. I was checking. If I'd known it would bind us together for the rest of our lives I'd have left you alone." Hermione replied.
He chuckled. Then while she was surprised he pulled her into his arms and dipped her. She squeaked in shock, her arms instinctively going around his back to grab his shoulders and hold on. He smirked and then captured her mouth with his. It was far more than the peck on the lips Harry and Professor Snape had given her and she was startled by the warmth and softness of his lips as they caressed hers. She tentatively returned the kiss. He broke it and set her back on her feet.
"Until next time my lioness." He smirked.
He left her feeling breathless and stunned. What the hell was that?
Hermione stared after him for a moment. Then everyone stopped milling around and formed a circle. They all agreed that their group was complete each of them stating, "Our marriage is closed," in turn. There was a blue flash after the last person spoke and the magic closed the group marriage and then they dispersed.
Please Review. Constructive crit is welcome. Flames are not. If you can't make a criticism nicely don't make it at all.
Phew! That was long. Umbridge is away sick in St Mungos during the activation of the curse because I hate her character and think it would cruel and unusual punishment to make anyone marry her. She will be back at some point though.
For future reference the people in the group marriage I'm focusing on are: Albus Dumbledore, Angelina Johnson, Astoria Greengrass, Daphne Greengrass, Draco Malfoy, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Lucius Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Minerva McGonagall, Narcissa Malfoy, Poppy Pomfrey, Severus Snape and Sirius Black.
The fic is going to focus on this group and their friends and families for the most part although I won't be able to write from everyone's POV. I have a very complicated drawing of this on google docs. If anyone is interested in seeing it please PM me and I'll give you the link.