Chapter 19 News from the Ministry
Although the Weasleys and their guests are a little surprised when Hermione and Ginny arrive with an elf in tow everybody treats Binky as one of the family. Though Narcissa is a little hesitant and obviously struggling with her past.
After dinner Hermione, Ginny and Binky pull Minerva aside.
"Minerva you've met Binky, he's going to be our house elf, but as you know I'm against the normal bonding between an elf and their family. Now Binky has explained why a bonding is important but he has found out that there is a type of bonding that allows the elf to leave a family without consequences. He has learned that Dumbledore had a book about how to do that bonding at his office at Hogwarts. We were hoping you inherited the book and would be willing to lend it to us." Hermione immediately cuts to the core.
"I did inherit all of the contents of Albus office in Hogwarts. I don't know what book you are referring to, but maybe one of the elves does. Edo?" There is the sound of a pop and an elf appears. "The mistress called Edo?"
"Yes, could you go and look for a book on elf bonding. Albus supposedly had one in his office at Hogwarts. Maybe you can take Binky here, since he seems to know what exactly we are searching for?"
"Edo can do that mistress." With two pops both Edo and Binky disappear leaving the three women alone.
There is a comfortable silence that only lasts a few minutes before a pop sounds and Binky appears holding a book called bonding, a complete overview.
"This is it missus. Edo and me looked at it and the bonding is rather easy. The headmistress could perform it." Binky says full of hope while handing the book to Minerva, opened at the right page.
"If you three are sure you want to do this bonding I'm more than happy to perform it. However Binky, you can not come and live at Hogwarts until Hermione and Ginny have moved into the apartment building, we simply do not have the space at the castle."
"That's okay. Me can stay at the shelter and help." Binky beams while both Hermione and Ginny nod there okay on the bonding.
Minerva reads over the ritual before picking up her wand. She first touches Binky at the heart while casting a nonverbal spell. She then repeats the spell first with Hermione and then with Ginny.
"Congratulations Binky is now bonded to Hermione and Ginny as well as vice-versa."
"Thank you Minerva." Hermione says while Binky hugs her.
On boxing day Hermione and Ginny ask Narcissa and Draco for a moment of their time.
"Yesterday we went to the shelter and told the elves Draco would like to come by and help them with Ron. At first they were a little hesitant, but then an elf named Trendy spoke up." When Hermione mentions Trendy Draco's face lights up while Narcissa's face falls. Hermione notice this, but decides to continue. "He spoke up and told the other elves that Draco is a good man and can be trusted. So Draco, you're granted access to the shelter. You can make arrangements with Binky."
"Thank you so much girls." Draco says and pulls them into a hug. When he let's go of them Narcissa speaks up. "As much as I appreciate you girls doing this for Draco, why am I here?"
"Well we wondered if maybe you would like to see Trendy. I know it was Lucius who gave him clothes and was in charge of the elves, so maybe you feel different toward them?" Hermione explains.
"I highly doubt Trendy would want to see me. Although I never agreed with Lucius' treatment, I also never stood up for the elves."
"That's not true mother, you always made time to teach the elves as much as you could and prepared them for their job to the best of you ability. By doing so you protected them from a lot of punishment."
"Still Draco, I didn't try to protect Trendy."
"How about I ask him how he feels about meeting you. Maybe he will want to come back to you and be your elf when you're settled." Draco begs his mum.
"I guess asking wouldn't hurt" Narcissa concedes.
"Alright that's all settled then. Draco will make arrangements with Binky to visit the shelter and there he'll see if Trendy would like to meet with Narcissa. Now if you two would excuse us, my fiance and I have to make wedding plans." Ginny summarizes and leads Hermione out of the room.
Later that day Draco finds Ron at the quidditch pitch. "Hi Ron, I was wondering if you would like to come with me to the elf shelter Hermione and Ginny have been too. They could still use some help and it might give us an opportunity to get to know each other a little better without any pressure."
"It might not be a bad idea actually. The way both our mums have been hovering is getting on my nerves."
"I know what you mean. I feel like I can't make my own decisions, you know?"
"Yeah, when would you like to go?"
"How would tomorrow work for you?"
"Good actually. Breakfast at eight, and then leave right after?"
"That sounds like a plan. I'm going to look for Binky and make the arrangements with him."
The next evening Ron and Draco arrive back at the Burrow just in time for dinner. As soon as they walk in it is clear to the people in the kitchen that something has changed between the boys. Hermione is determined to find out but has to wait till after dinner to get Draco and Ron alone.
"So how was today?"
"It was fun. I learned a lot of stuff about elves I had no idea about. It actually makes me feel a little ashamed. Being born in a magical family and still there is so much I don't know about elves" Ron starts.
"Well your family didn't have any elves." Hermione points out.
"You do have a point and it did make me feel a little better that Draco didn't know some of the things we learned today and he grew up in a family with elves." Ron says, but if the wink he throws at Draco is anything to go by he is teasing his match.
"What happened today guys, you seem to be getting along a lot better."
"I'm not sure really. I think we needed today to get to know each other better without the pressure of Draco's mum and my family and our friends. You all mean well but at the Burrow you all keep barging in on us and asking us if we are making progress."
"I'm sorry if I made you feel pressured in any way."
"I don't blame you Hermione, you care about us and that is something I appreciate. We just needed a change of scenery to be able to see a different side from the other. And to learn that we actually do have quite a few things in common. More than I thought." Ron explains.
"Ron is leaving out the best part. We are going on a real date." Draco says with a huge smile on his face.
"Ron finally caved to your charm now did he?" Hermione laughs.
"He didn't." Draco says.
"He didn't?" Hermione asks confused. Ron takes pity on her and explains.
"Getting to know more about Draco today made me realise getting married to Draco might be a better option than having my wand broken. I'm not in love with him and I highly doubt I will fall in love with him but I do believe we could be friendly enough to make a good home for children. Though I've no idea how getting pregnant works for two men."
"I'm sure we can figure that out when the time comes."
"I'm so happy you've come to your senses Ron. Any idea when you guys will be getting married?" Hermione asks enthusiastically.
"Calm down Hermione, we are going on a date in the new year, we haven't decided on getting married just yet." Draco calms her down.
"But if you do decide to get married there are two elves at the shelter waiting to be bonded to us. And yes we will use the same bonding you and Ginny used with Binky. Draco actually was the one to suggest it."
"Thank you, it means a lot to me you would do that." Hermione tells them.
"No need to thank us, I believe you have a point with not wanting to have to old-fashioned bonding. Just because they're elves and not humans doesn't mean they are less worthy of good treatment." Draco declares.
"Why did you decide to bond with two elves instead of just one to start?" Hermione asks, not really understanding why the guys would even need the help of two elves.
"Well we met with Trendy and I talked to him for a while. He didn't want to be an elf for my mother. Even though he does know she is a good woman, he stated it would remind him to much of my father. Then he asks me if Ron and I would consider getting an elf after our hypothetical marriage, because there are so many elves at the shelter wanting to have a family of their own again. So I talked to Ron and explained to him how important Trendy has been to me as a little boy, he was basically my personal elf and did a lot of parenting. We ended up asking Trendy to become our elf if we decide to get married. He told us he would love to but only if we would take in his protege Danky as well. Danky is one of the very young house elves at the shelter who still needs to learn a lot. We med Danky and he is a great chap so we said yes."
The next few days go by in a relaxed atmosphere. Both Draco and Narcissa are still living at the Burrow but they spend a lot of their spare time hunting for a new home for Narcissa.
Although Narcissa, Draco and the Weasley's are getting along a lot better as time passes, Narcissa does not want to intrude on them more than necessary.
On new year's eve, Minerva arrives at the Burrow early asking to speak privately with Ginny and Hermione. The girls take Minerva up to their room.
Minerva walks in and sees two beds. She settles down in the middle of one of them and waits till the girls are settled on the other.
"Seeing as there are two beds I'm guessing the two of you have not yet shared a bed?" Both girls blush a little and Ginny decides to answer.
"No, we're taking things slowly. We haven't done more than kissing. We're not ready yet to sleep in the same bed or take the next step in our relationship."
"As glad as I am you're not rushing into things, you don't have a lot of time to get ready" Minerva tells them.
"I know we don't have unlimited time, but since we don't have to get pregnant just yet we do have a lot of time." Hermione says sounding confused.
"You do indeed have quite some time left before you need to be pregnant. However yesterday I had a meeting with Kingsley and he has explained some things pertaining the law to me that I had not yet knowledge of and neither do you since it is an addendum to the law that will become in effect at midnight tonight."
"And what does that addendum say?" Hermione asks clearly conspicuous.
"It states that the marriage will not be legal until consummation." Minerva cuts right to the chase.
"But Hermione and I are both women, we can't consummate the marriage." Ginny exclaims. Minerva look a little uncomfortable having to explain this but nevertheless does so, albeit with a blush.
"Well since there are a fair amount of same-sex matches the Ministry has thought it wise to define consummation for the different pairings. Obviously for a man and a woman the consummation is fairly simple. When the man penetrates the vagina of the women the marriage is considered consummated and therefore the marriage will be legal."
"Yes well we could have figured that one out ourselves. How will Ginny and I or Draco and Ron consummate their marriage?" Hermione interrupts Minerva.
"Yes, well…. Marriages between two man require penetration as well to become legal. Penetration of both spouses to be exact."
"Ron and Draco have to take it up the but for their marriage to become legal? Can you imagine how that goes over with Ron?" Ginny laughs.
"Well I wouldn't put it quite as crass as you did, but yes that basically what they'll have to do to get there marriage legalized."
"But doesn't that hurt?" Hermione asks concerned.
"It can which is why all men paired with a men will receive a pamphlet from the Ministry tomorrow explaining how they can prevent or at least minimize any pain. The pamphlet also includes some useful spells and the recipe to some potions to help, which can also be purchased at St. Mungo's. Now what brings me here is the consummation of the marriage between two women."
"No pamphlet from the Ministry?" Hermione asks.
"Oh you'll get a pamphlet from the ministry, I however wouldn't be much of a friend if I didn't prepare you for that." Minerva answers.
"That bad?" Ginny asks while taking Hermione's hand, obviously preparing herself and trying to reassure her finace.
"Well it's always a way of how you look at things, but I'm guessing you might not be overly enthusiastic."
"Would you please stop stalling and just tell us." Hermione snaps.
"Alright… For the two of you to have your marriage legally recognized the ministry uses the same way as two women get pregnant. One of you will need to change her anatomy so she has a penis and will be able to penetrate the vagine of the other. You could either use a potion which you can make yourself or buy at St. Mungos or you can use transfiguration."
"I feel like I'm still missing something. You said we don't have much time. But what you just described to us is something we would need to do the get pregnant anyway. So why don't we have much time?" Hermione inquires.
"Well the addendum stated that a couple needs to consummate their marriage within twenty-four hours of getting married."
"That would indeed mean we don't have much time." Ginny says quietly.
"I tried to reason with Kingsley, but he wouldn't see my point so I figured I'd tell you right away and soften some of the blow. We never really talked about it but I'm pretty sure I'm correct when I assume you two are not only virgins but you also don't want to get pregnant just yet?" Both girls nod.
"Yes, well this way you can prepare for what is to come and maybe you will be a little more ready than you would otherwise be. It also gives you a little extra time to think about contraceptives. If you decide to go with transfiguration and you need help, feel free to ask me. I am a transfiguration mistress and part of my mastery was human transfiguration. And please know I'll always be there for you if you need to talk about this or anything else." Minerva tells the girls before standing up and patting both girls on the shoulder on her way out of the room.
A/N: I'm settled at my new job so there is time to write again. I hope there are still some readers left :)
