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A week of intense research later Hermione announced excited in spite of her exhaustion. "Call the group together, I think I've got something."
"You can find a way to stop them enacting this law?" Mandy Brocklehurst asked incredulously.
Hermione deflated slightly. "No. Not exactly. The only way I can see around us all being married off to whomever the ministry chooses is to beat them to the punch so to speak," Hermione replied. "I've just found a permanent bonding ritual that doesn't need an official to cast it, and cannot be annulled by the ministry or anyone else."
"This is sex magic, is it legal?" Daphne asked, looking over the ritual.
"I checked. It isn't specifically on the list of forbidden rituals and it's not blood magic or dark magic," Hermione said. "But I'd appreciate a second opinion from someone who knows and understands ministry law better than I do, before I tell everyone and raise false hopes."
A couple of seventh years came over, one had been offered an apprenticeship in runes after graduation and the other one in law. They looked over the notes and had several hushed conversations.
"Granger's right, the ritual isn't illegal, probably because it's so bloody obscure that the morons at the ministry have never heard of it," the runes expert concluded.
"The ministry probably will make it illegal as soon as they find out that we can use it to upset their plans, but it isn't at the moment," the future barrister agreed.
"Then we have no time to waste. We need to offer this ritual to as many muggleborns as we can while keeping it secret from anyone who would tell the ministry or the Wizengamot for as long as we can," Hermione said.
"Not just Muggleborns, this new law will affect us all in the end," Padma said.
"Yes I know, but we all read who was voting for this to be enforced. The worst of the pureblood bigots. We're officially all going to be affected by this law but under current marriage laws it's the muggleborns who will be powerless in these marriages. And I don't think we can trust the ministry to match us all with someone who will treat our muggleborn or blood traitor schoolmates well," Susan Bones replied, concerned about her friends.
"Yeah! Let's call a meeting and see who's interested in trying this ritual. We'll need a secrecy contract so even those who choose not to participate can't inform on the rest of us. I'll have it ready by dinner time," the future lawyer said. "I'll make sure that it prevents them from breaching the secrecy, there's no point in just punishing them afterwards."
Hermione blushed at this criticism, she was right. Marietta had suffered for giving up the DA but the contract hadn't stopped her from talking to Umbridge, the spell hadn't even made her hesitate because she hadn't told anyone about the consequences of breaking the contract, and with her mother's job on the line, pimples might not have been enough to stop her even if she had known.
"The ritual may not be illegal but refusing to marry the spouse the ministry allocates you will be, I would expect that it will be written into the notifications that taking any step to avoid the marriage is against the law," one of the few purebloods who had joined the research warned.
"Yes but the new law only applies to unmarried witches and wizards, we just need to try to get this done before the questionnaires or the notification letters arrive, while it's not currently illegal for any of us to marry," Hermione argued.
"And if they make it illegal retrospectively?" Mandy Brocklehurst asked.
"They can't throw us all in Azkaban. They're doing this to increase the number of magical births. To throw married couples in prison where they can't procreate will reduce the number of children born" Hermione said.
"You can't seriously be that naive. Just because that's what they said they were aiming to do with this law doesn't mean anything, and it doesn't mean that some people won't use bribes to hijack the allocations to meet their own desires," Daphne Greengrass sneered.
"I know that! But that's their public claim, why they said they were proposing the law, how they sold the law to the members of the Wizengamot and to the general public. There will be a massive outcry if they throw us all in Azkaban. I mean there are quite a few students here who have relatives on the Wizengamot. They wouldn't vote to imprison you," Hermione replied.
"No they'll just annul the marriages and force us to marry the people they choose anyway" Blaise Zabini retorted.
"That's the beauty of this solution. If we use this ritual then they won't be able to annul the marriages it creates. The vow of fidelity in the ritual cannot be just set aside like that and there's no counter ritual documented, we wouldn't be able to consummate a marriage to anyone else," Hermione said. "I realise that under normal circumstances not all of you would be ready to make a permanent vow of fidelity to your current boyfriend or girlfriend at this age but at least this way we get to choose who we marry."
"Granger's right, we've been researching ways to get this law overturned but we haven't found anything and even if we did find an effective argument against the law now it probably won't be revoked in time to prevent those of us that are already seventeen from being paired off in the next month and having to marry before spring and produce a child next year. And if the ministry chooses an unbreakable marriage ritual like this it won't matter to us if the law is overturned, we will still be stuck married to people we don't want to be with." Tracy Davis said.
"They can't be planning to use an unbreakable marriage bond. They're allowing couples to divorce after a third child is born," Lisa Turpin said.
"The law says a third magical child not just a third child. With the number of squibs in some of the more pureblood family lines that could be seven or eight children or more. There aren't many witches that can have that many children," Daphne warned.
"Does the rune circle have to be redrawn for each ritual?" Padma asked. "And how many people are good enough at runes to draw this. It looks hideously complex."
"Could we ask the room of requirement to produce the rune circle?" Harry asked.
"I don't know if it would be safe. I'm not sure how the magic of the room would interact with the runes and the couple's wishes," Katie Bell replied. "if the person asking for the room thinks of the wrong thing but the circle still looks similar then I'm not sure we'd notice the problem."
"The other problem is how to do this without the professors noticing" Mandy Brocklehurst said.
"I suggest that we use the abandoned classrooms on the ground floor. Those rooms aren't used for anything and they're not so far out of the way that anyone will notice the increased foot traffic in the area. The stone floors should hold the runes well and if we have all the students taking advanced runes working in shifts we should be able to have all five circles up by tomorrow," Hermione said, having had more practice at getting away with secret projects than the others.
There was more grumbling from those who didn't think it was going to work but nobody had any other suggestions or ideas of what to do.
Harry set off a loud bang with his wand to shut them all up for a minute. "We've all spent hours every day for weeks to try to find a way around the marriage laws and Hermione's found one. It may not be the perfect solution we were hoping for but nobody else even has an idea that they think might work so this may be our only possibility," he said loudly. "I for one think this is worth a try. I'm willing to try to learn to draw the runes."
"I think we should leave it to the people taking advanced runes to draw the circles. They get first go at the ritual and then if we do have to redraw the runes every time maybe we could charge a couple of galleons for it. We can set the price once we know exactly how much time they take to draw and how many times they can be reused before being replaced," Tracy suggested.
In the end there were ten students with the skill to draw the runes that were willing to help out, so they decided to work in pairs to draw rune circles in each of the five classrooms in the abandoned corridor they'd decided to use.
Some pairs like Tracy and Daphne worked together, and others like Hermione and Blaise Zabini preferred to take separate shifts drawing and spent very little time in the room together.
They arrived back after a period when they all had classes to find notes left by the Ancient Runes professor in each room making minor corrections and offering anyone involved extra credit. In some cases the students working together noticed that the circles also seemed to have been partially completed while the students were away.
"Professor Babbling has been trying to help us with the runes. We could ask her about whether we can reuse the rune circles" Leanne suggested.
"I think she's done some of ours too. I hope we can reuse them, otherwise we're going to be spending an awful lot of time redrawing runes. Nearly half the sixth and seventh years have put their names on the list to use the circles" Hermione said tiredly.
"I hope you've got that list really well warded" Angelina warned her. "If we get stopped I wouldn't want the others who didn't get a chance to complete the ritual to be punished as well."
"I have" Hermione replied. "It looks like History of Magic notes to anyone else."
Hermione approached the runes' professor at the end of class the next day. She'd been volunteered for the task as nobody would be suspicious of her wanting to stay and talk to a professor after classes, until they'd started researching the marriage law she'd done it with nearly all her teachers at least once a week. Padma stayed with her.
"We just wanted to say thank you for the assistance you gave us with our rune projects, and ask why you are helping us Professor?" Hermione asked curiously.
"None of the professors approve of forcing students to marry, or of students your age being married at all, to be honest. But I believe it will be less traumatic if you at least know and trust your husband or wife. And to be honest I'd rather help and ensure the runes are correct than risk something going wrong. Rune rituals can be extremely dangerous if not done properly" Professor Bathsheba Babbling replied. She didn't mention that she wasn't the only professor popping in to spend an hour or two drawing runes for the ritual circles.
"So, can we use the circles more than once without redrawing the runes? Is it safe?" Padma asked.
"Yes, so long as none of the runes have faded or become smudged by people entering the circle" Professor Babbling said. "You will need to check every rune in the circle very carefully between each use."
"That's still going to be a lot quicker than erasing it and redrawing all those runes," Padma said pleased.
"Yes but you need to make sure whoever checks the circle is extremely thorough," Professor Babbling warned seriously.
"Thank you, thanks for helping us and for keeping our secret," Hermione said gratefully.
"You're welcome, thank you for going to so much effort for your fellow students," Bathsheba replied smiling at her most enthusiastic student.
Katie Bell also stayed behind after class the next day.
"I spoke with Hermione, and I wanted to say thank you. But I also wanted to ask you a favour," Katie said awkwardly.
"What can I do for you?" Bathsheba asked.
"My best friends Angelina and Alicia graduated last year. Angelina's muggleborn, and she's not good at runes but our other friend Alicia was. I want to tell her about the ritual and give her a copy of the rune circle but I don't want to risk sending it through the mail. Hermione says Harry has a way of getting to Hogsmeade without being seen and I've arranged to meet Alicia and Angelina tomorrow night, but then I wondered if there were any more muggleborns who were good enough at runes to draw a circle like this and are still single. They deserve a chance to make their own choices too, and you'd know who they were. I was hoping that you'd get in contact with them," Katie said rambling.
"It's a very thoughtful idea Katie but your friends don't need to use this ritual. They aren't stuck here in Hogwarts so they can go to the ministry or to a druid celebrant and marry if they don't want to wait for the ministry to assign them a husband. If I were you, I would encourage your friends to marry before they get their letters from the ministry but you can't betray the other students here by telling them anything about the ritual you and your friends are planning on using," Bathsheba said earnestly.
"Oh! You're right. I hadn't thought about that. Thank you, Professor," Katie said, getting up to leave.
"Good luck Miss Bell," Bathsheba said.
"Thanks for talking some sense into me Professor," Katie said.
"You're welcome Miss Bell. Remember though that your concern for your friends wasn't wrong, and your caring for them is a positive thing, you merely had the wrong solution in this circumstance. Do what you can to help them, and ask them to reach out to others," Bathsheba said earnestly.
"I will Professor," Katie promised earnestly.
-o0o-
Harry showed Katie the tunnel to Honeyduke's. "It comes out in the basement so you need to be careful not to be seen until you get up the stairs into the public part of the shop. Please don't tell anyone about the tunnel, not everyone is honest enough to use it without helping themselves to the sweets and I wouldn't want Honeydukes to suffer because we haven't warned them about the tunnel so they can have it sealed up."
"I can't believe you found this," Katie exclaimed. "You seem to know all the secret pathways."
"I didn't find this one, Fred and George showed me, back in third year when I couldn't go to Hogsmeade because my Aunt and Uncle wouldn't sign the permission form," Harry replied.
"That's how they always managed to have access to sweets. Those rats! They could have told us!" Katie exclaimed.
"Don't blame me, I don't know why they never told anyone else," Harry said stepping back slightly.
Katie laughed.
"Have a great afternoon and say hi to Alicia and Angelina for me," Harry said.
"I will, thanks Harry," Katie said.
"Are you going to tell them about the ritual?" Harry asked once they were down in the tunnel and couldn't be overheard.
"No, I promised I wouldn't. Professor Babbling reminded me that they don't need it anyway. They can just go and get married the regular way. I'm going to encourage them to get married as soon as they can, they've still been seeing the twins," Katie said.
"I didn't think they were ever that serious about the twins," Harry commented.
Katie sighed. "I don't know that they are. But the twins now run a successful business, it isn't just all pranking but all the boring stuff that comes with running the shop. They've grown up a lot since leaving Hogwarts. They can definitely afford a family and they've always said they want a large family."
"Which is more than you can say for most of the students here, how many of them do you think can afford to look after a baby?" Harry said.
Katie chuckled slightly. "Yeah you're right about that. I don't think any of us have really thought about that. We're all focussed on escaping the ministry matches, none of us have thought about still having to have a baby. We haven't escaped that have we?"
"No, I think Hermione was too scared about who she might be matched with. She will probably try to get around that part of the law next, at least to get us a delay until we finish our NEWTS."
"But if maybe they're matching up students to people who can afford a child," Katie said.
"They might be but I'd rather be poor than married to a Death Eater," Harry replied.
"Yeah but have you really thought about what it means to be poor?" Katie asked.
"I know what it's like not to have the things you need, to never feel like you've had enough to eat. But my relatives weren't poor, they just hated me too much to spend money on me. I had money in Gringotts but I didn't find out that I was a wizard until I was eleven so I didn't know about it," Harry said bluntly. "I only hope they'll let us all stay in school and get our NEWTS and this won't stop everyone from being employed."
Katie sighed. "I hope so too. At least I'm old enough to sit my NEWTs before that damned law forces me to have a baby."
-o0o-
Katie met her friends near the shrieking shack. "Hey guys, thanks for coming," she said smiling at them. "Harry said to say Hi."
"Katie, what are you doing breaking out of school. Are you planning to leave the country to avoid the marriage law?" Angelina demanded.
"No, are you?" Katie asked.
"I'm getting married, George proposed yesterday," Alicia said holding out her left hand to show off the engagement ring.
"That's great Alicia, when's the big day?" Katie said enthusiastically.
"On Sunday, we want to be married before the ministry starts pairing people up, just in case," Alicia replied. "I would've liked a proper wedding but there isn't time. I wish you could be there but George isn't even going to tell his mother because of the fuss she'd make over not having a proper wedding and we don't want to draw attention to it."
"You could always get married now and have a proper wedding later," Katie said encouragingly.
"What about you Angie?"
"I've got tryouts booked for the Sydney Swoopers Quidditch team in Australia next week. I'll stay long enough to witness 'Licia's wedding and then take a muggle international flight Sunday night. I'm not coming back, whether I get the spot on the team or not," Angelina said trying to sound positive.
"She and Fred broke up just before the Marriage law thing was passed," Alicia explained. "He offered to marry her anyway to protect her but she wouldn't do it."
Katie nodded, she didn't think it would be easy to swallow your pride and marry someone you just broke up with and it wasn't a very auspicious sign for a good marriage if you didn't even want to continue to date each other before you married.
"You should come to Australia with me. Sneak out again and meet me at Heathrow on Sunday night before ten o'clock and I'll get a shrinking potion and put you in my pocket," Angelina said. "I promise to reverse it as soon as we get there. Tell Harry he's welcome to come with us as well. I could get you both a tryout."
"Thanks, I'll tell him, but I think I've got another plan. I'll let you know if it doesn't work out. But how are we going to live if you don't get the job with the Swoopers? I haven't got more than twenty galleons," Katie replied.
"We'll be alright, you'll see. Something will come up," Angelina said confidently.
"You've got a plan?" Alicia asked incredulously. "There is no plan. If you're not married or out of the country by the time the letter comes allocating you a husband then you'll have to marry whoever the ministry pairs you up with!"
"Hermione has a plan," Katie said.
"Even Granger isn't going to get around this law, Katie," Angelina sneered.
"I really don't understand why you don't like her. She's alright. And it can't just be that her researching irritates you, you haven't seen her in months," Katie said.
"You're turning down a free trip to Australia with me because Granger has a plan," Angelina said.
"Yeah she does, and it's a plan that will let me stay in school and sit my NEWTs. What sort of job do you think I would get in Australia with only OWLs?" Katie replied.
"Better to be broke in Australia than married to the likes of Adrien Pucey!" Angelina declared.
Alicia and Katie both shuddered.
"Please come to Australia with me. It will be a hoot," Angelina entreated.
"I think you've been hanging around with the twins too long if you think leaving your country and running for your life is a hoot," Katie said flatly. "But I suppose even if you end up so poor you need to sleep outdoors at least Australia has the weather for it, you won't be sleeping in the snow. You won't be able to come back to England even just to visit, without risking being thrown in Azkaban."
Alicia laughed but Angelina scowled at her friend.
"I have to get going," Katie said wanting to get back to drawing the rune circles, feeling guilty for taking so much time off when she was needed. "I have stuff to do. Good luck with your wedding Alicia, I'm sorry I can't be there for you on your big day." She hugged her friend and kissed her cheek.
"Good luck with Granger's plan. I hope it works out for you," Alicia replied.
"Good luck with the tryouts. I hope that you love Australia," Katie said hugging Angelina tightly. She was going to miss her friend and there was a good chance she might never see her again.
"Thanks Katie, you're still more than welcome to join me if your plan doesn't work, but I guess you're right, it would be better to get your NEWTs if you can," Angelina replied hugging back fiercely.
Katie held her breath as she walked through town and into Honeydukes. She made a fairly large purchase to silently thank them for their unknowing help in letting her leave Hogwarts and snuck back into the tunnel, pleased to find Harry working on his homework while waiting for her on the stairs at the Hogwarts end of the tunnel.
"You came back. I wasn't sure you were going to," Harry said.
"Angelina offered to take me to Australia with her. She's got a tryout there next week and she's not coming back. She offered to take you as well. If we want to go we need to meet her at Heathrow Sunday night," Katie said.
"Is Alicia going?" Harry asked.
"No, I might have chosen to go if it was going to be the three of us. Alicia is marrying George on the weekend but Angelina and Fred broke up before the law was passed," Katie told him.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I thought they were good together," Harry said.
"Are you interested in going with Angie?" Katie asked.
"Well that kind of depends whether the ritual will work for me, and if I can find someone to ask. Ginny told me this morning that she doesn't want to use the ritual to get married. She wants a big white wedding in the Weasley orchard and she isn't prepared to give that up for some secret dirty ritual," Harry said sombrely.
"Oh Harry I'm sorry! Are you okay?" Katie asked hugging him.
"Yeah I'm fine. We hadn't been dating all that long and she's right she's got time to wait until next summer. She was only fifteen in August," Harry made excuses for her.
"And you're only sixteen, you have time to wait too," Katie said gently. "You two could plan to have the big fancy wedding she's been dreaming of next summer."
"I don't know that I trust the ministry to let me wait that long, and they're pretty sure to make this ritual illegal when they find out what we're doing, or move to pair up sixteen year olds to replace the seventeen year olds that will escape their matches. There are a lot of wizards on the Wizengamot and in the ministry who didn't like me killing Voldemort last year in such a public fashion," Harry replied. "Besides she likes to yell too much, and always needs to argue when things don't go exactly her way. I don't know that I want to live with that my whole life."
"What about Hermione? The two of you get along really well. I think she'd probably say yes and you know her well enough to make a life together," Katie asked.
"Hermione asked Ron and he said yes. He's had a crush on her for ages and she seemed to like him too. I don't know how they're going to get along with each other living together full time but hopefully he will have more confidence and be less argumentative once he knows she is his wife," Harry replied trying to sound positive.
"I'm sorry Harry. If I didn't already have a boyfriend then I would be willing to marry you," Katie said.
"Angelina is leaving the country but if you wanted to ask her to marry you instead, she might say yes. She liked you as a person and didn't buy into all that Harry Potter fangirl shite."
"Yeah, but she always treated me like a little kid brother," Harry rejected the idea. "I don't think she could take me seriously as a husband."
"Perhaps you're right. Who are you going to ask?" Katie ask curiously.
Harry sighed, "I don't know. The only girls I spend much time with are Hermione, Ginny Luna and you Angelina and Alicia. One of the girls from the DA is probably my best bet, have you heard of anyone that hasn't already asked someone?"
"Why don't you ask Luna? She's your friend," Katie asked.
"I did, she said she loved me like a brother but it wasn't in our destiny to be more than friends," Harry replied smiling at the memory of his friend's whimsical answer.
"That sounds like Luna. Sorry Harry, I don't know of anyone. I only know that most of the girls in my year have paired up and are waiting for the ritual circles. Speaking of which, I need to get back to helping draw the runes," Katie said, touching his arm sympathetically.
"That's okay Katie, I'm sure I'll find someone," Harry replied bravely.
"I'm sure you will, Harry. Good luck," Katie said.
A/N: Thank you to Child of Dreams, BMS, Tyler'sPrincess, mother oracle, sucinquee, Millie072, and all those who favourited or followed for your support. Sucinquee, I love your ideas and I was very tempted to change the story to use them but this is already completed except for a final editing and it just didn't fit, you should write it yourself.
