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"Should we ask for married quarters?" Harry asked Hermione hesitantly. He had no idea which way he wanted her to answer. They may be married but their behaviour hadn't really changed. They still acted more like friends than a couple most of the time other than a chaste little kiss each morning and evening. Harry thought they should be more but he didn't know whether Hermione didn't want that or was just waiting for him to initiate it. He didn't want to push himself in where he wasn't wanted, he'd had more than enough of that in his life and it would make everything twice as awkward.
"I know it's going to be awkward to share a room, but I think we all should. We need to show the ministry that we're serious about these marriages," Hermione said. "The place is going to be crawling with ministry officials and reporters for a while and we want everyone to see that these marriages are as real as anyone else's."
"Why, the marriages can't be annulled or divorced no matter what the ministry thinks of them?" Harry asked.
"But it needs to look like we're making an effort to comply with the rest of the act and not sharing quarters when it's against school rules to have sex anywhere else is like advertising that we are not trying to have a baby," Hermione replied.
"I'm going to miss living in the dorm but I guess it's going to be super uncomfortable with Ron and Neville either way. Let's go see McGonagall," Harry replied. Hermione's answer didn't surprise him but it also didn't answer any of his other questions, did she want him to start acting like a boyfriend or husband or did she want things to stay as they were until they were forced by the law to start trying to have a baby.
"I'm not going to miss sharing a bathroom with Lavender and Parvati," Hermione said. "You can't possibly be as messy as them if only because you haven't got enough products to clutter the place up so much I can barely use the sink."
"Aunt Petunia has me pretty well trained in picking up after myself," Harry said mildly.
Hermione realised that his corner of the boys' dorm was normally an oasis of tidy in the mess that was the usual habitat of teenage boys and smiled.
"What about the fertility curse? Perhaps it would be better not to share a bed for the next three months?" Harry suggested.
"I think I can trust you not to pressure me into anything just because we share a room," Hermione replied. "You might be right about some of the other couples but I think it might have already been too late for a lot of them by the time we found out about the curse and they'll need their own rooms if they're going to have a baby. And if we change our minds you can always go to London and purchase more condoms, not that I expect things to go there before we go home at Christmas."
"Okay then, only if you promise not to start snoring like Neville and Seamus," Harry said jokingly. "I don't think I could handle that without the curtains to cast silencing charms on."
Hermione laughed.
-o0o-
That night Dumbledore made an announcement at Dinner.
"You will all have read the news of the marriage law that the Wizengamot reactivated several months ago. Many of you managed to circumvent the Ministry's choice of partners and complete your own marriage rituals. Those marriages will be upheld by the Wizengamot, and the couples involved will not be punished, but those couples will still be held to the rest of the law. That is that each couple will be required to produce a child within the next 18 months and a second child within the next 5 years.
Because of this law and the fact that up to half our sixth and seventh years will need to produce a child before finishing their NEWTs, the Hogwarts governors have met today and have decided to implement a modified three year NEWTs program for pregnant witches so that they do not have to forfeit their education. Each married witch will be tested for pregnancy each week and will be removed from classes that could compromise their babies' health. They will continue to attend their other classes for as long as they are well enough and then return to class when they're able.
So, could all married witches present themselves to Madam Pomfrey directly after breakfast every Saturday morning to be cleared for attending the following weeks classes."
Madam Pomfrey quickly stood up and amended the order being aware how many couples had actually used the bonding ritual. "Ravenclaw witches please see me at eight-thirty, Hufflepuff witches at nine-thirty, Gryffindors at half past ten and Slytherins at eleven thirty."
"Any fifth year falling pregnant will spend two years in fifth year before being required to sit their OWLs," Professor McGonagall added. "And partners are welcome to join their pregnant spouses in the special program if they wish to enable them to provide as much support as possible and share the childcare duties when the time comes. We are still discussing whether witches who have married someone in a higher year than theirs will be given permission to live outside of Hogwarts after their husbands have graduated and can provide a home for them or whether the graduated wizards will be allowed to remain living in the castle."
The headmaster looked shocked, and Hermione wondered whether it hadn't occurred to him that any of the bonded students would be below sixth year, or if he hadn't planned on wizard's educations also being affected by the fact their wives were having a baby.
-o0o-
HARRY JAMES POTTER
HOW COULD YOU BREAK MY DAUGHTER'S HEART LIKE THAT? SHE WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND, DID YOU THINK ABOUT HER AT ALL BEFORE YOU WENT AND MARRIED SOMEONE ELSE! DON'T YOU KNOW SHE'S DREAMED ABOUT MARRYING YOU HER WHOLE LIFE?
AND HERMIONE! I THOUGHT THAT GINNY WAS YOUR FRIEND? ONLY A SCARLET WOMAN WOULD CONSIDER STEALING A FRIENDS' BOYFRIEND THAT WAY! AND WHAT ABOUT RONNIE, YOU KNOW HE LOVES YOU. WHY DIDN'T YOU MARRY HIM INSTEAD OF CAUSING EVERYONE SO MUCH GRIEF? YOU SHOULD BOTH BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES! YOU WILL NEVER BE WELCOME IN MY HOME AGAIN AND I WILL BE WRITING TO ALL MY CHILDREN ORDERING THEM TO SEVER THEIR FRIENDSHIP WITH YOU!
Harry had grabbed Hermione pulling her to his chest and covering her ears as the howler started yelling. Now he loosened his grip but she didn't move away from him.
"Don't listen to her Hermione. You know it wasn't like that. She will come around once she listens to the whole story," Harry whispered consolingly.
"It's going to be like fourth year. It took her months to forgive me after the Daily Prophet said I'd broken your heart. How much worse will it be when it's her real son and daughter?"
"It only took months to get her to listen because it was months before we saw her and nobody else was present to tell her the truth either. I say we write to the twins and tell them the whole story and ask them to try to explain it to their mother, Katie will back us up if they need confirmation we're telling the truth.
"It's not just that! How can she think so little of us that she would jump to the conclusion that you would cheat on Ginny and I would cheat on Ron and hurt my best friend by marrying her boyfriend, this is the second time she's decided that I'm a scarlet woman on the most flimsy or unreliable evidence. What's wrong with me that lead her to think I could do that?"
"There's nothing wrong with you Hermione. Molly is just too overprotective of her youngest children and wants to protect them from every single hurt feeling or papercut. She automatically blames everyone and anyone for their disappointment, no matter how unrealistic it is," Harry tried to comfort his wife while rationalising Molly Weasley's behaviour. Unfortunately he achieved neither.
"I'm going to send her a howler back," Harry decided.
"Do you even know how to send a howler?" Hermione asked.
"No but I'm going to find out. It's a Hogsmeade weekend tomorrow and I will ask at the post office and the stationary shop if I can't find out before then," Harry said determinedly.
"But Harry, do you think you should. It's awfully impolite and she has been good to you," Hermione protested. "Mrs Weasley will be angry."
"Has been good to me, past tense according to her howler and it's not impolite Hermione, howlers are downright abusive and we are not her children. She has no right to send a howler like that to me or my wife. So what if she's annoyed by it, she can hardly be more angry than forbidding any of her family to be friends with me," Harry retorted before standing up.
"Hey can anyone tell me how to send a howler?" he called out.
Nearly everyone shook their heads at him. "Most people don't send howlers Harry. It's considered extremely rude," Neville told him.
Ron scowled and turned to Neville. "Are you calling my mother rude?" he demanded.
"If he's not I am," Harry said. "This is the second time she's done this to Hermione without finding out if the rumour she's heard is true. And both times it was a total fabrication. Everyone in the school heard your mum accuse Hermione of breaking yours and Ginny's hearts and cheating. It wasn't true last time and it isn't true now, and even if she does apologise she isn't going to do so publically. A private apology isn't going to let everyone know she was wrong. I bet there are still people here who believe Hermione cheated on me by going to the Yule Ball in fourth year with Victor Krum even though Hermione and I never dated. So I am saying clearly to everyone that Ginny and I had broken up because she didn't want to get married. You didn't want to marry Hermione and as a muggleborn she needed to marry before the ministry matched her up someone who would mistreat and abuse her. We were both free to marry and neither of us did anything wrong. Your mother doesn't know what she was talking about, and she had no right to send a howler even if she was upset with us! It was unpardonably rude and I am going to tell her that!"
Neville looked at Harry in annoyance. "I don't need you to stand up for me Potter. Yes, Ron I was calling your mother rude. Hermione and the other muggleborns were in an impossible situation and I'm glad they all managed to marry someone they trust. Your mother had no right to abuse Hermione for saving herself."
"What would the two of you know? Neither of you has a mother to care enough to send a howler," Ron retorted unthinkingly.
Ron was about to keep yelling when Seamus spoke up. "Harry and Neville are right, Ron. You and I both dread receiving a howler from our Mums. It's loud and humiliating and it really isn't something you should do to your friends or your family. And our Mums are the only two Mums in the school who regularly send them as a way of punishing us."
"Twenty points from Gryffindor, Mr Weasley, for your crass and cruel comment, and detention tonight to learn some basic manners since it's evident your mother has failed to teach them to you," Minerva McGonagall said loudly. "You're quite correct Mr Finnegan, several of the staff have been debating whether the wards should be altered to block howlers and cursed mail for some time and now with the issue of so many of you having been matched by the ministry before they realised you're were off the marriage market I think it's time that we took action."
Two of the other heads of house nodded their agreement, but the head of Slytherin just scowled and the Headmaster twinkled at her and said that they'd discus it at the next staff meeting.
"For your information Mr Potter, the charm to turn a letter into a howler can be found in the book 'Communication for all Occasions', it is not in the library and is no longer in print but I do have a copy in my office if you'd care to meet me there after classes this morning. No doubt there are other sections in the book you may be interested in. The new wards will of course prevent the sending of howlers as well as redirecting howlers sent to the castle back to their sender," Minerva said.
Harry grinned. "I will meet you after class," he agreed.
-o0o-
Amelia was surprisingly efficient in her investigation into Cornelius Fudge's actions during the implementation of the marriage law. She quickly gathered enough evidence to add charges of corruption and accepting bribes to his original charges of child endangerment, behaviour risking causing a miscarriage and endangering several pureblood lines, namely Bones, and Potter who's only surviving heirs were currently bonded to muggleborns and risked being arrested by the minister on Monday. She also had enough proof to call an emergency meeting of the Wizengamot to have the current matches all declared invalid until a full investigation of how the magical compatibility and fertility was being established and the fertile unmarried witches and wizards over the age of seventeen who had graduated or left school were all rematched to the most compatible wizard or witch within twenty years of their age. She also planned to propose that the seventeen year olds still in school would be allowed to finish their NEWTs before the marriage had to occur.
The emergency meeting of the Wizengamot was called but the evening before it could occur the head healer from St Mungo's called Amelia urgently about another change in the law he believed needed to be made.
"What is it Edmund? I'm quite busy getting the Wizengamot to declare the current compatibility matches invalid due to the interference of corruption and bribes paid to those in charge of the matching process," Amelia asked.
"I wouldn't call if it wasn't important and I believe this to be related to the marriages that have already occurred," Edmund Carruthers head healer of the curse damage area of St Mungo's said.
"I have five muggleborns admitted with signs of torture, all of whom claim they were attacked by their husband after being married by the ministry in the past few days."
"I'll send an Auror to take their statements and have their husbands arrested," Amelia said.
"They're muggleborns Amelia. While I think their husbands should do time in Azkaban you know the law is not on these victims' side," Edmund said angrily.
"Yes, but as my niece reminded me today the new marriage law heavily penalises anyone who risks causing a witch to miscarry," Amelia replied.
"I'll test them all for pregnancy but it's probably too soon to tell," Edmund replied.
"Some unscrupulous person cast a dark fertility hex on the match notification letters sent to Hogwarts. Test for that too, if they are under the curse and have had relations in the last week they will be pregnant, or would have been prior to the attack," Amelia informed him. "It was enough to charge Cornelius. It will be enough for these abusers."
"Cornelius married a muggleborn and then abused her? That doesn't sound like a risk he would take."
"No the muggleborns at Hogwarts found a way to perform ritual marriages with their boyfriends and girlfriends to escape the ministry matches and he threatened to send them all to Azkaban to await trial. Some of the spouses were underage and all of the witches admitted that they might be pregnant," Amelia said sighing. "We also have evidence that the matching process was corrupted by bribes, so I am planning to go to the Wizengamot to have all current matches invalidated, and the matching redone after the corruption is weeded out."
"Well good luck with that Amelia," Edmund said.
"I'll send you the Aurors, document everything, thanks for calling me with this," Amelia said disconnecting.
-o0o-
The Wizengamot was called to order at noon the next day and a very tired Amelia presented her case. She started with the criminal cases against the husbands of the muggleborns admitted to St Mungo's overnight. The Wizengamot had no hesitation in finding them guilty, the evidence was overwhelming but they were shocked when the culprits didn't receive their normal slap over the wrist and fine.
"The marriage law clearly states that any injury that potentially leads to a miscarriage has a mandatory five years in Azkaban," Amelia stated. "If you wanted to change that you should have done so before voting the law back into use. It cannot be changed now."
There was some grumbling before Augusta Longbottom spoke up. "Madam Bones is correct. The mandatory penalties for child endangerment whether the child has been born or not are clearly written into the emergency marriage act. The act was brought back into law to raise our population, so the children must be protected."
"But these men aren't going to be able to contribute to our population in Azkaban," Augustus Rookwood replied.
"They have already endangered the potential baby the act led them to create, if they only get a slap on the wrist they will abuse their wives again. Sending them to prison may save their children's lives," Amelia argued.
"It's a mandatory minimum sentence, the only question is whether we want to sentence these men to more than five years," Albus said in his position of Chief Warlock.
All protests stopped and the minimum sentence was passed for all five men.
Then she brought in Cornelius Fudge.
"Former Minister Cornelius Fudge removed from his position and charged with 31 counts of planning to harm a potential unborn baby 26 counts of endangerment of a minor and receiving bribes and interference in the compatibility matches organised under the emergency marriage act," Amelia declared.
She told the story of what had happened that day at Hogwarts calling Minerva McGonagall and Poppy Pomfrey to testify then produced the documentation of payments received for altering the compatibility matches to match purebloods with the muggleborn of their choice.
The vote was closer than it should have been but he was eventually found guilty on all charges.
"There's a five year mandatory sentence each for all the child endangerment charges that's a minimum of 130 years even if none of the students are pregnant," Albus said. "Or a minimum sentence of 285 years if you accept that all the married witches at Hogwarts could be pregnant."
The shocked Wizengamot voted for the 130 year sentence with more to be added once the witches in question had been proved to have been pregnant.
Amelia Bones brought out a final prisoner for sentencing. "Dolores Umbridge was in charge of making the compatibility matches and sending out the letters. She applied an illegal dark magic fertility curse to each letter, that's 280 dark curses and she also accepted bribes to alter the results of the compatibility. Those curses will result in pregnancy after pregnancy increase the chance of multiple births and put 280 women in danger of dying in childbirth, reducing the number of second children born which contravenes the emergency marriage act," she said providing the proof. "She was also matching muggleborns from the age of 17 but not matching any pureblood or half blood under 25 unless they requested it.
Dolores Umbridge was found guilty by an overwhelming majority, clearly the woman was disliked by everyone she'd had dealings with, even those that ended in their favour.
"I recommend a sentence of 20 years in Azkaban medium security," Amelia said.
There was a general agreement and Dolores was carted out of the courtroom screaming.
"I move that all matches be declared invalid and the marriages already carried out be annulled, since we cannot prove beyond doubt how many of them were tampered with. I also propose that a trustworthy person be chosen to redo the work and that they take an oath to make new matches on compatibility, and to limit the age difference to twenty years, I also propose that fertility tests be taken before any marriages take place," Amelia proposed.
"Why the age difference limit?" Amos Diggory asked.
"Caradoc Dearbourne is 129 years old but he was matched with a sixth year student who turned 17 one week before the matching process began. He should not have even been considered for a match at his age," Amelia replied.
The majority of the father's in the Wizengamot shuddered before the proposal was put to the vote and passed easily.
"I propose that students be allowed to complete their NEWTs before being married, and expected to have a baby," Augusta Longbottom proposed. "Otherwise we will see a drop in the education level of our society and that is not acceptable.
Minerva McGonagall seconded that proposal.
"What difference does it make, they're only muggleborns, they won't get a decent job anyway," Pius Thickness snorted.
"There are several pureblood witches at Hogwarts who are already married," Minerva stated. "And, except for the very wealthy and those that choose to send their children to muggle primary schools, it is normally the children's mother who is responsible for their education prior to Hogwarts, I have found that the education level of their mothers greatly influences the student's attitude to learning and the number of NEWT's achieved by the student."
"And once the matching is done ethically and according to the emergency marriage act then every other seventeen year old witch in the castle will also be receiving a match notification," Amelia retorted. "The law did not allow for differences to be made related to blood purity."
"That needs to be changed. I propose that the emergency marriage act be limited to muggleborns, half boods and only those purebloods who choose to participate," Corban Yaxley declared.
"You cannot put forward a proposal until the current proposal has been voted on, and unfortunately the very statute of the emergency marriage act does not allow for such alterations. It was to apply to every witch or wizard or not to be enacted at all," Albus reminded him gently.
"Let's vote then and move on," Corban Yaxley replied disgruntledly.
There was general agreement this law also passed, students would no longer have to become pregnant until three months after completing their NEWTs or leaving full time schooling.
"I also propose that those couples with less than 70% compatibility be given the choice to decline the match and be included in the following years selections. Otherwise next year the wizards and witches who are currently sixteen will have a very small group to be matched with," Augusta Longbottom proposed.
This also made sense to most people and was passed without comment.
"I propose that witches or wizards who already have a betrothal agreement be exempted from the matching process," Mattias Davis proposed, unaware that his sixteen year old daughter had already married a muggleborn to escape both her ministry match and the betrothal her father had arranged for her.
"Unfortunately, the emergency marriage act does not allow for that alteration. One of the reasons it was brought back into law was due to the number of pureblood couples married through family betrothal agreements who do not manage to produce a magical child," Amelia countered.
There were no more proposals put forward regarding the emergency marriage act and the emergency meeting of the Wizengamot was declared closed.
A/N: Thank you to Ghostisreading, J.F.C, caughtinblackseyes, KrystylSky, BMS, katmom, Jostanos, LiteratureSoccerEnthusiast, Lexarius, gabrieljuarezl, animeromance1972, Millie072, PukwudgiePuff, Rainbow2007, mikanMD, Rori Potter, Embers, Firehedgehog, Lientjuhh, Melikalilly, tyrannicpuppy, , Sarasri and all those who have followed or favourited me or this story for your support.
A/N2: a lot of people have asked how long this story will be. I'm not sure, when I started posting this story was in my mind complete and seven chapters long. As I do my final edit before posting and sometimes in response to reviews, I start adding things. This is what happened to the other three works in progress I have, but I am determined that this will not end up like "The Last Straw" which was complete at approximately 85,000 words when I started posting it nearly three years ago and is now no closer to being finished at almost 400,000 words. I'm hoping to wrap it up in another two or three chapters. This will mean that Ron and Neville are not due to be matched for another year and Ginny the year after that will not be matched in this story, though I will not rule out writing a sequel set a year or two into the future.
