Sunday June 7th, 1998

Remus slowly woke up, Moony was already fully awake and overly excited, Remus lost himself in the scenarios that Moony presented. He pressed himself into the warm body in front of him, his erection hard and unyielding, his hand slid from the thigh where it had been resting, to the thin waist above it, which he gave a firm squeeze. A soft, barely audible moan escaped the young woman in front of him. Moony howled in response and Remus instinctively gave her waist another squeeze, which caused her to moan again and push herself against him, which only made him harder. Remus was quickly losing control of Moony whose only thought was to take the girl that was in his bed and mark her as his own.

Remus remembered himself and who it was in his bed and hastily removed himself from Hermione so quickly he caused her to jolt awake. She quickly sat up, drew her wand, her head rapidly moving back and forth clearly trying to assess her surroundings. Remus felt horrible for waking her so suddenly.

Her wide and startled eyes settled on him, as he sat up on his side of the bed, hunched over to try to hide the evidence of his previous debauchery.

The alarmed look slid off her face as she studied him for a second before she crawled across the bed until she was right beside him and knelt, a look of concern on her face.

"Are you ok?" She asked softly.

"Yes." His voice was rough.

"Are you sure? You're breathing hard and you jumped awake so violently. Did you have a nightmare or something?"

"No, I was just- um- just startled awake. I'm fine, Hermione, I promise." Except I am an absolute lecher, he didn't say the last part out loud. He studied her as he tried to find any sign of repulsion, hesitation, or even embarrassment but saw nothing but genuine concern and the bleariness in her eyes that made it clear she had just woken abruptly. Maybe she had been asleep the entire time and wasn't aware of what had happened. Merlin that made him feel even worse if that was possible.

"Do you need anything? A glass of water?" She reached for her wand that she had dropped in her earnest to get to him, fully prepared to summon anything he wanted. Remus looked down, not only was he still fully erect, with Moony going crazy in his head making it clear he did want something from her but he was also shirtless and his scars were on full display for her, making him feel overly vulnerable. Yet, her attention wasn't on his body, but his face. He looked at the clock and saw it was only half six, Molly and Fleur should be starting breakfast soon.

"I think I'm just going to go jump in the shower and head down to breakfast. It's still pretty early so if you want to go back to sleep, that's fine."

"I may lay here a few more minutes as long as you are ok with that." She said sheepishly. Her eyes glanced down at his chest, causing her cheeks to color just barely but enough to excite Moony.

Remus nodded and turned away from her, he went ahead and gathered his clothes and took them with him to the bathroom, he was ever so careful to keep his back facing her. He did, however, make the mistake of looking over his shoulder at her sprawled on the bed, causing Moony to amp up his crude thoughts of the young woman.

When he closed the bathroom door behind him, Remus put his clothes on the bathroom cabinet and leaned over the sink trying to calm himself and Moony down as he took several deep breaths but it helped very little. He reached over to turn the shower on and made it as hot as he knew he would be able to stand it. With the full moon only two days away his body had already started to ache and there was no way he'd be able to tolerate the ice cold water he needed to calm himself down. He would just have to take care of things himself.

~

Hermione laid on the bed as she stared at the bathroom door. Remus had scared her to death and then proceeded to act awfully strange. He seemed horribly tense but had said he was fine multiple times. She worried it was the sleeping arrangement, but remembered how adamant he was the other night that it was not an issue. Then she remembered that the full moon was only a handful of days away, he must have started feeling the effects.

It always saddened her when she thought of what Remus had to go through every month. Not only the physical pain of it all, which was horrible on its own, but all of the other changes and instincts he had to deal with. The improved hearing and eyesight made his ears and eyes extremely sensitive and caused him to have frequent headaches. The enhanced sense of smell made him nauseous more often than not, affecting his ability to eat.

Moreover, she knew sometimes Moony could be exceptionally difficult for him to deal with.

How could such an amazing and kind man have to suffer so much? The world was cruel, a lesson she has learned several times over the years. Her eyes drifted to where the scar on her left forearm was covered by her long-sleeved shirt. Yes, life could be very cruel.

Instead of allowing her thoughts to wander she decided she should perhaps start getting ready for the day as well.

She got up and made the bed with a wave of her wand before she headed down to the room she shared with Ginny. She quietly snuck in, not wanting to wake Ginny, only to find the red-head wasn't in her bed. She must have successfully snuck passed her mum and actually slept in the boys room. Hermione quirked an eyebrow at the made bed and started to gather her clothes to go take a shower.

A little while later, she wandered into the kitchen and took a seat next to Harry.

"Where's Ron and Ginny?" Hermione asked him as she scooped up a few strawberries and put them on her plate.

"Sleeping." He answered after he swallowed the bacon he had been chewing on.

"Mmm… did Ginny sleep well?" Hermione questioned nonchalantly as she spread strawberry jam on her toast with a smirk, causing Harry's cheeks to tinge red a bit.

"She seemed to. She's as deep of a sleeper as Ron though. They were both out cold this morning. How about you? Ginny told me you went to bed in Remus' room last night."

"I didn't have any nightmares, though Remus must have had one this morning. He jerked awake so violently it startled me awake." She said quietly, her gaze roamed down to where Remus was talking to Sirius. He had already been looking in her direction and when their eyes met, he gave her a small smile and a nod. She returned the gesture.

Remus looked past her and sat up a bit straighter as he nudged Sirius gently.

Hermione looked over her shoulder and saw Kingsley had just walked in. He greeted everyone individually as he made his way through the kitchen before he stopped in front of her and Harry.

"Harry." He greeted Harry with a smile and a nod, who returned the greeting. "Hello Hermione."

"Good morning Kingsley."

"I was wanting to speak with you about your plans to find your parents and restore their memories. Is this fine or would you like to talk privately in a bit?"

"Later is fine? Is there a problem with my going to Australia?" Hermione's anxiety started to take hold again, the thought of encountering her parents or worse not being able to restore their memories was formidable. Anxiety was a new feeling for her but she was working hard to remedy it.

"Nothing of the sort. I was just wanting to offer you some assistance from the Ministry." He said with a warm smile. Her heart warmed at his thoughtfulness and proffering of help.

"Oh Kingsley, you don't have to do that but I would greatly appreciate any help you are able to offer."

"Of course. I'm calling an emergency meeting and we can talk about it afterward, if you are able."

Hermione's brows furrowed in confusion and she looked at Harry, Ron, and Ginny (the latter two, which had just joined them at the table) before she looked back at Kingsley. "That's fine. But an emergency order meeting? Whatever for?"

"I'll explain shortly." Kingsley said vaguely. "I'm going to say hello to everyone else quickly before I get the meeting started."

The four friends, who still looked confused, nodded and watched as Kingsley made his way toward the back of the room and slowly made his way to where Sirius, Remus, and Mr. Weasley sat talking amongst themselves.

Sure enough, several of the remaining Order members trickled in, including Professor McGonagall, Andromeda, and Tonks.

Tonks smiled at them as she took a seat next to Ginny. "Any idea what Kings is on about? I told him not to let this whole Minister thing get to his head. Apparently, he didn't listen to me." She laughed, the others followed suit but she still turned her attention to Kingsley when he cleared his throat.

"After spending so much time working with each of you over the past few years, I look at you as my extended family. I feel a kinship to each and every person in this room and even a few who are not in this room." He paused as he let what he had said sink in. Many people murmured their agreement or quietly nodded as they thought of the two people who he was referring to, Fred Weasley and Severus Snape.

Percy had reacted quickly to the explosion that injured Fred, and managed to cast a spell to slow the falling rocks down in their descent. Still, Fred had been caught underneath but Percy had dug him out quickly and upon finding that he had sustained life threatening injuries, rushed him into the Great Hall where Madame Pomfrey, Andromeda, and Fleur worked diligently to stabilize him before he was transported to St. Mungo's where he was still in recovery.

Then there was Snape. When Harry and Hermione had found him dying in the Shrieking Shack, Hermione had put a stasis charm on him when Harry had begged her to do something. After Voldemort's defeat, they had led Andromeda to him so she was able to get him stable enough to be transported to St. Mungo's as well. Harry had explained to everyone what he had seen in Snape's memories and Kingsley had the memories verified untampered. Rather reluctantly, the members of the Order had started to forgive the man of any wrongdoing.

"Because of this, I felt the need to inform you of something that is currently in the works. I would rather you found out from myself than in the papers." Kingsley gave a great sigh before he pulled out a stack of papers from his navy robes. "These are census reports of the Wizarding world here in the UK from the past few decades."

Hermione tensed and she noticed a lot of others had similar reactions. It was a well known fact the wizarding population had decreased significantly in the past hundred years or so. Between purebloods who struggled to conceive and both wars, Hermione could only imagine how the numbers currently reported.

Kingsley started to hand out a few of the papers from the top of the stack as he began to explain himself. Hermione managed to knick one of the papers and furrowed her eyebrows as she studied it with the others around her; the numbers were very concerning. "These reports were first brought to attention when Eugenia Jenkins was Minister, however at the time, Voldemort had already started to gain power, so the issue was put on the back burner, so to speak, and was to be reassessed at the end of the war, if possible. After Voldemort's defeat the first time, and while there had been a significant drop in population during the first war, Millicent Bagnold was sure that the numbers would increase because everyone would be celebrating Voldemort's defeat and want to raise children in a world that was not crumbling under dark times, so it was decided to wait several years before taking action. Cornelius Fudge thought it was a bunch of rubbish when it had been brought to his attention his first year as Minister but after five years he must have changed his mind because I have the beginnings of a law he had started working on dated for early '95. However, I'm guessing he never finished it because that was the same year Voldemort had been resurrected and I'm sure he also decided to place the concern on the back burner. In short, a severe situation that was of dire importance a quarter of a century ago, which has since been hit with poor birth rates and two wars with heavy losses, is now being forced onto my immediate agenda."

Kingsley started to hand out more papers. "The first page is the reports from 1974. These are the reports from 1990 and 1995, as well as the law Fudge had started working on. I'll give you a minute to look over them."

While there was a slight drop in the population during 1990 and again in 1995, Hermione was aware how badly the death toll was during this war which meant the numbers have dropped drastically. Hermione grabbed the sheet with Fudge's proposed law and her breath caught. A marriage law which included every witch and wizard from the age of seventeen to nearly fifty with weekly "check-ins" to prove "copulation." Hermione looked sharply at Kingsley and narrowed her eyes at him. Just as she opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, Kingsley held up his hand, effectively shutting her and everyone else down. The room was in complete silence as Kingsley continued.

"While I'm aware how barbaric this plan sounds, I have been informed, at this point, a marriage law and copulation regulations are the only choices we have. I have been working diligently to make it as humane as possible."

Kingsley proceeded to hand out another paper, which Hermione quickly snatched up and compared it to the one she already had in her hand. Comparing the two, the first thing she noticed was the ages had changed to eighteen and until women were out of childbearing age (estimated around forty) and the men up to forty five. Proof of consummation was required, which was already part of the wizarding nuptial traditions but the weekly "check-ins" had been removed and replaced with monthly healer visits. Marriages were to be within six months, a bye was given to anyone who was still considered a student, while a child needed to be conceived within a year of the wedding day. The last thing Hermione noticed was that on Fudge's law any persons without a potential spouse, would have a "Ministry appointed spouse" while Kingsley's proposed law said that there would be a "match system" set in place to help better match a person with a potential spouse.

"Well that's nice, we now don't have to inform someone of how many times a week we fucked our spouse." Tonks muttered loud enough it was heard throughout the silent room. A few snickers and some agreeable muttering were heard around the room.

"Language, Nymphadora." Andromeda reprimanded her daughter sternly.

"She has a point, Andromeda." Kingsley said dryly. "The Wizengamot said I had to find a way to prove every couple was actively trying to conceive or it would defeat the whole purpose of the law."

"Guess that makes sense." Charlie said, reading through the law while he balanced his chair on its back two legs. Mrs. Weasley whipped her wand in his direction and caused all four legs of the chair to be stuck to the floor. He scowled at her.

"I thought the visits with the healers would verify the couples were actively trying without being embarrassingly asked by Ministry officials or have some sort of tracking spell cast on them. Plus if any issues arise the healers will be able to immediately offer their assistance and hopefully find a cure or something of that nature. It was the best I could think of quickly enough but I am open to any suggestions."

"Given the choices, I'd say that was the least barbaric." Ginny said.

"Certainly wouldn't feel as much of an invasion of privacy speaking with a Healer." Remus said quietly.

Hermione re-read Kingsley's proposed law and tried to think of anything that could be changed to improve it. "Can you explain this matching system to us?"

"We are putting a board together and among them will be certified professional experts who specialize in relationships and marriages, including marriage counselors, psychologists, sociologists, sexologists, communication and relationship specialists. They are working diligently to find the best way to find proper matches for people. It will be a process but I don't want to tie people together if they are not going to make a decent match. We want the population to grow, not start a battle of the sexes."

Sirius gave a snort and looked around the room. "So this is what it's come to? I spent my entire childhood getting out of a betrothal just to have the Ministry marry me off a quarter of a century later?"

"I am sorry. I just don't know what to do. To me the idea of a marriage law is inhumane especially while we are still healing from the war but I just… at this rate the magical world here in the UK will cease to exist within two centuries. If they hadn't kept pushing the issue away then it wouldn't have come to this. The law won't be announced for several more days but the process is well underway and I wanted to make sure you heard it from my own mouth. You lot deserve that at least."

Hermione studied Kingsley, where once stood a man who looked like he could lead the wizarding world defiantly into the next century now a man who looked more like the exhausted soldier he had been months ago, only now he truly looked defeated.

"Minister, you are doing what is best for our world and while many will despise the law and cause trouble in defense of their opinions of what they may think is best for them and our world, know that we will have your back. We appointed you as the Minister of Magic not because you were our friend and you were on the right side of the war but because we knew if anyone could help improve the wizarding world after the years of war and neglect, it was you, Kingsley." Hermione spoke with a clear and willful voice.

As words of validation and confirmations rang out around the room, Kingsley drew his shoulders back and pulled himself back into the impressive man that helped lead the Order after Dumbledore's death. He smiled gratefully at Hermione and gave her a nod of appreciation.

As everyone started to talk amongst themselves about the law, Kingsley made his way around the room and answered all of the questions he was able to. Hermione made her way up to him with questions of her own.

"Why did you change the minimum age to eighteen instead of seventeen?"

"I was inspired by Harry and Ginny." They looked over at the couple who still sat in the same place, holding hands as they quietly spoke to each other, oblivious of the world around them. "If the law had already been passed as soon as Harry would have turned seventeen he would have to find a spouse and technically Ginny would still only be fifteen, if only for a couple weeks but I digress. Whereas if the age was pushed to eighteen then there would be no cause for concern."

"I see. The Ministry wouldn't allow the twelve days until Ginny would have turned sixteen?"

"For now it wouldn't be an issue but once the law was established I feel they would want a name within the week of his birthday, if not the day he turned seventeen. You would not believe how hard they are pushing this whole mess on me. I tried to push it off until after the trials at the very least but it just was not something they were willing to negotiate."

"They being the Wizengamot?"

"Among others. Several department heads are worried over the issue and while I admit it is extremely concerning, not much would change between now and after the trials, you know?"

"I understand." Hermione looked around the room and watched as the others talked among themselves or headed out for the evening. "What were you wanting to speak with me about my trip to Australia?"

"I have been in contact with the Australian Minister. They, among others, have shut their borders to visitors from the UK because of the war. However, she has been willing to let you go visit your parents and I'm working on getting your authorization paperwork processed and a portkey to get you there." He looked around the room and stopped when his eyes fell on Remus before they flickered back to her. "Hopefully I'm not overstepping but I also went ahead and authorized a secondary visitor, just in case."

Hermione felt a blush creep up her face as her eyes also looked across the room where Remus was clearly trying to calm an aggravated Sirius down. "Oh, thank you. I- um, I hadn't thought to ask- to ask well if- um, anyone else would be willing to go with me." Hermione stuttered out.

"Well, it's there if it's needed. I'm going to head home for the night. Sleep well, Hermione." Kingsley said with a knowing smile before he headed off to tell the others goodbye.

I posted a Remione one shot and had a busy week on top of that.

I am so nervous about publishing this chapter. I hope you all lot like it!

-Jade