Bookcozy: Oh, Ron…he always talks before he thinks. Quite possibly the thing I like the least about him. That's why we have George. Making it more realistic does make things a bit sad for her though, for sure. At 27, I still do not have children so I so totally feel for her — children are a big change. Enjoy this one! This is so fun to write.
Smithback: Thank you for reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!
Also, as usual, my descriptive skills in terms of fashion are not good. If you want to see the ring for Ginny, the link is in my bio.
As a side note, R.I.P. to Maggie Smith who died this morning. Wands up
Chapter Three
"Well, what about this one then?"
"No, Harry," Hermione snorted immediately, shaking her head. "It's too simple for Ginny."
Harry huffed, tugging at his hair impatiently and glaring at her.
"It's starting to sound like you're just making this up, Hermione," he said, his nerves turning to frustration. "The first one was too gaudy, the second one too plain, this one too simple. The next one won't be simple enough. This shouldn't be so bloody difficult."
Hermione laughed good-naturedly, tugging her best friend's hands away from his hair and giving him a serious look.
"Of course, it should be," she said soothingly. "This is the woman you love, and we're looking at engagement rings, Harry. You want to pick the right one, don't you? She's going to be looking at it for the rest of her life."
This was, in fact, the fourth ring store they'd been to that morning, and London was going to run out of jewelers if they didn't find something that fit soon.
It was a warm, pleasantly windy day, and the sun was shining brightly, despite the ache in her chest. She hadn't spoken to Ron since the evening before when he'd left and basically told her she wasn't wife material.
And everyone had heard it. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had been far too nice to her this morning over breakfast, and Ginny had squeezed her hand in support, asking her if she wanted to talk.
She didn't. She had nothing to say, and she wasn't even sure where her relationship stood with Ron at the moment. It felt like they'd broken up, but he'd seemed so sure that they'd be paired together, though she wasn't sure she understood the point of it.
She wanted it to be him still, against her better judgment, because she loved him. Had loved him for so long that the idea of being with anyone else made her want to fall to pieces. But the logical part of her brain told her that last night's argument should have been a sign. Maybe they were ill-suited for each other, particularly if he saw a life with her that looked so unbelievably different from the one she pictured with him.
Perhaps being paired with someone else would be for the best.
But then she thought about the alternative and wanted to be sick again. She'd been a mess since she'd gotten up that morning, waiting for the tests and the legislation outline to be of much use. She'd barely touched her breakfast, eyeing the window the entire time as if she expected an owl to fly through at any moment.
Harry barging in after they'd finished with their morning training session, had been the only reason she was no longer in a tizzy. It had been an early training, and they'd been finished by nine, and he'd asked — very awkwardly — if she wanted to come to London with him for breakfast.
"I'm eating breakfast right now?" She'd said, raising an eyebrow at him and wondering why he was being so twitchy and refusing to meet anyone's eyes. He'd blushed a deep red at the words, clearing his throat awkwardly.
"No, right, that's a horrible excuse — I mean, reason. That's a horrible reason to leave," he said, his face flushing brighter. Hermione had shared a concerned look with Ginny, but he'd spoken again before they could ask what his problem was. "A walk then," he said, nodding to himself as if he'd thought of the perfect plan. "Yes, a walk. I want you to go for a walk with me. Nice morning stroll. Just me and you. No one else."
Hermione had given him a bewildered expression.
"You aren't planning on murdering me on this walk, are you?" she'd said dryly. Ginny snickered, but Harry merely rolled his eyes, grabbed Hermione by the arm, and dragged her out.
They had not, in fact, been going for a walk at all. He'd wanted her to come and help him pick an engagement ring for Ginny, and he hadn't expected to see Ginny up so early. She wasn't much of a morning person. Not to mention he hadn't asked Mr. Weasley for his blessing yet, and he didn't want him to think he was making assumptions that he'd give it to him.
He'd panicked and said something ridiculous as a means to cover himself, but the entire thing had been awkward regardless.
It had distracted her from the ever-present ache in her heart from the moment she'd cooled off the evening before. She'd cried herself to sleep, woken up with swollen, painful eyes, and the chest pain was worse somehow. It felt like there was just a large, gaping hole in her chest.
She'd never had her heart broken before, but she never wanted to have it broken again. It was the worst type of pain, and it wasn't something that could be magicked away or healed. That made it worse.
But helping Harry had soothed her some. It had distracted her busy brain, and it was hard to be anxious when she was too busy focusing on keeping Harry calm. With every jeweler they left without a purchase, his anxiety grew. He didn't have much time to find something that would work and it was starting to feel like a Herculean task.
He wanted it to be perfect. It was Ginny. But he also didn't want to hold off any longer with the legislation looming just over the horizon. He didn't want to risk not being paired with her, though Hermione had no doubt that they would have been paired together.
"Hermione, what am I supposed to do?" he said, looking at her wide-eyed. "I need a ring to propose, and I was hoping to have one by tonight. I've still got to talk to Mr. Weasley about getting his blessing to ask, and then I've got to actually propose, and then — oh Merlin, what if she says no? Is this crazy? Am I being crazy?"
Hermione laughed, squeezing his hands and moving her head to grab his attention.
"Harry, relax," she said calmly. "We'll find the ring. We just need something a little less conventional, a little flare, but still elegant without being gaudy. And she won't say no. You know she won't. She loves you and she was devastated at the thought of not being paired with you."
Harry nodded absentmindedly, blowing out a breath of air.
"Right, yeah, right," he said, trying to talk himself back out of his panic. "You don't think she'll think that I'm just proposing because of the law do you? I mean, it's certainly given me a little less time to work everything out, but I was going to propose soon anyway. I have the brochures. I don't want her to think that I'm just proposing to get out of being paired with someone else."
Hermione gave him a long-suffering look.
"Harry, you're working yourself up for no reason," she chided lightly. "She knows you love her. You know she loves you. Of course, you're proposing. No one in the world is going to doubt that. Now, I need you to pull yourself together because we're running out of time to pick a ring, and we're operating on a deadline here."
Harry chuckled, letting her tug him toward a case of emerald and diamond studded rings.
"As long as one of us is in control here," he said jokingly, leaning over the case to look at the rings and trying to determine which one felt right. He'd assumed that once he saw it, he'd know, but it was much easier said than done. He hesitated, looking up at his best friend cautiously. "It wasn't insensitive of me to ask you here today, was it?"
She deliberately avoided his gaze, pretending to be enraptured in her task of looking for a suitable engagement ring for Ginny. Truthfully, she wasn't seeing a single one of them.
"What do you mean?" she hedged, trying to sound cool and unaffected.
Harry sighed.
"It's just — well, I heard what happened with Ron last night," he said awkwardly. "He came home in a fit, and then Ginny apparated over and yelled herself hoarse. And I know talking isn't really my thing, but — well, I just wanted to say — I mean, I want you to be okay."
She didn't know what she was supposed to say, but she definitely wasn't seeing any of the rings now. Her vision was blurring from tears as the raw emotion worked its way up her throat again.
"I'm alright, Harry," she lied, trying to force a laugh. "You know how Ron and I are. We'll probably go back to pretending like everything's normal by tomorrow."
Harry was looking at her carefully for a long moment, and she pretended she didn't notice.
"Right," he said slowly. "Well, I do appreciate you helping with this. I'd be a mess without you and —"
So focused on trying to work her way through her own troubled emotions, she didn't immediately notice that he'd stopped speaking. When she did, she blinked several times to clear her gaze before turning to look at him.
He was staring into the case with a gaping mouth, and he pointed at the ring he was looking at before she even had the opportunity to ask what he was looking at.
She grinned widely when she saw it.
"That one's perfect," she said immediately.
Harry grinned at her.
"Yeah? You're sure?"
"Of course!" She said happily, wrapping him in a hug. "It's gorgeous!"
It was.
It was an 18k tiara halo diamond ring set. The engagement band was simple and round, silver in color, and studded completely with tiny white diamonds all the way around. In the very center was a large pear shaped emerald, surrounded by more of the white diamonds. The wedding band was V-shaped, designed to pair with the diamond halo engagement band, and looked distinctly like a tiara — studded around the band were the tiny white diamonds, but at top the gemstone was larger, offset on each side by smaller stones that gave the band a sharp look at the top.
It was the best of both worlds. Ginny had always liked emerald — though she knew it was simply because it was the color of Harry's eyes — and the diamonds were elegant without distracting from the emerald in the center. Not many people she knew had emerald wedding bands, so it certainly wasn't conventional, and it would certainly turn some eyes.
It was perfect.
She couldn't help but grin widely with Harry as they waited for the jeweler to ring up the purchase so that they could pay. It was an ungodly amount of money, but Harry barely blinked, too happy with his purchase — and the thought of the woman who would eventually wear it — that he simply paid without complaint.
"Thanks, Hermione," he said, grinning widely, and tucking the velvet ring box safely in his jeans pocket. "How about I buy you lunch? We've been walking around for ages, and I really owe you one."
Hermione laughed, looping her arm through one of his and resting her head on his shoulder as they walked.
"Harry, you just spent an astronomical amount of money on that ring," she grinned. "I think you need to be cut off from spending. How about I buy lunch? To celebrate your pending engagement."
"Fair enough," he said. "Diagon Alley then?"
They snuck into an alley between a coffee shop and bookstore before disapparating with a POP. She wasn't terribly hungry still — she found it hard to eat through her sadness — but they decided to keep things simple by having lunch at the Leaky Cauldron rather than braving the alley.
It was not busy this late in the afternoon, and Tom brought them each a butterbeer before disappearing with their food orders.
"So, have you looked over the documents that Kingsley gave you yet?" Harry said, taking a sip and trying to bring the conversation back up more casually than he had earlier.
Hermione frowned into her own glass.
"No, not yet," she said. "I took a look at them when we were all downstairs, but there's a lot of legal jargon, and the older law is written in Old English. It'll take me a while to translate into simpler terms. I'm not totally familiar with legal terminology so it'll take me some time. He didn't make it sound like we had much choice in the matter though, did he?"
Harry shook his head, looking frustrated himself, despite the fact that he was likely going to marry the woman he would have anyway.
The same could not be said for Hermione. She ignored the pang at the thought.
"Sounded pretty bleak to me," he agreed with a grimace. "You know, I just keep thinking that this feels like something Voldemort would have done in order to strengthen bloodlines."
"Makes it all feel a bit pointless, doesn't it?" She said with a snort. Not entirely true — she would likely have been dead in that alternate universe, but if she was paired with someone horrible, she might as well have been. "I just can't believe that this is really happening. I have no idea how I'll even explain this to my parents…"
Harry grimaced in understanding.
"They're still angry with you?" He queried, smiling thankfully to Tom when he dropped off his steak and kidney pie.
Hermione squeezed lemon over her fish, wiped her fingers, and then nibbled on a chip morosely.
"Yeah," she said with a heavy sigh. "They owl on occasion to ask how everything is going, but I haven't seen them since they got back. I don't think this is going to make them feel much better about the Wizarding World."
"Suppose that's one of the good things about the Dursleys not caring if I'm dead or alive," he said half-heartedly. "Perhaps this is the sort of thing that will get them to open up again though. Marriage and kids — that's a big step."
Hermione bit her lip idly. It was possible her parents would see it as a reason to let her back in again, but she wasn't going to get her hopes up. At best, they were going to be upset and angry on her behalf and beg her to leave the Wizarding World behind.
To say she hadn't considered that option in the last few days would have been a lie. It was the easiest answer, but she'd grown so used to this world, and despite all of its ugliness, it was beautiful too. She didn't want to leave it behind.
Not yet anyway. Perhaps that would be different once she'd been paired with Cormac McLaggen. The thought made her shudder.
"I suppose it's just something I'll have to deal with once we get to that point," she said. "At the moment, I'm just trying to figure out how everything could change so drastically in such a short period of time."
Harry made a thoughtful noise.
"Always feels like that, doesn't it?" he said with the type of grin that told her that he was as exhausted by the chaos as she was. "Blink of an eye is all it takes most times. Have you — well, have you given much thought to who you might be paired with since Ron doesn't…"
She snorted indelicately, giving him a hard look and picking at her fish.
"Doesn't want to propose?" she said bluntly.
"Hermione —"
"No, don't, I'm sorry," she said, waving away that pitying tone. "I shouldn't have snapped at you. Ron seems fairly convinced that we'll end up paired together anyway." Harry cleared his throat and played with his food and she raised an eyebrow. "You don't?"
He raised an eyebrow right back.
"Do you?" he said pointedly. She gave him a confused look, and he sighed heavily. "Look, Hermione, I'm not exactly here to tell you what you should do. Merlin knows I'm the last person who should be giving anyone relationship advice, but — well, do you really think that you and Ron would work out together?"
She didn't even know how to answer that, and the question took her so completely by surprise that she merely blinked at him several times before she got the energy to speak again.
"I — are you saying that you don't think we would?"
"Hermione, no one thinks that you will," he said gently. She flinched away from him as if he'd slapped her. "No one aside from Mrs. Weasley anyway and I'm fairly certain that that's just wishful thinking."
"So, you're all just waiting about for us to call things off then?" She said angrily.
"No, of course not," he said hastily. "I'm just saying that — I want you to be happy, Hermione, in whatever way that looks for you. I want Ron to be happy too. But you both have always been a bit…at odds with each other, haven't you? You want different things from a relationship and from life. Maybe this is just one of those things that is meant to happen, you know?"
She understood what he was saying, but it really only made that hole in her chest feel much deeper and wider.
"So you don't think we'll be paired together?" She pressed, eyeing him sharply.
Harry hesitated, fidgeting slightly, before he sighed heavily.
"No, Hermione, I don't," he said honestly. "I think that you deserve someone who can get you to relax a little, remind you of the good in life. Someone you can have an intelligent conversation with about something other than wizard's chess and is comfortable giving you the space that you need to be successful. You deserve to be the best at what you do without feeling like you're being held back, and I don't think Ron is that person for you."
She hated every word that came out of his mouth, but she couldn't even pretend like they weren't words that she'd thought herself. She'd often been irritated by Ron's fragile ego, and the fact that he never understood what she was so excited about, or that she almost felt like she'd been walking on eggshells since they'd added romance to the mix.
But she loved him. Was that so bad? Everyone had things they needed to work out in a relationship, and this had been something she'd wanted for so long that she'd built it up in her head. She didn't want to make excuses for Ron's behavior, but she also couldn't ignore the fact that she'd been just as unreasonable on certain occasions as he had been.
The thought of losing him in that capacity was wildly painful. It felt like she was losing a part of herself if she stopped trying to fight for them.
"Look, just — just consider it, okay?" Harry said, reaching forward to squeeze her hand in his. "I hate seeing you like this, and if I could fix it, I would. And maybe I'm wrong, you know. If Ron is what makes you happy, and you end up paired together then you can kick me in the arse. Free pass for any spells you want to fling in my direction."
She snorted, and gave him an exasperated look.
"I could do that any time I wanted to," she said. "You think because you're some big bad Auror that I couldn't lay you flat?"
Harry grinned at her, picking up his fork and continuing to eat his lunch, clearly comfortable with the change in topic to something much lighter.
"No, I think you've proved that over and over again, actually," he said in amusement. "I'm merely saying I won't try to defend myself for the first minute or two."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Bit reckless of you, don't you think?" She said dryly. "There's a lot of things I could do with that amount of time, and all of them involve tentacles."
Harry grimaced.
"Let's pray for my sake that I'm not wrong then," he muttered to himself.
By the time Harry and Hermione returned to the Burrow that afternoon, there was a larger group of people than they'd expected to see waiting in the kitchen for them.
"Bout time," Ron grumbled as they came through the door, eyeing them suspiciously. "Where have you two been?"
Hermione's chest panged at the sight of him before her since their argument the night before, but she still bristled under the tone.
"We're both adults, Ronald," she snapped, taking a seat next to George as far away from her boyfriend as was possible. "We don't need your permission to leave the house."
Ron opened his mouth angrily, but Fred spoke from the other side of George before he had the opportunity to start an argument in front of everyone.
"You tell him, Mia," he said, winking at her exaggeratedly.
She sighed heavily, looking up to the ceiling as if praying to a deity.
"That's not my name, Fred," she said blandly.
"Course it's not," he snorted. "It's your nickname. It's meant to be endearing —"
"Well, pick something else then," she snorted with a dry look in his direction. "I don't think that that's endearing at all —"
"Why does she wound me, George?" he said with a fake pout in his twin's direction.
George made a thoughtful noise, looking at her as if he were studying her under a microscope.
Here we go…, Hermione thought to herself.
"Perhaps a more unique name is more her style," he said with a lopsided grin. She refused to give him the satisfaction of answering him. "Something strong…like Mio, say?"
Hermione gave him a disgusted look that caused his grin to widen and Fred had to cover his mouth with a hand to keep her from seeing his facade breaking.
"That's atrocious, George," she snorted. "That's if I walked around calling you Geo —"
"Sounds a bit cool, doesn't it?" George said to his twin, and grinning wider at her growl of irritation. "That could be my spy name. Next time we put spiders in Ron's bed, that'll be our code word —"
Ron spluttered, immediately beginning to protest.
"Why are you putting spiders in Ron's bed?" She said with an eye roll. "That's cruel —"
"Yes, well, he's a bit of a git, isn't he?" Fred said as if this were perfectly obvious.
If Hermione were a better adult, she would have told him that of course he wasn't. Her own problems with Ron aside, antagonizing him with his worst fear was cruel, no matter what kind of person he was.
Problem was, she was a bit petty. And her heart had been ripped out last night, so what difference did it make?
"Fair enough," she said simply, turning away from them to look at Ginny. Fred and George brightened behind her, sharing a look filled with pride as Ron bristled, but she didn't say anything. "What exactly are we all waiting here for?"
Ginny smirked at her, but didn't mention her cool behavior, choosing to answer the question instead.
"The owls came an hour ago, but Mum wants to read them all together. She's gone to see if she can pull Charlie from the reserve for a moment, and Percy and dad should be off soon."
Whatever vindictive pleasure she'd had in riling Ron six seconds before faded to the background again. She hadn't even noticed that the twins were each holding large envelopes, each with their names written in scrawling cursive.
The dread of it all was coming back to her now as Harry smiled at her bracingly and passed her the envelope that had her name on it. She set it before her on the table, staring at it as if it held all the answers to her spiraling panic.
Though, truthfully, it didn't. At best, it was going to make the panic worse; it was only the guidelines she had to follow once she'd been married. It had nothing to do with who she'd be paired with, and knowing what was expected of her before she even knew who she was expected to procreate with…it was cruel and unusual punishment, in her opinion.
"Hello, everyone!" Mr. Weasley said, sweeping into the kitchen and trying to look as cheery as possible. Percy was not far behind him, looking pale and carrying a letter of his own.
Charlie looked quite angry when he stepped through the fire, and he, too, was holding a letter in his hands. Hermione gaped at him.
"Wait, you're part of the law?" she said, flabbergasted. "You live in Romania!"
Charlie laughed harshly, throwing himself into a seat next to his father and glaring at the letter before him. Mrs. Weasley stepped out after him, looking at her son with mild irritation.
"I'm a dual citizen," he grumbled. "Apparently that's reason enough."
"Yes, well, you'd probably never marry if it weren't for this law now, would you?" she said, hands on her hips. "You're older than the rest of them at least, and dragons are not the grandchildren that I was expecting —"
"Mum, can we have this argument another time?" he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Perhaps when the fate of my life doesn't reside within this letter?"
Personally, Hermione would have preferred if they'd ignored the letter entirely. She'd been waiting all day for it to arrive, but now that it was in front of her, she didn't want to see it. She did not want to know.
Mr. Weasley sighed heavily, looking around at them all.
"Well, I suppose there's no use waiting any longer," he said, bracingly. "Let's see what we're dealing with here."
Easy for him to say. He wasn't impacted by the law at all.
But Hermione kept these comments to herself, and slid her finger under the Ministry seal on the back of the envelope. She felt like she might be sick again. Or maybe that was just her incredibly frantic pulse mixing with her panicked thoughts.
She didn't have the time to figure it out because the large stack of papers within it came spilling out. Pages and pages of personality tests — some with open ended questions, others scored based on a scale, and even more with multiple choice selections. Another packet full of aptitude tests — spatial reasoning, numerical reasoning, situational judgment, logical reasoning — all designed to determine intellectual compatibility, she assumed, but the sheer volume of the questions was overwhelming.
She deliberately ignored these forms though, pushing them aside for the parchment she was most interested — and most afraid — to review.
Friday, 17 June 1998
Dear Miss Granger,
This letter is sent to inform you of an impending piece of legislation that may impact you. It is the belief of our elected officials that the most recent Wizarding War has left the magical community with a dwindling population and a need for magical cooperation and procreation in order to keep our community safe and prosperous.
The Decree for Magical Union and Conception was passed into law by the currently elected Wizengamot with a majority of 70%, and is intended to help circumvent these concerns. This law will take effect at 12:01 AM on July 1, 1998. Please see the enclosed paperwork required to be submitted and all stipulations that are required to fulfill your obligations under this law.
Hoping you are well,
Mafalda Hopkirk
Department of Magical Law Enforcement
Her hands were shaking as she placed the letter down and looked at the outlined decree before her. It took her several rounds of blinking before she could even see the words before her, the panic blinding her near completely.
DECREE FOR MAGICAL UNION AND CONCEPTION:
By mandate of the Ministry of Magic, it is hereby declared that all witches and wizards of British citizenship, with confirmed magical talent, and who fall between the ages of 17 and 35, shall be matched by the Ministry of Magic with a partner for the purposes of union and procreation. Should the individual in question become of age while they are still attending school, the law will be deferred until schooling has been successfully completed, at which time all legislation requirements will be expected to be met.
The Ministry will determine the proper pairing of individuals using a spell intended to discover your most compatible match (closest to your age range), which will be used in conjunction with the tests provided in this pamphlet to determine your perfect match. Enclosed, you will find a number of personality and aptitude tests, intended to determine intellectual compatibility, emotional compatibility, and matching values and aspirations between you and your selected partner. It is imperative, therefore, that all questions are answered fully and completely, and with complete and truthful disclosure, in order to ensure that the proper selection is made.
Please complete all enclosed forms and submit to the Ministry of Magic's Department for Regulation of Magical Union no later than 12:01 AM on Thursday, June 30th. Any late forms may result in an improper or incompatible pairing, and could result in penalties or jail time.
Letters with your Ministry selected pairing will be mailed no later than 5:00 PM on 1 July 1998. Please remember that these pairings are your most compatible match based on the information you provided, and cannot be nullified.
Any individuals who are engaged to be married before the start of this law (1 July 1998 at 12:01 AM) will have their engagements honored and are not expected to fill out the required forms. All other stipulations of the law (including time frame for marriage and procreation) will be required to be met by these individuals. If you are betrothed prior to the start of this law (1 July 1998 at 12:01 AM), please send this information to the Ministry of Magic's Department for the Regulation of Magical Union for proper documentation.
The following stipulations are required of all individuals who meet the above guidelines at the time that the law is passed:
Beginning on 2 July 1998, all individuals who fall within this decree will be required to submit to fertility testing to ensure each individual is capable of producing offspring. Any individuals found to be incapable of producing offspring will be exempt from this law, and their partners re-paired, if applicable. Should this be required, new pairs will be given a new deadline, set by the Ministry of Magic. Previously engaged pairs, if one or both individuals are found to be infertile, will not be required to re-pair. Any and all attempts to trick the testing or to make oneself infertile for the purposes of circumventing this decree are illegal and will result in jail time, penalties, and a potential strip of magical privileges.
Individuals found to have no fertility concerns will have ten months from the date they receive their letter with their selected match (1 July 1998 at 5:00 PM) to be married by a Ministry appointed witch/wizard. This means that all individuals who fall under the jurisdiction of this decree must be married no later than 1 May 1999 at 5 PM. Please plan accordingly — any late marriages will result in a Ministry interrogation and may result in penalties or jail time.
Pairs will have 10 additional months after the date of their marriage to conceive their first child. Should the first child result in a Squib, couples will still be required to produce magical offspring. An additional 12 months will be provided to produce a second child in the event of a Squib birth. Maternity and Paternity testing will be performed at the time of birth to ensure successful completion of the law.
From the date of marriage throughout this 10 month period for intended conception, any and all forms of contraception (Muggle or magical) are illegal and will result in penalties and/or jail time. Any attempts to refrain from marital activity during this time period will also be considered an illegal form of contraception.
All fees incurred by the pair for the purposes of required fertility testing and childbirth will be covered by the Ministry of Magic. This financial assistance terminates after the birth of the first child (whether this child results in a magical child or Squib). The termination of financial assistance does not preclude the additional requirements outlined above if the first child results in a Squib.
Divorce will not be allowed at this time except under certain extreme circumstances, including, but not limited to, domestic/child abuse and/or adultery. Should you believe a divorce necessary, please contact the Department for the Regulation of Magical Union for assistance with the process.
Please read and review the above stipulations in their entirety, and be sure that you understand them. Any questions or concerns should be communicated to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and any attempts to circumvent the guidelines listed above will result in criminal penalties/charges, including, but not limited to, fees/fines, criminal trial and sentencing to Azkaban, and/or a potential stripping of magical privileges.
Each couple will have an assigned Ministry appointed Union Inspector, who will oversee the process and field any concerns you or your partner may have about meeting the above obligations. Please see enclosed all compatibility tests and the information for St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries Fertility and Maternity Ward to make all required appointments and submit to fertility testing.
A list of legislation deadlines will also be enclosed.
Hoping you are well,
Mafalda Hopkirk
Department of Magical Law Enforcement
Hermione gaped at the letter for a very long time after she'd finished it, and the silence within the room was so palpable that she almost thought she could have reached out and touched it if she'd tried hard enough.
She was thankful that she wasn't the only one that looked so horrified.
She knew Kingsley had said that there was no way to get around the law, but she'd expected — or hoped, might be the better word to use — that there would be a loophole of some nature. A single tiny string that they'd unintentionally let hang loose or a breadcrumb that they'd forgotten to sweep up.
That was what she'd hoped for, but she'd read the stipulations at least three times and it felt…quite airtight. Unless they argued for a violation of human rights — which it was — there was very little hope that she'd find herself out of this situation. And an argument like that, in a world that already believed purebloods had the upper hand, would be difficult to overturn overnight.
"Kingsley wasn't joking about it being unavoidable was he?" Percy frowned, his eyes moving across the parchment rapidly. "These are…I mean, they've considered everything."
Fred and George had no smiles at all, their brows pulled tight and identical looks of displeasure written across their faces. Ron was simply gaping. Harry removed his glasses and wiped at his eyes as if it might help him understand what he was reading as Ginny gripped his arm tightly.
Charlie's jaw was clenched tightly, his hand gripping the parchment in front of him so hard that it crinkled under his grasp. Mr. Weasley frowned and took the parchment from him, skimming it quite quickly, and Mrs. Weasley read it over his shoulder.
Neither one of them appeared to have any answers for the silent adults around them.
"Seventeen," Mrs. Weasley murmured, her hand on her throat. "That seems awfully young…"
"Legally of age, I suppose is what they're thinking," Mr. Weasley said with a heavy sigh.
Even still, it felt cruel. At seventeen, Hermione herself had been on the run. At nineteen, she was living with the Weasleys still and hadn't even started working yet. They were all still basically children, and there was no set age before a person became a functional adult. There was no set age for when a person became ready for marriage and children.
She could see a whole plethora of issues that would be caused by this law, and it felt surreal that she was looking at it now.
"Thirty-five is the age cut off," George snorted, tossing the paper away from himself. "The youngest member of the Wizengamot is thirty-six. You think that's a coincidence? Self-righteous pricks."
"George, watch your mouth or you'll lose that other ear!" Mrs. Weasley said immediately.
"Can I say it then?" Fred joked half-heartedly, despite the frown on his face. "I've got an extra ear to spare and we could go back to being identical."
"I'm sure it also has to do with a woman's fertility, not just the Wizengamot's age," Hermione said without looking up from her letter, thinking aloud more to herself than anyone else. "Men can have offspring their entire lives, but women can't. They've used the word fertility about one hundred times in here —"
Ron snorted derisively.
"C'mon, Hermione, you can't possibly think that that wasn't intentional," he said as if she were saying something entirely stupid. It rankled and she let her gaze snap up from her letter for the first time. "It's clearly hypocritical —"
"I didn't say it wasn't, Ronald," she snapped back. "All I'm saying is that from a practical standpoint, they have a very good basis for that age group. Fertility tends to decline after thirty, and after thirty-five, you're much more likely to see chromosomal problems, miscarriages, labor and health concerns."
"What difference does it make if it's practical?" he said angrily.
"It matters if you're looking for a legal loophole, our dear, stupid brother," George said, eyeing his younger brother distastefully. "It matters because it means our brilliant Hermione here can't make an argument about the law being unfair and hypocritical when there's a scientific basis for the age range."
Hermione stared at him for a moment, surprised he'd have realized what she'd been thinking. She blinked and turned to look at Ron again.
"Right," she said, clearing her throat and hoping she didn't sound as surprised by George's clever deduction as she felt. "That isn't to say that it's not possible, but it makes it harder to argue when they can point to something tangible in refute. Though I'm sure the fact that it doesn't impact any of them is certainly not something they're complaining about."
"There's nothing else in here that can be refuted, we're saying?" Ron said incredulously. "We're really all getting married?"
Hermione didn't know why every single one of them looked at her as if she had the answer to that question. She was stuck in all of this as much as they were.
"As far as I can tell, yes," she said weakly, her stomach sinking. "The rest of it looks airtight. It'll take me some time to find something within the law that would overturn it otherwise, and by that point…"
By that point, they'd already have been paired, at least, and it might be arrogant of her to even assume that the marriage deadline wouldn't be met for at least some of them.
They couldn't all wait for the last day to get married.
"Shite," Charlie swore harshly, letting his head fall to the table. "Maybe I can bring a couple of dragons to burn down the Ministry. Reckon that would work?"
Fred and George laughed.
"Don't know, but we'll help you —"
"At least let those of us who don't want to be complicit in your crimes leave before you start mentioning illegal activities," Percy said with an eye roll.
"Alright, alright, we're getting distracted from the purpose of this," Mrs. Weasley said before any of her sons could retort. "The letters are set to go out on the first with the final pairings. I think we ought to all meet here for dinner that evening and we can open them as a family. We can handle the rest after that. You boys can close the shop, can't you?"
The twins sighed heavily and stood, nodding even before their mother could give them a sharp look.
"Perks of being the owners, isn't it?" Fred said. "Don't imagine we'll be very busy that day anyway —"
" — what with the whole community trying not to end it all en masse. Don't imagine anyone is going to want to be setting off fireworks that evening —"
"Course, they might want some Puking Pastilles to feed to these Ministry blokes, wouldn't they?"
"Pity for them, I was planning on using them all," George said with a smirk. "Our break was up fifteen minutes ago, so if you'll excuse us, we've got a business to run."
The rest of the group left slowly after that, even Ron, who left without a word or glance in her direction.
She tried to hold her head high as if it didn't bother her, despite the pang in her chest. The damned thing just wasn't going to go away, was it?
"Can we talk?" Ginny said, following her up the stairs to her room.
Hermione sighed heavily and smiled at her gently, patting the bed next to her. Ginny didn't bother taking a seat next to her. She simply flopped herself backward unceremoniously, letting her legs hang over the side.
"This is mad, right?" she said to the ceiling, sounding almost scared. "I mean, this has got to be some sort of nightmare, right? I mean we're talking about being married in ten months."
It was worse having someone say it out loud.
"I know, Gin," she said hopelessly. She was so unused to not being able to solve something.
"You're planning on going over the law, aren't you?" she said knowingly, eyeing the stack of documents on her desk.
"Eventually, I — I mean there are too many deadlines coming up to do it at the moment, and if Ron isn't going to propose then I need to — to take my time with the tests they sent first."
"Ron is a git." Ginny said harshly, eyeing her seriously.
"Harry said you went over there last night," she said, trying to sound like she didn't really care about what she could possibly tell her, even though she really preferred to know.
Ginny looked at her in a way that told her that she knew exactly what Hermione was doing, but she answered anyway.
"Yeah, I ripped him a new one," she said casually, "I'd have hexed him, but Harry was blocking me, and then he stormed upstairs and locked us out. I stayed for a bit longer to talk to Harry more about the law, but Ron never came back out of his room."
Hermione didn't know what she'd expected. Maybe she'd hoped to hear that she'd talked some sense into him or that he'd changed his mind about proposing. But of course he hadn't; she'd seen him today herself and he hadn't said a single thing to or about her to anyone. He hadn't even looked at her if he could help it.
She cleared her throat, and tried to change the subject in an attempt to keep up her apathetic charade.
"Well, what did you and Harry talk about?" she said, pretending that she didn't know what her best friend planned at all.
Ginny bit her lip anxiously.
"Well, we — I mean, we talked about getting married, you know," she said with a sigh. "But I don't want to force him into proposing or anything. And, I mean, it's possible that we'd be paired together if we didn't, right? Kingsley seemed fairly confident that the tests were sound…I just keep thinking — what if we aren't paired together? What if the Ministry thinks that we aren't compatible? I mean, what if we aren't? What if we take these tests and it finds us more compatible with someone else?"
Hermione smiled at her gently, and reached forward to squeeze her hand.
"Of course, you'll be paired together, Ginny," she said confidently. The fact that she knew that they would end up together was a secret she could keep for the time being. "Just the other day I was thinking how perfect you two are together — the Ministry will think so too if you end up submitting the tests."
Ginny smiled at her weakly.
"I hope so," she said anxiously. "I can't imagine spending my life with anyone else — shite, sorry, Hermione," she said apologetically when Hermione looked away from her. "I really shouldn't be talking about this with you with everything with Ron, should I?"
"No, no, it's fine," Hermione said, waving the comment away. "I don't mean to be such a downer, Ginny, I'm sorry. I'm just — I'm having a hard time not knowing how to fix this."
Ginny snorted and gave her a mock-surprise look.
"No, really?" She said sarcastically. "I'd never known you to need all the answers. You're so laidback —"
Hermione rolled her eyes and nudged her with her foot.
"Will you shut up?" she said lightly.
"Maybe it's a good thing," Ginny said, looking suddenly serious again. "Maybe you'll be paired with a tall, handsome hunk of a man, and you can rub Ron's nose in it. You could end up with that new Irish Chaser — Daniel Thompson or whatever his name is."
Hermione snorted.
"Or I could end up with Cormac McLaggen."
Ginny gave her a serious look.
"No shot," she said, shaking her head in denial. "Trust me. If you end up paired with Cormac McLaggen then me and the twins will have to push him off the roof and try to make it look like an accident. I cannot stand to hear him talk about himself every holiday. We've already got Fleur for that."
Hermione laughed, despite herself.
"She's not been so bad lately," Hermione said. "Not since the baby anyway. But I suppose the only thing we can do now is wait, right?"
Wait for the Ministry to make one of the most important decisions of her life.
Because, like it or not, she was going to be a married woman in approximately ten months.
This one was interesting. I had to make it airtight because Hermione too smart...hopefully I did that here.
Pairings are next!
