Luck of the Draw

The Marriage Law

Professor Athena Bailey stood in the Entrance Hall waiting on the new batch of first years to arrive. The Hufflepuff had begged the new headmistress to hand over her old job as the "official welcoming committee" once she had been hired the year following the Battle of Hogwarts. Looking around, just over two years later, Athena could barely believe that the building had been almost destroyed. She could also hardly ignore the fact that it seemed like there were less and less first years each year so far. As Hagrid entered the room, leading the eleven year olds in, she tried to hide the grimace. Where there would usually be almost seventy new children, stood only around twenty-five. She coughed twice, catching the attention of the small group.

"Good evening, and welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My name is Professor Bailey, and I will be teaching your potions classes this year. Now, before we eat, you will be sorted into one of four houses. They are Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. While you're here, your house will be like your family. Your accomplishments will earn you house points, and any trouble making will lose you points. Now, if you'll all follow me," Athena pushed open the doors into the great hall, smiling widely at her fellow professors and the children sitting at their respective house tables. At the front of the room, as it did every year, sat the Sorting Hat, looking a little worse for wear thanks to the Battle.

"Now, when I call your name, please come to the front. I will place the Sorting Hat on your head, and he will decide where you will best belong." She unrolled the parchment and began calling names. Once all were sorted, she motioned towards the headmistress before returning to her own seat at the table.

"Before we begin the feast, I have a few announcements. The Dark Forrest is forbidden to all. Mr. Filch, our caretaker, would like me to remind you that all Weasley Wizard Wheezes products are banned from the school grounds. And finally, once the feast is over, I would like all of our staff and the sixth and seventh years to join me for a short announcement." With a curt nod and lifted hands, food appeared on all of the tables, allowing all of us to serve ourselves. Professor Sprout and I began a spirited conversation about the latest Holyhead Harpies season and Ginny Weasley's current scoring record as we ate. Several seats down, I could hear Professor Black attempting to whittle Minerva into telling him the announcement early. The feast seemed to fly by, as the first one usually does. Once the students were dismissed, we all stood and gathered around Minerva, who held a large piece of parchment in her hands. I stood towards the back, wringing my hands nervously.

"What do you reckon it is," Professor Black asked, nudging me in the ribs with his elbow.

"I wish I knew, mate. Has to be important though, if we were all asked to stay back as well." He nodded slowly, as if he was taking in everything I had said.

"I'm Sirius, by the way. I'm not quite sure we've been properly introduced." I chuckled softly, noting his hand in front of me, waiting on a handshake. I reached out and shook it awkwardly.

"I actually met you back in the Order of the Phoenix days. Tonks and I were usually the ones in the back, goofing off." His eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Maybe you'd recognize me a bit better if I looked like, this." I scrunched my face up in concentration, and my hair slipped into my old favorite color, a bright orange.

"You're a metamorphogus?"

"So it would seem, yes." Minerva moved away from the professors and cleared her throat to speak.

"I'll try not to hold you all longer than necessary, I'm sure that you're quite eager to crawl into your beds. However, we have important matters to discuss." The children all started whispering amongst themselves. I shot them all a sharp look, which caused most of the whispers to stop. Minerva opened a roll of parchment and began to read. "Since the War has ended, the Ministry of Magic has noticed a drastic decrease in the Wizarding population. Because of this, we have had to take drastic action, and reinstate the marriage law. All eligible witches and wizards between the ages of sixteen and forty will be submitted for testing where they will then be matched with the person best suited to them. From that point, the matched couples will have three months to marry and a year following their wedding date to produce their first child." Athena gasped loudly, not thinking of herself, but of the literal children in front of them. How dare the ministry interfere in people's lives in this manner?

"Now, for obvious reasons, the matched couples will be taking an extra class this year," Minerva was interrupted by more irritated shouting. "This class will be there to help you bond with and build a relationship with your match. Now, testing will begin tomorrow for all of our eligible witches and wizards. For now, go to bed, enjoy the rest of your evenings." The students all abandoned the Great Hall quickly, clearly upset. Athena found herself waiting to ask Minerva a question.

"Minerva, excuse me! Could I ask just one question?"

"Of course dear, what is it?" Athena sighed before asking.

"There's no way I'm going to be matched with a student is there? I don't think my perfect match is still in school." Minerva tried not to chuckle.

"From what I understand, Athena, the ministry will not allow any relationships between two people that aren't both of age."

"I'm sorry, one more?" Minerva nodded.  "Our matches could come from anywhere correct? The possibility of it actually being someone that you know, should be minimal?"

"Unfortunately my dear, I am unaware of the answer to that question. I'm so sorry, Athena, I had forgotten that you would be affected by this as well."

"It's quite alright Minerva. I think I'll be heading to bed now, this is quite a bit to take in." Minerva nodded, placing a comforting hand on Athena's arm.

"It'll all be alright, Athena. Try not to worry too much, you'll only make it worse." Athena turned and started towards her living quarters in the dungeons of the castle.

"Athena! Oy! Athena, wait!" She turned and faced Sirius, who had been running to catch up to her. "You're affected by all of this too right?" Her eyebrows lifted in shock.

"No offense, but I thought that you had missed the cut off for the ministry's insanity." He shook his head, long hair shaking behind him.

"Unfortunately not, I'm still a couple years short. What did you ask Minnie?"

"I was curious about the age of the matches, and if they were curated to make sure that both parties would be either of age, or at least incredibly close in age."

"Good question! I was wondering just the same thing. Thought it would be terribly uncomfortable to be with someone almost twenty years my junior." Both people grimaced.

"Well, you should be good. She also informed me that there's no guarantee that we'll even know our match. God, why couldn't I have just been like Tonks and get married before the war?" Sirius chuckled.

"It'll be alright, I'm sure." They had reached a spot in the castle where it was very clear that they would have to part ways. "Have a good night there, Bailey. Don't think too hard." She nodded, and gave a small wave before heading off to bed.

A/N:

So this is completely unedited at the current moment. I kind of threw it together at around 1 in the morning when I couldn't sleep. I hope you all enjoyed at least SOMETHING about it! This has been a low key obsession for at least a week now, so I'm glad I finally got something on 'paper'

Thanks guys!