The marriage law

Finding a way out

"There has to be a way out of this!"

Hermione had been repeating these very words almost the entire evening, and with each recitation, her voice had grown exponentially more frantic and hysterical.

Through his innumerable connections at the Ministry (people who merely wanted to be seen having a conversation with 'The Boy Who Lived'), Harry had managed to procure a copy of the marriage act, shortly after the entire Wizarding population in the United Kingdom had been informed of it.

"The rules are made very clear Hermione. Every person between the ages of seventeen and forty-nine must marry and produce three magical children. Being a muggleborn, your condition is that you must marry someone who is of at least fifty percent magical heritage."

Hermione moaned in frustration.

"What if no one wants to marry me and the ministry pairs me up with some old pervert? What will I do? How could I live like that?"

"Relax Hermione. We'll find a way to make this work, for all of us. You're not the only one that has to find a spouse."

Hermione calmed down slightly after Ron reminded her of the fact that there were others in the room who were in the same predicament that she was.

"Right," said Arthur, after a long time of pouring over all the words on the parchment, "Until we can find a way out of this, we will have to pair up. The least that we can do is keep the couples within the order, or within our group of trusted people."

He pulled a blank piece of parchment from the stack of pages on the table in front of him. He wrote down a few names, reading them aloud as he went down the list.

"Ginny is already with Harry."

Hermione looked up just in time to see the couple look at each other, sappy expressions adorning their faces in the most sickening manner.

Percy piped up from his place opposite his father.

"I guess now would be the most opportune time to tell you that I am engaged to be married."

The twins turned to look at each other, identical, evil grins lighting up their faces.

"Ahhh, so is dear Penny joining the brethren that is our family?" said Fred with a tone of false joy.

"No," said Percy smugly.

"So it will be the darling Cornelius Fudge himself that will be joining us? Mind you, I do think he is a tad too old..." continued George with the most serious facial expression.

"Except you do need someone to be the 'fun parent'..." said Fred in an equally serious tone.

The surrounding family members snorted their laughter into their hands, while Percy changed to a rather unattractive shade of pink around the ears.

"Her name is Audrey Winterbourne. She was in the year below me, but was homeschooled," replied Percy in a stiff voice.

"Congratulations Percy! You should invite her for Sunday lunch this week, and let her meet the whole family," said Molly. Up until she had suggested this she had spent the entire time muttering under her breath about what her grandchildren would turn out to be, while Arthur was diligently ignoring the jibes of his children as he wrote down the names 'Percy' and 'Audrey'.

Arthur looked up to see a still chuckling Ron.

"Ron, you're next. Have you any news to share?"

This sobered Ron up immediately. He began twisting the corner of his shirt around his finger as he stammered out a response.