Summary: When Wizarding Britain is forced to raise their population or face the collapse of their people what is the Ministry to do? How about institute a marriage law?

Sorry, I suck at summaries

Hi guys I'm back! This story was inspired by one line of Kiss Me by Ed Sheeran and then it kind of ran away with me. Not quite sure how long this story is going to be, but seeing as the first chapter is just a prologue and is 1498 words I'm thinking it's not going to be short. Some of you may have read some of my works on AO3 under the same pen-name, this story is being posted there as well, just incase this one gets taken down here due to mature adult content.

I have no Beta reader, so if any one is interested in reading these chapters before any one else and is sick of my terrible grammar, punctuation, and tense jumping please let me know!

Lastly, all the characters belong to J.K. I own nothing and make no money from this, the only thing that is mine is the ideas that won't leave me alone!

-HxL-HxL-HxL-

Wizarding Britain was going to the dogs; it started right after the battle of Hogwarts. The Ministry, being afraid of repeating the past, questioned every captured death eater under veritaserum. Those whose answers were unsatisfactory were immediately given the Dementor's Kiss, and those whose confessions pleased the Ministry were given their conditional freedom.

Lucius Malfoy was one such death eater. While under the influence of the truth potion Lucius told the Ministry how he was broken out of Azkaban only to find that the Dark Lord had taken up residence in his manor, forced his son to take the dark mark and attempt to murder Albus Dumbledore all in the name of protecting his mother. After hearing how He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had taken Lucius's wand, that Lucius spent the entire battle searching for his son, and that the Malfoy patriarch had to reside in the same house as the dark wizard, the Ministry decided that Lucius had sufficiently paid for his crimes. Much to the Malfoy family's relief, after questioning Narcissa and Draco, the Ministry decided to allow them their freedom as well. Draco because of his testimony and Lucius's, and Narcissa for her role in the destruction of Voldemort. By the end of the two months it took for the Ministry to try and pass judgment on all the captured death eaters, the Malfoy's felt they had gotten off fairly easy, after all what was a little veritaserum and a heavy fine compared to the Dementor's Kiss. But within the last months Lucius was beginning to think that they weren't lucky, quite the opposite in fact.

It had started shortly after the end of the death eater trials. The Daily Prophet began running articles about the decimated population of Wizarding Britain, at first these articles focused on the losses that people suffered, but gradually they escalated. The articles began using words like sustainability, and giving birth estimates. They said that the second war had come too soon after the first and that in the last seventeen years the population hadn't had sufficient time to recover from the deaths during the first war, and that the losses during the last three years had only decimated the population further. The Prophet then claimed that at the current birth rate it would take a century for the population to recover enough for Britain to function properly. Lucius had to admit that the Ministry had played its cards well; hardly anyone noticed that the government was using their grief to cover up the outrageous plans they were hatching. But having manipulated the politics of Ministry for most of his adult life Lucius saw these articles for what they were; propaganda.

I wasn't until January 2nd 1999, the eight-month anniversary of the end of the war, that the Ministry revealed what they had been plotting.

Lucius had been sitting with Narcissa and Draco in the breakfast nook enjoying a proper English breakfast, watching the snow fall outside the glass patio doors, when one of the house elves had appeared holding the morning addition of the Daily Prophet like any other day. Lucius knew the moment he saw the headline that things were about the change and that the Ministry was making its move.

Population Growth Efforts to Begin Immediately. New Marriage Law Announced.

Rita Skeeter

My dear readers, early this morning this reporter had the great honor and privilege to be called into the Ministry of Magic to conduct an interview with the Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt concerning the current population crisis. This is what our great leader had to say.

On Friday January 1, 1999 the members of the Wizengamot passed a law, which is to be the solution to the pressing population concerns, our country is facing. As all the citizens of Wizarding Britain are aware we have obtained the greatest population decrease since the days of the witch burnings. But now we have a simple four-step plan to bring our numbers up as efficiently and quickly as possible, to make this work we expect complete cooperation from all members of our society. For the first step, all married couples will shortly be receiving owls with official Ministry letters, these letters are directly linked to the Ministry archives. Both members of the couple must press a drop of blood into the parchment of this letter. This will ascertain both members sexuality and if one or both members of the couple are fertile. If both members are fertile they will be supplied with fertility potions (and conception potions in the case of same sex couples) and further instructions of what is expected of them. If both members are infertile nothing about their daily life will change, but unfortunately if only one member of the marriage is infertile the marriage will be immediately dissolved and recorded in the archives. All parties involved who are unable to spawn or carry a child will be owled further instructions, but be assured that these individuals will be provided housing and will be given employment opportunities should the require them. This leads us to step two, all unmarried (or newly unmarried) individuals of legal age (seventeen or higher) will receive owls with official Ministry letters, these letters are directly linked to the Ministry archives. Citizens must press a drop of blood into the parchment of this letter. This will ascertain the individual's sexuality and if they are fertile. All fertile citizens will have exactly 30 days to find a partner and be wed by a Ministry official (any unfertile citizen will receive the same provisions as the recently unmarried infertiles). Newly married couples will be supplied with fertility potions (and conception potions in the case of same sex couples) and further instructions of what is expected of them. Those witches and wizards who do not find a life partner within the allotted time frame will be part of step three. In step three all single fertile citizens will receive an official Ministry letter, which they will need to press a drop of blood into. This will ascertain the individual's sexuality and if they are fertile (again all infertile citizens will receive Ministry provisions). All fertile citizens will then be required to attend a Ministry hosted social where they will be given the opportunity to choose a life partner, if at the end of the social they have not made a mutual selection the Ministry will be responsible for pairing up the remaining individuals. Since all same sex couples have the capability to conceive with the aid of potions there will be two separate socials. There will be one where heterosexual and bisexual citizens attend (one day), and one where homosexual and bisexual citizens attend (the next day). Any bisexual citizen who does not find a spouse at the first social may attend the second social, but if by the end of the second social they have not paired, all bisexual citizens will be subject to the same Ministry chosen marriages as other citizens. This is done in efforts to maximize the likely hood of citizens finding spouses who are compatible. All newly wedded couples will receive fertility potions (and conception potions in the case of same sex couples) and further instructions of what is expected of them. The final and fourth step of this plan looks not towards current of age citizens but to those to come of age in the future. For the next ten years all fertile citizens (upon puberty for younger citizens and immediately for citizens over the age of 14, all citizens will be subject to the fertility and sexuality tests mentioned before) have exactly one year from either their seventeenth birthday (or their completion of Hogwarts if they have yet to finish their education) to find a partner and marry or the Ministry will be responsible for pairing up the remaining individuals. All newly wedded couples will receive fertility potions (and conception potions in the case of same sex couples) and further instructions of what is expected of them. After the ten years have passed we will reassess the state of the population of our nation and determine if this four-step plan is still required. We at the Ministry understand that this plan is neither pleasant nor is it fair, but for the sake of the continuation of Wizarding Britain it is necessary, therefore complete compliance with this plan is mandatory, any who do not comply will be held accountable to this new law. To the citizens of this great nation I would ask of you to be open to the possibilities that this new law brings. Thank you.

And so you've heard here first dear readers, it looks like life for all of us (this reporter included) is about to get a lot more interesting.

Upon having finished reading the article Lucius handed the paper to Narcissa and left the table to stand by the window to wait for the owl that would change all of their lives forever.