Hey friends!

This is my first fanfic, and I would love constructive feedback on how you feel the story is going, any issues with dialogue or grammar, etc... as long as you're nice about it!
I found the inspiration for this story while reading Pax Matrum by loubug14, which is a wonderful Dramione that I encourage you to read! The idea of the mysterious Ministry of Magic meeting was taken directly from that story (and used with permission!) and I hope you enjoy my take on the Marriage Law trope!

I don't have a beta reader, so I imagine they'll be some small issues with grammar or punctuation here and there, please be patient! Let me know if you see it and I'd be happy to fix it :).

ENJOY!

Dear Miss Granger,

The Ministry of Magic requires your presence for a confidential briefing tomorrow morning, Monday, June 9th, 2002.
This briefing will be held in Conference Room A, attached to the Minister of Magic's office, and will begin at precisely 9:00 AM.

Because of the confidential nature of this meeting, we cannot verify the topic or other attendants.

Yours Sincerely,

Kingsley Shacklebolt

Minister of Magic - Order of Merlin, First Class.

Hermione stared blankly at the parchment in front of her, curious but wary. The war against Voldemort had ended just over four years prior, and Hermione had been working for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement since finishing her Eighth Year at Hogwarts.

It had been expected that she would train to be an Auror with Harry and Ron, but Hermione found her passion in litigation and law proposals. She worked her way from an internship to Assistant Head of the MLE Department. In her years in the MLE, not only had she represented high profile clients, including Draco Malfoy, who was released from Azkaban after two years, but she had also written many important laws and legislation that had been voted into effect through the Wizengamot.

Hermione felt like she knew almost everything that happened at the Ministry, between her work as an attorney and being a personal friend and confidant to the Minister. But she was confused, and more than a little concerned about this missive. Kingsley had not mentioned any meetings upcoming, and why was her presence required instead of just requested?

With a silent sigh, she folded the letter neatly and readied herself for an early morning.

The next morning found Hermione anxiously awaiting the Minister of Magic. It was 8:30 AM and she had stationed herself outside his office, much to the displeasure of his receptionist.

"Kingsley, I'm so glad you're here early too!" she smiled, as she greeted her friend and mentor.

"Hermione", he beamed at her, leaning in for a quick hug, "I see you have arrived early, as usual".

She smiled brightly, trying not to show her nervousness, and followed him into his office.

The Minister for Magic office had been completely redecorated after the most recent election.
Kingsley, who had been serving as Interim Minister after the fall of Voldemort, had been elected in a landslide victory and felt the room needed a breath of fresh air.
The walls had been painted a pale grey, with maps of each floor of the Ministry charmed onto them, a spell developed by Hermione (with inspiration from the Marauder's Map). The spell allowed the Minister to send messages directly to offices on the map, rather than using owls or the ever popular charmed paper airplanes. This allowed immediate delivery, and little chance of interception, as the charm required wand activation by both the sender and the recipient.

The carpet was a plush navy blue, and Hermione always longed to toe off her high heels and squirm her toes into the soft fabric.
The office was truly beautiful, and a subtle nod to Shacklebolt's graduating Hogwarts house, Ravenclaw.

"I'm assuming you're wondering why I required your presence this morning?" Kingsley began.

"Well, yes. To be quite frank Kings, you usually don't keep me in the dark, and I figured if there were legislation issues, you would have let me know about it before calling me into a meeting".

"I understand Hermione." Kingsley paused, as though he weren't quite sure how to continue. "You see, it's not that this meeting is about just legislation. It's... complicated. The Department of Mysteries and the Unspeakables have been working on a spell. It's come time to start testing and while many of us have tested it ourselves, we need a new set of eyes, and a new test subject, if you will. With your spell creation experience, we thought you'd be a good fit. You know the Unspeakables have been trying to hire you since you graduated. And it's not just that. This spell is going to be used in conjunction with upcoming legislation, so we need to be sure it works correctly".

Hermione's eyes narrowed slightly in speculation. "Well, I suppose we better get on with it then, shall we?"

As they entered the conference room, Hermione was only slightly surprised to see the other attendants of the mandatory briefing.

In addition to herself and the Minister for Magic, also in attendance was the Head of the DMLE, Gawain Robards, the Head of the Department of Mysteries, Saul Croaker, who was seated next to two Unspeakables, both in head to toe black robes with large hoods covering their heads and faces. Augustus Pye, the Head Healer at St. Mungos was seated at the end of the table, next to Tiberius Ogden, who Hermione assumed was a representative for the meeting from the Wizengamot.

"Gentleman and Lady, please, find a seat so we can begin", Kingsley declared.

It was only then that Hermione realized she was the only witch in the room. As the crowd found seats around the comfortable conference room table, Augustus Pye began to speak.

"Thank you all for being here. I think I should begin, by explaining the reasoning we're all here today, and then I'll pass it over to Mr. Ogden to discuss the Winzengamot's stance, and Mr. Croaker to finish by detailing the spell developed to assist the problem."

He took a deep breath, and let it out shakily. "In the last five years, St. Mungo's has dedicated a team to researching the ever-rising squib population, as well as the recent rise in miscarriages and infertility. After the First Wizarding War, we noticed a decline in births, something that was uncommon after major world events like the end of a war. Families only had one child, sometimes two, instead of three or four or more as in years prior. We noticed at that time that many families were struggling to get pregnant or to remain pregnant. It was during this time we began our research, although most of us believed that it was simply a matter of stress on witches and wizards who had just been through a major traumatic event.

However, our research was halted with the rise of Voldemort in 1995, as St. Mungo's had to dedicate it's staff and researchers to the influx of patients and new dark spells that were injuring them.

In 2000, we realized that there had been again, a sharp decline in the number of births, something we had hoped would increase after the end of the Second Wizarding War. In 1999 there were 60 births. In 2000, there were 45, and in 2001 there were only 27 births. Thus far in 2002, we have had only 14 births.

There has been an uptick in miscarriages, and we've seen couples unable to conceive at a higher rate than ever before. We believe there to be an underlying issue, a sickness, if you will, causing low birth rates and miscarriages among those couples who are currently trying to conceive. However, one of the true issues is that couples are not marrying and having children.

After the war, there simply hasn't been much familial growth within our communities."

Hermione sucked in a breath at the realization of what must be happening. She'd heard whispers in the Wizengamot but thought it to be rumor or wishful thinking among an old-fashioned branch of the governing body. She looked at Kingsley in a panic, but he gave her a sad shake of his head.

Tiberius Ogden then stood and began to explain what the Wizengamot intended to do about the issue.

"My friends, most of you in this room already know the outcome of the most recent closed sessions of the Wizengamot, as you were required to report your findings and recommendations to the council.

St. Mungos, after much testing, determined that the rise in miscarriages and squib births was directly related to an increase in genetic anomalies related to the marriages and intermixing of family lines. While most of us within the Wizengamot did not understand the world of genetics, we brought in many who had lived, worked, and studied within the Muggle scientific communities to explain the problem. I cannot say that everyone within the council agreed with the problem as presented, but we all did agree that we needed to address it quickly and with as much consideration as possible.

The genetic experts we worked with indicated to us that in order to revive the Wizarding community, we must not allow for the intermixing of family lines. We have found that marriages between pure-blood and half-blood or muggle-born partners are more likely to result in live, healthy births than those with matching blood status.

The Wizengamot has deliberated long and arduously and has elected to implement legislation to protect the future of the Wizarding community within Britain."

He was silent for much longer than was comfortable, and realization crept into Hermione.
She stood quietly, dread weighing down her limbs, making her feel as though she could barely move. Her voice was barely a whisper when she spoke.

"Mr. Ogden. Please. Are you... are you saying that you're going to outlaw marriages between pureblood couples in order to prevent unhealthy pregnancies?"

"Much more than that Miss Granger" he sighed in defeat "Much more than that.

The Wizengamot has decided to implement a Marriage Law. We'll be requiring witches and wizards between the ages of 21 and 45 to marry and produce children within a designated time period. Purebloods will be required to marry a half-blood or muggle-born. Half-blood witches and wizards will have the option to marry either a person of any half-blood status or pure-blood status, although cases may exist where a half-blood can marry a muggle-born. However muggle-born witches and wizards must marry into a pure-blood line. Research has shown only the introduction of a completely new wizarding line can revive the genetic pool of pure-blood lines after so many generations of inter-family mixing."

"This is insane. This is absolutely insane!" Hermione choked out. She wanted to scream. She felt rage welling up within her.
"You want to take away the right of people to marry who they love! What if I loved a muggle-born man! You're telling me I can't marry him!"

"Please Hermione, sit down, we're not quite done yet" Kingsley urged.

Ogden looked warily around the room before continuing. "A spell has been developed that will catalog a witch or wizards magical genetics and pair them with a partner with a genetic code most distant from their own. The spell is designed to ensure that future generations are not from widely intermixed family lines.

The spell requires a drop of blood from the caster, spread atop a piece of parchment, along with the incantation geneticae spatium. This sends out a magical pulse, we've allowed the pulse to cover the distance of the Britain wizarding community. The pulse picks up magical genetic signatures and matches the caster to those most distant from their own."

Hermione interrupted. "What aren't you telling us. What else is there?
I can see it on your face, Mr. Ogden. What more is there!"

"The spell matches the caster with magic lines that are distant from them in an effort to ensure the least inter-family mixing, as I said previously. However, because of the low population of muggleborn witches and wizards, the spell will match them with multiple magic lines that are compatible with their own genetics.

This means a muggle-born witch or wizard will be connected to at least one pureblood line. The magic may connect them to more than one pure-blood line, and depending on the power and purity of the genetics of the witch or wizard they may also be connected to one or more half-blood lines, as well."

Hermione exploded.