DISCLAIMER- I do not own anything Harry Potter related but that doesn't stop me from really, really wishing I owned the twins.

Hello!

This is the first chapter of my new fanfic and it's kind of a taster to see if you guys like this style/plot/general story as I haven't done anything like this before.

Really quickly, this is kind of AU as Voldemort was killed in the trio's sixth year and none of the big characters died (Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Snape, Dumbledore etc) and the trio are all the same age.

I think that's about it so I hope you guys enjoy, it's quite a long one-

Chapter 1-

'Hermione dear! Can you come down here for a second please?'

Mrs. Weasley's voice floated through the many floors of the burrow and managed to wake me from my sleep.

It was nearing nine o'clock in the morning, I realised as I glanced at my clock. I was utterly shocked at how I had managed to sleep in for so long- usually I would have been subjected to either shouts from Ginny or some sort of hazardous prank from the twins.

Merlin knows I will never forget the day I woke up to find a very angered gnome in my bed.

But then again, neither will Fred and George- I happen to be quite the master at Bat-Bogey Hexes now, Ginny's a great teacher.

Smirking to myself about my previous battles with the twins, I rolled out of bed and pulled my Muggle hoodie over my pyjamas.

As I stepped out of the room Ginny and I had been sharing, I realised something about the Burrow that had never occurred in all of the years I had know the Weasley's- It was silent.

Carefully, I walked down the stairs making sure to listen out for any of the usual hustle and bustle of the Weasley household.

I heard none of the sorts.

My curiosity peeked as I reached the living room. The entire family was positioned around the room with various degrees of frowns plastered on there ashen faces.

I realised most of them, unlike myself, weren't as accustomed to early mornings.

'Morning everyone,' I smiled, only to have several glares and eye rolls sent my way.

Merlin, they really didn't like the mornings.

Sensing I had better just sit down and see what this was all about, I squeezed myself between Bill and Ron on one of the sofas. The Twins, Percy, Harry and Ginny were all squashed onto the other sofa; Ginny and one of the Twins were in the middle of an elbow fight and by the look on Harry's face it wasn't much fun on that side of the living room.

Mrs. Weasley appeared out of the kitchen and gave me a warm smile. She began pacing anxiously around the room, almost like she was expecting someone.

At this point I was beyond confused and as a Granger that was something that didn't happen all that often. After glancing around at the other tired faces, I decided to speak up.

'Molly, if you don't mind me asking, what are we, um, actually doing?' I asked as politely as I could.

Molly seemed to be jerked from her trance by my voice as she jumped ever so slightly. The red headed mother was incredibly nervous; she was not the usual fiery woman I was used to.

'Well dear, we're just waiting for Charlie to arrive with our chosen Ministry Official and then they can explain everything,'

This was obviously news to everyone as an uproar of 'what's a Ministry Worker coming for?' and 'Charlie? I thought he was in Romania?' bubbled from the redheads.

Mrs. Weasley's irritation soon became evident, 'Hush would you? We will explain everything soon! You need to count your blessings that we found out early with your father being in the Ministry and all; otherwise you would have all been in for one mighty big shock,'

It was pretty clear Mrs. Weasley wasn't happy about whatever was happening at the Ministry and with that a new sense of dread began to fill me, if Molly was angered it must have been bad.

Everyone seemed to get the silent message of 'no more questions,' as we noted her obvious annoyance.

Well, I say everyone but there's always got to be one, right?

Queue the ever clueless Mr. Ronald Weasley.

'Explain what?' Ron asked sounding as if he was still half asleep.

Mrs. Weasley whipped her head round to glare at her youngest boy. As I was busy rolling my eyes with a slight chuckle, Bill took the opportunity to hit him on the shoulder.

'She said not now, you oaf. If you weren't so bloody impatient you would have got the hint,'

A few stifled laughs resounded around the room as Bill ended his small rant. He seemed just as tense as Mr and Mrs. Weasley.

I noticed the tension that had been lingering in the room when I first entered seemed to have become slightly less dense as a sweep of general curiosity took over. A Ministry Official would never come over unless it was highly important and the fact that the entire family- plus Harry and I- were all here just added to our curiosity and confusion.

It was several long minutes later when the second oldest Weasley children finally entered the living room followed by 'our chosen Ministry Official'.

To my surprise, our Ministry worker turned out to be no more than Tonks.

Tonks was an auror at the Ministry of Magic, so they were clearly in need of lots of representatives for whatever the Godric was going on as aurors were nearly always in training or on missions, not delivering 'official news' to families.

'Wotcha everyone,' Tonks chuckled as she took in all of the anxious and eager faces that appeared with her arrival.

A chorus of 'Hello Tonks' came from the crowd and several seconds later two very girly voices screeched out 'Morning Nymphodora'. The Twins batted their eyelashes furiously as they pretended to twirl their hair between ther fingers.

Tonks scowled at the Twins and before she could reply with her usual 'Don't call me Nymphodora,' Mrs. Weasley had already hushed them.

'Right moving on, I'm sure you're all wondering why I've been sent here,' Tonks started.

'And why we're up so bloody early,' came the reply of a twin- George I think.

That one earned him a whack to the head by Mrs. Weasley, much to the amusement of me and Tonks.

'Thank you George,' she replied dryly before reaching into her satchel and pulling out nine identical envelopes.

One for each of us.

'You see there has been a new law passed by the Ministry, one which will heavily affect every single one of you,'

Tonks began to hand out the envelopes; I reached out and grabbed mine. On the front of the crisp parchment was 'Ms. Hermione Jean Granger, aged 18, currently situated at- The Burrow' in deep green cursive.

I began to tear the edges of the envelope only to be stopped by Tonks.

'I wouldn't open them just yet; you might want to know what this new law is first before you go stampeding through the letters,'

I decided Tonks was more than likely right so I seized my attack on the parchment.

'The Law is a Marriage Law,' Tonks sighed after a moment of tense silence.

I took a moment from that sentence to sink in. I had come across Marriage Laws whilst studying and I knew they were very tricky things to handle. There had been one hundreds of years ago in the Wizarding World but it was only created after thousands of Wizard and Witches had lost there lives in the Great Battle of Gary the Gruesome.

I couldn't even fathom why the Ministry would need one now. The Wizarding World had been thriving ever since the defeat of Voldemort in our sixth year and now I was finished at Hogwarts, the country had been a much happier place.

I was brought out of my inner monologue by Ron's deep voice.

'What the bloody hell is a Marriage Law?'

A few others agreed with him and before Tonks could answer, I found myself stepping in.

'A Marriage Law is a law that legally binds two people into getting wed. The participants are chosen by the Ministry and there is usually very little one can do to get out of a Marriage Law. Basically, if you don't like your chosen fiancée, you usually just have to live with it for the rest of your life,' I mumbled as I recited all I could remember of Marriage Laws.

Realisation settled on all of the faces in the room and Tonks brought the attention back to herself.

'I realise this will cause a problem for many of you, but the law states that every witch and wizard between the ages of 16-35 who are not already legally wed are to be paired up and married before the end of the summer,' Tonks seemed to be in just as much disbelief as the rest of us. It was only the start of June and that left just over 3 months for us to meet our matches and marry them.

Everyone in the room was eerily quiet as the situation dawned on them.

'I, I can't marry anyone, I'm only 17!' Ginny was the first one to speak and she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

'What if I get some raving loony?' came the next shout from the twins.

Soon all of the envelope recipients were on their feet shouting and questioning a very scared looking Tonks.

'Everybody calm down!' Tonks tried to shout over our noise. When that failed she took out her wand and pointed it to the ceiling, a high pitched screech came from the end making everyone stop there shouts.

She stopped the noise when everyone had regained control of their voices.

'Right, now the exact rules of the Law are in the letters and so are your matches, I suggest reading them in private, it's a massive thing for you all to face,' she sounded incredibly sympathetic for us all. Luckily for Tonks, she and Lupin had married not long after the defeat of Voldemort meaning she didn't have to be paired up.

'I need to return back to the Ministry to hand out more letters but everything you need to know is in the letters- why, who, when. Good luck, guys,' and with that Tonks apparated out of the Burrow.

I looked up from the envelope I had been staring at for the last five minutes to see the rest of the Weasley's and Harry were all doing the same.

They all seemed so angry they couldn't even speak.

I, surprising even myself, was the first to break the silence after Tonks had left.

'I guess we should go and read our letters and then regroup later to see who everyone has got,'

A few mummers followed my suggestion and soon we all separated.

Molly and Arthur stayed in the kitchen, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron and Ginny all headed to their rooms and oddly the twins decided to split up to read their letters, so George headed to his bedroom leaving Harry, Fred and I to find somewhere private.

Harry headed to the bathroom on the third floor and to my astonishment Fred and I seemed to have the same idea as we both headed out of the back door into the beautiful garden of the Burrow.

He turned to me and laughed, something that sounded foreign given the circumstances.

'Are you that desperate for your husband to me that you've decided to follow me Granger?' he asked cheekily as we started for the lake at the bottom of the garden.

I almost snorted, the idea was preposterous.

'Of course not, I was merely heading to the lake- if I get a bad partner then at least I can find some sort of serenity at the lake, what about you? Where are you going?' I asked as we wandered closer to the waters edge.

Fred eyed me curiously as he pointed to the trees to the side of the lake.

'Well I was going to come to the lake for the same reason as you but I guess I will be a gentleman and head into the woods instead,'

I smiled bashfully as I apologised for taking his 'spot'.

'No problem Granger, good luck,' he smiled softly as I watched his figure fade into the trees.

I had been sitting on the edge of the lake for nearly ten minutes now staring at my still unopened envelope.

If looks could kill the envelope would have burst into flames by now.

I was furious. Sitting at the lake had made me think, how dare the ministry force us to marry? Why on earth would they need so many people to marry? The only reason they had created Marriage Laws in the past was because they felt the Wizarding World was in danger of extinction. And we had a perfectly good amount of healthy wiz- and then it hit me.

I tore at the envelope as I remembered all of the Wizarding Population facts I had learnt in my last year.

What was it Professor McGonagall had told us?

For every magical birth nowadays, at least 3 squibs are born. At this rate magical abilities may become non existent.

I opened my letter like a crazed woman and began to read.

Dear Ms Hermione Jean Granger,

A new Wizarding Marriage Law has been created. Every witch and wizard between the ages of 16 and 35 are to be legally wed before September 1st of this year. Your chosen husband's file has been attached to the bottom of this letter. Once you have finished reading simply state your name, age and current living situation whilst holding you wand to the parchment.

You will have exactly three months to contact your chosen husband and to legalise your marriage. Any issues must be taken through Wizarding court.

Now you have all of the details Ms Granger, you must be wondering why the Ministry of Magic has decided upon a Marriage Law. The truth is we fear the Wizarding Population is in danger of becoming extinct. A triple percent increase in the number of squib births means that if citizens with Magical abilities continue to mate with Muggles at the current rate, in ten years we could be facing the biggest drop in magical births since time began.

With our new law, you have been paired up with another wizard who we believe will help you to produce healthy magical children in years to come. As an extra precaution, our new law states you must have at least 2 children in the next five years if you are physically capable of doing so.

The exact conditions of the Law can be found attached to this letter.

The Ministry of Magic thanks you for your co-operation,

Cornelius Fudge II,

The Minister of Magic.

As I finished the letter my blood positively boiled.

Not only were they forcing us to marry to 'save the wizarding population' but I was expected to have TWO CHILDREN before the age of 23 as well. The Ministry have gone absolutely crazy if they think this could possibly work!

I decided to skim over the exact conditions of the Law to see if there were any loop holes stated. I knew it was feeble, if there were to be loop holes they wouldn't be printed on the back of the initial agreement, I'd have to dig a little deeper.

Putting my anger aside, I anxiously found the letter with my future husbands file attached. I pulled out my wand and pointed it as steadily as I could at the blank paper.

I closed my eyes and breathed out the required information.

'Hermione Jean Granger, aged 18, currently situated at the Burrow,'

As I felt the paper heat up, I opened my eyes.

Taking a deep breath I looked towards the paper to see the file of one Mr Draco Malfoy glaring back at me.

I needed to find that loop hole. FAST.

:)

WOOOO! My first chapter is finally finished ;)

I really hope you guys liked it, PLEASE REVIEW if you did because I don't want to continue with a story if you guys don't like it…I'm not silly like that.

Anyway, please give me any feedback you can- good or bad.

Love,

SophieSolemnlySwears.