The Marriage Law

Train Ride

*POP*

To avoid any kind of attention that could befall 'The-man-who-won', as they were calling him these days, Harry appeared at the apparition point near King's Cross with Hermione just seconds behind him before the clock could strike ten.

With one hour left before the departure of Hogwarts express, they found the platform fully deserted after crossing the barrier. Walking in silence they settled their luggage near their usual spot to wait for the train to arrive. It would be another fifteen minutes of silence in which both the teenagers were lost in their own thoughts leaning against one another on the platform seats which appeared out of nowhere.

Hermione was too lost in thought when the train came to a screeching halt at it's usual spot at exactly 10:15AM. They both got on a carriage with their trunks levitating in front of them.

Hermione levitated and buckled their trunks on the luggage bar in the last compartment of the carriage while harry was casting some privacy wards on their door.

Within minutes, the students and parents started arriving in small numbers. Hermione opened a book while her best friend sat in front of her and observed all the people interacting outside. He wondered if that bast*rd Tom hadn't ruined his life, he too would have been like one of these carefree boys, whose parents... Wishful thinking...

Five minutes before the train was due to leave, there was a knock at their door. The silence since morning was broken by the duo's best friend Ron entering the compartment with a red face.

"Guys."

He spat out the greeting all the while loading his trunk in the rack.

"What happened Ron? "

Harry asked with a frown.

"The daily prophet. "

The redhead grunted before throwing the paper on opposite seat while settling down besides Harry.

" Hello Ron. And you know better than to react to anything from the prophet, to be honest, I stopped reading it a long time ago. "

" Hermione Granger stopped reading something? "

" Really now? "

"But it's serious guys. "

Harry and Hermione turned towards their red headed best friend and shrugged before Hermione picked up the newspaper.

Both the boys watched as the color slowly drained from her face.

Harry quickly got up and slid besides Hermione to have a look for himself over her shoulder.

ＨＯＷ ＷＩＬＬ ＴＨＥ ＰＵＢＬＩＣ ＲＥＡＣＴ?

𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝙱𝙸𝙻𝙻 𝙿𝙰𝚂𝚂𝙴𝙳 𝙱𝚈 𝙼𝙸𝙽𝙸𝚂𝚃𝚁𝚈
𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙈𝘼𝙍𝙍𝙄𝘼𝙂𝙀 𝙇𝘼𝙒

After much deliberation, the anarchic
Marriage law has been passed by the Wizengmont to deal with the current population crisis.

The last time this happened was-
................... that it will.

In accordance with this law, the department of mysteries has agreed to the use of the bonding sheets. As many of you might know, these sheets are a type of parchment quenched in pure magic and subjected to some specific spells. They were used to find one's soulmate since centuries and are under the protection of DoM since seven decades................
........... It will fare.

......

Looking up, he realised Hermione was still engrossed in the article which was not written by Rita Skeeter. He sank into his seat as the full load of the situation dawned on him.

"No."

"They can't do this. "

Harry sighed. After everything he'd been through, he just wanted a break. He thought he could make his own decisions regarding his life now but life just doesn't get easier for him no matter what.

"No.No.No."

Broken out of his reverie by Hermione's chanting, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him. He squeezed her shoulder and tried to hold onto her as she raved about the unfairness of it all. He absorbed the information as she repeated all the main points of the law. Like, how all the unmarried 17+ (adults) in the wizarding world would be matched and were required to be married before the year is over. How the married people would be required to give birth to atleast three children. The article also gave some idea about the incentives for the couples who might not be able to afford children yet. He didn't know when Ron had come on her other side as his arm was around both of them but he did know when Hermione composed herself and declared with a determined look that she was going to do some research find any loophole she could to get them out of this.

The three of them engaged in small talk and were soon joined by Neville and Luna. Ginny being chosen as head girl for the year, was already on her duties.

Half an hour before the Hogsmeade  stop, Hermione left the compartment with her school robes to get changed. Many students greeted her, many offered her nods and some just outright stared. Ignoring the following whispers, she made her way to the restrooms. An altercation in her way made the brunette stop in her tracks. She looked over at the gathered group of students and sighed. When she spotted a tuft of unmistakable blonde hair above the crowd, she sighed again.