More Planning and a Mystery
‘… so he may really wake any day now,’ Hermione concluded.
‘And what will happen then?’ Harry asked, pacing in front of the window, filled with nervous energy. ‘He’ll be told of his trial, and of the conditions for his probation. What is he going to do then? What are they – the Ministry – going to do then?’
Hermione realised what he was getting at. ‘You mean, is he going to visit the Wizarding Genealogy Offices right away – are they going to tell him –’
She felt her face grow cold, as if the blood was literally draining from her head. But Ginny shook her head and interrupted, ‘I did some more research. I looked up the procedures of the WGO and the details of the new marriage laws.’
Ginny frowned when she noticed how everyone was staring at her. ‘What? Do you think Hermione is the only one in this room who knows how to find out about stuff?’
‘No, no, we don’t. Please, go on. What did you come up with?’
‘Basically that either those Ministry-types are complete morons, or they are utterly, despicably devious.
‘The first thing is, the WGO can’t do one-sided searches. That would be matchmaking, and they don’t have the licence for that. Matchmaking is an extremely lucrative business, and the laws guarding those licences go way back. Like, way before ‘Anno Domini’ had any meaning.
‘Second, the results are protected by privacy laws, which means that Ministry officials have no way of getting them, unless they’re dabbling in Dark Arts. Which I wouldn’t put beyond them, of course.
‘Third, and that’s where things get really weird, Hermione shouldn’t have been able to get the results either.’
‘What? But she had two blood samples!’ Harry and Ron chorused.
‘She had the blood samples, yes, but she only said she was engaged to Snape, she really isn’t. Whatever spells they are using at the WGO, they ought to have recognised her lie and they shouldn’t have worked.’
‘Why?’ Ron looked blank.
Hermione’s thoughts whirled with panic. Was there any chance the results were duped? Oh, God, that would be beyond embarrassing!
‘Think about it, Ron,’ she forced herself to say. ‘The WGO are working with highly sensitive information. You can’t get much more private than your bloodline, especially with people so hung up on purity. You need to make sure that not just anyone can get their hands on that data. And it’s not just to prevent blackmail. If they didn’t have excellent safeguards they could just as well call it ‘Blood Magic Unlimited’.’ She turned to Ginny. ‘Do you think my results are …’
‘Wrong? Forged?’ Ginny emphatically shook her head. ‘Luna and I deep-scanned the parchment. And Luna did some kind of involved truth-revealing spell. Something they sometimes use in the Quibbler, for verifying their top-stories.’
Suddenly Hermione realised how deathly pale Luna was. Her skin looked as if it was painted on, her normally protruding eyes lay deep in their sockets.
‘It’s all right,’ Luna reassured her. ‘I’m just exhausted. That spell is really advanced magic. But, Hermione, I can promise you that the results are valid. And what’s more, for some reason the magic thinks that you are already engaged.’
‘What?’ Hermione squeaked. ‘I’m what?’
Ginny and Luna gave identical shrugs. ‘We have no idea why the magic thinks what it thinks. But that’s the only explanation.’
For a long moment the room was perfectly silent.
‘Maybe it’s part of that arithmantic anomaly,’ Harry suggested at last.
Hermione exhaled a deep breath. That would almost make sense.
‘And all I wanted was life getting normal again,’ she muttered. Then her thoughts returned to the matter at hand. ‘As for the Ministry, Ginny, I think we all know that being crazy and evil is not mutually exclusive.’ She sighed. ‘That probation’s really a joke. It sounds as if they never really wanted him to be free. They dangle a normal, married life in front of him for publicity’s sake when they KNOW that he has next to no chance of finding someone he can legally marry. Even without that anomaly, how could he ever have a fair chance?’
Ron shrugged. ‘Don’t ask us, ask the Ministry. I guess he could go to a Matchmaker. That would probably get the desired result under normal circumstances. He could brew Felix Felicis. But do you think he will? Can you honestly see Snape even trying to find a wife in order to satisfy this condition?’
He wasn’t looking at her. He’d been friendly and polite to her ever since he’d accepted her decision. He hadn’t even mocked her about starting a new version of SPEW. But he never looked at her. Never met her eyes. And continued to amaze her with his new-found maturity.
‘No,’ she said at last. ‘I don’t think he’d go to the Genealogy Offices even if they did one-sided searches.’
Even if the Ministry told him right away that I’m his only chance at staying out of Azkaban, I can’t really see him asking me to marry him, she thought.
‘So what happens next?’ Neville asked.
Hermione sighed. ‘I go back to Hogwarts. And on Monday I start brushing up on my Potions skills in private lessons with dear Professor Slughorn.’
Ron made gagging noises and Ginny snorted.Hermione found herself smiling at them. Some things, at least, hadn’t changed.
‘Uhh…’ Harry cleared his throat and shifted awkwardly. ‘Right.’ He went to one of the shelves and retrieved something that looked like a book. No, two books.
‘I’ve got something for you, Hermione.’
He came over to her and held the books out to her. She recognized the first one at once. ‘Advanced Potion-Making – by the Half-Blood Prince’.
‘I’d almost forgotten about it,’ Harry mumbled apologetically. ‘I went and got it from the Room of Requirement after Dumbledore was – after Dumbledore died.’
A pause. ‘You’ll need all the help you can get. Uhh…Ginny? How about we go down and start dinner?’
oooOooo
« Overview oooOooo Chapters 11–20 »
What a great setup! I love the way you’ve modified the Marriage Law enough to make it plausible, as opposed to the ridiculous version of the original challenge. That choice shifts the dynamic, removing the distraction of needing to deal with why the Ministry has become so obviously corrupt. Making Severus the one who needs saving, instead of Hermione, is a great role reversal, and having Severus unaware of the plan is a very nice little plot twist – I anticipate a great deal of suspicion on his part, making things difficult for Hermione.
W00t! Great to see you here. 😀
The original MLC the lawyer in me stimply couldn’t stomach. But at the same time the *idea* absolutely intrigued me. And didn’t let go until I figured I’d try to twist it and bend it a little and see what happens …
Having Severus unaware of the plan was a lot of fun. And yes, he’ll be definitely a pain in the behind. But that’s his job!
What a great start. Lots to like. Luna being smarter than everyone thinks. Hermione marching off to a fate worse than death, feeling honor bound to do so. The sneaking suspicion that Luna is really getting Hermione out of the way so she can become a Weasley. She’d fit right in.
Mwahahahahahah!
mk
PS: It needs classic soap opera cliffhanger organ music.
Hi,
I really love your story so far, and I can’t wait to read on!
Just wanted to let you know that the link to part 2 does not work, either you get a warning that it “Cannot modify header information”, or the page closes down… *sobs*
Budgie
It should work now. I’ve been trying to get a caching plugin working to speed up the performance of the site, but the dratted thing won’t work and even worse, as you’ve seen, BREAKS stuff. *ARGH!*
Happy you like the story so far! 🙂
I love your whole plot. I am so excited to keep reading. You take things at an absolutely perfect speed– the characters developing bit by bit is perfect. The whole idea is brilliant.
I don’t think I’d be able to rave enough about your work. *claps*
Thank you very much for spending time with my story and even more for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂
I’m very happy you like the story so much so far!
I think I’m going to love this! I’ve been an avid reader of SS/HG since 2003, and I especially love when an author does a post-DH fic. 🙂 I followed the link from some artwork on DeviantArt and am so glad I did! I’m also happy to see that this is a completed fic, so yay! I can read to my heart’s content and not worry about it being abandoned! 🙂
Thank you for spending time with my story and even more for taking the time to leave such a kind comment. I hope you will enjoy the rest of the story!
Followed your link from ff.net, and am so glad I did! I read this when you were first putting it up, and loved it then. I love it even more now that I have actually gone back and re-read the gloriousness that is Abhorsen. 🙂
Also, may I say that I absolutely love the site. There’s something about reading a wonderful story in a functional, beautiful setting.
You have always been one of my favorite fan fic authors for your skill, unexpectedness, the way you deftly take a story I think I know and turn it upside down and inside out while remaining true to the spirit of it, and this story is no exception.
Thank you for your kind words. That means so much to me! 🙂
Iv’e just read this entire fanfic in a few days, it was AWESOME. Of course, I didn’t take the time to write reviews then, I was too enraptured with the story. And when I saw you had a sequel, of course I had to read that first too. I did resolve to come back latter and leave a review on every tenth chapter, so here I am.
So, starting with chapters 1-10:
Really well done. I like the tension in Ron, Hermione, and Harry’s relationship. Especially that Harry and Ginny foresee the coming doom of Ron and Hermione’s romantic relationship.
I like the cute nicknames you give Harry, like ” the Boy-Who-Could-Use-Cusswords-Without-Being-Scolded.”
The healer at Mungos is a treat, extremely likable. 🙂
And best part: Arthur Weasley mentions that Snape’s sentence has some similarities to muggle theories of rehabilitation and Hermione just has to express her frustration. Her hitting her head on the desk is like a facepalm X 10.
And last but not least, I am definitely looking forward to seeing how the sequel develops. My only hope is that further maiming of our beloved main characters is limited. If the pace of terrible injuries maintains itself from this fic, by chapter 200 of the next one they’ll all be sitting around in Mungos each of them in a “johnny got his gun” kind of situation.
Intriguing setup. I’m not quite sure how I feel about Ron’s characterization, but after the summary, he has to get out of the picture. Even after finally reading all the books, my feelings for Snape are not overly friendly ;-).
You just totally and absolutely MADE my day. *dances*
Now, your comment: Yes, obviously writing SS/HG Ron must disappear. Mostly. 😉 But also, I never liked him (much) in canon, so … Otoh, I always adored Snape. In HBP I *knew* without any doubt that he hadn’t killed Dumbles … Also, one thing about “Apprentice” is definitely that I’m not always sharing the characters’ opinions. I have them being stupid and making mistakes, and being beastly, and doing things that made me go “DON’T DO THAT!” even as I was writing the relevant chapter. It’s pretty wild and sometimes even *gasp* controversial. But I had tons of fun, and I hope you’ll enjoy it, too — even if you don’t really like Snape. 😉
But you make him likeable. Through Hermione’s eyes, no longer a child, some of his choices make more sense.
I tried hard not to whitewash or bash any character. I’m happy the characterisation works for you so far! 🙂
I was referred to your story as a “must-read” and I’m happy that I followed this recommendation. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful idea. I especially enjoyed the way you made them behave “real” and how smothly you added Alina and her mother to the known characters.
I hope you will some day continue with the sequel.
Thank you for spending time with my story, and I’m thrilled you enjoyed it — especially my OCs. I know many people are dubious about OCs, so I’m always very happy when readers like the additional characters I created. I really, really want to finish the sequel (it’s all plotted out!). But offline life has been utterly awful since 2010, each year in its own way, and 2013 is less than fun so far, so I doubt much will happen this year. 🙁
I’m excited to start your story–I stumbled across it through a “favorite story” link on FF.net. I’m not sure how I feel about Ron and Harry’s characterizations so far, but then again I don’t particularly like either one of them in canon, either, so you’re probably spot-on.