Sentence
‘They can’t be serious,’ Hermione said.
‘I’m afraid they are,’ Arthur Weasley said.
The whole Weasley family plus assorted Order members and friends had gathered at the Burrow. Somehow kitchen and kitchen table had been enlarged so that all of them had found a place around the table. Everyone had a steaming mug of hot chocolate in front of them. And boy, how they needed that chocolate.
In the middle of the table lay the special edition of the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler. The headlines: ‘Sentence in Trial of the Century’ and ‘Ex-Death Eater must marry’.
The Wizengamot – those craven cowards – had deferred the sentencing to an impartial magical judge, the Chalice of Neith.
Tonight the bloody Chalice had spewed forth its sentence.
As sentences in the wizarding world went, it was pretty straightforward. It pronounced Snape both guilty and not-guilty. Guilty of killing Albus Dumbledore, but not guilty of murdering him. Guilty of betraying the wizarding world, of committing various crimes during the first rising of He-Who-Finally-Was-Nothing-But-Dust, but awarded extenuating circumstances during the second rising.
In the end he was set free on probation.
Which was all well and good, apart from the conditions of said probation.
To prove himself a good and harmless member of the wizarding community Severus Snape, ex-Death Eater, ex-spy, ex-Professor, ex-headmaster, had to marry within three years after this sentence was pronounced or spend the rest of his life in Azkaban.
‘I – I think none of us really expected that he would be freed of all charges,’ Minerva McGonagall stated at last.
‘But we hoped for it,’ Poppy Pomfrey said sadly.
‘What the FUCK of a condition is that anyway?’ asked Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Could-Use-Cusswords-Without-Being-Scolded.
‘One that’s guaranteed to get him locked up in Azkaban until he’s carried out of there,’ observed George Weasley bitterly.
‘And where’s Shacklebolt?’ Hestia Jones piped up.
Arthur Weasley sighed. ‘The Minister sends his regrets, but –’
‘BLOODY fucking hell, he’s already betraying the Order?’ Harry’s eyes flashed bloody murder.
‘Harry!’ Molly Weasley couldn’t bite her tongue any longer.
‘I’m sorry, Mrs Weasley. But I just can’t believe it. We have to thank Snape that all of us are alive and sitting here with our hot chocolate today, and not only the Minister let a FUCKING chalice sentence him to life-long imprisonment, but he doesn’t even have the guts to TELL us how this came about! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT FUCKING WIZENGAMOT THERE FOR? WHY DID I HAVE TO DRINK ALL THAT SHITTY VERITASERUM AND PARADE SNAPE’S MEMORIES FOR THE WORLD TO SEE IF THAT IS THE RESULT?’
Hermione and Ron winced at Harry’s outburst.
‘You have to understand, Harry, the Wizengamot – the Minister – they wanted a completely impartial sentence,’ explained Arthur Weasley. ‘And the Chalice, it was fed with all the recent changes in law before they put the request for judgement in there, so it was up-to-date with the current values of wizarding society. And – I think Hermione will know more about this than all of us thrown together – there is this idea, which the Muggles regard as very humanitarian, and I think that is what this condition is based on. It’s called ‘rebalitation’.’
Hermione moaned and sank down on the table. With a muted smack she knocked her forehead against the table. Once, twice, three times.
‘Hermione?’ Arthur Weasley’s face showed uncertainty and worry.
‘It’s called ‘rehabilitation’. And it has NOTHING to do with marriage. AT ALL.’
oooOooo
‘What can we do?’ Ron asked.
Luna turned her huge eyes towards him and smiled beatifically. ‘We need to find him a wife.’
‘He’s not even AWAKE,’ Harry spit out. ‘He’s barely alive. The last thing he needs is a wife. What have they been thinking in that Ministry of Misfits? No, wait—I mustn’t suppose that they are thinking. Past evidence rather refutes that they CAN.’
The younger Order members had retired into the garden, as far away from the older Order members as possible. A Muffliato screen flickered with blue and silver lights around them, keeping their discussion private.
Hermione hadn’t said anything yet, but Ron was aware that she was close to tears, and had been, ever since she had read about the sentence, up in the privacy of his room.
‘Hermione? Are you okay?’
She raised her head and stared at him, her eyes red, dark smudges of exhaustion underneath them, tears shimmering in the candlelight.
For a while she simply stared at him wordlessly. Then she rasped out, ‘WHAT THE FUCK do you think I am? NO, I’m not okay. How could I be? I saved his life, or whatever there’s left of it. I spent two weeks in St. Mungo’s, puking blood. And for what? Just to hear that a stupid Chalice is going to send him back to Azkaban for the rest of his life? How do you think I could be OKAY with that?’
He winced and shrank back, but kept his arm around her. Moments later, Hermione sank down on the table, her shoulders shaking, her tears flowing. He pulled her into his arms and held her. Everything he could say would be wrong, had always been wrong. But at least he could hold her.
‘So what do we do now?’ he asked after a while.
The garden of the Burrow was silent apart from the muffled sobs of Hermione.
‘Simple,’ Luna repeated. ‘We have to find him a wife. With those new marriage laws in place, we’ll need to make sure she’s a witch he can marry legally. Somehow we have to get the information about his possible matches from the Wizarding Genealogy Offices. Then we have find the lucky witch and persuade her to marry him.’
‘And what if he says no?’ Hermione asked, sniffling noisily. ‘And what if she says no?’
‘We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,’ Neville said. ‘And besides, we helped defeat Voldemort. Getting Snape married to keep him out of Azkaban should be child’s play compared to that.’
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.