Stratagems and Subterfuges
‘So how are we going to go about that Genealogy stuff?’ Ron asked.
Hermione chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip. Then she rubbed her aching forehead for good measure and to little effect. ‘I have really no idea. I doubt that the wizards at those offices are allowed to discuss possible candidates with just anyone. After all this is a very private matter. Someone from the Ministry would probably be able to get them do a one-sided search … but if Harry showed up there, all we’d get would be another headline in the Quibbler.’
Ginny laughed. ‘And I can just imagine what kind of headline THAT would be. ‘The-Boy-Who-Wants-To-Marry?!’’
Harry scowled at Ginny, who suddenly blushed a deep fiery red.
Ron looked from his sister to his best friend and only shook his head. ‘I can only say that you’d better show up at those offices in time, or I won’t guarantee for Mum’s actions.’
‘Or my own,’ he muttered. Since the war was over, the Weasleys had become even more protective of one another than they had been before.
‘Hrmph,’ Harry said. ‘Doesn’t anyone have any idea? Hermione? You’re supposed to be the smart one among us.’
Luna looked up from her croissant. She had enchanted the crumbs so they’d drift in single file serpentines up to her mouth. So far the blond Ravenclaw had followed the discussions of their breakfast meeting in quiet rapture. Now her gaze drifted over Hermione and Ron, but she didn’t say anything, just smiled to herself. If something was quite obvious to her, she usually attempted to let her friends figure things out for themselves.
Hermione caught her look at just the right moment.
And groaned.
She pushed the untouched plate away from her and buried her face in her arms. She seemed to be doing that rather often lately. How she longed to be back at Hogwarts. How she wanted things to go back to normal. But when had anything ever been normal in her life? An evil wizard on a crusade to kill her best friend and enslave her world had been the biggest factor of what had constituted normalcy for her during the last years. And that wasn’t really very normal at all.
‘I must go,’ she mumbled.
‘WHAT?’ Ron’s voice soared into disbelieving heights.
Wearily she raised her head, in time to catch Luna’s approving smile. ‘It’s quite simple, really. I have to go and pretend that I want to marry him. Then they will have to do their tests and give me the results. And since it’s been all over the place that I saved him, no one will doubt me. Life debt and all. They already think I’m completely barmy, it can’t get any worse.’
Neville gulped audibly into his mug of cocoa. ‘Can, too.’
He put the mug down. ‘Once Snape finds out.’
Ron just gaped at her, rendered unable to even produce a screaming fit.
Hermione slumped down once more, hiding her bushy head all over again. Denial suddenly seemed such a tempting strategy.
oooOooo
But she was a Gryffindor for a reason. And she felt fairly sure that Healer Mugwort would help her. If Snape was still unconscious.
For the first time in months she was hoping that there had been no improvement overnight when she entered St. Mungo’s.
‘Good morning, Healer Mugwort.’ She knew her hands were cold, and she’d had to vanish a clamminess that would have indicated clearly just how nervous she was.
But Muriel Mugwort had read the latest news, too, of course, and smiled at her full of sympathy. ‘Somehow I knew you would show up today. A cup of tea, Miss Granger?’
‘Yes, please. I take it there are no changes?’
Muriel shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, no. It will take a few days yet, I’m afraid.’
When they sat in the healer’s chamber with steaming cups of lemon balm and lime tea, their conversation quickly turned to the trial and the sentence.
‘Now, that is a really strange sentence, isn’t it? And I’ve never heard of the Chalice of Neith being used for sentencing anyone.’
‘It’s an ancient artefact. I suppose the opportunity to use it hasn’t come up in the last thousand years.’
‘Why so bleak, Miss Granger?’ Mugwort asked. ‘He’s free. And once he’s married and settled down, I’m sure he’ll have a good life.’
‘But …’ Hermione halted, when she realised that saying ‘Who’d ever marry him?’ wasn’t exactly a polite comment.
‘It will probably not be easy for him to find someone,’ the healer admitted. ‘But I dare say not impossible. And he does have three years to ensnare a willing witch.’
Hermione drew a deep breath and hoped that her expression wouldn’t give her away. ‘As a matter of fact, there might BE a willing witch.’
Mugwort raised a pair of bristling eyebrows. With her round glasses the older woman now looked almost like a Little Owl.
‘Well.’ Hermione nervously rubbed her hands together. ‘I do care about him, you know?’
The healer’s face softened. ‘But of course you do. You saved his life.’
Hermione nodded. That much was undeniably true. ‘I … you – concerning this matter – I have a favour to ask.’
‘Yes?’ The frown was back.
‘You see, I don’t think he likes me. But, as you said, I really do care about him. A lot. So I was wondering, what with those new marriage laws, would it maybe be possible to find out – now – if – if my caring about him has any future at all? Because, as I don’t know if he could ever like me, and if there’s no legal future for us no matter if he’d ever …’ She trailed off and cast a pleading look at the healer.
Mugwort sighed. ‘That sentence and those new laws really take the romance out of courtship, don’t they?’ But then she gave Hermione an encouraging smile. ‘I do understand. I think you need a blood sample, is that right?’
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.