Chapter 4

Things Progress Forward...

Hermione rose late, dressed, and packed her bag with the items that she'd need for the day. Across the Room, Ginny's and Valerie's beds were empty, and Bernice sat crossed-legs on hers, drafting a letter. "Want to go down to breakfast with me?" Hermione asked.

"Sure!" Bernice responded, quickly adding a last bit to her letter. "Shelia's in the showers and said she'd come down after. I just wanted to finish this..."

"I can wait until you are through," Hermione suggested, pointing at the letter.

Bernice didn't look up as she scribbled away. "Nah, almost... there. Done. It's to my mum, telling her not to worry about the stuff in the Sun. We get it now ever since my fourth year because mum wants to know what is really happening, and the Prophet doesn't always tell the truth. Look what they said about Harry...and you... Well, you know," she said as she folded it up and tucked it into her pocket.

Hermione laughed as she picked up her bag. "Yeah, I do know."

Bernice blushed. "I never thought that you and I...you're so nice. I always looked up to you, but you were always with Harry Potter."

"Harry is just a regular guy, you know," Hermione pointed out, and Bernice's eyes went huge.

"Potter...the Harry Potter! Are you kidding! He's Harry Potter! The one who killed You-Know-Who!"

"And my best friend," Hermione said, laughing at Bernice's apparent hero worship of her best mate. "He really is just an average guy...the same guy who played Seeker for the house team and hated writing his essays. If you like, you can come visit us over Christmas. We're all getting together for a weekend. I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Hermione didn't think it was possible that her eyes could get any bigger, but Bernice's suddenly did. "Visit us...like in visit...at his house? You live with him, right? Ginny said that...can I...I mean, may I?"

Hermione burst out laughing. "On one condition."

"Name it," Bernice said shyly, her anxious anticipation coming out clearly in her nervous tone.

"You have to actually talk to him. No staring at him from across the room, okay?" Hermione said. "Besides, you'll find that he's really pretty average. He talks about Quidditch, brooms, his Auror stuff, and oh, yes, Quidditch. Mention your favorite team and you're in."

"I can do that," she said, scrambling from the bed. "So do you really live with Harry Potter? I thought that Ginny was his girlfriend."

"Ginny and Harry are engaged, well, mostly. She has to finish school, and he has to finish Auror training. It's complicated. I'm engaged to Ron Weasley, or I'm going to be when I finish school. He lives there, too." As they walked to breakfast, Hermione explained that her parents were still in Australia, so until she got her own place, she stayed at Harry's. "It's a really big house. His godfather left it to him. You'll see Neville and Ron as well, and most of the Weasleys. Harry and I are like extended family members...have been since my third year. In fact on Saturday during hols, we've inviting all our friends over."

When the post arrived, Hermione opened up the Sun, scowling when she read the article of the Ministry's push on the Emancipation Commission for Fair Marriage Contracts.

Shelia sat down and snarled, "Have you seen this?" as she handed the Prophet to Hermione, folded to page ten. "Now my sister and I can legally get married, and pregnant, without bothering to ask permission from Dad. Just as long as we obtain court approval from the Wizengamot under the Marriage Law and Proper Unions Act and can prove that our spouse is not a close relative."

"The Emancipation Commission for Fair Marriage Contracts," Hermione read aloud to Bernice, who was leaning over to see the article as well. " ... although any union arranged with an underage witch, age sixteen, will require court approval of the Wizengamot under the Marriage Law and Proper Unions Act... Any and all pure-blood witches and wizards applying for a marriage license will have to provide significant proof that the marriage partners have significant differences in their ancestral backgrounds..." Hermione looked up. "They are implying that pure-bloods cannot marry other pure-bloods. I saw the Black family tree. Sirius Black was related to nearly everyone I know. Do you think that this is to enforce that pure-bloods marry half-bloods, Muggle-borns or those with Muggle grandparents? That would definitely be significant differences in bloodlines."

"Seems like," Shelia said and read from the parchment that her dad had sent her. "'...limits those whose mating are of similar relations... Restricts who may receive a legal sanction.' Can you believe this? The Ministry is dictating who you can marry. '...only if lineage can determine that neither of the party is of close the relation to the other by relationship of: brother, sister, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, or first, second or third cousin, or to have three or more common ancestors of close relation to the other party is forbidden.'" She looked up across the table at Hermione. "They say that you have to have totally different backgrounds."

Bernice's brows knit in confusion. "So if you have a family tree with...but most pure-bloods have... oh. OH!"

"Yeah, exactly," Shelia sneered, frowning as she grabbed some toast. "Pure-bloods cannot marry pure-bloods is what they are saying, unless you don't have common ancestors." Shelia stabbed a sausage with her fork. "Keep reading."

Hermione tuned back to the article. "'Potential wizards wishing to marry must show that they: can give sexual monopoly to the intended witch; can give right to labor or continued education (if said witch is in her sixth or seventh year of schooling); can give rights over spouse's property and establish funds for children, can establish social ties that are not those related by marriage or from the same family line or kin.'" Her hands dropped to the table with a thud as she looked over at Shelia in shock. "Rights over spouses' property, establish funds for kids...that's so antiquated! It's like bride prices and dowries! How can they suggest? Muggles don't do this kind of thing!"

"Hermione, it's not the bride's family that is paying...it's the pure-blood's family that has to show proof of financial viability," Shelia pointed out figuratively and with her fork pointed in Hermione's direction.

"If the witch has any property, then yes, it becomes her husband's," Bernice said.

"It's the same as the law for an application and registration of an arranged marriage, but with the blood line stipulations," Shelia said, grimacing. "Any bloke whose family can show that he can support a family can ask for a young bride to produce children. Only now he can ask for a bride as young as sixteen, as long as he's willing to wait until she finishes school."

"That's sick!" Hermione gasped.

"It's now the law," Bernice said and excused herself.

Hermione turned to look at the Slytherin table and was shocked to see many of them scowling and fuming over something.

"Seems like the Slytherins are unhappy about the article as well," Bernice said, standing beside her, watching the Slytherins, too.

Over at the Slytherin table, the morning edition of the Prophet was being passed around as many of the older Slytherins snarled at the article on page ten. Even the girls were all anxiously reading the article or asking their friends what it meant.

"In the back so we wouldn't see it," Charlie Pucey sneered.

Benders' hands holding his paper fell to the table with a loud thud. "Not only are they insisting to see our family trees, we have to give them access to our vaults!"

"No!"

"Proving our lineage... like crup breeding..."

"Of all the nerve..."

"They have twisted it all around to suit them...those Mudbloods."

Fifth-year, Maryanne Gelds' shriek could be heard across the Hall. "Are they serious? I'm sixteen!"

"And eligible for marriage. What do you say, shall we?" Rogers, a sixth-year sitting next to her, asked, and Maryanne gave him a smack on the arm.

Draco tried to tone out all the conversations, the indignant groans, outraged exclamations, and cursing going on around him. He read the article carefully, knowing that far more happening than just the statement that lineage was to be a deciding factor in granting marriage licenses.

"So, Brenda, this makes you fair game. Maybe I should have Dad verify our compatibility," Knightly said with a smirk to Brenda Smythe, a sixth-year a few seats away from him.

"Oh, you wish," she snapped, turning back to her friends.

"I dunno. We aren't related; I got funds, and I can handle your property just fine," Knightly suggested with a lascivious gleam in his eyes.

"Too bad you can't promise sexual monogamy," Maria Crowe, another sixth-year, said dismissively.

"It says monopoly not monogamy," Knightly teased.

Draco knew that his own family tree had many prominent pure-blood families on it...his mum's family tree was a register of wizarding elite. She'd told him about it...that it hung in the Black house in Grimmauld Place. He'd always wanted to see it, but now it could be used against him in his choice of wife.

Likewise, down the table the same conversation was going on. "Can you believe this shite?"

Adeline Jenkins, a fifth-year, shrieked, "I can be married..."

"By anyone who can afford you," joked another fifth-year boy sitting across from her, laughing at her.

"What does that mean!" Astoria Greengrass snapped.

Draco looked up and saw Aaron Danes, Charles Harper, and Blaise Zabini all glaring angrily at each other as they debated the ramifications of the guidelines set forth in the Fair Marriage Contracts Act. Draco quickly stacked a poached egg and sausage on toast and excused himself. He was going to let his dad know about this latest development, even though so far, his dad hadn't sent back any advice. The letters Draco got had the expected smudges but not the perforations. Nevertheless, at least come Christmas, he'd be able to visit him. With any luck his dad could help him work out what the Ministry was working itself up to.

If Draco didn't know better, the Ministry was going to start enforcing who could marry whom and possibly evoke the old matchmaking charms or worse...Seers as matchmakers. That practice had gone out centuries ago, but that old law was still on the books.

Draco smiled as his mind mulled over other ridiculous laws still on the Ministry's Law books. Like the one about not allowing your Abraxan to sleep in the guesthouse. That 'it was unlawful to wrestle ghouls,' or that 'it was considered an offense to feed alcoholic beverages to a pixie,' and that 'Apothecaries cannot sell the milk of any species,' or that you cannot 'tie your crup to a tree on the pavement of public streets in London.' Draco especially liked the 'it's illegal to wake a troll to take his picture' one best. He scoffed at himself for thinking about the Colin kid and his camera. The little twerp had tried to take his, Crabbe's, and Goyle's picture once, and Crabbe had hit him with a Horny-Cantankerous Curse.

But the old laws had a way of popping back up. Danworth's Dairy and Secretions tried to sue Slug and Jiggers in Diagon Alley over the milk law when they opened up, claiming that it was illegal for the Apothecary to sell Porlock and wildebeast milk, and that thistle, dittany, and shrivelfig milk all classified as being from 'a species of plants,' which was against the law as well. It had caused quite a stir, but eventually the owners reached an agreement. Nevertheless, it did get Danworth's Dairy noticed and off to a good start. His mum did like Almond and Hazelnut milk occasionally in her tea.

Only this new drudging up and revising of the old laws could be far more problematic than who had the right to sell Porlock and wildebeast milk.

In the small classroom that Hermione used to tutor several of the pure-bloods, Draco sat glaring at the wall as she explained about electric household devices. So far they were going through the sections of Muggle household devices and electronics in the Sears and Roebuck catalogue Professor Raines was using as a schoolbook for her class. Sears Roebuck and Co. apparently was a department store that sold everything from clothes to vacuum cleaners, sewing machines and jewelry to power, automotive, and gardening tools and supplied everything for the bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens. The catalogue even had carpet, aluminum siding, and paint... Hermione had laughed the first time she saw the catalogue, thinking, I suppose the Muggle Studies professor had been to America and found the catalogue somehow.

Hermione sat on the larger professor's desk, holding Ginny's copy of the catalogue on her lap. "A vacuum cleaner is used for light cleaning of carpets. A steam cleaner is used to get deep ground in dirt and grime..."

"But why not just use a shampooer cleaner?" Goyle asked, still having trouble understanding some of the Muggle household equipment in the catalogue. His How Muggles Live by Richard Scarry was opened to the chapter six, How Muggles Keep House. It was, in reality, a children's book since all the characters in his books were animals in clothes and uniforms. They had his other books as well: What Do People Do All Day, Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, A Day At The Fire Station, and Busy, Busy Town. Ginny had been insulted at first, but it did seem to make taking Muggle Studies fun, and the books had loads of information.

"Because the steam cleaner proved to be better. The steamer would remove dirt and oils missed by the shampooer, and the shampoos left residues on the carpet," Hermione explained patiently, occasionally glancing at Draco, wondering what had him so distracted the day before his test. "Sometimes it felt sticky or the carpet felt stiff and crunched under foot as you walked. The steamer didn't do that, but you couldn't do it all the time because the carpets got wet and had to dry."

"Is there that much steam? Wouldn't it just evaporate like steam from a cauldron?" Goyle asked. He'd had a much better time understanding the kitchen appliances.

"Yes, there is a lot of water. It's called a hot water extraction system. The steamer uses high pressure sprays of alkaline detergent, water, and a strong vacuum to reach down into the carpet, but the carpet gets wet...or very damp... and if done too often, mold can grow under the carpet. Besides, a vacuum is sufficient for weekly cleaning," she explained as a few of the others made notes on their copies of the catalogue. She was not looking forward to having to explain about the tools or the things in the automotive section and really hoped that Kevin Whitby, a fifth-year in her house, knew as much about them as he claimed.

"But it gets the dirt out, right?" Knightly asked. He'd joined the group once he had heard Muggle-borns were willing to help explain all the stuff and answer questions.

"Yes. It gets the dirt out, just not all of it," Hermione said. "Most Muggles only steam clean their carpets once a year."

"Because the carpet gets wet," Goyle said, still looking confused, but maybe not as much as before. "But why not just use the steam cleaner and then dry the carpets with that hair dryer thing?"

Hermione suppressed the laugh that threatened to escape. "The hair dryer is too small to do the job."

"So, are you saying that Muggles need bigger hair dryers?" Knightly suggested, his head resting on his fist and his brows creasing as he struggled to follow along.

She did laugh at his suggestion. "That would be one answer, but a bit impractical. If Muggles vacuum once or twice a week, the carpets only need steam cleaning once a year. That answer will suffice on your exam."

"Okay, lawn mowers, weed whackers, edgers, ride-on-mowers, and tractors..." Knightly said, flipping the pages of his catalogue to a marker.

Hermione looked up at Draco again, realizing he was still lost in thought. "Draco, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he said, still staring off into space.

"Did you get the answer to vacuums and steamers?" Hermione prodded.

"Yeah," he said noncommittally, but his focus was somewhere over her shoulder. Draco turned in her direction. "Did you see the stuff in the Prophet?"

"Yes," she replied, setting down her copy of the catalogue.

Draco's attention was finally on her, and the intensity of his stare startled her. "And you're not bothered by it?"

"Not at present. Why?" she asked. By now, everyone in the room had set down their quills or were holding them loosely, listening intently.

Draco looked at her like she was as dense as a troll. "You do realize what it means, right?"

"The Ministry is trying to prevent inbreeding among wizards," Hermione said, not really wanting to offend anyone, but that was the simplest answer that she could come up with.

Several of the Slytherins' eyes narrowed, a few sneered derisive remarks and two turned their heads.

Draco snorted at her statement. "The Ministry wants pure-bloods to marry Muggle-borns."

Hermione was worried that would be their take on it. "That's not what was said..."

"As good as!" Davis exclaimed, walking over to sit near Goyle, who, like the rest of the Slytherins, was listening to the exchange with rapt attention.

"What did you think it means?" Karalee Winters asked, a sixth-year Muggle-born Gryffindor who was helping Hermione with the tutoring.

"And you are supposed to be so bright!" Knightly sneered at Hermione.

Draco turned his head slightly and snapped. "Stop it! She wouldn't know, but she can inform the others." He turned back to Hermione. "Look. Many of us pure-bloods are related in some way or another. This Emancipation Commission for Fair Marriage Contracts brings back some very old laws, ones that pure-bloods know about because they were used when it was convenient to do so. The Emancipation Acts of the 1070's were designed to allow the engagement arrangement of witches as young as fourteen and fifteen to wizards who needed a wife to produce an heir. It hasn't been used since the Wizard Reformation of 1612 when legal age of maturity was set at seventeen. The Fair Marriage Contracts is little more than a butchering of the Lawful Bridal Contracts from the Middle Ages when life spans were only seventy years and girls were married young in order to produce loads of children, so wizards had to show proof of the ability for viable support in order to get married. During the Spanish Inquisitions, it was reinstated for obvious reasons. Potential suitors had to show proof that they could protect their prospective bride and children from persecution."

Hermione nodded, already aware of some of this from reading Hogwarts: A History and her History of Magic classes. "During the Reformation, young witches, in order to attend school had to be promised right to continued education if their families had all ready arranged their betrothal, especially during the Middle Ages the Spanish Inquisitions, and the Renaissance, as you said, because girls were betrothed so young. In order for them to be able to finish school, the law was passed to ensure that they could graduate, to fully learn how to do spellwork properly. Older witches generally asked for the right of labor to maintain their own means of income should their spouses die. So that is where this comes from?"

"Exactly," Knightly stated. "It's like the clause 'can give rights over spouse's property and establish funds for children'; the wizard was required to be able to show proof he could support and protect his wife and kids. Those were dark times, though."

"I thought that this Emancipation and Marriage Contracts Act was only to show potential couples were not related from the same family line or kin?" asked Winters, still apparently unsure of the implications Draco was explaining.

Draco and Knightly turned to look at her. "No, it's just the start of it, I'm sure," Draco stated. He turned back to face Hermione. "Look, Hermione, the Malfoys have been involved in politics for ages. Dad had me tutored in Magical Law since I could read. Some of the old laws are hilarious, some not so. I see a repeat of some ones that are not, well, good."

Hermione gripped her knees and leaned forward. "So where exactly do you think that this is going?"

Draco's expression turned sour. "The Ministry is going to tell us who we can marry."

"They couldn't! They have no right!" Karalee exclaimed, turning to Goyle as if he would deny it for her. Goyle only shrugged noncommittally.

"Funny what the Ministry thinks it has a right to do or not do and what it has the right to meddle in," Knightly sneered.

"No way," Hermione stated adamantly. "People wouldn't stand for that."

"Hermione, open your eyes," Draco sneered. "You think it won't happen, but something is going on. This Emancipation Commission for Fair Marriage Contracts was set up for a reason. Healer Creswell and Healer Brumfeild are still getting a lot of attention about their Squib research. People believe them."

Hermione's eyes become wide at Draco's statement. "But that's...is it real? It can't be! It might be due to genetics, but..."

"I don't know about this genetics stuff...that must be some Muggle science thing, but I do know that Mr. Weasley is Head of the Department of Muggle and Muggle-born Relations. Charles Polister is Head of the Department of Muggle-born Liaison Commission. Why the overlap? Not that I'm all that fond of Mr. Weasley, but why isn't this Muggle-born Adopt a Grandparent program under his department, for example? Wouldn't he be more understanding to what Muggle parents of magical children need? Or why put the Tracing Charm on mud, er, blood, or dark and lord... you know what I mean...anti Death...er, followers. I mean, we cannot even say it or we go to jail! I've been hit with dines already and given a warning. This is all bullshit! And why was the Muggle-born Registration Commission simply renamed the Liaison Commission? Why didn't all the Muggle lovers in the Order and in the Ministry abolish it all together?"

Hermione stared at Draco, unsure of what to say.

"Exactly," Draco sneered. "No one knows; at least no one I know."

Over the next few days, nothing more was said about the Fair Marriage acts or any engagements that had been denied by the Wizengamot. There were the normal engagements and a few wedding announcements from the Social Heritage, Marriage, and Registration Committee in the Daily Prophet, but everything seemed to have quieted down.

By Friday, Draco sought out Hermione as she descended the stairs to the Entrance Hall. "Got a minute?" Shelia and Ginny looked at them, as if to say 'see you later,' but Draco didn't move to the side or make any indication that he cared if they stayed or not. "Did you see this?" he asked, thrusting a copy of the Daily Prophet at Hermione. "It's from yesterday."

"Yes, I read this," Hermione said, taking the paper. "Sure. I've been reading all the articles and those from other papers as well."

"No, I mean did you read this?" he said, tapping the paper at the Happy Tidings column.

Both Shelia and Ginny leaned around Hermione as she glanced at the birth announcements, then scanned down to the wedding and engagements. "I don't... wait, Percy is marrying Audrey Ranklin," Ginny said, her eyes bulging. "Wizengamot approved the match of... Oh, my gods! I wonder if Mum knows?"

"She's a half-blood, isn't she?" Draco asked, standing firmly with his arms crossed.

"I don't know. I know he was seeing her, but I had no idea it was serious," Ginny said, looking up at him, confused.

"Are you blind?" Draco asked. "Look at the names of the couples."

Hermione read down the list. "Neville and Hannah are engaged! Miss Cynthia Thomas and Mr. Reginald Newton..."

"She's Muggle-born," Draco interrupted. "So is Hannah Abbot...well, half-blood."

Hermione looked at the other names from the announcements, reading the names aloud, "Oliver Wood is engaged to Alice Newhall, and a Mr. Wesley Drake to a Miss Margaret Carter... Mr. Brandon Brentnall and Miss Jessica MacDowell..."

"Do you see a pattern?" Draco asked.

Hermione handed him back his Prophet. "The only couple I know is Neville and Hannah. I knew Wood, of course, barely. He was captain of our house team my first three years."

"Circe, you're dense," Draco snapped. "I checked. Abbot is a half-blood...Longbottom is a pure-blood. Likewise, Alice Newhall is a Muggle-born...Wood is a pure-blood, and I know Mr. Drake, he's a pure-blood friend of Father's, but Mrs. Carter...she has Muggle grandparents. She was living in America last year. I also know the Brentnall family; he claimed to be a fourth generation pure-blood. He was cleared as 'acceptable' by the Muggle-born Registration Commission, but his fiancée Miss MacDowell wasn't. She was arrested, and after the war, she was in St. Mungo's for a couple of weeks following her release."

"Are you sure about this, Draco?" Hermione asked as Shelia said, "So?"

"So, do you remember what I said about the Ministry taking Creswell and Brumfeild seriously? The S.H.M.R.C. had these engagements approved by the Wizengamot. I know that Marcus Flint wanted to marry a Celia Asks, but they were denied. They are both pure-blood. I also know that Theodore Nott and Rosaline Drinkwater were engaged, but their parchmentwork for their marriage license is still pending approval. She has a great-grandmother who is supposed to be a Muggle-born." He nodded to Bernise and Valerie as they hesitantly walked up behind Shelia and Ginny.

Shelia didn't notice her friends' approach. "That's only two out of six that we know of," she stated. "Surely..."

"Draco, do you think that this has anything to do with the fact that Mr. Nott and Mr. Flint were in Slytherin?" Ginny asked, unintentionally cutting off Shelia.

"I think Draco may be right," Hermione interjected before Draco could answer. "With the latest bit in the papers about the Wizengamot needing to approve all couples who wish to become engaged under the Marriage Law and Proper Unions Act, what other conclusion is there?"

"I'll tell you this: if I'm right, you are going to become very popular as a potential spouse; brightest witch of her age, heroine, brain of the golden trio that defeated Him, Potter...the Chosen One's best mate, member of the Order, top of your class all through school... Oh, yes, you're going to be considered a prime match," Draco said suggestively, and Hermione recoiled in shock. "Of course, Miss Margulies and Miss Harness will be considered as well...friends of the golden trio and all. If finding a wife means turning to Muggle-borns, you girls will become targets for pairing. Mark my words."

Hermione and Shelia started rebut him, but Draco had turned on his heel and strode away. "What's he talking about?" Bernise asked nervously.

Hermione turned to face her friends. "I'll let you know as soon as I see the papers this morning," she said, hoping that Draco was wrong.