Chapter 2: Truth and Consequences

Disclaimer: All things Harry Potter belong to JKR.

A/N: Thanks go to my wonderful beta, Southern_Witch_69!

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The next morning, Luna awoke on the floor of the library, head pounding. "Ouch!" she cried as she grabbed her head. "What was in that wine?"

She quickly closed her eyes again to try and alleviate some of the pain. "What a strange dream I had..." Sitting up slowly, she looked about the room. Hermione was asleep on the couch with a book splayed across her chest, and Ginny lay in the chair with a book on the floor beside her.

She rose slowly and tried to quietly make her way to the loo. In her hung over state, however, Luna stumped her toe on the couch and let out an involuntary cry.

Hermione jumped up like a shot. "Ugh!"

"Sorry, Hermione!" Luna apologized. "I was trying to be quiet."

Hermione glared at the girl standing in front of her as if she didn't have a care in the world. "I searched and searched, Luna! So far, I cannot seem to find a way out of this mess!"

"Whatever do you mean, Hermione? What mess? Could I help you?"

"Help? HELP? Don't you think you've done quite enough? Your scheming ways got us into this mess in the first place!"

Shocked at Hermione's outburst, Luna took a step back. Holding up her hands, she said, "My scheming ways? I'm sure I don't know what you..."

When it started coming back to her, Luna's knees gave out on her, and she plopped down on the floor where she stood. "No! Oh, no! Hermione, I am so very sorry!"

Luna glared at the empty elf-made wine bottle. "What's in that stuff anyway?"

"That's neither here nor there, is it? I cannot believe I let you coerce me into doing that blasted charm! My God, Luna, do you know what you've done?"

"Ruined our lives is bloody what!" Ginny spat from her chair. "Why, Luna? Why would you do this?"

Silent tears fell down the face of the berated woman. Luna whispered, "I don't know. I have no idea what came over me! I swear it!" she shouted as she looked into her friends' disbelieving eyes. She stared into the fireplace, gaze unfocused. Almost trancelike, she murmured, "It was like the more wine I drank, the more... I don't know... uninhibited I became. It made me feel as if I wanted it, as if it was okay to do whatever I pleased." She shook her head. "I dunno. That's the best way I can think of to explain it."

Hermione just sat there, eyeing Luna intently. Before she could ask the question that had been burning in her mind since they'd performed the charm, Ginny jumped up and said, "Oh, that's right then. Blame the wine!"

Hermione held up a hand for peace. "Hold on, Ginny. Stop a second and think. I have never...not once...heard you doubt your feelings for Harry until last night. After we'd been a few cups into the wine, mind you." Then she turned her gaze back to Luna. "I'm not saying this in anyway excuses what you've done! Luna, my God! Just how long have you been in love with Ron?"

Luna blushed from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. "Oh, Merlin, Hermione, I never ever would have hurt you in any way! I've never told a soul!"

"How long?" Hermione insisted.

"Since my fifth year," the defeated girl admitted. "But I swear on my life, I never would have done anything to cause you a moment's pain...never on purpose!" She turned to Ginny. "Either of you!"

Hermione turned to Ginny. "Gin? How long have you doubted your feelings for Harry?"

Ginny sighed deeply and confessed, "It's not my feelings I've doubted actually. It's Harry's."

"Why would you doubt Harry?" Hermione demanded angrily. "He loves you! Don't put your doubts off on him, Ginny."

Ginny folded her arms defensively and glared at Hermione and then at Luna for good measure. "See, this is why I don't confide these things to you, Hermione. You've automatically taken Harry's side, and you don't even know the basis of my doubts!"

"You're right," Hermione said, chastised. "I'm sorry. Please, talk to me."

"When Harry and I got back together after he defeated Tom Riddle, things were wonderful, amazing. Then, little by little, his passion eased off, and truthfully, for the past two or three months, we've been more like brother and sister than an engaged couple! He barely kisses me, and when he does? It's mostly a peck on the cheek or forehead."

Hermione nodded and looked off into space. "Ronald and I are continually fighting...more so than we usually do. If I say black, he's going to say white no matter what. Then after we have a major blowup, all he wants to do is try to talk me into makeup sex." Hermione sighed and turned to speak to Luna, but the girl was no longer in the room.

~*~

Severus Snape slammed into Minerva's office without even knocking and threw the Ministry Parchment onto her desk.

"Severus? What is the meaning of this?" the headmistress demanded.

"See for yourself," Severus told her as he leaned forward and placed both hands on her desk. "Read it and weep."

Minerva stared and him a long moment over the top of her glasses and picked the parchment up. "What? I don't understand! What on earth..."

"You can read, can you not? That blasted fucking know-it-all cast the Pairing-Plight Troth Charm, and for some unholy reason, the charm chose me!"

"But... But..."

"And why she was even casting that blasted charm while she was all ready engaged to Weasley is beyond me." Severus ran his fingers through his long, lanky hair as he interrupted the headmistress. "I will not abide by this! I will not marry that twit!"

"But..."

"Stop that stammering this instant! We've got to think, Minerva! How can I get out of this?"

"You can't," said Albus' portrait. "It's either marriage to...to whom exactly, Minerva?"

"Miss Granger," Minerva said in a strangled voice.

"Ah ha! Very good! Miss Granger, Severus, or jail, I'm afraid."

"Right," Severus said, making the word long and drawn out. "Azkaban it is then."

"Stop speaking that nonsense right now!" the headmistress scolded after finally pulling herself together. "There has to be a solution."

"Minerva," Albus said, "you are aware of the magical binding of this charm." Turning to the Potions professor, he continued, saying, "What's wrong with Hermione, Severus? She's a delightful girl."

"You marry her then!" Severus shouted. "I am just going to have to go discuss this with Kingsley. He is a man of good sense. Surely I can get him to see reason."

"I don't know, Severus. The more I think on the idea, the better I like it. I've always wanted Hermione to come here and teach, you know. And I do think it's time you've found a spot of happiness in your life." Gently, she told him, "Lily is gone. It's time for another love in your life...the life you've got left."

"Humph! Do you think she is going to retire her Ministry job to teach a bunch of dunderheads? Not likely. And never ... never ... compare that twit with Lily Evans."

Barely able to control his anger, Severus left the room with a loud banging of the door as he slammed it. How dare they make light of his situation? How dare Minerva even think to put Hermione Granger in the same league with Lily?

Couldn't everyone just leave him be? He was content, damn it! Why did they all seem to think he needed a woman in his life to be happy? Hell, the last time he had a woman he loved... No! He would not go back to that dark, horrid place.

Shaking with rage, he walked to the outside of the gates of Hogwarts so that he could Apparate to the Ministry.

~*~

Hermione and Ginny started to go into the Ministry when they came face to face with Severus Snape.

"You!" he spat and pointed a long finger at Hermione. "I need to speak with you, Miss Granger! Now!"

Hermione shrank back as Ginny murmured, "I'll just wait for you inside."

"It was a mistake!" Hermione told Severus, ignoring Ginny.

"Oh, it was a mistake all right. What were you thinking?"

"Well, see, what happened... Um... Harry and Ron are off on holiday, see, and Ginny, Luna, and I are staying at Grimmauld Place..."

"Spare me your life story, Granger! Get on with it!"

"Okay! We found some elf-made wine in the cabinets, and after finishing off a bottle, Luna got the bright idea that we should cast that dreaded charm to make sure we were marrying the person we were supposed to be with. After I found a book..."

"Stop! Do not say another word. I want to clarify something. You mean to tell me that you and your nitwit friends drank an entire bottle of elf-made wine from the Black kitchen?"

Hermione, frightened by his tone, simply nodded, and then remembered, "Well, two. Luna found another as I was reading the instructions on how to cast the charm."

Severus pinched his nose and tightly closed his eyes. "Do you have any idea what that wine consists of? And you say that Miss Lovegood thought of the charm?"

"Yes," Hermione acknowledged. "And as a matter of fact, she was quite insistent on all three of us doing the charm. She was very pushy, which is very unlike her actually."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Indeed. Pushy, you say? Quite devious in her methods? Why? What was in it for her specifically, besides forcing some poor man to wed her?"

"Well..." Suddenly, Hermione didn't want to betray her friend to Snape. "It doesn't matter why, does it? What matters is that it's done, and we have to fix it."

"Because, Miss Granger, that wine you drank is not ordinary wine. The Blacks had that wine made for one purpose and one purpose alone. It brings out your... darker side, shall we say? It makes you do and say things you normally wouldn't and enhances the darker side of your personality."

"Why on earth would anyone have a wine made such as that?" Hermione wondered.

"Think! Use that brain everybody seems to think so much of! They wanted Sirius Black to join the Dark Lord and become a Death Eater! It worked on his brother very well."

"Oh, my God. So that's why Luna acted in such a way! Well, why didn't Ginny or I start having dark thoughts then?"

"You must have cast the charm for a reason. What thoughts were you having when you did something that you knew could take you away from Weasley forever? Surely you didn't believe that he would be the perfect mate for you?"

"Not dark ones!" Hermione insisted. "And I said yes to his proposal, didn't I? So, of course, I thought he was the mate for me. I just had some doubts about our feelings for each other and had been wondering if he truly is the man I am supposed to marry."

"I can assure you, your exfiancé would find those thoughts dark indeed. I, however, couldn't care less about your thoughts or you for that matter. We have to fix this mess you've created."

Getting tired of his attitude, Hermione put her hands on her hips. "What do you think I am doing here? I want to get this straightened out as much as you do...more even! Do you think I actually want to marry you?"

Severus looked her up and down in a suggestive manner, then scowled. "There's no doubt that you're getting the better end of the bargain. But, alas, you will have to make do with Weasley, or whomever else you choose, as long as it's not me."

"I second that," said a male voice from behind Severus.

"Ron!" Hermione said. "You're back early, aren't you?" She began wringing her hands in a nervous gesture.

"Yeah, a little, but there is a reason. Look at this shite!" He handed Hermione his Ministry letter. "That Looney has cast that marriage charm or whatever it's called, and it's claimed me as her partner!"

"She did?" Hermione asked, stalling for time.

Grinning evilly, Severus chimed in, "Oh, Weasley, Miss Lovegood didn't cast that charm. Your wife-to-be did."

"What? You cast a charm for Luna? How? I thought for this type you had to cast it for yourself."

"Ten points to Gryffindor. That's quite right. Now, come on... Put the rest of it together," Severus urged.

Ron stood there, looking back and forth between his ex-professor and Hermione. After a long moment, he yelled, "You cast it for yourself, too! Hermione, why? Why would you do something like that when you belong to me?" Hurt radiated off him in waves.

"It's not what you think, Ron! Honestly! See, we were drinking when..."

"Merlin spare me from this explanation again! Suffice it to say, Weasley, that Hermione will be getting married, but it won't be to you." Regardless of the situation he found his own self in, Severus enjoyed the little drama playing out in front of him.

"Who?" Ron asked stiffly.

Severus opened his mouth, and Hermione said, "Don't! Please!"

Wanting to pay her back for causing all these problems and enjoying egging Weasley on, Severus said, "But I don't get to experience this type of enjoyment everyday, my dear!" Turning to Ron, he asked, "Figured it out yet, Weasley? No? Why, it's none other than me!" His words were filled with false glee.

Ignoring Severus, Ron told Hermione, "You could've come to me and told me you didn't want to get married. You didn't have to go to this extreme to be rid of me, ruining my life in the process!"

"No, Ron! It's not like that! I didn't intend for this to happen!"

"Well, what exactly did you intend to happen? Did you do the charm thinking, 'I just know Ron will be the one!' or did you do it thinking, 'There has to be someone better for me than Ron!' Well," he demanded when she stayed silent, "which was it?"

"I'd say the latter," Severus spoke up when Hermione remained silent. "And just look how right she was! Clever little know-it-all, eh, Weasley?"

"Shut up!" Hermione yelled at Severus. "Just shut up, you git!"

"Temper, temper! Tsk! You'll have to watch that once we're married, you know. I won't put up with that after we've wed. However, I wouldn't mind some of that passion in the bedroom," Severus said, and Hermione could tell he was relishing the fact that he was taunting Ron.

Ron didn't even think. He simply balled up his fist and popped Severus right in the eye, causing his head to snap back. "Don't talk to her like that! Ever!"

Severus burst out laughing and righted himself, surprising the two Gryffindors standing beside him. "Ever the knight, aren't you? How... brave. Loyal. Miss Lovegood is certainly getting what she deserves." Having said that, Severus turned and made his way inside the Ministry, leaving them staring after him.

Hermione turned to Ron, putting her hand on his arm. "Listen to me, Ron. I never meant to hurt you. If I'd thought for one moment that you would have been involved this way..."

"That's just it, isn't it, Hermione? You didn't think I would be involved. I think you knew deep down that I wouldn't be the one the charm picked out for you, and that's why you did it. So, by not being picked, I was involved." He glared at her.

"Don't, Ron."

"Don't what? Be angry? Upset? I have to marry fucking LOONEY LOVEGOOD, Hermione! I have to marry her! I have no choice!"

"Well, if I can't figure a way out of this, I'll have to marry Snape!"

"But you had a choice! Damn you, you cast that bloody charm! It's me, and hell, even Snape, that doesn't have a choice! Take your hand off my arm, Hermione. I don't want you touching me."

"Ron!"

"I mean it. Let me go, and stay the hell away from me. I don't know if I can ever forgive you for this."

Ron turned and made his way into the Ministry while Hermione stood frozen on the spot, tears running down her face.

~*~

Ginny was sitting on a bench inside, waiting for Hermione when she saw Ron walking towards her. "Ron! What's the matter?"

"Do you have any idea what Hermione and Luna Lovegood have done, Ginny? They cast that marriage charm, and now this Ministry parchment claims that I am betrothed to Luna."

Feeling guilty, Ginny averted her eyes. "Well... you see, we'd been drinking all that wine, and..."

"We? What do you mean we? You too? No, not you. Harry didn't get a Ministry letter, only me." Ron's eyes widened. "No, Ginny. Tell me you didn't do it, too, and it chose someone else for you!"

"I was so sure! I honestly believed that it would pick Harry! I did everything in my power to push it along! I chose a flower and poem that would best suit Harry, or the way I see Harry. Ron, what am I going to do?"

"Who did the charm pick for you, Gin?"

"Oliver Wood."

Ron whistled. "Well, we are going to have to go to Kingsley and try to get out of this is all I know."

They went to the lift together and started for the Minister's office. They heard Snape yelling before they even got to the door. Giving each other apprehensive looks, they walked to his secretary and asked to see the Minister.

Before she could answer, the door swung open, and Severus stormed out. Ginny cringed when he looked in their direction.

"Don't waste your time. That man is unreasonable!"

"Severus," Kingsley said from his doorway, "I am not being unreasonable. There is just nothing I can do for you. Besides, this situation makes me happy. I think a wife would do you some good."

"Yeah, but not my wife," Ron said angrily, causing the Minister to be at a loss for words.

Severus spun around to face Kingsley. "I. Don't. Want. A. Wife!"

"You're not my choice either, you git!" Hermione said as she walked up to Ron and Ginny.

"You sounded happy enough about it outside, Snape!" Ron spat.

Severus rolled his eyes and looked at Hermione. "You actually thought he could be your mate? Really, Granger? I say he's a little too... dimwitted for you."

"Oh, why won't you be quiet, Snape? You know nothing about him!" Hermione defended.

"Kingsley," Ron started, "there really has to be a way out of this. There is no way I'll marry Luna Lovegood."

"Sorry, Ronald. There really is nothing I can do. It's old magic. Unless you want to go to Azkaban."

"Couldn't we just get married for one day and be divorced the next?" Hermione offered.

Severus turned to her and sneered. "Funny. I thought research and too much information were your forte. Looks like I was mistaken, or either you've lost your touch. According to the Magical Contract, the couple has three days to wed. After doing so, the marriage has to be consummated within twelve hours, and the couple has to reside in the same residence for one year."

Hermione threw her hands up. "This is ridiculous! How long is the stay in Azkaban, Kingsley?"

Kingsley frowned. "Until you decide to honor the contract. I'm sorry."

"This is hopeless!" Ginny cried.

Just then, Oliver Wood came barreling up the stairs, waving his parchment in the air. He stopped short, looking Ginny Weasley right in the eyes. "Oi! Would you like to explain this?"

"I wouldn't mind hearing that explanation myself," said Harry as he came off the lift.

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A/N: What a terrible mess everyone is in now!