Dance With The Devil

Disclaimer; i dont own anything except the plot. no money being made here!

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Chapter 1

Severus Snape sat swirling the brandy in his glass, deep in thought. His eyes were directed into the crackling fire in front of him. He was so completely emerged in thought he looked almost mesmerized by the fire. His eyes dancing in the flames while his thoughts danced in his head.
So this is his grand plan? A wedding? He must be getting dumber every time someone tried to kill him.
A house elf apparated in before him with a crack.
“ The headmaster wishes to see you, Sir.” The elf cried out. He was clearly shaking anticipating something.
Severus looked at him.
“Very well.” He stated.
The elf was still shaking despite Severus not yelling at him.
“What are you still doing here! Leave no this instant.” Severus shouted at him. But before he had even finished his statement the elf was gone.
He tipped the last of the brandy back into his mouth and put the glass on the side table.
“What does that twinkling old man want now?” He grumbled to himself as he put his black cloak on and left.
He pondered how he was going to break this new development to Albus. While lost deep in thought he stumbled upon a Slytherin first year.
“Mr. Green, shouldn’t you be in the common room with the other students?” He looked down at the boy. He knew he looked like an imposing figure.
“Yes, sir. I’m on my way back there now.”
“Good , go and stay there until the prefects have finished their meeting with you.”
He stalked off again. When there was a staff meeting the prefects from each house were charged with keeping the students in line while the teachers were attending their meeting. It was for this reason that Severus didn’t like having staff meetings very often. His house always ended up throwing a party. Usually overseen by the prefects.

All the professors were gathered in the headmasters office. Various groups of people were standing clumped together talking in low voices.
Severus took a seat in a chair close to Dumbledore’s desk, away from everyone else.
He waited. And waited.
Finally when he was starting to get extremely impatient, the headmaster appeared and welcomed everyone to his office.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice. We have a very important matter to discuss that will affect all of us. I am sure that some of you have heard rumors and murmurs about a new law. A marriage law to be in fact. A law that states that pureblood witches and wizards are permitted to petition for muggle borns in marriage. The muggle borns or half bloods, for you are only considered pureblooded if you can trace it back 4 or more generations, are then obligated within 5 business days to accept the offer. They are to be married and must produce a child within one year of marriage. I have just been informed by Fudge that this law passed as of…oh…10 minutes ago.”
The room was completely silent. Severus smirked. He knew about this already. Although this was ministry doing, Voldemort had influence on it. He pushed for the muggle borns to be forced to choose in a certain amount of time. Severus also knew that Voldemort and every other death eater was going to be taking advantage of it. There was a second wife clause in it. That Dumbledore had yet to mention.
“I have also been informed that we at Hogwarts are to make the necessary arrangements to accommodate these new laws. For all students are eligible as of their 18th birthday. As you are aware all students in their seventh year will be turning 17. The ministry has made the legal age for marriage 18 so that all of the students may finish their education here and in other institutions before being married. I am opposed to this law but also completely powerless. I tried my best to prevent this but there was nothing I could do. We will try to help the students as much as we can, we need to prepare them and help them grow up here in their last year. For now, until the ministry releases this information we are to be silent about it. Now for the last week, let us try to forget this law until it has been made public. Then there will be more talk of it.”
The meeting was over. Most staff member sat silent for a minute before getting up to leave. The began speaking to each other in wild whispers about this new turn of events. Only Severus remained behind.
“Severus shouldn’t you be trying to deduct as many house points from Gryffindor as you can so they will not beat Slytherin in the house cup again this year?” Dumbledore asked.
“Headmaster I need to speak with you about the Dark Lord’s plans for this law. I have received new information via an owl from Lucius.”
“Ah yes I knew we would be having this conversation. What is to become of Harry, Ron and Hermione?”
“Well as you are aware, there is a second wife clause. Purebloods that are already married to purebloods are allowed to take a second muggle born wife. The Dark Lord wants to exploit this. He has come upon some information. Miss Granger is already 18. Because of the use of the time turner in her third year she has accumulated the age necessary to be eligible. She will begin receiving petitions from Death Eaters as soon as the law is made public. They want to force her into a marriage, torture her and use her to get to Potter. I do not know any more but I suspect she may be used in a dark ritual or put under a spell to be used as a weapon against Potter.” The headmaster sighed and looked at his old and withered hands a while before he spoke.
“The law will be announced one week after school has finished. Once she has received her first petition she will have five business days. That gives us roughly three weeks from now to come up with a solution. We must find an acceptable suitor for Hermione. We can not let Voldemort get to her. We must protect her. I will relay this task to the rest of the Order. For now we shall let her finish her sixth year happy. Severus, I fear I am getting too old for this. We need to stop him soon. Go and get back to your students. They are probably having a party by now with no teachers around.”
Severus nodded and left the headmaster to his thoughts. Indeed Draco was throwing a party when he returned.