Saving Grace
folder
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Snape/Hermione
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
18
Views:
29,189
Reviews:
123
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Snape/Hermione
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
18
Views:
29,189
Reviews:
123
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does.
Saving Grace
Chapter Five
****************************************
Two weeks had passed since Hermione had helped Severus and then seen how horrible his life really was. Those two weeks had been the most miserable Hermione had ever had. She dreamed about what she saw—about the baby crying, the blood pouring down the pedestal and the scars all over his body. She avoided Snape in the hall way and couldn’t even look at the head table for fear of meeting his eye. Potions class was unbearable. He ignored her completely, not even dolling out insults like before. And every time she would chance a glance up, knowing he wouldn’t be looking images of him crying in the rain, or throwing her out of his office would flash through her mind moving her twice to tears. She cried regularly at night, she could not get it out of her mind.
***********
Severus was furious. He was just like a wild animal, that when is gets hurt will lash out at the world. The last thing he wanted was sympathy especially from the bushy-haired Gryffindor. He never told Dumbledore that Hermione had seen his memories, he was happy just to pass them along to Headmaster and then pretend that nothing happened. He had nightmares of that night as well. Many times he had woken up sweating all over and screaming. But what he also feared was looking up and seeing Granger looking at him like he was some beaten puppy. So to avoid this he ignored her, completely. He was glad she was apparently too scared to talk to him.
*****************
On the Monday two weeks later Hermione was sitting at Gryffindor table between Ron and Ginny and across from Harry. She kept her head down and stayed quite through the conversation. The others knew she had been down lately but she had told Ginny that it was just a faze and to give her space and time so the boys did.
She heard the flutter of wings and the squawks of all the owls as the post came in. An ancient yet regal grey bird flew elegantly down to her and made a perfect landing next to her muffin. It stood perfectly still as she untied her Daily profit and placed the payment in its little velvet pouch. She sat back and unrolled the newspaper.
Dumbledore noticed the sudden wave of absolute silence that fell over the entire great hall. He jerked forward from his side conversation and saw every student reading a newspaper. The facial expressions varied. There were some wide eyes shocked, other tearing, others relieved, other scared, and others…gleeful. He ripped open the newspaper in front of him and at the title collapsed into his chair and bowed his head.
The article read:
MARRIAGE LAW PASSED
The marriage law that has been debated for the past few months was passed last night in an emergency move led by the Minister of Magic.
The minister based his decision on the medical report that was issued by St. Mongos. The report states that pureblood inbreeding is leading to still births, birth defects, and squibs. In a test run by St. Mongos, the institution followed dozens of couples of varying blood to determine the health of their off spring. It was observed that the only healthy magical children came from the pureblood/non-pureblood parents.
These findings are conjoined with the population studies produced by the University of Magic in London. Those studies charted the drastic population decline of wizards and witches and warned of the, “biggest population crisis the wizarding community has seen since the 700’s.”
In a statement released late last night Minister Fudge said the following: “In this time of turmoil, the Wizarding community needs to stay strong. This is something we can not do if a huge part of our people continue to segregate themselves. The magical community in whole is getting smaller with each generation, This law is needed for the survival of the Wizarding world.”
This research and trend has been well known for several years, the marriage law itself was first proposed in June of last year. The stated purpose of the law is to force a mass population increase and homogony by mandating marriage for all eligible witches and wizards.
The law is as follows:
All witches and wizards between the ages of 16 and 50 and are not previously married are eligible for marriage. Failure to comply will result in the person’s wand being broken. Any who attempt to ‘dodge’ this edict through any variety of means will be incarcerated. Purebloods may not marry other purebloods. Marriages and marriage petitions must be registered with the Ministry of Marriage. Any Wizard may petition for any Witch’s hand, at any time. The witch then has 1 month to make her decision from the time of the first petition. Pure blood wizards may petition for a witches hand first, and then non-pure blood wizard. If she receives more than one offer than she may have the choice. A Witch has one month from her 16th birthday (or the passing of this law if already 16) to choose an offer. If no petitions are received than the person’s name will be put into a lottery and coupled with a Wizard who was denied or has not petitioned. An Adultery charm will be placed on both individuals at the wedding ceremony by a Ministry Official. A child must be produced within the first year of the marriage. To insure that couples are married in more than paper the ministry will maintain watch over how many times a couple has intercourse. Once a week is the minimum with a one week exception every month. If a couple disobeys these rules their wands will be broken. Official petition forms can be picked up at the Marriage Headquarters in the Ministry of Magic. Requests for exclusion due to outstanding circumstances will be subjected to a review board.
***********************
Dumbledore had been working tirelessly for months against the law but it seemed he had been defeated. He heard sobs arising from many of the girls in the great hall and so he gathered himself together and stood up. Silence fell.
“Students, do to this new law that you all have just read about, many changes will have to be made in this school. As for today I give you all the day off to contact your parents and others that you need to. Staff, we will hold an emergency meeting in the staff room, you are all dismissed.”
**************************
Hermione was crying and Ginny was so angry and scared she didn’t know what to say. They boys were shocked, and wide eyed. They all got up and went silently to Hermione’s Head Girls dorm. They all struggled to comprehend the ramifications of the article. Marriage. Now. Children. Now. Life Over. Who?
“There must be a loop hole.” Ginny said determinably.
“Yeah!” Ron jumped on the idea. “Can’t we just move?”
“They will have thought of that, Ron.” Harry said in a dead voice.
“I’m a lesbian!” Ginny suggested excitedly
“Ginny, you have dated half of the guys at Hogwarts, I think the Review Board will notice.” Ron countered dejectedly.
They all fell silent except for Hermione’s soft sobbing.
“This is ridiculous! We have to marry someone? NOW? What? Do we just look around us and pick someone? We haven’t even met anyone except the people here! How can they possible expect this law to work?”
No one knew the answer. “I could marry Hermione and Harry, you could marry Ginny…” Ron suggested but they all knew that would never work. They all were like brothers and sisters.
Hermione looked up through tear heavy eyes and shook her head, “No Ron, you are like my brother, I couldn’t…do…that…with you, and you know it”
“And it’s the same with me and Harry.” Ginny said. Harry nodded in agreement.
Suddenly Harry noticed a sealed parchment lying on the table. He reached for it and turned it over. His eyes darkened as he read the address, “Hermione, this is a letter for you from the Ministry of Marriage.”
He passed it over and Hermione opened the letter shakily. Than read in a quavering voice, ‘I, Lucius Malfoy, petition for the hand of Hermione Granger to be my wife…” Hermione stopped reading as she broke into a scream/gasp/sob.
Ginny looked up bewildered, “what happened to Narcissa??” she asked wildly
Harry, as if in shock said in a matter of fact tone, “Oh her? I killed her”
*****************
Note: short but informative. Hope the law is believable enough, It took me a very long time to figure it out. It is a stretch but please, bare with me. Also, in all my plans for this story I really only considered the Hermione and Snape relationship. Does anyone have suggestions for other couples? Everyone has to get married so please, feel free to throw out ideas. The story will focus entirely on Hermione and Snape but, for background reasons I need to fill out what the other characters are doing. Hope you enjoyed it, and for this chapter especially reviews are needed.
- Demos
Saving Grace
Chapter Five
****************************************
Two weeks had passed since Hermione had helped Severus and then seen how horrible his life really was. Those two weeks had been the most miserable Hermione had ever had. She dreamed about what she saw—about the baby crying, the blood pouring down the pedestal and the scars all over his body. She avoided Snape in the hall way and couldn’t even look at the head table for fear of meeting his eye. Potions class was unbearable. He ignored her completely, not even dolling out insults like before. And every time she would chance a glance up, knowing he wouldn’t be looking images of him crying in the rain, or throwing her out of his office would flash through her mind moving her twice to tears. She cried regularly at night, she could not get it out of her mind.
***********
Severus was furious. He was just like a wild animal, that when is gets hurt will lash out at the world. The last thing he wanted was sympathy especially from the bushy-haired Gryffindor. He never told Dumbledore that Hermione had seen his memories, he was happy just to pass them along to Headmaster and then pretend that nothing happened. He had nightmares of that night as well. Many times he had woken up sweating all over and screaming. But what he also feared was looking up and seeing Granger looking at him like he was some beaten puppy. So to avoid this he ignored her, completely. He was glad she was apparently too scared to talk to him.
*****************
On the Monday two weeks later Hermione was sitting at Gryffindor table between Ron and Ginny and across from Harry. She kept her head down and stayed quite through the conversation. The others knew she had been down lately but she had told Ginny that it was just a faze and to give her space and time so the boys did.
She heard the flutter of wings and the squawks of all the owls as the post came in. An ancient yet regal grey bird flew elegantly down to her and made a perfect landing next to her muffin. It stood perfectly still as she untied her Daily profit and placed the payment in its little velvet pouch. She sat back and unrolled the newspaper.
Dumbledore noticed the sudden wave of absolute silence that fell over the entire great hall. He jerked forward from his side conversation and saw every student reading a newspaper. The facial expressions varied. There were some wide eyes shocked, other tearing, others relieved, other scared, and others…gleeful. He ripped open the newspaper in front of him and at the title collapsed into his chair and bowed his head.
The article read:
MARRIAGE LAW PASSED
The marriage law that has been debated for the past few months was passed last night in an emergency move led by the Minister of Magic.
The minister based his decision on the medical report that was issued by St. Mongos. The report states that pureblood inbreeding is leading to still births, birth defects, and squibs. In a test run by St. Mongos, the institution followed dozens of couples of varying blood to determine the health of their off spring. It was observed that the only healthy magical children came from the pureblood/non-pureblood parents.
These findings are conjoined with the population studies produced by the University of Magic in London. Those studies charted the drastic population decline of wizards and witches and warned of the, “biggest population crisis the wizarding community has seen since the 700’s.”
In a statement released late last night Minister Fudge said the following: “In this time of turmoil, the Wizarding community needs to stay strong. This is something we can not do if a huge part of our people continue to segregate themselves. The magical community in whole is getting smaller with each generation, This law is needed for the survival of the Wizarding world.”
This research and trend has been well known for several years, the marriage law itself was first proposed in June of last year. The stated purpose of the law is to force a mass population increase and homogony by mandating marriage for all eligible witches and wizards.
The law is as follows:
All witches and wizards between the ages of 16 and 50 and are not previously married are eligible for marriage. Failure to comply will result in the person’s wand being broken. Any who attempt to ‘dodge’ this edict through any variety of means will be incarcerated. Purebloods may not marry other purebloods. Marriages and marriage petitions must be registered with the Ministry of Marriage. Any Wizard may petition for any Witch’s hand, at any time. The witch then has 1 month to make her decision from the time of the first petition. Pure blood wizards may petition for a witches hand first, and then non-pure blood wizard. If she receives more than one offer than she may have the choice. A Witch has one month from her 16th birthday (or the passing of this law if already 16) to choose an offer. If no petitions are received than the person’s name will be put into a lottery and coupled with a Wizard who was denied or has not petitioned. An Adultery charm will be placed on both individuals at the wedding ceremony by a Ministry Official. A child must be produced within the first year of the marriage. To insure that couples are married in more than paper the ministry will maintain watch over how many times a couple has intercourse. Once a week is the minimum with a one week exception every month. If a couple disobeys these rules their wands will be broken. Official petition forms can be picked up at the Marriage Headquarters in the Ministry of Magic. Requests for exclusion due to outstanding circumstances will be subjected to a review board.
***********************
Dumbledore had been working tirelessly for months against the law but it seemed he had been defeated. He heard sobs arising from many of the girls in the great hall and so he gathered himself together and stood up. Silence fell.
“Students, do to this new law that you all have just read about, many changes will have to be made in this school. As for today I give you all the day off to contact your parents and others that you need to. Staff, we will hold an emergency meeting in the staff room, you are all dismissed.”
**************************
Hermione was crying and Ginny was so angry and scared she didn’t know what to say. They boys were shocked, and wide eyed. They all got up and went silently to Hermione’s Head Girls dorm. They all struggled to comprehend the ramifications of the article. Marriage. Now. Children. Now. Life Over. Who?
“There must be a loop hole.” Ginny said determinably.
“Yeah!” Ron jumped on the idea. “Can’t we just move?”
“They will have thought of that, Ron.” Harry said in a dead voice.
“I’m a lesbian!” Ginny suggested excitedly
“Ginny, you have dated half of the guys at Hogwarts, I think the Review Board will notice.” Ron countered dejectedly.
They all fell silent except for Hermione’s soft sobbing.
“This is ridiculous! We have to marry someone? NOW? What? Do we just look around us and pick someone? We haven’t even met anyone except the people here! How can they possible expect this law to work?”
No one knew the answer. “I could marry Hermione and Harry, you could marry Ginny…” Ron suggested but they all knew that would never work. They all were like brothers and sisters.
Hermione looked up through tear heavy eyes and shook her head, “No Ron, you are like my brother, I couldn’t…do…that…with you, and you know it”
“And it’s the same with me and Harry.” Ginny said. Harry nodded in agreement.
Suddenly Harry noticed a sealed parchment lying on the table. He reached for it and turned it over. His eyes darkened as he read the address, “Hermione, this is a letter for you from the Ministry of Marriage.”
He passed it over and Hermione opened the letter shakily. Than read in a quavering voice, ‘I, Lucius Malfoy, petition for the hand of Hermione Granger to be my wife…” Hermione stopped reading as she broke into a scream/gasp/sob.
Ginny looked up bewildered, “what happened to Narcissa??” she asked wildly
Harry, as if in shock said in a matter of fact tone, “Oh her? I killed her”
*****************
Note: short but informative. Hope the law is believable enough, It took me a very long time to figure it out. It is a stretch but please, bare with me. Also, in all my plans for this story I really only considered the Hermione and Snape relationship. Does anyone have suggestions for other couples? Everyone has to get married so please, feel free to throw out ideas. The story will focus entirely on Hermione and Snape but, for background reasons I need to fill out what the other characters are doing. Hope you enjoyed it, and for this chapter especially reviews are needed.
- Demos