Foreign Marriage

FOREIGN MARRIAGE

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to any of the characters and I'm only writing this story for fun.

Summary: Hermione hasn't seen Viktor since 4th year, but when a marriage law is forced on all muggleborns, risking Ron's jealousy and wrath might be the only way she can prevent from being forced to marry a Malfoy.

Chapter 1

Voldemort may be gone, but many of his minions were still alive and well, and influential members of wizarding society. Voldemort made the mistake of launching an attack using only a small group of Death Eaters. The Order of the Phoenix and a huge contingent of Ministry aurors were able to hold them and dementors at bay while Harry Potter dueled with the Dark Lord. Finding power that Voldemort knew not, Harry was finally able to throw off the shackle that had dictated his life for the past 15 years and at the end of his sixth year, put an end to Voldemort's reign of terror once and for all.

One of the officials to survive the war was Lucius Malfoy, not because of his tendency to bribe the Ministry to look the other way, but the fact that he had turned spy against his master and provided the Order with key information. This was necessary because Snape's role as a spy had finally been discovered and the Potions Master had barely escaped with his life.

However, just because he had joined the winning side during the war, didn't mean he had renounced any of his views. Far from it. But he recognized that doing things legally, instead of by violence, might be the only way to sustain pureblood superiority over what he called mudbloods and he recognized the impracticality of banning all muggleborns from wizarding society...just organizing enough restrictions or finding ways to put them in their proper place. For him, such an opportunity arose quickly after the war...barely two weeks after Voldemort's defeat.

A research had been conducted during the aftermath of the war. From what the Ministry was able to tell, the pureblood lineages were in danger of going out of existence. Since they had refused to interbreed with muggleborns for many generations, abnormalites would soon pop up...perhaps beginning with the children of currcurrent pureblood youngsters. The Ministry had to act...and act quickly.

In response to this coming crisis, the Ministry acted swiftly. Officially, it was titled "The Law for the Preservation of Magical Blood", but it became known as the Marriage Law. Purebloods and muggleborns had to marry and because a pro-pureblood bias still existed within the Ministry, the pureblood families were the ones able to petition for the hands of eligible muggleborn witches or wizards. And Lucius Malfoy decided to make the most of this delicious opportunity.

Despite being on the winning side, Lucius Malfoy could never forgive Hermione Granger for humiliating his son, Draco, time after time. And when the marriage law was passed and the details were announced, he couldn't help but smile. He was sure that Draco would object, but his son did have the annoying habit of failing to see the big picture. In many ways, he was more anti-muggleborn than Lucius was, but since Lucius was still the head of the Malfoy family, Draco would have to listen to him.

But there was one factor that worried Lucius Malfoy...Hermione Granger might have a suitor already and if she was engaged to be married, she wouldn't be under the Marriage Law. But his fears were quickly displaced as he learned she was quite single, much to the Hogwarts boys' delight, for she had developed into a very attractive witch. Lucius had to admit that the muggleborns did know how to produce very attractive witches.

From what Lucius Malfoy understood, Hermione Granger was only friends with Harry Potter, so he didn't have to worry about competition from that boy. Besides, he knew he would never succeed in arranging a marriage for Draco to Hermione if Harry Potter was involved...at least not at the moment. Another factor was Ron Weasley, the son of that blasted muggle-loving fool, Arthur Weasley. Apparently he and Granger had some sort of relationship, but details were scarce at best. After all, Slytherins were not privy to the goings on in Gryffindor House. Not even Severus could gleam any details from Professor McGonagall.

As for other boys, the only other boy that she had known to have dated, albeit only for the Yule Ball, was Viktor Krum, world famous Seeker and one of the Triwizard Champions. But Lucius Malfoy figured he was not a threat because he lived so far from England and that he was probably already engaged, if not married. Seeing a clear field, he decided to seize the opportunity.

"Tobby!" Lucius Malfoy shouted. A second later, a house-elf appeared, bowing in front of him.

"What can Tobby do for you, master?" the house-elf squeaked nervously.

"Fetch me a quill, some ink, and a roll of parchment. Quickly!" Mr. Malfoy barked.

"Right away, sir!" Tobby said. He vanished, and then reappeared almost a second later. "Here you go, sir!" the house-elf said, handing the items to Mr. Malfoy, who took them and set them on his desk. He pulled out a chair, sat down and before writing the petition, he dismissed Tobby for the time being, who took the opportunity to get out of Lucius Malfoy's presence.

He began to write: "I, Lucius Octavius Malfoy, petition for the hand of Hermione Jane Granger for marriage to my son, Draco Lucius Malfoy." Finishing the petition, he signt, st, sealed it in an envelope and had the Malfoy family eagle owl deliver it to the Ministry of Magic. With any luck, in a couple of days, Hermione Granger would be Hermione Malfoy.

A couple of days later, Albus Dumbledore was seated in his office, looking over the various number of envelopes that were stacked as neatly as possible on his desk. "This ow mow many students that have been affected by this law so far, and that's not counting the number who will be affected next year," the headmaster told Professors McGonagall and Snape. "Sometimes, Fudge can be so obstinate...so short sighted even though he eventually came around to the truth about Voldemort's return."

Snape snorted like this was so obvious. Even though McGonagall threw him a warning look, Dumbledore didn't seem to notice. McGonagall turned back to the headmaster. "When is the new Defense teacher supposed to arrive?" she asked.

"Sometime today or tomorrow," Dumbledore replied. He was about to respond further, when an envelope dropped near him. His eyes widened in shock as he recognized the addressee: Hermione Granger. As headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore was allowed to receive all copies of marriage petitions involving his students. Actually, he had insisted on it. A dark look crossed his face and he handed the copy to McGonagall and Snape.

"Albus, this can't...I know Lucius spied for us against Dumbledore, but you can't deny that he will try to use and abuse Miss Granger if she is forced to marry young Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall protested.

Snape's face darkened. "Trust me, Minerva, it's much worse than you can possibly imagine. Not only will he try to use her...for propaganda purposes...but he will use her in other ways," Snape began.

"Explain," Dumbledore said.

"The wives of the aristocratic pureblood families tend to be shared, if you know what I mean. Aristocratic wizards were willing to share their wives with their fellow members of upper magical society as long as pureblood witches and wizards were produced. Even though Bellatrix was married to Rudolphus, for example, it was quite common to either see or hear about her sleeping with Lucius, MacNair, Crabbe, etc. I don't know whether Narcissa engaged in that as much, but since she was Lucius's wife, she probably did," Snape finished as he noted the looks of horror and anger on McGonagall's and Dumbledore's faces.

"Which means," Dumbledore stated firmly. "We need another option. According to the law, Miss Granger has a week to accept if no other petitions arrive.

Later, an emergency meeting of the Order was called up and held at Number 12, Grimmauld Place. While the final battle had not been that extensive or destructive, it took a toll on the Order. Arthuill,ill, and Charlie Weasley were all killed, while Percy (after apologizing for his behavior) and Mrs. Weasley had been seriously injured. Remus had gone missing, and there was still no sign of him anywhere. Tonks survived the battle, but Kingsley Shacklebolt had his soul sucked out by one of the dementors. Thus, the options were few.

"What we need is a wizard who is a pureblood, but good, but is also strong enough to defend against any attacks by the Malfoys," Dumbledore began. Mrs. Weasley had started to say something, from her wheelchair, but was interrupted by the headmaster. "I know young Mr. Weasley is a friend of Hermione's and is powerful in his own right, but he will be a prime target by both Lucius and Draco."

Snape thought for a moment, then a slight smile appeared on his face. "Headmaster, I might have a suggestion."

Tonks smirked. "Are you suggesting yourself, Professor Snape?" she teased. Snape scowled at this immediately.

"While that might be a feasible suggestion," he began carefully, "it is not practical. You forget, the main clause of this law is that a couple married under this law has two years to have a fully magical child or the muggleborn is up on the auctioning block again, so to speak. And as you should know, once the Dark Lord found out about my treason, he...removed any chances of me having a descendant...both magically and physically," he snarled. Tonks winced as she remembered. She had been the one to find him, almost dead. Somehow, in his physical condition, he had managed to escape, or he would've been killed by Voldemort for sure. "So, I'm out of the question."

"Who's your suggestion?" Dumbledore asked calmly. The others waited with bated breath before Snape finally replied.

"Viktor Krum."