On Marriage

Hermione wasn't entirely sure how she'd ended up back in her bedroom. She vaguely recalled Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall explaining the merits of an engagement to Professor Snape, before dismissing her with the suggestion that she "think it over". Thankfully, Snape himself had had nothing to add. He continued on with as quiet of a presence as he'd had when she'd first stepped into the room, his scowl suggesting to Hermione that he was as displeased with the situation as she was. In some strange way that made her feel a little bit better.

She remembered walking past Ginny and the boys in the entrance hall. Ron was too busy complaining about how much he hated mopping to notice that anything was wrong until Ginny looked up from her dusting and asked what had happened. Harry abandoned his banister polishing, but Hermione only offered a vague excuse before heading up the stairs. The three she'd left in her wake stared after her.

Catching a furtive glance from Ron as Hermione disappeared at the top of the stairs, Ginny threw down her dusting rag. "I'll go check on her then."

"You're the best, Ginny." Harry smiled as the red-haired girl headed up the stairs.

Hermione's roiling thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the door. She glanced up as Ginny poked her head into the room.

"Can I come in, Hermione?"

Hermione sighed, trying to force herself to smile. "It's your room too, Ginny."

Ginny shrugged and stepped inside, closing the door behind herself. She sat on her bed, across the small room from Hermione. "Is everything really all right? You seem worried."

Hermione looked down at the collection of scrolls in her lap and contemplated shoving them all beneath her pillow and telling Ginny that yes, everything was perfectly fine. If she'd thought for a moment that it would make the problem go away, she would have done exactly that.

"I'm getting married," she said instead.

Ginny's reaction was much the same as her own had been. She gasped and a look of surprise crossed her face, then there was a moment of thought followed by a little laugh.

"You're not eighteen yet, you can't get married." Her attention moved to the rolls of parchment in Hermione's lap. "Have you honestly already received petitions for your engagement? The Ministry must have made a mistake." The tone of Ginny's voice said quite clearly that she thought whichever clerk had mistaken Hermione's birth date was completely daft.

Hermione shook her head. "It's no mistake." She held out the Ministry notification so that Ginny could read it for herself. Ginny took the parchment and skimmed it, her cheeks growing red.

"Oh for Merlin's sake!" the younger girl exclaimed, throwing down the letter. "The time turner? Have they gone completely mad?"

Hermione smiled, glad that Ginny at least was able to express herself and her frustration over the silliness of the notification. A shuffling noise on the other side of the door grabbed the attention of both girls, who exchanged knowing glances and waited.

There was another shuffle, followed by Ron's whisper. "Has who gone completely mad? Can you hear anything Harry?"

"Ron, come on. Just knock on the door."

Ginny growled, crossed the room in few steps and threw open the bedroom door. Ron, whose ear had been pressed to the door, tumbled in. Harry, who had been leaning against the banister, stood up quickly and had the sense to look sheepish.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ginny demanded in her best Molly Weasley tone. Standing over her brother with her hands on her hips, she looked just like a miniature version of her mother. Ron clambered to his feet as he turned a brilliant shade of pink and hung his head.

"We were worried," he offered.

Ginny moved as though to shove Ron back out into the hallway, when Hermione waved a hand dismissively. "It's all right, Ginny. I might as well tell you all together, it's not going to be a secret for very long anyway." The boys came into the room, Ron perching on the edge of Hermione's bed and Harry taking a seat beside Ginny.

"What did we miss?" Ron asked indelicately.

"Ron..." Harry began, but cut off when Ginny picked up the Ministry letter and put it in his hands.

"I'm being forced to get married," Hermione explained to Ron as Harry read over the letter, his brows furrowed. "The Ministry considered the year I used the time turner and added it to my age. I've lived eighteen years regardless of my actual birth date, and they put me on the list today. I've already gotten my first offers."

"May I see them?" Harry asked. Hermione handed him two of the three engagement petitions.

Ron threw his arm around Hermione's shoulder. "Turn them down," he said. "I'll send my petition in tonight and you should have it in the morning."

From the other side of the room, Ginny gasped. She'd been reading the engagement petitions over Harry's shoulder. "Oh, Hermione," she breathed. "Do it now, Ron. She can't accept either one of these offers."

Ron leaned over to take the petitions from Harry and his ears turned red when he saw the names. "Nott and Malfoy?" He threw the letters down and stood up. "I'm going to draft my petition right now. You'll have to help me with it Hermione, so it sounds right."

"Ron, no," she said quietly, grabbing his wrist to keep him from flying from the room. Ginny looked as surprised as her brother, but Harry seemed to understand.

"Hermione can't marry you, Ron." He'd locked eyes with Hermione, who nodded slightly.

"What do you mean she can't marry me? She has to choose from the petitions. Why not mine?"

Hermione looked down at the petition she still held in her lap, the one she hadn't shown to her friends - Snape's offer. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing herself to believe that she was doing the right thing. "Because I've already made up my mind which petition to accept."

"What?" the Weasleys asked in unison.

"You've chosen between Nott and Malfoy?" Ron looked at Hermione as though she'd suddenly grown a second head.

"Hermione, no," Ginny said quietly, almost pleading.

"Have you gone daft?" Ron continued. "Why would you want to marry either one of those prats? Malfoy could put you in real danger, Hermione, and I doubt that Nott would be much better. His father is a Death Eater too, you know."

"I know. That's why I'm accepting this one." She held out the third scroll.

Harry took the roll of parchment and slowly opened it. As Ginny and Ron leaned in to read over his shoulder, Hermione gnawed on her lip. She wasn't expecting a pleasant reaction to the news.

She wasn't disappointed.

Ginny paled and looked up, horrified. Ron turned a bright shade of red and began muttering under his breath. Hermione didn't catch most of what he said, but caught the phrase "greasy git" and what sounded like an off-the-cuff plan to hex him into oblivion.

"Ron... Ron, please calm down and let me explain."

"I think it's a brilliant idea, Hermione," Harry said, much to the amazement of everyone in the room.

"What?" What little color had come back to Ginny's cheeks faded away again.

Ron whirled on Harry as though he'd been struck. "Have you two lost your bloody minds? Hermione is going to marry Snape and you think it's a good idea?"

"I do." Harry nodded, getting to his feet. Ron stepped back involuntarily, which got him close enough to Hermione that she was able to take his wrist and tug him back onto the bed beside her. She was a bit surprised that he stayed there, and quietly. "Nott and Malfoy don't want Hermione for any reason other than to destroy her, I'm sure. If you were to marry her Ron, they'd kill you to get to her."

Hermione nodded. It was exactly the same scenario that Dumbledore feared.

"I care too much for you to put you in that kind of danger, Ron," Hermione said, taking his hand. "Professor Snape is someone that not even the Death Eaters will be able to harm."

"But you'll be stuck with him forever, Hermione. Wizard marriages aren't as easy to dissolve as Muggle ones, you know."

"I know." Hermione forced a small smile. She had barely had enough time to digest the situation she was in before she was being forced to make a decision that would affect the rest of her life. She was talking herself into the decision as much as she was convincing her friends that it was the right thing to do. "But Professor Snape can't really be that bad."

Ron snorted derisively and Ginny looked skeptical.

"He can't be," Hermione said forcefully. "If he were really such an awful person would he have risked his life for so long to spy on Voldemort? He's saved our lives more times than we know and I don't think any one of us has even taken the time to thank him properly. He didn't have to do this." She motioned towards the engagement petition. "It was something he offered to do to keep me safe, even though it binds him for the rest of his life as well."

Ron grumbled something inappropriate and rude, but cut the comment short when Hermione glared at him.

"Do you really think it will be all right, Hermione?" Ginny asked. She looked as though she were going to cry. Hermione swallowed hard, her own emotions, which had been largely ignored so far, threatening to well to the surface.

"It has to be, Ginny," she replied. Ron gripped Hermione's hand tightly, and she was hugged in turn by Ginny and Harry. Her eyes glittered dangerously, but she refused to cry.

Taking a deep breath and separating herself from her friends, Hermione picked up Professor Snape's marriage proposal. She found a quill, spread the parchment across her knees, and signed at the bottom, next to the signature of Severus Snape. As quickly as the ink dried, the parchment rolled itself up and disappeared with a soft pop.

Hermione let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "That's it then. I'm marrying Professor Snape."