Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

It was almost two months since the start of sixth year and things were going remarkably smoothly for Harry. There had been no near death experiences or unexplained mysteries, there were no professors trying to torture him, the school hadn't turned on him for some stupid reason and there was no sign of threats to their lives. In fact, there was nothing to worry about at Hogwarts other than getting his homework finished and whether the team were training hard enough to win their next Quidditch game against Slytherin.

Still Harry was hyper alert as he made his way downstairs and entered the great hall for breakfast, flanked on each side by his best friends. It was Halloween and the day had always been a bad day for him, or perhaps with his new more optimistic outlook on life, he should say a lifechanging day since the troll incident in first year had also been the start of a wonderful friendship. He still dreaded the day and spent the whole day trying not to jump at shadows, though nothing seemed out of place this year and with Voldemort killed when he tried to possess Harry in the ministry last year and the worst of the death eaters captured that night, his friends were hoping for a normal day. Now it was the morning of November first and Ron was light-heartedly teasing him about his paranoia and his dorm mates were laughing about it, but Harry wasn't prepared to relax until after the papers came with the news of what else might have happened on Halloween in the world outside Hogwarts.

At least he hadn't had Snape the day before, and he'd managed to avoid the man all day so he hadn't been able to ruin his weekend with undeserved detentions. Harry could curse Dumbledore for letting the reformed Death Eater teach his favourite subject and the fact that he was better at teaching it than he had been at potions was no consolation. Scowling at the head table he took his seat and began spooning the porridge Hermione had dished up for him into his mouth. His friends considerately left him to his brooding.

Breakfast was well underway in the great hall at Hogwarts when the 'Daily Prophet' was delivered. There were cries of outrage from those that subscribed and curious questions from their friends. Slowly silence fell as people read the front page in shock and their friends who didn't get the paper saw their reactions and looked over their shoulders or took the paper from their hands, reading the lead story disbelievingly.

MINISTRY PASSES MARRIAGE LAWS TO REBUILD OUR POPULATION

After an emergency session of the Wizengamot last night the ministry spokesperson released the following statement.

"Our population has fallen to dangerously low levels and with the increasing number of squib births to pureblood couples, to maintain the viability of our society, the Wizengamot has been forced to re-enact the emergency marriage act of 1583.

As such all unmarried witches and wizards between the ages of 17 and 60 years will be paired with the most magically compatible partner and those couples will have to marry within the next six months.

All married couples under the age of 60, including both those couples married under this law and those already married will be required to produce a child within the next 18 months and a second child within the next 5 years, irrespective of any children they may already have.

Unless a witch or wizard or their spouse are currently incarcerated in Azkaban or certified infertile by a ministry healer, there are no exceptions. Each marriage contracted under this law may be annulled in the case that one of the participants is found to be infertile, or if both members of the couple desire an annulment after the couple has produced three magical children. In the case of the annulment the children will remain in the custody of the elder of the pair and must remain the heirs to both their parents regardless of any subsequent marriage or younger children born.

To enable the selection of compatible couples, forms will be distributed and must be completed and returned to the office of births deaths and marriages by the end of the month.

Anyone found not complying with the law will be incarcerated in Azkaban for a period of three months before being rematched and married to a compatible partner.

There had been vague rumours floating around about the Ministry talking about such a law but Harry and Hermione like all the other muggle raised students hadn't believed that it was possible for the Wizengamot to have the votes to pass it, let alone the ability to enforce it on the population.

"They can't do this" Hermione raged.

"Bloody Hell! Mum's fifty seven, I'm going to have another two brothers or sisters!" Ron said in shock.

"I think they can Hermione" Neville said sombrely, ignoring Ron. "They have enacted the emergency marriage act of 1583 twice in history when the population was in danger of falling too low. Last time it was in place for just over ten years. It saved our world."

"I have already saved this world twice. How much more can they ask of me?" Harry asked.

"Look at it this way mate, at least you're being treated the same as everyone else. You'll be matched to someone compatible by your magical signature not because you're the bloody boy who lived" Seamus said.

"There has to be a way out of this" Hermione said determinedly. "I'm going to hit the library and see what I can find."

"Good luck Hermione, do you want some help?" Harry said getting up.

"Thanks Harry" Hermione replied smiling at her friend.

"We have quidditch tryouts tomorrow, you said you'd help me practice" Ron complained.

"This is more important than quidditch, Ron!" Hermione said.

Ron looked gobsmacked as Harry agreed.

Harry and Hermione were soon joined by the other muggleborn students from their year and the year above, the head girl soon organised them in searching various areas of the library looking for a way to block the law or failing that to circumvent it.

Many of the professors were sympathetic, though careful in their efforts to help without appearing to be encouraging the students to break the law, they signed multiple passes for the restricted section on the most flimsy and transparent reasons, and quietly let the students involved in the research that they would not have to hand in their homework if they continued to use the time to continue the search into the new law. Professor Flitwick managed to get copies of the goblins' documentation of what happened the previous times the law was enacted and why it was discontinued on those occasions, and pass them on to a few of his seventh years he knew were looking into careers in law. The students attempted to get the ministry records as well but they were denied. Several of the researchers had fathers on the Wizengamot who may have been able to access the information but unfortunately, none of them trusted their parents enough to ask them for it. They had no way of knowing or finding out for sure, who had voted in favour of the re-enactment of the marriage law, other than what was reported in the newspapers.

The Daily Prophet was staunchly supporting the ministry position that the law was the only hope of saving their society, and the current Witch Weekly was all about how to plan your dream wedding on short notice, but the Quibbler finally printed the information the students had been looking for, the actual results of the vote and which houses had voted for and against the re-enactment of the law. A few of the pureblood students were disappointed to read their fathers or grandfathers had voted in favour of the re-enactment and some of them dropped out of the search for a way around it claiming that they couldn't go against their families like that, others became even more determined in their search.

Several of the students were talking about just packing up and leaving during the next Hogsmeade weekend, disappearing back into the muggle world or even leaving the country. One group began researching magical schools in other English speaking countries for those who chose to flee the country and Professor McGonagall quietly began copying student transcripts ready to hand out to the students who had expressed interest in that group's research before they left the school on the next Hogsmeade weekend. Several professors also started writing letters of recommendation for their best students who had been involved in any part of the research, holding the students back after class with trumped up reasons to pass them on.