Chapter Text

Prologue

WIZENGAMOT DECREE NO. 23.19

The Creation of the Department of Inextricable Marriages and the Enactment of the Forcible Alliance for Reproduction and Civil Engagement

(Enacted the First of February, 2003)

Preamble

In solemn recognition of the grievous decline in magical progeny during and since the conclusion of the Second Wizarding War, and in unwavering duty to the preservation of our most ancient and noble inheritance, the Wizengamot hereby enacts Wizarding Law 23.19: The Forcible Alliance for Reproduction and Civil Engagement.

This statute shall remain in force until such time as the Ministry of Magic, in its considered judgment, shall determine that the posterity of Wizardkind within these Isles hath been restored to a condition secure, prosperous, and beyond imminent peril of decline.

Section I. Definitions and Applicability

1. Eligible Citizen shall signify any witch or wizard whose birth, lineage, or ancestral seat is rooted within the British Isles, being of sound magical constitution, and falling within the designated years of breeding age. Such eligibility shall remain binding irrespective of present residence, foreign dwelling, or prior acts of repatriotization or exile.
2. Breeding Age shall denote that span of years in which witches and wizards are judged, by the Ministry’s Department of Magical Health and Heredity, to be fit for conjugal union and the begetting of progeny, being the seventeenth through forty-fifth years. Any citizen declared eligible prior to the attainment of their forty-fifth year shall remain subject to all obligations of this Statute, irrespective of the passage of age thereafter.
3. Divinatory Oracular Pairing Enchantments shall denote the sacred and binding enchantments, wrought through oracular, astrological, and genealogical arts, devised and consecrated by the Department of Mysteries, by which unions are discerned and declared for the strengthening of magical posterity, and which shall be overseen by the Department of Inextricable Marriages.
4. Mandated Union shall signify the binding of two eligible citizens in lawful matrimony, as determined by the aforesaid Pairing Enchantments, irrespective of prior contract, promise, or inclination.
5. Posterity shall encompass all descendants begotten under such mandated unions, being the inheritance and continuance of Wizardkind.

This statute shall apply, without exemption, to all eligible citizens of the Wizarding British Isles, whether residing within England, Scotland, Wales, or Ireland, or dwelling abroad. All such citizens, wherever found, shall be compelled to return to these Isles and submit themselves unto their proscribed match, as divined and declared by the Department of Inextricable Marriages.

Section II. Mandate of Pairing

Upon enactment, all Eligible Citizens shall be submitted by this body and paired by the proprietary magic known as Divinatory Oracular Pairing Enchantments. Each citizen so matched shall, within sixty (60) days of proclamation, present themselves before the Department of Inextricable Marriages for solemnization of union. Any prior betrothal or contract not already solemnized before the date of enactment is hereby rendered void. No marriage attempted thereafter may stand unless in accordance with the ordained Pairing. No exemption shall be granted on the grounds of inclination, affection, blood prejudice, or oath. The will of the Wizengamot, expressed through Pairing Enchantments, shall be held supreme.

Section III. Compliance and Enforcement

Failure to appear within the prescribed sixty (60) days constitutes Contempt of Wizengamot. Such citizens shall be pursued and apprehended by Aurors or duly appointed agents of the Ministry.

Any who, after apprehension, persist in refusal shall suffer:

1. seizure of all estates, vaults, and holdings into Ministry custody;
2. permanent snapping of their wand and forfeiture of wand-rights;
3. binding of magical faculties by the Department of Mysteries until submission.

All penalties enumerated herein apply equally to attempts at circumvention, fraudulent marriages, or treasonous flight.

Section IV. Rights and Duties Within Mandated Union

Mandated Unions, once solemnized, admit of no annulment or dissolution save by death or writ of Wizengamot. Parties must cohabitate within twenty-four (24) hours of binding and consummate the union within thirty (30) days. Each union shall provide not fewer than two (2) living magical children, certified hale by the Department of Magical Health and Heredity. Only such children reckon toward the quota. Upon fulfillment of the quota, contraceptive measures may be resumed without penalty. For each additional magical child, a stipend of gold shall be granted until majority. Willful neglect to cohabitate, consummate, or produce issue without certified cause shall incur the penalties set forth in Section III.

Section V. Oversight and Record-Keeping

There is hereby constituted the Department of Inextricable Marriages (DIM), under authority of the Wizengamot, with sole jurisdiction over mandated unions.

The Department shall:

• Proclaim and witness pairings;
• Govern conjugal obligations;
• Maintain the Great Register of Wizarding Posterity, wherein all unions, issue, and penalties are inscribed;
• Receive quarterly reports, verified by oath and inspection;
• Empower Inspectors of Marital Compliance to enter domiciles at any hour, with or without notice, to confirm adherence.

Section VI. Prohibited Practices

No citizen may employ any stratagem to subvert the procreative purpose of this Statute. All forms of contraception, whether magical or Muggle, alchemical or mechanical, are interdicted until the mandated quota is fulfilled. Fraudulent glamours, Polyjuice substitutions, or deceit in conjugal obligations shall be punished as contempt of this Statute. The weakening of lineage by concealment of Squibs, tampering with records, or departure from the Isles to avoid duty shall be judged treason. Penalties for all violations shall be those set forth in Section III.

Section VII. Exceptions, Exemptions, Duration, and Dissolution

1. Health: Only upon testimony of three Healers of St. Mungo’s, ratified by independent Examiners, may a citizen be deemed unfit for conjugal duty. Exemptions are temporary save in cases of permanent incapacity, reviewed annually.
2. Prior Marriages: Only unions lawfully registered before enactment are exempt. No marriage thereafter is valid unless pursuant to Pairing Enchantments.
3. Duration: Mandated unions endure until death or until the Wizengamot decrees an acceptable writ.
4. Dissolution: Permitted solely by writ of Wizengamot, on grounds of proven infertility, mortal danger to one spouse, or willful dereliction of duty. Dissolved parties shall be reassigned under new Pairings.
5. Infertility: If both parties are infertile, the marriage persists undissolved though obligations are unfulfillable. If one alone is infertile, the fertile party shall be reassigned; the infertile punished as deemed fit.
6. Widowhood: Bereaved citizens, unless beyond breeding age or incapacitated, shall be reassigned after a period of mourning lasting no longer than ninety (90) days.

Section VIII. Affirmation and Seal

Be it affirmed that this Statute, duly debated and ratified by the Wizengamot, possesses the force of unassailable law throughout the Wizarding British Isles. By this enactment is the citizenry of magical blood bound to its solemn duty, that Wizardkind endure inviolate and unbroken for generations yet unborn. Let the seal of the Wizengamot, impressed this first day of February in the Year of Merlin Two Thousand and Three, witness our resolve.

So decreed, so enacted, and so bound.

________________________________________

The Inevitable Hour

Draco

April 1, 2003

The sharp crack of his house-elf’s Apparition made Draco’s hand still on the parchment. He’d been expecting this—dreading it—but the reality of it sent his pulse hammering anyway.

“Master Draco,” Tippy squeaked, wringing her skirt in her small hands. “They are here. At the gates.”

Of course they were.

Dust motes swirled in the pale spring sunlight as Draco crossed to the window. The scent of his mother’s roses drifted in on the breeze—a testament to persistence, even when everything else in his life had withered. He inhaled deeply, letting the scent ground him before he faced what the day would bring.

Sixty days. They’d given them sixty days, and they’d both ignored every summons. She’d sworn she would find them a way out, that there would be no binding. The cynical part of him had known this would be the outcome, but he had to admit a larger part of him had thought she would succeed. The Golden Girl had never lost before; it had seemed like good odds. So, he had done as she asked and stalled. Now the Ministry’s little Nifflers had come to collect what they felt they were owed.

Their time was up.

The owl-delivered notice yesterday had been crystal clear: continued non-compliance would result in contempt charges. A return to Azkaban. He couldn’t go back; he wouldn’t. He’d warned her of that. He would do—had already done—whatever it took to avoid returning to that miserable rock.

Draco left the study, his footsteps echoing through the cavernous halls. Portraits watched him pass with cold judgment, their painted eyes tracking his every move. The manor itself seemed to hold its breath—ashamed, perhaps, of what the Malfoy line had become.

At the entryway, he pulled his mask of lordly detachment firmly into place and threw open the grand wooden doors. Two wizards were advancing up the manor’s drive, come to drag him to the Ministry. Representatives from the Department of Inextricable Marriages, presumably. At least the wards prevented them from Apparating directly onto the grounds, a few precious minutes to prepare his shields and salvage what remained of his dignity.

They probably expected him to go kicking and screaming—dragged from his ancestral home like some common criminal. But he was still a Malfoy. The name meant little to the world now, but it meant everything to him. He would walk to his fate with his head high, no matter how they attempted to wield him.

Is that—bloody hell—is that Harry fucking Potter?

Would he never escape these people? If they sent Potter for him, he could only assume they sent the Weasel after Granger. Shacklebolt was never one to forgo the opportunity to twist optics in his favour. Beside Potter shuffled a Ministry official in sombre robes, clutching a scroll and glancing about nervously as though he feared Death Eaters might spring from the hedgerows at any moment,

The absolute tosser.

He descended the stone stairs. The Ministry official’s head snapped up, and he flinched at Draco’s approach. Potter stood at the bottom of the stairs, his green eyes locked on Draco’s grey. Neither spoke. Draco wondered, not for the first time, if anyone would ever look at him without suspicion again.

“Malfoy.” Potter’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.

Standing before him, his old schoolyard nemesis was nearly unrecognisable from the gangly boy with broken glasses and wild hair. In his place stood a man—taller, broader, his rough edges smoothed away by time and hardship. Those verdant eyes carried a weight far heavier than his twenty-two years should bear. But, he supposed, the whole of their generation’s eyes must look that way to some degree.

“You know why we’re here?” Potter asked, his voice grim.

“Of course I do, Potter.” It took every ounce of Draco’s self-control not to let his lip curl into that familiar sneer.

“Will you come with us willingly?”

Draco hesitated, his mind racing through final calculations for any possible escape. Run? How far would they pursue him—across the continent? To America? No… he had wrestled with this very question years ago when he made the deal for his release. Everything he had left was here, on these grounds. His mother lay in the crypt, her roses the only remnant of her presence in the world. He couldn’t abandon her. He wouldn’t risk being parted from her.

And if he broke parole—no, it wasn’t worth it. He had more to lose than Granger did, and she would need his protection now more than ever. Although after what happened last night, she might be the one they’d have to drag in kicking and screaming.

Potter pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Malfoy, please don’t make this harder on all of us than it needs to be.”

Despite his best efforts, Draco’s lip began to curl, his nostrils flaring. So much for maintaining his composure. “Hard on all of us, is it?” His voice dripped with disdain. “Tell me, Potter—who was your match? Has it been hard on you? Does she loathe you? Does she sully your good name like I will Granger’s?”

To his utter shock, Potter’s face softened. “Daphne, as I’m sure you know, Malfoy.”

When his eyes met Draco’s again, they hardened to flint. “And I’ll ask you to refrain from making any comments about my wife.”

You could have knocked Draco flat with a gently Leviosaed feather. Potter—happy with his match? Surely not. Theo had mentioned it, but Draco had dismissed it as Theo’s particular brand of exaggeration. Before Draco could process this revelation, someone cleared their throat. Both men turned as the Ministry official unrolled his scroll, slipped on a pair of spectacles, and squinted between them before reading aloud.

“Draco Lucius Malfoy, you are in violation of Wizarding Law 23.19, henceforth known as the Forcible Alliance for Reproduction and Civil Engagement, enacted by the Wizengamot on February 1, 2003, for the purpose of—”

Draco scoffed loudly, cutting off the bureaucrat mid-sentence. “Honestly, are you telling me that two months in, not a single soul has noticed this law’s acronym is FARCE? You can’t seriously expect me to believe this is legitimate. Such breathtaking oversight in something as basic as nomenclature doesn’t inspire confidence in governmental capabilities.”

The official blinked, clearly still not grasping the catastrophic wordplay. He looked every bit as dense as his department’s title suggested. The crest on his robes displayed the embroidered initials D.I.M., the letters shimmering pink and gold in magical thread, an irony completely lost on him.

Potter snorted. Their eyes met, and for the first time, an odd flicker of understanding passed between them.

“Regardless, young Lord Malfoy,” the man stammered, “you stand in contempt of court. You can come willingly, turn yourself in, or Mr Potter will be forced to restrain you. Either way, you will be brought before the Wizengamot.”

Draco understood the finality of the situation, and he would never, under any circumstance, submit to chains again.

He exhaled slowly. “Very well, gentlemen; let us discover what this FARCE has in store, shall we?”

With that, Draco seized both the DIM official and Potter, turned on the spot, and Apparated off the manor grounds, straight to the Ministry, to confront his fate.