Dumbledore popped a lemon drop into his mouth. He let the lemony goodness fill his already happy mood up even more. He had a plan and it was epic in his mind. It was Harry's seventh year and the brat was showing too much independence again. He needed the brat to remain at Hogwarts and so far the boy had refused to listen to reason.
Originally, he had been hoping to have Voldemort defeated by now but the battle hadn't come as of yet. After the defeat, the boy was to be an Auror. He gnashed his teeth as he remembered the boy changed his electives to Runes and Arithmancy to become a wand maker. The boy refused to date Ginny. Ron and Hermione were trying but they were failing.
The marriage law was his last resort. He glanced at the contract he had drafted and was eager to speak to the brat. He was going to get him back into the mold he created and Severus was the perfect choice to do it. Their mutual hatred would work for him. He made sure to include that the boy was to reside at Hogwarts and start Auror training. He didn't need a savior who was a wand maker. Where was the glory in that? Where was the fame? Where was the money? Money was another reason this would work better as well. If the pair were married and oops, died in the upcoming war, he would be entitled to get their vaults. Oh, how he loved when a plan made him more money.
Dumbledore heard the chime indicating that someone was at his Gargoyle. He looked up and grinned. Severus and Harry were at the bottom of his stairs. Oh, two-for-one special with the bonus of making them miserable while getting his way. He felt his excitement grew as he was keeping his pawn where he could watch him.
Harry and Severus entered the room. They sat in the pair of chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk. "My boys, I have a bit of sad news to impart. The Ministry passed the marriage law bill. I have drafted up a marriage contract for you to protect Harry. I fear for who he would be matched up with if the Ministry were to issue a partner for him."
"Between us?" Harry looked floored. Dumbledore inwardly grinned.
"Him?"
Severus looked ready to explode but Dumbledore wasn't surprised by that aspect. "Yes, I have it here and I just need your signatures. Well, technically, I just need your signature since I am Harry's magical guardian." Dumbledore pushed the contract toward Severus and missed the raised eyebrow by Harry.
"I am not marrying him. He is a Potter."
"I am aware of how you feel Severus but we must protect Harry. We can't have him married off to a Death Eater or one of his supporters. I am sure we can keep this low-key and issue a marriage statement without your names being linked. I am not sure how long we will be able to keep it hidden but we will do our best." Dumbledore would make sure it was leaked out after the pair were married. Severus had no living relatives and therefore, everyone would go to the remaining spouse even if he had to seal Severus' will in a private session to guarantee it.
"I want to read this contract as well." Harry pulled out his wand to make a copy.
Severus didn't bother to debate the issue and made a copy for Harry. He handed a copy to Harry as Dumbledore was attempting to prevent it from happening. Severus started to read the contract. He started frowning as he read it. Harry's magic was leaking how as he read it. "I am not agreeing to any of this."
"Albus, are you nuts? I will not follow anything in this agreement. You have Harry almost treated as a slave."
"It is for the best. I don't want you to be in danger when Tom discovers this and Harry needs the discipline and structure you will need for his training to defeat Tom."
"I won't do it." Harry slammed the contract down. "You can't force me and I refuse to do it."
"You will find I can. If you don't do it, you will lose your magic." Dumbledore lost his grandfather act at Harry's refusal. He clamped down on his building anger. "It is for the greater good. You will honor it."
"No." Harry stood up, took the copy of the contract, and left the office before Dumbledore could react.
"I won't sign it either." Severus looked at the contract. "No one in their right mind would sign it. Did his friends read this before they signed it?" Severus was going to be slipping a lot of potions into their food and water if they did.
"Yes, they do understand it is for the greater good. I will speak to Harry later and he will sign it. You need to sign it now." Dumbledore wasn't worried about losing his mask in front of Severus. He had the man under his control. "I won't take no for an answer."
"No, Albus, I won't. If you want this done, you need to change things." Severus made another copy before leaving the office.
Three days later:
Dumbledore was getting worried. It was almost Halloween and he needed to have the marriage done so that no one in the Ministry would match Harry with a Death Eater or one of Voldemort's supporters. He had summoned Harry for another meeting. He had made sure his three pets worked on getting Harry to agree to the marriage.
Dumbledore wasn't surprised that Harry was on time and he smiled as the brat entered his office. "My boy, wonderful timing, please take a seat. We have much to discuss."
"It is about my marriage to Snape, no we don't. I won't marry him with that contract."
"You must or you will lose your magic." He thrust the contract forward. "As you can see, it is signed by everyone but you and Severus. Severus has agreed to wait to sign until the marriage since we don't want it leaked to the press beforehand." Yes, he was lying but he didn't care.
Harry pulled the contract to him. He picked up a quill and started to put lines through the parts he didn't agree with. He removed whole sections and added several things he wanted. "If he signs this version, I will too." He walked out.
Dumbledore cursed under his breath as he began to read the changes. The changes wouldn't do at all. Harry still wanted to be a wand maker and refused to submit to Severus.
Harry's POV:
Harry left Hogwarts. He had some goblins to visit. It was Severus' idea. Dumbledore thought the pair didn't talk to each other but after the fifth year and Severus seeing his memories, they had formed a deep friendship that they kept hidden. It had been Severus' idea to drop a few things to his so-called friends in secret to discover who was a true friend or not. It wasn't a surprise to realize that Neville, Luna, Dean, Seamus, Fred, George, and most of the DA were true friends while Hermione, Ron, and Ginny would report everything back to the old fart.
They had worked together to discover what Dumbledore had kept hidden from Harry including the Horcruxes, his vaults, and his titles. They couldn't do much while Harry was a student because of his age despite the Goblet of Fire without alerting the old fool. It was time to change the game, Harry thought. He would show Severus the revised contract and see what the man thought and what Dumbledore might do once he returned from Gringotts.
A week later (Sev POV):
HARRY POTTER SUES MINISTRY AND ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
by Rita Skeeter
Severus looked around the Great Hall after he read the headline. He wasn't surprised to see Harry wasn't present. He did see that the Annoying Trio was. Dumbledore's magic leaked out as Dumbledore read the headline. He started to read the article.
Our Savior, Harry Potter, is suing the Ministry of Magic for drafting a new Marriage Law that requires anyone under the age of twenty to be married. The new law called, Improvements To Benefit Magic, was passed three weeks ago in a special session. The new law has a special section that includes anyone in our world marrying by the time they graduate Hogwarts if they are currently students or by the time they are twenty if they aren't in a contract or betrothal agreement. The law requires that anyone with more than one title must produce a child for each title or more. If one member of the new pair can't produce a second child or become pregnant the marriage would be voided and a new partner will be issued.
The new law requires that the Ministry match any person not married by the end of the year which is less than three weeks away. The Ministry has no requirements listed for matching and from the list, I have seen already, it doesn't care if you are related to the person or not. There were some listed who were cousins and brother/sister. According to one Ministry worker, the plan is to match any pureblood with a half-blood if they are a dark family and if a neutral or light family, a muggle-born. When asked about brother/sister or cousins intermarriage, it was explained that due to the limit of purebloods who were light members, it was decided the closest matching pureblood.
Harry Potter is suing Albus Dumbledore for line theft (several charges), stealing (several charges), child endangerment (multiple charges), child neglect (multiple charges), illegal sealing of wills (four charges), illegal use of seats (four charges), and withholding his heritage (four charges). Madam Bones, the head of the DMLE, has also accepted evidence against the headmaster regarding these charges. One of my informants was able to confirm it was either her or the goblins when the charges were filed. I do wonder what the headmaster has done to earn the wrath of Gringotts and Harry Potter?
Another interesting bit of information I was able to gain from the goblins was the theft of funds and items from different vaults going to certain members of the Order of Phoenix without the knowledge of Harry Potter. The items and money will be returned with interest and penalties with the parties being notified this day.
Severus watched the students as four Gringotts owls flew into the Great Hall and landed in front of the two Weasleys and Granger while one landed in front of Dumbledore. The owls glared at the four until the letters were taken. Ron, being the idiot that he is, opened the letter. Dean Thomas read it over his shoulder. "You stole from Harry?"
"What?" The students looked at the other three. Dumbledore hadn't opened his letter and Severus watched as the man rose and almost dashed out of the Great Hall.
"Harry will fix this." Ginny answered. "After all, I am to be his wife and he would have wanted us to have the funds and stuff."
"He isn't interested in you. You have been following him like a crazed fan and he can't stand you. He bribes everyone in your year to keep you away from him. I know most of us to do it for free. There is a reason why you are known as Easy Breazy Weezy and it's not because of your personality." Seamus stood up. "You three make me ashamed to be a Gryffindor." Several of the Gryffindors rose and uttered the same sentiment before leaving.
Severus rose and headed to his quarters. He wasn't surprised to find Harry sipping some tea as he read the article. "How did it go?"
"As expected. I believe you will be summoned shortly to his office."
"I am aware. Madam Bones will be coming with me." Harry got up and walked over to Severus. He pushed back his left sleeve. The skin was bare. "He still has no clue that Voldemort has been dead for a year or that the special session was declared illegal since he failed to meet the requirements of one, again?"
"No. He has the utmost faith that everyone just believes the words that flow out of his mouth." Severus kissed Harry. "I was thinking of wearing a t-shirt on the last day of class but if he gets arrested, I might have to do it today."
"Go and change. I am making sure he is arrested. I used the memories in his pensive as well as our memories, Remus also submitted his, and Sirius was a bit hesitant until he saw the contract. Remus had to hold him back from coming here and killing Dumbledore. Sirius will be cleared of charges and Dumbledore will be facing charges of illegal use of his positions as well. The ICW is also interested in speaking to him. It seems someone paid a visit to Grindelwald."
"Oh, I wonder who?" Severus grinned as he was the one who converted Lucius to Harry's side two years ago. It was because of Lucius and the goblins they were able to obtain the rest of the Horcruxes and destroy Voldemort at Malfoy Manor. Three Hit Wizards, five Aurors, two Unspeakables, and some warrior goblins had Nagini dead within seconds followed by Voldemort two seconds later. The Unspeakables had crafted special bands that everyone could wear while Lucius had been adding wardstones into different parts of his Manor to prevent magic from being used once they were activated. Killing Voldemort had been easy but Nagini was the one they were worried about. However, Harry had suggested that Lucius make sure that the snake had eaten fresh food that Severus could slip some sleeping draughts into. It enabled them to take Nagini out without the snake being aware of a problem until they were in the room with their wands ready.
Lucius had been converted when Voldemort threatened his wife and Draco. While Lucius loved power and hated so many aspects of Dumbledore's ideas, he would never permit anyone to hurt his wife and son. Dumbledore failed to realize that none of the purebloods in the Wizenagamot had changed their views and attitudes with the disappearance of the Dark Mark. They were free.
Severus returned to the living area with a black t-shirt and muggle black jeans on. He wore his normal black boots. "Did Gringotts or Madam Bones discover why the rush for the marriages? I mean why the law?"
"According to Grindelwald, the reason was fame. Dumbledore did some ritual when he was eighteen and Grindelwald was sixteen. It was a ritual that would help them become famous. It has to be renewed every sixteen years on Halloween. The last time was my parents' death. As fame grows does the requirements to maintain that fame. He mentioned Tom Riddle was one of the requirements. The splitting of the souls on Halloween aided as well. I guess the first time Tom split his soul was an accident but it was done on Samhain. The last war provided a lot of power to the ritual and my name as well. Grindelwald mentioned that it started with the death of Dumbledore's sister. Grindelwald believes your death would have been a given. I agreed since there is an illegal marriage contract for me to marry Ginny as well."
"I reviewed the changes to the marriage contract you changed in Dumbledore's office. I have no problem with the contract." Severus leaned close to Harry. "We could still marry by the end of the year even if you are suing the Ministry."
Harry kissed Severus. "It won't be much of a suit. According to Madam Bones, none of the laws passed in any of the special sessions have been legal and will be dismissed. Fudge will be facing a lot of charges. Lucius is working with Madam Bones. Umbridge has already been arrested."
They didn't get to continue talking as a house elf arrived to hand Harry a note from Dumbledore. Harry opened the letter. He read it, handed it to Severus, and headed to the fireplace. "Time to remove the old fart. Madam Bones will be issuing a warning to his pawns about behaving."
"Excellent."
The day after Samhain:
Harry was sitting in the Great Hall reading the morning paper. Dumbledore had been sentenced to the vail. Sirius was declared innocent and free. Fudge was facing a trial next week with Kingsley acting as the interim Minister until a special election could be arranged. Harry glanced at Severus who was wearing his teaching robes but the man did push his sleeves up when crafting a potion. He winked at his future husband. Last night had been the first time that Harry could remember enjoying Samhain fully. He was going to have Severus show him that tongue trick again.