Chapter 1 (bonus chapter)
She took a quick walk by the beach to clear her mind before deciding there was no use in continuing to beat around the bush. It was time to get to the last of the scrolls she was sent. When she got back to her apartment she fed Crooks his dinner and tidied up her desk so she’d have a place to work. The scroll was a relatively thick bundle and it had a vial of some kind stuffed inside of it so she wasn’t sure how long this was going to take. She tied back her hair into a ponytail, pushed up her shirt sleeves, and cracked her knuckles before picking apart the sash on the scroll and unfurling it; separating the different pieces of parchment, and setting aside the vial.
Compatibility Studies:
Please fill out the provided paperwork and return it to the ministry by the 15th of June, 2002. Below you will find 50 questions of varying degrees in terms of personal information, please note that these parchments are charmed to prevent any misrepresentation or lying while answering. There will also be an additional 25 questions about your potential as a parent, a page requiring a drop of blood for magical core testing and fertility gauging, and finally, a page that acts as a camera of sorts to report back to the ministry your abilities as a wizard or witch. Each will be explained further as you reach the start of a new section.
These questions along with the other tests will help us to determine who in our society would be most compatible with you in terms of personality, magical strength, and genetic potential.
If you identify as Gay or wish to be partnered with someone of the same sex please indicate so here _. Please note that doing so does not exclude you from participating in this law or from completing the rest of the compatibility study. While we will work to put you with someone compatible with you, the studies will also help us to put two sets of partners (4 individuals) who have similar compatibility together with the intent of supplying surrogate couples in the hopes of happy, healthy children in a good co-parenting situation.
If you identify as a gender you were not assigned at birth please indicate so here _. Please note that failure to disclose this information could result in jail time and/or obscuring the results of your tests.
If you know for a fact that you are infertile please indicate so here _. Please note that mediwitches will be checking to ensure fertility levels of every individual regardless of checking this box, and in doing so you are still required to fill out these forms and are not excluded from the marriage law or its parameters.
Flipping to the next page and picking up her quill, Hermione started to work through the questions. There were some simple ones; obviously, her full name and birthdate were needed, they also asked about what her favourite and least favourite subjects had been in school, did she continue on with further schooling after graduation, where was she employed, what would she classify as a romantic date, how would she describe herself to someone else, did she prefer beauty or brains? Those were somewhat easy to fill out, as they required little thinking and she could come up with answers relatively quickly.
6. What qualities would you like to see in your dream partner? Ideally, a partner would be reliable, trustworthy, honest, intelligent, and handsome. However, if I had to settle, I could live with a partner who was at least reliable, honest, and intelligent.
11. How do you spend your free time? I spend my free time indulging in a good novel or tome, listening to the wizarding wireless, and relaxing with a cup of tea watching the sunrise or set.
13. Would you say you are more of an emotional thinker or a rational thinker?Emotions should never take the place of rationality. Rational thought is the only way for society to further itself, especially if emotions are far removed from what would realistically be best in a given situation. One should never indulge in letting their heart take precedent away from their brain, otherwise, how are they any different from say a monkey or a dog?
27. If you were having a bad day, would you rather be left alone to heal, or would you like to talk it out?I often say I’d like to be left alone when I am angry, as I tend to become slightly irrational and don’t need people to see me like that. However, I normally don’t like feeling so isolated when I’m in a dark mood. I need someone to vent and talk things over with.
46. Do you forgive people easily or do you hold grudges against them? I hold grudges against people when the situation warrants it. I am not so stuck in my ways that I cannot see reason and forgive people who earn forgiveness, but if a grievance is vast I would not be likely to offer forgiveness. So I guess, no I do not forgive people easily, and yes I do hold grudges against them.
Other questions were slightly more complex but still relatively easy to answer. These included things like how many children she eventually wanted. Would she prefer to live in the country or the city? Where did she see herself in ten years, who inspired her most, and did she believe in saving for the future or spending to live in the moment?
22. Without magical interference, do you believe in luck or only hard work?While luck has not been empirically disproven, I doubt the phenomenon exists outside of mere chance. Luck would indicate that someone is getting the best possible outcome in every situation, however, it is much more likely that individuals only experience chance. And with chance comes the 50/50 results. These could be good or bad, and not consistently just favourable outcomes. So, to answer, no I do not believe in luck (aside from cheating chance with charms or being aided by Felix Felicis). I do believe that the only way to get ahead in life (honestly) is through hard work and dedication.
31. Do you enjoy being the centre of attention, or would you prefer to be left alone?Having had to deal with scrutiny and admiration in the eyes of the public growing up as one of Harry Potter’s best friends, I can honestly say that I have no desire to be in the spotlight. I would much rather work “behind the scenes” if you will, where I can have only a few people who matter paying attention to me. I would like for my achievements to be public knowledge, like any potential future legislation achievements. But I think for now at least, anonymity is best for me.
47.a. If there were a quarrel between your parents and your partner, who would you side with? Any position I have would be entirely dependent upon the situation at hand. I would side with whoever had the most rational argument or whoever was right. Statistically speaking, it’s most likely that my partner would be in the right, however, situationally those statistics start to vary.
47.b. How would you react if your partner sided differently than you? If my partner was making rational decisions then it is unlikely they would side against me. That said, I have dated someone in the past who did what their mother said almost religiously and never took my side in the handful or so of arguments she and I got into. While this is incredibly annoying, if it doesn’t occur often it wouldn’t be a deal-breaker or put me off from the relationship.
And then there were a couple of questions that were just downright annoying for her to answer. Why did the ministry need to know what her biggest sexual fantasy was, or what kind of kinks she had? How was she supposed to know the reasons for unsuccessful relationships without more context when each relationship was different from start to end? And why the hell did she need to tell the ministry whether or not she could cook or manage a home? What was this, the middle ages? She grit her teeth in annoyance when she came across that one, especially when at the end of the question had been parentheses asking about other forms of housekeeping in which they separated hired help, maids, and house elves into different categories like they weren’t all sentient, living beings that deserved the same amount of respect and pay rates as each other.
9. What form would your boggart take if you met one today?
She cringed at this one, expecting that whoever was going over these forms would probably be getting a lot of people who answered with Voldemort (or, well, He Who Must Not Be Named, as even now after his death most refused to speak his name) or some variant on death, the war, or death eaters.
My boggart has changed very little since my school days. In third year Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Remus Lupin, we met a boggart in a controlled setting and mine was Professor, now Headmistress, McGonagall giving me a failing grade. Today, my boggart would be a ministry official telling me that I no longer possessed magic. That is my biggest fear, that I’ll wake up one day and no longer be magical, resulting in me being kicked out of wizarding society. Both my current fear and my past boggart indicate I am most scared of being left isolated in the muggle world with no access to the Wizarding World and not being able to fit in with muggles anymore.
Finally finishing the first section of the paperwork she shook out her hand and continued on; groaning and rolling her eyes as the next scroll came to the front of her pile.
The following section will ask you hypothetical questions in regards to your future as a parent, the first 10 you must answer in the same way you answered the previous questions. The final 15 you will rate with your level of agreement (do not/somewhat don’t/neutral/somewhat agree/agree). This will give us an idea of your parenting style and how you and your partner will interact while raising children (bearing in mind you will be required to have at least three). How was she supposed to know what her top priority would be as a parent? Or how she was meant to discipline a misbehaving child? And of course, she had expectations of her child in school, what adult wouldn’t expect great things from children within reason? Completing these questions in much shorter answers than she had previously and finishing the “Scale of Agreeability” questions (and gee if those weren’t identical to the format of those crummy magazines that she’d hypothesized these tests would resemble) she turned to the final parchment.
This last section will rely on your magic so please have your wand handy. There is a piece of parchment that has been provided to you with a large black circle on it, please set this up with the dot facing you as it will act as a camera for Ministry use in gauging magical ability. When you have done so and are ready to continue, tap the paper twice with your wand and say, “Recordarentur Magia Mea.” Following the directions as best she could, she set about completing the final bit of this stupid test. She was more than eager to be done as she’d spent the last two hours working on it. The first few questions were things that looked to be taken out of her old school books; Summon a sickle or a knut to you. Cast a disillusionment charm on yourself, hold it for 30 seconds, and then re-illusion yourself. Some were more interesting than that;
26. Cast Snufflifors on a book or spare bit of parchment. Write in the provided space what colour mouse your book or parchment took and if known what kind of mouse it turned into.When I cast the Snufflifors spell, my book turned into a gold-coloured mouse. I do not know the breed but its fur was lightly waved (similar to curly hair on a human).Please now reverse the previous spell.
27. Cast Avis and in the provided space please describe what the colouring of your bird flock took and how many appeared.Upon casting Avis the birds that appeared looked to be a blend of blue and dark purple and numbered about 30. Please vanish the birds you conjured.
32. Please cast Fumos (be sure to open a window), and then using your wand charm the air to dissipate the smoke (we recommend using the vacuum spell or other such cleaning charms).
She had a slightly harder time getting rid of the smoke than she originally anticipated as she hadn’t had any need to learn the proper incantations for the cleaning charms but after a few minutes, she was successful in vanishing the majority of it.
39. What smell does Amortentia take for you? Answer in the provided space.
(Please use the provided vial for accuracy. Take note that the parchment will not allow you to write any further without attempting to open the vial.) {Note that the amount provided in the vial is enough for a smell but is in such a minuscule amount that it will not be effective in potioning someone or use in duplication.}
Curious if she really couldn’t do anything further without opening it, she put her pen to the paper and attempted to write. When nothing happened she smirked, examining the parchment to see if she could deduce what kind of properties it had been imbued with or what charm had been cast on it to lead to the inability to continue without following directions. Reaching for the small phial she pulled out the cork stopper and took a small whiff. It smelled similar to what she could remember from the fifth year, though it distinctly lacked the previous scent of Ron’s shampoo.
The provided Amortentia smells to me like fresh parchment or old books, mixed with citrus of some kind (perhaps pear or apple?), peppermint, and freshly mowed grass.
She continued on, pausing occasionally to think or perform a spell before she reached the final question.
50. Please cast “Expecto Patronum” and write in the provided space what form your Patronus takes. (If you have not recently performed the spell please note that it can change following emotional upheaval and may have been affected by the war). As was the case previously, the parchment will not allow you to continue writing until after you have performed the spell. If you are unsuccessful in performing the spell after three attempts it will allow you to continue on. If this is the case please indicate on the paper that you were unable to perform the spell.
Standing up, Hermione tried to find a happy memory that hadn’t been tainted by the war or her parent’s passing. She smiled softly and settled on a memory from the summer between fifth and sixth year. She could feel the warm weather and the light breeze on her skin, as she laughed with Ginny and Bill at something Charlie had said while her parents and the Weasleys exchanged stories from their children’s childhoods over the picnic Mrs Weasley had prepared. She could still picture Harry, Ron, and the Twins chasing around a quaffle on the Weasley's old brooms playing a quick game of keep away after lunch. It was the last time she had felt truly at peace in knowing that the world was inherently good and was one of the last days she still felt like an adolescent with no real cares in the world. She raised her wand and murmured, “Expecto Patronum,” waiting for her friendly little otter to burst forth and greet her. What happened was something that broke her concentration and made her gasp aloud.
Instead of the otter she had grown used to having around, a smallish fox had burst forth before quickly dissipating. Frowning slightly in confusion, she brought about her memory again and cast the spell, more prepared this time for the unexpected. When once more the little arctic fox appeared, she didn’t lose her concentration and studied the creature instead. It seemed to be playful still but slightly more reserved as it trotted around her in a circle, examining her as she examined it. Seemingly content with what it saw, it ghosted a head bump against her shin before coming to a stop in front of her, sitting down as it regarded her with a soft yap. She brought her wand down from its outstretched position and looked it over. It was quite pretty, seemed at ease with her, and didn’t seem as childish as her otter had been at times. Smiling at it in greeting she knelt down and ran her hand over its head while imagining its soft fur. A yowl sounded from somewhere else in the room and she looked over her shoulder to see Crookshanks standing there with his tail in the air and all his fur sticking up. She laughed at the sight as the fox, which was only slightly bigger than the cat, trotted over towards the fluff ball. Crooks ran from the room spitting and hissing behind him, and the fox fixed her with what could be best described as a canine smile. Laughing, she let the fox disappear once more before sitting back at her desk.
Quite peculiarly, my Patronus has taken the form of an Arctic Fox. This is abnormal, as last I had checked (shortly after the war), it was still a River Otter.
Looking over everything she’d written, Hermione collected all the parchments into a pile before tying it in one of the ribbons she’d taken off of it. She set the bundle aside to be sent out when next she went into town and could aparate to the Australian owl post building.
～Edited 19th Jan, 2022