9 am Meeting

Ana had not really expected to need to match folks that were farther along in life, if only because most folks seemed to have found someone by then. Seemingly, this was not the case. One Mr. Michael Tremaine had been matched with a maybe-friend of Ana's, Madeline Ross. If anyone had told her that her day would start with forcing someone she considered a friend into marriage, Ana would have laughed. and yet, this was her own fault. While the idea didn't settle well in her stomach, Ana wasn't about to change her mind about the law. Unless someone higher up than her decided to fight the law, Ana was content to let it just be.

She pushed open the door to the office and dropped her file on the desk. The problem with this meeting, Ana mused, is that the Ministry hadn't really taken into consideration that women who were older would have more trouble having children. She hadn't wanted to argue any points of the law, regardless of her opinions of them. If even she, whose suggestion and research kickstarted the movement, argued against it then the Ministry would never have gotten on even as well as they were then.

Granted, where some matches had gone poorly, others were working out rather well. Some couples even seemed excited by the whole thing. Her mind flashed between those she had met with before, wondering to herself why she didn't just make Elijah or Gideon do all of the meetings. With a sigh, Ana sank into her chair to await the arrival of Michael and Madeline. Having left the door open, Ana flipped open her file, lifted the coffee cup to her lips, not bothering to look up until she heard someone enter.

There were very few things Madeline decided to argue against nowadays, considering no one would really want to listen to her since she was older and some would tkhin she had just finally lost her mind because of her age. However, this was something she didn't want to keep quiet about. Call her childish or whateger else because at her age she should just accept whatever she was told to do, but this was something Maddie did not want to cooperate with. She found it almost completely stupid to just pair people off like they were not human and didn't get to choose for themselves.

While she would normally bring these points up to everyonen today Maddie had a special person to bring them up too. She hadn't expected it to be Ana who paired her off to someone, but she wasn't going to keep quiet about it with her. Especially since she didn't think she should have to amrry anyone at this point in her life. One year. She was just one damn year away from being saved from this stupid law.

"If only I'd passed the year without this stupid law. Then I wouldn't have to worry about it at all." She muttered to herself as she walked toward the Minister's office. She really hoped this would be over with quickly and she could go back to doing what she wanted after that. Of course she knew it wouldn't be quite like that anymore. After this meeting she had to get married and nothing would be the same anymore.

That really sucked.

She noticed the door was open and with a light knock on the door as she entered, Maddie looked at Ana. "Why is this even legal?" She askedn half jokingly.

Michael Tremaine had not found any situation he couldn't get out of if he really wanted to. Part of the solution to getting out was in the timing. Timing was everything.

He did not relish going to Azkaban for something as ridiculous as marriage. Commitment phobic as he was, the catburglar in him hated jail far more. And the truth was, he felt sorry for whatever woman they had trapped into this farce along with him. He wasn't going to condemn some other innocent into the cell beside him because he hadn't had the grace to appear.

And then, there were the distinct advantages that a man like Michael could find in getting a bit closer to the problem. The marriage law was clearly a problem. And he decided that perhaps getting a face or a name that he could pursue might help Robert in finding out who had designed this sabotage.

So, he considered this as a mission of sorts--a mission for his family. He dressed in dark gray slacks, a dark gray cashmere sweater, and a well tailored tweed jacket with suede elbow patches. He had decided against a winter coat and instead had added a two toned winter neck scarf.

He made his way to the ministry, carrying a small package, and up to Eli's office. He stopped at Millie's desk and gave her the package of very quirky magical candies to her. Millie knew how to appreciate quirky things, and Michael had thought of her and her zest for life when he'd seen the selection of oddball candies.

He was motioned to Eli's office. The door was open, so he simply knocked on the open door as he went in. There were two women there. One was, presumably assigned to carry out this deed. The other was, presumably, his unwilling fiancée--whoever she was. He could see in her eyes that she had a fierce dislike for this whole proceeding. He didn't disagree.

If the old saying that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend," held true, then the two of them were already allies. He had no ill will towards her.

"I am Professor Tremaine," he said quietly. Then he spoke specifically to the woman who'd called the meeting. "I believe you demanded my presence?"

Ana looked up at Madeline's entrance, giving an apologetic smile in greeting. “Morning,” she gestured to the chair across the desk from her. “Believe it or not, I've got the research to back this law. I'm not sure if I'm going to have chance to explain it, though. The fact of the matter is that it really is for the best, and although one might hope I could, I cannot keep my friends from being involved.”

That's what Ana considered them, strangely enough. For a woman with few friends, Maddie was one she held quite dear to her. After this whole arrangement, who knew what would happen, though? In the end it wasn't up to her who people were matched with. Either way, there was no way to keep certain people from escaping the law. She herself would be required to go on with it if she divorced Pavel. Instead, the two had seemed to silently agree on their choice to hang on to each other as a means of keeping out of the hassle of being matched. It didn't matter, though, if they divorced. Ana had a strange feeling that they would end up matched anyway. She was the right blood status to be matched with him after all. So, if one thought about it, she actually was following the law herself. Children and all.

Another opening of the door revealed the man Ana's files described. He seemed fairly put together compared to some people she had dealt with as of late. At least the two brought in for the meeting probably wouldn't make Ana want to pull her hair out.

“Good morning, Professor.” She greeted, deciding that being amenable was her best option. “Please have a seat.” Ana chose to ignore his question entirely and move on to addressing the both of them and why the meeting had been called. “I am glad to see you're both on time. This meeting shouldn't take too very long. The point of it is to go over the plan for the next month or so of your lives and prepare you for the steps you'll need to take. We will also need to conduct fertility tests before you go. If you haven't any questions right away, we can just jump into it.”

Maddie really wanted nothing more than to get this over with. She had better things to do that be in this office, in this meeting, being told that she had no choice than to marry someone she didn't even know that well. The woman sighed and shook her head. She had no real questions that needed to be answered at that moment. They'd all probably be answered anyways.

It was a little obvious that Maddie was scared of something. But what she feared was not the person she was marrying, he seemed nice enough, but the thought of marriage itself. She didn't want to marry, honestly. She never liked the idea of being tied down to one person for the rest of her life, not that she liked to jump around anyway. She just didn't want anyone to control her as if she was their property or something.

"Can we just move along?" she asked, wanting the meeting to be over already, even though they had just arrived. Ana had already said it wouldn't take long, so the sooner they began, the sooner they would be allowed to leave. Too bad they'd have to constantly see each other afterward, and they wouldn't be able to forget about the entire thing, like it never even happened.

Michael sat down beside his, presumably, bride to be.  He intended to ask questions. He intended to find out, upfront, what exactly was expected.  He also wanted to know who the woman was before him and what her connection was to this law.  What right did she have to be order him to marry and procreate? What was her position here? And what right did she think she had to take over the Deputy Minister's office? Surely there was a more appropriate office space for her here, unless she had aspirations for power? And that was something Michael did want to know. He wanted to know what the motives were for her to be doing this.

"I do have a question, actually," Michael said. "Introductions, please? Forgive me, but before you tell me how the Ministry intends for me to live my sex life, do please tell me who I'm doing it with."

He looked over at the woman he was to be paired with. He did not intend to be rude to her nor embarrass her.  He merely felt the need to be candid, not only because of his own distaste of the whole business, but also because he truly wanted to know, right from the start, how far the Ministry intended to go into his bedroom.

"No offense intended, surely," he said to the woman beside him. She was beautiful, one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen. He didn't know anything about her not what sort of a person she was, not if they had anything in common, nothing. And it had not gone unnoticed on his part that she wasn't an ingénue. He did not want the Ministry putting her life or health in danger by forcing her to have children. His children. He wasn't sure whoever had put this law forward gave a damn about that, though. He wasn't sure they had a choice, even if it were a risk.

Ana nodded, turning back to her papers and preparing to go over her over-practiced speech. She was interrupted, however, by Michael’s question. Blinking at him, she realized she hadn’t actually given any names. Ana was just used to people knowing each other one way or another. Generally she could tell right away how the meeting was going to go. At this point, though, Ana couldn’t tell if either of the people sitting in front of her would react badly to all of this.

“Oh. Absolutely.” Ana nodded, sitting up even straighter. “Michael, this is Madeline Ross. And Maddie, this is Michael Tremaine.”

Glancing between the two, she waited for any signs of retaliation before starting her general and painfully well-known introductory speech. Although both parties seemed rather snarky, neither seemed quite ready to get themselves into a situation where they had to be taken to Azkaban.

“Alright. So, in the next four weeks you’re going to have to go through a series of steps. That includes this meeting and fertility tests for the both of you before you leave today, as well as a wedding by the end of four weeks. If, in two week’s time you have any more questions we can set up a follow-up meeting to take care of things. The marriage, of course, will have to be filed with the Ministry to ensure that the license goes through and everything is taken care of.”

Ana went over her words in her mind, making sure she had said everything that needed to be said. Realizing she had left out a bit, she continued. “After the wedding we’ll need you to go through with a few check-ups and things with St. Mungo’s just in case. Of course, you know about the three year rule regarding children.”

She nearly frowned at the realization that she was basically telling someone who she considered her friend that she was required to go through the things needed to bear children with this man she didn’t know. Who she had never met before. But such was the rule of the Marriage Law, and there would be no changing it now, even for people Ana cared about.

"Just one moment," Michael said. He intended to give Ms. Levski a bit of pushback because she surely was expecting it. "Forgive my questions, but, Ms. Ross and I are neither one adolescents. I believe we deserve some adult aged, frank answers. Surely the ministry has not grown feeble minded enough to believe that marriage is any test of fidelity or of child bearing.

"If its offspring you want, why not simply be honest about this legalized prostitution you're soft peddling now and simply order us to go have a good proper shag? Or legalize that black market fertility potion. That stuff can impregnate any magical source. Could bloody well impregnate the night bus if you used it for that. It doesn't discriminate. Feed it to the lot of us and be done with it. That's no more immoral than what you're all doing right now.

"What's the point in the marriage then? Surely you lot aren't fool enough to believe that a wedding creates happy families.

"As for our bodily bits, a medical examination by some hack at St. Mungos is proof of nothing. I would much prefer no one be touching any of my anatomy unless they have the proper training and practice to do it. No offense, but not even you."

Ana frowned darkly at Michael’s questioning, trying to steel herself. She had an awful habit of letting out bits of information she oughtn’t when angry, and now was certainly not the time to do that. The questions, though, only managed to fuel her frustration and annoyance, leading her to glance warily in Maddie’s direction. Hopefully Ana’s snide comments in return for Michael’s questions wouldn’t turn her friend away. In the end, this meeting was probably going to be the downfall of their friendship regardless; thus, Ana decided that she didn’t quite care about whether or not these words added to the problem.

“Allow me to explain something to you, Mr. Tremaine,” Ana began, forgetting to add his title to the beginning of his name. “The point of this law is not to produce a generation of children without complete families. We do not wish that on anyone. Hence our matching people with those suited for each other.”

She lifted an eyebrow rather sardonically before continuing, her anger getting the better of her as it so often seemed to do in these meetings. “I will most certainly not be touching any part of you, aside from perhaps shaking your hand – though I daresay you might be adverse to that as well.” After passing him another stern look, she cut to the part he seemed concerned about.

“The research that went into this law showed that more and more children without magical abilities were being born into magical families each year. In order to prevent that, as well as to improve the population of people with magical abilities, we have determined the best way to make things better. This is by ensuring that Purebloods aren’t restricted to marrying Purebloods by their family’s preference. Instead, they will be able to improve the possibility of strong magical ability.”

Ana took a breath, allowing herself to register the fact that she had actually gone and explained everything. Most people forgot to ask about the real reasoning behind everything. “Does that answer your question sufficiently? Or shall we sit here for the remainder of your meeting and continue to waste time?”

Michael found himself uncharacteristically bristling hard at her answer.  It had nothing to do with the tone of it. He had expected snide in return for snide.  In fact, it had struck a nerve.  More than that, it had tromped on a nerve inside Michael--one he hadn't seen coming. A deep wound that had once been healed by the deep loyalty and affection of friends now ripped open new and fresh again after over half a century of healing.  

For a fraction of a second, he felt like a first year again, sitting in Dumbledore's office as the professor got too close to family issues that Michael had wanted left alone. In the end, Dumbledore had won out of kindness.  Michael wasn't offering up any similar chances for Levski. And, like the wounded boy that was still within, Michael 'armored up' quickly and instinctively. It was an icy shield that was impenetrable except by those who truly loved him.  

"This is all about squibs? Seriously?  You surely can't be this big a fool. A patsy, perhaps, then," Michael hissed, knowing his own potential for emotion that was over the top. He was trying to reel in his emotion, look somewhat restrained, and present some sort of decorum.  His mood shifted, rather deliberately, from anger to simply emptiness and sadness--sadness at what his world had become.  "Either you dreamed up this fairy tale thinking or you work for someone else who did.  Either way, you have no bloody idea what makes a complete family--outside of biological mathematics. Nor do you have any guarantee that a man and a woman joined together for sex will provide any stable environment for a child.  

"Have you actually read any of those dossiers you have on your desk to learn anything from the history of unhappy wizarding families? Do you know the hell that wizards and witches can inflict upon unwanted offspring? Do you have any idea how many wizarding children you are sentencing to a lifetime of absolute misery by doing this? This sad little scheme is all about power and an attempt to preserve it, isn't it?  

"I hope you're planning on resurrecting the wizarding orphanage, because the demand for that is going to increase as well.

"And, while you're at it, do figure out, will you, what you will do when the matching of purebloods to muggles and halfbloods delutes the magical bloodline so much that our wizarding abilities all peter out one mismatch at a time.  Go ahead. Keep tinkering with magical genetics.  Keep playing at this, and all you'll have are squibs.

"But, maybe," Michael said, feeling that this whole thing was pathetic, "that's the real agenda here. Perhaps Ms. Ross and I should simply take our leave and start immediately doing our patriotic part to preserve the empire, shall we?"