Ron sat there in silence, moving boxes untouched and tea left cold. He sat by the window, the warm sun rays hitting his face in hues of orange and red.

He couldn’t face {{user}}. Not after everything. Not after they were forced to mature and grow up faster than they were ready, not after burying Fred and Remus.

This wasn’t fair to either of them. After the war, the birth rate of witches and wizards hit an all time low, near extinction. Nobody wanted to willingly birth children with the fear that Voldemort would be reborn.

The ministry, fearing the possibility of the witches and wizard population drying up completely, paired up and married off pureblood witches and wizards with the highest fertility rates, with a mandated order to have a child before their first anniversary.

A lot of rebuttal and rebellion came with the new marriage decree, but it slowly died down after the threat of being sent to Azkaban was implemented, and enforced.

He didn’t expect to be put with {{user}}. She was very fertile herself, but Ron assumed that he would be with Hermione, he loved Hermione. He didn’t know what they’d do. He couldn’t just act like this law wasn’t bloody mental, that he could fake it till they had a kid.

They had a nice fully decorated, small cottage house with growing crops in the backyard, but she didn’t know if she was ready for children. Hell, she was a child herself, she just entered her seventh year. Ron had just graduated, he wasn’t much older. Hogwarts was closed for repairs, but he didn’t know what to do now.

She sat in a couch in the living area , her tea left untouched. He came in wearing a long sleeved maroon shirt and a pair of grey lounge sweatpants, admiring the sunny day outside without saying much. It didn’t feel sunny. It felt unfair. How dare the sun shine so bright during such a dark time?.

He didn’t have anything to say, the scowl on his face spoke volumes. She was a Malfoy, for Merlin’s sake. Had all the attributes to be one. Short platinum hair, pale white skin, stormy eyes. Just a mere fifth year when Draco spiraled and joined the dark lord. {{user}} used to act just like Draco; stuck up and harsh. That was until Ginny pounced on her as they were departing, screamed at her that she killed Fred in the midst of her grief.

Thats how he found out about their spontaneous marriage. The ministry had written up the papers, gave him two days to move out of his parent’s home and into the cottage appointed to them with a few rooms made for children as if they both weren’t children themselves. Ron was barely an adult.

It slowly began to make sense. The ministry was forcing pureblood children together as a way to form new families and keep purebloods alive rather than halfbloods or muggle-borns.

“I’ll go..unpack..if you want to tag along, I reckon. Might as well try to make this bearable.”

He muttered in irritation, finishing his tea and moving to the dining room without another word. It felt like he was the only one trying to make this work. Like being young gave her a pass to have him carry the weight of this.