The biggest problem, perhaps, with contracts and their ilk are the ways they can be dissolved. Most contracts in the real world have some penalty if you break them. Another reason why you would think twice about breaking a contact is the potential legal fees when it goes to court. There is, of course, nothing canon says about wizard civil law. Assuming that wizarding civil law is dealt with in the same way as RL cases, a good story might be about someone, say Pansy Parkinson, finding out about this contract with the Potters which is about 2 generations old (James's father signed it with her grandfather for reasons), and realising that this can be used to bring back the family fortune, which was taken by the ministry upon finding out about her father's Death Eater status. She decides to wait until Harry gets engaged to Ginny, and then goes to court, claiming he has violated a provision of the contract, and hence must pay the penalty. Harry sics his own lawyers into seeking a loophole, and finding that he hasn't technically violated it yet (engagements can always be called off), and realising that the contact gives her a claim to <insert random Potter legacy here>, decides that it would be in his best interests to honour it. He decides that he's just going to marry her, and then arrange for her to get killed, or some other such provision by which one may get out of the contract without being penalised.

Pansy is shocked when he decides to honour it, and then calls off the engagement and marries her. She realises she should have waited until the wedding to call him on it. While married, both of them find out that the other isn't as bad as they thought he/she was, and then you can have some sappy romance story here.

How's that?

 

I think the closest real life comparison would be something like the situation of Henry VIII.

Prince Henry wasn't due to be King as he was a younger brother. His older brother Prince Arthur married Catherine of Aragon (daughter of the King of Spain) but died soon after, which made Henry the heir to the throne.

He also "inherited" his brother's marriage, as his father (Henry VII) signed a treaty with the King of Spain to remarry Catherine to Henry. After years of opposing the marriage he eventually married her after ascending to the throne.

(Of course, many years later they would divorce, with Henry claiming that the marriage had never been valid as it was in violation of scripture, despite the Pope approving it.)

EDIT: Aaaaand now I'm seeing how you could use this in HP.

Harry had a brother who was a year older than him. When Voldemort attacked, James went to flee with older brother, Lily went to flee with Harry. Voldemort kills James and older brother, then canon events happen with Lily and Harry. Harry taken to the Dursleys, everything else is pretty much the same except with the mention here and there of how terrible it is that Voldemort killed his brother too.

Harry then inherits the marriage of his older brother. It's not binding, but there's certain advantages to going ahead with it, and Harry's advisers all think he should do it.

Of course, this idea still has huge problems. Namely, you need to create a world in which there's good reason for families to plan to marry off their children at an early age. Secondly, you need to give a reason for Lily and James to accept this tradition, even though they're non-traditionalists. Thirdly, you need to give Harry pragmatic reasons to not immediately reject the possibility of marriage, and the same for his potential wife. As Sesc says, the effort involved in all of this worldbuilding just to make a marriage contract work is silly. It would only be worth it if it was just one part of a much greater AU world in which these conditions made sense (Lords of Magic verse, for example, could probably get away with this idea).

 

A forgotten contract might actually work in Harry's unique case. Think about it. He's the last Potter left. No other magical relatives. Imagine some random blood feud or something. It's the early 1900s when the individuals who made the contract were alive. Some or the other duel takes place between them. It's the 'n'th duel between them. They're both pacifists and agree that a marriage between the two families (Potter and Parkinson), the traditional way of doing things, is the best way to go ahead with such things. They agree that if one has a daughter and one has a son, then they will marry, regardless of the line which gets continued. If this doesn't work out, the next generation inherits it. They agree that it fizzles out after that.

Now James knows of the contract. However, since the next Parkinson is a male, there's no problem with him marrying Lily. Lily learns of the contract, is horrified, demands it be dealt with. But before anything can be done, Harry is orphaned.

Now the elder Parkinson has no wish to fulfill the contract, and neither does Pansy. She's in love with Draco, after all. However, circumstances change after the war and Papa Parkinson is in gaol. Things aren't working out between Draco and Pansy for some inane reason. Pansy's money is gone, Draco's money is gone. Pansy is about to sell the family manor and is searching through old papers to find something else to sell when she chances upon this contract and sees the stipulations. She knows that Harry is about to get engaged to Ginny. And she decides to take advantage of that.

I'm not saying this is a magically binding contract lying in his vault in Gringotts. It's like a normal contract. Doesn't get enforced by the state until either party demands it does. Till the engagement, neither party was. But now Pansy sees the advantage in actually enforcing it. Maybe even she wants to kill him off at the earliest possible opportunity and then abscond with the money. With both of them trying to kill each other, there are quite a few ways the story can develop.

 

I just thought of the best marriage contract fic idea.

Harry is obligated to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Dumbledore wants to keep Harry safe. An idea occurs to him: if somehow they could arrange for someone to compete in Harry's place, he would stay safe. And if Harry were to sign a marriage contract, he would be legally the same person as his wife in the eyes of the Goblet of Fire.

Dumbledore finds a suitable witch -- one who has the magical ability to complete the Tri-wizard tasks with ease... one Nymphadora Tonks.

Lol.

 

See, a marriage contract fic is pretty much lazy work. You can't really get it to work well. The point is that marriage agreements were actually quite common once upon a time, and union by marriage was usually done for mutual security. Is it logical? Hell no! But our ancestors did it anyway. And you would actually draw up such a contract because (I'm tempted to answer reasons, tbh) you need an excuse for peace with both parties trying to save face. A marriage contract gives that happy feeling of "Oh! they put aside their differences and had a grand happy union!"

Or if you need it to be a bit more legitimate, you can say that Grampa Parkinson had Papa Parkinson and Aunt Parkinson. But Aunt Parkinson died before reaching marriageable age, and the contract passed down to the only person capable of fulfilling it, Pansy. And not because of some provision already present in the contract, but because either Grampa Potter or Grampa Parkinson insisted that the families combine.

Though I have to ask, Sesc, is this getting more and more ridiculous or is it starting to actually make sense now?

 

Here's another fun idea:

During HBP, Pansy Parkinson's father is caught, arrested, and has his property stripped from him by the Ministry of Magic. Suddenly penniless after a lifetime of luxury, Pansy figures out her plan: she will marry some rich idiot who opposes Voldemort and inherit their wealth when they inevitably die.

And who was more certain to die than Harry Potter, Voldemort's hated nemesis whom he had sworn to kill several times? He was rather rich, too. Let the seduction of Harry Potter commence.

The poor boy never stood a chance, his teen libido overruling all sense and advice from friends. He signs a betrothal willingly, as Pansy refuses to have sex with him until he does so, teasing him to the brink of hormonal insanity.

The moment his signature is on the page she shows her true intentions and immediately cuts off all affection.

But Pansy's plan didn't work out as expected. Harry survived, and Voldemort fell. And now, post-DH, Pansy is left with a husband she disdains and Harry a mean wife who tricked him. Pansy won't let the betrothal go, because that would leave her poor once more, and Harry refuses to pay the penalty clause for breaking contract.

Each tries their hardest to make the other so miserable that they are forced to break contract. Who will break first? Or can the two of them learn to stand each other?

To feature withholding sex!Pansy, tease!Pansy, sleeping with Ginny!Harry, pretending to be a happy couple in public!Harry/Pansy.

 

I didn't go through the entire thread, so I don't know if my idea has already been brought up. In fact, Taure's post right above me came quite close.

Instead of making each other miserable, they try to kill each other in very inventive ways. This, of course, gives the author the opportunity to write about different magical devices, potions, complex traps or wards - or the spellwork required to nullify all there effects. Sort of like Mr. & Mrs. Smith. To make it even better, Harry has another lover/paramour, and this starts off a strange (anti?)romantic triangle.

This means, of course, that there has to be some change in the general, established wording of the contract. Maybe they can't outright spell each other to death. Or maybe there's no mention of a clause that states that they can't off each other. Or maybe they can off each other as long as they don't use the same wand they used to bind the contract, or something along those lines.

 

The need not to get caught and sent to Azkaban is a good limiting factor about how obvious they can be in trying to kill each other, DC.

 

In that case why not just have Tonks impersonate him during the Tasks?

 

It would be Harry not participating and thus a breach of contract.

 

There is that, of course. I'm talking about how the contracts often have clauses which state that neither party can kill or harm the other.

Of course, she can gift Harry a Basilisk egg that resembles a carriage clock. And Harry sends her a very familiar opal necklace in return.

 

Magical methods of murder or non-magical one, too.

 

In most countries, and i suspect magical britain to be the same, murdering someone automatically nullifies any inheritance claims the murderer might have had.

After reading the entire thread, i have come to agree with most here. Magical marriage contracts are a stupid plot device. just can't (sensibly) make it work.

If you are still shooting for something in that direction though, there IS an easy method to force a couple together. Simply use an old fasioned, non-magical arranged marriage.
Either have Sirius' name cleared, or have Dumbledore do it.

Better yet, have Sirius' innocence proven, he claims guardianship, everyone craps their pants, the ministry is dragged into it, Rita as well, (this is around the time of Triwizard, so it matches nicely) his sanity is called into question, bla bla before he can be declared temporaryly insane because of Dementor's effects, he arranges a marriage with X, to come into effect no later than 18th birthday of the younger party.

To that effect Harry and X are now betrothed, not married. Makes it more interesting anyway, methinks.

 

You know, I've often wondered. If Barty Crouch Jr. could confound the goblet into believing there are 4 schools, why did Dumbledore simply not confound it into believing that the 4th champion is already dead, or something similar to get Harry out?

Edit: This might bring us to a reasonable corollary. Contracts in the wizarding world are broken, 'cause all magical contracts can be subverted by a powerful enough confoundus charm. Hence even if there does exist a magical fanon-style contract, one simply has to confound it in order to get away scot-free.

 

1- Use real life examples of modern but traditional societies, like the japanese omiai custom. To me Wizard society is just as modern and complex as muggle society, it just went another path with different priorities and customs. You can give it an even more traditional spin, using the today forgotten custom of taking in account the clan and blood lineages.

2- Don't use inheritance contracts or such, it's cheap and lazy. Ask questions. Why would Harry accept it? Why would anyone offer it? What is exactly this contract? Magical contracts and vows exist in canon, but they are extremely serious shit, and should used wisely.

3- How marriage in Wizard society is different? We don't see anything too obvious in canon and know very little. Don't go to far with it. Only thing I can presume is: There is not a lot of pressure to get married or it is not a must for important people. Second, only not happy marriage I can remember in canon is Bellatrix's, and we never saw Rodolphus. Divorce isn't mentioned, but who knows.

 

Anything goes.

Alternate idea:

Harry vs Gringotts: Round 2

The magical contract is stored in a special vault deep within the wizarding bank. Harry has to break in and do something about it before it activates (insert your own bit of magic here).

I've always imagined this scene, to be honest. As I've envisioned it, Harry uses his own protective shield to get around Gringotts' one. I'm talking about the one in HP 7.2, which converts mass into energy. He uses another spell in conjunction, which changes the energy back into mass, but causes him extreme pain/discomfort/disorientation.

The best way I can put it is like the 'Beam me up/down' sequences from the new Star Trek series.

After a bit of time with Harry going through a gauntlet of traps (since the defenses are on steroids), he goes down two levels, opens his own vault...to find Ron and Hermione having sex on a pile of gold. To be precise, his pile of gold.

And then you can take it away from there. To make it even more interesting, Harry's would-be wife works for Gringotts as a Curse Breaker/Freelance Bounty Hunter.

 

Next thread. How to give Harry a Katana and make it not suck...