Paying attention was usually a recommended activity, or so Al was led to believe in class and at work and at home. In fact, he was led to believe many things in his life: such as Ministry laws, rules, and regulations which members of wizarding society inevitably followed because such was the natural order of things. Because, in the singular cases of deviation, one would be declared an outcast, or a criminal, or a madman, and, in the multitude of occurrences, not following some semblance of rules would explode the world into chaos beyond repair.
And so, when on the fifth of July this year, Al received a letter from the Ministry official Alexander Higgs, declaring his marriage to Severus null and void and outlawed, he considered it an undeniable, bitter truth.
He hated it.
Oh, how he hated it! But the fact that Al hated that particular law with every fibre of his being, with every nerve in his body, with every unaccounted-for twist of emotion, didn't make it any less true.
He could shove down the hate, but he couldn't do the same with the truth.
"It is the new definition of marriage now," he informed Severus softly, not quite sure why Severus' voice underwent a sudden change. "The Ministry updated its rules. It's not in my power to redefine them."