Growing Up, Growing Closer

1935-1936

Septimus had been surprised to see Cedrella. Mostly because she'd turned into quite a looker since he'd last seen her. Last time he'd seen her had been on the train home after her fifth year and his seventh, chasing Abraxas away from her yet again because she'd blossomed that year into a young woman. As a result, Abraxas had returned to the questionable, reputation-endangering chasing of her he'd indulged in before the Marauders had really started kicking his ass.

Septimus'd been far too busy with NEWTs, planning for his future, and pranking idiots and assholes to pay too much mind to Cedrella's change in looks. He'd gotten the definite impression that his lack of interest had been a relief to her whenever they'd crossed paths or worked together to deal with idiots.

Going through Auror training hadn't really given him time to think about much of anything else. He'd honestly been startled to realize that he recognized Cedrella after two years. Harfang was going to end up teasing him about that later. Harfang had begun teasing about the three of them having a thing for Black girls sometime after he and Callidora had begun courting. Sad thing was, he wasn't entirely wrong. Even Charlus had seemed fine with hanging out with the girls in school.

These days, it was he and Charlus that were doing the teasing. The betrothal negotiations that had begun last month immediately after they'd graduated from the Academy were going well according to Harfang, and it was entirely likely he'd be married to Callidora in a year's time. Septimus had honestly been a little surprised, as the Longbottoms had a long history of being militantly pro-Light. To the point that they technically weren't a pureblood family by some purebloods' standard, as they made a point of marrying halfbloods or Muggleborns every few generations. The Weasleys and Potters did something similar.

According to the more militant pureblood fanatics, you only qualified as pureblood if you could trace a wizarding lineage for at least five generations on both sides. There hadn't been a Longbottom, Weasley, or Potter who could claim that in a really, really long time. The closest any of their families got was four generations on both sides. That said, the fact there'd been wizards with those last names in the same family for hundreds of years was enough for most folks to consider them purebloods.

All this was why Lucretia had been married off to a Prewitt. That family hadn't married anything other than a fellow pureblood in several hundred years. Lucretia, as a daughter of the Head of Family Black, would be expected to marry pureblood in order to keep that line pure. It wasn't as important for the daughters of the younger sons of the line, which was why Harfang's suit was being entertained. That and most of the available pureblood sons for this generation were already spoken for. He, Harfang and Charlus were among a small handful that didn't have a contract already.

Septimus rather thought the militant purebloods were idiots. The Potters, Longbottoms, and Weasleys hadn't had a single squib – ever. And the Weasleys and Longbottoms didn't have only one child per generation unless some disaster struck. The Blacks might enjoy multiple children per generation, but they were the only ones in the militant set. The cadet branches of Family Black, which had mostly been married off to halfbloods, hadn't produced any squibs either. The Head of Family line, though, produced at least one squib every few generations. The most recent one had been this generation, a son that had 'died' of a wizarding disease at the age of six. Septimus could only hope the poor kid hadn't actually been killed for the crime of being born without magic.

All the other 'true pureblood' families managed, at best, an 'heir and a spare' per generation, and frequently produced squibs. But none of them seemed to see the connection between their marriage practices and the health, magical strength, and number of their offspring.

Over the next few months, Septimus saw a *lot* of Cedrella. At first, it was mostly accidental. He, Harfang and Charlus had the overnight shift as the newest Aurors on the force, so they came off-shift very early in the morning. Meanwhile, Cedrella arrived early in order to get a good seat in the Wizengamot session. Four times in two weeks they arrived in the Atrium at the same time. Each time, they exchanged greetings and a few other pleasantries.

Then the pattern altered somewhat, and they started running into Cedrella *every* morning. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Cedrella had altered her pattern slightly in order to meet up with them each morning. The question was why. Septimus didn't even try to figure it out. A Slytherin enacting a plot was an inscrutable creature that no Gryffindor had a hope of figuring out. All too soon, those meetings became the best part of Septimus' day.

Two years ago, there'd been a shift in things in the wizarding world. Almost imperceptible at the time, save for a slight increase in Grindelwald's activities. Since then, however, things were getting more and more strained in Europe. That muggle was stirring up as much trouble as he could manage, which was leading to a lot of unrest amongst the muggles in the area. That unrest seemed to be targeting anyone 'different', resulting in an increased danger of discovery for European wizards.

Worse, Grindelwald was definitely up to no good. The reports from the European wizarding community on that man were not good. He seemed to be building up to something, gathering followers and items of magical power.

Unfortunately, where the problem came in was that the Ministry was ignoring the danger signs. All this was happening 'over there'. It could not, would not come to England's shores, and was therefore of no concern. Any attempt at remonstrating with the Head of the DMLE (never mind anyone higher up the food chain) was completely ignored, even when it was veteran Aurors sounding a warning.

The Ministry continued its distinct lack of recruiting for any sector of the DMLE. Their triad had been the largest group recruited in ten years. Every other year, a maximum of two people were recruited for the Hit Wizard squad, Aurors, and general DMLE combined. Some years, there hadn't been any recruits at all.

Worse, while the Auror drilling in various matters had been thorough, there hadn't been more than the most basic of dueling training. The bulk of the attention in training had been in recognizing what spells were being flung at you and working together with your partner. Learning to actually fight had been a somewhat secondary concern. After all, there were no Dark Wizards in England currently. Rule breakers certainly, but never Dark Wizards … despite all evidence to the contrary.

To say it was exasperating was a vast understatement. Unfortunately, there was little their triad could do at the moment. They were on graveyard guard detail in the Ministry, not on patrol out in the world at large.

Finally, just after the Yule break, their triad was permitted to patrol, under the aegis of a veteran Auror pair. While patrolling proved to mostly be as boring as nighttime guard duty, they at least got to be around people. There was also the odd chance of running across someone doing something nefarious. This, of course, altered their schedule, but they were still in the Atrium early in the morning – simply coming instead of going, so they still ran into Cedrella every day.

By Easter break, the three of them had been judged capable of handling actual cases, again with veteran Auror backup. This proved far more interesting for all three of them. Granted, there was nothing in the way of combat, as they were given very small, easy cases to start with. That said, figuring out the whys and wherefores of the problem was a heck of a lot more interesting than wandering around hoping for trouble to pop up.

Harfang and Callidora were finally married in late June of 1936. As befit a wedding between two such prominent families, it was pretty much the event of the year, and everyone who could possibly wrangle an invitation did so.

Wizarding marriage ceremonies bore little resemblance to their Muggle counterparts. For one thing, while there were betrothal contracts, dowries, and such things, these arrangements were between the families in question. The Ministry had absolutely no say, influence, or place in any part of the marriage process. The only involvement the Ministry had was to record, after the fact, who had married who and when for posterity.

The actual ceremony itself was mostly private, with only the couple, their parents, and their Heads of Family (if their parents weren't the Head) standing witness and giving their blessings as the couple swore their vows. Those vows were sworn to Magic itself, and unbreakable. There was no such thing as divorce in the wizarding world.

A couple could break up after the marriage, but it was rare. Breaking up a marriage was reserved for such egregious sins as adultery and abuse, both of which were thankfully very, very rare. Unfortunately, while a couple could live apart the rest of their lives, they would still be married to one another until one of them died.

The invitations that had been sent out were for the wizard equivalent of the reception party after the wedding itself. Here, there was little difference between wizard and muggle events. There was dancing, toasts and blessings to the new bride and groom, and gifts given. The party frequently lasted long into the night for the guests. The bride and groom however were fully expected to sneak out as early as they could possibly manage. They were, of course, gently teased for doing so, and it was part of the fun to try to keep them from sneaking off if you could.

There followed after that a month-long seclusion, wherein the couple mostly kept to themselves. Whenever possible, the couple spent the entire month in solitude. If that wasn't possible, one or both were permitted to go to work (or attend a funeral, or such things), but expected to keep their time away from their new spouse as minimal as possible. Extraneous socializing after work, or things of that nature were heavily frowned upon.

Given the financial status of the pair involved, Harfang and Callidora would be able to spend the entire month in seclusion unless a familial emergency popped up. With one of their group out of commission, Septimus and Charlus were put back on patrol and other light duties, so as to reduce the chances of them getting into a fight when they were down a member of their team.

The lighter schedule meant that Septimus had a chance to visit home for more than a few scant minutes. He decided to take advantage of the situation and headed to his parents' house every weekend that month. The last weekend of the month, his kid brothers came home from Hogwarts, making for a full family reunion.

Victor had completed his final year at Hogwarts, while Felix had completed his fifth, and Bilius his second. The four boys had a rather rambunctious reunion, as Septimus decided to throw dignity to the winds. They ended up in a four-way wrestling/tickle fight for a while, until the other three decided to gang up on Septimus.

When they finally wore each other out, and were sprawled on the floor, Septimus got caught up on the goings-on at Hogwarts. It turned out that his brothers had decided to carry on the Marauder legacy, rather than let it fade into history. Victor and Felix had begun working together in Septimus' final year unbeknownst to him, and had included a few of their closest, most trustworthy friends in the campaign. Bilius and friends of his were taking over the bulk of the task now, with Victor graduating and Felix heading into sixth year.

Septimus was delighted that his brothers had decided to follow in those particular footsteps. Keeping bullies in line was a good cause. He was also dismayed that their intervention was still necessary. He'd hoped that by now the teachers would have woken up to the reality of the situation and started to act, but evidently they were content to continue to ignore the problem.

In a way, he shouldn't have been surprised, given that the members of the Wizengamot had a nearly identical problem with recognizing a problem when one existed. All he could do was hope that it wouldn't blow up in everyone's faces – and stand ready to help clean up the mess if it did.

Once Harfang returned from his seclusion, the triad was quickly returned to their regular duties investigating cases. About a week after that, Septimus came to a decision. He'd started out talking to Cedrella in the mornings merely to be polite. But the more they interacted, the better he got to know her and the more he came to like her. Despite her family, she was a decent person.

She had definite views about muggles. Views that clashed with his. But she seemed content to dismiss them as violent (which he had to admit they frequently were) and leave it at that. She didn't share her family's predilection for Muggle baiting (or worse), and she even admitted they were frequently quite clever with their gadgets that got around a lack of magic. He'd begun to have real fun debating with her about them. Those debates had quickly expanded to include debates on a number of other subjects.

He'd been surprised to discover that while they did have differing views, they were not so diametrically opposed as was usually the case when a Black and a Weasley were involved.

The decision was simple enough. Instead of keeping the debate short and then making his excuses, Septimus began to make excuses to stay in Cedrella's company. By the end of the year, they'd gotten to the point where they'd spend hours sitting in the Leaky Cauldron or Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour talking about anything and everything under the sun. And the more they talked, the more Septimus came to enjoy her company and actively like her. He kept that to himself, as the likelihood of her permitting him to court her was VERY low. He'd be content with what he could get.