Chapter 10 - Ancient Magic
He took me by the hand and led me to his bedroom, the room that had once belonged to his godfather. I'd been in this room before, of course, as we'd lived together for years, but I felt as if I was seeing it with new eyes. After the war, Harry had come to the painful conclusion that Sirius would have wanted him to live his life and not be beholden to memories of the dead. Slowly the old muggle posters of motorcycles and bikini-clad models a teenage Sirius had stuck to the wall to irritate his bigoted pureblood parents came down. And then the peeling charcoal grey wallpaper was removed along with the heavy, moth-eaten velvet drapes, and light and new life was breathed into this tired, sad space.
Harry had spent weekends and free evenings oiling and refinishing some of the beautiful antique furnishings, and he'd ventured into the muggle world, coming back with blue bedding, ivory curtains, and a multi-coloured oriental rug. I'd helped him paint the walls, and over time he'd brought in a few pieces of muggle art. I knew our friends who'd been raised in the magical world thought nothing of having magical portraits in the home, but the idea of having a talking portrait in our bedrooms with just too weird and uncomfortable for Harry and me both.
It was still a masculine space, and everything about it said "Harry" to me, from the decided lack of throw pillows to the pile of quidditch robes and gear he'd tossed in the corner of the room.
I followed him in and closed the door behind me. "What did you want to show me?" I asked.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and motioned me over. I approached nervously and perched on the edge of the mattress beside him.
"Really Harry, I accept that we're going to have sex tonight. It's part of the deal. You don't have to lure me here under false pretenses and promises of knowledge," I said drily.
He barked out a laugh at that and then reached for a stack of books on his bedside table.
"I'll keep that in mind, but actually I DID have something to show you, I mean, aside from my 'wand,'" he teased.
Had I been drinking anything, I surely would have choked on the euphemism.
"About that jolt. I did some research, and I found out something really interesting."
I was so distracted by the idea of Harry voluntarily doing research that I almost missed him handing me a book that had been on his bedside table. I gasped when I saw the title.
"This book! I was looking for this book, you big prat! Do you mean to tell me you've had the book I was looking for in the Ministry library this whole time?" I demanded.
"Were you looking for these too?" he asked, holding up two other books.
My mouth fell open at the sight of every text I'd searched for but been unable to locate.
"YES! How could you have these and not TELL ME!" I exclaimed, whacking him with the book in my hand.
Harry laughed at me and then snatched it from my grasp.
"You're so violent when it comes to books! I can't believe this! I want the record to state that I, Harry James Potter, got to the library BEFORE you did!" he teased. "Has that EVER happened before? Like, ever?"
I pouted. "You should have told me what you found!"
He held up a hand defensively. "To be fair, I assumed you'd already been there and found it and therefore wouldn't care that I checked out these books."
"I can't believe this," I grumbled under my breath. All this time, whatever the answer to that jolt between us had been, it had been right under my nose, here in Harry's room, and my big prat of a husband hadn't bothered to tell me.
I sighed. "Well, aren't you going to tell me what you discovered?"
"Wait. Hold on." He held up a hand and closed his eyes. "I need to savour this moment a bit longer. I know something you don't. It may never happen again."
I whacked him with my hand this time, and he elbowed me back teasingly, a huge grin on his face.
"Oi! I've got such a violent wife! Okay, okay! I yield."
He flipped open one of the books then. "This is one of those things that I assume pureblood children learn growing up that no one thought to tell either of us. I mean, maybe if there hadn't been a war, it would have come up for discussion at some point. I like to think so anyway."
He thumbed through the pages until he got to a section on compatible magic and showed it to me. "We already know from the Ministry testing that we are magically compatible. Basically your magic likes mine, and it should mesh well together. According to this, magic responds to our own consent and desire, and what happened to us was a physical manifestation of that."
I frowned as I tried to listen to Harry and skim the book's pages at the same time.
"By that rationale, shouldn't we have been physically shocked during the wedding, when our hands were bound with the cord or when we kissed?" I asked. "I mean, we watched a physical manifestation of our own magic join together!"
"No, because it had already happened. What were you thinking when that jolt happened?" he asked.
I glanced up at him, at the earnest way he was looking at me, and I blushed. "I, um… why?"
"When we were jolted, my lips were over your heart, and I kissed you there, and I was thinking…" his voice trailed off and he cleared his throat before continuing. "I was thinking that this felt right. You and me, together like that. It felt right, and I could see myself marrying you. I hadn't fully thought it before, but then you suggested it, and I kissed you, and it was like… it was everything just snapped into place, and suddenly this crazy idea made sense. WE made sense."
My eyes filled with tears in spite of myself, and I tried to blink them back.
"So tell me, what were you thinking when I kissed you here?" he repeated, reaching out to brush his fingertips lightly over my chest and making my heart rate speed up.
Somehow this moment, here in Harry's bedroom, was far more intimate than the snogging downstairs or even the magical binding of our marriage ritual. I reached up to take Harry's hand in mind, squeezing his fingers gently before shifting our joined hands to rest in my lap.
"I, ah, I was thinking that I knew then that I could marry you, and I could be very happy as your wife," I admitted in a shaky voice. Yes, this was definitely more intimate.
My eyes met Harry's, and he grinned.
"Our magic accepted that, us both deciding that we could be together," he said.
I frowned at that. "Wait - you mean to say that our magic decided for us? As in, bound us together somehow? How is that even possible without active consent?"
"It's not really a binding, not like the marriage ritual we did today. It's more...I'm not sure I'm saying this right," Harry mumbled as he let go of my hand to thumb through one of the books.
"I wonder…" I mused, my voice trailing off as thoughts twisted in my head.
"What?"
"Two people deciding they want to be together, experiencing a magical jolt or a spark. I can't help but wonder if perhaps the idea of Cupid and his magical arrow has its roots in this ancient magic," I postulated.
Harry's eyebrows shot up as he looked up from the book. "I hadn't even thought about that, but it seems reasonable that some muggle myths and practices are rooted in ancient magic like this. I mean, before the Statute of Secrecy muggles and wizards intermingled, so I guess I could see how it could get warped over time into a story about Cupid. Maybe that's something you can research at some point."
Before I could reply, he found what he was looking for in the book and pointed out different passages to me. The basic idea, as I understood it from his explanation and what he was showing me, was that if two people mutually accepted each other for marriage, and their magics were compatible, their magic itself could connect in that moment of acceptance, resulting in some kind of an outward physical sign.
"So why haven't I heard of this before? We've plenty of friends who've married or gotten engaged," I pointed out.
Harry pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and then opened the third book. "Yes, well, from what I can tell, it doesn't always happen. Maybe two people are magically compatible and one person accepts the idea of marriage but the other doesn't, or they both accept but their magic isn't as highly compatible as ours. This one wizard, um, what's his name…"
He frowned as he scanned the page.
"Hyronius something or other. I can't find him on here. Anyway, he had this theory that the more compatible two people are when they mutually accept the idea of marriage, the more noticeable a response would be from their magic. It doesn't happen for everyone, or maybe it does happen for some but it's mild enough that they don't notice it or dismiss it. Or maybe it happens for two people, and they just decide to keep it to themselves and not share it widely. Who knows?"
He reached for another book on the bedside table. "This author used far too many words to essentially say that he believed that despite our small population, magic would not die out if people heeded those signs of compatibility."
I took that in. "So almost a theory of 'survival of the fittest' then? If people heeded signs of magical compatibility and married and had children together, they had a better chance of producing magical children?"
"Pretty much."
I traded books with him. "Did this author have any theories about magical power? Do highly compatible pairs produce children with more magical power?"
Harry shrugged. "He speculated to that end but had no proof. Admittedly this is a biased text too because it doesn't really address muggleborns, so there's probably a lot of research you could do in that area if you really wanted to. And of course, when this was written there was no way to test for magical compatibility like we can now."
I lifted my head from the book to meet his eyes. "You think the marriage law is based on this theory?"
"I think the research that discovered a way to test for magical compatibility was based on his theories. Add in generations of wizards and witches inbreeding and arranging marriages based on supposedly 'pure' blood and not allowing their children to find a magically compatible match, and multiple wars resulting in a lot of deaths, and you end up here," he said.
I'd seen the published data about the compatibility testing, but I been more focused on avoiding the law than understanding the magic behind it.
"And you think that's what that jolt was - our magic recognising our acceptance of each other?" I clarified, going back to the matter at hand.
"Yeah, I do. I mean, I don't see what else it could be. It wasn't painful, but it was sure noticeable, and our match was very high based on the Ministry's test. According to everything I read, it seems like this is kind of a one-time thing that happens to some people, so it's not like we're going to shock each other when we, you know."
He jerked his head toward the pillows and headboard, and I was tempted to giggle at the idea of my husband referring to sex as 'you know,' but at the same time I was also incredibly relieved. I didn't fancy the idea of our magic jolting us every time we were intimate.
I tried to wrap my head around both this new information and the idea that Harry had, of his own volition, gone to the library, researched an unfamiliar magical phenomenon, and checked out books about it.
"I, um, I know I should have talked to you about it, but I was curious, and, well, it seemed like the sort of thing you'd want to know as well. I meant to tell you earlier, but time got away from me with all of the drama around this stupid law, and then I thought maybe you'd done the research already and knew what it was and just didn't want to talk about it, and so I wasn't sure what to say. Say something, Hermione. You're beginning to worry me a bit," he said, nudging me with the book in his hand.
"I can't believe you did this," I said softly, looking at the books we held between us.
A worried look crossed his face. "You're not cross with me, are you? Because I made off with the books you wanted?"
"Oh Merlin, no! Well, maybe a bit. I mean, I was irritated that the books weren't there and the librarian wouldn't tell me who had them so I could try to track them down myself, and if I'm perfectly honest with myself I have to admit that I'm more than a smidge irritated with you for not telling me that you had these books. But you...you did research. For me. For us." I gazed up at him in wonder at this, and it struck me then that surely we were indeed compatible for who else would ever do research for me like this?
Harry took one look at my face - which must have had some sort of rapturous gaze on it - and snorted with laughter.
"Admit it: it turns you on a little bit, doesn't it?"
He looked far too cocky for my taste and far too pleased with himself, and I was not about to admit that um, yes of course a man doing research for me was hot.
"I am not going to dignify that with a response," I said primly, taking a book from him. "And you owe me these books. I cannot BELIEVE that you did research WITHOUT me! What kind of husband are you?"
He laughed openly this time and flung an arm over my shoulder, holding me close to him. "Don't ever change, Hermione," he said, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
"And for the record, I expect you to hold onto those books until I have a chance to read them myself and take notes on everything," I continued, ignoring his laughter.
He rubbed a little circle with his thumb on my shoulder, his touch warming my skin. "I have them for another week. I knew you'd want to read them."
I looked up at him, and I was struck by the notion that the wizard I'd chosen, the wizard I'd married knew me so well that he knew to research this odd magical experience we'd shared and that he knew to hold onto the books so I could peruse them on my own.
"Thank you, Harry," I said softly.
I knew in that moment that I didn't need dinner in a posh restaurant and a bottle of wine to ease me into consummating our marriage. This bit of time, this shared intimacy of books and magic and learning in Harry's bedroom was utterly perfect. It was us. It would always be us.
This time I took the initiative and leaned in to press my lips to his. I was ready.
~oOo~
So there it is: the explanation behind the jolt. The good news: there IS smut in the next chapter. The chapter is literally titled Consummation. The bad news: I'm not finished writing it. I'll do my best to avoid making you wait a long time for it. Thank you to everyone still reading and following along with my journey into Harmony!
-Elle