A/N: Hey everyone and welcome to a special short written for Weather Report and Seventh Son!
Fair warning, this is a Hansy fic that uses a type of Marriage Contract (nothing regarding loss of magic or life) and in addition, this 'short' will have 3 or 4 parts while taking place over the Summer, thus this first part is mostly establishing what's happened.
For those of you interested in my other works, I currently have three stories in progress with the pairings of those being Harry/FemVoldemort, Harry/Delphini and Harry/OFC
As usual, a big thanks to my Beta's and Discord Staff - Alec, Alpple, Babo, CalamityXx, Champ, DorianGray, NerdDragonVoid, O'Neill, Seventh Son, SinisterFox, Theo and Xevier!
Feel free to join my Discord for updates, a chance to request your own short story and information; link on my profile. Without any more rambling from me, I hope you enjoy the story!
(Sorry if you don't like this!)
For those in the Discord, feel free to me in the proper channels to tell me what your thoughts on the story were!
July 1, 1996
Monday
Harry didn't have a single clue how; one, this Andromeda Tonks knew where he lived considering Dumbledore tried his best to keep that information private and two, why the woman was reaching out to him on a matter even he'd only learned of today — he'd only skimmed her letter briefly, but it'd been enough to know that this woman now knew of his status as 'Heir Black' as stated by Sirius… somehow. Unfortunately for Harry, Sirius either hadn't bothered to check the documents or he'd been unable to, considering Harry was now potentially being given a bride in the foreseeable future along with who knows what else.
Back to the problem at hand considering the last was well out of his, Harry read the letter from this mystery woman.
'Harry Potter,
My name is Andromeda Tonks, formerly of the House Black before marriage, when I learned of Sirius' untimely passing I was quick to check the status of my former family only to find that you were now its Heir with no sitting Lord or Lady. Lest you think it, no, this isn't an attempt at taking the reins of the family, I couldn't even if the desire was my most forefront ambition due to circumstances only reversible by you upon adulthood. Put plainly, I wish to assist you with your newfound mantle; legal proceedings, paperwork and other dealings of the family, my aid would be yours should you accept it.
Sirius saw to that.
On a more personal note, and please do excuse me if this is out of line, I'd very much like for you to accept my offer. My daughter, Nymphadora, acted as an excellent character witness when I was discussing you with her, as did Sirius and the man at the Ministry who'd leaked this information to me.
Warmest regards,
Your cousin Andromeda'
That settled it then didn't it? Andromeda was Sirius' cousin (and his) as well as Nymphadora's mother. Considering how Nymphadora was a member of the Order and Harry had heard her passively speaking well of her mother, he figured he could trust the old witch enough to write a reply at the least or meet in person with her tomorrow if he were feeling particularly reckless at the most.
With how that marriage contract from House Black was sitting on his table, all but threatening to ruin his life, the latter option was likely the better one — so he went with it.
July 6, 1996
Saturday Morning
Almost a week later, Harry found himself sitting in yet another private room, only this time in a fancier restaurant than before — this one was meant for the upper class of society, people that he definitely had no business being with considering the arrogance people like Draco or his thugs often showed.
But, this was the place that Andromeda had picked out for their meeting. She'd been flexible in regards to the time and day, but for whatever reason, she'd insisted the two meet here; the older witch had planned it once he'd agreed in such a way that he hadn't even needed to sneak out of the Dursleys home again.
Nymphadora had apparated into his room, took hold of his hand, and after giving him a brief rundown on the process along with teasing him for the blushing he did at their physical contact, apparated them straight into an alcove within Diagon Alley. She brushed him off, fixed his collar and pointed him towards the restaurant her mother had picked with the biggest grin on her face.
Harry nearly found himself getting lost in the hand-holding they'd done when the door to the room received a loud knocking; he found his voice easily enough.
"Come in," He called out, standing up from his seat and smoothing his shirt for a last-minute touchup to his appearance.
In response to his words, the door opened and a woman stepped in.
Andromeda Black had her light-brown hair loosely done and falling down her back in waves, the dress she wore accentuated her womanly figure, especially the top bit that Harry noticed showed more than most of the dresses he'd seen upon initial entrance. Her jewellery was likely the cost of the entire room's service too by the look of it, the single brown stone with flecks of other colours inside matched her hair almost perfectly.
His staring was met with a soft smile from the older woman as she approached him.
"Good morning, Harry," She offered her hand to him, her eyes taking in his appearance just as he'd done to her; he hoped his dress robes from the Yule Ball last year weren't too horrible in her opinion.
"Good morning, Andromeda," He swallowed halfway through when her eyes stopped looking him over and began staring into his. Being Nymphadora's mother and with the comedic stories he'd heard, he hadn't expected Andromeda to look nearly as youthful, serious or intimidating as she currently did.
Professor McGonagall and Andromeda Tonks were single-handedly the most nerve-racking people he'd ever met in his life, and the latter only wished him a 'Good morning' to achieve that title.
"Shall we be seated? I imagine there's much you'd like to discuss," Her eyes sought out the stack of parchment on the end table beside Harry's seat before they slowly returned to him, "Starting with those."
Harry nodded in response, letting Andromeda take a seat first — after pulling it out for her as he'd seen many a time on television — before taking his own and gathering the aforementioned papers in his hands while he opened with his thanks for her coming.
"Don't thank me yet, I've not a clue as to what Sirius has gotten you into by naming you Heir," Andromeda responded, her expression half-serious and half-teasing; the former emotion made his stomach flop around harder than it'd been doing whenever he'd read the gathered documents.
When everything was in hand and he was back to sitting straight, he kept the papers in both hands, getting out the one question that'd been nagging at the back of his mind.
"You said 'Sirius saw to that' in the letter you sent, what did you mean?"
Andromeda smiled in response to his question.
"He made me an offer should I help you, one that'd be mutually beneficial should its terms come to fruition, which they currently are. Pardon me if I'm not too interested in revealing them quite yet, but I promise that it's nothing nefarious in nature, I imagine even in the brief time you spent with Sirius you'd know the man was anything but nefarious… or responsible, evidently," Her final word was punctuated with a nod at the papers he was still holding, the overall length of them having flopped forward slightly in such a way the older woman could gleam the top halves of them.
Harry took a couple of seconds, but he eventually eased up and handed them over.
"Thank you," He said when she'd taken them, inwardly adding; Please, don't make this be a mistake.
Nymphadora wouldn't set him up, would she? He doubted it very much — Dumbledore only allowed one evil bloke or witch in the Order at a time, and that seat was currently occupied by Snape.
"That's twice you've thanked me and I've yet to do anything," Andromeda's expression was one of amusement as she placed the parchment down in front of her, keeping only the topmost one in her hands, "Ahh, I see you've started with what's likely the worst of the bunch assuming you've gone through them all," She made a tutting sound with her mouth, her amusement growing, "House Parkinson isn't all that bad if it proves ironclad, though that's something you probably don't want to hear currently."
Harry nearly nodded and said 'you've got that right', but he decided against it.
Andromeda didn't seem to take offence to his silence and stated simply, "Do get comfortable, we'll be in this room until evening based on the amount of parchment you've brought."
He wasn't sure if that was good, bad or neutral, but one thing was certain, eating copious amounts of Treacle Tart did little to calm his ever-growing nerves.
Andromeda hadn't exaggerated when she'd said 'evening' earlier on in the day.
Dinner time was fast approaching and only three-quarters of the documents had been gotten to; thankfully, the one regarding marriage had been the first one she'd looked at, but she'd told him she wouldn't be discussing any of them until she was done with her reading or their evening meal was due to arrive.
Not too much time later and with neither having happened yet, Andromeda made the decision to stop where she was and ask if he was fine with her getting to the last parchments next time they meet. Harry's response was an immediate, energetic 'yes' joined with nervous jittering when he looked towards the one contract she'd specifically laid in the middle of the table upon her calling it quits.
"We're stuck."
Andromeda's words took nearly a minute to register during his staring at the contract, and once they had, the largest sense of impending doom he'd ever felt struck him. His throat constricted, his breaths were shallow and his attention couldn't be focused on anything regardless of how much he tried. Vaguely he could hear Andromeda's voice speaking to him, but it wasn't until the woman's presence shifted to standing right above him that his mind began clearing. When that took too long to work, Andromeda began rubbing his back as he'd imagined his mother would've in this scenario.
Thinking about his mum from the mirror during the soothing touch from Andromeda was what it took to fully snap him back to reality.
"Sorry. I, uh, Sorry Andromeda," Words were still hard to find, but his apology was met with a sad, apologetic smile in response.
"Sirius and I should be the ones apologising, not you. He should've known better than to do what he did, and I was foolish in thinking there'd be something revocable for such a contract," Andromeda paused and went back to her seat, pinching the bridge of her nose while exhaling before picking up with her speaking, "Regretfully, even if you moved all of House Black's galleons, property and other belongings to House Potter, the Parkinsons could sue for breach of contract so long as they're aware of this. Knowing the current Lord Parkinson from my time at Hogwarts, I can say for certain he is."
"What do we do?" Harry's question was anxious, the tremor that ran through his hands showing just how nervous he still was despite the earlier comfort provided.
Andromeda sat up straight in her seat again and looked him in the eye as she'd done at the start of their meeting.
"We'll send him a letter."
July 13, 1996
Sunday Evening
"Ohh, Harry — looking good!" Dora's comment as she floo'd in made his face heat up.
"Thanks, Tonks," He replied, the older girl waving with one hand over her shoulder as she bolted in the direction of her mother's kitchen, leaving Harry to once again look down at the elaborate robes he'd been coerced into purchasing upon his second meeting with Andromeda earlier in the week.
They were something he'd only seen older men or the occasional wizard wear during the Yule Ball, with all sorts of trimming in different colours and specially designed marks that showed off his wealth. It felt entirely too flashy for him, but Andromeda assured him that all Pureblood heirs or those wanting to live up to older customs wore them; when he said he hadn't a clue on the 'older customs' she'd given him a crash course. Her reason for doing so being that Lord Parkinson would be far more lenient in dealing with somebody who looked and acted as what he was meant to represent rather than falling short of the norm.
He wasn't entirely happy with it, but he understood her reasoning easily enough, and he'd go with it so long as it made his dealing with Lord Parkinson easier; the last thing he wanted to do was marry some unknown girl, or worse yet, Pansy. Pretty as she was, her personality was far too detracting for any sensible bloke to date her, much less marry the girl.
"Good evening, Harry, you're looking very dapper," Andromeda's voice gained his attention from the same direction Tonks had just made her exit; the woman was dressed just as fine as the first time he'd met her, maybe more so.
"Thank you, Andromeda. You look beautiful as always."
Andromeda smiled and walked another few steps into the room, "As always," She agreed, adding in "That's charming," before walking closer to him and setting down a glass of wine he hadn't taken notice of in favour of bringing both hands up to his collar to straighten it out from near perfect to exactly that. He hadn't noticed the slight crookedness when he'd looked in the mirror, nor had he thought his hair wasn't satisfactory considering he'd brushed it out after the shortening it'd received — Andromeda's hands readjusting said hair told him he hadn't done as good a job with that either.
"Anything else?" He asked when she stepped back to take in his appearance, wine glass back in hand.
"Nothing so obvious remains, though I wish you'd consented to your eyebrows being dealt with, and maybe a replacement pair of glasses," Andromeda hummed to herself, tapping her foot and looking at him with a minor frown before it transformed into a fond smile, "You're so much like Nymphadora, she's always been reluctant in dealing with these sort of things.
"I can see why."
Harry plucked at the tightness of the sleeves and raised a hand towards his throat to loosen his shirt up, but that hand was swiftly taken away by Andromeda, the woman making a tutting sound when she lowered it back to his side.
"Don't ruin my work until after this meeting, we'll need every advantage no matter how vain it seems going into this."
Andromeda didn't leave any room for comments and herded him over to the Floo access he'd just come from, telling him that he'd be going first as any Heir, Heiress or Lord of a family would. When she noticed the flash of reluctance cross his face, she waved it away and told him he'd be fine, she'd be seconds behind him along with there being no need to worry. Andromeda knew who'd be after him, the older witch had lived through the first war after all, but for some reason, she showed absolutely no concern for their safety; Tonks — Nymphadora as her mother called her — was equally as unconcerned, though she had given him something that greatly alleviated the worry he had in going towards the meeting. It was given to her by Dumbledore upon her joining of the Order.
An emergency portkey.
With a three-syllable activation phrase in a different language, it'd be very quick acting and incredibly unlikely for an accident to happen while in Wizarding Britain.
Harry broke from his thinking long enough to say the words required after grabbing his hand full of floo powder.
"Parkinson Manor."
A few seconds and a near fall later, he was standing in an incredibly expensive-looking parlour room. Marble pillars, extravagant paintings, statues carved from numerous materials and ancient-looking furniture were meticulously placed throughout in such a way he nearly missed the two adults wearing matching clothes standing a dozen feet away.
One was a man, the other a woman, both were immaculately dressed and groomed. Lookwise, they were shorter than average height, with near-matching brown hair and equally pale skin; different features that Harry took too most prominently were the man's patchy facial hair and neutral expression while the woman had sharp facial features with the slightest of frowns that marred her otherwise pretty face.
"Harry Potter," Lord Parkinson, Harry presumed, called out to him after taking a single step forward, "Welcome to Parkinson Manor, we've much to discuss this evening, but before we get to tha-" Andromeda floo'd in, interrupting the man's words as she took her spot next to Harry.
"Simon Parkinson," Andromeda's voice sounded familiar, and for all of a second, Harry could see recognition along with the starting of a smile on Lord Parkinson's face. No full smile came to fruition, but Harry was happy enough to notice what he had; Andromeda's presence would be beneficial far more so than he'd imagined if the man was a friend rather than a simple acquaintance.
"Andromeda Bl-... Tonks," Lord Parkinson's face may have gone to that of neutrality, but his voice betrayed his stance on Andromeda, "It does me good to see you after the passing of so many years. Would the two of you care to join my wife and I in the dining room for refreshments while we have our discussion? I imagine it'll be far more comfortable considering the circumstances."
Harry wholeheartedly agreed. Talking with three adults about his having to marry somebody was awkward enough considering what marriage entailed, but having to do that in an office setting as he'd done during his lessons with Andromeda would've been horrible! At least food and drink would let him drown his worries or sorrow when they decided how this would proceed.
Andromeda looked to Harry, and with her standing ever so slightly behind him, prodded him in the back without being seen. That prompting was all he needed to know that the response should come from him, regardless of the friendship she shared with the man, for his wife looked cold as the time he'd first looked at her.
"That'd be grand, Lord Parkinson, thank you," Harry answered as respectfully and 'pureblooded' as he could; any wordier and 'sophisticated' would make him implode.
"Wonderful," Was all Lord Parkinson responded with before looping arms with his wife and leading the two others through the myriad of halls until a marble-framed archway was passed through that contained a great deal of tables, one especially appearing the epitome of high-society with food already splayed out on it.
For all his disliking of the pompous actions most Purebloods had, Harry had to grant that they could decorate very well. Places like these would always be way too expensive-looking for his tastes, but he could see the beauty through the sheer waste of wealth that littered the manor.
Walking over to the table, Harry pulled out Andromeda's seat nearly a second before Lord Parkinson did the same for his wife — Lord Parkinson was seated at the head of the table, with his wife on his right and Harry along with Andromeda on his left. Once everybody was seated with drinks poured and a few foods on the snack-sized plates in front of them, their discussions began.
"Heir Black," Lord Parkinson stated, looking directly at Harry, "Forgive me, but I'd not thought you'd be the one to receive that title, most presumed it would be Draco Malfoy on account of his mother's surname."
Harry swallowed and sat straighter in his seat.
"Sirius named me Heir on account of Dorea Black, my grandmother. He'd also mentioned having done something that undid the equal status of the families and restoring House Malfoy as a vassal or junior-partner to House Black."
"Interesting… Lucius can't have been very pleased when he heard about this, if he has," Lord Parkinson glanced between Andromeda and Harry, both shaking their heads to indicate 'no', "Ah, that's why you've requested discretion thus far, then. I can't say I blame you, undoubtedly being the boy-who-lived along with Heir Potter must've been difficult enough to manage, adding Heir Black would only increase your stress tenfold."
Andromeda cleared her throat, the message instantly striking Lord Parkinson as the man glanced between the two women at the table, neither incredibly pleased with his stalling of the conversation.
"Let's get down to business if some of those here are so… busy. You're here to discuss the terms of that pesky marriage contract. I accepted in hopes that we'd get this dealt with before both families are found at fault for failing to meet the terms. How'd you like to deal with it?" Lord Parkinson was straight to the point — though not before earning a few disgruntled looks due to his first sentence — and his stern expression relayed that to Harry. Thankfully, the man wasn't outright hostile as he'd imagined due to Pansy's attitude, at least that wasn't making the day any worse than it already was.
"I have to get married to someone from your house so long as someone's relatively close in age," Harry felt his throat tightening as he spoke, Andromeda's hand rubbing his lower back could only alleviate so much stress, "While most of the contract is straightforward in bride price and wedding costs, the people getting married, aren't. Unless you'd like to call off this marriage, if you could, I'd like to know who from your family is being put forward as… Lady Black."
"It won't be called off."
Lord Parkinson hadn't been the one to answer, it was his wife. She didn't look anything close to pleased when Harry had said that, though that wasn't saying much considering the frown she'd had since his first time entering.
"Thank you, Katelyn," Lord Parkinson's voice was sharper than he'd heard all night, a weird thing considering the man was addressing his wife, "What my loving wife meant to say, was, it won't be called off because there isn't a way it could be — we've gone to the Ministry nearly a decade ago and yearly since, from its submission two centuries ago it's been irreversible lest it's completed or failed."
Andromeda nodded next to Harry, her back rubbing growing in speed; Harry appreciated the gesture the older woman was giving, but its effects were lessened from the first two times she'd done it.
"I see," Harry took in a breath with his eyes closed, exhaling after holding it a few seconds and opening his eyes when his breathing went back to normal, "Who'll I be marrying then?"
Lord Parkinson's face betrayed nothing during his one-word response.
"Pansy."
From hearing her name towards the end of their discussion onwards, Harry's focus on the conversation was greatly diminished. He still heard the happenings, obviously, but he simply couldn't focus all that well considering one of his largest rivals in Hogwarts was now his fiance. It was sickening, an endless bout of nausea and stomach pain from the moment her name was said struck him; he wished the Parkinsons would've had cousins that the contract applied to on account of those girls being a clean slate, but all his luck seemed to be going towards countering Voldemort during the fights they'd shared.
It was horrible.
Worse yet than his new engagement to the witch, was the fact he'd have to be going on dates with her so that their marriage didn't fall apart or turn into some sort of scandal — Pansy's mother was the driving force behind this, and she didn't even allow a full week to pass from the news breaking on the two teenagers to their first date.
All that'd come from the positive meeting was the fact Pansy was going to be reprimanded for trying to romance Draco; that fact was made all the funnier when he realised Draco, along with dear old dad, would be answering to him now in more than a few ways considering their vassal status that House Black somehow held over them.
Maybe he could order the Malfoys to bugger off out of Britain if he were lucky, but he didn't think so.
"Harry?"
Andromeda's voice shook him from his sorrowful, angry and only minorly pleasant towards the end thinking.
"Yeah?"
"I'll still help, you know. Don't think just because we couldn't stop your marriage doesn't mean I won't do everything in my power to ensure you're taken care of."
He hugged the older witch as soon as her words were finished — Pansy may end up being his wife, and thus, his family in the near future, but family was far more than legal documents or close blood ties.
COMMENT REPLIES:
A10riddick: Thank you thank you, hope you liked it!
hk78833: I haven't read many fics in general, but I hope this doesn't let you down!
Jthomajba: Ask and you shall receive!
TheGreatBubbaJ: Nope, just three or four parts, five at the most.
Winter1906: Thank you very much, hope you like this chapter! !
Brockster550: Oh for sure for sure, Pansy's going to have a very fun time in learning to deal with this! Thank you very much!
Stevem1: Hope you like it!