Disclaimer: Nope, still not JKR. Still don't own the HP-universe. Still making no money from this hobby. J But it is still fun!
AN: There is a POLL on my profile page where you can weigh in on the eventual betrothal/marriage/pairing for Harry. Please vote! (You can pick up to three, so feel free to take a lesser trod path.)
This chapter is shorter than most because I want to get feedback on the pairings before I continue.
Chapter 14
Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
*abandoned classroom, continuation of Harry/Draco meeting and before he returned to the Hufflepuff common room in the last chapter*
Draco gave Harry a very evil grin, "Oh, and there is one other thing…"
Harry waited for the other shoe to drop. He was coming to learn there is always 'just one more thing'.
Still grinning Draco stage whispered, "You have to get married."
Whatever Draco expected a blank-faced Harry was not on the list.
"Didn't you hear me?" Draco asked. Poking Harry in the shoulder he repeated in a normal voice, "You have to get married."
Harry shrugged, "Yeah, I figured that with the whole 'your kids will be affected by your actions' speech you gave on the train. Marriage usually leads to kids. 'Heirs being desired; marriage is required.' As one of those pureblood lineages books said."
'Well,' Draco thought, 'this will be easier than I assumed.'
"Glad to see you ready to step up to your responsibilities so soon", Draco joked. "Now we just have to pick your wife."
"Pick my wife? You mean NOW?", Harry's eyes darted about the room, as if looking for an escape.
"Well, yes, unless you want to wait until all the good ones are under betrothal contracts. Merlin's balls, Harry, many of the best are under contract at birth! Fortunately for you, those tend to be in the darker pureblood families, so would not be acceptable for our plans for you." Draco watched Harry to see how he handled this latest incoming bludger.
Harry stilled as his mind raced. 'Marriage. Or… Betrothal. Betrothal sounds much better!'
"Betrothal sounds like a good first step," Harry grimaced, "Since it seems you have as much to gain and lose as I do, do you have someone in mind?"
Draco's grin became a full smile, "Of course I do Lord Potter. What are friends for?"
A sense of impending doom cast its shadow across Harry's soul as he responded, "Indeed."
"Okay," Draco exclaimed as he hops up from his chair and approaches the blackboard. Grabbing his book bag, he removed three scrolls and turned to the board. Unrolling the first scroll, Draco then tapped it with his wand, chanting "scribendo imitari." Words, drawings and family trees became visible on the board as Draco repeated the process with each scroll, before rolling them up neatly and replacing them in his bag.
"First we have to determine what type of woman you want in a wife. We are attempting to make you desirable to every faction. This is obviously impossible! So, instead, we try to pick someone who will offend the least number of factions." Draco paused to glance over his shoulder to see if Harry was following, then went back to waving at the board after Harry made the universal 'get on with it' hand wave.
"First, who is in the 'OH HELL NO' category. Males. While the magical world is a bit more forward thinking than the muggle world, it is not by much. Males may wed, but it still comes with a social stigma. But, most importantly, you are creating a House from whole cloth. Children are the reason for you to marry. So, Men … No. Next is the children of Death Eaters and supporters of Voldemort. I can help you there. I know those marked and those unmarked. We prefer not to wed you to someone who will turn you over to people still pissed at you for ending their party."
Pausing to look back at Harry, again Harry nodded at the obvious and waved him on.
Returning his attention to the board, Draco continued, "Then there are the 'Nice but No' category. I have a distant cousin in France, a Ms. Delacour. She is only three years older than you, brilliant, and quite easy on the eyes. However, she is part veela. Thus she is seen as 'less than human'. A merger of your House with hers would be politically beneficial, except for that. Because of that, she gets placed in the 'Nice but No' category."
Draco turned as Harry interrupted, "But if she is 'less than human' and 'Nice but No', AND your cousin… Don't you suffer by being related to her?" Harry grinned.
Draco assumed an imperial pose, looking down his nose at Harry. "She is a fourth cousin, twice removed… by marriage. Hardly worth mentioning." Draco sneered, before breaking into a smile. "But that is exactly the point. Some families will be less inclined to deal with you if you married someone with non-human heritage. The funny part is, since the magical world is so small, if you go back far enough, every family will have less than desirable members: Veela, goblins, elves, even trolls and giants, to list a few. Hagrid is probably part giant. Flitwick is openly part goblin. The list goes on."
Intending his remark as a joke, Harry found himself nodding as Draco explained.
"Another 'Nice but No' is Hermione. She is attractive enough, in a muggle sort of way, but the traditional Houses would not accept her. You are not in a position to go against Tradition and still achieve your goal; rebuilding House Potter.
Draco turned back to the board, waving at the names.
"We need to determine the age range you want in a bride. Now the rabble would say, 'I want a wife about my age'." Draco shrugged. "In an ideal world, that would be lovely. It would also be wonderful if we were born knowing everything we need to know. This is not an ideal world. The good news is, that greatly increases your possible eligible candidate pool."
Draco looked at Harry closely, making sure he was still mentally 'all there' and not zoning out in shock. Yep, Harry's eyes were tracking the family trees and names: thus his brain is still in gear!
Draco turned again to the board, "As you can see…"
Harry interrupted, "Wait a minute… the numbers following the names… Are those their ages?"
Draco nodded, "Yes. Since we are considering repopulating House Potter, we must consider only candidates who can bear children, obviously." He then waited for the obvious questions.
"But, some of those names are in their 40's! I'm ELEVEN!", Harry protested.
"Yes, but witches are able to bear children into their 60's. We age much slower than muggles. Again, proving we are the superior species." Draco's smug smile apparent.
"Okay, but … okay… the numbers are listed as years, then months: right?"
"Yes, your point?"
"My POINT? Fifth name down. Elizabeth Morgana Fawley. 0 years, 3 months. Or how about the 12th down? Epona Sirona Ollivander? (-) 0 years, 3 months. What the HELL? Does that mean she is not even BORN YET?" Harry shook his head in amazement.
"Well, yes." Draco replied. "As I told you earlier, many of the best matches are betrothed at birth. So, we should consider that. You are eleven. Having a wife 12 years younger than you is nothing."
"Okay, ignoring the fact she is a baby or UNBORN, how are you supposed to have children? Girls can't have children until they are in their mid to late teens, right?"
Smiling Draco explained, "Again, this is part of the planning stage. Do you plan to have children immediately? If so, then those two are obviously out. If your plans for children are immediate, then we have to pair you with a witch who can give you children immediately. In that case, we would look to witches at least sixteen. They should be mature enough by sixteen to carry an heir."
"So why even consider the babies?", Harry muttered.
"Because they are good matches. Don't worry about the 'consummating the marriage' thing. If you married an infant, you would be required to sleep with her on your wedding night. And by 'sleep with', I mean actually sleeping. The girl's parents would both be in the room and awake all night. At dawn, the girl's mother would take her home to continue raising her. You would have regular visitation, of course!"
"Oh goodie. I get visitation with my infant bride… I can buy her a pony for her sixth birthday / our sixth anniversary! A wife in name only for the first, what, sixteen years of my marriage? Why the hell would anyone agree to such a thing?" Harry almost yelled at Draco.
Draco face assumed the patient smile one usually reserves for explaining very simple facts to very young children. "Centuries ago, such marriages were not unusual. I think your problem is you don't understand marriage. There are several 'kinds' of marriage. There is the 'Oh, I am in LOVE and can't live without you' marriage of the low class. There is marriage for the purpose of legitimate children. And there is the marriage of power. You want power. Power can be achieved by advantageous marriages. These marriages are those involving children, usually." Draco shrugged, "There are always sick people who do things marginally legal because they can get away with it. We are not here to discuss them."
Pointing at the board again, Draco continued, "Epona Sirona Ollivander will be born into a cadet branch of the Ollivander line. Her blood is as pure as it gets. While they have their own wealth, titles, and property. Their branch is next in line to inherit the main Ollivander titles and fortune, should the main branch die without issue. Currently Garrick Ollivander is the Head of House Ollivander. He is without issue. Should he die without producing an heir, then Epona's line becomes ascendant. Marrying her would give you instant ties to the Sacred 28, a major political victory."
"But she is not even BORN yet! Won't the other Houses look down on me for marrying a baby?" Harry asked, clearly exasperated.
"Actually, it would raise your credibility among the traditional Houses. It would show you want to follow the old Traditions, which makes them happy Houses." Draco waved a shower of multicolored sparkles over Harry. "Happy Houses are easier to manipulate."
"Okay, so if I plan to have children in less than ten years, I can't choose the babies as a wife," Harry stood, placing his hand over his heart, "I hereby declare my intention to have children in less than ten years." After sitting again, he shook his head slowly, "The wizarding world is bonkers sometimes, you know that, right?"
Draco laughed, "Of course I know! The trick is to find ways to use their preconceptions against them. I didn't expect you to want to wait for children. You have to rebuild your House from scratch, so you should have several children before you are thirty. Even if that means taking a couple of concubines or even more than one wife."
"More than one wife? Oh, Hell No! That's nuts! And illegal! Thankfully", Harry muttered the last quietly.
"Actually, it is not. If you have more than one line to preserve, you are allowed to take a wife for each. Or you can combine the Houses, unless they each have seats on the Wizengamot. In that case, you are compelled to marry for each line, or if you prefer you can appoint someone else with the appropriate bloodline as the Head of House, thereby making it their problem. You only have the Potter line, so that is not an issue. However, if you should ever find you are Heir to another bloodline, DON'T step aside. Take the second wife, or third, or fifteenth! The idea at this point is to mix the Potter bloodline with many Houses with the hope your children will never face the problem you have now."
"Won't everyone hate me if I have more than one wife? Won't it be seen as, I don't know… greedy?" Harry asked.
"The people who count won't care. They will know exactly why you are doing it. The people who will care, don't count. So, there is no real problem. Oh, and before I forget, there are also line continuation 'marriages'. If a line has only heiresses and the line does not allow women to become Head of House, as some of the most Traditional Houses do, then the heiress would 'marry', but keep her name. She would live with you, or you with her, until she is with child. If the child is a son, your duty has been fulfilled. Although in some cases, the marriage may continue to produce children until 'an heir and a spare' are produced. The Heir to the line would be named, a regent appointed, and the line would continue, thus the name "line continuation" marriage."
Harry bangs his head on the table. "You have got to be kidding me. Marriage is not supposed to be THIS complicated!"
Smirking, Draco replied, "Harry, this IS the easy part. We have over a thousand years of Laws which are still on the books and any one of them is as legal as the day it was first passed, unless it has been specifically negated by a newer law. Trust me, there are all kinds of crazy laws still on the books! I am only giving you the highlights of laws that you can use to benefit your House."
Harry looks at Draco before gently banging his head on the desk again.
Draco took a harsher tone, "Harry, get over yourself. You are no longer Harry Potter. You are not an ordinary wizard going to Hogwarts for seven years before moving out into the world to make your mark. You have set yourself an incredible task. You plan to rebuild your House within your lifetime. I believe you can succeed. But most people would laugh at your for even considering it. And the laughter must be dealt with, harshly. You must always remind everyone you are Lord Potter. Never let them forget."
Draco smiled kindly at Harry's head thumping against the desk.
"It won't be as hard as you might think. Just as everyone will help you fake the things you don't know, they will also begin to help you maintain the perception that you ARE Lord Harry Potter, Head of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter. Within two years, you won't have to remind anyone. It will just be who you are and everyone will come to accept it without questions… eventually."
Raising his head and sitting up straight, Harry replied, "Okay. Where do we start?"
Draco waved at the board, "We still have to pick you a wife."
With a groan, Harry banged his head against the desk one last time before raising his head, "You realize I don't even like girls yet?"
Draco laughed, "Technicalities."
AN: The poll I posted has few responses.
I would really like some input before I just go off and pick pairings.
If you don't like answering polls, please leave your suggestion as a review.