Hermione's choice 15
Why can't we ever get what we ask for? JK and Warner Bros refuse to share. Oh well…
Thank you to Meggle la Muggle for all of her help and editing this chapter.
May I also say that I appreciate the reviews that people are sending me. Unfortunately, I can only read English. Fortunately, my daughter can read a little French. My congratulations to those people that are talented enough to read in more than one language.
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During his speedy recovery in Saint Mungo's wizarding hospital Sirius Black had read through the many decisions that Lucius Malfoy had made in the two weeks that he had held the Black family proxy in the Wizengamot and it was safe to say that Sirius was not happy.
The drafts of new laws Lucius had written were terrible! They would restrict anyone not pureblood from holding a Wizengamot seat or heading a family, even in proxy. Laws forbidding business and land ownership to everyone except the older or pureblood families. If it would advantage the Pureblood movement, it looked to be there.
Sirius took great pleasure in tearing them up and then he demanded a meeting with Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, set for the Third of December.
On the day of the meeting Sirius had planned out what he was going to do. He had studied the marriage contract and had found several ways that the Malfoy's had breached it. 'This should be good...' He thought with a smirk.
He had rented a warded meeting room at Gringotts and had hired two Goblin guards. He didn't want to give any impression of weakness here. He sat facing the door with papers surrounding him and at the appointed time there was a knock at the door. "Enter!" He barked.
Lucius swept into the room, trailed by Narcissa. Lucius sat and stared at Sirius without uttering a word. Narcissa gave a small bow and a murmured "Good morning, my Lord."
"Good morning, cousin. Please be seated." Sirius said, ignoring Lucius's bad manners.
"I asked you here today to discuss some problems I found with your marriage contract." Sirius began, looking at Narcissa.
Lucius interrupted "There are no problems with the contract!" He snapped. "The dowry was paid and I have paid the bride price. There is nothing more to be said."
"Actually, there is quite a bit more to be said. Now please be quiet while I talk to my cousin Lucius." Sirius replied deceptively softly. Turning to his cousin Sirius continued "Narcissa, I must ask, do you have any, ahem, female health problems? The reason I ask is that in your contract's you were required to have a minimum of two children, one as heir to Malfoy and the other as a potential heir for Black, but I am only aware of one child er … Dorco?"
"Draco, my lord." Narcissa corrected gently.
"My apologies, I must have misread his name." Sirius said carelessly.
"Thank you. As far as I know, I am in good health. Unfortunately, my husband has refused to give me another child, even when I have begged him. I always wanted a daughter as well as a son. Since the confirmation of the pregnancy of our son my husband has never been to my bed again." Narcissa answered. "I do know that in my marriage contract we were given ten years from our wedding day to have both children and we are at fault for not having them."
"I am glad that you understand this. I hope that you also understand that I must take action on this breach of contract." Sirius said sternly.
"I understand, my Lord. I have no excuses and I await your judgment." She said submissively, bowing her head.
"Hmm…" Sirius hummed as he leaned back in his chair. "You said that you have asked your husband for another child and he has refused you? What do you say to that Lucius?"
"I feel that one child is more than enough. One child can be heir to two or more houses." Lucius sneered. "I would hate to see my wife end up like those… ugh… Weasleys!"
"Hmm… I see." Sirius said as he made notes. "The next thing is that you, Lucius, have been accused of being a 'Deatheater'. I understand that you claimed that you were under the imperius curse but, unfortunately, you were never tried so I have some doubts on that. I want you to swear a magical oath that you never a willing participant of terrorist acts under the orders of the person known as Voldemort."
"What has this accusation got to do with my marriage contract?"
"It has quite a lot to do with it. You see, the contract has a clause that states that you are not to knowingly associate or allow Narcissa to associate with known criminals or terrorists. As such I am wanting to be assured that my cousin has not been exposed to such types of people."
"This is outrageous! It was proven that I…" Lucius spluttered and was interrupted by Sirius.
"NOTHING was ever PROVEN!" Sirius shouted, angrily jumping to his feet. He sat down, took deep breath and continued in a softer voice. "It was only your word that you were cursed. You never had any of the tests done or have ever offered to swear an oath to prove your innocence to the world. If I had such a thing hanging over my head, I would have moved heaven and earth to have the matter cleared years ago! But you have continually refused to do so. This is one of the reasons why I do not trust you." Sirius said. "There are two options for you. You will either swear an oath that you were never a marked or willing Deatheater, that you have never knowingly given support or aid to the person known as Voldemort or his followers of your own free will and that you were imperioused to follow his orders."
"Never!" Lucius snapped obstinately.
"Option two is where I go through every contract, starting with your betrothal and marriage contracts, between the houses Black and Malfoy and find every single thing that I can to penalize you." Lucius paled rapidly. He knew that he would be, at best, a financial and social pariah. At worst… Lucius shuddered. "I will impose every penalty, financial or otherwise and, I warn you now, I will not do things by halves! I can, and will, ruin you if I do not get that oath in the next five minutes! Here is the wording of the oath I want you to take. The wording is non-negotiable. The choice is yours." Sirius finished by handing Lucius the oath, looking every bit the pissed off Head of House that he was.
Lucius read the oath and went, if that were possible, even paler. "I… I cannot."
"Cannot? Or will not?" Sirius asked, unsurprised.
"Cannot." Lucius knew that he was beaten.
"Very well. I will confer with Narcissa and will have your penalties ready for you shortly. You may wait outside." One of the goblin guards escorted Lucius out. As the door closed Sirius turned to face Narcissa. "Cousin. You have only one chance at saving yourself and your son. You need to swear this oath and only then I can help you." He said sternly.
"Gladly! I may have agreed with some of the Dark Lord's ideals but I never wanted to have people, especially children, hurt. I was never imperioused but any assistance I may have given those people was at the behest of my husband or close family members and I was fearful of the repercussions on myself and my son should I not obey."
"That is acceptable." Sirius said.
One oath later Sirius asked "What would you like me to do? I have several things that I can do for you and your son, but all of them have consequences."
"What do you mean?" Narcissa asked curiously.
"I can start by having your marriage annulled, if you want. That would mean that you would be free to remarry, if you choose, and your dowry would be returned to you. Your son would remain a Malfoy and Heir to the family but there will be little left after I am done with Lucius. I am calling any and all debts owed to house Black due and between the dowry and what your husband owes, it will nearly ruin him. You can retain custody of Draco if you want to?"
"I would like that. If I can get Draco away from his father, I might be able to help him to improve his attitude and chances in life. Also, I think that it would be best for me to become a Black again. But…" She hesitated.
"Yes?"
"Wouldn't my dowry be returned to my father?" Narcissa asked curiously.
"Only if you want it to be. The disbursement of the reclaimed dowry is at the whim of 'Lord Black'. So…" Sirius said with a grin. "If you really don't want it I can…"
"Yes, I mean no, I mean…" Narcissa trailed off helplessly, for once at a loss for words.
"You would like the dowry to be given to you?" Sirius smiled.
"Yes please, my lord." She replied gratefully. "I will need to know how much it is so that I can start looking for a new home for Draco and I."
"The Manor was a part of your dowry, so you don't have to worry about finding a new home, but you may wish to have the DMLE come through the house and remove any 'questionable' items. If you can tell them, honestly, that you were unaware of any dark items you will not be charged for owning them. Also, I recommend that you have Aurors present when you tell Lucy to get out of YOUR house."
"I see the wisdom of that. I will contact them as soon as we are finished here."
"You will also be receiving the fifty thousand galleons and business interests that were part of your dowry and I will authorize a monthly stipend to help with living expenses."
"You are being more than generous, my lord, and I thank you for that. But I must ask, what do you want in return?"
"A Slytherin response. Actually, I want a few things. For you and Draco to be happy is my hope for you, for you both to achieve your ambitions and goals in life would be nice for you both. But most importantly, I want you to teach your son how not to be like his father."
"I think that this is something that we can be in agreement about." A relieved mother said.
"Now, what are we going to do with Lucius? Any ideas?" Sirius asked.
"Hit him where it hurts him the most…" Narcissa smirked. "His vault balance and public image."
Sirius's grin turned feral.
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At the same time, at Hogwarts, there was an air of excitement as the students of awaited the arrival of the Goblins. Classes had been canceled for the day and the students were taken by their Houses to classrooms to await their tests.
Many of the students were speculating on what the tests would show, some of them quite vocally.
"Of course, I already know what the test is going to say," Draco Malfoy said smugly. "I know that I am the Heir to the Houses Malfoy and Black…"
"Er, that might only be partly true." Theodore Nott said, interrupting Draco. "Haven't you seen what Potter's been wearing on his right hand?"
"What?"
"He has a new ring. My father told me that the Head of Black is Potter's godfather, so I wouldn't be surprised if Potter is the Black heir."
"But, it was promised to ME!" Drack whined. "Father always said…" He was interrupted again by a man walking into the room.
"Your father has no say in the succession matters of another House, Mr. Malfoy. Didn't his last sanction teach him, or you, anything?" The stranger asked, amused.
"Who are you to talk to me like that!" Draco demanded. "You are obviously a mud… muggleborn who…"
"I am someone who thinks that you should never judge by appearances." The man said, dropping his glamour. "I had thought that you would be more at ease and polite if you thought you were being tested by a human. I can see that I was wrong." He snarled. Smoothwick was pleased to see that he had managed to shock them all into silence.
"Please be seated at the desks." Smoothwick ordered. As the students quickly settled in their seats he explained. "I will be calling you by name and you will come up to the desk. I will prick your finger and destroy the needle in your sight. You will then place three drops of blood onto the marked parchment. You will then be healed and sent to await your results in another room. I can assure you that Gringotts values your privacy and that no one else will see your results unless you authorize it. Let's get started. Leslie Aaronson…"
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Many students were shocked to find that they were not the first in the family to ever have magic. It turned out, in each and every single person, that the magic had simply died out for a time in a family line and was re-establishing itself in a new generation.
There were mixed emotions as the results were given to the students. Many former 'muggleborns' that thought that they had no connection to the magical world suddenly found out that they not only had a magical heritage and that many had been attending school with relatives they didn't know they had. One particular couple found out that they were second cousins. They publicly said of their immediate, amicable break-up "If we are related closely enough to be recognized as family then we are far too closely related to date".
Others were alternately pleased or disappointed to find that they were or were not the Heirs to families as they had assumed. There were many raised voices and wands drawn before it was brought under control.
Amongst the Gryffindor first years Neville Longbottom was shocked to find out that he was Heir of Gryffindor as well as Longbottom. Lavender Brown was found to be a lost heir to the McKinnon family, Dean Thomas shocked that he was a secondary heir to the American Picquery family and Ronald Weasley was shocked to find that he and his brothers were all various heirs to the houses Weasley, Prewitt and, very surprisingly to him, Black, through his grandmother. Ron did not know how to react to being related to so many Slytherin's.
Hermione Granger received the biggest shock when she found out that she was heir to the famous Dagworth-Granger family through her grandfather's great aunt, an extremely frail, elderly lady that Hermione actually knew and loved. As a small child she had always thought the fanciful stories that Aunt Willow had told her about a magical world and amazing creatures were just made up to amuse her. Now, knowing about the magical world Hermione wondered if her aunt had guessed about her magical ability. And the leather bound volumes on Aunt's highest bookshelf look suspiciously like some of her own text books. She would need to talk to Aunt during the Christmas break.
The Ravenclaws were less surprised, as many had been encouraged to look into their own genealogies by looking through the old school albums and records and, as such, most had a fair idea of where they had stood. Although former muggleborn, Aaron Davies had publicly said "The shame of this is that we cannot deny the relations we want to avoid mentioning." And went into a small coughing fit that sounded suspiciously like he was saying 'Malfoy'.
In Hufflepuff, Justin Finch-Fletchly was happy to find that he was associated with the Greengrass family. He was not close enough to be an heir but was close enough to be considered a cousin.
In Slytherin there were a few surprises. Very few thought they would be finding anything new. Several were higher or lower on the lists of heirs than they thought but other than that they thought their social positions were fairly well understood.
Except by Draco Malfoy. Even after talking to Theo Nott he was shocked to find that he was not the Black heir.
"But… I was told all my life that I would be Lord Black!" He whined at Smoothwick.
"Others may have told you that, and it may even have been true at the time, but the current Lord Black has named his Heir and it is not you. There is nothing more to be said about it." Smoothwick said and then sighed. "Heir Malfoy, I am not in the habit of offering unsolicited advice but right now I am feeling compelled to do so. The advice is this: Do not be like your father. His actions have dragged your family name further and further down to the point that it is only the vast amounts of gold that he spent that gave him any political influence or social standing at all. Surely you understand how precarious that position is for you? I would hate to see the sins of your father repeated."
Draco actually started to think as he was led to the door.
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