Harry wasn't sure what sort of reaction she was expecting of Riddle, but she was sure it wasn't the quiet, calm admiration she saw shining in his eyes. Harry held her breath as Riddle sat up a bit, still gazing at her without any visible anger or defeat, which was what Harry had been expecting to see.
"Petal," Riddle said and at once a house-elf wearing a deep-green towel popped into the room, gazing up at Riddle with luminous eyes. "Fetch me my stationary set, will you. And add some pre-charmed contract paper."
"What?" Harry gaped at Riddle as the house-elf reappeared with a thick leather binder in her hands which she handed to Riddle without a word.
Riddle blinked at Harry, his whole expression one of polite bewilderment at her reaction. "Surely you understand, dearest Harriet, that official offers are always written down in legally binding contracts."
Harry swallowed against a bit of bile that suddenly rose up. She'd expected Riddle to get angry with her and to then summarily dismiss her. After all, Riddle had admitted many times in the past that he wasn't able to break Grindelwald's curse, no matter how many times he'd tried. There was no chance he'd suddenly be able to accomplish that.
And yet Riddle started writing with an elegant, black quill as he summed up what exactly he was adding to the contract. "Your offer is that you will marry me when I break Grindelwald's curse, correct?" Riddle briefly glanced up at Harry with raised eyebrows, obviously waiting for her verbal agreement.
Several of the Slytherins Harry knew, Regulus, Severus and even Draco, were somehow screaming in her head that she was giving away far too much in exchange for far too little. "Er…yes, but that's not all."
"Oh?" Riddle tilted his head, lips drawn up in a small smile that said nothing at all. "Are you already retracting the promise you just made me?"
"Give me a break," Harry snapped as real anger rose up in her chest, ready to lash out with words or with magic. "You're a seasoned politician who has decades of experience negotiating anything and everything. And I'm a fifteen-year-old student. I daresay I'm allowed to need a couple of minutes to articulate myself properly. This is my bloody life we're talking about."
Riddle bowed his head and gave a quick, agreeable nod. "Of course, my dearest. State your terms." He held his quill at the ready to write down exactly what Harry would say.
Squeezing her eyes shut, Harry thought desperately about what exactly she wanted to accomplish with this offer. Ideally she wanted to get Riddle to back off entirely, but just in case he'd manage to actually break the curse, Harry had to be sure to get the best deal possible for herself and for everyone else.
"Just a reminder," Riddle said softly as Harry slowly blinked her eyes open again. "We're only writing up a contract for the terms of your agreement to marry me. The actually marriage contract will be negotiated at a later date and you'll have more than enough chances to speak up for yourself and to add your own wishes."
A shuddering breath left Harry's tense body before she could stop it. That was at least one positive thing about the whole damned mess. She wouldn't be expected to hammer out every single detail of their potential marriage that afternoon without any preparation. "All right," Harry sighed, willing her thoughts back to the rather important topic at hand. "I will marry you when you break Grindelwald's curse, as long as this happens before my twentieth birthday and as long as it leads to the abolishment of the Coven System."
The quill in Riddle's hand stopped writing at once as he raised his head to gaze at Harry with piercing eyes. "That is quite the price you're asking, my dearest."
Harry shrugged, wiping a hand down her dress to smooth down the skirt. "That is the price for my hand in marriage. Take it or leave it, Minister."
"Tom," Riddle said with a bit of a smirk. "If we're to be married, you should probably call me by my first name."
Snorting, Harry shook her head. "That won't happen until at least the marriage contract is negotiated, Minister." And if Harry's plan worked, it would never come to that.
"Very well. Let me finish writing up the contract." And Riddle did exactly that.
"Would it even be legal for me to sign that contract?" Harry asked once Riddle tucked the quill away into the leather binder and cast a quick drying charm on the ink. "I'm still a minor, after all."
"If this was about anything other than a potential marriage, you'd be correct. But since only witches can determine their future spouses, any contract pertaining to marriage can be signed by them once they're at least fifteen years old." Riddle flipped the contract around and held it out for Harry to take. "I suggest you read it through carefully."
Harry's hands trembled just a bit as she accepted the contract. She bit her lip as she read through it. Riddle had kept the language simple and the rules clear. There was no unnecessary legalese hiding unwelcome clauses. "Do you want me to sign it now?" Harry asked, hating how small her voice sounded. She was still convinced that she would never have to marry Riddle, since he'd be unable to break the curse. But there were a bunch of persistent Slytherins griping in her mind about her lack of common sense and self-preservation.
"Please do." Riddle handed her the stationary binder and the quill. Harry placed it in her lap and spread the contract out on top of it. She hesitated as she hovered the quill above the paper, but she knew she couldn't really back down now. She could, legally speaking, but if she ran away now she'd expose herself as a giant fraud. Not to mention Harry was sure pulling out of their deal now would genuinely piss Riddle off to the point that her Dad, Sirius and Peter might actually end up arrested on some bogus charges before the day was even over.
Squaring her shoulders and inhaling a deep breath, Harry finally lowered the quill to the paper and signed her name. Riddle all but snatched everything away from her and immediately added his own signature to the contract, which flashed a bright white for a second to indicate that it had been activated.
Riddle tucked the contract into the binder and slid the whole thing between himself and the armrest of the chair. Then he picked up his cup of tea with a pleasant smile, as though he hadn't just participated in changing Harry's entire future. "Do you have any idea what conditions you'd like to add to our marriage contract?"
Harry blinked in surprise, not having considered such things even once before. All she'd been focussed on so far was courtships and choosing the right wizards for her own little coven. She'd never even considered the fine details about any marriage, even though she knew it was expected of a witch once she agreed to marry a wizard. Or two or three.
"How about a fidelity clause?" Riddle suggested, cup placed against his lips as he took a small sip. "I do not like to share."
"For both parties," Harry quickly said with a glare. She wasn't about to spend the rest of her life tied to one wizard while said wizard went off to shag whoever he pleased.
"Naturally," Riddle agreed surprisingly fast. "I'd also prefer a secrecy clause."
"A what?" Harry asked, eyes widening. She'd never heard of such a thing.
"Since you'll be living with me, you'll come into contact with many secrets, both my own and those of the government. A secrecy clause makes sure you cannot, accidentally or otherwise, share those secrets with anyone else," Riddle explained with a patient smile.
"Yeah, that's fine," Harry agreed after some thought. She imagined Riddle knew a lot of things the general public didn't need to know. Whatever happened in the Department of Mysteries, for one. Harry could understand the need to keep all such knowledge under lock and key. "I want to be able to choose my profession without any interference from you."
"That is more than acceptable," Riddle said easily, placing his empty cup on the table. He hooked one leg over the other and rested his clasped hands on top of his knee. "I expect you to live in my home, but you will be given a room of your own. Of course, you'll always be welcome to share mine."
Harry could feel her cheeks burn as she gave Riddle a defiant stare. She hadn't even considered that marrying the guy in front of her also meant having sex with him. At least once, to complete the marriage and finalize the magical vows. "I'll agree to that," Harry said, her voice cracking a little much to her mortification. "As long as I'll be allowed to invite my friends and family over as often as I like."
"Certainly." Riddle took a moment to study Harry, eyes keen and lips pursed. "I expect you to look after your health. I take several potions to help me stay in the best of shape and I expect you to do the same."
That puzzled Harry since she'd never heard anyone else mentioning such a thing in a marriage contract. "That's fine, I suppose," she said, since she couldn't think of any reason to reject that kind of clause. "I won't be pressured into having children. If and when we'll have children will be decided by both of us, not the law."
"Agreed." Riddle stared at Harry with a certain kind of new hunger burning in his eyes. "Divorce will not be possible."
"But…" Harry sputtered helplessly.
"I won't accept it." Riddle's voice became decidedly frosty as he gave Harry a challenging glare. "Once I make something my own, I refuse to part with it."
"I'm not a thing," Harry snarled, her heart beating in her throat. She did not like the way Riddle was staring at her, as though he planned on devouring her whole. "And I can't agree to that clause."
"Yet." Riddle's whole face gained a huge amount of smugness somehow. "I still have several years to convince you, after all. Should I meet all the requirements of the contract, we shall wed the moment you turn seventeen."
Harry rubbed a clammy hand across her warm face. She felt like she was boiling alive all of a sudden. She'd come to basically win whatever game Riddle had been playing with her, but instead of that happening she now found herself negotiating their upcoming marriage in fine details. Harry reminded herself a few times that Riddle hadn't been able to break that blasted curse in at least five decades, so why would he be able to do it now?
"Fine, as soon as I'm seventeen we'll marry, as long as you meet all the demands of the contract," Harry whispered, telling herself over and over again it would never happen anyway and that she was safe.
"Excellent." Riddle reached for his stationary binder and stood up from his chair. "I suggest we continue our negotiations through letters. Of course that means you're expected to actually answer my letters from now on."
Rolling her eyes, Harry also stood up, her legs just a bit unsteady. "I'll write back." And she would, when her whole life was on the line.
"I look forward to hearing from you." Riddle made to turn around but seemed to change his mind at the last moment. "One last thing." Riddle pulled the locket out of his pocket and held it out for Harry. "I do expect you to wear it, dearest Harriet."
"Sure," Harry sighed, accepting the locket while ignoring Riddle's smug smile. Riddle waited in the doorway until Harry had fastened the necklace around her throat, and then, with one last look full of promises and expectations Harry could never possibly meet, Riddle left the room.
Harry's legs gave out and she fell down in her chair in a undignified sprawl. Riddle had accepted her offer, which was what Harry had hoped he would. Why then did she feel as though she'd just signed her entire life away?
It took Harry a good twenty minutes for her body to stop trembling and only then did she leave the room to floo home. She excused herself for dinner, saying she wasn't feeling well and would simply go to bed early. Carrie, their wonderful house-elf, served Harry a bowl of soup and some sandwiches in her room so Harry wouldn't have to go hungry at least. Harry just wasn't capable of dealing with her family right then, just wanting some peace and quiet instead of sitting through a whole meal full of very loud little children. By the time Harry crawled in her bed she had a pounding headache and an aching feeling in her gut that simply refused to die down.
The next day Harry kept to herself for the most part, unsure what to tell anyone of what happened. Only her mum even knew about her failed courtship with the Minister and Lily was working nights at St Mungo's for the rest of the week so she wasn't really available to talk to.
Harry braved the dinner table that evening, since her dad, Sirius and Remus were all there for a change. Of course, right in the middle of their Sunday roast, Riddle's large eagle owl swooped in to drop two scrolls in Harry's lap. One looked very official, with various seals attached to it, one of them obviously Gringotts. The other scroll simply had Riddle's wax seal on it.
"Who's sending you such an official scroll?" her dad asked while Sirius craned his neck to get a better look at the scroll in Harry's hands.
Sighing, Harry broke the seals and opened the scroll. That bloody bastard had their contract ratified at Gringotts before filing it at the Ministry. This meant that the contract was now in the public domain and there was no way Harry could try to shove it under the rug by destroying the original copy.
"You're getting married?" Rigel asked as he looked at the contract over Harry's arm.
"What?" James demanded, rising from his seat.
"Who?" Sirius also got up to get a glimpse of the contract in Harry's hands from across the dining table.
Holly, the youngest member of their family, began crying at the sudden influx of loud voices and Remus quickly picked her up to calm her down.
"To Minister Riddle?" Rigel looked like he wasn't sure if he should laugh at Harry's misfortune or not.
"WHAT?" James rushed around the dining table and tried to snatch the contract from Harry's hands, but she quickly shoved it under the table.
"No, I'm not!" Harry glared at her brother before giving her dad a reassuring smile. "I made him an offer he can't possibly meet because he kept interfering with my courtships."
"He's not allowed to do that if you turn him down," Hyacinth said wisely. She was Harry's ten year old sister who believed she knew everything already.
"I did turn him down," Harry snapped while Sirius and James shared several worried looks. "But the man wouldn't take no for an answer. So I told him I would marry him when he breaks Grindelwald's curse."
James burst out into laughter, his whole body relaxing instantly. "That might just be the best prank any of us has ever pulled."
Surprisingly, Sirius didn't join in on the hilarity. "And what happens if he does break the curse?"
"What do you mean?" James said with a hiccup as he wiped at his eyes. "No one can break that curse."
"Yeah," Harry agreed at once because she refused to contemplate any other options. "Riddle's not been able to break that curse for fifty years or so. It's not going to happen, no matter how much we'd all like it to."
Sirius still didn't look convinced. "I wouldn't put it past the bastard that he knows the counter-curse already, but could never be bothered to cast it."
"What?" Harry's whole body broke out in a cold sweat at Sirius' suggestion. She'd never even considered that possibility and only now did she realize that she probably should have.
"What's the other scroll say?" Rigel asked, unable to curb his tireless curiosity.
Almost on autopilot Harry unfolded it and stared at the title in shock.
"Preliminary Marriage Contract," Rigel read out loud. Harry glimpsed it quickly and saw all the conditions they'd talked about the previous day spelled out in fine detail.
"Oh yeah," Sirius said as he leaned back in his chair. "That fucker plans to marry you all right, Harriet."
"But she's fifteen," James said, gesturing wildly at Harriet as he stood beside her. "And he's in his sixties."
"None of that makes the contract invalid," Sirius pointed out in dry tone. "The whole thing's distasteful, I agree, but there's nothing illegal about it."
"But did you just say that Riddle interfered with your courtships?" James said, his voice taking on a desperate tone. "We can prosecute him for that, Harry. We can make him pay."
"No, you can't," Harry said evenly, remembering all too well how easily Amos Diggory had been arrested on false charges. "There's no evidence. Riddle's far too clever for that."
"But why would he even want to marry you?" Rigel asked while giving Harry a dubious look. "It's not like you're anything special."
Harry gave her little brother a sharp jab with her elbow. "It's because I'm a parselmouth, you wanker. Riddle seems completely fixated on that."
"Oh," Sirius said suddenly, eyes widening as he looked between Harry and James. "I remember something my father once mentioned. About Riddle."
"What?" Harry sat up at once, giving Sirius an impatient glare.
"Riddle is a direct descendant of Slytherin," Sirius explained while twiddling with his fork. "My dad said that in order for Riddle to be able to access the family magics he had to meet certain standards. One of those things was to find and open the Chamber of Secrets, which he did while he was at Hogwarts."
"Even got a trophy for it," James muttered, arms crossed tightly over his chest. "I cleaned that thing often enough during detention."
"And he has to marry a parselmouth capable of giving him children," Sirius finished with a nod at Harry. "You're that parselmouth. Probably the first one born since Riddle himself."
"What do family magics even mean?" Rigel asked with a confused frown.
"It means that more of your family's powers will become available to you and you'll be able to use certain family names and titles," Sirius said while giving his son a brief smile. "For the Blacks our family magics are tainted by the Black madness ever since one of our ancestors tried to take a few shortcuts to gain access to it without putting in all the work."
Harry stared at the opposite wall while a thousand thoughts swirled around in her head. So that's why Riddle was so adamant to marry her. She was probably the last hurdle he had to take to gain access to specific magic and titles. It also explained why he refused to consider an option for divorce. Most modern witches and wizards were fine with that after a certain amount of time had passed that saw any children born in the marriage at least old enough to go to Hogwarts. But Slytherin's rules for his descendants were probably a lot more old-fashioned than that.
Rubbing her hands across her face, Harry cursed her impulsive Gryffindor mind, not to mention her stubborn determination to fix all her problems on her own. She'd always been far too independent and now she was paying a very heavy price for that. If only she'd known all of this before making Riddle her offer. If only she'd sat down and discussed all of this with her parents before signing her entire life away.
But Harry's family was so chaotic and her parents were so often unavailable that Harry had learned from an early age on that adult help was rarely available and she was much better off just looking after herself in every way possible.
And now she regretted that more than she could say.
James placed a warm hand on Harry's shoulder. "He's not a bad man," her dad whispered as Harry looked up at him with wide, questioning eyes. "I can't say I expected any of this and I certainly would never have suggested this for you, but there are far worse potential husbands out there."
"Yeah," Harry sighed while Rigel leaned closer and said, "What do you mean?"
"Haven't we told you the story of Patricia Chastain yet?" Sirius said while giving his son a questioning look. When Rigel shook his head, Sirius continued. "Patricia was a muggleborn witch who was heavily courted by a couple of pureblood wizards, one of them my cousin Brachium Black, Narcissa's oldest brother. The others were Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange. Patricia married them and gave them all a son and then she disappeared." Sirius wrinkled his nose as he shook his head. "Those bastards claimed Patricia ran away to the muggle world, but we actually talked to her muggle parents and they hadn't seen her in years."
"So she's just…gone?" Rigel asked in a small voice.
"She's officially not even missing, since her husbands refuse to report her as such," James said with a dark scowl on his face. "And since Rodolphus is an Auror himself and very close to Riddle, no one is urging us to open an investigation."
Shivers ran up and down Harry's spine at hearing that story. She'd heard similar ones over the years. Students liked to gossip about all sorts of tragic marriages that had become public knowledge as time went by. But none seemed quite as horrific as Patricia's case. Mostly it was witches who regretted certain choices for various, often inconsequential, reasons. At least Harry could be certain that Riddle probably wouldn't try to disappear her anytime soon if her existence was so important to him finally accessing his family magics.
"Just ask someone's help before signing the actual marriage contract," James said while he patted Harry's back. "Someone who knows what they're doing."
Harry tried not to take that veiled insult personally even though she was now well aware she'd fucked things up. Again.
The rest of the holidays passed by quietly enough without any more earth shattering revelations. Riddle sent her a few more letters but there was nothing important mentioned in any of them. Just polite bullshit about how he was doing and how much he looked forward to their lives together. Harry sent him equally polite letters in return, mostly talking about how much she missed Hogwarts and how she couldn't wait to play Quidditch again. Riddle didn't appear to be a big Quidditch fan from what Harry could tell, so Harry made sure to fill most of her letters with her thoughts on that particular topic.
Once she boarded the Hogwarts Express, Harry joined Hermione in an empty compartment.
"You're wearing Riddle's locket again," Hermione said the moment Harry sat down opposite her.
"It's worse than that," Harry muttered, fishing the contract out of her bag and handing it to Hermione.
Hermione's eyes grew wider and wider as she read the scroll. The moment she rolled it up again she threw herself at Harry, catching her in a tight hug. "Thank you!" Hermione mumbled against Harry's shoulder. "This might very well motivate him to actually try to finally break that curse for good and then we'll all be free." Hermione pulled back and gave Harry a look full of pity. "Well, you'd still have to marry Riddle but at least you wouldn't be expected to marry two other wizards at the same time and become a baby-making machine, right?"
"That's one way to look at it," Harry agreed with a brave smile, even though she rather felt like crying just a bit. "Riddle's so determined to marry me just so he can access his family magics."
"Please explain," Hermione said as she sat back on her own seat, staring at Harry with a frown. So Harry explained all she'd learned during the holidays and by the end Hermione looked like she felt like crying, too. "That poor witch that just disappeared like that. I can't believe no one cares about her."
Harry shrugged. As terrible as Patricia's story was, there was nothing they could do about it at that time. "When I become an Auror, after I'm done playing professional Quidditch, I promise I'll look into her case."
"Thank you," Hermione said with a little sniff. "Do you want me to research your options concerning the contract? Maybe I can find ways to have you break it?"
"Knock yourself out," Harry said, unable to resist Hermione's determination to help her. "Though I don't think you'll find anything useful."
Hermione spent the first few weeks of the new year diligently perusing the whole library in search of solutions to Harry's problem, but even she had to eventually conclude that there didn't seem to be any available and Harry was stuck with the contract she'd signed.
"Maybe Riddle won't manage to break the curse after all, no matter what Sirius thinks," Hermione said full of endless optimism while they ate dinner in the Great Hall. "Then you won't have to marry him."
"Yeah, but then everyone else is still stuck in this horrid system," Harry muttered as she listlessly poked at some peas on her plate with her fork. She had thought about that a lot ever since she came back to Hogwarts. No matter what happened, someone was going to win and someone was going to lose. If Riddle broke the curse, Harry lost but every other witch in the country would win. If Riddle didn't break the curse, Harry would win her freedom, but every other witch was still stuck in the Coven System for the foreseeable future. Harry then still had to marry three wizards as well, but at least she'd be able to choose them herself.
Harry wasn't sure anymore what she hoped would happen.
Riddle had caught on to Harry's scheme to bore him to death through their letters with her endless talk about Quidditch. So in retaliation Riddle now spent entire letters detailing the various filing systems in his entire department, the utter pillock. He was clever enough to sprinkle important details throughout his letters so Harry had no choice but to read through them carefully without missing a sentence, lest she miss something she had to reply to. Harry was a Gryffindor, though, so she wasn't going to take that lying down. She started filling her letters with not just her personal opinions on Quidditch, but with details about the National Quidditch League and the many matches she listened to on the wireless in the common room every weekend.
Several evenings drinking tea with Severus and Regulus had given Harry plenty of ideas of important options to add to their preliminary marriage contract, such as details about how they would divide their finances and any other household decisions. Harry made sure to tuck all those away in detailed descriptions of various Quidditch matches.
Riddle got her back by listing his counter demands throughout endless descriptions of all the boring meals he had over the week in the Ministry cafeteria. That string of letters made Harry appreciate the amazing food at Hogwarts even more.
Harry then thought she had a brilliant idea to get Riddle back for that by sending him her messy drafts for her Transfiguration and Charms essays, thinking Riddle would find fifth year course work utterly boring to read. She was pleasantly surprised when Riddle sent those drafts back to her with a boatload of corrections and suggestions for improvements. Harry wanted to feel affronted that Riddle was treating her like a student but she quickly realized Riddle was one of the smartest people alive and he was also a surprisingly good teacher. So from that moment on Harry sent him all her essays for every topic she took and no matter how busy Riddle got at his rather important job, he always sent them back to her in time for Harry to rewrite them and turn them in.
Even Hermione noticed that Harry's grades improved dramatically in a rather short time span.
"It almost feels like your cheating," Hermione muttered while she read through Harry's latest revised Transfiguration essay in their dormitory. "Not everyone has a genius fiancée who happily corrects their homework for them while he should be running the country."
"Maybe you should send all your essays to Ron to see what would happen," Harry said with a giggle.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "He'd just copy them so he could turn them in for himself."
Riddle asked Harry to meet with him during her first Hogsmeade weekend in February, to which Harry agreed since she saw no reason to refuse him. Besides, she figured she owed him at least a cup of tea or a lunch or something for all the help he was giving her in her schoolwork.
But the Wednesday before they were to meet up in the Three Broomsticks the Daily Prophet reported that Riddle was going to address the nation that evening during a live speech on the wireless.
Harry got a sinking feeling in her stomach while Hermione beamed at her as she folded the paper. "Do you think he's done it?" Hermione asked in an urgent whisper.
"Dunno." Harry shrugged and swallowed against a stubborn lump in her throat. "It might be about something else entirely."
Hermione didn't look like she believed Harry for even one second, and truth be told, Harry didn't really believe herself either. Riddle addressing the nation probably meant that he had broken that fucking curse and Harry was going to get married to him on her seventeenth birthday, just a year and a half into the future.
Every Gryffindor gathered in the common room that evening while the seventh year Prefect turned on the wireless and shushed everyone once Riddle started speaking.
"Witches and wizards of the British wizarding world," Riddle started off saying and Harry noticed at once that his voice had a much warmer quality to it than what she was used to hearing when they were in private. When Riddle wasn't acting for the masses he sounded much sharper and even a little condescending at times.
"For many years now I have been working diligently to find a way to break Grindelwald's curse. I had to do this with the utmost secrecy since I have long suspected that much more was going on with Grindelwald's curse than any of us ever knew or suspected."
Harry sat on the edge of the sofa, one hand gripping Hermione's hand tightly.
"Unfortunately, I was proven right," Riddle said with a huge amount of regret clearly audible in his voice. "I uncovered an unbelievable plot against the wizarding world, not orchestrated by Gellert Grindelwald as we've long thought, but by Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel. They were the creators of the curse that has plagued our society for decades. They were the ones to fool everyone around them, myself included." Riddle cleared his throat, as though he was suddenly too overcome with emotions to carry on. "I have considered the Flamels dear friends since the moment I met them right after I finished Hogwarts. That is the reason I confronted them by myself this past weekend. I know I shouldn't have, but I felt such an enormous sense of betrayal once I realized they've been using me my entire life that I couldn't wait to assemble a team of Aurors to accompany me. I had to get answers."
Harry stared at Hermione with wide eyes. The Flamels were behind the curse? Why would they even do such a thing? And how had Riddle even found out about it?
"I'm afraid I didn't get many answers before Nicholas and Perenelle attacked me and I was left no choice but to defend myself. A fierce duel almost brought me to my knees when Nicholas cast fiendfyre. Very soon he lost control of that most dangerous of curses and he burned himself and his wife to death. I could barely escape in time." Riddle cleared his throat again. "I have turned over all the evidence I've gathered to Head Auror Rodolphus Lestrange for an impartial investigation. I have also offered my resignation to the Wizengamot but Chief Warlock Theodorus Nott has already let me know they will not accept it and they expect me to serve the remaining three years of my current term.
"The good news is that I have discovered how to break the curse in the Flamels' many notes and I have apparated all across Europe these past few days to see Grindelwald's curse broken once and for all."
Cheers went up in the common room. Hermione all but fell on top of Harry as they hugged each other and soon enough Ron threw himself into the mix as well.
"Quiet!" several Prefects bellowed across the common room.
Riddle continued speaking. "This means that the Coven System is no longer necessary. Over the next few weeks I will consult with various experts to come up with a plan to safely amend our current laws. You will learn all the necessary details in due time. For now, thank you for listening and I wish you a pleasant evening."
Students all around them jumped up and danced across the common room, cheering and shouting with joy. Ron and Hermione couldn't stop hugging each other while they laughed and laughed.
Harry sat perfectly still on the sofa, staring into the fireplace without noticing much of the excitement around her.
She was so fucked.