Title: Diverging Reality
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters:
Chapter: 1
Word Count: 2,019
Warnings: language
AN: Is this a Harry Potter forced marriage? Yes, yes it is. Is it based off of a story that I personally enjoy? Yes, yes it is. When I remember where the story can be found and can be read, I will share it.
Please keep in mind that I did write this on my own. Forced marriage fics are a dime a dozen and I've read my fair share of them.
I want to thank eiliagh for being so willing to beta my story. 3 Thank you for your wonderful work! Enjoy.
"I really cannot believe this absolute crock of bullshit," Harry hissed softly. The snake that sat in the painting above Severus' fireplace laughed softly at the parseltongue curses that he let loose.
Severus just raised an eyebrow at him and poured a finger of whiskey into three glasses without comment. Eyeing the rage-filled Potter pacing his floor, he poured an extra finger for all of them before adding a small ice cube in it.
"Just because I am unable to understand the curses that come out of your mouth does not mean that I do not understand that you are cursing. Language," he chastised lightly as he handed a glass to Harry. He kept one for himself, and handed the third to the distracted Hermione.
She was kneeling on a pillow in front of the coffee table, a betrothal contract laid out before her along with the future marriage contract. The betrothal contract had been signed by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore Magical Guardian, and Molly Prewitt-Weasley as parent for a marriage between Ginevra Molly Weasley and Harridan James Potter. The marriage contract would be signed and done with the day after Harry's sixth year ended. Which would be the end of Ginny's fifth.
It seemed as if Dumbledore was trying to do it before Harry could claim the Potter and Black seats and become Lord Black-Potter. Hermione had idly mused after she had seen the date of the wedding, that Ginny would find her dreams of being "Lady Black-Potter" shattered because of the timing of the marriage when she had first scanned the contracts.
Severus had told her that Dumbledore was also trying to push it so early so that Harry wasn't able to dissolve it because of some clause once he took over as Lord.
"We're going to need the Charters for both families," Hermione stated as she looked up from the contracts. "And you, Harry, are going to have to take up your Lordships officially the day after you marry her. I don't think you want to have them before that date if you want to keep the title of Lady away from her. You'll also have to write to Lord Weasley about his wife and the fact that he is not controlling her in regards to marriage contracts when it comes to doing things like this. Maybe push him to give up his position to Heir William because this should not have been able to happen without his signature. She signed as the Head of Clan Weasley, not Prewitt. Not even as regent."
"Most likely then she broke a few Weasley Charter rules with her actions. I can only hope and hopefully that she'll be kicked around for it by their family magicks," Harry snorted as he stopped pacing, flopping into the chair as he rolled his glass of whiskey between his hands. "But still it's not enough to break the contract. It has to be held up. I've spoken with Ironrung about this already and now Griphook since he's taken over as the Potter Family manager," he told her.
Hermione hummed and pulled out a book that had the Potter Shield on the front of it, opening it up. It was her official copy of the basic Potter family charters.
Listed inside the first dozen pages were the current members of the Potter family, both adopted and by blood, going back about five generations. Her name was colored silver compared to Harry's dark blue and had 'adopted - sister - Blood Ritual' attached to her name. But at the very top of the list was the name of the Goblins who watched over the Potter family profile with Gringotts.
Clicking her tongue, she took her wand out and tapped the name, striking it out, allowing it to move up along with the added 'Oathbreaker' added to it, writing in Griphook's name before turning to her brother.
"You did the Blood ritual without me? Really, Harry? That is what you put into the book?" she asked once Griphook's name had changed to gold and the oathbreaker's name turned blood red.
"Yes. After OathBreaker allowed Dumbledore into my vaults to steal from me, including thousands of galleons every year, I made sure that there was no doubt in anyone's mind that you were my sister. The King of Goblins did approve of me using that particular ritual and it protects you now," he stated. Hermione huffed and turned back to the book. "The paperwork to get everything back has been finally filled out and sent out so I'm not truly worried about what is going to happen with that. I'll know how it goes in the next six months, though I will get weekly updates."
"Dumbledore is going to have quite the wake-up call, isn't he?" Severus snorted, shaking his head.
"Considering that I've already asked if Lady Malfoy can hold the regency for the Black Seat and Lady Tonks for the Potter seat in the Wizengamot this passing summer, along with any other seats I have? Yes. He's going to lose his power base this coming session and he doesn't know it. I want him to be blindsided by this. I've gotten the Peverell seats opened back up, and once you have your inheritance test done, I bet you ten to one, the Dagworth-Granger seats will also open up," Harry said. "Blood Adopted or not."
Severus gazed at the two students who had dragged him, kicking and screaming for a short time, into an alliance that was fast turning into something good for him, as proven by the fact that they had done so much. And all without letting out a single hint of how they had done it. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.
Hermione wrinkled her nose as she pulled out a spiral bound notebook to write her notes down in. The front cover had a rune circle to protect it from anyone without permission to read in it. "Justin Finch-Fletchley went in on a whim over the summer and got his heritage tested," she explained.. "He found out that on his mum's side, he comes from a Malfoy Squib. Not the Brit side, the French branch. And on his father's side, he came from a McGonagall squib who left the magical world as Professor McGonagall told him. He's been named the McGonagall heir and can use the name Heir McGonagall for official things now."
"I'm starting to believe that those squibs who were tossed out into the no-maj side of the world lived their lives without knowing anything different. They married, had kids. And those kids got married and had kids, and so on until a couple of kids from different lines mingled with just enough fresh blood with a dormant magical core to create a child with an active core," Harry said, looking at Severus. "I found out that I didn't get the Peverell family line just on my dad's side of the family but also mum's."
"Gringotts has already stated that they are willing to do the test for anyone who is willing to come in and do a test for a galleon. The announcement will be in the paper next week. This will be open to anyone who wants to try, be they new blood, half-blood, or old blood," Hermione said. "They have ways of figuring out who would be best suited to claim the Lordships of certain houses based on their charters unless the charters are the reason why the line died out. If you want to try to claim it though, they'll let you try but there is no guarantee."
Severus frowned as he sat down finally and sipped his drink. "Anyone huh?" he asked as he crossed his legs.
Harry gave the man a sly look over his glass, smirking at him. "I heard from a little birdie that the Prince vaults and seats are on lock down because your grandparents didn't bother to have another child after your mother," he drawled.
"And according to the public charters for the Prince family," Hermione drawled, "that I was able to get to, you could easily claim the headship if you fit the requirements. I believe that your mother was just struck from inheriting anything from the family but not you. At least that's what a copy of the public Prince family charter said. The Potter Family history book also said that. There was a side Prince married into the family about eight generations back."
Severus growled at them, knowing that they were just trying to get him to accept the Prince seat for their allyship, but he knew it was to also get him out from under Dumbledore's thumb. Having the power of the Prince name behind him along with his mastery and the various potions that he had created so far, along with the ones that he had improved on, meant that he would have options.
Options that didn't include having to work a job that he wasn't happy with and killed his soul a little every day.
"Very well. This weekend I will go to Gringotts and do all the needed tests," he promised. "Now, you said something about needing the charters of the family?"
"Well, I need the full charters with all of the information. The betrothal contract is just a basic one. She can't sleep with anyone but Harry during the entirety of the contract. She needs to be pure, so that means that she can't mess around. She's lucky that she hasn't done much more than frotting really," Hermione said, blushing lightly at the subject. "She can get off by herself but can't use toys. You two are going to need to have 'dates' but they need to be chaperoned. You can set them up any way you wish to. She'll get to have a small allowance, which, again, you can set up any way you want, and you control the level of access that you want her to have to your vaults."
"We're going to need someone who knows law and charters and can find all the loopholes, including how to work them all to our advantage," Severus said as he stood up, putting his glass to the side. "Do you trust me when I say that Lucius would be the best bet for this?" he asked. "He has worked to manipulate the system for those marrying in uncomfortable settings for years, ever since he had to negotiate his contract with Narcissa when he was still an apprentice," he told them.
Hermione shared a look with Harry before she nodded. "Very well. I suppose that we need to lay out all of our cards on the table. Especially since I'm about to have a twit for a sister-in-law," she said, playing with a small Ladies ring that sat on her left middle finger. Harry had given her the Potter sibling ring and she would wear it until the day that she died when it would be passed to her second-oldest daughter, should she have any, as was Potter family tradition.
It also had the added benefit that it allowed her to hide the interesting fact that her once bushy brown hair had turned into a deeper, almost auburn brown, and fell down her back in sleek, lush waves. It had changed after she had gotten the ring and the style of her hair reminded Harry of the pictures of Lily Potter's hair. Not much else had changed outside of her eyes going more hazel than brown, but they didn't want people to know that there had been any changes at all.
Severus smirked slightly and looked at Hermione. "I do suggest that you remove your glamour then," he suggested, walking into his private floor room to call Lucius to come to Hogwarts. Hermione muttered something about genius dungeon bats and rubbed around the small stone set in her ring, deactivating the glamour as Harry smirked at her.
"I told you that he would know," he sang, dodging out of the way of the pillow that Hermione threw at him.
