Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K Rowling.
Chapter 12: The Contracts
I drummed my fingers into my desk restlessly. Moody had been tuned out long ago, I had an important meeting after this lesson. I'd never expected to be excited for a meeting with Draco Malfoy, but here I was.
I had decided to take Sirius' advice, which ironically coincided with Rowena's advice. Even though they essentially told me to do the opposite things.
I met Malfoy's eye and gave him a subtle nod as Moody dismissed the glass with a violent bark. The sharpness of Moody's shout had been worn down from too much use, no one as much as twitched when he screamed in our faces.
Our base of operations had been… difficult to establish, someone finding the two of us plotting together would open all sorts of questions. We were known arch nemeses, that facade would have to be kept.
So we had decided on an unused classroom in the dungeons. According to Malfoy, no one ever went there due to its reputation. In the Slytherin common room it was apparently known as the 'room of rest'. Simply because people had gone there to rest and had rested for a long time. Everyone had awoken eventually, but the classroom was widely regarded as cursed.
It felt odd learning about such a significant bit of Hogwarts lore from Malfoy, especially since I had no idea that the room even existed.
"You sure you're still up for this Potter?" Malfoy drawled as he looked at me with his chin raised as if he was talking to someone beneath him,
"I'm in Malfoy, the question is if you have the guts to go through with it," I retorted venomously.
Again, I wondered how on earth we ended up working together.
Malfoy sent me a withering glare but settled for a scowl instead of a voiced retort. Progress.
"Let's get to work," I said with a determined look and sat down at the table.
Soon enough, I heard the clattering of his way to expensive shoes and was joined by him in the chair in front of me.
Who could have guessed?
"I have an idea which even someone of your rate of intelligence should be able to comprehend," Malfoy said seriously. He pointed to a piece of parchment with a muggle TV drawn on it.
"Do you know what that is?" I asked sceptically
"Unfortunately, yes."
I nodded. "Didn't know that you knew a single thing about the muggle world…"
Malfoy glared at me. "I don't and I want to keep it that way."
I snorted. "Still, a muggle machine is somehow involved in this plan of yours."
"Please just go and take a chug of the draught of living death in Professor Snape's office. That would be preferable for everyone."
I smiled sweetly. "Aren't you the one who is all chubby with Snape?"
Malfoy glared at me. "I am not chubby with anyone, nor will I ever be."
"As long as Parkinsson never hears you say that, you should be fine," I responded drily.
Malfoy's lip curled into a distasteful look. "At least I have enough charm to actually get a girl."
I rolled my eyes. "It's a stretch to classify Parkinson as a girl. I would say that she is a jill."
Malfoy looked at me incredulously. "What the fuck is a 'jill'?"
I smiled smugly. "It is the female version of a ferret."
Malfoy actually chuckled. "Not bad, Potter. Did you find that out just to use it against me?"
I shrugged. "Maybe. If you want to know, you're a 'hob'."
"I don't want to know."
"Now you do either way."
Malfoy sighed and shook his head. "Fuck you Potter."
-()-
I had developed an unquenchable hate for matchsticks.
Since no one had managed to transfigure their matchstick into a butterfly the first time around, McGonagall had simply decided to move on to transfiguring animate objects into inanimate objects. Hermione and a few others had managed this quickly, I had not.
Transfiguration had always felt like directing a small stream of water to me. Just dig a small channel and the water will follow. This felt like trying to get the water to change direction. Something instinctually made it so that the butterflies wanted to stay as butterflies, the same way the water won't suddenly turn around and flow in the opposite direction.
It quite literally felt as if I was working against a force of nature. Transforming a matchstick into a butterfly had seemed out of reach, as if I was standing a metre away from the stream, this felt attainable, but to my increasing frustration, I had no success. For the third lesson in a row.
"This is stupid," I muttered under my breath and stared at the small butterfly with a look more venemous than an acromantula.
"If you keep on complaining, I'm sure it will be," Hermione returned with an amused look.
I shot her a dark look and wanted more than anything to wipe that look of her face by transfiguring the damn butterfly into a matchstick. I took a deep breath and pointed my wand at the unsuspecting butterfly slowly.
Perhaps I couldn't turn the flow of the stream, but I could stop it altogether.
I whispered the incantation just audibly and was one small step away from cheering as the butterfly turned into a matchstick. There were no specks of blue and red either, all of the matchstick had the same oak-looking wood.
"Well done Harry!" Hermione commented praisingly.
I returned a confident smirk and shrugged noncommittally. "Easy."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Of course, only took you three lessons."
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes, "Whatever."
Hermione shook her head and turned back to her rat which was supposed to be a vase at this point. The should-be-vase had very few characteristics of a vase though, considering it had four legs, a mouth and was a rat.
"If you're not careful, you will soon have gone three lessons without having managed yours," I quipped.
The only signs which showed that she had heard my comment was the sound of her taking a deep breath and the slight squaring of her shoulders. I almost rolled my eyes internally, she thought she was going to do the same as me.
The brown rat stayed as brown as ever after she had muttered her incantation though. This was followed shortly by a frustrated huff of indignation.
This was about how it had been between us the last few days, none of us were happy with the other, but we were civil with each other at least.
Ending my moment of rejoicing at finally having completed a transfiguration, the bell rang shrilly. I strided forward to the counter proudly and presented the perfect matchstick for inspection. McGonagall looked at it closely and nodded with her mouth in a firm line. That was high praise coming from her. Most of the times I didn't get the nod, Hermione was the usual recipient of that gesture.
The shuffling of bags and scrapping of chairs against the hard stone floor resounded over the classroom as we began our journey towards the weekend. We had five essays to complete over the two days, but the last lesson of friday was always laced with relief.
I fully intended to go straight to my masters abode and make some progress on my more important studies. A small tog at my robes delayed this however. I turned around abruptly, "What?" I ground out frustratedly.
Hermione was standing there with an unimpressed look with Ron slightly behind looking slightly sheepish.
"Can we talk?" Hermione demanded.
I opened my mouth to retort that we were already talking but she interrupted me, "Privately."
I closed my mouth and let out an exaggerated sigh. Without another comment, I strided inside the closest, unused classroom and whipped around to face them. "What do you want now?"
Hermione folded her arms as Ron looked anywhere but in my eye. "Are you going to the chamber again?" Hermione eventually began accusingly.
"Yes," I responded and met her eye determinedly, not giving an inch.
Hermione's expression softened and she took a step towards me, "We want to come with you, to help you."
I dragged a hand through my hair, "I've already told you a million times, you can't. There are…"
"..protections in place. We know," Hermione interrupted irritably. "We want to help you Harry, we really do. But do you really have to go into the chamber to study?"
I sighed heavily and sat down in a chair tiredly. "I told you, it's easier to focus there. No distractions, no peers watching you like you'll grow an extra head at any moment."
"I get that," Hermione replied with a desperate look. "But you will be able to learn much more with others. You can't do this on your own."
"I have done it before, I can do it again," I concluded and stood up abruptly.
"Mate," Ron interjected quickly before Hermione could speak. "What we are trying to say is that we barely see you anymore. You're always gone in that chamber. We don't want you to think that we're not here for you," he continued passionately.
I gave him a tired smile, "Trust me, I know you are. You can't help me with some things though, this is one of them."
"Is it though?" Hermione demanded in frustration. "We can help you, like we've done before. It just feels as if you don't want our help anymore."
"Hermione, Ron, I know that both of you want to help me, but I've got this under control," I assured them calmly.
Hermione shook her head dismissively, "Like you had the first task 'under control'?"
"That was different," I stated simply.
"Is it though?" Hermione demanded and gestured angrily. "How do we know that this plan of yours doesn't end with people in danger, or worse."
I scowled and scoffed. "Do you think that little of me?"
"No," Hermione responded immediately. "At least not before, this person you've been since you became a champion is not someone I recognise."
"You know the way you heat up iron to make it stronger?" I asked rhetorically.
Hermione nodded quickly whereas Ron only looked at me as if I had actually grown an extra head.
"The same thing has happened to me. I've been forced to change, because the circumstances demanded it. Believe me, I would love to be able to be a normal teenager with the only problem being McGonagall's next essay, but that is not the case. I've been in a situation like this a few times too many to just sit around idly," I continued my tirade passionately.
Ron nodded slowly whereas Hermione looked at me sadly.
"We've always been with you Harry." Hermione gulped and didn't meet my eye. "Almost always perhaps." Hermione let out a deep breath. "Please, don't leave us behind now. You don't have to," Hermione practically begged as she took my hand.
I gave her hand a small squeeze and took it out of her grip.
"You shouldn't have to suffer because of my problems," I said decisively.
Both Ron and Hermione opened their mouths to argue but both were beaten by a faint knocking coming from one of the windows.
Barely visible though the dirty, old panes of glass was a speck of snow white. It definitely wasn't snowing, so it could only be one thing.
Hedwig hooted happily as I opened the window ajar and let her into the warmth of Hogwarts.
I looked at the small letter attached to her leg and my heart suddenly started to beat twice as fast. As if in slow motion, I reached out to relieve Hedwig of her charge but was interrupted by Hermione and Ron emerging on each side of me. The shining, golden sigil of the wizarding bank was glistening on the mundane letter.
"Why would Gringotts be writing to you?" Ron asked in confusion.
"No idea," I responded slowly.
I sighed inwardly, the knot in my stomach grew larger again. My web of lies was being spun larger and larger every minute.
-()-
"It's here!" I exclaimed excitedly and waved the letter in front of me.
Panting heavily, I plumped down in my armchair and ripped the letter open aggressively. The pretty gringotts seal was left vandalised on the dusty floor.
I wasn't sure what I expected, but the contents were a stack of paper which really shouldn't have been able to fit within the small envelope. I sighed heavily as I flickered through the stack of papers, there appeared to be a comprehensive list stretching several pages.
Rowena janked the letter out of my grasp elegantly and I sent her a small glare. It lacked any real venom since I didn't really fancy going through all of that.
"Mr. Potter," my master began reading from the letter. "As requested, you have received a full list of the contents of the entire Potter family estate. As a sign of gratitude to us for protecting your possessions for this long, we would like for you to become one of our closest business partners," Rowena read solemnly.
"We already know this," I commented frustratedly. "Is there any easy way to find out if there is a vial of my father's blood?"
Rowena looked at me with a small smirk, "Easy for you, no. For me, yes."
With that comment, she dumped the entire stack of papers back in my lap. "Tell me when you've found it," she declared with a faked jawn as she stood up.
I sent her an incredulous look and shook my head exasperatedly. Rowena only smiled at me wickedly and went inside her room. I scowled and huffed loudly. She had never been inside her room before, of course it would be the first time now.
Deciding to bite the bullet and get it over with, I began scanning through the first page. If I ever started to work on Gringotts, I would make sure that they sorted their listing system. Instead of outright telling me how many galleons, knuts and sickles I owned, they individually listed each coin.
Galleon 23463748, Galleon 28648234836, Galleon 2048203, Galleon 282648…
It went on like that for several pages, and after the galleons came the sickles, and after the sickles, the knuts.
I dumped half of the stack on the floor with a big grin. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad after all.
Luckily, it took only about thirty minutes to find a section with various hospital items.
Blood sample (Mr James Potter) Nr 2
The words were black as my hair was against the light paper, but they glowed like the sun. They shone so brightly it made everything else look like small candles of light. As if she had sensed my sudden stop of all coherent thought, Rowena strided inside the room again and snatched the paper out of my grasp.
"Oi," I yelped indignantly as I was broken out of my stupor.
"There is a vial then," Rowena stated simply. "Now, what will the price of this vial be?" Rowena continued rhetorically and gestured for me to give her the rest of the stack.
I handed them over with a sarcastic grin, she finally would have to do some work here. My moments of gloating were immediately broken as Rowena took out her wand and simply patted it against the pile of papers. I watched with my eyes wide in horror as some of the black letters turned to a bright purple colour.
"There we go," Rowena muttered happily. "All of the items which are contracts will now be illuminated."
Rowena began scouring through the papers quickly while I glared at her so hard it was a surprise her head wasn't smoking under the heat. As she read through the papers she would occasionally frown and nod in understanding. If I had stood up, left and gone for dinner and then returned, she wouldn't have noticed.
After the fire of my glare was nothing but a mere ember she cleared her throat and looked at me with a grimace.
"It's bad?" I whispered, almost inaudibly.
"Not necessarily," Rowena replied vaguely. "There are three contracts which will be activated when you pick up the role."
"Do we know anything about what they will be about?" I requested hesitantly. It could have been worse than three contracts, how much would three contracts really do?
"We do actually," Rowena replied with a forced smile. "They are called as follows," she continued and cleared her throat.
"Licensing agreement contract," she began slowly.
I held my breath. That didn't sound too bad but what did I know?
"Insurance contract," she announced even slower and took a deep breath.
She looked me in the eye for several long moments.
"Family Union contract."
"A what?"
Rowena grimaced. "Does the term 'marriage contract' make more sense to you?"
It felt as if someone had decided to take two frying pans and slammed them together inside my head repeatedly.
Marriage, I knew what that was. Contract, I had learned a lot about them these past few days of waiting. The words made sense apart, but together, they were like oil and water.
Rowena only smiled at me sympathetically and waited for my brain to comprehend the information I was just delivered.
"What does that mean?" I breathed out eventually.
"It means you will have to marry someone," Rowena explained patiently. "We won't know any details before we see the contract though."
"And that will only be possible if I take up their 'offer'. Which means that I've already been forced into it," I finished and put my head in my hands.
I let out a long and frustrated groan and my fists were clenched so hard that my knuckles had turned white.
"I was fine with losing money," I began with my eyes closed. "This is something else…" I trailed off and remained silent.
"It is worth it in order to get rid of Voldemort," Rowena declared confidently. "It's an expensive price, but one worth paying. You said so yourself."
"I could end up marrying anyone," I ground out as my fists clenched even tighter. "There won't be any love between us."
"You won't be marrying anyone," my master explained impatiently. "It will obviously be someone from a family which has been around for a while."
"Which means that there is a great chance I'm potentially marrying a blood purist racist," I commented sarcastically. "Great."
"It is likely," Rowena conceded with a frown. "But you are from an old family, there should be no problem."
I stared at her and chuckled darkly, "My mother was a muggleborn and I'm best friends with one and a widely regarded 'blood traitor'. I'll fit right in," I countered sarcastically. "That's not taking into account that being married to a bad person is just…not nice."
"The girl will be forced into this as well, she should recognise that remaining hostile to you is of no benefit to either of you."
"She will be forced into this, yes," I admitted. "I will be the one forcing her into this, if I never pick up the role, she won't be forced into this."
"You should pick up the role," Rowena clarified shortly. "It is your life. It is your choice."
I sighed in frustration, "What if I end up marrying someone who is twice my age or someone dead?"
"You won't be marrying someone who is dead," Rowena explained simply. "The contract wouldn't have been activated in that case."
"That's something," I muttered shortly.
"As for the age difference, there is always a requirement that the couple is at most at around a five year age difference."
"Five years? I could end up marrying someone who hasn't even started Hogwarts yet!" I replied with my eyes wide open in horror. "There is no way I'm accepting this."
"You won't be marrying now, obviously," Rowena declared as she rolled her eyes. "Every marriage arranged by a contract is to be done before both people involved have turned twenty."
"So at the earliest, I'll have to marry someone in about five years," I confirmed tiredly.
"Yes."
"I need some time to think," I announced as I stood up abruptly.
"Take all the time you need," Rowena replied with a small smile. "Just be here for your usual lesson tomorrow."
"I will," I returned automatically. I felt so disconnected to my body as I walked out the door, it felt like I was looking at myself from the outside.
With the huge urge to annihilate something, I decided to go and find something to annihilate.
-()-
My shoes clattered against the cold, wet floor loudly. Each step was a cacophony to the still silence which had filled the chamber of secrets for the past couple of years. The abhorrent smell of death and decay permeated throughout the solemn space like a rot. As for the basilisk carcass, not much was left. I had seen an old skeleton of a shark when visiting a museum in school once, but this. This was something much more…sophisticated.
It was a special feeling walking around the skeleton of a beast so powerful it could kill thousands with just one lock, but it had been bested by a twelve year old. Me.
I shook my head as I remembered my brief but memorable encounter with the mythic beast. Some part of me wondered if every grounder had a secret hidden within the school. Slytherin built this chamber, Rowena created a room for eternal existence. Had Gryffindor and Huffelpuff done something similar?
They had preserved their legacy in ways which I could only dream of. I was the boy who lived, but I wanted to be known for something other than surviving an attempted murder. What did I really want though?
"If only I had the Mirror of Erised," I muttered hoarsely.
The one thing I knew I desired was a future. Not just a future as in being alive, but putting all the shit of my childhood behind and being happy.
A scream of frustration flew from my lips ferociously and bounced against the solid walls of the chamber, flying back at me savagely. I sank to my knees and aimed my wand at the mossy visage of Slytherin. Spell after spell after spell flew from my wand as I screamed incantations. Nothing I did made even a single scratch at the statue, Slytherin remained in his locked state of quiet disdain.
Panting heavily, I laid down on the wet floor and felt my robes absorb the cold water. Trying not to imagine what bacteria or remains were dissolved in the wet substance.
My future was all I had, everything I ever did, I did in hope that the future would be better. For everyone, for me. However, it seemed that everyone and I couldn't have a happy future. It was a choice between the two. I had no illusions that a forced marriage would be nothing but distance and disdain.
I was okay with putting myself in danger, but giving up all chances of ever being happy or even content for a chance at winning. That was a tough bit to swallow.
It wasn't only my life I'd be ruining either. One poor girl would for the rest of her life be bound by the shackles I put on her and locked mercilessly. Then I'd be destroying the key down to the last atom. Once that damn contract was activated, there was no way back.
I didn't have to shackle anyone. The shackles were in my hands. My choice would be to let her be and live her life happily or imprison her to share my cell until we both met our ends.
Perhaps we could be happy together, I wouldn't be naive or hopeful here. She could hate me. If I were forced into marriage because of some other person's self aspirations, I'd be furious. Rightfully so.
I stared into the dark, sunken orbs of the founder hatefully and pushed myself up again. Dripping of water and god knows what else, I made to leave again. I don't know what made me come down here, it felt right. My lie was all based around this one place, I should know how it looks currently.
I sighed heavily and began the ardorous trek back towards the warmth of the castle. The cold dampness made everything feel repressed and solemn, like you had a pair of shades which darkened everything.
It really wasn't that much of a decision. The price of victory would never be cheap, this one was incredibly overpriced. It wasn't just a one time payment. No, I had to pay, and pay again, and pay again. Payment after payment. Year after year.
I didn't feel like emptying my vault filled with gold of happiness for it to never be reinstated.
What did I even have?
Here and now, what did I have to value?
I couldn't sell the one thing I could have when I had nothing now.
Because really, what did I have of value now?
A future.
A future with a sea blue as the sky. A future with grass greener than the fields of paradise. A future with a meal I could devour after years of being famished.
That was all I could have, for only that, it was worth fighting, right?
I wasn't the only one either, I pictured nameless students strolling through the halls without a care in the world. People smiling as they read the newspaper in the morning.
Did they deserve it? No. I deserved it though, if someone else's happiness was the cost of my own...
There were worse things to pay with.
Like one's future.
If only I could endure this, I could have that.
If only I could endure this.
