Chapter 22
In which Ronald Weasley finally became famous of his own deeds
"A betrothal contract, My Lady?" Lucius asked as soon as they arrived in Malfoy Manor after visiting the site for the Conservatory.
"huh? " Harriet looked at him blankly. "Oh, you meant the Weasley's one? I got a lot, actually."
"I beg your pardon?" Lucius screeched before looking around in fear, then dragged her to a private room hidden behind a wall in his private study.
Harriet looked around at the miniature library in fascination.
"What is this, a private room inside of a private study? Where does that door lead to?" she asked curiously.
"A private suite. Nevermind that, My Lady. Why are you receiving betrothal contracts?" Lucius wrung his hand nervously, somewhat reminiscent of Dobbys behavior.
Oh well, that theory about pack behavioral patterns must be true then.
"I don't know? Probably the same reason you didn't know of my marriage at first? I only knew this because Gringotts sent me notifications of these contracts, and they were all burnt because I'm already married. Gnarlfist asked me if I wanted to do something since they all just tried to pass it as legal, but I said don't bother. I mean, it seemed to be a lot of work, and I doubt that the ones they tried to pair me with knew of it." she said as she examined the titles of the books on the nearest shelf.
"Did My Lord know of this?" He asked as he calmed down.
"Of course not, this only happened this summer, and if you recall, Thomas had been in radio silence since the end of May. What's up with him, by the way? I thought that he would at least write if he can't visit. My Uncle had been pretty upset that he didn't set a date for dinner." Harriet hummed at a book and took it from the shelf.
"He's not exactly able to write at the moment, much less come for a visit, My Lady." Lucius said exasperatedly.
The Dark Lord was currently occupying a snake, for Merlin's sake! Even he had trouble conversing with The Dark Lord since he wasn't a Parselmouth. Speaking of Parselmouths…
"My Lady, would you happen to know of someone with the ability to talk to snakes?" he tried to ask.
"Snakes? Like those Snake Charmers in India?" Harriet blinked at him.
Her mind produced images of men dressed like Professor Quirrell with a flute and a snake dancing inside an earthen vat.
"Uh, I'll look into that. Thank you, My Lady." he said pessimistically
"But if you're looking about conversing with a snake, you can try these stones." Harriet pulled out a pair of rune filled stones and squinted. "Yeah, I don't specify which animal, only animal. So, this should work. I only ever tried this on Hedwig, though, so I'm not really sure this will work on snakes."
She offered the stones to Lucius.
"My Lady, this is…"
"Oh, it's a Rune Project I was working on. Hedwig used to have this long conversation with visiting owls that I got curious about. I should have tried it on Esmeralda too, now that I thought about it. Anyways, she told me off for listening to her conversation with Daphne's owl, so I'm not using it anymore." she said offhandedly.
"I will treat this with utmost care, my Lady." Lucius bowed and escorted her out to the library with the book she was reading on.
First of September came sooner than expected, and this year, since Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had been called to Dudley's School, Harriet decided that she wanted to try the Wizarding Entrance to Platform 9 ¾. The Malfoys gladly escorted her through it, and they were safely ensconced in her chosen compartment well before the boarding time. Lucius and Narcissa said goodbye early since the Steward had to run to catch a Portkey to Japan for business, and the children chose to occupy their time playing Exploding Snap.
Halfway to their game, their other friends appeared, sufficiently occupied Harriet's attention until the train left the station. They were well on their way to Hogwarts, without knowing that there had been a disturbance at the Muggle entrance to the platform. It was the next day that they finally noticed that something had happened.
Harriet had gone to breakfast in arms with Su Li and Padma, ready to trade stories of their summers. Su Li had met Harriet during the summer, but didn't get to catch up because of her grandfather, so she was equally excited to hear from her best friend directly. They had settled comfortably into their chat when the other students entered the Great Hall, and as such wasn't aware of something that is arriving on the Gryffindor Table, that is until it exploded in the angry voice of Mrs. Weasley.
"— STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE —
— LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND GINNY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED —"
— ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED — YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME.["
Harriet turned to see a red envelope yelling at the red face of Ronald Weasley. The red envelope turned to his sister beside him and said soothingly.
"Of course, I wouldn't blame you, Ginny Dear. This is no doubt the influence of that muggleborn. Congratulations on making it to the Noble House of Gryffindor, Ginny Dear."
'Ginny Dear' was burying her face in her arms out of embarrassment. Harriet blinked at the spectacles and turned to her friends.
"Do any of you know what that is about?" she asked in confusion.
"Only that the Gryffindors is already in negative point this morning." Padma said. "But that's nothing unusual with the Weasley Twins' tradition of Welcome Prank. I thought they got caught early this year."
"No, it's Slytherin's turn to get pranked this year, hence we didn't see any of them this morning." Cho Chang from fifth year who sat beside them commented.
Now that she mentioned it, the Slytherin's table was suspiciously empty, and Professor Snape was nowhere to be seen.
Harriet shrugged and returned to their conversation until the Owl Post arrive with a headline news that seemed to explain the strange occurrence.
'Enquiry at The Ministry of Magic' it said, it was about how Arthur Weasley was fined 50 Galleons for owning a flying car, that had been spotted by no less than seven muggles. It was flown by Ronald and Ginevra Weasley, also one Ms. Hermione Granger from King's Cross London to Hogwarts.
Harriet sighed in exasperation. Exposure of magic to that many muggles had them fined 50 galleons, while she'd gotten a warning letter for Dobby's spell. Yaxley had that warning letter rescinded and registered Dobby under her care for future reference, but still…
Needless to say, Hermione Grangers, Ronald and Ginevra Weasley became infamous for the incident, and also, the source of jeers and ridicules from the Gryffindor House. Harriet wondered how such a 'Noble House' could have been filled by bullies and thanked her lucky stars to have avoided that curse. She frowned at the thought and turned back once again to observe the table.
"Why is it that they have to take the car? The three elder Weasley brothers were all in the train. I remember the prefect one checking into my compartment. Also, wasn't there some chaos involving the twins? something about runaway Tarantula?" she asked Cho Chang.
the older girl nodded, "they found the spider in my compartment. i don't know about those two, though. I'd have thought that Madame Weasley would have accompanied the youngest one since it was her first year."
"Well, our mother was ill..."someone interrupted them.
They turned to see the Weasley twins behind Harriet. It was Fred Weasley who spoke.
"So, our father dropped us at the station..." George continued.
"Percy had to rush for Prefect meeting..."
"And Ginny wanted to go with Ron..."
"can't understand why..."
"And we presumed that Ronnie would take care of her..."
"Obviously we overestimated him..."
the girls watched them talked alternately and rolled their eyes.
"So why are they taking the car instead of the train? I thought it was stupid that a couple of 14 years old drove the car, but twelve was just idiotic. did he even reach the brake?" Harriet asked curiously.
"No, that's why they hit the Whomping Willow..."
"Ron said that they were barred from entering, and so does Hermione..."
"And of course, instead of owling the school, the obvious solution is to steal a car? I worry about their future, really." Harriet shook her head, once again thanking her decision to not become Ronald Weasley's friend.
"Why are you not using the Wizarding Entrance anyways?" Cho asked them.
"Too many people..."
"Too many trunks..."
"Too many egos..."
"The list goes on and on..."
"Huh, that actually made sense." Harriet said and waved her hand unconcernedly. She really wasn't that interested in the Weasleys Family Dynamic.