Title: Diverging Reality
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Harry, OC – Madam Larcy
Chapter: 16
Word Count: 1928
Warnings: friends talking about things

Edited by: eiliagh
AN: It is the second to last day of NaNo and Game of Tomes. I have a lot of words to finish off and a lot of other things to do yet, so please give me time to rest and relax. I will be getting back to my normal schedule of posting.

Hopefully.

For now, enjoy!


Groaning lowly under his breath, his arms stretching over his head as Neville chuckled at him, Harry ignored his friend to slump in the chair that sat before the fireplace of his home. "It seems as if Ginevra seems to have become quieter, lately," Neville said, flipping a page in the book that he had picked up the moment that they had arrived. "More so in the last two weeks."

Harry grunted at him. "I had a long talk with her brother about making sure that she read up about the traditions dictating our wedding. Her father made her do that. But, I also warned them that if she didn't pick a dress out of the three approved designs that she would end up in the frumpiest thing I could find," he restated. He rested his chin on his hand. He and his friends had just finished with their mid-term exams before they had headed to their homes for the short Easter Holiday.

It had been a week since Madam Larcy had spoken to him about the dress issue, and just under six days since he had sent Bill and Arthur the letters telling them about things.

The moment that he had read the letter, Bill had immediately gone to Hogwarts, used his power as Heir Weasley to pull her from her classes, and chewed her out about not following the by-laws of the charters. For all of the families really.

Neville hummed as he listened to Hermione swish past the study towards the library, eyes drawn to the doorway. She was most likely heading to her personal office just off of the main area of the family portion of the library to do some kind of work.

He had been rather surprised and pleased when he had seen her after she had first dropped the glamour and come out with the fact that not only was she a Potter and Black by adoption, but a Dagworth-Granger by birth. He had already started to test the waters to see if she would accept his courtship. He had told Harry one day during a Christmas party that the Longbottoms had held that his line was open to marrying New bloods. As the Heir and a man, he wanted to tie their family closer to allies in the times that they were in, but he did truly find himself falling for love Hermione.

One thing he was thankful for was the fact that Harry had pulled him aside one day and told him that Susan wasn't exactly the sparkly sunshine girl that she portrayed to the rest of the school. He had shared his experiences with her before he had been forcibly engaged to Ginevra and it had made Neville scowl heatedly at the thought of the Bone's Heiress acting in such ways.

The letter that had come from Amelia Bones a week after Neville had written to her had been enough to get Susan to stop angling for a marriage contract that favored her. Instead, she was just going for a Line Continuation Contract, the Concubine Contract ending up renamed with an heir a year older than them.

Harry sighed as he stared at his friend. "I saw her finally pick up the by-law book that I gave her willingly," he said, looking at his friend. Neville raised an eyebrow as he put the book to the side.

"Really? I would have thought that her father had been forcing her to read the books," Neville said. Harry nodded his head, his friend fronwing at him. "What do you think she is up to?"

"I do not have a clue. And he was." Harry shifted in his seat. "I made damn well and sure that she got all of the nitty gritty of the Potter and Black family by-laws just so that I wouldn't have to worry about anyone close to her trying to get around them with some loophole." He grunted as glasses with a small amount of amber liquid appeared near them."

Due to the fact that they were in his personal house, Harry could enjoy a small amount of whiskey here and there whenever he was dealing with certain subjects. He had found that even Neville enjoyed some on great occasions.

Neville clicked his tongue and picked up his glass, sipping at the whiskey. "I wonder what changed for her suddenly."

Harry smirked at him over the rim of his glass. "It might have been the last chewing out by Bill, I would think. I hear from the elf rumor mill that he threatened her with pulling her out of Hogwarts and homeschooling her personally until she's been married off. If not full on expelling her with how often she's been shaming their newly cleared name," he said. "As it is, the marriage contract will run out two or three years after we marry, one of those years being post-graduation for me. Dumbledore wasn't able to fill in that part, which turned out to be a good thing. Unfortunately, the shortest amount of time that could be put down was two years."

"Doesn't that kind of contract come with terms that you have to meet?" Neville asked him. He tapped at his bottom lip. "Usually there needs to be at least one child before the contract is fulfilled."

Harry smiled. "Lucius is writing in things that make the contract in my favor," he admitted. "She'll have to give me an heir for each house, or at least a boy child to hold both titles. Should she be able to do that in the three years, she will be allowed an allowance that will allow her to live well enough, a flat that she will own, and one house-elf to help her with her day to day things." he shifted. "Which is all well and good. As long as she stays out of the majority of my life. She would even have access to our children with the provision that should she try to say or do anything that will manipulate said child, she would lose said right."

Neville raised an eyebrow before snorting. "That's a Potter by-law if I remember right," he said.

Harry smirked into his glass and nodded. "And a Black one, too. Should the first child be female, that child shall be a Potter Heir, but not Black, and Ginevra would have to give me another child. Of course, we could always extend the marriage contract by a year should we find we need or want to," he said as he fully relaxed. "She hasn't asked to see the contract and since Dumbledore can't just look at it now that it's in my hands, he has to wait for her to ask me. She hasn't been seeing him nor her mother lately with the leash she's on. It seems that Arthur is not a happy man."

"Oh really now?" Neville asked. He tipped his head back before shaking it with a soft whistle. "That's shocking. You have a meeting tomorrow afternoon, yes? With..."" He trailed off and his lips twisted before he soothed his emotions.

"With the proper heir of Slytherin House? Yes I do," Harry said, giving his friend an understanding look. There had been papers that had been coming out about the Dark Mark from one 'Ms. Delicate Black', which was an old name from before the Black family had become a Most Ancient and Most Noble House.

Harry had a good idea of who the writer was. since some of the descriptions of losing oneself to the darkness within the mark and the twisted helplessness that one felt under it was too descriptive not to be her.

Neville had read that first article, found Harry in the Hogwarts Library and had dragged him to an empty classroom. From there, he had warded it to high hell and asked if he knew why Bellatrix Lestrange was sounding sane for once, and writing about her time under the Dark Mark. Harry hadn't known what was going on but he had promised to speak with Marvolo, as he had come out as, when they met.

"Don't worry so much, Neville. I was able to get an oath from him via Gringotts that the meetings that we are going to be attending will be strictly business on both ends," Harry said. He frowned slightly at a thought, tipping his cup back and forth. "Really, I have no idea how the meeting will end up going down. I don't even know what we're going to speak about, outside of Bellatrix and what he plans on doing. I have questions and he's willing to answer them, but he also wants to try to create a treaty between us since I came out as Neutral just last week," he continued.

Neville sighed, nodding his head and soothed for the moment. "Very well," he said. He slung the last of his whiskey back, shivering at the sudden warmth. He waved his wand at his mouth and stood, taking the offered cookies from Winky with a smile along with a small bag of them for his grandmother. "I should head home. I want to finish up a few drafts of my essays before tomorrow. Grandmother and I are going to visit my Uncle."

Harry smiled at his friend. Neville didn't really speak about it, but there had been a few upsets within his family in the last year. Especially since Agie had been put to trial for endangering the Heir to a Most Ancient and Most Noble House. The man was currently serving a five-year sentence at Azkaban in a ward that didn't see the Dementors. After he got out, he would be under house arrest for the next ten years.

Neville had agreed to visit him once during each holiday season that he was home, and three times during the summer months with his grandmother. More of an escort more than anything.

"Good luck, Nev," he said, watching as his friend quickly ate the gingersnap cookie, brushing the sugar and crumbs off his fingers. "And I'll make sure to write you tomorrow after the meeting. Or at least about what I can," he promised.

"You better," Neville drawled before he disappeared through the floo with a rush of green flames and a bit of soot that puffed from the fireplace.

"Will you just tell that poor boy that you've already spoken with Lord Malfoy to go over a proper betrothal contract for us and that you have it ready for him to accept?" Hermione asked from the doorway, looking rather amused at her brother's antics.

"I'll do it after the holidays, Hermione. After. I want to have some fun and see if he gets the balls to ask me for your hand first or not," Harry teased. He put his empty glass down onto a coaster and stood, moving to lace their fingers together and give her hand a soft tug. "Come on. Let's go walk in the gardens. I've missed seeing them blooming while we were at school and with the winter being so hard."

Hermione chuckled, smiling as she walked with her brother out into the gardens with thoughts of their futures to come filling their minds. They were content to just walk and think, not worried about what could have been or what was at that moment. She smiled as they stopped before the memorial for James and Lily in the back of Grimmauld Place, staring up at it, just standing and being with each other.