Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling, I am just playing in her world
The Quadruple
Previously
In leaving Croaker came through again when Augusta didn't want Neville to have dinner. Unfortunately, the help was only half good and half annoying. Where she had been planning to arrange the dinner in the future, Croaker had caused it to happen this evening. Now she couldn't search for Moody as she had planned, but must get a dinner organized and get the Abbot's and their daughter Hanna invited.
Last night's meal even if thrown together at the last second had been a success. Seeing Hannah and Neville stumbling and blushing as they discussed their hopes for their futures, and it was clear to all present that the two were besotted with each other. She had never before witnessed the angry side of Hannah, but that badger had sharp claws and teeth and she was furious with Neville's grandmother. The Abbotts were happy in what they had seen so far in Neville, it helped that he was oblivious to the tempting her niece had undertaken through the meal until Hannah had put a stop to it. Though shy he was incapable of not constantly zeroing in on Hannah during the evening.
The discussion had been mainly centered on herbology, as the Abbots ran a market gardening business that grew a wide range of potion ingredients. It placed Neville in a comfortable setting to showcase his knowledge and enabled him to come alive as he discussed his interest, desires and dreams. Amelia also noted that Neville had been correct on both knowing that Hannah was interested in the subject, and her niece clearly was not. After Neville and the Abbotts had left she only had to cheer up her niece that was slightly despondent that her best friend looked like she had found a great wizard while she hadn't. She also was unused to being left out of the conversation. Susan was the more gregarious of the two friends and she had found herself in a different dynamic this evening.
This morning was not going so well. She should be being sworn into office in the Wizengmot shortly. However, arriving early she had swung by the sub-department for Probate Heritage Contract Agreements and Taxes and discovered Neville and Heather's betrothal agreement was already active. So she was here instead, trying to find out if it was a mistake that Prima Black could fix or if Heather truly had already accepted it.
Now having avoided four of the five traps her paranoid ex-employee had on his property she was going to knock on his door. As she had tripped one trap he already knew she was here. Probably watched her fix the damage, but he would be waiting to see if she acted enough like herself to be herself. She quickly stilled the dangerous paranoia that nearly had her questioning if she had acted sufficiently enough as her own self. The door cracked open a smidge.
"Bones, third year, Hogsmeade visit before valentine's day who did you kiss and where?"
"Moody that was years ago don't you think you should ask a more current question?"
"Nope, I know you know this and you're too public for current questions to be secure."
"Fine I think the whole school thought I kissed Michael Thompson as he said we did. I have no idea on the where seen as I didn't kiss him and the rumors that spread round school listed numerous different places. Do you want the name of my then current boyfriend I went to Hogsmeade with that believed the lies that had expanded from the initial kiss and broke up the day before valentines too? I am sure it will make me feel happy remembering certain school days I'd rather have forgotten Moody."
"Nope that is fine, your question?"
"Can you get me to tell Heather Black she has a filed marriage contract agreement already active on her full name with Neville Longbottom that he and the Abbotts need her to stall so they can file their own between Hannah Abbot and Neville?"
"I meant your security question and no one knows Mistress Black's full name."
"I checked PHAT this morning and there is a filed marriage contract agreement that went active at twenty-one-o-six last night for Neville Frank Longbottom and Heather Jabbah Black. If you are Moody you can get me in contact with Heather Black and that answers my most important security concern right now. So my security question is you supplying Heather Black."
"Damn! Bones I will be back shortly. Kreacher."
"All-seeing-one-eye calls Kreacher."
"Emergency I need to come through the lockdown wards."
Kreacher vanished then seconds later returned and next both Moody and Kreacher were gone.
Bones stood in front of the cracked open front door. She was not going to enter. Who knows how many traps were inside? To be fair he had been abducted from his own house a few years ago, against his usual paranoid protections. So he was likely justified in increasing to insane level. Didn't mean she was going to try to enter though. No she stood and tried not to laugh over Moody's new name. He sounded like a pirate fortune teller. He did already have the peg leg. Should she buy him a parrot or a crystal ball? Well she had her next security question for the paranoid lunatic.
"You still outside Bones?" Moody called opening the door. Behind him she saw the house elf, Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood. "I brought them as proof that we are going to see Heather Black seen as I could pop you anywhere if I was pretending to be Moody. So your security question was not as clever as you thought. Well get over here and we will go back over the lockdown wards."
The first thing Amelia saw was a second Hermione and she was drawing both her wands without even thinking.
"I am under polyjuice for safety." Said the Hermione she had travelled here with, and Luna started giggling. She didn't think her nearly cursing several children was a funny event.
Putting her wands away and relaxing she looked at Granger one. "Heather Jabbah Black. I assume?" Amelia inquired. "So how much of an hour do I have to wait 'till I see the real you?"
"Better show how you really look lassie so she quickly understands why you can't stop the marriage agreement." Moody told Heather.
Then an orange furred cat blend with the initial Hermione looking girl was stood before her, and she was imagining Black and a cat and she screamed. "That despicable…
"No that's not possible, is it?"
Heather looked affronted. Moody was laughing loudly at her and Luna had been brought down to her knees with tears in her eyes and was giggling hysterically.
Heather gritted her teeth. "I deliberately took polyjuice potion with a mature half kneazle hair to get around the trace. It locks in the polyjuice beyond the usual one hour limit. Actually it is locked in until you allow a healer to cure you. They need to wait at least a year as the transformation is a shock to the body and you shouldn't undo it until the body has had the year to recover.
"Unfortunately I didn't just get a hair from the kneazle but also one from my best friend Hermione. So when I cast the glamour I look like the identical twin of Hermione Granger." Heather then recast the glamour becoming Hermione once more.
"So as a part creature you don't have the legal power to overturn the agreement dowager Longbottom put into play. You're going to have to make concessions to house Abbot and house Longbottom to take the consort option and maintain your Black name." Amelia informed Heather. "First I can guarantee that dowager Longbottom will demand fidelity to her Grandson at a minimum for allowing the consort option and keeping your last name Black. Is there another wizard you are interested in that would preclude you from allowing that?"
Heather just stared at Madam Bones in horror.
"Does it apply to witches too?" Hermione interrupted Amelia's gaze upon a non responsive Heather.
Amelia looked at Hermione and a newly serious Luna and realized that the problem was evidently not another wizard. It would seem Black was involved with the two present witches. "No our society only cares about the purity of a witch from other wizards they don't acknowledge there can be anything between two witches.
"Now the Abbots would want their family safe behind these wards…
"And what would you want of me?" Heather angrily challenged. "What if I just let the wizard world destroy itself? Stay back here with those important to me behind these impenetrable lockdown wards. While the wizarding world that has killed my parents, persecuted me and mine, maligned, constantly demanded from me and ridiculed me, self destructs. Why should I not just wait 'till magic can't impose any more upon me as your corrupt society implodes."
Amelia was not expecting such a bitter angry retort and looking between the adults and children none present were in disagreement to the vitriol spouted. "Heather, patriarchal society, unless you think the magic world will be destroyed in slightly over three months, then even hiding here you will still end up married and for ignoring your husband, he will have control of the wards. So not only could he then come here but he could refuse to let you leave. Your sanctuary would become your prison if you are unwilling to work out a compromise with him. Now aside finding that we had locked your innocent father up in Azkaban… The wizarding world only found out about you less than two days ago surely we have not been able to malign and ridicule you constantly in a mere two days that you want us destroyed."
"Black you need to tell her or I will just use your other name." Moody stated.
Heather looked at Amelia with pain filled eyes. Hermione and Luna grabbed hold of each side of her their love concern and worry clearly etched upon their faces in support of her. No matter what, she had them. They would be with her even if she chose to let the magic world die. "I am Heather Black, but was born Harry James Potter." Heather told the stunned witch.
"That is not possible." Amelia shakily declared. "You cannot be both. If you were still Harry Potter then the marriage agreement would not take as it would not have accepted Heather Jabbah Black as your name. If the new name is yours then Harry James Potter would be listed dead, and he is not. You cannot have two magically viable names concurrently."
"According to the Black tapestry upstairs I can. I have both names. Admittedly it is confused on Heather's birthday." Heather replied.
"Can I see it?"
Amelia stared at the tapestry with both names and took her time thinking what this could mean. Magic seemed happy thinking there were two different individuals. "I wander what is important about September nineteenth nineteen-seventy-nine."
"It is my birthday." Hermione said. "I was more curious with the two that are in nineteen-ninety-seven myself."
Amelia thought for a while and then started grinning. It would be best for Heather to stabilize her own birthday though. "Moody do you agree Heather should stabilize her own birthday?" she asked.
"Aye, it is not good that magic is in flux on her birth but what date should she chose?"
"Heather I don't know if you know this but Neville's mother, who unfortunately is unresponsive in the longterm spell damage ward of St. Mungo's, is Harry Potter's godmother. Though magic appears to see two different people there should be sufficient bleed through that the dowager Longbottom's forced marriage contract upon Alice's son and god child that neither want, will force a cost upon Augusta. She stated the agreement with the minimum ninety days engagement and all months agreements go into force at end of month. That means this agreement has a forced wedding date of October thirty-first. If it is seen that not only does the agreement come with the minimum engagement time but it was also your birthday meaning she didn't know her grandson's fiancée it would let everyone know she forced this on you and will bring you public support. More importantly you would reap a benefit from magic, a boon."
"No everything bad happens to me on that day. I lost my parents on that day. Every year something terrible occurs on that day. I have a heads up on what is planned for this year. I will not have that as my birthday." Heather declared.
"All the more reason to choose that day then, and there are a further two more good reasons in addition to changing your fortune for the better and informing to all that the dowager didn't even know your birthday when she penned the agreement. First reason to select that day is that it will remove most if not all the bad luck from continuing. So you remove a known weakness. This would be your last bad luck on October thirty-first, and as you stated you now know ahead of time so nothing worse could happen this or any subsequent year on that day.
"The next is that it is a date within Scorpio's zodiac justifying the middle name that actually might have something to do with magic seeing two people. Lastly as an engagement gift the dowager chose a necklace with a Topaz which is November's stone. She gambled on the greater number of days of Scorpio being in November. To have her miss by one day it should give you a larger boon. In other words though you are being punished you would obtain a debt from magic. With Voldemort after you specifically, a boon is the sort of scale tipping event that would enable your survival. Actually being forced to marry against your will on your own birthday should make the boon stronger. Magicals do not marry on their own birthdays."
"Heather it is very good advice. You have the chance to remove a weakness. The magic of your birth should negate at least most if not all of the bad luck you have with this day. I agree that you should think of Heather's birthday as October thirty-first." Moody stated before turning back to Amelia. "What do you mean about Jabbah being the possible source of magic seeing Harry and Heather as separate individuals?"
"I thought of it while trying to work out the how the tapestry didn't list Harry as dead. However, it was knowledge I learned when I looked up information on 'Jabbah'. When I saw the contract I thought the name was wrong because all Black's have a star name. It was then I found that Jabbah is a quadruple star in the Scorpios constellation. It had been a star I was not familiar with.
"Now, Moody had stated earlier no one knew Heather's full name, which originally seemed strange. Now I think you chose multiple middle names, likely one each and not telling each other after Neville warned you of the agreement. Did you choose middle names that were stars or constellations?"
Amelia looked around the room and saw that none had thought of the Black custom to have names from the stars. "That is how Augusta trumped your multiple names. She likely got the middle initial 'J' from Neville, while he was thinking of Harry's middle name and wrote a contract with all the stars starting with the letter 'J' as a middle name, until one took.
"Having seen 'Jabbah' work she guessed your birthday to be in November. What I am thinking is that as Jabbah is a quadruple star or a double-double star it allows magic to think of you as multiple people. A Binary star like Polaris is not considered a multiple. Multiple's start as three star systems and go up but most are three stars or triples, there are few named stars at the quadruple and higher multiple. Now I am completely guessing but I think each of your two individualities has been awarded a binary of the quadruple Jabbah."
Madam Bones kept quiet of another benefit of associating with the zodiac Scorpio as Heather had expressed dissatisfaction against the magical world and likely wouldn't appreciate that the Scorpios constellation was in the Mars Parthenon. It was appropriate though as being 'of the God of War' was known for making powerful warriors which would be a benefit to the magical world needing a hero, well heroine. Among the other strengths like being durable in love, was a weakness toward marriage. Being forced to marry one they could never love that would be a weak marriage. No she should definitely keep these other ideas to herself.
"So the necklace should have had an opal for the month of October?" Hermione inquired thinking of ideas for suitable gifts later.
"Actually magicals use tourmaline as the stone's magic abilities have numerous uses. Admittedly the amount in a ring is not going to do much but it is a symbol of magic. The stone tourmaline is used within ward schemes, or to encourage growth of magical plants amongst its varied usage. Due to that we don't think of opal as the birth stone." Amelia replied.
"So how do I do this?" Heather asked and pointing at her name on the tapestry.
Moody answered. "Point your wand at the blinking dates and say 'I Heather Jabbah Black was born on October thirty-first nineteen-eighty."
"Don't say the year." Amelia interjected grabbing Heather before she could draw her wand.
"Why the blazes should she not!" Exclaimed Moody.
"Oh I am expecting something magical." Amelia replied.
"Bones I need to know the reason. I thought I could trust you to have Heather's best interest at heart but now I am not so sure." Moody answered and had pulled his wand on her.
"Fine I am guessing it will chose nineteen eighty-five which will maximize the boon. The average of those four birthdays years would be about nineteen eighty-eight but that would render this agreement void. This agreement chose Heather's middle name by your statement that the name appeared last night at about nine in the evening. Magically you were completely born last night, the final fourth element. The prior three were Hermione's birthday, as Heather is her identical twin, Harry's original birthday and the day he drank the polyjuice potion.
"I don't think magic would render one of the four cornerstones of Heather's creation void so it will choose a year that is closest to eighty-eight that the agreement would not be void. A witch can marry at twelve, no one has done this in years but the law is there. So I'm expecting eighty-five and a significant boon owed.
"Why doesn't Heather use a different star middle name and the year eighty-eight to render this agreement void and not have to marry Neville?" Luna asked.
"Mum Dad, can you chose me a star middle name?" Heather requested.
"It should be a quadruple star just in case." Amelia said.
"I think Capella is but it might be a quintuple. It is a multiple star though and not just a triple." Dad offered.
"Dan wasn't Capella the name of a girlfriend of yours?" Emma calmly inquired.
"Emma, I am not naming our daughter after an ex-girlfriend, I am using the knowledge I have available from life to help our daughter not have to marry someone she is not in love with." Dan explained. "Now some think Capella was a Titan nymph of music prior to Zeus upturning the applecart and starting the Greek Parthenon. It is a four or five star system. This is knowledge I have and how I learned it surely is not as important as that it is pertinent to solve our dilemma."
"Good enough for me." Heather said then drew her wand "I Heather Capella Black was born on October thirty-first nineteen eighty-eight."
A/N - I want to thank my reviewers I appreciate every one both those stating what they like and those warning where the story might be going bad. If your not logged in I can't thank you though so consider this my general thank you to the ones I couldn't directly reply to. I need to go one step further and point out where I am using something inspired by the reviewer Cenright, thank you for reminding me that Alice was Harry's godmother and being pertinent - It gave my muse a few ideas to run along with. I also want to thank the reviewer MilandaAnza that has been a great help / sounding board of potential ideas through PM's and has given me confidence and left me laughing quite often. I appreciate your time and comments and hope I don't tick you off - well too much. -waves- Trengilly
