Chapter 20

School went on even while both Black sons grieved for their father, neither of them showed this in public but their closest confidants knew about the pain they were suffering. After the evening up on the North tower both Sirius and Regulus had gone their separate ways, returning to old habits.

On the other hand the relationship between Regulus and Marianne underwent a drastic change. Before Regulus had approached Marianne about Orion, they had maybe crossed paths a few times outside of class. Now Regulus would meet Marianne at least once a week in secret at the library and supplied her with a vast range of books and texts from the Black family library on which he would quiz her in the weeks after.

It had started with him stalking out of the shadows behind her usual table and carefully laying a handwritten old tomb beside her own book pile. Curious she had leaved through it and her eyes had become bigger and bigger. The book contained a detailed description of various Black family gatherings and what would be expected of each and every attendee, it was an interesting read of course but this was a Slytherin sitting across from her, he wouldn't have given it to her at random. After a careful look at her year mates blank face, she finally broke and asked him why.

As an answer Regulus had stated that the reason for this education was that both his late father and his grandfather, the current head of the house Black, had acknowledged her as the most likely candidate as the next lady Black, providing of course that Sirius didn't embarrass the family irrevocable beforehand. He told her that the Black family was absolutely cutthroat and would decide over her head if she showed even the slightest bit of weakness, which meant that she would need all the time she could get to prepare for her role before the engagement and wedding.

To be honest Marianne wasn't sure what to think of this, the muggle part in her head was really uneasy about the fact that she more or less landed in an arranged marriage with no feasible way out, while the witch part of her just shrugged her shoulders and took it as face value and was even slightly relieved, after all she loved Sirius and wanted to be with him.
The witch Marianne had been aware of the possibility of being married off right after school with little to no say and without even knowing her future husband. Even though her family was very liberal in such matters and she didn't believe that her father would have done this, it could have happened. She knew that she was very lucky about growing up as an Abbott. A lot of the female and even male students in Hogwarts weren't so lucky and would have to do what their parents wished, without any say at all.
And so encouraged from her witch part Marianne threw herself into her studies, be it schoolwork from Hogwarts or Regulus'.

The younger of the Black brothers was quite the task master, besides drilling her on her responses he walked her through several situations that could occur while in company of the female half of the family as well as various topics which should be safe should she need to make small talk during her trial phase in the Black socialite circle. He was thankfully very well acquainted with the various reactions of the female Blacks and thought processes thanks to a decade of nearly weekly gatherings that he had attended because he was his mother's favorite.

Those drills were followed by standard dancing lessons followed by dances of the more obscure variations that were only danced in the highest pureblood circles. He told her straight out that he wouldn't put it past one of his mother's closer acquaintances to try and embarrass Marianne in front of the other guests with asking her to dance to one of those.

During these times Marianne also learned to appreciate Regulus' dry and sarcastic humor. She learned to interpret more and more gestures from the Black and slowly build an unusual friendship with him.
Of course she still spent most of her free time with the Marauders and the girls but she also enjoyed the hours with her future brother in law while he taught her how to survive in the socialite circles of the old and powerful, as well as obscure and very powerful grey magic of which she had never heard before and which wasn't taught in Hogwarts. As compensation she helped him out in Potions, he was just as utterly hopeless as his brother concerning this delicate art.

But what in the end cemented their friendship beside their soon family connection and their love for Sirius were Runes.
Both of them loved Runes, both of them understood the intricate balance and endless possibilities that this art offered them. Their meetings often ended in passionate discussions about their favorite topic. Regulus even admitted about owing an audmo and being fascinated about her idea. He thankfully didn't ask about how she did it. It WAS a company secret and Marianne wasn't sure how she would have deflected the question without making things awkward between them.

Another topic that found it's way into their lessons was Regulus plans for after Hogwarts. Regulus was fascinated with history and architecture and obscure forms of magic. His dream was to travel after his graduation and visit and especially learn from different cultures, to compare them and pass the knowledge on. In Marianne's opinion the younger Black would make an excellent teacher or lector with his calm, collected and organized nature. She could see him in the future at one of the magical universities lecturing the next generation about the great magical wonders of passed times.

And so the time flowed, weeks became months and suddenly the Christmas holidays were knocking on the door.
As a special present for Regulus Marianne had given him a gift certificate for approximately fifty songs on his audmo, as well as two Language Lozenges, the first for Arabic and the second for Swedish, she figured that because he already knew how to speak French, Russian and German, those languages would be more useful for his travels. She learned about these useful helpers through her education as future Lady Black. It seemed that her knowledge about French wouldn't be enough and so she took a German and a Russian Language Lozenge. The trick with the Language Lozenges was that you would have to speak as much of the language in the following two weeks as possible, to imprint the knowledge in the brain.
Marianne in return received a sophisticated anklet with Rune work against compulsions and most other mind altering curses. This present would also make it harder to cast the Imperious curse on her.

The train ride home had never been so short for Marianne; she was nervous and was fidgeting the whole time. Sirius and her had agreed to inform her father and brother about their relationship right away and she had written them in her letters about the fact that she and Sirius were a couple.
Sirius wanted to do right by her and that meant receiving the approval or at least the permissiveness of the Abbott males and so he had written her father as well. Thomas Abbotts answer had been a little bit stiff and very formal, but it hadn't been a right out rejection and that was a step in the right direction in the Black scion's book.
Marianne thought this gesture of Sirius very sweet of him but wasn't too sure about the reaction of her father and brother when she saw them again.

When the train finally came to a stop she nervously squeezed Sirius hand one more time before she followed the other students out of the coach.

She found her family nearly immediately, waiting a little bit on the side to escape the masses. Determined she made her way over to the two with Sirius following right behind her. A few meters away from the older pair of wizards Sirius took Marianne's hand in his own to squeeze it once more before she hugged her brother and father.

While Thomas asked his daughter about her semester Michael looked the former playboy over. Said wizard unconsciously straightened and looked his girlfriend's brother in the eyes. Unknowingly this brought him a lot of points with Michael. The eldest Abbott child saw how serious Sirius took this introduction to them and how important Marianne seemed to be to him, maybe just maybe he could learn to live with the young adult that stood in front of him now, compared to the immature prat the Black had been when Michael graduated.

Unknowingly his father mirrored Michael's thoughts. Thomas saw how Sirius nearly unconsciously sought Marianne's presence and how his eyes turned tender when he looked at her. Inwardly Marianne's father sighed, it seemed as if his daughter had really grown up since he had last seen her and this relationship was more serious than he had hoped. He knew the Black's character after all, they were incredible possessive and would fight tooth and nail to keep what they thought was theirs. It seemed as if the possibility of Sirius Black becoming his son in law became more and more reality. At least it looked as were said Black immensely smitten with his little girl and wouldn't hurt her feelings, well at least not deliberately.

After composing himself inwardly Thomas was a lot friendlier to Sirius and allowed him to visit and take Marianne out during the Winter holidays, provided that they heeded her curfew. Elated the couple said discreetly goodbye to each other before Sirius went with the Potters and Marianne was apparated by her father.

Throughout the holidays Michael and Thomas became more and more resigned to the fact that Marianne would probably be a Black the moment she graduated from Hogwarts. They saw how unbelievable tender Sirius was with her and the way her happy smile seemed to entrance him. That he ran around with a pretty dopy smile himself didn't help his case one bit.

Sirius took Marianne across England during this time, he showed her places that she hadn't visited with the girls and even took her to the second hand shop in which he had found an old motorbike that he wanted to buy and magically restore, but he always brought her at least an hour before curfew home. This was met with a lot approval of the Abbotts while James, Remus and the girls kept teasing him about him being so proper. Peter was once more absent from the group of friends and in the last few months their friendship had slowly started to unravel. The boys were confused and frustrated about Peter's strange behavior, but Marianne was glad about this.

Another thing that kept the little Abbott occupied was her brother's wedding. While the men did the smart thing and vacated the room the moment Cornelia and Marianne started to talk about the preparations, the young witches were discussing fabrics, flowers, food and the guest list. They even managed to rope in Lily and the girls as well as Cornelia's closest friends and spent whole evenings giggling and cooing over various things concerning the wedding.

Furthermore Marianne was also visiting MagicSound nearly every day to get caught up with the designs and what really happened in her company, aside of the written reports she received from Charles. A trip to Gringotts opened her eyes for what she was really earning, her vault was full with gold, even with the large percentage that was reinvested and used to increase the capacity of the company. Happy about this fact she treated herself to new clothes and shoes, as well as some pretty jewelry.

On Christmas day she exchanged presents with all her friends at Potter Manor after celebrating with her own family. From Sirius she received a necklace to her bracelet, also silver and delicate with a blue tear drop as well as a tiny audmo charm for her bracelet, Sirius had ordered it to be custom made, the charm had the Runes for luck, prosperity and success etched into it.

Her present consisted out of black leather gloves matching to his jacket also with runes incorporated, a gift certificate for songs on the audmo as well as a picture of the two of them in a frame.

After Christmas and Yule the time until they had to return to Hogwarts practically flew away and they were suddenly back on the train in direction of the old castle.