Chapter 4 – The News

Harry and Severus went down to Saturday breakfast in the great hall; each heading to his respective table. The atmosphere was relaxed and Harry was soon laughing with his friends.

"Its sunny out, lets go sit by the lake." Ron suggested as they sat back in their chairs with full bellies.

"Good idea! We should bring our homework too.." The boys rolled their eyes and grinned while an oblivious Hermione led the way to the Gryffindor common room. After fetching her books and throwing disapproving looks at the boys (who clearly had no intentions of joining her in study), she followed them into the sunny grounds.

"Ah this is perfect!" Harry sighed happily, lying back on a soft patch of grass near the lake.

"Yeah." Ron agreed. After a few moments of blissful silence, Hermione interrupted.

"Um.. Harry?"

"I'm not going back for my homework Hermione, it can wait 'til tomorrow."

"No, its not that. Ron and I need to tell you something. Um… well as you can guess our parents had to arrange marriages for us, because of this new law." She looked at Ron at this point, asking for him to finish what she was trying to say.

"Well mate, my parents asked if there was anyone I fancied and… well the only one I could see myself marrying was Hermione. That was fine by my parents of course." Hermione picked up the story again from here;

"My parents said they would support anyone I chose to marry, so when Rons' family came to me with the proposal… I said yes." She finished with a nervous air. Harry gaped at them for a moment, then grinned.

"That's excellent!"

"You think so?" Ron looked relieved.

"Yeah definitely! I mean you guys are already friends and get along, so it wont be so hard to be married. Imagine if you were married off to Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson…" He pulled a face. "So when's the wedding?" He added with a cheeky grin.

"Two weeks time, on the Saturday night. We accepted the marriage proposal on paper already, so there's no risk of any offers from higher value families overriding Ron's offer." The boys blinked at her. "Honestly, haven't you two read 'Wizarding Traditions and Cultures.'?" After some more blank looks she sighed and gave up. "Well it doesn't matter anyways… its done now. And I'm rather pleased its you and not Malfoy." Rons' ears turned pink at this comment.

Severus Snape, meanwhile, was attending a death eater meeting. He stood motionless, expressionless, as the man in the middle of the room screamed and writhed in agony, begging for forgiveness and mercy. Voldemort lowered his wand finally, deciding the mans' disobedience had been dealt with accordingly.

"Tell me, Severus, how is our young Mr Potter?" he began to circle Severus slowly, his eyes searching for any lie in the mans' mannerism.

"He is still somewhat… spirited. But he is learning to serve me as a husband should."

"And his powers? Does he show any unusual talents?"

"No my lord. He has some skill on a broomstick, but his academic work is rather average. He hasn't even mastered basic silent spells yet." Severus sneered slightly as he spoke, feigning distaste at the very topic of Harry.

"Good… very good. I want you to watch him, Severus, watch him closely. I want to know if he shows any extraordinary talents." Snape inclined his head in obedience.

Harry and Severus both had news to tell when they gravitated towards their rooms later that day.

"Ron and Hermione are getting married… the wedding will be in two weeks time, Saturday night, we are both invited." Harry announced, his voice hopeful.

"I shall owl the Weasleys' this evening and let them know we will both be in attendance." Snape let a lazy smile steal across his face at the sight of his young husbands grin. "We have both been invited to something else also… a 'party' of sorts at the Midcarde Manor."

"Midcarde?" Harry wrinkled his nose in thought. "Haven't heard of them…are they death eaters?"

"They are an old family, of as much esteem as the Snapes, Blacks, Longbottoms and many others you may have heard of. They are fairly secretive, not really supporting or opposing the dark lords cause. There will be many members of well respected families in attendance; likely some death eaters, some not. It would be a great insult for us not to attend."

"I guess we better go then. When is it?"

"This Sunday night."

Sunday morning Harry awoke to find Severus poking through his clothes. "What are you snooping for?" he inquired, perplexed.

"Your dress robes. We have a party to attend tonight and I want to know well in advance if your clothes will do or not." Severus growled.

"Err… is it going to be a very posh party?" Asked Harry, feeling he was missing something.

"Yes. We will be surrounded by very old, respected wizarding families. They are usually impeccable with their manners and attire." Harry sighed, this sounds like a stupid party. Severus meanwhile found Harrys dress robes and ordered him to put them on. Harry obliged, finding out quickly that they were far too short now.

"Wow… guess I had a growth spurt…"

"I guess you don't often attend posh parties, Mr Potter." Despite the overly sarcastic tone, Harry felt no hostility in his remark, in fact he could have sworn that the corners of Snapes' mouth even twitched.

"Well, I guess we need to go shopping. Come along, we'll go to Parvins' Robes and Attire and pick up something suitable there. Then have your hair magically trimmed at Fendeleys." Snape ordered.

"Magically trimmed?"

"Yes Potter. Some wizards have magically stubborn hair, like yours, that will only sit a certain length and direction… I think its time we tame it just a tad."

"Um… okay."

Later, out shopping….

Harry followed Snape obediently into the very classy looking robe store Parvins'. Snape led him straight to the gentlemens section and began picking out suits for his young husband to try.

"Not white, you are too pale for white. Ah black goes nicely with your hair. Gold trimming or silver? I guess it will depend on wether it's a warm or cold colour robe…" Snape rambled fiercely to himself under his breath. Clearly, dressing his husband for parties was not something he took lightly. "Here, try these on." He commanded.

The robes were gorgeous. The first was mainly black, with sections of red and gold trimming. Nothing too frilly. Another robe was of black & blue with silver trimmings. And the last was with black, green, and silver trimmings.

Harry had to admit, he looked good in them.

Severus ordered the robes in the appropriate sizes, paid the happy Mr Parvin, and took Harry down the street to have his hair trimmed. This should be interesting. I wonder how long it will take before my hair grows back after this haircut… I'm betting a few hours… He sat in the chair and instructed and waited patiently while the magical barbed sprayed, spelled and trimmed his hair. The scissors felt odd, almost like drops of water fell off them and onto each strand of hair as it was trimmed. It tickled horrendously.

But Harry had to admit, his haircut looked good. It was still rebellious and wild, but the length had been tamed and the was smoothed and spiked in just the right parts that it looked deliberate. Not bad, I hope it stays like this.

"You're all done." Beamed the barber. Both men thanked him and Severus again paid. He had forced Harry to leave his gold at home, telling him;

"It is my duty to care for your monetary needs until you reach 19. Call it an old fashioned custom. One that I agree with."

Their shopping trip over, they headed back to the castle. By the time they arrived a thick parcel containing three new sets of dress robes (along with a few pairs of new socks and boxers and other accessories Snape decided Harry needed) had already arrived and been unpacked by the house-elves (it had a 'house-elf friendly' sticker on it as requested by Snape, so the elves knew it was nothing private and could be safely unpacked).

"And now, we dress for the party." Severus said, a slight gleam in his eye.