Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of their characters or anything else you recognise from the books or movies. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.
Harry rejoined the others. "What did Dumbledore have to say? Or shouldn't I ask?" Neville asked.
"He wanted to know who I was going to choose to undo the blocks," Harry said.
"Surely it's none of his business. He must know that whoever you chose wouldn't want anyone else to know about it," Susan said crossly.
"I agree but he seems to think he has the right to choose for me. He encouraged me to choose Ginny and warned me off choosing Hermione?" Harry replied.
"What? Why?" Neville spluttered. "Surely he realised that choosing Ginny means marrying the girl?"
"What right does the headmaster have to tell you who to choose?" Tracy asked.
"None at all but that's never stopped him from having an opinion on my life," Harry said tiredly.
"Ginny Weasley? She's a fifth year. Is she sixteen already?" Susan asked.
"No she turned fifteen in August," Harry replied.
"You could go to Azkaban for having sex with a fifteen year old Potter," Tracy interjected warningly.
"Or he could use the threat of Azkaban to control me, provided that her brother's didn't kill me first. I'd have to marry Ginny, and Mrs Weasley thinks Dumbledore is the next thing to Merlin. None of them would ever approve of my not doing everything he wants me to do," Harry said thoughtfully.
Susan looked shocked, Neville looked slightly ill and Tracy nodded. "So, you're not as naive as I thought you were," she commented.
Harry sighed. "That just makes choosing the right partner to help me with this more difficult."
"You don't have to do it right away. You have enough magic to be passing all your classes easily and V... V... Voldemort probably won't attack until the end of the year." Neville said blushing as he stumbled over the name.
Harry ignored the gasps from the girls. "Dumbledore's given me less than two weeks to choose or he will arrange it with someone he trusts. He said it might be easier with an adult. He might be right about that but if this bond thing is real, I don't want to be bonded to someone he has enough control over to be able to order them to fuck a teenager."
"They might not need that much persuading Potter, you're not just any old teenager, snagging the-boy-who-lived, not to mention the next head of house Potter would be quite a catch even for an older witch, and you are old enough for it to be legal," Tracy said practically.
Harry shuddered.
"Then you need to choose someone quickly, before he can interfere and insist on his chosen person," Neville agreed.
"Yeah but who? I've no idea where to start," Harry replied dejectedly.
"Well how would you normally make a decision like this?" Susan said.
"I'd ask Ron and Hermione for advice," Harry admitted.
"That might not be such a good idea this time," Neville said hesitantly.
"Yeah, I know!" Harry agreed sighing.
"How would Granger help you? She doesn't know any of the families, she wouldn't know who's betrothed or who might agree to be allied with the House of Potter," Tracy said.
"No she wouldn't even think about stuff like that. I guess she'd help me make a list of what's important to me about the person and then between them she and Ron would know who'd match," Harry said uncertainly. "Hermione knows a lot of the students in other houses from her prefect duties." In truth he was grateful for the other three for bringing up issues he was sure Hermione wouldn't even be aware of and Rom might not think about telling him. She would have picked someone who he could trust to keep it quiet and owe him a favour, maybe someone who could be a friend or encouraged him to choose a potential girlfriend not worried about marriage laws and betrothals and stuff.
"Well making a list of what we're looking for sounds sensible, we could do that without Hermione's help and the three of us would know who might meet your criteria. I need to make a decision too," Susan suggested offering each of them a fresh piece of parchment.
"I'm betrothed," Tracy said resignedly, declining the offered parchment. "I'll have to contact him to see what he wants to do."
"You don't like him?" Harry asked.
"I'd be disowned if I break the betrothal Potter. It doesn't matter what I think of him, just like it doesn't matter whether I want to break this bond now or not. It will be up to him whether he wants to use this as a reason to move forward our marriage or I wait until after graduation like my parents originally planned," Tracy said refusing to confirm or deny whether she liked her betrothed. "But I'll help you choose someone. It might be amusing."
"First girl or boy?"
"A girl" Harry and Neville replied writing that down while Susan wrote boy.
"I assume you'll count Slytherin out" Tracy said cynically.
"I don't care what house they're from so long as they and their family don't support Voldemort" Harry said firmly.
"I agree" Susan and Neville said noting it down, though they both wrote You-Know-Who instead.
"They need to be 16 or older. I have no desire to go to Azkaban" Susan reminded them and the three wrote down the condition.
"Someone who won't use the pureblood laws to force me into marriage" Harry said.
"So a half blood or muggleborn" Tracy said.
"Or someone who isn't a virgin" Harry replied.
"Like I said earlier you'd have a really hard time proving that they hadn't been a virgin after the fact. Whoever did take their virginity isn't likely to come forward and say so if it means they'd be forced to marry the girl instead of you," Neville warned him.
"And the girl would keep it really quiet. I don't know anyone that would admit to not being a virgin," Susan said.
"You'd also need to be sure they were telling the truth about not being a virgin. Like I said before, marrying The-Boy-Who-Lived would be quite an accomplishment to some people. I wouldn't put it past a girl to lie to trap you into marriage," Tracy said.
"Yeah but if I choose a sixth or seventh year Pomfrey and McGonagall might already know they hadn't been a virgin when they did the tests, after all they did just test us all for virginity because it was more convenient than taking a week or two to cast the scan for magical blocks on everyone," Harry said.
"That wouldn't do you any good though! They'd never tell you," Susan declared.
"They wouldn't tell me but surely they wouldn't let a girl force me into marriage for taking her virginity if they knew she was lying," Harry protested.
"Even if they wanted to say something to prevent you being fraudulently trapped into marriage they may not be able to. Pomfrey's oath as a mediwitch would prevent her from letting out that information and McGonagall probably had to take a vow to be allowed to assist with the testing," Tracy said. "The only way to be sure would be to choose a widow or someone who already has a child and not many adults would be prepared to fuck a teenager without gaining something out of it."
"Lavender and Seamus came through the testing awfully quickly, far quicker than anyone else, I don't think that she passed the virginity test," Harry said thoughtfully. "And Hermione kind of hinted that Leanne and Katie both said they weren't virgins when their testing was done."
"I still don't think you could count on that," Susan said.
"What about a pure blood if they agree not to force me to marry them," Harry replied.
"Don't be that naive Harry" Tracy snorted. "There's not a pureblood family in England who wouldn't want to snare marriage with the Potter heir. The girl's Head of House could and probably would force the marriage even if the girl herself genuinely agreed not to." It was pretty much what Neville had been trying to warn him about earlier, just said far more bluntly.
"I don't think any pure blood and very few half bloods raised in the wizarding world would agree to that Harry because even if they're not already betrothed it would reduce their chance of marrying well. Pureblood wizards expect to marry virgins," Susan explained to him.
"And yet McGonagall expected there to be enough students who weren't virgin to make it worth while casting an extra spell on all of us in the hope of avoiding a few more taxing magical scans," Harry said.
Susan looked thoughtful, "You're right, but there's a difference between someone not being a virgin and you being able to prove they weren't after the fact. There isn't a spell or scan that can tell how long ago their virginity was lost."
"So what are you going to do?" Harry asked her concerned.
"You'd need a magical declaration signed in blood," Tracy suggested.
"Seriously, that sort of thing exists?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Yes but I don't know of anyone who would be prepared to sign one," Neville replied.
Susan sighed. "I don't know. I need to lose my virginity to access the rest of my magic but I need to remain a virgin to marry well and there are very few opportunities in this world for an unattached witch unless they want to join the Aurors, which I want to do but I'd definitely need all my magic to pass Auror training. Dammed if I do and dammed if I don't! If this were peace time, maybe I'd wait but I want to have all my magic available if I'm attacked."
Tracy and the two boys nodded sympathetically.
"Or to at least have everyone think you are still a virgin. There are few families that would be crass enough to actually check," Tracy said.
"So, someone who would agree to be spelled not to tell anyone," Susan said writing that down. Harry nodded and wrote it down too.
"Any other criteria?" Tracy asked trying to get the decision back on track.
"Count out all the girls you know have betrothal's, I'm sure neither Harry nor Neville want to be accused of line theft or start a blood feud" Susan suggested, writing not betrothed on her own parchment. Both boys nodded and scrawled it down.
"Dumbledore said that if I did it with Hermione that my magic would overwhelm hers and it would end up subservient to me. I don't want that… Sooo… someone powerful enough for that not to happen" Harry said thoughtfully, scrawling it down.
"Of course this was at the same time he was suggesting Ginny Weasley so he might have had another motive for warning you off Granger, who I would've thought would be your first choice," Tracy said cynically.
She was surprised when Harry sighed and nodded.
"That's a tough one Harry. Your magic is already pretty powerful" Neville replied frowning.
"McGonagall said pretty much anyone except Hermione, Parkinson or Sallyanne Perks would be okay but she was probably only thinking about our year level, someone that's not struggling in both charms and Transfiguration," Harry said.
"Okay so over 16, are there any fifth year girls you know have already had their birthday this year?" Tracy said.
"I don't know, but I don't know many of the fifth years, there must be some," Harry replied.
"Luna will be 16 on Sunday" Neville replied.
"I didn't know that. We should plan a party for her" Harry said, distracted.
"Eliza Sorensen was 16 last week," Susan said.
"Who is she?" Harry asked. "I don't think I've even met her."
"Do you want to eliminate any girl you don't know?" Tracy asked.
"Um not yet" Harry said. "It might be easier with someone I already know but I don't really know a lot of girls very well but they all think they know me."
"Do you want to cross off anyone who has turned on you in the past?" Neville asked.
Harry sighed and shook his head despondently. "That would be everyone except you and Hermione, and people like Tracey and Daphne who've never really spoken to me at all," he said softly.
"I've never turned on you!" Susan exclaimed defensively.
Harry just looked at her. "Second year you said some pretty nasty things when you believed I was the heir of Slytherin and the one petrifying people, and forth year you wore one of those Potter Stinks badges for weeks and you said some pretty harsh things when you believed I'd cheated to get into the Triwizard Tournament. You wouldn't believe I didn't even enter my name."
Susan looked down ashamed.
"You mean you didn't?" Tracy demanded, surprised.
"No that would have been Barty Crouch junior, a Death Eater who escaped Azkaban with the help of his parents who arranged for his dying mother to take his place and was masquerading as Mad-eye Moody, to enable me to be portkeyed to Voldemort so he could steal my blood in his resurrection ritual," Harry said dryly.
Tracy gasped and Susan who'd heard some of the ending from her aunt looked sympathetic.
"Any other criteria?" Tracy asked.
Susan and Neville shook their heads.
"Someone who understands that telling anyone before Voldemort is dead could endanger their lives, I don't want to put anyone in danger and this could be the edge I need to defeat him next time he comes after me if I can keep my boost in magical strength a secret," Harry said.
"I don't know who will take that seriously enough to keep it absolutely secret. So many people seem to think that keeping a secret means only telling their best friend," Susan said.
"Okay then that leaves, Katie Bell, and Leanne Tinker from Gryffindor, Cho Chang and Isobel MacDougal from Ravenclaw and Sophie Hardwick and Susan here from Hufflepuff," Tracy read out.
"Is that all?" Susan said shocked. "What about Mandy Brocklehurst? Isn't she a halfblood?"
"Yes but her uncles are all Death Eaters, and she's a supporter of the dark lord," Tracy replied.
"I didn't know that," Neville replied. "I left her off my list of possibilities because she's one of the girls who bullies Luna and she's a social climber there's no way she wouldn't use this to force one of us into a marriage contract."
"Didn't you used to date Cho?" Susan asked him.
"It didn't work out, she was still hung up on Cedric, and needed a replacement boyfriend," Harry replied hurriedly.
"But you must have at least found her attractive to date her," Tracy said.
"And she doesn't cry about Cedric all the time anymore," Neville said teasingly.
"No just no. I couldn't" Harry decided. "She wasn't interested in me, she just liked the fame she'd got as Cedric's girlfriend and I don't know whether she was dating me to fish for information on Cedric's death or she thought dating the boy-who-lived would be a good way to become even more popular. I don't think I could trust her not to demand a relationship or marriage."
"Potter's right, Cho's the sort of girl who likes guys who give her status, she dated Cedric who was widely agreed to be the hottest boy at Hogwarts, and then Harry. She's going to want at least a public relationship if she agreed to do it," Tracy said.
"You and Katie get on well," Neville said.
"We do. She'd be a good choice if she wasn't dating Fred," Harry said.
"We'll that's a no then, what about Leanne?" Neville asked.
Harry sighed and looked back at the list. "Katie's friend? The seventh-year prefect? I don't know her very well but I think she's single and she seems nice, Hermione trusts her but then she's a prefect so Hermione's a bit biased," he said slowly. "She might be worth asking but I barely know her. What about you?"
"I think I'm gonna wait until next week and ask Luna," Neville said squaring his shoulders. "I really like her and there's no one else I'd feel comfortable enough to do this with. She's a pureblood but I'm prepared to offer her a betrothal if that's what she wants."
"What about Lisa? Aren't you dating?" Susan asked surprised.
"We've been on a couple of dates but we're not officially in a relationship. Lisa asked me out, I didn't ask her but it seemed like a good idea to agree, I'd get a girlfriend to hang out with without the stress of asking a girl out," Neville replied.
Susan looked shocked but Tracy just shook her head "Boys!" she said derogatively.
"That's really mean, to get her hopes up like that if you don't like her. It would've taken a lot of courage for her to ask you," Susan said quietly.
"She's pretty and hot and not mean to me and I do like her but I can't see myself married to her, she's already trying to make me do things her way and spend all our time together with her friends and her interests instead of mine and she can be pretty nasty to people behind their backs. Luna and I are very good friends and I know she's not exactly what people would expect in the next Lady Longbottom but I can be myself around her. She doesn't make me feel like I need to be smarter or dress a certain way or pretend to be interested in things I'm not to get her approval," Neville explained.
Harry smiled. "That's a great decision then Nev" he agreed.
"What about you Susan? Do you need help deciding" Tracy offered. "What are your requirements?"
"A boy who supports the light or is neutral and either won't force me into marriage with him or at least has liberal views on letting his wife work in a career of my choosing and maintain her own family line separate to theirs, and someone who won't tell anyone though my reasons don't seem as important as Harry's," Susan said.
"When is your birthday? Is it worth waiting until you see if your Head of House ring will remove the block?" Harry asked.
"Not for another three months and something tells me that I shouldn't wait, there's no guarantee that my Head of House ring would remove the blocks and if I was already Head of House it would be harder for me to find someone willing to agree without me accepting a betrothal," Susan said frowning.
Tracy ran through names. "We'll that counts out all the Slytherins. Even those who don't support the dark lord are too ambitious not to combine your family assets with their own."
"So are Zac Smith and Ernie McMillan" Susan agreed. "Justin might be a possibility but I don't know if he's strong enough, or Kevin Eintwhistle."
"McGonagall said Finch-Fletchley wasn't strong enough for me if I swung that way," Harry confirmed. "I don't know about maintaining family lines but Ron will expect his wife to stay home. Neville's chosen Luna, Seamus is a half blood and Dean's muggleborn. They might do. Both of them are stronger than Hermione."
"Seamus is betrothed to a girl back home. He isn't really happy about it but he plans to marry her," Neville said. "So he wouldn't push for marriage and I think he'd agree to do it. He isn't a virgin so you wouldn't be harming his betrothed by asking him."
"The problem with that is that he's almost as big a gossip as Lavender and Parvati, and I think he's taken Parvati on a couple of dates recently," Harry warned her. "Dean would probably keep it to himself though."
"Isn't he dating Ginny Weasley?" Susan asked.
"Yes" Harry confirmed.
"All the more reason he'd keep it to himself, but he'd still probably do it if you asked him and it's not like Weasley's a friend of yours," Tracy said cynically.
Harry and Neville both frowned at the idea of Dean being willing to cheat on Ginny, they may not have wanted to date her but she was a friend of both of them and a friend's little sister which was enough to make them feel protective.
"Right well I have no desire to attract the Weasley twins' attention like that," Susan said shuddering. "What about the seventh years. McClaggen's kind of hot."
"Cormac McClaggen is a self-important sexist arse with delusions of adequacy," Harry said scathingly.
"Not to mention a social climber, he'd force you into marriage and take your family line in a heartbeat, and expect you to follow his orders," Neville warned her.
Neville and Harry gave their opinions on the other seventh year Gryffindors and Tracy told them what she knew about the final year Ravenclaws. Nobody stood out as a viable option who met all her requirements.
Susan frowned. "Who else is there?" She asked Tracy.
"Well Potter here seems to be a gentleman and he should have money of his own though Merlin knows he doesn't dress like he has. He will need an heir of his own though if you marry him so be prepared to keep having children until you have two sons if you want to keep your line separate. But I'm sure he'd keep it quiet if you just wanted to break your blocks and go your own way, after all you'd be doing him a favour unblocking his magic too." Tracy said.
"Three, I'm also the primary Heir to the house of Black," Harry corrected.
"Are you sure?" Tracy asked surprised.
"Yeah," Harry said looking at her oddly.
"I didn't mean to be rude but Draco's been bragging that he's Heir to the house of Black for years," Tracy explained.
Harry held up his hand and willed his Heir rings into visibility.
Tracy giggled. "Does he know?" she asked delightedly.
"You mean Draco? I've never told him. We're not exactly on friendly chatting terms," Harry replied shrugging.
Susan giggled.
"He must know that he isn't the heir, there's no way he wouldn't have demanded the heirs ring so he could flash it about everywhere if he thought he was the heir," Neville said.
"You're right about that. He flashes that bloody Heir Malfoy ring at me every time he speaks to me to remind me that he's better than me, or he thinks he is anyway," Tracy said. "I'd say he either doesn't know, or he thinks you don't know, he would've expected you to rub it in his face.
Harry laughed. "It would probably annoy him more to keep him guessing," he suggested smirking.
"Definitely!" Tracy smirked back in perfect accord. "I'd like to be there when you finally rub his nose in it though."
"I'll do my best but if he annoys me beyond bearing all bets are off," Harry replied.
"Potter and Black are both most Ancient houses. Even if some greedy manipulative bint forces you into marriage because of this, you have the right to take a second wife. It hasn't been done in nearly a century but you still could legally if you wanted," Tracy pointed out.
"That would be a relief if you do end up forced into a marriage to someone you can't stand but there is one huge downside to two wives though Harry," Neville warned.
"Yeah, two mother's-in-law and two father's-in-law." Harry said shuddering.
"I was thinking more of constantly being outvoted by the two of them if they paired up against you," Neville replied.
"Or having to deal with their jealousy and fights if they hate each other," Tracy said. "Though if you're also going to inherit the Black fortune you'd have enough money to set up two separate households so they wouldn't need to live together and you could live with the wife you chose and leave the bint who forced you into marriage suffer the embarrassment of everyone knowing you never wanted to marry her."
"You couldn't do that to Ginny though, or any other witch with protective brothers who'd make your life miserable," Neville warned.
"Sure he could, nobody's going to risk calling him out for a duel or doing anything serious enough to give Harry a reason to call them out," Tracey said.
"There's no point even thinking about a first or second wife until you think it's safe to have a girlfriend," Susan pointed out.
Harry looked depressed again.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed and those who followed or favourited this story for your support.
