A necessary divorce

Harry was lying on his bed, he had just read another chapter in the book on etiquette in the wizarding world. Resignedly, he put the book on his face.

His teacher found him in exactly this position when he came in through the door.

"Potter, did the reading kill you?"

The boy didn't even flinch, he took the book off his face and looked over at his professor.

"Who came up with all these rules, please? I understand good behavior, but this is a bit excessive. Don't you think?"

"Which part do you mean?"

"The part about kissing hands. If a grown man does that to a lady, I can understand it, but why does a boy have to make an ass of himself like that?"

Severus sat down on a comfortable armchair that he had conjured up days ago, the other chairs were uncomfortable in the long run. Blacky trotted over to him and let himself be stroked.

"Have you also read who you kiss on the hand?"

"Yes, only single witches of marriageable age."

"Not quite, even young wizards are not exempt from the rule."

"Are you saying that girls also kiss men's hands?"

"No, girls and women are always the recipients of this obeisance. I'm talking about other men."

Now Harry was sitting bolt upright on the bed. It made for a funny picture because Beast had made himself comfortable on the boy's head.

"In the magical world, same-sex couples are allowed to marry?"

Severus raised his eyebrow, looking as if the boy hadn't quite finished the chapter yet.

"Mind you, is that a problem for you?"

That would be unusual. Wizards didn't usually have a problem with it by nature. Not even if they had grown up among Muggles.

Harry shook his head, his book having to hold on to him to keep from sliding off.

"Not at all, I think it's great. At least somewhere it's not a problem. You should hear how homosexuality is talked about in my relatives' settlement. Something I'll probably never understand."

"Why am I not surprised?"

Harry gave him a wry smile.

"But there's one thing I don't understand, wouldn't everyone have to greet everyone with a kiss on the hand in that case?"

"Merlin no, it's a kind of bridal show, it shows that someone is interested in you."

"Interesting, so if someone suddenly kissed my hand."

"You would know he has serious intentions."

Harry nodded.

"Put on something sensible, we're having company."

The boy looked down at himself.

"What's wrong with the clothes?"

"They're all wrinkled."

"Who's visiting us? If it's a reporter, I'll hide in the bathroom."

Severus snorted.

"Do you really think I'd let one of those vultures in here? Mrs. Amelia Bones has signed in. It's about the matter of the upkeep."

Harry immediately jumped up and searched for new clothes from the wardrobe.

"I'll be in the bathroom for a minute."

"Potter."

"Yes?"

"Take the book off your head."

Harry reached up and blushed.

"Oops, come on down beast. I'm sure water isn't good for you."

Severus looked after the boy, shaking his head, then glanced at Hedwig.

"You have a strange familiar."

The owl tilted its head and hooted.

"But he's nicer than I thought." The man hurried to say. He really didn't want to mess with the boy's three protectors.

Amelia Bones arrived half an hour later and she brought a whole load of swear words with her.

"Impudent riff-raff. Who do they think they are? They should be locked up and best throw away the key."

Severus and Harry looked at each other. The potions professor took the floor.

"Mrs. Bones, good afternoon. Has something happened?"

"Good afternoon Professor, please excuse my behavior, but I just ran into some impossible people. Some of Mr. Potter's fans have been hiding on the floor. They were probably trying to ambush you."

Harry hung his head, great.

But then he remembered his manners, shook the lady's hand and bowed slightly. At least he had learned something from the books.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Bones, nice to meet you."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Potter, the pleasure is all mine. Even if the occasion of our first meeting is anything but pleasant."

The boy offered the lady a seat and his professor poured tea for everyone.

The ministry employee got straight to the point.

"Mr. Potter, we won't be long at all. Because of your wild magic, we've already had to come home to your relatives."

"Sorry," the boy mumbled.

The lady snorted.

"Don't be, you can't help that kind of magic. Besides, just between you and me. I understand what you mean. Even the minister was on the verge of turning this woman into a snail. I've rarely come across such a vicious individual. And I work in law enforcement.

The report from Kobold Gripock was actually only fitting. It was a personal pleasure to scrutinize your relatives.

Professor Sanpe, did you know that the Dursleys have told all their neighbors that Mr. Potter goes to a school for delinquent youths?"

Severus almost choked on his tea.

Two weeks ago, he would have fully supported the theory that the boy might be delinquent, but since then he had gotten to know the child.

"They don't seem to know the boy very well."

"However, the Dursleys warned everyone about their nephew. As a result, the boy had no friends."

Harry had grown smaller and smaller, he was very uncomfortable with it all.

Blacky noticed this and growled softly.

Mrs. Bones reacted immediately.

"Oh, that must be the alleged Grimm the newspapers are writing about. You're right, of course, we shouldn't torture your familiar any longer."

That surprised Harry, normally adults didn't care how he felt. Well, with the exception of Hagrid and Snape.

He also spoke up again.

"So the bank can stop the payments?"

"Not only that, after we had completed our investigations, we got you compensation.

Mr. Potter, your relatives must pay you back every Knut they have received. You can't keep a child locked up for weeks and only feed him through a cat flap."

Blacky jumped up, and Severus couldn't stay seated either.

"Excuse me!? Potter, when did this happen."

Harry made himself even smaller.

"Last year, after the thing with Dobby. I was only allowed to leave the room twice a day to go to the toilet."

"Professor Snape, we found seven locks on the door and the remains of bars. I can promise you one thing, the headmaster will be hearing a lot more from me."

Severus found it difficult not to lose his temper. A cat flap! The whole thing sounded so damn familiar; his father had locked him in again and again but at least he had Lily.

With difficulty controlling himself, he asked.

"Mr. Potter, why didn't you tell anyone?"

Harry looked at his teacher wide-eyed.

"I have. The first thing Ron did was tell Mrs. Weasley about the bars."

Now Mrs. Bones was curious too.

"What did Molly say?"

Harry blushed.

"She said Ron should make sure she didn't put bars up on his window too."

Resigned, Severus slumped back in his chair. With behavior like that, it was no wonder that the boy didn't trust adults. That's why he always tried to sort everything out on his own.

Amelia was also anything but enthusiastic.

"And the headmaster?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders.

"Didn't listen to me."

The lady made a very indelicate noise.

It really didn't take much longer. Harry just had to make his statement.

Afterwards, Mrs. Bones wished him good luck on controlling his magic and left.

Two days later, Harry was using his wild magic to lift some objects into the air when he heard a loud laugh.

Startled, he turned towards the sound.

What he saw made him doubt everything he had previously believed to be true.

His teacher was laughing at the top of his lungs. He had the Daily Prophet in front of him and obviously couldn't catch his breath.

"Professor, is everything all right?"

Severus just nodded and continued laughing. Only a minute later did he regain his composure enough to speak.

"Will you tell me what's so funny in that scrapbook?"

Severus grinned at him.

"Lucius divorced his impossible wife."

Harry tilted his head. He knew from his book that divorces were very rare in the magical world. There had to be a serious reason. A lack of love didn't count and if Mr. Malfoy got divorced, his wife was guilty of something.

"Why?"

"Draco turned thirteen on the fifth of June. What does that number mean?"

Harry thought for a moment, that was also in the etiquette book.

"Oh yes, he gets the family ring from his guardian. As well as valuable gifts and money."

"That's right, as godfather I should have been there that day but I couldn't because I had to get ingredients for an important potion. That's a shame, I must have missed out on a lot."

The boy tilted his head again, just like the dog.

"What went wrong? As far as I know, there are always special spells on these rings. One, for example, ensures that only family members can wear it. The ring would reject anyone else.

Wait, no!"

Severus nodded with a grin.

"Yes, apparently Draco is not Lucius' son. The ring threw the boy across the room."

"Holy shit. Um, I mean."

"Never mind, Narcissa must have been thinking the same thing. From what the papers say, she must have cheated on her husband with more than one man and I've always wondered why he looked so little like his father."

"And what does it all mean now?"

"Quite simply. Narcissa and her son have been kicked out of the Manor. Lucius has also requested that the boy's real father be found. He will then have to pay Lucius back the money he paid for Draco's education."

"Even if he doesn't know about his paternity?"

"Yes, after all, he slept with a married woman. He'll have to pay Lucius back for that too and not just him, I'm sure Lucius will demand compensation from everyone Narcissa has shared the sheets with."

"And if these men can't pay?"

"They will, Narcissa would never have been involved with men who couldn't offer her anything. The woman's favor probably cost them some gold."

Harry shook his head, that was disgusting.

Severus watched the boy closely. He liked the way his student reacted. Cheating was a very serious breach of the rules in the wizarding community. You could lose your entire social standing for it.

"By the way, there's something else in the newspaper."

The boy looked up curiously.

"Yes?"

"You remember Riddle's diary?"

Harry contented himself with a growl and a bitter expression.

"I'll take that as a yes. You did assume that Lucius put the book in Ms. Weasley's cauldron?"

"Yes, after all, Mr. Malfoy was dealing with black magic artifacts in a store before hand."

"True, but it wasn't Lucius."

The boy's eyes widened.

"Malfoy! I mean Draco?"

Severus nodded.

"And it looks like he didn't get the book from his supposed father."

"But where?"

"He took it from the store."

Harry's eyes widened, but there was one thing he didn't understand.

"If that's true, why didn't anyone know?"

"Think about it. If your child did something like that, would you tell on them?"

The boy didn't even have to think, he shook his head.

"So Mr. Malfoy took the blame?"

"Looks like it. But he doesn't have to now. He's also named the shopkeeper."

"But he's admitting that he sold illegal items."

"Not illegal, more like condoned but that's still better than his tarnished reputation. Back then, he even bribed and threatened the parents' representatives to protect Draco. Now he's got his job back. Everyone understands his motives."

"Quite simply. As you correctly recognized earlier, children receive very valuable gifts on their thirteenth birthday. That is, if the parents can afford it. In the Malfoy family, it has always been a

tradition to give a house-elf as a present. This elf is trained by the father for the child according to the child's wishes."

"I suppose you mean brought up with punches." The boy grumbled.

Severus sighed.

"As I said, this is about the child's wishes. Draco wanted an elf who obeyed his every word and whom he could beat as much as he wanted.

Lucius usually behaves quite differently towards his elves. For example, they even get a salary. And he certainly doesn't torture them."

"Then why did he make an exception for Dobby?"

"Because my good friend is very attached to tradition. Sometimes too much, if you ask me. It wouldn't have occurred to him to go against them when Draco started school. But it was always too much for him. He often apologized to Dobby. However, this made the little elf feel very guilty. This led to Dobby hurting himself for even the smallest of offenses."

"I've noticed that too. He even ironed his fingers."

Severus shook his head.

"Be that as it may. By freeing Dobby, you've made Lucius very happy. He just told Draco he'd give him his house-elf for his birthday."

Now Harry was grinning too.

"That's why Mr. Malfoy disappeared so quickly. I thought it was because he was so angry, but he just didn't want to show how happy he was."

The teacher nodded.

Somehow, the realization that Lucius Malfoy wasn't so evil after all made Harry happy. But for the life of him, he couldn't say why.

Blacky also breathed a sigh of relief. His fur stood on end for a moment. The mere thought that Lucius could have changed so much for the worse would not have pleased him at all. At least some of him still seemed to be the same.

That also applied to Narcissa, though. The woman had always had her eyes glued to every man.

Well, now she'd got her reward.

Suddenly he realized that he was being watched.

Severus had been keeping an eye on Blacky the whole time. He had noticed it again and again over the last few days, but now it was clear.

"Potter, continue with your exercises. I'm going to take your monster out into the garden."

The boy looked at his teacher in surprise.

"Um, yes, all right. Thanks."

"Come with Blacky."

With an uneasy feeling, the dog did just that. Hopefully this would go well.