Chapter 37
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of JK Rowling's fabulous characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOTgive permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.
A/N: This is the second chapter posted tonight.
They knew that their betrothal probably wouldn't remain secret until they were ready to formally announce it so the headlines of the Daily Prophet didn't really surprise them.
THE-BOY-WHO-LIVED AND THE-WITCH-WHO-KILLED-YOU-KNOW-WHO
She not only killed the most feared Dark Lord in a Century now she's bagged the world's most famous wizard as well. For the story of their relationship see page 3.
Has Potter's desire for fame turned to jealousy now that it's known he wasn't the chosen one?
– See page 4 for Potter's thirst for fame and attention
The Defeaters of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named
– See page 5 for Lady Bones battle with the most feared wizard of our Age
See page 7, 8, and 9 for the Battles between You-Know-Who and Harry Potter.
Harry and Susan were resigned as they read the news of their betrothal. They were more surprised that it had taken as long as it had for the news to leak than the fact that it had.
"Well at least they aren't calling either of us mad and deranged," Harry said after reading all of the associated articles.
"They're still calling you an attention seeking brat, as if they aren't the ones who made you a household name while you didn't even know you were a wizard let alone, the saviour of our world," Susan said frowning.
Young Witch Weekly was more kind, focussing more on their relationship and their peers' reactions to their betrothal. Not that the article was any better from Harry's point of view.
WORLD'S MOST ELIGIBLE YOUNG BACHELOR ANNOUNCES BETROTHAL TO THE HOTTEST WITCH IN BRITAIN AND BREAKS THOUSANDS OF HEARTS
Lord Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, most famous wizard of his age Head of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter and rumoured to be Heir of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black is betrothed to marry Lady Susan Bones, Defeater of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and Heiress of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Bones.
Rumour has it that the betrothal contracts were signed by both their parents before their unfortunate Deaths at the hands of You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters when the pair were infants. Speculation is that the betrothal came as quite a shock to the pair of teenagers whose magical houses have been without a head of house since the pair were in nappies. However, shock or not the two both looked radiantly happy when they formally announced their betrothal today.
Susan's aunt and former guardian, Madam Amelia Bones, Head of the DMLE had this to say. "Potter's a smart and pleasant lad and a powerful wizard who treats Susan as she deserves to be treated. He doesn't need my blessing to marry my niece but he does have my support."
Potter's former guardians could not be reached to supply a statement.
Classmates of the young couple had this to say:
"It is a powerful family alliance and the young couple have some amazing achievements in common but I don't know that it's enough to build a marriage on." – Ernie MacMillan of the Ancient and Noble House of MacMillan.
"Susan's extremely happy, and I'm happy for her. It's so romantic She and Harry have been dating in private for some time and they're very much in love, so to find out they're betrothed to each other was a dream come true for both of them," – Hannah Abbott of the Noble House of Abbott, and Lady Bones' lifelong best friend.
"I'm extremely happy for both of them. If they weren't already betrothed Harry would have proposed as soon as he was sure he was free to, and I've no doubt Susan would've accepted. Anyone spending time with them can see they're perfect for each other," Lord Neville Longbottom, Heir and Acting Head of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Longbottom.
"Bones snagged him before any of us had a chance. Potter wouldn't even date until He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had been defeated and now he's engaged," Romilda Vane of the House of Vane.
"Ernie's been surprisingly diplomatic. It's clear he isn't happy about the betrothal but he hasn't actually said anything against it. It's a lot better than I expected from him," Susan said.
Harry laughed as he put down 'Young Witch Weekly. "It could have been worse. At least they didn't manage to get a comment from Ginny and Molly," he said. He was used to being called an attention seeker so as long as it didn't upset Susan too much he wasn't going to complain.
"Or Malfoy and the likes of Parkinson," Susan agreed.
"Have you heard from him since you declined his courting offer?" Harry asked.
"No, I would've been surprised if I had. I sent a very formal response declining because I was already betrothed. There was no reason for him to contact me again and Auntie locked down the wards so I don't receive howlers and cursed mail," Susan replied.
-o0o-
"Susan Bones, Harry's going to marry Susan Bones" Molly said, shaking the newspaper angrily as though it was their fault for reporting the news. "She's head of house in her own right, she didn't need to marry someone like Harry."
Arthur looked up in confusion, Molly had known that Harry was betrothed to Susan for weeks now. Why was she acting like this was a surprise to her. "Susan Bones doesn't deserve to marry someone who's only interested in her because she's head of house Bones any more than Harry deserved to marry someone who was only interested in him because he's the Boy-Who-Lived or Head of House Potter," he said sternly.
"Ginny is in love with Harry, she wouldn't be dating him for money or fame," Molly protested.
That was the explanation, Arthur had forbidden Molly and Ron from telling Ginny who Harry's betrothed was until she came to terms that it was never going to be her. Ron had seen sense and agreed willingly enough. He didn't want to have to listen to Ginny badmouthing Harry's fiancé, and risking being tricked into saying something that Ginny could use against Susan in the future. Molly on the other hand had been furious at having to keep information from Ginny, that she'd thought her daughter had the right to know. She didn't want Ginny to know that she'd known who Harry was betrothed to, or perhaps she just wanted the opportunity to air all her arguments again.
"Ginny was always dreaming about marrying The-Boy-Who-Lived, it was her number one ambition long before she met Harry, and she never really took the time to really get to know Harry as a person instead of her hero. Him saving her in the Chamber of Secrets only made things worse. Harry and Susan have been dating in secret and Harry loves her, they had a reciprocal contract signed by his mum and dad but he wanted to marry her before he found that out," Ron reminded his mother and sister.
Ginny had to admit that the older girl was very pretty and rumoured to be brave and intelligent. It was her sense of loyalty that had her sorted into Hufflepuff and she could see why Harry found that appealing. But dammit, she was loyal, brave, pretty and clever too. She might not have been at Hermione's standard of intelligence, or as pretty as Cho Chang but neither was Bones. Ginny wondered what did Harry see in Bones that he couldn't see in her. She was shocked by who Harry's betrothed was though she hadn't had any ideas who else it might have been.
"They're betrothed, there's nothing we can do now except support them," Arthur reminded them.
"That doesn't mean it's irrevocable," Molly insisted.
"We talked about this, Molly. Harry isn't one of your children to be browbeaten into doing what you want. He's made his choice. The contract between them was written by their parents specifically to protect them from outside interference. While there may be a way for Harry or Susan to change their minds, I imagine there's clauses to make sure that change of mind hasn't been influenced in any way, and the fact that they agreed to it and not their parents or guardians may have invalidated any out clauses in the contract," Arthur said sternly. Arthur was well aware that Molly had used a love potion on him. It hadn't mattered since he'd already been well on the way to being in love with her and there was no previous commitments on either side, but having got away with it personally, he was concerned that she'd convince Ginny to try one and given that Harry and Susan were both Heads of a Noble and Most Ancient House if she was caught Ginny would face time in Azkaban, and with a betrothal in place the chance of not being caught was slim.
"It should be Ginny," Molly replied.
"It's not Ginny, Harry chose Susan, they've been in a relationship since before Susan turned seventeen and found out about the betrothal contract offer. Who she is, is irrelevant to your anger, you wouldn't be happy with anyone other than Ginny, and that was never going to happen. I don't know why you're objecting. Susan looks like a perfectly nice girl, she's brave, attractive. Her guardian is a good woman and her family is firmly on the side of the light. There's no reason to think that Susan isn't an acceptable match for Harry, and I know you'd have been thrilled if our Ron brought a girl like that home to meet the family," Arthur pointed out patiently.
Molly went to protest again.
"Enough Molly. You cannot stop Harry from marrying Susan Bones. The only thing you could possibly do in reaction to this is rescind his invitation to the Burrow and choose never to invite him again. You cannot and will not prevent Ronald and the twins from making their own decisions whether they continue to be friends with Harry. You cannot prevent this marriage. Do you really think that your disapproval will mean anything to Harry when his parents themselves chose this betrothal for him?"
Molly sighed, she knew Arthur was right, if only Lily and James had agreed to a reciprocal contract with them for Ginny. She didn't understand why they'd approved one with Susan's parents instead.
-o0o-
Draco no longer read the Daily Prophet', he'd cancelled his subscription because it was full of unflattering commentary about his father and his father's friends most days lately. So, he didn't immediately get the news of Potter and Bone's betrothal.
It was Pansy who brought him the copy of 'Teen Witch Weekly'. She didn't do it out of altruistic motives, she'd heard from her father that Narcissa had cancelled his betrothal, and she was hoping that if he showed interest in her, he father would consider cancelling her own betrothal and allowing her to accept Draco. The fact that Draco was rumoured to be the Black heir as well as Lord Malfoy had helped her cause. There wasn't a witch in Slytherin who wouldn't cancel their betrothal to have the chance to become the next Lady Black and she wanted to make sure that Draco was aware of this so he could force 'Teen Witch Weekly' to print a retraction and announce the real Heir to the House of Black. Everyone knew the title actually belonged to Draco.
Draco threw the paper aside and stormed into his mother's rooms.
He was furious that Bones had turned him down in favour of marrying Potter, though if they were betrothed he supposed he couldn't exactly blame her. It was embarrassing though having made a courting overture to the witch betrothed to his most hated classmate.
"Draco, what is wrong?" Narcissa asked.
"The Prophet announced Potter's betrothal and included the rumour that he's Heir to the House of Black," Draco said coldly, voicing the only complaint that his mother would take seriously. He didn't want her to know that he'd sent a courting offer to Bones and been rejected.
"Harry Potter is Dorea Black's grandson and Sirius' godson," Narcissa said thoughtfully.
"Is he Heir of the House of Black?" Draco bit, furiously.
"I do not know. Sirius couldn't have accepted the Headship while he was on the run, but it isn't known whether Grandfather Arcturus replaced him as his heir when he was incarcerated, your father believed that you'd been chosen as his heir, but I don't know if it was ever confirmed. Arcturus never met Potter but his blood claim is equal to yours, and he may have been Sirius's heir," Narcissa replied. She privately believed that Lucius' conviction that his son was the Black heir could easily have been more arrogance than fact.
"But Cousin Sirius was disowned," Draco said confidently.
"It was well known that Sirius was disowned by his mother and blasted off her copy of the family tree, certainly. But Walburga did not have the power to disown him from the House of Black or to influence Arcturus' choice of heir, and I do not know whether Arcturus agreed with her and disowned him or not, or whether magic itself took him out of consideration when he did not take his place as head of the family. It's also highly likely that Cousin Sirius died without a will considering he was on the run from the law," Narcissa tried to explain.
"So how do we know who is the heir. I don't want to irritate the goblins by trying to claim a lordship I'm not entitled to," Draco said.
"Yes, it would be inadvisable," Narcissa agreed. "I'd recommend that you ask for an inheritance test, there's possibly more than one family line that's otherwise died out due to the last war that you may have a claim on," Narcissa suggested.
"Do I need to wait until my birthday to do that," Draco asked, distracted by the idea that he might be head of more than two houses.
"I would," Narcissa replied. "You were born the week before Potter, so it won't be an issue with the Black heirship."
"Then what should I do about 'Teen Witch Weekly'?" Draco demanded.
"There's nothing you can do without proof and they don't go to print again until after your birthday, you can deal with it once you've got the heir ring," Narcissa reminded him, before unintentionally upsetting him again. "Who is he betrothed to?"
"Lady Susan Bones, the reputed killer of the Dark Lord," Draco sneered.
"Don't go making an enemy of the girl. It's true that The Dark Lord, your father, my sister and brother-in-law were killed in battle outside 'The Ossuary' where she lives but I rather doubt a seventeen year old witch took down the Dark Lord and his closest supporters. Her guardian is head of the DMLE it's far more likely that she and her security detail were responsible for most of the carnage, but with Lucius and our Lord gone we cannot afford to antagonise the DMLE and the future leaders of the light side," Narcissa replied.
Draco left, naively content with her explanations but Narcissa was concerned. 'Teen Witch Weekly' wouldn't have reported the rumours that Harry Potter was the Heir to House Black without some sort of proof that it was true and Draco had never been given the heir's ring in spite of Lucius trying to insist that he was the only viable heir. She had always suspected that there was another heir out there. If Sirius had somehow managed to get to the bank and make a will then his godson might very well have a better claim than Draco.
-o0o-
Draco never ended up taking his inheritance test. The Aurors finally questioned someone who could confirm Draco's attendance at a Death Eater meeting, though they couldn't confirm whether he had a Dark Mark yet or not and he was arrested for questioning. His testimony also led to the arrests of most of his Dorm mates and the graduating class of Slytherins and a couple of Ravenclaws, leaving Blaize Zabini as the only Slytherin seventh year boy. Surprisingly, Pansy was the only seventh year girl arrested.
The new Head of Slytherin, not really knowing any of the students, chose the new seventh year female prefect purely on class rankings, making Tracy Davis the first half blood ever to be appointed Prefect of the house of the snakes.
Amelia looked at the report of his interrogation, the evidence of the Dark Mark on his arm, the crimes he'd committed, the cursed necklace that had almost killed Katie Bell and the poisoned mead intended for Dumbledore that had almost killed Ron Weasley, the plan to let the Death Eaters into the school and shuddered. This boy was everything that Harry and Susan had warned her he was, and at least two students had nearly died and the entire school put in danger that Harry and Susan had to save them from, because of her failure to stand up to Dumbledore and arrest him for casting the Cruciatus earlier in the year. How blind she had been, backing down because she knew the boy had the connections to prevent prosecution since the curse hadn't actually hit it's target. How much harm could have been done leaving a Death Eater loose in a school full of children with the belief that he wouldn't be punished for his crimes.
She noted that they'd asked him who had attacked him and that Harry and Susan had been right about that too. The 'attackers' were different people in each instance and other than the first attack where his memories had clearly been affected and he had no idea of the circumstances or the perpetrator, they were actually all defending themselves from the Slytherin's attack, or coming to the aid of a younger student who Draco had attacked.
Amelia quickly closed the cases of the attacks in the school, declaring that they were justified self defence and would not be prosecuted.
Dawlish protested that she had no proof that the first attack was self defence, in fact it was so much more effective than the other attacks that it seemed to be premeditated.
Amelia replied that there was no real evidence that an attack had actually occurred. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle had no memory of being attacked that day, there was no evidence of them being memory charmed to forget anything and they were not permanently harmed. It could easily have been a prank war battle that got out of hand. Without compelling evidence otherwise, she was closing the case, and surely none of her Aurors were standing there arguing against someone's rights to defend themselves from a Death Eater who was known to have cast the cruciatus at a fellow student and escaped punishment for it.
Dawlish quickly backed down.
-o0o-
Amelia officially announced her niece's betrothal in the first week of August and later that week Susan and Harry were photographed out dining with friends. It was obvious in the photo that Potter was wearing more than one Head of House ring and Susan looked dazzling in the Black betrothal jewels.
Narcissa sighed as she looked at the front page of the prophet, annoyed that her son was not the Head of House Black, though with the way the ministry was acting it wouldn't have done him much good with that horrible mark on his arm. She didn't believe he'd been on any Death Eater raids so she was hoping that he would be placed on probation but there was a backlog of trials. She naively thought that hopefully being an upcoming seventh year his trial would be moved up the queue so he could be released in time to return to school
She was also secretly a little relieved that she did not need to listen to him throwing a tantrum about not being Lord Black, particularly since after Lucius' trial there was very little power or prestige in the Malfoy name, and there wouldn't be much money either after all the Wergilds had been paid to the families he'd killed.
-o0o-
Harry got to watch Susan enjoy tasting him eat desserts for the first time. She didn't do it overtly when anyone else was around.
"You know you could eat some of this too?" he said.
"You don't like the weight I've lost?" Susan said, aware that her breasts were an entire size smaller than they'd been at the start of the summer.
"You look great, but then you did before too. I like the extra confidence you have in your looks," Harry said diplomatically.
"My boobs are smaller," Susan said self-consciously.
"To be a complete teenage boy about it, they're still bigger than my hands so they're still going to feel like a great handful, and they still look like they're going to spill over that top if you move the right way. You'd have every boy in school staring at your chest if you wore that to Hogsmeade," Harry said smirking at her.
Susan swatted him.
"Seriously Susan you look amazing. And you're fitter too with all the training and swimming you've been doing. I'm happy to eat the odd dessert for you but I'm not going to eat more than I want to eat. Now that I'm eating properly and not working all day, I'm going to get fat and out of shape," Harry replied.
"I could teach you to swim or we could spend some time training together if you want and I'm sure Neville would be happy to put you to work in his greenhouse if you wanted him to, but it wouldn't hurt you to ease off the training a bit now that mouldy Voldie is gone and the Death Eaters are all going to be rounded up by the time we get back to school," Susan replied.
Harry actually looked a little lost at that thought and Susan realised just how much time and effort Harry put into his training. While she thought that some relaxation, time with her and a little more effort put into his essays would fill enough of that time she could see that he was floundering for things to do and to choose a career since he would no longer need to focus so much energy on preparing to fight a war.
-o0o-
Young Witch Weekly's follow up article the following week was more enlightening. It came out while Harry, Susan and Neville were visiting Luna.
MOST ELIGIBLE YOUNG BACHELOR – WHO WILL IT BE, WE HONESTLY CANNOT DECIDE WITH SO MANY WIZARDS DROPPING OFF THE LIST.
With Harry Potter, the clear winner for the last three years now openly betrothed the field is wide open but several other leading contenders have also lost the 'Eligible' part of the title.
This was the list we intended to present to you.
Harry Potter – Betrothed
Neville Longbottom – Betrothed
Draco Malfoy – Arrested.
Theodore Nott - Betrothed
Aidan Fawley – Still eligible
Parkinson – betrothed, about to get married.
Miles Bletchley - Betrothed
Terrence Higgs - unknown
Adrian Pucey -Still Eligible
Cassius Warrington – Arrested.
Blaise Zabini – Still eligible if you want to take the risk
Hector Urquart – too young to Court
Tatum Tremblay – Arrested.
WiIlfred Wilkes – too young to court
Graham Montague – Arrested.
Vincent Crabbe - Arrested
Gregory Goyle - Arrested
Ernie McMillan – Eligible Currently third in line to Head of House,
William Weasley - Married. Currently fifth in line to Head of House.
And this is the list we have now.
Aidan Fawley – Heir of House Fawley
Adrian Pucey – Heir of House Pucey
Blaise Zabini – Heir to House Zabini, if you want to take the risk
Ernie McMillan – Eligible Currently third in line to Head of House,
Zacarias Smith – Currently fifth in line to Head of House
Charlie Weasley – the Dragon tamer, Currently sixth in line to head of House
Percy Weasley – Rumoured Heir of House Prewitt
Fred Weasley – Entrepreneur, Co-owner of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes
George Weasley - Entrepreneur, Co-owner of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes
We at young Witch Weekly decided to bring you our predictions from the start of the summer as well as the current list so you can all track the changes but the message is clear ladies. Eligible bachelors are dropping like lacewing flies. If your crush is on the list, or even if he isn't, you need to stake your claim before someone else does.
Harry groaned, "Every guy at school who's not already betrothed is going to curse us out," he complained.
"Particularly those on the list as eligible. I don't envy them," Neville agreed.
"I think that those who expected to be on the list and aren't because they still listed the ineligible wizards are going to be the most upset with us," Harry replied, thinking of Ron.
Susan laughed, "It's going to cause chaos, I think I'm glad I'm not a prefect having to chase all these new couples out of the broom closets," she agreed.
"You know if Hogwarts really wanted to keep students out of broom closets, it would be easy enough to ward them so only one person could enter at a time or students couldn't enter at all," Luna said.
"I never thought of it that way, why do you think that they don't?" Neville said.
"I think the lack of space for a bed, limits how far people are willing to go. I don't know many girls who would be willing to have their first time in a closet, even the muggleborn and those already betrothed," Susan suggested. Harry nodded having received the message loud and clear that there would be limited exploration in broom closets for them even now that their relationship was public.
"I think that they'd prefer students to use a broom closet where students know not to enter without knocking instead of a classroom where a younger student could walk in on a couple in the act, we were all warned at the start of first year not to open the broom closets," Harry said.
"That's what locking charms are meant for," Neville retorted.
"How many students would take the time to put up a temporary ward instead of using Colloportus? Hermione was using Alohomora to open doors locked by a professor in first year," Harry reminded him.
"Neville groaned and agreed. "You're right, we should stick to the room of requirements and broom closets."
"I'm surprised that the room of requirement isn't in use more than it is considering all of the DA know how to make it work," Harry commented.
"I don't think that they all remember," Luna said. "I think the wrackspurts made people forget where it is and how to use it, unless they needed to remember."
"Yes, I think you're probably right. If it were Hogwarts making people forget then Draco wouldn't have been able to do what he was trying to do," Harry agreed seriously.
"Is it a worry that so many of the Ancient and Noble houses seem to have died out in such a short time?" Neville asked.
"They're not dead, a lot of them will be out of prison by the time they're thirty. They could still get out and marry and have children," Harry replied.
"It will make getting a quorum in Wizengamot meetings and trials more difficult," Susan said.
"What happens when a house dies out? Do they appoint a new house to the Wizengamot or does it pass to their nearest relatives?" Harry asked.
"The title will go to relatives but you've got to be born and reside in Britain to sit on the wizengamot so if the title passes to international relatives the seat will be stripped from that family and declared extinct," Neville explained.
"Isn't it a good thing then that the Dark houses are ending," Harry replied.
"To some extent yes but it isn't going to be the breath of fresh air in our government that it needs. This will consolidate the power into the hands of the few, and even though they were dark and entrenched in the pureblood ideology, the Death Eaters were young, compared to the rest of the wizengamot. This will raise the average age of the wizengamot by a decade or more. Put them more out of touch with modern life," Neville said. "You're going to get a resurgence in traditionalism and Dumbledore's beliefs of isolationism and stagnation."
Harry sighed. "Is there anything we can do?" he asked.
"Not until we can take our seats when we're twenty-one, even then the three of us might find ourselves outvoted on a lot of issues, Gran always said that politics is a strain on her patience," Neville replied.
"Auntie and Shack were hoping that the hunt for the Horcruxes would turn up one of the Death Eater's stashes of blackmail material or a record of who they paid bribes to, to be able to clean out a lot of the corruption. I don't think they've found anything like that though, they haven't admitted it if they have," Susan added.
"They haven't used any of it yet either that I can tell, if they've found something. They might be waiting for the right moment. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't tell us about it, especially not until it's had its effect," Harry commented.
A/N Thanks to all those who read, followed, favourited and reviewed for your support.
A/N2: I will be moving this story and probably most of the others eventually to AO3. I post there under the name RaspberyDreams1. The edited story is there and this is Chapter 38 on that site.