Telling Hermione Everything.

"Harry?"

Harry handed Hermione the bundle of parchment, including the letter, and explained "Just because I've cured the family curse on the Greengrass girls, there's an ancient bequest set up that betrothed the oldest marriageable Greengrass girl to me. Obviously that's totally unacceptable, and the lawyers running the bequest think the only way out, short of marrying her, is for the Wizengamot to rule on it."

Hermione lifted her eyebrows "Really?" she said. "You don't date, and I'm starting to think you need new glasses." She smiled, briefly and sarcastically.

"Goblet of Fire, Hermione, Goblet of fire," said Harry.

"Oh come off it, there are much worse fates than marrying my best friend," said Hermione. "And presumably if you had a wife you'd mope less."

Harry growled.

"And I might like to point out that you're actually a really nice bloke, and from what Ginny said before… the thing… a great boyfriend and supposedly a good kisser," said Hermione. "And given that you're a mere male, what's not to like about Greengrass? She could be a model, and posh. You could do worse."

Harry wanted to very badly to agree, but there was something Hermione was stubbornly avoiding mentioning.

"But she wouldn't be choosing," said Harry.

"Oh, I saw the way she looked at you. She'd choose you if you gave her a bloody chance," said Hermione.

Harry sighed "Look, this is… like with house-elves. You can't possibly support … it makes her just a… a thing."

"To get the Wizengamot to agree to anything would take a lot of political capital, that I can't really afford," said Hermione "And honestly, you fancy her a bit don't you?"

"That's not really relevant," said Harry "Confidentially, there are things you need to know."

"Oh god… Harry, are you all right?" asked Hermione, paling, her eyes wide.

"Not me… look. Greengrass's family fled to Europe in the war. They stayed with her grandmother. She got married at seventeen to a forty-year-old, to get away," said Harry. Hermione was staring at him, open-mouthed.

Harry nodded.

"Oh god," croaked Hermione.

"Well, he died of um. Natural causes. And then married his younger cousin. That one joined Voldemort's crusade. Daphne got a Ministry owl after the battle of Hogwarts, and was finally free. She might not make the best decisions…. "

Harry didn't say the next bit, but Hermione went a little greenish. Harry nodded.

"Oh god," said Hermione, after swallowing, "is she okay?"

Harry shook his head. "Of course she isn't okay," he said. "And that, Minister Granger, is why we need the Wizengamot to overrule a bequest. Not cancel a betrothal, just… rule that you can't bequeath a person. It dates from um…"

"Seventeen ninety-one," said Hermione. "You've got a good point."

"So you'll do it?"

"How… how bad would it be?" asked Hermione.

Harry shook his head "She doesn't date, Hermione. Doesn't… do stuff with other people. And that's in the strictest confidence."

"Oh god, that's horrible," said Hermione. "Can't St Mungo's do something?"

"We're not, apparently good at treating… mental stuff," said Harry. "Technically we could memory charm her, but that's…."

"Problematic," said Hermione, glossing over just how upset her parents had been with her… for about five entire years, when they found out what she'd done.

"We could," mused Hermione, "Pass a law amplifying the principle that persons cannot be contracted in ways that remove their rights to enter into contacts themselves."

"Except for children. That's a little complicated," said Harry "Healer, you get to see that bit."

"Well yes," said Hermione. "And this is what, great something granddaughter of the person that signed?"

She scribbled some notes on a parchment. "I'll get Percy to look up precedents, and then get Ron to casually look at it over a beer."

"Ron?" asked Harry.

"You'd be surprised. He learnt a lot of law working on the Buckbeak defence, and sometimes I wish I could get him into DMLE legal – he can casually look at something and make some offhand remark. But, he's a macho Auror, so that's that."

"Well we did both get E.E.'s at Hogwarts, and he studied even less than I did," admitted Harry.

"You're both very annoying jocks," said Hermione lightly.