Chapter 6
"Uh, Hermione, I think you should apologize to Luna."
"Why should I?" demanded Hermione.
"Remember our books-aren't-always-right conversation?" asked Harry. At Hermione's nod, Harry continued. "A lot of those supposedly mythical and made up creatures are real. Micah said that Jackalopes were real, but very rare. He had a run-in with one years ago."
"Oooh, where?" asked Luna, distracted from her annoyance.
Harry shrugged. "Near his parents home, but he didn't say where that was."
Luna pouted. "Ah well."
"You're really a wolpertinger?" said Hermione.
Luna nodded. "I inherited it from Mummy. But I already told you that."
"What is a wolpertinger exactly, anyway?" asked Harry.
"Sorry," said Hermione. "Uh, maybe you should explain, Luna. I mean, you did say you were a wolpertinger."
"Well," said Luna, plopping down on a large rock. "About fifteen hundred years ago, my ancestress, Maren got into a fight with a Roman wizard who cursed her-this was back when the Romans were trying to subjugate the Germanic peoples. But he couldn't decide which animal to curse her to be, so he mixed and matched. As a result, the wolpertinger was created. Anyway, we have the body of a rabbit, the wings of a swan, teeth of a cat, and antlers of a stag. I wonder if he created the Crumple-Horned Snorkack as well."
"Oh." Harry quickly decided not to annoy a wolpertinger unless he was sure he could win. "I know you don't go to Hogwarts."
"I'm starting my first year there in September," said Luna.
"Of course," sighed Hermione.
**
A great deal of time over the next three days were spent with Luna. While a bit… out there, she was certainly interesting. Although seeing her transform into a wolpertinger had been a bit strange-especially since she was the size of a normal rabbit.
By the time Harry and Hermione had returned to the Blue Moon cabins, they'd already arranged to meet Luna in Diagon Alley on the same day as when they were meeting Blaise. Harry had bought a yearlong subscription to the Quibbler when he'd realized that while it did have blatantly untrue stories in it (always about the Wizarding world), the rest of the stories were true (these were on what was happening in the Muggle preternatural community).
While Hermione had a subscription to four national and international Wizarding newspapers, none of them reported on the Muggle world. Not to mention that they were amazingly inaccurate. Especially when it came to current events. Mr. and Mrs. Granger forwarded another three Muggle newspapers to Hermione as well. One local paper, a national paper, and an international paper.
Harry thought that the number of papers Hermione received was a bit excessive, even if only two were daily-the rest being weekly-but Hermione claimed they were tools and research materials for her future plans. That had shut Harry up rather quickly.
As for Harry, he subscribed to several magazines. During the school year, Harry had decided that he might as well spend some of the money in his trust vault on something useful, and so had bought several subscriptions to various monthly magazines. These included three published by various lycanthrope communities, Transfiguration Today, Soldier of Fortune, five magazines published by various covens, Dueling International (one of the best magazines about magical dueling), the Quibbler, Challenges in Charming, The Practical Potioneer, Dark Arts (the Wizarding equivalent of Soldier of Fortune combined with information on useful spells), and National Geographic.
As for Nashville… that had been uneventful. They'd gone to the Grande Ol' Opry, seen the Parthenon, the zoo, the Tennessee State Museum, the Country Music Hall of Fame (apparently Mrs. Granger loved American country music), and the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art.
While the children had enjoyed visiting those places, both were grateful to once more be in the wilderness. Even if they were surrounded by werewolves, both couldn't help but like the area.
"Hi, Marianne," said Hermione, waving to the witch.
"You two ready for your lessons?" asked Marianne.
"Yup."
Harry yawned, then nodded, carrying Gertrude. "After that, can we start teaching Gertrude how to scry?"
"I don't see why not."
**
Richard blinked at the sight in front of him. Hermione and Gertrude were playing a jump rope game while Harry read something, a magazine on his lap. The most unusual part of the entire scene was the snowy white owl sitting on Harry's shoulder, affectionately preening his hair.
"Hi, Richard," said Harry, not bothering to look up from his spot on a tree stump.
"Harry. Who's your friend?" asked Richard, stepping into the clearing.
"Oh, this is my familiar, Hedwig." Harry shrugged, careful not to disturb the owl. "She was just delivering a letter from one of our friends."
"Why would you use an owl to deliver messages?" Richard sat down a couple feet from Harry and Hermione.
"Because the Wizarding world is strange and its people are several centuries behind the times. Don't bother to deny it-Hermione and I know Marianne told you and Verne about the magical community we're members of." Harry shook his head. "Damn interfering House-Elves."
"House-Elves?"
"You don't want to know. Let's just say that one of them is in a lot of trouble right now." Harry paused. "If somebody wanted to get the degree-uh, GCSE, I think-without actually attending school, how hard is it?"
"If the person had tutors, not that hard. Why?"
"Well, the school we go to only teaches magic, not you know, normal stuff. And I was thinking about what Hermione and I were going to do once we were out of there and unless we have those sorts of degrees, we'll never be able to get good jobs or go to a university or anything. We'll be trapped with them."
That gave Richard pause. He hadn't considered that when he'd heard of the hidden society. The kid was going to him for help.
"If you and Hermione are willing to actually work on this, I could help you," Richard said slowly. If he remembered correctly, to get a General Certificate of Secondary Education, one had to pass a set of exams around the age of sixteen. "I teach middle school biology over in St. Louis. I can look up the requirements for the exams you need to take send you schoolwork and assignments that will help you learn what you need to know to pass the needed exams."
Harry gave him a grateful smile. "Uh, it might be more than just Hermione and I that want to do this. We were talking about starting a study group for people interested in normal schooling as well as magical."
"Who would be in charge of this group?" asked Richard.
"Hermione. Back when we were in normal school, she skipped two grades."
"Huh," said Richard. "If you want to do this group for more than thirty people, I won't be able to do it. But I'll find you another tutor."
Harry snorted. "We'll be lucky if we can find fifteen among the sheep we call classmates. How do you want to do this? I have a P.O. Box that my normal magazines and Hermione's newspapers are sent to. I set it up so that anything sent there will be forwarded to me by mail. You could send stuff there and then I can owl assignments and stuff back to you."
**
Once Richard left, Hermione walked over to Harry. "What's going on?"
"Richard agreed to help our Muggle study group-he's a biology teacher in St. Louis," explained Harry. "And Draco has been a very bad boy."
"What did Draco do?" asked Hermione.
"He had our letters stopped," explained Harry. "His House-Elf was trying to take our mail, but Mrs. Zabini's House-Elf caught him. Anyway, the Malfoys are in trouble for messing with mail and Blaise has forwarded everything to us."
"Why would Draco order our mail stopped?"
Harry shrugged. "We have mail from Theo, Trace, Daphers, Blaise, Neville, the Weasley twins, and Hogwarts."
"You know Daphne hates it when you call her Daphers." Harry smirked, to which Hermione rolled her eyes. "Which are mine?"
**
Hermione paused, not quite wanting to believe what she'd just read. Surely it was a practice no longer considered valid. The entire idea was just strange and outdated.
But the book had been given to her by Blaise. Not to mention that he'd assured her that everything within the book was valid Wizarding custom and law. Had Blaise known when he'd given her the book? No-neither Hermione nor Harry had told him how they'd first met.
She'd need to do research-quite a bit of research-before she brought this to Harry's attention.
**
Harry ambled down Privet Drive, trying to decide the best approach. After their return to England, Harry had left his trunk at the Granger's home along with Hedwig. Better to be too careful than not careful enough-at least in his opinion.
He had no idea what the Dursleys would do when he arrived, but he wasn't taking any chances. He'd even left his wand with Hermione. Harry was quite sure that if they could, Uncle Vernon would snap it.
He let himself into the house, careful to keep the wall at his back. It didn't take long to find Aunt Petunia, cooking something that was supposed to resemble food.
"I'm back," announced Harry, watching with a detached sort of interest as Aunt Petunia spun around, nearly spilling the food.
"What are you doing here, you ungrateful little freak?" demanded Aunt Petunia.
"I live here. Remember?"
She glared at him for a moment before saying, "You're behind on your chores. Go clean the gutters, mow the lawn, and weed the garden."
That had certainly gone better than he'd thought it would. But Aunt Petunia's reaction was not a clear indicator of what Uncle Vernon would do.
**
"Hi, Mrs. Figg," said Harry. "Do you need any yard work done?"
The woman smiled at Harry. "Of course. The garden just hasn't been the same without you to tend it. How long until you go off to school?"
"I'm leaving on the first of September."
Harry quickly got Mrs. Figg caught up with an edited version of his school year. Even if he did have a lot of money, he certainly didn't have more than a handful of pounds with him. While he'd converted some of his galleons to pounds the year before, they certainly wouldn't last long and Harry didn't feel like wasting his money to go to the bank when he could do some easy yard work for Mrs. Figg instead.
**
Blaise read the letter in his hands again. This was unexpected. But he knew that Muggles did not consider things such as life debts to be of much importance.
Magic had a mind of its own, no matter how hard wizards tried to control it. Magic would do things to life debts and contracts and oaths made between magic users. Things that Muggles would never even dream of.
At least the girl had asked for help and clarification of the customs and laws regarding this. But once Blaise had learned exactly what had happened between the two, he knew that there was really no way out.
Well, no way out without incurring the wrath of magic itself.
With a sigh he sent a letter to Hermione asking for a meeting between himself, Hermione, and Harry before their appointed meeting in Diagon Alley. Once he'd sent that letter, he wrote a letter to his grandfather, the head of the House of Zabini. Perhaps he would be able to think of something Blaise had missed.
After a moment's pause, Blaise wrote out several other letters. One to Andromeda Black-Tonks and another to the solicitor in his mother's employ. Once that was done he went off in search of his mother.
**
Less than a minute after Harry entered the Granger house, a book had been thrust into his arms with the order of "Read." Though a bit confused, Harry gingerly sat down and began to read the marked section.
He was still a bit black and blue from the beating Uncle Vernon had given him, but luckily all the bones had healed correctly. Not to mention that Uncle Vernon had been satisfied with the beating, meaning that so long as he didn't draw too much attention to himself, the Dursleys would likely ignore him until he left again.
Harry read the section with twice, almost unable to believe what he was seeing in front of him. Sure, he'd saved Hermione's life the day they'd met, but there was no reason for a life debt to be such a serious thing. At least in Harry's opinion.
"Is this true?" Harry asked softly.
"I think so," replied Hermione. "I sent Blaise a letter-to make sure that the laws in the book were up to date-and he's invited us for a meeting at his home in Hertfordshire tomorrow. His letter said something about him making sure there were people who could help us at the meeting."
"Right," said Harry. "Who'd he say would be there, how are we getting there, and what time is this meeting?"
"He didn't say who would be there, but he did say his family solicitor would be there," said Hermione. "It's at one, but he wanted us there for lunch at twelve so that we could meet some of the people. And we're taking a train to Kings Cross and then catching another train to his town. From there I have walking directions."
"Right. Should we wear robes or something?"
"He didn't say," shrugged Hermione. "Slacks and a button up shirt for you and I'll see if I can find a skirt long enough for those wizards. Tomorrow isn't a good day to offend them. Oh, and Mum and Dad know we're visiting Blaise, so Trudy will be with them."
**
It took what seemed like forever for Hermione to decide what to wear and how to do her hair. Although her parents had been a bit confused about Hermione's sudden interest in fashion until she mentioned that Blaise had inherited a title from his maternal grandfather.
Harry still thought that Hermione looked a bit out of place when they got off the train. Although she'd covered her hair with a pretty scarf with green designs, Harry knew that her hair was in an elegant up-do involving her two combs and several of the pins. She wore a matching green sundress that reached her ankles, barely showing the sandals she wore.
Once they were on their way, Hermione took the scarf off her head, revealing it had been folded in half lengthwise. Once unfolded, she wrapped it around her shoulders as a shawl.
At Harry's confused look, Hermione explained, "The Wizarding world doesn't like it when women show their shoulders or anything above their ankles. You know they're still in the Dark Ages when it comes to things like that."
"Maybe after you get the whole labor union thing going, you could work on witch's rights," suggested Harry as they walked up a stone path to a rather large house.
"Perhaps."
Harry knocked on the door, noting that the house had no electrical or phone lines. A moment later a small House-Elf opened the door.
"May Mipsy help Sir and Miss?" said the elf.
"Harry Potter and Hermione Granger to see Blaise Zabini," said Harry.
"This way please. Master Blaise is expectin you."
They followed Mipsy to a small dining room. Blaise, who had been speaking to several adults when they arrived, stood.
"Mistress Hermy and Master Harry to see you Master Blaise."
"Thanks, Mipsy. Why don't you get them some tea," said Blaise. Once Mipsy had disappeared, Blaise turned to Harry and Hermione. "Hey guys. We were just about to start lunch."
"Blaise," said Harry while Hermione hugged him.
"Right, these are my friends, Mr. Harry Potter, heir to the House of Potter and the House of Black and Miss Hermione Granger," said Blaise. "This is my mother, Lady Sabine Zabini, my grandfather, Lord Marcus Zabini, head of the House of Zabini, Mrs. Andromeda Black-Tonks, and Mr. John Jameson, the Zabini family solicitor."
Hermione gracefully took the seat Blaise indicated, next to Lady Zabini, allowing Harry to pull the chair out for her. Harry had been taken out to upscale places often enough by the Grangers to remember what to do. Harry then took the seat between Blaise and Mrs. Black-Tonks.
Harry faintly remembered reading about Andromeda Black in his father's diary. Though he'd done research on his fathers friends and had discovered-much to his anger-that Sirius Black had been the one to betray his parents to Voldemort, Harry knew that Andromeda had been his godmother. From what he understood, she'd been banned from contacting him before he entered Hogwarts because of her relation to Sirius.
"How is your daughter?" asked Harry, remembering that the girl would have graduated Hogwarts the year before he entered. "Nymphadora, right?"
Andromeda smiled at him. "She's about to enter her third year at the Auror Academy. She's been doing quite well. Although for some reason she insists on being referred to by her surname."
Harry tried not to laugh. The Black family was worse about picking names for their children then his own grandparents (honestly, who named a child Petunia?).
"May I ask what this is about?" said Andromeda. "Your friend did not explain."
"A life debt, between myself and Hermione," said Harry. "I'm assuming you know that Muggles don't give much thought to that sort of thing. Hermione and I only found out about the Wizarding laws concerning life debts two weeks ago."
Her face turned serious. "We'll speak more of this after lunch. May I ask, though, whether you saved her life or she saved yours?"
"I pushed her out of the way of a speeding car."
She nodded. "If you ever need time away from you Muggle relatives, you are more than welcome in the Tonks home, Harry."
"Thanks, ma'am.'
The conversation at the table was a bit stilted, but that was likely because of the situation they were in. Although Lady Zabini occasionally threw Hermione a look that said she considered the girl beneath her, she never gave any other sign of her displeasure.
Once lunch had ended, they withdrew to a cozy sitting room. Harry sat on a couch between Hermione and Andromeda. He rather liked the woman, and knowing that the Ministry of magic had stopped her from taking him in, had decided to be forgiving.
Blaise sat in a chair next to Hermione while Lady Zabini sat across from Harry. Lord Zabini sat next to her and Mr. Jameson sat between Blaise and Lady Zabini.
"Now, Master Zabini said that you had a legal problem, but did not explain what it was," said Mr. Jameson.
"I saved Hermione's life, four, nearly five years ago," said Harry. "It's how we first met. At the time, we were familiar with the Muggle magical community, but not the Wizarding magical community. Her parents have on several occasions said that they'd like a son like me-they're Muggles, they had no idea what their statements would mean. I gave Hermione her familiar four years ago, and a necklace last Christmas. I had no idea that Wizards even had laws concerning life debts until a couple weeks ago."
"Uh, Harry," said Hermione. "You also took me down with you to the Potter family vault last summer. And when we went on vacation the Goblins sent me your passport when I asked for it."
"At school, Harry and Hermione sometimes sleep in the same bed-uh, Hermione has nightmares sometimes," added Blaise. "We share a private room in Slytherin. Nothing happened, but they still shared a bed."
Mr. Jameson nodded. "Unfortunately your ignorance of the Wizarding world cannot protect you from their laws. There are few options available." He paused. "Mr. Potter could renounce his family and is adopted into the Granger family."
Harry shook his head. "Not going to happen."
"I thought so," said Mr. Jameson. "You two could continue on as you are now, however Mr. Potter has essentially taken Miss Granger as his concubine. As such, Miss Granger belongs to him. Any child she may have would be considered his and she would be forbidden to marry or have relations with another man."
Hermione looked like she was about to say something, but a look from Harry stopped her. He knew that Hermione found the second option unthinkable, and he had to agree with her on that.
"And the third option," said Harry.
"You could sell or give Miss Granger to another man as a concubine," said Mr. Jameson. At Harry's disgusted look, he continued, "As a Muggleborn Miss Granger has fewer rights than a pureblood or halfblood."
"I'm not going to sell her or give her away," said Harry.
"Of course," said Lord Zabini, speaking for the first time. "Did the Potters or the Blacks arrange for Mr. Potter's future?"
"James insisted that Harry be able to make that choice for himself," said Andromeda.
"Then there is another option, Mr. Potter," said Lord Zabini. "You may instead change Hermione's status as your concubine to that of your betrothed. You would, of course, be obligated to marry as soon as possible. Sixteen without parental consent in Scotland, if I remember correctly. Considering the circumstances, the Granger family would not be required to provide a dowry. If you wish, I could have Mr. Jameson draw up your marriage contract."
"Hermione?" said Harry.
"I don't… I don't want to spend the rest of my life as some man's property." She seemed to be close to tears.
"Marry me?"
Hermione nodded. "Yes."
"I'll find you a ring in the family vault later," said Harry. "So, what does this marriage contract involve?"
**
The vampire was half tempted to kill the Potter boy. But at least he'd done the honorable thing and agreed to marry Hermione.
If he'd known that Hermione had owed the boy a life debt, he would have done something to settle it before the situation had become so dire. But he hadn't known, and his descendant had to live with the consequences. Unfortunately he'd only ordered that his family be protected from magical danger, not normal danger.
And the boy certainly cared for Hermione. As a concubine, he essentially owned her. As his betrothed, and eventually as his wife, Hermione had regained all the rights that a witch normally had. Although the Wizarding world had no provision for divorce and no laws that protected a wife from her husband.
**
Harry entered the Potter family vault, trying to decide which ring to pick out for Hermione. He hadn't expected to end up engaged to Hermione, but he wasn't one to walk away from responsibilities. Admittedly, Harry was still at the point where he found the idea of kissing a girl strange.
Finally, giving up on making a decision on his own, he approached one of the portraits. It was sleeping, but a quick shout of "wake up!" solved that problem.
"What are you doing?" demanded the portrait of a man dressed in the armor of a knight.
"I need help," explained Harry. "And you're a Potter, right?"
"Of course I am," said the portrait. "I am Sir William Potter. Who are you?"
"Harry Potter. My father was James Potter."
"Was?"
"He died protecting Mum and I when I was a baby."
"A noble death," nodded Sir William. "Now, what seems to be your problem?"
"I just got engaged-uh, betrothed-and I need to get Hermione a ring," said Harry. "Muggle man gives a Muggle woman a ring when they get… betrothed and another ring when they marry."
"Is this Hermione a Muggle?" asked Sir William, looking a bit put out by the idea.
"What? No. She's in Slytherin like me, but her parents are Muggles."
Sir William nodded. "It is good to bring new blood into the family on occasion. Who arranged the marriage, your mother?"
"Mum's dead. I arranged the marriage, I suppose. Uh, I saved Hermione's life and accidentally made her my concubine. When I found out, I decided to marry her instead."
A woman walked into Sir William's portrait. She was dressed in clothing even more old fashioned than Hogwart's robes.
"William, introduce me to our descendant," said the woman.
"Of course. Harry, this is my mother, Lady Elaine Potter."
Lady Elaine then asked, "This girl, what is her family like? They are Muggles, yes?"
Harry nodded. "Her parents are… I guess you'd call them healers. They know that Hermione, her younger sister Gertrude, and I are magical. I don't think they care. They never complained when we practiced magic in their house or on their property. Oh-Hermione's already completed the animagus transformation. She's a fox."
"Acceptable," said Lady Elaine. "Her grades at Hogwarts? And which young ladies does she associate with?"
"Top student of our year," shrugged Harry. "Her closest female friends are Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis. She's friends with Luna Lovegood as well, but they're not that close. She also spends time with my friends-Blaise Zabini, Neville Longbottom, and Theodore Nott. Luna's going to start first year in September so she hasn't been sorted yet and Nev is a Gryffindor. All the others are Slytherins."
"She'll do," Lady Elaine said in a dismissive manner. "Bring her here so that we may meet her sometime within the next year. Now, what type of rings do these Muggles give each other?"
"An engagement ring has a jewel and a wedding ring is plain."
"What jewelry does she normally wear?"
"I gave her a gold and pearl necklace last Christmas. She wears that at school. And her hair things are always gold with pearls."
"Look over by that set of armor. There should be several gold rings. Now, what color are her eyes and hair?"
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