Chapter 38
"So... Well, this is definitely crossing all lines!" feeling a shiver running down my back and a nervous tic in my right eye with my whole body, I almost furiously swore at one completely inappropriate and... confusing piece of parchment.
"There, there, no need to make such a fuss... I am, of course, also surprised, but after those Transfiguration tricks of yours and your categorical refusal to accept Galleons even as a supplement to the main payment for my tuition... I think my mother simply couldn't interpret it in any other way," the main culprit of my impending early gray hair smiled awkwardly...
"Yeah, yeah, I thought as much... So, you suspected something like this from the very beginning, didn't you?" I exhaled irritably, feeling a light wave of a migraine gradually washing over me. This whole situation is just... completely baffling, to say the least.
"No, I didn't think about anything like that at the beginning, but... you really outdid yourself during the demonstration of your skills. Seriously, Harry! Who the hell else in their second year could demonstrate such a high theoretical and practical understanding of damn Transfiguration!?" the young Miss Greengrass was slowly beginning to lose her temper too. Despite her outward fortitude and restraint, the swear words in her speech were almost too telling for me.
"I just always try to squeeze the maximum out of the knowledge and skills available to me... In magic, as a rule, this works too well not to use it," I exhaled tiredly, closing my eyes for a moment and almost regretting my recent desire to not disappoint my friend's parents at any cost.
"Well, who could have possibly known that an attempt to preserve Daphne's reputation in the eyes of her own parents could actually lead to... to this!?" I continued to groan mentally, looking at... the damn betrothal proposal like it was some kind of venomous viper. Although what the hell viper!? Here in front of me is a real basilisk, in the guise of Daphne's sweet and almost domestic mother, baring its teeth.
"And besides! Are you seriously trying to say that good magical skills were enough for your parents to just decide right off the bat to marry us off!? Is this how it works in the magical world?" I once again couldn't stop myself from raising my voice a little, simply unable to cope with the emotions washing over me and... the feeling of the contradictory absurdity of what was happening.
"No, it absolutely definitely doesn't usually work like this, but... let's just consider this letter a proposal from my mother for the both of us," the petite blonde exhaled dryly behind my back, whose face, I was sure, was literally burning with embarrassment, awkwardness, and a certain dose of indignation right now.
"A proposal for both of us?" calming my own heart and emotions with willpower and a drop of mental magic, I decided to clarify with the girl what exactly she was talking about. "Not for me, but for us?"
"Well, something like that..." Daphne drawled completely embarrassedly and almost timidly, involuntarily copying my own manner of speech. "Usually this is not accepted, but... since I have no brothers, our family is to some extent accustomed to female leadership, and my mom cannot have children anymore for medical reasons, I am the full-fledged heiress of the family. And this, besides a bunch of responsibilities, also gives me a certain level of... power over my own future."
"Um... you mean to say that you can choose a groom for yourself?" I clarified, quite quickly gathering all the Slytherin's past slips of the tongue together and immediately coming to some very obvious conclusions.
"In a sense, that's exactly how it is... Of course, if I suddenly fall in love with one of the Weasleys, I'd rather be put under house arrest, taken out of Hogwarts, and forbidden from further education, but... otherwise, I really do have more of a choice than Pansy or even Astoria," Daphne Greengrass confirmed my assumptions with completely indescribable and contradictory intonations in her voice.
"I see... and the main requirement for your future husband is?.." I clarified just in case, in reality simply buying myself a little more time to comprehend our situation... I never thought that at twelve years old I would have to seriously ponder such things. The damn magical world and its thrice-cursed archaism!
I hadn't really paid much attention to this before, somehow subconsciously ignoring and chasing away from myself some of the peculiarities of the behavior and upbringing of other wizards. But here... well, here—they shoved these "peculiarities" right under my nose.
"The pureblood or half-blood status of my chosen one, a good reputation of his family in society, and at least a hint of magical talents," my friend described the main criteria a little more calmly, as if accidentally—and maybe truly accidentally—touching my shoulder with her slightly cold palm. I felt its coldness even through my light shirt...
"Yeah... Plus the groom's willingness to join the bride's family, if I understand correctly," I smiled awkwardly, in reality not particularly worrying specifically about this. De jure, the House of Potter, of course, still existed, but de facto, my surname currently gave me little. Only access to several family vaults and a couple of country estates, only one of which was in Britain. One more in France and one in Portugal, although the latter, as I know, is supposedly long abandoned and almost destroyed, now representing value only as a plot of magical land.
Not that this is small... In my past life I couldn't even dream of such an inheritance, but from the point of view of the "magical aristocracy"... My father never officially inherited the House of Potter, and he didn't write any inheritance for me in this regard either. So purely formally, even if I can become some Lord Potter or whatever, it will be... quite difficult and almost completely meaningless.
I am a half-blood, who was never even introduced into "high society". And even if the latter can be quite easily fixed, and my studying at Hogwarts itself heavily smooths over the "unworthiness" of my company. Still, even Muggle-borns who have graduated from Hogwarts often stand higher in society than pureblood kids from ordinary families who don't stand out with special magical talents either.
In this regard, the communication of the majority of Slytherins was quite telling for me. Because of which I, in general, never particularly worried about my origins, considering the local racism to be utter stupidity and heresy. Seriously, calling a mage a half-blood even if one of his parents wasn't even a Muggle or a Squib, but simply Muggle-born—that's already a diagnosis. But when marrying into the "best families," this must still play a role. Even if I don't fully understand this topic to the end.
"Actually, it's not at all necessary for you to join the Greengrass family," Daphne suddenly refuted my past assumptions, finally stepping out from behind my shoulder and sitting down opposite me. Apparently, she was already tired of rereading the betrothal proposal sent by her mother time after time. "My father still has a second surname—Gehle, even if he doesn't advertise it."
"Yeah, but all his children bear their mother's surname... And, as I understand it, Jacques never had any right to the House of Gehle, if such a thing even exists?" I clarified just in case, actually already knowing that I was right. Daphne had mentioned several times last year that her father was a very nominal head of the family due to his origins.
"Gehle is an impoverished German family of potioneers, practically destroyed after the war with Grindelwald... Father was the eldest son in the family, but long ago renounced the fate of being the heir to a non-existent family in favor of his younger brother," the blonde Slytherin looked at me with a very telling gaze.
At the same time, the obvious thesis that I don't have any younger brothers and there is no one to leave the surname to remained unspoken, but... even without any mental magic, I could hear how Daphne was practically praying mentally that I wouldn't raise this topic. For her, it seemed, this whole conversation was emotionally even heavier and more crushing than for me.
"And how is she even holding up, managing to cling to this image of the ice princess of the snake house of hers?" I mentally shook my head, partly even admiring my friend's restraint and fortitude... Sometimes I completely cease to understand how a twelve-year-old girl could even be capable of such a thing, but... in reality, I am already too used to all this to think too deeply about some peculiarities of magical upbringing.
"Alright, let's assume I now understand the general situation with this betrothal, but... the main question remains—what do you and I think about all this, and doesn't your dearest mother consider that... well, that we are even allowed to make such decisions at our age? We haven't even reached the minor age of majority yet," I clarified with the girl, raising what was perhaps the most burning question for me.
"If we agree, there will definitely be no questions with the legitimacy of our betrothal. Your magical guardian, of course, might try to contest your decision, but... usually such a thing is not accepted. And Dumbledore doesn't usually prevent his orphan students from concluding such alliances. So... right now everything is in our hands," Daphne Greengrass answered me with her inherent academic precision, only towards the end of her speech becoming embarrassed again and releasing an especially bright and distinct blush onto her clean and slightly pale face.
"Is that so? Well, that simplifies things somewhat..." I exhaled quietly, perfectly realizing that the girl was completely consciously pushing me to be the first to answer the question that was hanging in the air. For her, it seemed, it was just dizzyingly shameful to say anything first, but... I am not such a blind idiot not to understand the obvious.
Had Daphne been against this betrothal, all her reactions right now would have been radically different and... that is, in general, the problem. And no, right now I am not talking about that very problem of my mental age and a couple of highly specific moral questions. About this part... of my possible relationships with almost any of the witches I know, I don't even want to think!
Seriously. The specifics of my situation simply completely break my brain. Even the hormones that were beginning to wake up didn't possess such power for me to start seeing any kind of women in the peers of my body. In this regard, I suffered generally, because even mentally I never even came close to the age of our teachers, and out of the students... perhaps only the sixth and seventh years could represent any real interest to me...
And therefore—I refused to even think about this side of my possible betrothal for now altogether! After all, an engagement is not a wedding. Even if Daphne and I conclude it, then... taking a step back, albeit with difficulty, will still be possible. And absolutely no one is obliging us to take a 'step forward' until the wedding itself, the date of which will hardly be set earlier than we graduate from Hogwarts.
In this regard, I am now more worried about Greengrass herself, or more precisely—her view on our betrothal... The girl, despite all the specifics of her upbringing, simply hasn't had time to properly mature yet for a full understanding of what relationships between a man and a woman entail. A couple of hints at her first crush do not count in this regard at all...
After all, right now Daphne is making her decision based primarily on... no matter how strange it might be for a little girl of her age, cold calculation and a slightly less cold assessment of my personality. To her, I am simply a good, interesting, and perhaps even simply the best guy friend that she has in this life.
My magical talents, a quite decent pedigree not eclipsed even by my half-blood status, and the fact that her mother practically instantly approved our possible union with her only made the girl's decision even more obvious... At this stage of her life, she wasn't against getting engaged to the national hero of Magical Britain and simply her friend-comrade who loved studying, magic, and almost harmless intrigues so much.
"I think Daphne will even want to show off our betrothal to her friends. After all, for many girls at Hogwarts, I remain... quite a tasty morsel. Adjusted for our age and the specifics of magical society, of course," I sighed heavily in my own consciousness, not knowing how to treat all this until the very last moment, but...
After a minute of thought, during which Daphne Greengrass didn't start tearing the hair out of her well-groomed head from nervousness only by a miracle, I was still ready to answer my friend. After all, if a twelve-year-old girl is capable of giving an answer based only on cold calculation and matters of personal gain, then why shouldn't I do exactly the same?
And anyway, didn't I want reliable patrons for myself in the magical world? I did, ready even to accept a mad dog-Animagus who had served eleven years in Azkaban as this very patron-guardian... So why should I refuse the support of the House of Greengrass right now, especially since it's still not entirely clear with Sirius, and an engagement to Daphne will hardly oblige me to anything or limit me in any way?
Seriously, the clause about pre-wedding fidelity to each other doesn't bother me in the slightest degree. The chance that I will seriously fall in love with someone from my age group in the next three to five years is equal to a firm and categorical zero... And even if not—no serious punishments are foreseen for me.
The engagement will simply be broken off or in some way—I wonder how?—revised. And if Daphne herself finds someone else in the future—well, that won't be my problem at all anymore. I will already receive my short-term benefit in any case.
Well, in my situation, there is no need to think about some distant future in any case. The sword of Damocles in the form of Voldemort continues to hang over my head too persistently for me to worry about the affairs of the distant future. More precisely, no one forbids me to dream and plan certain things, of course, but... survival issues are in first place in any case!