Chapter 40
"Hey, Harry, what's wrong?.. Are you really still mad about those letters?" Ginny Weasley tried to rouse me, looking a bit fawning and embarrassed. She, along with Daphne and Luna, was currently riding with me away from Hogwarts... The school year had finally come to an end. All exams were passed, and summer plans were made, but... I still had at least one piece of unfinished business.
A matter that I had been putting off for a good two months under the pretext of preparing for exams, simultaneously allowing the three girls to casually sort out their issues among themselves... The betrothal proposals from the Weasley and Lovegood families that arrived back in April had greatly agitated our entire group at the time, simultaneously putting me in quite a difficult position.
Not in the sense that I was seriously going to choose who to marry in the future and all that... No, in that regard, I wasn't looking at Luna and Ginny at all. And I had absolutely no intention of concluding betrothals with them. Ultimately, I had only agreed to the union with Daphne because of the possible benefits of such a connection with her family... and out of a banal desire not to insult the young witch with a refusal.
The Greengrass heiress treated our betrothal more than seriously, ready if necessary to wait for the final signing of our betrothal as long as circumstances required, but... the stunt that our younger friends pulled still infuriated the girl.
Daphne was especially infuriated by the youngest Weasley, who didn't even hide her thoroughly childish and naive, but still very real, interest in me... And this feisty Gryffindor wasn't afraid to defend her position at all, arguing passionately with the Slytherin and not hesitating to complain to her brothers or ask them for help if necessary...
Fortunately, when things came to such measures, Ginny first went to the twins, and they, not being fools, pulled me aside first, perfectly realizing that playing jokes on their little sister's "rival in love" wasn't the soundest and... most correct idea.
Not that Fred and George Weasley were seriously bothered by such trifles, but they ultimately decided not to mock my good friend, who until recently had communicated quite well with their sister despite belonging to the snake house. And then I myself talked them out of such nonsense, honestly asking them not to interfere in this matter.
The guys didn't particularly like this, but having realized my position and a certain helplessness, as well as a complete reluctance to seriously get involved in this whole leapfrog with betrothal proposals from three different witches... In short, the twins ultimately just laughed at me, asked me not to offend their little sister in any case, threatened brotherly retribution otherwise, and sort of walked off into the sunset.
Which is to say, they left me to deal with all this on my own... Which, given my mood at a certain point, led to the current situation of a sort of armed neutrality between the girls and... my distancing from all three witches. The latter, in fact, forced them to more or less make peace in the end.
Although neither of these statements really applied to Luna at all. This little schemer initially shifted all the blame for the betrothal proposal sent to me onto her father and didn't meddle in this matter anymore. More accurately, she sort of still said that she wouldn't mind seeing me as a future husband, which greatly riled up Daphne and Ginny, but... otherwise she didn't show much activity, mostly observing the ensuing bedlam from the sidelines.
"No, Ginny, I'm not mad because of the letters, but because of your bickering with Daphne," which had only recently almost completely died down, allowing me to resume more... full-fledged communication with these witches.
"Although we hadn't stopped communicating before that either. It's just that whenever one of them brought up the betrothal issue again and tried to drag me into their argument, I prudently ran off on my own business, leaving the girls to argue alone," I mentally corrected myself, having recently finally decided exactly what I was going to do about all this.
"Hmph, none of this would have happened if someone hadn't tattled to her mother and forced her to send Harry a betrothal letter!" Daphne snorted irritably, crushing her rival with the exact same arguments for the umpteenth time recently. "It's not customary in your family to conclude betrothals with anyone at all!"
"I wasn't the one who started it," Ginny clicked her tongue in displeasure meanwhile, trying not to look at me sighing heavily. "And anyway, stay out of my family's traditions! If you hadn't tried to steal Harry from me first..."
"Could you maybe calm down a bit already? I've already given my word in any case, and I don't intend to change it," I cooled the red-haired Gryffindor's ardor with an intent look, causing her to immediately droop after my words... While Daphne only smirked smugly, casually sliding a little closer to me.
"Um, you should settle down now, Ginny. Harry has already decided to be with Daphne," the slightly disheveled Ravenclaw, who was vainly trying to doze in our compartment, smiled calmly at her old friend. Luna, probably due to the rainy and foggy weather, had been somehow particularly sleepy and absent-minded since morning. While loading onto the train, she almost forgot her luggage on the platform.
"Hmph, that's true, but... I'm still not going to give up so easily!" the youngest Weasley exclaimed weightily, looking at me with her slightly offended, but at the same time—determined and bright gaze. "And anyway, aren't you offended yourself that Harry rejected us?"
"He declined, but his Wrackspurts are still the same, so everything is fine," the petite witch responded lazily, once again referring to those invisible—whether spirits or mental images—of hers that still helped the witch make many decisions.
"If only I knew what that meant," I exhaled faintly, having long grown accustomed to my ward's oddities, but sometimes still getting lost when communicating too closely with her. And damn it, I just can't manage to properly understand how these strange abilities of hers actually work. I lack knowledge so much that I don't even know in which direction to look for the necessary information. In almost a whole year of our acquaintance, I haven't dug up anything at all.
"You don't want to enter into a betrothal with me, but you still like me. So everything is good," Luna drawled almost sleepily, brushing it off easily and immediately poking Weasley in the side in an attempt to get more comfortable... for example, by laying her head on her lap. "And you, Ginny, should stop arguing already. Otherwise, Harry's Wrackspurts will get offended and torment you for the rest of your life."
"Here you go again with your nonsense..." the red-haired witch exhaled in tired irritation, allowing her friend to settle comfortably on her lap contrary to her own words.
"But if I were you, I would still listen to her advice," Daphne snorted confidently, lowering her voice a little so as not to disturb the sleepy Luna too much. "Your behavior is annoying and... ahem, it's high time you accepted our betrothal. Especially since very soon Harry will meet with his godfather and... by the end of the summer we could already become officially engaged!"
"Yeah, keep dreaming about that... Harry's new guardian surely understands what will be best for him and definitely won't approve of his relationship with a vile Slytherin..." the youngest Weasley couldn't stay silent, forcing me to sigh tiredly for the umpteenth time this trip, and then...
I habitually decided to withdraw myself from this conversation, closing my eyes, leaning against the nearest corner, and trying to dissolve completely into my own thoughts. Fortunately, I had long since mastered this mental practice perfectly, allowing me to detach myself from even fairly serious physical stimuli at any moment. And not just physical ones, for that matter...
Thus, I managed to almost completely mute the foreign conversation in our shared compartment almost instantly, starting to somewhat lazily sort through my own thoughts and... mentally prepare myself for the upcoming meeting with my sort-of godfather—Sirius Black.
He had recently been acquitted and, after two weeks of active rehabilitation at St. Mungo's, had apparently finally been allowed to return to a normal life... We have been corresponding with this man for some time now, and... to be honest, in a certain sense, I am even apprehensive about meeting him in person.
All his letters look too chaotic and frantic. He jumps from one topic to another too often in his messages, and in general, even from the correspondence, I got the impression that my godfather is... slightly crazy. Or maybe not slightly, even though his letters have recently become a little more structured and even somewhat composed.
"However, that still won't save me from slight nervousness," I exhaled to myself, not knowing how to behave with the recent prisoner of Azkaban just in case... Especially if he suddenly turns out to be aggressive or completely uncontrollable... Ahem, yes, it is precisely because of these fears that I want to have the support of the Greengrass family just in case.
Sirius is too unstable and ambiguous a figure for me to seriously rely on him... And even if these are just speculations and assumptions for now, but... before personally meeting this man, I was still somewhat worried, sincerely hoping for the best, but subconsciously preparing for the worst anyway. For some reason, I can't manage to be an optimist in this life...
Which, however, did not prevent me from already refusing another vacation at the Dursleys' house, trading them for the company of the recent convict and his family nest... In which, as I had already managed to find out during my correspondence with Sirius, a simply wonderful library is still preserved. And Black himself seems not to mind at all "running me through my paces" in the underground training ground of the house at 12 Grimmauld Place.
"I'm not sure how true my godfather's words about him being a first-class duelist can be considered, but... I think he will be better than me anyway. I myself still know deplorably little about magical duels and the 'combat' subsections of magic. And I can do even less..." I grimaced mockingly at myself, perfectly realizing that it was primarily because of the magical knowledge of Sirius and the entire House of Black that I was ready to spend these summer holidays in the company of such an ambiguous mage in the first place.
However, it's still too early for me to judge his ambiguity, mental state, and overall adequacy. Before making long-term plans for Sirius, I need to meet my godfather personally in any case first... Fortunately, there is very little time left until our meeting. Today in London, on Platform 9 ¾, he will be meeting me in person.
Read Advanced Chapters on: p@treon/Amiii_
~Every 150 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]