Chapter 42
"Damn, kid, you really are something else!" Sirius Black shouted at me, sounding cheerful and thoroughly pleased. "All those Transfiguration tricks... even I'd have a hard time pulling them off properly right now. And you're not bad at Charms, either. Even better than James and I were at your age. Though you're definitely lacking when it comes to combat spells, or even just basic dueling charms..."
"As if you were a first-class duelist at twelve years old," I snorted at my godfather. I was a little irritated, mostly just from sheer exhaustion, and it seemed he had once again forgotten how old I actually was. "Besides, I told you right from the start that I'm barely worth anything in a fight. It's hard to find much information on combat spells at Hogwarts. And it's not like I was trying to blindly memorize them, anyway. Without understanding how to use them properly, they aren't all that useful."
"Well, I wouldn't say that... A lot of combat-oriented charms are so simple that even a kid could master them just fine," Sirius said, his lips twisting into a thoughtful smile as he completely ignored the remark about my age. "Still, don't go sulking over it. We have almost the whole summer ahead of us. I'll definitely teach you the basics, and I'll show you a couple of my own tricks. If anything happens, you'll have what it takes to kick the asses of any idiots at Hogwarts."
"Leave the ass-kicking of various idiots to someone else. Just so you know, I'm exclusively interested in lovely ladies in that regard," I snorted rather cockily.
I immediately watched my godfather explode into barking laughter. He always liked these slightly below-the-belt jokes. They helped keep him from overthinking all the nonsense in his life.
"By the way," I added, "have you sorted out the paperwork for my guardianship yet?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm done with all that red tape," the last wizard of the Black family replied, his amusement fading just a bit. "Just this morning, while you were running around the training ground, I popped over to the Ministry and picked up the last of the paperwork. Why do you ask? Are you worrying about that betrothal to your beloved again?"
"I am," I nodded easily, having no intention of falling for my godfather's obvious teasing. "More accurately, Daphne is the one who's mostly worrying, and I don't want to stress her out unnecessarily. And I really don't like how carefully you've been avoiding the topic."
"Well, excuse me for trying to save you from an inevitable mistake," the gaunt wizard sighed, looking thoroughly saddened now. "You know, back in the day, an arranged betrothal was exactly why I ran away from my family. I mean, there were plenty of other reasons too, but the betrothal to that plump Carrow girl was the last straw for me..."
"I can understand that, but... just so you know, Daphne is considered pretty much the most beautiful girl in our year. Maybe even the absolute most beautiful; I haven't really paid much attention to those kinds of rumors." I looked closely at Sirius. "Besides, her mother and younger sister are beauties too. I don't think there's any reason for me to worry about that."
"Ahem, well, you're probably right there... comparing your friend to Carrow isn't exactly a fair thought." The disheveled, dark-haired man—whose hair somehow still lay perfectly—faltered a bit. "I can understand why you're so hooked on her, but... don't you have the youngest Weasley girl among your admirers too? She's supposed to be pretty decent herself. And that little blonde girl from your House... Maybe it'd be better to look at them?"
"Is there something specific you don't like about Daphne?" I asked calmly, mentally already regretting that I had ever told Black about my school life or shown him a few group photos with my friends.
"It's not that I don't like her, but... Dumbledore warned me about her family. Sure, they aren't Dark, and they never supported the Dark Lord back in the day, but... living in a matriarchal family is a scary thing, let me tell you," Sirius snorted without any real amusement, fixing me with a stubborn gaze. "And it's just a bit early for you to be getting engaged anyway. You should live for yourself a little, mess around with the older girls, and then... maybe everything will just work out on its own somehow? Maybe even without the need to take your wife's last name..."
"Hm, so that's what's really bothering you?" I stared intently at my godfather, crossing my arms over my chest. "You're worried... that by marrying Daphne, I'll stop being a Potter?"
"Not just that, but... well, mostly," Black winced guiltily, as if admitting to something horribly shameful. "Listen, Harry... I know the Potter line practically doesn't exist right now, and honestly, all this noble family nonsense is a load of crap in my opinion. Especially since you'll get your parents' and grandparents' full inheritance regardless. But... your father really loved his family name. And I remember Lily being thrilled to become Mrs. Potter. We even used to joke about it back then..."
"I understand that, Sirius," I calmly nodded to my newly minted guardian, finally realizing what was eating at him the most. "I understand, but... I genuinely don't care much about my own last name. Harry Potter, Evans, or Greengrass... as long as it's not Dursley, I really couldn't care less. I won't stop being myself just because of a name."
"You're right about that, of course. Come to think of it, I never really clung to my own last name, either. I don't even like it that much, to be honest," Sirius was forced to backtrack a little, pondering my words. "But in your case, it all just feels too wrong somehow. The Greengrasses want too much from you, while giving practically nothing in return..."
"Is that so? And what exactly else could I demand from them?" I asked with genuine curiosity, wanting to hear what Sirius had to say on the matter.
"Well... I'm not too well-versed in this sort of thing, but..." The pale wizard scratched at his own stubble in confusion, giving me an openly thoughtful look. "I don't think they can give you much of anything at all. Now that I'm out of Azkaban, you don't need them anymore. You certainly don't need them enough to marry into their family as little more than a bed warmer for that Daphne of yours... Well, if you even understand what I mean by that..."
"I understand. You don't need to give me the birds and the bees talk," I snorted at his obvious embarrassment and awkwardness.
I immediately began to mull over my godfather's words... Though, to be honest, I didn't have all that many thoughts running through my head. I simply wasn't used to all these magical world hangups. I had studied and accepted them as part of my new life, but... deep down, the necessity of dropping my own last name and becoming part of my future wife's family didn't bother me in the slightest.
I didn't possess the typical local pride in a noble house and its history. Come to think of it, *Potter* was a completely foreign name to me anyway. And even though I had long since accepted it as a part of myself... I still didn't see much difference between being a Potter or a Greengrass. Besides, no one was actually forcing me to change my last name in practice—the main thing for Daphne's parents was that their heiress kept her own name.
But... that was beside the point. Even putting my personal opinion on the matter aside...
"Would my marrying into my wife's family become a major problem for the magical public?" I asked Sirius, forcing myself through sheer willpower to look at the situation from different angles... and finally finding at least one downside to this whole arrangement.
It wasn't a particularly important downside, I had to admit. Ultimately, the Potter name and the fleeting hope of becoming some sort of Lord would only matter to me if I suddenly decided to go into politics or big business—and even the latter was far from a certainty. The times had changed too much since the Dark Lord's last fall for financial flows to still be monopolized by the inter-family ties of a narrow circle of wizards, as far as I could tell.
After Voldemort's defeat, far too many noble families had been destroyed or ruined. Right now, practically seventy percent of businesses in Britain—if open sources and Draco Malfoy's own stingy admissions were to be believed—belonged to "ordinary" wizarding families. Even some Muggle-borns had managed to snatch up a slice of the wealth after the last war...
"...It wouldn't exactly be a problem," Sirius finally began to answer my question, still speaking somewhat hesitantly, even timidly. "Given your fame, wealth, and renown, even the pureblood snobs won't turn their noses up at you if it comes down to it. But... at least in the beginning, they're definitely going to view you as nothing more than an appendage to the Greengrass family. And that's not very cool, just so you know."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," I sighed heavily.
I was once again faced with a dilemma, and I really didn't want to solve it. Honestly, I was so sick and tired of all this! My personal desires—or at least my desire not to offend Daphne—and cold calculation were clashing once more. It was a conflict between short-term and long-term benefits, multiplied by the absolute uncertainty of my future.
"Ugh... And to think, all I wanted to do was study magic, live a quiet life, and maybe even become some prominent scholar one day..." I groaned. I sounded somewhat resentful—which I hadn't expected from myself—and my voice carried so much exhaustion that even Sirius Black suddenly grew worried for me.
"There, there, Harry... Don't go filling your head with all that nonsense! Listen... how about you just do whatever you want, and the two of us will just firmly tell everyone else's opinions to shove it?" Sirius instantly cast aside all his previous concerns, showing an almost absurd readiness to do everything exactly the way I wanted. "If you want an engagement with this Daphne of yours, then so be it. If you like her, who cares how the two of you decide to arrange your own lives..."
"No, Sirius... you need to calm down a bit," I managed to force out a faint smirk with a sigh. "Changing your own opinion that quickly isn't very cool, you know," I allowed myself to point out, feeling openly amused now.
I chuckled internally at how quickly the "coolness" factor of any given decision had become the deciding metric in almost every discussion between my godfather and me. It was highly stupid and frankly childish, but... it was still funny.
"Well... maybe," the man finally agreed with me, a sigh and a smile on his face. "Regardless, don't overthink this whole betrothal thing too much... Let's go grab a bite to eat instead, and after that, we'll get to work on teaching you the art of dueling..."
"Let's go," I agreed easily. I was still feeling a light wave of fatigue after demonstrating all of my magical abilities. "But we're definitely going to have another talk about my betrothal later..."
***
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