Four voices immediately replied either, "Yes, Harry," or, in Tonks's case, she snapped out, "Yes, Sir."
Realising what she'd done, she blushed. "Sorry. Auror training kicked in."
Harry chuckled. "At least I know I have a 'command' voice that has people with military or police training automatically react to it."
After dinner Remus and Tonks left again almost immediately afterwards, Tonks was currently on early morning shifts. And Sirius, Harry and Luna settled down with a good book each.
It was about ten minutes after Remus and Tonks left that Luna, quite nonchalantly, said to Sirius, "Just so you know, I've moved into Harry's room."
"Oh?" asked Sirius, as Harry blushed. "And into what room has Harry moved into?"
Flatly, Luna returned, "Very funny, Lord Black."
Sirius grinned and said, "Make sure you use the contraceptive charms and-or potions and be careful. Otherwise, I've no problem with it."
It was almost a further five minutes before Harry, trying to get his blush under control, asked Luna, "Errr... should I go and talk with your father?"
She smiled at him and said, "That's sweet, Love. But, for a start, Daddy's in Norway hunting Snorkacks. He won't be back for about a month. Even so, I'm of age and a 'big girl' now. I'm free to make my own decisions."
"Still..." he tried.
"Still, nothing," she firmly said. "Down the road... it would be best if you do the traditional thing and go and ask him for my hand in marriage. That, at least, will have the stodgy old traditionalists of our society give their own nods of approval. However, that is some time off yet. Besides, I wish to speak with him before then to tell him he'll be saying yes to your request."
"You'll... tell him he'll be saying yes?" Harry tentatively asked, a little confused.
"Of course!" she firmly replied. "Daddy just wants me to be happy. If I tell him to tell you 'yes' and it'll make me happy, then he knows it'll be safe to reply 'yes' to your question." "That... sounds oddly logical," he quietly said. "And not a little like the wrong thing to do."
"It's the way it's done these days, Harry," said Sirius. "The traditionalists are satisfied the old ways are followed, while the new progressives are happy the prospective bride is in control of her own future. Everyone wins."
"Sometimes I just don't understand magical society," he sighed.
With a wry smirk, Sirius said, "That's because, a lot of what is considered tradition, can beggar belief in its stupidity."
"I'm just happy that over the past century marriage contractshave been done away with," said Luna.
"Not all of them, Luna," corrected Sirius. "However, only the truly dark families still use them."
"Such as the Blacks?" asked Harry. "Such as what the Blacks used to be like until I took up the Lordship," he replied. "I won't allow them and I'll be instructing my heirs that the House of Black, as a whole, will no longer deal with them."
"There's not one..." tried Harry.
"For you?" prompted Sirius. Looking back down at his book he said, "There used to be. One of the first things I did when I became your regent was destroy it. It was, according to the Potter family by-laws, illegal.
"Your paternal grandfather, Fleamont, made them illegal for a Potter almost immediately after he became the Lord of your House."
"It's destroyed?" asked Harry.
"Definitely."
"Who was it with?"
Sirius looked up and replied, "Ginevra Molly Weasley." Harry looked horrified for a few moments before he said, "Ohhh... I feel sick."
"It'll pass," said Sirius.
"Please tell me there's no more," Harry begged.
"There's no more," said Sirius. "And, no, I'm not lying. After finding that one I spent a great deal of time searching for others.
"There were a lot of offers, especially after what happened on that Hallowe'en, but Dumbledore had already refused them all even if he didn't have the right to do so. I merely signed off on them being rejected. The goblins hadn't destroyed them, because they knew Dumbledore couldn't legally reject them.
"The Weasley contract was what led me to officially announce House Weasley as official enemy of Houses Potter and Black after first telling Arthur I wouldn't do that based on Ronald's thievery and his handling of that situation. However, finding that contract was the last cast for me.
"I asked Arthur why he signed off on it on behalf of House Weasley... especially since his father was still alive at the time... and his only answer was because Dumbledore told him to. That wasn't good enough for me."
"Why... the Hell... would Dumbledore do such a thing?"
"It allowed him to pay for the Weasley children to attend Hogwarts out of the Potter accounts," replied Sirius. "It was a condition of the contract that House Potter was to pay for all of your generation of Weasley children to attend Hogwarts."
"That's... that's... despicable!"
"Yes," replied his godfather. "After a kind word from me to Bones, Arthur was able to keep his job. However, William lost his at Gringotts and had to emigrate to find work. He went to France and Fleur's family hooked him up with a French curse-breaking company. Charlie's job at the dragon farm in Romania was fine. And the twins are making a respectable living through their WWW business in the Alley. Percy lost his job at the Ministry, but Bones and I were in agreement he was just a snotty little toady, anyway. He now works for the twins as their bookkeeper. How that young man never went into Slytherin stillconfuses a lot of people.
"As for Ron and Ginny, their parents were only able to provide enough gold to see Ginny attend in what would have been your sixth year and her OWL year. And the rest of the family, where they could, pooled enough gold for her to attend through to NEWTs. Ron never returned to school after you left, because they couldn't afford for him to attend and it had become apparent that he only passed what OWLs he did because of all the help that Miss Granger provided him. Even his parents figured out quite quickly that, since Miss Granger wouldn't be there for his sixth year, he'd fail. As such, they'd be wasting their gold. They withdrew him.
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