Magical Politics

DISCLAIMER: That part of this world and those characters you’ve seen before belong to their Creator: JKR. The rest is mine - although I cannot quit my day job as I make no $$$

CHAPTER NINETEEN: MAGICAL POLITICS

“Bicycles!” Hermione exclaimed when she looked in the other glass ceiling shed. “You said you thought we’d like at least two of your surprises and you were right.”

“Really?” Daphne asked with more than a hint of excitement. As she looked in she added: “Okay, Harry. You went three for three with me - assuming one of these is mine.”

“Whichever one you want,” Harry chuckled.

“What’s a bicycle?” Hannah asked.

“It’s like a wizarding broom for Muggles, except it doesn’t fly,” Daphne said. “Still, it’s loads of fun if you know how just like brooms can be.” She wheeled one out. Hermione, apparently, was checking out all of the bicycles.

“And just what do you do with that?” Hannah asked as Hermione was now wheeling another one towards the door.

“You ride it!” Daphne said. She then got on hers and pedalled into the Garden for a bit before turning around and coming back.

“Aunt Muriel would probably say it’s unladylike even if ladies have been riding them almost since they were invented,” Hermione said. “They can cause you to perspire ‘cause they are a form of exercise.”

“Okay,” Ginny said, “that’s a good reason for them right there. But I don’t see how you can do that without falling off.”

“My feelings about brooms exactly,” Hermione added.

“Oh, in a way they’re similar,” Daphne said. “These are actually easier I think. It’s just a question of balance and not being too silly.”

“And moving your legs up and down while trying to balance on those wheels while it’s moving isn’t silly?” Hannah countered.

“You have to do that to make the wheels turn or it goes nowhere,” Daphne said as Hermione got on her bike and tried it out.

“How do you know that?” Hannah asked. “And how do you know how to ride one?”

“Daddy taught me when I was five,” Daphne said. “Didn’t take too long, although I did fall off a couple times at first. My sister Michelle’s the only one who doesn’t ride one yet, but she’s still four. The rest of us learned when we were five.”

“But you’re a Pure-blood,” Hannah said.

“So? Yes, we live in a magical house with a couple House Elves and use floos and all that. But we also have two purely Muggle cars, we ride bikes as a family on weekends. Mum and two of my sisters ride horses for fun and the third, Cynthia is starting lessons this summer and Michelle will do the same when she’s a little bigger. I’ve been to see Muggle Picture Shows and Daddy plays golf. Just ‘cause something is Muggle doesn’t make it bad or boring.”

“Um,” Luna jumped in before anyone could reply, “do Muggles ride those things naked?”

“No,” Hermione, Daphne and Harry asked.

“Oh. But we can when we’re naked here, right?”

“Yeah,” Harry replied.

“Oh goodie! Sounds like fun!”

“Um, Harry?” Hermione asked.

“Yes?”

“You never said you rode a bike.”

“‘Cause I never have - not until yesterday at any rate.”

“Wait! When did you ride yesterday and don’t tell me you didn’t fall off!”

“I rode one as a test of something for about ten minutes while you all and Ginny were talking. And no, I didn’t fall off. And no, I don’t think it’s ‘cause I was a natural on a broom my first time up. These bicycles are special. You have to really, really try or do something really, really reckless to fall off. If I had one small enough, a two year old could do it.”

“A two year old?” Hermione asked in disbelief.

“Do you want a demonstration?”

“And how would we know you’re not some kind of prodigy like Hermione says?” Hannah asked.

“Because I won’t be demonstrating,” Harry said. “Nor will Daphne or Hermione ‘cause at least one of you might think it’s a set up. No. The three of you each go and pick out a bike and wheel it out here.”

“Harry!” a few voices said.

“Please?” he pleaded. “Trust me. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t know it would work.”

Luna and Ginny shrugged and headed into the shed. Hannah hesitated but soon followed. Moments later all three were lined up standing beside their bicycles. He instructed the three girls to throw a leg over so they were straddling the things. He told all three to put both hands on the handlebars and to reach forward with a couple of fingers on each hand to the little levers just beyond and to pull those towards themselves. He explained these were the brakes and would slow the wheels, stop them or keep them from moving so long as you pulled the levers towards you.

“Now,” Harry continued, “I want you three to get up on the seat and put both feet on the pedals.”

“Harry! They’ll fall over!” Hermione warned.

“No they won’t.”

The three hesitated at Hermione’s warning, but after Harry’s reply Luna did as asked followed by Ginny and Hannah and all of them remained upright.

“That's… that’s impossible!”

“That’s magic,” Harry said. “All the bikes are charmed so that as long as you’re at least straddling it and have at least one hand on the handlebars or one foot on the pedals it won’t, it can’t tip over. See?” He pointed to Ginny who was now doing the same thing except she was doing her best to shake her bicycle from side to side to tip it. It merely wobbled a little. “It also has charms that keep you from over-braking and another - not unlike those charms on the Comet 110’s - that prevent the bicycle from running into anything that might throw you off. I won’t say it’s impossible to fall. I don’t think the charms will help if you try to ride through a tree branch that’s too low to ride under but not low enough to hit the bicycle itself. It will also sense in a way your skill level and keep you from riding too fast, braking too hard or turning too hard. The better you get, however, and the less the charms will interfere. I’m pretty sure aside from this little stunt, Hermione and Daphne won’t activate the charms at all. So, what do you say we go for a ride?”

Harry and Ginny were sitting in the grass beside a newly discovered lake in the Fruit Gardens. The lake where Harry and the others had picnicked so often before today and was not a long walk from the House (or at least its entrance) was now named Hermione’s Lake. They were thinking of naming it Cherry lake for all the cherry trees around it, but instead decided to name it for the first to see it, which had been Hermione. With the bicycles, they had moved far deeper into the gardens than ever before; Luna estimated by more than two miles. Hannah had been slightly ahead of the rest riding up a gentle rise when she stopped. There before her and the others when they crested the rise was a much larger lake which now bore the name Lake Hannah. Unlike Hermione’s Lake, they could not see the entire lake from here. Here and there were hills and rises that jutted in and out creating coves and small inlets. They would later learn that it was almost twenty times the size of Hermione’s Lake but still a fraction of the size of the largest lake in the trunk.

The other four girls had ridden off in pairs to explore and for their “girl time” but also to leave Harry and Ginny alone. Since the beginning, this had been the custom. Even when it was just Harry, Hermione and Luna, the two girls saw to it that they each had an hour or so a day with Harry so that they could get to know him better or, in Hermione’s case, spend time with her best friend. They continued this for Daphne and Hannah as well. Now, for this week in Time Compression, it would be Ginny’s turn. They were sitting about a foot or so apart, Ginny hugging her knees as they looked out over this new lake.

“You must hate me,” Ginny began.

“Why do you say that?” Harry replied.

“After all that happened this year, after all I caused, how could you not hate me?”

“Why should I?”

“I hurt all those people, Harry! Worse, I hurt Hermione!”

“Did you?”

“Of course I did!”

“Fine. Did you know where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is? I mean, did you know before Ron and I brought you out?”

“N-no! I swear I didn’t!”

“Did you open it?”

“I must have but… ! But that’s the strange thing. It had to be me, but I have no memory of any of it. One minute I’d be walking through the corridors or getting into bed and the next second I’d be in a girl’s bathroom peeing. Not that bathroom. It was always a different one, but never that one. Always, it was hours after my last memory. And I was always dirty with muck or something on my clothes and tired. The first few times, well I know I did something but have no idea what. Then the message that the Chamber was opened and Filch’s cat was petrified and then the others. I knew it had to be me, but I… I had no idea how at first.

“I knew before Christmas that Diary was doing something to me and had to be evil so I tried to get rid of it. But… but it called to me even when I was at home. I didn’t want to ever see it again but something compelled me to find it again and all of that. It took me time to find it again - in your trunk. Sorry about the mess…”

“It’s okay.”

“Then Hermione and Clearwater were petrified. It was another lost few hours for me like the other times had been and then I woke up in the Chamber. Still, it’s all my fault and you almost died because of me.”

“But I didn’t. Besides, did you know that the Diary was evil when you got it?”

“It was just a Diary in my cauldron with my other books Mum had put in there. All it had were initials on it - not mine - which told me it was used even though no one had written in it. I figure Mum bought it for me. I had asked her before about having one not long after I learned to write.”

“It wrote back,” Harry began.

“So I figured it was magical and I had something like a magical pen pal. Someone raised in the Muggle world might find that odd, but I did grow up where mirrors talk to you so I didn’t think it was off until much later when it was too late.”

“Did you want to kill Hagrid’s roosters?”

“What? When did that happen?”

“Before the Chamber was opened,” Harry replied. “Hermione later learned that a crowing rooster kills basilisks and all the roosters had been killed before the thing was set loose the first time.”

“How… how was I supposed to know that? I never heard of those things before!”

“Did you want to kill Mr. Filch’s cat?”

“I’d say most students do,” Ginny snickered. “I never had an issue with it before. But Fred and George hate the thing. Still, using a basilisk seems a bit much for a nasty cat.”

“Did you want to hurt Collin for some reason?”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“He is a Muggle Born…”

“So? He’s nice enough.”

“He always shoves that camera of his in my face…”

“Which gives you a reason. I don’t think he has any pictures of me unless there’s a lot of other people in it.”

“How about Justin?”

“Who?”

“The Muggle Born in my year who got it with Nearly Headless Nick?”

“I don’t even know who he is!”

“He’s the one people say I set the snake on in the Duelling Club.”

“I wasn’t there, Harry. Left as soon as I saw that Lockhart was teaching. There might have been a lot of girls even in my year who had a thing for Lockhart, but he gave me the creeps even worse than Snape!”

“Well that’s good to hear,” Harry chuckled. “Even Hermione had a thing for him at first. Makes you better than her on that score in my book. But let’s continue with this.

“Assuming you were doing this and were trying to get rid of Muggle Borns, Justin would be at the top of your list if you knew anything about him.”

“Why? I don’t know anything about him!”

“I believe you, Ginny. But, if you did, you might know he’ll become a Baron in the Muggle Peerage when he’s eighteen and an Earl when his father and grandfather pass away. In our world, he’ll become the Head of a Noble House once he becomes a Baron and he’ll have a right to a vacant seat on the Wizengamot ahead of any other claimants for that reason alone even though he’s a Muggle Born. He’d have to claim it, of course, but to someone who hates and is willing to kill Muggle Borns, the thought that one could get a seat with multiple votes and more to come when he becomes an Earl would be sickening.

“Finally, did you want to harm Hermione or Clearwater?”

“Hermione? Why would I want to hurt her? She was perhaps the only one in our House - my four brothers included - who didn’t ignore me and tried to help me and all. The Diary said she was worthless, but I never believed it! Clearwater, though…”

“Oh?”

“I can see how someone might make something out of that…” Ginny began blushing. “Harry, you must promise me!” she said desperately.

“What?”

“Promise you won’t tell anyone if I tell you this!”

“Is it bad?”

“No. Embarrassing, yes. But not bad, but please?”

“Okay, fine provided I have no good reason not to tell the others here.”

“I guess that has to do,” Ginny sighed. “Thanks. Anyway, remember how I said the Diary was somehow compelling me to find it?”

Harry nodded.

“It got worse once I returned from Christmas. I knew I was in trouble and needed to talk to someone. It would’ve been Hermione but… but I was afraid how she’s take it seeing as she’s a Muggle Born and she was in the Hospital Wing at the time - which is hardly private and I didn’t want anyone else to know…”

“She was Cat Girl at the time,” Harry said with a chuckle and added when Ginny looked at him, “and you can ask her about that later. Go on.”

“Besides,” Ginny said after a pause, “she’d either go to a teacher or tell me to. All that was left then were my brothers. Ron was right out. First of all, what could he do? Then there’s also the fact he’s Ron and would just say I was mental or something. Fred and George would make light of it and I knew this was very serious. That left Percy and he is the serious sort and a Prefect so I went looking for him one day. Someone told me they had seen him and Clearwater going into an unused classroom to study and which one it was so I went there.”

Ginny then giggled.

“… And there was Perfect Percy - as Fred and George call him - pants down to his ankles and Clearwater knickers-less and skirt pulled and he was…”

“Having sex with her?”

Ginny nodded. “He saw me and when he did I ran but not far and he caught up with me still tucking in his shirt and told me not to tell anyone about it. I was too mortified to tell him anything then and before I could, I had the Diary back and…” Tears began to fall and she sniffled.

“Ginny, none of this is your fault,” Harry said. “I mean how were you supposed to know and once that thing had you, well the fact you could resist it at all might be saying something. That thing took control of you…”

“But I still did those things!”

“Your body did those things, not you,” Harry said. “However that thing worked you were not there, were you? That thing controlled your body, not you and you have no memory of it at all. It was not you. It was Tom Riddle - Voldemort - who did those things with a borrowed body that happened to be yours.”

“You… you don’t hate me then?” Ginny asked after a pause.

“No, not at all.”

“Then why’d you make me your Concubine,” she snapped. “That’s hardly something you do to a girl you like!”

“This has nothing to do with you or anything you’ve done or what I think about you, Ginny. It’s all about that Contract! Short of people dying, this was the only way out of it!”

“But I still don’t understand, Harry. How are you out of it if you are still supposed to marry me anyway?”

“I explained it yesterday at Gringotts.”

“I… well… there was this Contract and we had to get married but you were already married - four times over - and didn’t want me at all and all that stuff about being made to have sex and me having baby after baby and not even being allowed to finish Hogwarts or do anything but have baby after baby and you were angry and I thought you hated me… and then that was it! I was Virginia Ellen Potter and your Concubine and… I guess I missed something or did I?”

“You missed the real reason. Yes I was annoyed, Ginny. It was another example of how abnormal my life was and I am getting tired of it but I’m now learning I’m a Potter which means what I thought of as a normal life was never in the cards for me even if my parents had lived. By the time I met with you and your parents about this, however, as annoyed as I was about having to marry you, I was accepting that. How could I not? Do you know when I found out I was betrothed to you and the others?”

Ginny shook her head.

“This past Monday. Since then we’ve spent hours and hours during Time Compression trying to figure all this out. Hermione’s the only one of you I really knew at all before now. Luna’s the only one I had ever really spoken with beyond school work, common polite pleasantries or - in your case - a lot of ‘hi’ where you’d then turn red and run away or our brief talk down in the Chamber. Hermione’s a Muggle Born and betrothals and arranged marriages are very, very uncommon for them. It was the Soul Bond - or at least its potential - that got her parents to sign our contract. We were supposed to grow up together, you know. Hermione, Luna and I were supposed to grow up together and I wonder how things would turn out if that had been the case. I didn’t have to ever marry either of them unless we began to bond. As for Daphne, unless I bonded with Hermione or Luna, we’d never be where we are now. And Hannah? I had to be in a valid Plural Marriage for her to become my wife by Line Continuation. I knew none of this a week ago but when I walked into that room yesterday, I was not opposed to you or marrying you one day nor were they. Kind of hypocritical to be so, seeing as I already went through with marrying the four of them because of my family contracts with theirs. Add to it, there were no conditions on our contract at all meaning there was no way out of it - the getting married bit - and here we are.”

“Then why make me a Concubine.”

“While I couldn’t find a way out of the getting married bit - and we tried to find one even working with Goblin Solicitors - there were parts of the Contract that were far more objectionable that had to go. For one thing, there’s all that bit about potions and babies. If we decide to consummate the marriage in time and make it permanent and if we decide to have children, it will be our choice and not the result of potions stealing our free will.”

“But you said I had to! That’s why I’m a Concubine!”

“No Ginny. It’s why you might be one for a while after you attain Bonding Age. Even then, it will be my choice and not a potion induced haze that causes it to happen and it will be for all of our sakes as these Wards protect all of us and not just for me or in spite of you.” He then explained the Wards and particularly the controlling one tied to his Aunt that would fail when the youngest member of his mother’s family turned seventeen. “Right now, that’s you Ginny,” he finished.

“But I’m not part of that family, am I? Not by blood.”

“No, not by blood. But apparently the wards recognize magical bonds as well. For their purposes you, Hermione, Luna and I are my mother’s family and any of my children by any of you would be as well. Now, as for why we decided to make you a Concubine first - and it was we and not I - that has to do with the Vassalage Clause.” He then explained that clause and what it generally meant.

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Ginny began.

“By becoming a Vassal you become a kind of servant to your Lord. This does not mean you clean his House or such, but you owe him loyalty, obedience and fealty in return his job is to protect you. This is no longer done in the Muggle World but it’s still in play in ours and perfectly legal. It is also legal for a child to be made a vassal by their parent or guardian whether or not it is the parent or guardian’s choice. A person can choose to become a vassal - in the Muggle World this was how you became a knight for example - or they can be compelled to. In our world, vassalage can be used to pay a debt whether it’s money that cannot be repaid or a life debt or honour debt. While there are instances of a Head of an Ancient and Noble House or his heir choosing or being made vassal to another to pay a debt, there has never been a case where an heir was made vassal by parent, regent or guardian to a lesser House without there being a debt to that House. There’s no law against it, it just never has been done. So, by custom, there should be a debt between House Potter and Weasley to justify making me a vassal and even then, by custom, that vassalage would not be tied to some future event such as an eventual marriage between the Houses. Again, this is not illegal, it just has never happened before.

“Another thing, assuming my Grandfather - who died of Dragon Pox in 1979 - or my father owed you family anything, a claim for vassalage based upon the debt must be enforced during the life of the potential Lord and Vassal. If one dies before the vassalage is claimed, it does not pass to their heirs and that is the law. Still, while that clause is legal on its face, it is highly unusual and has no precedent I believe the word is. Any debt my family owed to yours would have died with the debtor and even if the debtor was a vassal before death, in our world vassalage is between people. Although it binds the families of the two, it is between people and it too does not survive the death of either the Lord or the Vassal. And how could I have incurred a debt on my own? I was fifteen months old! The only way would’ve been if your father saved my life that night but if that was the case, I’d never have become this Boy-Who-Lived thing. And if Dumbledore had saved it, not only that, but he can’t use that to make me anyone else’s vassal.

“The Goblins suspected something and - fortunately - they were the ones to draw up the contract. Dumbledore wanted to bind my House (not just me which would me vassalage could pass to my heirs) to your House and not just your father. ‘Upon the marriage of bride and bridegroom, said bridegroom shall become Vassal to the Head of the Bride’s Family.’ That’s what the contract says. This means that I would remain a Vassal so long as your father, any of your brothers or their future sons live. Not only that, they gain control over House Potter property; not total control, but enough that they can demand stuff and we’d have to cough it up or suffer a penalty.”

“My Dad would never…”

“Probably not. But your Dad is the Vassal of Albus Dumbledore. He became such during the War. So while he may not make such demands, what’s to stop Dumbledore from making demands on him that only his Vassal House Potter can meet?”

“Why would Daddy want…?”

“I don’t think he did or would’ve agreed to it. There are limits to Vassalage and that contract is outside of those limits. I believe your parents when they say that they have no memory of the Contract or signing it and the Goblins who say they signed under their own free will. I think Dumbledore tricked them into signing it. Oh, it’s just a routine Betrothal Contract, nothing fancy and if you sign your kids can go to Hogwarts. Your parents could not afford to send anyone at the time and Hogwarts only allows two hardship scholarships per family. Seeing as magicals usually have small families, for most this would be enough. But there were seven of you so five of you would have to go somewhere else. They probably didn’t think anything of it that day and signed ‘cause it meant you all could go. I think later they read it and knew what it truly meant and confronted Dumbledore about it and vassal or not, they wanted out of it and… poof… he obliviated them.”

“Why would he do that? He’s the Leader of the Light!”

“Who made the Grangers and Lovegoods forget all about me and each other and their promises to raise the three of us together as well and at about the same time,” Harry replied. “This wasn’t about Light versus Dark, Ginny. We believe it was all about politics in the long term.”

“Politics?”

“Dumbledore took his family seat on the Wizengamot in 1891 shortly after his twenty-first birthday. He was active, but by no means a leader of any kind for a long time. By 1915 he was a leader of a minority faction we’ll call the Liberals; one of four factions at the time. The others were the Radicals, the Traditionalists (including all Pure-blood Supremacists) and the Moderates.

“According to everyone else, the Radicals wanted to Muggle-ise Wizarding Britain. They were the smallest of the group both in numbers and votes, but they were the most vocal. They wanted membership in the Wizengamot, the Minister for Magic and Heads of Ministry to have to stand for election and to allow all Wizarding citizens to vote to include Muggle Borns, their parents, siblings and such; any other Muggles with a Wizarding connection and Squibs. Moreover, if you could vote, you could be elected. They wanted far more than that, seems their leaders were enamoured by the ideas of some Muggles named Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin - but voting was the big one.

“The Traditionalists opposed any changes unless they granted more power and authority to Pure-bloods who they felt were the only true ruling class. Given their way, if you weren’t a Pure-blood you could not be a part of government except as a clerk of some kind if then. In terms of numbers they were the second largest but had about the same number of votes as the Liberals - about a quarter of the votes.

“The Liberals wanted gradual reform and an end to any distinction based upon blood status but would not extend citizenship to Muggles or Squibs. In terms of numbers, they hold the most seats, but only hold about a quarter of the votes. What they did want, in the end, was their own kind of ruling elite. It would not be based upon bloodlines or heritage or popularity but accomplishment. It would be made up of the best and brightest and most accomplished witches and wizards in our world who accepted the responsibility. The Ministry would answer to them and if there was to still be a Wizengamot that made laws, those laws would be advisory only. Naturally, the Liberals and Traditionalists disagreed on almost everything. The Liberals also sided against the Radicals on all but one thing: they agreed there should be an end to the tiered voting structure within the Wizengamot immediately.”

“The tiered what?” Ginny asked. “I mean I know what the Wizengamot is and does, everyone does…”

“Hermione and I did not, not ‘til this week,” Harry countered.

“Okay, young Muggle Borns and my brother Ron aside and maybe some others who could care less, then; but I also don’t know about its votes or things except from what Mum or Dad has said after reading something in the Daily Prophet.”

Harry sighed. “This week’s been an education for me on a lot of things. The original Wizengamot had fifty-four members all heads of magical clans throughout the British Isles and all as heads were Lords. Many, however, were also members of the Muggle Nobility having inherited titles from their fathers or having gained them themselves from one of the many recognized muggle Kings - and there were several of those. All members had one vote, but the nobles had more than one and how many depended upon how high up in the Muggle nobility they were. These seats were and remain hereditary passing from father to son or to a legitimate male heir of that family. When the first line died out - meaning there were no living male heirs - a commoner from an old family was appointed to the vacancy. As such, he was given his one vote and a hereditary seat, the remaining Lords were given more votes and so on and so forth. Today, when sitting as a court of any composition it is one member, one vote. But for passing laws, while each member has one vote, a Lord gets two more, a Baron three, a Viscount five, an Earl seven, a Marquis nine and a Duke eleven - although there’s never been a Marquis and the last Duke died over four hundred years ago. The Minister gets twelve which he can either keep to himself or parse out to trusted associates where it’s understood that they vote with the Minister on things he considers important. Finally, there are twenty-six lifetime seats. These are not hereditary and are appointed by the Wizengamot whenever there’s a vacancy. They get one vote - more if they have a noble title. Understand?”

“A little. Enough I hope,” Ginny replied.

“Okay, last are the Moderates. They have fewer members than any other group except the Radicals but more votes than any of the other groups thanks to tiered voting. They hold about forty percent of the votes and have for a long time. They would support limited elections. Twenty-six seats on the Wizengamot are life appointments but not hereditary and they’d do away with the appointments and have those seats elected for a term of years. They’d consider expanding that number as well and would support popular election of the Minister. They do not support ruling elites or granting Pure-bloods more power at the expense of the rest of us. Only about fifteen percent of the Wizarding World is Pure-blood. They would also support laws abolishing rights and privileges based upon blood status. On those things, they fall in either with the Radicals or the Liberals. But on tiered voting and certain other traditions not related to blood status, they fall in with the Traditionalists. Since it takes the majority of votes to pass a law, you can see that not one faction controls without support from another.

“Now, for close to two hundred years, the Traditionalist were led by the Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Black…”

“That’s a dark family!” Ginny gasped.

“Some are,” Harry agreed, “but all?”

“That’s what I’ve been told!”

“Really? Am I dark? Do you think I will be?”

“Of course not! But you’re not a Black!”

“My grandmother was and I am in the line of succession.”

She gaped at him.

“You know Katie Bell? Is she a dark witch now or becoming one?”

“Sure I know her - well not really. She’s on the Quidditch Team. But she’s a half-blood, not a Black! And not Dark either!”

“Her Great-Great Grandfather was a Black and not just any Black but Head of House. What about Luna? Is she Dark?”

“Not hardly,” Ginny said less sure of herself.

“Her Great-Grandfather was a Black. And Daphne?”

“She is a Slytherin,” Ginny begin.

“Ambitious and certainly cunning,” Harry agreed. “She’s third in our year which is more Ravenclaw then Slytherin as most of them are not terribly bright. But is she dark?”

“I… I don’t think so.”

“Her grandfather on her mother’s side and great-grandfather on her father’s side were Blacks. And what about you and your family?”

“We’re not Blacks!”

“Your Great-grandmother was.”

“You sure? Which one? No one’s told me that!”

“She married Septimus Weasley. He’s your grandfather, right?”

Ginny nodded.

“She was disinherited by the then Head of House Black for that. The Weasley’s have always opposed the Traditionalists. That might be why it’s not mentioned, but that’s a guess.”

“Next thing, you’ll say Hermione’s a Black too…”

“Except she isn’t.”

“So we’re all cousins - aside from Hermione I mean.”

“Luna and Daphne are Second Cousins. They’re your Third Cousins and you all are my Second Cousins once removed. That means one of my Great Grandfather Blacks brothers was your Great-Grandfathers. Our common ancestor was Phineus Nigellus Black.”

“I’ve heard that name, or read it,” Ginny said.

Harry nodded. “In addition to being Head of House Black and Leader of the Traditionalists where, it seems, he makes Malfoy look tolerant of Muggles and Muggle Borns, he was Headmaster of Hogwarts where he makes Snape look nicer and more reasonable than McGonagall.”

“That’s a horrid thought,” Ginny said. “Might explain why my family ignores that part of our history.”

Harry nodded. “Traditionalist have been around for a long, long time although the Pure-blood Supremacy and Elitist thing was not part of their positions until about a hundred or so years ago. The Moderates in one form or another - but generally opposed to a lot of Traditionalist ideas, have also been around for a long time. The Radicals and Liberals did not exist in any form before this Century. Of those two, the Radicals are the older. They came into being when their leader was appointed to one of those twenty-six lifetime seats I mentioned. It’s founder was Phineus Black.”

“I thought you said he was head of the Traditionalists!” Ginny protested.

“That was his father. This younger Phineus was pure Slytherin - cunning and ambition wise. Played the dyed-in-the-wool Pure-blood Supremacist for Years until Daddy had him appointed to one of those lifetime seats. He had an older brother who would take his father’s seat in time so it was his only way onto the Wizengamot. Once in, he turned on his Dad and everything his Dad stood for. Daddy disowned him and all his descendants for being a Blood Traitor - which includes Luna and Daphne. He didn’t care ‘cause that had no effect on his seat in the Wizengamot. Death Eaters killed him in '78.

“Okay. The Liberals truly came into being about 1915. Most had been Moderates but broke over the issue of the Great Muggle War of that time. From the beginning, their leader has been Albus Dumbledore.

“For centuries, the Moderates have been led by one of two families. Each has more votes than any other. Before the Liberals came about, the moderated controlled a majority of the seats and votes, but have never held either majority since. For a long time, they’ve been led either by the Ancient and Noble House of Longbottom or the Ancient and Noble House of Potter. Right now, it’s Neville’s Gran. House Longbottom has held the House Potter votes in proxy since my Grandfather died since my father never lived to assume his seat.”

“How do those houses have more votes than any other?” Ginny asked.

“Made no sense to me either at first,” Harry replied. “I know the Head of House Potter is and Earl and that’s eight votes - seven plus the seat. House Longbottom’s and Earl too and we’re not the only ones. House Bones - also a Moderate - is another Earldom. Hermione’s said when we found out that it all makes sense if you first realize that the Wizarding World and logic are usually mutually exclusive concepts. You see, I’m not just one Earl but four and a Baron and a Lord - being head of one of the original fifty-four clans even if my clan was only one person until this week. That’s thirty-four votes right there. House Longbottom is a Lord, two Barons and Three Earls plus their seat: thirty votes. House Bones, two Earls, a Lord, a Baron and a seat: twenty votes. House Abbott is more typical: seat, Lord and just one Baron or six votes. They’re historically and currently Moderates too.”

“What does this have to do with the Contract and my being a Concubine?”

“Getting there,” Harry said. “Okay. Let’s see if I can remember. Today, the Moderates hold sixteen of the eighty permanent seats (Minister and who he appoints for his twelve votes are not permanent seats) and 119 votes - forty-one percent of the votes. The Traditionalist have twenty-four seats and seventy-five votes and the Liberals have thirty-three seats and seventy-three votes (including the Ministers House seat and single hereditary vote, but not his twelve Ministry votes although they’ve been voted Liberal.) The Radicals have seven seats and twenty-three votes. Now, while these number change a little one way or another, it’s been about like that since 1920. Since Liberals and Traditionalists almost always vote against each other on principal and the Radicals have no friends, this means that for the most part it’s the Moderates that have held a coalition majority since then. Depending on the issue, the Moderates side with Liberals or Traditionalists and on their own issues (with the exception of voting rights - the only thing those two groups will agree on since they both want some form of ruling elite and not ‘mob rule’ as some put it) all they need is either the support or opposition of one side to win.”

“But if one side opposes… ,” Ginny began.

“Then the other, which might have opposed otherwise, will vote the other way. The Liberals led by Dumbledore have been annoyed - to say the least - since the beginning. They have twice as many seats on the Wizengamot than the Moderates and almost a third as many as the Traditionalists and yet the Moderates effectively control. Now if a significant number of Moderate votes - say thirty-four - were suddenly to become controlled by the Liberals, well it wouldn’t give them a majority but it would make them the largest voting block and if some other moderates followed the Potter seat and votes into the Liberal camp, it could make them a majority. By making me a vassal of his vassal, Dumbledore eliminates the leading family in the Moderates and gets thirty-four of their votes. Turns out, at the time of the Contract and today, he also stands to eliminate the traditional leading family of the Traditionalists and pick up another twenty votes. That’s something I didn’t bring up yesterday.”

“Okay, how does he do that?”

“Remember when I said I was in the line of succession to become a Head of House Black?”

Ginny nodded.

“In November 1981 - when that contract was signed - I was second in line and now I’m first, assuming the current Head has no children which seems to be a safe bet.”

“How?”

“In 1981, the Head of House Black was Arcturus Black, Grandson of Phineus Nigellus. He had a son and daughter. The son - Orion - died in the dragon pox outbreak in 1979, same year and same way as my grandparents. Orion had two sons, one was a Death Eater who died in the War and the other, the older one, is named Sirius Black.”

“I’ve heard that name for some reason.”

“Sirius Black was arrested two days after my parents death for killing another wizard and thirteen Muggles in a Muggle market. He confessed to that as well as betraying my parents to Voldemort. Based on that confession, the then head of Magical Law Enforcement chucked him in prison without a trial. The Head of Law enforcement was Bart-something Crouch and was next in line for Head of House Black after this Sirius guy. The Head demanded a trial and Crouch refused and was disinherited. Apparently the confession was legally enough to avoid a trial, but Lord Black saw the refusal as an attempt to take over. Phineus Nigellus was both my and Crouches Great, Great Grandfather. But I’m descended from the youngest son and Crouch an older brother of that son that and he was an adult and I just a baby. But with him disinherited and scores of other wizards being from disinherited or disqualified lines and I’m next after Sirius Black.”

“Disqualified?”

“Sisters of a Head and their descendants are disqualified if the Head has a son. Daughters of a Head and theirs are disqualified if they have a brother. Daughters of a cadet line can’t become head, but their sons are not disqualified but the children of a daughter of a daughter of a brother of the Head are. It’s confusing but disqualification and disinheritance eliminated just about every other wizard. Based upon those rules, the only one in line after me is Draco Malfoy.”

Ginny’s eyebrows rose.

“My Great Grandfather was Cygnus Black, younger brother of Sirius Black (a different one) who was Head of House after Phineus Nigellus and just as nasty. Cygnus is Draco’s Great, Great Grandfather. My grandmother was the youngest in her generation and didn’t have my father until she was forty. I am the youngest Great, Great Grandson of Phineus Nigellus. The next youngest is your brother Ron, but he’s from a disinherited line as I told you. Of the Great-great grandsons and there were thirty-one of those: seventeen are in disinherited lines, six are disqualified, seven are dead and aside from the current Head of House in prison, I’m the only one who remains eligible. As for Great-Great-Great Grandsons, there are twenty-two. Ten are from disinherited lines and eleven from disqualified ones. Only Draco is eligible to be an heir.”

“So this was all about votes in the Wizengamot and taking down powerful political enemies or at least those Houses?”

Harry nodded.

“Why didn’t he just take over those votes on his own as your Magical Guardian or make you his Vassal? Why’d he drag my family into this?”

“‘Cause those options are illegal. I don’t have any of those votes. Neville’s Gran has them per written request of the last Head of House and no one can get them away except the next Head of House. I can’t change proxy’s until I’m seventeen. We originally thought Dumbledore had them as my Guardian, but we now know he can’t and found out yesterday or so who did have them. Dumbledore has no legal authority to take over my family seat. Moreover, as my guardian, he cannot personally benefit from that at my expense or the expense of my Estate.”

“But if my Dad’s his Vassal and you’re to be my Dad’s, isn’t that the same?”

“Not legally and no it makes no sense to me either. Daphne seems to understand such subtleties. The rest of us think it’s all mental or such. Or, as Hannah said, such meaningless distinctions in reality are why lawyers have jobs. That contract, while very unusual is legal - barely. A lot but not all that Dumbledore did to control me and my seat was legal although he certainly came as close to crossing the line as you can get. The memory caps and obliviations probably crossed the line, although we think if confronted he’ll wiggle his way out some way. We also think his guardianship over me crossed the line.”

“Why?”

“As Chief Warlock he approves magical guardianships for declared magical orphans and he could, of course, assume that responsibility himself. The question is, was I truly a magical orphan?”

“But your parents were dead and you had no other family…”

“That’s not entirely true, is it? True, the Malfoys are like Second Cousins and I don’t think anyone aside from a Death Eater would want them to have anything to do with me. But remember, your family are also cousins, as are the Greengrasses and Lovegoods. Add to it I was betrothed to Hermione and Hannah as well. Any one of those families, including yours, had the right to raise me if my parents died and they had not named someone else. Betrothals aside, there were twenty-one families that could make a claim, provided they did so before I was declared an orphan, which happened within a couple of days. And we know my parents had designated the Grangers as the family I was supposed to go to for it is in the betrothal contract between Hermione and me. Given that my father was Lord Potter at that time, we doubt that there was no Will, but apparently that’s what Dumbledore claimed. Actually, we know there is one and there’s a copy at Gringotts. I’ll be seeing it later this summer. And if there’s a Will there, there should’ve been a copy at the Ministry too. Curious it went missing, isn’t it?”

“Couldn’t you have adopted me or something, Harry? Was there any way to get out of that vassal what'sit without making me a concubine?”

“We thought of that and it wouldn’t have worked.”

“Why not?”

“There are many reasons, but the best one is that I can’t adopt anyone before I turn twenty-one and by then it would be too late.”

“Oh. What if this past year never happened? What if there was no life debt.”

“I can’t answer that. Everything that led to your being here today happened after the Chamber of Secrets and after there was a life debt I could claim. But here’s the thing, Ginny. We can keep your status a secret for now. We’re doing that with the marriages because the Goblins are under no obligation to notify anyone about them until we return to school. Neither I, nor your parents nor the goblins are required to ever reveal your being a concubine and we don’t intend to do so until after you are my wife. That’s when Dumbledore will find out his devious little plan failed. Of course, he might force the issue…”

“Oh?”

“Remember, I said we’d prefer to put off your marriage just in case?”

Ginny nodded.

“Dumbledore’s going to find out about the others and my other marriages probably while we’re on the Hogwarts Express. He may then try and force the issue. He can’t do anything to undo my marriages, but he can use those marriages as an excuse to force me to marry you as soon as possible after your bonding age. If he does, we’ll probably act reluctant and try and delay, but you already know that we will marry one day and I don’t have a problem with that.”

“Why even bother with a delay?”

“‘Cause I don’t want that man to think I’m ever just going to accept his way again.”