Chapter 135: A Wedding?
"Draco?"
Susan saw me on the threshold of the apartment she shared with her aunt, looking slightly surprised.
"Is your aunt home?"
"Yes. Did something happen?"
"Yes, well, I have a question for her. If you could tell her I'd like to speak with her, I'd be very grateful."
"All right..."
The girl seemed slightly surprised, but quickly composed herself.
"...please follow me. I'll show you to the parlor, where our house-elf will set the table, and I'll go get Auntie herself."
"Thank you."
I smiled at her, and together we went to the parlor, where she left me alone briefly.
"Draco... or should I address you as Mr. Black right now?"
Amelia looked slightly tense.
"Well, simply Draco is fine. Of course, this is an official visit, but I wouldn't want our conversation to take place in a tense atmosphere."
"It's hard to maintain a pleasant atmosphere when the matter will most likely concern the fate of my unborn child."
Susan looked at her aunt in shock, then at me.
"Well, in a sense, the matter will of course concern the child's fate. As you must understand, no one will ignore a child of a House member. Sirius is certainly quite a character, but the child has nothing to do with that, especially since you're a responsible woman who doesn't deserve any pressure from us."
Amelia relaxed slightly.
"Good. Then what do you want to discuss?"
"To begin with, I want to assure you that the House isn't going to take the child away from you. We only ask to take part in the child's upbringing."
"I agree."
Amelia nodded.
"I won't oppose the child having contact with the House of Black."
"Very good. And now we move on to the other topic, the reason I came, since that could have been discussed after the child's birth."
"And what topic is that?"
"Well... someone approached me recently and strongly urged me to visit this home."
"Um..."
Amelia looked confused.
"...I don't understand any of this yet."
"Well, Sirius Black approached me to negotiate a possible marriage between himself and Amelia Bones. Of course, it's customary to conduct such negotiations not with the parties themselves, but with a relative."
I looked pointedly at Susan.
"But I don't think you would have appreciated that."
"You're right, I wouldn't have, though it would have been rather amusing. But... are you serious?"
"Yes."
Amelia shook her head in confusion.
"Are you saying Sirius himself wanted to get married?"
"Yes. To be honest, I was surprised myself, but he came to me personally and asked me to conduct the negotiations. I have my theories about why, but..."
I shrugged.
"And what reasons are those?"
"Well, Grandmother may have taken pity on her son and told him about the prospects awaiting him."
"And what prospects are those? Don't take this the wrong way, but to be the wife of someone who was FORCED to marry..."
She shook her head.
"Nothing like that..."
I smiled.
"...I simply warned the family council that if he runs away now, we'll turn a blind eye to it and take care of you and the child. But if he does something like that again, he'll be cut off from the House's magic."
Amelia's face spoke volumes in the silence hanging in the room.
"Wait, but can someone be cut off from a House's magic?"
"Well..."
I shrugged.
"It's a ritual invented by some ancient Black that simply burns out the inheritance. The wizard doesn't lose the ability to use magic, but becomes weaker. It's difficult to explain the mechanics to someone without mastery of ritual magic, especially since I don't have that mastery myself."
"I see..."
Amelia nodded.
"So threats after all?"
"Not quite..."
I shook my head.
"...After all, nothing in the current situation threatened him. He could have continued living freely without issue. So this is his decision. Especially since, when he came to ask me to conduct the negotiations, he never once said that the women of the House had threatened him. He only said he would be a father... You should have seen his gaze at that moment."
"I... it's difficult to accept this just like that. Sirius has never been the faithful or family-oriented type."
"I was surprised too, but his gaze spoke for him. He's not afraid of the prospects. He wants to be a father. So..."
I shrugged.
"...I came to conduct negotiations, or more precisely, to ask plainly: do you need a dog at home?"
"Pfft..."
Amelia laughed at such a proposal, and the slight tension that had hung in the room dissipated.
"You know... I certainly didn't expect the question to be put that way."
"Well... that's what we have to offer, so that's how I'm asking."
"If we look at the question from that point of view, I have nothing against a dog. The question is whether we can reach an agreement."
"We can."
I nodded, and we immersed ourselves in discussing the contract that would be concluded between Amelia and Sirius.
*** Some Time Later. ***
"So she agrees?"
"Yes."
"Good."
Walburga looked as if a ton had been lifted from her shoulders.
That is putting it mildly. Now we need to make Siri happy. Let him prepare for the wedding, and prepare Harry for the fact that he will have a little sister. After all, Susan is Amelia's adopted daughter.
Bella said calmly.
"Did she argue fiercely over the contract terms?"
"No..."
I shook my head.
"...rather, she was surprised we made such reasonable demands for a marriage like this. As she herself admitted, if she were in our position, she would have demanded far more. Of course, she said that after we'd signed the preliminary agreement. But during negotiations, as we expected, she disputed almost every clause."
"Well... there's nothing surprising about that."
Walburga shrugged.
"She's not a schoolgirl fresh out of Hogwarts. She's a grown woman who knows her own worth, and she knows her future husband has no reputation to speak of. Well, except for the one he earned during his school years and his time in Azkaban, and that's not a good one."
"All right, I've done my part..."
I sighed and rose from my armchair, heading for the office exit.
"Invite Sirius, make him happy..."
"And I'm going to talk to my fiancées. I haven't managed to have a proper conversation with them in days."
"Well, you do find time for one girl with cat ears..."
Cissy said with a slight smile, and I blushed.
"It's purely scientific interest!"
"And what does this science entail?"
Bella looked at me with a smile as well.
"I want to know whether she'll purr when I scratch behind her ears, or whether she prefers having her neck scratched."
"I see..."
Bella shook her head.
"...just don't offend your fiancées, or they might tear off something vital... We won't protect you."
I just shook my head and left the room, heading for the small parlor where my fiancées should already be waiting.
"Have you dealt with your business?"
"Seems so..."
I shrugged.
"...at least if nothing urgent comes up, then for the next two days, I'm entirely yours."
"You're lying..."
Penny shook her head.
"He is lying."
Fleur nodded in agreement with her friend.
"Um... and what am I lying about?"
"Well, you definitely won't skip morning training, and you won't abandon magical training either, though you'll reduce it to a minimum. Which means you won't be ours for the whole two days."
I shook my head, somewhat bewildered.
"Girls?"
"Nothing. We're just a little jealous..."
Fleur said, a hint of guilt in her voice.
"Jealous? Of Blake?"
"Of her... Don't worry, we won't bother you too much about it."
"Ah..."
I sighed.
"Girls, let's just talk?"
"About what?"
"Well, for starters, there's nothing between Blake and me. I won't deny that she interests me. I like her, but without your approval, there'll be nothing more than casual evening conversation between us."
"Ah..."
The girls sighed.
"Yes, we know."
They said in unison. Both looked slightly guilty.
"But that's just how jealousy is, so bear with us a little. We'll get used to her."
"All right..."
I nodded, and embracing my fiancées, I immersed myself in blissful idleness and meaningless conversation about everything.
*** At the Same Time, Elsewhere. ***
"Taiyang, come to your senses!"
The unshaven, slightly unkempt man reeked of alcohol, though anyone who knew him would have said he smelled significantly less of it than usual. Perhaps the man would have liked to drink himself into a stupor right now, but he couldn't allow himself that, because his friend, almost his brother, was now on the edge.
"Qrow, leave me alone..."
The blond's voice was dead. There was no other way to describe it. It sounded hollow, as if nothing living remained inside.
"Tai... I understand you feel bad... I feel bad too... but Ozpin..."
"I'm fucking sick of that Ozpin! Immortal bastard! To him, we're just pawns in his eternal game, one he keeps losing! That scum just crosses us off his list and writes in new pawns to replace us!"
"Tai, stop..."
The brown-haired man's gaze turned hard and painfully tense.
"Stop?! That bitch sent my wife to her death! I got back from a mission just one day late, and he'd already sent her on an obviously impossible mission! And now my daughters too! That bastard sat on his hands until Beacon was attacked! Vale was hit, and no one was ready!"
"Tai..."
"No, you listen, Ozpin's faithful mutt! Listen and pass this on to your beloved immortal king whose ass you kiss! He's been playing too long! Even now, after gathering scraps of information about what was happening in Vale, I can tell the attack could have been predicted."
"Tai, he cannot..."
"He's waging a fucking war against the Grimm. We all know he's immortal, and in all that time, he could have built a network of informants... But he sat in his office and did nothing... A year... Qrow, for a whole year, Dust was stolen in his city. Stolen in quantities large enough to know it wasn't for any petty gang, yeah..."
The blond raised a hand, stopping his friend before he could interrupt.
"...there was no proof, I know, but could he have at least noticed the theft of a HUGE amount of Dust and taken precautions? It's supposed to be his duty as Headmaster to prepare Beacon's students for anything. So why did he do nothing?"
"Tai..."
"No, Qrow, I know why you came. You came to tell me he needs all the help he can get, but... but he's the one who fucked everything up."
Suddenly, the sound of clapping came from a nearby tree.
Turning around, the men saw someone they had never expected to see.
"Raven!"
"I'm not here to fight, but to offer my condolences to my husband and visit my daughter's grave."
"And you think I'll believe that?!"
"Shut up, Qrow... she has that right."
Taiyang cut his friend off.
"You know... despite everything, I'm glad you finally see what I saw back then..."
The black-haired woman with red eyes shook her head, jumped down from the tree, and approached the graves.
"Hello... daughter..."
The woman's hand rested on the gravestone...
Taiyang
Qrow
Raven
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