chapter:53

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Hermione absently gave the bird the payment as she removed the roll of paper from the Owl's leg, her concentration on her breakfast. Suddenly the noise in the great hall grew louder as students started reacting from reading the front page of the daily prophet.

Hermione was about to take a bite of sausage when she dropped her fork and it clattered on the table.

"Hermione?" Padma looked at her friend with worry. She followed her roommate's gaze and her eyes widened in shock.

"Harry! You're... you're betrothed!?" Padma exclaimed. Other students started looking at the Boy-Who-Lived and even some pointed at him.

Harry had been expecting the news of his betrothal to turn public and nodded, though he was a bit surprised at the reaction of the students.

"What is the meaning of this?" Hermione hissed.

"It's a common practice for traditional Pureblood families Hermione..." Padma said after she finally regained her composure. "These Families use the betrothal contracts to form alliances with other families."

"This is barbaric!" Hermione fumed. "Can anything be done about this?"

"You can't get away from a betrothal, Hermione... It's a magical binding contract." Padma said. She looked at Harry and gave him a sad smile. "I never thought that the Potters followed the old ways."

Hermione speared her sausage and chewed her food furiously, obviously in a bad mood. "The wizarding world is horrible... the society is so backwards!"

Padma did not choose to reply, she knew that Hermione was in a bad mood. It only got worse when Michael Corner sat down to join them.

"Hey Harry..." Michael sat down beside his roommate. "Why didn't you tell me you were betrothed to an older French girl? Good job by the way!"

"Good Job?" Hermione asked. "Harry's being forced to marry a girl he barely knows!"

"So?" Michael shrugged. "He's getting betrothed to one of the Delacour daughters. They're rich, and rumors say they're Veela. I say Harry's lucky."

"Veela?" Hermione gasped. "Oh Harry! Be careful! Veela are known to use their charms to entrance males! They cannot be trusted!"

Harry frowned at this. Fleur was not bad, and he never even experienced an ounce of charm from Fleur or her mother. "When I stayed with the Delacours last summer, I never experienced the Veela charm from Fleur and Apolline."

"Fleur?" Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"That's her name." Harry said. "She's quite nice, she even plays with me."

"She plays with you?" Michael leaned forward, eager to hear more.

Harry nodded. "Sometimes we play for hours on the bed... it's the best spot."

"On the... bed?" Hermione said weakly.

"Yep." Harry said. "But Fleur usually quits after an hour or so... I think I tire her out. Anyway, I have to go, business calls."

Hermione, Padma and Michael looked on as Harry headed out of the great hall, not at the least perturbed as hundreds of students looked at him.

Smooch!

Harry sighed. He wiped his cheek after Fleur planted another kiss on his face. The Delacour heiress ignored her future husband's protests and smiled as she greeted her relatives that arrived through the floo.

"Why do you keep on doing that?" Harry grumbled.

"It is my right." Fleur said, beaming at her future husband.

"You look happy." Harry observed.

"I am." Fleur said. "You cannot imagine the relief I felt when I saw all those boy's faces after the news of our betrothal reached the school. How did your friends take the news?"

"Hermione was mad." Harry said. "She thought the concept of betrothal was... barbaric."

"Do you think it is?" Fleur asked.

"No..." Harry said as he looked at the older girl. "I like your family. And if being betrothed means living here with you... it's really nice.""Merci Harry" Fleur grinned. She leaned down and kissed her future husband while he was distracted by the arrival of a giant cake.

"Fleur!" Harry complained. He immediately wiped his cheek again and glared at his future wife. He heard laughing and noticed Apolline and Julian looking at the two of them from the opposite end of the room.

Harry frowned at Julian and raised an eyebrow and the Frenchman immediately shut up when he saw his future son-in-law looking at a particularly large painting of his grandmother.

The young thief smiled in satisfaction when he saw Julian's reaction and endured Fleur's kisses better as they continued to receive guests flooing in from the main fireplace.

"Who owns that cute little thing?" Emmelline Vance asked her fellow auror. Hestia Jones looked at the cat sitting a few benches down watching the duel between a young Auror Cadet and a senior auror.

The young black cat sat upright, its ears perked up as its head followed the exchange of spell fire between the young woman and the senior auror. Its black tail twitched ever so often in excitement as it observed the movements of the two duelists closely.

"I think it belongs to that girl." Hestia said. "He looks adorable!"

"Let's seat beside him. I think he's friendly enough." Emmelline suggested. The two female aurors discreetly moved behind the young cat and sat between it.

Kit was fascinated with the duel with Tonks and the Auror trainer. He realized that he still had a long way to go to reach that level, despite the training Julian and the old man had been giving him. Still, he realized that he knew quite a lot of spells that the combatants were using and understood the strategy both were using.

The auror trainer was very good from what he could tell. The man, even though his mobility was compromised because of his peg leg, used his surrounding too great effect and used a variety of shields and conjured objects to defend himself. The auror trainer seemed to know where Tonks always was even though she attempted to run circles around him, trying to attack his blind spot. Either the man was a seer or he had eyes in the back of his head... maybe both.

Tonks tended to attack head on and used her speed and agility to avoid the spells from her opponents. She needs more work in spacial awareness though, because he noticed that the Auror trainer was subtly moving his opponent into the corner of the dueling chamber and into a trap.

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