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“So, you see, we really are cousins.”
Harry is looking at him as though he’s gone completely mad. Being a Black and the son of Bellatrix Lestrange Caelum is used to these sorts of looks but not from Harry.
“What on earth are you blathering on about? I don’t have any cousins.” She looks thoughtful. “Except on my mother’s side. His name is Dudley. I think he’s my age, but we’ve never met. He attends a grammar school called Smeltings. They wear straw hats there, my mother showed me a picture of him once.”
Caelum can’t help but feel completely repulsed. He’s going to have to do something about that side of Harry’s family. Possibly just curse anyone who ever mentions them until the whole of wizarding society forgets or at least pretends to forget.
“Haven’t you ever investigated your own family tree? You could have even just brewed an Ancestry Potion.”
It’s almost too bad he’s settled on marrying Harriett Potter. He supposes she has plenty of good qualities to make up for the fact that she’s a complete ignoramus when it comes to genealogy.
“My father’s father’s father, Pollux Black was the older brother of Dorea Black who married Charlus Potter.”
Harry is staring at him vacantly. Caelum doesn’t understand why she can’t follow a basic thread of conversation.
“Don’t you know who Charlus Potter is?”
Harry stabs at her salad. “I know we are related. All purebloods are related one way or another to my father. It’s just surprising you’d admit that we are related. Until recently you barely admitted to knowing me.”
Caelum coughs awkwardly. He supposes perhaps he could have been a bit politer to Harriett on occasion. But in his defense, he only decided to marry her a few weeks ago. There really wasn’t any reason to bother being polite before.
“I read in a book that talking about our shared noble blood would be a good place to start a conversation.”
Harry looks at him with amusement.
“And what book would that be? Something from the Lestrange Family Library? Are we supposed to talk about stuffy dress robes and albino peacocks next?”
Caelum isn’t going to admit to reading Chapter One of A Wizard’s Guide to Continuing the Line. His cheeks burn slightly. He hopes that Harriet will attribute it to the wine.
“Just something Regulus Black sent me.”
Harry is openly laughing at him now. Well, fuck. This is simply terrible.
“Really? You’re still taking his advice after Madame Puddlefoot’s?”
Caelum had tried to put that horrible memory behind him. He isn’t entirely sure that Regulus Black wasn’t playing a joke on him, but he has been too proud to ask.
“All of my cousin’s ideas are perfectly sound. He’s a man of impeccable taste and he is well connected. He moves in very exclusive circles. I’m sure he had a very good reason to send us to that particular establishment.”
Harriett is still laughing. “If I didn’t know Regulus Black a bit better, I would think he’s having a bit of a go at you.” She eyes him thoughtfully. “Maybe he’s a bit more like my Uncle Sirius than I thought. Very, very, deep down inside.”
Caelum rolls his eyes at her. “You should probably never tell either of them that.”
“I do appreciate the invites out,” Harriett says, finally giving him a bit of a reprieve.
“This is my third invitation to you in three weeks.” He even brought her a bottle of premium newt eyes this time. With a ribbon on the bottle to make it clear that these were a practical but well intended courting gift.
“I know what you’re up to.”
Caleum looks at her rather hopefully. Maybe she’s about to put him out of his misery and acknowledge that he is courting her.
“Is this about your mastery paper?”
Caelum chokes on his wine.
“My what?”
“I was just joking you know when I suggested that you should write your paper on shaped imbuing. But if you took me up on the idea, I would be happy to look at your draft and make some suggestions.”
She beams at him. “Maybe with my input it might even be worth publishing in Potions Quartetly.”
Caelum had spent the better part of the last year working on a paper expanding and critiquing the limits Harriett’s original shaped imbuing technique. But he’s not sure that he wants to give her the satisfaction of knowing that quite yet.
“Brat, you stumbled on to something incredible and powerful and you should be grateful that one of your intellectual superiors has decided to refine and elevate your humble idea.”
Harriett is still beaming at him. “You can tell yourself whatever you like. Make sure you credit me.”
And there it is. Suddenly Caelum knows exactly how to court Harriett Potter. He’s going to court her with his mastery paper.
He gets up rather abruptly. “I’ve got to go. Guild obligations and all that. A homeless, unschooled urchin like you wouldn’t understand.”
Harriett looks at him with some confusion. “We haven’t even had dessert yet.”
She points at his bottle of fairly wine. “And you haven’t even bothered to pretend to drink that second bottle.”
Caelum sits back down and smiles at her. “And I bet you’re just itching to know how I pretend to drink wine.” Finally. He’s in control of the conversation.
Harriett looks at him rather thoughtfully. “You know, I said I would figure it out at the end of third year and I never did. It would have come in handy, at least on one occasion.”
Caelum is ecstatic. Harriett for all her endless magic, entrepreneurial spirit and ability to invent can’t perform a basic trick he’s been using since he started attending Save Our World formal events. She’s even saw him performing it on more than one occasion. And she still has no idea how he is managing it.
“Well,” he says rather resignedly. “I suppose I could teach you something. As an act of charity. Now listen closely Harriett, I’m not going to explain this more than once.”