the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 43 What are Friends For

"Like some sort of legal contract?" Hermione clarified.

Ron nodded. "Our family used to have one a long time ago. That's actually why we have a standing feud with the Malfoys."

"Really?" Harry asked intrigued. He knew that Arthur and Lucius hated each other, but he had always assumed it was because Lucius was a Death Eater.

"My grandfather had a sister named Elenaor who was extremely beautiful," Ron told them conspiratorially, as if enjoying the chance to relay some secret family history. "According to the stories I heard, Abraxas Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy's father, fell in love with her and proposed. But if you think Lucius is bad, Abraxas was about ten times worse than him. My great grandfather refused the marriage, which was considered a terrible insult. The Malfoy family had a great deal more money and power than our family, and there were no grounds based on the Conscriptus to refuse such a valuable alliance. My great grandfather was removed as Head of House, and my grandfather became the Head. A new Head of House has a short period of time to break or change the family Conscriptus - which is exactly what my grandfather did. He broke it entirely, removing our family from the old alliances. The Malfoys never forgave us. It's one of the reasons why they call us 'Blood Traitors'."

"But what exactly is this Conscriptus, and do all the old families have them?" Harry asked uncertainly. "Do the Potters?"

"I doubt it, mate," Ron assured him. "You don't have any tattoos that I've ever seen on you."

"Tattoos?" Harry frowned.

"Yeah, the family crest," Ron replied. "It's usually found on the right shoulder blade of the Head of House. There's another version of it that marks the designated Heir if there is one."

Harry suddenly remembered the rose and serpent tattoo he'd seen on Severus' back that very first night they were married. He wondered if Sirius had something similar on his back.

"I thought the Potters were an old family," Harry stated. "We have all those votes in the election."

"That doesn't mean you have to have a Conscriptus," Ron replied, glancing with mirth at Hermione who was busy writing what he was saying down on her parchment. Harry guessed that in a matter of hours she'd probably have researched the subject to death and would know more about it than all the purebloods in the school put together. "Many of the more progressive families did away with them generations ago. It has nothing to do with the election. The Conscriptus is strictly a mechanism for designating heirs and forming alliances between families. They state who a family member can and cannot marry."

Hermione looked up at that, a curious gleam in her eyes. "The Muggle nobility of Europe used to keep detailed books to determine good marriages - by keeping track of who was related to whom, it helped prevent marriages between people with too many close blood ties. It sounds like the Conscriptus is a version of that."

Ron nodded. "It's even more important in the Wizarding World since there's often non-human blood mixed into the issue - some of the oldest pureblood families want to make certain that nothing creeps into their bloodline to taint the family tree."

Hermione snorted in disgust. "Merlin forbid you marry into a family that might have produced a squib or something. Or worse yet a family with a Mudblood somewhere in the background."

"So you're saying that the Malfoys and the Blacks have one of these Conscriptus, and because of it Sirius has to marry Draco?" Harry clarified.

"The Conscriptus would state what sort of marriages would be considered acceptable in both families. Since Lucius married Narcissa Black we can assume that the Conscriptus in both families states that there is nothing to prevent such a marriage, and that the families no doubt have some sort of alliance between them spelled out in the Conscriptus. Unless Sirius changed the Black family Conscriptus when he became heir, then the alliance still stands and he has no legal grounds for refusing the marriage."