Hermione's parents exchanged a silent look.
"I can't say we wouldn't appreciate the financial boon of not having to pay for the tuition." Miriam said. "We can afford it but there's always something else we could use the money for – holidays or I've been wanting to remodel the kitchen, and then there's always the attic conversion we've been thinking of doing or buying a place in France…"
"The third reason?" said Wallace loudly.
Sirius coughed to hide a chuckle. "It will open up opportunities for Hermione after Hogwarts. A lot of muggleborns find it difficult to secure high paid employment in the wizarding world. It's difficult for them. Magical schooling separates them from the muggle world so they can't go back easily and yet the innate prejudices of the wizarding world mean that they face an uphill battle if they want a career in the top-flight: the Ministry or St Mungo's or apprenticing to some of the Masters of our world."
The Grangers were frowning.
"Remus says it's similar to the muggle world where the government for a time only took people from Oxford and Thingymebridge?" Sirius offered a little uncertainly.
"Or even getting into Oxford and Cambridge to begin with," Hermione suggested sagely. She brushed her fringe out of her eyes. "I knew we'd have to choose electives for third year so I started researching career options at the end of second year. I read some of the alumni records that are available in the library and realised the problem then. It's one of the reasons why I took everything I could."
"Why didn't you say something?" Harry blurted out, a little upset to realise that it was something that had evidently bothered his friend enough to send her to the library but he hadn't known.
"Well it was the end of the year, and it's not something that either you or Ron have to worry about, really." Hermione replied, blushing again.
"I take it sponsorship will help Hermione attain the career she wants?" Wallace asked.
Sirius nodded. "It'll open doors and people won't dismiss her out of hand."
"But isn't it cheating?" Hermione asked worriedly. "I mean, I would prefer to get something on my own merits."
"And you will," Sirius said firmly, "nobody will offer you anything just because you have sponsorship. It's a bit like having Hogwarts as your school. It gives you an advantage but you'll still have to do the hard work to obtain good grades and the extracurricular stuff that will help you."
"So we've heard about the benefits of scholarship, what is actually involved?" Miriam asked.
"An oath." Sirius replied promptly. He set his beer down and reached into his satchel, pulling out a sheaf of parchments Remus had prepared. "The full details are in there. Primarily we do a ritual where the sponsor puts a drop of blood into a bowl and Hermione puts a drop of hers, and they each swear an oath; one to do the sponsoring and Hermione to accept."
Miriam took the parchments before Hermione could make a grab for them. "We'll read these over carefully."
"I should also tell you that it's not appropriate for me to be Hermione's sponsor as I'm a single male." Sirius said. "I'll be asking my cousin Andromeda to take the role. She's married to a muggleborn wizard called Ted and they have a daughter who has just left Hogwarts to start at the Auror academy. If you agree I would like you to meet her ahead of the ritual. If there are any issues, we'll work something else out but Andy's a great witch and I don't think you'll have any problems with her." He paused. "There is a small problem with timing as we have an additional favour to ask of you."
"For me, really." Harry inserted quickly.
"Anything," Hermione said immediately and promptly blushed at the arching eyebrows of her mother.
"Sirius is going to adopt me the day after tomorrow," Harry told her proudly.
Hermione bounced out of her chair, around the table and hugged him. She let go of him and beamed at Sirius and at Harry. "That's wonderful! Oh, I'm so pleased for you, Harry."
"Yes, congratulations again." Miriam said, watching Hermione carefully.
Sirius picked up his beer and ruffled Harry's hair. "Thank you. We were hoping to do all the rituals on the same day and combine it with a blessing ritual of the protection Harry's mother gave him before she died."
"That's a very good idea," Hermione agreed, darting another anxious look towards her parents.
Harry assumed she hadn't exactly told them about Voldemort either. He couldn't blame her.
"How will it work?" Hermione asked enthusiastically seating herself next to Harry and almost leaning over him to look at Sirius.
Harry inched back a little.
Sirius smirked at him. "Well, the ritual is runic based. Each female member of the House of Black will prick their finger and draw a specific protection rune on Harry's forehead renewing the blessing of his mother."
"So if I take the sponsorship ritual, I'll be a daughter of the House and could take part?" Hermione surmised quickly.
"Yes," Sirius held up his hand, "but only if your parents agree. After some research, we realised the protection spell will eventually erode if Harry doesn't live periodically with his aunt. As that's not going to happen going forward, we think this ritual will acknowledge the adoption and mean Harry will only have to live with a member of the Black family."
"That's so clever." Hermione looked admiringly at Sirius.
"It was Remus's idea." Harry said. His former Professor had put a lot of work into researching the spells and understanding their complexity.
Sirius coughed. "Yes, it was." He waved towards the parchment. "Remus thought you would appreciate the details." He returned his gaze to Miriam and Wallace. "If you consent to the sponsorship before Wednesday, then it would be great to have Hermione involved as she out of all the female members of the House will be the only one to actually have an actual existing relationship with Harry and that will strengthen the spell. But if you would like more time to make a decision, we'll understand and can still do the sponsorship ritual another time."
"We'll look over the information." Miriam promised.
"I'll send Hedwig tomorrow." Harry promised. "She'll have your formal invite to the adoption ceremony."
"You can let us know by reply." Sirius added.
"Good." Wallace stated. He motioned towards the grill. "Well, if that's the business over and done with, we should throw the meat on."
Sirius perked up and followed Wallace over to the smoking apparatus.
Miriam rolled her eyes at the men before she gathered up the parchment and got to her feet. "I have some finishing touches to put on dessert."
Hermione made a move to join her but was waved back into her seat.
"Stay and keep your friend company, Hermione." Miriam winked at them both and departed.
Hermione offered Harry another shy smile. "Sorry about all…that before. They've been teasing me all Summer about whether I'll get a boyfriend next year just because I was complaining about Parvati and Lavender going on about dates in Hogsmeade."
Harry frowned. He hadn't thought about Hermione dating anyone. The thought disturbed him and he wasn't sure why. Maybe he was just worried she'd stop being his friend, Harry mused, which was silly because Hermione wouldn't drop him for a boyfriend any more than he would drop her if he got a girlfriend.
He truly hadn't thought about dating and girls himself beyond noticing sometimes that some of his classmates were getting pretty and cute – like he'd done with Hermione when he'd arrived or with Kimi at the clinic. He'd ignored Dean and Seamus when they'd mentioned girls they fancied and Ron had never brought up the topic. But then Harry had never really taken part in the boyfriend-girlfriend stuff before. In primary school when his classmates had been playing at it more than anything, nobody had approached him because of Dudley – and Dudley had been kicked in the privates the one and only time he'd tried to play kiss-chase with a girl (it was one of Harry's favourite memories)
.
.
.
.
🎉The novel is available in PDF with more than 400 chapters, visit us in our Ko-Fi store🎉
🎉ko-fi.com/gokublack444🎉