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Draco continued writing. The silence stretched for a few minutes, broken only by the sound of Draco’s quill scratching the parchment.

“Draco?”

“Hm?”

“How much are you sending him?”

Draco grinned devilishly, ripping off a large scrap of parchment and scribbling a figure on it. “Well the normal price for one marrying into the Malfoy family is this.” He dropped the parchment next to Harry.

Harry gaped. “What?” Had he really counted those zeros right? “You’re kidding!”

“Of course,” Draco drawled thoughtfully. “Considering that you’re The-Boy-Who- Lived and all, decorum would state that I double it.”

“Double it?” Harry was instantly awake, trying to calculate how large a figure that was. He couldn’t. “That’s crazy! How many vaults are you going to have to empty for that?”

Draco frowned. “I think it’ll take about a sixteenth of one of the minor vaults. Yeah, that’s about right. Maybe one seventeenth, but that’s not taking into account the interest that has added up since the last time I checked the value.”

Harry stared at him, mouth agape. “Draco. With that much money, Remus could live like a king for the rest of his life.”

Draco grinned. “Are you implying that you won’t? You’re going to be a Malfoy, Harry.” He leaned forward to whisper, “We live better than kings,” before capturing Harry’s mouth in a brief kiss.

Chapter 39: Preparations

The teapot whistled, breaking Remus Lupin out of his train of thought. Without setting down the newspaper clipping he was reading, he stood and walked the short length of the kitchen to the stove, took the kettle off the small flame and set it on the counter absently.

His eyes turned back to the headline of the article and the stated author below. Hermione Granger. Returning to the table with a cup of tea, Lupin set the article next to two others. Hermione’s article had appeared the day before in the Prophet. An article by Ronald Weasley had appeared in the Quibbler. And one, sent to him by Mrs. Weasley, authored by Ginny Weasley had appeared in Witch Weekly. All three articles were on the same topic: Harry Potter’s engagement to Draco Malfoy. Lupin had to smile lightly at the skill behind the three writers. They had obviously collaborated and split all the facts evenly between the three articles so that each one would present new details.

But it was the topic that was puzzling Lupin. The last he knew, Draco Malfoy and Harry were not on the best of terms to put things lightly. And he doubted that Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were writing falsities about Harry. Of course, one had to wonder why the three were writing about Harry at all. But then he remembered Albus had mentioned some rather strange articles had appeared about Harry in the Prophet a while ago. Maybe this was to make sure that if things had to be printed they weren’t detrimental to Harry.

There was a scratching at the window which caused Lupin to look up from the articles. Two owls were seated there, waiting to be let inside. One he recognized as Hedwig, the other he did not know. It was a proud-looking eagle owl, whose feathers were so dark they were almost black. Lupin crossed to the window and opened it, letting the two owls fly in.

The eagle owl dropped its letter on the table and left, but Hedwig remained on the table, watching Lupin.

Lupin took Harry’s letter from her, opened it, and began to read.

Dear Professor Lupin,