Chapter Text
“Ron, what is a frilla?” Asked Hermione.
The trio was enjoying a calm evening, having finished their homework and spending time together in their corner of the common room, Harry and Ron playing a game of chess while Hermione was reading a heavy tome. It had been a quite common scene in the Gryffindor tower for the past five years.
An interesting although quite dry book titled The Life of Phineas Black, the hated headmaster where she read this word for the first time.
“Umh” he said, mostly focused on his next move on the board as Harry over the years had become better, “it’s a type of concubines”
“What?!”
He moved his Queen and turned towards his female friend while Harry looked at them, listening too.
“Well, sometimes to keep their names alive, women decide to become a concubine instead of a wife. So that their family magic doesn't die out, you know?”
“Wh-what do you mean their family magic dying out?!” she was quite surprised, “isn’t family magic something she could just teach her children then?”
“No, of course n-! Ah bloody hell I kind of forgot it was not common knowledge… well, magic is transmitted by blood as you probably already know but also by names. If the woman is not married, the child will not have their father’s name so the mother’s magic will dominate. To counter this, marriage gives the father’s name and balance things out more in his favour”
“B-but then women are just wombs on legs?!”
“No, I mean it’s only the magic, not everything else and not a hundred percent. I’ll give you an example” answered Ron, completely turning towards Hermione and starting to make movements with his hands
“In our year, Susan Bones has no other relatives to carry the Bones name so she will probably do that type of union with a second, or more, born son or with someone already married. Let’s imagine she does that with Harry here” he winked to his friend who blushed a bit “their child could look exactly like Harry but his, or her, family magic would be the Bones family magic. I believe it’s necromancy” he said thoughtfully.
Hermione stopped thinking, her mind blank. The statement implying polygamy was already a lot but NECROMANCY?! A nice Hufflepuff girl?
Harry interjected “Necromancy?!” before laughing a bit at the flabbergasted face of his friend.
“Well, yes, why do you think they are called the Bones family? Of course, most necromantic spells are illegal nowadays but there are some that do things like knowing how and when someone died and they are really useful for aurors like for madame Bones of the DMLE”
“How do you know all of that, is it something every pureblood knows?” Continued Harry, seeing that Hermione had not restarted her brain yet.
“Yeah, pretty much, there is also this comic called Inspector Bones that I was reading all the time when I was young, I believe it’s based on one of Susan’s ancestors. I’ll show you next time you come to the Burrow”
“P-POLYGAMY”
“Oh, she’s back” Harry said before snickering with Ron.
“Yes Hermione, polygamy between consenting adults”
“But! No, no, you are right, if everyone is consenting… everyone is consenting you are sure?”
“Well, I guess some families must pressure their daughters into this kind of situation but not necessarily into polygamy. I mean why would Susan marry Harry when she could marry ME!” He took the voice of Lockhart and postured like him. Having stood up from his chair, he looked arrogantly at them.
The trio laughed hard, not able to stop, the tension in Hermione finally calming. After a few minutes where they unsuccessfully stopped their giggles, Hermione came back to their conversation with another question.
“But why is the family magic not transmittable?”
“Umh, I'm not an expert on how it works but I was told by my mom that after a few generations of people doing the same things and learning from their parents and stuff, their magic becomes very good at this one thing. For example, I think the Potter family is known for its potions, I mean look at his potion finals, he hates the class, never put much efforts into it and Snape hates him but he still gets EE most of the time”
“I never realized it was thanks to my family magic! I thought it was my experience with cooking!” Harry exclaimed in wonder, happy to feel connected with his father’s family.
“As you can see, it doesn't make him a potion genius or something, but there are some famous potions that can be improved if a Potter imbues their magic into it, at least according to the Inspector Bones comic where one of the characters was a Potter.”
“Is it something widespread? I don’t think I ever met a frilla before” questioned Hermione.
“I saw an article on the Prophet that said it had become more common after the rise of You-know-who since a lot of families almost died out. I asked Neville once if Davis and Greengrass in Slytherin were half sisters as they look alike, and he said yes”
“I will go to the library looking into this!” She said before dashing towards the door.
“Not surprising at all” Ron rolled his eyes to his remaining friend, “let’s continue, I'll show you how mistaken you were when you defied me”
They continued for a few minutes before Ron suddenly said:
“So, Harry, interested in having Susan as your frilla?”
He had timed his question right when Harry was drinking some water and as expected he choked on it.
“R-RON!” he screamed, bringing some attention from a lot of people in the room.
“What, she’s cute and as Hermione often says, you have a saving people thing and you could save her family name!”
“I mean sure she has become quite cute this year but I don’t know her that much and, and” he scrambled for an excuse because of his embarrassment “I would have to save my family name too!”
“You could take a wife too then” he snickered at the face his friend was making.
“That’s true…” said, not knowing what else to say, when he realized that Ron had already given him a counter “you could take her as a frilla too!”
“Too true, especially if I have a wife too and they are okay with doing things together if you know what I mean” he whispered while making obscene eyebrow movements.
“You’re a pig!” Harry laughed.
What they did not realize at that moment was that Lavender had heard most of the conversation and it would be all over the school that Harry and Ron were fighting to take Susan Bones as their frilla. Of course that was not exactly what they had said but rumors tended to become something else.