To be honest, I had not fully understood my feelings, so I could not say whether I was glad or not that my visit to the Delacour family had not come to an end. In fact, my story about the engagement contract with the Greengrass family, which was almost finalized (in words already sealed), could be called the last attempt to knock down the sight of at least one of the sisters, but neither Fleur nor Gabrielle refused, and in fact their parents asked them, openly and directly, but no.
Fleur wasn't happy about the news, but she didn't change her mind. Gabrielle, on the other hand, was bursting with a determination and joy that was incomprehensible to me.
I had never thought that girls of local education would dare to enter the harem. But the feeling, or premonition, no, not of trouble, but of trouble for sure, signaled insistently. I have a choice, of course, but at least Fleur and Gabrielle are not sneaky, cunning — yes, but a guileless woman is a great rarity.
Anyway, our communication was delayed because the contract with the Greengrasses was revised, creatively finalized, and the new sample was already approved by both sides.
I thought I had to sign it right away, but they explained a tiny nuance that I had completely overlooked. If we sign the treaty right away, it will be known in the magical clans that the Delacours were once related to, meaning they have a connection on their ancestral tapestries. So it would be necessary to announce the engagement to the public and organize a sabantu for the occasion.
In principle, everything is in order, but there's one thing in particular that will cause me problems. I've decided to settle in England. So? So, if I choose a non-British girl as my first wife, it will somehow affect the honor of the locals, offend them with a gesture in which I put a foreign girl first, not a local girl. In a way, it's even a humiliation that makes it safe to spit on me, figuratively of course.
On the other hand, if the first spouse is a British girl and then someone else, it's a gesture of elevating the local girl above the others, and so on and so forth. There are a lot of nuances and details, up to the fact that a girl from the old family can keep her family name and be called by a double family name (another ritual of magical marriage): her own family name and her husband's family name, so that she keeps her kinship with her family not only politically but also magically, and her children can return to their mother's family without pain.
This information was an eye-opener for me, because in Japan such a thing is not even theoretically possible — a completely different way of life, different values.
Anyway, the official announcement of the engagement will be in the spring, after my seventeenth birthday. Now we agreed on the most important things, including the letter of intent, which will be signed in a few days (I bargained for time for the girls to come to their senses). When it was over, I made another appointment in a few days and left quietly.
I went back to the hotel, where I warned everyone about tomorrow's trip through the Muggle part of Paris, to be prepared and to dress neutrally, without robes or high hats. When they were done with that, he began questioning the teenagers about their first independent walk in a foreign city.
The Aurors were there, of course, but at a distance, so that both Harry and Neville could feel more independent. I didn't hear anything special, no amazing adventures, but the boys' emotions were running high.
Ron listened to the stories with a sour face, choking on a diet salad with bread and water. It wasn't hard to understand him, because everyone else at the table thought they were doing themselves no favors by eating to their own tastes. This made the boy even more upset, but only just.
To my utter surprise, neither Harry nor Neville had told the redhead about their 'activities'. I didn't think much about it, though — I didn't really care, especially since I'd originally expected Weasley to join in, and his talkativeness was well known, so he'd be bragging about his 'achievement' anyway.
Anyway, after dinner we all spent some time together. The teenagers, and especially the two Gryffindors, who were all about adventure, were very interested in eliciting stories and legends from the Aurors. I just listened, as did Neville, but Nymphadora was pensive and her mind was obviously elsewhere. The evening ended that way, and the next day the teenagers were sluggish from lack of sleep, so there wasn't much trouble among the common folk.
We walked the streets, showing Ron and Neville the Muggles in their natural habitat, which had a strong effect on them, and when the ultimate effect was achieved — after a visit to an electronics store, both boys' eyes almost falling out of their heads — we went to see Notre Dame de Paris, or Notre Dame Cathedral. I had never been there myself, so we booked the full, most expensive tour with priority tickets so we wouldn't have to stand in line anywhere, and then we plunged further into the waters of history.
Our guide, a friendly young man named Leo, spent over two hours sharing his vast knowledge of this amazing place. I don't know about Muggles, but all of us Charmed Ones, without exception, felt "something" within these walls. It was invisibly present everywhere, even in the towers.
Not evil, not good, I'd never encountered anything like it before. The way in a taxi, a good café near the Louvre, a thorough snack and a new immersion in history and culture, which literally blew the roof off everyone without exception, and the guide of our group, an elderly historian, did not even hide his pleasure at the effect produced on us.
Another taxi, a small snack, and we were already climbing the Eiffel Tower at dusk. The queues are monstrous, of course, but if you overpay a little (so three or four times), the problem is solved in a flash. Already a little tired Englishmen reacted not so vigorously as before, but the opened view did not leave indifferent even Ron, in whom during the day of "culture" slowly awakened a taste for beauty.
Souvenirs, postcards, figurines and so on were bought without question — everyone wanted to bring home memories of the wonders the Muggles had seen. The day would have been a success if Ron hadn't broken his leg just a stone's throw from the hotel. Perhaps fate itself is against the boy's formal 'coming of age', eh? I'm just wondering what's going on.
The wizard doctor examined the leg, used magic to set the bone, applied healing bandages and a splint, dispensed a number of potions, and left. Ronald Weasley refused the Skele-Gro, so he spent the next four days in his room while the fracture healed under the influence of other potions.
The next day, the boys went off to learn the science of lovemaking under the guidance of their teachers, much to the chagrin of the redhead, and I went to Boiselier's, where I spent the day.
I had an appointment with Delacour for the day after that, so I warned my own to carry out the program in advance, that is, to visit the teachers again, and in the evening to take Ron carefully out for a walk, so that he would not lose heart.
In the morning, the teacher and I went to a certain shop owned by a German family-the Boisseliers had told me about it earlier. Johann Ferdinand von Stechow and his wife, Martha, and a copy of his father and eldest son, Heinz, made a very pleasant impression on me. No less pleasant than the shop, which is kept in strict order and white.
You walk in and it's like being in an expensive pharmacy — so neat, clean and tidy. This family, although quite young and extremely small in number, is quite famous in both Germany and France.
The von Stechowy only deal with ingredients and potions that are not above "average", so as not to create unnecessary competition with the master potion makers, and so everyone is happy. They are famous for keeping their word, even without magical contracts, so you can be sure that they will not cheat you in any situation.
These Germans are also famous for their rejection of politics, i.e. they never get involved in it and generally do not perceive it, openly stating that mages do not need politics. And in some ways I agree with them.
The conversation lasted more than three hours. The very meticulous Johann and the intrusive Martha checked every detail, but they were satisfied with what they had heard, and we reached a preliminary agreement, so that the first batch of plants grown in the Hogwarts greenhouses had already found a buyer.
However, the von Stechovs turned out to be extremely learned wizards with a broad perspective, so they learned about the first ever transplant of artificial eyes to a wizard and my role in it. They questioned me, did not hide their interest, and then placed an order for an artificial eye for a family member from another branch of the family. I had lunch with the teacher here, and then I went to the Delacour family — it was just about time for the appointment.