Ch. 9 Blood Malediction

"Reig!" a high pitched squeal voiced from behind me.

I felt the slight weight of Astoria Greengrass barrel into me just before I sat down.

"Hey Astoria," I chuckled, giving the girl a side hug.

She was so thin, it sent a spike of worry through me.

Damn, when had the girl become so precious to me.

I had only seen her a handful of times over the past few months, but like with Tracey, Daphne, and Fleur I sent her letters regularly. The amount of excitement about life Astoria had despite her curse was both beautiful and heart wrenching.

"Astoria, please sit."

Tracey and Leovon were already in their chairs in the Lord's office.

"Of course daddy."

Astoria sat next to me and took my hand, her smile widening and she hummed happily.

"So, there are a few things we should discuss before moving to sign betrothal contracts for my two beautiful daughters," Lord Greengrass said, giving his children a wide somewhat tense smile.

"Of course Leovon," I said, squeezing Astoria's hand when I felt her freeze momentarily.

"Daphne is the one who told me that you were interested in courting both Tracey and Astoria. Normally this is unwise for an Heir to a prominent house, however with your magical power it should be no issue. However even then there are complications in regard to Tracey and Astoria. Tracey is, and I hate to use this word my dear, a bastard. If not for my own insistence and the support of Daphne's mother, then Tracey and her mother might have been thrown out of the house. You may think the wizard has all the power in a Coven but you are wrong. Because of this we can give no dowry for a marriage. However there is also no bride price, all it requires is my approval. Though you have only met a handful of times I can see she has grown to like you."

She likes me enough to have been sucking the cum from my dick just thirty minutes ago. Damn, quash the intrusive thoughts. Tracey may have had a similar line of thought because her face bloomed red and she was suppressing a grin.

"I have grown fond of Tracey as well. Quite frankly her blood-status means nothing to me. It is only of import to my grandfather, and as long as I have at least one or two pureblood wives then he won't interfere with this."

Leovon nodded, his shoulders relaxing slightly.

"Good. I admit I was worried that Daphne had strong armed you into agreeing with her proposal."

"Oh it was quite surprising, not the sort of thing you bring up when you first meet someone. Not that I hold it against her."

"Yes, Daphne has always had her… unique way of going about things."

I wondered if he even knew what autism was, the magical world had a lot of history with mind arts but almost none in mind medicine.

"Excessively blunt, I find it quite charming."

Leovon's smile at that was the most genuine I had ever seen.

"Indeed it is. Now moving onto Astoria… As I believe Daphne has told you she has been sickly her entire life. The truth of the matter is she, no, our entire bloodline has been cursed with Blood Malediction."

His words made me remember how cold Astoria's hand was in mine, and how she looked like a starved orphan rather than a pureblood princess.

"Do you know what that is?" he asked, seeing my blank look.

"Yes, I have come across it in the library. Which family cast it?"

"The Carrows. It was long ago, before the ministry was even around. The curse was a cruel vindictive one. Instead of trying to wipe out our family they instead cursed us so we would never have a perfect generation of children. One of my sisters had the curse, as did one of my mothers, and now Astoria does as well. The curse will shorten the lifespan of its recipient immensely. As magical folk we live two to three times longer than a muggle might. However Astoria is unlikely to ever hit fifty. Any children she has will only shorten that time. Luckily it only affects the main branch, so any children of hers cannot be affected by it."

"But your son's will."

"... Yes."

"First let me assure you I do not have any issue with this, other than the obvious of having such a wonderful girl suffer."

Once again I saw his tense shoulders relax.

"But also I would like to ask how attempts to get rid of the Malediction have gone?"

Lord Greengrass nodded.

"Aye, do you know of the ways to get rid of a Blood Malediction?" I nodded. "Well, obviously we can't sacrifice others of our line to deal with it. What kind of Lord would have their mothers sisters and daughters be sacrificed like that? No, I can't and won't do that."

"And you shouldn't!" Astoria cried. "I don't want mum to die like that."

"Obviously we can't have the original caster take it back as he is long dead, never left a ghost as far as I know. I have debated like my father before me in trying to convince the Carrows to do the last option. But-"

His jaw clenched and his knuckles turned white.

"We are Grey, the Carrows are Dark. I don't care about that though. Their demands are that we become a vassal. They have a contract and everything, kept framed above their fireplace ready for us to sign. It would make us slaves to them. Their boys would get the first pick of any of my girls."

I grimaced. The idea of Daphne, Astoria, or Tracey becoming some breeding mare for an old man was not a pleasant thought.

"So that avenue is unlikely."

"Yes, there are a few decent seeds in the Carrows, but they have a son in school right now that is a right monster."

"What was the feud over?"

At this the vein in Leovon's forehead practically burst.

"Fucking grain!" he growled.

"Huh?"

"Grain, a magical famine spread through Britan, it affected both muggles and magicals. The Carrows were hit hard, they were practically starving at the time, and were not prosperous. They tried to steal food from us, and we were not doing much better, though much better financially. When their Heir died, he had been giving his portions to his sisters, they blamed us and Lord Carrow took his entire generation of wives and daughters except for his three youngest wives and killed them in the ritual. His argument was that they would have starved anyways, and if they were to suffer then, then we would suffer forever."

I blinked at that.

"What a vindictive bitch."

The tenseness that had clouded the room snapped and Astoria burst out laughing.

The rest of us chuckled at that, but she continued until she was on the floor weezing.

"Alright Tori, stop acting like a child," Tracey said, pulling the girl back to her chair.

"I am a child!"

"And I am sure Reigis is not interested in children. Aren't you Reigis?" Tracey asked, batting her eyelashes at me.

Nu uh I was not gonna be tricked into that. Telling a fiance that she acted like a brat was a good way to get kicked in the balls. Especially when said fiance sometimes acted like a brat.

"I think I will have tacos for dinner tonight."

""Huh?"" the three said.

"Tacos its a mexican muggle meal, quite delicious."

Tracey rolled her eyes, obviously knowing what tacos were, but the other two looked intrigued.

"Really? I'll have Tracey's mother cook it for us one day then," Lord Greengrass replied, his eyes twinkling as I changed the topic.

"Getting back to the Carrows and the Blood Malediction. We may be in some good fortune then, hopefully. The Gaunt family once held an ancient magical artifact that allowed us to communicate with the dead. However it was lost within Hogwarts some time ago. Legend says it allows us to commune with loved ones, but I hope I can use it to bring the long dead Lord Carrow back and ask him to forgive the blood debt. If that doesn't work then we can do more drastic measures."

"Such as?"

"Such as the two Carrow twins that are my age. I hear they are the current Lords favored children. Apparently his son is a bit of a ponce."

"We have tried marriage proposals such as what you are saying before to rid the Blood Curse. It hasn't worked yet."

"Well I was thinking more of kidnapping and blackmail, but that could work too."

The three of them looked at me in shock.

"What? I told you I care for your daughters."

"Y-yes," Leovon said. "I can see that now. So you don't know where the artifact is?"

"Not exactly, my uncle Tom Riddle died with it. He was uh, in the second floor girls bathroom."

Leovon raised an eyebrow.

"No offense but that's weird. Perhaps he was having a late night rendezvous with a girl and she killed him."

"I don't-"

I paused. I was still almost certain that he was trying to use the basilisk to kill people, but there was another person who went to school with him, two actually. Moaning Myrtle and Hagrid. If this world is similar but slightly different than the normal world of Harry Potter than she could have still been present at the time and I could learn from her what had happened.

Hagrid had also been framed last time, but I wasn't sure if he was blamed for what happened to Tom.

"Actually you may be right, I will begin to do more research onto the incident."

Leovon nodded.

"If you need any assistance with it you can ask me. It is a long shot, but perhaps the old lord has changed with death."