7 Chapter 3: Third daughter Black?

-Algie and Enid Longbottom's house, Meadow District, Midlands, England.

-January 1, 1976

-Pov Neville

My training was as always great, it was amazing to see my body's ability to move and use magic with such incredible ease.

The most surprising thing was that I could now even cast spells and use magic faster and with more power than even the previous Magnus...

Several times I reviewed his memories and I was impressed to note that even he had never achieved such a high level of proficiency in the use of magic..., I came to the conclusion that for some reason my magic had improved immensely and that I was constantly evolving and progressing.

I doubted that any student at Hogwarts or any other wizarding school could have such a level.

But I was glad to know that I could now surpass myself and the previous Magnus, even compare myself to the Aurors and surpass them perhaps.

It was as if we had merged and created a better version of both of us that far surpassed either of the two...

And as strange as it sounds, I had internalised all the former Magnus' abilities and movements to the point that I did things automatically and naturally without having to force anything.

It was like doing everything by instinct, something that I had always lacked before due to my clumsiness and lack of determination..., no matter how much my head planned everything to perfection, my body didn't follow my mind.

But now things had changed and my body was doing everything my mind planned perfectly, without hesitation or clumsiness.

And the fact that Magnus had learned occlumency since I was a child was also one of the reasons why things were now easier for me, just like all of Magnus' other abilities and talents, occlumency was also something I got from him, now I could hold my thoughts and keep myself calm so well..., there were always days or moments when I failed but they were only a few.

If things kept going like this I was pretty confident that I could manage to find whatever those horcruxes were and finally kill Voldemort, well, maybe I was getting a bit infected by the confidence that the previous Magnus always had, but now I thought that was a good thing.

Another thing I realised during this time training my magic was that the wand I had no longer seemed to accept my magic the way it did with the previous Magnus.

How did I know this?

Well, from the memories of the previous Magnus.

Whenever he used his wand he felt completely different than I do now, he had a unique connection with his wand, one that made it easier for him to cast spells and use all kinds of magic.

But I didn't really understand this unique connection that the previous Magnus had managed to form with his wand, since I never had such a connection with my wand...

Well..., actually it was my father's wand, I never had a wand to call my own, I always used his wand.

But if I now compare my experience with my wand and the experience Magnus had with his it felt so wrong, as if all my life I had been missing that connection....

As if I had always been forcing my wand to be able to cast spells and use magic.

The previous Magnus believed in the statement that it is the wand that chooses the wizard, and not vice versa, therefore I began to believe that maybe this was true since it was logical that before it always felt so forced to use my magic if that was the reason.

Maybe I simply could never control my wand at 100% and create this connection which is why it was always more difficult for me to use magic.

That would explain a lot...

This also meant that the wand of the previous Magnus no longer worked properly for me, but despite this, I could still make use of this wand, it just felt rather forced, similar to my father's wand which I used all my life.

However, now knowing that having a wand to call my own was extremely important, I decided that before I went back to Hogwarts I would get a new wand.

....

After my training, I went to my father's office.

When I arrived I found him sitting in front of his fireplace in a huge armchair and a letter with the Longbottom seal on his lap.

"Ah, Magnus, sit down," he said quietly as I entered.

"What's the matter, father?" I asked as I sat down and yes, it's still weird to call him father when all my life he was my great uncle, but there's no choice, Magnus always calls him father, so it would be strange if I just stopped, I must simply get used to it as soon as possible and that's all.

"I called you here for three reasons," he said, staring at me.

"The first is to formally congratulate you on your victory in the All-Europe Junior Wizarding Duelling Competition in France, Lord Harold Longbottom was extremely pleased with your result, but surely he must have already told you that"

"He did it through a letter, he's still busy in Norway with some family business," I nodded, even though Lord Longbottom is a rather cold man, he is always well informed, always takes an interest, and rewards Magnus's achievements, and he also keeps Magnus informed about the family business so that he already comprehends some of the things he will have to do in the future.

"Of course, it must be an important matter if he takes care of it personally. As for the second matter, it's about your victory in the All-Europe Junior Wizarding Duelling Competition in France..."

"That matter again? it's been 5 days" I said with a sigh, I didn't understand why people were still talking about it, besides it wasn't the first time Magnus had won a competition like this one..., although I had to admit that it was quite impressive to have won at only 16 years old three competitions.

"This time the Ministry contacted us personally in order to congratulate you at a press conference, and as you said before, it's been five days since the tournament and you haven't shown your face, that only made people talk about you even more, and all the newspapers want to interview you"

"I don't remember that in the two previous competitions, there was so much interest from everyone"

"It's natural, the two competitions you won before were more restricted and less publicized, the first one was only for young English wizards and the second one was in the United States where few young European wizards participated, so there wasn't so much talk about it" my father started to explain to me and I had to admit that what he was saying was true.

"But now the whole European community knows about you and all the British wizards are proud of your victory. You know how it is, everyone wants a young wizard genius in their country to presume about, and in all of Britain now that young wizard is you," my father finished with a smile.

I understood what Algie was telling me, I just didn't think of myself as the young wizard genius he speaks of, the former Magnus certainly was, but me....

I was anything but a genius at Hogwarts, the only thing I excelled at was Herbology and I sucked at everything else, and now I was just doing my best to imitate Magnus and avoid being so... well, so me.

" However, this is not all the reason, you must understand that these days the newspapers have not missed the opportunity to constantly talk about you in order to cover up part of the current problems with the Dark Lord, his followers, and the attacks on muggle-born that are increasing every day"

"So they are using me to cover that up?" I asked with a frown at the idea that because of me now the really important things are not coming to light.

"Not exactly, they can't cover up everything that's going on but they can mitigate people's concern by giving them something positive to talk about, you're the perfect news for the whole wizarding community to talk about that doesn't involve something negative, to keep things from being just constant fear and uncertainty that everyone has" my father clarified quickly making me feel relieved that this wasn't so bad, even though it was good to be informed, I don't think living in constant fear is a good thing, everyone needs a breath of fresh air.

"But Magnus, if we continue ignoring the request of the newspapers and now the Ministry it will give a bad impression, and although Lord Longbottom has decided not to intervene in your decision regarding this, I think it would make him happier if you accepted the Ministry's request for a small press conference"

"Fine, if necessary I will do it, but please make sure it is brief and with a small audience" I finally accepted, it seemed that my days of peace and calm were over, anyway, I knew this would happen, I had time to think and sort out my thoughts, now I had to start being more active in my predisposition to be more like Magnus and less like Neville.

"Sure, I'll take care of that. Now the third reason I called you is to give you this..."

He finally handed me the letter in his lap.

"It was sent to me by Lord Longbottom to inform me of some changes regarding the marriage contract you have with the Black family," he said as I opened the letter.

The letter detailed that Andromeda Black, my future fiancée, had decided to go against her family's wishes, leaving her obligations by marrying a muggle-born wizard in secret, the letter did not specify her precise situation nor did it make any other mention of the person she was marrying, Instead, it was stated quite often that she was a disgrace to the family and that Andromeda had already been removed from the Black family tree, so she and her descendants would never be given any help from now on and any connection between the Black family and Andromeda would be completely buried.

Neville frowned at this, it didn't seem right for the Blacks to treat Andromeda like this, but he decided not to comment, he was Magnus now and he would reluctantly respect what being an heir implied, as well as fulfilling certain responsibilities that he didn't quite agree with.

"Hmm, so I guess my marriage contract is now done," I said calmly but inwardly sighing with relief, even though I promised to do whatever it took to be the future Lord Longbottom, it was still hard to accept that I should marry Andromeda Black when I had only met her a few times, yes she was very beautiful and I wouldn't really complain if I had to marry her, I doubt anyone would complain about being with someone like her, but I would rather not force someone else to marry me out of commitment, I would rather be with someone who really loves me. ..., but as heir of Lord Longbottom's, the marriage arrangement involved a lot more complex things.

By the time I found out from Magnus's memories of his engagement to her, I already knew that she would not accept it and that she would marry Edward Tonks, as in my time and space she had done this by going against her family and away from the Blacks to marry him.

But since some things had changed, like the ages of the Black sisters, I didn't know if everything would be the same now as it was in my future since some things were already different, so Andromeda's situation might have changed as well.

It was a relief for me that it was not like that and that she had done the same this time.

Thinking about it, surely she and her husband's situation must not be too good now, the Black family were quite malicious people and would probably complicate things for the two of them...

'I might pay them a visit..., maybe I could help them at least a little with a few gallons of gold, yes, I suppose I could do that, I trust they wouldn't say anything to anyone about my help, and if they did tell anyone few would believe them' I thought determined to find out where the two of them were and pay them a visit.

Algie Longbottom cleared his throat, looking a little uncomfortable.

"Yes, well, I'm sure you are aware that Lord Harold has been working to arrange a marriage contract between the two families to reunite again by blood the two noblest and antiques houses of the Black and Longbottom, hence your engagement to Andromeda," he said.

"I know, as I will be Lord Longbottom in the future and have no real blood connection to the Blacks, he wished to bring the two families back together through marriage between the two houses"

"Right, except that it seems that this whole thing with Andromeda caused tension between the two families, as Lord Harold was not at all happy with all this, apparently the Blacks hid the information about Andromeda marrying another wizard for quite a long time," said Algie.

"How long?"

"More than two years..."

"What? How could no one know anything for more than two years about her getting married?" I asked, completely surprised since the Blacks were a family that everyone in the press had their eyes on.

"They have a lot of influence in all the different sectors of the wizarding community, if they want to hide something they have a lot of ways to do it, even we didn't know anything about it until recently," my father said seriously.

"I suppose that's probably the case..., but more than two years..." I muttered thinking that maybe if they were married that long ago it was highly likely that Nynphadora Tonks had already been born..., I never got to know her that well but Harry spoke well of her and she helped us deal with the death eaters in the Ministry of Magic.

'Hmm, if I remember correctly Nynphadora was about 7 years older than me back then, so if things haven't changed she must have already been born' I thought to myself, which would mean that maybe Andromeda and her husband already had a daughter...

'If they do..., does my father know about it? Or Lord Longbottom?' I thought curiously looking at Algie who stood in front of me with a serious look on his face.

"Magnus, this is a rather delicate matter, if it were to come out that this happened to the Longbottom heir, it would be quite embarrassing for the whole family, as well as the Black family," Algie commented.

"However, Lord Orion Black proposed another option. As both sides still want to bond Houses Black and Longbottom, Lord Black proposed that you should marry Cygnus Black's third daughter ...." he added making me frown knowing that I only got out of one marriage contract to end up in another.

"Third daughter...?" I asked confused when I suddenly remembered who the third daughter of Cygnus Black was here.

"Wait..., you mean ...." I said with wide eyes not believing what I was about to say or maybe I just didn't want to believe it..., I wanted to believe that this was all just a horrible nightmare.