Chapter 038

Closing his eyes, Harry took a moment to think about her required payment. Truthfully, he thought it a good deal. If the companies made even half of the money off him that he thought they did, then it was very likely Harry would be making well over several million galleons off this lawsuit. However, he was a bit leery of signing a magical contract, which would bind his magic to the contract so he couldn't break it without losing his magic.

Still, Andromeda had already given a magical oath—freely at that. In the face of her doing that for him, how could he doing anything less?

"Do you have the contract written up?" Harry asked, eyes snapping open, his sharpened gaze landing on her.

"Not right now," Andromeda admitted. "Because all cases are different, all of our contracts are written differently. I can write one up for you to read over in a few days, however."

"That sounds agreeable."

Harry pulled his money pouch out of his backpack and retracted the necessary funds. He placed the money on the table in front of Andromeda in neat stacks.

"Thank you for your time, and for agreeing to my request for a magical oath before even hearing my desired case," he said with a bow of his head. Andromeda smiled.

"You're welcome. To be honest, it's no trouble at all. Aside from my dislike of people who are willing to use a child's name for their own gain, I dislike the fact that they are using your name even more. While I did not know either of your parents very well, as I was a few years ahead of them at Hogwarts, I did consider them to be friends of mine. I was greatly saddened when they... past on."

At her words, Harry's look turned a bit uncertain. "Speaking of family, do you think I could ask you something?"

Andromeda looked curious at his words and his sudden change in demeanor, but nodded nonetheless. "Go ahead."

"Forgive me if this is a little personal but... do you know a man by the name of Sirius Black?"

The surprise she exuded was far more pronounced when he spoke that name than anything he had said thus far. Andromeda's entire body seemed to stiffen and her eyes went wide as saucers.

"How..." The dark haired woman choked for a second before finding her voice, though when she spoke, it was very hoarse. "How do you know that name?"

Harry squirmed at her look. He'd not been sure what to expect when he brought this up, having pretty much asked his question in a bout of spontaneous curiosity due to her odd familiarity, but whatever he'd been expecting, it was not the sudden wave of emotions she unleashed upon him. The heartrending sadness, the deep seated anger of betrayal, or the gaping sense of loss that Harry could feel coming from the woman made him flinch.

"I found my mum's journals in her vault when I went to visit it," Harry answered softly. "She spoke about Sirius Black; she wrote that he was my father's best friend, and had formed a group with my father and two others called the Marauders."

All of this was the truth, of course. Harry had found his mother's journal, and it did talk about Sirius, his father, and the Marauders. However, he had known about these things long before finding his mum's journal. His parents had spoken about their Hogwarts days a lot, and Harry had met Sirius Black on many occasions before he and his parents went into hiding.

"I have a few pictures of them, my parents and their friends I mean, and you look kind of similar to Sirius. Same general facial shape, similar eyes and the same hair color. When I first saw you, I thought you might be his sister."

"You're close," Andromeda admitted with a sad smile. "Sirius was my first cousin back when I was still a Black."

"Still a Black?" Harry asked, furrowing his brows. Andromeda looked at him for a moment, as if deciding what she should tell him, before nodding.

"Yes, you see, I used to be Andromeda Black before I got married. Now, while I would have still been considered a Black if I married a pureblood, I ended up falling in love with and marrying Ted, whose muggleborn. My family is one of those who believed in pureblood superiority to the point of hating muggles and muggleborns without justification or cause. Upon discovering my nuptials with Ted they, in a fit of rage, disowned me from the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black."

"I'm sorry," Harry said softly after she finished speaking, feeling ashamed of himself. Was he really this insensitive? "I shouldn't have asked such a personal question."

"No, no, it's fine," Andromeda assured him. She wiped at her suspiciously wet eyes, then offered him a small smile. "I can understand your curiosity. Out of all my family, Sirius was the only one who kept in touch with me after I was disowned. We had always been close; I was even closer to him than I was to my own sisters. I was... very shocked to hear about his betrayal of your parents."

A prominent frown grew on Harry's face. He had learned from his books that Sirius Black was the one who had betrayed his parents to Voldemort. Nowadays the man was suffering in Azkaban Prison, the wizarding world's most notorious prison due to the 'jailors' there.

If Harry were completely honest, he was not sure what to think. When he had first learned that Sirius had betrayed his parents, he couldn't believe it either. Out of all the people his parents knew, Sirius Black had been the one who visited them the most before they went into hiding. Even now after learning of the man's betrayal, Harry still fondly remembered the mischievous man who often received more lectures from his mum than even his dad did.

Unfortunately, he also had no proof that the man was innocent. His mother's journal was mostly filled with her time at Hogwarts, and only touched what happened after they all graduated very briefly. Harry assumed she had simply stopped writing once she and his father had entered the war.

"So was I," Harry said, fighting down his own emotions. Clearing his mind with a simple breathing exercise, he looked back at the woman. "Thank you, I know it was rude of me to ask you something so personal, and it must have been even more difficult to tell me this."

Smiling at the polite young man, Andromeda shook her head. "It wasn't that difficult. In fact, it feels kind of nice to be able to unload on someone. I love my husband, but he didn't have any connections to Sirius like I did, and he had never really liked the man after getting strung up by his underwear during one of the Marauder's pranks."

Harry snorted a bit as his mind conjured an amusing image of Theodore Tonks in nothing but his boxer shorts as he was hung off a flag pole. Dispelling the image with a small shake of his head, he decided that there was one other thing he wanted to ask of the woman.

"So you're also a member of one of the Founding Five, then?"

"I was." Andromeda put an emphasis on the 'was' to signify that she was no longer of that House.

"Right, was." Harry nodded, not really finding an issue with her not being in that family anymore—not for what he wanted to ask. "Does that mean you were taught pureblood customs, etiquette and traditions?"

"Yes..." Andromeda replied slowly, her eyes searching his, no doubt trying to ascertain where he was going with this.

Harry gave her a charming smile. "In that case, I was wondering if perhaps you could help me with something else besides my lawsuit case?"

.

.

.

🎉Subscribe to my Patreon for advanced content🎉

🎉The novel is available in PDF with more than 230 chapters, visit us in our Patreon store🎉

🎉Patreon.com/MhUzumaki🎉