Sirius gave a firm nod and said, "Tighten those figures up, as I'll guess you'll be doing this afternoon, and it's very likely I'll accept the appraisement and order you to go ahead as soon as possible."
"Will do, Lord Black," said the witch.
As the two apparated away, Sirius went back and put the place back under lock-down, before then apparating away himself.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Almost four weeks had passed since the events of Harry Potter's first task had generated one hell of a 'storm' in wizarding Britain. And Tom Marvolo Riddle was left with only the information he could gather from stolen copies of the Daily Prophet and the pitiful information gathering efforts of his now single minion, Peter Pettigrew.
Since a few days after the end of the trials, the information gathered from the Daily Prophet had dwindled to almost nothing. There was that day where Dumbledore had tried to besmirch the reputation of young Potter in the newspaper, followed the next day by the Prophet having to print a major retraction for that besmirching, but little since. It was clear that Potter had now employed a law-wizard or -witch of some skill and was making positive use of that man or woman. And little of any news of substance was now appearing. Even the wizarding wireless was bereft of any useful information.
Tossing aside yet another edition of the paper that utterly lacked any information of substance, Riddle had realised he now had little choice but to take a risk; a calculated risk, but a risk nonetheless. He would need to call to his side one of his marked Death Eaters who had managed to escape incarceration. But, which one?
He thought long and hard about who needed to be approached. Eventually, he dwindled the list down to a single name. Someone who could move through the Ministry at will and could still report back with gathered intelligence.
"Wormtail!" he yelled. The sound was a high-pitched, breezy voice.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After Sirius had left, soon followed by Ted, Harry and Hermione returned to working on the finances of the House of Potter.
They worked through the rest of the day and past lunch, with Harry only stopping when he needed to refill his stomach.
However, soon after lunch Hermione pushed the latest they were working on away and said, "That's it for me, I'm afraid. My head's now full of numbers I'm getting confused over which number applies to which stocks or which account or which property, or even if they have anything to do with a value at all.
"Isn't there something else we can deal with?" she asked in a pleading voice.
Harry smirked back and said, "Of course. How about some more information on the Houses? Specifically, on how they're created?"
With almost a sigh of relief, Hermione replied, "Yes, please."
Harry chuckled and said, "Alright."
As the two then began to pack away the documents, Harry started to explain. "You know the different ranks of the Houses; Noble and Most Ancient, Noble and Ancient, Ancient, Elder, Minor and Magical. Leaving out the Nobility there are five.
"Most Ancient are those Houses that date all the way back to the Founding of the Wizards' Council. The remaining seven Houses were part of what was known as The Thirteen. Six of those Houses have been deemed extinct, leaving only seven. And, over time, they've come to be known as the Seven. They are; Black, Clearwater, Flack, Longbottom, Muldoon, Potter and Rowle."
"Clearwater?" she asked, perking up. "As in, Penny Clearwater in Ravenclaw?"
"Yes," he nodded. "She is Penelope Clearwater of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Clearwater. Now that I've got a better handle on just how ambitious Percy Weasley is, I think that may well be one of the reasons... if not the main reason... why he pursued her, is pursuing her, as much as he did or is.
"For the others, however, it's not how many years they've existed that's important, it's for how many generations.
"For the Ancient Houses, it's twenty one generations; which works out at about four hundred to four hundred and fifty years. For the Elder Houses, it's thirteen. For the Minor, it's seven. And for the Magical Houses, it's normally three. They claim it takes three generations before your bloodline has proven it will 'hold' and your House is recognised. However, it also generally means it has to be three males, as the surname rarely holds across three generations without it being males who carry the name through."
Hermione frowned in annoyance.
"Male-dominated society, remember?" he gently teased her.
Suddenly she looked back and said, "Wait... You said 'rarely'. Why 'rarely'?"
"Because you could have a male child and, between you and your husband, decide to give that child the surname of 'Granger'. This is done for a multitude of reasons, but one of the main ones is to start or reawaken another House.
"Starting a new House is a big deal in wizarding Britain. It means you are thinking strategically along generational lines. In other words, on average, periods of decades; the better part of a century if you accept the current average of one generation every twenty to twenty five years."
Frowning and nibbling on her bottom lip while thinking, she suddenly asked, "Is that why most magicals seem to marry young in the wizarding world?"
He smiled and replied, "Yes. But, not the only reason.
"The other is because, for those who are the Heirs of important Houses like me and mine, we can have it drilled into them... us... from a young age that one of their main responsibilities is the continuation of the House. And that means babies.
"Have you ever heard the term 'An heir, a spare and a daughter'?"
Again thinking hard, she replied, "I... think so. But I've no idea where I might have heard it."
"It comes from a number of different areas, muggle and magical. However, in the magical world it implies that when a couple marry... especially when one of them is the heir of an important House, it is impressed upon them they should have at least three children. That is, a male heir, a second male heir in case of something happening to the primary heir and a daughter who can be married off to the primary or secondary heir of another House."
"If nothing happens to the primary heir and he goes on to have children of his own, then the secondary... spare... heir is expected to begin a cadet line of the House. My grandfather, Fleamont Potter, was a secondary heir who became Lord when his older brother, Charlus, died due to an assassination attack by Grindelwald's forces with his wife and only child before that son could have heirs of his own."
"I see," she nodded, still thinking. "But, what happens in the case of someone like... say... Sue Bones?"
"An interesting and, unsurprisingly, common situation these days," he nodded. "The Noble and Ancient House of Bones has only two members of the House remaining. Believe it or not, Susan is Heiress Apparent and her aunt, Amelia, is Heiress Secondary even though she's older. That's because Susan is of the direct main line and Amelia is of a new cadet line.
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