Harry did not notice the many speculative looks that were being sent his way, or more appropriately, he didn't care. Though Harry had no idea that his action had not gone unnoticed by his new head of house, who was watching him speculatively.
It was Pansy Parkinson who brought up the question that Harry had been expecting since the moment he arrived at Hogwarts. Her tone was slightly condescending as she spoke, "So, Ares Flamel. Are you related to the famous Flamel's?"
"Do you know any others?" Harry responded to her blunt question with a blunt riposte of his own.
Pansy shook her head, her dark hair in a pixie-cut covering her face briefly. "No of course not. But that doesn't mean you couldn't have been raised by muggles and be a mudblood with a similar name!" She responded arrogantly.
Harry clenched his fist under the table at her casual use of such a slur, but he managed to keep control of his emotions. It was Parkinson of all people, he was more than familiar with her bigotry from his world, so instead of snapping, Harry rolled his eyes, "Yes, because then I'd be able to be home-schooled in magic, by non-magical parents before coming here this year." His words had more than a touch of condescension in them. Pansy had always irritated him. It seemed like this one was the same way.
Pansy flushed at the brushback but wasn't willing to give up that easily. "That doesn't tell us whether you're related to the Immortal Alchemist or not."
Harry turned slightly to catch Draco smirking at him, with a very "told ya so" expression on his face. Harry sighed a bit as he realized that Nicholas and Perenelle would probably be wearing the exact same expressions if they were observing now. He rolled his eyes and extended his right hand flashing a ring of light blue, very similar to the color of the uniforms of Beauxbatons with a distinctive golden crest on it. It was in the shape of a cursive f, with tiny vines of gold etched around the letter.
"The heir-apparent ring. If that will convince you. Though… given the title "Immortal Alchemist" I don't foresee moving up to head of house anytime in the near future." Harry said blandly showing the ring off sent a ripple of whispers up the Slytherin table. Draco looked at him in shock for a few moments before he turned away and Harry saw him shake slightly in what he was certain was a bit of laughter.
This had been a long extended argument with both Nicholas and Perenelle over the past week, and hadn't been resolved until the day before when they met with the goblins. The Flamels had insisted on adopting him into their family magically. Harry had argued loud and long against it. He hadn't wanted any sort of family and certainly didn't want the Flamels to feel obligated in any way. He had no interest in trying to form familial bonds here. Nor did he have any interest in being 'adopted' out of some sense of pity.
Perenelle in particular had been stubborn in the argument by trying to get Harry to accept adoption. She had never been able to have children, though there had been rare times the two of them had adopted orphaned children in the past.
Perenelle and Nicholas were both aware that Harry was older than his appearance, and his experiences made him anything but a child. Perenelle also didn't suddenly feel some great love for Harry by any stretch, though she would freely admit she was concerned about him. But she was also aware that anyone would have cheerfully maimed to be in the house of Flamel, the renown alone carried a powerful weight. But there was also the economic power the Flamel's were capable of wielding. Yet here was a young man who was doing anything he could to stay out of the family. Perenelle had argued that given the name Nicholas had given Dumbledore it had only made sense.
More than that, he was a new entrant to their rather exclusive "club". And while he seemed to have a great deal of life experience, he seemed to have had the least formal training or preparation of any of the other immortals they had encountered.
She and Nicholas were both united on this. Harry hated the idea, but he knew that it wasn't just his decision. Nicholas and Perenelle, after hearing his story, had chosen to take a stand at least insofar as helping him was a stand.
And Harry couldn't deny that even if he somehow managed to overturn that decision, then the Flamels would be forced to rely on someone else, or even to fight themselves if it came down to it. Besides, he had always complained about people not being willing to fight for themselves or not giving him tools to help, and there they were insisting on giving him aid, and he was fighting them on it.
And though Harry wasn't willing to go so far as to call them friends, Harry desperately didn't want the two of them to end up dead because they had the gall to help him out. And considering the historical chances of people helping him and living, was exactly zero. Harry was incredibly leery of risking it. Despite this, Harry had only relented in the end when he had been informed by the goblins, that if he didn't accept, then the Ministry would automatically be notified to assign him guardians. And while Nicholas and Perenelle were willing to swear oaths not to sign any contracts for him, or hinder or restrict him at all, any family the Ministry might place him with would likely not be so willing. They also assured him that if anything happened publically that it would give Harry some semblance of legitimacy. No one would question the Flamel's claim that he was their heir.
Harry and Perenelle were also amused by how excited Nicholas seemed to be by all of this. He couldn't wait to see what sort of effect the mere existence of 'Ares Flamel' was going to cause. He was even trying to guess what the reactions of different families would be. In the end all it had taken was a contract signed with a blood quill. It didn't require any exchanging of blood or anything since the adoption was magical, not a blood adoption.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you enjoy reading? Visit my site on Tiendup! There you will find the advanced chapter in PDF format, ready for your convenience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://fictiontopia.tiendup.com/