Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor do I make any money from this story.

Bad Author Notes: My editor says this story is major crack but my Muse says its path that other have looked down at but never explored, so she decided to explore it.

Harry stormed into the boy's dorm, slamming the door behind him. "I can not believe that they did that to me!" Harry snarled.

"Dumbledore, Snape, or the Ministry?" Neville asked from where he lounged on his bed, a book in his hand.

Harry spun around to face his roommate. "Neville! What are you doing here?"

"Reading," Neville held up his book. "And it is my room too."

"Right," Harry ran a hand through his already messy hair. "Sorry. Not thinking straight. I am just so…"

"Angry. Upset. Frustration. Irked," Neville suggested.

"Irked?" Harry echoed back. "Irked does not come close to describing how I feel."

"Right," Neville said with a chuckle. "So, does that mean it is something that Dumbledore or Weasley did."

Harry let out a snort.

"So, what did they do?" Neville asked.

"I found out am betrothed to Ginny," Harry answered.

"The school broomstick!" Neville exclaimed.

"What?" Harry sputtered.

Neville chewed on his bottom lip for a moment before saying, "You know I was made a Prefect after that incident with Ron…"

Harry nodded his head.

"Right. Well you know Prefects have to patrol the hallways after curfew to catch students out of bounds. But what you probably do not know is that we are also required to check certain locations of the castle before curfew," Neville told him.

"Broom closets," Harry stated.

"And other locations," Neville added on. "Some ambitious 7th year turned an unused classroom into something out of 1001 Arabian Nights. And no one is allowed to mention the S&M room."

Harry shook his head in shock. "Hermione never said anything about this."

"Hermione is not required to check these locations," Neville told him.

"She did not react well to something she saw?" Harry suggested.

"You have to understand, I was not patrolling with her at the time so all I have is hearsay, but while on patrol Hermione came across a room that was being used and she did not approve of manner in which the room was being used," Neville said as diplomatically as possible.

"Someone was having sex in the room," Harry guessed.

"Yes," Neville answered.

"And she did not approve of them having sex," Harry guessed.

"Yes," Neville answered once again.

"Why?"

"Polyjuice and non-human hair was used," Neville told him.

Harry was quiet for a moment before saying, "So it was something like what happened in second year."

This time it was Neville who was silent for a moment. "I am not going to ask. So back to your betrothal, so while on patrol, it would not be odd to catch Miss Weasley in some interesting situations."

"With Dean," Harry guessed.

"Not exactly," Neville said. "I do not think that Dean has caught Ginny's snitch yet, if you catch my meaning."

"Then with who?" Harry asked, dread evident in his voice.

"Well I can say that I have not heard of her being caught with Draco, Crabbe or Goyle... yet," Neville admitted.

Harry groaned, "And I am being forced to marry her."

"Maybe," Neville stated. "Have you seen the contract? Does it have a purity clause in it?"

Harry shook his head. "I have not seen anything. They just told me that I had to marry her."

"OK. We can work with this. With luck the contract does not even exist but in order to make sure, you need to contact both the Ministry and Gringotts and request a copy of all the open contracts for the Houses of Potter and Black," Neville suggested.

"All open contracts? Not just betrothals?" Harry asked as he opened his trunk and pulled out parchment, ink and his quill.

Neville nodded his head. "It is kind of hard to explain but real betrothals, ones in which both parties are equal are written certain ways. Marriage contracts are used when one party wants control over the other. And an heir contract is written a completely different way."

"Heir contracts?" Harry asked.

"It is an arrangement between two Head of houses so that heirs for both houses are born," Neville explained. "For example, if Susan Bones and I had an heir contract, then I would have to father at least two children; one for the house of Bones and one for the house of Longbottom."

"To preserve the family name," Harry summed up.

"Or to prevent a cadet branch from taking over," Neville explained. "And now that I think of it, request all contracts for the house of Weasley."

Harry looked up from where he was writing the letters. "Why?" he asked simply.

"I do not expect that the house of Potter or house of Black to have any open contracts except for the one with Weasley, if it exists. I would not expect either House to spend assets blindly," Neville stated.

"Hold on. Spend assets?" Harry asked.

"Right. This is going to be complicated," Neville ran a hand through his hair. "First off you have to understand about greater and lesser houses. The Houses of Longbottom, Potter, and Bones, are older houses. We have our history, political power, money and magic behind us. Weasley, Malfoy, Dumbledore are lesser houses, they have less power behind them."

"I thought Dumbledore and Malfoy had a great deal of power behind their names," Harry put in.

Neville shook his head. "Not really. Malfoy's power is based on the money and favours he throws around. Once the money is gone, so his power. As for Dumbledore, his power is based on the fact he defeated Grindelwald, his political power, and being the Headmaster of Hogwarts."

"The cult of Dumbledore," Harry said softly.

"Exactly," Neville agreed. "To gain favour between the lesser houses and sometimes the greater house, the head of the house will offer a contract based on future assets, like future children."

"Children are not assets," Harry interrupted. "They are not something that should be traded or sold as if they were things. They are human beings."

"I know that and I agree with you but not everyone does," Neville told him. "They do not think of the life of their future grandchild or great-grandchild. They think that if it will benefit my House today, then what do I care about how it will affect the future. They trade their future child's hand in marriage; they trade their womb and for what? For power? Money? Land? Or as a thank you for some action?"

"And you think the Weasley's have contracts like that? That Mr. Weasley did such a thing?" Harry asked.

Neville stopped for a moment. "At once time I would have said Mr. Weasley would never do anything like that. He loves his children too much to trade them. That if any contract exists, they would have been from Mr. Weasley's father or grandfather… but now… after you came in and told me about being betrothed… I do not know."

Harry looked down at the letters he was writing, "So you are hoping there is an older contract that will involve Ginny."

"Yes," Neville said simply. "Gran taught me to make sure to cover all possible angles when dealing with any form of contracts, even if the contract is buying a new plant for my greenhouse."

Harry snorted. "I can not see there would a need for a contract about a plant."

"You can not resell the plant to anyone but the seller or his or her heirs. All seeds, cuttings and or buddings are the properties of the sellers. If any part of the plant is harvested for potion ingredients and therefore sold, then the seller will receive 10% of the sale price," Neville said. "And that is just a few of things I have read in contracts."

Harry shook his head. "I guess money makes the wizard world go around."

"Pretty much," Neville agreed.

Harry sealed his letters then turned to Neville and asking, "Is this how the wizard world really is? Selling your children and grandchildren. Selling their happiness and future for a piece of silver?"

"No," Neville replied. "All the different types of contracts were a way to protect the couple. To prevent a spouse from being turned out or even killed after the heir was born. Or to prevent a cuckoo from entering the house or becoming the heir."

"Cuckoo?"

"It prevents spouse from having an affair," Neville explained. "It was not uncommon for the family to claim that the wife had a liaison and that the child was not the child of the husband."

"Why would they do that?" Harry asked.

"Power." Neville replied simply. "When you or your child is the heir to the house, you do what you need to make sure no one takes your place. That is part of the reason my Gran kept me so close by."

"Are you saying your family would kill you?" Harry gasped.

"If they could get away with it… in a heartbeat. Granted it is pretty much impossible for them to do anymore with how my parents' contract was written. The family magic used in the contract would deal with them, if they tried really tried to kill me. Most of them hoped that I would die in an accident or was a squib."

Harry shook his head. "What other dark secrets does the wizard world have that I have not been told about."

"Tons but right now we are dealing with the future Lady Potter" Neville stated, "so get back to writing. The sooner we send them the sooner we can figure out how to get you out of this mess."

Harry started writing again only to stop. "How are we sending them?"

Neville looked at Harry in confusion as he said, "By owl… but Dumbledore will be watching for it."

Harry nodded his head, "Plus Hedwig is pretty noticeable."

"And these are the time I hate my uncle," Neville stated.

"Huh?"

"He got me Trevor instead of an owl," Neville explained. "I mean Trevor is great in the green house, but you can not exactly send messages with him."

"So how do you send letters to your grandmother?" Harry asked.

"I either borrow one of the school owls or I…" Neville slapped himself on the forehead. "I am an idiot."

"Okay," Harry drew out the word.

"Fearn," Neville replied simply

"Fearn?" Harry echoed.

"She is a house elf that helps me in the green house," Neville answered.

"At the school?" Harry asked in confusion.

Neville shook his head. "No. She is a Longbottom house elf. Actually, I think she was my mother's house elf."

Harry nodded his head. "Right. Do you think she will be able to make the delivery for me?"

Neville shrugged his shoulder. "At the very least, she will take them to the manor and use the owls there to mail them out."

Harry sighed in frustration as he stopped writing. "Which leaves the problem of how do we receive the replies without having Dumbledore interfere."

With a groan, Neville flopped back on to his bed. "Write in the letters that their replies need to be sent to Longbottom Manor. Fearn can deliver them to me once she receives them. At least this way, we will receive the contracts from Gringotts."

"And not the Ministry?" Harry asked as he put quill to paper again.

"To put it simply… the reading and comprehension level at the Ministry is not that high," Neville stated.

Harry groaned softly to himself.