4When researching the first chapter, I noticed something that took this long to sink in...
...A year after the final Chapter, 18 yrs before the Epilogue...
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Harry listened with growing fury as the man in front of him at Gringotts explained to his son that a reliably updated family tree was of the utmost importance, his voice distorting in Harry's mind until he heard Malfoy's drawling tone. It was especially important, the man continued, when thinking of future marriage partners. Harry had heard enough.
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"Enough," he said, in a sharp tone, "we don't need any more of that sort of talk." The man frowned at him...
"Excuse me? Keeping an updated family tree is extremely important...I suppose that a muggle-raised half-blood wouldn't know. Ask one of your pure-blood friends...other than those blood-traitors." Harry's blood boiled and it was all he could do not to swing at the man, the only thing stopping him being that Aurors were not allowed to injure citizens over disagreements. He'd be suspended.
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"Better a half-blood or blood-traitor than an inbred idiot like Crabbe or Goyle," he sneered.
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There were gasps and whispers from the crowd. Good, people needed to talk about this, stand up to these bigots. He'd only defeated Voldemort a year ago, this attitude couldn't be allowed to take hold again.
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"Don't speak of things of which you have no knowledge. Those two were cursed by their muggleborn babysitter when their mother refused to have an affair with him. It was an old curse that reduced mental acuity in the hopes that rival heirs would die young, luckily it loses it's hold after twenty or so years. (Harry's stomach plummeted. He hadn't known. Then again, people didn't talk about that sort of thing. He hadn't heard about Neville until he'd asked directly, or about Dumbledore's sister until that old lady tried to 'teach him' about Dumbledore)They are not even close to inbred, not that you've got any room to talk about that," the man spat.
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"My mother was a muggleborn, and the Potters aren't inbred!"
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"The Potters weren't inbred, you mean."
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"I do not believe that this is the time for a grammar lesson," Harry hissed.
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"Your grandmother was Dorea Potter, formerly a Black, correct?"
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"Yes, so?!"
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"That wife of yours' the one who looks just like your mother (Harry only just stopped himself from cursing the man, his hand was on his wand, but he managed to pull it back) is also a Black." Harry snorted.
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"Ginny's a Weasley."
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"This is why we need to have complete family records. Why we need to make the muggle-born and raised take this seriously. They come from the muggle world, where there is a much larger pool of candidates, while we must marry wizards, or live in fear that the muggles we date may turn on us when we tell them of our magic, or attempt to expose our world," he said to his son. he then turned back to Harry, "Blood traitor refers to the way that they refuse to keep any sort of family tree, not, as some would claim, to their past-times. Why would we call someone, for example, a 'muggle-loving blood traitor', if they meant the same thing? If they had kept a proper family history, you would know what I am about to tell you. Ursula Flint had, among her children, Arcturus Black the third and Cygnus Black the third. Cygnus Black had a daughter named Dorea Black, who married Charlus Potter and had a child named James. Arcturus had a daughter named Cedrella, who married Septimus Weasley, who had a son named Arthur. I married a half-blood from out of the country. You married your third cousin."
...Eighteen years later...
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Harry stood on the platform 9 3/4 and waved goodbye with a heavy heart to his two adopted children, as they went off to their first and fourth year of Hogwarts, and his eldest, and only blood child, who was now re-taking his fifth year for the third time...
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Ginny had been pregnant, and it was impossible to abort a magical child, not to mention the Weasley's had been horrified. Although Squib children could be miscarried, a wizarding child's magical core would protect it from damage. it was possible to kill the child, but it usually took the mother with it. And with a child on the way, harry couldn't just leave Ginny.
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And yes, that family tree is real.