With both girls again in their usual formation, the three exited the bank, redonned their glamours, and headed for the Leaky Cauldron to return to the school.
They re-entered the school and returned to their apartment. Collapsing onto one of the couches, Harry said, "A week. Just one week, and Dumbledore can do nothing to stop me. The Trace should be lifted... although we know it won't... and I'll be able to do magic outside of school. I guess I'll have to go into the Ministry, straight from Kings Cross, to make sure the Trace has been lifted, come Christmas." Frowning, he turned to his bondmates and asked Daphne, "If I'm then emancipated, and you're both effectively engaged to me, what does that make you?"
"We're still underage witches," she replied. "However, if we're married to you, then we're automatically emancipated."
Surprised, Harry asked, "Is that possible? For us to be married this early, I mean. I thought it wasn't allowed until seventeen for the wizard and sixteen for the witch."
"Normally, yes," she replied with a slight shrug. "However, you'll be emancipated in a week, which automatically gives you the rights of an adult wizard. That means you can get married. Plus, as we're you're bondmates, we may still be underaged witches, but it would be legal for us to marry you. At that point, as married witches, we're emancipated, too."
"What?" exclaimed Hermione. "But, that's discriminatory! How does Harry being emancipated allow us to marry him and emancipate us?"
"Being of-age has never been a prerequisite to marriage for a witch if a soul bond or binding is involved," replied Daphne. "As long as the soul bonded wizard is of-age, everything's legal. Magic deems it so. The only limiting factor is whether or not menarche had taken place."
"But," spluttered Hermione, a little horrified. "Girls as young as nine have gone through that!"
"Not in the magical world," disagreed Daphne. "It's always shortly after the twelfth birthday for witches. When did yours occur?" Hermione blushed and mumbled, "Two weeks after my twelfth birthday." Looking up, she firmly stated, "And that's still way too young."
"Mine was three weeks," said Daphne. "The first new moon after my birthday. And, how is it too young? That's the time nature has decided you can begin to fall pregnant. Otherwise, why does menarche occur at that time?"
Back in the beginning of September, Harry would have been blushing bright red by now. However, after all the talks and openness they'd gone through talking about the bonds, the initial embarrassment was way past. Now, they could talk about just about anything; including, apparently, menarche. "Menarche does not mean the female body is ready to fall pregnant!" huffed Hermione. "No. Correction. It does not mean the mind of a young girl is ready for the experience of childbirth, or to be a mother."
"It used to," Harry cut in. "Before there were laws against underaged sex, many young girls would fall pregnant at that sort of age. It wasn't all that long ago twelve was the minimum age to marry."
"That aside," said Daphne, "The topic, now, is whether we... meaning you and me, Hermione... are comfortable marrying early."
"My father would hit the roof," sighed Hermione. "I know he probably has it in the back of his mind what we get up to with Harry; but, I can't see him being alright with us marrying early. I think sixteen would be the absolute minimum he'd allow. And that's a year away for me."
"What about fifteen and ten months?" asked Daphne. "That way, we can marry during the summer break."
"But, you'll only have just turned fifteen," Hermione rebutted. "The same with Harry."
"Well, this is all just academic, for the moment," said Harry. "The emancipation has to get through, first. Then, I fully intend to formally ask both your fathers for your hands in marriage. It may be old fashioned in the muggle world; but, it's still the right thing to do. If they say no, then there'll be no marriage."
"Err... Harry?" stuttered Daphne. "I don't think you understand. Once the bonds are finalised, and given enough time, magic decides whether or not there's a marriage. We only get to decide whether or not there's a wedding."
Harry looked a little horrified before he dropped his head into his hands and groaned. "John didn't tell me that."
"Are we that repulsive?" asked Daphne, a little affronted.
"N-no, no," Harry tried to back-pedal, snapping his head back up again. "I mean... it kind of removes the choice from you. You don't get to decide."
"Of course we do," she shot back, calming a little. "We get to decide how far or how fast our bonds develop. Unless we marry first, we know it shouldn't happen until after coitus. However, even that might not cause the marriage. We haven't taken that step, yet." "It sounds like another of those errors of knowledge relating to bonds," mused Hermione. "We know people thought coitus would trigger the finalising of the bond, and doesn't; so, maybe it's more the emotional component, again? The emotional commitment to spending a lifetime together."
"Possible," shrugged Daphne. Then she laughed and said, "We're really going to have to write a book, you know. The nonsense out there will just confuse folks. We're the only ones in a position to write the truth."
"Maybe," muttered Harry, thinking. "But, not for years. In order to include enough information to make it worthwhile, we'll need to get pretty personal."
"Write it under a nom de plume... a pen name," said Hermione. "We can also use false names for the individuals in the book."
"It won't be very anonymous if we cover three-way soul bonds," said Harry.
"We wouldn't need to," disagreed Hermione. "From what we know already we can easily write it to just cover two-way bonds. We know there's no real difference between the two. Two-way bonds are rare. How much rarer are three-way bonds? Ours is the only one in recorded history... magical Britain recorded history, at least. It'd be a bit pointless to write a book on three-way bonds if we wrote it to provide information for those who come after us."
"You really want to write it, don't you, Hermione?" he sighed.
"I want to write it, yes," she agreed. "However, I want to write it with the both of you as co-creators. Or, at least, with your permission."
Harry looked at Daphne, who nodded back. "Alright, Hermione; write the damned thing and we'll help."
"Yes!" she squealed, jumping forward to hug them both.
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