Wands and Warframes

History and Theories

History and Theories

Once she finishes, talking, to her father, Natah calls for Pandora to meet her in the living room with Harry and Hermione.

Once Pandora arrives, Natah says, "Pandora! Aurora approached Harry and Hermione about taking the elixir that we gave Minerva. In and of itself this isn't that problematic, and I would be inclined to do it anyway as there's only a handful of Sapient Sentients left in the solar system. However, she handed me a nearly blank marriage contract with her signature already on it."

"Would you mind if I had a look?"

"Certainly." Natah hands the contract over to Pandora.

Pandora opens the contract and starts reading, "Oh, she didn't. She did! This is priceless." After a few comments she puts the contract down and starts laughing while the others just look at each other.

Kitty, who still hasn't let Harry out of her sight, asks, "What's so funny?"

Once Pandora finishes laughing, she wipes a few tears from her eyes, and separates from her main chassis so she can sit down.

"Right, where should I start... Aurora is a pureblood, albeit from a minor house. A sheltered one at that. While there are some, like myself or Andromeda Black, now Tonks, who married for love. For the vast majority, love is a secondary concern compared to business. In the muggle world this style of marriage was quite common amongst the upper classes, around the time that the Statute of Secrecy was enacted. For them, placing a marriage contract on the table as an opening gambit shows how much they want something, or that the deal is secondary to securing the continuation of the family. In this case, the expectation would be that either a name gets added and then signed. This would signify that the contract was considered sufficient payment for the services requested. You'll note that Aurora explicitly said that she would still be able to study the stars. This is her hedging her bets against an unfavourable match, as if her husband to be prevents her from that, it would void the contract, and free her.

"Or, if they wished to add additional terms, such as limiting when she could study the stars, that would be the start of negotiations. During which the marriage contract could be withdrawn. I was laughing because it's such a pureblood thing to do, to assume that another culture would work the same way. I was picturing what Nef or the Grineer Queen would do with that contract. Where is Aurora anyway?"

Natah smiles, "I had Digger and Roofie show her around Fortuna."

Pandora winces, remembering her own visit with Xeno. Only the fact that they were Sentients saving them from a lynching or worse, being taken in for a systems check by the taxmen, and not having the needed coin to release herself. It's one of the more insidious ways that the Corpus get those that have recently become debt free, and are now trying to leave Corpus territory.

"Don't worry, she's been provided clothes, and they're not going to leave her to her own devices."

Kitty shakes her head, "Sorry, I'm still trying to get my head around the contract."

Pandora smiles sadly, "In the magical societies of earth, knowledge is quite literally power. The noble families all stay that way by being the only ones that know how to do certain things. Whether it's the Potters techniques for brewing potions that shouldn't work, the Blacks Curses, or the Greengrass's Greenhouses. Often their secrets and techniques are written in books. Books that can only be opened by those of the right bloodline; as recognised by the head of house ring. I would imagine that Aurora equated the elixir as a secret of a noble house, and so felt she needed to show she was willing to join the house in order to gain it. Again, it's a form of arrogance in believing that other cultures would work the same way and respect her own cultural norms."