For several long seconds after the oath was completed, nobody in the Great Hall seemed entirely certain what they were supposed to do.
The silence itself became oppressive.
Heavy.
Ancient magic still lingered faintly in the air like static after lightning.
Fleur remained kneeling beside Cassius's chair calmly, silver-blue robes now permanently bearing the crest of Draconis over her chest.
The black dragon emblem shimmered faintly against the fabric before settling completely into place.
Real.
Binding.
Permanent.
Meanwhile the girls surrounding Cassius looked somewhere between furious, betrayed, and existentially exhausted.
They couldnt help but blame him even though technically he had as of yet not done anything wrong that they were aware of.
Ginny sat back down slowly, almost as if her soul had departed her body.
Cho exhaled slowly through her nose while staring directly at Cassius.
Astoria meanwhile looked genuinely distressed.
Not jealous.
Distressed.
Because unlike most people in the hall—
She understood exactly what Fleur had done.
The others of Draconis were bound by magical contracts tied to victory, hierarchy, and House authority.
Powerful.
Restrictive.
Deeply intimate in their own way.
But still conditional.
Still reversible under certain circumstances.
Such as Cassius losing a posed bet, or worse still their graduation from Hogwarts and therefore no longer belonging to the Draconis house.
Fleur's oath—
On the other hand was not.
She had willingly tied her entire existence to another person.
Forever.
And she had done it smiling, knowing full well what she was doing.
She had stolen one of Cassius's firsts, one that nobody else had even considered taking before.
She become his one true first possession.
At the staff table McGonagall finally recovered enough to stand abruptly.
"Miss Delacour—"
"Too late."
Every head turned toward Moody.
The scarred Auror sat slouched heavily in his chair, magical eye spinning lazily toward the center of the hall.
"Contract already took. Even if the boy were to reject it, all that would happen is the death of the young lady."
McGonagall looked horrified.
"But surely—"
Those words died out, this was an old practice one not used by wizard kind on their own for centuries now, but still known by those elders present.
Even Dumbledore's expression remained unusually grave now.
Because he knew the same thing.
The oath had not merely been spoken.
It had been accepted, intertwining the two young lives souls together forever, and as Moody had said for Cassius to reject her now, would be to forcibly absorb her soul into himself effectively killing her physical self.
Madame Maxime pressed one jeweled hand dramatically against her forehead.
"Mon dieu…"
Karkaroff looked fascinated.
Actually fascinated.
Like a man watching history unfold a tradition only enforced on House-elves brought back to life bringing with it human slavery once more.
His eyes lingered on Cassius with renewed calculation now.
Not merely a prodigy.
Not merely influential.
Something else entirely.
Snape finally opened his eyes again with the exhausted air of a man whose migraines had developed migraines.
"Get up, Miss Delacour."
Fleur immediately obeyed.
Which somehow made everything worse.
As if she were simply respecting and answering the senior of the house-lord as a dutiful servant ought to do.
Cassius pinched the bridge of his nose lightly.
Seeing her excessive compliance as she easily slotted herself into her newly chosen role as his slave.
This was becoming a disaster.
Not politically.
Socially.
But ultimately—
There was nothing they could do.
The magical laws of nature had already been set into motion, Hogwarts itself had even acknowledged it.
~
The school year resumed afterward with surprising normalcy considering the fact that a French girl had almost publicly pledged eternal service to another student during the opening feast.
Hogwarts adapted disturbingly quickly to insanity.
By the third day most students had settled into a simpler version of events since the real ones were forbidden to be spoken of.
Fleur Delacour fancied Cassius Snape.
Aggressively.
That explanation was easier to accept than if the truth itself got out, not to mention the fact that it only ever made Fleur look obsessed, rather than unleashing the floodgates of female classmates who would willingly throw themselves at his feet to join her as sister-slaves.
So the rumors evolved naturally instead.
"Look she's wearing a knock-off house crest."
"Desperately wants to become one of the draconis girls."
"She's probably already planned out their wedding in advance."
"Did you see how she looks at him?"
Nobody realized the reality was simultaneously more serious and somehow more absurd.
The crest over Fleur's chest became interpreted as romantic pursuit rather than what it actually represented.
Ownership.
Commitment.
Submission.
And Fleur herself did absolutely nothing to correct the misunderstanding.
If anything—
She encouraged it.
Cassius noticed immediately during meals.
Fleur sat beside him whenever possible.
Walked slightly behind him naturally.
Listened whenever he spoke with complete focus as if nothing else in the world mattered at all.
Subtle things.
Small things.
But enough for the observant to notice patterns.
Meanwhile the girls of Draconis suffered collectively.
Especially because Fleur fit in far too well.
"Absolutely not," Daphne declared one evening in the common room.
Fleur blinked once from her seat beside Cassius.
"What?"
"You are not allowed to be pleasant."
Fleur looked genuinely confused.
"…why?"
"Because then we cannot even properly hate you."
Hermione pointed accusingly across the table.
"You're very manipulative."
"Thank you."
"That was not praise!"
Classes themselves remained mostly routine despite the influx of foreign students.
Durmstrang integrated heavily into defense against the dark arts, and potion studies.
Beauxbatons excelled immediately in Charms and magical history.
The Hogwarts boys continued attempting increasingly embarrassing methods of attracting Fleur's attention only to fail and turn their attentions to the other remaining students.
One Hufflepuff fifth year attempted poetry.
Fleur stared at him until he apologized to literature itself.
Another Ravenclaw tried flexing during Care of Magical Creatures.
He got bitten by a kneazle.
Cassius ignored all of it.
Mostly.
Because he had significantly more immediate problems.
Namely—
The other girls.
"You are absolutely not swearing lifelong service to me."
Cassius spoke flatly while Hermione glared at him from across the library table.
"I wasn't going to."
"You were literally researching ancient vow structures."
"That proves nothing."
"You color-coded the sections."
Hermione looked offended.
"That's just responsible organization."
Across from them Daphne quietly slid an entire hidden parchment deeper beneath her book.
Cassius's eyes narrowed immediately.
"No."
Daphne froze.
"…you didn't even read it."
"I don't need to."
Astoria looked away suspiciously from the nearby sofa.
Ginny whistled innocently.
Cho abruptly became fascinated by the ceiling.
Luna alone looked completely unashamed.
"I don't need an oath i already promised a Snarklelax to be with you forever."
Cassius stared at her.
"…a snarklelax?"
"They are the arbitars of justice."
"Of course there are," he muttered.
Simply put a probably imaginary creature who controls all magical contracts and oaths in the world...
It became a recurring issue afterward.
Almost as if he had to spent his days constantly turning down marriage proposals.
At least the girls got one leg up on Fleur, she was relegated to the 'servents' quarters of the house while all the rest got to share the 'masters' bed with him.