Heir of Abraxus - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

On the way back to Abraxus Manor Julius repeatedly stressed the importance of supporting the new protege of the Hebe foundation and instructed him to let some of the company's legal department and a few more individuals with a special skillset look into a specific case and if possible get it ready to present it in front of the Wizengamot until the summer break.

After arriving back at the manor Julius immediately made his way over towards the dining table where everyone else was already waiting for him.

"Thank you for waiting. We can start now; George will not be eating with us today", Julius said as he pulled out his seat and sat down.

... 

After enjoying dinner everyone besides Habol and Juius decided to already go to bed as the preparations for the Yule Ball would start in earnest beginning on the next day and while Astoria wouldn't be participating as she was still quite young and no one really wanted to force her to come, Daphne would definitely be attending albeit on her own wishes.

Now in a silent house and not wanting to wake anyone up, Julius and Habol spent a few hours reading up on duelling tactics in the library while discussing their findings before deciding to write a letter to Lia, though since it was already this late Habol proposed that he would just send the letter of on the next morning, a proposal which Julius readily accepted.

Due to the late hour the two decided to just go to bed afterwards, even though they both didn't really want to.

And as he was drifting off to sleep Julius' thoughts were still with three people who he would have to properly utilise in the time until the beginning of the original canon.

...

Julius barely managed to stifle his laughter watching his dear little sister struggle to keep calm as their new etiquette teacher, Mrs. Montfort, kept pointing out the slightest of flaws in Daphne's posture.

George hadn't exactly been easy-going either, but with him occupied elsewhere their new etiquette teacher from France was showing them exactly in which way they would supposedly be embarassing their families.

"Non, non, non! Young Miss, your curtsey was... acceptable, but that is unadequate! You must command the room. Again!"

This had been going on for quite some time by now with Mrs. Montfort insisting that the Yule Ball would be the first time many pureblood families would be introduced to Daphne, even more so than with her brother, and this first impression would have to be immaculate - especially with the current difficult situation of the Greengrass family.

After all since Julius had given up his position as heir of the family, which left it with no other male heir, meaning Daphne's future husband would most likely become the next true head of the family, leaving it without anyone to sit on their seat in the Wizengamot for quite some time.

"Young master! Is this lack of attention appropriate during instruction? What if this were the ball, hmm? Would you stand there, thoughtlessly as a statue, during the opening dance?"

Startled from his thoughts Julius shook his head embarassedly.

"Open your mouth, Young Master! And don't make an embarassed face like that! You're not there for people to like you, but for people to respect you. Everything else is secondary, keep that in mind."

"And raise that chin. You do not apologise. And if you do, see to it that you don't tarnish your family's reputation even further!"

...

Having spent most of the day with the more physical part of etiquette training Mrs. Montfort decided to let them rest a bit and instead use the later hours going through many important pureblood families from all over the world with a focus on those expected to make an appearance during the Yule Ball.

As he went through the abundance of names he was supposed to know by heart at the ball as well as the faces and in some cases even personal histories attached to those Julius felt lucky that he at least wouldn't be expected to learn any foreign etiquette for this event, as it was expected of the foreign guests to use the native one instead.

It appeared the opening of Hogwarts to students from different countries and even continents increased the diversity of origins during public events like the Yule Ball by a large margin as many foreign families used the chance to forge connections and take advantage of the still, at least partially, undiscovered opportunities of Magical Britain.

And even though most of this time wasn't spent on information Julius would normally call exciting, there were still some highlights here and there.

For example Mrs. Montfort was apparently extremely disappointed that some traditions had been almost forgotten in Magical Britain, in this case specifically the art of duelling.

As she explained duelling was once the most common way to resolve an argument between pureblood wizards and since these usually occured during important public gatherings or sessions of the Wizengamot duelling etiquette was perfected into an art which, in her opinion, should be known by every decent young wizard, and not just by the purebloods either.

On Julius' request Mrs. Montfort told him where he could read up on that topic and even gave him a quick demonstration, even though she had never had a formal duel before and, as she emphasized, didn't plan on ever changing this.

After all, while theoretically everyone could request a duel with anyone there where still some unspoken rules, including that it was below a pureblood lady to fight her own battles in this way and because of this they were able to just deny a request to duel without any negative consequences to them.

The same thing was also true to pureblood wizards when they were challenged by someone of a lower blood status, which was also generally seen as insolent on the part of the halfblood or muggleborn challenger.

...

This evening Julius and Habol spent some time on formal duelling, not because Julius expected he would need this, but simply because this kind of formal duel was much less demanding and dangerous than the modern form of duelling that was practiced as a sport.

In this way they were able to have a bit of fun without endangering themselves or damaging anything.

But still, when Julius fell into his bed much later he felt satisfied with his day.

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Welcome back! Things have been hectic and probably will continue to be after the christmas break so my sparse uploads will probably not get any better for now (though I of course hope it will).

Thanks for reading :)