Susan Bones in A Godfather's Promise

*This article is about Susan Bones as depicted in* A Godfather's Promise*. For a more general description, and/or links to similar articles covering other stories, see Susan Bones.*

## Relationship information

### Relatives

* †Edgar Bones (father)
* †Unnamed mother
* Amelia Bones (aunt)
* No further living relatives

### Romances

* Harry Potter (crush)
* Daphne Greengrass (girlfriend)

## Affiliation

### House

Hufflepuff

In *A Godfather's Promise*, Susan Bones is the heiress of the House of Bones but will not be able to take the title *Lady Bones* until (and unless) she marries a man who accepts that she doesn't take his name. She would very much like to date Harry Potter-Black, but he already has to repopulate both House Potter and House Black – and since he is clearly interested in Fleur Delacour, and possibly making moves on Daphne Greengrass as well, she is more interested in keeping his friendship than trying to develop it further. Unfortunately, as long as she is single she will be the target of lustful boys only interested in her body or, worse, the power and wealth of her inheritance.

After Harry and Fleur officially become a couple, going together to the Yule ball, Susan decides to go with Oliver Rivers – who has confessed to her that he has no interest at all in witches, and seems to go off on his own once the dancing starts – but her melancholic look draws Harry's attention and he seeks to lighten her mood by offering her a dance. She refuses, saying she doesn't want to come between them, at which point Fleur insists on dancing with her instead and Harry talks Daphne into dancing with him. Afterwards, as both Susan and Daphne go outside for some fresh air and a change of scenery, they meet, commiserate and eventually kiss; according to Daphne, same-sex relationships are quite common among pure-blood ladies who marry for political and/or economical reasons rather than love. The two continue meeting in secret, usually with Daphne being in charge but occasionally she asks Susan to switch and treat her harshly – calling her insults, pinching her, slapping or spanking her – and while Susan doesn't enjoy doing so, she does her best to fulfill her partner's needs.

As Gabrielle Delacour gets sick and cannot come to the Second Task, and Fleur's friends Amelie, Clemence and Monique cannot be found in time, Susan is asked to take the place of Fleur's hostage. She accepts, and since Harry helps Fleur with the grindylows the two have no problem rescuing both their hostages; however, Daphne is quite upset about the whole thing.

## Biography

Susan is the daughter of the late Edgar Bones and his unnamed wife, who were killed during the First Wizarding War; she has grown up in Bones Manor with only her aunt Amelia and the house-elves. Chief among the latter is Meepy, who has been around since before Susan was born and – due to Amelia's busy schedule – in practice was the one who raised her; Meepy in particular taught her about the family's origin during the 10th-century Viking invasion.

## Physical description

Susan's hair is said to be dark red, almost crimson, and similar to that of Harry's mother. She has deep grey eyes, a heart-shaped face and – in her fourth year – the largest bust in her year, rivaling several fifth-years'.

## Personality

Susan is kind, cheerful and generally positive in all aspects of life, seemingly unable to get angry or mean even towards unwanted suitors harassing her in the corridor; she says she doesn't want to "cause a fuss". However, she enjoys Harry (and later Daphne) being "forceful" towards her. She also likes cooking, to the extent that she has taken to cook for herself at Hogwarts despite the protests of the house-elves. Raised on Meepy's stores of her family's warlike past, she thinks Bones women are supposed to "be as rough as the men, if not rougher", not – as she does – like cooking, romantic poems and tales of love, or nurse wounded animals back to health; due to this, she has a tendency to think of herself as a failure.

Among her favourite foods is shepherd's pie.

## Magical skills

Susan is the top Hufflepuff student in her year and, according to Harry, her "strong point when it came to magic" is healing magic; indeed, in her fourth year she can cast at least one basic healing spell wordlessly. On the other hand, she is nearly incapable of casting offensive spells because she doesn't want to hurt anybody.

## Relationships

### Bones family

As is not uncommon in fanfiction, albeit without canonical support, Susan's immediate family is dead and she lives with her aunt Amelia Bones. Despite Amelia's attempts to reassure her otherwise, Susan finds herself unable to live up to the standard she herself has set for how "a Bones woman" should be and behave, and therefore often feels ashamed and unworthy of her heritage.

### Harry Potter-Black

Ever since Harry protected her from Draco Malfoy and his "goons" in either their first year (initially said to be their second year), Susan has had a crush on him; however, her general shyness combined with her feeling of inadequacy compared to the competition (Hermione, Cho, Daphne Greengrass, Ginny, Luna and now Fleur) has kept her from acting on her feelings – not to mention the political pressure to marry somebody who can help her repopulate the House of Bones, while Harry will be busy doing the same to both House Potter and House Black. It does not help that she did not dare take his side openly when he was accused of being the Heir of Slytherin, something she has been berating herself for ever since. However, once Voldemort has returned Amelia Bones asks Harry to marry her niece and take over the duty to guard her, so that she herself can concentrate fully on the war effort, and Susan's feelings when she learns of this are mixed; she has known for many years she would have to marry – and likely as a consort – and she has dreamed of Harry being the one, with Fleur as the main wife, but having it actually happen is something else, and her bad self-esteem keeps insisting that she doesn't "deserve" it. When she moves into Potter Manor, at first she behaves almost like a house-elf: keeps out of sight as much as possible and gets up early in the morning to cook breakfast for everyone but does not eat with the others, instead cleaning their rooms for them.

### Fleur Delacour

Fleur is the main competition for Harry's heart, and once she starts showing her interest publicly Susan loses her perennial good mood. However, she is also strongly attracted to Fleur and finds herself completely unable to hate, or even dislike, her; instead she starts fantazising about sharing a bed with both of them, at the same time. However, not believing such an arrangement to be possible in real life, and considering Fleur the better choice for Harry – being both braver, stronger, more beautiful and more loyal – she assures her during the 1995 Easter break that she will not "hold a candle for Harry anymore".

### Daphne Greengrass

Daphne is in a similar situation to Susan politically, although her younger sisters at least in theory give her a little more leeway, and she eventually confesses that she has some interest in Harry as well – if nothing else due to the lack of good alternatives in their age group. Susan finds her very beautiful and when the two commiserate during the night of the Yule ball, she ends up kissing her. As she apologizes, Daphne tells her that she doesn't mind, and that pure-blood Ladies often get involved with each other since their marriages are political and they find they can't stand their husbands. As lovers, Susan prefers to let Daphne be in charge but fears that she can not fully satisfy her (in particular her recurring requests to be physically manhandled and spanked).

### Oliver Rivers

Oliver is Susan's date to the 1994 Yule ball, a choice based mostly in his disinterest in witches and her disinterest in other wizards than Harry (who in this story goes with Fleur). However, they are also good friends.

### Draco Malfoy

Sometime in their first year, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle cornered her and demanded that she "side with them [if she] didn't want what happened to [her] parents to happen to [her]"; Malfoy further suggested that "if [she were] lucky" he might take her as a second wife (so that she could have children inheriting her family name), but if she opposed him he would give her to one of his underlings after his father had killed her aunt. Luckily, after that the situation was broken up by the sudden intervention of Harry Potter.

## References

1. ↑ "World Exclusive Interview with J K Rowling," *South West News Service*, 8 July 2000 - "Hogwarts just serves Britain and Ireland."
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 7
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 11
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 14
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 15
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 23
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 21
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 5
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 20
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 22
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 17
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 24
13. ↑ *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 25
14. ↑ *A Godfather's Promise*, Chapter 8
15. ↑ *A Godfather's Promise* Chapter 9