Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does. I'm just an avid fan.

Word Count: 3788

With this chapter posted, we have officially surpassed 100K words for this fanfiction! I am extremely pleased with how this fanfic has gone from a little idea and blossoming into this multi-chaptered longfic that is thoroughly enjoyed by all of you. I want to thank you all for being so supportive through this experience with me.

Thank you to Chaos Cain for listing this fanfic under your community Chaotic Disorder. I am honored.

Chapter 36: Love is A Complicated Emotion

March passed by, and April arrived soon enough. By mid-April, Cadmus probably had experienced and attended all the Hogwarts classes. Ancient Runes and Arithmancy were by far the best courses in Hogwarts taught by Professor Babbling and Professor Vector. Both women taught their lessons well and were extremely patient with their students despite their stringent requirements. History of Magic was cool because Cadmus enjoyed watching Remus teach about the history of the wizarding world and the wars. The only classes Cadmus didn't attend was Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. Divination was a joke, so Cadmus didn't even think about attending her classes.

Care of Magical Creatures. He wasn't too optimistic when Terry told him about the class. Terry told Cadmus that Care of Magical Creatures was taught by Rubeus Hagrid, the gentle giant that was more known for being the gamekeeper of Hogwarts. The number of creatures that Hagrid deemed 'not dangerous' were quite ferocious, but that intrigued Cadmus even more. There were creatures Hagrid showed students that weren't native to the United States, so Cadmus decided to seize this chance and take a look.

Instead of just intruding into Hagrid's classes, Cadmus went to ask permission to attend his Friday Care of Magical Creatures class. To say Hagrid was happy was an understatement because the giant was beyond elated that someone showed interest in magical creatures. They compared native species from their respective countries for half an hour before Cadmus returned to the castle. Over the next week, news that Cadmus was going to go to a Care of Magical Creatures class had leaked out. Several Hogwarts students had taken it upon themselves to drop a few warnings, but Cadmus simply thanked them and ignored their comments. These students don't appreciate the class because they had stereotypes that the class was useless in real life. These students may also be those casualties during a creature rampage because they never paid attention to protection measures.

Draco Malfoy was among those unappreciative students who delivered disparaging remarks about Hagrid. The day the news reached Malfoy's ears, Malfoy decided to give Cadmus a piece of his mind while he peacefully basked in the sunshine.

"Did I hear it right, Flamel? You're going to watch the oaf teach!" Malfoy said boisterously.

"Yes, I am. Is there something wrong with that, Malfoy?" Cadmus asked irritatedly.

"Only someone like you would attend that oaf's class," Malfoy said. "But then again, I think you are as dumb as a flobberworm." Cadmus tried not to let Malfoy's comment anger him, so he remained stolid. His lack of response seemed to vex Malfoy, who was new to people not responding to his taunts.

"You should be watching your back, Flamel. My father hired a solicitor to find loopholes in the marriage contract I have with Greengrass," Malfoy said.

"Leave me alone, Malfoy," Cadmus said. He was annoyed that Malfoy was such an insolent person towards everyone, including Daphne and himself. He was concerned about Daphne's wellbeing now.

But Malfoy was arrogant, he prided himself in bullying others into submission, and he was not going to comply with a foreigner. "You should watch your mouth, Flamel. You are talking to the son and heir of Lord Malfoy. I am more powerful than you; I have more influence behind my family name."

"I don't care Malfoy. I've been nothing but polite to you, but you just continue sprouting your arrogant beliefs. Now please leave, or I will not hesitate to draw my wand," Cadmus growled.

Malfoy smirked. "Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you, Flamel. You better enjoy your precious time with Greengrass while it lasts, Flamel. Soon she will be mine and will obey like the proper pureblood wife she is."

"Keep dreaming, Malfoy," Cadmus remarked. He picked up his stuff and left the scene without another word, irritated from the dispute with Draco Malfoy. He was not thrilled that Malfoy saw Daphne as a common household wife and not valuing Daphne as a person with interests and personality. He needed to warn Daphne as soon as possible.

Cadmus checked his watch, Daphne just started her Arithmancy class, which was a two hours long lecture, and he didn't want to interrupt her studies. Cadmus paced around in the empty Harvard common room, thinking about his next steps. He decided then to make the best of his time and search the Hogwarts library for books on British politics and laws. On his way out of the library with his checked out books on law, a battered book in the waste bin caught his eye. The cover was torn, but that didn't stop Cadmus' curiosity when he flipped through the discarded book. It was an advanced potions book that was scribbled on horribly by its previous owner, but as Cadmus flipped further into the book, he saw lots of spell incantations noted on the pages.

"That book's too old; you're better off checking out one of the newer editions that just arrived yesterday," someone remarked. Cadmus turned around to see Madam Pince a bookshelf away, pushing a cart of library books.

"That's fine, Madam Pince. Can I keep this?" Cadmus asked, closing the battered book and showing her the cover. This book was too damn useful to be thrown away.

"You can have it. I was going to throw it in the dusty book storage either way. Now hurry along, young man, the library is going to close for a few minutes for maintenance," Madam Pince said sharply. Cadmus grinned brightly and quickly gathered his things to leave the library with the battered book tucked under his arm. Cadmus spent the rest of the time in the common room reading the potions book; he was impressed by how knowledgeable the former owner was in potions and defense. He was itching to attempt some of the spells the previous owner wrote down; some of them were standard advanced spells, but others were completely new.

The hour hand on Cadmus' watch binged when it struck twelve, which suddenly reminded Cadmus that Daphne's class was about to be finished. Cadmus rushed to Daphne's Arithmancy classroom just in time to see the door opening and an influx of students exiting. A few of his classmates spotted him when they passed by and waved friendly, which Cadmus greeted in return. He finally spotted Daphne exit the classroom with her backpack sling over her shoulders, talking excitedly to Amy.

"There you are, Daphne!" Cadmus exclaimed, quickly racing over to her.

"Cadmus! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in the Great Hall for lunch?" Daphne asked. She was secretly pleased that Cadmus waited for her outside of her class.

"I was hoping to wait for you, so we can head to lunch together," Cadmus responded. Daphne blushed, smacking Amy lightly on the arm for giggling at them. Amy hung behind to talk with her classmate while Cadmus and Daphne headed for lunch. Throughout lunch, Cadmus was contemplating how he was going to tell Daphne about Malfoy.

"Is there something wrong, Cadmus?" Daphne asked softly, peering worriedly at his pained expression. Cadmus swiftly schooled his expression and gave her a smile to cover up his displease.

"What? No, there's nothing wrong, Daphne," Cadmus lied.

"There is something wrong," Daphne pointed out. "Cadmus, you fidget with your left pointer finger everything you get nervous." Cadmus looked down, he hadn't noticed that he was rubbing his hand nervously. Cadmus sighed; there was no persuading Daphne to drop the issue now that she knew something was off.

"I'll tell you after lunch," Cadmus whispered, eyeing the students who were trying to listen in on their conversation. "It's really important and I don't want anyone else to hear it besides you." After lunch, Cadmus pulled Daphne into an empty classroom and set up silencing charms.

"Look, I'm worried about Malfoy," Cadmus sighed.

"That blonde git? Cadmus, you know better than to let that pompous idiot get to you!" Daphne exclaimed.

"Yes, I know, Daphne. Listen, Malfoy has bullied his father into hiring a solicitor to search for loopholes in your marriage contract with him." Cadmus broke the news to her. Daphne looked troubled.

"But how do you know if he is telling the truth or not?" Daphne demanded.

"If his threat is real or not, I don't know, but we must take this seriously. We might not have a lot of time; you need to inform your father promptly," Cadmus noted gravely. Daphne nodded her head in agreement.

"I have checked out lots of law books before I waited for you in Arithmancy. We can start by researching ways out of this" Cadmus ordered.

"Ok, I'll write to my father. We'll meet up tomorrow with all the information we got," Daphne approved.

"I'll ask my dad for any information too," Cadmus added. The two of them quickly got to work, researching marriage contracts and old British laws. Their only hope was that Draco Malfoy was only trying to rile them up and everything about the loopholes in the marriage contract was a fluke.

Cadmus went to see his parents as soon as he could. He didn't often ask Nicholas and Perenelle for any help, and they rarely gave any either because they trusted him to make the right decisions for himself. However, in this situation, Cadmus was clueless about what to do, so he consulted his parents, who had more experience with the type of thing. Cadmus knocked on the door of the office before he heard his dad tell him to come in.

When he entered, his father looked surprised to see him and smiled. "Cadmus, what a lovely surprise to see you. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Actually, yes. Dad, I need your help," Cadmus said.

"Daphne's marriage contract with Malfoy may have loopholes. She wrote to her father to confirm if it is true, but I have a feeling it might be. Do you know what she should do?" Cadmus asked.

Nicholas sat back into his armchair and stared off into the ceiling thinking. "Wow, that is serious. Well, I believe there are a couple of ways she could do, but it still won't guarantee her freedom."

Cadmus felt hope for a moment. "What is it?" Cadmus asks.

Nicholas stroked his beard, "Well, to invalidate her contract with young Malfoy, Daphne must have another contract drawn by a British family that is as old as the Malfoys. But as far as I know, the majority of the British pureblood families align themselves with the dark."

Cadmus' heart dropped. "Is there any other way?"

"Yes, you can propose a duel to Malfoy for the freedom of Daphne from the contract. If you win, it will invalidate Malfoy's marriage contract completely, and Daphne's freedom is guaranteed. But if you lose, Malfoy has total control over Daphne, and you may lose your magic as punishment."

Cadmus gulped, as much as he was willing to duel for Daphne's freedom, the prospect of losing his magic and being cast away in society sounded disturbing.

"Son, I have a question for you," Nicholas said calmly.

"Yes, Dad?"

"Do you love Daphne?" Nicholas asked.

"I do" Cadmus answered without hesitation.

"Well you can enter a marriage contract with Daphne," Nicholas said matter-of-factly.

"But- you said a British family that is as old as the Malfoys. Our family has been French for centuries," Cadmus spluttered.

"Ah, but that's not the whole story. Most of your relatives may have a little french in their blood, but the Flamel family has been British the whole time. The Flamel family dates back to the time of the Hogwarts founders," Nicholas explained. Cadmus was silent, extremely puzzled about the new information he was given.

"If that's all Cadmus, I do have some alchemy assignments to grade. I seem to have lost one of my student's papers, I believe his name is Jacob. I'll have to double-check" Nicholas said.

Cadmus thanked his dad for helping him and left the office without another word. On his way back to Harvard Tower, Cadmus was lost in his thoughts. He was battling his feelings for Daphne; he loved her, but he didn't know what to feel about marrying her.

By the next day, Cadmus couldn't get over what his dad had said. The idea of marrying Daphne played in his head many times. During breakfast, Cadmus kept stealing glances at Daphne and couldn't stop thinking how she looked so pretty. Cadmus was falling more in love with Daphne every time they were together.

Cadmus wondered how Daphne would react to his father's advice. She could be mad at him for believing that it was a possibility. She could be indifferent to the idea like most of the time. Or she could be happy that they were going to spend the rest of their lives together.

Cadmus decided to forget about the issue for a bit as he was about to head to Care of Magical Creatures class. He had no clue what the topic of the class was, so he was going to be finding out with the rest of the class. It was just his luck that Friday CoMC classes were for fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins, so Cadmus spent a hefty amount of time ignoring the burning glare from Malfoy.

The class was interesting enough, Cadmus thought. They learned about porlocks, which were small creatures that were bipedal and guarded horses. Porlocks were native to England and Southern Ireland, so it was a first time experience to see a new creature. Hagrid had explained that Porlocks were often mistrustful of humans; if they interacted with you, it was considered an amazing feat. They were taught to let the porlocks come to them, instead of moving towards the porlocks. If you managed to gain the trust of a Porlock, you could start feeding them treats. Hagrid was quite versed in magical creatures, which was something not many people are passionate about.

Cadmus was greeted to the sight of a group of porlocks emerging from their shelters. They had reddish-brown shaggy hair and blue eyes, and they walked on two cloven hooves that made them slightly taller. Hagrid handed out three to four treats to everyone so that they could feed the porlocks and develop a relationship with them. The treat looked rather revolting to Cadmus, it was light brown and solid, but its appearance made it feel like manure. However, the porlocks seemed to enjoy the taste of them because when Cadmus tossed one at the feet of a Porlock, it picked the treat up eagerly and munched on it. The Porlock, which Cadmus named Charlie for convenience, spotted the pile of treats Cadmus set down and immediately absconded away with it.

"Hey!" Cadmus reacted, jumping to his feet.

"Hagrid sir, Charlie ran away!" Cadmus reported to Hagrid, who was a couple of feet from him, tending to the cut finger of one of the Gryffindors.

"Eh, who?" Hagrid asked cluelessly.

"Charlie! The Porlock that I named," Cadmus replied.

"Er well...they tend to do that sometimes. Just erm sit tight for a few moments," Hagrid advised. The Gryffindor winced when Hagrid started to gingerly treat the wound with healing paste and wrapped it with some cloth.

Soon enough, Cadmus saw Charlie poke out of the forest and walk towards him, holding something. Charlie dropped the object in Cadmus' outstretched hands before it pointed at it and made a sound. Charlie seemed to be telling him to look at the object. Cadmus opened his palm and looked at the object; it was an alluring transparent green stone. It resembled the color of his eyes remarkably.

"Well done! Porlocks have an overwhelming amount of connection and bond with nature, if they present you with any form of natural product, that means they like you," Hagrid bellowed, clapping his large hands loudly.

Cadmus beamed; he felt proud of himself. When Charlie saw that Cadmus liked the stone, Charlie jumped happily. Cadmus laughed and reached out to stroke its hair. A lot of the students were jealous that he got along well with his Porlock, while theirs stubbornly refused to let them come close. When the class ended, all the Gryffindors and Slytherins headed up the hill back to Hogwarts.

Hagrid asked Cadmus to stay behind for a moment. Cadmus followed Hagrid into a hut, which Cadmus assumed was where Hagrid slept.

"Eh, I've never had a student like yer before. I reckon you like to know a lot of things. Um if yer interested, I have a book on how to deal with various magical creatures you can keep," Hagrid offered.

"Sure, thanks," Cadmus replied. He didn't want the book, but Hagrid was nice, and he didn't want to break his feelings by saying no. He couldn't bear to refuse after seeing how happy Hagrid was when he agreed.

"Here ya go," Hagrid said, handing a book to him. Cadmus accepted the book and looked at the cover. Magical Creatures of the Wizarding World. The book looked interesting to read.

"Thanks, sir" Cadmus politely said. Hagrid was beaming.

"No problem, lad. Call me Hagrid, everyone does. Hope you enjoy the book, it's very informative," Hagrid said, waving goodbye to Cadmus. Cadmus grabbed his things and started to head back towards the castle. He glanced at his watch midway and noticed that it was about to be two. It was a free period for all Harvard students, which meant Daphne was most likely in the common room. Cadmus quickly made his way to Harvard Tower, bumping into Neville on the way.

"Oh, sorry there- Neville!" Cadmus exclaimed after realizing that the person he had bumped into was his friend. Cadmus extended his hand to help Neville off the ground and dusted his clothes.

"Oh hey there, Cadmus" Neville smiled, "Where did you just come from?"

"Care of Magical Creatures," Cadmus responded with a grin. "Do you take that class?"

"No, not really. I'm helpless with creatures; I dropped the class in my third year. Plants and Herbology are more of my thing," Neville replied.

"That's fine, everyone has their propensity towards a certain subject they like" Cadmus comforted.

Neville gave Cadmus a grateful smile, "Thanks, Cadmus. Um, I'm heading to my tower, I'll catch you sometime later." Cadmus grinned.

"Ok, see you at dinner," Cadmus said before he turned around and walked in the direction of Harvard Tower. Cadmus looked around the common room for Daphne the moment he stepped foot into the tower; she was sitting by herself in the corner of the common room, pouring over several books. Cadmus made his way towards her and allowed himself to make his presence known.

"Hey there, Daphne," Cadmus greeted in a low voice, leaning towards to give a kiss on her forehead. Daphne blushed and moved her stuff to give him some space to sit.

"Hey," Daphne replied, blushing from the act of affection from Cadmus. Cadmus lifted the book she was reading to see the cover.

"A Guide to Marriage Contracts" Cadmus read the title of the book slowly. Daphne did not meet his eye when he looked at her.

"Did you receive any information from your father?" Cadmus asked.

"Yeah, Father responded," Daphne answered, opening one of the books and pulling out a paper that acted as a sort of bookmark. Cadmus took the letter and pulled it closer to himself to read it.

Dear Daughter,

Thank you for informing me of this right away. I have contacted our family solicitor, and he has conducted a thorough scan of the marriage contract between you and Draco Malfoy. There is a loophole in one of the barely noticeable articles. My only worry is that his family has found the loophole and will use this as their advantage against you. I fear for your safety and future should you be wed to Draco Malfoy. Thankfully, there are a few ways you can get out of this contract, I suggest you look up chapter 9 of A Guide to Marriage Contracts to find the answer. Don't hesitate to ask me anything, I'm here for you. Love, Dad.

Cadmus looked up from the letter at Daphne, "So, what did you find?"

"The only way out of the marriage contract is," Daphne said quietly, looking frightened- "to draw up another marriage contract with a British family-"

"..that is as old as the Malfoys," Daphne and Cadmus finished together. When Daphne finished, she didn't meet his eyes. Daphne felt trapped, being in a marriage contract meant the future for her was nonexistent. Most British pureblood families that are as old as the Malfoys often believed that the mistress of their son must be a household wife and nothing else.

"How did you know?" Daphne asked quietly.

Cadmus grimaced, "My father told me."

"What else did he say?" Daphne questioned, knowing that there was a lot more than Cadmus' father telling him about marriage contracts.

"That you and I could be set up in a marriage contract," Cadmus answered.

"My father told me the same thing in his second letter," Daphne said quietly. There was a long moment of silence between the two of them.

"So, what do you think about it?" Cadmus inquired.

"Cadmus, I do love you very much. But I am afraid of marriage, especially if I am required to marry to escape a dim future. What if our true love dies out because of this? Loving each other truly and loving each other because of outlying issues are two contrasting things," Daphne admitted.

"Daphne, I'll love you the same no matter what. Tell me, if our relationship continued like this, don't you think we will still end up married?" Cadmus supplied.

"Yes," Daphne replied, starting to understand what Cadmus was implying.

"This marriage contract is just ensuring we get married after we graduate Harvard. That means we have two years of bonding time," Cadmus assured her. Daphne leaned on his shoulders as Cadmus comforted her. They sat there in the position for a long time, warmed by each other's presence. It was Daphne who finally broke the silence.

"You'll give me time to think, right?" Daphne whispered. Cadmus ran his hand through her silky blonde hair comfortingly.

"Of course, Daphne. Take all the time you need," Cadmus replied. Daphne seemed satisfied with his answer and cuddled close to his body. In their moment of comfort, Cadmus realized that love was a complicated emotion. He had feelings for Daphne that he never knew about and now came to a sudden understanding that he loved her very much. His love for her was far more than the eye could see.

A/N: Your thoughts on the chapter? Leave your thoughts in the review section and I'll reply to them as soon as possible. I'm sorry for the late update, so terribly sorry. Creative juices weren't flowing and on top of that, school is starting dangerously soon! High school life is difficult, so please bear with me. I'll try my best to publish chapters weekly. If there is a lack of regular updates, then I hope the length and quality of the chapter can make up for it. Thank you so much. Let me know what you are most eager to see next. Cadmus training hard for the third task? More Lily Potter perspective content?

Stay safe and happy,

mintloveme523