Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. All characters belong to JK Rowling. Daphne's chant is from Stephen King's IT.

Warning: Mentioned child abuse (not of a main character).

000000000

If Draco had been hoping that October was going to suck less than September, he'd been sadly mistaken.

"Quit it," he hissed at Daphne, feeling the bruise forming from where her shoe had (viciously) kicked him in the leg. Theo and Granger (damn her, as if she wasn't the reason for this) glanced up at them to see Draco glaring daggers at Daphne and Daphne looking innocently back at him. As if any of the Slytnerins in their year were ever innocent.

She merely wrote down on her parchment and angled it so only he could read it: You were losing your temper with her. None of us want to deal with you flipping out and getting our entire house in trouble….again.

She underlined the word 'again'.

Three times.

He thought that was a completely unnecessary number of times. One would have sufficed; he wasn't Tracey Davis, who practically needed someone to follow her around with a sign saying 'No', or Crabbe and Goyle, who were both two thick to understand simple commands. (Yes, he was still bitter that Crabbe seemed to be blaming the current Gryffindor-Slytherin disaster completely on him. As if he and Greg had been elsewhere, minding their own business, when he'd tried to hex Potter.)

Draco's glare only intensified, but Daphne just shot him a deceptively pleasant smile. It was the sort of smile their parents all taught them to use for their parties, charities and events, the sort of smile that said, 'I may be bored out of my mind, but if I let that slip my parents are going to chew me out'. Except today it was a smile that clearly said, 'Play nice with Granger and the other Gryffindor or I will kick the bloody shite out of you'. Well, see if he ever defended her to Potter again. (Not that she'd been grateful for that; she seemed more annoyed that Potter now knew that Draco had known about their soulmate mark.

Alright, Draco could understand that. If he'd had Potter's name, he'd keep that crap to himself as well.)

Draco had just gritted his teeth at Daphne who went back to their arithmancy work, secure in the knowledge that her point had been made. Even still he would end up getting kicked five times in the next few weeks. It was infuriating; arithmancy was not his favorite class, his two favorites were actually Potions and DADA, but he was normally very good at it except now he couldn't concentrate. There was the soulmate bond tying him to bloody Granger; he'd thought it'd get easier to ignore since they had three bloody classes together, but it wasn't. It was constantly there, the need to be near her, the crackling in the air when they were close by, even when he was in the dungeons he could feel it rattling in his teeth sometimes. There were times he nearly gave in and touched her in Potions, under the guise of handing her an ingredient, but he always saved himself at the last minute.

The very second he actually touched her now that the bond was firmly in place between them, everything would get so much worse. Draco almost couldn't believe that was possible but it's what he'd been taught previously about the bond and he now had Pansy as proof.

(Pansy, like all of them, had many lessons in etiquette and deportment as a child. She knew how to sit perfectly still at meals, so it was a little out of the usual to see her openly drumming her fingers against the table or tapping her foot on the floor.

Draco followed her glare when she lifted her head and saw it go right towards Weasel; the redhead was laughing at something Potter said, one arm slung over Granger's shoulder and Draco felt the soulmate bond wrap around him painfully. Grimacing, he glanced back at Pansy, who was now gripping her fork so tight, that he was actually concerned it was hurting her hand.

"Don't," she'd mouthed at him, but she told him and Daphne later when they were on their own. "Whatever you do, don't touch them. I thought my mum was exaggerating when she said touching made that pushing thing the bond does stronger, but I think she was understating it.")

But it was even worse in classes like Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures because he shared them with Theo as well. Theo Nott was a wizard of his word and when he said he could no longer be Draco's friend, he meant it. He thought he had taken it well, and had thought he'd been downright understanding regarding the circumstances, but he'd be lying if there wasn't a part of him that didn't want to curse Theo out for abandoning him. Almost ten years of friendship thrown out because he got that mudblood's name on his face. But then, he remembered what Theodore Nott Snr was like and the remorse he wasn't used to feeling would come flooding in.

("How'd you get that?" Draco had stared wide eyed when the left sleeve on his friend's robes rolled up to reveal a large, angry looking welt. He'd been six and relatively sheltered and the idea of a parent doing this to their kid was about to rattle his brain.

"My dad just has a temper. I shouldn't have made him angry." That was all Theo would say on the subject, but Draco became aware of how often Theo would shrink back from someone about to touch him or how often he'd favor one arm or leg.)

The loss of that friendship had been weighing on him more that school went on, and it was all Granger's fault. (The knowledge that she hated being bonded to him as much as he did her was lost on him at that point. As was the knowledge that no one picked their soulmate, it was decided for them by some pushy magic that believed it knew what was best for people or just chose at random.)

He'd been annoyed in the library one day, in the middle of the month, and had seen Theo sitting in the corner alone. Theo sitting alone in the library was not an uncommon sight but in their first three years Theo might have waved at Draco at least. Now, his former friend was pointedly ignoring him and he was feeling that rejection. The fact that he had to then run into Granger in the Transfiguration section of the library and watch her take down the exact book he needed had only made it worse.

"Out of every book in this library, that's the one you need?" He was whinging, but fuck it, he didn't care. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, Malfoy, that's how a library works," she had snapped back, eyes flashing. "You select a book, you take it from the shelf, and then you read it. If you need it, you'll just have to wait until I'm done...unless of course, I decide to check it out." She was being condescending to him and he knew she was enjoying it too; she practically wore her emotions on her sleeve sometimes, the same way her friends, the Brainless Wonders, did.

He didn't know why but that just pissed him off more. "No, thanks. I'd rather chew my own hand off than touch a book a filthy mudblood like you has gotten her germs on."

There were tears in her eyes and he felt a pang of sadness that wasn't his own, but he felt a whole lot of anger that wasn't his much more. She narrowed her eyes at him, drew herself up to her full height and-

"Oh, laddie, laddie, laddie. If you missed having extra time with me that much, you could have just told me rather than going out of your way to get detention." There was a cold shiver down his spine and Draco turned around to see Mad-Eye Moody standing at the end of the row of books, looking much too smug. "Now I might have needed some pointers on punishing students, but I know damn well that words like that are not to be used. So let's say another two weeks of detention? Oh, and minus twenty points from Slytherin."

His housemates were going to be so pissed off.

There was a burst of amused, self-satisfaction and he glanced behind him to see Granger walk away with a large grin on her face.

Fuck his life.

000000000

Draco was in a bad mood and, much as Pansy adored him, she was getting sick of it. Daphne, who wasn't as close to Draco as Pansy was, was obviously annoyed by him right now. They were in the common room again, privacy charms set up, and Draco had been snappish the whole time.

"You kind of brought this on yourself, Draco," Pansy interrupted his angry muttering. "I completely get the temptation to just go up to one of them and yell at them, but you have to make sure no one's around first."

Draco glared at her and she stared him down as well. "Oh for...I'll just leave you both to your staring contest," Daph grumbled before heading for the stairs of the girls dormitory. Yeah, she was mad.

(Pansy couldn't really blame her. When they were younger, she and Draco had once tried to stare each other down for nearly five minutes. Daphne and Theo had just started trading chocolate frog cards while waiting for one of them to blink first.)

Pansy knew she was really mad when she got back to their dorm and Daphne kept her back turned to her. She thought that this was uncharacteristically dramatic of Daph (though if this had been Little Greengrass, it would absolutely be on brand) and figured there was another reason. She finally got that reason in History of Magic class the next day while Binns was droning on about the goblin wars again.

(Merlin, how did he make a bloody war this boring sounding. Pansy had learned some of it before Hogwarts and her tutor hadn't lost her interest once. She, Daphne, Draco, Blaise and Theo used to play out parts of it as a game, that's how much their tutors had made it sound interesting.)

"I don't know why you and Draco can't just try and ignore them. They're not like Potter. They don't go out of their way to provoke you."

Pansy rolled her eyes. "Weasl's existence provokes me." She didn't wish that the name she'd gotten had been Draco's, her huge crush on him had faded by now, but damn it all that she got the name of a blood traitor her family would never accept. "If he didn't exist, maybe I'd have gotten a shot at love with a different soulmate."

"Not necessarily. My parents are soulmates after all," said Daphne, darkly.

"Your parents are...special." There were many words she could have used there, but all of them would have hurt Daphne. Pansy didn't care about pulling her punches with most people but Daphne was one of the few who made the cut for tact with her. "I'm not saying I was hoping for what Draco's parents have, but I wanted love."

Daphne 'I hate love because my parents suck' Greengrass bit her bottom lip but didn't comment, which Pansy appreciated. "All I'm saying," she started quietly, "is that we're only in the middle of October. We still have to get through a whole year with them. I don't get why you and Draco keep making things harder for yourselves."

That comment might have gotten through to her if later that day she hadn't got stuck behind Weasel and some of the other stupid Gryffindor boys in the corridor as they talked about the upcoming Tri-Wizard tournament. Finnegan was saying, "There's got to be a way to get around the age limit. Did Fred and George say anything? They're being a bit tight lipped about things lately."

Weasel groaned and the bond instantly ignited; it made Pansy want to yank him back and really give him something to grunt about, and even she had no idea what way she meant it. Stupid bloody bond. Her thoughts were interrupted when Weasel said, "They won't tell me and I'm their brother! I want to enter if they are. Can you just imagine what it'd be like to be the school champion."

Pansy felt some emotion flicker inside. It wasn't wistful and it wasn't quite jealousy, but it was close to both and there was also a bit of anger behind it too. She thought she got it; Weasel had been friends with Potter since their first day at Hogwarts and Potter was always getting attention for some stupid stunt or another he was pulling. Maybe Weasel was getting tired of being in the shadows?

She could get that -Draco was always the one who got the most attention out of their whole house - but she wasn't going to let herself sympathize with him. Instead, using the bond, she thought to him, Are you serious? If there was no age limit, we all know who would be picked from Gryffindor: Potter.

Weasel made a growling noise and came to an abrupt stop and Pansy was walking too fast to stop herself in time. She collided with his back, and the bond practically burned now, since this was the only time they'd touched since he'd fallen on top of her in the Great Hall. "What the fuck, Weasley," she snapped, just stopping her hands from grabbing onto him.

"Watch where you're going," he shot back, though she noticed one of his hands had twitched as if to grab her. (Well if she had to suffer at least he was too.)

"Maybe if you were actually noticeable I would," she said before pushing past him.

"Mate, what the fuck was that," asked Thomas, but she could barely hear any of them over the pounding in her ears. She wanted to go and hide in the Slytherin common room, but Parkinsons didn't hide; so instead, she marched into the dining hall and pretended as if anyone by the name of Ronald Weasley didn't exist.

If Pansy had hoped that would be the worst part of the week, she would be proven wrong the next morning when she got an owl from her father. Opening it, she read:

Pansy,

What's this I hear about you and your housemates being partnered with Gryffindors? This is unacceptable. I've tried to petition the Board of Governors but none of them will do anything with the tournament coming up.

I don't believe I have to remind you not to do anything to embarrass our family during this time. Nor should I have to remind you of the possible consequences if you were to become too close to someone beneath us. But I also know teenagers can be rebellious so consider this a reminder.

Be a good girl.

Love,

Dad

"He acts like this is my fault," she muttered before ripping up the letter. She'd been hoping her parents wouldn't find out about everything so soon, but there was no way of changing that now. She was going to have to act like they were watching over her shoulder and she already felt exhausted by that idea.

0000000

Daphne had known since the end of summer that it was only a matter of time before Astoria found out about the soulmate mark, but she'd thought she could keep it secret for a bit longer. Unfortunately a bit longer only turned out to be the beginning of October. Even worse, the ensuing meltdown had happened in front of one of Potter's friends.

She had met Granger in an empty classroom on the third floor to work on a project for Ancient Runes and on a completely unrelated note to look through a book Granger had that had more information on robots in it.

("You just need to know that the kind of robots Harry had in mind are fictional ones; robotics is a field in the muggle world but those aren't as advanced as the ones in books like these."

That just raised more questions.)

Granger had walked over to a corner of the classroom to get another book for the project from her bag, when the door to the classroom suddenly slammed open. "Daphne!" shouted Astoria as she bounded into the room, face flushed.

Daphne was already on her feet, wand in hand, before she was even aware of moving. Her textbook and parchment went falling to the floor, and the desk itself ended up pushing back a few inches in her hurry. "What's wrong?!" Her eyes were scanning her little sister, looking for any sign of injury or anything else visibly wrong.

Astoria paused long enough to take a breath before exclaiming, "Harry Potter's your soulmate?!"

She really regretted telling Astoria where she'd be now.

Her heart rate took a couple seconds to get back to normal and she audibly groaned. "Salazar, Astoria, you scared the shite out of me. I thought something was actually wrong!" She loved her sister more than anything, but there were days….

"Sorry." Astoria at least had the decency to look sheepish. "I was just surprised. How long have you known? And why didn't you tell me?" There wasn't a whine in her voice, but it was probably only a matter of seconds now.

Daphne ran a hand through her hair. "How did you find out?" By Merlin and Morgana, if Draco had opened his big mouth then she was going to kill him.

Astoria crossed her arms and frowned up at her. "That's not important." No, Daphne thought that was actually very important. She opened her mouth to argue but that was when she noticed that Tori looked upset. "I want to know why I didn't find out from you, Daph! I would have told you like right after I got a name. And didn't pretend that it just happened, I know you sent him-"

Astoria was suddenly interrupted by a voice coming from the corner of the room: "I feel like I shouldn't be here for this conversation." Oh, oh no. Her face felt warm as she turned around to look at Hermione Granger; the other witch had frozen when Astoria had burst into the room and one hand was still on her bag, though she turned in their direction to watch.

"You….you were here the whole time?" asked Astoria. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she could see that her sister's face had gone red. Daphne covered her face with her hand; how could she have forgotten Granger was here? Damn it, her sister was the only person who could throw her off her game so much. (And Potter, but Daphne pushed that thought away almost as quickly as it came.)

"I'm afraid so," Granger answered, a giggle escaping her lips.

"I'm sorry, Granger. Don't go, my sister was just leaving-"

"Hi, I'm Astoria Greengrass," her sister cut her off. Her face still looked pink but she reached around Daphne to hold out her hand to Granger. The muggleborn witch shook it, looking more bemused than anything. "I'm really sorry for running in like this. That was rude. I'm also sorry because I'm going to be more rude right now."

Daphne and Granger had time to share an alarmed look before Astoria started talking, fast in French: "I ran into Harry Potter, he was humming my song. I know I didn't share it with him. He said no one played it for him and it was just in his head one day."

"Shit," Daphne muttered, ignoring the raised eyebrow from Granger. Of all the people living in this castle, Astoria just had to run into him. She couldn't even be annoyed with Potter here, at least not entirely, because she'd been weak enough to share that music with him. The way Astoria phrased it though confused her. "He doesn't know I shared it through the bond?" And she thought he'd been purposefully annoying her. "How-"

"That's not the point, Daphne! I do want to know why you sent him my song and not yours-"

Merlin, because hearing him humming hers would have been a hundred times worse.

"But why didn't you tell me? Why did I have to find out by accident?" There was a whine in Astoria's voice now, but what was worse was the hurt in her eyes. It made Daphne feel as if she'd kicked a puppy.

Daphne ran a hand through her hair. "I was going to tell you soon. I just wanted to try and sort things out with him first. Look, Tori, I know you like the idea of the bond more-"

"Wait, that's why you didn't tell me? Because of the fight we had last year?" The disbelief and hurt were quickly being swallowed by anger. "Well, you know what? I'm not changing my mind. I'm not just letting you give up!"

Her sister tossed her hair over her shoulder and turned to storm out of the room. Hurriedly, Daphne, switching back to English, said, "Don't slam the" -both she and Granger flinched at the loud noise- "...door." Groaning, Daphne sat back down at her desk. "Fantastic."

Granger was side-eying her. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, I'm just great. My sister thinks it's her mission now to matchmake your friend and I, but I'll survive." Later Daphne was going to be very mad at herself for letting her guard down this much, but at the moment her one thought was: Damn it, Astoria.

"That's...actually kind of sweet," Granger said.

Daphne just stared at her. "Do you want me to date Potter?"

"No," Granger answered bluntly, blanching. If Daphne had cared about Potter in any way, that reaction from one of his best friends might have been hurtful. As it was, she agreed with Granger, though she doubted they had the same reasons for thinking it a terrible idea.

"So all of us are on the same page except Astoria. Hopefully, that will make stopping her easier."

Daphne really doubted it but that was the hope. She held off on mentioning it to Potter for a few weeks, though Granger might have warned him for all she knew, but she definitely knew Astoria hadn't done anything yet since he hadn't complained to her. Then again that would be just like Astoria; she wouldn't approach him right away, she'd try and make Daphne sweat a little, before finally making her move. The only upside to this would be that Tori would probably annoy the shite out of Potter too.

(Pansy and Draco had also failed to see the trouble her sister could potentially cause by doing this. It had been frustrating to bring it up and have them both basically shrugged her off.

"Just ignore it. Talking to Potter will probably put her off anyway," said Draco.

"I told you that you should have said something to her sooner. You waited too long, so she ended up being a drama queen about it," said Pansy. Both Daphne and Draco had stared at her then and she snapped, "What?"

"Pans, I love you, but you don't get to call anyone else a drama queen," Daphne had said before laughing.)

She finally decided to say something after finding him alone in the library one day. Well not exactly alone because Creevey was bugging him. "Leave," she said, giving the boy a hard stare.

He left.

"Would it have killed you to ask him nicely?" Potter sounded exasperated, which made her grind her teeth. Underneath the table, where he couldn't see, she clenched her hands into fists as the bond pressed down on her. He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.

"Alright. Next time I'll say 'Leave, Camera Boy'. How's that?" She knew full well that the Gryffindor's name was Colin Creevey but she wanted to annoy Potter.

He was glaring at her. "His name is Colin."

"Whatever. Look I'm just warning you: my sister knows about the bond and she's probably going to try and convince you to date me or something. I'm going to try and stop her but Astoria's stubborn."

He blinked. "Astoria? But that's-"

He was going to bring up the song he didn't even know she sent him, and she was not here for that. "She said she ran into you, yes."

"But she's a Ravenclaw. How is your sister not a Slytherin?" Daphne just stared at him and he grimaced as he must have realized how stupid that question was. Oh, but it was too late for him now.

Daphne smiled. "I'm so glad you asked Potter. You see at the beginning of the year at Hogwarts, there's something called a Sorting. There's this hat, you see, that decides which house you get put in. It sings a song about it and everything." She was being completely condescending right now and having a lot of fun doing it. "During our first year, it said I was a Slytherin. Then two years later-"

"I get the point," he snapped, green eyes flashing in anger. Oh, but she did enjoy that. "I'm sorry for disappointing your sister in advance, but you are the last person I'd ever date."

"Right back at you."

It was probably the only thing they agreed on.

00000000

Notes: Next chapter the other schools will get here as will the Goblet of Fire.

Astoria and Daphne's conversation in French was left in italicized English because both are fluent in French; if it's in the POV of someone like Harry who doesn't know French, it will be untranslated.

Also, in case anyone was interested, I wrote something about Harry and Daphne's not relationship at this point in the story. I don't expect people to click on the link to see and I will be trying to summarize it better in another chapter notes, but if you're interested: post/632369687949459456/they-were-both-too-young-to-know-how-to-love