Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any associated properties. That all belongs to JK Rowling.
Once More With Feeling
Chapter One: Damned Goblins
July 16, 1994
"Oh, that is just shameful."
The Greengrass family was sitting at their dining table and eating breakfast as they usually did every morning during the summer months or any other time that their two daughters were home. Also, as usual, Cyrus Greengrass was perusing the Daily Prophet and looking for any exciting news.
He always remarked on anything interesting, and the family would talk about it.
His wife and the mother of the Greengrass girls, Daphne and Astoria, followed the routine and asked, "What is shameful, dear?"
Cyrus looked up at his wife, Isabelle, and turned the paper around to face her. "Sirius Black has been acquitted. Apparently, he never got a trial, but there was something in the Potter will that proves him innocent."
Isabelle frowned, her brown eyebrows creasing with her annoyance. She had known Sirius Black in school, having been in the same year as him and James Potter. She didn't like the boy when they were in school but was annoyed with the idea of a pureblood Lord rotting in Azkaban for twelve years when they were innocent.
"How did this come out, and why only now?" Daphne Greengrass asked. The eldest daughter of the Greengrass family and the heiress, Daphne, had her mother's sapphire blue eyes and her father's honey blonde hair. She, too, like all of her family, believed in Pureblood superiority.
Luckily though, Cyrus never took up with the Dark Lord, preferring to remain neutral. Daphne's uncle, Cygnus, took the mark and is currently rotting in Azkaban.
"Well, it says that Harry Potter managed to emancipate himself so that he could have his family's will read. The will states that it was Peter Pettigrew and not Sirius Black that was their secret keeper."
Daphne, too, frowned at this, but not for her undying love of justice. She frowned because she hated Harry Potter. She thought that he was arrogant and was regularly shown favoritism by most of the staff of Hogwarts. Especially by the Headmaster.
She was still sore over how the Headmaster had waited until the last minute in their first year to award points to Gryffindor so that the Slytherins could be embarrassed and have their night ruined. Or how most of the school heaped praise on Potter for being the "youngest seeker in a century" when it was against the rules for first-years to own a broom. Of course, he is the youngest when he is the only one allowed on a broom!
Ignoring all of that and she still had the annoyance of how he seemed to forsake her hand in friendship when she tried to offer it in their second year.
They had been in the library, and she wanted to get to know the boy that everyone had always talked about, but when she approached him, he looked at her and then just glared! Ever since then, Daphne has hated Harry Potter.
A scratching noise took Daphne out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see a tawny owl at the window, wanting someone to let it inside. Her sister, Astoria, skipped over to the window, her dark brown hair bouncing behind her.
Astoria is two years younger than Daphne and had their mother's dark hair and their father's equally dark eyes.
After Astoria opened the window, the owl immediately flew to their father and dropped an envelope in his lap before taking off through the window.
Visibly confused, Cyrus picked up the envelope before opening it and reading the letter that was inside. The more of the letter that he read, the more his confusion turned into worry. He also kept shooting glances at his wife and his eldest.
When he finished with the letter, he silently handed it over to his wife, who proceeded to do the same thing. She constantly looks at her husband and their eldest the whole time.
Their looks served to unnerve Daphne very much, she had no idea what could be wrong, but she knew it had something to do with her.
"Dad? Mum? What is going on?" Astoria asked, also noticing the tension and strain in the room.
Sighing, their mother handed the letter back to their father, who then stood up and paced around the room.
After what felt like an eternity to Daphne, he stopped to look directly at her.
"Daphne… dear, there seems to have been an… unexpected turn of events." Cyrus turned so that his back was to his family and seemed to collect himself.
"It appears that something has activated a marriage contract. We do not know why and we do not…" Daphne's father kept explaining the situation, but she had zoned out.
A marriage contract? No one does those anymore! Not even the Notts or the Malfoys!
"When?" Her voice was shaky, but it still was enough to cause her father to pause and look at her questioningly. "When do I have to marry… whoever this is?" She said while trying and failing to hold back a sob.
"We do not know. We'll go to the bank later and find out what exactly is going on."
Nodding, Daphne stood up and went to her room. Once inside, she closed the door, flopped onto her bed, and buried her face in her pillows, crying for all that she was worth.
Stepping inside the bank, Daphne felt like she was suffocating. She felt as if with each step, chains were wrapping themselves tighter and tighter around her body. She tried to keep a stoic look on her face, as her father always told her to, but she found that she could not honestly be bothered to do so at the moment.
During the previous school year, she had harbored a crush on Blaise Zabini but had never said anything to him about it. The only person to know was her best friend, Tracey Davis. She had planned to approach him during the upcoming school year, but that was pointless now.
A tear almost escaped her eye, but she quickly wiped it away before her parents could see. Her mother had always been sure to tell them not to cry in front of anyone. Astoria had gotten grounded for a month when she made the mistake of tripping in Diagon Alley and scraping her knee when she was seven.
When Daphne managed to pull herself from her thoughts, they were facing the teller, and her father was speaking to a goblin. "I need to see my account manager immediately. His name is Grabclaw."
The goblin frowned at her father and said, "Grainclaw will be with you shortly. Wait over there." The goblin pointed to an area over by the wall where other people were waiting anxiously. Most people did not ever actually talk to or even meet their account managers, so it was generally bad if you were about to speak with them.
After twenty-one minutes, Grainclaw appeared and whisked them away to his office.
If by shortly, he meant over twenty minutes, then I guess this is short.
Though, Daphne was sure that he had made them wait for longer than needed. Damned goblins.
Once they were all settled, Grainclaw smiled joyfully at the Greengrass patriarch, who was strange to see on a goblin. "What brings you here, Cyrus. I haven't seen you since you took up the mantle of Lord Greengrass twenty-one years ago."
Daphne was now entirely sure that the goblin had made them wait, which convinced her that he already knew why they were here. If anything happened that affected the Greengrass family, he would be the first to know.
How petty. We had to wait a minute for every year that my father did not contact him.
"As I am sure that you already know," Cyrus said with a dark look crossing his features, "a marriage contract was activated that affects my heiress. I would like to know who this contract is with, where it came from, and how someone managed to activate it now."
The goblin's smile widened, but the smile now turned almost feral.
"Oh yes, that contract. Yes, I have known about that contract for about... When were you born?" With this, the goblin looked at Daphne as if he knew the answer but wanted her to say it as if it made it sweeter for him.
"May 9th, 1980."
The goblin nodded and smiled again. "Yes, I've known about the contract since then. So, about fourteen years. You would've also known about the contract had you bothered to keep in touch with your family's account manager. Your father and I met twice a month when he was alive."
With a sigh, Grainclaw shook his head disappointedly and opened a file that was on his desk.
"The contract was written by your Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Caspar, and his best friend, Preston. That happened somewhere around early 1815, and I believe it was to celebrate the two friends having survived the war out west in the Americas. The contract is rather specific in that it requires Preston's descendant to be the husband and Caspar's to be the wife," he gestured to Daphne, and she hiccuped slightly at the reminder.
"It also requires the two to be within six months age difference. I believe that should answer the where and how."
Nodding to herself, she sniffed once before stopping herself when she saw the look that her mother gave her. She had seen the portrait of Caspar Greengrass in their manor. He was a happy-looking man, and she knew that the war that Grainclaw was speaking of was the War of 1812, as her ancestor had fought in it.
If only the portrait were a magical one, he could have told me about the contract earlier.
Daphne felt that if she had known earlier, she could have spent some more time getting used to the idea of being promised to someone.
Her father spoke up after he seemed to finish thinking, "Yes, that does answer the where and how. It does not, however, answer the who."
The goblin closed his file and smiled once more. "Oh, did I not say? Your daughter will be married to the male descendant of Preston…"
Daphne was now sitting on the edge of her seat.
At the very least, the family has to be somewhat old if they were around back then. Also, he is at most six months older than me. I will not have to marry some man older than my father.
"Preston, who? Please get on with it, Grainclaw. That is my heiress that we are talking about."
It slightly bothered her that her father only ever referred to her as his heiress and never as his daughter. As if that was their only relation and he was not her father. There were times when he would call her dear, but an unpleasant order or bad news usually followed that.
The goblin smiled once more, seeming to enjoy their tenseness and holding Daphne's fate in his creepy and most likely filthy goblin-hands.
"Preston Potter."
Daphne's heart skipped a beat, and for a moment, she ceased breathing.
Potter? Potter! Out of everyone in the world, it had to be Potter?!
Daphne felt personally attacked. She felt as if fate itself had plotted for this to happen to her. Merlin and Morgana were surely out to get her for some perceived slight. Or maybe this was Death trying to scare her to, well, you know.
"Is there no way out?" Daphne asked futilely. She knew that there was no way out of a marriage contract. That was the whole reason people stopped using them. People realized that forcing people to marry under threat of death was not a good idea. They instead started forcing them to marry under the threat of expulsion from their family.
"No, there is no way out. I and Badrek, the Potter family's account manager, have spent years looking for a way out of the contract. Alas, there isn't one."
Wiping her eyes before any tears could fall, Daphne asked the same question that she had asked her father earlier. "When? When do we have to marry?"
The goblin opened the file once more and pointed at a line on one of the papers, and said, "You must marry within a year of your coming of age."
Burying her head into her hands, Daphne let out a silent sob.
Three years? I only have three years, and then I have to marry someone that I hate? What have I done to deserve this?
"If that is all, I do recommend that you set up a meeting between Ms. Greengrass and Mr. Potter. To my knowledge, Mr. Potter is currently staying with the Weasley family."
Nodding to herself, Daphne looked at her father, who also nodded before standing up. Cyrus opened the door, but before any of them walked out, Grainclaw spoke once more. "Oh and Cyrus, I'd suggest that you don't wait so long to speak with your manager again. As you can see, it only ends badly."
With that, Grainclaw waved them out, which visibly angered her father. As they walked out of the bank, her father mumbled one last thing: "Damned goblins."
Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm back with a new story. This story has been on my computer for at least a year or a year and a half. The last time that I uploaded something was in 2018, and I was in high school. I am in college now. I imagine that my writing style has changed slightly, and I hope it is a good change. Let me know what you think.
I hope that you guys enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Until next time.