A/N: Hey everyone! Welcome back to The Saviour's Pariah and apologies for a shortish chapter.
Thank you all so much for the continuous support for this story and with the release of this part, I'd like to announce that updates for this as well as The Guarder Snake will now be staggered; by that I mean Guarder will get two parts next month and Pariah will only get one chapter released that month.
For those of you interested in my other works, I've got a wealth of oneshots available as well as two other fics in progress! Tomorrow's release will be about a 7k~ update for The Power of Love, followed by a Harry/Corene short that will be released Monday!
A big thanks to my Beta's and Discord Staff - Alec, Alpple, CalamityXx, Champ, DorianGray, O'Neill, Seventh Son, SinisterFox and Xevier!
Feel free to join my Discord for updates and information, link on my profile. Without any more rambling from me, I hope you enjoy the story!
(Sorry if you don't like the chapter!)
September 12, 1998
Saturday Morning
Harry was coming to realize that the Slytherin table was a place that he'd slowly end up spending more and more time at while the year went on.
That was one of the weirdest feelings he'd had in recent times too — that being sitting at a table full of people that used to absolutely loathe him for simply being who he was and now, with a majority of those peers dead, in Azkaban, or having refused to return, not a word was said against him. Being who he was, he'd get looks from people with some being less than respectful, but nobody was foolish enough to trash the saviour in public.
"One of these days I'll have to bring you over to the Gryffindor table with Nev and the others," Harry told Delphini from their seat towards the end of the table; the girl having told him that she naturally preferred being closer to exits.
"We can do that." Delphini agreed, "So long as we spend time with just the two of us too."
Harry didn't cough or outwardly show any signs that the girl's words had gotten to him, he'd grown used to how brazen she was with her intentions. That wasn't to say her doing so didn't send him off-kilter still, she'd been the last thing he was expecting when he heard the name, Delphini Black.
Blood purist with ties to Voldemort, sure. Fellow black sheep like Sirius? Unlikely, not impossible. Attempting to romance him regardless of who was nearby while also trying to get access to her 'rightful' claims from House Black via treating him like the Lord of the family? Who would've guessed it?
"Sure, I don't mind it, gives me the chance to get to know more about you and your family."
That was what Harry responded with after roughly ten seconds; he'd gone in for a bite during her talking so that it'd give him the chance to think, a tactic he was likely to use often with his new Slytherin friends.
At least until they'd call him out on it… but would Slytherin's do that? Then again, Daphne, Delphini and Tracey were far from your average snakes.
"Whatever you want to know, I'll answer — you'll do the same right?"
Harry nodded at her words, "Yeah."
"Perfect!" Delphini smiled brightly at him and 'accidentally' brushed her hand across his saying, "You can go first, Harry."
Not bothering to pull his hand back at the contact, especially when considering the witch who initiated it was fit. Harry asked the first question that he figured was as good an ice breaker as any.
"How're you enjoying Hogwarts now that you've had more than a week here?"
Delphini shrugged and smiled. "It's as easy as I was told it would be by my father. Where've you been living now that you're out from Hogwarts and no longer need a guardian?"
Merlin, she didn't hold back for propriety did she?
"I've been living at Black Manor, had some Ministry Officials over who said it just may be one of the safest places in all of Wizarding Britain." Harry wasn't fabricating that.
When he'd invited Kingsley and a few of the trustworthy Aurors to his home, they'd done a few checks considering who the previous occupants of the large estate had been. It came as no surprise when they'd revealed layer after layer of wards, some going to such a depth of magical understanding that they estimated it would take weeks to disengage with a team of expert curse-breakers.
Why anyone hadn't been living within, or why the Order hadn't been using the home was a mystery to Harry and Kingsley both.
"Oh, I don't think I know where that is… sorry!" Delphini said aloud, cutting him off from asking his next question — she'd even shocked herself when she'd said that too, apologizing quickly and telling him, "It's your turn, I completely forgot!"
Harry laughed it off, she hadn't meant her interruption as something rude, quite far from it based on the apology.
"Not a problem, I think I'll ask what your plans are immediately after graduation if that's something you're open to discussing?"
Delphini smiled wide, "I haven't put any thought towards what I'll be doing after Hogwarts, I'm already doing all I can do to stay caught up with my current ambitions," she replied with a wink, her shameless flirting making him want to roll his eyes. Her question following the eye-rolling was, "What about you, I've only heard rumours about you being an Auror or serving directly under the Minister?"
He resisted the urge to laugh, but not at her.
Only weeks after Voldemort had been defeated — this time for good — people had begun speculating what his life would turn into.
An article from the Daily Prophet had compiled a top-five list of what his most likely jobs were going forward with not an ounce of credibility from himself or those close to him, though that came as no surprise. He'd had a good laugh at it too, his mind already having been made up.
From Quidditch Star to a board member for Veela rights, they'd done some spectacular guesswork. Thankfully a majority of Wizarding Britain had woken up enough to realise that the Prophet was far from credible and that the Quibbler was superior in nearly every way… Harry's endorsement may have helped.
"I can't say what I'll be doing just yet, but I'll confirm that I'll be working with the Ministry the day after my graduation, does that constitute an answer or would you like another question?" He'd be sporting with their little game of back and forth, as Delphini had been thus far.
"It depends." Delphini leaned forward in her seat, brushing his hand again, "Was that your question?"
"Was that yours?" Harry immediately countered much to the surprise of Delphini if her face had anything to say about it.
Initially worrying he'd been a bit too snarky, Harry was incredibly relieved when she openly laughed and squeezed his hand after taking hold of it.
"You're full of surprises, Harry and not at all what I'd been told to expect," She was smiling at him, the look not at all unattractive and certainly something he'd like to see more often.
"That's a good thing I hope," He responded with a lazy smirk, not bothering to remove the girl's grip from his hand.
"Oh, a very good thing," Delphini agreed while shaking her head and rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb, "I'd heard you had a saviour complex, were lazy, unintelligent and completely horrible when it came to girls — thankfully none of those proved true, though the last had me wondering for a bit," she'd ended her sentence with a wink at him, making Harry shift from the questioning with somebody technically in his household he'd been doing to flirting with an attractive witch as was common among young adults.
Holding her gaze, the smirk on his face and returning the gesture with their hands, Harry replied to her.
"I can't say anything about most of that without coming across as being biased, but the last bit about girls? I'd like to think I'm not a clueless bloke, but if I were, I'd be an incredibly lucky clueless bloke to spend time around witches like you."
"Flattering me is ever so generous, but I dare say it's not too effective," Harry raised a brow in questioning, with Delphini answering him after letting him stew for a few seconds, "I've already admitted to my attraction towards you, and while I enjoy hearing you sing my compliments in regards to my beauty, the next step is a Hogsmeade date or…"
Delphini trailed off then, getting a faraway look in her eyes that only abated when Harry questioned, "Or... ?"
Looking back at him with a wide smile and while their hands were still connected, she answered him.
"Marriage."
Harry's eyes went comically wide at the confident, loud nature in which the girl had spoken; the attention that word generated around the table due to how loud she'd said that word wasn't lost on him either.
But what did he say? How did somebody respond to a marriage declaration from an admittedly fit witch without ever having gone on a date?
"Delphini, I think we s-"
She started laughing, the sound confusing him further until he finally came to the realisation that she'd been jesting with him. While it sounded like a logical conclusion to come to, he hadn't been sure because of her caresses and lack of any telltale signs; if anything the serious, friendly smile had him nervous she was a slightly less crazy Vane.
Once roughly ten seconds had passed with her laughing at how she'd confused him, she finally told him it was a joke, that she wasn't truly making a pass at him for marriage… yet. That'd come after a few dates and the end of the Hogwarts year, which he supposed was far enough away that he could pause in his dealing with it.
After an awkward pause that lasted all of a minute, Delphini clasped her hands together while looking at him.
"While getting to know one another was fun and playing with you was more so, I simply have to ask — could you tell me about all the stories you'd allegedly been involved in during your earlier years at Hogwarts? I've heard that you've bested a Basilisk, got past a Cerberus and out flew a Dragon," Delphini rolled her eyes at the last bit, "Sure, you're the saviour of Wizarding Britain and the vanquisher of the Dark Lord, but excuse me if I find these stories anything more than fanciful tales."
Harry held in a chuckle, he was about to blow her mind.
September 12, 1998
Saturday Evening
Harry exhaled as his body sunk into the incredibly comfortable couch beneath him, the warmth from the fireplace only adding to the feeling of comfort he felt after a day full of walking — he almost felt like Dumbledore would after long days of speaking with a seemingly endless wave of people. Two weeks weren't enough for his peers to treat him normally, at least for an overwhelming majority of them.
"Another fun day with your admirers Harry?" Tracey asked energetically as she jumped onto the open space on his left, a chocolate frog halfway in her mouth.
Seeing the way she crossed her eyes to look at the frog before slurping it in her mouth almost made him keel over with laughter; normally he'd say it would've too, but he was just too tired of dealing with people who he'd thought would've been a lot more understanding with the situation.
So, because of the stress and subsequent feeling of fatigue, he gave a half-smile in return while nodding.
Tracey seemed to understand, nodding sympathetically at him before reaching into her satchel. He hadn't a clue what she'd gone for, and rather than guess, he'd simply watched as she withdrew a chocolate bar that looked similar to the ones on the trolly. Rather than eating it herself as he'd assumed, she dropped it on his lap and smiled at him before grabbing another for herself.
Without words being exchanged, the two smiled at one another while enjoying the sweet treats Tracey carried around with her school supplies.
Times like this were what made Harry incredibly thankful for the relationship he'd built with the Slytherin's — it wasn't the chocolate, it was the thought and actions behind it. They didn't feel the need to fill the silence, instead, they'd embrace it while spending time in one another's company.
After finishing the chocolate bar she'd given him, (and a second one too) Harry stretched in his seat, leaning all the way back after working the muscles that'd been most bothered as the day progressed.
"You look tired!" Tracey loudly commented, her hand shooting towards her mouth right after doing so, "Sorry… you looked tired," her apology and words were said in a far more indoor mannered voice.
"Well done, Tracey," Daphne's voice greeted from the girls' dorms entrance, the girl wearing pyjamas or a Pureblood equivalent.
"Thanks, Daph!" Tracey chirped back, oblivious to the clear sarcasm in Daphne's voice or more likely choosing to ignore it.
"Anytime — Potter, she's not completely wrong either, you do look pretty rough."
Was that genuine concern in the girl's voice? Maybe two weeks was all it took to get around the girls unusually rough exterior, or more likely, she'd gotten to know he wasn't as horrible as most of her housemates had made him out to be.
"Yeah, well, I can only hope that our peers will get bored of their gawking before too much longer," He knew they wouldn't, the Slytherin girls did too based on how they'd smirked at his words.
"As fun as it can be talking about the Potter fan club, why don't we speak about something infinitely more entertaining, say…" Daphne shifted to rest one hand on her hip and while the other went about fussing with her bottom lip, "Vane?"
"What'd she do now?" Was his immediate response to the Slytherin witch, fearing that something had happened outside of his noticing.
Daphne scoffed, "She's done absolutely nothing since your talk with her — I still don't approve of that either," he sighed at her lack of approval but continued to listen, later wishing he hadn't, "I'd managed to overhear Neville speaking with Luna late last night about something he'd said in regards to you and Vane. While I know it isn't something that'll happen considering you have some degree of standards, the question still stands; what'll you do when Vane figures out that you have no intention of dating her? I can guarantee if she was this provocative already, it'll only get worse when you make excuses or otherwise ignore her."
Tracey groaned from her and began stretching, her bare feet going across Harry's lap practically begging him to tickle her.
So he did.
With a squeak of surprise followed by snorting laughter, Tracey rolled off the couch and onto the soft rug below, her feet catching his knee and thigh multiple times.
"D-Daph, help!" she got out from between peels of laughter, the serious mood gone with the action he'd taken, and thankfully too; Harry wasn't nearly ready to discuss dealing with Vane again.
Rolling her eyes when they made contact with Harry's, Daphne lazily began going for her wand, offering him ample opportunity to cease if he didn't want to get hit with that stinging hex she threw.
Harry waited until the very last moment, much like he did when playing Quidditch and pulled back right as Daphne was raising it.
Tracey immediately jumped to her feet and tackled him, engaging in a bout of wrestling similar to how he and Ron used to when the boy was still in Hogwarts, the only difference being that she was half the size of the ginger boy. Harry hadn't won very often, if at all then, but he surely enjoyed being the larger of the two in this mock battle.
"Honestly Tracey, your family's got to teach you better than wrestling with a boy at your age," Daphne remarked as she took a seat beside the two battling occupants of the couch.
"You're just… jealous that… he's not doing…" Tracey slid from his grip and jumped on his back, wrapping her legs around his torso while using her arms to begin going for his sides, "It with you!" she finished when Harry finally yielded, the tickling getting to him much faster than the Slytherin girl.
Daphne shook her head again, a small smile on her face as she looked at her two friends — her face went serious not a second later when she'd looked over at the door.
Harry worried that somebody who shouldn't be here had gotten in, but that feeling went away almost as soon as it'd come when he'd realised that almost the entirety of Voldemort's followers were locked up or dead following their loss. It helped that he'd seen the cause of Daphne's apprehension without needing more than a passing glance; Delphini was partially in the second set of doors and partially in the adjoining room.
She was leaning against a wall and reading from a textbook while appearing like she was fully invested in her studies.
Letting a few house prejudices warp his thinking, Harry assumed that she'd been listening in on them, or more likely watching the interactions he'd been having with her housemates.
While admittedly creepy, he didn't mind too much so long as she didn't get any crazier.
"Delphini?" Tracey spoke up from beside him, noticing how Daphne and Harry both had gotten distracted by somebody.
"Hi Tracey." the girl greeted as she put a mark in her book and closed it, "Hi Harry, Good evening Daphne," Delphini did a small curtsey when she'd greeted Daphne, Harry imagined it was respect in regards to her name but he wasn't fully sure considering that Pureblood etiquette was something that he didn't know inside and out as a large majority of his fellow students seemingly did.
"Good evening, Delphini." Daphne greeted back, repeating the curtsey with more grace and looking far more comfortable in doing so.
"Hey Delphini." Harry returned when the girls had finished their greetings, "Care to join us in conversation? I think our last topic was a bit dull for my tastes but I'm sure you could think of something interesting."
Anything to get away from speaking about his love life, lack thereof, or his rapidly growing fanbase.
"Thank you Harry, but I've got to finish this book and return it to the library before curfew — I can't believe there are so many restrictions on how many items we can have taken out at any one time; how are we supposed to learn anything?"
Delphini declined his invitation politely and with a smile on her face.
Harry appreciated her manners, not pressing her to stay when she'd dipped her head while bidding the three of them 'goodbye.'
As soon as she visibly departed the common room with the three watching her, Daphne spoke up after a brief bout of laughter.
"She'd been watching you since I'd left the girl's dorms, weren't you supposed to be hyper-vigilant, Potter?"
If she'd spotted Delphini as early as she was claiming, why had her face changed as it had?
Harry put those thoughts to words and the Slytherin girl laughed, saying in response, "You weren't talking about anything offensive to Delphini, and I suppose I feel a bit bad for her considering the awkwardness she's shown — I hadn't thought anyone could outclass Tracey in that regard."
"Hey!" Tracey piped up unhappily.
Daphne didn't pay any attention to her friend and continued speaking.
"Her crush is surprisingly serious when you take into account that she's only known you for a couple of weeks, Harry. Unless you've known her longer than either of you've let on?"
He shook his head; he'd not met Delphini before, but Daphne was right that her crush was worse than he'd expect. A bit creepy too if she'd actually been standing there for that long, if not longer.
"Who cares about the barmy girls crush on Harry?" Tracey looked pointedly at Daphne when she'd said that, her pause ended abruptly when he saw the latter girl making a motion towards her wand, "Quidditch!"
Harry furrowed his brows at the random word spoken, Daphne only shook her head.
He seemed to have found another of Tracey's wonderful qualities too, that being her ability to change the subject in the most suspicious and obvious way. Not for the first time, he wondered how the girl had made it into Slytherin.
September 12, 1998
Saturday Late Evening
"Potter — not in trouble already, I hope?" McGonagall's voice greeted him as he entered her office with a smile on his face.
"No, Professor, Hogwarts has been anything but trouble," his nightmares had been incredibly easy to handle since his time back at the school, the new friends he'd made only furthered his sadness that this would be his last year, "I just need permission to leave Hogwarts for an evening."
"You know I can't grant special permissions, even to a lion as renowned as you."
Harry nodded, "I understand that Professor, it's just… I'd really like to know more about Delphini claiming relation to Sirius."
"And you can do this how?" Professor McGonagall asked him while heading towards a cabinet labelled 'records'.
"Grimmauld Place and Black Manor have a family tree with some sort of magic unknown to me; it tracks the entirety of the Black Family, along with who their parents are in the case that they marry outside it."
"I do believe I've seen that now that you've mentioned it," McGonagall nodded at him over her shoulder as she withdrew a set of parchment within a folder, "Are your concerns not without a solid basis or are you simply being more cautious considering the times?"
That was a tough question for him to answer, and when he finally verbally responded, his jumbling relayed that.
"My concerns aren't completely without base, but it's also my being cautious. From my point of view, Delphini arriving right at the end of the war while claiming relation to House Black is incredibly suspicious an-"
McGonagall raised her hand to halt him, and while he was far from finished his less than prepared rant, the respect he held for his Professor made him adhere.
"Your concerns are understandable, but I've gotten documentation within this folder that all but proves her relation to House Black. Obviously, due to numerous school laws and regulations, I'm unable to share them with you" she wouldn't be the one bending any rules for him and he knew it; that was one of the main qualities in her favour from Harry's eyes, "However, what I'll tell you from the documents, or more importantly, who'd handed them in… they're lucrative."
So there was a chance the fit witch was lying.
Knowing he'd never have an easy year at Hogwarts, Harry asked again for permission to leave the Castle for an hour at the most.
McGonagall's decision changed this time, though that wasn't to say she'd be giving him anything close to free reign.
"Permission will be granted for your absence from the confines of Hogwarts for an hour — failure to return within the given time will result in detentions for a month barring some unforeseen and Potteresque circumstances that will remain ever unpredictable," McGonagall had the slightest of smirks on her face, "Do find out who this girl is, Potter, I'd already dared to hope that one year since your entrance into the school would be without incident."
"Thank you, Professor," Harry dipped his head, adding in a few seconds afterwards, "Me too."
With permission received, Harry exited the office of the Headmistress of Hogwarts with newfound adrenaline rushing through his veins.
He would find out one of the many secrets of Delphini Black within the coming day, and after that, it'd only be a matter of time until he determined if the girl was any level of threat to him — he sincerely hoped she wouldn't be.
COMMENT REPLIES:
Stevem1: Thank you!
mwinter1: If I ever write a multi work, it would be three people, nothing more - definitely a good idea if I weren't opposed to a harem haha.
TheGreatBubbaJ: Always gotta perish the though hehe, that was especially fun to write.
Sir Gewen Baudelaire: Thank you very much and I hope this delivered. There could be a chance, it depends on the people.
Rogosh: Oh yeah, we'll have to see what happens when that info drops! Thank you!
Destru: Appreciate it! It'll be a very dynamic to work with too!
Cleddyf: I always try to write as open-ended as possible, so should the people be for a multi instead of against, it wouldn't be hard to implement! Thank you too!
Godric777: Thank you!
GreengrassRebel: I bet with that name haha, thank you very much, they're a blast to write!
Thobeobo: Appreciate it, hope this one didn't let it down either, and if it did - sorry! Anglais est tres difficule!
Tenyo-dono: Merci x100! I hadn't read or otherwise viewed it either, mainly just researched her characteristics haha. Thank you again very much!
Spyro: I'll do that with this next chapter, sorry!
Animortal28: the people can decide!