May 24th, 2003
After the dinner with her parents, Daphne was not one to be messed with. The Ice Queen persona came back full frontal at work. Anyone who crossed paths with her left a diminished person. Hell, she even made an intern cry after making her tea wrong. Blaming the straight-out of Hufflepuff intern for her morning sickness that day. Of course, that's when Harry came into the office witnessing the whole affair and telling the younger woman that it wasn't her fault and transfigured a pen into a flower.
"Really turning on the Potter charm there." Daphne snorted at the exchange. "Just have to have another fangirl. Maybe Malfoy-"
"I'd stop right there, Daphne." Closing the office door, Harry composed himself before starting a conversation with his pregnant girlfriend. He knew and understood why she was in a mood. He just didn't appreciate Daphne taking her temper out on other people that weren't him. "Did you really have to make her cry?"
"She messed up my tea. Who drinks earl grey after two o'clock? Clearly, she is an idiot, and I had to inform her."
Running a hand down his face in aggravation, he let a slight growl, "You can't go and tell people they are idiots because of their tea selection. Daph, this mood has got to end." Watching her shrug her shoulders, he then asked, "Have you heard from your parents yet?"
"Yes, my mother sent me an owl this morning," Daphne informed him, handing him the letter. When she told her parents the news, she thought they would have gone into full grandparent mode. Telling her, they already converted a guest room into a nursery for when the baby would stay the night with them. Packages of horrible green and yellow clothing until they were told what the sex of the baby was going to be.
But instead, she was proven wrong. Receiving one letter from her mother, apologizing for her father's behavior. And even though he asked reasonable questions, the way he asked them was, in fact, not.
"'You know how stubborn he is. Give it time, and your father will come around. He just needs to come to terms with the new development in your life.' A load of bullshit, I think."
Shaking his head, Harry commented, "It came as a surprise to them. You got pregnant off what we thought was going to be a one night stand—"
"Oh, so I'm just a one-night stand!"
The— more she than he—have been in a fight since the morning after the dinner. Theo told him not to push her. Once Daphne was ready to have an actual conversation about what was happening, Harry would be the first to know. Now he was just hoping it would happen before the baby was born.
"You know you are not a one-night stand, Daphne!"
Her aqua eyes scanned his face. She could see the anger growing on his face. But she couldn't stop herself from making him angrier, "Just the woman you are stuck with for the rest of your life, all because you forgot to wrap it up."
Groaning loudly, Harry got up from his chair and made his way out of the office. Before he entirely left, he looked over his shoulder, "I know you are hurting right now, but you need to stop hurting other people around you."
Harry didn't know how, but he found himself standing in front of the large oak doors of Greengrass Manor. Before he raised his hand to knock on the door, the doors started to slowly open. Once stepping into the foyer, Harry looked down to find Buckle standing by the edge of the door.
"Is Cyrus home?" Harry kindly asked the well-dressed house elf.
Nodding his head, Buckle replied, "Master is home. He is in his office. I can take Mr. Potter there."
"Thank you, Buckle." He said as the two walked the grand halls of Greengrass Manor. Once they made it to the large oak doors of Cyrus Greengrass's office, Harry looked down at the house elf, "And please call me Harry."
As Buckle popped away, Harry knocked on the door. Hearing a loud and clear 'Come in!', Harry walked into the office. The office was decorated almost precisely as he thought it would be. He knew that Daphne took after her mother when it came to Hogwarts' houses. And while Astrid is beautiful, it was her brain that stole the Ravenclaw Cyrus' heart. Bronze and blue were decorated tastefully throughout the office. Most of the walls were covered with books, old and new, to the ceiling.
"Harry, hello. What are you doing here?" Cyrus asked, surprised as he looked up from his paperwork. Harry was still studying the older man and the many pictures on his desk. He had separate pictures of his daughters. Astoria's was of her smiling and waving towards the camera. Daphne's photo was of her working on a project, unaware of someone else was even in the room, and taking her picture. It was perfectly Daphne.
"Is everything okay? Is it Daphne? Is it the baby?"
"Oh, so you do care," Harry said, dark but calm. He wanted the older wizard to know precisely how he was talking to. Taking his eyes off the picture of Daphne and to the other man in the room. "Because from what you said a week ago, it seemed like you didn't. Care about the baby that is."
Sighing, Cyrus took off his reading glasses and gestured to the chair across from him, "I know I said some things that were board line inappropriate…"
"Board-line inappropriate." Harry interrupted the calmness in his voice, breaking, "You asked if Daphne was going to get rid of our child. Because it could potentially ruin her career?"
"What I suggested was, is, unforgivable. I was surprised and in shock. Hearing Daphne say she is pregnant shocked me." Cyrus said with an apologetic sigh. "Daphne has always had a plan and followed through with that plan. Then she meets you, and suddenly everything about that plan was thrown out the window."
A light scoff came out of Harry's throat, "She is still following her plan, trust me. You don't have to worry about her plans being ruined." He studied the older wizard across from him. Cyrus seemed like a reasonable person who overreacted to news he never expected, "You have to apologize to her. She has been in a horrid mood since that dinner. I have done everything in my power to make her happy, but the only thing—the only thing that would fix her mood, would be you accepting her and our baby."
The dirty blonde-haired wizard studied the younger wizard sitting in front of him. At first, when they were told Harry Potter was going to be a dinner guest, he and Astrid didn't know what to expect. They only knew the Harry Potter that the papers wrote about. Daphne never brought him up during their school years. And with Theo bringing Hermione Granger around, only snippets of the Savior would accrue. Whose stories wouldn't match what they read in the papers? Cyrus didn't know what, or who, to believe.
After the dinner, Astrid said many things. Some were good and directed towards Harry and Daphne. And what wasn't good was directed towards him. But that was only when she was talking directly towards him. Then she said something that surprised him that he didn't believe. That Harry Potter was in love with Daphne. His daughter, his baby girl.
Cyrus couldn't believe that a man who just got out of a marriage would be in love with another woman so quickly. But here was Harry, sitting in front of him, yelling at him for hurting Daphne's feelings and wanting to fix it for her. Proving him wrong, and Cyrus Greengrass is a man who is never wrong.
"You love my daughter, don't you?" Cyrus asked, leaning on his desk with his elbows.
"Yes, I do. Yes." Harry strongly responded. There was no hemming and honing. Something the older man appreciated, "Why else would I have come here to make you talk to your daughter?"
"What are your intentions? Are you going to marry her?"
"I have already asked her when I found out that she was pregnant. She said no, for obvious reasons," Chuckling softly under his breath, "I might just wait until she proposes to me."
Letting out a small laugh himself, "You could be waiting a while." Not surprised with Harry wanting to do what he thought was right, Cyrus was never one to understand why someone would get married just because they had a child together. If there weren't any mutual feelings between the two parents, then why tie yourself together more than you have to.
"I'm okay with that. After being married once already, I have realized some things. Marriage is the only piece of paper if it is with the wrong person. If the relationship isn't right, the marriage won't be right. If Daphne isn't ready to get married until we are ninety, then I will wait."
"You're a good man, Harry Potter." Cyrus stood up from his leather bond desk chair and gestured to the door. "I'm assuming you know where my daughter is? I have an apology to give."
Daphne was in the guest room in Harry's loft—they were going to turn into a nursery— when she heard someone come out of the fireplace. Assuming it was only Harry, she kept on filling the boxes. Knowing full well that he would come to find her once he did his after-work routine. A stiff drink and a light scream. She was just waiting for the day Harry decided he no longer wanted to be an Auror. Only she didn't want to push him into making the decision. She wanted Harry to do it for himself and their family.
But instead of hearing that light scream of frustration, Daphne heard a slight cough behind her. Twirling around, wand still in the air, she found her father standing in the door frame.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, her aqua eyes moving into a glare, not bothering to lower her wand.
Putting his hands up in defense, Cyrus replied, "I know you are angry with me. I came to apologize for my actions at dinner."
"Apologize?" Scoffing at the notion. There had only been a couple of times where she had heard her father apologize. Once was towards her mother after a horrible fight when Astoria was diagnosed with the blood curse. And the second was to Astoria for making her feel as if it was her fault for getting said curse. Other than those incidences, Cyrus Greengrass was never one to be wrong or apologize.
"Yes, what I suggested at dinner was, is, inexcusable. I got caught up in my own feelings." Cyrus said as he sat down on the unmade bed, "You have always been my perfect daughter—not that Astoria isn't a perfect daughter as well—you, Daphne, are spectacular with your work effort. Ever since you were a child, you knew exactly what you wanted to do and how you were going to get there." Letting out a large sigh, Cyrus looked down at his clasped hands, not wanting to see the look resting on his eldest daughter's face, "When you shared the news that you were pregnant, I envisioned everything in your life, that you worked so hard for, being thrown away."
"Dad, nothing is being thrown away!" Daphne angrily exclaimed, "This baby isn't going to slow me down. I am still going to work and be the best in my field. I am just going to be a mother, as well. Which I will also be the best at!"
Nodding his head in agreement, "I know this, Daphne. I want you to be happy. I just need to know to help me adjust to everything. Are you happy?"
A small smile grew upon Daphne's lips as she imagined her future life with Harry and their unborn baby. After a long day of work, returning home to find a toddler, with dark unruly hair and aqua eyes, sitting in their booster chair. Harry worked on dinner and entertaining the young child by making the food fly around the kitchen. Peals of laughter of all ages would run throughout the loft.
She could then imagine another toddler running around the loft with blonde hair and green eyes a few years down the road. She and Harry would be having conversations. Instead, it would seem like a sensible idea to move into a larger place now that the third child would be on the way.
Even though she wanted to scream at her father for his boneheadedness, she couldn't. Because in those visions, she saw her children playing with their grandparents. "Yes, I am very happy,"