Disclaimer: All I own is this fanfic, everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling. No copyright intended!

Author's note: A Harry/Astoria pairing one-shot taking place approximately three weeks into Harry's sixth year. Mentions of Greater Good Dumbledore; and bad Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. Rated T for teen drama.

Harry Potter And His Singing Princess

Fanfic by Brockster550

It was an uneventful morning of Saturday September 21, 1996; and sixteen-year-old Harry Potter had even more emotional baggage on his shoulders. The raven-haired boy lost his godfather, Sirius Black, at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange during the Department of Mysteries fiasco. He was struck with guilt because he felt that it could've been avoided if he had used the communication mirror Sirius gave him for Christmas and checked to see if he was there or at the ministry. Adding more fuel to the fire, Albus Dumbledore even told Harry about the prophecy that neither he nor Lord Voldemort could live while the other survived. Needless to say, Harry was outraged by that and read the headmaster the riot act for that, and for the headmaster's insistence that Harry return to the Dursleys despite revealing that he subjected to ten years of abusive treatment from the muggles. Not only that, but Ron and Hermione told Harry that they weren't allowed to contact him under the guise of him needing to grieve for Sirius despite his objections that he needed someone to talk to before assuring him that Dumbledore would collect him from Privet Drive on his birthday. When his so-called best friends told him again that they were forbidden to contact him until, Harry realized that they were concerned with listening to the headmaster and maintaining their prefect privileges. So he ended his friendship with the two for good, since they revealed that they weren't really his friend to begin with in some way. So naturally, Harry refused to go to the Burrow to avoid his fake best friends.

'Maybe I should find an empty classroom or something,' thought Harry, as he continued wandering the corridors. 'I need to get out of Gryffindor Tower because I'm getting tired of Ron and Hermione badgering me for reasons why I refuse to talk to them. They know the bloody answer to that and why I rejected going to the Burrow.'

Harry started looking around for a corridor that was so out of the way that hardly anyone would think of going that way. As a result of Ron and Hermione betraying him for the third and final time, he left Privet Drive and headed for Gringotts to get his parents' will and his godfather's will read. He moved into his family manor that had two male house elves named Oreo and Bumper, and two females house elves named Piper and Pippy (as they were also mentioned in the Potters' will). The will even specified that Harry wasn't to go to the Dursleys under any circumstance, resulting in Harry cutting ties with Dumbledore for good. After moving into his family manor, Harry bonded with Dobby to allow him to be his family house elf. Then he instructed Dobby to bring Winky over so he could bond with her, much to Winky's excitement. Then Harry began spending most of his time with Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood after he realized that of the five who accompanied him to the Department of Mysteries, Neville and Luna were the only ones who tagged along who were genuinely concerned for him and for the purpose of being his friend. Neville became Harry's best mate while Luna became their best female friend, which was the official end of the Golden Trio. Even Ron's sister, Ginny, was bad since she never tried befriending Harry, instead she continued pining after Harry because of his unwanted Boy-Who-Lived fame, making Harry realize that she was never going to get over it.

'It's a good thing I'm searching for a classroom,' thought Harry. 'If I have to see another moment of Ginny following me around like a puppy dog and/or kissing Dean, her boyfriend, on the lips whenever I'm in the same room, I'm gonna lose my damn sanity. She's being a bad girlfriend to Dean despite him treating her the way gentleman should. I know she dated Michael Corner until near the end of last year, when she dumped him and quickly hooked up with Dean. That breakup with Michael was not even close to a genuine one, because otherwise Ginny would've wanted some time to get over him before worrying about dating someone else.'

Harry even knew that Ginny was also sucking up to him, since she witnessed one of the moments where Ron and Hermione tried pestering Harry and Hermione insisting that he forgive them. Ginny used that opportunity to (once again) defend Harry's honour, but Harry gave her an earful for kissing up to him before giving the three the ultimatum to leave him alone or else face his wrath. Dumbledore even had been forcing Harry to retrieve something from Professor Horace Slughorn (the new potions teacher and head of Slytherin House) without even asking him first, and it was enough for Harry to tell his headmaster to get it himself if he was so concerned. The headmaster wasn't pleased by the reaction and tried to get Harry to change his mind by revoking his privileges as Gryffindor Quidditch Captain if he didn't reconsider, but Harry didn't care and said that was fine by him. As he continued strolling through the corridors, Harry heard some kind of singing. Intrigued, the raven-haired boy followed the source and came across an open door to an empty classroom. The voice was enrapturing, and it quickly left Harry wanting to hear more. So he walked inside the classroom smoothly and came across a girl with shoulder-length blonde hair hanging down, and she was wearing a gray short-sleeve t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of silver-and-green striped sneakers. Because her eyes were closed, Harry didn't know what the girl's eye colour was, but upon studying her facial features Harry realized that she was related to Daphne Greengrass (a Slytherin girl in his year), knowing that her blonde hair was armpit-length. The girl who was Daphne's sister was even singing into a broom handle as if it was a microphone and even holding the broom shaft as if it was a microphone stand. The song the girl was singing sounded vaguely familiar to Harry, so he continued watching the girl and listening to the lyrics.

'Hopelessly Devoted To You?!' thought Harry in surprise, as he continued watching the girl singing. 'I remember watching the movie Grease on the TV, when the Dursleys had an outing a few weeks before the Quidditch World Cup, while I was mopping the floor. Olivia Newton-John was the actress who played Sandy, and the same one who sang that song.'

"Hopelessly devoted to you!" the girl concluded her singing. "Hopelessly devoted to yoouuuuuuu!"

"Bravo!" Harry praised, clapping his hands some in applause.

The girl opened her eyes (which the colour turned out to be bright-green) and faced Harry before jumping in surprise with a small gasp as her face turned red, making Harry realize that he embarrassed the girl (or so, he believed). He stopped clapping his hands and put them down at his sides as he felt his limbs stiffen, not knowing what the girl may do to him for watching her sing. The two stood in their spots in awkward silence, even though the girl was still red in the face.

"I'm sorry, didn't mean to embarrass you!" Harry sheepishly apologized, putting his hands up in a 'I'm leaving' gesture. "I'll leave, we can even pretend that this didn't happen."

"You don't have to leave, Harry." the girl assured in a soft voice, as the raven-haired teen turned around to walk out of the classroom.

Harry stopped in his tracks and felt his limbs stiffen again, not knowing if it was a trick. He still turned around (albeit slowly) after he heard the girl refer to him by his first name. He faced the girl again and she smiled at him, in which Harry couldn't help smiling back. She walked up to Harry while she continued smiling, causing Harry to feel his stomach flip-flopping.

"I'm Astoria Greengrass!" the girl introduced herself, holding a hand out. "Nice to meet you, Harry."

"Nice to meet you too, Astoria!" Harry greeted, shaking her hand. "I'm Harry Potter."

He felt a little sheepish to tell Astoria his name given his fame as the Boy-Who-Lived and his recently acquired fame as the Chosen One. Nevertheless, he was being polite and showing proper first meeting etiquette. Harry widened his eyes in shock when he felt some kind of warmth when he and Astoria continued shaking hands, with Astoria reacting the same way.

"You can call me Tori if you wish, Harry," said Astoria. "That's what I go by since it's not a mouthful to say."

"Well, okay." said Harry.

"No, you didn't embarrass me," assured Tori. "Your presence just startled me and for a minute I thought it was Malfoy despite finding a remote part of the castle."

Harry felt himself relaxing in that he realized he didn't embarrass Tori. She walked over to the door and closed it before adding some locking charms and a privacy bubble. Then Tori gently grabbed a hold of Harry's hand and led him over to a couple chairs. Harry felt same kind of warmth when Tori had a hold of his hand and judging by her expression, she felt the same thing. As soon as he sat down in one of them, Tori sat down in the other one.

"So what brought you this way, Harry?" asked Tori in a warm voice.

"Well," Harry began explaining, taking a deep breath to stay relaxed. "I was looking for an empty classroom that was so out of the way that barely anyone would think of going that way. My so-called best friends, Ronald and Granger, turned their backs on me for the third and final time, going with the 'three strikes' policy. That means if anybody betrays me in any way possible the third time, that means strike three you're out."

"I would've expected better of Granger, since she's supposed to be the brightest witch since Rowena Ravenclaw," stated Tori. "She and Daph are fierce academic rivals if you didn't know that. She told me how Granger always wants to humble her, but Daph always manages to get scores not far behind Granger in most of their classes. There are a few where Daph has outscored her."

"There definitely is a difference between being book smart and street smart," said Harry. "Granger always thinks books always tell the truth, but they can be misleading."

"What did Granger and Weasel do to betray you a third time?" asked Tori.

"They were more concerned with listening to Dumbledore," Harry went on with his explanation. "The second summer in a row where they were instructed not to contact me, with Dumbledore claiming that I needed some time to grieve for my godfather despite the fact that I needed someone to talk to. Sirius Black was my godfather, but he wasn't a murderer despite those bogus claims. Peter Pettigrew was the real traitor and he framed Sirius for his crimes. Despite that, Dumbledore never got a trial for Sirius set up and instead had him chucked into Azkaban with the guilt by accusation nonsense. Even after Sirius told me and my supposed best friends the story, Dumbledore never got a trial arranged and instead opted to keep Sirius as an unjustly declared fugitive. I even tried informing Fudge at that time, but he took Snape's word for it that I was confunded and they never did any checking."

Upon hearing that, Tori got up and embraced him. Harry flinched a little when he felt Tori's arms wrapping around him, but he slowly hugged her back. It was very different from the smoldering hugs he got from Molly and the ones Hermione gave him (where she would charge at him before wrapping her arms around him). Harry felt another flow of warmth throughout his body, with Tori experiencing the same.

"I'm sorry to hear about that, Harry!" Tori responded in a soothing voice. "You really deserve better."

"But it seems like I'm destined for rotten luck." said Harry.

"You're not, Harry," assured Tori. "It's those people who are making sure you stay as miserable as possible. At least you realize that now, better late than never."

"Yeah," Harry replied. "And your singing also helped in taking some of that emotional baggage off of my shoulders."

"I'm happy to have helped you, even if I didn't realize it at first." said Tori. She pulled away from Harry and sat back down in her chair before continuing, "My singing was originally meant to take some of the stress off of having to study for my OWL exams."

"I understand that those exams can be stressful," said Harry. "Though seeing that Daphne and I are in the same year, I thought you'd be a fourth year or something."

"No, I'm a fifth year," stated Tori. "My bestie, Trina, is also a fifth year, and we're both in Slytherin. Trina is Tracey's sister. Tracey had her birthday yesterday and Daph has her birthday in nine days."

"Oh okay, now I understand." said Harry with realization.

"Tracey and Trina are half-bloods, so Daph and I have been taught a little bit about muggle culture," Tori explained. "One of the reasons why I'm wearing muggle clothes. They're cheaper than the formal wear. Plus, Tracey and Trina revealed that when it came to formal wear that they would rather keep that for those occasions. After all, wearing formal wear all the time would get old real fast and cause them to wear out quicker. Another reason for wearing muggle clothes is to get a rise out of Malfoy, since he has a tendency to antagonize me and Daph, but me most of all. I also took the chance to come here to sing, since I would never hear the end of it if Malfoy were to find out about it."

"That's one of the reasons I turned his offer of friendship down at the start of our first year," stated Harry. "Since I knew he was a pure-blood supremacist, a bully, and a spoiled brat since he gets packages of sweets from his parents, with that eagle owl delivering them. For those reasons, I asked the sorting hat to place me anywhere other than Slytherin despite it considering to put me there."

"Even if we're in different houses, rivalry or not, I'm not going to let him tell me who I can or can't interact with," stated Tori. "I'd rather be friends with you than hang around with someone like ferret boy."

"So that means we're friends now?" asked Harry.

Tori answered that by getting up and giving Harry another hug, this time Harry was quicker in hugging her back and he didn't flinch from the physical contact. Another warmth feeling flowed throughout their bodies again when that happened. Then Tori sat back down in her chair when they were finished hugging.

"That song you were singing sounded a little familiar to me." said Harry.

"There was one of those moments where the Davis' invited me and my family for an outing in London," Tori explained. "Since Davis is Tracey and Trina's surname. We visited some kind of store that sold something called electo-tron-kicks or something like that."

"Electronics?" Harry replied.

"Electronics, that's what that store was, an electronic store," said Tori. "The store had these things called televisions, or TVs for short according to Trina. We were watching something called a movie that showed this teenage woman with blonde hair in her friend's backyard singing while looking into an inflatable pool. The best part of that song I like was when she sang: Hopelessly devoted to you."

"The movie was called Grease," Harry explained. "From what I found out, it came out in the year 1978. It was about a high-school romance taking place in the late 1950s in the United States of America in the state of California. The woman you described was actress Olivia Newton-John, and her character's name in the movie was Sandy Olsson. The movie had something called end credits and according to the soundtrack mentioned near the end of those credits, the song you brought was called Hopelessly Devoted To You. Since I 'grew up' in the muggle world, I saw the movie playing on tv at my relatives' house and I even watched that scene."

"If you'd like," Tori offered. "I can sing it for you again, and maybe even sing you a few more songs if your mood calls for it."

"I'd like that," Harry replied with a smile. "It'll help distract me from my troubles."

Tori got back up onto her feet and walked towards the centre of the room. She picked up the same broom she was using to sing into it like a microphone on it's stand. As soon as Harry settled in to watch, Tori began singing Hopelessly Devoted To You again. Harry was going to have one heck of a story to tell Neville and Luna later (since he considered them his best friends now). Tori was also going to tell the same story to her sister, her bestie, and her bestie's sister later on. As Tori sang away, Harry spot a twinkle in one of her eyes. There even appeared to be something of a bubbly personality inside Tori, since she kept giving off wonderful vibrations for Harry. Maybe with Tori being friends with him and offering to sing to him whenever possible, Harry's sixth year could be a little more tolerant.

The End!