'Astoria is going to kill me.' That's the first thing that came to my mind when my grandfather confirmed that Harry Potter is my betrothed. The whole family knew how smitten she was with him. It was too obvious. While growing up we didn't have many friends, the kids that we met were all pure-bloods so we knew them to be the snobs that tried to flaunt how rich their family was. These kids were more concerned about making others feel little or bragging about their gifts rather than making friends. I was saved from this fate because of my best friend Tracy Davis. Astoria was saved from this fate because of Harry Potter.
The two of them in our apothecary in Diagon Alley one day. I think it was the same day that my mother met him. I don't ask Astoria much about her friendship with Potter because one, he is a Gryffindor and two she never shuts up when she start talking about him. Her favorite toy currently is a giant teddy bear that he gave her for Christmas in my first year. It was actually through that teddy bear that I realized that they were friends. And the way I have seen them interact, he spoils like a fairy tale princess. She has him wrapped her all around her little fingers.
To be honest I don't care much about what Astoria does. It's not that I don't love her. Oh I love her to bits but Astoria can be a handful. She has this mischievous streak inside her that without a certain level of tolerance will drive you insane. Many time I have been in the receiving end of her pranks as I am her favorite victim or test subject. I have lost count of the number of times she has turned my hair color into something awful like violet or orange or even rainbow. At least 5 Christmas I have been woken up with chilling cold water being poured onto me and the number my dresses and toys she has destroyed has caused a lot of head-aces for the whole family. Therefor I try to stay away from Astoria as much as possible. You never know what she has up her sleeve.
However I do take my sisterly duties seriously. After that Christmas I did start observing the boy named Harry Potter. I may not be a stalker but I do take interest in him. The first thing anyone notices about Harry Potter is that he is not someone who likes the spotlight. He doesn't have a commanding presence, he is neither fat nor malnourished. He is just how an average boy should be. He doesn't talk much in class and he doesn't have a particular group that he hangs out with. If you aren't taking notice, it is really easy to forget that a boy named Harry Potter exists. However I think he is the most liked person in all of Hogwarts.
You see the Gryffindors of our year is a tight nit group that follows that hero worships the boy who lived, Neville Longbottom. You can always see the 4 boys (Ron, Seamus and Dean) and 3 girls (Hermione, Parvati and Lavender) trailing their defacto leader while Neville Longbottom flaunts his Boy who lived status. Yet you never see Harry Potter with them ever. Most of the time Potter can be seen alone reading a book. He is not the type of person who spends all the day in the Library that's for sure but you will always see him with a book or scribbling away in his notebook. The times that I have seen him in the library its mostly with the younger years, helping them with their homework. I have seen Nott and Zabini approach him for help in their own assignments for charms.
When I asked them why they approached him their response was "Flitwick told them to and he's a really great guy." Many of the meals you can see Potter laughing with the puffs or having a serious discussion with the ravens. Most of the Slytherin juniors seem to know Potter while some claim him to be the most approachable guy in school. He always keeps a smile in his face and he never says no. The seniors seem to respect Potter for who he is. Most of the seniors in Slytherin have sided with Potter a lot of times. While the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor prohibits interaction within the two houses, I have noticed Potter sitting among the seniors especially those who are in the dueling club or those that are aspiring to be politicians. I even remember Terrence Higgs telling Draco to not pick on Potter.
During classes he is a quite students who takes a lot of notes. He has never been reprimanded in class but neither has he been praised. He is generally one of the first to get a spell correct but goes unnoticed due to the ever vocal Granger. Yet in class all the teachers seem to hold a certain degree of respect for the boy. Many teachers actually do recommend student to approach Potter for help over Granger, though Granger holds the highest marks in the class and Potter is graded at 9 or 10. Even Snape seems to tolerate Potter by Gryffindor standards however he seems to criticize him the hardest while he is working. Yet the instruction that Snape gives Potter during class are not your average instruction.
So in general Harry Potter seems to be a really good guy but there are times where I think that the Harry Potter the School knows is just a façade. There aren't many times that his good guy mask slips but because my grandfather taught me how to look for particular things that I have this speculation. Now I am not saying he is this next Dark Lord coming sense, no. I think the real Harry Potter is someone who was forced to mature too fast and not given the privilege called childhood. The first time I noticed his Mask was the Halloween of second year.
Its actually easy to say that Halloween is his least favourite day of the year. He always has this sad and distant look as if he is morning for something. During that day he does the bare minimum. He doesn't respond to anyone that day be it teachers or students and the only time you see him is during classes or meals. I think he is the only one who always misses the Halloween feast. The odd thing however is that the teachers never say anything to him. He gets off with a detention the he serves either with one of the Teachers.
The second time I noticed the suffering in Potter's eyes would be after the dementor attack in the Hogwarts express last year. Professor Lupin found Harry Potter fainted in one of the last carriages in after the dementor attack and was hurriedly portkeyed him to Hogwarts. He was unconscious for a week after that particular incident. Madam Pomfree said that it was due to the drain of magical energy but there were many rumors going around which stated that he got kissed by the dementor. Obviously that rumor was proved wrong when Potter woke up. It took Harry a month to get over that incident and back to his cheerful self. While everyone claimed it was because of the dementor, his eyes seemed to tell a story of its own. His eyes seemed as if he say the death of someone very precious to him. Very similar to those that he has in Halloween.
The third time where I say the façade of cheerful harry slip was the end of last year after Professor Lupin quit his job. As usual the Loud mouth named Draco Malfoy was rambling on to anyone who was listening how Hogwarts had fallen by employing someone like Lupin. Though not many people paid attention to him, He was really starting to get into our nerves. Without a doubt, professor Lupin had become one of the most favourite teachers in Hogwarts. Especially after the narcissistic moron named Lockhart. He had a vast knowledge in Defense and he made it a point to keep his classes entertaining. Even those that were prejudiced against werewolves acknowledged the fact that Lupin was a great teacher. But Draco Malfoy for who he was just kept going on and on and on about Lupin being a werewolf.
During these ramblings there was one person that I noticed who was really loosing his patience with Draco Malfoy and his name was Harry Potter. Everyone in the school knew of the relationship between Harry and Lupin, so Malfoy insulting Lupin was like a ticking time bomb. It was gradual but every time Malfoy rambled on and on the flame of hatred burnt in those green eyes. The way he looked at Malfoy showed so much malice it still gives me the creeps thinking about it. Then one morning, Draco Malfoy just shut up. That morning it seemed that Malfoy had seen his worst nightmare. No one knows what happened or who did what but it was the first time we saw true fear in the eyes of Draco Malfoy. That day during breakfast Harry Potter had this sinister smile plastered in his face that could rival any of those criminal masterminds in muggle television shows. It didn't help with Malfoy trying to stay as far away from Potter as possible.
Thinking about all the things that I know from my past observation and the new information I got yesterday created this real enigma called Harry Potter. I didn't know what to think about him. The way my mother talked about him was as if he was her long lost son or something. And his correspondence with my mother was really surprising too. I have seen his snowy owl quite a lot of time at home but they are generally to Astoria not my mother. Now considering that he works for my mother I see why he never wrote to her during the vacations.
My grandfather also seemed to have a very good impression of the boy, which is not easy to get. My grandfather never judges a person from his first impression. No to hold a positive impression with my grandfather you would need to fill in a lot of his criteria that he judges over a lot of meetings over time. Now considering how frequent my grandfather goes to the Apothecary I can safely assume that they have had a lot of interaction. Which is not surprising cause he wont just give his precious princess away to a nobody.
Though my father was reserved of the contract he seems to like the boy or is warming up to the idea after he figured out who the boy was. As I know how hard it is to change his mind about something, Potter must have made quite an impression on him from the beginning.
Then there was Astoria. I really don't want to tell her I'm betrothed to her best friend/prince charming. No she's going to chew me alive. I can see t all happening in front of me. She throwing a temper tantrum and claiming Harry to hers and hers alone. Then she would use our Grandma's wand to hex me till I gave her Harry back. Then she would start going through all my precious stuff and start burning them while laughing like the evil witch that she is. I swear to god if we are going to get married I'm going make Potter say that its all his fault and make him face Astoria's Wrath. I'm going to act as the victim as I should be in front of Astoria and leave it till the last moment. Maybe she will forgive me if I make her my maid of honour.
Though it is cruel being maid of honour in your prince charming's wedding. The cruelty in itself is enough compensation enough of all Astoria has done to me.
Now leaving Astoria aside I wonder how people are going to react. Though Potter may not be one of the hottest guys in Hogwarts, he does have the most beautiful eyes there. Well baring Astoria I can say I wont be having much of a problem but I wonder how people will treat Potter. Though I may be just developing there are many people who have been eyeing me this past year. Well at least the betrothed saves a lot of headache's for my parents to fend of other suitors.
A/N: Thank you for the support. I think you can expect quick update. I have the first 5-6 chapters planned out. And when I run out of ideas I will be doing some filler chapters. they will be during the same time line but from a different perspective (probably Harry's). Im open for suggestions too.
Spoiler: (for those who are wondering and can't wait for faster updates) here Harry will not be the super Powerful dark out for revenge kind of character. he is a Good harry with a dark side. the later chapters will be Daphne discovering who exactly Harry is and falling in love with him. And don't expect him to be friends with Ron and Hermione. There will be slight bashing but I'll try to limit it cause not many people like it. To be honest I think the 2 of them hold back harry a lot.
Another thing Talking about pairing. Do you guys want to see multi pairings? I will add one more and it will be Astoria. There aren't many fics with daphne Astoria. however if i add astoria as a love interest it will only be when she grows up i.e. when she reaches third or 4 year.