Hello! I'm incredibly grateful for all of the favorites, follows and reviews from the first chapter! I hope that you enjoy this next chapter. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my fic!

Also, a side note that some of the first lines of this chapter are supposed to have a strikethrough but I couldn't figure out how to copy the formatting over. :(

Tori,

How could you mail them?

Why would you do this?

I trusted you. You were the ONLY person that knew about them!

Do you have any idea the mess that's been created?

Daphne crumpled another draft of what was intended to be a howler to Astoria. She buried her head in her arms when she couldn't bring herself to finish any of them. Her sister was an emotional teenager, much like Daphne had been when she wrote those letters. However, unleashing a howler in what would most likely be the middle of the Great Hall would not improve her situation. Letting out a heavy sigh as she sat upright again, she needed to find another way to rebuke her sister for what she'd done.

Moving to turn in, she muttered a Nox before she submerged herself under the bedding, desperately wishing she could wake up and find it was all a dream.

The next morning, after she'd finished getting ready and was about to step out of her room, Daphne realized she'd left her bag when she ran from the Ministry. When a last-ditch Accio didn't produce it, she closed her eyes and chastised herself for yet another act of stupidity. Her mind was brought back to the kiss and the memory of flashing bulbs.

Of all people that she could have chosen to lock lips with in public, it had to be Harry Potter. The kiss would be plastered all over the Prophet this morning; she was sure of it. Her veins ran cold.

Her parents would know. There was no way they wouldn't asked her about it.

As she stood just outside the doorway, she heard nothing but silence. Any normal day, she would walk into the room and find her parents engaged in casual conversation like the weather or the lovely breakfast spread the elves had prepared. Daphne took a moment to breathe and collect herself, but rushed into the dining room as quickly as her feet could carry her. Her parents were seated expectantly; the paper neatly folded in front of them.

When her eyes met theirs, she immediately blurted out an excuse about needing to be at work early for a meeting. Both of them were attempting to find a moment to insert something but she kept talking nonsense as she grabbed a piece of toast off the table and turned to dash from the room. As she moved out the door and down the hall she could hear her parents call after her. Whether one of them attempted to come after her, she didn't know, as she'd rushed to the fireplace before anyone could catch up with her.

She took the visitor entrance into the Ministry. Inquisitive stares and low whispers followed her as she headed towards the lifts and lasted all the way to her desk. Daphne kept her eyes averted as best she could and tried to remain relaxed. She finally took a few brief glances around the room, only to find various colleagues suddenly divert their attention elsewhere.

For the first few hours of her day, Daphne kept her head down and remained focused on her work. When she heard the sound of footsteps approach her desk, her stomach churned. Her quill stilled when they stopped in front of her. She raised her head slightly and landed on a pair of expensive dragonhide shoes.

The tensity in her shoulders gave a bit when it dawned on her who her visitor was.

Draco Malfoy stood before her; an amused smirk on his face. He raised his arm to reveal her letter pinched between his fingers.

He tilted his head to the side. "Need a break?"

With a nod, she rose and led him towards a break room that was usually unoccupied.

Draco and Daphne had been friends for a long time. He was currently working at the Ministry as part of a condition of his probation. As much as it could have been tempting to feel mortified knowing that he had been a recipient of one of her letters, she held little concern or embarrassment over it. She cringed as she recalled writing his letter and hoped it would be obvious that it had been written by a naive thirteen-year-old. It was probably riddled with the horrendous prose to prove it. All she had to be concerned about was Draco never letting her live it down.

They entered the empty break room and she cast a silencing charm so they couldn't be overhead. Daphne seated herself at one of the tables in the room, rubbing her hand across her forehead.

"Draco-"

"I have to admit, I was a bit surprised when I received your owl. Your penmanship is usually less...childlike." He set the letter in front of her on the table.

Despite the relief she felt, another flush of embarrassment washed over her when she laid eyes on it again; her handwriting was far more cringeworthy at this moment than it had been just a few days before when the letters were still a secret. "Draco, you have no idea how embarrassing this is. I'm a grown woman and these are letters that I wrote years ago!"

"You wrote more than one?" She could hear him choke back a laugh. "Well, now I don't feel special."

"There were only three," she clarified.

"And why would you owl them after all this time?"

"I didn't." Daphne immediately snapped back. "They weren't ever supposed to be sent. Astoria got angry at me and she stole them and sent them."

She watched as Draco shrugged his shoulders. "Look, I don't know who the other two lucky recipients were, but if they were anything like mine, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. It was immediately apparent that something was amiss about it."

She shook her head, knowing the other two were far more complicated than he understood.

"Although," Draco drawled. "You were spot on when you described my eyes as a piercing shade of grey."

Git.

Daphne felt a simmer in her veins. "Cut it out...one of them went to Blaise. I'm sure he'll say something to you." She stood and began to pace as additional implications started to spiral in her mind. "I probably look pathetic. He'll think that I'm not over our break up."

"I wouldn't get your knickers in a twist over this. I already told you it threw up a red flag when I got it. When did you write it?"

"Yours was third year, but the other two were later and I'm sure they'll read that way."

Silence passed between the two of them; Draco didn't offer anything else and she knew she kept squashing his efforts to reassure her.

The rustling of paper caught her attention. Draco pulled the Prophet out from his robe, extending it towards her. She snatched it from his hands and her heart dropped in free fall at the front page.

A prime shot of her kissing Harry was under the headline, 'Harry Potter's New Love? ' Thankfully, Blaise was not present in the background of the photo. At least that meant she'd avoided what would have been a completely different feature story.

"How did you get Potter involved in all of this?"

Daphne bit her bottom lip in embarrassment. She had to remind herself that the war was over and her secret didn't hold the same weight it used to. However, Draco was quick to connect the dots in her hesitancy.

"No…" He looked shell shocked. "You wrote a letter to Potter?!"

She rubbed the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache coming on. When she looked back at him, she could see he was still shaking his head in disbelief. "And what's your plan for damage control with Potter?"

"I have no idea. I haven't run into him yet and I'm not looking to seek him out."

"But you do realize that you'll have to do something? This is Harry Potter that you so inconveniently chose to snog in the middle of a public setting. It's in the Prophet-everyone knows. It's not something that you can just sweep under a rug as if it never happened. The entire wizarding world is going to speculate until given an explanation."

"Yes, alright, I don't need you to emphasize how much I've screwed up. I'll make a point to track him down soon."

Daphne turned to get ready to leave and return to her desk. She had her hand on the handle of the door when she turned back to Draco.

" Has Blaise said anything to you?"

He shook his head. "Not yet."

"You'll let me know if he does?"

Draco nodded and she opened the door to return to her work. Despite what she relayed to him, she didn't feel ready yet to go seek out Harry. Maybe she would luck out and Harry would seek her out first.

Daphne arrived home late in the evening after having stayed late at work, hoping to avoid the rush of employees leaving for the day.

With a pop, one of their house-elves, Wodby, appeared in front of her. "Miss...your parents have requested your presence downstairs. Master and Mistress have a guest here to see you."

"A guest? For me?"

The little elf nodded in affirmation. "Yes, in the parlor."

Concern rose in Daphne and her pace quickened down the hall. As she neared the room, the sound of voices grew louder. She registered her parents, but the third, muffled voice wasn't one that she could immediately place though it felt familiar.

Her feet stilled as she laid eyes on the back of a head with scruffy, jet black hair. Her jaw dropped open and it felt like her heart had ceased beating. She watched in shock as her parents appeared completely enraptured listening to the man in front of them.

"Ah, Daphne, you're home." Her mother's voice sing-songed. "You should have told us that you'd be running late this evening."

When Harry turned in his chair to look back towards her, he had the same look of enjoyment she'd witnessed on her parents' faces. She had no idea what she had just walked into and that scared her more than anything.

"It's alright, Mrs. Greengrass," Harry spoke. "I didn't tell Daphne that I was planning on dropping by."

"Daphne, don't just stand there. Come join us." Her father prodded as he took another sip of his tea.

She crossed apprehensively in front of Harry to the chair next to his. Glancing as discreetly as possible towards him, she noted that Harry was refusing to make eye contact with her, suddenly enchanted by the cup in his hands.

Internally on guard, Daphne proceeded to summon her own cup. She didn't want to jump to any assumptions regarding what conversation had occurred in her absence, lest she again make a fool of herself.

Her mother eventually continued the conversation. "Harry, here, decided to drop by this evening to apologize to us."

Daphne quirked an eyebrow, looking again at him in hopes of an explanation. She was the one that inappropriately grabbed and snogged him in public. She was the one who's hasty actions in a moment's panic landed them on the Prophet's front page to everyone's embarrassment. She didn't know what reason Harry would have to apologize to her parents. "An apology?"

"Yes," her mother affirmed. "He told us it was his idea not to tell anyone that the two of you were seeing each other…"

Her hands went limp from the shock of her mother's words. The cup slipped and shattered on the ground, which caused everyone to jump slightly. Her mother admonished her before casting a spell to repair the damage, returning it to Daphne's hands and summoning the pot to fill her empty cup.

"What-?" Her voice nearly shrieked when Harry quickly piped up.

"Yes, and I told them how you'd grown rather impatient with me the other day over it."

Daphne stared over at him dumbfounded. She couldn't fathom what motivation he currently had to arrive at her home and tell this outrageous lie to her parents. Surely, they wouldn't believe that she would ever act that way publicly? She turned back to them only to find her mother with some pathetic lovesick look on her face and her father not appearing to register any red flags about the whole situation. She couldn't stop the scoff of disbelief that left her.

"We hope you're not upset with him, dear," her mother pouted. "It's lovely that the two of you are seeing each other. Especially, seeing as you've had such a difficult time getting over Blaise-"

"Let's not talk about that, please," Daphne inserted, cringing as she heard a touch of desperation in her voice. She glanced towards Harry, mortified by the progression of the conversation. As she watched him sit there, the question resurfaced as to what made him come here and tell her parents they were dating. Before yesterday, they hadn't spoken a word to each other since the day that inspired the letter.

"So, Harry," Daphne pivoted. "Did you tell them how long we've been seeing each other?"

"I, uh, hadn't gotten that far…" He spoke into his tea.

Before she could continue, her father spoke up. "Harry and I had just been talking about Quidditch before you came home. Seems that we're both fans of Puddlemere United. I told him we had box seats. Harry, you should join me at the next match as my guest." She refused to take her eyes off of Harry as he comfortably resumed talking with her father. However, he would reach up to adjust his tie whenever her father prodded him to commit to a match. Daphne hoped that meant he understood that her compliance with this charade was time-limited.

"It's getting late." Daphne finally got in during a break in their discussion. "As much as I'm glad that you've all been able to meet, I'd love a few moments with Harry to show him some highlights of the house before he needs to leave."

"Daphne, I'm not sure that would be appropriate..." Her mother protested to her embarrassment. She felt her face twist involuntarily as she set down her cup.

"Oh, Agnes," Her father spoke. "You remember what we were like at this age. I'm sure that they can be responsible-"

"The grounds, then!" Daphne clapped her hands together and stood abruptly. She gestured for Harry to follow her. As she walked out, she heard her father mumble something about the grounds hardly being any more appropriate. She groaned as her face flushed. She walked briskly outside, not saying a word to Harry but she knew from the sound of his footfall that he was following.

She spun around to confront him and he almost stumbled back when she'd unexpectedly halted.

"What do you think you're doing?" It was a pointed whisper despite being out of earshot from the house.

"You forgot your bag. I dropped it off with your parents," Harry replied calmly.

She let out a sigh of relief knowing that it had been returned, which she tried not to let it distract her. Her bag was a perfectly logical reason for him to drop by but that did nothing to explain anything else that she had experienced this evening. "Thank you for returning it but how did that lead to my parents being under the impression that we're dating?"

"Well..." Harry started hesitantly. "Isn't that what you wanted people to think?"

Daphne felt sick at his question; he was serious. "You...I...No..." She pinched the bridge of her nose, at a loss for what to say to the fact that this was his impression of the events that had transpired. "I didn't-"

He must have caught on that she struggling because he spoke up again. "I saw your ex the other day...after you left." A beat passed as he appeared to be collecting his own words. "I got your letter and then you kissed me even after I'd tried to let you down easy." She restrained a reaction as she recalled his speech. "And then you ran, which I found confusing. But I turned around and saw Blaise standing there, looking put out. The more I thought about the letter after, something about it seemed off and so I thought-"

"You thought I was using you?" She felt terrible as she listened to Harry's misinterpretation of the situation. It was hard to believe that he was so gracious with her after even coming to such a conclusion. He opened his mouth to speak again, but she knew that she needed to clear things up immediately.

"Harry, listen. You should have never gotten that letter. I wrote it in our fourth year-that's why it seemed off. It was simply in response to a fleeting crush at that time. I'm sorry I kissed you. It was incredibly inappropriate of me." Daphne was rushing out each thought as it came to her. "I didn't do it to use you but I did panic when I saw Blaise show up. He actually got a letter as well, and I didn't want him getting the wrong idea about it. I wasn't thinking about the repercussions of the fact that you're-well, you…All of this mess is my fault and I'm so sorry you got dragged into it. I can clear things up with my parents. I'll do whatever you need me to in order to clear things up as far as the public-"

"No, don't," Harry quickly interrupted and her eyes widened. "Listen, my intentions were not exactly as noble as returning your bag or playing along with things."

A few silent beats passed between them. Her eyes narrowed, confused exactly by what he wanted from her at this point.

Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "Can we sit?" He gestured towards a bench near them.

Once they were seated, she waited for him to continue.

"I'm not quite in the exact same situation, but I have my own relationship problems."

"I don't have relationship problems." Daphne felt compelled to clarify.

"Alright, hear me out though. I'm sure you know that I was dating Ginny Weasley. She and I broke up just before everything happened with Voldemort. I thought that we might reconnect after everything was over but she wasn't ready to. She wanted to return to Hogwarts and wanted to see where things landed when she finished. I haven't had much hope. She barely spoke to me before she left for school and hadn't made any attempts to return my owls since she left. Then, with our-exchange -she suddenly wrote to me."

Daphne gave a slow nod but she was sure her face still reflected her confusion, still not certain on Harry's point.

"There was nothing blatant that she wants to start things up again, but now she thinks that you and I might be seeing each other and I can tell she's jealous." Harry readjusted against the bench. "I wondered if you might help me because I think if she believes I might be moving on, she might change her mind about us."

The pieces started connecting for her. What Harry said at least explained why he didn't appear angry when he was under the impression that she had orchestrated the kiss. Before he'd come this evening, he must have thought they had similar motives. She looked away from him, contemplating. "So you want to appear to date me in public, while trying to win back your ex-girlfriend?"

She could see his face flush at her clarification. He opened his mouth before closing it again and with a heavy swallow, he nodded in confirmation.

As she reflected on it, she could see the mutual benefit of the arrangement for both of them. She could save face with her ex and he can win back his.

"Give me the evening to think about it and I'll give you my answer tomorrow."

"Thank you," Harry responded genuinely, his eyes brightening with hope.

She raised her finger to him, determined to not let him off the hook for this evening. "But you promise to tell no one else anything about the status of our relationship, fake or not. We should have had this conversation before you said anything to my parents."

"Promise." He quickly replied. "I apologize for that."

When Daphne felt as though Harry had answered most of her initial questions about the proposed arrangement, the pair rose from the bench and she escorted him back into the house. She agreed to owl him her response since it would be the weekend.

They found her parents, who had not yet retired for the evening, situated oddly amidst the sculptures and paintings that lined the hallway. They appeared to be...discussing them. "Daphne, there you are!" She cringed at her mother's poor attempt at a cover-up. "Your father and I were just surveying the quality of the portraits. I think some of them may need some minor restorations."

"Yes, dear, I couldn't agree more," her father nodded along as he scanned his eyes across the wall.

Daphne rolled her eyes at them. The care of the portraits had been left up to the house elves for centuries. Harry appeared to cough in an attempt to cover up a laugh and in his recovery was biting back a smile.

"I'm going to see Harry out now." He followed her back to the entrance where she saw him off for the evening. As she turned back around her parents were once again lurking. This time with mirrored looks of delight on their faces.

"Oh, I think this is absolutely wonderful, Daphne." Her mother moved forward and enveloped her into a hug and she awkwardly returned it. She looked over at her father, who actually winked at her. Her eyes widened, appalled by the gesture. She shut her eyes tightly, horrified by what she had potentially just signed up for.