A/N: Hey everyone! Welcome back to The Saviour's Pariah!

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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 PoL Chapter 29! We'll also potentially be having a one-shot sometime this coming week!

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(Sorry if you don't like the chapter!)


October 3, 1998

Saturday Morning

Today was the day he would have had to speak with Romilda Vane with it being a Hogsmeade day, but she'd messed up.

Again.

He'd told her only weeks ago so long as she left the Slytherins alone and didn't cause problems over the course of the school year, that he'd consider her for a date or something of the sort, yet here it was a week later with problems already starting up again. Fay's words had given him the chance to prepare for his younger housemate's antics, but in large part, he'd hoped his attention would be able to get focused on the mock trials that were coming up even if those people didn't wholly deserve his help for the second time.

He was wrong, evidently, the familiar box of chocolates with a special treat infused in them was evidence enough — the only problem was they hadn't been meant for him.

Vane had thought herself clever, or, the girl was incredibly stupid, regardless of the reason she'd tried the same trick she'd pulled on him on his Slytherin friends.

Tracey in particular had come the closest to disaster, the girl's love for anything sweet made her disregard the warnings Daphne gave her until the latter girl stunned her friend and called for him. She'd said something didn't sit right when looking at the box of chocolates right outside the entrance to their tower, and she'd been right… he suspected stunning Tracey didn't take all that much from Daphne either, the two weren't afraid of hitting one another with 'friendly' spells.

That'd been the first incident, and with any luck, it'd be the last after he'd brought the item to McGonagall.

He'd told the Headmistress exactly who was behind it, Fay's words and the gossip from Vane's own crew were especially strong pieces of evidence that floated through his mind.

McGonagall's reaction was understandably angry with the incident, especially given her newfound status not having been official for half a year yet before a problem this large rose up shortly after the status of Delphini's parentage; the latter issue, as annoyed as he was to call it as such, could wait, the former most definitely couldn't.

Vane was confined to the tower when not required at classes or needing to eat, and when either of those came up, a Prefect from any of the other three houses would escort the girl to and fro. McGonagall wasn't stupid, the nepotism and house loyalties still ran deep and as such, trusting a prefect with a member of their own house when it came to something serious, especially a member that was fairly popular, wasn't a bright idea and the older witch had seen that without a second thought.

Thus, with that hopefully handled, for the time being, Harry was given time to focus on the upcoming trials while doing his best to balance his friendships, old and new.

Merlin, did he hope Vane would get some wits about her, Delphini would be an average (albeit attractive) witch and the Ministry would get sorted… was that too much to ask for?


"Harry! It's time-" — Tracey's weight was suddenly completely on his back, her legs had wrapped around his waist while her arms circled his chest until her body was supported by his alone — "to go to Hogsmeade! We're getting chocolates and candies and more chocolates and then lunch. After that, we can go for a picnic right outside of town to watch th-"

"Tracey."

Harry and Tracey both turned to see Daphne standing a few feet away, the latter witch dressed as casually as he'd ever seen, though the fashion was distinctly different than the typical muggle wear so many of his housemates clothed themselves in. One thing that hadn't changed was the typical pose she had when about to give a reprimanding.

"Hi, Daphne!" Tracey said, her head having moved to hide behind Harry's for when she spoke next. "You look great today, trying to score some points with Harry on our Hogsmeade date?"

"You… you ab-" Daphne cut herself off and paused, taking in a deep breath while simultaneously righting her expression to its normal setting.

Harry took that time to backpedal towards the door so he'd not risk getting hit by any spells meant for the girl currently hanging off his back, and as he did so, he bumped into the fourth member of their ad hoc Hogsmeade group.

"Bold move being on his back while wearing a skirt Tracey… I take it you're hoping to entice him by doing so?" — Delphini's expression wasn't teasing, bullying or anything of the sort, on the contrary, it was calculating… at least until it shifted to pleading — "Please let me know if it works!"

"You're both terrible. I'm going to the carriages, come along if you'd rather ride with me than random peers of ours, Morgana knows how boring the majority of them are," Daphne sounded annoyed, and while she was passing Harry, the girl did something to Tracey that made the girl yelp loud enough he nearly dropped her.

"That was mean Daph… wait! Daph and Delph! You two can have similar nicknames, that's wicked!"

Harry hadn't a clue as to how Tracey's brain worked, the way it could go off on tangents unrelated to one another, but he had to admit, the girl was pretty wicked herself. Especially when she wasn't jumping on his back and demanding a ride down to the carriages for the whole walk… that'd be painful.


His walk down to the carriages with the three girls hadn't been all that eventful, not unless he still considered Tracey's usual antics with Daphne or the former girl's social awkwardness with a majority of their peers that she didn't know eventful; if he did, then it was as eventful as ever.

Tracey, in a way, reminded him of a younger Nymphadora with her outgoing, goofy personality, only the Slytherin witch wasn't half as clumsy. Not in actions at least, her clumsiness was mainly of the verbal variety, that being her ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time or generally misunderstanding the social queues until she commented wrongly on someone's manner of dress or style.

Most recently when it came to that, he thought back to Tracey's crude wording on the new gown Daphne had been sent by her parents for 'formal' outings at Hogsmeade — he'd never heard Daphne so angry while at the same time so embarrassed.

Needless to say, he'd left as quickly as he'd arrived, the words being tossed around as well as the jinxes mixed in weren't anything he'd wanted a part of.

Once the group had made their way down to Hogsmeade and disembarked from the carriage they'd ridden in on, Delphini had immediately separated from the group after offering up an excuse of a prior engagement with a friend who wasn't currently attending Hogwarts. Daphne had raised an eyebrow and Harry had shot a curious look, neither of the two wanting to question the girl on anything; Tracey held no such reservations and as such, she'd asked what those obligations were while sniffing the air as a dog would on account of the food smells wafting from the closer restaurants.

Delphini didn't pay them too much mind when she reiterated her earlier words, adding in only that it was a friend and that she'd rejoin the group sometime later after her meeting was finished.

Harry was curious, very curious, as to who it was she was meeting and he half-thought it a good idea to follow after the girl if he could get five or ten minutes away from the other two — he still carried around his cloak everywhere he went, more than enough time on the road and in Hogwarts itself told him he'd never know when he'd need it until the moment came that he didn't have it.

Ultimately, he decided against that course of action not five minutes past Delphini's departure. It wasn't right to spy on her regardless of how much he wanted to, and if the worst were to happen, if she were evil, it wasn't like she'd be meeting with some remnants of the Death Eaters as her father would've. All of them were dead, in Azkaban or currently being held under watch by a new wave of Aurors… Aurors, Harry snorted at the word, they were more like war veterans with an intense hatred for the people they were assigned to guard.

Kingsley was doing the best he could with what he had, Harry knew that, but there were simply too many problems for the man to handle and with a bust economy, there weren't enough solutions.

Harry sighed lightly while wandering through the main streets of Hogsmeade with the two girls, both of them looking excited at the new shops and vendors, with Daphne especially looking more lively than usual with her near-skipping movement as she pointed out varying new shops that'd somehow popped up in Hogsmeade without the slightest of announcements.

"Harry! Look! Chocolate!"

That was all the warning he got from Tracey before the girl pulled on his arm so strongly that the pair of them nearly fell over into the muddied ground; thankfully Daphne had been in that direction to stop them with a shove in the opposite direction.

"Oblivious as ever, aren't you Tracey?"

Daphne's voice lacked any annoyance or agitation that it had whenever she truly scolded her friend. Her face wasn't any different either, she was smiling, albeit not very widely, at the shop beside the one they were headed to.

He didn't know why until he saw the general look of it, as the name gave nothing away while the bay windows into the building left little to the imagination.

Simply put, the large shop attached to the chocolate shop, La Fudgerie, had everything you could want; he saw brooms, Quidditch jerseys for the varying teams, potions ingredients, different types of foods and drinks, there was even a section for pets! It was like some Muggleborn or Half-Blood had taken the idea of a general store from Muggles and imported it into the Wizarding World post-war.

Harry couldn't blame them if that were the case, the idea was sound and the business it'd bring back to the depopulated village could be enough to make it flourish again, not that it'd ever done so in his lifetime.

"What're you two looking at?" Tracey asked with a scoff and whine as she pulled on Harry's sleeve again. "Chocolate shop, please, please, please! We can go inside the other place, whatever it is, after — who knows if the truffles or salted caramel fudge is being sold out as we speak!"

Tracey finished by stomping her foot on the ground, which turned out to not be the brightest of ideas on account of the mud. He commended the force she'd done so with though, hitting her own face with specs of dirt off the ground was pretty impressive. Lucky for her, magic existed, otherwise that'd have been pretty embarrassing to run around with all day.

It hadn't stopped Daphne from laughing at her though, openly and with a wide smile on her face that made the typically annoyed, bored or rarely, friendly-enough one she wore all look horrible in comparison.

He was lucky to be surrounded by her and Delphini, Tracey too to some degree, though the girl was infinitely different from either of the other Slytherin girls… if only a fifth house existed for her and Luna to occupy.

"Go on then, Harry. Take the brat inside, we can get her sweets and candy so she'll stop that petulant whining."

Daphne rolled her eyes once she'd finished, pointing emphatically towards the wooden door to the chocolate shop which only made Tracey squeal in her excitement, a chorus of half-understood 'thank you' ringing out as she detached from Harry only to launch herself at Daphne.

Now, Harry hadn't seen the two friends hug overly often, nor did it seem like they were overly affectionate with one another aside from the playful jabs or the typical comments, hence why when that happened he'd expected Daphne to side-step or do something else that'd leave Tracey looking a fool — he was dead wrong. Not only did Daphne accept the hug from her friend, she returned it with minimal eye-rolling or fussing about, he swore he could even see the faintest of smiles on her face during the embrace, but once she noticed he was looking at her, it was gone nearly as quickly as it'd arrived; as was the embrace.

"Thank you, Daphne! We can get truffles and fudge and cookies, ohhh they may have those things made from oatmeal and cocoa powder too! We should get ev-"

Tracey's rambling as they entered the slightly cramped shop was put to rest with a hand over her mouth, one belonging to Daphne.

"We're inside, no need to ramble, just grab whatever you'd like," Daphne shot him a look that was filled with amusement.

"But it'll cost too much," Tracey said before moving closer to Daphne, likely in hopes of privacy — he still managed to hear a couple of words, enough to piece together what the problem was. "... don't… home… too much…"

He was 'Lord Black' on top being 'Lord Potter' — phrases he'd come to learn were something the Purebloods held onto from the days of nobility as the titles themselves were long dropped by the rest of society, aside from the Goblins who'd also seemed stuck in the past culturally; economically they were very, very progressive. Now, those names didn't mean all that much to him other than the Wizengamot seats he had because of them, but there was also something else that was fairly helpful once he'd reached the age of adulthood.

Money.

Being the head of both houses legally, which meant he owned all estates, investments, businesses and other forms of revenue meant he had a fairly steady stream of income that'd go directly to the vaults at Gringotts. He'd given a good bit to friends and those he considered family post-war so they could get on their feet, enough that it'd cause a dent to form in his bank account that had the Goblins managing his vault wary, though in his opinion he still had far too much for anyone to spend in one lifetime. Thankfully, the luck he'd come across in having so much currency meant he could do things like what he was about to do… he just hoped he worded it correctly so Tracey wouldn't go back to her earlier fear or nervousness around him and Daphne wouldn't go back to that aggressive form of hers.

"You know," He said, gathering the two girls' attention. "I was thinking, we've been friends for a good while… or so I hope" — he coughed while looking at Daphne, earning a small giggle from Tracey and a narrowing of eyes from the aforementioned girl — "As thanks for allowing a boring, bullheaded Gryffindor the chance to know you both, why don't you each grab whatever you'd like?"

Tracey's eyes widened to the likeness of a house-elf, shifting between Harry and Daphne before finally settling on looking at the ground. Not a second after they did so, she moved slightly to the right, Daphne's body now shielding half of Tracey's; it was something he'd only really seen scared children do with their parents or older relatives. Upon close inspection, he could make out the slightest of trembles in Tracey too, he wasn't sure if he'd messed up by making the offer, and so, he looked to Daphne who was standing taller than she often did.

His eyes met Daphne's eyes, and the fear he'd previously had about saying the wrong thing was instantly gone.

Daphne was looking at him with the softest smile he'd ever seen the girl give, not only that, her usually narrowed eyes, be it teasingly or seriously, were slightly watery. That wasn't to say they were overflowing or tears had formed in the corner of her eyes. When his eyes went lower, he noticed her cheeks were rosier too, like a faint blush; all in all, it was completely at odds with the protective stance she'd assumed, and as such, Harry was thoroughly confused until he read the girl's lips.

"Thank you" Daphne mouthed towards him, her head giving the slightest of inclinations to the girl still appearing meekly behind her.

In response, Harry nodded his head with a smile, but her words had only thrown him for more of a loop than he'd already been in.

Why was she thanking him in such a non-Daphne way and why was Tracey making this seem like something incredibly special?

He liked to think he wasn't the same clueless bloke he'd been before, not with Andromeda's teaching and the immediate months leading up to the war as well as the ones after it, but there always seemed to be instances like these where he hadn't a clue as to how to read the room.

Not well at least, he definitely knew asking was a no go, not with the emotions brought to the surface by both girls he was in the room with, being in public was only an additive factor… so he went with something that he hoped, knew, would bring Tracey out of whatever fit she was going through.

Harry went to the shelf beside him, found the largest, most ridiculously packed box of sweets with so many words that he didn't know what was in them, and grabbed it.

"Why don't we get a few more of these then?"

Daphne's blush went redder than it'd been, the girl sputtering words out that he couldn't understand in the slightest, as for Tracey when she'd finally looked over Daphne's shoulder at Harry as well as the box in his hands, she laughed.

All of that wasn't overly funny to the clerk, who pointed out to Harry that the box he was currently holding was infused with something that made couples feel a stronger pull with one another in certain activities — the man behind the counter followed that revelation up by asking Harry to read the signs next time before he pointed out the shelf Harry was beside was marked 'For Couples'.

Oops.


Following that emotional, then embarrassing, and finally enjoyable encounter with the two Slytherin witches, they moved to the shop next door.

It wasn't done too fast though, no, Tracey needed nearly an hour to decide on everything she wanted, and that was just it; she wanted everything.

Harry couldn't remember the number of times she'd looked to him for reassurance when hovering over an item, it was done so often that he'd capitulated fifteen minutes into the trip. By capitulating, he meant standing right beside the girl at all times — her hand grabbed his tightly when he did so too, and she wasn't scared of tugging on him sharply whenever something new caught her eye. Still, with the constant nervous looks she'd shoot at him, her childlike excitement and the forcefulness she'd use on him in her eagerness to leave no chocolate unturned aside, he'd not trade a minute of the time away; it was almost like a weird sort of bonding experience for the tw-three of them.

Daphne, while allowing Harry and Tracey time together, had eventually filled a small basket with various expensive items and only once it was threatening to spill over did she join the pair again. Oddly enough, she hadn't gone to Tracey's other side as he'd expected her to, rather, she'd surprised the both of them by going to his.

She didn't grab his hand, she didn't bump into him, there wasn't any form of contact or closeness in the way she stood next to him other than the lack of usual space she'd leave.

Tracey's previous teasing of Daphne in regards to a crush she might've had on him at one time was brought to the forefront of his mind with her hovering so close. He knew what was good for him though, and as such, he didn't make any teasing remarks as Tracey usually would've.

Finally, once they finished getting everything they wanted, the group made their exit and ended up needing the help of an elf or two, which thankfully, Daphne had no shortage of. She summoned them, gave them instructions to mind their goods until they were finished since they couldn't go directly into Hogwarts and then the pair of them entered into the general goods store attached to the chocolate shop; that wasn't before Harry took notice of the Greengrass family elves, they were dressed well, didn't have any visible injuries and weirdly enough, Daphne seemed to treat the older of the two with as much respect as she would a Professor.

He'd have to ask her or Tracey about that later considering the rarity of such things. Until then, he'd be getting dragged around for the second shop straight by the two witches.

"Finally, there you three are," Delphini greeted, walking up to greet the trio that was idling in one of the multiple clothing sections.

"Hey Delphini, took care of business?" Harry asked, stepping forward and away from the two other Slytherin witches who still seemed totally engrossed with a weird fusion of Muggle and Magical clothing.

"I did," Delphini said with a nod, her eyes joining Daphne's and Tracey's on the clothing racks. "I'm surprised by your lack of goods, especially with Tracey here — I thought you three were going to a sweets shop first?"

"We did."

That was all Harry said in response, but Daphne didn't let that sit without adding words of her own once she'd finally broken free of the hold the clothing section had on her.

"I called for my family's house-elves to collect our purchases until we're ready to return. Harry was the epitome of a gentleman with our previous shopping trip, it's truly unfortunate you missed it," Daphne's tone wasn't hostile, but Harry would have to be completely daft not to pick up on something in it he couldn't place.

Delphini's eyes narrowed just a fraction, enough for Harry to see that she'd recognised it too — he was on edge considering he'd seen rows between witches before, but ones between people with Daphne's personality and Delphini's background had him on edge, there was no doubt both witches were very strong… then there was Tracey. Harry again wished he could be like the lattermost girl; uncaring, oblivious and easy to please.

His distraction nearly cost him when Delphini broke into movement, but he needn't worry, not about violence at least. She practically slithered over to him, such was the fluidity and grace she'd moved with, until she was right beside him, her eyes not once leaving Daphne's.

"Harry is the perfect gentleman, undoubtedly. I'm surprised it took so long for you to notice and act on it, still, I should thank you for keeping him company while I went about taking care of a few things." — Delphini pressed herself closer to Harry, enough so that he could make out a copy of the Daily Prophet tucked haphazardly down the back of her clothes — "Is there anything you and Tracey need to do? I'm sure I could pay the favour back by making sure Harry isn't left alone."

Daphne's face coloured again, the same way it'd done when he'd been kind to Tracey in the previous shop, only this time there wasn't the same sense of warmth radiating from her.

"No, Tracey and I are quite alright where we are. You're welcome to join us in shopping, of course, Harry's been oh so kind the entire trip — I think we were discussing a meal once we finished up here, weren't we Harry?" Daphne sought him out with her face still flushed but in addition to that, her eyes were half-lidded and the bottom of her lip was being chewed on; it was like something he'd seen in one of Ron's magazines.

Delphini made a noise and pulled on his arm, drawing his attention away from Daphne.

Just like the latter girl, Delphini was looking at him enticingly, only she had the added benefit of having pressed right up against him.

His worries were mounting, the tension was building, and then, it happened.

"Why do you two birds seem so uptight?" Tracey questioned, looking between the pair of them before pushing past them both to shove something in Harry's hands. "Look what I found! It's a miniature dragon but it's super fluffy and soft, it almost looks like the one you faced in the tournament! Can we get one? Please Harry!"

Harry couldn't contain his laughter at Tracey's request or how she made the other two girls so indignant with her words, as such, he burst out laughing with Tracey joining in immediately — she was one of those people that joined laughter as soon as she heard it.

Daphne and Delphini glared a little while longer until the levity of the moment finally made them both react in friendly enough ways.

Harry truly loved this Hogsmeade trip, due to the stress relief it provided, and the simple company of the three Slytherin girls.

COMMENT REPLIES:

MayaviPanchi, Mwinter1, Zero: Thank you so much for the support, appreciate it!

Matt9917: No, he does not. He did handle it well for sure, thanks for the insight!

Guest Jun 19: Sorry, I'll keep them short!

ThingsCanBeTwoThings: Maybe we'll get some insight from him soon on just what he thinks of them, though his POV on Tracey is better known.

AmWRAZ: Thank you very much, I'll try my best to continue the updates, thank you!

NotInigoMontoya: Sorry, I won't write a Harem fic, at the most I'd write a triad pairing!