27

Shun…

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As the crowd of students got off of the carriages and headed towards the castle, Harry watched them from the astronomy tower. Winter holidays were over and everyone had returned to Hogwarts. He spotted Neville in the crowd and remembered what Sirius had told him about his parents. Harry had thought about it the whole week as he kept wondering how hard it must have been for Neville. To imagine living with your parents who could barely recognize you, far less talk to you…it was very difficult to live like that and yet that was Neville's life.

For some reason Harry felt angry on himself for not knowing that. He once again looked at the students' crowd, most of which had entered the castle so he headed downstairs to meet Neville.

As he got to the stairs' section he stopped when he saw Daphne. She had also seen him and the two looked at each other. The look of surprise was visible on both of their faces as Daphne started to walk towards him without worrying about the other students that were around them. However, Harry wanted nothing to do with her, not after she had abruptly cut his call after he had blurted out his feelings for her.

He looked away before walking past her. Daphne stopped; the look of shock clearly visible on her face as she turned to look at Harry who was walking away. She wondered what had happened to him when she felt someone's hand on her shoulder.

"Hey." It was Tracey. "You coming?"

Daphne nodded before she and Tracey headed towards the dungeons. She looked back and saw Harry talking to Neville as she wondered why he had ignored her like that.

An hour later everyone was in the great hall enjoying dinner. Harry and Neville were sitting together talking about how their respective holidays had gone.

"It's like I said," Harry said, "it's quite boring here during the winter holidays."

"But I thought with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students staying here this year the castle would be a little bit crowded," Neville said.

"There were only a handful of students from the two schools who didn't go home for the holidays. Besides, it's not like I'm friends with them," Harry said. "However, last year I found out about a perk that the students who stay at Hogwarts get to enjoy during the holidays."

"What's that?" Neville asked.

"We can go to Hogsmead every day," Harry said grinning as Neville dropped his fork and looked at him with his mouth open. "I know, right? It's amazing. Now it's not really much but you have to see the village on Christmas Eve. They decorate it so beautifully; and because you know almost all the people living there I actually enjoyed spending Christmas this time."

"I wish I could stay here like you," Neville said.

Harry's grin immediately vanished as he thought that Neville was probably thinking about his parents. "You don't like spending Christmas at home?" he asked.

"No, it's just that my grandma invites all these people and most of them are as old as her," Neville said. "Even with over fifty guests that come to our place every Christmas I am the only kid there and so it's really boring for me. If you want then I would like to invite you to my place next year."

Harry smiled with pressed lips. "I'd love to," he said. He didn't want to talk to Neville about his parents because he didn't know how to initiate that conversation. He knew it was hard for him when someone asked Harry about his parents so he thought it was the same with Neville, only in his case it was probably a lot more difficult.

On the other end of the great hall at the Slytherin table sat Daphne who was looking at Harry. She still didn't know why he had ignored her a while ago. Was it because she hadn't called him the entire week after abruptly ending their conversation? It could be. She knew Harry wasn't big on hiding his feelings, especially to those he knew and he knew Daphne. After spending weeks helping him with the tournament she had understood that much about him. It went without saying that it was also the reason why he had probably said that he wanted to be with her.

She hadn't talked to him after that because she didn't know what to say to him. Harry was definitely expecting a response from her and she thought that if she didn't reciprocate to his feelings then it would hurt him.

Daphne didn't want to hurt him.

Daphne put down her fork. Tracey looked at her before asking if she was alright. Daphne nodded before she slowly picked up the fork and continued to eat. She wondered why she cared whether her response would hurt harry. Did she have feelings for him? She immediately shoved that thought aside. She wanted nothing to do with how she felt towards others. After what had happened during the winter holidays Daphne had more pressing matters to worry about. However, she couldn't stop thinking about Harry, about what he had said to her and how he had ignored her today.

She let out an annoyed groan and grabbed the attention of a few of her housemates. However, she ignored them and Tracey as she went back to focusing on her dinner.

A few minutes later Tracey leaned towards her. "So, what are we doing about the Draco situation?" she asked Daphne, referring to how he knew that she would be taken into the lake. Tracey had told her about it after knowing it from Harry. Needless to say, Daphne was shocked.

She looked towards the blond Slytherin. "We can't just confront him with it," Daphne said.

"We can't but you can," Tracey said. Daphne looked at her. "Don't think that it would be weird or anything. You have the right to know how he knew that you were going to be taken into the lake."

Daphne pressed her lips as she glanced at Draco once again. Tracey was right. Daphne needed to know. As she thought about it she wondered whether it was actually him who had put Harry's name in the goblet. And if he hadn't then he might know who had done it.

The questions piled up in her head as Daphne kept looking at Draco when Theo, who was sitting beside him, saw her and their eyes met for a second. He glared angrily at Daphne who simply looked away.

'Thanks, dad,' she said in her head, referring to the new situation that she was in now after her father had nullified her betrothal with Theo.

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Harry and Neville were in their dorm when they saw an owl fly towards them. It landed on the window before hopping inside and extended its leg towards Harry who saw the letter that was tied to it. He slowly removed the letter and the owl flew away.

"Who is it from?" Neville asked.

Harry saw it had no sender's name and knew who it was from. He simply put the letter in the drawer of his nightstand as Neville looked at him in confusion. Harry sighed. "It's from Daphne," he said slowly.

"You don't sound too happy about it," Neville said. "Did something happen between you two?"

Harry remained quiet for a minute before he spoke. "I told her how I felt about her," he said slowly.

Neville's eyes widened as he looked at his friend. "And?" he said.

"She cut the call and never called me back," Harry said.

"When…did it happen?" Neville asked.

"About a week before the winter holidays began," Harry said. "She had sent me a communication mirror, telling me to use it to talk to her because we hadn't after the second challenge, like I had told you. So, the day I received the mirror, I called her after classes were over. We talked for a little while before I ended up blurting out how I felt about her."

Neville looked at him. "What exactly…did you say to her?" he asked slowly.

Harry remained quiet for a moment before he sighed. "I told her that I wanted to be with her," he said.

"And what did she say?" Neville asked.

"She said nothing," Harry said, his tone hinting that he was a little angry. "She cut the call and didn't call me back. I have never felt that embarrassed before. At least she could've told me whether she liked me or not or if I had crossed a line by saying something like that."

"There might be some other reason," Neville said trying to make Harry think more rationally on the matter.

"What else can it be?" Harry asked. "She has been cold towards me since the start and I understand why she's like that but at least she could've given me a response!"

"Why don't you talk to her?" Neville suggested.

"I'm not going to do that," Harry said. "Besides, after the second task she probably doesn't want to risk things so it's better that we don't talk or meet. It's not like she wants to anyway."

Neville said nothing as he saw Harry's wet eyes. He was definitely hurt, that much Neville knew and he wondered if he could help his friend in any way.

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Annabelle walked into the room and saw the opened letter on the table. She looked at her husband who had his back turned towards her as he looked out the window. She realized that he must have called her because he wanted her to read the letter too, which made her wonder what was in it. So she picked it up and her eyes widened in surprise as she read it. Once she was done reading it she slowly put the letter down. By then Matthias had turned around and was looking at her, waiting for her to say something.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

"Because I knew you wouldn't agree to it," he said.

"What made you think that?" she asked. "Was it because of how things were between all of us?"

"Yes," Matthias said. He then walked up to her and looked her in the eyes. "I know I should've asked you but then you wouldn't have agreed to it."

"Because it would lead to things becoming more difficult for us," Annabelle said.

"Ann, he's gone," Matthias said. "He's not coming back so we no longer have to worry about him. However, it's time that we choose a side."

"And what about our daughters who constantly live with the kids of those death eaters?" she asked. She scoffed when Matthias said nothing. "So you didn't think about that?"

He sighed as he narrowed his eyes a little. "As head of this family I have taken the decision," he said. "The Greengrass house will be forming an alliance with the Longbottoms. I understand how difficult it is for you to accept it but something has to be done. I just wanted you to know that before we made the alliance official."

She stood there as he walked past her, towards the door. Annabelle turned around. "You are doing it again," she said causing Matthias to stop. "It's like that time when you agreed to Nott's condition of betrothing Daphne to Theo."

"You agreed to it, too," he said.

"What choice did I have?" she said, her voice a little shaky. "It didn't matter whether I agreed to it or not. You had already made the decision and had moved on with it."

"Just a few days ago you told me that we both were responsible for that contract between Daphne and Theo and now you're going back on it?" he said as he turned and looked at her. He then closed his eyes and too in a deep breath. "Sorry," he said apologizing before he walked up to her and placed his hands on her shoulder. "I shouldn't have said that but you and I, we both know how difficult it is to live a life without anyone's help. If you-know-who is gone then someone else will come in his place one day and then things would be the same for us as it was over a decade ago. It's about time we made a choice. Besides, it's not like the Longbottoms also have a permanent side either. Augusta isn't exactly popular amongst the Wizengamot families because of her nature. She wants what's best for her family just like we do. That is why I am forming an alliance with her. Also, it was about time that we collected on the debt that she owes to us thanks to you."

Annabelle looked conflicted. She didn't know whether she was agreeing with her husband on this but she knew he was right. It seemed this is how it will have to be now but she couldn't help but be worried of the repercussions of this decision of theirs as she only hoped that their daughters will be safe.

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Thanks for reading…