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Confession…(Part – 2)

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It was dinner time when Harry got up to leave his dorm. Neville watched him go, feeling happy for his friend. Up until two days ago Harry was all brooding and distracted but since yesterday his mood had changed for the better and he looked happy. Neville wondered what had happened between him and Daphne in the room of requirement last night. When he had sought for Tracey's help he had no idea that her solution would be to trap Harry and Daphne inside the room of requirement until the two had come to a solution together.

Harry still hadn't told him what had happened between him and Daphne after Tracey had trapped them. Neville didn't want to pry. He knew that Harry would tell him if he was comfortable with it so Neville hadn't asked.

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Daphne was already there, sitting by the counter when Harry walked into the kitchen. She saw him and got up before she walked over to him and hugged him. Harry hugged her back. They stood there embracing each other for a minute before Daphne broke the hug and looked into his eyes and smiled, admiring their beauty.

"What?" Harry asked with a soft chuckle.

"Nothing," she said smiling back before the two sat at the counter as the house elves brought them their dinner. It wasn't anything special. They had asked the elves to give them whatever was on the menu for that night's dinner. Once the food was served they ate in silence knowing they would be talking soon. After they were finished with their meals they left for the seventh floor.

With the term-end exams near, the students were either in their respective house towers or in the library, studying, which is why the corridors of the castle was devoid of them and Harry and Daphne were thankful for it.

They arrived on the seventh floor before walking into the room of requirement when Harry noticed that it was the same room that they were in on the night when Daphne had offered to teach him how to dance for the Yule Ball. They both settled down on the sofa which was facing a fireplace and a window with a fake view of an outside landscape with mountains and a long stretch of grassland.

They had agreed to tell each other everything as they both knew that hiding things from each other would only lead to trouble down the line and that is why tonight was important for Harry and Daphne. They sat there in silence as they wondered who was going first when Daphne spoke.

"Go ahead," she said. Harry looked at her. "Ask me anything you want to know."

He thought about it for a moment. There were a lot of things that he wanted to know about her so he was wondering what to ask first. At the end he settled on the one thing that had been bugging him since yesterday. He took in a long breath and cleared his throat as Daphne prepared herself for his question.

"You mentioned that your parents betrothed you to Theo," Harry said slowly. "Was it because the Notts pressured your family?"

Daphne stayed quiet for a minute before she spoke. "It was actually my father's decision," she said. Harry looked confused as she continued. "The Greengrass family has always stood on neutral grounds ever since the first Wizengamot meeting took place hundreds of years ago. One of the principles that my family has followed since the beginning is that picking a side always brings chaos because then you automatically become the enemy of those who are on the opposite side. When you take that into politics or where people's beliefs are concerned it becomes even more dangerous because people don't take it kindly when you don't agree with their views.

"Because of my family's neutral standpoint we weren't trusted by the so-called dark and light sides of the Wizengamot. As a result we never had any allies. Being the only neutral member of the Wizengamot didn't help either. However, sometimes not taking a side can be dangerous." Daphne paused for a moment before continuing. "When Grindelwald rose to power the world saw him gain a lot of followers. Needless to say many Wizengamot members rallied behind him as well because they believed in his vision of making the wizarding world a better place by eliminating those who had infiltrated our world – people with 'tainted' blood. That was the first time when the Wizengamot saw an open expression of its members' demands. Those who stood with Grindelwald were said to support the dark side while those who stood against him was termed as the light side.

"It was then that my family was approached by both sides at the Wizengamot asking which side my family supported. My great grandfather, who was our family's head at that time stood upon our family's principles and refused to take a side. Needless to say it angered both the light and the dark families and that anger and distrust still exists today. Decades after my great grandfather, when my father became the family head and…and Voldemort rose to power our family was once again put in the position of picking a side. The light side wanted my father to fight the death eaters while the dark side wanted him to support Voldemort and his cause. My father, of course, declined to support anyone and chose to remain neutral like our family always had. However, while the light side left us to fend for ourselves the death eaters began to target us because to them my family was now a traitor. Fearing for our safety my father sought help from the light side but they wouldn't help us and as a result we were left alone. When the death eaters started to target us Theo's father approached my father with an offer to protect my family. Desperate to keep us safe my father agreed to his one condition and that was to form a betrothal between his son Theo and me. Of course it goes without saying that he wanted my father to pay him a dowry, which included half of everything that my family owned as well as our seat at the Wizengamot. In exchange he said that our family will no longer be targeted because the Notts were an active supporter of Voldemort and Theo's father was a high ranking death eater.

"My father agreed, because he saw no other way to protect us and that is how Theo and I got betrothed." There was a long pause before Daphne slowly spoke. "I didn't know about the betrothal until I was in my third year when I confronted Theo for making advances at me. He then told me that we were betrothed and you can imagine the kind of shock that I received knowing something like that. I asked my parents about it and they told me everything. At first I was angry with them, with my father but then I thought about it and realized that my father did whatever he could just so he could protect us. With no one helping us he had to make a deal with the devil."

"And then this winter holiday he nullified that contract," Harry said slowly. Daphne nodded. "Why?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said. "When he first told me about it I was confused and angry with him. I felt as if I was being used as an object. I think the only reason that my father nullified the contract is because he believes that Voldemort is not coming back and so his supporters and the death eaters will never be able to come together to bring his cause to reality. Of course the Notts didn't leave without threatening us. Theo and his father came to my home the day after you had mirror-called me. They were angry and threatened us by saying that our family will pay. Another reason why I became angry with my parents for cancelling the betrothal is because doing that has cost us the only protection that we had against the death eaters and other dark families. Ever since coming back to Hogwarts after the winter holidays I have been worried for Astoria's safety. I have her sleeping in my dorm because I don't feel safe leaving her alone in her dorm at night, fearing something bad might happen."

She sniffed before wiping her tears as Harry's palms rolled into fists. He felt angry upon himself. "I'm sorry," he said. "It all happened because…"

"I told you not to blame yourself," Daphne said looking at him. "Why do you always forget it?" She placed one hand on his face as she looked into his eyes. "None of this is your fault and neither is it mine." Harry looked confused. "I gave it a lot of thought over the holidays," she said, "and I have realized that people are free to make their own decisions in life. If something bad happens to them, it happens because of others. It's not your fault or mine that our houses are enemies. They've been enemies for a very long time. It was not your fault when you asked for my help in the library that day. You only did it because your friends betrayed you. It wasn't my fault for agreeing to help you because I was doing the right thing, helping someone in need. It wasn't our fault when Skeeter came to know about us because we did everything we could to keep our meetings secret and it sure as hell wasn't our fault when the coordinators took me into the black lake as your goal for the second challenge. None of it was our fault and so we are not to be blamed for any of it, not you or me, and I want you to know that."

With that she hugged him. Harry stood here for a while before slowly hugging her back as he thought about what she had just said. None of them spoke. They just held each other with their eyes closed. It felt nice, Harry thought. Embracing Daphne made him feel safe and not alone.

"Now your turn," she said after a minute. "I saw the scars on your back on the night of Yule Ball. Pomfrey told me how you got them." She felt his body become tense before Harry slowly broke the hug and looked at her. It was evident that he was shocked with the way he looked at her, realizing that Daphne knew about his relatives. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you before," she said slowly. "Pomfrey told me that it wasn't something you wanted to talk about. Don't be mad at her. She only told me about it because she thought I had a right to know after I brought you to the infirmary that night." There was a long pause from Harry's side as Daphne began to fear that she might have made a mistake, telling him that she knew about how his relatives treated him. "I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have…"

"It's alright," Harry said interrupting her. She looked at him thinking whether he had only told her that because he didn't want her to feel bad about prying such information out of him. Harry closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. Daphne could tell how hard it was for him to talk about something like that from the way his breath hitched before he sighed.

"You know, I didn't even know that I was a wizard or that there was a magical world that existed," he began. "Ever since I was very young my relatives told me that I was a freak and a good-for-nothing brat who couldn't do anything right and that how lucky I was that I had them taking care of me because no one else would want me. In return for letting them take care of me they made me do the house chores. When I grew up a little they made me make their breakfast, weed out their garden and do everything else in the house from cleaning to organizing it. For the younger me it wasn't that bad until one day when my cousin Dudley and a bunch of his friends decided to play this new game called 'Hunting Harry' where they would tell me to hide and if I was found out by any of them than they would beat me up.

"At first I was glad that I finally had some friends who wanted to play with me but then when they found me I realized why their game was called 'Hunting Harry'. Every time they found me they would kick, punch and hit me mercilessly. I complained about them to my teacher and it reached to the head master of our school. My uncle and aunt were called and they were told about everything. That day when I went back home my uncle hit me for the very first time. He didn't hold back. He told me to never ever do something that would embarrass their son or them. As a punishment, apart from the beating I was made to starve for three whole days. I accepted it as my mistake because I had already accepted that I was a freak who was the son of two alcoholic parents who didn't care about me."

Daphne's eyes widened when she heard that last part. Harry seemed to have noticed her shock as he smiled sadly. "They didn't want me to know who my parents were," he said. "Being a kid I believed their lies and as a result silently hated on my parents who – according to my aunt – had died in a car crash after drinking heavily. Anyways, my cousin's 'hunting Harry' game continued at school. After getting beaten up by my uncle I knew I would be in trouble if I complained about Dudley to the teachers again. I also knew that I would be beaten up by my cousin if I got caught by him or any of his friends so I ran and one day while I was running from them, I accidentally apparated on top of a terrace of someone's house. That was my first bout of accidental magic. Of course I didn't know what or how it had happened. Dudley and his friends were shocked and he told his parents about it. As you might guess, they were once again angry at me. My uncle told me, as he beat me to a pulp, that he wouldn't allow any of my freakishness. In his anger he broke my arm and I guess a few ribs because my chest hurt like hell. I had another incident of accidental magic where I grew out my hair overnight after my aunt had shaved my head because she found a hair in her soup that was cooked by me.

"I knew I was different but because of the way I was brought up the only explanation that I could think of for my bouts of accidental magic was that it happened because I was a freak and according to my relatives freaks didn't deserve to live happily. Since a very young age I had accepted it as truth until on my eleventh birthday Hagrid gave me my Hogwarts letter and told me who I and my parents were. When I came to this world I realized I wasn't a freak but actually completely normal, well, except for the whole 'boy-who-lived' ordeal. I met people who treated me normally and didn't look at me with hate and I knew I didn't want to leave this place. Hogwarts became my second home or rather the only home where I felt like I was actually happy and even though this world sometimes treats me like I am a problem I wouldn't give up this life for anything else. I love magic and everything about it."

Once Harry was done speaking there was a long silence in the room before Daphne spoke. "Do they still…?" she couldn't finish her question as she looked at him with wet eyes. Harry said nothing nor did he nod. He just looked at her and she had her answer. Daphne hugged him. "Don't go to them," she said with teary eyes. "You can live with me…my family. I'm sure dad will let you stay. We can protect you from the death eaters and…and…" she couldn't finish as she broke down in his arms.

Harry smiled sadly as he slowly rubbed her back trying to console her. "You don't have to worry about it," he said. Daphne broke the hug and looked at him slightly confused. "I talked to Sirius like you'd advised and I have decided that I am not going back to my relatives. Instead, I will be living with my godfather. However, that won't be possible unless Sirius becomes a free man. I know Dumbledore won't help him get a trial if he comes to know that I am planning to live with Sirius so I was thinking of asking Neville's grandmother for help. She is a respected member of the Wizengamot as Neville tells me. She can surely get Sirius a trial…"

"My family will help too," Daphne said before Harry could finish. Harry looked at her with a little surprise.

"Daphne, you don't have to…"

"But I do," she said interrupting him. "The more families seek for his trial the more chances he has of getting one. The Longbottom family is a very old pureblood member of the Wizengamot but that doesn't mean that the Greengrass family has no power. Even though my family doesn't have any allies I am sure just standing with the Longbottoms and their allies will be enough to get Sirius a trial."

"I can't ask you to do that for me," Harry said.

"Then don't," Daphne said. "It's my decision. I don't want you to go back to your relatives'. If it's the protection that you need, you will find it better at a magical home."

Harry smiled. It was the same thing he had thought before he had convinced himself to live with Sirius. However, he still didn't know how he felt about Daphne's offer to help him get Sirius a trial but he wasn't going to deny it. Getting Sirius a trial was a priority for him. "Okay," he said in a low voice causing Daphne to smile who once again hugged him. "Thanks," he said hugging her back.

"Don't thank me yet," Daphne said.

Harry couldn't believe how much his life had changed. He had finally found someone who he could trust completely. It was then that he wondered whether he should tell Daphne about the prophecy, however, after giving it some thought Harry decided not to. He couldn't burden her with something like that knowing full well that Daphne would be devastated. The two had only confessed their feelings for each other yesterday and he didn't want to ruin it by breaking a news like that to her.

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Matthias was in the main hall sitting on the sofa when the wards alerted him of someone's arrival. He stood up and let the person through before the fireplace in front of him lit up in green flames. Once the flames had settled he saw a woman walk out of the fireplace, gently dusting her gown before she looked at him.

"Thank you for accepting my request, Lady Augusta," Matthias said as he showed her towards the sofa.

Augusta Longbottom, the proxy head of house Longbottom and Neville's grandmother, looked at Matthias with an expressionless face before she spoke, "You left me no choice, Lord Greengrass. My family owes you for what you did for my son and daughter-in-law. Agreeing to your request isn't enough for my family to pay that debt."

"It was Annabelle who saved Neville's parents, Lady Augusta," Matthias said.

"Where is she?" Augusta asked.

Matthias sighed. He didn't want to tell her that Annabelle didn't want to be there when Augusta arrived at their home. "She's at her practice," he said. "Her day was full so she couldn't take time out."

"Of course," Augusta said nodding. "I understand how important her work is to her. If it wasn't for her skills I would've lost my son and daughter-in-law and Neville would be an orphan. Please tell her that despite her feelings towards me and my family I will always be in her debt. I say that as proxy head of house Longbottom."

Matthias nodded. "I will be sure to pass along the message, Lady Augusta," he said.

"Hmm," Augusta hummed. "Now, shall we get down to business?"

"Sure," Matthias said as the two settled down in the main hall to discuss the agenda of their meeting.

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Thanks for reading…