Vignette 7: Astoria's Engagement

AN: So apparently a whole lot of you picked up that the last chapter's title was a reference to PetrificusSomewhatus's "Daphne Greengrass and the Importance of Intent". I guess it really is a part of the HP/DG canon! If you haven't read that story, I strongly recommend it.

Shout-outs to the people who got the reference: Shadow, Freudentraene, Averlovi, ThingsCanBeTwoThings, Dorothea Greengrass, CaskettFan5, bdwilliams3, The Phantom Keeper, dmt6492, GreengrassRebel and Matt

"I have to tell you something, Harry," said Daphne apprehensively.

That made Harry stop short. Daphne was never apprehensive about anything, ever. He took in the girl who had taught him self-confidence and pride after the Dursleys had all but beaten it out of him. She was biting her lip - something she only did when she was incredibly nervous. Her right hand fidgeted with the engagement ring nestled on her left ring finger - a modest solitaire diamond set on a gold band that was neither too garish nor tiny enough to invite ridicule. A perfectly, respectably unremarkable engagement ring for a girl who hated the spotlight from a boy who hated it even more.

"What is it?" he asked, taking her hand. His wand moved in a blur as he set up a half dozen privacy charms around their booth in the Leaky Cauldron. "Is it Astoria?"

"Yes, no," she said. "I mean, sort of." She took a deep breath as she twisted the engagement ring Harry on her finger. "Astoria is engaged."

Harry leaned back. "That's great," he said, with a frown. "Why do you look so upset about it?"

Daphne took another deep breath. "She's engaged to Draco Malfoy," she said, watching him carefully for his reaction.

Harry let out a low whistle. "Did you check her for love potions?"

"Yes," said Daphne nodding miserably. "And the Imperius and possession and compulsions. She's clean as a whistle. She really does like the ferret, I can't imagine why."

"And Pansy?"

"Gone to the continent, last I heard. I don't expect she will show her face here for a while."

They sat there in silence for a few moments, Harry staring at Daphne and Daphne at her butterbeer. Then, with some reluctance, Daphne twisted off her engagement ring and placed it on the table between them.

"I understand if you'd rather not have Draco Malfoy be part of your family," she said softly, avoiding his gaze. "I know how much you hate him, I know what he's done to you."

Harry picked up the ring and examined it. It gleamed, even in the dull lighting, with the protection charms he had layered onto it and the text inscribed inside the band, which read "Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass - 1997", shone with the bright red colour unique to blood magic. His fist closed around the ring.

"Merlin, Daphne," he said at last. "When did you become such a Hufflepuff?"

Annoyance flashed across her face, as he knew it would. She hated being called a Hufflepuff.

"I am not being a Hufflepuff!" she said heatedly. She sat up, some colour returning to her unusually pallid cheeks. "Don't you understand? This means we'll be spending Easter and Christmas with him. Every holiday, every birthday, he will be there. Do you want that for the rest of your life? I'm stuck with him because of Astoria… but you don't have to be. I can't ask you to do that for me."

"The Daphne I know would be planning how to dispose of Malfoy's body, not offering to break her engagement for his sake," he said coolly.

The thought of an imposter crossed his mind, but he knew her mannerisms too well for that. Besides, the blood magic in the ring ensured that no one besides Daphne could wear it. Just to be sure though, he checked her for the Imperius and any compulsions as well.

"I can't do that to Astoria," she said slouching back, some of the fire leaving her. "I haven't seen her so happy since before she found out about, you know…"

And things clicked in Harry's head. Astoria was always going to die young, thanks to the blood curse that periodically reared its head amongst the Greengrasses. And Daphne, who loved her sister more than anything else - more than even her fiance - would never grudge Astoria her happiness, even if it meant adding to her family the one person she hated more than any other in the world.

"I don't think you understand," said Harry. He reached forward and took Daphne's hand in his and slipped the ring back on her finger. "We," he emphasized the word 'we', "are not stuck with Draco Malfoy. Draco Malfoy is stuck with us. We'll be there at every holiday, every birthday, for the rest of his life. He won't know what hit him."

"But…"

"But nothing," he interrupted firmly. "Do you think I would leave you to Malfoy when you stood with me against Voldemort? You, who taught me how to take an opportunity when it's given to me, how to become a greater wizard than I possibly could have become on my own? What is this besides an opportunity to make sure Malfoy gets his just desserts?"

Hope had blossomed on Daphne's face while he had talked.

"We can't go too far," she said carefully. "Astoria…"

"Of course not," he assured her. "That makes it even more challenging and," he loosed a bit of magic, letting his eyes sparkle, "even more fun. What do you think, an auto-shrinking hex on his underwear at the wedding? I reckon I can do that one wandlessly."

She let out a very un-Daphne-like giggle. "As long as you can get it to work while he waits for her at the altar."

"That makes it easier," he said with a grin. "I'll have an excuse to maintain eye contact. Maybe we can throw in a Switching Spell to sneak a Puking Pastille into his dinner..."

"Or we can jinx the camera so that all the pictures show his robes as Gryffindor red," she said, getting into it.

"A voice-changing hex on his champagne flute to make him sound like Voldemort."

"Or Umbridge. Hem hem."

Harry shuddered. "That one's just cruel, Daph."

"As if he doesn't deserve it," she said with a snort. "After that whole year he spent cozying up to that toady…"

"Not to him," said Harry, giving her a meaningful look. "To me. I don't want to ever hear her voice again."

She grinned and clucked at him sympathetically. "Maybe we'll just stick with Voldemort then."

And so they went on, until well past the lunch hour when the lunch crowd at the Leaky had dwindled and the evening shoppers on their way to Diagon started coming through.

It would be a lie to say Harry didn't have any second thoughts at all about having Malfoy as part of his family. But when, a few days later, he found a newspaper clipping on his desk announcing that former Ministry worker Dolores Umbridge had been admitted to St Mungos with permanent voice damage, along with an unsigned note that simply said, "I love you," in a familiar, cursive script, he knew he had made the right decision. He would follow Daphne Greengrass to the ends of the earth, and he would be damned before he let the likes of Draco Malfoy get in his way.

AN: Please review and tell me what you think! I initially felt a bit iffy about this characterization of Daphne - she seemed a bit too vulnerable - but I think even our favourite Slytherin girl is only human. She's allowed to have doubts and insecurities, and she can't always exclusively be Harry's rock - he has to be hers as well.