3.

Potter Manor was already a whirlwind of activity when Harry finally landed in the foyer, still feeling a little disoriented from his trip by Portkey. He took a few moments to gather his wits before looking around, frowning at the number of servants bustling around; some carrying trays of food, others dusting every corner imaginable.

"Maria," Harry called out when he recognized one of the maids passing by, "Do you know what is going on?"

"Oh Master Harry," she greeted him; a thousand watts smile on her face. Maria has always been little Ms. Sunshine, always smiling even when she was sad and depressed. "Mistress Lily wanted the house ready to celebrate Miss Rose's engagement."

"Rose is getting engaged?" Harry echoed, not believing what he was hearing. Just a few days ago, Rose had still been mooning over Tom Riddle and now she was getting engaged? This whole thing doesn't make the tiny bit of sense in his mind. For a moment, he wondered if Maria had been listening to rumors again.

"Yes," Maria nodded, ignoring Harry's surprise, "To that nice young man she's been crushing on; Tom Riddle is his name."

Harry choked on absolutely nothing.

"Tom Riddle," he gaped, mind going back to the last Tom/Rose interaction he had witnessed. Although to be honest, it was less of an interaction and more of a one-sided show where Rose stared with dreamy eyes at Tom while the young man ignored her in favor of his book. Harry had overheard Rose tell her friends later that night how she and Tom were meant to be because they sat on the same library bench. Rose's denials can sometimes reach levels Harry didn't even know existed. According to Hermione, that was the power of a young girl in love. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," Maria chided him, "I heard the Mistress tell the Master how Miss Rose would be delighted by the Courtship offer Mr. Riddle sent to the House."

"He sent a courtship offer?" Harry repeated, feeling rather like a parrot at the moment. Nothing was making sense; why would Tom Riddle send a courtship order to a girl he had barely said a word to? Rose may be a Potter and thus still respected in the Pureblood circles, but she was far from the most attractive marriage candidate vying for Tom's attention. The Beaumonts Family, whose only daughter Emilie had been after Tom ever since his majority, was much older and richer than the Potters. Emilie was also an extremely gifted witch by everyone's account. She would be a much better match than Rose.

"Nothing's making sense," Harry lamented to Remus 10 minutes later. He had entered the kitchen with the intention of finding something to eat and found the werewolf sitting at the dining table, a cup of steaming tea in front of him. Remus had looked delighted to see him and promptly invited him over.

"From what I know of this whole affair," Remus began, after he had taken a sip of his beverage, "is that James and Lily received a courtship offer from Mr. Riddle and assumed it was for Rose."

"Of course it's for Rose," Harry groaned, "I'm not doubting the fact that the offer was for Rose; I'm just wondering why he sent it in the first place."

"Harry, without opening the letter, we would never know whom it was addressed to," Remus chided softly, "Maybe it's for you."

"Ha," Harry snorted, burying his face in to his arms, "That would make even less sense than Rose."

"I do wish you would stop being so hard on yourself," Remus said sadly, patting Harry's head as if he was still a small child. It was comforting in a way that Harry really didn't want to admit to; he was 16 for Merlin's sake, he didn't need people treating him with kid gloves any more.

Any further conversation was cut short when Rose made her appearance, the bright smile on her face indicating that Lily had probably already told her the good news.

"Isn't today such a wonderful day?" she said in a singsong voice as she nearly danced in to the kitchen, her uniform skirt swirling around her thighs as she moved. "Dear little brother, you look well."

"Wow," Harry said dryly, "You must be in a good mood if you are actually talking to me and acknowledging me as your brother."

Remus snorted at his tone, but Rose was still too out of it to truly care. Instead of berating him like every time he made fun of her, she swept down and kissed him on the cheeks – KISSED him on the cheeks – before disappearing in to the living room. Harry could hear Sirius' voice pipe up, full of congratulations and Rose's squeal of delight as she was reminded of her good fortune.

"Kill me now," Harry groaned.

Remus sighed and took another sip of his tea.

"Now that we are all united," Lily started, smiling around the room at everyone. "Let's get started."

Harry sat on the sofa next to Remus, while Rose sat on another sofa next to Sirius. Everyone was beaming and Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes while trying to school his expression in to something resembling interest. But since he had as much interest in the proceedings as being shot in the foot, it was proving to be quite the task.

"Stop grimacing," Remus hissed, elbowing him in the ribs.

"I'm not," Harry protested, not looking away from his mother, "I'm smiling."

"You look like a deranged serial killer about to strike," Remus hissed back.

Harry frowned at that.

"That wasn't really nice," he told Remus, but the older man just shrugged unapologetically and returned his attention back to the front of the room.

"Rose, would you like to do the honors?" Lily was saying when Harry turned his focus back to the Lily-Rose show.

Rose stood up gracefully, hand automatically smoothing down her skirt and she started her way up to her mother. James stood next to Lily and gave Rose a big hug as he passed her what must be the courtship letter.

"Before I open this," Rose said, teary eyed as she turned to her assembled audience. Harry resisted the urge to bash his head against the wall; he couldn't believe that Rose was about to do a speech now of all times. He knew that the girl loved dramatics with a passion, but this was ridiculous. It was just courtship letter; one that she didn't even deserve on account of the fact that she hadn't even mustered up the courage to talk to Tom yet.

Oh I can see the wedding now, Harry thought with a snicker, "Rose! Look at your fiancée please! Rose, why are you trembling?"

He must have made some kind of sound because Remus gave him another jab in the ribs and Harry rolled his eyes.

"And I would like to thank my little brother for being so shit at everything that he always manages to make me look good in comparison."

"Rose!" James protested while Lily's smile dimmed a little for the first time that morning. Harry was gratified to see that his parents would still defend him when he was the clear failure of the family.

"Sorry," Rose said, not sounding sorry at all.

"Just open the envelope," Remus said, saving everyone from awkward silences and hurt feelings.

James passed Rose a letter opener and Rose slit finally slit the envelope open and extracted the content.

As per custom, the courtship letter was written on an expansive piece of parchment with the crest of the person making the offer stamped on the bottom. Any hope that Harry had that this was some kind of prank evaporated when he recognized the familiar seal of the Slytherin House, visible even from his seat.

Rose closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and began to read.

Harry could see the exact moment she read something she had not expected, because her entire body froze, her mouth still opened on a silent "oh".

"Rose?" Lily asked in confusion as she came over and looked over her daughter's shoulders. She too for some reason, froze in shock, eyes wide as she read.

"What's going on?" James asked in confusion, no longer smiling.

"Oh," Lily said softly as Rose started to tremble, her face turning redder than the sweater she had on. Harry was, for a moment, concerned about her well being when out of the blue, she lunged at him, features contorted in to a mask of fury.

"What the bloody hell?" Harry yelped as he dove away, his speed saving him from his sister's claws. He may not be good at magic, but he had tried to compensate it by training his body to the max. Years and years of martial art training had given Harry the speed and reflex to evade any attacker; wizard or not. He knew that technically Rose would never succeed in touching him, but it did not stop the indignant sounds coming out of his mouth.

"You traitor!" she shrieked, trying to hit him once more, "You did this to me."

"What did I do?" Harry yelled back, diving behind the sofa and using Remus as a shield. For some insane reason, Remus looked amused by the whole thing, a glint of understanding in his eyes. Good, Harry thought, Good for you because I have no idea what is going on.

"Rosey," Sirius intervened – or try to before receiving an elbow to the nose.

"Rose!" James snapped, finally had enough of his daughter's theatrics. "You are a young lady for Merlin's sake; this behavior is extremely unbecoming of someone of your class."

With Rose safely contained for the moment, Harry sneaked towards the forgotten letter, lying on the ground so innocently, as if it hadn't just prompted Rose to throw one of her most violent tantrum to date.

With an anticipatory giddiness he couldn't explain, Harry leant down and retrieved the parchment, smoothing it out and began to read.

"No bloody way," he said.

Sirius moved up behind him, one hand still massaging his bruised nose.

"What?" he asked and took the letter rather rudely from Harry's hand. His expression of pure shock was pretty satisfying though.

"It was for Harry, wasn't it?" Remus asked calmly, no trace of surprise to be found either in his tone or expression.

"You knew?" Harry shrieked at the same time as James exclaimed: "What!?"

"Well I didn't before today," he shrugged, "But I, unlike everyone here, didn't presume it was for Rose."

"Oh Merlin," said Lily, sinking down on one of the sofas. She looked lost, as if her world had just been tipped on one axis. Harry couldn't really blame her. He too was pretty out of it as well.

"So," James cleared his throat, recovering enough to offer Harry a small smile, "What are you going to do?"

"Yeah kid," Sirius piped up, eyes still a little wide, but looking more like his usual self by the minute, "Are you going to agree?"

"You could," Remus suggested, "It will give you a chance to get to know him and if at the end of the courtship, you still want to say no to bonding, you can."

"Why are you encouraging him!?" Rose shrieked, trying desperately to lunge himself at Harry once more, "He stole Tom from me! He should be punished."

"If there was one thing I didn't do was steal Tom," Harry said dryly, "You barely said a word to the guy; the Tom you are in love with is a Tom you have constructed in your head."

"That wasn't wise," Remus said softly as Rose's voice got higher and higher as hysteria fully took control of her body.

"I'll give her a sedative," James told the group before he marched Rose away.

"Harry?"

Harry frowned, staring down at the parchment as if it was some kind of new species. His mind was crowded with questions he was desperate to find answers to.

"Are you going to refuse?" Remus asked, smiling at him.

No, Harry thought, there was no way I am refusing. This is the moment I've been waiting for. Finally, something I get that Rose doesn't. Who cares about Tom's intentions? I'm going to milk this little miracle for all it's worth.

"No," Harry said, smiling at Remus, then at Sirius and finally at his still shock-stricken mother, "I think I'll give Tom a chance."

TBC

A/N: Next chapter, we will see the siblings back to Hogwarts and as per custom, Harry will need to tell Tom in person that his offer was accepted. That will be fun; expect more gaping and shouting. If there's time, we may also see Tom help Harry with his magic and trying to figure out what is wrong with him.

Also, the Potters have human servants instead of house elves.

Also, Harry knows about Rose' crush, but his grand plan only came recently.

Note: Tom is 2 years older than Harry so he is in his last year. He has one year before graduation.

Alright that's it for now. Thank you all for the wonderful support for this story. Please read and review; I love each and every one of your comments. I hope you liked their reaction? More to come next chapter. Tell me what you think?

Well, that's it. I hope to see you soon.