An: Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I'm trying to post every few days but obviously life decided to get in the way recently. Once again thank you to everyone who is reviewing and adding this to their story alert and favorites lists.

Unorthodox

Chapter 4: Making Headlines

Witch Daily

Potter spotted on a late night walk in London

Mr. Potter and one of the women currently trying to win his heart, identified as Ginny Weasley, were seen walking along the River Thames last night.

The couple was seen eating ice cream and holding hands as they walked.

Could Miss Weasley, a chaser for the Holyhead Harpies, be considering setting down her broom to soon become Mrs. Potter?

When asked for a comment both parties' representation refused to comment on their relationship status and would only confirm that they were on a date.

"Guess who made the front page!" Olive said as I walked out of my room the next morning. "With pictures!" she added.

India handed me a copy of Daily Witch as I sat down beside her.

"I suppose I should be expecting an owl from…" I was cut off as the expected owl came flying through the window. "My mum." I said finishing my sentence as I opened the letter. Before leaving I had tried to tell my mother as little as possible about where I was going, but being her only daughter it was hard to keep things away from her especially with so many questions being asked. I had told her I was headed off to do Harpies promotions and never mentioned that it would involve going on dates with Harry Potter.

Ginny Dear,

I had quite the surprise this morning when my Daily Witch was delivered. Why didn't you tell me you were going on a date with Harry Potter?

My dear, I know I have been putting a bit of pressure on you to find someone to settle down with, but I want you to know that you do not need to take part in a dating contest to find someone.

What about Dean? The two of you were lovely together and I really think if you would have been willing to spend just a tiny bit less time practicing for Quidditch and focused on your relationship, you could already be happily married.

Then there was Joshua as well. You never did tell me why that relationship didn't work.

I don't mean to push you towards one of your ex's but I really don't think you need to try so hard to find someone. Plenty of men would line up to date you and I really don't think you need to get mixed up in Mr. Potter's little contest.

Be careful my dear and I hope to see you at family dinner later this month.

Love,

Mum

"You must not like what she had to say." India said with a laugh as she ate a pastry from the tray that had been left in the room for us.

"I think my mum is worried about me looking too desperate to possible suitors." I replied with a bit of sarcasm in my voice.

"Hardly, I'm sure tons of men will want to take the poor girls Harry turned down on a date or two." Betty said from the sofa across from us. "I hope you girls enjoy the attention." She added with a smile.

We laughed and I told them briefly about my date the night before as the other girls slowly came out of their rooms. We continued talking until there was a knock at the door. Alicia walked over and returned with a cream colored envelope in her hand.

"Guess the lucky girl who is going on the date tonight doesn't have to wait any longer," she said. "or maybe we could…"

"No open it!" Olive said.

"Dear Scarlett," She began. "Hmm, do you want me to keep reading or would you like to?" Alicia said looking over at Scarlett.

"Keep going." She replied.

"Dear Scarlett," she began again. "'Tonight I would like to take you to dinner so that we can talk and have a chance to get to know each other better. I will meet you in the front hall at 6 o'clock.' And then I suppose this is how he signs his name at the bottom." Alicia finished.

"Well Ladies, I know its only noon, but I'm off to start getting ready!" Scarlett said as she stood from her chair. "After all, I can't simply just show up with whatever I have in my closet! I think I may need to send an owl over to my grandmum." She gave us all a small wave before disappearing into her room.

"How do they keep getting stories on this? I didn't even tell you the plans." Harry said pushing the copy of Witch Daily away from him. "We never even released anything saying that that we were holding this… competition. I really hate calling it that. But it seemed like moments after the owls went out I was receiving owls from all of the papers asking for comment."

"You have to remember who you are. It's hard for you to completely say out of the spotlight." Sirius responded.

"It wasn't you, was it?" Harry asked narrowing his eyes at his long time mentor and friend.

"Of course not! I know better than to undermine your privacy. The only contact I've had is the quote in the first article and I confirmed that you were on a date last night. Beyond that I haven't said anything to the press. I didn't even tell them who would be here." Sirius said in defense of himself. "Beyond giving them those tiny bits of information, so that they cannot completely run with the story and make up lies, I haven't said a word to them and to be honest those are the only two times they have contacted me. We may have a leak."

"Wonderful, now not only do I need to pick a girl, which I've mentioned this is all a bit ridiculous right, I also have to find the leak." Harry said slumping in his chair.

That night the five remaining girls and Sirius all dinned in the same room we had eaten in on our first night. I was sat beside Sirius, who shared stories with me about growing and attending Hogwarts. In exchange I told him about the many pranks my brothers had pulled during their time in school.

"…and that is why Pringle decided to retire at the ripe age of 75." Sirius said finishing his story about the time he and Harry's father played a prank that caused the old caretaker to retire in the middle of his sixth year. "After that Flinch was hired and while we tried our best, we just couldn't get him to leave. If anything he just became more dedicated to doing his job. Maybe the board of governors should have given us his raise."

"Fred and George will be so disappointed to learn that you were able to drive away a staff member and that they didn't." I said. "I really think that was one of their goals in school."

At the end of dinner, Sirius stood to gain the attention of all of us.

"Ladies, as you remember you signed privacy agreements before entering this castle and I would like all of you to take a glance over it again tonight. In it, it clearly states that no one is to speak with the press. While I am not directly accusing anyone, I would like you to keep this in mind when communicating with family and friends. One of the most important things to Harry is his privacy. Please make sure that is respected." Sirius announced all of this with one of the most serious looks on his face I had seen yet. "Now, where's dessert?" He added breaking into a grin.

The week continued much the same way. Typically there would be some article in the Daily Witch to greet us about the happenings of the date the night before. But none of the girls would confess to being the one that had tipped the paper off. I had sent only a two owls since arriving, one to my mum to reassure her that I was fine and that this was mostly a promotional thing beyond anything and one to Hermione to let her know I was doing fine. But nothing from either of my letters had appeared so I knew I wasn't the leak, or more importantly my owls weren't being intercepted.

Not that my letter to Hermione would have made much sense. As a muggle born, her mail was always being tampered with during the war and so she and I found a way to communicate without the letters being able to be understood. We had been able to save her and her family from danger using that system. When she eventually moved to France with her family during her final year of school to finish her education at Beauxbatons, we relied on our system to keep in touch. Since the war, we had rarely used it but after Sirius's warning I assumed it was for the best.

I woke up in my unfamiliar four poster and for the first few moments of the morning I was able to forget about the previous night, but in a rush it came back to me and while I knew I did the right thing I didn't feel any less guilty.

The dates with the women had been surprisingly enjoyable and a few stood out, but last night's date with Olive could only be described as painful. My first test for all of the girls had been taking them to different parts of muggle London to see how they blended with the crowds. I should have taken it as a sign when Olive appeared in the main hall wearing dress robes. From what I had read about each girl, I knew Olive's family was the most traditional, but most of the people I knew from my generation preferred muggle clothing and I hadn't even thought to caution the girls to avoid wearing dress robes for our dates. This will just be something else I'll blame Sirius for.

When I informed her that we were going into Muggle London she instantly look put out and when I suggested it would be best that she changed, she almost looked borderline angry. As though no possible boyfriend of hers would ever dream of taking her into muggle London. Hadn't the other girls mentioned their dates to her? Hadn't she noticed a trend?

An hour later she returned wearing a muggle outfit and by that time we were late for the play we were supposed to go and see. We were also too early for our dinner reservation. I suggested we just go for a walk in the city until it was time for dinner and she complained… a lot.

"We could just go to a restaurant in Diagon Alley, I'm sure even if they are busy they could find us a good table in a matter of minutes." She had said as we walked along a busy street in Leicester Square. I stopped walking, but she didn't notice right away and was a few steps ahead before she turned around. "See it's such a good idea it stopped you in your tracks!"

"We aren't going to Diagon Alley." I said hoping she would understand and I wouldn't have to point out that I was rarely seen in public for a reason. Now with the articles appearing daily about me, the press would be even worse than normal and I could only imagine how much Olive would enjoy the attention. That's not what I wanted. I don't want someone who goes to places just to be seen.

"Olive, I don't think this is going to work." I said.

"It isn't that hard to get to Diagon Alley." She said looking around her. "It's around here somewhere."

"No, not just dinner, or even this date." I said. "I think it would be best if we went back and you packed your things to leave." I couldn't believe I was doing this in the middle of the road. I was breaking things off with her in the middle of the road. Possible headlines swirled in my head as I thought of what would happen if a member of the magical community happened to be in hearing range.

"Are you… kicking me out?" She asked starting to look enraged. I suddenly found myself hoping she wouldn't cry. Then I thought I wouldn't be able to go to Honeydukes for a while also crossed my mind.

"Yes." I said. "This won't work. I need someone who can be comfortable in the muggle world and not mind being here." Before saying this I had cast a silent silencing spell around us.

"Here, I'll apparate you back." I added holding out my arm. She looked upset and the last thing I needed was for her to splinched.

I was about to go into my room for the night when I heard Olive bang into the common room from behind me.

"Do you believe that he decided it couldn't work out just because I complained, too much according to him, about being in a muggle town?" Olive said to Scarlett who was sitting in a chair across from her. I noticed her make-up was running from the tears in her eyes and I found myself wondering if they were tears because of the break up or because she had lost her chance at getting her hands on Harry's fame and fortune. "He said that he couldn't picture himself with someone that wasn't comfortable in the muggle world. We're witches, most of us are purebloods even, and how can he expect us to be fully comfortable in the muggle world?" It was after saying this that she noticed me standing beside my door. "And of course he didn't kick you to the curb! And why is that since you claim to not even want to be here?" Most of me knew she was becoming irrational quickly.

I stood shocked but didn't respond.

"Oh so now you aren't going to say anything?" She continued in her rage. "You sit around here pretending you are better than the rest of us. Why? It's not like you grew up in wealth or even have the breeding to be here? They just threw you in so all the average girls can think they were represented! How can a quidditch player expect to become Mrs. Potter anyway? It's a sport for boys and men. Not silly little girls who don't know their place." Olive had struck a nerve.

"Yes I'm here because my management threatened my contract but that doesn't mean I'm staying because I'm completely uninterested!" I said back in my defense. I was shocked I admitted the last part out loud. Since my date I had been trying to convince myself that falling for Harry Potter wasn't an option. "And why does it matter how I was brought up? Or what I chose as my profession. At least I make a living for myself! I don't live off of mummy and daddy unlike you!"

"Whoa there Red, calm down there. I don't know which of you is doing it, but things are starting to shake." India said coming to stand beside me. "There's no need to start insulting others just because you were kicked to the curb, Olive."

As I looked around the room I noticed all of the girls had all gathered to watch some or all of our short argument.

"And don't start in on the others either!" India warned. I could see that her hand was now resting on her wand in her pocket.

After a deep breath I turned and walked into my room. Over the years I had learned to control my temper but sometimes, I just couldn't stop it from coming out.

Witch Daily

Potter Breaks heart in London

Last night Harry Potter was spotted once again in London, this time with Olive Flume but the outing ended with Ms. Flume in tears.

The couple was spotted in the Leicester Square where Potter decided to break up with the girl in public.

Could Mr. Potter being using his dating game as a way to humiliate the girls in attendance one by one? And why would he choose such a public location for the break up?