Daphne could hardly believe that it had only been four and a half months since her father and Lord Black had signed the contract betrothing her to Harry. It seemed ridiculous to think that five months ago she had only considered Harry a friend. Or that three months ago she had been terrified to upset him. But now, here she was, wearing the Potter Heiress Ring and preparing to meet Harry and Lord Black at Hogwarts to look through the jewels of the two most powerful Houses in Britain with them – just so she could wear some of them to the Yule Ball. How had she gotten so lucky?
They flooed straight from their Manor to Diagon Alley, before making their way towards Gringotts where they had agreed to meet Harry and Lord Black. As they approached the bank, Daphne spotted the two wizards standing together near the entrance. Harry seemed taller somehow, despite it being less than a week since she had seen him last, though it could have had something to do with the fact that he was taller than Lord Black. Not by much, but enough that it was noticeable.
"There they are." She commented to her mother.
"Of course," Mother didn't look at all surprised. "A gentleman is always early."
Daphne followed her mother up the stairs towards where Harry was standing and then curtsied politely.
"Merry meet, Lord Black, Heir Black."
"Merry meet, Sirius, Mr. Potter." Mother curtsied to Lord Black, before nodding politely when Harry curtsied to her.
"Merry meet, Lady Greengrass." Harry agreed. "Please call me Harry."
"Then you must call me Adrianna." Mother told him with a smile. "We will be family, after all."
"I am honoured." Harry bowed again, before his attention moved to Daphne. "Merry meet, Daphne."
"Merry meet." Daphne said softly, before inwardly kicking herself when she remembered that she had already said that.
"Are you well?" Harry inquired, stepping closer to her.
"I am, thank you." Daphne answered with a small nod. "Are you?"
"Yes," Harry smiled wryly. "I don't have time not to be. I've been spending every spare minute researching for the Second Task."
Daphne glanced towards where Mother and Lord Black were conversing quietly a few feet away. "Have you found anything yet?"
"Neville has found a plant that might do the trick." Harry answered quietly. "Though I don't know whether I would be allowed to use it. We were only allowed to carry our wand during the First Task."
Daphne opened her mouth to reply, before closing it again when Lord Black's hand suddenly appeared on Harry's shoulder.
"Ready to go, kiddo?" Lord Black asked, though the question seemed to be more rhetorical than anything.
They entered the bank together and had barely made it ten feet inside before a goblin appeared before them.
"Lord Black." The goblin acknowledged gruffly.
Daphne swallowed down her surprise. She had never seen a goblin personally greet a client before.
"Baknog." Lord Black returned with a nod.
Harry stepped forward, until he was standing beside Lord Black, and greeted the goblin in a language that was presumably Gobbledegook. It sounded rough and painful.
Baknog's mouth widened, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth, before replying in the same language.
Daphne looked up at Mother who was watching Harry's interaction with the goblin with a neutral expression – though Daphne could tell that she was surprised.
After less than a minute, Harry looked across at Lord Black. "He needs to talk to you privately."
Lord Black turned towards Mother. "My sincerest apologies, Adrianna, but would you mind accompanying Harry and Daphne alone to the Potter vault? I will rejoin you for the visit to the Black vault of course."
"Not at all." Mother answered with a polite smile.
Lord Black bowed shallowly. "My thanks."
The trip down to the Potter vault was long and by the time the cart stopped Mother's expression was tight. Daphne winced in sympathy, Mother always got motion sickness on Gringotts' carts.
After they had disembarked from the cart and Harry had opened the vault using his blood, the goblin accompanying them gestured for them to all enter it. This was the part about visiting Gringotts that Daphne hated. She knew that it was completely irrational, but ever since she had been a child she had feared that the goblins might shut a vault door with her inside the vault.
She took a deep breath and followed Mother and Harry into the vault, trying to ignore the goblin that was standing near the vault door. The sight that awaited her was enough to drive the goblin completely from her mind. The vault was filled with shelves that contained jewellery set after jewellery set.
"Merlin." Harry breathed, sounding just as astonished as she felt. "I had no idea there would be this much."
Daphne could relate, she had expected the Black vault to be large – it did belong to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter – but she had expected it to be a larger version of the Greengrass vault and so contain a bit of everything, furniture, jewellery, books, paintings, and more. The idea that the House of Potter had a vault for its jewellery alone was unbelievable.
"So how do you want to do this?" Harry was looking around the vault, looking a bit lost. "Do you have a favourite colour or something?"
"Daphne only wears silver, white gold, and mithril." Mother answered him, reaching into the pocket of her robes. "And these are the two main fabrics that her robes have been made out of."
Harry stared at the pieces of cloth in Mother's hand looking no less confused.
Daphne stepped forward. "How about Harry and I search for something to match my robes for the Hogwarts' Ball, Mother, and you search for something to match my robes for the Malfoys' Ball."
Mother looked amused, but she nodded and passed Daphne the appropriate piece of cloth before moving away.
Daphne stepped up to Harry and held out the fabric for him to see. It was the colour of Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter and she hoped that he wouldn't be offended by her decision to wear his House colours. Mother had assured her that he wouldn't be, after all, he had given her the Heiress ring, but there was a small part of her that was still cautious about stepping over any boundaries.
A smile spread across Harry's face and he reached for her hand that wasn't holding the fabric before bringing it to his lips. "You do me great honour, Daphne."
Daphne fought the blush that wanted to spread across her cheeks. Merlin, how had she gotten as lucky as to end up betrothed to a wizard like Harry?
Harry released her hand, before offering her his arm. "Shall we?"
Daphne gently tucked her hand into his elbow and allowed him to lead her to the nearest set of shelves where multiple sets of jewellery sat waiting for her perusal.
"So only silver coloured jewellery?" Harry asked.
"Yes." Daphne said quietly, staring at the jewellery set in front of her that had a blue stone the size of a galleon on the necklace. Merlin, that had to be worth a fortune on its own, let alone combined with the smaller, but still large, stones on the matching earrings and bracelet.
"They seem to have different pieces." Harry commented. "That one has a bracelet, but this one has this strange spiked piece."
Daphne turned her attention to the jewellery set he was describing and tried to hide her amused smile. "You put it in your hair."
"Oh," Harry tilted his head to the side. "That makes sense. It doesn't look very comfortable though."
Daphne turned her face away so that he couldn't see her smile.
"You're laughing at me." Harry accused lightly. "That's unkind."
"But not undeserved." Daphne pointed out, turning back to him.
"No, probably not." Harry agreed with a grin. "Anything you like on this shelf?"
Daphne swept her eyes across the jewellery sets on display. "No."
"Alright, next shelf then." Harry led her the few steps to the next shelf.
"These are all made of gold." Daphne commented.
The next shelf didn't have a single piece of gold on it and Daphne stared at the sets in astonishments. "These are incredible."
"They do look quite expensive." Harry agreed.
Daphne turned to him in disbelief. "Any one of these sets would be worth at least fifty thousand galleons."
Harry's look of sheer astonishment was almost comical. "What?"
"Take this one for example." Daphne said, lifting the tag attached to it so that she could read it. "It has four pieces. Each one has been crafted out of mithril and contains more diamonds that I had seen in my life before entering this vault. Individually they would be worth a fortune, but together…"
"Do you like it?" Harry asked, looking between her and the jewellery set.
Daphne bit her lip, unsure how to answer. Of course she loved it, it was stunning, but she could hardly wear anything that expensive.
"Does it match the fabric?" Harry asked, apparently unfazed by her lack of response.
Daphne brought the fabric up reluctantly and held it beside the necklace. "Yes."
"Then you should try it on." Harry decided, reaching out and picking up the necklace. He brought it up to his eyes and stared at the clasp. "How do you think it works?"
Swallowing down an amused smile, Daphne reached out and quickly undid the clasp.
"Oh," Harry sounded, before moving behind her and draping the necklace across her chest and then fumbling with the clasp. "There!"
The necklace was strangely light given the amount of diamonds that were on it and, as Daphne brought her hands up to touch it, she wondered whether there was some kind of charm on the necklace.
Harry had moved back to stand in front of her. "I think it looks good?"
Daphne looked around, wishing for a mirror, before raising her voice slightly. "Mother?"
"Yes, dear?" Mother appeared at her side barely five seconds later, her eyes widening as she took in the necklace. "Goodness, that is quite the cluster of diamonds."
"What do you think?" Daphne asked unsurely.
"I think it will look lovely on you in a few years." Mother answered gently. "Though I suspect something simpler might be more appropriate this year."
Daphne nodded in understand and reached her hands behind her to unclasp the necklace.
"I'll get it." Harry said quickly, before fumbling with the clasp again.
Daphne thought it was odd to see the usually suave Harry being clumsy and awkward. Though, to be fair, she doubted he had ever touched a necklace before in his life.
Once the necklace had been returned to the shelf, Mother spoke again. "I think I may have found a piece that will work for the Malfoys' ball, dear."
"Oh?" Daphne looked towards Harry. "Do you mind if…"
"Not at all." Harry interrupted offering her his arm.
Mother led them to a shelf around the corner and pointed out a simple set that was sitting slightly above Daphne's eye level. Daphne stood up on tiptoes, before smiling gratefully when Harry reached up and picked up the box that the jewellery was sitting on and brought it down to her level.
The set was much simpler than the one Daphne had tried on, containing a single (though very large) diamond in the necklace and then two smaller diamonds in the earrings.
"It's lovely." Daphne exclaimed, reaching out a hand to touch it before quickly withdrawing it when she remembered herself.
"Would you like to try it on?" Harry asked.
Daphne looked towards Mother. "Yes, please."
Harry didn't fumble nearly as much with this necklace and one it was on, Daphne looked towards Mother for her thoughts.
"Lovely!" Mother proclaimed.
It didn't take them long to find another, equally wonderful, set of jewellery for her to wear to the Hogwarts' Yule Ball and they were just leaving the vault when Lord Black arrived.
"All done?" Lord Black asked.
Daphne couldn't tell from his tone whether or not he was disappointed or relieved to have missed it.
"Yes, we have found two pieces that will work." Mother answered for them.
"So we don't need to visit the Black vault then?" Lord Black asked. "Thank, Merlin, I can't think of a single piece of jewellery that my mother wore that wasn't hideously ugly."
"That may have had more to do with your mother's taste than the contents of the Black vault." Mother pointed out with a smile.
Lord Black grinned. "True. Did you kids have fun?"
It took Daphne a few seconds to realise that he was talking to her. "Yes, my lord. Thank you."
"Don't thank me, thank Harry." Lord Black told her. "It's his vault after all. Besides, it's not as though he's going to want to wear any of it. And you had best call me Sirius."
Daphne curtsied. "Thank you, Sirius."
31-31-31
"Draco?" Harry asked, staring unseeingly at the chessboard in front of him.
"Yes?" Draco answered, his own attention on the board.
"There's something I need to talk to you about." Harry started nervously, he was really starting to regret his promise to Sirius that he would talk to his cousin about Astoria.
Draco straightened in his chair. "It sounds serious."
"It is." Harry confirmed. "And I don't think you're going to like it."
Draco let out an aggrieved sounding sigh. "Well, now that you've got me nicely worried about it, why don't you just say it?"
"Alright." Harry forced his gaze away from the chessboard and towards his cousin's apprehensive face. "I think you should treat Astoria better."
Draco's face twisted into a scowl. "What?"
"You heard me." Harry returned sharply, before regretting his tone.
"So what, you've been betrothed for less than five months and you already think you know more about it than the rest of us?" Draco asked with a sneer.
"No," Harry denied. "Listen, just hear me out, alright?"
Draco crossed his arms across his chest. "Alright."
Harry was silent for a moment as he mentally ran through all the versions of this speech that he had come up with over the last few days. None of them seemed quite right though.
"I was talking to Sirius about Daphne," He started. "And about how you, Theo and Blaise have been getting frustrated at me for setting a high standard. Sirius made a comment about how witches deserve a high standard."
Draco looked unimpressed.
"Listen," Harry tried again. "You know how Neville and Luna are dating?"
"Yes."
"Well, Neville's always doing sweet things for her," Harry reminded his cousin. "He picks her flowers and carries her books and goes to feed the Thestrals with her."
"So?"
"So it's not Astoria's fault that she's trapped into a betrothal with you." Harry pointed out in frustration. "Maybe if she wasn't, there would be a nice boy doing all those things for her, but all she's got is you."
"What do you mean trapped into a betrothal with me?" Draco asked defensively. "I'm the Heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy, any witch would be delighted to marry me."
Harry rolled his eyes. "That's like Anthony Goldstein saying that because his family is rich anyone should be delighted to be his friend."
"Money isn't everything." Draco pointed out loftily.
"Alright, imagine that I was a complete and utter prat." Harry started, before suddenly having a thought. "Imagine I was like Eugene Odgen was before he died. A horrible bully."
Draco frowned. "You wouldn't be."
Harry sighed in frustration. "I know, just imagine it. Now, if I was like him would everyone be delighted to be my friend just because I'm the Heir to the Most Ancient and Noble Houses of Black and Potter?"
Draco was scowling again. "I'm nothing like Eugene!"
"I'm not saying you are." Harry soothed him. "I'm just trying to make a point that money and status aren't all that matters, the way people act is important too. Astoria is going to marry you because her father is delighted that you are the Heir of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't still deserve to be courted."
"I'm taking her to the Yule Ball, aren't I?" Draco asked defensively. "And at great personal sacrifice. She's bloody boring. You're lucky, you got the interesting sister."
"She's scared of you!" Harry snapped.
Draco startled. "What?"
"She watched Eugene being bloody awful to Daphne," Harry reminded him. "And then there's you, who barely even talks to her and doesn't even treat her like a person."
Draco looked as though someone had hit him. "She's scared of me? How do you know that?"
"Daphne told me." Harry admitted. "I probably shouldn't have told you that, but I know that you're a gentleman, Draco. I'll bet that if you got to know Astoria, showed her that you weren't going to hurt you, she wouldn't be so boring."
"She thinks I'm going to hurt her?" Draco sounded horrified. "I would never!"
"I know that," Harry assured him. "But she doesn't." Suddenly he had another idea. "Draco, imagine Neville started treating Luna like you treat Astoria – ignoring her all the time – what do you think she would do?"
"Break up with him." Draco answered immediately.
"Right," Harry agreed. "But Astoria doesn't have that option, so you have to look after her."
Draco nodded silently, before turning his gaze back to the chess board. "Your turn."
Harry sighed and absently moved his rook forward three spaces, hopefully Draco had gotten the message.
"You can't do that." Draco pointed out grumpily. "It puts you in check."
"Sorry." Harry focussed on the board and returned the rook to its previous position. A few seconds later, he moved his remaining horse to take out Draco's pawn.
The game continued for another ten minute, but Draco's heart clearly wasn't in it and Harry won easily. Draco knocked over his king and stood up.
"I'm going to go. I'll see you at Hogwarts' tomorrow."
Harry stood as well. "Sure. Are we alright?"
"Of course, I'll see you later." Draco nodded sharply, before turning and striding out of the room.
Harry fell back into his chair with a sigh, that had gone about as well as he had expected it to.
31-31-31