A/N

About the marriage contract: I don't want to reveal too much, vampireex, but there will be more about marriage contracts in the next chapters. I only wanted to avoid the typical "there is this contract and you have to marry her now" story. Please be patient.

Now beta-read by butterfly83. Thank you very much.

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Regrets and train ride (Part 1)

Hogwarts – 1st of September, early afternoon

Severus Snape followed his colleague, sometimes friend and sometimes foe, Minerva McGonagall through the corridors of Hogwarts in utter silence. Normally they would use this time to insult each other, their houses and favorite students, improving the impression of a deep cat-and-dog-hate between them. But the students were still hours away and nobody was around to enjoy their usual bickering, so they stayed quiet. A smirk played around Snape's lips as he listened to the barely suppressed moaning and groaning of the older professor that had started only seconds after leaving the office of Headmaster Dumbledore.

Neither the conversation with Dumbledore nor Minerva's reaction had been much of a surprise to him. Lucius Malfoy, blood purist, one of the richest man of the Wizarding and an outspoken political foe of Headmaster Dumbledore, had already told Snape about the 'Potter news'. Lucius, one of the few persons Snape regarded a friend, hadn't been amused in the slightest about the idea of Harry 'the-boy-who-lived' Potter being adopted into an old and respected pureblood family. In this regard at least, he whole-heartedly shared the Headmaster's opinion.

Snape didn't agree with Lucius' disgust on this matter. Yes, he despised the Potter boy too. He was James' son and the epitome of a Gryffindor. But to have him under the influence of a pureblood family could be a very interesting development and even more to free him from Dumbledore's influence. While the Pinegrews had never shared the typical prejudices of other families about Muggles and Muggleborn, they also had no love for Dumbledore. According to rumours, it had been Dumbledore's sovereignty that caused Lady Agatha Pinegrew to convince her family not to join the Order of the Phoenix fifteen years ago in the war against Voldemort, and stay neutral instead.

Snape would really love to see Dumbledore raging about losing his newest toy. Since Harry entered the school and partially even since he had lost his parents, Dumbledore had been a dominating factor in Harry Potter's life. Dumbledore had been Snape's puppet master far too long, long enough that the potions' master could enjoy anyone's, even Harry Potter's, freedom from the Headmaster's influence.

The two professors reached Minerva's office and, with a small nod, Snape accepted Minerva's invitation. Taking a seat on the wooden chair near the book shelf, the place he had usually used for the last ten years, he watched Minerva as she prepared their tea. Within minutes the smell of herbs permeated the room and Snape accepted his mug of tea with a polite nod. But instead of drinking he put the mug down on the table, drew a small silver flask from his coat and started to pour an amber-colored liquid into both mugs.

"I had the impression you could use a little whiskey in your tea," Snape answered the unspoken question.

Staring at the mug for a full minute as if wondering whether she could trust Snape not to poison her, Minerva grabbed it at last and downed the content in a few long gulps. Refilling her mug she held it out to him to add some whiskey again. Without a word Snape followed her command, hesitating shortly as she asked:

"So tell me, Severus, what do you know about the Greengrass family?"

To delay his answer Snape elaborately closed the flask again and stored it away, using this time to think about the question and his possible answers.

"Cyrus Greengrass is a close friend of Lucius. To be more exact, he is a supporter and lackey like Crabbe and Goyle, not an equal ally like Nott. He has never been a Deatheater but supported the cause financially and voted according to Lucius' demands all the time. He seems to share the usual opinions about Muggles and Muggleborn, but is neither brave nor ambitious enough to play a larger role. His younger daughter Astoria is engaged to Draco Malfoy already. They plan to marry after Astoria finished school."

"And the mother, Roxanne Greengrass, what do you know about her?" Minerva had known Roxanne for quite a long time but in the last years there hadn't been much of a contact. Would she be the same now or had she been changed through the influence of her husband?

"She seldom makes an appearance in the society. Cyrus is the one to openly show his face. But according to Narcissa it is more of an agreement between them. He is allowed to play Head of the House and she is allowed to do as she wishes most of the time. It is not like the Malfoy marriage. Obviously she inherited the willpower of her mother. About her political opinions I have no idea. She avoids speaking about it but I assume that she shares her mother's sentiments. At any rate she loves her children dearly and I would assume that Roxanne – like Narcissa – would do anything to protect them."

"Roxanne and Narcissa… are they close friends?"

"They are. I would even go so far to say that Roxanne is Narcissa's closest – and sanest – friend. While Narcissa is forced to spend time with other pureblood ladies like the Parkinson bitch or the cows of Crabbe and Goyle, she seems to really like Roxanne. But the engagement of Astoria and Draco is a concoction of Lucius and Cyrus. I assume that Lucius hopes to get access not only to the Greengrass and Pinegrew wealth but also to their voting power. An error in my opinion as the true power lies with Agatha Pinegrew and I don't expect her to part with it for a long time."

"I heard a rumor about former plans to engage Draco not to Astoria but to Daphne."

Snape snickered and nodded, his eyes showing shortly a surprising amount of respect. "Yes, Cyrus wanted to marry Daphne to Draco, that's right. But there is no love between the kids and Daphne …"

Snape hesitated for some moments, his thoughts lost in memories. "Daphne wasn't amused, not a jot. According to Narcissa the Greengrass girl told her parents quite vividly and pictorially that she would never marry my godson. She even went so far to threat… no, to announce… she would kill Draco should they try to enforce that engagement. Obviously Cyrus took her seriously enough to change his plans."

"It would seem that Roxanne is not the only one who inherited Agatha's willpower and own mind," Minerva smiled. "But the question remains: Which influence would this adoption have? Would it be good or bad to have Harry in the Pinegrew-Greengrass house?" The Gryffindor House Mistress sighed deeply. "Albus was quite adamant about us helping him to drive a wedge between Daphne and Harry. His arguments about the possible dangers of such an adoption are valid. But still …"

Minerva remembered a time way back when the Pinegrews had been quite close to her. In the forty years she had been teacher at Hogwarts five female members of that old and respected family had been her students. Each Pinegrew had shown a deep talent for Transfiguration. To finish school with a NEWT in this branch of magic had been kind of a family tradition. Three of them mastered the art of Animagus under Minerva's tutelage. Agatha had even been Minerva's assistant teacher for a short time and reached the academic degree of a 'Master of Transfiguration'.

This all had ended as Dumbledore – after Roxanne's marriage to Cyrus Greengrass – expressed his reservations about the family's trustworthiness. The Headmaster assumed the Pinegrews now to be part of the enemy's camp, Deatheaters-to-be and not trustworthy to have around. He more or less ordered Minerva to cut her ties to the family and end the training of Roxanne. Heavy-heartedly she had followed the order. Months later she learned that Roxanne finished her Animagus training with her mother's help; the first Pinegrew woman doing this outwards of Hogwarts after more than three decades of Minerva's tutelage.

And now her two daughters were at Hogwarts. In two years Daphne would start her NEWT training and while she hadn't the talent of her grandmother – according to Filius Flitwick, she seemed to be much better at Charms – Minerva had no doubts that Daphne would be able to finish her transfiguration NEWT in an acceptable manner, perhaps even with her own Animagus form.

After the war Cyrus had been on trial as many others too. But no member of the family had been a Deatheater and his participation had been meager enough to allow him to live on without repercussions. More than once in the past decade Minerva had thought about her former friends, thought about how their relation would be today if she hadn't followed Dumbledore's command so blindly. She had no wish to reenact the error.

"I'm not sure about our ability to influence Potter either way," Snape interrupted Minerva's string of memories. "Both have quite a temper and their own mind. And Potter isn't the type to really listen to logical arguments."

"At least not to your arguments," Minerva agreed with an exhausted smile. "But you're right. It would be quite difficult to convince them. And I'm not sure that I really want this. I don't like the idea of Cyrus Greengrass or – Merlin help – Lucius Malfoy to be near Harry Potter. But I've spoken with Mrs. Figg and … we made a grave error to send him into that house, Severus, a grave error indeed. And we should have secured afterwards that he has a loving family. That we more or less forgot him for ten years, allowed those vile persons to have reign over his life, is something I'll regret for the rest of my life."

To her surprise Snape didn't react in his usual way. Minerva knew how much Snape hated the boy and the reasons for this feeling. Normally Snape would have said something to ridicule the Potter boy. But perhaps his own childhood experiences allowed him to understand better than anyone else how difficult life must have been in the Dursley house. He stayed silent and only nodded as Minerva finished:

"I will delay my decision until I've spoken with both children and Roxanne Greengrass if possible."

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Hogwarts train – the same time

"Let's go, Millie!" Pansy's voice was shrill as usual when the girl's temper flared.

With no small amount of disgust Daphne watched her as she left the compartment, before she addressed the hulky girl: "You don't have to obey her, Millie. You're better than that, you deserve more." Daphne had always liked the girl despite her not very appealing appearance. Such a large body and such a small self-confidence – she was the typical follower and it hadn't been a surprise that Pansy had adopted Millicent Bulstrode as her personal 'girl power' and bodyguard right from the start three years ago. More than once Daphne had tried to convince the girl to find her own way, that there were more adorable traits about her than her strength. But until now she hadn't had success and this time it would be the same again. With an unsure shrug Millicent followed her 'boss' and closed the door behind her.

Daphne groaned inwardly as she turned around. With Pansy and Millicent gone Tracey would now instantly start to harass her about her new 'brother'. To avoid this conversation as long as possible she had even tried to be polite to Pansy, irrespective of her dislike towards the girl – a dislike that Pansy shared because of Astoria. Until the engagement of Astoria to Draco her fellow Slytherin apparently had somehow dreamed about her future as Mrs. Draco Malfoy. Thinking back there had never been a hint of Draco sharing this dream but this did nothing to quench Pansy's ire about Astoria's 'meddling with her luck'. To hate Daphne too was only the next logical step, at least for Pansy.

"Tell." Daphne tried to overhear despite Tracey nearly jumping up and down on her seat.

Tracey Davis was her best friend since they met on the train ride to Hogwarts three years ago. More precisely she was her only girl-friend and the only Slytherin she liked to spend time with apart from Tracey's boyfriend Blaise Zabini. The dark-skinned boy was leaning against the window and smiling at his girlfriend. He, at least, did not seem as interested in Daphne's news as Tracy, but appeared quite content to let his eyes rove about Tracey's curves. He had started to behave like a horny teenager at the end of the last year and obviously the summer break had only intensified his 'urgings'.

Not willing to wait a second longer Tracey pushed the book in Daphne's hands aside. "Tell."

Daphne tried hard to send her renowned death-glare in Tracey's direction but the girl's joy and eagerness to hear about Potter was so obvious that Daphne felt her ire melt away. "You're impossible, Tracey Davis, I hope you know that."

"Yes, tell me something new," Tracey waved. "Now… how is Harry? Is he a good kisser?"

"What?" Totally flabbergasted Daphne stared at Tracey. "How do you… what do you… Tracey Davis, I have no idea what you're talking about. Harry is not my boyfriend, we don't even like each other very much and…"

Tracey grimaced and interrupted Daphne with a wave of her hand. "Yeah, yeah, anything that let you sleep at night. I hoped with such a cute boy around you would come to your senses at last. It is about time that you catch your own boyfriend and get a good snogging."

Blaise sniggered and pulled Tracey into his arms. "Since she heard about Potter at Pinegrew Manor she has been like this – imagining both of you snogging and groping. Not that I would complain. With her fantasy running rampant like that she has been much more agreeable to…"

"Lalala," Daphne stopped him, her hands pressed against her ears. "I really don't want to hear this – way too much information." Her frown deepening as she noticed the broad smiles on her friends' faces she glared at Tracey: "And you stop these… these fantasies right this instant. Do you understand? Harry may become my adoptive brother one day, but certainly not more. And he is not cute."

"The lady doth protest too much," Blaise whispered into Tracey's ear, but low enough to allow Daphne to ignore the comment.

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Harry wasn't as eager as usual in his search of his friends. He had parted from Roxanne, Agatha, Astoria and Daphne on platform 9 ¾, his new trunk levitating behind him, the cages of Hedwig and Balou in his hands. Hermione followed him, her trunk levitating too while her hands never let go of her new book bag. It had been a parting gift of Agatha Pinegrew: a book bag that allowed several hundreds of books to be stored away without the weight ever increasing and allowing the owner to pull the correct book he searched for. For the time ever her book bag was mostly empty despite the score of books she had been given, but Harry was sure about Hermione's ability to correct this 'fault' on short notice.

As they reached the compartment of their friends the open joy on Neville and Ginny's face caused Harry to feel a bit guilty about his secret wish to stay with Daphne and to become acquainted with her friends. Daphne had been quite sure that Tracey Davis and Blaise Zabini would be relaxed about the idea of 'Harry Potter-Pinegrew'. The blonde girl at Ginny's side – Luna Lovegood if he remembered her name correctly – looked dreamily in his direction and nodded slightly. The smile on Ron's face seemed to be a bit forced. Apparently the Weasley boy hadn't been able to overcome his qualms about Harry's stay at Pinegrew Manor. Harry hoped that he would be able to soothe the waves in the weeks to come.

"And this is certainly Babou, yes?" Ginny asked as she fetched the cage from Harry's grasp. She started to woo the tomcat with silly comments and clumsy tries to fondle him, ignoring all the while Hermione's comment about 'Balou' being the correct name. Was a tomcat able to frown, Harry wondered? Balou stared at the foreign red-head and apparently more endured than relished the attention. Not for the first time Harry wished that he hadn't been this forward in asking Ginny to handle the tomcat at Hogwarts, but at least Hermione would be there too and Balou would have Crookshanks for company. Both tomcats weren't the best friends – partly because of the orange fur ball's envy – but got along well enough. And then there had been Daphne's argument…

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This morning

With a happy smile Daphne carried Balou into Harry's room and gently placed him into his cage. In the beginning he had been a bit reluctant, obviously sensing that something would happen today. But the prospect of a piece of sausage had prompted him to leave his hideout and allowed Daphne to lift him up.

"Have you thought about Hogwarts already? Where will he be living? You have already your owl."

Harry avoided her eyes, concentrating on Balou. Had she hoped that he would ask her? Had she hoped to have her own pet at Hogwarts this time? She had never offered but somehow he sensed that she would have been happy about such a request. But it was too late now, he had already asked Ginny and he didn't want to disappoint Ron's sister.

"He'll stay in the Gryffindor tower. I already asked Ginny Weasley and she agreed to look out for him."

"Oh," for a moment disappointment showed on her face, quickly removed and replaced with a forced smile. She fondled the tomcat's ears. "You're going to be happy there, Balou. You'll have Crookshanks to play with. And perhaps the Weasel bought a new rat. Would you like to hunt a rat, dear?" Daphne suppressed the evil grin that shortly showed on her face before she addressed Harry again: "It will be better this way – securer. I thought about caring for him myself but there could be danger in the Slytherin dungeon. It needs only a single Slytherin with enough hate towards you…"

The girl leaned forward and pressed a kiss onto Balou's head, something the tomcat obviously despised, before she rumpled his fur and walked away.

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Present

The next hour dragged on with Harry feeling irritated by the constant babbling of the Weasleys. After this summer especially Ron's ramblings about Quidditch and the very small number of other themes that hold any interest to him was arduous to endure. How much he would have liked to listen to a Hermione-Agatha-conversation about some topic he only partially understood.

For a while he was able to drag Neville into a discussion about Mediterranean herbs and their effects – the Longbottoms had spent four weeks of the summer on Sicilia and Crete – and enjoyed listening to a few of Luna's weird remarks about some creatures even Hermione never heard about.

But Ron obviously felt a bit left out. He had never been good at leaning back and allowing others their time in the spotlight. Hermione noticed how his face showed the first signs of a rising temper. She struggled for words to soothe him, knowing that anything she said could easily worsen the situation as the red-head had never been good at listening to her reasoning. Instead they both were somehow quite adept at grinding on each other's nerves, leading any reasonable discussion into a full-blown war every time.

Before she had any idea how to prevent Ron's explosion, he started to insult Luna's father. "I never understood why your father calls this" he pointed towards Luna's exemplar of the Quibbler "a newspaper, Looney. It is more like a fairy tale book, isn't it? Perhaps he should rename it to Ramblings of a Madman and sell it together with a bottle of booze."

While Luna had certainly been the target of more than one offending remark in the past and more or less been used to her nickname 'Looney', Ron's words had obviously come as a bad surprise. Harry didn't understand why Ron was so angry right now because he hadn't watched him like Hermione did the minutes before. Luna seemed to be near crying and averted her eyes. She leaned against the window and tried hard to suppress her sobbing.

Neville instantly went to Luna, slightly kicking Ron on his way, and kneeled in front of the Ravenclaw girl. Gently he grabbed her hands and whispered: "Don't listen, he's a tosser."

"What the heck!" Harry shouted in Ron's direction.

"You're an asshole, Ron," Hermione added with a shrill voice, forgetting her manners for a moment of flaring anger.

Ginny watched the exchange for some moments before she took a seat beside Luna and embraced the small girl, rubbed her arm soothingly and furthermore observed the furious onslaught. Only Neville detected that Ginny was far more interested in Harry's reaction than calming Luna, but right now Luna was more of an interest to him.

"Yeah, as if you would believe this nonsense," Ron argued back, leaning against the seat, his arms crossed in front of his chest. He nodded in Hermione's direction: "Ask her. Ask Hermione if she believes a single story of this Quibbler crap. Don't get all high and mighty now."

The addressed girl blushed a shade. In a way Ron was right. In her eyes the Quibbler wasn't a believable newspaper and not worth the time to read it. And Luna and her stories had more than once prompted her to roll her eyes. But this amount of insult… she couldn't stand it, especially as it was targeted against Luna's father too and she knew the Ravenclaw adored her slightly weird father. The pleading look of Neville – in addition to the open anger on Harry's face – was enough to lead her to be polite now.

"Luna's stories are … peculiar, I have to admit," she started.

"See?" Ron grinned. "I told you …"

"Shut up," Hermione yelled at him, surprising all with her outburst. "I said peculiar, not stupid or insane. Yes, I never read something about Nargles or Bibbering Humminger in a book…"

"Blibbering Humdinger," a sniffling Luna corrected.

"Blibbering Humdinger, thank you, Luna," Hermione nodded in the blonde girl's direction and made an effort to pronounce her name correctly. "But that doesn't mean that those creatures don't exist. What do you think had been the opinion of my parents about the existence of magic ten years ago?"

She waited a minute to allow Ron a response but he only glared and pouted at her. With a sigh but a more controlled expression, Hermione continued: "Perhaps they really don't exist. To be honest I'm pretty sure that most of these creatures don't exist, but some of them may be out there. Perhaps Luna will be able to find some of them as she hopes to accomplish later. Trying to find some unknown animal is certainly not a battier purpose in life than to dream about spending the next decade playing Quidditch."

Even Harry, who certainly had at least thought about becoming a professional Quidditch player too, seemed to agree and smiled in her direction. For a moment Hermione blushed deeper as she noticed the look of adoration Neville send her way and even Luna seemed somewhat calmer. Naturally it came to Ron to spoil the moment.

"Nonsense," he spat in Hermione's direction. "This is all stupid, stupid nonsense."

"How eloquent," Harry whispered, causing Hermione to smile.

"You can say what you want," Ron continued while he left his place and stepped forward, towering over Hermione who instinctively shrank back. "I'm right and you're wrong. Only because you're a know-it-all with books instead of friends …"

Harry started to stand up too, but was beaten by Neville's reaction. Grabbing one of Luna's shoes that were lying on the floor since she had taken them off an hour ago he threw it at Ron, hitting his head. It was hardly a strong throw. It certainly didn't cause much pain and Neville was more surprised that he actually had hit his intended target than everyone else in the compartment. But the reaction itself caused everyone to stare at him dumbstruck. His face as red as Ron's hair Neville tried to sound more self-confident than he felt this moment.

"Enough, Ron, it is really enough. First you insulted Luna and now 'Mione." He hesitated for a second as he realized that he had used her nickname. "It is time for you to go."

"Pardon?" Ron blinked several times, obviously trying hard to understand what just happened.

"Go, Ron," Harry seconded Neville's words. "Find yourself another compartment and come back after cooling down a bit."

Ron tapped his forehead at Neville and Harry and glared at his sister, hoping for support. But Ginny, after a short glance at Harry, only shrugged helplessly. Neville, still quite red and fuming, reached for the door and opened it. "Go," he ordered, his voice now much stronger than before. Uttering some curses that would have got him some additional house chores back at home Ron grabbed his bag and left the compartment. With a deep sigh Neville closed the door afterwards and took a seat, trying to avoid the eyes of Luna and especially Hermione.

"I knew you had it in you," Harry smiled at his friend.

"This was brilliant, Neville," Hermione praised with a very emotional voice.

"But much braver is the one who is willing to stand up against his friends out of concern about their welfare." Luna's dreamy voice added and they needed some seconds to realize that these had been the words Headmaster Dumbledore had spoken years ago, directed towards a younger Neville.

But how could she know these words? Hermione wondered. That had been months before Luna entered Hogwarts.

"The Headmaster's closing speech is published in the Quibbler every year," Luna answered Hermione's unspoken question.

Perhaps I should read the Quibbler from time to time, Hermione wondered. But aloud she said: "And now tell us, Luna, what has been the last lead article of the Quibbler?"

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Hogwarts – Headmaster Office

It had been an error to ask them, this he now knew. They wouldn't help him to drive Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass apart. They simply didn't understand the stringent necessity of this. Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, had to be under his control and solely his control. Lupin had seen reason ten years ago, realized that a werewolf wasn't an appropriate warden for a child. And Sirius had been to Azkaban until last year. In the moment he was on the run and hardly in the situation to press the matter of his status as Harry's godfather.

This left the problem of Roxanne Pinegrew-Greengrass. He needed help – someone trustworthy, someone who would be able to gain Harry's trust. Headmaster Dumbledore nodded slightly. He would help. He had always been his most trustworthy ally in the past. Together they would find a solution.