Chapter Three: Have you Heard?

"Did you hear, Potter's dating Greengrass?"

"I heard she's got him with one of them betrothal contracts!"

"I heard she snuck him a love potion."

And so on. Rumours, superstitions, baseless slander and much more floated around Hogwarts. One second Daphne Greengrass was the luckiest girl in the school, the next she was a vile succubus looking to destroy Harry Potter.

Harry, who had suffered far worse when the Chamber had opened and when he'd become the fourth champion, ignored them. The only person he was worried about was Daphne, but as she kept reassuring him, she didn't care. Part of her would, he knew because part of him did too, but they were on the edge of something and neither of them wanted to walk away just yet.

Ron hadn't really spoken to him about it, but Hermione had pretty much jumped him the morning after the Yule Ball. Boxing Day, as usual, meant that most of Gryffindor Tower stayed in bed until almost lunchtime. Too restless to stay in his bed though, Harry made his way downstairs to the Great Hall and was surprised to find Hermione already there.

"You're up early," she said owlishly from behind her copy of Magnificent Herbs and Fungi.

"What's wrong?" he had an idea, thanks to Daphne's revelation the night before, but didn't want to say in case he was wrong. "C'mon, don't look at me like that," he added when she gaped at him, "we've been best friends for four years, don't you think I can tell when you're upset?"

"I'm not upset with you, if that's what you're worried about," Hermione said reproachfully, her gaze flicking to the Slytherin table. Harry had tried not to look for too long when he entered the Hall, but had been unable to miss a certain blonde and her best friend enjoying early morning Christmas leftovers. Another girl, slightly younger who Harry guessed must be her sister, had no such qualms over staring.

"Never said you were, what's going on?"

"Oh, alright," Hermione sighed, slamming down her book and making Colin Creavy jump. "It's about Ron," she said their friend's name with a whisper, so as the quiet Great Hall wouldn't overhear them. Harry's heart sank.

"Let's talk about this somewhere else," Harry suggested, knowing all too well that airing dirty laundry in public was never the best idea. They didn't speak again until they'd found an unused classroom on the first floor. Thick sheets covered rows of empty desks and the teacher's table at the far end practically creaked under the weight of dust. The beauty of magic was it would all vanish in an instant, there was no real need to keep anything clean when you could just banish it with a wave of a wand. Aunt Petunia would have a fit if she saw it.

"So," Harry said rather awkwardly as he perched on one of the covered desks. Tears were welling up in Hermione's eyes. "What happened?"

"It was while you were dancing with Greengrass," Hermione began, "I wanted to try and find you, both of you, so we could talk. I thought Ron might like to meet Viktor, you know, after how he was at the World Cup." Ron's hero-worship of the Bulgarian Seeker was basically legendary at this point. "And I thought it might be nice to talk to Greengrass too, I didn't know you two were close."

"We weren't," Harry admitted, "it just sort of happened. But that doesn't matter right now, so I'm guessing you went to Ron first?"

Hermione nodded. "Viktor was getting us drinks, so I went over to him and Parvati and, well, she stormed off and so I asked if Ron would like to join us and…" tears threatened to overwhelm her, "and he said some quite rude things about Viktor and I. It was pretty horrible actually. He just kept going on about how Viktor was the enemy and all that kind of rubbish. I told him, I said the whole point of this tournament is international cooperation.

She sniffed, before producing a handkerchief from the end of her wand and dabbing at her eyes. "I thought he'd be happy, Viktor even said he could get Ron tickets to his next game - if he wanted them. I just don't know what got into him. I know he wasn't really looking forward to the Ball, but Parvati's okay. I suppose. A bit gossipy but they could've had a good night and it's not like we tried to abandon him."

"You know how he gets though," Harry shrugged lamely. It wasn't much of an excuse.

"I just don't understand why he was so upset about Viktor," Hermione continued, "if it'd had been Greengrass, I'd understand. I wouldn't support it, of course, Harry!"

"I know, I'd have got it too." After all, weren't Gryffindors just supposed to hate Slytherins? Wasn't that what the school, their history, even Malfoy and his cronies wanted? The more he spoke to Daphne though, the more he was beginning to realise just how stupid it was. So she belonged to a house that valued ambition and cunning and drive, so what?

"She reckons Ron might like you," there was no sense hiding it from her. It was, after all, the only thing that made sense.

"Yes," Hermione said rather sadly, "Ginny said that might be it too. I didn't want to - I thought about it. Quite a lot actually. I wanted him to ask me to the Ball, but when he kept drooling over everyone else, well, it wasn't very nice. And then Viktor asked me and he was really sweet, Harry. I couldn't say no to that hoping Ron would notice me. And as for that 'you're a girl' rubbish."

"Yeah, that wasn't great," Harry winced, realising just how insensitive that had been. At the time he'd thought nothing of it, he hadn't thought to ask Hermione because she was Hermione. They'd never once thought of each other like that, she'd made that clear enough with how she'd tried to help him with Cho. But her and Ron, they'd been orbiting each other and never really said anything.

"I don't know, I guess I'll have to think about it," Hermione sighed.

"You deserve the best, Hermione. If that's Ron, great. If it's not, that's also fine. Don't just get with him or say something to try and calm him down. He'll come 'round."

"Well, that's very nice of you, Harry," Hermione smiled, "but enough about me. How about you? And Greengrass? When were you going to tell me?"

It was his turn to look sheepishly at the floor, suddenly very interested in his shoelaces. The previous night had been incredible. There was no other word for it really. He had loved just being with her in a way that he'd never realised he'd been missing before. She was strong, confident, funny and didn't suffer fools gladly. It was enough to explain why she didn't hang around with Malfoy, but also why she'd ended up in Slytherin. After all, hadn't he nearly been there.

"Daphne asked me about a week and a bit ago? I didn't say anything 'cause I wasn't even sure if she was going to turn up. Could've just been a stupid joke or something and," he paused, trying not to sound ridiculous, "because I wasn't sure what it was going to be. Was it a date or was she just trying to be friendly? I didn't want to say 'oh, I've got a date' and then she just disappeared."

"And was it?"

"I think so, yeah," Hermione's previously dour expression had vanished, replaced by a beaming grin as she threw her arms around him in sheer relief.

"Oh, Harry! That's wonderful!" Hermione exclaimed after letting him go. "What's she like? Did you have a good time? Are you seeing her again?"

"Slow down," he tried to sound more mockingly exasperated than actually relieved. The truth was he'd not wanted to tell either of his friends in case they didn't approve. If Ron was right and she had a bit of a reputation for being snappy or cold, would they really want him with someone like that? More to the point, would they really want him to like someone in Slytherin?

"She's smart, funny, strong and probably a million other things I have no idea about yet. I think you'd like her actually, she can be a bit…"

"Sarcastic," Hermione prompted.

"Yeah, but she's not mean with it or anything. As for if I had a good time or not, I'd say I did," he admitted sheepishly, trying to ignore the way his stomach flipped as he did so. "And yeah, I am. We're seeing each other at the weekend and then, if it goes well then we'll go to Hogsmeade."

"But that's only a few weeks away!" The thought had struck him too. He had no idea what was actually in the village that he could do on a date. He'd always just gone to Honeydukes or the Three Broomsticks, maybe tried Zonko's, and then got some gifts for Christmas from some of the other shops. He'd never actually given any thought to what it would be like to go with someone.

"Yeah, I was going to ask for your help actually."

Which, seeing as it was Hermione, she gave almost instantly and began excitedly listing off things that he could try and places that, unless he wanted to scare Daphne off, he should completely avoid - specifically a tea shop that specialised in a 'romantic' atmosphere that made him feel physically ill. All he wanted was a good day, something fun for them to do together, but the more Hermione talked, the more he realised that the actual activity wasn't really that important.

And the more he knew he was just excited to get there.

"Did you hear about Potter?"

"It won't last."

"Yeah, she's too skinny."

"Too bitchy too."

"I bet it won't last."

"I dunno what he sees in her," Ron Weasley muttered darkly one night in the Gryffindor Common Room. Harry and Hermione had retreated to the library to try and figure out the egg's riddle, or rather how the hell Harry was going to breathe underwater for an hour.

Ever since term had begun again and Harry and Greengrass had been seeing each other more and more. He'd not drifted from his friends, but with Ron and Hermione not on speaking terms since the Ball, he had been splitting his time between Hermione, Greengrass and Ron. Which meant Ron was stuck trying not to fester on Hermione's shouts at the Ball. Because she had a point. He should have asked her. And, if he was honest with himself, seeing Harry getting with Greengrass wasn't exactly making him feel any better about it.

It wasn't that he didn't support his mate, he wanted to. He just didn't trust snakes and, a small part of him, wished he'd done the same with Hermione.

"Maybe she really did give him a love potion," George suggested, next to him Ginny hummed sadly glummer than Ron with this new development - although Ron couldn't figure out why. Probably because she was a snake.

"Nah. He's not, you know, loopy. He doesn't really talk about her."

"Maybe he just likes her, it looked like they were having a good time at the Ball." Fred added, wiggling his eyebrows until Ginny threw one of her destroyed pawns at him.

"Knight to c-two," Ginny commanded, Ron left to watch horror-struck as she destroyed his pawn and checked his king in one fell swoop. "Yeah right. She's a Slytherin."

"They're not all little proto-Malfoys," George pointed out as Ron barked orders at his king to retreat. Ginny checked him again with her bishop. "'Sides, he deserves a bit of luck. Didn't you say Chang ditched him for Diggory, Ron?"

"Yeah, he seemed pretty upset about it too."

"Maybe it's just a rebound then?" Ginny persisted, as once again Ron wriggled out of check."Would you stop that!"

George didn't look convinced. "Nah, Harry's not like that, or he'd have asked Longbottom to be his best mate when 'ickle Ronniekins got all jealous about him being in the tournament."

"Shove off."

"Very true brother of mine," Fred added, ignoring Ron's pale attempt at repertoire as Ginny took another of his pawns. He was going to lose at this rate. "It's probably best we just face facts, Harry's falling for a snake."

"But what if she's just using him?" Ginny pressed, far more passionate about all of this than Ron had expected her to be.

"What for?" asked the twins together.

"Yeah, the Greengrasses are loaded and dad always said they weren't exactly dark," added George.

"Weren't on our side either," Ron pointed out.

"If I'd just had a young kid, I wouldn't be super eager to get my house burned down by a lunatic with a snake fetish," Fred countered, as Ron tried to mount an offensive on Ginny's lone bishop but got blindsided by her loitering queen. "Just 'cause mum and dad have always supported Dumbledore doesn't mean everyone else does. Look at the Patils or the Finch-Fletchleys or any of that lot."

Ron, if he was honest with himself, didn't know what to think. On the one hand his parents had always said nothing but dark witches and wizards came from Slytherin. On other hand, Greengrass hadn't jinxed him yet and it had been more than a month. He didn't trust her, that much he was sure of. At the ball he'd just hoped it was a dance, just because neither of them had managed to get anyone sorted but he'd seen their dances like everyone else. Even he knew it was more than that.

All he knew was he wanted his friends back. Hermione was too busy with Krum, Harry with Greengrass. He was just the odd one out. Again.

"I heard her family are Death Eaters."

"Honestly, Potter could do better than that snake."

"She's not even that pretty."

"You'd think they have something better to talk about," Tracey mused ideally as she and Daphne tried to work through a particularly difficult essay on the discussion of transmutation for McGonagall. Over at one of the other tables, a group of girls in Astoria's year were talking in hushed whispers and sending not-so covert glances at Daphne.

"They're just jealous," Astoria said, sweeping her long dark hair over her shoulder and sighing. "Is this all you two do? Work? It was Christmas like two weeks ago. Can't you have some fun?"

"You don't have to hang out with us, you know." Daphne pointed out, crossing out the last line she'd written and dragging her textbook away from Tracey so she could check her facts. Again. The sooner she could get out Transfiguration the better.

"And miss all the details, you wish! I can't wait to see what mum and dad do when they find out."

Matthias and Aurora Greengrass were not, despite what the whole school was trying to tell themselves, typical purebloods - in the sense that they had both said to Daphne and Astoria at a young age they could date who they chose to. Whatever that meant. Astoria, Daphne suspected, would be putting that particular promise to the test given the way she'd spotted her sister looking at Scarlett Draper.

The point was, they had both been promised an equal share in the Greengrass fortune - putting in place inheritance clauses that divided up all of the money and real estate they owned. As the eldest, Daphne would get Hawthorne House (Greengrass Manor to non-muggles) while Astoria would be entitled to the estate in Oxford and they would each get a large stipend of it on the seventeenth birthday.

That way, they didn't need to rely on their future husbands for money, they'd have their own. Of course, when they married that money would be absorbed by their partners - a particularly lovely tradition that Daphne despised - but that only encouraged them to look outside of the traditional pool of bachelors.

"If they find out, it might not even go that far."

"Yeah, right! Like you'd waste your time with someone you didn't know you wanted it to work with. What was it you said to Draco?"

"That she'd rather take a bath in stink-sap than go on a date with him," Tracey added helpfully. Daphne glowered at her. "What? It's not my fault, you said it."

"Not helping."

"I wasn't trying to," Tracey grinned, "I think they'll love him, Tori. He's sweet and kind and oh, so good-looking too."

"I do not sound like that," Daphne huffed, but Tracey just laughed at her, Astoria fighting fits of giggles as Madam Pince swooped by like one of the owlery's most cruel postal creatures.

"You so did! But it's fine, we love you."

"Remind me why I bother hanging out with you again?"

"Blame your dad, he's the one who convinced mum to become a co-investor in Puddlemere, remember?" Rose Davis (short for Rosalinda but she'd kill anyone who called her that) had always loved Puddlemere and when her father had suggested she join his bid she'd leapt at the chance. They'd met in Games and Sports a few years before and been firm friends ever since, which by extension meant that whenever they were discussing business and Tracey's father was stuck at work, Daphne, Tracey and Astoria would have the run of Greengrass Manor.

"When are you telling them?" Astoria asked interestedly as she spun and unspun her hair around her wand.

"I've been on a few dates with him," Daphne protested.

"And you're going to Hogsmeade next week. Should we expect a happy announcement by the end of term?"

"I'm calling maid of honour!"

"I'm her sister!"

"And I'm her best friend," Tracey countered.

"Family before friendship. Besides, I've known her longer."

"That's just cheating."

Daphne ignored them, letting them squabble rather than focus on the actual question at hand. It was one she'd thought about herself. Things were getting more and more serious. With every day that passed she was growing closer to Harry - as should be expected for someone she was dating, if that's what they were doing. They'd not used the labels yet. Did they need to?

She knew they wouldn't mind, but it didn't stop the sheer weight of anxiety pressing down on her. As much as they said they were an open-minded family bringing home a bloody national icon was next level. How did you even say something like that? 'Hi mum, hi dad, how's things? By the way, I'm dating Harry Potter, hope that's okay?' It still felt ludicrous to her. It never did when she was with him, because when they were together he was just Harry. The boy she knew she'd been choosing to take the ball, sweet, kind, considerate and (as much as Tracey's impression had irked her) very good-looking.

But when they were apart, who he was to everyone else wrapped around her like an invisible cloak made of stone. She didn't know if she was built for that - as much as she pretended to be cocksure and confident, she really, really wasn't. She'd heard the whispers, she wasn't stupid. They were. That just made it worse. You can't reason with morons. Did they bother her? Of course they did. Was she going to react and give them the satisfaction of knowing they'd upset her? No. But that didn't mean that people thought she'd ensnared him with a love potion or questioned why he'd waste his time on someone so far from what they'd deemed 'beautiful' hurt.

When she raised it to Tracey the morning of the infamous Hogsmeade trip. They were getting ready in the dormitory, having waited for Pansy and the others to go to breakfast before getting up. Daphne had been agonising over what to wear, robes were too formal and it was far too cold for a dress - as sad as that made her. Finally, she picked out a dark blue knitted cardigan, white blouse and a pair of muggle jeans that she'd not worn for almost a year.

"They're just jealous, Daph. They want you to break up so they can sink their claws into him, but just think he didn't pick them, that's got to count for something, right?"

"Yeah, I'm just scared." It was the first time she'd admitted it to anyone but herself. It made her skin crawl. She hated being vulnerable, with anyone. Vulnerability in pureblood circles was just a sign of weakness. You were tough or you were unimportant - and she'd be damned if she was going to be insignificant.

"He's the Boy-Who-Lived, 'course you're scared! I'd be worried if you weren't. But do you like him?"

"You know I do."

"And he likes you, trust me. I've seen the way he looks at you, it's adorable. He's like a little lost puppy," Tracey said, making huge doting eyes and pouting. Daphne snorted, shaking her head at Tracey's antics. "My point is, screw everyone else. You deserve this, Daph. You might not get it, but to me, he's the lucky one."

"Thanks." It was hard to believe, when she was seeing the literal saviour of magical Britain. He was the stuff of legend. A walking, talking miracle. By rights he shouldn't even be there, but he was and so was she. So what if they didn't think she deserved him. So what if they wanted him first, they should've asked him to the Ball. But they hadn't. She had. That was their mistake, not hers.

"It's not pity, it's just facts. Now go on, go show lover boy what he's been missing all these years." Tracey grinned as Daphne snatched up her scarf. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

With every step she lost a little of the confidence Tracey had given her. Every step was a stab of anxiety, a question or a pang of fear. Yes, they'd been at the Ball together but everyone had been surprised then. This was different. They were basically saying they were together to the whole school when they'd not even said it properly to each other. Why had she suggested this? It was an insane idea. A stupid idea. What were they even going to do?

She could go back to the Common Room. He'd not seen her. She could say she was ill or unwell or something. Merlin's beard, this was stupid. You like him. She teetered on the final step out from the dungeons, only for a second, but long enough for doubt to creep in. She'd had her dream, any girl's dream really, maybe it was time to wake up?

A snippet of conversation floated towards her. A Ravenclaw and her Hufflepuff friend. "Reckon he'll take her to Hogsmeade?"

"Don't be stupid! Like Potter'd take her! I bet you a galleon he's just waiting for Granger or Weasley."

It was all she needed to hear.

"I'd pay up now if I were you," Daphne said callously as she deliberately cut the two girls up. She didn't stop to hear their answer. Harry beamed when he spotted her. Even the all too familiar swoop of her heart, coupled with a wave of butterflies in her stomach couldn't stop her. She crossed the Entrance Hall in less than a few strides, tried to talk herself out of it, failed and hugged him.

She wasn't sure who leaned in first. Whether he sensed her nerves or she just took the plunge. They'd been skirting around it for weeks, neither too sure how best to do it, but she was well aware they'd both wanted to. She'd heard people describe first kisses before. They spoke as if they were magical, more magical than anything they could shoot out of a wand or conjure into the world. She'd scoffed and ignored them. How wrong she'd been. The world seemed to stop.

Then, after what could have been an eternity, it restarted.

"Wow," Harry breathed, caught himself and hastily added, "hi."

"Good morning," Daphne smirked, reveling in the seemingly endless rush that they were both feeling. She took his arm, aware that there were so many other students looking at them and not caring. The doubts would come back, because that's how doubts work, but in that moment, with him there, she didn't give a damn who saw them together and what they had to say about it. "Shall we?"

And they set off to show their forms and head out towards the village.