Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
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"Ah Severus, thank you for joining me," said Dumbledore with a polite smile as he gestured to the chair in front of him. "Please take a seat."
Snape remained in place, stoic as he remained upright. "Why did you wish to see me Headmaster?" he asked.
Lacing his fingers together, Albus leant back in his ornate chair. "It has been brought to my attention that young Mister Potter hosted one of your lessons, unsupervised I might add. It is bold of you to allow a teenager free reign to do what he wished within your class."
"Mister Potter required my services and we came to an agreement and while his lesson was unorthodox," said Snape, pausing a moment to contemplate his next words, "I for one cannot deny the efficiency."
"Making students feel as if the effects of the potion they had consumed would be permanent isn't what I would call a thriving learning environment," said Albus.
Snape only gave Albus a blank stare in response. "What services did Harry require from you Severus?" asked Albus. "Nothing nefarious I hope."
"Just because Potter acts the way he does, doesn't make him a villain in any sense of the term. While he is cold and distrusting to most, he is fully within the belief that he will no longer have to contend with being in our presence once the tournament is over. He does not wish to form friendships because he doesn't want to commit to having to remain in contact with anyone once he leaves."
"Not even Iris?"
"It is in my opinion that if Mister Potter was not to have been brought to Hogwarts than it may have been years before he announced himself to Iris, if he had done so at all," declared Snape. "You saw his battle against the dragon, as short as it was. While he only used a handful of spells they were all done so for a purpose and thought out beforehand. He has been training for battle, training well by the looks of it."
"One does not train for battle without having an enemy to point their wand," stated Albus. "In which case, who has Harry been training to combat?"
"I believe you and I both know that answer to that Headmaster."
"While we know that there may be still a chance that Voldemort is out there, that does not explain how a child who has had limited experience in the magical world is aware of such a threat."
"Just because he didn't grow up in your magical world doesn't mean that his experience is limited Headmaster," retorted Snape. "The world is vast and while you have much sway in it you do not have ears in every conceivable place."
Albus' gaze harshened for only a singular moment but Snape was able to notice it and understand it immediately. It was clear that while Harry had been trained, more importantly Albus was irritated by the fact that he had been given this training by somebody who had withheld the information that they had Harry with him. Getting the information of who Harry had been with during that time period would be near impossible and as a result there was no telling just what allegiances Potter had, if any. That lack of information would be what truly infuriated Albus, though he would never say it outright.
"Well, it is true, I am unable to be everywhere at once, even Merlin had no such power," admitted Dumbledore. "Perhaps we should focus more on what is to come than to look at what has already been."
"I have been thinking on the topic," said Snape. "I wish to off Mister Potter an apprenticeship. It would be a waste to see someone with such talent for potion making to not be shown just what is possible in my craft."
Albus laced his fingers together as he actively considered the offer that Severus was making. While it would accomplish the goal of locking Harry in for a longer period of time, limiting his time to Severus would reduce his time to be with his peers. Also, given Severus' relation with seventy five percent of Hogwarts' population, it could very well isolate Harry even more. "Not for now, although I will keep it in mind," stated Albus. Even if it wasn't an option he would currently consider, it wasn't a wise idea to dismiss the option altogether. "Thank you for your time Severus."
Snape merely nodded at the dismissal, his cloak billowing behind him as he left the office without another word. He had given his offer to the Headmaster and while he hadn't accepted it now, there was good chance that Albus wouldn't have a different option available in the months to come.
Still, there was no guarantee that Harry would say yes in the first place.
...
Iris wasn't usually one getting caught off guard. If Malfoy was to try and irk her he would often start his blithering from a good deal of distance away, plus the stench of his henchmen was potent at the best of times. Whenever something terrible had been happening in the halls, she had often found herself on high alert, preparing to encounter the worst possible option as soon as she stepped around a corner.
It was perhaps because there wasn't an escaped prisoner or a legendary monster on the loose that she was caught off guard as she was pulled out of the hallway she was walking down and dragged into an empty classroom, the door locking behind her. "Iris, I have a problem!" exclaimed Hermione as she gripped her friend by the shoulders, the teenager visibly shaking as her fingers dug into Iris' flesh.
"Hermione, chill, chill!" said Iris trying to get the bushy haired girl to calm down. "Breathe, breathe. That's it, in and out, in and out." Iris watched as Hermione followed her instructions, visibly becoming more compliant. "Now, tell me slowly, what happened?"
"I...um, well, how do I put this?" questioned Hermione as she released her grip on Iris and started playing with the hem of her clothes. Iris found this all rather unnerving, having never really seen her friend acting in such a manner. "You see, the thing is, that...KrumaskedmeouttotheYuleBall!"
Iris blinked several times in stunned silence as she did her best to decipher what it was that Hermione had said. "You got invited, to the ball, by Krum...like, Viktor Krum," said Iris slowly as she came to the understanding of what had happened.
There was a long, silent pause before Hermione gave her answer. "Yes."
"Hermione, that's amazing!" exclaimed Iris, giving her friend a hearty hug, embracing her within her arms. She kept the hug in place for several seconds before taking a step back. "How did this happen?"
"He, um, found me in the library, said he'd been looking for me," said Hermione, blushing slightly as she recalled the encounter. "He didn't want to go to the ball with someone who would use his fame for their own benefit. He said he wanted to go with me because I didn't react like a crazed fan around him."
"That's great Hermione!" proclaimed Iris. "You've managed to get the date of the most wanted person in Hogwarts and you did it by being yourself."
"But, this is a date to the Yule Ball, where every other person is going to be watching the tournament champions and I'm going to be there with one of them. Everybody will be watching me."
"Then we better make sure that you're worth watching," said Iris, a rather Slytherin grin spreading across her face. "We will make it so that every girl is jealous of you and every boy envious of the fact that they didn't ask you first."
"Iris, I don't know..." stammered Hermione before stealing herself, her hands which had been fidgeting with nothing now gripped with purpose. "No, you're right. This is normal. We're teenagers and teenagers go on dates. I'm a teenager and I'm going on a date. I'm Hermione Granger and I'm going on a date!"
Squeals of joy had gotten louder and louder with each passing sentence Hermione had said, reaffirming with herself that this was indeed happening and that it wasn't something to be scared about. Iris couldn't help but give Hermione another hug as the two of them started gossiping in a manner similar to that of Lavender and Padma, not that either of them would tell the two other members of Gryffindor. This was going to be a surprise that was going to be kept until the night for the biggest impact possible.
...
"Heir Potter, I humbly request a moment of your time."
Harry paused his eating, looking up from his plate in what was usually an empty hall at this time of day. The girl in front of him, looked calm and composed, perhaps even a little pompous as they tried to create an intimidating figure. Given how most of the girls here acted when they got close, it was something of a nice surprise to not have some random fawning over him. Still though, the Heir Potter business likely meant that this was a conversation that required something of his attention.
Putting his cutlery down to the side of his plate, Harry gestured for the girl to sit. He watched her movements and could tell that every actions she did was well thought out with far more practice than necessary for what should have been a simple act. Harry could already picture strict guardians telling the woman in front of him to do the simple task again and again to ensure that if they were to have guests over that a careless misstep wouldn't cause trouble.
This was someone who came from an old family.
This could prove somewhat entertaining.
"Heir Po..." they started only for Harry to raise his hand, silencing them with that simple motion and a mild glare in her direction.
"If you will excuse me," said Harry as he picked up his cutlery once more. Slowly, painfully slowly, Harry resumed his meal in front of the girl. He didn't scoff his face or do anything unpleasant, but the speed at which he attacked his meal was reminiscent of a sloth. The girl meanwhile, took this all in stride and remained in place, her features remaining stoic as she waited for Harry to finish. After a couple of minutes of slow eating, Harry managed to finish his meal before placing the plate to the side, allowing there to be no distractions in between the two of them. "Proceed," he said with a small gesture of his hand.
The teenager cleared her throat before she prepared what Harry could only assume was a well rehearsed speech. "Heir Potter," she began. "My name is Daphne Greengrass and I come to you today with a request."
Harry had been expecting something much larger and more pompous and was slightly caught off guard that Daphne had waited as long as she had to say as little as she did. "Okay," said Harry slowly. "What's your request?"
"I wish for you to invite me to the Yule Ball."
Harry's eyes sharpened slightly as he took Daphne's request into stride. It wasn't the first invite he had gotten by any stretch. Most of them had come either in the form of a near anonymous note that he had swiftly burnt or for those brave enough to do it in person, more a jumbled mess of words than an actual invite. The fact that Daphne was asking him to ask her to the event was a bit more unorthodox and raised a few questions which he was more than a little curious to indulge in. "I will make the bold assumption that it would be improper of you to ask me to the ball," he said.
"Indeed," said Daphne calmly. "It would not do for me to go to the event if I were to be the one to ask you. Thus, as I requested earlier, I will need you to ask me to the ball as a gentleman of your stature should."
"I see," said Harry as he laced his fingers under his chin. It was clear that Daphne was here playing a game that she was well trained girl had looks, good looks, so Harry doubted that she hadn't been asked by several other students Hogwarts had to offer and maybe even a Drumstrang student or two. The aura she gave made it seem like she was very much in control of the situation at all times, proper Pureblooded upbringing if he were to guess. He found it somewhat interesting that there was all possibility that if he was to ask her that she could very well reject his offer, purely to say that she had denied an invitation from, as she put it, Heir Potter.
While such an idea seemed silly on the surface, the more he contemplated such a thing the more it made sense. The rest of her days at Hogwarts she would be remembered as the person who chose not to go on a date with Harry Potter when he asked her. Add that to the air of confidence and essentially she became somewhat untouchable on the social hierarchy.
Although, that could very well be something that Harry was heavily overthinking and if he were to ask outright she could say yes. It wasn't that she was a bad person, at least from what he had seen, which perhaps meant that he had to play a game of his own. "Well, Miss Greengrass, I'm sorry but I will not be inviting you to the Yule Ball at this time," he said.
"Might I know why?" enquired Daphne. "It is pretty common knowledge that you are yet to have secured a partner to the event and with it only a couple weeks away your timeframe is rather slim to be saying no."
Harry struggled to hide the smirk on his face. "Would that mean that with only a couple weeks to go, you've now realized that you may have miscalculated? What would it mean were Daphne Greengrass to go to the ball alone?"
"Far less than if you were to go alone," stated Daphne. "You are a champion of the tournament, a champion who did not wish to enter but is here regardless. If you are not to be accompanied to such an event then you will lose far more than I would."
"And just what is it that I would lose?" retorted Harry. "If you're talking about my social standing as Heir Potter, you have no idea how little I care for that title, even if it is my title. Honestly couldn't tell you who was older between Iris and I."
"The Goblins would have..."
"They would have the records, yeah, yeah," said Harry waving it off. "Again, it's something I don't care about so I'm not going to be rushing down to Gringotts to get it checked out. Some will say that I'm making an embarrassment of myself, others will say that I'm making a statement by choosing not to conform to what society expects of me. Just because it's what expected of me doesn't mean I have to do it."
"I see," said Daphne as she moved and stood up from the table. "Thank you for your time and if you decide to change your mind over the coming days, I will await for your invite."
"Don't count on it," said Harry with a cheeky smile, giving Daphne a small wave goodbye as the woman walked away. Once she had made some ground towards the ornate doors, Harry allowed his smile to falter slightly. While he didn't particular care about what the public was to say about him, it was possible that his sister would be a target of retaliations for his actions. Unlikely, but there was still a chance. After all, while Skeeter couldn't get an interview with him in particular, she could still write about the event in total.
Her readers would then form their own opinions which could have unexpected results. Depending on how crass Rita was, the minds of the populace could be easily swayed. Perhaps it would be wise to get ahead of the curve. After all, he doubted that Luna would refuse another interview.
...
Hope you enjoyed.