Chapter 7
After Harry had gotten rid of the Death Eaters, the two Weasley brothers had stared at him for a while in disbelief and then at the pile of broken body parts, before they finally got back to their senses.
"You- you did that?" Bill asked while sweat was running down his face. Evidently the fight against the Death Eaters had taken quite a bit out of him. His brother Charlie looked even more worn out and was bleeding from a couple superficial cuts along his face and torso. But other that both were in a remarkable state for having just fought a superior number of opponents.
"Yea overpowered my exploding charm a bit." Harry said and scratched his neck awkwardly.
"No shit, mate. You blew them to kingdom come. Where in the world did you even learn that spell?"
Harry shrugged "Eh, read about it somewhere. By the way. Have you checked on your dad?"
Both redheads cursed when remembering their father and rushed over to his downed form, while Harry briefly checked the perimeter like Moody had thought him.
It was for naught though. The Death Eaters all now very much fitted their names and it didn't seem like any more were on their way, so he quickly joined the brothers with their dad.
After running a quick diagnostic charm over Arthur, Charlie breathed out in relief "He has just been knocked out. Everything seems fine."
Harry too released a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He might not have been Mr. Weasley's son, but the kind man was probably the closest thing he ever had in his life resembling a father figure.
"Should we wake him?" Charlie asked.
"It's worth a try" said Bill and pointed his wand at his father "Renervate!"
Immediately Mr. Weasley's eyes popped open and started to look around frantically.
Finally he seemed to realize where he was and yelped "The Death Eaters where are …?"
Bill interrupted him "Relax Dad! Everything is fine!"
The man sat up and with wide eyes looked around himself and noticed the various body parts lying around the area.
Then he narrowed his eyes "Okay boys. What in the world happened here?"
After they filled him in, Mr. Weasley took a deep breath to calm himself, then he looked at Harry intently, who gulped nervously and evaded his eyes.
Was he angry or disappointed at him? Thought him to be a monster? He knew their entire family were staunch supporters of the light and him killing someone in cold blood hardly fit into that worldview. So Harry prepared himself for rejection.
However the man grasped his shoulders and said "Thank you Harry for what you did there. It seems like my family once again is in your debt."
Harry didn't know what to say and only nodded stupidly.
"Though it is probably in your best interest that no one else besides the family knows what happened here." Mr. Weasley continued "By the way, where is the young lady that you mentioned?"
Crap! Forgot about that!
He quickly led them over to the spot but told them to stand back a bit. After the ordeal she went through it was probably for the best he approached her on his own first.
"Hello?" Harry asked as calmly as he could and searched the place "Hello? Are you still there?"
Through the remaining smoke and the limited light from the stars it was quite hard to see anything. Nevertheless, he found her rather quickly crouched behind some debris hugging her knees, shivering badly. It was the first time he ever really got a good look at her and he had to admit even with the dirt covering her honey blonde hair, the bruises on her face and torn clothing she was stunning. She did look oddly familiar, but couldn't really put a name to her.
"Hey. Are you alright?" he softly asked her while slowly getting closer, while internally cursing himself for the dumb question.
She was almost raped by a Death Eater - of course she is not alright!
The girl flinched at first but then seemed to relax once she realized it was him.
"Listen, uh… the Death Eaters are gone. But we'd better get out of here in case some more come. I brought some friends with me and we can try to get you home if you want?"
She seemed to stare into nothingness for a while but then nodded hesitantly and Harry waved the Weasleys over.
"Hello! I'm Arthur Weasley and those are my sons Bill and Charlie. May I ask your name dear?"
The girl looked at him in question and Harry nodded encouragingly.
"Greengrass. My name is Daphne Greengrass." she whispered in a hoarse voice.
Harry couldn't help himself but gape at her. That was why she seemed so familiar! She was a Slytherin in his year at Hogwarts!
With a frown he realized that he knew basically nothing about her. He had never even talked to her before. She didn't stick around Malfoy's ilk, that he knew. And as far as he could remember had never been mean to anyone, which meant she was probably one of the few in her house that weren't asses to everybody else.
Mr. Weasley seemed to be familiar with the name.
"Greengrass… so you must be Cyrus' eldest daughter right?"
She nodded.
"Are you badly hurt anywhere?"
She shook her head.
"Good. I propose the following: First we will get beyond the apparition ward line of the campsite. Then I will get you home to your parents. Bill and Charlie you will take Harry sidealong back to the Burrow."
It didn't take them very long to leave the ward lines behind. By now the campsite was very much empty, as everyone had already fled the scene. However, just before they could aparate out, the field was suddenly basked in a sickly green light as a colossal skull rose higher and higher into the night sky and a large serpent started to appear out of its mouth.
Mr. Weasley stared at the form frozen in fear and Bill and Charlie cursed under their breath.
Harry too recognized the symbol. Moody had shown it to him in one of their lessons. It was the Dark Mark, the sign of Lord Voldemort.
"We better get going now!" the Weasley patriarch commanded and grabbed Daphne's arm "We'll see each other back at the Burrow!"
With that the man had turned on the spot and was gone with a loud POP. Then the two brothers and himself did the same and disappeared from the campsite.
They landed in the orchard of the Burrow and were greeted with loud yells and hugs almost immediately.
"Oh thank Merlin you boys are alright!" sobbed Mrs. Weasley and pulled all three towards her chest. But then she looked around frantically "Wait where is your father? Oh god is he…"
Luckily Bill interrupted her before she could start crying once again "Dad is fine, Mom! He just had to get … uh, someone back home we found along the way."
Mrs. Weasley narrowed her eyes, but decided to leave them be for the moment.
Immediately after she let them go Harry was engulfed in another hug courtesy of Hermione.
"Where were you Harry? We've been worried sick, when we realized you were not with us anymore!"
Ron appeared on her left with a slight grin on his face and helpfully added "Yea, what she said."
Before Harry could answer them Charlie stepped in and grasped his shoulders from behind and exclaimed "You mean this one here? The guy is a total badass. Reduced the Death Eaters to ash with a single spell. It was fucking nuts!"
He winced at the overenthusiastic explanation and the entire assembly turned to look at him in silence.
"Okay, what the fuck happened exactly." Ginny finally voiced what everybody was thinking. Her mother was so shocked at her son's proclamation that she didn't even bother to scold her for the foul language and instead looked at him curiously.
Harry sighed.
This is going to be a long night.
After they had finished explaining everything for the second time that night, Harry looked at them all expectantly. Everybody seemed to have a slightly different reaction to the news.
It reached from Mrs. Weasley's stunned expression to the twins nodding appreciatively and bumping his fist. Ron had patted his shoulder and seemed to be glad that they had made it out in one piece, Percy was mumbling about potential legal repercussions and Ginny had looked at him as if he had grown a second head but eventually thanked him for saving her brothers.
Hermione's reaction however hurt a bit, as she wouldn't even meet his eyes. Instead she glanced at him like a book that she wasn't quite sure she wanted to read.
Eventually Arthur returned home and after hugging his family stated that he needed a large glass of firewhiskey and went inside.
Harry had wanted to go after him to ask if everything went alright with Daphne but once he found the man he had his head in the fireplace talking animatedly via the floo network to someone, so he resolved to ask about it another time and instead went to bed.
It was almost lunch time when a visitor to the Burrow announced himself via the vibrant green flames of the floo network and moments later one Albus Dumbledore stepped into the living room. The professor's gaze swept over the occupants of the room quickly before resting on him.
Harry, who had just been in the middle of finishing his summer work for Transfiguration together with Ron and Hermione, froze shortly at the headmaster's arrival. Having no doubt why the man had come, he dropped his quill and stood to greet him.
"Hello Professor!"
"Ah, hello to you as well Harry!" answered Dumbledore and then nodded at his friends, who tentatively greeted him as well.
"My apologies for disrupting your studies. But I fear I have some rather urgent business with you, my boy."
Before Harry could retort, Mrs. Weasley burst into the room.
"Oh, Albus! Hello! To what do we owe the pleasure?"
Dumbledore put on his best grandfatherly smile.
"I'm afraid I will need to borrow Harry here for the remainder of the day. Unfortunately last night's event kicked up quite the fuss, as they say." he said and when noticing Mrs. Weasley's frown quickly added "Don't worry Molly, he will be back just fine in the evening."
The Professor's assurance seemed to satisfy the woman and nodded.
"Well then… Harry? Shall we?"
"Er, right - bye guys!" Harry told his friends with a wave.
He winced slightly at Hermione's piercing stare, which promised another interrogation in his near future.
Turning back to the headmaster he asked "Where are we going, sir?"
"You will see soon enough, my boy."
With that he grabbed his arm and left the Burrow behind, as his world started to spin.
Had Dumbledore told him before that he would take him clothes shopping, he might have done a runner. So it had probably been a smart idea to withhold that particular info until they were already entering Twilfitt and Tattings.
When Harry had asked why they were visiting the shop, Dumbledore had explained that he would require some more sophisticated clothes for their next destination. So Harry had grudgingly let a shop assistant take his measures and purchased a new set of robes made entirely out of Acromantula silk at an eye-watering price. Though Harry had to admit, the cloth felt amazing and did look very good.
Now that he looked all posh and proper, the headmaster took him to a small cafe to discuss the next part of their day.
"So what in the world is this all about?" Harry asked a bit impatiently and pinched the front of his robes. Usually he wouldn't have dared to address the professor this way, right now however he felt it more than justified, after all the man had made him spend a small fortune on a new set of clothes, without ever stating a reason.
Instead of scolding his student, Dumbledore merely smiled before getting serious.
"Tell me Harry, what do you know about the noble houses of our world?"
Harry's blank look seemed to serve as an answer.
"I feared that Alastor hadn't brushed that subject with you… but no matter, I will give you a brief overview now."
Suddenly he paused as a waitress came along to ask for their orders. Her eyes went wide as saucers when she realized that two of the most famous people of the wizarding world were ordering tea from her.
Both Harry and Dumbledore had to chuckle lightly when the young woman almost fell over her own feet as she hurried away to get them their drinks. It didn't take long before both had a steaming mug of tea placed in front of them.
After taking a sip the professor started his explanation.
"As you might know, our government is separated into the Ministry of Magic, who take care of the administrative tasks like law enforcement, international affairs, goblin relations and so on and the Wizengamot that is in charge of creating and changing laws and also jurisdictional matters like criminal trials. The latter body consists of the ministry's department heads, the minister of magic himself, honorary members like recipients of the Order of Merlin first class and then the noble families, who have a permanent seat. The Potter family is one of those for example."
At that Harry blinked stupidly at the old man.
His family had a seat in the government?
Deep in thought he looked down and for the first time noticed the strange symbol on the left side of his new robes. He grabbed it with his hand to get a better look. It was a golden, winged creature that held a sword and a wand in its claws.
"I see you noticed your family's coat of arms."
Holly fuck! My family has a coat of arms?
"Why? Why are you telling me all of this now?" he croaked in disbelief.
Dumbledore winced.
"There are two reasons if I have to be honest. First of all, the knowledge about your family and its place in our society is your birthright and I think you are now old enough to know about it. The other and admittedly more urgent reason pertains to the events of last night."
"Because I killed those Death Eaters?" Harry asked with a frown and the professor shook his head.
"Not exactly, it's more about who you saved that day besides Arthur, Bill and Charlie."
Daphne? This was about Daphne?
"I'm not sure I follow you here. You are talking about Daphne?"
"Precisely." confirmed Dumbledore "You probably didn't know but the Greengrass family is another one of those noble families like yours. What those families value almost more than anything else is tradition and by selflessly saving the heiress of their house you invoked one of the most important of those, which is a life debt."
Harry swallowed heavily. A life debt did sound rather serious.
"About a hundred years ago, it would have very well been within your right to claim young Miss Greengrass as your future spouse." explained Dumbledore.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!
Before he could voice his colourful opinion on that matter the old man placatingly raised his hands before continuing "Luckily that practice fell out of favour a long time ago. Nevertheless, Lord Greengrass is in your debt now and has contacted me to organise a meeting between the two of you to solve that matter."
"But I don't want anything from him. Can't I just say that I don't acknowledge the debt?"
Once more the headmaster shook his head.
"No and I would highly recommend you don't mention this when we meet him, as he would most likely take great offence in that. What you should do instead is the following: Acknowledge the debt for what it is and when he asks what he can offer in recompense, tell him that you will decide about that on a later day."
That didn't sound too bad to him as it was basically just a favour for the future.
Suddenly another question came to his mind.
"Sir, may I ask why you are involved in all of this?"
For a moment Dumbledore looked slightly impressed.
"That my boy, is a very good question."
Harry tried his best not to squirm, as he met the intense stare of Cyrus Greengrass while they shook hands. The Lord's wife and two daughters were dressed in pristine clothes and stood a couple steps behind them. He was now very glad that Dumbledore had taken him shopping before. Otherwise he would have been clearly underdressed for the occasion, but now he seemingly fitted right in.
They currently stood in the entrance hall of their manor, which had almost made his jaw drop in astonishment. Polished marble walls were decorated with green banners that had the Greengrass coat of arms on them, a big crystal chandelier reflected light in all corners of the room, which gave off a homely feeling despite its size due to the strategically placed wide assortment of flowers and other plants. The room was clearly made to impress the manors guests, while also being inviting and welcoming.
Finally Lord Greengrass let go of his hand and said with a slight smile "It's a pleasure to meet you, Heir Potter. Please let me introduce you to my wife, the lady of the house Anastasia Greengrass."
With that the tall, blond-haired woman stepped forward and offered her hand, which Harry lightly brought to his lips like Dumbledore had told him to do before they had gotten here.
"It is indeed very nice to meet you, Heir Potter." she greeted him and inclined her head in respect.
"Likewise. And I must say, you do truly have a wonderful home." Harry answered politely.
A ghost of a smile briefly flitted across her otherwise blank face at the compliment, clearly she was very proud of the mansion's interior.
Then it was her daughter's time to approach him and Harry marvelled at how much they looked like their mother. Both had honey blonde hair, a slim figure, pale but healthy skin and a remarkably beautiful face. They too wore the same expressionless facial expression like their parents.
He wondered if that was a pureblood thing.
"And those are my daughters: Daphne and Astoria." introduced Lord Greengrass.
Once again Harry briefly brushed his lips over the knuckles of their outstretched hands.
"A pleasure to meet you both." he greeted them.
"The pleasure is ours." Daphne answered for both of them in a neutral tone, while her sister was in vain trying to hide her blush.
So they do have emotions, Harry thought when he noticed the red tinge of the youngest Greengrass member.
After Professor Dumbledore had been greeted in a similar formal fashion, they were led further inside the manor, into a cosy little room with an already set table and a small fireplace nearby.
Once they had all sat down, Lord Greengrass cleared his throat and spoke "Now then, I believe you all have a hunch of why we have invited you here today?"
Harry nodded in confirmation.
"Very well. Then let me begin to offer you my utmost gratitude, Heir Potter, for saving my daughter on that day." the man said and dropped his mask to give his daughter an affectionate look "I can not imagine what would have transpired had you not intervened so bravely."
Harry tried his best to not to blush at the praise and replied with as much grace as he could manage "There is no need to thank me Lord Greengrass, I merely did what was right. I'm sure anyone else would have done the same thing."
However Cyrus Greengrass snorted "Pardon me, Heir Potter, but I fear that very few people share that sentient. What you did takes remarkable courage, which is not something that many possess."
Harry said nothing, because he knew that it was true. He had seen it at the World Cup.
There had been thousands of witches and wizards on the camp site and all of them had fled from a mere couple dozen attackers. Had even a small percentage decided to fight back, his actions wouldn't have been necessary at all. But like helpless sheep they had all fled from the few wolves, despite everyone being armed with a wand. In hindsight it was pitiful.
"But as noble as your action has been, I must admit it does put us in a… let's say tight spot." continued the Greengrass patriarch "You have of course our eternal gratitude. However, I have worked tirelessly to ensure our houses neutrality and I would like it to at least officially remain at that. But for as long as our house owes you that life debt, this position will be impossible to maintain."
Harry wanted to say that they didn't owe him anything but before he could open his mouth, Dumbledore firmly put his hand on his shoulder and gave him an imploring look.
Then he remembered what the headmaster had told him.
"...Acknowledge the debt for what it is…"
Taking that into consideration Harry decided to only nod in response, which Lord Greengrass took as a sign to keep going.
"We would therefore like to at least partially settle that debt now. You may ask anything you wish for, if it is reasonable and within my power to do so, it shall be done."
Once the man had said that, Harry noticed that Daphne nervously bit her lower lip and he briefly wondered what fell under the scope of "reasonable".
Finally he took a deep breath and answered "Lord Greengrass, I realise that you want to settle this as soon as possible, but as I am rather new to this entire thing, I must ask you to give me some time to consider. Perhaps in the meantime our families could remain… secret allies?"
Harry doubted that the man would be very happy with that, as even a secret alliance would somewhat stretch their definition of neutrality.
However, Lord Greengrass nodded in acceptance "That, we can surely do, Heir Potter. In fact the most recent events have made me question several of my stances from the past."
When he said that, the Lord exchanged a meaningful look with the headmaster and Harry already had a hunch what that was about.
He had no doubt that Dumbledore and Moody were involved in other projects besides training him over the summer. They were definitely planning something and he was pretty sure that it had something to do with the Lord that sat on the other side of the table.
Before he could think more about that matter, Lady Greengrass cleared her throat "Well then. Now that this matter is settled, how about we enjoy some tea in the garden? Perhaps we can settle the details of this… alliance at a later meeting?"
When Harry and Dumbledore nodded, her husband stood and said "A wonderful idea, dear. Can you and the girls lead Heir Potter to the patio by the pond? I have to discuss a couple things with the Chief Warlock first."
There it was. Basically a confirmation that they were definitely up to something.
A matter for another time, Harry thought as Lady Greengrass led him out of the room.
He supposed the origin of the Greengrass name didn't come from nothing, because as amazing as the manor had been, the garden was something else entirely.
Around a small lake there was seemingly every single flower imaginable growing, creating a magnificent scent around the area. Trees of varying sizes passed long shadows along the large fields of lush dark green grass. Right in the middle was a gigantic pavilion made entirely out of marble stone, which was where they were sitting now.
After they had enjoyed a cup of tea along with a wide assortment of biscuits, Lady Greengrass had excused herself and asked her eldest daughter to entertain their guest in the meantime. The youngest, Astoria, had given her sister a long look and had left shortly afterwards, leaving Harry and Daphne alone.
Having never really talked with each other, the situation proved to be a bit awkward at first.
"Sooo, uh… how are you?" he tentatively asked, trying to get a conversation going.
Daphne hardly moved, her face betraying no emotion "I'm well, thank you Heir Potter."
Then once again silence.
Maybe too personal…
"You like Quidditch?" he tried again.
"Not particularly, no."
"How about school? Are you excited for the start of the new year?"
"Yes."
Harry sighed a bit annoyed and decided to voice his frustration "You ain't making this easy for me, are you?"
Surprised by the bold statement, she momentarily blinked stupidly at him before staring angrily at him.
"Excuse me?!"
"Fine, apology accepted." Harry cheekily answered with a grin.
At least he had finally gotten some kind of emotion out of her.
"I didn't… you… ARGH!" she stammered annoyed and stood up.
Satisfied Harry leaned back in his chair, completely ignoring the fact that the move made the girl even more angry.
"So can we have a proper conversation now?" he finally said.
Daphne closed her eyes and took a deep calming breath.
"Why? Why are you even trying? You don't even know me!"
"Call it intuition if you will, but can't imagine that you are 'well' like you said." Harry answered "I assume your mother and sister left you alone here with me for a reason and I'd like to know it."
The Greengrass heiress turned away from him.
"I don't want to talk about it!"
Harry shrugged "Well I guess your father and the headmaster have quite a bit to catch up on, so I imagine that I will be here for quite a while…"
Finally, the girl snapped and angrily turned back "You must be the most annoying guy I have ever known! I said I don't want to talk about it! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME BE?!"
Almost there…
"Because what you have gone through must have been horrible and you clearly haven't properly talked about it with anyone!" Harry briskly started and when it looked like she wanted to deny it he continued in a gentle tone "Take it from someone, who has been through enough shit to for multiple lifetimes. Talking about it helps and if you don't want to do that with me, fine. But at least talk to someone."
For a moment it looked like she would keep yelling at him, but then she surprised him when her entire facade crumbled and tears started to suddenly roll down her cheeks. As she sat there on the floor, on her knees crying, she finally looked like a human with feelings.
At that Harry slowly got up from his chair and crouched down next to the girl, pondering his next step.
Truth to be told, he had only wanted to get her out of her shell a bit. He hadn't thought that she would actually start to cry in front of him.
Harry so far had often dealt with difficult situations and nowadays mortal peril was almost his default status. A battle with dark creatures or wizards with an unhealthy interest in him? That was right up his alley.
A crying girl in need of consolation, not so much.
Not knowing what else to do he crouched down next to her and awkwardly tried to pat her back.
"Well, uh I kinda suck at this, but uh… you wanna talk about it?"
Thankfully Daphne only let out a snort and started to laugh lightly between sobs.
At least something, Harry thought.
AN:
So, another chapter is done. Harry finally met Daphne properly. It took a while because I kept rewriting pieces until I was somewhat happy.
On another note: I wanted to ask you all what you think about the occasional sneak peak of future chapters on The-Site-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named? Would anyone be interested in that?
Edit: Sorry for the bad formatting, ffn is in a ridiculus state right now and messed everything up when I tried to import the chapter. Should be fixed now.
Anyway, until next time!
-InvertedLogic