December 2023 Exclusive Poll Winner - Finding Forgiveness - Harry/Daphne (Patreon)

AN: Hey, this is a story I planned on breaking into multiple parts, but I decided to throw it all together as one big one. The prompt didn't exactly have a main plot to follow along with, so I decided to expand on it quite a bit. I'm not sure if I got the creepy/scary elements quite right, but I've never been particularly good at them anyway.

Regardless, I hope you all enjoy.

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Harry Potter was lost in his thoughts as he roamed the Hogwarts Grounds. He knew it probably wasn’t safe to do with Sirius Black out on the loose looking for him, but some small part of him wished that Black would find him here. Harry would duel him then and avenge his parents. Yes, that’s exactly what he would do. He wouldn’t cower in the face of fear; he’d channel his inner Gryffindor and stand up to the threat in front of him.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the dark shadow beginning to loom over him.

“I’d like to see the basilisk.”

Harry’s head turned around to see two big blue eyes staring unblinkingly at him, inches away from his face.

“Merlin!” Harry exclaimed as he leapt away from the girl who had been somehow standing directly behind him without him hearing her approach. His foot landed awkwardly on a flagstone in the Clock Tower Courtyard. His ankle twisted painfully, and he went down in a heap on the ground.

The girl took a step closer to him, and Harry instinctively tried to scramble backwards, only to hiss in pain when he put pressure on his ankle. It didn’t seem broken, but he might have sprained it. 

“Are you alright?” The girl asked as she took a step closer to him.

As Harry looked back up at her, he realised that he recognised her. She was a Slytherin in his year: Daphne Greengrass.

Truthfully, he didn’t know much about her. Everyone knew that she was quite pretty, blond, and liked to keep to herself. Honestly, thinking back on it, Harry couldn’t really remember her speaking up in class much or anything like that. She tended to sit near the back of the classroom, so he never really paid much attention to her.

The one thing that did stick out to him about her was her unnerving presence. She hadn’t blinked once over the last ten seconds, and she almost had a small smile on her lips when she watched him squirm away from her. It wasn’t a mocking smile. No, it was a cruel one. One that told him that she was pleased to see him in pain like that. But the moment she spoke up again, the smile was gone, replaced by an unnaturally even expression that didn’t seem to offer up a single human emotion.

A shiver ran down Harry’s spine. “I’m fine,” he told her, trying to not let his uneasiness show.

Suddenly, Daphne dropped to her knees in front of him and grabbed his leg. Harry yelped and tried to jerk backwards, but that only served to send a flare of pain from his injured ankle up his leg. 

“Let me go!” Harry shouted, desperately looking around for anyone nearby who could help him. Unfortunately, as it was lunchtime, the courtyard was deserted. His hands then went to the inner pocket inside of his robes where he stowed his wand, but he didn’t find it there.

Faintly, he saw his wand resting atop the narrow crack in between a couple of stones several feet away. It must have fallen out of his robes when he fell earlier.

“I’ll fix your ankle if you take me to see the basilisk,” Daphne told him clearly. “If you leave it like this, who knows what type of terrible injuries might happen to you.”

Her eyes looked dead as she stared into his. Her lips were pressed tightly together, making them look unusually flat. It was a creepy expression, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that she was blackmailing him like this.

Another flare of pain shot through him as Daphne’s fingers trailed down his injured ankle. He had to force himself to not try and pull away again.

“Why do you think I know where the basilisk is?” Harry asked her, trying to find some way out of this situation. Honestly, he just wanted Daphne to leave. If he had to hobble up to Madam Pomfrey to get his ankle fixed, then so be it; it would be better doing that than placing the fate of his ankle in the hands of this creepy girl.

“Malfoy let out that he overheard his father drunkenly complaining about you over the summer,” Daphne explained. “Something about you not knowing your place and ruining everything that would have seen Hogwarts be cleansed. Between that, the Special Awards for Services to the School, and the two-hundred points you and Weasley earned at the end of last year, there’s only one explanation for it all: you stopped the basilisk.”

Harry shifted uncomfortably as Daphne’s unblinking eyes stared deep into his. Couldn’t she see how she was making him feel? Or was that just it? She knew she was deliberately making him uncomfortable, thereby hoping he’d agree to her whims faster.

It annoyed Harry that it was working so well.

“Okay, fine,” Harry finally said. “Yes, I killed the basilisk, and I’ll—”

“You killed it?” Daphne’s voice was ice cold, and a deep sadness filled her eyes for a couple of seconds before she became expressionless again. But her hands were gripping his ankle tighter now, and it hurt.

“Yes,” Harry said quickly. “I’ll take you to it, just let my ankle go!”

Relief flooded through him as Daphne’s hands released his ankle.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. “Didn’t realise I was hurting you.”

Like hell she didn’t! 

Harry flinched when Daphne pulled out her wand. She tapped his ankle with the tip of it, and suddenly, a rush of ice filled his ankle and his foot. It stung like bitter frost, but it dissipated quickly into a numbing heat.

Cautiously, Harry moved his foot around. To his surprise, his ankle felt perfectly fine! His range of motion was a bit tighter than it was before, but there was no pain at all.

Slowly, Harry got up to his feet, and Daphne did the same. He managed to stand up straight without issue. He took a few steps, testing the waters, and found that he had no trouble putting all of his weight on his injured ankle. Subtly, he made his way over to his discarded wand and picked it up.

“Err, thanks,” he said to Daphne, making sure that she wasn’t about to curse him for grabbing his wand.

She just nodded in reply. “Now can we go see the basilisk?”

The trip down was made in silence. Harry wasn’t exactly sure what to say to the girl. This whole situation still felt a bit like a hostage situation to him, and the lack of other students around only made things worse. For her part, Daphne didn’t seem interested in making small talk either. She just stayed close by his side, her wand in hand and her eyes glancing around curiously.

It was unusual not to get a reaction from her when he spoke in parseltongue in the Moaning Myrtle’s Bathroom. Myrtle wasn’t in, so he didn’t have to worry about scaring her off, but his creepy voice still reverberated around the bathroom before the sink sank down and out of sight, leaving a familiar pipe exposed to them.

“It’s down here,” Harry gestured to the pipe.

“Let’s go then,” Daphne replied, gesturing with her wand.

Harry eyed the wand still in her hand. Would she curse him if he refused? 

He wouldn’t put it past her if she was willing to blackmail him into this.

So, carefully, Harry climbed into the pipe feet first and slid down into the bowels of Hogwarts.

Harry twisted and turned every which way as he rushed down the winding, slimy pipe. Faintly, he heard a slight banging above his head as Daphne raced down after him. He hoped she’d somehow get stuck in one of the smaller pipes that branched off from the main one they were sliding down, but given his luck, he knew that wasn’t very likely.

The pipe eventually levelled out, and he was unceremoniously flung out the other end, landing awkwardly on the damp floor of the pitch black tunnel. 

“Lumos,” he said, igniting the tip of his wand just as Daphne came flying out of the tube.

Unlike him, Daphne managed to land on her feet smoothly. Her eyes were on him, and her wand was still in her hand.

“Where to next?” She asked him, seemingly unfazed by the entire experience thus far.

Harry gestured down the tunnel with his wand, cringing at the wet sounds his slime-covered robes made as he moved.

Daphne flicked her wand at him, and Harry cringed back in fear, only to realise that all she’d done was cast a simple cleaning charm that wiped the slime off of him. She didn’t even seem to notice his reaction; she just continued on by cleaning her own robes.

Harry led Daphne further down the tunnel, cringing as he stepped on old bones that littered the floors here. Even though he was fairly sure that there weren’t any human bones down here, he still didn’t like the idea of crushing bones under his heels.

It only took a minute before they reached the basilisk’s shed skin. The massive, green-coloured skin was still twisted into a tight ball, and Harry was filled with memories flooding into his mind about the creature he’d fought only a few months before. How stupid had he been to think that he could take on such a beast by himself? 

“It’s beautiful,” Daphne murmured, breaking the silence.

Beautiful was the last word Harry would use to describe that terribly evil creature.

“This is just its skin,” Harry explained. “We’re almost at its body.”

They had to crawl over the chunks of broken rocks from the caved-in ceiling, but they quickly reached the wall with the two entwined serpents upon it.

“Open,” he said in parseltongue, focusing on the snakes to allow his ability to come to the fore.

The serpents shifted, and then the wall split in two and slid apart, revealing the Chamber of Secrets.

The cavernous room hadn’t changed at all since the last time Harry had visited it. The same smell of rot and mildew hit his nose, and the towering stone pillars seemed as ominous as ever. Back when he first entered this room, he’d been terrified of what could be lurking behind those pillars, but now he was only concerned about the witch at his back.

Their footsteps echoed through the room as they walked forward. The light from Harry’s wand barely seemed to stretch out more than a dozen feet in front of him, but he could still somehow see the reflective surface of the basilisk’s scales in the distance.

As they neared the corpse, Daphne suddenly rushed around him and hurried forward to the dead basilisk. It was curled up on its side, and there was a patch of dried blood on the stone floor and its scales where Harry had stabbed through the roof of its mouth.

Harry wondered what Daphne was doing as she started walking around the dead monster. She seemed to be examining it from every inch like she was trying to memorise the basilisk’s shape in her mind’s eye.

Harry raised his light, and as it reflected off of Daphne’s face, he finally saw emotion shining through: reverence.

Daphne opened her arms wide and hugged the massive basilisk’s face. She closed her eyes and rubbed her cheek against the basilisk’s, all the while with a genuine smile on her lips.

Harry stepped back in revulsion. Just what the hell was she doing hugging this dead monster?

“Thank you for showing me her, Harry,” Daphne murmured against the basilisk’s skin. “I owe you one.”

Harry wondered if she’d agree to never interact with him again to make them even. This girl was positively terrifying, and he didn’t want a single thing to do with her ever again!

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The Gryffindor common room had been in full swing for a couple hours now after the house’s first Quidditch match of the year. A few people had doubted Harry’s decision to keep Ron as the team’s Keeper, especially since there were so many promising hopefuls wanting to fill the spot, but he’d proved himself perfectly in the match against Slytherin today.

Harry sat down on the sofa closest to the fireplace, grinning as Ron once again regaled a new group of Gryffindors with what was going through his mind as made all of his heroic saves during today’s match. Each time he told it, Ron’s story seemed to get more and more outrageous. Harry supposed a good part of that was from the firewhiskey punch he’d been downing all night; the other part was from the way Lavender clung to him in awe every time he told the story.

“And so, there I was,” Ron said dramatically, waving his hands in front of him to set the scene while Colin and Dennis Creevey eagerly took notes and a gaggle of third years listened with rapt attention. “I could see them coming towards me, and I said to myself: ‘Weasley, you’ll get this. You can’t let your house down.’”

“Wow,” someone murmured in the crowd.

“You really care about Gryffindor, don’t you?” A girl in the crowd swooned.

Lavender grabbed Ron’s collar possessively and pressed herself to his side. From the way Ron was leaning back, she was practically laying on top of him now. 

“Yeah, I do,” Ron said with a lazy grin on his lips. “I couldn’t let everyone down, and when I saw Urquhart’s ugly mug coming my way, I knew what I had to do. I pushed my broom to the limit to get down to the lowest goal, but I did, and I booted that Quaffle away. Urquhart was fuming so badly that he had steam coming out of his ears like he’d just drunk a Pepperup Potion!”

Everyone laughed, and Harry did too. It was good seeing Ron confident like this, even if it was getting a little silly. Harry wanted him confident going into the rest of the season’s matches, and if he could keep it up like this, then Gryffindor would easily win the House Cup.

Just as Ron opened his mouth to speak, Hermione suddenly stepped through the crowd. Her eyes instantly landed on Ron and Lavender, and Harry didn’t miss the hurt look that flashed across her face for a brief second. 

Ron subtly slid out from underneath Lavender, trying to mask just how close the two of them had been. 

Hermione’s head snapped away from Ron. “There’s someone at the door for you, Harry.”

“Who is it?” Harry tried to ask, but by the time the words had left his lips, Hermione had disappeared into the crowd.

Harry grimaced at Hermione’s retreating bushy hair. It had taken her long enough to realise that she liked Ron, but she’d been too late to stake her claim. And naturally, Ron liked her back, but he didn’t realise that she had feelings for him too. Plus, Lavender was busy taking up his attention now.

He wasn’t sure if he should say something or not, but he figured he could come to a decision on that after he’d seen who was at the door for him.

“Be right back,” he said to Ron and everyone else.

Harry pushed his way through the crowd, getting plenty more pats on the back, cheers shouted in his ears, and indiscreet offers from more than a couple witches than he’d already received throughout the night. He weaved his way awkwardly around to the entrance to the common room, where the Fat Lady’s portrait was closed. 

As he approached, the portrait swung open, and Harry froze at the sight of Daphne Greengrass standing in front of him.

Like usual, Daphne didn’t seem to notice his uncomfortableness, or, if she did, she didn’t say anything about it. She was just holding a rolled up scroll of parchment in her hands, standing stock still and staring deep into his soul.

“You did well in today’s match,” she spoke softly, but her words made Harry shiver. 

“Thanks,” he replied quickly.

Ever since that day he’d taken her to see the basilisk, she’d always been in the periphery of his vision. She liked watching him, and that put him on edge. She’d suddenly show up near him at the most random times, and there was always this undercurrent of a lingering threat to everything she did and said.

It didn’t help when the rumours started. Apparently, when they were fourth years two years ago, she’d cursed a second-year Ravenclaw boy so badly that he’d been stuck in the St Mungo’s for two months. He never returned back to Hogwarts even after he was declared fit to, and Daphne had never been punished. There wasn’t so much as a point removed from Slytherin over the incident, and everyone had wondered exactly how it was that Daphne had managed that.

But Harry knew. He knew just how creepy and manipulative she could be. She always seemed to want something from him, and she wasn’t above lacing her words with threats: ‘Would you go fetch a book from the library for me, Harry? If you don’t, well… I wouldn’t even want to think about what would happen.’

It was terrifying, and from the reports of Wizengamot meetings in the Daily Prophet, her father was just as clever and devious. If there was anyone who could prevent Daphne from getting into trouble for cursing a boy like that, it was her and her father.

It didn’t help Harry’s mental state that she kept talking to him. Sometimes she’d go a couple months without saying a word to him. Other times she spoke to him multiple times a day. It was all too much, and Harry was always watching out for any potential danger from her.

The Death Eaters could learn a thing or two about intimidation from her. She barely had to say a word and Harry would be rushing to obey just to keep the peace.

“I wanted to talk to you about something,” Daphne said, wringing the parchment in her hands.

“Well, there’s a party going on,” Harry said, glancing over his shoulder and hoping that she’d recognise that he was busy celebrating and let him off just this once.

Naturally, that didn’t happen.

“It won’t take long,” Daphne insisted before she held out the rolled-up parchment to him. 

Harry hesitated a moment before he accepted it. As he flipped it over, he saw the seal for Gringotts Bank holding the scroll together.

“I’m sorry it took a few months, but Gringgotts had to make sure that Malfoy wasn’t going to contest this,” Daphne explained softly. 

“Contest what?” Harry asked.

“Break the seal and you’ll see,” Daphne said as she nodded down at the parchment.

Harry broke the wax seal with his thumb and unfurled the parchment. His eyes scanned down it, reading every word carefully. By the time he reached the halfway point, his eyebrows were up past his hairline and he was starting to hyperventilate.

“This can’t be real,” he said desperately as he looked up at Daphne.

“I can assure you that it is,” Daphne replied, not betraying one hint of emotion, not even a bit of sympathy for Harry’s current state.

He was going to throw up. Harry staggered over to the closest railing and leaned over it before discarding everything in his stomach. 

“There there,” Daphne whispered in his ear as her unnaturally cold hand patted his back. Harry froze in place, not even allowing himself to clear his throat, which was in pain from the acid and bile that had just flown through it. “You must have had too much to drink to be sick like that.”

Yeah, that was it, Harry thought to himself sarcastically. It definitely wasn’t the marriage contract that was still in his hands.

Honestly, he still couldn’t believe it, but when he looked back down at the parchment, he could see the terms outlined clearly.

Harry hadn’t known that Sirius had named Harry his heir. The man had never mentioned it to him; maybe he just hadn’t expected to die so soon. Regardless, Harry inherited all of Sirius’s worldly possessions. And that included the Black family title.

Normally, something like that couldn’t be given away so easily. The Ministry, in conjunction with the goblins at Gringotts, would trace back the deceased’s lineage to find the next closest kin and offer the title to them. The Black family was old and traditional, meaning that the title would only go to the next closest male heir. Draco was the closest one, but Sirius had shown Harry that he was the next closest on the line after Draco since Harry’s paternal grandmother was originally a Black. 

If Draco turned down the title, that only meant one thing: he knew just how psychotic Daphne was and he was desperate to save himself.

Now, Harry needed to find a way out too.

Harry wiped away the spittle from around his mouth with the sleeve of his robes. “When?” He asked simply.

“Within two years of our graduation date,” Daphne explained neutrally. “We both need to be nineteen, and we’ll need to have a place to live set up before then. It’s all detailed in the contract in your hands.”

Okay, okay, Harry knew that he needed to calm down. His breathing was coming in faster and faster, and his heart felt like it was pounding in his chest. He still had a little over three and a half years before he had to marry this maniac; surely he could find some way out, some loophole that would allow him to be free.

“You coming back in, mate?” Dean asked as he climbed the staircase to the landing that Harry and Daphne were standing on.

Harry hadn’t even heard him coming up, or seen Ginny with him either. They both looked slightly flushed—they’d probably been off snogging somewhere, Harry assumed—but now they were giving him a concerned look. He must look like he’d just been given a death sentence.

“Yeah,” Harry said automatically as he focused his entire willpower on remaining calm.

After Dean and Ginny stepped through the threshold, Harry followed them. He didn’t even notice Daphne following close behind him.

If anyone said anything about Daphne being there, Harry didn’t hear it. He was so caught up in his own world that he just stared straight ahead and walked back to where he’d been sitting before. He didn’t even register Daphne sitting in between him and Ron as an oddity, though Ron certainly did.

“What’s a snake doing here?” Ron asked, crinkling his nose like he’d just smelt something terrible.

Daphne turned to Ron with a blank look on her face. “I’m Harry’s fiancée,” she explained simply.

No one reacted for a moment, and then there was a flurry of activity all at once.

Dozens of questions were being hurled Harry’s way. Twice as many were sent Daphne’s way. Still, Harry didn’t hear any of them. He was just stuck staring down at his lap, focusing on his breathing.

Luckily, Daphne seemed quite content to answer every question that was directed to either of them. Faintly, Harry could see that his friends were sitting back down and looking calmer after a few minutes had passed. And before long, the party atmosphere was back.

Harry didn’t speak to Daphne for the rest of the party, nor did she speak to him. They remained silent, passive, watching everything take place around them. It was like they were frozen there.

His life was over, Harry decided. If he was going to be stuck with a psychopath for a fiancée, there was no way he’d be able to do anything he loved. She’d be utterly controlling, and Harry would have no choice but to go along with it. If he didn’t, he was sure that she’d find some way to blackmail him or to turn things around and see him get hurt in some way. 

As if to confirm his suspicions, as the party was coming to a close, Ron was once more regaling a group of Gryffindors about the match today. He was pretty drunk now, and with that came even more exaggerated gestures than before.

It all seemed fine until he threw his arms out on either side of him and his index finger accidentally came in contact with Daphne’s breast. It was a brief touch, just an accidental poke from someone too inebriated to know where their hands were. It didn’t excuse his action, but it clearly wasn’t anything malicious.

The next thing Harry knew, Ron was screaming as his index finger fell off of his hand. A spray of blood shot out, though Ron quickly clamped his other hand over the wound. 

Daphne stowed her wand without so much as a word. There was only this tiny smile on her lips that told Harry she knew just how awful she truly was and that she revelled in it.

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“To Harry and Daphne!”

Everyone downed the drinks in their hands as one. Harry grimaced at the strong taste of gin in his—he’d asked for all of his drinks to be doubles so that he could make it through the night.

Despite putting it off as long as he could and trying every trick in the book to get out of his marriage contract with Daphne, it was finally time for the two of them to be married.

Everyone seemed thrilled except for him—well, perhaps except for Ron, who still seemed cautious around Daphne after she’d cursed off his finger a little over three years ago. But even Ron was toasting their marriage alongside everyone else. Harry didn’t have the heart to cheer along with everyone else.

Neither did Daphne, it seemed. Although he tried to spend as little time with her as possible, certain occasions had made it impossible. Given his intent focus on her whenever she was close by so that he could defend himself if need be, he’d learnt a few things about Daphne over the years. For one, she hated being the centre of attention.

It was perhaps one of the few things they could agree on. Harry hated being the centre of attention in general, and that often meant preferring to be alone or in smaller groups with friends. Daphne seemed to prefer the latter by far—though Harry was always welcome to join her, as she’d made clear to him. 

But tonight was a night when they were celebrating their upcoming marriage in three days time. All of Harry’s friends were here. Daphne didn’t bring anyone except for her younger sister, Astoria, who was the only person who seemed to be able to make Daphne smile. Astoria was acting the social butterfly, spending time beside Daphne and soaking up all of the attention while Daphne just nodded along and spent most of her time staring at Harry.

Harry had placed himself as far away from Daphne as he could. Although he usually stuck close to her when they were around his friends in order to protect them if Daphne ever decided to snap, tonight was one of the rare occasions where he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Once they were married, he’d be stuck with her forever. This was perhaps his last chance to have at least the illusion of independence. Truthfully, he hadn’t been free since that very first time they’d spoken when she asked to see the basilisk.

“Harry?”

Harry blinked, and he realised that the entire table of people around him were staring at him strangely. He must have been zoned out for several seconds.

“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head clear of any stray thoughts that were troubling him. “What was that?”

Everyone laughed, even Ron. 

“Seems like someone’s too busy dreaming of their wedding to pay any attention to us,” Ron chortled, ribbing Harry with his elbow. “Or is the wedding night you’re more interested in?”

Ah, that line of questioning. Ever since it was announced that Harry and Daphne were going to be married, everyone loved to jokingly ask what Harry had to do to snag the most desirable witch at Hogwarts for himself.

While he’d never deny Daphne’s physical beauty, it was what was inside that was truly important, and Harry had seen the evil inside of Daphne long ago.

“Neither,” Harry replied simply. “Just… what were you all saying?”

“I was asking what you thought about Astoria,” Hermione said, leaning forward as she held onto Ron’s arm. Harry was glad that the two of them had finally gotten their heads out of their arses and had gotten together. At least they could be happy in their relationship now. “This is your first time meeting her, right?”

Harry nodded his head slowly and glanced back across the room. 

Astoria was sick or something; Harry had never gotten the full story. She had gone to Hogwarts for a few years but eventually got pulled out in the middle of her third year. She ended up back at Hogwarts for her fifth year, but that had been the year that Harry, Hermione, and Ron were on the run from the Death Eaters. After that torturous year, Astoria had gone back to living at home, but apparently she spent a lot of time at St Mungo’s too. It was then quite the surprise to see her today because she seemed very healthy to Harry.

“She seems nice,” Harry commented carefully. Honestly, she did, but any relative of Daphne’s had to have something wrong with them. He was still waiting for Astoria’s dark, manipulative side to show itself.

“Yeah, she does,” Hermione smiled. “I talked to her a little bit earlier. Apparently, since she’s been homeschooled mostly, she gets to take her exams at the Ministry. Apparently, she wants to be a Healer after she graduates. She’s really grateful for the mediwitches and mediwizards who looked after her for so many years, so she wants to go into their field to help others too.”

That seemed… nice. Too nice for a Greengrass. Could there be some ulterior motive?

“Maybe she can finally fix Ron’s finger,” Ginny laughed. “I still can’t believe Daphne did that to you.”

Even to this day, Ron’s cursed finger still had the habit of falling off from time to time. It was quite easy to reattach it though, so Ron didn’t mind too much.

“Yeah, well, I kinda did deserve it for poking her like that,” Ron laughed, scratching the back of his head. “Sorry for coping a feel on your girl, Harry. She apologised to me for the curse too. She said it was just an instinctual self-defence thing.”

Daphne must have blackmailed him to tell that story. There was no way that she’d ever apologise for anything like that.

“I’ve got to say, I’ve really warmed up to Daphne over the past few years,” Hermione said. “She’ll make for a brilliant potioneer once her shop opens.”

“She’s quite good at battle magic too,” Luna suddenly chimed in. “Back during the Final Battle, you should have seen her outside of the Ravenclaw Common Room. There must have been ten or fifteen dead Death Eaters in a pile underneath her feet. She was covered in blood too, but she didn’t have a scratch on her.”

There were a few impressed whistles at that. Everyone had their own story to tell about the war, but few of them had a kill count like that.

But while everyone else was impressed, all it did was make Harry even more sick than he already felt. Daphne had shown just how violent she could be, and he couldn’t help but wonder when she’d turn her wand on him.

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Perhaps there was still a chance to flee. Harry knew that he had plenty of options on where he could go. There were bound to be witches and wizards outside of Britain who were grateful to him for killing Voldemort; maybe they could give him safe refuge for a time. Or maybe he could go and hide out on the small island in the middle of Voldemort's cave. The lake of inferi should be enough to protect him, or it would at least give him enough time to run.

No, he couldn’t underestimate Daphne. She’d surely track him down wherever he went, and even a lake of inferi wouldn’t be enough to stop her. If what Luna said was true and she had killed around a dozen Death Eaters, some simple-minded inferi wouldn’t pose much of a challenge for her.

He had to face facts: he was going to be stuck in his marriage with Daphne.

The wedding had gone off without a hitch, much to Harry’s dismay. It had been a beautiful affair, and even he had to admit that Daphne looked quite good. The only problem was the look in her eye the entire ceremony. She was constantly staring into his eyes, and Harry could see hunger in them. It was like she was relishing in his suffering as the cage closed in around him, and she only seemed to grow even more happy once they were officially married. Now, she had him right where she wanted him, and he was doomed.

At least they were far away from everyone now at a tropical resort. Now that Daphne had everything she wanted, he was sure that it wouldn’t be long before she took the last thing he had left: his life. He would fight for his life, but he was just glad that his friends and family couldn’t be caught in the crossfire.

Faintly, Harry heard the shower turn off in the other room. Steam was escaping out from underneath the door, and he could hear Daphne humming a tune quietly to herself. 

He was sitting on the massive bed in their bedroom, wand in hand, ready to confront her. 

When Daphne eventually stepped out of the bathroom, she was in a white negligee. Much of the material was sheer, revealing her creamy skin underneath, but all of her important bits were covered up. Her wand was in her hand too, and she had that all-too-familiar, creepy smile on her lips.

She came to a stop as she saw him gripping his wand so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.

“If you’re going to try to kill me, just get on with it,” Harry said in a low, dangerous voice. “Just know that I’ll fight back. I’m sick and tired of these games you’re playing, and I won’t have it go on for any longer.”

Daphne cocked her head to the side. “What games?” She asked him.

Merlin, was she so sick and twisted that she was actually going to have him say it out loud to her? 

“The blackmail,” Harry spat out. “You always get what you want by blackmailing me into it.”

“How so?” Daphne asked curiously, twirling her wand in between her fingers.

A rush of anger hit Harry. “Don’t play dumb,” he spat out. “Even back to when we first met, you always came out ahead at my expense. You threatened me into showing you the Chamber of Secrets!”

“Did I?”

“Yes!” Harry shouted. “You had my injured ankle in your hands, and you were squeezing it hard when you told me that you’d only fix it if I showed you the Chamber.”

Daphne bit her lip. Even now, her expression was so hard to read. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Sure she didn’t. Harry shook his head. Was she honestly expecting him to believe her like this?

“And then you practically stalked me for years until you dropped the bombshell on me that we had a fucking marriage contract!” Harry snapped.

Daphne hesitated for a second before responding. “I thought we were friends,” she said in a quiet tone.

Harry’s eyes went wide. She thought we were friends? What a terrible lie to come up with.

“Are you kidding me?” Harry exclaimed. “Friends don’t blackmail each other.”

“I never blackmailed you,” Daphne murmured back to him.

“And then you cursed my friend’s finger off!” Harry continued ranting. “You continued to torment me the rest of the year by always showing up whenever I was trying to relax or study, and you’d always find some way of worming your way into joining me. I’m done! So try and kill me if you want, but I won’t go down without a fight!”

Harry leapt to his feet, wand at the ready in front of him, only to watch as tears started dripping down Daphne’s cheeks.

For a few seconds, Harry was frozen in shock. He’d never seen or even heard Daphne show this much emotion, let alone cry before. The most he ever got out of her was that sadistic smile she liked to show, but even that was rare. Most of the time, she just had this creepy, perfectly neutral mask over her face that made her look like an unfeeling doll. Tears were something entirely new, and he didn’t know how to deal with it.

But what he did know was that he couldn’t let his guard down. This could be another trick. Everyone knew about his saving people thing; maybe she figured crying would make him sympathetic enough to want to console her. That would give her the perfect opportunity to strike.

So, Harry held his ground, half a dozen curses ready in his mind, but as the seconds passed by and Daphne didn’t show any sign of stopping her flow of tears, he started to second guess himself.

“Is that what you really think of me?” Daphne asked, her voice thick with emotion. “That I’ve blackmailed you all these years and that I’m going to hurt you?”

Harry hesitated for just a second before he nodded his head.

There was a flash from the tip of Daphne’s wand as she transfigured her negligee into something more appropriate, but Harry had thought that she was about to attack him and had brought up a shimmering shield to defend himself. Daphne eyed his shield and then his face before she turned on her heels and stormed out of their room.

PAGE BREAK

A month had passed. An entire month without Daphne Greengrass to torment him.

He still didn’t know where she was for sure. He’d enquired of course—he never felt safe unless he knew where she was—and everyone seemed to indicate that she was back home with her sister and parents. She hadn’t left home that entire time apparently. Her apothecary that she’d been planning on opening in Diagon Alley still remained vacant with a notice on the front door that said that the grand opening was delayed indefinitely.

The last month had been peaceful and yet not peaceful at all. Without Daphne around, Harry finally felt like he had room to breathe. He didn’t feel like he had to look over his shoulder at every moment of the day, and he was finally able to relax in his new home. The trouble was with everyone else.

On his first day back in Britain after his honeymoon had been cut short, he’d received dozens of angry letters from his friends about what he’d done to Daphne. He’d tried to explain to all of them about exactly who Daphne was and what she’d done to him, but everything thought that he was just being paranoid. It hurt that they couldn’t see just how evil she truly was. 

Ron and Hermione had shown up the day after that to get the real story out of him. So, he’d told them everything from the beginning. Everything that he’d hidden from them over the years came tumbling out of his mouth so easily, and he tried to make it clear just how much Daphne had tormented him. After he finished his retelling, he’d waited for their reaction.

In short, they were furious with him.

Even Ron, who had one of his fingers cursed off by Daphne, had told him off for being such an idiot. According to them, Daphne was nothing more than an introverted, somewhat socially-awkward woman who loved him with all her heart. Everything that she’d done could be so easily explained away by them, and they chastised him for throwing away the best thing in his life.

They didn’t seem to understand that Daphne was the worst thing in his life. With her gone, everything was going to be better again. Sure, he was married on paper, but that didn’t mean he had to spend any time with her anymore. Maybe she’d come back to hurt him again one day, but he couldn’t live his life in fear anymore. He’d ward his house with protective and alarm spells, and he’d be ready for her if she ever returned.

Several days passed after that before Ron and Hermione returned, pleading with him to reconsider what he’d done. Honestly, it was like their sixth year all over again when they thought that he was paranoid about Draco. He was right then, so why couldn’t they trust him to be right now?

Ever since then, they’ve come over every couple of days to try to change his mind. For a while, Harry thought that they were under the effects of the Imperius Curse or some other dark magic, but he’d subtly checked them over and found no signs of any spells or potions affecting them.

It wasn’t until the third week after he’d come home that he’d seriously tried to reconsider if he was wrong about Daphne.

It had taken a lot of thinking and a lot of time spent in Dumbledore’s pensieve watching his old memories, but Harry finally began to see his friends’ points.

In a lot of his memories, he didn’t see Daphne behaving the same way he remembered. Even going back to the first time he spoke, he caught sight of a genuine look of regret on her face when she accidentally hurt him—something he hadn’t seen at the time. There were other moments too where he saw genuine, kind-hearted expressions on her face: gentle smiles when someone said something funny, sympathetic looks whenever he or one of his friends was talking about something bad that had happened to them, and even soft-hearted looks whenever she looked at him.

It was a side to Daphne he’d never seen before, or maybe he had seen it before but just assumed it was something else. Looking back at his memories, he could see how he’d always interpreted things in a negative light.

But even going through his memories didn’t explain everything. There was the matter of her hugging the basilisk’s corpse, her putting a second-year student in St Mungo’s, why she’d gone so far as to curse Ron’s finger off rather than doing something less severe, and Luna’s words about how many Death Eaters she’d killed during the Final Battle. The latter wasn’t something that he was too seriously concerned about—after all, many of his friends had killed quite a few Death Eaters themselves—but it painted a dark picture when combined with everything else.

The worst memory of all though was the one where he confronted Daphne on their honeymoon. Watching her break down again was hard to watch now that he didn’t have adrenaline pumping through his veins. He was watching Daphne closely as she cried and then ran, and he didn’t spot one ounce of anger or maliciousness in her then. There was only hurt. Hurt that Harry caused.

Even though he wasn’t fully sold on the idea that Daphne wasn’t a complete monster, he knew that he had two choices before him.

First, he could continue on avoiding Daphne. His friends would keep avoiding him or pressuring him to fix things with her, and that would inevitably lead to him losing a lot of people that he was close to. But, at least he’d be safe and not have to worry about being scared anymore.

His second option was to confront Daphne about this. It would be a long and difficult conversation, and he still wasn’t sure if he’d trust her not to hurt him or lie about everything, but maybe it would help him make sense of everything. If he confronted her about everything, maybe he could get her to admit to everything. Or maybe he’d find out that he’d been a complete arse for years.

A night of drinking had made the decision for him. He’d sent off an owl at three in the morning with a letter expressing a desire to sit down and talk with Daphne about everything. It had taken a few days before he’d received a reply inviting him over to Greengrass Manor for chat.

Harry showed up dressed in a nice set of robes. Incidentally, they also had a hidden pocket inside of them, which he stuffed a backup wand in just in case.

Daphne’s father, Cyrus Greengrass, answered the door with a furious expression on his face. He was wordless as he invited Harry inside, but it was clear to Harry that the man was ready to curse him if he so much as looked at him the wrong way.

Harry stayed on his guard as he was led through the manor towards an intimate sitting room, where Daphne and her sister Astoria were waiting for him.

Surprisingly, Daphne looked worse than usual. Her normally flawless hair was frizzy and unkempt. She lacked any of her normal makeup on her face, and her robes were more simple than usual too. She had deep bags under her eyes that spoke of long, sleepless nights. Even worse was the forced smile she put on her lips when Harry came into the room.

Unlike her sister, Astoria looked very nice today. She was wearing a sun-coloured dress with black heels and a silver necklace. It was a stark contrast, and one that Harry got a very good look at as Astoria got to her feet, strode across the room, and slapped him across the face.

“You absolute tosser!” Astoria screamed in his face.

Harry recoiled from the slap and dodged a second one sent his way.

“Astoria, stop!” Daphne called out.

But Astoria didn’t stop. She lunged at Harry and grabbed onto his robes with one hand while her other formed into a fist. She connected strongly with his jaw, and Harry saw stars as he staggered backwards.

Another fist came close to his face, but it was stopped just in time as Daphne wrapped her arms around her sister’s waist and pulled her off of Harry.

“He deserves all of this and more for what he did to you!” Astoria raged, struggling to free herself from her sister’s grasp. Thankfully, Daphne’s hold proved too strong to break.

“You promised to sit down and just listen,” Daphne reminded her.

Astoria huffed and finally stopped fighting. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll sit.”

Harry rubbed his jaw as Astoria went back to her seat, glaring daggers at him from across the room.

Daphne looked like she wanted to go to his side, but she stopped herself and stood a comfortable distance away from him. “Sorry,” she murmured quietly.

Strangely enough, hearing her voice again brought Harry some type of comfort that he hadn’t expected to feel. He supposed it was only natural that spending years focused on a person would make him feel strongly about seeing them again, but he’d expected to feel fear rather than comfort. Was it watching the memories in the pensive that had changed his views?

Daphne returned back to the sofa beside Astoria, and Astoria put a protective hand on Daphne’s arm. There was a lone vacant chair across from them, which Harry sat down on.

It was clear that Astoria was holding her tongue, and Daphne wasn’t doing anything more than switching between looking at him and the floor in front of her feet, so Harry took the lead. He figured it was best to ignore Astoria’s outburst for the time being.

“I wanted to talk to you about us,” Harry began carefully, eyeing Daphne for any sign of concerning behaviour. Instead of finding any, all he saw was a sad woman. It was a stark contrast to Daphne’s neutral expression she often wore. “I had a few questions about some things.”

Astoria opened her mouth to curse at him again, but Daphne stopped her with a sharp look.

“Go ahead,” Daphne replied softly.

“About the time we first met,” Harry said. “You told me that you didn’t think you were blackmailing me. Is that right?”

Daphne nodded her head. “I thought I was just offering to help you.”

Harry shifted awkwardly in his seat. She sounded genuine to him. “You told me that you’d heal it if I took you to see the basilisk, and that if I left it unhealed, terrible injuries would befall me.”

Daphne bit her lip anxiously. “I would have healed you regardless; I didn’t mean it like that. And that last part is true. If you don’t heal an injury right away, there’s always the chance of something worse happening to it before you can get it healed. I… I might have been a bit nervous when I asked you about it. I’m not always good at speaking when I’m nervous.”

Well, Harry supposed that made a bit of sense. He could understand how he could misunderstand something from poor phrasing but to have it sound so malicious…

“But you squeezed my ankle really hard,” Harry pointed out. “It seemed like you were trying to threaten me.”

“No,” Daphne replied quickly, her eyes widening. “I didn’t mean to threaten you. I was just stressed out when I heard that the basilisk died.”

“Why would you be stressed out about it?” Harry asked, frowning in confusion. Had she wanted the monster to continue its reign of terror around Hogwarts? Petrifying or even killing innocent muggleborns? “And why did you hug its corpse when we got down to the Chamber?”

Daphne looked over at Astoria, who nodded back to Daphne.

“It was because of my sister,” Daphne said, gesturing to Astoria. “There’s a curse that runs in my family, and my sister got it. We’ve been searching for a cure for centuries, but we’ve never found one. But my dad managed to hire a bunch of potioneers who came up with a theoretical formula that could cause the curse to become dormant in my sister again. The only problem was that it needed some ingredients from a basilisk.”

Suddenly, Harry’s mind snapped back to the memory he’d watched only a few days ago. He remembered being in the chamber, watching Daphne as she walked around the basilisk. He’d thought that she was trying to commit the thing to memory, but if what she was saying was true, what if she was just checking it over to see if its parts were still salvageable?

“I hugged it because I was so glad to see that it was still in usable condition,” Daphne explained. “I would have hugged you, but that seemed a bit forward. I know it’s weird that I hugged a dead basilisk, but it was going to save my sister.” Daphne shrugged, unsure of what else to say.

Harry was starting to feel like a bit of an arse now. He looked at Astoria, who was still staring at him with hatred in her eyes. “I take it the potion worked?” He asked carefully.

“Of course it bloody worked!” Astoria shouted at him. “She spent an entire night harvesting parts from it and brought them home over the break to help make the potion. Do you know how rare basilisk’s are? There hasn’t been a known one in Britain since the 16th century, and none in Europe since the 17th! Most of the parts people have are old and dried, containing a fraction of the magical power the potion needed. Daphne helped make the potion and nursed me back to health! Twice!”

“Twice?” Harry couldn’t help himself from asking.

“Some idiot attacked me when I was in my second year,” Astoria explained heatedly. “He was fooling around with a dark artefact he’d knicked from his house. He knew it could curse people, and he used it on me. It reactivated the blood curse, plus some fun new stuff, and I nearly died! Daphne protected me and blasted the artefact out of his hands, but that caused it to explode and unleash a bunch of dark magic on him too. Him and I were both stuck in St Mungo’s for a while until he got healed and Daphne could make more potions for me.”

Merlin, that was why Daphne never got punished for sending a kid to St Mungo’s back when they were fourth years.

The sinking feeling in the pit of Harry’s stomach only grew.

“Well, okay, that makes sense,” Harry mumbled, looking back over at Daphne. “But what about when you cursed Ron’s finger off, huh? Wasn’t that a bit extreme?”

Daphne’s cheeks turned pink. “It was,” she admitted quietly. “No one else had ever touched me there before, so I just instinctively followed the self-defence lessons my dad taught me. I apologised to him afterwards, and I’ve even given him a potion regiment that will stop his finger from falling off again after six more months.”

“What about all those people you killed during the Final Battle?” Harry asked desperately, looking for anything that could prove that Daphne was the monster he’d always thought she was. “Luna said that she saw you covered head to toe in blood standing on a pile of bodies.”

“They were trying to get into the Ravenclaw common room,” Daphne told him. “I needed to protect Astoria, no matter the cost. I didn’t want to kill so many people, but they just kept coming.”

“Are you seriously going after her for defending herself against Death Eaters?” Astoria asked, aghast. 

“No,” Harry backtracked quickly. “It just… looked back with everything else in consideration.”

“What? All the stuff you made up in your head?” Astoria spat at him. “Let’s get one thing straight: Daphne is a nice, sweet girl. Yes, she’s a bit socially awkward, and sometimes she makes mistakes just like anyone else, but she’s not whatever type of monster you think she is. Do you know how terrified she was when she found out about the marriage contract with you? She was overjoyed to marry you, but she thought that you’d be furious about it. But all you ever did was bow your head and go along with everything. You looked nervous and a little freaked out, but who wouldn’t be in your situation? But none of us expected you to turn into such an arse that you’d try to duel Daphne on your damn honeymoon.”

“Astoria, stop it,” Daphne interrupted her sister.

“No!” Astoria retorted. “He needs to know just how badly he hurt you! Do you know that she cries herself to sleep every night knowing that you hate her? You think she’s a monster, and all she’s ever wanted was to make the best of things with you. She thought that you were her friend, and it turns out that didn’t give a shit about her from the start.”

“I thought she hated me,” Harry defended himself.

“Did you ever ask her if she did?” Astoria pressured him. “Did you ever once consider that she wasn’t creepy like you thought she was?”

“No, I didn’t,” Harry was forced to admit.

Sitting here now, he could see it all. Everything he’d done had been from a skewed perception about Daphne. He’d never once tried to ask her about any of this. All he’d done was look at her and see things the way his mind warped them to be. His years of dealing with Death Eaters and Voldemort had caused him to always be on the lookout for evil. He’d just misread things this time because he was an idiot.

Harry felt his emotions rising up in his throat and getting lodged in there. How was he supposed to tell Daphne that he was sorry or make things up to her after this. He’d ruined everything, and now he was trapped in a loveless marriage with a woman he’d demonised for years.

There weren’t any words that could make up for what he’d done, but he said some anyway.

“I’m sorry.”

For the second time ever, he saw Daphne cry.

“I think it’s best if you leave,” Astoria said as she got to her feet. She stormed over to Harry and grabbed him by the arm, and he just let her.

He was summarily led out of Greengrass Manor. The doors slammed shut behind him.

It started to rain.

Harry let the water wash over him as he trudged down the long laneway that led to the edge of the wards. He’d fucked up massively, and he needed to somehow make things right.

He didn’t love Daphne, nor did he necessarily want to be married to her. Maybe his feelings would grow with time, but first, he needed to show her just how sorry he was about everything.

PAGE BREAK

A cheerful chime sounded as Harry opened the shop door. A group of elderly witches bustled past him as they went down to the far wall where a number of potion vials were shelved. Harry tried to go the way they came from, but the shop was just as packed over there. There must have been at least twenty people crammed into this tiny shop that should only be able to hold eight people comfortably, but there was a good reason for this, he supposed.

Greengrass Potions. A simple name for a brilliant shop. Already, it had gotten rave reviews from customers in Diagon Alley over the quality of the potions it sold. All of them were made right here in Britain with fresh ingredients, leading to better shelf life and potency. Even J. Pippin’s Potions, the other notable English apothecary, had to admit that Greengrass Potions’s quality was superior to its own.

Ever since its grand opening three weeks ago, business had been incredible. The shop was packed morning to night, but it often closed early whenever they ran out of stock. Luckily, J. Pippin’s Potions agreed to loan Greengrass Potions a couple of apprentices to help keep up with the workload of making new potions until the shop got some of its own. Applications were flying in constantly, so Harry was sure it wouldn’t be long before he’d see a couple fresh new faces here.

Slowly, Harry worked his way through the crowd until he reached the till. The desk separated the front of the store from the back, where most of the potions were brewed in a separate room.

A blond-haired woman stood with her back to him, humming quietly to herself as she collected a number of empty vials together beside a simmering cauldron full of vibrant red liquid.

There must have been a ward near the desk because the woman called out over her shoulder to him.

“Be right with you.”

It felt good to hear Daphne’s voice again, but it was even better to see her.

Daphne turned around with a gentle smile on her lips, but it only grew larger when she saw him.

“Harry!” She exclaimed happily. “Is it closing time already?”

He nodded. “In two minutes it is.”

Daphne whistled loudly, and everyone’s heads turned towards her.

“We’re closing in a couple minutes everyone!” She announced loudly. “So please finish your shopping and come round the front with anything you’d like to purchase.”

“Need some help?” Harry asked her as people started shuffling over to the till.

“That’d be great,” Daphne smiled at him again.

Harry walked round to the other side of the desk and began packaging up everyone’s purchases while Daphne took their payment. They worked together in an efficient system, which was surprising given the fact that this was only the third time they’d done this together. Harry supposed that the years he’d spent watching her had accustomed him to her movements and habits; it was easy to predict what she’d do next and what she’d need from him.

In short order, all of the customers bought their respective potions and hurried out the door. Then, blissful silence filled the shop.

“Thanks for that,” Daphne said as she wiped a few stray beads of sweat from her brow. 

“I’m happy to help,” Harry told her honestly. Well, it was partial honesty he supposed. Bagging up packages wasn’t exactly something he enjoyed doing, but liked being with Daphne. Plus, he still had a lot to make up for, so he wasn’t going to whinge about helping out like this.

“So, what did you have planned for today?” Daphne asked him.

“This,” Harry said as he reached inside of his robes. He pulled out a shrunken basket, which he promptly enlarged with his wand.

“A picnic?” Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry nodded. “It’s a nice day out, so I figured we could have supper outside.”

“I hope you’ve found a place for us already,” Daphne said as the corners of her lips quirked upwards. “Because if not—”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ll curse my bits off,” Harry rolled his eyes at her silly joke.

“I’m telling you, one day, you’ll displease me enough that my dark side will come out and I’ll turn you into a toad,” Daphne teased him.

He was glad that she was comfortable enough to joke about this, even if it was at his expense for being such an idiot for so long. He deserved it anyway, and she never got particularly mean about it.

“Just so long as you don’t turn me into potion ingredients,” Harry smiled at her.

“Don’t be silly,” Daphne snorted. “I wouldn’t go to all of the trouble of turning you into a toad and not letting you watch my reign of terror as I destroy everyone you’ve ever held dear.”

“You do realise that you’re a part of that list of people now,” Harry pointed out.

“I’ll save myself for last then,” Daphne grinned. “Just to give that last twist of the knife.”

“And then you’ll leave me as a toad to wallow in my misery?”

“Naturally.”

“Well, let’s hope I manage to stop you before you turn into a dark lady then,” Harry said as he slid an arm around Daphne’s waist.

“And how will you do that exactly?” Daphne asked as they started walking to the front of the shop.

“By giving you enough kisses until you realise that being a dark lady would mean that you don’t get anymore,” Harry chuckled.

Daphne pouted at him. “That would be mean.”

“So would becoming a dark lady and turning me into a toad,” Harry countered.

Daphne pulled away from him before turning to face him. “Then you’d better give me a kiss so that it doesn’t happen.”

“Your wish is my command,” Harry smiled before he leaned in and planted a soft, delicate kiss on Daphne’s lips.

Daphne kissed him back and leaned into his embrace, deepening the physical contact between them. She held him there, kissing him long enough to make up for going for an entire day without any. It wasn’t until Harry yelped after she pinched his butt that the kiss broke off.

“Sorry,” Daphne giggled.

“Oh, now you’ve done it,” Harry narrowed his eyes at her.

Daphne tried to run away from him, and she even managed to open up the door and leap outside, but Harry caught her like always.

“Let go of me you brute,” she laughed as she playfully hit his chest with her fist.

“Not until I’ve gotten my revenge,” Harry grinned before he reached behind her and pinched Daphne’s butt in return, albeit a bit more gently.

“I guess I deserved that, didn’t I?” Daphne said sheepishly as Harry let her go.

“Just a bit,” he chuckled again. “Now, go on and lock up. We’ve got a date waiting for us.”

Daphne did just that, and then Harry took her back into his arms. He planted another sweet kiss on her lips, and then they vanished as he apparated them away.

PAGE BREAK

“Astoria will be thrilled to see you,” Daphne giggled as they walked through the door to Harry’s house. Technically, it was both of theirs, but Daphne had never officially moved in due to the fiasco on their honeymoon. Even now, she still lived back home at Greengrass Manor.

“More like thrilled to torment me,” Harry snorted as he tossed the empty picnic basket aside onto a small table by the front door.

The house they’d bought wasn’t a massive manor home; it was closer to what Harry’s parents had. It was a small, two-floor house with three bedrooms, a big living room, and a private garden out back in the heart of London. Although he hadn’t been thrilled about the house when he’d originally bought it with Daphne—mostly due to his terror at having to marry her—the place had become home to him. 

Harry was always happy to have Daphne over too now. In the months that they’d spent getting to really know each other again, she’d visited several times. It was a nice, private place where they could both talk without worrying about anyone overhearing them.

“She’ll probably calm down in a year or two,” Daphne waved him off. “She’s just overly protective.”

“I wouldn’t call it ‘overly’ protective,” Harry argued lightly. “I was quite an arse.”

“Was?” Daphne repeated playfully.

Harry rolled his eyes at her. “I think I liked you better when you rarely spoke to me.”

Daphne’s cheeks went red. “You know that was just because I was shy around you.”

“I know,” Harry laughed. “It’s nice to see you come out of your shell.”

Honestly, it was. All of those blank stares, unreadable expressions, and cold words were just Daphne being shy. It was expected of some pure-blood children to maintain an air of formality growing up, and while few children were actually able to maintain anything like that, Daphne was one of the rare exceptions. And she’d done such a remarkable job at it that it made Harry think she was a psychopath.

She was much more open now, something that Harry was eternally grateful for. He’d grown to love the sound of her laugh, the cute dimples she got when she smiled, and her playful wit. Plus, speaking to her about the past was so much easier now.

Harry took Daphne’s outer robe from her and hung it up in his cupboard before he turned back to her. “Did you want to go sit down in the living room? I could go get us drinks if you want.”

“Actually, I had something else in mind,” Daphne said with no small amount of trepidation. 

“Oh?” Harry asked as he hung up his own robes. “And what’s that?”

As he turned around, Daphne pounced on him. It spoke to the change in perspective he had on her that he didn’t try to defend himself anymore. He just took Daphne into his arms as she kissed him passionately, nearly sending both of them falling over were it not for Harry bracing himself against the cupboard at the last second.

Harry laughed when the kiss broke off. “We could have kissed in the living room too.”

Daphne nodded her head and bit her lip. “But we can’t do other things in there. It wouldn’t be proper.”

Was she going where he thought she was? “Other things?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

“You know,” Daphne said shyly as her cheeks turned pink. “Things.”

“I just want to clarify—” Harry began to speak.

“Sex!” Daphne exclaimed suddenly.

Harry felt his mouth go dry. In all the time that they’d been together, they’d never done more than kiss and some light petting. By all standards, it was incredibly tame for a married couple, but it had only been a little over four months since they’d truly become a couple. After everything came to light back at Greengrass Manor, it had taken two more months before they were ready to try again, and then another month after that before their romantic relationship actually started. 

Harry had been slow, not trying to push his luck and instead let Daphne take the lead in the relationship. She seemed happy enough with that, and she always let him know if they were going too fast or too slow.

But this was the first time that sex had ever come up.

The first words out of Harry’s mouth probably weren’t the most appropriate for the situation, but they were the most important given the context of their relationship.

“Are you sure?” He asked.

Daphne didn’t hesitate. “I am,” she told him clearly. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while now—”

“Oh, you have, have you?” Harry winked at her.

Daphne blushed harder and playfully slapped his arm. “Stop it,” she told him. “But yes, I have been, and I’m ready now. It wasn’t easy getting back together with you, especially since I was stuck wondering if you were just playing along with me for my benefit—”

It hurt to hear Daphne say that. Just like he had to get over his perception of her, she had to get over her perception of him. The only difference was that her perception of him was well justified.

“—but I think we both know that we genuinely like and care about each other, right?” Daphne asked him.

“Of course we do,” Harry confirmed sweetly.

Daphne nodded, having already known the answer. “I’ve been ready for more for a few weeks now, but I just kept putting it off because I’m so nervous. But I don’t want to wait anymore; I want you.”

Merlin, how good was it to hear her say those words to him. But there were words he needed to say too.

“I’m so sorry for everything, Daphne,” he said sombrely as he took her hands into his. He’d said the words before, but he needed her to hear them again if they were going to take this step. “I hurt you so badly, and to think that you’d still care about me after all that—”

Daphne kissed him suddenly, and Harry kissed her back. He felt warm tears hit his cheek, but he wasn’t sure whose they were.

“I know,” she murmured in his ear. “But I forgave you a long time ago now. You just need to learn to forgive yourself.”

“I’ll try,” Harry murmured back.

“Good,” she smiled up at him. “Then carry me upstairs.”

It was hard to carry and kiss Daphne at the same time, but Harry made it work. He staggered up the staircase and kicked open the door to his bedroom before he laid Daphne down on his bed as delicately as he could before he climbed up on top of her.

“Is it okay if I take off our clothes?” He asked her.

Daphne nodded in reply, looking down at her body shyly. 

With a simple flick of his wand, all of their clothes disappeared off of their bodies. While Daphne stared at him, Harry drank her in.

He’d always known that Daphne had an incredible body. Her face was beautiful beyond comparison, and she had a shapely figure to go along with it, but nothing could have prepared him for the perfection that was now before his eyes.

The first thing he noticed was her perfect hourglass figure. There wasn’t one simple flaw in the curve of her body. Next came her breasts, which were quite large and perky. They sat high on her chest and were topped with rosy-pink nipples that were pebbled with gooseflesh. Her skin was perfectly creamy and clear all the way down to her legs, which were as long and perfect as ever. But in between those legs was a hairless slit that he could just barely see poking out from between her thighs.

Harry looked back up at Daphne, and he quickly realised that she was focused on his cock. He only then noticed that he was hard, and that his cock was pointed right at her. 

“It’s big,” Daphne said, almost in awe.

Harry could only nod. He didn’t want to brag or break the moment that was passing between them; just staring at her was enough for now.

But as the moment came to an end, he had a plan in mind.

“I want to taste you,” Harry told her.

Suddenly, the moment became real in Daphne’s eyes. They widened, and then her breathing picked up.

“Just let me know if you need a break or anything,” Harry told her as he slowly worked his way down her body.

He settled back on his heels on either side of Daphne’s legs. Her legs were still closed together, and Harry glanced up at her with a questioning look.

Daphne spread her legs open tentatively, looking simultaneously excited and terrified about what was about to happen. She was breathing heavily, basically panting, and staring down at Harry with unbridled lust as he kissed her inner thighs.

Daphne’s pussy was as perfectly pink as he could have ever imagined. Her lips were engorged as blood rushed to her pussy, and her clit was already partially exposed out from under its hood. Beads of moisture had already formed along her slit, and a longer strand of her juices was dripping out of her and down onto the curve of her arse.

“Just relax,” Harry told her in an assuring tone. “Lay back and let me do the work.”

Daphne nodded and did just that, but she couldn’t stop herself from staring down at him through the valley between her breasts.

Ever so slowly, Harry kissed his way up Daphne’s thigh towards her pussy. His hands massaged her legs as he worked, helping to relax her tense muscles, but they too began to work inward to her core. 

Once he felt she was ready, Harry went in with his fingers first. He began delicately, just barely touching her labia with his fingers. Daphne’s breathing hitched but mellowed out a moment later as she relaxed again. Harry let his fingers gently toy with her, spreading her lower lips apart to reveal the wet tunnel between them, before he moved up to her clit. He felt along every little fold as he went, and then he just barely let his fingers graze along the sides of her clit.

Daphne made a little sound then, but it wasn’t enough for Harry. He wanted to hear more from her. So, he brought his fingers back down to her opening, and he gently started to push one inside. 

Daphne squirmed as Harry’s finger entered her. Her walls clenched around him, clinging to him beautifully. He probed deeper until he slowly slid his finger back out. He repeated the motion several times as he moved his mouth closer to her clit.

Harry showed Daphne his tongue before he gave her a long, nice lick. Her hard nub was easy to find, and just barely touching it made Daphne cry out in pleasure.

“Yes!” She cried as her hands gripped the bedsheets tightly. Her legs were trembling just from that little touch, and Harry used his free hand to stabilise her.

Seeing just how sensitive she was, Harry changed tacts and started planting gentle kisses all around her clit while he continued to slide in and out of her pussy with his drenched finger. Every few kisses, he’d let his lips just barely brush across her clit, and he’d get the same trembling reaction every time.

Daphne’s pussy was dripping so much that Harry eventually had to lick around his finger to clean up some of the mess. Her juices were slightly sweet, sour, and salty mixed into one. The flavour was mild and pleasant on his tongue, which her juices coated nicely. He licked up every drop he could, finding that the taste only grew better over time. 

Just as Harry went back to try to touch her clit again, Daphne held out her hands in front of her.

“Stop,” she said breathlessly.

Harry did so immediately. He pulled his finger out of her and sat up. “Are you alright?” He asked concernedly.

Daphne nodded, gulping down the saliva that had been pooling in her mouth. Her chest was heaving up and down as she gasped for breath, and Harry couldn’t stop his eyes from wandering down to watch the way her breasts moved.

“It’s a lot of stimulation all at once,” she tried to explain. “I just need a second.”

“Take all the time you need,” Harry assured her. 

He crawled up the bed next to her and wrapped an arm around her waist before he kissed the top of her head. His erection was pressed against her hip, and even just this simple touch felt incredible to him. He wanted to be inside of her, but he was more than happy to take this at her pace.

It took a little over a minute for Daphne to recompose herself. Once she seemed to be okay again, she turned her head and kissed him.

“Sorry,” she began to mumble.

“Don’t apologise,” Harry told her. “It’s your first time.”

“It’s yours too,” Daphne pointed out.

That was true. “It’s different for guys,” Harry shrugged.

Daphne nodded and then glanced down at his cock. “You feel really hot against me.”

“You can touch it, you know,” Harry said, hoping desperately that she would.

Daphne bit her lip and reached down with her hand. She was so careful as she grabbed him, like he’d break if she made the wrong move. Her hand felt warm and soft around his shaft, and she was rubbing her thumb up and down along his skin.

“I don’t know how this is supposed to fit inside of me,” Daphne admitted nervously.

“It’ll work out if we take our time,” Harry said comfortingly. “But even if it doesn’t, everything we’ve done already has been incredible.”

“Yeah,” Daphne smiled up at him, “it really has.”

She kissed him again, and Harry moaned in delight at the feeling of her body against his. She rolled over to face him, and her heavy breasts ended up pressed against his chest while the head of his cock was poking her flat belly. 

She kept stroking slowly as they kissed, but soon it was practically bordering on the point of teasing. Harry felt desperate for more, and he couldn’t help it when his hips bucked against Daphne’s hand.

Thankfully, Daphne’s next words came at just the right time.

“I want you inside of me,” she whispered in his ear as she gave him a slightly firmer stroke.

Those were the magic words he’d been waiting for. “How do you want to do it?” He asked.

“I’m not sure,” Daphne said nervously. “Maybe with me on my back?”

That sounded more than good to Harry. “Alright then,” he smiled encouragingly at her. “Lay back, and let me get ready.”

Daphne rolled onto her back, and Harry climbed back on top of her. Lovingly, Daphne wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist as he shuffled into position on top of her. His cock was resting above her pussy, but he quickly brought it down into position.

Daphne’s pussy was still dripping plenty of juices, so it wasn’t hard for him to get the head of his cock wet. He rubbed himself up and down her slit until he was satisfied, and then he rested himself against her entrance.

“It shouldn’t hurt much thanks to magic,” Harry assured her, knowing that she knew it too. But knowing it and experiencing it were two different things, and he could see the nervous anxiety starting to fill her.

“I know,” Daphne nodded. “Just… go slow, okay?”

“I wouldn’t dream of doing anything else.”

Slowly, just as Daphne had asked him too, Harry pushed his hips forward. It was an incredible experience to feel her hot, writhing walls stretching out around his cock as he slowly pushed inside of her. Though, he’d barely gotten more than the tip inside of her when he felt a barrier.

“Go on,” Daphne said encouragingly with a soft smile. “Push through.”

Harry leaned down and planted a sweet kiss on her lips a second before he pushed forward. Daphne’s cry of pain echoed in his mouth, but it was brief. After a few seconds, Daphne was kissing him back. A few more and she was pushing her heels into his arse to tell him to move inside of her again.

The more he pushed inside of her, the more Harry found his mind was losing its ability to think coherent thoughts. The silky heat of Daphne’s pussy was driving him wild, and she was so wet that he had very little trouble just pushing in smoothly. He still took his time, letting Daphne’s pussy adjust to his girth inside of her, but it didn’t take long before he was fully sheathed inside of her depths.

“Do you need a second to get used to it?” Harry asked, his voice filled with lust.

Daphne shook her head. “No,” she smiled beautifully at him. “Go on, Harry.”

If he were being honest with himself, Harry’s first thrust inside of Daphne was clumsy. He’d pulled back too quickly, then started forward too slowly, and finished by jerking his hips forward suddenly at the end because of how good it felt. Luckily, he didn’t hurt Daphne, but it wasn’t his finest moment.

His next thrust wasn’t particularly good either, nor was the one after that. The fourth was pretty good though: just two strong, smooth motions as he pulled back and then thrust forward. From there, Harry only got better. His thrusts became more consistent without any sudden movements that threw off the rhythm he was building up. It helped Daphne’s body work alongside his. Her walls squeezed him tightly when he was all the way inside of her rather than halfway, and she moaned at the right times too. 

The feeling of sliding in and out of her pussy was something that Harry couldn’t really describe. It was, simply put, magical. Even that definition didn’t seem to do it justice though. 

Everything inside of her felt so right. It was so kind and gentle and loving, and Harry knew at that moment that this was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He was sure that having sex with almost any woman would feel incredible, but without the connection he felt with Daphne specifically, it would be a hollow mockery of what they were doing now.

Now that a good rhythm had been established, Harry felt comfortable kissing Daphne while he fucked her. His strong thrusts were making her moan prettily, but he knew that her lips would feel better against his.

So, he leaned down and captured her lips in a searing kiss. It was blissful, and he only had one mistimed thrust before he was back into his rhythm. Her walls squeezed him as he sank back into her depths, and Daphne’s hands were grabbing tightly onto his hair as she held him in place. 

Steadily, Harry began to pick up their pace, and their kissing reflected that. Their tongues battled in each other’s mouths for dominance, but they had to keep breaking apart for air.

“I love you,” Daphne told him in between kisses.

Harry groaned and slammed his cock forward into her tight pussy. “I love you too,” he called back as his eyes screwed shut. Hearing those words that he’d only ever dreamt of nearly made him cum then, but he held on just by a fraction of a second. He had to still himself when he was completely buried inside of her, and that gave both of them a chance to catch their breaths.

“I want to try being on top,” Daphne told him excitedly.

That sounded like a brilliant idea to Harry. 

He wrapped his arms around her and rolled over onto his back without letting his cock slip out of her pussy. Daphne giggled and helped him roll over. The second he felt her weight bearing down on him and his cock push just that little extra bit deeper inside of her, Harry let out a loud moan.

“Does that feel good?” Daphne smiled down at him as she rolled her hips against him.

“So good,” Harry replied as he reached up to grab one of her breasts. 

Daphne arched her back and proudly pushed her breast into his hand as she rocked against his hips. His cock stirred inside of her as she made her little movements, and Harry knew that he was done for. He wasn’t going to last more than a minute or two, but it was going to be a glorious time until then.

Suddenly, as Daphne leaned forward, her pussy clamped down hard on his cock and she let out the loudest moan he’d heard from her yet. He glanced down at where their bodies met and realised that she’d just pressed his clit down against his pelvis. 

Grinning, Harry pushed up against her, and Daphne covered her mouth to muffle another cry.

“Does that feel good?” Harry asked teasingly.

“Mm hmm,” Daphne’s muffled voice said. Her eyes practically rolled back as she rose up a few inches on his cock and then slammed back down onto him.

Harry reached up and pulled Daphne’s hand away from her mouth. “I want to hear you,” he told her lustfully.

Daphne moaned and bit her lip as she started to ride his cock. 

It was incredible just what a change of position could do. The feeling of fucking Daphne was completely different now that Harry didn’t need to actually thrust into her. Having her bounce on his cock felt a bit closer to the sensation he had when he masturbated, but that could never compare to the feeling of Daphne on his lap. 

Her walls were squeezing him so tightly as she rode up and down his glistening shaft, and both of them were moaning like crazy now. The feeling of her pussy slamming down on his cock again and again was driving him mad with lust, and Daphne seemed to be loving it just as much.

Harry pinched Daphne’s nippled in between his fingers and gasped as she dropped all of her weight onto his cock. He was fully sheathed inside of her again, but that feeling only lasted a second before she rode back up his cock.

“Harder,” Harry panted.

Daphne slammed down on his cock, and Harry nearly choked from the pleasure. Daphne whimpered, and her thighs trembled as she grinded her clit against him again.

“Again,” Harry said breathlessly.

Waves of incredible sensations wove through Harry as Daphne kept slamming down hard on his cock. He let go of her breast to watch both of them bounce as she rode his cock harder and faster than before. Her beautiful blond hair was bouncing around wildly, and Harry could only watch in an entranced state as Daphne brought him to his orgasm.

“Oh fuck, Daph,” Harry moaned as he suddenly grabbed her arse and slammed her down onto his cock.

Daphne cried out and fell onto him as her body began to shake violently.

Harry knew what was happening immediately: Daphne was having an orgasm. Her pussy tightened up incredibly around his cock, and it started to spasm. He bucked his hips against her as the first spurt of cum fired out of his cock. The pleasure almost seemed too much for him to handle as he kept thrusting upwards, filling her up with his seed. Still, he managed to hold onto his sanity as he drained every last drop of cum he had to give.

Daphne was still trembling as she came down from her own orgasm too. She clung to Harry, holding onto his shoulders and nestling her head against his chest. Harry held her against him, catching his breath and relishing in the post-orgasm bliss.

“You were wonderful,” he told her softly as he ran his hands up and down her back.

“Merlin, I didn’t know anything could ever feel so good,” she breathed out.

They laid there another moment, catching their breaths.

Eventually, Harry made an offer.

“Do you want to spend the night here?” He suggested.

Daphne raised her head up and stared down into his eyes. She’d never spent the night over, not even once. Her parents and sister would wonder about her, but they knew that she was going out with Harry tonight. 

“Yes,” she answered softly.

PAGE BREAK

“Two weddings,” Ron whistled lowly. “Gotta say, one was enough for me. I wouldn’t want to deal with all of the stress of planning another one.”

“Good,” Hermione laughed. “Because you’re stuck with me.”

Ron smiled sweetly up at his wife and gave her a peck on the cheek.

“It was probably easier the second time around though, right?” Hermione asked Harry.

He nodded as he glanced down the aisle again. The three of them were stood upon the dais, waiting for the bride to show up. Dozens were in attendance today, and everyone was thrilled to be here. 

It had been awkward explaining everything to everyone. Daphne had suggested that they just tell everyone that they’d wanted to have a wedding again now that they actually loved each other and say that the last one was just a requirement of the contract, but Harry wasn’t having that. He told everyone what an arse he’d been. How he’d believed Daphne to be some horrible monster when she was actually the sweetest, most forgiving woman alive. 

Those who’d heard the story before were more understanding than those who weren’t, but Daphne made it clear to everyone that Harry had more than made up for his past transgressions. Even Astoria admitted that he hadn’t done a bad job in fixing things up. Harry took that as a win.

“Daphne had it all under control from the start,” Harry answered Hermione. “She was brilliant.”

Hermione smiled at how sweetly Harry spoke of Daphne. “I’m sure she was.”

Seconds later, music began, and everyone turned their heads down to the back of the room.

Harry held his breath and waited. He didn’t remember much from his first wedding—he’d been too stressed out and terrified to pay attention to anything then—but he was intent on memorising this day.

When the first sign of Daphne’s cream-coloured wedding dress came into view, Harry’s heart stopped. Her father was walking her down the aisle, as he’d done last time, but Harry barely noticed him. He couldn’t take his eyes off of Daphne’s face.

The smile on Daphne’s lips was unlike any others he’d ever seen before. She was positively glowing in the radiant light that was shining down on her as she walked down the aisle. Tiny flickering golden lights danced around her, highlighting her beauty even more.

Harry only realised that he had to breathe when Daphne stepped onto the dais with him. He took her hands in his and lost himself in her beautiful eyes.

“I love you,” she mouthed silently to him.

Harry beamed at her and replied in kind. There was no one else he’d ever loved like he’d loved Daphne, and he was thrilled that they could finally spend the rest of their lives together.

But the rest of their lives could wait a bit longer. He wanted to spend just one more minute memorising this perfect moment.