Fifty Moments When Harry Could’ve Met Astoria

by Brockster550

Summary:

A series of fifty one-shots featuring moments when Harry could’ve met Astoria Greengrass. “Additional tags to be added.” (Ideas are welcome).

Notes:

Disclaimer: All I own is this fanfic, everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling. No copyright intended!

Chapter 1: Platform Nine-And-Three-Quarters

Eleven-year-old Harry Potter was having a rough moment. The Dursleys dropped him off at King’s Cross Station at 10:30 AM, so he could catch the Hogwarts Express on Platform Nine-And-Three-Quarters. Asking the station guard for directions yielded no results, since Harry (not wanting to risk violating any rules in the magical world) asked for the train that left at eleven with the guard saying there wasn’t one. The guard walked away while complaining about time wasters. Harry looked up at the clock while trying not to panic and saw that it was now 10:40 AM, meaning he had twenty minutes left to catch the train. Hagrid must’ve forgotten to tell him how to get onto the platform. As he strolled through platforms nine and ten, a girl with shoulder-length honey-blonde hair skipped in front of him to the point of almost getting hit (but Harry luckily stopped before that could happen). The girl was wearing a sky-blue short-sleeve t-shirt, jean shorts, and black converse sneakers that barely showed a pair of pink ankle-high socks. When they gave each other eye contact, Harry saw that the girl had a pair of bright-green eyes.

“Sorry!” the girl apologized, feeling rather sheepish. “I didn’t mean to cut in front of you.”

“No need to worry,” assured Harry. “I was trying to figure out my way somewhere that shouldn’t be spoken aloud.”

“I see, it can be risky if you did.” the girl replied. Forgetting to introduce herself, she turned her attention to Hedwig in her cage and cooed, “You’re such a pretty owl! Yes you are, so pretty!”

Harry was taken aback to see the girl attempting to bond with Hedwig, but still worried that she was going to react by nipping the girl’s fingers when she slipped them through the cage to try and stroke the feathers. To Harry’s relief, Hedwig hooted in approval and leaned forward to allow the unidentified honey-blonde girl to stroke her feathers. The girl even giggled when she stroked Hedwig's feathers while cooing at how pretty she was. Harry opened his mouth to ask the girl who she was, but that turned out to be unnecessary because he spotted a woman with the same hair colour (which was in a bun) strolling by with a worried look on her face. She had to have been the girl’s mother because of the strong resemblance. The woman was dressed in a blue ankle-length short-sleeve dress and a pair of brown leather shoes that were visible whenever she took a step forward.

“Well there you are, Astoria!” the woman cried.

The girl who’s name was Astoria immediately pulled her fingers out of Hedwig’s cage and faced her mother. Harry had no idea what Astoria’s expression was because her back was now turned towards him.

“Hi, mummy!” Astoria nervously replied, with a rather sheepish smile on her face.

“Don’t you ‘hi, mummy’ me, young lady!” the woman scolded her daughter. “Haven’t I told you never to wander off by yourself, especially in a place as crowded as a train station?”

“Yes, mummy!” Astoria replied again, sounding distraught as she cowered at her mother’s stern expression.

“When we get home, you’re to report to your bedroom for five minutes,” Astoria’s mother continued scolding her. “So you can think about why it’s bad to wander off on your own without a grown-up closeby. Understood?”

“Yes, mummy!” said Astoria downheartedly.

“And sticking your fingers into the cage of someone else’s pet, too?” Astoria’s mother went on in a stern voice. “That’s also pretty rude.”

“I’m sorry, mummy!” Astoria apologized. “It was just a pretty owl, and I couldn’t resist.”

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to, young lady!” Astoria’s mother scolded once more. “It’s still rude to put your hands on someone else’s pet without their permission.”

Turning her attention back to Harry, the girl named Astoria apologized in a sheepish voice, “I’m sorry to have put my fingers through your owl’s cage! Your owl was just so pretty that I couldn’t resist.”

“Your apology is accepted!” assured Harry with a smile. Then he explained, “But I was more worried about Hedwig biting your fingers, but she warmed up to you almost immediately.”

“That made it more exciting for me!” stated Astoria. Then she held a hand out to introduce herself, “I’m Astoria Greengrass, but I go by Tori and you can call me Tori if you wish.”

“Nice to meet you, Tori!” Harry replied, shaking her hand. “I’m Harry Potter!”

“Nice to meet you, Harry!” stated Tori, as she and Harry finished shaking hands.

Tori’s mother walked up to Harry and, with a smile, held her hand out to introduce herself, “Hello, Harry! I’m Tori’s mother, Alexis. You can call me Lex if you’d like.”

“Nice to meet you, Lex!” Harry replied, shaking the Greengrass matriarch’s hand.

“Are you lost, Harry?” asked Lex.

“Yeah,” Harry admitted. “Trying to find out where… a platform is located.”

“No need to worry, Harry,” assured Lex, keeping her voice audible for only the three of them to hear. “We know what platform you’re referring to. It’s not too far from here. My other daughter, Daphne, is starting this year, too.”

Harry felt himself relaxing, so he followed Tori and her mother over to the spot where platform nine-and-three-quarters was located. They stopped close to some kind of barrier that was all metal or something, and nobody else in the train station seemed to be aware of it.

“In order to get onto Platform Nine-And-Three-Quarters,” Lex instructed Harry, keeping her voice low enough for only herself, Harry, and Tori to hear. “You have to walk straight into the barrier between platforms nine and ten. You can jog towards the barrier if that makes you feel better, and most of our citizens prefer that.”

“I’ll demonstrate for you, Harry.” said Tori.

She walked over and stopped directly ten feet in front of the barrier, and then (after checking her surroundings to avoid attracting unwanted attention) made a dash towards the barrier and disappeared into it as though she went through a secret passageway that looked like a solid barrier. Harry stayed where he was, wanting Lex to go first because of being strictly adamant on the ladies first policy.

“You’ll need to go before me, Harry,” stated Lex when she realized why Harry was waiting. “To make sure you make it safely on the other side. A child’s safety is more important.”

Understanding why he needed to go first, Harry pushed his trolley towards the spot Tori approached. Then he got ready and pushed his trolley towards the barrier with all his might. Harry even closed his eyes as he anticipated crashing into the barrier, but it never came and that allowed Harry to quickly open his eyes. Then he found himself on Platform Nine-And-Three-Quarters, as shown on an overhead sign. The Hogwarts Express was a scarlet train with the steam engine the same colour. The overhead clock showed that it was 10:45 AM, meaning that the train would depart from the station in fifteen minutes. Harry pushed his trolley to get away from the barrier so Lex could make her way onto the platform. Harry spotted Tori standing by another honey-blonde girl who Harry deduced was Daphne (who’s hair was armpit-length). Tori and Daphne were chatting with a couple of brown-haired girls and a brown-haired woman who (because of the resemblance) was the mother of the brown-haired girls. Tori checked her surroundings and spotted Harry, then she gave him a smile (resulting in Harry smiling back).

“Over here, Harry!” Tori called out to him, waving a hand in his direction.

Harry started approaching the girls, with Lex having made it onto the platform. Harry properly introduced himself to Daphne and the brown-haired girls (who introduced themselves as Tracey and Trina Davis). Both girls had cobalt-blue eyes, but Tracey’s hair was shoulder-length and hanging down while Trina had her hair at armpit-length and in braids. Daphne had her hair in a low ponytail, while her eyes were an ice-blue colour. Daphne and Tracey had trolleys in front of them, so Harry knew that they were starting Hogwarts (even though Lex did mention that Daphne would be starting). Tracey and Trina’s mother introduced herself as Edwina, or Ed as her preference.

“Let’s go find a compartment to put our stuff in, Harry!” Daphne and Tracey suggested to him simultaneously.

Harry reluctantly followed Daphne and Tracey towards the train, the three of them pushing their respective trolleys. Once they stopped outside the rear car, the three got their luggage off of their trolleys (the trolleys magically moved themselves away and towards where the other trolleys would go after use, that way none of the muggle train station visitors would think that they were stolen). Then the three pre-teens dragged their luggage towards the last compartment in the rear car, with Harry helping the girls out by putting the school trunks on shelf racks above the seats. Harry put Hedwig’s cage right by his trunk, with Harry promising her that he would let her out when it was time for the train to depart. Before Harry could take a seat, Daphne and Tracey stopped and faced him.

“Harry, aren't you going to come back and chat with our families before the train leaves?” asked Daphne and Tracey in unison.

“If only I deserve it!” Harry replied.

“Harry, you’ll end up bored out of your skull if you just sit in here,” Daphne reasoned. “Besides, you won’t be able to see Tori for a few months at least. This is your chance to make sure you see her before we have to board the train.”

“It’ll be the three of us once we’re on the train, too,” Tracey told Harry. “So don’t try to bore yourself just sitting here. If you chat with us and our families, time will fly by.”

With that in mind, Harry followed the girls back out to where the rest of their respective families were. The moment he saw Tori again, Harry couldn’t help smiling as he felt some flip-flops in his stomach. She just seemed to be the cheerful kind of person, since she never let her hopes down even when she was scolded earlier. Plus, her smiles turned out to be something he liked to see even if he was reluctant to admit it because of the Dursleys ‘teaching’ him that he was destined for rotten luck. Naturally, he had no idea what to talk about and he was worried that anybody could ask him why he was in overly-large hand-me-down rags. Harry was unaware that Lex had been eyeing his hand-me-downs rather suspiciously, but she kept silent about it so as not to frighten him. But she planned to get to the bottom of that after the train departed from the station. All too soon, the time left until departure was five minutes. Tori gave Harry a hug before he returned to the compartment with Daphne and Tracey. Harry flinched from the physical contact due to the natural anticipation of beatings. Tori widened her eyes in shock when that happened, as did Lex because she had an intuition that Harry had a terrible home life. But Harry hugged Tori back when he quickly realized how gentle she was being.

“Please write to me when you get the chance, Harry,” said Tori, deciding not to bring up Harry’s flinching so as not to frighten him. “Let me know which house you get sorted into.”

“I will, Tori!” Harry promised.

“I’ll even ask mummy about inviting you over for Christmas if that’s okay,” added Tori. “After all, the next three months or so will seem like a long time. But the Christmas holidays will be here before we know it.”

“Yeah!” Harry replied.

Once Tori finished hugging him, Harry made a beeline for the last compartment in the rear train to join Daphne and Tracey for the train ride to Hogwarts. Daphne and Tracey were watching out the window for their respective mothers and sisters. Once it was 11:00 AM on the dot, the train started leaving the station. Harry sat down on one of the seats to look out the window and pass the time, while Daphne and Tracey occupied the other seat. Now all Harry had to do was wait until he got to Hogwarts to find out which house (the only ones he heard of so far were Hufflepuff and Slytherin) he would be sorted into. At the same time, he couldn’t help inwardly blaming himself when Tori got scolded earlier, since the Dursleys also ‘taught’ him that every mishap was his fault no matter what. Despite his rotten luck, maybe something good was going to happen this time.

The End!

Chapter 2: Engagement Party Musings

Notes:

Warning: Not Ron, Ginny, or Molly friendly in this one-shot, so reader’s discretion is advised!

Five years had passed since the second wizarding war ended, with Hogwarts getting rebuilt, the remaining death eaters getting arrested and given proper punishments instead of slaps on their wrists, and the ministry getting de-corrupted. In other words, no job at the ministry was going to be dished out due to favouritism and instead be given to those who were not only qualified, but rightfully deserved it. It was a special moment at Greengrass Manor due to a new addition to the family, not in the form of pregnancy but one of the Greengrass ladies getting married.

The woman in discussion was Daphne Greengrass and she was getting married to Draco Malfoy, with the engagement ring on her finger being concrete evidence. Draco served three years in Azkaban out of a ten-year sentence due to good behaviour and was now engaged to Daphne. All of the party guests were happy for the couple, but there was bound to be some who didn't approve of Draco as Daphne's choice for an eventual husband. One of them was Daphne's sister, Astoria (who had bright-green eyes, shoulder-length honey-blonde hair in an elegant bun, and was wearing a purple dress), and she was glaring at Draco intensely with her arms folded across her chest.

'How could Daph fall for that arrogant prick?!' thought Astoria, outraged. 'Can't she see that he always saw beautiful ladies as eventual trophies rather than human beings?! Even the ponce eyed me with lust many times in the past, I know what kind of person Malfoy is!'

Astoria, or Tori as she was known to her friends and family, felt her body trembling with rage, but kept her cool for her sister's sake. There was a wide belief that older siblings were always the smartest and wisest, but that wasn't always true (same with the belief that the younger siblings were always more slow and dim-witted by comparison). Tori knew that one should always pay attention to their intuition, which could explain why she was almost sorted into Ravenclaw House when she started her education at Hogwarts. Tori was only sorted into Slytherin because her sister and best friend were sorted into that house and she wanted to be closer to them.

If anybody paid attention to Tori's bright-green eyes, they would also see fire in them in some way because she never believed that Draco genuinely changed for the better and was only sucking up to the family just to get his hands on Daphne and treat her like an object. In other words, Draco was secretly trying to win his family’s status back and regain their previous wealth. Tori turned around and headed outside onto a balcony to avoid the temptation of giving Draco a mouth full of broken teeth. Not only that, but going onto the balcony and getting a good look at the trees had always been one of Tori's methods of thinking things over. Tori was even leaning against the rail, with her elbows resting on top.

"I'll say one month into her marriage will be when Daph files for divorce." Tori guessed as she spoke to herself, momentarily unaware that somebody else came to join her on the balcony.

"Excellent guess, Miss Greengrass!" an unexpected voice complimented her.

Tori jumped in surprise and turned around. Standing before her was Harry Potter, given his untidy black hair, emerald-green eyes hidden behind a pair of black-framed full-moon glasses, tall stature, and in a set of green-dress robes. Harry had the famous Potter smile (which was lopsided), the very smile that was rumoured to make any girl cream her knickers. However, Tori was still outraged by Daphne's engagement to Draco to even get such thoughts. Nevertheless, Tori still acknowledged Harry's presence with a smile.

"I didn't think I'd see you here at my sister's engagement party, Mr. Potter!" said Tori in a surprised voice.

"Well, Daphne invited me, since I've been helping her out in getting some new defensive spells invented." Harry informed Tori. "It wasn't easy, but it was worth it. We've even been coming up with stronger versions of older defence spells."

"I see," said Tori. "But where do you go? I've heard that you haven't been seen here in England much since the second wizarding war ended."

"I tend to travel the world as much as I can," Harry explained. "After having that target painted on the back of my head against my will for the longest time, I figured that visiting other countries was an excellent thing for a long-earned vacation."

"By yourself?" asked Tori in surprise.

"Pretty much," Harry admitted. "Aside from visiting other countries, there are times where I'll just stay at one of the private islands owned by my family."

"I thought you'd take the weaselette with you." said Tori.

"No, Ginny never has been interested in that," Harry revealed. "Shortly after the second wizarding war ended, I told the Weasleys I'd be going on a long vacation and travel the world. Needless to say, Mrs. Weasley wasn't very supportive and neither was Ginny. Mrs. Weasley tried pressuring me into getting back together with Ginny and make love to her so she could pop out some grandkids. I refused and decided to stick to my plan to travel the world, so Mrs. Weasley kicked me out of the Burrow until I change my mind, but I won't be. Ron has also gotten himself in a huge debt after I took him to the first casino in our world, called McLaggen Casino and Gambling. Ron just bets huge amounts of money, which I paid for him three times. It was after that when I warned him that I wouldn't do it anymore because I was getting tired of it. Nevertheless, he ignored my warning and now he owes the casino like seven-point-five million galleons in debt. He occasionally sends me letters begging for help, but I ignored it because he needs to learn that he can't keep relying on me at all."

"Great job on standing up for yourself, Mr. Potter!" Tori complimented.

"Thanks!" said Harry. "You can just call me Harry if you wish."

"Okay," said Tori. "You can call me Tori if you'd like. I often go by Tori because calling me by my given name sounds like a mouthful, considering it's four syllables."

"Hey Tori!" Daphne (who was in a silver dress, had ice-blue eyes, and had armpit-length honey-blonde hair in a bun) greeted as she walked out onto the balcony. Then she asked in an excited voice, "Isn't Draco so handsome?"

"Yes, he is, Daph!" said Tori, being as polite as she could. "I'm happy for you."

"Yes, congratulations on your engagement, Daphne!" Harry told her, also being polite.

"Thank you!" Daphne replied enthusiastically. "I'd better get back to the party." Then she strolled back inside to keep her guests entertained.

"Anyway, traveling the world is pretty intriguing," Tori admitted. "Especially since I haven't been outside Britain for years."

"If you'd like," Harry offered. "You can tag along with me when I'm ready to leave Britain again. We can even go to one of the private Potter estate-owned islands if you wish. This could be a wonderful time for us to get to know each other better."

"Are you serious, Harry?!" asked Tori, taken aback by the offer.

"Positive!" assured Harry. "I'll even let you pick first."

Tori couldn't help but cover her mouth in excitement at Harry's offer. She gave him a hug as a way of saying thank you and accepting the offer. Feeling the warmth, Harry slowly returned the hug with a smile on his face. Tori knew the first thing that she needed to do was let the ministry know she was going to resign from her position in the Department of Magical Transportation, at the Apparition Test Centre.

"Do you think Granger would approve of us, Harry?" Tori responded in a semi-tense voice. "Daph told me how she and Granger were fierce academic rivals at Hogwarts."

"Hermione and I aren't that close anymore," Harry revealed. "Ever since she left for Australia, we haven't been able to stay in touch. Luna Lovegood and Cho Chang are my best female friends, while Neville is now my best mate since he's alot more responsible than Ron ever would be. They'll be more than willing to accept you, since they're some of the nicest and kindest people I’ve ever met. Cho and I did have a fight near the end of that year the toad ruled Hogwarts with that iron fist, but Cho and I made amends once everything cooled down and we decided to just stay friends."

Tori felt a smile forming on her face. She already knew Luna and Cho because Luna was in her year while her father and Cho's mother worked for the ministry (Tori would occasionally see Cho at ministry formals), especially Luna because they both started Hogwarts at the same time and would occasionally share classes. Tori decided to try to get to know Luna better anyway, since Luna was pretty fierce if anybody pushed her to the limits and she was also known to defend Harry's honour for the right reasons. Then Harry held a hand out while smiling.

“Would you like to dance with me, Tori?” Harry offered.

Tori felt her heart beating with excitement, even more so when he flashed her his famous Potter lopsided grin. Tori felt as though her panties were finally creaming as she looked at that smile. The younger Greengrass lady smiled back as she grabbed a hold of Harry’s hand, then he led her back inside and over to the ballroom where the engagement party was being held. Once they were in the ballroom, Harry gently placed his hands on Tori’s waist. That caused her to shiver in excitement because of how gentle Harry was being. Tori draped her arms over the back of his neck, then the two started dancing away. The younger Greengrass lady had no idea that her parents, Dennis and Alexis, were watching her dance with Harry and they smiled in approval.

‘Way to go, sweetie!’ thought Alexis (who was a spitting image of Tori) ecstatically, as she watched her younger daughter dancing with Harry.

The End!

Chapter 3: Visit To Hagrid’s Hut

Notes:

Warning: Not Molly, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny friendly here; so reader’s discretion is advised!

It was a cool afternoon of Saturday January 16, 1993; and twelve-year-old Harry Potter was taking a walk around the school grounds to avoid coming across most of the students accusing him of being the heir of Slytherin just because he used parseltongue to convince a snake to refrain from attacking Justin Finch-Fletchley (who was a Hufflepuff student in Harry’s year). His best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, weren’t any help because they started distancing themselves from Harry after the Christmas holidays, making it clear that they believed him to be the Heir of Slytherin (with Hermione looking tense whenever Harry tried visiting her in the hospital wing due to a mishap with the polyjuice potion that was intended to help find out if Draco Malfoy, Harry’s arch-nemesis, was the heir) just as much as most of the school. So Harry found a better best mate in his fellow dorm-mate Neville Longbottom (a brown-haired Gryffindor portly boy with brown eyes) since he believed Harry to be innocent, as did his quidditch teammates. The only ones outside of Gryffindor who supported Harry were Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott, both of whom were Hufflepuffs in Harry’s year. So far, nobody in Ravenclaw expressed their support for Harry and, naturally, no one in Slytherin showed support for him (which Harry, naturally, expected because Draco was in that house).

Harry soon found himself heading in the direction of Hagrid’s hut. Rubeus Hagrid, or simply Hagrid, was a half-giant of eight-foot-six with long brown shaggy hair and a brown shaggy beard. He was the school’s gamekeeper and Harry’s first-ever friend who baked a cake for Harry on his eleventh birthday (which was eaten by Dudley), and even gave him his snowy owl Hedwig while they were shopping for his school stuff a month before he was due to start school here at Hogwarts. Harry walked up to the front door to Hagrid’s hut, feeling the need to talk to him before the temptation to lash out at a fellow student should they keep accusing him of being the Heir of Slytherin could rise. Just before he could raise his hand and knock on the door, Harry heard some talking going on that sounded like Hagrid was talking to someone.

“I know what kind of person he is,” said Hagrid in a soft voice, apparently speaking to himself. “If he wants to blame you for everything, that’s his problem. But don’t let his hurtful words get to you. You’re still a very kind and sweet person.”

Harry felt some of the sensation dissipating from his body, believing that Hagrid was talking to Hermione and that Hagrid also thought that he was the Heir of Slytherin. His throat constricting with emotion, Harry slowly started backing away to head off to who-knew-where. He barely made it three paces when he heard the sound of Fang barking, causing Harry to freeze in his tracks while silence filled the inside of Hagrid’s hut.

“Hold on a minute, Astoria,” Harry heard Hagrid speaking, making him realize that the groundskeeper was talking to someone named Astoria. “I’d better go check and see what made Fang bark.”

Harry heard the sound of Hagrid’s footsteps approaching the door, with the door quickly opening and Hagrid stepping outside some to investigate. Then the half-giant breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was Harry who was outside his hut. The raven-haired Gryffindor felt his body relaxing somewhat when he saw that Hagrid was happy to see him, but still remained partially tense because he still wasn’t sure if what Hagrid said to whoever Astoria was was also regarding him.

“Well hello, Harry!” Hagrid greeted with a smile.

“Hi, Hagrid!” Harry greeted back. Then he explained, “I came by to see how you were doing and chat because I felt the need for it to keep myself distracted from my troubles, especially with those accusations of being the Heir of Slytherin. But it seems like a bad time if you’re helping someone else out, so I’ll be going and come back later.”

“No need for that, Harry!” assured Hagrid. “Visiting with you is always a wonderful time. Besides, I was also getting some tea and cake ready while I was talking to Miss Greengrass. I don’t think it would hurt if you joined us.”

Hagrid even opened the door wider to let Harry in, with Harry feeling even more at ease in understanding that Hagrid never referred to him in any way. Harry followed Hagrid into his hut and saw that Astoria was a girl with shoulder-length honey-blonde hair (which was hanging down at the moment) and bright-green eyes. Harry took a seat close by Astoria while Hagrid returned to the kitchen to check on the cake and tea. The raven-haired Gryffindor could tell that she had been crying because her eyes were red and her cheeks were all puffy. It was enough for him to feel his heart breaking because he hated seeing any girl crying, even though she had a green scarf with silver linings draped over the back of her neck. Astoria was also wearing a pair of black jeans, black shoes, and a brown long-sleeve t-shirt. Harry saw her black coat hanging over the back of the chair she was sitting in. Since Hagrid did reveal her surname just moments ago, it was enough for Harry to realize that Astoria was Daphne’s sister and the resemblance was quite noticeable. Naturally, Harry refrained from asking her what was wrong as it wasn’t any of his business. To his surprise, Astoria smiled at him despite her distraught state (something that he quickly returned).

“It’s nice to meet you, Harry,” Astoria greeted, holding a hand out at him. “I’m Astoria Greengrass!”

“Nice to meet you, Astoria,” Harry replied, shaking her hand. “I’m Harry Potter!”

Harry felt a little sheepish for saying his name because everyone knew his name due to the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing. But still, he was showing proper etiquette when meeting someone knew. What was even more strange to Harry was that Astoria wasn’t behaving like a fangirl of his unwanted fame, unlike a certain female redhead (who, naturally, Harry never warmed up to because she represented everything he hated). From the looks of it, Harry could tell that Astoria was feeling a little sheepish herself despite smiling because she tried looking away when they finished shaking hands.

“I’m sorry you had to see me looking all upset, Harry!” Astoria apologized.

“Your apology is accepted, Astoria!” assured Harry. “There’s nothing wrong with being upset, something my female quidditch teammates helped me realize.”

“Thank you for understanding, Harry!” Astoria replied in a grateful voice. Then she explained, “It’s just that… Malfoy was being his usual bratty self, especially when it comes to me.”

“Why does Malfoy think he’s entitled to you?” asked Harry.

“Some marriage contract was drawn up a couple years ago,” Astoria replied, her voice dripping with contempt aimed at Draco. “Where I would have no choice but to marry him on my eighteenth birthday. I have a hunch that ole Luci lied to my daddy about it by claiming it to be a debt repayment from a long time ago. Even my daddy believes it’s a bluff, but nothing can’t really be done because daddy doesn’t have any proof that Luci is lying. I also know that Malfoy Jr whined to his father to have me be his future wife, but the lack of proof makes it even more unbearable. What’s worse is that there’s this old law that allows pure-blood men to make their wives cater to their every whim whether or not they’re unethical, and the wives are supposed to be seen and not heard. Furthermore, Malfoy Jr has no qualms in attacking a lady when he doesn’t get his way.”

“Dang!” said Harry, shuddering at the thought. “I’d hate to be married to someone like Malfoy, and being forced to cater to that person’s every whim is just plain horrible.”

And Harry knew what it was like being forced to do something he didn’t want to do, especially with the Dursleys making him do all of the chores (whether or not some of the chores were reasonable). But it was clear that the Dursleys were using him as a slave while Dudley was free to do whatever he pleased without worrying about the consequences (since Harry had a hunch that his relatives would bribe their way out of trouble and give ‘the freak’ much harsher beatings for ‘tattling’). Despite Hagrid and the Weasley twins knowing about the Dursleys’ abusive treatment towards Harry, the raven-haired Gryffindor refrained from telling Astoria what his life with the Dursleys was like (remembering Uncle Vernon’s so-called warning not to ‘tattle’ or face severe ‘punishment’).

“And to make it worse,” Astoria went on. “Malfoy will just keep ‘reminding’ me about being the future Mrs. Malfoy and not let up. He’ll even harass me whenever possible, such as touching me without my permission, especially my chest and bum.”

“So Malfoy is lustful as much as he’s spoiled rotten!” Harry replied. “Those are the reasons I turned down his offer of friendship on the school train last year when we were coming to this school for the first time. I met him at Madam Malkins in Diagon Alley at the end of that July and even then, I never liked him at all, since his actions said it all as to what kind of person he is. They say that first impressions can matter. Have you retaliated against Malfoy whenever he’d touch you… inappropriately?”

“Many times,” stated Astoria. “Some of those moments, I’d even squeeze his family jewels and warn him to quit touching me before I’m tempted to pound him into the next millennium. But the brat refuses to learn his lesson, it’s pretty clear that he’s proud of his extreme stupidity.”

“That’s another reason to stay away from him,” Harry replied in agreement. “Since Malfoy is just plain bad news. I’m surprised that he and Parkinson aren’t a thing, since she likes fawning over him as if he’s the best thing to ever happen in her world.”

“They should be a thing,” Astoria concurred. “Since Parkinson enjoys Malfoy’s company, and he likes fangirls as much as you hate them.”

All too soon, Hagrid finished getting the cake and tea ready and brought them to the table where Harry and Astoria were sitting. Hagrid was beaming to see Harry expanding his circle of friends, since Harry was rarely seen away from Ron and Hermione. But Hagrid could tell that Harry wasn’t close to them anymore since they began distancing themselves from him. Astoria was feeling more relaxed since Harry had been treating her like a person, while Harry felt more at ease to come across a Slytherin student who didn’t hate him irrationally. Soon, it was time for the pre-teens to leave and give Hagrid some time to himself and Fang, so Harry and Astoria said their goodbyes to Hagrid and gave Fang some goodbye pets as well. As soon as they were outside, Harry and Astoria opted to stay outside so they could have some time to themselves with minimal distraction (and to avoid the likelihood of encountering someone who disapproved of the two interacting).

“Thank you for helping make my day better, Harry,” said Astoria gratefully with a smile on her face, as she and Harry strolled over to the woods. “And thank you for giving me a chance to prove that I’m a good person to be around despite us being in rival houses.”

“You’re welcome, Astoria!” Harry replied, returning the smile. “You don’t have to give me a reward because I was just doing this because I wanted to.”

“You can call me Tori if you wish, Harry,” stated Astoria. “That’s what friends and family call me, as it’s not a mouthful to say.”

“Alright, Tori!” Harry replied again.

“And that is another thing to admire about you, Harry,” Tori went on. “Anytime you do something nice for someone, you never expect some kind of payment in return. It’s a shame that Granger and Weasel never pay any attention to your tenseness when that Lockhart guy drags you into the spotlight against your will. Even Weaselette never pays any real attention to you, and she’s missing out on what it’s like interacting with you.”

“I’m guessing that you refer to Ron as Weasel and Ginny as Weaslette is not just based on their last name, but also because they treat you like someone who’s a bully or something?” asked Harry.

“Yes, they tend to treat me as someone who bullies others,” stated Tori. “They’re prejudiced against anybody in Slytherin just because Malfoy is in that house. Granger and Daph are fierce academic rivals, since Granger always wants to humble my sister and fails in that because Daph always manages to get scores not far behind. Daph has even outscored Granger in some classes.”

“Daphne’s tendency to stay cool and calm must have something to do with managing to get scores not far behind and even outscore Hermione in some of the others,” said Harry. “While it does seem to keep her on her toes, Granger is just going to suffer an aneurysm or something if she keeps getting herself so worked up like that.”

“But it’s her loss,” said Tori matter-of-factly. “If she wants to make that choice, then she can suffer the consequences that come with it.”

“Yeah,” stated Harry. “And some people need to learn the hard way. I’m surprised that you’re a first-year here, since Daphne is in the same year as me. So I thought you wouldn’t start for another year at least.”

“Daph and Trace are some of the oldest students in your year,” Tori explained. “They both had their birthdays in September, with Daph having her birthday on the thirtieth while Tracey had her’s on the twentieth. My birthday is on the fifth of April, and my bestie Trina has her birthday on the twelfth of June.”

“I see!” Harry replied. “So that means Trina is Tracey’s sister?”

“Yes,” said Tori. “Daph and Trace have been besties for as long as me and Trina have, since our respective mothers have been besties since they were students here.”

“I just hope that neither Daphne nor the Davis girls harp on you for telling me their birthdays!” Harry replied.

“I don’t think they would mind you knowing,” assured Tori. “After all, everybody in our world knows your birthday.”

“Oh… yeah!” Harry replied, feeling uncomfortable because he knew that it was referring to his unwanted Boy-Who-Lived fame.

“I’m sorry, Harry!” Tori quickly apologized, feeling rather sheepish. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s not you, Tori,” assured Harry. “It’s just that… somehow people managed to find out about me before I even knew about this world, even my birthday. I just wonder how that even happened.”

“I have no real idea how it happened either,” said Tori. “But those books about the Boy-Who-Lived will help you out in giving you clues.”

“Maybe I can rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron when the summer holidays start,” stated Harry. “That way I can check out some of the books and find out who wrote them and where the stories originated from.”

“How about if I write to my mum and dad, and ask them if I can invite you to our family manor?!” Tori suggested. “The Easter holidays would be an excellent time to work those clues out, and I can help you out there if you’d like.”

With a smile forming on his face, Harry nodded his head as a means of giving Tori permission to write to her parents and see if it was alright with them if she could invite Harry over to the manor for Easter. She even gave Harry a hug to prove how grateful she was in him helping to turn her day into a better one and help distract her from her encounters with Draco. Naturally, Harry flinched when he felt Tori hugging him, but he hugged her back slowly since she was being gentle with her hugs (unlike Hermione’s, where she always charged at him before hugging him; whereas Mrs. Weasley’s hugs were so smothering that it felt like it could snap his spine in two). It was natural for Tori to notice Harry’s flinching, but she stayed silent just in case he was very sensitive about the subject. Plus, she could ask her parents through a letter what their suspicions were. For now, she wanted to enjoy her walk in the woods with Harry with minimal distraction.

The End!

Chapter 4: Pediatric Section At St. Mungo’s Hospital

Ten-year-old Harry Potter woke up to find himself in a hospital room of some sort, but this one wasn’t like any of the ones he’d seen when he and his classes would go on field trips from time to time. The last thing he knew was that on his birthday he was doing extra chores and getting extra beatings, as opposed to Dudley’s birthdays always being the best days ever for him. None of the instruments seemed to need any kind of electricity when he checked out his surroundings (even though it was a little blurry because he didn’t have his glasses on). He remembered wishing to get as far away from his relatives that he somehow teleported to a forest of some kind and began exploring it despite being in excruciating pain. Then he came across some kind of large house after maybe fifteen minutes or so and made it to the front gate before the pain made him pass out. Harry felt around for his glasses on a nearby side table, picked them up, and put them on before checking the time. According to a clock, it was 10:33 AM on Friday August 10, 1990.

‘How did I get here?’ thought Harry.

He spotted the open door to his room and saw passing adults dressed in strange white uniforms. There were some passing by with children, and they were in everyday clothes. It was about seventeen minutes later when he received a visitor: a tall dark-skinned woman of five-foot-nine with dark-brown eyes, black hair in a pixie cut, and was wearing the white uniform he’d seen from other workers of the unidentified hospital. Naturally, Harry felt himself tensing up because of dealing with the beatings and what-not with the Dursleys and school officials at St. Grocery’s Primary School overlooking Dudley and his gang bullying, where he had no friends or adult helpers since Dudley and his gang made sure of that. To Harry’s surprise, the woman looked at him and gave him a friendly smile. Harry was still somewhat tense, just in case it might be a trick.

“Hello, Mr. Potter!” the woman greeted him in a friendly voice. “I’m healer Keesha Johnson, and I’ll be your healer while you’re at St. Mungo’s Hospital For Magical Maladies & Injuries.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am!” Harry replied, returning Keesha’s smile. Then he asked, “Was that your large house I ended up near the other day?”

“No, you somehow apparated to outside the wards surrounding Bones Manor,” Keesha explained. “Amelia Bones is the owner of the manor and she lives there with her niece, Susan, who’s about your age. She came to your aide when she investigated and summoned some mediwizards to bring you here. You were put in a magically-induced coma because you had so many injuries and improperly-healed bones that the surgeons had to remove those bones and give you skele-gro so you could regrow those and have them good as new. The other reason you were put in the magically-induced coma was to give your body time to heal and adjust to the new bones.”

Harry nodded his head in acknowledgement, since he no longer felt his improperly-healed bones feeling as though they would get broken again. But what he didn’t understand was what all this whole magically-induced coma and healer meant. Then it dawned on him that he was magical, which would explain all the odd things that happened to him and when he somehow teleported to a forest. Maybe magic was what Uncle Vernon referred to as ‘funny business.’ He never asked what that was as he was always forbidden to ask questions no matter how good they were, while Dudley could ask even the lamest ones and his parents would answer them without hesitation.

“Amelia would like to speak with you a little later today or soon, Harry,” Keesha informed him. “She’s head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but she doesn’t take any nonsense from anybody. She would like to ask you some questions regarding your injuries, but we can delay it if you don’t feel ready for it.”

“Maybe a day or two, please,” said Harry. “So I can prepare for it.”

“Alright, I’ll let her know of your wishes, Harry.” assured Keesha in a soft voice. Then she asked him, “Would you like me to escort you over to the play area for children?”

“I… suppose,” Harry replied. “If only they’ll be willing to play with a freak, but I don’t see that happening.”

“You’re not a freak, Harry!” assured Keesha, keeping her voice soft. “There’ll be plenty of boys and girls about your age there. My daughter, Angelina, will be here in about five-to-ten minutes so she can read a story to you and the other children.”

“Well, okay,” Harry replied. “I’ll give it a try.”

Keesha smiled warmly, then she went into a wardrobe and brought out a pair of pajamas for Harry and handed them to him. Then she showed him where the bathroom was, with Harry grabbing the pair of pajamas and into the bathroom to change out of the white hospital gown (since he knew that it probably needed to be washed). Harry saw that the pajamas were gray, which didn’t bother him as he usually wore gray clothing and any of Dudley’s old clothing would be dyed gray before ‘the freak’ would get them despite them being four or five sizes too big. Harry remembered getting beatings when he tried telling his aunt and uncle that he needed clothes his size, with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia even labelling him ungrateful for it. After Harry changed into the pajamas and left the bathroom to put the gown on a clothes rack near the door, Keesha began helping Harry in walking to the children's play area.

“Um, Keesha,” Harry started asking, in which she turned her attention to him. “Does your presence mean that you’re a children’s healer?”

“Yes, Harry,” stated Keesha. “Or as some call it a pediatric healer. It was always hard for me to come across different children suffering from serious injuries, different ailments, or other conditions. So I decided to be a pediatric healer for a career.”

Harry followed Keesha over to the play area for kids, and Harry saw different children of different ages, different skin colours, different hair colours, so on and so forth. It wasn’t too long after they arrived Harry spotted a dark-skinned girl who appeared to be twelve showing up and Keesha greeting her. Harry realized that it was Keesha’s daughter named Angelina; and she was wearing a red short-sleeve t-shirt, gray shorts, brown leather sandals, had the same eye colour as her mother, and had chest-length black hair hanging down. Harry saw the other children taking seats in front of a brown armchair as Angelina sat down in it. Harry took a seat behind the other children, still unsure if any of them wanted to befriend ‘the freak,’ since it would get him less attention than sitting near the front. Harry heard somebody sitting down next to him, and he barely turned his head in that direction and caught a glimpse of a girl with shoulder-length honey-blonde hair hanging down. Then Angelina picked up a book, opened the front cover, and started reading from it.

‘This is… a very different kind of… story!’ thought Harry in surprise.

The story was about a unicorn who desired to travel the world and use it’s horn to grant wishes. Harry appeared to be rather intrigued with the story, since he was always forbidden to speak about anything considered abnormal by his relatives while his cousin could say or do whatever he pleased. After Angelina finished the book, the other children (including the girl sitting next to Harry) clapped and cheered before they got up to play with toys. Angelina stayed to play and interact with the children, much to her mother’s elation. Angelina walked up to a couple girls (one had brown hair and the other had silver-blonde hair) and began playing make-believe with them using stuffed animals.

“Excuse me,” a voice from behind Harry blurted out, as he felt a tap on his shoulder. “But would you like to play with me?”

Harry jumped a little and turned around to face his speaker. It was the same girl with honey-blonde hair he caught a glimpse of moments earlier, since she took a seat next to him before Angelina started reading the book. The honey-blonde girl also had bright-green eyes and she gave Harry a smile, she even appeared to be around his age. She was wearing a pair of red pajama trousers and a red short-sleeve t-shirt (both of which were covered in pink heart patterns), and was barefoot. Harry couldn’t help gradually smiling back because the girl was giving off wonderful vibes somehow, as if she was the bubbly type. But Harry was still cautious since he knew letting his guard down was a bad idea.

“Play with you?” Harry replied. “I can’t do that.”

He knew when Dudley and his gang used the 'play with me/him’ phrase, that really meant that it was time for Harry Hunting. He had been on the receiving end of that too many times, since he was his cousin’s favourite target. Harry even remembered the same times when Dudley’s best friend, Piers Polkiss, would hold his arms behind his back to allow Dudley to punch him relentlessly for several minutes.

“I meant if you wanted to play with toys with me!” the girl clarified.

“Oh!” Harry replied, feeling a little sheepish. “Um, sure.”

He followed the girl over to what looked like a marble track. Harry remembered seeing one of those at the Little Whinging public library due to using it as a temporary safe haven from Dudley and his gang. That marble track he saw at the library was made of plastic and it resided in the childrens’ play area. The one before him and the girl was made of wood and the marbles were small and metal, made of iron or steel or something. She even handed him some of the marbles, but he didn’t put one on the starting part of the track (which was located at the top).

“Are you going to put a marble on top?” the girl asked Harry in a soft voice.

“You go first,” Harry replied. “You know, ladies first policy.”

The girl nodded her head in acknowledgement before she put her first marble on the track, where she and Harry watched it. Once the marble reached the bottom where the other unused ones were, Harry put one of his marbles on top and watched it rolling down the track (with the girl also watching).

“I’m sorry, I never introduced myself!” the girl told him. When Harry faced her, she smiled again and held a hand out before continuing, “I’m Astoria Greengrass, but you can call me Tori if you’d like. My friends and family call me that.”

“Nice to meet you, Tori!” Harry replied with a smile, as he shook her hand. “I’m Harry Potter.”

Tori was taken aback by the revelation, which confused Harry because she reacted as though she had met someone famous. Nobody could possibly be famous if they were a freak, right? Freaks were destined to have rotten luck for life, that was what the Dursleys told him countless times. If he was famous or something, it was strange that Tori didn’t react in the way someone would to meeting a celebrity they were a huge fan of.

“In our world,” Tori explained to Harry in a whisper. “You’re known as the Boy-Who-Lived. There are alot of books about him, said to be living a luxurious lifestyle while taking on even creatures as dangerous as dragons in order to rescue different girls whether or not they’re princesses.”

“And you didn’t react like any kid would to seeing their hero?” asked Harry, following Tori’s lead in keeping the voice in a whisper.

“They’re just that, stories to tell us kids,” Tori replied. “Mummy and daddy have taught me and my sister Daphne to know what's fantasy and what's reality. Not everybody in our world will see you as the Boy-Who-Lived. There’s something off about you that doesn’t look as though you had slain a dragon or something.”

“I didn’t even know magic existed until some days ago,” stated Harry. “I had to get treated for many injuries I suffered for as long as I can remember. Some of them included improperly-healed bones, from what I was told. But I don’t know if I should tell you that because I don’t want to frighten someone who looks to be… all bubbly.”

“I appreciate that, Harry,” said Tori. “But no need to worry about me. I was just hospitalized four days ago because of a blood curse. I was in a magically-induced coma for a couple days and I had to spend another day resting.”

“Blood curse?” said Harry.

“Yeah,” said Tori. “Blood malediction to be exact. From what I was told, a female ancestor from my mummy’s side of the family from like eight-hundred years ago or something like that did something to another witch and was cursed with the same thing I inherited. It would only resurface by at least every generation or two. What made it worse was that nobody has been able to reverse it. Even today nobody still found or invented a cure for it.”

“”I take it that it’s bad?” asked Harry.

“Yeah, it’s bad,” stated Tori in a sad voice. “It reduces my lifespan. I’d have to be lucky if I made it to my early-to-mid sixties, but I’m expected to die from it around my mid-forties. I first noticed the signs like two months ago when I felt as though that my heart rate was decreasing and made my chest feel heavy to where I had trouble catching my breath because of my heart thumping. Whenever I’d run around, I’d get tired more easily than the other kids and my joints began aching more than they normally would. But I remembered passing out when not only I had trouble breathing, but everything felt as though I was on fire and I experienced fevers to the point of passing out. But my heart beat being lower than normal was when the symptoms began showing up. I thought I was just getting common illnesses that any children would normally get, even magical children, but that wasn’t to be. The curse I inherited was said to begin between the ages of nine-to-twelve, and I turned nine on April fifth.”

“I can understand the part about the heart, since it’s responsible for pumping blood throughout the body.” Harry replied. “But at the same time, that’s not very fair for you to inherit the curse, it was as if your ancestor’s descendants had to face being punished with the same thing because of her bad choice.”

“You said it, Harry.” said Tori. “Mummy and daddy did tell me that they would search around for a cure, even if it may take years. But they’re scared because a parents’ worst tragedy and nightmare is outliving any of their children, from what they also told me.”

“Anything I can do to help?” asked Harry, almost as if by instinct.

“I’m not sure what you can do, Harry,” Tori replied. “But any help would be appreciated. The only known treatments are potion treatments that’ll ease the symptoms of my condition.”

“Well, I’ll do anything I can,” assured Harry. “I’d hate to see a pretty girl like you looking so sad.”

Tori smiled as a blush on her face showed up. With that in mind, Harry decided that he needed to return the favour. Taking a deep breath, he began telling Tori what kind of life he really had. The young girl sat there listening to Harry telling her about being beat for minor infractions or no reason at all, being used as a slave while his cousin got to rule the house, never getting praise for his hard work, never receiving love and affection, being forced to sleep in a cupboard while his cousin, being forced to dumb himself down in primary school, never getting rewards for his hard work while his cousin got all sorts of presents for being lazy, and being terrorized by a dog on some rare occasions. Tori had tears streaming down her face by the time Harry finished telling his story, and she wrapped her arms around his torso to embrace him. Even though he flinched a little, Harry still returned the hug.

“I’m so sorry, Harry!” Tori whispered to him soothingly. “You really deserve better.”

“But who’d be willing to consider taking me in?” asked Harry.

“Well, maybe I can ask mummy when she comes by later,” said Tori. “She works here as a healer. Maybe daddy and Daphne will get to visit, maybe our best friends will also visit. Daphne and my best friends are Tracey and Trina Davis. While my family is made up of pure-bloods, the Davis family are half-bloods.”

“Oh okay.” said Harry.

”Oh, happy belated birthday Harry!” Tori told him.

”Thank you, Tori!” Harry replied gratefully. Then he asked, “Since I’m famous in this world, that means that everyone knows when my birthday?”

”Yes,” stated Tori. “And it’s time you get a good birthday for once.”

Harry felt a smile forming again as tears welled up in his emerald-green eyes. To keep themselves distracted from their respective misfortunes, the two went back to playing with the marble track. Maybe Harry could be with a loving and caring family for once while not being used as a punching bag and a slave. With Tori there, it could make the anticipation of a new family easier.

The End!

Chapter 5: Quidditch (Harry’s Second Year)

Notes:

Author’s note: Here’s my first one-shot in this series that doesn’t start with Harry’s perspective.

Warning: Not Hermione friendly in this one-shot, so reader’s discretion is advised!

It was the first quidditch match of the 1992-1993 school year; and eleven-year-old Astoria Greengrass (a first-year Slytherin girl with shoulder-length honey-blonde hair hanging down and bright-green eyes) was joining her fellow students in heading to the quidditch stadium. Standing next to her was her best friend, Trina Davis (who was also a first-year Slytherin girl, but she had armpit-length brown hair in braids, and cobalt-blue eyes). Astoria (or Tori, for short) and Trina’s respective sisters, Daphne and Tracey, were in the second year and in the same house. However, Tori and Trina decided to head for the Gryffindor section as a way of resisting Draco Malfoy’s ignorant views and to teach him the hard way that having his way bribed onto the team with new Nimbus 2001s wasn’t going to get him anywhere. She hated Draco as much as anybody else in the school, and she didn’t want to associate herself with the pale-blonde Slytherin from hell. Besides, she wanted to show support for Harry after hearing about his talent as Gryffindor’s seeker and she wanted to show him (in some way) that not all Slytherins were jerks. Daphne and Tracey were also walking by to make sure their respective sisters were safe.

“We’re going to join the Gryffindors to show support for Harry,” Tori and Trina told their respective sisters. “Since Malfoy having his way bribed onto the team and Flint looking for the biggest and brutish players rather than the more skillful ones while promoting cheating never ends well.”

“Haha, Malfoy will be having a hippogriff calf when he finds out,” Tracey replied with a smirk. “But serves the whiny ponce right for being an arrogant prick.”

“Trace and I will keep watch of our housemates who’re part of Malfoy’s clique,” stated Daphne. “That way we can find out what all they plan to do with Malfoy afterwards.”

Tori and Trina nodded their heads in acknowledgement and began heading for the Gryffindor section in the stands while Daphne and Tracey headed for their house’s section. Tori and Trina climbed up the stairs leading to the Gryffindor section of the stands and saw Neville Longbottom close by (since the Slytherin girls saw him at formals in the past and knew about his portliness and brown hair and eyes) standing next to Hagrid’s right. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were standing next to Hagrid’s left. So the Slytherin girls walked up to Neville, ignoring some of the other random Gryffindors talking about ‘a couple Slytherin snakes joining them rather than support their house team.’ Neville heard footsteps approaching and turned around to see Tori and Trina.

“Hi Tori, Trina!” Neville greeted with a smile, much to the surprise of his housemates.

“Hi Neville!” Tori and Trina greeted back, returning his smile.

“So what brings you two this way?” asked Neville, when Tori and Trina stopped beside him.

“To teach Malfoy that not every one of his housemates will support him!” the girls replied. “Not to mention that it’s also to teach him that better broomsticks doesn’t mean better players.”

“And for me especially to show some support for Harry,” stated Tori. “If Malfoy thinks I’m just going to take his words for it about Harry being a stuck-up person, then he’s wrong.”

The other Gryffindor students widened their eyes in surprise and began talking about a Slytherin student refusing to be a part of Draco’s ignorant views. Ron also looked over at Tori in amazement before turning his attention back to the field. Hermione didn’t seem to be convinced, but otherwise she remained silent and looked out over the field in time to see the Gryffindor and Slytherin players walking towards the middle, where the captains (Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint) shook hands before the players mounted their brooms just as the bludgers and the golden snitch were released. Then they flew into the air, with Madam Hooch picking the quaffle up and tossing it into the air. Despite the Slytherins’ Nimbus 2001s, one of the Gryffindor chasers got to the quaffle first. Tori spotted Draco close to Harry looking as though he was coming up with insults, making the younger Greengrass girl’s blood boil with anger. But she kept it in check so she wouldn’t ruin the mood for the other Gryffindor lions. Tori widened her eyes in fright when she saw one of the bludgers whizzing by Harry and then chasing him somehow.

“What happened?” asked Tori, with Trina shrugging her shoulders as if to say that she didn’t know.

“Blimey!” exclaimed Hagrid. “Harry’s got himself a rogue bludger! Someone must’ve tampered with it.”

Tori saw one of the Weasley twins whacking the rogue bludger towards Adrian Pucey, but the bludger stopped and went after Harry again. The other Weasley twin sensed the trouble because he flew by to whack the bludger away from Harry towards one of the other Slytherin chasers, but the bludger stopped and went after Harry again. One of the twins believed that it wasn’t getting whacked hard enough, so he gave the rogue bludger a pretty hard whack and knocked it off course.

‘Thank goodness!’ thought Tori, breathing a sigh of relief.

It didn't take her long to realize that the trouble wasn’t over because the bludger stopped and went after Harry once more like it was attracted to him as though it was a magnet, quickly resulting in Tori getting worried again. The twins felt as though that they needed to stay right behind Harry to keep the rogue bludger at bay. The other bludger whizzed right by one of the Gryffindor chasers twenty feet below, preventing her from being able to score the goal. The Weasley twins signalled to Oliver for a time-out. The Gryffindor captain saw the hint and called for a time-out, with all of the quidditch players flying down and reporting to their respective teams’ locker rooms. A couple minutes or so later, everybody left their locker rooms and remounted their brooms to resume the game. Tori noticed that the Weasley twins left Harry alone, resulting in her guessing that they were instructed to concentrate on their job and keep the other bludger away from their teammates while Harry dealt with the rogue one.

“Go Harry!” Tori cheered in Harry’s direction, using her hands to act as a megaphone or something. “You can do it!”

Even though it was unlikely that he’d be able to hear her because of the cheers being blocked out by the whizzing of his flying broom, Tori didn’t care as long as she showed him her support. Tori spotted Draco laughing and pointing at Harry’s predicament without noticing that the golden snitch was hovering just inches from his head. Harry spotted the snitch and flew around Draco in an attempt to throw him off track, which worked because the arrogant Slytherin seeker followed Harry towards one of the walls. Harry pulled away in time, causing Draco to fly into the wall and making him fall twenty feet or so to the ground. That allowed Harry a better chance in finding the snitch. When he spotted it, he flew towards it and stretched his right hand out to catch it, but then…

POW!!

Harry felt his arm getting rammed by the bludger, which broke the bones and caused alot of pain to flare up. So Harry used his other hand and stretched it out and managed to catch the snitch. Now his Nimbus 2000 was being gripped with his legs as it descended downwards to the ground, with Harry falling off and onto the grassy terrain. Tori and Trina looked each other in the eyes and nodded, then they turned around and began heading back downstairs to meet up with Harry. Neville saw that and followed their lead, with Hagrid, Ron, and a reluctant Hermione following not too far behind. Fred and George flew towards the rogue bludger to intercept it before it could cause Harry any further harm.

“Harry Potter has caught the snitch!” Lee Jordan announced through the microphone. “Gryffindor wins with 270-180.”

The crowd cheered wildly before leaving the stands and out onto the field. The rest of Harry’s teammates flew down to check on him and saw him grasping his broken arm. To Harry’s surprise, he saw two girls jogging up to him. He didn’t know them, but he saw that they were the sisters of Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis because of the resemblances (with Daphne’s sister having bright-green eyes rather than ice-blue). When they were close enough, the girls properly introduced themselves to Harry as the rest of the school jogged up to where Harry was sitting.

“Way to go, Harry! You sure showed Malfoy that better brooms didn’t mean better players!” Tori praised him, smiling at him to let him know how proud she was with him (with the smile giving his stomach flip-flop feelings). “Spotting the snitch and pretending to spot it elsewhere and fly in the wrong direction, that was very clever.”

“Thank you, Astoria.” Harry replied gratefully.

“You can call me Tori if you’d like, my friends and family do that since it’s not a mouthful.” stated Tori.

“Well, okay.” said Harry.

“Are you alright, Harry?” asked Tori with concern.

“No,” Harry replied, seething in pain as the pain in his broken arm flared up again. “I… I think my arm is broken.”

“Let’s get you to the hospital wing and have Madam Pomfrey mend them,” said Tori in a soft voice., as she and Trina began to help Harry up. “And maybe afterwards…”

“No need for all that walking, Harry,” the voice of Gilderoy Lockhart spoke, as the arrogant defence teacher showed up and kneeled down close to him. “I’ll fix that arm of yours straight away.”

“No,” said Harry firmly. “I’ll have Madam Pomfrey do it, she’s the school’s nurse.”

“You obviously don’t know what you’re saying, Harry,” Lockhart claimed, continuing to march towards Harry. “This won’t hurt a bit, it’ll save you a trip to the hospital wing.”

“Didn’t you hear what Harry said, professor?!” snapped Tori, getting in front of him as if to shield him (surprising the countless number of witnesses, including Harry himself). “He wants Madam Pomfrey to do it!”

“Now’s not the time to interfere with important matters, Miss Greengrass!” Professor Lockhart chided, kneeling down next to Harry.

“You need to respect Harry’s wishes, professor,” Tori snapped again. “You have no right to override that!!”

“Yes I do, Miss Greengrass, I’m a teacher!” Gilderoy retorted. “If you don’t get out of the way and let me help Harry, I’ll have no choice but to assign you detention.”

“I’m not letting you trying to fix Harry’s broken arm without his consent!” Tori growled, hoping that it would get through the arrogant defence teacher.

“That’s five points from Slytherin for talking back to a teacher and giving the same teacher a nasty attitude, Miss Greengrass!” Gilderoy retorted, unaware that Hermione was close by watching him with a smile on her face.

“Coming from the one who has a nasty attitude!” Tori shot back. “Now leave Harry alone and let him make his choice on who he wants to treat his broken arm.”

“Alright, another ten points from Slytherin and a week's worth of detention for you, young lady!” Professor Lockhart scolded. “If I have to tell you to get out of my way again, I’ll have no choice but to recommend you be suspended or expelled.”

Tori refused to budge from her spot, clearly impressing Harry because he was smiling in her direction. Trina was also close by, just in case her best friend needed some assistance in keeping Harry safe. The younger Greengrass girl knew that the defence teacher was so arrogant that he didn’t want to acknowledge when a dent was put in his ego (or at least when it was threatened). Unwilling to swallow his pride, Gilderoy grabbed Tori by her arms and threw her aside despite her squirming to break away from his grasp. Now Trina got in between Harry and Lockhart. When Tori stood next to her best friend, Lockhart grabbed her by the arms again, causing many onlookers to gasp in horror as they all covered their mouths. This time, Tori used the opportunity to kick Gilderoy in the groin in anger, at the same time Trina punched the defence teacher in the nose for good measure.

“OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Gilderoy squealed when he put his hands in front of his groin and got down on his knees and leaned forward with his eyes squeezed shut tightly.

By that time, Professor McGonagall showed up and witnessed what had happened. Ron and Neville finally showed up with Hagrid close by. Hermione glared at Tori and Trina, and the Slytherin girls had a hunch as to why that was the case. But Professor McGonagall whipped her wand out and put Gilderoy in the full-body bind, then she turned her attention to the Slytherin girls standing in front of Harry.

“Miss Greengrass, Miss Davis, I won’t condone you two for attacking a teacher whether or not he deserved it, so that’ll be five points each from Slytherin and a couple nights of detention!” Professor McGonagall chided them in a stern voice. Then she continued on in a proud voice, “But that’ll also be fifteen points each to Slytherin for defending Mr. Potter, and fifteen more points each for promoting inter-house friendships despite the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin.”

Tori and Trina didn’t care about the points loss or the two nights of detention since they made up for it. Then they helped get Harry up onto his feet, with Ron and Neville coming over to help (especially since they saw the Slytherin girls defending Harry). Oliver came by with his broom in one hand and Harry’s in the other and told Harry that he would keep watch over his broom until he got the bones in his broken arm mended before heading for the Gryffindor locker rooms. Hermione wasn’t going to be dissuaded so easily because she glared at the Slytherin girls helping Harry.

“Is something wrong?” Tori asked Hermione, rather coolly.

“You owe Professor Lockhart some apologies,” snapped Hermione. “For attacking him for no reason! He was trying to help Harry in mending his bones.”

“And who’s side are you on, Granger?” Tori inquired.

“Harry’s, obviously!” Hermione replied in a snappy tone.

“It looks like you’re on Lockhart’s side,” said Tori in a matter-of-fact voice. “You were defending him over Harry despite you supposedly being his friend.”

“And the fact that Lockhart tried to mend Harry’s bones without his consent makes it worse,” Trina snapped at the insufferable know-it-all. “You should be taking Harry’s side like a real friend should!”

“If you’re going to defend Lockhart, Hermione,” Harry told her in a no-nonsense voice. “Then our friendship is over. I have no use in associating myself with a fake friend.”

“Me, too!” stated Ron.

“Same here!” Neville agreed.

The witnesses sniggered at that, since everybody knew how much of a know-it-all and hypocrite Hermione was. She darted her chocolate-brown eyes around and saw that not one of them took her side in the matter. Her face turning red with anger, Hermione turned around and stomped her way out of the stadium over to who-knows-where. Then Tori and Trina helped Ron and Neville out in escorting Harry to the hospital wing, with the chaser trio following close by. They caught Fred and George wrestling with the rogue bludger while trying to put it in the box, but it was putting up a terrific fight even with the two trying to keep it restrained. Upon making it to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey gave the bone-mending potion to Harry and waited a few minutes before the nurse could run some diagnostics charms. Once Harry’s bones had been fixed, he and the group headed back to the quidditch field since Harry and the chaser trio needed to get showered and get their quidditch gear put away. Along the way, Daphne and Tracey showed up with Terence Higgs (who was the previous Slytherin seeker; with brown hair and eyes), and they were looking amused.

“We spotted Flint chewing Malfoy out for his failure to notice the snitch,” Terence informed everybody, with Daphne and Tracey nodding their heads in confirmation. “He wasn’t too happy about it. But it serves Malfoy right for his way onto the team being bribed and losing me my position.”

That had everybody in the group laughing as they continued on back to the quidditch field. They all knew that Professor Lockhart was going to be facing some serious trouble for shoving a minor out of his way, and one who came from a pure-blood family. Tori couldn’t help smirking to imagine the looks on her parents’ faces when they got wind of Lockhart shoving her out of the way (much less putting a hand on her). But for now, she wanted to focus on getting to know Harry better and she even asked him if he would like to join her for a walk once he changed back into his everyday outfit, which he accepted with a smile. They knew that people would bombard them with questions about it afterwards, but it was the first step in putting an end to that pointless house rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

The End!

Chapter 6: Lockhart’s Book Signing

Notes:

Author’s note: Here’s an alternate aftermath of Lockhart’s book signing from the second book.

Warning: Not Molly, Ron, Ginny, or Hermione friendly in this one-shot; so reader’s discretion is advised!

It was a warm Saturday morning of August 15, 1992; and Harry had just made it to Diagon Alley with Hagrid after a mishap with the floo network having sent him to Borgin & Burkes in the shady shopping district called Knockturn Alley. Now he was heading to Gringotts with the Weasleys to withdraw some money from their respective vaults. Harry even tried to keep the contents hidden when they went to his vault because he didn’t want them to feel all jealous that he had more than enough and they barely had enough to put bread on the table. Once they were done, they left and met up with Hermione and her parents at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour. Then they decided to split up with the Weasley twins going to meet up with Lee Jordan at Zonko’s Joke Shop, Arthur heading back to the Leaky Cauldron to get better acquainted with Hermione’s parents, Percy going somewhere unknown to presumably meet up with someone, while Harry joined his best friends and the female Weasleys in going to the book signing of Gilderoy Lockhart at Flourish & Blotts.

‘I wonder what this Lockhart is like?’ Harry mused to himself, as he and the other four made their way towards the front of the crowd (given that Molly was the more eager one to be there, same with Hermione).

“Let’s give a warm welcome to… Gilderoy Lockhart!” someone announced to the crowd of Gilderoy’s fans.

“Here he is!” Molly replied with a gasp, as the crowd gave a round of applause.

Then Gilderoy (who had wavy-blonde hair, periwinkle-blue eyes, and dressed in lilac robes) stepped out into the main room from a back office. Judging by his smile, Harry had a hunch that Gilderoy was an egotistical author who desired the spotlight. Then a cameraman who identified himself as a photographer for something called the Daily Prophet made his way to the front of the crowd and snapped a picture of Gilderoy with his arrogant smile. As he scanned the crowd and spotted Harry in the crowd once he saw the lightning bolt scar (which had been exposed without Harry’s knowledge) on his forehead.

“It… can’t be… HARRY POTTER!!!” Gilderoy exclaimed.

’Oh, shit!’ thought Harry as he widened his eyes in horror, realizing that his suspicions about Gilderoy were proven true.

It was enough for Harry to try backing away, but the crowd was adamant on seeing him with Lockhart and prevented Harry from leaving. That allowed the arrogant author to catch up with Harry, grab him by the arm, and drag him towards the front behind the table Lockhart was currently using. Harry looked over at Ron, Hermione, and the female Weasleys with pleading eyes, but they just ignored it (as the females were looking beyond ecstatic while Ron just stared in jealousy). Then Lockhart put an arm around Harry’s shoulder to make it as though they were friends forever, completely ignoring the fact that Harry was tensing up big time.

”Don’t worry, Harry,” Lockhart gave false assurance. “Together, you and I make the front page!”

Then the cameraman snapped a picture of Harry and Gilderoy, with the crowd giving a round of applause immediately after that. Nobody appeared to notice that on the alcove above Lockhart and Harry was a girl with shoulder-length honey-blonde hair hanging down and bright-green eyes that were full of outrage when she watched Harry and Lockhart. She looked around and spotted an empty water pail next to a bookshelf, so she got out her recently-acquired wand and cast some spells on it. Then she carried it towards the rail she was leaning against and watched Lockhart with a mischievous grin in her face, waiting for the right moment to make her move.

“Ladies and gentleman, what an extraordinary moment this is!” Lockhart announced to his crowd of fans, using his free hand to wave while keeping an arm around Harry’s shoulders. “Young Harry stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, and was happy to kindly pose with me for pictures and…!”

CONK!

The honey-blonde girl dropped the pail on Lockhart’s head, rendering him speechless and dizzy. Harry jumped in surprise when he heard the pail conk the arrogant author on the head, as he thought he was the one who was going to have that happen to him. Then the pail bounced up like a beach ball and spun around until the inside was facing downward before covering Lockhart’s head. Due to him being so dizzy, Gilderoy didn’t have the natural reaction to take the pail off of his head. Then Harry spotted the honey-blonde girl walking down the stairs from the alcove a little before climbing over the handrail and onto Lockhart’s table. Gilderoy’s fans and the cameraman were rather stumped to see their hero getting attacked by some ‘deranged’ hater.’ Harry managed to get a good look at the girl’s face and saw that she looked like his classmate, Daphne Greengrass (who was in Slytherin House).

The girl had a furious expression on her face combined with gritting teeth for some reason, so Harry backed away due to thinking that she was going to unjustly chew him out. To the surprise of Harry and the general visitors (and Lockhart’s fans’ outrage), Daphne’s lookalike performed a roundhouse kick to the pail still over Lockhart’s head and sending him spinning around and falling to the floor behind him, landing on his front in the process. That finally knocked Lockhart out-cold, but the girl was far from finished since she looked down at Lockhart’s out-cold body with the same furious expression and gritting teeth while she remained standing on top of the table.

“Shame on you for dragging poor Harry up front without his consent, you insensitive prick!” Daphne’s lookalike growled at Lockhart, whether or not he could still hear while out-cold didn’t matter to her. “That was such an exceedingly low thing to do, and I doubt you’d like it if someone dragged you into the spotlight against your will. What makes it worse is that Harry isn’t your child, and dragging somebody else’s child away from them will spell out trouble. You had no right to drag Harry into the spotlight without his permission, so shame on you!!”

Harry’s eyes were as wide as saucers, clearly stunned to see a girl he hadn’t met before defending his honour while four people he met in the past (particularly his best friends) just stood by and let him get kidnapped, and it was enough for him to glare at his best friends and the female Weasleys to let them know he wasn’t too pleased with them for betraying him. The general fans of Lockhart’s stayed right where they were for some reason, even though they were glaring at Daphne’s lookalike. Ron was practically indifferent, while Hermione and the female Weasleys glared at the honey-blonde girl. Harry saw that Ginny was trembling with rage due to her fists clenched and stiff at her sides and gritting teeth as she eyed the honey-blonde girl. Harry knew what that meant, remembering when Ginny went crazy as soon as she found out that he was the Boy-Who-Lived and demanded to gawk at him in the form of whining for it. That was what made it clear to Harry that Ginny wasn’t just the ultimate fangirl of his unwanted fame, but that she was also spoiled rotten. Then Daphne’s lookalike climbed down off of the table and back onto the floor, and finally turned her attention to Harry with a smile on her face.

“Are you alright, Harry?” the girl asked him, her voice warm with concern.

Still rendered speechless by her defending his honour, all Harry could do was nod his head as a smile formed on his face, letting her know that he was alright (especially with Lockhart having been dealt with). Ginny was trembling more and more by the second, now that she was quickly viewing Daphne’s lookalike as a threat to her plans to marry her hero in the future.

“Would you like to tag along with me to Florean Fortescue’s, Harry?” the girl offered.

“Stop!” Molly ordered. “I forbid it!”

Harry was even more speechless when Daphne’s doppelganger invited him to tag along with her for some ice cream, since he hadn’t asked her for her name yet. It sounded crazy, but at the same time Harry didn’t want to be anywhere close to his now-former best friends and the female Weasleys for letting him get kidnapped by a stranger. Since he was still rendered speechless, Harry nodded his head and smiled again as a means of accepting the girl’s offer. Then they started searching for a way around the crowd, only to find that Lockhart’s other fans and the cameraman backed away when Daphne’s doppelganger was close by. But Molly, Ginny, and Hermione weren’t going to be dissuaded so easily while Ron stayed back, having realized that he really betrayed Harry for his failure to stick up for him. The three females who betrayed Harry stood close by to try intimidating Daphne’s doppelganger into backing off, but the honey-blonde girl just shrugged her shoulders.

“Get away from my Harry, you manipulative bitch!” Ginny growled. “He’s mine, everybody knows that! You’d better stay away from him, or you’ll be sorry!”

“Piss off, Weaslette! Harry doesn’t belong to anybody, he’s not someone’s piece of property!” the honey-blonde girl retorted.

“Hey!” Molly scolded the girl. “That kind of talk will not be tolerated!”

“Yeah, Weaselette,” the girl told Ginny. “You should be ashamed to call me names and use a bit of foul language.”

“I was talking to you, Miss Greengrass!” Molly ‘reminded’ her. Then she ordered, “You’d better apologize to my precious daughter at once, or I’ll report this to your parents!”

“Oh, so you’re gonna ignore your daughter calling me a manipulative bitch?!” the honey-blonde girl replied, outrage clearly in her voice. “Your daughter isn’t precious, I can tell by her actions.”

Harry was looking impressed to see the girl who stood up for him holding her own very well. He finally realized that she was Daphne’s sister, since Molly indirectly confirmed it by referring to the honey-blonde girl as Miss Greengrass. Still, Hermione and the female Weasleys refused to back off and admit that they did wrong.

“Harry,” Hermione tried lecturing him. “You don’t even know Greengrass’ sister, you can’t just go off and interact with strangers. You need to be with friends who’ll look out for you.”

“This would be an excellent time for me to get to know her, Granger!” Harry retorted. “You, Ronald, Ginevra, and Mrs. Weasley no longer have my trust because of what you did. I find it difficult to believe that you four let me get kidnapped by a stranger even if this one is a celebrity. It just shows that you four are a horrible judge of character. So you’d better stay out of my way from now on, I can no longer refer to you and Ronald as my best friends, while Ginevra lost all of her chances for being my friend and Mrs. Weasley will never get to see me refer to her as a mother figure. This is my ultimatum, you’d better keep away from me by at least five feet, or I’ll make it known that your worst nightmare will come true!!”

Then Harry and Daphne’s sister turned their heels and walked away to leave the bookstore, leaving Harry’s former best friends and female Weasleys rooted in their spots in total shock. As they headed for the ice cream parlour, Daphne’s sister held a hand out to Harry.

“I’m Astoria Greengrass, Harry,” the girl introduced herself. “But you can call me Tori if you’d like, since it’s not a mouthful to say.”

“Nice to meet you, Tori!” Harry replied, shaking the girl’s hand. Then he asked, “How come those people were afraid of you?”

“My daddy works for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the Wizengamot at the Ministry of Magic,” Tori explained. “And they knew that I’m the younger Greengrass girl, and that if they attacked me that they would find themselves in a world of trouble.”

“What about your mother?” asked Harry.

“She works as a healer at St. Mungo’s Hospital For Magical Maladies & Injuries,” stated Tori. “And her name is Alexis, but goes by Lex with family and friends. My daddy’s name is Dennis.”

“I see!” Harry replied. Then he asked, “But why did you come to my rescue? Not that I have anything against it, I’m just curious to find out why.”

“I just wanted to,” Tori replied. “To let you know that not everyone in our world sees you as the Boy-Who-Lived. There are plenty of sensible parents, and mine and Daphne’s are examples of that. If I was a fan of your unwanted fame, I would’ve blushed as much as Weaselette when she sees you due to her perceiving you as the ideal image of that very fictional character and I would’ve been too afraid to be within such close proximity with you.”

“Plus, your invitation to join you for ice cream,” said Harry. “You sounded like you meant it. I know that people like Ginevra would’ve used that opportunity as a means of expecting me to return their affections as a reward. But you really sounded like you meant it when you asked me if I’d like to join you for ice cream.”

“This is also my birthday treat for you,” stated Tori. “Even if it’s a little late. Happy Belated Birthday, Harry.”

“Thank you, Tori!” Harry replied with a smile. Then he asked, “Do you start Hogwarts next year?”

“No, I start this upcoming year,” Tori revealed. “Daphne has a birthday on the thirtieth of September, with her bestie Tracey having her birthday ten days before. She also has a sister who’ll start this year and her name is Trina, Trina and I have been besties as long as Daph and Trace have been, since our respective mothers have been besties since they were Hogwarts students.”

“Wow, talking about passing that friendship down to you and the rest of their daughters!” Harry replied in amazement. “Hopefully Daphne won’t get mad at you for telling me her birthday, same with Tracey.”

“I don’t think they’ll have a problem with you knowing,” assured Tori. “Especially with our world knowing yours. My birthday is on the fifth of April and Trina has hers on the twelfth of June.”

“Will I get to properly meet your sister and the Davis sisters eventually?” asked Harry.

“Of course, Harry,” Tori replied. “We were already planning to meet up at Florean Fortescue’s before we’d start the second half of the school shopping with our mothers. That’s why I have my wand with me and also have gotten my school uniform and robes earlier.”

“I’m also surprised you’re wearing a muggle outfit,” said Harry, as he got a look at Tori’s outfit (which consisted of a purple short-sleeve t-shirt, purple denim shorts, and purple converse sneakers with blue shoelaces). “Is there a reason why?”

“Well, this is the twentieth century and the Davis sisters are half-bloods, so Daph and I naturally have practiced muggle culture, even though we’ll never be better at it than Tracey and Trina,” Tori explained. “Plus, I want to keep formal wear for their occasions. Furthermore, it’s also to get a rise out of Malfoy, since he always wants me to wear dresses or collared shirts with skirts and all that.”

“The sorting hat considered putting me in Slytherin,” Harry revealed, resulting in Tori widening her eyes in surprise. “But I asked it not to because I didn’t want to deal with Malfoy so frequently, alot more than I already do. I knew he was spoiled rotten from the moment I met him at Madam Malkin’s last year. But our second meeting on the Hogwarts Express almost a year ago was what really set it in stone. Despite that, my former best friends and the female Weasleys turned out to be worse because they pretended to be my friend, or a mother figure in Mrs. Weasley’s case, while Malfoy and his kind don’t make any attempts to hide who they really are.”

“Yeah, but at least you finally realized that, Harry!” stated Tori. Then she asked, “But given what you told me about the sorting hat, were you also implying that I don’t have to be sorted into Slytherin if I don’t want to?”

“Positive, Tori,” assured Harry. “If the sorting hat can take my wishes into consideration, then I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t take yours into account either. I was difficult to place due to having traits from all of the school houses. But because of Malfoy, I asked the sorting hat to put me in any of the other three houses and it ultimately placed me in Gryffindor.”

“I might have a chance of getting placed in Ravenclaw,” stated Tori. “My mummy was in that house while my daddy was in Slytherin. Though, Hufflepuff wouldn’t be a bad choice either, though nobody in my family has been placed there for like four centuries. I think it’s been seven centuries since one of my ancestors had been sorted into Gryffindor.”

“That would be a major surprise for the majority of our world,” Harry replied. “Seeing somebody from the Greengrass family getting sorted into Gryffindor for the first time in like… an eternity. But even if you do end up in Slytherin, I won’t let that ruin our friendship. That rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin just makes absolutely zero sense, and it’s not getting anyone anywhere. Now’s the time for me to try and put an end to that fruitless rivalry.”

“I’ll help you do that, Harry,” said Tori with determination. “You don’t have to do everything by yourself. I also think there'll be some others who’d be more than willing to help you out, too.”

“Well, okay,” said Harry, a smile forming on his face. “I’m just so used to doing everything without assistance that it’s surprising when someone offers to help me out.”

“I think right now’s the time to start changing that, Harry,” said Tori in a soft voice. “There’s nothing wrong with asking for help when it’s needed.”

Harry nodded his head in acknowledgement as he and Tori continued heading to Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour and took seats at a round patio table (which was big enough for five or six people) to wait for Daphne and the Davis sisters to show up, since Harry and Tori felt it wasn’t right if they ate ice cream by themselves. Harry also saw this as an opportunity to plan out how he was going to tell Arthur and Hermione’s parents about what Hermione, Ron, and the female Weasleys did at Lockhart’s book signing. The four who betrayed Harry needed to learn one way or another that actions have consequences.

The End!

Chapter 7: Newspaper Route

Ten-year-old Harry Potter was riding his bicycle through the neighborhood delivering newspapers on an early summer Saturday morning of August 11, 1990. Even though his parents were rich, he still got a job as a paperboy for some pocket money instead of just relying on his parents’ wealth all the time. Plus, it was a good ride around the neighborhood and seeing the different houses even if most of them were virtually the same. But there were differences in various front yards such as mini gardens with different crops, small playground equipment, trampolines, you-name-it. Normally he enjoyed the bike rides delivering newspapers, but he hadn’t had a good past week because of the neighborhood kids pretending to be his friend just because he came from a rich family. Harry’s best mate, Neville Longbottom, lived in a different neighborhood. They also had a best female friend named Luna Lovegood, but she and her family lived somewhere out in the sticks.

‘It wouldn’t hurt to have a friend in the neighborhood who doesn’t care about my family wealth!’ thought Harry, as he continued his route. ‘Is that too much to ask for? I don’t want to start my final year in primary school having most of the students use me for my family wealth.’

Harry was getting so mad that when he reached into the bag of rolled-up newspapers, he grabbed a hold of three somehow and chucked them towards one particular house with such force that the newspapers somehow unrolled and were spread out on the front lawn because of the force of Harry’s throwing.

‘Oh no!’ Harry mused, as he stopped his bike and put the kickstand down and observed.

“Here, I’ll help you out!” an unexpected voice called out to him.

Harry looked up and saw a girl about his age jogging up to him. She had shoulder-length honey-blonde hair hanging down and bright-green eyes. She was wearing a green short-sleeve t-shirt, a pair of gray cotton shorts, and was barefoot. Harry quickly realized that the house he stopped in front of was her house. She even had a nice smile, resulting in Harry’s heart fluttering as he smiled back (his bad mood quickly dissipating for some reason). The girl even had her fingernails and toenails painted purple as she got closer.

“Thank you!” Harry replied gratefully.

Just as he knelt down to get some of the newspaper, the unidentified girl knelt down next to him and picked up the newspaper closer to her. Neither of them were aware that the girl’s mother (who was a spitting image of her daughter, but had her honey-blonde hair in a bun) was watching the incident with a smile on her face. She was happy to see her daughter helping someone out without expecting anything in return. It was even enough for her to step outside and over to the paper boy with untidy black hair and check on him while also intending to praise her daughter for her good deed. By that time, Harry and the girl finished getting the sprawled out newspapers cleaned and rolled back up before Harry handed one to the girl. Harry looked up when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps, with the girl turning around to see her mother walking up to them.

“Tori, I’m so proud of you for helping this boy out!” the girl’s mother praised her, the smile still on her face.

“Thanks, mummy!” the girl who went by Tori replied in a happy voice, another smile on her face. Then she turned her attention back to Harry and held a hand out to introduce herself, “I’m Astoria Greengrass!”

“Harry Potter!” Harry introduced himself, shaking Astoria’s hand.

“I’m Astoria’s mother, Alexis!” Mrs. Greengrass introduced herself to Harry, also holding a hand out. “But you can call me Lex if you’d like, Harry.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am!” Harry replied, shaking Lex’s hand.

“You can call me Tori if you wish, Harry.” the young girl told him.

“Okay!” Harry replied with a smile. But his expression went neutral as he continued on, “How come you’re not going crazy knowing that you met ‘Harry Potter, who’s parents will help us out for our selfish gain?’ That’s what most of the neighborhood kids do, just pretending to be my friend and then tossing me aside once I’m no longer any use to them, and I’ve just gotten used to it.”

“Not everyone will do that, Harry,” assured Lex. “I’ve been raising my daughters well.”

“Yeah,” Tori pointed out to Harry. “If I did intend to use you, I would’ve asked for something in return at the start.”

“Oh, okay!” Harry replied. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your sister’s name?”

“Daphne,” stated Tori. “Her hair is a little longer than mine at armpit-length, and she has ice-blue eyes. I would also introduce you to her, but she’s at the local library.”

“Maybe next time?” Harry suggested.

“Sounds good, Harry!” Tori replied.

“Here you go, Harry!” said Lex, handing him a twenty-pound note. “To show you that we appreciate you delivering the newspaper to us.”

“I don’t know if I can accept this, Lex!” Harry replied, feeling uncertain if he should.

“It’s no big deal, Harry,” assured Lex with a smile. “Seeing Tori helping you out made me realize that you were having a rough time, so I thought I’d help you feel a little better.”

Nodding his head to show that he understood, Harry politely took the twenty-pound from Lex and pocketed it. Then Tori gave Harry a hug to see if that would also help him feel better, which appeared to do the trick because he hugged her back. Then he headed back towards his bicycle, pushed the kickstand up, mounted it, and waved goodbye (with Tori and Lex waving back) before continuing on to finish his newspaper route. Once Harry was out of sight, Tori handed the newspaper to her mother, and Lex turned around and headed back inside while Tori returned to sitting on a porch chair (which was what she had been doing when Harry rode by). She was going to have an interesting story to tell her sister once she returned home from the public library.

The End!

Notes:

Author’s note: The part where Harry is delivering newspapers and Tori helping him in rolling up the sprawled-out ones was inspired by the music video for Do You Remember? by Phil Collins.

Chapter 8: Remus’ Resignation

Harry was heading to Professor Lupin’s office to try and find out if his leaving the school was true. He had been hearing rumours about it and he knew it was best to get a good look himself. Harry finally made it to the defence classroom and up the stairs to the teacher’s office, where he saw the door open and some music playing with Professor Lupin (who was a tall shabby-looking man with brown graying hair) packing up his belongings.

“Hello, Harry!” greeted Professor Lupin just before Harry could knock on the open door. Turning around to see a surprised Harry, Professor Lupin went on, “I saw you coming.”

Harry approached the desk and saw the Marauder’s Map laying on top while activated, finding his name right in the spot he was standing. He ended up checking his surroundings to see the office mostly packed up, unaware that another name on the map was slowly approaching the defence office.

“So it’s true that you’re leaving, professor?” asked Harry.

“I’m afraid so, Harry,” Professor Lupin explained. “Somebody let slip the nature of my condition and likely by this time tomorrow, owls will be coming from countless parents expressing outrage over a werewolf being a school teacher. I’ve long since gotten used to it. If there is one thing I’m proud of, it’s how much you’ve accomplished since the start of the year. You’ve managed to conjure a patronus charm, much less a corporeal one to drive away all those dementors, and that’s something that most wizards and witches have trouble with. I’m more than proud of you for that accomplishment, Harry!”

A knock at the still-open door was heard, with Harry and Professor Lupin turning their attention to the door. Standing in the doorway was a girl with shoulder-length honey-blonde hair hanging down and bright-green eyes. She appeared to be related to Daphne Greengrass because the resemblance was strong. What was strange to Harry was that Daphne’s lookalike was wearing a red short-sleeve t-shirt, light-blue jeans, and white trainers. The girl appeared to be saddened because the expression on her face said it all. Professor Lupin even gave her a smile.

“Hello, Miss Greengrass!” Professor Lupin greeted.

“Hi, professor!” the girl replied, trying not to let the sadness leak out into her voice (albeit to no avail). “Is it true that you're leaving?”

“Yes, I’ve resigned!” Professor Lupin admitted.

Since Professor Lupin greeted the girl as ‘Miss Greengrass,’ that made Harry realize that she was Daphne’s sister. To Harry’s further surprise, she jogged forward to give Professor Lupin a hug as she cried for some reason, with the now-former defence teacher hugging the girl back. That was even more strange because Harry didn’t think that teachers were allowed to give students a hug. Then again, Professor Lupin did just say that he resigned, and that meant that he was no longer a teacher and thus, hugging Daphne’s sister was no longer inappropriate. Besides, it was just a friendly hug after all and the former defence professor tried his best to comfort the distraught girl.

“Please don’t go, professor!” Daphne’s sister cried. “You’re the best defence teacher I’ve had so far!”

“I’m sorry, Miss Greengrass!” Remus replied in an apologetic tone. “But me being a teacher with my condition will just stir up controversy. I can’t risk the safety of the students, so it’s best that I leave before the letters arrive from the parents who’ll object to my presence as a teacher.”

“I just wish you’d stay, professor!” Daphne’s sister cried again. “You were infinitely better than Lockhart last year.”

Harry widened his eyes in further surprise to witness another person who hated the fraud known as Gilderoy Lockhart. It began making Harry wonder if the next defence teacher was going to be as competent as Professor Lupin, and whether or not Professor Dumbledore was very skilled in teacher hiring.

“I wish I could stay as a teacher, Miss Greengrass, but it’s no longer possible!” Professor Lupin replied. Then Remus turned his attention back to Harry and told him, “Now Harry, since I’m no longer your teacher, I don’t feel any guilt whatsoever about giving the map back to you. I’m sure you’ll find many uses for it.”

Now Harry was even more surprised, and Daphne’s sister was just as surprised, when Professor Lupin told the raven-haired Gryffindor that he was giving the Marauder’s Map back to him. After Remus wiped the map clean, he handed it back to Harry (who quickly pocketed it to be safe). Remus finished packing up his stuff, allowing Harry and Daphne’s sister to remain since he felt he could use some company. Not long after getting the last of the packing finished, Professor Dumbledore showed up. He looked over to Harry and then to Daphne’s sister with a mixture of confusion and disappointment somehow.

“Remus, the carriages are ready to take you to Hogsmeade,” Albus informed. “I’m here to escort you there.”

“Thank you, Albus!” Remus replied.

Then he gave one more goodbye each to Harry and Daphne’s sister before turning around to follow Professor Dumbledore out of the office and outside to where the carriage was waiting. Harry and Daphne’s sister stayed in the teacher’s office since they didn’t feel ready to leave yet and go about the rest of their respective days. For some reason, Harry looked over at Daphne’s sister. She looked at him and smiled at him, with Harry smiling back. She seemed to be giving off wonderful vibes if her smile was any indication at all.

“Hello, Harry,” Daphne’s sister greeted, holding a hand out. “I’m Astoria Greengrass!”

“Nice to meet you, Astoria. I’m Harry Potter!” Harry replied, shaking the young girl’s hand.

Harry felt a little sheepish to be saying his name because everybody in the magical world knew his name due to his much-hated Boy-Who-Lived fame. But still, Harry was just showing proper etiquette for meeting someone he hadn’t seen or met before. Despite being all distraught moments earlier, Astoria smiled and Harry felt his heart flutter because it seemed like Astoria was the kind of girl who smiled alot.

“You can call me Tori if you’d like,” Astoria told Harry. “My friends and family refer to me by that.”

“Well okay, Tori!” Harry replied. “How is it that you’re familiar with Lockhart? I thought that this would’ve been your first year here?”

“Last year was my first year here!” Tori explained. “Daphne is one of the oldest students in your year, same with her best friend Tracey Davis as they have birthdays in late September.”

“Oh okay,” Harry replied. “I just have to hope that you don’t get an earful from them for telling me what month their birthdays are in.”

“I don’t think they would have a problem with you knowing, Harry,” assured Tori. “Given that everybody in our world knows your birthday because of your unwanted fame as the Boy-Who-Lived.”

“How’d you know I hate it with a passion?” asked Harry, flabbergasted.

“There’ve been times I’d pass by you in the corridors where you’d look all tense when most of our fellow random students stare and whisper at you, Harry,” Tori replied. “Not only that, but sometimes I’d see you over by the Black Lake ranting about your life being so terrible. I would’ve liked to help you there, but you seemed so angry that I thought getting too close was a bad idea where you would’ve perceived that as a threat. So I’d leave to give you some space and come back later, only to see that you were already gone.”

“Well, I appreciate that, Tori! But I wouldn’t let my anger consume me to the point of attacking someone irrationally.” stated Harry. Then he asked, “Given that you gave Professor Lupin a hug and that he returned it, did that mean that the both of you have something in common?”

Tori nodded her head to confirm it, then she walked over to the open office door and closed it before adding some locking charms and a spell that he was unfamiliar with. Harry had a hunch as to why the door was closed, with Tori then walking up to him with a saddened look on her face.

“Professor Lupin and I do have something in common, Harry,” Tori explained. “We both suffer some from debilitating conditions, but they differ. I think you already know that he suffers from Lycanthropy, which is the werewolf disease. He told me about that in private any time he’d see me upset and asked me if I’d like to tell him why I was upset when we’d go to his classroom office. My debilitating condition is a blood malediction curse, which I was diagnosed with a couple months or so after my ninth birthday.”

“What does this blood curse do to you?” asked Harry.

“Well, it shortens my life span,” Tori replied. “Some other complications include frequent pain in my joints, getting tired faster than the other children while luckily not as fast as the lazy ones like Malfoy, getting sick a little more often than the other children, and a higher risk of infections since this is a blood curse. I would be lucky to make it to my early or mid-sixties or maybe my fifties, but having children would make the curse worse and decrease my lifespan greatly.”

“When did you first notice the signs and symptoms of the curse?” asked Harry.

“It was one summer day in mid-June when I was outside playing tag with Daph and the Davis sisters,” Tori explained. “Tracey’s sister, Trina, is in the same year as me. I just turned thirteen on the fifth of April. But we were playing tag outside when I saw that I was getting tired more quickly and it felt as though my heart was thumping hard because I couldn’t catch my breath as fast and I had to rest for a few minutes as I put a hand up to my chest before we continued. But it wasn’t long before it happened again, but I thought at the time that I just wasn’t sleeping as efficiently. Then when early July approached, I felt some kind of fever that felt so hot that I ended up passing out because I had difficulty trying to take deep breaths. That was right within my parents’ plain view because me, Daph, and the Davis sisters were playing tag again when they saw me stop all of a sudden and had the breathing difficulties, where I passed out and collapsed. I woke up in a room in the children’s section at St. Mungo’s Hospital like three days later, where mummy and daddy explained the circumstances and how they called in the mediwizards after mummy found my fever burning hot.”

“Oh my!” Harry replied in shock. “But how did the curse come to be, much less onto someone as bubbly as you?”

“Well, my parents told me about a female ancestor on my mummy’s side who got onto another witch’s bad side,” Tori went on. “But that was centuries and centuries ago, so what exactly happened remains debatable. But my ancestor was struck with the curse in retaliation and it was also cast to strike female members of my family every two or three generations with the first symptoms of the curse showing up anywhere between the ages of nine-to-twelve. What makes this worse is that there isn’t a counter-spell to reverse or even cure it.”

“Not even a simple ‘finite incantatem’ works?” asked Harry.

“Not even that works!” Tori replied downheartedly.

“Are there people out there who may be trying to develop a countercourse to get the blood curse removed?” asked Harry.

“I’m sure there are,” Tori replied. “But mummy and daddy haven’t found one in this country because my family are pure-bloods and they can’t take the risk of someone finding out about my curse because that could be used as leverage. If the Malfoys were to find out, Malfoy Jr would just kiss up to me to the extreme while preventing me from living life as best as I should.”

“I can understand why your family wishes to prevent that from reaching the public,” stated Harry. “The curse making your heart also feel like it thumps to the point of tiring you more quickly also makes sense because the heart is the organ that pumps the blood throughout the body. This is the first time I’ve heard of, much less interacted with, a Slytherin who hates Malfoy as much as I do. That is if you are a Slytherin student.”

“Yes, I’m in Slytherin, Harry,” Tori admitted. “So are the Davis sisters even though they’re half-bloods. So Daph and I have some experience with muggle culture, but the Davis sisters are better at it than us.”

“That explains why you’re wearing a muggle outfit!” Harry replied in understanding.

“I also do it to get a rise out of Malfoy,” stated Tori with a smirk. “As it’s so entertaining to watch him throw fits to see him ranting to me about not being a proper lady. He completely ignores the fact that this is the twentieth century. Sometimes Daph will also wear muggle clothing for the same reason, since she also finds his hissy fits rather entertaining.”

“Especially with his ‘wait till my father hears this’ cries,” said Harry in amusement. “Since that’s all he goes for when someone opposes his views and/or stands up to him.”

That had the two laughing, since Draco was always so predictable. As they bonded over having a good laugh, Harry found himself inspired to find an actual way of dealing with his ‘saving people’ thing that he had. Not only did he find himself wishing to get a cure for Lycanthropy developed, but he also found himself planning to get one developed for Tori’s blood curse. It was too much for him to see a girl who was all bubbly so forlorn over having a curse for something that was completely not her fault.

“Hey, Tori,” Harry offered. “How would you like it if I told you that I would be interested in finding a cure for your curse?”

“Are you really willing to do that, Harry?” asked Tori in a hopeful voice.

“Positive!” assured Harry with a smile. Then he explained, “That and Professor Lupin’s Lycanthropy just inspired me to try getting cures for both developed. Now that I think about it, I think being a potioneer could do wonders for me and see if I can get a stronger variant of the Wolfsbane potion developed while I also try to get a cure developed. But there’s no way I can ever get that accomplished with Snape, since I know he’ll just fail me out of spite. Now that I also think about it, Dumbledore won’t do a thing about it, he won’t fire Snape for his terrible behaviour and attitude. So my only option is to look around for a trusted person who might take me under their wing and train me as a potioneer.”

“Now that’ll throw alot of people in for a loop, Harry,” stated Tori. “And should you have little choice but to turn those assignments into Snape, he’ll be going ballistic.”

“Indeed, they will!” Harry replied. “At the same time, I’ll need permission from your parents before I can get some ideas on the cure for your blood curse.”

“I’ll ask my parents when I get the chance,” assured Tori. “And I think they’ll be over the moon to hear that you’re willing to help out.”

“And I’ll be sure to keep my lips sealed about it, if that also makes them feel better.” assured Harry.

“Sounds good, Harry!” Tori replied. Then she offered, “How about we take a walk in the woods, since it’s a nice day out?”

“Sure, I’d love to, Tori!” said Harry with a smile.

To prove how happy and grateful she was in his offer of helping with her blood curse, Tori walked up to Harry and gave him a hug. Naturally, Harry flinched because of the Dursleys' treatment towards him. But he quickly hugged Tori back because it felt so soft and warm. It even convinced Harry to stay away from his nasty relatives for good and rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron until he could figure out what else to do and where else to live since he felt sure that his parents would’ve covered that before they were murdered. He also intended to help find a way to get Sirius' name cleared. Tori felt Harry’s flinching, but she stayed quiet so she wouldn’t frighten him away. Then after she cancelled the locking charm and the charm she revealed was a privacy one, the two left the office and out of the classroom so they could go outside and over to the woods. It was time that Harry showed that he was done living up to the expectations of his unwanted fame and that he was going to do something he was passionate about.

The End!

Chapter 9: An Unexpected Visitor

Harry was sitting on a bed in the hospital wing with the remains of his old Nimbus 2000, it had been smashed to bits and pieces after he had fallen off because of the dementors during the quidditch match against Hufflepuff. Harry had been at least one-hundred feet high when the dementors made him revisit the awful memory of a woman screaming (which he had trouble trying to decipher who the woman was). From what Fred and George told him moments earlier, Cedric Diggory (the Hufflepuff captain and seeker) had managed to catch the golden snitch and realized too late of Harry’s misfortune before trying to call it off and offer a rematch (which had been politely declined because Cedric caught the snitch fair and square, something that even Oliver Wood admitted). Harry knew he was being somewhat irrational to keep the remains of his broom at the foot of his bed, but he couldn’t just let it go so easily because it was like losing a best friend even though the Nimbus 2000 was beyond repair. Even though Fred and George told him, Harry wasn’t upset with Cedric catching the snitch since he knew there was bound to be a game where he didn’t catch the snitch, but the encounter with the dementors wasn’t something he expected to be the reason.

‘What am I going to do with the remains of my broom?’ Harry mused, as he continued staring at the remains.

After he fell off, the broom blew into the whomping willow and it was the reason why the Nimbus 2000 was smashed beyond repair. Ron was the one who brought the remains wrapped in a towel-sized cloth to Harry. Occupying the bed directly across from Harry was Katie Bell (a brown-haired fourth-year girl with blue eyes). She had to stay because of how rainy it was during the match and a bolt of lightning struck the bristles of her broomstick, resulting in them being set on fire and giving her quite a scare (but basically unharmed). Since she was visibly shaken, Katie was given a vial of relaxation potion and advised to spend the night. Katie was sitting on her bed while leaning her back against the headboard and she had a sympathetic expression on her face as she watched Harry still staring at the remains of his broom. It was clear that Katie also didn’t expect the dementors to play a role in Harry losing his first-ever quidditch match, but she accepted the loss because Hufflepuff still won fair and square. The doors to the hospital wing opened and Katie turned her attention to them, in which she spotted a girl with shoulder-length honey-blonde hair entering and heading for the bed Harry was occupying (stopping by the foot of the bed).

‘Aren’t visiting hours supposed to be over?’ Katie mused, but otherwise stayed silent and observed.

Even though Katie couldn’t see the girl’s face because of having her back turned to her, it was still pretty obvious that the girl was Astoria Greengrass, a Slytherin girl in her second year who was the younger sister of Daphne (who’s honey-blonde hair was armpit-length). Katie couldn’t bring herself to tell Astoria off because she knew that the younger Greengrass girl was bubbly, and she wasn’t bothering Harry (much less, harming him on someone else’s behalf). Astoria just stood there in silence while observing Harry still staring at the remains of his Nimbus 2000 in sadness. Katie found it surprising to see that Astoria was wearing a forest-green long-sleeve polo shirt, a pair of gray jeans, and black trainers, given that the Greengrass family were made up of pure-bloods. But the Greengrass family had not only been neutral in the first wizarding war, but they were also an open-minded pure-blood family like the Longbottoms for example. Furthermore, the Greengrass family were also friends with the Davis family despite them being made up of half-bloods.

‘Well, at least it isn’t someone who’s a part of Malfoy’s circle of friends,’ thought Katie. ‘If one were to call it that, since Crabbe and Goyle seem to be more like Malfoy’s bodyguards.’

Katie had seen Astoria’s bubbly personality in the past at ministry formals, since her dad and the Greengrass patriarch were ministry employees. Being bubbly resulted in Astoria having a harder time keeping lustful boys at bay, as they assumed that she was an easier target, since Daphne always appeared so cold outwardly that she was virtually unapproachable (except for her best friend, Tracey). Tracey’s sister, Trina, was Astoria’s bestie, which further solidified how close the Davis and Greengrass families were. A couple of Hufflepuff’s quidditch players several beds away who received injuries and had to stay in the hospital wing looked over at Astoria standing before Harry with surprised expressions on their faces. Harry looked up a little bit to see that Astoria had her hands clasped together in front of her to prove to him that she wasn’t a threat. But Harry went back to eyeing his broom that had been smashed, still too upset at seeing the remains of his broom.

“I’m so sorry, Harry!” Astoria told him in a sympathetic voice.

Harry turned his attention to the younger Greengrass girl and got a good look at her face. He saw that she really was related to Daphne because of the strong resemblance, her shoulder-length honey-blonde hair hanging down, bright-green eyes that were full of sadness at the moment, and the muggle outfit she was currently wearing. It was strange to see her in a muggle outfit because Harry heard from the rumour mill that Daphne and her family were pure-bloods. But he remembered hearing that Daphne’s best friend, Tracey Davis, was a half-blood. Harry knew that Daphne was pretty, but virtually unapproachable. So it was natural that her sister was pretty, too.

“Sorry for what, Miss Greengrass?” Harry replied, curiosity piquing.

“For your loss,” Astoria told him. “I’d be pretty sad myself if my prized possession was lost or destroyed.”

“Well, uh, thanks!” Harry replied, surprise clearly in his voice as he naturally didn’t count on anything like that happening.

“May I take a seat, Harry?” asked the younger Greengrass girl.

Taken aback, Harry nodded his head and the Slytherin girl pulled up a nearby stool right near Harry and sat down on it. Katie found herself grinning when she saw what else was going on. Harry felt his stomach flip-flopping when he saw the young girl before him giving him a smile. It made him question inwardly as to whether she was in Slytherin or a different house.

“I’m Astoria Greengrass,” the Slytherin introduced herself, holding a hand out. “A second-year Slytherin. But you can call me Tori if you’d like.”

“Nice to meet you, Tori! I’m Harry Potter!” Harry replied as he shook her hand, feeling a little sheepish to be saying his name due to his unwanted fame. Then he continued, “But why are you here after visiting hours? Madam Pomfrey will go ballistic to see a student having snuck in here. You know how she gets when it comes to her patients.”

“I’ve been preparing myself for that, Harry,” stated Tori. “Given how that fruitless rivalry prevents Gryffindors and Slytherins from giving each other chances. If I wanted to harm you, I would’ve done it already.”

Harry found himself relaxing as that sunk in, a Slytherin student being friendly to him was a new feeling. Until now, he never would’ve thought it possible because of his multiple encounters with Draco Malfoy (the self-proclaimed prince of Slytherin). Katie and the two unidentified Hufflepuff players found themselves smiling as they observed the ordeal.

“Is wearing muggle clothes one of your ways of rebelling?” asked Harry.

“Sort of,” Tori replied. “But not in the way you were thinking. The Davis sisters are half-bloods and they taught me and Daph a bit about how to adapt to muggle culture. Tracey’s sister, Trina, is in my year. So Daph and I have long since started wearing muggle clothes due to it being the twentieth century and to prove our open-minded tendencies. Not only that, but I also do it to get a rise out of Malfoy. He keeps trying to shove his whole belief of ‘ladies are only supposed to wear dresses or skirts’ down mine and Daph’s throats. Daph is more likely to wear skirts, but she wears black tights underneath as a way of subtlety telling Malfoy that she has his number.”

“So Malfoy only wants you and Daphne to wear skirts at least just so he can try looking up them and seeing your underwear anytime he gets the chance?” asked Harry.

“Pretty much,” stated Tori with a smirk on her face. “Even though he isn’t the only Slytherin boy who tries that stunt whenever I’m in my house's common room. You might’ve heard by now, but Flint even tried a similar stunt a couple weeks into this year. It was one day after classes ended for the day and I pulled my robe off to show the rest of my school uniform when I saw my black tights falling to my ankles. Then I saw my school skirt getting lifted up by a couple hands to expose my pink panties, with Malfoy and some of the other lustful boys widening their eyes as if they were turned on by seeing that. When I turned around after pulling my tights back up and saw Flint with the same lustful grin on his face while keeping my skirt up, I began clobbering him as viciously as I could before I squeezed his family jewels as hard as possible for good measure.”

Harry widened his eyes in a mixture of shock and amazement, with Katie and the Hufflepuff players reacting the same way. It was more than enough for Harry to shudder at the thought of getting his family jewels squeezed in such a manner, since he knew that a man’s family jewels getting whacked or squeezed was so painful that the pain was equivalent to one-hundred-and-sixty bones in the body breaking simultaneously. But Harry had zero sympathy for Flint not just because he was more than old enough to know better, but it was also some form of comeuppance for his encouragement to cheat and his lack of following good sportsmanship despite being the captain of the Slytherin team. Harry found himself laughing a bit the more he imagined Draco throwing a tantrum, since he knew (like every other student in the school) that the only Malfoy offspring always went with his ‘my father will about this’ cry whenever someone opposed his beliefs and/or stood up to him. Katie and the Hufflepuff players present also smirked because they were naturally aware of Draco’s antics.

“It shows how much Malfoy and Flint have in common,” stated Harry. “Not to mention that they have tendencies of attempting to break the cutie.”

“No doubt about that, they…!” Tori replied. Then, with her bright-green eyes wide as saucers, she faced Harry with a surprised look on her face and asked, “Harry, did you just refer to me… as a cutie?!”

“I did?” Harry replied as his face turned bright-red, not entirely believing it himself (even with Katie giggling).

“It sounded like you did, Harry.” stated Tori, her face also turning bright-red.

“What if I say that I did?” asked Harry, believing that he was on the verge of upsetting the Slytherin girl.

“Then you made one particular girl happy!” Tori replied with a smile.

“Yes, I did say that, Tori!” stated Harry with elation in his voice, his body relaxing in the fact that he made Tori happy. “I don’t care if you are a Slytherin, I still saw every bit of cuteness all over you.”

That resulted in Tori gazing into Harry’s eyes while she still smiled, emerald-green meeting bright-green. Harry felt his heart flutter as he smiled back because he had a hunch that Tori was a bubbly girl. It was allowing him to be distracted from his earlier plight with his old Nimbus 2000. Katie and the unidentified Hufflepuff players were also smiling, as they were also witnessing a different side of Harry’s. Harry felt more positive energy flowing into his body because of Tori just giving off wonderful vibes. Before another word could be said, the doors opened and in stepped not only Madam Pomfrey, but Daphne followed close by. Harry remembered seeing Daphne’s armpit-length honey-blonde hair hanging down and her ice-blue eyes (which were darting in his direction in curiosity). Daphne was even wearing a long-sleeve sky-blue button-down shirt tucked into a gray knee-length skirt with a pair of black tights underneath, and black shoes. Tori looked over at her sister, who had a neutral expression on her face with her arms folded across her chest.

“What am I going to do with you, Tori?” asked Daphne.

“Sorry, Daph!” Tori replied, feeling a little sheepish.

“I’ve been waiting with the Davis’ sisters for almost fifteen minutes and you never showed up in the common room,” stated Daphne. “We even spent another five-to-ten minutes searching for you in the corridors, especially since we didn’t think you would be here in the hospital wing… interacting with Potter. Then I eventually came this way when I had the feeling you were here and clear enough, you were here.”

“And how you managed to sneak your way past me,” Madam Pomfrey told the younger Greengrass girl. “Rebellious, but impressive. You’ve already spent enough time with Mr. Potter, and it’s time the patients have their rest, visiting hours are over.”

“Well, I felt that this was the only way I could see Harry,” Tori replied, speaking to her sister and the nurse. “Especially with his bed being heavily surrounded earlier.”

“As Madam Pomfrey said, it’s time we leave the others in here alone for rest,” said Daphne. “You’ll have plenty of time to see Harry tomorrow, and possibly many more days. Now let’s finish up here and head back to our common room.”

“Yes, Daph!” said Tori, with Daphne giving Harry an apologetic look (with Harry waving his hand in assurance to let the older girl know that Tori didn’t bother him). Then as she turned her attention back to Harry, Tori offered, “Would you like to join me for breakfast or lunch or maybe dinner tomorrow or some other day, depending on when you can leave?”

“Well, I’m not sure,” Harry replied, even though he was taken aback by the offer. “Not that I don’t want to accept it, but receiving an invitation to join a Slytherin for a meal at their house table is pretty new for me because of my previous encounters with Malfoy.”

“Well, okay,” said Tori. “But it’s an open-ended invitation if you change your mind.”

Then the younger girl wrapped her arms around Harry and gave him a hug, with Daphne feeling a smile gradually forming. Harry flinched a little, but still hugged Tori back since he could feel the warmth and softness of it. Then she gave Harry a quick kiss on the cheek, resulting in Harry’s face turning red again as half of the sensation in his body dissipated. Madam Pomfrey shook her head as she put a hand to her forehead, while Daphne continued smiling in Harry and Tori’s direction. Daphne’s smiling didn’t go unnoticed by the unidentified Hufflepuffs and Katie, but they stayed silent. Then Tori got up and walked over towards her sister. But Tori turned her attention back to Harry with yet another smile and waved to him, with Harry returning the smile and waving back at the same time. Then the Greengrass sisters left the hospital wing to return to their house’s common room (which was located in the dungeons, something Harry knew because of the time he and Ron impersonated Draco’s goons to find out if the Malfoy offspring was the Heir of Slytherin last year, in which it turned out he wasn’t). Madam Pomfrey left the hospital wing and closed the door before returning to her office. Then Katie climbed out of her bed and walked over to Harry’s and sat down on the stool Tori had been occupying.

“When we can leave the hospital wing, Harry,” Katie told him in a serious tone of voice. “I’m going to be letting Angie and Leesh know what all happened in here, so the three of us can give you a talk on how to understand girls better. It’s our job, as your pseudo-sisters, to make sure of that and let you know what you’re up against.”

“I understand, Katie.” Harry replied in assurance.

“And another excellent start is to accept Astoria’s invitation,” Katie went on. “Since I saw you hugging her back before she and her sister left, which was also a good start. But we’ll talk about this with Angie and Leesh later, Harry. For now, we need to rest up if we want to be allowed to leave the hospital wing sooner. But think about the invitation long and hard because she went out of her way to do that for you, and I can see it a mile away that she’s a bubbly girl. You wouldn’t want to see a girl with that kind of personality upset or angry, would you, Harry?”

“No, I wouldn’t!” Harry admitted, realizing that the question was an armour-piercing one. “I could tell that she is bubbly, since she kept giving off wonderful vibes."

"It's a shame that Astoria is under contract to marry Malfoy Jr," said Katie, shaking her head in disgust. "Which is due to happen on her eighteenth birthday. Many of us know that Malfoy Jr doesn't deserve to have any girl, especially one who's like Astoria."

"Oh that's just great!" Harry replied sarcastically. Then he continued on in a serious tone of voice with outrage in it, "It's horrifying how Malfoy gets a pretty lady and proceed to treat her like as nasty as he can muster up. It just shows that Malfoy doesn't deserve a girlfriend, much less get married. It also proves that Malfoy is a total coward. Now that I really think about, I should've seen Malfoy's cowardice a couple years ago when he called up a midnight duel with me, and yet never turned up and instead tip off to Filch about students being in the trophy room at midnight that night. It's all typical for someone like Malfoy, while I will treat any potential significant other like a lady. I wish I could save Tori from a loveless marriage as a trophy wife, but I have no way to do that."

Katie began laughing herself silly, something that Harry was unaware of because of being so lost in his thoughts. It wasn't until Katie was in hysterics and rolling around on the floor while grasping her sides did Harry finally realize it. He was unaware that the Hufflepuff students' eyes were as wide as saucers for some reason. Katie was laughing so hard that she found herself gasping for air a few times, much to Harry's worry since the look on his face said it all.

"Katie, are you alright?" asked Harry with concern. "You're laughing so hard, are you hurt from it? Did you get with some kind of jinx or curse? Should I call for Madam Pomfrey to look over you?"

"Yeah, I'm alright," assured Katie in between giggles. "In fact, I'm more than okay. That's because you saved Astoria from Malfoy without even realizing it. Now I know that Malfoy really is a coward for attempting to get you expelled when you two were firsties. By doing that, he backed out of the duel and sacrificed the marriage contract with Astoria to you."

To say that Harry was surprised was an understatement, he was astonished to have found out that the contract was now his. The Hufflepuffs close by now had their hands over their mouths in amusement when they found out about Draco's foolishness since they were trying to keep their laughter under control with mixed results. Nevertheless, Harry was still confused about the whole marriage contract thing.

"Katie," Harry asked, once she calmed down and got back onto her feet and reseated on the stool. "How can I be the one to be given the contract even though Malfoy forfeited it to me when he backed out?"

"There's an old law dating back to medieval times," Katie replied. "Where pure-blood men can make their wives cater to their every whim, where the wives are required to be seen and stay silent. Another one has marriage and betrothal contracts that can be drawn up. Betrothal contracts are drawn up if there's a genuine bond between both parties and the contract can be ended mutually. Marriage contracts are done in a forceful situation, usually as a debt repayment, whether or not one or both parties want to be married."

"I'm not sure if I wanna be forced to marry," said Harry. "Even though Tori proved to be a nice and kind girl, forced marriage is not just outdated but also wrong on many levels."

"I understand, Harry, since you've always been considerate of others." assured Katie. Then she explained, "But you still have several years to think about it. Astoria and her family will be over the moon when they discover that Malfoy sacrificed that contract to you. Astoria and Daphne's father, Dennis, is among our fellow citizens who never believed ole Luci's claims that his crimes during the first war was done because of him being bewitched. Even Mrs. Greengrass saw through Luci's lies, but I was speaking particularly about Mr. Greengrass because he was the one who Luci blackmailed into getting the contract drawn up."

"How could you know about all that?" Harry replied. "It just doesn't seem like something it could be discussed out in the open."

"Malfoy's tendency to boast resulted in him blurting it out in a loud voice," stated Katie. "Combined with many students, myself included, seeing Astoria looking so intensely uncomfortable a few times I saw Malfoy trying to flaunt her off like a piece of property."

"Malfoy also shows himself to be loud and stupid," stated Harry. "Even though I don't really see them. I may have sort of caught some glimpses of those moments, but I would tune myself out to avoid any unnecessary attention."

"But let's not worry about it right now," said Katie. "We need to get some rest, or else we'll end up prolonging our stay here."

Harry nodded his head to show that he understood, then Katie got up and returned to her bed, so she could give Harry his space. As he laid down on the bed with his head on the pillow, Harry began pondering his visit with Tori and how easy it was to talk to her despite earlier being their first-ever meeting. The more he thought about it, the more Harry understood that upsetting anybody (a girl in particular) who was all bubbly would make him shudder as they were the kind of people who rarely got angry and tended to be the scariest when the anger finally surfaced. So with that in mind, Harry began planning to accept Tori’s invitation to join her for one meal at least and see how that would go and make Draco's cowardice known to the school (and how it also resulted in him sacrificing the contract to the raven-haired Gryffindor). Even though her visit with him moments earlier was going to be the rumour mill’s hot topic for months (if not years), Harry realized that it was better to focus on his life and not worry about the whispers and stares from most of the student body. His meeting with Tori made Harry realize that he didn’t want to be in that type of prison, and that it’s not important what others thought.

The End!

Notes:

Author's note (added 3/23/25): I added a bit more to the end where Harry realizes that Draco sacrificed the marriage contract with Astoria to him after Katie pointed it out at the suggestion of 'JMISBEST.'

Chapter 10: Diagon Alley

Notes:

Author’s note: This one-shot is a sequel to my first one-shot in my series ‘Alternate Canon Moments,’ so you might want to read that one first before you read this one any further.

Warning: Not Dumbledore friendly in this one-shot, so reader’s discretion is advised!

An hour-and-a-half had passed since Harry had been escorted to Ragnok’s office. He read his parents’ will and found out that his parents wanted him to stay as far away from the Dursleys as possible, something Albus Dumbledore deliberately ignored as he was the only witness to sign. Harry also discovered that he had a number of magical blocks on him, most of them being placed on him without consent as they weren’t even listed on the magical blocks his parents placed on him to prevent premature magical exhaustion. He even got a copy of his parents' will so he could take it to the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (who’s name was Amelia Bones).

When Harry stepped out of Gringotts, he strolled over to a patio table near a drink stall that sold butterbeer (as shown on the sign) and took a seat. He was still furious that Dumbledore not only had his family vault key to his trust vault, but that Hagrid got a hold of it somehow. While he was mad at both Dumbledore and Hagrid, Harry was mostly mad at Dumbledore (who he hadn’t seen before) for double-crossing him and his family. Since he didn’t sign his name to prove he wanted to attend Hogwarts this year, Harry didn’t have to go and he felt that he was being used when Hagrid wrote the note telling him he gave Harry his letter and would take him shopping for his school stuff. As a result, Harry decided he wasn’t going to attend this year.

‘Who does this Dumbledore guy think I am?!’ Harry mused to himself. ‘What gave him the right to look after my stuff? He doesn’t know me and I don’t know him. Well, he can just witness my lack of not showing up on the first day of term. Since I never gave written consent, I don’t have to attend this year.’

Harry had his arms folded across his chest as he watched the countless number of shoppers strolling about going into the various shops in Diagon Alley. He had no idea how to get to this Ministry of Magic to give the copy of his parents’ will since the goblins never told him (though they likely believed that Hagrid told him), and he had no idea where he was going to stay because he knew that returning to the Dursleys would’ve spelled trouble if they saw his face again since they saw Hagrid giving Dudley that pig tail in retaliation for him eating Harry’s cake. Even though the will had a list of potential guardians for him, Harry didn’t even know those people and he naturally believed that they were out to get him due to the Dursleys ‘teaching’ him that ‘freaks were worthless and deserved terrible lives.’ He also didn’t count on anybody noticing him, so Harry continued observing the countless shoppers entering and exiting the various shops.

“Hello, Harry!” greeted an unexpected voice.

Harry jumped in surprise and turned his attention towards the source (which came from his left). He saw a girl about his age with shoulder-length honey-blonde hair hanging down, bright-green eyes, was dressed in a forest-green short-sleeve t-shirt, gray shorts with a pair of white ankle-length leggings underneath, and a pair of white trainers. Harry didn’t need to know how the girl knew his name, since he was already getting exposed to some of his fame that he never knew existed until hours ago. She was even giving him a smile, but Harry kept his wits up since his primary school days were just as bad. He remembered a few of his female classmates smiling at him to get his hopes up and then reveal it to be a trick. Still, the girl before him didn’t seem to have any ill feelings towards him, but that didn’t stop him from remaining tense and expecting the worst.

“Um, hi?!” Harry replied in confusion. Then he asked, “May I help you?”

“I think the question is: May I help you?” the girl replied, sounding amused. “You’re the one sitting there all lonely with nobody to talk to.”

“I don’t know if you can,” Harry replied downheartedly. “Nobody’s ever helped a freak before, and I doubt anybody ever will.”

“I see,” the girl replied. “Well, see ya!”

Then she skipped away to who-knows-where, which Harry dreadfully expected. It was bringing back memories of other boys in the neighborhood who ‘invited’ him to join them, only to reveal that it was a trick. Even though they knew that befriending ‘the freak’ would’ve resulted in them getting beat up by Dudley and his gang, it still crushed Harry’s spirits and made him wonder why they didn’t just say so if they really hated him. It was five-to-ten minutes later when Harry saw the girl return to him, and she was carrying two containers of ice cream. He figured that she purchased ice cream for someone and one for herself. To his surprise, the girl set one of the ice creams in front of him and he looked at her with a questioning look on his face.

“Happy Birthday, Harry!” the girl told him. “I wasn’t sure what flavour of ice cream you enjoyed, so I got you some birthday cake flavoured ice cream, since it is your birthday.”

“Th-Thank yoouuuuu!” Harry replied in an elated voice, tears welling up in his emerald-green eyes.

The girl handed him a plastic spoon, which he thanked her again. Then Harry gave the still-unidentified girl permission to take a seat at the table, knowing that it was the least he could do to return the favour.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself!” the girl said, holding a hand out with another smile. “I’m Astoria Greengrass, but you can call me Tori if you wish since that’s what I go by.”

“Nice to meet you, Tori!” Harry replied as he shook the girl’s hand, returning the smile. “I’m Harry Potter.”

He felt a little sheepish to be saying his name when Tori already knew it. But still, he was following proper etiquette for meeting someone new. Plus, Tori was even showing him what kindness can do for anybody. Then the two started digging into their ice creams, with Harry noticing that Tori got herself some cotton candy flavour ice cream.

“So, Harry, what put you in a bad mood?” asked Tori, keeping her voice soft.

“Oh, the fact that this Dumbledore guy had my trust vault key,” Harry replied, making sure his voice was only audible for him and Tori. “And gave it to Hagrid under the pretense of it being for safekeeping. The moment Hagrid showed one of the Gringotts goblins my vault key was when I got suspicious. I’m also mad at Hagrid because I’m not too sure what his motive was, but my anger at this Dumbledore guy is stronger.”

“My mummy, sister, and I saw that fight at Gringotts earlier,” Tori explained. “And it made me realize that you never got any birthday cards, and I even started sending you some when I was seven.”

“Why would you just send a stranger, even if they’re a kid, a birthday card every year from the moment you started?” asked Harry.

“Just because,” Tori replied. “Everybodys’ birthday should always be a special day for them.”

Harry was rendered speechless by that, as it was the first real time he received any true kindness. Given that the Dursleys always made sure his birthdays were the worst days for him as opposed to Dudley’s being the best days for him, Harry felt tears welling up when Tori told him that birthdays were supposed to be special. And the fact that she wasn’t asking for anything in return was another thing he liked, since she wasn’t making a big deal about his fame nor did she show any signs of being a fangirl. So Harry decided to slowly open up and chat, but decided to wait until he felt certain he wanted Tori to know about his treatment at the Dursleys.

“So are you going to Hogwarts this year?” asked Harry.

“Nah, even though I wish I could,” stated Tori. “My big sister, Daphne, will be. Her hair is the same colour as mine, but it’s longer at armpit-length and her eye colour is ice-blue. I’ll be starting Hogwarts next year, though.”

“I’ll be waiting at least a year,” Harry explained. “Since I never gave a written agreement, in which I was asked if that happened by the goblin who Hagrid and I spoke to. If this Dumbledore becomes too big of a problem, I may end up just finding another magical school to attend. So once I become more used to this world, I’ll find a post office here and see if they have something like magical passports.”

“The owl post office can help you there, Harry,” Tori filled him in. “The passports also come with charms to disguise them as muggle passports just in case if a wizard or witch wants to try traveling by muggle means. There are other magical schools, such as the Beauxbatons Academy in the Pyrenees Mountains in France, and then there’s the Durmstrang Institute located in the Scandinavian region between Norway and Sweden close to Svalbard. Durmstrang, from what I’ve heard, doesn’t have a great reputation due to their headmaster promoting a fear based environment and the school is also known for teaching the dark arts and including it in the core curriculum. Then the United States of America has the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft & Wizardry located on Mount Greylock in the state of Massachusetts.”

“Beauxbatons and Ilvermorny sound intriguing,” Harry replied. “But I’m going to spend time researching them and I have a whole year to do that.”

“And also a year to get used to magic,” Tori pointed out. “Since I already know that you hadn’t heard of it until today. Did you ever get a pamphlet explaining our world? It’s something that muggle-borns and any other muggle-raised students are required to get so they can get a better understanding of the magical world.”

“No, I never got a pamphlet for anything like that, just the acceptance letters.” Harry replied. “Maybe I should just avoid going to Hogwarts altogether, since it all seems like some kind of setup for me to do something awful. I’ll refrain from going to Durmstrang because of the reputation. If I plan to attend Beauxbatons, I’ll need to start practicing the French language.”

“There you are, Astoria!” a worried-sounding voice called out.

Harry and Tori turned their attention to the source to see a woman who had the same hair colour as her daughter, and Tori’s eye colour. Harry deduced that the woman was Tori’s mother since the resemblance made it clear. The Greengrass matriarch had her hair in a bun, and she was wearing a cerulean-blue short-sleeve ankle-length dress and a pair of brown leather shoes. Tori’s mother was eyeing her daughter rather sternly with her arms crossed.

“Hi!” Tori greeted her mother with a nervous smile.

“Don’t ‘hi’ me, young lady!” Tori’s mother scolded. “How many times have I told you never to wander off by yourself?”

“Several times, mummy.” stated Tori.

“Indeed,” Mrs. Greengrass continued scolding. “And when we get home, you’re to report to your room for five minutes to think about why running off like that is bad.”

“Yes, mummy!” Tori replied.

“If Tori bothered you at all, Harry, I apologize!” Mrs. Greengrass told him in an apologetic tone.

“She wasn’t bothering me, ma’am,” assured Harry. “She just bought me some ice cream and we were just talking.”

“It is Harry’s birthday, mummy,” stated Tori, when her mother turned her attention back to her. “After what we saw at Gringotts, I thought I’d help brighten his day.”

“Happy Birthday, Harry!” the Greengrass matriarch told him.

“Thank you, ma’am!” Harry replied gratefully.

“No need for formalities, Harry. My name is Alexis, but you can call me Lex if you’d like!” Mrs. Greengrass assured in a soft voice, even giving him a smile.

“Nice to meet you, Lex!” said Harry, as he shook her hand, returning the smile.

“Harry, why don’t you come with me and Tori when you two finish your ice creams,” Lex told him in an encouraging voice. “So you can join in on the school shopping, since Daphne and Tracey are also starting Hogwarts this year. They’re with Tracey’s mother and sister, and their names are Edwina and Trina respectively.”

“Well, okay,” Harry replied. “But there’s no need for me to get my stuff because I’ve decided not to go this year, especially since I didn’t give a written agreement. In fact, I’m more inclined to just stay away from Hogwarts because Dumbledore doesn’t seem like a good person and I have a feeling that he has some kind of plan for me whether I want it or not.”

“That’s one of the reasons why the Greengrass family is neutral,” Lex explained. “Since Dumbledore always believes that he’s right and never considers others’ ideas. Plus, the darkest wizard of the century proclaimed himself to be the leader of the dark.”

“Do you know where I can find Amelia Bones?” Harry inquired. “She needs a copy of my parents’ will, and I have no idea how to get to the ministry, and Ragnok told me about Amelia being the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic.”

“Yes, I know how to get to the ministry, Harry,” stated Lex, keeping her voice soft. “My husband, Dennis, works for the department as a member of the Wizengamot, they’re like the jury in a muggle hearing. We can do that tomorrow, but for now let’s go find Daphne, Edwina, and her daughters and help out with getting Daphne and Tracey their school stuff. I don’t want you to have to do too much on the same day, it’s better to break those into smaller chunks.”

Harry nodded his head in acknowledgement when he realized that Lex had a point. As soon as he and Tori finished their ice creams and threw their respective bowls and plastic spoons in a nearby waste bin, Harry followed Lex and her younger daughter to find Daphne and the Davis ladies. Tori wrapped her arms around his torso to give him a hug as a way of letting him know he was in safe hands. Despite flinching from physical contact, Harry still hugged Tori back because of how gentle she was being even if they were walking. Lex and Tori both saw the flinching and they weren’t too pleased, but they stayed silent to avoid frightening Harry. It was also enough for Lex to plan a trip to Edward’s Clothing Boutique located in Horizont Alley since the store sold muggle clothes and it was time Harry got some clothes his size since the overly-large hand-me-down rags appeared as though they could slide down at any moment. It was time that Harry put his life with the Dursleys behind him and began a new chapter in his life.

The End!

Chapter 11: Bill & Fleur’s Wedding

Notes:

Warning: Not Hermione or female Weasley friendly in this one-shot, so reader’s discretion is advised!

Harry was sitting by the broom-shed leaning his back against it while wearing the same formal wear he wore for the Yule Ball two-and-a-half years or so ago. He was trying to avoid Hermione and the female Weasleys because they kept insisting that Harry take polyjuice potion to disguise himself as one of Ron’s cousins no matter how many times he refused. Their only explanation was that it was for his own safety, but Harry had enough of being treated like a five-year-old and he was already an adult since his seventeenth birthday was yesterday. He hated that Molly and Hermione continued making choices for him and refused to budge from it, making it look like he was forbidden to make his own choices. He considered leaving the country and letting most of Magical England deal with the threat of Lord Voldemort. He had a passport, which he found out about during his three-and-a-half week stay at the Leaky Cauldron before his third year and applied for one at the owl post office. They even worked like muggle passports and once he got it, Harry kept it in his school trunk until he bonded with Dobby and asked him to look over it. Harry even considered taking Winky under his wing, since seeing her drowning her sorrows in butterbeer was getting too much for him to bear.

“What are you doing here all alone, Harry?!” asked an unexpected female’s voice.

Harry jumped in surprise and turned his head to the right, since that was where he heard the voice coming from. It came from a girl with honey-blonde hair in a bun or something because of it being pulled back. She even had a beautiful pair of bright-green eyes and was wearing a sea-green dress. Her facial features looked somewhat familiar, as he could remember seeing a face like that in the past occasionally. Her hands were at her sides to show that she wasn’t a threat, and the smile on her face made that even more clear (as it was a genuine one, rather than the creepy one he’d seen from Ginny many times). Despite keeping a neutral expression, Harry could feel his heart fluttering from being in the girl’s presence for some reason, but couldn’t figure out why. She did look pretty cute, but Harry knew better than to go for outer appearances (especially given that Ginny appeared that way on the outside, but she was a bratty fangirl of the Boy-Who-Lived deep inside).

“Just thinking!” Harry replied in a hasty voice.

“Would you like to talk about it?” asked the girl in an encouraging voice.

Now Harry was taken aback, as he never counted on anyone being willing to listen to him (since most of them failed). True, Sirius had been able to do some of that, but by letter wasn’t ideal and Dumbledore never got him that trial he’d been denied. So Harry nodded his head to give the girl permission to join him, and then she walked over and sat down next to him. Harry had a feeling that the girl was related to his school mate in the same year (but in Slytherin) as him, who’s name was Daphne Greengrass. Harry remembered seeing that Daphne had her honey-blonde hair at armpit-length and had ice-blue eyes, while standing at a height of five-foot-four. Harry also remembered that Daphne was reclusive and virtually unapproachable because of her renowned Ice Queen persona. Her best friend, Tracey Davis (who had shoulder-length brown hair, cobalt-blue eyes, and was five-foot-six), had been the only one who could approach her for the natural reason of them being best friends.

“I’m Daphne’s sister, Astoria,” the girl introduced herself, holding a hand out while still smiling. “But you can call me Tori if you wish. My friends and family do that since it’s not a mouthful to say.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Tori,” Harry replied, shaking hands with her as he returned the smile. “I’m Harry Potter!”

He felt a little sheepish to say his name, since he knew that people were aware of his much-despised titles of the Boy-Who-Lived and the Chosen One. But he was showing proper etiquette for meeting someone new. To his surprise and relief, Tori didn’t show any signs of being a fan of either the Boy-Who-Lived and/or the Chosen One. She was treating him like an ordinary person, and all he wanted was a normal life (even though it was a pipe dream for him, especially since some unknown conspirator continued to thrust him into it while staying in the shadows). Not only that, but Tori wasn’t afraid to be around him nor did she blush madly in his presence, unlike a certain female redhead by the name of Ginny Weasley. Harry remembered how she reacted when they met for the first time, where she never paid attention to him until it was revealed that he was the Boy-Who-Lived. That was when she went crazy and not only gawked at him like a zoo animal, but she also whined and demanded to see him and even be around him (making it clear that she was a spoiled brat, especially when her mother never admonished for her childish behaviour out in public even though she was old enough to know better than that even at that time).

“So what’s been on your mind, Harry?” asked Tori in a soft voice.

“Alot of stuff,” Harry replied. “Particularly my destiny to have rotten luck.”

“No one’s destined for that,” assured Tori. “You have just as much right to have a good life as the rest of us.”

“If only some jinx didn’t get in the way,” stated Harry. “It’s like one happens anytime something good happens.”

“Like what?” asked Tori, keeping her voice soft.

“I would tell you,” said Harry, trying to keep the sadness from leaking out. “But it’s a long story, and I don’t want to waste any unnecessary time for you.”

“Don’t worry about me, Harry,” assured Tori. “I’ve got plenty of time, and being invited here by Fleur is proof of that.”

“So that means Daphne is here, too?” asked Harry.

“Yeah,” Tori replied. “She, Tracey, and Fleur have known one another since that tournament. Since Fleur invited them, she also invited me and Tracey’s sister Trina. Trina and I will be starting our sixth years in September. We may be in Slytherin, but we’re nowhere near like Malfoy and his kind. Daph and Trace are also good people, they just keep to themselves as much as possible.”

“I’ve heard the school’s rumour mill describing them as pretty, with Tracey being second to Daphne.” said Harry.

“Yeah,” said Tori. “Then Trina and I get the same thing amongst the students in our year. Trina and I don’t want to be known for that, since it gets old and we want to be recognized for actual achievements.”

“That’s me to a T,” stated Harry matter-of-factly. “I’ve had it with people seeing me as the Boy-Who-Lived and, to a lesser extent the Chosen One, and Ginevra is the worst of that bunch because she’s never seen me for just Harry, and it’s incredibly unlikely she ever will. I’ve been trying to get people to recognize my quidditch seeking talent, but it gets ignored.”

“That gives you something in common with me!” Tori replied with elation in her voice. Then she went on in the same soft voice from a couple minutes earlier, “But back on topic, you don’t have to be afraid to let someone know how you feel. I understand that you think that rotten luck will get in the way, but there’s always hope. If you keep it all to yourself, the emotional baggage will continue to weigh you down. But I’m right here if you want someone to talk to.”

Harry felt his heart flutter again, touched by the fact that Tori wasn’t just avoiding the persistent nagging that Hermione was notorious for, but she was being very soft and encouraging Harry to open up more. She was even speaking in a patient manner, which told Harry that Tori was a bubbly kind of girl. Taking a deep breath, Harry began telling the younger Greengrass girl about his life with the Dursleys and what all he went through at Hogwarts the past six years. Tori’s bright-green eyes were full of tears and some of them streamed down her face as she patiently listened to Harry. She couldn’t understand how anyone would abuse Harry, and how Dumbledore had been using him like a puppet with strings with help from Hermione and the female Weasleys (as they were worse because of pretending to be good people to him). Tori found herself wrapping her arms around Harry and embraced him. Harry tensed up some because of how Hermione always charged at him before wrapping her arms around him, while Molly’s hugs were so smothering that it made his spine feel like snapping in two. But Tori’s hug was soft and warm, so Harry slowly relaxed as he found himself hugging her back.

‘Tori’s very good at this!’ thought Harry, as he and Tori continued hugging each other.

She was reluctant to let go due to feeling some kind of protection flaring up. But she had little choice but to pull away because of the importance of one step at a time. Harry felt his heart breaking to see tears in Tori’s eyes since he never could handle the sight of a crying girl all that well.

“I’m so sorry, Harry,” Tori whispered. “That was just… horrible.”

“Somehow, it felt good,” Harry whispered back. “Like alot of weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. Thank you for giving me encouragement to open up, Tori!”

“And thank you for letting me know how you felt!” Tori replied with praise in her voice. “I know it wasn’t easy for you, but I’m proud of you for opening up to me.”

“And the fact that you somehow gave off wonderful vibes helped a great deal!” stated Harry, feeling relieved. Then he asked, “Is it me, or are you someone who’s all… bubbly?!”

“Yes, I have a bubbly personality!” Tori admitted proudly, smiling at Harry, “I’ve always been so exuberant for as long as I can remember. While I don’t regret being that kind of person, it does have it’s downsides such as certain boys our age assuming that I’m an easier target as they think that I won’t hurt a fly, including Malfoy. But I have my ways of making them pay the price for underestimating me.”

“I’d hate to even think about breaking the cutie!” Harry replied with sincerity in his voice.

Harry widened his eyes and placed a hand over his mouth immediately once those words escaped his mouth. He even felt that he was blushing because his face was radiating heat. Tori was also red in the face as she giggled, the sound of which made his heart flutter once again. Harry still wanted to sink into the ground, he couldn’t believe that he blurted those words out loud and within Tori’s earshot.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that!” Harry quickly apologized, feeling rather sheepish.

“Harry, no need to apologize.” assured Tori in a soft voice. Then she went on with yet another smile, “It was flattering that you referred to me as a cutie, and you were even sincere about it. Never apologize for being yourself.”

“I do need to work on the over-apologizing!” Harry replied with realization. Then he asked, “Should we help get the wedding set up?”

“Yeah, I think we should,” stated Tori. “Especially with the likelihood that Daphne will wonder where I wandered off to if I don’t check in with her. Mummy and daddy asked that I do that.”

“I admire that your parents ask for checking in to happen,” said Harry honestly. “Something good parents will do since they’ll worry about their children otherwise.”

“Maybe one of these days I can ask them to invite you to our manor,” Tori replied. “But right now isn’t the best time because of that psychopathic wizard. From what Malfoy bragged about, the darkest wizard is planning to put some kind of taboo on his name to find anybody who speaks the name and I’m using the time to practice avoiding the tendency to speak it.”

“Oh, thanks for the heads up, Tori!” Harry replied.

“You’re welcome, Harry.” said Tori. “But what makes it worse is that ole Luci made a deal with his boss that if they won the war, that Draco would get me for a potential wife. My daddy never believed Luci about his claims of never having meant any of his actions during the last war. Ole Luci has even been pressuring my daddy to get some marriage contract drawn up so I’ll have to marry the ferret on his eighteenth birthday. I knew that the ferret whined to his father about it because he had some kind of smug grin on his face aimed at me.”

“That just continues to prove how incorrigible he is!” stated Harry in a matter-of-fact voice. “He’s always looked up to his father, as I’ve seen him bragging about how ‘wonderful’ and ‘influential’ he is.”

“He’ll even see me as a trophy wife,” said Tori with disgust aimed at her least favourite housemate. “Another reason why I don’t want to be married to him. The death eaters can never be allowed to win the war.”

“I feel more content to help you and your family out, Tori.” Harry told her, her eyes widening in surprise. “Given that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is planning to put that taboo on his proclaimed name, I’m going to let you know that his real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, and he’s a half-blood rather than a pure-blood. His full name is an anagram for ‘I am Lord Voldemort,’ which I found out near the end of my second year.”

“Oh, wow!” Tori replied, surprise clearly in her voice. “The darkest wizard of the century being only a half-blood was something I never knew. He’d always proclaim himself to be a pure-blood. His minions will go ballistic if they were to ever find out about their boss only being a half-blood.”

“But of course, the death eaters will just listen to his lies,” stated Harry. “While ignoring me if I were to say something about Tom being a half-blood. Lestrange is a clear example of that.”

“Now I really need to check in with Daph and also let the Davis sisters know I’m alright,” said Tori. “Or else they’ll worry about me wandering off or something.”

Harry got up onto his feet and brushed away the dirt on his trousers. Then he lowered a hand for Tori, and she immediately grabbed a hold of it and Harry pulled her up. He was being gentle about it since he saw she was wearing a pair of silver stilettos. As soon as she was up on her feet, Tori used her hands to brush away dirt from her dress where her rear was.

“Even with brushing dirt away with my hands,” said Tori, looking behind her. “It just doesn’t get rid of the mess completely.”

Harry looked behind him and saw that his formal trousers were also still covered with some dirt where his rear was. It made him realize that Tori was right, and he didn’t learn any spell to get rid of messes due to his muggle ‘upbringing’ where he was used to doing things without using magic. If he had come across one in one of the standard book of spells books, he likely skimmed over it.

“Are there any spells that can be used to clean up messes?” asked Harry.

“Yeah, but no need to worry,” Tori replied with assurance. “It’s fairly simple, shown in the Standard Book Of Spells Grade One.”

She told him the spell before aiming her wand at Harry’s rear and using the spell to get rid of the rest of the excess dirt. The moment Tori turned her back to Harry made his heart beat a little faster because her rear was exposed. Harry aimed his wand at Tori’s rear and cast the spell to get rid of the excess dirt and quickly sheathed it and turned away as a way of resisting any temptations. Harry could hear Tori giggling, his heart fluttering again to hear it because of how adorable it sounded. Then she walked around him and gave him yet another smile. Harry couldn’t help smiling back because of already being aware of the bubbly vibes she was giving off.

“What did you think, Harry?” asked Tori.

“That dress lo-looks good on you,” Harry replied, hoping to divert the discussion in another direction. “The c-colour also s-suits rather well.”

“I meant what did you think of getting a good look at my butt?!” Tori clarified.

“What?!” exclaimed Harry. Then he widened his eyes when he realized he said that a little too loud, so in a calmer voice, he asked, “I mean, why would you j-just a-ask me that ki-ind of question?!”

“To give you some excitement,” Tori replied, giving him a wink. “I don’t want you to be too focused on watching your back. I want you to actually find joys in life and live it to the fullest. Being tense all the time like that is bad for your health, physically, mentally, and emotionally. If you just live life and quit being forced to live up to the expectations of your unwanted fame, you’re going to put even more stress on yourself.”

“I’m sorry, Tori,” Harry apologized. “I’ve been so used to doing those heroic deeds that it seems like I’m the only one who is capable of doing it.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Harry,” said Tori softly. “Being a good person is a wonderful trait. Just refrain from dealing with messes others have created, it’s not your responsibility to do that in addition to changing someone elses’ behaviour. It’s also best that you ignore what people think of you, just focus on who you are. The right people will stay by your side regardless of what is said about you.”

Feeling even more at ease and greatly touched by Tori’s compassion and being encouraging with soft speaking, Harry gave her a hug to prove how grateful he was to her. With a smile, Tori hugged Harry back. Then they headed off towards the white tent where the ceremony would be taking place, since Tori remembered once again that she needed to check in with her sister. Tonight was going to be pretty interesting to see the reactions of everyone as to how well Harry and Tori bonded once they saw it with their eyes. With Tori there, maybe Harry would enjoy having a good dance. It was time he started focusing on himself and not what most of the magical community expected of him.

The End!

Chapter 12: Meeting In The Woods

Harry was sitting on a rock ledge in the snowy woods, all distraught with his invisibility cloak over himself. Normally he wouldn’t cry because that always made his so-called punishments worse, but this time he couldn’t hold it in any longer. He heard a conversation in a private room at the Three Broomsticks tavern in Hogsmeade. His visit was inappropriate because of Uncle Vernon never having signed the permission form, and he would’ve double-crossed Harry even if he kept to the story of attending St. Brutus’ Secure Centre For Incurably Criminal Boys. But Harry heard a conversation moments earlier at the Three Broomsticks, where Madam Rosmerta, Professor McGonagall, and Minister Fudge revealed that the mass murderer (Sirius Black) was his godfather. What made it worse for Harry was that nobody told him anything about his parents other than the obvious fact that he looked like his father but had his mother’s eyes (something that was already getting too stale).

‘Why won’t anyone tell me more about my parents?!’ Harry mused to himself, as he continued crying.

Due to all that had been going through his mind, Harry didn’t realize that someone was strolling by (especially with keeping his eyes on the ground). A girl with shoulder-length honey-blonde hair was strolling by. She was wearing a pair of brown shoes, brown jeans, a black knee-length coat, and a green scarf with silver linings wrapped around her neck (identifying her as a Slytherin). She had a beautiful pair of bright-green eyes that seemed to be filled with anger for some reason. The moment she heard someone crying, she had an expression combined of confusion and worry, so she followed it to where it was coming from. It was coming from a rock ledge spread out as if it was a stone bench or something. Then she took a seat at the end closest to her since she wasn’t sure where the ‘invisible’ person was sitting. Then she slowly scooted closer towards the middle before slowly reaching out at arm’s length. Then she saw a faint lining of some kind of fabric when her fingers went behind it.

‘That’s strange!’ thought the girl.

Then she grabbed the fabric that felt like very-soft silk and gently pulled it off, and it finally dawned on her that it was an invisibility cloak. When the cloak was pulled all the way off, the girl widened her eyes in surprise to see that it was Harry Potter (after all, everyone could recognize his untidy black hair). Harry looked over at the girl who turned out to look somewhat familiar, since he had seen a familiar face in class many times because the girl looked like Daphne Greengrass (who was a Slytherin in his year). It didn’t take Harry long to realize that Daphne’s sister was a Slytherin, as the scarf was a clear giveaway. But he quickly looked down at the ground again and tried to bottle his emotions because of his relatives ‘teaching’ him that showing emotions was a sign of weakness. But Daphne’s sister wasn’t going to be dissuaded because she didn’t get up and leave. Harry didn’t admonish the girl sitting next to him for pulling the cloak off of him, as he felt that she would go away if he ignored her.

“What’s the matter, Harry?!” asked Daphne’s sister in a soft voice.

Harry immediately turned his attention back to her in surprise, as he wasn’t counting on a Slytherin to ask him anything regarding his well-being or anything similar for that matter. He got a good look at her to see her eyes being bright-green and her hair being shoulder-length, as he had seen Daphne enough to know her hair was armpit-length. What was more surprising was seeing that the younger Greengrass had a worried look on her face instead of being hostile towards him despite them being in rival houses. She was even showing patience because she wasn’t nagging him to answer as quickly as possible. Someone being concerned about his well-being wasn’t something Harry was used to, even if this was his first meeting with Daphne’s sister (and the first Slytherin to actually be friendly to him).

“Alot of things,” Harry finally answered after a few minutes of surprised silence. “But I don’t know what good it’ll do to tell you, Miss Greengrass. Freaks are destined for rotten luck.”

“You’re not a freak, Harry,” assured Daphne’s sister. “Anybody would be lucky to have you as a friend. You’re kind, brave, and noble, your actions even show it.”

“But how could you have known?” asked Harry.

“Honestly, Harry, did you forget about the school’s rumour mill?” the Slytherin replied.

“Oh, yeah, how silly of me!” Harry replied with realization. Then he tensed up some and asked in a suspicious voice, “Did Malfoy put you up to this to get me to drop my guard?”

“No, I’m here on my own accord,” assured Daphne’s sister, putting her hands up to show she wasn’t a threat to him. “I was taking a walk in the woods to avoid any temptations of giving the brat a mouth full of broken teeth.”

“Well, that’s a new one for me,” stated Harry. “Meeting a Slytherin who hates Malfoy as much as I do.”

“He thinks he’s entitled to me just because I’m as pretty as Daphne!” the younger Greengrass replied with contempt aimed at Draco, sticking her tongue out and making a face in the process to show it. Then she smiled at Harry, held a hand out and continued, “I’m Daphne’s sister, Astoria. But you can call me Tori if you wish, as it’s not a mouthful to say.”

“Nice to meet you, Tori. I’m Harry Potter!” Harry replied (feeling a little sheepish to say his name since everybody in Magical England at least knew it), shaking hands with Tori.

“So what’s been troubling you, Harry?” asked Tori, again in a soft voice.

“Just… my rotten luck flaring up for like… the umpteenth time,” Harry replied, strangely getting a feeling that he could trust her for some unknown reason. “I snuck into Hogsmeade despite the lack of permission and I heard Madam Rosmerta mentioning my name, so I put my cloak over me and headed inside the Three Broomsticks and followed the source of the talking and opened the door to that private living room to see Madam Rosmerta discussing something about me to Professor McGonagall and Minister Fudge. They mentioned that Sirius Black, who they say is a mass murderer, killed some man named Peter Pettigrew and left a finger shortly after my parents were killed by Voldemort because of his betrayal. But what made it worse for me was that they revealed Sirius to be my godfather, which is odd for a mass murderer.”

“That is strange,” stated Tori. “Although a mass murderer is too far-fetched. My parents have mentioned something about the lack of a trial because nothing was ever mentioned if Sirius got a trial because they read the Daily Prophet article mentioning Sirius escaping from Azkaban.”

“You mean… Sirius was likely set up?” asked Harry, widening his eyes in shock.

“It seems to be,” said Tori. “And since he was never given a trial, he had to have been declared guilty by accusation. In other words, his rights were violated.”

“So he was only escaping false imprisonment!” Harry replied with realization. Then he went on, “But what was even more bothersome is how nobody really tells me anything about my parents. They just tell me that I look like my dad but have my mother’s eyes. I can appreciate that, it gets stale after a while and I need to know more about them than that.”

“If you’d like,” Tori offered. “I can write to my parents and ask them for permission to invite you to our manor for the Easter holidays.”

“That’s pretty intriguing!” Harry replied, though uncertain if he ought to accept it. Then he continued, “You’re not going to report my presence at Hogsmeade to a teacher, are you?”

“No,” assured Tori. “It’s not like you were planning to cause trouble or anything. If a teacher caught you, that would be a different matter. But either way, you deserved to have some time there and check it out. Since I’m a second year student, I have to wait another year before I can legally visit the village.”

“I thought this would’ve been your first year,” said Harry. “Since Daphne is in my year.”

“She had her birthday on the last day of September,” Tori explained. “Her bestie, who you probably know is Tracey Davis, had hers ten days before Daph.”

“Oh okay, that explains it.” said Harry.

“Tracey’s sister’s name is Trina, and she and I are besties,” stated Tori. “She’s also a second-year Slytherin. This coming Easter will be two days before my birthday, while Trina’s birthday is on the twelfth of June.”

“I just have to hope Daphne and the Davis sisters won’t get mad at you for telling me their birthdays,” said Harry. “Assuming that they’re very sensitive about that.”

“I don’t think they’ll have a problem with you knowing,” assured Tori. “Especially with everybody in our world knowing yours because of your unwanted fame. I’ve seen you enough times trying to keep as low a profile as possible, even if you have little luck in maintaining it.”

“So it would be something like a trade-off?” asked Harry.

“Yeah, something like that.” Tori replied.

“Where is Trina?” asked Harry.

“In an empty classroom somewhere in the castle,” said Tori. “She’s very passionate about art and has dreams of opening an art museum in our world in the future. So she’s practicing that as much as she can.”

“I’m impressed to hear about her doing something she’s passionate about,” said Harry, his voice filled with elation. “I’d rather do something I’m passionate about, since doing something only for the money doesn’t lead to real happiness.”

“You couldn’t have said that any better, Harry.” said Tori with a smile.

Harry felt his heart fluttering to see that, as though the younger Greengrass girl was giving off some wonderful vibes, and he found himself smiling back. He found himself wishing he met her earlier, if it weren’t for the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin combined with Harry’s many encounters with the only Malfoy offspring. It was like Tori was encouraging Harry to just be himself without saying anything.

As curiosity piqued his mind, Harry asked, “Um, Tori, if you don’t mind me asking, why does Malfoy think he’s entitled to you? Or would you prefer to avoid answering?”

“He wants me for a wife, and a trophy wife that is,” Tori replied, contempt aimed at her least favourite Slytherin boy. “He whined to his father about getting a marriage contract drawn up to where I’ll have to marry him once I’m eighteen. My parents never believed ole Luci’s claims that he never meant any of his actions during the first war and naturally, they believe that Luci is also lying about his claims that having me and Draco married being part of some debt repayment that may or may not have happened years and years ago. But my daddy can’t really do much about it because there’s no proof that Luci is lying.”

“I never knew about the marriage contracts still being a thing,” said Harry. “But I would be horrified if I had to be married to someone whose personality is just like Malfoy’s.”

“And being his trophy wife will be a bloody nightmare for me,” Tori explained. “There’s this law that’s been around since medieval times where wives of pure-blood men are required to cater to their every whim, and must be seen and not heard. Malfoy Jr doesn’t have any qualms about attacking a lady who defies him.”

“Wow!” Harry replied. “That’s something we have in common, having to deal with Malfoy but for different situations.”

“He also wants Daphne and have two trophy wives,” said Tori. “But he’s too afraid to approach her due to her Ice-Queen glare. Furthermore, Malfoy Jr assumes that I’m an easier target just because I’m all bubbly and more outgoing. But I have my ways of teaching him and other lustful boys a lesson should they underestimate me.”

Harry shuddered at the thought of witnessing something like that, since anybody who was bubbly or at least got angry the rarest were the scariest when the anger finally reached the surface. If his intuition was correct, Tori went for painful approaches in dealing with the lustful boys. At the same time, he wasn’t entirely sure what Daphne’s approach was, even though the rumour mills mentioned something about some kind of freezing charm.

“I take it that marriage contracts can’t be cancelled?” asked Harry.

“No, except for the party who drew it up.” Tori replied. “Since marriage contracts are done as debt repayments, whether or not one of the parties doesn’t want it. Marriage contracts can also be forfeited if the party who has it loses a duel or forfeits, which is worse if that party was the one who called the duel up. Then there’s betrothal contracts, which gets drawn up if there's a genuine bond between both parties. Those can be cancelled at any time if both parties mutually agree to end it.”

“And Malfoy will never forfeit any marriage contract that’ll let him marry you?” asked Harry.

“Pretty much,” said Tori. “And he’ll just keep ‘reminding’ me that I need to be preparing for my role as the future Mrs. Malfoy. That was why I was out in the woods because he would just nag me and insist I reply to them instantly. So I came out here to avoid knocking some of his teeth out, since if I did that he would whine to his father and make himself look innocent. That would’ve then convinced ole Luci to threaten my daddy into scolding me for ‘such unacceptable behaviour,’ as the male Malfoys would say.”

Feeling that it was only fair, Harry took a deep breath and began telling Tori what his life was like before Hogwarts and during the summer with the Dursleys. Harry even told her what happened during this past summer with Aunt Marge’s visit. By the time Harry finished, Tori had tears streaming down her face. She couldn’t believe how anybody could be so cruel and spiteful to Harry. It was enough for Tori to scoot a little closer to Harry and wrap her arms around his torso. Harry flinched when with the physical touch, but he relaxed when he realized how soft and warm Tori’s hug was. That convinced him to hug Tori back, especially since it was different from the hugs he got from Hermione and Ron’s mother.

“That was just horrible, Harry,” said Tori, her voice cracking with emotion. “I don’t see how anyone can just treat you that way and be happy with it. You ought to stay away from those people for good.”

“I fully intend to,” assured Harry. “As it’s in our best interests.”

“Another reason why I’d like to invite you to my family manor for Easter,” stated Tori. “So you can get a good look at what it’s like to live with a loving and caring family, and even experience it. I’ll write to my parents afterward and ask them if I can invite you over for Easter, then I’ll ask you again if you’re still interested.”

“I’m actually finding myself leaning towards accepting it,” stated Harry, feeling his spirits soaring high. “Your bubbliness is helping me make that decision, but I’ll have to wait until you let me know when and if your parents are alright with it. In the meantime, I’ll wait.”

“Okay,” Tori replied with another smile. “What should we do to pass the time before lunch?”

“I can show you what it’s like using my invisibility cloak,” Harry offered. “Make this something like a trade-off if you’re interested.”

Tori nodded her head with the smile still plastered on her face, as it was another moment for her to help break Harry out of his shell. Then the teens stood up, with Harry getting inside the cloak and holding it open for Tori. She happily joined Harry and the moment the cloak closed, Harry and Tori began strolling down the woods so he could show her how useful his cloak was. If Harry was going to accept the invitation to Greengrass Manor for Easter, then now would be an excellent time to continue bonding with Tori.

The End!

Chapter 13: Midnight Snack In The School Kitchens

It was just a few minutes after 12:00 AM of a Saturday morning of March 5, 1994; and thirteen-year-old Harry Potter was strolling in the direction of the school kitchens for a midnight snack under his invisibility cloak. He also had the marauder’s map out to avoid any teacher or staff member since the cloak didn’t prevent him from being heard or solid. The map had been given to him by the Weasley twins as a Christmas present, and they even told him the location of the school kitchens. Once he made it to the ground floor where the entrance hall was located, Harry descended down the stairs leading to Hufflepuff basement (as the kitchens were located there, strangely some fifty feet before the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room). Fred and George even informed Harry that the entrance to the kitchens had a portrait of a bowl of fruit for a door and the pear had to be tickled, so it could giggle before revealing a door handle. After doing just that, Harry pulled on the handle to open the door.

‘Well, this is pretty spacious!’ thought Harry as he darted his eyes around.

There were four long tables at the centre and a fifth one at the other end to make it adjacent to the Great Hall. The twins also revealed that the kitchens were directly below the Great Hall, so it made sense for the tables to be in adjacent positions. There were also some smaller round tables at the sides of the kitchens, with Harry blowing a sigh of relief since he now had a place he could go to for meals if he needed to get away from the whispers and stares temporarily, since he hated his Boy-Who-Lived fame with raw passion. Harry pointed his wand at the map to wipe it clean with the ‘mischief managed’ incantation, then he pulled the cloak off before heading to one of the circular tables. He put his stuff down on one of the vacant chairs before taking a seat in another one. It didn’t take long for the house elves to come out of the cooking area to place the food on the tables.

‘Now I need to think about what I’d want for a snack!’ Harry mused.

A couple minutes or so later, Harry heard the door opening again and turned his attention to it. In walked a girl with shoulder-length honey-blonde hair hanging down in disarray, and wearing a green bathrobe with silver-star patterns and what looked like brown leather sandals on her feet. That insinuated to Harry that the unidentified girl was a Slytherin, so Harry tensed up so he could be ready to whip his wand out at the first hint of a threat due to his many encounters with Draco Malfoy (his arch-nemesis). Harry felt himself stiffening when the girl spotted him and began walking towards the table he was occupying, expecting her to be one of Draco’s fangirls (like Pansy Parkinson) and attack him for the heck of it just to impress the self-proclaimed king of Slytherin. What surprised Harry next was when she stopped right before him and greeted him with a smile. She looked like his classmate, Daphne Greengrass, but her eyes were bright-green (as opposed to the rare occasions he saw Daphne’s eyes, which were ice-blue).

“Hello, Harry!” the girl greeted, her voice warm and friendly.

“Um, hi, Miss Greengrass!” Harry greeted back, a smile forming on his face.

“May I join you at this table?” asked the mystery girl.

Taken aback even more, all Harry could do was nod his head as if to say yes. It didn’t take Harry very long to deduce that the girl was Daphne’s sister since the resemblance was very strong. Harry felt himself stiffening when he saw the girl undoing the bathrobe belt keeping the robe itself closed, since it didn’t look like she was wearing pajama trousers underneath. He had no idea if she was planning to seduce him in any way just because he was the Boy-Who-Lived (the very fame he loathed with raw passion), even if she was being warm and friendly a moment ago. To Harry’s surprise and relief, the girl was wearing a pair of red twill pajamas underneath her robe (which was visible when she pulled it open), which consisted of a short-sleeve button-down shirt and shorts. Even the buttons on her pajama shirt were red. Harry had to admit that Daphne’s sister looked rather wonderful in her pajamas, but he refrained from voicing it out loud because of his belief in being destined for rotten luck. The girl gently tossed her bathrobe onto the other vacant chair before brushing her front with her hands.

‘Oops!’ thought Harry.

He quickly looked down at the floor to avoid tempting fate and creeping the girl out if he continued looking any longer than he had. He got a look at her legs since she had been wearing shorts, and that made Harry quickly look down at the floor because she had to have been in her first year since Daphne was in his year. Even if he was thirteen, Harry didn’t want to give the girl the wrong ideas in that he was a creep or something. He had seen how the pajamas gave the girl a rather snug fit even if it wasn’t too tight, just enough to make it look like they were hugging her body. Harry found himself squeezing his eyes shut tightly in an attempt to push those thoughts to the back of his mind, but that was only having little success. What he didn’t know was that Daphne’s sister looked in his direction to see him with his head down and eyes on the ground, and she found herself smirking because she knew why without him saying so.

“Like what you see, Harry?” asked the girl.

“Well, the floor is just stone,” Harry replied as soon as he opened his eyes without looking up at the girl. “And that makes it dull and boring.”

“I meant if you liked seeing me in my pajamas!” Daphne’s sister clarified.

“EEP!” Harry gasped, his body stiffening again as he thought, ‘Now I’m in for it!’

“So that means you like it?” the girl asked.

Harry was afraid to answer that due to concerns that she was going to clobber him into the next millennium. He also felt certain that he would be unable to get back to sleep after returning to his dormitory in Gryffindor Tower, not that he wasn’t used to getting up so early or even dealing with a bit of sleep deprivation. Harry looked up enough to get a glimpse of the girl’s legs and pajama shorts, but quickly looked back down at the floor. It was enough to make her giggle, the sound of which caused a weird feeling in his stomach. But Harry was still afraid to get a good look because of expecting the worst.

“It looks like you enjoyed what you saw a couple minutes ago!” the girl told him once her giggles died down.

”Nawlookigfotrouble!” Harry quickly replied, too fast to make the response hard to understand.

“Could you repeat that slowly and more properly please?” the girl replied, her voice soft.

“I d-don’t want any trouble!” said Harry, a little nervousness leaking out.

“What trouble?” asked the girl.

“Getting clobbered for even a smidgeon of… a look at you,” stated Harry. “Since one never knows exactly how a person will react to something like that. Plus, I didn’t want to creep a first-year female out in any way.”

In response to that, the girl picked up the empty chair she intended to sit in and dragged it towards Harry to set it down next to his chair before taking a seat. Harry could hear the sound of the chair being dragged in his direction, but he still kept his eyes on the floor. Then Harry spotted one of the girl’s hands moving toward his chin in a soft manner, placing it underneath it and gently turning Harry’s head in her direction. He was able to get another glimpse of her legs and pajamas, but quickly came back to his senses. The girl had Harry face her, and he could get a better look at her bright-green eyes (which were obviously filled with concern).

“Harry,” Daphne’s sister inquired, with her voice being soft. “Why would I clobber you?”

“Well, I’m destined for rotten luck,” Harry replied. “Since your bathrobe had Slytherin colours on it, I was expecting you to beat me up on Malfoy’s behalf.”

“I would rather kiss a toilet seat than associate myself with someone like that blonde brat!” Daphne’s sister told him.

“Oh wow,” Harry replied with a mixture of surprise and relief. “A Slytherin who hates Malfoy as much as me is something I never dreamed of happening. Now I realize that it’s Slytherins like Malfoy and Snape who give the house the bad rap.”

“There are more decent Slytherins than you think, Harry,” assured the girl. “They just keep a neutral expression on their faces just so Malfoy won’t go on a rampage, since the brat always goes with his cries of bringing his father in should someone oppose or stand up to him in any way. He always insists that things go his way, especially within Slytherin territory.”

That was an even bigger eye opener for Harry, making him realize even more that one’s house didn’t show who an individual was and how it was their choices that determined who they were. Daphne’s sister moved her hand away from Harry’s chin, even though he could tell how gentle she was being and how soft her touch felt.

“I’m sorry, forgot to introduce myself,” the girl told Harry, holding her right hand out with a smile. “I’m Astoria Greengrass, a second-year Slytherin.”

“Nice to meet you, Astoria,” Harry greeted as he shook her hand, returning the smile. “I’m Harry Potter.”

He felt sheepish for saying his name when Magical England already knew it due to his much-hated Boy-Who-Lived fame. But he was showing proper introduction etiquette and knew that first impressions could matter. He decided, right then and there, that he needed to quit living up to the expectations of the Boy-Who-Lived. It wasn’t just because he was a fictional character, but they were all stories and the stunts in those stories would be enough to kill or maim him in reality.

“My thirteenth birthday is in exactly one month,” stated Astoria. “And Daphne had her’s at the end of September. Her bestie, Tracey’s birthday was ten days before Daph’s.”

“Better not let them see you tell me when their birthdays are,” said Harry. “Daphne would especially read you the riot act for it.”

“I doubt that,” stated Astoria. “Considering that everyone in our world knows when your birthday is, it wouldn’t hurt if you knew when they had their birthdays and I think they’d be alright with you knowing theirs.”

“Well, okay.” Harry replied. Then he asked, “Did you also come here for a midnight snack?”

“Pretty much,” said Astoria. “Even though I’m not sure what I’d like.”

“Your unexpected arrival threw me off track,” said Harry. “So naturally, I haven’t been able to decide what I want either.”

“Maybe we can spend some time getting to know each other,” Astoria suggested. “While we think over what we’d like for a midnight snack.”

“Sure,” Harry replied with a smile. “I’d like that, Astoria.”

“You can call me Tori if you wish,” stated Astoria. “It’s not a mouthful to say. My friends and family do that.”

“Alright, Tori,” said Harry. Then he asked, “Do you have a best friend like how Daphne and Tracey are?”

“Yes,” Tori explained. “My bestie’s name is Tabitha Bainbridge, and she’s a Slytherin in my year. She has black hair at the same length as Daphne’s and turquoise-blue eyes.”

“I’m gonna have to meet her soonish,” said Harry. “Since I’ll need her approval and Daphne’s if we’re gonna be friends.”

“Yeah,” said Tori. “But I feel certain that they’ll warm up to you, same with Tracey.”

“I’m not sure if it’s me,” Harry began asking. “But… do you have something of a bubbly personality?”

“Yes,” Tori replied in a proud voice. “I’ve been that way for as long as I can remember.”

“And your smiles make that very clear,” stated Harry. “Those vibes make it feel as though that the anger or fear quickly went away to be replaced with happiness.”

“All those so-called rules that Malfoy tries making and enforcing,” Tori explained. “I reject them because they’re just as stupid as he is. He just wants to call the shots, and I’d rather be myself than bend over backwards for the likes of him. Parkinson is the one who does that since she’s proven to be Malfoy’s ultimate fangirl and he revels in that. Malfoy only wants to have the spotlight for himself.”

“That’s really impressive that you never comply with his ‘rules,’ and how being yourself is more important.” said Harry with amazement in his voice.

“While being bubbly does have it’s downsides,” Tori continued. “I regret none of it. Daphne is more skilled at keeping lustful boys, Malfoy and Flint especially, at bay because of that icy glare due to her renowned Ice Queen persona. Those same boys assume that my bubbly personality makes me an easier target and they’ll say things like ‘she wouldn’t hurt a fly’ or anything along those lines. Daphne uses a spell to give any boy like Malfoy the feeling of their family jewels being frozen like ice.”

“I remember the rumour mill discussing that several times in the past!” Harry replied, making a mental note not to cross the older Greengrass girl. Then he asked, “Do you use a spell with something similar, but a different effect?”

“Yes,” Tori revealed with a smirk. “This spell is similar to the one Daphne uses, but I go for making the jewels feel like they’re burning like hell. But that’s a secondary tactic for me because boys like Malfoy invade my personal space with overconfidence, so I just use the opportunity to squeeze their nutsack since it’s more painful than a punch to the nose. I have tried the punches to their noses in the past, but they refused to back off, and it convinced me that they’re asking for a more painful retaliation with the nut squeezes, while using that spell to make their stones feel like they’re burning like hell as a last resort.”

“Oh my!” Harry replied, shuddering at the thought of experiencing the same thing. “It’s like they’re begging to break the cutie out of you.”

Harry widened his eyes and clapped a hand over his mouth when he realized that one specific word passed through his lips. Tori found herself giggling again, with the sound of it making Harry’s stomach flip-flop again. Harry hadn’t meant to say ‘cutie’ out loud and within Tori’s earshot, he made sure not to say anything like that out of fear of heavy embarrassment. It was enough for Harry to open his mouth to tell her to forget he said that one word, but she held up a hand in response while still giggling.

“No need to apologize and tell me to forget it,” assured Tori once the giggles died down. “There’s nothing wrong with referring to me as a cutie. Your reaction was what made my giggles return, it was that priceless.”

“I was expecting my rotten luck to return,” Harry admitted. “And it was a way for me to brace myself.”

“Then this moment will be the right time to turn that into wonderful luck,” Tori replied. “I appreciate your compliment for referring to me as a cutie. Besides quidditch, it’s time you get some truly wonderful moments instead of living up to the expectations of your fame, and I can tell how much you hate it. If you keep living up to the expectations of your fame despite hating it, you’ll keep making people think that you really like it. Even though some people like Malfoy will continue to think otherwise, it’s best to just be yourself so the right people will come into your life.”

Harry couldn’t find an argument for that since he knew Tori had some valid points. He lowered his hand back down as he relaxed. Seeing Tori smile and having wonderful vibes was making his heart feel rather warm. He was really starting to wish he’d befriend her sometime last year, the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin just didn’t make any sense.

“How would chocolate-covered strawberries sound for a midnight snack, Harry?” Tori suggested.

“I don’t see why not,” Harry replied, since he still hadn’t been able to think what he wanted. “It’ll be interesting to see how they taste.”

When a free house elf came by to ask the students what they wanted, they both requested chocolate-covered strawberries and pumpkin juice as a beverage. It didn’t take long for the house elf to bring them their orders (Harry and Tori each got six of the chocolate-dipped fruit), then he returned to the kitchens to continue getting breakfast cooked since it was only around six hours away. Before Harry could pick up his first chocolate-covered strawberry, Tori held a hand up as she picked up one on her plate.

“I’d like to put one in your mouth first, before you do the same for me.” Tori requested.

Harry nodded his head in acknowledgement before opening his mouth wide. Then Tori put one of the chocolate-dipped strawberries in Harry’s mouth. It was enough for him to widen his eyes in awe at how tasty it was, even closing his mouth before chewing it thoroughly before swallowing. Then Harry picked up one of his strawberries covered in chocolate dip as Tori opened her mouth in anticipation. The moment the strawberry was put on her tongue and the taste making it clear, Tori closed her mouth before chewing it thoroughly and swallowing it. Harry and Tori were going to have one heck of a story to tell their respective friends later on, but for now they were more focused on bonding over pumpkin juice and chocolate-dipped strawberries. The two assured each other that they would be friends and refused to let that pointless house rivalry get in the way. It was time the rivalry ended with the rest of the houses uniting.

The End!

Chapter 14: Looking For A Yule Ball Date

It was the first weekend following the announcement for the Yule Ball, and fourteen-year-old Harry Potter was on his way to the owlery to check on Hedwig and use the opportunity to think over how to ask his crush (Cho Chang) to be his date. Cho was a Ravenclaw student one year above Harry, and she was the only female on her house’s quidditch team. Harry was nervous because she was asian, and asian ladies were generally known to be beautiful. To make matters worse for Harry, his head of house informed him that champions were required to have a date as part of the tradition for them to open it with the champions’ waltz. Even when he tried to inform Professor McGonagall that he didn’t know how to dance and wouldn’t go, she ignored that and insisted it while threatening to punish him with detention after the Christmas holidays if he thought about ‘dishonouring the house and name of Gryffindor.’ Most of the girls who asked him to be their date were fans of his unwanted fame. He learned to look for signs of anybody who was a fan of his much-hated fame as the Boy-Who-Lived after his many encounters with Ginny Weasley due to her being the worst of the bunch.

‘Most of the girls who ask me to be their date are the same ones who helped pass me off as a cheater,’ Harry thought to himself. ‘And McGonagall should already know about that a long time ago. She doesn’t even care that I’m not a true champion of this school, Cedric is the one who deserves that. I want to go with someone who sees me as just Harry. Hermione won’t be any help to me despite helping me out in practicing the summoning charm, since she always defends the wrongdoer whenever they antagonize me. She did defend Ron a couple weeks ago after the end of the first task.’

Harry and Ron had a falling out on Halloween after the former’s name spewed out of the goblet of fire after Cedric was announced as the Hogwarts champion. Ron believed Harry to have submitted his name and demanded to know how he made it past the age line when Fred and George (Ron’s twin brothers) failed in that. Ron refused to listen no matter how many times Harry assured him that he didn’t want to be in the tournament. Sometime after the first task ended, Ron approached Harry in an attempt to make amends. But Harry rejected it because he could tell that Ron’s apology was half-hearted because of it leaking out into his voice. That was when Harry told his former best mate to take his half-assed apology away with him. When Hermione insisted that Harry apologize to Ron, he told her off for defending a jealous prat and to go with him before declaring his friendship with her over (much to the surprise of many of the other Gryffindor lions). The only Gryffindors who truly supported him were Neville Longbottom (who had since became Harry’s best mate), the Gryffindor quidditch team, the Weasley twins’ best friend Lee Jordan, and Demelza Robins (a third-year with shoulder-length reddish-brown hair and forest-green eyes).

‘It feels good to have some real supporters!’ thought Harry. ‘Otherwise I would’ve left this school a long time ago.’

Other supporters he had in Hufflepuff wasn’t just Cedric, but Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott also assured that they were on his side. Besides Cho, the only Ravenclaws on Harry’s side were Sue Li (who was also asian), Cho’s best friend Marietta Edgecombe, and Luna Lovegood. Naturally, Harry didn’t have any known supporters from Slytherin, not that he would expect that to happen in a million years because of his many negative encounters with Draco Malfoy and his lackeys. It wasn’t too much longer when Harry made it to the building that was called the owlery and began jogging up the stairs. Just as he reached the doorway, a girl with honey-blonde hair showed up to leave the owlery.

“Gah!” Harry and the girl exclaimed at the same time, almost jogging into each other.

The teens stopped in the nick of time to avoid jogging into each other. Getting a good look at the girl, Harry saw that she looked alot like his Slytheirn classmate Daphne Greengrass (who had armpit-length honey-blonde hair and ice-blue eyes), who usually kept to herself like her best friend Tracey Davis (who Harry remembered had shoulder-length brown hair and cobalt-blue eyes) and avoided any unnecessary drama. But this girl had her honey-blonde hair at shoulder-length, and her eyes were bright-green. She also had a black coat on, a pair of navy-blue jeans, and black trainers. The jeans in particular was what really surprised Harry because he didn’t think the Greengrass family would wear anything muggle related, since he heard from some of the students that the Greengrasses were a pure-blood family. Then again, he did hear about Tracey being a half-blood and perhaps the Greengrasses decided to try muggle culture. The girl also had a green scarf with silver linings on it around her neck, which identified her as a Slytherin. What further surprised Harry was that she wasn’t attacking him nor treating him with disdain, and he always expected that from any Slytherin since Draco was the self-proclaimed leader of that house.

“Sorry!” the teens apologized to each other in unison.

The girl even smiled, which strangely made Harry’s stomach flip-flop a little. He tried to move to the side and let her pass, but they kept getting in each others’ way accidentally due to not knowing which way they’d go. After a few more times of that happening, Daphne’s sister put her hands on Harry’s upper arms and gently moved him aside. He felt half the sensation in his arms dissipating when that happened, as it seemed like the mysterious Slytherin girl was giving off some wonderful vibes. After moving him to the side, the girl brushed the part of Harry’s arms she touched before patting them gently, which resulted in more of the sensation dissipating from his body. Seeing a Slytherin girl not only treating him like a person, but seeing one who just had what appeared to be authentic vibes was something totally unexpected. Slytherin wasn’t known for being themselves because of Draco running the house as if he owned it.

“Make sure you watch the stairs, as it’s a bit icy at the top.” the girl informed him.

“Thank… Thank you!” Harry replied, with surprise clearly in his voice when Daphne’s sister advised him to be careful.

The girl was showing even more of her mysteriousness, and it was making Harry wonder if she also had any Ravenclaw traits. She also showed no signs of even being one of Draco’s fangirls, something he saw from Pansy Parkinson since she always seemed to fawn over him to a T. The smile Daphne’s sister was giving began making Harry wonder if she had a bubbly personality because she just seemed to be giving off those kinds of vibes.

Then the girl held a hand out and introduced herself, “I’m Astoria Greengrass, but I often go by Tori with friends and family.”

“Nice to meet you Astoria, I’m Harry Potter!” Harry replied as he shook the younger Greengrass’s hand, also returning the smile.

He felt a little sheepish to be saying his name since everybody knew it due to his much-despised fame as the Boy-Who-Lived. But he was still showing proper etiquette for meeting someone, and they say that first impressions can matter. Astoria was continuing to prove her good first impression with her bubbly personality and her lack of having any fangirl traits.

“Excellent job in getting past that dragon, Harry!” Astoria complimented. Then she told him, “I believe you to be innocent of those accusations.”

“A-Again, thank you!” Harry replied in surprise. “I hadn’t been expecting any Slytherin to treat me with civility. Given that Daphne is your sister, it was also natural for me to expect you to have that same cold look on your face that she uses whenever a lustful boy tries approaching her. I had seen it a couple times, one of them being Malfoy and the other occasion I saw Smith trying a similar stunt.”

“Not all Slytherins are evil or jerks, Harry,” assured Astoria. “As that would be like saying all Gryffindors are virtuous and saints. But I can understand why you thought I’d be out to get you until I proved to you that I’m not a bully or jerk. Being a carbon copy of my sister would be so dull and boring, and it would make me feel like a fake if I did.”

“Good point.” said Harry. Then he asked, “Are you in the second year?”

“Nah, third year,” Astoria replied. “Daph and Tracey have their birthdays in September. Tracey’s was on the twentieth and Daph had hers on the thirtieth.”

“I see,” said Harry. “But I have to hope that they don’t get mad at you for revealing their birthdays to me.”

“I don’t think they’ll have a problem with you knowing,” assured Astoria. “Since they, like everyone else, knows when your birthday is due to that fame you hate. I’ve seen you always looking uncomfortable and trying to avoid the spotlight multiple times, and that’s enough for any sensible person to know that you hate your fame.”

“Your mysteriousness continues to surprise me,” said Harry. “Are you sure you don’t belong in Ravenclaw or something?”

“Well, my mummy was in Ravenclaw and the sorting hat considered putting me there,” said Astoria. “But my bestie was sorted into that house and I wanted to be closer to her as well as Daph, so I asked the hat to put me in Slytherin.”

“The sorting hat considered putting me in Slytherin,” Harry revealed. “But I asked it not to because of Malfoy already having had a terrible first impression. But my second meeting with him on the train was what really cemented it, and I didn’t want to deal with him even more than I already do.”

“Wow, we happen to have something in common,” stated Astoria. “Where we were considered for a particular house but we asked for a different house.”

“Yeah, we do.” said Harry.

Holding a hand out, Astoria asked, “Friends?”

“Friends!” Harry confirmed, as they shook hands again.

“I’d better go meet up with my bestie, Tabitha Bainbridge,” said Astoria. “Maybe someday you can meet her if you’d like.”

“Sure!” Harry replied, immediately having decided to start befriending any other Slytherin students if any were interested.

Then with a wave, Astoria turned around and began skipping away. Harry could no longer understand the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin, it was just so pointless and stupid. With the realization that he had a chance, Harry decided to call out to Astoria and ask her to be his date for the Yule Ball. He quickly had a feeling that someone may very well have asked Cho to the ball, plus he couldn’t find it in himself to turn down a pretty lady (and especially one who didn’t see him as the Boy-Who-Lived).

“Wait, Astoria!” Harry called to her, as he jogged in her direction before she could go any further.

She stopped and turned around to face Harry before replying, “Yes, Harry?”

“Would you… would you like to… go the ball… I mean, go to the ball with me?” asked Harry when he caught up with the younger Greengrass girl, his throat constricting with collywobbles.

“Yes, I’d love to!” Astoria replied with a smile. Then she offered, “If you’d like, I can teach you how to dance and help you be prepared for the champions’ waltz.”

“As long as you can tolerate the likelihood of me accidentally stepping on your toes.” said Harry.

“I think it’ll be worth it,” assured Astoria. “And it won’t be all that painful.”

“Well, okay,” said Harry. “It’s just that… I’d hate to think about the possibility of upsetting someone like you. Seeing a girl upset in any way will make it worse for me. They say that those who rarely get angry, especially the bubbly ones, were the scariest when the anger finally reached the surface.”

“Yes, even though it doesn’t stop me from feeling bad after calming down.” said Astoria.

“Where should we have our practice sessions, Astoria?” asked Harry.

“Somewhere well out of the way, where we’re least likely to be bothered,” Astoria replied. “You can call me Tori if you wish, since it’s not a mouthful to say.”

“Oh, sorry,” said Harry. “I was just waiting for permission because calling someone by their nickname when you’ve only met them without consent would’ve sounded creepy.”

“I understand, but you don’t have to apologize.” said Tori in a soft voice. Then she went on, “Yes, our practice sessions should be in an empty classroom in an isolated corridor to prevent any unwanted people from coming across us. If Malfoy saw me dancing with you, he’d go ballistic.”

“Something tells me that he wants and insists that you be with him?” asked Harry as he got a hunch.

“Big time,” Tori explained. “The year before you and the ferret started Hogwarts, ferret boy whined to his father about getting a marriage contract drawn up to where I have to marry him on his eighteenth birthday since I’ll already be seventeen by then. I turn fourteen on April fifth, but Malfoy continues to ‘remind’ me of preparing to be the next Lady Malfoy as though I’m a five-year-old.”

“I never knew about our world still having marriage contracts,” said Harry in surprise. “I thought it would’ve long-since been abolished because it’s almost unheard of in the muggle world.”

“Marriage and betrothal contracts are still a thing,” Tori explained. “But it’s the marriage contracts that I really have a problem with. There’s this old law that’s been around since medieval times where pure-blood men can order their wives to cater to their every whim and the wives are required to be seen and not heard. Being married to Malfoy will be a constant nightmare for me, since he just sees me as trophy wife material and I want to be with someone who appreciates me for who I am.”

“I’d hate to be forced to marry someone like Malfoy!” Harry replied, shuddering at the image. “What’re the differences between a betrothal and marriage contract?”

“Betrothal contracts are drawn up by the parents of the party,” stated Tori. “When they see them having a strong bond, but those can be cancelled at any time. Marriage contracts are done in a forceful situation, usually as some kind of debt repayment. After the ferret whined to his father about wanting to be married to me in the future, ole Luci ordered my daddy into getting that filthy marriage contract drawn up with the debt repayment claim. Even though we all know that Luci was bluffing, we can’t do much because there’s no proof to back it up. Daddy never believed Luci’s claims of being under the influence of the Imperius Curse that got him out of a one-way ticket to Azkaban, and yet Luci is never one to tell the truth.”

“Did the ferret smirk at you behind his father’s back?” asked Harry.

“Oh yes,” stated Tori, punching a palm with a fist in contempt aimed at her least favourite Slytherin boy. “And I wanted so badly to wipe it off his face. But there’s proper pure-blood etiquette and I couldn’t go on an outburst in front of guests or face getting reprimanded by my parents for such misbehaviour. Behaving in such a manner at formals would’ve been worse. It didn’t stop me from glaring at the brat, and he kept that smirk on his face as he was trying to provoke me into taking the bait. But I kept my cool during that whole visit to let him know in some way that I had his number, not that he’ll learn from that.”

“I think I need to follow your example on that one better,” said Harry. “Especially with a teacher always being around a corner any time Malfoy and his cohorts try getting a rise out of me. Even though I have managed to avoid the bait on some occasions, I need to be better about that and see if that’ll convince him to back off.”

“Malfoy is incorrigible,” stated Tori. “He’s never going to learn a lesson. But I can see where you’re coming from and how you’re acknowledging your mistakes. But Malfoy takes sick pleasure in tormenting his targets into provocation and playing victim to avoid accountability.”

“And being surrounded by his lackeys make his cowardice even more clear.” said Harry matter-of-factly. Then he asked, “When you mentioned that marriage contracts are a forceful thing and how they tend to be done as a debt repayment, does that mean you can’t get out of it?”

“Pretty much,” said Tori. “Only the ferret can call it off, but he won’t cancel it so easily just because I’m one of the prettiest witches like Daph. But marriage contracts can be forfeited if a duel is called up and the one with the contract either loses the duel or backs out of it after calling it up, the latter of which is a pretty risky thing since it would be political and social suicide especially for a family high up in the hierarchy, and the Malfoys are so high up that they can’t afford to do something so foolish.”

“I can imagine Malfoy being angry when you refused to take the bait after he and his father left to return to their manor?” asked Harry.

“Oh yeah,” said Tori. “Since he lives for the thrill of provoking the victims just to use that as a means of playing victim. After the Malfoys left, my parents did their best to comfort me since they knew how miserable I would be to be Malfoy’s wife. It didn’t stop me from heading up to my room, where I proceeded to pound a pillow while growling in frustration over the marriage contract with the stinky ferret. I even put that same pillow up to my face and screamed into it before putting it back and laying down on my stomach on my bed with my arms resting on said pillow and crying into them.”

“At least you went and did that in private.” said Harry.

“Yeah,” stated Tori. “Since I didn’t want to take it out on Daph and our parents, my bedroom was the best place for me to blow off that steam.”

“And you’re hoping going to the ball with me will make Malfoy not want the contract anymore?” asked Harry.

“Yeah, and him passing me off as a filthy blood-traitor is satisfying for me,” stated Tori. “But don’t get me wrong, I genuinely want to be your date for the ball. I just want Malfoy to be so disgusted by that and keep his distance from me for good.”

“I’m surprised he hadn’t done that much earlier,” said Harry. “Since you’re wearing casual muggle clothes.”

“He overlooks that to a degree, since he’s desperate to have me as a trophy wife even though he claims that he really loves me, but that’s just all talk,” said Tori. “Instead he’ll just remind me that being a lady, for him that is, means that I need to wear a collared shirt and skirt. So me wearing muggle clothes is done to get a rise out of him, and at the same time the formal clothes should be kept for it’s intended purpose.”

“Is the skirt part also because Malfoy wants to look up it and get a peek at your… um… underwear?” asked Harry.

“Yes, not that he’ll admit it,” said Tori. “He’ll try even with tights underneath. But there are pros to wearing muggle clothes.”

“Agreed!” Harry replied. “Now would also be the time for me to get prepared to properly meet Daphne, Tracey, and your best friend, since I’m going to need their approval.”

“Yeah, they want to make sure I’m not going for the wrong person.” said Tori. “Am I going to need to prepare for something like that?”

“My pseudo-sisters,” stated Harry. “Since they take that job very seriously, especially all of the times they saw Granger and the two youngest Weasleys treating me like a puppet on strings.”

“And I should get started on preparing myself for the talk with them, since I’ll need their approval too.” said Tori. “Well, I’d better go meet up with my bestie, since otherwise she’ll wonder what the hold-up was. I’ll see you later, Harry.”

“Bye, Tori.” Harry replied.

She gave him a hug to prove how grateful she was for his treating her like a person with feelings. Though he flinched a little (given all the times he was whacked and punched by his wicked uncle and cousin), Harry still hugged Tori back since it was warm and soft. The hugs he got from Hermione had her charging at him before wrapping her arms around him, while Mrs. Weasley’s hugs were always so smothering that it made it feel as though his spine would snap in two at any time. The flinching didn’t go unnoticed, but Tori decided to wait and write to her father to let him know of that and not just to tell him that Harry asked her to the Yule Ball. She didn’t want to frighten Harry into retreating back into his shell. Then she and Harry waved goodbye to each other before skipping away while Harry turned around to continue checking on Hedwig. He was looking forward to his dance lessons with Tori given her bubbly personality being a wonderful bonus, it was like he found true motivation in it.

The End!

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 4 of Fifty Moments When Harry Could’ve Met…