Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass: The Love Contract

Chapter 3

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Parseltongue"

Writing/Reading

"YELLING"

Greengrass Manor, Northampton countryside

The countryside of Northampton was beautiful scenery and a wondrous place where Greengrass Manor was situated. It would be here, where the pop of apparition would be heard, as Albus Dumbledore came into existence, with Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass holding onto each of his arms. Both children had a different reaction to the side-along-apparition that they had experienced on the headmaster's arms. Daphne slightly stumbled, as she had a bit more experience with apparating since she had done it with her parents on several occasions; Harry, on the other hand, was not feeling so well, as he vomited up whatever little food he had from that morning, especially as it was his first time doing side-along-apparition. Daphne couldn't help but feel sorry for Harry, as she remembered how she felt the first time she side-along-apparated with her parents. she quickly knelt next to Harry, and rubbed her hand up and down his back, doing her best to soothe him.

As she did this, Dumbledore stood off to the side watching the interaction between the two thirteen going on fourteen-year-olds. He couldn't help feel concerned by how close they were quickly becoming, in the short amount of time that they knew each other. He had originally planned on using a mild love potion on Harry when he turned sixteen to make him develop romantic feelings for young Ginny Weasley, that was if she still had similar feelings towards him by then; if not then he would give her the same mild love potion as well, just to ensure that everything went according to his plans. But now that Harry was apparently in a betrothal contract with Daphne Greengrass, a girl whose family was not only a neutral gray family but were also among the few wizarding families that refused to trust him like the other families, like the Weasleys for example. Though admittedly, the loyalties of such families to Dumbledore were only beneficial to him, so long as long as it was mutually beneficial to the Greater Good; again, as long as they were loyal to him, since he didn't have much use for them. Plus Ginny Weasley never bothered to make her interest in Harry Potter a secret, so he saw that as a possible tool to use to keep Harry under his thumb, should he ever need to use it.

But now though, with Harry's betrothal to an heiress whose family wasn't loyal to him, or the fact that he was already beginning to grow close to her, or even worse he was beginning to develop a sense of personal independence so soon, was a direct threat to his plans for Harry in regards to Voldemort. He couldn't help but wonder if James and Lily Potter were somehow trying to get some sense of justice against him. It was already bad enough that they...

'No,' Dumbledore thought to himself, as he shook his head clear of his wayward thoughts. 'I can't risk thinking these thoughts. The rumors of the Greengrasses having a special charm that can read my thoughts so close to their home is too risky to think about that nearby. Just finish bringing Harry to the Greengrasses, and get to the Weasleys to convince them that Harry is in danger from the Greengrasses as soon as possible.'

Just as Dumbledore was finishing his thoughts, and Harry recovered from his side-apparition-induced nausea, the gates to Greengrass Manor opened, and out exited a well-dressed man and woman, followed by a young girl of about eleven. The man was Lord Cyrus Greengrass, who was wearing a unique set of robes that looked to be a combination of wizard robes, and a muggle business suit in a dark green color with dark red piping, while Lady Elizabeth Greengrass wore a midnight blue dress. The little girl was the youngest member of the Greengrass family, Astoria Greengrass, who had recently started at Hogwarts just the recent school term. She was dressed in a bright purple sundress. Dumbledore would've preferred to have some time to discreetly "warn" Harry not to trust the Greengrasses, but now that would not be possible. He didn't want Harry to trust the Greengrass Family, especially if he was to use the boy as a weapon against Voldemort.