Forever his ~ Harry Potter's daughter

24. Princess

The next morning was... Kind of a frenzy. It took me a while to get the girls to leave me alone. They were all -except for Hemione who was most likely already studying on a Sunday downstairs- fussing around me trying to get me to spill the beans on our press conference. Romilda Vane was... Scary when trying to gather gossip.

I wore the same basic white T-shirt I had worn when Harry and I went out to drink and the same nude pumps. To add color I wore stylish vintage rose-colored high waist pants and a lipstick matching to it borrowed from Romilda at her insistence. After I dug out some jewelry from my purse I was ready to face the world.

"Shouldn't it be you doing the talking?" Harry asked once we went to breakfast together.

"No, you are the head and heir of the Potter family. It is a tradition for the head of the family to manage the press in these situations." I told him, trying to help him relax.

"But couldn't we show the way for others and be modern by letting you do it?" Harry asked.

"They would just have a new reason to drag us through the mud. You are already taking heat about the Voldemort resurrection thing. I don't want to make it worse." I said, softly holding Harry's hand.

"Yeah... Wait you know about that?" Harry said surprised at the revelation.

"Well it's only been in every single magical world newspaper around the world of course I know." I said.

"And what..." He took a pause as if afraid to ask. "What do you think about it?"

"Harry." I stopped eating my toast and turned to him properly. "I would never in a million years believe that you would make something like that up. You have had my support even if I've been far away, your whole life. I have never lost faith in you. Not for a second. When I heard about the tournament last year I knew in my heart you didn't put your name into that goblet yourself. And I am so sorry, that I wasn't there for you then. I wished so much that I could have been but... My father forbade it and he was dying so... I couldn't make myself go against his word."

I could see it. Harry was shaking, holding back tears and sobs. I knew he had nightmares through his fifth year. About Cedric. I knew he needed me. So I just wrapped my arms around him and leaned against him, allowing him to tell me his sorrows and his stress. It was nice that he could confide in me like this.

"Thank you." Harry said when people started arriving to the great hall. He whipped away his tears, straightened his back and brought his usual kind, caring self back.

"What for?"

"Believing in me."

"Always." I promised.

"How lovely to see you two bonding like this." A voice said behind us. Looking back we saw Albus Dumbledore and I couldn't hold back my giggle as my cheek grazed his ridiculously long beard. He had just stepped closer to move out of the way of a merry group of students making their way to the table.

Dumbledore smiled at me and smoothed down his beard. "Sorry about that, it is the start of a lovely day isn't it Potters?"

When Harry and Dumbledore engaged in a lengthy conversation I turned back to the table and managed to see a familiar blonde head from the corner of my eye.

"The conference will be in an hour by the school gates. I shall accompany you and I have no doubt in mind some students will follow closely by." Dumbledore was briefing Harry about all the details he'd set up and I excused me from my table.

I walked over to Prince. He was leaning against the wall by the end of the Slytherin table. I could see him talking to some Slytherin's looking bored and uncaring. He looked like he was declining a set by someone.

"Hi, Prince." I said as I stood by him.

"Hi princess." He replied.

"When it comes to nicknames I will settle for nothing less than a queen." I smiled and earned a small chuckle from him. "Aren't you going to eat. This is the first time I'm seeing you at the great hall."

"That's because this is the first time I'm here since returning to school. I've been eating... Elsewhere." He stated.

"Then why are you here now?" I asked.

"Because I canceled everything I had for today."

"But it's Sunday." I said. "There aren't any classes to attend."

"I have other things to attend on the side." Prince said rolling his eyes. He seemed different. He was putting up some front around his housemates.

"Like what?" I asked and people from the Slytherin table turned to look and listen.

Prince gave them a glare and told me: "You wouldn't understand."

"Oh, okay." A Slytherin guy from the table was looking at Prince and I weirdly.

"Why are you speaking to her?" He asked aiming the question at Prince.

I felt like this could cause a confrontation so I distracted Prince quickly: "Hey, you should meet my cousin." I pulled Prince away and towards the Gryffindor table.

"I don't care enough to meet your Gryffindor friends." He groaned.

"Cut the act. No need to pretend to be though." I said and watched as Dumbledore left to pull Prince all the way to Harry. "Cousin this is Prince the-"

"You're related to Potter!"

"Your friend is Malfoy!"

***

Merry Christmas (again) Love you all, happy wishes from Finland!