Eight times she had tried, eight times she had failed, in the span of two months, she had tried drowning, poisoning, electrocution, spell traps, snakes, wolves and even dropping a piano on him(how that had gone wrong would ever evade her).

And every single time, in some cruel twist of fate, she was the one who almost died.

And the worst of all, he always had ended up saving her.

It was embarrassing, and now Tracey wouldn't even speak to her.

She would not be bound against her will to him. Even if he was stupidly noble, even if he always smiled at her or always had a gentle word to say, even if he never asked for anything after saving her life, she would choose her husband, no matter what.

She was finishing her next plan, it was bold and dangerous, but he would never escape that large quantity of blast powder detonating near him. And then she would be free.

"You know, I don't think that will work."

She immediately turned around, wand in hand, but there was nothing there, even the revealing spell showed nothing.

"I also don't think the library is a proper place to plan an assassination you know; Hermione would be scandalized."

She turned back and now he was seated across from her, with that damnable smirk. How? And now he knew, what would he do? Had he called the Aurors, was he here to kill her?

She decided to pretend nothing was wrong.

"What do you want, Potter?" she asked with a blank face.

He smiled that secret smile of his like he knew something she didn't.

"Oh, I don't know, I just wanted to check up on you, to see if you were okay." She flushed.

"Bugger off, Potter!"

He crossed his arms and placed his elbows on the table "I also wanted to ask if you had plans for this weekend, you know, it's a Hogsmeade weekend, and I wanted to know if we can skip our weekly assassination attempt and instead enjoy a butterbeer?" he raised his eyebrows with an expectant expression.

Damn him! He knew! "What's your game, Potter, why don't you just call the DMLE to arrest me, or tell Dumbledore?"

His expression darkened for a second but then cleared "Let's just say I don't have that much trust in authority figures and leave it at that, Daphne."

"And now you want to take me on a date?" she spoke slowly as if to a child.

"Oh, yes, you know, you could have just told me that was happening, I was pretty confused at first, thought you were working for Voldemort, even if his crowd only tried once a year, and normally near the end."

She would never work for that man, and now she wondered if the rumors about Potter where true.

"But, imagine my surprise when I receive a letter, telling me of a pending contract with your family, involving me and you, and how only my untimely death would free you." he was so blasé speaking about it, like he was commenting Quidditch results.

His expression then cleared "For what it is worth, I am sorry Daphne."

"What?"

"I never wanted this for us, I mean, arranged marriage? What the hell were my grandparents thinking?"

She squeezed her hands shut, knuckles white, that old anger returning, she had always been independent, with dreams of her own, and being bound to a loveless marriage was not one of them. Her eyes burned, but she refused to cry.

"So, now what? We go on dates, to "know each other", fall in love naturally and then at 19 marry for love?" Her tone indicated how much she thought of that.

He shrugged "Well, that was Hermione's idea you know, Ron thought it stupid, but I think my idea is better."

She raised a mocking eyebrow "Oh, really, Potter, and what is your brilliant plan?"

He chuckled "Well, it's simple really, we go on a few dates, to satisfy that 'know each other' clause, and then when I reach my majority and assume Headship of the Potter family I dismiss the contract under clause 14, lack of compatibility, if you want of course."

She frowned "There are only 12 clauses Potter."

He smiled again "Well maybe on your contract, the bride's, mine has 15, clause 14 lets the Head of House Potter dismiss the contract if he decided they are not compatible after a few tries to know each other"

The more he spoke the more her face paled, "What? I-I never knew. I thought..."

His smile broadened "Well, you never asked, had you, we could've skipped the whole planned assassination phase, though I admit I had fun."

"Fun, are you mad Potter?"

"Depends on who you ask, but I know your heart just wasn't in it, I mean, snakes, you do know that as a parselmouth I am immune to most poisons? And they didn't even bite me, you're not Malfoy, so you certainly remember Second Year."

She nodded, flushing, the last four attempts had been half-hearted she had to admit, but she was too prideful to do it.

"I honestly thought you didn't care, until my lawyer explained my contract was different, being the groom's family or something, very unfair if you ask me, but she also told me it was common practice and that the bride's family knew about that."

Daphne blanched, "I-I never asked my parents."

Harry laughed "Wait, so you read the contract, and immediately jumped in to try and kill me? Are you sure the Hat didn't make a mistake?"

She flushed again, "Shut up, Potter, I am sorry if I didn't think thoroughly upon knowing I would be married against my will to someone I never knew and thought hated me."

She did not want to say the last part, but it came out before she could stop it.

He raised his eyebrows and looked into her eyes with those damnable green eyes "I never hated you, in fact, "he blushed."I always had a bit of a crush on you."

She huffed "Really, Potter, not you too."

"Hey, it's not only because I think you're beautiful, because you are!" She did not blush at his sincerity, it was anger "You're bloody smart too, and you don't lord it over everyone, and you've got this quiet confidence I find really cool, and that I envy a bit, I admit." he babbled a bit, before looking her in the eyes "Also, the way you protect your friends, especially Tracey, it's really cool."

She flushed again and averted her eyes "She's my friend and Blaise too, I don't care about this whole blood thing."

"I know, Tracey said so, apparently you've been doing it since the second year, I only saw it a few times, my favorite one was when you kneed Malfoy between his legs, that was awesome!"

"That wasn't really har- Wait! You spoke to Tracey?"

He laughed "Oh, yes, when you were in the hospital because of that potions accident, Malfoy and his cronies tried to bully her but found me first."

She gaped "That was you? But Malfoy shot first. And he was in the hospital for a week."

Harry grinned, and Daphne thought she should be scared because it was definitely not kind, nor merely mischievous, but she wasn't, instead, she smiled back before she could stop herself.

"For all his talk, Malfoy is incredibly easy to rile up, sometimes all I have to is pass him by the corridor without acknowledging him, or just dismiss him outright when he starts spewing his nonsense."

She nodded, Tracey had been cagey about who helped her, but she should've known, yet, there was one question that was nagging her.

"Why?"

"Well, you know how I don't like when he starts offending other people with all that bull-"

"No, not that!" he raised his eyebrow

"Why help me?" She gestured around them "Why save me all those times, why didn't you just let me die?" The opportunity to free himself was certainly there.

He smiled a bit, and took a deep breath before looking into her eyes "Because I understand you."

"What?"

"I know what it is to have your choices taken away from you, you may not believe it, but ever since I was born, people sought to remove my choices, my freedom..." he closed his fists and she could swear his eyes got a little more bright "I rarely get to do what I want to do, Voldemort, Dumbledore, my relatives, for good or ill all they seem to end up doing is locking me up, one way or another."

He closed his eyes and released a breath, she did it too, the tension had become too high back there. When he opened them, he smiled, with such sincerity and intensity in his gaze Daphne couldn't look away.

"So I can empathize with you, and who knows, maybe next year Voldemort does end up doing me in and you're free, but before that, I would like to know the Daphne Greengrass, the girl who writes essays by day and sets up snake pits by night."

She looked away from him, she wouldn't deny she was interested, and if she wanted to be honest with herself, she knew she wouldn't succeed, somehow Potter always escaped, like he knew she was there, and when he didn't he just escaped in a spectacular way, or she just botched the whole thing and then had to be saved. Perhaps there's a better way and if anything, she could just poison him during dinner.

"Fine."

Seeing his earnest expression, she continued. "Yes, Potter I will go out with you this weekend, but you will dress well, no school robes, something to match a green dress and you will take me to a decent place"

"And do I have your word that you will stop trying to kill me?"

She hesitated for a moment before nodding with a sigh, "Yes, I swear to stop that."

He nodded, and then the secret smile returned, "Good, I wouldn't want you to activate clause 15."

"15?"

"Yep, it's a whole paragraph of legal stuff, but Andi said that basically if you willingly kill me, even indirectly, you die too, apparently you weren't the first to think of your solution, though she said sometimes witches just didn't care and went with it"

Her eyes widened, she never knew that! Why wasn't that on her contract? Were they supposed to be read together? The lawyer she consulted via owl never said such, but they also said they didn't have experience with high level marriage contracts, she had decided not to ask others because she wanted to avoid leaving a paper trail.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at Potter who was looking concerned, "You okay?"

She nodded, "I will be, thank you, Potter"

"Good, so, are we still up?"

"Yes, Potter, we are, be at the Entrance Hall at 4 pm on Saturday."

He smiled, "Awesome, and please call me Harry, see you later Daphne, nice talking to you," he rose from the chair and went to the entrance.

She nodded still shaken, "The same Pot-Harry." she tested the name, and then looked down at her latest plan, the formulae and diagrams mocking her before she ripped the parchment in little pieces and then vanished them.

She released a massive breath, the stress and tension of three months of terror finally coming out, she didn't know why, but she believed P-Harry.

Daphne rose from her chair, picking up the books, she needed to talk to Tracey, then write to her parents, and then sleep for twelve hours.

2 YEARS LATER

Daphne stood with Harry at Gringotts, a white golden parchment was in his hands, he was dressed in formal black robes, his golden signet ring was glinting in the light, but he still had that same smile.

"Ready?" he asked.

Her breath caught, and she held in her tears, they were free from Voldemort (who had died buried by bricks while distracted by Harry flying in a Hebridian Black, her one assassination plan that succeeded).

"Ready" she choked.

"I, Harry James Potter, Head of House Potter, dismiss this contract," he said before his ring gleamed and the contract started burning from the center with white blue flames, in a few seconds it was gone, only ashes remained.

Harry cleaned his hands, "Done, Daphne, we're free, you are free." he looked at her then, she looked back, her face blank.

She was free, after months of stress and lost sleep, two months of trying to kill him, two years of an emotional rollercoaster of a relationship, of fighting Voldemort, and now she was free, she could make her own choices, she could do whatever she wanted to do.

So she kissed him.

Following a prompt from reddit HPFanfiction community.