White Knight, Grey Queen

White Knight, Grey Queen is a Harry Potter fan fic written by "Jeconais" in 2005. When the Parkinson family finds themselves cast out and targeted by Voldemort and the Death Eaters because they refuse to stop making money through Muggle business connections, Pansy convinces her parents that the only way to survive is to throw their money and influence behind Harry Potter. But their first attempt at diplomatic outreach to Harry turns into a rescue mission when they discover him locked in a bedroom at the Dursley home, deliriously ill and dangerously close to death.

When Harry awakens after his fever breaks, he discovers two things. First, Pansy is neither as homely or as stupid as she seems at Hogwarts. Second, she and her parents Malcom (sic) and Gruoch are not nearly as dark as he's been led to believe. They call themselves "grey", always taking the pragmatic course that best benefits the family -- and that course is now to back him one hundred percent. That the elder Parkinsons were friends of his parents -- who practically matchmade them -- and that he and Pansy are rapidly falling in love make it easy to accept their offer -- an offer that could lead to happiness, fulfillment, and the death of a certain Lord Voldemort.

Written and released across a span of several months in the middle of which Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published, it of course is Canon-compliant only as far as Order of the Phoenix is concerned. In particular, horcruxes never enter the picture. It predates a fair amount of Potter Fanon, so it can come off as refreshingly original to those thoroughly indoctrinated with such "standard" characterizations as Daphne Greengrass the Ice Queen and manipulative!malevolent!Dumbledore. It also is of early enough vintage that many instances of what would later become Potter fanfic clichés are making some of their earliest appearances here -- including more than a few Unbuilt Tropes. For example, it features one of the first instances of Super!Harry, but this is a Super!Harry none of whose super abilities contribute very much to his final victory. Instead they seem to be more symbolic of the potential that was being quashed by the Dursleys and his substandard education. Another Unbuilt Trope is what appears to be a bog-standard "the world is made up only of dark and light -- and I decide who is which" Dumbledore -- except unlike the rigid, unyielding Dumbledore so common in later fics, this one recognizes when he's wrong and is able to change his point of view.

Generally well-received by the Potter fandom, White Knight, Grey Queen even has positive ratings and reviews on non-fanfic sites like GoodReads. Among the Potter fandom it won acclaim and awards, including "Best All-Around Harry Potter FanFiction" from the DarkLordPotter.net forums in 2006.

It can be found on Fanfiction.net here or on fanficauthors.net.

""'Remus Lupin - Policies for Understanding, Caring and Equality.'" "P.U.C.E?" Harry groaned as he pronounced the acronym. "Yes," Hermione grinned. "It's what you wanted isn't it?""
 * The Alcoholic: Narcissa Malfoy is a "useless" one thanks to her marriage to Lucius, according to Pansy, and ending up like her is one of the things she's most afraid of.
 * Alpha Bitch: Pansy acknowledges that it's not only part of her "cover" at Hogwarts, there is a strong thread of this in her true personality -- but it's been getting moderated by being with Harry.  She later jokes about it with Ginny Weasley and Daphne Greengrass.
 * Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: When Gruoch and Pansy take Harry for his LASIK surgery, Gruoch pretends to be his mother in an over-the-top performance complete with excessively cutesy pet names for him.
 * Arranged Marriage: An arrangement between Draco and Pansy seems to have simply been assumed by the Malfoys, and because the implicit threat of retaliation (even before Voldemort's resurrection), the Parkinsons chose not to challenge it openly. (Although Pansy's father Malcom did give Pansy the glamour spell that she used to minimize Draco's interest in her.)  It was an explicit demand to formalize an arrangement with a great deal of publicity (in part to serve as a distraction from something unspecified that Voldemort wanted to accomplish) that triggered the falling out between Lucius and Malcom which leads to Voldemort turning on the Parkinsons at the start of the story.  Malcom then averts the trope when he apologizes for making the arrangement and promises to let her make her own decision who to marry.
 * Artistic License Nuclear Physics: Hermione, who really should know better, describes nuclear bombs as "killing everyone in a fifty-mile radius".  That would be a bomb at least a several orders of magnitude larger than the largest nuclear bomb ever made.
 * Aura Vision: Harry compares one of his first "super" abilities to this, although it isn't quite the same thing.
 * Badass: Both Pansy and Harry after their training.
 * Badass Boast: The various versions of the "Utopian future where Voldemort is a forgotten footnote" speech.
 * Badass Normals: The British Special Forces Harry recruits to help take on Voldemort.
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind: Harry and Pansy helping Ginny in a dream face the fragment of Voldemort from the diary left in her mind, after it gets an infusion of power.
 * BDSM: Malcom and Gruoch indulge in BDSM play as part of their married life.  Pansy is surprisingly innocent enough that after an early Primal Scene moment in their shared Backstory, she thinks that's what sex is, and when she finally raises the subject with her mother, Gruoch finds she needs to disabuse her sixteen-year-old daughter of the notion -- and then give her The Talk for the first time.
 * Beautiful All Along: Pansy, under her glamour.
 * Beneath the Mask: In this story the familiar "canon" Pansy is a mask -- a combination of a glamour that makes her look unappealing along with behaving in a simpering, stupid manner -- designed to make her unattractive to Draco in particular and other boys in Slytherin in general.  The "real" Pansy is beautiful and devastatingly intelligent.
 * The Big Damn Kiss: Harry gets four of them in a row from four girls -- Pansy, Hermione, Daphne and Ginny -- in the middle of lunch in the Great Hall.  Subverted in that it's all part of a plan to send Draco into a Freak-Out that will result in him running off to Voldemort.  At the same time Pansy and Ginny's kisses are genuinely passionate, while Hermione's is a "just once, for a good cause, because you're like my brother" kiss, and Daphne's is just for fun and something she's been fishing for since the summer.
 * Brainless Beauty/Dumb Blonde: Subverted by Daphne, who uses a "bimbo" act to distract Draco.  In truth she is one of the top-ranked students in their year, figured out Pansy's disguise in second year (and kept the secret to herself), and can hold extended conversations on esoteric topics with Hermione.
 * Brutal Honesty: A Parkinson family trait.  They call it just "bluntness" and Harry finds he quite likes it.
 * Can Not Tell a Lie: Anyone whom Harry asks a question in his Compelling Voice or using his "Truth Stare" -- which is less than a handful of people in this story.
 * Can't Hold His Liquor: Ron turns out to be a nasty drunk when he has one too many alco-pops at the "welcome back/happy birthday Harry and Ginny" party at Hogwarts.
 * Catholic School Girls Rule: As part of a plan to have Draco deliver false intelligence to Voldemort, Pansy, Ginny, Daphne and Hermione all dress in excessively skimpy versions of their Hogwarts uniforms, strut into the Great Hall, and kiss Harry.  It Makes Sense in Context.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * The Unspeakable knife
 * The Chessmaster: Harry accuses Dumbledore of still believing himself to be one even though it hasn't been true for a while.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Harry.
 * Compelling Voice/Jedi Mind Trick: Harry figures out how to get this kind of effect by lacing his voice with magic while speaking in a lower register, but calls it "a cheap magical trick", notes that Malcom can do the same thing without magic, and never actually uses it for anything other than to demonstrate it. Hermione provides a Dune shout-out by explicitly comparing him to the Bene Gesserit.
 * Cool Car: The Parkinsons' car, which randomly changes make, model and color every couple of hours and on demand. It's also invisible to police radar and cameras.
 * Cool Gate: Voldemort creates a massive gate to transport his army from its gathering point at Hastings to Hogwarts.  Unfortunately for him it gets blown up before anyone goes anywhere.
 * Crazy Enough to Work: Hermione characterizes Harry's plan to lure Voldemort into a trap as "bloody insane" and is astounded when things start falling into place as planned.
 * Dance Party Ending: Starts in the final pages of the story, although Harry, Pansy and Ginny leave for a Parkinson house in France before the party really starts getting going.
 * De-Power: Combining elf magic with the wizarding magic he's mastered, Harry realizes that (with Pansy and Ginny's help) he can "disconnect" Nott the Death Eater from his magic, leaving him a Muggle.
 * Eaten Alive: Draco and Bellatrix, among others of the Death Eaters, are taken by the Acromantulas' "clean up" before they are actually dead.
 * Exact Words:
 * The wards around the Dursley home would raise an alarm if Harry "steps foot" outside -- so the Parkinsons levitate him to their car when they rescue him.
 * As part of revealing her relationship with Harry upon their return to Hogwarts, Pansy boldly announces that she's been sleeping with him for weeks. She hasn't been having sex with him; she's just been sharing his bed at night.
 * Fate Worse Than Death:   Ron notes that Dumbledore's attempts to be "merciful" by stunning instead of killing will actually result in this instead.
 * Feed the Mole: Harry and Pansy set up a plan by which they feed information to Draco designed to force Voldemort to move against them in such a way that they can then attack him and his forces before they're ready to deploy.
 * Forceful Kiss: A furious Ginny plants one on Pansy during the birthday party at Hogwarts after a drunk Ron accuses her of being a lesbian simply for dancing with Pansy; a moment later she realizes what she did without really thinking about it and becomes terribly upset that she's ruined her new friendship with Pansy.
 * Fun with Acronyms: Hermione deliberately comes up with a "SPEW"-like acronym for Remus' campaign for Minister of Magic.
 * Forceful Kiss: A furious Ginny plants one on Pansy during the birthday party at Hogwarts after a drunk Ron accuses her of being a lesbian simply for dancing with Pansy; a moment later she realizes what she did without really thinking about it and becomes terribly upset that she's ruined her new friendship with Pansy.
 * Fun with Acronyms: Hermione deliberately comes up with a "SPEW"-like acronym for Remus' campaign for Minister of Magic.

""You just fell for the oldest trick in the book," Ginny smirked. "Pure innocent witch," she pointed to herself. "Evil slutty witch," Pansy said, pointing to herself. "Completely psycho wizard," they both said, pointing at Harry."
 * Go Through Me: Ginny is slightly injured when she throws herself in the way of a Death Eater's spell targeting Pansy during an attack on Diagon Alley.
 * God Test: Harry's proof of magic's existence to the Navy special forces members:  he fires a massive pistol (once) at Ginny, who has a shield up.
 * Good Cop, Bad Cop: Harry, Pansy and Ginny perform a three-way version of this when interrogating Nott:

""That's settled; we're definitely keeping her.""
 * Grey Eyes: Pansy.  Interestingly, different interpretations of grey eyes apply to her different personae -- and to her "true" personality as it evolves under Harry's influence.
 * Grey Is Not Evil: It's not Good, either, but is able to see -- and make use of -- the advantages of both sides.  Unfortunately, for much of the story Dumbledore maintains an unyielding "if you're not Light as I define it, you're Dark" position, and because of a difference of opinion with a young Malcom effectively pushes the Parkinsons to the Dark.
 * Groin Attack: After their "final exam" on a military training course at the end of the summer, Pansy knees a sailor who flirted way too strongly with her.
 * Heartbreak and Ice Cream: After her (amicable) breakup with Ron, Hermione spends time with Daphne and a massive chocolate bar, to "gossip and badmouth boys".
 * Hidden in Plain Sight: Essentially Pansy's strategy to avoid Draco's attention -- make herself look homely and then dote obnoxiously on him.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: Both Snape and Umbridge.  Umbridge is specifically kept in her position as Defence professor long enough for Pansy to position her on her petard.
 * I Did What I Had to Do: The central element of Pansy's apologies first to Harry and then later to his friends:  "I did what I thought was necessary for my safety and that of my family," basically.
 * I Want to Bear His Children: Fred, when the Order of the Phoenix figures out Harry's plan in the last chapter, says, "Harry, I want your children!"
 * I'm Taking Her Home with Me: Malcom, joking, about Ginny when she gives him a doughnut.

""On three?" Paddy asked. "Nah, let's just go for it," Stephan replied."
 * Even earlier Pansy tells Harry that she's keeping Ginny.
 * If It's You It's Okay:.
 * In Vino Veritas:
 * During the dinner with the Dursleys, Malcom provides a bottle of wine but wandlessly removes the alcohol from the Parkinsons' glasses, then encourages the Dursleys to drink heartily until their tongues are loosened.
 * During the joint birthday part for Harry and Ginny held on their return to Hogwarts, Ron gets drunk on alcohol smuggled into the party and lets his jealousy, anger and confusion override his common sense. He starts a fight with Ginny that results in the party being cut short and Harry having to postpone proposing to Pansy.
 * Incompletely Trained:
 * A master Legilimencer's opinion of Voldemort's legilimency skills.
 * The current crop of aurors, according to Croaker, an Unspeakable. He informs Harry that at one point the Unspeakables and the Aurors were trained to the same level, but because so many aurors died during the first Voldemort uprising (and people like Malfoy sabotaged the training of their replacements afterwards), the auror corps has yet to return to its former level.
 * Intimate Healing: Semi-accidentally. Pansy climbs into bed with Harry the first night he's in the Parkinson home to help comfort him during a nightmare and falls asleep next to him.  She never stops sharing a bed with him.
 * It's All About Me: In Harry's opinion this is the core principal of Draco's personality.  What little we see from Draco's point of view seems to support this.
 * Jabba Table Manners: Both Dudley and Vernon Dursley.
 * Knight in Shining Armor: Daphne tags Harry as a "White Knight"
 * Lady and Knight: Verges on the "Dark Lady and White Knight" variant, with a classic "white knight" Harry falling for a version of Pansy Parkinson who is both cleverer and less dark than she initially appears.  Harry finds her "grey" approach complements rather than conflicts with his own approach, giving the pair of them a far wider range of options and strategies in the war against Voldemort than either one would have had alone.
 * Left Hanging: See No Ending, below.  But In-Universe, many plans Harry has set in motion are left hanging by the acceleration of events after Nott's capture and interrogation:  training the D.A. up to a proper force, the use of thestrals as war horses and other ideas are abandoned half- or even un-implemented.  Hermione comments on this.
 * Literal-Minded: Played with -- deliberately -- by Hermione.  When Harry playfully demands a kiss (from Pansy) for acting on one of Hermione's suggestions, Hermione gets up, sits in his lap, gives him a chaste peck on the lips, then returns to her original seat with a smug little smile on her face.
 * Literally Shattered Lives: During the final battle Hermione transfigures a Death Eater into plaster, then breaks the resulting statue with a bludgeoner.
 * Little Black Dress:
 * Pansy wears one to the nightclub during the night out on Harry's birthday.
 * Ginny wears one to the "welcome back/birthday" party at Hogwarts.
 * Love Triangle: See Triang Relations, below.
 * Magitek: The Parkinsons have more than a few examples of it in their lives -- everything from hair dryers to their Cool Car.  Exploring further possibilities is one of Harry's explicit post-Voldemort goals.
 * The Man Behind the Man: The Parkinsons have traditionally styled themselves "the power behind the throne".  Allying themselves with Harry is their first step into visible power.
 * Meaningful Name: In this story the newborn Pansy was given a floral-themed name in honor of Lily Potter.
 * Mindlink Mates: After completing their Occlumency and Legilimency training, Harry and Pansy develop a crude, simple form of this trope, where they can, at will, be broadly aware of what each other is doing and/or feeling.
 * By the end of the penultimate chapter, Ginny is starting to be part of the connection without training.
 * The Mole: Tonks, disguised as Nott, among the Death Eaters.
 * Moment Killer: In an example that isn't as immediate as the usual implementation, Ron utterly ruins Harry's plan to propose to Pansy at the birthday party at Hogwarts by getting drunk and starting a fight with Ginny.
 * Muggles Do It Better:
 * The Parkinsons show no hesitation about using anything Muggle if it makes life more comfortable, convenient or profitable for them.
 * Definitely in play in the final battle. Harry, Pansy and Ginny are all trained in firearms (and use them), and thanks to one of their trainers they are able to call in a platoon of British special forces to help take out Voldemort's non-human forces.
 * Ginny, Pansy and the Marines using massed semi-auto rifle fire to bring down Voldemort's shield.
 * My Future Self and Me: During one loop through a day, Future!Harry and Future!Pansy (from the end of the loop) take their start-of-loop selves aside for private chats in which they each share helpful advice they had gotten from their future selves five subjective days earlier.
 * Neck Snap: Tonks kills at least one Death Eater this way.
 * The Nicknamer: Dobby, in one of the first instances of this in fanfic as a deliberate character trait for him.  Upon their return to Hogwarts Harry, Pansy and Daphne discuss this behavior and the names he's given to various people.
 * No Ending: Sorta kinda? Voldemort is defeated and the Death Eaters are wiped out, and Harry has essentially become the new Leader of the Light... but every other plan and plot thread set in motion during the course of the story --, Remus' campaign for Minister, the secession of the House Elves, basically all of the revolution that Harry and the Parkinsons have been planning for most of the story -- is Left Hanging.
 * Noodle Implements: A non-physical example is seen in the "Sins of the Student" doctrine.  Exactly what it is is never explained; it has something to do with the the training and licensing of Legilimencers and Occlumencers, and Harry uses it as a threat against Dumbledore over Snape.
 * Noodle Incident: After she and Harry destroyed the portrait of Sirius' mother with turpentine, Pansy left something written in red on the blank canvas.  Even though it's mentioned a couple of times, we are never told what it was.
 * Not So Different: Voldemort and Dumbledore, as far as the Parkinsons are concerned.  Both think the family is allied to the other side, and both disapprove strongly (to say the least) of their business dealings with the Muggle world.  And the Parkinsons are convinced that both would use them only for their resources and then discard them when they were no longer of any use.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity:
 * Daphne Greengrass's "bimbo" act, which she drops when Pansy reveals her true self to all of Hogwarts.
 * Pansy deliberately gives the impression that she's mere arm-candy for Harry and not nearly his equal in combat ability.
 * On Three: Actively averted with Paddy and Stephen when they attack a giant during the final battle.

""Last night changed a lot of things for us, so we have to change our plans, and I've got a few ideas." "Hold on a second," Malcom ordered. He finished off his coffee and settled back into the chair, gripping the arms tightly. "Go on, hit me," he smirked. "Ginny," Gruoch said calmly. "Be a dear and hit that husband of mine." Ginny looked thoughtful for a few seconds and then leaned closer and lightly slapped the back of Malcom's head. Malcom smiled and relaxed. "Go on, Harry.""
 * Pimped-Out Dress: Subversion:  Pansy eventually reveals that the dress she wore to the Yule Ball in their fourth year was deliberately chosen for how ugly it was, as part of her long-term plan to keep Draco at arm's length.
 * Pop Cultural Osmosis Failure: In-Universe.  Both Harry and Ginny fail to recognize what she's talking about when Hermione namechecks Doctor Dolittle.  Ironically, Pansy and Daphne both do.
 * Primal Scene: At some unspecified point when she was much younger, Pansy came upon her parents playing BDSM games -- and ended up thinking for years afterward that that was the way sex worked all the time.
 * Quintessential British Gentleman: Peirce (sic), the Parkinson family doctor/healer, although he deliberately exaggerates it for comic effect as part of his bedside manner.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
 * Pansy delivers a thorough and eviscerating one to the Dursleys before the Parkinsons leave with Harry -- and ends it with a critique of their taste in home design.
 * She gives another one to Draco Malfoy as part of her "unmasking" the first day back at Hogwarts.
 * Revenge: A Parkinson family specialty.
 * Sadistic Choice: Voldemort tries to force Harry into one with Pansy and Ginny's survival on the line but it doesn't go anywhere close to the way he intends.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: In some ways the Parkinson family credo, but without the obnoxious arrogance that normally accompanies it.
 * Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right:
 * Croaker's reasoning for helping Harry and Pansy even though legally he can't do so.
 * Harry starts developing this mindset when he realizes that Dumbledore's "rules of engagement" hobble the side of the light so much it's rendered ineffective.
 * Secret Test of Character: During the nightclub portion of Harry's birthday night out with Pansy, Malcom secretly arranges for four Muggles to assault his daughter to see what Harry will do.   Malcom and Gruoch, who were watching it all through closed-circuit TV, approve and applaud.
 * Self-Disposing Villain: Voldemort. Not only does he collapse into dust when.
 * Shapeshifter Showdown: Nymphadora Tonks' part of the final battle is a constantly-changing panoply of forms, each taken for the advantages it grants at the moment she needs it, including a couple which count as Shapeshifter Weapons all by themselves.
 * She Cleans Up Nicely: Pansy already knew this about Hermione thanks to the Yule Ball, but is still surprised by just how nicely she can clean up to.
 * She's Got Legs: Pansy's true form is tall (5'8") and long-legged, something that gets mentioned several times by the narration and Harry.
 * Sickeningly Sweethearts: Harry and Pansy. Daphne even comments on it at least once.
 * Malcom and Gruoch as well, to a lesser degree.
 * Spit-Take: Remus does one when Tonks casually tells him she's come to take him to see Harry.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: Between grenades, RPGs, various missiles and other Muggle weaponry brought by the Navy special forces (and no doubt a few things brewed by the Weasley twins), there's no shortage of explosions during the final battle.
 * Super Speed: Harry eventually develops the ability to manage something like this for short bursts. Keeping it up for more than a minute or two exhausts him.
 * Supporting Harem: Pansy is the Love Interest, and Ginny, Daphne and Hermione are the secondaries.  Subverted in that Hermione is essentially a courtesy member, as she views Harry like a brother, and.
 * Driven home to everyone in Hogwarts when all four of them dress up in sexy schoolgirl outfits, strut into the Great Hall, and kiss Harry for the sole purpose of freaking out Draco so badly he has to run to Voldemort.
 * Take a Third Option: The decision that the Parkinsons make to back Harry directly and explicitly create a third side in the war.
 * Take That: In-Universe, Pansy's plan to turn Malfoy Manor into a Muggle hotel.
 * Taken for Granite: Daphne and Hermione both petrify Death Eaters during the final battle.
 * The Talk: When Pansy admits her confusion about sex -- born of a misapprehension caused by a BDSM-flavored Primal Scene she came upon when very young -- Grouch interrupts their drive to the Hogwarts Express to sit down and deliver The Talk to her.
 * Take Our Word for It: Ginny gets her hair restyled, but other than it is long and straight, is "amazing" and makes her even more attractive than before, we find out nothing about what it actually looks like.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Pansy's true appearance.
 * Time Travel: For five weeks, Harry and Pansy use a Time Turner to repeat each day six times -- five for training, one for rest.
 * In the last week before they attack Voldemort, they repeat this process at Hogwarts to get Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Daphne trained up.
 * Time Travel Tense Trouble: Discussing their use of the Time Turner gives Harry a headache.  Pansy deliberately invokes the trope to tease him.
 * Title Drop: Several times throughout the story, especially at the birthday party at Hogwarts when Daphne tells Ginny, "Look at the White Knight and the Grey Queen".
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Doughnuts, it seems, for Malcom.
 * Triang Relations: Toward the end of the story, Pansy draws Ginny Weasley into her relationship with Harry, forming something that seems to straddle the line between a Type 7 and Type 8 Love Triangle.
 * Video Wills: The Goblins play a magical equivalent for Harry and Remus in lieu of a more traditional reading of his Will.
 * Visual Pun: In-universe:


 * What You Are in the Dark: Invoked by implication by Pansy when she talks to him about death and loss, and talks him through his feelings of guilt.
 * With This Ring: Gruoch gives Harry a Parkinson family heirloom ring to propose to Pansy with.  He doesn't really get a chance to propose "on-screen" -- Ron spoils things the night Harry had initially planned, and another opportunity doesn't come up before the story ends.
 * With Us or Against Us:
 * This is basically the reason Dumbledore calls the Parkinsons evil -- when he was younger Malcom disagreed with Dumbledore about doing business with Muggles. Because Malcom would not kowtow to every opinion and position dictated by Dumbledore, the headmaster wrote the Parkinsons off as irretrievably evil.
 * Malcom says this about Harry's side in the war when he gives Minister Fudge an ultimatum upon reasserting his control over the Ministry.
 * Younger Than They Look: Pansy's true appearance; Harry after the combination medical help for his stunted growth and a great deal of physical training.
 * Zip Me Up: Pansy has Harry unzip her dress as she changes during the limousine ride between dinner at the Ritz and dancing at her father's nightclub on their first date.  She manages not to flash anything he hasn't already seen, and enjoys the calm regard he gives her as she changes.