Daphne collapsed onto her knees. Gasping for breath as sweat poured off her body, her unfocused, bulging eyes were facing the floor. Her blonde hair was mussed up, her clothes were rumpled and her normally porcelain skin was flushed red. What had just happened to her was impossible! She was the best of the third years, possibly the best student in the school. Not just in theory, as was Granger's specialty, but she was also the best at practical. Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Runes, Arithmancy, Herbology, even History! She was the best at them all! Yet, he just dominated her, dueled her and then proceeded to outsmart her. She was outplayed, outsmarted, and she couldn't blame lack of preparation. The truth was, as she could now see, he was just as cunning as she was, just better at hiding his deviousness.
"Such a shame Greengrass, I honestly expected more from you." With a short sigh, he continued, "Please remember our deal and keep unnecessary information to yourself." With that the short boy swept out of the room, breaking the wards she so carefully set up. They were torn down as if they were nothing, as if removing the wards was as easy as turning a doorknob.
It wasn't that he was magically superior to her, all he had done was spend an hour dodging her increasingly dangerous spells. What had stunned her was his ability to dodge all of those spells for the entire hour without pause. Then as if she was beneath his time he summoned her wand from her. He didn't disarm her, didn't stun her, didn't even curse her, just a simple summoning charm was enough to gently tug her wand from her exhausted hand.
She couldn't believe that she lost! How she lost! It was extremely humiliating! He wasn't supposed to be this good! He was an idiot, favored by most teachers, ignored by few. Her head of house was biased against him, extremely biased, but the idiot just couldn't shut his mouth. He deserved all the negative attention! All his positive attention was unearned! But. He. Had. Bested. Her.
After she calmed down from her defeat she slowly gathered her energy and staggered to her feet. Slowly she hobbled towards her dorm room, as exhausted as she was, she couldn't stay in one place so late after curfew. She was also sure that she'd be magically weakened for a few days due to the amount of spells she used in the duel, if she was really unlucky she'd suffer a case of magical exhaustion. Either way the best cure was rest, plenty of rest.
Somehow she managed to get from the hidden classroom on the second floor and back into her dormitory without getting caught. She didn't bother undressing, preferring to just collapse into her bed and wiggle under her comforter. As she snuggled into her bed, slowly letting herself be dragged into Morpheus' realm, she remembered the deal. Growling because she couldn't shut that bint up, Granger would keep prattling on about being the best in the year, and the "Smartest Witch of the Age". Daphne was trapped. No longer could she publicly humiliate Granger at the end of the year as she planned. No calling her out to duel, proving who was better at practical magic, no proving who was better in theory by asking and answering progressively harder questions. No, by foolishly being arrogant, she sealed her fate in making the bet. Granger would publicly remain top of the school, even if Daphne was better, even if he was better. Tears streaming from her eyes Daphne softly cursed, "Damn you Potter."
This was just an idea I was throwing around a "What if Harry was more cunning then he let on?" scenario. Throughout the books I always wondered how Harry fit into EVERYONE's perfect little hero. He is unnecessarily friendly to Ron, tolerant to Hermione, angry at Snape, vindictive to Malfoy and worshipping to Dumbledore.
I believe that he wouldn't be as forgiving of Ron for abandonment after living with the Dursleys, along with being Dumbledore's martyr and Snape/Malfoy's punching bag, there is a hidden reason, having it being Harry becoming sneaky and cunning while living with the Dursleys (who wanted him to be submissive) is a possibility. With the setup meeting with the Weasleys a cunning Harry could very well have read Ron's lame attempt at becoming friends and jumped on it to learn his new "role" for the wizarding world.
Many people have done charms, compulsions, drugs and the like to describe why he fits into so many contradictory roles, but very few take Harry being the manipulating factor. Most of the ones that have a manipulative Harry tend to be wrong BWL or Slytherin Harry stories, none really take him as a Gryffindor and make him cunning. If there are stories out there that feature a cunning Harry tricking Dumbledore/Snape and his friends into believing him to be a saint I'd love a message with the story title.
I hope you enjoyed my little short oneshot, I couldn't think of how this story should go, but I did like the idea so I wanted to put it up, both to know if others thought this sounds good, and to see if there was a story I had passed up that I might enjoy.