A/N: Thanks to all the people who reviewed my story and added it to their alerts and what not!
Disclaimer: I do not and will never own Harry Potter. I mostly just write for fun and no profit. Enjoy!
Harry frowned. The plan didn't make any sense. Was Voldemort really this dumb? Why on earth would he fall in love with a Syltherin, if this whole thing with him saving her hadn't happened he doubted that he would have even talked to Daphne even if she did try to talk to him. Besides, what if she were lying? Harry doubted that Voldemort would put the responsibilities of him regaining power on the shoulders of a fourteen year old girl.
Harry glared at her trying hopelessly to find out whether she was telling the truth or if the potion had indeed made her crazy. It had been silent for a few moments and she just stared back at him matching his gaze although it hers was not as intense. He finally gave up and looked away toward the window. It was still raining and dark outside so he could barely see anything, although he could see the flashes of lightning lighting up the dark sky every so often. It made not looking at her easier.
"Say something… please?" she whispered interrupting his thoughts. He slowly looked away from the lightning and looked at her. She was crying and now the makeup was running down her face just as freely as the tears were. He really didn't know what to say to her, he really just wanted to leave and go back to his friends anyway.
Seemingly noticing that he noticed her makeup running she absent-mindedly swiped at her face smudging it in more. Harry laughed. He hadn't meant to but it was funny because now her face looked like she had taken a face first dive into a mound of dirt.
"Why should I believe you?" he asked noticing her irritation at him laughing. In all honestly he didn't know what to say. She raised her eyebrows at him angrily and looked ready to hit him again. He made a mental note to never ever save somebody ever again because if they ended up being drunk he obviously didn't know how to handle it.
."You don't believe me?" she asked incredulously, like it was crazy to not believe her. Harry didn't say anything. He could see this conversation going absolutely no where so it was time to wrap it up. He shook his head.
"Fine don't believe me but when you're staring face to face with a killing curse at the end of the term don't come crying to me about it" she snapped and turning her head up and folding her arms like she was above him.
Harry laughed again which probably wasn't the right thing to do because she swung at him again. Luckily, he saw it coming so he was able to dodge it and got up. He quickly muttered the unlocking spell and left before she could anything to stop him.
He stepped over Malfoy's body, giving him a kick in the stomach just because, and hurried back down the train back to the compartment where he knew his friends would be waiting for him. He opened the door slowly, just in case Hermione had been changing, and took his seat next to across from them.
"What took you so long mate, fall in?" Ron grinned as he looked up from the window. He seemed to be in a better mood from earlier when Malfoy barged in and bragged about some big secret even that was happening at Hogwarts that only important people at the ministry knew about. That was before Harry found him drugged in Daphne's compartment.
"Something of the sort" Harry replied deciding not to even tell his friends of the foolishness he had just encountered. He didn't believe any of it anyways so there was no point in telling them what happened.
"You know if you sit there to long the toilet seat will get mad and start shouting rude things at you, especially if you're some fat slob like Crabbe or Goyle" Ron said and winced when Hermione slapped his arm.
"Ron, be nice" she said not even looking up from her book which appeared to be something about Transfiguration. Harry laughed, sure they argued like an old married couple but they were the best friends anybody could ever ask for.
The rest of the train ride was short and uneventful. Harry and Ron changed into their Hogwarts robs just before the train had reached Hogsmeade. Thunder could be heard over the noise of the students who were quickly dashing to carriages so they could escape the rain as soon as possible.
He saw Malfoy in the distance with Crabbe and Goyle at his side pushing people out of their way so they could get to one of the first carriages. Harry didn't really mind waiting though, he sort of liked thunderstorms. The rain and thunder pounding rhythmically in his eardrums relaxed him a great deal.
When they got they were alone with the exception of Neville who sat with them sometime toward the end of the train ride. Neville didn't bother him much and he actually wished he knew the boy a bit better. All he knew about him now was that he was very forgetful and lacked confidence.
He stared off into the distance trying desperately to ignore more talk of Quidditch from Ron and Neville. He loved the sport and everything, but he was just tired of talking about it every second like Ron seemed to do. The storm seemed to be getting worst, which didn't mind Harry at all because it made it easier to sleep at night.
Harry turned from the storm and looked ahead and smiled when the silhouette of the giant castle that was Hogwarts came into view. He alwa ys felt drawn to this place which probably was due to the fact that it was the first place he could call home.
They walked as fast as they could and swung open the giant doors that led to the hallway with the giant marble staircase. The warmth of the castle pounced on him savagely; he didn't realize how cold he actually was until the doors shut with a bang behind him. There were a few people still standing their catching up with friends who they had lost contact with during the summer.
He saw Professor McGonagall hurrying people into the great hall angrily and heard a near by group of girls talking about how Peeves had dropped water balloons on their head when they first walked in. Harry chuckled to himself a bit, he was glad they waited.
They were finally allowed to enter the great hall and marched right past the Syltherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw tables to, in Harry's opinion, the table of the best house out of the four; Gryffindor. They took seats next to nearly headless Nick who began to talk but Harry didn't pay attention due to the sound of his stomach rumbling.
He looked up and saw the glass like dome that hung over the great hall, enchanted to look like the night's sky. Harry had always thought it exaggerated on the weather a bit which seemed to be the case now as the black clouds spat thunder and lightning at each other waging a war that seemed like it would never end.
Time seemed to shift into turbo and suddenly the first years were on the kids with the last names that started with R before he even realized it. He didn't mind though, his stomach was still begging him for food loudly but it was naturally outdone by the sound of Ron's stomach growling next to him.
The last name had finally been called and after Dumbledore spoke his yearly oddity the food appeared on their plates and Harry dug in. He took a little bit of everything that he could reach and by the time he was done felt full and was quite ready for bed.
With impeccable timing, Dumbledore rose and began to give out his normal yearly warnings. Harry's attention was only firmly grabbed when Dumbledore announced that the inter-house Quidditch cup would not be taking place this year. Like many others he groaned but it soon turned to excitement when Dumbledore announced that Triwizard Tournament was back but this time had an age limit.
Harry was excited only because of the age limit which meant that he couldn't join which in turn meant that the rumor mill would be on somebody else besides himself at the end of the year, he really didn't like the attention. Somewhere in-between all that Mad-Eye Moody was introduced and he was scary looking but Harry didn't mind him being the defense teacher because he used to be an Auror.
Dumbledore, much to Harry's delight, then dismissed them for bed. He got up with his friends and half listened to Fred and George's plot to trick Dumbledore's age line while fighting the sleep dragon. It put up a heck of a fight shooting flames of weariness that finally doomed Harry as soon as he was done changing in to his pajamas.
Albus Dumbledore sat relaxed in his big purple chair without a care in the world. All of his students were sleeping soundly, except Fred and George Weasley who were exploring the castle on the third floor, and surprisingly his plan for the greater good was coming along splendidly.
He always knew that Voldemort had to come back to full power to be completely and it finally looked like the right opportunity had come. All though this time Dumbledore would let Harry fall into Voldemort's trap and had a sneaking suspicion that Harry would come out relatively unscathed.
"Severus, what do I owe you the pleasure of this evening?" he said asked, the magic of the castle telling him of his Potions Masters' presence. He looked up and admired the way his robes swept along the floor as if they were an extension of Severus. He sighed, there things that even the great Albus Dumbledore could not master.
"Have you read Potters mind?" Snape asked him almost nonchalantly like it wasn't illegal to use legitimacy on students. Dumbledore however chuckled, of course he had. Harry Potter was often like an open picture book. Even the least skilled of Legilimens would have no trouble reading Harry but soon Dumbledore would have to change that.
Severus, sensing the obvious answer continued "Then you are quite aware that he doesn't believe Greengrass on the matter?"
Dumbledore chuckled again. It looked like Severus hadn't figured out the what was going on, which obviously was to use Alastor Moody's imposter, Barty Crouch Jr., to capture and portkey Harry to Voldemort using the Triwizard cup. It was a dumb idea really; Voldemort seemed to forget that he and Moody had been friends for over thirty years so there was absolutely no way he could not spot an imposter. Tom had just been lucky that Dumbledore needed him to get his body back to complete his own master plan.
"Of course he doesn't," Dumbledore said getting back to the matter at hand, "and to be honest I would have been extremely disappointed in Harry if he had believed her."
Snape raised his eyebrow in a questioning glare so Dumbledore continued "He has never even held a conversation with the girl, on top of that she is a Slytherin so I doubt he would even trusted her in the first place because of the friendly rivalry that the two houses have. No, the real question my dear boy is whether you have been able to penetrate Daphne's mind to find out if she was telling the truth or if she was lying."
"No, her mind had rock solid defenses. I've only seen defenses like that in Master Occlumens but her mind had never even shown any hint to those types of defenses before. I would guess that it's the snake pendant that she wears around her neck that gave her this defense but only a Master Occlumens can charm something like that" Snape concluded.
"Is Cyrus Greengrass...?" Dumbledore asked stating the obvious question and when Severus shook his head no continued, "Then I think we have our answer. There is no doubt in my mind that Daphne Greengrass is telling the truth."
"I highly doubt that the Dark Lord would put his faith in a fourteen year old girl to resurrect his body Albus" Severus said crossly. He hated when Dumbledore talked to him as if he were a child.
"Atlas that's were your wrong. You see Voldemort's is not only doing this to get Harry but to also to take a swipe at me. I always have said that the greatest power in magic is love. I would assume that he thinks that if he can successfully get the love of Harry's young teenage life to deliver him on a silver platter so he can kill him that it would also damage my moral for the war that is no doubt coming.
Severus sighed, from all the spying that he did for Albus, he knew that the old man was right. Voldemort hated Albus's whole theory on magic and love.
"So what are we going to do about it?" he asked but he had already known the answer. The only thing that frustrated Severus about Albus was his tendencies for inaction. Most of the time the man was only right based on dumb luck.
"Nothing. Like I said before, I doubt that Harry would get close enough to the girl and Voldemort will ultimately fail. Harry is perfectly safe for now" Albus said just like Snape assumed he would. Of course he was lying but Severus did not need to know that.
Snape rose from his seat announced that he would take one last patrol through the castle and go to bed. Dumbledore simply nodded, even old masterminds such as himself needed sleep.