Chapter VIII
Summer Falls

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling, Warner Bros and I'm sure a bunch of other's I own...well nothing that matches up to that anyway.

Harry was amazed, within a few days he had learned more form Remus, Tonks and Moody than he had all year from Dumbledore, not to say he now considered himself a powerhouse or anything but some of the techniques that the auros used whilst duelling would more than likely come in useful,

Something as simple as normal exercise helped with his endurance though he had found it difficult at first, he had thought he would have been in good shape due to his quidditch training to which Tonks had laughed and said "How is flying around on a broom exercise?", However Harry was nothing if not tenacious and carried on with training every day,

On one of the mornings in the middle of august Harry had been sat at the kitchen table eating toast, glancing at Hermione he noticed she was shaking slightly whilst reading the paper,

"Hermione, what's wrong?" he asked, Hermione handed him the paper, he quickly placed his food aside and read the headline,

Davis Family Dies in House Fire
Accident or Attack?

Harry read the first part of the article, another family had died and he felt the guilt well in him, he needed to get off his arse and get this finished sooner or later, he was however snapped out of his coming downer for a moment,

"Davis...Davis...I know that name from somewhere"

He turned towards Hermione who seemed to be rubbing unshed tears from her eyes before they had a chance to fall,

"Hermione are you alright...do you know them?" he asked, Hermione suddenly looked up,

"Of course I do, Harry even you knew the oldest daughter" she replied rather put out, Harry cocked an eyebrow in confusion, he re-read the article and came across a name,

"Tracy Davis...Tracy Davis...her name sounds very familiar" he admitted softly, Hermione looked upset at him,

"You should remember her, hell you've only been her classmate for seven years Harry", Harry turned once again to her,

"Seven years...a classmate?"

Harry racked through his brain trying to place all the students in his year to their houses, he suddenly remembered a rather pretty girl with brown hair similar to Hermione but a bit darker, he also remembered she worse green and silver on her robes,

"Wait wasn't Davis a Slytherin, why would the death eaters attack one of their own?" he exclaimed, Hermione looked at him in outrage,

"Tracy Davis wasn't a bad person Harry, nor are her family death eaters!" she shouted, Harry however wasn't aware of the trouble he was in,

"Hermione she's in slytherin, of course she was a death eater" Harry replied, Hermione looked at him for a moment before her temper began to snap,

"I'll have you know Harry, whilst Tracy may have been a Slytherin she was also a friend of mine!" she roared,

Harry sat their looking dumbfounded, he had heard her right hadn't he, "Hermione was friends with a snake...when did that happen?"

"What do you mean, I never knew you had other friends Hermione" Harry instantly regretted saying it by the hurt look on her face,

"Wait I didn't mean it like that..I just mean you've never mentioned spending time with anyone whilst at Hogwarts apart from Ron and me" he explained, Hermione watched him with contempt for a moment before sighing,

"First of all Harry I will admit you are my best friend and I'm closer to you than I've been to anyone else in my entire life...apart from perhaps my parents, but I do talk to other people on occasion" she got from her chair and went to put on a pot of coffee,

"I met Tracy and a few other girls in the other houses during my third year, you and I weren't taking all the same classes any more so I had no one to sit with or anything, So one day in ancient ruins the professor pairs me with Tracy and I found that not all Slytherins were complete bigots and some of them were actually willing to work hard, eventually I met a couple of Tracy's friends when we had to do a group study and whilst I would actually call us friends..we were friendly to one another..it was nice" she said, she looked sadden again with the reality of the girls death hitting her once again,

"But why did you never tell me about her Hermione?" Harry asked, she eyed him again and Harry felt a little nervous at her stare,

"Two reasons, one, two of them were slytherins and I knew you would react badly to the news"

"But Hermione their Slytherins, of course I would have reacted badly, they might have been using you" he said trying to explain himself,

"Harry do you know how much of a bigot you sound like just now, you sound like Ronald" she snapped, Harry felt his own blood pressure rising

"Hermione the slytherin house has always been evil, everyone knows that" he stated,

"Evil, an entire house evil, do you know how childish that sounds Harry, I will admit that some like Voldemort haven't helped with that reputation but answer me this, other than Malfoy, Parkison and his two bodyguards, how many of them have actually tried to make life difficult for us?" Harry smirked ready to answer until he realised he didn't have one,

He stood there motionless for a moment desperately trying to think of any one thing, Hermione stood arms crossed and almost screamed when Harry suddenly turned to her and pointed his finger,

"AH HA, I have, second year, when that Bulstrode girl got you in a headlock" he said, Hermione let her heart slow down from it's shock,

"Yes she did...and she apologised in fourth year" Hermione replied, Harry's smile of victory soon turned to despair,

"But...but Hermione...everyone says all Slytherins are evil, surely that must mean something" he begged unwilling to think that his hatred for the house was unfair,

"Really, I know Hagrid has a personal grudge against them because of his expulsion, but other than he and a few others, not everyone believes that Harry, the Sorting Hat was always trying to get us to coexist with all the houses, I admit certain individuals like Malfoy make that ideal a lot harder to achieve but many of them are just normal teenagers and kids who just want to get through their schooling without plans for world domination" Hermione ranted,

Harry had to concede that point, none of them were as bad as Riddle,

"What about their 'I'm better than you' thing simply because their purebloods?" Harry asked,

"Again, that's just a handful of the slytherin students Harry, that superiority complex can be found in any of the houses, think about it, Hufflepuff has both Smith and Fletcher whilst nice guys I suppose are very pompous, Ravenclaw has students like Edgecomb and Terry Boot, heck Harry even our house has people like McLaggen, Harry the problem is how these people were brought up not what house they are in, and again just being stuck up doesn't make them evil" Hermione explained her tone calming the more she spoke,

Harry was managing to calm down himself but he still was struggling to understand, Hermione took pity on him, she walked towards him and gripped his shoulder affectionately,

"Harry do me a favour, stop and think about it for a moment, the Hogwarts houses are over nine hundred years old, do you honestly believe that in all that time that the slytherin house was always considered dark, also do you really think that the other three founders would honour a evil individuals name by having an entire house named after him" Harry looked down and tried to think but Hermione cut off his thoughts again,

"The problem here Harry is that your allowing yourself to be swayed by what the masses believe, your friends believe it to be true and you're caving to peer pressure by not even trying to find evidence, do you remember what the masses believed about two years ago, they believed you were a raving psychotic teenager who was after attention and everyone was swayed because it was the popular opinion, no one tried to get to know you or ask questions, right now Harry your doing the same thing"

Harry stood there dumbfounded, he had never made that connection before, he sat down and started to ponder his beliefs about things, he was so deep in his thoughts he barely heard Hermione telling him she as going to take a shower.

Ooo~ooO

Whilst things had been a bit tense between the two teenagers that day the following one was met with apologise from both for losing their tempers, after that the end of the summer quickly began to creep with only days until the new term started, other than the physical training which was still leaving Harry sore and exhausted, nothing note worthy had really happened, The Weasley's had also visited several times and as much as Harry hated to admit it had caught them try to potion him twice, Harry at Hermione insistence had learned a spell that would show any potion laced within food or drink, with this Harry's spirits would often drop.

One of the last things to happen was about a week before the new term McGonagall had shown up and sat down with the two, she had wanted to give the head badges to both he and Hermione, what surprised Harry was that Hermione hadn't been jumping for joy at the aspect, for a split second he saw the excitement dancing in her eyes but she suddenly had become serious and quiet, Harry could see the wheels turning in her head and remembered what she had said,

Ooo~ooO

"I think we need to turn them down professor" instantly as the words left her mouth both other occupants of the room felt their jaws hit the floor,

"Why on earth not Ms Granger?" the aged professor replied, Harry himself wondered why she would turn down the chance to be head girl,

"Honestly professor, I'm going to be to busy, we may be going back to Hogwarts but you've already agreed we may leave when need be, that's hardly responsible enough for a head girl, not to mention with the research with the horcruxes and everything else I just wouldn't have time to give to the head girl responsibilities" she explained,

"Hermione my dear, you do know we're going to be helping you right, you and Harry here aren't the only one's going to be tracking them down" McGonagall interjected, speaking on a more familiar level now,

"I know that professor, but until all this is over I need to focus on helping Harry and everyone else first, the younger students need head's that have the time to help them with anything and at the moment I don't think we can do that", Harry stared at her and was amazed to hear this from her, she was willing to give up something she had worked so hard to achieve, this was why he needed her help,

"I see" Harry turned back to the professor who looked quite upset by the decline of the head offer, she in turn turned to Harry,

"What about you Mr Potter, do you feel the same way?" she asked almost pleading with him to accept in hopes of changing Hermione's mind, Harry didn't really need to think about it though,

"Yes, as Hermione said with the horcruxes, and studying in general we'll not have much time for ourselves let alone the rest of the students",

McGonagall sighed in defeat,

"Actually professor there is one thing I want to ask you about whilst your here...

Ooo~ooO

In the end Hermione had convince the Headmistress to give them one of the marriage quarters the school had so they could achieve their research in peace, both of them had blushed rather badly when the older women had made it quite plain that the room was for help with studying and nothing more hormone driven,

Still the summer came to an end with minimal chaos, Tonks had managed to get to Diagon Alley for their school supplies, Hermione had a brief moment of relapse for a few hours as she became enthralled with her new books but thankfully managed to get back on the wagon,

"Eventually September the first came and with the Weasley's coming to Grimmuald first the group also involving Remus, Moody and Shacklebolt for protection left the house of Grimmuald and arrived at station.

Ooo~ooO

Boarding the train hadn't been a problem though Harry did notice the platform was unusually quiet, along with Ron and Ginny, Harry and Hermione found themselves a compartment, after a small scuffle for seats, where Ron pretended to stumble over Harry so he could sit next to Hermione all four were seated, small chat was in abundance,

"I tell you mum was livid when we got home that next day" Ron struggled out as he was scoffing down the beef sandwich,

"What did she do?" Harry asked trying to keep a grimace off his face,

"He wasn't allowed to leave the house except for chores" Ginny interjected, the quartet sat occasional small talk taking over, Harry really felt uncomfortable sitting so close to Ron and Ginny right now, looking over he saw Hermione reading one of her books both to catch up and as an excuse to ignore the red heads, Harry felt a little jealous over the fact she had an excuse, thankfully the arrival of Luna knocking ended any uncomfortable,

"Hello everyone" she said cheerfully, everyone greeted her and she made to sit down next Harry but was caught off by Ginny who moved up so she was sat with Harry right next to her,

"So Luna, have you been up to much this year?" Harry asked in mild curiosity,

"No, sadly with everything that's being happening daddy and I didn't get to go anywhere this summer" she answered, Harry wondered just what the girl had gotten up to but Luna cut him off,

"Oh Harry the head girl said she would like a word with you" Harry staggered back for a moment,

"Oh, okay, um...who is the head girl?" he asked, suddenly wondering who McGonagall had replaced Hermione with,

"Daphne Greengrass" Luna replied her joyful tone still blossoming, Harry felt a quick punch to his stomach, he remembered who Greengrass was as she had been one of those girl he hated to admit he found attractive,

"WHAT. McGonagall made that snake the head girl?" Ron yelled, Harry was almost in agreement until he had remembered the talk he had had with Hermione, he didn't want to blindly follow belief like this any more without proof, he sat for a moment and thought to himself about the girl in question,

"I don't remember her ever making my life difficult...have I ever even spoken with her...just that once when she bumped into you in the hallway and she apologised before leaving...I don't think she was one of the students wearing a badge back during the tournament either" Harry's thoughts were interrupted though by the start of an argument, "OH COME ON, seriously Hermione she's a bloody snake, how can you say your not surprised?" Ron demanded,

"Because I know that she's almost always been third in our year behind myself and Padma Patil, she has earned this because she is intelligent" Hermione explained,

"BULLSHIT, she probably got those grades by spreading her legs or something" Ron replied as gracefully as ever,

"Yeah Hermione I mean she might be smart and all but she is still a snake" Ginny in putted trying to back up her brother with a little more tact, Harry however cut across Hermione reply,

"Do you know where she is Luna?" Harry asked with a sigh, waiting for the loud response,

"ARE YOU JOKING, Harry seriously to hell with what the snake wants!" Ron practically screamed his voice starting to go horse, Harry shrugged and came up with a decent lie on the spot,

"Look at it this way she could use this as an excuse to give me a detention if I don't go" he replied, Ron's face looked murderous,

"I think she's a couple of compartments down Harry" Luna finally answered, Harry got up much to Ginny's distaste and was about to leave when Ron was about to stand,

"No Ron, it's fine I'll go alone"

"But Harry she's a snake she might try something" Ron replied, Harry felt a headache coming on, he wondered if this is how he had sounded that morning in the kitchen with Hermione,

"Even if she does you guys know where I'm going and McGonagall will have her head, I'll be fine guys I'll see you in a bit" Harry didn't allow for a response and quickly left the compartment, he let out a long breath and started walking down the corridor when he suddenly felt a hand grab his shoulder, turning quickly he found a distorted figure,

"Relax Potter it's just me" came the tone of a girl, Harry however wasn't taking any chances,

"Get rid of the distortion" he stated simply with a hard tone, he heard the girl cast a finite and suddenly Daphne Greengrass appeared in front of him, Harry allowed himself to calm down for a moment and lowered his wand but didn't put it away, he took a moment to look at the girl,

Her eyes looked a little bit red as if she had been crying recently but had done a fair job hiding it, Harry also admitted to himself that she was indeed attractive, her black hair easily flowed down her back along with her nice figure and gorgeous face she was easily one of the most sought after girls at Hogwarts, Harry admitted to himself that the only thing he did know about her was her nickname of the 'ice queen' for constantly turning down guys,

"Hello, I heard you wanted to speak with me" Harry stated politely, the girl nodded,

"Yes, will you follow me Potter?" she said as she started walking down the corridor, Harry followed her silently wondering where she was leading him, he stopped when she suddenly came to a halt and walked into the girls toilets,

"Just wait here for a second Potter" she said before glancing in,

"Is anyone in here?" she called through the door making Harry confused when suddenly she dragged him into the toilets, before taking her own wand out and casting some locking and silencing charms on the door, Harry looked at her in bewilderment,

"Sorry Potter but it's important we keep this quiet and I don't want certain individuals finding us talking which is why I brought us here" she explained, Harry watched her he noticed how nervous and unsure she looked,

"Take a moment" he said kindly, Daphne looked at him for a moment in shock at his kind tone,

"What?" she replied a dumb expression on her face,

"Look just calm down for a second and compose yourself, by the look on your face this is obviously bothering you quite badly" he said giving her a small calming smile, Daphne went to the sink and splashed some water on her face,

"I'm not...I'm not usually nervous like this but..but there's a lot at stake and..." she couldn't finish and went back to the sink her hands beginning to shake, Harry was about to check on her when their was suddenly knocking at the door, Harry felt his blood run cold until a familiar voice called from the other side,

"Hello, hello are you in there Daphne?" came Luna's voice,

"Yeah we're in here" the girl replied simply before whipping out her wand and unlocking the door, to Harry's surprise both Luna and Hermione walked through the door, even more to Harry's surprise Hermione went over and attempted to hug the shaking girl,

"Granger please...please don't" Daphne gasped out Harry sensing her emotions were critically high,

"I'm sorry Daphne...I'd ask how you are but what with..." Hermione started but didn't finish, Harry tried to understand what was going on, Luna stood there before barricading the door much like earlier,

"Could someone please tell me what's going on here?" Harry asked as gently as possible, Daphne was still leaning on the sink, with Hermione's attention still on the girl,

"Harry, Tracy Davis was Daphne's best friend" Luna said, Harry's bewilderment didn't leave right away until he remembered what had happened to Davis, he suddenly felt his blood run cold, he looked over at Daphne who was struggling to keep the tears in her eyes from escaping,

"Daphne I'm sorry, I didn't realise" Harry stated, this made the dark haired girl snap,

"No and why would you after all to you we're just evil wizards and witches in slytherin aren't we Potter" she spat, Harry felt the anger rise for a moment but then stopped when he realised that that was exactly how he had felt until recently, the anger suddenly changed to guilt and Harry couldn't help himself,

"Your right" he stated, all three girls turned to him in shock, Harry felt himself go red from the attention of the three but carried on,

"Your right, until a few weeks ago I always thought all of you were evil...but then, Hermione told me about your study group and...I struggled to understand, Hermione was a muggleborn and yet she was friends with you and the others, I still don't fully understand everything but I don't think your evil Daphne and if you need something and I can help, you only need to ask" he finished softly, Harry stole a glance at all three girls,

Luna still looked quite surprised, an expression he never thought the blonde girl would experience, Hermione had a small smile on her face and looked quite proud of him which lifted his spirit a bit, Daphne lost the angry look and sighed,

"I'm sorry Potter I didn't mean to snap at you, there wasn't anything you could have done to save Tracy anyway" she replied, she stood up straight and locked eyes with him,

"Potter, I need you to understand something, Tracy...Tracy and her family were killed to...send a message to mine" she stated, Hermione gasped and wanted to hug the girl but knew Daphne didn't like physical affection much,

"What do you mean Daphne?" Harry asked gently feeling it safe to use her first name, whether or not she minded he had no idea,

"My family is quite well off...but more so than that, we are well known traders" she stated, Harry still appeared confused so she elaborated.

"Basically my family are well known for supplying goods and certain trades, we managed to get our hands on a lot of rare and power potion ingredients, books, and items, my family were in fact part of the original group who managed to broker a deal to bring the time turners over here from Egypt" Daphne explained,

"Wait the time turners originated in Egypt?" Hermione interjected, Daphne turned to Hermione and raised and eyebrow with the silently asking 'is this really the time to be asking about that', Hermione looked down and mutter an apology,

"Because of our renown business and the fact that we are purebloods, well you can say the Dark Lord has taken an interest in us" she finished, Harry wondered where she might be going with this,

"Didn't your family join him during the last war?" he asked honestly not able to remember what families had joined either side, Daphne however just shook her head,

"No, my family has always stayed neutral, whilst we do respect traditions and still live within the rules of the old ways, we are not and have never been blood fanatics, hell our mother's were friends Potter", now that did shock Harry, he stared for a good few moments,

"I'm sorry did you say our mum's were friends?", the girl nodded, Harry still wasn't sure what to say,

"I can't believe it I knew my mum was friends with Snape at one point but I didn't know she had other friends in slytherin" he stated,

"My mother was in Ravenclaw actually" Daphne replied making Harry feel even more stupid for just assuming she had been in slytherin, he still found it hard to believe however that no one ever told him this, in fact he saw looking back that no one really told him anything about his parents, Sirius had told him about a few pranks that the marauders had caused but very little else, Harry suddenly realised he still even after all this time knew little about them,

"If you don't mind Daphne I'd like to come back to that later but you were saying about Voldemort" he replied, he watched how she shivered at that name something he still failed to understand properly,

"The Dark Lord sent some of his Death Eaters to our home in hopes of getting us to join him, my father managed to stall them for a few days before they demanded an answer, my father said no, the Death Eaters then left saying this wouldn't be the end of it" Daphne took a deep breath and steadied herself,

"The next day we opened the paper and right there on the front page is the story of my...my best friends death...along with her family, our two families have always been rather close, Tracy and I have been friends since we were four years old, we didn't even get much time to grieve, later that day the death eaters showed up and handed my father the Davis family ring", Harry scratched his head at this and was about to ask when Daphne carried on her story,

"Needless to say it shook my father up, whilst the Davis family have only been purebloods for about four generations their murder came as a shock to us, what was even worse was what we found out next", she stopped and started to shiver, both Luna and Hermione placed a gentle hand on the girl to try and calm her, to theirs and Harry's surprise she didn't back away or anything this time, "They told us as punishment for not joining and for taking so long to deicide not only were they going to kill our friends and loved ones, they...one of them took off their mask and it was Lucius Malfoy, not that him being a death eater was surprising or anything but the fact that he was wiling to take off the mask was worrisome...he...he told us about a contract...a contract that his and my father's great grand parents set up...a marriage contract" Daphne tutted out,

"A marriage contract!" Harry yelled in surprise, he was struggling to understand where she was going with this,

"Yes, back then the Malfoy family wasn't as dark as they are now, shady yes but not evil..Malfoy said that as punishment he was...going to activate the contract" she struggled but soldiered on, "For a moment I felt my heart stop, I thought my life was over until what he said next...he mentioned that it was for Draco which didn't surprise me but then he said it wasn't me he wanted but...my little sister", suddenly all three shouted in surprise, "WHAT!"

"WHAT?"

"Astoria?", all three turned to Luna who shrugged, "I run into her occasionally" she explained,

"Daphne that's sick, you sister is what, fourteen?" Hermione asked,

"You don't think I know this, believe me I went from depressed to pissed off in a matter of one second when Malfoy told us this, the worse thing is my sister has dreamed of marrying for love for years, this crushed her when she found out, she cried for days, and there isn't anything we can do to avoid this" Daphne slumped against the sink again, this time she could contain the tears but she wasn't willing to break down she turned to Harry,

"I love my sister more than anything Potter and I would do anything to help her, which is why I'm here, I want to help you take down the Dark Lord".

Ooo~ooO

Author's Notes:

Once again I have a lot to say, so let's begin:

Firstly, I wanted to convey in the beginning of this chapter that whilst I love the Hermione character and Harry/Hermione relationship, I am not blind to the faults that both of them have, Harry is very naïve and easily led by the beliefs of the Weasley's and anyone else he is close to...apart from Hermione. Hermione I always felt began to lose her common sense the longer she spent in the wizarding world, I still believe this is some sort of conspiracy against the muggleborns. That being said, the girl is bossy and I want people to realise I'm not trying to turn her into a Mary-Sue.

So yeah, Tracy's death was to send a message to the Greengrass family, once again much like Tracy, Daphne's character never got more than a mere mention in canon but her character is one that has had a lot of growth with fanon, Daphne will stay in this story for the time being but she will be mainly in the background until the sequel when she'll become a bit more involved.

Oh and incase anyone was worried or wondering this story and both sequels will stay strictly Harry/Hermione, no threesome or harem or anything like that.

I think that's about everything I need to say for now but if you have any questions please feel free to ask in a PM or review.

See you guys next time.

P.S. The Fleur/Bill poll is now officially closed, and I've gotta say it was kind of a runaway victory:

Split them up – 48 votes

Keep them together – 7votes

This won't be a major factor in the story and it won't be mentioned for a while, but to those that voted for them to stay together, I'm sorry looks like the two will be going their separate ways soon.