Gryffindor Common Room
Ron joined Hermione and Harry in the Gryffindor common room. "Where were you today?" Ron asked. Harry had left before anybody got up and actually skipped Hogsmeade weekend. That seemed strange to him.
"I took Hermione's advice and I spied on Daphne," Harry said. He hoped Hermione wouldn't put two and two together and realize the book was in connection to her. Even though the worst possible reasons Daphne might want such a book spiraled right to the top of his head, somehow he doubted that was what Daphne was after, yet with Hermione's attitude toward her, it was likely Hermione would accept no other explanation.
"Oh," Hermione said. Then her eyes opened wide. "Wait, did Daphne have that book?" Hermione had looked in that book before. That book had all three of the unforgivable curses gone over in great detail and much more.
"Yeah," Harry mumbled under his breath and looked away. He should have known he couldn't hide that from her for long. Hermione was too smart.
"What book?" Ron asked as he missed the previous conversation.
"Doesn't her having a book like that prove I am right? What else could it be? She is undoubtedly using some kind of curse, right?" Hermione wanted Harry to agree.
"It proves nothing. There are also spells in that book to remove curses," Harry suggested. "Let's not jump to any conclusions until we know exactly what she is using the book for."
"Really? A girl in Slytherin has a book on curses and you think there is a possibility she is interested in removing a curse? No way!" Hermione insisted.
"Is this book on curses?" Ron asked.
"Yes, try and keep up," Hermione looked to Ron. "Why do you suppose Daphne Greengrass would have a book on curses?"
"I don't know. Most curses are used for revenge. To get back at someone who wronged her," Ron gave his best guess. "Maybe that reporter."
"Or her father?" Harry guessed as he thought back to the time he and Daphne were under his cloak at Three Broomsticks. She definitely had some daddy issues stemming from a disagreement over her choice of boyfriend.
"Or me?" Hermione guessed.
"I doubt she is interested in putting a curse on you. She actually said she wanted to avoid you," Harry said. "Don't ask." Harry felt uneasy talking about that. If he divulged the whole truth about what Daphne had said, it could backfire and make Hermione hate Daphne even more then she already did.
"Can't blame her there. When I first met you, I wanted to avoid you too," Ron snickered. He sat on the couch and grabbed a throw pillow. "But now that I know you better, I appreciate you more."
Hermione sneered at Ron, then her gaze fell upon Harry. "Sometimes a curse is used to force someone else to conform to their needs or desires," Hermione suggested. As she gazed at Harry she wondered if perhaps Daphne had bewitched him, which would explain why Harry seemed unable to see her for the truly horrible person Hermione believed her to be.
Ron immediately thought of Fleur Delacour. He grinned as he thought about some of the things he would like to make her do. He squeezed the pillow a little bit too tight, which caused some feathers to pop out.
Harry looked Hermione in the eye. As Harry vividly remembered several things that were said in front of him, he began to formulate a new theory on exactly why Daphne needed that book. He didn't want to say anything in front of Ron and Hermione until he was certain he was right.
Hogwarts - Hallways
Laughter filled the halls of Hogwarts. Harry quickly realized he was the butt of the joke yet again. Students pointed and laughed. Hermione, in a comforting gesture, put her hand on his shoulder.
Almost everyone who walked by had badges on, all of which read 'Potter stinks.' It came as no surprise that Draco was the ring leader along with friends Vincent, Gregory and Pansy. They looked like a group of politicians running a smear campaign as they passed out badges to fellow students.
"What the ...?" Harry questioned the group.
"We're just showing our support for the TRUE Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory, and putting the glory-hog usurper Stinky Potter in his place," Draco said with a smirk, then folded his arms.
"Somebody ought to put you in your place, Malfoy." Hermione grabbed Harry's hand. "Come on we don't have to stand here and…" Hermione stopped talking as she realized Harry wasn't listening. His eyes were glued to the pretty Slytherin blond that just walked in accompanied by her sister, both were appropriately dressed in school uniforms, yet neither wore the badges. "Be careful of that one, especially now that we know she is dealing with curses. Sooner or later, she will show her true colors," Hermione said in a tone barely above a whisper.
Harry's eyes locked on to Daphne. Hermione's words bothered him. He had to admit to himself that Daphne could easily give in to peer pressure. She and Pansy must be on friendly terms again, and since Pansy was so adamant on impressing Draco and had fully bought in his 'anti-Harry' agenda, Daphne would have to choose between her best friend from many years or a weird, loser, boy. Harry admitted to himself, he didn't know Daphne well enough to really know what she would do.
To Harry's delight, Daphne only briefly glanced at the badge Pansy gave her. "No, thanks," Daphne said as she handed the badge back to Pansy. Daphne turned her back to Pansy intending to get on her way to class.
"You might not want to be the one to cause a scene," Astoria gently warned Pansy.
Daphne knew Astoria was just trying to remind Pansy of the little chat they had in Snape's office. She hoped Pansy would heed the warning.
"Are you deaf? Put the badge on now!" Pansy ignored Astoria's reminder.
"I said no thank you," Daphne tossed the badge back to her.
"You were right, she did show her true colors," Harry turned his head away briefly and looked at Hermione. Then he looked back at Daphne and realized she was standing a bit too close. Last time they were this close, they were practicing dancing. Somehow this felt different. He could feel his heart beat faster.
Daphne leaned in and smiled seductively at Harry. She was so close he could feel her breath against his skin. He could even smell the strawberries on her breath that she more than likely had for lunch. Harry thought she was going to kiss him. The anticipation caught Harry by surprise. He could feel the butterflies in his stomach.
"Ah, you might not want to do that," Astoria gently warned Daphne.
To Harry's disappointment, Daphne backed away. "For the record, Potter doesn't stink," Daphne said with a bit of a gleam in her eye. "He is my hero."
Harry thought back to the day she called him a fellow student when they accidently met up at Three Broomsticks. He would have been happy for her to call him friend, but being called hero was far better.
"What?" Draco muttered to himself. Draco grabbed Daphne's arm. "We need to talk, privately."
"We will, but later," Daphne agreed.
Pansy was yet again infuriated. No way would she want Daphne meeting with Draco privately. "Don't you turn your back on me, you stupid little girl," Pansy called out. "Take the badge and put it on now!"
"You have no right to talk to her like that," Harry said. Daphne looked at Harry with a smile.
"I can't believe I am actually agreeing with Potter on this one. Don't you ever talk to her like that again," Draco glared at Pansy.
"What?" Pansy couldn't believe her ears. "I was just defending you. What is it about Daphne Greengrass that just has you and every other guy, for that matter, thinking with the wrong head." Pansy looked right at Draco when she said that.
Draco just shrugged what Pansy said off as if to say 'what is your point?'
"And I can't believe I am actually agreeing with Pansy," Hermione looked right over at Harry when she said that. She was a bit surprised to see Harry stick up for Daphne and she definitely agreed Harry was thinking with the wrong head.
"Yeah, well, nobody asked you," Draco sneered at Hermione. Then he clasped Daphne's arm and focused all of his attention on her. "We really do need to talk."
"I don't know why, but Daphne cares about you, which is more then you deserve. If you hurt her, I will hurt you," Harry threatened Draco.
"Funny, I was just about to say the same to you. I don't know why, but she cares about you, which is more then you deserve. If you hurt her, I will kill you," Draco threatened.
After seeing that little exchange, Hermione was more convinced than ever, that Daphne probably had Harry under some kind of spell, more than likely, Draco too. She wanted to share her theory with Ron after classes. Hermione raced off to her next class. Draco and Daphne left together.
Shortly after most of the other students cleared out, Astoria stopped Harry in the halls. "Listen, I wanted to thank you for warning me about Pansy," she said. "I had a little chat with her, and after what just happened here, I don't believe she will be giving Daphne any more trouble." After the way Draco stood up for Daphne, Pansy has to see that he won't stand for anybody hurting her sister. "Oh and another thing, not that I had anything to do with it, but sorry about the badges."
"I don't care about that at all," Harry laughed. After what Daphne did, he didn't give a damn about those badges anyway. He had an ear to ear grin that just wouldn't go away. "I am very happy you and your sister weren't part of that."
"Of course not, Daphne actually likes you," Astoria admitted.
"Yeah, I know, but I still thought she might give in to peer pressure," Harry nodded.
"Yeah and if Daphne actually did that, I would be wondering who was using the polyjuice potions and pretending to be my sister," Astoria said.
"There was something else I wanted to ask you about," Harry said. Astoria nodded and waited for him to ask. "I did try to ask your sister this before, but I don't think she heard me."
Astoria laughed. "Let me guess. Did she suddenly change the subject? That is what she usually does anytime someone asks her a question she doesn't want to answer," Astoria said.
"Oh, so she probably did hear me," Harry nodded. "Anyway, the question is…" Harry was about to ask his question, but another student interrupted.
Another student, Romilda Vane interrupted them. "Queenie says you are a hero," she brushed her hands against Harry's chest and leaned in a bit too close. "And the tri-wizard champion to boot."
"Yes," Harry was going to say more but Romilda interrupted.
"Do you have a date yet for the Yule ball?" Romilda questioned. She gently brushed her hand against the side of his face with a bit too friendly a smile. "If not, I would love to go with you. What do you say handsome?"
Astoria found amusement in her sister's influence over other students. This girl was falling all over herself for Harry just because her sister called him a hero. Before Harry could ask Astoria any questions, she left.
Unbeknownst to both of them, Pansy was just around the corner listening in on their conversation. "Thank you, you just gave me an idea," Pansy quietly said to herself with a bit of a snicker. Pansy had previously found out that Alastor Moody, one of her teachers, had a stash of polyjuice potions that were already done to the second to last step. She decided to steal a few of those, instead of going through the painstaking process of making one herself.
Potions class
"For today's lesson you will be paired in sets of two. I will be assigning the partners," Snape announced. He named off a few sets and Hermione quickly noticed the pattern in how Professor Snape was partnering everyone. She face palmed herself as she quickly realized who she was going to be partnered with and sure enough it was announced "Hermione Granger will be working with Daphne Greengrass."
"Crap," Daphne mumbled to herself.
"Good luck," Draco who was in the seat next to her, patted her on the back.
A few more pairings were announced then Draco got his partner. "Neville Longbottom, you will be working with Draco Malfoy," Snape announced.
Harry and Hermione both shot Neville a sympathetic look. In their opinion, he couldn't have gotten stuck with a worse partner for this project.
"He is a sweet kid. You should do fine with him," Daphne assured Draco.
"That clumsy klutz shouldn't be allowed near any project involving a burner," Pansy taunted.
He announced a few other groups. "Pansy Parkinson will be working with Harry Potter," Snape said.
Pansy and Harry both pretty much had the same cringe reaction to the announcement.
"The two of you got screwed," Draco laughed as he looked between Pansy and Daphne. He decided he got off easy with Neville as his partner. It could have been much worse.
They broke down into pairs each having their shared burner between the two of them. "Of all the people in the class, why the hell am I stuck with you?" Daphne asked.
"It was obviously alphabetical order by last name." Hermione gave a slight roll of her eyes. She was not at all surprised Daphne didn't figure that out for herself. She immediately started setting up for the task at hand.
"Oh, of course, that is just perfect," Daphne said sarcastically. Hermione got on her nerves in a matter of seconds. She already managed to make Daphne feel stupid for not realizing that. "Figures, I get stuck with the…." She was going to say insufferable know it all, but then she remembered Draco's warning about Hermione. "Never mind. I would tell you what I really think of you, but I don't want to get smacked."
Hermione felt the anger and rage building. She was so sure Daphne was going to call her a mudblood. She felt like smacking her just for saying that, but she didn't. "What! I have no idea what Harry sees in you. You might have him fooled with the calling him a hero thing," Hermione said.
"Oh, that, yeah. The gossip mill will probably be running overtime with that one, but on the plus side, Harry will probably get a date or two out of it at the very least," Daphne said with a bit of a snicker in her voice.
"Wow! Somebody around here is sure full of herself. What a big ego you have. You think somebody is going to suddenly want to date Harry just because you called him a hero? You have got to be kidding," Hermione raised her voice a bit too loud.
Pansy couldn't help overhearing. She would never admit it, but she intentionally eavesdropped. "Looks like your two girlfriends are not getting along," Pansy said to Harry with a playful smirk.
"Let's just get this project done as quickly as possible," Harry said sternly.
"Ah, I am feeling a little hurt here. I don't think you want to work with me," Pansy grinned as she fiddled with her 'Potter Stinks' badge.
"Professor Snape obviously picked these pairings to be cruel," Harry asserted his displeasure at the choice of pairings.
"No, you idiot. It was alphabetical by last name," Pansy didn't realize that until she overheard Hermione say it.
"Why couldn't it have been alphabetical by first name instead?" Of course, Harry realized that would most likely partner him with Hermione, one he would prefer over Pansy any day.
"Oh, no, thank god it wasn't that way," Pansy cringed at the thought of that. That would give the blond bimbo Daphne yet another chance to get her paws all over her guy Draco.
"Why?" Harry looked on perplexed. He couldn't think of a single student here Pansy would like less than him. "Who do you think you would get for a partner?"
"Someone who wouldn't be nearly as much fun to torment," Pansy laughed and continued to fidget with the badge and she did her best to hold it so Harry could see it.
Draco looked over with a smirk and laughed. Pansy leaned slightly forward and leered in Draco's direction with a lustful look in her eyes.
Harry knew that either Draco was listening or it is a coincidence and Neville just said something funny. That was quite possible, but not likely. "Are you going to actually help with the project or just continue to sit there and drool over Malfoy?" Harry raised his voice intentionally because he wanted Draco to hear him.
Pansy's face just went beet red. It was obvious that pretty much the entire class heard Harry's comment. Almost everyone was laughing at her. After a few long minutes that felt more like hours to Pansy, the laughter died down. "You did that on purpose," Pansy said.
"Why do you think I would do that?" Harry fixed his gaze on the badge she was fiddling with.
"You can't stay mad about that. You actually won. Queenie undermined everything Draco and I tried to do and made you look good. Very good," Pansy laughed.
"Wrong, I can stay mad at you. It isn't like that is the only reason I have to be mad at you," Harry said.
"If you want to make yourself look even better, all you got to do is get in Queenie's pants. She is a very popular girl. You screw her and everyone would respect you. Nobody would be thinking you stink anymore," Pansy ignored what Harry said and just kept talking.
"Yeah, well, anybody who would care about that isn't someone I actually care about," Harry said. He was pretty sure if he actually slept with Daphne, Ron and Hermione would both be disgusted with him for it, not impressed at all.
"I would be impressed," Pansy said.
"Case and point. I couldn't care less about your opinion. You are just cruel," Harry said.
"Still it would do wonders for your reputation. You should think about it," Pansy said.
"If I were lucky enough to be with Daphne, it wouldn't do anything for my reputation because I know when to keep my mouth shut," Harry said.
"Oh, so you are admitting you want her. I will let you in on a little secret. I think she is desperate enough to let you. She pretty much liked you from day one." Pansy again ignored most of what Harry had to say and only focused in on the part where he said lucky enough.
Harry and Hermione made plans after class. Harry would try to get Daphne to agree to meet him somewhere so they could talk, while Hermione borrowed his cloak and snooped around Slytherin house to try to find out why Daphne had that book.
High Tower overlooking the school
It was near sunset. The sky was a brilliant pink and orange color which made the whole forest appear as if it were almost on fire. Harry took in the view while he waited for Daphne to meet him there. She didn't keep him waiting long.
"Guess who," Daphne said as she came in. "Wow, what a view! What did you want to talk to me about?" She stared out the window.
"Remember back at the Three Broomsticks? When we saw your dad talking to Draco's dad? Your father said something about you accepting the situation much sooner than he expected. What was he talking about?" Harry asked.
"Um," Daphne stared out the window and failed to hide her nervousness at Harry's question. Something large flew past the window and cast a dark shadow upon them. Daphne's eyes opened wide. "Dragon!" She pointed out the window. She knew how dangerous a dragon could be. It could easily tear the tower apart, destroy the floor they stood on or deliver a quick blast of flame that would leave both her and Harry dead. She was definitely frightened by the very site of that dragon. On the flip side, this was the perfect distraction to avoid answering Harry's question.
"What?" Harry looked where she was pointing. Sure enough there was a scaly silvery dragon. "About your…"
"Hopefully, that isn't the next handling magical creatures lesson," Daphne gulped. "I don't want to get near it."
"Me neither. I would really like to know what your father meant." Harry tried to ask the question again.
"Four of them!" Daphne noticed more dragons on the horizon. "There isn't any Quidditch games today, is there? That will look like an all you can eat buffet to them!"
"No, Quidditch never runs this late, but I think you already knew that," Harry said. He had a feeling Astoria was right, she was deliberately evading the question. "You know the games never run that late. You just don't want to answer my question. Do you?"
"Um, no it is not that, it is just…." Daphne's shook her head side to side. "Oh, look, I may have been right. Look where the dragons are going? To Hagrid's," Daphne pointed out.
"That is alright. If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to," Harry smiled at her.
Daphne smiled back at Harry. She greatly appreciated him not trying to boss her around and force her to answer his question. "Thanks for respecting my privacy."
"Sure, I think I already know the answer anyway," Harry smiled back at her.
"Oh, it is really nothing that is a big deal. My father just has an exaggerated sense of his own importance. His punishments are no were near as effective as he thinks they are." Daphne did her best to downplay this.
"I don't believe that is it. It is very clear to me that you graciously accepted not going to Hogsmeade, yet that night, you adamantly declared that you have NOT accepted the situation," Harry reminded her.
"Do you want to tell me what you think it is?" Daphne asked nervously.
"Sure, and I hope my guess is wrong. Your father sounded very confident that he made it impossible for you to date another muggle born wizard, then in the library, your sister said something about you wouldn't have to worry about triggering the… I am guessing she was going to say curse." Harry paused to give Daphne a chance to respond.
She looked at him briefly. She felt like crying, but she forced herself not to. Then she looked out the window again. "It is not that big of a deal really. It isn't like I will be dating anybody any time soon anyway. Please don't tell anyone. I don't want that spread all over school."
A/N
As always, thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorites and followed this story. I would also like to thank CSGT for beta reading this.
I would also like to thank everyone who took a guess as to why Daphne had the book on curses. Thanks for all the answers. Three of you had correct answers with the most accurate answer from Renata MM. jslee102 and Jettmanas also gave correct answers.
BMS I would like to give you credit for the most hilarious incorrect answer. Astoria loves your create a harem suggestion. If there really is a spell for that in the book, she would love to get ahold of that.