Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

A/N: Heh... Sorry for the late update. I was totally hooked up on Naruto/RosarioVampire crossover fiction.

EDIT 05/08/2014: Seeing as to how I wrote Daphne as someone who was slap-free, I decided to delete that part.

With that, she gave him a slap on the face before exiting the room. - With that, she exited the room.

The physical effects of the slap was inconsequential seeing he had developed a high pain tolerance from an abusive childhood. - Deleted

Once again, thanks everyone for reviewing! I especially love all your reviews SinOfDisaster. They are very informative.

Chapter 11

Neville Longbottom, the boy-who-lived and the heir to the Ancient and Most Noble House of Longbottom had always been taught by his grandmother, the only other remaining Longbottom with a conscious mind, to stay close to Heir Potter. It had been a long standing culture for the house of Potter and Longbottom to help one another. They had been so close that for the past few centuries that even with the rise of multiple dark lords, the forging and betraying of ties between Magical Houses in Britain, these two houses still stay close to each other.

And yet, in the coming months ever since Heir Longbottom came to Hogwarts, his idea and thought of Heir Potter as friend and ally was slowly diminishing. When Neville first come to Hogwarts, his first thought was to find Harry Potter and befriend him so as to continue to tradition between their families. But before he could get there, he saw two other houses, Davis and Greengrass reaching him before he did.

Neville was still a boy with very low self-esteem then. Seeing him with other people, he dared not approach for fear of being mocked at or rejected at his hand in friendship. It was then Neville decided to delay his approach and wait until Harry was sorted into Gryffindor. In his mind, it was logical to say that all Potter will definitely be sorted in Gryffindor for that was his longstanding impression of them. How wrong was he in that.

When Harry was sorted to Slytherin, Neville knew more or less his mission of befriending him had failed. The two girls had got to him before he did, which Neville assumed was the reason for Harry's changed mind-set and got him sorted into Slytherin. The entire plan was totally busted.

It was Ron Weasley who was his very first friend here in Hogwarts. Ron, in his opinion, was quite an alright friend. But there were a lot of things Neville hated him for. For one, he did not care about studies and would pester Neville just so he was not alone in it. Whenever there were assignments to do, he would ask Neville for help and copy his work. He hated it. But Neville did not know how to tell him because Ron might hate him as a result. Neville did not want his first friend to be an enemy instead.

That was when Hermione Granger came into their group. She was a godsend, an angel who was sent down from heaven to save him from his accursed friend Ron. Now that the group had someone better academically than he is, Ron looked for her instead. That gave Neville a lot of time to do some self-study alone. He was the boy-who-lived and the boy-who-is-destined-for-great-thing according to Mister Ollivanders, the wand maker.

When he sent back letters regarding the lack of or rather negative progression in the task to befriend Harry, his grandmother was totally disappointed in him. But nowadays, Neville was a changed man.

It was the incident when he almost died because of the jinxed broom that have a marked effect in his life. Life was short and magic was dangerous. He heard from Professor Hooch the reason for the broom going out of control was because of his lack of confidence. Ever since then, he asked Hermione for help in it. She was really a good friend. That was the start of a totally different Neville, a confident one.

One time when Ron came asking for Neville to forget studying and play instead, he made his stand clear to him. Even until today, he was quite proud of himself that day for standing up for himself. In a way, he was like a parasite and Ron was the host. He was using him as a stepping stone to garner more confidence for himself. There could be no logical idea for why the Ancient and Most Noble House of Longbottom would ever ally with the Magical House of Weasley. There was nothing to be gained after all.

For now, he would continue to stay as Ron's friend. They were known as the golden trio and he would not do anything to destroy the current status quo. You would never know when there was a need for Ron to serve some purpose.

But then came the biggest complication in his whole plan. Harry Potter was totally an unknown. He had not come and look for him in a bid to become an ally to his house. There could be a two reasons for it.

One, he was not interested in continuing the close-knitted relationship between the two houses. This meant that Neville would have to find out whether he might be an enemy or not and if need be, he would have to nip it in the bud while it was still young. If he were to ever become a Lord, going against him would not be an easy task seeing that both houses were on equal standing in the social ladder of Magical Britain.

Two, he had totally no idea that their houses were allies. This was actually the more reasonable conjecture as to why Harry did not look for him. Since he was the only survivor in the attack by the death eaters on Halloween, he would have to be brought up somewhere else where the family did not know anything of the House of Potter. In this case, all Neville had to do was to find an opportunity where Harry was alone and just discuss the whole affair privately.

However, recently there was some extremely disturbing information his body reacted to when he saw Harry in class. He had a minor headache as he looked towards him during Charms and Transfiguration. It was very much similar to how he felt when he was in Defence against the Dark Arts with Professor Quirrel. But in this case, how were the two of them linked? There was a possibility that Harry might be turning dark. Until he found out the exact reason why his head began hurting, he would steer away from him. Neville would not take any risk when his own body was hurting.

Though something puzzling to this entire affair was that Ron had a minor headache as well when he looked towards Harry. According to him, Ron had concluded it with his ever-wise statement – 'Harry is dark and has found some way to prevent us from attacking him'. On this note, Neville could hardly blame him for his foolishness since he himself could not come up with something logical.

For now though, the golden trio found out that it was highly likely Professor Snape might be stealing the Philosopher's stone hidden under the Cerberus they found out by accident. This was something very important to him as well as his friends. If given the stone, Neville would definitely keep it for his own purpose. Imagine using it to turn anything into gold. He would be powerful and his grandmother would never doubt him again! Who really cared about the altruistic reason of ensuring the stone kept safe? Neville was just using it as a guise to steal the stone under the nose of everyone involved. They would be the first one to reach the hiding place and he would be the person finding and keeping it all for himself.

Neville Longbottom would show the world that he is the rightful Heir of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Longbottom, the boy-who-lived and the wizard who will change the entire magical history.

Today was Harry's first ever lesson on Occlumency and he was really anxious about it. For a few months now, he had been reading and doing the tasks set aside by the book on Occlumency.

The first step was meditation. He was way beyond that already. Meditation allows one to enter a state of calm so that he could categorise his memories, thoughts and separate them from emotions. Initially, it was really hard for Harry to successfully meditate. Thoughts and memories of his past resulting in violent emotions erupted from him every single time he tried. It was after quite some time before he could finally shelve all those depressing memories into his darkest vault in his mind. From then on, meditation became easier. It took a very long time before he finally achieve the end result of an organised mind.

Most Occlumens had their own unique ways of organising their mind. Those who really love reading would usually use a library to categorise their thoughts and memories because that was where they were the most calm. For Harry, he would use the realm of darkness as the foundation and fundamental place in his mindscape.

For him, he would not use the typical method of books, doors and crystals to hide his thoughts and memories. Harry would just use space in its raw form to assign his memories within it. Seeing that this was his mind, he could do anything he wanted. That was how he would rip apart the space dimension and hide his memories within it.

Now that he had finally finished with the first step, the next step would be to build up the defence system to his mind. Since his entire mind was shrouded in darkness, he ensured that only he himself could see since he was a manipulator of shadow. For the beginners in Legilimens, it would be a very tough job to crack through this first form of defence seeing that all they could see nothing nor feel anything at all. They were totally blind in his mind.

Technically, this would mean that he could delay all invaders of his mind long enough to kick him out of his mind. But that was just theoretical on his part. That was also the reason why he needed someone to test out his defence in order to find any fault in it.

As to the second form of defence, if the invaders were to ever find a way through the darkness, they might not know where his memories were kept since beneath that veneer of darkness was an empty mindscape. Unless he made a fault somewhere in hiding those memories, they would never ever find out that his memories were all hidden behind the space dimension, unless they tried ripping the entire dimension, which Harry doubt anyone would have the idea to do so. Wizards and witches had no idea of the space-time continuum and of the different dimensions taught in science after all.

And so came the first lesson as Harry met up with Daphne at the usual place - the classroom that was burned and marked by Harry.

"Hello Harry. Are you ready for your first lesson?" Daphne asked him.

"I am. Should there be anything I need to be ready for?"

"Well before I began anything, I need to know how far you are in it."

Harry gave her words a thought. "According to the book, I've reached the part on defending my mind with a mechanism of my own innovation. But seeing that I do not have any partners or tutors in this, I could not venture any further than just the raw form of my defence system. I've given it a lot of thoughts and tried improving on the whole thing myself but there's only that much I could do."

Daphne gave him a nod of acknowledgement. "It seems you have reached a bottle-neck then. Well Harry, I want to warn you this. Knowing the theoretical part of Occlumency is one thing. Fending off the invaders is another thing altogether. I was like you, and I thought my defence system was perfect until my father came and rip my entire mind apart until it was in shambles. But I won't be as merciless as him. I will start small. Legilimency is not something I am very good at as well so..."

Harry cut off her statement. "It's fine Daphne. We'll just..."

"Legilimens!" Before Harry could finish it, Daphne cast the first spell, officially beginning his first ever mind attack.

Harry was caught totally off guard from her attack. He could barely feel the presence of somebody within his mind. He had no idea what to expect for the first time and that resulted in a hefty failure on his part.

In his opinion, his defence system was too-notch, the very epitome of stealth and original subtleness. But that was all his own delusions. What he had kept and organized within the tears of the space dimensions and hidden by the darkness within his mindscape were left untouched by Daphne. Instead, his conscious mind was totally left unprotected. It was a total fiasco.

Memories of him in his past began flashing through his mind. Harry was still totally unsure of what he should do to force Daphne out of his mind. He tried willing her out of it but found that his memories were still flashing past, being watched by Daphne as well. Just then, the view Harry had during last year when he tried hiding Daphne and Tracey from Malfoy flashed right there before the entire spell was ended and his consciousness was back to real life.

It appeared that one of his biggest secrets were out if the facial expression in Daphne was of any inclination.

"Harry. Before we continue this further, I need you to tell me what exactly the last memory was about?" She gave him a look that spoke of an ultimatum must be reached.

"It was nothing really." He tried denying.

Daphne masked her entire exterior right then and became back to her old personal self – the ice princess.

"Harry Potter. I thought you were my friend. And from what I know, friends don't keep secrets. Initially, I thought you did not want to explain what happened last year because you did not want Tracey to know about it. But we are alone now. How could you? I thought after that night in astronomy tower, you will trust me but blatantly telling me off?" Daphne could go on and on about how angry she was towards Harry's action merely from that single statement he made. But more of it was because she knew he would not share it from his expression. This was one of the thing he regretted for signing up a friendship.

Well, two can definitely play the game. Harry steeled his emotions and began wearing back the mask he wore for years.

"Greengrass, tell me. What do you know about friendship?"

She was not deterred from his sudden change back into an emotionless monster. She was too upset about Harry and his so called friendship with her when he could not even tell her more about his secrets.

"Much more than you do Potter. Don't forget that I've had Tracey for years. You? I doubt you had or rather... Have any friends. Obviously, you are not in the position to ask me that question." She retorted.

"Then you should be visibly upset to know that I do know more about it than you presumably do. Friends do not force out secrets from each other. They will take great care, time and effort in earning his trust before letting him decide if he wanted to share it with you."

Daphne was seething internally. Though she was very good at masking her emotions, her subconscious body movements did not go unnoticed by Harry. Her hands clenched without her knowing, and her entire body began vibrating.

"So what you are saying now is that you do not trust me, am I right Potter? Well, then I say until the day you trust me, we will not be having anymore of such lessons. You need to undergo a huge makeover seriously."

With that, she exited the room.

Once he was alone, Harry suddenly felt strengthless and fell to the ground. He was really visibly upset from her words. It was not that he did not want to share it with her. Daphne was really a good friend that Harry would love to have but baby steps would have to be taken in order for him to trust someone once again. He thought that everything was going really well until that happened. This was his first time ever feeling so weak and helpless.

Internally, his heart and mind were battling out once again. They argued with each other about the friendship with Daphne. Mind was exuberant from her departure and fallout with Harry because it would mean that he would not feel the effects of being betrayed once again like in the past. But the primary reason for mind backing up on the decision of leaving her was that he could keep his secrets to himself and attain an advantage over every other assailants should the time come. Imagine if Daphne knew of his secrets and as a result, he found himself dead because of some reasons or another that would be totally disastrous.

But his heart was crying out, or more like bleeding from the stab placed directly by Daphne. It was more of the fact that he lost the chance to befriend a girl who could really be a partner, a listening ear and a shoulder to rely on. His heart was yearning for her attention and forgiveness already and was pushing him to just bury the hatchet and ask for her forgiveness by telling her what he was hiding.

In the end, the decision still lay with Harry. He thought emotions were for the weak judging by his past experiences in the Dursleys home. It was only recently that he found back his emotions and how it brought a marked change in his entire life. Just the next day after crying out and sharing his pained past with Daphne, he felt totally refreshed and really joyful. He enjoyed the times spent with her from then on.

But then, it was his emotions once again that befuddled him from making a decision. Knowing it was totally impossible to decide on his actions now, he went out of Hogwarts to get some fresh air and to meditate so as to gather this emotional hurricane within him.

Daphne was back to her ice princess persona. She raced through the corridors all the way back into her dormitories, pulling Tracey along from the library. Tracey was really puzzled why her best friend was acting like this.

"Daph? I thought you had some private lessons with Harry?"

Hearing his name, Daphne glared at her, warning Tracey not to say it again in her presence. Once they were alone with privacy in their shared room, Daphne threw away her mask and unveiled her anger.

"Oh the nerves of him! It's driving me totally crazy!" Daphne screamed out in frustration.

Tracey, being her usual self tweaked that statement and translated it into something dirty. "Ah! Didn't think you were the dirty type Daph. So what did you do to not illicit any response from him? Lap dance?" Tracey ginned.

But Daphne did not blush nor did she argue back about her insensitive comments. That was when Tracey knew she was really serious about the entire affair.

"What happened?"

Daphne was pulling out her hair in frustration. "I thought I gained his trust. We were practicing on something and just then, the topic regarding the snowball fight last year came up. You do remember that right?"

Tracey gave a nod before Daphne continued.

"So I asked him what it was all about. He didn't want to tell me. At first I assumed it was because he didn't really trust you so he would say when we were together."

Tracey gave her a mock glare before waving for Daphne to resume her explanations.

"But he went on an explanation about how friends would wait for trust to build up before sharing their little secrets. It felt like a stab to me. After all these whiles I've been trying to become his friend, he went on and tell me directly into my face that he don't trust me. ARGH!"

Tracey could see the frustration in her friend. But she understood more of what Harry might be feeling now. Still seeing Daphne was her best friend, Tracey needed to help her first. She went over to her bed and gave her a hug.

"Come on Daphne. You should know of how hard it is to earn Harry's trust."

"I know that Tracey. But can't he just let me in on a bit of that hiding thing of his? He used it on us not once but twice!" 'And thrice for me that night.'

Tracey went in a deep contemplative post. It was rare to ever see her thinking.

"Daphne. I need to explain some things to you before you dig a grave for yourself."

Daphne was all ears for her best friend. Being really good at emotional control, she could will that anger out of her system just for that period of time. She could ensure it did not affect her judgment.

"You know in the past, this entire situation was reversed? What I meant was that I were you and you were Harry. When I first befriend you, there were a lot of secrets you did not ever share it with me. I became angry with you of course because I thought friends should share secrets with each other."

Daphne was listening with rapt attention. She could remember those times quite clearly. It was one of those rare few arguments she had with Tracey.

"But when I confided in my mom, she told me that given your background and how you were brought up, I should be giving you more time and trust before you could return that trust. She explained it clearly to me that instead of forcing you to tell me all your secrets so that we can be best friends, I should instead give you a wide berth so that you could come and tell me all those secrets instead. That was what friendship was all about. It's not about knowing secrets and each other's quirks. It's about mutual trust. As friends, we trust each other to not hide anything behind out backs. That's why I decided to apologize with you and earn it instead. That's how we got to be such good friends now."

As Daphne listened to her best friend, she became more and more disgraced at her own actions. Memories of her past came flashing through her mind.

"Oh no... What have I done...?" She became more and more shocked at herself once she realised the whole thing actually happened before in her life. History did repeat itself but she allowed it to happen. Her eyes moistened at that thought.

"Come now Daphne. Don't worry too much about this. Just wait for Harry to come back and then you two have a good talk over it. I'm sure he will be delighted to forgive and forget. Who knows maybe you get to become even closer friends after this? Look on the bright side!"

Tracey encouraged Daphne with her style of pep talk. Daphne felt moved from it.

"Thanks Tracey. You are really my best friend."

"Don't you ever question it Daphne."

They smiled at each other, really thankful for the friendship they shared.

"I think I'll wait for Harry in the common rooms. Sorry for pulling you from the library just now. "

"Don't worry Daphne. Anytime for you." With that, Tracey went off back to continue with her work, leaving Daphne alone in the common rooms. It was quite empty at this time of the day as students were either outside playing on a weekend or studying. Nobody loved being cooped up here the entire day. But that was a different case for Daphne. She had a mission to complete now.

Minutes turned into hours. Daphne sat beside the fireplace reading her book whilst waiting for Harry to come back. But she had waited for three hours now and there was no signs of him coming back. It was possible that Harry had instead stayed in the training room but that was just a hazard guess. She knew that he had to come back to the dormitories somehow or another, which led to her waiting right at this choke point.

Malfoy and his goons did walked past the common rooms. They gave her a brief look before deciding to just ignore her. It was a miracle in her opinion. Malfoy had just successfully ignored her very presence and fortunate for him indeed because today, the ice princess is reigning. A boy did come over to try and flirt with her. The end result? He was hexed so badly that the news of Daphne in a bad mood spread throughout the entire Slytherin house.

As she continued with her book, her stomach began growling. It was past seven and there was no signs of the guy called Harry potter. She was getting annoyed at him. The thoughts of just forgetting the apology did come across her several times. It was only her own willpower that prevented herself from giving up waiting. She was Daphne Greengrass and she would never bow down to failure when she set her sight on something.

Finally, she came. Not Harry but Tracey. She came with her hands full of delightful treat.

"What took you so long?" Daphne asked grumpily.

Tracey gave her a sheepish grin. "I couldn't stop myself from eating."

She placed down the box of food and seconds later, Daphne was stuffing her mouth with food – with manners mind you. As hungry as she was, Daphne would never ever eat like Ron. She was classy and she intended her reputation to stay that way

"No signs of Harry?"

"None. Do you think he might be in the training room?" Daphne asked.

Tracey shook her head. "I went there before dinner and it was empty. He did not come for dinner either..."

Now that was perturbing for Daphne. Ignoring her because of her insensitive comments was one thing. Skipping dinner because of it was something much more serious.

"Oh no... Did I scare him off Tracey...?" Daphne asked uncertainly. She thought this was not such a huge matter and yet Harry was reacting way beyond her expectations.

"Relax Daphne! I'm sure he will come around when he finish thinking through things. That was what I did as well. If you two are meant to be friends, then it will happen Daphne."

But Tracey's words did not really calm Daphne down. Time seems to accentuate her worry over the entire affair. Tracey waited with her in the common room, chatting to while away time. When they were out of topics, they started with their reading and revision. Soon, curfew came and they were still right there waiting for Harry.

"Tracey... Its curfew and he's still not back. Should I go out and find him?" Daphne asked with concern.

Tracey shrugged. "I've no idea. But I think you should go to bed and sleep. There's always another day."

Inwardly, Daphne was thinking about the many scenarios that might occur. Harry, just like her had almost took her own life. Was it possible for Harry to take his again because of what she said? She knew her words were really unfair to him. It was too invasive and as much as she wanted to know his secrets, she would rather want him in person. Screw the secrecy. As his first friend, she pushed him away and that was bound to hurt a lot. Now all Daphne could do is to wait.

Shaking her head, Daphne gave her answer to Tracey, "I will stay here and continue waiting. You should just sleep first alright? This thing is bugging me too much that I can't sleep leaving it unresolved."

"Well, it's your choice Daphne. Good luck though. Nights!"

"Thanks and good night to you too!"

With that, Daphne was left all alone in front of the fireplace waiting for her friend to come back. Little by little, she found herself dozing off. Her mind could only take so much stress before it needed to rest.

Harry's mind was in a mess. As he came to a secluded spot outside the castle, he began meditating. It was the one and only way he knew that would clear all the confusion he had with himself.

As he went into his mindscape, the entire place was in chaos. Spots of distortion littered throughout as bubbles of memories were played to him. This was the first time Harry experienced such disorder in his mind. No wonder he could not think clearly. Emotions that were locked up had razed his entire defence down.

Experiencing an actual attack certainly did help him in more ways than theory could. Harry decided to focus on calming himself down and rebuilding his mind before deciding on what to do with the Daphne quandary.

There were a few problems he needed to resolve in order to defend his mind much better. Firstly, he would have to add some kind of system to induce fear into the invader so that he would not stay and linger in finding a vulnerable spot in his mind. Secondly, Harry had to learn how to find out where exactly was the invader in order for him to expel him out. Then came the problem of flushing the invader out of his mind. Did willing him out work? He tried it with Daphne but could do scarce damage. He needed to ask her in order to improve on that point and that would hopefully be the case in future should she forgive him.

What happened the previous lesson was another vulnerability in itself. Harry was caught unprepared for a mind attack. He had not known that forcing a probe on the conscious memories could link them to the others. So unless he was vigilant all the time and kept his memories in check, he would have to find some way to protect the forefront of his mind.

If not, the consequences would be harsh just like what happened in the first lesson. Daphne found out something he had hoped to keep a secret.

Time passed quite fast as Harry sat reorganizing and rebuilding his mind into a more comprehensive defensive system. He did not notice the outer environment as he sat under the tree. The sun had set and the moon had risen, engulfing the world in moonlight. It was then Harry finally opened his eyes.

He was calm finally. The peaceful environment itself did wonders. Students rarely came this far from the castle, giving him total privacy and tranquillity. He basked in the darkness and occasional moonlight, loving the feel of the night breeze tickling his skin. The moon was full tonight and it was really beautiful. Harry could stare and get lost in it. But he knew that he had to make a decision as to what he should tell Daphne.

It was just a few minutes of internal debate before he arrived at the answer. The costs of ignoring his heart was too great for him to lose. But for now, Harry did not want to return back to the castle where he felt cooped up. Nature in all its glory was beautiful especially tonight.

It was around midnight before Harry decided to return back and catch his sleep. Seeing that four hours was all he needed to refresh his body and mind, there was no need to retreat for the night that early. Shadow walking through the opened windows, Harry arrived right outside the Slytherin common room. A password was said before the stone wall revealed the door which Harry entered.

He began walking in the dark before heaving in a huge breath. Shock and worry were all he felt before he ran forward towards the girl slumped on the sofa. Harry did not want her to get hurt even more because of him.

The moment his skin came into contact with hers, Harry jolted back with astonishment. It felt really cold. Somehow, the fire died out. As the Slytherin common room was right under the black lake, it would be really cold at night and Daphne here most likely fell asleep waiting for him. Harry decided to just forget about his sleep and stay with her to ensure nothing happened to his first friend.

He wanted to bring her back to her room but seeing that guys could not go pass the stairs and door, and that his shadow walk ability required an open pathway, he could do nothing but just to stay here with her.

As he was thinking over his options, he saw her shivering from the cold. It was then he decided to firstly make her warm so she would not fall sick before doing any other stuff.

Harry cast the incendio, relighting the fireplace before going back into his room to take the blanket from his bed to cover Daphne. Her body felt much warmer now as he placed his hands over her forehead. It was a relief indeed.

Seeing his job done, he began walking to a nearby couch. Watching over Daphne meant that he would not be sleeping tonight. He would repay the time lost in the morning when she woke up. But before he could move, he felt a hand grab his weakly. Harry saw Daphne murmuring something akin to "Don't leave me behind..." which he complied.

"Don't worry Daphne. You are in good hands." Harry smiled and placed his hands over hers to show what he meant with actions.

With that settled, it was now a waiting game for Daphne to wake. Harry went back into his mindscape to review through his defence. He needed to while away time as he waited.

A defence system should have a powerful threat to scare or attack the invader. Just taking away their vision was not enough. Using stealth was good but not totally impenetrable. He needed some creatures that could see in the dark, maybe some kind of wolves where their eyes would glow in it. That gave an intimidation factor as well as a ruddy good guard for his mind. Maybe he could try placing traps as well. Traps could both injure the invader and at the same time, alert him where their position was. It was really a good idea. But what trap should he use? That was something he needed to research on.

Harry felt movements on his body. He came out of his meditative state and found himself staring at a woken up Daphne looking groggily at him.

"Harry...?" she began tiredly. "Did I fall asleep? My head hurts." And to demonstrate her words, Daphne had a hand clutching her head while the other was still being held by Harry. It was then she realised she was holding on to his hand and he did not really notice it. But that realization was enough to jolt her entire brain awake.

"Wait what happened? Why are we holding hands?" she asked. Her face had the slightest tint of red.

"You didn't want me to leave Daphne and I needed to reassure you. But you're alright now so..." Harry let go of her hand. But before he could move his away, she went and grabbed it back.

"It's fine! I mean I don't mind you holding my hand and that... I... Wait what did I just say?" She began blushing even more now. Harry could see that but he did not know of its implication.

"Daphne? Why are your face red? Is it too warm for you?" He blurted out worriedly.

She gave him a smile. "There is nothing wrong. Just let me hold yours for a while alright?"

Harry gave her a nod. Daphne turned on the couch, changing her view back to the ceiling.

"You know, I was really scared that I pushed you away with what I said. I'm sorry for reacting as such just now... Yesterday. I... Harry would you forgive me for what I said to you?" Daphne turned to her side and looked into Harry's eyes. She wanted him to see the heartfelt guilt she had.

Harry gave her hand a squeeze. "It's alright Daphne. It was my fault as well. I didn't want to tell you my secrets because... Because it made me abnormal. Because I couldn't bring myself to jump across the gap between us. Because I couldn't trust you with my life."

Hearing it again felt agonizing for Daphne. It was one thing for her to place her trust on somebody but it was another to be given a heartfelt trust to. Daphne knew how much pain Tracey went through during the inception of their friendship. But it was through all these pain and trials that strengthened and moulded their relationship into something beautiful, just like polishing a diamond. This time it was her turn to be on the supporting end.

"But I want you to know, you are the most trusted person for me." Daphne looked into his emerald green eyes, moved by his desire, his truthfulness and his fear.

"But"–he shook his head–"I just can't tell you some of my secrets. It's just..." Harry let go of her hand at this point. He could not face her any longer. He felt that his actions were bordering on selfishness on his part. Daphne had been there sharing with him her life, her darkest treasures yet he was such a coward.

Daphne had been quiet the entire time, just looking at undergo different transitions of emotions. She could see how hard it was for him to really part with the hidden skill he had. But still, on her part, she felt that since it was already out, why not just share it with her? Besides she was his most trusted friend. If it was anybody else, she understood his reluctance to part with it but for her as well?

Time was the only way out of the secrecy that shrouded Harry. Daphne knew it first-hand and today was yet exemplary of that fact. But she would not be straining this relationship all because of that single piece of information.

"Harry. I understand. But will you promise to tell me about it someday?" she asked him earnestly.

Harry turned and gave her a smile. "I am grateful to you for understanding me and I promise. Thank you. You don't know how important both are to me."

Daphne tilted her head. "Both? What do you mean?"

"Our friendship and my secret."

Daphne gave him a relaxed smile. He, just like her, saw something important in this friendship.

"Alright then. I think I shall be... What time is it now?"

"Around four in the morning?"

"Oh... Then I shall be going back to bed to resume my beauty sleep. Thanks for the blanket Harry!" She gave him a smile of gratitude.

Harry nodded. "So I assume we will be resuming our lessons?"

She grinned at this. "Only you could be so crazy about that. You can assume that Harry."

"Rest well then. Hope you didn't catch a cold. It would make my effort go down into the drain if that was so."

"Don't you worry!" She gave him that last statement before going back to her room.

A/N: And there we go! Neville is not really who you think he is. Just like Harry, there is a veil of deception over him. But does Harry know? And if he found out about it what will he do?

Both Harry and Daphne got closer yet again. I am focusing more on development of the friendship between Harry and Daphne for now. Next chapter we will be seeing more of it once again. The first year for Harry will most likely end at around chapter 13. I am focusing more on first year because there is quite a lot of introductions and development between the character. But over the next few years, action would prevail when they go on out fighting the war.

Enjoy!