Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
Harry's footsteps softly echoed in the hallways and he started slowing down after seeing that he was close to his destination.
He had immediately been pelted with questions from his friends, especially Hermione after returning from the Headmaster's office. He told them what the spells were that he had used against Nott which managed to brutally smash both his shield and hand.
While surprised and slightly shocked that he knew of the Breaking Curses, they didn't ask much more questions after that, which surprised him for a moment before realizing that they had probably only seen him after hearing Nott's scream of pain. Likely making them think that Nott's injury had happened in their duel instead of cold punishment handed out by him.
Harry also rather kept it at that and made no move to correct them on it, and speaking of Nott; he hoped that the bastard's hand healed slowly or at least with some extra pain, but he doubted that thought if Pomfrey was involved.
Luckily Luna had already been discharged the next morning, already talking about Wrackspurts to a skeptical Hermione when they briefly met again in the Great Hall, to her it was as if nothing ever happened. Harry however, wasn't one to easily forgive or forget..
Harry opened the door with a prepared mind, both for his likely to come conversations with Daphne as well as their Occlumency practice.
He wondered if Daphne had a hard time at the supplementary lesson because of his recent duel with Nott and the others, it must've been harder than usual to keep track of all the things in the hall with an instructor missing..
Inside the classroom was Daphne, standing close to a window, one of her hands on the windowsill and the other resting on the cold glass of the window itself. Silently taking in the scenery outside of the frost covered school grounds and eerie forests as the sun started to cast long shadows in its descend.
"You like taking in sceneries?" He asked closing the door behind him with a click.
She turned away from the window after he spoke, leaving a hand imprint behind on the chilly glass, before replacing the calm gaze she previously had with a frown as she started walking to close the distance between them.
"Harry!"
"Sorry that I couldn't help out with the supplementary lesson. Especially since you didn't even know why I was gone in the first place." He said apologetically when she stopped in front of him.
"Who cares about the lesson!" Daphne brushed off quickly before trapping him with her accusing blue eyes. "You had me worried the whole time during the lesson. At first I just thought that you were going to be late again but I got a bad feeling when I noticed that your friends also weren't going to show up either. It was near the end of the lesson that Neville came to tell me of what happened. Couldn't you come tell me yourself instead having to let me wait until now to talk to you in person?"
He carefully tried to give her an disarming smile as he gestured with his hands. "I couldn't really help it, Professor McGonagall immediately brought me to Dumbledore to discuss various things after Pomfrey healed me. Today wasn't much good either, we didn't have any classes together and during the meals we are in the Great Hall with everyone else."
"Well it is about time we drop the stuff of having to be separate in the Great Hall anyway, it's only a matter of time, might as well do it earlier than later." She said losing her frown for a more pleasant expression after hearing him out.
He looked back at her and now was the one who donned a frown. "Are you sure? People will most likely give us more attention-give you more attention."
"They won't be all that shocked, students had already started spreading rumors of us being in a relationship after our first supplementary lesson. They would only be seeing confirmation of things they already speculated about like the little sheep that they are." Daphne said waving the problem away with her hand. "And it doesn't matter even if they do care, because I simply don't. I have better things to concern myself with."
He shook his head with a smile. Daphne really cared little about what other people thought or did. The people that were important or close to her were the only ones that mattered to Daphne. You could say that maybe it was a bit cold and selfish but it only made you feel more special if you were one of those few people she cared about.
"You're right, it's only an hindrance, we might as well get it over with." Harry agreed, she was right in saying that it had already started circulating around the castle since then. They might as well get it out of the way now. The only downside was how some certain Slytherins in particular might react to it.
"Well, of course I'm right." Daphne said crossing her arms and sounding satisfied at the developments.
"Do keep an out for Nott, Malfoy and others like them though. They might come pester you again because of it." He said warningly to her optimism, he hated not being able to be there and keep watch of things himself. That there was this barrier between them at times in which he couldn't hear or see anything from behind.
Daphne in response seemed to take his words seriously as she lost some of her positivity in return.
"Don't worry, we'll just have to see what happens and if anything happens, besides I have Tracey in there, and we like to fight dirty." She said with a promising look in her eyes, before slowly putting her hand on his chest with a more gentle expression. "Speaking of those guys, how is your chest? Was it easy to mend? Nothing permanent left, right? Oh, and Lovegood too of course, is she also alright?"
He smiled at her concern and rested his own hand atop hers. "We're perfectly fine, for me it was just a rib. A spell, potion and some complaints from Madam Pomfrey was all it took to fix it. Luna also recovered after spending a night there."
She nodded but didn't look relieved, instead her expression became stormy as her hand lightly began to grip his chest.
"I'm sure that he'll think twice next time he tries anything against you. He still had trouble using his hand today and it looked to be painful, I guess that healing bones which have been completely splintered take some time to melt together again." She said with a vindictive tone and narrowed eyes as she moved closer to him until they were face to face. "And if not we'll do worse next time. Maybe break his jaw too, that should put a stop to his gibbering bullshit from pouring out."
He gave a slightly nervous laugh at her sudden viciousness and looked away from the blue eyes that said she would be his partner in crime any time of the day. "Should I also start watching out? Maybe write a will or something?"
She lightly laughed and used her hand to turn his face back to hers, showing him an innocent smile again.
"I don't see why you would need to, Harry. All you have to do is to treat me like you are supposed to and there will be no trouble for you." She said sweetly as she looked into his eyes.
"I should treat you like royalty then?" He asked raising an eyebrow.
"That much is obvious already." Daphne said slowly letting that devilish smile grow on her lips again. "There's another that recently joined however, can you guess it?"
"Uh, future criminal?" He wildly guessed, already envisioning Nott being attacked by her.
"Wrong." She said with a misleading smile, pinching him sharply with the hand that was still on his chest, ignoring his yelp as she continued to speak. "But me being the forgiving and helpful person that I am will give you the answer; the answer was girlfriend of course. From now on you are also supposed to treat me as your girlfriend, something you already should have been doing in the first place but I can overlook that mistake too."
"Yes of course. That much is a given.." He said as he itched for some payback, but refrained himself from doing so lest he start an all-out war.
"Doesn't seem like it if you answer differently though." Daphne said innocently, lightly tilting her head to the side in question before grinning again. "Next question, and you better get this one right; what do couples usually do when they greet each other?"
Oh, he had seen enough of that in Hogwarts already as couples fell into each other's arms with slobbering kisses each time they saw the other and had to depart again shortly after, only to repeat the whole process five minutes later. The only known means of preventing this being a Teacher in the near vicinity… or being a prefect like Percy had been.
"They, uh, you know.. kiss." Harry said instantly becoming aware of her attractive lips as soon as the words came out, swallowing subconsciously in reaction.
"Correct." Daphne said encouragingly. "You now see what went wrong after you entered?"
He felt his eyebrows rise up a bit. "We immediately started talking, there was no time for that even if I did think about it."
"Then you just should have silenced me with a kiss." Daphne quickly replied closing the distance so that their noses nearly touched before continuing in a feather light tone. "I wouldn't have complained about it, trust me."
"Uhuh." He dumbly replied, feeling her hand lightly grab the collar of his shirt while his came to hold her sides.
"Come on then." Daphne breathed teasingly, luring him in with sapphire eyes. "You can still amend your mistake."
He felt his face grow warm as his embarrassment rose from being on the spot so much but nevertheless came to hold her side and back as she lightly wet her lips in response.
"Always such a roundabout way with you." He muttered, coming closer to her lips but finding himself unable to break eye contact as her mesmerizing eyes seemed to guide him toward her.
"Easy is no fun, Harry." She whispered against his lips before he shut her up.
Sweet. Soft. That was how he had remembered her lips to be in their first and second kiss. Their third had that too but then also more, he could almost taste something magnetic and tempting in her kiss that steadily began to grow hotter as their eyes closed themselves.
Their lips briefly broke apart and he felt her warm breath wash over him before she inhaled again and pulled him back with the ever present grip on his shirt, as if afraid that he would stop before she wanted to. Truth was however, that he doubted he ever wanted get away from her with the way she occasionally tugged on his lips with her own and pressed her body closer to his.
She moaned softly when he did the same to her and leaned into him more, causing him to take a few steps back until he softly hit the wall behind him. Her arms soon came to encircle his neck as he slowly ran his own down her back, hoping it to be safe and pleasing to her.
Eventually, their kisses began to slow and decrease until she moved to rest her head on his chest to catch her breath for a moment.
"Am I really going to greet you like that every time?" He said dazedly after a few breaths, feeling his heart hammer from the moment, making him wonder if Daphne could hear him over the sound of it.
"Fine with me. I guess that it wasn't so bad." She said mirthfully before lifting her head and tucking a stray strand of hair back into place that dangled in front of her face.
"And I could easily hear that you thought so too." Daphne said grinning, referring to his heartbeat.
"Yeah." He said lamely before clearing his throat to get himself together. "So, uh, Occlumency, right?"
"Yes, we should at least try to get something done there, it being the whole point of this meeting and all. Although I can understand that you might lose control of your urges again and suddenly decide to grab me for another kiss." She said flashing her devilish grin again before giving an deliberately arrogant swish of her blonde hair. "That's completely reasonable with someone as irresistible as me, so I wouldn't hold it against you."
He loudly snorted and soon began to openly laugh at her. Not mockingly or sarcastically but light and genuine. It wasn't the first time he saw her like this but he just couldn't help it, the stance, the tone, the words, and the light feeling that her kisses had left him with added up to some kind of weightless feeling that was undeniable.
"It's not funny.." Daphne said with a serious expression but soon began to smile as well when he couldn't stop, even when she silently drew her wand.
"You better stop laughing soon if you don't want to regret it, Potter." She said with a now dangerous smile as she gave him multiple wand pokes to his sides, only adding more to his laughter.
"I-I can't, D-Daphne you have-e you st-stop po-po-poking!" He tried to gasp out between his laughter.
"You need to speak up more clearly or I won't be able to understand you." Daphne said mercilessly, poking him at her leisure.
He didn't have a response however as he needed all the air he could get for his body and tried his best to control his now hurting stomach. The only thing keeping him upright being the wall behind him he now used for support.
Alarm bells started ringing however as he saw a glint in her eyes when he managed to steady himself somewhat.
"It's rude to laugh at your girlfriend for no reason, Harry. But don't worry I'm here to help teach you some manners."
It was the glint of a cruel punishment.
"I zaid dat I was sowry Aphne.." Harry mumbled for the tenth time. The reason of his verbal butchering of pretty much every word he said being caused by the fact that both of his hands were tightly stuck to his cheeks through the use of Sticking Charms.
"Oh, I know. There is nothing to apologize for." Daphne said with some of her own laughter as she sat beside him on the couch. "I just suddenly thought that this would be incredibly funny to see and hear.. Turns out that I was right."
He tried to give her an exasperated look but probably failed miserably as she laughed again.
"Pwease? An we et erious ow an swart pwactising?"
"Mumbling is so ungentlemanly, Harry.. here let me help you." She said finally undoing the Charm with a flick of her wand. "Now what did you say again?"
He gratefully removed his hands from his face and flexed his jaw and hands before deciding that he would be the better of the two and refrain of getting back at her.
"I was trying to ask whether or not we could get serious now and start practicing Occlumency."
"Oh, yeah sure, why didn't you speak more clearly then." Daphne said as if she had no hand in it. "Can't expect a girl to understand if you sound like an ogre."
Withholding a comment about ogres himself, he moved himself in a more active and ready position on the couch, signaling that he was ready to get started.
"So, how long do you think it will be until my shields are sufficient?" He asked wondering whether or not they were nearly done. In the past few lessons he found himself to be quite capable of fending off her attacks, and Daphne was by no means unskilled in Legilimency, rather talented actually as he could easily compare the strength of her attacks to those of Snape. Not that he wanted to give that miserable man a compliment but..
"Judging from our previous lessons, I would say that tonight just might be the last one, you've come a long way since our first lesson and your shields can take a good beating now, it'll be more than enough to expand upon with Somniamency." She answered. "Speaking of which; how are things coming along there? Did you find some kind of exercise in the book I gave you?"
"I Still have a way to go but I recently found one that I understood." He said nodding in response to the things she said. "It's an exercise where I have to think about the memories that plague me the most, and then think about good memories or positive subjects that lie close to it. The good and the bad memories may differ from each other if there is no choice but it would be the most effective if they are from the same."
It was an exercise Harry had started doing recently and while depressing at first, it became easier as he kept trying. He still had plenty of trouble with memories from the ministry, the graveyard, and Sirius, but the others like those of his parents and earlier school years had become better by learning to think about the positive moments that happened before, after, or even during those events.
He had also noticed that doing this exercise already lessened his nightmares somewhat, giving him plenty of motivation to continue doing it as best as he could every evening before he went to sleep.
Daphne looked thoughtful as she took in his explanation, idly twirling a lock of hair before replying. "So I'm correct is saying that; with Occlumency you set yourself aside from the sorrow and happiness that the memories bring by letting go off the thoughts and emotions, but with Somniamency you need to use memories that bring pleasant and calming emotions to counter the unsettling memories and feelings, and like you said; it's the most effective when a single memory is used for both the happy and unhappy sides?"
"Yes, memories who can give you both happy and unhappy feelings are the best because you are then forced to completely turn it around and balance things out. Basically it's all about learning to confront and control the memories and feelings that are associated with them, rather than letting go as is done with Occlumency." Harry said in response before frowning a bit again and continuing. "That's the first part and I should be able to do it successfully after some time, but.."
"But what?" Daphne asked curiously, leaning forward in anticipation.
"But like I said earlier; It's only an exercise, a preparation for the real test. And I'm likely going to need your help again for that." He said frowning a bit.
She got a questioning look in response. "Sure, what is it that I need to help you with then?"
"There is a spell in the book… and I need you to use it on me, because it works similar to learning Occlumency, in the sense that you need to use Legilimency."
"Okay.. and what will the spell do? I don't suppose you are meant to fight me off when learning to deal with your own memories." Daphne asked raising her eyebrows slightly.
"The spell forces the victim to relive their worst memories, it will be similar to a Pensive.. except that it'll be full of nightmares." Harry said smiling grimly. "The goal is that I apply the same principle of the exercise during the spell."
"That's quite brutal.. I don't want to discourage you but It will probably be hard to do." Daphne slowly said in a gentle tone. "For both of us.. I'm not going to enjoy those sessions if I have to do those things to you."
"I know.." He said letting out a deep sigh at the prospect. "Thinking about the memories and using more happy ones during the exercise is one thing, but vividly reliving the moment and then trying to do the same will be something else entirely."
"But don't worry too much, Harry. I said that it would be hard, I won't lie about that but it's not impossible." She said before leaning into him and lacing her fingers into his, giving it an reassuring squeeze. "Remember; any problem that lies before us is solvable."
He looked back at her and smiled at her confidence.
"See? It's settled then, the upcoming Christmas break will be a great moment to start when you come over! In the meantime you can finish up with that exercise." Daphne said smiling.
"Yeah.. Come over?" He asked after her words went through him again.
"Yes. Come over. You're not spending the whole break somewhere else, silly. You'll be meeting my parents of course! I could already introduce you to my sister but I'll just let her wait until then. That'll teach her for her teasing me nonstop the past week.." Daphne said trailing off into other things.
"Hey, you listening?" She asked nudging him awake as the word 'parents' had started repeating itself a few times in his head after she said it.
"Yeah! I'm fine." He said a bit too energetically before continuing in a more collected voice. "I'll have to ask Dumbledore however.. I can't just walk off without others knowing. There are also the Weasleys who expect me to be with them during Christmas."
Daphne frowned at the complications and huffed. "Just a few days will be enough.. And I'll simply come kidnap you if he disagrees or anyone else disagrees. I'm entitled to."
He grinned at her. "You won't be able to kidnap me since I would be cooperating with you, it'll be an elope… but maybe you could also stay for a bit with the Weasleys?"
She got a bit of a sour face in response which didn't surprise him all that much. It wasn't like she disliked the Weasleys themselves but Daphne simply wasn't a fan of getting to know more people in general . She had been the same with Hermione.
"Please? It'll be a good moment to let you meet everyone." He said doing his best to give her a pleading expression, continuing when he saw her begin to give in. "The Weasleys have been looking after me as soon as I started Hogwarts. They're basically like family to me."
Her expression softened at the last part and she sighed in defeat.
"Of course I'll come over, Harry. That is, if they're okay with it."
Molly instantly came to mind and he began to wonder if they were going to end up in the same situation as Bill and fleur..
Harry sat at the fireplace later that night, tapping his inked quill on the empty parchment in his lap, making dots as he tried to put his thoughts and ideas into words of his messy handwriting.
He wasn't busy with his research notes for Voldemort's anchoring, he had no new information to work with and was still waiting for the reply Daphne would hear from her parents.
It also wasn't a some kind of essay either. He was doing good at keeping up with his homework, even Ron had started improving on that area. Harry guessed that it was probably so that he could please Hermione a bit.
No he was thinking about something entirely different, namely about how to ask Daphne to the party. Something he had been postponing for quite some time now… which wasn't all that new to him either as it had been the same with Cho during the Yule ball. The party was only two and a half weeks away he needed to hurry up and think of something good and fast..
She probably wants something special, grand and fancy... But then again, Daphne had showed him moments were a few words and actions had been enough to please her. She might also like it simple and direct if he were to follow that thought.
Seriousness would be surely one of the things she would want to have, Daphne always wanted a serious and honest answer out of him during moments like that. Being aloof or whimsical about it would surely fall in the wrong taste with her.
Privacy would surely be one of the things he would implement, if not purely for himself to make the entire situation possible in the first place. He couldn't do things like that if everyone were to watch his every move. Luckily Daphne wasn't one to stick in a giggling fan girl glob so he was already lucky on that part.
What else did Slughorn say Harry thought, trying hard to remember their strange conversation, finding it ironic that he now tried to follow the advice of the same man he previously avoided to the best of his ability.
Chivalrous, special, and genuine, those were some other points he had mentioned.
He had no idea how to make it special… he would have to wait and think about that, being genuine should prove to be no problem since this entire thing was entirely optional in the first place.
Chivalrous he thought, repeating the words a few times in his mind to test it. Thinking back on the few occasions he had pulled her up by her hand, held the door and took out a chair for her. The reaction Daphne gave during those moments had always been more than positive as she bloated in her usual pride and smiled at being treated a little differently. Yes, he could be sure about that at least, Daphne would like something in the chivalrous nature.
Great, he had something. Now only to think of something that would please her complicated demands. Maybe it would help if it had to do with something she liked…
It was the next day at breakfast that he, Neville and Hermione enjoyed their breakfast of some crackers and sandwiches. He couldn't really say however, that Ron was also taking the time to truly enjoy his breakfast as he was already stuffing his face with sausages in the early morning.
Harry really wondered how he could always eat so much in the morning. He himself hardly ate much in the morning and left much of it for supper. He had to give compliments to Ron however, for having improved a bit as he didn't speak with his mouth full recently.. most of the time at least, but maybe those compliments were better meant for Hermione and her likely involvement in it.
He saw Ron look up behind him with alarmed eyes and quickly swallow his mouthful with great difficulty.
"Six o'clock Slytherins approaching." He said before narrowing his eyes as he took a better look at whoever was approaching them. "I think it's Tracey and Greengrass.. What are they coming here for?"
Harry's hand twitched and he crushed the cracker he had just grabbed into little pieces and dust, ignoring Hermione and Neville's curious looks as he grabbed a new one. I know that I said we might as well get it over with, but not necessarily at the first chance we get!
He turned his head to see her approaching in a line that was straighter than an arrow with Tracey in tow, looking to be having fun already as she ignored the looks she was beginning to get from being one of the only students that still walked in the Great Hall and the direction she was heading in; the Gryffindor table.
"Maybe she wants to ask you something?" Hermione asked as she looked on with him and the others.
"No, she's just coming because she can." Harry said already getting a bad feeling about this, before shifting his eyes to watch the reactions of some of the Professors at the table. Most of them like McGonagall and Sprout looked on curiously while Dumbledore simply smiled encouragingly.
"Come on, make room, Harry." Daphne said casually after coming to a stop behind him, as if she did this every day.
"Sure.." He said taking a peek before he moved aside to see Snape's face contort in a mixture of disbelief and disgust, evidently not having taken any of the rumors seriously, only to have the truth be thrown right in front of his crooked nose.
"So." Daphne said after she sat down closely next to him, ignoring the plethora of room she had available. "How is everyone doing on this cold and dreary day?"
"Erm... Fine I guess." Ron said slowly after Tracey sat in-between him and Neville.
Silence fell as no follow up came and half the table stared dumbly at them. No one made a move or gave even a sound of hostility against them. They simply stared openly at the fact that Slytherins joined their table in probably… years.
"Psst, Harry.. this is the moment where you introduce us." Tracey whispered to him with a nod as she leaned forward a bit.
"Right." He said mentally face palming at them, himself and the rest of the people in the hall.
"Well most of us already know each other by now so. Hermione, meet Tracey Davis; a new friend of myself. Tracey, meet Hermione Granger; one of the brightest witches in our year." He said introducing them to each other.
"Pleased to meet you, we probably exchanged a few words from time to time in the previous years." Hermione said with a light blush from his compliment as she shook hands with Tracey.
"We did, but it was mostly about lending some ink or quills." Tracey said laughing lightly.
"Now." He said lightly sighing in preparation as he turned to Ron, who seemed to hold true to his change of mind by being quite neutral so far in his behavior.
"Daphne, meet Ron Weasley; my best friend and master chess player. Always feel free to decline any requests to play against him, because he's merciless." He said trying to keep it light and continuing when Ron managed a smile. "Ron, meet Daphne Greengrass; my personal teacher for dancing, Occlumency and potions."
"Ouch!" He called out when he suddenly felt one of her feet hit his calf beneath the table.
"Something wrong?" Neville asked him before the others could.
"No, just a cramp.." He answered dismissively giving Daphne a questioning look as to why he had deserved that but found none as she moved to give Ron a hand.
"Pleased to meet you. I've already heard some things about you from Tracey. Don't worry they're quite positive as of late." She said smiling in a friendly way and shaking his offered hand.
"As of late eh? Well can't really blame her, I was quite a jerk in the beginning.. Harry also told me some things about you. Good things." Ron said with no hostility.
He and Ron grabbed their drinks after that and started gulping it down while the others silently looked on. Tracey however had an expression of pure restraint on her face while out of the corner of his eyes he saw Daphne give him that grin again, causing more than a little worry to rise up within him.
"I'm also his girlfriend by the way."
He and Ron simultaneously choked on their drinks, causing him to violently start coughing out the liquid that had shot into his lungs while Ron spurted some of his drink back into his cup through his nose making Neville next to him lean away.
"And we have a winner!" Tracey said laughing hysterically, throwing her hands up in a cheer as Ron scrambled for some kind of napkin.
"Here, Ron." Hermione said looking a bit surprised herself as she gave him a bunch of napkins which he quickly grabbed to clean himself with.
"Could you not, you know? Drop a bomb every time we are around others? Or alone for that matter." Harry asked after he recovered with a few pats on the back from Neville, feeling ready to smash his plate with his face.
Daphne shrugged uncaringly and grabbed the forgotten cracker from his plate on which he just spend five minutes carefully preparing.
"Not my fault you introduced me incorrectly." She said taking a bite.
He opened and closed his mouth a few times at her reasoning before replying. "Maybe because I wanted to do it a bit more smoothly? You know, in private, without the risk of drowning in my own drink and everyone knowing."
Daphne looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head.
"Nah, this is the most effective way to spread the news. You know? To get it over with and all." Daphne said nodding her head toward the murmuring people around them. "And, it's a good way to mark my territory."
"Territory?" He asked incredulously.
"Yes. You. Territory. You're always too distracted to notice but there are plenty of girls who leer at you all day long. Just take a look at Vane's contorted face." Daphne said indicating with her eyes.
He took a quick look out of the corner of his eyes and indeed saw that Romilda was doing a good job of imitating Snape's expression moments ago.
Harry wanted to comment but was stopped when Ron finally recovered and pointed a finger at them with an expression of pure shock.
"The fuck!-"
"RON, language! And stop pointing!" Hermione interrupted, pulling his arm down while Ron ignored her, being much too occupied with staring at them.
"Why? How? Since when?!" He asked flustered, shifting his eyes between the two of them.
Harry groaned a bit at the questions and "I find the why and how a bit silly to answer but it happened shortly after we had that talk during the chess and all just a few days ago."
"Talk?" Daphne asked curiously.
"Nothing special, Daphne." He dismissed calmly, quickly turning bac to Ron.
Ron completely deflated as he got a lost look in his eyes. "That talk.. and I .. and then you.. no way, I actually helped didn't I..?"
"It would have happened regardless, Ron. It eased me a bit, but didn't make a big difference.. if that makes you feel better." Harry said encouragingly, trying to get his friend out of his stupor.
"Yeah, it's fine, it's fine.. I just need some time.. geez mate." Ron said before opting to stare at his plate in thought.
"I think that we broke him." Tracey said leaning forward a bit to inspect his face.
"Yeah." Harry said tentatively as he looked at Hermione and Neville almost expecting them to suddenly lose it too.
"Hey, don't look at me like that. Me and Hermione saw it coming." Neville said raising his hands in defense as Hermione nodded in agreement with a careful smile.
"We're happy for you two, don't mind him, he just needs a moment." Hermione said nudging the redhead. "Right, Ron?"
"Y-yeah. You guys just caught me off guard there… it's fine, just don't start doing all kind of weird things in front of me." Ron said making vague gestures with his hands and a sour face.
"What? Can't handle the truth? Daphne said grinning and grabbing his arm to deliberately hold it against her soft chest for everyone to see, making his face go slightly red while Ron began sputtering again as he became even redder than him while Hermione and Neville merely raised their eyebrows.
"Are you doing this on purpose?!" Ron asked bewildered as Daphne released him again.
"Well, of course." Daphne replied feigning confusion as she frowned at Ron, as if she wondered why he even felt the need to ask such a question.
"The sooner you get used to it the better, Ron. This isn't going to change, and if it does it will only be worse." Tracey said evilly while exchanging a knowing look with Daphne who returned it.
"So uh, tomorrow is another supplementary lesson again, right?" Harry asked trying to change the subject, grabbing a new cracker to put some dressing on.
"Yeah, there is! And a new dance is on the roster if I'm not mistaken." Hermione said looking at him and Daphne for confirmation.
"We do, we will start with the Foxtrot and-" Daphne began but suddenly stopped as they all heard the sound of wings fluttering.
Not a moment later a letter was dropped on top of his newly prepared food with a wet flop, followed by a grey owl that softly landed in front of Daphne.
"I guess you could say that.. another bomb was dropped." Tracey said looking at them expectantly with a grin. "Am I Right?"
"At least it's in an envelope." Neville said trying to make it sound better when Harry let out a sigh.
"Why am I not surprised that it's your owl..." Harry said giving Daphne an exasperated look while the owl let out an aloof sounding hoot, stole a piece of his maimed food and promptly flew off.
"Don't just ignore me!" Tracey called out appalled, only to be ignored once again as Daphne replied to him.
"Sorry, Walter is a bit careless." Daphne said sounding more amused than sorry as she picked the letter up and discarded the food-stained envelop.
Tracey huffed indignantly but nonetheless began to tell about more instances of this happening with Walter. Harry however, wasn't able to follow the story as he spend half of his concentration on watching Daphne read her letter, waiting for some kind of response that would tell him if this was the letter they had been waiting for.
Daphne's eyes rose up from her letter shortly after his thought finished and connected to his with a look of confirmation.
"Slytherin Common room, midnight. Don't worry I still remember how to get there." He whispered to her, schooling his features to prevent himself from grinning.
Daphne gave an imperceptible nod as she whispered her reply. "The password is Birthright."
Did I say that we would retrieve the book this chapter? Hm, well I meant to say the prelude to it of course... But really now, sorry if it disappointed you but things turned out longer than I expected. (Geez, again? What a surprise..)
I already have a good portion of the actual retrieval done but I thought that you guys would rather have something instead of a longer wait time with a huuuge chapter at the end. In any case chapt 22 should be out in a week or so.
Lemme know what you think!
capo327: McGonagall reaction. Answer: She hardly saw anything, making it hard for her to justly punish them, but it's true that she probably should have done so even if it was on *Accident* like Malfoy said. Will add it to the -to do list- and change some things about it later on.
trispectrum: Is there wizard nobility within your story such as Ancient and Noble Houses, and if so, are the Potters noble? Answer: There are ancient/noble/sacred twenty-eight families to which the Greengrasses belong to, Harry however isn't one of the twenty-eight nor a noble/ancient, he does have a reasonable amount of gold though.
sanbeegoldiewhitey: Your Harry, a sixth year barely beat Nott. Answer: Don't want Harry blasting all his opponents away just yet, (kinda boring IMO too) especially since he has only just touched on the surface of his spells in the arts. Nott also isn't any pushover with private dueling lessons and Death Eater daddy to help.
References:
Harry: What else did Slughorn say Harry thought, trying hard to remember their strange conversation; chapt 16
Harry: Maybe it would help if it had to do with something she liked; secret reference, it wasn't in this chapter however if you thought it to be
Harry: it happened shortly after we had that talk during the chess and all just a few days ago; chapt 19