'It must be strange to return to Hogwarts as a married couple,' Hermione said.

Her boyfriend raised his face from the crook of her neck where he had buried it, his brows knitted. 'What by Merlin's saggy underpants makes you say that?'

'Nott and Parkinson. Didn't you notice them just passing our compartment?'

Harry turned his gaze away from the milling crowd of students on platform 9 ¾ and looked at his best friends on the seats opposite of him with a broad grin. 'Ron seemed pretty distracted to me, I doubt he noticed anything.'

The tall, lean young man beside him joined his laughter.

Ron flipped them the bird behind Hermione's back, and their laughter became even harder.

Hermione snuggled deeper into Ron's arms. 'They got married last week, the announcement was in the Prophet,' she said, ignoring their laughter. After seven years of friendship she probably knew them too well than to fall for the bait. 'They both have to return to Hogwarts to repeat their seventh year, just like us.'

Harry sobered and made a face. 'I could've done without them. But you're right, it's strange that they didn't wait with the wedding until they have finished school.'

'They are both from old Pureblood families who belong to the Sacred Twenty-Eight,' Neville Longbottom said. 'These families usually arrange a marriage for their children when they are still minor and have no say in it. As a rule, they have to marry as soon as they are eighteen, or there will be repercussions. Nobody could foresee that we would've to repeat our last year.'

'That's wrong on so many levels!' Hermione sat up in Ron's arms with flushd cheeks and blazing eyes.

Harry's stomach sank. Seven years of close friendship with the bushy-haired witch had sensiblised him for the signs of an impending rant. He really could do without that right now. A short side glance at Ron's and Neville's wary faces told him they joined his sentiment.

The door of the compartment slid open. A very pretty girl with gleaming, chestnut coloured locks stood in the doorway and batted her eyes at Harry and Neville.

Harry let out a breath, at least Hermione's rant was averted for the time being.

'What do you want?' Hermione asked the girl with narrowed eyes.

The girl ignored her, she flipped a gleaming lock over one shoulder and put a hand on a curvy hip, a posture which displayed her buxom figure in a flattering angle turned towards Harry and Neville. 'Don't you two want to join my friends and me in our compartment? It must be very… frustrating... to have to look at these two lovebirds all the time.' She shot them a smile that could have melted steel on the spot.

Harry rolled his eyes. Not again! He'd had witches throwing themselves at him beginning with the first day after the war. It wasn't flattering at all, just the contrary, they treated him like the prize-winning stock bull at the fair. Even though he was free, he wasn't ready yet to sample the goods offered to him. The image of a young girl with red hair and fierce, chocolate brown eyes appeared before his inner eyes. He suppressed it; maybe he'd never again be able to feel for a girl like that, but he didn't want to become a man-whore, either.

'Thank you, but no, thank you. We prefer to stay here,' he said and turned his head away. Past mistakes had taught him that politeness could be fatal in situations like this.

'But, Harry…' Romilda Vane tried again.

He exchanged a look with Neville.

'You can do the honours this time, Harry. I got rid of the two girls who waylaid us at the Leaky Cauldron,' Neville said under his breath.

Harry let out a sigh of long suffering.

'If I must,.' He turned his head back to Romilda. 'Which part of "no" don't you understand, Vane?' He didn't wait for a response; his wand shot in his hand from the invisible holster on his right forearm, the next moment Romilda was pushed out of the compartment, and the door slammed shut in front of her surprised face.

'That wasn't very polite, Harry,' Hermione said in a reproachful tone.

'But effective.' Neville laughed. 'Thank you, Harry. These fangirls are a pest.'

Harry only grinned in reply and slipped his wand back into the holster.

Hermione huffed. 'Really, Harry, it wouldn't hurt to be at least polite to the girls who try to coax you out of your shell. It's been four months now. You really should start dating again.'

'She's right, mate, and you know it,' Ron said. 'You can't be pining for my sister forever, especially since she's moved on. Not that I agree with the choices she's made, but that's how it is, and you have to get used to it, mate.'

Harry turned his face away from his friends and looked out of the window. He clenched his teeth and pretended to look at the platform that teemed with parents sending their children off to school, while he tried to maintain his composure. Ron and Hermione meant well, but they had no idea what they were talking about. If it were that simple to yank Ginny out of his heart he would have done it four months ago, right after he had discovered that she had found someone to substitute him during his time on the run…

The shrill whistle of the train startled him out of his unhappy musings, the doors of the Hogwarts Express banged shut, and the train jerked into motion and puffed out of the station.

Hermione got up from her seat. 'We've got to go to the prefect's meeting.'

Ron followed her. He didn't look thrilled, but he didn't whine about it as he used to do in the previous years, either.

Neville was the last one to walk out of the compartment. At the door he halted his steps and turned around to Harry. 'Will you be alright, Harry?'

Harry nodded, his eyes still glued to the window as if the sight of the grey London houses near the train tracks was the most fascinating thing on earth. The compartment door shut behind Neville with a soft click, the tension left Harry's body, and he sighed. He let his wand slip out of its holster yet another time. One flick sealed the door, another one would alert him to the returning of his friends, and with a third flick he closed the curtains in front of the windows to the aisle.

He slipped the wand back into its holster, a tense smile around his lips. The only good thing that had come out of his defeat of Voldemort was his surprising and enormous increase of magical prowess. It had happened almost overnight. Oh, he had already made huge progress during their time on the run. The constant danger they had been in, the onset of his magical maturity - almost two years later than usual, but then, he had always been a late bloomer - and the fact that he had nothing else to do than study Hermione's books for long periods of time had seen to that. But when he woke up the day after Voldemort's death, he felt different, as if a huge block had been taken from him that had made it impossible for him to access his full potential until now.

He'd had long talks with Hermione and Ron about that, and they'd come to the conclusion that probably the Horcrux within his scar had either blocked or sucked on his magic, like a parasite.

Well, good riddance to that foul thing! Ever since Voldemort had destroyed the Horcrux within him, he had been calm and always in control of himself, and even the most difficult Transfiguration spells came to him naturally now. Meanwhile, he had reached a stage where a flick of his wand and a focussed intention were enough to achieve the desired result.

Harry let out another deep sigh and leaned his forehead against the cool window pane. Other developments were not that positive, albeit he knew that most people would disagree with him.

He'd been a person of public interest for his first defeat of Voldemort ever since he re-entered the magical world at the age of eleven. That had become worse after his second defeat of Voldemort: now he was public property. He couldn't walk through a magical area anymore without being besieged by the adoring public - people who wanted to thank him, people who wanted to offer him business deals, or people who just wanted to bask in his glory. The hype around his person meanwhile had reached a stage where he couldn't go out without bodyguards anymore, at least not in the magical world. He hated it, thus he and his friends had arrived at the Hogwarts Express the moment the train puffed into the station, of course guarded by Aurors, and walked straight into their compartment before the other students arrived.

Then there was the money. He'd always known that he was wealthy, even rich compared to the Weasleys, if the amount of gold in his vault was an indication. After the war, after the dust of the break-in at Gringotts had settled down - thanks to the new Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt - and the goblins agreed to let him have access to the bank again, albeit he was each time heavily guarded by an escort of twenty armed goblins, he'd found out that wasn't everything. The vault was only a trust vault, meant to be used during his minority, and holding enough money to see him through that time in a manner befitting to a descendant of an Ancient House. There was another vault where the incoming interests of the Potter holdings were collected that held veritable mountains of gold, and a third vault that held the jewelry and other precious items his family had collected over the centuries. Of course there were also the holdings and investments the interest came from. The Black fortune was set up in a similar way, and they had even more than the Potters ever possessed.

The goblins now expected him to take up the mantle and start managing his fortune, but as retaliation for his little stunt with their dragon they refused to give him any help. He had no idea how to go on about that, and was thankful that he could hide at Hogwarts for yet another year before he had to make a final decision.

And then there was Ginny - the girl whose memory had kept him going through the dark times on the run. He had received Voldemort's Killing Curse with the feeling of her kiss on his lips. When he woke up the morning after, his first thought was that they now had a chance at the happily ever after he had dreamt of, and that had slipped through his fingers like sand when he discovered what an outrageous sacrifice was demanded of him.

He let out a bitter laugh in the solitude of the compartment, while his eyes kept staring at the fleeting landscape. What a fool he'd been! He'd thrown off his blanket, eager to take her in his arms and make up for the time he'd been on the run, and run down into the common room in search of her. He had found her - in an armchair in front of the fireplace, cuddled in Seamus Finnegan's arms. The looks the two had exchanged left no doubt in him about their feelings for each other. The breath had left him as if he had just taken an exceptionally mean Bludger to his nether regions, and he had retreated into the shadow of the staircase and sat down, since his legs refused to carry him farther.

So much for Ginny's promise to wait for him. In hindsight he had to admit that it had been the rather melodramatic promise of a sixteen year old that had no chance to survive the long and lonely months of war. He had been seventeen and an adult, at least legally, but his belief in that promise showed that he had been as wet behind the ears as she.

The realisation that Ginny had been the greatest fangirl of them all and ran away from the harsh reality that was Harry Potter when things got rough had hurt the most. He had no idea what love was, but he thought he had come pretty close to that with his feelings for Ginny. Having lost her hurt more than anything he had ever gone through in his life. That was telling something, considering all the horrible things he had been through before that.

Harry let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes with both hands. A gigantic headache crept up his neck: the result of too much brooding and a lack of sleep. He hadn't slept well since… He had no idea since when, but it must be years by now. Even though the danger in his life was gone, he had constant nightmares.

He leaned his head back against the cushions of his seat and closed his eyes. The soft swaying of the train and the rhythmic puffing of the engine eventually lulled him to sleep.

He woke up with a start when the wards he had put on the door alerted him to the return of his friends, and he cancelled his spells.

They had met the lady with the food trolley on their way back from the meeting, and had their hands full of sweets. Harry took a Cauldron Cake and nibbled on it while he listened to their talk.

'It's a pity Luna didn't return,' Hermione said, and made herself comfortable in Ron's lap.

'She wrote to me that her father's still very ill after the time he'd had to spend in Azkaban,' Neville replied while he unwrapped a Chocolate Frog. As usual, the sweet treat escaped him and made a jump towards the window. Neville caught it midair and stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed, and said, 'She has to take care of him, and she has to manage the Quibbler. It's their only source of income.'

Harry made a face. He would miss the dirty blonde Ravenclaw and her strange, yet so perceptive insights.

To his amazement, Ron echoed his thoughts. 'I'll miss her,' he said, and grabbed another handful of Chocolate Frogs. 'But I surely won't miss Malfoy. He's still in Ministry custody, waiting for his trial.' He smiled broadly at that thought, and stuffed three Chocolate Frogs in his mouth.

'Who's the new Slytherin seventh year prefect?' Harry asked, the half-eaten Cauldron Cake in his hand.

'Theodore Nott,' Hermione replied, before the still chewing Ron could open his mouth and spill chocolate on her sweater. 'They had no other choice: he's the only seventh year Slytherin male who returned. Pansy Parkinson, sorry, Nott, stayed as prefect, though.'

Neville made a face at that. 'I don't understand McGonagall. She's a cow and only became prefect because Snape wanted to maintain the deception that he favoured the Death Eaters. The headmistress should've made Greengrass prefect.'

'She thought of that, but I declined,' a female voice said from the door.

Four heads whipped around, and faster than humanly possible four wands were directed at the petite young woman standing there. Harry cursed himself for taking off all the wards from the door. He hadn't seen her approach, nor had he heard the door opening. That suggested that she had used a Desillusionment Charm on herself and a Silencing Charm on the door. Sneaky, he had to admit, but he shouldn't have expected anything else from a Slytherin.

She held up her empty hands in surrender. 'Whoa, easy there; I didn't mean to startle you.'

'Daphne!' Hermione shrieked, and sprang up. The next moment she grabbed the petite blonde in one of her trademark hugs.

The young woman reciprocated her hug with equal favour. Both girls laughed and cried when they finally let go of each other.

Ron, Harry and Neville gaped.

A beaming Hermione turned around to them. 'Boys, meet my best friend, Daphne Greengrass.'

A dead silence followed.

Finally, Ron cleared his throat. 'I had no idea you knew each other, not to mention you are best friends.' His expression was guarded as he regarded the Slytherin.

'We met each other in Arithmancy in our third year. We were both the only ones from our houses to choose that subject. The rest of the class were Ravenclaws, who partnered up with each other, so Professor Vector partnered us together. Daphne and I hit it off right from the first day, and have been best friends ever since then,' Hermione said. She grabbed the blonde girl by the hand, dragged her further into the compartment, and motioned to Harry and Neville to move aside, so that Daphne could take the seat right opposite of her.

Both too perplexed to object, they obeyed.

Daphne sat down next to Harry. 'That's true. But we both knew that we never could make our friendship public, at least not as long as we were at Hogwarts. We both would've had hell to pay for that with our housemates. A friendship between a Muggleborn Gryffindor and a Pureblood Slytherin? Come on, that was unthinkable in the past political climate. I hope things have changed by now.' She looked straight at Ron when she said that.

He had the grace to blush. 'Uh - I guess I let the git Malfoy colour my judgement about Slytherins. When Hermione likes you, then you're alright in my book.' He turned even redder when his beaming girlfriend leaned against him and gave him a resounding kiss for that statement.

Harry felt how the blonde Slytherin beside him shook with silent laughter at that display. So, she had a sense of humour, something he had never seen being shown by a Slytherin in all his years at Hogwarts. The amused smile vanished from his face when she turned around to face him.

'What about you, Potter?'

Harry almost recoiled under the piercing stare of her blue eyes, but recovered soon enough to reply. 'I never was as pronounced in my views as Ron. I know there've been Slytherins who fought against Voldemort, and Gryffindors who took the Dark Mark. Just think of Alastor Moody and Peter Pettigrew. It's not the house that defines you, but the choices you make in life.'

Her stare became softer under his words, and an almost imperceptible smile played around her lips. Her eyes swerved to Neville. 'And you?'

Neville regarded her with an unexpected expression, a mix of admiration and thankfulness, Harry thought, wondering what might be the reason for that. Of course he knew that Daphne Greengrass was thought of as one of the prettiest girls at school, if not the prettiest one. He had spent more than his share of time listening to his housemates describing her assets spot on. But he had never known Neville to be among her secret admirers. Neither had he been. Her cold and bland demeanour had always been a turn off.

Neville's next words shed a blinding light on his behaviour. 'You were the one who smuggled Healing Potions to us, weren't you? Madam Pomfrey told me after the Battle. I wanted to thank you, but you had already returned to your parent's house.'

She turned bright red. 'It was nothing. I wish I could've done more, get you food, for example. But my stepmother controls my personal vault until I turn twenty-one. She would've noticed, had I spent more money than usual. She was a staunch supporter of Voldemort, so that would've been a straight path to disaster.'

'Don't worry about that. You did what you could do, and that helped more than you can imagine. You saved Seamus' life with that load of Blood Replenishing Potion you smuggled to us right under Alecto's nose,' Neville told her.

She looked down onto her hands, as if she was embarrassed that she had been found out. They were small, yet capable hands, Harry noticed: they looked as if they didn't hesitate to tackle work that needed to be done.

'I'm glad that I could help,' she said.

'You said you declined the offer to become prefect,' Harry said. 'Why's that? I always thought ambition is the most prominent trait in Slytherins. Having been a prefect looks nice on your curriculum vitae.'

She laughed at that. 'I don't need that. I'm going to manage the family holdings as soon as I leave Hogwarts. I'm the oldest and the heiress, and have been trained for that ever since I started at Hogwarts. So, I don't need to look good on a curriculum vitae. That gave me the freedom to avoid a position where I had to work in close proximity with Theodore Nott.'

Harry's ears perked up. She was the first person he met who had to manage their family holdings full time. Maybe he could pick her brain for some information how to go on about that? She was a friend of Hermione for many years, which told him she wasn't into the Pureblood agenda and trustworthy, not to mention that she obviously didn't like that git Nott. However, he had yet to determine if she was willing to keep his secrets as well as she had kept the secret of her friendship with Hermione.

Daphne's voice yanked him out of his musings. 'What about you? I'm amazed that you're not headboy this year. I would've thought you're a sure card for that position, after all you've done. And yet McGonagall chose Longbottom.' She flashed the once so shy Gryffindor a smile. 'Not that I'm surprised about that, you did a marvellous job last year with leading the resistance and protecting the younger students. Potter here would've been the politically safer choice for McGonagall.'

'It must have been that: Neville was at Hogwarts last year and lead the resistance against the Carrows.' Harry said. Merlin give she'd be satisfied with his answer, he wasn't in the mood for explaining his motives to a stranger.

Neville snorted at that. 'Harry, I know that you were her first choice, but declined.'

'Is it the same reason why you refused to become Quidditch Captain again, mate?' Ron tasked. 'McGonagall and Hestia told me as they gave the badge to me.'

Harry turned red at that. 'I wanted to have a quiet year for a change, just enjoy school and concentrate on my N.E.W.T.s., and not be in the limelight.'

Daphne touched his arm. Her touch was light and lasted only a second, like a butterfly that landed on a blossom and then fluttered to the next.

Harry looked down on the spot where her hand had been only a second ago. She'd touched him after just having talked to him for the first time in more than seven years of surficial acquaintanceship, she had to be as warm hearted as Hermione under her calm and cold demeanor. No wonder Hermione called her her best friend, apparently to two witches had a lot in common. Come to think of that, Greengrass showed nothing of that aloofness she'd exhibited during the first six years of their schooling right now. Had it been an act to survive in a house that had been ruled by the children of Death Eaters?

'You're right; you're entitled to enjoy your last year at Hogwarts. After all that I saw, and the little Hermione told me, you never had it easy. If anyone should be allowed to relax and recuperate this year, it's you,' she said, as if in confirmation of his thoughts.

Harry looked up, and his eyes met hers. They were full of understanding, but without any hint of sympathy or pity, and - most important - hero worship. Instead, she regarded him with the dispassionate look of a nurse or healer. 'You're much too thin,' she stated.

He grinned back at her. 'You sound like Mrs Weasley.'

Everyone laughed at that.

Harry leaned back in his seat and listened to the conversation between Hermione and Daphne. He had the strong feeling that they would see a lot of her from now on, if Hermione had her way. He had never seen his bushy-haired friend that animated in the presence of a girl, not even in Ginny's. Listening to the girl's conversation, he had to admit that Daphne's horizon was considerably broader than Ginny's. Hermione had picked her secret friend well: she was one of the few at school who could match her intellect, and she was probably the only girl at school beside Hermione who saw him not as the Boy-Who-Lived.

Harry woke up with a start. His heart beat like a hammer, and his breathing was ragged. Another nightmare of the clearing in the Forbidden Forest had destroyed his hope of a night of undisturbed sleep.

He slipped his wand out of the invisible holster and cast 'Lumos'. After the war, he had become slightly paranoid, and kept his wand with him all the time. In the faint light of his wandtip he looked at his watch. Thirty minutes past midnight.

Harry let out a sight. He knew it would be impossible for him to get back to sleep for many hours. He cast his duvet aside and slipped out of bed. His school robes lay across the chair beside his bed where he had thrown them last night when he got ready for bed, and he pulled them over his pyjama bottoms. He slipped into his trainers - a pair he had bought at the second hand shop in Ottery St. Catchpole, and that actually fit him - and pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of the mokeskin pouch around his neck.

He glided through the dorm, mindful not to wake his roommates. At least tonight he had thought of putting up Silencing Charms around his bed. That hadn't been the case one week ago, on their first night back. At breakfast the next morning Seamus had complained loudly about his disturbed sleep. Thanks to that git now the whole school knew that he was suffering from nightmares.

He opened the portrait of the Fat Lady, left the Gryffindor Tower, and pulled out the Marauder's Map. The coast was clear - no Snape prowling around at night anymore. Filch also wasn't what he used to be. He had got hurt during the Battle, and still hadn't recovered from that, so these days he and Mrs Norris, his ugly cat, preferred to spend their nights in their quarters instead of lurking in the corridors for students out of bounds.

However, he was not the only sleepless student tonight. He directed his steps towards the Astronomy Tower, in search of a kindred soul.

She turned around when she heard the soft rustle of his Invisibility Cloak as he pulled it off his shoulders.

'I had hoped you wouldn't come tonight.' Despite her less than welcoming words she smiled.

'I had hoped I wouldn't meet you here tonight,' he replied in kind and leaned against the battlements beside her.

Daphne pushed a strand of hair out of her face. 'Nightmares suck.'

'You don't have to tell me. What was it for you tonight?'

She grimaced. 'My stepmother, once again trying to sell me off to a Death Eater. And you?'

'The Forest all over.'

'Bugger!'

'Yeah.'

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, looking out on the moonlit landscape. They had met here by accident the first night back at school. Seamus hadn't taken kindly to Harry waking him up with his nightmares, so Harry had decided to leave the dorm and take a stroll through the castle in the hope to get tired enough for a few more hours of sleep. He hadn't looked on the Marauder's Map while he wandered through the castle aimlessly, and when he finally decided he needed some air and ended on the Astronomy Tower, he found out that he was not the only one with sleep problems.

Daphne had been on the tower, shivering in the cold night air, and a look of misery in her eyes. They had begun to talk, and soon found out that they both were haunted by nightmares of their past. She told him that she had escaped to the Astronomy Tower at night whenever she had problems during the last seven years. He had never noticed her there on the Marauder's Map, but given that he tended to be a trifle single minded during his first six years at Hogwarts, his oversight didn't really surprise him: Daphne had never been among the Slytherins who harassed him, so he had ignored her.

Harry had no idea how it had happened, but they soon found themselves talking about the nightmares that had driven them to that place. Maybe it was because their nightly talk felt as if there were only the two of them in the world, maybe it was because he didn't feel judged by her - it didn't matter: he had found it amazingly easy to open up to her, and tell her about the nightmare he had.

After that, they had met almost each night on the Astronomy Tower since the beginning of the school year, and had fast become friends over their nightly talks.

'You know that your stepmother can't marry you off against your will anymore,' he said.

She sighed. 'I know. But it's awfully hard to overcome old fears. She's always been jealous of me. Dad doted on me after mum died giving birth to me. He married Selena because he didn't want me to grow up without a mother. It was a marriage of convenience; he never stopped loving my mother and missing her. That's why he never fought the bloodcurse that was killing him: he wanted to be with her. I'm the spitting image of my mother, and Selena hates me for that. On top of that all I escaped the bloodcurse on our family, while her daughter is slowly dying from it, like our father.'

She rubbed her face with the palms of her hands and looked up at Harry. 'She's always been petty. So, when dad died when I had just turned fifteen and made her my guardian, she took the power she had over me to make my life miserable. I'm glad that Lucius Malfoy fell out of favour with Voldemort at the end of our fifth year, so she saw no gain for the House of Greengrass in signing the contract he had offered her. Otherwise, I would've been married off to the ferret as soon as I turned seventeen.'

Harry made a face at that. 'That sounds awfully familiar. My aunt also let me pay because she was jealous of my mother, and Snape made me pay because he was jealous of my father. You should've thought that it's beyond an adult to take out their old grudges on children.'

They lapsed into a comfortable silence. After a while he sniggered.

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him. 'What's so funny?

'I'm glad my aunt never knew about the custom of marriage contracts in the magical world. I bet she would've tried to sell me off to Bulstrode or Parkinson, had she known about them.'

She glared at him, but couldn't suppress the giggle that escaped her mouth. 'Would've served you right, you git. Why should I've been the only one to suffer? Being married off to one of them can't be much worse than being married off to Malfoy.' A mischievous spark appeared in her eyes, and she gave him a playful shove with her shoulder. 'We could've started a hot affair to console each other about our miserable marriages.'

Harry sputtered at that, and she cackled with delight.

He shook his head, amused against his will, and wondered how she managed to get under his skin so easily.

As Harry had foreseen on the train ride, Daphne Greengrass quickly became a part of their daily life. Hermione included her into everything and expected from Ron and Harry to accept her friend.

'For seven years I've put up with you two and your male bonding rituals, while Daphne and I had to hide our friendship,' she said. 'I want to enjoy my last school year having a female friend I can confide in, so you two had better accept her.' The words "or else" were plain to see on her face.

Ron, who had turned into the perfect boyfriend, to Harry's never ending amazement, readily complied to everything that made Hermione happy. Harry didn't object, either. It was only fair that Hermione should have a best female friend to confide in. Besides that, whenever she and Ron decided to spend some quality time together - and that was quite often the case - that left him and Daphne to keep each other company. He was thankful for that: this way he didn't have to feel like the fifth wheel on the waggon. Meeting with friends from other houses also wasn't a problem anymore: the strict seating order at the house tables was restricted to the feasts, and Headmistress McGonagall had introduced common rooms for all houses that were accessible from the house common rooms, so that friends from different houses could socialise even after curfew.

As a result, Daphne was sitting with them at the Gryffindor table, studied with them in the library and spend the evenings with them. About two weeks into the new school year the trio had turned into a foursome.

Professor Flitwick decided to revise Glamour Charms that morning in mid September. As always, Ron and Hermione partnered up, which left Harry and Daphne to work on the exercises the diminutive professor gave them together.

'You go first,' Harry said.

Daphne nodded and raised her wand. She glanced to the board. 'Hair Colour Changing Spell at first. That's easy. Let's see how you look with blonde hair.'

She slashed down her wand and grinned. 'You could pass as a brother of Malfoy.'

Harry's stomach sunk. 'Give me the mirror' he said, and reached for said item, but she kept it away from him with a shake of her head and a mischievous giggle. 'Oh no, I'm not yet ready. I'm going to give you a complete makeover, Harry. You won't recognise yourself when I'm done with you.'

'That's what I'm afraid of,' Harry murmured, but the corners of his mouth twitched. 'Do your worst!'

She raised her chin. 'I'll have you to know, Potter, that my worst is still a lot better than most people can come up with.' The sneer on her face could have rivalled Malfoy's, hadn't the laughter in her eyes given her away. 'Hold still, I'm now applying the Hair Growing Charm on you.' Again, her wand slashed down. Just like Hermione, she could do all her spells silently, while most of their classmates still had to mutter the incantations under their breath, even though they were seventh years.

The charm hit Harty, his scalp itched, and something silky brushed along his cheeks. He reached up with one hand and pulled a platinum blonde strand forward. Daphne didn't leave it at that. His hair kept growing and growing…

'What are you doing with me, woman?' He yelped, but got only a snigger in return.

His classmates gave him broad grins, and sniggers wafted through the classroom. Not that he blamed them he must look hilarious. At least Nott and his wife spared him any comments: even though they were practising next to Daphne and him, they ignored them and their banter pointedly.

By now Daphne had had enough fun playing with his hair, he had to put a stop to that. He jumped up from his seat to wrestle the wand out of her hand. However, his feet got tangled up in long, platinum coloured locks, and he crashed to the ground, taking his open backpack with him in the process. Parchment, quills, text books and essays spilled on the floor.

'That's one very powerful Hair Growing Charm, Miss Greengrass,' Professor Flitwick complimented. 'Ten points to Slytherin. Please, proceed with the remaining charms as soon as Mr Potter has picked himself off the floor.' He turned around, and Harry swore he could hear him sniggering.

A grinning Daphne held her hand out to him and hauled him up. Harry glared at her, but he was not really mad at her. He sat back on his chair and cast a Packing Charm on the scattered contents of his backpack. Textbooks, quills, essays and spare parchment rose into the air and then disappeared in the depths of the backpack in one untidy heap.

He grimaced. 'I was never good at Packing Charms.'

'That's obvious,' Daphne said. 'Are you ready for the Hair Curling Charm?'

Harry sighed. This was going to be one long Charms lesson.

Ten minutes later Daphne held the mirror out to him. 'Do you like the new you, Harry?'

Harry took the mirror, slightly distracted by the two cute dimples that appeared in her cheeks whenever she smiled. He looked into the mirror and gasped. 'What have you done to me?'

'Improved your looks.'

'That's debatable,' he replied, though he couldn't fight the grin that spread over his face.

She had given him long, platinum hair and curled it into a mane of wilde locks. His eyelashes were so long that their tips touched his glasses, and she had turned his eyes into a dark chocolate brown. On top of that she had applied a generous amount of Makeup Charms.

Ron whistled. 'If you add some boobs, he'd make the hottest bird who ever graced these halls, Daphne.'

Harry glared at his friend, while Daphne obviously contemplated Ron's words.

'Hmm, that would be a Transfiguration Spell, and that's tricky. If you're not careful, they can become permanent. But I think I can do it.'

She raised her wand.

Harry yelped, jumped out of the way, and ended on the floor among the content of his backpack for the second time that day.

Ron doubled over with laughter, while Daphne looked delighted at her successful attempt to take the mickey. Even Hermione couldn't hide her grin.

'Glad I could provide for your entertainment.' Harry grumbled as he scrambled to his feet. He bent down and crammed his belongings back into his backpack, not caring for tidiness.

He straightened, cancelled the charms Daphne had placed on him with a casual wave of his wand, and turned towards her with a feral grin.

'Alright, Greengrass, now it's my turn.'

She gave him a look like the rabbit that faced the snake, and gulped.

His grin became even broader when he raised his wand

'Come on, Harry, don't be so mean. Cancel that spell,' Daphne said with a pout on their way to the Defense classroom.

Harry turned his head and grinned at her. 'I don't think so. You look really hot that way, you know. Badass hot.'

His retaliation had shown no mercy: instead of her mane of gleaming honey blonde hair Daphne sported a Mohawk haircut, dyed in shocking pink, with the sides of her head shaved bald. To compliment the outfit, Harry had added a generous amount of piercings in any place he could think of.

Daphne hadn't been able to cancel his spell after Charms was over, and to the amusement of their classmates Harry steadfastly refused to do so. Her cheeks were rather red when she walked through the hallways to the Defense classroom with Harry, Ron and Hermione, but she held her head up high and ignored the sniggers of the students they encountered on their way.

'I'll get back at you for this, Potter,' she murmured from the corner of her mouth.

Harry chuckled as he held the door to the Defense classroom open for her. 'I can barely contain my anticipation, Greengrass.'

The look she gave him as they sat down beside Ron and Hermione was calculated to make him quiver in his shoes.

'Do you really think that works on me after Voldemort?' he asked under his breath.

She huffed and turned away from him to take her essay out of her bookbag.

Hestia Jones, the new D.A.D.A. professor, already walked down the rows to collect their homework. 'New haircut, Miss Greengrass?' she asked as she came to Harry and Daphne. 'Nice, but isn't the Punk look a trifle passé?'

Harry masked the snort that escaped his mouth as a cough as he dived into his backpack for his essay. He had spent the whole weekend on it and was rather proud of the result, he was sure it would bring him another "O". However, the essay wasn't in his backpack.

He raised his head. 'I'm sorry, Professor Jones, but I can't find my essay. It must have fallen out of my backpack when I overturned it in Charms, and I somehow missed it when I put my things back.'

Hestia Jones was relatively new at teaching, but after two weeks into the school year she had become familiar with the imaginative excuses students could come up with for missing homework. She gave Harry an indulgent smile. 'Don't worry about that, Mr Potter. You can redo it during detention with me tomorrow afternoon.'

Harry deflated. 'Of course, Professor Jones.'

'Serves you right,' Daphne muttered to him as Professor Jones moved on. The satisfaction in her voice was unmistakable.

Harry narrowed his eyes at her. 'You want me to cancel the spell before dinner, don't you?'

Daphne only sniffed in reply.

Neither of them noticed the meaningful glance Ron and Hermione exchanged behind their backs.

t.b.c.