Harry came out into the living hall and saw Susan was up. "Are you ready for today?" she asked. Harry nodded as he sat at the table and bit on a toast. Today their small group was going to the bibliotheca mundi where hopefully Harry will find out more about the Yayu. Coming with him was Hermione, Daphne, Susan and Sirius who didn't want to leave the kids on their own since Voldemort was out in the open now.

The papers had been rampant on reporting about him in any way they could. The attacks on Christmas had people hiding in their homes, not coming out unless absolutely necessary. The parents were worried how their children will go to Hogwarts, speaking of which, there hadn't been any news whether or not Hogwarts was going to do anything in this regard. Yes, the children would be most safe in the castle. Everyone blindly believed that in the care of Dumbledore their kids wouldn't be brought to harm.

But they still had until the first of January after which they will know whether or not they will be sending their kids back to school.

Harry felt someone's arrival at the wards and saw it was Hermione while his floo flared green at the same time as Daphne walked out of the fireplace. Harry let Hermione in and everyone got ready to go once Sirius had joined them. Luna had already explained why she wouldn't be able to join them as she was on a mini-trip with her father.

Seeing the distance was large and there were five of them Harry decided to use the transportation rune instead of a portkey mainly because he didn't like to travel using the latter. He drew the rune on the ground outside as everyone stood on it before he activated it and they all disappeared.

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They arrived at the entrance of the wards of the library as everyone but Harry and Sirius looked around in confusion. "Where is it?" Hermione asked.

"It's right in front of us," Harry said taking a step and then another before he disappeared in front of their eyes as they saw a very light ripple in the air.

"There's an invisibility ward around the place," Sirius said having been here before once with James and Remus. "Just walk right ahead like you do when you want to enter the platform at King's Cross."

The girls all nodded before they walked towards the wards as Sirius saw them disappear as well before he followed them in. A small smile came upon his face as he remembered the last time he was here with his two best friends.

The girls looked at it with wide eyes as Harry stood beside a small door keeping it open. "Welcome…to Bibliotheca Mundi," he said as everyone walked inside. "There's just one rule – you cannot take anything back with you from here. You can try but you'll see that it's impossible so whatever reading you have to do you will have to do here."

The girls nodded before they walked further deep into the library with Hermione in the front who didn't know what to pick as she looked from scrolls to scrolls.

"So, do you think you will find anything here?" Sirius asked.

"If I don't then there's nowhere else where I can," Harry said. "This place is my last hope to find anything about the Yayu."

They spent the entire day as Harry looked from scroll to scroll. He did find a little about the Yayu but nothing that he already knew. It had been created by Merlin by the essence of each of the divine beasts. Its sole purpose was to defeat the beasts so that Merlin could take their powers. There were no records that said whether or not Merlin succeeded in his plan but he probably didn't seeing he was defeated in the end.

Harry sighed as he sat down in one of the old chairs as the day came to an end. He could try to look at every scroll to find anything but that would take longer than his entire lifetime. It seemed anything with this Yayu was a lost cause. Harry wanted to scream, hit something as he felt angry and defeated. He could almost feel the Yayu laughing at him seeing his efforts go to waste.

Finally everyone gathered as it was time to go back. Hermione looked the happiest while Daphne and Susan didn't display any emotions. Harry activated the rune and they returned back to the manor. He slumped on the couch with a tired sigh. His head ached with all the dust inside the library. It seemed he had no other choice but to keep trying to enter the Yayu's memories using occlumency.

The remaining of the winter holidays passed as time came for everyone to return to Hogwarts. As expected, there was no news regarding the school's closure because of Voldemort's return. Even the people didn't complain because their kids would be safer at Hogwarts. Between all of this two more raids by the death eaters took place. Hundreds of lives were lost and everyone could see its impact at platform 9 ¾ on the second of January.

Aurors were positioned at every corner and all the entrances were being closely monitored. Anyone who entered the platform had their hands checked for the dark mark. This was a commendable move to catch any death eater who wanted to enter the platform and cause havoc. Harry wondered why they hadn't tried it yet as they could've caught many death eaters in the span of eleven years for which Voldemort was gone.

Both Daphne and Harry knew that starting today their lives would change, more so for Daphne as it was probably known by every follower of Voldemort that the Greengrass family had no intention of joining their cause. Sitting in the compartment together with Susan they were soon joined by Hermione and Luna. As the train began to move Harry locked the door so they wouldn't be disturbed.

Harry told them what he and Daphne had planned to do once they reached Hogwarts and the three girls totally understood. However, it didn't mean that they were completely sure that some students – Slytherins and some Gryffindors– would take it well.

Arriving at Hogsmead they got off the train and could see aurors stationed there, too. At least the new minister was doing something. He had gone ahead and given Kingsley complete authority to do anything he wanted with the auror force. Had only Amelia been given that power when she was alive…things would probably be different.

Harry also wondered who would be replacing Snape as it was clear that the Slytherin head won't be returning. Every follower of Voldemort knew that Snape was a betrayer. Harry hoped all of this would soon come to end as he and the girls headed for one of the carriages.

As they approached the castle they felt the wards wash over them rather soon. It wasn't hard to guess that Hogwarts' wards had been extended beyond its borders since Voldemort's attack on Christmas Eve. It was a lot closer to the Hogsmead village now so that the villagers could seek to its safety in case the death eaters tried to attack them.

Finally they got off the carriage and headed inside. The decorations from Christmas was still up at some places, more so in the great hall as they glanced at it while going towards their respective house towers while Harry and Daphne headed towards McGonagall's office. They wanted to get this over with as soon as possible and McGonagall was someone who would understand their situation much better than Dumbledore. Daphne had no intention of spending the night in the dungeons amidst the death eater successors.

The deputy headmistress was surprised when she saw Harry and Daphne outside her office. She wondered what was going on as she let them both in. "Mr Potter, Ms Greengrass, how can I help you?" she said looking at them.

"Professor, this is kind of an emergency," Harry said as he took out the betrothal contract and gave it to her. McGonagall looked at it as her eyes opened wide before looking at Harry and Daphne.

"I suppose congratulations to you two?" she said more like a question as she still wasn't properly sure what was going on when she realized and looked at them more understandingly.

"Daphne and I got betrothed last year," Harry said. "We kept it quiet because if we'd not then for Daphne it would've become difficult in Slytherin."

"So why is it that you are showing me your betrothal now?" asked McGonagall.

"Because something happened on Christmas Eve," Daphne said.

"The attacks," McGonagall said.

"Along with the attacks Voldemort sent the Carrow siblings to Daphne's house," Harry said. "They wanted her parents to join Voldemort's cause and in doing so were after the Greengrass fortune. Things didn't go their way and…"

"We handed them to the aurors," Daphne said, "after making sure they wouldn't hurt anyone else."

"The point is," Harry said as McGonagall looked from Daphne to Harry, still processing what she was hearing from the two of them, "with the Carrows not returning back to Voldemort word has got out that the Greengrasses have 'chosen a side' – a side opposite to Voldemort's and so currently Daphne's parents are in hiding. So is there any way that she can move in with me into my quarters because she wouldn't be safe with her house mates."

"Seeing that you two are technically married I don't see any problem in that," McGonagall said, "however, while I will give Mr Potter the permission to have his betrothed in his quarters you need to get the same permission from your house head, Ms Greengrass or should I say Mrs Potter." She couldn't hide her smile as she looked at the young couple in front of her.

Daphne rolled her eyes followed by an uninterested sigh while Harry just stood there with his lips pressed thin, looking everywhere but at McGonagall. "But who is the Slytherin house head?" he asked.

"You know about professor Snape?" McGonagall asked. "Of course you do," she said after a while. "Headmaster Dumbledore had to contact an old friend and former head of house Slytherin to fill in for Professor Snape's position. You will find him in the dungeon office."

Daphne nodded before she and Harry left the office and headed for the dungeons. "I wonder who replaced Snape," Harry said as they arrived at the dungeon office. They looked at each other before Daphne knocked on the door. They heard someone grunt as if taking too much effort to come and open the door as they glanced at each other again when the door clicked open and they saw as a balding head of an old man emerged looking at them.

"You must be Mr and Mrs Potter," he said smiling at them before he opened the door. "Come in."

Neither Harry nor Daphne could ignore how he looked at them as if they were some sort of treasure before they entered the office. Despite being familiar to the place they realized it had been changed a LOT since the last time they were here as they looked around.

While Snape kept his office clean and organized he did kept the place more like a potion's lab than an office. Only a small portion of the place was dedicated as his office where he had just his desk, his chair and a small cupboard where he kept all the papers he needed to correct. Other than that the entire place was filled with cauldrons, pipets, measuring cups, ingredients and other equipment one would find in a highly sophisticated and high standard potions lab.

This time however, all the cauldrons and other equipment were replaced with pictures, cut-out news articles and group photos, almost all of which contained their new potions professor in them. Also, they couldn't ignore the fact that there were pictures of some rather great celebrities of the magical world. Harry immediately recognized a few Quidditch players he'd seen in the magical sports magazines and the Prophet who played on both national and international grounds while Daphne recognized some of the great faces in the fields of magical medicine, potions discoveries and spell inventions. It was baffling how many popular individuals this guy knew.

"Good evening, professor…" Harry paused as he didn't know the guy's name.

"Horace Slughorn," said the man with a smile. "Man, you've rally grown since the last time I saw you, Harry!"

"You…know me?" Harry asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" said Horace. "I taught both your parents when they were students here and I was a close friend of theirs." His smile then got replaced with a solemn look. "I am so sorry for what happened to them. They didn't deserve it."

"Thank you, professor," Harry said.

"I knew your parents, too," Slughorn said looking at Daphne who smiled with pressed lips, feeling a little uneasy with the way he looked at them. "So, Professor McGonagall told me everything. There you go," he said handing her the officially signed document as her house faculty head.

"You wouldn't ask us anything?" Harry asked a bit surprised.

"Oh, don't bother with it," said Slughorn. He then looked at Daphne. "I know that from tonight you will be living in the same quarter as Harry but if your house mates give you any trouble you let me know. I am not biased like Severus. He abused his position as a house head. I don't know what happened to him. He was a very bright student of mine and would've been my favorite if not for your mother, Harry. She was the brightest witch I'd ever had the fortune of teaching. She would've been an amazing brewer if she was…" he stopped as his smile vanished again. "Well, it's good to see you, Harry. Nice to meet you too, Mrs Potter. I hope I will be a better teacher than Severus."

"You've already made a much better impression compared to Professor Snape, sir," she said. "Although I don't think many others from my house will like you."

"Oh, they'll get used to me after a while," Slughorn said with a wave of his hand. "So, if we're done I think you two should head back if you don't want to miss dinner. I will see you two in my class tomorrow."

Both Harry and Daphne nodded as they left the dungeons. "He's like an old creepy man," Daphne said.

"Can't argue with that," Harry said. "I guess I'll write to Sirius, ask him what kind of a man Slughorn was when he taught them. He seemed nice, though."

Daphne didn't say anything as she held the letter tightly in her hand. Harry realized she was walking a bit closer to Harry so he put an arm around her, bringing her even closer to himself when they passed a few Slytherin students who couldn't help but notice the two of them with wide shock-filled eyes. Harry and Daphne ignored them and kept walking as they drew more looks from other houses' students as well, especially Gryffindors. Harry was glad he had his quarters otherwise it would be like hell to live in the Gryffindor dorm right now.

Finally they reached McGonagall's office who looked at Slughorn's letter to make sure everything was correct before signing her name in it, authorizing Daphne and Harry to live together as betrothed in Hogwarts. The two expressed their gratitude to her as she knew how important it was for Daphne to leave the dungeons but she wondered when and why did Harry accept the Greengrass' betrothal. Or was it all decided by Harry and Daphne's parents? She did remember Helena being close friends with Lily and others so it could be possible that they might've decided to betroth Harry and Daphne when they were born.

As she watched the two leave her office she couldn't help but smile. She wondered how Harry's parents would've reacted watching them if they were alive today.

Harry took her straight to where his quarter was. They stopped by the portrait entrance as the knight smiled widely at Harry. "Congratulations, Lord and Lady Potter," Sir Jaime said with a proper knight bow.

"How did you know?" Harry asked with a smile. He genuinely liked Sir Jaime as they would often talk at nights whenever Harry wasn't able to sleep.

"Minerva had me informed," he said.

"Very well, Sir Jaime and thank you," Harry said. "Oh, I forgot to mention, some of our friends will be joining us shortly as we're all having dinner in my quarters."

"I'll inform you on their arrival," the knight said.

"Thanks," Harry said. "Gravy," he said the password as the portrait swung open revealing the door which Harry pushed and stood on the side. "After you, milady" he said.

"Aren't you a gentleman?" Daphne said before walking in.

"I already like her," Sir Jaime whispered to Harry who couldn't help but smile as he followed her in.

"So what's the story behind the unusual password?" she asked as she put her stuff on the side while taking a look around the quarters.

"You remember how Ron made a fool of himself by falling down in the great hall during out first year?" Harry said.

"The gravy bowl had fallen on his head," Daphne said grinning. "Nice one, Mr Potter."

"Thank you, Mrs Potter," Harry said as she put her arms around him before planting a kiss on his lips.

"Don't think though that because we're living together now that you'll be getting lucky all the time," she said.

"Can I get lucky sometimes?" he asked.

"I'll decide on that," Daphne said grinning as she turned around and headed for the other room beside Harry's. "And this room is mine," she said putting her things in there under the bed.

"Suit yourself," Harry said.

They were joined by Hermione, Susan Luna and Tracey a bit later as the elves delivered food in Harry's quarters. They all congratulated the couple once more for officially moving in together as they enjoyed the peaceful dinner which they couldn't in the great hall. It was bustling with students discussing Voldemort's return. The Slytherin house was having a really good time seeing the look of horror and fear on everyone else's face.

For Tracey, however, it wasn't all good as she said that Daphne was her only friend in Slytherin. Being a half-blood Tracey had often been picked on by her fellow housemates when she had begun Hogwarts as a first year. She was saved by Daphne who came to her aide by becoming her friend. Because of Daphne's reputation Tracey wasn't picked again and they became best friends after that.

Now that Daphne had moved in with Harry Tracey wondered whether her housemates will target her because of everything that had happened with Daphne's family. Daphne then and there wrote a letter to Slughorn telling him about the situation and Harry sent Sable with the letter to the new Slytherin house head. Also, Harry and Daphne both assured Tracey that they will have her back and that she should join their group as they had regular training and this could help her to defend herself. Tracey couldn't pass this opportunity and she immediately said yes.

Everyone noticed how she was just the opposite of Daphne. Maybe that is why Daphne and she were best friends. Opposite poles attract and all…

With the dinner over, Harry and Daphne bid everyone good night as they prepared to retire for the night. The journey had them tired and classes resumed starting tomorrow and because it was winter waking up early in the morning was a pain so Harry wanted to get as much sleep as possible so he wouldn't be late for his morning run tomorrow.

Seeing that everything about them was going to come out tomorrow anyways Daphne decided she would join him and others for the run starting tomorrow and for the first time in her life she had a peaceful night's sleep in Hogwarts, one where she didn't have to set protective wards around her bed or wake up every hour to see if someone was in there with her with their wand pointed at her.

Hopefully things would be a little bit better now. She thanked Harry many times in her head for all of the things he had done for her and her family. Perhaps it was now time that she could fully trust him with everything.

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Thanks for reading…