AN: The effect of basilisk venom and phoenix tears had a latent effect that caused Harry to fall into a coma in his fifth year. When he was transported to the ST. Mongos ward, Daphne Greengrass was already there. In this universe, she is the recipient of the blood curse and had been in a coma about a month longer than Harry. Being in such close proximity, they formed a mental link, together, they overcame the obstacles that plagued their minds and developed a bond that would last a lifetime. This is a story of what came afterward.
The first time he saw her was when he woke from his coma. He remembered the world shaking and blurring around the edges. His throat was coarse and his mouth was dry. Coarse, chapped lips scratched his tongue and the bitter-sweet air not so uncommon in most healing potions made him want to gag. It was a spacious room, he noted, with tall white walls and dull grey floors. All of the beds were unoccupied but one.
A hand was clenched loosely about her chest, rising in slow heaves, as if the act of breathing was a laborious task and each breath of air was like a piercing hex to the chest.
"Da… ph…ne…" He croaked. She didn't respond.
"Da… phne" She lay unmoving and unresponsive.
A tear flowed down his cheek to see her in such a state. She had been so happy and exuberant in his dreams, a ball of sunshine in his world of darkness, creating ripples of light where there was none. We were supposed to make it together. He was now choking on his own tears, slamming his fists down onto his head. "Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. Never should have believed her. Should have let her gone first. Should have stayed."
His actions triggered a perimeter ward, and a bunch of healers rushed in to restrain him. "Incarcerous!" A thin rope shot forth and tied Harry's hands. Another rope followed to tie his legs when it was evident Harry wanted to escape the bed. "Please calm down. Mr. Potter. You are in St. Mongos. You have just woken from a coma of two months."
"Let me see her!" Harry squirmed in his bed and screamed at the top of his longs. "Please…" He sobbed. "She needs me! Daphne needs me…. I need Daphne…"
"Call Dumbledore now!" Instructed one of the healers. "Tell him – "
A ring of red light similar to a stunner emerged from Harry and hit all the healers within a one-meter radius, immediately knocking them out.
Harry's body plopped onto the floor while he wormed his way towards her bed. "Please don't let it be too late." In another showcase of wandless magic, the ropes constraining his arms and legs burned away into ashes, leaving behind light scorch marks on his skin.
He knelt beside her bed and grasped her right hand. It was frozen. Deathly cold. Now that he was closer, he noticed the blueish tint to her fair skin, and the tremble to her lips. He sought her other hand in an effort to warm and found it clenched around a necklace.
He gently pried her fingers to find a silver serpent entwined around an iron rod.
His faded scar tingled and Harry was reminded of the words Dumbledore had said to him during the end of his first year.
"Love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever."
Will and intention had been the key to getting past all the obstacles during the coma. Harry just hoped his magic wouldn't fail him now when he needed it most.
He brought up memories of the first time he met her on the sandy beach in the middle of the night, her squeal when he showed her how to gut a fish, her laughter when Prongs rescued them from the nundus, her smile when Harry promised to take her to Hogsmeade. He wasn't sure what possessed him to do what he did next, but he spoke the words that opened the chamber of secrets. "Open." The silver snake uncoiled, revealing a shiny tip of iron.
He pricked his thumb and blood oozed from his wound. The silver pendant around her neck began to glow. "Speak to me, Asclepius, god of medicine. Take what thou wish and vanquish the stain on her soul. Then, thy debt shall be paid. I give thee my word as the next master of death."
The roars of a basilisk and the melodious tune of a phoenix sang in the background. A golden light emanated from her skin and her ash-blonde hair flowed as if they were underwater. Her body was arched above the bed and a black mist began to escape from her mouth.
This must be the physical manifestation of the curse on the Greengrass family.
When the black mass of smoke dissipated, the glow from her skin dimmed but did not vanished. Exhausted, Harry summoned a stool from a corner and laid his head beside her arms, absently drawing circles on the back of her hand.
A few months later, the winter chill had crept unto the grounds of Hogsmeade, and students bustled about in their thick woolen socks. "You do know there's a warming charm, don't you?"
The green-eyed teen flashed a mischievous grin. "Do you want me to stop?" He cupped her hands and blew a stream of warm air into it.
Daphne bit her lips to resist the smile that was threatening to show on her face, she scooted closer to hide her face in the crook of his neck. His laughter and the arm wrapped around her like a cocoon made her blush intensify.
A pair of tender lips touched her forehead and she glanced up, he was looking elsewhere, and the colors at the base of his neck was turning red. Chuckling, she shifted in his arms and pulled his head towards her.
It was a short kiss, less than a snog, but more than a peck. Most of all, it was a promise of something more.