Arriving early Daphne sat at the Slytherin table, her eyes at the Gryffindor table where Hermione was doing an early reading as usual. Being an early riser that's what Daphne did as well, but inside the Slytherin common room. She'd often found Hermione reading books or making notes by herself in the great hall in early morning hours before breakfast.
She recognized the focused look on Hermione's face as she studied her notes as students slowly started to fill in. A few minutes later Daphne was joined by Astoria and Tracey who both immediately went for the food.
"Is everything alright?" Tracey asked looking at Daphne.
"Yeah," she responded before filling her plate as well when she saw Ron enter the great hall. It looked like he'd only just woken up and had hurriedly dressed up in his uniform before coming to the great hall. His hair was a mess and his tie was half loose with the knot below his chest area and his shirt out with a few buttons undone. It looked as if he'd been in a fight with someone or had struggled trying to get here but that was Ron. He'd never been any different then that as far as Daphne had noticed.
She saw as he came and sat beside Hermione who only acknowledged his presence with a nod without looking at him when Ron picked up a goblet filled with water and then reached for his pocket. Daphne's eyes narrowed as she saw him take out a small vial and put a few drops of whatever clear liquid that was inside it in the goblet before pushing it towards Hermione who, still looking at her notes, picked it up and gulped it down. A few seconds later she put her notes away and began talking with Ron while having her breakfast.
The sudden change in Hermione's focus was somewhat weird. Having spent ample time with her as her partner during their potions' classes Daphne knew Hermione's focus was something to break that easily. She'd often tried to get her attention on either some ingredient or some of the notes and couldn't if Hermione was focusing on either the brewing or stirring of the potion or anything.
And what was that clear liquid that Ron had put in Hermione's water? From the looks of it…the way Ron had done it secretly told Daphne that Hermione was unaware about it. Was Ron dosing her with something he shouldn't because he was being very sneaky and secretive about it?
Being her mother's daughter Daphne had an early interest in potions as she saw her mother brew them in her lab back at home. Anna would often allow Daphne to watch in silence as brewing potions was a very tedious job that required complete attention of the brewer. Over the years Daphne had learnt about various potions and how to brew them even before starting at Hogwarts which is why she was the top potions' student in her year and probably better than some in the senior years. Snape often gave her example whenever he told the students how he wanted them to be when in his class.
So when she saw the mysterious potion with Ron her curiosity peaked. She wanted to know what it was. She will also tell Harry about Ron dosing Hermione with that potion but she first wanted to know what that potion was herself. It seemed like she needed to visit her house elf friends in the kitchen.
00000
When Augusta Longbottom received a letter from Amelia Bones she wondered what the DMLE head wanted to talk to her about. Opening the letter her eyes widened in surprise as she read it. If this was true then a lot of people will be pissed. She also understood why Amelia was doing this so secretively and why she wanted the Longbottom family's help in this situation. It was time to contact some of her allied families in the Wizengamot.
00000
"Dragons?" Daphne said as she and Harry were heading down the secret chamber. "But them helping you doesn't seem right to me. I mean I understand they want to show sportsmanship and everything but still, it's too nice for them to tell you everything."
"I thought so too which is why I went to the forest last night by myself and saw one of the dragons," Harry said. "I don't know how much of us retrieving the egg part is true but the dragon bit is real. Why else would they have those creatures in the forest?"
"Do you know what dragon it was?" Daphne asked.
"I don't but it looked really feral and dangerous," he said. "When I reached there it had already killed two people and it seemed the trainers were having a tough time handling it despite it being in the cage."
"Can you at least describe how it looked?" Daphne asked in mild annoyance which he ignored as they reached the bottom and headed for the chamber's entrance past the basilisk's skin.
"It was black, very horny as in instead of scales it had horns all over its body and a pointy mace-like tail tip that looked very dangerous. That's all I could pick up. Oh, and it was as tall as this basilisk if not more," Harry said as they climbed down the ladder and reached the chamber.
Daphne looked at the basilisk's carcass as she and Harry cast bubblehead charms around them to not breathe the volatile venom that was still leaking from the bones of the beast.
"We need to find a way to contain it," she said. "It's not practical enough to cast a bubblehead charm every time we are in here. Besides in the presence of this venom the bubblehead charms don't last more than a few minutes."
Harry agreed to that. It wasn't that Fawks was right around the corner to heal them with his tears if they inhaled too much of the venom-filled air. It was like a radioactive place. However, he had no idea what they could do with the huge carcass so he asked Daphne instead.
"Well, there's always the option of selling the remains," she said casually. "It'll fetch an amazingly good price seeing how basilisk parts and venom are so rare. But it will require a lot of work from our side to break down its remains into manageable pieces for us to take it out of here unless we can ask the professors for help."
"And that will mean letting others know of us using this place," Harry said realizing what she meant. "Well, the way I see it I have to sharpen my spell casting anyway because of this tournament. Why not do it on this carcass?"
That made Daphne smirk when she remembered what she had to ask him. "There's something I need to ask from you," she said as Harry looked at her.
"What?" he asked.
"Because this place is so huge I was thinking about making a small potions' lab here…if it's alright with you," she said.
"Why do you need my permission for that?" Harry asked.
"Because you are the only one who can open this chamber's entrance," she said. "As it happened today and on the first day I was first to arrive in the bathroom but today I happened to encounter Myrtle who was asking why I was there. She was called away by some other ghost by the time you came but I am sure she will be waiting for my answer the next time we are coming here, which is why I was thinking if there is a way to open the chamber's entrance in your absence. This place is enormous and using it just for meetings means not using it to its full potential."
Harry thought about it for a minute before nodding his head in agreement. "You're right," he said, "but only someone who can speak in parseltongue can open the entrance," he said when he thought of something.
They spent another hour in there discussing what dragon Harry had seen in the forest but couldn't come up with something due to the lack of any reference material. They decided to leave it for the day and look for the dragon in the library in their own free time before leaving the place.
"Daphne," he said as she stopped and turned to look at him, "can you make a recording rune?" he asked.
"Why?" she asked when she realized what he meant as they were in the bathroom. Thankfully Myrtle was not there at the moment.
She broke a piece from one of the ceramic basins before casting a rune charm on it as Harry saw a rune started to engrave itself on the ceramic piece. She was done a minute later before showing it to him. He took it and looked closely at it. "Will this work?" he asked.
"We won't know unless we try," Daphne said equally curious.
"{Open!}" Harry said in parseltongue before activating the rune as the chamber's entrance opened once more while the rune glowed as well. "{Close!}" he said again as the entrance closed and the rune's glow disappeared.
"Do you think it's in there?" he asked looking at the ceramic piece in his hand.
"Let's see," she said before playing the recording in the ceramic as the rune glowed once more as the chamber's entrance opened. She played the recording again and the entrance closed as a chuckle left her mouth while Harry couldn't help but look in amazement from the ceramic piece to the central pillar where the entrance to the secret chamber was. "Well, now I can access the chamber without your help," she said.
"Technically you still needed me to record the password," he said.
"Saying 'open' and 'close' to open or close a door isn't something you can call a password," she said.
"You can if it only works in a different language," Harry said. "I still can't believe it worked, though. So much for it being a secret, if someone ever found out then they will be able to use this chamber as well."
"As long as we don't tell anyone it will be fine," Daphne said.
00000
Dumbledore wondered why all of a sudden Augusta was taking a step like this. When his informants informed him of the Longbottom matriarch and proxy making a move to have Sirius a Wizengamot trial his brain had stopped thinking for a second.
It had not been a good year for him. First there was the problem with Harry and because of this blasted tournament he couldn't find time to talk to that boy. Then there was the animosity between Ron and Harry which was entirely Molly's fault to begin with. He'd told her not to get greedy as she will get everything she wanted when the time came but no. She went out of her way to steal from Harry's vault and now because of that not only did Harry not trust the Weaselys but Dumbledore had also lost his one and only informant – Griphook – at Gringotts. There was no way he would be able to convince another goblin to be his eyes and ears inside that place. Goblins were honor-bound and full of pride.
And now there was this problem. If Sirius gets a trial date and his trial takes place then knowing Amelia who usually conducted the Wizengamot trials Dumbledore was sure that Sirius would walk out as a free man. He couldn't let that happen. If Sirius got his freedom then he will be Harry's guardian by default seeing Sirius was his godfather. It was dangerous for something like that to happen so Dumbledore knew he needed to convince Fudge to not let this happen. A few thousand galleons' weight in the minister's pocket should do the trick. It paid to have a corrupt leader like Fudge to get things done.
00000
Daphne entered the kitchen that evening as Tilly popped in front of her right away.
"Do you have it?" Daphne asked.
Tilly snapped her fingers and a goblet half filled with pumpkin juice appeared beside her which she then handed to Daphne who looked at it with narrowed eyes before confining the goblet with a spell so that the pumpkin juice wouldn't spill out. "This is the one, right?" she asked.
Tilly nodded. "Tilly did exactly what friend Greengrass had asked her to do," the house elf said. "Ms Hermione didn't even know that her juice and goblet had been changed."
Daphne smiled as she gave Tilly a handkerchief which made the house elf jump in happiness. She had seen Ron dose Hermione's pumpkin juice during lunch as well and had felt relieved that she'd already asked Tilly to retrieve the water or the pumpkin juice that Hermione will be taking a sip from. The house elf's timing was remarkable as the moment Ron had spiked the juice and Hermione had taken a sip from it Tilly had exchanged it with another one without anyone noticing.
Coming back to her dorm Daphne split the pumpkin juice into two parts, sending one to her mother with a letter requesting her to find out what it was spiked with while she kept the other part for herself with plans to find out the potion in it on her own. She knew her mother will write back to her the very next day but she also wanted to do this on her own as well to see where she was compared to her mother in the knowledge of potions. Also, she wanted Harry to see it himself. Granger was a brilliant girl and Daphne had noticed how much Harry missed his former best friend's help and company. Besides, with someone as smart and intelligent as Hermione not on his side would be something very stupid. From what he had told Daphne if it wasn't for Hermione he'd have been long dead, probably in his first year itself.
Also, she missed her academic rival.
00000
Anna and Matt received a letter from their allies on the light side. It said that everything had been set in motion and soon the push for Sirius' trial will be made in the Wizengamot. Knowing Amelia's progress with her off the records investigation Matt knew she wasn't that far either. She had already contacted Augusta who had also pushed for Sirius' trial along with the backing of her allies in the Wizengamot.
To push for a trial or discussion of a new law or decree the Wizengamot needed at least four families to back it up. Matt and Augusta together had plenty and with Amelia's investigation probably coming to an end and her being the conductor of all trials Matt was sure that she, too, will be on their side this time.
His informants had told him that Dumbledore and Fudge had a secret meeting in Fudge's office and seeing how the minister of magic had then started to ask others about Sirius meant that Dumbledore had also got the information about Sirius' potential trial being set up. If the old man tried to stop it directly or indirectly it will let them and Harry know of his somewhat real intentions, or at least the fact that Dumbledore doesn't want Sirius to be a free man despite probably knowing that Sirius was innocent.
Now all they had to do was wait and see what move will Dumbledore play next.
00000
It was a few days later that Daphne finally figured out what dragon Harry had seen in the forest so she called him in the chamber to discuss how he could face it if he ended up getting that very dragon during his first challenge. She also had thought of something that she wanted to try.
When Harry entered the bathroom he found the entrance open and realized that Daphne had already gone in by opening the entrance through his recording in the small rune stone that they'd created last time. Once down in the chamber he saw her slicing the basilisk's bones. She looked a bit tired and out of breath as he wondered how long she'd been doing that.
"Is it effective?" he asked scaring her as she turned around with her wand pointed at him before she saw it was him and put her wand away.
"Don't scare me like that," she said rolling her eyes as she caught her breath inside the bubblehead charm.
"Really? Who else do you think will come down here?" Harry asked amused before looking at the basilisk's skeleton. He'd also noticed a desk, a medium sized cauldron and some vials and containers with various potions ingredients in them on one side. Daphne had definitely been busy these last few days. "So, is it working?" he asked looking from the skeleton to her.
"It's very resistant to the spells as expected," she said, "but it's something I knew would happen. The bones have lost a lot of their venom though, so it's still a lot easier than it could be. Even the bone powder made from this skeleton is very rare and valuable."
"Alright, just a guess, how much do you think this carcass is worth?" he asked curious to know its value.
"I'd say at least six to seven hundred thousand galleons."
Harry looked at her with wide eyes as he couldn't find words to say. That was a LOT of money. He had no idea potion ingredients were sold up to that high a price whether rare or not. Now he understood why some potions like the wolfsbane cost a fortune and why someone like Remus couldn't get it despite saving almost all of his uneven earnings from various places spent on it. It only made Harry feel bad for him. After knowing how rich he was Harry had offered to buy Remus the wolfsbane potion but he had refused right away.
"So, I found out about the dragon that you saw," Daphne said bringing Harry out of his thoughts as he looked at her.
"What is it?" he asked.
"From your description does this look familiar?" she asked taking out a piece of paper and showing it to him. It was a copy from a book on dragons that she'd found in the library. Harry saw that the dragon in the picture looked almost like the one he'd seen in the forest as he nodded his head without saying anything. "Well, they aren't planning on going easy on you guys," she said as he looked at her confused.
"What do you mean?" he asked a bit nervous. "Is this dragon that dangerous?"
"Only the most dangerous dragons of all," she said. "This is a Hungarian Horntail, the scariest and most feral dragon amongst all the species. It's also one of the rarest dragons and is found in North Pole's coldest regions."
"Then why is it called a Hungarian Horntail?" Harry asked.
"Because the guy who discovered them was from Hungary," she said knowing how stupid it sounded. "If this is the dragon that you saw then Merlin helps whoever gets to face it in the tournament. Speaking of which I may have a theory I wanted to test."
"On what?" Harry asked.
Saying nothing Daphne simply conjured a snake as Harry jumped in surprise looking at her in bewilderment. She smirked. "Remember second year when Draco conjured that snake when Lockhart had him and you duel?" Harry nodded his head. "Well, I was thinking maybe you could try talking to it and see how good you are."
"What does that have to do with it helping me in the tournament?" he asked.
"Just do it and I'll let you know," Daphne said.
Harry sighed before looking at the snake as he focused. "{Where am I?}" he looked in surprise at the snake. It had definitely spoken as it looked at him. "{You. You are a whisperer! You can understand me!}"
"{Yes.}" Harry said.
Daphne was standing on the side a little far away from Harry and the snake she'd conjured because hearing him talk in parseltongue always creeped her out. She saw Harry was the only one whispering while the snake looked at him intently. She didn't hear it hiss or make any sound and wondered whether the snake was even talking or Harry was just simply rambling words in parseltongue when the snake turned to look at her and she flinched a little bit.
"You can cancel the charm," Harry said as she looked from the snake to him in confusion but nodded and flicked her wand as the snake disappeared.
"Were you talking to it?" she asked.
"I was," he said. "It seemed to know that I could speak its tongue and I was surprised when it talked to me first. It was confused to find itself here. I didn't know conjured beings could think like that."
Daphne couldn't believe it. "I…I didn't hear it make a sound though," she said.
"It didn't make any sound?" Harry asked sounding surprised. "But I talked to it for quite a while!"
"I could see that," she said shivering internally as she thought about him speaking in parseltongue.
"So what was it that you wanted to try?" Harry asked bringing her out of thoughts. "I still don't see it."
"So you could talk to a conjured snake?" she asked as he looked at her confused.
"Isn't that what I just did right now?" he asked. "Daphne, what's going on?"
She looked at where the snake was a few moments ago before taking in a long breath. "I was thinking if we could use your parseltongue ability to…talk to the dragon," she said.
He looked at her as if she had two heads. "What?" he said.
"A dragon comes from the same reptilian family that a snake does," Daphne said, "and…" she walked over to the table on the side where Harry noticed she had something covered with a piece of cloth. She removed it and Harry saw it was a glass aquarium with a three-tailed chameleon in it. She picked it up and brought it over to where they were and put it on the floor as the creature looked around with its weird eyes. "Hagrid can be really trusting once you tell him how much you love magical creatures," Daphne said. "It's also kind of sad as someone can exploit him like that."
"Hagrid gave you this?" Harry asked.
She nodded. "Turns out he has an entire collection of pets inside the forbidden forest although he told me not to tell anyone," she said as she looked at the chamilleon. "His name is ChaCha. Come on, talk to him."
Harry looked from the chamilleon to Daphne as his anger rose. "What is this, Daphne?" he asked in a low tone that she didn't miss.
"Oh, now you're getting angry?" she asked. "Listen Potter, I didn't want to do any of this in the first place. The only reason I'm helping you is because Astoria wants it and I can't say no to her! I'm not really the one helping you but she is. If you don't like it then go say it to her face!"
"We're done," he said as he walked away. Daphne stood there not even looking at him as she trembled. She didn't know why but it hurt when he'd been angry with her just now. She turned to look at him but he was gone by then when her eyes fell on the table and the opened letter she had kept there. Her mother had written her the very next day after she'd sent her the pumpkin juice's sample. Her suspicion was right. Ron had definitely been dosing Hermione with something fishy and Daphne's mother had figured out what was in the pumpkin juice.
Ignoring the rest of the letter where Anna had asked Daphne where she got the pumpkin juice and whether she was the one who'd been dosed Daphne had read her mother's findings. The juice contained pigra animo, a potion with its name literally translating to 'mind numbing'. There was also a very faint trace of ammortentia, also known as love potion. She had no reason to doubt her mother's findings and she understood why Hermione was being different and unreasonably supportive of Ron even though everyone could see that Harry being angry from Weasely was reasonable.
She had wanted to tell Harry about it today but things had taken a different turn. She didn't know he'd get angry over her tricking Hagrid. At least that's what she thought was why he got angry with her. Well, he could go to hell, she thought as she decided to leave the chamber as well but then stopped when she thought about Hermione and Ron and how he was dosing her with such nasty things. Ammortentia was straight-up illegal and from what she'd heard Hogwarts' wards could detect illegal items when brought in so if that was true she wondered how come no one had caught Ron until now. She couldn't go to any faculty for this because no one would believe her. No one but Snape but then he'd ask her why she was being so eager to help a Gryffindor.
She had never worried about anyone before, anyone other than her sister, her parents and Tracey. She wondered what had happened to her as she left the chamber.
00000
Thanks for reading…