Previously on Defiance...
"I can tell you all about them, but if we do not leave now, the school will likely miss seeing a smelly toad."
Harry scrunched his face, trying to decipher what the girl might have meant. "All right." He saw the other students arriving, and not wanting to sit with his friends, he went to the first carriage and sat into it, and Luna climbed back soon after. In matter of minutes, the carriage was full and it set off- horseless as it was, trotting on its own towards the school gates.
He never noticed the faint shimmer of air standing a few steps behind where he was talking with Luna.
Daphne watched with apprehension as Potter and the Lovegood girl sat in the carriage as it drove away, all the way to the Hogwarts gates. Checking to make sure that no one was there, she allowed the disillusionment charm to fade as her lithe figure materialized into view. Potter was indeed becoming more of a puzzle to her. Daphne cursed under her breath. All these years at Hogwarts and she had Harry Potter completely figured out, not that there was anything to figure about the boy in the first place. Grown up with muggles, mixing with blood traitors and muggleborns, Dumbledore's favorite and his official stooge in school and friends with the know-it-all. Throw in some dangerous scenarios and keep the official facts under secret tabs, and of course, let the Hogwarts rumor mill fan out more rumors. Terrible at potions, hated by Snap, average in most subjects but quite talented at Defense. That was Harry Potter.
She cursed again. It seemed like the gods of irony hated her. The moment her dad had told her to get close and collect information about Potter, it seemed like the boy's behavior, personality and magical prowess had made a one-eighty degrees turn. Gone was the boy scrambling over a normal spell in Mcgonagall's class. Here was a person who had just demonstrated a corporeal Patronus of all things.
Wandless. Corporeal. Patronus.
Fuck.
The boy knew that someone was hiding under a disillusionment charm. Given the times, she would have bet that he would have openly attacked her without caring for the results, but he did not care at all. There was someone eavesdropping on his best friends and Harry Potter seemed to care nothing about it.
It made no sense.
Come to think of it, he had raised a privacy ward when he wanted to engage in a conversation with the Longbottom boy. She could bet that he had not performed the proper wand movements. Besides, learning to create a privacy ward was advanced knowledge and not something one would learn in their fourth year. Her father had made sure Daphne knew it because of political reasons and security. However, that was not the important thing. He had done the warding without any movements and incantations.
Silent intent-based magic.
Daphne somehow stopped herself from gaping in surprise. One thing was certain, Potter was powerful, very powerful, and for some reason, he was keeping it all to himself. The fact that he could cast a Patronus wandlessly spoke volumes. Her father could manage a Patronus but it left him drained. She could not even get anything more than just the silvery mist. For the first time, Daphne Greengrass became overwhelmed by a new emotion.
She felt weak.
She was a bright student In fact; she was one of the three students who rivalled each other for the top position. Herself, Padma Patil from Ravenclaw and Granger from Gryffindor. Granger usually scored the maximum in the theory papers while Daphne scored more in the practical exams. Padma Patil had the best of both worlds but that was another story all together.
She did not know what to think. The fact that there was a student, who was capable of wandless magic, was strutting through the grounds, pretending to be an average student, made her feel uncomfortable. Had she really been that short-sighted? Had she let her be carried away by what Malfoy and Snape had said about him?
Daphne wasn't sure what to think. Harry Potter was his own person, and he was bringing a third side to the war. Daphne did not know if she should feel scared or exhilarated. One thing however, was certain. She needed to get close to Harry Potter. The future of her family might just lie in her efforts.
She had seen him performing that illusion in the Potions class. It did not seem believable in the first place. Illusions were a very obscure branch of magic that went out of use because of the power requirements. She had seen him slightly raise his hand, which glowed for the moment, and then turn back normal. She had seen Snape walking towards Potter and seen the mock tension on the boy's face. How Potter went from being a clumsy Gryffindor to a sharp Slytherin, Daphne could never fathom. It was almost like watching...
An entirely different person.
Her mind went back to something she had heard from the conversations between Weasel and Granger.
"Harry has changed," Granger was saying, "he has spent the entire summer studying dark magic. His behavior has changed, and even Dumbledore has noticed it."
Dark Magic? She had had quite a few surprises from Potter but none of them involved any kind of dark magic. Then again, this was all from Granger's perspective. The know-it-all would perhaps pronounce anything as dark magic that she could not find in her textbooks. Daphne scoffed. Potter had performed wandless spells, demonstrated an illusion without straining; and was versatile in the arts of silent and intent-based magic. Quite a letter her father would get to read.
As soon as the class was over, Daphne scurried off to the owlery to find her pet Pegasus waiting for her. Pegasus was an eagle owl and was extremely sharp, just like her. She tied the letter to his limb and set him off to fly.
Let's see what Dad makes out of this.
She knew that Cyrus Greengrass was an extremely levelheaded man. One does not rule the neutral faction, and maintain peace with the other factions while maintaining good influx of business without level-headedness and intellect. She had always aspired to become like her father but it seemed like she had made an initial mistake in calculating the scheme of things. She could not afford to make such a mistake ever again.
She was about to return towards the Slytherin dungeons when she saw Potter walk towards the seventh-floor corridor. Disillusioning and silencing herself, she followed him. Potter seemed to walk ahead obliviously all the way, as he crossed the corridor and walked up the stairs. His movement was so unpredictable that Daphne had to wonder if he was moving randomly in order to avoid detection. He would move through one corridor, then suddenly step through another door, and then take a sharp bend and... Daphne had forsaken walking and begun to run behind him.
She took a sharp turn just as he took a sharp turn in the seventh floor corridor and then-
Harry Potter was gone.
Damn.
It was lucky that the silencing charm was in effect; else, the entire compound would have heard her screaming her lungs out in frustration.
The next day...
The Gryffindors and Slytherin fifth years entered into the DADA classroom. They found Professor Umbridge already seated at the teacher's desk, wearing the fluffy pink cardigan of the night before and the black velvet bow on top of her head. Daphne was again reminded forcibly of a large fly perched unwisely on top of an even larger toad.
The class was quiet as it entered the room; Professor Umbridge was, yet, an unknown quantity and nobody knew yet how strict a disciplinarian she was likely to be. "Well, good afternoon!" she said when finally the whole class had sat down.
A few people mumbled "Good afternoon," in reply.
"Tut, tut," said Professor Umbridge. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"
"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," they chanted back at her.
"There, now," said Professor Umbridge sweetly. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."
How moronic can she be?
Professor Umbridge opened her handbag, extracted her own wand, which was an unusually short one, and tapped the blackboard sharply with it; words appeared on the board at once...
DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS: A RETURN TO BASIC PRINCIPLES
"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" stated Professor Umbridge, turning to face the class with her hands clasped neatly in front of her. "The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in your O.W.L. year."
She paused. "You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year."
That's it. Another year of education-less DADA class. Why do I even hope anymore?
Course aims:
1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.
2. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.
3. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use.
Daphne almost shoved her head in frustration. This... bitch wasn't going to teach her anything. Her mind went back to consider the better option between Durmstrang and Beauxbatons when something interesting happened.
Hermione Granger was raising her hand in the air.
"I've got a query about your course aims," Granger replied. Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows.
"And your name is —?"
"Hermione Granger,"
"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully," said Professor Umbridge in a voice of determined sweetness.
"Well, I don't," said Hermione bluntly. "There's nothing written up there about using defensive spells."
This is going to be interesting.
Daphne glanced at Potter. It was almost as if he was oblivious to whatever was happening in the class. It seemed he was reading his copy of the Slinkhard's book. Both of his hands were on the book, and he seemed to be reading the deplorably boring book meticulously. She turned towards Umbridge.
"Using defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"
She had barely finished that thought when a huge crimson spell shot out of nowhere towards Umbridge. She shrieked in fright as she leapt under the table, as the spell hit her chair, pulverizing it to dust.
"WHO DID IT?" Umbridge screamed out loudly.
"Professor? Is that going to be our reaction when attacked in a secure, stress-free environment?" Daphne's eyes turned towards Harry Potter who was still sitting on his seat, the Slinkhard book still in hands. "Could you show us that motion again?"
Even Daphne was hard pressed to control her amusement as the class dissolved in peals of laughter.
Two weeks later...
Daphne could swear that Potter was being deliberately infuriating. There was no way that anything could have happened. She had gathered his entire schedule, calculated his free periods and the most probable hallways and corridors he chose to walk in, but still, whenever he drew close to the seventh floor corridor, he would miraculously disappear, almost as if the corridor would swallow him whole.
I will catch him this time. I need to know where he disappears and how does it.
She whipped her wand and cast the tempus charm.
04:26 P.M.
Potter was supposedly to come down this corridor any moment. She had observed him enough to understand that Potter followed a fixed schedule, and every week day after class, he would come up the fifth-floor corridor, move through some random classes and bends and appear somewhere close to the seventh-floor and then disappear. That was why she had chosen to hide on the sixth floor, waiting patiently to see how he did the disappearing act on her every single time.
She heard the sound of footsteps. Quickly, she recast her disillusionment charm and silenced her feet. There was no way Potter would vanish away this time.
She saw him walking towards the seventh-floor and walked towards him. Potter was still wearing his damnable grin on his face as he strode ahead, his wand absent from either hand, though given what she knew of him, he did not need a wand.
She quickly followed him as he crossed the stairs and entered the seventh-floor. He walked straight ahead, Daphne walking just three steps behind him, making sure her stealth was perfect. Her heart was beating hard and she reinforced her mental discipline to control her excitation. Potter crossed the few yards and then turned to take a sharp turn on the left. Daphne followed him instantly.
This is the place where he vanishes every time.
She turned left just as he did, and-
Potter had vanished.
FUCK!
"As I believe I have previously mentioned, -" Daphne felt a shiver of fear run down her spine at the voice, "—that is a very good demonstration of the disillusionment charm."
It was over. She had been caught.
"Turn around and dispel the charm."
Daphne stood still, holding her breath. It had avoided her capture the previous time, perhaps she would be lucky twice.
A wand poked into her spine.
Okay, perhaps not.
She willed the charm to vanish away. Her magic obeyed her wishes as her lithe figure materialized into view. Slowly, she turned back.
Defiant, icy-blue eyes met inquisitive, bright green. On closer notice, she could not help but notice the strange way in which Potter's eyes seemed to pulse with controlled energy. She focused on her mental shields as she felt an intrusion into her mind. The intrusion knocked around her shields for a while, paused, and then slowly retreated, before plunging in again like a knife as it penetrated her shields, shattering them as it delved into her mind. With supreme effort, Daphne somehow tore her eyes from him, as the intrusive force seemed to vanish.
"Legilimency, Potter? Don't you know that it is illegal to perform it?" She replied defiantly.
"Legilimency? What is that?" the mock-confused expression on his face almost compelled her to snarl in frustration.
"Nothing." She receded. She knew there was no point. Potter had not used his wand, Only wand-based Legilimency could be proved in open court.
"Right. Let's us ignore this hypothetical attempt in Legili—what-you-said," He smirked, "and talk about more important matters. What is a beautiful Slytherin like you, doing here, all alone, walking behind me? One would think you were up to no good."
Daphne bit her lip, thinking about her possible answers to escape out of that situation.
"I am waiting, you know." He drew close to her, very close. She could feel his breath on her neck. "I am very interested in knowing why someone like yourself would be stalking me ever since the start of this year."
Damn. He knew it. He knew it.
"It was quite funny, you know. Making you run circles while keeping up the illusion of ignorance. However, we have digressed. Why are you stalking me, Miss...?"
"Greengrass." She hissed. She felt a pang of disappointment that he did not know her name.
"Greengrass." Potter repeated.
"I will tell you if you tell me how you vanish on me every single time." Daphne returned defiantly.
"I am not the one having a wand pointed at me, Miss Greengrass."
"Yeah, you are right." Daphne spoke a little slowly, or one could say, seductively. "However, it does not take much time to turn the tables." She spoke the last words with frightening intensity as her hand moved to her waist to grab her wand only to-
Find her wand was not there.
"Are you looking for this?"
And there it was. Her faithful birch wand. Twirling around Potter's fingers. "Birch wood. Eleven inches. Unyielding. Norwegian Ridgeback heartstring core."
"Since when did you become an expert at wand lore?"
"This summer."
That shut her up. She knew what he was doing. He was playing with her. She hated it.
"I was...I was stalking you because I wanted to know who you are."
"Right," Potter drawled. "Harry James Potter, at your service. Now you know who I am."
Daphne grit her teeth.
"I meant, I wanted to know if you..." A sneaky idea germinated in her mind. "I wanted to know if you were powerful enough to stand against the dark lord."
"No, I am not."
Daphne opened her mouth. Then closed it. Her mind was completely blank. This was Harry Potter. This was the boy-who-lived, the Gryffindor, the- Importantly, this was the person who had actually faced the dark lord on multiple occasions if the rumors were to be believed. For him to simply declare that he wasn't strong enough-
"I don't believe you."
Potter looked confused.
"Excuse me?"
Daphne swallowed. "I saw you cast a corporeal Patronus wandlessly. I saw you create an illusion on multiple occasions. I know you are powerful."
"If you know, and are as confident as you seem to be in that knowledge, why are you following me?" The last words were almost hissed out, with Potter bordering on Parseltongue.
Fair point.
"I wanted to know why you hide your prowess if you are this powerful, but you disappeared on me, every single time." Her words seemed to express her frustration. "I need your help."
"My... help?"
"Yes." Daphne grit her teeth. The idea was fairly good. She hoped Potter would fall for it.
"Explain."
"I need your help in DADA, and I am ready to negotiate."
Potter seemed to think it out. "And why should I help you out?"
"What do you need in return?" She returned.
Potter eyed her up and down, and for a moment, Daphne feared the worst. Maybe Potter was like every other boy, only interested in feminine assets, and taking advantage of them. Then again, they were boys, and it was to be expected.
"Nothing."
Pause.
Daphne blinked.
"Excuse me?" She almost felt insulted. Wasnt she beautiful enough?
"There is nothing you can provide me, which I cannot get on my own. Hence, I am not interested in your deal."
Fuck.
She made her mind. "Potter, I need help in DADA. It is important for me. The Ministry will not allow students to learn anything, and you know it." She folded her hands such that it slightly emphasized the breasts. "I am willing to negotiate."
Potter smirked. "Why couldn't you get help from anyone else?"
"Who better than the fifth-year who defeated the Triwizard Champions in the tournament, especially one who can do wandless magic?"
Potter seemed to be validating her argument. He did not say anything, nor did she. Patience was after all, the name of the game. Finally, he seemed to reach a decision.
"Let's be frank, Greengrass. Why should I teach you? For all I know, you could be a junior death eater. I am not really enthusiastic in imparting my secrets to the enemy."
Fair point. Daphne considered. "My father is the head of the neutrals. Even in the last war, he stayed neutral. Will it work if I swear a vow that I will never join the dark lord?"
Potter considered. "I need to think about it. Give me a day. Meet me tomorrow. I will tell you my final decision."
Daphne let out an elated sigh. "How will I find you?"
"Figure that yourself. You seem to be very... accomplished at that."
Daphne ignored the taunt.
"What?" Potter pressed.
"My wand, Potter."
"Huh?"
"My... wand."
"Oh." He handed her the wand, making sure that the tip was still towards her. Daphne slowly took the wand and sent it to the holster in her waist. For precautionary reasons, she cast an anti-summoning charm on it.
"I will see you tomorrow Potter."
Potter shrugged. Daphne turned to look at the corridor behind her and then-
Potter had disappeared again.
Damn.