Chapter 9

Before anyone else could stop him, he took his dates hand and led her out of the hall, and onto the grounds where he gently placed her hand on his arm and began walking in quiet tense silence. The snow that was on the ground was instantly cold however, and he pulled off his cloak and placed it around her with a wandless warming charm that covered her from nearly head to toe. He on the other hand was fuming mad at the situation and decided to just stay quiet and let the cold air calm him down.

It was only a few moments before Daphne spoke, "It seems my housemates ruined the night. Starting with Draco and leading up to Nott."

"What was his deal anyways?" Harry asked ready to go back and tear the boy to pieces.

Sighing the girl said, "He's had a crush on me for years, and when I came to Hogwarts there was a marriage contract between us, so we were cordial towards each other, but he made it clear pretty early on that I was just going to be a trophy wife. When I was thirteen my family came into a bit of money and bought my way out of it. So, all during my third and fourth year he has been trying to get with me, and claim me as his, but the boy is a just a Jr. Death Eater, and his father is just as bad. I want nothing to do with him."

A few moments passed where she didn't say anything, but then said, "And I think it is why I was attacked at the Quidditch World Cup."

Harry's head snapped up at this, and she continued, "But you already knew that part didn't you."

Harry looked at the girl like he was a dear in the headlights, "I don't...I don't...I shouldn't...I can't..."

"Harry stop!" Daphne shouted, "I know you know. I know you were there. I know you were the wizard wearing the bandanna during the cup. I think you have known for a while."

The boy looked pale and turned his back to her as if he was going to walk away, but she just pulled him in for a hug, "Don't do that Harry. Please. Had you not done what you did. Had you not stopped that man. No telling what he would have done."

Harry just closed his eyes, and for the first time in months he faced what he had done.

The night was fresh, and moon was bright. The partying across the area was phenomenal, and the Irish looked like they would party until the next World Cup came around. Harry was sitting back by the fire with Sirius just watching the spectacle and enjoying himself with a butter beer in his hand. Harry was doing the same having had just a few to enjoy himself and enjoy the rowdy crowd.

Sirius held his butter beer towards his Godson clicking it to his and taking a long swig and the silent cheers, "Had this been a few years ago I definitely would be in there with all these crazy people, and had your dad been here with me these old boys would have had to watch it, because we would've been the life of the party."

Harry laughed as Sirius eyed some younger women walking past who giggled at his wink, but sighed and patted the boy on the shoulder, "But you're the young one now, and in just a few years you and I will be a team. A tag team of unstoppable wing men. I like it."

Harry laughed at the man, "I can't wait!"

Sirius smiled down finally feeling that the boy was old enough for him to actually connect too, "You know Pup, a day doesn't go by that I don't miss your mum and dad. There were a lot of days I thought I had lost it all, but then I would remember...I would remember a cry in the distance, or a fire call from Nicholas and Pernelle to tell me about the amazing accidental magic you would do, or when I watched you fly on a broom and I remembered...there is still a world out there. You were always that light for me Pup, thank you."

Harry looked at the man surprised. He had never seen Sirius been so emotional, or so solemn. Harry just grinned at the man, "Now Padfoot don't you go soft on me. I love you and all, but if you cry, I will make fun of you."

This caused the man to bark a laugh, and said, "You are more like your dad than you realize. Thank Merlin for that. It's like having a little piece of him with me. Always."

Harry smiled at this and watched the craze once again with a bigger smile than before. Some louder than usual screams came from the distance though and some people cried them back, while others stopped and looked in the direction of the noise. Harry was one of those thinking that scream was a little too sharp to be excitement. Then a ball of fire hit a nearby tent, and now the screaming was intense and in all directions. Harry was on his feet in a Flash with his godfather at his side drawing his wand.

It was a stampede though. People were running and the people who were falling were getting trampled. It was mayhem. Sirius however grabbed onto his Godson but then swore, "Anti-Apparition wards. Try your portkey."

"It's in the tent!" Harry yelled back.

Sirius swore, and grabbed his Godson, "Come on we have to get out of here."

The source of the mayhem was quickly approaching them. A group of a dozen or more wizards was marching in formation with their wands in the air flinging destruction around. A few pockets of resistance were breaking out, but they were quickly overwhelmed by numbers, and torture curses being thrown around like healing spells. Harry growled in anger at what has happening, but he did nothing to stop it.

As Sirius and Harry began to scurry away though spells were being thrown towards them and Harry stepped forward to intercept them, "PROTEGO TOTALUM!"

A massive shield erupted in the middle of the battlefield giving lots of people time to escape and reprieve even from regular spell fire. Only the unforgivables were breaching, and torture curse was fizzling out against his basic ward scheme.

Harry took a deep breath and kept running. They were in the back of the crowd now though, and Harry was seeing muggles fly in the air. The people who had rented this giant space out to the Ministry were practically being tortured, but no one was doing a thing.

Harry wanted to stop them, but Sirius wasn't stopping. Soon however he saw something that made his heart surge in anger and spurred him into action. A young girl that looked to be around his age with blonde hair was being pushed around between three death eaters laughing, and Harry felt the desire to fight.

He stopped this time and Sirius came running at him before he could cast a spell and join the fray, "Have you lost your mind?"

Harry shouted, "That girl needs our help."

Sirius saw the girl, and quickly looked around seeing no help approaching, "Shit."

Now it was clear to Harry that Sirius was looking for someone to take Harry, so he could help, but Harry quickly picked up some debris and transfigured it into two bandannas, "Put this on so they don't recognize us."

Sirius looked around for a moment longer and heard the girl scream for help and swore as he put it on, "You follow my lead."

Harry shook his head, "You are the auror, it will be easier to defend me, follow me and keep up."

With this Harry put his wand above his head and like a blur he was on the move blasting two people at a time out of his way with both of his wands. The first two guys that were pushing the girl around were immediately thrown to the ground hard, and clearly hurting and the third guy took a blaster to the face so hard he fell to the floor screaming. The nearby Death Eaters quickly however noticed the problem and turned to Harry. Their problem was they expected to finish Harry in one spell, so they threw a couple of cruciatas curses, while Harry was a blur of ten plus spells hitting the group, and with Sirius defending him they closed shop against the men in seconds.

The last three Death Eaters however were prepared and ready to actually fight with the two men, and Sirius had squared off against two, while Harry had put himself in between the blonde girl who was on the ground and the Death Eater. The man was fast of that there was no doubt, but what he lacked was precision, and Harry was dodging and jinxing the man like the champion he was, and while the man may have been more powerful, Harry was definitely the better fighter.

In another moment it was over, and Harry surveyed the scene and quickly helped Sirius finish his fight with the element of surprise. Then they just looked over the destruction. They had easily taken down half a dozen death Eaters. Three by surprise and three by force. They had done well.

Sirius quickly came over to him, "Are you hit? Are you okay?"

The girl on the other hand was wiping at her face, and trying to approach her saviors, "Hey! You guys-"

Before she could finish her sentence a blinding blast of gray light went into the air and the Dark Mark exploded into the sky. Harry, Sirius, and the young girl all stared at the symbol in shock and looked to see where it had come from. While they weren't looking however a man was attempting to find his feet. He pointed his wand at the girl and screamed, "Avada Kedavra!"

A sickly green spell flew at the girl, and she was suddenly hit by a much different force, and before she knew it the man who had saved her earlier was standing in front of her heaving for breath. She had not seen what he had done, but Harry stared at the man in shock. An exploding hex in the face. The man did not survive that. Harry had just killed a man.

The girl stood slowly once again checking for any more attackers, but Sirius and the girl merely stared at the young man who was staring at the body. A minute passed, and all the girl could say was, "Thank you. You saved my life."

The man never turned to face her, but shouts were coming from behind now, and Sirius ran up to the girl and the boy, "Sorry ma'am, but we have to leave now. The aurors are on their way, and it wouldn't look good if we were found here regardless of the situation. Run to those men as fast as you can. You are safe now."

The girl looked puzzled, but she couldn't say anything further as he turned the boy to face him. For the briefest of moments, she caught a glimpse of eyes with a haunting shade of green, and sensed the smallest familiarity, but before she could question it the two men had apparated away.

Harry turned to face Daphne now knowing for sure it was her that he had saved. He never got that good of a look at her, but the blue eyes he remembered had definitely been hers. He just stared into her eyes for a moment before saying, "I did it to protect you. I didn't mean too. I was just reacting like I was taught. Don't stop casting until no one is standing. I never meant too..."

The boy had tears coming down his face, but Daphne quickly wiped them away, "You don't have to apologize Harry. IT was a battlefield and you did what you had to do to walk away from it alive. No one can blame you, and I certainly don't, but you can't keep hiding this from me or yourself. You have to face it. Do you regret saving me?"

Harry quickly shouted, "NO! I just wish...I just wish I hadn't used that curse. I wish I had used something more defensive, or more-"

"More what? School friendly? Harry that was a battlefield, and it was a complete war zone. Had you thrown any different spells at any point other than what was natural to you it is possible that none of us would have survived that." Daphne said seriously.

Sagging the boy nodded, "I know. I try to tell myself that every night, but it's hard knowing that I did what I did. I just can't believe it. At 14 I have taken a life and saved another."

Daphne nodded, "Why didn't you say anything? You knew it was me."

Shrugging his shoulders, "I didn't know for certainty, but Sirius seemed to think so. I had hoped it wasn't. I had hoped you hadn't seen me do that."

"You saved my life. I owe you a life debt." The girl said matter of factly sealing the magic.

"No. I refuse to recognize the life debt. If there is one between us it is absolved."

Both felt a slight change in their magics, and Daphne gasped knowing the boy had intentionally just let her out of her debt for nothing in return, "I can't believe you just did that."

"I didn't risk my life for you to throw it all away to something you may not want. If you still consider yourself at all in my debt then just remember to live, because otherwise I did what I did for nothing. I didn't want to tell you Daphne, because I didn't want you to think I was a monster."

The girl immediately surged forward and embraced him tightly for that, "I would never think that Harry. You are one of the kindest people I have ever met, and in a million years I don't think I could ever think of you as a monster even if you took a million lives. I just don't think I could conceive such thoughts against you like that. Not after the cup, and not after this term.

Giving the girl a slightly watery smile, he kissed the top of her head, "Thank you."

She separated from him a bit, and said, "Now that isn't the only thing. Malfoy knows you killed Jugson, and when he figured it out, he immediately pulled me aside to dance to talk about it. I don't think he understands the danger I was in, so I think he thought I might try and get away from you, but he was wrong, and it confirmed my thoughts for weeks. He also told me some other things..."

Harry's eyes widened slightly, "He must have been desperate to tell you that piece of information."

"So, it's true. You don't deny it." Daphne asked pale in the face.

Harry looked around for a moment and pulled out his wand and casted several privacy charms, and looked at the girl again, "What you have to understand is I only told Malfoy all that to keep him alive. I wanted him to know the cost of serving a monster, and I hoped to spare him by giving this news. It seems however that he was more interested in trying to take my immediate support away than anything else which was a bad decision. I can just claim non-sense to anyone who comes and asks."

"And me?" Daphne asked confused.

Harry looked at the girl for a moment, and motioned for her to sit down, and he sat next to her gently taking her hand, "Daphne I have really enjoyed my time tonight with you. Despite what revelations have come up, the Malfoy incident, and the Nott problem I have had a great time. So please don't think little of me for doing this."

Daphne didn't understand and was just about to ask what he was talking about when she was silenced with a hand on her cheek and lips meeting hers. Her eyes closed instantly, and she began reciprocating, and pushing into it. It was a beautiful kiss. The snow was soft on the ground, and none was falling. The clouds had passed, and moonlight was upon them. Both teens felt the magic between them, and this kiss had cemented it, and when they separated, they were both short for breath.

Harry sighed, "It is as I feared."

For a moment Daphne thought he meant he had no feelings for her, but continued, "Daphne if we are going to spend more time together, if you want to spend more time together then you have to know a few things about me before we go any further. If you don't want to go further though, and you think it would just be best if we remained friends, and just went back to dueling and training then that's fine, but I have to know, and honestly I have to know now."

The demand was sudden, and she was caught by surprise. She really would have liked some time to think about it. This was all happening very fast, and she didn't understand. Did he want a commitment? What was it he wanted? But then the thought of never being kissed boy the handsome green-eyed boy flooded her thoughts, and they did not make her happy. She felt so safe with him, and she felt such passion when he kissed her. She had only ever had a few kisses, but that was certainly the most magical, and she definitely wanted it again, and much more of it, "I don't understand? Do you want to go on a date? Do you want to a marriage contract? What are you looking for?"

Harry blushed realizing he may have gotten a bit ahead of himself, and that they weren't quite on the same page, "Daphne I would love to go on another date with you, and even maybe become a couple long before a marriage contract ever comes into the question, but if you are going to be seen at my side in this way then you have the right to know. Do you want to be seen at my side in this way, or would you rather it stays platonic, because I will honestly tell you that I have kissed a few girls, but it felt nothing like that? I really like you Daphne, but I don't want to put you in danger either by having you at my side and you not knowing, or by telling you and making you a target. You are safer knowing if you want to stand beside me, and that is the truth."

The girl considered his words carefully, "I would love to go out with you again Harry, but I don't understand. What is all this about danger? What is this about you-know-who?"

Harry decided to take a chance that night, and he told her everything. He told her about the prophesy, but not all of the words. He told her about his up-bringing, his training, his life before Hogwarts, and it was probably the most honest he had ever been in his life, but she had a right to know. She had a right to choose if she still wanted to be by his side.

Daphne looked at the boy at certain times with fear, and other times with sadness, and other times with great admiration and respect. This was a young man who knew what he wanted, and how he was going to get it, but there were some huge obstacles in the way, and it was hard to say if she could stand with him through it all, "What will you do if I decide to walk away?"

Harry stared at the girl looking hurt for a moment but said, "I will ask you to allow me to have a professional obliviate you. This is dangerous information, and if it were to ever become known that you know you would be in constant danger regardless of whose side you are on."

"Well I am on your side no matter what." Daphne said immediately surprising both herself and Harry.

"You are?" Harry asked questioningly.

"Of course. I hate what the man stands for, and violence he brings. He is cruel man, and has no humanity left in him. I could never fight or agree with that monster, but this is a lot Harry. You are so young, and you face a Titan of dark magic and power." Daphne said worriedly.

Harry nodded his head, "I know. It's why I train so hard. It's why I never give up. It's why I am the champion that I am. I will stop him. To me there is no doubt or choice. We will face each other one day, and only death will follow for one of us. I have prepared my whole life for it to be him, and I don't plan to be alone that day. I may be but if I have a choice, I will bring a hundred other wizards, but it will happen one day regardless. One day I will defeat him, and I hope you are by my side at that time, but I am realistic I know the odds. We are young, and a lot of things could change, and who knows where I will even be next fall, but if I can help it, I would love for you to be there, and I would love for us to be there together. Everything else can be answered with time, but if you think we have a shot, and you think we could have some fun together, and it can be worth it then I hope you will agree to be my girlfriend regardless of the consequences."

Daphne looked at the boy and understood he wasn't asking for a lifelong commitment, but he also didn't want to play games with her and get her killed. This was serious, and it was only because he really liked her that she got to know all this information, and that made her respect the boy even more, and want to help, "I want to be your girlfriend Harry, but if I am then we are a team. You get that right? Couples are a team. Even if we go on one date or a thousand as long as you are mine, and I am yours exclusively then we are a team against the world. You understand, that right?"

Harry nodded quickly, "Of course."

Daphne smiled, "Good then you know that we are going to train together, and make each other better, and not just for dueling, but for whatever is out there, and whatever we will have to face while we are together. Just please no lies, and don't try and keep information from me to keep me safe. If we are getting in this together then I need to tell my family. My sister has a right to know, and my father no matter what I may think of the man. I have chosen a side, and I can't do it blindly. Do you agree? No secrets, no lies?"

Harry offered the girl a serious look, "I promise. No secrets, no lies. As long as it has nothing to do with gifts or surprises."

The girl rolled her eyes, "I think I can live with that."

Harry nodded, "Then let's kiss on it."

With that he leaned in and she met him in the middle. The kiss sealed the promise and made their relationship official. They would face whatever the future had for the duo together for the foreseeable future, and tomorrow when they awoke, they would begin planning how to make that future as long as possible.

(A/N) So an answer and a scene to describe what happened at the World Cup. This chapter will lead up to the development of Harry and Daphne's relationship so please feel free to share thoughts or opinions on the matter. I just finished writing year 4 and the summer so if you have any ideas for year 5 please leave them in the reviews! Cheers!