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Bold = Parseltongue
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"Harry? Would you come with me for a moment?" Daphne Greengrass, a Slytherin in his year that he rarely had spoken with across all of his time at Hogwarts, asked.
He wasn't sure what she wanted to speak with him about, he couldn't recall anything having happened that concerned her. Malfoy was an immediate thought considering how close the boy was to Daphne's younger sister, or so he thought. Truth be told, he didn't worry himself all that much about Malfoy's love life… back to the matter at hand. Harry didn't trust the Slytherin girl before him all that much.
But as he'd always done thus far, he would try and look for the good in her, and to do that, he would have to give her a chance.
Worst case scenario, I could take her and a couple of her friends, he thought to himself before he gave his answer.
"Sure," He said to her. "Would you mind telling me what it's about while we walk wherever it is that you're taking us?"
Daphne arched a brow at him. "You're a bit more bold than I remember, that's good. I imagine once we've finished our discussion, you'll be needing that extra confidence you're carrying about," Daphne nodded once to a door after the pair of them had walked a good distance away from the Great Hall. "Here we are… I could go in first if you'd like, to prove there's nothing amiss. You and Draco both are awfully suspicious of those from one another's house — one would think the both of you are paranoid regarding the colours green and red respectively."
Harry narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm not worried about Draco's followers, can't say I'm much afraid of Draco either, considering how many times I've beaten him. Regarding your offer though, ladies first."
He wouldn't be goaded into a trap if that's what she was attempting to do, and Harry certainly wasn't afraid of Draco, his goons or the decently good-looking girl in front of him; that last bit was a touch off considering everybody knew she was beautiful including the girl herself, but he wouldn't let himself be caught off-guard by a pretty witch. It's not happened ever before, not unless he counted Cho, and it certainly wouldn't happen going forward.
Daphne sighed, shook her head and entered the room. She turned around a second or two after she'd entered, then she raised her arms. "I suppose this is the point in which I'd be struck by spells, wards or whatever other trap I would've set up?"
Harry ignored her remark and walked in too, there was only a foot separating the pair thanks to their personalities and the closeness in which Daphne stood to the entrance. Daphne didn't want to move just because he'd gotten close to her and Harry wouldn't move past her, his caution still lingering in the back of his mind.
"Well?" He asked, his eyes darting around the vacant, dust-filled room before they settled back on the girl but a foot away. "What'd you want to talk about?"
Daphne put a hand on her hip and brought the other up to play with her hair. "Won't you move in so we can speak whilst sitting rather than standing up as we currently are? This feels a bit too… standoffish, doesn't it?"
Harry shrugged, Daphne sighed again.
"Fine. Give me your hand," Daphne demanded, her hand playing with her hair coming down until it was held out in front of her making a motion that said it demanded company.
Harry didn't think there was much danger in the room, not with how poor Draco and the rest of the Slytherins were at stealth. Thus, he put his hand in hers and like that, the pair of them were off towards a set of desks. It didn't take long before the pair were seated, with Daphne looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and something more.
"Well…?" He eventually said, one of his hands tapping on the desk impatiently while Daphne continued staring at him.
"Hush, I'll not be rushed in my decision-making," Daphne said, one of her smaller, daintier hands coming over to grab onto one of his large ones so it'd stop tapping — he didn't think she needed to continue holding it after. "I'm a parseltongue and I have a crush on you."
"What was that?" Harry asked, blinking as he brought his other hand up to rub his eyes. "Think I misheard you."
Daphne's pale cheeks coloured and her eyes narrowed. "I, Daphne, am a parseltongue like you."
Harry nodded. "Right."
Her hand tightened around his to the point that it very nearly hurt, Daphne's eyes narrowed further too. "And, I like you.'
"Ah, alright, that's what I thought you'd said," Harry confirmed to himself, his head nodding as he stared blankly at the girl for a few seconds.
Once what she'd said dawned on him, all of it, he finally reacted; his eyes widened, the hand holding hers felt clammier, and the closeness between the pair of them felt more intimate than it previously had. All of that happened in a second at the most, and as a result, Daphne's own blushing cheeks worsened until it spread down to the top portion of her neck.
"You like me, and you speak parseltongue too," Harry repeated, his eyes locked on hers and his mind going a mile a minute.
Daphne nodded once, the action strangely quick and fidgety. "Yes. I can speak parseltongue like you, and I like you."
Harry couldn't believe it. She hadn't lied to him. Daphne could speak parseltongue just as he could, and more importantly, from how it sounded and how easily she'd swapped whilst speaking, better than he could.
"How… how can you speak it so well?" He asked, leaning forward on his elbow whilst her hand rubbed the back of his once before it went still again.
Based on how her blush got worse, he figured she'd forgotten about their hands being entangled as they were just like how he'd… forgotten… how close they were.
I can feel her breath hitting me every time she exhales, Harry realised. He'd moved closer to her in the heat of the moment, when his excitement had made him, considering he'd finally met another person who could speak parseltongue that wasn't Voldemort. It didn't help him any that the other speaker was a fit bird from Slytherin, and it didn't help that he'd forgotten those facts for a few seconds.
"I've been practising by myself," Daphne admitted, her eyes held firm by his despite the outrageous blush she wore. "When I first heard you speak parseltongue in duelling class a few years ago and the others spoke of what it was, I realised I could do the same. It didn't make sense to me at the time, not completely, but you'd spoke just as we currently are, only with a more hiss-like quality. Draco and the others went on and on about what little knowledge they had until I was curious enough to delve by myself — I found a book that spoke of it, and from that moment on, I resolved to myself that I'd master it."
"Say… you wouldn't happen to have that book still, would you?" Harry asked when she finished her story, his ineptitude and lack of knowledge embarrassing when compared to hers.
Daphne rolled her eyes and pinched the back of their still connected hands. "I tell you all that I just did and that's all you speak of regarding it? You're thicker than I'd previously thought, but my crush remains, Morgana, help me."
Harry smiled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Right, sorry about that. It's wicked that you can speak it as well as you do. It's brilliant, actually… would you mind helping me?"
"You want me to help you learn a language that you've spoken longer than I have?" Daphne asked, a weird tone of voice as her eyes once more narrowed at him.
He nodded, and again, he felt the back of his hand get pinched by her.
"That hurts, you know," He said, his other hand coming over to rub the reddened skin.
Daphne nodded. "I'd imagine that was the point I was trying to make — what would I get for helping you? You barely trusted me a few minutes ago, I would think you still don't trust me all that much currently. What could you offer me for your help?"
"Aren't you the one that sought m—" Harry was cut off by Daphne, her blush worsening as she spoke over him.
"Hogsmeade," Daphne said. "We'll go to Hogsmeade together in exchange for my aid, do you agree?"
Go to Hogsmeade with one of the most beautiful, potentially barmy witches in my year while getting to learn more parseltongue?
Harry nearly scoffed at how easy a question that was to answer. Nearly being the keyword, as he wasn't afforded all that much more time to think before he felt the familiar nails taking up a position on the back of his already red and abused hand.
"Deal! Definitely a deal," He said quickly, sighing in relief when she simply went back to holding his hand. "We'll go to Hogsmeade together."
"Wonderful. I'll coordinate our clothing, where we're going, and when we'll be getting together. It wouldn't do for it to happen prematurely," Daphne smiled deviously at him, her blush still in effect but her narrowed eyes gone. "I can only imagine the look on everybody's faces once we begin speaking in parseltongue publically."
Harry could imagine it too.
Rita Skeeter would be trying to bash the gate down, Draco would be seething, Ron and Hermione would be confused… the list would go on and on.
It'd be a brilliant prank to pull on the lot of them… Daphne's pretty fanciable too…
He'd give it a try, and so, he smiled back at the Slytherin girl.
"If only I was allowed to sit on your lap during meals," Daphne said as she slotted herself beside him at the Gryffindor table, her hissed words as comforting as her presence was.
He couldn't believe they'd gotten together so quickly. It'd happened after that Hogsmeade date, when he'd foolishly kissed her goodbye once they'd gotten off the carriage. Harry had done it in full view of everybody, his buzz getting to him until he pulled back and saw the shocked face of his date for the day.
Had one more second gone by, he would've begun stuttering out an apology or awkwardly running away. Instead, before that extra second could pass, Daphne pulled him in by the front of his shirt for a longer, gentler, and more romantic kiss.
From that point on, they'd begun having fun with their parseltongue abilities. Now, for example, was a great showing of that.
"Hello Ronald, Hermione," Daphne said, greeting his friends before she turned to him. "They probably think I'm speaking about them now, isn't that right?"
Harry turned away from her to look at his friends, the both of them looking between Daphne and him. "Definitely right… you're looking beautiful today too… by, uh, the way."
Merlin, who would've thought it was possible to stutter in parseltongue too.
Daphne blushed and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Harry," She said, her eyes looking back across the table at his friends. "Do yo—"
"Merlin! Please speak English so the rest of us can understand you, I'm gonna go mad if you continue hissing at each other!" Ron said, losing his patience and his mind as he looked between the two of them with a very pleading look.
Daphne turned to Harry and Harry to Daphne. No words were exchanged as they looked into one another's eyes.
"We won," Harry whispered before he turned to look at Ron with a grin on his face. "Sorry about that mate, didn't think you'd want to hear what I was saying to Daphne."
"What were you saying to her?" Hermione asked.
Daphne answered for him. "He was speaking about how much he liked snogging me last we met, and following that, ho—"
Ron got up, looked between the three of them, and made to leave.
All three of them laughed.
Ron came back to grab a few dinner rolls, ones he'd already put butter on.
They laughed harder, and whilst they were doing so, Daphne's hand once more sought out his.
There wasn't any hesitation this time.