A Summer Exchange
Harry and Daphne
Chapter Three
Sighing in frustration, Daphne threw the sponge into the bucket of warm soapy water as she glared out over the Durley's patio. She had been outside working under the bight June sun for the last two hours and she had finally finished, although she would have finished much sooner if Petunia Dursley didn't keep moving in and out the house, trailing dust and dirt over the clean slates, much to Daphne's annoyance.
Moving back into the kitchen Daphne poured the dirty water away and tidied up her cleaning materials before making her way upstairs, hoping she could collapse on the small bed in the spare room for a couple of peaceful minutes. When she reached the bedroom though it was clear that Harry had had a similar idea and was currently laying on the bed staring up at the ceiling. "I see you had the same idea," Daphne remarked sitting down at the end of the small bed and leaning against the wall. "What have you been doing all day? I've hardly seen you," she asked him.
"I was up in the loft cleaning" Harry told her, keeping his eyes closed but moving his feet up so that Daphne had more space to sit. "Did you finish in the garden?" he asked her.
"Yes, eventually. Would have been much easier and quicker if you aunt hadn't kept walking in and out the house though," she told him, the tone of her voice revealing her obvious displeasure in the situation.
"Yeah, she does that," Harry muttered sitting up in the bed. "At least uncle Vernon was at work today, otherwise he'd be outside glaring at you all day."
"Thank Merlin for small mercies," Daphne muttered. "Do I have to do anything after dinner, or can I actually relax for a part of my holiday?" she asked him.
"I told you the first night here that you didn't have to do any chores, you could just stay up here all day, I highly doubt my aunt or uncle will come in and disturb you," Harry pointed out. "I'm going to go and make dinner," he told her with a smile before leaving Daphne alone in the room.
"Great, trapped inside a small room, in a small house with a small walrus of a man. Exactly how I wanted to spend my summer holiday," she said to the empty room, throwing herself beck on the bed in frustration.
The long summer days continued in a similar manner to how they started for Daphne and Harry. Harry would awaken before dawn and start work in the kitchen, cleaning and cooking for the Dursley's and when Daphne would eventually roll out of bed hours later, she was quickly snapped up by Petunia who always seemed to have long, boring jobs for her to do, whether it was clearing out the wardrobes upstairs, or tidying Dudley's room day after day and after one week Daphne had had enough.
"I am not doing this all summer Potter!" Daphne told him in a harsh whisper one night as they both lay in their beds.
"You're only here for three weeks Greengrass, you don't have to do it all summer," Harry snapped back, obviously having finally lost his patience with his classmate.
"I did not sign up to be a bloody house-elf!"
"None of us signed up to this! The idea is to see how other people live when they're not at Hogwarts. This is how I live, and it has been since I was dumped on their doorstep at a year old when my parents were killed. We've not thought, 'oh, we're getting a posh pureblood in our house for three weeks, let's put her to work and make her life miserable, won't that be fun!' We don't all have the luxury of having had easy lives," Harry told her, standing and gathering his pillows and blankets. "Just stay up here for the rest of your time here if you're finding it so hard," he told her as he headed for the door. "Not as if you're doing much anyway," he added with a mutter as he closed the door behind, leaving Daphne lying in bed in shock while he went downstairs to sleep on the sofa, obviously having had enough of her temper-tantrums for one night.
Three nights later Daphne took extra care to sneak down the stairs of Privet Drive in order to get into the kitchen undisturbed. She had stopped helping Harry with chores after their late night argument and her body still ached like it never had before even after so many days' rest. She had just reached the hall way when loud, angry voices from the living room caught her attention.
"That fool has gone too far this time," she heard Vernon say. "It's bad enough that we're stuck with you still, now we've got another freak in the house! And this one's now refusing to do anything!" he shouted angrily.
"I'm sure Dumbledore has his reasons," Harry said quietly, as though speaking any louder would cause Vernon to lose it completely.
"I'm not going to let your freakishness take over my house boy! And she may not be doing any work, but believe you me; you'll be doing double, triple work while you're both still here to make up for boy!" Vernon shouted at Harry.
"It's just another week and half and then she'll be gone," Harry told his uncle, the tone of his voice suggesting that he would be as equally as happy as his uncle to see the back of their blonde house guest.
"It's bad enough we've had to feed you; cloth you and put a roof over your head for the last fifteen years, now we have to keep another one of your freakish people too. We're not running a bloody hotel boy! Should have just dumped you somewhere else when you arrived. Would have saved us a lot of money and time!" Vernon sneered at Harry.
At the sound of someone moving around in the living room, Daphne quickly turned and made her way back up the stairs, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping. When she finally reached the small bedroom Daphne paused in the doorway and really took in everything she had seen and heard over the last week and a half.
The room the two teens were sleeping in was miniscule, barely any bigger than the bathroom. The mattress she had been sleeping on was lumpy and old, the duvet and pillow threadbare and uneven. As though it had been used so much and for so long that the filling inside had been permanently displaced. The wardrobe in the corner of the room was overflowing with over-sized clothes and one door was hanging on by just one hinge. Even the newest looking piece of furniture – the bedside table – was propped up with old school textbooks, having only three of its four legs. And she was absolutely certain that there was mould growing at the top of the walls. Overall it was a miserable place to stay in. To be forced to stay in.
Despite how miserable her surroundings were, she could see that Harry had attempted to make it somewhat more homely. He had a hand drawn picture of his owl tapped to the wardrobe door; his walls had his house flags pinned to them as well as the odd Quidditch poster. And then there were the photos.
There were only two; both on Harry's nightstand, both in cheap, plain frames, but Daphne knew they both meant the world to Harry, especially when taken into account how much he looked at them on a night before he fell asleep. The first was of the 'Golden Trio', the three best friends sat on the sofa in what must be the Gryffindor common room when they were first years. They were all smiling and waving up at the camera, all of them looking like they didn't have a single care or worry in the world. Exactly how children should look.
The second was of Harry's parents, or at least that's what Daphne assumed. The couple were smiling and dancing in front of a fountain, smiling up at the camera every so often, but it was the way they looked at each other that told her they were very much in love with one another. It was this photo that Harry held every night; stared at every night. Stroked every night, as though he could reach inside the frame and actually touch his parents.
After hearing what his uncle had said to him tonight and after watching him day after day toll away for his horrid relatives and receiving nothing but more abuse in return, Daphne began to feel sick over how she had reacted to his life here. He was right, the whole idea of living with their classmates was to see how other people lived, and she had come here and done little work and complained about what she had done. All the while Harry had been working extra hard to compensate for her stubbornness and laziness.
Coming to the realisation that she had been somewhat of a bitch over the last week and a half, Daphne resolved to help out more and to just be better during her remaining time there.
I hope you like this chapter. A little late but I hope you'll forgive me for it. If I'm brutally honest, it's sections in this chapter that gave me the overall idea behind A Summer Exchange.