A Summer Exchange

Harry and Daphne

Chapter Eight.

When Harry woke on his fifth morning at Greengrass Gardens, the sun was shining bright and there wasn't a cloud to be seen in the sky. The weather was so pleasant that after breakfast Harry decided it was about time he spent some time in the beautiful gardens. When he finally reached the terrace after changing into some old clothes he's brought from the Dursley's, he picked up a pair of gardening gloves left next to the bed of Dahlia's and got to work removing deadheads and gently removing excess petals from some of the remaining heads, which meant that he was soon joined by dozens of bees as they moved in to feed.

He had just moved onto one of the rose bed when Helaine joined him. "Harry! What on earth are you doing? You're a guest you shouldn't be doing house work," she said she set her basket of tools down and put her own gloves on.

"I don't mind doing the gardening," Harry told her with a smile as he dusted off his knees when he stood to greet his host. "I always get left alone to do the gardening at the Dursley's," he informed her with a sad smile.

"Oh, well. I'm glad of the company if you'd like to carry on helping me. Daphne mentioned that you spent a lot of your time in the gardens, is it a hobby of yours?" Helaine asked as she knelt down opposite Harry and began clearing up the base of the plants while Harry continued to cut off deadheads.

"Not really. I just like spending time outside really. Not one for sitting around and doing nothing," Harry told her, leaving out the real reason he did the gardening while at home. He knew that Daphne hadn't told her parents what his life was like when she returned and he was in no hurry to shine a light on his miserable home life. "I take it gardening is a passion of yours though?" Harry asked after a couple of minutes of working silently.

"Oh yes! Once upon a time I was going to make a career out of Herbology," she told him with a soft smile. "One of my oldest friends was going to become a potion master and we were going to open an apothecary together. But life and marriage got in the way of things," she said sadly.

"Why didn't you just open the apothecary once you were married?" Harry asked curious as to why getting married meant she couldn't work.

Helaine couldn't help but laugh at the innocence of Harry's question. "Oh, my dear sweet boy, it just isn't done like that. You begin courting, get married and have a child. That's just the way things are. My grandmother did it, my mother did it, I did it and in a couple of years Daphne and Astoria will do it," she told him with a slight shake of her head. When she looked up and noticed his shocked expression she smiled softly at him. "It's nothing to be that surprised about sweetie, it's just life that's all."

"So, you think Daphne and Astoria are just going to be housewives and mothers then?" Harry asked, almost dreading the answer.

"Yes, more than likely. I suppose they might both have jobs for a short while before getting married but I imagine once they are, they won't continue working," Helaine said before smiling at Harry and moving off to another section of the garden. For the rest of the morning the two worked silently side by side, peacefully moving from one flower bed to another. But Harry's brain was far from peaceful as he tried to comprehend how a woman like Helaine Greengrass could honestly believe her daughters were destined to be nothing but housewives.

Later that night as Harry made his way back to his room lost in thought as he played over his earlier conversation with Helaine while in the gardens. He always knew that purebloods were the wizarding worlds equivalent of the muggle aristocracy, but he never thought they would be so … antiquated. For despite both Daphne and Astoria's brilliant grades, Helaine still believed her daughters were unlikely to amount to anything more than trophy wives. The concept was surprisingly upsetting to him.

He had just reached the top of the stairs when a soft voice caught his attention. Curious, Harry followed the sound which lead him to the door leading to Astoria's bedroom. Seeing the door was only slightly closed, Harry paused just outside the door and listened to what he quickly realised was Daphne coming to the end of a story.

"…its wings opened up, stretching from one side of the courtyard to the other. With a roar and mighty push of its wings, it took off flying up and up into the inky darkness of night. The last anyone saw of it was its flickering shadow against the moon," Daphne said in a hushed, slightly gravelly voice. Realising the story had ended Harry made his way down the hall to his room, a small smile on his face, the small snippet of the story he'd just overheard reminding him of adventures in his third year with Buckbeak. He'd been in his room only 15 minutes when a knock sounded on his door and Daphne poked her head in. "You know you didn't have to stand outside. You could have come inside and listened to the story," she told him with a smile as she moved into the room and sat down at the foot of the bed.

"I didn't want to interrupt," Harry said, "Besides, I missed the beginning of the story. I liked the ending though," he told her with a smile.

"Thanks. You're the inspiration behind that particular story actually," she told him with a smile.

"I'm flattered but the last time I checked I didn't have wings as wide as a courtyard," Harry said with an amused smile making her chuckle lightly.

"No, I know that. I've seen you topless remember," Daphne said with a grin and a wink. "Actually, I took it from third year. When that Hippogriff escaped – Malfoy wouldn't stop whining about that by the way – there were all sorts of rumours going around, one was about how you used the hippogriff to help your godfather escape. One rumour said that you used it to take Granger on a romantic flight across the Highlands," she informed him. "Anyway, I took the flight of the hippogriff and made it slightly more little sister friendly. It's actually one of her favourite stories, I've been telling her it since she was 10. Changing little bits of it to keep her interested obviously."

"Wait, you make it up differently every time you tell her? How often do you tell her?" Harry asked.

"Not that often, usually just when we're home in the holidays. And I have to change it, I can never remember all the stories I've told her word for word," Daphne told him with a shrug.

"Is this something that you want to do then? Write stories professionally?" Harry asked her as they both got more comfortable on the bed.

"Yeah I suppose I would like to do that. No idea how good I'd be, but Tori always seems to enjoy them so I might do it one-day," Daphne said with a shrug. "So, how are you finding it here so far? Vastly different from your home life," she asked after a couple of minutes of awkward silence.

"It's very different but I really like it here. You've all been really wonderful and welcoming," Harry told her with a warm smile before frowning. "When you came back from the Dursley's, what did you tell your parents about your stay with us?"

"Why do you ask?" Daphne asked seriously, sitting up straighter.

"When I was helping your mother in the garden this morning, she said that you mentioned that I spent a lot of time outside doing the gardening, but she didn't sound like she knew why I was doing it. She thought it was just a hobby or something."

"What's your point Harry? Are you asking me if told my parents that you're basically a house elf while at home and that while I was there I eventually became one too?" she asked him, somewhat sharply. When she saw Harry nod embarrassingly, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "They don't know about the way I was treated by your relatives or about the chores that I ended up doing with you. And I have no intention of telling them, because it's no concern of theirs."

"You don't think they have the right to know how you were treated?" Harry asked with a frown.

"No. What do you think they would do? Father will yell and get angry and mother will cry and say it's no way to treat an heiress. Then they'll get in touch with the school, chew Dumbledore out for coming up with such a hair brained scheme and that would be the end of the summer exchange," she pointed out. When she saw that he was still frowning she leant across the bed and rested her hand above his. "If it bothers' you, then by all means tell them the truth about what your home life is really like. But I honestly didn't think it was my place to say anything to them," she told him with a sad smile before bidding him good night and moving to go back to her room.

For the next couple of days Harry thought over whether or not it was a good idea to tell Helaine and William about Daphne's treatment at his house, but in the end, he decided against it. Obviously, her stay with the Dursley's hadn't negatively affected Daphne and he knew she was right when it came to the possibility that her parents' complaints to Dumbledore might end the summer exchange problem prematurely, which would be counter-productive to its objective.

When William called him into his office one morning however, he did wonder if Daphne had told him the truth about the Dursley's. After all, why else would William invite him into his office and then raise such strong privacy wards that Harry could feel the magic as it washed over them.

There you go. Hopefully this has addressed some of the comments you've left in the reviews. I do read them but I am just terrible at replying so sorry about that. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone what has taken the time to review and favourite my little story, it means the absolute world to me to know that you are all enjoying this story so much!

So, let me know what you thought of chapter 8 and be on the lookout for chapter 9.