Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the characters; they belong to JK Rowling. The title comes from the book of the same name by Brigid Kemmerer. I should also say now that the story won't have much in common with the book; I just liked the title and thought it would fit.

Thanks to Webstriker from the Harry/Daphne discord for betaing the chapter.

Greengrass' shoulders lowered once she realized he was going to let her explain herself. His heartbeat was back to normal by now, but his mind was still reeling a bit from finding a woman in his house this morning. She opened her mouth to speak and he held up a hand to silence her. "I need a minute. I'll be right back."

He turned and took a step back before he realized that would mean leaving a complete stranger unsupervised in his home. He thought back to the memory of Teddy's last birthday and cast, "Expecto Patronum." His silver stag appeared in the room to Greengrass' gasp of surprise. "Keep an eye on her while I'm upstairs," he said and the silver stag nodded.

"Fair enough," Greengrass said. His brow furrowed at her nonchalance and she shrugged. "I wasn't going to do anything nefarious, but if he makes you more comfortable, alright." He looked over his shoulder to see that Greengrass had stopped in front of his patronus to look it over.

"You are a beauty," she said quietly. The stag bowed his head to her in response.

He spared her one last glance before he left her in the living room; he ended up back in his bedroom. He closed the door behind him, just in case, and then hit his forehead against it. It made a satisfying thunk.

The fox had been a person this entire time.

A person he'd gone to school with.

"I am such an idiot," he sighed, forehead still pressed against the door. "How could I not notice?" The whine the fox let out when he mentioned the possibility of her sleeping on the floor, or the way she held her head up when he complimented her. "Shit." He cringed as he thought back to some of the things he said to her last night:

You are one pretty fox.

You're a demanding little thing.

He'd said that before he started petting her more and his face felt like it was burning now. He'd pet her like a dog and she was an actual human being. Then again, she nudged his hand to egg him on so it wasn't as if she'd been against it. Irritation finally started to break through the embarrassment.

If she was an animagus, why didn't she just turn back? She could have freed herself and I wouldn't have brought her back here. Was she in too much pain? Harry stepped back from the door and raked a hand through his hair as he thought. Then why didn't she turn back after I healed her? Maybe she was transfigured…

But if she'd been transfigured, wouldn't she try and get my attention more? Or do anything to show that she's not a real animal?

She hadn't. Why? This is getting me nowhere. He was starting to go in circles now and, if he kept it up, he'd just start jumping to conclusions. It was time to get answers now.

He opened the door but caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror before he could walk through and saw that he was still shirtless. He sighed before pulling on a green and gold Holyhead Harpies t-shirt, a souvenir from a game he'd gone to when he and Ginny had still been dating.

He found her in the kitchen when he came back downstairs. His stag stood to her left, placidly watching her. Greengrass' back was to him, so she didn't see his approach. She was unwrapping the bandages on her injured arm and then held it up to examine. When she turned it to the left she let out a cry of pain and dropped it. Swearing under her breath, she took out her wand and pointed it at her injured left arm.

She said nothing but her arm started to slowly heal. Her wand movements were confident and precise and she didn't have to look up the necessary spell from a book either. After a moment, she turned her arm right and left without any signs of discomfort or pain.

"Are you a healer?" he asked. The corners of his mouth turned upwards as she jumped at the sound of his voice. Got you, he thought, satisfied at repaying her a little for the bad surprise she'd given him that morning. He dismissed his patronus as he moved around her chair.

She shook her head as he moved to take the chair across from her. "No. My mother is a trained healer and she taught my sister and I some things."

He frowned. "You have a sister? I don't remember seeing her around Hogwarts."

"Tori couldn't go to Hogwarts with us." Her eyes dropped to his shirt and her lips twitched upwards. "You didn't have to get dressed up for me."

Harry felt his face warm and he glared at her. "Comments like that aren't helping your 'this is all a misunderstanding' case." She winced at his tone, and nodded at him, a contrite expression on her face. "So what's the story exactly? An animagus-"

"I'm not an animagus."

He frowned. "So you were transfigured by someone? Convenient that-"

"I wasn't transfigured either." His frown deepened. She leaned back in her chair and said, "I'm cursed."

Well, he certainly hadn't expected that answer. "What?"

Her expression turned somber. "Potter, have you ever heard the phrase blood curse before?" He shook his head. "A blood curse happens when someone is not only cursed, but passes on that curse to their descendants." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "One of my ancestors was cursed to turn into an animal for part of the day and his children inherited it, and so on and so forth all the way up to me. So I turn into a fox at night and can't turn back until morning."

Greengrass sighed. "Normally, I make sure to be back home before nightfall or at least somewhere I'm familiar with. But Theo wanted my help with a potions project, and before I knew it the sun was going down and poof: fox time! That would have been horrible if he didn't know but-"

Harry blurted out without meaning to: "Wait, is that what the whole Vix nickname is about?"

"Oh, has he referred to me by nickname to you? But yes, Vix is short for Vixen. Theo likes to think he's funny." She rolled her eyes, but a softly fond smile played on her lips.

"He's not the only one," he drawled.

Greengrass placed a hand over her heart. "Ouch. That was cold, Potter." He smiled without realizing it then quickly wiped the expression from his face. Her own amusement was short-lived as her eyes darkened a few seconds later. "But back to the point, Theo is one of the few people who know about the curse. Hermione does not. I don't…it's nothing to do with her…I just like to keep this private." Something darker flashed in her eyes and she looked away from him.

Harry said nothing.

"Anyway, he was going to apparate me home once he finished our work on the potion, but then you and Hermione walked in the front door. So I just went out the back. It wasn't ideal, but it's not like I've never had to improvise as a fox before. So I went exploring." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I didn't see that trap until I was practically on top of the damn thing and then it was too late. I'm not sure how long I was there, but it felt like forever. And then you showed up."

She looked back at him with a faint smile on her face. Her eyes shined with gratitude and he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "I just did what anyone else would have done. It's not a big deal."

She snorted. "Don't sell yourself short, Potter. A lot of people would have just kept going on their way if they heard me in pain. And even if they did look, I don't think a lot of them would have brought home a fox to take care of her." She leaned forward, her arms resting on the table. "So thank you, Potter."

He was the one who looked away this time. "I think you underestimate other people."

She chuckled softly. "No one's ever accused me of optimism. But I stand by what I said. You really need to learn how to take a compliment, Potter."

Silence fell after that and it took him longer than it should have to realize that she was waiting for his response. Harry studied her, while he worked through his own thoughts. She'd told her story in a completely matter of fact way and she hadn't shown any unconscious signs of lying. He didn't think she faked her gratitude either.

His gut told him that she was telling the truth, but she could also be a gifted actress. He could admit that he was the suspicious type. But would it be a bad thing to be cautious? He bit his lip and said, "That's some story, but how do I know you're telling the truth?"

She arched an eyebrow. "If I was going to lie, why would I make up something so weird?"

He rested his chin in his hand. "I don't know. I don't know you." It wasn't as if they ever interacted meaningfully during their school years. She was best friends with Hermione's boyfriend and Hermione liked her, but that was all he knew about her. She might have been friends with Parkinson or Davis? He honestly had no idea.

He hadn't even known she wasn't an only child before this morning.

"Theo can vouch for me."

He nodded slowly. " But if you're such good friends, couldn't he just be covering for you?" He had no doubts that Ron and Hermione would lie for him if necessary.

There was a tick in Greengrass' jaw; the first sign of irritation she'd shown throughout the entire conversation. "Well, I could always stay here until night, but I doubt you want me to stick around that long. If you won't take Theo's word for it, I doubt you'd take Pansy's."

"Yeah, no," he said. Harry had let go of a lot of anger towards certain people over the years, which was much more for himself than for them. When Parkinson sent him an apology via owl two years ago, he accepted it but he didn't like or trust her. Even without that history, any story from Parkinson about this would be taken with the same amount of suspicion that he would give Theo.

"It's too bad that Luna's out of the country for another week. You'd believe her."

"Wait, Luna knows? Luna Lovegood?" Harry could admit that he definitely did not see her being brought into this. Then again, out of all his friends, he would be the least surprised to find out she knew one of their former classmates was cursed to turn into a fox.

Her lips twitched briefly upwards, though there was still an irritated gleam in her eyes. "Yes. She found out at Hogwarts, another accident."

He was still pre-occupied by Luna's potential involvement and, before he could stop himself, he asked, "Are you and Luna…friends?"

The agitated expression didn't leave her face, and he wondered if she wouldn't answer. Then she said softly, "I like to think so. We write to each other and we have lunch sometimes when she's around. She convinced me to go hiking with her and didn't use the opportunity to kill me and hide my body, so chances are good she likes me."

Harry opened his mouth to comment but she cut him off before he could get a word out. "If you're still friendly with McGonagall, you can floo her and ask."

He blinked. "McGonagall knows about this too?"

"Of course. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and some of the other staff were told because I needed some accommodations at school. As you can guess, I couldn't exactly work a telescope with paws. So no Astronomy class for me."

He once again fought a smile as the image of the fox from last night trying to use a telescope popped into his head. "This has been happening to you that long?"

She shrugged. "I've been turning into a fox since birth. All night, every night. No exceptions. You can imagine how much of a pain in the arse it was during school."

It was hard to wrap his head around. It shouldn't have been — Teddy was changing his appearance as a baby, after all — but his mind was just stuck on a baby Greengrass turning into a fox without warning. Had it scared her or was it natural for her?

She must have misinterpreted his silence, because she muttered to herself, "Why did I have to sleep in?" Harry didn't think she meant for him to hear that part. "I could take veritaserum if you'd like. If you have any. I'll make an Unbreakable-"

"That won't be necessary," he said, cutting her off. "I think I believe you." He could always check with McGonagall if necessary later; he didn't think she'd lie to him, if he explained the situation. Luna definitely wouldn't lie to him, but she was currently in the middle of a study on magical creatures in Australia and not always the easiest to reach during her excursions.

She tilted her head to the left in a way that strongly reminded him of the fox. Of her, he supposed. A faint smile spread across her face. "That's a relief. I didn't want you to think that I'm some weirdo who breaks into houses to sleep." Her smile faded and she added, "Of course, I'd have preferred you to not find out, but I can't change that now."

"I won't tell anyone," he said.

"No. That's not you is it?" Another silence filled the room. She glanced at the clock on the wall and said, "I should leave. May I use your floo?"

"Sure."

Greengrass stood but didn't move away from the table. "Do you have parchment and a quill?"

He frowned in thought. "I should. Hold on." He preferred a biro to a quill, but he should have both in the house. He got up to retrieve them for her and raised an eyebrow as she wrote something on it and slid it over to him. "What's this?"

"My floo address." He just looked at her and she cracked a small smile. "I owe you one, Potter. If you need anything, get in touch." With that she turned and strolled towards the fireplace.

"Greengrass," he started but she ignored him. He followed on her heels and said, "Wait, Greengrass. You don't owe me anything."

She didn't turn around as she grabbed the container with floo powder. "Of course I do. You helped me when you didn't have to. So, I owe you."

"But I didn't help you to get something out of it. I didn't even know you weren't a real fox."

She glanced at him, amused. "So now I'm not a real fox? I thought I was a pretty one. This is a real step down."

He felt his face turn pink at the reminder. "That is not the point. I don't expect any favors from you. It wasn't that big a deal any-"

"It was to me," she cut him off. "You're not going to talk me out of paying you back. So think of something and let me know."

"Greengrass," he said, voice low, but she shook her head at him.

"I'll see you around, Potter."

She disappeared into the floo with a flash of green flame, probably too pleased with herself for getting the last word in.

Notes: The chapter was a little shorter than the last one, but Harry at least got some answers. Thank you for reading!

For anyone interested, there is a fun Harry/Daphne discord: discord. gg / pKSdvJQvhU