A/N: Hello people and sorry for the long absence, I took a vacation amongst other personal matters, but I'm back. I'm sorry, again, and I hope to make it up by posting for two weeks straight, daily - this is day 9 of 14!

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Bold = Parseltongue

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January 8, 1995

Sunday

As it turned out, the bath had gone incredibly well without all that much awkwardness. Daphne's forward, confident nature and his own more relaxed demeanour whilst in her presence meant it was nearly completely academic. Obviously, there had been a bit of ogling and curiosity, but they had delved straight into the egg between them as soon as they got past that brief stage of their joint bathing.

He wasn't proud, it took the pair of them a few minutes until they finally had the idea to completely submerge both it and themselves, under the water. Their first attempt had been using the steam of the room and the moisture that'd settled on their bodies, which hadn't worked. The second attempt they made was to put it under th water and see if the noise reached beyond the surface, which it didn't. It had taken them three attempts but when they finally used that third try, it had amazing results and a beautiful voice for singing.

Really, Harry had never heard a sweeter-sounding voice — it was the honey of voices, as he'd later remember it. Daphne's voice wasn't half as innocent and light-sounding, rather, her voice was deeper and filled with a sense of self-assurance that was undeniably attractive.

"What do you think it is that you've lost or had taken from you that's precious?" Daphne asked, her mind focused on that particular part of the song from the moment they'd heard it that second time.

"I don't know," he answered as honestly this time around as he'd done previously. "Unless I'm forgetting something, which I know isn't the case since it mentioned the possession being precious, I can't think of anything. Everything I care about — my wand, my cloak, the pictures of my parents and you… not that you're a possession, they're all with me right this second."

Daphne made a thinking noise before she promptly shook her head. "Interesting. When you make it back to your room you should take a quick look around and make sure there's nothing, just in case. We can't afford not knowing what it is if the item could play an important role at this future task."

Harry nodded in agreement. Now that they knew he'd be in the water, likely under it by the look of things, the two of them and Tracey too knew to look for spells or potions that aided in dealing with those conditions. It may be a bit difficult, especially regarding purchasing items, but that option was definitely better than drowning.

"I'll check the Slytherin library for anything that's even partially related to water-based performances. Tracey will be with me and Millicent, while not my friend, would actively oppose Malfoy if he tries anything as you're so certain he might," Daphne said, shaking her head with a smile on her face this time around instead of her earlier contemplation. "You return home, make a list as I said and tomorrow morning, we'll meet again. It's very important that you're thorough in your search and I'll take notes from the books I read before bed this evening. I probably don't need to tell you this, but there's a small voice in the back of my mind that feels the need, so here I go; if you hear any voices whilst you're underwater, don't swim towards them. We're both well aware of your willpower following Professor Moody's class."

That's for sure, I'll never forget the look on Neville's face or the stupidity of a man everybody seemed to respect, Harry thought before he leaned in towards Daphne for a hug. "I'll write down everything, right on down to the last sock," he promised, grinning as she rolled her eyes.

"Goodnight, Harry," she said when she pulled away from him, smiling with a look of contentedness on her face.

Like Tracey had in one of their most recent conversations, Harry recognised the look on Daphne's face as happiness in victory or something of that sort. It was probably in relation to the egg since they'd finally cracked the code, as it were. Tracey would often tell him when they were in private, on the other hand, that Daphne was incredibly pleased that she'd gotten the boy she'd wanted — apparently, she liked to make mention of that a lot too, especially in the presence of girls she knew liked him.

That seemed a bit strange to him, but he didn't really care. She was happy, he was happy, and as he walked back to Gryffindor Tower, he realised that he'd be doing far better again thanks to her direct assistance. He, Daphne and their sidekick Tracey made an excellent triumvirate.

Harry snorted when that thought struck him. Daphne would be especially happy had she heard it thanks to her love of the ancient magical Roman community.


January 13, 1995

Friday

Daphne looked at him with curiosity when he pulled out a small wrapped box from his satchel. It was clear that she hadn't expected some random gift with no real reason, but when the thought had struck Harry the day after her assistance had once more proven incredibly helpful, he knew he should do something to thank her. He had the cloak and the map of Hogwarts so that 'something' didn't take all that much thinking about before he just secretly left Hogwarts for Hogsmeade.

One short trip later and he found himself requiring a second one to pick up the item he'd placed an order for. Jewellery of any kind probably would've worked, but Daphne deserved something more unique and that meant having a piece made explicitly for her. Sirius had given him access to a larger trust fund and Harry had been frugal up until that point, so he reckoned he did what any good bloke would do and spend a bit of that on his missus… even if she wasn't quite his missus just yet.

"I feel horrible that I don't have anything for you," Daphne suddenly said, her eyes staring down at the small box that she'd only just taken from him before eventually, she looked up and into his own eyes. "Why don't you hold onto it, allow me the time to go out and purchase something so that we could exchange gifts?"

Harry shook his head, smiling. "I'm not worried about it — this was a surprise meant for you and only you, not me."

Daphne still looked vaguely reluctant, put-out even, but she eventually huffed and undid the small ribbon that kept the item together. Shortly thereafter, she daintily removed the lid and plucked out the piece he'd chosen for her; it was a very similar shade of gold as her hair the small stone that lay within the centre of it was that of her birthstone. Tracey had told him what it was — diamond — and so he'd gotten it for her.

Some people would probably have cautioned him to wait since it was fairly pricey, but he didn't care. When he got to see the look of happiness on Daphne's face, then the look she gave him that screamed genuine affection in addition to a small bit of something else that he reckoned she'd move past quite quickly, it was very well worth it.

"I know what the stone is," Daphne said, cutting him off when he made to answer in the affirmative. "Yes, it's a diamond, but the answer I was looking for was very expensive. You shouldn't have gotten me something as important as this, but I'm sure my mother and grandmother will be incredibly happy once they've seen it this summer."

Harry grinned, then swallowed when he heard those words. He had never met Daphne's family, nor had he had any level of correspondence with them. Merlin, he doubted they'd even come up in a conversation yet but that didn't mean he wasn't dreadfully afraid of them both. They weren't Voldemort supporters or Dark by any means, rather, they were Daphne's family and with that being the case, they were far worse than either of the two aforementioned groups in the event that they dislike him.

Daphne's family not approving of him would likely mean the end of their relationship or a much harder path forward.

"Come on," Daphne said, pulling on his hand.

"Where're we going?" Harry asked quickly, furrowing his eyebrows together when she summoned her satchel and pressed in close to him.

"We're going to take a small walk on the grounds, I think. It'll be nice just being together, no studying, company or cramped hallways and classrooms," Daphne said, her hand sliding down his arm until it wrapped around one of his own hands. "You don't mind, right? We've been studying nearly twelve hours a day since we learned about your new task, so I figure a nice change of pace is due, especially today."

Harry shook his head. "I don't mind at all, it sounds great, really. We could stumble across something cool and if not, then I guess you'll just have to deal with me for an hour or two."

Daphne narrowed her eyes at him. "Deal with you?" she asked before flipping her hair and raising her nose in a manner that he'd seen her do only a few times when they'd been strangers. "Please. It's you that'll have to ensure everything's up to my standards even if I was the one to pin you down for our partnership."

He raised his nose to match hers, now openly smiling. "I don't know…"

"I'll steal you away from Hogwarts if you try to leave me," Daphne replied, straight-faced and her expression of playfulness completely gone.

Harry, in response to the sudden seriousness, blinked a few times at her in silence. Once another few seconds had gone by with no change on her part, he cleared his throat. "Where, uh, where would we go? You don't mean for good, either, right?"

"For good," Daphne confirmed, nodding once before finally busting out into a wide smile of her own at the same time one of her arms came around his waist. "Relax, I'm teasing you albeit in a different way than Tracey would like to witness. Believe me when I tell you that I'm not one of those crazy fangirls you've accumulated over the years. At the worst, if you left me, I'd strive to make you realise how big of a mistake it was and then I'd pounce when you're alone and in a moment of weakness to pretty witches."

"Pretty is selling yourself short, girl," Tracey's voice suddenly said from behind them, her presence making the pair of them whirl around with Harry's right hand already searching for his wand. "Hi Jumpy, Hi Fangless."

Harry and Daphne each narrowed their eyes at Tracey's nicknames. He didn't like being called fan— jumpy. Daphne definitely wasn't fangless either.

"How'd you of all people manage to sneak up on us?" Daphne demanded, one of her hands at her hips whilst the other kept ahold of his. "You're notorious for having one of the loudest mouths in all of Hogwarts."

"That's your own failure, not my success," Tracey said with a shrug as she bounded over to Daphne's other side and joined them on their journey. "Where are we headed, what's that cute necklace in your satchel and why do you seem so subdued? I was expecting a curse for that nickname and you should know as a fellow girl with high expectations that it's very disappointing when you're forgotten."

Daphne shook her head and muttered something that sounded like 'Morgana please' but he couldn't be quite sure enough if that was true or not. "You're usually just like a puppy with all of that energy, but this time, you're like a puppy that's had too many cups of Muggle-made coffee. You've not been sneaking sugar through, have you?"

Tracey swallowed and shook her head. "No…I wouldn't do that?" she answered, her words coming out practically as a question of their own.

"Uhuh," Daphne answered, unconvinced but seemingly unbothered by Tracey's sweet confession. "Well, I suppose this is where we take a stroll and enjoy the peacefulness of it all. That sounds like good fun, doesn't it?"

Harry nodded instantly, his hand closing a bit tighter around hers as she finally resumed their normal walking pace now that Tracey had joined them. "Sounds wicked to me."

Like that, the trio was off and headed out in the direction of the lake. Harry hoped that it would offer some bit of insight or assistance, seeing the lake with his two friends as he was. How it could be helpful, he wasn't entirely sure, but he needed some form of assistance. That much was incredibly obvious.


January 21, 1995

Saturday

Harry had woken up to a small commotion in the Gryffindor Common room. As was somewhat usual of him in these recent, crazy times, he'd fallen asleep on one of the many comfortable couches that were conveniently placed in front of a fireplace. The radiating warmth made him fall asleep when he should have focused on additional studying, but the end result as he'd learned when he sprang up was a thorough rest for his body, mentally and physically.

It was great. There weren't many times that he'd feel half as good as he currently did due to a lack of sleep.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked when he made it closer to the ground and saw a friendly face, that being Neville.

"Somebody from the games was killed," Neville answered nervously, his eyes darting around the room before he took Harry another few feet away from where they currently were. "Nobody knows who did it or the reason. They've only just found the body in the woods… I don't know the name, nobody seems to — sorry, Harry. I wish I could tell you more."

Harry waved the taller boy off and patted him once on the back. "That's already loads more helpful than most people, Nev. At least you're not ignoring me or coming up to talk about the win, yeah?"

"Is Ron still being, uh, acting, different?" Neville asked, the boy choosing his words very carefully as he looked around the room one more time. "I thought, everyone thought, that you two are good now that you're in the lead and fine. Hermione seemed confident the two of you were fine too."

"I don't really speak with either of them as much as I used to," Harry answered, no hostility in his voice. "We've split if that makes sense. They're still my friends just the same as you are, but we're not as close as we used to be. If they would've trusted me, at the very least if they would've avoided adding extra fire into the mess, it would've been fine."

Neville looked a bit sad for him and Harry could instantly see it wasn't faked as most people would do. Empathy was something that Neville had in excess and with his love for plants, Harry supposed it made sense; people that were patient enough to grow stuff, to talk to plants, they had to be nice most of the time, yeah?

"Sorry, mate," Neville finally said, patting him on the back.

"It's alright, suppose that means I have more time for new friends and other old ones. With that being the case too, why don't we head out to Hogsmeade this next trip? We could take a look at some plants, grab a bite to eat and see what witches you fancy," Harry winked and nudged the other boy when he said his final remark, earning himself a chuckle despite the typical Longbottom shyness he'd come to observe throughout the years.

"If you really want to, that'd be awesome. My Gran, she'd love to meet you too… I know that's not related but it's something she talks a lot about — I think she was hoping we'd be as close as our parents were," Neville smiled at the same time one of his hands sought out his right pocket.

If Harry wasn't mistaken, it was that very pocket where Neville would typically keep the picture he had of his parents and other family members that were vaguely important to him. There was even a picture of his grandma, anxiety-causing as she was, in that very same pocket.

"I don't see a reason we can't get to doing that, how about you?" Harry asked with a grin. "Sounds like a pretty cool team, if you ask me. Potter-Longbottom… maybe we'll say your name first, actually."

Neville smiled and nodded, agreeing whole-heartedly before he bid Harry a temporary farewell in favour of heading back up to their dorms for an extra few hours of sleep. It was early still anyhow, but unlike a lot of his classmates, once Harry was awake he would be awake for the entirety of the day. That sucked more than most people would ever know, but it worked well enough for him.

If I feel this good after eight hours of sleep, I wonder where I'd be with nine or ten, Harry thought to himself, hopeful that such a time would come despite knowing that was incredibly unlikely, at least until he was an adult that got himself a well-paying, low-work intensity job.


"Nice of you to finally join me, Mister Late," Tracey said with her hands on her hips and nose raised in a perfect Daphne impersonation. "I hope you know that Daphne's time with her family ends in an hour and fifty minutes now instead of two whole hours. That cuts out our walk around the entire village."

"Did you pla— Daphne's meeting with her family? I thought you said she was just doing stuff with Astoria?" Harry had nearly passed over Tracey's slip-up, but very luckily, he'd caught it.

"Astoria constitutes family, but yeah, Daph is definitely meeting up with her parents right now too. I don't know why she wanted to keep it a secret, but I imagine it could be in relation to some familial issues as well as her attempts to avoid scaring you off now that she's finally landed you — Morgana, it's terrible sometimes," Tracey shook her head, laughing whilst at the same time looking stressed out. "Trust me, Harry, she really wants to keep you. I hear her out all of the time when she needs to bounce ideas off of somebody."

Harry swallowed and took a half-step back, away from Tracey. "Are you sure you should be telling me this? I don't think Daphne would be very happy with you."

"Please," Tracey responded, rolling her eyes and bounding right back over to him until she was against his left side. "If Daphne wanted to keep something a secret that wasn't vital, she told the wrong person. I only have so much space inside my head, you know. Not to mention my own secrets to keep."

Fair… I think, Harry said to himself mentally, curious as to what Tracey meant when she said she's only got so much space left inside of her head; it really sounded like a Muggle term, but he supposed it could fit. Tracey was a Pureblood, he was pretty sure, so she probably didn't mean to confuse him.

"Alright," he eventually responded, nodding and finishing the loop so their arms were connected in that old-fashioned way.

"Perfect! Time for the first part of my plan to start," Tracey said as she brought her free hand over to clap her occupied one, effectively clapping their hands together in an incredibly awkward manner. "I call it the Harry Wagon, but it's not nearly as handsome as it sounds. Instead, you just put me into the carriage so I don't have to climb and then you help me down when we're done for the day."

He blinked at her, his head cocked as a headache began to form in the furthest back parts of his mind. "You planned those specific details out? Are you lying to me, or did you actually make plans like that?"

Tracey smiled widely at him, her head raised as she beamed. "I planned out every last detail down to where we'll eat, how long and how much we'll spend per store… order is very important," she twirled suddenly, a pout on her face as easily as the smile that'd been there earlier. "You didn't even notice either. Some boyfriend of my best friend you've turned out to be, huh?"

"Wh— oh. Oh, I get it," Harry was very quick to determine just what it was that he'd missed. Merlin, Harry hadn't even registered the change in her physical appearance despite how obvious it should've been; mindboggling could've worked equally as well, but either way, it was crazy.

Tracey had finally done her hair instead of putting on some hat in an effort to cover it all up. That was totally unlike her and it was actually really pretty — she was really pretty. He didn't understand why she hid her hair when really, it was a beautiful, wavy dark brown. In other words, it was nothing to feel shy about when it looked that beautiful.

"Well?" Tracey asked as she did another twirl, this time one that was more exaggerated in order to flaunt what she'd drawn attention to. "It looks fine, right? I'm not fishing for a compliment from you, I just wanna make sure that I'm not too ugly to stand near once we're out in Hogsmeade."

Harry scoffed. "You're definitely not too ugly to stand beside in any place, regardless of your hat being on or off. If you wanted to, you could go grab one right this second and you'd still look pretty… I mean that in a non-romantic way should Daphne ask."

Tracey rolled her eyes, but he could see she looked genuinely happy along with some secondary emotion that seemed to stay in her eyes. "Thank you, bfbf," she said, smiling and twirling a bit of her long hair around a finger as they finally emerged into the courtyard, their carriage in its position.

"Bfbf?" Harry asked as he moved to stand beside the lower step, his arms preparing to lift her up and into the aforementioned ride.

"Best friend's boyfriend, you oldie," Tracey said, tutting at him as a lopsided grin grew on her face. "I made it up, but you definitely should've gotten it. The only other thing I could have called you would be Harry and no nickname or something else is pretty boring."

"Uhuh," he replied in his best Daphne impression to date.

"Oh don't tell me she's got you saying that now," Tracey complained, crossing her chest with one arm due to her other one being trapped by one of his. "I'll have yo— that was fast — know that I only need one Daph or Daphlike person in my life."

"Fine fine, I'll just stare at you disapprovingly next time. Now that we're moving, why don't you tell me what our first stop is, yeah? I bet it has something to do with… food?" Harry nearly said shopping, but he stopped and second-guessed himself; food always came before shopping if you opened up your Tracey linguistics and cultural understanding guide.

"I knew you'd remember!" Tracey said, cheering loud enough that outside of the carriage was likely pretty suspicious or attention-gathering for those within fifty yards of them. The only exception would be if they had anti-sound charms up, which he doubted considering these carriages were meant to better keep track of students as well as ensure their safety.

"Of course. So where are we headed? Muggle food since it's gotten bigger in the magical world, maybe? French cuisine because of our guests?" Harry was genuinely curious about what Tracey would choose. He knew she was adventurous and always ready to experiment, which made him think it'd be nothing regional as that would be far too bland for her.

Tracey shook her head once he was finished speaking and with a large smile on her face, she answered, "Japanese food!" in an excited fashion, the girl practically bouncing with eagerness in her seat. "We're going to try raw fish with rice and this little green thing they put on it. You'll be cute and surprise Daphne with some too, scoring some good points with her — we can even try this cold desert that they fry up and put syrup all over. It sounds so horrible so you know it'll be delicious!"

Harry nodded a few times, completely sold on the idea of Japanese food and a dessert with syrup on it; he wasn't sure what she meant specifically enough, but he reckoned it'd be pretty good if she's talking it up as much as she was.


"Are you sure this is safe?" Harry asked when he was seated with Tracey across from him, both of them looking at the huge platter in the middle of their table. "It looks… well, I know you said raw but I didn't think it'd actually be raw."

Tracey scoffed and prodded at one of the pieces that she'd dropped an especially large bit of green stuff on. "It's fine, look around. Everybody else seems to be loving it, but they're leaving the green on the side instead of putting it on," she shook her head and pulled the boat of soy sauce over to her. "I'm gonna drown one of my pieces in the soy sauce and pop it into my mouth. Tell Daph that she can have you if I die, but only if she's really nice to Astoria since she's my Lil helper."

Harry blinked a few times at her before he rolled his eyes and nodded towards the sushi. "Go on then, I'll be right behind you, reckon I just need to take a look at the dessert menu and see what we're working with. If it sounds awesome, I'll give it a try for the both of us."

"Don't you go and order that dessert without me, Harry," Tracey warned, her eyes suddenly narrowed right before she jutted the piece of sushi into her mouth and… he watched.

There was no initial reaction, then she looked pleased and finally, her eyes opened wide at the same time she reached for a glass of water. He could see tears forming at the corners of her eyes, then he could make out her huffing even as she gulped down her drink and reached for his, which he allowed. It wasn't until she cast a spell on her mouth that she sighed in relief.

"Well?" he asked, seeing that she looked fine.

Tracey shook her head and pointed to her mouth, then she spelt out on a napkin by tracing her fingers as if they were a quill; no talk, mouth numb until pain is gone.

"Ah, alright," Harry responded, nodding at her. "Was it at least good, or?"

Tracey nodded this go-around. She did so emphatically and nearly reached for another piece, this time ignoring the green stuff that everybody else hadn't bothered to try and for what seemed like a pretty good reason. Thus, seeing that she wasn't terrified of it and learning from her mistake, he did much the same, only opting for a piece of salmon instead of the tuna they'd ordered.

Salmon was the better fish, everybody knew that and Merlin, when he tried that salmon sushi with soy sauce, Harry couldn't recall tasting anything quite like that; the dessert would ultimately put it to shame nearly an hour and seven other plates later.


Tracey's plans for the day had been, he would admit, very awesome.

Sure, most of the time she could be a little crazy, energetic or inappropriate, but she could plan an amazing day when she wanted to. Oh, right, she could do her hair up just as good when she wanted to put the effort toward doing so. Obviously, that was a very rare thing on her part and he could tell why with how far down her back her hair could reach.

"Come on, tell me it one more time!" Tracey said incessantly, poking him in the ribs as she did so.

He huffed and looked away from her, rolling his eyes. "You've heard it more than enough, Tracey."

She was just about through with shaking her head when she stopped dead in her tracks. "Corner," she said precisely one second before she pushed him around that very word and onto another street.

"Who was it?" Harry asked immediately, curious, nervous and ready for a fight all at once.

"Daphne and her family," Tracey responded, the girl peaking out very obviously from around the same corner she'd just forced him around. "They're standing around, talking, outside of the fanciest restaurant in Hogsmeade. I bet her mum and dad were talking about her love life, her mum especially. She's getting old, you know."

Harry scoffed. "That's like saying we're getting old."

Tracey nodded. "We are getting old, you'll be twenty in a few years and once you're twenty, life's never as good as it was when you were a teenager. My older siblings both say that, which means it has to be true."

I can't argue with that logic, now can I?

"Alright, what're we doing though?" Harry asked, moving beyond that topic. "Feels like we're just sitting here until they leave the area."

"That's exactly what we're doing. Her mum's scary and her dad's more intimidating than an angry Professor Snape," Tracey said, swallowing and ducking her head back around the corner. "They're really nice, promise, but they have that politician authority and way of speaking, it terrifies me. It's like words come out of their mouths that sound awfully nice but at the same time, even compliments feel like orders or things you just have to nod at."

"Tracey Davis? Come on, don't be shy, you're practically my third daughter — come, come!" The voice of a woman suddenly called, that same voice sounding closer and closer by the second.

Shite.