10
Following crawlers…
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Daphne watched the owl fly with her letter. She hadn't really explained anything when she first wrote to her father about the whole Rita Skeeter thing. It was evident that her father had later asked her to explain what had went down between her and Harry and if she was safe. So she had written a detailed letter and had sent it to her parents.
As for her and Harry she kept wondering what had happened between them last night in the room of requirement. It was the first time that she had felt something like that and although that feeling was unknown to her, it had made her feel as if she could trust him. She had never anticipated that he would worry for her.
Except for her parents, Astoria and Tracey Daphne had always been cold towards everyone else, even her relatives which is why many people didn't like her and thought of her as arrogant. Having been living like that her entire life she didn't understand how to respond to such a thing, especially since it was coming from a stranger like Harry.
She remembered the look on his face. He was confused…just like her. Neither of them had any idea how to act or what to say in that situation. Her hand moved over to her pocket as Daphne felt Harry's cloak in there, folded neatly. It was given to him by his late father which was enough reason to say how important it was for him and despite that he had given it to her last night so she could safely go back to the dungeons. She smiled unknowingly as she thought about how caring he sounded when he gave her that cloak.
"There you are." Daphne turned around hearing Tracey's voice. "Astoria said you'd be here. Are you coming to the classes today?"
Daphne nodded as she moved her hand away from her pocket. "I have to pick up my things from the library. I'll see you in the hall," she said.
Tracey looked at her for a moment. She looked different for some reason but Tracey didn't ask her why that was. If Daphne wanted to tell her then she will, in her own time. Tracey nodded before leaving for the great hall. Daphne stood there, now thinking how Rita could've managed to know of her meetings with Harry. If she knew about it, could she also know of the secret chamber and the room of requirement? There were a lot of question on her mind but for now Daphne decided to not pay much attention to them. She had a test today in potions and she needed to be focused for that.
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Harry was in the forbidden forest following a small lounge of lizards. He'd asked them to take him to wherever he could find some snakes so he could practice his parseltongue ability. It was the only solution that he had for the first challenge. He knew for sure that each champion will be timed because the task was the same for all four of them and whoever took the least amount of time to secure the egg would get the first spot, and possibly a head-start in the second task. That's how he thought it was going to be although he wasn't sure as nothing had been told to them. Nothing was for sure with this blasted tournament.
"{We are here}," one of the lizards said as Harry saw two snakes slither out from their holes from under one of the trees and as the first minute passed he saw more and more snakes appear. One of them slithered up to the lizards and Harry found it a bit funny and bizarre to see them talk to each other. He recognized the snake as a Scottish Adder – a very common species that was found in Magical Britain. However, it was about twice the size of a normal one. Harry knew it was because of magic. Since these animals lived in its presence, even non-magical creatures experienced a slightly abnormal growth which made them look a bit different from their counterparts that lived outside the magical realm. This adder was at least ten foot long and almost as wide as Harry's arm which made it look more like a python.
The adder looked at him as did the lizard while Harry stood there awkwardly as if he was being judged by the two reptiles. It was a weird experience which he knew no one would believe if he told anyone about it. He didn't know what else to do so he just gave it a shot. He knew snakes could understand him – both actual and conjured ones – however, he wanted to know from them if the parseltongue would work on a dragon because he couldn't just find a dragon to test it on. Also as per Salazar's notes, dragons share more traits with snakes than any other crawlers.
"{Can you understand me?}," Harry asked. The snake nodded as it flicked its tongue.
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"Not that one," Tracey said.
"Oh, sorry," Daphne said realizing she was about to put the wrong ingredient in the cauldron.
"You've been distracted since morning," Tracey said before leaning closer and whispered, "Did something happen between you and Harry? Did he hurt you? You can tell me, Daph."
Daphne smiled. She liked when her friend worried about her. "No, I'm alright," she said. "It's just that Rita Skeeter found out about our secret meetings."
"Ms Greengrass and Ms Davis, if you don't want to lose a grade you will focus more on your potion and less on your gossip," Snape said in his monotonous voice.
"I'll tell you later," Daphne whispered. Tracey nodded before they continued on with their potion.
The class ended half an hour later and everyone was told to leave their potions at their tables as Snape went over to each one and tested the concoctions one by one. Like always the Slytherins shared their potions class with the Gryffindors. Daphne looked at the table across from hers and found Neville all by himself. Harry had once again skipped the class. He might have gone to the forbidden forest again to practice his parseltongue ability.
As for Neville, he looked on the verge of tears when Snape walked up to his table. With just a mere look at his viscous, smoking potion Snape shook his head in annoyance rather than disappointment as he marked an 'F' beside Neville's name as well as Harry's.
"Looks like Mr Potter is misusing his position as a tournament champion to skip on important tests and lessons," Snape said sounding slightly annoyed before he looked at Neville. "I want you to let him know Mr Longbottom that if he continues this, he will surely fail in my subject. I will be taking these tests into consideration when grading for the final exams. I don't care if he has to prepare for some tournament. He is still a student first."
"Y…Yes, professor," Neville muttered as Snape walked away.
After he had checked all of their potions Snape let the students leave. Except for Hermione – who received an acceptable on her test, all the Gryffindors had failed. They weren't surprised. Snape was always biased against all houses except for his own. Only two students from Slytherin failed and they were Crabbe and Goyle. It seemed even being in Slytherin couldn't help Malfoy's cronies.
Tracey joined Daphne as they headed towards the great hall when their path was blocked by Theodore Nott. The girls stopped immediately as Tracey looked at him angrily.
"What do you want, Nott," she said.
Theo ignored her and instead, looked at Daphne and smirked. "Know what, Greengrass? I heard a rumor," he said. "They are supposedly organizing a ball a week after the first task. I was wondering you and I should go together."
Daphne suppressed her laughter, maintaining her cold demeanor in front of him. "I'm not much for social events," she said coldly before walking past him when he blocked her path again.
"That's no way for a pureblood girl to answer," he said. "You are the eldest child in your family and heir of the Greengrass family. Are you saying you don't respect the pureblood traditions? I thought your parents taught you better."
"Mention my parents one more time you will find yourself waking up in the hospital wing," Daphne said slowly as she took a step forward. The exchange had grabbed others' attention, including some of the Gryffindors when Draco walked up to the two.
"You two should know better than to behave yourself outside the dungeons," the blond Slytherin whispered. "Remember the house rules. We solve our conflicts inside our house walls. Now, move on."
Both Theo and Daphne glared at each other before Theo turned around and walked ahead first. Draco looked at Daphne who then glared at him before she and Tracey left as well. Draco looked at the rest of the students gathered around him. "What are you all looking at?" he said loudly before they all dispersed.
"Nicely handled." Draco turned around and saw Snape.
"I was just ensuring that no one broke our house rules," he said.
"Hmm, you did good," Snape said. "Keep this up and the prefect's position is yours next year."
Draco smirked, looking proud of himself as Snape turned around and left.
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Harry couldn't wait to tell Daphne what he had found out. His discovery was amazing and it was definitely going to help him in the first task. It was almost noon which meant that the potions classes would be over.
As Harry walked into the castle he saw the fourth year Slytherins and Gryffindors heading to the great hall for lunch. He joined the crowd and sat at his usual place at the Gryffindor table. While waiting for Neville to join him he looked at the Slytherin table and saw Daphne looking a little off and annoyed. It wasn't unusual in any sense as that was her normal demeanor but this time she looked like she was actually upset about something. Tracey was talking to her as the two kept glancing at Draco's group and it was then that Harry saw Theo Nott looking towards Daphne with a cocky smirk on his face.
Harry wondered if something had happened between them. It was just like a few days ago when he had caught the two exchanging looks. He came out of his thoughts when Neville came and sat beside him.
"Snape was looking for you," he said.
"I bet he was," Harry responded half-heartedly before sighing. "About what?"
"The grading," Neville said. Harry looked at him confused. "He said that he would grade our final papers based on how we perform in his tests. Since you haven't given any as of yet he wanted me to let you know that you will most likely fail in potions."
"I will fail even if I take those tests," Harry said knowing the obvious. "That guy hates me. Even if by some miracle I manage to concoct the perfect potion he will still give me an F and back it up with some silly reason, something like my potion wasn't of proper color."
"I can't argue you there," Neville said. "He's like that with most Gryffindors…and Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff."
Harry bit into the sausage as he nodded in agreement when he heard Dean and Seamus talk about a possible conflict between Theodore and Daphne as they walked past him. He once again, looked towards the Slytherin table.
"Say, did something happen in potions class today?" Harry asked Neville.
"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you," Neville said remembering. "Apparently Daphne and Theo had some sort of conflict happen between them. It was weird to see something like that because the Slytherins always appear so strong and united."
"What happened between them?" Harry asked.
"I don't know," Neville said. "All we saw was Daphne getting angry on him for some reason. Maybe he said something to her. Draco came in between them before things could turn ugly. I even heard that Snape was so impressed with Draco handling the situation that he offered him the prefect's position next year."
"Of course he did," Harry said rolling his eyes. Draco was Snape's star student in their year. However, he wanted to know what happened between Daphne and Theo.
"It's her, isn't it?" Neville said before leaning closer to Harry. "It's Daphne who has been helping you?"
Harry almost dropped his fork as he looked at his friend. "How did you know?" he asked.
"I saw you stealing glances at her," Neville said smiling. However, it wasn't one where it said he was making fun of Harry or that he had some kind of dirt on him. It was a genuine, friendly smile. "At first I thought that maybe you were looking in the general direction of the Slytherin table but then I also saw her looking at you a couple of times in the last few days."
"Really?" Harry said almost excitedly before he composed himself. Neville's smile only widened as Harry looked a little embarrassed. "You know that no one can know about this, right?"
"You can trust me," Neville said. "So, what is going on between the two of you?"
Harry hesitated for a moment. He realized it couldn't hurt seeing Neville already knew that something was going on between him and Daphne. If he didn't tell Neville what it was then Neville would start assuming things and that never went well…with anyone…over anything.
"I needed someone who could help me with the tasks," Harry began slowly. "At first I thought of asking Hermione but then I realized that we both weren't talking to each other…" He then continued on telling how he met Daphne in the library and convinced her to help him and everything. He left the part about the room of requirement and the secret chamber. Instead, Harry told Neville that they were using a couple of empty classrooms at Hogwarts.
"I know it's not a very Gryffindor thing to do but I couldn't think of anything else," Harry said.
"No one's judging you," Neville said. "Well, at least I am not. And I think Daphne is right when she tells you not to put much effort into convincing Ron and Hermione of the fact that you aren't lying about the whole goblet issue. Whether its friendship or something else, all kinds of relationships are built on trust. If you don't have that, the relationship holds no meaning."
"Thanks, Neville," Harry said realizing how much weight were behind those words. "So, the date of the first task was announced," he said after a moment's pause.
"I heard," Neville said. "It's next week, right?" Harry nodded. "Well, do you know what to do?"
"I have nothing except my parseltongue skills and my firebolt," Harry said. "However, I did discover something today."
"What's that?" Neville asked.
"You know how I mentioned testing the theory that we found in the book where it said that parseltongue worked on all crawlers?" Harry said. "Well, I was talking to some lizards in the forbidden forest…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on a moment," Neville said interrupting him. "You were talking to lizards?" Harry nodded. "I can't even…I'm not surprised by it, to be honest."
"You're not?" Harry asked. He honestly wondered why. If someone told him that they had talked to a couple of lizards he would obviously lose his mind even if he didn't know about parseltongue's ability.
"Well, because it's you…you know?" Neville said. "Don't take it the wrong way but weird things happen around you."
"Did I ever mention that I don't want those things to willingly happen to me?" Harry asked jokingly.
"You did…a couple of times," Neville said grinning. "So, what about those lizards?"
Harry remained quiet for a moment. Even he couldn't believe that he would ever be able to find something that he had that day. "Well, when I first tested my ability on the lizards they told me that a parseltongue speaker or a whisperer – which is what they call people like me – is a natural ally of the crawlers. So I decided to test how many types of crawlers could understand me because I'm still a novice at using that language."
"You say that as if you are disappointed over not being able to speak proper parseltongue," Neville said sounding mildly amused.
"Well, I never had a reason to use or practice it, especially after I found out how bad it was considered by everyone," Harry said. "Anyways, the lizards took me to a den of snakes deep in the forest where I found something incredible."
"And that is?" Neville leaned in a little closer.
"One of the adders – a magical one to be exact – had talked to one of the dragons on the night they were brought into the forest," Harry said.
Neville looked at him as if Harry had grown another head. "That is the most bizarre thing that I might've ever heard in my entire life," he said. "How is that even possible?"
"I asked the adder the same thing and it replied simply by saying "we animals talk to each other"," Harry said. Neville looked at him dumbfounded. "Seriously, I'm not even joking. I know how ridiculous it sounds so imagine how I felt when I saw it all in person. I even checked to see at one moment if I was dreaming. However, it told me about this dragon which turned out to be the Short Snout species and it said that the dragons were all more scared than angry because they had been separated from their eggs."
"For the tournament," Neville said understanding. Harry nodded. "Well, did it tell you how you can win the first task?"
"It told me that I might have a slim chance of getting out alive if I tried talking to the dragon in parseltongue," Harry said.
"A slim chance?" Neville said.
"Well, female dragons are pretty protective of their eggs," Harry said remembering reading about it in one of the books. "With their eggs taken away for the sake of the tournament you can only imagine how angry they would be when put in a situation where there is a person who is trying to steal one of those eggs in their presence."
"They won't hesitate in killing the champions," Neville said realizing. "What if your parseltongue doesn't work?"
"Way to pump up my confidence, Nev," Harry said rolling his eyes.
"I'm just saying," Neville replied. "You can't be sure of anything especially with a tournament as bad-reputed as this one."
"I guess I'll just have to rely on my broom skills then," Harry said. "Hopefully it is faster than whatever dragon it is that I will end up facing. I honestly don't know what else I can do other than that. There are no spells that work on them and I can't resort to attacking them physically because that will just be cruel. After all, they will only be protecting their eggs, like any mother would protect her child."
Neville could only nod, realizing the dilemma Harry was in.
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"Professor Snape was looking for you today," Daphne said as she arrived at the seventh floor.
"I know," Harry said. "Neville told me. The only good thing that came out of this tournament was that I have a reason to skip his classes but it seems that I can't anymore, seeing he pulled out the grades excuse."
"Well, he would've failed you either way," Daphne said smirking.
"Ouch," Harry responded mockingly.
Daphne grinned. "Don't act like you don't know it wouldn't happen," she said.
He didn't know when the atmosphere between them had become so casual. He remembered only a week ago how uptight Daphne was and now she was acting like this, especially since last night. 'Last night,' Harry remembered when he saw her walk towards him. He wondered what she was doing when she reached for her pocket and took out his invisibility cloak.
"Here," she said handing it to him. "Thank you…for giving it to me last night." Harry didn't miss the tone she had spoken in. She sounded grateful.
Harry looked at her as the entrance to the room of requirement slowly materialized. Once the door was completely visible Daphne walked ahead first. "Coming?" she asked. Harry nodded slowly before he followed her inside. "So, any developments on how your parseltongue ability can be of use in the first task?"
Harry came out of his train of thoughts. "There has been a new development," he said grinning, "and it's quite the one. I bet you won't believe it once I'll tell you what happened with me today."
"Well?" she said signaling him to continue. Harry then told her everything about the lizards and the adders. Once he was done he found her looking at him in utter shock.
"Told you that it would sound ridiculous," Harry said.
"Wow! I never thought I would hear anything as weird and bizarre as that," she said.
"Neville said the same thing when I told him about it," Harry said before he paused. "Also…he knows about the meetings." Daphne looked at him. "I didn't tell him anything. He figured it all out by himself. Are you mad about it?" he asked slowly.
"Why would I be?" she said. "Longbottom seems like someone who you can trust. Besides, he doesn't have any other friends other than you."
"That's a harsh thing to say," Harry said sounding hurt but in a joking way before he turned a little serious. "Daphne?" She looked at him slightly confused over his change in demeanor. He remained quiet for about a minute before taking a step closer to her. "What is going on between you and Theo?"
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A/N: A group of snakes is called a 'den' or 'pit' or 'nest'. I looked it up
Thanks for reading…