13

Loyalties…

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Harry woke up feeling a little light-headed. As his vision adjusted slowly he found himself staring at the familiar ceiling when he heard the voice of Hogwarts' matron as she walked up to him.

"Good! You are awake!" Poppy Pomfrey said as she quickly began to diagnose him. Harry just lay there completely surrendering himself into her care. He'd been here countless times before and had somewhat become a regular patient of Pomfrey. She was just like McGonagall – strict but with a warm heart. "Hmm," she hummed after completing her diagnosis, "you're all fine except for maybe a slight headache. Am I right?" Harry nodded. She handed him a small vial of a clear potion. "Drink that and you are good to go."

Harry drank the potion and despite its horrible slimy consistency he felt his strength return as the headache was gone completely. He tried not to throw up because of the horrible aftertaste of the potion so he grabbed the small cup of water that was on the bedside table and gulped it down in one go. He then looked at the matron.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"Two days," she said. "Pretty normal for you, I'd say. Your friends came to visit you. Didn't know you had made one in the Slytherin house. Everyone thought you hated them."

Harry realized Daphne must've come to visit him. He was confused at first but felt a little better knowing that she did come to see him while he was out. He looked at Pomfrey. "Please don't tell anyone that she came here," he said pleading to her.

"It's not my business, Potter and you know that," Pomfrey said. "Besides, after what you did in the first challenge I don't think people would care to even discuss you dating Slytherin's ice princess."

"I…We're not dating!" Harry said quickly. Pomfrey smiled before nodding once.

"Alright," she said. "You are free to go but if you want you can stay here for the day. I don't mind you hogging up the bed as long as someone else doesn't need it."

"I'll just take my leave," Harry said with a forced smile knowing Pomfrey was telling him to leave passive aggressively. She gave him his wand and a clean set of clothes which she had one of the house elves bring over from Harry's dorm. He wore them before coming out in the corridor. The whole castle was rather quiet as Harry realized the classes were still going on for the day. It was almost lunch so he knew the place wouldn't be so quite in a few minutes. He didn't want to be around people so he decided to just head for the kitchen and grab something to eat.

He was welcomed by an excited Dobby who wrapped himself around Harry's leg and cried his heart out. Harry tried telling him that he was alright now but Dobby wouldn't let go until the other elves had to pull him off of Harry. Once things had calmed down, Dobby personally made every single dish that was Harry's favorite. Harry thanked his elf friend and was about to start eating when the kitchen doors opened and Daphne walked in.

She stopped as soon as she noticed Harry sitting at the counter. The two looked at each other with an awkward silence when one of the house elves tugged on her cloak. Daphne looked down and smiled at the elf. "What would Ms Greengrass like to eat?" the elf squeaked.

"Whatever you have for lunch, Twinkie. Thank you," she said before she looked at Harry once again. Seeing there was no other place for her to sit except for at the counter she slowly walked up to it and sat beside him while trying to not look at his way.

Harry awkwardly took a bit out of his lamb chop as Twinkie the elf brought Daphne her lunch. The two sat there eating awkwardly. A few minutes later Daphne broke the silence. "Sorry," she said slowly as Harry looked at her, "for snapping at you that day." Harry realized that she must be talking about their last meeting where he had asked her about Theodore.

"It wasn't your fault," He responded. "I was being an idiot for trying to known something I shouldn't have."

Daphne looked at him. The scratches on his face that he had gotten during the first task were still there as images of him all bloodied came back in her mind. At that moment during the challenge she had felt scared for him when Harry was thrown over to the end of the arena and had sustained a serious injury. Now looking at him she couldn't help but think how much this guy must've gone through. For some reason it ached her heart as she tried – with every muscle in her body – to stop herself from hugging him.

She had never felt like this for anyone else. He was changing her.

"So…the parseltongue worked," she said changing the topic.

Harry chuckled. "You know what I can't stop thinking about?" he said looking at her. "How at one point my own house mates were booing at me and then the very next moment they were cheering for me when I walked out with the fake egg. I had never been more angry and amused at the same time before. The nerve…the hypocrisy of them still manages to surprise me, even after all these years."

"They are pretty scared though," she said. "I don't think you were noticing it but when you spoke in parseltongue the entire arena went dead silent and everybody looked like they were seeing the next…Voldemort in front of them."

"Look at you," Harry said smiling, "you said his name."

Daphne blushed slightly. "It's just a name," she said. "Who would've thought that you will end up riding a dragon during your first challenge?"

"At least I didn't," Harry said before his smile vanished. "The horntail told me how it and the other dragons had been caught and were separated from their eggs. When I heard that, I wanted nothing more than to help them in any way possible."

"You risked getting disqualified and losing your magic over helping the dragons?" she asked.

"As long as I finished the task I would still be in the tournament," Harry said. "That had always been my main objective. I don't want to come out at the top. I just want this damned thing to be over with. I just need to be in it until the end. I don't care if I win or lose. As long as I play along I'll be able to keep my magic." He then smirked like Draco did whenever he was boasting off about something. "Besides, the horntail told me that I was supposed to be their savior so I couldn't let that opportunity go to waste."

Daphne hit him playfully on his shoulder before the two broke into laughter when she realized she was being too open in front of him and so she composed herself. Harry noticed that. "You don't have to be all uptight in front of me," he said. "We've been having these meetings for over a month now so I know for sure that your cold demeanor is just an act. You don't have to tell me why you keep it up but you should laugh more. Your smile is beautiful."

He realized what he had just said as he looked at her nervously. As for Daphne, she looked surprised by his words. Neither said anything and focused their attention on the food. Once again an awkward silence filled between them until they had finished eating. Daphne cleared her throat as she reached for her pocket and handed Harry his invisibility cloak. He looked at her, confused.

"Neville gave it to me," she said, "when I came to see you in the hospital wing yesterday night. It was late so he didn't want me to leave like that. Don't be mad at him. He wouldn't let me leave without it."

"Why would I?" he said as he took the cloak from her. "He did the right thing." Harry then paused for a moment as if thinking of something. "So…about our meetings. Should we continue?"

Daphne smirked. "Did you open the egg?" she asked.

"I haven't had the chance," he said. "What say we open it tonight in the room of requirement, after dinner?"

Daphne nodded.

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As soon as Harry walked into the common room he stopped as he looked at the ongoing decorations around him. He saw the large banner that was hanging from the ceiling. It said 'Congratulations Potter!' in big, golden letters with a scarlet background. He wasn't surprised by the hypocrisy that was being shown by his house members.

Up until two days ago they were all calling him a liar and an attention seeker and now they wanted to be part of his victory. Anger filled inside him as he stood there trying not to explode over them as they all now noticed his presence in the room.

Colin Creevey popped out of nowhere and flashed his camera without warning, momentarily blinding Harry as he stood there blinking his eyes, trying to see things clearly. Once he could he found himself surrounded by every single Gryffindor except for Hermione (who wasn't in the common room), Ron (who was standing in the corner looking just as angry as last time him and Harry had an exchange of words). Neville was standing by the stairs with a nervous look on his face.

"Let's make some noise for our very own Harry Potter!" Dean shouted as everyone joined him in cheering for Harry who just stood there in complete silence. Ginny brought a cake which had his face drawn on it.

"Congratulations, Harry," she said as she tried to hide her blush.

Harry had a blank look on his face as he looked from her to the rest of the Gryffindors. "Some nerve, you lot have to celebrate my win, don't you think?" he said. Although he didn't say those words loudly it was heard by everyone as the look of celebration was replaced by that of surprise on everyone's faces. Harry looked at them and scoffed. "If one could die of hypocrisy, none of you would be alive right now. I didn't see any one of you believe in me when I told you that I didn't put my name in the goblet. You booed at me when I walked into that arena two days ago! Some of you wore that badge that called me a loser and now that I've won you want a piece of it? I didn't know one had to be a lying, two-faced piece of crap in order to call them a Gryffindor so proudly! Loyalty is not our identity. It's the talent of being a two-faced lowly git. I should've known that since my second year. It was my mistake that I didn't. Fortunately I do now, and I am ashamed to call myself a Gryffindor."

With that Harry stormed off into his dorm leaving everyone speechless. Neville watched him slam the door behind him and thought this might not be the right time to talk to Harry so he just stood there.

"See what I meant when I told you all how arrogant he is?" Ron said breaking the silence.

"Do you want to break his teeth or should I do it, George?" Fred asked as the twins both looked at Ron.

"I say we both do it together," George said as the two began to approach him. Ron looked at his brothers as he stepped back but couldn't. The wall was behind him.

"So now you two are taking his side?" Ron said.

"Yes, we are," Fred said.

"And we regret that we didn't do it before," said George. "I don't know if he will forgive us now but what he said was right. I think when it comes to loyalty we should learn something from the Slytherin house. Stand with your fellow housemates no matter what the situation is."

"But we abandoned ours," said Fred.

"Are you comparing our house with those snakes'?" Ron said.

"So what if we are?" George said before looking around. "Remove the decorations. Starting tomorrow each one of us will try to ask for Harry's forgiveness. If any of you don't want to do it then it's your choice. However I…"

"And I," said Fred.

"…will do so," the twins said in unison. With that the two of them also left.

Following Harry's firm words on how he saw his fellow Gryffindors and the twins' decision had left the house somewhat divided. Some were realizing that they had indeed made a mistake doubting Harry while some still thought that Harry had betrayed them. The remaining few were still confused over whose side they should take in the matter.

The matter eventually reached to McGonagall and the student to tell her about it was Ron. Once she had let the red head say everything that he wanted to she simply dismissed him by saying that she will look into the matter. Ron had wanted to argue her over that but he couldn't seeing it was McGonagall, and so he left her office leaving the deputy headmistress thinking over what had gone down in her house.

It pained her to see her house's students divided like that but Harry was right. She knew that he hadn't put his name in the goblet and had felt a bit hurt when she came to know that her lions didn't believe him. Being a fair teacher to them she couldn't instantly take someone's side on the matter so she let it all play out. Her gamble of believing in Harry paid at the end. He did a remarkable job – albeit scaring everyone with his parseltongue and dragon flying skills – and McGonagall was left knowing that the Gryffindors would now probably side with him. However, she hadn't thought that Harry would come at them like that and a part of her agreed that the boy probably had had enough. She had discussed the matter with Dumbledore who simply told her to sit and watch what happens next. While she didn't completely agree to it she was curious herself and so she took no action – much to Ron's frustration.

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"What is this place?" Neville asked as he looked around in confusion. Harry had brought him to the seventh floor after Daphne had suggested they needed more minds on helping him with the tasks and because Neville already knew of their secret meetings Daphne had suggested Harry bring him along as she told him that she was bringing Tracey with her.

"This is where we do our meetings," Harry said as he saw Daphne and Tracey enter the corridor in the distance. "Here they come."

"Are you sure about this?" Neville asked nervously.

Harry smiled. "If she trusts her, then so do I," he said talking about Tracey.

"Potter," Daphne said as she and Tracey stopped in front of him. She then looked at Neville and nodded curtly. "Longbottom."

"Uh…hi," Neville said nervously as he extended his hand for a shake. Daphne looked at him weirdly. Seeing her like that he felt embarrassed when Tracey shook his hand.

"Hi, I'm Tracey. Nice to meet you," she said.

"I'm…Neville," he said smiling nervously.

"So, where is this room you guys come to practice?" Tracey asked looking around. Harry and Daphne smiled exchanging glances as the door to the room of requirement started materializing in the wall leaving both Tracey and Neville stunned. Once it had appeared completely Harry walked up to the door and stood beside it as he looked at them and smiled.

"Shall we?" he said.

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Thanks for reading…