23

Unlikely request…

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She took in a long breath before sighing as she closed and opened her palms repeatedly. They were sweaty and itchy because of how nervous she was. She looked to her left where Draco was standing with his back leaning against the wall and his arms crossed. He was looking at her like a parent who was disappointed in their child. It didn't exactly make her feel any good.

Suddenly the door opened and Draco stood straight before the two walked into the office together.

"Thank you for bringing Ms Greengrass. You can leave now, Draco," Snape said as he kept looking at a piece of paper while sitting behind his table. Draco nodded and then glanced at Daphne before he left the office. Once she and Snape were alone Daphne saw the man look at her before he signaled her to have a seat. She slowly walked up to the table before sitting in the chair opposite to him.

Snape put down the paper that he was reading. He then crossed his fingers and put his hands on the table before leaning a bit forward. He then looked at Daphne with an expressionless face as silence filled inside the office. Daphne looked down at the table, avoiding looking at her house head faculty as she fiddled with her fingers under the table while her nervousness increased. She felt too embarrassed to look at him. As the silence between them slowly became a bit eerie she wondered when her house head would say anything to her.

"I want you to tell me everything," Snape said in his normal, monotonous tone.

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Harry stood outside the Gryffindor common room. He had just returned from McGonagall's office. The risk that he and Daphne had taken had failed. After everyone saw the two come out of the lake together they knew something was going on between the two of them. While Harry wasn't worried for himself, he was so for Daphne.

She didn't even look at him after the two had come out of the lake. As Tracey and Astoria took her away Harry saw Draco accompanying them halfway through towards the castle. He felt angry on himself. If he had not asked for her help Daphne would not be in this situation today. He didn't know what to do. Nothing came to his mind.

He kept thinking if she was mad at him. She had to be, Harry thought, as everyone had seen them together. He was well aware of the level of animosity that existed between Gryffindor and Slytherin. A positive inter-house relation between these two houses was the most impossible thing to ever happen which is why no Slytherin and Gryffindor had ever been friends probably ever since Hogwarts was first established over a thousand years ago. The situation had only worsened after Voldemort first came to power.

"Would you like to enter, dear?" the portrait lady asked.

Harry looked at her wondering whether he really wanted to be around his fellow Gryffindors. His mind was in too much turmoil following the second challenge. He wondered if he should go to an empty place and be by himself but then his in his heart Harry didn't want to be alone right now.

He was confused as to what he should do. He really wanted to talk to someone who could understand how he was feeling. Unfortunately he had no friends like that. While Neville was his friend, Harry had yet to build that level of trust with him.

He felt like crying but he knew he couldn't, especially not somewhere where he would be noticed by others. He didn't want to appear weak or vulnerable. It was then that he saw a few Gryffindors coming towards the common room so Harry turned around and left before they could see him.

As he was walking down the corridor Harry saw Hagrid's hut and decided to pay him a visit. It had been a while since he had met his giant friend. It wasn't like Harry didn't want to. Apart from his duties as Hogwarts' groundskeeper Hagrid was now a full-time professor teaching 'care of magical creatures' to the students. That kept him busy all day. However, the classes for the day had been cancelled because of the second challenge which meant Hagrid would be free.

Five minutes later Harry was standing outside his hut as he knocked on Hagrid's door.

"Harry!" Hagrid said as he opened the door and saw him. The half-giant gave him a hug which completely engulfed Harry. "You did amazing today!" Hagrid said sounding proud of him.

"How are you, Hagrid?" Harry said with a small smile.

Hagrid didn't miss the tone in Harry's voice. He knew Harry had severed his friendship with Ron and Hermione so after knowing them for almost four years now seeing them apart like that was actually saddening.

"Come on in," he said. "I promise I don't have any more of those rock cakes."

Harry chuckled before he walked inside the hut. Hagrid offered him some tea which he accepted as he sat on the stool which, to him was almost as big as a small table.

"Is something bothering you?" Hagrid asked as he sat in front of him.

"Just the whole tournament thing," Harry said. Now that he was there he didn't want to bore Hagrid by telling him about his problems. It didn't feel right.

"Is it about that Greengrass girl?" Harry looked at him in surprise. Hagrid smiled slightly. "Word travels fast at Hogwarts," Hagrid said. "You've been here for almost four years now and yet you seem surprised by that fact. So, is that what it is?"

Harry nodded slowly. "I don't know how they knew about us," he said. "We did everything we could to keep it all a secret."

"Are you two…?" Hagrid purposefully didn't complete the question as Harry shook his head.

"She was only helping me with the tournament," Harry said. "It all happened because I asked for her help. I was desperate and angry after I had been called a liar by my own house. I didn't know she would get into so much trouble because of me."

Hagrid knew what trouble Harry was talking about as he was also aware about Slytherin's in-house rules and not to mention its bitter relation with other houses, especially Gryffindor. He had seen how confused the two houses' students looked when Harry had surfaced out of the lake with Daphne. Even Hagrid was surprised. He had always imagined Harry to be someone who hated Slytherins with every bone in his body because of how Harry talked about them. Now the boy was saying that he had approached a Slytherin for help with the tournament's tasks and it confused the half-giant.

He looked at Harry. The boy looked like he would cry although he was doing his best not to as he sat there in silence while sipping on his tea. At that moment Hagrid thought about how Harry had only started to live a normal life after coming to Hogwarts and making friends. He smiled as he remembered Ron, Hermione and Harry in their first years.

But here Harry was sitting in his hut all by himself as if he had no one to turn to. Hagrid wondered how he could cheer up the boy. Nothing came on his mind.

"This is wrong," Harry suddenly said after a long silence. "One doesn't have to be hated just because they are friends with someone from another house! Daphne did nothing wrong. It was her decision to help me. She cannot be bound by some foolish rule that her house came up with."

Hagrid looked at him. This was the first time when he was seeing Harry like that. Suddenly the boy stood up as he put his empty tea cup down. "I need to find Draco," Harry said to himself as he left the hut before Hagrid could say anything.

Ignoring the looks that he received from the Hogwarts' students Harry made his way into the castle. He spotted some students from Gryffindor and Slytherin. They all looked at him angrily. None of it bothered him because he didn't care. The only thing on his mind right now was that Draco knew about Daphne being taken into the lake and Harry wanted to know how he knew that. So he was heading for his dorm to use the marauders' map so that he could find where Draco was.

The Gryffindor common room was lively with students discussing the second task when the portrait door suddenly opened and everyone quieted down as Harry walked in. He headed straight for the stairs before going into the fourth year dormitories. Everyone kept looking as Harry walked out a few minutes later before leaving the common room.

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Draco was in the lower corridor of the dungeons when he heard commotion in the distance. As he walked towards the source of the sound he saw Harry and stopped. The Gryffindor walked up to him just as other Slytherins followed behind him. Draco knew it would come to this but he had no idea that it would be this quick. He hated the situation he was in right now as he raised his hand and the Slytherins coming for Harry stopped in the distance.

"Let's talk outside," Draco said before he left the corridor with Harry following behind him.

Once outside the castle Draco looked for a vacant place. Harry noticed that the Slytherin was looking around a bit too carefully as if someone might listen to them.

"How did you know?" Harry asked. "You told me to save Daphne. You knew she was going to be taken into the lake. How did you know?"

"It doesn't matter how I know," Draco responded. "What matters is she's safe now."

"Is she?" Harry said. "The whole school saw us. Thanks to your house's rules it will never be safe for her…"

"Let me worry about what goes inside my house, Potter," Draco said interrupting him. "For someone who owes me for saving their life, you sure have a big mouth to disrespect me with that tone."

Harry didn't know how to respond to that. It was true. If it wasn't for Draco then the ball night would've ended really badly for both Harry and Daphne. He sighed as he tried to calm himself down. "You wanted to protect her. That's why you were there that night," he said. "I heard your conversation with Daphne in that classroom. I also saw you keeping an eye on her the entire time the dance went on. Promise me that you will look after her." Harry didn't know why he'd said that but in that moment he felt like he could trust Draco with keeping Daphne safe. "I know she says she can take care of herself but there's only so much she can do," he continued. "Please, Draco. Look after her."

Before Draco could say anything Harry had walked away. His request had surprised the Slytherin as he stood there for a minute before he, too, walked towards the castle.

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(Next day…)

Daphne walked into Dumbledore's office and could already see the small group of people gathered there. She immediately saw her parents amongst them but she didn't approach them. They had also seen her enter the office as her mother walked up to her and hugged her. Daphne just stood there without returning the hug when her father came over as well.

"Ah, everyone is here," Dumbledore said. "Why don't we all take a seat?"

"Come on," Daphne's father said as the three joined the others and sat at the chairs that Dumbledore had conjured in his office.

She looked around and recognized Cho who was also there with her parents as was Fleur and Gabrielle. Daphne recognized Fleur's parents because they were a big deal in the Magical Republic of France.

She had been called to the headmaster's office a few minutes ago and didn't know what was going on. Now that she was there Daphne realized why these people were there along with her parents. Reading the looks on their faces she could tell none of them were happy and she didn't see Crouch or any of the coordinators from the tournament. That was very convenient of them, she thought.

"Now that we are all here, why don't you give us a reason that we shouldn't move ahead with banning the tournament?" Mr Delacour said in his thick French accent. He was clearly the most powerful man in that room. "How could you let them do something like that, Dumbledore?"

Daphne saw the look on Dumbledore's face and knew that the headmaster had not expected things to turn out like that.

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It was after dinner when Harry approached Tracey. She was clearly surprised to see him as it was evident from her face.

"Now is not the right time for us to talk, you know?" she said looking around to make sure no one had seen them.

"I can't find Daphne anywhere," Harry said.

"That's because she's not here," Tracey said. When he looked confused she sighed. "She and Astoria went home with their parents today."

"What? Why?" Harry asked.

"Why? I can't believe that you're asking me that," she said before sighing. "Sorry," she said sounding a little embarrassed. "Her parents came to see Dumbledore today along with the Changs and the Delacours. They were all pretty angry because of what happened with their kids during the second challenge. I don't know what conversation they all had in the head office and Daphne didn't say much either, except that she and Astoria were going home with their parents and would return after the winter holidays."

Harry sighed in relief. If Daphne had gone home then she was safe, at least for the time being. He was worried about her ever since the end of the second task. "How…bad did your housemates take it?" he asked referring to him and Daphne.

"Oh, they are pretty mad," she said, "but Professor Snape has already told them not to do anything in the matter. Also, Draco told me that once Daphne and Astoria return he will vouch for their safety."

There was a pause before Harry spoke. "He knew," he said slowly.

"What?" Tracey said.

"Draco knew…that Daphne had been taken under water," Harry said. "When I was going towards the lake yesterday morning, he told me to make sure that I rescued her. At first I was confused but when we were told what the second challenge was going to be and I realized what Draco meant."

Tracey looked at him with her mouth hung open. "How could he have known that?" she asked.

"I don't know," Harry said. "I tried asking him yesterday but he said nothing. I was hoping if he would tell you. You and Daphne often hand out in his group."

"Whoa! Even though I am in his group that doesn't mean he will tell me everything," she said. "However, if what you say is true then even I want to know how Draco knew about Daphne being in the lake. Also, by asking you to rescue her he also knew that she was going to be your goal. Never mind, I'll ask him. But I can't make any promises, though because I don't know if he will tell me everything, or rather anything for that matter."

"Thanks," Harry said.

"So, are you going home for Christmas?" she asked changing the topic.

"No, I spend my Christmas here at Hogwarts," he said.

"That must be very boring," she said. "I would invite you and Neville but I'll be spending my Christmas at my grandparents' this year."

Harry looked at her a little surprised. "Why…would you invite me and Neville?" he asked.

"Well, we are friends, aren't we?" she said. "I know it sounds surprising but I have never really cared about my house's rules. I always considered them to be obnoxious. I mean look at what is happening right now. Some of us Slytherins actually want to be friends with students from other houses but we can't and I hate it. Anyways, I'll see you later. I'll try asking Draco about what you said and tell you if I come to know anything."

Harry nodded before Tracey left. It was then that he remembered that he had forgotten to ask her how Daphne was feeling about the whole situation. He really wanted to know if she was angry with him. He kept remembering that moment where he had called her after the second task had ended and she didn't even look at him. As he thought about that moment he felt a knot inside his stomach.

His palms closed into fists as he felt angry upon himself before he turned around and walked away.

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Thanks for reading…