A/N: Most characters and the main plot belongs to J.K Rowling.
It was a couple of days before Halloween, and the group of five friends were on their way back to the Great Hall from the Room of Requirement, they were all talking happily, when they turned around a corner, and noticed Nearly Headless Nick. "Hello, Sir Nicholas, how are you ?" Hermione asked politely. The ghost was well respected by all in the castle, well, all except some of the worst Slytherins, such as Malfoy and Flint. Malfoy had managed to pay his way onto the Slytherin Quidditch team, and that lessened Harry's worry even more. If he had to pay his way on, it meant that he couldn't be anything near as spectacular as he claimed. Everyone had heard of Malfoy's apparent prowess on a broom, and when they found out it was just a lie, all of the houses, minus Slytherin of course, began laughing at him, or whispering behind his back, which he assumed was in his favour of course, because who would dare talk badly of the Malfoy name ?
"I've been better, I've just been told that me request to join the Headless Hunt has, once again, been denied." He said disdainfully. The group of five noticed that this put him down immensely.
"Oh, well, I'm sorry, if we can help you with that, I'm sure we wouldn't mind." Hermione said back to him. As she did, she turned back to seek confirmation from her friends, who all nodded, not really expecting to be asked anything. But their expectations were quickly changed once they saw the look of utter happiness on the ghost's face.
"Really ? How about you c- Actually, no, it would be extraordinarily boring for you." He said, changing his mind.
"No, go on, if we can help, then we will do it." Hermione said. The others didn't seem as enthusiastic as her on that point, though.
"Oh, well, would you like to come to my 500th death day party on Halloween, down in the dungeons ?" He asked happily. Hermione seemed to vibrate at the occasion to attend something as rare, but the others weren't as happy as she was, that would mean they would miss the Halloween feast, something they didn't want to do.
"Oh, that would be lovely !" Hermione exclaimed. "I've never been to one before, it will be fascinating ! We'll come." She said, without even seeking the approval of her friends. As she said this, Nearly Headless Nick seemed to beam with happiness.
"Splendid ! It's in the dungeon, and it begins at 7 o'clock in the evening on Halloween. Oh, and bring some food, us ghosts' don't eat much, as you can guess." He said, just before leaving. Once he was out of hearing distance, Hermione turned around to them all with a smile.
"Isn't it gr-" she began, but stopped herself at the bored looks on her friends' faces. "Sorry, I know that I should have asked for your guys' opinion, but I got really excited about the idea, and just went with it." She said looking down. Neville was the first to react to this, and went up to Hermione, and hugged her, something which he didn't do with anyone. He seemed to realize this, as he let go a few seconds after he had engaged the hug. Everyone was looking at him stunned, Hermione had a slight blush on her face, and was looking at her feet in an attempt to hide that fact. There was an awkward silence for a little moment, but it ended abruptly when everyone started laughing at the same time.
None of them knew why they were laughing, it just happened. It continued like this for a minute or so, and ended with Professor McGonagall coming up to them. "Please, be quiet, nobody wants to hear you all laughing like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons !" She said, her lips extremely thin, and an extremely stern look on her face. Once she said this, they all calmed down, and made their way to the Great Hall, the previous discussion completely forgotten for the time being.
Harry was currently about to go for a run around the lake on the 30th of October. He had just reached the bottom of the stairs in the Entrance Hall, when he saw someone ahead of him. He recognized her, but hadn't spent much time getting to know her. It was Susan Bones. She was by herself, sitting on a bench. He walked up to her. "Hey Susan" he said to her happily. She looked up at him in surprise, she didn't expect anyone to be up at this time. But once she saw who it was, she wasn't really surprised. Everyone knew that Harry was the students who tried to remain the fittest, nobody knew why, but he just did.
"Oh hey Harry, going out for a run ?" She asked him, as if it was normal for most students to go running at this time. Most witches and wizards didn't tend to do much sport, they tended to keep in better health than muggles, Harry didn't know why, they just did, add that to the fact that he didn't eat much when he was small, well, it was the recipe for disaster.
"Yep, it helps out with your endurance in a duel, so always worth it." He replied. She nodded at this. "Anyway, I'd better get going." He said, and turned to the door. As he did, Susan called out to him.
"Give me a second, I'll go put on some better clothes, and I'll join you, that's if you don't mind ?" She asked him, closing the book which was currently on her legs firmly shut.
"Sure, I'll wait here." He said to her with a smile. She sent him a grateful smile, got up, and headed for the Hufflepuff common room. Harry began stretching, while waiting for her. She came back 5 minutes later in a pair of black leggings, and a plain white sports top. Harry had never noticed her figure beginning to form because of the school robes, and blushed when she caught him looking a bit. Together, they left out the door, and Harry told her to begin stretching. She didn't really know what to do, so he showed her. They stretched for a quarter of an hour, and soon began running. Harry had to slow down from his usual pace, as Susan clearly wasn't use to running, but she had more endurance than he thought most wizards would have. They mainly ran in silence, as it was easier for them to keep their pace, which they had found ideal. There were occasional conversations, much more towards the start when they still had a load of stamina left, but towards the end, there was none. Harry could have talked a bit, but he knew Susan was just about ready to collapse on the floor by the end of their tour.
"You did well." Harry told her, a little out of breath. He sat down on the grass to relax a bit.
"Th- Thanks" Susan replied, completely out of breath, it was as if taking a breath was one of the hardest things to do at the moment. Instead of sitting down on the grass as Harry did, she just fell onto it. Harry chuckled at this. They sat there in silence for a little before Harry got up. "Already ? Don't you want to stay out here a little longer ? The Great Hall won't be open for another hour, and I don't think I can stand long enough to have a shower right now." She said.
"Well, luckily for you, we've still got more stretching to do, otherwise your legs are going to be killing you by this afternoon." Harry said. He laughed at her, groaning out of despair.
"My legs are already killing me !" She exclaimed.
Harry chuckled at this. "That's nothing compared to what they'd be like if you didn't stretch, all your muscles would be pulling, and it will be just about impossible for you to walk anywhere." He said. She looked at him with wide eyes, as if asking if he was telling the truth, and all she needed was another nod. She groaned once again, and got up once more. It took her longer than she thought possible for someone to get up, but she eventually managed it.
The two of them began stretching once more, Susan barely being able to stretch at all. "Don't worry, if you do this regularly, you'll get used to it." This seemed to reassure her, as if she couldn't deal with having this ever again. The finished stretching after another quarter of an hour, and began making their way back to the castle, albeit, a little slower than when they had come out of it.
"Thanks Harry, that was a load of fun, we should do it again at some point." She said once they reached the Entrance Hall.
"Well, if you want, I'm running tomorrow morning again, if you feel up to it, wait for me here at the same time as this morning, and we can go together again." he replied. She smiled at this. "Anyway, best be of for a shower, don't want to miss breakfast, I'm getting hungry." With that, they went their separate ways.
Harry was walking down to the Great Hall for breakfast by himself. Hermione must have gone down while he was in the shower. Once he entered the Hall, he noticed Hermione was sat down at the table next to Padma Patil, reading the daily prophet. Harry had decided on a long shower, and was the reason there were so many people in the hall. As he made his way over there, he looked around the Great Hall. His eyes first landed at the Hufflepuff table, where Susan smiled at him, a smile which he returned. Next, he looked at the Griffindor table which was across from the Hufflepuff table, and Neville and Dean both waived at him, he, of course, waived back. Dean had always been nice to him, and had always enjoyed pulling little pranks, some of which, he had been the target. Finally, his eyes landed on the Slytherin table, and on that table, most of the faces had the same expression when they looked at him: hatred. He knew that those were the families who boasted about their Pureblood lines, and those who didn't, either ignored him entirely, some disliked him, but not as much as the Pureblood bigots, others nodded to him in respect whenever they passed him in the corridors.
His eyes found the two people they were looking for at that table, and was surprised to see Daphne look behind him with a look akin to the one he would get from the Pureblood bigots, whereas Tracey was trying, and failing, to keep in her laughter. Harry didn't know why she was angry, but waved at them nonetheless. He didn't receive a reply from Daphne, which was odd, but Tracey waived at him jovially. He looked at her, lifted an eyebrow while looking at Daphne. She seemed to understand what he was asking, and so, she just tapped her nose a couple of times. He was sure that she knew that he had huffed, because she seemed to laugh even harder at this. He put the question about Daphne in the back of his mind, and made his way over to Hermione.
"Morning Hermione." Harry said as he took the seat beside her.
"Hello Harry, what took you so long ?" She asked, folding up her newspaper while doing so.
"I decided that I was going to have a long shower." He replied with a shrug.
"Was you late this morning then ? Because even when you do decide on a long shower, you're not usually this late." She commented. It was true, Harry was normally always rather early, even after his morning runs and a long shower.
"Yes, well when I was about to go out of the castle, I bumped into Susan, and she wanted to come running with me." He said, shrugging while he piled a couple of slices of toast onto his plate.
"Oh, well, that explains Daphne's mood then" She said under her breath, but Harry still heard her.
"Why would that be the reason for her mood ?" He asked, rather interested in the answer for some reason, as if he was hoping to hear something.
"Oh, I don't know, no reason." She replied rather quickly, Harry found this quite weird, but decided to let it go, for now. They finished their meals in relative silence, Harry reading the Daily Prophet, seeing if there was anything interesting happening in the Wizarding World. Turns out, that nothing at all is happening right now, only a few politics. Once they had both finished, they made their way out. Harry noticed that Tracey and Daphne both got up too, and headed for them, he looked at the Griffindor table, and noticed that Neville was doing the same. They decided to wait for them in the Entrance Hall.
Once they arrived, Harry noticed that both Tracey and Neville had their usual expressions on their faces, Daphne, however, wore an expression which Harry wasn't familiar with, and it set him on edge for some reason. "Hey guys, how are you ?" He decided to ask, hoping to settle the tension in the air. As soon as he said this, he realized it was the wrong thing to say, well for Daphne anyway.
"Oh, we're all just marvellous, aren't we fellows ?" She began sarcastically, Harry thought her ranting was over. Oh, how wrong he was. Harry could just about see unshed tears in her eyes, and was pretty sure he could see a slight tinge of red already in her eyes. "I'm sure we've all enjoyed our morning, especially if we went running with a red-headed bimbo, I'm sure if we had, she would have sent us all smiles too ! I'm sure-"
At this point, Harry knew that he had done something wrong, he didn't know what, but he had. Sirius had told him that it would often happen in life, but no matter what you did, whether it was right or wrong, the girl will always end up being right. So, he walked up to her, and hugged her, she became quiet immediately. "I'm sorry Queenie. I really am, although I don't like the fact that you called Susan a bimbo" He said. Another thing which he had also been told, was that he would be having to apologise a lot in his life. The rest of the group decided that this was a time which they needed to be alone, well, except Neville, he needed pulling away by the other two. Harry slowly released the girl, who quickly wiped at her eyes. He grabbed her hand, and led her outside, he knew he had lessons soon, but right now, he didn't really care, and neither did Daphne apparently, as she didn't complain a bit, nor did she try pulling away from him.
Harry led her to a tree which was by the lake, and he sat down, pulling Daphne down with him. They sat there in silence for some time, both of them looking out to the lake. "Look Queenie, you know that I'm not the best to know what the situation is, especially when emotions are involved, but I know when I've done something wrong, and this is one of them times." He said, breaking the silence they had sat in. Daphne didn't reply, she just continued to look out over the lake. "I just need help to know what I've done wrong."
Daphne sighed, she knew that Harry hadn't been taught much about emotions growing up, in fact, he had been taught to hide them away. "You've done nothing wrong, I'm just overreacting to something which has nothing to do with me." She said, a tinge of sadness in her voice. She had realized this on her way out of the castle with Harry, Harry hadn't done anything wrong, he didn't need to tell her that he was going running with another girl, and if he wanted, he could even date that girl, Daphne knew that she shouldn't vent off her anger for that, it wasn't like he was dating her anyway, so he had no reason to restrict what he could do because she would get jealous for it.
Harry seemed confused at her answer. Of course there was something wrong, yet she said that it was nothing, and that it had nothing to do with her. Harry knew girls were confusing, Sirius and Remus had told him that constantly over the summer during their conversations which had anything to do with girls. "Well, why don't you tell me, maybe it'll help." He said with a shrug.
Daphne smiled at this, at this point, she knew that no matter what was in her mind, that Harry would be there to help her. "I will do, eventually, but I need some time to go over things first." This time, she actually smiled while looking at him, instead of smiling while looking over the lake, and Harry was sure that that was one of the prettiest things he had seen, not that he would admit that to himself. They sat there once more in comfortable silence for a little while. The Scottish air was beginning to get cold at this time in the year, and the students all began casting warming charms on themselves whenever they left the warmth of the castle.
After a little while, Daphne and Harry both decided that it was time to get up, and go to their next class. They had missed the first, and Daphne needed to get her books. Harry of course already had his in his bag since the first day of classes, thanks to his expansion charm, and his featherweight charm. The two of them walked down into the dungeons, talking about different subjects, one of them being Harry's first quidditch game, something he was both excited for, and nervous. He knew he could fly well, everyone who saw him fly told him so, it was just that he didn't want to disappoint his team. Daphne had put him straight on that, something which he was thankful for. Once they reached a bare stretch of stone wall, they stopped. Something which seemed odd to Harry. Daphne called out "Power", and part of the blank wall seemed to open up. "I won't be long." She said. Just as she was about to turn around, Harry grabbed her arm.
"Why don't you put an expansion charm, and a featherweight charm on your bag ? It would save you having to switch books every day" Harry said with a shrug, it just seemed the logical thing to do in his opinion.
"I can't do it." She said simply.
"I can." Harry countered.
"Oh well, one second." As she said this, she walked into the common room quickly, and came back out. "Come on, there's nobody here, we can do it quickly." She grabbed his hand, and pulled him with her. She led Harry down the stairs into her dormitory. Once they entered, they made their way to Daphne's bed. Harry was looking around the room, and blushed profusely once he looked at her bedside cabinet, and noticed all of Daphne's underwear. She quickly closed the draw with a squeak, and turned around, hiding her face from Harry. Harry did the same, so now they were both looking in opposite directions. "So, erm, can you, you know, do it ?" She said. Harry blushed even more at this. "The charm." She made sure to say.
Harry simply nodded, he was sure that if he had attempted to speak, his voice would have been exceedingly high at the moment. He cast both charms on her bag, trying his hardest to do them without speaking. Once he had done that, Daphne put all of her books in her bag, and they left swiftly. She walked up the stairs first, to make sure that nobody was there, and left with Harry when she declared the coast was clear. They both made their way to the greenhouses together in a silence with was a little uncomfortable, but not overbearingly so. The rest of their two houses were already there, and both Tracey and Hermione noticed the tense air between the two of them, although they did notice that they stood closer together than usual, so they both assumed something had happened between them, but they had previously agreed that they wouldn't say anything unless Harry or Daphne mentioned it first. Once Daphne saw the look which passed between the two girls, she knew that it was going to be a long hour.
A/N: Thank you all for your patience, I know that the chapters are a little long to come, it's just that I haven't got much time right now, I'll have more time in a couple of weeks for a short while as I'll be off work, but it won't be long as I'll be back to school afterwards. I hope you enjoy the chapters, I know this one was a sort of filler chapter, but there are some things which happened.
Replies:
About how Harry is the heir to the Black fortune, when Harry was born, Sirius made him his heir should anything happen to him, and seems he doesn't have any children for the moment, Harry is the heir.
Yes, I agree that a share in Microsoft right now is extensive, however, this story begins in 1991, so they wouldn't be anywhere near as much.
About Cedric being a sixth or seventh year, there were plenty of different comments, so I wasn't really sure, however, I've looked it up, and in the third book, it is said that Cedric is a fifth year, making him a sixth year in the fourth book.
Harry had to swear a vow for the prophecy because Dumbledore doesn't want this information to be passed onto people who could be Voldemort supporters.