AN:

The last part of this chapter is very similar to my original OS "Desire". From then on, we will set off for a journey into the unknown. I look forward to it!

English is my second language. Even though I have read the chapter several times and have let other people check it as well, I apologize for any mistakes. All possible mistakes in this chapter belong to me alone.


Chapter 6 – Turning Point

One day it started snowing and didn't stop until the entire landscape and all roofs and towers seemed dusted with powdered sugar. It was finally winter. And one morning the students found lists put up in their common rooms in which the students who would stay at Hogwarts during the Christmas holidays should enter their names. Harry had entered his name immediately, since everything was better than going back to the hated Dursleys. Daphne had also entered her name; apparently she couldn't or didn't want to go back home. They were the only Slytherin first-years who would stay at Hogwarts, and over all only three other, older Slytherins stayed as well. In short: Most Slytherins went home for Christmas and they were the exception. Something that Malfoy never grew tired of emphasizing. They were probably not wanted at home, he sneered once while the other students laughed maliciously. However, it was easy for Harry to ignore him because he was somehow right. He was not wanted by the Dursleys and he had no other family. He was therefore happy to stay at Hogwarts, especially when the castle won't be full of people for once.

And that is how it came that when the holidays started, Harry had the entire dormitory to himself. It also meant that Harry slept as well and carefree as never before.

When he finally woke up on Christmas morning, Harry saw three packages at the foot of his bed. Were they presents? Harry wondered. Who should give him something? He had never received multiple presents.

Jumping up excitedly, he picked up the first present. It was wrapped in thick brown paper, and according to the label, it was from Hagrid. Unpacking it, he found a carved wooden flute, and, when Harry blew in, an owl-like sound came, making him smile. Hedwig would like that, he thought. Maybe he should ask Hagrid if he could teach him how to play the flute.

A second tiny package contained a brief message from Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, with a fifty-pence piece glued to it. Good thing he did not expect anything else from his so-called family anyway.

One last present was left. Unpacking that as well, he found a flowing, silver-gray fabric. He held it up, it looked like a thin blanket to him. Who should give him a blanket? Noticing that a note had fallen out, he read in ornate, elegant writing:

Your father left this in my possession before he died.

It is time it was returned to you.

Use it well.

A Very Merry Christmas to you.

The message was not signed, and the note had not necessarily left Harry any smarter. Had this fabric really belonged to his father? But what was it? And how should he use it well?

Confused, he took the cloak and left the dormitory. It would soon be time to eat too, Harry had slept quite long this time.

In the common room he saw Daphne sitting in one of the armchairs by the fireplace, reading a book. Usually it was almost impossible to get hold of such a seat, another advantage when they were the only ones here. Even now they were all alone in the common room.

"Merry Christmas, Daphne," he cheerfully called to the blonde girl.

"Merry Christmas. And good morning," Daphne replied without looking up from her book.

Daphne had the habit of getting up very early. This way she could use the bathroom before the other girls, she once said. And she apparently liked to go out for a walk very early and enjoy the silence and coldness when almost the whole castle was still sleeping soundly, but Harry had not been able to bring himself to accompany her. Even today Daphne seemed to have been outside because she had hung up her winter coat to dry in front of the fireplace.

"How was your morning walk?"

"Pleasant," Daphne replied unusually quietly. Was everything okay with her? "I got a gift from Hagrid. A carved flute," she said afterwards, picking up a wooden flute that had been lying next to her and Harry had not noticed before. It looked similar to the one Hagrid had given him, but more delicate and smaller overall.

"That's nice of him," replied Harry, smiling, sitting down in another armchair. "I got a similar flute as a present."

Only then did come into his mind that he had no presents at all! Neither for Hagrid nor for Daphne. Somehow, he had not thought of it. Also, because he had not given the Dursleys anything for years. And there had been no one else he had wanted to give a present to. Anyway, he hadn't had money for presents at all.

"Daphne... Sorry I don't have a present for you... Somehow I didn't think of it." Harry felt really embarrassed.

Daphne looked up now, straight into his face, her face not revealing any emotions. Was she disappointed?

"I don't have anything for you either," she said dryly.

Harry was relieved that she was not angry or disappointed, but then he found that she did not sound like it mattered to her at all. What should he think of that?

Daphne looked at the fabric in his hands, her eyes widening. "What's that?" she asked in surprise, which in turn surprised Harry.

"I got that as a present. There was this note as well."

He handed the note to Daphne, who then read it carefully. Afterwards, she looked at Harry again.

"Hold it up," she told him, and Harry did as he was told. Getting up, Daphne took the material from his hand. Fascinated, she let it slide through her fingers. "I think I know what that is," she said softly as if speaking more to herself than to Harry.

"What is it?" Harry asked excitedly.

Daphne just looked at him and threw the material around her shoulders.

Harry jumped up, startled! Daphne's entire lower body was gone. Only her head was visible. "Daphne!" he called. "What's that? Your body…"

Daphne looked down at herself, starting to turn. "It's exactly what I thought it would be," she said. "This is an Invisibility Cloak. It can make you invisible. They are incredibly rare." She removed the cloak from her shoulders and hesitantly handed it to Harry. "This is a very valuable gift, Harry. People would kill for it. Watch out for it. And think about who might have sent it to you."

She looked at the cloak with an expression that seemed to Harry like desire or greed, but before Harry could make sure, Daphne's face was completely blank again.

An Invisibility Cloak? Harry thought. And he once belonged to his father? Who had sent this cloak to him?

"Let's go to the meal now," Daphne spoke again. "I'm hungry."

So they both left the Slytherin common room, starting out for the most sumptuous Christmas meal of their life.


When Harry was back in bed in the evening, he still had to grin widely. It had been one of the most beautiful days in his life. He had never seen so much delicious food as it had been served all day in the Great Hall. The house-elves had really outdone themselves! Harry had only stopped eating chocolate pudding when he was really about to burst. In addition, there had been tons of crackers, garlands, and flying musical instruments, which had played Christmas music. Hagrid, who had dressed himself up as Santa Claus, had also entertained them all with his jokes which had become more and more indecent the more Hagrid got drunk.

Yes, it had been Harry's best Christmas, but he had not managed to banish the thought of the Invisibility Cloak all day, also the question of who might have sent it to him. Thoughtfully, Harry got up from his bed and took the cloak again. It was actually smoother than silk and lighter than air. And it had belonged to his father…

He should use it well, the note had said. Use it well... Suddenly Harry was wide awake again. With this cloak, the whole of Hogwarts was open to him. Filch would never catch him! He just had to use it now. Daphne was already asleep. So she could not go with him. Harry also wasn't sure if he really wanted that at all. Maybe it would be better to be alone with his father's cloak this time, this first time.

Harry left the dormitory, went down the stairs, crossed the Slytherin common room, and stepped out into the Hogwarts dungeons, where everything was dark and deserted. But where should he go now? Was there anything in the castle, he hadn't been able to look at until now? Then he remembered. The forbidden section in the library! When they had almost entered it by accident, Madam Pince had viciously reprimanded them back then. Now he could finally see what books were in this oh forbidden section. Carefully, Harry put on the Invisibility Cloak, making his way to the library.

There he went all the way to the back where the forbidden section was. He lit a lantern so that he could see anything at all, because there were no windows through which the light of the stars and the moon could have shone.

Carefully, Harry opened the barrier that separated this area from the rest of the library, his heart racing nervously. He looked at the spines with curiosity, but the titles of the books were not really enlightening for him, written in languages that Harry did not know. He often didn't even know the characters in which the book titles were written and some books had no title at all.

There was a dark stain on a book, looking like blood. Harry got his hackles up, even if it was as if the books magically attracted him. He heard a soft whisper as if the books were talking to him. Enamored, Harry took the book with the supposed blood stain. It had a smooth cover, that emanated a kind of warmth, feeling almost like someone else's touch. He moved the lantern closer to the book so he could see it better - and, with a jerk backwards, he dropped the book on the floor. It was human skin! It was exactly the same color. Harry felt sick.

The loud bang that the book had caused when it had fallen to the floor echoed through the library and, as Harry thought, throughout the whole castle.

Suddenly he heard a cat meow. Turning around, he saw Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, in the hallway entrance. In panic, Harry scurried off, almost bumping into Filch. His sunken, searching eyes looked through him, and Harry pressed against the wall, putting his hand over his mouth so Filch would not hear his breathing, but Harry felt as if the whole castle should be hearing his wildly pounding heart. When Filch was finally gone, Harry run down the corridor.

Beside a large armor, he finally came to a stop. He had escaped so panicked that he had not paid attention to where he was running. Therefore, he had no idea where he was, but he heard Filch's throaty voice coming nearer, and, unfortunately, Snape's oily voice as well. He had to get out of there quickly!

Moving along the wall in the dark, he got hold of a doorknob. The door seemed to be open ajar. Making sure not to make a sound, Harry squeezed into the room and crouched against the wall, holding his breath. Fortunately, he heard Filch and Snape walk past the room.

Harry took a deep breath, his heartbeat calming down again. Only then did he take a closer look at the room in which he had found refuge.

The moonlight shining through the windows, the room almost looked like an old classroom. Tables and chairs were piled up on the wall, but what really attracted Harry was a huge mirror in the center of the room. It stood on two clawed feet and was decorated with an ornate gold frame. An inscription was engraved on the top of the frame, but Harry did not understand it; the words made no sense to him.

Carefully, he approached the mirror. before suddenly seeing people! Startled, he turned around, but nobody was there. Turning back to the mirror, he saw his reflection but also several more people. A woman and a man stood at the front, the woman smiling and waving at him. Harry held out his hand but could not get a hold of them. If the woman were really there with him, he should have touched her ... these people existed only in the mirror.

He looked at the woman. She was beautiful with her dark red hair and emerald eyes. Her eyes were exactly the same color as his, Harry thought. Going even closer to the mirror, he saw tears running down the woman's cheeks. The tall, black-haired man next to her put his arm around the woman. He was wearing glasses and his hair stuck up at the back, just like Harry's did!

It was now clear to him who these people were. His hand touched the cold mirror, almost overwhelmed by his feelings. He tensed up.

"Mum?" he whispered. "Dad?"

The man and woman smiled sadly at him, and Harry looked at them, and the other poeple in the mirror, wistfully. His family! He just wanted to step through the mirror glass to meet them, but this was impossible. He was torn between overwhelming joy and crushing sadness. That could have been his life. Without Voldemort. Without the death of his parents. His eyes welled up with tears.

He could not tell how long he had been crying, but the whole time his family had been there for him, giving him comforting smiles, and crying with him. His parents' cheeks gleamed from the shed tears, and Harry smiled back, just enjoying looking at them and feeling their love.

Again, a long time passed in which Harry could not look away from the mirror, not even for a second, but a sudden distant noise brought him back to his senses. It was like waking up from a trance or a deep sleep. He realized he could not stay there forever.

"I'll be back," he whispered to his family and parents, who were still smiling at him. Putting on his cloak again, he then ran out of the room.

Back in the dormitory and his bed, he made plans to return to the room with the mirror tomorrow night. He also decided to take Daphne with him this time and to show her the mirror. Although she was quite reserved, he could conclude from what she had once told him about her parents that she had not a pleasant family life, just like him. And then there were his own observations. The distant and mirthless way her parents had treated her in Diagon Alley and which Daphne had responded in the same way. The missing letters while their classmates regularly received messages from home. Staying at Hogwarts during the Christmas holidays instead of going home like most others. Finally, the missing Christmas gifts yesterday. No, Daphne had no loving parents, no real family. In a long past future, in another life, Harry might have had all of this, but in this present, in this life, he was just like Daphne.

Until he found the mirror! That's why he had to show Daphne the mirror as well! He wanted to show her his family, who had looked at him with such loving expressions. He wanted to share this love and his happiness with her so that she might smile once more. That smile that was so precious to Harry, that fascinated him so much, even if he was not sure why. That smile that she, however, only rarely showed.

Tomorrow he would see her smile again, Harry decided. With that thought in his head, he fell asleep peacefully.


"I can't believe I was really persuaded by you to do this," Daphne said while Harry was looking increasingly desperately for clues that they were on the right track to the room he had found yesterday. He just had to find the mirror and his parents again.

Finally, they passed the ghost of a big witch and Harry spotted the armor he had seen the previous day.

"Yes, it is right here," he called cheerfully, pushing open the door. He dropped the cloak to the floor and ran to the mirror in the middle of the room.

There he saw them! His mother and father who beamed at him.

"Do you see them?" Harry asked excitedly.

"I can't see anything," Daphne replied dryly.

"Look closely. There they are, all of them!"

"I can only see you."

"Look in it properly, go on, stand where I am."

Harry stepped aside, but with Daphne in front of the mirror, he could not see his family anymore, just Daphne's reflection.

Now, however, Daphne was staring wide-eyed into the mirror. Her gaze was filled with longing and desire - Harry could not describe it any differently. She closed her eyes and a lonely tear flowed down her cheek. She then grimaced, and when Daphne opened her eyes again, pure anger blazed in them. Harry had never seen her like that before, and he instinctively took a step backwards. Before he could react somehow, Daphne's expression changed once more. Now disgust was reflected in her features, as if she were offended by what she saw. And then… Was there fear in her eyes? Fear of what?

All this happened within a few seconds. Eventually, Daphne turned abruptly away from the mirror and Harry so that he could only see the back of her head and not her face anymore.

"You shouldn't look in the mirror anymore," Daphne said, heading for the door.

"Daphne... wait...," Harry called after her, but Daphne had already left the room.

After a moment's hesitation, Harry followed her, but not without another glance in the mirror and the smiling faces that beckoned to him. Harry would have liked to stay with his parents for much longer, but he needed to know what was going on with Daphne. Something was wrong with her. She usually didn't behave that way. She had never reacted so emotionally before. Had the sight of his family triggered that in her? But why?

Harry reached Daphne in the middle of the corridor.

"Daphne...," he said to her, but she did not respond to him and did not stop walking. Only then he realized that Daphne had wrapped her arms around her upper body, shivering.

"Daphne," Harry tried again, "we shouldn't just walk around in this corridor. What if Filch sees us?"

Daphne still didn't seem to notice him.

"DAPHNE," Harry shouted now, grabbing his friend by the shoulder, "what's wrong with you?"

Now Daphne seemed to notice him. At least, she stopped and turned her head to him. Her normally ice-blue, but now strangely dull, empty eyes fixed on Harry, but he was not sure if she was really looking at him and not through him. Then her eyes became clear again, and she looked him straight in the face.

"I'm fine," she finally replied. "Let's go back to the common room before we get caught."

Daphne seemed to have herself completely under control again, Harry thought. But what had just happened to her?

"We have to get my cloak," Harry eventually said the most obvious. "It's still in the room."

Daphne just nodded briefly, and together they went back in the room with the mirror. There his Invisibility Cloak was still on the floor by the front door where Harry had thrown it previously. Picking it up, he turned back to Daphne, noticing that she was staring vehemently at the opposite wall.

Harry's gaze swept back to the mirror in the center of the room. It was almost as if the mirror was calling to him. Or did his parents call him? He just wanted to see them again. Only once again before they returned to the Slytherin common room.

"You really shouldn't look in the mirror anymore," he heard Daphne, and only then did Harry realize that he had already taken the first step towards the mirror. He hesitated for a moment, but then turned away from the mirror. Daphne looked at him thoughtfully. And... was there sadness in her eyes?

He had to know.

"Daphne, why did you react that way?" he asked cautiously. "Was it because of my parents?"

"Idiot. I didn't see your parents. What a stupid idea," Daphne replied.

"But the mirror shows my parents? Every time I look in the mirror, I see them!"

"Did you actually take a closer look at the mirror? What is written above as an inscription?", Daphne asked him in an annoyed tone that was so typical of her. She used this tone of voice every time she explained something to him in class, but she also sounded somehow absent, as if her thoughts were somewhere else.

Harry pondered. He hadn't looked at the mirror so closely, being too distracted by what the mirror showed him, but he actually remembered an inscription! "Something strange. I couldn't understand it," he said and turned his head back to the center of the room.

"NO," Daphne called, and Harry stopped. "Don't look in the mirror!"

Harry looked at her in a baffled way. What was her problem with the mirror which caused such happiness in him?

"You have to read the words backwards," Daphne continued. She closed her eyes and it seemed to Harry that she was trying hard to remember something. "I show not your face but your heart's desire," she said. "That's what's engraved on the mirror."

"What does that mean?" Harry asked, unsure of what that all meant.

"Harry," Daphne responded, and he noticed that this was the first time she had used his name this evening. "Use your mind only once! It means that this mirror shows you what you desire. In the very depths of your heart, in fact."

"But...," Harry stammered, "I saw my parents. I can't remember them, and I don't even know what they looked like."

"Still, that's what the mirror shows you," Daphne countered with venom in her voice. "They are what you wish for the most. I suppose you should have gone to Gryffindor like they did."

Harry didn't understand what she meant by that, but he had already learned to live with her moods and sometimes cryptic words.

"But how can the mirror show me my parents if I don't know what they look like?"

"Magic, Harry! You'd think that you've gotten used to it by now." Daphne seemed to have become noticeably more impatient now, standing there with her arms crossed. "Let's go back now! I do not want to get caught out here or be completely exhausted tomorrow."

Harry still had questions for her. And after she had said that maybe he should have gone to Gryffindor, then maybe he should use this infamous Gryffindor bravery for once.

"Why did you tell me not to look in the mirror anymore, Daphne?"

At that, Daphne looked at him again with a thoughtful look. No, more appraising than thoughtful, Harry corrected himself. What did she see in him?

"It's dangerous," Daphne finally answered after a few seconds. "The mirror shows you only wishful dreams and illusions, not the reality. It's like a drug. If you look in the mirror too long, you will become addicted. Then you have lost yourself forever."

That made sense to Harry, unfortunately. He had already felt the power of the mirror. He wanted so much to see his parents, to be part of a family that loved him. Not like the Dursleys. A quiet voice of reason in his head, however, told him that this wasn't really his family he saw in the mirror. His true family was dead, Voldemort had taken care of it.

Even now he still felt the attraction of the mirror. Would it really be so bad to look in the mirror one last time and see his family? Only one last time?

Pull yourself together, Harry thought. He shook his head and turned back to Daphne, who was still gazing at him appraisingly. As if she knew exactly what was going on in his head.

He still had another question for her.

"Daphne, what did you see in the mirror?"

Daphne seemed to be astonished by his question, at least she did not say anything for a few seconds.

"That's a very personal question," she finally said coldly. "That's none of your business."

Harry felt disappointed. Didn't he tell Daphne about the mirror and what he saw in it?

"Why not? I also told you everything. That I saw my family. I even wanted to show it to you so...," Harry replied, upset.

"Just because you share your secrets with the whole world doesn't mean I have to do it as well," Daphne cut him off.

"What? Share with the whole world? I only told you! Because you are my friend!"

"We aren't friends! We just happen to be at the same school and in the same house! Stop clinging to me like that! I'm not interested in what you see in this mirror and what I see is none of your business either!" Daphne shouted.

Daphne had now released her crossed arms, her hands clenched in fists.

Harry, however, had instinctively taken a step back, his thoughts whirling in his head. Unbelief, bewilderment, disappointment. And also anger. He opened his mouth but couldn't speak.

That only seemed to make Daphne even angrier.

"Since the train ride to Hogwarts you've been clinging to me. You don't leave me alone and you follow me everywhere. The whole time you ask me things or bend my ears. As if that would interest me! You're pathetic, Harry Potter! We are not friends. And I don't need any friends! Since I know you, you have only brought misfortune into my life. Even the first time you had had to talk to me. How wonderful you found everything in Diagon Alley. And how much you looked forward to Hogwarts. I took pity on you and talked to you. And my parents made me regret that on the same evening!"

Daphne's voice had grown louder and louder. Finally, she literally yelled at Harry. In her eyes, he saw abysmal hatred and anger.

For the first time in his life, Harry was afraid of Daphne. He didn't know anything at all and felt the tears rise up in him.

"Don't dare to cry now! That's pathetic, YOU are pathetic!"

Her words hit him like punches in the gut. Harry staggered. Desperately, he looked at Daphne, seeing again the hatred in her eyes.

Daphne looked past him though. Her gaze seemed to be directed into the distance, without a fixed point in the room. As if she was looking at something completely different, which was not here at all.

Or someone completely different.

Her eyes! Harry thought. He'd already seen that anger in Daphne's eyes. Only minutes before, when she had looked in the mirror! The mirror where he saw his parents... In his mind, he put the several puzzle pieces together, everything he knew about Daphne.

"Daphne," he said so softly that he could hardly hear himself, "you saw your parents in the mirror, didn't you?"

That seemed to shock Daphne. She looked at him stunned and opened her mouth, but no words came out.

So Harry kept talking.

"You did. You are so hateful and angry. That's how you were before, when you looked into the mirror. What did you see? What did they do to you?"

That seemed to be the completely wrong words.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? I TOLD YOU, THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Daphne yelled at him. She gasped, hesitated, and continued in a harsh, hoarse voice, "My parents ... they ... I" Daphne was just stammering now. The next moment, she collapsed.

Harry was next to her immediately, but Daphne had already curled up on the floor and sobbed softly. He didn't know what to do. What had happened in the last few minutes? What happened to Daphne?

While all this went through his mind, Harry realized that Daphne was crying uninhibitedly now. He had never seen her cry before in the few months he had known her. She was always in control, showed almost no joy, and certainly no grief. Daphne Greengrass didn't cry! This rule was irrefutable! Seeing her cry now terrified Harry more than anything else that had happened this evening.

Harry sank down beside her and was about to do something else that would have been inconceivable until tonight. He reached out and put his arm around Daphne's shoulders, half expecting that she would immediately push him away and yell again, but none of this happened. Rather, Daphne even leaned against him now. After a few seconds, she buried her tear-stained face in his chest, and Harry now had both arms around her. All this confirmed him only in the fact that this was a very different, much more vulnerable Daphne than the one he had gotten to know in recent months. Her normally hard shell was cracked. What was exposed, stripped of all the armors built for self-protection, was the vulnerable interior of an eleven-year-old girl.

Time passed. Whether minutes or hours, Harry could not say. He just tried to be there for Daphne and comfort her while she was crying in his arms. They could talk later.

Eventually Daphne's tears dried up. As if she became only now aware of their position, she suddenly cramped, but she made no move to free herself from Harry's arms or to reprimand him. Rather, she raised her head, looking now in his face with her deep, blue eyes. Harry shuddered.

She contemplated him for several moments, appraising, judging. "You're a much better person than me, Harry," she finally said, her voice barely above a whistle.

Harry didn't answer. He wouldn't have known what he could have said anyway.

Daphne kept talking, still whispering, "But I am a terrible person. Not even my parents love me ... they ... they are always mad at me; they are never satisfied with me. If I'm doing something wrong in their eyes, then..." Here her voice failed her, and she sobbed. Harry toughened his hug. "They torture me!" she gasped. "They are using the Cruciatus Curse on me!"

"But that's illegal," Harry exclaimed indignantly. Being in the Slytherin House had also led to his early hearing of the unforgivable curses. And their ostracism. That was not supported by all their classmates in Slytherin…

Daphne did not respond to his words. Maybe she had not heard him at all.

"You must really want to inflict terrible torments on your victim, delight in their pains for the curse to work! Which parents delight in the pain of their children?! Which parents ... my parents ..." At this point, Daphne stopped again, unable to continue.

Harry felt scorching and he really wanted to jump to his feet. His body revolted against sitting motionless on the floor. Forgotten were all the fear and disappointment of earlier. He had to do something!

Daphne must have felt his uneasiness because again she turned her eyes to him.

"I won't let them do that to you!" said Harry vigorously. He meant it. No one should do this to anyone else, certainly not their own child!

Daphne was silent, but Harry read sadness and doubt in her eyes. She didn't believe him! Daphne broke loose from his embrace and rose again from the ground. For Harry, it felt like his heart was being pierced.

Her face turned away from him, Daphne began to speak again, "Before, all I wanted was for my parents to love me. Hold me in their arms or at least praise me once. But that's over now. That was my old self, my weak self! The mirror has shown me this girl, but she doesn't exist anymore! I am stronger than that. I will own them all. My parents, my classmates, just everyone. I will own the whole world!"

Harry saw the air flicker around Daphne. Was that her magic aura? It became freezing cold in the room.

"I will choke back every word in their throat. Throw back every curse on them. That is what I saw in the mirror, Harry Potter!" Daphne had her head turned back to him, staring at him with flashing eyes. Beautiful! Abominable! "They whimpered before me, begging for mercy. It felt so GOOD! I will prove it to everyone. I will have the last laugh. I will learn every day. I will become powerful, more powerful than anyone else! No one will dare to stand in my way. Everyone will wind down on the ground in front of me!"

Daphne gasped. The flickering around her weakened and finally vanished completely. Now she just looked calmly at Harry who noticed only now that he had almost retreated to the opposite wall, a storm of chaotic and confused thoughts in his mind. Shouldn't he be afraid of Daphne? Shouldn't he even be disgusted by her words? But neither was he afraid nor was he disgusted! Rather, he felt attracted to her like bees round a honeypot. Like it was since the first day. Her words had been terrible, yes, but part of him UNDERSTOOD them! She was just another restless soul looking for some happiness, he realized. Just thrown away from the world. Forgotten. Alone.

Hesitantly, Harry took a few steps forward.

Daphne's face twisted and for a moment it looked like she had to vomit. She swallowed hard and kept talking. "But that's my destiny alone." Daphne looked him straight in the eyes. Was that regret in her look? "We are all alone. Friendship and love are all lies. When it matters, you stand alone. Everyone is allowed to think only of themselves. I'm alone. It has always been like that."

She was wrong! She wasn't alone!

"You're not alone, Daphne ...," Harry summed up his feelings.

"You're just too naive for this world, Harry," Daphne said in a broken voice, imitating her typical venomous tone in vain.

There were times when a single decision, a few words could irreversibly change a person's life. And sometimes even the fate of the entire world. Harry sensed that such a moment had come.

"Maybe I am, but I believe in love. And friendship. You are my friend, Daphne. I will never let you down."

"You will not dissuade me from my plans."

"I don't want to do that at all! Your words ... your goals, Daphne, they are abominable. But this whole world is abominable! You hate your parents? I hate my relatives too! Never again will I return to them. Only to repay them for everything they did to me. I hate Voldemort and his followers. They have taken away my true family and my life. I hate the wizarding world that has left me with Muggles for ten years. After all, they and their families were still alive! Nothing else mattered, especially not the daily tears of a little boy! They have CELEBRATED the day my parents died! And I hate our classmates. I HATE this world and the people in it!" Harry had become louder and louder. His heart was racing.

"But I don't hate you," he said, gasping for breath. "Since I saw you for the first time, I was under your spell. You were so graceful, so sublime. I only really understand it now, but even then you rebelled against this world. And I thought that was wonderful!"

He was staring straight into Daphne's eyes. "And I know that you will continue to rebel against this world. But you won't be alone! I will be your partner. I won't leave you alone with your pain and I won't leave you alone, Daphne ... Dissuade you from your plans? Damn, I'll put them into action together with you!"

Daphne stared at him with tears in her eyes. She opened her mouth, but the voice failed her. Her face revealed astonishment, joy, determination. Suddenly, she jumped forward and into Harry's arms. and Harry put his arms around his only true friend.

For a few moments nobody said a word. Harry felt his heartbeat slow again, and for perhaps the first time in his life he felt like he had a purpose. A goal worth living for. He was at peace with himself. It was a good feeling!

Finally, Daphne raised her head, and ice-blue eyes looked into emerald ones.

"Together?" she asked.

"Yes," Harry answered. "We will cut our own path. You and I will think of ourselves because nobody else does. Our story is not yet written, Daphne. Let's rewrite it together."

Daphne then gave him one of her rare, precious, beautiful smiles. No, Harry corrected himself, it was much more beautiful than all the smiles he had seen before. And Harry intended to see it much more often in his life.

Together, they left the room on the fourth floor of Hogwarts, the miraculous mirror now completely forgotten. Tomorrow morning, the first day will dawn in their new life and they both awaited it eagerly. All would be well, they were sure.


Meanwhile Albus Dumbledore stood invisibly in a corner of the room, gazing back at both children. Tears flowed down his cheeks. He wept over a bright future that had – because of his failures - apparently long since fallen to darkness. And he wept over the lost souls of Daphne Greengrass and Harry Potter.


Next chapter: Changes

Preview:

No, the future wasn't a foregone conclusion! It was still changeable. He would change it. He owed that to the children and this world.


AN:

That was the last chapter I wrote before the first chapter was even published. But now I have to write new chapters. Therefore, the periods of time between the updates will be longer in the future. But I hope to be able to deliver regular updates and it is quite possible you will get longer chapters in the future. At least longer than the first five chapters. I still have a lot of plans for Harry and Daphne, so I'm looking forward to heading into this uncertain future with you!