7. Soup and Set up
The next day, after finishing his morning exercise routine, Harry took a trip to the kitchens before coming back to his room. He picked up a basket of breakfast for two. After having his tea, he took the basket to Daphne's room. Thankfully he didn't get an electric shock this time.
She was still sleeping when he entered quietly. He tried not to feel like a creep as he told himself that he was just looking out for her. Her face was not as red as last night and she looked relatively better. He gently put a hand to her forehead and noticed that her temperature was lower than last night, but it was still high. Soup and sleep were good, but they would not make her completely alright. Knowing that he would be mercilessly teased for this later, he went outside and took out his mirror.
"Lily Potter."
The red headed woman was obviously sleeping and Harry felt like kicking himself when she answered after almost a minute.
"Harry? What happened? Are you okay?" she asked worriedly, stifling a yawn. Harry never called her in the morning although they were both early risers. She was only asleep today because she stayed up most of the night with the Tonks family and came home just an hour ago.
"Sorry to wake you up mum, go back to sleep. I'll call you later." Harry said with an apologetic face and Lily smiled tiredly.
"It's alright Harry. I plan to go back to sleep afterwards anyway. What happened?" she inquired as she saw him hesitating.
"Um… you don't happen to know how to make a potion for fever, do you?"
"Yes I do. How did you get a fever?" she asked worriedly. Harry had an excellent immune system and he hardly fell ill.
"No, not me. It's… for someone else." He admitted, not quite meeting her eyes.
"Do I know her?"
"Not really… wait, who told you it was a her?" he was bewildered. That woman's intuition was scary. She looked hard at him for a few moments.
"Is it the Head Girl?" she asked with a flat voice and Harry's jaws dropped. Seriously, that woman was scary as hell.
"How… how did you… I mean… how… yeah it's her." He finished, not even trying to hide it at this point.
"What happened? Tell me everything." She ordered, all trace of sleep gone from her face.
So Harry told her everything he knew with some slight changes. How he found her almost unconscious, how he asked a house elf to give her some soup and blanket, and suggested that she washed her hair and how he was asking only because he couldn't be bothered to go all the way up to the hospital wing for her, or worse, with her.
Lily Potter, like every decent mother, had a finely honed bullshit detector for her son and knew that he did more than he admitted, but allowed her son to keep his dignity and didn't call him out. Not now at least.
She gave him clear instruction for the potion and advised him to take her to the hospital wing if he could. She knew that finding the ingredients would be twice as hard as simply taking her to Madame Pomfrey, but if he didn't want to take her there, she knew there was a good reason behind it other than 'not being bothered enough'. She trusted his son's judgement enough to let that pass without comment.
"After you are finished, ask her to take one teaspoon with breakfast, lunch and dinner. She should be okay by tomorrow."
"Okay, thanks a lot mum."
"And Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"Make sure you wash the spoons you fed her the soup with before she uses it again."
"I did not feed her-" Harry started in an outraged voice but Lily Potter was already disconnected.
Damnit!
He brooded at being caught by his mother like that for a while before giving it up as a bad job and looking at the ingredients. He had most of them in his room and the ones he didn't could be easily picked from one of the greenhouses. Not wanting to climb down all the stairs, he summoned his broom and leapt off the window, bringing him under him mid-flight and accelerated towards the greenhouses. He quickly picked the necessary ingredients and went back to his room the same way he got out and proceeded to make the potion. He was satisfied to see the colour of the potion being exactly as his mother described. He corked the vial and put an unbreakable charm on the vial and went to Daphne's room. Her eyes were open and she stared at him as he sat beside her.
"Morning, Daffy-poo." He grinned widely. To his immense surprise, she smiled in return.
"Morning Harry-lot."
He almost fell out of the bed in surprise as she called him by his first name (partially, at least) for the first time in their entire history of interactions, even if it was a word play on harlot, but he quickly masked his surprise and acted like nothing out of the ordinary happened. He thought he caught a smirk on her face, but it went away so quickly, he wasn't sure if he saw it or imagined it.
"Good one. Breakfast?" he offered her the basket he brought earlier and she scrunched her nose as she picked up a toast and nibbled on it for a while.
"Do you want chicken soup instead?" Harry asked, noticing the girl's lack of interest in the breakfast. For some reason, her face coloured for a moment, only to go back to her neutral mask after a moment.
"Yeah sure. There's still some left?"
"Yeah, Mimsy packed enough to feed a quidditch team." He poured a bowl of soup for her, and with a slightly red face, washed the spoon and gave it to her. She was definitely blushing as she took the bowl from her, last night's memory apparently still on her mind.
Everything was silent for a while as he ate and she drank her soup. Despite everything, Harry felt comfortable, having breakfast beside Daphne Greengrass's bed. He wouldn't call them friends just yet, but they had a sort of camaraderie between each other. He looked around her room properly for the first time. It was a mirror plan of his own room in terms of layout, but Daphne had organized things much differently than him. He noticed that she did not have any Slytherin colours decorating her room. Or many personal belongings, for that matter. Her room was mostly covered with books stacked in organized piles, notebooks and quills almost everywhere, but not in a messy way. She seemed to have a very complicated taste for arrangement.
As she finished her soup, he handed him a teaspoon of the potion he made. She looked at him questioningly and he explained what it was. Surprisingly, she took the potion without a word.
Another silence descended between the two Heads, as Daphne stared out of the window and Harry stared at the wall, neither of them knowing what to say. After a few awkwardly silent moments, Harry rose up and cleared his throat. Daphne looked at him without any expression.
"Er… I'm gonna go, I guess. I'll be back for lunch." He shuffled awkwardly, not sure if he was imposing on her privacy, sitting right in front of her.
Her face fell. She looked down and nodded. Harry didn't know if he was reading her wrong, but he decided to make sure anyway.
"Daphne?" he called from her door, using her proper first name for the second time in his entire life. She looked up. "Do you want me to stay for a while?"
Daphne always prided herself for having the greatest poker face among everyone she knew, but Harry just knew that her eyes lit up at that, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.
"Sure, if you want to." She answered. He smiled at her and sat down on the chair beside her. He could see her struggling with all her might, but a small smile leaked her face as she looked at him guiltily.
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"Oi Warner, take your friend and deliver this package to this address written over here." A man with one eye called to the newcomers.
"Why can't we owl it?" Warner asked, already gathering his cloak. His friend, Alexander, was doing the same.
"Because I asked you to deliver it, not owl it." The man with one eye replied irritably. His friends called him Mason, but these newcomers were not his friends, yet. They just called him boss for now.
"Understood. Who are we delivering this to?" Warner asked, securing the package inside his cloak. His friend was staring off into space, seemingly uninterested in the conversation in front of him.
"Ask for Yaxley."
"Yaxley, alright."
Warner showed the address to his friend, who disapparated with a crack and Warner followed soon after.
Minutes later, they were walking down a stone path, and saw a peacock walking around. They both reached an iron gate where the gate asked in a deep voice, "State your business."
The two men looked at each other before Warner spoke. "Er… package for Mr. Yaxley."
The gate remained still for a few moments, before dissolving away. They kept walking and soon reached a big wooden door that led to a manor. It was a magnificent building that extruded aristocracy from every inch of its polished surface. More peacocks were walking around the place. As Warner raised his hand to knock the door, it opened on its own and revealed a thin, bald man.
"What do you want?" he asked in a voice as coarse as sand.
"We have a package for Mr. Yaxley." Warner repeated. His friend was looking at the peacocks.
"You can give it to me." The bald man extended his hand, but Warner shook his head.
"Sorry, we were asked to deliver it to Mr. Yaxley."
The bald man nodded and waved at them to come inside. A large foyer led to a Hall room, a number of men and a few women, all clad in black robes, were loitering around the Hall. The hall was poorly lit, probably by choice. It had the look of a place which was once very wonderful, but was not very well kept nowadays.
"Wait here. Yaxley is not here yet. He is almost late. The Dark Lord would not be pleased if he is." He left the two men in the hall and went up the stairs. Warner and his friend looked around curiously. The people in the Hall room seemed to be of no importance, like themselves. Warner tried to start a conversation with a short man, but he was ignored. His friend was nowhere to be seen.
A tall man with an aristocratic face entered the Hall and someone whispered, "That's Yaxley". Taking a deep breath, Warner approached the man, who looked like he was in a hurry. He scanned around to see if he could see his friend, but couldn't find him.
"Excuse me, Mr. Yaxley." He called at the man who looked angry for being interrupted.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I have a package for you." Warner replied, noticing a wine glass dropped by a seemingly drunk man in a black cloak.
"Mason sent you?" Yaxley asked with a frown. Warner nodded in affirmation. "You came alone? I was told there would be two people." Yaxley commented with some suspicion.
"My friend is waiting outside for me. He is not a fan of socializing." Warner explained.
"Alright, so hand me the package and get the hell out of here." He reached out his hand, but Warner didn't make any effort to do so.
"Here? In front of everybody?" he asked, giving another look around the room. Yaxley sighed. The man had a point, this place was filled with vermin. He led the smaller man to a small room that offered some privacy.
After a few moments, Yaxley came out of the room, alone, and walked out of the building. A black dog carrying a paper bag approached him and he took the bag from the dog's mouth and put it inside his cloak and walked towards the iron gate that led him out of the property, the black dog following him. As the man and the dog crossed the boundary, the black dog transformed to another man, and together, the two men disapparated.
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"Should I call someone? Your friends or your sister?" he asked, as he got up to leave. It was almost lunch time, and he wanted to get some fresh soup for Daphne. She had been having the same soup for a while now.
"No, I'll catch up with them later."
Harry wanted to ask if they would worry about her, but decided that it was really not any of his business. Pushing it aside from his mind, he went out of the portrait hole, waving at Maggie, when he spotted Ginny coming his way.
"Hey Gin, what's up?" he asked as he came close to the youngest Weasley. She was chewing a gum and it was not ordinary gum. When she blew it, it grew to the size of a large watermelon before it burst and stuck all over her face. They both laughed at it as Harry vanished the gum.
"I thought magic was forbidden in the corridors?" Ginny asked with a playful smile. Harry stuck up his nose in the air.
"Yeah, who are you going to complain to? The Head Boy?"
"I could complain to the Head Girl." She pointed out. Harry raised his eyebrows.
"Since when do you speak with the Head Girl?"
"Oh well." She shrugged in defeat.
Harry started walking towards the kitchen, Ginny falling into step right beside him.
"So, did you want to talk to me, or were you just wandering around?" he asked her as they walked. It spoke a lot about their friendship that Ginny didn't have to ask where he was going.
"I wanted to talk to you about that bomb shell you dropped on me." She replied with a serious voice and Harry winced.
"Yeah, that. I just thought it would be a good idea to let you know. What do you think?"
Ginny was silent for a long time and Harry didn't break the silence. Finally, she spoke.
"Can I tell you a secret? You have to promise to never tease me about it." She asked seriously and he had to consider for a moment. Teasing Ginny was quite difficult and she was willing to give him ammunition, but without the permission to use it. In the end, he decided to listen to it.
"Let's hear it." He said.
"I used to have the world's biggest crush on The Boy-Who-Lived. Like since I was a baby." She finally admitted, her face red with embarrassment. Harry gaped.
"You? Crush? As a baby?" he practically shouted and she had to cover his mouth to prevent anyone from listening in.
"Yes, but that was before I knew Neville." she explained quickly.
"So?" Harry prompted her.
"So once I was old enough, I realized that he had very little to do with that Boy-Who-Lived business, it was probably more of his parents doing than him. I mean, he was one, for Merlin's sake."
"Fair enough." Harry nodded, appreciating the fact that Ginny was much smarter than most of the wizarding Britain.
"But as I saw him grow up, I realized that Neville was quite the guy himself. He's brave, he's noble, and he's cute as well." she mumbled the last part, but Harry heard her anyway.
"Aww. Does the little Weasley think Neville's cute?" he teased and she elbowed him, which he neatly dodged. A fcouple of first years nearby looked at the commotion. She hurriedly led him to the portrait of the fruit bowl and tickled the pear. As the entrance opened, they stumbled inside to find someone sitting in a lone chair, chewing on some bread and cheese. It was none other than Neville Longbottom.
Harry's grin was threatening to crack his face. Ginny was red as a tomato and Neville was blushing as well.
"Look who it is! The Boy-Who-Lived! How about that?" he had a shit eating grin on his face, and if looks could kill, Ginny would have murdered Harry three times by now.
"Um… hiya Neville." She stammered, still red as a beet. Neville was more intrigued at the pair's strange behaviour than anything else.
"Er… hi Ginny. What's wrong with Harry? Why does he look like he has done something terrible?"
"Stop talking nonsense, mate. I never do terrible things! I merely like to watch out for my friends and help them in difficulties."
Neville suddenly had a bad feeling about Harry's behaviour, and felt like he had to leave before the universe imploded because of the menace that is Harry Potter.
"I should get going-" he started to get up, but Harry pulled him back down, firmly grabbing Ginny with his other hand, who was kicking away at his feet.
"Nonsense! I was just looking for you as I have important matters to discuss with you."
"Then perhaps I should leave-" Ginny started, trying to wrench her hand away and kicking his shin, but the boy acted like he wasn't even noticing her.
"Oh no, you don't. I have important matters to discuss with you as well. Mimsy!"
The house elf appeared, bowing deeply.
"What can Mimsy do for young master?"
"Get me some more soup, will you? Go for different types instead of large quantity. A bowlful of each type would be great!"
The elf bowed again and went away and Ginny couldn't stop her curiosity.
"What's with all the soup? Are you sick?" she asked, while trying to kick his groin.
"Nope, just craving soup like crazy." Expertly blocking her attempts at assault.
Mimsy appeared with six medium sized pots and Harry casted a lightweight charm on them and conjured a bag to carry them. He silently put sticking curses on both Neville and Ginny and got up.
"Alright, I'll let you kids catch up with each other. Just as a conversation starter, you like each other and you're both free next Hogsmeade weekend. See ya!"
Harry bolted out of the door just as two curses aimed at him bounced harmlessly back. The two Gryffindors tried to undo the curse, but they knew very well that Harry's curses could be undone only by Harry, unless he intended otherwise, and it was clear than he did not intend for them to run away.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Ginny spoke first.
"Dibs on first hit on Harry once we get out of this."
"Damnit!"
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By nightfall, Daphne was reasonably well. Her fever was almost gone and apart from being a little weak, she was quite alright. The potion Harry gave her had worked its magic, quite literally, and she felt like she could attend her classes from the next day. It was a stroke of good luck that her illness came on a weekend, otherwise she would have to miss some classes.
She sipped on a cup of coffee Harry left for her. She didn't know house elves made coffee. She would have to remember that. It was a good coffee. She was still a little cold and wrapped the blanket tightly around herself. She didn't recognize the blanket, as her own blanket was a bit on the thin side. She knew Harry had given it to her and thought it was his spare blanket. She would have to get him a blanket for Christmas.
Thinking of giving a present to Harry Potter gave her a weird feeling. They spent most of their school life making life hell for one another. They cursed, hexed, insulted and one particular time even fought each other physically. Although she had to admit, she was the one doing most of the fighting and Potter was mainly trying to hold her off. She didn't even remember what that fight was about, but boy did she feel good after beating the shit out of Potter. Or so she liked to think. She pretended she didn't see him laughing it off moments later, acting like she didn't hurt him at all. It was better that way for her ego, anyway.
But the fact remained that Harry freaking Potter had spoon fed her chicken soup and if that wasn't the weirdest thing in her entire life, she didn't know what was. She had let her mask of coldness down in front of him, and she was surprised to find that it did not bother her nearly as much as it should. It also made her realize that maybe their days as enemies were officially over. Sure, they were not yet buddies who had drinks in the Three Broomsticks together, but not many buddies understood the need to stay out of hospital wing and took care of their sick buddies themselves. He even washed her hair, which felt so good she could kiss him right there if he wasn't Harry Potter and she wasn't Daphne Greengrass and she wasn't nearly unconscious at the time. Still, the thought of their animosity towards each other being over made her a little sad. She had to admit, as much as she used to hate that brat, their constant war was something she secretly cherished. It gave her some much needed thrill in the boring school life.
She was deep in her thoughts, sipping her coffee peacefully when she heard a knock at the door. As she called out "Come in", Harry entered her room with a sleek metal flask in his hand.
"Hey Daphne." He called as he set the flask down on the table beside her bed. She nodded at him. It was still weird to hear him call her by her first name.
"What's that?"
"It's called a thermos. Muggles use it to keep their drinks warm." He explained as he leaned back in the chair that he usually sat on. Of course, by usually he meant for a day. Before that he never even came into her room.
"What's in it? And where'd you get it?" She asked as she took the flask in her hand. It was warm, and full of something.
"It's coffee. You seemed to like it earlier. As to where I got it from, I borrowed it from Hermione Granger."
"Oh, thanks I guess. But what's wrong with a normal flask with heating charms?" She asked curiously. She had noticed that the boy had a tendency to do a lot of things the muggle way. Harry shrugged as he took a cup from the flask and sipped it.
"I always found coffee and magic doesn't go well together. I mean it's still drinkable, but it doesn't taste as good as it did without magic." He explained.
"But house elves use magic." She argued.
"And they didn't make it. I did, in mostly the muggle way."
"Mostly?"
"Well I'm not gonna light the fire with matches or rubbing sticks together like a caveman, would I?"
Daphne didn't know what rubbing sticks together had to do with anything, but she knew matches are sticks used by muggles to light a fire, so she nodded. She was quite surprised that he made a whole flask of coffee for her. Granted, he took a cup for himself, but still it was mostly for her. And that was very weird.
"Harry?"
"Hmm?"
"You remember that one time I beat the shit out of you?"
Harry laughed. He remembered it alright. She was hitting him from all sides, but unfortunately for her, she didn't pack a punch on those hits. Like not at all. So he just let her hit him till she calmed down, relatively of course, and then laughed about it.
"Sure, let's call it that and not you embarrassing yourself. What about it?" She glowered for a while before a grin betrayed her.
"What were we fighting about? I was thinking about it before and I couldn't remember."
Harry tried to recall the events before that fight, but there were so many fights and rows, he couldn't find a clue what brought that particular incident on.
"You know, I haven't the foggiest." He finally admitted. "I think we had way too many fights over the years to remember one single incident."
They looked at each other and Harry burst out laughing, while she shook in silent laughter, and Harry couldn't help notice that she looked quite pretty when she was laughing. He wondered why she didn't do it more often.
"Do you miss it?" She asked, once she regained her composure.
"Miss what?"
"Fighting with each other like mad dogs?"
"A bit, yeah." He admitted with a grin. She chuckled.
"Me too." She admitted.
"Well, I guess we had to stop being at each other's throat constantly at some point." He mused and she nodded.
"I guess. I always thought that day would come after we graduate and I never have to see your face ever again."
"Well, sorry to disappoint." Harry replied with a laugh and stood up and put the backside of his hand to her forehead. She was still a little warmer than normal, but it was a far cry from last night.
"Sleep. You should be completely fine by morning. I'll drop by in the morning to check on you if you're not out by breakfast time."
She nodded. He wished her goodnight and turned to leave when she called him back.
"Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks… for everything." She said in a small voice. He smiled widely before closing the door on his way out.
His room felt a little strange to him. He spent most of the last 24 hours on Daphne's room and now he felt something missing in the room. Of course, his blanket was still with her, but that wasn't what he missed anyway.
"Harry Potter"
The call from his mirror brought him back to reality. He quickly picked it up from his desk. It was his mother.
"Hey mum."
"Where the hell were you?" she admonished. "I have been calling you since afternoon."
"I was… er… around. What's happened?" he asked sheepishly.
"How's the girl? Daphne, wasn't it?"
"Alright, I guess. Haven't seen her in a while."
"Hmm. I called to tell you that your dad and Sirius are back. They came back around noon."
"That's great! How are they? How did their mission go?" Harry asked enthusiastically.
"They're alright. They are sleeping now. Their mission went well. They caught Pettigrew."
Harry's face went blank. With Daphne being sick and worrying about the Tonks family and the health of dad and Padfoot, he completely forgot what their mission actually was. He wished he could have a go at the rat, but knew that his dad, Sirius and Remus had first dibs on the traitor. It was unlikely that there would be anything left of the vermin after the going through other Marauders. He had called his dibs pretty early, and after spending years trying to convince him otherwise, the adults accepted it. They even had an agreement that even if Harry happened to stumble upon Pettigrew, he would do nothing other than stunning him and bringing him back home.
"Harry?" Lily called. Her son had zoned out after hearing about Pettigrew.
"Yeah. Cool. Are they handing him over to the Aurors?"
"No. Ministry is infiltrated by Death Eaters. His capture is kept a secret for now. The Order will question him for information."
This is what he loved about his parents. While they loved him unconditionally, they understood that war did not care for people's age and didn't try to protect him from the ugliness of it. He had been told pretty much everything that happened around and the dealings of the Order of the Phoenix, unless the information was classified, since he was fifteen. Harry had kept their trust and didn't discuss anything he learned with his friends or peers. While his parents thought this was the right thing to do, they also respected other parents' wish to keep their children away from the war. So they made a simple deal with Harry. He kept his mouth shut and they would tell him everything important that happened. It was a good deal, Harry thought. He could prepare for exactly what he was going to face after finishing school.
"Alright, then. Tell the guys to call me when they wake up."
"I will. And you haven't replied to my letter. Are we meeting next weekend?"
"Yeah, I think so. I'll ask her again when I see her next, just to be sure."
"You do that. Bye, Harry."
"Bye, mum."
Putting the mirror in his pocket, he donned his invisibility cloak and mounted his broom. He wished he had dad's invisibility cloak, but knew that right now, he needed it more than Harry did. He took off from the window into the night. He usually came back by this time, but his routine has been off for a while. He had to get back in training.
Hunting season was on.
A/N: So a lot of you have commented that I am not describing things enough, and I honestly appreciate the constructive criticism. I always have trouble with description, and fearing unnecessarily long descriptions, I ended up underdoing it. I will try to work on this issue, and I only ask that you bear with me. Also, if anyone is interested in being a Beta, please PM me. A huge shoutout to jslee102 for the 100th review! Keep the reviews coming. It inspires me to keep writing.