A/N: I am excited to announce that slucas123 has agreed to be a beta for this story, and so far I am embarrassed by the sheer number of mistakes he has fixed, but also grateful for how much more fluent he made the story after the edits. You're the real MVP.
8. The Meeting
The next day found Daphne sitting on her bed with the biggest moral dilemma of her school life.
Would she continue maintaining the mask of cold indifference towards Harry which would very likely offend him, or would she act all chummy with him like she did yesterday and face the millions of questions, rumours and whisperings that would follow her, and of course, facing Tracey and Astoria?
She knew full well that she had been a complete bitch to Harry too many times to count, and Harry had been an infuriating bastard one times too many as well. However, even a blind person could see that their relationship changed in the last two days. Did he deserve that bitchiness from her right after he showered her with incredible kindness? No. Did she deserve rumours and whisperings like Neville Longbottom after spending years behind a mask of icy indifference? Hell, no!
Her troubled thoughts were interrupted as there was a knock on the door. "Come in!" She called.
It was Harry. He was holding a small cup in one hand and waved with his other hand.
"Morning. Tea?" He offered. Daphne nodded and he came in to hand her the tea. Like before, it was barely a quarter cup full.
"Why didn't you give it to me earlier?" She asked, sipping the tea and suddenly feeling healthy as a horse.
"Because drinking this while injured or ill would heal you momentarily, but it would come back to bite you in the arse later, much worse than it originally was."
"Thanks!" she said, excitedly. "Is there any way to not appear this excited?" Harry laughed.
"You could do some push-ups to burn away some energy." He suggested.
"I have never done a push up before. I'm not sure I can." She admitted, slightly bouncing on the bed. He looked at his watch.
"Alright, well, we have some time before breakfast. Freshen up and meet me downstairs, and we will see about that. Wear something flexible."
She nodded as he took his cup back and left the room, closing the door behind him.
She came out within ten minutes, wearing a t-shirt and yoga pants, her hair tied in a ponytail. Harry took one look at her and promised himself that he wouldn't stare at her butt. It would be a difficult feat if he actually managed that.
"Okay, I'm gonna demonstrate. You might or might not be able to do it normally, but you definitely can do it after the tea." He said, as he conjured two mats.
"What's actually in the tea? Is it some kind of drug?" Daphne asked a bit warily. Harry shrugged.
"I'm not entirely sure myself. But as far as I can tell, they work like a mixture of instant working energy potion and a shot of adrenaline without the negative effects. It is made from a particular magical herb found in the Himalayas, and I have been using it for a while now. So far, I don't have any negative side effects, nor did I have any troubles with any pre-match tests for performance enhancing drugs." Harry explained and Daphne seemed to be satisfied. Seeing she was ready, Harry took a deep breath and dropped to one of mats, which she imitated.
He quickly did ten push ups and asked her to do it. She found it way more difficult than it looked like when Harry was doing it, but she managed 20 before practically collapsing. However, she was not hyper anymore, which was the point anyway, so she considered it a success.
"Fair warning, your arms might hurt a bit later on, especially after your fist push-ups." He warned as they sat comfortably on the sofa. She nodded. She had heard that before.
"By the way, you are still meeting mum next weekend right?"
"What? Oh yeah, of course." She had totally forgotten about that.
"You might want to know that the potion I gave you yesterday was mum's idea."
"Really? That's very nice of her. I'll have to thank her when I meet her."
They sat in comfortable silence for a while before Harry stood up. "You want some coffee? I'm gonna make some before I go down for breakfast."
"Umm… sure." She stood up and followed him to his room, even though she just had tea. She supposed if he could have a cup of coffee after the tea, she wouldn't have any problems either.
His room was neat and organized just like she remembered from the last time she was here. He had a Gryfiindor banner hung on a wall with a number of moving photos pinned beneath. She noticed that quite a few of them were in Hogwarts. Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Susan Bones and the Weasley twins were the ones she could recognise. There was also the one with Gryffindor Quidditch team celebrating the House Quidditch Cup. She felt a strange sense of emotion she could not place when she saw Harry holding Katie Bell's waist.
The other photos looked like his family. A beautiful red headed woman, who she assumed was his mother, featured in almost every photo that was not in Hogwarts. She did a double take as she noticed a picture consisting of the woman with two Harrys. Until she looked closer and realised that one 'Harry' looked older and had a different eye colour than the real Harry. It seemed that Professor Snape's frequent comment on Harry being exactly the same as his father had more truth to it than she realised.
Turning away from the pictures, she sat down on a chair and watched as he pulled out a kettle and put in on what looked like a shrunken stove. He lit the stove with his wand and put the water filled kettle on it. He looked completely at home in front of the stove.
Continuing to look around, she found a strange device on his bedside table, with wires coming out of it. It looked like a muggle contraption.
"What's that?" She asked him, pointing at the object.
"It's a CD player. It plays music. It's a muggle electronic device, but mum knows how to make them work around Hogwarts. Wanna listen to it?" He offered.
"Sure. What's with these wires?"
"They are for these pods, which go inside your ears."
"They what?" Daphne cried, hoping that he was joking. He laughed at her.
"It's alright. Just the tip. Like this." He gently pushed a pod to her ear, which fit quite snugly. She felt a strange sensation inside her as his hand brushed her cheek while placing the ear pod. She nodded quickly and put the other pod in her other ear herself, shaking the thoughts from her head.
"What kind of music do you like?" he asked as he opened a drawer, revealing numerous thin boxes. Daphne shrugged, having no particular preferences. She always thought wizarding music was not very good, and never had the chance to listen to muggle music other than the occasionally blaring music muggles play near King's Cross. He pulled out one thin box and opened it. Inside it was a circular disk, which he took out. He pressed a button on the thing he called a CD player, and a hatch opened, revealing a groove that looked like a perfect fit for the disk. If this was a CD player, she thought, that disk must be the CD. He placed the disk in the groove and closed the latch. He pressed some buttons and took the pods away from her ear and placed one to his own ear. He pressed some buttons before handing the pods back to her.
"This is a song by a band called 'The Beatles'. They are kinda old, but I love them. This song is called 'Yesterday'. Press this button whenever you are ready, and press this when the song is over."
She pushed the button, and a very clear sound came from almost inside her head. She was so surprised at the sound that she jumped a little before quickly regaining her composure. The music was very soothing.
She enjoyed the song as Harry summoned the thermos from her room, cleaned it, poured coffee in it and then poured the rest into two cups and handed one to her, sitting on the bed, facing her.
Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me
Oh, yesterday came suddenly
He raised his cup at her and sipped. She did the same. The coffee was as good as it tasted earlier. She could get used to this, she thought.
Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday
Why she had to go I don't know she wouldn't say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday
The song was beautiful. The words were so moving and yet so simple! And the music itself was the same. It did not sound too elaborate like an orchestra that her mother sometimes listened to, but it spoke volumes to her. Whatever their shortcomings, she had to admit that muggle music would bury wizarding music any day. At least this band would, if their other songs were nearly as good as this one.
As the song ended, she pressed the button he had shown earlier and pulled the pods out of her ears.
"You liked it?" He asked.
"I loved it. Can I borrow it later?" She pleaded.
"Sure. Actually, I can give you my old one. It's a bit larger but it has a headphone instead of the earphone, so it's not very mobile. Would you like it?" He asked and she hesitated.
"You don't have to give it to me, I just wanted to borrow it for a while. I can borrow that instead if you have it."
Harry waved a hand at her as if it was nothing. He didn't use the old one after his mum brought him the new one. He used to love it, and still did, but he knew Daphne would take good care of it. And a CD player wasn't supposed to gather dust anyway.
"I think you should go down to breakfast." He said, as he noticed the time.
"You're not coming?" She asked, taken aback. He sighed and gave her a wan smile.
"Honestly Daphne, do you want me to come down to breakfast with you? Don't you have a reputation to keep?" He tried to joke, seeing the girl's troubled expression.
She stared at him for a few moments before hanging her head. She suddenly felt very small.
"Hey, it's mutual. I haven't informed my friends that I'm not trying to throw you off the Astronomy Tower anymore, either."
"Like you ever could." She replied, but had a little smile on her face at the same time. "You know what? Let's just go. Everyone knows that we share a dorm and I am sure my reputation would survive."
"If you say so." Harry shrugged. "Lead the way."
They walked in a comfortable silence and although there were a few surprised faces, they quickly seemed to have remembered that they were the Head Boy and Girl of the school. Even Malfoy didn't say anything after a double take.
"Harry! How are- oh. Um… catch up with you later."
Daphne stared at Parvati Patil and looked at Harry who looked thoroughly embarrassed and relieved at the same time.
"Wow, she was… energetic." She commented off-handedly. Inexplicably, she immediately decided that she did not like Patil.
"Don't even start." He whispered.
"So what's the story here?" she asked, her face completely neutral, but Harry knew she was immensely enjoying this.
"I think she has a thing for me." He said shortly. She looked at him mischievously.
"And you don't want her… thing?" She asked innocently as he almost lost it.
"Good Lord, blondie! I thought you were one of the innocent ones!"
"Have you forgotten our fights altogether?" She asked.
"Fair point." He conceded immediately.
"So this is where we part." She said as they reached the Great Hall.
"Unless you want to have breakfast with us." He said with a nod and she lightly snorted.
"Yeah, I prefer not to have exploding brains near my breakfast."
He chuckled at that. "See you later, Daphne."
"You will."
Daphne made her way to the Slytherin table and sought out her best friend Tracey. Although she was not sure if Tracey really considered her as her best friend too. Daphne did not care too much either way. Due to her persona, making friends was difficult for her. It was also something she was not terribly interested in it anyway. Somehow she and Tracey Davis found a sort of partnership, where they understood each other, and shared things with each other. Being a respectable character in Slytherin, Tracey liked the fact that being friends with Daphne meant that people mostly left her alone when she wanted. In return, Daphne enjoyed the occasional moments when she could smile and express herself without compromising her image. Also, Tracey was a great source of information that was difficult to obtain otherwise. In Slytherin, information was worth more than gold.
"Haven't seen you in a while." Tracey commented as Daphne sat down on the empty seat beside her. For some reason, she looked a bit irritated.
"I was a little under the weather. How are things?" She asked, helping herself to some food. Tracey shrugged.
"As well as you could expect, I guess. People are still tense and some folks have been trying to seem more important than they were before. How about you? How's life with Potter?"
"Not as bad as it could be, I suppose." Daphne replied and Tracey snorted.
"You don't say." She replied sarcastically. "You looked pretty chummy with him there."
Daphne blinked once. Then again. Then she shrugged and continued eating her breakfast. "Yeah well, you could say we are not mortal enemies anymore."
"You like him?" Tracey asked bluntly and it was only due to her years of practice of being cool-headed that Daphne managed to not spit out her food.
"What? No. What gave you that idea?" She asked with a scowl. Tracey stared at her for a few moments and then shrugged.
"The way you keep subtly looking at him whenever you think I'm not looking, I think." She answered and Daphne smirked.
"You really thought that would work?" Daphne asked with a little bit of disgust. She knew that it was a common technique Tracey used to extract information out of people. But Daphne would never do something as blatant as steal glances at Harry Potter in the middle of the Great Hall, let alone get caught doing it. She had not built her reputation by being stupid.
"Worth a shot." Tracey said unapologetically. Once again, Daphne noticed the trace of irritation in her friend's voice and she finally connected the dots. She was surprised that it actually took her this long.
Tracey had been saving the seat beside her for someone else. And she could easily spot Blaise Zabini walking in late, looking around for a seat.
"Zabini, huh?" She commented and Tracey's head shot towards her.
"Wha-"
"I'll see you in class. I need to go to the dungeons." Daphne said as she stood up, vanishing her remaining food. "Looking for a seat, Zabini?" She called and the dark haired boy looked a bit surprised but nodded. "I was just leaving. This one's empty."
"Daph-" Tracey called but Daphne waved at her and was gone.
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James Potter and Sirius Black were growing impatient. Remus was supposed to arrive almost half an hour ago, but there was no sign of the werewolf.
"Where the hell is Moony?" Sirius wondered aloud, pacing the small room. On the other side, James was biting his nails.
"Wherever he is, he better not moan if we start without him."
"Yeah, screw Moony, let's get started." Sirius stopped pacing and that exact moment, there was a crack sound, and Remus Lupin appeared, and looked around to spot his friends.
"Where the hell were you Moony?" Sirius asked impatiently.
"I picked up a tail. Had to lose him in a muggle town." Remus explained calmly. The other two nodded in understanding. "I thought you would've started without me."
"The thought didn't cross our mind even once, Moony!" James exclaimed and Sirius looked outraged as well. "How dare you accuse us of such things?"
Remus looked at the pair of them and sighed. "You guys always overdo it. See, if you just casually said that, I might've believed you."
"Damnit Prongs! You and your over dramatic tendencies." Sirius cursed as Remus rolled his eyes.
"I hope you know that you are the biggest drama queen in the history of drama queens." James replied seriously. Sirius started to wear a mask of insulting outrage when he realised he was just proving the other man's point and gave up on it.
"Whatever. Let's go, shall we?" Without an answer, he quickly turned with the other two close behind.
"So he's really here? Alive?" Remus asked James, just to be sure. James smirked.
"Yeah, for now. Can't say anything about the future."
"Hmm, neither can I." Remus replied, his jaws set tight. If anyone saw the usually docile werewolf, they would've known, at this moment, that he had a monster inside him.
They reached a door through which they entered to find Kingsley Shacklebolt speaking with Tonks. The two Aurors looked at the three men and implicitly knew what was about to happen.
"Come on, Kingsley. We should get started on Yaxley in the other room." Tonks said loudly, as the three men nodded and Kingsley glanced worriedly at the door that led to the chamber containing Peter Pettigrew. In his peripheral vision, he caught something that made him try to double back, but Tonks quickly yanked him inside.
"What just happened?" He asked the calm metamorphmagus. She shrugged.
"It's a family matter. Let them handle it." She said, walking towards the stunned figure of Yaxley. Wisely, Kingsley let it go.
In the other room, three old friends entered together. There was a single man bound in a chair, under a full body bind curse, whose eyes grew as large as saucers.
After some wand waving, he found himself able to speak.
"Remus… old friend… please save me. Padfoot… Prongs… please… I told them everything… I knew… please…" the man sobbed.
The three men just walked slowly towards the bound man.
"Oh Peter" Sirius Black started softly. "We don't want any information from you. Yet."
James Potter nodded and handed Remus a vial of potion, which he drank. Sirius transformed into a grim. James Potter waved his wand at Peter Pettigrew, removed all his bindings and stripping him of everything except his undergarments. Although he was now free, technically speaking, Pettigrew never felt so bound in his whole life. He saw Remus transforming into a wolf, and knew he Azkaban would have been a better punishment. Heavy privacy wards were placed around the room.
"We are just going to play a little game of chase, Wormtail." James said in a very casual voice, like he was planning a barbecue on the backyard, before putting his wand away. The dog and the wolf both growled.
Just before transforming into a stag, James whispered, "Transform, rat. Now."
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Once again, Harry found himself slumped on the floor Head's common room. After the news of Pettigrew, he had overexerted himself and now regretted that decision. He just hoped Daphne wouldn't find him here again-
"Harry?"
Oh well.
"Here." He tried to be nonchalant, but even he knew he wasn't fooling anyone.
"Want me to bring your tea?" She offered, coming down the short flight of stairs that led to her room.
"No. I had it just yesterday." He replied, trying to stand up.
"You don't have it every day?" She asked, a bit surprised. He shook his head.
"Didn't you drink that stuff? If I took it daily, I'd die within a week. I drink one cup each week."
"That makes sense." She nodded. "So what happened?"
"I… er… worked past my limits and now I'm cramping everywhere." Harry explained through the pain. Daphne looked concerned.
"Don't you know any spell to fix that?" She asked, wondering if this was a common occurrence.
"I do, but I am also magically exhausted, which is why I have the cramps in the first place. Magic usually keeps these things in check." He answered tiredly. Deciding that she could question him more later, she offered a hand to help him up. He grunted as he stood up, trying to put as less of his weight on Daphne as possible. "What are you gonna do?" She asked, half carrying him to the nearest sofa. She tried not to show it, but she wasn't going to last long. It's not that he was very heavy, but Daphne had always been physically weak. On top of that, she really did not need to feel his muscles any longer than absolutely necessary.
"Rest for a while." He answered. "I will be alright within a few minutes. You can put me down now." He added, as she resisted the urge to throw him away and lie down.
Panting from the effort, they sunk into the comfortable sofa. Kicking her legs up onto the coffee table, Daphne asked, "Why don't you go to the hospital wing?"
Contemplating the question, Harry answered, "Privacy, mostly. I don't want Pomfrey or anyone else to know about my injuries because that would raise a lot of questions. I also have a couple of secrets I'd rather not divulge to her." He panted a little from speaking that much in one go. "Why don't you?"
"Pride and dignity, I guess. I also like the privacy." She replied.
"That's pretty Gryffindor of you." He commented with a short chuckle. She tried to glare, but gave up on that pretty quick and smirked.
"Can I ask you something? You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Daphne asked after she recovered enough to breathe at a normal pace again. Harry nodded at her. "I know you have a hard workout session in the morning, and judging from the small cuts and bruises that you often have when you return at night, I assume you go through a magical training session as well. Of course, I could be wrong, but I don't think I am and what I really want to ask you is why? Why do you train so hard?"
Daphne knew she had asked something personal and it was pushing the boundaries of their newly formed relationship, but she was hopeful as she saw no signs of him getting angry or distant.
"To prepare for what's coming after school is over." He answered honestly. Daphne had already guessed that part, but it didn't make sense.
"I get it that there is a war out there, and learning to defend yourself is a good idea, but don't you think this is a bit too much? I mean, I respect your determination and dedication, but you coming here unable to walk is not exactly normal, is it?" She hoped he was not offended. Not that she would lose any sleep over it if he was, but she preferred to avoid it if she could. It was dangerous for his health anyway.
Harry was silent for a long time, making Daphne wonder if he was reconsidering his routine, or just thinking of a way to insult her. Finally, he spoke, and took her completely by surprise.
"What do your parents do, Daphne?"
"What do- you mean like their occupation?" She asked, just to be sure. It was such a random question. He nodded in affirmation. "Mother is a housewife, tending to family matters mostly, and brews potions as a hobby. Father is a businessman. He is away most of the time though, so we mostly see him in some mornings when we go home. Why do you ask?"
Instead of answering, Harry asked another question, this time with a bit of hesitation.
"If you don't mind me asking, which side of the war does your family lie?" He asked, not quite meeting her eyes. She should have been offended by the question, but for some reason, she couldn't be bothered.
"The Greengrass family has always been neutral. It's a family tradition to remain neutral in any conflicts unless they directly concern our family."
Harry nodded. He knew that, actually. He just needed confirmation. "My family is against Voldemort. I mean we are as far away from him as magically possible. Call it the Light side, or whatever you wish, our family always opposed any tyrants, and opposed them vocally. There is a reason I am the only Potter male of my generation. Every time our family grew in numbers, some Dark Lord hunted us down for fighting back loudly, and we would decrease in numbers again. So what I'm trying to say is, our family is in the frontline of the war, and there's a chance we might not all make it before this war is over. I won't be defending myself. I am going to bring the battle to those bastards and I will wipe out every single one of them that I can lay a hand on. And if I die, I'll make sure I won't die alone. I don't want to do this because it's a family tradition, or it's expected of me. I do this because have a personal vendetta against Death Eaters. I train hard so that when I face them in a battle, I won't be the one defending. I want to be the last thing they see."
Daphne felt like the temperature of the room dropped 10 degrees. Harry had said all that very casually, not even raising his voice any more than normal, but it felt like he was commanding an army, not having a conversation with his sort-of flatmate.
There was a looming silence that filled the room for a while, before she decided to speak.
"Can you show me some basic workouts?" She asked tentatively, not having any idea how his reaction would be.
Mildly surprised, he responded, "Yeah sure, why?"
"I am horribly weak, in terms of physical strength. And I just realised that even though I want to stay out of the war, it might not let me stay out of it. And if I am tired after half dragging you a few yards, I wouldn't last 30 seconds in an attack." She admitted. He nodded in understanding.
"Alright, we'll start tomorrow, what do you say?"
"Start what?"
"I think you need to start jogging first. Build up some stamina before any strength exercises. Be on the front door by seven in the morning. A few laps around the lake should do fine for your first day."
"A few laps? The lake is huge!" she exclaimed, but he only grinned. Suddenly, she wished she hadn't helped him off the floor onto the sofa.
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The next few days were the worst days of Daphne's life. Harry was a slave driver, and he made her run till her legs felt like jelly. And worst of all, he didn't let her have his tea either. "You can have it before we start working out. Running will build your stamina, and you can't take a shortcut for that."
She even tried to skip one day, but he entered her room, checked if she was healthy, and practically pushed her to the washroom to freshen up. It was only her threat of changing in front of him that he bolted from the room. All in all, he was a menace in the morning, and she regretted ever asking him to help her.
The only fun part was one time when she was so exhausted that she decided to lie down on the Great Hall, unable to climb up stairs. He pulled out a piece of parchment from his pocket, muttered something, put it back to his pocket and then picked her up and carried her all the way up to their common room. She wouldn't admit it with a wand pointed to her face, but she enjoyed the ride immensely. She hoped that he would be tired, carrying her all the way up here, but he just looked bored instead of exhausted. She remembered the time she was ill, when he picked her up, many times, like she was nothing more than a heavy book or something.
Their workouts also created some awkward moments. Harry tried to decide if he loved the person who invented yoga pants, or hated them. He quickly realised that Daphne was a very attractive woman during these laps around the lake, and he had to exert a lot of self-control to stop staring or Merlin help not get caught at least. He vividly remembered one morning when he walked in Daphne's room to find her wrapped only in a short towel. To his credit, he immediately looked away and sprinted out of the room, profusely apologized once she came out, red faced, but fully dressed. They talked very little that day, and Harry never entered her room before knocking from that day on.
Soon, it was weekend, and Daphne was so desperate for a lie in, that she kept her wand pointed at her door, intending to hex him as soon as he entered. Surprisingly, he didn't. When it was half past seven, she knew he wouldn't come. Even more surprisingly, she found that she really wanted him to come. "What's gotten into me?" She thought.
She finally went out of her room at half past eight to see if he was in the common room. He wasn't. Not knowing what to do, she went to his door and knocked.
The door swung open for her. Harry was lying on his stomach on the bed, reading a book. He turned to look at her.
"Hey Blondie, I thought you'd sleep longer."
"What? Why? Besides, I woke up at seven."
"Because today is your rest day. Did I forget to mention that?" He grinned, not apologetic in the least.
"Yes, I believe you did, you evil bastard." He laughed as she punched him on his arms, which he ignored completely.
"Want some coffee?" he asked, rolling out of his bed and taking out his stove. On one hand, she was mad at him for deceiving her, but on the other hand she did want coffee.
"Yeah sure." At this point, she knew her glares weren't working anyway. She made a beeline for his CD player, which she hadn't borrowed yet, and opened it. There was already a CD in it.
"So how are things with Patil going?" She asked as she took out the CD.
"I'd say pretty good. Seems like you intimidated her enough to avoid me for a while." He said happily.
Innocently, she responded, "But I didn't do anything."
"You didn't need to. Your regular face is intimidating enough." He said as he lit the stove.
"Uh, thanks, I think?" She said, uncertainly. Harry laughed.
"Yes, I meant that in a good way."
She smirked at him before studying the CD in her hands. The words 'Pink Floyd' and 'The Division Bell' was written on it. She put the pods (they were called earphones, she reminded herself) in her ears and hit the button he had shown her the last time. She noticed that below the button, the word 'Play' was written in a tiny font. Harry noticed her and smiled.
Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by the force of some in a tide
At a higher altitude with flag unfurled
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world
The song was very different from the last one (Yesterday? Or something like that. The band was called the Beatles, she remembered) but beautiful in its own way. It was also longer than any other song she had ever heard, wizarding or muggle.
The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river
Forever and ever
She closed her eyes and felt herself getting lost in the music. Never in her life had she experienced something so moving, so beautiful and so emotional. When the song finally ended, she was breathless. She felt like she had been flying for a long time, and just landed. Pushing the stop button, she pulled out the earphones and handed the player to Harry.
"Can you tell me what was the name of the song?" She asked, as he handed her the cup of coffee.
He checked before replying with a smile. "High Hopes. One of my all-time favourites. You like it?" She nodded enthusiastically. Coffee in hand, they sat in comfortable silence.
"When is your mum coming today?" She asked after a while.
"Around noon. What's your plan till then?" He asked.
"I actually asked Astoria to come over here toda. She should be here right after breakfast. What are you doing?"
"Hanging out at the Gryffindor common room, mostly. It's fun to see Ginny and Neville try to hex me every chance they get."
"Sounds... fun? Why are they hexing you again? Not that I don't wholeheartedly support them, just curious."
"I may have set them up for a date today."
"And that's bad because-"
"That's good. They should be thanking me. However, they are a little pissed off since I may or may not have put them on partial body binds and basically forced them to talk and then disappeared. But in my defense, I was busy bringing soup for a sick person."
She was barely managing to hold in her laughter as she managed to say, "I'm sure you were." Before losing it completely and burst out in laughter.
As he laughed with her, he was once again struck by how pretty she looked when she was laughing, and once again, he wondered why she hid it behind a mask. He knew that was a pretty personal question, and not something he should ask now.
They went to breakfast soon afterwards, separately this time, and afterwards, Harry went to the Lion's Den, as he saw Daphne and Astoria walking towards the Heads' dorm.
Entering the common room, he immediately had to swat away a nasty yellow curse that seemed to come from a waiting Ginny Weasley. Immediately afterwards, he dodged another curse, who was standing just beside the wall that contained the portrait hole.
"That's an excellent strategy, attacking perpendicularly. Opponents barely have time to defend two if one attack is from his peripheral vision." He complimented them lazily as they both gave him stink eyes. He ignored them completely and sat down beside Ginny with a big grin on his face, waving Neville over, who obliged, albeit grumbling.
"So, what are you lot up to?" He asked, getting comfortable in the couch. Both of their faces turned pink.
"None of your business, Potter." Ginny snapped and Harry laughed.
"So you are going on a date. Good for you! I've always wanted you kids to get together."
Neville opened his mouth to point out that he only told him about fancying Ginny a few days back, but then he remembered who they were sitting with and snapped his mouth shut, giving Harry another glare. Ginny just thumped Harry on the back of his head.
"As much as I'd like to stay and curse you to next week, I have things to do and places to be. So I'll see you in an hour, Neville." Ginny said, as she went up the stairs.
"You do realise what that means, don't you?" Harry asked, looking at Neville seriously. Neville gulped.
"No, what?"
"It means she will take an hour to get ready for your date, you dolt." Harry explained with exasperation. "Be ready to be knocked out because that Weasley's gonna have you for dinner, mate."
"What?" Ron, who was just passing by, asked, thinking that he heard his name being spoken.
"Harry was just telling me that you were eating a lot today." Neville quickly explained, before Harry had him in mortal danger again. Ron grinned.
"Gotta get me some stamina, mate. Got a big date with Lavender. Might get lucky, y'know!" he waggled his eyebrows for extra effect and Harry wolf- whistled.
"Ron, you dog! Good on you mate!" he slapped his arm enthusiastically. "Do you know protection charms?"
Ron's face fell. He was so caught up in the prospect of the possibility of sex, that he didn't think of the actual thing.
"Shit, shit, shit. Fuck me." He swore.
"That's what she said." Neville quipped, finally finding a good use of the phrase Harry was so fond of. Harry barked in laughter and Neville looked pleased with himself. Ron was, however, white as a sheet, and didn't even seem to have heard Neville.
"Harry, mate, you gotta teach me that charm." He pleaded, and Harry suddenly remembered Ron's performance nervousness in quidditch.
"Ron, mate, I need you to be completely honest with me, alright?" Ron nodded violently, looking a bit green. "Have you ever had sex before?" Ron nervously shook his head. Makes sense, Harry thought, he wouldn't be this nervous if he wasn't a virgin.
"Alright, I need you to tell me exactly how far you went with Hermione, and please don't feel any need to be too graphic in your description as she's a friend of mine."
Ron nodded and thought for a while. "I guess we kissed a few times and this one time there was some… groping. Over the clothes, though. And by that I mean I was the one groping, she kinda… stood there." He finished, his face red as a tomato. Harry grimaced. Maybe he should give Hermione some pointers on making out. But then again, he valued his life too much to do that, so maybe not.
"Alright, here's the deal. There are certain things you need to keep in mind-"
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After Sex Ed 101, Harry helped Neville get ready with Ron somehow completely oblivious to his date with Ginny in less than an hour. He came back to the Head's dorm and found Daphne and Astoria lounging on the common room. Noticing him, as if on a reflex, Daphne called "Hey, Harry."
Harry stopped and looked at Daphne, whose eyes grew as big as saucers for a moment before she quickly changed her expression to blank and turned away.
"Hello, Daphne. Hello, smaller version of Daphne." He nodded at both, the latter of which looked at him like he had three heads instead of replying. Of course, being a prefect herself, Astoria was not unfamiliar with the Head Boy by any means, but he usually left dealing with Slytherins to Daphne, and did not really interact with the younger Greengrass to any significant extent. Leaving Daphne to deal with her sister, he went back to his room.
As soon as his door closed, Astoria turned to Daphne with a raised eyebrow.
"Harry, is he now?" She asked nonchalantly and Daphne wanted to kick herself mentally. She waved a hand at the door.
"Oh you share a dorm with someone for so long with no one else around, you eventually come to a first name terms." She explained airily.
"I thought you guys hexed each other every time you saw the other?" Astoria was still suspicious. Her sister knew how to hold a grudge, and this was not normal behaviour for her.
"We are not fifteen anymore, Tori. With NEWTs and Head duties, neither of us have the time or energy to keep hexing each other. Besides, it gets boring after a while when you see each other literally all the time." Daphne explained, hoping Tori would accept that and leave the topic. It wasn't that she was ashamed of being friendly with Harry, she simply didn't want to explain how they became so, and nor did she want to answer any questions that came after that.
"In fact, we are going to Hogsmeade together." She said without thinking how it sounded, and almost winced when her sister gaped at her.
"You guys are dating?" She exclaimed and Daphne hoped Harry had his earphones in his ears.
"No, no, no! Not like that. He's going to introduce me to his mum, who used to be a spell crafter. I am writing a paper on spell crafting and she said she would be happy to discuss her work with me. He probably won't be there after introducing us."
Astoria seemed to calm down after that. "I should introduce you two, wait here." Daphne got up, hoping that talking with Harry would help to emphasize the fact that they were just flatmates who were not fighting each other like they did before. She knocked on Harry's door, and it opened for her on its own. Taking a mental note to ask Harry about that, she entered and saw Harry looking up from a book he was reading.
"What's up?" He asked.
"Er… I wanted to introduce you with Astoria, would you mind?"
"Sure, does she like coffee? I was about to pour myself a cup." He asked, getting up.
"I'm not sure. I don't actually know if she had coffee before." Daphne admitted. Harry poured three cups anyway and handed one two to Daphne as he came out, holding his cup.
"Harry, this is Astoria. Tori, this is Harry. Do you want coffee?" She asked the last part to her sister who shrugged and took the cup.
"We have met before." She announced, taking a sip of the beverage. Not bad.
"Yes, we attend the prefect meetings. Unsurprisingly, Blondie does not seem to remember that." Harry replied sarcastically.
"No, I meant before I was made a prefect." Astoria smirked as she saw Harry subtly trying to glare at her.
"Really? When?" Daphne asked in surprise. She knew Harry had a few friends from her house, but she didn't know that he knew Astoria, given that she was two years younger than both of them. And she definitely noticed Harry trying to glare at her sister.
"Oh a few years ago. In the hospital wing." Astoria replied casually, enjoying this entirely too much.
"Did we? I don't really remember anything like that. So which year are you in, Astoria? Second?" He tried to steer the conversation away but Astoria was grinning at this point.
"We did. Daphne was in Hospital Wing due to having boils all over her face and you came to check in on her."
"You promised not to tell." He whined, giving up on keeping it a secret.
"You came to visit me?" Daphne asked with raised eyebrows, secretly amused and feeling quite content all of a sudden.
"I just wanted to see how hideous you looked." He explained.
"You looked pretty upset." Astoria pointed out.
"Because she didn't look hideous enough. And you were too young to know how I looked at that time. Weren't you ten?"
"They don't let you come to Hogwarts before eleven." Daphne interjected.
"Just admit it, you were a sissy and thought you hurt Daphne too badly." Astoria mocked him. Harry glared.
"Hey, even if I don't hex your sister every day, I still have the energy to hex another Greengrass girl for the rest of the year. You feeling up for it?" He challenged and Astoria gulped. While she was a fifth year and considered herself pretty clever, Harry Potter was the Head Boy and had a reputation.
"Daphne will help me, won't you?" She turned to her sister for confirmation who shook her head, silently laughing.
"Hey don't go pulling me between your petty rivalry. It's every man and woman for themselves."
Astoria gave her a look of pure betrayal as Harry gave an overdramatic evil laugh.
"Can't trust a Slytherin. Very important life lesson." Harry said, as if imparting a great word of wisdom to the young Greengrass girl. Daphne fired a hex at him, which he deflected without looking.
"Anyway, I gotta go. I have plans for the day." Astoria stood up, handed her empty coffee cup to Harry. "Thanks for that. See you Daph. Harry Potter." She nodded and left.
"So when should we leave?" Daphne asked, getting up herself. Harry looked at his watch.
"Mum should be there within half an hour. Should we meet at Three Broomsticks?" He asked, thinking about how she probably didn't want to be seen going with him to Hogsmeade.
"No need. I'll meet you here in ten minutes."
As they went to their respective rooms, Harry found his mirror calling his name.
"Hey mum."
"Hi, love. Just called you to tell you that I'll be there within an hour. It's a bit later than I planned, but something came up. Will it be a problem?"
"No, it's quite alright."
"Good. And do you have any plans while I talk with Daphne?"
"I don't know. I guess I'll find if anyone is around and hang out with them. Why?"
"Oh alright then. Melanie was asking if she could come and visit you. Can you show her around while we talk?" Harry smiled at the thought of showing his little sister around the magical town.
"Of course, bring her along. I'd love to see her."
"Wonderful. See you in an hour then." She waved at him.
As the two Heads met in their common room, Harry informed her that his mum would be a little late and she said it was alright. She needed to do some shopping anyway. They went down to the Great Hall and saw Blaise Zabini and Tracey Davis reaching for the door at the same time they did. Apparently, they were going on a date together. Daphne explained how she was about to interview Harry's mother to Tracey, as Harry and Blaise talked with each other as they all went to get a carriage. Harry saw Ron leading Lavender Brown and gave him a cheeky thumbs up. Ron grinned, but then quickly looked away as he realised Harry was with three Slytherins.
They reached Hogsmeade soon enough, and Blaise and Tracey went their own way toward Madam Puddifoots.
"What did you have to shop for?" Harry asked Daphne.
"Let's go to that store first." She pointed at what looked like a clothing store. He seriously hoped she was not going to shop for clothes with him, because if she did, he would rather roam around his own.
"What for?" He asked suspiciously, as they entered the shop.
"I owe you a blanket. Let's get that first."
Harry was pleasantly surprised. He had been meaning to ask for that back, anyway.
"Oh thanks, I was about to ask you to return it. You don't have to get me a new one."
"You're not getting that one back. It's way too comfortable. And why did you want it back anyway? Wasn't this your spare blanket?"
He looked at her incredulously. "Who the hell carries a spare blanket? That was my only blanket!"
"What?" She almost shouted. "How did you sleep? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"I used warming charms before going to bed. It's not a big deal." He waved his hand.
"But warming charms wear off after a few hours!"
"Yeah but I don't sleep long enough for it to matter much. And I can always recast it if I feel chilly. Really, it's nothing." He tried to wave it away, wishing he hadn't said anything. Daphne was clearly feeling guilty, and he felt bad for causing that.
"Do you guys want something or-" the shopkeeper asked.
"Get me the most comfortable blanket you have." Daphne ordered. The shopkeeper nodded and went to the back.
"Thank you, Harry." She asked, sentimentality creeping into her voice.
"What for?"
"For being who you are." She said quietly, as a heavy silence cut into the room around them. Harry didn't know what to say. He finally decided he shouldn't say anything, and reached out for her hand to give it a squeeze, a silent acknowledgement of the moment between them.
"Will these work?" The shopkeeper came back with three blankets, and Daphne chose a cream-coloured one and asked it to be delivered to the Head's Dorm.
They went to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop to stock up on stationery and then went on to Tomes and Scrolls to browse some books. Losing track of time, Harry felt his mirror vibrate.
"Harry, we're here. Where are you?" His mother asked.
"Oh, we're on our way. Wait for a bit." He answered and informed Daphne that they had to leave. She quickly paid for a book and they apparated right in front of The Three Broomsticks. Harry entered the pub and was pleasantly surprised to see not only his mother and sister, but his father and godfather as well. Daphne nervously followed behind him.
"Dad! Sirius! I didn't know you were coming." He said before hugging his mum and sister and then throwing a punch towards Sirius's stomach, which he dodged. His father slapped his back affectionately.
"We were in the house when Lily said that she was meeting you, and we decided to tag along. We're not here for long though. Just saying hullo."
Harry turned at Daphne and introduced everyone.
"Daphne, this is my dad, James Potter. That old dog over there is Sirius Black, my godfather. This is my mum, Lily Potter, and that kitten over there is Melanie Potter, my little sister. Every one, this is Daphne Greengrass, Head Girl from Slytherin."
A chorus of 'hi, how are you doing?' rained down as Daphne shook the adults' hands and patted Melanie's cheeks.
"Mum used to be Head Girl as well. And Dad was the Head Boy." He informed Daphne who looked mildly surprised.
"Is she the one you asked me to look up blonde jokes for?" Sirius stage whispered as Daphne blushed. James snickered while Lily smacked Sirius on the back of his head.
"Yeah, that's me." Daphne admitted sportingly, as Harry kicked Sirius in the shin and the mutt let out a yelp. Lily handed Harry a medium sized box.
"Here's your stuff. Don't shrink it."
Harry nodded as he asked Rosmerta, the pub owner, to keep it for him. He would take it with him when they left.
After exchanging some pleasantries, James and Sirius said that they had to leave. Harry stood up with them, picking Mel up and seating her on top of his shoulders and let the two witches get on their discussion.
As they walked out of the pub, Harry put up a privacy charm around them, excluding Melanie, who was just too young to understand what they were talking about anyway.
"So how's the rat?" He asked casually and the two men smirked.
"Alive." James replied. Harry raised an eyebrow.
"For now." Sirius added, before giving a toothy grin. "It's more fun that way."
Harry nodded. He could understand that.
"So who else did you get?"
"Yaxley. He and the rat gave us a whole lot of information but Voldemort's pretty smart. As soon as they realised that these two were missing, they relocated almost every major hideout. We raided Malfoy's house clean though. That's where the rat was hiding before we caught him."
"So their info was worthless?"
"Not totally, we caught some unbranded people that did business with Death Eaters or were sympathetic. We also raided one safe house, but it was mostly new recruits, so we had to let them go after erasing their memory.
"Ministry still not helping?" Harry asked darkly.
"Infiltrated to the core. We are still not sure if Fudge is really that incompetent or under the Imperius. He could be a Death Eater as well, but that doesn't seem likely." Sirius answered.
"Anything I can do?" Harry asked, as they stood near the Post Office.
"Keep an eye out. Especially the older Slytherins and Ravenclaws. We heard rumours that Voldemort has a spy in the school. Not from a reliable source, but it doesn't hurt to be careful. Ask Neville to keep an eye out as well. He would be the second most important target in school after Dumbledore."
"Alright, I'll tell Neville."
The two older men nodded at Harry as he took down the privacy charms, and said goodbye to Melanie, who was getting bored, and disapparated with a crack.
"Ready to see Hogsmeade, Mel?" Harry asked, as he put on a warming charm on his sister.
"Yeah!" The little girl shouted, finally happy to get some attention.
"Okay, let's go to Honeydukes first then and let your brother spoil you."
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Harry returned with Melanie almost two hours later. They tasted a lot of candies in Honeydukes. Harry knew his mum wouldn't be happy, but as a big brother it was his duty to spoil his little sister. They visited the Post, where Mel got a kick out of all the owls perched there. After, he showed her the Shrieking Shack and told her how it was believed to be haunted. Melanie was a bit too young to even understand what a haunted house meant, though. Finally, they went to Zonko's, which was Melanie's favourite by far. She really enjoyed the joke products, and Harry bought her a clown mask that made funny faces and blew raspberries at nearby people.
They saw many of Harry's friends during the tour, including Hermione, who tried to lecture Melanie about the history of Hogsmeade before Harry reminded her that Mel was three and Hermione had blushed, looking embarrassed. They also saw Dean Thomas with a younger Hufflepuff girl, Seamus with a Ravenclaw he could not place, Susan, Hannah and Justin hanging out near a tree, and finally Neville and Ginny, who were both smiling broadly. Ginny played with Mel for a while as Harry and Neville watched. They admitted that they were having a good time, but still promised to get Harry back for the kitchen incident. He spotted Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle talking with an older man, and he decided to watch out for Malfoy, remembering what his dad and Sirius told him.
They returned to The Three Broomsticks to find that Hermione and Su Li had joined Daphne and his Mum, all in the middle of an animated discussion. The siblings joined the scholarly women and Harry gathered that they were discussing about the limits of magical healing. Their lunch was just being served and Harry ordered sandwich and butterbeer for him as well. Mel was already full from eating candies, for which his mum glared at him, and they all ate amid light conversation.
Soon, Lily had to go and she firmly took the check, ignoring the protests from the three girls. Bidding goodbye to all of them, she left with Melanie, who looked about to cry when Harry kissed her cheek and ruffled her hair. She wouldn't apparate or take a portkey with Melanie, so she went to the Hogsmeade Station to catch the Knight Bus, and with that, Hermione and Su Li went their own ways. Harry and Daphne roamed around for a while, before Harry collected his box from Rosmerta and decided to call it a day.
The pair decided to walk to school instead of taking a carriage. Mostly, they talked about Harry's family. Daphne was a huge fan of Lily Potter. Though she didn't really believe in all the pureblood supremacy stuff like some of her Slytherin classmates, she was surprised that a muggleborn woman had such a deep understanding of magic and its workings. In the short while she had talked to her, Daphne had learned more about spell crafting and magic than months of reading numerous books.
"I didn't actually know that you had a younger sister." Daphne admitted, entering the Great Hall.
"It's okay, not a lot of people know actually. You don't have another sibling, do you?"
"No, it's just the two of us. You seem to be pretty close with your sister?"
"I love her." He admitted. "She's precious. I think I'm gonna be one of those overprotective older brothers who hexes any boy daring to look at his sister. She might hate me for it when she's older." He grinned.
They reached their common room to find a bag that contained Harry's new blanket. He thanked her again and then put the box his mother brought on the table.
"What's this?" Daphne asked curiously, as he opened the box.
"It's for you. I asked mum to bring it along with her."
The box contained his old CD player. It was bigger than his current one and had headphones attached to it. It was in pristine condition.
For a long time, Daphne looked torn, unable to articulate how to say thank you for the thoughtful gift. Emotion bubbled in her throat.
"Thank you, Harry." She finally managed, "You are the best kind of friend someone could hope for." Hesitantly, she stepped forward and pulled him into a hug.
How about that!
"So you were so worried about me that you visited me in the hospital wing?" she asked, mischievously, as she let go of him.
Harry groaned.
A/N: There you go, a bigass chapter. Because I am not going to update again for a while. Just kidding. Or am I? Reviews will help me decided for sure.