A/N: I'm back again! I know this is later than I promised, and I apologize for the delay, but I wasn't happy with the chapter at first and along with my beta slucas123, had to rework a large part of it. I will try to get back on the usual Saturday routine from next week onward.
16. Perfection
"I heard you are looking for people with certain beliefs and… talents?" a hooded figure asked, sliding next to a burly looking man. The man did not look at the newcomer, taking a heavy swig from his glass instead.
"Where did you hear that?" he asked in a bored voice.
"From a stray rat I met a long time ago." Came the reply. The burly looking man sharply looked at the speaker. His face was hooded, but a beard was visible. His voice was deep and rough.
"Where did you meet this rat? Sounds dodgy to me." The man asked, one hand slowly inching towards his wand.
"In an interrogation cell that the ministry did not know about. And relax, if I wanted to catch you or your friends, I have the address of your home and your… workplace." The hooded man said and was amused to see the other man's forehead sweating.
"And I should believe you why?" He snarled, wand out of his pocket but still out of his sight. The hooded man sighed.
"No reason other than the fact that I even know Patricia's address, and she is still alive." He said casually, looking around.
"I don't know who you're talking about." The burly man said, now looking deeply troubled.
"Come now, Michael. We all have a mistress or two for recreation, no need to get defensive. Now, here's the deal. I will let you walk free and we will forget that we ever met. In exchange, you give me the address to your pal Rookwood's home. How about that?"
The man named Michael tried to apparate away but realized that he couldn't. The hooded man shook his head.
"Look, I don't want to make a scene, so let's take a walk. I promise I won't hurt you unless you give me a reason to."
Michael agreed immediately. He had three bodyguards who were waiting outside. The two men walked outside and Michael looked around for the idiots, who were nowhere to be seen.
"Looking for the guard dogs? They took a walk. I didn't want to be interrupted." The hooded man said, pretending to not have seen the wild panic in Michael's eyes.
This might turn out to be fun. Lily Potter thought, taking a swig of polyjuice potion from a scent-masking flask and grabbing the Death Eater recruiter by the neck, where a tiny needle pricked his skin and injected a potion to his body.
Ioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioio
Daphne was getting a bit annoyed at Harry. It was training time half an hour ago and Harry still hadn't showed up in the dorm. He was probably still hanging out with his Gryffindor friends and forgot about training, she thought. Although he never ditched her without prior notice it was possible that he was too tired from the Quidditch training. He did mention that Ginny worked them hard. For his sake, this better not be because he thought she needed a break from training. Because she was completely fine. Maybe a little apprehensive about NEWTs, but otherwise completely fine.
It was way past the curfew and if he didn't return soon, even she wouldn't be able to get out breaking the rules, which she didn't want to do unless Harry was with her. Her annoyance had slowly turned into worry and she checked into his room to see if he had slipped in without her notice. She knew perfectly well that it wasn't possible but was still disappointed when his room was empty.
She went to the Room of Requirement next, wondering if he was training alone. Once again she was disappointed and quite worried when the training room was empty. Harry had explained to her that the Room wouldn't work if anyone else was already using it, so he wasn't here either.
She called him in his mirror, wondering why she didn't think to do that earlier. As the mirror still showed her worried reflection after calling him a few times, she was genuinely scared. She thought about checking the kitchen, but she knew that he wouldn't stay there for this long. Gathering her courage to the fullest, she decided to go inside the Gryffindor common room, alone for the first time. She was met with a few guarded looks as both her Slytherin colours and her Head badge were clearly visible. She looked around and found Neville and Ron Weasley playing chess by the fireplace. No sign of Harry. Thankfully, Neville saw her.
"Um… hi, Daphne. Did you need something?" He asked. Daphne had to try very hard to not let the habit of putting on the 'mask', as Harry dubbed it, in the face of a frowning Ron Weasley.
"Can I talk to you over here for a moment, Neville?" She asked, knowing that Neville was probably the only guy Harry would trust if he was pulling something and didn't want to discuss it in front of the Weasley guy. Neville nodded and got up but Ron Weasley hissed at him, which sounded suspiciously like 'She's a snake!' but Daphne ignored it for now. Neville waved him off and went over to where Daphne was standing, right beside the entrance.
"What's up? Where's Harry?" Neville asked as they were out of earshot. Daphne's heart fell.
"That was what I was about to ask you. Isn't he here?" She asked, trying to keep her worry out of her voice.
"He came in with the team after training and talked to Ginny for a while, but he left hours ago. Isn't he back yet?" Neville asked with concern. Of course, Harry often ventured out in the night, but from what he had told him, he did that to train now, and he also knew that Daphne was aware of his training.
"No. He is usually back long before this, but I looked all over for him already."
Neville thought hard, imagining the places where Harry could be. Everything he thought of at first was somehow associated with pranking Daphne like he used to do all the years before this one, so they had to be discarded.
"Is your birthday coming up by any chance?" Neville asked, hoping that he wasn't ruining a surprise.
"No, my birthday is in August."
Neville was slightly pleased at that because Harry would have kicked his arse if he ruined a surprise. Suddenly, he had an idea.
"Why don't you check that Map of his? The Marauder's Map?" He almost cried out and Daphne slapped her forehead. Why hadn't she thought of this earlier?
"Can you come outside with me for a moment? I don't want to summon it in front of everyone."
"Sure. I wouldn't get into trouble for this, right?" He checked.
"It's alright, you are with me." She assured him before summoning the map. She quickly opened it, but it was blank.
"It needs to be activated." Neville explained, tapping his wand on the map and saying the activation phrase, I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.
Daphne would've been impressed if she did not have more pressing matters in her mind. They both searched the map before Neville pointed at a footprint.
"There he is, Harry Potter. Looks like he is in that third floor corridor Fluf… that was banned in our first year." He quickly corrected himself and was thankful that Daphne was too worried about Harry to notice the slip up. Quickly they made their way to the door where Fluffy once resided, and Neville opened the door with an unlocking charm.
The room was empty at first glance but staring at the spot where the map said Harry was, Daphne noticed a distortion of air.
"There! He is disillusioned!" She called before casting the counter charm, revealing an unconscious Harry. Seeing the state Harry was in, Daphne's head spun and her breathing stopped for a moment.
"Blimey!" Neville muttered, quickly freeing him of the ropes and the gag. Daphne quickly checked his pulse to see that it was steady but slow. Casting a diagnostic charm that Lily had taught her this holiday, she found that he had numerous bruises and flesh wounds, and even what seemed like a few cracked ribs, but was losing a lot of blood.
"Should we take him to the hospital wing?" Daphne asked with a shaken voice. Neville shook his head.
"Someone clearly attacked him and Harry would kill us if we took him to the hospital wing in this state. Besides, the attackers are still probably out there, and he won't be safe."
Daphne knew that as well, and although she knew that he really should be visiting Madame Pomfrey, she was fairly confident that she could take care of the initial damage.
"Alright, we take him back to the dorm, and I think I can patch him up. Can you please levitate him while I put on some bandages to stop his blood loss?"
While he did as asked Daphne wrapped him in bandages like a mummy because of the sheer number of cuts he had. She hoped they wouldn't leave permanent scars, because that would be a lot of scars.
As they went outside the room after cleaning the blood on the floor, Daphne noticed in the map that Filch was coming towards them and she quickly checked her watch to see that even her curfew was over. She might be able to talk her way out of trouble from the caretaker, but Neville couldn't.
"Neville! Filch is coming this way. You take the map and get back to your common room, I'll take care of Harry." She commanded, already shoving the map to his hands.
"But Harry needs help-" He started to protest but Daphne stopped him.
"If we get caught, we can't help him anyway. You go, I will take care of Harry."
Neville nodded, and after checking the map, he quickly went on his way, leaving Daphne with Harry's unconscious body. She quickly disillusioned him and put a notice-me-not charm on him and levitated him high. With all set, she ran towards Filch.
"You are-" the caretaker started but Daphne quickly cut him off.
"Did you catch them?" She almost shouted, surprising the man.
"Catch who?" He asked, looking around.
"I saw three students out of bed during my patrol and I was chasing them. They went in that direction you came from. Didn't you see them?"
The ruse worked well and Filch quickly hobbled beside Daphne in the hope of finding a student out of bounds. Ironically, Daphne knew that Neville was the only student out of bounds right now, and she was leading Filch to the exact other way he was moving.
"We should split up, Mr. Filch. I'll take that way and you go that way." She said, and was pleased to see Filch nod and take the way that led even further from the Gryffindor common room and the Head's dorm, where she was heading. She just hoped Neville would reach his common room safely.
As she entered her common room, she quickly transfigured a couch to a healer's table. She vanished the bandages off and blood started to pour from him once again. She quickly removed all his clothes except his boxers and tried to be as professional as possible. One by one, she started healing the cuts. She did so with extreme care, very careful not to leave a scar. It took a long time to heal each wound that way, but Daphne didn't care.
Daphne had forgotten to tell the portrait to ask for permission before letting anyone in, so Neville and Ginny came in the Heads' dorm early in the morning to see a horrifying picture. Daphne was leaning on a healer's table, sleeping amongst a pool of blood and bandages and Harry was on top of the table, caked in dry blood but with no visible wounds. It took Ginny all her willpower to not shriek at the scene.
Neville, looking quite shocked, called Daphne a few times before her eyes fluttered and woke with a start. She let out a yelp when she noticed the blood covering her before she remembered last night and quickly checked on Harry. She had healed all the cuts and had decided to rest a little before cleaning up, but she must have been pretty tired because she apparently fell asleep.
"Is Harry okay?" Ginny asked carefully, and Daphne nodded, cleaning up the blood and vanishing the bandages.
"Ginny thought he might need some blood replenishing potions, so we nicked some from the hospital wing on our way." Neville offered a case of vials, and Daphne accepted it gratefully.
"Thank you. I was about to go to the hospital wing to get some myself, but somehow I fell asleep." She explained, as she cleaned up Harry's body and, with a blush cleaned his bloodied boxers as well.
"He was bleeding all over last night. Why doesn't he have any scars?" Neville asked as he came closer. Harry looked pale with a few bruises, but otherwise completely fine.
"I healed them carefully to not leave any scars." Daphne explained, stifling a yawn.
"Merlin, that takes a lot of time! When did you sleep?" Ginny asked.
"I'm not sure. Last I checked the time, it was 5:10. What time is it now?" She asked, casting a Tempus charm. It was 5:45 am.
"You almost haven't slept at all. Go sleep now, We'll feed him the potions." Neville said but Daphne protested.
"No, it's alright. I don't plan to attend any classes today anyway. I'll sleep when he is a bit stable. Can you get me some bruise ointment and a small vial of Skele-Gro? I still haven't healed his cracked ribs."
The two looked like they wanted to protest, but quickly realized that none of them knew how to heal a cracked rib. Daphne brought them Harry's invisibility cloak and asked them to be quick. As they left, she fed him the blood replenishing potions and then worked on realigning his broken ribs. She had stunned him beforehand, because even if he was already unconscious, there was a chance that he would have woken up from the pain.
Ginny and Neville took their time and when they returned, they also brought some food with them, for both Harry and Daphne. Daphne fed the potions to Harry and applied the ointment on his bruises and then reluctantly ate some food. Harry was stable for now, and Neville and Ginny practically forced her to get some sleep. Daphne reluctantly agreed, and asked them to wake her up when they left for classes. They did not look sincere when they agreed, but Daphne was too tired to say anything about it. Before she could lift her legs into bed, she was asleep.
Ioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioio
When Daphne woke up, she felt her blanket on top of her. She noticed it because she remembered wishing that she could summon things wandlessly like Harry because she was too exhausted to take out her wand and do it.
She looked around to see Harry sleeping in the chair in front of her. Silently, she propped herself up but Harry woke up anyway. He set up a ward to alert him when she woke up, Daphne realized.
"Hey you." He greeted her as she sat up.
"Hi. How are you feeling?" She asked.
"A but tired and quite hungry, but completely fine otherwise. You want to sleep some more?" He asked and she shook her head. It was four in the evening, she noticed.
"Why aren't you resting?" She asked. He shrugged.
"I did. Neville woke me up at noon to feed me and told me that you were sleeping after healing countless cuts on my body without leaving a scar for the whole night. So I came to check on you and saw that your upper body was on the bed and your legs were on the floor, sleeping like a rock. So I waited for you to wake up and fell asleep myself."
"I am on the bed and I have a blanket on top of me." She pointed out. Harry looked a bit embarrassed.
"Not the first time I tucked you to bed, is it?" He asked, looking a little pink, and she laughed.
"No, certainly not. I clearly remember that you picked me up and threw me around like I was a book. A number of times, I might add."
"Some might take it as a compliment when they are not considered heavy." He joked, but then his face got more serious. "Besides, it was the least I could do for patching me up for the whole night. I can't thank you enough for what you did." He said sincerely, reaching out a hand to squeeze her hand gently and kissed it. Daphne blushed prettily.
"It's alright. You would've done the same for me." She said and Harry nodded. "Did you see who it was?" she asked, changing the topic.
"No. Whoever it was attacked from behind. They knocked me out before doing whatever they did, so I have no idea who it was. You didn't tell anyone else, did you?" He asked and she shook her head. "Thanks. I don't want to worry Mum or give them the satisfaction to know that they achieved something from the attack."
"Neville figured that you wouldn't want to go to the hospital wing for the same reason, though I was tempted."
"Thank you for that. I wouldn't have blamed you if you did, though. Ginny said you were lying in a pool of blood when they came to check on me in the morning." Daphne shrugged. It was true.
"I will have to find the culprits and make sure they are forced to eat through a straw for a month or two." She said, getting out of bed and heading towards the washroom.
"Sometimes I forget how scary you can be." Harry admitted quietly and heard her laugh from the bathroom. "Are you hungry?"
She came out of the bathroom, her face looking fresher. "Ravenous. Why?"
"Put on some muggle clothes. I am going to buy you dinner." He said and Daphne raised an eyebrow.
"Are you asking me out on a date?" She asked teasingly. Harry grinned at first but his mind quickly told him to grab the chance while it was still on the table. His face turned solemn and he stood directly in front of her. She looked startled at his change in demeanour.
"You know what? I am! Daphne, would you like to go out on a date with me?" He asked seriously and Daphne's face was torn between a laugh and suspicion. She was waiting for him to cry out that he was having her on, but he continued looking at her expectantly, his face completely serious.
"Are you… serious?" She asked carefully, not actually sure if he was joking or not.
"As serious I can be without turning to a dog." Harry replied solemnly and Daphne let out a nervous laugh, still waiting for him to shout 'got you' or something similar. "Well?" He prompted, as she was still staring at him. She finally realized that he was being serious, and it didn't take her long to answer.
"Yes." She said with a smile, her face pink, and he beamed widely.
"Wonderful. You know what, dress up. We are going somewhere fancy." He said and she laughed.
"Alright, but why?"
"Because it's our first date, and first dates should be special." He announced, and Daphne blushed again. She tried to remember the last time she blushed this much one day. It was probably back in… never.
Ioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioio
"How far do we have to walk?" Daphne asked as soon as they appeared in a quiet alley in London.
"A few minutes, why?" Harry asked.
"Just asking." Daphne said with a smile. She hoped her new heels would not hurt too much. She did not usually wear heels, but since Harry asked her to dress up, she had decided to be a little vain. Clearly it was working because Harry had been glancing at her every few seconds and she was relishing his adoring gaze.
As if reading her mind, Harry looked down at her feet and discreetly cast a cushioning charm on her feet. Daphne looked at him questioningly.
"How did you know?" She asked, a little bewildered.
"You were walking on your toes." Harry said with a laugh and she blushed.
"Thanks. I don't wear heels often. I never would have thought to do that."
"It's okay. I learned it from Tonks. She is a family friend who is really clumsy. She complains that cushioning charms messes up her balance. But we all know she doesn't have much balance to start with."
"Well thank you anyway. Where are we headed?" She asked as they reached an intersection.
"This way." He guided her and she noticed a sign reading King Street.
They walked in comfortable silence for a minute before Harry slowed down. Daphne's first reaction was mildly underwhelming. The entrance to the restaurant looked just like any other cosy restaurant in London, albeit being a bit nicer. It was probably the red Gryffindor colours that made it seem less impressive, she thought.
Harry gestured his hand invitingly and opened the door for Daphne, and she entered with a smile. Her eyes slowly grew large as she took in the interior of the restaurant. It was probably the most beautiful place she had ever seen. The place was decorated in warm rosewood furniture covered by vines, flowers and leaves hanging from above. With a soft light coming from above, it looked like a scene straight out of a dream sequence.
"Wow!" She whispered quietly, as she felt Harry gently clasping her hand.
"You like it?" Harry asked quietly. She turned towards him and was slightly amused to see that he looked a little nervous.
"I love it." She beamed and was rewarded with a large smile from Harry.
A man approached them with a smile.
"Welcome to the Clos Maggoire. Do you have a reservation?" He asked. Harry stepped forward.
"I don't, but do you happen to have any seats available? My Godfather, Sirius Black speaks very highly of this place."
"Mr. Black is one of our most prominent customers indeed." The man replied with a tone of respect. "Any friend and family to him is always welcome. We will get you seated right away, sir."
The man led them to an empty seat and a waiter soon came in with the menu.
Harry let Daphne order for both of them, while he chose wine for them.
"This is such a great place! I'm glad we did this." She gushed and Harry looked pleased with himself.
"It's nothing. You just saved my life. Compared to that, I can't do anything that would come even close." He replied sincerely and her smile fell at the mention of the earlier incident.
"I honestly don't know how I managed to keep a cool head. I almost fainted when I saw the state you were in. I have never seen so much blood in my whole life."
"You were outstanding. After I woke up, I checked myself and there was nothing more even Pomfrey could do better than you did. I couldn't have kept a cool head in your situation and performed such extensive medical charms without freaking out. You were truly brilliant." Harry said passionately and Daphne gave a grimace.
"I was scared out of my wits the whole time." She admitted. "I just knew I had to keep going for both of our sake."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked and Daphne sighed embarrassedly.
"Well I have grown to really like you for the last few weeks, and while I am not that superficial, I didn't want you to have any physical imperfections that I could actually prevent."
Harry was quiet for a few moments. It was not often that he was left lost for words but this was definitely one of those moments.
"I don't know what to say." He finally managed, reaching out across the table and taking her hands into his. "I have liked you for a while now, and I can't imagine not having you around all the time."
Daphne was about to reply, but a vibration interrupted her. She took out the mirror responsible and saw Astoria's face.
"Hey Tori, what's up?" Daphne answered her mirror as Harry put up a privacy charm around them.
"Where are you Daph? I have- wait, what are you wearing?" Astoria squinted at her sister, who blushed but quickly covered it up.
"Harry is buying me dinner, and we dressed up for it. You want something? The food is pretty good I hear."
"Sure. Bring some of whatever you are having. When will you be back?" Astoria asked, finding her sister's expression a little fishy.
"Not sure. How about I call you when we come back?" Daphne said and Astoria shrugged.
"Alright. Bye."
As the connection went off, Daphne looked at Harry with an embarrassed smile.
"Tori noticed that I was dressed up." She offered as he took down the privacy charm surrounding her.
"She would be blind not to. You look gorgeous. Have I mentioned that?" He offered with a wink.
"Not in the last ten minutes, but it's good to be reminded." Daphne said with a sly grin, but her cheeks were pink all the same. Harry flashed her a grin before they resumed eating.
"Can I ask you something?" Harry asked and she nodded. "We are going to have more dates, right?"
"Of course. If you want to, that is." She said with a pretty smile that made his insides do funny things.
"I definitely want to." He said with a smile and then continued in a mildly serious tone. "What are you going to tell Astoria about us dating?"
"I don't know. I really haven't thought that far." Daphne admitted. "I mean you kinda sprang it on me to be honest. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be more glad that you did, but what made you do it?"
"Well I've fancied you for a while now." Harry admitted, ducking his face to hide the heat on his face. "When we… er… kissed back at home, I thought it was a crush that went both ways. But you are one of my best friends and more importantly, you are a part of the family now, so I didn't want to risk what we have over some temporary fooling around. But when Neville told me what you have done for me, it even further solidified my feelings towards you. I really like you and when you were joking around, I saw an opportunity and I knew that I would be an idiot to let this chance go. I didn't really care if you said no, I just had to take a shot, you know. Fortunately, you didn't say no."
Daphne was quiet for a while and Harry was scared that he had scared her off.
"I really like you too, Harry." She finally said, and relief flooded Harry. "Since I caught that fever at the start of the term, I realized that you are a wonderful person and with everything you have and continue to do for me, you have almost forced me to like you more every day. So it wasn't really a hard decision to agree to you when I realized that you were really asking me out. I can't honestly say that I was hoping that you would ask me out. I'm not sure what I wanted, but I am very glad you did."
They looked at each other before Harry let out a small laughter.
"Damn, I need to hammer up some drywall to get in touch with my masculinity." He joked and Daphne smirked.
"Hmm. I loved your speech, but it still makes you a wuss."
Harry gaped at her. "You gorgeous bitch!"
"Shut up and kiss me."
"Yes, ma'am."
Ioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioio
Once the pair was back in Hogsmeade, Harry got a case of butterbeers from the Three Broomsticks for Neville and Ginny. When he climbed his broom, Daphne sat very close to him, and Harry's grip on his broom shook violently as her breasts pressed firmly to his back. She placed her chin on his shoulder, breathing down his ears, their cheeks touching.
"You're such a tease!" He complained, trying hard to remember how to even fly a broom again.
"You want me to move back a little?" She asked slyly.
"Sweet Merlin, no!" He almost cried and she gave him a peck on the neck, causing his insides to go off like a firework.
"That's what I thought." She said as they took off. Harry flew swiftly, not very fast. He didn't want this ride to end. Daphne didn't really mind preserving the moment, but she had something to say about the speed.
"Fly faster, you slowpoke. Have you ever flown over the Forbidden For-aaaagh!" She couldn't finish the statement as Harry took a sharp turn towards the Forest and shot ahead like a bullet.
"Yes, many times. I'll show you around. This speed works for you, or you want to go faster?"
"You can go faster than this?" She shouted, her hair flying behind her, bun loosened by the speed of air. In reply, Harry smirked at first, but then Daphne almost fell off in shock when he took his hands off the broom, gently guided her hand to the shaft of his broom (the actual broomstick, not the metaphoric one) and then in one fluid motion, turned about, riding the broom backwards. Her mouth was open in shock as he hooked his legs behind her, grabbed her waist with one hand and cupped her cheek with the other hand and pulled her into a kiss. She opened her mouth to let him in, and he immediately deepened the kiss, their tongues dancing wildly. She moaned in protest when he broke off the kiss and looked at her with a dangerous smile.
"Hold on tight, because this is going to be one hell of a ride." He spoke to her ears before he turned around once again, not even disturbing the motion of the broom a little and leaned forward. Daphne followed just in time, as the broom rocketed onwards, and Daphne realized with no small amount of incredulity, downwards towards the trees. She let out a scream as the broom went past a blur of trees and branches, and by some miracle, not hitting them even once. Quickly she hooked her legs in front of his legs, not trusting her hands alone to keep her on the broom. Harry rose above the branches and flew just above the surface of the trees. Daphne could see a river coming up in front of them as the Forbidden Forest ended, and a range of mountains beyond that.
"Let's stop by the river." She shouted into his ear and he shook his head.
"That's Bane's territory. He is not fond of humans." He shouted back, slowing down to turn around.
"What's a bane?" She asked.
"Centaur. We can fly over the river for a bit before he starts shooting arrows at us." Harry said, as he slowed down to a regular speed, gliding over the river. Daphne could see a few centaurs in the bank, pointing at them.
"How fast were we flying, Harry?" she asked, adrenaline coursing through her body.
"A little over 300 kilometers per hour, I guess" He replied, flying low enough for her feet to touch the calm water of the river. She took off her shoes, shrunk it, and asked him to put them in his pocket, before dipping her feet in the cool water.
"Turn around." She ordered him. She grabbed the hair on the back of his head and pulled him into a kiss, returning the favour he had done earlier. He had one hand inching down from the small of her back and she moaned, pressing her body into his. One of her hands that was on his thigh was travelling up as his hand went downwards, aiming for her bum, when a 'whoosh' sound went by their ears and Harry quickly turned to see that the broom was almost reaching the bank, where three centaurs were pointing their bows at them. He almost went down to deal with them, but stopped himself just in time. It was not really worth the hassle, especially when they could be expelled for not only going to the Forbidden Forest, but actually crossing it.
With another tender peck on her lips, Harry turned around and flew towards the boundary of the centaurs' territory.
"Wish I could pee on their boundary." He said, frowning at the cockblocking horse people.
"Not that I want you to do it, but why can't you do that?" Daphne asked. She was disappointed at being interrupted as well, but she hid it better than Harry.
"It might cause an inter-species diplomatic problem and more importantly, the pee could fly back to you if the wind is not in your favour."
Daphne laughed as Harry slowly sped up and flew over the Forest.
"This is Aragog's territory. We can make out here because they don't have bows and arrows." Harry joked.
"Who is Aragog?" She asked, enjoying the view and the wind on her face.
"Giant acromantula. Aragog was the leader and he was almost as large as our cottage. He died last year, and I don't know who the current leader is."
"How do you know all these?"
"I'm friends with Hagrid, and he is friends with almost every talking creature in the Forest. He is a good man. Weird sense of aesthetics, though. Reckons dragons and Blast-Ended-Skrewts are cute. Barmy, that one." He said with a fond shake of his head and Daphne smiled.
She almost whipped around when she saw a giant pair of feet below them and Harry was already far beyond it when she turned to have a look at the body.
"That's Grawp." Harry explained, knowing that Daphne had noticed. "He is Hagrid's half-brother. He is a secret, though. So you cannot tell anyone about him."
"He's a giant?" She asked, passing a group of hippogriffs. Harry nodded. They passed over an empty patch of grass.
"Can you see them?" He asked quietly, and she assumed that he was talking about thestrals.
"Thestrals? No. You can see them?"
Harry nodded, but did not elaborate and she did not press the matter. Soon, they were reaching the end of the forest and she could spot Hagrid's cabin when Harry twisted away and landed on top of the Astronomy tower.
She climbed off the broom when he signalled her, and she idly noticed that the broom hovered in mid-air even after the occupants had moved away from it.
"How long is it gonna stand there like that?" She asked and Harry shrugged.
"As long as I wish, I guess."
Harry sat on the edge of the tower and she took a seat right beside him.
"What are we doing here?" She asked curiously.
"Watching the sunset, mostly. Also a bit of remembering when you hung me up from here." He said with a smile and she laughed.
"Yeah that was fun." She said with a grin, but gave him a chaste kiss all the same.
"This is more fun." He said, taking her hand and interlinking their fingers together.
"Oh, I don't know. That was pretty fun, too." She teased and Harry laughed, gently elbowing her sides. She rested her head on his shoulders. "Harry?" She whispered as they saw the sun slowly dipping below the mountains.
"Hmm?"
"This has been the best first date in the history of first dates." She said softly.
"You deserve nothing less." He replied as he put an arm around him. "You are the most beautiful person in the whole world." He said softly and she giggled. "I can listen to your laughter all day. I can look at your smile forever."
"Aren't you a ball of fluff today?" She teased, softly giggling, but her cheeks were pink.
"Don't care." He answered, holding her tightly against him. She let out a content sigh. "Today I don't care about anything other than you." He said, following with a kiss on top of her head and holding her close.
"Me too." She whispered, as she leaned back into him. Their lives were full of ups and downs. Even this morning Daphne fell asleep in a pool of Harry's blood and Harry himself was still bearing the last remnants of a few scars that were slowly fading away. But none of that mattered right now.
Right now, everything was perfect.
A/N: Review please!