"Hmm…"
"Hmmmmmm…"
"Hmm…"
"My lord, if I may…" A cough came from the side and Harry turned his head to glance at Zabini, who had spoken just now.
The boy looked quite pale and shaky, and it was clear that he was on the brink of either slamming himself into a prostrating pose or running away in terror.
"Go ahead." Harry waved his hand with distracted motion as his attention was more or less entirely dedicated to the golden egg in his hands.
He was currently sitting in the Slytherin common room a few days after the 'dragon-killing-arena-battle' had ended, alongside a group of Slytherin students that tended to follow Malfoy around, and he was examining the 'clue' that the egg apparently was..
It was the weekend so the students were free to self-study in peace. Or rather, to laze about if what Harry had seen thus far was any indication.
The common room was quite empty outside that small group, while the rest of the Slytherin students who came and went didn't linger in the common room, and instead just scurried about while sending worried, calculating or outright reverent looks to Harry. However, outside the core group of Slytherin students like Nott and Blaise, no-one stuck around or approached Harry.
Harry attributed the nervousness of the other students partially to the fact that the Slytherin group around him kept sending quite icy glares to whoever approached them. But he didn't mind, as it gave him an opportunity to study the egg without too much distraction.
Of course, if Harry really wanted to crack the egg's secrets open by any means necessary, metaphorically or literally, he was fairly sure that he would have done so already and that he'd have a message from himself stating how he did it, or from where he would get the source information to open the egg so that he could write it back to himself, and that avoid a dangerous self-contained time-loop.
However, the egg was a very good chance for Harry to practice using Prime, as the Sphere of what was effectively 'magical detective-work' was not exactly his strong suit. In fact, Harry was fairly sure that his capability in that field was, and would be, awful, all things considered.
With hope, luck, metaphysical bullshittery, and a good roll of a dice, Harry at least hoped that he'd get a good grip on how, and what, and why the egg was enchanted the way it was- And since he was feeling quite pumped after the dragon-fight, he had plenty of Willpower to spend.
'So, it's a seamless but clearly mechanical and carved egg. Either it was made manually and it has a mechanic of some sort, or it has a magical requirement to open, or it was actually clutched by a dragon who probably currently has a very sore birth canal.' Harry turned the egg around one more time and decided to test his theory.
He rose up, put the egg into the sofa, and sat on top of it.
"M-my lord?" Blaise looked like he was having a moment as the boy was shaking quite hard.
"Yes, go ahead." Harry gave the boy a go-ahead, but Blaise seemed to shut up instead. And so Harry decided to go for a conversation-starter, seeing that he was going to have to sit on the egg for a while and he might as well chat while doing so. "Malfoy's still away in his, hm… 'Hogsmeade' trip, yes?"
"Yes, my lord! But other than that- If you require help of any sort, then I'll assist you in any way I can! Zabini family's doors are open for you!" Blaise jumped a bit and Harry sighed.
He recalled that Malfoy had said something about departing to gather up 'celebration equipment' from the small town that bordered Hogwarts, alongside a few of other Slytherin students such as his two bodyguards.
Apparently Cedric Diggory had a massive celebration after he had managed to grab his egg, even if the celebration had taken place in the Hospital Wing and had ended up after a very tired-looking madame Pomfrey had water-blasted the partying students out the hospital, like a fireman clearing up rubble with a firehose.
The Slytherin students had gotten quite nervous when they realized that they hadn't prepared anything like that for Harry's return, and Malfoy had gotten on his hands and knees to swear that he'd have a congratulation suitable for Harry's achievement.
Harry, naturally, had seen through Draco's subterfuge as the sentence could be translated as 'the celebration will be short, painful and deadly', much like how the dragon-slaying had gone.
Moreover, the group of Slytherin students around Harry seemed incredibly nervous, making Harry suspect that they were preparing themselves to ambush him.
"There's no need to stick to me if you have your own affairs to see to. Please, feel free to do whatever." Harry told the students with the same words he had used for the six or seven times before as Blaise had stated his 'loyalties' more than a few times.
However, as before, the Slytherin student group didn't budge from Harry's side despite his words, but only sweated a little bit harder. Which was also making Harry a bit nervous as it was clear that they had ulterior motives, further solidifying his 'murder-party' theory.
'I might have overdone it a bit with the plasma railgun.' Harry thought while he tried to use his body heat to hatch the egg and sat in a 'the thinker' pose on top of the egg, and gave up on trying to shoo the Slytherin students off. 'I read that the U.S army had been developing something like that so I went ahead and grabbed it… It might have been a bit of an overkill though. It looks like I graduated from a 'bullying target' into a 'threat', and that's not good…'
By the looks of it, the students were quite wary of Harry and were likely actively plotting for his demise, if he was analyzing the situation correctly. 'Hermetics are heavily tied to their rank system, so seeing someone jump the queue has most certainly ruffled some feathers… I should watch my back.'
The egg didn't seem to hatch from getting sat on, so Harry put the torso-sized egg into his pocket to stew while. 'The second Trial is in a couple of months, apparently, so I have all the Time in the world to work on the egg-issue. For now, I need to focus on my own survival above all else.'
"Right. What do you guys do during the free days? Weekends?" Harry asked Blaise and then Pansy, both of whom were quaking in front of him. "I'm probably heading to explore the castle or something like that, or head back to the Chamber of Secrets to meet someone. You're free to tag along, though. But I'd like to warn you- you may have to fight against Lord Voldemort if you do so."
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Blaise Zabini almost passed out in shock and terror as Lord Voldemort's son casually stated that he'll head for the fabled dungeon of Salazar Slytherin and meet his father there. 'Only the Heir of Slytherin can enter the Chamber of Secrets… Lord Voldemort was claimed to have entered it, and now Potter can enter it as well… And now he's saying that in the open! It's a clear, bold confirmation of what I suspected- That Harry is Voldemort's son! And that lord Voldemort is back!'
'Is this a warning? Or is he saying, 'look into my matters, and you'll only find death'? Why would Lord Voldemort be here and kill whoever followed Potter- ah. Of course- This is a test.' Blaise thought while his head spun and almost started to let out steam from stress and overthink. 'Is this a test about our loyalties? That we'd be unworthy if we deserted Lord Potter when he asked us to accompany him? In retrospect it'd make sense to test our loyalties- Lord Voldemort's followers scattered almost instantly when the rumors that Harry had 'defeated' him spread. I don't think Lord Voldemort told them that he'd depart to raise his son… Or perhaps he told his innermost council, who then didn't tell the less trustworthy Death Eaters about it. I think some like Bellatrix Lestrange kept fighting even after lord Voldemort was gone… '
Blaise thought about it in contrast to his previous interactions with Potter, and felt indecisive terror. 'On one hand, Lord Potter warned us that it'll be dangerous and told us to do what we wanted, and if we follow him we might get killed… However… if I think of this logically… What would Lord Voldemort get from entering Hogwarts? Dumbledore is here, and the Dark Lord is outnumbered…'
Blaise felt cold shivers run up his spine as he realized another possibility- That Potter was asking if anyone in the group felt arrogant enough to try to ask to enter the Chamber of Secrets and meet Lord Voldemort instead of doing as they were told, aka, to go about their own businesses instead of following Harry around.
'If Lord Voldemort isn't actually present, but Lord Potter is claiming that he is, and if we insist to go with him, wouldn't it signal to Lord Potter that we don't actually believe Lord Potter and want to see Lord Voldemort and the Chamber of Secrets with our own eyes- Something that only the Heirs of Slytherin are rightfully privy to? It'd be incredibly arrogant of us and would indirectly signal to Lord Potter that we didn't trust him… Which would effectively be our death sentence.' Blaise felt as if his head would overheat as he tried to find the path that would let him and his family escape with their lives from the trial that he faced.
He thought about sacrificing himself for a moment so that his mother would be spared if his earlier transgression was so much that it'd condemn his family as well as himself, but the fact Potter hadn't addressed only Blaise made him hold his words. 'If this is a test… I can't afford to fail this one! But what is the right answer?! To ask to accompany Potter or to not?!'
"Well, don't sweat it. I'll go and check the sights- Cya." Potter stood up, took a step forward while making a pirouette… And disappeared.
Blaise's stress peaked as he realized that he had taken too long to answer and Lord Potter had taken Blaise's silence as a refusal. But at the same time, there was a degree of relief in knowing that the crossroads had been passed- And if Blaise was correct in his suspicion, not going to the Chamber of Secrets with Lord Potter was the less wrong choice of the two.
Blaise collapsed on the floor as soon as Lord Potter disappeared from sight, and he wasn't the only one.
'One can't apparate inside Hogwarts- But… Of course Lord Voldemort's son could do so anyway. He killed a dragon with a single spell, of course he could come and go as he wished…' Blaise felt cold sweat trickle down his back while he struggled to get his thoughts under control, all the while he thanked his mother for teaching him to be in control over his mind and body via Occlumency- After all, many of his fellow Slytherins had failed to control their terror to the extent that Blaise managed to.
Pansy's eyes were bulging out of their sockets and she was holding her chest while lying flat on her back while having a panic attack, Theorore was catatonic, and the rest were somewhere in between the two states.
'Draco, that celebration you're planning… You better not hold back on the extravagance or we're finished!'
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Harry waddled out of the common room after masking his disappearance via spinning and using the motion to disguise him putting the Invisibility Cloak on himself.
The overly dramatic reaction to Harry's disappearance caused quite a few alarm bells to ring in Harry's head as he stepped over the pretend-catatonic students while cloaked from view by the invisibility cloak, and made his way towards the door out of the dorm.
A pair of Slytherin boys opened the door and creeped into the common room...
…And the pair saw the group of Slytherins students who were laying around in various states of shock and/or terror in the common room, and promptly let out a small 'eep' sound before running off.
Harry used the chance to slip out as the door was left open.
In truth he was fine just walking alone for a while because he needed to clear his head so that he could start to approach the egg-mystery from another angle, and if that didn't work, he would probably go see Myrtle again.
It'd be rude to just ghost her after she had passed out in the toilet after vomiting her guts out non-stop for two hours or so. Moreover, she might have some ideas on where to start working on the egg-problem- His Prime was so awful that he would need to get some sort of clue before he could even start trying to decipher the mystery.
"...Yeah, it's what I heard… I don't know what they were thinking, but…" A group of Slytherin girls were gossipping some distance away from the entrance to the Slytherin common room, and Harry's ear perked as it picked something interesting in the chicken clucking-like chorus of voices and worried giggles.
"Yea, but Greengrass and Potter? Potter is clearly a Dark Lord. I mean, let's be honest here, you don't just do a pirouette, point your wand, and a dragon's head explodes all over the place if you aren't a dark lord. The Greengrasses stayed neutral during the last war… Or, well, that's what the history books say anyway." A seventh-year Slytherin girl looked a bit skeptical and was giving glances over her shoulder as if she was worried that someone overheard her. "Do you think that when Potter's parents died and he defeated You-Know-Who, the Greengrasses instantly jumped ship to Potter's boat, and tried to get Dumbledore to sign a betrothal contract? Dumbledore might have had a lapse in judgment and used the chance to pull a 'dark' family into his side because let's face it, the war was more or less over after You-Know-Who died."
"It's so romantic though! Daphne has always had that stick up her ass and has been trying to keep herself out of politics, and now a young, mysterious and powerful rising Dark Lord takes her hand, seduces her from her prude ways, and pulls her into his web of darkness, veiled intrigue, and deadly secrets…" A fifth-year Slytherin girl was blushing furiously while whispering back. "I… I think I read it in a novel somewhere but what happens after that is…"
"Lord Potter is scary… I hope he won't eat me…" A third-year Slytherin girl was shaking a bit and was glancing around in utter paranoia. "I'm only a half-blood… If Lord Potter has a basilisk like the one that I heard was attacking students some time ago…"
"Lil' sister, you bully the Gryffindor cows like the rest of us. You're a half-blood and a mistake by my father, but not a traitor. I do not think Potter would eat you." The seventh-year Slytherin girl patted the nervous one a bit on the shoulder and Harry noted the similarity of the facial structure between the two, even if their interaction wasn't exactly warm or loving "Besides, after what Potter did to that dragon, I suspect that if he's interested in eating girls, he won't have to look for long to find someone who's into it. Why'd he want a meek, ugly lamb like you? Now come, you need to write my essay on History, and I'll break another finger if it gets anything less than an 'Acceptable'. To the library, march."
"Uuhhh…" The smaller girl looked happy, depressed and terrified at the same time, somehow, but what she said next was left to mystery as Harry decided to walk off since he had grown bored of eavesdropping from under the Invisibility Cloak.
And so, Harry walked off to find more about the 'Greengrass' fuss from the other students, because if the 'Greengrass' was something that involved his favorite 'green grass', he was very interested in getting more acquainted with that particular mystery. 'Hm, come to think of it, that girl mentioned a library… Wonder if they keep their tomes of arcane magics in there?'
Harry did tie the older bully-girl's shoelaces together under the guise of the Cloak before leaving to search for the Library, though.
'I wonder what kind of a girl that Greengrass is, though…' Harry thought idly while drinking ayahuasca from a thermos, before reaching for his pocket and he retrieved a message from future himself on the matter. 'Oh. That could be pretty useful, actually… hehe… hehehhe…'
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"Haa…" Daphne felt her headache worsening as she listened in on the conversation of a bunch of students who were whispering about various rumors.
She and Tracey were holed up in Hogwart's library, doing their homework and spying on the students that were around them.
It was prudent to stay up to date on rumors and whispers, as it served to give a heads-up on whatever that was happening or what could happen.
The rumors of her 'engagement' to Potter, even if such a thing was utter bullcrap, had spread like wildfire despite Daphne's best attempt to quench them via proxies, and she had even heard various sorts of 'less than polite' rumors regarding her during the past week, during which Potter was nowhere to be found.
The fact Rita Skeeter had somehow gotten her hands on the rumor had made it a thousand times worse, as she had released an article in Daily Prophet which detailed all sorts of hogwash on how Daphne was apparently 'corrupting' the 'Golden Boy of Light' to the Slytherin and darkness. The same boy who according to the same publication had been a mysterious dark lord just a few days ago.
And when Harry had disappeared, the blame was put on Daphne exclusively.
Apparently the 'Light' families were starting to make their move since they likely believed Daphne to be the reason why Harry Potter was a Slytherin and why had disappeared in the past and how he had disappeared a week ago.
She had even gotten a codified message from her family who were asking what was going on with the rumors and the harassment that was directed at them.
They had apparently started to get a lot of Howlers all of a sudden that were demanding the Greengrasses to release what control they had over Harry Potter, as well as a couple of angry visits by some of the more radical 'light' types, that were demanding to be allowed to search through Greengrass estate in case they had kidnapped Potter. Somehow.
Naturally, the Aurors had been called, and the situation had calmed to a paranoid standoff with an Auror standing by the Greengrass estate at all times.
Daphne regretted dearly that she hadn't kept herself further away from Potter and the situation, or at least shut Tracey up before she could blurt what she had thought to be an innocent way of pressuring Hermione Granger… But there was no way to undo what had happened, and she steeled herself to withstand the harassment that was directed at her.
The fact Granger had not received nearly as much flak was suspicious, and Daphne suspected that Rita Skeeter was keeping that rumor in the pocket so that when the current outrage died down, she'd have something that she could use to rile up the readers again.
Moreover, Daphne had already been forced to alter her plans regarding the security of her possession and snacks and such when she had discovered a love potion-laced chocolate bar amongst her personal snack stockpile the day after the Tri-Wizard Tournament's first trial had ended, after Potter had appeared once more.
She had gotten the chocolate analyzed, and apparently it had been 'aimed' to make Daphne smooch up Ronald Weasley.
Daphne had instantly pieced the puzzle together to realize that someone was not approving her 'relationship' with Potter within the Slytherin house, or the rumored relationship she was believed to have anyway, and was trying to drive Potter against Daphne by having Daphne cheat on him under the influence of the love potion.
Moreover, Potter had conversed amicably with the Weasleys before his disappearance, meaning that whoever had tried to love-potion Daphne had also planned to break Potter's budding 'friendship' with the Weasley kid by having Weasley cuckold Potter.
Daphne had even suspected for a moment that the love-potion ploy was some sort of even deeper ploy on her head specifically, and had investigated further… But soon afterwards Daphne had found that a seventh-year Slytherin girl had spiked Daphne's snacks due to simple jealousy, envy, and 'righteous' anger over Potter's attempt to branch out to Gryffindors which she didn't seem to approve of.
Daphne had considered going to Severus Snape with her information, but discarded the idea after a brief ponder as it'd effectively turn her into an outcast amongst the Slytherin- It was one thing to squabble in the shadows, and another to run to the teachers for help when cornered.
And she had a reputation to upkeep.
So Daphne had simply poured a hefty serving of itching powder into the culprit's bed and stuffed her shoes full of fiberglass shavings while Tracey distracted the love-potioneer, effectively sending a message that she would find whoever was messing with her, and that she'd get her revenge.
Of course, there was a possibility that the culprit would escalate the situation, but Daphne's reputation helped quite a bit in discouraging all but the most foolish would-be revengers. And that was before Potter's reputation was added into the mix.
Still, it looked as if the situation within the Slytherin was evolving in quite surprising direction as far as Daphne saw it, as Malfoy and his cronies had cornered Daphne during Potter's week of absence and asked her if she knew where Potter was, and for once Malfoy had been both incredibly nervous and polite when interrogating others.
Daphne had analyzed the situation and had come to the conclusion that Malfoy was scared of Potter for some reason, and the silver-haired boy's newfound respect towards Daphne was not so much towards her, but rather, Malfoy had been covering his back in case the rumors of Daphne's 'engagement' to Potter were true. Thus, it was clear that Malfoy didn't want to risk Potter's ire by bullying his fiancee.
The reason for Malfoy's nervousness had been put on full display during the First Trial, and Daphne had come to the conclusion that she was going to try to avoid Potter's ire as hard as she could in order to not share the dragon's fate- Which meant that Daphne needed to make contact with Potter as soon as she managed to find him when he wasn't surrounded by Malfoy's sycophants, and explain the situation before he'd come to the conclusion that Daphne had deliberately machinated the rumors to exploit him somehow.
"...This is worrying. The rumors had already started to die down slightly before the First Trial, as I suspected, but if Potter hears them now that he's back…" Tracey looked a bit nervous. "I'm really sorry."
"You were a massive idiot back then, but I have forgiven you. Do not do it again." Daphne snipped as she was getting tired of Tracey's constant apologies on the matter. "Don't forget though, if Potter corners me and starts to 'extract' information from me, I'll be certain to tell him that the whole thing was your idea."
"Gee thanks, I feel so loved." Tracey smirked a bit as she knew that Daphne would probably die before she'd speak anything of the sort.
"Anyway, do you think we should try to pin the whole thing on Granger?" Daphne noted after a moment which the two spent wiring up their homework from Potions. "Rita Skeeter writes trash all the time so Potter probably won't trust it, and if Malfoy is bowing and scraping to Potter then he's unlikely to have all that much sympathy towards muggle born students. That might direct his ire away from me."
"Well, he did eat with the Weasleys…" Tracey pointed out a bit meekly.
"Blood-traitors are not exactly the same as mudbloo- Muggle-borns." Daphne handwaved. "Do you have any ideas on how to corner him? Perhaps you could draw away or distract the group that always follows around him, and then I'll corner him when he's alone."
"How am I supposed to do that? Flash my knickers at them and hope for the best?" Tracey dismissed the idea out of hand. "I could probably hex one and run away while the rest pursue me, but if Potter gets involved then I'm pretty certain I'll be buried without a head."
"Good point." Daphne sighed.
"You could always bury a land mine outside the dorm entrance, wait for Potter to leave the dorm, and then swoop in to clear off the survivors."
"It's probably not a good idea though, I don't actually want to kill Potteeeeeer?!" Daphne's mutter ended with a small shriek that she only barely managed to keep from being loud enough to alert the other students in the library, as the voice that had spoken just now had not belonged to Tracey.
"Well, that is good to know." The disembodied male voice replied a bit dryly.
Daphne felt nervous as she scanned her surroundings, trying to find out where the voice had come from just now. "Ahem… Who are you?"
Tracey froze still for a moment before she started to slowly lift her hands up in surrender.
Daphne noticed the panicked look in Tracey's eyes, and saw as Tracey glanced to the side without moving her head as if there was something behind her.
'...Disillusionment charm? No, whoever spoke just now must have poked Tracey in the back or something like that… Invisibility cloak? Hm… I can't recall anyone in Hogwarts having one as far as I know. Hm… Whoever it is, he tried to find information on whether or not I wanted to kill Potter… So either it's Potter who's speaking, or someone who protects him. Although… If Potter has that kind of item then it explains why no-one can find him when he feels like he doesn't want to be found.' Daphne came to the conclusion that she had effectively dove head-first into the very worst case scenario, and she lifted her hands up in surrender.
She was not willing to see Tracey's head explode into giblets like the dragon's head had, not if she could help it.
Daphne hadn't missed the fact that while the rest of the Triwizard contestants had either hexed and distracted their dragon by stinging it in the eye, like Krum, or tried to distract it and sneak under its gaze like Cedric, or perform some sort of powerful arcane switching-spell like Fleur, Potter had just gone straight ahead and murdered the dragon in cold blood without so much as changing expressions.
It was clear to Daphne that fighting Potter was not going to cut it, if the ambusher was Potter in the first place, even if the fight was two-on-one, since their opponent was not only invisible, he was far stronger and more skilled than either of them… So her only option was to slither closer to her invisible captor, and hope to either calm the situation, or use it to make an opportunity to pull off a cheap shot and then make a run for it.
She would run straight to Professor Snape afterwards, though, because she knew that Potter was no ordinary bully that was fueled by jealousy, envy or greed- He was actually dangerous.
"So, what's this rumor I keep hearing about?" Harry Potter asked as he came from under his invisibility cloak and sat opposite to Daphne and Tracey at the study-desk.
Neither of the two girls lowered their arms, though, because Potter's hand was under the desk, and as far as either could tell, he was probably ready to turn both of them into bloody chunks if he suspected that the two were aiming to attack him.
"You can put your hands down. I'm not holding you hostage, just keeping an air of constant vigilance as per instructions that I've received." Harry noted.
"Alright… Thank you. You're kind, Harry." Daphne flashed a thoroughly fake warm and happy smile as she lowered her hands, and adjusted her hair a bit with well-practiced movements that were designed with the express purpose of making her appear as if she was charmed by whoever was speaking to her. All of which were necessary parts of a well-functioning noble girl's emotional manipulation toolbox.
"You can put your fake smile away too, I can see through it. Unless you plan to actually smile, anyway." Potter lifted his eyebrow as he saw right through Daphne's show and act, and Daphne struggled to keep her face from forming an angry snarl in response. "For the record, I don't plan to kill either of you, or debilitate you, or otherwise harm you unless you force me to."
"That is… kind of you." Daphne struggled to keep her tone mild, all the while she tried her best to keep her mood level because even though anger would serve her well as a self-defense mechanism against terror, she could not afford to snap at Potter. "Yes, there were some unfortunate rumors floating about. All of them are baseless, I assure you. One of them even included a claim where we were supposed to be engaged, can you imagine?"
"I have no idea how Hermetics conduct their reproduction other than that occasionally babies probably arrive from undisclosed sources, so I'll take your word for it." Potter nodded and leaned a bit forward, making Daphne lean a bit backward. "Seeing that I've been enrolled into this school, I would consider it a favor if you taught me."
'A favor from Harry Potter? Valuable… heh… um…' Daphne struggled to keep her eyes from showing her greed because Potter was offering her something that would prove to be very useful. However, what she needed to do to gain that favor… It worried her. "Could you elaborate on what you want in exchange?"
"Simple. It seems this engagement thing has people abuzz in the castle, so let's get engaged for real." Potter was completely straight-faced as he spoke. "After the commotion dies down we can just dis-engage. Meanwhile you can lecture me on how things work regarding these things in the Hermetic Order."
Daphne struggled quite hard as on one hand the sudden, straightforward and out-of-turn proposal did bear merit and it would quite simply solve the issue of rumors by having Potter consent to them, and if he spoke out and openly disapproved of the attacks that were aimed at Greengrasses by the 'light' families, it'd turn the attention from Greengrasses to Potter himself, effectively saving them from future harassment.
Of course it could also backfire if the Light turned to accusations of usage of Imperius on Potter and other more horrific methods of swaying one's loyalties nonconsensually, but after the whole dragon-slaying spectacle, Daphne was fairly certain that the 'light' families were re-evaluating their allegiance to Potter anyway so she didn't think they'd go that far without proof to the contrary.
She mulled the proposition over, and sighed. "Well, the only problem with your proposal is that an engagement has to be made between our families, and while I could convince my mother and father, I doubt you can do the same for Dumbledore, who I believe is your warden, unless I've thoroughly misread our headmaster's character. Moreover, an engagement such as what you propose cannot be called off except by our families doing so in unison, which would arguably be even harder since calling of engagement would lose considerable amount of respect from whoever proposed such a thing- And Dumbledore can't afford losing respect in Wizgamot, and neither can my parents."
Of course, Daphne had already come up with a loophole for the whole situation, but she wanted to see how Potter would react to the news and if he'd reach the same conclusion as she did.
Daphne wasn't willing to even pretend to be engaged to someone who only knew violence and was a complete idiot outside that, after all.
Tracey was glancing between Daphne and Potter and was looking quite nervous.
"Oh, that is simple, then. We'll pretend to be engaged, no paperwork attached. Besides, I hate bureaucracy when it comes to one's love-life." Potter nodded.
"Agreed. Speaking of which, we'll only be pretending. No touchy-feely, am I understood?" Daphne added as Potter, much to her hidden relief, proved that he could actually think around a given problem at an elementary level.
After all, she liked to joke to her parents that Slytherin House had a hidden entrance test where students needed to put differently cut pieces into matching holes to be allowed entry into the House, which produced two kinds of students: Those who had basic cognitive functions, and those who were freakishly strong.
Moreover, if Potter was actually just brute only capable of murder, Daphne was fairly certain that her future would be short and violent regardless what the conversation would lead to, since violent people tended to gather violent followers, and Potter's current 'group' was definitely leaning towards the 'freakishly strong' part of the 'hidden entrance test'. And those kinds of people would not take disrespect towards their leader lightly.
So Daphne sighed in relief as the situation seemed to resolve in a relatively acceptable way.
"Negative."
Daphne slowly lifted her eyebrow as Potter denied her little reminder.
She was willing to shoulder the dishonor that came with breaking an engagement, even if it had never existed in the first place, as well as ridicule and even attacks on her person, but she would not be treated like some sort of toy that could be touched inappropriately at Potter's leisure.
"And why is that, mr. Potter?" Daphne's tone turned outright glacial as she looked down her nose at the boy.
"I'll have you know, I have already decided to go on a date with Fleur Delacour, with her approval mind you, and I've gotten a bit physical with a local wraith, and I'm a shameless womanizer when it comes to things like those. Moreover, ecstasy, which includes 'touchy feely', is a core tenant of my school of magic." Potter lifted his eyebrow back at Daphne. "So sorry, I won't be holding my end of that deal."
"Wait- I meant- No touchy feely with me!" Daphne sputtered as she was taken off-guard by Potter's declaration.
"Ah, that's alright. It's a big no-no amongst my School to force those sorts of feelings onto others." Potter shrugged. "There was a time when that sort of thinking wasn't enforced or encouraged, but a certain person came back and told all of us that we were being massive dicks and the practice realigned itself."
"I… see." Daphne didn't.
"You'll see, in due Time, my dear fiance." Potter sighed while smirking a bit, clearly seeing through Daphne's confusion and the boy was clearly making some sort of joke that went right over her head.
Potter stood up, did a pirouette, and disappeared under his Invisibility Cloak once again.
Daphne glanced at Tracey, Tracey glanced back, and the two stood up as well.
Potter's departing words had given Daphne a feeling that she had gotten involved in something that she really shouldn't have.
'I'll need to owl my parents and find Severus Snape. Now.'