Serpentine Virtues Chapter 4

So, I sat down today, and spent like four hours writing this for you all as a sort-of "I'm leaving for a few weeks" present. I hope you guys enjoy, and continue to support the story after I get back!

EDIT: (8/3/2014 9:22 EST) I f***** up big time. Sorry. To those of you who have already read the chapter, the plot hole has been fixed. To those who have yet to read it, don't worry about it.

Enjoy Chapter 4.

oOo

Daphne Greengrass was sitting in yet another hellish, boring meeting at her agency firm. Recently, the firm had been losing income, and Daphne knew that she'd probably be the one taking the full brunt of the blame…and perhaps the axe as well, considering the fact that she'd been the agent representing their most valuable client, Harry Potter. It didn't matter that his injury was not even remotely her fault, nor did the fact that she was one of the highest earning agents at the firm. These meetings were supposed to be meetings for various agents to help each other "improve" their negotiation skills.

In reality, it was just a cover up for the bosses to discuss who to fire.

Daphne didn't care. She'd earned enough money by now, representing various clients, that she could start her own firm should she be fired. In fact, she was considering quitting and creating her own firm regardless.

Thus, Daphne really didn't pay attention. The owner of the firm was currently shouting at some of the newer agents who'd been there for less than a year. Evidently, he was using the fact that the firm's earnings were going down as an excuse to cut their paychecks.

Daphne curled her lip. She couldn't understand how such an arsehole ever made enough money to head his own firm. The first thing she'd learned after becoming an agent was that you had to be nice and polite, or else you didn't survive long in the business. That was the reason she'd had to put in a lot of work to shed the Ice Queen hostility mask that she'd worn during school to protect her from the unwanted advances of boys.

Thinking of boys led her to thinking of Harry. She'd tried to be there for him. She'd tried to show him how much she cared, but now he'd left for Hogwarts. Sometimes, she thought 'Good riddance.' Harry hadn't been a very pleasant person after Ginny's death. He'd been quite bitter, and was no longer the same person that she'd fallen in love with. But she knew her attempts to forget him were just attempts to deceive herself. She was still hung up on him. She'd never been dependent on a man before, but then Harry Potter was no ordinary man. He'd entered her life with his recklessness, his incredibly flying abilities, his kindness, and his emerald eyes that always made Daphne swoon whenever she stared into them. She hated her weakness sometimes, but at other times, she craved those feelings that she felt with Harry.

Now he'd left her life, and was living at Hogwarts, miles away from her.

She couldn't fault him for that. He was trying to keep his dream alive, after all. Daphne also knew that Hogwarts held some sort of special meaning to him. She wasn't one hundred percent sure what it was, as Harry was rather reticent about his relatives, but Daphne guessed that there was something there that she didn't know.

"Greengrass! You hearing what I'm saying? Huh?"

Daphne gritted her teeth, and faced her boss. "No, sir. What did you say?"

Her boss, the world-class arsehole Cormac McLaggen, turned red, and started shouting at her about paying attention, and that it was somehow her fault for Potter's departure from their agency. He also stated that Daphne wasn't committed to the company, and that she was spending a lot less time at the firm nowadays working. That part was true…because of Harry.

Daphne, whose temper was already on edge, was brought just a little bit closer to the explosion point.

McLaggen had absolutely no skills as an agent. He was only the head of the firm as of the moment because his father, who was the original head, had taken a two-year sabbatical to visit Transylvania. His father had been a competent leader, but his son was just awful. The firm was suffering for it, and McLaggen was likely looking for scapegoats to pin the blame on.

The fact that Cormac also liked to hit on her was not helping his position in her eyes.

Finally, when Daphne had had enough of his shouting, she drew her wand and stared him down, employing her famous Ice Queen stare that she hadn't used for years.

"Shut up. Shut up for Merlin's sake." She said icily.

Cormac spluttered at the rudeness, and that began to shout, "You dare insult your superior? I should fire-"

He never got past that, falling to the floor in pain at the nasty severing hex Daphne had aimed at his groin. Daphne had, at the last instant, twitched her wand slightly upwards so as to not deprive the boy of having children in the future. After all, she didn't want the incident to really turn serious. Right now, if Cormac pressed charges for her spell, she could claim harassment and be acquitted because she had both witnesses and an excellent standing in society to back her up. On the other hand, if she'd castrated him, it'd be much more serious.

Daphne stood up, looking without pity at McLaggen's writhing form.

"I quit, McLaggen. Goodbye." She spat on his form, which was still twisting from side to side in pain.

She left after grabbing everything she needed, packing them into conjured boxes with a wave of her wand. Shrinking the boxes, she placed them in her purse, and left the building to McLaggen's shouts of "This isn't over!" and "I'll get you for this, Greengrass!"

On the way out, Blaise Zabini fell in step with her. Blaise had been from Slytherin like her, and he'd followed nearly the same path that she had, and eventually they ended up at the same firm. They had developed a tentative friendship, but Daphne made sure to keep her distance. Blaise, quite clearly, had his eyes set on her, and spent his free time trying to devise new strategies to "catch" her. She tolerated him mostly because his advances weren't annoying like most people's, and because her best friend Tracey was good friends with the Italian boy.

"You really leaving, Daph?" he asked curiously.

"First, what have I told you about shortening by name? Second, yes I am."

Blaise mock-pouted. "But you let Potter shorten your name!"

Daphne glared at him. "Did you come out here to tease me about Potter for about the thousandth time?"

"Well that, but I also want to know what you're going to be doing."

"I have enough money to start my own firm. I'll keep most of my clients; they're happy with my performance. Besides, it isn't like I'm poor so even if that fails, I have other pursuits I can go after."

Blaise lowered his voice and said, "Say, if I wanted to leave the company as well, would you mind letting me be part of your firm?"

Daphne shrugged. "As long as you do well, I see no reason why you shouldn't. Why? Can't take more of that screaming arsehole in there?"

Blaise nodded. Nearly everybody was nearing the end of their patience with their boss. It was only a matter of time before the majority quit. In fact, Blaise expected that everybody that had any sort of opportunity elsewhere would opt out of working for the company before McLaggen's father came back. It was a shame, especially considering the fact that it had been a prosperous firm before McLaggen took it over.

They walked the rest of the way to the exit in silence, where Daphne bid Blaise goodbye, and told him that after she set up her own firm, she'd write him a letter and he could become partners with her if he wanted.

Daphne Apparated to her apartment, setting down her purse, grabbing the shrunken boxes, and returning them to their previous size. She sorted through the boxes, before leaving them in a corner of her apartment. She'd take them to whatever place she chose as her office headquarters.

She looked around the apartment. There wasn't much to do. She wondered what Tracey was doing at the moment.

After the Battle of Hogwarts, Tracey had decided to pursue a career in Healing. She had also tried to convince Daphne to join her, but Daphne had turned her down. Daphne knew she'd be terrible in the medical field. She just didn't have the instinctual understanding of healing spells and potions that Tracey had, and would take a few more minutes to cure patients of certain diseases. And in the medical field, a few minutes could be the difference between life and death.

Tracey was currently studying in one of Muggle Britain's finest medical schools, but Daphne had no clue what her class schedule was. She knew that she lived in a magical apartment off campus that had a Floo address, so Daphne decided to call her friend.

Daphne didn't know Tracey's full schedule, and since she had nothing else to do, she decided to make the Floo call. She hadn't talked to her friend in a while, what with being worried about Harry, and her rather busy job.

As she called out her friend's Floo address, she stuck her head in the magical green flames, and went through the familiar whirling journey, before she finally stopped in her friend's fireplace.

"Tracey?" she called.

There was a scream in a nearby room, and what sounded like a crash, and then two bodies simultaneously hitting the floor.

Tracey Davis came rushing into the room, clothes messy, face red, and sporting what looked suspiciously like a hickey on her neck.

"Daphne!" she said, surprised.

Daphne just gave her a shit-eating grin, and Tracey began blushing.

"So…. Are you going to introduce me Tracey?"

"Erm…Uhm…Ahem. This a rather long story…" Tracey began, red-faced. She was absolutely mortified that her best friend had discovered her in such a compromising position.

Daphne smiled predatorily. "Why, I was just calling because I have a lot of time and nothing to do! So why don't you sit down and tell me this "long story" of yours."

Tracey groaned. "Sometimes I really miss the Ice Queen. You'd never do this back during school."

Daphne merely laughed. "And you'd always make me privy to your love life. So I don't see why you're being so reticent now."

Just then the man whom Tracey had evidently been in a relationship with entered the man, and Daphne nearly died of shock. When the shock finally died down a little, it was replaced with burning anger.

oOo

The first lesson that Harry had gave him quite a shock.

He knew he was famous, and he expected a large turnout…but he didn't expect the entire school to come out and learn. He had a suspicion that Professor McG—Minerva had planned it all out. Man, it was still weird to call a woman who'd been a constant professor figure in his life by her first name.

It made things rather difficult. Still, Harry separated them by age, and then demonstrated some simple flying to the younger years. They were the ones that took the least time. As he moved up the age groups, he showed them increasingly difficult flying maneuvers, and little tricks that would help them in various scenarios. His own special move, the Potter Perlative, in which he would fly straight at opposing Keepers, while making sure that he wouldn't collide with the Keeper. Generally the Keeper would get out of the way. This move would generally be dangerous, as he would both be removing his attention from the Snitch, and there would also be a substantial chance that he'd fly straight into the hoops that the Keeper was guarding when he moved aside, or he'd fly right into the stands. However, Harry had gotten good enough to either fly straight through the hoop and hook his leg around the hoop in order to change direction quickly without losing much speed or do a flip so that he'd be flying upside-down, but back towards the center of the pitch. There was a reason that he always made sure his glasses were securely stuck to his head with a Sticking Charm before he took off.

Both moves were potentially dangerous, and he'd once fractured his knee attempting to swing around the hoops with his leg, but generally, both worked quite well. He only played this dangerously when their Chasers were 130 to 140 points up, in order to get the last few goals past the Keeper so that they'd have a 150 or higher lead, and thus be able to win or at least tie the game.

He rather enjoyed showing off to the kids, but really, there wasn't much he could teach them when the whole school turned up. He made a mental note to do future "lessons" by year rather than just posting a notice without much thought.

He wrapped up the day by signing a couple autographs for the students, although he made sure to keep that part of the day short. He had no wish to spend the rest of his day with a sore hand.

He was just getting ready for bed, when his fireplace sprung up and a head emerged in the flames. Looking closely, Harry saw that it was Ron, and he looked worried.

"Harry, has Hermione been to Hogwarts?"

Harry frowned. "No, she hasn't. Why?"

Ron looked increasingly anxious, and said, "Well, looks like the surprise is off. It was Professor Babble-something's birthday a few days ago, and Hermione wanted to surprise her with something special. I think she's been working on some particular rune for ages now, and she wanted to show it to her. You sure she hasn't gotten there?"

Harry shook his head. "Unless she got here less than two hours ago, she hasn't arrived. I didn't see her at dinner, that's for sure."

Ron looked very worried now. "Well, if you see her, tell her to Floo call me. Even though it was Babble-something's birthday three days ago I think."

Harry was also getting worried. Could Hermione have disappeared?

"You don't think someone captured her or something ridiculous, mate?" Harry asked.

Ron shrugged, but Harry couldn't see it, so he hastily added, "I don't know. I hope not. I have to contact the Ministry, so I'll talk to you later, alright?"

Harry nodded, and Ron's face disappeared with a pop.

Harry wasn't particularly superstitious, but after getting hit with multiple tragedies in a short span of time, prayed that Hermione wouldn't be added to that number.

The past few days had been hectic, what with getting himself settled in, and going over duties with Profess- Minerva. This was really the first time he'd had to really sit down and think. And it made him realize two crucial things.

One, he missed his old life. He missed the adrenaline-packed Quidditch matches, the thrill of flying, the taste of victory, even the bitter defeats. Even in his short career, he'd earned a number of achievements. World Cup Champion, World Cup Overall MVP, League Rookie of the Year, League MVP, were some of the prestigious awards he'd won. However, he was missing the title of League Champions.

He felt sure that the season after the World Cup would be his chance, but now that was gone. And Harry resolved to change that. He'd play Quidditch professionally again. He'd heard from Daphne about some pioneer potioneers who were developing some sort of potion that would strengthen bone structure. The potion was supposedly only used to help children who'd been abused and malnourished when they were younger. Still, Daphne speculated that it could help Harry's arm. The only real problem with the potion was that it didn't provide the nutrients required for the bones to strengthen. Harry didn't understand it much, as he'd never taken any biology or chemistry courses, but he understood that the potion would cause nutrient depletion, and he'd end up eating a lot, and drinking a lot of milk, in order to heal the brittle bones in his left arm.

That led to a problem, because it meant that he'd eat a lot, perhaps even after the potion effects wore off. That meant that he'd get fat, and Seekers couldn't be fat. He'd have to be exceptionally careful about it…

The second fact was that he missed Daphne. He hadn't fully appreciated what Daphne meant to him until he'd left her behind in London. This fact made Harry feel incredibly guilty. He hadn't been widowed for more than half a year, and already he was starting to have feelings for other women?

He still felt the pain of the loss of Ginny at times, but the pain had dulled to an ache, a throb, nowadays. Had he really loved Ginny? Did he love Daphne? The questions floated through his mind, and he had no answers.

Oliver had always said that Daphne fancied him, and that was what made Harry even more guilty. She'd been nothing, but kind and caring towards him, and he'd acted like an arsehole and an idiot more times than he could count in the few years they'd known each other. In the four months after Ginny's death especially, Harry'd been increasingly angry and bitter towards Daphne, and he'd even gone so far as to blame Daphne for her death, citing the stupid promotional show that she'd made him go to as the reason why he hadn't been with his wife, and thus been unable to protect her. He'd took it back immediately, but he knew that he'd hurt Daphne again, like his comment about money at the World Cup, right before the Finals.

Lying awake in his bed, he worried over Hermione, thought about Daphne and her beautiful smile, and wondered about whether or not he'd play Quidditch again.

He had nightmares that night, about various grisly scenes that always ended in Hermione's death, which were occasionally interrupted by a reproachful Daphne who blamed Harry for various things, all of them true.

It was very tired, and irritable Harry that emerged from his room the next day. Unfortunately for him, he got stuck on a trip step on a staircase, and his leg sunk in, rendering him unable to move. After waiting nearly fifteen minutes, someone finally passed by to help him out.

Aurora Sinistra seized Harry under his arms and heaved him out, but accidentally tripped on the step above the trip staircase, and they fell together, becoming a tangle of arms and legs. It ended with Harry on top of Aurora, and that was when he realized two things.

One, their position gave him an excellent view to what was under her shirt, and two, their faces were so close together that if Harry moved about three inches down, he'd be kissing his former Professor.

It was quite an awkward position to be in when one Hermione Granger arrived at the staircase, looking to find Bathshelda Babbling.

oOo

Later, after Hermione had presented her rune to very high praise from her former Ancient Runes teacher, she seized him by the ear and dragged him into his quarters.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. OW! Hermione! Geroff!" Harry exclaimed.

"Harry James Potter! I'm disgusted in you. First, how could you do such a thing to Daphne?! And second, WHY IN THE NAME OF MERLIN WERE YOU DOING THAT IN PUBLIC?!"

Harry winced at Hermione's shouts, and turned his wand on the door, muttering "Muffliato", before turning his attention on Hermione, who was continuing her tirade on "indecent activities", occasionally punctured by statements along the lines of "I thought you were a responsible adult!".

"Hermione! HERMIONE!" Harry shouted, trying to get the bushy-haired witch to stop.

She finally paused, more for air than because of Harry's shouting, and glared at him.

"First of all, Ron's been worried sick. Where have you been? He Flooed me yesterday asking if you had showed up yet."

Hermione's glare intensified.

"I got held up on the way here. But stop changing the subject! Now tell me, why were you and Aurora Sinistra lying on top of each other on a public staircase?

"Hermione, it's not what you think."

Hermione opened her mouth to respond, but Harry forestalled her with a hand.

"Look, I know it looks bad. But I swear, it wasn't what you think it was. I got stuck on the trip step on that staircase, and Aurora was just trying to help me out of it. Then, she tripped and we fell down a few steps, and ended up in that position. I swear, that's all that happened."

Hermione looked disbelievingly at him.

"If the look in both your eyes was anything to go by, and especially judging from the fact that YOU DIDN'T MAKE AN EFFORT TO MOVE… I don't believe you."

Harry winced at the renewed shouting.

"Look, I got distracted, I admit it, alright? I'm only male. Still, we didn't DO anything."

Hermione still didn't believe him, but let that pass. Still, she wasn't done.

"What about Daphne, Harry? How could you do that to her?"

"How could I do what?" Harry asked, confused.

"The poor girl is head over heels for you! Then you start up some sort of relationship with a colleague?!"

Harry snorted.

"One, Aurora and I don't have any type of relationship beyond friendship. Two, I highly doubt that Daphne is 'head over heels' for me. Don't you remember her moniker at school? The Ice Queen? I'm pretty sure that she isn't head over heels. Hell, I don't even believe Oliver when he says that she fancies me."

Hermione groaned, and put her head in her hands.

"I feel really terrible for you, Daphne. This idiot isn't worth it."

That comment actually began to make Harry feel a sense of worry.

"Wait, Hermione, are you being serious?"

"Of course, Harry. The girl cares about you. Why else do you think she visited you that often at the hospital?"

"Uhm.. Ahm… Uh… She's my friend" Harry stammered, knowing that that statement was so far from the truth that it wasn't even funny.

"Did you know that she quit her company? She fought with her boss, that complete prat Cormac McLaggen, and you know why? It was because she'd been spending too much time with you. She cares for you! You've been a right arse to her, too, and now you're lusting after Sinistra?!"

Harry looked down with shame.

"Look, it isn't that simple, alright? Ginny… she… I don't think I can do that to her."

Hermione looked at him with sadness.

"I miss Ginny too, Harry, but I know that she'd want you to be happy above everything. The fact that you care for her is touching, but I know that she wouldn't have approved of you moping after her and acting like Malfoy to a girl who obviously cares about you."

Harry winced at the Malfoy insult. In all the years that they'd known each other, Hermione had never said that to him.

Hermione shook his head at Harry's silence, misinterpreting it as defiance.

"I really hope Daphne gets her head together and finds someone worthy of her time. You know I'll always support you, Harry, but you really need to think about what she means to you. I've seen the way you look at her, and I know there's something there. If you wait too long, she'll get tired of waiting for you eventually."

She left Harry staring out the window, thinking about what she said to him.

He knew that she was right. That didn't make it any easier for him.

oOo

"Malfoy?!" Daphne nearly shouted, shocked by the appearance of the former Prince of Slytherin half-naked from the adjoining room.

Tracey buried her head in her arms.

She hadn't meant for Daphne to find out this way. Her best friend would hate her forever for this. And Tracey really couldn't blame her.

But, Malfoy had changed. She was sure of it. Right?

Tracey, like Daphne, had harbored hatred for Draco Malfoy, due to his overbearing, arrogant manner back in school, his despicable acts such as joining the Death Eaters, and his disgusting advances that he'd made on nearly every girl in Slytherin House.

That was why, a month ago or so, Tracey had not responded kindly to Draco sitting himself down at her table at a restaurant. She'd gone there to clear her head after a particularly difficult lesson that involved brewing medical potions which made her head spin. She'd glared at Draco, and was ready to hex him, when he started talking, and Tracey found the man to be quite different from the boy she remembered.

Draco had been well-mannered, polite, and humble, quite a stark contrast from his school self.

Tracey had still been wary and guarded around him, but she'd eventually started learning things about him. She saw real remorse and regret in his eyes when he talked about the Death Eaters. Now, he was working as a humble clerk at Twilfit and Tadding's in Diagon Alley. He said that although his previous life as one of the most highly respected and richest families in Magical Britain was much better financially, he felt that he was much happier nowadays, without the guilt, pressure, and other problems that had plagued him before.

He still felt sorrow at the fact that people sometimes shied away from him, or generally avoided eye-contact with him whenever they saw him, due to his despicable actions in the past.

Tracey wasn't sure if Draco was genuine, but she definitely felt an attraction to him. After all, Draco was very handsome, and he seemed like the perfect gentleman.

Hence, why they'd been dating for about a month now. They'd gotten intimate rather recently, which led to the awkward scene at Tracey's fireplace.

Daphne looked at Tracey accusingly, even though she couldn't see it.

Draco looked rather embarrassed at the interruption if the faint tinge of red on his normally pale cheeks was anything to go by. He also felt rather worried that Daphne had discovered them.

Draco had inadvertently caused the death of Daphne's mother, Irina, and Daphne had never forgiven him for it. It had occurred during their Seventh Year, as Irene had been caught trying to free some innocent prisoners who'd been jailed by Voldemort in the Greengrass home, one of many homes he'd taken over as "bases". Draco had been the one to find her, and turned her in. He'd been seeking revenge on the woman ever since she'd defied him by preventing the marriage between himself and Astoria.

Malfoy had never realized that his actions had just pushed Astoria farther away.

Her mother had been tortured, but the torturers accidentally went too far, and she died. Voldemort had punished his followers who'd done the torturing, as they'd spilled "Pureblood blood", but it gave Daphne little consolation.

The room fell silent, and Daphne, seeing that nothing could be gained by such a conversation, decided to leave Tracey and Malfoy alone.

After all, she had no wish to see one of her hated enemies defiling her best friend.

oOo

The Draco Malfoy thing is not what you think. I really hope that I don't get flamed for portraying Malfoy in a pretty positive light so far. Things change…

Thank you for reading. Please review.