Animal I've Become

Chapter 7

First Meeting

It took all of Daphne Greengrass's willpower not to jump for joy when her father had agreed to let her go visit Harry Potter. It was common knowledge at the Greengrass home that Daphne had a crush on the boy-who-lived. Logan remembered the day when Daphne announced it to the family.

~*Flashback*~

It was their first dinner together as a family following the end of Daphne's third year and Astoria's first year at Hogwarts. Logan and his wife had just picked up Daphne and Astoria from King's Cross only a few hours ago. On the way home, Astoria was chatting excitedly about her first year and all the friends she made. Daphne however was quiet which was unusual for her as she would usually also talk about her school year. It wasn't until dinner that Logan found out what had been troubling his eldest daughter.

"Mum, Dad there's something I need to tell you both" Daphne says pushing her food around with her fork.

"Alright what is it? Did you fail a few of your exams?" Logan asked looking at his daughter.

Daphne bit her bottom lip before saying "I have a crush on a certain boy at school".

Logan glanced at his wife and both of them were praying that this boy wasn't Lucius's son Draco. That would be a disaster.

"And who is this boy that you like Daphne?" Logan said.

"Harry Potter" Daphne said unknowing of the proverbial bomb that she just dropped on her family.

~* End Flashback*~

After discussing it with his daughter, Logan took Daphne's silver bracelet and turned it into a portkey, promising to remove the spell when she came home. He had set the portkey to transport her right outside Grimmauld Place, and while they were waiting for it to activate, Logan set down some ground rules for her visit.

"I trust that you'll be on your best behavior during this visit, and there will be no bodily contact between the two of you. I do want grandkids but not until your forty…five."

At his comment, Daphne couldn't help but roll her eyes as she said "Daddy, I highly doubt anything is going to happen between Harry and I, this is the first time we'd be meeting face to face".

Logan simply nodded before he gave Daphne a quick peck on her forehead.

When the portkey activated, a soft blue light glowed around Daphne as she felt the familiar tug around her navel as the portkey transported her right outside Number 12 Grimmauld Place. As soon as she found herself standing on the doorstep to Grimmauld Place, Daphne started to become anxious and nervous. After she rang the doorbell, Daphne started smoothing her clothes out as she waited for someone to answer the door.

After a few minutes, Daphne heard the lock being undone before the door swung open and standing in the doorway was the man she recognized as Sirius Black from the pictures in the Daily Prophet.

"Um hello Mr. Black, I'm Daphne Greengrass, is Harry around by chance?" Daphne asked.

A smile formed at the corners of Sirius's mouth, his grey eyes shining with mischief. "So you are the girl who's been writing to my godson eh?"

At Daphne's flushing cheeks, Sirius chuckled before saying "Come on in Miss Greengrass, Harry's up in his room working on homework, just go up the stairs and it's the second one on the left". Sirius said stepping aside so that Daphne could enter.

Daphne bid Sirius her thanks before heading upstairs and stopping in front of the second door on the right. If Daphne strained her ears, she could hear the scratching of a quill coming from inside. Taking a few seconds to gather her nerves, she reached up and knocked on the door.

"Come in", came a voice from inside.

Daphne gripped the doorknob and slowly turned it before opening the door and walking inside. Right in front of her was the boy of her desires and dreams. While there plenty of other boys at school, and in her own house of Slytherin. all of them pretty much just had their minds on only getting in her knickers. Shaking her head, Daphne looked around the room, a small smile coming to her lips as she saw the various pictures and other knickknacks that Harry had decorated his room with. On the large bookshelf sat his school books all in order along with his extra ink bottles and rolls of parchment. On top of the same bookshelf sat his cauldron for potions and his Firebolt broomstick.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" a voice said, shaking Daphne from her thoughts.

Turning to the oak mahogany desk, Daphne's liquid sapphire eyes, met Harry's emerald ones. Almost at once, Daphne's cheeks started to flush and she mumbled an apology.

"So who are you?" Harry asked, his eyes never leaving Daphne's.

"I'm Daphne Greengrass, Harry" Daphne said softly.

Whatever answer Harry was expecting, it wasn't this one. Here standing in his bedroom was the Slytherin girl who he'd been writing to and she him. Daphne certainly wasn't what Harry expected. He'd half been expecting Daphne to look a cross between Pansy Parkinson, and Millicent Bulstrode. Instead Daphne had chestnut brown hair that was usually up in a ponytail. Today however she had let it down where it had rested around mid-back. Her liquid sapphire eyes were something that Harry found quite attractive about her. Her skin was pale but not deathly pale and she had that look of determination.

"So what are you doing here exactly Daphne?" Harry asked turning to his charms book to mark his place.

"I wanted to come for a visit. I figured that it would be kind of pointless for both of us to wait till the beginning of term before we even met face to face" Daphne said as she walked over and sat down on the edge of Harry's bed.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense, did your father have a problem with you coming to see me?" Harry asked, turning in his desk chair so that he was facing her.

"A little bit yeah, he was worried about us, um getting all touchy-feely with each other, to which I reminded him that this would be the first time for us meeting face to face, So I doubt anything like that would happen between us" Daphne explained.

"Yeah I kind of don't see that happening either" Harry said, although his cheeks did flush a little bit.

As the time passed, Daphne and Harry talked about what hey hadn't mentioned yet in their letters while Harry continued on his holiday work. He was grateful that Daphne had come over, as he ended up needing her help on his potions essay.

"So Harry you mentioned in your one letter that you know who the new Defense teacher is going to be. So who is it?" Daphne asked when Harry finally finished his essay.

"Her name is Nymphadora Tonks, she's an auror, but she's also a metamorphmagus" Harry explained looking at Daphne".

"Whoa that's so cool, what's she like?" Daphne asked.

"She's pretty cool, she's got a hell of a sense of humor as well" Harry explained.

At that moment, Sirius called from downstairs, "Harry, Daphne Lunch is ready".

Harry chewed on his bottom lip as he glanced at Daphne. "Do you by chance have enough time to stay for lunch?"

"Of course, Daddy's time limit on the portkey that he created by using my bracelet is 2 and a half hours and we just spent an hour of that talking" Daphne says.

Harry nodded before leading Daphne out of his room and downstairs through the living room and down to the kitchen where Lupin was putting the finishing touches on lunch.

"Hello Harry is your summer work going well?" Lupin asked as he placed on the scrubbed kitchen table a plate piled up with grilled cheese and ham sandwiches."

"I'm getting there Remus, I was working on my potion's essay when Daphne came over" Harry explained as he went to the refrigerator to get himself and Daphne something to drink.

"Miss Greengrass? Ah I see, Yes you were actually the one Slytherin student I had that enjoyed my class when I was teaching at Hogwarts" Remus said, giving Daphne a small smile.

"Well to prove a point Mr. Lupin, When you taught Defense that was the first time we were actually learning anything. The previous year when we had that idiotic git Lockhart, all he did was talk about his supposed travels and all the dark creatures that he had defeated. Now first year was slightly better then second year because Quirrell knew a lot about the Dark Arts, it was his stutter made it hard to learn anything" Daphne says.

"You do know that Quirrell was involved with Voldemort?" Harry said taking a bite of his first sandwich.

Daphne shook her head at Harry's statement as she said, "No I didn't, of course I heard rumors about what happened at the end of our first year, but that's all. Would you mind telling me what really happened Harry? You're not obligated to tell me if you don't want to, I'm just curious".

"To put it simply, Quirrell somehow bonded with Voldemort and had his face on the back of his head and Voldemort wanted Quirrell to steal the sorcerer's stone so that he could get a new body. When Voldemort ordered Quirrell to kill me, and Quirrell tried to touch me, his skin started to blister and disintegrate. Since he was bonded with Voldemort, he couldn't touch me because of the sacrifice of my mother" Harry explained.

Daphne was speechless after Harry explained what really happened with Quirrell in their first year. To say she was shocked was an understatement. Harry had just met the one person responsible for the death of his parents, and yet he got away unscathed once again.

After lunch, it was nearly time for Daphne to return home, so grudgingly along with Harry headed upstairs and across the street to the small park for Daphne's Portkey activation. As they waited, a silence befell them and the seconds seemed to tick away.

Knowing that she most likely wouldn't get another chance, Daphne reached forward, grabbed a fistful of Harry's shirt and pulled him against her, her lips crashing against his own. As their lips met for the first time, Daphne felt Harry's body stiffen as her lips furiously moved against his.

Harry's mind was yelling at him to break the kiss, to push Daphne away and yell at her. His mind was screaming that they just barley knew each other and that it was moving way to fast. However, Harry's body seemed to be overriding his brain because instead of breaking the kiss and ripping Daphne a new one, he started to return the kiss.

Slowly, Harry brought his hands up, placing them on Daphne's hips as his lips slowly parted, inviting Daphne's tongue inside, which Daphne happily obliged and slid her tongue into Harry's mouth, both to explore Harry's mouth and to begin the fight for dominance between herself and Harry.

Finally, when the need for oxygen became to much, Harry and Daphne broke apart, Harry's cheeks flushing red as he lightly touched his bruising lips. Daphne smirked slightly as her bracelet began to glow with a faint blue light, signaling that the Portkey charm was about to activate and take her home.

"I'll see you around Harry, and if you need anymore help on your summer work, you can always owl me".

With a flash of blue, Daphne felt the familiar tug around her navel before she disappeared, heading back home.

Shaking his head at the abruptness of what had just happened, Harry turned around having every intention to head up to his room and finish his Charms essay when he stopped dead in his tracks.

Johnny was standing in front of him, a look of sadness etched on his face.

"Johnny, I'm sorry you saw that, she kind of just surprised me and I wasn't expecting it".

"You have nothing to be sorry for Harry, you're young and you've got thousands of hormones raging through your body. However I must warn you of starting any kind of relationship".

"Why?"

"Because while you are the Rider, you are going to acquire many different forms of enemies, both mortal and immortal, and they can and will use anyone against you if they see that you could help them accomplish their goals."

A/N: End of Chapter 7! Please Read & Review!