Chapter 8 - BOTCHED BATHROOM

Daphne POV

That blasted little devil! I looked at Tori and saw her smirking at me. I gave her a hard glare.

"Well if your okay now, I will be leaving".

I turned on my heel straight away and marched out of the hospital wing. Stepping outside the hospital wing, I took a deep breath to calm down. Despite Tori's antics, I was quite happy. Although I loathed Tori to some extent for being incredibly insufferable just now, I was glad that Harry treated my sister kindly and with patience.

He certainly did not act like how Malfoy said when he ranted about Potter in the Slytherin common room. In fact, the more I talk with Harry, the more I realize what everyone says about him is completely and utterly not true. He was kind... and certainly was not egotistical.

I then walked towards the Slytherin common room, there was still some time before breakfast, I'll meet up with Tracey first. The second I got back I got bombarded with questions from Tracey.

"WHAT, POTTER WAS IN THE HOSPITAL WING WITH YOU? Did you guys share a bed?...did you guys do it?"

My face became as red as a tomato.

"GET YOUR MIND OUT OF DAMN GUTTER TRACEY!"

I then took my wand out and tried to hex Tracey.

"Okay Okay, Daph… STOP HEXING ME!"

I smirked as Tracey surrendered. After that, we sat down on my bed and shut the curtains.

"Okay then, but in all serious Daph, you have been looking at Potter all funny towards the end of last year, and what was that smile you shared with him on the train? You never smile at boys…"

I fell silent at what Tracey said.

Did I fancy Potter? How can I? How would it even work? Not only is he in Gryffindor and I am in Slytherin, but he is also the esteemed Gryffindor Golden Boy. If I did...big if...date him my entire house will crucify me.

Tracey then cut me out of my thoughts as she placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Look Daph, do you like Potter? And not that like, you know what I mean".

I didn't respond, I sat there staring at my bedsheets contemplating on what to say.

"If I were you Daph, I wouldn't care about what other people think, besides, shouldn't your happiness be your first priority?"

I looked up and stared at Tracey for a long time. I then broke into a tiny smile.

"Thanks, Tracey".

Tracey then smirked at me. There was a hint of a mischevious glint in her eyes.

Uh oh, what did you do Daphne?

"Well now that we confirmed you like Potter, I suggest you better go find him and drag him into a good ol broom cupboard and snog-"

I grabbed the nearest thing I could, which was my pillow, and chucked it straight at Tracey. Tracey howled with laughter. After I managed to stop Tracey teasing me, we came up with some ideas. This year we could go to Hogsmeade, and since Harry told me in the Hospital wing this morning, I found out that I am taking the exact same subjects as Harry. I will most likely be in most, if not all, his classes. I will have chances to get to know him better.

Harry POV

I was struggling in class, no not from learning the content, I surprisingly learned spells and mastered them at a faster rate compared to before. This is probably because I have worked on channeling my magic and strengthened my magical core, making it more stable and consistent. Hermione looked at me suspiciously as I effortlessly mastered the spells in class before her. I rolled my eyes at this.

I did tell her about Godric, why is she taking the piss now as well? Not like it matters, I might not be here much longer anyway...

I glanced at Professor Flitwick as he was teaching the others the summoning spell, Accio.

My thoughts were all over the place, some were on the rumors of me being the next Merlin!

Yeah right! Nutters, the bunch of them...

My other thoughts were on the Dementors that attacked the train, my potential fifty fifty death this Friday, an escaped Azkaban nutter, Sirius Black, trying to murder me, and strangely Daphne. I kept a stoic and bored expression on the outside with my Occlumency, but inside I couldn't even distinguish what was left or right. This was too much to handle in the first week of school. I was trying hard to make sense of all these events and my emotions when class ended. Flitwick dismissed us and I left the charms classroom.

When I stepped outside the classroom, I saw Daphne and, I think, Tracey Davis, waiting near the end of the corridor. I made eye contact with her blue sapphire eyes and was about to walk over when Ron and Hermione caught up to me.

"Harry!" Hermione called out.

I abruptly turned around to meet the two of them.

"Yes guys? I'm sorry but I need to be getting to next class-"

"Harry you and I have arithmancy next! And how did you master the summoning spell so quickly? I could barely get the feather to twitch!"

I looked back and forth between Hermione and then Ron.

Ron rolled his eyes, "He's got a power boost from Gryffindor himself Hermione, lay off would you…"

Ron then muttered, "If I had Gryffindor himself backing me, I'd sweep classes easily as well…"

I resisted the urge to show my frown at Ron's comments. I then calmly explained to Hermione how I casted the Accio spell. Although Hermione appeared a bit disgruntled at first that I had one-upped in learning magic, she quickly started to consume my words as I taught her and she returned back to normal.

After explaining to her, Mione and I said farewell to Ron as he headed to Divination, I turned back around to find the pair of blue sapphire eyes at the end of the corridor but they were gone.

It was Friday, today I might just die.

Fan-fucking-tastic…

I didn't get any more chances to talk to Daphne, not like I had any chances at all to talk to her since the hospital wing. I didn't want to talk to her in class since I was scared it would attract attention from other Slytherins, and people like Malfoy would make things hard on her.

I didn't have chances after class aside from the one time in the corridor after charms. Daphne was either in a deep conversation with Tracey or being approached by Slytherin's biggest git, Malfoy. I guess it also didn't help that I was being hauled away by Hermione on spells and magic, I had to also divert my eyes away from Daphne, I almost got caught by Hermione. Ron is oblivious as always, not paying attention in class, I sometimes wonder what goes on his head aside from chess and quidditch. I haven't told either of them of my potential death yet.

There's no need anyway, if I die it is better they don't know, all of them, but I will tell them if I somehow live.

I walked towards the girl's bathroom where Moaning Myrtle was. I was about to hiss at the sink and command it to open in parseltongue when I heard footsteps and voices approaching the bathroom.

"Just be patient, it isn't like he is trying to ignore you!"

The footsteps and voices became louder, they were going to come in! Dammit, they were going to see me in a girls bathroom... Why didn't I bring my dad's old cloak? I then stopped dead in my tracks when I heard my name.

"It's annoying though! Especially when Granger and Weasley keep hauling Harry away, I barely have any chances to talk to him at all and they are blocking me every time! That annoying ferret is also always on my heel as well, UGH!"

As she finished talking the bathroom door slammed open and I came face to face with Daphne and Tracey. Expressions of shock and bewilderment were present on both girl's faces.

Man, I am in trouble.