Chapter 28 - BURNOUT

Daphne POV

I had just finished unpacking my things in the Slytherin common room after getting back to the castle from the Hogwarts Express by carriages. Oh, it felt so good to be back in Hogwarts!

I got relentlessly interrogated by my parents and Tori at home. I did however eventually cave in and tell Mum about what has happened so far between me and Harry, however, not before making her promise to not tell Dad and Tori.

I said bye to Tracey in my room before I raced off to the kitchens to meet Harry. The place had become an area where we would eat almost all the time, as Harry didn't want to go to the great hall for some reason. I waited for five minutes at the kitchen then decided to get up and go to the seventh floor. If Harry wasn't here, then he must be doing god knows what in the Room of Requirement again… if he is messing around with fiendfyre without telling me again I am going to hex the crap out of him…"

I walked towards the Room as the door materialized, I opened it to see Harry drenched in sweat firing a series of spells at the training dummies. I stared at him in awe as he continued on, not noticing I had arrived. He nonverbally with incredibly fast and precise wand movements sent a reducto, bombarda and confringo in a triangle formation at the dummy and shortly after sent another one in the same formation with a incarcerous, stupify and petrificus totalus. The dummy absorbed the spells, but left red dots as indicators where it was struck. One of Harry's three spells in the formation would always hit the dummy spot on in the chest. If his dummy were a moving target, it would very likely, if not definitely get hit by one or two of the three spells.

I thought that would be it, that was already an impressive sequence of a variety of spells, but Harry continued on. Harry with two giant slashing motions with his wand shot out two diffinod spells. The arced towards the dummy in an 'X' formation. Harry then after launching the two arcs used a spell I was unfamiliar with, he shot three ropes of fire that traveled at different angles towards the dummy before following up with an incendio, a spell I recognized! The fire ropes travelled in a triangle formation except they weren't going to strike the target from the front! They were going to strike the target from above and the left and right side! The incendio cast by Harry went straight towards the dummy whilst the other three spells boxed in the dummy.

Ingenious! This would force someone to defend from multiple different angles. If they weren't fast enough to react to this fast sequence of spells they would get hit! Even then, one would have to either use a lot of magical energy to put up a strong protego charm that protects them from all angles or conjure up objects to absorb the hits. This would create a significant advantage for Harry in a duel!

I was about to congratulate him when the dummy spat the string of fire right back at him after absorbing the fire spells. I just saw Harry standing there with his wand lowered slightly, not moving. Just as I was about to scream at him to move, he raised his wand at the last second and cut the approaching flame in two. The flames flared off harmlessly to his left and right side. He then used his free hand and wandlessly grabbed a whisk of the passing flames before blowing on the flames in the palm of his hand. My eyebrows then raised so high that they threatened to go right off my face!

The flames fanned out and turned into a fiery stag!

In a beautiful and seamless transition, Harry had flipped his opponent's offensive spell against him! He guided the stag with his hand?!

He could control fiendfyre wandlessly?!

I noticed that although he lowered his wand, he didn't let his guard down. The fiery stag then charged at the dummies clearly incinerating all of them. The stag burned them to a crisp cleanly without leaving any trail of fire behind. The stag lingered around for a bit longer before Harry brought his wand back up in a circular motion before giving a slight finesse and cut the flames out cleanly. He then was panting heavily, his sweat now soaked through his shirt he was wearing, his shirt sticking to him and showing off some of his muscular upper body. I blushed slightly at the sight.

Harry was very well defined… He seems so… STOP IT DAPHNE!

I snapped out of my thoughts and called out, "Harry!"

He quickly turned to look at me.

"Daphne I… OH CRAP! I totally forgot about meeting you in the kitchen! I am so sorry!"

I had a billion questions to ask him at that moment and was firing one question after another when he motioned for me to stop. The next thing he told me was almost too scary to be true.

After he finished telling me about the prophecy, why Voldemort came after him, Sirius Black being his Godfather and the information he withheld from me before about Horcruxes, my heart almost stopped beating for a second.

I think I might faint…

"Oh Harry…"

I ignored how sweaty he was quickly pulled him into a hug and snuggled my head into his shoulder. He hugged me tighter and whispered in my ear.

"Yeah… I'm holding up… barely… it was too much to process for a while... even flying on my broom over the holiday wasn't doing it for me, so I tried going harder and harder while practicing magic, I think I burned myself out at one point… but I got it under control now… it felt nice to tell you everything…"

We stood there and embraced each other for a long time. He then finally loosened up and let go of me, we stood face to face with each other.

"Thanks Daph, you always make my day better".

I reddened significantly at Harry's words.

I stammered out, "N-no pro-oblem Harry…"

He chuckled slightly at me. I then pushed my embarrassment aside and stomped my feet.

"Well you can go to the kitchen yourself after you clean up, since you are so obsessed with that place… I got to clean up now as well since I just hugged your sweaty ass!"

Harry paused for a bit before saying, "It is not that I am obsessed with the kitchens… well I am… it's just I overheard Ginny and Ron talking about slipping me a love potion. I have been avoiding the great hall during official breakfast, lunch and dinner times to prevent drinking or eating something spiked…"

I erupted into a volcanic fit of rage.

"WHAT! THAT WEASEL WORM DARES TRY SMUGGLE YOU A LOVE POTION! WAIT TILL I GET MY HANDS ON HER! I'LL HEX THE LIVING CRAP-"

"Daphne calm down, she hasn't succeeded… and besides, I have been careful and probed the things that I have been eating and drinking beforehand... ".

I relaxed slightly at how thoughtful Harry had been, but was still mad at the weasel.

"Good…I guess I will meet you at the kitchens after I shower and clean up".

I then turned around and left for the dungeons before meeting up with Harry at the kitchens and spending the rest of the day with him.

Doran's Ring -

Hi everyone! There will be a lot of chapters coming in on the next update! I have been doing my best to mix up my vocabulary. I found a lot of 'thens' in my writings haha. Thank you to those who pointed it out! I am still re-reading and editing. It seems like it is some sort of subconscious thing... even after reading it I still miss the 'then' sometimes haha. Thank you everyone for the amazing support and reviews. It has helped me a lot with developing this story and becoming a better overall writer. Thank you so much! Stay tuned for more chapters :D!