Chap. 16: Greenhill Manor, bedtime, nocturnal wanderings, brekkie, and work.
It was now fifteen after ten in the evening when everyone noticed that Harry had fallen asleep while still holding Daphne close to him on the sofa.
"Daphne, dear," Helen said, "I believe Harry is in the land of dreams."
Daphne, startled, quickly looked around, and sure enough, Harry's eyes were closed and there was a very soft snore emanating from him. She couldn't help but smile.
Finally, Daphne turned and poked Harry on his right shoulder with her index finger.
"Harry..."
"Harry, dear..."
"Harry, it's time to wake up!"
Here, Harry's eyes slowly opened, and he noticed where he was.
"Sorry," Harry said, as he quickly wiped his eyes with his left hand, "I'll just be up, and heading home."
"Nonsense," Helen said, "you can stay in the guest room tonight." Of course, this made Cyrus raise an eyebrow, but he didn't say a word after Helen glared at him.
"Thank you, Helen," Harry said as he removed his now numb arm from around Daphne's shoulder. Of course, Daphne leaned in a gave him a quick peck on the cheek before she stood.
Just as Harry started to stand, though, he fell back onto the sofa and gasped while holding his scar.
"What's wrong, Harry," Daphne asked with a worried voice.
"My scar," Harry hissed out, "it's hurting, and he's mad. This is the first time it's done it since the fight at the DOM."
Harry tried closing his eyes but quickly reopened them. "Can't do that, or I'll be sick!"
"Why?" Helen asked, who was now standing and waiting by her daughter.
"Whatever he's seeing, I'll see right now," Harry explained, "and his whole world seems to be spinning at the moment when I close my eyes.
"Ow! Shite!" Harry exclaimed, and grabbed his right ear. "What the..."
Daphne pulled his hand away and looked at Harry's ear, but it was normal.
"There's nothing wrong, Harry," Daphne almost whispered.
"He's really upset, and it's causing my scar to feel like it wants to burst!"
Daphne, Helen, and now, Cyrus, were looking at his scar, and it had become red and inflamed.
"Splodgey!" Cyrus called out.
"Yes, Master Cyrus? What can Splodgey bes getting Master tonight?"
"Splodgey," Cyrus said, "bring Harry one of Astoria's strong pain drafts; the brown ones in the small dram phials."
"Splodgey will be right back, Master." Here, the little elf snapped his fingers and disapparated.
It wasn't a minute when the elf returned, and handed Cyrus the small phial, which he uncorked, and handed to Harry.
"Drink up, Harry," Cyrus said. "It's a dram of Laudanum."
Harry turned the phial up and quickly drank it, but made an awful face.
"Laud..., what?"
"Laudanum, Harry," Daphne explained, "is another name for Tincture of Opium. It contains about 10% Opium in ethyl alcohol. It's a rather strong pain potion."
It didn't take long for it to work, as Harry let out a sigh of relief, though he now felt like his head was stuffed with cotton, and that he was floating."
"Heh heh," Harry muttered with a rather dopey look on his face. "I'm feeling rather better now!"
"I'll bet you are, lover boy," Daphne said as she tugged him up by his arm, where he staggered. However, Cyrus gave her a cross look over what she said, but Helen shook her head for him to keep his thoughts to himself.
"Come on, and I'll help you up to the room," Daphne said, which caused Harry to give her a huge cheesy smile, where he threw his arm around her shoulder.
"You know," Harry said as they started making their way out of the library, "I am becoming really fond of the idea of being married to you, just so you know!"
"I'm sure you are, darling," Daphne said as they walked through the door.
"I've lost my little girl," Cyrus said as he watched the two leave.
"Leave them be, Cyrus!"
Cyrus and Helen turned toward the fireplace, and there was Queenie Goldstein wagging her index finger at him from her portrait.
He huffed before making his way to bed, himself.
Daphne turned the bed down for Harry, and when she turned around to where he was, there he stood in nothing but his boxers, which were now tented out almost all the way down the leg of the garment, making her blush.
"Like what you see?" Harry said in a low voice before he crawled into bed, and pulled the duvet up to just above his navel.
"Shush, you, and get some sleep," Daphne said with a blush, but still gave Harry a quick kiss before leaving the guest room in a hurry to dress for bed.
Harry yawned, smirked, turned off the table lamp, took off his glasses, and curled up to go to sleep.
Before Harry closed his eyes, though, he muttered, "I wonder what she'll dream of tonight?"
Daphne was woken at three in the morning by the alarm spell she had placed on Harry's bed. She yawned, sat up, and swung her legs out of bed, where she put on a long silk house coat, and slipped on a pair of fuzzy white house slippers, before trying to leave her room as quietly as possible.
Once in the hall, she had to travel to the opposite end of the house, so she watched which floorboards she stepped on to not make any noise. When she reached Harry's room, she eased the door open and found Harry sitting on the edge of the bed, rubbing his scar.
"Harry?"
Harry flinched and quickly looked around. When he noticed that it was Daphne, he sighed.
"I didn't mean to wake anyone."
"I set an alarm spell in case your scar bothered you again," Daphne said as she made her way to the side of the bed. "Are you all right?"
"It was him, again, Daph," Harry said while trying out her nickname. "The jinxes are still bothering him, and you don't really want to know the rest."
Here, Daphne withdrew her wand and levitated a stuffed armchair beside the bed, which she sat herself down in.
"What happened?"
Harry groaned. "He woke up needing the loo, believe it or not, and called out for Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Draco. Nobody came!
"He tried to get himself up, but something was wrong with him, so all he did was flop about in the bed.
"Finally," Harry happily said, "he shat himself!"
Daphne gave out a high-pitched squeal, grabbed the throw pillow in the chair, and covered her mouth with it, where she let out a guffaw. When she got herself under control, she stared at Harry with glistening eyes and two rosy cheeks.
"He didn't!"
"Oh, yes," Harry said with a smirk, "he completely soiled himself!" Here, Harry let out one of those low-wheezing sniggers that say that someone really screwed the pooch. "He-he-he-he-he-he."
Harry's sniggering reminded Daphne of an old cartoon that she saw on the telly at the Davis' once; what was it, oh, yes, Muttley! That dog was the king of the wheezing sniggers.
"I've got to visit the loo, Daph, so I'll be back in a mo'," Harry said, and then stood to make his way to the loo attached to the room.
Daphne made herself comfortable in the chair by the time Harry had come out, yawning, and climbed back into bed.
"I'll be fine, now, dear," Harry said.
"Go back to sleep, Harry," Daphne said, "and I'll sit with you for a bit, and then go back to my room."
At Harry's nod, she took his hand and watched as he dozed back off.
Astoria woke at seven, and made her way across to Daphne's room where she knocked, but didn't receive an answer. She opened the door and found that Daphne wasn't in her bed, which was odd, as she was a late sleeper.
She yawned and started making her way down the hall when her mother appeared from her bedroom door.
"Where's Daphne, Astoria?"
"She must be downstairs, as she's not in her room," Astoria replied.
Helen looked down the hall to the end, where a door sat at a diagonal, which was still closed. Here, she turned and made her way toward it with Astoria following.
When Helen opened the door, Harry was still asleep in the bed, but there was her eldest daughter with her head lying on the bed while holding Harry's hand.
Astoria gasped out at what she saw. "Mum?"
"Harry spent the night," Helen said in a low voice. Why Daphne was here, though, was another matter.
Helen made her way to Daphne and shook her shoulder. "Daphne, it's time to wake up."
Daphne moved around a bit and opened her eyes, but then noticed where she was, and who had woken her. Here, she sat bolt upright and blushed to her roots.
"Mum! I can explain!"
Astoria was sniggering at her from behind her mother.
"I'm sure you can, Daphne, but it's time for breakfast, so wake Harry, and be downstairs as quick as possible."
"Yes, Mum!"
As Astoria was leaving the room behind Helen, she gave Daphne a huge grin and wiggled her eyebrows at her.
"Oh, no," Daphne muttered.
Harry and Daphne walked down the stairs of Greenhill Manor hand-in-hand, and into the great hall, where they made a left toward the dining area at the end. However, this was not where they sat, as Daphne pushed upon a swinging door on her left, and led Harry into the kitchen. They walked passed Splodgey, who was just retrieving some fresh scones from the oven and made their way to the breakfast table at the far end, where Cyrus, Helen, and Astoria were already sitting.
When they were at the table, proper, Harry pulled out Daphne's chair and waited for her to be seated before he sat down himself. Once he was settled, he leaned over and kissed Daphne on the cheek as if he had been doing so for years.
Cyrus noticed this, of course, and raised an eyebrow, while thinking that the two already acted as if they were married. This, especially, after he watched Daphne make Harry a cuppa just the way he wanted it before they began filling their plates.
Astoria was watching all this as well and had to hold in several snorts. Finally, she could not hold in her big question for the day.
"Sister, dear, how did you end up falling asleep in Harry's room?"
Cyrus dropped his teaspoon onto his cup's saucer with a loud clank at this. "What?"
"Well, you see," Harry started, but Daphne cut him off.
"Harry was woken over his scar, again," Daphne said, "at three this morning, and I sat with him until he went back to sleep. I fell asleep in the chair. Evidently, You-Know-Who was very angry again."
"I see," Cyrus said. "Was it anything important, Harry?"
"Sir, what occurred with You-Know-Who at three in the morning is not something that should be discussed at the breakfast table, though funny as it was."
Here, Daphne snorted, and almost spat out her tea. Harry merely grinned and took a bite of his eggs.
"Really?" Helen said.
"Do tell," Astoria chimed in.
Daphne shot Astoria a wicked glare over that.
"Let's just say," Harry remarked as if discussing the Quidditch results in the Prophet, "that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named couldn't make his way out of the bed in time to reach the loo." Here, he began placing some clotted cream on a scone.
Astoria couldn't hold it in, and finally, she snorted and let out a loud chortle.
Daphne only gave Harry a smirk, and continued her meal, while Cyrus dropped his head to hide his. Helen's lips formed a perfect "o" before she covered them with her hand.
After several minutes passed over polite conversation and dining, Harry spoke up.
"Er, Cyrus, and Helen, with your permission, I would like to take Daphne with me to Godric's Hollow this morning, and introduce her to a few people."
"When will you be back?" Cyrus asked.
"By twelve," Harry replied, "unless Daphne would like to have lunch out, and if so, then, by one."
"I see no problem with that," Helen said. "Is this about your project?"
"Yes," Harry answered, leaving Astoria ignorant of what he was up to.
"You may then," Cyrus said. "If anything were to happen, though, you are to protect her at all costs."
"With my life, sir," Harry said.
Daphne started feeling all warm and tingly again.
Harry side-along apparated he and Daphne into what used to be the dining room of the cottage, which he now used as a paper storage, and it held the seven newspaper receiving boxes as well. From here, he led the young witch out into the narrow hall, and into the sitting room, where they found Skeeter sitting at the round table.
"You're here early, Rita," Harry said, as he watched Skeeter take a sip of tea. "Allow me to introduce you to my betrothed, Daphne Greengrass."
"Miss Greengrass," Skeeter said with a nod.
"Rita," Daphne replied in the same.
"Daphne and I are heading over to Bathilda's to help her make her way here," Harry said, "so we will return shortly. Muriel should be coming, as well as Tonks and Daniel."
"Yes," Rita said, "Muriel likes being fashionably late."
Harry chortled at this. "We'll see you in a bit."
"Yes, yes," Rita said with a shooing motion, as she started reading over her notes.
Harry then led Daphne to the front door, where they stepped out onto the sidewalk, and made their way across the street to the bakery, and then up the street toward the church. When they made it to the small intersection at the church, Harry made a left and walked up to Bathilda's door, where he knocked. It took a moment, but the old witch opened it and motioned the two inside.
A/N: Thanks, all, for the reviews! I'm glad everyone liked the last chapter.