Though they were still a far ways off from spring, the blanket of snow had mercifully left over the holidays, leaving behind a damp and soggy Hogwarts grounds in its wake.
"You should have told me about your house, Won-Won! I'm sure mummy wouldn't have minded if you stayed with us for a few days!"
From this distance, Harry could see the Slytherin team practising at the Quidditch Pitch and blissfully wondered if Tracey was over there with them, as he would much rather be over there with her than in his current situation. The trio had taken one of their rare days without lessons or revision to visit Hagrid, but hadn't counted on the trio now being a quartet. While Harry and Hermione had their house scarfs keeping them warm, Ron had his girlfriend, Lavender Brown, wrapped around him, looking not unlike a snake trying to squeeze all life out of it's victim.
Ron's mood took a noticeable souring at the mention of his house. Though he and Hermione had been getting on better since the fire, it was still a sensitive subject for the Weasleys. As for Hermione herself - her eyes had been pointed at the ground the entire journey from the castle.
Moving as quick as their feet would carry them, perhaps in some vain hope that Lavender would lose her footing in the mud and be left behind, it wasn't long until they reached the foot of Hagrid's cabin. Harry and Hermione turned expectantly to Ron, who gave a sheepish and stupid smile as he turned to address his girlfriend.
"You should probably get goin' now, I reckon."
The matters they often discussed in private were not for the average bystander to hear, Harry was glad Ron could recognise that. But he was also glad because, frankly, Lavender was beginning to creep him out more than a little.
Her lip turned up into a puppy dog pout.
"Aw, but I haven't seen Professor Hagrid in so long!" she gave a shrill cry. "Let me just say hello?"
Ron looked back their way, clearly hoping for some help. Harry channeled his inner Ice Queen and remained stone in the face
"Well… actually, he's…" he stammered.
Hermione spoke up for the first time since Lavender joined them.
"He's got dragon pox," she said plainly.
All eyes turned to her expectantly and she nodded, continuing.
"Very contagious. He is in quarantine, actually. Self isolating. We're only allowed down to deliver him some toilet paper. We have taken the essentials to make us immune, have you?"
Lavender laughed obnoxiously.
"Well, no, but I'm sure that I could…"
Just like him, Hermione's stone expression didn't phase. It bugged him how she was able to do a Daphne impression more convincingly than he was.
"Then you best go ask Professor Slughorn how to prepare Gorsemoor's brew. You can visit next time."
It apparently took the girl a second to recognise she was being serious, and then when nobody chimed in to rescue her, she simply laughed merrily and gestured back up towards the castle.
"Oh… okay. I'll be right back then!"
She turned to Ron, scooped him up into her arms and delivered a kiss with such intensity, one would think they were never going to see each other again.
"See you in a bit, Won-Won!"
They all waited patiently on the spot, watching her until she disappeared entirely out of sight over the hill. Ron violently leaned closer to Hermione.
"That was cruel!"
Harry knocked urgently on the huts door, not wanting another row. Hagrid appeared at once, initially looking glum, though his expression brightened as he met each of their faces.
"Ello all! Merr' late Christmas! Y'all got me presents ah hope?"
In contrast to the miserable weather outside, it couldn't have been more pleasant inside Hagrid's house. As he stepped in, hot air hit Harry like a physical blast and instantly melted away any of the icicles that had begun to feel forming inside his cloak. He found himself falling down into his oversized, pungent smelling sofa, while the half-giant bustled around making them tea. Fang was on the group in seconds, trying uselessly to fit his entire massive body onto Ron's knee.
"She is cringey!" she hissed.
"She is my girlfriend!" Ron snapped back.
Hagrid didn't seem the least bit perturbed by the twos' continued argument, and instead merrily laughed along with them.
"Still not slung off tha' Lavender Brown 'ave we Ron?"
"Why does everyone keep bloody tellin' me to break up with her? It's none of your business who I spend my time with!"
Although his words could be taken seriously, his tone was an indication that he was joking along with them, albeit probably with some defense as well.
"Havin' a partner is a big part of yer life, Ron! Which means they gotta fit in with all aspects of 'yer life. Am not sayin' it's worth splittin' up with 'er just 'cause yer mates don't like 'er, but they need considerin' too! As I once said to 'Arry 'ere, romancises come and go, but friendships like yer's are worth fightin' fer."
Harry did remember that exact conversation he had had with Hagrid, sometime around a year ago. It did a lot to help him then and with any luck, he hoped blissfully, it would also do a lot for helping Ron in the same way. Based on his own experiences, there was probably some solid advice he could offer him on the subject, now that Hagrid bought it up. But Harry was building to something, he had been the entire journey down, and couldn't afford to deviate from it now.
He had suggested coming to Hagrids with a plan in mind. He was not going to repeat the same mistakes that he had last year. He'd done the whole secrecy thing before and it had done nothing but ruin him and everything he held dear. He was now older and smarter and refused to take the cowards path. As soon as Hagrid had settled his friends down from their hissed and spat row and taken a seat opposite them, Harry coughed politely into his fist.
"On the topic, actually! Me and Daphne are seeing each other again and I found out why she was acting so weird! Turns out she's a Death Eater now... we're working on that. She also actually spent Christmas at Grimmauld Place, her and Sirius really get on! "
His lungs strained as he forced it all out in one breath. He then slouched back into the oversized sofa as three shocked expressions met him. As a thunderous bellow erupted from inside Hagrid, something told him that this next hour was going to be an eventful one.
The minutes sailed by, then eventually turned into hours. The sky was beginning to change colour and the sun was getting threateningly close to the horizon. Any chance of this being a casual visit was long gone out the window.
Harry let the words flow naturally out of him, recounting everything from their breakup all the way up to Slughorn's party, and then an abbreviated version of what happened when she spent Christmas at Grimmauld Place. As smoothly as the words came out, interruptions drained out his voice.
"She's got the bloody Dark Mark!?"
"'Yer didn't show 'er the secret base?!"
"She used the - !? On a muggle - !?"
By the time he had finished, the room was in tatters. Hagrid was bright red in the face - or what of it were visible was, and he was dabbing a handkerchief over his sweating forehead. Hermione had fallen stone quiet, furiously glaring at him as he continued his story. Ron looked ready to punch him, and frankly with all the hostile energy in the room, he was amazed that he hadn't been physically assaulted yet by one, if not all his friends. He ended his story with relaying to them the words Daphne told him about her meeting with Dumbledore, and a long moment passed before anyone said anything.
The fireplace was cold and empty, quite possibly the first time he had ever seen, as the flame had gone out sometime during his story and nobody found the effort to reignite it again. The only noise intruding the silence were the raindrops the size of bullets that had begun banging against the cabin windows - which frankly sounded like music to his ears. After an even longer pause, Hermione was the first to decide to share her feelings and gave a long, hardened sigh.
"I think first and foremost…" her voice cracked with a sombre tone, "... we owe you an apology for not taking your claims seriously."
Ron chimed in very quickly soon after, a lot more aggressively.
"I think secondly, you've earned this!"
Moving way quicker than he was prepared for, Ron delivered a blunt punch into his shoulder. Dimly, stunned by the sudden shock to the system, Harry was unable to do anything other than gesture exasperatedly.
"What the bloody hell was that for!?"
"For bein' such a daft prick!" Ron shot back.
His arm stung with pain for a moment before going numb. Hagrid shook his face, his beaded black eyes shining amongst his ginormous beard.
"Goin' out with a Death Eater… I ain't ever 'eard of such a thing! Yer father will be spinnin' in his grave, he will be!"
The constant resistance to his story was steadily chipping away at his temper, but it was the mention of his father that pushed him over the edge. With his fist clenched, Harry spoke louder than the room and in the most commanding voice he could muster.
"Look - Daphne is on our side, and I'm not interested in having conversations about anything else. If you want to try and change my mind, I will walk right now."
He had tried to word it as a warning, and had mostly succeeded at that, but it didn't have the resounding effect of finality he hoped it would. Ron shuffled around in his seat angrily, while Hermione and Hagrid looked content to listen to him. Pushing the temper from his breath and allowing a forced calm to take him over, Harry began again.
"As I said, she's met the Order and she's met Dumbledore. They gave her the whole trail and it's sorted. She couldn't be lying even if she wanted to. We can trust her."
His warning had broken the hostile atmosphere, but it was this follow up that seemed to settle the group a little. Hagrid remained the most quiet, his expression was difficult to read through his beard, while he could still plainly see the conflict on Ron and Hermione's face. Slowly, the latter brought herself forward on the settee.
"Harry, Death Eaters are murderers and cruel..."
Cutting her off quickly, he didn't let her finish.
"But she isn't! She was raised like that, but she's different! She is just as scared of them as we are."
Ron chimed in next.
"I'm not scared of no Death Eaters! Would quite like to get my hands on them, all things considerin'!"
Hermione raised both of her hands sternly, not unlike the way McGonagall did, and silenced them.
"What I am saying, is - we can't afford to underestimate them. I'm sure it has occurred to the Order as well that she could be doing exactly what the Death Eaters want her to do, even without knowing it. So, I'm not going to lecture you on that, or try and change what's already happened, but I just feel we should be extremely cautious around her moving on. Work closely with her, definitely, be also be aware, is all."
He wanted again to stick up for Daphne, but the pleading nature of her tone made him struggle to find fault in what was being said. He was sure about Daphne, but he had lived through the past few weeks, his friends hadn't. It made sense that no matter what he said they would still want to exercise caution.
So Harry collapsed, tired, back into the oversized settee. He hadn't truly taken time to regain his breath since his story began, so finally seeing the group settle on some kind of agreement brought a much needed break to his struggle.
"Has she told us anything useful we can use?"
"Not yet, but…"
As he settled on what to say, he turned to address Ron now as much as Hermione.
"- But Sirius reckons we could get her to go on record with the Ministry and confirm her dad was part of the attack on the Burrow. That would also help Lupin get the blame off the - "
Hagrid, who had been silent for a while, suddenly bellowed, causing all of them to flinch out of their skin.
"WHA' ATTACK ON THE BURROW!?"
After calming down Fang, who was now barking and leaping around the hut, they then spent the next however long catching Hagrid up on the specifics of the Death Eater attack on the Burrow that went down over Christmas. When they had finished, he was again patting his reddened face with a handkerchief.
"Nobody tells me nuthin' 'round 'ere!" he mumbled ungratefully, "Ah swear! Am always the last one to find these things out!"
Harry couldn't remember what they had been talking about before Hagrid's outburst, but suddenly didn't care. Though that kind of a comment was one usually ignored, he found himself focusing on it and after a second, spoke up again.
"Well… you're one of the first ones to find out about this. The three of you are my best friends, you deserve to know. We don't want this getting out to anyone else."
Hagrid's face, or what was visible of it through the hair, sweat and redness, seemed to brighten up quite quickly at that.
"It needs to be a secret," he continued. "Not just for her safety, but also 'cause we want to avoid the big drama like what happened last year. The only others that know are Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, Dumbledore and Snape."
A disgusted groan came from Ron's side of the settee.
"You let Snape know? Cringe."
A light snort came from Harry's throat, one he hadn't been expecting and thus wasn't able to stop. As his laugh sounded, it helped lighten the mood of the hut just that tiny bit more.
"He's… shockingly, quite alright with it. If anything, it's Tonks who has the biggest problem."
Hermione frowned at that.
"What could Tonks have against it? Didn't her mother essentially make the same choice as Daphne is doing?"
He shrugged plainly.
"I don't know, the two just really don't get on. Tonks doesn't trust her, but everyone else does."
"Sounds like Tonks is the only one with a good head on her shoulders," he heard Ron mumble.
Harry caught his eyeline. He fired him a warning shot, to which Ron just held his hands up innocently at.
"I just don't like it, mate! After what 'er dad just did, you can't blame me!"
Though his words were accusing, there was a very distinct sadness in them that Harry struggled to be mad at. It was though Ron was accepting his story and trusting him, but out of principle still couldn't allow himself to be okay with it. As Harry looked for the right way to respond to that, Hermione answered for him.
"If she really did use vertiserium, then it is likely what Harry is telling us completely true."
Ron turned his nose up as though she had just suggested something disgusting.
"Well, how do we know it was actually vertiserium?" he asked in the same pathetic tone. "You said Snape gave it to her? I've been sayin' he is working against us all along."
Though Ron was still on the opposing side of them, they very noticeably weren't arguing anymore, which was progress in itself. Harry finally settled on his words, but didn't get a chance to say them, however, as Hagrid chimed in with a rare contribution.
"Snape is on our side and, ah well… Ah do admit that if she has both his and Dumbledore's trust, then she probably is bein' truthful. But I dunno, the whole thing just seems too unneeded to me! Honestly 'Arry, what was wrong with settlin' down with tha' Ravenclaw girl yer used to be seein'?"
The mention of Cho threw him through an unexpected curve ball, and he instantly forgot whatever resolution he had been building to. It fell to Hermione to give the big, final words on the topic. She came forward again in her seat, and moved a reassuring hand onto Harry's knee.
"We are sorry for not being there. You were right in your suspicions and we shouldn't have dismissed them as easily as we did. Between our timetables, your Quidditch practise and mine and Ron's Prefect duties, I know we haven't exactly been the most present in your life. And brushing off your concerns earlier most definitely didn't help. I am sorry, Harry."
Though Ron didn't say anything, his face changed to one of agreement, and his aggressive energy soon simmered down.
"And it's not that we don't want to have good faith in you, Harry, but the past speaks for itself. We are just as justified in being worried about this."
He shuffled out from Hermione's hand, appreciating the gesture, but feeling strange having another woman touch him like that.
"What do you need that will prove it to you?"
She pulled slowly back into her seat, thinking about it carefully.
"I don't know... I mean, I imagine if we could talk to her and judge for ourselves the situation... If she is clearly going to be involved from here on, then we should get to meet her for ourselves and not just communicate through you. It would certainly do a lot to qualm our worries, but I know how unlikely that is…"
She gave a shrug and gave up. But in stark contrast, Harry's mind was beginning to fill with enthusiasm.
"Alright then. We'll do that."
She blinked at him.
"What?"
"I can formally introduce you guys."
Ron gave a hardened sigh.
"Bloody wonderful."
"When are you both free?"
Hermione remained still and blinked again, looking as though he was suggesting something utterly outlandish.
"I haven't the faintest idea when we are all next free... Ronald and I are in charge of the first years in between a lot of lessons. You'd stand a better chance at joining the three of us at a Prefect meet."
"Then when's the next one?" he was quick to suggest.
Finally fighting through her confusion, a degrading laughter sounded from her throat.
"Harry, I wasn't serious!"
"Well, I am."
Hermione moved her arms through the air in useless exasperation for a second, and then she gave a silent gasp.
"The next time the Gryffindor and Slytherin Prefects are working together is the first Wednesday of new term, in the evening. We are sitting in with her and Parkinson on a second year's mock Charms exam, but you can't exactly come into the exam with us!"
He nodded, determined and sure.
"Then we will go somewhere right after."
"- That would be staying up past curfew!"
"Which prefects are all allowed to do?" he shot right back, immediately.
"And you're not allowed to do!"
He smiled.
"Rather handy I have an invisibility cloak, then?"
Hermione deflated in an instant, shaking her head in defeat.
"Honestly…" she muttered foully under her breath.
Ron interrupted their exchange, this time not with a snide remark, but with a laugh.
"Give over, 'mione. You're not gonna change his mind about this."
Harry couldn't hide his smile at that. Hermione gave a slow, drawn out breath and gave in, slouching back onto the oversized sofa, which left his eyes to focus solely on Hagrid now, who had been listening patiently.
"And you as well, Hagrid."
The half-giants chest expanded rapidly, like he was shocked.
"Oh 'Arry, am not so sure about tha'..."
"You said it yourself, if she's in my life then she needs to fit all the aspects of it. And you're a big part of it too."
It was rare Harry was ever this straightforward with his feelings, as it was for anyone, but his experiences of late had taught him the advantages that unfiltered honesty can bring.
His words seemed to have a physical impact on Hagrid, whose back suddenly snapped upright and his mouth dropped open a few inches.
"Well, ah guess if you brought 'er round for tea sometime it couldn't 'urt... Or, or we could go the Three Broomsticks… But, ah want it known! Ah don't particularly 'ave the best past with Slytherin students, 'as to be said! But if yer sure about 'er… Look, ah can't promise ya nuthin… come to think of it, she prolly won't anythin' ta do with a filthy 'alfbreed like me."
Hagrid spoke quickly and anxiously, like he was suddenly being accused of something very embarrassing. Hermione moved in her seat to comfort him, since the pain in his voice was obvious. Harry struggled to keep his supportive smile.
"She won't treat you like that. Daphne is different to them. She's…"
With an annoyed tang of guilt, he suddenly struggled to find anything nice to say about her. Or more accurately, something that would appeal to Hagrid. He knew what she was really like, beyond the facade of the Ice Queen, but even then he didn't think the real her had too much in common with him. Thinking more on the matter, he then couldn't come up with two people who were opposite to one another.
Daphne, with her royal appearance and hardened personality, then the other end of the spectrum, Hagrid, with his heart of gold but scraggy, messy looks. He would stick to his word and introduce them, since he had already made a big deal out of it, but he would probably have to have stern words with Daphne beforehand.
Then, a solemn note sprung to mind. Though they were from two completely separate, conflicting worlds, Daphne and Hagrid did have one thing in common. Under their hardened exteriors they were both real, fragile people. Though their looks were usually enough to put people off, they had a warm heart, bursting with more than enough love to go around. And though people rarely got to see that side of them, Harry had been lucky enough to see it in them both.
"She's more sensitive than she seems," he settled on eventually.
He had dished out a lot of offers and promises just then, but it looked to have finally done the trick. At last, a calm overtook the hut, leaving just the sound of the rain on the roof and Fang's heavy snores. Nobody followed him up or rushed out any more disagreements.
"Thank you for all listening to me. I know this isn't going to be easy, but I'm going to do it properly. I could really use your help along the way."
Hagrid gave a nod, which came out as more of a bow. Hermione followed next, now suddenly having a sense of resolve about her.
"We'll always be with you, Harry."
Ron chimed in next, reluctantly.
"Even if you are a daft git."
With that, Hagrid lurched forward in his seat suddenly, easily scooping the three of them out of their seats with ease.
"OH, COME 'ERE!" he sobbed.
By the time they are packed up and leaving Hagrid's hut, darkness had fallen. The cold air kept them moving quickly, but they did so out of a desire to make it to the new term feast.
Once seated they met up with Neville, Ginny and Luna, who were to remain regretfully in the dark about this meeting that had just taken place. Though Harry felt bad lying to them, especially in light of this new resolution, he also knew where to draw the line.
In front of him, the table erupted into an endless platter of roasted treats and bizarre foods, but as his friends set about diving into the feast, Harry found his movements slowing. It was true that the last thing he and Daphne needed was to be dealing with more drama, akin to last year. While they worked their situation out, they needed complete concentration. But what was their situation now, exactly? Were they even actually back together? It's how he worded it when telling his friends, and it's how it felt in his heart, but he couldn't remember actually verbally establishing such with her. In fact, she had said quite specifically before the holidays that just because they were back to talking, it did not mean that they were back together. But a lot had happened since then, was that proclamation still valid?
Just as he was beginning to feel happy he had finally done the brave thing and faced his troubles head on, he began falling down a rapid spiral of overthinking. Had he just preemptively told them all something that wasn't technically true? Or was he just over assuming things? Their time together in Grimmauld Place had been anything but innocent, but he knew more than most that the lines became blurry around this kind of thing.
As soon as the question made itself known in his head, he suddenly struggled to think about anything else but it. Looks like long, awkward conversations weren't out of his life quite just yet.
