A/N: Hello people and thank you so much for your support, and here's another chapter of Saviours!
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November 29, 1998
Monday Afternoon
It was a very good thing for Harry that his classes weren't until after his lunch period, otherwise, he would have slept well past them. The previous day spent at the Ministry alongside Daphne and Delphini — Tracey too, somewhat — had seen them stay out very late. Far later than they all had thought, which was quite the feat. Still, they did what was needed of them and managed to secure four votes against the resolution… those four votes were very likely to have gone against it anyhow, but it was best to know they had their support verbally.
Three others they had spoken with had done exactly what Daphne had predicted in the sense of attempting to get something out of Harry, Kingsley, or the Ministry itself. Without the presence of his friends, it was very likely that Harry would have given some impassioned speech or left them alone, but they had urged patience. There would be no concessions and as soon as they realised as much, the three would come back to them out of necessity. It wasn't Harry or Kingsley who wanted their homes, money or their very lives ruined, after all.
Regardless of that, it had been stressful enough with those seven meetings and they had gone on far longer than they had thought, that Harry figured it was no longer necessary on that day to continue with more meetings of Wizengamot members. The fact that they would only get harder as they progressed was certainly a point against continuing too, at least for that evening.
With a sigh, Harry shook his head to free himself from the thoughts he was having that were filled with politics and stood up from his seat. It wouldn't be too much longer before he had one of his classes, but before that, he was out to complete one goal of his; he wanted to find out whatever it was that the three Slytherin girls were working on in relation to that 'friend' of theirs that needed to learn a 'lesson' or something along that line, as Delphini had put it.
If he were a betting man, which he usually wasn't, he would assume that meant somebody was causing problems for them and if that was the case, he would very much like to figure out who that was even if he wouldn't get directly involved. Harry would never purposefully make his friends look weak or inadequate, and if they thought they could handle the problem, whatever it was, he would let them do just that so long as he knew what it was. Thus, with that as his train of thought, he was resolute with his want of figuring out who, if anybody, was being daft and if it turned out that they were really helping somebody, he wouldn't bring it up. Merlin, maybe Vane really had gotten to him that early in the year if he was this nervous about the three Slytherin witches.
"Alright, Harry?"
He nearly jolted forward when he heard somebody call to him, but the familiar voice of Fay eventually found itself recognisable in his mind. Still, he quickly turned towards the girl and shot her a curious look, especially since she was still in her pyjamas whilst none of the other girls dared to come down in anything less than casual wear.
"I'm good, just had a bit of lie-in, what about you? Aren't you usually up and going through the day by now?" He answered and returned a couple of questions of his own to the familiar Gryffindor girl; he was glad there was at least one person still present from his house even if he wasn't all that close to her.
Fay snorted and gestured to her clothing. "I was having a lie-in too. Didn't care to get up early and go to breakfast today, not when it meant getting up early after a late night up with a few of the girls. Speaking of some late-night fun with a few girls, I saw that you and those three Slytherin birds of yours returned pretty late. Do I have to give them the talk or are you just friends with all three of those witches who're widely considered some of the most beautiful in all of Hogwarts, aside from myself?"
This time it was Harry's turn to snort, only when he did it, the sound was far more choke-like than he would care to admit. "Nothing like that happened, believe me. We're friends, the four of us. I spent some time with you and nothing happened, yeah?"
"Not for a lack of trying on my part," Fay said with a huff and pout, one that made him nervous before she walked over, elbowed him in the side and flopped down onto the couch. "I'm playing, you're definitely way too riled up. Come on, take a seat again and talk with me, it's not often that we get to rest without a bunch of other people nearby, yeah? You could probably tell me about these girl issues you're having too, it takes a girl to know a girl, you know."
"No, I reckon I really don't — what girl problems are you talking about too? Did one of them say something, or are you just guessing?" Harry asked after answering her question, insanely curious on whether or not some manner of words had gotten around from Daphne or Delphini; he knew Tracey wasn't interested in him, or at the very least, he assumed she wasn't.
If Tracey wants a piece of me too, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. That might be the end-all, the way I see it, Harry thought as Fay started her response.
"Nobody's said anything, but you've kinda confirmed it right there, haven't you?" Fay asked with a knowing grin as she elbowed him again, lighter this time than the first based on how morphed into the couch she'd gotten. "Relax, relax, I'm not one to go around and spread rumours, you know that already. I just figured with Neville gone, Ron and Hermione in Australia — I think that's what you said — and the other girls a bit busier than they usually are, I could help you. Gryffindor to Gryffindor, that's probably better than going to somebody random for advice or worse, going to Tracey for it."
"Tracey is pretty bad when it comes to all that romantic stuff, isn't she?" Harry asked, agreeing with Fay's words as he shook his head.
"You know it! Now, come on, hit me with what you're thinking and let me work my magic. I can guarantee better results or… well, I'd say your money back but you're not paying me now are you?" Fay looked contemplative for all of a second before she shrugged, the action further pressing her into the couch as she did it.
Harry paused for a few seconds as he looked the girl over. She was acting like her typical calm, helpful and fairly familiar self, but he just wanted to be sure that she wasn't one of the other girls in disguise. He didn't think Daphne would use Polyjuice potion to pick his mind on what he thought, but really, he wouldn't put it past Delphini or Tracey. Honestly, he bet either one of them was capable of not only making the potion but using it without any sort of moral compass to guide them so long as they got what they wanted. Actually, he'd have to cross Tracey out. She wouldn't talk poorly about herself regardless of what she thought she needed to do.
"You remember the first time we talked about this sort of thing, right?" Harry asked in a matter that was reminiscent, a subtle test therein and an even more subtle tone of voice used.
Fay rolled her head to look at him and she puffed away the hair that blocked her view of him when she did so. "We've never talked romance together. Believe me, if we had, I'd have approached you far more blatantly this time around instead of having to get you to admit it before we started. In fact, I think the only romantic bit of your life that I remember was with Granger when you two were awfully huggy back in fourth year after the Yule Ball. I really thought the two of you were going to get together, a lot of people did."
Harry shook his head rapidly, eyes wide. "Really, Hermione and I?" he couldn't help but laugh lightly at that. It wasn't that he thought poorly of her or anything, it was just the thought of them together was especially odd and a bit unnerving after how strong a friendship they'd built through the years. "I'd consider her the closest thing I have to a sister. Katie wasn't that far off if I'm honest. My whole Quidditch team sort of felt like one large adoptive family, but Hermione, she was like the person you grew up closest to."
"Hey, I didn't say I still thought that way — everybody nowadays knows that you'll end up with Greengrass or Delphini. It's obvious how smitten with you the pair are and they've definitely gotten pretty competitive with one another. Unless you plan on going for the both of them, which I don't personally suggest with how territorial some witches can be, you'll have to make a choice sooner or later—" Fay held up a hand when he looked about ready to interject, still lazily resting on the couch despite the seriousness of the conversation " — when that time comes, now, really, you'll have to ask yourself who's the better fit for you. I think I know the answer, but you'll have to weigh it all and what I'd suggest is having a talk with them. Honesty, conversation and a good present that isn't bought all willy-nilly is a great way to a girl's heart."
When Fay finished right then, Harry simply nodded. He wasn't sure what else to do, Merlin, he didn't know what he wanted to do with his witch problem, but she'd definitely given him a lot to think about… think about… shite. He had to go and see what was up with the three of them and more importantly, who they were going to set straight.
Harry shot to his feet, leaned down to hug Fay, and then he raced to the door. He was on a mission and distracted by pretty witches all the while.
December 2, 1998
Friday Evening
Harry hadn't been able to catch the girls in time. He had missed whomever it was that the three had decided they need to deal with and whilst that certainly removed a potential argument or, better yet, complication, he wasn't fond of it. It was their business and as much as he understood that, with how good of friends he considered them, he had wished they would share their problems with him as they'd encouraged him to do the same.
Even now, the three were being their usual selves — Daphne more carefree thanks to her family no longer being in imminent danger — despite the current political issues that were plaguing their nights and windows. It was a wonder that he spared their problematic person more than a second of thought too, thanks to just how many owls they had gotten. Merlin, there was never a time in Harry's life that he could remember so many owls or letters that he needed to read, never you mind about meetings after usually half a dozen exchanged pieces of mail.
It'll all be worth it before too much longer. Problems can't persist forever, not with Tom gone and most of his followers joining him, Harry thought with a shake of his head in frustration.
"The other two are out, huh?" Tracey asked him when she came barreling through the doors, a sack of something over her left shoulder and a guilty look on her face.
Harry wouldn't stop to question her or whatever it was that she wore over her shoulder just yet and so with a roll of his eyes, he let all of that go… at least at this point in time. "Yeah, Daphne and Delphini decided there was somewhere that the both of them had to go. Don't bother asking me where it is either, they weren't very specific."
"I wonder if they're gonna go shopping or out surprise-picking for you," Tracey thought aloud as she kicked off her shoes and practically dove at the open spot beside him on the couch. "You didn't hear this from me, obviously, but they were talkin about you being stressed 'out of your wit's end' and all of these other phrases that the old families use. Anyways, since that all doesn't matter much, I was gonna tell you that they want to do something nice and since they're too afraid to ask, what do you like?"
"You've spent how much time with me and you're asking that question?" Harry asked with a grin now on his face as he moved slightly closer to Tracey, the girl really getting him interested with the way she was prolonging what the other two were likely doing. "What specifically did they say beyond doing something nice or the like?"
It took that second question of his for Tracey to gauge what he wanted and then, she declined to answer. "I can't really tell you what they were planning to do, I'd be a poor friend if I did that! You should just be lucky that I told you what I did. If I were meaner, I would have charged you for it. Now get out with it, I wanna know what you like and what you don't like, or else, I'm gonna tell Daphne that you made me tell you."
"You think she'll believe that I outsmarted you?" Harry laughed and folded his arms together. "I really want to see that, she won't believe it."
Tracey raised an eyebrow in a Daphne-like fashion, one of the more devious looks he'd ever seen from ner now settling on her face. "I'll tell them that you're thinking about going out with Vane, then we'll see who's laughing."
Now, Harry would wager neither which would believe that and whilst that wager very likely had a ninety-nine per cent chance of working out in his favour, that one per cent by itself still worried him. Tracey didn't spout nonsense a lot and if she convinced them he was being stupid or the like, either he'd come to find two annoyed witches or two angry witches cursing a not-so-smart Davis.
"This is just so you all can get me something? There aren't any ulterior motives aside from the usual one or two that you're always working?" Harry asked, fully knowledgeable about Tracey trying to push him towards Daphne and her plot to act far more stupid than she truly was.
Tracey shook her head with a smile on her dimpled face. "Nope! Promise, it's just for those two to feel good and for me to get to learn a bit about you. I told them were other things they could do as a th—"
He raised his hands, cut Tracey off and spoke over her lest she tried to continue. "No no — I really like sweets. Any number of Treacle Tarts or other homemade sweets are perfectly fine with me. Let's see… I like Quidditch, I don't care for politics, I really enjoy Hogwarts as a whole and I'd like to learn more about magic, finally. I've never really had the chance to study as much as I wanted thanks to the problems that kept popping up throughout my years here."
"Yeah, I guess with everything you've told us and the stuff that we saw, you would have been pretty busy. I kinda figured you knew everything already though if I'm being honest with you. I mean, you're Harry… Harry," Tracey looked at him with her eyebrows furrowed for a few seconds, seemingly in thought and contemplating on whether or not she said continue speaking. Eventually, she made up her mind and simply sat staring at him with rapidly blinking eyes as well as that goofy smile of hers in place.
That as it was, he decided to slowly nod and cough his throat to clear some of the awkwardness. "When should they be back from this little trip they're taking?"
Tracey shrugged. "I dunno. You probably should have asked them when you were with them earlier, nobody tells me nothing, and that's everything I can tell you and that's only because I told myself," there was a few seconds of pause, Tracey opened her mouth to continue and the doors blew open just as violently as when she herself usually entered.
Harry's hand had instantly jolted for his wand and the familiar source of his casting was in hand within a second if that even that. Even if he'd seen who it had been before he took the time to aim properly, his hand was already in their general direction with a spell at the tip of his tongue.
"Bloody hell, Dumb bar," Tracey exclaimed with a hand resting on her chest as she glared at Fay. "I almost had a heart attack and if I woulda, that would've been all your fault. Who slams doors like that?"
Fay gave a deadpan sort of look at Tracey, but she didn't respond to the girl, rather, she spoke to Harry without even taking a second more to look at the sole Slytherin in the room. "You have a bit of a problem, Harry. I'm sure the others could talk to you about it, but you'll want it dealt with before too long or me and a few others will do it for you — it's gone too far, the crazy bint doesn't have a clue what she's messing around with."
Vane? Who else could it really be but Romilda Vane that they're talking about, right?
"Explain please," Harry said after that question raced through his mind, his eyes flickering between the two women. "I don't know what happened, I don't know what they've been doing and if this is related to Romilda, I thought this was over by now. She has to know I'm not interested, I'd like to think even somebody as generally clueless as me when it comes to witches could have made her understand that."
At his comment regarding cluelessness, the other two witches gave him nods and by the time he was finished, Fay all bet lept at the chance to speak before Tracey could. "Your number one fan tried speaking with our Quidditch team when I wasn't at the table. None of the older members had been present either, just a few of the younger years and backups — you know the groups by now," Fay huffed at the semantics and continued speaking. "She went up to them, a bunch of younger wizards, and acted sweeter than anything you've ever eaten in your whole life. It was embarrassing, that's what a few people who witnessed it said, but boys can be blind so they went along with what she said and did."
"Wha—" Tracey tried to ask, but Vane took her breath and spoke louder, over the other girl as her rampage with words continued.
"She gave them a bunch of chocolates in very expensive wrappings with multiple names that belonged to people in Saint Mungo's, they each came with a letter, all of them sealed with an official stamp, and said that they needed to be brought to Harry," Fay finished then, happy that she said what was needed as her hands settled on her hips whilst she looked between the other two.
Harry looked at Tracey, Tracey looked at Harry and then Tracey let out a very small wince. "Oooooh… I just remembered that I have to write a response to my mum and dad. You should really solve this when Daph and Delph are back, they'll prolly know a lot more than I do."
Fay jolted forward, an accusatory finger raised at Tracey. "Ahah," she exclaimed victoriously, "So you do know something or multiple somethings. I knew it!"
Again, Harry looked at Tracey, this time with a look that all but meant; out with it.
"I don't know that much, I just had to help Daphne brew a potion a week or two ago and maybe tell them where somebody was going one day when I stayed late in the Great Hall for extra sweets at the end of the meal," Tracey made a sour-looking face. "Those two were taking care of the vanity problem, they said they were."
"Why didn't you three just tell me that Vane was causing problems again? I could've dealt with her with you lot instead of having you go off and do it alone… what'd she even try in the first place? I don't recall anything happening and we seriously spend most of our time together, so it couldn't have been anything crazy," Harry asked, his mind going through itself as he tried to stop and think about anything that seemed off in the past few weeks. He looked for anything minute, a day where the witches acted weird or withdrawn, but he came up short.
Politics, the Ministry, the renewed prosecution of the Death Eaters that then made the public lose confidence in the Minister since they were let off, all of those dealings had taken a hold of his time and what little he had left, they were ruined by nightmares or eaten up by his three greatest friends still in Hogwarts.
"She didn't do anything to us, but she tried to do something to you. Daph found a box of sweets that were labelled as yours on the post table and when she didn't recognise the name, she may have tested one of the things to see if they were harmful and they may have come back with a love potion. We didn't know it was Romilda until Delphini heard her talking about it with another girl, so that's why we've been all over you recently," Tracey smiled at him when she had finished, large and as cute as ever despite all of what she had just said. "See? We're pretty cool friends, huh?"
Harry nodded very slowly, his mind racing with a thousand and one thoughts all at once. "Thanks, Fay, I'll make sure everything's dealt with — did the boys eat the chocolates, are they alright?"
Fay shrugged. "They're always randy little buggers, but I think one of them might have. I had him taken care of, don't worry about it. Just deal with her so I can focus on them, we both know she's not going to stop until she gets you lipsing her."
As he'd done just a second ago, he nodded. She was right, he would have to deal with her before he woke up in bed right beside her… that wouldn't be good for anybody, least of all, him.
Three minutes of silence was all he got from Tracey as they continued their walk on through the halls of Hogwarts. They had elected to take a long way, or rather, the longest way to the Great Hall as anything shorter meant more people and a higher likeliness of running into Vane or one of her fellow followers.
"So what're we doing just going to the Great Hall like everything's normal if you know she's been trying to potion you for the past few weeks?" Tracey asked, her previous question more related to politics before she'd quickly gotten bored of the subject and went back to Vane.
"You never said the last few weeks, so I guess the three of you did a pretty good job and to answer your question, I think I'm going to try and aim for something normal. It's like you said, we should wait until the other two are with us before we do something stupid and if we don't want to alert her to the fact that we know, then we'll do the same thing that we always do," Harry said patiently as they passed another brand new window in a portion of the castle that had been heavily restored despite the lack of students and faculty it saw in recent decades.
Tracey blinked, smiled with her face wide in wonder, and finally, frowned as she looked around them. He loved watching her face, the reactions he always got from her were so genuine and honest, it was like watching a Muggle-made film or seeing the Dursleys react to something that happened in one.
"We're taking this way because we're going to arrive late, together and with our clothes a bit messier than they usually are. If Daphne and Delphini aren't with us and we come back looking weird, it'll make Vane angry, won't it?" He asked Tracey, an eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face as he looked at her.
At his question, Tracey nodded a ridiculous amount of times before she answered him; it was long enough that her words didn't come until nearly half a minute later. "Why do we want her angry and thinking we've shagged?"
Harry nearly tripped at Tracey's counter-question and when he made sure he wasn't about to fall on his arse, he stopped walking and very quickly spoke as to what he meant. "I was saying we should make it look like we've snogged or something, not shagged — I'm trying to make her a bit angry, enough so that she'll mess up and I can show McGonagall. If she thought we—" Harry looked around to make sure they were alone and when he confirmed it, he still whispered the next few words. " — shagged, she'd kill us both."
Tracey snorted. "She wouldn't be able to do anything to you and all I gotta do is make sure I'm behind wherever you are. If I do that, I'm safer than safe and she's stupider than, well, dumber than dumb… don't you smirk at me, boy-who's-oblivious."
With a narrow-eyed look for all of a few seconds, Harry let that nickname slide as they picked up their walking once again. "We'll do a bit of running, get sweaty and then we'll shake each other for… I don't know, half a minute each? You're the expert, how should somebody look after they've snogged? It has to say in all those books of yours."
"First of all, that's mean, and second of all, I usually skip past the kissing parts since that gets really bland after the first dozen or so times," Tracey coughed and picked up her pace, her words continued to come out as she moved faster. "Messy hair, wrinkled clothes and pink faces from the exertion. Lips sometimes look a lil different too, but that's only if you did it a lot."
That won't be needed, everybody knows I spend time with all three of them and that we sometimes practice every once and a while, so we don't need to hurt Tracey's reputation, we just need to count on Vane coming to the wrong conclusions.
"We'll do everything but the lips then," Harry snorted and cast a side-eyed glance at Tracey.
"What? Do I look better from that angle or do you just wish you had a camera with you?" She asked him as her nose rose in a Daphne-like manner and her words came out in an aggressive imitation of Delphini's voice; Minister or Actress, Harry reckoned Tracey would be able to nail either spot if she really cared.
"I was just thinking," Harry said casually, the urge to smirk only just contained. "This could be the first time I've seen you work up a sweat, Daphne always stops chasing you after a minute at the most since she can't be bothered with it."
Tracey jabbed him in the side and glared up at him. "I'll have you know I can be fast and that I have really good stamina when I wanna do physical stuff. The problem is, I never wanna do anything physical regardless of what it is," Tracey looked to his left, into an empty classroom with the door open, and then her eyes went wide as she jolted backwards.
Harry had already driven forward, his hand reaching for his wand as he tried to peer into the room. "What is it, Tra… cey?"
For whatever reason, after her dodge backwards, she had taken off running straight forward, towards the stairs. He was left completely and utterly confused, until, he recognised what she was doing and tore off after her, his face sour as hers had looked when he'd found out that Vane was still, indeed, a problem.
When I catch her, she's gonna be getting hit with that rib jab that Daphne always gives her.
When the two were just around the corner of the entrance to the Great Hall, they stopped their running — in Tracey's case, sprinting-walking mixture — and paused to gather themselves. Their clothes were messy from the exertion and their faces were red as ever, but Harry's hair still looked fine and Tracey's beanie had barely moved as they'd raced through Hogwarts' halls.
"Do you think this is convincing enough?" Harry asked as he gestured to the two of them.
"Unless you're gonna try and pull my beanie off, I think we're fine," Tracey said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her, and as a result of that, closer to the entrance where all of her prized food was.
Harry shrugged, happy if she was happy, and allowed her to keep ahold of his sleeve as they walked around the corner and finally into the view of other Hogwarts students. As always, he was the centre of attention regardless of who the people were or what their relationship with him was. Similarly, as always, it was beyond tiring.
Now, all they needed to do was find Vane and her mind would do the rest of the work. He would enjoy seeing that and before too much longer, he could hopefully enjoy seeing her removed from Hogwarts.
Tracey and Harry had eaten together for nearly an hour, the former doing far more eating than the latter despite their size difference. In that way, she reminded Harry a lot of Ron, only she had more manners and generally avoided speaking when her mouth was full. He greatly appreciated the lattermost quality.
"How many times did Vane or one of her baby birds look over?" Tracey asked him as the two exited the Great Hall, Tracey ensuring that their pace was slow so that she didn't upset her stomach thanks to the food she'd packed away.
"A fair few," Harry answered with a shrug. "I didn't want to make it obvious by watching them, but I'm fairly certain she got the message and saw us together, without Daphne and Delphini. That probably annoyed her the most, since it meant we could spend time together without anybody else really getting in the way of our 'romantic' Great Hall date."
"Pfft," Tracey snorted. "I've tagged along on one of your dates even if you refuse to call them dates, you're way better than taking a girl to the Great Hall — speaking of which, I think I'd fancy a day of sweets picking with you."
Harry blinked at her as they made their first turn, this time favouring the quickest way back to their tower. "Why would we go shopping for a whole day and only for sweets? I don't think I could handle that, really."
With a mournful shake of her head and a pitiful sigh, Tracey hung her head. "Fine… I get it, you like the other girls more than me… I guess I'll go and find my own boy toy the same as they have… the third-wheel life is horr—"
"Are you done?" Harry asked, rolling his eyes whilst he looked away from Tracey and towards their next turn. He was nervous due to Vane's unhinged actions that they'd tried to keep hidden from him and worried still due to the thoughts that raced through his mind as he walked the halls of Hogwarts.
It wasn't more than a year ago that these halls were filled with those who wanted to murder him and his friends. Not only had they violated what felt like Harry's home, but they had also killed its occupants and then died here, fighting for a man who didn't care for anything save for power, forever tainting the sanctity of Hogwarts.
"You're no fun," Tracey said, jabbing him in the side and in a place that she knew was ticklish for him. "Why don't we play something when we get back? Maybe we could try one of those games my parents sent home! There's the word one that keeps track of the score and letters you have, there's the checkers but for four people and with chess pieces… you look like you're not really payin attention."
"Sorry. I'm just thinking, there's a lot of stuff that we're trying to handle and it seems like something new always pops up, doesn't it?" Harry glanced at Tracey after he asked the question and saw her nod, but she still looked happy as ever regardless of the craziness that was happening to them.
"It is what it is, right? I mean, you've gone through loads more than this before and we usually always stayed out of it, so it's not that bad for us either since we're nice and fresh. We'll help you too, we've been trying to, but not many people fancy our company. You might be the only one that likes us Snake ladies," Tracey did a little wiggle with her hands clasped together to emphasize her snakiness; he assumed that's what it was, he hoped that's what she was doing.
From that point on and after Harry had ensured the corner was free of phantoms or vane people, they had made small talk. Tracey would go on about romance, about the joys of Hogsmeade and the books she was reading, even about Harry's own love life that she loved to interject her thoughts on.
All of that only stopped when they made it back to the eighth years' tower, where their friends were.
December 4, 1998
Sunday Evening
Harry had decided not to speak with Daphne and Delphini about Vane the day that he found out about them. It could wait a day or two, once he had time to think everything over and figure out what it was that he would say to his two friends. They had done it for him, the fact of the matter wasn't lost on Harry, but he would have preferred it if they had told him even whilst he was dealing with the potential coup in the Ministry as well as the earlier incident in which their families were involved thanks to questionable actions during the war.
He shook his head before he over-thought everything and made his way towards the exit of the boys' dorms. The girls were all waiting for him, they would be spending the evening together, relaxing and catching up with personal matters. For Harry, that had meant a lot of his morning spent writing letters to various Wizengamot members that were still undecided and for the girls, namely Daphne, that had meant doing much the same only with those she had some sort of familiarity with.
"Hey Daphne, Delphini, Tracey," Harry greeted in turn when he entered the main sitting room and saw the three seated together on a couch before the fireplace, a small board game on the table before them and completely set up, awaiting players. "I'm guessing we're all good for the night? Nobody has anything else they need to do before we settle in?"
"Nothing!" Tracey agreed with a nod and dorky smile.
"I'm fine for the evening, I've saved you a seat too," Delphini answered, her latter remark followed up by the girl patting the open space on the couch beside her.
Daphne responded last, her face neutral as ever even if her voice was the warmer, more affectionate quality it'd taken on after a few months of speaking with her. "We're ready for a night in, I've brought the books and games, as requested."
Harry made his way over after they all had agreed in one way or another and once he was next to them, he took the seat that Delphini had saved for him — he doubted it was of an accidental design that he ended up between her and Daphne. The two Slytherin girls hadn't gotten along all that well initially, but after a bit of time, there seemed to have developed a working relationship. He was thankful for it, as he hoped it would help ground Delphini… in the event that she was feeling off; that thought seldom came to Harry's mind, but in his nightmares, the few nights that he had them whilst away from Hogwarts, they were at the forefront of his mind.
"What are we starting with?" Harry asked, settled in between the two witches while Tracey went about eating a plate of sweets they'd had brought up — Kreacher was very helpful, and Professor McGonagall was brilliant for allowing the old elf some time here, with Harry. Andromeda often needed him, especially for Teddy, but the old elf had finally taken a liking to Harry.
"Probably a talk," Daphne said with a knowing side-eyed glance as she primly folded her hands in her lap. "We had hoped to keep it between the three of us since you've already done beyond what you needed to, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. You didn't give it away, either, before you think you did. Tracey didn't tell us anything, it was made evident when I heard Fay talking to Susan about her conversation with you."
Harry grinned despite Daphne's seemingly bothered, but not quite at the level of annoyed, tone in regards to the situation. "Fay wanted Vane dealt with more than I think we do, but either way, yes, it's about time we handle her if she's doing something as serious as giving love-dosed chocolates to a bunch of under-aged wizards in the hopes of them listening to her. I won't present it to Professor McGonagall until we have solid proof that could see her dealt with for good, anything less than expulsion and she'll do worse."
"Tracey shared your plan when I spoke with her this morning," Daphne said, a nod given to the beanie-wearing girl. "She definitely saw how the two of you acted, so you can be certain of her wanting to do something rash, and soon. How is it that we'll get this solid proof that you mentioned in this plan of yours? Will you find where she purchases her goods or do you plan to catch her brewing the love potions herself?"
Delphini cocked her head and leaned past him, to look at Daphne. "She doesn't have the intelligence to brew any such potions, we checked her marks, remember?"
"I do remember, but do you remember what we said after we read her marks, Delphini?" Daphne asked patiently, her hands idly tapping as she gazed at the other girl and well away from Harry.
"That we shouldn't tell anybody else… I thought that included Harry, it wouldn't be smart if we lied to him while we're both trying to date him," At that, Delphini looked back over to him and patted him on the cheek. "We were going to deal with this so you didn't have to, but you're a busy body through and through, just like everybody says. Whenever you want to go to Hogsmeade with me, just know it'll help me a lot."
"Oh, that's smart. I wonder if that's how it works… it'd really help if I had a bowl of sweets that people helped stock for me," Tracey said aloud, injecting herself into the vaguely on-topic conversation and completely derailing what remained of it.
That shouldn't be all that surprising though, Tracey was Tracey, regardless of the day.
"You're both idiots," Daphne said as she shook her head and nodded towards the already set up game besides a pile of others and a stack of books, all of them made via Magicals, and not Muggles, much to Tracey's annoyance. "Are we going to actually enjoy an evening free of problems and stress, or is this going to be a night filled with conversations that we know we'd just have tomorrow during a meal?"
"Goodness, someone's grouchy," Tracey said jokingly, very quickly thereafter raising her hands when Daphne turned towards her with a raised brow and violent intent; as violent as Daphne would ever get with her friends, which wasn't very much beyond a stinging hex.
"Let's play, then. Tracey, alliance like always? The other two play this game too much," Harry laughed at the indignant looks from Daph and Delph, happy when Tracey nodded to him through her bite of… cake?
Merlin, how she managed to get all of these foodstuffs brought up without anybody noticing until it was in her hands was a superpower. There were no other words to describe such an ability.
"Hogsmeade isn't a poor idea," Daphne said as they moved to their respective sides of the table and took control of their checkers-but-not-checkers pieces. "It would do us all nicely if we spent a true day of relaxation outside of this tower. We could likely get permission to go to Diagon Alley if we truly wished to have it, there's no precedence for our years at Hogwarts and the Headmistress is likely to have a soft spot for, at the very least, one of us."
Before Tracey said anything, Harry surprised the lot of them by agreeing. "Diagon Alley sounds like fun. Let's do it when the next Hogsmeade weekend comes around."
Until then, let's deal with Vane and the Politics for good.
