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I'm is everyone doing? please stay home and stay safe wherever you are...

once again I apologize, I'm still looking for a beta..but I'm trying to improve...

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chapter 5

Grimmauld place

Harry had a restless night—another nightmare or dream, now he couldn't even see the difference between the two. In those dreams, his parents appeared and then faded into nothingness, never speaking, and Mrs Weasley wept over Kreacher's corpse, flanked by Ron and Hermione, who were wearing crowns, and yet again Harry found himself walking down a corridor ending in a locked door. He was snapped out of his slumber abruptly with his scar prickling to discover Ron already dressed and talking to him.

"...better hurry up, Mum's going ballistic, she says we're going to miss the train..."

There was a lot of commotion in the house; everyone was hurrying here and there. After a few moments, the teenagers were all prepared and had packed all their trunks.

Mad-eye informed Harry that he would be accompanied by a guard to King's Cross, in case Voldemort's followers attacked or something...

King's Cross

Twenty minutes after departing from Grimmauld, they arrived at the train station. Before they passed the barriers of platform nine and three quarters, Padfoot jumped off, running to one of the empty salons of the station, and transformed back into Sirius. Harry followed him in to get surprised by a warm hug from his godfather. Before he let go of him, he heard a chuckling voice and when he jumped, he saw Eva standing in a corner, looking at them with a smile on her face.

"This is a soft spot of yours, Pads."

"Eva! What are you doing here?" Harry said, excited, looking between his godfather and Eva.

"Why don't we all take a seat?" Sirius suggested.

He sat between the two. He looked to Eva, whom he hadn't seen since that night but they had been staying in contact by that phone.

"You look fitter than the last time I saw you, that's good," she said, rubbing his hair.

He laughed at that statement.

She turned around to grab something and gave it to him— it was a small old box with a crest on it.

"I want you to give Daphne this when you see her. I'm worried about her but this should be with her. Harry, take care of her, please," she said with sadness but a little hope in her voice.

He nodded to his friend and hugged her.

"If you got any problems, pup, you know how to reach me," Sirius said to him as they stood up, leaving Eva inside.

Harry hid the box in his trunk and walked with Pads in his dog's form by his side to the platform, where Hogwarts express was waiting for him to embark on a new year, new adventure.

Tonks, Remus, and Mad-eye said there goodbyes to everyone.

"Well, look after yourselves," said Lupin, shaking hands all around. He reached Harry last and gave him a clap on the shoulder. "You too, Harry. Be careful."

"Yeah, keep your head down and your eyes peeled," said Moody, shaking Harry's hand too. "And don't forget, all of you be careful what you write in your letters. If in doubt, don't write about it at all."

"It's been great meeting all of you, especially you two," said Tonks, hugging Hermione and Ginny. "We'll see you soon, I expect."

A warning whistle sounded and the students that were still on the platform started hurrying onto the train.

Harry tried to look for someone amidst the crowd. "Quick, quick," said Mrs Weasley distractedly, hugging them at random and catching Harry twice. "Write...Be good... If you've forgotten anything, we'll owl it... Now go, now, hurry..."

On the other side of the platform, a pureblood family was saying their goodbyes too. The mother was hugging her little daughter, smoothing out her worries, while the father was consulting his eldest daughter.

But the daughter was distracted, looking for something or someone in the large crowd until her father snapped at her so she had to look at him.

"Make sure to take your potions regularly and try to study harder, don't practice too much in magic."

"Do not worry, father, I bought a muggle...advice, I think it's called—this summer to remind me of my potions, it's really helpful. Now I have to go and find a seat, have a good day, till Christmas," she said, bowing her head to both lord and lady Greengrass.

She found a seat with Tracey Davis and Cornelia Deval and joined them. Tracey scolded her for her short letters and tried to get out of her any information about where she had been this summer. Daphne told her she had spent it in her grandmother's cottage, hanging out with a handsome muggle who kept her busy—Tracey would buy it...well, technically, it was the truth so she didn't lie or anything. She looked out the window at the blurred landscape…

"See you!" Harry called out of the open window as the train began to move, while Ron, Hermione, and Ginny waved beside him. The figures of Tonks, Lupin, Moody, and Mr and Mrs Weasley shrank rapidly in the distance but the black dog was bounding alongside the window, wagging its tail. Blurred people on the platform were laughing at its chasing the train like that, and then they turned a corner, and Sirius was gone.

"He shouldn't have come with us," said Hermione in a worried voice.

Harry ignored her comment.

"Oh, lighten up," said Ron, "he hasn't seen daylight for months, poor bloke."

Ron and Hermione both headed to the perfect carriage and Fred and George went on some business of theirs, leaving both Harry and Ginny alone in the corridors. While they were looking for an empty carriage, they met with Neville, who was doing the same; he joined them in the search and they found an almost empty one. However, upon closer inspection, they saw a blonde girl in it, reading some sort of a magazine. Harry for a moment thought it was Daphne when he heard someone greeting her, "Luna!".

They joined the girl in the carriage as they watched the train move, leaving England behind...

Hogwarts

Harry and Daphne finally reached the school. For Harry, it was an escape from the Dursleys, for Daphne—another prison...

Of course, they didn't see each other, but both were eager to reunite—they didn't know why, they just were.

Entering the great hall was always like the first time for Harry. The four long tables were filling it up under the starless black ceiling and candles floated in midair all around the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who dotted the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly to one another, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at their friends from other Houses, and scoping out one another's new haircuts and robes. Again, Harry noticed people putting their heads together to whisper as he passed; he gritted his teeth and tried to act as though he neither noticed nor cared.

He sat with his friends, looking around for Daphne, who hadn't shown up in the hall yet, though Draco and his gang were already there.

"Who's that?" He looked beside him to the owner of the voice, Hermione.

"What!?" he asked blindly.

"Who's that woman over there," she said sharply, pointing toward the middle of the staff table.

Harry's eyes followed hers. They landed first upon Professor Dumbledore, sitting in his high-backed golden chair at the centre of the long staff table as his head was inclined toward the woman sitting next to him, who was talking into his ear. She looked like somebody's maiden aunt: squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair. She was all decked in pink. Then she turned her face slightly to take a sip from her goblet and he saw, with a shock of recognition, a pallid, toadlike face and a pair of prominent, pouchy eyes.

He knew her: it was the same woman Remus had talked about this summer.

"It's that Umbridge woman!"

"Who?"

"She works for Fudge." Harry eyed her, thinking suspiciously about what the minister's employee could be doing here, at Hogwarts?

"Nice cardigan," said Ron with a smirk.

"She works for Fudge?" Hermione repeated, frowning. "What on earth is she doing here, then?"

"Dunno..." he really didn't know despite Remus and Sirius's filling him in on a lot of things.

Hermione scanned the staff table, her eyes narrowing.

"No," she muttered, "no, surely not..."

Harry did not understand what she was talking about but did not ask; his attention had been caught by Daphne, who had just appeared, walking toward her table with an emotionless expression.

She didn't bother looking in his direction at all.

A few seconds later, the doors to the entrance hall opened. A long line of scared-looking first years was led in by professor McGonagall. The whole school waited with bated breath. Then the rip near the hat's brim opened wide like a mouth and the Sorting Hat burst into a song.

While the hat was singing and everyone focused on watching it, the Slytherin princess was watching someone else across the hall—there, her lord husband was sitting. 'He looks better now than during our last encounter and he is no longer thin, that's good,' she thought and sighed with relief.

Before she could turn her focus to the hat, the same man—well, she referred to him as a man, for in her mind, any guy who was ready to do a heroic act for his family was a man—turned his head in her direction and looked at her, then shook his head toward the entrance without further explanation or signs. She understood: he wanted to meet her after the feast... She nodded back, then both of them turned their attention to the singing hat.

The sorting ceremony ended and Dumbledore stood up to give his speech and welcome the newcomers, then he announced the banquet officially open.

"What were you saying before the Sorting?" Hermione asked the ghost. "About the hat giving warnings?"

"Oh yes," said Nick. "Yes, I have heard the hat give several warnings before, always at times when it sensed signals of great danger for the school. The advice is always the same: Stand together, be strong from within."

"It wants all the Houses to be friends?" said Harry, looking over at the Slytherin table, where Draco Malfoy was holding court. "Fat chance." Then he looked to his wife, who was chatting with her comrades but didn't seem to really care, especially when Pansy Parkinson spoke. He smirked at that.

"Well, now, you shouldn't take that attitude," said Nick reprovingly. "Peaceful cooperation, that's the key. We ghosts, though we belong to separate Houses, maintain links of friendship. In spite of the competitiveness between Gryffindor and Slytherin, I would never dream of seeking an argument with the Bloody Baron."

"Only because you're scared of him," said Ron.

Nearly Headless Nick looked highly offended and was about to explode as he passed through Neville.

While everyone was chatting and Ron and Hermione were fighting, Harry was counting the minutes, impatient to meet with his wife, but kept wondering what was inside the box Eva gave to him. Was it gallons or potions, he kept wondering. 'What's inside it?'

Daphne, on the other side, while trying to catch up with her house's mates, couldn't stop wondering what Harry wanted from her. They had barely talked that night—well, she had been brave enough to tell him that she was his as she wore his house cloak. That cloak...she remembered how he had wrapped it around her and she caught a wisp of his scent for a second. She had always had a strong sense of smell so the scent had stayed fresh in her mind— wait a minute, an idea popped in her mind out of the blue—did he want to consummate their marriage!? That thought almost gave her a heart attack; she started panicking, felt the heat rising in her body and her face was about to explode. She wasn't ready for that yet, she knew he could claim her anytime he wanted when they reunited, but she still had too many questions. Eva hadn't told her who here spouse was beforehand and she remembered her brother's words clear as day.

She was standing in his tent, waiting for him to finish his paperwork. She hadn't seen him for months and he was as she had always remembered him but so exhausted from the war and the fight. He let out a long breath and stood up from his study table to greet her. He was a tall and well-built man—every lady and girl in the court desired him—and his blond hair had gotten longer: now it was shoulder-length, held in a half-bun. She knelt to him softly until he was one foot away from her. He gave her a sign to stand up and she looked up; he was looking at her with such warmth in his eyes, the same magically icey eyes that all her family members had but his, his had always been different, especially when he looked at her. She said, "My lord brother Eros, you look weary and tired."

Eros looked and sighed, turning to the chair. "Don't mind me, how are you, sister, is everything going well?" he asked with weariness in his voice.

He pointed to her to sit and so she did. "As long as you are healthy and alive, I will be happy. How is the war? Did he do anything? He should surrender." She said the last two lines in a firm voice.

He smiled at her. "Easy there, sister, don't worry, give me time and the castle will be ours...again, but you..."

He took a large sip from his ale, then looked at her. He went from his chair to hers and sank to his knees to take both her hands in his. She looked at him, eye to eye.

"In case... In case I fail... I want you to leave, do you hear me? I arranged an escape plan for you, perfect plan... I know Cyrus can't be trusted, especially with you… so if I fall—" she was about to protest but he squeezed her hands firmly and came closer to her face. "—if I fall... I arranged for a marriage... A perfect one... I can trust him with you... Believe in me, sister, and have faith... We will be together again, I promise... Now leave before someone sees you," he said as they stood together with their foreheads touching and tears falling from her eyes. She knelt once more before him and left without looking at him with tears falling unstoppable.

"DAPHNE!" Daphne jumped out of her reverie at the voice of Tracey calling her. She turned to her.

"Honestly, you have been spacing out a lot, are you sure you're alright? " Tracey said, a bit worried.

"Yes, yes, I'm totally fine," she waved her hand.

As she was trying to keep up, professor Dumbledore stood up from his chair to talk so everyone stopped doing whatever they were doing and looked up. The headmaster reminded the students of a few start-of-the-term notices and warnings and introduced the new DADA professor—Dolores Umbridge. While he was talking, the woman interrupted him and stood up.

Her voice was high-pitched, breathy, and little-girlish and again, Harry felt a disgust for it which he could not explain to himself. All he knew was that he despised everything about her, from her irritating voice to her fluffy pink dress. She gave another little throat-clearing cough and continued, "Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled. "And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!"

Harry glanced around. None of the faces he could see looked happy—quite on the contrary, they all looked rather taken aback at being addressed as though they were toddlers.

The new teacher said something about becoming friends with them all, and the students exchanged looks at this; some were giggling, some were confused. Parvati whispered to Lavender something about only willing to be the pink woman's friend if that didn't entail having to borrow that cardigan. Both of them lapsed into silent giggles, and even Harry smiled at their comment.

Professor Umbridge cleared her throat again. She talked about the Ministry of Magic's concern for the young witches and wizards' education and how important it was to hone their skills, etc. Then she paused and made a little bow to her fellow members, none of whom bowed back. Professor McGonagall's dark eyes looked even darker toward her, like she was about to commit a murder, and even Snape, who was always the most emotionless teacher, was sending dark glares to this old lady... The latter then kept bubbling and everyone seemed to be getting bored or nodding off.

Umbridge ended her educational speech and sat down. Dumbledore clapped and the staff followed forcedly out of respect. 'This woman is going to be a nightmare,' Harry thought.

"It certainly was illuminating," said Hermione in a low voice.

"You enjoyed it?" Ron said quietly, turning a glazed face upon Hermione. "That was about the dullest speech I've ever heard, and I grew up with Percy."

"I said illuminating, not enjoyable," Hermione corrected. "It explained a lot."

"Explained what?"Harry asked in surprise.

"I think you understand, Harry," said Hermione grimly. Ron blinked at her. "The Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts."

There was a commotion; Dumbledore had obviously just dismissed the school since everyone was standing up, ready to leave the Hall. Hermione jumped up, looking flustered.

"Ron, we're supposed to show the first years where to go!" she said, looking at Ron. He waved to Harry and followed her behind.

Harry thanked every god; he knew that both Ron and Hermione were chosen to be prefects and that was good: no one would wonder where he was...

He knew about the stares he was getting from the other students so he waited till everyone was busy leaving the hall. He jumped off his seat and walked. He kept walking slowly, knowing she would come after him shortly. He decided to go to the quidditch locker room: since this was the first day, everyone would be busy unpacking their stuff. He kept walking slowly and his heart was about to jump out out of fear—fear she might not come.

Daphne apologised to Tracey and asked her to cover for her while she walked around, which the other girl agreed to gladly. Daphne went out of the hall, running but not so fast as to appear suspicious. She caught a glimpse of him in the corridor and she followed far behind him, her heart pounding quicker than a bolt of lightning. She kept praying all the way there that he would not claim her; she prayed and prayed until she reached the destination and she held her hand to her heart and held her breath and stepped inside the locker room. She found him sitting in one of the chairs.

Harry looked up to see her standing at the door in the darkness so he waved with his wand "Lumos" and saw her. She was in her robes, standing there perfectly like the elegant lady she was. He greeted her and asked her to join him and sit down.

He was really nervous.

She was really nervous.

They both were...

It was really an awkward moment for both of them.

"How was your summer?" they both said in unison.

Each glanced off to the side.

Harry gathered all his Gryffindor bravery and looked at her. "I'm sorry about your loss, Daphne," he said with sympathy. He knew what it was like to be bereft of a family member, especially as someone who had never had them in his entire life to begin with.

She looked at him and smiled sadly. She didn't expect his first words would be those of consolation. "Thank you, my lord," she said quietly.

He looked at her and raised his both eyebrows. "Don't ever call me that... Harry, I'm Harry to you. And you are Daphne to me, unless you want me to call you by some other name," he said honestly.

She gave a shy smile. "Daphne will do, Harry," she paused, then continued. "Why did you want to see me here?" she looked around the Gryffindor quidditch team's locker room, then looked back at him to see him staring back at her.

He blinked, then remembered why he wanted to see her in the first place. He turned and gave her a box.

She gazed between him and the box without asking.

She took it gently from his hands, then gasped when she saw the wood and an old crest embossed in it. She kept staring and her fingers were tracing the engraved crest.

Harry was so close to her but he didn't realise it. His body was betraying him and he was curious about what was inside the box.

She looked up at him with widened eyes. "Where did you get it?"

He saw her reflex and rubbed his nape and said, "I saw Eva and she told me to hand it to you."

She was still staring at him. "Yo-you s-saw Eva!" she stuttered. "I-is she okay?" She tried hard to keep herself calm but she just couldn't. She had never lost her self-control before so why now...

He looked her in the eyes. "She's is doing fine, she looked... She looked well and healthy," he was trying to calm her and assure her Eva was all right.

"Did she said anything?" she was eager to hear any piece of news. She kept looking at him—the look she used to give to her brother so that he would tell her the truth.

Harry kept eyeing at her. She was just like him—trapped in a dark corner, and he knew what she was feeling right now, he had felt the same way at the beginning of this summer.

"She said... That this should be with you and she joked about me, how fit I'd become," he said, joking.

She looked down at his body, then up and started laughing.

"That's so much like her," she said between her laughs. "I hope she didn't make you feel awkward or did anything to you, did she?" she looked at him suspiciously.

Harry now was the one who began tittering.

They laughed for a spell, then silence conquered the room.

"Thank you for handing me this... It means so much to me," she held the box to her chest closely.

"It's my duty, don't thank me for it… lady Potter," he said in a teasing way.

She blinked at him—she still hadn't gotten used to it and honestly, she had forgotten about it. Lady Potter... 'That's me now,' she said in her mind; she needed to get used to it now...

Harry thought that he might have used the wrong words since her face had turned to stone. She smiled, though, dispelling his fears. "Yeah, I should get used to it, it has a ring to it, unlike bloody Vasilian," she said, trying to cheer him up.

He laughed hard at that. "I did not know that the Slytherin princess could swear."

"Then you should get used to it," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, we should get back to our dorms before we get busted by the perfects or one of the staff," he said as he stood up. She followed his example and stood up too, straighting her skirt.

They reached the door when he faced her all of a sudden. "So... Should we stay in touch... I don't want to force you to do anything against your will," he warned—he was a gentleman, after all.

She shrugged "we will figure it out, I suppose."

And they both departed to their dorms.

END OF CHAPTER 5

honestly ,i really hope you liked it...

i kept thinking for days how their first encounter would look like ...

XOXOXOXOXO