I do not own anything from the harry potter universe, unfortunately.
"Normal Talking"
'Thoughts'
"Parseltongue"
Okay, maybe not everything that was thrown Harry's way he would be ready for. Currently in the Library with four different books on dragons surrounded by Tracey, Daphne, Susan, Blaise, and Hermione. They were helping him go over the tomes and were equally shocked by the revelations. So now they found themselves after dinner in the Library studying dragons.
"How did you figure out it was dragons?" Susan asked sitting on his left as she leaned over to him to peer in the book, he had open in front of him.
"I had an inside source." He said simply before turning the page.
"Who?" Hermione asked sitting on his right also leaning towards him like Susan was. If he would've looked up he would've noticed that Daphne was looking between the three with Narrowed eyes while Tracey was grinning at her. Blaise wisely didn't comment or notice as he flipped through his own book.
"A snake alright." Harry said knowing Hermione would've kept pestering him until she knew.
"A snake? Oh, that's right you're a Parselmouth." Blaise said after a moment "where did the snake come from though?"
"I conjured it."
"Smart." Daphne said though a bit shortly as he looked up at her a bit confused.
"I guess so. He found a letter addressed to Bagman about the assets coming through just fine and would be ready for the first task. I didn't say what the assets were though when I saw it was from Charlie, I put two and two together."
"Who's Charlie?" Susan asked.
"Charlie Weasley, Ron's older brother who studies Dragons." Hermione answered with a nod of confirmation from Harry.
"Another Weasley, Lovely." Daphne said dryly. This time Susan looked at her pointedly and the blonde Slytherin just turned back to her book.
"Any chance that the names of the dragons were somewhere on that letter?" Susan asked returning her attention to Harry who shook his head too engrossed in his book to notice the exchange between two girls. But Hermione didn't, she would save that for later.
"I wish, but there are some universals according to these books." He said turning a few pages back "All Dragons are resistant to magic, all dragons seem to have a weakness of the eyes, they all fly they all shoot magical fire. They're all huge! Just bundles of joy really." Harry said sarcastically.
"Well, they definitely want a spectacle right so I think you should probably go for the biggest dragons and work your way backward." Blaise suggested before Daphne chimed in.
"Though that could also be an argument for why they wouldn't use the biggest, simply because they are the biggest, it would be too costly to move them."
"So then maybe something in the middle then." Hermione suggested. Daphne didn't answer her but thankfully she didn't need to as the group began to thumb through the mid-sized dragons there were only about five that could be called such. The group began to pour over the information before they were interrupted by a familiar jovial face.
"' Arry, finally found ya!" the familiar voice of Hagrid drew the attention of the group.
"Hagrid!" Harry and Hermione greeted at the same time and with a smile, something that seemed to irk Daphne and to a lesser extent Susan.
"Been looking for ye since dinner been meaning to give ya a message. Tried to get Ron to deliver it but he just angry, know why?" Hagrid asked and Harry scowled, though it wasn't really Hagrid's fault seeing as he was only really present in the castle during Dinners.
"We… aren't speaking anymore." He said, even after their fight and Harry's realization of how controlling Ron had been it still hurt just a tad. Hagrid looked mournful as well as he shook his head.
"Right shame, even still I've got a message to deliver to ya, though it would be better if you met me at my hut. Later…" he looked around the make sure no one else was listening "possibly after curfew, with a certain cloak, can get right cold out at that time of night." He said his eyes trying to convey the hidden message though Hagrid was about as smooth as a boulder. Even still no one was around to hear them except his friends.
Harry winked "You got it." With a nod, the half-giant walked out of the library trying not to draw too much attention to himself. He was failing of course.
"The subtly of a knife to the eye, and the grace of a rhino." Daphne remarked with an amused smirk. Harry could tell she was only joking but Hermione didn't pick up on that.
"Hey, he's our friend and very kind as well." She defended as Daphne slightly narrowed her eyes at Hermione.
"I know that Granger, it was just a joke." She snapped back as the two girls glared at one another. Susan merely looked between the two exasperated.
"You think Hagrid knows?" Susan asked hoping to get the attention drawn away from the two girls.
"Probably, right? He's the gamekeeper, Groundskeeper too, so if they wanted to bring dragons onto school grounds, they would've had to inform him and ask for his aid as to where to keep them." Tracey said speaking up recognizing the tension between her friend and Hermione.
"Makes sense, this is good. Now you'll be able to see what you could be up against." Blaise offered.
"A flying fire breathing killing machine that was known to raze entire kingdoms to ash." Harry drawled out dryly as Blaise chuckled at that with a shrug. The group went back to studying before Harry led them out of the library towards the abandoned classroom he used to train.
"So, this is where you've been practicing?" Hermione asked looking around, there wasn't much to see obviously but she noticed the fact that one side of the room seemed to be scorched in its entirely.
"Yeah, it's been good. The room's out of the way enough that no one really bothers me." He said setting the books down on the desk as he pulled out his Grimoire from his robes.
"Okay, what I'm about to show you, you cannot tell anyone." He said seriously. He trusted Hermione entirely but the others were still wildcards to him. The group looked at him curiously.
"When I was at the library, the day you came to me." He said indicating to Daphne, Susan, and Tracey "Madam Pince let me have some access to the restricted section, that's where I found this." He said pulling out the black book.
"It's been really helpful; it's already given me really incredible spells and techniques to use. Though I don't think that it would be considered your standard book, so I need you all to promise not to reveal anything about this." Harry was going out on a limb here, however, he wanted to bring his friends into this. Maybe he could even teach them a thing or two.
"Um, mate, you feeling… okay?" Blaise asked as Harry looked up seeing the concerned or confused looks of his friends.
"What do you mean?" he asked confused as Hermione stepped forward.
"Harry, you're not holding anything." She said, now he was even more confused.
"What are you talking about? It's right here." He said holding the book up even more, but they just looked at each other just as confused as he was. He looked between them and the book several times "Can you seriously not see it?" he asked finally, and they all shook their heads. He took the book and held it out to Hermione.
"Here try to hold it." he said as Hermione hesitantly held out her hands. Her eyes widened when she felt the book touch her hands.
"It is there!" she said holding the book that, apparently only Harry could see. Though her surprise suddenly morphed to pain as she suddenly dropped the book. "Ouch!" she cried out drawing her hands to her.
"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed rushing forward.
"It burned me!" she said and Harry took her hands as in his and examined them as he saw that she did indeed have angry red marks in her palms.
"Hermione, I'm so sorry, I didn't know." He quickly apologized as Daphne came forward.
"Let me see." She said and took Hermione's hands, she examined them for a moment before taking her wand and muttering something with a wave. Hermione's face suddenly relaxed as the marks on her hand receded greatly.
"Thanks." She said but Daphne looked at Harry who carefully scooped up the book.
"So, an invisible book that burns people, honestly Potter." She said with a shake of her head though she regretted it when she saw the guilty look in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"It's okay Harry, you couldn't know." Hermione said with a pointed look towards Daphne.
"What does the book say?" Susan asked carefully looking towards Harry.
"It's a spellbook, whoever wrote it calls it a Grimoire. His legacy as he puts it." he said opening the book and seeing nothing changed, it wasn't even warm for him.
"Who wrote it?" she continued, and Harry shrugged.
"I don't know, there was a note explaining what the book was but no name to go with it." he said going over to check on Hermione again.
"I'm fine Harry." She reassured as he nodded.
"Well, this is weird, why would a book be invisible?" He asked thumbing the pages.
"Whoever wrote it probably only wanted certain people to be able to read it." Blaise said he wished he could see the book.
"Oh, so Harry must be a chosen one then." Tracey joked trying to lighten the mood and it worked getting the group to smile and chuckle a bit.
"So, Harry what can you do?" Susan asked a smile on her face as she looked at him.
"Well, so far the spells are just evolutions of existing spells." He said drawing his wand as his friends shuffled behind him.
"Serpenmaiora!" he called as from his wand burst forth a teal-colored light as he conjured his new favorite magic snake, the teal light began to solidify into a long serpentine body with three heads and Harry could immediately feel the bond form between them. The serpent in front of them was an eight-foot spiny viper-like snake. It was completely jet black on the back with a dark grey underbelly with three pairs of emerald eyes.
Susan was quick to recognize the snake as she gasped.
"That's a Runespoor! How? We can't summon magical creatures." She said staring at the snake in shock which was quickly matched by everyone else. Harry couldn't help the satisfied smirk that made its way to his face. Doing these spells on his own was one thing, to have an audience was much better.
"Yeah, the book said something similar too, but it turns out that when the caster is casting, they don't form a bond. It's really weird, but basically, when someone tries to make a magical creature, they need to form a sort of temporary bond with the creature in order to feed it magic. So that way it can function and remain in the world." He explained and quickly vanished the Runespoor before turning before he was met with confused stared again.
"What?" he asked as they looked at him.
"Um. Harry your voice went all weird when you were talking." Susan said.
"What do you mean?"
"Like you were talking but then all the sudden it became garbled before becoming normal then garbled again. All we heard was that the book said something similar and it's really weird." She explained as Harry look down at the book before looking suspicious.
"One second." He said before flipping through the book until he reached the very last page and the back and there in the back there was a message for him that made him groan.
Now, my Legacy, you have hopefully mastered all my works, spells, and rituals. Though if not, you should be aware that these secrets are for you and you alone, only until such a time you have mastered my legacy shall you be able to divulge the information within at your discretion. Until that point of mastery is reached your words about the techniques and spells shall be shrouded and the Book itself shall remain hidden to all except you.
"This dude is barmy! Just honest to god proper mad!" he said exasperated as he closed the book with an unbelieving laugh.
"Who's mad?" Tracey asked.
"Whoever wrote this book! He has this sick joke of putting warnings at the end of spells and now this little bit about invisibility is in the back of the book!" he shook his head.
"Well, it makes sense, there are family grimoires that have all sorts of protective enchantments on them." Daphne said though this seemed to displease Hermione.
"What? Knowledge shouldn't be hoarded like that!" she stated firmly as Daphne just rolled her eyes.
"Magic that has been cultivated for years in a family isn't something you just publish Granger."
"That's not fair! They shouldn't…"
"Oh well, the world isn't fair!" Daphne bit back as the tension between the girls returned. Now Susan spoke up.
"Alright, we will need to have a little chat." The Hufflepuff girl said grabbing Hermione and Daphne by the wrist and dragging them out of the room and away before anyone could say anything. Harry just stood there blinking along with Blaise and Tracey.
"Um, that escalated quickly." Tracey said as the three just stood there shocked.
"Daphne! You need to calm down."
"I am calm!" she hissed out pulling her hand back as the three entered a nearby bathroom.
"Could've fooled me." Hermione bit out as Daphne just scowled.
"Hermione you too!" Susan said as Hermione looked at her as if she had grown a second head.
"Me!? I haven't done anything." She stated heatedly.
"You still need to calm down you're not helping." Susan said again firmly. As the two girls simply scowled before turning away. "Look what's going on Daphne? You've been after Hermione since Harry brought her in." She said as Daphne just tsked before turning towards one of the many mirrors in the bathroom.
"You know why." She said lowly with a pointed look out of the side of her eye. Susan looked understanding but Hermione took the statement in a very bad direction.
"What's that supposed to mean? What don't like Muggleborns like me?" she accused, In Hermione's mind the only reason anyone had to outright disliked her was due to her blood status, especially from the Slytherin populace.
Daphne for her part looked as if she just swallowed something nasty and sour.
"Get off your high horse Granger it's not always about you!"
"Then what is it!?" she demanded and before Susan could calm the two Daphne responded.
"Since when are you so chummy with Harry huh!?" she demanded the fact that Daphne used his first name was not lost on Hermione, but she didn't focus on that right now.
"What are you talking about? We've always been close, since first year!" she said confused Daphne just let out a very un-Daphne-like growl.
"That's not what I'm talking about, and you know it!" she accused and Susan jumped back in.
"Daphne, calm down. You're jumping to conclusions." She said stepping between the Gryffindor and Slytherin girls.
"No, I'm not, and don't pretend you're not seeing it too. Ever since the end of third year, all of the sudden Granger has been much closer to Harry, closer than normal." She said to Susan as Hermione just threw up her hands.
"What are you talking about!? We've always been close, we're best friends!" she defended. This time Susan turned to look at her.
"You, you really don't realize what your doing do you?" Susan asked softly as Hermione now turned to her.
"What am I doing?" she demanded as Susan turned to her fully.
"Hermione, you're not acting like a best friend. At least not a normal one, not since third year."
"What does that mean?" Hermione was thoroughly lost at this point. She hadn't acted any differently towards Harry, at least not that she noticed.
"Hermione, you've been practically joined at the hip since third year. You don't hesitate to grab his hand and hold it. Also, you stare at him, a lot. Before this stuff with this goblet, you've always been looking at him. Plus, when he stopped coming to meals you interrogated everyone in your house about it. In fact, you were causing the biggest commotion about his absences. Not to mention the fact that you've been taking notes for him in every class." She explained as Hermione just gained a blush after she was finished.
"I-I'm just comfortable around him that's all, and of course I was asking after him, he was missing, and I was worried. I also don't stare at him." At this Daphne scoffed.
"You don't even realize what you're doing." She said with a roll of her eyes as Hermione glared at her, but Susan quickly grabbed her attention.
"Hermione, you're smart, really smart. Even you have to see that your going a few steps above and beyond even what a best friend would do. You honestly don't see it?" she asked as Hermione took a few seconds to mull it over.
Had she been a little overzealous? Sure, she was worried about Harry but that was normal. But had she really been staring at him? She'd glanced at him from time to time, but she was just glancing! Right? Thinking back, she thought towards the near the end of third year when they had their little adventure. She remembered soaring through the skies on the back of Buckbeak, holding onto Harry closely as they flew over Hogwarts.
The memory had brought a blush to her face as with that memory suddenly her actions since then had been put into perspective. Now as she looked back with this new feeling, she could see just how it looked.
No, it didn't just look like it. She remembered just last night when Harry had held her as she cried into him. How horrible she felt when she found out how he was feeling, how much she just wanted to hold him close and never let him go. As her face became redder and redder with her eyes widening in realization.
"Oh, look that, her brain has caught up with her heart!" Daphne said a bit bitterly as Hermione looked towards the other two girls. It took her a second, but Daphne's seemingly random animosity made sense to her.
"Y-You like him don't you." Daphne's face gained a slightly red hue though she was still scowling. Though she saw Susan blush and look off to the side as well.
"Wait! You too!?" she exclaimed towards Susan who just nodded shyly "Since when?" she asked. As the other two girls looked towards each other.
"W-well I kinda started liking him in first year." Susan admitted "I-I just kind of saw him in the library once. He just looked so excited and… I don't know I just…" she tried to explain her feelings but found her voice failing.
"I noticed him first year as well. During his first quidditch match." Daphne admitted, "I didn't think much about him at first, but when I saw him flying through the air, then broom surfing on the pitch." She said and her hard expression melted into a soft almost wistful gaze a ghost of a smile on her lips.
"And you both knew about each other?" Hermione asked as the two girls shared a look as Susan suddenly looked sheepish.
"Susan has about as much stealth as the sun on a clear day." Daphne said a smirk on her face as Susan buried her face in her hands. "I caught her stalking him and I called her out on it."
"I was not stalking him!"
"Looked like stalking to me."
"I was… just waiting for a chance to introduce myself." She defended weakly.
"Why didn't you? Either of you? Introduce yourselves I mean." Hermione asked.
"We tried." Susan sighed. "But Ron always got in the way or managed to hide Harry away when we came around." She said bitterly.
"He just went right up and told me to piss off." Daphne said her scowl returning. "It wasn't until this year that he finally was free of that weasel. I overheard him talking to Hedwig in the Owlery when he said he was going to go to the Library I knew that it was our chance, so we introduced ourselves there. Well, I did. He already knew Susan." She said a small glare directed towards Susan.
"Not really! He only knew my name." she defended herself. As Daphne just rolled her eyes.
"What about you Granger? What happened last year that made you fall?" Daphne asked. As Hermione tucked a hair behind her hair shyly.
"W-well, you remember Buckbeak?" she asked and both girls nodded "We kind of set him free together and we both rode on his back. I guess it was when we were flying together that I… you know." She said her blush intensifying at the end. All three girls just stood there in silence for a moment before Hermione broke it.
"So, what does this mean? I mean for him; and us too." She asked looking towards the two who shared a look between themselves.
"Okay, Hermione, you have to promise that you won't freak out okay." Susan said as Hermione slowly nodded before Susan took a deep breath.
Harry made his way towards the Hagrid's Hut Cloak in hand as he caught sight of the half-giant. Though he almost thought it was a different person for a moment. Since he's known him Hagrid wasn't the type to dress up. His coat seemed to be much better quality than his usual pick. Combed hair and a bright yellow flower tucked into his coat pocket.
"Hagrid?" Harry asked as he approached
"' Arry! You made it. Come along now." Hagrid said excitedly practically skipping into the forest. Harry hurried to catch up they walked for a little before Harry couldn't contain himself anymore.
"Okay! What's up with the flower?" He asked as Hagrid pursed his lips straightening his coat to make the flower more visible. "Also, did you comb your hair!?" he asked.
"As a matter of fact, I have; do you a great bit of good to do every once in a while." He said rather wittily. Harry just shook his head and followed Hagrid farther into the forest. They were enveloped by silence for the majority of the walk until a loud guttural screech shattered it.
Harry spun around trying to find the source but Hagrid seemed to be searching for something else.
"'Agrid!" a feminine voice called out with a French accent Hagrid's face suddenly gained a very healthy rosy hue matched with a smile. If he suddenly gained white hair and red robes Hagrid would make for a very nice Santa Claus.
"Oh! The cloak; put it on!" Hagrid said as Harry easily threw the cloak over his shoulders. It wasn't long until, with Harry following unseen, Hagrid met with the source of the voice. Harry had to contain the sheer surprise as best he could. The high society Madam Maxime was meeting the rustic Hagrid for a secret rendezvous.
"Oh 'Agrid! I've been waiting so long; I feared you 'ad second thoughts, that per'aps you may have…" she trailed off as Hagrid took her hand into his own.
"Never! I could never have second thoughts about you!" he exclaimed kissing her hand. Harry for his part did cringe slightly. It was sweet, but it was old people's love! Not that either of them was that old. Still!
"So…" she said idly fingering the flower that Hagrid wore. Harry rolled his eyes as he had to give Hagrid a mental point for that one. "What did you want to show me? When last we spoke, you sounded so, exhilarated." She asked as Hagrid's grin returned to his face.
"You'll be glad you came! Come with me." He said and Harry felt that the statement was for both himself and Maxime. Hagrid lead them a little more ways away before pulling back some shrubbery and Maxime and Harry's eyes widened; though for very different reasons.
"Ils sont magnifiques!" Maxime exclaimed looking towards a forest clearing containing four very large cages which held four very large dragons. Harry knew they were going to be used but knowing and seeing them was two very different things. He idly registered the fact that Maxime went to get a bit closer as Harry came forward himself.
"'Arry?" Hagrid asked lowly as Harry pulled back the cloak to reveal his head. Harry, for his part, couldn't tear his gaze away. The dragons were incredible; in a terrifying life-ending sort of way.
One of the dragons had brilliant crimson scales and a sleek slender body. Its snout was rather long adorned with a single golden horn on the nose as well as lower on the jaw. It had a crown of brilliant golden horns as well; in a way, it almost resembled a mane. The dragon was Wyernian in build with two leathery wings and two legs with a long tail that wasn't adorned except for a series of spines that began below the shoulders and flowed down the spin ending just before the tip of the tail.
Another Dragon was bulkier than the first with silver-blue scales. Its snout was pretty short with two long protruding fangs a pair going down like a saber-tooth cat and another pair going on up almost like a boar's tusks. Along the length of its snout was a sort of ridged horn that sort of reminded Harry of a sharp canine tooth with the multiple points in one growth.
A third dragon, the smallest of them all, but no less enormous to Harry, was green in coloration; a light green color not like Harry's eyes. Unlike the other two, this Dragon was not Wyernian in build but instead was a quadruped with two wings. Its eyes flashed gold as it released a torrent of brilliant Orange flames.
Then Harry's eyes came upon the last dragon, the fiercest of all the Dragons in terms of appearance. It was a dark black in colorization with terrible bronze spikes lining its back and tail throughout its entire length. The tip of its tail was like a single great spear studded with bronze spikes and its eyes, a horrid venomous yellow. Its snout also hooked down in front almost like a beak and Harry's eyes couldn't help but flinch as its eyes flashed towards him.
It was as if the Dragon saw him as her eyes narrowed glinting even in the dark of night. They flashed and her maw opened unleashing a torrent of flames in his direction igniting every bush and tree in its way and Harry drew his wands but was relieved when the flames died before they could reach him.
He barely registered what Hagrid was telling him as he simply bid the Half-Giant goodbye and returned to the castle under his cloak. He needed to identify those dragons and figure out if they had any weakness, especially that black one.
Hermione considered herself open-minded, she was always open to new ideas and tasks, and events. However, she did find some things rather backward, growing up in a home full of the latest muggle technology and news she realized just how much of a backwards jump it was coming to the wizarding world.
She loved magic, make no mistake. It was just everything else, like quills; she would never admit it, but she hated quills! She wanted her multicolored pens back! But those were muggle artifacts apparently. She sighed annoyed at the thought, so many great inventions that could be put to great use in the wizarding world but no! They were muggle artifacts and therefore illegal, she idly wondered if every wizarding community had the same restrictions.
Shaking her head her thoughts returned to the plan that Susan had proposed to her and a blush came to her face just thinking about it. It was mad! Pure and simple. Of course, leave it to the Hufflepuff to concoct a plan that tried to satisfy everyone involved.
'We'll share him, in a way. Only if he says yes of course we don't want to make him uncomfortable.' She said it like it was the simplest thing in the world. It obviously wasn't! She was almost as surprised that Daphne even agreed to the plan in the first place. Daphne didn't strike Hermione as the sharing type. Of course, when she had asked the Slytherin girl about it she just shrugged and said something about noble houses and bloodlines or something to that effect.
Hermione was more than uncomfortable with the idea of being in a Harem, even if Susan insisted it wouldn't be quite like that. What else could it be!? It was… well mad! Daphne however had made it very clear that if she wasn't on board, she was competition and Daphne didn't lose according to her.
After their talk and Hermione made her way to the Gryffindor common room to think she immediately just tossed the idea out, it was ridiculous after all. But the more she thought about it the more worried she grew.
After realizing just how she felt about Harry, about how close she grew to him and how important he was to her, losing her would hurt worse than anything else in her life. As Daphne said, if she wasn't on board, she was competition. This unfortunately wasn't a competition of brains or smarts, this was a game of the heart, of flirting and batting eyes.
Daphne was, to anyone with two brain cells to rub together, drop-dead gorgeous. Her straight hair and electric blue eyes and slender figure was model material. Susan was right up there with Daphne only with larger… assets to utilize in her favor.
Hermione got up from her bed and went over to a vanity mirror in the dorm. She saw her hair, bushy and untamed, not in a wild attractive manner, just an uncared-for manner. She looked down at her face and didn't believe she was particularly beautiful. She never even used makeup before!
Her body? She was healthy… and that was about it. She didn't see any features that would put her in the running with Daphne or Susan. She then smiled in the mirror and immediately covered her mouth. She always kept her teeth clean and well cared for, her parents were dentists after all, but she finally seemed to take notice of just how noticeable her buck teeth were.
They weren't the worst but they stood out enough. She frowned at her reflection, even her eyes weren't especially noticeable, simple brown. Not like Daphne's electric blue or Susan's warm Hazel. Even Harry's own brilliant emerald made her eyes seem so horribly… plain.
Yes, that's the word, she was plain… plain, and boring.
Her eyes drifted away from her reflection to the many beauty products on the vanity mirror. It was lavenders so of course there was. Reaching forward she fingered around before grasping a gold tube. Rolling it around in her fingers she grasped both ends before splitting it and had to flip it seeing she was holding it upside down.
Looking towards the lipstick it was a bright red color and she rolled it around her fingers examining it. She then hesitantly held it to her lips and began to rub. She was clumsy, it was less of an application and more of a smudge.
Looking at her reflection now she had an uneven application of red lipstick. She tried to smile again but it quickly morphed into a frown. She sighed as she replaced the lipstick on the vanity desk.
"Hermione?" she jumped her knees banging against the vanity mirror as she turned to see a wide-eyed Lavender. Hermione for her part was mortified, never mind she had horrible lipstick applied to her but she basically stole it.
"I… um, I…" she couldn't find the words as she suddenly felt inexplicable tears sting her eyes as she shot up. Sprinting out of the room she ignored the surprised yelp of Lavender and her attempt to call her back. She barreled through the other girls coming into the room for the night and ignored their cries of surprise. She ran through the common room and out the door. She shot through the Halls no even caring that it was after curfew.
She didn't quite track how long she had been running but she suddenly all but rammed into another body and both she and the other person were suddenly sent spiraling to the ground as Hermione slid scraping her knees and elbows.
"Bloody hell! What do you think you're doing!" an angry voice she recognized hissed out as Hermione looked up seeing Daphne her perfect hair disheveled from their impact and an angry scowl on her face. Though her face morphed into confusion when she spotted Hermione.
"Granger? What are you doing… is that lipstick?" Hermione quickly covered her mouth shaking her head. "Granger I'm not blind. What are you doing anyway? You know it's past curfew, and you're not one to break the rules. At least not without Harry with you." Daphne said righting herself and resting on her knees.
"I could ask you the same." She challenged back before Daphne merely shrugged.
"Susan and I often talk late into the night; we know the castle well and can make it to our dorms undetected. You just missed her we had to split up since her house is in the other direction." She explained. As Hermione stood, she hissed in slight pain feeling the sting of her scrapes.
Daphne noticed this and approached her, she drew her wand and lightly waved it with a few lowly muttered incantations. Hermione felt relief as the sting lessened greatly.
"That's the second time I've patched you up Granger, I should charge you at this rate." Hermione just scoffed as Daphne looked into her slightly red eyes. "Why do you have Lipstick on anyway?" she asked as Hermione stiffened.
"It's stupid." Hermione mumbled.
"Try me." Daphne said walking over to a wall and leaning against it. Hermione didn't want to reveal her embarrassment but thought better of it. If she was going to go with Susan's mad plan, then it would be helpful to establish some trust.
"I- I just wanted to feel pretty…" she mumbled as Daphne raised a delicate eyebrow.
"Really? You wanted to feel pretty?" she drawled out and Hermione scowled.
"Of course, you don't understand." She bit out and Daphne felt a bit of ire rise in her.
"Careful Granger."
"Why? You don't know what it's like to be me! Especially when compared to you! Look at me!" she said gesturing to herself "Then look at you! You don't understand what I feel right now!" she growled out. Daphne's eyes narrowed.
"You don't know me!" she snapped right back.
"It doesn't take a genius to figure you out, Greengrass! The perfect life, Perfect looks, Perfect Blood!" she yelled this time and was suddenly snapped into stunned silence as her face whipped to the side and smack wrung out in the silent halls of the castle.
"My life was anything but perfect!" she hissed out her electric blue eyes glinting dangerously. "My father was sent to Azkaban because he was press-ganged into joining the Dark Lords army! And unlike Malfoy, he didn't have bottomless coffers to draw upon to get his ass out of the fire! I was two years old!" she yelled at Hermione whose eyes went wide her hand resting on her slightly red cheek.
"I grew up without my father for five years! And when he finally came back, he was a shell! He barely recognized my mother he didn't even know my little sister! She was born just after he was sent to Azkaban! He barely recognized me; do you have any idea what that's like? To see a man, you could only remember smiling, and then have him look at you like a stranger? We had to spend the next three years just to get him back to normal!" she said eyes pooling with tears and Hermione suddenly felt very small for her rather selfish problems.
"Everyone has problems, Granger! Don't think just because I don't wear my problems on my sleeves that they don't exist!" she hissed out glaring at the girl in front of her guilt clearly showing in her eyes.
"I-I'm sorry." Hermione apologized bowing her head not willing to meet the other girl's eyes. Hermione just felt stupid, she had gone and gotten all upset over something as stupid as appearances. Lashing out at Daphne for her tiny problems was just, barbaric.
Daphne for her part just closed her eyes taking a deep breath, she hadn't meant to unload on Hermione but the revelations that another girl was going after Harry irked her more than she wanted to admit. With Susan at least they knew each other, so when Susan suggested her plan she hadn't put up too much resistance. Even if she wanted Harry all to herself.
Losing all chance with him was worse than at least coming to a kind of agreement. And over the years she and Susan had gotten close, she could see being a sister-girlfriend with her and even a sister-wife. Hermione… not so much, all she knew was that she had an unfair advantage, at least in Daphne's opinion, and the fact that she was a rather talented student. That was it.
She wanted to tell her off and get her to go away, make way for her and Susan. But she could practically hear the disappointed tone of Susan ringing in her ears just from thought alone. Looking toward Hermione she sighed shaking her head.
"Hermione, you know the second-floor girls' bathroom?" she asked as Hermione turned to her and slowly nodded.
"Me and Susan go there to talk from time to time, meet us there tomorrow. After dinner." She instructed walking off in the direction of the dungeons. Hermione didn't say anything just nodded and watched the girl walk off. She slowly made her way back to her dorm hoping that by the time she arrived the other girls would be in bed.
"So, a Welsh green, Swedish short snout, Chinese fireball, and a Hungarian horntail." Harry said a few books opened in front of him. Tracey and Blaise sat in front of him. It was just after lunch and the two had a short break before their next classes. Harry hadn't seen Daphne, Susan, or Hermione all day and when he asked Tracey she simply smirked and said not to worry about it.
"Okay, the two worst ones are going to be the Chinese fireball and the Hungarian horntail, the Hungarian horntail being the worst of the two. If you could get the Swedish short snout or the Welsh you'll have a much easier time." Blaise said thinking.
"I think the Swedish short snout would beat out the Chinese fireball." Tracey said but Blaise shook his head.
"The Chinese fireball has a worse temperament and is faster, it's more likely to incinerate first then ask questions later." Blaise said as Tracey had to concede his point. Harry just looked between the two incredulously.
"You both can never become healers of any kind, your bedside manner sucks. You do remember that I have to face one of these things, right?" he asked as Blaise just grinned sheepishly.
"Just stating the facts mate." As Harry just rubbed his eyes under his glasses. The fact that he was facing dragons with a possibility of facing the worst of the worst out of all the known species was already weighing on him. But beyond that, the grimoire was being weird too. As it turns out he needed to master the second to last spell in its entirety before the first ritual would be revealed to him which was the last entry in the book before it goes blank.
So, whatever the ritual did he assumed that it would reveal the rest of the contents. The first eight spells would teach him the specific techniques and help from a foundation and the final spell required all of them to pull off. Thankfully he could make it through the task with the spells he had already learned… hopefully.
"Okay, Dragons are magically resistant right?" he asked as Tracey nodded.
"Yup, their eyes are pretty weak though so maybe aim for that?"
"That's an idea." he mumbled looking through the notes they had made.
"Also see if you can practice some water or ice-based spells, especially defensive spells." Blaise said and Harry nodded, he had become proficient with casting Auguamenti and Glacius normally so that was good. He still only had about five or six bursts of high-powered casts in him before he became too exhausted to move. If he tried to push past that he would surely lose consciousness.
He did have Demona, though he was unsure if she would be allowed to even enter with him. Still, he could play off her showing from his shadows as a spell. Yeah, that could work. But even still Demona was linked to him much closer than he thought since she relied on him for magic due to her not being of this world despite not being a conjured magical creature. She might have been summoned but she wasn't tuned to this world's magic, so it was a bit spotty.
That meant when he got magically exhausted and drained, she wouldn't be able to perform at her top level. She was slowly becoming tuned with the world's magic, but it was slow going; too slow. No, he had to rely on himself for the most part.
"What about your Parselmouth abilities?" Blaise asked as Harry looked at him.
"What?"
"Well, Dragons are often described as flying serpents, right? I know it's probably just a figure of speech but still." He said and Harry nodded thoughtfully.
"Maybe… we'll have to see; I'll try to be behind cover before I try though." He said with a chuckle which Tracey and Blaise matched.
"Oh of course." Tracy said with a grin.
They were only able to stay for a little while longer before they had to leave for classes. Harry for his part just poured over the notes memorizing as much as he could about the dragons. Trying to make sure he was as prepared as possible for the harrowing task ahead.
_SCENE_
There it is chapter 4 and I have to say the part that I am most scared that I messed up would be the Hermione and Daphne scene. I hoped it felt genuine and flowed well. I know that it might seem dumb that Harry tried to reveal his book to the others even though he's only known them for a little while at this point. But try to remember that Harry doesn't like to be alone and also, he hasn't fully broken from Ron's imprinted idiocy that has rubbed off on him. He's getting there though but I'm trying to make it gradual not night and day.