AN: For the Daily Phrohet Newsletter!

Word Count: 1478

Spell prompt: Alarte Ascendare – [dialogue] "Well, that was unexpected."

Warnings: Minor talk of diseases such as cancer.

"You're Daphne Greengrass, right?" Harry quietly asked the girl next to him. Why did Professor Lupin have to switch around their seats? It made no sense, he was just fine sitting with Ron, he didn't want to sit with a Slytherin! And a girl nonetheless.

Yes, Hermione was a girl, but she was Hermione. Not some random girl sitting next to him.

"Yes, hello!" The girl greeted him, giving him a small wave. "It's nice to meet you!"

Oh, this is… not what he was expecting. She seemed nice! Of course, she could be pretending, Harry tried to reason with himself. She didn't seem like she was though. Harry gave her a small smile.

"Do you know why Professor Lupin changed the seats around?" He found himself asking. Daphne shook her head no.

"I heard from the upper years it was to 'influence outer-house friendship', but honestly he should be focusing on inner-house friendship."

"Why's that?" Harry asked, turning in his seat. They had a bit of time to talk while Remus helped the rest of the class find seats and their partners.

"Oh, you know…" Daphne trailed off with a shrug.

"No, I don't know," Harry said awkwardly. Daphne leaned forward slightly, her voice dropping to a whisper.

"You know, the older students being mean to us younger kids. And all of us have to listen to Malfoy because of who his dad is."

"We don't really deal with that," Harry mumbled after a stunned moment of silence. "The seventh and fifth years aren't really around much because of the OWLS, but when they are they're very nice to us. A sixth year even helped me with my homework before."

"Seriously?" Daphne asked, eyes wide. "You aren't pulling my coin?"

"Serious as the flu." At Daphne's confused look, Harry rushed to add. "Er, muggle disease. But yes, I'm serious."

"Well, that was unexpected," Daphne said, looking puzzled. "Are there a lot of muggle diseases?"

"Yeah a bunch actually, but usually you get vaccinations to protect against them all. They can be really bad if you don't have medicine for them. But some diseases you can't stop, even with vaccinations, like shingles or cancer."

"What's cancer?" Daphne asked, only for Professor Lupin to clear his throat at the front of the classroom.

"Now, since everyone is seated, let's all open up our books to chapter seven! Now, can anyone tell me what a wildebeest is?"

Harry pulled out a strip of parchment paper, writing down his response to Daphne. The girl took it quietly, placing it on top of her book as she read. She wrote a response quickly, passing it over to Harry when Professor Lupin's back was turned.

Do you think magic could cure that?

Harry stared at the paper for a few moments, thinking it over. He didn't really know anything about medicine, magic or muggle, but with all magic could do…

Maybe.

Daphne smiled at him as she passed the paper back to him. Harry smiled at her, glancing down at the paper and giving her a small nod.

Want to go to the library later?

Professor Lupin cleared his throat, Harry and Daphne both looking up at him as he gave them an amused look. The two kids blushed slightly before turning their attention back to the lesson. The library could wait.

A while later, Lupin released the class from their learning hell. Harry was quick to pack up, talking to Daphne all the while. Hermione and Ron came up to them, eyeing Daphne oddly.

"Harry, come on, let's go."

"Oh, uh, sorry guys," Harry told them, rubbing the back of his neck. "Me and Daphne are going to the library."

"What?" Hermione said in disbelief. "But you hate the library, why do you wanna go?"

"I don't hate it, it's just boring cause I have nothing I want to read. But now I have a really cool idea thanks to Daphne." Harry turned to look at the girl. She gave him a smile, holding her school bag in front of her.

"Harry, they can come if they want," Daphne told him. "I don't mind, the more the merrier!"

"Yeah, that's a great idea! Do you wanna come?"

"No thanks," Ron said, crossing his arms. His emotions were evident on his face. He was upset. "We'll go to the common room."

"No, I think I'd like to come if it's really okay." Daphne and Harry both nodded. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"Well, you know how in the muggle world we have certain diseases that magical people don't deal with?" Harry began to explain as they walked away, Hermione giving Ron a small wave goodbye. Ron's eyes widened as he picked up his bag and caught up with them. He didn't actually want to be left behind.

Harry had begun to look forward to every defence class more than he ever had before. He enjoyed talking to Daphne before class and always made sure to be there early so they had time too. She was pretty smart. Not in the way Hermione was; she couldn't repeat a book cover to cover or figure out advanced runes after only a few moments of looking at it. She was people-smart as Ron had put it. The girl could tell how someone was feeling from a mile away.

Harry thought it was a really cool skill, and had told her so. Her cheeks flushed pink as she bowed her head in what Harry thought was an embarrassment. She had no reason to be embarrassed. Knowing people was a good thing!

"Hello, Harry!" Daphne said with a smile. Tracey, one of Daphne's friends, was sitting in his chair, talking to her.

"Hi Daph, hi Trace." He greeted them, putting his bag down before pulling up a chair from nearby. "What are you talking about?"

"Ah, we can't go to the library today," Tracey explained. "Peeves exploded something all over the books. Most of the teachers are trying to remove it but it's apparently stuck there."

"Maybe they'll finally get rid of Peeves with this," Daphne muttered. The brunette had never liked ghosts.

Daphne had grown up with her mother, father, and her sister. However, when her grandpa passed, he had (for some odd reason no one would explain to her) become a ghost. Since then, Daphne hasn't been a fan. She insisted on staying as far away from them as possible.

"Oh, that really sucks," Harry replied. "Where can we hang out now?"

Like most teenage endeavours, after about a month they had stopped looking for clues on muggle-magic medicine. Now they just used the library to hang out and study.

"We could always hang out outside?" Tracey offered. "The quidditch pitch is open most of the time." Harry and Daphne shook their heads.

"Hufflepuff's have practice today," Harry explained.

"And it's cold. I don't do well with the cold."

No one mentioned the dementors, but that reason was close to their minds too. The only fools who willingly spent time outside were the quidditch players and teachers. It was getting dangerous out there.

"We could always do the Gryffindor common room?" Harry offered up. "This girl in the fifth year has her girlfriend in the common room all the time."

"Yeah, but is she from Slytherin though?" Tracey questioned.

"No, she's from Hufflepuff. It shouldn't matter too much though."

"Are you sure?" Daphne said, looking a bit worried.

"Course! If they say anything, I'll deal with it."

"Why, 'cause you're Harry Potter?" Tracey teased. Harry grinned at them both.

"Of course!"

"Well, that was unexpected." Seventh year Kaiden Jenkins said from her seat in the Gryffindor common room. Harry Potter had walked in with his trio, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger as normal, only to have two Slytherin girls following behind him. Kaiden didn't recognize them, but she had no problem as long as they were quiet. With the library shut down, and her dorm overrun by her friends, she needed a quiet place to study.

And they were quiet, for the most part. Weasley had pulled out his exploding snap cards while Granger settled up with a book. The blonde Slytherin, Tracey, (Kaiden only learned her name because of the squeal Weasley let out when shot with sap) played well against the redhead, almost beating him at chess. The other one, Daphne, settled next to Potter as they read the same book.

Kaiden would have offered to duplicate it but…she grinned from her seat. They were a cute couple, and Potter looked adorable, all flushed and embarrassed.

"Don't wake them up," Kaiden said to the boy walking up to them. He paused, gave her an odd look, shrugged, and walked away.

Kaiden would let these kids sleep if it killed her. Which it might, since she was sacrificing her studying for it… oh well.