Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

...

Whatever early diagnostics Madame Pomfrey had made in regards to the damages that Harry had suffered were well and truly overshadowed by the true extent of damage he had done to himself. Three ribs had been broken, one nearly completely shattered after further examination. Severe bruising to a number of internal organs. Roughly a pint of blood lost during the confrontation with the troll.

Still though it was nothing compared to the frozen arm.

At first glance it had seemed as if Harry had merely frozen over the exterior of his limb but it was far worse than that, the magic having sunk deep into his muscles rendering them frozen solid. It was a sheer miracle that the bone hadn't been affected as well. A week had passed and Harry still remained in the Hospital Wing, his treatment nearly complete but with constant warnings of how to correctly prevent any further damage in the short term.

Last thing Madame Pomfrey wanted to see anytime soon was Harry returning to the bedside for something he had done to himself.

During his time incapacitated he had had a number of guests, both from the faculty and from his peers. One of the first to see him once he was deemed fit to receive visitors had been Professor Dumbledore who had been highly upset with the child, feeling that he had had the troll completely incapacitated and thus there had been no reason for Harry to have killed it. Harry had retorted that there would have been no reason to kill it had it not been in the castle in the first place. Twice more he had been visited by the Headmaster during his tenure in the ward, both times being reprimanded for taking the life of another creature. Each time Harry showed no remorse for his actions.

Professor Flitwick had also visited him early on during his stay and went through a step by step blow with Harry, giving pointers in where he could have looked at alternatives and the consequences of each possible scenario. Of his teachers, Harry was most happy to detail his experience fully to the diminutive professor. When Professor Flitwick had asked about how he had known of the spell which had been used to freeze the floor Harry had divulged how he had been reading advanced spells in the library. Professor Flitwick didn't berate him for studying far beyond his level but requested that he made proper steps in ensuring that he was confident with the spell before even attempting to cast it.

Of his peers, Hermione and Neville had come and visited every day, the witch often coming with her arms full of notes that Harry had missed out on during the day's lessons. While Neville was adamant that Harry should have just been spending that time resting there was only so much staring at the opposite wall he could take and was grateful for the paperwork to gaze at.

The Weasley twins had also approached him, wanting to know whether or not once he mastered his floor freezing spell (or at least until the repercussions were kept to a minimum) if he would join them on some of their misadventures. Harry quickly saw that they merely wished to use him for the spell he knew to be used as an escape mechanism, preventing anybody giving chase from behind and thus refused them flatly. He was pleasantly surprised that they took the rejection with a smile, stating clearly that if he ever changed his mind that they would be waiting.

He would have to weigh that one up in the future.

There had been a smattering of well-wishers and those congratulating him for taking out the dangerous creature. Nobody though seemed to have any real clue as to how the troll had entered the building in the first place, or at least nobody was telling him. Hopefully that would be his last wrestle with a creature far larger and more powerful than him for the foreseeable future.

Nobody really knew when Harry would return to normal life, or as normal as possible for him. Therefore it had been quite a surprise for everyone when they were enjoying their breakfast one morning and the solid doors were pushed open to reveal Harry standing there, his presence almost radiating pure power.

While he wasn't sure who started it, the noise indicated it came from the Gryffindor table and was completely foreign to Harry, never having heard the sound directed at him in the past. An applause. It started off as a single entity before it picked up in pace and volume, a number of other such noises echoing throughout the hall as every table seemed to radiate gratitude towards him.

Harry had no idea how to accept this.

He stood there, dumbstruck for a few seconds before his eyes sharpened, analysing those applauding him. Were they trying to suck up to him? Was this all a big ploy? Or, as absurd as it sounded, were they genuinely grateful for the deed he had done for the school?

Only when he took his seat down at the Gryffindor table next to Hermione did the clapping come to a complete stop while he still tried to figure out what had just happened. "Can anybody clue me in on why I was welcomed like a member of royalty?" he asked those around him.

"As grandiose as Hogwarts is, at the end of the day it is still a boarding school and as such, full of teenagers who just love to gossip," said Hermione. "Dumbledore tried to hush up the whole thing but whispers started spreading and I think it got to the stage where you rescued another student, tore the head of the troll off with your bare hands and drunk the blood from its skull."

"The weird thing is I cannot tell if you are being serious or pulling my leg," said Harry completely unsure of what she was telling him.

"Some of the rumours did get over exaggerated," acknowledged Neville. "Some were embellished, some were undersold but at the end of the day, the truth that you fought a troll to the death and came out the victor did spread like fiendfyre."

"Politically speaking, is that a good thing?" asked Harry.

"Perhaps," shrugged Neville. "Now that you're out of the hospital wing I imagine that we will have a couple of proposals being thrown our way in the coming days, perhaps even hours. The fact that you were even applauded by a number of the Slytherin Table on your way in indicates that you've impressed them, something I thought was impossible. We will need to be ready for anything that gets thrown our way."

Harry simply nodded as he dug into his breakfast. Deep down he suddenly had the feeling that the troll was only the start of something much larger.

…

Daphne Greengrass couldn't help but smile as she continued to eat at her meal that morning, her usual icy disposition effectively having been shattered for the moment. Considering it had only been the first few months of the first year of her study at Hogwarts she had already gotten a reputation for being difficult to deal with, to put things lightly. The fact that there actually was a smile on her face mildly intimidated all of those in close proximity.

All bar one.

"What's got you so upbeat?" asked Tracy, nudging her friend softly in the ribs in order to make sure she was paying attention.

"What, I can't have a nice day every once in a while?" asked Daphne innocently.

"No," answered Tracy. "At least not without good reason. Face it, a minute ago you were prepared to face the day with the same stoic attitude as yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the…"

"Alright, I get your point," said Daphne, a small scold that was more familiar to the others on the table sending a sign of reassurance that hell wasn't freezing over.

"Daph, face it, the past week since we heard that one of our peers, the seemingly shy guy that nobody would even speak to, was put into the hospital you've been worried. You had a right to be so! We got told there was a troll in the dungeons and where does our common room reside? In the dungeon. Where were the prefects leading us? To the dungeon. You had a right to be scared, all of us were, some were just better at hiding it than others."

The Greengrass heiress giggled slightly at that, vividly recalling how on the walk back to the dungeons any minor creak or bang had had one Draco Malfoy nearly staining the tiles with his urine. Nobody had actually taken him seriously for a while after that but thanks to the seemingly hereditary golden tongue his father had given him he had managed to talk his way off of being the biggest wuss. That title now belonged to Goyle who at the time didn't even seem to realize the potential danger they were in.

Go figure.

"What are you getting at?" asked Daphne.

"One of our peers, a boy no older than us, managed to take down a creature which had our Defence teacher running for his life. You don't want to know the rumors, you want the truth and nothing but the truth. You want to know just how Harry Potter killed a troll when earlier that day we had only just learned how to make feathers float," said Tracy, having no reason to believe that her deduction was anywhere other than on the Galleon.

"That's preposterous, surely he had help from a Prefect or a teacher that everyone simply forgot to give any credit to," said Daphne trying to regain some manner of ground against her long-time friend to no avail.

"Please, these rumours don't just sprout out of the ground from nothing. Every single rumour has to have some manner of truth to it otherwise it simply isn't believable in the first place," said Tracy.

"Fine, okay!" said Daphne as she speared a sausage with her knife. "I want to know how he did it, you happy?"

"Yes," said Tracy with a cheeky smile before she returned her attention to the food that was laid before her. Daphne meanwhile growled momentarily before composing herself. Directing her gaze over to the Gryffindor table she could see Harry Potter in conversation with both Granger and Longbottom, both of which probably knew the actual story. She didn't want to hear it second hand however, she wanted the untouched version that she could only get from one wizard at that table.

Getting him alone to do so however would be harder said than done.

…

Or surprisingly not, Daphne hadn't particularly been paying attention to what potion they were told they would be brewing but as soon as she heard the term partner spoken by her head of house she sprung into action. As soon as they were told to partner up with someone she marched over to the other side of the classroom with Tracy by her side.

She had always found the house system slightly off, it only served to segregate students into whatever an ancient piece of fabric thought best suited each individual. From what she had heard Slytherin had won or at least been in the top two houses for the past decade, mostly she felt due to Professor Snape's hatred of every other house. She had no way to prove this outside of the lessons she spent with him and even then she could see that he seemingly took pleasure in subtracting points for pointless reasons.

Snapping back to her original train of thought, Daphne marched up to where Potter was standing in discussion with Granger and Longbottom, likely figuring out who would be best partnering up with who. She decided that it was a perfect time to add her own opinion to the matter. "Excuse me, but if all possible could I partner up with Potter?" she said, her tone stating that this wasn't an option.

Apparently though it may have been as she witnessed an entire conversation between Longbottom, Granger and Potter without a single word being spoken. Small shifts in eyesight, a mild shrug of the shoulders and a flick of the head were the most obvious to spot but even she could tell that there was so much more going on. Had she not spent so long drilling her cold exterior as part of her day to day routine she honestly would have shown how frightened she was.

They were sizing her up, for what point and purpose though she wasn't sure.

"Fine," said Potter after what seemed like hours and only then did Daphne notice that small beads of sweat had begun to form on her brow.

"Ooh, in that case can I partner with Neville?" asked Tracy, practically bouncing at the idea.

"It would be an honour," said Neville with a slight bow while glancing at Hermione momentarily, the witch already in search of a new partner. He couldn't believe that the brown-haired witch had managed to read the situation so well and while they may not have been the targets they had been expecting they knew that a partner potion practical would see a reaction.

As heirs to respectable bloodlines they had already discussed how they would use the situation, or at least how he would. Working with a Slytherin student automatically meant that Snape wouldn't be berating him for every little thing, especially since he was now partnered with Tracy Davis. Her family owned one of the upmarket fashion stores in Diagon Alley which pandered towards a very specific market yet had continued to show profitable growth over the past decade. As far as he was aware there weren't any shady dealings going on under the table. Tracy herself was a halfblood and her positive attitude could have been directly related to the fact that that would be the only way to survive in Slytherin over the coming years if what he had heard of blood bigotry in the dungeons were true.

In other words, she could prove a worthy ally.

Harry had the much harder task. In prior weeks they had discussed how the Greengrasses had remained neutral through the previous war despite pressure from both sides. Knowing Harry as he did though, they would gain no alliance today but make an impact that could prove crucial down the track.

Or at least he hoped so.

In front of the cauldron that Daphne had set up Harry was busy reading away at all the necessary steps, ensuring that he didn't miss a single thing. Daphne returned to the workstation moments later with the required ingredients in her hands, placing them down on the chopping board. "So Potter, what part of this would you like to do?" she asked trying to sound as nice as she could, possibly due to the intimidation factor played against her earlier.

"My name's not Potter, it's Harry," he stated, not even taking his eyes off of the book.

Daphne was taken back a bit by this, she had grown up with the full belief that family names were far more important to those given at birth. One's family name already contained either power or lack thereof depending on how easily recognizable it was. She could only assume that Potter had no real clue of just how much say his name actually held, something she could probably explain to him at a later date if everything went according to plan.

"Alright then Harry, what do…"

"I'll do the prep work," said Harry turning his attention to the board full of ingredients in front of him, still not bothering to make any form of eye contact.

By now Daphne had begun to feel her blood boil before immediately freezing over as he watched Potter with a knife in his hand, the blade spinning several times in the palm of his hand before the first strike hit the board, severing the root from the stem. She could only then watch in shock as Harry sliced minutely thin strips at a pace that she couldn't replicate without drawing blood.

"I hope you're keeping time, these need to go into the cauldron exactly sixty seconds after being cut for maximum efficiency," said Harry, his eyes still glued to the task at hand. Daphne blinked twice before turning her attention to the book, noticing the footnote located at the bottom. Cursing to herself she tried to figure out how long it had been before floundering and grabbing at the cut pieces only to have the knife Harry had been using pierce the board in between where her hands had been.

"Fifteen seconds left," he said, once more without looking at her before returning to his duties.

Daphne meanwhile struggled to keep standing, her legs threatening to give out underneath her as she realized just how easy it would have been for him to stab her right through the top of her hand. While it was a terrible thought she couldn't help but feel that if he had done so he wouldn't have felt any remorse whatsoever.

Was he truly a demon as his skin depicted?

"Cauldron, now," he commanded.

She could only do as he said.

…

Harry, Hermione and Neville sat in their usual corner of the common room, their classes finished for the day. Despite their follow up classes there was only one lesson on their mind from the day. "How'd you go with Tracy Neville?" asked Hermione.

"Surprisingly well," said Neville. While he was still terrified of Snape to a degree Hermione had played a major role in helping him get up to scratch with potions to a point where he no longer felt intimidated walking into the class. Tracy by his side today had been a somewhat beneficial help as they actually managed to get their potion to Snape on time and by the looks of it in relatively good fashion. "Managed to create a somewhat reasonable relationship, general chatter was okay though mostly dominate on her part."

"She is a bit of a chatterbox," acknowledged Hermione. "What about you Harry, how'd you go with Daphne?"

"I broke her mould," said Harry, his fingers laced together as his gaze tried to burn a hole through the table in front of them.

"So you took on the Ice Princess and won," stated Neville as a sly grin passed over Hermione's face at the realisation of the victory they had achieved. "Did you push it too far?"

"She'll come back. When is up to her."

…

Hope you enjoyed.