A/N:
Hi, new chapter!
As usual, parts of this chapter were inspired by comments, so I'll credit those at the end. If you have anything you'd like to see in the future, feel free to leave a comment or DM me.
Thank you again to everyone who has been reading this story and enjoying it :)
Harry and Daphne were standing around by the lake, chatting idly and skipping rocks.
"Harry, can you please tell me the story of how you came to have a crush on me now?"
"Oh, okay," Harry replied. "I sure hope nothing interrupts us this time."
Daphne turned her head sharply to look at him. "Do not tempt fate."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "You're superstitious? Somehow I'm surprised you believe in stuff like that."
"Did you believe in robot girls before you met me?"
"Well, no…"
"And I did not believe in love before I met you," she responded. "In other words, I am saying that I will no longer discount the possibility of the existence of something simply because I do not yet comprehend it."
Harry thought about that. "I guess you have a point, like always."
"Please tell me the story."
"Right, right," Harry acquiesced. "Well, it all started a little over six years ago, during the sorting ceremony…"
An eleven-year-old Harry Potter anxiously awaited his turn to be sorted by the Sorting Hat, where he would finally find out which house he'd spend the next seven years of his life in. He knew all four houses had their merits, and he'd be perfectly happy in any of them, but deep down he wanted to be a Gryffindor just like his parents.
From next to him, Draco nudged his arm. "Hey, I hope we end up in Slytherin!" he whispered.
"Really? Why Slytherin?"
Draco shrugged. "I think snakes are cool. Besides, the green trim on the robes would match your eyes!"
From Harry's other side, Ron Weasley joined in the conversation. "You choose your house based on the color of their robes?" he scoffed. "I want to be a Gryffindor, because they're known for being brave!"
"Being a Gryffindor won't suddenly make you brave," Draco replied. "It's a shame there isn't a house known for being nitwits, because that's the one you'd fit in with the best!"
Harry sighed. Despite the fact they all played together when they were little, his two childhood friends had never gotten along as far as he could remember.
I don't care which house I go to, but please make sure to separate Ron and Draco, Harry prayed to nothing in particular. Or at least, keep me away from them so I don't have to listen to their constant bickering.
Minerva McGonagall adjusted her eyeglasses and read the next name on her long scroll of parchment.
"Daphne Greengrass!"
Harry watched as a little blonde girl walked up to the stool, sitting down primly as McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on her head. She sat with perfect posture, and the golden blonde hair that fell around her impassive yet beautiful face gave her the appearance of a doll.
Wow… Harry thought as he looked at the pretty girl. I want to marry her…
"You wanted to marry me the very first time you saw me?"
Harry blushed. "I was eleven, I didn't really understand anything about life, and I thought you were pretty. So, marriage was the conclusion my brain came to at the time."
Daphne stared at him. "Does that mean you wanted to marry every pretty girl you saw?"
"Er, not really… I mean, I don't remember, but I think the first time I felt that way was when I saw you."
Whirrrrr
Daphne blinked. "Despite the fact you were clearly a young boy wrapped up in fanciful delusions about a girl you knew nothing about, I find myself pleased to hear this nonetheless."
"I'm glad. Anyway, the story isn't done yet," Harry said. "I wanted to marry you, but that wasn't when my crush started."
Daphne tilted her head to the side. "Eleven-year-old Harry is a conundrum."
"To me, too."
Eleven-year-old Harry stared unabashedly at the girl on the stool. She sat perfectly still, looking straight ahead, her face completely devoid of emotion.
Similarly, the Sorting Hat just sat there on her head, unmoving and unspeaking.
After a minute, murmurs began to fill the Great Hall. This was the longest sorting so far this year, and the hat wasn't showing any signs of coming to a decision any time soon. In fact, the hat wasn't showing a single sign of being anything other than a normal hat.
After five minutes, the students got bored of waiting, and began to speak freely to their neighbors.
After fifteen minutes, the staff huddled together in a corner to discuss the issue.
Finally, at thirty minutes, they pulled the hat off her head and sent her to the house that had the least amount of students, which at the time, was Slytherin. The girl, who hadn't moved a muscle the entire time, simply nodded and walked to the table at the end of the hall, taking a seat by herself.
The next name was called, but Harry found himself still thinking about the blonde witch. What a mysterious girl…
"Ah yes," Daphne said. "The Sorting Hat was not made to read the minds of inorganic creatures, and thus its enchantments never activated when placed upon my head."
Harry nodded. "I put that together when I found out you were a robot, but at the time I just assumed you were a really complicated person, and the hat couldn't decide where to put you."
"That is what the teachers concluded as well," Daphne admitted.
"So, if you could go back now, what house do you think you would've gone into?"
Daphne processed for a moment. "Gryffindor."
Harry looked surprised. "Really? Why?"
"Because then I would have been with you."
Harry blushed at his girlfriend's candid response. "I don't think that's how the hat sorts people."
"In any case, is this how your crush on me started?"
"Not quite," Harry shook his head. "I was interested by then, but it wasn't a crush yet."
Daphne tilted her head. "At the start of your story you wanted to marry me, but at this point you were merely interested. At what point did I get demoted?"
"Er, I'm not really sure," Harry said.
"Eleven-year-old Harry was a difficult boy."
"My mom would probably agree with you."
Eleven-year-old Harry and Ron were sorted into Gryffindor, while Draco went to Slytherin. Though Draco was sad to be separated from his friends, all were relatively satisfied with their houses.
As the new Gryffindors were led up the stairs after dinner, Harry couldn't help himself from looking around at the other students as they flooded the halls, trying to catch one last glimpse of the girl from earlier. She was interesting to him, and he didn't really have any female friends yet, so he was hoping he would one day have the opportunity to make her acquaintance.
Wait, where is everyone?
Somehow, while searching for the girl, Harry lost track of his surroundings and had gotten separated from the rest of the Gryffindors. He looked around the hallways nervously, and caught sight of a small group of students walking a few flights below him. Running over to them in hopes they would be able to redirect him back to where he was supposed to be going, he caught a glimpse of golden blonde hair trailing the back of the group.
Isn't that the girl from earlier? Daphne, was it?
Harry was about to call out to her, and the group at large, when Daphne ran into the side of a wall.
Um, what?
Daphne fell backwards onto the ground, and as she was at the back of the group, no one noticed.
No one except Harry, that is.
"Hey, are you alright?" he called, running up to her.
The girl looked up at him from where she sat on the ground, and Harry found his breath taken away by her startling blue eyes.
"I am fine," she replied.
He extended his hand to help her up, but she just stared at it blankly.
"Do you um, need help?" Harry asked.
"No."
Harry chewed at his lip, looking around the now empty hallway. "Er, do you know how to get back to the others?"
"No."
"Ah."
Harry was about to ask the girl if she wanted to be his friend when two prefects came around the corner.
"Hey, you two! What are you doing apart from your groups?"
"We got lost," Harry replied. "I'm supposed to be with the Gryffindors, and she's a Slytherin."
One of the prefects nodded. "Not to worry, we'll see you back to your houses. You can follow me to the Gryffindor Tower, and the girl can follow my friend Travis to the Slytherin Dungeon."
"Dungeon?" the girl asked. "Am I in trouble?"
"No, you're not in trouble," Travis chuckled. "The Slytherin common room is in what used to be the old Hogwarts dungeon, and so we still call it that for fun. But you'll see, it's a lot cozier than it sounds."
With that, Harry and Daphne followed their respective prefects back to their groups, oblivious to what they would one day mean to each other.
"I am confused," Daphne said, once Harry had finished his story. "At what point did you develop a crush on me?"
"Oh, right, I forgot to specify. It was when you ran into the wall."
Daphne stared at her boyfriend. "You developed a crush on me because I ran into a wall?"
Harry shrugged guiltily. "It was really cute – you were walking, and all of a sudden you just crashed into the wall and fell down…"
"You are a very strange boy."
"Maybe…"
They stopped skipping rocks and sat down on the shore, falling into a comfortable silence.
Eventually, Daphne spoke up again.
"I did not think you would remember that interaction," Daphne said. "It was so long ago, and such a trifling matter."
Harry looked over at her. "That's a pretty core memory of mine, to be honest. I thought about that night every day for years."
Printing Thought Sequence: So did I…
"Harry-"
Before Daphne could recount her side of that story, a gurgling sound in the distance caught their attention.
They turned to see a little canary on the surface of the lake, flapping its wings desperately in an attempt to stay afloat. Every time it tried to take flight it spiraled back down into the water, one of its wings clearly broken.
"That poor bird," Harry said to Daphne. "Maybe I should get- Hey, Daphne, where are you going!?"
Harry watched as his girlfriend dove into the lake fully clothed, briskly swimming out to the bird. Scooping it up and cradling it gently in her hands, she swam back to the shore and placed it delicately on a rock.
"Huh," Harry remarked as he walked over to where Daphne and the bird sat. "You're pretty decisive when you want to be."
"I take great pride in my processing power."
With a quick wave of her wand Daphne cast a healing charm on the bird's wing, and the bird flapped it tentatively. Seeing that its wing was fixed and it was safe once more, it chittered happily before flying away.
"Goodbye little bird," Daphne said as she watched the canary's form disappear into the horizon.
While her intonation and expression were flat as always, Harry could tell there was a certain mournfulness to her bearing.
"Did you want to spend more time with the bird?" Harry asked.
"I do not G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G."
Harry looked at his girlfriend confusedly. "What?"
Daphne stared at him, one of her eyes slowly closing and the other blinking rapidly.
"Um, Daphne? Are you okay?"
"I am finEEEEEEEEEEEEE."
Harry covered his ears at the screeching noise Daphne made at the end of her sentence. Realization dawned on him, and he looked between her and the lake in shock. "Daphne, are you not waterproof!?"
"Water-r-r-r-r-r-r is my oneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneone weak-"
Daphne cut off, her eyes closing and her posture standing to attention, neutral and unmoving like a mannequin.
"Daphne?" Harry asked, starting to get rather worried. He poked his girlfriend a few times but she didn't respond. He brushed aside her long blonde hair and tried turning her wind-up key for the emergency recharge function, but she still didn't react.
Really starting to panic now, Harry picked her up and ran back to the school – fortunately for him, Daphne was rather light for a robot girl filled with metal parts.
Harry ran up and down the hallways, trying to figure out where he could bring the girl in his arms to try and fix her.
I can't use the common rooms or the library, there are too many people. But if I bring her to an empty classroom and someone walks in by chance, her secret will be out!
Harry continued to move through the castle, willing his brain to come up with a good solution.
I need somewhere quiet and isolated, where no one can disturb us-
Harry froze as a door suddenly manifested out of the wall of the hallway he was running down. Huh? What room is this? I don't think I've ever seen it before…
Harry reached out with his foot and pushed the door open, noting that the interior was empty but for a stretcher in the middle of the floor – literally perfect for his purposes.
Looking around to make sure no one was watching him, he took the chance and slipped inside.
He lay Daphne gently down on the stretcher, wondering what to do with her. He didn't have Astoria's engineering know-how, and wasn't versed on any tech-based magic either. Ultimately, he didn't even have the first clue about how Daphne worked or how he might be able to fix her water damage, which was a problem he was rather ashamed to realize.
Resolving to chalk up his inadequacies later, he turned his girlfriend around and waved his wand across her back.
"Aparecium!" he incanted, revealing the seams that marked her repair hatch. He cautiously opened it, taking a look at all of the gears and wires inside. He cast a couple of low-powered drying spells, hoping that once the water was gone she would turn back on. After a moment of waiting he turned her wind-up key, but still she didn't react.
What else can I do? Harry thought helplessly. I don't know anything else about machines…
All of a sudden, a thought came to him.
As an older brother, he had done this countless times when his siblings ran up to him, complaining that their video game cartridges weren't working.
Feeling only slightly awkward, he leaned over and blew into Daphne's circuits.
Displaying Memory Sequence:
Eleven-year-old Daphne walked up to the front of the Great Hall as her name was called, anxiously awaiting her turn to get sorted.
She had never had the chance to interact with anyone her age besides her younger sister, and her optical display had been flashing between Nervousness and Excitement ever since she got on the Hogwarts Express earlier that afternoon. Her father had made it very clear to her that she would have to keep a low profile in order to maintain her secret, but otherwise wanted Daphne to go to school and make friends like a normal girl.
She sat down on the stool, and Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on her head.
Daphne waited, but nothing happened.
Possible Emotion Detected: Panic
Simulating Physiological Response…
Daphne felt her gears start to shake around uncomfortably as the hat remained silent both to her and the rest of the hall.
Printing Thought Sequence: Oh no! Have I already exposed myself as a robot…?
Daphne sat there uncomfortably, motionless and terrified, for what felt like hours, though her internal clock told her it was precisely 30 minutes and 46 seconds. Eventually the teachers gave up and sent her off to Slytherin, deciding that the hat simply wasn't up to the task of sorting her.
She walked carefully to the corresponding table and sat down by herself. She did want to make friends, but she had already nearly been exposed just a few minutes into arriving at Hogwarts, and didn't want to take any more risks so soon.
Slowly, the rest of the incoming batch of students got sorted, and the feast began. Daphne selected a nutritionally balanced array of foods from the serving platters in the middle of the table and started to eat.
"Hi, I'm Rebecca!" a girl next to her said, extending her hand in Daphne's direction. "This is my first year as well!"
Daphne stared at the hand, uncertain what she was supposed to do with it. "Hello Rebecca. My name is Daphne Greengrass."
The girl laughed. "You're really pretty! Where do you come from?"
Possible Emotion Detected: Anxiety
Simulating Physiological Response…
Daphne's stomach started to spin around internally like a washing machine. She couldn't tell the girl that she came from a top-secret lab in America, but she also didn't want to lie to her new potential friend and tell her she came from a womb.
"I cannot tell you," Daphne said eventually.
The girl frowned. "Why not? Don't you want to be my friend?"
Possible Emotion Detected: Fear
Daphne's language processor told her that she had likely upset the girl with her response, which was not what Daphne had intended at all. Confused and not wanting to lose her new friend, Daphne apologized.
"I am sorry. Please do not be mad at me."
The girl's frown deepened, and she seemed even more hurt by Daphne's apology. "Fine then! I don't want to be your friend either!"
She stood up, picking up her plate and moving further down the table and away from Daphne.
Possible Emotion Detected: Sadness
Printing Thought Sequence: Was it something I said…?
Daphne spent the rest of the evening sitting by herself, her auditory receptors picking up the conversations around the table.
"I'm going to be the greatest seeker there ever was!" a little blonde boy said to some of the other new students.
"Wow, Draco, you're amazing!" another boy replied. "I think I want to become a chaser!"
Daphne wasn't sure what a 'seeker' or a 'chaser' was, so she tuned in to another, older group.
"Hey, do you want to start studying for the N.E.W.T.'s tonight?"
"Nah. I'm not starting that until after Christmas – I'm not some nerdy Ravenclaw."
Daphne decided this conversation wasn't pertinent to her, so she focused on a group of girls her age at the other end of the table.
"Hey!" one of the girls said. "I saw you talking to Daphne earlier."
Rebecca scoffed. "I tried. But she told me she didn't want to be my friend."
"Wow," said another. "That's so mean. I bet she thinks we're all beneath her or something."
"Her condescending expression really does give me that feeling…she probably thinks she's so cool because the hat didn't know where to sort her."
Possible Emotion Detected: Sadness
Simulating Physiological Response…
Daphne felt all of her mechanical organs shift around to leave a gaping hole in her chest, and the crushing sense of being alone in a foreign environment started to envelop her.
Printing Thought Sequence: I want to go home…
After dinner, she tried to approach the group of girls from earlier to apologize again, but they all gave her dirty looks and turned their backs. She wasn't sure where she had gone wrong, but it was clear enough to her that her ability to socialize was severely lacking, and she was better off not speaking at all; the last thing she needed was to accidentally offend someone again.
As the first year Slytherins were escorted to their dormitory, Daphne followed at the back of the group, watching her optical display flick through a plethora of negative emotions that she had never even felt before. She wanted to leave Hogwarts and go back home to live with her sister, father, and step-mom, preferably never interacting with anyone else ever again. Unfortunately, ever since her magic manifested, her father had expressed his desire for her to go to his alma mater and she was loath to let him down.
Printing Thought Sequence: How will I make it through seven years of this?
Daphne was resilient, but she was starting to despise the simulated emotions programmed within her for making her feel the way she did. Her childhood up until now had been easygoing, and tonight was her first time experiencing most of these negative sensations that she had only ever read about in dictionaries before.
Printing Thought Sequence: I just want to feel okay…maybe there is a way to turn off my emotions-
Daphne's thoughts were cut off as she accidentally ran into a wall.
It wasn't a blunder a robot girl would normally make, but eleven-year-old Daphne was a particularly inexperienced robot girl who was dealing with negative emotions for the first time, and she was feeling overwhelmed.
Daphne looked around from where she had fallen on the floor and recognized nothing, realizing she had no clue how to get to her common room by herself.
Possible Emotion Detected: Fear
Printing Thought Sequence: I do not like it here. I am upset, scared, and lost. The other girls are mean to me. I want to-
"Hey, are you alright?"
Daphne turned around and saw a boy about her age looking down at her with concern. His startling green eyes caught her off guard, and his symmetrical face was somehow pleasing to her.
Not wanting to antagonize yet another peer, she kept her response short.
"I am fine."
The boy extended his hand towards the girl, which immediately made her optical display light up in panic. The last person she spoke to had also extended their hand towards her, and that interaction had not ended pleasantly. Evidently, Daphne would need to do some research later about hand extension in social interactions.
"Do you um, need help?"
"No."
The boy chewed at his lip, and once again Daphne found herself oddly pleased. She was terrified that she would find some way to offend this boy as she had Rebecca, so she otherwise remained silent.
"Er, do you know how to get back to the others?"
"No."
"Ah."
Eventually, two prefects stumbled across them and helpfully escorted them to their dorms, but the brief interaction replayed in Daphne's memory recall function all night. While it had been short, it had been cordial, and the boy's simple kindness to call out to her when she fell made her simulated emotions settle down a bit.
The events of the night had been a wake-up call for Daphne, and she was now relatively certain that she would need to spend her years at Hogwarts observing humans rather than befriending them, but the little semblance of normalcy that brief dialogue with the green-eyed boy had given her was something she would cling to for years to come.
Printing Thought Sequence: If I could have a friend, I would have liked it to be you…
Daphne slowly came back online, and found herself in an unknown room alone with her boyfriend.
"Daphne!" he cried. "You're finally awake! That's such a relief, I was really worried for a while there."
She looked up at Harry. "I love you."
Harry blushed, a little surprised at Daphne's sudden declaration of love. "You're not still broken, are you?"
"No. My body has an emergency protocol to shut off when water reaches my circuits, and while it is an inconvenience, excess moisture does no lasting damage to my functions. I am sorry for worrying you."
Harry brushed her apology off. "It's no trouble. But fumbling around trying to help you did make me realize how little I actually know about how you work. So, I was wondering if you knew where I could learn a bit more?"
Daphne nodded. "That is very thoughtful of you. I will have an extra manual sent over as soon as possible."
"You have a manual!?" Harry exclaimed.
"Of course."
"Huh. That's pretty convenient."
"By the way," Daphne started. "I am interested to learn; normally it takes me over an hour to recover from water damage. How did you accelerate the process?"
Harry scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I, um, opened up your back and cast a few drying charms inside."
Possible Emotion Detected: Embarrassment
Printing Thought Sequence: Oh my Gears! I am no longer fit to be married...
"You better take responsibility," Daphne said seriously.
"Um, I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but I'm probably okay with that. But, uh, that's not all I did…"
Daphne stared at him for a moment. "Continue, Harry."
"Well, you see, this might not make sense to you, but I also blew on your circuits."
"..."
"..."
Possible Emotion Detected: ERROR / CONFLICTING EMOTIONS
Printing Thought Sequence: 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110000 01100101 01110010 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110100 00100001 00100000 01000001 01110100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100000 01100110 01101001 01110010 01110011 01110100 00101110 00101110 00101110
A/N:
Hi, did you like this chapter? This was one where I had a specific vision, but I'm not sure if I had the skill to portray it, so let me know if you dug it.
Idea Credits:
MVRHierbaverde: Daphne saves a little something in the lake and the water makes her circuits fail (HB: I'll probably use your other ideas in the future hehe)
Anee-1: Was there a time when Daphne had moments of fancy for Harry in the past (HB: I didn't think so, but apparently yes lol)
Mitkon2001: A Daphne manual (HB: But what's in the manual!? Stay tuned...)