Daphne
Daphne Greengrass was sick of waiting. Her mother and sister liked to say she had the patience of a gnat. While she thought that a little extreme, she could understand where they were coming from.
She tried to entertain herself by pacing around the common room. It wasn't as fulfilling as she'd hoped. Which meant it wasn't entertaining at all. She stopped when a second year kept glaring at her from her homework.
She wasn't accomplishing anything by pacing. Instead she stormed off toward the dormitories. She'd never liked the dingy lighting in the common room. Everything had a sort of eerie green glow, punctuated by the views of the lake from above. She much preferred her open, airy bedroom in her family's Islington apartment. She rather enjoyed sitting on her balcony, enjoying the evening air in summer while working through her assignments. It was far and away better than the damp basement feeling of the dungeons. And comfort charms only got one so far.
She hopped down the stairs until she found the fourth year's landing. She spun around to the left and hopped down the final three steps that led into the boy's dormitories. She pushed the doors open and burst in.
"Seriously Dylan! I'm the girl. How are you not ready yet?" she yelled as she entered the dorm. None of the other boys were there. Part of her wondered how they managed to smell so bad while not being present. Even with the elves cleaning the dormitories daily there was still a certain odor in the air that no one else ever seemed to notice.
"I'm almost done," he sighed as he buttoned up a solid black shirt. He rolled his shoulders as if to adjust the fit. It did nothing except emphasize that the shirt was a titch too big. He liked his clothing baggier. She didn't get it and thought he would benefit greatly from wearing things that fit better, but there wasn't much of a reason to comment.
"We're going to Hogsmeade," she scoffed, gesturing to herself. She wore jeans and a hoodie and carried a tote bag. None of her ensemble was particularly new; the text on the hoodie, naming the Muggle University her father had attended to further his medical education outside of the Magical world, was cracked and faded and her bag showed the obvious signs of repeated use.
"So?" he shot back. He peered into the mirror and spent a few moments putzing with his hair, making the front of it come up in a wave.
"To play Conjurations and Catacombs," she said, rolling her eyes at him as he preened.
"Some of us like to look good," he retorted with an annoying smile. She rolled her eyes, which given that he wasn't looking at her did not have the intended effect.
"Always important to look your best!" his mirror commented jovially. Dylan nodded at it as if deferring to its obvious expertise.
"We're going to play a dice game at The Three Broomsticks. I'm not sure that warrants showering, much less putting on your fancy pants and a nice shirt," Daphne scoffed, as if the notion of dressing up for that was absurd.
"Don't act like you aren't having every bit as much fun with the game as I am," Dylan laughed. "And hey, maybe the pants are lucky and will help with the rolls."
"You're a dork," she countered.
"Pot meet kettle," he said. She had no immediate rebuttal for that statement. So she figured it was time for desperate measures.
She stalked around him until she put him between her and the doorway and then started to push him toward the door.
"Hey I'm not done!" he exclaimed. But he only offered a nominal resistance as she forced him toward the staircase leading back to the common room.
"Yes you are," she said. "If we take any longer all the carriages will be gone. And I am not walking to Hogsmeade.
"I don't think the carriages ever run out," he laughed.
"Sometimes you have to wait," she said.
"I never have." It was clear he didn't believe her.
"Lucky you," she said as she pushed him to the stairs. Unfortunately when they arrived, there wasn't a whole lot more she could do. It brought her plan to a screeching halt. But he only chuckled and hopped up the steps two at a time. He was already well into the common room by the time she even made it up the staircase. He even had the decency to yell back at her.
"What's taking you so long?" he asked. "We're going to be late, you know!"
"I hate you," she said even as the smile forced its way to her lips. He waited and held the door to the common open for her. She hopped through it and up the steps into the dungeons. Part of her debated running off ahead of him to make him play catch up but instead she waited at the door for him to join her.
"And think," he said, continuing their conversation as they started to walk through the castle, "You were afraid of going that first night!"
"Only because you were abandoning me to three Gryffindor boys. You have no idea what they could have tried!" she countered.
"I had every confidence in your ability to deal with them if it came to that," Dylan smiled at her. She rolled her eyes. To a degree she had to agree. Her mother had spent time with both her and her younger sister Astoria making sure they knew a basic barrage of self-defense charms in case of emergency.
Sure, none of them were flashy or would win you duels. Most were nonverbal or wandless. Which had the downside of meaning they would be considerably weaker than the variants that used a wand. But that wasn't the point, The point was to disable or hinder an attacker to allow you time to assess or get out of the situation. It was all very 'in case of emergency, break glass'. Her parents had no issue with them being allowed out in London. And had no qualms that crime existed even in the best and safest cities. Her mother and father both lectured them on not being afraid to trust their gut in any situation.
She'd never had to use any of the spells. She'd never even found herself in a situation where she'd even had the slightest inkling of having to use them. She supposed that was a good thing.
It wasn't like she wasn't thankful for her mother teaching her the spells. The more she reflected on it the stranger it all felt to her. When it was going on she remembered thinking going out alone in the city must be terrifying. Or her parents were absolutely paranoid. But she came to find it wasn't and they didn't seem to be. Perhaps there was something to be said about being prepared.
"Ron and Neville sure. Harry I don't know," Daphne admitted, trying to sound as confident as she could. Again, she'd never actually used a spell like that on someone and had no idea how she'd react in that situation.
And she hadn't been concerned, really, about being left alone in a room with three Gryffindors. Well, maybe she was a little. But it was less about the company and more about the chance of embarrassing herself.
She had no idea how they were going to react. She had no idea how she was supposed to play the character. They hadn't sampled the potions that first night. Which was good, as the imaginary tail and enhanced ears and nose proved to be more annoying than anything. Even if they were imaginary.
She'd wound up in that position because Dylan had been too stupid to not make a joke about Flitwick's height when discussing enhancement charms in class. It had earned him a detention.
Neville decided to split them up for the first sessions then. He claimed it would make it easier for him, too, as he'd have his first time leading while in smaller groups. So Seralyse met Kaden and Arestes while Alisen and Wyckham had their one off battle to start their careers.
Dylan had confided in her later that he fully thought she was going to kill him. But she'd given up when his hit points were reduced to a surprisingly low level and allowed herself to be taken prisoner. It annoyed him. He should have fared better. And she hadn't even used the pet to his fullest, which only irritated him more.
It was a bit funny, she thought, that they wound up in combat almost immediately after they were meeting. But the only combat she and the other two saw were some brief encounters with bandits trying to rob their caravan outside of Pelican's Rest. It wasn't even with mentioning in the grand scheme of things.
She hadn't even had to use her ax. Which she thought was the entire purpose of her class. As she'd only used her buffing songs while Kaden did almost all of the killing. Arestes did some clever trapping which made everything easier. But it was Kaden who'd done almost all of the damage.
It felt off to her, but it seemed to work. The synergy was all there between the three of them and it all seemed easy. But she suspected it was supposed to be easy. They'd hardly had to do much but fumble through their abilities and they'd sent the bandits running.
In a strange way it was oddly exhilarating. She remembered describing it to Dylan after and he'd called her giddy about it. He'd laughed at her and teased her about enjoying it. That had been the end of it.
"That worried about Harry Potter?" he laughed.
"He did far better in the Triwizard Tournament than I would have," Daphne admitted.
"Fair enough," Dylan admitted. "I'd have probably fainted at the sight of the dragon."
"Me too," Daphne agreed as they made it to the first level of the castle and started toward the exit.
"And you got along swimmingly with all three of them, so who was scared about nothing," Dylan teased.
"I was not scared," Daphne countered.
"I practically had to escort you to the classroom for the game before my detention," Dylan countered. "Almost pulling you by the tail."
"I should have never told you about that stupid thing," Daphne scoffed.
"You're the one that wanted to be a Kin girl," Dylan teased.
"She's adorable." It was the best counter she had.
"I'm sure."
"You know she is," Daphne countered. She glared at him as they stepped out into the cool fall air. It wasn't bad. She would have probably been fine without a warming charm. But she added one anyway.
Dylan joined the queue for the carriages. There were a surprising amount of people waiting that morning. Which gave her cause to smile as it meant she was correct. There were very few things she liked more than being correct.
It only took about ten minutes for them to hop into a carriage. They rode with a couple of third year Ravenclaw boys who seemed to do everything in their power to not look at Daphne.
She wasn't sure when that started. It was sometime in the last year or so. But it wasn't uncommon for younger boys to not look at her. She didn't get it. She didn't think she was that ugly. Dylan laughed at her when she mentioned it but hadn't bothered to provide any sort of answer.
Astoria didn't seem to have the same problem. All the boys her age stared at her constantly. She giggled when she noticed, or smirked at them, or something like that. Then they'd look away. But they never seemed to look away to start like they did with her.
Either way Dylan started talking with them about Quidditch. Apparently one of them was a young Chaser on the Ravenclaw team. Dylan wanted to play Seeker, which Daphne found stupid. As there was no chance Draco Malfoy would ever let that happen. He could have been the second coming of Bowman Wright but that wouldn't matter. As long as Draco Malfoy wanted to be on the team, he would be. And no one would have any say.
It was dumb, she thought. And probably why they kept losing to Harry Potter. She wondered if they could stage a mutiny if they lost again. Although given that there hadn't been any Quidditch last year she wondered if Draco had improved his game. Still, even if he had, she doubted he'd be able to fly like Harry had when dealing with the dragon.
Not that she'd ever tell him she thought he did well. That would be silly.
Either way she tuned out the Quidditch chatter, because it was boring, and thought about the upcoming game. They'd been away for about a week as the group traveled north. She wasn't quite sure what Neville had in mind. But that was part of the fun.
She wondered if she should tell someone her secrets. Neville had told them not to. To divulge as little as possible about their characters backstories outside of the game if they could avoid it.
Dylan asked her some questions about Seralyse. And about the Kin. She answered the Kin politics ones as best she could. But didn't go much into her backstory or anything that she hadn't told the general group.
She was a performer that wanted to get home and was willing to pay. What more did they need to know? It wasn't like any of them said anything more detailed about their characters. They probably did know the most about Dylan, because he had the most outwardly famous character.
She had to wonder just how much time Neville had spent on all of it. Padma hadn't really liked being shoehorned into a role, but she'd come around when she saw all of his notes. It wasn't her preferred idea either, but given she didn't really have a clue what she was doing, having some sort of backstory to fall back on felt nice.
Still, the names and places got jumbled in her head. She could play that off as Seralyse being a ditz. Even if she wanted them to think that was more for show than anything. It didn't help that some of her investigation rolls had been comically bad. Neville had been kind and not had her results be quite as bad as they should have been.
It wasn't like rolling a one while looking for a bathhouse was the worst thing in the world. So she wound up at a brothel instead, she still came out of it freshly washed. Albeit a few gold shorter than necessary. She figured he could have made something like that worse. But what was the point?
Their carriage arrived in Hogsmeade a few minutes later. Dylan helped her down after the Ravenclaw boys scampered away, beelining straight for Zonkos. He peered at his watch and then looked back at her.
"We have time to stop at Honeydukes if you want to," he said.
"You are addicted to crystalized pineapple," she laughed at his suggestion. He only shrugged his shoulders. He didn't even have the decency to look sheepish about it.
"I don't have the shakes yet," he said, miming shaking uncontrollably as he spoke. She rolled her eyes at him.
"You go ahead. I need to stop at Scrivenshaft's and pick up a few new quills. They seem to love their essays this year," she sighed. That, or Umbridge's homework consisting of more or less copying the text book was wearing out her writing utensils.
"Can you grab me a few spell-checking ones?" he asked.
"Only if you grab me some fudge and some Jelly Slugs," she countered.
"Deal," he said. He gave her a mock salute and started off towards Honeydukes. She turned up the street and made her way to Scrivenshaft's.
The quill shop was fairly busy when she made her way into it. She ducked around a couple of sixth year Ravenclaws and moved toward one of the walls. It appeared quite a few students had her same idea for dealing with Umbrdige as they were nearly out of Quick-Copy quills. She wondered if it would mean half of the students would hand in nearly identical homework. But she suspected that was happening anyway.
She grabbed a few of the quills before moving on to pick out a few for Dylan. She half wondered if they'd have a Leeds United branded one to tweak Dylan with. The magical world didn't usually do such brandings. But the influx of Muggleborns had caused some more entrepreneurial businesses like, say, Gladrags, to realize there was easy profit to be made.
Scrivenshaft's did have a selection of Quidditch themed quills, matching colors and logos of mainstay teams. But that was as far as they'd managed. None of them looked fun enough for her to bother spending her money on.
She killed a few minutes wandering around the shop looking for anything that caught her eye. Nothing did but she figured it would take Dylan longer in Honeydukes so she figured she'd give him some time. If she didn't have to go into the sweets shop and be annoyed by the crowds she'd consider it a win.
After what she considered a sufficient amount of stalling she moved to check out. It only took a few minutes and then she was on her way with two small bags of goods. She walked down the high street back toward Honeydukes and wasn't surprised to find Dylan waiting outside of the shop for her.
He was also holding two bags and offered her one as she approached. They exchanged the goods and she peered down the street.
"Shall we?" he asked, nodding toward the Three Broomsticks.
"Sure," she agreed. They walked toward the inn. The town was every bit as busy as one would expect during one of the school visits. They weaved through groups of students before they made it to the already crowded inn.
Daphne spent a few moments peering around at the crowd looking for any sign of Padma, Harry, Ron or Neville. She didn't find them anywhere in the crowd. She turned to point that fact out to Dylan only to find he'd already moved halfway across the building and was preparing to sit at an out-of-the-way table in the back corner. She followed after him and sat in one of the chairs that faced the doorway.
Dylan rearranged the chairs and then ducked over to a table of Hufflepuff seventh years and asked if he could take the unused chair at their table. They glared at him, but a dimpled smile earned him the chair. Daphne couldn't help but roll her eyes at his antics. Something she found herself doing quite often.
"Want anything?" he asked, gesturing to the busy bar. She dug into her pocket and took out a couple of sickles and handed them to him.
"Pumpkin Latte," she said. He made a face at her but turned to go order from Madame Rosmerta. He returned a few minutes later with her drink and a handful of knuts. He set his own butterbeer down on the table and took the seat across from her. He shifted sideways in the chair so he could peer at the door as well.
"They said noon, right?" he asked. They both knew perfectly well that noon was the arranged time. But it was one way to continue the small talk.
"Yes," she answered as she took a sip from her latte. He pulled his sleeve up to peer at his watch and sighed.
"Quarter to," he said. He fixed his sleeve, fidgeting with the cuff for a moment before taking a sip of his Butterbeer. Daphne fought the strangest urge to cast a quick hex that would make him spill all over his shirt. But that would just be mean and there was no need for violence. At least not yet.
"May as well get organized," she said. She reached into her bag and took out the shrunken folder that kept their character sheets. She hadn't brought any of the potions, figuring she'd be too embarrassed to use them in public. She zapped everything back to its normal size and slid his sheets toward him.
It took her a few minutes of digging to find the little felt bag the dice were in. She threw them onto the table where they landed with a satisfying rattle. Dylan fidgeted with the paper for a moment while he watched the doorway.
The first person to approach them was not a member of their group. No, she was someone far far worse and far far more annoying. She practically skipped up to their table, not caring in the least that she bumped into a few older Slytherin students on her way. She practically hopped into one of the chairs.
"What do you want, Astoria?" Daphne asked before she'd even settled fully into the chair.
"I can't just want to say hi to my-," she started. Dylan interrupted her.
"Hello Tory. How are you and your friends?" Dylan asked. He peered around. Daphne let her gaze follow his. She did not see any sign of the gaggle of girls who typically accompanied her annoyingly popular younger sister.
"We're great," she said. "Hogsmeade is amazing!"
"Yes. It's a good time," Dylan agreed.
"There is one problem though," Astoria said, interrupting him mid sentence. They were both used to it. He merely raised his brows at her and sipped from his butterbeer. Daphne understood his body language well enough. He'd tried, Astoria was now her problem.
"And what's that?" Daphne sighed.
"I never got my allowance," she said.
"Yes. You did."
"No. I didn't."
"I handed it to you in the Common Room. Like I do every month," Daphne said. Sometimes being the eldest was exhausting. She wondered if, subconsciously, she'd made Seralyse the youngest member of their adventuring group for that reason. Granted, it was kind of dumb in general, as the Volkar was always going to be the oldest.
"I lost it," Astoria said without missing a beat.
"And that's a me problem?" Daphne asked. Dylan took another sip of his butterbeer, clearly doing so to hide the smirk on his face.
"I can't afford to buy anything," Astoria pouted.
"Take better care of your stuff?" Daphne asked.
"Oh come on. I know our parents send you extra just in case," Astoria said. It wasn't strictly true. They had no problem sending her school supplies or the money to buy school supplies if it was necessary. And always made sure she had a couple of extra Galleons incase of emergency. But it wasn't like she had a trunk full of coins. And she needed a reason to ask for more.
Sure, they'd told her they'd start giving her more of an allowance when Hogsmeade trips became a feature of her school years. And it wasn't hard to see why that amount went up each of the last two years. And yes, they were well off, with both parents working as Healers. But that didn't mean they didn't put an emphasis on understanding limits. An emphasis that seemed to have escaped Astoria.
Honestly, Daphne had no idea how she'd gone through all of her allowance so quickly. She'd never, in the two plus years she'd been given it, spent all of it. For the briefest of moments she wondered if she should ask more serious questions about her spending habits. But then Astoria decided to be Astoria and settled that.
"Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please," she started. Daphne reached into her tote, wondering how long it would take Astoria to find the counter-jynx if she used magic to glue her lips together. And how much she'd regret doing it after the letter home and the lecture that followed.
Dylan, however, laughed and saved her.
He dug into his pocket and took out a handful of Sickles. He placed them on the table and slid them over to Astoria. She giggled happily and swooped them up.
"You're the best!" she said, leaning over to hug Dylan. He rolled his eyes while looking uncomfortably at Daphne before Astoria finished the hug and skipped on her way.
"You shouldn't have done that," Daphne sighed.
"Why not?"
"She'll be insufferable?"
"She isn't already?" Dylan laughed. "This bought us a reprieve. And all it cost was my change from your Jelly Slugs."
"Fair enough," Daphne answered. She figured if Astoria thought she could con money from Dylan she'd approach him more than her and, in a way, that was a problem solved for her. Still, she did have the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she should at least think about asking what her sister was spending her allowance on.
There was a supposed rash of Pixie Dust going around the castle. While she'd never been brave enough to snort the pink powder, she'd seen other students attempting to hide as they'd done in the common room. She hoped her sister wasn't dumb enough to go that route at her age. But you never knew.
"You think she's dusting?" Daphne asked.
"What?" Dylan laughed. "Astoria?"
"I'm worried she spent her money on something stupid. You know she has more than enough. She hangs out with that Rizzo girl who is totally a plug," Daphne said.
"I think she just talks a big game," Dylan answered.
"I don't know," Daphne frowned. "She seems to know way more about it than she should."
"It's all talk," Dylan said. "She's in my year. She loves to brag before class. I don't think she has any clue what she's actually talking about."
"Maybe," Daphne frowned. She knew arguing with him about it wasn't going to get them anywhere. So she gave up and continued to look around the inn. "Do you see any of them yet?"
"No. Haven't the entire time we've been here," Dylan said.
"Weird," Daphne said. She peered down at her character sheet and wondered if she should have given Seralyse more wisdom or intelligence. She wasn't great at noticing things. Something she didn't think they had in common. But Padma had suggested charisma and dexterity and so she'd gone that route. It made sense, she guessed. She wondered if there was always a sense of regret about such decisions.
Dylan hadn't expressed any concerns. He was built nearly entirely toward strength and intelligence. She questioned the intelligence pick but he made a comment about higher level wardens using it for magic. Which she figured was fine, if they ever got to that point. So far he'd never even sniffed the opportunity to cast a spell.
"Not really. It's a popular weekend. Shops were busy, they may have had something else to do," he answered.
"You thought the shops were busy?" she asked. She hadn't gotten that impression at all.
"Busy enough," Dylan answered with a shrug. He polished off his butterbeer and peered at her. She only shrugged her shoulders and looked around. Even the inn didn't look quite as full as she remembered. But she could have been imagining it. If she was honest, there seemed to be an over abundance of Slytherin students when compared to the other houses.
"Something feels wrong," she said.
"They're only ten minutes late," Dylan laughed.
"Still doesn't feel right," Daphne said. She gazed around, again looking for any sign of anyone, or even someone she could ask. Like another Weasley or, really, any of the Gryffindors in her year. She didn't see any of them.
"What makes you say that?"
"Look around."
"I am."
"Don't you see anything. Or rather, not?"
"Not really. Lots of students. Professor Flitwick and Professor Hagrid. Which is really an odd pairing if I ever saw one. Nothing seems any different than any other Hogsmeade trip," Dylan said. He made a show of looking more closely at every occupied table around them, then shrugged his shoulders to confirm he saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"It's almost all Slytherins," she said. He peered around and narrowed his eyes.
"I mean there's a fair amount of them but I wouldn't go so far as to say 'almost all' there's a couple of Puffs over there and a few Ravenclaws. I don't see that many Gryffindor's but we all know they're lazy and like to sleep until at least noon on weekends," Dylan said.
"We going to pretend you don't sleep until noon every chance you get?"
"I'm usually up before you."
"Only when you have your Quidditch camp or footie," Daphne said.
"Which is almost daily."
"Well fine."
"But I suppose you're right. The crowd does seem a little different than normal. It's hard to explain. I'm not sure it's as big of a deal as you seem to think it is," Dylan said. "Maybe there was something weird with the carriages or maybe they did something to piss off Professor McGonagall and have some lecture to get through before they get here."
"You'd think we'd have heard about that," Daphne said.
"Maybe," Dylan shrugged. "Maybe not. For all we know they could have thrown a party last night and she only punished them this morning."
"I don't like that they're late."
"You don't like that anyone is late."
"And you already did that once today," she said.
"Imagine if I was ready on time. You'd be beyond annoyed."
"I would have had some time to stop into Zonkos and buy some nicer dice," Daphne said.
"You still can. I'm sure we'll wait for you if they show up. And you could ask if they have anything to make fake tails less annoying," Dylan teased.
"I should have never mentioned that to you," Daphne retorted.
"You could always try transfiguration, see if you get used to it," Dylan teased.
"That's a great idea! I would need someone to practice on before I tried it myself. Glad to have a volunteer," Daphne said.
"I don't know that you want to put me into a kin body. That sounds like way too much fun," Dylan laughed.
"You're so gross," Daphne retorted.
"Can't help it," Dylan said. "Want another round? I'd need some coins because, well, Astoria."
"No," she said. She was only partially through her drink. But she took out some money and handed it to him. He took it and went to get up then paused. For a moment she thought he might have seen someone they were supposed to meet but instead he turned back to her.
"Think we're at the wrong inn?" he asked.
"What? Of course not. Why would we be?"
"Well The Three Broomsticks is always crowded. Maybe they thought the other pub would be a better location for the game? I don't know. I've never bothered going inside," Dylan said.
"I'm not even sure students are allowed inside."
"They are," Dylan said. "Some of the Seventh Years like it. Apparently the bartender doesn't have qualms about serving students as long as they're over age."
"I mean, if they're of age, what's the big deal?"
"I have no idea. Just repeating what I've heard."
"I can't imagine they would have gone there," Daphne said.
"Well, want to go check? What does it hurt?"
"We could lose our table."
"Well sure. But if we do it's their fault for not being on time," Dylan smiled.
"As long as we can blame them I guess I can't be too opposed to it. But let's give them a few minutes while I finish my drink."
"Fine," he said. A few of his friends came over a moment later. They didn't talk about anything interesting which allowed Daphne to spend her time peering toward the door and sipping her drink. It was half passed by the time she did and she figured they'd given them long enough. She did her best to not let her annoyance bubble to the surface as she placed her empty cup down on the table.
"Well, let's go," she said to Dylan, ignoring the fact that he was in mid conversation about their transfiguration homework. Dylan nodded and stood. His friends teased him a bit about their abrupt exit but she didn't listen as she walked toward the door.
She frowned as they entered the main street. It felt emptier than she would have thought. But by this point she figured she had to be imagining it. Still, she saw very few Gryffindors. And she didn't know any of them well enough to pull them aside and start grilling them on the whereabouts of their house mates. Instead Dylan led the way down the street toward the far dingier pub at the end of the lane.
Daphne hesitated outside of the pub. The door handle looked rusted, dingy and sticky and she had no interest in touching it. Dylan did not seem to have those qualms as he held the door open for her. She walked in and was alarmed at how crowded the small pub was.
Her first thought was it was obvious where all the missing people in Hogsmeade were. And that the bartender looked rather frazzled by the entire situation. She peered around and saw most of the crowd was gathered around one table.
She let her eyes slide over the occupants. There seemed to be an assortment of every house. She saw the likes of both Weasley twins, their obnoxious younger sister, a couple of Hufflepuff's she didn't hate, and a couple of Ravenclaws that were mildly less annoying than the rest of them.
It wasn't until her eyes hit Padma Patil that her vision started to turn hazy. Next to Padma was an enamored looking Neville Longbottom. His eyes seemed to shift between Padma on his left and Hermione on his right. Every few moments his gaze shifted down the table more.
And that was when she saw Harry Potter, sitting at the head of the table like King Arthur himself. Her vision went red as he spoke animatedly, his hands punctuating everything that he said. He stopped mid motion as he looked up and saw her. He looked like he was about to say something but her mouth opened first.
"What the hell is this?" she blurted out, gesturing to the whole table in front of her. The table that was covered with parchment and things that may have passed as character sheets. She felt abandoned as she saw it all. They'd obviously decided on something interesting and fun and left her completely out of the equation.
"None of your business," Hermione Granger snapped. She was leaning almost protectively toward Harry, as if trying to shield him from Daphne. Her words did nothing to calm the situation.
Daphne felt her eyes narrow. None of her business? None of her business?! It was entirely her business. They had a date! A date she was keeping Harry from probably because she thought it was stupid. She didn't need to listen to bitchy comments from an insufferable know-it-all.
Her field of view only contained Hermione Granger. She imagined herself, looking suspiciously like Seralyse, pouncing and attacking the other woman. She could see herself clawing and ripping and biting. She felt her legs tense and her body shift as the thought of pouncing became more reasonable with each passing second.
Dylan shifted behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. He clearly intended for the gesture to be calming but it only made her tense against his hands and shake herself away from his grip.
"We have plans," Daphne said through grit teeth. She gestured to Harry and Ron as she spoke, because they were the closest two seated together. She didn't notice that quite a few people around the table had drawn their wands. Or that Padma Patil was grinning with excitement at the exchange. Had she noticed, she would have thought that Alisen and Padma had more in common than the player cared to admit.
"You can play your stupid game whenever," Hermione scoffed. She made a pointed show of rolling her eyes before she added. "This is actually important."
"It's incredibly rude to no-show someone," Daphne countered.
"It would have been nice to have the time changed or something so we didn't waste the afternoon," Dylan said.
"No one cares, Death Eater," someone said from the crowd. Daphne felt Dylan stiffen behind her. She shifted herself to try to defend him.
"That's rude," one of the Hufflepuff's said.
"His parents were Death Eaters," the first voice said. She saw it was one of the Weasley twins. She didn't know them well enough to tell them apart. She saw Dylan's hands ball into fists as she turned to face him, thinking it was probably best if she pushed him right out of The Hog's Head.
"Oh come on now, Fred," the other twin said with his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'm sure there was a completely rational and not at all made-up-after-the-fact explanation for their service. Like the Imperius curse."
"Oh, right, silly me. I'm sure they were repentant," Fred answered in the same tone. Daphne started to push Dylan but, unlike in his dormitory, this time he did not allow himself to be moved.
"Hard to repent when you're dead," Dylan hissed. Daphne tried pushing harder but he didn't budge. It annoyed her, as it clearly meant she wasn't near as strong as she thought and he'd always let her move him. Still she had to let her own annoyance, and her own anger at the twins' words peter out of her mind. She knew the best course of action would be to get Dylan out of the pub.
"Good, what they deser-" Fred started.
"Shut the fuck up, Fred," a loud, clear voice rang through the Hog's Head. She turned over her shoulder to see an absolutely baffled looking Fred Weasley. As she spun further she noticed a fair split of the eyes in the pub. Half were looking stunned at Ron, and the rest looking toward the Weasley twins. There was one major exception, though.
Harry Potter was looking toward them. His head was tilted slightly to the side and he was staring directly at Dylan. His expression bore no emotion. But there was something deeper there. Something behind his eyes and he stared at Dylan that she couldn't place. It sent a shiver down her spine.
"What, defending the Death Eaters now Ronniekins?" George commented. Ron paused for a moment. She may have hallucinated it but she thought she saw Harry give the slightest of nods of his head.
"You're being a bully because you think everyone will laugh and you'll get away with it," Ron answered. He kept his tone even. There was a slight murmur through the tavern but Daphne did not manage to pick out anything specific. "Dylan has done nothing to earn your vitriol."
"It's really just more that he exists," George said.
"I'm not going to get lectured to by my baby brother," Fred retorted. Ron's jaw clenched shut and anger rose in his eyes. He looked ready to respond but he wasn't given the option.
"Then leave," Harry Potter said. The entire pub went silent. She wondered how he managed it. He didn't raise his voice. And he'd spoke in the tone of someone asking about a train schedule or something pedantic. But with two words it was like the warmth drained from the pub. Harry Potter had drawn a battle line. One that it was clear he would fight over. One that no one in attendance had expected. And he'd done it without even bothering to look at the Weasley twins.
She wondered how they must have felt. The Twins were the big men on campus. The mischievous seventh years that everyone knew of and that, frankly, most people feared. And here, they weren't even worth Harry's notice. They were worth less, really, he was dismissing them without any fanfare. It was clear that Harry thought their presence offered nothing of value as his eyes stayed focused on Dylan.
Neither of them answered. They did, however, shrink into their seats and proceed to look as small and unnoticeable as possible. Daphne found herself wondering if she and Dylan would be the target of some of their more obnoxious hexes that they liked to disguise as pranks in the coming days. She made a mental note to stay vigilant while walking to class.
The pub stayed silent. Some people shifted uncomfortably in their seats but no one dared move. After a moment Harry shifted his gaze toward Ron. He gave a curt nod and Ron rose to his feet.
"We decided that Umbridge's defense classes were worthless and would serve us no real purpose and, at best, are going to lead to terrible exam scores," Ron started. He paused after the sentence, peering between Daphne and Dylan.
"Well, you're not wrong there," Daphne said. Dylan was starting to relax but did not appear to be in a position to say anything.
"So we asked Harry to do something about it. He knows all of the Defense stuff from the tournament and has agreed to teach a group of us in his rather limited free time," Ron continued.
"And to fight Voldemort," a voice from the crowd added. Daphne couldn't identify the speaker. While she shivered at the name, she didn't allow herself to react in any other way. Dylan was still tense.
"And you didn't think that maybe I would be interested in not failing Defense?" she asked. She turned her gaze to Harry rather than Ron. He may have been okay with letting his friend speak for him, but she wanted an answer from the man himself.
"I didn't arrange the guest list," Harry quipped. She raised her brows at him.
"Or think to come get us from the Three Broomsticks?"
"Or that," he agreed. He did smile though, in a sheepish way. One that only took her a moment to realize if he used more often he'd be free to con girls into many, many illicit things. Hell, it made her ponder dragging him off to a broom closet to make sure he'd never forget something like that again. But it seemed pointless to dwell on that thought.
"I want in," she said. "And an apology for being late."
"I'm sorry," he said and flashed the same smile again. She didn't believe him. But there wasn't much time to dwell on that given that the smile sent a flash of something through her that made her feel oddly weak in the knees.
"I'm not doing this if there's Slytherin involved!" someone yelled. She thought it might have been Lee Jordan as it came from the direction of the twins but she was too busy staring at Harry to think clearly.
"Me either," someone agreed and a fervor of complaints ripped through the crowd once more. Harry let it go on for a moment before he raised a hand. In an instant, everyone shut up.
"Help will always be available to anyone at Hogwarts as long as they ask for it. If I'm doing this, I'm not going to exclude anyone who wants to learn. If that's a problem for any of you, then you are free to leave." he said. He spun the sheet of paper in front of him around and slid it, along with a quill, toward Daphne. She looked down and saw the names of her fellow students on it.
It was clear the parchment was charmed. But she couldn't figure out how or with what. She wondered if any of the other students even bothered to notice. Given that they'd all signed it she figured it was probably safe to do so. Although she suspected her parents would yell at her if they found out.
Still, she leaned over the table and picked up the quill. She scribbled her name quickly onto the bottom of the parchment and offered the quill to Dylan.
He stared back at her as if this was an absolutely terrible idea. And he might have been right. But given that he'd dragged her to their gaming sessions out of fear, it was obvious to her that he knew he didn't have a leg to stand on. He sighed but his name joined hers.
"So when are the meetings?" she asked.
"We haven't decided yet," Ron said. "I think that was next up."
"We can worry about that later," Harry said.
"But we should figure it out," Hermione argued.
"We will. Later," Harry said. "You thought this was going to take an hour, tops. We're at almost two. I did have other plans today."
"That's it?" Fred Weasley asked.
"For now," Harry said. Again, there was some grumbling from the people there. And quite a few of them glared at Daphne and Dylan, as if all of this was entirely their fault. Harry didn't acknowledge any of it. Instead his gaze turned back to Dylan once more. He said nothing for a few moments before Hermione tugged on his sleeve.
"We should leave then," she said. Other students were already filtering out of the pub.
"I think we're staying," Harry said as he peered around. Hermione huffed and crossed her arms.
"Really, Harry?" Hermione scolded. Harry turned to look at her for a moment then looked back around at the group.
"Any objections?" he asked. His eyes focused on Dylan, then Neville. The other Gryffindor seemed to be surprised to be addressed at all. He looked around the table and shook his head.
"No. Here is fine," Neville said.
"I actually think that back corner table would be better," Harry said, nodding behind him. Everyone's eyes shifted to the table in question.
"Oh, probably," Neville agreed. He fumbled with his bag but Padme grabbed it for him with a smile. Neville blushed and looked away. Daphne frowned and wondered how long that had been going on for. And if Neville was too clueless to see it.
"Let's move over there then," Harry said. He peered around the group and added. "I'll buy a round of butterbeer and see if they actually serve food here."
"What am I supposed to do?" Hermione asked, looking rather dour about the entire situation.
"You're welcome to stay," Harry said. "I'm sure you and Neville can whip up a character in no time."
"I have Arithmancy to do," Hermione said.
"Then I guess you're supposed to go do your Arithmancy," Harry answered with a shrug and that same damned smile. Hermione narrowed her eyes and glared at him before storming off. Daphne couldn't help but giggle, but she suppressed it. She meant to say something to Harry about it, but he'd already shifted over toward the bartender.
It was odd, in a way. He moved with more confidence than she would have given him credit for. He had no qualms about talking to the adult, ordering food and drinks, and carrying it all back to the table. She wouldn't have pinned him for the type. He'd always seemed a bit more dour, and a bit more secluded than that.
But as he placed a Butterbeer before her and Dylan and slid into the chair next to her there seemed to be something different about him. She wondered just what she'd signed up for without thinking. And if it would lead to seeing him more like this.
It was certainly a much better look than when he was sulking in class. But given how often Umbridge or Snape harassed him, that shouldn't be surprising. Still, even in Transfiguration, where McGonagall treated him like anyone else, he never looked like this.
She wondered if perhaps it was Kaden, and not Harry. There was a ghost of a smile always on his face. A sort of amusement in his eyes. Something she couldn't place. But if she had to qualify it, would go so far as to call it attractive. If he was like this more often, well, she thought he'd be beating girls off with his Firebolt. Or maybe vice-versa, depending on his mood.
She had to stifle a giggle at that. No one seemed to notice. And thankfully, Neville had finished setting himself up and started to lead them into the next phase of their adventure. She wondered what that day would bring in the Kingdom of Calabar.
Author's Note: As always thanks for reading and reviewing. I do appreciate all the support I receive. If you wish to support me further I can be found on PAT RE ON at TE7writes. There are currently ten additional chapters of this story live over there, as well as the final chapters of my other WiP, Cleansing the Sins of the Past.
Thanks again!