Nothing is mine.

Harry dreams of an attractive redhead (don't worry, not the one from the other story xD) and wakes up beside Daph!

Just a quick update to the AN Footnote because some people got lost searching for the rest of the chapter!

It Withers Quicker Than the Rose

The thick, cracked, peeling twin trunks of an ancient yew twisted their gnarled branches into an arch at the centre of a small island. Their bright crimson berries shone like beads of blood in the summer sun and, as the wind swept down the steep scree slopes and across the shining surface of the surrounding lake, the dark needles and knee high grass and shrubs rustled around Harry's bare feet.

'Bella.' Voldemort's smooth high voice slipped from Harry's lips in no more than a murmur. 'What do you recall of this girl who has sought you out?'

'Not much, my lord,' Bellatrix replied in a reverent whisper. 'We spoke once when she was just a very young child. Her father was called Taran Cyntgur; he seemed like a prominent retainer for Emyr Pendragon, though I did not see or speak to him at all. He wanted to one day marry her to Sirius or Regulus, and drag our family toward servitude to Pendragon. I would think he made the suggestion at Pendragon's command, but at the time, I heard nothing of that. If Taran Cyntgur is still alive, he would be nearing sixty now, and his daughter must be around twenty; she was close in age to my cousin, little Nymphadora.'

Harry gazed through the archway of yew and out over the lake. 'She knows of this place.' He indicated the yew with one long, pale finger as Voldemort's words left his lips. 'Gwergwaryg was a place lost to us. A sacred place sealed off by Pendragon's servants centuries ago and thought destroyed.'

'It remains, my lord,' Bellatrix said.

'It does, Bella.' Voldemort's thin smile curved Harry's lips. 'If those who have succumbed to Pendragon would still not destroy this place, perhaps there is more hope of our cause finding root amongst them than I expected.'

'She knows the Old Ways, my lord,' Bellatrix promised. 'But she knows nothing of you, and I told her nothing more than a meeting was agreed. If it is a trap…'

'If it is a trap, it is a poorly designed one. I suspect it is genuine, albeit naive. We might learn much. Well done, Bella. Well done.'

Her quiet hitch of breath came in the still moment between gusts of wind. 'Thank you, my lord.'

Harry extended his right hand. 'Your mask, Bella. We will preserve the deception the Ministry has so conveniently provided.'

Bellatrix stepped to his shoulder and placed the thin bone mask with all its bright blue runes upon his palm. 'What should I say, my lord?'

'As little as possible.' He placed the mask upon his face and stepped back three paces behind her. 'Let her talk. The more she talks, the more we learn. Much about Pendragon and his retainers yet remains a mystery to us; the facade created with the Ministry has served them well indeed.'

'What if she makes an offer?'

'Tell her you will take a day to think about it,' Harry replied. 'And then you can meet with her here again to communicate my reply. She will forgive us the ruse if she is genuine and all goes well. And if not, our plans are unhindered.'

'Yes, my lord,' Bellatrix murmured.

A gust of wind tore through the yew arch and the grass, tugging at Harry's long black robes and Bellatrix's dark curls.

'My—'

With a loud pop, a slender girl in tight, dark leather trousers and a loose deep green shirt appeared on the far side of the yew arch, her fierce, auburn hair thrown across her face by the wind.

Bellatrix's hand crept to the wand sheathed upon her back. 'I am here.'

The girl dragged her hair back, twisting it into a knot and tying it there with a little leather band, revealing striking pale green eyes and a scatter of faint freckles. 'Madam Lestrange.' She dipped her head, touching her clenched fist to her sternum. 'Do you remember me? I was very young the only time we met, barely more than a baby.'

Bellatrix released the hilt of her wand and touched her open palm to her chest. 'I remember that we met once.'

'My name is Aeronwen Cyntgur, daughter to Baron Taran Cyntgur, Emyr Pendragon's left hand.'

A cold grin curved Harry's lips behind the mask.

'Why are you here? On your father's behalf? Or Pendragon's?' Bellatrix demanded. 'You asked for a meeting; this is all you will get.'

Aeronwen smiled; a glimpse of neat white teeth accompanied by a fierce spark of bold ambition in her pale green eyes. 'Opportunity. I am no beaten-down servant. My father thinks the greatest thing we can aspire to be is Pendragon's most valuable slave, but the Cyntgur were once the foremost Tywysech—' she turned the word over carefully upon her tongue '—in all of Wales. It is our ancestral lands that the Pendragon estate you razed sits upon. I want them back.' Her eyes flashed with fire. 'I want it all back. I am sick of tiptoeing around and smiling at old men who demand respect and fear for being born atop the achievements of others.'

'What have you to offer? And how do I know this is worth our risk?' Bellatrix demanded. 'You are one girl.'

'I am an Agwyd—' her tongue stumbled '—kleze. My father would have me be Maerdrid's bride-to-be, despite the difference in our ages and his… reputation.' Aeronwen reached out and traced her fingertips over the dark yew bark. 'It is my father who has been commanded by Emyr Pendragon to hunt you down in Maerdrid's absence; it is my loyal, honourable brother, Blaidd, who my father has sent to perform the task. He hopes Blaidd will prove himself and, between his triumph and me being thrust into Maerdrid's bed, that the barony's position is secured for generations. I have much to offer you and every reason to offer it. And if you want to have any hope of winning, you need me.'

Bellatrix swept her dark curls back over her shoulders. 'So you will play informant?'

'For now,' Aeronwen said. 'Blaidd gathers, at Emyr Pendragon's command, all those retired aurors of the Graal-Kynak that can still fight from his retainers across his domain. We are allowed to keep them as our own defenders when they have served their time in the Graal-Kynak, but only the Graal-Kynak and nobles may be taught to fight with Agwyd. If you defeat this force, only Maerdrid and the Graal-Kynak will truly remain to oppose you.' She bit her lip. 'But do not harm my brother. Blaidd is only loyal to what my father tells him is his duty; he has no love for either Pendragon.' She pointed two fingers at Bellatrix. 'These are the terms. I will inform you of all I know or suspect, allowing you to overcome Blaidd and win a symbolic victory to weaken Pendragon's grip. You will spare my brother and then, after Maerdrid is dead and Avalon is seized, you will return the ancestral lands of the Cyntgur, set aside the law of patriarchal inheritance and depose my father to leave me Tywysech of the Cyntgur as my ancestors were.'

'Give me a day,' Bellatrix said. 'Meet me here, tomorrow, at this time again. You will have my answer then.'

Aeronwen's gaze drifted to Harry. 'I will keep my side of the bargain,' she vowed. 'Tomorrow, I will tell you when Blaidd will be ready to start pursuing you, how strong those following him are and how they intend to defeat you.'

'You will be able to find all of that out in a day?'

A small smirk curved Aeronwen's lips. 'Blaidd is loyal and strong, but I am the clever one of the two of us. I will not need to find out; my little brother will ask me what to do. Maerdrid should pray his father and mine do not get their way, or I will bring him to his knees and make myself a queen in all but name.' She vanished with a loud crack.

Bella twisted around. 'My lord?'

'She is an arrogant, ambitious child.' Harry lifted Bellatrix's mask from his face. 'But she may prove useful to us, Bella. Accept her offer; none of what she asks matters to us. If Emyr Pendragon is scraping together a separate force, then Maerdrid must be unable to return for some time.'

'I will see it done,' Bellatrix vowed.

'We may have more time to gather our strength than I anticipated.' Voldemort's thin, cold smile twisted the corner of Harry's mouth up. 'But we should not delay. Let us begin, Bella.'

He stepped through the yew arch into the wind.

The gentle touch of a cool breeze tickled the hairs of Harry's right arm as he blinked awake to the faint sound of birdsong and the sweet, light fragrance of flowers, but a warm weight rested upon his chest.

Harry reached out, sweeping Daphne's blonde hair away from her pretty nose and the corner of her mouth, and lifting a stray, crumpled red petal off her cheek; he tucked the escaping strand of gold back behind her ear.

'You even look pretty asleep,' he whispered, kissing the top of her head.

The slightest hint of sharp sweet spearmint laced her soft, sleepy musk. Harry rested his forehead against the top of her head to breathe it in.

Daphne stirred in his arms with a soft hum, stretching and pushing herself back into him.

She froze.

A little heat rose in Harry's cheeks as she pressed herself back against his morning condition and the treacherous butterflies, rather inevitably also early risers, Harry realised, stirred in his stomach. 'Good morning, Daph,' he murmured.

'You stayed,' she breathed.

'I was savagely kissed by a jampire,' he said, shifting his hips back a little bit before she realised. 'If only my Defence Against the Dark Arts professor had warned me about their sneaky wiles.'

Daphne's soft, sleepy chuckle sent the butterflies bursting through him. 'I love you,' she murmured. 'I hope it is you.'

'It's definitely me,' Harry promised. 'I would know if I was an imposter.'

She squirmed around atop the red covers, her ice-blue eyes hazy with sleep like winter mist lingering before the dawn sky. 'You have my scent on you.' Her impish little grin appeared for a moment, those bright dimples dancing on her cheeks. 'I like it.'

'I probably smell,' he admitted. 'I didn't end up showering yesterday.'

'I do not mind,' she murmured. 'I slept so well listening to the sound of your heart I did not dream at all.'

'I did, but it was just a Voldemort one.' Harry grinned. 'Which is good, because I get some really weird ones. Like the ones where I'm in the snow. Some are okay, though; sometimes I dream of green—' an almost wistful yearning stole upon him '—I quite like those ones.' He bent and kissed the tip of her nose. 'But Dumbledore and my cousin said they'd go away in a year or so, it's just because I'm sensitive to magic. Well, most of them will, some of them are another thing; they'll probably keep happening.'

Daphne's blue eyes fell to the side of his neck. 'Does it still hurt?'

'No.' Harry poked the little ring of cuts. 'Not at all, actually.'

She stretched to kiss the bitemark she'd left on him. 'Sorry.'

'Silly,' he whispered. 'I would much rather help you when you need it than you run off to hide. I love you.'

Her breath caught. 'You love… me?'

'Well—' heat flooded his cheeks '—it's not that weird, is it? You are extremely pretty and you look really really good in a short skirt and knee-high socks, which is, apparently, very much my sort of thing, and you look very kissable pretty much all the time, too, so—'

Daphne's soft lips cut him off. 'You should not, but… I am not going to tell you to stop, Harry. It is much too late for that.'

'Good,' he declared. 'I would just have to keep kissing you until you started saying more instead.'

She flushed pink. 'Sorry.'

'I really don't mind at all,' Harry promised. 'Most of the time you're very sweet or only mildly evil.'

Her fingers trailed down his chest over the tears. 'I ruined your t-shirt…'

'I can probably fix it with magic. Actually, I can probably fix my neck with magic too.'

Daphne's hand slid down over his stomach.

'Daph?'

'I felt you when I stretched, Harry,' she murmured.

'Oh.' Harry's cheeks burnt. 'Well, that's kind of normal for the morning, and even if it wasn't, I'm pretty sure waking up and you stretching like that would've made it pretty inevitable anyway.' He tried to measure how thin the ice might be from the little gleam in her eyes. 'Sorry?'

'You let me bite you and feel good.' Daphne's fingers drifted a little lower. 'And I am your girlfriend.'

AN: This chapter (and the story) continues elsewhere (that's why it's suddenly shorter), because I like folks to be able to opt in to the adult stuff, so... For that stuff, follow the link to the Discord and the releases channel to read the rest of this chapter (and a couple more if you want as well)!

: / / linktr . ee / mjbradley