As soon as they got back to the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry went up to his dorm room and fetched the law book. He gave it to Hermione, who immediately sat down in 'their' seat next to the fireplace and began to read the book from cover to cover.
"You know she's going to be the next best thing to unresponsive while she's reading that, right?" Ron said with an eye roll at their bookworm of a friend.
"Probably." Harry agreed, "But it's the only book I can give her as I still have to finish reading the other two. And you know that Hermione wouldn't rest until she had at least one of them to read."
Ron snorted in agreement. Hermione, once she got over her shock at Harry cursing Malfoy and his thugs, had remembered that Harry had been given books by Dumbledore and had practically begged to read them.
"Fancy a game of chess then Harry?" Ron asked.
Harry winced. He was certain that Ron's chessmen were completely biased against anyone who wasn't a Weasley and he had lost the set he had won from a Wizard Cracker last year.
"Sorry mate, I was going to have a walk." Harry apologised hastily, not wanting to get his rear-end kicked at chess yet again, "Been reading too much, you know?"
Ron nodded. "Right. I'll se if Neville wants to play then."
Harry swiftly made a strategic withdrawal out of the common room while Ron searched for a new victim/opponent. Breathing a sigh of relief, Harry decided to go to the Library and do a bit more spell research, then see if he could track down Ginny and have a word with her.
On his way, he spotted the resident pranksters, Fred and George Weasley, legging it down a corridor, Argus Filch the Caretaker in hot pursuit screaming at them to, "Leave his poor Mrs Norris alone after her horrible petrifaction experience!"
Trailing after the three running figures was Filch's pet cat, Mrs Norris, staggering drunkenly along on all four feet looking quite shell-shocked…and colourful. Literally. She looked like she'd been attacked by a bevy of hyperactive kids armed with poster paint, greatly resembling a piñata Harry had seen while out shopping with his Aunt Petunia.
"Looks like those two are in fine form as always." Harry muttered as he continued on to the Library.
Ten minutes later found Harry delving through a large tome he had found entitled 'The Book of Cursed Fun: a Treatise' by Annie N I Mouse. Harry had muttered again about the lack of imagination that wizards had when coming up with pseudonyms before heaving the book to a table and beginning to thrash his way through it.
"A Gryffindor who isn't Granger studying when no exams are the next day? How odd." a cool female voice said from Harry's right. He looked up to see a girl about his age with long blond hair, piercing blue eyes and wearing robes trimmed with Slytherin green and silver.
"Can I help you?" Harry asked shortly. He really didn't want to have to deal with someone from Slytherin heckling him right now.
"No, I was merely remarking on the oddity of a Gryff' studying when there is no clear need to." she replied with a sardonic smile.
"Considering Lockhart only taught us one thing in DADA this year -Do Not Let Cornish Pixies Run Wild- I've been trying to study something that is of more practical use." Harry said dryly.
"You mean you haven't been doing that all year?" the girls said in mild surprise, "Goodness, it is a good thing we have no exams if that's the case."
"Coming into the Library when everyone is whispering about you is hardly enjoyable or conductive to learning." Harry riposted, "Besides, DADA is my best subject. I even outscored Hermione on the practical last year."
"Oh? Not on the theory?" the girl asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Writing about something doesn't prove you can do the spellwork." Harry replied with a shrug, "If my theory work isn't up to scratch, my practical more than makes up for it."
"How very Gryffindor of you, Potter." the girl remarked, "You do realise that having a poor theory grade lowers your overall score for that subject?"
"My score isn't so much 'low' as it is 'average'." Harry replied, "And might I know who you are as you already seem to know me."
"Daphne Greengrass, Heiress of the Noble House of Greengrass." the girl said curtly, "You are an enigma, Potter. You are the last of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Potter, a family of high importance and influence in the Wizengamot, yet no one knows anything about you, as a person, just the usual Boy-Who-Lived nonsense."
Harry was shocked to meet the person who Professor Dumbledore had told him about so suddenly, but quickly brought himself back to the conversation at hand.
"Considering I've lived with Muggles for the first ten years of my life, completely out of contact with -and with no knowledge of- the Wizarding World, that isn't much of a surprise." Harry observed.
"So you do live with your Muggle relatives?" Daphne asked, blue eyes locked on Harry's own emerald eyes, "My father has remarked on how unusual that is. I severely doubt that any Wizarding Family would have refused to foster you, so why are you with Muggles?"
Harry smiled coldly. "And how many of those Wizarding Households were supporters of Voldemort?" he asked softly.
The girl almost levitated in fright at hearing 'the name' and her eyes widened in shock. "Don't say the name!" she hissed.
Why?" Harry asked bluntly.
"Why? Just don't do it!" Daphne snapped.
"I'm serious. Why is it such a bad thing to say the Dark Tosser's name?" Harry asked, "I get he was an evil guy, but otherwise I'm not seeing any kind of reason for it."
If saying Voldemort's name frightened her, taking the mickey out of his formal title made her gape in astonishment, her face white as chalk.