A/N: A line in bold without quotation marks is something written. Thank you for the favorites, follows and reviews as they are part of what keeps me writing. The other part are these story ideas that keep popping up in my head but that's another subject. On with the story!
The man who realizes his ignorance has taken the first step toward knowledge. - Max Heindel
Harry stared at the picture in his hand as he went up the stairs but he really wasn't thinking about the picture. Something must have happened with Neville's parents so would showing this to him make him feel bad? Also, he was curious about what had happened but he didn't like people sticking their noses into his business. Was he about to do the same thing to Neville? His enthusiasm for talking to Neville dissipated with every step he took.
He looked around the room as he entered and saw that Neville was alone, lying on his bed reading a book. However, when Harry looked closer he saw that Neville really wasn't reading, he was merely staring in the general direction of an open book. Neville suddenly reacted to Harry's entrance and looked a little embarrassed as he put the book away.
"Hi, Harry."
"Hi, Neville. Ummm, I just got a picture of my mum and your mum is in it. Would you like to see?"
Harry watched carefully for Neville's reaction. He would be quite quick to drop the issue and leave at the slightest negative reaction. The first flicker of reaction wasn't encouraging, Neville had paled. However, a look of curiosity came over him as he replied, "Sure. Let's have a look then."
Harry relaxed a bit as he approached Neville and sat beside him and showed him the picture. He pointed to each one from left to right.
"My mum, Mrs. Greengrass, your mum and Marlene - um... Blimey, I forget her last name. She's dead though, before my parents."
Harry watched as Neville looked at the picture wistfully. Harry looked again and saw that Neville's mum alternated between posing for the camera and saying something towards Daphne's mum and his mum. It struck him then that all four of them seemed so carefree. Within a few short years two of them were dead and one, well, he didn't know yet about Neville's mum. Neville looked at the picture so long that Harry began to become uneasy despite the fact it appeared he'd made the right decision to share the picture.
Neville spoke softly but clearly. "Our parents were friends."
"Really? I didn't know." Although this was yet another thing he hadn't known, this did not make him upset. It was enough that he knew it now and maybe he could be a better friend to Neville.
"Neville, what is a familial alliance?"
Neville looked at Harry sharply in surprise. "I thought you didn't know?"
"Know what?"
"About our familial alliance."
Harry asked with obvious surprise, "We have one?"
Neville got a little shy again. "I thought that is why you brought it up. Um, a familial alliance is when two families swear to defend each other and support each other. They are made or dissolved between the heads of houses. Our fathers made the alliance between our families. My mum is your godmother and your mum was my godmother."
Harry was gobsmacked. "I have a godmother?"
Neville blushed and looked away and Harry felt his stomach twist and wondered if she should try to show Neville some support. He just knew this was going to be bad and began to wonder about deciding to show the photo to Neville all over again. Neville began to speak so softly that Harry had to lean in to hear him.
"Not really. She's in the long term care ward at St. Mungo's. She doesn't know who anyone is. I'll understand if you want to end the alliance."
Harry wasn't even sure he could breathe at that moment. The information shared by Neville in his quiet voice was all just so overwhelming. He was sure of one thing though. "Why would I want to do a daft thing like that? I'd be glad to stand with you anytime, Neville." Neville gave him a gobsmacked look so Harry continued. "It took real courage to stand up to us last year, Neville. Dumbledore gave you points for a reason."
Neville blinked at him again, still stunned but slowly a smile began to grow on his face. "Thanks, Harry. I won't let you down."
"I won't let you down either, Neville." Then Harry paused as he thought about how much he had ignored him in the past. "Well, I won't let you down anymore."
"But you never let me down, Harry."
"Yes I did and I have to stop that now. I should have paid more attention to you. Why don't you study with us? It can help to have other students to talk to when you get stuck."
Neville looked a little surprised again. "Sure, I could do that."
Harry grinned and suggested, "Maybe you can help me on my Herbology essay. I still need a couple of inches."
Neville nodded with a smile.
Roxanne Greengrass was thinking about looking in on Astoria to see how she was doing on her lesson when she heard something arrive in their banishing box. For security reasons, they did not allow owls to come to their home, they paid the goblins to receive and check the mail first. She looked inside and saw an envelope and opened it since it was only addressed to her and was written in Daphne's handwriting. She must be using the enchanted parchment to contact her father. She just hoped that Cyrus didn't order Daphne to keep things from her, she'd have to watch for signs of that.
She smiled as she read her daughter's letter. She definitely shared her concern for the young Potter heir. She had wondered if, even at this early stage that it might be more than impersonal concern with her daughter and her suspicions only increased as she read this letter. She had thought that Daphne would start to show interest in boys soon and it appeared that time was now. She wasn't positive though and she definitely wouldn't say anything to Daphne about it yet. She knew her daughter too well and Daphne would just dig in her heels at any suggestion of her being attracted to any boy.
Nonetheless, this turn of events was very encouraging and Roxanne had every intention of supporting her daughter in her self-appointed task. If her husband was inclined to try to take advantage of the so-called 'boy who lived' she would join her daughter in opposing that plan. She smiled fondly, her husband was stubborn too but she knew if they ganged up on him, he would eventually concede the game. Who knew, perhaps one day the futures of the Potter and Greengrass families might be aligned.
She also had a very personal reason for her views. Her husband had been two years ahead of them and hadn't really known her friends but she still held them dearly in her heart and missed them. Her daughter and Lily's son having at least a friendship gave her a very warm feeling. She may not have been as close to Potter and his gang but her friend Lily was so much in love that she couldn't help but look on James Potter with more favourable eyes. She'd never really liked his friends much, especially that Pettigrew boy. He'd always given her a bad feeling and she didn't understand why they had him around so often.
Her thoughts then turned to the son of another of her friends. Unfortunately, the Dowager Longbottom was not on good terms with the Greengrass family so her interactions with Neville were extremely limited. Her daughter's letter hadn't mentioned him at all and she wondered how Heir Longbottom was faring. She'd have to remember to ask Daphne about him during winter break.
The day had been difficult for Harry. He'd had trouble focussing ever since he'd received the note from Daphne about meeting tonight. He'd done alright during classes, Hermione had helped see to that but he was thankful he hadn't had history that day, it would have been dreadful. He was with his friends, which now included Neville, and trying to study. He hadn't made much progress on his potions essay though as his mind kept going to thoughts of his upcoming meeting.
He was anxious to see what happened yet frustrated at the same time. Questions kept reverberating in his mind. Why did Slytherins have to make everything so bloody difficult? Why was so much expected of him when hardly anyone bothered to so much as lift a finger to help? Then there was his all-time favourite question: Why didn't he already know all of this stuff?
Abruptly, he had a different thought about that last question: what had he done to educate himself? He had made a cursory search of the library last year for information about wizarding culture and came up empty, probably for the reasons that Daphne had already told him. However, that wasn't his only area of ignorance. Wasn't it rather pathetic of him to whine about being kept in the dark when he did so little to correct that? He may not be a Ravenclaw but he didn't need to be a lazy git either. Perhaps he should spend less time playing games or lazing around and more time trying to find out what he needed to know.
He pondered that thought for so long that he was surprised when Hermione poked him to get his attention. "Harry, isn't it time for you to go?"
Was it? He glanced at his watch and discovered to his surprise that she was quite correct. If he didn't hurry, he'd be late. He was very embarrassed to be risking being late after obsessing about the meeting all day. He began to throw his stuff together when Ron spoke up. "Leave it Harry, I'll take it up for you later."
"Thanks, Ron." He gave his friend a smile which he expanded to the whole group before hurrying to the door. He had his cloak already with him so he slipped it on after exiting the common room and rushing towards his meeting. He had planned to go early like before but had let time get away from him so he wondered why he had bothered with the cloak. He reached the correct part of the castle just in time to see Daphne disappear into the door. He slowed down to regain his breath and looked around for Davis but saw nobody. When he got there and his breathing was nearly normal, he removed the cloak and entered the room.
He saw her look up from where she was placing some papers and photos to give him a brief, nervous smile. It was somewhat reassuring that she was nervous also but that just made the stakes seem even higher, which was no help at all. After she sent the same two spells towards the door, she sat down and watched him resume the same seat he had used before.
"My father agreed on the confidentiality you wanted. Before we finalize the agreement, do you have any other questions or issues to raise?"
It was time but he didn't feel ready, how do you ask someone if there father is a murderer? He'd rehearsed his questions but what he had settled on just flew right out of his head at that moment. He grumbled silently about having wasted that time and effort. "Well, one thing was, well…. Is your father a Death Eater?" Daphne looked like she'd been slapped. His heart sank as he began to berate himself. Why hadn't he come up with a better way to bring that up?
"No! Absolutely not! How dare you suggest such a thing! Do you think every Slytherin is a Death Eater? Is that how you see us?"
He gulped as she looked livid. Her normally pale complexion was now very red and he saw something in her eyes that made him feel very bad. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to be sure."
Her eyes hardened into a glare but at least her complexion and body language eased up as she slowly relaxed. Harry watched as she visibly brought herself back under control, she took a deep breath and then asked a question much more calmly. "Why did you ask that?"
Harry suppressed a gulp, he was very much still in trouble. "I just wanted to be sure. I didn't want to help somebody who would help Voldemort come back."
Her complexion suddenly went the other way and she looked very pale and shaken. She spoke in almost a whisper. "So he really isn't dead then."
Harry wasn't sure if she expected an answer but shook his head no anyway.
She cleared her throat and spoke in a more normal tone. "What made you think my father was one of them?"
"Well, somebody brought up the possibility and I wasn't sure." He felt his cheeks warming and had to force himself to keep facing her.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Weasley, no doubt." She sighed before continuing. "My father might support the old ways but he doesn't support the Dark Lord. He targets purebloods as much as he targets anyone else. Everybody would suffer if the Dark Lord took over. Officially, the Greengrass family is neutral. Privately, we hoped he was dead and gone. Apparently, that isn't true."
She looked away as if contemplating something but eventually she turned back to look at Harry. She seemed calm again when she asked, "Was there anything else?"
"Yes. I was wondering about the promises we're going to make. Is there any enforcement?"
She brightened and almost smiled. "Now that's a very good question and I worked on that. I found a way to make a promise enforced by pain. If either of us breaks the promise we make, we feel pain. How much depends on how badly we broke the promise. Also, the pain will gradually increase if you fail to correct your breach of promise. It's a way to enforce the promise with minimal risk but still have a real compulsion to keep the promise."
At first Harry didn't like that but then had to concede that it all made sense. He certainly didn't intend to break the promise but he just knew something he didn't want to talk about would come up sooner or later. He looked again at the papers and photos and his reluctance wavered. "And we both make the same promise?"
"Exactly. Here, I wrote it down. You can look at it."
Harry was immediately impressed. First of all, her penmanship made him feel like an idiot, sometimes he had trouble reading what he himself had written. On top of that her writing was extremely even while what he wrote was initially dark then slowly fading until he had to dip his quill again. As if that wasn't enough, her promise was clear and covered everything they had discussed. He doubted that he could have done such a good job himself. There was, however, one part of her promise he'd have to change.
"Since I don't have a father, can I substitute my friends?"
She looked wary again. "Weasley and Granger, nobody else?"
Harry realized that the recent addition of Neville to his group of friends probably wasn't generally known. On the other hand, should he include Neville? He wasn't sure. "I'm friends with Neville Longbottom too."
She relaxed her posture once more. "Longbottom? I have met him a few times. He would understand agreements like this. I'd trust him more than Weasley. Granger seems OK."
She sounded a little dubious about Hermione but he just nodded confirmation and then she continued. "If they keep this to themselves and don't disclose the source, it will fit the promise. Keep in mind that if they break the agreement, as soon as you become aware of it, you will be in pain."
Harry couldn't suppress a nervous swallow. "But…. What would end it?"
"Disclosing it to the other party, in this case, me. Remember our lessons that magic is based on intent? I do not intend for you to suffer needlessly, nor myself of course. In that case it isn't your fault. We both need to focus on our intent."
He remembered that from a lecture in first year, from McGonagall he thought. He wasn't worried about Hermione, she was still controlled enough even during a rant and Neville was definitely quiet. Ron on the other hand, he had some concern about. However, he was sure he could impress on him how important this was, what was at stake here. He looked up and saw Daphne was back to her stoic face and watching him intently.
"Agreed."
Daphne relaxed a bit and nodded then held out her hand. Harry was uncertain of what to do for a moment until she cut her eyes toward her parchment and he quickly handed it back to her while trying unsuccessfully to suppress a blush. He was pretty sure he detected the trace of a smirk, which didn't help his composure at all.
"I swear under penalty of pain that I will be truthful in what I say, I will answer your questions, I will try to include everything that is helpful and will tell what I learn only to my father and it will go no further without the other party's consent. So mote it be."
Her wand flashed with light and then she looked expectantly at him as she slid the paper over to him. The fact that she went first impressed him and his reluctance melted away.
"I swear under penalty of pain that I will be truthful in what I say, I will answer your questions, I will try to include everything that is helpful and will tell what I learn only to my friends and it will go no further without the other party's consent. So mote it be."
He felt something shift in him, which he assumed was probably his magic and then his wand flashed just as Daphne's had.
"We have an agreement then. Did you have any questions?"
He looked at the parchment again and decided to ask only about the ink. "How do you get your ink to be so even when you write?"
She looked very surprised at his question. "I just use a self-inking quill. Don't you use one?" His blank look was enough of an answer for her. She looked down in her bag and pulled out a quill. "Here, I have spares. You can have this one. Just dip it in your ink once and it will use it until it is gone. It's guaranteed to give you a consistent line until you run out of ink. Then, just dip it in the next bottle. You can get them from Scrivenshaft's. You can owl them for an order form."
"Thanks."
She was definitely smirking now. "That was easy. Now it's my turn. What happened to Quirrell in first year?"
Harry sighed; this was going to take a while. She asked a few questions to clarify things during his story but mainly remained silent and very solemn, especially when she found out what was sticking out of the back of the professor's head. When he finished she seemed to be thinking intently and then looked at him as if concerned.
"Did you ever suspect that Dumbledore might have been testing you?"
Harry was gobsmacked, what was she talking about? "Testing me? How?"
"To see what you would do. I mean, think about it. He's called away under false pretences, he takes a broom of all things to London and it took him so long to figure it out that he's gone long enough for everyone to find out, for both of you to get all the way inside and fight, for your friends to make it back out and he comes almost too late? That doesn't make sense. Dumbledore shouldn't be so easy to fool and he could have Apparated in an instant."
"Also consider the design of the challenges to enter. They aren't meant to prevent entry, only to delay it. Dumbledore may have been hoping to trap him but again, he'd have to come back in time to spring the trap yet he almost doesn't. Based on what he said, the Dark Lord didn't flee until Dumbledore pulled Quirrell off you. He should have sprung the trap then if there was one. I think something else is going on here; something like a test for you."
Harry really wanted to refute her idea but the longer he considered it, the more sense she made. Why was Dumbledore gone so long? Why had he and his friends been left to their own devices for so much time? Still, the fact that it might have been a test for him made him feel very uneasy. He'd made excuses for Dumbledore when it came up during his talk with his friends last year, but was the whole thing just some dangerous, premeditated test?
He heard a gasp from Daphne as she checked the time and he quickly realized it was nearly curfew. If they didn't hurry, they could get in trouble. With his cloak, there was little risk for him and he considered suggesting he escort her back under his cloak but she pre-empted him with a quick thank you for his time and a wish for a good night mixed with a promise to tell him about his family the next time they met before she hurried out the door. Harry took his time before he donned his cloak and headed back towards his common room still obsessing about what had happened last year. Could Dumbledore's motives be less innocent than he had thought?
Daphne had trouble hiding her nerves all day and had to resort to her Occlumency exercises later in the day. It was all rather embarrassing for her. She had some reason to be nervous as her father had brought up how important this information could be to the family. However, something about it being Harry that she was to meet made it even worse. She didn't want to examine that thought too closely, that was a different sort of awkwardness altogether.
She was still setting up when Harry entered and she had to fight a blush. She then noticed that he'd seemed slightly out of breath, perhaps he had lost track of time? She tried to calm herself as she examined him and saw signs of nervousness from him as well. Good. At least she wasn't the only one.
She thought she had managed to settle down and started things off well when he up and accused her father of being a Death Eater! How dare he! After she began to cool down she realized he had not accused, he had only asked and it was probably because of the Weasley git that it came up at all.
When she had finally calmed down completely though, a disquieting thought came to her. Did she really know for certain that her father hadn't been a Death Eater? He certainly didn't speak of them like he'd be one but she didn't know how he came to that opinion. Her relationship with her father was not like the one that she shared with her mother. Her father was more detached and normally didn't interact with her without a reason, usually in her role as heir. She didn't know nearly as much about his past as she did her mother's.
Such thoughts fled from her mind as she listened to his story though. She ended up being very impressed with Harry. He might be ignorant and some might put off his accomplishment to luck but Daphne wouldn't do that. Harry Potter was brave, determined and obviously had some real magical power. He was also impulsive, introverted and probably a little lazy. That Weasley git certainly was lazy.
At the end of his story, Daphne found that she had some real questions about what Dumbledore had done. She knew her father didn't fully trust Dumbledore so she was cautious as well. However, this story led her to considering possibilities that were much more serious and threatening than vague suspicions. He may look like the eccentric grandfather type but could he be that cold and manipulative? A very unwelcome fact invaded her thoughts, Harry really could have died in that fiasco. It was very troubling and she felt compelled to share her thoughts causing Harry some visible anguish as he absorbed what she was telling him.
Casting a quick spell while he was pondering, she realized what time it was and had to hurry off. She felt guilty that they didn't get to what Harry really wanted so she decided his family information would come first next time. However, her father had made it clear that he wanted their connection to Harry to be confidential for now. She was not to draw any attention whatsoever. She couldn't risk being caught out after curfew, she'd face more than a detention as her father would be very displeased.
Harry barely made it into the common room before curfew. He'd just been thinking too hard to hurry. He saw three very concerned faces and headed over to them right away. There were some first years a little closer than he liked but they were in a noisy gobstones game and seemed to ignore everybody else. Although all three of his friends looked anxious to see him, Neville looked the most ill at ease so he greeted him first.
"Hey, Neville. Are you OK?"
"Yeah, sure Harry. I'll just leave so the rest of you can talk."
Harry wondered what brought that on but noticed the glare Hermione levelled at Ron and his subsequent sheepish look. He turned back to Neville to reassure him. "You are welcome to the conversation, Neville. It's OK for all three of you to know what is going on."
As they settled in again, Harry checked the status of the rowdy first years and they were still ignoring Harry's group. "First, we all have to be careful about what I hear from Daphne. This absolutely cannot go beyond us or I will suffer the consequences."
Ron was frowning. "What consequences?"
"Pain. The promise we made is enforced by pain. If any of you reveal this, I feel pain."
"Blimey, Harry. Why did you agree to that?"
"Because she made the exact same promise. You wanted the promise enforced and it is."
The two boys looked grim while Hermione looked worried. She asked, "How much pain?"
"It depends on the infraction. If we all stick to confidentiality, I'll be fine."
"Of course, Harry," came from Neville first whilst Ron muttered, "I'll keep my mouth shut." Hermione added, "You can count on me."
Harry was reassured by how seriously Ron was taking it so he proceeded to summarize what they had said to each other and ended with her interpretation of last year's events. Neville looked gobsmacked, Ron looked annoyed but Hermione's reaction intrigued Harry the most. She looked like she had failed a test or something.
Harry looked at Hermione and asked, "What are you thinking?"
Hermione looked at Ron first, who still looked annoyed and then back at Harry. "She did make some good points…."
That was too much for Ron. "I can't believe this. She's a Slytherin who's trying to make trouble."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at Ron before continuing. "Remember, Ron? When we met Dumbledore in the front hall, he already knew that Harry had gone for the stone."
"Well, that doesn't mean…." Ron ground to a halt while watching Hermione's worried look. "You really think it could be true?"
"I don't know and that's what's bothering me."
As Ron absorbed that, he began to look worried too. Harry turned to Neville who seemed to be thinking hard. "What do you think, Neville?"
Neville looked like he didn't like be put on the spot but he finally responded. "Gran says that Dumbledore probably has more secrets than anybody else. Still, I'd hate to think he'd put students in danger like that."
Harry had had more time to think about it so he made one of his points. "Neville, he put us in danger the moment he brought the stone into Hogwarts."
Now Neville looked appalled and they all waited as the first years finally finished their game and noisily made their way to their dorm rooms. Silence came over the group as they all contemplated what they had heard. Ron snapped out of it first.
"So, what did she have to say about the Heir of Slytherin?"
Harry felt like pounding his head on the table. He'd completely forgotten! They had Polyjuice Potion brewing but he could have gotten faster information if he'd just remembered to ask. Running his hands through his already messy hair he sighed, "Sorry, Ron. I completely forgot."
Ron looked disgruntled but said nothing. Hermione chimed in with, "You'll get to that next time."
Having nothing else to say, they followed the recently departed first years in heading for the stairs to their dorms.
Albus didn't enter his office until late that Saturday morning. Sometimes he felt his age and this morning seemed to be one of those times. He was surprised to see the enchanted book he used to track certain activities in the library was glowing rather brightly. The more entries waiting for his perusal, the brighter it glowed so there must be a lot for him to catch up on.
He opened it expecting to see some upper year activity in the restricted section but the last entry there was the curious selection by Hermione Granger. That was a rather challenging book for a second year and he was rather proud of her even though he did wonder what she was up to. He wouldn't consider her a prankster like the Weasley twins who had managed to get their hands on that same book the previous year. On the other hand, Severus Snape wasn't the sort to give extra credit assignments, especially to a Gryffindor.
No, the recent activity was tracking an individual, one Harry Potter to be exact. He frowned as he scanned through the entries. Harry was researching something very methodically in the back issues of the Daily Prophet. Then the significance of the dates hit him and his anxiety started to rise. Harry had started about a week before the death of his parents and was now a few weeks past that and apparently still at it.
What was the boy looking for other than the obvious? Why was he continuing on so far beyond the awful events of that Halloween long ago? He pondered asking the boy himself what he was up to but discarded that idea. No, best to let the poor boy learn whatever it was that he wanted to know. He might mention it to Minerva though, just to see if the boy was upset about whatever he found.
Yet again, he found his thoughts drifting to what he had done, and not done, to get the boy ready for his destiny. He'd felt so certain of his plan all those years ago when he first placed Harry with his aunt. However, the results were not quite as good as he had hoped. The boy was too quiet and too isolated. On the other hand, the two friends he had were very close to him. Perhaps his plan was working well enough. He was brought out of his thoughts by a trill from Fawkes that made him smile. It appeared that even Fawkes was hopeful.
Harry had just gotten up to leave the library and was surprised when Davis brushed past him and gave him a note. He slipped it into a pocket and kept going just as she had. He had to admit, what she had done seemed innocent and even if someone had been watching, they would probably think nothing of it. He brought out the note and looked at it once he was alone in the hall and as he suspected, it was from Daphne and they were to meet right after dinner than night. That was fine with him as he had to make up for his previous oversight.
Harry got to the room first but he didn't have to wait long as Daphne appeared and gave him a tentative smile. She treated the door to the same two spells and took several things out of her bag and waved him over sit next to her desk. He brought his usual desk over next to hers and saw her holding out a photo already.
She began to tell him about each photo before giving it to him and telling him stories that her mother had shared with her. There were a few things that he'd heard before like his father's talent for transfiguration and his mother's for potions and charms. However, there were also stories about his mother that were completely new to him. He was so immersed in this new experience that he completely forgot all of his questions.
He came out of his happy daze to find Daphne looking at him with an inscrutable expression. It wasn't her normal public impassiveness, there was emotion there but he didn't know what it was. She shook her head as if coming out of her own daze and hurriedly handed him a blank piece of parchment. He examined both sides and then looked at her in confusion while she smirked. He just began to frown at her when she giggled and held up a hand as if giving up.
"Sorry, Potter. I couldn't resist. It's enchanted with Greengrass family magic. I asked my father for it and he sent it to me. It's a more private way for us to communicate. All you have to do to key it to you is to put a drop of your blood on it. I already did that with this one." She held up another blank piece of parchment and looked at him expectantly.
He looked at it and wondered how to cut himself when she offered him a small silver knife. "I can heal the cut for you if you keep it small. All you need is one finger prick."
He squeezed a drop of blood on to the parchment and it immediately disappeared while the parchment glowed briefly. As promised she healed his finger good as new and accepted her knife back.
She held up her parchment and started speaking. "I'll show you how they work. These are linked so what is written on one is copied to the other one. However, only the person whose blood activates it can see the message. The message will disappear from your parchment when I read it on mine. The message will remain on mine until you write a new message. Try it now. Write something on yours without letting me see and I'll read it to you."
He gave her a look then turned around and scribbled a message and saw it disappear almost immediately when he was done. He turned to her and saw her smirking again.
"First of all, Potter, you really need to work on your penmanship."
He tried to glare at her but he knew it was true so it seemed ineffective as she simply grinned even more widely at him.
"You wrote: Why did Davis deliver your note this time? Now, I will answer." She moved her note to her desk and wrote something that he couldn't see. It was as if she hadn't used ink. She saw him looking and held up her seemingly blank parchment. "You can't see anything here, can you?"
He shook his head in the negative and looked at his own parchment and was surprised to see her answer in her neat script.
She volunteered. It was my way to let her be a part of this without really telling her anything.
"This is really neat magic. Can you tell me about it?"
"Sorry. Like I said it is family magic. I could tell my husband…."
Suddenly Daphne's eyes flew open wide and she covered her mouth in embarrassment. Harry didn't get it at first then it was his turn to be embarrassed. She couldn't have been referring to the two of them, could she? No, of course not but it was still awkward to think about.
He groped for a change of topic and the unasked question finally came to him. "Do you know who the Heir of Slytherin is?"
He saw a look of what might have been gratitude in her eyes as she refocussed to answer his question. "You mean from the message in the hallway?" Harry nodded so she continued. "No. it makes sense it would be someone in Slytherin house though. The only rumours I have heard were about you being the heir." She shook her head and grinned as she said the last sentence so he knew that she found it ridiculous.
"Well, we thought it might be Malfoy…." He drifted to a stop as Daphne went into hysterical laughter and it took her a few moments to recover.
"Malfoy? No. Just, no. Like I said he's not even a true Slytherin. He has no clue who the heir is, he admitted it in our common room. But…." She looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing. "He did seem to know that something would happen this year. Plus he said something to Goyle about his father telling him to not interfere with something, I didn't catch what. However, he's been as surprised as anyone at what is happening. If he's involved at all, he certainly isn't aware of exactly what is happening. Did you have any reason for suspecting him?"
Well, that certainly set them back to square one and now he wondered what they'd do with that potion they were brewing. Harry mentally sighed and then told her about seeing them in Borgin and Burkes, them selling poisons and then the run-in at the bookstore that resulted in a fight between Lucius and Arthur. She took it all seriously but wasn't puzzled until he described the fight.
"Wait. You're saying that Lucius Malfoy got into a Muggle style fight with Mr. Weasley?"
"Exactly."
"That's incredible! I can't imagine him doing that. Unless he was caught completely off guard.…"
"No, he was facing Mr. Weasley and taunting him."
"Like he wanted there to be a fight?"
"Yes."
"Now that is strange. Why would Lucius Malfoy do something like that?" Daphne looked completely baffled and then looked at him again. "Is there anything else that points to the Malfoys?"
"Only how happy Malfoy is about this whole heir thing."
Daphne still looked preoccupied but then focussed on him again. "OK, I'll keep my eyes and ears open. It might be one of the upper years. The magic involved is very advanced, too advanced for second years."
Harry was miffed, they'd taken a serious risk to get ingredients for a potion they now apparently had no use for and all of his suspicions were for naught. She then surprised him with a question.
"So, are you going to tell me about the car?"
She was smirking like she knew this would be embarrassing for him. He huffed and tried to hide his own smile before he decided to satisfy her curiosity. As he expected, she had found it as amusing as he found it embarrassing. Especially the part where it had been pointed out the whole car excursion had been unnecessary. She did seem to find the part about Ron's broken wand bizarre though.
"Why didn't Weasley get a new wand? He can't go through a whole school year with a broken wand."
"He's afraid of his mother's reaction after the whole car thing."
"Seriously? Hasn't a teacher noticed? He's even more an idiot than I thought if he's willing to waste a year of his education."
Harry narrowed his eyes at her and she quickly reacted. "OK, that might have been harsh but it's true. Is his embarrassment really worth a wasted year?"
He still didn't like what she'd said but deep down he had to admit she had a point. "OK, I'll talk to him about it."
She checked the time and sighed. "It's getting late and my father has been concerned about what is happening here. I'll have to send this information to him with the same enchantment we now have to communicate. You and I can not only more easily set up meetings this way, we can communicate quickly. It will heat up and glow when a message is received but only you will feel the heat or see the glow. It's all very discreet. Is there anything else you wanted to cover tonight?"
"No, I guess that covers it for now."
"Goodnight, Potter."
"Goodnight, Greengrass."