Harry Potter And The Unexpected Friend

The next day Harry tried desperately to keep his mind focused on other things, but it kept coming back to Daphne. He thought often about their conversation the previous night and found it more and more confusing every time he mentally replayed it. The only comforting fact he had found was that Daphne seemed to want to go to the Yule Ball with him, even if other things might make that impossible. Harry wanted nothing more than to find her and get her to explain what was going on, but he had promised to let her handle the situation alone. Doing nothing was not a thing that came easy to him, he would much rather be rushing into action and facing whatever came his way head on. He laughed, knowing that if Daphne could hear what he was thinking she would mock him for being too much of a Gryffindor.

After dinner Harry had decided to read for a while instead of going to the third floor room to train. Earlier in the year he might have thought time spent reading would not help him face whatever challenged lay ahead, but he had eventually realized how stupid that idea was. Lots of types of knowledge can be useful, not just knowledge of spells. And so he was lying down on a long sofa in front of the fireplace with a beginner's book on Ancient Runes on his chest. The subject was more complicated than he expected it to be, but clearly could be very useful. He mentally chided himself for deciding to take Divination, which as far as he could tell was absolutely useless, instead.

Harry had made it through the day without giving in to his urges telling him to take action, but he hadn't noticed that his efforts had taken a toll on his attitude during the day or that his friends had noticed. Hermione in particular could tell that something was bothering him, and so after seeing him in the common room had decided to ask him about it. Harry did not notice that she was even in the room until she sat down on the sofa near his feet. He looked over the top of the book to see who had distracted him and after finding that it was Hermione he set his book down on his lap.

"Since when are you interested in Ancient Runes, Harry?" she asked, noticing the book he had been reading.

"I was just curious about what I was missing. Is it too late to drop Divination for something else?"

"No, but if you started next year you would probably have to be in the class with the third years. I could help you study if you wanted to try and catch up with our year, but it wouldn't be easy."

"Hmm, I'll have to think about it. Divination is a complete waste of time. I am sure Trelawny will miss being able to predict my death every class though." Harry added with a laugh.

"If you are going to do it, you need to decide soon. We only have a year and a half before our OWLs! I've barely even started on my study schedules for the next year, at this rate I will never be ready on time." she said, obviously worried. Harry laughed at his friend, knowing that she would probably end up with O's (the highest score) on every exam she took. Hermione frowned at his laughter, knowing that he did not take her concerns seriously.

"Relax, Hermione. You have plenty of time." Harry said, trying to talk his friend down from her self induced panic. "There's no need to worry about it yet."

"Fine, let's talk about other things then." Hermione answered, seeing her chance to turn the conversation towards what she originally wanted to know. "What's going on with you? You've been in bad mood all day."

"Have I?" Harry asked, surprised he had been that obvious. "Let's just say I have a lot going on right now. Tournaments, dates, golden eggs, dancing, figuring out who put my name in that damn cup, training, being slandered in the press… What else? I am sure I am forgetting something."

"Probably, but most of that was going on yesterday and you were fine then. So what is it?" Hermione looked at him, waiting for a response that wasn't coming. Deciding she would have to figure it out on her own, she started thinking about what possibly could have happened. Then an idea struck her. "Oh! Did you ask someone out and get turned down? It was Cho Chang wasn't it?"

"What? No, I did not get turned down and I did not ask Cho Chang." Harry answered, noting that technically it was true. Daphne may say no, but she had not yet. "Why would you think I would ask out Cho Chang anyway? I don't think I've ever even talked to her besides saying hello a few times."

"Oh, well I heard you and Ron talking about her a few months ago. And she is quite pretty."

"I'm not denying that, but I think I would rather go with someone I knew."

"I see, then we are talking about a girl you know fairly well. Since you obviously haven't asked me, we can take my name off the list of girls who could have turned down Harry Potter."

"I thought I told you, I didn't get turned down!" Harry said forcefully to Hermione's amusement.

"So who else do you know that it could have been? Ginny perhaps?" Harry looked at her in confusion.

"I think Neville is going to ask her to the Yule Ball. Don't tell him I told you that, though. Good for him."

"Not Ginny then. How about… Parvati Patil? Lavender Brown?"

"No and no. Give it up, Hermione. You are completely on the wrong track here. You are just going to have to wait and see who I am going to take." he added, aware that even he didn't know who he would wind up going to the Yule Ball with. Unhappy with the way the conversation was turning out, Harry decided to turn the tables on Hermione. "And what about you? What are your plans for the Ball?" Hermione smiled and blushed, then turned to look away.

"I've already got a date, and I am not going to tell you who it is." she answered. Harry grinned at her response, knowing that he could use it against her now.

"Well then, I guess we will both have to wait and see." Harry said triumphantly. Hermione realized she wasn't going to win this battle and sighed.

"Ok. In that case I am going to sleep. I still have my notes from third year Ancient Runes, if you're interested."

"Thanks Hermione, I would appreciate it. And good night." She nodded and began walking up the stairs towards her room. Harry was a little surprised at how close her guess about his situation had been, but was satisfied he had not said anything that would endanger his or Daphne's privacy. 'She is going to figure it out if I'm not careful…' he thought with a small sigh.

...

Harry did not see Daphne at all during the next day. She was absent even at meals, when she was normally seated near Tracy Davis and Blaise Zabini. This also happened to be the one day of the week in which Gryffindors did not share a single class with the Slytherins. Normally this was a relief and cause for celebration, but today Harry found it annoying. Even so he was careful not to let it show in his attitude; the last thing he wanted was to encourage Hermione to dig for more information. It was not until the following day that Harry once again felt a hand slip into his pocket and leave something behind. This time he simply smiled, not even turning to act like he didn't know who had done it. The note told him to meet Daphne in the third floor classroom at 8:30 PM and nothing else. Harry was reminded of the spy movies that Dudley sometimes liked to watch and thought it was funny that even with the advantage of magic he and Daphne were sending messages in the same way he had seen those fictional spies communicate.

By 8:15 Harry had grown tired of waiting and decided to get to the unused room a little early. He was a little disappointed to find that Daphne wasn't there, and so he sat down and begin to wait. At exactly 8:30, the door opened and Daphne walked in. After stopping to magically lock the door and silence the room she turned towards him and smiled.

"Hello, Potter. Been waiting long?" she asked cheerfully, knowing that Harry was waiting on her answer.

"No, not long." Harry paused and decided he had waited long enough. "So… what's going on?"

"We have a lot to talk about tonight, Potter. You have no idea how much trouble you caused when you asked me to the Yule Ball. Actually, that's not fair. I caused much of it as well when I decided that I wanted to go with you."

"Would it have been better if I had not asked you?" Harry said, frowning and waiting for her to turn him down.

"It would have been easier, I suppose. But you can't back out now. You asked, I am saying yes, and we are going. That's that." she said, grinning at his reaction. For a moment Harry just smiled but then, feeling a little of that Gryiffindor courage, he stepped towards Daphne and pulled her into a hug. Harry expected her to be surprised by the hug, but she merely returned it.

"I was hoping you would say that." Harry admitted, still not breaking the contact. "There is one thing I may have forgotten to tell you though. Since I'm one of the Triwizard Champions we will have to open the ball with a ceremonial first dance, along with the other champions of course."

"That shouldn't be a problem, assuming you know how to dance. You do know how to dance, don't you?" Daphne pulled back so she could look at his face, which quickly dropped. "I will take that as a no. I guess we'll just have to add that to your training regimen. Now, let's sit and I will tell you what I couldn't say a few days ago." They both walked over to a long table with a couple of chairs surrounding it. Daphne took a seat near the end of the table and Harry took one directly across from her. For a few moments she sat thinking, deciding how to best explain.

"Just start from the beginning." Harry advised.

"Ok then. What do you know about the Greengrass family?" she asked.

"Not much. You parents are still alive and they weren't Death Eaters. You have a little sister who is a second year, in Slytherin like you. The family is pureblooded and considered dark as far as I know. Is that about right?"

"Very basic, but pretty much right. I guess you get the long version then. So let's start at the beginning. The Greengrasses are a relatively old family, though not as old as the Potters. The first mention of a Greengrass in the records is of a Henry Greengrass who received special recognition during the Goblin Rebellion of 1476. Whether he was a half-blood or a muggleborn is still being debated in my family."

"What? I thought your family was pureblooded?" Harry asked in shock.

"They are now, but how do you think every pureblooded family gets started? Somewhere at the very top of every family tree is a muggleborn wizard. That's part of the pureblood hypocrisy that they try to ignore. But we go along with it because in this society it is better to be a part of an influential family. Even the idiots like the Malfoy's know that the originator of their line was a mudblood." Daphne said, laughing.

"I guess I had just never thought about it, but that makes sense. You said my family was older, how do you know about them?"

"Because every 'proper' pureblood is taught the histories of the other families so you will know where you stand in terms of age and respect. The Potters are only about fifty years older, but they are also the last surviving official branch of the Peverell's and they can be traced to the very beginnings of wizarding Britain. They were also known to claim some relationship to Godric Gryffindor, but that isn't proven. Either way, if you wanted to play the part of a snobbish pureblood you have a good enough name to get away with it."

"But I'm a half blood."

....

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