As soon as he was out of the proximity of other students he dropped his glamour. In his place now stood a boy of height 6' and with a body with well developed muscles and physique. Gone was the messy hair, which was no replaced by long smooth hair reaching his mid-back with half ebony colored while the other half was blonde – a fashionable muggle hairstyle which he made permanent in wizarding world all thanks to Salazar Slytherin's potion books, or rather tome, written in Parseltongue. The glasses were taken off and the optically fixed infamous Avada Kedavra green eyes started darting through his surroundings. A wandless wave had his robes transfigured to midnight blue sleeveless vest with dark purple cloak bellowing behind him in a way that would make Snape envious. Walking in a grace worthy of a vampire with heightened senses of the surroundings that would compete with that of a werewolf, the young wizard started strolling towards the Astronomy Tower only to stop short at the door.
From the inside of the classroom he heard soft sobs that would have been impossible for a human to hear. He could make out the presence of femininity from the room by the odor of scent coming from their. The door was ajar and from outside he could make an outline of a girl who had her head full of blonde hair buried in her knees as she was sobbing quietly. Her uniform gave her out as a Slytherin. He quietly walked in the room and immersed himself in the shadows – a form of travel and hiding called shadow walk he learnt, by the courtesy of Salazar Slytherin's works. Through the shadows he crept near to her without making a noise. He then found a letter she was clutching which he was familiar to. It was one the ministry used to inform the family members of any deceased during a death eater raid. Through a legilimancy scan he carried out earlier in the month on every Slytherin Fourth Year and above, he recognized her as one Daphne Marie Greengrass. His occluded memory supplied him her views on Voldemort that he extracted from her. She utterly loathed her views and kept up a faćade to survive in her House without any friends. He also knew of her pure loathing of her father and younger sister and the love she had only for her mother. Given her appearance he can very well deduce whom she had lost. Draciel suddenly came out of her hiding from under his skin and he realized that she suddenly started spreading her calming odor – something she inherited from her coral ancestry.
Realizing that his cover will soon be exposed he decided to come out of his hiding. Slowly and quietly he neared her and said in a warm albeit expressionless voice, "Greengrass?"
Daphne startled, suddenly started hiding her tear stains and swallowing her sobbing which she was now having a hard-time swallowing. How couldn't she hear the person entering the room? The familiar voice that belonged to the boy she was taught to loathe.
"Don't. It's nothing to hide and be ashamed of. Your dead one deserves this and don't deny them that just for my presence", he said warmly. The warmth of his voice was breaking her resolve to never expose herself. The surrounding atmosphere was also affecting her somehow and she could bet it was his deeds too. She raised her head to retort only to stop short. This was not the being she knew. It was only the thrice damned scar and those green eyes that made her weak at the knees, that made him recognizable.
Suddenly aware of self-consciousness, he resisted the urge to curse loudly. He forgot to put on the damned glamour. Well, he comforted himself with knowing that it was only one more day before he was going to do it anyway. So no harm done there. Right now he had more pressing issues.
"Potter?" her voice was filled with uncertainty.
"Right in a piece and at your reserves Milady", amusement evident in his voice.
She gave him a skeptical look. "What are you doing here, and what happened to your face? The Daily Prophet will be disheartened to loose their 'poor poster boy'", sarcasm evident in her voice.
"To your first question, I'm re-celebrating being alone one again in five years and about my looks… well that's for me to know and you to find out", he said nonchalantly.
"Why? Is the Weasel jealous this time or the Mud-blood's bossy attitude drove you off?", she asked bluntly.
"A bit of both, and include among the list – fear, and insecurity and unsurity and the newly added pure loathing", Harry replied.
She seemed a bit subdued after hearing that, "That bad?"
He replied without any emotion, "That's the gist. Though I will refrain from using Mud-blood for it will seriously dishonor the memory of my own mother, I can tell you the rift this time was entirely their decision and I will make sure its permanent this time whether their reasons are satisfied or not".
"You won't have them even if they come begging to you to take them back", she pressed.
He sighed, "Imagine Ms. Greengrass that someone, whom you believed a trusted and had all faith at, calls you a disgrace to your family just for the spite of jealousy and to unreasonably shun you to keep you at bay. Imagine when in front of the entire House in the middle of the Common Room she calls you a mistake that your parents committed in heat of the war. Would you in your right state of mind, welcome her back with open arms as if nothing ever happened", he finished in the same monotone he started.
She remained silent through the entirety of it and for the first time in a long while she was at a loss at what to say. Finally she looked in those eyes and seemed to have lost herself in them. A sense of calm spread through her and once again in a long while Daphne Mary Greengrass felt safe in his presence. After a long silence she said, "I suppose not… sorry Har-Mr. Potter… well I mus-", but she never got to finish her sentence as suddenly his eyes seemed to have engulfed her.
She was and in future would never know why, but she never panicked, but rather felt safe. Scenes of someone's memory began to play before her. She knew it was not like watching one in a pensive because she could feel the emotions that were being relayed through them. Images of a scrawny boy getting beaten-up, starved, abused, accused, and what not? Filled with a sense of dreading for what was coming each tomorrow, engulfed with loneliness, and suppressed by the abuse. But she also witnessed the courage, bravery, chivalry and extreme cunning he used to survive each day dreaming of a better future – a future, she witnessed, with his better half (with a hazy face but surprisingly blonde hair to which she paid no heed), three children and a dog in a countryside cottage with a valley behind and a lake in view surrounded by a white fence. The boy, his son seemingly playing with his much younger brother while the girl was having him entirely wrapped around her finger. The woman had a bulge in her belly and they were all emitting a sense of joy, adoration and mostly Love.
Suddenly Daphne blinked and found herself back at the astronomy tower. She then looked at the boy, no man, in whose mind she had entered and whose childhood she had experienced just then. Daphne finally found her voice and said, "Mr. Pott-"
"Harry"
"Pardon?" she blurted.
" There is no need of any formality here", he replied smoothly.
She surprised herself and smiled a bit at him. If Harry was surprised his face never betrayed him. Never before has the Ice Princess of Slytherin actually and genuinely smiled at anyone. Sneered, indeed; smirked, positively; cruelly laughed at, at every passing; but actually and genuinely smiled – Never. Harry made a mental note that her genuine smile suited her.
"Only if you call me Daphne", she replied.
"Think it done", he grinned for the first time in a month.
"So Harry… was that your… um… you know", she continued to splutter.
"My memories and Desires?", when she nodded, he replied, "That indeed it is".
"Those muggles were horrible and-", she was rudely cut off even before she could even begin.
"Its not the muggle Daphne but their intent. Even they have what is good and bad. Unfortunately I was placed among the few of the worsts. But lets not worry about them now lets talk about how you are coping up with the loss of your mother." Saying this he waved his wand and after a complicate pattern the door was finally closed and several of his personally designed privacy wards were erected.
Daphne at the mean time was shocked to her core. How did he know? Did he peek into her mind? But somehow she knew he wouldn't do that without her express permission. But then that doesn't explain how he knew of her misshappen, but before she could find her voice he again spoke.
"You know, dear ol' Moldyshorts roll called each and every of his inner circle death eaters at his resurrection. Xavier Greengrass was called right between Greogory Goyle Sr. and Saunders Higgs. And before you start panicking, I know of your, well disagreeing relationship-", here she gave a snort, "-that you have with your father."
Relieved that he didn't judge her by her parentage she finally released a breath she never knew she was holding. She had the sudden urge to express her childhood to him. But then once more she got uncomfortable at expressing her childhood which though not as worse as his, was still unpleasant. She dearly wished she could have some weird power like his to express herself. As if waiting for her to reach that part of her decision she suddenly found herself in her mind but aware of another presence and once again the process of reliving memories started. Her accident at infancy due to her father's usual carelessness which gave her a life-long incompetent brain, the mental abuse she suffered the threats of getting disowned, her mother's love that she mostly relished her mother's library that was her sanctuary, where she taught herself all courses until OWLs by heart before reaching Hogwarts, to prevent her father from selling her as a prostitute in Knockturn Alley, her life as a neglected girl in a mediocre household – wearing hand-me-downs, sharing the bedroom of house-elves which was very small for her increasing growth, eating cold dinners in a lonely atmosphere, getting ridiculed by her father and at a later stage by her sister, and finally getting hopes of a better tomorrow by her mother. The hopes where she was excited with the prospect that a certain Harry Potter who her father shuns but the Wizarding World worships would come to her rescue. But the hope getting crushed when she slowly started withdrawing herself after attempting to talk to him at First Year, but getting blocked by his two best friends. Watching from aside while he went for various adventures but never once came to her rescue. And finally to day when a Ministry Owl informed her of her mother getting slayed by a Death Eater crossfire.
With tears in her eyes she opened them to find that she was in his arms and her resolve finally crushed and she broke down right there pouring down all her grief and sorrows on his shoulders, she buried her head on the crook of his neck and continued her sobbing. Suddenly feeling self-conscious she started suppressing her emotions once again when she felt his arms around her getting a stronger grip of her.
"Don't", he whispered. "The more deep you bury them the more they will hurt. Let yourself cry out your hurt tonight, let your eyes' redness witness you ridding of your past. Let me hold you this night and get wet with you in the tears of your miserable past so that I may help you get dry of them. The hurt captured in your heart shall be set free. And only then shall you realize that the hurt you suppressed was enough to wet us both. So here I request to thee lady, tonight set yourself free."
The words were perfect enough to trigger herself and she did as he requested and found him speaking the truth. Her sobs were still pouring out what was left of years of suppression even when she had no more tears left. All the while she was holding him for all her dear life as if he will disappear at any moment and she will wake up alone once again from this dream.
After two hours her sobs finally were in control. There were still few convulses of her body as the aftershocks of a great emotional breakdown. She no longer felt embarrassed of him for he had seen and held and comforted her when she was the most vulnerable and she had too witnessed his darkest secrets – something she knew certainly, none knew but her. That meant he trusted her with his darkest secrets and eventually so did she, and she knew that she would protect his secrets with her dear life. She knew somehow by some miracle, she had wormed herself in his heart. But for her… in a single night he did something she never would have thought possible – he absolutely stole her heart. And she was glad "he" did it. And that somehow gave in to her desire of wanting him all for herself. All her life Daphne Greengrass never claimed anything but this one time all her heart, brain and conscience were asking her to be selfish and have him for her. Somehow she knew that he would never cheat her or play with her emotions.
She slowly raised her head to find him looking down at her with an amused smile he was barely hiding, as if reading her mind. Normally with anyone else it might have terrified her. But now she didn't even give a damn. For all she knew, he was more than welcome to read her both physically and mentally however he liked – he had earned it.
Suddenly his amused smile faded and turned serious. Lowering his head he closed the distance between their lips and now she was seven clouds high. She would give away anything to savor this moment – even her mother's library (albeit reluctantly). The need of oxygen finally had them separated.
"That was my first kiss and it was brilliant", she said in a daze.
With an amused grin he rubbed his nose with hers affectionately and said, "Well, consider that my first too, that is if you don't consider a certain Chinese Hound slobbering all on my lips as one. I try to forget that… gave me nightmares for three days straight without any effort from Voldemort."
She laughed lightly and Harry found it quite musical and adorable. Suddenly she turned serious and asked, "So where does this leads us? And what are we?"
"Nowhere", her face fell considerably, "As I have no idea of what relationship like ours is called where we know better about each other than most married people. But considering the fact that we have to give a name to our ever-unbreakable relationship to compensate the Prophet for loosing them their 'poor poster boy', lets say girlfriend-boyfriend for now, and neither probable nor surely but certainly and definitely a lot more in the future. Will that be all Milady?" he finished in a monotone.
Daphne blinked. Then hit him hard on the chest. Then fussed when he grimaced. Then kissed him for all he was worth. Then rested her head back at her new sanctuary – her Harry's crook of his neck, all the while muttering "prat" with harry countering them with "women".
Back from his neck, she whispered, "Stay with me?"
"Forever". His reply had her heart soaring (although the fact that she "knew" he was honest, also helped).
From distance another female Greengrass, though a bit aged, watched down upon the couple with a content smile. Happy that her daughter found herself an anchor she made for leaving the plane of the living with a promise to look over her from where she was heading. She was in for a surprise when a certain couple – a man with ebony hair and hazel eyes and a woman with auburn hair and green eyes – and the infamous Sirius Black along with a certain Charlus and Doreá Potter were more than willing to accompany her.