Harry" indicating speech
'Harry' indicating inner thoughts
A man sat in a dingy pub, he was given his space as he sat down and drank his beer, he seemed content on his lonesome with only the bartender occasionally dropping close to refill his glass.
A woman entered the pub, she was of great beauty, unsuited to the pub she was in, yet no one tried to call out to her, it was like she was a ghost.
She sat down next to the man silently, thanking the bartender for the drink she took a sip.
The first to break the silence was the man, "June I wish I could say this was a pleasant surprise, but it's not."
"You expected this, don't pretend otherwise.
"That I did."
"So I'll cut straight to it, what happened to the Einzberns?"
The man took a large drink of his beer, chugging the whole thing down, he set it down with a thud.
"It's complicated."
June snorted, mirroring the man with her drink and gesturing for the bartender, after the drinks were filled she spoke, "of course, it is, for the ICW's inside man to go MIA for the entire year, especially one of your strength, it has to be complicated."
Richard seemed lost in thought and June let him wallow before he finally spoke.
"You know, once you reach a certain level of strength, arrogance comes with it."
"You're calling me arrogant?"
"Not quite yet, no."
June raised an eyebrow, Richard had changed, he was arrogant and brash, confident and strong, yet the man in front of her seemed akin to an old man.
"What happened to the old Richard, the one who was ready to take on the world?"
Richard leaned back, exhaustion showing on his face, his face had the lines that you got when you get caught up in overthinking.
Memories of Fire and Lightning came to the forefront of his mind and he shuddered, "He was shown how much of a speck he really is."
'He's changed, whatever he saw flipped his world huh,' mused June.
Chugging his beer once more, he rose to leave but not without some parting words, "That kid, don't touch him for your own sake as much as anyone else's."
With those parting words Richard left, leaving behind a contemplative June.
Said boy was being dragged by Ilya around Hogwarts.
"Ooh those are the grounds Harry."
"Ooh is that the owlery, you think they'll let me feed the owls?"
"Is that a thestral?! I've never seen them in real life lets go touch them Harry"
Harry could only sigh in annoyance as he was dragged all over by Ilya, but he let her do it because he enjoyed it too, it reminded him of simpler days, even if he wouldn't admit it.
Making their way over to the thestrals, Ilya finally let go off Harry's hands to pet the thestrals who seemed to nuzzle into her.
Harry maintained his distance even as he let a small smile slip onto his face as Ilya played with the thestrals.
Thestrals and animals in general didn't like him too much, especially the peaceful one's while the more predatory one's seemed to acknowledge him, It remained a mystery and even Ilya's research albeit limited research didn't tell them much, maybe if she had more time wondered Harry.
Noticing a presence coming towards them, he threw a quick glance over his shoulder which told him it was Daphne, she came to a stop beside him.
"You can see them."
"Mhm."
"I don't like them."
"Not many do, they're a reminder aren't they?"
"Yes."
Harry didn't probe any further and she seemed to appreciate it as she settled beside him watching Ilya play with the thestrals.
"Who's she?"
"A friend."
"How did she get here?"
"Through the floo."
Daphne was curious, Harry knew someone from the magical world, and she was able to get to Hogwarts, she wondered if it had something to do with the wizards in robes she'd managed to glance at through the doors of the great hall.
'He didn't probe further, so I shouldn't to.' Decided Daphne, choosing a different topic for conversation.
"So..." Daphne started but stopped when she saw Harry turn to her, this was the first time she was this close and she was captivated, his skin was smooth, nose bridged slightly adding to his charm, his face was symmetrical and of course his eyes.
Harry cocked his head in confusion, "Ms.Greengrass-Black, I think it was, anything wrong?"
"Daphne," Daphne hid a wince, that was too quick and said with too much enthusiasm, but Harry seemed to take it in stride as he smiled at her.
"Daphne then, anything wrong?"
"No, I just wanted to know what happened at the Headmaster's office."
Harry sighed disappointed, "Here I was hoping you'd talk to me about my pretty eyes."
Daphne reddened in embarrassment, it was made worse by her little sister who had snuck up behind them, "Harry, you must have Daphnepowers, she's never blushed in her life!" chimed in Astoria.
Daphne glared at her sister, even as her face turned uncharacteristically red.
Astoria reacted dramatically as she hid behind Harry, "save me Harry use your Daphnepowers to make her happy."
Harry humored her"How exactly am I supposed to do that?"g
Astoria grinned mischievously, "Like this," and pushed him towards Daphne.
Sadly it didn't go to plan as he barely budged much to the pouting Astoria's consternation.
"Astoria," Daphne began furiously rising, Astoria grinned as she saw an oppurtunity as she walked over the perfect depiction of regret.
"I'm sorry, Daph." Astoria said pitifully, surprising Daphne, she looked genuinely remorseful and Daphne let her guard down.
It proved to be a mistake as this time Daphne was pushed and landed right on the sitting Harry's lap.
Time seemed to slow for Daphne as her heart sped up, she stayed there for a moment, till an irate Ilya interrupted.
"Mind getting off him."
Daphne scrambled off and shot a hysterical Astoria a dirty look.
Astoria's hysterics seemed to stop once she was faced with Ilyas admittedly scary glare.
"Ilya, stop you'll scare them away," said Harry lazily.
Ilya's glare turned on to Harry, "This is your fault."
"What did I do now?!"
"Yes you never do anything do you!"
"I mean I don't know what I did now!"
"Of course you never know, Harry!"
"Ilya we basically just repeated ourselves, I don't know what I did but it upset you and I'm sorry."
Harry had learned from experience, no matter how much he argued, if Ilya or Tanya were in one of "those" moods, it was better to apologize, than to argue for days on end about stuff that seemed petty to him.
Ilya seemed satisfied by the apology, but apparently not satisfied enough as she sat down and leaned into Harry's shoulder, "You're not allowed to move."
Harry ruffled her hair slightly even as he pulled her into him.
"Sure."
Astoria was stumped, "Woah!"
"What's up?"
"You're smooth."
"...Sorry?"
"No way! you're dense too!"
"I'm really not following here Astoria."
But Astoria had long tuned to Daphne, "I disapprove."
Daphne seemed similarly stumped, "Astoria you've been making no sense for a while now!"
Ilya groaned from her position, "great another dense idiot."
Harry just looked at Daphne and they shared a moment of confusion.
Before any more questions could be raised Daniel Potter had found them and made his presence known.
"Ah Daphne there you are, I've been looking all over for you!"
Daphne was a pretty girl, the prettiest out of anyone he knew, and well he was the boy-who-lived, he was the hero, he should get the pretty girl, that's what Dad always said.
Danny had asked his Dad for advice, his Dad had said he should try and be friends first, and he had tried and had been trying, Dad had also said Sirius was a good wing-man, someone who helped him get with the girl, so he told Ron to follow him while he talked with Daphne.
Ron was in his opinion, the best wing-man, but it hadn't seemed to work, she used to come around to visit the library, but she stopped.
But then he noticed her.
His heart-beat sped up like it never had and Danny knew he had fallen in love.
There was a white-hared angel in-front of him, ignoring everyone Danny walked over to her, to his displeasure, she was leaning against his brother, but it wouldn't matter, he was Danny Potter after all!
"Hi, I'm Danny, Danny Potter."
"Ilya," he heard his brother whisper.
"Is he talking to me?" she replied back without even looking at him.
"Mhm"
"I'm Ilya."
Danny was bewildered, maybe she hadn't heard his name properly and why had she snuggled into his brother even more!
"I'm Danny, the boy-who-lived," He said emphasizing the boy-who-lived part.
This seemed to get a reaction as Ilya looked up at him impassively, "and?"
Danny was floored, no one had disregarded him like that in his life, this was the first time!
"Haven't you heard of me?"
"I have."
Harry took pity on his brother, Ilya wasn't the nicest to anyone she wasn't close to, "she's tired and well-."
Whatever he was going to say was cut off by Danny who rudely snapped, "I wasn't talking to you."
Harry was puzzled, not expecting such hostility, sure they hadn't gotten along back at the Dumbledore's office but it wasn't outright hostile like Danny had been right now.
But before he could say anything, Ilya rose up and she wasn't happy, "listen here Mr. boy-who-lived, if you ever talk like that to Harry again I'll gut you and hang your innards inside out."
"I'm Danny Potter, I'd like to see you try, my dad's trained me you know while Harry was out robbing innocent people!"
Ilya whipped out her wand startling everyone, the tip lit up but before she could cast a spell, she was interrupted by Harry covering her mouth even as her eyes shot daggers at Danny.
"Sorry about that, she doesn't like when people insult me, a byproduct of our past together."
Grabbing her hand he waved good bye to Daphne and Astoria, "Sorry to cut our conversation short, but I better take this one to cool down," waving goodbye Harry was off.
Danny clenched his fists, Harry pissed him off like nothing ever had!
Daphne had glanced his way and had noticed his clenched fists, he was jealous of Harry, but Danny's Potter's feelings weren't of concern to her, wanted to see if her mom would tell her anything about the meeting, so me she made off as well with Astoria following behind her.
"He's jealous." stated Astoria
Daphne wasn't surprised, Astoria was good at reading people, "he is."
"Harry didn't look bothered by him though."
Daphne nodded, "Almost as if he's had experience with people like him," unknowingly hitting the nail on it's head, the sisters left behind an angry and jealous Danny Potter.
Back with Harry, Ilya had stayed silent even after Harry had taken her into the castle, until she rounded on him.
"Why'd you stop me?"
"You were going into graphic detail."
"He deserved it,"
"Did he?"
"Yes."
"Maybe he did, but lets not ruin our day because of him, I want to visit the highest tower here.
So with the help of a couple paintings they were at the top of the Astronomy Tower.
Harry lay on his back and Ilya plopped down beside him.
"You know this reminds me of that day, the day before everything went to shit."
Harry laughed, "do you remember what you asked me back then?"
"No."
Harry laughed, "you lie when you answer to quickly, you do remember."
Ilya frowned at him before cracking up as well and both of them just laughed for a while.
"The two of us have come quite far haven't we?"
"You're forgetting someone."
Ilya harrumphed, "Tatiana hasn't grown a bit, still a spoiled immature brat."
Harry cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Fine all of us have pretty far."
"You know with the way you talk about her, it's easy to forget you're best friends."
Ilya grinned, "Insults are part of the package!"
a Crack sounded out and an Elf appeared, "The headmaster told Millie, he be wanting to see you now, Mr Potters and Ms. Einzberns."
"Alright, thank you Millie," Harry thanked the Elf, which subsequently disappeared with a crack.
Harry got up and looked back at Ilya, grinning evilly, he said, "last one there has to be target practice in our next training session."
"Oi that's not fair!" said a scrambling Ilya, but Harry was already off.
"I'll get that idiot if its the last thing I do muttered Ilya as she readied her wand."
To everyone's bemusement, Harry would walk in with his clothes in tatters but still smirking at the huffing and puffing Ilya who entered a handful of seconds later.
"So what's up old man?"
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