"You should know better than anyone since you were there. It changed when Death Eaters attacked the Quidditch World Cup. After that my father seemed very nervous, like he expected the Dark Lord to reappear at any moment. A few days before school started he sat my sister and I down and told us to pay special attention to what the children of the old Death Eaters were saying and doing, and if we heard anything that we thought was important to immediately owl him. I need to apologize to you for what happened next though."
"Huh?" Harry asked, confused.
"I promised you that I wouldn't repeat the things you told me to anyone, especially about what happened at the end of first and second year. But I thought my father needed to know, so I told him. He was a little mad that I didn't tell him sooner."
"Oh, it's ok. I understand why you did what you did."
"Good. Apparently my father never really believed that the Dark Lord was dead, after all there was never a body to prove it. When I told him about the spirit of You-Know-Who going after the Philosopher's Stone in first year he knew he had been right, but he didn't know why the Dark Lord had not died. Somehow, I think he figured it out when I told him about the Chamber of Secrets and Riddle's diary. He got really excited when he heard about that and started asking all kinds of questions about what it did. I asked him what he was thinking but he told me it was better that I didn't know. I did overhear him say 'Of course, he wouldn't have made just one though' while he was thinking about what I said to him."
"I don't get it, what does he know and how?"
"I think I might know the how part. Before my grandfather died my father worked for the Ministry as an Unspeakable, and all he would tell me about his old job is that he did research. Maybe he learned something then that would explain how the Dark Lord is keeping himself alive. My father quit his job once he took control of the family because he thought that if he worked for the Ministry people would assume that he supported their fight against You-Know-Who and it would be impossible to stay neutral. After I finished telling him the things I had heard from you he insisted that we be very careful because it was only a matter of time before the Dark Lord was reborn."
"He might be right." Harry answered uncertainly. "He hasn't been able to do it yet, but he has gotten very close at least twice in the past few years. It just doesn't seem like there is anything we can do about it. Maybe Dumbledore is doing something."
"He probably is, but even Dumbledore isn't all powerful. I asked my father what we would do if the Dark Lord returned and he said that we would never join him, but for now it was important to not obviously take a side. I expected him to say that we would stay out of it at any cost, but for some reason he is willing to fight the next time around. That was why he encouraged me to learn the Patronus charm." she explained.
"Of course! There is no reason to learn it other than to fight of Dementors and they joined Voldemort's side in the last war. He thinks Voldemort will come after your family, doesn't he?" Harry asked, now very concerned about her safety.
"Eventually yes, but for now there is not much we can do but prepare ourselves. When you asked me to the Yule Ball I really wanted to say yes, and the only reason I didn't is because of my father's warning not to take a side. The moment we show up to the Ball together everyone is going to assume that we have joined your side."
"This is crazy, you know that right? We aren't fighting a war right now and I don't have a side." Harry stated in frustration.
"But we will be, and you will. After you asked me to the Yule Ball I owled my father and told him about it. He owled back that he would think about it and I should wait for his response. Then today he told me that I could go to the Ball if I still wanted to, but he didn't really explain why he changed his mind. He did say, however, that we should not let anyone know we are going together and that I need to make sure that my sister Astoria and I will be safe after everyone finds out."
"Safe from the other Slytherins you mean." Harry said knowingly. Since they truly became friends before the first task Harry had worried often about what would happen to her if anyone in her house found out but he had not even considered that her little sister could be threatened as well. "Whatever I can do to help, I will do it."
"I know, and thank you. Astoria should be fine, she has a good group of friends that will stick by her no matter what. I won't be the most popular girl in Slytherin, but then again I never was. Not everyone will be against me though, Tracy and Blaise will watch out for me when they can." Daphne stopped, seeing that Harry was obviously upset at her predicament. "Stop blaming yourself, this was my decision. There is only one thing I need from you right now."
"And what is that?"
"Make sure to get yourself some nice dress robes." she said, grinning. "After all, our picture is probably going to end up on the front page of the Daily Prophet and I can't have my date looking like a slob."
"I'll see what I can do." Harry said, smiling a little. He was still worried about her, but realized that at the moment there was very little he could do.
"Story time is over. I better go, I still have half of that Transfigurations left to do. I know I dumped a lot onto you tonight, but I really am glad we are going to the Yule Ball together." she said sincerely.
"Me too." Harry answered. As she turned to leave Harry thought about all of the things she had told him, surprised that asking a girl on date could become so complicated. 'Then again,' he thought, 'nothing I do is ever easy.' He let out a small laugh as the door closed, leaving him alone in the classroom. A few minutes later he decided that his mind was too distracted to do any meaningful training and left the room as well. He spent the rest of the night mostly worrying about Daphne and thinking up ways to get revenge on Malfoy if he ever found out the blond idiot had threatened her because of him.
...
The next week passed rather uneventfully for Harry, much to his relief. Even the Daily Prophet got bored running the same stories about him and switched to different topics. A few days after that the Prophet actually printed an article which talked about him in a positive light, a move that might have otherwise made him happy but at the moment just convinced him the people in charge of the newspaper had no idea what they were doing. As the end of the semester approached, Harry's fellow students had less time to gossip about him as they found themselves studying for exams.
A few of them even seemed to forget that they were supposed to dislike Harry because he was a dark lord in progress and were friendly towards him again. The only negative part of this was that he realized people could change their minds about him as quickly as the Daily Prophet. While walking with Neville to class one day a group of Ravenclaws who had not spoken to him for over month greeted him as if nothing had happened, prompting Harry to later joke to Neville that he was a hero Monday through Thursday but a villain the rest of the week. All things considered, Harry thought it was the best week he had had since his name was pulled out of the Goblet of Fire.
The biggest disappointment of this time was his inability to figure out how to retrieve the clue to the second task from the golden egg. He had tried casting dozens of spells on the egg hoping to unlock its secrets but none of them had been successful. Daphne had contributed a few ideas but none of them had worked either. Eventually Harry realized that he was going to need more help and had told Neville and Hermione about his dilemma. This resulted in Hermione immediately rushing off to the library to begin looking for ideas.
She was neglecting her school work in order to help him, and once Harry realized that he ordered her to stop pushing herself so hard. He knew she was working so hard in an attempt to make up for her previous mistakes and while he really did appreciate the effort, he didn't want to see his friend's grades suffer because of it. Hermione was able to come up with a few ideas he had not considered, but still nothing they tried worked. Harry had even considered asking Cedric if he knew what to do with the egg, thinking the older champion might feel like he owed Harry a little help for giving him some advice before the first task. He finally decided against asking for now, although he could always reconsider if time was running out and he still had not discovered the clue.
Meanwhile Harry's training had changed significantly. After realizing that Daphne would be putting herself in danger because of their relationship (which even he could see was quickly becoming more than a simple friendship) he began insisting that she practice alongside him. She initially protested, saying that she would just slow him down, but gave in to his demands when it became clear he was not going to back down. Harry's training did move slower, which was inevitable due to his greater experience and magical power, but he was happy to see that the extra time he spent on every lesson allowed him gain a better understanding of what he was doing.
It was clear to him that Daphne had the potential to be a very powerful witch if she pushed herself, and Harry was dedicated to helping her do just that. To Harry's surprise it was Daphne that suggested they start dueling each other as a part of their training. Neither of them had ever had formal instruction on how to duel so for the most part they were dependent on various books on dueling and learning by the trial and error method. They were learning a lot, but Harry knew that they were going to eventually need someone more experienced to teach them. His first choices were either Sirius or Remus, but he didn't know if it would be possible for either of them to do it until the summer at the earliest. Daphne, he knew, would be able to practice with her father who would not need to be convinced why it was necessary.
....
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