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Loved Ones, Skipping Stones, and Ice-cream
Eleven-year-old Harry Potter threw a stone and watched it skip across the surface of the Black Lake, creating beautiful ripples on the surface of the lake as the stone jumped. The sight was beautiful, especially as the sun set and the last vestiges of light started to fade, giving way to the night. In a distance, the chatter of hundreds of students could be heard as they cheerfully celebrated the festival of Halloween.
But Harry's mood didn't reflect the beautiful scenery and the vibrant mood of the students in the castle. He was sad.
It was the tenth anniversary of his parent's death. The day they sacrificed their lives to save him and the wizarding world from a monster.
Throughout his life, he had grown up hearing stories from Sirius and Remus about his parents and their adventures. From the silliest of pranks to their greatest deeds, he had heard it all from the two men.
The two men had raised Harry since the fateful Halloween night ten years ago. His honorary uncles, Padfoot and Moony. As long as he could remember, the two men had always been there for him along with his aunt Andromeda, Uncle Ted, and his cousin Nymphadora(don't call me that) Tonks. He loved his family more than anything in the world but still wished that his parents were alive.
Every year, since Harry was two-years-old, Sirius took him to the grave of his parents every Halloween when Harry would speak to his parents. It was said that on Halloween, or Samhain as Aunt Andromeda called it, the spirits of the dead are closest to the mortal plane on Halloween night than any other time of the year. Every year, on Halloween night, Harry would kneel at the grave of his parents and tell them how his year went. This year, he couldn't even do that as he was at Hogwarts.
He was also missing his family. Sirius, Remus, and the Tonks family all came together for Lunch on Halloween. It was a fun day. Now, he was homesick. He was missing the lush green garden that Remus had made in the Black Manor. He missed the small Quidditch pitch, his own room, and everything else he had there. Heck, he even missed the study room where Remus used to bore him with History of the World.
Hogwarts was awesome and he had made new friends too here. But, he missed the feeling of his home.
He picked up another flat stone before examining it. He threw it again and watched it skip on water. It skipped a total of four times before sinking.
"You know, I always wanted to do that." A voice said from behind startling Harry. He jumped and looked around, only to see a Slytherin girl standing behind him, looking at the black lake as the ripples created by the skipping stone faded into the waves.
"You nearly gave me a heart attack," Harry said, looking at the girl closely as she walked nearer to stand next to him. Now, Harry could make out her features clearly. She had beautiful medium-length honey-blonde hair which was tied in an elegant braid. Her face was aristocratic like Aunt Andromeda's. She had a slightly upturned nose and the brightest ice-blue eyes Harry had ever seen.
Harry knew the girl was in his year and was the heiress of the Greengrass family. But, her name evaded him at the moment.
"Stop being a drama queen Potter." She said.
"Me? A drama queen? Never!" He retorted dramatically. "You wound me, Greengrass!"
She rolled her eyes. "See? Drama Queen."
"I'll have you know that I am the King of Drama."
She rolled her eyes again. "What are you doing here instead of being at the feast?" she asked, changing the topic.
"Who are you? A Prefect? And I could ask you the same. What are you doing here?"
She smirked, "Who are you? A Prefect?"
They stared at each other for a moment before breaking into snickers.
"Okay, seriously. Why are you here?" She asked after a few seconds once she composed herself. "Tell me yours, I will tell you mine."
"Well, it is the tenth death anniversary of my parents and I didn't feel like attending the feast."
"Oh," She said in a small voice. "I am sorry."
"You know, I never really knew them. They died when I was a year old after all. But, hearing their stories makes me feel that I knew them... But, anyway, why are you here?"
"Well... the same reason as yours."
Harry blinked. "But... Lord and Lady Greengrass are—"
"Not my parents, you dummy... my Grandma... she passed away last year due to dragon pox. I miss her so much..."
"Oh, I am sorry for your loss," Harry replied.
"You know, she was the world's greatest grandma... she always protected me when I did mischief and all... Once, I spilled ice cream on my father's important documents... well, they were ruined and I was so scared because... well, I wasn't allowed to be there in his office. Thankfully, Grandma came in first and saw what I had done. She told dad that it was her mistake and saved me. She told him that she was eating ice cream and spilled it."
"But what were you doing with ice cream there? I have also snuck into places but never while eating anything especially ice cream." Harry said in an interested tone.
"Well... It was my grandma's ice cream... she loved ice cream, you know? She even gave me ice cream and proclaimed, 'Daphne, Ice cream is heavenly food. It is an insult to leave it in the cold box lying around.' It was her reason to eat and feed ice cream. Heck, we had Florean Fortescue's special subscription. He used to deliver us a tub of ice cream thrice a month."
"Oh, I wish Sirius would do that," Harry whined. "Sirius never says no to such small demands, Remus does."
The two kids stood in silence for a few seconds. Harry picked up another stone and threw it at the surface of the lake. It skipped six times before sinking.
"How do you do that? It never happens with my stone!" She exclaimed.
"Huh? Oh. Err... show me what you do." Harry said after a moment of bewilderment. Daphne picked up a random stone from the ground and chucked it into the lake. The stone just went in.
"You cannot do this with any stone, Daphne. It needs to be a flat stone which you throw like..." Harry trailed off, searching for a flat stone like the one he wanted. "Yeah, like this one." He finished, picking up a flat stone and showing it to Daphne.
"Then you hold it like this... and throw it like this," Harry said demonstrating everything. The stone skipped five times on the surface of the lake before sinking. He grinned at Daphne whose eyes were shining with excitement by now.
"You try it now." He said, handing a stone to the girl. She took it before holding it as instructed and threw it in the lake. The stone skipped once before sinking. But, Daphne whooped in joy before starting to find another stone.
Five minutes later, both the kids were skipping stones into the black lake.
"Three skips!" Daphne said smugly as her stone skipped twice as compared to Harry's last skip when it had skipped only twice.
"Lemme try now... one, two, three, four, fi- ooh. Four skips!" He said counting the skips the stone made
"My turn!" Daphne said before throwing her own stone. It skipped three times again before sinking. Daphne pouted.
Suddenly, a gong emitted from the castle.
"Curfew in an hour. Dinner must've ended." Daphne noted.
"Hey, Daph," Harry called. "Do you want to eat ice cream?"
"Now? Where would we get ice cream at this time? It is served only at the Welcome feast and Christmas Feast from what I've heard."
"And the leaving feast. But, do you want it or not?"
"... I would never say no to it."
"Superb. And we have skipped dinner. Let's go!" Harry said, grabbing Daphne's hand and pulling her towards the castle.
"But where are you taking me?" She asked as she got pulled along.
"You'll see," was the only reply Harry gave to the girl as he pulled her through the gates of the Entrance hall of Hogwarts.
Harry then took her towards the Great Hall but instead of entering it, he took a narrow passage next to it where the Hufflepuffs usually went. He led her down a flight of stone steps, but instead of ending up in a gloomy underground passage like the one that led to the Slytherin dorms, they found themselves in a broad stone corridor, brightly lit with torches, and decorated with cheerful paintings that were mainly of food ranging from normal food items to continental deserts. Up ahead, Daphne could see a dead end where a huge painting of a Fruit Bowl was hung.
Harry pulled her towards the painting and stopped in front of it. Harry extended his hand and tickled the Pear. It began to squirm, chuckling, and suddenly turned into a large green door handle. Harry pulled the door open before pulling Daphne inside.
It was an enormous, high-ceilinged room, as large as the Great Hall above it, with mounds of glittering brass pots and pans heaped around the stone walls, and a great brick fireplace at the other end. Four long wooden tables stood there. Each of these tables was positioned exactly beneath the four House tables above, in the Great Hall. At the moment, they were clear of food, dinner having finished, but it was likely that they had been laden with dishes that were then sent up through the ceiling to their counterparts above a few minutes ago. At the moment, clean-up was in the process.
At least a hundred little elves were standing around the kitchen, beaming, bowing, and curtsying as they saw the two students. They were all wearing the same uniform: a tea towel stamped with the Hogwarts crest and tied like a toga.
"Whoa," Daphne breathed.
"What would you be liking, Harry Potter sir and his friend?" A little elf came forth and asked.
"Some light dinner please, Mipsy... for both of us, sandwiches would do," Harry replied and the elves immediately ushered the two students to where the Ravenclaw table should have been. As soon as they sat, the elves brought several types of sandwiches along with five types of dips and served them immediately to both the students.
"You know all the elves here?" Daphne asked, still looking around in shock as the elves moved around, doing various works.
"Oh hell no! There are two hundred and fifty plus elves here. I know just the head elves. Mipsy, Danny, Benny, Sibby. Head elves of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin respectively." Harry said pointing at the elves who waved at him.
"So, Harry what is your favorite subject at Hogwarts?"
"It did be a galleon toss between Transfiguration and charms. Yours?" Harry replied before taking a bite of his sandwich.
"Charms and potions."
"Eww, you like Snape's class?"
"No, I like potions as a subject. Professor Snape is not the best teacher, I agree, especially if you aren't in Slytherin and not well versed in the basics. He is much more suited to teaching post-owl students instead of beginners." Daphne replied.
"You know a lot it seems..."
"Yes, my family is huge into Potions business. I come from a long line of potions masters if you didn't know. I was trained in the art since I was nine. I love it!"
"Good to hear. My mom was great in potions too as I've heard. I suck at it... well, in class at least."
"It is likely due to Professor breathing down your neck making you nervous. If you need help, come to me. I am top of the class, even ahead of Granger."
Harry snorted. "She is one annoying girl."
"Yeah, she is. She is a little too enthusiastic, to be honest. The jumping annoys me the most." Daphne replied before finishing her sandwich. Harry shrugged in response.
"So, do you like Quidditch?" He asked.
"I do like the sport but am not a fanatic like yourself but I do like it. What's your favorite team?"
"Puddlemore United! And Harpies, of course."
"I thought only girls liked the Holyhead harpies... all-girls team, you know?"
"Well, Sirius and I combined do own some 22% equity of the team. And a third of Puddlemore."
"Of course, the Great Heir Potter-Black owns Quidditch teams," Daphne said in a pompous voice.
"Don't you? Well... your father... but anyways?"
"A quarter of Tornadoes I think. And smaller shares in others. I am not that big in Quidditch that I would go to watch their every match though unless they are in finals or something."
"Special Box privileges!"
"Yeah, that is cool. But sometimes the match ends too fast or goes on for too long. Two years ago, I went to the Tornadoes- Cannons match. It went on for two and a half days cause the snitch wasn't caught! And I could tell within the first hour that Cannons were going to lose... badly"
"What a surprise, Cannons getting trashed," Harry said sarcastically. "What was the score in the end?"
"Tornadoes were in ninety thousand something. Canons were a grand total of 490 after catching the snitch."
Harry laughed in response. "Did you see the whole match?"
"Are you mad? Went home after three hours!"
"Thank Merlin," Harry muttered before finishing his sandwich.
"So, Miss Greengrass, would you like some ice cream now?" He asked in a gentlemanly tone.
"Of course, kind sir."
"Mint chocolate chips flavor or chocolate?" Harry asked.
"What type of question is that? Two scoops of both of course!" Daphne replied with a twinkle in her eyes and she licked her lips.
Harry choked on the air. "You mean one scoop each and thus a total of two scoops, right?"
"No, two scoops each, four in total, though I won't mind an extra scoop of Vanilla on them," Daphne replied and Harry ogled her.
"Mipsy," He called breaking out of his shock. "Can we get a huge bowl of ice cream having two scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream, two of chocolate, and one of Vanilla? And another smaller one with one chocolate and vanilla scoop?"
"Right away Harry Potter sir!" she said and the elves started to assemble a huge bowl of ice cream and a smaller one. Two minutes later, they had their ice cream on the table and Daphne dug in with gusto like a woman starving for years. She moaned as she took the bites.
"This is heavenly." She said before taking yet another bite of her ice cream. "You are the best, thank you elves!"
"Excuse me, I brought you here," Harry said dryly.
Daphne looked at him sheepishly in response. "Well, thank you to you too, Harry. Do you want to taste the Mint Choco-chip ice cream?" She asked, scooping some of the said flavor in her spoon.
"Of course," Harry replied. "Kind of you to share it." She extended her spoon towards him and Harry took a bite. It was delicious.
"Thank you." He said. Daphne grinned in response before going back to devouring her ice cream.
After a couple of bites of his chocolate, Harry extended his spoon towards Daphne's bowl to take some more mint ice cream but Daphne slapped his hand away.
"Don't steal my ice cream!"
"I am just taking one spoon."
"Get your own, mister. This is mine. I was kind enough to share one already."
"I can't eat a whole scoop! I need one spoon full."
"No," Daphne replied resolutely. Harry decided to bring forth the greatest weapon he could: Puppy dog eyes.
Daphne hesitated before sighing. "Just one." She said.
Harry grinned in triumph and took a big spoonful of ice cream and put it in his mouth, ignoring Daphne's scream of outrage. He slowly savored the taste while looking innocently at Daphne who was glaring daggers at him.
She pointed her spoon at him. "You, ice cream thief!"
Harry winked at her in response before finishing his vanilla ice cream in another bite. Daphne quickly did the same with hers, careful to keep the ice cream away from Harry who was still looking at her bowl. Once she finished her bowl clean, only a couple of minutes after Harry finished his, despite the difference in the quantity of their share, she daintily wiped her mouth clean.
That was when an elf came to them. "Master and Miss best be going back to their rooms! Curfew bes starting and bad-cat man would catch master and miss!"
"Shall we go now?" Harry asked. "Or you want another scoop of ice cream?"
"No, it is enough for today, even if you stole one scoop from mine."
"I took only two spoons!"
"Blah, blah, blah. Could've fooled me! Let's go." She said before turning to the elves. "Thank you, kind elves!"
Many of the house-elves blushed at being thanked. Harry too repeated the sentiments, and they started chorusing on how good they both were.
As they prepared to take their leave, many of the surrounding elves pressed in upon them, offering snacks to take back upstairs. Both Harry and Daphne loaded their pockets with cream cakes and pies. "Thanks a lot!" Harry said to the elves, who had all clustered around the door to say good night.
"Thanks!" Daphne repeated.
"Please bes visiting us again, Harry Potter sir and his friend Miss Daffy!"
"Of course, Daffy and I will!" Harry replied and Daphne slapped him on his shoulder as the door... Door-painting closed behind them.
"Ouch," Harry said in a hurt voice.
"Shut up you prat. Let's go back to our dorms unless you want Filch or his cat to catch us."
"We shall do this again," Harry suggested.
"Of course, the elves have invited us and I don't want to upset them. We'll go next weekend an hour earlier if you want."
"Done!"