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“He is back, then.”
Draco nods gravely. Daphne has seen him in countless tempers over the years, but never has he been this tense, even fearful. But well, if she was given direct orders by the darkest wizard ever, she probably wouldn’t be any different.
“I don’t want to get involved in anything.” Daphne stands up, but Draco holds her by the wrist. She recoils at the contact, but he doesn’t let go.
“Listen to me first, Daphne. Please.”
“If you don't let go of me right now...”
Fortunately, she doesn’t have to make up a second half of the threat as Draco complies, nervously running his hand through his hair. She leans straight back again and sighs.
“Explain yourself, then.”
Relief crosses his face and immediately he tells her of the Dark Lord’s plan. It’s so absurd, she doesn’t know whether to laugh or just leave.
“I just don’t know any more. She turned Blaise down. That’s a first for him - he spent the next four days nagging me with self-doubt. I thought it was the house, so I made sure Cormac McLaggen heard she fancied him. He’s still denying that he was shot down as well. It can’t be the house.” He pauses for a moment to catch his breath, which Daphne uses to think aloud.
“The two of them are objectively good-looking, and Blaise can also be charming, but they are both rather...rich in character?”
Draco shakes his head. “That’s why I thought Anthony Goldstein.” He huffs, then locks his eyes with Daphne’s. “You have to figure out what her type is.”
“Why me?” she asks.
“You’re the only one I can confide in who’s also at least on neutral terms with Granger.” Before Daphne can use her family’s neutrality as a polite excuse, he gives her a better reason. “I won’t tell anyone. If you fail, it doesn’t matter anyway, but if you succeed, I can put in a good word for you and your family if you need it.”
A coincidence could not be luckier. Umbridge will be inspecting Snape’s classes today. “So that we can present both outstanding and,” his eyes land on Potter and Weasley, “our usual best performances, you will be working in other teams today. Mister Weasley, Miss Granger will not save you from your pathetic abilities.”
Just like that, Daphne finds herself sitting at a table with Hermione Granger. She feels Draco’s gaze rest on her from behind, silently urging her to take the opportunity.
Snape tells them to get started already as he continues to wait for the pink horror. Granger doesn’t spare Daphne a glance. She sticks her nose deep into the book’s instructions and lets it there until she eventually orders without looking up, “We’ll get everything ready together, then you watch over the cauldron and I’ll make sure there’s no mistake.”
“Sounds good,” Daphne simply says.
And at that, Hermione finally looks up, surprised. “No arguing?” she wonders.
“You’re the best in class. I’m only here because I’m the best Slytherin, so Snape can make it look like you didn’t hinder me in making an excellent potion. But you’re correct, no arguing. You’ll find working with me does have its benefits.”
Working with Hermione does, too, Daphne has to admit. They work in silence for most part, with short, clear instructions every once in a while. At one point, Daphne hands her cut ginger roots and their fingers graze. For a moment Hermione stares into her eyes. It breaks when Umbridge enters the room. After she has passed them, Hermione whispers quietly to herself, “I hate her.”
“Me too.” Daphne shifts to look at Hermione for a few moments. She has her eyes trained on their cauldron, a finger in the book marking the step they’re at. “We’re not all bad people.”
“I,” she hesitates. “I know”.
If it wasn’t for Draco, Daphne would never say what she’s about to say. It’s too early, too intrusive and really none of her business. If not for him, she’d let their conversation end at this point, finish up the whole interaction with the Gryffindor, and be glad this one-time-thing was over before it got annoying to her. But it is for Draco.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you turn Blaise down, then?”
Hermione becomes stiffer and seems to lose all focus. Just as it seems that she’s about to snap, Daphne adds, “He’s been moping around for days now, says he’s too ugly, not smart enough, not classy, and all that. It’s exhausting being around him.”
“You can tell him he’s perfectly fine. It’s that I – I’m already lacking time. There’s so much homework and O.W.L.s and Harry and Ron are lost without me and there’s Umbridge and all the new rules. It’s too much for another occupation.”
Daphne tilts her head in consideration and hands Hermione a vial. “It honestly sounds like you’re truly in need of a relationship. Someone to calm your nerves, to regain some energy. That should help you stay concentrated.”
Setting down the now filled vial, Hermione scoffs. “I’m perfectly capable of managing my life on my own. If I relied on someone to stay concentrated, I wouldn’t be as concentrated any longer.”
Daphne hums in response. “You sure know what’s best for you.” She grabs her bag and stands. “It was a pleasure working with you. Goodbye.”
“Likewise,” Hermione says, then quickly averts her eyes when Daphne smiles politely before she turns.
Draco is quick to join her and accompanies her to their common room. After making sure they’re alone in a corner, he raises his eyebrows at her.
“She’d snog a book rather than any boy who’s walking these halls.”
Draco smirks. “You’re right. How I haven’t seen it before…”
Daphne squints her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“The mission wasn’t to get her a boyfriend.” The full power of his all-white teeth grin is exposed to her. “We have to get Granger a girlfriend, and Salazar, I know just the right candidate. Frankly, I know only one. I don’t know who else ticks like the lot of her.”
She narrows her eyes. “And who should that be?”
“Let’s see. She has to be clever, be able to keep up with her, be able to tell her straight to her face when she is not right or goes too far. Granger needs to respect her and wants to be challenged by her.” Draco looks at her, dead serious. “Daphne, you are a mystery to everyone who doesn’t know you - even to most of those who do. Today could have gone very differently. You just need to show interest in her and spark hers.”
“No.”
“Oh, yes.”
“I said I’m not getting involved, Draco,” Daphne says, but her words fall on deaf ears.
“You’re not getting involved with the Dark Lord. I’m asking you to get involved with Granger. I know that sounds worse at first, but I swear to you that I will do everything in my power to keep your reputation pristine. Always.”
She closes her eyes, exhales, then opens them again. “You can’t be serious. You spent years calling her things, and now you’re telling me to fake falling in love with her and thus distract her enough for a returned dark psychopath to finish his feud with Potter and take over the wizarding world again?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
If she hadn’t known him from a young age and Astoria didn’t like him so much, she would have left now and ignored him forever.
If.
She heaves a sigh. “I’m not promising anything, and however this will turn out, you,” she pokes her index finger in his chest, “owe me.”
Daphne initially opts for a very restrained approach. Whenever she sees Hermione - which is admittedly not very often - she gives her a smile. Not too big, too familiar, but something more than polite.
The first few times, Hermione doesn’t really react. When her gaze brushes Daphne, her eyes grow a little wide for a moment, but that’s it. It takes a while, yet Daphne catches her gaze more often as time goes on. Instead of a sheepish smile, however, she always receives a puzzled, frowning nod of the head.
Daphne wonders whether she should continue the game at all, when one day Hermione suddenly starts the contact. After all, this year is still the year of the first important exams, and so Daphne spends much of her time in the library. She is sitting at her essay on the usage of Aconite when someone comes to her table.
The person tries to draw attention to himself with a quiet clearing of the throat, but Daphne raises a finger of her free hand and finishes the sentence. Then she looks up and immediately forces herself to smile kindly.
Hermione stands in front of her, looking a little uncertain. “Sorry for getting you out of the writing flow.” She speaks softly, not wanting to upset Madam Pince.
“I hope it’s for a good reason,” Daphne replies, a slight pinch of irritation in her voice.
She points to a book from the pile on her table. “Flesh-Eating Trees of the World. Neville recommended it to me for Sprout’s essay on self-fertilising shrubs.”
Daphne nods slowly. “It was indeed very helpful.”
“Good. So I take it you don’t need it anymore?”
“Not for the time being, correct. If you’d like to borrow it,” Daphne fishes the book out of the pile and holds it out to Hermione, “I’ll need it back in a timely manner.”
She nods. “Of course. Thank you.”
Daphne smiles at her again, more unforced this time. Hermione returns it for the first time, and Daphne decides to directly take another step. “You’re welcome, Hermione.”
The next morning, Daphne visits the library again after breakfast. To her surprise, she is not the first, as usual.
Hermione sees her immediately, jumps up and rushes to her, Flesh-Eating Trees of the World in her hands. "Thank you again. It's amazing how much is in there."
Daphne takes it from her. “When I said ‘in a timely manner’, I didn’t mean that you should work through it all night instead of sleeping.”
“I didn’t-” Hermione starts defensively, but Daphne stops her.
“Fine, you got two hours of sleep. That doesn’t change anything. I didn’t need it back that soon, and now you can’t study as much today because of me.”
Hermione shakes her head in a way that is probably meant to be reassuring. “I’m used to sleep only a couple of hours.” Still, she can barely stifle a yawn.
“That’s not healthy,” Daphne says promptly. She chews on her lower lip in thought. “What’s on your study plan for today?”
“Giant wars. Why?”
“I’ll collect everything important about it and write it down for you while you catch up on some sleep. No objections. We both strive to finish at a high level. I’ll do this properly.”
Looking more tired than suspicious, Hermione mutely nods.
“Your notes are perfect,” Hermione whispers in awe later that day. “I can’t thank you enough for that.”
“They are supposed to be useful to me, too, after all,” Daphne chuckles softly. “I have been thinking about something.” Hermione raises a curious brow and she continues, “We should study together. I’m certain we’d be more effective that way and could reduce the amount of time you have to put into it. Time you can use sleeping instead.”
Something wary shines in her eyes as they divert from the notes to Daphne’s and the Slytherin colours of her tie and chest emblem before settling on her eyes again. Eyes that perform a roll while Daphne covers her house colours with her hands, expectant expression on her face.
“That idea could work out, perhaps,” Hermione eventually agrees.
“We’re on regular speaking terms now,” Daphne tells Draco back in the dungeons.
“Wow. Even you and I are not.”
“And I’d like to keep it that way,” Daphne says sweetly and disappears into her dormitory.
Over the course of a few weeks and meetings, they become sort of friends. If you can call it that. It’s not like they exchange a lot of words about themselves or what’s happening in their respective lives. Instead, they make meticulous study plans and keep to them – it’s what they’ve agreed on, after all.
But they still get closer, often initiated by small incidents. Like Hermione’s stomach growls and Daphne forcing a break to get some food (studying while being hungry isn’t good). These short breaks come with small talk, and Daphne has to admit that Hermione is actually rather likeable.
One day, Umbridge closes the library for all students while she goes through all the books and decides which can stay and which can’t. Being unable to study, Daphne initiates a free-time afternoon.
“We are ahead of our schedule anyway, Hermione. There’s no need to be this miffed.”
She huffs. “I know we’re ahead, and I’d very much keep it that way. And I’m not ‘miffed’, just annoyed that Umbridge couldn’t announce what she was going to do. We could’ve gotten the books we need and studied somewhere else.” Starting to walk away, she turns to Daphne. “Well, see you next week.”
But Daphne calls after her. “Hermione, wait!” Hermione comes to a stop, a question lingering on her lips, but Daphne cuts her to it. “When was the last time you spent some time on your own? Without a book or other school work.”
Very surprised by the question, she thinks of an answer, but can’t come up with one. “I-I… That’s how I decide to spend my time,” she settles on instead. “All I need is a book.”
Daphne shakes a head, a compassionate smile grazing her features. She holds out a hand. “Follow me.”
“Where to?”
“Just do it.” Daphne wiggles her fingers lightly and Hermione slowly takes her hand, her expression unsure.
Daphne smiles again, squeezes Hermione’s hand, and leads her outside. To have a change in scenery and get some fresh air, she drags her for a walk around the Hogwarts’ grounds.
It isn’t autumn quite yet. The heat of summer, however, has already given space to a cool breeze and cloudy sky. It’s pleasant. They stroll across the meadows and hills, and Daphne risks a side glance to see Hermione taking it all in.
“I thought you’ve kept yourself for too long in that dusty castle,” she softly tells her.
Hermione briefly looks at her. Her eyes have already lost some tension. “I’ve almost forgotten how beautiful it is out here.”
They come to a halt under a tree and both lie down. Not talking all that much, they stay like that for a long time in comfortable silence. Until Hermione exhales soundly and turns to look at Daphne.
“Thank you,” is all she says, and Daphne can see how sincere she is.
From that day on, Daphne drags Hermione away from whatever she’s doing on a daily basis for a break (and somehow Hermione always goes with her, albeit a little reluctantly) and walks around with her.
It’s on these walks where they open up to each other. It starts with Hermione inquiring why sacred-28-heiress-Daphne is so kind to Mudblood-her. Daphne simply explains her family’s neutrality and views (Muggles aren’t seen as inferior, bad animals).
With that out of the way, nothing hinders a blossoming friendship.
The spent time in the fresh air makes Hermione more tired and she gets more sleep, all the while she really studies more effectively with Daphne. Her quality of life has improved significantly and she’s in a much better mood overall. She’s more relaxed, more focused, and even Ron seems to be glad that Hermione feels better – even if it’s because of a Slytherin.
“Do you want to join us?”
Hermione has just told Daphne about the DA. She’s nervously observing Daphne. She looks so hopefully expectant; it hurts her to decline.
“It’s better when I stay out of it,” she says and Hermione’s expression falls. “But I appreciate your openness about that. I really do.”
“You know, I,” she bites her lip and Daphne has to concentrate to tear her eyes back up to Hermione’s. “I trust you, Daphne.”
Daphne smiles and hugs her.
Hermione admitted she trusts her. Daphne thinks that although she was supposed to fake getting close to her, Hermione does can trust her. And she trusts Hermione. And when she thinks furthermore on the girlfriend aspect, she has to also admit that Hermione is actually pretty. Beautiful, even.
“I trust you, too,” she whispers in Hermione’s ear and imagines Hermione shivers slightly.
It is true. Hermione has become a constant in her everyday life and she realises she spends a lot of her time with her or thinks about her when she doesn’t.
She’s becoming sort of obsessed.
She’s developing sort of feelings.
She’s having sort of a crush.
She tells Draco as much. He isn’t happy – fulfilling Voldemort’s plan isn’t going to work as he intended to; it’s actually making Hermione and thus Ron and Harry stronger. However, if Hermione gets a partner, he has done what he was supposed to. Daphne tells him that he has to work out his very own view on what is happening in the world, on his own views.
“I wouldn’t put too much weight on that. I’ve heard stories, Draco, you should… You should work out your view on what is and could be happening in the world and figure out what you own views are. The Dark Lord’s side is a risk.”
In the next couple months, Hermione starts to get touchier with Daphne, starting with holding hands on their walks, brushing legs when they sit at a table studying together, hugging her after having written an exam.
On one walk, Daphne squeezes her hand a little. Hermione looks her in the eyes, then follows Daphne’s gaze down to their joint hands. It’s the first time they so much as acknowledge the fact that they’ve become rather touchy.
“I have to tell you something,” Daphne quietly starts.
“Me too – and I’d like to go first.” Hermione waits for her sign of approval before continuing. “Remember our first conversation? You asked me why I rejected Blaise and I said I lacked the time. It wasn’t only that.” Her thumb drifts across the back of Daphne’s hand. Daphne looks at her, but Hermione keeps her eyes trained on their hands.
“I’m not interested in him, or McLaggen, or any other boy.”
Daphne hugs her, then holds her hand again and walks along, but doesn’t say anything at first. She takes a few more seconds before she does.
“I figured as much. And we’re on the same page here.”
At this, Hermione stops dead in her tracks and pulls Daphne’s arm to turn her around.
“Hermione,” Daphne whispers and her breath falls on Hermione’s lips. Lips that are so close they are blurry.
Then Hermione kisses her.
From then on, their walks turn into snogging sessions in the woods, their study sessions however remain as effective as always – they finish even in shorter time because then they have more time to spend entangled with each other. If Hermione was doing better when Daphne became her friend, she’s now floating.
That shows especially during the ministry night. She made Harry stay focused enough on the task ahead with his occlumency lessons with Snape. Due to this, he knew Voldemort played a trick on him when he showed Sirius. They contacted the Order and then went to the ministry, better prepared. Hermione managed to cast a spell to save Sirius from Bellatrix. It’s a defeat for Voldemort that night – he’s public.
And Hermione returns to her Daphne.