Chapter 60: Grass of Emerald

If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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6 June 1992, Hogwarts

For the hundredth time ever since she met him, Daphne Greengrass reevaluated her opinion on Harry Potter. However, if there was something she was certain of, it would be that he was unlike any other boy she had ever met. It was hard to explain it. He had this presence. Whenever he walked into a room, people noticed. Whenever he spoke, everyone listened. That's not even speaking of his frankly absurd skill in magic. Seriously, he tried to downplay it slightly, but it was like putting a small dam to hold an ocean. Magic was something instinctive. Downplaying it just was like downplaying a part of your own personality.

When she first met Potter, she didn't really think anything of him. He was just some quiet bookworm, that was probably destined to be in Ravenclaw. Sure, the Potter family was famous, well, mostly infamous because of the fire of Godric's Hollow, to which Harry was the only survivor, somehow. But as for the family itself, it wasn't really anything special. It was relatively old, not really impressive, especially considering Daphne's own roots to the druids during the time of Camelot. They were about as old as the Malfoy family, who became ennobled in France, just a couple of centuries before the statute of secrecy forced them to give away their titles.

The Potter family were mostly a family of relatively wealthy potion masters, that tended to grow the family fortune with their invention, up until the last few wars, of course. Charlus Potter had, for some reason, spent a significant amount of wealth in the war against Grindelwald. According to her grandmother's diary, who was a year younger than him in school, it was completely out of character for him. He was known as a calm and very business minded man, but he seemed desperate in stopping Grindelwald for some reason.

James Potter had followed in his father's footsteps and practically donated most of what remained of his fortune in the fight against the Dark Lord. By the end of it, there was probably not going to be a lot of wealth left. So, in summary, Harry Potter was relatively well off for the average wizard or witch, but not nearly as wealthy as any formerly noble house. He wasn't supposed to be remarkable; he wasn't supposed to be smart. He definitely wasn't supposed to have the oddest magical crest she had ever heard of.

No, he was supposed to be an average boy that was born into a progressive oriented family, that would go to either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. He wasn't supposed to go to Slytherin with her. He wasn't supposed to become one of her dearest friends. And yet, what was supposed to happen doesn't matter at all, what does is what actually happens.

And so, out of nowhere, they became friends. They just clicked. Tracy, Blaise, Daphne, and Harry just started by going to class together, and after a while, they just clicked. Hogwarts without Harry would just be wrong, something that he had experienced in the last few days.

Harry had gone to the Defense Against the Dark Arts practical exams. He was oddly jittery. Harry was always very confident during his exams. He aced them without a second's thought; he was a genius after all. Even if it was weird how Quirrell had decided to single him out for his practical exams, Daphne had chalked it up to the cowardly professor having forgotten about him or just wanted to assign him another test. Well, when Harry didn't return the following night, Daphne, Blaise, and Tracy went to their head of house and told him about their missing friend. The man had swept the castle and found Harry in the destroyed defence classroom, completely unconscious. The potion master ended up sending him to the infirmary, before running off the forbidden corridor for some reason.

No one had told her what had happened to Harry, nor why he was unconscious, only that he was in a magical coma for having strained his magical channels. Quirrell had disappeared, and Neville Longbottom was also in the infirmary for some reason.

No one would tell her anything. There were a few rumours that Weasley had spread, that Longbottom had fought Quirrell in the forbidden corridor for some reason, something about a Cerberus, deadly plants, and a giant chess match. But there was nothing about Harry at all. No one even noticed his disappearance, with the boy who lived being hospitalized as well. The ones that did notice, thought that Harry had duelled Longbottom for some reason, and they all ended up getting hurt. The close timings between the injuries weren't a coincidence. But for some reason, everyone kept talking about Longbottom's adventure in the Forbidden Corridor, nothing more.

They had been allowed to visit him. He was so pale, so peaceful. Daphne had never seen him like this. There was always this gleam of intelligence in his eyes. He was always either frowning while thinking about so spell or another, or he was slightly smiling when they all hung out together. Without them, he just looked wrong. Without Harry, Hogwarts felt wrong, empty in a way that she couldn't describe.

Oh, he wasn't perfect, not by a long shot. No, Harry was as flawed as they came. He was as socially dumb as he was a genius in matters of magic. He would always deny it, but he acted arrogantly sometimes, especially when it concerned his magical studies. He was so secretive and spent a lot of time alone. It had hurt her at first, thinking that he just didn't want to hang out with them, but after he started to put more time aside to spend with them, she understood that it was just his nature. He liked to spend time with his own company to destress, in a way. Although, she was curious about what he kept doing on his own. Sometimes she wanted to grab him by the throat and force him to tell her his secret. But no, this would spoil all the fun of figuring them out.

Daphne had even discovered one of his secrets; he was muggle-raised. She was kinda proud of that one, to be honest. Harry had done a good job at keeping it under wraps. He was obviously knowledgeable about the magical world, but that could just be him being smart enough to not show any sign of ignorance. But yeah, there were a few muggle terms here and there, and he almost never spoke of his guardians. It took a few months, and Daphne had concluded about the fact that as a Half-Blood, he was as likely to be raised by his mother's muggle family as to be raised in a wizarding home.

She felt strangely closer to him when she realized that. With every piece of the puzzle that she discovered, she liked him more and more.

Even now, as she stayed in the infirmary, with a nice book in her hands, Daphne kept thinking of him. Blaise had stopped going after three days, he wouldn't wake up. Tracy stopped coming after a week. But not Daphne. She would stay at his side until he woke up. Well, she would have, if it wasn't for the evil Madam Pomfrey that only allowed her to come for an hour a day. It was originally just fifteen minutes, but Daphne had worn down the evil Matron. Still, according to her, he had woken up a few days earlier when the headmaster was visiting. They spoke for a few minutes where Harry recounted his side of whatever happened, and then the Potter scion fell asleep once more. And they still wouldn't tell her anything…

Longbottom had woken up a couple of days back and came back completely fine. Apparently, Harry's condition was far more severe than the boy who lived. It was almost the end of the year feast, and Harry still hadn't woken up. They were leaving the castle in a few days and Daphne dreaded leaving the castle without making sure he was alright. She had never known anyone who had been in the hospital wing after the school year. Would he be transferred to Saint Mungo's where she could still visit him? Or would he stay in the castle alone, under Madam Pomfrey's care?

Daphne's frankly depressing thoughts were interrupted when she heard a soft hooting and looked up from the book with a slight smile, "He's really taking his time, isn't he, Hedwig?"

The owl bobbed her head. She really was as remarkably intelligent as the owner. She had somehow been able to sneakily visit her owner and would not let him leave her sight. That is until the evil Madam Pomfrey kept trying to hex her. Apparently, 'pets weren't allowed in her infirmary'. Still, whenever she was chased away, she snuck back in hours later. For some reason, the wards in the hospital wing just wouldn't stop her. The matron had given up after a few days and a tentative peace between the witch and the owl was made. Hedwig would not make a ruckus, and Madam Pomfrey would not try to hex her.

The snowy owl was often her only companion whenever she visited her friend, and she curled up next to her whenever she was there. Hedwig hooted softly in answer and jumped towards her owner. She gave him a gentle peck on the forehead.

Daphne didn't know why she chose this moment to do it when she hasn't touched Harry ever since he was in the hospital wing. Her doubts were immediately shattered when Harry started to frown and mumbled, "Stop it, Hedwig."

She practically leapt from her seat and enveloped Harry in a hug, "HARRY! You're awake!!"

The black-haired boy frowned, "Of course, I'm awake, why wouldn't I be awake?"

"You were hurt remember?"

"Oh yeah, Quirrell attacked me. I think I talked to Dumbledore somewhere in the middle of it."

"Wait a minute, go back to the part where you got attacked!!" Daphne shrieked.

"Well, I went to the exam, and everything was normal and then he declared himself to be some kind of dark wizard, that he was going to take over the world and all that stuff…"

Wait, what? Daphne was baffled. She must have heard it wrong, because Quirrell, a dark wizard? That was just insane. She thought he was some cowardly thief that wanted to steal something from the forbidden corridor, not a full-blown evil wizard.

"Quirrell?" she repeated, wanting to make sure that he wasn't joking.

Well, he started explaining one of the single most outlandish stories she had ever heard. Apparently, Quirrell was the one drinking unicorn blood and had attacked him before when he also ended up in the hospital wing. Harry for some reason chose not to tell anyone about the fact that he obviously figured out who attacked him in the first place. Quirrell then decided for some reason to make Harry his apprentice? Or maybe he wanted Harru to be his servant? Harry had said no, and then they fought, Harry lost, and he was hit with a spell that forced his body to expel all of the magic inside at once, and then some, which was why he was in a coma. Apparently, the man tried to steal something from the forbidden corridor and ended up being stopped by Longbottom.

Daphne really wished she could grab that turban wearing freak and strangle him to death. Still, she chose not to think too much about it, especially considering the fact that she was just overjoyed that Harry was back. She was going to grill him on this later.

After a few gruelling tests by the matron, Harry was cleared to leave and go to the feast a few days later. Even if Dumbledore was biased enough to give Gryffindor almost two hundred points because Longbottom and his lackeys decided to break the rules and still go to the forbidden corridor. But that didn't really matter to Daphne. Harry was back, and that was enough for her.

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AN:

Look, for those who are frustrated about Harry's actions so far, and the whole points thing, I understand your frustrations and you're perfectly right to have them, but you have to understand the context of this story.

I designed this story with the idea of what a real insert would do in their place. People, normal people, at least, aren't brave and the world isn't going to work in their favour immediately. The main premise is to have an emotionally repressed man that has lived an empty life, learn to actually live in a world of magic. If anyone suddenly was reincarnated as Harry Potter, they would be terrified. They wouldn't go about to challenge the literal Archmage that's basically in charge of an entire political faction for no reason, and they certainly wouldn't rock the boat towards the man who could literally ruin their life since they're a ward of the ministry. And he wouldn't really try to do it with Skeeter or the ministry since, you know, no sane politician or corrupt journalist would go after the strongest wizard in the world for the sake of some kid.

The only way would be for Harry to go to Dumbledore's enemies, which are 'imperioused Death Eaters', a monumentally bad idea. Anyone in this situation would keep their head down and enjoy their life.

What I've been trying to make this year was essentially the MC accepting that he was going to be involved and learn to stop cowering from Canon. That was the entire purpose, as well as an introduction to the larger world of magic. He's not supposed to demolish governments at 11 and surpass the literal most powerful wizard in the country at 12. That's not how it works. It has to be gradual, but he'll get there.

I'm making this story an exploration of the world of magic, which is far larger than magical Britain. Honestly, my decision to have Dumbledore do the thing with the points isn't random. There's a Dumbledore POV coming up and it will explain a lot of things, and that's when things derail. Already, in the second year, Harry will be acting very differently and that's really the point of the story, to have the character learn and grow.

He will start ignoring Neville and the golden trio and the story will be more about him. You noticed how the BWL was a big part of the first year because Harry was technically thinking about Canon and how to preserve and stay away. The moment he decided to just ignore Canon and just live his life, his obsession with the golden trio, which he denies to himself exists, fades away, and he starts to live his life, and not through Canon.

I don't know if people really got where I wanted to go, but you can't really start a story with a perfect character. It would just be bland, and that irritation people feel when he makes a wrong decision wouldn't really be there. Characters need to change for the better or for the worst, and they need to resemble actual people instead of some bland personality that just wins all the time and where everything goes his way. I know this was a bit of a long note but I hope this clarified my decisions a bit.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.