Chapter 6

Daphne was nothing like the one from the tons of fanfictions I had read. She was gentle, soft spoken and studious. A shy girl from a pureblood family with immense influence.

She had approached me for another reason. She wanted assistance in understanding transfiguration and potions theory. Her hesitance for asking directly was understandable.

Slytherin was a house with rapidly worsening reputation. Since Voldemort was a Slytherin himself, everyone in the house was deemed as evil and a follower of the dark lord. It was idiotic. Despite Sirius Black being innocent, everyone believed him to be a follower of Voldemort and he was a Gryffindor. Who thought bigotry could be bigoted against bigotry. Or, is it always like that? Huh.. A new saying. Bigotry begets bigotry.

Anyway, she was a little surprised that I didn't outright reject her. But I didn't clarify. It was interesting talking to her. But, I couldn't help myself and talked to her like an adult and hoped she wasn't weirded out.

As strange as it was for everyone else around, a friendship was formed between a Gryffindor and a Slytherin. I could only imagine the concequences.

We began hanging out in the library and were sometimes paired during the classes. Nothing much, kids being kids. As both of us were kinda reserved, I had to push myself to have fun and make Daphne open up.

I tought her about the muggle world and all the amazing things humans have created. Daphne wasn't a fan of wizzards chess as it was too barbaric. So, we spent time playing muggle games. In the end, all I wanted was for her to smile more and losen up so that she could make more friends.

Daphne wanted to be a world renowned potioneer. Atleast, that's what she told me. It was a well hidden fact that her sister suffered from a blood malediction. From my guess she wanted to find a cure. A naive and innocent goal really. But, she was determined and it showed when she was studying.

Then, one day she brought another girl with her. Tacey Davis, perhaps the only half-blood of my year in Slytherin. The two had hit it off quite well. I was happy that she finally made a friend who had the same mental age.

The three of us hung out for a while..

Until.. Daphne and Tracey began spending more of their time with Pansey Parkinson and her gang.

My thoughts on it? Well, I understood her, again. Childern aren't as complex as adults. It was plain to me that Daphne distanced herself from me because she wanted to belong among her house mates.

I wasn't hurt.. okay, just a little. But, I shouldn't have expected much. It was evident that others were giving her a hard time because she was my friend.

I moved on..

We were still paired together in a few classes but we didn't converse, at all. We had mutual understanding and that was enough.

Then came the cursed day of Halloween.

It was charms class and I was busy doing tricks with my feather. Flitwick had just gotten back up on his pile of books after he flipped when I demonstrated the spell.

".. It's no levio-sar, it's levi-O-sa."

Ah.. the iconic scene of Hermione showing Ron who wears the pants in their relationship.

Oh wait.. wrong movie.

Later that night, I couldn't see Hermione at the Gryffindor table.

'So the dumbass opened his mouth.'

The said dumbass was stuffing his mouth like a pig.

As I finished having my fill of tasteless English food, Quirrell burst through the doors of the Great Hall.

"Troll! Troll in the dungeons! Thought you ought to know."

He dramatically fell down as he feigned an episode of fainting from fear or shock. The entire hall was thrown into chaos and panic.

"Quiet!" Dumbledore yelled after using sonorous charm.

"Prefects of the houses, please escort the students back to the common rooms. Teachers, follow me ro the dungeons."

I always wondered what would have happened if Harry was never friends with Ron. For starters, Hermione would be dead because with or without Harry, Ron was a douche and would have insulted Hermione anyway.

I focused and sensed Hermione sitting inside a stall in the girls washroom on the second floor. Good that she wasn't using it.

'I need to be more careful..'

It wasn't hard to sneak away in all the chaos. I teleported to Hermione just in time to watch her scream and hide inside a stall to avoid the troll's club.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" I yelled and made the troll lose his club. Hermione peaked out of the broken stall and watched on as I let the club fall and hit the troll on his head.

The dumb creature was down from just a wack on his head by mother gravity.

"I-Is it dead?" Hermione asked as she hesitantly made her way towards me.

"No.. just unconscious. Are you fine? Did you get hurt?"

Hermione shook her head vigorously as she began to tear up. I knew that I wouldn't be able to escape the radar of teachers if she began crying so I grabbed her arm and dashed away from the bathroom.

Evading the teachers was easy using my observation. We made it to the Gryffindor common roon with none the wiser. All in all, a eventful night. I perhaps made a new friend and avoided being labled as a troublesome brat.

Back in the common room..

"How did you know I was there? Why did you come to save me? How are you so good at magic? Were you really trained by Dumbledore? What books have you read so far? Do you..?!"

I had to stop her from asking more questions by firmly placing my falm over her mouth.

I whispered, "The girls were talking about you crying all day in the second floor girls washroom. I came to get you because there was a troll on the lose and we all were supposed to be in our common rooms. No, I was not trained by Dumbledore. I am good at magic because I practice and study in my free time. I haven't read anything outside of the recommended books. Now, does that answer all of your questions?"

Hermione nodded rapidly against my palm.

"Now, I am going to retract my hand from your mouth but only on one condition, no more questions. Are we clear?"

Again, she nodded and I freed her.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she looked at me and said while smiling slightly, "Thank you. I can't imagine what that troll would have done to me."

I shrugged and said, "Well, given his strength, he would have bludgeoned you into a bloody human paste of bone and flesh."

The mental picture of it was enough to make to poor girl scared and green.

I coughed and gave her a glass of water and then said, "Next time, don't go around on your own. Being a muggleborn, you're not fully aware of what kind of dangers exist in the magical world and may even ignore some warnings, thinking they are ridiculous. And, don't worry about what idiots like Ron say about you, okay?"

She smiled and nodded as colour returned to her face. (A/N: I don't know why my keypad suggested nipples instead of face...)

I leaned towards her and whispered in her ear, "Between you and me, I slipped in a large amount of laxatives into is pumpkin juice."

Hermione gasped and looked at me, eyes wide with shock and a spark of joy.

With a wink and a smirk, I turned around and walked to my dorm as I heard her laugh uproariously.

It was.. quite a rewarding experience.