Chapter 295: Dancing Wyrm
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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, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.
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29 November 1994, Rome, Italy
Harry stayed silent in his compartment as he felt the metallic Dragon spread its wings and fly away. He was still amazed by the way McGonagall animated and charmed the contraption, but he was a bit too distracted to care. He was just too lost in thought, replaying things in his mind.
He has been doing that a lot lately. Hell, he wasn't even reading a book when he was alone. He was just staring at the ceiling replaying things… If someone had told him just mere months previously that Lily Evans' departure would have had such an effect on him, he would have given them an incredulous look and ignored anything else they said entirely.
Which brought him to what happened with Lily Evans. The truth was that the whole confrontation happened so quickly, for too quickly for his liking. Everything happened in just one day and he didn't have the time to process and analyse everything. He tried his luck at finding the girl in the evening, was told by Daphne about Lily's collusion with Dumbledore during the feast and the redhead had forced a confrontation…
It was obviously a tactical method, a way to pressure him to make decisions without really taking the time to think clearly. If he had just a few more days of planning and investigation, he would have made different decisions… Or would he have?
That was what was making things difficult. What ifs… They were quite the distraction, weren't they?
It didn't help that he knew practically nothing about Lily's plans. The moment that she came back into his life, he wanted to have any leverage on her, a way to pressure her in case she betrayed him… A way to maybe swindle her army and hurt her influence… Anything, really, so that he wouldn't be caught off-guard if she betrayed him. Unfortunately, most of her influence was in Britain, which was too far away to make any moves and he kept getting involved in one distraction after another…
Harry didn't like the hold she had over him through her Blood Magic lessons with Daphne and wanted to balance that somehow. He had found nothing… Literally nothing. He barely knew anything about the woman, even after months of being around her. He found no pressure points, no vulnerabilities… Just the fact that she was brilliant but a little unstable, which was something that she controlled with an impressive display of discipline. Those years alone in that hellish dimension were not good for her psyche, that was for sure.
He was lucky, in a way, that the only way Lily had helped was with Daphne's lessons. If she had been an integral part of any of his plans and she had just left… Well, he would have been screwed.
Harry stiffened when someone entered his compartment before relaxing when seeing the familiar form of Daphne, "Hey Harry."
"Daph…"
"Are you excited about going to Durmstrang? They probably have the biggest library in Europe after Hogwarts. I wouldn't be surprised if you holed yourself there for the entire task…"
Harry gave her a slight smile in return but didn't respond. Daphne was obviously worried about him… He didn't blame her. Ever since the Lily incident, he hadn't really spoken to anyone, at the most a couple of sentences at the time. He was quiet and the rest of the Hogwarts delegation did notice this and preferred not to involve themselves. They were right to be wary, but it wasn't like he was going to bite their heads off on a whim.
To be fair, a change of environment might do him some good. Durmstrang was practically guaranteed to be at least entertaining, and it would keep his mind off of the confrontation with Lily.
The blonde didn't seem to be satisfied by his response, or more accurately, by his lack of one, "Harry, please. You have barely said a word for a week. I'm starting to get worried."
"It's fine Daph."
"It's not fine… I know that Lily broke your trust…"
Harry froze and spoke up, "It's not that she lied to me. I fully prepared myself for that… I knew that she wasn't some saint and that she wanted to use me somehow… We both know her history. She killed my father and thousands of other people in Godric's Hollow. She used everyone around her, and it bit her in the ass later. Hell, she even has a werewolf army in Britain… I'm not surprised that she lied to me… I just didn't expect her to leave."
That was the most damning thing. If he held even a fraction of affection for someone else and they had a fight, he would try to fix things first. He would not have left in the middle suddenly and disappeared in the wind. This was the complete opposite of what Lily did… She had essentially confirmed the fact that she couldn't be trusted by leaving so suddenly. She did not try to convince Harry that she was doing it for her own good after he calmed down. She just left…
Daphne gave him a compassionate look, "Harry, she's your mother. It's alright to miss her."
"She is not my mother," Harry exclaimed loudly before deflating, "I never considered her to be my mother. I don't think she even knew how… She was… She was like me. She could keep up with me, think like me… I never had someone like that before. It was surprisingly nice."
"Fine. But the fact remains that she broke your trust. You couldn't trust her, and she's gone… All of these things were her decisions. Sure, you said some pretty hurtful things, but she did the same… It was just the heat of the moment and you both know it."
Harry nodded. He knew that he had been slightly cruel with his words, "It's not just that. Even now, I don't know if I would have done anything differently. I would have had to take her word for it, believe her… It's not like I could ask Dumbledore about the confrontation. Logically, I made the right choice. An untrustworthy ally can cause far more harm than an enemy. For all she brings to the table, Lily has done very little for us. She was just this variable that I could rely on in the future. She could have done a lot of damage, especially if she was willing to talk to Dumbledore behind my back, no matter her intentions. But I can't help asking myself if she was telling the truth. What if her plans didn't involve me but the tournament? What if her aim was to protect me from Dumbledore, as misguided as it was? What if I threw away a valuable ally, and maybe even… for just my paranoia every time I hear Dumbledore being mentioned? What if I threw away your chances at healing your sister because I get defensive every time, I hear Dumbledore's name?"
For the first time in days, Harry really expressed how he felt about the situation, the doubt that kept crawling around in his mind, especially in those last moments before Lily left, when he used the resurrection stone in tandem with his Arcane Hearing, to get a gleam of what laid behind her chaotic song, and he felt a mixture of anger, sadness and despair, for just the fraction of a second before being swallowed by the chaos once more.
Daphne flinched at Harry's words, and he knew that he hit the nail on the head. Even he had lost a valuable ally, she had lost far more… As untrustworthy as she was, Lily was a master of blood magic and teaching Daphne was the key to healing her sister.
The blonde had sacrificed a potential cure for her sister just to tell him about Lily and he didn't know how to express his gratitude for something like that. To be perfectly honest, with the way things were going, he fully expected Daphne to just leave him to focus on studying with Lily. It was something that he didn't like thinking about too much… He dreaded that inevitable moment.
Every single day, he watched as Daphne and Lily grew closer. He knew, without a doubt, that the older witch was doing it to pressure Harry, to use his best friend as a pawn in her sick games. He hadn't liked it, but he simply couldn't tell Daphne to give up the chance at fulfilling her dream of saving her sister.
Speaking of the blonde, she was looking at him with a strange expression on her face, "We'll figure it out. We always do. I know enough about Blood Magic to get started and I could always use your help…"
"Of course, I'll help, Daph. It's the very least I could do."
"Great. Astoria will be coming to Durmstrang with the rest of my family during Yule and we could test some new charms on her to temporarily halt the curse like we did last time. Now, that we know it's possible, we could do something about it. I'll teach you what I can about blood magic… It's not really much but we'll figure something out…"
Harry smiled at her sudden enthusiasm, "Sure. I guess it's your turn to teach me something, huh? How the tables have turned…"
The girl gave him a cheeky smile, "Oh, I think I'm going to like this. I'll give you homework every day and everything. I remember you preparing us for the obstacle course last year… Let's just say that I have a lot of resentment built up."
"Whatever you say, Professor."
For some reason, Daphne blushed slightly. She stood silent for a few seconds before speaking up for the first time, "You know, there's going to be a Yule Ball before the task. I heard one of the organizers talking about it. I think it'll get announced when we get to Durmstrang…"
Harry nodded at that statement. It was probably a stipulation from Durmstrang when they split up the task. Since Beauxbatons wanted to have the opening ceremony and Hogwarts was given the last task since the ICW wanted as much time to make Britain as safe as possible, Durmstrang, as one of the main magical schools in Europe, needed something to differentiate it as well, something to bring in more attention, which was why they decided to hold the Yule Ball there.
Daphne cleared her throat and continued, "And well, since we're all invited, I wanted to ask you if you'd come with me as my date."
The last Potter immediately agreed, "Of course…"
For some reason, the young witch frowned, "No, I don't mean as a friend. I'm asking you as a date-date…"
"Oh!"
That was exactly what Harry could say in response to that. He wasn't blind. He knew that Daphne had feelings for him. She had them for a long time. He fully expected them to fizzle out a long time ago since they were too young to entertain the idea of a relationship…
He thought that those feelings had faded, but from the way Daphne's face fell at his reply, he wasn't so sure anymore, "I know that this is out of nowhere especially with what happened to your mother. I feel silly for even asking…"
Harry interrupted her, "Alright."
She tilted her head in confusion, "Alright what?"
"Alright, let's go to the Yule ball together as a date."
The smile she gave him in return brightened the entire room and any hesitation he had left disappeared at seeing her so happy.
Unfortunately, she didn't have time to say anything as the entire metallic dragon shook very badly, throwing both of them to the ground, "What the hell is going on," the blonde groaned.
Harry spread his Arcane Hearing and heard multiple songs around the dragon with malicious intent, "Our ride is getting attacked. Wake up the other students, we need to defend ourselves."
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AN: I hope this sheds some light on Harry's thoughts on the confrontation with Lily and that there is a bit of progress on the Daphne front. Anyway, things are about to get pretty serious and the next arc is pretty eventful. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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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.