How Strange Daphne Is
The Ravenclaw common room was as quiet as ever. The only sounds were the scratching of quills and the constant tapping against inkpots.
It wasn't exactly strange to see everyone in this House focused on their studies.
That was how it was supposed to be.
If not for the existence of Harry and his group, that is—brilliant, yes, incredibly so, but also experts at attracting chaos wherever they went. Almost like the main characters of a novel or something.
But that day, the group that was usually far noisier remained completely silent.
The three of them stared at Daphne with expressions of utter bewilderment. She was so focused on her homework that she seemed to have forgotten they even existed.
If it had been Hermione, no one would have thought anything of it.
But this was Daphne Greengrass.
It didn't take long before the rest of Ravenclaw started noticing as well. Daphne had always been an outstanding student. In fact, she'd held fourth place in their year ever since arriving at Hogwarts. The odd part was that she was also one of the people who hated doing homework the most.
Terry walked over to the group, who were still silently staring at their friend while exchanging glances, as though carrying on a conversation with nothing but their eyes, each silently urging the others to ask Daphne what on earth was wrong with her.
"Er...?" Terry interrupted that strange wordless conversation. "Is Greengrass okay?" was all he managed to ask after seeing Daphne like this.
Before any of the three could answer, Daphne, without lifting her eyes from the parchment, spoke.
"That's very rude, Boot," she said in a rather cold tone.
The emotionless way she said it made Terry snap his mouth shut immediately.
For a second, anyone who knew Lord Greengrass would have thought they were looking at a much younger...
...and female version of him.
And, of course, Harry, Hermione, and Draco couldn't help staring at their friend.
That look...
It was so unmistakably Uncle Edward's.
"Don't you have things to do? You should be finishing your homework right now," she said, finally looking up, surrounded by an icy air, especially in her eyes.
That alone was enough to make Terry straighten up instantly.
For one brief second, he was absolutely convinced that disobeying that order would freeze his soul solid.
"Yes, ma'am."
Terry hurried back to his seat at once. His little break seemed to have ended right then and there, and he immediately started moving his quill with remarkable speed.
Daphne watched him for a few more seconds before letting out a quiet huff and returning to her own work.
Harry and the others, who had witnessed the whole thing, were even more bewildered than before, and resumed exchanging looks.
If someone had been able to translate that silent conversation of glances, it probably would've sounded something like this:
"Ask her."
"No way. You ask her."
"Don't be idiots. Maybe something's bothering her. I've never seen her... this focused on homework before."
"Then you ask her."
"And why should it be me?"
"You're supposed to be her best friend."
*"You two are too, you know, Ash."
Hermione shot the two idiots in front of her an exasperated look.
Then she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
She turned around.
Daphne was staring directly at them with that same cold look from before.
And somehow...
It felt dangerous.
The three of them couldn't help swallowing nervously.
Even though Harry and Draco were supposed to be the strongest students at Hogwarts after last year's tournament.
Hermione couldn't take it anymore. She cleared her throat and walked over to her friend, who was now looking directly at her.
"Um... Daphne... did something happen?" Hermione asked gently.
Daphne didn't even change her expression.
"No," she answered curtly before returning her attention to her homework.
"Are you sure?" Hermione pressed.
"Very sure," Daphne replied almost instantly, making it clear she wasn't going to say anything else.
Hermione could only turn back toward her two friends, completely at a loss, gesturing for them to do something.
Seeing that, Harry let out a sigh.
Finally deciding to stop being a coward, he stepped forward.
"Why are you acting like this, Daphne? You're scaring Terry," Harry said, pointing towards the corner where Boot was doing his homework with a miserable expression, occasionally throwing nervous glances their way.
"That just means he's using his time better than he was five minutes ago," Daphne answered again without looking up.
Harry fixed her with a rather serious look.
"So that's how you want it to be, huh?" he said, refusing to be intimidated by his friend.
Daphne didn't reply.
She simply kept writing while Harry continued staring at her.
"If I remember correctly, you were pretty happy about that Draught of Peace not long ago. Where is it now?" Harry suddenly asked.
That made Daphne's quill stop for barely a second.
But then it immediately resumed its rhythm as if nothing had happened.
Of course Harry noticed.
"The intoxicating effect," Harry murmured.
This time, Daphne's quill trembled slightly again.
At that, Harry's smile grew a little as he tilted his head in amusement.
"Ooooh, right. You said you were going to use it on someone for fun, and I recommended a certain trainee professor..."
Before Harry could finish, Daphne slowly raised her eyes and stared at him, still wearing that expressionless look.
Harry held her gaze with a small smile filled with amusement and mockery.
For several seconds, no one said a word.
Then...
Daphne's ears began turning completely red.
Then it spread to her cheeks.
Until it reached her entire face, as though she'd suddenly remembered something utterly embarrassing.
Then, out of nowhere...
"Haaaa!" Daphne screamed and threw the table at Harry along with all her homework.
Then she turned around, ready to escape.
But Harry raised both hands, stopping everything instantly, leaving the objects floating in the air...
And Daphne herself as well.
But before he could celebrate catching her, Daphne suddenly pulled out her wand, as though in a desperate moment of fighting for her freedom.
"Glacius Tria!" she shouted as an icy blast erupted from her wand, instantly freezing everything it passed over and filling the area with a bitter cold.
Harry raised two fingers from one hand, and a wall rose from the floor just in time to defend him from the spell.
The stone wall was instantly covered in solid ice.
Even icicles began growing all around it.
The nearby students couldn't help widening their eyes for a moment before quickly moving away from the danger zone.
But Daphne didn't seem to want to fight.
She seemed far more interested in escaping completely.
So, taking advantage of the fact that Harry had lost sight of her and she'd fallen back to the floor once she stopped floating, she turned around and ran.
But Harry, behind the now-frozen wall, spread both hands, and metal chains shot out from the centre of the wall to catch Daphne.
Hearing the clinking sound of them approaching, Daphne pointed her wand beneath her arm and, looking over her shoulder, shouted:
"Ventus!"
A powerful blast of wind erupted from her wand, causing the chains to veer away under the force of the gale.
The wind began tearing through the entire common room, sending books and parchments flying while the students scrambled for cover beneath the nearest tables.
Suddenly, from behind Harry's wall, a red mist surged upward and raced towards Daphne at full speed.
Of course Daphne knew that was Harry himself using his mist form.
So she moved her gaze around, carefully following the path the mist was taking.
Then she stopped, raised her wand to her lips, and blew hard.
The gale she'd already released now seemed to mix with snow until it suddenly became a full snowstorm, slamming into Harry's mist and forcing it backwards.
Even when he tried to dodge the blizzard by moving from side to side, Daphne simply moved her wand and kept blowing.
That forced Harry to return to his physical form, now covered in snow, even beneath his clothes.
Harry wiped the snow from his face just in time to see Daphne already almost at the entrance to the girls' section.
"Hermione!" he managed to shout instinctively.
But Daphne was already smiling.
She only needed another couple of steps.
Just as she was about to cross the threshold, Hermione, having correctly predicted where Daphne would try to escape, was already there with her wand raised.
She immediately fired a spell at the floor beneath Daphne's feet, which suddenly turned into something resembling quicksand.
It caught Daphne by surprise.
Long enough for Hermione to leap on top of her and pin her down.
"Hermione?... Wai—"
Before she could throw her friend off...
Hermione shouted:
"Draco, chains!"
An order.
Draco, who had already raised his wand before Hermione even spoke, flicked it, and dozens of gold coins flew towards Daphne.
As they travelled through the air, they instantly melted into liquid gold before reshaping themselves into chains.
Daphne, twisting beneath Hermione as she tried to throw her off, attempted to raise her wand to deflect the chains.
But Harry was faster.
"Expelliarmus!" he shouted, swinging his wand and sending the Disarming Charm towards his friend.
Her wand flew from her hand instantly, just before the chains wrapped around her.
"Aaah! Let me go, you idiots!" Daphne screamed, now trapped by the chains as she thrashed angrily.
Then Harry approached, still brushing away the snow that had gotten inside his clothes, and moved closer to Daphne with an evil smile.
"So..." Harry said slowly as he stared down at her.
"It was Viktor."
That made Daphne freeze for a moment.
"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!!!"
"So it was Viktor," Draco let out.
Harry's smile widened even more.
Now he had no doubts at all.
Hermione, meanwhile, was watching everything with an expression full of interest.
"SHUT UP!! Idiots, morons, playboys, narcissists, empty-headed fools...!"
Daphne began throwing insults at her friends, though they seemed to ignore her completely, letting her scream whatever she wanted until she finally calmed down.
None of the three seemed willing to release her until they discovered why the hell mentioning Viktor Krum caused such a reaction.
And, of course, because teasing Daphne was proving to be incredibly fun when she was usually the one teasing them.
Meanwhile, the other students slowly emerged from their hiding places, looking around at the now half-destroyed common room before turning towards the four people who had caused all of it.
Well, technically, it had only been Harry and Daphne's fight.
But as always, it was easier to throw all four of them into the same group.
The good news was that Daphne had returned to normal.
The bad news was that the common room had too.