"That was AMAZING!" Hermione bounded forward and wrapped Harry in her patented, Hermione Granger, 'Harry is awesome' hug number three.
Daphne wasn't far behind her, eyes shining like beacons, a massive smile plastered on her normally reserved face.
"The way - every - single - group - invited you to sit with them! And Malfoy apologising. He actually apologised! In public! Oh, I could sing!"
"Don't," Daphne said, though she didn't look too far from singing herself.
Harry put Hermione down, also grinning like a loon. "It was quite amusing, yes."
The dusty shelves of the room for hidden things stretched off in each direction. The midnight sky shone beams of moonlight through suspiciously large windows. Trippy the drugged house elf lay stunned and bound in Harry's trunk where she'd been for the past few hours.
The evening had been one long meet and greet, her lord flittering between all the different factions, cliques, and interest groups of Slytherin house. When Harry had sat down with their group, it had taken every power she had not to jump hug him right there and then.
Harry then turned and drew Daphne into a similarly deep hug, the blonde witch happily returning it. "You were amazing too, Daph. That look you gave me up there could've frozen fiendfyre."
Hermione noticed the light red dusting on the Heiress's cheeks, but ignored it for the moment. She bounced up and down on the tips of her feet. "And the best part is they think they've got you pegged now. They have no idea!"
Daphne seemed to reluctantly pull away. "I hate to pour water on the party, but I did try to find a painting for our divination project this afternoon. All the divination knowledge in them has been locked up by a Wizengamot approved alteration to the Albion magics."
Harry snapped his fingers. "Damn. There's another avenue closed." He sighed and then instantly grinned again. "Oh well, we'll see what the Black Library turns up."
"Ooo, Harry." Hermione bounced back in, "That spell flicking thing you did. When you reflected my spell against me. What was that?"
"That, Hermione, was spell swatting. Think of it like parrying with a sword. It uses far less magic than a shield, but requires a lot more skill."
"Can you teach me?"
Harry smiled and shook his head. "Sorry, but it takes a large chunk of time to teach. I am teaching Ginny, but I have whole nights to teach her."
Hermione pouted and made a mental note to judge the worthiness of this 'Ginny.' So far, she only had brief scraps of Harry's memories from the second timeline and what she'd seen hadn't impressed her.
Harry continued, "It's a good thing that I can pull it off. If I couldn't, I wouldn't be nearly as able to take out those duelling members with just my holly wand," he flicked his wrist and held it up. "A good chunk of my capabilities is tied up in my yew wand." He flicked his other wrist to bring the longer, more ornate wand to his other hand, twirled it a few times, and ran his fingers along the intricate carvings along the handle.
Daphne shrugged. "Still, it provides a nice contrast doesn't it? Lord Slytherin is the power and Harry Potter is the skill. I don't remember you ever spell swatting when you fought Volf and his cronies as Lord Slytherin."
Harry grinned. "Well spotted, Daph. That's exactly what I was thinking. Of course, Harry Potter is still abnormally powerful, just not overly so. Making this wand was probably the single best thing I did after I returned… well, after meeting you two, of course."
Hermione stopped bouncing and her breath hitched. A feeling that she'd felt only once before suddenly surged again. She thought she was going to burn up. Why, Oh, Why did Harry have to say something like that, just then?
A glance at Daphne revealed an equally flustered witch, the light dusting on her cheeks now turning a far deeper shade.
Still, Hermione couldn't deny it felt nice to hear. She stared at the floor and muttered a thank you while Daphne muttered something similar that she didn't quite catch.
"…"
"…"
"…"
The silence seemed to stretch for too long. Embarrassment turned to worry. She stopped staring at the floor and looked up.
Harry stood, holly wand hanging by his side, seemingly forgotten. Her best friend and teacher now held the yew wand up to eye level, staring at the beautiful fifteen inch wand as though seeing it for the very first time.
"Harry?" she asked.
Harry continued to stare.
"Harry?" Daphne tried. "What is it? What's wrong?"
Harry looked back at them, a look of wonder on his face. "I've just realised who can help us with our divination problem."
- End of Chapter Twenty-one -
A/N: Thanks to 'A Badgers Champion' for the general setup of the duelling tournament, if not the details.
A/N: A brief discussion on DP&SW clothes
One reviewer asked about Daphne and Hermione's snake storage solution - blouse pocket vs. skirt pocket - The actual answer is neither and although I make a good effort to insinuate certain elements of my AU as much as possible, I understand that sometimes things fall through the cracks. So, here's an explicit statement on how clothes work in this world.
The clothes as they are described in the books are generally worn by purebloods, noble houses, and the upwardly mobile. These consist of closed robes that you pull over your head to wear and are the only visible part of clothing worn. Most magicals who adopt this style, don't wear anything under their robes (except for underwear, unless your name is Archie). So no skirt or blouse pockets to drop snakes into. However, there is one main difference between book canon clothing and DP&SW AU clothing, in that there is a "Standard Hogwarts Closed Robe" that many pureblood/noble children wear, while people like Malfoy, Daphne, Hermione, John Potter, Susan, Neville, and now Harry (sometimes), wear more expensive, custom robes. These are better fitted, use more expensive materials, and have more enchantments and runes weaved into them. The clothes as they are seen in the movies, which are basically British school uniform with modified, longer, Oxbridge style gowns, are worn by muggleborns, newer purebloods, and lower/middle class half bloods. As I just said, these aren't really robes as much as they are gowns worn over the standard white blouse or shirt, and skirt or trousers. This is what Harry has been wearing for the past few months after his initial meeting with the Dark on the train.
Also, it's sometimes commented in fics that cannon Harry wears Dudley's throw off rags at Hogwarts under his school gown (if they're going with movie clothes). I'm choosing to believe that in this AU, because purebloods have more power than they do in canon, muggleborns are not allowed to wear anything they like, hence the school uniforms.
Duelling robes are split at the front and back below the belt, and are a combination of the closed robes of the books and the gowns of the movies. They are worn with jackets, trousers, and boots, both male and female, often in dragon hide. We'll see a lot more of this once the aurors become a part of this story. Aurors wear fucking kick-ass cloaks that trail along the ground behind them like a fucking boss (charmed untrippable, and auto shortening in combat, naturally). Cloaks are worn over robes, which tend to be quite thin, but not gowns. Generally, gowns combo as cloaks too, although they tend not to do as good a job of keeping the wearer warm/protected as well as a good cloak does. Dress robes for males are just more expensive and well-fitted versions of the pureblood/noble house style robes. They aren't tuxes with long tails. For females, they are more robe-like than portrayed in the movies, but are a LOT more fitted, thinner, more elegant and do lean more towards dress than robe. (ala Mrs. Granger's wardrobe in chapters 13 and 16.) Finally, I know there are plenty of people out there who care a LOT about clothing lore both in fantasy and real life. Please note that this is just how I'm playing it in this AU. I know that some stuff I talk about isn't necessarily how it roles in real life.
A/N: Lumos Spell as test of magical power.
A few people got confused about John Potter's use of the lumos charm with professor Flitwick a few chapters back. Clarification: John was using the charm in the same way it was used in chapter sixteen to measure the power output of a wizard. A test which both Harry and John cheated on to show lower levels than they actually had. What John did was to stop holding back and show that he does in fact have far more power/skill than any eleven year old should have. Hence, Flitwick's willingness to train him.
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