It was the twenty-third of December. Harry's walking feet made crunching sounds on Greengrass Manor's frosty grass lawn. The morning sun sat low in the sky, pushing a weak light that barely cut through the Cumbrian mist. Birds tweeted in the trees. Everything was still.
Harry pulled his cloak closer, let out a long breath, and watched it swirl away in front of him. Soon, the stillness would be gone, replaced by the shouts and banging of dozens of wizards, feverishly preparing the grounds for hundreds more.
Today was the Winter Festival.
But first, he had business with the girls. He trekked up to the front door, knocked, and was shown in by one of the Greengrass house elves.
"Miss Daphne is just getting up nows, Lord Slytherin, Sir."
Harry nodded, thanked the elf, and showed himself up to the residential part of the manor.
A sleepy Daphne in a loose hanging nightdress walked out of a door several metres up the corridor before him, wiped her eyes, turned, saw him, squeaked, and darted back in the room she'd just left, slamming the door behind her.
Harry let out a quiet chuckle. Daphne had always been modest, but that reaction was certainly more pronounced than it would have been even one year ago. He had to remind himself that time was marching on, and that neither he nor they would be pre-teens forever.
Despite plotting and working 'Project Harem' for over three years now, it didn't change the fact that, right now, when he looked at a beautiful woman, lust didn't sweep through him like a hurricane. He was still biologically too young, didn't have the correct hormones flooding his system, even when looking at adult females, and the girls were not adults. When he looked at the girls, he felt many things — fondness, friendship, pride, extreme protectiveness — but not lust.
However…
Harry leaned on the wall and watched the closed door.
However, Daphne and Hermione were older than him, weren't they? And girls matured faster than boys, didn't they?
A slight smirk played around his lips. That would suck for them, but no one ever said growing up was easy.
The door opened and Daphne emerged wearing a casual robe, slippers, and a slight blush. "C'mon, then. Breakfast will be served soon." She walked past him, not meeting his gaze, and led the way to the family dinning room.
Harry was just polishing off his breakfast of two sausages, a round of bacon, a small pile of shredded potato, a bowl of broccoli, a slice of toast, and a glass of milk, when the door opened and Hermione bounded in.
"Morning, Harry! Daphne." The brown haired witch pulled out a chair next to him and sat down.
Daphne nodded a mouthful of omelette.
greeting
through
a
"So, what's on the agenda then? I mean, it's very interesting to see the Winter Festival after all this time, and to even get to participate, but it's still very early, and my parents were all set to show me some of the things they've been working on while we've been at school—"
Daphne swallowed her mouthful.
Harry grinned.
"—it's amazing what can be done even when you don't have magic, and I'm sure you'll find it useful, and—"
"—Hermione!" Daphne interrupted. Hermione hesitated.
"…Let your lord speak?"
"Oh." Hermione flushed and turned fully to a still grinning Harry. "Sorry," she mumbled.
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure I'll appreciate your parents work." Harry reached into his robes and produced a parchment. "Our allies in Gringotts are ready. We're going to inspect the three locations for Slytherin Manor today and hopefully give them our choice."
"Excellent." Daphne smiled. "What about the plans?"
He produced another parchment from his robes. "All here, but I'd like to wait for our final expedition member to get here first." Hermione looked around expecting to see them. "Who?"
"Well…"
"Me!"
as
though
They all turned to the Dinning room's large double doors. Dirty blonde hair fell around slim shoulders and light blue robes embroidered with little smiling suns.
Harry stood up. "Hermione, may I introduce you to Heiress Luna Lovegood, of the Ancient and Noble House of Lovegood."
Hermione stood up too, dipped into a curtsey, and let out a startled 'uff' sound when Luna tackle hugged her in four and a half feet of ethereal witch.
"Pleased to meet you, Hermione," Luna said brightly, not letting go.
"Umm… yes. Pleased to meet you."
"I've been so looking forward to today." "Good."
"Harry talks about you all the time."
"He… he does, does he?" Harry smiled.
Daphne face-palmed.
"Oh, yes. He says you're his best student." "That's g-good." Hermione seemed to gently try to extract herself from Luna's embrace. It didn't work. "Yes. He also says he can't wait till you're older so he can really teach you some stuff." Harry and Daphne both choked. Hermione went wide eyed.
"Runes, Luna! We were talking about runes!" Luna finally let go of a blushing Hermione and turned to him. "Of course we were talking about runes, my lord. What else would we be talking about?" "Right!" Daphne pushed her plate away from her. "Let's talk mansions. Harry?" Harry brandished the parchment thankfully. "Elves! We need the table clear, please."
The table cleared.
He let out a long breath and unfolded the parchment. He unfolded it some more. And then yet some more. Soon, a huge architectural map had filled one side of the dinning room table from a parchment that looked no bigger than a single page.
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