The Power He Knows Not Chapter 10 (Patreon)

Content Warnings: Nothing.

Daphne stared at her reflection in the mirror of her armoire, slowly buttoning up her blouse while she studied her appearance to ensure there were no flaws in her makeup or clothes. The thought of going out in public with Harry (and thus essentially announcing their courtship to the world) was nerve-wracking enough on its own, but the way he had treated her all week had turned what would normally have been manageable nervousness into utter terror.

He made her feel liberated in a way that scared the crap out of her.

You know, normal women would be delighted to have a man who has the power to solve all their problems and can make them wet with a simple look, the voice in her head reminded her.

But she wasn’t normal. A part of her was still a fucked up, scared little girl terrified of messing up the best thing that had ever happened to her and so she had compensated for all the new changes in her life by dialing her coldness and bitchiness up to eleven.

“Why is there a summer dress on your bed, Greengrass?” her best friend Tracey asked. She walked up to Daphne’s bed, sifting through the mountain of clothes on it. “Correction. Why have you dumped your entire wardrobe on your bed like an insane person?”

Daphne tried her best not to blush. She had been up since five in the morning, trying to perfect the princess look for her daddy (not that she would be admitting that to Tracey anytime soon). As much as she had wanted to wear a summer dress, five minutes of walking the cold hallway outside their common room had led her to sadly discard the idea in favor of a green blouse and black skirt, which she had paired with a red scarf (his red scarf) and simple gray stockings and short heels.

She hid her face by pretending to wipe her nose with the scarf, letting Harry’s calming scent flood her senses.

“Trying to find the perfect thing to wear,” Daphne murmured when she was sure she was no longer at risk of hyperventilating.

Tracey rested her hand on her best friend’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Worried?”

“A little, yeah.” Her voice lacked its usual frostiness. Tracey was the one person other than Harry and Susan she felt comfortable enough with to let her walls down.

“There’s still time to back out of the date, you know? We’ll find you a nice Slytherin lad with a massive cock who is considerate enough to cuddle your wrecked body after railing you all night.”

Daphne’s lips twitched at the utterly serious tone with which her friend had uttered those words.

“I already have a nice lad with a massive cock, and I promise you, it’s bigger than anything you can find for me here,” Daphne teased, trying to deflect the conversation away from the potential complications of dating Harry. Sneaking around with him for a week had been nothing short of heaven, but she knew they were living on borrowed time. Eventually, someone would notice, the cretin who had been the catalyst for their relationship would spill his guts or Skeeter’s enviable ability to ferret out secrets would catch them in the act.

Controlling the narrative was much better than playing defense. At least this way she could shape her house’s reaction to the relationship to some degree.

“Oh, come on. You know those rumors are just exaggerations, right? He’s the Boy-Who-Lived, so everything about him has to be legendary, including what he’s packing in his trousers. He’s not actually as big as the number that’s bandied about in girls' bathrooms,” Tracey said dismissively, flopping down on the large pile of clothes.

Daphne turned to look at her dramatic friend with raised eyebrows and a small, shy smile.

“No.” Tracey’s eyes went wide at the expression on Daphne’s face. “NO WAY. You slut! Did you sleep with him already? Before going on a single date?” Tracey teased, sitting up and leaning closer to smack Daphne’s arm. “Merlin, you have to wonder why Granger always has a stick up her ass if she can have that up her ass.”

“Morgana’s tit Tracey, could you be any more inappropriate?” Daphne laughed. She relished chances like these, when they could have secret conversations in the empty dorm away from other prying eyes and ears. Where she didn’t have to be the Ice Queen, and Tracey was free to be her irreverent, slightly offensive, gossipy best friend.

“Come on, you know I’m right. If I was getting railed by that man using that cock on the daily, I wouldn’t be so uptight.”

“Well, maybe she is uptight because she isn’t actually getting railed by Harry on the daily,” Daphne replied, picking up her star-shaped earrings and fixing them to her pierced lobes. She attached the black studs she usually wore in her upper two piercings in each ear before turning to face Tracey. “They’re faking the relationship to take the wind out of Skeeter’s story. And if you must know, I haven’t slept with him yet either. Not… technically.”

“The everything but loophole, huh?”

“You could say so,” Daphne said evasively. The details of her sex life were nobody’s business, but she definitely wasn’t going to share anything with someone with a pathological inability to keep their mouth shut.

Besides, if Skeeter learns about it, she’ll turn Harry using Parseltongue while eating me out into a national scandal.

“Well, I’m off.” Daphne got up from the ottoman and grabbed her purse, eager to leave before Tracey could pry any more details of their sex life out of her. “Want to meet up in Hogsmeade after lunch?”

“Can’t. I have a detention with Professor Sprout,” Tracey replied with a groan.

“Why?”

“Well, Abigail and I were discussing Roger Davies’ chronic inability to locate the clitoris and I accidentally pulled out my mandrake before people had a chance to put their earmuffs on.”

Daphne shook her head fondly, patting her best friend’s knee on her way out the door. She bounded down the stairs, schooling her face into an expression of cold indifference as she emerged into the busy common room. Her eyes roved around the room, and she tried her best not to retch when they spotted Pansy straddling Malfoy on a couch close to the fireplace, cooing as she fed him grapes.

This is the man my sister’s obsessed with? Hard pass.

“Zabini,” Daphne greeted the handsome man exiting the common room next to her with a small nod.

“Greengrass,” Blaise replied silkily. “Going to Hogsmeade?”

“I am, yes.” Zabini had always been one of the more reasonable men in their year. Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle were all hopeless, but she could work with Blaise. They weren’t particularly close, but she considered him to be one of her few friends in the castle. “What about you?” She looked at his form-fitting white shirt, its top button casually left unbuttoned and the artfully ripped jeans he wore. “Who’re you going with?”

“How do you know I’m going with someone? Maybe I just fancied a walk down to the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer and a change of scenery.”

“Those are your ‘I want to impress a girl’ clothes, Blaise,” Daphne pointed out as they ascended the steps leading out of the dungeon. She’d seen him wear that particular shirt to great effect a few times now.

“Perceptive as always, Greengrass. Tricia is waiting for me in the Atrium.”

“Stevens? From Hufflepuff?”

“Yep.”

“She’s pretty.”

“What about you? Because your getup screams ‘I want my date’s heart to stop’.”

Daphne didn’t reply. She instead silently nodded to Harry standing by the open doors of the castle. He was wearing jeans that actually fit him and a tight blue shirt with rolled-up sleeves, clothes so very different from his usual fare that she was convinced he had bought them just for the occasion.

He wasn’t looking at her. He didn’t have to. His messy black hair and sparkling green eyes were enough to make her knees go weak.

“Seriously?” The lack of judgment or condescension in his voice was heartening.

“Seriously,” Daphne replied. No amount of acting skills could have helped her wipe the grin on her face.

“You and I are going to crack open a bottle of firewhiskey and discuss exactly how that happened, Greengrass.”

“But not tonight.”

“Don’t worry,” Blaise turned to look at the tiny blonde walking towards him with a shy smile. “We both have plans tonight.”

Daphne chuckled and left him with his date, slowly creeping up behind Harry. She pressed into his back, covering his glasses with her hands.

“Guess who?” she whispered, leaning up close to his ear.

“A very bratty princess who skipped breakfast today,” Harry murmured. Susan simply watched them with an amused smile, suddenly wishing she had thought to borrow Colin’s camera to document their first date together.

“Wrong,” Daphne retorted, slipping into his side and looping her arm with his. She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I had a granola bar.”

“A granola bar is hardly breakfast, Daph,” Susan said, taking Harry’s free hand. The three of them walked into the courtyard, pushing through the crowd of students milling about, waiting for their friends or dates.

“Don’t you start with me, Bones. Not all of us are blessed with genes that allow us to substitute every meal with desserts and still maintain a figure like yours.”

“I’ll have you know that my figure is the result of my very active lifestyle,” Susan shot back. She jumped over a turnstile as they climbed onto the path leading to Hogsmeade, joining the many groups of students who had decided to take advantage of the rare warm and sunny day. The melting snow crunched under their boots as they walked, and if Sirius wasn’t waiting for them, Susan would have picked some up and drawn her lovers into a snowball fight.

Daphne turned to look at Harry. He was silently enjoying their banter, his face turned up towards the mild winter sun. He was positively buzzing with excitement and happiness, and his good mood was infectious.

“Name one activity contributing to this imaginary lifestyle,” Daphne demanded. Susan opened her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by Daphne. “Sex with Harry doesn’t count.”

Harry chuckled. “I’m not asking you to have a mountain of pancakes bathing in syrup, princess,” he interjected, breaking up their friendly sparring. “Just something more substantial than the energy bars in your nightstand’s top drawer.”

“Yes, daddy,” Daphne whispered, feeling a familiar heat pool in her belly at the caress of his lips against her forehead. Holding out until he gave in to all his urges was getting harder with each passing day.

I’m making progress, she reminded herself. She was determined to stay the course, even if it meant a few more frustrating nights of moaning into her pillow and subpar wand-induced orgasms.

“Remind me again why Padfood asked us to get this many chicken legs?” Susan asked, shifting the satchel she was carrying to relieve the pressure on her shoulder.

“I can hold the bag for you, darling.”

“No, it’s alright. I’m just curious why he needs a bag full of food.”

“Maybe he’s just hungry after his long journey? I don’t know where he was exactly, but I know he wasn’t in Britain,” Harry replied as they entered the picturesque snow-covered village. If it wasn’t for the cold and the fact that there were no houses of suitable size (nor the space to build one), it was a place Daphne wouldn’t have minded settling in after they finished Hogwarts.

In all honesty, she would happily live anywhere with Harry and Susan as long as the place was far, far away from Greengrass mansion. She liked her home, but it was now forever associated with the death of her mother.

“You could have bought food in Hogsmeade instead of lugging it all the way,” Daphne pointed out. She chuckled as both Harry and Susan had a lightbulb moment, turning to her with sheepish smiles.

“We… didn’t think of that.”

“This is why you need me around, daddy,” Daphne teased, squeezing his hand.

All three of them lapsed into a comfortable silence as they walked up the High Street, skipping all their usual haunts. They attracted stares from nearly everyone in Hogsmeade, but the crowds petered out as they passed Dervish and Banges and left the village behind. They walked down the winding country road leading them away from Hogsmeade and out into the surrounding wilderness.

Susan huffed as they started their climb up the base of the mountain at whose foot Hogsmeade lay. It didn’t take them long to spot the rocky outcropping Sirius had told them to look for, and Daphne pressed into Harry’s side at the sight of the dog lounging on it, basking in the sun.

“Relax. It’s just-”

“Your godfather, I know,” Daphne whispered. They had explained his animagus form to him, but it was still disconcerting to come face to face with a Grimm staring balefully at her.

“Hey Sirius,” Harry murmured, a huge smile on his face despite the circumstances of their meeting.

The bear-sized dog lazily got to his feet, tail wagging as he bounded forward and bopped his nose against Harry’s hand. Susan appeared entirely unaffected, and Daphne had to bite her lip to force back her nervous whimper so as not to appear the odd one out.

The dog easily climbed up the outcrop, and Daphne clambered after him, aiding Harry in helping Susan up once she had reached the top. Once they were all on the grassy knoll, Sirius picked up a stack of crumpled-up newspapers with his mouth and began to trot up the mountain. They followed him until they reached a steep, winding stone path tucked away behind a large boulder and began their ascent up the mountain.

Sirius made the trip with all the skill and dexterity of a mountain goat, bounding up the trail without a care in the world. Daphne found it much more difficult (despite having gotten in the habit of waking up at dawn to join Harry in his jog around the Great Lake’s circumference), but Susan was the one who suffered the most.

Halfway up the track, she was already covered in sweat and panting for breath. Harry had taken the satchel of food from her, and they shifted positions to make sure she was safely ensconced between the two of them, the pathway only being wide enough for one person. Their journey took nearly fifteen minutes until they finally chanced upon a small opening in the rocky facade of the mountain.

They squeezed inside it to find a cold, damp cave, dimly lit with two small candles.

“Is that a hippogriff?!” Daphne practically squealed in excitement, her exhaustion forgotten. “I never got to get close to one after Malfoy’s stupidity last year.” She moved closer to Buckbeak, bowing low. The magnificent gray creature eyed her for a second, before returning her bow with one of her own.

“This is the same hippogriff,” Harry replied, an amused smile on his face at his girlfriend’s animated reaction to the creature.

“Aww. You’re such a good boy,” Daphne cooed.

Harry chuckled, finally turning to where the black dog had stood. In its place now stood Sirius Black, looking at his godson with a huge grin on his face. He was wearing tattered black robes, his hair was just as unkept and wild as it had been on the night of his escape, and he now had the hint of a beard.

“Sirius,” Harry murmured, suddenly at a loss for words.

“Hey kid.” Sirius surged forward, pulling Harry into a tight hug. Harry winced, trying not to feel guilty at how thin his godfather had gotten.

“Susan got you some food.” Harry held out the satchel for him, deciding everything else could wait.

“Chicken!” Sirius exclaimed, opening the bag and studying its contents. He flopped on a rocky outcrop that, judging by the papers strewn around it, he had clearly been using as a chair. “Bread! Pie!” He rummaged through the contents of the bag, his face lighting up with the overabundance of food on offer. “Oh, I could kiss you, Shorty.”

“You didn’t get to eat a lot on your journey, Mr. Black?” Susan asked politely, sitting down next to Harry on a large rock conveniently placed opposite Sirius’ ‘chair’.

“Call me Sirius. And no, I had to survive on dustbin scraps and rats the entire week. They’ve massively beefed up security since the whole World Cup fiasco, and I couldn’t draw attention to myself,” Sirius answered through a mouthful of chicken.

“I’m sorry,” Harry mumbled. It hurt to see him like this, all because he had been stupid enough to be scared of his scar twinging every so often. “You shouldn’t have come. Why are you here?”

“Finally doing what I should have done from the very beginning, kid. Taking care of you,” Sirius answered, his grin morphing into a serious expression. “I’ve made many mistakes in my life, Harry. I’ve done things I’m not proud of. But now that I have a second chance, I am going to be there for you.”

“Do you have a wand, Mr. Black?” Daphne asked, having reluctantly pulled away from Buckbeak. She wondered if Harry would let her borrow his amazing map so she could sneak away everyday to see the hippogriff. He needed care desperately. There was a small wound on his neck in particular that she needed to treat before it became infected. “To protect yourself?”

“You want to fill me in, Harry? Who is she?” Sirius asked, watching Daphne perch herself on Harry’s lap after realizing that there was no space for her to sit in the cave.

“This is Daphne… she’s my… girlfriend,” Harry mumbled, blushing. He was still getting used to the idea of dating more than one person, and he wasn’t sure how his godfather would react to the news.

To his immense relief, Sirius simply chuckled, then bit into a slice of apple pie. “I can’t say I’m particularly surprised,” he said after he had practically inhaled the slice.

“You’re not?” Susan asked.

“Well, it’s as they say, like father like son. James had a thing for cute redheads and gorgeous blondes too.”

“I… I didn’t know my father dated someone other than my mom,” Harry murmured.

“They kept it very hush hush. She loved your parents, and if I was a betting man, I’d bet she still does in her own strange way.”

“My mother didn’t mind?”

“Kid, she loved her just as much as she loved your father. In fact, fun fact, she fell in love with her before she fell for your father,” Sirius answered, still focused on devouring the food they had brought.

“Who was she?”

“That’s not my secret to tell, Shorty,” Sirius murmured. “Where’s Hermione?”

Harry leaned back against the rough stone wall of the cave, silently digesting what Sirius had just told him. Despite how happy he had been the past week (even with the imminent threat of being a dragon’s lunch hanging over his head), a part of him still felt like he was doing something wrong. But if his parents, a couple who people often touted as an example of the perfect love story, could make room for another…

“She stayed back to beat some sense into Ron,” Susan answered when Harry stayed silent. “Thought she’d have a better chance of success when he and Harry weren’t in the same room.”

“I highly doubt she’s going to achieve anything. The twat thinks I entered the tournament on purpose and he keeps telling people I’m flaunting Susan around,” Harry muttered, rolling his eyes. “He’s going to get much worse after today.”

“Why?”

“Uh, because I’m a Slytherin Mr… Sirius,” Daphne said. “And Weasley probably thinks I eat babies and will slit Harry’s throat while he sleeps.”

Sirius snorted, his lips curling into a smirk. “Oh, you really are your father’s son.”

“She was a Slytherin too?”

“She was. They broke things off near the end of their seventh year, just as the war was heating up. She had passed out of Hogwarts a couple of years before them, her parents found a suitable match for her, and she didn’t have the courage to defy them. It devastated your parents,” Sirius said sadly. His eyes flickered to Daphne.

Daphne responded with a smile cold enough to freeze a heart. “If you’re doubting my commitment to Harry, Mr. Black, I made an unbreakable vow for him last week. My similarities with that mystery woman end with me being blonde and a Slytherin,” she said icily. “My affection for him is deep enough that I have no problem with breaking the law and risking Azkaban by offering to get his godfather a wand through some of my father’s… less savory contacts.”

“I’m sorry,” Sirius murmured, bowing his head in apology.

“Thank you,” Daphne replied, her tone still icy. She knew this was but the beginning. Their relationship would be attacked and judged from all corners and by all manner of people.

The strongest of steel is produced only by the hottest of fires, she reminded herself.

“You said you had important things to discuss that you couldn’t share in a letter?” Harry asked hastily, desperate to change the topic. The last thing he needed was Daphne and Sirius (both creatures with very strong opinions) hating each other. “Is it about the tournament?”

Sirius sighed. He ran a hand through his scruffy hair, then picked up one of the papers strewn around in the cave. “The tournament is just a nugget of bad news, Harry. Things are much, much worse than you realize.”

Notes:

I've always found it odd when authors writing Harry/Multi only make Harry (and very rarely Neville) openly poly yet everyone acts like its no big deal/a regular occurence. A lot of people will say it happens commonly, but no other examples of it are shown. So I decided to create a spicy backstory that is also a surprise tool that will help the plot later (*the mother of all winks*). The next chapter is pretty much all smut, I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. I wanted to give these three some spicy Hogsmeade times before the First Task.