Frenemies Part 2 (Patreon)

AN: Hello everyone! Here is part 2 of Frenemies. The next chapter will have smut, but I wanted to build up a bit of the tension between the two of them a bit more before that. Hopefully you all enjoy!

PAGE BREAK

“For the last time, I told you I’m fine,” Daphne told Madam Pomfrey impatiently.

The experienced matron didn’t so much as bat an eye at Daphne’s annoyed tone. She’d dealt with far worse over the years, and it showed. “And for the last time, you’re staying here until the hour is up and I can change your bandages.”

“I can do that myself,” Daphne insisted.

Madam Pomfrey let out a sigh and turned her gaze onto Harry, who was trying to suppress his laughter at the situation. “Think it’s funny, do you?” She asked him.

“No, ma’am,” Harry answered with a grin.

“Then help convince your girlfriend that there’s no winning against me,” Madam Pomfrey said.

In a moment, both Harry and Daphne’s cheeks turned a little pink.

“He’s not my boyfriend!”

“She’s not my girlfriend!”

Their voices melded in unison, and Madam Pomfrey chuckled to herself. “My mistake,” she replied not-too-innocently. “The way you two have been bickering nonstop since you’ve come in here suggested otherwise.”

Daphne humphed and dropped her head back onto the pillow behind her, her eyes not quite meeting Harry’s.

Madam Pomfrey smiled knowingly at the two of them, but her attention was quickly diverted when the doors to the Hospital Wing burst open.

“Guess he got your Patronus,” Daphne muttered to Harry.

A tall, handsome man with cropped blond hair pushed past Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall in order to rush over to Daphne’s bedside. “Daphne,” he said her name with so much worry and concern in his voice that it pulled at Harry’s heartstrings. This was a man who truly loved and cared for his daughter. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Daphne assured him before holding up her bandaged hand. “A little banged up, but I’ll be fine after my bandages get changed.”

“At the end of the hour,” Madam Pomfrey reminded her.

“Yes,” Daphne rolled her eyes. “At the end of the hour. Until then, I’m a captive here.”

“Trust me, it could be worse,” Harry chuckled. “She nearly tied me down to one of the beds here when I tried to sneak out at night.”

At Harry’s words, Daphne’s father finally looked over at him. “Harry Potter, I presume,” he said, offering his hand. “Lord Cyrus Greengrass. Thank you for saving my daughter.”

Harry shook the man’s hand with a wide grin on his lips while Daphne’s looked aghast.

“You told him you saved me?” She yelled at Harry.

Harry mustered up the most innocent look he could. “Well, technically I did—”

“Oh no,” Daphne shook her head fiercely, sending her hair billowing around her face. “You didn’t save me from anything. I was the one who knocked Draco onto his arse.”

“But I disarmed him after he tried to kill you,” Harry argued.

“That was like thirty seconds after he fired the killing curse at me! I wasn’t in any immediate danger!” Daphne countered.

“Draco Malfoy fired a killing curse at you?” Cyrus asked, his eyes widening.

Daphne glanced at her dad for a moment. “Yes, but that’s not what’s important right now. I want the record to clearly state that Harry Potter did not save me from Draco.”

“You don’t need to be embarrassed,” Harry teased her. “I’m always happy to help out a damsel in distress.”

“This damsel’s gonna knock you on your arse like I did Draco unless you shut up right now,” Daphne spat at him.

“Perhaps this should be a moment for respite rather than further aggression,” Dumbledore said as he walked up calmly to the group. “Given the events of tonight, I think that you two both deserve to be commended for your heroic actions in putting a stop to what could have been a terribly dangerous situation.”

“Indeed they do,” Cyrus agreed as he sat down on Daphne’s bed. He clasped one of her hands in between his and started rubbing gentle circles on the back of it with his thumb. “However, I fear that the issue is far from done with. I, for one, would like to know exactly why Draco Malfoy has been using a vanishing cabinet on Hogwarts’s grounds without anyone becoming aware of it.”

Dumbledore offered the man a kind smile. “Unfortunately, due to the exhaustive layers of magic built into the very foundations of this school, detecting what magic is done here is a trickier thing than one might expect.”

Harry had to bite his tongue to stop himself from cursing at Dumbledore. He had warned the man about Draco’s nefarious dealings, and Dumbledore had ignored Harry’s concerns and assured him that everything was well in hand. Obviously, it wasn’t.

“And yet that does not excuse you or the other professors,” Cyrus retorted with a pointed look back at Snape and McGonagall, “of doing your due diligence to ensure the safety of both Hogwarts and all those who call it home.”

“You are quite right, of course,” Dumbledore nodded. “More should have been done to prevent young Draco from escalating to such drastic measures. That being said, we must understand the circumstances that he has found himself in this year—”

“Damn the circumstances, Dumbledore!” Cyrus shouted. “My daughter was nearly killed tonight! I do not care if Draco is going through a hard time because his father was sent to Azkaban for his crimes or if there are other extenuating circumstances that are negatively impacting him. If he was willing to stoop down to murder, then that shows that there’s a deeper problem at root here.”

“He already attacked Katie Bell,” Daphne chimed in. “The cursed necklace that sent her to St Mungo’s was Draco’s; he admitted to it tonight. And Harry even tried to talk him down before the fighting started. He asked Draco to drop his wand, and it wasn’t a minute later that Draco cast the first spell and tried to kill us.”

“You see!” Cyrus exclaimed, pointing a finger at Dumbledore. “You have a lot to answer for here. Rest assured that the Board of Governors will be hearing about this incident, and Scrimgeour’s already being briefed as we speak.”

Rufus Scrimgeour? The Minister?

“You would involve the Minister over this?” Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. “You know what he will want to do.”

“Yes,” Cyrus replied. “Azkaban.”

“You can’t seriously wish to send off a young man—” Dumbledore began, only to be interrupted.

“I fully intend to see him locked away for his crimes,” Cyrus snapped as he narrowed his eyes at Dumbledore. “And your defence of Draco is only strengthening my belief that there is something deeply wrong with this institution under your leadership.”

“It is perhaps one of my greatest strengths that I am able to find sympathy in those that the world would prefer to do away with,” Dumbledore replied resolutely.

“Or one of your greatest weaknesses,” Cyrus retorted.

A muffled voice called out from somewhere nearby, and Madam Pomfrey instantly turned on her heels and rushed over to her office. Less than ten seconds after she stepped inside, she was back out in the Hospital Wing.

“Headmaster!” She called out. “The Minister is on the Floo.”

Dumbledore straightened his back. “I’d better go speak to him.”

“I’ll come with you,” Cyrus said as he quickly got to his feet. “I’d like to ensure that he hears a full, unadulterated version of the events that took place tonight.”

Dumbledore didn’t look thrilled at the idea, but neither did he protest Cyrus’s inclusion.

Cyrus planted a kiss on Daphne’s forehead. “I’ll be back once this is done with,” he murmured softly to her before he turned to Harry. “Thank you again, Mr Potter, for your assistance tonight.”

“Of course,” Harry smiled kindly, but Cyrus was already heading for Madam Pomfrey’s office. Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Cyrus, and Madam Pomfrey all entered inside of it and then closed the door behind them, leaving Harry and Daphne alone again.

A few moments passed in awkward silence before Harry couldn’t take it any more. “So, what do you think will happen to Draco?” He asked her.

Daphne rolled over on her side to face him, and Harry forced his gaze to stay on her face and not on her thigh as her skirt rode up a bit.

“Azkaban,” she answered confidently as she wrinkled her nose at the thought. “He might have gotten away with a slap on the wrist if he didn’t use the killing curse, and if it wasn’t me who he targeted with them.”

Harry snorted. “So, he would have been fine if he targeted me?”

Daphne shrugged. “It’s a little complicated. You’re famous and heir to the Potter family, but you don’t exactly have any close allies in the Wizengamot. I guess it would depend on how sympathetic people were to you if they wanted to punish Draco.”

“Yeah, given the last few years, I doubt there’s much sympathy for me,” Harry muttered.

Daphne cocked her head to the side. “I know the last few years have been bad for you, but your stunt in the Ministry this past summer earned you a lot of support in the Wizengamot.”

“Really?” Harry asked.

“Mm hmm,” Daphne nodded. “Even my dad was talking about how they were finally going to have a chance to clear out some of the vermin in the Ministry thanks to you.”

Honestly, Harry had never expected to hear something like that. Perhaps it was his terrible treatment from the Ministry back in his fifth year that was clouding his judgement, but he’d imagined that almost everyone there was happy to leave their heads in the sand when it came to Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

“But since Draco attacked me,” Daphne continued, “my father will make sure that he’s put away in Azkaban for as long as possible. And without Lucius Malfoy to protect his son, I expect the Wizengamot will go along with him.”

Dumbledore’s earlier words echoed in Harry’s mind. Harry never liked Draco, nor did he think he was a good man, but he couldn’t get the image of what Sirius looked like months after escaping from Azkaban. His time there had left him haunted, and even a short stint at the magical prison wasn’t going to be easy on anyone’s psyche.

Harry blew out the breath he’d been holding. Maybe there was sympathy to be found in Draco… somewhere. It was hard for Harry to imagine, but after finally putting a stop to everything that Draco had been plotting, it was like all of the anger Harry had been holding onto had finally faded from his body. Draco was going to see justice for his actions. The only difference was how severe the justice would be.

Dumbledore didn’t want Draco to go to Azkaban. Maybe he was right. Dumbledore’s wisdom had helped Harry out so much before, even if he knew that the man wasn’t perfect.

“Maybe he shouldn’t be sent to Azkaban,” Harry commented quietly to Daphne.

It was like a light switched as Daphne suddenly shifted back to the angry look she had on her face when they’d been bickering before. “Seriously? He tried to kill us!”

“I know,” Harry cringed under her tone. “But Azkaban is brutal, and Dumbledore—”

“Forget what Dumbledore said,” Daphne snapped. “Draco would have killed us tonight if he had the chance. He should be grateful that he’s ending up in Azkaban instead of ending up dead.”

“Now, that’s not right,” Harry countered, feeling a bubble of anger rise up in his belly. “Even if he’s a complete tosser who tried to kill us, that doesn’t mean that we should kill him in return.”

“No?” Daphne sneered and shook her head. “Wake up, Potter. Draco is just like his father; sooner or later, he’d become a Death Eater too. If we don’t nip this in the bud now, who knows what type of damage he could do in the future. Think of all the lives he could end too soon just because you wanted to treat him with kid gloves. He knew the consequences of his actions; now, it’s time for him to face them.”

“I don’t want him treated with kid gloves,” Harry retorted. “I just want us to think things through a bit first.”

“What’s there to think about?” Daphne shouted.

“What if sending him to Azkaban just leads him down a darker path?” Harry asked. “He’s already really messed up in the head; Azkaban might just make things worse.”

“Maybe,” Daphne agreed. “And maybe he deserves that as a punishment.”

“Think about Tracey!” Harry argued. “She helped Draco get that necklace. She was complicit in what happened to Katie.”

“She showed remorse for what happened,” Daphne growled dangerously. “And you know that her situation is a lot more complicated than Draco’s.”

“What if it isn’t?” Harry suggested. “Draco grew up in a family of Death Eaters; that’s all he’s ever known. Voldemort is back, and who knows what he’s been doing to his followers and their families. What if Draco’s being pressured into doing this, or what if—?”

“Draco has been a prat since the day he was born,” Daphne told Harry. “He has dedicated every waking moment of his life to putting others down at his expense. He’s had plenty of chances to change his behaviour or to reach out for help if he needed it, but he hasn’t. It’s too late to give him chances now that he’s finally shown that he’s willing to kill people.”

Harry wanted to groan. Maybe Daphne was right. Maybe this was a case of Draco being too far gone to be helped, but if anyone could help Draco, it was Dumbledore.

But was this what Harry really thought? Or was he just so used to trusting Dumbledore that he believed the man capable of miraculous things like this.

Harry didn’t know.

“I still think—”

“That’s a first,” Daphne snorted. “Because all I’ve seen is a lack of it.”

“Have you seen what Azkaban is like? Or what people are like after they’ve come out of it?” Harry asked Daphne hotly. When he didn’t get a response, he carried on. “Because I have! It fucks them up bad. Even years down the line after they’ve paid their due, they’re still haunted by what they experienced in there. Maybe some of the people that leave Azkaban deserve that, but not everyone does. Draco tried to kill us, but he didn’t. I get that he needs to be punished for this, but there’s better ways to do that than to send him to Azkaban.”

For a moment, there was a flicker of sympathy in Daphne’s eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, only to close it when the door to Madam Pomfrey’s office opened and five tired witches and wizards walked out.

“What—?” Daphne began to ask.

“Draco’s been dealt with,” Cyrus assured his daughter as he walked back over to her side. “He’ll be placed in a holding cell in the Ministry until the Wizengamot can convene for a trial.”

Dumbledore had a sad look on his face, Snape was as impassive as ever, McGonagall looked like she’d just sucked on a sour lemon, but it was Daphne’s reaction that surprised him the most. She almost looked… uncertain over Draco’s case. Harry wondered if he’d managed to convince of something he wasn’t even entirely sure of himself.

“For now, I think it is best if we all retire for the evening,” Dumbledore said to the group.

“I’d like some time with my daughter first,” Cyrus replied as he placed a protective hand on Daphne’s shoulder.

“Of course,” Dumbledore agreed with a dutiful nod. “The Hospital Wing is open to the both of you. Madam Pomfrey? Would you be so kind as to floo me when Lord Greengrass is done spending time with his daughter?”

“Yes, Headmaster,” Madam Pomfrey replied.

“Excellent,” Dumbledore smiled. “In which case, I’ll bid you all a good night. And Harry? Do be sure to run along back to your dorm shortly.”

Harry nodded, and Dumbledore turned and left with McGonagall and Snape hot on his heels.

“Before you go, Harry, I do wish to offer my sincerest gratitude again for… whatever aid you provided Daphne with against Draco,” Cyrus said to Harry just as Harry started to stand up.

“Of course, sir. I was happy to help,” Harry replied with an awkward smile.

PAGE BREAK

Hogwarts seemed different the morning after Draco’s arrest. Word about the fight and Daphne’s subsequent injury spread throughout the school quickly, and then the rumour mill embellished it further. Hundreds of people were speculating if Harry was making a play to become a dark wizard since he had ‘allegedly’ used dark magic to defeat Draco or if maybe the fight had been a fight for Daphne’s love. Thankfully, he was used to the stares and whispers that followed him in his wake.

The Slytherin table in the Great Hall was a little subdued, as Harry expected. One of the most notorious faces of the house had finally been removed, and even if he hadn’t been loved by most, it was still unusual for him to be gone. More than a few Slytherins sent suspicious or hostile looks Harry’s way as he ate breakfast, but there was one person in particular who seemed to be doing everything she could to ignore him.

“Give it up, Harry,” Hermione sighed from his right. “She obviously doesn’t want to talk to you.”

Harry ignored Hermione’s criticism. She’d been unwilling to trust his concerns over Draco, and now that he’d finally been proved right, she was acting like nothing was wrong. But honestly, Harry was hurt.

He could handle Dumbledore telling him to leave the matter alone. He could handle Remus and Arthur telling him the same. But he couldn’t handle his best friends not trusting him. Even if he had been wrong about Draco, they could have helped him through it by being there for him instead of continuously telling him to leave it alone.

He knew he should be more forgiving of them like he was trying to be with Draco—that was the model that Dumbledore set after all—but it was easier said than done.

So, he refocused his attention back to Daphne, who was pointedly avoiding his gaze. She was sitting beside Tracey Davis, her best friend, who seemed just as concerned with her as Harry was. Tracey kept trying to talk to Daphne, but it only looked like she was giving one or two-word answers back in reply.

Harry couldn’t help but wonder what Daphne was thinking now. He was sure that she had reconsidered her beliefs over what should be done with Draco last night. His words had made her question it, just like her words had made him question his beliefs.

For years now, he’d put so much trust into Dumbledore. Everything that the man said, Harry took as gospel. It was a tricky thing to unpack. Dumbledore rarely led Harry astray, but his beliefs and the way he liked to keep everything shrouded in mystery left Harry questioning whether or not Dumbledore was making the right calls all the time.

And Draco was one of those times.

Dumbledore didn’t want to see Draco thrown in Azkaban, and quite frankly, Harry didn’t think anyone deserved to be surrounded by Dementors every day. Surely it couldn’t be healthy for the individual, and whenever they were released, they’d be left in a sorry state.

But Draco had tried to kill him and Daphne. He’d never once shown an ounce of kindness or compassion to anyone, and he was as bigoted as his father was. Maybe there was no helping a man like that.

He wished this was all so much simpler. That the right answer could be put right in front of him.

“I’m going to go talk to her,” Harry said aloud as he came to his decision. He needed to talk to Daphne more about this.

“Are you sure?” Hermione asked him, clearly making her opinion known.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Harry confirmed as he stood up. “I’ll see you and Ron later.”

Eyes followed him as he walked over towards the Slytherin table. The hostile looks grew the closer he got, but no one blocked his path.

Tracey was the first one to acknowledge his approach. She had a smile on her lips that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Hi, Harry,” she said softly.

Harry smiled back at her. “Hey. Daphne? Do you think I could have a minute?”

Finally, Daphne turned her head to look at him. The annoyance in her eyes was plain to see. “I’m in the middle of breakfast,” she replied dryly as she gestured down at her nearly-empty plate.

Thankfully, Tracey stepped in before another spat could break out. “I’ll take you to a place where the two of you can talk after Daphne’s done,” she told Harry as she jumped to her feet. “You know the place, Daph.”

Then, without any other preamble, Tracey grabbed Harry’s wrist and started pulling him out of the Great Hall.

“Hey!” Harry exclaimed once they were past the doors. “I can walk myself, you know.”

“Trust me, this is for your benefit,” Tracey replied cheerfully as they rounded a corner and headed towards a nearby staircase. “I don’t know what’s going on between you and Daphne, but she is pissed at you.”

Harry frowned. “I don’t know what I did to make her that pissed at me. I thought that we were actually starting to find some common ground last night.”

Tracey hummed aloud. “Maybe that’s it. Daphne’s not exactly fond of changing her mind on things. But let’s save this talk for once we’re in private, yeah?”

So, Harry continued to follow Tracey quietly down the stairs and into the dungeons. Rather than take the main route down to the Potions Classroom or the Slytherin dorm, Tracey led Harry down a different corridor he’d never really explored before. From the sealed doors and ancient-looking suits of armour, it didn’t seem like the corridor was used for much anymore other than a clandestine meeting place.

Tracey stopped at one door that looked the exact same as the twenty that they had just passed by and placed the tip of her wand against the doorknob. There was a near-silent click as the door unlocked itself, and then Tracey pushed her way inside, and Harry followed her.

The two of them walked into what looked like an abandoned classroom. Desks and chairs had been shrunk down and stacked in one corner of the room, though a few remained unchanged off to the side with parchment and bottles of ink upon them. A chandelier above their heads ignited as they walked it, illuminating the stone floor and the makeshift duelling platform that had been erected in the middle of the room. The door automatically closed itself behind Harry.

Before Harry had a chance to react, Tracey suddenly turned on her heels and threw her arms around Harry. For a split-second, he thought that she was trying to attack him, but he quickly realised that she was just trying to give him a hug.

“Thank you for saving Daphne last night,” Tracey murmured in his ear as she squeezed him tightly before letting him go and taking a step back.

“Be careful with your wording there,” Harry chuckled.

“Oh, believe me, I got quite the earful when she came back to the dorm about your gall,” Tracey replied with amusement in her eyes. “But still, even if you weren’t quite a knight in shining armour saving a damsel in distress, you still helped keep her safe, and that means a lot to me.”

“Well, you’re welcome,” Harry replied a little awkwardly. It wasn’t all-too common that he got thanks for saving people unless it was from his close friends.

“Daphne isn’t always the easiest woman to get along with, I know,” Tracey began. “She can be rigid in her beliefs, fiercely protective, and as prickly as they come, but trust me when I say that she’s got a good heart. I say this because I know that the two of you talked about what was going to happen with Draco.”

Harry grimaced at the memory of their bickering. “I only tried to argue what I thought was right,” he explained.

“I know that, and so does Daphne,” Tracey assured him.

Harry let out a long breath and ran his hand through his hair. “Honestly, I don’t even know if trying to help Draco is the right call or not. Maybe Azkaban is the only place he can go where he won’t hurt people anymore.”

“Seriously?” Came Daphne’s snarky tone from behind him.

Harry turned to see Daphne storming into the room with a furious expression on her face. She jabbed a finger into his chest as she stared him down.

“You spent so much effort last night trying to convince me that we should be more kind and compassionate to Draco, and now you’re just changing your tune on a whim?” She asked him accusingly.

“Hey!” Harry exclaimed as he took a step back from the finger poking his chest. “All I said was that I wasn’t sure. I don’t know what’s right here.”

“Bully for you,” Daphne snapped. “Meanwhile, I looked like an idiot last night when I tried to convince my dad that he shouldn’t push the Wizengamot to send Draco to Azkaban.”

“What?” Harry blinked.

“He thought I’d hit my head in the fight or something,” Daphne growled. “And it’s all because of you and your stupid mouth.

“Now now, let’s not make this personal,” Tracey said with an amused smile on her lips as she stepped in between the two of them. “Harry was just trying to do what he thought was right.”

But Harry stepped around Tracey so that there was nothing blocking him from Daphne. “Why would being compassionate make you look like an idiot to your dad?” Harry asked with a sharp tone.

“Because the Ministry found the other Vanishing Cabinet,” Daphne explained angrily. “It was at Borgin and Burkes, and guess who was there too? About ten Death Eaters. Turns out, Draco wasn’t trying to smuggle in dark artefacts into the school; he was trying to smuggle in dark witches and wizards.”

That was what he was trying to do? To say that Harry was shocked was an understatement. Killing someone was one thing, but bringing in Death Eaters to Hogwarts could have ended in a slaughter. Who knows how many innocent people could have been killed in an attack like this.

Daphne relished in the look of shock in Harry’s eyes. “And do you still think that Draco should be kept out of Azkaban? He was willing to bring Death Eaters into Hogwarts. That’s why I looked like such an idiot when I talked with my dad.”

“I didn’t know about what Draco was actually doing,” Harry argued. “I couldn’t have known.”

“Well, now you do,” Daphne spat. “It’s out of hands now anyway. The Wizengamot is meeting today, and they're using our statements that we made last night as testimony rather than having us in the courtroom. By the end of the afternoon, Draco will be shipped off to Azkaban if the Minister has anything to say about it.”

Even knowing what Draco did, Harry couldn’t shake the image of Sirius’s gaunt face out of his mind. The horrified look he’d had in his eyes even months after leaving Azkaban showed that what he experienced there would stick with him for the rest of his life, and Harry didn’t feel comfortable subjugating anyone to that. Maybe he was weak because he didn’t want to punish the worst criminals as harshly as he could, but he couldn’t help the way his heart felt on the matter.

“Don’t look so fucking glum,” Daphne snapped at Harry. “He tried to kill us!”

“I know,” Harry grimaced. “And others. But that doesn’t mean that I have to celebrate him ending up in Azkaban.”

Daphne threw her hands up and growled. “How can you be so infuriating?”

“Sorry that my heart isn’t frozen like a block of ice,” Harry retorted.

Daphne narrowed her eyes at him. “You did not just go there.”

“What? Hogwarts’s residential Ice Queen doesn’t like owning up to what she is?” Harry replied sarcastically.

“At least I’m not a hot-blooded idiot who spends his days gallivanting around Hogwarts like owns it,” Daphne replied coldly.

“I don’t gallivant!”

“And you think you know better than everyone else and tell them how they should act!”

“I’m just trying to get you to think compassionately for a second!”

“And I’m trying to get you to think rationally for a second!”

“Merlin, can’t you two just kiss and make up already?” Tracey shouted.