Mad Scientist Harry (Patreon)

Hope you guys enjoy. Ended up being more of a first chapter than a one-shot. Might keep it going if people like it. No smut right now, and it might stay that way.

...

At age fifteen, Daphne Greengrass had a pretty good idea of how her life was going to turn out. 

She sat in an as of now empty compartment as she awaited the whistle that would signal the train's departure. She had already said her goodbyes to her family. Astoria had given her a tearful hug while her mother and father stood by, the perfect image of the stoic pureblood lord and lady. They'd not waited for the train to take off, choosing to leave with ten minutes to spare. Father had a business meeting and mother needed to take Astoria to her therapy session at St. Mungos.

Daphne smoothed the hem of her skirt as she waited patiently for the train to depart. 

She knew how her life would go. 

She would get sorted into a respectable house like Slytherin or Ravenclaw. Most certainly not Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. She would do well academically but not be extraordinary. She'd focus her efforts on herbology. At some point, perhaps in her fourth year, she would finally be betrothed to a respectable pureblood boy in her year or older. She would be demure and accepting, as all pureblood women needed to be. They would be wed after her O.W.L. year and move into one of the married suites. Sixth and seventh year, she would take on a light workload in classes as she would likely become pregnant. After graduation, she and her husband would move into a manor of their own, where she would rear children, maintain a small garden and support her husband in his endeavors.

Somewhere in there, her parents will have hopefully figured out a way to cure Astoria.

It was the life that had been set out for her and it was a life she accepted. She glanced down at her carefully organized notes, a condensed summary of four years of pre-Hogwarts tutoring. She understood the material well, though she made sure to never dig deeper than what her tutor taught.

It wasn't her place.

Her peaceful silence was disrupted as the door to her compartment slammed open. Daphne actually startled as a strange mass tried to wedge itself in through the door.

It took her a while to make sense of the amorphous lump that sounded like an angry owl flapping its wings in frustration. But once she got over her shock, she was able to determine that this was, in fact, a boy.

It was a boy with the messiest head of black hair she had ever seen. He had one foot on the doorframe as he tried to tug the misshapen mass that was his school trunk into the carriage while his snowy white owl protested the entire time.

Daphne found herself frozen in place. It was like when someone crashed into the stands during a quidditch match, it was impossible to look away.

Finally, the boy tugged just hard enough for one of the bulging edges of his trunk to slip inside, and then he was thrown back several feet.

Mercifully, the trunk landed right side up and the owl was only a little bit startled, its cage safely secured to the trunk by several lengths of rope.

“Man, that smarts!” The boy rubbed his bum as he got up from the floor. His clothes were all disheveled, and Daphne had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't a result of his little tumble.

Daphne looked away from him, putting on her well-practiced mask of cold indifference that she hoped would dissuade this scamp from talking to her.

“Do you mind if I let my owl out?”

“Pardon?” Daphne's eyes jumped back to him as if there were some sort of magnet at work.

“She knows how to behave, I promise.” He said, already working on the latch of the cage door. It swung open and the snowy white owl flew out, pecking angrily at the boy's hand before it settled in to roost on one of the overhead compartments.

The boy clicked the cage door shut before scratching his head as he contemplated his monstrosity of a trunk. “You wouldn't happen to know a feartherweight charm, would you?”

“I am a first year.”

The boy smiled, and Daphne noticed just how bright his emerald green eyes were behind his wonky looking glasses, which were held together in the middle by a thick wrapping of pink spellotape. “Me too! Nice to meet you! I never saw you at any of the pre-hogwarts workshops.”

Daphne's lip twitched, “I was homeschooled.”

“Ahh, you're one of those high class types. I guess it makes sense, you're really pretty.”

“Excuse me?” Daphne asked in a scandalized tone.

“I'm Harry Potter, by the way.” The boy said absently as he decided to just drag his trunk in front of some seats, leaving little to no room for anyone else to sit down.

Daphne hesitated, but upon hearing his last name and realizing he was the heir of an ancient and noble family, she decided it would be best to not be hostile. “Daphne Greengrass.”

“Wow, even your name is pretty!” He said as he plopped down next to his trunk, on the seat opposite her's.

Daphne found herself spluttering at the boy's lack of decorum and general lack of care. He may be a Potter, but he was clearly not raised in a proper pureblood manner.

“What is wrong with your trunk?” She pointed out the misshapen lump, full of random bulges and looking as if it was mere seconds away from exploding. 

“Oh, well, I really wanted to buy one of those really cool trunks with all the compartments. You know, the ones that have like a bunch of rooms inside and everything? But they were super expensive and the school fund only covered one of the boring basic ones. So, I took one of the basic trunks and did the expansion charms myself.”

“You attempted to use high level spatial magic? We've not even learned our first spell!”

“Yeah well, you know, we took all those theory classes, and I figured I might as well give it a go.” Harry slapped the trunk, and Daphne legitimately feared that it would tear open and she would be crushed by the cauldron that was pressing against the lining. “Still need to work out some kinks, but we're getting there.”

Daphne had heard enough. Heir or no heir, this boy was clearly deranged, and there was no point in her pursuing this conversation any further.

“I need to review my notes.” She said, using the paper to cover up her face.

The train lurched forward as it began to pull away from the station. Outside, tearful goodbyes were exchanged between families as the Hogwarts Express began its long journey to Scotland.

“Oh, yours are real organized.” Daphne refused to glance over her notes, until she heard the ruffling of what sounded like hundreds of pages.

She cursed herself even as she peeked over her notebook, and she physically cringed as she saw the Potter boy's ‘notes’: an overstuffed notebook with loose pages sticking out at odd angles, the parchment looking as if it had survived a storm, a flood and a house fire all at once.

He cracked the notebook open and Daphne noted the messy scrawl that he called handwriting, and also the fact that instead of neat little lines, his notes were splayed chaotically all around the page.

She shook her head and went back to her own notes. Unfortunately, her concentration was broken, but thankfully, he didn't try to bother her again. For the next twenty minutes, the only distraction was the fluttering of wings as Potter's owl flew out the window.

People passed by the compartment, some even peeking inside, but the sight of Potter's monstrous trunk was enough for most people to move on. It was the slightest of blessings, as Daphne had not wished to be bothered during her train ride, and Potter had not made any further attempts at speaking to her.

Her eyes had begun to glaze over as she could no longer pretend to read her simple, dry notes. She put away her notepad and risked a glance at Potter.

He was hunched over, completely lost to the world as he scribbled away at his notebook. She had no clue what he could possibly be writing, but it was none of her business. She turned her head and stared out the window next to her, letting herself get lost in the views of the English countryside.

Her mind wandered, and Daphne allowed herself to indulge in fantasy. She pictured herself and Astoria out on those rolling green hills, going on an adventure, trying to locate an ancient artifact that would cure Astoria's malediction.

Daphne had tried to eliminate such fantasies over the years, but she found that the more she tried to suppress them, the more vivid they became. She could actually see herself walking amongst the tall grass, the morning dew brushing up against her dragonhide combat boots. She could even hear a toad croaking, she heard it so clearly that it was almost as if it was in the room with her.

“Gotcha!” 

Potter's voice snatched her out of her fantasy. She snapped back towards him to see him grasping a struggling toad between his hands.

“You have a toad?” 

Harry shook his head. “Nah, it just hopped into the compartment by itself.”

He reached into his backpack and pulled out a cardboard box. He tipped it over onto the seat next to him and Daphne watched as a scalpel, scissors and several other surgical instruments clanked onto the seat, some of them sliding off and onto the floor.

“What are you doing?” She hissed.

Harry placed the toad in the box, holding it down with one hand while his free hand reached for his wand. “Just a little experiment, nothing fancy.” 

He tapped his wand on the toad and muttered a sticking charm. He pulled his hand back hesitantly, almost as if he wasn't sure the sticking charm would actually work. 

The toad struggled, but it didn't budge, stuck as it had been placed, spread eagle on its back.

Harry grinned, placing the box on the floor and sitting down cross legged in front of it, giving Daphne a perfect view of the proceedings.

Harry grabbed a scalpel and put it to the toad's throat, glancing up at Daphne as he did, “Don't worry. I charmed these so it doesn't hurt it!”

She should look away, she should chastise him for attempting such depraved acts in front of a lady, but instead, she found herself mesmerized as she watched the scalpel slice through the toad's skin.

There was no way of knowing if his claims were true or not, but the toad wasn't trashing about, at least. Daphne looked on in fascination as the scalpel slid downward and the creature's interior organs were exposed, its heart throbbing and its lungs contracting and expanding at a steady pace.

“Hmmm.” Harry nibbled at a fingernail as he considered his options.

“What are you doing?” This time, Daphne's voice was deeply tinged with curiosity.

“Not sure yet… hmmm… I think… yeah, lets go with that!” 

He reached back into his bag and produced several strange things which he dropped onto the floor. 

“What are those?” Daphne asked of the two small metal squares he had picked up. 

“They're motors. I'm gonna replace the toad's jump glands with them so that it goes fast instead of jumping.”

“Jump glands?”

“Yeah, they're what make it jump.”

Harry made an incision near the toad's thigh, pulling out a small fleshy lump and replacing it with the motor before doing the same on the other side. The toad remained calm as could be throughout this entire affair.

Harry wiped his instruments down and then picked up a miniscule tank that held a tiny, beating heart. 

“Lion's heart, guy at the apothecary shrunk it down for me. Toad's gonna need a stronger heart.” 

With deft precision, Harry sliced around the toad's heart, pulled it out with tongs and replaced it with the lion heart from the jar. He used a needle with tiny little sutures to attach the heart to its new arteries.

Harry then closed up the toad's stomach and sewed it back together. Then, he pulled the toad out of the box and laid it flat on the floor. 

“Alright, so when I let it go, it should be able to run really fast now.”

Harry pulled his hand back, and the toad remained crouched down, supremely tense as Harry backed away from it.

Daphne felt her heart throb in anticipation. After the sheer insanity of what she'd just witnessed, was it possible that this boy had actually succeeded?

She heard the sound of a motor revving up as the frog reared back. It aimed its body toward the window Daphne had been staring out of.

*Croak*

The toad blasted off like a rocket, leaping up into the air and clear through the window. A flabbergasted Daphne rushed over to the window, where the saw the toad already disappearing from view, each leap covering hundreds of meters a pop.

“Damn it!” Harry snapped his fingers dejectedly. “I really thought I had it that time.” 

“What are you talking about?” Daphne's voice lost all its decorum as she addressed him. “Did you see what you just did? You fiddled around with that thing and turned it into a super-toad!”

Harry shrugged. “Anyone could just make a toad leap higher with a spell.”

“Anyone could have made a toad run faster with a spell as well.” She pointed out to the boy, whose head fell, “But not permanently. Not the way you just did.” Daphne insisted. She was looking at this scruffy boy with his strange trunk in a new light. 

A path that had once seemed a dead end had now opened, and for the first time in years, Daphne dared to hope.

The compartment door slid open, and a girl with curly brown hair peeked in. “Have either of you seen a toad around here?”

“Oh, hey Hermione!” Harry waved at the girl.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously as they fell on the messy haired boy. “Harry… have you seen a toad anywhere? There's a boy out here looking for his.”

“What kind of toad? What species? You know there's a bunch of species of toad out there… definitely more than three!”

Hermione crossed her arms. “What did you do to the poor toad, Harry?”

“Why do you immediately assume I did something?”

“Because I know you!”

“I have not seen a toad.” Daphne interjected in a cool voice. “And I've been here the entire time.”

Hermione didn't look too convinced, but Daphne stood her ground, fixing the girl with her blank, impassive stare.

“Alright, if you happen to see one, let me know.” Hermione said, not buying it but choosing not to press the matter any further. 

Harry let out the breath he'd been holding when the compartment door slid closed behind the departing Hermione.

“Thanks for that. She's a nice girl, but she has it out for me for some reason.”

Daphne was sure that ‘some reason’ was likely many, enough to fill a book, but she didn't press him on it.

“How long have you been doing things like that?”

“Like the toad?” Harry scratched the back of his neck. “Well, I was always really curious, you know I saw a lot of movies as a kid, like Frankenstein and stuff, and when I found out about magic, I thought I might be able to do some of the stuff I saw in the movies. Of course, then I asked about it in the first workshop, and the instructor thought I was mad. But that didn't stop me, and since last year, I've been figuring out small little things here and there. Its mostly been theoretical, though, since we couldn't use magic, but ever since I got my wand, I've been at it!”

“So you've only been doing this for a few months?” 

“Yeah, I guess.”

Daphne couldn't believe it. He'd only been at this a short amount of time and he'd managed to do that to the toad? Give him a few years to develop, perhaps… perhaps he could…

Daphne decided then and there that she would befriend Harry Potter. He may lack social decorum, but she recognized genius when she saw it, and if there was even a ghost of chance that he could help Astoria, it was a risk she was willing to take.

…

Several hours later found Daphne wanting to pull her hair out as she tried to make heads or tails of Harry's notebook.

“Is this chicken scratch supposed to be writing?” She asked.

“I can make sense of it fine. Here, let me see.” 

Daphne handed his notebook over, pointing at a particularly illegible scribble on the top left corner of a page, separated from the rest of his mess by a star shaped border.

Harry leaned forward, squinting hard at the page. “Huh, well… you got me there. I think I wrote something about shrivelfig powder?”

Daphne huffed in exasperation. “From now on, I will be taking the notes.”

“But what if I have a brilliant idea and you're not around?”

“Then you may write it down, but you'll inform me at the earliest convenience so I may write it down in english.”

Harry blinked a few times, a curious look on his face. “Does that mean you're my assistant?”

Daphne scoffed, a hand going to her chest. “Never! I will simply be taking meticulous notes and recording progress of any and all experiments. Understood?”

“So no experiments without you?”

“Will that be a problem?”

Harry looked away and shook his head with a slight blush. “No, it won't be.”

A horn sounded overhead, and a disembodied voice informed them that they were near the station.

Daphne kicked Harry out of the compartment so she could change. Harry changed in the hallway between compartments, and when Daphne opened the door back she looked him over with a critical eye.

“Why is your robe so ruffled up?” She tried to smooth down his robe, but it was a losing battle. “Did you even fold this? Or did you just stuff it in your bag?”

“Errr… no comment.” 

The train drew to a stop and the two of them joined the mass of students out on the platform. 

“Firs’ years with me! Firs’ years!”

Harry craned his neck as he stared up at the giant of a man. “Woah, there's no way he's not part giant.” 

Daphne stepped on his foot. “I would keep quiet about such things.”

The man, who identified himself as Hagrid, led them down onto a dock, where about a dozen long boats were bobbing in wait.

“No more ‘an four to a boat.” He said as he took one boat for himself.

Harry and Daphne got on one, and they were accompanied by a pair of identical twin girls.

“I'm Padma, and this is my sister Parvati.” one twin gestured towards the other.

Harry inspected both twins with visible curiosity. “Do you… feel each other's pain? Or like, do you know when the other is feeling sad?”

Daphne stomped on Harry's foot so hard, the boat almost capsized. Mercifully, the Patil's took his question to be coming from a place of general curiosity, one they had fielded dozens of times.

“Well, sometimes, I know what Padma's about to say before she says it. And if she gets sick but I don't, I still feel a bit weird, almost like I can feel her cold.”

“Oh! Remember when our parents grounded us in different rooms? We both decided to draw, and we ended up drawing the same mermaid! Well, mine was cuter, but still-”

“Would you girls let me study you?”

“S-study us?” Both twins were blushing as Daphne sent Harry a warning glare. 

“Yeah, I would really like to study that twin link of yours. Maybe It could be made even stronger!” Harry caught a sidelong glance of Daphne's face and he faltered. “With my assistant present, of course!”

That only made Daphne angrier, but the Patil twins glanced at each other before they shrugged. “S-Sure, that sounds nice. Maybe after we get settled into classes?”

Harry grinned as he gave them a thumbs up. “Brilliant!”

When they got off the boat and were bunched up together with everyone else, Daphne tugged at Harry's sleeve. 

“You cannot just tell people that you wish to study them.” She hissed into his ear.

“But I really want to study them! You heard them, they made the same drawing! What if I could recreate that mental link of theirs?”

Daphne palmed her face. “From now on, any requests for test subjects will be made through me. I will coordinate with and vet the people. Understood?”

“Understood. You really are a great assistant.”

“I'm not your assistant.”

They rejoined their peers as Hagrid led them up the cobblestone steps and handed them off to Professor McGonagall, who brought them inside the dimly lit castle. 

Harry was slack jawed as he took in his surroundings with awe. Daphne did a much better job of schooling her features, but internally, she was experiencing something close to sensory overload.

All the grandiose, ancient and noble manors in the world couldn't hold a candle to the feeling of being inside the castle. Above everything, it was a space that was teeming with magic, practically swimming in it.

Even when the ghosts flew in and startled everyone, it just added to the feeling of pure wonder. Daphne was not surprised to see Harry's eyes light up when he saw the ghosts, like a lion who had just had a particularly succulent gazelle pass them by.

As they waited behind a large door, Daphne recognized quite a few faces. Draco Malfoy, the same arrogant expression he always wore plastered on his face. There was Pansy, a nice enough girl once you got past her bratty outer shell. There was a tall, gangly redhead that she had not met but could only be a Weasley, and next to him, preening like the world's biggest peacock, was someone she'd never had the misfortune of talking to. Pudgy and rose-cheeked, with his chest puffed out proudly, was Neville Longbottom, the Boy-Who-Lived.

“You think he'll let me have a look at his scar?” Harry whispered to her.

“You will steer clear of that idiot.” Daphne said. The last thing they needed was to get tangled up in Longbottom's circus.

McGonagall reappeared, and she opened the doors wide for them as she welcomed them to the Great Hall.

Once more, the students were left speechless as they saw the hundreds of floating candles and the enchanted ceiling, perfectly reflecting the clear, moonless sky.

They were lined up and the sorting promptly began, and soon, Daphne's name was called.

“Greengrass, Daphne!”

She stepped up to the hat with all the poise that had been instilled in her. She sat on the stool and the hat was placed on her dainty head of silky blonde hair.

‘Hmmmm, what do we have here? Quite an interesting mind this one, lots of internal conflict.’

Daphne was startled by the voice, but she figured she shouldn't have, the hat had just sang, after all.

‘Ambition seems to have been stunted, but now its showing signs of life. Oh ho, I see that boy stoked those flames.’

‘Are you supposed to sort me or analize me?’

‘Just doing my due diligence. Hmmm, bravery is there, as well as a thirst for knowledge, even if its been chained for so long, but there's something else that wants to overwhelm all the others. You have a fierce sense of loyalty, loyalty to those you love, a loyalty that overrides everything else…

Daphne's eyes widened, and she almost opened her mouth to vocalize her protest when the hat's brim tore open.

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

The house of yellow and black clapped politely as a shell shocked Daphne got up from the stool and made her way over to her new house table. Her plain black robes took on a yellow trim as Susan Bones patted the empty space next to her.

Daphne accepted her spot as her mind went wild trying to think about what she'd write in the letter home that night. 

The sorting continued. Everything stopped when Longbottom's name was called. The hat barely touched his head before it shouted out “Gryffindor!”. The house of crimson and gold erupted in loud cheers, with the Weasley twins breaking out into song as Longbottom confidently walked over to his table.

Draco was sorted into Slytherin and Pansy followed along right after. The Patil twins were split between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and then it was Harry's turn.

“Potter, Harry!”

“He's cute. Isn't he?” Susan whispered from Daphne's left.

Daphne frowned. “He looks like a dog that just got done ruining a rose garden.”

Susan sighed warmly. “He does, doesn't he?”

“He's a Potter, right? Why have we never seen him at any of those snooty balls?” Hannah asked.

“Well, only one reason isn't it?” Said an older student who had overheard their conversation. “His parents musta been killed in the war. Probably raised by muggles.”

The subject of their conversation settled onto the stool. He felt McGonagall's critical gaze, going over every wrinkle on his robe, before she placed the hat on his head.

‘By Godric! You live with this mess?’

Harry's brows furrowed. ‘You can talk?’

‘Of course I can talk. Didn't you just hear me shout out a bunch of names?’

‘Where's your brain? Do you even have one?’

‘We are not here to discuss my inner workings. Now… oh! Stop thinking that! You will not get your grubby hands on me!’

‘I promise I'll sew you back up! I just want to know what makes you tick!’

‘You will do no such thing! Now, can you settle your mind down? Its making it really hard to get a read on anything!’

‘Sorry, I don't know how to do that. Can you just put me in Hufflepuff? That's where my assistant is.’

‘Alright, but if I'm placed on your head again, I’m growing teeth.’

‘Can you really do that?’

“Hufflepuff!”

Harry seemed adamant on continuing his conversation with the hat. McGonagall had to rip it from his head for the boy to finally get the hint and get up, finding his seat next to Daphne.

“Hi there! I'm Susan and this is Hannah!” The redhead waved at Harry, who waved absently back.

“Hi, Harry Potter.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Nice to meet you guys.” He turned to Daphne. “Gotta say, I'm surprised you got sorted to Hufflepuff.”

Daphne crossed her arms. “It was the hat's whim.”

The sorting wrapped up when Zabini, Blaise was sent to Slytherin. Then, the headmaster gave an odd speech about forbidden corridors, and the feast began.

Soon, murmurs of conversation filled.the hall. Daphne almost choked on her food when she overheard Ernie McMillan talk about how he still hadn't found his toad, but she covered it up with a cough.

“So, Harry, were you raised by muggles?”

When Susan's question wasn't immediately answered, Daphne glanced over at Harry.

He was not a sloppy eater, thank Merlin, but Daphne still found herself sighing as she saw the boy with his head down, almost missing his mouth with the mashed potatoes as he scribbled away on a piece of paper with his free hand.

“Harry. Susan asked you a question.”

Harry's head snapped up even as his hand kept writing. “Oh. Err… sorry, just writing some stuff down so I don't forget.” He crumpled up the piece of parchment and stuffed it under his robe. “What were you saying?”

“We were just curious about how you grew up?” Hannah piped up, and the rest of the first years were also leaning in.

Daphne couldn't deny her own curiosity on the subject. She watched as Harry gave a short shrug. “My parents were killed during the war, so I grew up with my muggle aunt and uncle. I didn't even know about magic until I got my pre-hogwarts letter.”

“No way.” Ernie said. “How was it? Growing up with the muggles?”

Harry tapped his chin as he looked deep in thought. “It wasn't too bad. My relatives didn't really like me. Or the other kids for that matter. But it was fine.”

Susan offered him a very sympathetic look. “Was it because of your magic?”

Harry shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

Harry received sympathetic looks and glances from the others. Daphne, meanwhile, despite only having known Harry for a few hours, had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to it than he let on. She filed that away as a question for later, as she knew it would not be proper to pry into his personal life so early, no matter how deep in her chest the curiosity burned.

…

It was deep into the night. It had been hours since everyone had drifted off to sleep, and Daphne found herself in her pajamas, making her way out into the common room.

She'd not written the letter home yet, choosing to punt on the issue until the next morning. There was still very low torchlight illuminating the common room, enough for Daphne to find her way. Grudging as she was to admit it, the Hufflepuff common room was very warm and welcoming, and her bed in the first year dorms was so comfortable, she would have been content just to sink into it until mid-morning.

And yet here she was, in the wee hours of the morning, her head throbbing as her perfect sleep was disrupted. 

“You made it.” Harry did not sound sleepy at all. From looking at him, you would think it was midnoon for how he was bursting with energy.

“Have you slept?” Daphne asked.

Harry shook his head. “I usually go to sleep at like three or four. Always do my best thinking around this time.”

“You… you realize classes start at eight in the morning most days, right?”

Harry frowned. “Yeah… I'll figure it out. Now come on!”

His trunk was laid out in the middle of the common room. Daphne wondered just how exactly he had managed to drag that thing over here without alerting his roommates.

“I put wheels on it.” Harry must have anticipated her train fo thought. He gave the trunk a push and it spun around in place. “Would have tried learning a levitation charm, but I'm not sure how well this thing will react to any more magic.”

Daphne shook her head. “You will need to find a longer term solution. You can't expect to bring this out onto the common room every night. And you can't expect me to come here with you at this hour.”

“Alright, alright. I get it. Now lets go in.”

Harry pulled the trunk's lid fully off, and Daphne stared down into what looked like an endless void of pitch darkness, a little ladder hooked on to the side.

“Ladies first.” Harry offered. Daphne shook her head.

“I will follow your lead.” She said sarcastically.

Harry grinned and he hopped down onto the ladder without a hint of worry. For her part, Daphne took a deep breath as she saw his head vanish into the darkness. 

“In for a knut.” She whispered into thin air before following Harry down into his trunk.

The ride down the ladder was surprisingly short. She'd only gone down three rungs before her feet hit solid ground. 

Daphne turned around and got her first view of Harry's laboratory. to his credit, it was quite large, about the size of her parent's room back home. It was littered with junk. There were heaps of scrap metal piled up on the corners, messy diagrams nailed up against the walls, and what must have been hundreds of crumpled up pieces of paper and little nuts and bolts all over the place.

What made it all the stranger, though, was how distorted it all looked. Daphne actually stumbled when she took her first step, because everything around her seemed to be wavering and wobbling strangely, both further away and closer than it seemed.

“Oh, yeah, still trying to fix that.” Harry said hastily as he noticed her discomfort. “Guess expansion charms can be tricky. On the plus side.” He took his glasses off and held them out to her. “I don't need my glasses in here.”

Daphne looked at him oddly before she took his wonky glasses. She replaced them in her face and was shocked to see her vision turn perfect.

“You know, if you could somehow harness this distortion outside of here, you would have fixed your eyesight.”

Harry's eye widened. “Damn! I didn't even think of that. I need to write that down-”

Daphne held a hand out. “I will write it down for you.” She insisted.

This was further proof that she had made the right choice. Achieving perfect eyesight had been a goal that wizards had strived for since the dawn of time. What at a first glance seemed like an easy task had been undertaken by the most brilliant minds in the entire world, and they had repeatedly failed. Magic and optic nerves just didn't mix, it was practically a law of magic.

And here was Harry Potter, steps away from a momentous discovery and not even realizing it. 

“You look even cuter with my glasses.” 

Daphne's cheeks flushed as her eyes narrowed. “Show me around.”

“Well, I don't have any test subjects. Err… none of them have stuck around very long-.” Harry cringed at Daphne's look. “Not all of them die! A few of them are doing quite fine… I think, and Aunt Marge's dog would have been fine, she was the one who decided to put him to sleep!"

Daphne put a placating hand on Harry's shoulder. “Show me around.”

Harry gave her a quick tour. Most of the scrap was muggle stuff that Daphne didn't recognize. Some of the things looked like they were in the process of being constructed. Daphne picked up one such thing, a long metal tube that looked to be made out of several dozen different pieces of scrap parts.

“What is this?”

“That's my transfiguration gun. Or, it will be when its finished.”

“What's a gun?” Daphne asked as she stared down the large barrel of what a muggle would have likened to a bazooka.

Harry rushed over and pushed the barrel away from her face. “A gun is… I'll explain it later. Anyways, I still need to learn a lot more about transfiguration before I can make it work.” 

Daphne allowed Harry to take the gun from her as she continued looking about the room.

She struggled to make sense of most of the diagrams nailed to the wall. Out of curiosity, she picked up one of the many crumpled up pieces of paper from the floor and checked it out.

“What about this?” She asked.

“Huh? Lemme see…” Harry glanced over her shoulder.

The drawing held a pair of tanks, connected by several vacuum tubes and wires. There were two stick figure people inside of the tanks, and while it was hard to make out, Daphne could decipher the words ‘healing’ and ‘transfer’.

“Oooh, yeah, that's one I thought up years ago. You put someone in one of the tanks and then transfer any injuries or curses or stuff they have onto the person in the other tank. Or maybe you transfer them onto a roach, or maybe an enchanted object or something.”

“Curses? You mean, like blood curses?” 

Harry shrugged. “Sure.” Harry noticed the way Daphne perked up with excitement. “Its just a concept, though. I drew it up one day and then kinda forgot about it. I'm not sure if its even possible.”

Daphne's face fell. “Oh.”

Harry frowned, not wanting to see his cute assistant be so down. “But, anything is possible with magic. I could look into it.” 

“You could?”

“Sure, put it on my schedule. I'll get right on it.”

Daphne smiled. Even if Harry was just trying to make her feel better, she appreciated the effort. “No, right now, we will go to sleep. We've jeopardized our first day of classes enough. You will normalize your sleep schedule, then-” she gestured all around them. “We'll get this place tidied up.”

“And then I can start working?”

Daphne nodded. “Only then.”

Harry smiled. “Daphne, dear, I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.”