Hermione Granger: Gamer, Monster [Outside POV Gamer SI in Harry Potter]

[kalifianto]

Did you mean Sirius Black?

Or did Peter already escape?

Click to shrink...

Hermione pulled out (and stole) the sword of Gryffindor and used it to out Peter Pettigrew during the Welcoming Feast first year (so two years ago in-story)

Hmm if I were Harry I'd absolutely go full study freak and experiment how Daisy can become that insane but I guess he's in Gryffindor for a reason. Still believable.

Harry vs Dementor GODLIKE kill streak when?

 

[andreykl]

Fake Chills


Sirius: Hey, Harry.

Harry: Sirius! Nice to see you. You are looking a lot better.

Sirius: Yeah, feel better too. Sadly still not good enough to be free of hospital. At least they let me leave sometimes now. I know they mean well, but that's so boring...

Harry: But didn't you say you liked all those young nurses caring for you?

Sirius: Definitely a sight for sore eyes, but there is only so much time one can spend in 4 walls drinking potion after potion.

Harry: I can imagine. Did you sneak away this time or did they actually let you leave?

Sirius: That's not important at the moment, I had something I wanted to talk with both you and Hermione about.

Harry: Petigrew I take it? Or is it about Quiber's article?

Sirius: Article? That's a very good fake and a good prank on all those publishers who are now seething their Harry Potter fiction is worse than a single photo by a joke edition. The thing sells like hot cakes last I hear. But how is Hermione tied to that, was she the one to make it?

Harry: Feel free to ask her to show, but be advised, you might not want to know the answer.

Sirius: Now I'm very curious. But back on topic, I wanted to make sure you and Hermione are ready in case he is really here, especially Hermione since she is more likely to be his target. But that's not the only reason.

Harry: I'm fairly sure you are underestimating Dai-Hermione, in fact if Petigrew knew who he is dealing with, he would have stayed in Azkaban, where it's safe because Aurors refuse to divulge the prison's location to Hermione.

Sirius: Normally I would say that you are pulling my leg, but I had some interesting experience... I wanted to gift her a nice villa for freeing me, said as much to my manager but when I said her name my manager vanished and I found that goblin on the chandelier couple minutes later. It took a while to take him down and he was muttering about Terror-That-Shouldn't-Be-Mentioned in these halls and later guards showed me out with a warning not to do that again. I was weirded out... Any idea what that was about?

Harry: You know how goblin blades are lent and not sold? They demanded Dai-Hermione return Gryfindor blade to them and when she refused they apparently assigned a bounty for Hermione's head and her blade. Something in our law allowed them to do that to a mugleborn without a guardian. It didn't end well for them.

Sirius: So she took offence for being hunted, but what did she actually do?

Harry: She apparently took offence to the bounty being too low and about her would-be-assasin skills being too low. So Da-Hermione basically waged a one-girl-war on the bank until they agreed to raise the bounty and gave her some golden cup from their vaults on top of what she called 'rightful loot'.

Sirius: Now I know you are pulling my leg.

Harry: If you don't believe me, just ask her to show her favorite hunting grounds, she will be overjoyed to oblige, but be advised, you better of not knowing the truth.

Sirius: Damn... I'm envious of your acting skills, I even got ominous chills when you said that!

 

[Lillie Jones]

Whilst Harry, Daisy, Lovegoods go dungeon diving ( wether or not) as Mr. Love good takes pictures from the dungeon.
Erstwhile, Harry and Daisy encounters the Dementors in enroute to Hogwarts school as Daisy goes dealing with the them her own way.
Meantime, Harry finds himself subject to the Tabloids by Mr Love good by supposed rival Draco Malfoy at Hogwarts school dinning Hall.
As Harry Potter hasn't made the family connection to prisoner of Askaban to Sirius Black yet ,while he's dealing with Daisy( Hermione) every day insanity during the school year. Or is Daisy gonna throw Harry a bone on the little tidbit of Family drama of Black family and Potter family of Sirius being his godfather ?
Continue on
Cheers!

 

[deathgeonous]

This fic deserves a warning label. 'Do NOT Eat while reading this fic.' I was eating some Pizza while reading this, started to laugh while my mouth was full, and almost chocked. Seriously. Anyways, this is a really funny fic.

 

[Zelaznog]

This is crack, and now I'm addicted.

 

[GAMB42]

This is simply awesome. True kudos to the author for this much crack lol.

 

[Swordchucks]

"Draco," Daisy almost purred, and that made Harry look at her like she had two heads. "I can call you Draco, right?"

"I would rather you didn't," the blond boy answered stiffly. They were walking between classes and rather accidentally ended up going in the same direction at the same time. Harry's embarrassment about the scruffy-looking photos in the Quibbler had faded, and for some reason, Draco hadn't brought it up again. In fact, the blond seemed to be avoiding him. Harry was sure that he was still being made fun of in private, given the number of girls giggling over copies of the magazine and casting glances in his direction, but only Malfoy had tried to make something of it to his face.

"Okay, Draco. I just need to ask… your mom. Is she happy at home? I mean, with your dad. She doesn't have… unfulfilled needs?"

Harry looked between the two, not at all sure what he was witnessing. Mrs. Malfoy had taken the post as their Wizarding Culture teacher for the year and was proving to be surprisingly knowledgeable and had a flair for teaching he hadn't really expected out of a Malfoy. Certainly, she was doing a better job of it than Professor Dawlish was doing as the temporary Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. As an auror, the man was decently knowledgeable, but he didn't really know how to teach that knowledge to children.

"Do not speak of my mother, mudblood," Draco growled, and Harry found his hand drifting to his wand without even realizing it.

"Calm down there, killer. Just because half the school wants to bang your mom doesn't mean you should get all defensive. She's a stone cold fox. I bet half the boys and a lot of the girls in the school have rubbed-" she continued.

"Ah, stop! Just stop!" Draco sounded almost hysterical, really.

"Fine, be a baby about it," Daisy grumped. "Out of respect for your mother's deliciously tight booty, I'm going to give you a warning. The m-word? The one you just used? You want to take it out of your vocabulary. Just forget it entirely. It'll be better for your health."

Draco looked a little queasy at the mention of his mother's behind, though Harry did have to admit that Daisy had a point. Mrs. Malfoy was more attractive than he would have expected her to be, though Draco's problem wasn't that he lacked good looks. It was just everything else about him that was repulsive.

The other boy composed himself quickly from Daisy's verbal assault. "I'll say what I want to say, mudblood," he hissed and then stalked away.

"Your funeral," Daisy commented with a shrug.

After a beat of silence, Harry turned to her. "Daisy, what did you do?"

Daisy shrugged, but wouldn't meet his eyes. "So, hypothetically, let's say that there was an object that was a really amazing accessory. It goes with pretty much everything plus it's really well enchanted to boost your stats, right? And some jerk of a dark lord decided to add a big curse to it so that anyone that did a certain action - like teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts classes - within a few miles of the really amazing accessory would have bad luck?"

Harry nodded slowly. "That does sound like something which might be true." He sighed and added, "Hypothetically."

Daisy nodded. "And let's say that, hypothetically, an amazingly talented and beautiful witch figured out how to tweak the curse so that it targeted a different action - like, say, saying the m-word."

Harry sighed again. It was a testament to how long he had associated with Daisy that he didn't doubt the truth of what she was saying, no matter how improbable it sounded. "Hypothetically, would this result in a bunch of Slytherins being dead at some point?" he asked. While there were no real brakes on the Daisy-train, it was possible to convince the engineer to stop feeding orphans into the boiler sometimes.

"Hypothetically, no? At least in hypothetical theory, if the same amount of magic is behind the curse in both cases and the second version is spread around a bunch of people instead of just focused on one, it would result in each victim getting a milder dose of punishment. Even the original version - hypothetically - didn't really hurt people until they'd been at it for most of a year or maybe more so it probably wouldn't be that bad?"

Harry closed his eyes. On one hand, he really should try to talk her out of it. On the other hand, the racism amongst wizards really was obnoxious. Even Uncle Vernon had used veiled language to talk about people he didn't like, only uttering a rare slur in the kind of hushed voice that said he knew he shouldn't be using it - which was oddly self-aware for Vernon. The purebloods shouted their racism loudly to anyone that would hear them suffered any sort of consequence for it, and even then it was just a few lost house points.

It wasn't even that he felt a compelling need to defend Daisy. She was more than capable of doing that herself, and he could very much understand people disliking her - he had moments of that, himself. It just rubbed him the wrong way that they would focus on the one thing about her that she had no control over while ignoring the many, many things she did of her own volition to drive people mad.

"Just… don't let it get out of control." It was a compromise, but the one that he felt he could live with. Daisy didn't need defending, but she was far from the only muggleborn in the school.

"Of course not, Harry. Hypothetically, I mean."

oOoOoOoOo

Daisy placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "I'm so sorry, Harry."

Harry's eyes widened as he glanced around the common room to see if anyone was missing. She looked like someone had died. "Daisy, what…"

"Tomorrow is Halloween and I don't have anything planned," she admitted and Harry found himself relaxing.

"Oh. That's fine."

"I mean, we could go into a dungeon and kill some stuff, but it's just not the same. I know I shorted you last year and then this year, there just aren't any good targets. We could incinerate another batch of Acromantuals, but a repeat of last year seems even worse than doing nothing."

"Really, it's fine," Harry reassured her, though he had no idea how he got into the position of assuring someone that he didn't need to murder someone every year.

"Oh, maybe we'll get lucky and Petigrew will try to kill you tomorrow!" Daisy perked up at the idea, though Harry cringed inwardly. "That gives me an idea…"

He started to protest, but it was already too late. She was running in the direction of the exit and he didn't really feel like trying to chase her down. It couldn't be that bad, could it?

oOoOoOoOo

Hogsmeade was an interesting experience, Harry had to admit. His aunt had signed the permission slip with only a little grumbling and he was glad he'd remembered to get her to do it before vanishing with Daisy at his birthday. The fact that he only saw his relatives for a couple of months a year seemed to make the relationship work much better, though it still wasn't a welcoming environment by any stretch.

"Come on, let's go get some candy and then I have a surprise for you," Daisy declared before slipping her arm through his and hauling him forward. Ron shared a look of sympathy with him but didn't do anything to rescue him from her clutches. A different Harry might have thought him a coward, but this Harry could only respect his self-preservation instincts.

The Honeydukes candy shop was magical, both figuratively and literally. While Harry had been in a similar shop in Diagon Alley called Sugarplum's, Honeydukes was much larger and clearly designed to take advantage of the multiple visits the unaccompanied students of Hogwarts paid to it each year. Harry almost found him paralyzed by indecision at how many delicious things were on offer.

"Here," Daisy said a few minutes into his browsing as she shoved a box into his hands. He turned it around to see that it said Pepper Imps and had a picture of a cartoonish little devil breathing fire on it. "You need to give these to Ginny when we get back."

"Why me?" he asked. He vaguely recalled seeing Ginny looking like a neglected puppy as the majority of the older students made their way out of the castle, but he didn't make a habit of watching her closely. There was something about the way she looked at him that made him feel a little funny in ways that he didn't have a name for.

"Because she looks up to you," Daisy supplied, smirking that insufferable smirk she used when she was being annoying.

That was mildly surprising. "She looks up to me? But you're the one training her."

Daisy nodded. "And I'm amazing at it, but sometimes…" She seemed like she was on the verge of revealing something interesting, but then just stopped and smirked wider. "I'll explain it when you're older."

Rather than fight, Harry added the box to his own growing basket of candy. "Fine."

Spoiler: Notes

This one's a bit on the short side. And late. But it's up!

 

[Shiro1234]

I'm disappointed in Harry… nobody died this chapter I know it's good he can keep his murderous impulse in control, but he should accept himself, Daisy would help him through this like every friends do.

 

[GAMB42]

"Really, it's fine," Harry reassured her, though he had no idea how he got into the position of assuring someone that he didn't need to murder someone every year.

Click to shrink...

This right here is why I am enjoying this fic. Nicely done. Please keep up the good work!

 

[Lillie Jones]

At least somebody (Daisy) can admit that Narcissa Malfoy is a stone cold fox ( MILF) in the new teacher of Dark art's .
Erstwhile, Daisy will have to explain the difference between boys and girls to Harry Potter ( but his traumatized past by Dumbledore machinations makes it go over hie head at such an early age in growing teenagers.
Continue on
Cheers!

 

[ArsMagna1337]

"How dare you not kill today, Harry!? You're the chosen one, you were meant to do that!" Dumbledore said calmly.

 

[SnappingTurt3ls2]

I'm disappointed in Harry… nobody died this chapter I know it's good he can keep his murderous impulse in control, but he should accept himself, Daisy would help him through this like every friends do.

Click to shrink...

Don't be too hard on him, its possible he's in denial.

And even if he's not, its hard to come out with things like this, even with people you trust. Its like coming out as gay, even if, logically, you know that whoever your coming out to won't treat you differently, its still difficult.

He really should come out about his homicidal impulses to his friends once he stops being in denial though.

 

[MudkipSage]

*Alternate Fight at the ministry*

Voldemort: At last! I have the prophecy. Power I know not? Ha! All this worry for nothing, for there is no knowledge that weak, pathetic, child could possibly have learned that I have not already possess!

Daisy: Sup

Voldemort:Silence you illbreed whelp! Lest i deal with you BEFORE Potter, and the rest of these blood traitors!

Daisy: *Angry Squints*

Harry: *Knowing Cringe*

 

[Barbaric_Bob]

I'm disappointed in Harry… nobody died this chapter I know it's good he can keep his murderous impulse in control, but he should accept himself, Daisy would help him through this like every friends do.

Click to shrink...

He's in denial, without Daisy to help him out you'd have heard about random killing in London by now

 

[DIT_grue]

The purebloods shouted their racism loudly to anyone that would hear them suffered any sort of consequence for it, and even then it was just a few lost house points.

Click to shrink...

Seems like this is missing something, for instance: them, but rarely suffered

 

[Swordchucks]

"This was the surprise?" Harry grit out while being careful not to stop smiling.

"I'm hoping that Petigrew takes the bait. If he pops up and tries to kill you, that'll solve a whole bunch of problems at one time," Daisy supplied helpfully. It did explain her logic, after a fashion. "Plus we both end up getting paid for this. More or less."

"Last year, when I returned to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry not as a student, but as a professor, I knew I would be helping to mold some of the finest young witches and wizards that the world has to offer. It was there that I had occasion to meet one of the rising young heroes in our world, Mr. Harry Potter." Gilderoy Lockhart paused for the brief wave of applause to end, smiling the whole time. Harry had to admit that the man made handling a crowd look effortless. He wouldn't say that he'd learned a lot of magic from the man, but the lessons in dealing with the public seemed like they would be useful. "Mr. Potter and I shared a few adventures together, and you can read all about them in my newest book, Habitating at Hogwarts."

With a flourish of his wand, the man caused the sheet covering the display of books outside of Tomes and Scrolls, the main bookseller in Hogsmeade, to fly off. Harry was well aware that his percentage of the book sales was small, but he also didn't have to do much to get it.

"Now, as a special treat, Mr. Potter has agreed to say a few words in his first ever official public appearance and stay with me to sign the first twenty copies of my - no, our new book."

Harry took a deep breath to steady his suddenly jangled nerves. In the half hour or so between revealing her surprise and 'go time', Daisy had coached him on what to say, but it hardly seemed like enough time to prepare. He was sure that she had waited to tell him her plans until the last minute so he didn't have time to chicken out. Somehow, after the other things she had put him through, a little public speaking didn't seem so bad.

He just tried to picture the crowd as a horde of ravenous monsters and it helped a little. He could deal with ravenous monsters.

"Hello," he started and gave the crowd his best smile and a little wave. He was sure he came across as a bumbling fool, but the crowd didn't seem to mind. "I'm sure that some of you have heard of me."

That got a mild chuckle from the crowd. "Well, I have always avoided publicity because I know that what I'm famous for was something I didn't really have an active role in. I think my dad and my mum were responsible, or maybe it was just luck, or fate. Whatever it was, I don't think I deserve any credit for that. If I'm going to be known, I want it to be for the things I do on purpose. That is why when Professor Lockhart-"

A warm hand landed on Harry's shoulder. "Harry, I'm not your professor anymore. You can call me Gilderoy."

"I'm sorry, Professor, it doesn't feel right. After you taught me so much, you'll always be a Professor to me," Harry replied. It was an exchange which Daisy had coached him on nearly word-for-word, and he had to admit that the crowd seemed to eat it up. He didn't have to fake looking bashful as he turned back to the crowd. It offered him an easy exit from the speech he had been fumbling through, anyway. "I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought there. In any case, please enjoy the book!"

He waved to the onlookers and stepped back a little as one of the bookshop workers started to marshal the line of people that all wanted books. Daisy gave him a big thumbs up and a smile, which had him rolling his eyes and shaking his head in amusement.

oOoOoOoOo

"My disappointment defies description," Daisy grumbled as she walked through the portrait with Harry later in the afternoon. Despite her hopes, they had not been attacked by an escaped Pettigrew.

Harry, for his part, was lost in thought. He had chosen his words during his first - nerve wracking - public speaking engagement in an attempt to dissuade people from praising him for 'defeating Voldemort' when he was a baby, but it hadn't entirely worked. On the other hand, it hadn't quite gone like he'd thought, either.

The idea that he was special because he'd somehow survived Voldemort's killing curse - and he still had no idea how people seemed to know so many specific facts about that night - had always put him off. It had gotten him a lot of stares from his classmates and random bystanders in Diagon Alley, but he had never really talked to people about what they thought about him. The students he interacted with weren't really aware of what had been going on back then, though many of them lived with the consequences. The few adults he interacted with regularly were aware - mostly the professors and Mrs. Weasley - but avoided mentioning it.

It was interesting. Being exposed to Daisy for so long had given him a sense for reading people beyond the surface, and it had come in handy again as he'd signed books along with Gilderoy. The ones that had brought it up always spoke of it in the context of what they had lost or what they had been afraid of back then. When he'd first entered the wizarding world, he'd assumed that people really did think he was responsible, but he was coming to understand that it was more that they saw him as a symbol of the end of a bad period of time. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but it seemed like the kind of thing that was worth some serious thought.

Suddenly, Daisy was forced to catch a redheaded missile that she then twirled around. "You're back!"

"Ginny, we were only gone for five or six hours," Daisy giggled. "No one even tried to kill us." The last part was said with clear disappointment like only Daisy could manage.

That got a laugh from Ginny, too. "It was boring here, too. Almost everyone was gone and even Luna got special permission to leave with her dad for the day," she whined.

Daisy looked meaningfully at Harry's hands. The hands he was using to carry the bags holding his shopping from earlier. He nodded and fished the box of Pepper Imps out of his Honeydukes bag. "We, ah, thought you might like these," he said as he offered them to the younger girl.

Ginny's face lit up and she took them from his hands. "Oh, I love these. Thank you, Harry!"

Then she leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek before turning to run up the stairs to her dorm room.

He ignored the maniacal grin on Daisy's face as he watched her go, a thoughtful look on his face.

That had certainly been interesting, too.

oOoOoOoOo

"Mister Potter," Professor McGonagall addressed him from across her desk. It was getting colder as Christmas drew near, but her office was nice and warm. "I wanted to talk to you about a… sensitive matter."

"Yes, Professor." Outwardly, he was calm, but inwardly he was trying to figure out which of Daisy's shenanigans had brought about this talk. The fact that he couldn't come up with one just made his feeling dread worse.

"Are you familiar with the name Sirius Black?" she asked after a moment's pause and Harry's thoughts came to a halt as their previous direction proved incorrect.

"I… I think so, Professor, but just in passing." He had heard the name before, but he couldn't remember when or where.

She nodded to him. "Mr. Black was one of your father's best friends when he was in school. It was James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and," her mouth twisted in distaste, "Peter Pettigrew."

"Ah," Harry said in vague agreement. That explained where he had heard the name.

"During your first year, it was revealed that Mr. Black was not, in fact, responsible for the deaths of your parents. In truth, it was Mr. Pettigrew that committed that deed, and Mr. Black was wrongfully incarcerated in Azkaban for almost a decade because of it. Azkaban is… not a pleasant place, and Mr. Black has been recovering from that experience ever since his release. He has been doing well and I have been asked if you would be open to meeting with him and Remus Lupin over the Christmas holidays."

Harry didn't even have to think about it. He wasn't really fixated on his departed parents, but he was curious to hear about what they had been like. Talking with one of their close friends seemed like a good way to find that out. "Of course, Professor. I'd like to meet him."

oOoOoOoOo

"Have you ever kissed a girl, Harry?" Daisy asked, seemingly out of the blue.

"Why?" he asked, suddenly getting suspicious. Harry had seen enough of the antics of older students over the last two and a half years at Hogwarts to get a general idea of what boys and girls did together, though he didn't entirely see the appeal. Lavender and Pavrati certainly seemed to be at that stage, though. The idea that Daisy was now joining them was mildly horrifying.

"Just answer the question," she pressed.

"Fine. No, I haven't," he admitted. She almost certainly knew that already since he spent the majority of his free time with either her or Ron and he had no desire to kiss either of them. In fact, the thought rather turned his stomach.

"Alrighty, then. Ginny," she said and Harry realized that he'd missed the other girl's entrance to the corridor they were in. "Have at him."

"Don't I get a say in this?" Harry protested. While Ron and Daisy were definitely not kissable, he didn't necessarily have that same feeling about the slightly younger redhead. He just hadn't really thought about it before.

"If you really don't want to, I won't make you," Daisy admitted. "However, there's all of this mistletoe around and kissing repels the Nargles."

Harry shuddered. During their dungeon expedition, he had seen the Nargles and the idea of them lurking around invisibly was terrible. "That's… a good point. I guess… one little kiss won't hurt anyone."

Ginny's smile got bigger and what followed next was a bit awkward and damp, but pleasant enough.

"Good, good. Now that this won't be your first kiss, come here, Harry," Daisy declared and before he could really protest, she turned him around with her hands on his shoulders.

"Daisy, I love you like a sister, but-" he tried.

"Oh, not that kind of kiss," she cut him off, and he saw with horror that her eyes had turned milky white. Something strange was happening to her mouth and before he could muster a second protest, her lips descended on his forehead.

There was a moment of horrible pain and then he blacked out.

Spoiler: Notes

I got distracted. Like... really distracted. Anyway, here's the next bit of this. I'll try to finish it out this week. I blame Skitterdoc as it was what started the whole derail.

 

[Barbaric_Bob]

did... did she fucking dementor tom's soul shard?

 

[GhostHaxStomp]

So she got something from dementors at some point. That's nice.

Man when she gets a boyfriend… talk about sucking your soul out through your dick.

 

[Lillie Jones]

HAHAHA!
Harry Potter first kiss goes from pleasant from Ginny to almost terrifying with bff Daisy 's dementors soul kissing techniques on Tom hocus.
Daisy ( Hermione) you definitely have owe him regular kiss, but might be put off for while after that 180 degree turn at the last minute.
Although Daisy did help bff Harry Potter with public speaking about Gildroy Lockhart book signing and finding information about Sirius Black godfather for the deceased Potter clan
Welcome back Author
Continue on
Cheers!

 

[Kuriboh1233]

Well at least she was sensitive enough to arrange a less horrifying kiss before the literal soul sucking one. Now that I think about it why hasn't anyone else just fed Tommy boys horcruxs to dementors? Or just tossed them through the while death veil thing. Seems less complicated than getting basilisk venom or almost burning yourself alive with fiendfyre.

 

[Jao]

Petigrew takes the bait.

Click to shrink...

Pettigrew*

 

[ClockBlocker]

Well at least she was sensitive enough to arrange a less horrifying kiss before the literal soul sucking one. Now that I think about it why hasn't anyone else just fed Tommy boys horcruxs to dementors? Or just tossed them through the while death veil thing. Seems less complicated than getting basilisk venom or almost burning yourself alive with fiendfyre.

Click to shrink...

Dementors are controlled by the Ministry.

The Veil of Death is controlled by the Ministry and the Dept of Mysteries.

Most do-over stories are not working with the Ministry or with Dumbledore. So it is harder to access those things.

 

[Kuriboh1233]

Dementors are controlled by the Ministry.

The Veil of Death is controlled by the Ministry and the Dept of Mysteries.

Most do-over stories are not working with the Ministry or with Dumbledore. So it is harder to access those things.

Click to shrink...

Yes but in most if those stories they very easily get all the horcruxs besides the cup. It's probably thousands of times easier to get to the veil room to toss some shit then break into gringotts.

 

[SomethingFromNorht]

Gremlin speerun.

 

[Swordchucks]

"It does look like Dementor exposure," a voice was saying as Harry struggled back to awareness.

"Do you think it's one of the rogues? The Ministry has been hush-hush on that ever since the incident on the Express, but I've heard that almost a dozen of them went missing afterwards. No one is willing to outright confirm it, but the rumors have been persistent. Between that and the whole mess with my cousin, the Minister is hanging on by a thread." The second voice was more familiar as he heard it several times a week in class. It was Professor Malfoy.

The feel of soft, freshly pressed sheets under him was a comfort, at least. It meant he was somewhere nice and not on the floor of a corridor or something equally as awkward. The witches moved a little farther from him and he couldn't quite make out what they were saying, though he believed that the second voice was the matron of the school hospital wing. Fortunately, he had only needed to see her a few times since starting school and always for something minor.

He groaned softly as he tried to get up but found himself painfully weak.

His brief attempt at getting upright had apparently been enough to draw attention, however, and the curtains that had been giving him some privacy were swished aside as Madam Pomfrey came walking in. "Mr. Potter. How are you feeling?"

"Tired," he groaned. "Weak."

She nodded. "Your friend Miss Granger brought you in. She said she found you collapsed in a corridor and my tests indicated that you were suffering from something very much like Dementor exposure. Do you recall how you came to be in such a state?"

Harry recalled something of the incident, but he didn't quite get what had happened. Telling anyone that Daisy had tried to eat his soul didn't seem like it would go over well, so he decided to not do that. "Not really," he offered instead. It was truthful enough since he didn't know the specifics. Specifics he very much intended to extract from his friend as soon as possible.

She gave him a nod. "You've already been here for most of the night, so I would prefer to keep you until curfew is over. I'll be back with some chocolate, which might help a little." She turned and nodded back through the curtains. "Narcissa, if you could watch him and make sure he doesn't go running off?"

"Certainly, Poppy," the regal woman declared as she came sweeping through the curtains, as well.

A few moments later, they were alone.

"Are you certain you didn't see anything, Mr. Potter?" she asked slowly, almost gently.

"No, Professor," he answered. He really didn't know what Daisy had been up to, but involving teachers seemed like a bad idea. If he decided that he had to go that route, he could always 'remember some details' later.

"If you do, please let me know. I hope you know that I take the safety of the students here very, very seriously," she said and he was a little surprised at the undercurrent of anger there. Fortunately, it didn't appear to be directed at him.

"Yes, Professor," he offered and the conversation died for a moment.

Eventually, Narcissa broke the silence. "I heard that my cousin has asked to pay you a visit," she said and it took Harry another moment to connect the dots. Given that only one person had asked to visit him, it wasn't that hard.

"Sirius is your cousin?" he said with some amount of surprise. He had never expected that.

"Yes. He is the head of the House of Black, what is left of it, anyway. We have spoken a few times since his release, in fact," she admitted. "We had… a lot to talk about. In fact, he is the one that convinced me to apply for the job I have right now."

Harry's eyebrows rose at that. Something about Narcissa Malfoy didn't fit with the mental image he had of a professor, but she was doing a good job of it in his estimation. "Well, he was right. I rather like your class."

Professor Malfoy's lips ticked up in a small smirk and Harry immediately saw a bit of Draco in her, but not in a bad way. "I appreciate that. Did you know that you also have ties to the House of Black, Mr. Potter? Your grandmother was my great aunt. I believe that she was also the great aunt of Sirius, for that matter." That did shock Harry and it must have shown on his face because Professor Malfoy laughed lightly. "Don't look so surprised. Our society is… close-knit. You can probably trace a relationship through blood or marriage to most of the purebloods and halfbloods within the school. It doesn't mean that much."

"It's just a bit unexpected," Harry admitted. What he didn't say was that it made him wonder why he had been placed with his muggle relatives instead of one of the magical families that apparently had ties to his own. Certainly, he hadn't heard about a magical relation as close as an aunt or uncle, but he couldn't see a wizard willingly sending a child to live with muggles if there was any other option.

Sounds of movement from outside the curtains presaged the arrival of the Matron with a bar of chocolate that looked like it could have crushed a goblin. Well, not a Gringot's goblin, but one of the variety that appeared in Daisy's dungeons. He had a disturbing amount of knowledge on what it took to crush one due to a series of experiments that he really tried not to think about.

"It has been pleasant, Mr. Potter. Please try not to injure yourself further, and please send me an owl in the new year. I'm sure I can find time to speak with you more over tea."

"Thank you, Professor," Harry said and watched Professor Malfoy leave.

He really hadn't expected any of that.

oOoOoOoOo

"Explain," Harry demanded.

To her credit, Daisy didn't even try to act innocent. "Yeah, that was a bit much, Harry. I'm sorry."

He'd been trying to figure out what the hell Daisy had done to him and coming up short. She'd thought it necessary to get him to kiss Ginny - which he still hadn't quite processed - and then she'd done something horrible to him. Or, at least, whatever she had done to him left him feeling horrible.

"Well?" he prompted as her explanation faltered before it even really began.

"Well…" she trailed off as she looked around to make sure that no one was listening in. The common room wasn't particularly crowded, but it wasn't empty, either. "Actually, this is a bad place for this. Let's go somewhere private."

Harry almost hesitated to follow her, but his trust in her was just wounded, not destroyed. Over the years of their association, Daisy had hurt him several times, but it was always an issue of her not thinking things through and never willful. This incident seemed to straddle the line, but he wanted to hear her side of things before deciding how angry he was. "Alright."

Some time later, Daisy paced in front of a rather garish tapestry and that action somehow created a door to appear opposite to it. It was far from the weirdest thing he had seen the castle do, but it also wasn't something he had seen before. "I'll explain everything in here," she said.

Inside, the room appeared perfectly normal with a pair of plush armchairs in front of a warm fire. Harry circled the sitting area once before plopping down in one. He still wasn't completely recovered and the walk up to the seventh floor had been long. "I'm waiting."

"Yeah, yeah, sorry. It's just… there's a lot to talk about, and I have to pick somewhere to start." She was thoughtful for a moment before she seemed to reach a decision. She pulled a black book out of her inventory that was almost familiar. "Remember this?"

Harry stared at it for a moment but came up blank. "Only vaguely. What is it?"

She handed the book over to him and he found the dark green - nearly black - leather cover to be surprisingly cold. The name TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE was embossed on the front in gold and it had golden corner guards. He realized that he'd seen Daisy take it from Ginny the previous year, which just made it even weirder that it was what she pulled out now. "That is something called a horcrux," she said as though it were a great secret.

"And what is a horcrux?" he asked slowly. There was a faint of magic coming from the book, but it was subtle.

"Are you aware that souls are a real thing? Not in the religious 'we can't prove they exist but believe they do' sense, but in the 'wizards have verifiable proof that they're real' sense."

"I've seen ghosts, Daisy." Harry couldn't help rolling his eyes. She seemed to be really dragging this one out.

"Ghosts aren't… well, they are… ghosts are just the impression of a soul and not really a soul. Not a whole one, at least. If they were, they would have the capacity to learn and change and I don't know if you've noticed, but ghosts are pretty static. Some of them are a bit more adaptable than others, but even those aren't really people, just like the paintings aren't really people. If they were, at least some of them would be trying to get themselves brought back from the dead."

"And that's a thing souls could do?" Harry asked, his morbid curiosity leading him on yet again.

Daisy nodded. "You've seen one already. A soul that was more than a ghost and looking for a way to come back to life."

"Voldemort." Harry shuddered at the memory of Quirrel melting away and the thing that had been living on the back of his head slinking away as an inky black mist.

"Exactly. Voldemort." She nodded to the book in his hands. "Here, let me…" She used her wand to draw fiery letters in the air and the name - Tom Marvolo Riddle - rearranged itself into 'I am Lord Voldemort'. Harry very nearly dropped the book as he realized what he must be holding.

"Say a soul is a boat. You're alive and the boat is on dry land. You die and the boat gets put into the water where it's really windy. The wind wants to blow you out to sea - to the next life. Well, a horcrux is like an anchor. As long as it's there, your soul-boat hangs out near the shore and you can maybe find a way to row back onto land."

He had a sinking feeling as he looked at the book. "And that's why Voldemort is still around?"

She nodded. "When you murder a fellow human being - not just kill them in self defense or a fit of passion but really go out of your way to murder someone for purely selfish reasons - it frays your soul a little at the edges. It's something that will usually heal in time, but if you take a bit of magic and perform the right kind of ritual, you can just pop a little piece out of it. It isn't much, but if you bind that piece into an object like this, it acts as that anchor that will keep your soul from passing over."

Harry's lip curled in distaste. He had a feeling he really wasn't going to like where this was going given the reason she had started talking about this in the first place.

"Souls aren't easy to quantify. You can't really measure them and taking a piece or two or three out of a soul isn't the same as taking a slice out of a pie. It still has an effect, but it's not the same. You don't 'run out' of soul, though breaking pieces off certainly changes what is left. Mr. Riddle decided he wanted to be extra safe so he created a lot of anchors. So many that, there at the end, his soul was kind of used to it. When whatever your parents did caused his curse to rebound on him, it knocked a piece loose and it ended up lodged in you."

Harry's hand went to his forehead. He didn't need to tell him exactly where that soul-piece had been lodged. His scar that never healed and hurt sometimes was a clear enough clue. "Then I'm-"

"I had to find some Dementors first." She talked over him rather than let him voice the panic he was feeling. "I needed to know how to suck a soul out of a person without injuring them. Dementors leave the body completely undamaged - which is almost more horrifying than the alternative - but it was still the best method I could come up with. So I caught a bunch and I've spent most of the semester working out how to get it to work. I got it down and sucked the one out of my hat-" she gestured to her diadem. The thing being a horcrux made a horrible sort of sense. "-which is how I figured out Voldemort put the curses on it in the first place. The soul fragments aren't complete people, but they hold echoes of the person's personality and knowledge at the time of their creation. It's a vulnerability that I imagine he was unaware of. Then once I was sure I could do it without hurting you…"

"So… sucked out the soul fragment?" he asked in confusion. It made a degree of sense though it was still insane.

She nodded. "Exactly. You can think of this as the first time a girl sucked on you hard enough that your soul left your body."

Harry blinked as his brain tried to parse that statement. Then he gagged. "Ew. That's gross, Daisy."

She giggled. "Don't knock it until you try it. You won't think it's gross in a year or two."

oOoOoOoOo

"How was Sirius?" Daisy asked not long after she'd gotten back from Christmas. She took up an armchair in the common room while she played another game of chess with Ron. She never seemed to take it that seriously, but she won more often than not.

"It was… fine. He seemed nice enough, but I think he is still suffering from what he went through," Harry admitted. Sirius had only slipped up and called him James once, but it had been enough for Harry's heart to ache. A few minutes of Dementor exposure that he had personally experienced had been horrible, and the thought of having to deal with that for a decade was almost unimaginable.

"Bloody Azkaban," Ron grumbled as he eyed the board more carefully. "Mum says they're talking about doing a full review on everyone thrown in there after what happened to Black. It's a horrible place, and people weren't so upset about it when they thought they were all guilty, but if there's one…"

"Good," Daisy declared. "Prison should be for reform, not punishment. If you need to punish someone that badly, just kill them. It would be kinder."

"There's probably a middle ground," Ginny chimed in. She was sprawled across the couch with her socked feet in Harry's lap, though he wasn't exactly certain when she'd put them there. She was busy reading a Quidditch magazine and didn't even seem to notice. "But yeah, it's turning into a big stink. Dad said the Ministry is on edge because this coming election is going to be a bloodbath if something doesn't change."

"I hope he meant that figuratively," Harry joked, though it was a little worrying when no one laughed.

"Maybe, maybe not," Daisy said. "Fudge's biggest opponent for Minister in the last cycle was Barty Crouch, and his fingerprints are all over Sirius's fate. That's probably the only reason why there hasn't been a serious attempt to recall Fudge over it. Neither side is looking great right now."

Harry lapsed into silence. It was a lot to think about but there wasn't a lot he could do about it.

oOoOoOoOo

"Mate, we need to talk about my sister," Ron declared as he flopped down beside Harry in the common room. "You and my sister, I mean."

Harry looked at his best friend and moved away slightly. There were any number of things that Ron could be talking about so he decided it was better to ask for clarification before accidentally confessing to anything. Daisy had taught him that one the hard way. "What about us?"

Ron's face was a bit red. "Look, mate, I know she has a crush on you, alright? And I need to warn you about that."

Harry raised his hands defensively. He'd heard about the kind of thing where guys would threaten to kill other guys for daring to date their sisters. "Is that what's going on?" he tried innocently. At least Ron didn't know about the kiss in the hallway. It also wasn't like he knew for sure that she liked him. He had strong suspicions about that, but he'd never really asked and Ginny had never explicitly told him. "We're not… There's nothing going on, Ron."

"I know that, mate, but I'm warning you." The redhead took a deep breath. "You've got to run if she tries anything, mate. She's bloody terrifying. The twins don't even bother her and they provoke Snape every other week. If she tries anything, just do whatever you have to do to survive the situation and then make your escape as soon as you can. Don't provoke her and whatever you do, don't let her know you're afraid of her."

Harry opened his mouth and closed it again. That hadn't sounded anything like the speech he would have expected, but if he considered 'warning' someone that was interested in Daisy, it probably would have gone much the same way.

"Thanks for the warning," he said instead of the other things on his mind.

"No problem, mate. Us blokes have to look out for each other, right?"

Spoiler: Notes

To the kind souls giving me corrections, I haven't been making them yet, but I will go through when I get the next (final) chapter up and doing so. Getting stuff published when I'm not in 'writing mode' is hard and exactly why I am not a professional writer.

 

[Danielle723^^]

I want to watch the disaster that is someone trying to date a crazy gamer xD

 

[Kuriboh1233]

I can't help but feel Ron is much smarter than in canon.

 

[Barbaric_Bob]

I want to watch the disaster that is someone trying to date a crazy gamer xD

Click to shrink...

She's not crazy, she just forgot to level her acting/lying skills to not look crazy

 

[Catgc]

I can't help but feel Ron is much smarter than in canon.

Click to shrink...

Than movie Ron, yes. Than book Ron, that's debatable.

 

[GhostHaxStomp]

next (final) chapter

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Wait is it ending already? Dang, I know this has been a lightning round and Daisy has been cleaning house but I didn't realize we were almost to the finish line.

There's still like, two macguffins and snake face himself. And Daisy Harry hasn't killed a teacher in a while, so he's probably a little pent up.

I hope Hogwarts is still standing when the End arrives. Though seeing the alternative would be really funny.