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Further Developments

Hermione slumped ungracefully down at her table in the Library. Daphne was gone now, so she had no one to talk to about Professor Dumbledore's request. Of course, you're not supposed to tell people when you're spying on them, and there was no way to spy on Harry without getting Daphne involved. No, she thought. I'm not supposed to spy on them; I'm supposed to "keep an eye on them."

The young witch groaned. Where had Daphne gone off to? She needed her friends right now. Burying her face in her hands, she began to cry softly. A teacher had told her to do something, but she knew it would mean betraying her friends. What am I supposed to do? she asked, over and over.


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Meanwhile, in the Owlery, Daphne had problems of her own: convincing her boyfriend to take their mutual best friend as a sex slave. Not an issue most girls had to deal with, of couse, but they weren't Daphne. "Come on, Harry! It's perfect!"

"Daph," Harry sputtered, "how . . . how is this 'perfect?'"

His fiancé huff-ed and replied, "Harry, I'm going to be your consort. My babies will be Greengrasses. You need a girl to have lots of Potter babies so your family won't die out. WE both think Hermione's brilliant—not just smart, I mean. She's great. I can't think of anyone better."

"Then why can't I just marry her and make her my wife?" Harry asked.

Daphne shook her head. "Hermione needs people to guide that . . . passion of hers. If she had the freedom of being your wife, she'd have no one to reign her in and . . . Well, think about it!"

Harry did and winced slightly. "Even so . . . It just feels wrong, Daph."

Daphne sighed, shaking her head. Harry was just so . . . noble. It was part of the reason she loved him, but, right now, it was a problem. Unfortunately, she knew him well enough to know when he had was digging his heels in, which was what he was doing at that moment. Unlike her, Harry didn't argue hard from the get go, but saying "it just feels wrong" was his version of crossing his arms and turning around. He just wasn't willing to show it was all.

So, it was time to switch tactics. If honest reasoning couldn't work on him, honest feelings would have to do. "Harry," she said. ". . . she's my best friend, our best friend, and . . . she likes you, really likes you." Harry blushed a little at this. "My mother's told me stories, and I've read things . . . we could lose her, Harry. I . . . I don't want that." Her eyes were not getting wet. She was not that emotional.

Harry took her hand. "That's . . . that's her choice, Daph."

Daphne looked him in the eye and threw her arms around his neck, weeping. So she was emotional, who cared?

Harry wrapped his arms around her . . . and wondered what he could say or who he could go to.

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"Oh, boy," Lily Potter said as she read the letter her oldest friend had written to her. Finding out that her son had taken on a Troll was . . . unnerving, no matter how elating it was to hear that he had won. He's taking after his father. James would have so proud of him.

Lily sighed, thinking about her husband. He and she had had a very difficult discussion the day after Lord Jonathan Longbottom had died battling Death Eaters and left Lady Augusta a widow. It had become obvious that day that it was a very real possibility that they might not die or survive together. The fact that Lily was pregnant at the time only exacerbated the situation. Ultimately, and reluctantly, they had reached the agreement that if one of them perished in the war, the other one would carry on . . . which included searching for a new partner. This was especially important to ensure that little Harry had a healthy, normal childhood. They never allowed the thought that he might die to enter into their minds.

Thus far, Lily hadn't really fulfilled that promise. Severus was the only man she'd had any real contact with in the past few years, apart from a few visits from Remus, but Severus was her friend, almost her brother. She had learned back in school that she couldn't love him romantically, no matter how much he had obviously loved her.

"Mom, whatcha reading?" a voice cried over her left shoulder.

"Daisy!" Lily cried, jumping a little in her seat. "How often have I told you to not climb on the furniture?"

Her daughter grinned and slid down off the back of the chair with a "Sorry," of questionable sincerity.

Lily shook her head. Harry may have gotten his father's looks, but Daisy had his personality. Next year, Hogwarts was going to become . . . much more interesting. "I got a letter from your uncle Severus," she said. "Your brother and sister had an interesting adventure with their friend Hermione." Daisy had begun referring to Daphne as her big sister years ago, her argument being "He's my brother, so, you're my sister," and this was before anyone had explained the concept of in-laws to her.

"Really?" Daisy asked, her eyes wide. Then, she squinted and chewed her lip for a moment. When she finally stopped, she asked, "Does this mean Hermione is going to be my sister, too?"

"Why." Lily stuttered. "What makes you think that?"

"Because, when boys and girls have adventures, they get married at the end," Daisy said, sounding just like her father did whenever he explained something he thought was totally obvious.

Lily reflected that she may have the only ten-year-old in the world who read too much.

". . . We'll see about that," she said at length. Lily understood the nature of House laws and that Harry needed a Potter wife to keep the family alive. She also knew about concubines and hetaerae from one very uncomfortable conversation with Daphne . . .


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"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WELCOME TO THE FIRST QUIDDITCH MATCH OF THE YEAR! GRYFFINDOR VS. SLYTHERIN!" Seamus Finnegan shouted into his . . . microphone . . . thing. It was a cone with a tube attached to the end. Hermione could see it from her seat, and she still had no idea what it was. Though, perhaps she was just trying to ignore the bigger question: who should she root for? Harry was her best friend—and now, possibly her future fiancé/slavemaster—but he was in the opposing House, a House whose other occupants were mostly, to put it mildly, jerks.

Gryffindor by contrast was . . . better. The three Chasers—Katie Bell, Angelina Jones, and Alica Spinet—were nice when she met them in the Commonroom, and the Weasley twins, whilst unrepentant troublemakers, were much nicer than their younger brother. Wood, though, was a nonentity to her; she had never met him before. Cormac MacLaggen, the new Seeker, however, was, to quote Parvati, "a dark-haired Malfoy who got mis-Sorted." The number of times she had seen him trying to chat up any girl in the school, or heard him bragging about either his family's accomplishments or his own . . .

Regardless of which team won or lost, Hermione really hoped Harry beat MacLaggen.

"Wheeeeeeeeet!" Madam Hooch's whistle sounded, cutting through her thoughts like a knife. The game had begun.

For the first hour or so, things went well. Gryffindor and Slytherin were tied at 20 points each. Then she saw Harry and MacLaggen diving through the air—they were going for the Snitch! Hermione squinted her eyes; she occasionally saw a flash of gold, but couldn't be certain if it was her imagination or a reflection off someone's watch. She was certain it was the Snitch, though; that was the only reason the two Seekers would have been racing each other.

That was when things went very bad.

"What's goin' on wit' 'Arry's broom?" Hagrid asked, peering through his extra-large binoculars. The broom in question was jerking all over the place, like a horse trying to throw its rider. It went left, then right, then bounced, then forward, then left. . . Harry was holding on tightly, but the broom was only getting wilder.

"Harry!" Hermione cried. If he fell . . . if he died . . . Madam Hooch flew over to try to grab him, but the broom jerked away from her. She pulled her wand out, but couldn't aim because of how much it was moving.

Then, Harry jumped off his broom and into the open air.


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Harry James Potter was having a bad day.

He had been training with the Slytherin team ever since Severus had heard about how he caught Neville's Remembrall after Draco threw it from his broomstick. The other man's justification for why his House should get a prodigy when they'd won the House Cup for the past six years being "I'd like at least one member of my team to be a decent human being." Dumbledore had chided Severus for his choice of words, but allowed the other man his wish.

At first, this had meant Harry could get his broom from home and fly as much as he liked. Whenever studying became too much or he had something on his mind and Daphne and Hermione weren't near, he'd jump on his Nimbus and soar into the clouds, race the birds, or look out on the Grounds. Unfortunately, there was an inevitable flip-side to this coin. Hearing Marcus Flint criticize his every mistake and constantly call him "Halfblood" was not anyone's idea of a good time. Thankfully, Flint lacked the brainpower to slander his mother, or he actually had some brains and chose not to. It was hard to tell.

Then came the game itself. Harry was pretty sure he could have beaten MacLaggen had his broom not started trying to kill him. At first, it looked like Madam Hooch was going to save him, but the broom seemed bent on throwing him, whipping him away and bucking even harder.

It was getting harder to hold on; Harry's hands were hurting, and his head was pounding. He saw Madam Hooch draw her wand, but she couldn't get a bead on him with the broom constantly jerking about.

! One of Harry's hands SLIPPED OFF!

Oh, no! he thought, grabbing the handle again, squeezing tighter. He was safe—for now, but Harry realized that he didn't have much time left. So, using whatever brains he had left in his rattled skull, he did the only thing he could think of. He leaped of his broom in the general direction of Madam Hooch.


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"Guess Potter can't handle a broom—Ow!" Draco's joking was cut off as Daphne pushed past him to get down from the Slytherin House box. Seeing her fiancé's broom fly out of control, seeing Harry leap jump out in the air and (apparently) just barely be saved by Madam Hooch who stopped him from plummeting to the Earth below . . . She didn't have time for the snowy-haired, smart-mouthed ferret.

She pushed and shoved her way through the older students in the back rows, some of whom having already figured out that they should get moving now to be at the front of the inevitable crowd. As such, she got pushed into the walls as well. Soon, the young witch found herself in what amounted to a running wrestling match with students more than twice her size. Somehow, she slipped her way through and was in front of the others when Madam Hooch brought Harry down to the grass. His broom had fallen shortly after he'd jumped off it.

Daphne wrapped her arms around him and squeezed as hard as she could. She heard him cry out her name, complaining about breathing problems, but she didn't care; she didn't let up.

"HARRY!" Daphne was brought back to reality when she heard the voice of her best friend shout her beloved's name. The bushy-haired girl then plowed into both of them, hugging Harry herself. None of the three were overly concerned with the voices of teachers and students surrounding them.

"Harry . . ." Hermione started. ". . . What where you . . . why did you do that?"

Daphne could feel the boy's face and neck heat up. "Well . . ." he said. "I figured it was the best way for Madam Hooch to get me down. I didn't think she could do it while I was still on my broom."

This of course, drew the referee's ire down on the boy, as the teachers began attempting to pry the trio apart to examine Harry.


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Hermione, for the first time in her life, was ignoring what the teachers were saying. All she could think about was what Professor Dumbledore had said to her the other day . . . Danger seemed to be a part of Harry's life, and he sometimes made very risky decisions; maybe there should be someone watching out for him . . . somehow . . .


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Notes: Ok, sorry if the plot didn't seem to go anywhere in this one, but it is "Further Developments." The actual Stone-hunting will start soon, I just needed this chapter to set up things to come. Also, I needed that side note with Lily and Daisy to tie them back into this mess and finally explain that Lily and Snape ARE NOT TOGETHER. I suppose Chapter 2 kind of suggested that, but sorry, that was never part of the story. I considered making them "friends with benefits" (basically, screwing each other whenever Lily's had a rough day), but I don't really approve of that, and it felt really disrespectful and really unhealthy to the characters and their relationship. I don't really know if Lily and Snape will EVER get together, although it's vaguely possible. I do have a plan for Lily though, so stayed tuned.