We Met In The Shadows.

Flickering Silver

Grinning, Harry whirled around to meet Lupin’s eyes. Unfortunately, his body chose that moment to give out and he wobbled a little before crashing into the floor somewhat painfully. Rather than the fall putting a damper on his mood, he simply burst out into joyous laughter, exhilarated that he had finally managed some progress.

Remus matched his hysterical laughter with a soft chuckle and offered a hand to Harry so that he could get up. Still giggling, Harry let the professor pull him up and collapsed into the chair conveniently placed right next to him. Likely, Lupin’s terrifying foresight which seemed to have been specifically designed for his students’ comfort.

“You overdid it,” Lupin chided softly, the effect ruined by the proud grin on his face. “Congratulations, Harry! I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone pick up such a difficult spell as fast as you did.”

Flustering under the praise, Harry ducked his head. “Thank you, Professor. I couldn’t have done it without your advice, so half the credit goes to you too.”

Simply shaking his head, Lupin gave him some chocolate to munch on, leaving Harry wondering about where exactly the professor stored his seemingly endless supply of sweets. Madam Pomfrey would probably have a heart attack, he thought absent-mindedly.

“Come on, Harry, off you go. You should get a full night’s rest. It’ll help with the magical exhaustion that’s bound to happen because of how many times you cast that spell. I hope your headache isn’t too bad,” Lupin teased.

“What?! Professor, you didn’t warn me about that!”

~

The Hogsmeade weekend creeped up on him, his attention having been primarily occupied with his Patronus lessons, clandestine meetings with Sirius and the gruelling Quidditch practices. He found himself feeling surprisingly comfortable even with the idea that he was going to spend the day with Daphne alone. The previous night, when Harry had informed Ron of his plans, the ginger had simply waggled his eyebrows at him, leaving Harry feeling slightly puzzled about his best friend’s soundness of mind.

He was on his way through the Great Hall when a smarmy voice called out his name.

“Potter! Hey, Potter! I heard you've got yourself a little date?”

Harry found his heart dropping at the casual remark. He turned around to meet Malfoy’s eyes, scowling. “Why’s it any of your business, git?”

“Aww, name-calling! This person must be oh-so-precious, mustn't they?” the Slytherin cooed back. “I bet the pair of you are completely disgusting with each other.”

Before Harry could retort, came the voice of a familiar girl.

“Why are you so interested, Malfoy? Feeling jealous?” Daphne spoke.

“What? Why would I ever be jealous and for what?” Malfoy scoffed.

“Oh, nothing,” she answered, her tone amused. “We all know about your crush on Potter, that’s all. Though I hadn’t pegged you to be the oblivious type.”

As Daphne laughed, Harry watched in amazement as Malfoy's face changed colour in quick succession, settling on a brick red. His state looked awful, the red contrasting against Malfoy’s pale features.

While Malfoy spluttered, clearly having been caught off-guard, Daphne sauntered past him and brushed against Harry, sending him a subtle wink. Catching the hint, he followed her discreetly.

As they neared Hogsmeade and the students filtered out, Harry caught up to her and let himself break out into a huge grin. “Daphne, that was brilliant! Though what did you mean by the crush thing? Is that… true?” Harry could feel himself cringe a little as he thought about that particular unfortunate scenario.