Daphne took a deep breath. The October air was crisp, and walking near the lake let quiet sounds of water relax her. After the study session with Hermione, this was a relief. That girl seemed to bury herself in whatever challenge she finds and refuses to let up. She looked at the boy walking with her. Harry was... well, interesting. Slightly dangerous. Kind of cute... uh, reserved. Yeah.
The look in his eyes when he commanded her to warn the Great Hall had sent shivers down her spine.
Still... "Potter, do you think the trolls were sent to the castle?"
He gave a lopsided grin that made her squirm a little inside. "Why Ms. Greengrass, I doth protest thy formal language of a most extreme nature."
She rolled her eyes. "Harry then. I mean, those were mountain Trolls, not a lot of mountains around here. Someone had to have let them in, right?"
Harry sighed. "I think so. I didn't feel who was around when I noticed them entering the front entrance. I am not sure what they hoped to accomplish, but I couldn't risk waiting to find out." He gave a small frown. "I doubt it was intended to target me, even though I took the most damage. It wasn't likely intended to push forward Death Eater ideals either, since there was no signs, warnings, or other notes claiming responsibility, which terrorists tend to do when trying to push fear."
She pushed a strand of blond hair behind her ear. "Well, assuming the one responsible was not aiming for random fear, then they were either creating a mess to attack leadership at Hogwarts, creating a distraction so they could do something at Hogwarts, or testing the defenses of the school for a future event." She gave a slight head shake. "Although the testing thing seems... oh. They could be trying to get Aurors stationed here at the school so that an event elsewhere would have less people responding to it."
Daphne noticed him giving her a huge grin. "What?" He chuckled and his eyes glittered slightly. "You know Ms. Greengrass, I am quite lucky to be surrounded by such intelligent women."
She raised her nose. "Of course you are, Mr. Potter. And you shall be grateful of such an honor, of course."
His grin widened. "But of course, my Lady. I surly count my days as filled with joy and fortune to be such honored at a time as this."
Daphne rolled her eyes, fighting to keep her cheeks from blushing. Something about 'My Lady' sounded... nice. "So, what should we do if this incident was not random?"
Harry seemed to almost collapse into a serious expression. "I have started tagging students with threads, and offering ropes to my closest friends." He gave her a look. "I... I would be grateful if you would accept one."
Ah. Daphne tried to control her face. "By rope, you mean your magic, yes? What are the... effects? Benefits? I must still represent the Greengrass House as members of the Gray party, the neutrals. I can't... I mean, even if I wanted to, I can't commit too much to one side or the other."
Harry seemed to also have troubles looking at her. "Well, I first discovered the effects near the start of the school year really, when I was showing my friends my mind scape. It acts like an advanced version of Occlumency, mental defenses. Several of my closest friends helped me test the benefits."
He held up some fingers. "First, sorting memories becomes easy, and they stay sorted. You can create mental constructs to automatically sort for you, although I am the only one who has done that so far. Time moves faster in your mind, so you can train and practice and learn stuff faster there, including reading books and stuff." He tapped his forehead. "Secondly, with a rope I can create a door between our mental worlds, so others can join in. It allows mental communication if I act as a hub, and Hermione thinks I may be able to share ideas or training directly someday by just handing a copy of a memory to someone."
His face grew serious. "The biggest benefit, security wise, is that I can feel your location, a general status of being, such as afraid or hungry or whatever, and in extreme emergencies I can shift directly to your location, like I did with the trolls."
Her eyes were huge. "Wow... my family taught us basic Occlumency, but that sounds beyond master level... does it hurt?"
Harry blushed. "Actually, the problem is the opposite. Well, not the mental connection bit... See, to connect to your own mind you need at least one rope of magic, and most people don't naturally develop those, just threads and hairs." He looked away. "The process of settling the core doesn't hurt, but it feels... personal. ESPECIALLY when I sync your wand back up."
Looking back, he saw her raised eyebrow. "Oh, after I setup your magical core, the wand can't connect the same way. So I allow the wand to connect to you fully. It is literally the best connection you can ever find, and I can do it with any wand really." He grimaced. "Although due to the... feelings... I really prefer to only off that to women. It is... well. Awkward."
Oh, that eyebrow could raiser higher. Neat. He coughed. "Anyway, Hermione suggested we stop adding people until we can make sure we trust them. I talked about it with the others a bit, and we think you and maybe Tracey would be interested in being the first Slytherins invited."
There was a slightly awkward pause. Daphne looked at Harry. "Are there side effects?"
Harry shrugged. "Well, Hannah's core was pretty messed up, so when I settled it she had a pretty hefty power boost. Neville... well, most of his issues were really due to his wand, so he saw a LOT of improvement there." He tilted his head. "Without me holding the connection, most of my friends can only visit their mind scape for about an hour in real time, although how long that is internally changes based on how much you practice. Hermione can stay for 5 hours in her mind for each hour outside, now."
She raised an eyebrow. "How long can you stay there?"
Harry shrugged. "Never reached a limit. And one hour can last for... well, I'm not sure. I think I stayed a week in a few minutes. I sometimes go to my mind instead of sleep, so it is like an eight month break where you don't need to sleep, eat, or drink."
He grinned. "I still do though. Eat and drink I mean. Wrath even combines my memories of tea to make new blends." Daphne seemed to be trying to grasp onto something stable, mentally at least. "Wrath?"
Harry nodded. "I created some mental aspects, or parts of me. Jim, Wisdom, and Wrath. I may have to create a new one just for surveillance though." His eyes darkened. "We were lucky. Jim wasn't supposed to be watching my thread network when he saw the trolls, he was just... there. Right time. Even then, they had been within detection for about an hour before they got into the hall."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Well, it makes sense I suppose. Can't really require the DA to monitor so much stuff all the time and handle local defense. And infiltration I suppose."
Daphne sighed next to him, as she sat in the grass, looking over the lake. In the distance, a tentacle was throwing what appeared to be mer-people, spinning like skipping stones. Harry sat next to her, giving her a chance to think about it.
"Potter, I will need to think about this. Let me talk to Tracey and get back to you on it, ok?" Her light blue eyes had a note of pleading in them he didn't remember seeing before.
He gave a smile. "Of course, Daphne. If you have any questions, let me, Hermione, or Padma know."
She blinked. "Padma?"
"Made a mountain of puppies. I like her inner world. Lots of baby animals."
NOW there was a gleam in her eyes Harry recognized. Baby animals? Heck yeah!
They watched the lake and enjoyed the quiet. Well, mostly quiet. Apparently it is harder to skip mer-people when they start stabbing with tridents.
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