Harry Potter: Another Chance

Chapter 439: Proposal?

Disclaimer:

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 439: Proposal?

Once things calmed down and dinner was nearly over, Harry took the first chance he got to excuse himself from the Hall.

After leaving the busy room, he decided to take a walk through the empty corridors of the castle to clear his mind a bit.

As he wandered, he couldn't help but think about Daphne.

They hadn't talked again since the day she stormed out of his house.

At first, he had been somewhat relieved that she decided to distance herself from him before he went away.

But this time without her had also allowed him to acknowledge how much he had been depending on her company as of late.

Without realizing it, that girl had become his closest friend and confidant.

She was the only one he trusted with many of his deepest secrets and the only one he relied on to protect Hogwarts during his absence.

He didn't count the Vampire Lord because she was a slave to the contract they made. So, no trust was necessary there.

Harry stopped for a moment and looked out of the window.

Tonight was a moonless night, so there wasn't much to see out there.

Still, he lingered a bit longer.

Daphne's absence tonight had forced him to acknowledge that he missed her company.

'I want to see her, but…' That would be selfish.

If she wanted to distance herself from him, that was for the best.

"There you are…" A very familiar voice came from his side.

"Huh?" Harry looked in surprise at the figure of the girl he had just been thinking about.

Daphne was wearing her school uniform. While staring at him, she was also breathing with difficulty, like she had been running for a while.

"The elves told me you left the Hall, but they didn't say where you went after that… uff… it took me a while to find you."

"You were looking for me? I mean, if you wanted to see me, you could have attended the event," Harry responded, still feeling a bit confused.

"I hate those events," Daphne scoffed. "Besides, I wanted to speak with you in private, not in the middle of the Great Hall, surrounded by all those people."

"I see…" He had no idea what she wanted to talk about and could only hope she wasn't about to start yelling at him again.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

After recovering her breath, Daphne took a moment to observe him.

"You look much better now. Did you use Transfiguration to change the color of your hair and eyes?"

"I did." Harry noted that she immediately realized he had used magic to restore his usual look, rather than recovering naturally.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"Not here." Daphne moved closer and grabbed his hand before guiding him away.

"Let's go somewhere more private."

Harry didn't try to resist her pull and simply let her lead him.

"Oh… here?" After walking for several more minutes, Harry recognized the corridor they were in.

Between the third and the sixth floors was where one would usually find the trophy room. From there, if one turned to the right, there was a long corridor with several doors along it.

The students knew that these doors were always locked, and many had theories about their contents.

"The safe room… we haven't been here in years," Harry pointed out.

This was the room he had opened one day while escaping from Filch and his cat.

He and Daphne had used it afterward for their secret meetings since, other than the professors, Harry was the only one who could open the door...or at least, that's how it used to be.

Daphne placed her hand on the handle and gave it a twist. The door immediately unlocked and opened.

"Let's go," she urged him inside.

Since the day she accompanied him to the castle foundations to learn more about the golems, Daphne seemed to have formed a bond with them, and with the rest of the castle.

In a way, Hogwarts was like a gigantic magical artifact that would only respond to those who had a bond with it. And somehow, she had formed one.

Harry never thought much about it since he had a lot on his mind at the time, preparing for Voldemort's arrival and all that.

But it was truly curious. He knew why he had a bond with the castle, but Daphne remained a mystery.

She closed the door and looked around.

"This should be private enough… urggh…"

Harry heard Daphne groan and noticed she was staring at a corner of the room.

"What is it?"

"I don't know… I suddenly felt my stomach turn…"

It took him a moment to understand the reason. Despite being destroyed during his fight with that hired assassin in his first year, the room was currently in pristine condition, and the elves had kept it completely clean.

Nothing was broken, and there were no foul smells. But Harry then recalled the reason he stopped using this room.

His eyes went to the fireplace. That was where he had once hidden the rotting body of the man who had pretended to be a professor to kill Neville.

Daphne had been using the secret exit behind the fireplace and found it after one of their meetings.

'Right… I did Obliviate her that day.' Harry concluded that despite her memories of the event being gone, the feeling of disgust must have remained on a subconscious level.

"We could go somewhere else," Harry suggested.

Daphne shook her head, trying to shake off the unpleasant sensation.

"No… I'm okay. And this is too important."

"Something important? To be honest, I thought you were still mad at me," Harry said.

She turned to look at him.

"I'm still kind of mad… but that's not what I wanted to ask you now."

"I see… well, I'm listening," Harry told her.

Daphne got closer to him and stared into his eyes with a serious expression.

"Harry James Potter… will you marry me?"

Harry blinked a few times. "Huh?"