Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Harry''s Pursuit of Daphne

    Harry closed his eyes, trying to gather his energy before looking towards Daphne. In a small stroke of luck, she sat down in a location that he had a direct view, giving him ample time for his attempt to worm into her thoughts. Which was convenient, because the large distance between was making it extremely difficult even establishing a connection. After a struggle that took almost five minutes, all he was able to get was a few disjointed impressions that allowed him to deduce one overwhelming emotion. Irritation.

    The presence of such a strong emotion was godsend for him, allowing him to latch on it and increase its intensity. He tried to bring her irritation to an overwhelming level, because he guessed Daphne wasn''t someone who liked to be seen while displaying any emotion, and it would cause her to leave the table.

    He turned out to be correct. She left the table just a minute later, disappearing from the main entrance, leaving her vulnerable for his predations. He waited a minute before following her, not wanting anyone to remember that his disappearance was just after hers. He wasn''t afraid of losing her, he was too well-equipped for it to be a possibility. He stepped the first empty classroom, and pulled his invisibility cloak on, the Marauders'' Map in hand to track her way.

    Using one of the secret passages, he caught up with her in one of the less used corridors on the fourth floor. As he guessed, without spectators, her hips swayed much less, but was nevertheless attractive. Not that it was hard to be with her well-proportioned body, her fair skin, and pouty lips that begged to be mauled by his cock.

    His invisibility turned out to be beneficial in more ways than one. He was able to establish a close-distance eye contact without her awareness, delving into her mind without being afraid of being caught. And it turned out to be another blessing, as her memories indicated that she knew occlumency, but thought it to be a chore. So she only employed it when she thought that there was a danger, a criterion that walking alone didn''t qualify for.

    He stayed in front of her as she continued her walk through the abandoned part of the castle in an effort to dispel the irritation that took her into its throes, unaware that Harry''s mental spikes were working full-session to keep her in that annoyed state. As she walked, Harry learned quite a bit about her. The fact that she didn''t support Voldemort''s movement despite her father being one of the middle-rung Death Eaters that escaped the judgment through imperius excuse. But her objection didn''t have any moral basis, but with a simple thought that muggleborns didn''t matter enough. In her mind, she equated them to vermin, but didn''t see the point of spending all that effort exterminating them.

    Truly charming, Harry decided, especially going through some of the ''pranks'' she employed on lower year students in both her house and in other houses, especially in Hufflepuff. They were nothing more than thin excuses for her cruelty, horrible enough that a couple of her targets actually changed schools. No pulling punches, Harry decided. If she shattered midway, so be it, as she deserved nothing less.

    He wasn''t afraid of the risk either. As while she was cold and cruel, she lacked the courage to go anything else than the weakest targets, where her family reputation and umbrella of her house was certainly enough to protect her from the backlash.

    With that in mind, he put together a quick action plan. He kept eye contact with her, boosting her anger and impatience significantly, promising to be an explosive combination when combined with her existing irritation. Interesting enough, with her face contorted with anger, she looked even more alluring, especially since Harry was already imagining the ways of breaking that anger into despair and helplessness.

    Then, with the plan set up, he quickened his steps until he was out of her field of vision, and pulled off his cloak of invisibility, hiding it in his pocket. He tried to look smaller than he was by arching his back, knowing that less of a threat he seemed, higher the likelihood Daphne was going to do something. His back was turned to the side where Daphne was about to appear, but he conjured a small mirror where he could watch her movements. He didn''t want to go down by a sucker punch after all of his efforts.

    Seconds later, Daphne appeared from the other end of the corridor, her face contorted a sneer. From the mirror, he watched her stop as soon as she saw him, reaching for her wand instead. A second later, she murmured something, and an ugly looking purple spell with jagged red edges flew towards him. Harry didn''t get the impression of a schoolyard prank from it. Thankfully, it moved slow enough that he was able to sidestep it without a problem, then turned to face her, his stance straight and intimidating once more.

    The sudden impression of panic on her face as she realized she bit more than she could chew was delicious. So much that Harry decided to increase her panic to see what would be the reaction. It was more interesting than he would have thought. For a second, she stood frozen as her eyes grew in shock, then she pointed at him and whispered a surprise spell. "Crucio."

    A normal wizard might have frozen in fear with just a possibility of being held under one of the most infamous dark curses, but it was an evidence of his unusual life that he could just sidestep it with a shrug. After suffering under Voldemort''s wand, the same spell from a school girl was much less intimidating.

    Harry could see her expression shifting to resignation as the realization of what she just used hit her. "Oblivi-" she tried to say, trying to erase his memory of the event, but her shocked delay wasn''t without cost. Harry had already cast disarming spell, ripping her wand off her fingers.

    He gave her a second to react, curious what she was about to without her wand, but it turned out to be debilitating. A shrug later, he sent two spells against her, one petrification followed by a levitation, both scoring perfect hits. He walked towards the nearest classroom at a leisure pace, not caring about her thoughts or feelings. Soon, they were in the classroom, and Harry led his magic until she was standing in the space between the teacher''s and students'' desks, facing towards the teacher''s. Harry walked towards the teacher''s desk, not bothering to act speedily.

    He said nothing until he sat on the desk, with Daphne just a few steps away. He waved his wand again, and ropes wrapped around her firmly. Only then, Harry dispelled the spell on her.

    "What do you think you are you doing, Potter!" she exclaimed, but even without his ability to read her thoughts, Harry was able to tell that it was a fake confidence.

    "Neutralizing a threat," he answered lazily. "Though only for a very loose interpretation of the term," he added with a shrug, showing her place in the danger scale of his life. It was amusing to see her bristling at the insult even with the dangerous situation she was in. Her priorities needed a bit of work, he thought.

    "Let me go," she repeated, anger coming much easier after his insult.

    "Sure," Harry said dismissively. "I will do so just after making contact with the Aurors."

    The encounter with Daphne had taken quite a bit of his time, which left him forced to dash to catch the first lesson of the day, the charms. But a blur appeared just as he was about to take a turn, forcing him to come to a sudden stop. But the other figure failed to stop as quickly as him, but unbalanced by the attempt to stop.

    He thought about taking a step to the side, but at the last second, he had recognized a familiar redheaded figure, and decided not to let her pass. Instead, he took a half-step back to partially cancel her momentum, and wrapped his arms around her as she collided to his chest.

    "Hello, Ginny," he said cheerfully, but made no attempts to loosen his arms as he felt her breasts pressing against his chest. She had grown quite attractive, it clicked at that moment, when she looked up to meet with his eyes.

    "Ha-Harry," she said, her stammering mangling his name badly. The panicked expression in her eyes was beautiful, hero worship battling with a sensation of shame.

    "So, what''s the hurry," Harry asked, not bothering to unwrap his arms, and she didn''t ask him to, missing that important detail due to her influx of emotions.

    "I was coming from the owlery," she said, a sudden bitter edge bleeding to her voice.

    Harry felt too curious to refrain from a bit of mental poking. It was trivially easy to read the source of her concern, as the memory was blaring bright in her mind, her mother''s letter informing her that she couldn''t afford to send her anything extra for the Hogsmeade weekend. "Allowance problems?" he asked.

    "No-" she started unconvincingly, but before she could finish her sentence, he loosened his arms around her, letting her take a step back. He gazed at her knowingly, and her words were cut, replaced with despair. "How?"

    "There is a Hogsmeade weekend in a couple of days, and I heard a few girls talking about some kind of group shopping trip." Another detail he had gleaned from her memories. Her despair intensified. Harry reached his pocket and pulled three galleons.

    "What are you doing!" she said, looking alarmed at the prospect.

    "Come on, Ginny, it''s just a small gift between friends."

    "I can''t accept something like that," she exclaimed, but the conflict in her eyes told him that it wasn''t a decision as easy as she tried to make it look.

    "Take it as a loan then," Harry countered, grabbing her wrist to bring her hand up.

    She looked more reluctant than before, but still rejected it. "Thanks, but I still can''t. I can''t imagine how mom would reach, or Ron for that matter. They would blow a casket."

    "What they don''t know wouldn''t hurt them."

    She looked at him once again in conflict but nodded without requiring another mental push. "Maybe a couple sickles wouldn''t hurt," she murmured. "Five at most." Harry chuckled even as he pushed three galleons on her palm. "This is too much. I can never pay them," she exclaimed, but Harry noted her fingers were tight around them even as she tried to push them back.

    "In case of an emergency," Harry explained as he closed her fingers around them. "You can always give the rest back to me after the shopping trip, but keep them for now. You never know what kind of emergencies can happen. And it would be good for the girls to see some excess money in your pocket."

    She looked reluctant to take them, but also to annoy her benefactor. In the end, the weight of the gold coins in her arms turned out to be more enchanting than the distant fear of losing them all. "I''ll not use anything more than a few sickles," she assured. "And will pay them back as soon as possible."

    "Of course," Harry answered, despite his belief that things were going to go a bit differently, especially since it''s a group shopping event, and teenage girls were famous in egging others in bad decision making. It was a given that at least a couple of girls would take her sudden enrichment personal, and would do their best to make her spend it, correctly assuming that she could ill-afford to do so.

    Even as he dashed towards the classroom, his mind was filled with alternative ways of compensation he could demand from her in exchange...