18 January 1993, Hogwarts
The days following Daphne's decision to involve herself fully in Harry's life were awkward. After the girl's proclamation, he just told her to give him some time to put things together and that he would share what he could with her.
The issue was that the Potter scion was hesitant when it came to how much he wanted to share. Harry's personal magical training could technically be classified as family magic, so he was completely entitled to keep it to himself. But that felt wrong for some reason, to keep so much from her when she had chosen to commit to their friendship.
Honestly, Harry wasn't going to teach her anything from his family crest, so magical circles were off the table, and he certainly wasn't going to share the existence Arcane Hearing. But teaching the Greengrass scion his personal spells, or the magic that he had learnt from the library and from experimentations was his prerogative and made sense for her to learn as much as possible if she was going to be his partner.
And that was what it was all about. Daphne was going to be his partner, and in a way, that added a vulnerability in Harry's life. For one, she had failed his Legilimency test. She had never been trained in the mind arts outside of a few meditation exercises that her father had taught her, and the protection that her family crest would only activate on her thirteenth birthday when it's fully manifested, which thankfully was a couple of months away.
Harry couldn't teach her anything adequate enough to shield her mind before the crest would be able to protect it either way. So, outside of training her in magic, there were very few things that Harry could do.
Luckily, using Legilimency on Luna was a recipe for a headache. The way she witnessed the world was just so alien that it was hard for a normal mind to interpret her thoughts. Harry was more than willing to share a little more with her especially when it concerned the Chamber of Secrets, since that involved her personally. Unfortunately, Daphne just didn't have that advantage.
After a few days, Harry caved and told Daphne an abridged version of the situation of the chamber and the girl was shaken about it. He still remembered the conversation they had a few days prior.
[-]
(Flashback)
After a few days of deliberation, Harry invited Daphne for a conversation that the blonde was obviously looking forward to. They met in the common room and Harry motioned her to follow him. He definitely did not want to have this conversation in the common room now that he knew that the Court of Slytherin was constantly listening in. The two young Slytherins walked in silence until they found themselves on the seventh floor, right in front of the entrance to the Room of Requirements.
As Harry walked back and forth for the entrance to reveal, Daphne had a worried look on her face, as if the Potter scion was insane all this time, but she had visibly relaxed when he gave her a charming grin, and gaped when the entrance revealed itself, "What is this place?"
"This, Daphne Greengrass, is the Room of Requirements. This room is a marvel of magic that turns into whatever you speak of mentally when you walk back and forth to reveal the entrance. Right now, I wished for a replica of our common room, so that's what we got. This is the place that I use to practice magic. Whenever I'm not hanging out with you, I'm probably here."
As he had said, the Room had taken the form of a deserted Slytherin common room. Daphne gave him an awed look, "How does it work?"
"I have no idea," Harry confessed, "To be honest, I think it's a mixture of variable expansion charms, illusion magic, some conjuration, and some kind of mind magic to pick up the intent of the user. But that's not why I brought you here. You said that you want to be all in. Well, this is me giving you the white card. Ask me whatever you want. If there's something I'm uncomfortable sharing, I'll just say so, but I will not lie to you."
"Well, let's start with the obvious. What do you know about the chamber of secrets?"
(Flashback End)
[-]
It was surprisingly cathartic to tell someone about how worried he really was about the whole thing with the Chamber. His and Luna's partnership had started because neither of them had a choice in the matter. Oh, they were friends, but the entire relationship started as an alliance to stop Tom. Daphne was someone who earned Harry's trust. She wasn't forced to stay with him, but she chose to do so, and that made an immense difference when Harry decided to share even a fraction of his knowledge with her.
It was a big step on Harry's part. There was this intimacy at showing her a part of his soul, a part of his world that she was previously ignorant of. For some reason, he was afraid as well from the way she reacted, but all things considered, she had dealt with her surprise well enough.
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