Living Dangerously

Chapter 3: Living Dangerously

Daphne sat up in her bed and lifted the quilt covers off her. She was thinking about him again.

School was a place for studies, as she had repeatedly pointed out throughout the years. She'd avoided ever having a boyfriend and saw being involved, romantically or otherwise, with anyone at this stage of her like as nothing but a distraction. She had plenty of time when she left Hogwarts to pursue a relationship, if that was what she chose to do when the time came. This betrayal of her own rules helped add to her embarrassment.

Harry Potter was a person who, put lightly, had caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people in her life. His accidental defeat of the Dark Lord had been responsible for the imprisonment of her aunt and uncle, both of who ended up receiving the Dementors kiss. It was true, Daphne didn't harbor ill will to the muggles and mudbloods of the world quite to the same extent as her family did -mainly because she cared more about perfecting herself rather than she did others- but there was no denying that she and Potter were on opposite sides.

Yet she'd found herself in a position of his mercy the other night. Not only had she betrayed her family and house, she'd betrayed herself. And the fact she had chosen the worst possible person imaginable to direct those hormonal urges at... definitely didn't help.

Daphne's destiny was decided for her long before she was born, and it was very much on the opposite side of Potters little war.

She quickly slipped into her silver slippers and made her way over to the bathroom. Once the detention was over tonight, she would never, ever, have to speak to him ever again. That was the plan, and she was going to stick to it.

A nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach made itself known.

Truth be told, during her sleepless night, Daphne had been doing a lot of thinking.

When she'd stared into his eyes it had instilled something inside her. Just thinking about the rush she received when he wrapped his arm around her waist, she found herself getting excited. She caught herself replaying that moment in her head last night more times than she'd readily admit. The overthinking of an hormonal and emotional teenage girl, that's all it was, she knew, but... No other person before had been able to make her feel that way, even if the circumstance it happened under was a negative one.

If only he was in Slytherin, she wished. Maybe then she'd re-examine for self-inflicted rules about dating classmates.

Harry had thought things had been getting better.

Harry had been wrong.

During breakfast he hadn't even made it to his seat before Ginny found him. She'd began to notice his absences, and although he was able to play it off rather convincingly -telling her that he was stressed over recent events- the fact she'd noticed something was wrong worried him.

He felt bad lying to her. He felt worse than bad, he felt immoral, and he didn't know why. As soon as the words left his mouth, he left like he'd stepped off a bridge, it frightened him that he was able to do it so convincingly. He lied to girlfriend's face and he'd been good at it.

Despite that being their only brief confrontation of the entire day, it shaken Harry late into the night.

He only prayed once he had talked things through with Greengrass -properly this time- these feelings would stop. If they didn't, and he had to live with thinking of her every second of every day... well, just look at him! He couldn't think about her without replaying their interaction in his head, and every time he sat through it he was left feeling ashamed and aroused. He almost wished it had gone further, just so he'd have had some closure to it, instead of this gross unfinished-business-feeling in the pit of his stomach. A week ago he'd never said anything to her, and now she had become the first thing he thought of when he woke up and then the last thing to go through his head before he went to sleep.