A/N: This story is probably going to be pretty short and it's nothing like the other stuff I've written so don't be expecting anything like that. Just be prepared for a lot of fluff and a pretty cliche plot line. Anyway I won't hold you up any longer or spoil anything accidentally. I don't hold any claim to Harry Potter or the characters just so we're clear.
Harry woke up with a stabbing headache. Looking around he saw the familiar layout of a private room in St. Mungo's. Being one of the nation's top aurors meant that he spent a fair amount of time in rooms like these. He tried to think back to what had put him in there to begin with. Thinking too hard was apparently a mistake as the pain in his head kicked up a notch. He grunted from the feeling and drew the attention of the other occupant in the room.
"We were waiting for you to wake up before you took this headache potion. A spell like that can really wreak havoc on the mind."
Looking towards the voice, Harry saw a rather large and friendly looking healer standing beside his bed. She was holding out a small vial of what he assumed to be the headache potion. Gratefully downing the disgusting liquid, Harry tried again to remember why he was here.
"Chasing after the Sunspears isn't something you should be doing alone if you want my opinion." The healer gave a click of disapproval. She clearly was used to having aurors in her care, although Harry had never personally had her before.
The Sunspears were a group of wizards trying to sell magical drugs in a muggle market. Usually Harry would have left that job to some lower level aurors, but an old classmate of his had been involved in the gang. Getting to arrest Cormac McLaggen was reason enough to take the case, but Harry also had the chance to work with Arthur Weasley since the case involved interaction between wizards and muggles. Harry had decided to move in on the gang's base of operations without backup. The Sunspears were clearly about to ditch the base and destroy their evidence so he had to make the split second decision to infiltrate alone.
It would've been fine if it wasn't for one last wizard hiding in an unchecked closet. Harry had already taken down eight witches and wizards including McLaggen before he was hit from behind with whatever curse gave him the nasty headache he was sporting. Luckily, his long time partner Susan Bones had gotten there just soon enough that nothing too bad could transpire. It was too close of a call though. Hermione would kill him if she heard the story. Thinking of Hermione reminded him of something.
"Excuse me."
The healer turned around towards Harry from where she had been filling out paperwork.
"Yes dear?"
"Has anyone been to visit yet?"
The healer nodded. "Yes a lady with brown hair who looked like she wanted to beat you silly once you woke up. Other than that nobody. You've only been in here overnight after all."
That would have been Hermione. Harry couldn't help but grin as he pictured his friend waiting for him to wake up just so she could hex him all over again.
"Daphne hasn't been here then?"
The witch shook her head.
"Unless that's the witch I just described then no. Should I be expecting someone else to come barging through the door?"
Harry let out a short bark of laughter. This woman reminded him of Madam Pomfrey in a couple of ways.
"No I don't suppose so. She's my girlfriend but we've been keeping things quiet so she probably wasn't planning to come in."
"Well I'm just prescribing you some headache potions for the next week and you'll be clear to go see this lovely lady. You aurors only think about two things I swear."
"What's that?"
"Girls and criminals. To hear the lot of you talk I'd swear that they were interchangeable."
Harry grinned at that. He decided that he'd ask for this Healer again next time he got injured.
"Alright here's your prescription you can take it by the desk on your way out. Try to keep yourself out of the way of curses for a while please Mr. Potter. You were lucky this curse just gave you head pain and nothing serious."
Harry hopped happily out of the bed and threw on his boots and armored robe. He needed to start caring more casual clothing with him for just such occasions. Harry thanked the healer as he walked out the door. He'd make a quick stop by the office to write up his report then swing by Daphne's for dinner. She'd love the surprise.
—
Daphne was exhausted. Working as an unspeakable was always a difficult job, but her boss had decided to make things extra difficult recently. He had promised the wizengamot that they would be ready to showcase her project in the next two weeks. Of course that meant for Daphne she had to really up her already tough workload. On top of that she couldn't even relieve her stress the usual way. Her favorite eye candy wasn't at work today, which meant she had nothing to distract her from her work.
One of her coworkers was testing ways to use dragon and lethifold skin to make an armored stealth cloak. As the top field auror, that meant the one and only Harry Potter was in the office every day for the past two weeks. He was supposed to be testing out the cloak as it was developed and improved upon. For her though, his testing was a chance to watch the hottest man in the ministry run through workouts and auror drills in front of her very eyes. There was just something extra hot about a man in uniform.
Daphne had had a crush on Potter since their fourth year where he outflew a dragon. Not that she would admit that to anyone besides Tracey Davis. She had always had strong feelings for him since then, although she was way too afraid to act on them. Without him in the ministry today she had no distraction from the tedious research she had to have done by the following Friday. Maybe it would be a good night to pick up some food and relax with a glass of wine. It was Friday after all and she had had a rough week at work. Maybe Tracey could come over and they could relax together or have a girls night out on Saturday. Thinking about that possibility made her day go by a little quicker.
By the time it was five o'clock she was ready to kick off her shoes and relax. She apparated back to her flat in London and dropped her bag on the island in the kitchen. She used a quick scourgify to remove her makeup and kicked her shoes off lazily. Pouring herself a glass of wine, Daphne began flipping through the menus she had in her junk drawer, trying to decide what would be good to eat. She could always venture into the muggle world and get a pizza. Nothing took away stress like pizza and wine. That was one thing that wizards needed to realize. Their food just didn't measure up to the muggle world.
Daphne had just made up her mind to order a pepperoni pizza when her doorbell rang. Who would be stopping by on a Friday night like this? Tracey was the only one who ever really came over to her apartment and she always floo called. Daphne made her way to the door and looked out the peephole. When she did her jaw practically hit the floor. Standing outside was Harry Potter himself.
Daphne thought maybe she was going to pass out. What was her biggest crush and Britain's most eligible bachelor doing outside of her flat. The only times she'd talked to Potter was just for a couple of brief moments when he was down in the department of mysteries. Yet somehow, he was standing outside her door with what looked like a bag of carry out. Potter was an auror though. What if she was going to be arrested? What if someone she knew had been murdered? Daphne shook herself from her thoughts and took a deep breath to settle down. Panicking wouldn't fix anything so she'd just have to see what he wanted. She used a couple of quick spells to reapply some basic makeup before slowly opening the door.
"Can I help you?"
Harry grinned as she opened the door. "Yeah letting me in would be a great start. I figured you might be worried so I decided to surprise you with some food!"
Daphne froze in place and her jaw dropped to the floor for the second time in as many minutes. The boy who lived was bringing her food and talking to her like they'd been best friends their whole lives. What in the hell was going on? She knew she should say something in response but all she could do was stare in disbelief.
"Babe I know it was a surprise but you gotta let me in or the food might get cold."
Daphne reflexively steppes back to allow him inside, still struggling to form thoughts. Had he just called her babe? She had a million other questions as well but that one was at the forefront of her mind. She watched as Harry began to unpack styrofoam trays onto her counter as casually as he would in his own home.
"Excuse me Potter I'm just a little confused as to what exactly brought you here."
Harry looked up with a strange expression.
"I figured you had heard about me being in St. Mungos and I know that freaks you out so I thought I'd surprise you with dinner to make up for it. And why are you calling me Potter? Is this some roleplay thing or something I should know about? Are we supposed to be strangers?"
"No I'm just still a little shocked you're here," Daphne responded, hoping to play it off. The man she'd had a crush on for ten years showed up and somehow was treating her like they were dating. This had to be a dream. Or maybe an evil prank by Tracey or someone. Maybe Blaise had slipped her a hallucination potion. She hasn't seen him in a long time but it seemed up his alley. She pinched herself, just in case it really was all a dream.
Harry looked at her with concern.
"Are you alright? You're acting weird. Well, weirder than normal anyway."
He grinned at his last comment. Light banter? What in the world was happening?
"Sorry today was just a crazy day at work and now with you surprising me I thought maybe I'd forgotten an anniversary or something."
Hopefully that sounded believable. Either she was going crazy or Potter had already gone crazy. But just in case something insanely lucky was happening to her, she was going to play along. After all, it had been a long time since she had gotten lucky.
"What like a three month anniversary? I don't think we have to keep track of stuff that specifically."
"Well you never know. Some people are like that."
Harry let a short bark of laughter escape him. "You know I don't care about stuff like that Daph. I try to be romantic but that's a step too far for me."
Harry turned back around and began to scoop piles of Chinese food onto a couple of plates. Daphne on the other hand was trying to piece together this ever evolving story in her head. So Harry Potter somehow thought they were dating. Apparently it had been going on for three months already.
Also, he must have somehow been here before because he knew exactly where her door was and where everything was in her kitchen. He hadn't even had to look around as he grabbed plates and forks. As far as she could tell she had two options. Play along and see what happened with her long time fantasy, or try to figure out what potions one or both of them were currently taking. Maybe for now she'd just try to get to the bottom of things before she made any hasty choices. Harry suddenly turned around from the counter with a heaping plate of food in each hand.
"Couch or table? I was thinking maybe we could watch a movie while we are."
"Sure the couch sounds good."
TV was one of the best parts of having a muggle apartment. Harry walked past her with the plates in hand, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek as he went. They sat down and Harry began flipping through channels before finally settling on a movie. Daphne could feel her heart pounding out of her chest. She had just gotten a kiss from Harry Potter and he didn't even seem to think it was a big deal.
The two of them ate in comfortable silence. Harry was absorbed in the movie, while Daphne spent most of her time casting sideways glances towards her newfound boyfriend. Maybe she could figure out how to get to the bottom of this.
"Harry?"
"Yeah what's up?" Daphne struggled to find what she wanted to ask. After a moment Harry turned away from the TV and looked at her.
"Is something up honey?"
He had just called her honey. Daphne thought her heart might explode. She had to play things cool though. Who knew if she would get another chance at something like this.
"I was just thinking. You've never told me about how we met."
Harry looked at her perplexed. "What do you mean? You were there for it all weren't you?"
"No I know I just meant I'd never heard your point of view of how everything happened. I just wanted to know what you were thinking the whole time."
Harry sighed and sat back on the couch, searching his memory.
"Well I already told you about how I had thought you were pretty back at Hogwarts. I mean it wasn't a serious crush but I had definitely noticed how stunning you were."
Daphne smiled at the praise, waiting for him to continue.
"Then honestly during the war I just didn't have time to think about girls or anything and by the time auror training was done, women were about the last thing on my mind. After that I was mostly focused on work until that day we talked down in the department for the first time."
"That's right what were you doing down their again?"
"Do you really need every detail? I know you remember all this."
Daphne tried not to panic. "I just like hearing you tell the whole story. It's different from your side of the story I'm sure."
Harry apparently conceded as he continued with the recounting.
"Well I was meeting Dennis Creevy for the first time about those stealth cloaks he's finishing. Since I was the top field auror and a friend of Dennis' back in school they decided I should be consulting on his research. That day was when I saw you and it just kind of hit me. I remembered you from Hogwarts and I guess something just clicked for me and I had to get to know you better."
"Who knew you were such the romantic?"
"Probably nobody. Anyway once we started talking a little bit I kind of just knew I should ask you out. There was just this amazing feeling whenever we talked that I can't explain. You were just so easy to talk to and I liked that about you. And it definitely didn't hurt that you're as gorgeous as you are."
Daphne blushed at the compliment as Harry continued the story.
"Then that first date went so well that I figured I might as well ask you to be my girlfriend. You looked amazing and everything just went so smoothly when we were there together. I mean how many witches are even willing to go on a first date to a muggle pub? You just stuck out as someone who I could be myself around."
Daphne felt her heart melting as Harry recounted the details of them meeting. It almost made everything seem real. She had to snap herself out of that trance though, because no matter how real the story seemed, none of it had happened. But Harry seemed so confident in his story and everything he had described seemed plausible. Could she have had her memory erased? She had to work out which one of the two of them had things backwards.
"Have you told any of your friends about us?"
A more serious look came over Harry.
"You know that I want to Daph I think they would love you. You said you wanted to wait though so I've respected that. But we really shouldn't wait forever."
"I know I just like things how they are now." She was completely making things up but apparently it all was making sense to Harry. He grabbed her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing her palm gently.
"I know. We can keep things like they are."
Who would've known that Harry could be such a sweet and compromising guy. Maybe this wasn't some elaborate prank or a mistake. Bigger miracles had happened before than the perfect boy falling right into her lap. Nothing like that had happened to her but hey there was a first time for everything.
Before long they had both finished eating and Harry leaned back on the couch. Daphne was unsure what to do next. Harry seemed so casual around her, calling her pet names and kissing her on the hand and cheek. Should she cuddle up next to him for the movie or stay where she was? What if she messed things up by not doing whatever it was that he expected. She was starting to freak out and could feel her heart rate kick up.
Before she could make a rash decision though, Harry solved things for her. Pulling her by the arm he dragged her so she was laying against his side with her head against his chest. If this was what they usually did then she could definitely get used to things.
There was one thing stopping her from completely relaxing into his strong arms. It bothered her that none of his friends knew about them. How was she supposed to find out which one of them was the crazy one if nobody else knew about them. Her only option was to ask Tracey. If she had been seeing someone then she definitely would have told her best friend, regardless of what she told Harry about keeping things quiet. As soon as she got a chance she would call Tracey and ask her.
With that dilemma solved she allowed herself to fully relax. There was nothing she could do now anyway besides enjoy the surprise date night and maybe try to get a few more answers out of Harry. If they were dating now she had to know more about him and about their relationship.
"Harry do you remember the date when we went to dinner for the first time?"
Harry looked towards the ceiling clearly thinking.
"Yeah it was July 17th. You aren't really planning on celebrating our three month anniversary are you?"
Daphne playfully hit his arm. "No I just wanted to make sure I remembered it for when a real anniversary rolled around."
"Isn't the guy supposed to be the one forgetting the date?"
"I always have trouble remembering numbers."
Harry laughed. "Trust me I know. It took you forever just to remember my address."
Daphne tried not to show the shock she was feeling. He seemed to know so much about her and yet she hardly knew him at all. She was beginning to think more and more that it was her memory that was erased. If it was then she needed to have it looked into. At the very least she wanted to remember her time with Harry if it was all real.
She felt a hand start to massage her scalp and realized that Harry was idly playing with her hair as he watched the movie. Instantly some of her tension left her as he expertly ran his fingers through her hair.
Before long Daphne was losing herself in the moment. Having Harry's warm body against hers was probably messing with her mind. The glass of wine most likely hadn't helped either. Regardless of what the culprit was, she was about to take a big risk.
Daphne turned her head towards Harry and reached for his chin. His eyes met hers and instantly she could tell that he understood what she wanted. He leaned down and their lips met gently. Daphne had kissed guys before, but something about kissing Harry was different. It wasn't like the kiss on the cheek or the hand. It wasn't even like the other men she'd kissed before. Boys she'd kissed before. She had to correct herself because Harry kissing her was what a man felt like. His lips were gentle and yet firm. His hand had come up to the back of her neck and held her in place. She could feel in his grip that he was strong, much stronger than her. Yet he was so gentle that she could almost feel his emotions in his grasp. He was the country's most recognizable hero, the governments toughest enforcer, and yet he treated her with so much care. That was all it took for Daphne to fully melt into the kiss.
She turned her body towards him fully and began to kiss him faster. It only took a second for Harry to adjust. Suddenly his hands weren't quite so gentle and his lips weren't quite so soft. He kissed her hard, full of passion. His hands grabbed her waist and pulled her on top of him so she was straddling his lap. His kisses were urgent now and she could feel his tongue beginning to press against her lips. Daphne knew that she should figure everything out before she gave in but her brain was too muddled with whatever Harry was currently doing to her.
He suddenly forced his tongue into her mouth, moving the kiss to a deeper level. After that Daphne lost all recognizable semblance of thought. All she knew was that regardless of the circumstances, things feel right with Harry. He began to kiss down her neck, leaving small bites in between the kisses. Daphne moaned gently and decided she had to start pulling her weight. Leaning forward she grabbed his earlobe with her teeth and tugged gently on it. Apparently that was the perfect thing to do.
Harry moves his hands from her hips to her rear and pulled her even tighter. A low growl escaped his lips as he began kissing her with more force. She was going to be covering up hickeys on her neck tomorrow she was sure. Right now though she could only think about how hot that growl was and how she wanted to make him do it again.
She ran her hands along Harry's back as he sucked the soft skin of her neck. He hit a particularly sensitive spot and Daphne instinctively grabbed at his hair to pull him in deeper towards her. That made Harry let out another growl. He suddenly shifted and the next thing she knew, Daphne was being carried with her legs wrapped around his waist and her lips sealed against his.
Harry pushed her door open without looking and carried her to the bed. The next couple minutes were hazy for Daphne but she knew that her blouse was past the point of repair and that the rest of her clothes were probably in similar shape. She moaned as she felt her skin touch Harry's. He was chiseled from his time as an auror. His body wasn't bulky like a body builder, but more lean like a true athlete. He definitely wasn't lacking in muscle though. Her hands were wandering his back and he was nowhere close to skin and bone. From there on everything was a blur. Daphne wasn't sure she would remember anything from the next two hours but she knew one thing. Whatever they were doing felt amazing and she hoped that it happened again.
—
It was hard to make herself get out of the bed with Harry's arm wrapped so comfortably around her but she needed answers. She made her way quietly into the living room where she had a fireplace hooked up to the floo system. She tossed in the floo powder and immediately called Tracey. It only took a minute before Tracey came up to the fireplace and saw Daphne's head waiting there for her.
"Daphne do you realize what time it is? This had better be important I'm supposed to be enjoying sleeping in."
"I know Tracey me too but I swear this is important. Do you remember what I was doing on July 17th?"
Tracey looked confused.
"You woke me up to ask me that? What you were doing on some random day three months ago?"
"It's not some random day it's important."
"How would I know something like that?"
"Because you have an amazing memory and I know if anyone would remember it's you?"
Tracey let out a sigh and clearly was trying to recall something from her head.
"Actually I do know what you were doing that day, but I hate that you were right about it."
"See! I knew you would know!"
"Somehow that doesn't feel like a compliment at this point. Anyway that was Draco's birthday party that Astoria dragged us both to and some French guy tried to hit on us both back to back."
Daphne's face fell. So apparently her memory wasn't wrong. She hadn't been on a first date with Harry that night after all.
Tracey saw the upset looks on her best friends face. "What's wrong Daphne? Why did you need to know that?"
"This is going to sound crazy but I swear it's true."
"Crazier than you calling me at two in the morning to ask about Draco's birthday party?"
Daphne nodded.
"I just had sex with Harry Potter."
Tracey's jaw hit the floor but she had recovered in an instant.
"What?! When? How? Where? Was it good? Is it happening again? Wh-"
"Tracey! Tracey hold on!"
Tracey stopped her barrage of questions and made a gesture of locking her lips, signaling Daphne to continue.
"It was just about an hour ago at my apartment. It was amazing and I have no idea if it's happening again. Does that answer everything?"
"Not at all. How did this happen? And why wouldn't it happen again if it was amazing?"
Daphne sighed. Time for the tricky part.
"Well it's complicated. Harry just showed up to my apartment tonight and seemed to think that we had been dating for three months. That's why I asked you about the date. I wasn't really sure what to do so I just played along and then things just kind of snowballed and now I have no idea what to do because if my memory isn't wrong than something has to be wrong with his."
Tracey looked like she had just been slapped. Daphne supposed that she had been in a way. That was a pretty big bomb to drop on somebody at two in the morning after all.
"So you two haven't been dating secretly?"
"You know I would've told you if that was going on. I've only liked him since the fourth year after all."
"Well then I have no idea what's going on. He didn't give anything away?"
"No all of his memories of us kind of made sense in a way. And he knew the layout of my apartment and seemed like he knew me pretty well too."
"Well you know you've got to tell him the truth."
Daphne cringed. That sounded like a recipe for disaster. How would he take that. She had just slept with the guy and now she was supposed to say 'hey sorry about that I think you're actually going crazy I only slept with you because I had a thing for you back at Hogwarts and didn't want to miss out on getting it on with the chosen one?' That probably wasn't going to go over well. Tracey interrupted her train of thought.
"Daphne seriously you have to tell him now before things go any further. What if he found out that his memories were all messed up and you just took advantage of him?"
"I didn't take advantage of him! He clearly had feelings for me too!"
"Fake feelings from fake memories Daphne those aren't the same!"
Daphne was feeling heated now.
"You weren't there kissing him you didn't feel what I felt. There was something real there!"
"Daphne just because you two had chemistry doesn't mean it's okay to mess with his head like that. Just be honest it will be way better off."
Daphne shook her head.
"The memories might not be real but whatever we have between us is real. Why can't you just support me and let me be happy?"
Tracey looked appalled.
"You think that's what this is? Me holding you back from happiness? I'm trying to help you before you make a big mistake!"
Daphne just shook her head.
"Whatever. I shouldn't have bothered asking for help in the first place."
"You know what you're right. If you can't listen to your best friend who cares about you than you might as just not ask anyone for advice. You wouldn't listen anyway."
Daphne pulled her head out of the fireplace and ended the call. How could Tracey be such a bitch about things? She knew that Daphne had always had feelings for Harry. On top of that she couldn't even accept that there was something serious between them. Daphne wasn't sure what it felt like to fall in love but this was the closest she'd ever felt.
For her it was just their first night together but for Harry they'd been dating three months. She just knew that they both were feeling the same thing inside. Why couldn't Tracey just realize that too?
Daphne made her way back to the bedroom and crawled back into bed besides Harry. Harry instinctively turned towards her and put and arm around her waist, holding her firmly against him. She felt a smile creep onto her face. She didn't need Tracey's advice anyway. For the first time in a long time things were going better than she could've hoped.
A/N: So there you go. Definitely leave me reviews because I'm not entirely sure how much I like this story so far. I want to get at least one or two more chapters done but it might be longer depending on the feedback y'all give me. My PMs are always open and I promise I'll respond to you even if it's to say piss off or something like that.