Chapter 429: Emerald Futures
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23 May 1995, Hogwarts
The silver dove shot off into the night, vanishing into the depths of Hogwarts. He wanted to see Daphne, to hold her, to see if she was alright. Perhaps that would only give him a sliver of comfort from what he just heard. He would not lose Daphne. He would destroy everything that would be in his way, Dumbledore, Grindelwald, even Fate and Time. That, he swore.
For the first time since the kids returned to the future, Harry allowed himself to think properly. With the threat of destroying the fabric of time being gone, he recognized that he'd been very rash when pushing the boundaries of what he should have done. He shouldn't have risked something like this and he knew that the warning he received was to help him, not hurt him.
In a way, Harry was glad that he didn't press things, since, from his perspective, knowing the future would set it to stone. Right now, he has the flexibility to act according to the parameters he was given. Things didn't look great, but not everything was lost. Given the fact that there were apparently some conspiracy theories about what happened to them, their death wasn't exactly witnessed by anyone. The only fact was that Harry and Daphne weren't there in the future.
That was good. Well, it wasn't exactly bad. It gave Harry the flexibility to work something out.
Still, now that it had been brought up, Harry realized the sheer danger that Daphne was in because of their relationship. He hadn't really thought about it before. For some reason, he fully assumed that she would be safe, but Dumbledore could have theoretically kidnapped her dozens of times instead of fighting him directly.
Maybe it was because the man was completely sure that he could kill Harry easily, that he saw no point in using Daphne against him, but his recent loss would have certainly changed that perspective. That's not to mention that Grindelwald was ruthless enough that he wouldn't have cared either way. Either way, he needed to seriously think about his future and take steps to protect her and her family.
Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a raven Patronus who spoke up in Daphne's voice, "Sure, Tracy and I are almost done on our side. Let's meet in the common room in half an hour."
He smiled gently at his girlfriend's response. For a brief moment, the tension coiled within him loosened, and he let himself breathe. Half an hour. That was enough time to collect himself, to force his emotions into something manageable before seeing her.
But the undercurrent of unease refused to fade. The knowledge that something happened to them in the future wouldn't leave his mind. It haunted him like a ghost, whispering insidiously that he was running out of time. That every moment they spent together was on borrowed sand in an hourglass already tipped.
Harry clenched his fists, exhaling slowly through his nose. No. Daphne was still here. That meant he still had a chance.
He took a deep breath, followed by another, and then another. Minutes later, he was far calmer. Yes, he needed to think about this rationally. He couldn't be emotional or reckless, not with Daphne's life being at stake. It was so unlike him to act like this. He was always in control, and always logical when it came to dealing with crises. When had that changed?
If he had to put a date to it, it would be during Olympus' destruction, when Daphne told him that she was dying. The sheer loss he felt, the agony, it broke something in him. He never wanted to feel like this again, and now, he desperately was trying to avoid a similar fate.
Funnily enough, the fact that he knew more about the future constrained him. If he had a choice, he'd have just fled this entire place, maybe even created a folded realm, like the one Vlad hid in, and just stayed with Daphne there until the storm passed.
However, with a confirmation that Ragnarök would occur, that he would be involved in it, hiding was impossible. Fate would find a way to fuck with him, to ensure that the timeline remained intact, and that would most likely end badly for him. And even then, Harry had a plan, a single opportunity to truly destroy the Light and Dark, and he had to do it. Heimdall confirmed that he would, after all.
That left the single possibility of fulfilling the prophecy and then hiding afterwards, but Harry didn't see Daphne separating herself from her family permanently. Maybe they could stay under a disguise, hide in plain sight? It was possible, but not something that either of them would really want to deal with. It still beats dying, though.
It was ironic, really, that Harry was so distressed, especially after realizing that he would achieve his greatest ambition. He remembered it being the reason he'd been sorted in Slytherin in the first place; he wanted to be remembered, to not be forgotten when he died, and the kids did know who he was. Better yet, they spoke of him as if he was a legendary figure, and yet Harry couldn't help but not care. It all felt so small before the prospect of Daphne dying. What a fucking joke.
Without even noticing due to being distracted by his thoughts, Harry found himself in the Slytherin common room. The rest of the house was giving him his space, but according to Tracy, it wouldn't stay like that for long. The Court of Slytherin seemed to have asked everyone to leave him be, but they seemed to be planning something regarding him. To be completely honest, Harry was a bit desensitized from school politics. They seemed so small, in the grand scheme of it all.
It all felt so useless, really, like children pretending to be adults, with an idealized understanding of power and politics that would end up shattering in the real world. It hadn't taken long for Harry to realize that the Court was barely more than a mixture of a school club and a student council than anything serious. Sure, people made connections, and friends, that could benefit them in the future but nothing more. It made him sad to see that Tracy and Blaise had chosen something that small as their ambition during the previous year. It just felt so disappointing, given the potential that Harry saw in them.
Harry's thoughts were interrupted when he heard Daphne's voice, "Hello, Harry."
He turned and froze. The blonde looked radiant in a very pretty blue sundress, that seemed to match her eyes. She was stunning. The soft candlelight of the common room cast a warm glow on her features, accentuating the delicate contrast between her fair skin and the deep sapphire of her dress. The sight of her, so effortlessly beautiful, momentarily stole the breath from his lungs.
For a second, he forgot everything—Ragnarök, the future, the weight of fate pressing down on his shoulders. None of it mattered.
Daphne smiled at him, tilting her head slightly. "Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Harry exhaled a quiet chuckle, shaking his head. "No ghosts. Just... you."
Her eyes softened, studying him carefully, searching for something beneath his casual exterior. From the slight furrow in her eyebrows, she saw through him. It was terrifying and comforting at the same time.
Thankfully, she didn't have time to broach the subject since Tracy cleared her throat, "Alright, lovebirds, stop staring at each other and go to your date already."
Daphne rolled her eyes but shot Tracy an appreciative glance. "We'll see you later."
With a quick farewell, Tracy disappeared up the dormitory stairs, leaving the two of them alone. Harry still hadn't said anything, still hadn't moved, and Daphne raised an eyebrow.
"Well? Are you just going to stand there, or are we actually going on this date?"
Harry finally snapped out of his trance, offering her a small, genuine smile. "Yeah. Let's go."
He held out his arm, and she took it without hesitation. They walked, hand in hand until they arrived at a hidden, deserted part of the castle, and he opened a portal to Hogsmeade. They walked there and Daphne spoke up first, "I'm glad we did this. We haven't really gone on proper dates. I was pretty disappointed when you cancelled, to be honest."
He smirked slightly, "You have no idea what happened. It's been a very eventful day, but I managed to wrap everything quickly enough to be able to come."
The blonde hit him in the shoulder, "You can't just say that and not elaborate. What happened?"
"Oh, nothing much, some idiots used some kind of super time-turner to get to the past, hoping to save some tree, and they ended up being manipulated by a woman possessed by a god in the future, who wanted to control the tree. I ended up fighting the god, saved the kids, and sent them back to the future."
The blonde just stood there, frozen at what he had just said, "What the actual fuck, Harry?"
He gave her a goofy grin at that, "Believe it or not, I did have a good excuse for cancelling earlier. I was lucky that I handled everything quickly enough to be able to get back in time."
"Explain," the girl uttered with a very intense gaze.
Harry chuckled and told her what happened while they walked around Hogsmeade. He didn't say anything about their fates, hoping to keep their date to be relatively light-hearted.
Daphne's expression got progressively more incredulous as his tale progressed. By the end, she was openly just gaping at him.
It took her a few seconds to process the entire thing, before she said, "Let me get this straight, you somehow caught three time-travelling teenagers, who happen to be the children of Blaise and Tracy, Perseus and Angelina, and Longbottom and Granger, because Granger's kid decided that it was a good idea to be a hero and save some mythological tree that the muggleborns were blamed on poisoning. Then it ended up that the whole thing was a plan by Penelope Clearwater, who also happened to be possessed by the Aesir god Heimdall, who was ordered to bring the tree under Asgard's control. You fought the god, and he became insane, and you trapped his divinity inside the tree, creating some weird time paradox, then sent the kids back to their time with a way to save the tree."
Harry nodded, "That sounds about right."
"You sent your Patronus three hours ago!" she screeched, "How did you end up getting into so much trouble in so little time."
"It's a skill," Harry said, pretending to be bragging.
"I really can't keep my eyes off you without you doing something ridiculously dangerous, can I?"
He grinned, "It's not my fault I get into so much trouble."
Daphne let out an exasperated sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose as she muttered, "Unbelievable."
Harry chuckled. "Come on, it's not that bad. I'm here, aren't I? In one piece, even."
The blonde shot him a sharp look. "Not that bad? You fought an actual god, Harry. And you just… glossed over it like it was some minor inconvenience."
He smirked, clearly enjoying her reaction. "Well, when you put it that way…"
Daphne groaned, dragging a hand down her face. "This is why I'm going to have grey hair before I'm thirty."
Harry froze at that, thinking back to the kids' words. Would Daphne even make it to thirty if she ended up suffering for her relationship with him?
The blonde obviously noticed his change in mood, her teasing expression shifting into something more serious. "Harry?" she asked, her voice softer now, concerned. "What is it?"
For a moment, he considered lying. Brushing it off, making some excuse about being tired, and distracted. He'd done it before. He could do it again. She'd probably know that way lying in seconds, but she wouldn't call him out on it. He loved that about her. Daphne always knew when not to push him and respected his privacy.
He was very tempted to just lie, but he couldn't, not after what happened in Olympus. Daphne had lied about her curse, about her dying, and it had shattered Harry in ways that he never thought it could have. She had known that she was dying and had kept it from him, thinking she was sparing him, protecting him. He had forgiven her for it, but it had hurt. It had mattered.
Harry just didn't have it in him to make her suffer as he did. How could he ask her to trust him, when he wasn't willing to do the same anyway? And if something was going to happen to her, if they had some horrible fate awaiting them, then she had every right to fight it alongside him.
Taking a deep breath, he tightened his grip on her hand. "Not here," he murmured, glancing around at the few people still lingering in Hogsmeade. "This is a conversation to have somewhere quiet."
Daphne's eyes narrowed slightly, probably dreading something that made him feel so serious, but she nodded without question. A few minutes later, they found themselves sitting on a secluded bench near the outskirts of the village. The night was cool, the stars stretching endlessly above them, but Harry barely noticed. His thoughts were a whirlwind, but he forced himself to speak.
"I heard something today," he began, voice quiet but firm. "Something about the future. About us."
Daphne tensed beside him. "What do you mean?"
He exhaled slowly. "Those kids… I overheard them talking. And they knew about me, but not as someone alive."
Her fingers twitched in his grasp. "Harry…"
"We're not there, Daphne," he cut in, voice raw. "We're gone in their time. And no one knows what happened to us, only that we were involved in Ragnarök, and that we weren't seen since."
Daphne gave him a complicated look, "But that doesn't have to happen, does it? You always do this, wait until the last moment, when I've almost given up hope, and come up with some bullshit magic to save us from certain doom."
Harry shook his head, "I don't think I can, not with this. This isn't a fight against a powerful enemy. This isn't something that we can escape. This is a fight against Time itself, and we can't run from it. It already knows our actions in the future and these facts, no matter what we choose to do, will occur. The good news is that no one really knows for sure what happened, so we have enough flexibility to act, but the fact remains, that at the end of it all, no matter what choice we make, the world will think that we disappeared."
Daphne closed her eyes briefly, inhaling deeply. When she opened them again, they were filled with determination, "This isn't my first death sentence, remember? I spent months waiting for my death because of Astoria's curse. This isn't new. I have faith that we will get through this together. At least, we have some warning, some time to figure something out, and we'll do that together."
Harry nodded, mirroring Daphne's own expression. Yes, the task was almost a month away and that could give him time to prepare, to figure out a way out of this hellhole. Oh, how he wished the whole time-travelling fiasco never happened. The World Tree was nice and all but knowing that his future was so restricted was more of a curse than a gift.
Still, if the world thought it could take Daphne from him, it would learn just how easily it could burn.
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AN: I decided to make this chapter slow things down a bit. I wanted it to be a nice Harry/Daphne chapter since I haven't really written a lot of those. Still, I don't know if it came out like I wanted it to, so, as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.