Ten Questions (Harry x Slytherin reader)

Chapter 1

When I step onto the Hogwarts express, I let out a sigh of relief.

Hogwarts had always been a second home, to a certain extent. It was an escape from my parents, from Lucius Malfoy and every other death eater that talked about nothing but the inevitable return of Lord Voldemort when they thought nobody else was listening. An escape from constantly having to worry wether Adrian would become one of them, too. If Voldemort were to return, then it would only be a matter of time, and though I wasn't the closest to my brother, I knew I had to hold on to every moment we had with each other before Voldemort returned. Here, we could both be happy. Here, we could be with our friends. Here, Adrian could play Quidditch and I'd watch him, even though I could hardly stand the sport. Here, I could be with Blaise and Daphne and all the people I cared about the most, and Adrian with his friends and his boyfriend, Terrence Higgs, even though we both knew the relationship wouldn't last long, especially if our parents found out, but I knew he made him happy, so I never protested, even though I had never really liked Terrence.

When I finally find Daphne, she smiles and gestures for me to sit down as I scan the compartment.

"Where's Blaise?" I ask.

"Really? That's it?" she says, frowning."No 'How's your summer been, Daphne?' Or, 'I'm so glad to see you, Daphne!'" She sighs. "If you must know, Blaise is sitting with Malfoy and his goons."

"Sorry," I apologize as I sit down. "It's just- summers been a bit weird, and all. I just wanted to make sure Blaise was okay. Besides," I add with a grin. "You know I'll always love you the most."

Daphne nods in approval.

"As you should."

What I said wasn't entirely a lie- I had always liked Daphne the most out of all of my housemates. Out of all of the flood of students I hated at Hogwarts, she was one of the only people at school I could tolerate, apart from Blaise and Malfoy (but that was only on certain occasions). We had known each long before school, but we'd never really had a real conversation up until my first year at Hogwarts during the sorting ceremony. She wasn't cocky or arrogant like most people in Slytherin, and she was sarcastic, witty, and had a pretty good sense of humor (not to mention quite good looking), which is why I had a slight crush on her during first and second year. She was also easy to hang out with, mostly because she didn't try every waking moment trying to annoy Potter like Malfoy and practically every other Slytherin in our year.

"So," I say, moving closer to her, "how was your summer?"

"Oh, don't give me that crap," Daphne says as she rolls her eyes. "I know you saw the dark mark at the Quidditch match."

I shift uncomfortably.

"And?"

"And," Daphne says, "I wanted to ask if you were okay. You have to tell me about these kind of things, Y/n."

"I'm fine, Daphne," I assure her. "He's not back, if that's what you think."

Daphne nods, but I think it's more to herself than anything.

"I just- what if something happens to Astoria-?"

"Daphne," I say firmly, placing a hand on her shoulder, "he's not coming back. Okay?"

Daphne pauses for a moment before she nods again. She then smiles.

"I missed you, did you know that?"

I grin as I wrap an arm around Daphne. "I'm sorry to say that I don't quite feel the same."

"Oh, shut up."

The rest of the ride is pretty quiet. We don't talk about the Quidditch World Cup, which is what I prefer, anyway. We talk about classes and professors, Daphne occasionally mentions her crush on Theodore Nott, and we talk about all the boring events and parties we had to go to during the summer, and how Daphne was forced to dance with Crabbe during one of them, which made us both wrinkle our noses in disgust. We talk about last years events at school. About how Sirius Black broke into Hogwarts. How Malfoy broke his arm and how Daphne and I seemed to be the only people in Slytherin who realized how ridiculous he was being. I'm careful not to mention the kiss with Draco, because, though I trust Daphne, I don't know if she'd be able to keep a secret such as that to herself. We then talk about the students we don't like at Hogwarts, which is pretty much everyone. Daphne mentions that she thinks Cedric Diggory is handsome, and we eat candies from the trolley until my tongue feels numb from eating too many Bertie-botts every flavored beans.