Before they knew it, Halloween was less than a week away.
That Friday evening, Harry sized up the amount of homework he had and felt it was a little less than usual. None of it seemed particularly difficult, either, and he would not need much help from Hermione and Padma, so he asked Ron to come along for a visit to Hagrid.
Harry had wanted to invite Neville and Hermione too, but after some hesitation, Neville decided to finish his homework first. After all, there had not been many occasions since the start of term when he had actually finished all his homework-a situation shared by most students outside Ravenclaw.
As for Hermione, well, getting her to leave before she finished her homework was rather too difficult.
So Harry and Ron alone left the castle and crossed the Quidditch pitch to Hagrid's Hut.
To their surprise, they ran into a girl on the way-and a Slytherin girl at that.
Daphne Greengrass.
That was the girl's name. She was in Harry's year and was on fairly good terms with Pansy Parkinson, the Slytherin girl whom Harry and Ron thoroughly disliked.
But although Harry and Ron loathed Pansy, they had no particularly strong feelings about Greengrass.
Harry knew that the Greengrasses were a typical pure-blood family, and Daphne Greengrass did usually get along well with Draco and Pansy.
But at least, unlike the former, she did not display that condescending arrogance toward wizards from Muggle families.
Of course, she was far from friendly, either, and certainly could not compare with Miss Farley. Still, among the Slytherins Harry and his friends knew, she really was one of the better ones.
"Hi, Potter. Hi, Weasley." Daphne gave Harry and Ron a slight but graceful smile and a nod.
"Hi, Greengrass." Naturally, Harry and Ron