Daphne's Sorrow

In her short life so far, Daphne hadn't been given many opportunities to smile, and given the events of the last days of school, she was even less inclined to do so now. A strict upbringing as the heiress of the Greengrass family had taught her to keep a tight lid on any outward signs of emotion, leading her to live a quiet, unassuming sort of life; that is, before her twin sister had begun dragging her into all sorts of adventures.

Even now, she was internalizing her grief, but she still allowed herself a rare smile. Pyg, Oleandra's old owl, had just brought her a letter from Astoria, which she intended to read before going to bed. The two surviving sisters had been separated; Daphne was staying with her family in their summer home next to their biggest greenhouses, but Astoria had been sent to the Order of the Phoenix, just to make sure the bloodline lived on through the youngest, in case the worst happened.

Things were not looking good for the Greengrass family. On paper, they were the very picture of a perfect Pure-blooded Wizarding family; in theory, You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters would never even think of targeting them. The problem was that the Greengrasses had insisted on staying neutral during the First Wizarding War, instead of helping overthrow the Ministry, which had earned them mistrust from both sides of the conflict.

However, even this would have been forgotten in time, had Iris not married a Prewett for love. The Prewetts had been Dumbledore's people through and through the first time around; and as a result, Voldemort had ordered them to be systematically eradicated; only a few members had escaped Antonin Dolohov's purge.

Daphne's father, Maxwell, usually supported his wife's every decision without question. But this time, he had put his foot down; losing one child was bad enough, and he wouldn't allow all of his children to die on his watch. Her parents had fought at length, but in the end, Iris had relented, and allowed Maxwell to take Astoria to Dumbledore's faction, as insurance.

A clear sign that this time, the Greengrass family was taking sides; if the Death Eaters ever learned of this, it would spell the family's end. They would share the fate of the Prewetts and be murdered in cold blood, but this time, there would be no survivors.

The only surviving Prewetts had married into other families, losing their family name in the process, like Molly Weasley and Maxwell Greengrass. The only ones who still bore the name were a Squib accountant and his daughter.

'The Squib's daughter,' Daphne thought to herself, 'Mafalda, the Heir of Slytherin. Ron and I are second cousins, so that makes her our third cousin, I believe…? I wonder what happened to her…'

But none of that mattered now, so Daphne opened Astoria's letter and began reading it:

Hiya, Sis!

I hope you're staying safe back home. I'm having loads of fun every day here. I share a room with Ginny and Hermione; they're both really smart like you, so when they start talking about magic, it makes my head spin. Ginny has an impressive collection of model cars; but if you ask me, I think they're real-life cars she's Reduced!

I can't talk too much about what I've seen or heard, since someone reads my letters before I send them, but they told me I can write about what I did these past few days. I ate some raw rhubarb and lost my sense of taste (don't worry; I got better), and then I helped make some dessert with it! Attached is some of rhubarb crumble— hope you enjoy.

Daphne inspected the package that had arrived with the letter. It was already past dinnertime, so she would enjoy that tomorrow. She resumed reading:

One of your friends came to stay with us— I think you can guess which one. He said he thought big Sis was still alive. I think he feels responsible; I feel bad for him. I tried to make him see reason, but he wouldn't listen.

Anyway, the following day I helped to eliminate some Doxys and clean up the place. Padfoot's place is a real rubbish heap, nobody's been living here for years. His House-Elf wouldn't let me do any work, but I insisted that I needed to do my part! In the end, Padfoot had to tell him to shove off, and he disappeared somewhere. I haven't seen him since […].

Daphne frowned; parts of the letter here were illegible; as if someone had spilled black ink over the text to keep it from being read; the Order of the Phoenix had probably censored sensitive information. One more line was slightly readable:

Then, Padfoot showed us his family tree; I had no idea we were related to him! Through our grandparents on Father's side, Ignatius […] and Lucretia […]. [................].

The family names had also been censored in a similar fashion; and the rest of the letter was completely covered in black ink.

"Aparecium," Daphne murmured, tapping the letter with her wand.

Nothing; that would have been too easy, wouldn't it? Luckily, all noble families liked to keep records of their genealogy, so Daphne easily found the documents after a quick jaunt to her mother's reading room. Ignatius Prewett and Lucretia Black were the missing names.

Funnily enough, Ron was also distantly related to Sirius, through his grandmother on his father's side, which meant that the Greengrass girls were more intimately connected to the Weasley children than they had erstwhile thought. Lucretia was Sirius's aunt, which made him cousins with Maxwell… which in turn made Sirius and the Greengrass girls first cousins once removed.

Muffled voices suddenly reached Daphne's ear; it sounded like screams were coming from outside. It almost felt as though the Greengrass family and their businesses had been cursed of late; almost every day, more workers would hand in their resignations, or simply quit without saying a word. They'd also been plagued by thugs throwing rocks through their greenhouses' windows, vandalizing their properties, and stealing valuable plants.

Upon seeing a faint reddish glow coming from outside, Daphne put down the letter, and opened the study's window. She was greeted by the smell of smoke and the sound of frantic workers yelling, "FIRE!" Daphne slammed the window shut, coughing. The smoke was coming from the greenhouses.

Daphne thought about her options. She was the only one home; Lucius Malfoy had invited her parents out for drinks, or whatever it was adults did together in the evening. Daphne took a deep breath; she was the only one who could save the greenhouses now, the workers were fleeing in terror. She hesitated; as a half-Wood Nymph, she was deathly afraid of fire, and her parents wouldn't want her to be endangering her life. And yet…

"It'll be okay," she whispered to herself, trying to convince herself to step up to the challenge. "You know the Flame-Freezing Charm, you can do this by yourself. Oleandra wouldn't be scared. You just need to be brave…"