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(Enchanting Melodies) Chapter 413: Friendly Gems
🕑 Added 2025-01-21 14:00:04 +0000 UTCChapter 413: Friendly Gems
20 May 1995, Hogwarts, Scotland
Daphne Greengrass always knew that Harry was different. He’d been different ever since their first ride on the Hogwarts Express, and he was still different now. When she imagined Dumbledore or Voldemort as students in Hogwarts, she assumed that they were born more powerful than their professors and that they could do impossible things with just their raw power. A part of her hoped that they’d been normal students who truly shined after they finished their education.
For years, she’d been picturing them to be like Harry, and it took her embarrassingly too long to realize that this comparison really wasn’t fair. For them, of course. The last Potter had the ability to absorb magic like it was a sponge. He just invented new fields of magic, or was it rediscovered? It didn’t matter because he did it entirely on his own.
The madman turned an expansion charm into an entirely new field, which was absurd. He mastered a charm so much that he could cast it without even trying, that he warped its main functionality into something more. For fuck’s sake, he was able to make portals based on that spell, and that’s not to mention the whole dimensional magic, which she still didn’t understand.
She’d been so glad to see Harry when he got back that she hadn’t considered the magic he used to travel between universes. He’d told her about it, of course, but it just didn’t register until then.
The visit to the Chamber of Secrets was a massive wake-up call. The mess with World Serpent aside – which was beyond ridiculous; she knew that Harry was bullshit, but come on, that thing was insane – she didn’t think she could defeat the Basilisk whose corpse she saw there, not alone. To think that Longbottom did it when he was twelve and with a sword of all things.
Was she so inadequate compared to Harry?
Sadly, when it came to magical combat, it was a massive understatement. She didn’t think she could fight someone like Dumbledore to a standstill or trick an enemy into defeating themselves with their own power. She wasn’t a magical genius who could create and alter spells on the fly or had so much raw power that she could destroy a mountain with an overpowered blasting charm.
When it came to Harry’s life and the dangers that surrounded him, she was at best useless, and at worst, a liability. She was literally his biggest weakness. The sad part is that she could see it happen, Dumbledore taking her hostage to stop Harry, and he would stop if it meant that she would be safe.
And she would have no one but herself to blame. She had chosen to be in a relationship with Harry, and she did so while knowing exactly how dangerous it would be. She could have technically done the same as Tracy and Blaise, asked not to be involved in his messy affairs, and slowly distanced herself from him.
As much as they were all friends, they hadn’t been truly close since the day Tracy and Blaise did that. It wasn’t because anyone was angry or even done purposefully. It happened because there were fewer things for them to talk about. They had chosen to live a quiet life, away from the fighting, and that just naturally set them on different paths.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice, “So, what’s with the frown? Did Harry do something?”
She turned towards the source and saw the familiar form of Tracy giving her a concerned look, “No, Harry didn’t do anything. He’s stuck trying to figure out a puzzle in an old book. You know how he is. How did you find me, though?”
The blonde had purposefully chosen to stay out of the castle to avoid all the stares and get some privacy. She had chosen to stay near Harry’s favourite spot, one that she grew to love as well, under the shade of a tree, on the edge of the Black Lake.
The brunette rolled her eyes, “You’re literally sitting in Harry’s favourite spot. Did you seriously think that I would forget?”
Daphne simply shrugged, “I couldn’t deal with the staring.”
Tracy snickered, “Well, apparently, you’re a gold digger or something. Rumour has it, you’re in a love triangle with Harry and Carmichael, and are cheating on them both with the other one.”
“For Merlin’s sake, Harry was disguised as Eddie Carmichael. I’m not in some twisted love triangle. I swear, I want to strangle whoever started that rumour.”
“Huh, seriously? That makes a lot of sense. From what I heard Carmichael did surprisingly well. He was good and everything, but he definitely wasn’t like the rumours. With the ban being lifted, Blaise has been going spare trying to buy Omnioculars with the recordings of the tasks on them. I’m a bit curious, myself. He’s been having some trouble with the last task since the ICW has confiscated a lot of them because of, you know, all the deaths and everything. But that’s not important. What I’m most curious about is whether you and Harry are finally dating. You were always close, but it feels different, I guess.”
The blonde gave her an unimpressed look and nodded, “Yes, Harry and I are in a relationship.”
“Hey, there’s no need to be so formal. I’m just relieved and a bit surprised. For some reason, I thought that you’d keep circling around each other without making any progress. I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks, Tracy,” Daphne replied.
The brunette though asked, “So, what are you doing here, on your lonesome? There are a lot of ways to stop the staring. Privacy charms are a thing, you know.”
“I just needed some time to think.”
“Care to share? I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked like this, but…”
She trailed off near the end, but Daphne got her point. They hadn’t had a ‘girl talk’ in almost a year. She supposed she lost nothing by sharing, “I guess I’m feeling like I’m lacking compared to Harry like I’ll be left behind.”
“That’s ridiculous Daphne, you’re an amazing witch.”
“I’m a very good witch. I know that. I can probably run circles around NEWT students in a few subjects, but compared to Harry, compared to what he deals with, it all feels so small. I’m not going to go into the details. I respect your decision to stay out of it, but the things Harry can do are so far beyond classes that it’s not funny.”
Tracy rolled her eyes, “Believe me, I know how bullshit Harry can be. Do you remember that time we stopped an attack on Hogsmeade because of some visions he had? We ended up catching Greyback’s entire pack, and three of you-know-who’s Death Eaters who had escaped during Azkaban’s destruction. We were barely thirteen at the time, and he got us to do that. Harry was always on another level. We accepted that a couple of months into our first year, but that doesn’t make you less of a witch. You’re also considering that Harry personally dedicated his time to master his magic, while you’re still trying to save your sister. You have two completely different priorities.”
Daphne looked away, feeling embarrassed, “Actually, Astoria’s curse is gone.”
“Wait, what?” the brunette exclaimed, “How?”
“Harry bullshit,” she answered, not wanting to share with someone the stupid decision she took of taking the curse to herself. It had worked out in the end, sure, but it could have gone very badly. She should have saved the idea of taking the curse to herself until Astoria’s condition was truly dire, but not recklessly do it because she grieved Harry’s ‘death’ at the time.
Tracy seemed surprised before solemnly nodding, “Ah, Harry bullshit.”
They both stared at one another before bursting into laughter.
Minutes later, as they calmed down, Daphne spoke up, “Thanks for talking to me. I needed this.”
Tracy gave her a faint smile, “So, you really did it, huh? I remember how serious you were about it back when you were little girls. I had never seen someone my age with so much drive before. It was honestly pretty amazing. I have to ask, though. What are you planning to do moving forward? Are you sticking with your decision to be a healer?”
Daphne looked hesitant when she answered, “I don’t know. Without Astoria’s curse and the threat of her dying, the idea of studying for decades after Hogwarts, while not being allowed to share anything, seems unappealing. I guess that without the lure of obscure knowledge that might help me save my sister, the whole thing lost its shine.”
Looking back, Daphne hadn’t learned a lot of healing. Oh, she studied what little was available for the general public, but she quickly hit a roadblock in the progress she could feasibly make before joining the Healer’s guild. To compensate, she had focused on curses and there, Lily’s tutoring was more than enough to occupy her time.
Curses had a certain shine to them. Sure, a lot of offensive magics just got stuck with the label without really being one, especially if the effects were horrific. Curses were essentially magic that lasted a certain time, and whose effect lingered on the victims while being hard to remove. Lily had focused on teaching her how to use these curses to power her own spells, how to use blood magic to break them, and even how to craft some of her own.
There was always some excitement when she dealt with curses, like a puzzle she would have loved nothing more than to figure out. Maybe being a curse breaker would be a nice idea. She knew that Harry probably wanted to be one too, eventually, if only to explore magical ruins and interpret the ancient magic used at the time. Maybe they could end up exploring tombs together.
Tracy broke her from her thoughts, “Well, at least your parents will be glad. I know your father never liked the fact that you wanted to be a healer instead of focusing on the family business.”
Daphne stiffened slightly and the brunette read her like a book, “He doesn’t know, does he? How the hell did you hide Astoria being healed from him.”
“I didn’t. I just didn’t say anything about it. He just thinks that my sister is getting better and that it’s a phase. I gave her an enchanted bracelet a year ago and it contained her curse for a bit. She got better, and then, as the curse adapted to the bracelet, she got worse. He’s probably expecting the same thing to happen.”
“Are you seriously never going to tell him? I’ll admit that your dad can be a bit much, but Astoria is still his daughter. What about your mother? You can’t tell me that she doesn’t deserve to know that her daughter isn’t going to die.”
Damn it. She was right. Why did she have to be right? To say that Daphne’s relationship with her father was strained was an understatement and that was saying something. She loved him, of course, but one did not have to like someone to love them.
Her father, Cyrus Greengrass, was ambitious. He wanted to grow his family and make it into a political powerhouse, as well as an economic one, and he obviously wanted to use Harry to scare off whatever opposition he might face. He was cold, pragmatic, and obsessed with his legacy and that of his ancestors. If he was a stranger, she wouldn’t have liked to know him, but this was also the man who scoured the world and wasted a small fortune, in the vain hope of saving Astoria. This was the man who taught her their family magic, who told her tales of her ancestors when she was nothing more than a child, and she couldn’t help but love him, just as she knew he loved her.
Her mother, though, gave her the warmth that her father lacked. She was strong, steadfast in her beliefs, brilliant, and could understand her like no one else. Daphne hadn’t treated them well after Harry had disappeared. She had rebuffed their consoling words and kicked them out when they wanted to comfort them.
They weren’t perfect but they were her parents, and they deserved to know that Astoria was safe.
Daphne nodded solemnly at the brunette, who wisely changed the subject, “Speaking of changes. I know that this is a bit out of the blue, but I have to ask. Now that you got what you wanted, are you still going to go on ‘adventures’ with Harry? I know that it was one the biggest reasons why you didn’t stay away like Blaise, and I did. No one would blame you for being scared. I can tell that being around him is pretty dangerous, and I don’t even have the full picture.”
The blonde gaped at the question, “Are you serious? Of course, I’m going to stand with him. I love him!”
They both froze when she said that last bit. She hadn’t even meant to say that. It just came out. She wanted to say something, only for Tracy’s face to morph into a very happy smile, “I just needed to be sure. I wanted to know if you felt pressured or something, but I can see that you’re not. As much as I’m not ecstatic about you being in danger, I’m happy for you, Daph.”
The blonde smiled back at her before letting out a sigh, “It’s also why I feel so useless all the time. Harry is wonderful, but compared to him, what he deals with, I am a liability.”
Tracy grabbed her hand, “Daph, we both know that Harry is bullshit, but even then, the two of you specialized in very different forms of magic. Sure, you’re less powerful than he is, and can’t craft spells on a whim like he does, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t complement him with your magic. Focus on what you’re good at, make yourself the best at it, and I guarantee you that you won’t be left behind. Just think about it.”
The brunette squeezed her hand gently before getting up and leaving, Daphne to her thoughts. What was she good at? What magic did she know that Harry didn’t?
The answer was simple, her family crest and the blood magic that she learned from Lily. Daphne had somewhat neglected to practice with her family crest in a while, focused mostly on her lessons with Lily and Astoria’s health rather than what she had inherited as a Greengrass.
Could she combine the two? They were vastly different fields of magic. No, it was more than that. They were polar opposites of one another. Her druid magic was based on the idea of nurturing life, whereas her blood magic was built on the concept of sacrifice.
Daphne didn’t want to ask Harry for help for that one. He’d probably figure it out in a second without even meaning to, but this was her chosen magic. Exploring it is supposed to be a personal experience, an adventure on his own. Just like Harry slowly enriched his space and time magic, she would do the same.
One day, she vowed, she wouldn’t be a liability. She would stand side by side with Harry, as an equal, as a true partner. And today would be the first step. She was free now. Free of her sister’s curse, free of her own impending death…
All that worrying, all that anxiety was gone, and it was all because of Harry. The least she could do was to make sure that he wouldn’t be alone by finally becoming the partner he needed, the partner he deserved.
Before she could think on it further, a glowing white dove flew towards her and spoke in Harry’s voice, “I found where the stone is. Come to the common room. We’re leaving tonight.”
How about that, it looked like the rest of the day was going to be exciting after all.
AN: I haven’t done a Daphne POV in a while. I realize now that I’ve been neglecting her character a bit, especially after the Third Task, so I decided to make up for it a bit. The ending is a bit abrupt, I know, but the chapter got away from me and I sort of ran out of time while writing. As usual, I don’t mind rewriting it, so, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
Comments
Garri Sarkisov
Daphne forgets and Harry is too stupid socially to tell her that she is his heart and grounds him to this world as well as provides that social and political understanding for him
athass_prkr
I'll be completely honest, it was something I was planning to do but your comment got me to do it sooner rather than later. The story is so big that I sometimes forget to do things that I plan. I'm pretty happy that you pointed it out before. That said without you reminding me, I could have missed doing that, so feel free to take credit. :)
Afterdark230
Another wonderful chapter, ending is what it is but a very good chapter! Lets go on another adventure
Book reader
Would love to see the Slytherin court confront Harry. Would be highly amusing
Jethro Frank
Huh. Daphne’s internal monologue about being a liability sounds suspiciously similar to what I said a couple chapters ago… 🤨 nah I’m not going to steal your credit. I just brought up an obvious point. However, if I reinforced the need to bring it up and display it, I’ll take that.
athass_prkr
Yeah, I can see it. I'll try to take a look at it later and see if I can fix it.
athass_prkr
Thanks for letting me. It should be fixed now.
Jason f
The chapter is great, it's just the ending feels like it could be fleshed out a little more. It feels like it was cut off just before it should have been.
Tamen Dutta
could deal with the staring.” Couldn't??
