Title: Only Slytherin
Summary: Daphne's family isn't happy about her school house.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea…and all the Greengrass family aside from Daphne.
Author's Notes: I really have no idea what inspired this. Searching4romeo challenged me to write a Daphne Greengrass fic, but my mind works in strange ways...
It wasn't easy being the only Slytherin in a family of Hufflepuffs, as 11-year-old Daphne Greengrass was discovering.
It was the summer before her second year, and once again, her entire family, two older sisters, their husbands, their kids, one gay older brother, and twin younger brothers, her parents, her Uncle Herbert, and Cousin Helen, were all talking quietly in the family room, looking her way anxiously.
Sighing, Daphne gave up all thought of actually writing her Potions essay. "Yes?" She asked, raising one auburn eyebrow.
"Nothing, dear." Her mother assured her, a slight crack in her voice when she said 'dear'.
"Mother, don't take me for a fool. You've all been staring at me for the past half an hour. What's wrong?" Daphne said, frustrated.
She got enough stares from her housemates, and from the Hufflepuffs, none of them had expected a Greengrass to be sorted into Slytherin. The Greengrasses, while pureblooded, had always been Hufflepuffs, for as long as anyone could remember. Even Professor Snape had been surprised, as the slight uprising of his eyebrows had indicated.
This staring was getting unnerving, and she'd only been back one day! Her whole family acted like she was some sort of traitor, or a Dark Lord…Lady. A ticking time bomb!
"We were simply wondering how school was." Her father put in, evidently deciding to save her mother, who was babbling frantically.
"Eh, not too bad." Daphne said casually. She picked up one of her questing nieces, a one-year-old named Taylor, and stroked the toddler's red-brown hair absently, pretending not to notice her eldest sister Mikaela, or her brother-in-law Tom jump forward before restraining themselves. Pretended it didn't hurt.
Pretended, too, that she hadn't noticed the extra wards around Mark and Amber's rooms, that the guarded look in Clover's eyes didn't sting, that the caution of all her nieces and nephews, and of Cousin Helen, wasn't obvious. Pretended that she wasn't the odd one out, and that her formerly loving, warm family weren't suddenly scared of her.
Yes, being the only Slytherin in a family of Hufflepuffs sucked big time. Looked like her house would have to be her family, inside, and outside of school.
End Ficlet