Our True Selves
Many have heard of the plight of the Gryffindors, the Hufflepuffs, and the Ravenclaws during that terrible year with Alecto and Amycus Carrow and Severus Snape's reign of terror.
One House remains forgotten, and in a moment of desperation, Daphne thinks, always be.
Slytherin, home to the cunning and the ambitious, the clever and the determined, sporting shimmering silver and green banners, sporting the deadly snake as comrade, the Water as ruling element.
Folks who do not always use honest methods to achieve their "wants".
Daphne returns to Hogwarts that faithful year. Cause no trouble, her parents tell her, Tori, and Mosy, and the Death Eaters will not bother you.
But they are wrong. On the first day of class, Professors Carrow force all to confess their loyalties. You cannot be neutral, they say, you cannot be wishy-washy. Either you listen to us or you do not.
A good lot of Gryffindors declare their abstination, and Daphne cannot say many Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws agree disagree with the lions either, Mosy included.
The retribution is horrible.
Last are the seventh year Slytherins. Last, alas, always last.
Slytherins value their lives very much. The whole group says yes, earning them smiles from the Death Eaters and spite to downright harassment from the others.
Still, that year was harsh. The evenings in the dungeons are harsh.
Draco Malfoy is no longer a loud, icky bully, but a quiet, almost mute youth. Daphne has heard rumours that he has been enlisted by the Dark Lord, and she is beginning to believe that it is true – everyone knows that many do not survive long in the Dark Lord's service. Too brutal, too bloody, too hellish.
Crabbe and Goyle are as dull as ever. Tracey and Blaise are always huddled together in the corner, the young man without sneers for once. Pansy does her best to try to keep her flirty demeanour, but even she seems worried for not only her life but the others snakes' as well. Millie spends more and more time in her dormitory with her punching bag.
It is a sign the war is creeping into the sinews of their minds.
Only Theo stays strong. He helps Daphne master the Cruciatus Curse, reassuring her in a bitter voice that he too hates it – his father had done in on him once; it was a custom of old pureblood families to cast it upon misbehaving children. He suggests elements to induce into the Carrows' absurd essays – Theo Nott is the one glimmer of light in this morbid darkness. He even drops his prim, blood extremist manner.
The both of them return to fight in the Battle of Hogwarts. They were going to stay in safe territory but Daphne had suddenly noticed that Mnemosyne, her little sister Mosy, a little fourth year, had snuck in to fight into the Battle.
A few hours after the Dark Lord's death is confirmed, Theo lets both Daphne and Mnemosyne collapse into his arms; cry for their lost friends and even, for Daphne, thick Crabbe.
Later, he confesses to Daphne that he lost faith in the pureblood manner, and she is glad. His father went to Azkaban and her own cousin, Wayne, was accused of mass Muggle-born slaying.
At the eve of her twenty-first birthday, he proposes, and she accepts, gladly. The wedding is quiet. Tori and Tracey are her bridesmaids; Theo's best man is Blaise.
They travel the world a bit, learning about other wizarding countries' cultures. Daphne finds solace in writing, and so completes journals on Canada, the United States, Chile, Brazil, Bulgaria, and many more.
A few years following, Daphne becomes heavy with child, and eight and a half months later she gives birth to Alcmene Isabella Nott, Alcmene for the mythical mother of Heracles and Isabella for Theo's deceased mother.
They settle in France. Alcmene grows into a most clever child, like her father, and is Sorted into Slytherin. No matter her cousin Scorpius's Sorting, she remains friendly with him; Daphne is very proud of her for that.
Prejudices were what started the two wars, in essential. Or was it hate?
However, Daphne thinks, if war hadn't come to Hogwarts, she wouldn't have lived this blessed life with Theo, wouldn't have borne Alcmene, wouldn't have discovered her true self.
No, if war hadn't come to Hogwarts, she would be stuck as a snotty society housewife.