So… I decided to say fuck the Wednesday update format, at least for the rest of this year. PS only has two more planned chapters after this one, and I feel like starting the New Year with CoS. Wednesday updates will return once college resumes, but lucky for you all, that isn't until the thirteenth.
If a kid screams in the forest when no one is around to hear it, are they really screaming?
Enjoy.
The tumultuous rain fled Hogwarts as the year proceeded into May. The warm temperatures resulted in more and more students outside, trying to catch the last few rays of sun before the harsh slap of examinations. The grounds bloomed with new life, producing green-tinged shrubs and flowers of every color within the flowerbeds. Bells of Ireland and purple iris bunches were stowed at the entrance of every classroom and planted in the courtyards. The library had become a veritable warzone, with Madam Pince relying on the banishment charm to force crammers out for the night. Even worse were the books; if one was returned late it would burst from your bag and bash at your head before flying from the room to return to the library.
Holly and Hermione received another invite to tea with Hagrid, which they accepted. Now that Norbert was gone, the cabin had returned to a comfortable temperature, and Hagrid managed to collect another assortment of meat.
"How's study comin', then?" Hagrid asked as he poured the tea.
"Fine," Holly said as she took her cup. "I've had to practice charms with my wand since I can't have my bangles in the examination room, but other than that it's been easy." She blew on her tea as Hermione made a face at the air above her, undoubtedly to a cloaked Cresswell. "Have you heard from Charlie about Norbert?"
"Sure have," Hagrid said. He gestured to a pile of mail on the kitchen counter, spilling tea onto the table. "He told me tha' Norbert's settlin' in fine… although it turns out she's a female, so I suppose it'd be Norberta now…"
"You're spilling tea, Hagrid," Hermione said.
"Oh!" Hagrid tipped the kettle upright and pulled a hand towel the size of a pillowcase from the wall.
"Well, the gardens look amazing from all your work," Holly said as he dabbed up the liquid.
"The flowers, you mean?" He said as he wrung the towel out in the sink. "They do, eh? Sprout's been helpin' me plant them; most o' my time's been stuck rootin' through the forest."
"Is something still after the unicorns?" asked Hermione.
"Aye," Hagrid said as he dropped the wet towel into the sink with a squelch. "Still got no idea wha's doin' it. I told Dumbledore, but the centaurs are gettin' more an' more annoyed with it."
"Strange he hasn't called the DMLE," Holly took another sip from her cup as Hermione continued. "The beast doing it would be captured with a proper manhunt."
Hagrid shrugged as he took a draft from his tankard. "Well, Dumbledore likes operatin' on his own terms. He'll probably call them in once summer's out; he doesn't want the Ministry pokin' around makin' people nervous befur exams."
"It isn't Fluffy, is it?" Holly asked.
"Course it isn't Fluffy," Hagrid chuckled. "He's sweet as a peach. Loves ter play fetch, an' besides, he's up in the castle, isn't he?"
"You don't take him for any walks?" Hermione asked. "A dog that size would need it."
"No, course not." Hagrid wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "He's doin' alrigh' stayin' outta the way. Best guardin' the… never mind."
"Philosopher's stone?" Holly asked.
"I'm not sayin' nothin'." Hagrid said, scrunching his lips tight behind his beard. "You two better get back ter studyin' soon. An' don't go messin' with Fluffy!"
"I can't believe how loose-lipped he is sometimes," Holly said from her place across the table. "I hope the unicorn problem is solved quickly. Centaurs do not like trespassers."
"Speaking from experience?" Hermione replied dryly.
Holly shrugged. "I met one centaur colony in Rome. They are extremely passionate about protecting their land, almost obsessive about it. When we met, it would be on their borders, on their terms."
"Then why take such risk infiltrating and slaying creatures on their land?" Hermione tilted her head.
"You two go on, I'll meet you later."
Hermione raised her head from her thoughts as Daphne sat in the chair next to Holly, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott walking away from them. Ever since their detention and fight against the kelpie, she had been a distant shadow that merely slipped in and out of their group. The pureblood clearly couldn't make up her mind if they were allies or not; chatting amicably with them one day and ignoring them the next.
Although I suppose our alliance wasn't meant to be public.
"What's this about infiltration?" The dark-haired girl whispered.
Holly glanced at her. "You remember how Hagrid was called to help with a unicorn halfway through our detention?" Daphne nodded slowly. "Whatever has been attacking them hasn't stopped, and the centaurs have become more aggravated with… whoever it is."
"The poacher hasn't been caught?" Daphne leaned back in her chair; arms folded over her chest. "Are the DMLE that useless?"
"Dumbledore hasn't called them yet," grumbled Holly. "He doesn't want to cause a distraction during exams, he says." Hermione felt her brain spin at a word Daphne had said earlier.
The badger snorted. "Doesn't surprise me. The old goat has tried to defy the governor's board for years so he can maintain control over the castle. You should hear the stories—"
"What do you mean by 'poacher'?" Hermione cut across the girl's sentence.
"Exactly that. The person has to be harvesting parts of the beasts." She looked back and forth between them. "What else would he be doing? He's not killing them, which means he needs them alive, but he is injuring them, which means he's taking them apart somehow."
"Firenze said it was with a blade, though." 'The injury is grave,' Firenze's voice rippled through her memory.
"There is a black market for unicorn horn and hoof scrapings," Holly said. "Maybe even a market for their hide."
"And you two want to investigate this?" Daphne asked, disbelief ringing in her voice.
Holly locked eyes with Hermione. She gave the redhead a minute nod. "Yes. We do."
Daphne scoffed. "Can't resist the call of adventure, can you?"
"It'd be worth a lot of house points," Holly said as she flashed a crooked grin. "Besides, don't you want to help the poor, defenseless creatures?"
"You'd receive the same notoriety we did for defeating the troll," Hermione said nonchalantly. "I'm sure it would help gain the recognition you desire."
Daphne stared at them, a hand on her bag. She looked ready to jump and run from the two of them. The silence stretched longer and longer. "I must be crazy," she sighed as she let her hand drop. "Fine. I'll help, only if to ensure my investment with you stays alive." She glared at Holly. "What's the plan?"
Daphne scowled from her place at the end of their little conga line. Holly was first, the invisibility cloak tight in her hand. Granger was between them; and her demon was somewhere to their right, concealed under his own invisibility.
Wish he could extend his concealment power to Granger. There'd be a lot more room under the cloak without her.
They kept the camouflage over them the entire walk to the forest. Crickets whistled in the night breeze under the moonless sky. Without a source of light, hidden roots and ghost holes made themselves more frequent appearances than usual, tripping the trio as the grass grew thicker and thicker.
Once they were just inside the forest, Holly pulled the cloak off. She folded the cloth over and slipped it into her bag before fiddling with her bangles.
"So… how exactly will we find the unicorn?" Daphne asked. She forced herself not to flinch as Granger's demon faded into sight.
"Simple enough." The redhead smiled as her bangles whirred in place, emitting a butterfly blue glow. "Ducere In."
A puff of smoke emerged from between her fingers, curling as it floated deeper into the forest. "Lumos." The redhead whispered. The runes on her bangles shone with soft white light as they whirred around her arms. She stepped forward after the wisp. Granger fell into line behind her.
Daphne gave a final look at the castle. "Fuck me," she turned her back to the haven and followed the others into the woods.
The forest was black and soulless. The black trees stretched into oblivion; their green foliage barely distinguishable from the rest of their shadowy form. Curious blobs of moss and lichen peppered the trunks, and the grass beneath their feet ascended halfway up their legs. Shrubs lunged at their ankles as they crossed the thicket, with the inky curtain barely visible between the canopies.
The smoke wisp curled through the gloom as the group advanced in silence. In one of the trees above, an owl cooed.
The wisp floated continued to lead as the trees thinned. "Nox." Holly's voice slithered through the boscage. The white of her bangles vanished.
"Centaur," the redhead whispered. Granger's demon vanished as Holly fumbled to retrieve the cloak from her bag. Slows thumps approached and she almost dove into the bushes as the centaur emerged.
The human half of the beast was bare-chested, with a mid-thirties look to the wrinkles on his face. The stubble of a red beard decorated his chin, and the horse half of his body was a reddish-chestnut.
She froze as the creature trotted to their right, not even glancing at them. His head was fixated on the sky, and he stopped at the first gap in the canopy above them to stare into the abyss. Then he spoke.
"Mars is bright tonight."
Daphne dropped her mouth open at the creature's obliviousness. Holly just shook her head and motioned at her to follow. They slunk away along the edge of the clearing, abandoning the beast behind them.
"What the hell was that? 'Mars is bright tonight'?" she hissed as Holly recast her spells.
The redhead shrugged. "Some of them like to stargaze. Some form of divination based on celestial movement." Granger's demon reappeared over the brunette's form.
"Annoyances," it ground out. "The only one who was ever even civilized was that Chiron fellow. Wonder if he's moved on to fulfill his constellation yet."
The demon floated back into line above Granger. Daphne made to follow them when she paused. A sound like a bell, drawn out in a single ring, echoed from between the trees to her left. It sounded a second time, and then a third…
"—aphne. Daphne."
The sound stopped as a hand laid itself on her shoulder. Immediately, her head felt fuzzy, as if she had been electrocuted. She craned her head to the hand to see Granger's face behind it, tilted to the left. Holly stood down the path, the light from her spells flaring.
She tried to swallow, mouth dry. "What is it?" She asked.
"You were walking away from us," Granger said simply, taking her hand away. "Did you see something in the trees?"
Daphne ignored the fog in her mind. "No. Sorry."
"Come on," Holly called. "The spell is getting away again." Granger turned and stepped along the trench they had already carved into the grass as Holly's form dimmed. She shuddered and stepped away from the thicket to follow.
The forest loomed on all sides as their march continued. By her estimate, it was twenty minutes since they entered the gloom. Holly kept track of the darting spell ahead of them, and Cress kept his eye on Daphne as they ventured further and further into the woods. Even if whatever lull the girl had felt before was gone, there was no telling it wouldn't return.
"There." She stopped as Holly pointed at the trees on the ridge ahead of them. A unicorn stood in the tree line. Holly's cast seemed to dim at the sheer white of the creature's flank, which shivered and twitched as the wisp spun around and dissipated in the breeze. "Nox," Holly whispered.
"Now what?" She asked as Daphne's footsteps sounded behind her. "We can't wait all night for the poacher to show."
"We'll use the same lure the poacher does," Holly turned to face Daphne. "A young maiden, pure of heart and all that jazz."
"You're joking." Daphne deadpanned. "I agree Faustie here shouldn't do it, but me? Why not you?"
"I have dark magic in me thanks to this." Holly flipped up her bangs to display her scar. "My body's been stained by it. You, however…"
Daphne glowered at them. "Fine." She pushed them aside and started toward them. "Hey, there… pretty thing…"
Holly winced. "Maybe I should have given it a go first…"
"Could I maybe have some light over here?" Daphne snarked as her form waded through the grass. "It's only the dead of night."
"Lumos," As Holly's rings started to move again, Hermione tilted her head. A thin shimmer had flashed in front of Daphne's head.
"Stop!" She stepped forward, quickly walking to catch up with the dark-haired girl. As the unicorn turned its eye on her, ears flicking, it whinnied and bolted into a full-fledged gallop, delving deeper into the forest.
"The hell, Granger?" Daphne snapped at her. "You scared it off."
"With good reason," she retorted as she lifted her wand. "Lumos." The shimmer shone even brighter in the close light. "There's something here."
Daphne squinted at it as Holly joined them. "It's a garrote wire." The redhead examined it closer as she continued. "Perfect height to catch a student in the face."
"Or a unicorn across the chest." Daphne stood up straight. "This must be how the poacher knows where to go; he waits until one of his traps go off."
"You think there are more?" She asked. Stupid question; of course, there are more. She extinguished her wand and slipped it back into her pocket.
"Well…" Holly muttered. "We should take this on down." She looked left and traced the wire to one of the trees, the grass swishing against her trousers. "Here."
She pointed at a metal spike that had been driven into the tree bark. The garrote wire wound tight at the point where the spike met the tree. The force from earlier successes had dug a thin wedge in the skin of the oak.
"I think I could pull it out with a spell," Holly said as she examined the spike. "I'll have to turn the light off again—"
"Tch," Cress snorted. "Move." He floated to the tree and closed his claws around the metal.
His arm twisted and the pulled was wrenched from the oak with a crunching sound. "Easy." He rasped and dropped the spike to the ground.
As they ripped the brother spike from the tree, Hermione thought she heard soft thumps. She tilted her head at the trees for any sign of a centaur or the unicorn. Nothing.
"Ducere In," Another wisp came into the world between Holly's hands. "Another trap awaits." She started after the smoke, Daphne behind her.
She strained her ears in the silent forest as she followed.
Holly sighed as they followed the wisp through the woods. They had dismantled a second trap and were now on their way to a third. Neither of the other three had said anything, and they had yet to come across another unicorn, centaur, or the poacher. Their legs whisked in the tall grass as they walked, the sound not unlike Mozu's slithers.
She yawned. "Nice night for it, huh?" She said over her shoulder.
Daphne looked up from the ground with an unamused expression. Hermione's eyebrows were raised, even if a faint smile was on her lips.
She turned around. "Back to silence." She muttered to herself.
Her spell floated around the bend and she stopped short. Her light vanished. "Oh, shit."
On the ground before her lay a unicorn. It lay on its side, one of its forelegs at an angle that screamed broken. The creature's mane flowed over the ground in a mother of pearl sheen, its flank heaving as it struggled. Wide, frightened eyes focused on them as silver-blue blood spurted from the laceration across its chest.
She heard Daphne and Hermione step beside her. "What now?" Hermione whispered.
"It was chased here," Daphne said, her eyes zeroed in on the broken leg. "The force was great enough to break a leg when it ran into it." She began to back away, back the way they had come. "They're coming."
"He'll see the trail." Hermione hissed. "Up the tree!" Cresswell vanished as she turned her wand on herself. "Wingardium Leviosa!" She shot up into the burrows of a maple tree. Holly did the same, taking refuge in a magnolia.
"Daphne." The girl glared at her from across the small glade, in the branch of an oak. Her knees were around her chest.
The whispers of legs striding through the grass echoed in the breeze of the wind. Holly didn't know if the others could see from their position as the poacher took another step. Swish. And another. Swish.
Swish. The figure stood on the other side of the garrote. His robes concealed his entire body, with the only skin visible being his hands. A black hood shrouded his face, with a swirling black mist inside that, clouding his facial features.
The poacher stepped forward, and Holly realized why she couldn't distinguish any facial features. The man's head was on backward. His kneecaps and arms pointed the way he came as he lurched forward in a spastic jerk.
Then his arms shuddered. They shuddered and twitched and snapped violently. She resisted the urge to vomit at the crack of his elbows shattering.
His wrists shuddered and she shut her eyes. Two more cracks scraped against her ears.
She swallowed and opened her eyes.
The poacher was on the ground, his shattered arms and wrists now providing the look of someone with a backward torso. He crept across the ground, his back braced in the air to spider walk under the wire and around to the front of the horse.
And then his head lowered.
Holly's eyes widened as the man bent to the carved cut of the unicorn. The beast thrashed, but he lifted a hand and it froze, its legs still in the air.
The head resumed its descent to the still-flowing cut and slurped.
She laid her head back against the tree, her mouth twisted open in horror. Even without her seeing it, she knew the feast continued by the sounds beneath her.
She gazed at the oak where Hermione hid as the girl's head slowly tilted left in fascination. Over her shoulder, Daphne's face was blank, the corners of her mouth turned down and her eyes locked in a gaze at the blood pumped from the fading creature into the starving mouth.
The figure rose sharply. Its joints restored themselves to normal as a ripple of thunder echoed from Holly's left.
Not thunder. Hooves.
The figure fled into the shadows as an arrow soared through the glade and impaled itself on the trunk of an elm. "The garrote," she whispered to herself.
Swinging her legs off the branch, she pushed her palms forward to land on the ground. Pain shot in her ankle, but she ignored it to turn and wave. "Wait! Wait!"
The thunder broke into the glade as three centaurs emerged from the forest. "Wait for what, young murderer?" Spoke a dark-haired centaur with high cheekbones. "Wait until your blight has drained this entire forest?"
"It isn't her," Daphne said as she dropped from the oak. The centaurs rounded on her as Hermione dropped from her branch. "You shot toward him, you nearly hit him!"
The centaur scowled at her and opened his mouth as the second, a centauride with platinum blonde hair and a palomino body placed a hand on his chest. "They are the foals we saw earlier, Magorian."
"You were watching us?" Holly asked.
"Yes," the third centaur, another palomino spoke. "It is unwise to let foals wander alone in this forest." He studied Hermione and Daphne. "I have met you two before, haven't I?"
"Hello, Firenze." Hermione nodded at him. "We're sorry for trespassing—"
"If you are not those responsible, then why would you stop our chase of the one who is?" Magorian demanded.
"I… I didn't want you to be caught too," Holly said as she pointed to the garrote. "This is what he's been using to injure them." She watched as the centauride trotted over to the wire. "We've been taking them down all night."
The centauride straightened. "There are more of these?"
"We broke two," Hermione said. "We were going to break this one when we found… well…"
"Is it still breathing?" Firenze asked as he trotted to the still-frozen beast. The spell holding it shattered and its legs fell limp.
Magorian's nostrils flared. "It is gone?" At his nod, he stamped his foot and turned away.
"Flipendo," Holly whirled her attention to Hermione as the peg of the garrote burst from the tree, taking a chunk of the plant with it.
"You are students, then?" the centauride asked.
"They are," Firenze confirmed. "Ireope, will you aide in their return to the castle?"
Ireope's tail flicked. "I suppose I must," she said in a resigned voice. "Magorian?"
The centaur snorted. "It is not our business to run around like mares for stray humans."
"Then you may be our fore bow," Firenze said as he knelt his front legs. Ireope did the same from behind them.
"Er, no thanks," Holly said. She shot a glare as Daphne started toward him. "We can walk. We don't want to disrespect you in such a manner."
Magorian's ears pricked as the centaurs rose. "You know of our customs, Holly Potter?"
She faced him. "I do."
Magorian studied her. "It will be faster for you to ride. He knelt before her. "Your behavior is most unexpected. For a human," he added as she clambered onto his back. Behind her, Daphne and Hermione did the same with Ireope and Firenze.
The centaurs broke into a gallop, plunging through the trees. Holly gasped at the sudden rush of movement and wind and grabbed hold on Magorian's quiver. "Let me know if it starts hurting you," she called into his ear as they hurtled past pines and boulders and the blurring green.
At the edge of the forest, the centaurs slowed to a trot. Holly breathed deeply from the rush and wiped her eyes. As she raised her head, her heart fell.
They were beside Hagrid's hut. And outside of it stood a venerable posse: the red centaur they had passed earlier stood beside Hagrid and Fang, his head still skyward; Hagrid's enormous crossbow was in his arms, along with a pink umbrella, the crook around his arm. Next to them stood another centaur, this one with a grey body, its hindquarters covered in black spots; Professor McGonagall, in garb that looked like a tartan dressing gown; Professor Flitwick, in a purple velvet robe; Professor Sprout, in flower-print pajamas; and Professor Snape, in his everyday attire. And in the center of the four heads of house stood Headmaster Dumbledore.
"Oh, fuck," Daphne muttered from her left as she slid off Magorian.
"What is the meaning of this?" the grey centaur shouted as he kicked his back hooves into the air. "Firenze, I expect this behavior of you, but from you, Magorian? Ireope?"
"Calm yourself, Bane." Said Magorian. "It was imperative we deliver them to the castle quickly."
"You would help those who tear our forest apart?" Bane retorted; his face twisted in fury. Magorian reared into the air, silencing him.
"They are not the human that is responsible, Bane." Ireope soothed. "They were aides to the destruction—"
Whatever Ireope was telling Bane, Holly could not hear over the surge of the professors. "Why on Earth were you in there?" McGonagall shouted, her brogue peeking through her scowl. "Sneaking around the castle after curfew is one thing. But sneaking into the forbidden forest!? What could your motivation have possibly been?" Her nostrils flared. "The three of you are lucky Ronan passed you by and took notice!"
Holly glanced at the red centaur. His gaze was resolutely fixed on the sky above. She vaguely recognized Sprout's elevated voice lecturing Daphne, and Snape's quiet tones questioning Hermione.
"They were aiding us." Firenze trotted alongside her head of house. "They uncovered the injuries and deaths of the forest's creatures and sought to investigate." Holly saw Hagrid pale and turned her eyes to the ground. "They were dismantling wire traps someone has set throughout our forest and managed to catch a glimpse of the true culprit tonight." He looked down at her. "Holly Potter. This is where we leave you. Whatever punishments you incur, know that you have done our kin a deep service." He flicked his tail and wheeled around to gallop back into the woods with the others, fading from sight.
"Minerva," the voice of the Headmaster cut through the night. "Shall we adjourn this meeting to my office? Filius," the man perked up straighter at his name. "Return to the prefects. Inform them that they may resume their patrols. Hagrid, you may resume your evening."
Hagrid rose his head at Dumbledore's instruction. "Sir, I… I was the one who told 'em abou' the unicorns."
McGonagall fumed as Dumbledore bowed his head. "I had a hunch. But your actions," his twinkling eyes turned to Holly's. "Are not the actions under review. To my office,"
Dumbledore's office was as cramped as could be. A third chair was conjured for Daphne to sit and be scolded in, while the professors stood to either side of Dumbledore, each across from their house's pupil. Despite the headmaster's grandfatherly smile, Holly felt the night would not end with them unscathed.
"Please," Dumbledore nodded. "Tell us what happened."
They did. In turns, they did. Holly went first, explaining how they worried a poacher was harvesting items for sale on the black market, and so they decided to investigate. She left out her cloak when explaining their escape from the castle grounds.
Hermione picked up the tale, describing their meeting with Ronan and their encounters with the garrote wires. Daphne took the part of the tale with the unicorn and the figure. Sprout looked sick at her description of the man drinking the blood, and Holly resumed the story of how they met the centaurs.
Dumbledore sighed and removed his glasses. "The three of you have experienced one of the most dangerous ever to occur at Hogwarts. And, despite your information and help with the problem at hand, it was not your place to do so."
"Your actions tonight will not be excused." McGonagall huffed. "Each of you is to lose fifty house points." Her head shot up. "That's right, Miss Potter, fifty."
"We trust this will discourage you from further mischief." Snape said with a raised eyebrow. Dumbledore looked as if he disagreed with the high price, but he remained silent.
"That's not exactly fair—" Daphne argued.
"Fair would be adding a week's detention to the point reduction," Sprout said sternly. "However, we believe the points alone will suffice, given the praise from the centaurs."
Dumbledore twiddled his thumbs, as aloof as ever. "Goodnight, children." He said as he peered over his glasses at them. "If any of you require dreamless sleep to wash away the horror you have witnessed, a house-elf will deliver it to your room."
Daphne rose first, stiffly rising from her chair and walking swiftly out the door. Holly glanced at Hermione and followed.
"Daphne, wait," Holly called as they descended the spiral staircase.
The black-haired girl whirled around. "Why?" She asked, her voice flat and cold like ice. "Why? We didn't capture the poacher. We didn't avoid detection. Why should I stick around for any more of your shit ideas, Potter?"
"It's about the blood," Holly said as she glanced at Hermione. "I know why they were drinking it."
"Well, I'm glad you've solved the mystery." Daphne snipped. She spun on her heel and stalked away toward the Hufflepuff dormitories. Holly rushed to keep up with her.
"If someone were to drink unicorn blood, they would live from the most mortal of injuries."
"Don't care," she said, her tone blank.
"Poisons would vanish, damaged flesh will mend… it's essentially immortality. A curse of a half-life; constant erosion of your body at an accumulative rate, forever."
"Immortality," Hermione breathed. "Holly, what else in this school can create that?"
"That's what I'm thinking," she said as she kept pace behind Daphne. "The Philosopher's Stone."
"Flipendo!" Daphne's wand pointed at the floor. Holly staggered back onto her butt as the black-haired girl faced her, murder in her eyes. "I. Don't. Care. Take your mystery and piss off. I know curses that would be much more satisfying to try out." She gave her one final glare and disappeared down the stairs.
Hermione glanced at her as they got to their feet. "If the person after unicorn blood manages to find the stone…"
"They'd heal themselves. Completely." She turned to Hermione. "Before the year is over, someone is going to steal it."
In the language of flowers, Bells of Ireland represent luck, while purple irises represent wisdom.
While there is no real-life 'unicorn curse' in mythology, the rest of the information I presented is accurate. Legend says they can only be tamed by pure maidens.
Bane is based on an Irish Draught, the national horse of Ireland, given his de facto leader status (A vibe I always got from the books). Ronan is a sorrel-coat chestnut, Firenze and Ireope are palominos, and Magorian is a murgese. I don't know why the centaurs in the series were only ever male, but I've decided to change that.
I received a PM that asked if Daphne would be "the type of person to attack others to express her emotions" type-character. Here's the answer.