The dread she'd been fighting since casting that first spell against Pansy had finally caught her up. Despite Daphne's cool exterior, her insides were plummeting. Reality was rapidly descending on her and she was suddenly second-guessing every decision she'd made that had driven her this point.
She wasn't just acting spontaneous and making an empowering decision for herself. She had been actively forcing herself to not look at the bigger picture out of fear of overthinking and backing out last minute. She thought she was being independent, but she'd just lead herself blindly into a trap. If she'd have known her father and the Death Eaters were involved then events would have gone differently - though she struggled on the spot to pinpoint which exact decisions she'd have changed. She should have considered the situation from a logical standpoint; then she'd have been able to deduce that of course her father would have been here.
She did not want to hear what he had to say. She didn't want to listen to him drag her down for her decisions. She did not want to hear the disappointment and anger in his voice as he yelled. She wished she was far away from here. She wished there was an emergency reset button she could press that would fling her back to her normal existence. She had made some very painful and costly decisions in the past few hours, but this was the pinnacle.
This was the point of no return.
"Step away from them, my child."
"I'm sorry, daddy… " Daphne shook her head and said in her most sincere, apologetic tone, "I'm afraid I can't do that."
"Greengrass, stand down," Lucius Malfoy snapped at her father, who paid him no mind. "Remember your rank."
Initially her father looked confused, his command came out as a request, but now his brows sharpened into a glare and he brought his chin forward into the nasty scowl she had done well to inherit from him.
When he spoke again, it was a demand.
"Come here."
"Always a shame when they don't live up to your expectations, isn't it?" came a mocking, baby voice from the darkness.
A figure stepped out from the shadows, revealing a skinny face surrounded by a bush of dirty black hair. Longbottom stirred suddenly.
"Bellatrix Lestrange!" he announced to the group.
Daphne had almost forgotten others were in the room beside her father and her. He and his fellow Death Eaters had closed in so tight there was barely a meter between them and Harry's group. They had backed them into a tight circle.
"Neville Longbottom, is it?" she asked playfully. "How's mum and dad?"
"Better now they're about to be avenged!"
She felt something which could only have been the others closing in around Longbottom to stop him from striking her.
"Let's everybody just... calm... down... Shall we?" Malfoy raised his hands defensively, "All we want is that prophecy."
Daphne eyes battled with her father. She and him were a million miles away from the others, and on a completely different level of communication.
His look pleaded with her to come closer, while having the sternness that assured her there would be consequences if she did not. Despite that, she felt no danger being in front of his wand. Likewise he did not seem remotely threatened by hers aimed at him.
Daphne fought against the tear ducts opening in her eyes. She wanted so badly to launch herself at him, ranting and beating him for forcing her into this situation, while also begging him simultaneously to not cast her out and abandon her. He picked up on her struggle and gestured again with his wand, this time gentler, for her to come . She shook her head in refusal, but her body had done it on autopilot.
Her heart might be torn between the two, but her actions were talking louder about the side she wanted to be on.
"Why did Voldemort need me to come and get this?" Harry asked.
"You dare speak his name!? You filthy half-blood!" Bellatrix roared.
The knot in Daphne's stomach tightened. If she had really sacrificed all of this just to come here with Harry, only to have them die a few moments into it...
"Now, now, it's alright," Malfoy soothed her, "He's just a curious lad, aren't you? Prophecies can only be retrieved by those about whom they are made... Which is lucky for you, really."
He continued, still using a surprisingly calming voice.
"Haven't you always wondered what was the reason for the connection between you and the Dark Lord? Why was he unable to kill you when you were just an infant? Don't you want to know the secret of your scar? All the answers are there, Potter, in your hand. All you have to do is give it to me... and I can show you everything."
There was a silence.
Daphne wished she could turn and read his expression. She assumed he was playing for time, but was he really considering Malfoy's words? No doubt giving him the prophecy would diffuse the situation, but he had to be a fool to think they were all walking away from that unscathed.
"I've waited fourteen years…"
"Harry, do not!" Daphne's voice jumped from her throat.
"Shut up, stupid girl!" Malfoy spat at her. "The boy has earned the right to know!"
"I mean, it wouldn't hurt not knowing a little longer."
"Wha-"
"NOW!"
All at once, six different voices yelled curses behind her. Her knee's collapsed and she dropped out of the way.
The air above her erupted as spells flew in all directions and smashed into the shelves, most exploding on impact. The towering shelves surrounding them swayed as dozens of glass spheres burst apart, sending ghostly-white figures unfolding into the air and sharp shrapnel raining onto them. Cries of pain and yelled commands blurred together all around them into a chorus of indistinguishable shrieking.
A hand snatched Daphne by the hair. She was dragged free from the dust of the shattered prophecies. Her father suddenly was nowhere to be seen. She'd taken off running down one of the dark passages with Harry, Cho and the others sprinting beside her. She didn't hesitate to follow as they reached the end of the row and turned to dive down another, sprinting as fast as her legs would take her. There were a number of footsteps in the corridor behind them, Bellatrix's screaming voice told her a pair of them were hers.
She took a gulp and soldiered on regardless of the rising tightness in her legs. This was what all those nightly runs had been training her for. She was prepared to push her body as far as it would go. Sweat dripped down her back as she hurtled forward, her mind flooding with emotions and memories. Her attempts at reasonable thought were being drowned out by the conflicting shouts of command and curses. It actually provided her with a much needed level of clarity.
Everything that was happening felt a million miles away from her. Her body was an autopilot; one minute they were stopped in a standoff, the next they were running away and ducking for cover. Each time her body had reacted accordingly and she'd been at her peak performance, but not once did Daphne feel like it was really her doing it. She kept her eyes especially peeled for her father. Harry was the one she'd come here for, but right now it was him that she needed to see.
Ahead of them there was a spewing of dark smoke and suddenly Lucius was back, hand still outstretched and the calm look on his face unphased.
They group skidded to a halt and didn't even have time to turn around before they were running backwards. With a sigh, Malfoy disappeared in the same puff of smoke he had arrived in. These plumes of smoke were all around them, in fact. Daphne hadn't been able to tell the difference while rushing through the darkness but slowing down allowed her to see them clearly. They were rushing, swirling around them in the air, occasionally one would get near and materialise into a Death Eater, only to get immediately blasted by every member of their group who had seen them.
All of a sudden Cho, Lovegood and Longbottom were running towards them. Daphne glanced to her side; she hadn't even noticed they'd lost their way. The reunion was brief and the group dove down another corner. The noises around them were changing. Originally they were all coming from the same direction, now they were scattered and spaced out.
"REDUCTO!"
Harry cast forward at an unseen foe. Daphne didn't have time to divert her eyes and the bright flash made white spots dotting her vision.
She snapped her head back and blinked rapidly to try and regain some composure. Facing the other way, she was able to see the Death Eater that had spawned about five away from Longbottom. His back was turned and he had no idea about what was about to happen. She pointed her wand, but was unable to follow through with a spell.
If she did this, there was no coming back. She was officially on Harry's side. She was sealing herself to a fate she wanted no part of. But if she didn't act, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that Longbottom was currently breathing his last breath.
"BOMBARDA!"
A distorted brown light flew from her wand, right over the Death Eater's shoulder and exploded the structure behind him. A wave of debris and smoke spewed out over them and they vanished in another plume of dark smoke. Daphne counted her blessings. She took off running again, with the group following behind her in tow.
An explosion sounded and spread out from somewhere in the room. It caused a sharp ringing in Daphne's ears. But that ringing was growing by the second; before long it was deafening and she realised it was not just confined to her head. She glanced behind her. The endless rows of shelves had begun collapsing domino-style behind them, demolishing everything in their path and sending a rain of shattered glass thundering in their direction.
"GET BACK TO THE DOOR!" Harry yelled.
Well, yeah.
The group didn't have to be told twice. They rounded a number of corners and as the looming avalanche grew closer, the door they entered through came into sight.
She shot past the rest. Her fingers, her hands and her feet all feel increasingly cold. The sound of the smashing shelves was reduced to no more than a background hum as the sound of her shoes hitting the marble floor echoed loudly, every step surging her forward at ludicrous speed. She reached the entrance a good deal quicker than everyone else. She turned back, and seeing them close on her heels, tore the door open and stepped through.
Stepped through into nothingness.
She desperately lashed out to try and grab hold of anything capable of stabilising took her a second to figure out she was free falling through darkness. The rest were falling with her, she could hear screams from Cho and Granger. The only reason she wasn't screaming her lungs dry right now was because her mind had gone blank. The ground was visible beneath them… or was it above them? It was rapidly gaining on them, whichever direction it was coming from.
Daphne closed her eyes and braced for impact.
Everything that had happened in the past 24-hours was a bad dream and she was about to wake up. She would hit the floor, catapult herself across her dormitory and then get on with her normal and boring life. That's all that was about to happen. This situation, every decision that she'd made recently, was only achievable in a dream.
But she didn't wake up. She didn't collide with the floor, either. Instead, the fall simply stopped. She opened her eyes.
Harry, herself, Cho, Granger, Weasley, Lovegood and Longbottom were all safe and sound, spread out across the floor that was threatening to smash them to pieces just seconds ago. Each one of them wore a look of trauma and confusion that matched her own.
"Department of Mysteries…" Weasley shook his head, "Well, they got that bit right, didn't they?"
She threw herself into a heaving position and covered her mouth. It suddenly took everything in her power to not spew her guts up all over the place.
"I'm going to die," she grimaced.
Weasley laughed.
"You get used to this stuff."
The room around them looked almost like an amphitheatre. An ancient one, albeit. They were surrounded by ragged rock structures and prehistoric looking architecture, in the centre was an archway, one that looked so decrepit and crumbling that she was surprised it was still standing. Inside the arch was something. She couldn't discern exactly what, but it was something. She could only describe it as an almost-invisible tapestry, but even that she felt didn't do it justice.
She examined the darker corners of the room. They had escaped her father and the Death Eaters, but that likely wasn't a permanent. The room was fascinating, but she had no desire to hang around here any longer than necessary.
"Those voice's… can you tell what they're saying?"
Harry's question had been to nobody in particular. He had noticed the archway too. More than noticed it, he was half-way up the stairs towards it.
Daphne could hear no voices. In fact, the silence was a shock to her system. They'd gone from explosions and thunderous crashes to a stunning quiet. It was disorientating at best, outright distracting at worst, but there were no voices beyond those of her own groups.
"There aren't any voices, Harry," Granger sounded scared suddenly. "Let's get out of here."
Lovegood appeared from the side and joined him, approaching the arch.
"I can hear them too."
Something sparked to life inside Daphne.
Voices only audible to some. 'Faint whispering and murmured noises', specifically. A tall and mysterious archway. It was coming back to her. Random flashes of text that described this exact scenario, read in a long forgotten textbook from a dusty shelf, in a room she couldn't quite pinpoint.
"That's the Veil," she suddenly said out loud.
It took her another second of thinking before she was able to expand upon her answer.
"It's a Carmathean artefact. Most believe it was created by Merlin to communicate with the dead. It's only ever been spoken about in legend… It's not supposed to be real."
Longbottom was seemingly the only one listening to her and even then, his expression was not one of interest, but caution.
"They said that about the Philosopher's Stone."
Harry and Luna had almost reached the platform of the Veil. Daphne pushed herself up and shouted after them.
"Harry, stay away from that! It's dangerous!"
But he didn't have a chance to get closer. Something was happening. Nobody could see what, but everyone felt it. The air in the room changed its density. Their time admiring the scenery was over.
Everyone was suddenly on their feet and backing up towards the Veil.
"Get behind me!"
But the attack came from behind him.
It knocked her feet out beneath her and before she had chance to let off a defensive curse, a hand latched itself over her mouth. A rush of darkness overtook her vision, the same black plumes from earlier, but now she was inside it. She tried biting at it, clawing at it, doing anything she could to release herself. Her hands just sank through the smoke and the hand on her mouth refused to budge. Then all of sudden, she was weightless, being carried through the air. Her resistance fell in fear of falling. There was a tightness around her arms, which then suddenly snapped together behind her back. She could not see or move. She was completely powerless to help herself. She didn't even know if she still had her wand in her hand.
Her feet touched something. The floor was beneath her again. She stabilised, stumbling a little and stood up. The black smoke cleared.
She died a little inside.
The Death Eaters had swooped in from the back, separated and then apprehended each of them. They'd all been pulled back a number of meters, all except Harry, who stood in the center of the circle, with Lucius Malfoy before him.
"Did you actually believe - were you truly naive enough - to think that children stood a chance against us?" asked Malfoy, his face flushed with smugness. "I'll make this simple for you, Potter. Give me the prophecy now, or watch your friends die."
Daphne fought the arms restricting her. She was constricted, but her wand was still in her hand. It had dropped mostly back into her sleeve, meaning she only held the tip of it in the palm of her hand. It was by sheer luck she had ended up grasping it like that, and probably meant she was the only one of them that had gotten by without being disarmed.
The only reason they'd escaped the prophecy room with their lives were because they had the element of surprise on their side. Now they'd lost that and she had no doubt in her mind that they couldn't take them in a one-on-one fight.
"Stop struggling. There's a way out of this for both of us."
She didn't know why it didn't occur to her immediately that she couldn't see her father's face among the Death Eaters. Of course he had been the one to capture her. Any other time she would have obeyed his command, but if anything, this made her struggle harder.
"Let go of me."
"I am serious," he breathed into her ear.
"So am I."
Harry and Malfoy were now speaking in hushed tones. She couldn't make out what was being said, but saw Longbottom suddenly start struggling against Bellatrix's restraint. She looked back to Harry, who had a defeated scowl on his face.
He passed the crystal ball to Malfoy.
Daphne slumped back against her father.
They had come all this way, only to be tricked and defeated. What was going to happen now? She was finally with Harry, but now that just opened up a bigger problem. The Death Eaters were not going to let them go scott-free, she doubted she could get her father to pull the same trick he used on Professor Umbridge twice, or that he would even be willing to, either.
But whatever was about to happen, she wasn't going back on her choice. She was here because she wanted to be and that's exactly what she would tell her father. They had lost, but they'd lost together.
Then, there was a flash of light. A plume of smoke, not dissimilar to the ones of the Death Eaters, though white in colour, materialised near Malfoy.
"Get away from my godson."
Sirius Black delivered a swift punch to his nose. He tumbled to the floor, the prophecy tossed from his hand. Everyone's eyes followed the crystal ball as it soared through the air.
Daphne did not wait to think; there was no choice now. With a sudden jolt, she tore her wand arm free.
"STUPEFY!"
She had pointed at Bellatrix, but didn't pause to see whether it had made contact. She dived out of her father's hold and ran, holding herself close to the ground.
Dozens of more white shapes descended into the scene. The cavalry had arrived. The Death Eaters were completely distracted by the appearance of the new attackers, who were now raining spells down upon them as they scrambled for shelter.
Darting through bodies and flashes of light, Daphne flung herself to the ground and crawled to a nearby crevasse for cover. Her landing was not graceful, her knees came over her head and she hit the rock hard on her tailbone. She clawed her way to her feet and took off down the narrow passage. Above her the air was alive with curses and shouting. She didn't know who the new arrivals were, beyond Sirius Black, but she was fairly certain she stood a better chance with them than she did the Death Eaters.
"Stand down, Daphne!" a voice shouted.
Her father was at the cliff of the crevasse, shouting to her.
There was a sound like rushing water and then suddenly he was ahead of her. There was no way back up the wall she'd fallen down; she was trapped. Quite literally between a rock and a hard place.
"Get away from me!"
She jabbed her wand in his direction, but knew it was a false threat. He took a step towards her.
"All of this -" he gestured around them angrily "- for some boy? I raised you better than this!"
Her chest was heaving. Her father had not drawn his wand on her yet. Even though she was trapped, she still had the advantage. Despite this, the words that pushed their way up her throat were not a spell, but carried an angry passion with them.
"I don't want to hear it!"
He took another step towards her. His wand remained holstered, but his face boiled with fury.
"You are Daphne Greengrass! The heir to Greengrass Woodhouse and member of the Sacred Twenty Eight! Your life is not worth throwing away for some schoolgirl crush!"
Daphne bit hard on the inside of her lip.
If only he would draw his wand. That would make this so much easier. Fighting she could handle, but when words got involved that's when her emotions got the better of her. Her father was fully aware of that and was using it to his advantage.
"I DON'T WANT YOUR FUTURE!"
Her voice was hoarse. She hadn't planned on shouting that, but the noise above made it necessary.
"I will always love you, daddy..." she swallowed. "But I need to do this!"
Her father shook his head in disgrace. He was moving closer, slowly, now barely a meter away from her aimed wand.
"I raised you to be the best that you could be!" he growled. "I wanted nothing but the best for you! This is what you do with that!?"
"You raised me to be a Death Eater! You never gave me a choice!"
"So what, is that it then?" he threw his arms out in exclamation. "Are you with the Order of the Phoenix now? Are you going to defeat the Dark Lord on your own? Some scummy little boy told you he loves you and you're going to throw away your life to run away with him?"
Daphne gritted her teeth. She wanted so much to unload years of pent up feelings onto him right now, but her words were failing her, as they always did the heat of the moment. When she spoke, her mouth was moving without her brain controlling it.
"I'm not on their side. I'm on mine..." she then shouted, "I DON'T WANT YOUR WAR! I JUST WANT HARRY!"
"HARRY? HARRY?!" he seethed. "That's what you don't get, sweetheart! Harry is not an option! Everything is a political act to these people, you think when the Dark Lord is culling that he's really going to differentiate between you and the other blood traitors, just because your heart isn't really into it? It's black or white, by Merlin's name! IT'S US OR THEM! IT'S YOUR FAMILY OR HIM!"
"THAT'S NOT FAIR!"
"LIFE ISN'T FAIR!"
A large explosion occurred above and showered them in a wave of dusty debris, they both raised their arms for cover. Voices told them a pair was dueling directly above them. The crevasse they found themselves in was not going to be a makeshift shelter for much longer.
She tried to stabilise her shaking hand.
"Raise your wand or get out of my way."
He grimaced back at her.
"You're not going to fire on me, daughter."
She only shook her head.
"You don't want to find out."
Something about her delivery instilled a reaction inside her father. His eyes narrowed, and his hand moved to his sleeve.
"We can come back from this..." he drew his wand, "...work with me… or you will not like what happens next."
Daphne puffed out her chest. Her heart felt like it was about to burst from her rib-cage.
"I'm better with a wand than I am a sword."
He matched her stance with his own, their wands pointed at each other. Her father laughed.
"You're ever so much like your mother."
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
"Protego."
The lightning-like spell from Daphne's wand hit her father's shield and vanished instantaneously. Her hand was suddenly sweaty.
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"
He slashed his wand through the air, her spell disappeared again into nothingness.
Daphne took a step back.
Both spells were deflected like they were nothing. He had yet to fire on her. He was going easy on her; this was him trying to prove a point. He wasn't going to fight, he just wanted to show that she was powerless against him. This was all one of his manipulative games. She was an idiot believing she could take him in a toe-to-toe match anyway, never mind that he'd actually agree to one. It should have brought her some kind of comfort that this was not a real duel, but instead wound her up further.
She fired spell after spell at him, each one getting bigger and more ferocious in her casting. He effortlessly reflected them, but as her anger was growing, he had to work harder to keep his defence up. By the time she finally stopped casting, he had both hands on his wand.
"FIGHT ME!"
It had no effect. He was furious at her, that much was obvious, but she still felt in no danger. They were both wasting their time. A glance around her told her there was nothing nearby she could use to her advantage, either.
Then, she hatched an idea. She would never back away from a fight, but this was no fight.
She turned on her heels and pelted full-belt back in the direction she'd come from.
"Get back here, Daphne!"
She jabbed her wand in front of her and yelled, "CARPE RETRACTUM!"
An orange-yellow spell erupted from her wand and shot upwards, attaching to the edge of a cliff. It solidified into a sticky substance, which then tightened and launched her through the air, flinging her clear from the crevasse. She landed roughly on her feet and took into a messy run.
The chamber had become a battlefield of epic proportions, but it all passed by in a flash, meaningless to HER. She weaved in and out of the curses, rushing bodies and broken debris, her body rushing on it's own towards her target.
Harry and Sirius Black were duelling against Malfoy and another Death Eater by the Veil. Just as she took off in their direction, a spell hit the floor beneath her, which exploded and sent her flying onto her back. She followed the roll through and with a heave, she was back on her feet again as quickly as she went down.
A jet of green light narrowly missed her. Across the room, Bellatrix Lestrange shrieked with laughter.
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
Harry sent the Death Eater's wand flying from his hand. Beside him, Sirius roared with laughter.
"Nice one, James!"
Malfoy was too busy to see Daphne from behind. She aimed and sent a spell colliding into his back, propelling forwards and knocking into Sirius Black, sending them both spilling onto the floor. Seconds later a second green spell hit the scene, followed by another cackle from Bellatrix. If it had hit a moment earlier it would have struck Sirius, but instead carried on and was swallowed by the curtain-like Veil.
The distraction gave Harry the chance needed to disable the other Death Eater. Malfoy was blasted backwards off of Sirius, hit the floor roughly, rolled a few times and then remained still. If he wasn't unconscious, he was definitely down for the count.
Sirius Black pushed himself to his feet and placed his wand to his throat.
"It's over, all of you! Albus Dumbledore is on his way! Put down your wands and receive mercy!"
Daphne felt a rush of giddy, almost electrical excitement surge through her body. If Professor Dumbledore was on his way, they were saved. All of this had not been for nothing. There was a future for her and Harry after all.
They both locked eyes from across the battlefield, sharing their delight.
"Idiot, cousin!" Bellatrix shrieked from the other side of the room. "The Dark Lord is already here!"
Daphne saw the colour drain from Harry's face. A horrid, mangled fear, swept the room.
An arm tightened around Daphne's waist.
"We have no desire to witness this. Playtime is over."
"NO!"
The world around her crumpled away and the familiar squeezing sensation overtook her body. The last image of Harry's face was what she saw, but that soon became distorted and torn apart by the environment around her. She was helpless against the reality bending physics that stretched and battered her. All she found herself able to do was cling tightly to the arm that held her and beg for it to be over.
Then it ceased suddenly; everything came to an abrupt halt. She dropped to the floor, her breaths coming in seering gasps. They were gone from the chamber. The thunderous sounds of the battlefield were gone and replaced by a silence so loud it was ringing in her ears. Daphne's hand shot to her mouth as her stomach churned violently.
Looking only at the floor, she could tell she was back in the Woodhouse. But as the scent of home filled her nose, comfort was the last thing it brought her right now.
A growl came from beside her.
"You have explaining to do, dear daughter."
