Sirius finished the letter as he thought about what he could do to help. Thinking of something he pulled a parchment out of the drawer and quickly wrote back to Daphne. He could understand why she didn't want her parents to know about this. He'd only known her for a little time but had already got the impression that Daphne wasn't like any other girl or teenager. She was really mature for her age and it had somewhat surprised him when he'd first met her.

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"That bitch!" the two third year boys sitting by the chair jumped in surprise when Hermione slammed her books on the table by the fireplace in the common room. Harry was standing behind her maintaining a safe distance as they'd just finished their DADA class and like always ever since the start of this year Hermione's mood was off because of Umbridge. "How are we going to give our OWLs if she keeps teaching us rubbish?" she said turning to look at Harry. "We have to talk to someone."

"Nothing we do matters, Hermione," Harry said. "You know she holds the most powerful position in Hogwarts, even more powerful than the position of headmaster. And I know what you're thinking of doing and let me tell you that it won't work. Asking for her removal will not work."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" she asked. "We can't just let her teach us nonsense and get away with it! Does she even want us to pass our OWL exams?"

"We can study the DADA course ourselves." They both turned around and saw Neville. "Hermione's right. We cannot rely completely on Umbridge's teaching methods if we want to even pass our OWLs to make something of ourselves once we get out of Hogwarts."

"How are we supposed to teach ourselves?" Hermione asked.

"It's just DADA," Neville said. "We just have to find someone who can teach us the defense spells and charms. Besides, with everything that's been happening outside of Hogwarts after…you know…" he purposely didn't say it completely as they were still in the common room, "it's all the more important that we strengthen ourselves."

Harry couldn't agree more with what Neville had said but the problem was who would teach them the DADA course? Furthermore they had to do it secretly because within a few days of her coming to Hogwarts Umbridge had passed these 'decrees' to make sure the school became what the ministry wanted it to be. One of those decrees was that no one was allowed to have any sort of event related to studying or otherwise without her permission and after everything that Harry had seen and come to expect from Umbridge he was definitely sure that she wouldn't allow them to have a study group in order to teach themselves their DADA course. So they needed another way.

But first they needed to find a teacher.

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Daphne stood at the astronomy tower with the letter in her hand as she looked towards the forest and the school grounds before she looked at the envelope and opened it. Sirius had written back.

.

'Daphne,

What you have requested is something that cannot be done alone by just me. I understand why you don't want your parents to know about those betrothal requests that you and Astoria received during the summer. I can try seeking help from some of the family allies of house Black but that won't bring a complete stop to it all. The only thing I can think of is to do what Harry did and that will remove this burden from your parents' shoulder and you will be the only one to be able to do anything about it legally.

You know what I mean. I am sorry if I couldn't be of much help.

Sirius.'

.

Daphne folded the letter while looking at it as she slightly crumpled it in her palm. She knew what Sirius was talking about but doing that would definitely let her parents know that something is off. As she thought about it for a moment something came to her mind as she took out her mirror and called Harry.

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"Where is it?" Bella screeched looking at the goblin as the two stood outside of her vault at Gringotts. "It's missing!"

"I am telling you that no one has opened this vault in your absence, Madam Lestrange," the goblin said. "It was closed up until today when you came and opened it."

She walked up to the gobbling and grabbed him by his neck before lifting him up to her level as she glared into his eyes. "Stop lying to me, goblin!" she said.

"We cannot do as we like when we are on their turf, Bella." She turned and saw Lucius' cart stop by her vault as he got off. "Do you really think that they will let us leave out of here alive if you killed one of their kind? I think Azkaban has really messed you up and you are not thinking clearly." He then glanced at the goblin who was glaring at them both. "Just have a little patience. The dark lord will show these creatures their real place."

She grinned hearing that as she threw the goblin on the floor before her grin vanished. "But…the cup?" she asked.

"The dark lord has tasked us to collect the remaining anchors and bring them all to our base," Lucius said. "He will be looking after them personally."

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Harry found the entrance to the chamber open. It seemed Daphne had already gone down. As he took the stairs he wondered what it is that Daphne wanted to talk about. She had contacted him this morning asking him to meet her in the chamber after lunch.

He found her by the basilisk's carcass, throwing spells at it in order to break it down to smaller pieces. The way she fired those spells Harry guessed that she wasn't exactly in a good mood. He wondered what had happened. She saw him and stopped her barrage of spells, appearing a little out of breath as she drank from a bottle of water which she had brought with her.

"You know, when we talked about breaking down this carcass I didn't mean to go all the way," he said before he looked from the carcass to her. "Is everything alright?"

She looked at him for a moment before taking in a long breath. She then went on to tell him about the betrothals which she had received for herself and her sister during the summer and the way they were written said enough about how much the pureblood families were confident now since their master had returned. She then told him about her idea of getting an emancipation which surprised Harry. Once she was done Harry looked at her for a few minutes as she went and sat by the table on which she had her potions' equipments.

"Why are you quiet?" Harry's train of thoughts was interrupted by her question as he looked at her. "I…I don't know what to say," he said slowly.

"You don't know?" she asked. "Just say something…anything! Tell me that what I want to do is wrong…or right! Just say something!" she broke down with that last sentence and Harry was immediately by her side trying to console her. "My parents…them knowing about it will put them in danger and if they don't know then also they're in danger. I…I don't know what to do."

"Have you given it some thought?" he asked. She looked at him. "I want to be honest with you; I don't know what to tell you about it all but all I can say – if you really want me to tell you something – is that you getting an emancipation will put you in more danger along with your family."

"How?" Daphne asked.

"Ever since I got my emancipation I've been reading about all the noble families and other similar things in order to get some idea about all of it and what being a family head means," he said, "and I've come across something similar to what your situation currently is. Well, not exactly but it's somewhat similar. It talks about the emancipation of an underaged member of a noble magical family if that person's parents and/or siblings are still alive."

"And what does it say?" she asked.

"Well, if you're really thinking about the emancipation then you should know that with you having a sibling and your dad being alive it's entirely his decision to cut you off from the Greengrass family name," Harry said. Daphne looked at him with wide eyes. "If that happens you can't do anything for your family and all those people will then come for Astoria. But knowing your father he wouldn't cast you off from the family and that will only happen if you don't get your emancipation." He then crouched down to come to her level as he looked her in the eyes. "You've been fighting for your family for a long time now, Daph," he said. "You're doing so because you think that they probably won't be able to win against those guys. I want to tell you to trust them at least this time. Tell them the truth and let them decide how they want to handle it."

"And what if something happens to them?" Daphne asked.

"Well, if something like that does happen then all those pureblood families will know that house Greengrass is backed by house Potter," he said.

"You…You can't reveal it to them," Daphne said.

"It will come out eventually," Harry said. "My family name along with its alliance in the Wizengamot can legally handle all those death eater families and if they try to do anything outside the law then I guess we'll have no choice but to fight them with everything we've got."

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"But wouldn't destroying the horcruxes by ourselves interfere with the prophecy?" she asked. "You were the one who said that it was important to let the prophecy be fulfilled."

"As long as we don't destroy the horcrux which is inside Harry everything will be fine. The prophecy is there only because of that horcrux. It is what puts Harry equal to Voldemort and Voldemort himself must destroy it because there is no other way. If we try anything else to destroy or remove that horcrux it will kill Harry." He then turned to look at the man with shoulder length hair who'd just entered the room. "Does he suspect anything yet, Regulus?"

"No," said the man named Regulus. "The replica is very convincing but he hasn't looked at it closely yet." He then reached for his pocket and pulled out a locket. "Here's the original one."

"He can't sense that it's here, right?" asked the woman.

Regulus shook his head. "Our informer says that Voldemort isn't in his right mind because of losing one of his horcruxes," he said. "He needs to have a calm mind in order to locate his anchors. Right now he's probably busy killing his lackeys out of anger and pain. Let's give him some more," he said smiling.

The man took the locket from Regulus' hand before looking at it closely. He then put the locket in a bowl which had a clear liquid in it and the moment the liquid touched the locket it turned black. The man looked at the woman and nodded once as she reached for the knife that was in the sheath on her waist and pulled it out. She handed the man that knife who then stabbed the locket with it releasing a muddy, cloudy thing from it whose scream filled the place before dissipating.

"Two down, four more to go," the man said before looking at Regulus. "Sirius didn't see you today, did he?" he asked.

Regulus shook his head. "He thinks I'm dead," he said. "Which helps, you know. That way he isn't looking for me, otherwise he would have tried to find me in an attempt to change my mind about joining the death eaters so I guess it's for the best. So his fate is sealed?"

"I'm afraid so," the man said. "There are a few people whose fates we cannot change. If we try to do that it will be catastrophic for us all." Suddenly then someone entered the room as the three turned to look at him. "What is it, Viktor?" the man asked.

"Voldemort felt it," said the Bulgarian seeker. "Our spy told us that he fell on the floor writhing in pain just like last time and even though he didn't know that the locket which his death eaters had brought was a fake one, he knows that now. He's become more paranoid after losing his second anchor and everyone's too afraid from going near him."

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"Honey?" Anna walked into the room wondering why Matt had called her.

"Yes?" she asked as Matt handed her a letter. She saw it was from Daphne as she began to read it. Once she was done she saw a stack of letters in Matt's hand and his eyes wet. She walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "You know why she kept it from us, right?" she asked.

Matt nodded. "Harry wrote me today as well…after I received her letter," he said. "I feel ashamed never knowing what our child was going through all this time! How can I live with that?"

"Daphne is more mature than we give her credit for," she said after a moment's pause. "I always had an idea as being a woman I know how much you have to look out for yourself especially if you're living amongst those who see you as an object and nothing else. I haven't told you this yet but on her first day to Hogwarts when Daphne wrote to us that she had been sorted in Slytherin I had cried. I cried even more when Astoria was sorted in Slytherin as well. However, I was also relieved since I knew Daphne will always look out for her. But everyone has a limit and I think that even though she knows that she cannot do much in this situation she'll still try to because that's who she is. Our Daphne never gives up…she will never stop protecting her family by the means at her hands."

Matt looked at the stack of letters in his hand as he thought about what Anna had just said. "So what do we do now?" he asked.

Anna seemed to think for a while before she exhaled audibly. "I think we have nothing else to do but come out," she said as Matt looked at her in confusion. "For years our family has stood on neutral grounds, not taking a side. We both know that being neutral means that you're seen as an enemy by both sides so I think it's time we chose a side."

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Thanks for reading…