Chapter 3
Tracey was making her way back to the Slytherin common room after another night of spell practice with Dumbledore's Army, or DA for short. She internally cringed at the name, she was all for sticking it to Umbridge but if they were caught and that was the name attached to their group Dumbledore would get skewered by the ministry.
Her membership in the DA had been highly controversial with most of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff vehemently against her being allowed to join. The protests began to grow as more and more people began yelling over each other. Tracey's brother, Roger, and a few of the Ravenclaws had tried to jump to her defense with little success until finally Harry sent a loud blasting curse off at the ceiling to shut everyone up. With the room quiet and all the attention on him he told the crowd that after having spoken with Tracey privately he felt she had as much a right to be here as anyone, would be granted membership, and if anyone had a problem with that they could leave. There were a few grumbles but no one voiced further disagreement after that.
Upon reaching the entrance to the dungeons she applied a disillusionment charm and wove in a notice-me-not charm to enhance the effect. As she arrived at the entrance to the common room she moved to the side and waited. She'd been exceptionally careful with her comings and goings from the common room whenever leaving to join the DA always ensuring she had mentioned some kind of plan to be in the library, the greenhouses, an unused potions lab or the like and only ever returned while disillusioned. The facade would have been impossible to keep up in any of the other houses but Slytherins had single bedrooms so sneaking back into bed unnoticed after getting into the common room had been easy enough.
After a few minutes the prefects on duty that evening left for their patrols leaving the door wide open for Tracey to slip through unnoticed. Quietly slipping past the few people still up in the common room she made her way to the girl's dorms and finally to the door to her room. She gave the hallway one last look around to ensure no one was there who could see her, satisfied that she was alone she entered her room, removed her disillusionment and notice-me-not charms and sighed.
"And where exactly have you been?" a voice said from behind her.
Tracey froze in place, internally cursing for not bothering to do a revealing charm to check if anyone was in her room before entering. Collecting herself and adorning a neutral expression she turned around.
In front of her, with arms crossed and eyes narrowed, stood Daphne Greengrass. Not wanting to give anything away through hesitation Tracey responded immediately.
"Evening Daph, did you need something from my room?" She asked without a hint of the anxiety pounding at the back of her mind.
"Don't bother trying to avoid the question Tracey. Answer me!" Daphne said, her voice hard and commanding.
"I recall telling you exactly where I was going to be this evening Daph." Tracey said, giving nothing away.
"Yes, you said you would be in the library working on the Transfiguration essay. Funny that when I went up to the library myself you were nowhere to be found." This comment had Tracey in a bit of a bind, she'd come up with several backup excuses to explain if Daphne ever searched for her on nights she went off on her own for DA lessons but her friend had carefully avoided saying exactly when she had been there herself.
Tracey rapidly ran through her head trying to identify context clues. She knew Daphne always spent her evenings doing homework and was aware she had plenty to do this evening. Looking at Daphne she saw her book bag was slung over her shoulder still but didn't see any work sitting out at the desk. This meant Daphne had either just cleaned up and was about to leave or had only just entered the room a moment earlier than she had. Then she noticed Daphne had her stylish black flats on, she knew Daphne was highly conscious of how she presented herself in public, she always styled herself to look immaculate. Within the confines of the dorm however, the first thing Daphne would do upon returning each night was change into her slippers for more comfort. The fact that she was still wearing flats indicated she hadn't been back to her room yet and since Daphne loathed doing homework in the common room that likely meant she'd been working in the library. Since Tracey had gone to the library herself for the hour between dinner and DA as a way of helping her cover story, it likely meant Daphne had arrived shortly after Tracey had left. With all this information in mind, Tracey took her best stab at a believable response.
"I finished early and felt a headache coming on so I went to the infirmary to get a potion from Madam Pomfrey." She lied easily. "After that I felt hungry since I didn't have much to eat at dinner so I went to the kitchens and ate there. I was reading ahead for potions at the table and lost track of time."
Daphne's suspicious look continued to be held. "That would be a convincing lie if you had walked in here disillusioned." she accused.
"Of course I was disillusioned, I lost track of time and was returning to the common room after curfew, you know how Professor Snape would've reacted had I been caught." She held her breath as she gave Daphne a few moments to process her story.
"True enough I suppose, if that's the case I'd be happy to review your transfiguration essay for you. Best to ensure you turn in your best work so you get an O afterall." Daphne said with false sweetness.
Tracey was ready for this having finished her Transfiguration essay the night before as a means of backing up her story should Daphne ever get suspicious. She reached into her bag for the essay and handed it to Daphne.
Daphne took the essay and began looking it over, clearly trying to ensure it was in fact on the assigned topic. After a few minutes of silence Daphne's eyes went soft. Tracey was about to relax thinking she'd talked her way out of the situation until she saw Daphne's hand race towards her wand.
'Stupefy' Daphne called out sending a stunner right at her friend.
Reacting on instinct alone Tracey had a hold of her own wand in an instant. Knowing she didn't have time to dodge she quickly cast a shield.
'Protego' She yelled out and in an instant the stunner hit the shield, sparked and dissipated.
"What the hell Daph!" She yelled.
Daphne was just staring at her with a mix of disbelief and rage. Before saying in a soft deadly tone. "You didn't. What are you thinking?"
"What are you talking about Daphne?" Tracey asked, holding her upset tone but now a bit scared as to where Daphne was going with this.
"You joined Potter's defense group." Daphne said, fury growing in her voice.
"What? Why would you think I'd do something like that?" She deflected, it being a miracle she hid how nervous she now was.
Daphne put her wand away and stood up straight. "In charms earlier this week a few students I suspected of joining showed off some particularly strong shield charms during class. I guessed it was an area they were focusing on and, as we've dueled before I know that your shield charm was average, at least it was until just now.
Tracey was internally panicking, she had tried to work diligently to avoid her friend finding out knowing that if she did she would do whatever she could to put a stop to it.
"I…" she tried to get in but Daphne cut her off.
"Trace this is idiocy, Potter is going to get caught, it's just a matter of time and if you get caught with him I wouldn't be able to protect you anymore and you know what that would mean." Daphne pleaded with her.
There was no point in hiding it now, she'd been caught. The only play she had left was to make her understand.
"I won't stop Daph." She said firmly
"Tracey please!" Daphne nearly yelled.
"No Daph, I have to do this. You and I both know Potter isn't lying about the You-Know-Who being back."
"All the more reason to lay low, you know what some of our housemates would do to you if they found out about this." Daphne was almost begging at this point and Tracey was starting to get irritated.
"So what? You know what life for me would be like as a half-blood if You-Know-Who takes over. How can you ask me to just accept that?" She retorted.
"We could leave, once we finish school and we're of age we can leave the country." She said in desperation.
"So you expect me to just run away!"
"I expect you to live!" Daphne nearly screamed.
Daphne Greengrass never cried, no matter how bad things got she never allowed herself to show weakness. But in that moment as she feared for her best friend, her cousin, her sister in all but name her eyes became glossy through her refusal to let those tears fall. Tracey had never seen her like this and it killed her to see her best friend this way but she couldn't back down. Just surviving wasn't enough for her, she had ambitions and goals for her life that would never be possible under You-Know-Who's reign.
"Daphne, I appreciate everything you've done to protect me since starting school, I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you for that." She said sympathetically. "But I'm making the choice to fight and I'm begging you to accept my decision in spite of how you feel about it."
Daphne's eyes flashed through several emotions from rage to worry to hurt at her friend's words trying to find anything to say to change her mind but Tracey was standing firm. Collecting herself Daphne made to leave without saying anything further.
"Daph." Tracey said before her hand reached the door handle. Daphne stopped but didn't turn around.
"I know you worry about me getting hurt or losing me all together." Tracey said, her voice soft at first but hardening as she continued. "But if you try to expose this for my protection I swear you will lose me anyway."
She let her words hang in the air until Daphne grasped the door handle and left the room without a word.
As the door slammed shut Tracey pulled a galleon out of her pocket, thinking of Harry and a message she wanted to send him she rubbed her thumb along the edge of the gold coin.
Several floors above, in the Gryffindor boys dorm, an identical coin in Harry Potter's pocket got warm as the message 'Daphne knows' was etched into its side.
