Chapter Eight: Boiling Over

The next morning, Daphne was surprised when she received a letter from Harry, Hermione, and Ron during breakfast. She had to admit it was a pretty good way of contacting her without drawing attention, and she was convinced Hermione had been the one to think of it.

The letter only said to meet them in the library during lunch, so when the time finally arrived and Daphne hurried towards the library, she was bursting with curiosity. When she arrived, Hermione looked to be sitting alone, as usual surrounded by mountains of books. She gestured at an empty seat and waited for Daphne to sit down.

"Harry and Ron are here too," Hermione said by way of greeting. "They're wearing the Cloak in case someone sees us."

Daphne felt touched — there was nothing odd about four people sitting in the library, so the only reason Harry and Ron were invisible was to support her in case other Slytherins were around.

"We've found out what Fluffy is guarding," Hermione said.

Daphne's eyes widened. "Really? What is it?"

"It's a Philosopher's Stone," Hermione said, quickly glancing around to see if no one else was listening.

"We found out that Nicolas Flamel was an alchemist," Harry's voice said from somewhere to the right of Hermione. "He was mentioned on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card; that's where we'd seen him before."

"So there's a Philosopher's Stone at Hogwarts…I can imagine why they would want to protect it, then," Daphne said. "But why is it here at all? Didn't you say it was in Gringotts before?"

"The first time I was in Diagon Alley, Hagrid told me that Gringotts was the safest place to hide something apart from Hogwarts, so they probably felt it wasn't safe enough," Harry's voice said. It was really weird talking to someone she couldn't even see, but she knew it was for her own benefit.

"So…what now? I mean, what can we do from here? Do we know who's really after it?"

"It could still be Snape," Hermione said, and before Daphne could protest, she raised her hands. "I didn't say he was trying to kill Harry, although I'm still not too sure about that given what Harry told us last night, but Fluffy did bite him, and why else would he try to get past there?"

Daphne shrugged. "I don't know. Honestly, I can imagine him wanting to steal it, too. He's a Potions master, so researching the Elixir of Life would be great for him, aside from its obvious uses."

She shook her head. "But still, I get the feeling we're missing something. What if Snape isn't trying to steal it, but defend it from someone else?"

"Like who? Quirrell?" Ron's voice asked mockingly.

"Quirrell would faint if Snape yelled 'boo' loudly enough," Daphne scoffed. "Filch, maybe?"

"No, he and Snape seem to be working together," Harry said. "That night I snuck into the Restricted Section, Filch went to warn him after that book began screaming."

"Face it, Daphne, it's just not looking good for Snape," Ron said. "You just want him to be smarter than this because he's your Head of House. I bet if McGonagall had wanted to get the Stone she'd already have taken it without anyone being the wiser."

"Well, Flitwick is Head of Ravenclaw. If we're going by stereotypes, he would be the most likely to pull it off undetected," Hermione mused.

They spent a couple of minutes coming up with progressively more outlandish people who could be trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone, ending with Daphne suggesting Professor Binns, the ghost who taught History of Magic, in a bid to restore himself to life so he'd no longer be boring his students to death.

Despite the fun she was having, though, she had to admit that Snape was still the most likely suspect, and since she really didn't have any viable alternatives, she eventually relented.

"But I guess it doesn't really matter, anyway," she mused. "We want to protect it anyway, don't we? So no matter who's trying to take it, we'll have to stop them from doing it."

"You're just trying to defend your best source of House points," Ron teased.

Daphne gave the bit of empty space where she thought Ron was hiding the two-fingered salute.

"Hey, what did I do?" Harry protested jokingly.

Daphne waved her hand from left to right, then quickly pulled it back when Madam Pince walked around a nearby bookcase. She and Hermione fixed their eyes on a random page in an open book, tensely waiting for Madam Pince to leave again.

As soon as she had, all four of them burst into laughter — silently.

The day of the Quidditch game had arrived, and just like last time, the stands had supporters from all Houses sitting mixed together, meaning Daphne was once again able to sit close to Hermione and Ron to watch the match. Longbottom was with them as well, and he gave her a faint smile when he saw her, which she returned.

Sadly for her, her good mood didn't last long.

The players had only just taken off when a drawling voice said, "Wonder how long Potter's going to stay on his broom this time? Anyone want a bet? What about you, Weasley?"

Ron ignored him, and Daphne clenched her jaw. Why couldn't Malfoy just get lost?

"You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?" Malfoy asked a few moments later, when it had become obvious his first taunt hadn't had the desired effect. "It's people they feel sorry for. See, there's Potter, who's got no parents, then there's the Weasleys, who've got no money — you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains."

Longbottom — oh, who was she kidding? — Neville went bright red, but turned in his seat to face Malfoy all the same.

"I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy," he stammered, leading to Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle roaring with laughter, and that was the moment Daphne couldn't take anymore.

Ostentatiously pulling her hands out of her pockets and crossing the fingers on her right hand in her lap, she turned around as well and said, "Don't make a fool out of yourself, Longbottom, twelve times zero is still zero. Malfoy, haven't we had this conversation often enough by now? Stop bringing down the average intelligence of this section of the stands even further. Good grief, Granger here is the only thing keeping it from going underground and she's Muggleborn. And Weasley might not have money, but at least he's not spending his time desperately looking for approval from everyone around him.

"What's wrong, Malfoy? Has it finally dawned on you that your family is going to go down in flames once you finally take control of it? Are you spending your time acting like a moron because you know that you'll never amount to anything without daddy there to back you up? Get out of here, you simpleton. Maybe you should try to find lackeys who can understand words with more than two syllables for a change."

She fell silent. She was crossing her fingers so hard it was beginning to hurt, and she hoped with all her might that Hermione, Ron, and Neville would see it.

Malfoy, meanwhile, had gone blotchy red, and Crabbe and Goyle were cracking their knuckles. He stared at Daphne, hatred and embarrassment all over his face.

Daphne, for her part, hoped she was looking cool and disdainful, rather than livid enough to draw her wand and start hexing them.

"This isn't over, Greengrass," Malfoy said. He got up and beckoned Crabbe and Goyle to follow him.

Daphne stared after them until they left and then turned back to the others, who looked stunned.

"I'm so sorry about that," she said.

She looked at Neville in particular. "I really didn't mean anything I just said, it's just…that Malfoy…"

She put her face into her sleeve and screamed. "I hate him! I hate this! I hate these stupid expectations and political games and I…I just want to able to be friends with you all…"

She could feel her eyes burning, but she bit her tongue and forced the tears back. She wasn't going to break down here.

"We understand," Hermione said with a faint smile.

Ron gave Daphne a thumbs-up. "It's worth hearing Malfoy being torn a new one. I would've just punched him, really."

Neville nodded. "Yeah…I was thinking the same thing…"

Before they could discuss it any further, a collective gasp went through the stands and they all looked up at the game. Harry seemed to be dive-bombing Snape, missing him by mere inches, but then he leveled out and raised his hand, grasping the Snitch, in triumph.

The crowd went wild, both at Harry's spectacular catch and the speed at which he'd managed it. The game had barely lasted five minutes, and even though Daphne wasn't all that knowledgeable about Quidditch, she thought that this had to be some kind of record.

Down below, she saw Snape looking angry while Harry was being mobbed by his teammates. It made sense for him to be angry, since Gryffindor would now take the lead in House Championship for the first time in years, from Slytherin no less. She didn't care. Right at that moment, she felt more Gryffindor than she'd ever done.

"I heard you and Malfoy had a bit of an argument," Parkinson said in the common room that night.

"I don't think you're the only one who heard that," Daphne said disinterestedly.

She was writing a letter to her parents, explaining what had happened between her and Malfoy that day just in case Malfoy would also be writing his parents.

"He's out for your blood now."

Daphne scoffed. "Let him. He can't hurt me."

She knew that wasn't entirely true, but even Malfoy couldn't go too far against another Noble House. The repercussions would simply be too big.

"I don't really think you want him against you," Parkinson said, and something in the tone of her voice made Daphne look up.

Parkinson was giving her a meaningful look; a warning to lay off, but made out of concern, not malice. Daphne was surprised that Parkinson would try to warn her at all. They weren't close, after all, though Daphne guessed that constantly needing to play along with Malfoy's idiocy would get tiring after a while.

She inclined her head just a little bit, showing that she understood the warning. Even so…

"I don't think he wants me against him either."

She didn't sleep well that night. Despite her bravado both at the Quidditch game and later with Parkinson, she was still worried what Malfoy — or rather, his father — might try to do. She kept tossing and turning, the images from her nightmares and all the recent confrontations circling through her mind, again and again.

Eventually, she did fall asleep, but her dreams were feverish. She saw Malfoy laughing at her, holding the Philosopher's Stone and wearing Quirrell's turban, standing in front of the magical mirror, while Snape sang his praises in a hymn.

Her parents were giving her disappointed looks and in the distance she saw a court of shadowy figures surrounding Harry, Hermione and Ron, sneering and laughing at them.

Then Malfoy held the Stone above his head and everyone kneeled for him. He gestured, and Snape approached her and took her wand from her.

"It's not in my nature," he said solemnly, and then he broke her wand in two.

"No!" she shouted — and sat up straight in her bed.

She pulled her hands across her face and felt that her cheeks were wet. With a deep sigh, she checked her watch and saw that it was just past four in the morning. This was going to be a long day.

It was difficult to keep her eyes open during breakfast after the night she'd had, and her mental state improved only marginally when she saw that she had a note from Harry and the others again. That wasn't the only mail she got that morning, though. Her parents had also sent her a letter. While that was nothing special — she'd often written to them during the year — it was the letter's content that made her mouth fall open.

"Dear Daphne,

Your letter from last night was concerning to us, though not quite for the reason you think. From what you told us — both in this letter and your previous ones — it seems that you are a bit mistaken about a few things. While it is admirable that you're trying to think of the family politics in your daily life, it was never our intention for you to ruin your school years in such a manner. Indeed, we tried to hint at our feelings about this to you with our Christmas present, though it seems we may simply be too used to coded messages and double meanings.

In that case, then, we'll be plain. This may not be something you'll like to hear, but the world does not revolve around you. The friends you make at school, and what affiliations they have, have no discernible impact on the Noble Houses at large. The whims and caprices of children, as some would callously call them, simply do not factor into the way the so-called adults make decisions. We, and the other Houses, have our own agendas, and while our children must certainly learn to understand and carry out those agendas, we never meant for your entire schooling at Hogwarts to revolve around this.

We want you to explore on your own, and for you to make your own choices. While Hogwarts is hardly an island, it is a place of learning, and that even goes for the time you spend outside of its classrooms. Befriend who you want to befriend, and don't worry about how it may or may not affect the family. I assure you that even Lucius Malfoy has better things to do than listening to his son's complaints all day long, and he certainly won't waste his time acting on them unless there is immediate gain for him. And if, for some reason, he does decide to act, then we will respond accordingly. We may favor neutrality, but that does not mean we're powerless.

Daphne, be true to who you are and grow up in your own way. We'll be there to help you, of course, but you have to learn to make your own decisions, and Hogwarts is a fantastic place to do it. When you're a bit older, we might even tell you some of the things we got up to when we were there. We will never judge you for the friends you keep, and we're truly sorry that we seem to have given you that impression. Never be afraid to stand up for yourself.

Love,
Mum and Dad"

Daphne reread the letter several times, and with each time, her fatigue and fear seemed to diminish more.

After the fifth pass, she abruptly stood up, clutching both the letter from her parents and the one she'd gotten from Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

Malfoy, who was sitting nearby, gave her a suspicious look. "What's gotten into you this time, Greengrass?" he asked.

Daphne grinned widely at him. "This," she said, and without another word she grabbed her bag and made her way over to the Gryffindor table, where she sat down next to Harry.

Some of the older Gryffindors nearby curiously looked over to see why a Slytherin was suddenly at their table, but when they saw that the first-years around her weren't fazed by it, they quickly went back to their own conversations.

"What happened to keeping a low profile?" Harry asked with equal parts surprise and amusement.

In response, Daphne simply handed him her parents' letter, and while Harry — and Hermione and Ron, who were awkwardly leaning over the table — read it, she glanced over at the Slytherin table, where Malfoy still had a dumbstruck expression on his face that almost made her laugh out loud.

"So you don't have to stay away from us anymore, then?" Harry asked when he'd finished reading.

"Nope. I can finally just be honest."

"You look like you're about to bounce off the bench," Ron said with a smirk.

"I'm not far off," Daphne said. "This– this is– The mirror– This is what I saw in the mirror," she finally managed to blurt out. "My parents accepting that I'm friends with you. It was what I wanted more than anything else, and it just happened. And after having nightmares about it all night, too, after what happened yesterday at the game…I couldn't be happier if I tried!"

Caught up in her own excitement, she wrapped her arms around Harry and hugged him tightly. She quickly realized what she'd done and let go again, feeling her face heat up as if she'd taken a bottle of Pepper-Up Potion.

Harry, too, seemed a bit embarrassed by the sudden affection, and Daphne said, "Sorry! I'm not usually like that."

Ron laughed. "I've definitely never seen you like this before," he said. "But this is really good; it means Harry and I won't have to get under the Invisibility Cloak when we want to talk to you anymore."

Daphne shook her head, her cheeks still glowing a bit from her outburst. "No, we can finally just talk normally. Speaking of…"

She produced the note they had sent her. "What's this about?"

Harry seemed to recover from his earlier shock and cleared his throat. Daphne noticed he wasn't quite meeting her eyes when he spoke.

"We can't really talk about it here, but it's about…y'know," he said.

"Right. Library at lunch then?" she asked.

"Yes. Though I suggest you run a couple of laps around the lake first, or Madam Pince might throw you out," Ron said with a grin.

"Snape was threatening Quirrell?" Daphne repeated after Harry had told her what he'd seen after the game.

He nodded. "Yes. It seems like things get worse for him with every passing day," he said with a confused shake of his head.

Daphne nodded slowly. "Yeah. I guess I really was off the mark. I can't really think of any other reason he'd be threatening Quirrell unless he was trying to get to the Stone."

She was quiet for a moment. "So…what do we do now?" she asked eventually. "Should we inform one of the teachers? And would they even listen to us if we did?"

"They'd probably be like Hagrid and tell us we saw it wrong, or something," Ron said sourly.

"Yeah, and normally I'd be agreeing with them, but at this point it just seems impossible to deny," Daphne said.

"Our problem is that we don't have any proof, though," Hermione said. "All we have is hearsay and theories. We have nothing that definitively ties Snape to an attempt to steal the Stone. It would be our word against his, and we just can't win that."

"We'll just have to keep our eyes and ears open," Harry said.

He looked at Daphne. The few hours since breakfast had apparently returned his ability to look her in the eyes. "Can you keep an eye on Snape as well? He's your Head of House, so you might be able to pick up more than we can."

Daphne nodded. "I'll see what I can do. We don't really seem him outside of classes either, but I'll try to find something."

"Just make sure you don't get caught," Harry warned.

Daphne smiled. "No worries. He won't know a thing."