Since I can't really reply to guest reviews, I'll just do it like this: Someone asked why Astoria isn't in the story. I think I mentioned it earlier, but it's basically because the story I have planned for Daphne simply works better with her as an only child and I have nothing for Astoria to do at all. Aside from that, Astoria gets together with Malfoy in canon, but Malfoy will remain antagonistic throughout, Daphne dislikes him, and I don't feel like writing scenes where she needs to get used to seeing more of Malfoy even outside of school. Basically, I'm lazy, so Astoria doesn't exist for the purposes of this story.
Chapter Thirty-Three: Faced With Fear
When Daphne went to breakfast the next morning, she sat down next to Ginny instead of her usual spot with Harry, Hermione, and Ron.
"Morning," she said.
Ginny looked at her and said, "Something on your mind?"
Daphne shrugged. "Maybe," she said. She smiled a bit awkwardly. "Harry told me off for getting myself hurt yesterday."
Ginny gave her a look. "I heard about that," she said. "If he hadn't done it, I would have. Getting hurt to help Malfoy?"
"It was more for Hagrid's sake, really," Daphne said uneasily.
"So now you're joining me in the being-awkward-around-Harry club?" Ginny asked.
"Nah, I'll be back with them at lunch. For now it's just…I don't really know what to say, considering everything Harry said yesterday was true. But I don't think I'm going to change much anytime soon. If I can help my friends somehow, then I will," Daphne said.
"Helping your friends isn't the problem," Ginny said. "It's that you seem to think it doesn't count unless you get hurt somehow."
Daphne shrugged noncommittally. "Anyway, how was your first day?" she asked.
Ginny gave her an amused look. "Changing the subject already?"
Daphne grinned sheepishly, but Ginny didn't press the issue. They talked for a while about their first day, even the Care of Magical Creatures lesson, though Daphne cut off the story after Buckbeak had landed again.
On Thursday, Daphne had her first Potions lesson, during which Snape, as usual, detracted points from Gryffindor for a whole host of petty reasons, which amused Malfoy immensely.
When, near the end of the lesson, he wanted to feed Neville's toad some Shrinking Solution to see if it would become a tadpole or die, however, Daphne decided she wouldn't keep quiet.
"Sir, don't you think that potentially killing someone's pet is going a bit too far?"
"Longbottom needs to learn to follow instructions correctly, Miss Greengrass," Snape said, and without giving her any more chance to protest he picked up Trevor the toad and fed him some of Neville's potion…and watched him turn into a tadpole.
The Gryffindors and Daphne applauded.
Snape reversed the potion's effects with another potion, then said, "Five points from Gryffindor. I told you not to help him, Miss Granger."
The applause immediately stopped.
"Fair enough, sir, but then you should also reward the fact that Neville did, apparently, learn to follow instructions, since his potion worked," Daphne said.
She could feel Harry's eyes on her and it annoyed her. Snape was being more unreasonable than usual, and she could talk back to him without getting docked any points. This wasn't her sacrificing herself, or anything. Just trying to get some fairness out of a teacher notorious for being unfair.
Snape smiled unpleasantly. "Fine then, Miss Greengrass…one point to Gryffindor because Longbottom can listen, and five to Slytherin for your cunning in using my own words against me," he said.
Daphne looked at the Gryffindors and said, "He gave one point. I'm calling it a victory."
She looked at Harry defiantly, almost daring him to say something…but he just smiled at her.
The next afternoon, she had her first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. She'd heard about the boggart the Gryffindors had dealt with, and wondered if the Slytherins would do something similar.
"Good afternoon," Professor Lupin said when he came in.
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle still seemed to think his somewhat shabby appearance was funny, as they were chuckling stupidly while Lupin put his briefcase on his desk, but Lupin didn't seem to be bothered by it.
"Now, as some of you might have heard, the first subject we'll be covering this year is boggarts. Your fellow third-years in Gryffindor dealt with one in the staff room yesterday. Fortunately, that wasn't the only boggart in the school."
Lupin pointed to a trunk in the back of the class. "I found that one in one of the dungeons, and we'll be practicing on it today. So, first off, what is a boggart?"
"A shape-shifting non-entity that assumes the form of our greatest fear," Pansy Parkinson said, quoting almost directly from the book.
Lupin smiled. "Correct. Five points to Slytherin."
"What if that fear is something really abstract? Like old age?" Daphne asked. "I mean, seeing myself as an old lady wouldn't really scare me."
"Very good question. In the case of an abstract fear, the boggart will reduce that fear to a concrete essence. Imagine reading a book, being immersed in it, and feeling the fear the characters in the book feel. The words alone evoke the feeling of fear, because your mind fills in the blanks.
"A boggart does something similar. Even an abstract fear probably has some sort of visual representation that you could see in other people, which makes you feel scared or uncomfortable when you see it. Taking old age as an example, you might see a relative old and worn, unable to remember you, or bearing any of the other things you could possibly fear about old age," Lupin said.
He looked around the class. "It's important to remember that the form a boggart takes is very specific to the person it attempts to frighten. Two people afraid of spiders might see a very different boggart depending on what kind of spider they fear the most. What scares one person might be amusing for another. I'd therefore like to ask all of you not to judge one another on their fears when we begin our exercise in a moment."
Lupin seemed to be looking directly at Malfoy when he said that. He briefly explained the charm they would be using and had everyone practice it out loud, which Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle didn't seem to be interested in doing.
"Something that you will need to keep in mind when facing a boggart is that it's often enough to make the boggart harmless, rather than making it funny, which can be done in much the same way. This is useful in case your fear is something you simply cannot see any humor in, or if you run into a boggart without time to prepare. The charm remains the same; what is important is that you focus on the shape you want the boggart to assume. Now, everyone think of what their worst fear is, and how you intend to make that fear amusing instead. I'll prepare the room," Lupin said.
Everyone got up, and Lupin waved his wand to move the desks and chairs over to the side of the room.
Daphne tried to think of what she feared most. It would probably be Voldemort, but which version of him? Despite the young Tom Riddle version coming much closer to killing her, the Voldemort she'd seen in the Forbidden Forest, possessing Quirrell, scared her much more because she hadn't expected to run into him there, and the sense of dread his hooded, hunched form gave her was nearly comparable to a Dementor, but Voldemort scared her more because a Dementor had never been human, while Voldemort had.
She didn't get much more time to think, however, as Lupin beckoned the first person forward.
"Pansy, could you go first?" he asked.
Pansy didn't look happy at all to be the first one to have to face her fear, but she nodded and stepped forward.
"Okay, I'm going to open the trunk. Get ready…one…two…three!"
Lupin shot a rain of sparks out of his wand and the trunk popped open…and a massive, green dragon leapt out of it. It landed heavily on the classroom floor, its batlike, leathery wings scraping the walls. It growled, and from between its teeth came flames. It looked at Pansy with angry, yellow eyes and bared its teeth.
Pansy raised a trembling arm and said, "Riddikulus!"
There was a sound like a cracking whip and the dragon began coughing and thumping itself on the chest with its forepaw, filling the classroom with clouds of smoke as it did so.
"Next, Theodore!" Nott stepped forward.
There was another crack, and the dragon was now a gaunt, shuffling corpse, raising a wasted arm at him.
Nott shuddered, but then said, "Riddikulus!"
A crack, and the arm fell off the corpse, soon followed by the other, and then its legs.
The boggart became a manticore, which Tracey made prick itself with its scorpion tail and fall over.
For Zabini, it became a beautiful woman, who smiled seductively, and then clapped her hand to her mouth as her teeth began to fall out.
And then, Lupin said, "Daphne, your turn!"
Daphne took a deep breath and stepped forward, preparing for the boggart to assume the form of Voldemort…but it didn't.
Instead, it turned into Harry. Harry, with a look of deep, intense loathing on his face.
Daphne lowered her wand in confusion.
Boggart-Harry smirked. It was an ugly, hateful look.
"Did you really believe we were your friends?" he said. "Did you think that any of us really wanted to associate with a Slytherin?"
"But you said–"
"I lied. What do I care if you get yourself killed? We'd be better off, honestly. Meeting you must've been one of the worst things I've gone through in my life, and that's saying something."
Daphne knew that none of what she was seeing was real, but she hadn't expected this to happen — and yet she knew the boggart had chosen well. How could she possibly make this funny?! Her eyes burned. She gripped her wand with all her might, but she couldn't think of anything except what the boggart was saying.
Boggart-Harry wasn't done with her yet. "Maybe next time you 'help' us you really should do yourself in. It'll save me the trouble of pretending to talk you out of it again. I know, I'll ask Hagrid to bring in some dragons. You can take a shot of their flames for us," he said with a grin.
What could she do?! Even though she knew it wasn't real, it looked like it was. Then, one memory from her first year came into her head.
Focusing with all her might on that image, she raised her wand and said, "Riddikulus!"
There was a crack, and boggart-Harry kept ranting at her…but he had the index and middle fingers on his right hand crossed now, and Daphne sighed in relief, now finally able to accept that what she was seeing really wasn't real.
The boggart seemed to sense this, because it stepped back in confusion.
"Draco, forward," Lupin said.
Malfoy, however, did nothing. "I don't think I will," he said. "I'll just enjoy the show."
Not wanting to subject Daphne to more boggart-Harry, Lupin stepped forward himself.
With a crack, it transformed into a floating, silvery-white orb, which Lupin made disappear into a puff of smoke, before calling Bulstrode forward.
In the end, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle did not face the boggart, but Daphne saw them looking at her with evil smirks on their faces.
To her surprise, Nott and Zabini, who didn't like her much, either, did not seem to think her fear was funny at all. Zabini, whose fear Daphne was pretty sure had been his mother, could probably relate somewhat.
The rest of the Slytherins also didn't seem like they intended to mock Daphne for it, though she was sure that by the end of the day, the entire school would know about her worst fear. Great. That'd be fun to explain to Harry later.
Lupin gave them their homework and dismissed the class, but said, "Daphne, could I have a quick word, please?"
Daphne lingered in the classroom, scowling at Malfoy, who left the room with one last mocking smirk at her. That coward hadn't even faced his fear, yet he would probably never let her live hers down.
"Have a seat," Lupin said.
They were still in the classroom, so Daphne simply grabbed a chair and put it opposite Lupin's desk.
"That was an…interesting fear," he said.
"I thought the boggart would become the Voldemort I met in the Forbidden Forest in my first year," Daphne said softly, not acknowledging what Lupin had said.
"Yet it became something worse," Lupin said. He was smiling, but it was sympathetic, not mocking.
Daphne nodded.
"The fear of being rejected by your friends is an insidious one. I know it well. At your age, it's even worse."
"But I know it's not real!" Daphne said forcefully. "Harry told me off for getting injured only a few days ago. I know he doesn't want me to get hurt."
"Knowing and fearing are very different things. Your fear goes deeper than just needing to hear 'we like you'. Given that you're from a pureblood Noble House…I imagine growing up you likely didn't trust many people other than, hopefully, your parents," Lupin said.
Daphne nodded slowly.
"But then you met people who did, for one reason or another, earn your trust. Having been brought up to expect betrayal, it's easy to fear that from the people you have become close to. Again, I know that fear well."
"Has it ever happened to you?" Daphne asked. "That someone you trusted betrayed you?"
"It has…once. It's a pain I still live with every day, and I have never stopped wondering why. But what interests me in your case is how you dispelled it. It was something very small, very subtle. I doubt any of your classmates really understood what you did," Lupin said.
"Did you?" Daphne asked.
"I didn't understand the meaning of what you did, no, but I did see the action and its effects. I presume it's something you once discussed with Harry?"
Daphne nodded. "In our first year, I thought that being friends with Gryffindors would cause trouble for my parents, so I had to pretend I wasn't. I was afraid they'd see me telling my classmates that I didn't care for them and was just using them, so I told Harry about it, and he told me how Muggle kids would cross their fingers when they lie, and that I should do it too, if my Gryffindor friends were near when I had to protect my image as a Slytherin.
"I only used it once, because after that I found out that my parents wanted me to make friends, no matter in what House, so I didn't need to hide it anymore. It was the only thing I could think of now, because I know Harry isn't like that."
Lupin smiled sadly. "I don't know Harry quite as well I would like, but if he's anything like his parents, then you will never need to worry about him betraying you."
"You knew them?" Daphne asked.
"I did. We were at Hogwarts at the same time," Lupin said. "I know your parents as well. Harry's father and your mother actually had something of a rivalry on the Quidditch pitch, but then, Gryffindor and Slytherin have always been fierce rivals. I'm glad you and your Gryffindor friends can look past that."
"Well…let's just say that Harry and I could potentially have been in each other's House," Daphne said with a smile.
"There is one other thing I noticed in your boggart," Lupin said.
Daphne cocked her head. "What was it?"
"The things boggart-Harry said seemed to imply you often get hurt when helping your friends. You already mentioned Harry scolding you for it. Why is that?"
Daphne looked away a bit angrily. Why was everyone getting on her case about that lately?
"As if Harry doesn't do the same," she said petulantly.
"And you've never once commented on that?" Lupin asked dryly.
Daphne recalled calling Harry a 'stupid, reckless, Gryffindor idiot' several times, but she'd never given him a speech about it.
"Sort of. But not like he did," she said.
"Well, I wasn't there when all of these things happened. But ask yourself what the difference is between when Harry acts in a self-sacrificing manner, and when you do it," Lupin said.
Daphne was getting a bit annoyed now. She'd been admonished enough recently, and despite having dealt with the boggart, its words still echoed in her head.
"If that was all, I'd like to get going now, sir," she said.
Lupin gave her a friendly smile. "Of course. Should something be bothering you, my door is always open."
Daphne wondered why a teacher who wasn't her Head of House would be so interested in her wellbeing, but she thanked Lupin regardless and left the classroom.
As she made her way to the common room, she sighed. She wasn't looking forward to Malfoy's snide remarks.
I honestly don't know how common boggarts are, but I decided to have the Slytherins have the same kind of lesson as the Gryffindors, because it wouldn't make sense to me from a teaching perspective to teach classes in the same year different things.
According to the wiki, Malfoy's boggart is Voldemort. While I can certainly believe that post-year five, I doubt it would've been his boggart in the third year. He's never seen Voldemort, and his parents followed him as their Dark Lord, raising Draco on pureblood ideology. If anything, I'd consider his boggart to be Lucius instead, because he doesn't strike me as father of the year.
For anyone who's watched The Owl House (and if you haven't, go watch it) Daphne's boggart is basically Amity's fear from Enchanting Grom Fright, and IMO a realistic fear for a teenager to have, especially since, of course, Daphne feels more than friendship for Harry, though she'll be denying it to herself for a while yet.
Given the nature of Prisoner of Azkaban, things will probably be a bit more introspective in this year anyway, which is good for me because it'll give me a lot of time to set things up and I won't need to copy as much from the book.
Also, I hope you like teenage angst, because, well, it'll feature rather heavily. Or so I think, anyway. I'm a pantser, so any ideas I have now may end up being discarded later. I'm just mentioning it now because writing teenage angst can be a lot of fun and this year is excellent for it. Year five will probably be the angstiest, though.