Chapter Fifty-Nine: Trust and Honesty

When Daphne woke up the next morning, the happiness of the night before was still there. Tracey seemed to be in an equally good mood.

"Had a good time with Adrian, then?" Daphne asked.

Tracey nodded. "I…think I'll be seeing quite a lot of him in the near future. You and Potter? You both looked very happy when you came back inside at the end of the night…"

Daphne felt her face heating up again. "Well…I was already seeing him all the time, but I think now I'm also…seeing him," she said.

Tracey's eyes widened. "Did you…?"

Daphne nodded slowly.

"Ooh, congratulations," Tracey said with a wide smile.

Daphne smiled back. "Thanks. Well, I'm going to the Great Hall…see if any of the Gryffindors are there yet."

It turned out that Harry and the others were indeed there already, waiting for her. Judging by the large grins Hermione and Ron were wearing, Harry had already told them everything.

"Morning," she said neutrally, sitting down next to Harry as if nothing had happened.

"Don't give us that," Ron said with a smirk.

"I'm so happy for you two," Hermione said, beaming.

Daphne looked at Harry, who grinned and began to turn red.

"C'mon, I couldn't not tell them," he said.

Daphne attempted to look strict, but failed miserably after only a second and hugged Harry tightly.

"No, I wouldn't be able to keep it quiet either," she said. She felt like someone had put a particularly strong Cheering Charm on her.

"You two really are cute together," Ginny said as she walked over. She smiled brightly at both of them, and when Daphne had the audacity to look a bit guilty, Ginny did succeed in putting on a strict look. "I had a great time last night with both of you, by the way, so thanks for the dances."

"Yeah, I heard you and Daphne drew quite some looks," Hermione said.

"We did. Has Fred recovered yet?" Daphne asked Ron, who shrugged.

"He'll probably be fine. Too bad there aren't any pictures. I'd have loved to see him speechless for once."

"Anyway, Harry, you should probably get started on figuring out what the egg means, now that Christmas is over," Hermione said seriously.

Harry nodded. "I know. Cedric told me I should take a bath with it, though I don't really know how that'll help me. You'd think he'd be more straightforward considering I outright told him what the first task would be…"

Daphne considered that for a moment. "Well, it might have been a lot more straightforward than you think," she said. "One of my visions was of an underwater village. Maybe you're supposed to open it underwater?"

Harry looked dubious, but said, "Well, I might as well give it a try, I suppose. Guess I'll be sneaking into the Prefects' bathroom tonight…"

"He gave you the password to that?" Daphne asked in amusement.

Harry nodded. "Guess he thought I'd appreciate the privacy."

Even though they still had the day off, there was a lot of homework to be done before the start of the new term…but neither Daphne nor Harry was very inclined to get started on it. Instead, they spent most of the day together. They didn't really do any different things than they might usually do on a day off — a bit of wizard chess, a snowball fight outside with the others, simply talking to each other — but in the afterglow of the night before, it still felt very different. It was like some big secret had been revealed and the pressure was off. Everything seemed funnier than it should be, and any worries they had about their futures seemed to be less acute because they were together and every time they exchanged a look, both of them grinned like idiots.

"Aren't your faces hurting from smiling so much?" Ron asked at dinner.

"You and Hermione had a good time too, though, right?" Daphne asked slyly.

"We did," Hermione said quickly. "But we haven't, er, we're not yet…y'know."

Daphne looked at Ron disbelievingly. "It was a great opportunity last night!" she said.

Ron looked away in embarrassment. "Yeah, I, er, realized that too. When I was in my bed, that is," he said.

"You have my sympathies," Daphne told Hermione, who giggled.

"I'm…sure we'll get another chance," she said.

"I'm glad you caught on quicker," Daphne said to Harry.

"I sort of knew where it was going when you didn't want to discuss Snape and Karkaroff," he said with a smile. "Usually you'd pounce on something like that."

"And now she pounced on something else," Ron said with a grin.

Daphne threw a sprout at him. "You git," she said, though she grinned as well. "You're just jealous you don't get to do this," she said before giving Harry a quick peck on the cheek.

"What, kiss Harry? No offense, mate, but you're not really my type," Ron said to Harry, who rolled his eyes and said, "Daphne's right. You are a git."

Ron just smirked, while Hermione sighed and shook her head. Daphne could see the corners of her mouth curling up a bit, though.

Sadly, the overall good mood Daphne had been in since Christmas didn't last long after the first few days. Homework was beginning to press, and near the start of the new term an article appeared in the Daily Prophet that wiped the last traces of any smile off the faces of Daphne and the others.

Rita Skeeter had somehow unearthed that Hagrid was a half-giant, and had painted him as some kind of barbarian who habitually put his students in grave danger. Aside from mentioning his expulsion and stay at Azkaban, she had also apparently interviewed Malfoy, who had told her about the detention in the Forbidden Forest in first year, and had said that 'he nearly lost an eye to a pixie, while his friends Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were almost mauled by a mad Kneazle'. Then the article went on about the Blast-Ended Skrewts — conveniently failing to mention they'd been bred with permission from the Ministry — and the violent nature of giants, as well as the identity of Hagrid's mother, the giantess Fridwulfa.

"We have to talk to Hagrid about this," Daphne said, after showing the article to her friends at breakfast.

"We've got Care of Magical Creatures later; we'll talk to him then," Harry said, looking about as angry as Daphne felt.

Daphne, meanwhile, confronted Malfoy before her first class of the day. "What are you playing at, giving interviews like that?" she asked.

"I'm just doing my part as an upstanding student, Greengrass. The world has a right to know what sort of hiring practices that old fool Dumbledore has, don't you agree? I thought you believed in honesty, after all," Malfoy said smugly.

"You disgusting little toad. You wouldn't know honesty if it hit you over the head with a saucepan," Daphne said.

"Oh, but I am being honest, Greengrass. Half-breeds and Mudbloods shouldn't be allowed here. Nor should blood-traitors, come to think of it. And if you had even an ounce of wizarding pride, you would see that I'm right," Malfoy said coldly. He smirked. "But no matter. Our time will come soon enough. And for your sake, I hope that by then, your loyalty will lie with the correct side."

"It already does, Malfoy. It's whatever side you aren't on," Daphne replied, then turned around and walked away to join Tracey.

"That was about that article, I presume?" she asked.

Daphne nodded angrily. "I'll get him for this. I'll find a way…whether it's getting him expelled or feeding him to a skrewt, I don't care, but he's going to pay."

"Are you sure you're willing to take that risk?" Tracey asked nervously.

"Yes. My parents know something big is going to happen. If it is what I think it is, then we'll all need to pick sides soon, anyway, and somehow I doubt that staying neutral is an option this time," Daphne said.

"You can't seriously mean…" Tracey began, her face whitening.

"I do, though," Daphne said. She sighed. "I'll tell you guys during lunch. I don't think I should keep this secret any longer…"

Hagrid was not there for the Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Instead, an elderly witch, Professor Grubbly-Plank, taught the class, which was about unicorns, that day. This was the first time Daphne had seen a live unicorn, and she had to admit it was a truly majestic creature. Even so, Hagrid's absence bothered her and reinforced her drive to get back at Malfoy somehow.

During lunch, she saw that all of S.I.N., even Pansy, was present. Usually at least one of them would be off with their own friends, but now it appeared they'd all heard something big would be revealed.

"You had something to tell us, I hear?" Adrian said, with a look at Tracey.

Daphne nodded. "Yes, and you're not going to like it."

She took a deep breath. She knew that Pansy was close to Malfoy, but she'd trusted her thus far. If Pansy did tell Malfoy…well, it wasn't like her visions were all that clear on time and place. He probably wouldn't be able to interfere with them.

"Voldemort will return," she said, and gasps went through the group, both at her use of the name and the revelation itself.

"How do you know this?" Pansy asked suspiciously.

"You guys know I take Divination, right? Well…"

Daphne quickly filled them in on her predictions and visions, and how many of them had already come true. As usual, she left out her final vision of Harry getting killed by Voldemort.

"Given what happened at the World Cup, that Ministry witch disappearing, Harry being entered into the Triwizard Tournament, and the vague hints Malfoy was giving earlier today…I'm pretty sure Voldemort will return relatively soon. I don't know exactly how, or when, but…something is coming."

Silence filled the air, at least around Daphne and her S.I.N. friends.

"If that's true…what can we do?" Elsie wondered.

Daphne shrugged. "The same we've been doing, I think. It'll be more important than ever to show that not all of Slytherin is evil. That we won't give up just because that would be the easy option. But at that point…it will extend well beyond Hogwarts. It won't just be ourselves we'd be endangering by standing up to the likes of Malfoy."

She thought back to her first year, before she'd realized her parents would be okay with her being friends with Gryffindors. How she'd been afraid that the things she did would cause problems for them. She'd been so happy to hear all that secrecy was unnecessary…but if Voldemort came back…

"I'm half-blood," Tracey said. "I don't have political allegiances I'm expected to uphold. I'm not going to change anything."

"I'm not going to quit, either," Hudson said. "My family isn't all that big or powerful. I don't think they'll coerce us much."

Pansy didn't speak immediately. She looked as conflicted as Daphne did. "I…don't want to quit S.I.N.," she said. "But I don't want to leave Draco alone, either. I know most of you don't like him. I get why, believe me. But…he's not as bad as you think he is. He just…wants to make his father proud. He's…insecure and scared too." She sighed. "If it comes down to it…I'll have to put my family first. I'll have to put Draco first." She looked at Daphne. "You understand me, right?"

Daphne nodded slowly. "I do. I will always choose Harry. My parents…well, they told me in no uncertain terms I was allowed to stand up to Malfoy. I'm pretty sure they've made their choice. Pansy…for the life of me, I can't understand why you like Malfoy, but…I do understand you. For the time being, it doesn't matter anyway, but in case everything does go to hell…what would you want to do? What side would you want to be on?"

Pansy hesitated. "I don't think being on the Dark Lord's side would be good for anyone in the long run, pureblood or not," she said eventually.

If Daphne understood her correctly, it was a diplomatic way of saying she did believe that purebloods were superior, but at the very least she'd oppose Voldemort out of self-preservation in the long term, even if she and her family would go along with him for a while first. It would have to do.

"So are these lunches going to be strategy meetings from now on?" Lucy asked.

Daphne shook her head. "There's not much to strategize about just yet; we don't have anything to go on. But if you think you need to warn your families…if you think they'll even believe you…you should probably do that."

"I don't really know if I want to believe you," Adrian muttered. "It seems so far-fetched…"

"Exactly. I doubt anyone would simply accept this, not unless they knew Potter or you in person," Hallie said.

"But all of you do believe me?" Daphne asked.

One by one, they nodded.

"We don't really have a reason not to," Elsie said. "You've been getting caught up in a lot of weird things since your first year and I can't fathom what you'd stand to gain by lying about this. Besides…I know Dumbledore's been afraid of You-Know-Who returning for years as well. No matter how many people are saying he's going senile, he's an incredibly skilled wizard who could match You-Know-Who at the height of his power. You'd be a fool to dismiss what he's saying."

Daphne smiled. "I'm glad to hear it," she said. "We'll need to be able to rely on each other, so if anyone does suspect anyone else from the group…we should be able to talk about it. Give them a chance to explain, don't draw conclusions too quickly…"

"You almost sound like a Hufflepuff with all that loyalty and trust," Amber remarked.

Daphne shrugged. "I'm already acting like a Gryffindor half the time. Why not a Hufflepuff as well? If I can develop some Ravenclaw traits I'll have the entire set," she said with a faint smile.

"I'll take a leaf out of Professor Moody's book and mistrust everyone on a scale," Hallie said. "But then, I think most of us here are like that. I don't want to believe anyone here would stab me in the back…but it could happen."

Daphne nodded. "Absolutely. But I'm choosing to believe you won't, until I have actual evidence to the contrary, which, to me, is what trust is in the first place. That might all sound very Hufflepuff," she said with a grin at Amber, "but where a true Hufflepuff might find it in them to forgive someone who breaks that trust…I won't. I'll make sure they regret betraying me for the rest of their life. And depending on how bad the betrayal is…that life might not necessarily be very long."

She was aware of how melodramatic she sounded, but that didn't make it any less true. She could forgive an awful lot of things, but not willing betrayal, like what Pettigrew had done. If she'd had her way, he'd never have gotten a chance to get back to Voldemort. He would have died in that shack that night.

But Harry's capacity for kindness had overruled that. In that respect, at least, she knew he was a better person than she was. But that was fine. She'd gladly protect him with her life, if it came down to it…she just hoped that wouldn't happen too soon.

You might wonder why Ron missing his chance for a first kiss with Hermione at the ball is such a big deal. Why not…simply do it now, since both of them are well aware they like each other now? The main answer to that is…teenagers who want their first kiss to be something special. Given that I've already sped the relationship up quite a bit, though, I'm sure it won't be long before it happens. It certainly won't take until seventh year this time.

Also, it might seem like the S.I.N. members are pretty quick to agree to stay on the 'good' side, and, well, they are. They're kids, and aside from the dangers of attending Hogwarts, most of them haven't been in a life-or-death situation yet, nor are most of them deeply involved in Noble House politics. Their loyalties…will of course be tested, in the future. We know who's coming in year five, after all…