Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen: Parents, Pride, and Pain

Daphne sat at the dining table. Mum and Dad sat on the opposite side, facing her. Aside from Nyx's tail flicking from side to side as she sat on the table close to Daphne, nothing moved.

It was, by far, one of the most awkward silences there had ever been, and it had been going on for a good couple of minutes since Daphne had arrived home.

Mum and Dad clearly weren't entirely certain on how to start the conversation, and it was admittedly a strange conversation to have. After all, how often did four seventeen-year-olds and one sixteen-year-old drop out of school in order to hunt down the most evil Dark wizard in the world? Or, well, that's what she assumed her parents would be thinking; they didn't know that the main objective, at least at first, was to find and destroy the Horcruxes.

"So," Dad said, clearly unable to stand the silence any longer. "You're dropping out of school."

Daphne nodded slowly. "Yes. Me, Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron," she said.

"What does Dumbledore want you to do?" Mum asked.

"I can't tell you. Voldemort and the Death Eaters can't be allowed to find out what we're up to," Daphne said. "Nor can the Ministry, for that matter," she added darkly.

"How are you planning to explain your absence?" Dad asked. "People will ask questions, and on a secret mission you probably won't want that."

Daphne shrugged. "I doubt we'll be in touch with society much while we're away. Hermione had a plan she didn't want to explain yet, Harry doesn't have relatives who care aside from Sirius, who's already in danger as both a Hit Wizard and member of the Order, and Ron and Ginny can probably work something out; they're related to Fred and George, after all."

"Ginny isn't of age yet, though," Mum said. "She'll have the Trace on her, so every bit of magic you do will be known to the Ministry."

Daphne nodded slowly. "I know." She looked at Dad. "You, er, wouldn't happen to know a way to deactivate it early, would you?"

"I'm afraid not," Dad said. "As far as I'm aware, it's impossible to do. You'd have to break the Trace on all of magical Britain, and for that you'd need to infiltrate the Ministry, and I don't even know which department you'd need to be in. I'd imagine it's somewhere in Magical Law Enforcement, but I just don't know. And even then, I don't know what you'd need to do to break the Trace."

Daphne winced. She'd expected as much, but it was still painful to hear. Hopefully, Sirius would know more about it, or at least have an idea how it could be done. Breaking rules was a bit of a thing of his, anyway. Surely he'd know a solution.

"Your mission…will it bring you in contact with the Death Eaters or Voldemort himself?" Mum asked.

"I don't know. Probably. Even if I did know, though, I wouldn't tell you, because the nature of this mission is secret," Daphne said.

"Given Harry's background, I presume it has something to do with him and the prophecy," Dad said. "So I suppose Dumbledore allowed you and the others to know about it because he knew Harry would want you along anyway?"

"And because 'the power the Dark Lord knows not' refers to love," Daphne said. "So Harry having people he loves with him will probably be a good thing, on the whole."

Dad sighed. "You've really made your mind up, haven't you?" he asked sadly.

"I have. All of us have," Daphne said. "We want to help beat Voldemort. We want this war to end. This is something only we can do, because only we know what needs to be done. Of course it'll be dangerous, but going back to Hogwarts would be dangerous too. If Voldemort knows Harry is there, he'll target it for sure. It's not a secret Ginny and I are his girlfriends and Hermione and Ron are his best friends. All of us are already in danger simply because we're close to Harry. We might as well do something useful, then, so we won't be in danger anymore at some point."

"Well, like I already said at the funeral…we're not going to stop you," Mum said. "But…we're afraid, too. We're afraid of what might happen to you while you're gone. We'll cover for you, of course; we'll say we sent you to France for safety, or something to that effect. And at the same time, we can't even begin to tell you how proud we are of you. What you, Harry, and the others are doing, have been doing for years…neither Dad nor I ever had the guts to do."

"Last time he was powerful, we just…ignored it," Dad took over. "We were purebloods, after all, so we didn't have much to fear from him. We didn't agree with what was happening, but we certainly didn't try to stop it, either." He fell silent for a moment. "And then you were born. We were absolutely terrified, you know. What kind of world would you grow up in? What kind of things would we need to teach you in order to keep you safe? How would we be able to make you happy, if a crazy pureblood supremacist ran the world? And still, we did nothing."

"And then, of course, he was defeated. Harry Potter had vanquished the Dark Lord, and the world was at peace again, though we knew that many of his followers still remained. We knew we'd still need to raise you with a solid understanding of Noble House politics. It was…so hard for us, sometimes. We could see, Dad and I, that you didn't much like all the rules and the hoops you'd have to jump through to fit in with this society, and honestly we didn't and still don't, either. So when we found out you were hiding your friendships because you thought we'd be against them…well, it was painful," Mum said. "We felt like we'd failed, like we'd gone way too far with preparing you for Noble House nonsense."

"But since then…you've never stopped making us proud. Defending the Philosopher's Stone. Helping to save Ginny from Voldemort and the Basilisk. Helping to get Sirius's name cleared…you've done so many things we never even dreamed of doing, and you're only seventeen. You've done more already than most people have done in a lifetime. We wish, truly wish, that you could just have a normal life from now on…but now you're going to go on another mission.

"You're going to risk your life again. And what…hurts us so much now is that…we can't be there to help you. We can't be by your side, to be what we ought to be, the people who protect you. All we can do is say, 'be careful and come home safely'. Again…you can't possibly understand how proud we are of you. If there's ever a moment on your mission where you're in doubt…just remember that," Dad said.

Daphne could feel her eyes burning. Her parents had never been this open about their own fears before. How could they even think they hadn't done enough? Everything they'd taught her had helped her so much over the years, both the political things, and the dueling practice, and that didn't even get into how supportive they had been, always, of her choices.

"You are…the best parents I could ask for, you know. So…you better stay safe as well, you hear?" she said, her voice cracking all the way through.

"You can't get rid of us that easily," Dad said with a watery smile.

"I want to embarrass you in front of Harry and Ginny for many years to come. I don't have time to die," Mum said.

A silence fell in the dining room, but this time, it wasn't awkward at all.

Daphne woke up with a jolt. The intruder wards had been tripped, which meant that someone was in the house, and the source was clearly in the drawing room.

She leapt out of bed and drew her wand. Without a doubt, her parents would be awake and aware of the intruder already, but there was no way in hell she was going to leave them to fight alone. She crept down the stairs, wand at the ready, and snuck over to the drawing room.

When she heard Dad's voice, she figured that whoever the intruder was, they'd been apprehended already, so she simply entered the room. To her great surprise, aside from her parents, the only person there was…

"Ginny?!"

Ginny smiled sheepishly. "Hi," she said softly.

"Your girlfriend couldn't wait to see you, I guess," Mum said, shaking her head.

"What are you doing here?" Daphne asked.

"We'd like to know the same thing," Dad said. "But let's discuss things over tea, shall we?" He gestured at the dining room, and not much later they sat at the table again, all with steaming mugs of tea. Ginny seemed to find hers very interesting indeed.

"So…spill it, what brings you here in the middle of the night?" Daphne asked, having ascertained that Ginny didn't seem to be injured in any way.

"I…" Ginny began hesitantly, then fell silent again. She sighed. "I…had a bit of a…row…with my parents. A pretty bad one, actually," she said softly. "Dad and Fred and George…they're going to help Ron with getting out of the house, y'know, when we leave. But they…they didn't want to help me. All of them just said I was too young, that I couldn't go, that I had to stay behind and just go back to school. Then Mum got involved and…"

She fell silent again, still staring at her tea. "We shouted a lot. Everyone was angry at everyone else, but Mum was absolutely furious with me. I…I've never seen her that angry before. She told me I'd be staying in my room for the rest of the holidays, at least until the wedding. So when everyone was asleep…I snuck downstairs, got some Floo powder, and…well, this was the only place I could think of coming," she said pleadingly.

"And what do you expect us to do, then?" Mum asked.

Ginny shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. I just…I don't want to be home, right now. Please…please don't make me go back. Not now," she said so softly it was nearly a whisper.

"Your mother is worried about you, Ginny," Dad said. "She doesn't want to see you get hurt. And you do still have the Trace on you."

"I know!" Ginny said sharply, and she instantly clapped her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry…it's just…that's what Mum and Dad said, too. That I was selfish. That I'd be endangering my friends more than I could help them. That being at Hogwarts was the best thing I could do." She put her hands over her face. "I don't want to leave my friends behind…"

"What your parents say is true," Mum said, and Ginny looked like she'd been slapped. "No, really," Mum said sternly. "You do have the Trace on you. You would make things very difficult for your friends. You would probably be safer at Hogwarts."

Ginny clenched her fists and her jaw, and Daphne could see she was struggling not to cry.

"And a part of growing up is about knowing when you can and cannot be of help, and how you can be of help."

Mum looked at Daphne with a sad look. "We're in the same boat, you know. We can't help Daphne, either. We can't come with her. We were even talking about that earlier tonight. But we accept that she's going, because it's something she must do. Edmund and I cannot make decisions for you. Molly would kill us if we tried, and it's not a discussion we have any chance of winning, either. You have to ask yourself what the best answer is. Is it to do what you want, or what's best for those you care about?"

Ginny said nothing. She was just staring at her mug again, tears leaking from her eyes.

"Mum, I–"

"Not right now, Daphne," Mum interrupted. "Whatever you want to say, we know. And Ginny, we're not sending you home. You can stay here for the time being, and go back home when Daphne goes too, for the wedding. We'll contact Arthur and Molly to tell them you're safe, because somehow I doubt you left a note for them. But think very carefully on your decision. Don't throw this on 'but I want to help my friends'. That sentiment is fine normally, but this is a war.

"If the Trace ruins the chances Harry, Daphne, and the others have, then even if they don't blame you, how would you feel? This isn't about your abilities. I don't think even Molly doubts those. This is, pure and simple, about the capacity in which you're able to assist.

"Don't think for a second that choosing to stay behind, or, as you're probably seeing it, 'do nothing' is the easy option. It is by far the harder option, and we know that very well, as we've had to made the same choice."

She smiled wryly. "Or do you honestly believe that Daphne could keep us away from her if we were determined to follow her?"

Ginny seemed to be unable to say anything. She was just crying quietly, trying to get her breathing under control.

Daphne moved closer to her and put her arms around her. Ginny didn't throw her off, which Daphne took as a good sign.

"The two of you should get to bed, I think," Dad said after some time. "Ginny, you can just stay with Daphne. Somehow, I'm pretty sure you'd end up in her room anyway," he said with a small smile.

Ginny sniffed, but tried to smile in return. It clearly didn't go very well, but it was a start.

"And just…think about what we said. Don't worry, we're not going to go on about it. We've said all we needed to say, so no need to repeat ourselves, I think. And…in case you're worried…we're not mad at you. At all. We think it's great that you're so adamant to help your friends."

"You just don't want me to actually do it," Ginny said softly.

"We do, just in a different way than how you're envisioning it," Dad said. "But come on, try and get some sleep. Feel free to complain about us to Daphne all night long, if you want to. We won't mind. You should know the things Daphne's said to Finny over the years…"

"She told you that?!" Daphne said, shocked.

Dad grinned at her. "Of course she did. She only listens to you because we told her to, you know. And…more than once, we kind of felt we deserved it, anyway," he finished ruefully.

Then he gestured with his head. "And now, bed. Come on, get out of here. We've got some complaining of our own to do, and you don't need to be present for that."

He winked at Daphne to show he wasn't being serious, although she was pretty sure he and Mum would be discussing quite a few things yet before going back to bed themselves.

Still, she and Ginny quietly made their way to Daphne's room. Since Ginny had snuck out of the Burrow when she'd already been in bed, she, like Daphne, was only wearing a nightshirt and a dressing gown anyway.

Not much later, they lay cuddled up together, Daphne softly stroking Ginny's hair.

"Do you really want me to come with you?" Ginny asked softly.

"Of course we do," Daphne said firmly.

"But what if I do ruin things by having the Trace?"

Daphne said nothing. She really didn't know how to respond. She wanted to say that they'd find a solution, but she honestly didn't know if they would. And yet, despite the possibility of failure, the thought of leaving Ginny behind just didn't sit well with her. She'd sooner fight the entire Ministry that let that happen.

"Then we'll deal with it then," she said in the end.

Ginny said nothing. A few minutes later, Daphne felt that her breathing had become deep and steady; she seemed to have fallen asleep.

Pulling Ginny a bit closer, she settled into a comfortable position as well. There were clearly a lot of issues to solve, and the mission hadn't even begun. She just hoped that wasn't a bad sign.

And so, year seven begins at last. I'm looking forward to it, because I have a vague plan, which in my eyes, is the best kind of plan.