A/N - 1) The 1st chapter has been significantly edited, hopefully for the better. Thanks to Eltanin Rose, randver, AmazinglyAwesome & The Unreal Insomniac for their comments, thoughts and brilliant pieces of advice – hopefully I have taken your points and improved this piece of work and not ruined it.

A/N - 2) following the advice of Eltanin Rose & The Unreal Insomniac (if you're looking for a great read try their story The Amalgamation Agreement), this story is now beta'd by CasketFan5 – who is trying to make me look good, I hope he has succeeded.

A/N - 3) Recommended Reading - Ruthless Revenge by Yunaine, it's definitely not meant for fans of Ginny and Draco.

Daphne swam in a sea of pain, her body wracked with the throbbing torment of the cruciatus as random thoughts, snippets of terse conversations drifted in and out of her consciousness, and a pair of shining emerald eyes haunted her vision. Her eyes closed, 'So this is what it's like to die' the thought came and went in an instant. Slowly she drifted back into unconsciousness and to the sweet oblivion of the void.

Her body ached, she wasn't sure how long she had floated in the void, but her thoughts drifted and she could hear the harsh whispers of conversations that seemed to cascade all around her. Accusations and anger in peoples voices washed over her consciousness but through it all she could feel a calm presence holding her hand as if to say it was all going to be ok and that she didn't have to fight anymore. That she could let go, her mum she decided, had come to find her. Her final thought as she was again claimed by the inky blackness of the void was that she hoped her mum wouldn't be too upset with her for sleeping some more.

Yelling and anger seeped into the void, echoing through her consciousness, tugging her back to reality. She could hear her mother's voice tempered and resolute trying to calm the cacophony of voices that whirled around the room. Poppy Pomfrey's voice cut across the noise firm in the conviction that she would clear everyone out if they couldn't be trusted to behave themselves. Tracey's voice sounded quite close, she could hear her holding a whispered conversation with her sister but could only grasp snippets of what they were saying, nothing coherent only the occasional murmur of 'Potter'.

Her eyes felt gritty as she opened them, as though she had been asleep for a week, the muted familiar light of the hospital wing of the early evening filtered in. As her eyes adjusted, she became aware of the multitude of people around her bed. Silence had reigned once she began to stir and her mother's voice called to her from her left side, and her head rolled in that direction seeking the sound of her voice. 'Welcome back sleepyhead,' she said with a smile warming her face as she carded her fingers through her eldest daughters fringe, a single tear of joy rolled down her left cheek. 'We thought we had lost you'.

She tried to speak but her voice refused to cooperate, instead a raspy croak was all that she managed. Her mother held a glass of water to her lips and she managed a small sip that burned her throat as though she had drunk a shot of fire whiskey. Slowly she looked around at the people gathered around her bed, next to her mother, Astoria and Tracey sat close by on her left beaming smiles on their faces as though they were welcoming her back from a trip. Standing behind them all, leaning casually against the wall stood Blaise, he smirked and winked at her as if knowing a joke that he was about to let her in on. A snort of laughter bounced across from her right hand side, but she ignored it for the moment.

At the foot of her bed sat Susan & Justin still looking beaten up. Susan's arm was slung across her body and both had bruises peppering them, crutches leaned across Justin's thighs but she couldn't see the reason for them. Behind them stood Hannah, a massive bruise marring her face, both eyes also looked puffy and swollen, as though she had been smacked in the face by a bludger. Turning her head further, what she saw left her feeling like she was hallucinating. Seated about halfway down her bed were Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Finally sitting closest to her pillow was the Boy Who Lived, the emerald-eyed "chosen one". He was watching her as if ashamed or embarrassed but why that was her mind couldn't comprehend.

'I'm sorry,' he mumbled eyes dropping from hers.

As his words entered her brain she stiffened.

'Now Harry, you have nothing to be sorry for, we have discussed this a half a dozen times,' her mother's words cut the silence like a knife. Since when did her mother call Potter, 'Harry', just how long had she been out and what had he done to her that he felt required an apology?

Before she could start demanding answers Madam Pomfrey appeared with a tray full of potions over his shoulder. 'Okay, everybody out except family, as you can see, she will be fine, she just has some resting to do,'

A chorus of farewells and get wells greeted her ears as the majority of the people left the room, only her mother, sister and Tracey remained. Turning back to face Poppy she noticed that Potter was still sitting in his seat, body tucked in on itself as though he was expecting a physical assault.

'I didn't know we were family, POTTER,' she rasped out only to be scolded by her mother. Something very funny was going on and she couldn't get her bearings.

His eyes flicked up to meet hers 'I'm sorry,' he said again the gravity in his voice, relaying to her scrambling brain that whatever he had done was serious.

'Mr Potter, why don't you hold these,' Pomfrey said, placing the tray in his hands she deftly started doling out potions to Daphne.

Knowing better than to argue with Poppy, Daphne grimaced her way through the potions shaking her head as she swallowed the last. 'Why is he here?' she asked pointedly looking at her mother for answers.

'He's your new boyfriend,' Astoria giggled obviously impressed with her own joke, though Daphne didn't fail to notice the smile that crossed both Tracey's and her mother's lips.

'Astoria,' her mother gave an exasperated sigh as though she had been dealing with these comments for a while. After a quelling look at her youngest, she turned a more serious expression towards Daphne. 'What do you remember of the battle?'

Again snippets of memories flowed across her mind refusing to be caught, 'Nothing... it's all hazy and blurred'.

Tracey sat forward and began to fill in the blanks, 'We were moving back to our commons like McGonagall instructed, but before we got too far we ran into the 4 puff's. They were supposed to be moving the younger years down one of the secret passages and out of Hogwarts, but it had been blocked off. So they had decided to move them all to the Hufflepuff commons and protect them there. Susan saw us and asked us to help.' She shook her head 'I don't know what you see in your cousin, she is too nice for her own good.'

Smiling a bit she continued, 'As we passed through the top of the stairs you cast a confundus charm hoping to hide the entrance and tied it to yourself as you couldn't get it to stick to the walls. It worked to for a time until the werewolves arrived, they must have followed the scent or something. Once we had the kids all in the common room, McMillan had the bright idea to collapse the door so that even if we fell the kids would be safe for a bit longer.'

'You know I am sure you have some Griffindor in you because you stayed at the final corner disillusioned to watch and took the first three out as they turned the corner. After that you ran back to our position, and then it was a free for all.' She sighed taking her head in her hands, 'It was all so fast, I don't remember everything that happened, but I remember Susan taking out the scum who held you under the cruciatus curse before she was blown off her feet. And after that nothing until you were levitating me to you to heal me.' She looked up meeting Daphne's eyes for the first time since commencing the tale. 'You saved all our lives and very nearly gave your own up to do so,' tears rolled down her cheeks and Daphne noticed that her own eyes were weeping.

'How do you thank someone for that, or repay them?' Silence settled over the group, all their eyes glistening.

'You don't,' Harry's voice broke the silence. 'You try to live the best life you can, so that their sacrifice means something.'

'Why are you still here, Potter?' Daphne swivelled her head to find him again looking at her with sorrowful eyes.

Again, her mother rebuked her telling her that 'Harry' had a name.

Tracey cleared her throat and looked embarrassed, 'He is here because... because...'

Daphne's mother took over "because he found all of you four days ago and because he saved your life.'

Daphne stared at Potter. It looked like he hadn't slept for days, a small amount of fuzz decorated his cheeks, his black hair was in disarray as usual and he looked white and gaunt. 'So..., that's what he does, right?'

Harry chuckled 'yeah I guess I do.' Tracey snorted whilst Astoria giggled to herself.

It was Poppy that continued the story. 'We don't know how he did it yet, but when he found you all, he got the elves to transport you here. You were dying Daphne. There was nothing I could do.' For the first time in the three years that Daphne had assisted in the hospital wing she heard Poppy's voice crack. "You had basically no magic left in your core. You'd been hit with numerous curses and hexes of which the worst was the organ liquefying curse plus the cruciatus.'

Daphne looked at Poppy, her face sagging. 'But how am I still alive? You need the patient's magic to assist in the healing process.'

Daphne's teeth tugged at her bottom lip. 'How?' She asked again looking at Poppy, hoping for a rational explanation. All she got however, was a pointed finger towards Potter. Looking at him again she scowled, "WHAT DID YOU DO?" punctuating each word.

Harry looked into her eyes as she waited for the other shoe to drop. 'I accidently bound our cores together.'

She blinked, whatever she had been expecting that wasn't it.

'I'm sorry' he said again still looking into her eyes.

Daphne blinked again, this must be a bad dream surely.

'I think you broke her Harry,' Astoria chimed in.

Poppy handed her a dreamless sleep potion and Daphne scowled at it then at Potter before downing it in a single swallow. 'You will be,' was her last comment as the void closed around her again.