A/N 1) – Just wanted to thank you all for your continued support, and to say thanks to my new Beta CaskettFan5, who is attempting the impossible task of making me a better writer. We have been going over the previous chapters and I will be reposting them with some small variations.

A/N 2) – Recommended Reading, if you are a Haphne fan like I am there is a sweet little one shot of forbidden love called Don't Tell by abandonedprofile1. Its very short but very sweet, well at least I think so :)

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns it all; I am just playing in her sandbox (but not very well).

Daphne watched the pensieve, with hollow eyes, her mother had been gone for about an hour, the pensieve still swirled back and forth as the memories played, she would be back soon, and then she would be alone. Her mother would be disgusted by her behaviour and the rest of her family would abandon her, just like Tracey had this morning.

Her mind was tripping over itself as trying to make plans and contingencies for when her mother reappeared from the pensieve, inevitably her father would disown her and kick her out of the family home. How could she afford to live alone, she would need to go to Gringotts and withdraw as much as she could from her trust account before this happened? Maybe she could owl them and request that they set up another account under a different name for her, but that would mean getting out of the hospital wing asap, and were there even any school owls left in the roost?

How was she going to live with no support? As an heiress to an ancient and noble family, she had always had house elves helping to support her family, without them, how would she survive? She knew nothing of how people lived with no domestic support?

Could she get a job? She had excelled throughout her schooling constantly in the top five students in her year, but this year, her NEWT year had been so interrupted and many classes had been an outright waste of time, she thought that she could successfully pass her exams, but her marks would be nowhere near what she could have otherwise achieved, and this would assuredly damage her job prospects, ideally she would return to Hogwarts to finish her schooling next year, but could she afford the tuition if she no longer had family financial support?

What was she going to do? Every contingency she came up with came to a dead end; she did not know enough to survive on her own without the support of her family's wealth and position, her life looked at best bleak, at worst catastrophic.

She closed her eyes again, heaved a sigh, and tried for the hundredth time to relax into her pillows. If she was honest, she was disgusted by herself but every time had felt so good she just had to have more, even when it became more about him and less about her pleasure. 'But that was what all men were like,' she reasoned to herself.

She remembered watching what her father had done to her mother, it had distressed her and left her with nightmares for weeks, how could her father do that to the woman he supposedly loved?

So many questions, 'why had he hit her?', 'didn't he love her anymore?' 'what had she done to deserve it?', she had been so worried for her mother's safety after that, that she hadn't left her alone for weeks right up until she was asked by her mother to 'stop getting under foot.' She had still tried to observe and look out for her mother after that, watching around corners trying to catch her father in the act again so she could rescue her mum, but she never had caught him even remotely being abusive towards her mother.

Slowly the memory had faded and she hadn't thought about it again for a long time until she had confided in Tracey about it, during a conversation about boys and sex, during the trip home on the Hogwarts Express at the end of third year. Tracey had been appalled, and had drawn away from Daphne's father slightly, even though he had never shown anything but affection and love in public for his niece.

They had gossiped about things, about exploring their own bodies, and the idea of sex, which didn't sound as ghastly as it previously had. They had spun fantasies instead, that sounded much like the scenes in the novels stolen from Tracey's mum. The characters always seemed to enjoy the experience but eventually Daphne's mind always came back to that night. She hated pain and couldn't comprehend allowing someone the chance to do that to her.

Her eyes were still closed when she heard her mother appear, she scrunched them closed tighter, her body rigid as she waited for her mother to discard her. Instead, what she got was her mother pulling her to her breast crying into her hair.

Daphne's eyes popped open in shock, confusion on her face. 'Mum, are you okay?' her voice timid,

Her mind was whirling out of control, 'why wasn't her mother yelling at her?'

'Oh honey, I'm fine, how are you doing?' Cassandra kissed her hair, and then cupped her face to look her in the eye. 'I'm sorry I took so long, but I was trying to confirm a few things whilst I was in there.'

'You're not angry or upset with me?' Daphne scrunched her forehead, as confusion coloured her voice.

'Okay honey, look at me, and listen to me very carefully, okay? I am not upset or angry with you, I think that we need to get you checked out by a mind healer from Saint Mungo's... there is a very real possibility that your memories have been tampered with.' Cassandra watched her daughter's eyes waiting for the sign that she hoped would be there.

Daphne's eyes flickered, 'what... no definitely not, I'm perfectly fine mum,' her voice cold and detached.

'Gotcha' Cassandra snarled in her mind, 'whoever you are, you sick bastard... you are going to pay for what you have done to my daughter.' She pulled Daphne back into a hug, 'it's ok honey, just relax, I won't let anyone hurt you, just lay back and try and get some rest, I'll be back to see you soon.'

Daphne looked up at her mother, 'what are you talking about Mother? I am perfectly fine, and I know what I am and have been doing.'

Her Mother's eyes narrowed and Daphne wilted, her mother was as stubborn as anyone she knew, and it wouldn't help if she argued with her.

Watching as her daughter fought some internal battle, Cassandra formed her own action plan. 'Right, first things first, find out what Tracey knows then see Poppy,' Cassandra thought to herself as she stepped outside the hospital wing doors. 'Trixie,' she called again to her personal house elf.

'Yes Mistress,'

'Please find Tracey, and let me know where she is, and let her know to stay there, I'm coming to see her,'

- AFW -

'Fuck, I don't know Harry, I could be wrong about most of it, I'm not sure what is going on really,' Tracey wrung her hair in her hands, shaking from frustration. 'What I do know is that whenever someone questions her about it, she gets cold and detached and then, pushes that person away and out of her life. The only people she hasn't done that to so far are her family, Blaise and myself.'

She hopped up and started to walk around waving her arms again, 'and that's only because Blaise doesn't question her on it, I'm too stubborn to go anywhere, and the rest of her family don't know there is something wrong... She's changed Harry, and not for the better… and I am sure I am missing something but for the life of me I can't see what.'

She sat back down and started to sob quietly, 'I just wanted my best friend back... now I don't care if she hates me, I just want her to get better.'

Harry's face locked in fear while watching a crying girl, if ever there was a situation that he was ill prepared for this was it.

'You're supposed to comfort crying girls Harry.' Tracey gave a watery half smirk whilst shaking her head, wet eyes still shedding tears, 'Gods you're hopeless, I'm sorry… I'm not usually a crier, but this has been eating at me for more than three years,' she held her arms out 'please?'

Harry lurched to his feet, he wasn't very good at hugs, hell he'd probably had less than twenty in his whole life, but somehow he knew that she wouldn't appreciate being squeezed to death, like Molly would so often do with him. So he held her in his arms firmly, her head turned into his chest, his chin resting on the top of her head.

He held her for a full five minutes as she slowly stopped crying, he was just about to ask if she was okay, when she started giggling. 'What's so funny?'

'If only third year Tracey and Daphne could see me now,' she snickered, 'they'd faint with happiness.'

'What... why?' asked Harry still holding her to his chest, not sure that he should have asked the question, but he wanted to know the answer.

'Cause we had a bit of a crush on you back then, a lot of girls did, you know... you were a sweet little ragamuffin,' she sighed with her whole body. 'When we talked on the train, about who we wanted to have for our first kiss, you were high on the list Harry. A knight with floppy hair if the rumours going round Hogwarts were correct.'

She giggled again, 'I think you're fairly high on Astoria's list too, but I am pretty sure she's already had her first kiss... and third year Daphne would kill her if she got to kiss you first.' Her body tensed and she gasped 'shit I did not just say any of that, you forget that right now,' she stepped back from him face burning red, 'I think I'm going to have to kill you now… cause if I ever do get Daph back and she finds out, she's going to kill me for mentioning all of that.'

'What about Astoria,' Harry asked laughing for what felt like the first time in an age.

'Shut up it's not funny... Harry shut it,' She stamped her foot. 'Gods; I can't believe I said all that, it's your fault you know, lulling a girl into a false sense of security.'

Harry fell back in his chair, 'okay, okay I'll stop,' he said grinning like a mad man, 'so what do we do now?' He had just finished asking the question, when an elf apparated into the room.

The elf turned to Tracey and spoke 'Good morning Miss Tracey, Mistress asks that you remain here, she will see you shortly' before popping away again.

Tracey's face dropped, 'Well then, I guess either Daph, was forthcoming with what was going on or she is coming to get the story from me.' Her eyes watered again, I really don't want to have to talk to Aunt Cass about this.'

'You will be ok, Trace,' Harry gave her a small crooked smile, 'She obviously loves her daughters and her niece, she isn't going to blame you for any of this.'

Tracey just watched him with sad eyes, waiting until Cassandra arrived.

- AFW -

Cassandra knocked on the door, waiting for Tracey to get the door; instead she was answered by Harry, who stepped aside to let her in.

'I'll leave you guys to it,' he smiled at Tracey.

'Just a minute Harry,' Cassandra grabbed his arm, 'before you go, Tracey what did you tell him?'

'I told him of my suspicions of what I thought I knew,' her face blushed and she looked away. 'I told him of what Daph saw when she was seven, how Uncle Nate...,' Tracey paused gulping audibly, even now she couldn't bring herself to believe that her Uncle had done that to her Aunt Cass, '... hurt you,'

'It's okay Trace..., well it's not and I wish we didn't need to have this conversation, but you think Nate raped me don't you?' Cassandra's voice was soft, she gazed at Tracey, watching as the emotions washed across her face, closing her eyes as Tracey nodded in affirmation. 'Sit down Harry, you're obviously going to need to hear some of this too.'

'This is going to be hard enough to explain to you Tracey, so Harry I hope that you won't judge me or my husband too harshly,' she looked to them both waiting for them to answer her. When she received their nods; she sighed and lowered her eyes. 'I want you both to understand something; Nate has never, ever done something that I haven't asked him to do.'

Tracey goggled whilst Harry tilted his head. 'Bbbbut that means...' Tracey struggled to formulate her words and Cassandra nodded her head.

'Yes Trace, that means I asked him to do what Daphne saw, gods I wish that she had come to me with this, your Uncle Nate hates doing what she saw but he does it for me, does that answer your question?'

'But why?' blurted Harry before his face turned bright red.

Cassandra turned and raised a delicate blonde eyebrow at Harry, causing him to blush further if that was possible. 'That's a deeply personal question Harry, and it varies for everyone.' She paused and considered him for a moment, 'sometimes it's fun to play a role, and that's what Daphne saw, we were playing a game, and in this particular case I had a really bad day and I wanted to forget about it. Does that help you understand?'

Harry's perplexed frown gave her all the information that she needed.

Cassandra sighed, and screwed up her nose, 'ok, I needed something to take my mind away from the day I had endured, so I asked Nate...,' her next words came rapidly 'to pretend that I was a naughty girl and that I needed to be punished.'

A light blush dusted her cheeks 'I wanted... no I needed Nate to assert his control over me, a control I gave him willingly, because up until that point in the day I needed to be in total control of myself and my emotions, and I wanted to lose myself to the moment, does that answer your question?'

'I guess it does,' Harry's answer was less than convincing.

'Look all you really need to know, both of you,' She looked at Tracey who was still standing there mouth agape, 'is that Nate is a good man, who loves his family... okay?'

Tracey and Harry nodded together, neither saying a word as crimson stained their faces heavily, Cassandra could tell that they were about as comfortable in discussing this topic as she was, 'right moving on then, first you need to know that Daphne's memories, are not her own, I have…'

'What do you mean?' blurted out Tracey cutting across the rest of Casandra's explanation.

'Look both of you take a seat,' as she conjured her own, subtly shifting all three so that the other two chairs were facing her own. She waited for them to claim their seats before continuing. 'I mean that Daphne gave me her memories to view and they have been tampered with, in a way that I am not familiar with.'

'I will see Poppy next about getting some help to unravel this issue but I wanted you both to be aware that whatever she has told you and with the way she is acting, when questioned about getting help, something is not right.' She sat back in her chair before turning to her head to face Tracey, 'In all Daphne's memories there is a tall, brown eyed, blonde haired boy, who looks three to four years older than you. He looks familiar to me maybe a McNair or a Rowle, do you know who this is?'

'Calder Rowle, maybe… tall probably six foot one, broad shoulders, would be kinda cute if it wasn't for his shitty attitude,' Tracey chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully.

Cassandra growled 'sounds about right,' composing herself, 'I think that S.O.B. has been tampering with Daphne's memories, have either of you seen a tampered memory in a pensieve?'

Harry raised his hand, and Cassandra chuckled wryly, 'I'm not a Professor Harry, you don't have to raise your hand to speak.'

'Oh…yeah…right' Harry blushed some more, ducking his head and staring at his feet. 'Sorry,' he mumbled. 'I have seen a tampered, memory though, they sorta glitch or shake when something has been changed, are you saying that's what Daphne's memories are doing?' He raised his head to look into her eyes, his emerald gaze locked onto Cassandra's eyes.

'Yes Harry, that's exactly what I am saying, the only memory that Daphne gave me that was accurate was her memory of Nate and I,' Cassandra closed her eyes. 'Someone… most likely this Calder Rowle, has tampered with Daphne and probably not just her memories. I am going to need your help both of you; Daphne is going to have a difficult enough time trying to manage this with your support. Once we figure out what has happened, without it, then I don't think there is any hope, she won't be able to recover alone.'

'I'd never dessert her Aunt Cass, she is like my sister, I've stuck with her this far, I won't leave her when she needs me most. I'm just sorry that I never came to you sooner,' tears stained her checks again. 'If I had, maybe we could have stopped this sooner.'

Cassandra gathered Tracey up in her arms, 'this is not your fault Tracey, so stop thinking that it is… we will get to the bottom of this and when we do you can help me tear Calder Rowle or whoever is responsible, limb from limb, and bury the body in the forest.'

Tracey snorted, 'that going to be hard to do Aunt Cass.'

'Oh and why is that,' Cassandra asked still hugging Tracey

'Because, our saviour over there blew pieces of him all over the place, prior to the first cease fire. Neville Longbottom told me that there wasn't much more that a pulpy smear left on a wall after Harry finished with him.'

Cassandra turned and raised an eyebrow at Harry, 'Really Mr Potter, I didn't know you had it in you.'

Harry's eyes flashed cold, 'yeah well, I found him attempting to rape a young girl and I may have slightly over powered my blasting hex.'

'Slightly over powered he says, Aunt Cass when they found the body all that was left whole were his two legs.' Tracey turned and considered him for a moment. 'You Harry, are someone I don't want to get on the wrong side of,' she smiled impishly at him, 'not that I will 'cause your kinda already attached to my best friend.'

'Oh har har har, go on laugh it up funny girl,' Harry mock glared at her glad that her tears seemed to have dried up for the moment. 'I guess we need to figure out what happens next, I have about another thirty to forty minutes before I'm going to start feeling the tether again, so what is the plan of attack?'

As the three of them sat back down, a tray of food and drink appeared next to them on a table, 'I guess Trixie, thinks we are going to be here a while,' Cassandra smiled fondly, 'right, here's where I think we should start...'

Harry suppressed a groan, 'He was not ready for this, his grand total of effective female experience could be written in large writing on a postage stamp,' he thought as he turned to listen.