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Daphne Greengrass: Social Butterfly

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Fifteen year old Daphne Greengrass happily skipped down the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with a grin on her face, waving at her friends and acquaintances as she went. Wandering into the Library she spotted one of the only people on Hogwarts that she didn't know personally.

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Harry Potter was sitting at a private table, pouring over a massive tome on defensive magic, trying to find the next best thing to teach the DA at the next meeting. He'd discovered since the start of the, for lack of a better word, classes, that he was somewhat ridiculously talented in combat magic, and that not everyone was able to do the things that he was capable of.

A thump sounded from across the table at the only other chair that he didn't bother investigating, having expected Hermione for a while now.

"Hey Harry!" said a smoky voice he didn't recognize, causing him to look up at the beautiful form of a girl with deep, almost scarlet red hair, darkly tanned skin, open Hogwarts robes showing off her substantial chest and a smile that would weaken Voldemort's resolve "we've never spoken even though we've had classes together for five years now, I'm Daphne Greengrass!" the girl said, extending her hand with what could only be described as a zest for life.

Cautiously reaching forward, Harry gripped her smaller hand in his rough calloused one and firmly shook, causing her pretty face to light up even more "nice to meet you, Daphne, I apologize if this sounds rude, but I've been wary of making friends with Slytherins after my first two meetings with Draco Malfoy, it is a pleasure, however."

"I've noticed that, but don't worry, Draco's like a small dog, he barks loudly and often, but when he gets annoying you just kick him across the room and he shuts up."

Harry stared at her in frank surprise, both at the fact that she'd said this and the blatant, almost airy tone she'd used, before he burst out laughing, earning a solid "shushing" from Madame Pince.

"I never thought I'd see the day where a Slytherin openly insults Draco Malfoy to a Gryffindor!" he managed to gasp out, earning himself an impish little grin.

"Yes, well, Draco likes to think that he has a lot of influence because of his father, and he does over certain, extremely vocal, students in the Radical Isolationist faction, but outside of it he's more annoying than anything."

"You're not afraid that Lucius might hurt your family?" Harry asked, earning himself an impossibly cheerful snort of disdain.

"Hardly, the Malfoys may like to think they're the most influential people in the Magical World, but that's only true for Britain. The Greengrasses, Davises, Zabinis, Boneses, Abbotts, Changs, Lis, Patils and many other families are much larger and have vast holdings on the continent and in the Americas and Asias, the Potters included. The Malfoys of Britain are a small offshoot of the larger family from France, the Delacours, with whom they don't even share a last name anymore. Malfoy does mean "Bad Faith", after all."

Harry, who'd gone back to perusing the tome during her explanation, looked back up sharply at the mention of his family "I have family outside of Britain?"

Daphne gave him a cutely inquisitive look of incomprehension before a dawning look of understanding appeared on her face "you've never contacted your family in Italy, Russia or the Americas?"

Harry was looking even more alarmed at that question "I never even knew I had any more family!" he yelped, earning Daphne and himself a rapid expulsion from the library.

After the scramble and scuffle to get out with all of their belongings and to dodge swipes from Madame Pince's feathered duster, Harry glanced back at the impossibly cheerful girl standing next to him and was shocked by the look of cold fury on her face. "Come along, Harry" she commanded in such a way that had him following instinctively "we have some letters to write."

"Er, wh- who are we writing to?"

"My father, who is the head of the British Greengrasses, and hopefully your great uncle however-many-times removed who's the head of the Potters in Italy."

"So- so I really have family on the continent?"

Daphne gave an elegant snort, if such a thing was possible, and tossed her deep red hair over her shoulder before giving Harry a look that made him feel somewhat like a child "the Potter family is one of the oldest and most powerful families in the Magical World, Harry" she started as she set a brisk pace down the hall "they made their money during the rise of the Roman Empire, but they've been around a long while before that, by using their unmatched skills in magical pottery to make nigh indestructible containers for shipping spices, herbs, liquids and dangerous potions by sea. Ceramics are by far the most difficult thing in known existence to enchant because of their fantastic insulating properties and the Potter family found out how, and hasn't shared that secret with anyone for thousands of years."

Harry had a stunned look on his face as he walked beside the furious looking Slytherin, just absorbing information on his family as they walked "in fact, the Potters have a very long standing alliance with the Patil family of India, one of the reasons Parvati accepted your invitation to the Yule Ball last year, also, undoubtedly, one of the reasons she's still mad at you for completely snubbing her at the aforementioned Ball" the girl paused for breath and glanced at the stunned teen next to her "you might want to consider apologizing, Parvati and Padma are the favored great, great grandnieces of the current Patriarch of the Patil family by a very large margin, enlightening them of your woeful ignorance could very well have massive positive repercussions outside of Britain for both of your families."

"Why… why are you telling me this?"

Daphne gave him a gentle smile that completely transformed her face from the cold visage she'd had since they exited the library back to the warm, welcoming expression that it almost always wore "you didn't think that the Patils were the only family the Potters had an economic and social alliance with, did you?"

Harry's only response to this was a weak "oh…." looking back at the redhead walking next to him he continued "I'm sorry if my being ignorant made your life at Hogwarts harder than it should have been."

Daphne gave a light airy laugh that sent a tingle through Harry's body and gently slapped his shoulder "don't worry about it, Harry, I'm just disappointed in myself that I didn't notice your ignorance earlier" her face quickly shifted back to the cold, expressionless mask that she'd worn earlier "when I find out who was responsible for it, however, I can guarantee that the full might of the Greengrass-Patil-Potter-Bones conglomerate will come down on their heads like the fist of an angry God."

The frozen certainty in her voice sent a shudder down Harry's spine, and he suddenly realized that this was a girl that had been raised in an environment of immeasurable social and economic power, and she knew exactly what type of resources were at her disposal. "So" he started back up hesitantly "just how big is my family, and why don't more of them live in Britain?"

"Oh, as of World War II there were a couple dozen in Britain, almost all of them men, and almost all of them served in either the mundane or magical armies opposing the Axis. The Potters never took up the purely Victorian Era British custom of banishing the squibs from the island, so many of your however many great uncles however far removed fought in the trenches and in the Air Corps, a great many of them didn't come back, and the ones that did didn't survive much longer after that. I believe your Grandfather, Charlus, was a full Colonel when he retired."

A sly look came over Daphne's face as she continued "as for why more of them don't live here, believe it or not, but Britain is considered quaint and provincial by the standards of the rest of the Magical World. It has only existed as a cohesive, united society for a little under a thousand years. Magical Rome has been around for almost three millennia, and Magical Asia has been around for even longer than that. As far as magical innovation and infrastructure goes, Britain is an underdeveloped backwater, a little like the United States, only they're progressing faster because of how closely linked their Magical and Mundane governments are, whereas the Ministry here tries to separate itself from the Crown as much as possible, and the Minister is fairly autonomous. There are two leaders in Britain, but America only ever has one President at a time. Don't even get me started on what a crap hole Canada and some of South America is. This is also one of the reasons why Voldemort was allowed such free reign during his last uprising, he's small fish compared to most of the others out there."

Harry got a contemplative look on his face, now that so much of the information and shock he'd gotten over the past quarter hour had been processed, he sent a questioning, examining look at the beauty walking next to him "how do you know all of this?" he asked as she opened a door to what looked like a shared office, and he suddenly realized that they were in a part of the castle he'd never bothered to explore.

Ushering him inside, the redhead got that impish grin back on her face and a twinkle, eerily reminiscent of a certain Headmaster, entered her eyes "because, silly, we were supposed to get married."

Harry's exclamation of "Bloody hell!" was cut off as the door closed with a snap.

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