A/N: Greetings I have a few ideas in the works but my brain is dying, so might as well burn it out with a story that randomly popped in my head. Started 9/3/2023 (the idea for this might be to resist fate or something)
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Here lies Harry James Potter, the one who conquered. These were the words marked on the grave that Daphne Greengrass was in front of. The grave of one of the greatest heroes in the history of Great Britain, the one who felled the dark lord Voldemort almost 10 years ago. A man that stood up to evil and was a guiding light in the one year of darkness that was almost all consuming. Yet after the year of Voldemort's death, he suddenly froze up in the middle of Auror training and collapsed on the ground, dead.
Rumor had it that he was drugged with a potion in his breakfast that morning, or that he might have been cursed by the dark lord in the final battle and died of the injuries that were never reported. Even the most obscure rumors were that people in the Auror Department deemed him a threat with how popular he had become after the battle of Hogwarts. Be it as it may, the only hint that was left behind to his mysterious death was that it was sudden, and there was no evidence of magical or physical causes of death.
The Autopsy done by the Auror Department and Muggle Department of Investigation revealed a perfectly healthy young man who was slightly malnourished but otherwise fine. So began the British Ministry quest as well as the rest of the world's quest to find out why he died so suddenly. From Minister for Magic Hermione Granger to Headmistress of Hogwarts Minerva Mcgonagall, from Draco Malfoy to Gringotts. Almost everyone had some part of the search for Harry Potter's cause of death in the years that followed.
Yet here was one that never once cared for Harry Potter publicly or privately in her life standing there. But the search for his death was not a mystery for her. Daphne Greengrass knew the answer that the world all around was begging for, searching for, yet she never came forward once with the truth that she had seen that day. The day that Harry Potter was buried next to his Godfather's empty grave.
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The morning of Harry Potter's funeral was a regular day, Daphne was sitting in one of her mentors' Office in St. Mungo's Magical Janus Thickey Ward for spell damage treatment, waiting for Madam Miriam Strout to come into the office to begin that day's business. Madam Strout was a reinstated healer after the accidental death of one of her patients due to a mistake of devil's snare. Evidence was found that she had been under the confundus charm in order for the patient to die, thus leading to her reinstatement. But those days of investigation on why she would make such a careless mistake, did not cause her reputation as a healer to crumble. Instead she had risen to higher ranks with her drive renewed from the investigation into her medical career. Gaining more respect as a competent healer whose mistakes did not define their life.
With a slight knocking sound on the door Daphne got up and opened the door for Madam Strout to walk into the room and allowing the doors to close shut, only then did Madam Strout finally speak to her subordinate and said " Be a dear and fetch me some tea , and you don't really have to work much today, there has been, how does one call it been 'a change of plans' for today."
With a nod Daphne walked over and started to brew Black and chrysanthemum for the both of them and asked idly while brewing the tea "What changed today Madam Strout?" And with a slight tone of condescension and joking manner "little Goldy Locks forget how to walk again?"
With a small laugh at the slight insult and joke she said good naturedly "No, Gilderoy Lockhart has not done such things as of today, but yesterday he did forget that he was a decent author with some imagination". With a slight edge she added "But it would be a bit more professional if you would not make jokes about patients who can't help it."
With a small smirk that slid across Daphne's face just before turning around she presented Madam Strout's cup of black tea in one hand and with the other with her own she walked across the room to deliver the tea and asked, "So, it isn't goldy locks that is the issue, who might it be, longbottoms are stable and everyone else was accounted for by the previous shift so who could it be?"
"Harry Potter" Strout said suddenly and with no small amount of mourning that came from the name of Harry Potter.
Blinking a few times Daphne asked "so the rumors about his death are true?"
With a nod Madam Strout confirmed the rumors that had started to float around the mystery of Harry Potter's sudden death. Pausing for a few seconds and sipping her tea "You have the responsibility of attending his funeral. Since he was your classmate." pausing again to take a look at Daphne's reaction.
With a small amount of surprise Daphne's mind went back to the battle of Hogwarts and seeing his battle with Voldemort at the very climax, seeming just the hero the country needed at that very moment. Strong and dependable Harry Potter standing and slinging spells against what would be almost the devil incarnate, it seemed back on the battlefield where the whole world depended on that singular man's shoulder he would never die. An Immortal who fears not death nor responsibility, indomitable and impervious to the situation.
The boy who lived became the man who conquered that day in her memory, saving all the students and teachers that were still alive, and halting the growing darkness that would have come. Now dead. Daphne felt an odd feeling from the discrepancy between her memories and emotions at that time, with the reality of the now.
Within those moments where Madam Strout allowed Daphne to collect her thoughts, she spoke "Now, I understand that he was a classmate and a great hero at that but heroes have to die at some point… even if they are a bit young." With a sigh emptied the rest of her cup of tea and continued. "Just look at the past heroes of King Arthur, Albus Dumbledor, Beowulf, or Ggamesh. Great heroes and yet they all have passed, nothing more nothing less." with a small smirk just looked at the small pile of Lockhart's books that were sitting there collecting dust. "Even imaginary heroes must end their tale" she said in a bit of a sad tone.
Daphne broke out of her memories from the words of her mentor who had to counter the depressing thought of death "That may be true, but their tales are everlasting, and while they cannot do anything anymore they will inspire the next hero to act." she responded with an icy glance. The mere thought of death as nothing more than an end being unimaginable. Death was to be purposeful, have meaning, and at the very least leave a legacy that would persist beyond yourself.
Madam Strout, noticing the rather irritated expression on Daphne's face, decided to distract Daphne with the light busy work that had to be done before the funeral and the few patients coming in. "Now, now, don't be brash, we deal with death most of the time here and it's rather a depressing topic no? We still need to take care of a few things first like attending to Mr. Longbottom from your class, he seems to have been hit by a few too many stunners during training again. Also paperwork as per usual." She continued with the deflection of the original topic, with something that would prove interesting to the young healer. She waited a second for Daphne to compose herself and said "Afterwards we are going to also discuss how blood curses work and our treatment of them, and then you are going to the funeral. Chop Chop."
With a small perk up from Daphne's posture at the news of more information on blood curses she paused and recomposed herself for more learning. Getting prepared to check up on Neville Longbottom, she starts on her own assignment of being a student of healing with her own thoughts and questions. "So, we finally get to blood curses after almost a year of non-stop counter curses and curse unraveling , why is that? I know it might seem obvious, with blood curses being implied as a curse, but from my understanding they are different as they involve more of a curse on a family rather than one object or being. Cursing a family is more of an arbitrary thing is it not?" Thinking of her sister's situation of fragility due to her own family blood curse it sends a slight shiver down her spine.
Meanwhile with Madam Strout fishing out Neville's document of injuries, frowning slightly, and absent mindedly checking over a few more possible patients as she indicated for Daphne to follow her out towards Neville, but spoke to her student for the time being, "Well dear the difference lies in what magic was used and what it does affect, most of the time magic is used on a physical object, but some curses affect ideas rather than just objects. It's a bit more difficult to unravel ideas layered on top of each other than just a solid proven thing." looking back at Daphne with a small twinkle in her eyes as they were coming upon the entrance to where Neville Longbottom was being kept.
As Daphne pondered over what was said about how these curses that applied to ideas and the unraveling of curses, she noticed that Madam Strout had stopped in front of the treatment room for the mild treatment room for curses, Daphne muttered under her breath "So it wasn't just a few stunning spells. Of course it's never that simple here." With a shake of her head Daphne and Madam Strout walked into the room for mild treatment of curses, with their wands out ready to see what the damage was done to the still rather poor person.
Both witches noticed that there were burn wounds on Neville as well as a weird fusion upon Neville's legs, and his arms seemed to stick to each other a bit more than what was necessary for a human body. His Auror Uniform seemed to be also slightly fused together to create a full body bind of sorts of straight jacket. Madam Strout spoke up from the initial observations upon Neville and said "my my, Auror Longbottom seems like they got you with the classics this time around, classic Auror hazing ceremony I presume?"
With a sheepish scowl reminiscent of his time back in Hogwarts Neville flashes at the memory of the incident. Madam strout indicated to Daphne to continue with more diagnostic spells just to make sure nothing more than those that have been seen are currently in effect. In those few moments that follow the entrance of the pair Neville notices Daphne and asks "So going to Harry's funeral?"
With a slight nod and a finger confirmation that nothing else besides what was seen initially were in place. "Yes, it would be unbecoming for someone that was at the battle to not come to see our shining heroe, final moment. "Daphne said with a slight hint of annoyance as it would seem obvious that practically everyone would need to come to the funeral. With another nod toward Madam Strout, Daphne went over and started pouring through curses and the various known counter curses, not noticing the slight shock at the news of Daphne's involvement at the battle.
Searching through the notes Daphne noticed that the curses seem the most closely tied to a full body bind and leg locking curses often used in gags during the school. With a slight look of confusion she had to ask her senior "Are these some new variations of the full body bind and leg locking curse? Last I saw those they were not supposed to fuse skin to skin and only clothes and the like." Seeing that these curses are not quite standard.
With a nod and sigh from Madam Strout she said in a low tone, "It seems the Unspeakables curse experimentation finally passed a few more spells over, I'll let you take care of , I have a few words to file to the department of mysteries. I do think your skills with curse healing are sufficient enough for this." With Madam Strout's parting words and a quick nod of confirmation from Daphne she got up with a stack of paper and walked out of the room in a huff with the door swinging back shut.
Pausing from her browsing of the counter curses noticing that there were no apparent counters for a new curse she sighed and walked over to Neville. Daphne sat down in the stool next to his currant bed and began using curse detecting charms to identify the curse's components and why it was attached to those specific parts of the body.
A few moments in silence lead to the awkward air around the ward and the two left in the room. In that silence Neville decided to ask a few questions that floated around in his mind "so you were there at the battle?" And with a small nod from Daphne absent of any noticeable emotions nodded. "Where were you and why did I not see you anywhere during the fighting or after everything was done?"
Pausing for a little while longer after the abrupt question and thinking up an answer she finally responded "obviously, there were plenty of people in the war at school, and most did so elsewhere in the fighting. " And within that moment of finishing her sentence she found out how the curse was attached and interacted with Neville's body and clothes. When she finally looked up she saw the face of Neville being slightly suspicious of the validity of her statement. She continued with a slight deflection "Well, I was close to the Slytherin common room battling some random guy and- just figured out what curse you are under, seems to be a modified mix of petrificus totalus, full body bind, and leg locking. You should be out of her in an hour" With a quick swish of her wand and a muttering of "finale" the effects of the curses were lifted.
Neville's arms began to unweld from other body parts and the clothes seemed to become unstuck and untangle in odd forms before all the oddness seemed to have left his body and clothes. Stretching and rubbing his wrist he was in a bit of shock on what Daphne did. "You know, the first thing everyone tries is "Finite Incantatem" but for this it didn't work, how did you do it?"
With a dismissive look to Neville she turns back from him and opens the book of counter curses, and says "nothing special, it is the standard for healers to know multiple ways to solve problems, just so happens I have one that was useful. Also when is the funeral and where is it?" As she starts to write the counter curses that were used and why in the book. Only looking up from it briefly to ask the final questions wanting the answers.
With a sigh he replies with "the funeral is at 3 and it is at Godric's hollow cathedral, and if you are wondering why almost everyone was invited is because he was a national hero, so it is a national ceremony" Neville's expression darkened as he continued "Herminone tried to stop it but she didn't have enough political power to make it private. He would have appreciated that… " looking down with a quick half shout "no offense."
Daphne just looked at Neville and brushed off the small remark with a "None taken, but thank you for telling me when I need to arrive." With a ghost of a smirk almost playing on her lips while her head was buried in the book of counter curses she mumbled she said "At least Hermione did make the knowledge of his funeral less of a national fiasco than what it could have been." and with that remark she allowed the ink to dry, discreetly using a copy charm to have another copy of the book on hand and shut the book. Turning around she saw Neville looking at Daphne expectantly, and said "As far as I know you should not have any more curses lingering on you, but one last check should not be a terrible idea."
Walking towards Neville again and casting the diagnostic spells again, she waited a few moments and had to confirm that there was nothing amidst besides maybe a few physical injuries that could be taken care of in another ward. She began to speak "Well, it appears that you Mr. Longbottom should now be getting yourself out of this ward and into one of the general injury sections. Get out now please." with that she got up and held the door open and handed Neville a referral note that pointed to general care.
Closing the door Daphne heard Neville was about to ask something, "Were you really part of the battle? I've never seen you before in Hogwarts, miss?"
Without pause Daphne said "Greengrass, Daphne Greengrass scion of the Greengrasses"
Looking at Neville's face displaying confusion and resignation he finally said "I'll see you at the funeral", with a nod from Neville, he left for another section of the hospital.
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A/N: So I hope it was decent enough for a start. It probably isn't going to be good but it might work out.
