Chapter Thirty Five
Daphne couldn't stop grinning. She was home, safe and sound at home. There had been several Death Eaters waiting around the station in London but they hadn't bothered her as she gripped Astoria's hand and followed their parents away from the train.
Neville also had managed to get home safely, he'd sent her a quick note to let her know they were all OK and would hopefully see them soon.
It had been her first unopened letter since September.
Astoria was also glad to be home. She pretended she was going to miss her friends, and part of her truly would but mostly she was just relaxed, enjoying the lack of stress and worry over people watching their every move.
Daphne flopped on her bed and pulled out her 'box of things to sort'. It was everything her parents and the house elves had found around the house that she needed to put away.
She always liked to get it sorted sooner rather than later, it tended to stress her out just sitting there and the last thing she needed was to be stressed out all holiday.
The first thing she picked up was a handful of leaflets for 'Life after School'. It should have been something she was thinking about, but it seemed further away now than it had back in fifth year.
She dumped them all in the bin without another thought, all of that could be dealt with after they stopped Voldemort. If they failed to stop him, the best future one of Harry Potter's best friends could hope for was to be married off to some good pure-blood who would keep them in line. She wondered if Neville would marry her if it came down to it.
Her mother knocked softly on the door before walking in, her long blonde hair had its first grey hairs flecks around her temples. For the first time Daphne looked at her like another adult, rather than the way a child looked at their mother. These past few months had changed her more than she had realised. The pain of those changes washed over her.
"Oh Daphne, what's wrong?" her mother asked, coming over and sitting on the bed next to her as Daphne wiped tears from her eyes.
"Nothing." Daphne said, forcing a smile, "I'm just really happy to be home."
"I am very glad to have you home, both of you." her mother smiled, "Oh I was so very worried."
"It's not so bad." Daphne lied, surprised at how easily it came out, causing a fresh wave of tears to spill from her eyes.
"Well… I'm sure you are doing the right thing." her mother smiled, wishing there was some way she could keep her children safe, "I just came up to give you this. You have a letter."
Daphne took the smooth white envelope and smiled, "What does it say?"
"I don't know." her mother shrugged, "I didn't open it. I've never opened your letters."
Daphne shook her head, "Sorry…I know you'd never read them." she hated how used to having some read her letters before she got them she seemed to have become.
"I'll see you at dinner. Half and hour." her mother said, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead, "I love you so much Daphne, I hope you know that."
"I love you too mama." Daphne smiled, watching her mother nod, and walk from the room.
Her parents were strict, they always had been. Music lessons, French, Greek and Latin lessons when they were younger, as well as the normal school subjects. They expected both girls to marry well, and before they hit thirty at the very latest. To have children and generally be good pure-blooded ladies.
But it had never stopped them truly loving their children, and trusting them enough to do what was best for themselves, even if it wasn't the path their parents would have chosen.
Daphne often thought her parents had gotten a rough deal in many ways; they were caught in the middle of the old ways and the new ones brought in, or at least expedited, by Lily. Astoria and Daphne would be the first Greengrass children to truly forge their own path, if they lived to see that day.
Daphne grabbed the ruby encrusted letter opener from her desk and slit open the letter, pulling out the heavy paper.
Dear Daphne,
I am sorry to write to you like this, but I know you and Harry planned this year for a long time and I was wondering if there was a way you could get a message to him.
We will be at Notgrove barrow on the 21st, in time to see the sun rise.
If you can, please ask him, and Hermione and Draco to meet us there. I know it is for safety that they left, but it's been so long…
Please come along yourself, I have asked Neville and his family as well so there will be a few of us. It's only for an hour.
I hope school is not too awful at the moment, I know it cannot be easy.
This will be over one day.
Love
Lily
xx
Daphne read the letter three times before the words started to make sense in her mind. She chewed her lip, unsure what to do for the best. There was no doubt in her mind that Harry would love to see his family, even just for an hour.
But what if this was a trap? And not really from Lily?
For all Daphne had to consider the idea it might not be from Lily, she didn't actually think for one moment that that was the case.
The heavy paper had the Malfoy water mark in the corner, and was from the same posh, tiny paper mill they had used since before Draco was born. It was her hand writing and smelt faintly of her flowery perfume.
"But is that just me hoping?" Daphne asked herself, flopping back against the always fluffed up pillows.
She dawdled over the letter until she only had five minutes to change for dinner. She pulled the blue velvet dress that had been left out for her over her head and sighed, unable to get her mind off the letter.
"To tell Harry or not to tell Harry… that is the question." Daphne sighed again, "To tell Harry…"
She'd never have forgiven Harry if he'd kept news about her family from her, at the end of the day it was going to have to be Harry's choice whether to take the risk or not.
Harry was surprised but not unhappy to hear the mirror ring and see Daphne's smiling face beaming back at him.
"Hi Harry!" she chirped, "How's it going?"
"Same old same old." Harry shrugged, "We ended up camping in a marsh the other day, we stayed in the tent but it still wasn't very pleasant and then today we had a wild pony sniffing around the tent. It was really cute. How about you?"
"Well I'm home for the winter break." Daphne said, showing him her room with the mirror, "Neville and his brothers all got home safely as well."
"I'm glad." Harry said, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Where's Hermione and Draco?" Daphne asked.
"Hermione is having a nap, Draco is reading next door." Harry explained, "I'm going to kill someone if they read over that awful Horcrux book again. And not necessarily myself!" he laughed, "At least we've managed to stop Hermione reading it just before bed."
"Ah… fun." Daphne laughed back, "Listen Harry, I'm glad it was you I caught actually."
"Oh?" said Harry, trying to think of what she could need to say to him only.
"I got a letter today, it claims to be from your mother." Daphne said carefully.
"From mum?" Harry said, feeling his heart start to race, "And what do you mean claims to be?"
"Well I think it's from her." Daphne said honestly, "But there's not anyway to know for sure."
"What did she say?" Harry asked.
"That she wants you to meet her." Daphne said, "Just for an hour at somewhere called Notgrove barrow on the 21st, I assume of this month."
"Which hour?" Harry asked.
"In time for sunrise." Daphne said, double checking the details in the letter, "But Harry… it might be a trap."
Harry ran his hands through his hair, "I don't… why do you think it is from her?"
Daphne shrugged, "The paper is from Malfoy Manor and it kinda smells of her perfume."
"But they could of faked all of that, if they really tried." Harry frowned.
"I didn't know whether of not to tell you but I felt you had the right to know." Daphne tried to explain.
"Oh no… I'm really glad you did." Harry assured her, "Sorry, it's… it's just thrown me a little."
Daphne nodded, "Understandable. If you do go, I'll go. She invited me as well."
"Well if we do go, make sure that you bring the invisibility cloak with you." Harry told her, "You still have it right?"
Daphne nodded, "Yes. I never got the chance to give it back to Neville after we smuggled out Luna. Umbridge was paying extra close attention."
"You smuggled out Luna?" Harry shouted, more loudly than he'd meant to, "What? Why? When?"
Daphne laughed and filled him in on the threat to Luna and that she was now safely with Pansy and the others.
"You must really of not been in touch with anyone, not even a paper." Daphne said, "The Daily Prophet ran a huge article on the 'Evil' people who kidnapped a good pure-blood girl to stop her from fulfilling her life's work."
"Oh wow." Harry snorted a laugh, "They're getting even worse."
"I hope that someone good takes over when we clear all this up." Daphne sighed, "I miss sitting with my parents over breakfast reading the paper."
"We'll get there." Harry grinned.
Daphne checked the very ornate clock on her bed side table, "Right, I hate to get rid of you but I have to go. I told Astoria that we'd go horse riding and take a picnic."
"No worries." Harry grinned, "I'll see you soon!"
Daphne blew him a kiss and waved goodbye before tucking the mirror away and skipping from her room.
Harry stayed staring at the mirror that had now grown dark, wondering what to do. He was happy that Daphne had told him, of course he was, but having the knowledge weighing on his brain was giving him a headache.
"Harry?" Draco asked, walking into the room his nose still in the book he was reading, "Do you know if Hermione is still sleeping? Harry, you're as white as a sheet. Are you all right?"
Harry let out a rough laugh, "You're never going to believe what has just happened."
Harry filled Draco in on Daphne getting the letter from Lily and Luna ending up at the camp, which was now houses rather than tents.
"Luna was going to be kidnapped?" Draco gasped, "Gees, what were they going to do with her?"
Harry shrugged, "I didn't ask. I figure they'd just lock her up somewhere until her Dad stopped trying to help us."
"I wish we could read all this stuff." Draco huffed, "Maybe we should try and start stealing them. Every paper we can get our hands on."
"That's way too much of a risk and you know it." Harry chided, "What we'll do is get copies of all the papers we've missed and paper our mansions with them." he grinned.
Draco rolled his eyes, "Well Malfoy Manor still hasn't been redecorated since Mother and Father took it over fully, but I'm not sure that they'd be pleased if I covered it all in newspaper. And you don't have a mansion." he smirked.
"No taste, your folks." Harry said, ducking as Draco smacked his arm with his book, "What did you want Hermione for?"
"Oh nothing." Draco said, waving his had dismissively, "I just wanted her opinion on the way this sentence was written."
"You're obsessed." Harry said sarcastically.
"With killing You-know-who and saving the world?" Draco smirked, "Yes… yes we are."
"Exactly." Harry said, his sarcasm only growing, "Total waste of time."
Draco grinned "What are we going to do about your mother's invitation?"
Harry shrugged, "Honestly? I can't not go. I know it might be a trap and we'll be super careful but… if it's not a trap and I didn't go? And we'd never know if it was or not."
"I agree." Draco said, nodding.
They heard the loo flush.
"Go on." Harry grinned, "Hermione is up and you can obsess over saving the world while I obsess over the fact you didn't want my opinion on that sentence."
"I'll see you in a bit." Draco grinning back, grabbing his book and hurrying off to find Hermione.
Harry puffed out his cheeks and let the air go all at once. In just a couple of days, there was a good chance that he'd be seeing his mother again.