After ushering the golden trio inside the manor, they were taken into what must have been an infirmary room. The guards removed their shackles and then ordered them to remove all their clothing. Ron loudly protested at the idea of Hermione stripping in front of so many men which earned him a punch into the gut from one of the guards. Harry sighed as it happened. He did not like what was happening to them any more than Ron but he knew resisting now was a fight they were not going to win. There were more than dozen wands pointed at them at all times.
Fortunately, in a small act of mercy, one of the guards conjured a screen so Hermione could undress behind it. Afterwards, they were thoroughly bodily searched (Harry preferred not to think of all the places where they looked). A female guard performed the search on Hermione. She also healed the various minor injuries they accumulated since being captured by the snatchers and the swelling of Harry's face. He was grateful for that. It's not like he needed it to conceal his identity anymore. His captors were fully aware of who they were. At the end, they were given some simple but clean garments and then marched across the manor until they reached a rather luxurious room. The guards unceremoniously ushered them inside and closed and locked the doors behind them.
They were alone for the first time since being captured.
"Well, it could be worse…" Harry tried to stay positive as he looked around the room. It had no windows but it was bright with magical floating lights illuminating it. They reminded Harry of the main hall in Hogwarts. It was beautifully decorated with carpets and ornaments hanging from the walls but no paintings. There were three large poster beds on the other side of the room and despite the situation, Harry could not help but look forward to hopefully sleeping in real bed again.
"How could it be worse? We have no wands or any way of getting out of here," Hermione said in desperation as she tried to open the door through which they came. Unsurprisingly, it was locked and would not budge. On the opposite side of the room, there was only one other door and Hermione quickly walked over to check it out. To Harry's surprise, it opened but Hermione barely stack her head inside before she announced. "It's bathroom."
"Food!" Ron exclaimed as he found a small table in the corner of the room. There was a plate with sandwiches and some fruit bowls but after living on the run for so long, it was a veritable feast to their eyes.
"Careful, it could be poisoned…" Harry warned him but Hermione shook her head. "If they wanted to kill us, I doubt they would use poison to do it… no, they would want us to suffer," she said bitterly but Harry had to agree with her on that. He had the same thought.
Meanwhile Ron grabbed one of the sandwiches and a glass of pumpkin juice. "Careful Ron, it could still be potioned with something!" Hermione warned him. Ron gave the sandwich a cursory sniff before taking a bite.
"Tasteffs fine…" he said with his mouth full of the sandwich. Hermione did not even have the energy to chastise him for speaking with his mouth full again. Instead, she and Harry went over and took one of the sandwiches as well. They were all very hungry and were finished soon.
"So… do either of you know this Greengrass girl?" Harry asked after he finished the first sandwich and was just about to pluck a grape from the fruit ball.
"No idea," Ron said first. "She is hot, though…" he continued before realizing his mistake and cowering under the look Hermione send his way.
"Her name is Daphne – Daphne Greengrass. And I can't believe you two really don't know her," Hermione looked at them with exasperation. "She's a Slytherin in our year at Hogwarts!" she darted her eyes between Harry and Ron before settling on the latter. "I am surprised you never noticed her… given how hot she apparently is," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Harry cringed, knowing that Ron will be in for an earful from their friend. Privately, he sympathized and agreed with his friend though. Whoever Daphne Greengrass was, she was an incredibly beautiful woman.
Ron tried to placate her. "Hey… I didn't mean it like that. It's not like I would be really interested in some airheaded Slytherin bimbo!" he put his hand on Hermione's shoulder as he spoke but it seemed he at the same time put his foot into his mouth again because she looked at him angrily. "She's not a bimbo!"
Hermione shook off his hand and sighed. "I wish she was. Then maybe we would have a chance. No. Greengrass is the second highest ranked student of our year."
"After you?" Harry assumed and Hermione nodded. "Yes, after me. Not by much though. And she actually overtook me in the second and fifth year," she admitted and Harry finally understood why his otherwise always optimistic friend was so nervous about their situation. "She's that clever?" Harry asked with trepidation.
"Last year, she spent half the time in library than me and I barely beat her on the exams," she admitted reluctantly.
"Wow…" Ron said. "Hard to imagine anyone doing better on exams than you." This time, Hermione gave him a small smile.
"Ok, so she's intelligent. But what's her family like? Do they serve Voldemort?" Harry finally asked.
"They obviously do. You remember what her mother said, don't you? Besides, those snatchers would not have brought us here otherwise," she reasoned. "As for Daphne, I have no idea. But she definitely subscribes to their ideology," Hermione said sadly. "I experienced that first hand."
"What do you mean?" Ron asked with concern. "You spoke with her before?"
Hermione nodded. "In our third year. Daphne was the only other girl who took Arithmancy class with me. So during one of the early classes, I sat down next to her and tried to befriend her…"
"Let me guess, she called you the m word. Filthy snake!" Ron started to get angry on Hermione's behalf.
"She didn't… at least not at first," Hermione continued. "No. First she expressed her indignation that someone like me…," Hermione made the air quotes, "… would even dare to speak to her like I was an equal."
"You never told us about this… what happened next?" Harry asked with interest.
It sounded like that despite her beauty, Daphne Greengrass was not much different from that prick Malfoy in how she behaved. His mental comparison of the two purebloods made Harry sick a little. Come to think about it, he realized they were even physically somewhat similar with their blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin… similar features but all of them looking much better on Daphne, Harry thought. At least there was no doubt in his mind about that.
"I became angry and I asked what did she mean by that," Hermione continued.
"And then she gave me a five minute lecture on why purebloods like her are superior to mudbloods like me. She said all muggleborns should study magic only if they accept their rightful place in society," Hermione narrated, growing more irritated with every sentence. "At the end, she asked me if I wished to serve her! Can you believe that?"
Harry could not. He knew few wizards or witches who were better at magic than Hermione. Daphne Greengrass telling his friend she was unworthy to study it was ridiculous. But at least Harry had to admit that Daphne was not like Malfoy. The blonde ferret was never that outspoken in his insults. "I hope you told her off," he said.
"Of course! I called her bigoted fool or something like that."
"And that was the end?"
Hermione shook her hand. "I wish. Daphne did not react to my arguments at all. Instead, she complained that I refuse to listen to her and that I waste her time. And then she demanded I get on my knees and apologize for disturbing her in the first place."
"You didn't, did you?" Ron asked, horrorstruck at the idea.
"I didn't kneel, of course. But I was so shocked that I actually apologized to her and then sat on the other side of the class," Hermione admitted. "I never spoke with her after that."
Harry shook his head sadly. Now he understood why Hermione was so worried and terrified by their situation. "It was four year ago. Perhaps she changed…" he suggested, already knowing how foolish that sounded. People like that never change. If Daphne Greengrass was a hardcore pureblood supremacist when she was thirteen, Harry shuddered to think what she could be like now.
"What about the rest of her family? Do you know anything about them?" Ron asked, looking between Hermione and Harry.
It was Hermione who answered. "She has a younger sister. Astoria. She's two years younger than us. When she was in her first year, we would sometimes speak in the library. I thought she was a nice girl," Hermione said wistfully. "Certainly nicer than her sister who considered it an insult having to even look at me… anyway, Astoria stopped speaking to me at the end of the year. I never found out why."
"Ok… so it does not look good," Harry was forced to admit. "But at least they haven't handed us to you-know-who yet, that has to count for something, right?" he tried to be cheerful but it only elicited tired obligatory smiles from his friends. "What I meant, it gives us time to escape. And we have to escape, we need to keep looking for H-"
"HARRY NO!" Hermione cried, suddenly looking around suspiciously. She quietly whispered. "They could be listening on us."
Harry looked around the deceptively comfortable room with sudden apprehension. "Right. Sorry."
In different part of the mansion, two girls were standing in front of a large mirror. They were not admiring their beauty although many people would agree that it was worthy of admiration. No. Instead of their reflections, the mirror was showing the golden trio as they ate and discussed their situation. The spying glass even transmitted voices.
"HARRY NO!" "They could be listening on us." Hermione's voice echoed from the spy mirror.
"Clever girl…" Astoria Greengrass commented as she and her sister listened and looked at their new prisoners.
"Yes, the mudblood was always surprisingly intelligent, despite her filthy muggle heritage" Daphne agreed with great reluctance. "I will have Potter separated from them first thing in the morning."
Astoria looked at her sister. "I'll never understand what you all have against muggleborns… but I definitely hate this one alright."
Daphne glanced at her sister. "And why is that? I can remember you two being very friendly in your first year," she said chastisingly. "I am curious. Why did you stop talking to her?"
"You know why! She broke Draco's nose!"
Daphne rolled her eyes at that. "You still blame her for that?"
Astoria fumed at the question. "I like my Draco! I don't want anyone hurting him… least of all some m- mudblood! And she's so annoying anyway, always lecturing everybody!"
Hearing that comment, Daphne was torn between being proud of Astoria for finally having the right pureblood attitude and being concerned over her unhealthy obsession with her future husband. Granted, Daphne hated Hermione Granger too but her list of reasons for it was much longer than Astoria's. And even then, breaking Draco's nose was pretty low if it even made the list.
Still, she supposed the mudblood would be useful in distracting Astoria from her grieve. "Well, you will have a chance to teach her a lesson now… if you want to."
Astoria's eyes lit up with glee. "You'll let me have her?"
"Sure. I have no use for her."
Astoria's eyes lit up with curiosity. "What do you plan to do with the golden boy, anyway?"
"Learn what he has been up to…" Daphne carefully phrased. Her sister was a gossip and she did not want to be more elaborate than that. Besides, she herself was not sure what to do yet.
"Will you give him to the dark lord?"
"Eventually…"
Astoria paled. "Just be careful, sis. I don't want to lose you to!" she said and then hugged Daphne tightly.
"Hey, I'll be fine. You know Potter does not stand a chance against me…" she tried to sooth her sister's worries as she hugged her back.
"I meant the dark lord… he's insane! I told you what he is doing to Draco and his parents. And now he got Father killed in this stupid war. I hate him!" Astoria spoke decisively as she let go of her sister.
"Astoria… the dark lord did not kill father. It was the Order of Phoenix. And you should not speak of the dark lord like that. He's the champion for our cause," Daphne told her warily. It was fine when Astoria talked like this at home but Daphne was worried if she ever spoke the words in public.
Astoria sniffled a little after her emotional outburst. "Your cause, not mine. But perhaps you are right. We know who killed father…" she said and her eyes shifted to the mirror image of the red head who was currently stuffing his mouth with sandwiches. "Oh, Granger is not the one I want…" Astoria said wistfully as she looked at Ron Weasley with hatred.
Daphne immediately regretted her words and even offering Granger up earlier. It brought Astoria's train of thoughts exactly where she did not want it to go – to their father's murder.
"He did not kill dad… that was his brother," Daphne tried to explain to her sister but when it came to her dad, Astoria was beyond caring about logic. "I don't care. Let's kill him and send his head to his family! They should all suffer for what they did to Daddy!"
Daphne did not know what do to. Should she tell her no? Or let Astoria have her revenge even though Daphne felt it was on an entirely wrong person? She was head of House Greengrass and situations like this were hers to deal with now.
She has been trained by her father for this day for a long time. Ever since it became clear her parents would not have any sons, he has been teaching her everything about ruling the Greengrass family. Neither of them expected that she would have to assume her role so young. Privately, she feared that she was not ready but when her father died, she did her duty. For the last two weeks, Daphne spent every minute of her time taking over and making sure their family would not fall apart. She did not have time for grief or blame. She was certainly sad, even outraged, that her father was killed, but Daphne understood that they were in war and that her father gave his life for a worthy cause.
But not her younger sister who cared little for pureblood ideology. Besides, Astoria was always daddy's little girl and she was absolutely devastated by his death. So was their mother but whereas she has fallen into lethargy, Astoria was growing angrier and more vengeful with every day.
"Astoria… no. He may be his brother, but he did not kill dad. He never even met him. And he's a pureblood," Daphne stressed.
"A filthy blood-traitor!" Astoria spat in perfect imitation of her betrothed. But instead of proceeding with self-entitled Malfoy-like rant, she started pleading with her older sister. "Please Daphne! Pretty please! Let me have him…"
Daphne took a breath to say no again, but it was getting harder. Part of her wanted to do the same as Astoria – make Ron Weasley pay for the crimes of his family, no matter how irrational it was to blame him for the actions of his older brother. But she had to keep her perspective. She had no time for personal vendettas. Not with Harry Bloody Potter (as Draco would put it) in her hands. Before she could deny her sister for a third time, Astoria said something that made her pause.
"… you said you want to learn what Potter's been up to. So let me question the weasel for you!"
Daphne looked at her sharply. She knew very well Astoria simply wanted to torture the boy. Getting information out of him was only a pretext. But it would be a marginal help. And as Daphne considered Astoria's plea, she realized one thing – her sister really needed this. She was not sure whether it was the right thing to do but she was not about to let the issue drive a wedge between them. Ron Weasley was certainly not worth it.
"Fine, you can have him," Daphne finally agreed, much to Astoria's delight. But be careful! He's not the best wizard but he's a brute and is more clever than he looks. I don't want him hurting you."
"Thank you, Daphne!" Astoria said and hugged her sister again. "And don't worry, I will! I'll make him regret being born a Weasley! Oh, if only Draco could see it…"
Daphne rolled her eyes at that. She should make some sort of game from how many times her sister can mention the Malfoy heir in a single day.
"You are welcome. But I have some rules. Keep guards nearby at all time. Also, he must not die and you cannot permanently maim him… is that understood?"
"Sure. Whatever."
Daphne frowned. "Astoria… you must promise me. We might need him intact at some point."
"Fine! I promise I will not kill him or maim him, ok?" Astoria huffed like an arrogant brat before she calmed down a little. "Actually, you are right. It's better if he suffers for a long time for what he did to daddy! It would be too quick to just kill him," she reasoned.
"Just try to remember that his name is Ronald, not William…" she reminded her younger sister tiredly.
But Astoria was barely listening at that point, lost in planning her revenge already. "I am going to prepare a room for him…" Astoria said with sadistic happiness. She was about to skip away before she turned and asked. "And what about Granger?"
Daphne sniffed at the mention of that accursed mudblood. "What about her? I couldn't care less. Just keep her out of my sight!" she said before adding. "On second thought, she could be useful for making Potter talk. He sees the filth as his best friend. Lock her up with Weasley but leave her alone for now," Daphne eventually decided.
"Fine, I will" her sister nodded and turned to walk away. Daphne watched her go, wondering whether she was making a mistake. Astoria paused at the door. "But I will go visit mom first. You should too… it will make her happy." Then she closed the door behind her, leaving Daphne pondering the enigma that was her baby sister. Astoria was caring and gentle girl who loved her family and friends very much and they loved her back. But she also had a vicious side to her personality that always reared its ugly head when she felt someone threatening her loved ones. She could only imagine what indignities she was planning for Weasley in revenge for their father.
The spying mirror showed the three prisoners were now finished eating and were taking turns using the bathroom. Daphne put the feed into recording mode. She would review it later but she doubted it would reveal anything important. The trio was cautions after the mudblood warned them about possible listening devices.
Daphne's thoughts then turned to her only female prisoner again. Her initial instinct was to simply execute the mudblood. She was useless and yet arguably the most knowledgeable and therefore dangerous of the three. Keeping her alive could prove risky in the long term and Daphne had no compunctions about permanently getting rid of her.
Another option was to sell her. She knew of one family friend who has been personally looking for miss Granger for quite some time. Even discarding that possibility, there was always a market for mudbloods around the world. Mudbloods were almost never missed by anyone and given their ignorance of magical customs, it was easy to trick them into a magical binding contract that would entrap them. They were useful subjects for obscure magical experiments and research. Female mudbloods like Granger were also sought after for breeding experiments. Daphne could easily have her 'volunteer' to one of the groups running such experiments. There was no chance of Granger getting away from there and she would finally be providing some benefit to the wizarding world.
But Daphne knew she should not be making irreversible decisions without knowing all the information. 'I will have few questions for our chosen one…' she sneered internally at the moniker. 'Then, we will see.' She reminded herself that Weasley and the mudblood were just a bonus, anyway. Potter was the important one here and she needed to focus on him for now.
Earlier this day, her sister asked her about her plans for the golden boy. Daphne knew that it was a good question. The truth was that she had no idea. Were her father still alive, he would already have summoned the Dark Lord and handed them over. But Daphne did not have the Dark Mark yet and had no way of contacting him. Besides, it felt wrong to just hand the Golden trio over without finding out what they were up to all this time. So for the moment, she would be personally taking care of interrogating him. She can always wipe his memory later and have him delivered to the Dark Lord.
With that thought, she walked over to the tables holding the items confiscated from the prisoners. And it was quite a collection.
Three wands, one of them broken.
The broken one belonged to Potter. Daphne remembered how it looked like, having seen it waved in Malfoy's face multiple times over the years. It was shame to see it broken like this. If the rumors were true, it performed some very interesting spells in its time. Daphne just assumed that the other two wands belonged to Weasley and the mudblood. She never bothered to remember what their wands looked liked.
She moved on to the next item – a goblin forged silver sword lined with metal that had no name outside of the goblin nation. A quick thinking and help from her guards allowed her to perform replication and switching spell right in front of the snatchers. Then she tricked them by breaking the fake sword and accusing them of trying to cheat her when it was the other way around! But she did not feel guilty. A weapon like that had no place in greedy hands of such fools.
It was beautiful – and incredibly dangerous. Daphne remembered the guards warning her that the blade was imbued with some unknown and potentially lethal poison. The sword was decorated with sigils of Gryffindor house. 'It cannot be the sword of Gryffindor, could it?' she thought.
It was quite a scandal at Hogwarts when the Weasley girl and the other muggle lovers tried to steal it from the headmaster's office. Daphne knew for a fact that after the incident, Snape gave it over to Bellatrix Lestrange who was going to keep it in her Gringotts vault for some reason. She accidentally overheard him talking to one of the Carrow twins about it. Daphne carefully picked up the sword in her hands. Something was telling her it was the real thing. 'How could Potter have it?' she thought, wondering whether he somehow stole it from Bellatrix's vault. It seemed impossible. Such an event would be heavily publicized, even in these days. Besides, Potter was not powerful enough to manage such a feat, was he?
A third item on the table looked like an ordinary piece of cloth. Except it was not. A cloak of invisibility. Out of all the things in front of her, this was perhaps the most impossible one. She heard the rumors of course. Some evenings in the school, Draco would not shut up about Potter and his invisibility cloak.
Daphne never cared about whether Potter had such cloak. The magic in invisibility cloaks expired quickly, so back then, she simply concluded Potter would not have it for long, even if Draco was correct in his claims. In addition, cloaks of invisibility were rather bulky, unwieldy, and prone to wear-and-tear. They generated a lot of noise as the wearer moved in them. In other words, they were pretty much useless except in a very limited set of situations.
Daphne reached out with her delicate hand to touch the fabric folded on the table. This invisibility cloak was different. It was light, yet sturdy. Pleasant to touch, flowed like a finest silk. And if the rumors were true, Potter had it since their first year. It did not seem possible!
Daphne gave a casual glance at the rest of the items. Her attention lingered on a broken necklace with sigils of Salazar Slytherin. A priceless heirloom, except there was a hole in it like somebody punched a large knife through it.
No, not a knife, Daphne corrected herself. Using a protective glove, she carefully picked up the broken jewelry and held it against the sword of Gryffindor. The hole and the size of the blade were a very good match. She had a feeling that one of her prisoners used the sword to destroy the necklace for some reason.
Daphne did not know what to think of any of it, but one thing was for certain – Harry Potter had a lot of explaining to do.
And she had a lot of preparations to do. Interrogating the boy-who-lived was not something one just does without a plan. But she looked forward to the task as it was a welcomed distraction for her.
Intellectually, she knew that the capture of the golden trio could not have happened at worse time. Her father was dead, and she was the new head of the Greengrass family. Her mother was a complete mess and her sister was also not doing very well. And if that wasn't enough, Daphne herself would soon be besieged with marriage proposals from virtually every pureblood and even half-blood families in Britain. Once an appropriate mourning period for her father's death was over, all these bastards would move in and try to claim her family's fortune and name by marrying her. Despite her extensive training, the enormity of the responsibilities placed upon her was overwhelming and terrifying.
So on one hand, Daphne knew that she desperately needed to keep her perspective and not get distracted. Her family needed her. The future of House Greengrass was at stake and would be decided in the next few months. But for now, she allowed herself this single pleasurable thought, a first one she had since her father died – she had boy-who-lived at her mercy.
It was something half the Slytherin house dreamed about over the years. Daphne could remember one time in her fifth year when Tracey, Pansy, Millicent and her would stay up late to drink and share ideas about what they would do with Harry Potter if they ever got him alone and helpless. The girl's had some very imaginative ideas. Daphne could not help but smile proudly knowing that she now had the power to do all that and more to the golden boy…
Yes, despite the inconvenience of the timing, Daphne Greengrass looked very much forward to interrogating Harry Potter. She did not plan on being unnecessarily cruel. As long as Potter fully cooperates with her, she will be merciful. But if he doesn't… well, maybe after she is done with that muggle–loving traitor, he will be instead known as the boy-who-wishes-he-never-lived. Daphne smiled at that idea. Her sister is not the only one who has a vicious side.
