"What do you expect me to do?" Astoria asked while applying her makeup. It was Saturday and her sister had finally allowed her to go and visit Draco during his Hogsmeade weekend. She was currently sitting behind her vanity table and getting ready.

"Something... anything!" Ron Weasley cried out from behind her. "Please! You're the only one who's ever been nice to her here!"

Astoria sighed as she noticed Ron was close to a nervous breakdown over the recent events. And to think she had such a great mood since waking up today... only for this to happen. Astoria still wasn't one hundred percent clear on what it was. But from what she gathered, it seemed that Hermione Granger had finally done it – she pissed Harry Potter to a point where even the Gryffindor golden boy finally had enough and decided to leave her at her sister's mercy, meaning the muggleborn girl was now completely and utterly fucked.

It was also the reason why Ron Weasley barged into her room and was practically begging her to do something about Granger's impending doom.

'I told her not to attract Daphne's attention! I told her not to speak of her rights!' Astoria thought irritably, remembering her vehement warnings to the girl. She also felt like she'd succeeded in convincing Daphne to actually treat Granger like a human being for a change. Astoria did this because she felt guilty over how she'd treated Ron in the beginning. But she also genuinely believed that Granger, or anyone for that matter, did not deserve to be treated horribly just because they were muggleborns.

But all her efforts were rendered irrelevant now that the girl went batshit crazy. 'All she needed to do was keep her damn mouth shut! How fucking hard is that?!' Astoria thought. "There is nothing else I can do for her. I'm sorry," she told Ron with sympathy, his image in the mirror becoming crestfallen upon hearing that.

Truthfully, Astoria wasn't sure who was to blame here the most. When she first learned what had happened, she's been angry with Harry for abandoning his friend like this. She could not think of a single explanation as to why Harry Potter would do something like that.

Except one.

Earlier, her sister had insisted she wanted a boyfriend and not a doormat and at the time, Astoria believed her. But the fact Harry Potter just handed his muggleborn friend over to someone like Daphne would suggest she'd changed her mind and had finally turned him into her helpless slave. It made Astoria angry at the both of them until she heard what was it that Granger said to Harry... and then she sorts of understood it.

The sad truth was that Hermione Granger's blood status was secondary at this point, even to a supremacist like Daphne. The main problem was that the girl was also incredibly arrogant and a constant source of pain for people around her, so much so that everybody would be better off if she just disappeared and was never heard from again. And that was an awful position for a muggleborn to be in. Especially one who's survival and well-being depended on her sister's good will. 'She practically dared Daphne to execute her!' Astoria thought in exasperation. 'But perhaps not everything is lost...'

"Would you stop already? And calm down!" Astoria snapped when she saw Ron nervously pacing across her room. "For what it's worth... I don't think Daphne will hurt her," she assured him right before pouting in front of the mirror and applying a lip gloss. When she was done, she examined her image and was satisfied with what she saw.

"You think so?" he asked hopefully and Astoria's eyes drifted from her image to his. He was now standing still and looked much calmer.

"I do," Astoria confirmed as she span around in her seat and faced him directly. It was not just an empty platitude as she suspected that even now, Harry Potter still cared about Granger. He might be beyond furious with her right now but he would not wish to see her dead or maimed at Daphne's hands. Also, while her sister was still adamant about pureblood supremacy, Astoria noticed that when Daphne spoke about muggleborns, she was much less hostile these days. Hell, she even tried to stop calling them mudbloods, especially when her boyfriend was around. It seemed being in a relationship with Harry Potter had a positive effect on her sister.

Astoria dearly hoped it meant Granger wasn't going to die today and that Daphne wouldn't just slit her throat to finally shut her up. Nobody deserved an execution just because they were annoying as fuck. Sadly, there was really nothing more she could do for Granger. Astoria had said her piece to her sister earlier but in the end, Daphne would always do what Daphne wanted. She supposed she would just have to wait and see whether the girl would still be alive after she comes back from Hogsmeade... speaking of which.

"How do I look?" Astoria asked as she stood up and made a twirl. She giggled when he gaped at her in response.

"F-fantastic!" Ron stuttered the answer as he looked at her longingly.

Astoria missed it completely, already lost imagining the look on Draco's face when he would see her. "That's what I was going for," she said with a satisfied smile before walking towards the door, ready to leave. She only paused when she noticed Ron wasn't following her. "You're just going to stand there?" she asked with a raised eyebrow as she glanced at him over her shoulder and saw him standing motionless.

"Well, you said- I mean you told me..." Ron mumbled in sudden confusion before finishing with, "...never mind," and following her out of the room.


Hermione groaned as life gradually returned to her body and she opened her eyes. A moment later she wished that she hadn't as the first person she saw was none other than Daphne Greengrass.

The pureblood girl was sitting on the other side of an office desk and was currently busy writing down letters or something. She kept scratching the paper with her quill and did not pay her guest any attention. Hermione tried to move away from the chair she was sitting in only to realize her hands were placed behind her back and tied to the backrest. Shifting her legs also did not work as her ankles were similarly tied to the damn chair. She wasn't going anywhere.

Hermione's shock and fear at waking up like this quickly transitioned into resignation. After all, she knew this was coming. She knew it the moment she refused to follow the guard's orders. However, she rather expected to be thrown back into her cell and not immediately brought before Daphne. Hermione briefly considered pretending to be still asleep but she was fairly certain Daphne had heard her groans earlier. The evil witch appeared to be completely oblivious as she continued to scribble her notes but Hermione knew Daphne was a good actress. She suspected it to be some twisted power play on her part. Hermione wasn't interested in playing and so she said nothing.

Instead, she quietly turned her head left to right, eyeballing her surroundings and trying to better assess her situation. She did not see anyone else in the room besides Daphne but strongly suspected there were guards standing behind her where she could not crane her head to look. As for the room itself, this was the first time she ever saw Daphne's office from the inside. Or at least, she assumed that's where she was. Even though she'd been serving the Greengrasses for months, there were rooms she wasn't allowed into. On the first glance though, Daphne's viper nest seemed like the rest of the Greengrass manor – sumptuous and unnecessarily opulent. It screamed of the old money and centuries-long aristocratic heritage Daphne Greengrass so often spoke about, believing it made her superior to those who couldn't boast of such a thing.

Hermione instantly disliked the room just as much as she disliked its owner.

There was a very good reason why virtually all muggle nations got rid of the concept of aristocracy or at least turned it into a mere ceremonial function. Not only was it fundamentally unfair to assign personal rights based on something like one's ancestry. It also stymied development as it often placed mediocre or outright unsuitable people in positions of power. For this reason, Hermione was puzzled why anyone would ever think it was a good thing. In fact, in her opinion, the entire pureblood supremacist movement was largely a kneejerk reaction to the magical society finally evolving beyond the outdated concept of aristocracy. As usual, the magical world seemed to be far behind the muggles when it came to social progress and justice. But she figured it was better late than never.

Hermione then focused her eyes on the girl in front of her, the very cause for the constant humiliation she'd been experiencing ever since they were captured. By virtue of her ancient bloodline, Daphne Greengrass saw herself as superior and expected (or rather demanded) obedience from muggleborns like Hermione. As if that wasn't appalling enough, Daphne had also managed to manipulate Harry Potter into agreeing with her. The son of a muggleborn now believed muggleborns were inferior and should obey people like Daphne for their own good, whatever that meant.

It made Hermione wonder – how the hell did Greengrass do it?! How could she have broken Harry to this degree?! What was her secret?

Hermione frowned when she noticed what the girl was wearing today. There was a table between them but from what Hermione could see, Daphne donned a sleeveless black dress with orange spots today. The dress seemed to have the sides opened with golden chains connecting them. It exposed a ridiculous amount of skin, including the sides of her boobs as Hermione found out when Daphne paused in her writing to stretch her arm. Coupled with the expensive jewellery she wore, even Hermione had to admit the blonde was absolutely gorgeous.

It made her curious if that's how Daphne managed to enthral Harry so utterly – by walking around him dressed like a whore, until he finally surrendered to his base instincts and promised to do anything for her favour. Was that really all it took or was she missing something?

Hermione had always thought poorly of women who would deliberately use their looks to get advantage in life, judging it demeaning and ultimately futile as the physical beauty did not last forever. Whenever she read a story in muggle tabloids about one socialite or another, acting in such a manner, Hermione would scoff and think something about sluts. She had even lower opinion of the weak-willed men who were foolish and gullible enough to fall for such obvious tricks.

But it was clear to her now she very much underestimated how deadly a weapon beauty can be, especially when the person wielding it is not a vapid airhead but rather a highly intelligent girl like Daphne. It was horrible to even contemplate but all the available evidence seemed to point to the same conclusion – Daphne Greengrass had beaten Harry Potter by twirling her blonde hair around her fingers, wearing tight dresses around him, and showing him some skin.

It would have been just embarrassing had it also not been so devastatingly effective. After their last conversation, Hermione had a feeling that Harry was ready to betray just about everyone and everything, go to any lengths, just for a chance to be with this monster who wore the face of an angel. It was like Daphne Greengrass was absolutely perfect and could do no wrong in his eyes.

Harry had insisted his relationship with Daphne was about far more than her looks. He might even honestly believe that but Hermione was certain of one thing – had Daphne been a boy, there would have been no chance in hell of her ever turning Harry to her side. Even if the hypothetical boy-Daphne had possessed the exact same personality and made the same arguments, Harry would never have agreed with a pureblood supremacist boy. Never would have given him the time of the day.

But since Daphne was a girl and a very attractive one, Harry had listened to her with rapt attention. Instead of immediately calling Daphne out on her racist bullshit, Harry stayed polite and continued to entertain her like a true gentleman – which was all that pureblood harlot needed to make Harry fall in love with her. Worse, she actually enticed him to submit to her twisted philosophy.

For a long time, Hermione was aware that Harry had a tendency to make all the bad decisions when faced with a pretty girl. But the thing with Daphne Greengrass was beyond even her worst nightmares! It was like every sexist stereotype wrapped into one. She figured they were very lucky Voldemort had never realized just how easily he could have won the war – rather than hunting his enemy down, it seemed all he needed to do was get an attractive girl to seduce Harry and then have her kill him or lure him into a trap.

The only mercy was that Daphne Greengrass no longer supported Voldemort albeit for all the wrong reasons. Harry might have deluded himself into thinking she was a good person after she'd agreed to help him. But Hermione knew Daphne only chose to fight because you-know-who wasn't a pureblood and, as strange as it sounded, his pureblood supremacist policies weren't radical enough for her...

For the next few minutes, Hermione's thoughts kept fluctuating between hating Daphne for being a bigoted monster and a slut and hating Harry for being a traitorous fool who thinks with his dick.

She only stopped when the pureblood witch finally spoke, "Well, aren't you going to say anything?" Daphne asked without looking up at Hermione or pausing in her writing, confirming Hermione's earlier thought that this was a power play and that Daphne was perfectly aware she was awake all along.

"Like what?" she merely asked in bored voice. She was in no mood to be indulging Daphne's games.

"Oh, the usual," the blonde replied in equally bored voice. "How I have no right to do this to you and should let you go. How mudbloods are equal to purebloods... all that stupid crap you constantly spout," Daphne said dismissively, still not even looking at her.

"Would there be any point?" Hermione asked and at last, Daphne paused in her writing and looked up at her.

"No... I guess not," the blue-eyed girl admitted as she put down her quill and leaned back in her chair as she examined her tied up prisoner. "But it's what you do, isn't it?" she said with a sneer, stretching her writing hand above her head. When Hermione said nothing in response, Daphne went on to say, "Harry told me what happened. How he told you about everything we've been doing for you. And how instead of being grateful to us, you spat in his face," Daphne said in cold voice, the very warmth of the room evaporating with every word she uttered.

"He betrayed me," Hermione spat, still angry about what Harry did and what he had become. The suggestion that she should be grateful for it was the same crap Harry dared to tell her earlier and it was just too much.

Daphne chuckled at her outburst but she looked everything but amused as she stood up from her chair and looked down on Hermione with murderous expression. "Listen very carefully, you stupid ungrateful little mudblood," she said very slowly while she walked over to Hermione's side of the table, her heels clicking on the floor. Meanwhile Hermione frowned when she finally saw the skirt of Daphne's dress. It wasn't as bad as she expected but was still unnecessarily short in her opinion.

"From day one, your well-being was Harry's paramount concern... much to my great annoyance, I might add," Daphne admitted as she stopped and stood in front of Hermione, looking down on her. "You were the reason he originally confessed everything to me. Because he knew if he didn't, I'd have you tortured and killed."

Hermione huffed at her words. Of course Daphne Greengrass would threaten their lives and well-being to make Harry talk. What was she trying to prove? That she was a complete monster? She needed not bother as Hermione already knew that for a fact.

"Even when I agreed to help him and we became closer, your safety was still his unconditional demand," Daphne continued.

"Became closer?" Hermione repeated the words sarcastically, "You mean after you threw yourself at Harry and he foolishly gave in to you?" she made the accusation. She could no longer stop herself from calling this Slytherin whore out on her behaviour. Even though Daphne Greengrass was an intelligent girl, when it came to Harry, she'd acted like a stereotypical blonde bimbo, using her looks to completely wrap him around her little finger and twisting him into a mockery of his former self. Hermione would be damned if she just allowed her to get away with it. Even if all she could do about it at the moment was to tell her off.

But instead of displaying a slightest bit of shame, Daphne openly laughed at Hermione's accusation, making the bound girl see red. "It must be killing you, Granger. The knowledge that Harry wants me," Daphne said, leaning over Hermione while blowing her a mocking kiss. "That he would rather have me than be your friend," she told her smugly and Hermione would have strangled her in that moment had her hands not been tied. But the worst was still to come as Daphne finished with, "And guess what? I have you to thank for that."

"E-excuse me?" Hermione gasped, absolutely bewildered by that last statement.

"Our first talk," Daphne clarified as she straightened up. "When you accused me of planning to marry Harry... it honestly made think about it. I had never entertained the idea of marrying a non-pureblood before. But after what you'd told me, I realized Harry was perfect for me..." Daphne said dreamily before shaking her head and smiling. "And somewhere along the way, Harry had realized it as well. So thank you, Granger. Thank you for getting us together," she finished, displaying a victorious grin as she loomed over her speechless prisoner.

Hermione was utterly paralyzed by what she just heard and her head was spinning. Finally, she started mumbling. "No, that's, I-... I didn't do this. I didn't do this! I DIDN'T DO THIS!" she yelled out madly while thrashing around in her restraints. The idea that what happened between Harry and Daphne was even remotely her fault was something she could not bear. 'Daphne is lying. She's messing with my head like always! This can't be!' she thought desperately.

Daphne responded by grabbing Hermione's jaw with her hand and ordering, "Calm yourself!" she hissed and Hermione instantly obeyed, not because Daphne ordered her, but because she realized she was accomplishing nothing. Besides, what Daphne was telling her couldn't be true. It had to be a lie!

"I'm not saying we wouldn't have happen without you... you're not that important," Daphne assured her while simultaneously insulting her in the process. "But you certainly helped speed things along."

"I did no such thing. I repeatedly warned Harry away from you, for heaven's sake!" Hermione stressed, Daphne's entire line-of-thought becoming more and more ridiculous.

"You mean to say, you nagged and disparaged all his ideas. The way you always did," Daphne retorted, completely unimpressed, before grinning widely. "Face it, Granger. You practically drove him into my arms. It's almost like you wanted us together," she told her mockingly.

Hermione shook her head angrily in denial. "It's ridiculous you would even try to pin this on me. The only two factors here are you being a manipulative bitch and Harry being an idiot. All you did was throw yourself at him. That's all!" she said before shaking her head in disgust and finishing with a curse, "God, you really are pathetic."

Daphne smirked as she leaned towards her once more, placing her hands on the chair's backrest over both of Hermione's shoulders. "I am lady Daphne Greengrass of the most ancient and noble House of Greengrass," she whispered right into her ear, so close now that Hermione could smell her perfume. "I have a family and a boyfriend who love me. I can go anywhere and do whatever I want," she told her before pushing away, raising up and looking down on Hermione with disdain once more.

"You, on the other hand, my dear mudblood, had obliviated your family and drove your friends away. You have no wand, no property whatsoever, not even the clothes you are wearing. And should you show your face in public, you'd be arrested and executed!" Daphne said as she patted Hermione's cheek with mock gentleness. "The truth of things is that I have everything and you have nothing. No matter what happens here, the only pathetic person in this room is always going to be you," she finished.

"Are you done?!" Hermione growled. She tried to turn her head away from Daphne's hand, wanting to stop the humiliation of being treated like her errant pet.

Daphne raised eyebrow before letting go of her and saying dismissively. "Frankly, I don't care how you feel about me and Harry... or anything else. You are a mudblood, an inferior being. And it's very important for you to understand that... to understand your position, Granger. Because after today, there is nothing, nothing stopping me from finally giving you what you rightfully deserve," the blonde finished with a chilling promise.

Hermione resisted the urge to gulp down as she looked up into the icy blue eyes of her tormentor, "So what are you going to do to me?" Hermione said, doing her best to sound brave as she asked that question.

Daphne smirked, sensing her hidden fear. "That's a good question," she replied simply and then paused as she thought the answer over or at least pretended to. Finally, she said, "No matter what you think of him right now, Harry was always going to let you go," the blonde told her. "Even had you publically declared your eternal hatred for all purebloods, Harry would have insisted I let you go," she said with obvious distaste at the idea before redirecting on Hermione and saying, "But it wasn't good enough for you, was it? You just had to push him away and curse him as a traitor."

Daphne let her stew on that for a moment before continuing, "And so now, instead of a person who loves you and thinks of you as a sister, it will be me who gets to decide your fate," she told her, looking down on Hermione imperiously, "You drove away the one person who was always going to be sympathetic to you and now you are stuck with... me," Daphne paused for a while before she shook her head sadly and tsked. "So my question is this... have you completely lost your mind?!"

"What did you expect? That I would be happy with the two of you?" Hermione said angrily in response. "After everything you did to me... you used me and admit to changing my very nature by all this humiliation... and all for something I'm not even sure is real!"

"Ah, yes, Harry told me what you said," Daphne said. "How did you put it? Giving you a lovely glow?" she said and tittered. She waited few heartbeats before making a gesture to the side of the room where Hermione could not see. "You want proof? I will give you proof."

Hermione watched as a guard came into view, confirming her earlier suspicion they were not alone in the room. The guard was pushing a small table on wheels in front of him. On it was placed a stand with three glass test tubes, partially filled with some clear liquid. There was nothing else on the table.

"W- what is that?" Hermione demanded to know in frightened voice. The image of Daphne Greengrass grabbing one of the vials and forcing its content down her throat while she struggled desperately was all she could think of in that moment.

"Oh, you're going to like this," Daphne said mysteriously. "Inside those tubes is a potion invented by a mudblood. It's called dark mist."

"But I've never heard of it," Hermione immediately replied, her interest piqued now and overriding her fear of being forced to drink it, at least for the moment. She was actually amazed Daphne Greengrass would even acknowledge a muggleborn's accomplishment like that.

"And you'll never hear of it again," Daphne agreed. "In fact, after we're done here, the knowledge of it will be erased from your mind."

"What?!" Hermione gasped, stopping herself short of screaming out that Daphne had no right to do that to her. As much as it pained her, she was now well aware nobody in the Greengrass manor cared about her rights whatsoever, not even Harry. So instead, she simply asked. "Why?"

"Because... it's a highly dangerous poison," Daphne explained and rolled her eyes when Hermione looked at her with horror, thinking her initial fears were justified. "Oh, would you relax? A poison isn't how I'd kill you," Daphne said in a reassuring tone thought it did nothing to assure Hermione.

"The dark mist functions by consuming physical magic in the body and converting it into other forms of energy," Daphne told her. "The man who invented it was a mudblood terrorist who hoped to use it to attack his pureblood superiors," she explained unhappily before perking up and saying, "Fortunately, the Wild Hunt captured him before he could implement his plan. They confiscated all his research."

"What happened to him?" Hermione asked before realizing it was a rather naive question. She could remember well how harshly the Hunt punished its enemies. Daphne grinned and answered with another question. "What do you think?"

She then went and picked up a pair of scissors from the table. Hermione entirely missed those earlier, all her attention having been captured by those tubes and their mysterious content. "Anyway, I am going to use it to demonstrate the existence of physical magic to you," Daphne said and went towards Hermione, the scissors held in front of her body. "I'm not going to cut your throat with scissors either!" the pureblood girl said when Hermione jerked in fright right as Daphne's fingers went into her hair and she used the scissors to cut off one strand.

"Observe now," Daphne told her as she dangled Hermione's brown hair strand above one of the test tubes and then let it fall inside. Hermione watched the test tube carefully for almost a minute but nothing was happening.

"Just what am I supposed to be seeing?" she finally asked.

"In this case... nothing," Daphne answered and then used the scissors to cut off one of her own blonde hair before throwing it into the second tube. This time, the liquid inside immediately started glowing in a bright silvery light, the suddenness momentarily blinding Hermione. She blinked at it in shock and only her restraints stopped her from rubbing her eyes in wonder.

"Now do you understand?! The poison reacts with my hair but not with yours. Because as a mudblood, you have no physical magic," Daphne informed her and Hermione frowned at the implications made, her eyes flicking between the tubes and the pureblood girl. Finally, she settled on the latter and said. "I thought the purpose of humiliating me for months was to give me this physical magic. So shouldn't my hair make it glow too?" she asked smugly, thinking she had found a contradiction in the story the pureblood girl was trying to weave.

Daphne merely smiled as if she had expected that question. She stepped towards Hermione and placed her hand into her hair once more. "Ohh!" Hermione cried out when her enemy suddenly yanked a hair or two out, not even bothering with scissors this time.

"Oh, shut up, Granger," Daphne told her while rolling her eyes. "You did much worse to Millie during your duel. Just shut up and watch this!" the blonde ordered as she took the hair and dropped it into the last tube.

This time, there was a light. It wasn't nearly as bright as the one from Daphne's hair but it was there. Hermione looked at it with amazement before she furrowed her eyebrows. "Why is it working now and not before?" she spoke her thought out loud.

Daphne folded her arms across her chest before declaring, "They say you are the brightest muggleborn witch of our time... though I suppose that's not saying much," she added mockingly before saying, "Anyway, you tell me."

As if to prove the first half of Daphne's sentence true, Hermione did her best to think about it and she soon arrived at a possible answer. "Is it because you used only the end first and the entire hair next?" she guessed and Daphne smiled and indicated her to go on. Seeing this, Hermione continued, "And since the end grew before I came here, it did not contain physical magic," she said, realizing where the pureblood girl was going with this.

"Excellent. Five points to Gryffindor!" the blonde chirped in a mixture condescension and genuine approval. However, she frowned when she saw Hermione's doubtful expression return. "What?!" she demanded.

"The first tube... the one that didn't glow at all... place your hair inside," she suggested, convinced that Daphne had faked the whole thing. When the girl's expression turned stern, Hermione quickly added, "Please."

The blonde stared at her for a moment before she burst out laughing, "What a clever girl," she mocked but then did as Hermione asked and used the scissors to cut off one more golden strand from her head. Daphne then threw it inside the first tube, right next to Hermione's hair.

Hermione assumed there was only water in the first tube and nothing would happen. But much to her shock, the same dazzling light came from the tube once the hair fell in. "Impossible..." she breathed out. Just as before, the light only slowly went out in span of a minute.

"Do you believe me now?" Daphne asked. Her voice was full of annoyance, as if she was insulted by the very notion that Hermione would dare not to.

Hermione didn't answer right away, too busy staring at the glowing tube that had now shattered a lot of her believes. Finally, she blinked away the unshed tears from her eyes and she looked over at Daphne and said with certainty, "This doesn't change anything."

Even if Daphne didn't somehow fake the test, even if it was all real, they still had no right to force this on her. Treating people differently, for any reason, was simply wrong and unacceptable! She proceeded to tell as much to Daphne but it only infuriated the pureblood girl more than ever before.

"You stupid ungrateful bitch! You've been given the greatest gift of all... the gift of magic!" the blonde shrieked, her eyes narrowing, "You're seriously going to act like it's a burden? You dare to reject it?!"

"What the hell do you want from me?!" Hermione cried out, matching her tone. "Do you expect me to get on my knees and thank you for what you did to me, for violating and compromising every aspect of my being? Do you expect me to ask for more?!" she asked angrily, finishing with, "Even if what you did made me a super-witch, it's still wrong. It's vile and it's evil! The only thing... the only thing I wish for is to be the way I was before! I want to be me again!"

Daphne stared at her silently for a while before saying slowly, "If you reject magic... then you are even less than a mudblood," she pronounced her judgement and as she did, her countenance twisted into a rictus of fury, disgust, and loathing. She grabbed Hermione by her hair and placed a wand against her throat. "You... are not a witch, Granger... you are nothing. And I'm going to end this."