Daphne- June 26th

A young blond with long hair and blue eyes, showed the evidence of an impeccable upbringing her posture formal and stiff her legs crossed at her ankles. As she ate her fruit and scones, she chatted amiably with her housemates and thought back to what she had seen a couple of nights previously. Was it indeed time for the Greengrass neutrality to go out the window?

Daphne Greengrass sat quietly next to her best friend Tracy Davis listening closely to the surrounding conversations. The day that they had come upon was one that she knew that her own father had long feared. The Greengrass family had managed to remain neutral during the last war. Her father doubted that they would succeed in doing so again if the Dark Lord returned. That much was made clear in her father's response which she received courtesy of their gorgeous family owl Artemis.

She had been at Hogwarts for four years now and her sister had joined her two years previously and so it was not like this was an overly unusual occurrence. What was unusual was the contents of the letter.

Dear Daphne,

If what you shared is indeed the case, it will be necessary for us to brace for a very dark time. While my father managed to maintain our famed neutrality in the last war, I severely doubt that we will be able to do so this time. Wars are costly and they will need to gain an infusion of new members and more money.

Please, report back with your observations on what is going on at Hogwarts and we can determine then how best to proceed for our family.

Your loving father,

Cyrus Greengrass

Daphne was extremely nervous as she observed the factions that were forming slowly among the members of various houses. Then, her ability to listen to some conversations that were calmer and more reasoned was disrupted. That was of course accomplished by members of the Gryffindor house. Seamus Finnegan stood hands clenched into fist, "You liar." Harry calmly replied, "I'm not a liar and someday you will find that out for yourself." Neville Longbottom attempted to defuse the situation, "I am sure that this isn't something that Harry of all people would make up, and Dumbledore said…." The Irish boy glared, "so Dumbledore says because he says."

Daphne contemplated the alignment that was currently forming. Then something intriguing caught her attention. She didn't care so much for Malfoy, but Pansy could tolerable when, she wasn't attempting to play queen bee of Slytherin. Yet, the blonde could always be counted on to be up on current events, "I 'm telling you the Dark Lord is back. If we don't want to be turned into his torture toys we need to move and now. I have Potter onboard." Pansy hissed back, "are you sure that you can trust him? After all we haven't been exactly nice to him in the past." The blonde grinned, "I'm sure, we made an unbreakable vow."

That intrigued Daphne and she considered her options as she continued to listen. Draco continued, "for all that Harry Potter is the Gryffindor Golden Boy on the surface he is actually capable of thinking for himself. He recognizes that a third path is viable to reform things without the necessity of war. Unfortunately, since the Dark Lord won't allow that it behooves us to help Potter in ending the Dark Lord permanently. Then helping in the reconstruction efforts to reform the current system."

Daphne considered what she learned from being willing to listen and speak. She slipped away from the table and headed to her dorm and started on a response to her father.

Father,

I have been monitoring things carefully over the last couple of days and we certainly are in for dark times. The children of some of the Death Eaters are concerned about being forced in the service of You-Know-Who. The Malfoy heir has already entered into an unbreakable vow to aid Potter in order to avoid the afore-mentioned fate. It sounds like others are going to follow his lead in hopes of reform, once they assist him in ending You-Know-Who permanently. They have been aware of this possibility for some time.

Others are less willing to acknowledge such things because then they would have to be willing to acknowledge the danger involved for themselves and others. Would you wish me to approach Potter?

Your dutiful daughter,

Daphne

Daphne Greengrass had always had an interest in healing. How much of it was driven by her desire to find a way to save her sister, of whom she was not sure how long she would have to live no one could say. So, she had actually had a front row seat over the last couple of years as Harry had come to the infirmary after his adventures and was well aware of what his injuries and such were including the remnants of the Basilisk bite from their second year of school.

She was desperately upset seeing him come back this particular time as she had been away of a particularly sickening feeling as he murmured in his delirium, after the final task. They had given him some dreamless sleep and some healing potions for bones that improperly healing and Daphne herself had rubbed him with a salve to heal his bruises. She had never expected that Harry Potter would be an abused child. But the scans and the healing they were doing were all things that left her with no doubt.

So, she struggled, her face and eyes red and dry from the salt in her tears. The entire time that she was at Hogwarts she had been careful not to draw attention for a particularly good reason and she hoped that her efforts were not about to be in vain.