"Daphne and Harry...

... sitting in a tree ...

K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

.

.

.

"ASTORIA!" Daphne cried indignantly in reaction to her sister singing that annoying song she wished she had never learned. "I'll get you for this!"

Astoria looked over shoulder, a coy smile on her face. "If you can catch me," she said and then spurred her horse into canter. "Race you to the trident!" she cried, her voice gradually receding ahead as she sped along the road.

Despite her indignation, Daphne could not help but chuckle at her sister's antics. It was a welcome distraction from the other, more complicated issues which weighted heavily on her mind.

For starters, it has been a week since she kissed Harry Potter! Or rather since the boy decided to kiss her and she happily allowed it to happen without a slightest bit of a protest. The attraction between them could no longer be denied by either of them. Since then, it kept on bubbling away as they had spent a lot of time together.

Just as she promised him earlier, she began teaching Harry about his magical heritage. Everything that he should have been told a long time ago, given that he was the heir of not one but two ancient magical families. Fortunately, when Edrea Potter married into the Greengrass family, she brought along her personal book collection with her so Daphne had a lot of material to share with Harry when it came to House Potter.

It was a bit more complicated with the Blacks.

Although they were related through several other families, most notably the Malfoys, there were no intermarriages between Blacks and Greengrasses in the living memory and perhaps ever. The reason for that was a very old history. You see, the most ancient and noble House of Black came to Britain thousands of years earlier than the Greengrasses and were the oldest and most powerful magical family of Britain long before Daphne's family ever settled in Wistman's wood.

When the new wave of settlers arrived from beyond the sea; Daphne's family among them, a war soon erupted between them and a coalition of the native wizards led by the Blacks. The coalition was powerful and the war might have been lost had it not been for a direct intervention from Atlantis who decided to aid the settlers. Blacks were soundly defeated and forced to cede both Cornwall and Devon to 'the invaders' but it was something they never quite accepted and tried to take the territories back when Atlantis fell. But by that point, the settlers were firmly entrenched and could not be evicted so easily.

For over thousand years now, there was no open conflict between Blacks and Greengrasses as the latter became a firm part of magical Britain a long time ago. Nevertheless, some suspicion lingered on as compared to muggles, wizards had very long memories. As a result, Daphne had very little to teach Harry regarding his heritage from the Black side simply because she knew very little about them.

Fortunately, she then remembered that she had the Black family house elf in custody...

Kreacher was apparently obsessed with both pureblood customs and the history of House Black. He also had an amicable relationship with Harry and so Daphne felt that he could be the perfect teacher for him. She heard that the old elf even tried to teach some of it to him earlier although as Harry admitted, it did not exactly take at the time. Nevertheless, Daphne decided to revive Kreacher so that he could give it another shot now that Harry was assuming a more receptive mindset.

As expect, at first Kreacher viewed her with suspicion and hostility given that she was effectively keeping his master imprisoned. However, the old elf could see Harry's attitude towards Daphne and quickly understood that his master was not exactly displeased by his situation and was not trying to escape. More than that, Kreacher was somewhat excited by the possibility of House Black having a proper pureblood as its future lady if his mumblings were anything to go by. He eagerly promised to teach Harry the history and customs of House Black when they asked him. He would even answer Daphne's questions from time to time.

Despite his quirky personality, Daphne had to admit that she really liked Kreacher. He definitely had the right mindset for a house elf that quickly endeared him to the pureblood girl. Although Daphne was admittedly very surprised that he spoke so kindly of Granger. She supposed that nobody was perfect.

Between the pureblood lessons and war preparations, Daphne knew that she was throwing a lot of information at Harry over a short amount of time. She was afraid it would overwhelm and discourage him but was greatly relieved and pleased to see Harry eagerly devouring his lessons as well as all the books Daphne provided him with. It turned out that Harry Potter was quite the studious person as long as Weasley and the mudblood were no longer distracting him.

It needs to be said that Daphne was not the only one doing the teaching in their relationship as she was learning a lot from Harry as well. In return for her lessons and for her help with the war, Harry was teaching her defensive and offensive spells and various tactics he has learned over the years of constantly battling Voldemort and his servants in one form or another.

Up until then, Daphne always considered herself proficient in magical combat but sparring with Harry showed her that she had a lot of additional training to do if she hoped to match him in battle. As a pureblood, Daphne had admittedly more knowledge of dark magic and some of the more obscure spells. But so far, it made no difference as Harry always had her beat by sheer experience, quick-thinking, and creativity.

It was during one of their spars when things between them escalated once more...

Earlier

"Damn it!" Daphne thought as Harry's depulso she failed to predict and side-step in time knocked her off balance.

Harry immediately followed by releasing some sort of smoke from his wand which quickly filled the space between then and made it difficult for her to see. Daphne was not sure what the smoke was but assumed that Harry would not try to poison her so she did not bother with breathing protection spells. She simply vanished and blew it away while simultaneously diving to the side and getting ready to shield and retaliate... only Harry was nowhere to be seen!

"Where are you?!" she cursed, looking frantically around the now seemingly empty sparring room and wondering whether Harry left it for some reason while hidden by the smoke screen.

But before she could ponder the mystery any longer, a set of arms enveloped her from behind. "Expelliarmus," a familiar voice whispered and all she could do was watch helplessly as her wand flew out of her hand. A moment later, she felt a tip of Harry's wand touching her throat. "Gotcha!" he whispered next to her ear. She heard a tell-tale rustling of his invisibility cloak as his half visible hands held her hostage.

"You weren't supposed to use your cloak!" Daphne complained even as she turned around in his arms and yanked the hood of his head, revealing the sneaky green-eyed boy who was grinning at her innocently. "In battle, you must expect the unexpected," he retorted with a smirk before declaring loudly, "Constant vigilance!"

His smile faltered a little and Daphne understood why – the person who taught Harry that particular lesson no longer lived and she was ashamed at the thought that it could very well have been her father who killed him. Daphne smiled at him sympathetically and brushed his cheek with her hand. "I am sorry, Harry," she said and the boy smiled at her gratefully. They stayed like that for a while before separating. "Are you alright? No injuries?" Harry asked her while checking her over. His eyes lingered at several points and not because he noticed signs of injury but rather because the form fitting training robes she was wearing left little to imagination.

Daphne smirked when she saw him ogling her and stepped closer. "I don't know... perhaps you should check more carefully," she said even as her hands went around his neck, pulling him closer. Just when Harry was about to lean over to kiss her proper, she let her left hand slide along his arm and towards his wrist. As soon as she touched his hand Harry yelped as a shock went through his arm, forcing him to let go of his wand. Daphne nimbly caught it in the air and turned it against him, aborting the kiss at the last moment. "Constant vigilance, you say?" she asked with a raised eyebrow to which Harry just looked at her sheepishly as she now held his own wand against his throat. "What was that? Was it wandless?" he asked her with curiosity.

"No, I cast the spell on myself earlier. It lets me discharge a single shock into whoever I touch afterwards," Daphne explained. "Pureblood girls are commonly taught it for safety even though it is a rather dark spell one might say. Although very useful when your opponent thinks you are already helpless and beaten."

"Doesn't seem that dark to me."

Daphne raised an eyebrow. "That was the minimal variant. The shock can be made lethal."

Harry gulped nervously. "I see... will you teach me?"

"As long as you teach me that smoke screen spell you used," Daphne counter-offered. "That looked useful."

"It's a deal," Harry agreed and Daphne smiled. "Good. As for the shock spell..." she began to say before teasing Harry's chin with the tip of his wand. "The best defense is not to let your opponent touch you!" she said even as she turned the wand over and handed it back to Harry.

"You distracted me!" Harry complained as he accepted the wand back but there was a wide smile on his face. "You are a very distracting person, Greengrass."

Daphne smirked at his words and his teasing tone. Two could play that game. "I am, aren't I? And here I thought you would be used to it after our first meeting. Just face it – you fell for the same trick again, Potter! Seriously, do you let yourself be disarmed every time a pretty girl bats her eyes at you?" she tittered.

Harry paused but she could still see the desire in his eyes. "If she's you... yes. Gladly."

"Mmm," Daphne purred. "Good answer," she told him before leaning into his touch as their lips met.

Present

They managed to stop before anything truly inappropriate happened between them but it was getting harder. As long as it remained at kissing and groping, she felt they were fine but Daphne realized she needed to decide soon what exactly this thing with Harry Potter was and where she wanted it to go. Before either of them were hurt, emotionally or otherwise.

As for their sparring... let's just say Daphne did not like to loose. It felt good to trick Harry out of his wand and having him at her mercy. It led to a passionate make out session they both enjoyed. However, soon enough she fully intended to be able to defeat him of her own merit and without any tricks.

Speaking of defeat...

Daphne stopped her inner reflection and instead focused on the present and the fact her sister was just disappearing around a bend as she sped away on her brown horse. 'Just like Tori to declare a race when she's already ahead,' she thought briefly.

"Well, two can play at that game," Daphne said to nobody in particular even as she urged her horse into a trot.

But instead of trying to catch up with Astoria who was far ahead at this point, she gripped the saddle and the horse with her legs as firmly as she could. She then focused on her memories of the place to which Astoria wanted to race her before flexing her body like she was going to turn on the spot. There was a loud bang as Daphne disappeared along with her horse only to reappear almost two kilometres further down the road and far ahead of her sister. The black stallion snorted but otherwise showed no signs of discomfort. Daphne did not even have to slow down the trot.

A side-along apparition on a running horse.

A skill passed down in her family for many generations that Daphne was proud to possess if only to a basic degree.

In the past, it was utilized extensively by the riders of the Wild Hunt as a highly useful battle tactics as well as an intimidation technique. Some muggles actually died of fright after witnessing the dreaded cavalcade appearing out of thin air! Especially since many of the riders wore armors which gave them a demonic appearance, meant to terrify their enemies.

The skill itself was taught to all riders of the Wild Hunt and as a result was now known among many pureblood families. But given her family's long history with the group, it always had a special meaning for House Greengrass. Even though the Hunt no longer rode, mastering the skill was still considered a rite-of-passage for the future lords and ladies of her family. Daphne was actually better at it than her father was, being able to apparate at a fast trot. And yet, it was still nothing compared to some of her ancestors who could do so while in a full gallop.

Possessing a sufficient skill was also only one of the two requirements for success. The second one was that the horse had to be trained to handle the unpleasant feeling of side-along apparition to a point where it showed no harsh reaction to it. An untrained horse would immediately panic and throw its rider off, not to mention stumble unless the apparition was performed with the animal standing still. The method of successfully training horses to tolerate apparition as well as magic in general was a long held secret of House Greengrass. Daphne's family has been solely responsible for supplying the Hunt riders, and anyone else willing to pay for it, with horses.

Daphne petted her mount while she waited for Astoria to arrive to the finish line, thinking about her sister's earlier reaction when Daphne informed her about her interest in Harry Potter. For many years, she was always somewhat disappointed with her sister for not possessing what Daphne considered a correct mindset for a pureblood. Now for the first time she was grateful for it because at least she did not have to worry about Astoria rejecting Harry on the grounds of him being a halfblood.

No. What she was mainly worried about was how much poison has Draco Malfoy whispered into her ear regarding the boy-who-lived. Astoria was well aware there was an altercation between them last year which left her future husband injured. Malfoy was surprisingly tight-lipped about the entire incident among his Slytherin classmates but Daphne suspected that he confessed most of it to Astoria. Her sister and Draco became very close last year and talked often. When their parents caught the wind of it, it was what led to their betrothal.

So when Daphne finally told her sister what was happening between Harry and her, it was with some trepidation about how Astoria would react.

To her relieve, there was no screaming or anything, however, it was very clear Astoria was distrustful of Harry and suspected some sort of foul-play on his part. She went so far as to demand from him to tell her 'what the hell he was playing at with her sister'. Fortunately, as she got to know Harry more and saw them together, Astoria finally accepted that there was not a single bad bone in Harry's body and that he had no evil intentions towards Daphne whatsoever.

Naturally, that made her completely switch her theory around and she instead started to suspect that Daphne was the one playing games with Harry! Finally, in the last two days, Astoria seemed to have abandoned even that theory and now just stared at Daphne contemplatively whenever Harry was around or his name was brought up in a conversation.

Daphne was very confused by that behavior. Which was one of the main reasons she decided to go on a ride with her today when Astoria asked. Daphne was looking forward to spending time alone with her sister but she would also use this opportunity to discuss some of the war plans with her and most importantly, finally learn her sister's thoughts on Harry!

While waiting for Astoria to arrive, Daphne walked the horse to the edge of the circular green colonnade and dismounted. She then tied it to a tree with her wand before stepping through the tree line and entering the small cleared area within. In the center of the circle was a large grey rock which was partially chiselled away at several spots like someone was going to make a statue out of it but then changed their minds. Most importantly, out of the top of the rock was sticking out a huge metal trident. The larger part of the handle was buried deep in the rock but the rest of it, along with the three prongs, was exposed high towards the sky.

This was the place Astoria meant when she suggested they race to 'the Trident'.

Daphne was standing in front of the central ward stone powering all the magical protections around the Greengrass manor and its vast surrounding lands. It was installed over two thousand years ago, right after her family moved to Devon. Unlike regular ward stones, it easily covered all their properties and did not even need to be regularly recharged. The reason being that the trident which, on the first sight looked like an ordinary copper or brass, was actually orichalcum. Also known as inverterum, it was a steady source of raw magical energy which made it ideal for use in ward stones.

It was probably one of the last such tridents ever manufactured on Atlantis. House Greengrass purchased it at a great cost from the guild of families who made them shortly before the island fell. This was also the reason why the rock looked like it was only half-sculpted. Traditionally, the Atlantidian ward stones were fashioned into the likeness of Poseidon, the first chancellor of Atlantis, holding the trident towards the sky. But the sculpting was not finished in time and it was never deemed appropriate to finish it after what happened.

The secret of manufacturing orichalcum was lost along with Atlantis and nowadays, nobody was even certain what it truly was. The best they could tell was that it was not really a metal but some unknown substance, permanently enclosed in a protective shell of magic. It was deduced that when used to power the wards, miniscule amounts of orichalcum were somehow reacting with the ward stone or even the surrounding air and turning into tremendous amounts of pure energy which was then converted into magic by the interwoven spells.

The families who possessed the remaining pieces of orichalcum made a magically binding pact governing how it should be used as well as prohibiting any attempts at making more as it was widely suspected that orichalcum was what destroyed Atlantis in the first place. No definitive evidence was ever presented but its destructive potential was made obvious at the beginning of the century, in 1908. At that time, one of the original families which made the pact died out and an orichalcum statue weighing less than 300 g was passed off as inheritance before House Greengrass and the other surviving bloodlines of Atlantis could react. Unfortunately, the new family immediately saw the potential and started experimenting with the metal. They also went on the run when realizing they would be prevented from doing so. After months, they were finally tracked down to their hiding place, deep in forests of Siberia.

Sadly, it was too late as during one of the experiments, they accidentally managed to drain away the protective magical shell around the small statue. The resulting explosion destroyed an area of over two thousand squared kilometres. The only mercy was that the region was practically uninhabited at the time.

After that, the known remaining orichalcum objects were placed under Fidelius by their owners and the very existence of the metal fell out of the public knowledge. But sadly, not before it inspired some wizards to come up with ideas on how to potentially recreate the 1908 explosion, even without orichalcum. Nothing came out of it at first but after muggles accidentally found it, they actually built it in form of the first atomic bomb. The massive explosion muggles created was absolutely pitiful in comparison as even less than half a gram of orichalcum would be more destructive. But it was still an important lesson for the survivors of Atlantis – they needed to be much more careful.

Daphne shuddered a little as she considered how heavy the trident in front of her was. Likely over one hundred kilograms. Heavy enough to destroy all of Europe and perhaps more. If only she could just break off one of its tips and then let it detonate wherever Voldemort was currently located. It would certainly make a short work of this war.

The war.

Although she often wished she could, Daphne did not spend the last week merely fooling around with Harry. A lot of her time was devoted towards laying down foundations of the coalition for dealing with Voldemort. Most of that involved identifying and gathering allies who would be inclined to help with such endeavour. It was a daunting task for Daphne but after she thought about it for a while, she realized that undermining Voldemort was a more realistic goal than she originally thought.

It was inevitable that many people would choose to look the other way even knowing what he was. However, the fact the dark lord was nothing more than a bastard halfblood son of a muggle would be enough of a deal breaker to turn many of the die-hard pureblood supporters against him. After all, it managed to turn Daphne, didn't it? And with the old pureblood families came the younger pureblood families, the halfbloods, and even muggleborns who served them. Daphne just needed to carefully decide who she could trust and how much information to share with them at the time. It was a slow process because she had to be very cautious but she was moving forward.

The families directly indebted to House Greengrass in some way would answer when called upon. Therefore, the first thing Daphne focused on was obtaining the support of House Selwyn – a very influential pureblood family and also her close relatives thanks to her father's marriage.

It's current lord was her maternal grandfather and it was something of a common knowledge that Daphne was his favourite granddaughter. On one evening a week ago, she issued an invitation to him. The official excuse was discussing a betrothal proposal. In reality, it was so that she could share all that she learned about the dark lord and obtain her grandfather's support.

Earlier

"... three of them are already destroyed. At least three remain as far as we know," Daphne finished presenting the evidence of the dark lord's blood status as well as the fact he mutilated his soul not once but six times at least.

"I see," lord Adrian Selwyn simply said in reaction. He stood from his chair and picked up the photo of the original death eaters lying on Daphne's office desk. It was late in the evening and Daphne lighted the fireplace in her office for ambiance. Her grandfather walked over to it and examined the photograph in the light of the fire, looking at his younger self standing there with the others from the first generation of death eaters.

Throughout her narration, lord Selwyn kept on an emotionless expression on his face that he was so famous for and which was known to terrify all that negotiated with him. However, Daphne knew that he absorbed and carefully considered her every word.

"I can remember myself and the others once asking the dark lord about his ancestry," he finally said without looking away from the roaring fire. "That must have been over forty years ago."

"What did he say?" Daphne stood up and began to slowly walk towards him. It was something she always wondered about ever since Harry told her the truth – why wasn't Voldemort's inferior muggle origin discovered much sooner? Did everyone just accept his word that he was a pureblood?

"That... I don't remember," Adrian Selwyn answered, his mind lost in memories. "All I remember is that the answer satisfied me completely and that it established the dark lord's pureblood status beyond the shadow of a doubt."

Daphne paused at that before saying, "That... that doesn't make any sense."

"No. No, it doesn't," her grandfather agreed. "I can't recall a single argument or evidence he used. And yet even now, that memory makes me want to dismiss everything you just told me as nothing more than a lie and nonsense."

He turned to look at Daphne and their eyes met. The reflected flames were dancing angrily in her grandfather's eyes. It took Daphne a moment before she came to the same conclusion that lord Selwyn must have reached in that moment. "He enchanted you so you would not question his blood status..."

"That would be my conclusion as well, yes," her grandfather agreed and first emotion that evening appeared on his face – hatred. Pure unadulterated hatred. It looked like he was about to throw the photograph into the fire but then he changed his mind and put it down on the hearth's mantel.

There was silence for a very long while before Daphne asked. "So you agree with me... Voldemort must be destroyed."

Her grandfather looked at her and said, "No."

"No?!" Daphne gasped in disbelief.

"No," Adrian Selwyn insisted. "What he must be is cut into pieces little by little for daring to do this. Then we have to take turns torturing that halfblood filth until he begs for mercy and turns insane. Only then should we mercifully feed his mongrelized soul to a dementor."

Daphne chuckled at that. "Wouldn't it give the poor creature indigestion?"

"True," he agreed with a small smile. "We can't have that. Very well, I suppose we can just have him killed. So let's get to it, shall we?"

Over the next several hours, the two of them discussed a strategy for accomplishing that goal which they now shared. Naturally, they argued on many points but Daphne felt some of her grandfather's suggestions were very useful so she conceded when she felt he was correct. Likewise, she managed to convince him on validity of her point of view on several occasions.

"Very well," he agreed at the end. "You have the full support of House Selwyn, granddaughter," he said and extended his hand which Daphne took and shook. "Thank you, grandfather."

Internally, Daphne was very relieved and joyful at that news. Full support of House Selwyn meant not only her maternal relatives but also the various families and people indebted to them. And there were many of them. While Daphne's family preferred to groom intelligent and powerful muggleborns, House Selwyn historically focused on halfbloods. Their pragmatic philosophy could be summed up by a proverb 'today's halfblood is tomorrow's pureblood'.

House Selwyn would search for underprivileged halfbloods who nevertheless showed great intelligence or magical ability. In exchange for their fealty and acknowledgement of pureblood superiority, Selwyns would support their advancement through the magical society. Many of the high-ranking Ministry officials who were halfbloods owed their positions to the silent support from House Selwyn and other similarly minded pureblood families.

"I will await your instructions, Daphne," he said at end and was about to leave. "That's it?" Daphne asked, slightly surprised. At her grandfather's questioning look, she added. "I half expected you would try to take over this operation... part of me was even hoping you would," Daphne admitted quietly.

Her grandfather chuckled at that. "I am afraid I am a bit old to be leading a revolution. That has always been for the young."

"You are not that old," Daphne objected. After all, Adrian Selwyn wasn't even ninety yet. The man smiled and said, "You are an excellent liar, my dear. I always liked that about you." Before Daphne could say she wasn't lying, he continued. "I am afraid it's just not my age per se that makes me unsuitable. The sad truth is that members of my generation are too compromised by supporting Voldemort for many decades now. Too many people would refuse to join us should it be someone like me leading the fight. I will help you however I can but I cannot be seen as leader in this."

Daphne nodded as that made a sense to her. She was lucky and very glad to have met Harry before she received her own dark mark. But her grandfather bore his one for decades and too many people knew about it. The man smirked and said, "Besides... I am not the one who is holding the key to our victory. And I don't just mean victory over the dark lord."

It took Daphne a moment to deduce what he spoke of. "You mean Harry Potter, don't you?" she asked, realizing that her grandfather must have been talking to Astoria.

The man nodded. "I must say, making the boy-who-lived fall in love with you was a stroke of brilliance, my child," he said with voice filled with pride. "That was splendidly done."

"Thanks," Daphne said even though she felt like she did not deserve that praise. After all, it's not like she planned for Harry to fall in love with her, assuming that is what was actually happening in the first place. She knew that the boy was attracted to her. And to be honest, she was attracted to him. But love?

Still, she knew what her grandfather meant by Harry Potter being a key to their victory. They discussed it earlier. "If he supports mudbloods and blood traitors, then we won't stand a chance when Voldemort is gone," he told her. "But if you can make Potter remain neutral or better yet, turn him towards our side..."

It made Daphne wonder if she could really do that. She knew that Harry believed in equal rights for mudbloods. And as much as that annoyed her, Daphne respected that he had this opinion. So could she ever hope to change it? Harry already seemingly accepted the way she was treating Granger even though he did not like it one bit. Admittedly, Daphne was holding herself back from being much harsher on that mudblood and he knew it. Harry knew she was doing that only for his sake and he appreciated it.

But in the future, Daphne planned to do the same and more to others. All muggleborns, especially the ones with attitude like Granger's, needed to be placed under firm control of purebloods. Would Harry grudgingly accept that as well or would he fight her on it? Would he hate her for it? And what if Daphne asked him to publically support the pureblood cause? What if she asked him to do it for her...

"So you don't mind that he is not a pureblood," she asked her grandfather.

He shook his head. "Not really. You know my family's opinion on this. Your children would be pure and that is all that matters. Besides, a powerful wizard like Potter? I would be considering matching him with one of your cousins if he was not already yours."

Daphne felt a pang of anger and jealousy at that idea which showed up on her face briefly.

"If his blood status does not please you, you can always have him poisoned some time after your wedding," the man suggested, misinterpreting Daphne's earlier expression. "Being his widow will give you just as much public influence as being his wife. Just make sure he bequeaths all of Potter and Black properties to you."

Daphne stared at him for a moment in disbelief, being reminded why Adrian Selwyn was known as 'that old heartless bastard' by so many people outside of his family. "I don't think that will be necessary," she gave him a terse cold reply, hoping that her grandfather would take a hint and fortunately, he did.

"As you say. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I am going to see your mother."

Present

Daphne stepped outside the tree line because she could hear a rider approaching. She knew that her sister would be here soon. And once Astoria finished pouting over losing the race, they would have a lot to discuss.

And sadly, not just about Harry. Oh, how she wished that the world would just disappear or stop for a moment. Daphne could then spend time with the boy without all the responsibility looming over their heads. Alas, it was not meant to be and the war took precedence for the moment.

After obtaining the support of House Selwyn, Daphne did not rest but continued to collect even more allies.

She was lucky that so many heirs and heiresses of influential pureblood families were either her classmates or close to her age in one of the lower or upper classes. Through her good friends Millie and Tracey, she already managed to bring Bulstrode and Davis families into the fold as well. She was also friendly with Hestia and Flora and knew that she could get support from Carrows through them. Of course, with the exception of the elder set of twins who were now teaching at Hogwarts and were fanatically loyal to the dark lord. Fortunately, the rest of the Carrows mostly hated Alecto and Amycus for getting caught after the first war and shaming their family name.

As for the Rosiers, Daphne knew they could be convinced by her grandfather who was best friends with their lord since they were little boys. House Rowle was another strong possibility as Daphne was friends with their heir Alfred who used to be three years her senior in Hogwarts. In Daphne's fourth year, the two of them went on several dates to Hogsmead at the insistence of his parents. Alfred was gay and was not really interested in her which he openly admitted. However, he asked her if they could possibly keep up the charade for a few months until he graduates and gets out of his parent's nagging shadow. He was still grateful to her for having agreed to it.

Of course, not everything was going to be easy.

Going through the rest of her classmates, Daphne knew that she probably had no chance to get support from Parkinsons since Pansy no longer liked her at all ever since Astoria's betrothal. With the boys, it was even worse. Zabini would not care about the war either way but Daphne believed she could at least get contacts for available mercenary groups from him if she promised him a commission. Theo Nott and his family could probably be convinced to support her but they would ask for her hand in marriage in return – something Daphne had no intention of giving them. There were several more family names which she would have preferred to see on her side but knew that they would never support her because their devotion to pureblood ideals was either not strong enough or because there were historical conflicts between their families and Greengrasses.

All in all, Daphne was left with one inescapable conclusion – she needed the Malfoys.

Without them, the balance of forces was too even for her liking. But if she could convince House Malfoy, then she would automatically get Crabbes and Goyles as well and that was too much of a price to ignore.

And that's why she was going to discuss this with Astoria even though normally she would have preferred to keep the war as far away from her little sister as possible. Unfortunately, Astoria's betrothal to Draco was the best link to the Malfoys she had. Lucius Malfoy was Daphne's third cousin once removed so technically they were already family but only distantly so Daphne felt that going through Astoria had a much greater chance for a success.

In the next minute, Astoria finally arrived to the trident. Both the girl and the horse were huffing tiredly and she stared at Daphne with mixture of disbelief and anger. "That is so unfair! You were not supposed to use that ability!" she complained in petulant voice, just as Daphne knew she would. Her mare reflected her indignation and wrathfully stomped her hoof in the dirt.

Daphne chuckled gleefully. "Says who? In any case, you must always expect the unexpected in any competition," she said and then proclaimed loudly. "Constant vigilance!"

Astoria looked at her oddly. "Where did you get that?!" she asked even as she dismounted and then slowly handwalked her horse in circles around the trident to cool her down.

Daphne shook her head as she went to walk with her sister. "Just something I heard."