Published at 30th of November 2019 10:41 pm

Chapter 61: Daphne Greengrass

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"Father." Daphne said tersely and gave a proper bow like how her father expected from her.

He gave a nod in return and scrutinized her for a long and uncomfortable moment before giving a grunt of approval.

She let out a breath at that and he gestured her to sit on the chair opposite to the table in his study.

"How was Hogwarts?" he asked and she realized without even anyone having to tell her that he was not really asking about her well being, her studies or her friends. But the social connections that she made in the school.

And so, she went on to explain the hierarchy in their Slyterin house.

Who supported whom. Which person was a potential ally and who could turn out to be a formidable enemy.

If any boy has tried to court her or not. Which, by the way was true.

It sickened her that there were older boys in her house that held intentions of courting her and some had even tried sending her meaningless things like cheap jewellery or flowers.

But she knew that she might very well end up marrying one of those boys in the near future so she held her disgust within her and told her father all the names of the boys who had tried to court her.

Then she went ahead and explained the factions in her own class.

The largest of which was headed by Draco Malfoy since his father had such large influence in the Board of Governors and in the ministry. Not to mention that Professor Snape was his godfather and supported him at every turn.

She also explained how Draco in fact, held little Slytherin qualities and might be easy to manipulate in the future if needed.

Through all of this, her father remained silent and when she ended her report he just let out a grunt, his stoic face not giving away any emotion and it was hard for her to tell whether he was satisfied with her or not.

"There's one thing you missed." He said after a long and oppressive silence.

She simply stared back at him with her own blank expression. Not knowing what to say. She wondered whether asking him would be seen as rude or not.

Whether she was seen as rude or not would mostly depend on his mood which was unfortunately something she was never able to read.

"Harry Potter." He said with a snort as if he was talking about someone insignificant and that she should have understood what he meant.

"What do you know about The Boy-Who-Lived?" he said with barely hidden sarcasm. He had always hated ignorant people. And believing that a one and a half year old child could defeat the dark lord was the height of ignorance for him.

But whether the boy defeated the dark lord or not was now beyond the point. The boy's fame and renown was what held his interest now.

Fame might be a fickle mistress but if used properly, it could be a great asset.

And he wanted to know if she could somehow use that asset for the family.

"He is… a reclusive person." She said carefully as she tried to remember every bit of news and rumors she'd heard about the boy.

"At the start of the term, I tried sitting beside him a few times without giving myself away but he always seemed to live in his own world." She explained "He is perhaps the most anti social person I've seen in Hogwarts."

Her father hummed at that, which probably meant that she should continue and she did.

"It is rumored that his muggle relatives abused him to a great degree when he was a child and because of this he doesn't trust other people easily now." Meaning that it was unlikely that she would be able to influence him even if she wanted to .

"It is also rumored that he is a prodigy in Charms and that Professor Flitwick is giving him private tuition these days on the subject."

Then she went on and told him about all the rumors about the boy and in truth, there were really a lot of rumors about him circulating in the school. Most of them were quite absurd so she discarded them without another thought.

After all, no eleven year old boy, no matter how smart, would ever be able to defeat, let alone kill, a fully grown mountain troll.

So she filtered those rumors out and told her father only those rumors that she believed to be true.

In the end, her father merely gave another grunt, like he always did and stood up from his chair from behind the desk before walking around and looking at her with a firm gaze.

She held her breath as he continued to gaze at her with an expressionless face before he finally nodded and she let go of her breath.

"Did you continue your Occlumency exercises like you told you to?" he asked and she nodded at that with a straight posture, like how a pureblood lady should act.

"Yes father." She said "I carried out your instructions to the last letter without wasting a single day of practice."

He grunted at that "We'll see." And then without giving her any warning, he said "Legilimens" and dove into her mind, shuffling through her mind like it was worthless book not even worth his effort before he came across something that made him frown for some reason and she froze.

What had he seen in her mind that had caused such a reaction from him.

Had she made some huge mistake without knowing about it?

She tried to recall the memories he was shuffling through when he stopped and frowned but it was to no avail.

She was a mere novice at mind arts and without him telling her what had caused him such displeasure, she would remain in the dark.

Then he removed his presence from her mind and she bend down on the chair, taking deep breaths and fighting the headache that she knew that she would soon feel.

He let her catch her breath before revealing the news to her

"One of your memory have been tempered with."

And she froze as a chill went down her spine at those words.

The words that every female pureblood feared more than anything else.

Someone had tempered with her memories. Which meant that she had no recollection of what had happened to her within a given time frame and that could mean bad things for her.

Very very bad things.

There was a reason why pureblood girls who knew about mind arts always remained in the company of one or more of their friends and refrained from going to places all alone where they could be accosted by other people.

The implications of her father's words were clear to her.

She might have been raped while she was in Hogwarts.

This was something that wizards often did with muggle women.

But in rare instances, this was something that happened among wizards and witches as well.

And such a thing was fairly easy to cover up.

An older boy could have assaulted her before taking her inside a class before proceeding to **** her. Then when he was done with her, he would simply vanish all the blood and other evidence before forcing her to drink a potion that would numb all her pain before obliviating her and soon enough, she would forget that anything had even happened to her.

Her mind was coming up with such horrible scenarios that she wished for a moment that she had not had such an active imagination.

And she hoped. Really really hoped that the worst case scenario in her mind was not the truth.

That she simply seen a couple making out and in order to keep their relationship a secret from the school, the boy had obliviated her and let her go.

She hoped that the truth was something like this and not one of the horrible scenarios that her mind was still coming up with.

She subconsciously touched her crotch wondering if someone will still marry her if she was not a maiden. After all, Pureblood families were a stickler for traditions and if anyone came to know that she had lost her virginity then it would be very hard for her to marry into a respectable family.

Even someone like Augasta Longbottom, who was firmly in the side of the light would refuse to accept her as a Daughter in law.

Her father simply stared at her without showing any emotions and for a moment, she hoped that she mother was alive right now. That she was here to comfort her in her time of uncertainty.

That her passing had not left her father a cold emotionless husk.

That there was someone in the world aside from her who would take care of her sister Astoria aside from herself.

That she was stronger than this.

Thankfully, he averted his judgmental gaze from her before tears would form in her eyes.

"I'll contact a mind healer." He said at last as he stood by the window and looked outside at the peaceful scenery "And then we'll see if it's possible to salvage your memory."

"There's a mind healer in St Mungos?" She blurted out before she could stop herself. The emotional roller coaster that this meeting had turned into was already taking it's toll.

The glare that he sent her way told her exactly what she wanted to know. That she shouldn't have spoken without being asked to. And not in such an unlady like way on top of that.

"No." He said before he removed his gaze from her "But there's one staying in France right now. I might have to pull in a few favors in order to set up a meeting with her. It shouldn't be too hard."

"You're not to leave the manor for the rest of the week." He said with a finality, giving her the punishment for her earlier slip up.

"Yes father." She replied demurely wondering what her mother would think of the man her father had become now, if she was alive.

"Hng… Dismissed." He said without even bothering to look at her and she bowed to him before leaving his solar making sure to keep a lady like and not hurry out of the room as she wanted.

Then she went directly into her room before locking it shut and jumping down on her bed.

She had some crying to do after all.

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