Disclaimer: Same as Chapter 1

Chapter 21

Letters for Daphne

Slytherin Girls' Dormitory

It had been a tiring day for Daphne, to say the least. After the entire confrontation with Granger (who had gone kicking and screaming to the hospital wing) classes had dragged on. There had been a lot of pointing and staring throughout the day thanks to the Hogwarts gossip mill but she couldn't care less about that. She was worried sick about Harry. There was still no news from him. In addition to that, her mother had not written to her this morning. That was worrying to say the least. Fiona Greengrass made it a point to write to both her daughters every single day since the time that Voldemort had been resurrected just in order to reassure them that they were fine.

Daphne rubbed her forehead tiredly. The dormitory was empty at the moment. It was dinner time and everyone was in the Great Hall. She didn't feel like joining them however. She was in no mood to put on a brave face in front of them all. Tracy and Ginny had offered to stay with her and keep her company but she was not up for it. She just wanted to wallow.

A 'pop' roused her out of her reverie.

"Mistess Daphne," squeaked the house elf in front of her bowing low, "Mippy has two letters for you from your mother and Master Harry."

"How did you manage to get in here?" stammered Daphne.

"Hogwarts' wards are not designed to keep the founders' house elves out, miss. Mippy is bound to the House of Slytherin and is hence able to enter as and when she pleases."

"Thank you so much." Exclaimed Daphne, collecting the letters. "Do you know if my mother and Harry are expecting a reply?"

"Only if you wish to miss. If you want, you can read them in peace and call me when you are ready to send your reply back."

"I will do that. Do-do you know if Harry and my parents are alright?"

"Master was in the library when Mippy left. Mistress Lily had gone to visit Lord and Lady Greengrass at their manor. Mippy has to go back now. She is needed to serve dinner."

With that, the elf vanished.

After casting an imperturbable charm on the door, with trembling hands, Daphne opened her mother's letter. What in Merlin's name had prevented her from writing today?

Dear Daphne,

I scarcely know how to tell you all that has happened in the last twenty four hours. Firstly, I am sorry if I caused you to worry by not writing to you today. I couldn't risk Dumbledore knowing what I am about to tell you.

Remus Lupin arrived at the Manor last night. Or rather, he was sent by a portkey. His mission with the werewolves on the Continent was compromised and he seems to have been kept as a prisoner and severely tortured. Your father and I strongly suspect that the Death Eaters had something to do with it. Remus was in a terrible state. He is lucky to have survived at all. The bastards had tortured him with molten silver by the looks of it. Luckily, Boris came over and the two of us together managed to restore him to a somewhat stable condition.

This morning, your father was called to Bulgaria. You remember the werewolf who had saved his life a few years ago in France? Alexandra Grigori? She called upon the life debt he owes her. Imagine my surprise when your father comes back with a woman who is Remus' mate! Apparently, she is one of the leaders of the werewolf colony in Bulgaria and is carrying his child. The poor woman was on verge of a collapse. She was severely drained of her magic as Remus was not there with her to provide the contribution of his magical reserves for the development of their child.

I don't know what Remus' reaction will be once he awakens. Lily is of the opinion that he will be overjoyed – the poor man has always been of the opinion that he would be unable to have a child of his own due to his 'condition' or his 'furry little problem as Sirius calls it.

However, this is not the main reason that I am writing you this letter. The truth is that I don't know what to say lest I raise your hopes and my suspicions are wrong.

Remus came onto our manor grounds by portkey. I think I already mentioned that above. Now Daphne, you know how the wards around the Manor are designed. It should not have been possible that any random portkey should have been able to breach the manor wards due to the anti-portkey wards present. The only portkeys allowed are the ones keyed in to the blood of family members or friends who have been proved as good as members of the family. The one that we found on Remus was exactly one of those. However, I have no idea how it was still active as your father had deactivated it two years ago along with removing Theodore's magical signature from our wards. I have enclosed it here, in the envelope. I think that we were wrong about Theodore all those years ago, Daphne. If we were, I will never forgive myself.

If you decide to seek him out, PLEASE take Blaise with you. My theory might be wrong and he might still be a death eater after all. I will not have you risk your life for my folly.

Love,

Your Mother

With shaking hands, Daphne ripped open the envelope. Her eyes widened upon seeing the frame that clattered to the floor. It was of a younger Daphne and Astoria standing arm in arm with Theo. She remembered the day all too well. It had been a month since Theo's mother had died of dragonpox, when he had been about eight.

Theo had been distraught. He had adored her. His father had harshly told him to get over it and his brother Robert had just sneered and called him weak for 'showing his emotions like a common mudblood.'

It was in this tense atmosphere that Daphne's mother had suggested taking the young boy to spend a day with her girls. Her mother had been good friends with Lady Nott who had been a gentle soul, forced into marriage with a vicious man to pay off her father's gambling debts.

Daphne and Astoria had been so very concerned about their friend and had spent the whole day trying to make him just smile. It had been when little Astoria had given him her favorite Rowena Ravenclaw doll 'to make him feel better' that Theo cracked a smile. Astoria had always been Theo's favorite. The picture showed the three of them laughing near the lake in the woods surrounding Greengrass manor; the Ravenclaw doll occupying the oh-so-very important position at the center of the frame. Her mother had taken the picture when she had come to take Theo back to Nott Manor at the end of the day. The look on Theo's face when he realized that he had to go back home, was heartbreaking. He had sobbed bitterly, begging her mother to not send him back.

There had been no way that the Greengrasses could keep Theo with them permanently. However, Daphne's dad had reached an agreement with Henry Nott to let the boy visit a couple of times a week in order to be tutored with Daphne. It had worked, as Robert Nott being two years older was not interested in the least in being tutored with his 'weak' younger brother and Henry Nott had been too happy to have the 'spare' be taken off his hands. Little did they know that the youngest Nott who they had so easily cast away, had a thirst for knowledge and a keenness of mind that very few purebloods possessed. Daphne had soon discovered that a few weeks after their lessons had started.

The next time Theo had come to visit, they had given the boy the framed photograph and keyed him into the manor wards – just as a way for him to easily come and go as he pleased – especially if Henry Nott got a little too free with his fists in one of his drunken rages.

Daphne had teasingly called Theo the brother she never had. He nearly was, too. They had been the best of friends until the end of their third year. That was when the whispers had begun of Voldemort's return. Over the summer before their fourth year, Theo had become extremely distant. He had barely come to visit them twice over the summer. Astoria had been devastated that her 'Teddy' had stopped coming over to meet her.

Finally, concerned about the boy, her father had gone over to Nott Manor to enquire about his whereabouts. Lord Nott, the bastard had gleefully told her father about how with the imminent return of the Dark Lord, both his sons were being trained by him personally in order to take the Mark and how it was time for Cygnus too, to choose a side.

Fourth year had been terrible for the Greengrass sisters. Theo had ignored them completely and began to associate with his older brother and Draco Malfoy of all people. Slytherin was thrown into turmoil with nearly everyone having to choose a side – the dark or the neutral (the light had never been an option anyway). Theo had thrown his lot with the dark.

The final straw was on the day after the Triwizard Tournament in which Cedric Diggory, a seventh year Hufflepuff had been brutally murdered. Theo had come up to her and told her that he would not be in contact with her or her family over the summer.

"But why?" Astoria had asked desperately.

"Because I am not stupid enough to associate with people who have chosen the wrong side." He had answered blankly before walking over to Malfoy who had slung an arm across his shoulders like a long lost friend.

That had been the last time they had spoken. Astoria had been hysterical. Daphne had always suspected that her sister had felt more for Theo than just friendship.

That summer had been difficult for them all. Her parents had mourned the loss of the boy who had been as good as their son for the past six years. Her mother and Astoria had wept and her father had retreated further into his books. As for Daphne herself, that was the summer she embraced her ice queen persona to the fullest. She vowed to herself that she would never let anyone else ever betray her again the way Theo had.

But now, all the carefully constructed walls that she had built were coming crashing down. How in Merlin's name had Remus got this old picture in his possession? Who had given it to him? If it had been Theo, then what did it mean? Had they all been mistaken about him for all this time?

She reached blindly for the second letter, rapidly blinking away the tears from her eyes. Maybe Harry could shed some light upon what was going on.

My Dearest Daphne,

I apologize for not being in contact with you since I was unceremoniously taken whisked away from Hogsmeade. I should have found a way to get in touch with you once I was back to normal. However, things have been all over the place for the past week. I do hope that you will forgive me for my late response.

Certain events have occurred over the past week that were astounding to say the least. They go way beyond any eventuality we had factored in when we had come to Britain. Firstly, I regained consciousness after being in a magical coma in about four days. Secondly, the person who helped me do so was Lord Ravenclaw, who believe it or not is Gellert Grindelwald. Yes, the very same as the Dark Lord of the forties. Long story short, Dumbledore is much, much worse than we ever suspected. It was he who framed Grindelwald for his so-called crimes. No, I am not under the Imperius curse or a mind-weakening potion. We used a Veritaserum-like potion on Grindelwald to prove the truth of his claims.

After I woke up, I was surprised to notice some changes. It seems that being hit by the magical core depleting curse destabilized my core instead of depleting it. The only way to handle the situation was to activate my elemental powers. Apparently, all the four founders were elementals. Grindelwald himself is the air elemental. Gryffindor and Slytherin had power over fire and water respectively. So, I have now control over water and am pretty much resistant to fire – theoretically at least. Liz is the exact opposite. She has got control over fire and is resistant to drowning.

In practice, neither of us has got too far in harnessing the elements. It is very taxing to learn as it mainly comes under the spectrum of wandless magic. Our magical reserves keep getting drained faster than you can say 'Quidditch'. Grindelwald is teaching us how to control our new powers. I hope that we are able to master it in time as it will certainly provide us a tactical advantage against Voldemort.

On a happier note, I will probably be back at Hogwarts by the third week of November. I will try my best to make up for our date which was so rudely interrupted last month.

Last night has been absolutely crazy. Remus was tortured by death eaters to the verge of death. It is only thanks to your mother's skills that he is still alive. I will be eternally grateful to her for that. I don't think I could have handled losing a second father figure in my life. He also has a mate. Her name is Petrov and she is pregnant with his child. The two of them had bonded when he was in Bulgaria on his mission. I hope he wakes up soon. He will be absolutely thrilled. He adores children.

As for the portkey that brought Remus here, your mother thinks that it was Theodore Nott who saved Remus' life. I analyzed it along with Boris and Grindelwald. Boris and I were frankly lost as to how it was still functional since your father had erased its magical signature from your wards a long time ago. Grindelwald is of the opinion that it was reactivated using intent based magic. Whoever gave Remus the portkey, probably erased the magical signature of Nott and replaced it with that of Remus. Since Remus is keyed into your manor wards, the portkey worked for him.

However, this still doesn't explain a lot of things. Theoretically only the Lord of the Manor should have been able to key in the changed portkey into the manor wards. Also, I have no clue how the portkey got activated in the first place as I have no doubt that the place Remus was kept in must have had anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards in place.

Your parents were strangely reluctant to talk much about the elusive Theodore Nott. All they said that was that he was an old childhood friend of yours who was a junior death eater in-training after Voldemort was resurrected. Maybe you could shed some light on the matter?

I hope you are careful if you go and talk to him. I know you, Daph. You will obviously try to seek him out for answers. I beg you to be careful. I can't lose you.

With all my love,

Harry

A wistful smile played on Daphne's lips. Her mother and Harry were both absolutely right. She was going to get to the bottom of this and soon. Tossing the letter aside, she rose. She had Blaise to find after all.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I know it is a bit on the shorter side but it does answer some major questions.

Also, I know that this is shameless self publicity, but I have recently put up a Oneshot titled 'A Malfoy Among the Potters' which is a next Gen fic centering around Scorpius Malfoy. So if you guys are interested then please do check it out on my home page.

Once again, a huge thank you to all you wonderful readers who have reviewed, favorited and followed this story. You guys are absolutely wonderful.

Until next time,

booklover1004