I don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does. The only payment I receive are reviews.

A/N: This is a story idea that has been bugging me for a while. Even though the first chapter is kind of tame, there are some adult situations and language.

Chapter 1

"Merlin, what a bunch of idiots, and of course I'm the biggest idiot of them all for following them! This entire outing is most definitely a bad idea!"

It could be easily said that Lady Daphne Greengrass-Malfoy was not a happy witch. In fact, she long ago bypassed unhappy, overtook furious, and was coming up fast on downright livid. And it was all because of a harebrained, idiotic scheme dreamed up by that pasty-skinned, blond-haired, poncy git arsehole who calls himself her husband. Oh yes, Lord Draco Malfoy was at this time number one on Daphne's 'need to mutilate' list!

As she often did to control the impulse to dismember the stupid people that seem to be attracted to the Malfoy family like moths to a flame, she used her occulmency skills to disconnect from her current dark thoughts and just let her mind drift to wherever it would. Today, her thoughts drifted back to the events that took place a little more than two years ago, right up to what led to her current predicament.

o0o0o0o

Back then, she was the seventh-year Slytherin Prefect and was well on her way to finishing Hogwarts as one of its top students. Her plans of pursuing a potions Mastery was well on its way, until events at the end of that year seemingly brought all her plans to a screeching halt. That was when the Dark Lord showed up at the school's gates with all his army behind him demanding that he be given control of the castle and calling for Harry Potter to surrender himself.

What followed after Potter revealed himself in the Great Hall and Snape fled the castle, all hell began to break loose. Even though most of the Slytherins decided to sit out the fight in their warded dormitories, the explosions from the fighting outside shook the entire castle all the way down to the dungeons. She spent most of that day and part of the night sitting on the common room sofa hugging a frightened and crying Astoria while struggling to tamp down her own rising fear.

At dawn on the second day of the attack, McGonagall made an announcement to have everyone assemble in the castle's courtyard. Holding Astoria close, Daphne exited the Slytherin common room to a scene of total devastation. Everywhere she looked there was damage, rubble, and small fires still burning, but surprisingly no blood or bodies. It took three times as long to get to the courtyard due to navigating around or climbing over obstructions. When she exited the main doors with her sister at her side, she was dismayed to see the Dark Lord standing in the middle of the courtyard with the body of Harry Potter at his feet.

When the student body saw this, most of them cried and screamed in despair, however, Daphne was apathetic. It was a shame that the Boy-Who-Lived was dead, but since she didn't really know him all that well in the first place, his passing didn't affect her that much. And now that the Dark Lord has apparently won, her family didn't have much reason to fear him due to the Greengrass stance of neutrality concerning wizarding matters. So, when he began to natter on about how magnificent he was and how he would now lead the wizarding world and bring in a new age for wizardkind, she tuned him out in order to pay attention to what else was going on around her. And because she was doing that, she was probably the only one to see the body of Potter twitch when the Dark Lord put his foot on the boy's shoulder during his monologue.

"So, you're still alive? Just what are you playing at, Potter?" she thought to herself. Now that her attention was focused on Potter, she missed seeing Longbottom use a sword to cut off the head of a massively large snake. However, she did NOT miss hearing the Dark Lord's howl of rage and seeing Potter jump to his feet. When the Dark Lord turned his wand and his attention to the Longbottom heir and before he could utter a curse, Potter thrust his hand into his back and shouted..something and transferred a blue glow from his hand to the small of the Dark Lord's back. Reviewing the memory later, she still couldn't figure out just what curse, spell, or ritual Potter invoked, but the effect it had on the Dark Lord was profound.

The Dark Lord's body simply...melted. No faceoff, no posturing, no monologuing, no long, drawn-out spell battle of epic proportions, just a single spell that rendered the worst Dark Lord in centuries down to a puddle of goo. While everyone was still standing there totally shocked at what they just saw, Potter calmly bent down, picked up the wand the Dark Lord was using, and then held it in a ready stance while glaring at the remainder of his troops. For a few moments, no one moved until a cry of rage shattered the illusion of peace.

"YOU HALF-BLOOD MONGREL! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU! AVADA KED!...urgkkk.." Everyone's attention was focused on Bellatrix Lestrange as she slowly sank to the ground with the pommel of a sword sticking out of the center of her chest and a surprised look on her face. They then turned as one to see the Longbottom heir with his arm still extended in a throwing motion towards the dying witch. He then stood straight, spat at the body of Lestrange lying in a spreading pool of her own blood, hissed out, "That was for my parents, you crazy bitch!" then stood next to Potter with his arms folded across his chest. Potter smirked at him and turned to glare at the forces the Dark Lord brought with him.

"Well? Who's next?" Surprisingly, it was Longbottom who shouted the challenge to the dark wizards arrayed in the courtyard across from him. After witnessing their Dark Lord so quickly and easily defeated along with his most powerful lieutenant, none of them were willing to take their chances. Throwing down their wands, the dark wizards gave up without a fight, however, the struggle wasn't over as the Dark Lord brought quite an assortment of creatures along with him to assist in the fight. Fortunately for the defenders of the castle, the spells that tied their will to his broke upon his demise, so all that was left to do was herd them out of the area. As the defenders were doing that, the aurors were arresting and processing the wizards of the Dark Lord's forces.

She thought that things would be different now, with the Dark Lord gone and his army defeated, that the old way of doing things was gone and opportunities would change for the better for everyone, pureblood, halfblood, and muggleborn. She needn't have bothered hoping for change. As soon as the trials started, bribes started changing hands and pleas of being Imperiused were the order of the day. In just three short months after the battle, almost all of the major players, the Malfoys, the Notts, the Parkinsons, and most of their client families were cleared of charges and back into power, however, they did nothing to help the families that lost everything due to the policies of the last regime. Needing a scapegoat to blame for the poor state of Wizarding Britain, Malfoy and his cronies used their money and influence and subtly directed the press to blame their favorite target, Harry Potter.

It started small, a number of articles appeared on the front page of the Daily Prophet questioning why it took so long for Potter to take down He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Then it went on to 'interviews' with 'destitute' families stating that if Potter tried harder to defeat the Dark Lord, they wouldn't have their current problems. She suspected these interviews never really took place, at least not with the families that were named. More than likely, it was something that the writers at the Prophet cooked up or was a story crafted by Malfoy himself. Either way, the articles had the desired effect, more and more people were calling for an investigation into Potter's motivations.

Spurred on by pressure from the Wizarding public, the Ministry called for the detaining and questioning of Harry Potter just six short months after the Battle of Hogwarts. Aurors were dispatched to his residence to bring him in, but when they arrived at his residence the house was completely deserted. Angry that their target slipped from their grasp, the Wizengamot tried him in absentia, found him guilty of treason, and ordered his vaults seized. However, when they opened the main Potter vault, the only items inside were thirty sickles, everything else had been cleared out. Malfoy was furious, apparently he needed that money to boost his own dwindling galleon supply! Most everyone else was confused, why would Potter clear out his vaults and leave just thirty sickles behind?

She was confused as well, until she used an index spell in the Greengrass library to look it up. Using thirty sickles or thirty silver as the keyword, she was surprised when a King James Bible floated to her table and opened to Matthew chapter 26 verse 15. She read through the passage and started to smile, she thought Potter's subtle message to Wizarding Britain was very amusing. She continued smiling as she thought, "So, Potter, you figured out that the whole country was going to betray you. You've read the way the winds were blowing, pulled up stakes and left. Not that I blame you, I can't abide traitors myself. Good luck, wherever you are." She sighed after she thought this, wishing that she could have known him better.

The scandal surrounding the Potter trial didn't affect her at that time, so all her plans were proceeding accordingly. For the past five months, she was serving her potions apprenticeship under Madame Kanka, a Potions Mistress for Jiggers Apothecary. All was going well in her life, until an owl from her father brought it all crashing down. It turned out that the younger Malfoy's betrothal and eventual marriage to Parkinson wasn't all that rosy. After numerous failed attempts to bear the next Malfoy heir, the Malfoy family went to St Mungo's for tests only to find out that she was sterile. Malfoy could easily have used that as a reason for a divorce, but for some strange reason he must have felt some kind of loyalty to the pug-faced bint because he decided not to divorce her. In order to alleviate the problem of not being able to produce an heir, Lucius approached her father to sign a contract of marriage for both Greengrass daughters. To her dismay, her father immediately signed the contract with the stipulation that his eldest daughter keep the Greengrass name.

Astoria was ecstatic when she found out that she soon would be marrying the younger Malfoy, but Daphne herself was livid. The depths of her anger toward her father were surprising to everyone except her when she found out what he did. She confronted him in his study at the Greengrass estate and demanded to know why he signed her over to someone she hated throughout her Hogwarts career. When her father told her that Lucius Malfoy paid him 10,000 galleons for each of his daughters, she lost control of her temper and started firing curses. It was only his skill with counter curses that saved her father from serious injury, but despite that his office needed major repairs. Vowing never to set foot in Greengrass Manor as long as her father was still alive, she stormed out of the house without looking back.

The double marriage was one that all of magical Britain turned out for, however, she paid none of it any mind, her former 'ice queen' persona firmly in place. She rebuffed Malfoy's advances that first night, suggesting that he direct his full attention to Astoria instead. However, she had no excuses for the second night, so she set a neutral look on her face, turned her 'ice queen' persona to 'frigid', and submitted to Malfoy's ministrations solely to satisfy the consummation clause of the contract. It took all of her considerable occulmency skills to keep that persona in place throughout the night, because the urge to castrate the ferret was almost overwhelming. To start with, Malfoy's "manhood" was quite small. If her hymen hadn't already been broken due to a brief tryst with a Ravenclaw during her fifth year, she doubted that it would be large enough to do the job. What was even worse is that he didn't even start with any foreplay. As soon as both of them removed her clothes and she laid down on the bed, he immediately dove between her legs, inserted his cock, and started pounding at her before she was even ready. In a way, she was glad for his small size because if his cock was any bigger than it was it would have really hurt. Fortunately, he finished very quickly, rolling off of her with a stupid smile on his face.

Maintaining her 'ice queen' facade, she got out of the bed, retrieved her wand, did a gentle scourgify on herself to remove all traces of Malfoy's spunk on her body, got dressed and left the room. She made it halfway down the hall before Malfoy came charging after her, grabbing her arm and demanding that she return to his bed. A quick, hard knee to his crotch had him release her arm and fall to the floor, sobbing and holding his family jewels. She then informed him that if he wanted an heir, then he should concentrate his efforts on his sister because tonight was the last time that he would touch her. Leaving him crying on the floor, she returned to her room and locked the door. Over the next few weeks, Malfoy tried ordering her to his bed but she ignored him each time. Whenever he tried using force, she responded in an even more forceful manner, with the outcome leaving him on the floor crying, broken, bruised, and bleeding. When his last attempt put him in St Mungo's for a week, he left her alone after that. Life settled into a routine over the next year. Malfoy would be annoying, Astoria and Pansy would act like simpering fan-girls, the two gorillas, Crabbe and Goyle would grunt in affirmation to whatever Malfoy would say, and Daphne would do her best trying to avoid them all. She spent her time studying potions textbooks so that she could resume her apprenticeship if she ever managed to free herself from the loathsome contract.

Speaking of the contract, she managed to discover the real reason why Lucius wanted an alliance with the Greengrasses. It turns out that all their show of wealth is just that, a show. The Malfoy's were broke. Oh, they definitely weren't poor, it's just that all their wealth was tied up in businesses and property, and Lucius needed cash to maintain his high status at the Ministry. He was hoping to use the fact that since the Greengrass daughters were married into his family he could access some of the Greengrass wealth, but his research was incomplete. Due to a clause her great-grandfather wrote into the vault agreement when he opened his family's first account with Gringotts, the only people who can access the vaults would be someone with the Greengrass name. Since Astoria changed her last name to Malfoy when she got married, Daphne was the only one in the Malfoy household that could access the account. When Lucius ordered her to transfer half of the Greengrass vault to the Malfoy vault, she informed him that her father, Lord Greengrass, was the only one that could authorize that large a transfer of funds. When she left his office, he was sitting at his desk with a thoughtful look on his face. Two days later, she received an owl from Gringotts informing her that her father was dead. What she learned was that Lucius met with her father at Greengrass Manor and apparently the two had an argument that escalated to a duel that had both men killing each other. Astoria cried for a week after the funerals, but Daphne's hatred of her father was still strong and was apathetic at the news. Because her mother had been dead since she was little and her father recently deceased, she was now Lady Greengrass.

When Malfoy was elevated to his Lordship and learned about the state of the Malfoy vaults, he was not very happy. He tried ordering her on just one occasion to transfer funds into the Malfoy vault. He didn't wind up in St Mungo's that time because he was prepared and started running when she fired the first curse at him. Needless to say, he never tried asking after that. Desperate to bring the Malfoy wealth back into prominence, he used his contacts at the Ministry for any bits of information that he could use to his advantage. When reports of a dragon being spotted in Wales and outside of any reserve, he had the bright idea that he could bring his entourage of his wives and bodyguards as extra wands, kill the dragon, harvest it for potions ingredients, and keep the funds for himself without having to pay a specialist to do it for him. When he laid out his so-called brilliant idea to his fan-girls and gorillas, they thought it was a good idea as well and went along with it, but Daphne stomped all over it. Why would he do something so stupid and risky when there were plenty of experts that knew how to deal with such things? However, all her arguments were for naught, Malfoy was convinced that he could carry out his plan and everyone but her agreed with him. Finally, she sighed in resignation and reluctantly decided to accompany them, if only to keep her younger sister out of trouble.

Early the next morning, the group met just outside of the manor's wards where Malfoy produced a quill that was a portkey to the dragon's location. With a disgusted snort, she touched the feather just before Malfoy activated the portkey. When they landed, she could see a large cave at the end of a ravine. Malfoy set off, leading the group through the ravine to the mouth of the cave. She took the spot at the back of the group while looking at her surroundings. What she saw of the environment filled her with trepidation. If they were attacked, there was very little cover and absolutely no place to retreat, which caused her to reiterate her previous thought.

"Yep, idiots! I keep trying to tell these idiots that this is something best left to the experts, but do they listen to me? NO! Now, here we are, a merry band of idiots marching to our doom! Why am I here again? Oh, that's right, my idiot husband had an idiot idea and brought all his idiot entourage with him to support said idiot idea, and I'm here to keep my idiot sister from getting killed! Idiots!"

A/N: I'm going to cut this off right here as its getting late. I'll have more to come later in the week. As always, thanks for reading and please leave a review.