(Enchanting Melodies) Chapter 292: Verdant Dilemma (Patreon)

Chapter 292: Verdant Dilemma

23 November 1994, Rome, Italy

“I have reason to believe that Lily Evans is working with Albus Dumbledore. I think that they’re planning to kill Harry and Neville…”

Daphne would have told her to get lost if it wasn’t for the damning moving picture in her hand, which had her mentor sitting right in front of the man who had almost killed her son and sipping tea of all things.

The first question she asked was, “How did you get this?”

The muggleborn looked strangely smug. Daphne wanted to punch her in the face, “I have my ways. It doesn’t matter where I got them from, only that I did…”

“You’re not giving me a lot of confidence that those are genuine. Illusions are a thing, after all…”

She rolled her eyes, “Look, you’re the last person I would have gone to for something this serious… I would have liked to speak with Harry, but I haven’t been able to find him all morning and I don’t think he’d like to speak with me…”

“You’d be right about that… And it’s not like you made any effort to be friendly since the tournament began. You and Longbottom have barely spoken a word to anyone else for months, just stuck to yourselves.”

Daphne was right and she wasn’t the only person who had noticed this. From the way he had acted in the previous few years at Hogwarts, everyone had expected Neville Longbottom to demand being in the spotlight, to try to join the tasks and fail miserably and very publicly. Before Harry had stolen the show with his performance, the boy who lived was Britain’s star, their greatest hope of another Archmage, especially with Dumbledore getting older.

And with the former headmaster being exposed with the myriads of unethical practices and almost killing his students, the British Ministry of Magic had put its hopes on Neville Longbottom… Anyone who knew the boy would have immediately considered this to be a good idea. Unfortunately, desperation tend to make people overlook certain flaws.

However, deciding to surprise everyone, Longbottom decided against participating the tournament and had stayed relatively quiet during the two first tasks in the tournament. Granger had obviously a calming effect on the boy… Perhaps a bit of her personality would finally bleed over to Longbottom and get him to think before acting…

No one knew and to be perfectly honest, no one cared. Longbottom wasn’t as deified or demonized as he was in Britain. The amount of propaganda after Lord Voldemort’s demise was ludicrous… It had probably been designed this way, to give hope during a hopeless situation… Nevertheless, Neville Longbottom had suffered for it, whether the public opinion was on his side or not.

Back to Granger, she didn’t seem impressed with her explanation of her, “What happens between Neville, and I is our business and no one else. I’m giving you a warning that someone is after your boyfriend… Oh wait, he isn’t your boyfriend, is he? How long has it been, almost four years now… Are you still pining after Harry after so much time?”

Daphne blushed in anger – and yes, it was entirely out of anger, nothing else – and growled back at her, “At least I’m his friend, unlike some…”

The brunette ignored Daphne’s comment, “You’re making this personal, trying to create a confrontation between us to distract you from the inevitable truth… Lily Evans is going to betray you and Potter. Normally, I wouldn’t have cared, but considering the fact that Dumbledore is unusually interested in both Harry and Neville, as well as the fact that she personally asked me to keep tabs on Neville, I don’t see how this could be a good thing for either of them…”

The young Slytherin digested this. She hadn’t known that Granger was asked to keep tabs on Longbottom; Lily had never told her or Harry about it. It made sense, though… Granger was completely under the Department of Mystery’s control, and Daphne’s mentor had confessed to controlling said department. And yet, she hadn’t said anything about Granger, barely a peep. Harry had also not said anything, which was unusual, since he was usually more observant. Or maybe he did know and hadn’t told her about it… It did tend to happen far more frequently than Daphne liked.

Anyway, while the photo’s legitimacy was questionable and Daphne didn’t trust Granger at all, if it was true, there could be a very real threat to Harry, and she couldn’t allow this, “Why didn’t you confront her about it first?”

Granger looked at her like she was an idiot, “And do what exactly? Get myself killed for no reason? If you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly a willing employee of the department, let alone the woman who has my very soul in her hands.”

Oh right, she had forgotten about the Diary thing… There was so much going on that she sometimes forgot stuff, “Look, I’ll talk to Harry about it… He should know what to do.”

The brunette looked relieved, “That’s reassuring. Tell him to speak with me and Neville before doing anything drastic… We’d all like to know what the hell that woman is planning.”

It was Daphne’s turn to snort that time, “Do you seriously think you could tell Harry to do something?”

“He’ll understand… For all his flaws, he isn’t insensitive. If Neville is in danger, he would tell him. After all, he has done so in the past… Ask him on my behalf to be appraised of any plans he makes regarding Evans. If he does not accommodate me, then at least I tried to reach out to him.”

The muggleborn turned and walked away, leaving a pretty distressed blonde to her own thoughts. She needed to find Harry and quickly, before her mentor realized that something was wrong. Firstly, she needed to go to his room to see if he was there. She walked in the metallic dragon trying to find him, only to find his room completely empty, “Come on, Harry…” she muttered.

Where else could he be? Maybe she could use Hedwig? No, an owl would be very easily traceable…

Of course, that was when a familiar voice spoke up, “Oh, hello again Daphne… Have you seen Harry? He’s been gone for an awfully long time…”

The blonde froze and paled. It was literally the last person she wanted to meet, Lily Evans, with a questioning expression on her face, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him for hours…”

“He really should stop disappearing on a whim like that. It’s very rude, not to mention very dangerous. What if Dumbledore ambushed him or something?”

Daphne gulped in response, and the older witch just gave her a concerned look, “Are you alright, dear?”

“Yes… I’m fine. Just worried about Harry too, I guess…”

“Are you sure? You look awfully pale…”

The blonde growled slightly, “I’m fine.”

Her mentor’s voice turned soothing, “Of course you are… You know you can trust me with anything, don’t you? I’m already trusting you with my knowledge…”

She was right, of course. Lily had trusted Daphne with some very dangerous knowledge… Blood magic wasn’t a field of magic that was widespread. She could trust Lily, right? No, the information was about Lily betraying Harry… She couldn’t talk to her about it…

The older witch continued, “I’m just worried about you and Harry, my dear. Haven’t I proven just how much I cared about the two of you? Haven’t I shown you why it’s so important to talk to me, to trust me with your problems…”

Absentmindedly, she answered, “Oh, I found out that you were working with Albus Dumbledore and wanted to tell to Harry about it.”

And just like that, it was like a spell was broken, and the haze in her mind, the one that she hadn’t even noticed was there was lifted. She thought back at what she said and blanched. What had she done…

She meekly turned towards Lily, who had a very serious look on her face. Any trace of warmth was gone, and the killer inside, the woman who had slaughtered her husband in cold blood, the woman who had manipulated the werewolves to her side, the woman who committed so many untold atrocities was there in front of her, “Is that so? That’s a very interesting claim, girl.”

“You used magic on me!” she exclaimed.

The redhead looked impassive, “I replicated my own version of the Veelas’ allure… You would not believe just how useful a spell like this could be. They tend to bypass the inherent protections on magical crest… Of course, they need to be on the subtle side, but that’s not what’s important… You wished to ruin my relationship with my son…”

“Ruin? I didn’t want to ruin anything. If you’re working with Dumbledore, then you’re a danger to Harry. There aren’t really any other alternatives…”

“That’s a very admirable bit of loyalty, except that I am not working with Albus Dumbledore…”

Daphne grew enraged at the dismissal, “Then explain this!”

She took out the photo that Granger had given her, “You look awfully cozy for supposedly being mortal enemies.”

The redhead took the photo and hummed, “Oh, yes, I remember. It was right after the second task… But I still wasn’t working with the man. We were just… chatting.”

“About what exactly? Was it which Quidditch team you like the most, or maybe it was about how to kill Harry more easily? He has tried to do that before… And you have a history of kin slaying…”

The woman’s slightly amused expression disappeared, and Daphne thought that she had crossed some kind of line, “No, believe it or not, I was protecting my son… And I don’t like you accusing me of otherwise. I simply have an arrangement with Dumbledore. I would make sure that Harry wouldn’t interfere with his plan, and he would not actively go after my son…”

“You’re distracting him… That’s your goal. But why? Why not work with him in stopping Dumbledore?”

“You don’t understand. This isn’t about politics or anything this asinine. Something happened after the fiasco at Hogwarts, something that shook him to his core. It was enough to scare him enough to join hands with Grindelwald, trying to stop it… Some very old prophecy or something. I didn’t particularly care since it didn’t involve me or Harry in any way.”

Daphne looked at her, outraged, “And you seriously just believed him… just like that… He just killed a little girl for a ritual for crying out loud…”

“Yes, but in doing so, has saved countless lives… You’re trying to put absolute boundaries on people, but you forgot that people aren’t so limited. Everything is on a spectrum of some sort. Albus Dumbledore is a manipulative ruthless piece of shit, but he’s not comically evil. Every single time he did something was because it advanced his plans for the magical world, plans that aren’t all that bad. Are truly surprised that someone like him would stop acting on a grudge he has with a teenager to focus on a far bigger, far more serious matter?”

The blonde restrained herself from exploding and instead thought about things logically, “Maybe you’re right, but that doesn’t change the fact that Harry has to know. What you did was a betrayal of his trust and mine as well…”

“I suppose it’s very fortunate for me that Harry is never going to hear about this, huh?”

“Are you threatening me?” Daphne asked.

“No, I’m not. The truth is that I’d be very surprised if you told him, especially after you have time to think properly. If you tell him, then you run the risk of him not believing me… You don’t know if I’m telling the truth or not, and you have no way to find out without going straight to Dumbledore, asking him… I don’t think he’ll be very accommodating. Anyway, if Harry doesn’t believe me, then he’ll probably ask me to stay away from him… That’s in line with his character, I think… And if I’m gone, then who will continue to teach you about blood magic, who will help you heal your sister? Even if he believed me, it’s likely that he would be cautious to be around me since I broke his trust, meaning that he’ll ask you to stop your lessons in fear of me tricking you into something, which also would hamper your goal of healing your sister. So, this is not me making you a threat, just a normal prediction of the future based on your decision, nothing more. You know Harry, do you think I’m wrong about how he would react?”

And just like that, her entire plan shattered. Lily gave her a triumphant look, “So, Daphne dear, you have a decision to make. Will you heal your sister, or will you tell Harry about my actions… I’m not going to stop you either way and I have a feeling which one you’ll choose. Now, why don’t you freshen up a bit and wear those nice robes of yours… After all, you have a feast to attend…”

AN: Not sure about this chapter tbh... Felt a bit forced on Lily's end, but I'm anxious to have the whole Italy arc finished, since I have something very special planned in the next task. Anyway, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.