The Survivors

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Tracey had arrived at Daphne's flat around four in the afternoon to start getting ready. The two girls were really regretting not speaking to Susan about the dress code, but the sense was that if the party was among friends then surely no one would be wearing dresses or ball gowns, so something a little more simple might befit the pair of Slytherins' better.

"Do you still have that dark green jumper? I think I'd like to feel some Slytherin pride tonight as the only two in attendance." Tracey said with a grin.

Daphne rolled her eyes, "I just wore it yesterday to dinner with Astoria, but feel free to cast some freshening charms on it. I don't think we will be the only Slytherin's in attendance though. Harry told me that Professor Slughorn and himself are on good terms, and Slughorn fought he-who-must-not-be-named in the final battle, so we won't be completely alone."

Looking at herself in a conjured full length mirror Tracey nodded her head, "I think I like that you and Potter are on a first name basis. That's cute." Daphne rolled her eyes as her best friend continued to rant, "Also old Sluggy probably lives for this gathering then. With so many powerful families, and now having his golden boy on top of the world it must be like a dream come true for him."

Daphne tried not to giggle at the bitterness of her best friend. Tracey had always been bitter that she never received an invitation to the Slug Club. She knew she didn't have the grades or the family connections to get in on anything but her own merit, but she always held a grudge against their Head of House for not inviting her on principal, "Well maybe you can finally give him the earful he deserves for not inviting one of Slytherin's most attractive witches to our old club."

Shaking her head like it sounded like a good idea made Daphne inwardly groan, hoping her best friend would not do anything crazy or get too drunk at the gathering. Tracey, like Daphne, had been working a lot of hours, and being each other's only real friends these days meant that Tracey did not get to let her hair down and have a good time very often. After all, most of their friends were either killed in the final battle, or fled the country in exile when it was all over.

"By the way we haven't had the opportunity to talk about the conversation you had with my mother." Daphne said with an even expression as she discarded a cardigan she thought about adding to her outfit.

"Which one? I talk to your mum more than you do I think." Tracey said with a glance towards her best friend in the mirror.

Turning her expression into a slight glare Daphne said, "The one where you mentioned that I operated on Harry Potter, and saved his life. Where you also mentioned the people who had brought him in."

She could tell Tracey swallowed nervously at her comments, "Oh that conversation..." Daphne waited for several moments before Tracey continued, "It was just such a wild night, and I was so proud of you, and I guess I just wanted to tell someone all the details..."

The Greengrass heir immediately retreated in her hostilities. Tracey wasn't on the best terms with either of her parents. Her father was a University professor at Oxford, and did not initially know that Tracey's mom was a Muggleborn witch who had returned to the muggle world after Hogwarts. The man found out on Tracey's fifth birthday when she began exhibiting a burst of accidental magic. The man was furious to discover his wife had kept such secrets from him and promptly filed for a divorce. Her father looked in on Tracey from time to time, and would usually get together once or twice a year around each other's birthday to catch up, but it wasn't much of a relationship. Tracey's mum on the other hand raised her until she was eleven, and it was time for her to go to Hogwarts. The woman offered Tracey a choice of whether she wanted to attend the ancient school or not, but she made it clear to the young girl that her life in the Wizarding World was over, and she wanted no part of it in the future. It made for quite the rough foundation when Tracey would return home from Hogwarts over the Summer which led her to spending most of her time at Greengrass Manor.