Our two enemy worlds - A Harry Potter Romance

Chapter one : A new year

Diagon Alley, crowded as it is at the end of every summer holiday, saw an array of wizards and witches marching in all directions. The parents, while trying not to lose sight of their precious progeny, were hoping to find all the necessary supplies for the new school year. As for the young wizards, they were laughing and shouting in surprise every time they bumped into one of their dear mates.

Watching all this familiar excitement from the window of the Golden Hippogriff pub, Daphne couldn't help but think back to her summer. The euphoria of a new year at Hogwarts no longer exhilarated her as much.

Indeed, the wizarding world had seen some upheaval in recent months. If Cedric Diggory's death at the Three Wizards Tournament last year had cast a shadow over the summer of Hogwarts students, Harry Potter's declaration of the Dark Lord's return had brought back terrible memories for those who had witnessed the first Wizarding War, leaving some in a state of hovering insecurity and others in denial, stubbornly taking the news as a lie engineered by the boy who survived, and Dumbledore.

The young witch, without ever having seen him, knew that he was back. As a pureblood, she had sensed the tensions rising in her entourage, most of whom were great believers in the Dark Mage's ideas. They despised the Muggleborns and saw the rebirth of the Dark Lord as a chance to re-establish the supremacy of the purebloods and the sacred twenty-eight, of which the great and noble Greengrass family was a part of.

None of her immediate family had joined the ranks of the Dark Lord as a Death Eater, but all adhered to pureblood ancestry. Daphne, as the daughter of Emerelda Selwyn and Faustus Greengrass, and having received an education worthy of her family's position, had always been led to believe that her status made her more valuable than other wizards. She did not, however, approve of the outrageous disregard and violence directed at Muggles and wizards born among them. They were not their equals, of course, and those around her had always warned her not to associate with them, but why make them pay every day for what they were? All these endless conflicts were weighing on her.

For some time now, a certain melancholy had invaded her since the recent events. She knew that nothing would ever be the same again, even if not everyone had realised it yet.

Still lost in her thoughts, she did not see her sister Astoria enter the pub with her arms full of bags from Madame Malkin's shop.

-Daphneeee, the thoughtful witch flinched, causing the table at which she was sitting to shake. A few heads swiveled in the direction of the noise for a brief moment before returning to their occupations. "Look at the wonder I've found ! You'll be jealous to death and I'll only lend it to you if I can borrow your Welsh Greenskin boots," she said with a mischievous little smile. Astoria, her only little sister and the youngest of two, was rather optimistic and cheerful by nature, although she could turn into a little brat sometimes, like all little sisters worthy of the title. She was also very close to her family and valued them very much, as did Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother.

Daphne, who cherished her sister, was determined to keep her safe from anything she felt was coming that would surely disrupt their lives.

-Very well, granted, she said amused.

She could not refuse anything to her little sister, whom she cared for so much. Her fragile health had often led her to take care of her and to worry about her well-being. Despite a difference in temperament, they had always got on well together.

~Greengrass' Manor ~ September 1st, 1995