The 4th of February 2018. Hogwarts Ruins.
I never met Daphne's grandfather. He died quickly after the start of the second wizarding war.
He was her most significant role model, the man that supported her when I couldn't.
He loved her enough to die for her. I couldn't do the same. Yet another shameful piece of knowledge that haunts me.
Instead of letting him die to death eaters demanding Daphne and Astoria's hand in marriage, I should have been there. After all, Daphne is - was mine.
No matter who I face, I'll take back what is mine. My perfect flawed family.
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The 14th of June 1993. Peverell Manor.
Ares was irritated, not angry; you don't get mad at your family, even when they are infuriating.
After three days of tracking down teachers and ex-teachers who worked at Durmstrang and implanting memories of his 'son' into their minds, he thought he would have had a relatively peaceful week.
His meeting with Lord Greengrass wasn't until next week, and he hadn't thought he would have to deal with family until then.
That was until Lucius informed him of the agenda the Greengrass family were pushing forward.
Children who wished to attend any school in Britain, including Hogwarts, had to have lived in Britain for at least three years beforehand and be recognised by the ministry as a member of the British wizarding world henceforth.
Even with scamming and forging his way into the British Wizarding world, Ares had forgotten to create paperwork that proved British residency for more than three years. Though it was hardly his fault, this was never a rule he would have noticed when attending school.
The simple answer would be to have the paper trail faked, but that would mean letting Lord Greengrass win, giving him more information to work with. Ares knew the whole point of this law was to stop his 'son' from attending Hogwarts so that he could not get to know Daphne and the rest of the high society in Britain.
So, Lord Peverell would debut at the summer solstice meeting on the 21st of June, the day before he met with Stefan.
In this meeting, he would show the wizarding world he was not to be messed with, make possible inroads with new allies, meet Dumbledore and most importantly, beat Stefan Greengrass at his own game!
Smiling at the thought of the old bastard's face when he realised Ares had beaten him, the Dark Lord apparated to Malfoy's residence to finetune his plans for the meeting with Lucius.
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Elsewhere...
Narcissa smiled as she lay on her master's bed, thinking about how best to please him.
She knew he wanted a marriage contract with the eldest daughter of the Greengrass family, which she assumed was to gain their vote as Daphne was the heir apparent, although she was rumoured to be beautiful, so maybe her master had other plans.
The important thing was to devise a way to thwart the spies of Stefan Greengrass.
She had told her master of the Greengrass spy network and how far it reached, but she knew that you could only fully understand it from experience and the best way to stop them was to create false information.
The spies would never make it into a Manor as ancient and protected as this, but ministry archives were different.
Calling for Twonky, she told the little thing to bring her a pen and paper; she had an idea about how to stop any future problems coming from the ministry at birth.
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The 15th of June 1993. Greengrass Estate.
Daphne had recently returned home for the holidays with her younger sister Astoria after an exciting year; A basilisk had been petrifying people, and supposedly Potter had killed it.
Draco had left early for family reasons, and she had been very thankful for that as she found the little shit abhorrent as a marriage prospect.
So far, she had spent the holiday between Tracey Davis's house and her own just enjoying the weather, but she had a feeling that was about to stop as she had been called into her grandfather's study.
What worried her the most was the look of absolute seriousness on his face as she knocked and came in, curtsying. This man nearly always pampered her, eyes full of adoration.
"Daphne, dear, please sit down. We have a lot of things to discuss," Stefan said with a stern face.
Sitting down, she replied,
"How may I help you, Grandfather?" Adopting her 'Ice queen persona.'
"I recently received an offer for your hand in marriage, and I wished to talk to you about it." He said carefully, knowing his granddaughter was prone to a rather scary, if he was being honest, seething anger and was quick to hold a grudge.
"Uhhh! who is it? It's not Malfoy, is it? Please tell me it's not! He's such an ugly brat with little to no manners." Daphne complained, 'ice queen persona' shattering, feeling remarkably like Astoria as she sulked.
Stefan couldn't hold his straight face and started smiling as he viewed the pride of his life sulking with an adorable pout.
"No, it is the son of a Most Ancient and Noble House. Lord Ares Peverell has shown an interest in marrying you to his heir and son, Ares Peverell jr. As far as I can discover, they are perfectly respectable, and Ares jr went to Durmstrang for the last three years. He will be attempting to join Hogwarts this year as an exchange student, probably joining the fourth year as he is doing his OWLs this summer. I plan to put forward an agenda that will make it harder for him to join Hogwarts, making the Peverells more dependent on us if they wish to join high society in Britain." He explained in detail.
Daphne had a look of contemplation on her face as she thought it over.
"What does he look like? Is he another Draco Malfoy? How come I've never heard of the Peverells before? Why does he want to marry me?" She asked several questions rapidly.
Lord Greengrass straightened his back, looking proudly at his granddaughter, admiring her observational ability while asking the right questions.
"I don't know, I don't know, because they were thought to be extinct though obviously not, and he probably wants to marry you because you are the heir apparent of the Greengrass family as my son, your father, has had no sons.
He may also know of our intelligence network and want to make use of that." He answered in succession.
Daphne nodded and asked one final question,
"When do I get to meet him?"