"No, sir."
"What?" Snape's voice dropped to a deadly whisper, which nevertheless carried across the dungeon.
"You just attacked me. I have written instructions from my magical guardian not to be with the headmaster without his presence because he is concerned about my safety with him. Given that you just tried to attack me, I'm confident that sentiment will now extend to you too."
"Stupid girl! The Headmaster is your magical guardian!"
Oh, Merlin. Daphne's stomach dropped. Not here. Her eyes flew around the classroom, to all the wide, watching eyes.
"No," Granger started.
Daphne tried to make urgent signals with her eyes.
"Lord Slytherin is my magical guardian."
It was like watching a broom crash in slow motion.
Snape paused, his face one large triumphal sneer. "You expect me to believe that a couple of filthy muggles signed over their daughter to an arrogant, cowardly, no name?
Somewhere in the back of the room, a drop of water made an audible plop noise.
She dared a look towards the Darker Slytherins. Nott, Parkinson, Crabbe and Goyle all looked shocked. Malfoy had already passed shocked and moved onto disgusted fury. On the Gray side, Tracey and Blaise looked between her and Granger. Tracey shot her a what-the-hell-are-you-doing look.
Granger's voice wavered only slightly. "I do not appreciate those words about my parents."
"Enough! You will come with me or I will have you expelled!"
She took a deep breath. So it had come to this, already. She stood. "Professor Snape." Her voice rang through the dungeon like a bell. "Despite your comments to our house yesterday, you are only head of the Hogwarts branch of Slytherin House at the discretion of my lord Slytherin. If my lord wishes it he can take control of the Hogwarts branch back from you."
This was technically true, but did present some inconvenient problems, which they really didn't want to deal with just now. She was sure she could hear Snape's teeth grinding from across the room.
The Gryffindors all watched with bated breath. John Potter looked torn between horror and awe.
Snape drew his cloak around him. "And you think this Lord Slytherin will listen to you ?"
"I am his betrothed ." She glared at Snape, annoyance seeped through her body even as she felt her magic seeping out of her body. She didn't care. Her whole world focused on the six foot of enemy in front of her.
"And why should I believe that he views you as anything more than a silly little girl to carry his heirs and pretty his arm?"
Gasps filled the dungeon.
Fury and frustration threatened to break through her cool hard mask. She fought it down and glared straight into Snape's eyes. Her magic continued to flow. Her hands numbed.
"Then allow me to make this clear to you, Professor ." She sneered the title with all the disdain she could muster. "My lord Slytherin gave me express instructions that if you threatened or attacked me or Hermione, that we should contact him and he would remove you as head of house, and ensure that you could never again step foot inside the Slytherin dungeons - an action for which he has every legal right and total magical capability."
Snape glared.
"Maybe we should get back to the lesson and cease this foolish charade, Professor ."
Snape stood at the top of the stairs, stock still and silent.
"Class dismissed!" he snapped, before storming out.
She sat back down and let out a deep, slow breath. Granger's wide eyes met hers and then dropped to her hands. She glanced down. Her hands had been gripping the back of her chair so hard her knuckles were white - white from her skin, white from the pressure, and white from a thin layer of ice crystals, which travelled from the tips of her fingers, up the back of hands, and halfway from the cuffs of her robes to her elbows. Daphne shivered.
...
Early next morning, Hermione marched down to the Quidditch pitch, mind whirring.
Her and Daphne's confrontation with Snape had spread through the school like fiendfyre. Everywhere she and Daphne went, groups whispered and pointed as they walked by.
Rumours flew faster and thicker than the morning owls, but there were three facts everyone seemed to agree on. That she was muggleborn, that someone had used legilimency on someone, and that Lord Slytherin was considering removing Snape as head of Slytherin House.
Slytherin house had been quiet as the grave. Blaise said everyone was feeling out everyone else for where they stood before doing anything.
Then there was Daphne. She glanced at the pretty blonde strolling a few paces from her. Daphne still confused her. The girl was distant, almost cold. But when Daphne stood up to confront Snape, she was so cold she burned. The coldness went beyond cold and became something almost hot, like pools of liquid nitrogen, bubbling and gassing, less like snow carelessly piled around and more like a blade made from razor-sharp ice. The girl licked like a frozen flame, sucking the heat out of the space only to return the intensity back five-fold.
Had that intensity been focused at her, she wasn't sure how she'd have handled it, but it wasn't, it had been in her defence. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. Did Daphne really feel that way, or was she just doing what Harry asked her?
They arrived at the centre of the quidditch pitch to find most of their classmates form Slytherin and Hufflepuff milling around a long line of mouldy old brooms. She avoided the glares in her direction from the Dark and instead shuffled over to the Hufflepuff boys, who'd formed their own little circle.
"Good morning Wayne, Zach. Hi, Justin. Hey, Kevin." She greeted the two Gray and two muggleborn Hufflepuff boys with a wave and a smile.
Kevin Entwistle stood an inch or two taller than the rest of them. Someone like Malfoy would no doubt laugh at his loose tie and his mousy brown hair had an almost Harry-like just-got-out-of-bed look.
Justin Finch-Fletchley, by contrast, was as immaculately dressed and groomed as he'd been both in Madam Malkin's and later when she'd successfully found him on the train, even if those clothes would be considered fairly common by wizarding standards.
All four returned her greetings and made room for her in the circle.
Zach gave her an imperious nod. "So, what's this we hear about you and Snape? Rumour says he attacked you."
She nodded. Justin and Kevin gasped.
"Yes, he did - Legilimency attack."
Wayne tutted.
Zach sucked his breath in. "I'm going to take my practise a lot more seriously from now on, I think."
She nodded.
Kevin and Justin shared a confused look.
Kevin spoke. "But… if the teacher attacks a student, shouldn't he be thrown out?"
Wayne and Zach shuffled.
"It's not quite as simple as that," Wayne said.
Zach nodded. "Yeah, legilimency isn't considered assault until actual damage is done, and if you can defend yourself no damage will be done.
"And if damage is done," Wayne continued, "it's usually hard to prove."
She jumped in. "Of course, it is considered extremely rude. It's not the sort of thing done in polite company."
Justin frowned. "That doesn't seem right. What is legilimency anyway?"
"It's a form of mind magic. It's not quite mind reading, but it's sort of like that."
Kevin's mouth dropped. "Mind reading?"
She looked around to where the Hufflepuff girls were standing. Heiresses Bones and Abbott, along with Sally Smith, and two other girls she didn't know were talking with the one lone Hufflepuff Light boy, Ernest Macmillan. "More like mind surfing," she said.
Wayne tilted his head. "What's surfing?"
Justin and Kevin shot Wayne incredulous looks.
"It's a muggle sport. Think riding a broom on massive waves of water."
"That sounds kinda cool."
....
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