NOTT, DAPHNE AURELIA

[Daphne Nott]

[presto]

FORTY-THREE

FEMALE

MEDIA LIAISON

PUREBLOOD

HETEROSEXUAL

AJ COOK

[/presto]

DAPHNE AURELIA NOTT

Daphne Aurelia Greengrass was born on the 27th of June, 1980, to Notus and Syrinx Greengrass (née Yaxley). While her parents were by no means unhappy, it was a marriage of convenience, and had been essentially arranged for them; growing up, Daphne observed a respectable yet predominantly loveless marriage, and would eventually come to the conclusion that she wanted more than that. As a Greengrass girl, there were many things expected of Daphne. Beauty, poise, elegance, grace, propriety, perfection, obedience and charm, amongst others. Similar expectations were placed upon her sister, Astoria, born two years after Daphne. The girls looked very similar when they were younger, with people often mistaking them for twins. Daphne is a fiercely loyal person, and she marks her little sister's birth as the reason for that particular trait. As a child, Daphne spent a lot of her time being thrust into social situations with the children of the parents in the circle of the "right sort" of purebloods - namely, the Slytherin purebloods, particularly those of families that had been listed as part of The Sacred Twenty-Eight. Her own cousin, Caliban Yaxley, was often pointed out as a shining example of what a pureblood child ought to be like; a few years older than her, Caliban got along with Daphne well enough, though in the years to come, she would find herself questioning why he would put such pressure on his children, after having been burdened with it himself for so long, before eventually coming to the conclusion that different people responded differently; he brought up his children in the only way he knew how, the way he had been groomed to bring them up, whereas Daphne would eventually raise her children in an environment quite different to her own childhood. Indeed, her own childhood was not unhappy, but it simply wasn’t inspiring nor anything spectacular. Frankly, it was a wonder that Daphne didn’t turn out as ego-centric as her eventual dormmate Pansy Parkinson, nor as fractured as her sister ended up as in the following years. As it was, Daphne was a child in a lavish Slytherin home during a time where prominent familis such as her own retained power. Her own family was not even tarnished—in the whispers of the public, which were the only ways a powerful family was tarnished back then—because they had no links to dark magic nor Death Eaters, unlike other old-blood families of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, such as the Malfoys and the Notts. Daphne did, however, grow up in the type of surroundings that reinforced the idea of pureblood superiority; propaganda and opinions of the parents of her peers debasing muggles and their ilk, and no such muggle or muggleborn to disprove their words. If it wasn’t for Daphne’s displeasure at the idea of obedience to anyone other than her parents—she viewed it as a form of subservience, as opposed to the due honour and respect she considered it with in regards to her parents—she may indeed have fallen prey to the preaching of the purebloods as hard and swiftly as her peers did. As it was, it remained only a niggling thought in the back of her mind, one that was reinforced with every second of her childhood that she spent immersed in that culture, yet undermined by every command and forceful opinion provided by her peers and their parents. She eventually grew out of her refusal for obedience—or at least, evolved it into self-respect and the intelligence required to know when appearing obedient would suit her purpose—but it was a prominent part of her childhood and one of the only reasons, she believes, that she did not turn into Pansy Parkinson or Draco Malfoy. These were children she grew up knowing; all her life, she had been surrounded by those who she would eventually school with and live with: Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini and Millicent Bulstrode, amongst others. Being the same age as them, she was often grouped with them, especially with the girls. The ringleader of the girls, Pansy Parkinson, was one of the most annoying human beings that Daphne ever had, and in the years to come, ever would, have the displeasure of having met. As it was, Daphne tolerated her—her mother having taught her well that charm and a cool grace was much more effective than vulgar behaviour; Daphne suspects her mother intended that information to help Daphne charm and further her way in life, as opposed to using it to make Pansy’s inferiority clear, but at the time, Daphne used it against Pansy largely for the latter—and would even remain grouped with them, though she would occasionally throw out a sarcastic comment—which largely went over everyone’s heads, except for Theodore’s and perhaps Blaise’s—and for the most part, ignored whatever was being discussed. She interacted even less with the boys, though that was due more to the lack of patience she had for the imbecilic behaviour of Vincent Crabbe and Draco Malfoy’s ego. She generally got along fine with Blaise and Theodore, though at the time, she suspected that was due to their quiet nature—like hers, and unlike Draco and Pansy’s endless loudmouth antics—and the fact that they had never said enough things to give her reason to think badly of them. As it was, Astoria was Daphne’s number one priority—though her parents got it into their heads that she was close with Pansy Parkinson, of all people, and to this day, Daphne remains baffled as to why—and cemented the fierce family loyalty and love that Daphne still harbours to this day. The closer to her Hogwarts years Daphne got, the less inclined she was to simply listen to Pansy natter on about some stupid thing her mother claimed—Daphne had many private opinions and thoughts about Mrs Parkinson over the years, and none of them good—and so she threw herself into something else: people. Or rather, the workings of people. Now, Daphne was Slytherin through and through. She considered many of her peers unworthy of her notice—to be fair, most people in her year ended up considering Pansy like that—she was quick to form a caustic judgement of others and their opinions, she did not enjoy interacting unnecessarily with people and her mind was a storm of sarcasm, wit and observations that reinforced her lack of respect for adults other than her parents. Despite all of this, Daphne was very good at being a Greengrass; when it suited her, she was charming and gracious, and at all times, she was beautiful, poised and the epitome of class. She found herself, in the years just preceding Hogwarts, in the position to observe many people, and so she did, noting the subtle shifts in their behaviour when interacting with others, which traits remained consistent, quirks about people and as such, found herself able to manipulate situations to her favour through body language as well as her charm and poise. When she arrived at Hogwarts, however, things started to change for Daphne. Despite all of the qualities of hers that made her a good Slytherin, yet not necessarily the conventional view of a good person—ambition, misanthropic tendencies, self-respect to the point of elitism, caustic wit and impatience for those she considered inferior—Daphne was not a genuinely cruel person. In fact, had anyone ever seen her with Astoria, they would likely have considered Daphne a charming girl with great capacity for gentle teasing and laughter, as well as a blinding loyalty and ability to love. So Daphne, beneath the Slytherin qualities, was actually quite wonderful, but unfortunately for everyone else, she did not hold many people in the same esteem that she held her sister. However, that’s not to say there wasn’t anyone she liked—indeed, after Pansy was sorted into the same house, Daphne had resigned herself to seven years more of disparaging thoughts and seeking solitude to escape the inferiority that practically radiated off Pansy and her ilk, but it was not the case. The dorm soon found itself rather split: Pansy, Tracey and Millicent on one side, and on the other, Daphne found herself with Olivia Shacklebolt and Libby Moon. In Olivia, she found the same dislike of Pansy and self-respect, and in Libby, she found a kin spirit in the sense of their family situations and allies as opposed to the life they wanted for themselves. Daphne considers the Hogwarts years extremely important in her development as a person, and it all started back on the first day, after being Sorted into their dorm groups. As it was, Daphne began to, not soften, exactly, but open up slightly. She shared some of her sarcastic comments, and found that having them out in the open somewhat improved her mood and that she was more disposed—still not hugely likely—to be tolerant of idiocy and arrogance. Daphne was an intelligent girl and received good marks, but moreover, she learnt how to best use her charm and grace to her advantage. Unusually elegant for an eleven year old child, her understanding of appropriate behaviour was quite the godsend to her professors in First Year, and the goodwill she earned then continued throughout her time at Hogwarts. Daphne was good at many things, but flying was not one of them. She was perfectly at ease with that, however, having been in what felt like a permanent state of rolling her eyes at Draco and the boys after that very first Flying lesson when Harry Potter had shown up Draco. Speaking of Harry Potter, while Daphne was in his year, the two did not interact. They shared multiple classes, but seeing as Draco’s gang, plus Pansy, and Harry’s group were often trying to show one another up and bickered through many classes, Daphne stayed well away from that, preferring not to be caught up in testosterone-filled squabbles between pre-pubescent boys. The end of that year marked the end of Professor Quirrell’s time as the DADA professor, which Daphne couldn’t say she wasn’t pleased by—his endless stuttering had been very irritating, and she very much hoped for improvement in his successor—as well as the end of her first year of Hogwarts. Arriving home for the summer, Daphne found herself marvelling at how things had changed; she had been exposed to non-purebloods, as well as non-supremacist purebloods, for the first time in her life, and the opinions of her parents’ peers rang even more hollow now. While Daphne did not count herself as a muggle-supporter or anything of the like, she had shifted from rebelliously doubtful to disillusioned about the cause so many of her peers and their parents believed in. She remained charming when it struck her as necessary, but there was often a sharp comment resting on her tongue, simply waiting for someone to go out of their way to earn it. Come Second Year, Daphne found herself even less impressed with the DADA professor; the last one had been a blithering wreck, but at least he was knowledgeable. Lockhart was egotistical and misguided about the relevance of his own accounts to the subject—he was a lot like Pansy or Draco, but somehow even more stupid and even more obsessed with his own appearance, which Daphne had not thought possible until then. In that year, Daphne, ever-beautiful, was more open with her sharp tongue; this was mainly due to rising tension in the school about the Chamber of Secrets. Draco, the idiot, found himself on the receiving end a few times, mainly due to his loudmouth ways in regards to the chamber: while she realised he had the potential to be linked to the chamber vaguely, due to his family’s prominent Slytherin presence, she also had known Draco for years and frankly, did not consider him capable of the acts that had been carried out by the Heir of Slytherin. The rumours that it was Harry Potter was another thing she found perfectly ridiculous; Daphne herself was a more diligent student than Harry and actually was a Slytherin legacy, and it certainly wasn’t her, so she wasn’t going to believe it was Harry Potter. All she knew was that she definitely didn’t think it was a Second Year; other than that, and the morbid fascination that gripped the entire school during that time, she didn’t care too much. At least, not until Creevey and Granger were petrified. Not that she cared about them or anything—she barely knew them, much less consorted with them—but Granger was her age and even worse, Creevey was younger. He was a child, and being an older sister had instilled something protective within Daphne’s sharper Slytherin exterior. JANE SEVENTEEN GMT+12

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