Harry vs Daphne

*** Present

The door to Greengrass Manor was opened by a house elf.

"Who is it!" the house elf squeaked out.

"Tell Lord Greengrass that Arcturus Black is here to see him." Arcturus stated

The elf nodded and returned within a second before beckoning to Arcturus, "Come." It spoke.

Arcturus simply nodded and followed it to the (or at least one of the) sitting rooms where Iliad was seated.

The Lord Greengrass rose to meet Arcturus.

The two men shook hands.

"Arcturus."

"Iliad."

"Would you like a cup of tea?" the Lord Greengrass asked.

"Yes please." Arcturus said tightly, his face not betraying any emotion to the younger man.

Iliad clicked his fingers and the house elf popped into the room.

"Pringle, get the guest and I some tea." He commanded.

With a squeak of agreement, the house-elf now identified as Pringle popped away only to appear a second later with two pots of tea.

"Thank you Pringle, please continue cleaning the house." Iliad commanded before turning to his guest.

"I assume you are here to discuss our allegiance."

"That and a few…other things." Arcturus said.

"Other things?" Iliad raised a singular eyebrow.

"Like why your daughter is spying on Harry Potter or more accurately, why do you need information on Potter."

Iliad considered lying but the sharp eyes of Arcturus were trained on his own, daring him to try.

"I had to know if the light side was competent enough to fight back in the upcoming war." Iliad admitted, "You're not only fighting Voldemort, but also The Darkness. Enough of it was entered this world to be mildly sentient."

As expected, there was no surprise in Arcturus' expression, either he knew of the return of the Darkness, which Iliad was almost positive he did, or he was just pretending really well.

"And, do you find Potter to be strong enough?" Arcturus asked, his voice not betraying his curiosity, Iliad was a very astute man, his thoughts on the subject were important.

"He is certainly very intelligent and far more accomplished than I expected of a champion of Dumbledore…" Iliad began.

"But you don't think he is enough?" Arcturus enquired.

"Maybe with another few years of training, he could be strong enough to defeat Voldemort on his own, but The Darkness will only grow, and nothing less than Merlin can defeat the entirety of the Darkness." Iliad said sadly.

"So, will you side with the light side then?" Arcturus asked, cutting to the chase.

Iliad gave the Lord Black a long hard stare, "We are a neutral family…"

"But the neutrality of the world will be in danger if The Darkness takes over completely." Arcturus pointed out.

Iliad nodded grudgingly, "Yes, if required, The Greengrass family will side with the light…on one condition."

Arcturus was immediately on guard, the Greengrass family was very sneaky, "And what is that?"

"The next generation will be instrumental in this war. If the Greengrass family is to fight, then Daphne will definitely end up being heavily involved in this war… I want Daphne to join whatever training Potter and his muggleborn friend are undertaking." Iliad said determinedly, "Without that, we will not interfere in this war."

"That is easily done, tell your daughter to meet us at the Room of Requirement at 8 AM tomorrow morning." Arcturus said.

"Very well, the Greengrass Family will join the light side for the upcoming war against The Darkness." Iliad said, and his family ring shone, as his family magic accepted the decision of its head of house.

Arcturus smiled wryly, "Very good, I will keep you informed of all progressions through your daughter."

Iliad nodded his consent.

Arcturus picked up his undrunk cup of tea and sniffed it.

"Veritaserum." He said simply as he got up and strode out of the house.

"I had to try." Iliad smirked.

*** Next Day, 8:00 AM

"We have one more person joining us for training." Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling with mirth like they always did when he knew something they didn't.

"And who is that?" Harry said curiously.

"Me." A voice said from behind him.

Harry turned around to see Arcturus standing with none other than Daphne Greengrass.

"Greengrass." Harry breathed out.

"It appears that my father has made a deal, that I receive training with you, and in exchange, the Greengrass family will fight with the light side." Daphne said lightly, smirking at Harry and turning to Hermione.

"Granger, you need to be careful, I'm on your side now, but I'm far from the only student here at Hogwarts, waiting for you to slip a morsel of information." Daphne said.

Hermione blushed, "Yeah…" she agreed.

Arcturus cleared his throat, "Let's start with the usual warm-ups."

"Actually, before we start training, I want to fight Potter to see how good he is." Daphne said.

Arcturus looked at the girl calculatingly, she was obviously trying to gauge his strength, but Iliad was a man of his word, despite his slipperiness, so there was really no harm in it.

"I see no problem with that."

Just as Arcturus agreed, Daphne shot a spell-chain at Harry, quick as a snake.

Harry just about managed to blink before bringing up his wand to flick the attacks out of the way.

Daphne smirked before raising the ante, but Harry seemed to be able to counter everything she threw at him.

"Strong basic defence." She noted out loud, before spinning around, wand in hand, gathering the winds in a trick her father had taught her before flinging it at Harry, forming a mini tornado which swept towards the young Potter.

Harry sliced straight through the tornado with his wand, ducking out of the way of the spells that immediately followed the tornado.

"Nice trick." Harry grinned back before taking the attack to his opponent, sending waves of air and water at Daphen which she was hard-pressed to defend, waving her wand all over the place to counter the elemental attacks.

Daphne cursed, he had seemed very much at ease when they were exchanging spells but there was some semblance of equality in their skill even if he was more powerful.

In elemental magic, he was easily overpowering her with just simple attacks despite her best efforts to defend.

Harry ended the fight with a giant eagle made entirely from water and sent it rushing at Daphne who tried in vain to lift a gust of wind strong enough to fight back the attack but only slowing down its crash into her.

Daphne crashed into the wall, clearly overpowered by Harry and before she could return to her feet, a stunning spell crashed into her and she slid to the ground, defeated.

Harry grinned, "I win."

Arcturus revived the heir Greengrass who smiled slightly.

*** End of Chapter