Emily Potter - Book 7 - The Deathly Hallows

Chapter 18: Come In With The Rain

"Kiara, not that I've lost confidence in you, but are you sure we're on the right path?" Daphne nervously spoken out to the witch leading them to the heart of the forest. She looked over her shoulder, smirking to the point where Daphne felt her own skin crawl. "Are you doubting my abilities?"

"No. Merlin, no."

Kiara looked back onto the path, slicing off stray branches that blocked their way. "Good. Because I can smell your friends."

The blonde could have sworn that she literally saw Gwen's ears perk up before she sniffed the air. Martina pulled down her hood and took a deep inhale, "Oh. I smell them too. Oddly enough, one of them has the essence of toothpaste." Daphne snorted, shaking her head in amusement. "Yeah, that'll be Granger."

Earlier that day, the four of them apparated to Godric's Hollow and began to trek to the forest for roughly thirty minutes. Daphne even had a momentary lapse in faith, thinking that this expedition would be their deaths. Or, at the very least, hers.

"Do you hear that?" Martina whispered, pulling out her wand from her sleeve. Oh, good. The last thing I need is a scare right now. Daphne thought to herself, but then she listened carefully and true enough, the sound of a crackling fire graced the air around them. Kiara held her hand out to the space before her, her fingers threading through nothing. "This is the best concealment charm I have ever seen. It's flawless."

"Kiara now is not the time." Gwen lectured.

She shrugged, returning her hand to her side. "Yeah, but you've got to admit that this is fine work."

The four watched as the clearing before them shatter like crystal, cascading to the floor like ash before they could hit the dirt. The concealment charms were broken from the inside, and there stood two wizards and a witch.

"Greengrass?" Hermione called out, her eyebrows knit in confusion.

Daphne waved at them awkwardly, now returning her wand to her sleeve. "This isn't how I imagined seeing you three again."

"Is Emily with you?" Harry asked, stepping forward towards the quartet. Her lips stretched to a thin line, some tenseness rising in her shoulders. "That is the golden question, isn't it?"

While Hermione was busy rebuilding with Gwen, Martina, and Kiara as they cast strings of protection and concealments charms, Harry and Ron pulled Daphne aside.

"How did you find us?" Ron pressed, looking quite agitated. Daphne hissed, shaking her head slowly. "You really do not want to know the answer."

"Yes, I do! If there's a hole in our concealment, we'd want to know – "

"Gwen, the one in the shirt with a rainbow on it, she's a half-breed and she can contact the souls of the dead in places that were likely to be visited by you lot," Daphne said shortly, huffed. She then on went to explain the mass of half-breeds that the Beauxbatons girls and the Durmstrang boys cultivated to the group, informing them of their goal to save and protect all half-breeds from snatchers, hunters, and poverty. "Gwen's mother is a Mogwai, an East Asian demon. I've been told that she's gifted in clairvoyance and wandless magic, even. Kiara, the one with the curly dark hair, she's part-Aziza; an extinct race in Africa, basically providers of knowledge and magic for hunters. She helped us track your steps within the forest." 

Feeling something crawling on her neck, Daphne turned around and saw Martina staring at her while she spoke to Hermione about the charms she used. "That – That is Martina. She is most likely eavesdropping on us now. Can't say she doesn't intimidate me; I can't pronounce the kind of creature she descended from, but they are essentially, and quite literally, blood-sucking vampire witches from South East Asia."