#practisemakesperfect

Contrary to popular believe, this was not Daphne’s first time on the battlefield. She did not like to fight, she really did not. Usually, she played more of a supporting role rather than an offensive one, but today she did not care.  

Today was different.  

She had only learnt about the huge fight at Hogwarts half an hour ago and had wasted no time to jump in and help. Try to help at least. She could not just stand by as all her friends were getting hurt.

With her anomaly, her gift, she could help. She could really make a difference in this fight...

But first she needed to find her friends that she knew to be somewhere in the middle of things. They had gotten here before her, so long before her... how much had she missed? Had something happened that she could have helped with had she been there?  

Could she have prevented someone’s death had she been around?

Daphne cursed herself for having shown up late, but she hadn’t known... it had been a day like any other, how could she have...?

Daphne kept running- she just wanted to find one of her friends, any of them. Almost all of them were here, what if they had all- no, she could not think like that. Not before she had actually found any of them... Then all of a sudden, she came to a halt. She just froze.   She could not believe what she was seeing, no it couldn’t be...

Lupin and Tonks were kneeling in front of a small body. A woman with white-silverish hair, a small frame and scars covering her face and arms... It was Chiara.

Daphne gasped.   “I- I don’t know what happened...” Lupin stammered. “She just... jumped in front of me, I... he was about to hit me with the killing curse, I-” he fell silent.   Daphne looked down at her best friends' lifeless body in horror.  

No-

She wasted no time and knelt in front of her friends’ body. She grabbed her hands and closed her eyes, preparing to start healing her.  

“Daph, it’s not... going to work...” Tonks murmured, tears forming in her eyes. “We both know it won’t, you’ve tried before, and it didn’t...”  

Daphne knew what she meant. She had previously tried to bring the dead back to life, but it had never worked. She had always passed out before making any kind of difference... But it had to work this time, she couldn’t just let Chiara die like this, she deserved so much better!

So, she took a deep breath, getting ready. “I know... what you feel for her, everyone does but that won’t change anything. You are just going to put yourself in danger.” Tonks said, wiping her tears.  

But Daphne wasn’t having it. “Let me do it!” she said. “Just cover me!”   Tonks got up, pulling Remus with her.   If Daphne talked instead of using sign language, she meant business. There would be nothing stopping her from trying to bring her friend back.   Usually, she used sign language. The only one that heard her talk semi-regularly was Chiara.

She closed her eyes, tightly holding her hands. But it didn’t work. This was not the time for her powers to fail, why...?   Tears welled up in her eyes. No! She couldn’t just let her die!

Chiara had been Daphne’s first ever friend, the one person that had always understood her, both literally and figuratively.... the one person she had ever truly loved, even if it was unrequited. She could not let her die; it just couldn’t happen.

“Please work!” she pleaded. “Please!”  

Sobs were shaking her entire body. She just couldn’t be dead, she couldn’t be... Tonks placed a hand on her shoulder. “Daph, she’s-” But Daphne couldn’t accept that, she wouldn’t! Not when she knew that she had it in her to help! One last time she focused all her energy, trying to bring her back.  

And suddenly, she felt the usual energy flood through her veins. Relived she squeezed Chiaras hands, as to quietly assure her that all would be okay.  

Soon, she felt the extreme tiredness taking over her body that she always felt when healing bigger wounds. Previously she had failed because of it, but this time she was not giving up so easily. With all her might, she fought back against the tiredness.  

And suddenly, it just... stopped. She felt... powerful. More powerful than she had ever before. Previously she had never managed to bypass the point of exhaustion, this was... new.  

In a snap, she opened her eyes. “Holy shit, Daph...” Tonks said, not believing what she was seeing.   Daphne’s usually blue eyes were glowing bright green instead.   Some sort of all holy Aura seemed to be surrounding her.  

For a moment it seemed like the world had stopped turning, to Daphne at least. All that mattered was this, nothing else did.  

It only took two minutes or so, but it felt like an eternity.   But all of a sudden, Chiara opened her eyes with a gasp. Daphne let go of her hands, just to immediately give her a hug.   She felt exhausted and faint but had never been prouder of herself.  

“Daphne, what... happened...?” Chiara asked, confused. The last thing she remembered was jumping in front of Lupin to take the hit for him, because she knew he has a family. Had the curse missed her, or had she mistaken another spell for the killing spell?  The next thing she knew was that Lupin was hugging her as well, thanking her.  

“Nothing happened.” Daphne signed after letting go of her again. ”You just fainted.”   Chiara looked at her, concerned. Her friend looked awfully pale, and she was trembling.   “We should go, we’re not safe here.” she then signed and tried to get up.   But she immediately fell back down, landing on her knees.  

Suddenly, Chiara started to suspect something. “Daphne, what did you do...? Did you-” With a sharp movement of her hands, Daphne cut her off, getting up again.   “Okay, okay, okay.” Chiara said, also getting up to support her. “I won’t ask again. Careful.”

She led her over the battlefield, trying to find a safe place for her friend to rest.  

If what she suspected was true, if Daphne had indeed brought her back from the dead, she must be absolutely exhausted. A safe place, a safe place... she could not think of anything. Until suddenly it hit er. The Hufflepuff common room.   It was safe, there were some nice fluffy couches to rest on, she should be fine.  

“I know where we’ll go.” she said, leading Daphne along.  

While they were walking along, using the Disillusionment charm to disguise themselves, they walked past the hospital wing. And even with all that was going on Chiara couldn’t help but stop in front of it. “Do you remember?”   With a coy smile Daphne responded that of course she did. How could she ever forget the day she met her very best friend?  

For a second, both marvelled in fond memories of their first meeting, but then quickly moved on to their destination.  

“You should be fine here for a little while.” Chiara said, helping Daphne to the couch.   With a groan Daphne sat down. She had never felt this exhausted before in her life. As she was about to close her eyes, Chiara sat down next to her.  

“I just... Daphne, why did you...?” she didn’t even know how to phrase her question. “Why did you save me?” she asked, rather straight forward.  

Daphne looked away, shrugging.  

“Lou.” Chiara said.  

That use of her nickname hit her right in the feelings. Chiara hadn’t called her that in years.  

“Be honest with me.”  

Daphne grew flustered and looked to the side. And then, in a single heartbeat she revealed a secret that had been weighing on her since her fifth year at Hogwarts.  

“Because I Love you.”

Chiara looked at her, not quite knowing what to say.  It wasn’t like she hadn’t known. Everybody had, she was no exception. But this was the first time that Daphne had ever admitted to it.  

“I.... Daphne we’ll... talk about this... later...”  

She knew she’d have to have this talk with her someday. After all, she was married to Jae and really had no other feelings towards Daphne than friendship... But today was not the day for it. She needed to get back out there, to go see if she could help anyone-  

And that was what she told Daphne, that she needed to go.

Her arms crossed and huddled against the armrest of the couch, she nodded.   Before Chiara left, Daphne reminded her not to die again.  

“I won’t...” Chiara responded.  

She had done it, now she had screwed everything up, Daphne thought. She should have just lied and said that it was because she was her best friend, no other reasons.   But she did love Chiara, more than anything else. She had for a long time.  

Daphne didn’t want to wait for Chiara to come back, she just wanted to get away. Even if that meant walking through a horde of death eaters in her condition.  

Carefully she got up holding on to the armrest to not immediately collapse again. Maybe pushing past her limits had been a bad idea. There must be a reason why she usually passed out before this point. Her legs kept giving out from under her, and she barely even made it to the exit before she fell again.  

This would pass, she told herself. All would go back to normal, she just needed to get out of here.   At the moment, she wasn’t prepared to face Chiara again.

Things had calmed down. The fight was over, you know who had been defeated...   Chiara looked over all the bodies. So many people had died, even though all the healers present had tried their best... But nobody could do anything against the killing curse... except for Daphne.

Now it was time to go get her, now that things were safe... even though Chiara dreaded facing her again. She wanted to tell her that it was okay, that nothing would change... but she wasn’t quite sure how. But her feelings could wait, for now she just needed to get her out of her... Daphne seemed very weak, Chiara worried that there was something seriously wrong with her. So, she quickly ran to the Hufflepuff common room.  

“What are you doing? I told you to stay put!”   Daphne sighed. Busted.   Chiara knelt next to her. “You need to save you strength.”  

Her voice even more unsteady than normally, Daphne asked if they had won. Yes they had, Chiara said as she helped her up.

Daphne showed her a small smile, yet still seemed nervous. She pretended to fix something on her hearing aid, to not have to look her in the eyes.  

“Listen...” Chiara said, while they slowly walked back to somewhere they could apparate from. “Things don’t need to change between us, if you’re okay with that...”

A little confused, Daphne asked how she could just take this so casually, especially after just finding out.

And even after all that happened, even after all this death and destruction, Chiara had to smirk. “Just finding out? Lou, I’ve known for years. You are not the most inconspicuous my friend. I was just shocked to see you admit it after so many years.”  

This made Daphne blush. She did not have the energy to hit her friend her right now, but she really wanted to.

They soon reached the place where all their friends were gathered.  

“It’s finally over...” Tonks sighed, a relived expression on her face. She turned to Remus. “We can go see Teddy, finally... I’m so glad...”  He just silently hugged her.  

Daphne had just managed to stand up straight without the help of Chiara, when she already had to watch Jae pick her up and spin her around, happy to have found her alive. She turned her face away. This was nothing new of course, but it still hurt every time.

“Are you okay?” Nonie inquired. They were somewhat friends- only really because their Dads were friends, so they sometimes had to play with each other as kids. Daphne shrugged. She didn’t feel okay, she felt like she was going to pass out- she had held on while waiting, while knowing that she was not safe, but now...

“We need to get you to St. Mungo.” Chiara said, grabbing hold of Daphne again. “You can be helped there, I’m sure of it!” But then Daphne suddenly just collapsed, right into her arms.

“Okay...” Chiara said, lowering herself down to the floor, resting Daphne’s head on her knees. “Let me see what I can do here...”   She decided to first of all check her vitals and checked her pulse.

It was much weaker than she would have liked it to be... this was new. Previously Daphne had just passed out and had been perfectly fine afterwards, this was...

“I’m worried, Daphne. You are not looking very good, I really think that this is not normal, I...”

But Daphne only looked up at her with her tired eyes and smiled. That kind smile, the same one she had when they had first met.

Then, her eyes fell closed.  

Chiara had to smile too, at first. Daphne had really tried to stay awake to make it easier but had still ended up passing out.  

That brief moment of happiness did not last. Only a second later Chiara realised that Daphne was not breathing.  

She had no pulse, she was just-

“Chiara what’s wrong?” Lupin asked, seeing his young friends shocked expression.  

Chiara couldn’t speak. She couldn’t breathe. All she could do was drop Daphne to the floor and start doing chest compressions.  

Now the others had caught on to what had happened. Nobody knew what to say, everybody was in a state of shock. They hadn’t expected this, they had thought it was over! There had been enough death today, why couldn’t it have ended there?

The only one taking action was Chiara. She couldn’t just let her best friend die like this, especially not because of her own mistakes! “Chiara, there is no point...” Tulip whispered, looking down at her old roommate's lifeless body. She had been trying her best, but her attempts of revival were doing nothing.  

Daphne was gone.

Chiaras best friend was gone, but she couldn’t accept it. “Shut up! I can help her!”   Desperate, she slammed a hand down on Daphnes heart. “Come on! Breathe!” But nothing happened. Daphne lied still, her long black hair obscuring the view of her pale face. She still had that smile on her face, she looked peaceful...

“I’m sorry...” Chiara sobbed, now hugging friends lifeless body. ”I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean for this to happen, I just... Daphne, why..? I'm sorry...” Jae knelt next to her, softly petting her back. He too didn’t know what to say. Daphne had been a dear friend to him too, even though he knew what she felt for his wife. She had promised him that she would never make a move on her, and all these years she hadn’t.

Everybody stood in silence, watching the scene. None of them could believe it. Daphne was really gone...