(1) The Phoenix (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Fifty-Nine

The piano in the drawing-room magically plays a soft melody as Daphne sits on the floor, she's not really doing anything. Just sitting really. This house feels weird to her. It always has. This is her family home and yet she feels so alienated inside its walls. So dark and dull and cold. The door behind her opens and closes as Elena enters. Her eyes look around the room, taking it in.

"No offence to the decor" Elena offers, Daphne snorts and nods.

"Yeah, I know it's probably seen better days" She agrees as she looks up at her sister. Sat on the floor in the drawing-room, facing the huge wall with the family tree tapestry wallpaper. She lets out a breath and shakes her head. "I kind of just forgot the state it was in..." She glances around.

"I'm sure it was fancy when it was first decorated" Elena sits at Daphne's side. "You didn't decorate it when it was given to you?" Elena asks her.

"No" Daphne answers. "I guess it never felt enough like home" she adds. "I'm a Gilbert....I've never felt like a Black"

"So do something Gilbert about it" Elena teases, Daphne smiles a little. "This is your house, it could be your home too one day. Wouldn't you rather be comfortable here?"

"I guess" Daphne answers and thinks about it. She had already considered decorating anyway. To really claim it as her own. She would leave the top floor alone, obviously. That's Kreacher's home now. She wouldn't take that away from him. Not after everything he's been through. He needs somewhere he finds safe and comfortable to see out his last days and months and years.

"Even if you just end up selling it" Elena offers, Daphne looks at her. "Not now, I mean..obviously wait until Kreacher's..." Elena stops. "I know you, I know you would never take his home away from him" Daphne smiles softly. "But if you're not living here, if you're not enjoying it...."

"I know" Daphne stops her. "But I could never sell it. It would be like erasing the Black family" She admits. "I might not have really been a part of it, but...This is my heritage, my history...." She looks up at the family tree. She could never give this place up. Even if she clings to it for the rest of her life. She doesn't have anything else from this side of her family. She spins the ring on her finger. She has the ring but that was a Sirius and a Tink thing.

"What are we looking at?" Elena asks her staring at the wall ahead of them. Daphne snorts a little.

"Pureblood dramatics" She admits. "It's the Black family tree"

"Wow, family tree wallpaper" Elena teases, Daphne elbows her sister a little. "What are the burnt patches?" Daphne stands from the floor and moves to the wall.

"When a family member was disowned, they'd burn off the faces...." Elena lets out a breath and looks at Daphne. "Sirius" Daphne points out, motioning to his place on the wall. "For running away from his family's house, being sorted into the wrong house at school, not believing in the notion of blood purity, and falling in love with my mother" She walks along the wall. "Alphard" She points to another. "My great-uncle; disowned for giving gold to Sirius after he left, for helping him" She moves on. "Andromeda" She points to another. "For marrying muggle-born wizard Ted Tonks" She points up the wall at another burnt off face. "For marrying a muggle" She points to another. "For marrying a blood traitor" And another. "For supporting muggle rights" And another. "For being a squib"

"A what?" Elena asks.

"A squib, it's when someone is born to a wizarding family, but has no magic" Daphne explains and then moves back to Sirius, to the one right beneath him. She smiles a little and touches it.

"That's you" Elena points out. Daphne nods. "Wow, look at the detail"

"Sirius added things" Daphne whispers. Elena nods. She can tell that someone who loves Daphne added her to this. The care and detail that's gone into it. The same with Tink's place on the wall. "It's magical so it continues the tree every time someone of the family is born or married...but Sirius added the extra details on to it. Hermione told me it was because he felt like it needed to be more...Tink" She looks at Elena who is watching her softly.

"He really loved her" Elena comments. Daphne nods, spinning the ring on her finger. "What happens when it's full?" Elena asks.

"I have no idea" Daphne answers with a small smirk. Elena chuckles lightly and looks around, moving around the room to read the other names on the wall. To see who is still living and who is dead. There aren't many living left.

"Draco Malfoy" Elena reads and traces it. He's still alive. And has a wife and son. She looks at Daphne who nods.

"And Lyra" She adds and motions to the portrait next to Draco. "Okay, this is probably wrong, but Draco and Lyra are my second cousins..." She pauses to go through it in her head. "Yes. I think that's right. I went to school with Lyra, she was actually my best friend. And I've met Draco a few times. Usually when he was picking Lyra up from the train station"

"Do you miss them?" Elena asks. "Your friends at school?"

"I do" Daphne answers and she does miss Lyra. They were inseparable. And being away from her has been hard. As has being away from Dandelion and her other friends. But she loves being home. She loves being back around Elena and Jeremy. "But I knew it would end that way, Elena, I was always going to graduate and go home. Lyra is off studying dragons. Dandelion is the first half-vampire to go through Auror training. Hamid has just undertaken a position as a curse breaker and is off in the middle-east. We keep in touch. We haven't just gone off and forgotten each other" Elena nods a little. "I am where I want to be. I came home because I wanted to"

"Didn't you want to go and do something like that?" Elena asks her. "Also I will come back to the fact that you've just told me dragons are real" Daphne smirks a little.

"I had a few offers for things" She answers. "But none of them mattered" She hugs Elena tightly. "I am here for you. That is my job. To take care of you and Jeremy. To keep you safe"

"Oh, Daph" Elena counters. "It's not your job to do it. I am grateful, we both are. But come on...you can't just put everything on hold because the bad stuff is happening to us and you want to help us"

"It's my choice to stick with you guys" Daphne stops her. "And nothing is on hold; I wasn't interested in any of those offers. I am happy, exactly where I am, with the people I am with, I promise"