Daphne Greengrass

**Daphne Greengrass** (born 27 May, 1980) was the daughter of Ignatius Greengrass III and his wife, Evaline Greengrass (née Fawley). She was a member of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Greengrass, a wizarding family that has been around for hundreds of years. She had a younger sister, Astoria. She was a pure-blood witch and started attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1991.

## Biography

### Early life (1980s)

Daphne was born on 27 May, 1980, on the Greengrass estate near Bath, Somerset, England. Her father was Ignatius Greengrass III. She had a younger sister, Astoria. Her paternal grandparents were Ignatius II and Odella Greengrass (née Burke). As a child, Daphne was a playmate of Pansy Parkinson, and the two were very close friends and confidantes.

The Greengrass sisters were raised to believe in the ideals of pure-blood supremacy. Their family was one of the oldest, "truest" pure-blood families in Britain, and were counted among the Sacred Twenty-Eight. One of the sisters' distant ancestors was cursed with a blood malediction, which resurfaced in Astoria. It is unknown whether Daphne suffered from the same condition as her younger sister, however, it *is* known that the sisters' paternal aunt, Rosalind, suffered the same affliction.

### Hogwarts years (1990s)

She received her Hogwarts letter in the summer of 1991. Before attending, she purchased a wand made of walnut and unicorn hair. She boarded the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross Station in London on 1 September, 1991, and she was sorted into Slytherin House that night. She shared a dorm with her childhood playmate, Pansy, as well as some other girls, Millicent and Tracey.

During Daphne's fourth year, Hogwarts hosted the Triwizard Tournament, a special wizarding event that attracted a lot of media attention. Daphne and her friends were among the students who gave Daily Prophet journalist Rita Skeeter false information on Harry Potter, Rubeus Hagrid, and Hermione Granger. One piece was the making up of false rumours which detailed that Harry and Hermione were romantically involved. She was highly amused by the Potter Stinks badges passed around by her fellow Slytherins, and laughed when Draco's *Densaugeo* hex accidentally hit Hermione when he and Harry started a duel in a school hallway, leaving Hermione with temporarily over-sized front teeth.

Daphne was present on 1 September, 1997 aboard the Hogwarts Express when Death Eaters stormed the train in search of Harry Potter. During Daphne's final year at Hogwarts, Lord Voldemort was in indirect control of the school through Severus Snape as headmaster and Amycus and Alecto Carrow as the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies professors. As a Slytherin, Daphne was probably one of the favoured students and would not have been on the receiving end of their brutal and unfair punishments.

On 1 May, 1998, Lord Voldemort approached the school with his Death Eater army, and offered those inside the Hogwarts castle a chance to turn Harry Potter over to him in exchange for sparing them all. Daphne left Hogwarts with her house-mates, and likely was not one of the few to return as reinforcements during the Battle of Hogwarts with Professor Slughorn. Instead she may have been among the Slytherin students that Voldemort told Lucius Malfoy had come to join him. However, this is unlikely as she seemed terrified of the thought of Voldemort attacking Hogwarts, so it is more likely that she didn't take either side.

## Etymology

The name Daphne means "Laurel" in Greek. It is derived from the nymph Daphne in Greek mythology, who was pursued by the god Apollo. She prayed to her father, the river god Peneus, to change her body in order to escape the love-struck Apollo and Peneus then transformed her into the laurel tree, which Apollo then claimed as one of his sacred symbols. In Ancient Greece, a wreath of laurels was given as a prize and considered a symbol of prosperity, fame, and victory.

Daphne is also the name of a plant noted for its fragrant flower, but for also being wholly poisonous.