Thinking of Malfoy's foolishness, the corners of Daphne's mouth curled upward slightly.
When that love letter had been read aloud in public, Malfoy's expression had been... truly spectacular.
She had been hiding around the corner at the time and had almost burst out laughing.
But after laughing, she had felt a little envious.
At least someone had dared to write one.
She hadn't even managed to send hers.
Thinking about that made Daphne feel depressed again.
It was only after asking Malfoy for help that she found out Lucien had actually set the Cupids to refuse any letters addressed to him.
"Sigh..."
Daphne let out a sigh like a little adult.
Her mother had told her that when it came to love, one had to be patient and not rush.
When she grew older, she would become prettier, smarter, and more worthy of standing beside the person she loved.
But...
As she walked, Daphne crouched down beside the lake.
With the firelight in the sky illuminating the water, she quietly looked at her reflection.
Flames burned overhead, making the lake shimmer and casting flickering light across her delicate but still childish face.
She looked from side to side.
"The eyes could be a little bigger..." Daphne muttered. "The nose could be a little straighter, and the mouth..."
The longer she looked, the more she felt that everything could be prettier.
And when it came to becoming prettier, Daphne naturally thought of the Beauty Spring.
Lucien had made it.
Daphne tilted her head and seriously studied her reflection in the water.
Was there anything Lucien wasn't good at?
Transfiguration, he had published a paper. Alchemy, he had built a fountain. Charms, Potions, Herbology...
It seemed as though nothing could stump him.
Daphne couldn't think of a single thing.
She thought of her great-grandfather again. More precisely, her maternal great-grandfather, who had once been a world-renowned Alchemist.
It was said that he and Daphne's great-grandmother had met during their student days and fallen in love at first sight.
Thinking about that only made Daphne feel even more depressed.
She thought Lucien was very smart, extraordinarily smart. He could learn magic almost as soon as he was taught and had long since surpassed those clumsy, foolish peers around him.
But in certain areas...
Daphne really couldn't tell whether Lucien was simply uninterested, or whether he was... "not good at it"? "Didn't understand"?
She had heard that he met a girl at Beauxbatons who was so beautiful she hardly seemed real. And that girl was a few years older than him too, clearly at an age when her appearance would be even more striking...
Daphne lowered her gaze to her reflection in the water, her thoughts drifting farther and farther away.
Glub.
A bubble rose to the surface.
Daphne paid it no attention.
Glub, glub.
More bubbles appeared.
Daphne blinked, and before she could react...
Splash!
A slippery black shadow burst from the water and lunged straight toward her face.
"Ah!"
Daphne instinctively fell backward, landing on the grass.
But a second later, she saw what it was.
A long, slimy tentacle covered in suction cups hovered in front of her face, swaying back and forth as though greeting her.
Daphne reached out and slapped it away in annoyance.
"You scared me to death!"
The tentacle didn't seem offended. After being slapped, it swayed again and gently settled onto the grass beside her, its suction cups opening and closing.
Daphne rolled her eyes and poked it with one finger.
The tentacle jerked back as though it were ticklish, retreating slightly before cautiously stretching out again and gently touching the back of her hand.
It belonged to the Giant Squid living in the Black Lake.
Slytherin students were especially familiar with it because their common room was beneath the Black Lake, and they often saw the enormous creature swimming slowly past the windows.
Sometimes, when they grew tired of doing homework, they would look up and see a tentacle pressed against the glass, its suction cups opening and closing as though saying, "Hey, what are you looking at?"
Over time, a strange understanding had formed between the Slytherin students and the Giant Squid.
Daphne poked the tentacle again.
This time, she changed the angle and gently scratched it from the side.
The tentacle twitched violently, clearly ticklish, yet stubbornly refused to retreat into the water, seemingly enjoying playing with the young witch like this.
Seeing it twist around, Daphne couldn't help laughing.
"Hehe, when I come back next term, I'll introduce Astoria to you. She should be sorted into Slytherin too. After all, she's my sister and carries Greengrass blood. It's just that the Slytherin common room is too damp, being built underwater. What was the founder thinking..."
"When Astoria comes to Hogwarts, she'll finally get to see all the magical things here for herself. It'll definitely be much more vivid and interesting than anything I wrote in my letters or showed her in photographs."
The tentacle twitched like it wanted to listen to more gossip.
"Now that Hogwarts has its own Beauty Spring, that girl won't have to keep nagging about wanting to go to Beauxbatons, right? How could Mother possibly feel at ease letting her go to a foreign country alone? In that case, I should thank Lucien. I think Astoria would like Lucien as an older brother, since they both enjoy reading..."
As she spoke, Daphne's voice gradually grew quieter, and the smile on her face slowly faded.
Her younger sister Astoria had been frail since childhood and needed to be carefully looked after. She couldn't stay outdoors for long and spent most of her time in her room reading.
That "weakness" came from a curse hidden within the Greengrass bloodline.
Her mother always said that Astoria would get better when she grew older.
But Daphne had also secretly seen her mother sitting alone in the study, flipping through all kinds of books related to curses, so absorbed and sorrowful that she hadn't even noticed a child peeking in from outside.
Daphne hugged her knees and looked up at the fireworks in the night sky.
Would Astoria really get better when she grew up?
________
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