Daphne Greengrass: Here Is Why the Harry Potter Community Is in Love With Her!
When you ask an ordinary person who their favorite Harry Potter character is you will most likely get an answer like Harry, Hermione, or even Draco. Unless you are talking to a fan of the series it’s unlikely you will hear the name, Daphne Greengrass. However, most of the fans will know who she is and have a clear image of the girl in their mind. So how this minor and underdeveloped character did became so popular?
The answer lays with the fans and Daphne’s underdevelopment in the original series. This made her the perfect character for fans to play around with once the series finished. Since she has no defining features besides her looks she could be anything the fans want her to be, which is particularly useful when fans try to imagine different outcomes of the events which were originally depicted in the series.
But you still may be unsure about who Daphne Greengrass is. Surely you wouldn’t miss such an important character from the series. Well if you need a quick rundown this article is just what you need. We will let you know about everything there is to know about Daphne and where exactly does she show up in the books and movies as well as why she is so popular among the fans.
Who is Daphne Greengrass?
Daphne Greengrass is a character featured in the Harry Potter franchise. She is part of the wizarding generation depicted during the storyline of the seven movies.
Her full name is Daphne Lenora Greengrass and she was born in 1980 into a pureblood family. The Greengrasses were one of the oldest wizarding families and as such were a part of Sacred Twenty-Eight, a group of twenty-eight British wizarding families that managed to remain truly pureblood up until the 1930s.
Besides her, another popular member of her family is her sister Astoria. Although she was not mentioned as much in the original books she later married Draco Malfoy. Their relationship is explained a bit or during Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
We do not actually know what she looked like. The best guess is that she looks similar to her sister Astoria. Other than that we have no information about her appearance.
However, fans have speculated that a few Slytherin girls shown in the movies could in fact be Daphne, but none of the theories were confirmed. The two most convincing characters that are suspected to be Daphne actually look drastically different from each other.
The one that is commonly accepted as the movie version of Daphne Greengrass is a girl we can see for a split second in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Fans suspect that Daphne can be seen during a scene in which Fred and Georg interrupt OWLs with fireworks; however, the character which the actress plays is left unnamed in the credits.
The other character has an equally short appearance, but it doesn’t show a girl who looks like what fans usually picture Daphne looking like. This character looks similar to the actress who plays Daphne’s sister Astoria in the last movie, which is why fans believe this could also be her, but again the character is left unnamed.
There is not much known about her early life. The first information we get about her is that she started her first year at Hogwarts in 1991. The Sorting Hat determined that she would be a good fit for Slytherin.
She formed a close bond with other Slytherin girls, most notably Pansy Parkinson. She shared a dorm in the Slytherin dungeon with Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, and Tracey Davis.
She was part of the same generation Harry Potter was, which means she started her first year in 1991. She took O.W.Ls in 1996. The following year she enrolled in N.E.W.T. level potions but it seems it was the only year she took the class.
Besides this, we do not know much about her. This is because she is not a major character in the books. She is mentioned by name a few times but is not tied to the plot specifically.
We get some more information about her life in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The books bring us the information that she survived the Battle of Hogwarts. She was mentioned when we find out that her sister Astoria died before Scorpius’ third year at Hogwarts, because of a blood curse.
There are a few other facts about her that the fans speculated on which were not confirmed. For example, many fans believe that during the events of the Half-Blood Prince, Daphne was a part of Dolores Umbridge’s Inquisitorial Squad.
Fans also believe that she in fact was in Hogwarts during the last battle because she switches her affiliation to Dumbledore’s Army.
Where is Daphne Greengrass mentioned?
As it was already said, Daphne is not an important character. As such she is only mentioned by the name in the original franchise. She has a vague description based on a character shown in the movies that fans suspect is actually her, but it was not confirmed that the speculations are true.
Besides the appearance, we can conclude certain things about her personality from other information about her. She shares common Slytherin traits since she was sored into the house.
Besides that particular instance in the movies, she is mentioned once in the original franchise. The appearance takes place during the school year in The Order of the Phoenix. She is named in the group of students that took their practical charms exam with Hermione.
In addition to this one mention of the name in the book series, she is also mentioned in the BBC’s 2001 documentary named Harry Potter and me which talks about J.K.Rowling’s relationship with the series. She is mentioned briefly when the documentary describes her as originally supposed to be named Quinee.
Besides that, she is not mentioned anywhere else. And this truly means nowhere. Besides some basic information, you cannot find her anywhere. She is not mentioned on Pottermore, in the movies not even on J.K.Rowlling’s Twitter account.
Why is Daphne Greengrass so popular?
Despite not knowing anything about her, Daphne Greengrass seems to be one of the most popular characters of the franchise. Her popularity is so big that despite her newer actually being shown in the movies or described in the books, most fans will have a clear image of what she looks like.
This calls forth a very logical question; how come she is so popular if she is mentioned once in the entire book series. The answer comes from the fans themself. It is a common occurrence that once a franchise ends, the fans, and in this case, even the author, try to keep it alive using many different methods, such as additions to the story, fan art, concept art, and such.
One of the most engaging ways for fans to affect their favorite stories is writing and reading fanfiction. Despite quite the outrage regarding the topic once it first appeared, today it’s a staple of most of the fandoms.
However, many authors, one could argue that even J.K. Rowling herself, is against this kind of altering of the stories. The popularity of the fanfictions grew despite the author’s disapproval.
Although it was frowned upon, writing and reading fanfiction seems to be a favorite pastime for many people and it is easy to understand why. This form of expression allows the fans to see a universe in which things play out differently than they did in the canon.
Maybe you want to know how the Harry Potter series would unravel if Harry was sorted into Slytherin or perhaps you are curious about what the Weasley twins would do after the war had Fred not died. Well, the world of fan fiction allows you to do so.
This is where Daphne comes into play. She is a perfect character for any fan fiction writer because of her underdeveloped nature. No one wants to go through the hassle of creating an original character that will later be difficult to integrate into the stories.
In addition to this, it seems that original characters are rarely well received in the world of fan fiction. They are equally disliked by writers who don’t want to spend the time creating them and incorporating them into the story and readers and fans who often find them quite foreign.
Characters like Daphne provide the writers with a perfect blank slate character that already exists in the universe. Because so little is known she could be integrated into different stories in a plethora of different roles.
Whether you want to read about a misunderstood character that is led by her family’s beliefs but ultimately switches sides and redeems herself or you want an interesting character that gets overshadowed by others, Daphne Greengrass will be a good choice.
Being an original character makes her more believable than an original character. She is most often depicted as Hogwarts’ ice queen, basically what you would get if Draco Malfoy was a girl.
As such she is also perfect for another fan-favorite activity, shipping. In a 2019 Reddit pole, Daphne was the third character most often shipped with Harry Potter.
It is actually quite interesting that a character that doesn’t have essentially any development or interaction with other characters can come before a character like Cho Cang, who was an actual love interest of Harry’s in the book series.
However, this pairing makes a lot of sense to most of the fans. The idea of this pair is very interesting. With two characters completely opposing personalities and ideals create a forbidden love storyline with conflict that practically writes itself.
Since she became such a popular character among the fans, she got a backstory and became an almost entirely fleshed out character.
To further back this up, in contrast with her official Harry Potter wiki, her fan wiki contains an extensive description of Daphne as well as a detailed explanation of what the fans believe happened to her during the end of the series.
As it is often portrayed, she did have some sort of a connection with the Dark Arts. This was most explicitly pointed out when she was a part of Inquisitorial Squad, which was formed by then principal Dolores Umbridge.
A popular development of her story is the fact that Daphne later changed her loyalty and joined Dumbledore‘s army and The Order of the Phoenix. She is often written as one of the few Slytherin students who refused to practice Dark Magic and later fought against Dark Lord and Deatheaters in the Battle of Hogwarts.
To finish her redemption arc she is often killed during the battle after she tries to help someone or while she is avenging someone’s death.
Who does Daphne Greengrass marry?
As it was already said, we do not know much about Daphne post her Hogwarts years. From the provided information we aren’t even sure if she was in the Battle of Hogwarts. The only information we are certain about is that she survived it and that works only if you are willing to consider Harry Potter and The Cursed Child canon.
However, in a popular fan fiction called Dark Prophesy, she marries another non-canonical character, Daniel Potter. He is written as Harry Potter’s first cousin on his father’s side.
What happened to Daphne Greengrass?
Just like everything else regarding Daphne, this information is also a mystery. Although the fans love to speculate about what has happened to Daphne since the end of the original series there is no confirmed information about her.
Nothing that was revealed about the Harry Potter universe after the end of the series could indicate to us what Daphne is doing in the present day if she ever married or had children of her own.
Considering we are talking about Daphne Greengrass here it is no surprise that fans were more than happy to fill in the blanks for themselves. As it was already mentioned the popular opinion regarding Daphne is that she was loyal to Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix despite her pureblood status.
Because of this almost any work of fiction containing Daphne and taking place during the battle of Hogwarts usually features a scene during which someone close to Daphne gets killed by Deatheaters.
The scene is usually followed by Daphne avenging that person’s death while doing something of significance to the course of the battle. Following this many fans like to imagine Daphne continuing her life with the purpose of helping other witches and wizards.
This is why writers usually imagine Daphne either living a simple life with a boring job while focusing on helping people around her or having a job in a position of power where she constantly fights for greater things.
Again, despite there being a plethora of information fans came up with, canonically we don’t really know what happened to her or if she is even alive after the battle of Hogwarts.
Harry Potter Daphne Greengrass marriage contract
As we already discussed Daphne makes for a great romantic interest for essentially any character in the Harry Potter universe since she can be written in any way imaginable.
However, one of the most popular pairings is Daphne and the chosen one himself. Since even the most basic information about Daphne creates tension between the two the story is automatically more interesting and dynamic.
One of the most popular scenarios for a story with Harry and Daphne in a relationship is having them in an arranged relationship or a fake one for both of their profit, which involves the pair slowly falling in love over time.
These kinds of stories usually involve typical romance tropes. Since Daphne is almost always depicted as an ice queen the stories usually involve the trope of slowly melting her heart while she falls in love without even realizing it.
Another popular dynamic is the two not having a friendly relationship, but rather being enemies. The story of two enemies slowly falling for each other but desperately trying to hide it always makes for an interesting read.
These tropes are the ones that are most often used in Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass fan fiction. The most popular piece of work using these tropes and involving this pairing is Harry Potter and the marriage contract.