Altair Greengrass lay dying. At his bedside was his second wife, Carina, and daughters, Daphne and Astoria.
"Send in Leo," he wheezed. He was referring to his son by his first wife.
The older woman and two younger women left the room. A young man with dark hair, pale skin, and proud features soon entered.
"Father," he said, kneeling by his father's bedside.
"Leo," said Altair weakly. "As my only son and heir, you will inherit this house and all my fortune. While you might want to use it all to support yourself and Tracey, I am asking you to share it with your mother and sisters." Altair had always refused to add the word "step" and "half" before any words of relationship.
Leo bowed his head. "I will," he promised, though knowing that his wife, Tracey, wouldn't like it. She hated Carina, Daphne, and Astoria. Leo wasn't overly fond of them, either, but he felt a certain familial affection for them, and he couldn't break his promise to his father.
Altair coughed violently and his breathing became shallow. Leo quickly summoned the three women back, and the four of them gathered gravely around Altair Greengrass's bedside as he coughed one last time, and died.
A few weeks after the funeral, Leo Greengrass sat in his sitting room with his wife Tracey Greengrass, nee Davis. She had been in Slytherin, like himself, but was a few years younger.
"My father wants us to share his money with the others," he said, by which he meant his stepmother and half-sisters.
Tracey looked disapproving. "How will we do that? We'll barely be able to get along with all the money as it is." This was not at all true, as they lived in a lavish house already, which they were selling so they could move into the Greengrass mansion, and the Greengrass family fortune was a relatively good size.
"Well, I suppose we'll have to make do," said Leo, already feeling the strain of trying to please both his father and his wife.
"But we wouldn't want to be rude," said Tracey. "I mean, if we gave them too much, it would seem that we thought they needed charity."
"That's true," mused Leo. "So, we'll give them as much as we ought to, but not more than that."
"Exactly," said Tracey.
"I can't believe Leo and Tracey are kicking us out," said Daphne, throwing the contents of her wardrobe pell-mell into her many bags.
"The house is theirs now," Astoria pointed out. She was sitting on her sister's bed and watching her pack, having finished her own packing days before.
"But still," Daphne insisted. "We're their family."
"I know," said Astoria. "And it is pretty rude, seeing as we were living here and they had their own perfectly nice house. But it's their property and they can do whatever they want with it. Besides, Mum's relatives are selling us that house. It's small, but really nice."
"Relatives?" said Daphne. "More like her second-cousin-twice-removed's friend's daughter's milkman's brother's uncle's aunt's niece's friend who happens to be Katie Roper's husband."
"Josh Stroman, you mean?" asked Astoria. "I don't see what's wrong with him and Katie. They're perfectly nice."
"They're annoying," Daphne corrected her. "Besides, don't you find it a little…belittling, buying a house from someone that went to school with us, as if we need their charity?"
"No," said Astoria. "You're too proud, Daphne. Besides, Katie and Josh were five years above us at Hogwarts."
"Not to mention Hufflepuffs," Daphne muttered. Astoria rolled her eyes. The Greengrasses were known for being the most tolerant of all the old pureblooded Slytherin families, but Daphne had always bought into the "Hufflepuffs are lame" stereotype. "Plus, Katie's sister Sophie was in my year."
"But she was a Ravenclaw, and therefore not offensive," Astoria said, as if that settled the matter. "I'm going to help Mum. You'd better hurry up and get packed." She left the room.
Astoria, though two years younger than her sister, had always been the more responsible one. She had been bestowed the gifts of sense and reason, along with which came a reserved personality. She was so reserved, in fact, that most people who met her thought her to be cold and unfeeling. She was perfectly friendly once you got to know her, but she was only close with a very few people.
Daphne, however was the complete opposite. She was highly excitable, and got emotional about everything. She made hasty decisions that she often regretted, and was often in trouble. People who met her were sometimes alarmed by her extreme personality, but she was quite lovable all the same and she had many friends.
They even looked different. Astoria had dark hair, pale skin, and blue eyes, rather like her half-brother. Daphne had blue eyes, but she had blonde hair and a rosy complexion. Despite their differences, the two sisters were the best of friends and rarely argued, for which their mother was extremely grateful.
Astoria found her mother presently. To her surprise, Leo was with her. He nodded to Astoria and then departed.
"Why was he here?" Astoria asked.
"Apparently, he was left the Greengrass fortune by your dear father." Pain flickered across Carina's face, as it always did whenever her late husband was mentioned, and she closed her eyes for a second. Opening them again, she continued. "Altair told him to give some of it to us, and Leo just stopped by to inform me of some transactions he made between our Gringotts vaults."
"Oh." Daphne would have asked how much money they'd gotten, but Astoria thought it would be imprudent to ask.
"Is your sister packed yet?" asked Carina, seeming keen to change the subject.
"Nearly, I think," Astoria said.
"Good. Tell her that we're going to leave as soon as possible."
Astoria went to relay the message, and then she left the house and took a walk around the grounds, thinking. She sat down on a bench in their rose garden near the front of the house and became lost in thought.
"Excuse me?"
Astoria started and looked up. Standing in front of her was an uncertain-looking man. He had pale blond hair, pale skin, gray eyes, and sharp features. She figured he was around her age, give or take a few years. "Yes?" she said, wondering who he was and what on earth he was doing in her rose garden.
"Is Tracey Greengrass in?" asked the man. "I have something to see her about, and was told she lived here."
"Oh," said Astoria, disliking being reminded once again that she was being kicked out of her own house. "She's moving in this afternoon, I think, but she's not here yet. I'm Astoria Greengrass, by the way."
"Draco Malfoy," said the man, offering his hand to her. "Your Daphne's younger sister, right? I think I remember seeing you around at Hogwarts."
"Yes, I am," Astoria said, shaking his hand. "I remember seeing you, now that I know who you are."
Draco nodded. "So, are you here to help Tracey and Leo movie in, or-?"
"Actually, we're moving out," said Astoria with a sigh. "This is our house, or it used to be, but my father died about a month ago. He left the property to Leo, since he was the only son, and Leo and Tracey are moving in here and my mum, Daphne, and I are moving to a small house a few towns away."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Draco murmured.
Astoria never knew quite what to say to this, so she settled for a muffled noise that sounded somewhat like "Thank you."
The two of them began to talk, and Astoria found herself becoming more and more interested in him. She felt a strange attraction between them. But no, she'd only met the man ten minutes ago, and would probably never see him again. She refused to let herself get attached to him like that, but by the time her mother called her inside, Astoria was disappointed to leave, and she thought about him the whole way to their new house.
I finished reading Sense and Sensibility a few days ago, and I was struck with a bolt of inspiration. Why not take the Dashwood sisters, thought I, and turn them into Daphne and Astoria Greengrass? So I did, and it resulted in the fic you're reading right now. If you've read Sense and Sensibility, the plot of this fic will be really predictable for you, and if you haven't, maybe this fic will inspire you to. Don't expect updates all that often, because school's starting to get busy, but I'll write when I have time. I imagine this will be a somewhat lengthy fic…I'll give a chapter estimate once I'm further in. I think that's it, except that I do not own Harry Potter or Sense and Sensibility, and I encourage my readers to leave reviews! Oh, and a note on ages: this takes place when Astoria is 22 and Daphne is 24.