Disclaimer: HP belongs to JKRowling. I am not JKRowling. Therefore, HP does not belong to me.
Daphne narrows her grass-green eyes as she looks at her baby sister, who is obliviously sipping away at her tea, cup clasped so as to discreetly flaunt that eyesore of a ring. Well, alright, even Daphne has to admit that it's not an eyesore, per se. It's very old, and very expensive, and very decidedly Goblin-made: elegant and understated and refined and all that, with a stone that is small, but of the finest cut and quality, and a band that is daintily delicate, but simultaneously solid and strong. But the ring is also so very Malfoy that it's all Daphne can do not to grab Astoria by the shoulders and shake some sense into her.
Malfoy. Daphne knows all about him; she's spent the vast, vast majority of her school years listening to Pansy simper over him in the dorms late at night, after all. Knows that, once upon a time, he would have been considered a great catch, wonderful husband material, what with his manor and his family fortune and his good looks to boot.
But that was once upon a time, in a fairytale that's long-since lost its happily ever after.
"Tori," she begins, twisting her own wedding band as she tries to think how to phrase this without having the whole conversation blow up in her face. Astoria can be so very... defensive when it comes to her fiance.
"I know what you're going to say, Daphne," surprisingly, Astoria is completely calm as she puts down the teacup and looks her elder sister right in the eye, "And while I respect your opinion and appreciate your concern, it's not going to alter my decision one whit, so you might as well save your breath."
Daphne knows better than to argue directly when her little sister uses the tone that means that Tori has dug her feet into the ground and will not budge, come hell or high water. She has made up her mind and her heart, and that is that.
But Daphne is stubborn too, a different kind of conviction. Not the head-on, feet planted, arms crossed kind, but the whispering, wheedling kind that's used to having her own way, in the end.
"But why Malfoy?" she deliberately pitches her voice lower, soft and sweet and inviting confidences, "You do realize you could have had any man you wanted, Tor; you're young and you're pretty and you come from a very good family. Theo was just telling me that -"
"Regardless of what your dear husband was telling you, Daphne, the fact of the matter remains that I chose Draco. Even if I could have had anyone I wanted, and there is only one person in the world I want to be with, and that is Draco."
"But why?" Daphne is slowly losing all semblance of calm. This is her baby sister's future they're talking about, and she cannot keep quiet, "Listen, you know that I just want what's best for you. I know the Malfoys are rich, which is important, but times are changing, Tor. Money doesn't guarantee happiness or security or any of the things that matter. If you marry him, you will be shunned for the rest of your life. No matter where you go, those looks and whispers – suspicious or disdainful or, worst of all, pitying – will trail you like your own shadow. Your children will come home bullied and beaten down by a society that hates them for the sins of their father, and you will have no power to shield them from that truth. You will be shackled to that broken shell of a man until death do you part. You will be completely powerless to change your fate. Do you really want that?"
To Daphne's complete shock, Astoria begins to laugh. Not a snide, derisive laugh, or even a deranged one (which would explain this whole recent lunacy about marrying Malfoy, of all people), but a sweet, gentle one.
"What's so funny?" Daphne demands, partially because she doesn't like being laughed at, even gently so, but mainly because this isn't a laughing matter. At all. Astoria is about to toss her future away with both hands, and she's laughing about it?
"It's just that you're not telling me anything that Draco hasn't already brought up a thousand times," Astoria smiles brightly, chin resting on her interlaced fingers, that damn ring still twinkling up at Daphne's glowering face, "So I'll tell you what I've told him a thousand times in return: I love you for worrying so about me, but your arguments are falling on deaf ears, dear sister. I've considered all those arguments, and I've come to the conclusion that I simply do not care."
"Don't care?" Daphne cannot believe what she is hearing. She typically does not swear (it's not refined, not at all) but she makes an exception, "How the bloody hell can you not care?"
"Two reasons," Astoria's grin only widens as she raises her teacup and continues sipping away, "The first, most important reason is that I love Draco so much that I will gladly bear all pain and humiliation if it means I can stay by his side. I would rather spend an eternity roasting in hell by his side than spend any amount of time in heaven without him. Oh, don't roll your eyes, Daph, I know it's cliche, but it's true. The second reason is that I'm not like you, or like him, really. Honestly, didn't you realize there's a reason I'm not in Slytherin? Really, if you think about it, you ought to have seen this coming."
Daphne blinks twice, then realizes that her younger sister is right. She really ought to have predicted this, all those years ago during Tori's Sorting. She scowls as she drains her tea and stalks away from the table, slamming the sitting room door and leaving Astoria still serenely sipping; Daphne's younger sister is perfectly capable of letting herself out of the Notts' house when she feels like it.
She curses under her breath and mutters darkly to herself as she mounts the stairs to her bedroom, "That bloody, bloody Hufflepuff."
A/N Do I think Astoria was a Hufflepuff? Probably not. She's Daphne's kid sister, and these things do tend to run in families (Sirius being the exception that proves the rule, etc etc), so in all likelihood, Astoria was a Slytherin. But I wish and hope, very much so, that Astoria was a Hufflepuff, because Draco needs someone who will stick with him through thick and thin, no matter what, who will be loyal until the very end, who will stand strong by him through all the crap he will doubtlessly receive for the rest of his life. He needs someone like a Hufflepuff.
(And also, I love the irony that would be if Draco I-think-I'd-get-back-on-the-train-if-I-were-sorted-into-Hufflepuff Malfoy ends up falling in love with a Hufflepuff. Just saying.)
Anywho, as always, reviews make me happier than Hagrid with some new monstrous beasties. And that's terrifyingly happy.