I've always had an interesting relationship with my sisters.
Part of it is that I'm so much older than they are; my time at Hogwarts only overlapped with my sister Daphne's by a year, and by the time Astoria was heading off to Hogwarts, I was planning my wedding.
Admittedly, I did marry young.
Still.
Despite that, I've always been close to Astoria. I see a lot of myself in her. She's idealistic and driven without being criminally stupid.
When I got to Hogsmeade before the battle, I'd expected to find Daphne there. She's never had much moral fiber - she's the sort of Slytherin who gives the rest of us a bad name. I'd been surprised to find Astoria with her, though; they'd never been close, and I knew that Astoria wasn't a coward. I'd have bet anything that she'd never have left the school, at least not of her own volition.
But then I'd called to them, and she'd looked up at me, and I'd realized that she hadn't left of her own volition. There was an uncharacteristic blankness in her eyes before she'd shuddered, and then her eyes were the same as they'd always been - alert, darting around the street, examining the throngs of people, and glancing toward the castle.
There were bigger things to deal with just then, so I let Daphne slip away - you always have to keep your eye on the prize, because in the end, it's not about the people, it's about the cause - and took Astoria back to the castle to fight. Our parents weren't happy with that afterward, but fifteen is old enough to make your own decisions about whether you want to take a stand against genocide and torture, and she was competent enough to hold her own in a fight - and besides, after being terrorized for a year, she had the right to fight back.
I knew, though. I deal with dark magic and dark creatures for a living - I've been sticking my nose where it might get cursed off since I was a fourth year. It's who I am. Daphne let the Imperius Curse she'd cast on our sister slip because she'd known I'd see it for what it was.
And she'd been too slow.
When I saw Astoria the following Christmas, it was in Hogsmeade. Hogwarts wasn't exactly full of good memories, so preferring it to Daphne's company spoke volumes, as did how much she twitched and jumped at every loud sound or sudden movement.
So I walked her back to school, gave her a hug, and went home to my wife and children for a somber Christmas.
Then I went to see Daphne.
She immediately opened the door when I pounded on it. That, more than anything, more even than the reputation for blood purity and dark arts sympathizers this part of town had, spoke volumes. Normal people - moral people - would have been far, far more uncomfortable with someone hammering on the door than Daphne was.
She looked irritated, not scared.
"To what do I owe this pleasure?" she asked. Her voice was cold; Daphne has never much liked me.
But then, I didn't much like her, either. "Can I come in?" She hesitated, so I added, "I don't think you want me saying what I have to say in the hallway."
She sighed and stepped back.
The difference between my sisters is remarkable. Astoria had always had a strong will, but the war had turned her skittish and uncomfortable in her own skin. Her face was gaunter than it had been, and while she never wore short sleeves, I knew she had scars crisscrossing her shoulders and arms.
The Carrows had always liked blood, and Astoria had never learned not to talk back.
Daphne, on the other hand, looked healthier than anyone had the right to less than a year after the war. From what I could see, her flat was orderly - I could just see her kitchen down the hall, and there were no dishes in the sink and nothing on the counter. Even the blanket on her couch just to my right was neatly folded.
It was the cleanest and more pristine residence I'd seen since before the war, and while she was clearly irritated, there wasn't a hint of anxiety in her face as she crossed her arms and stared at me. "What do you want?"
I leaned against the wall and shoved my hands in my pockets. "I want to talk about Astoria."
She took a moment to process what I'd said - and how I'd said it. Then the blood drained from her face. "You knew?"
I felt vaguely satisfied that she was finally feeling fear. She should have been feeling it years ago and for different reasons, but still. If the specter of Azkaban was what it took… well, then the specter of Azkaban was what it took.
"Of course I knew," I snapped. "This is what I do. You think I can't recognize what the Imperius curse looks like on my own sister?"
Her jaw tightened mulishly. "Fine. Yes. I did. She was fifteen, Brendon - she didn't have any business there! You shouldn't have brought her back."
"She had no business there? Or no one did?"
Daphne looked away from me. Her bangs shielded her eyes, but I didn't need to see them to know that the wheels in her head were spinning. "For fuck's sake, Brendon, neither of you did. You're purebloods. You would have been fine no matter what happened. I couldn't have done anything about you, but I had to try to save her. She was fifteen!"
Our parents had objected on the basis of her age, too. I had given them the same reply I gave to Daphne now. "Fifteen is old enough to decide whether you want to watch a genocide without doing anything."
Our parents had had the sense to drop it, because they knew I was right. Daphne didn't, because she thought that I wasn't.
"A fifteen year old isn't any good in a battle," she snapped.
I didn't bother to argue - attacking Astoria's competence was just a deflection, and I wasn't stupid enough to fall for it. "Is that the issue? Or did you just want to avoid explaining away both of your siblings fighting the Death Eaters?"
She scoffed, but I could tell that I'd hit a nerve. "What do you want?"
"I want to tell you to stay away from her," I shot back. "Or I'll wreck your life."
She opened her mouth, and then closed it again. I waited; I wasn't going to fill the silence for her. Daphne had always been better at twisting the words of others than making her own arguments. After a minute, she fell back on her favorite out: appealing to the authorities. "The Ministry wouldn't like that."
I didn't point out that I was part of the Ministry. She knew that - she'd just always been in the habit of going over your head if she didn't like what you were saying. I wasn't sure if she knew exactly how high she'd have to get to go over my head - we didn't talk much - but Daphne had always been so entitled that she'd have assumed she could do it anyway. Instead, I shot back, "Well, Daphne, that's an advantage to being on the right side. The Ministry tends to believe you over traitors."
Her eyes darted past me. It was a small thing - Astoria wouldn't have noticed it - but I knew that I had her. "It would come out," she insisted. "It would."
I shrugged. "That's another advantage to being on the right side. The Ministry tends to prioritize punishing traitors. I'd get a two week paid suspension and a slap on the wrist while you screamed your lungs out day and night in Azkaban. That seems like a fair trade to me."
There was no way out - and from the way she was shivering, she knew it, too.
"Fine," she snapped. "I'll stay away from your precious baby sister." She stalked over to the door and yanked it open. "Get out."
I smiled and straightened up. "Gladly." Before I stepped over the threshold, I looked at her. Her lower lip was trembling. "And when Astoria does tell me, I'll make sure to remind her that there's no timeline on charging people for using unforgivables."
"Get out."
As soon as I stepped outside the flat, she slammed the door in my face.
I was glad she'd been paying attention.
A/N: If you enjoyed this, please check out my other Drastoria fics (including a longer version of this from Astoria's PoV called "The Way You Say My Name"), which are prequels and probably eventually sequels to this - I've been doing a lot of Drastoria for NaNo. They're somewhere on this page, or you can find them in an organized series at the HPFanficTalk archive under the series (Sidenote: Greengrass stories) under the the same author name. :)
Reviews and favorites are appreciated!
- Branwen