Amaranthine
Daphne could recall how her mother used to do her and her sister's hair before they had company when they were growing up. Sometimes, her mother liked to do their hair up in prim buns, other times, like when the company would include children she enjoyed putting their hair in braids. Hers a single one that would run down her back, and for Astoria, it was always pigtails.
Her little sister had complained about this, once – twice – when they were young.
"Why can't I have my hair done up like Daphne's?"
Her mother's hands had always been firm, Daphne remembered. Any punishment they received never involved belts or brushes, Daphne's mother having once remarked a good slap to the face worked just as well on ungrateful little girls as a belt did on an arrogant little boy. Oh, how her mother had hated anyone questioning her will.
Daphne's mother may have never explained it, but Daphne always had her own ideas on why she did Daphne's hair one way and her sister's another. It was after the last time Astoria asked that she'd felt her heart stir enough at the sight of the red mark on her sister's round cheek to tell her why their mother did Astoria's hair in two braids instead of one.
Cupping her fingers around her sister's ear, she whispered so softly that surely Astoria still had to strain to hear, "It's because you're her baby. She wants everyone to remember that so they'll think of you sweetly. As the good little sister."
The smile Astoria gave Daphne was just like her, soft and iridescent.
"Truly?" she murmured with such joy. "It's so they'll think good things about me?"
Daphne had smoothed the wrinkles from her skirt and nodded her head. "That's right, a girl's appearance speaks volumes about her, you know."
Reaching the sleek, cherry wood casket, Daphne stared down at the sallow face of her sister and took in every imperfection. How her hair was just brushed out to lay about her shoulders, how there was nothing but a bit of pink to her face to make her look like she was just sleeping instead of dead, how she wore a pearl brooch rimmed with gold, yet on her neck was a silver chain with the Malfoy crest.
Draco should have let her help, Daphne thought. He was a man, he didn't understand the nuances of a woman's appearance the same way she did. If he were to get up and walk over and actually look at his wife, he might realize how haphazard her corpse appeared. How she didn't seem like a woman put together, but more like one falling apart. This wasn't Daphne's sister, no, it couldn't be. Astoria knew how to wear her clothes, she knew how to do her hair and accent her appearance with jewels and bits of metals in a way that reflected her standing as a well-to-do woman.
This body…
It was a mockery of everything that Astoria was. Daphne looked back to her sister's husband. There was an ugly shade of purple beneath his eyes and a scruff that didn't become him around his chin. Looking over the children on either side of him, she was also forced to note that Scorpius faired little better than his father; he looked like a lout with his shirt un-tucked and buttons undone at the top of his collar. And young Vega on her father's left. She was wearing her school robe. Daphne wondered then if the girl even had a black dress robe.
Probably not.
"Oh, how I hate black, Daphne! Why does mother insist our shoes must be black? Surely brown would suffice!"
Lowering her gaze, Daphne felt true tears come to her eyes for the first time that day.
With the world blurring along the edges, she might not have noticed Draco staring at her, if it weren't for the fact she'd been watching him first, anyway. Draco had seen her looking at him and his children instead of in the casket where her sister lay. The man parted his lips, as if he might say something. But, instead, he continued his staring for all of a moment before sealing his maw once again.
Holding his leaden gaze, she let the tears evaporate away as she felt the familiar fire of indignation and loss spring to life inside her breast.
Draco broke their watching, yet it brought no satisfaction. No, he'd doused her inferno and tears were spilling down her cheeks now–much too fast for her to ever cover up. It seemed her ex-brother-in-law had caused a storm to put out her internal fire.
Walking away from her Astoria's final bed, Daphne did not take her seat across the aisle from Draco and her sister's children. Rather, she left the funeral all together and headed for a pub.
Drinking didn't stop the tears, nor did it make her forget.
A week later, Daphne woke up with not only a pounding headache, but also a tapping at her window. Rising out of bed, she paused long enough to fight back the need to vomit and stalked over to the window and opened it to find a prim little owl staring up at her with yellow-brown eyes. Glaring at the bird, she snatched from it what lay in its beak–a letter. Turning it over in her hand, she realized it was from Draco.
Disgusted, she might have cast an incendio on it if it were for how the owl hooted and flapped its wings. Giving the bird a dirty look with her blood-shot eyes, she unfurled the parchment and read the line that lay inside:
My children and I invite you to afternoon tea, if you are available.
Angry at her ex-brother-in-law's audacity and even more furious to know that they still wanted to see her without Astoria in the picture, Daphne had torn the letter in half and screamed loudly.
"No!"
The owl, startled into action, made a shrill sound before taking flight. Cursing at the bird crap now on her floor and the feathers, Daphne closed the window and cast a quick cleaning charm on the floor.
Still heaving with leftover fury, she stared at the two halves in either of her hands. Why on earth would they invite her to tea? Draco, the children, knew she hated him. They knew she found everything about their home and lives distasteful, how they spoke informally to one another, how they shared hugs and kisses with abandon and tittered at the mistreatment of House Elves and poo-pooed laws that restricted the positions or jobs that could be worked by Half-Bloods and Mudbloods.
Those people, Draco and Astoria, they weren't the people she'd grown up with, and their children! They might as well be the son or daughter of one of the Golden Trio or Weasleys with how sensitive they were about other's statuses and feelings.
For the last twenty years or so years–since the war–her sister and Draco had left her behind. They'd moved into a world she did not know and did not care for. Daphne was everything she'd been raised to be. An elitist. Having to watch her sister slowly give up their way of life in favor of the one Draco had decided he wanted for himself and his children had hurt Daphne over the years.
She didn't like the manipulations. She didn't believe in the world Draco and all those other glass half-full people wanted; Daphne didn't believe in a world where everyone was equal and the same. She wasn't naive, nor she wasn't ridiculous enough to throw away what she had. There would always be people of a better variety; their blood would run purer, their fortune would be older and their position in society would be more lofty and prestigious.
And to think, she'd encouraged her sister's coupling at the start.
"I bumped into Draco Malfoy today while at the apothecary, he was in your year, remember, Daphne? Anyway, he asked me out to dinner."
Eyes twinkling with hunger, Daphne touched Astoria's shoulder and said, "I hope you accepted, the Malfoys are of the best stock, you know."
"Oh I know!" Astoria laughed with her wind-chime vocals.
Who had known he'd become a muggle sympathizer. Who had known that change in loyalty hadn't been just another slippery Malfoy trick to stay on the winning side? Who had known? Only Draco, it seemed to Daphne now.
The only true comfort she'd been able to take from everything was that Draco's parents were just as disappointed in him as she was in her sister. Both them and she found their relations lacking.
Astoria had never liked strategy; she'd never liked the mind games–not like Daphne.
Draco had never felt the need to strive to be on top, always assuming he was already there (like Daphne had).
The pair had been a swell match for each other. Astoria let Draco be the one on top. She let him be her winner. And Draco? Her ex-brother-in-law hadn't made Daphne's sister play games. He didn't keep a tally, he hadn't pushed Astoria one-way, and then another, to see how long it would take to break her.
Daphne's sister had followed Draco with a single-minded devotion and Draco, so pleased by this, had been happy to shape her into his perfect little parrot. Astoria would spout whatever idea he was pushing that week, be it rights for werewolves or the need to be more accommodating to the changing needs of Muggleborns coming into their world.
Daphne's never realized it before Astoria paired off with Draco, but she absolutely hated her sister. The younger had been brainless. She didn't live to think, she lived to please. There was nothing more disgusting, Daphne had come to realize in the course of living. Of course, Daphne herself had shacked up with a man from time to time, but when they began to try and impose their wills and ideas on her, Daphne always broke things off then. She knew what happened to women who changed their mindsets to better fit their partners; they turned into someone like Astoria. They became little more than a walking mouthpiece.
Better off alone than someone else's puppet, Daphne believed.
Dropping the ruined parchment, she sighed and thought about the last time she had tea with the Malfoys. It'd been two weeks before–when Astoria was alive. It hadn't been a good tea, Daphne remembered. They'd bickered all the way through it.
"Oh really, Daphne? You think forcing them to live like us will make them stay when they're grown?"
"It's not about making them stay, Astoria! It's about making sure they learn what it is to be a witch or wizard!"
Head still aching, Daphne returned to her bed and collapsed on top of it. A fire of indignation was still burning in her chest, but it was just embers now. How would tea be, she wondered, without her sister?
Would it be quiet?
Or would she continue the war that had carried on between her and her sister with Draco?
Closing her eyes, Daphne decided she didn't care because she was done with Malfoys and all those wishy-washy turncoat types.
A few days later, Daphne was drawn out of her bed once again when a muffled knocking came from the front of her flat. Squeezing her eyes tightly against the yellow light streaming in from the haphazardly closed drapes, she considered ignoring the person at her door. Let them think she wasn't home.
Alas, the plan wasn't to be as the knocking only became louder and, then, an occasional shout joined the steady rhythm. Daphne assumed they were calling her name and wondered why they thought she had to be home. It was a perfectly good Thursday (Friday?) and there was little reason for her not to be working at Betting Shop as usual. That is, unless they'd gone there already and asked for her.
Then they would know she had quit her job.
Daphne wondered if they'd gone to the Betting Shop. She didn't like the idea of someone (probably Draco) going there, asking about her, as if he cared what she did.
"The Betting Shop? Really, Daphne? Haven't you had enough of gambling? Wasn't Father's little addiction more than enough to turn you away from it?"
Gritting her teeth, Daphne snarled, "Shut up, Astoria."
The knocking, which had paused a moment ago, began again. It was now incessant and intense. Throwing off her duvet, Daphne shouted, "Alright! Alright! Wait a bloody minute!" Getting one her robes from the hook beside her bedroom door, she threw it on over her pajamas and went to the front of her flat and tossed open the door.
What lay on the other side wasn't what she expected. It was her niece and nephew. Vega's face was dirty with tears and Scorpius looked a moment away from full-blown rage-fit.
Eyes stinging from the light outside, she demanded, "What do you want?"
"Daddy's gone," her niece sniveled.
Daphne had never understood her mother's distaste for tears and sniffling until now. In fact, she hated the expression on Vega's face so much she lifted her hand prepared to slap her. But, then, Astoria's voice reminded Daphne just what this girl was to her.
"Meet your niece, Virgo Daphne Malfoy."
Gripping her raised hand with her other, Daphne lowered it with a trembling body and reminded herself that she wasn't her mother and that this girl, she was a piece of her dear Astoria.
Staring at the girl for a moment, she turned her eyes to her nephew and asked, "What does this have to do with me?"
"You are our aunt," Scorpius reminded her. "Someone's going to notice sooner rather than later that Dad's gone and we don't–"
He looked pained. Blinking his eyes in rapid fire, the boy sucked in a breath and whispered, "We don't want someone coming to our house and saying we have to go live with Grandmother and Grandfather."
"The Malfoys are fine enough people. Maybe a little snooty, but–"
Vega sobbed.
Daphne wondered what she didn't know.
"Snooty. Snooty? They're absolutely pretentious! They always talk to us like we should be grateful to be related to them! If we had to live with them I don't know that I wouldn't – wouldn't… Do something."
Studying them both, Daphne felt she needed to remind them of just what kind of person she was. "I'm your aunt, yes, but do I send you gifts for holidays and birthdays? Do I ask you how you are when I see you or ever even smile at you? No, children, I do not! The only reason I ever came to your home was your mother and now that she is gone, I have no interest in you or your damn father."
Daphne's niece only began to cry louder and, nervous, Daphne cast a silencing charm on her as she was reminded of the neighbors beside her. Neither cared for loud noises.
Scorpius gave a roar when he saw her cast his sister silent, but before he could start yelling, she put one on him as well and then cast a jelly leg hex as well to stop him from trying to get physical. Once both children were handled, she glared down at them and said very seriously, "I suggest you and your sister go to one of your friend's home, I don't have the time or patience for either of you."
And with nothing else to say to them, Daphne stepped back into her home and closed the door. Locking it with every spell she knew, the woman fell down on the floor and brought the heels of her hands to her eyes. She let the back of her head hit the wood of the door and began to cry.
She was not loud, but Daphne had learned early to keep her misery to herself.
A hand pushed back her hair and a pair of wide, iridescent eyes captured her gaze. "Are you crying, Daphne?"
"N-No…"
A smaller body enclosed Daphne in a hug. "It's okay, I got you," Astoria whispered.
Hugging the girl back, Daphne bit her lip and told herself to stop being weak.
A day later, finally moving about her home without a glass of whiskey in hand, Daphne began to sort through the letters of condolence that had begun to pile up on her kitchen counter. There were ones from old school chums, a couple from old flames, coworkers. When she got the bottom of the pile, Daphne had to sit down. It was a letter from Draco Malfoy.
Hands shaking, she opened the letter and read what lay inside.
Daphne,
I'm sorry your sister's dead. I'm sorry I didn't know she was sick until it was too late. I'm sorry for not being who you wanted me to be and for raising your nephew and niece to be people you do not like. And most of all, I'm sorry for what I am about to do.
I'm leaving, Daphne. Not forever, I just need a few days–perhaps a couple weeks–to come to term with things. The children… They don't know. I can't bear to tell them myself, but when they come by (as I suspect they will, as they've expressed their dislike of their grandparents on multiple occasions), please tell them not to worry and that their daddy will be home in time to send them back to school.
Yours truly,
Draco
Dropping the letter, Daphne whispered, "Damn."
Had he sent this after she refused to have tea with him and his children?
Merlin, he probably had! But she'd been so busy wallowing around in her own pains that she hadn't even begun to consider the drastic actions her ex-brother-in-law might take in the wake of dear Astoria's death.
Getting up, Daphne's heart palpitated and she thought of whom her nephew or niece might have befriended while at Hogwarts. Astoria had told her that Scorpius had become the expected Slytherin while his sister, Vega, was in Hufflepuff.
She'd been disgusted by that news, she recalled.
"A bloody Hufflepuff! How on earth did a child born from Greengrass and Malfoy blood end up in such a place! You know just as well as I do that's where all the rejects end up! You might as well tell Draco now to disown her now! Truly! She's a shame to our bloodlines!"
Daphne could still feel the sting of voicing her opinion, too. She'd never seen her sister so livid before or after that day. After that incident last fall, Daphne had not visited again until after her sister sent several pleading letters for her to at least pop in for an hour or so on Christmas Eve.
It hadn't been as satisfying as Daphne thought it would be to make Astoria grovel for her company.
If anything, Daphne had loathed Astoria all the more for it. How could her sister still want to see her? For years she'd insulted her husband, then her parenting and now Daphne had outright called her own namesake a shame and still Astoria wanted to see her. What a simpering woman her sister had become, she'd thought after reading the invitation to Christmas Eve. Her sister, begging a woman who'd insulted her to come for a visit.
"You'll love me forever, won't you, Daphne?"
Squeezing the younger's hand, she gave her little sister a confident smile. "Of course! Sisters are forever, like love."
Walking out of the kitchen, Daphne had gone to where she kept a small photo of herself and her sister. It was from their schooldays, Daphne had been in her fourth year and her sister in her second. Someone had seen them laughing together on Hogwarts's lawn and captured their smiling faces for eternity in the picture. Picking up the silver frame from her dresser, Daphne gazed at shifting face of her sister. For a moment, Astoria's gaze was focused entirely on Daphne and even though all she saw was the younger's profile, she still picked up the devotion and worship in her stare.
It was probably because that's all Astoria had ever looked at Daphne with when they were growing up. It was only once they were both adults living their own lives that Astoria started to look at her with something besides the glow of adoration. She hadn't realized it until now, but Daphne couldn't recall a moment since her sister's children were born that Astoria's gaze hadn't held some potency of disappointment in them.
The fire of fury once again capturing her heart, she dashed the frame upon the floor. It shattered into several pieces and skittered across hardwood and under her bed.
"Good riddance!" she yelled. "Good riddance to you and your damn eyes!"
Blaze still strong in her breast, Daphne set out to find her niece and nephew.
"Like love, Astoria."
Daphne still didn't know where to look for her niece or nephew, but she knew where to begin. Walking up to the home her sister shared with her husband and children, she took in a deep breath and steeled her heart against what she would find inside.
She saw her sister's cloak, her teacup collection and many other numerous touches throughout the home belonging to Astoria. Going further into the home, Daphne headed for where she knew the bedrooms lay. Opening the door to one of the children's room, Daphne had to close the door just as quickly as she had opened it.
What lay beyond it, so blatantly displayed, was a recent family portrait. The occupants were all smiling and looking at one another and whoever had the camera, but what made Daphne go weak was the sight of her sister in the picture. She looked so well, but she hadn't been! She'd been sick for months–if not a whole year.
"They say I got tumors everywhere in my abdomen and chest. It's too late for life-saving, all they can do now is prolong me a bit longer so I can say goodbye."
Astoria might have just passed away one day without them ever knowing, if Draco hadn't insisted she visit a healer when he noticed that she'd had a cough for over a month. While knowing hadn't made her sister better, it'd certainly given the younger a chance to tell her family goodbye. In a guilty sort of way, Daphne wished her sister had never learned about what was inside of her.
She'd rather have spared Astoria the agony of knowing. Knowing you could be living your last moment every second of the day did not breed peace. In fact, Daphne was still surprised her sister hadn't just killed herself. If she'd been in Astoria's position, she would have. Better to pick your moment than to live in fear of it sneaking up on you, she thought.
"You and me, Daphne, we don't see things the same."
A tear slipping down her cheek, she wiped it away and opened the other door. Daphne was relieved to find no photos were on display. Taking in the surroundings a moment longer, Daphne realized this was her nephew's room.
The quidditch posters and a large collection of dragon and winged horse models told her so. Moving on to the desk he had situated in the corner of his room, she sorted through the parchments and found a few with names. One said Albus Potter, another Rose Weasley, a different one said Colette Zabini and finally, a letter from a boy she'd never heard of, Brody Bryan.
Skimming their contents, she decided if her nephew had taken her advice, he'd have either gone to this Brody's home or Albus Potter's.
Crinkling her nose, Daphne decided she'd start with Potter because at the very least she knew where he lived. Tucking the letters away in her robe pocket beside Draco's, she apparated away from the home.
-v-v-v-
After tap taping on the door, it opened to reveal Ginny Potter. Looking unimpressed by Daphne's appearance, the redhead asked, "What's brought you by, Miss Greengrass?"
"My nephew and niece, are they here?" she asked curtly.
The Potter woman crossed her arms and replied, "Scorpius and Vega are here."
Fighting back the urge to growl at the Muggle-lover, Daphne inquired with barely veiled anger, "May I see them?"
"No, I don't think they'll want to," Potter answered with narrowed eyes. "Not after what you did to them!"
Daphne always hated people who thought they knew what others wanted without asking them.
"You think? What about what they think, hm?" She sneered at the younger.
Potter's face took on a red hue and her fingers curled around the door like she was going to slam it when a voice called from behind, "Missus Potter, who is it?"
Eyes suddenly so very wide, Daphne knew this was her moment. She had to say something now or she might not get a second chance. "It's me, Scorpius! Aunt Daphne!"
"What?" the boy exclaimed as he maneuvered around his friend's mother. "What are you doing here?"
Daphne took the letters from her pocket; sorting through them she found the one Draco had sent her. Handing it to the boy, she told him, "Your father sent me this."
Taking it, her nephew read it and, then, he did something surprising. Scorpius shredded it to bits.
Blinking, Daphne may have laughed, if she wasn't reminded of herself in watching the boy.
Hadn't she done that? Yes, she had once when she was young.
"Mother and Father left us this letter, Daphne," her sister said while sniffling into her sleeve.
Taking it from Astoria, Daphne opened her parents' final letter to them and read what they had to say to her and her sister.
Dear Daphne and Astoria,
You girls will be given a small sum to finish your schooling, but as decided by your father and I, the rest of the Greengrass fortune will go to your cousins, Royce and Jericho. They are young men of the Greengrass name and as such, will be able to keep our name alive. As capable, well-bred young ladies, we are sure you will find yourselves husbands sooner rather than later.
Your parents.
Fury blinding her, Daphne did not waste a second in turning the letter into little more than confetti.
"What did it say?" her sister asked in fright.
Looking into Astoria's iridescent eyes, Daphne felt her mouth go dry.
How could she tell her sister what their parents had done to them?
Not thinking, Daphne sidestepped the Potter woman and took her nephew into a hug. The boy clung to her and she was struck with a bitter truth as he gave a choked sound and wept into her chest.
This boy, he was her Astoria twenty-three years ago. Same age, just about the same size, and even his hair felt the same between Daphne's fingers as she pet it (smooth and soft as down).
Falling to her knees, she held her nephew closer and told him, "I know, I know, it hurts. It's never going to stop hurting either. But you have a little sister, Scorpius. You're going to have to be strong for her. So strong, in fact, that she will trust you with her life.
"Your mother, once a very long time ago, trusted her life in my hands. It was during the war, during the final battle, in fact. They had Death Eaters hunting the castle for girls and boys like us; they were going to force us out to do their bidding. I couldn't let them put my little sister, all I had left in the world, out there to risk her life and limb for a madman's last stand. So you know what I did? I hid her beneath my bed of all places and offered myself right out to a Death Eater who was looking for girls like us. He took me away without even searching for anyone else, he was so surprised."
Scorpius's eyes were watching her, but Daphne could see now that even though they had their father's coloring, the shape was all Astoria.
Pushing back a lock of her nephew's hair, she remarked, "You can't trust a lot of people in life, Scorpius, but your sister? Sisters are forever, like love."
"Aunt Daphne? Scorpius?" a young voice called from across the room.
Opening her arm to the girl, Daphne accepted the sharp elbows digging into her rib without complaint.
A knobby knee hit her in the gut. Opening an eye, Daphne saw Astoria's round face just centimeters from her own.
Pushing the too sharp knee away, she asked around a yawn, "What do you want?"
"I had a nightmare, will you tell me a story, Daphne?"
Bring her little sister close, she didn't mind how the girl's elbow collided with her ribs as Astoria wrapped her arms around her middle.
"Sure, anything in particular?"
There was a pause. "The one about Snow White and Rose Red."
Running a hand through Astoria's hair, Daphne closed her eyes and began the tale.
"You two, you'll come home with me," she told them. But realizing she was denying them the choices she'd always wanted, she corrected herself and murmured, "If you want to, that is…"
Vega lifted her face, showing off eyes just as luminescent as her mother's. "I'd like to stay with you, Aunt Daphne. What about you, Scorpius?"
The boy's face was still grim, but he nodded. "If that's what you want, Vega, that's what we'll do."
"Good boy," Daphne found herself praising as she stood them all up.
Looking at the Potter woman, she said to her, "Thank you for watching them, but we will be leaving now."
And together, the three left.
Pouring three cups of tea, Daphne arranged a plate of treats and then set it all on a tray to take to the living room of her flat where her nephew and niece waited. Setting the snacks down, she handed it out before taking a seat of her own.
Studying the two as they sipped their drinks, she reminded Scorpius and Vega, "I'm not like your mother, you know."
"That's okay, Aunt Daphne, you don't have to be," her nephew assured as he reached for a biscuit
A small smile brightening her face, Vega declared boldly, "We love you just as you are!"
Staring into the youthful countenances of her nephew and niece, Daphne saw more of Astoria in them than she had ever before.
Getting up, she placed one kiss upon each their brows and promised, "I can't be her, but I'll love you the same because you're her children."
"Is love really forever?" Astoria asked, lacing their fingers together over her blooming stomach.
Gazing down at her sister's swelling belly, Daphne tried to imagine what her sister's baby might look like when it was born. Like Astoria, she hoped, with her iridescent eyes and warm smile.
Meeting the nervous stare of her younger sister, Daphne gave the woman (who was really more a girl) a rare grin. "Yes, it is, just like sisters are forever."
"Daphne…" Astoria mumbled with a sheen of tears over her eyes. "You're going to make me cry!"
Laughing with unabashed amusement, Daphne leaned over and swiped her fingers beneath her sister's eyes. "You always were the softy."
I think I like this. It's not quite what I imagined, but I think it's still a satisfying story. What about you guys? How do you feel about this fic? Is it good? Is it bad? Could it do with some more work?
Thanks for reading and I hope you'll review :)
EDITED: 2/22/17