Hi! Okayyy so this chapter I was going to get into Edric and Ophelia's past, but the first scene ended up being longer than I had thought, so you will get that later! I hope you don't mind. Also, try to be patient through the absence of Draco/Astoria in this chapter. We will get to them! Also, I love the speculation on Freya, and love that you guys seem to like her! She will definitely get some backstory, so it's good you guys are interested in her. I can't believe I'm nearly at two hundred reviews (well, pretty close). You guys are seriously so amazing, and I'm blown away by the praise you give my story. I hope you continue to like it! Tell me what you think, as always! I liked writing this chapter, it explores something different. Are you all excited for Spring? I'm not, I wish it could be either Fall or Winter all year long.
I don't own anything from Harry Potter.
Daphne was examining the clothing Olena Pucey had brought her along to purchase earlier in the day for the parties she was expected to be present for. They certainly went to a lot of parties as well as put them on for seemingly no reason or purpose, and Daphne was a bit nervous for this. As much as she acted like she was bored with the events her family frequented, she wasn't ready to change settings completely. She was used to the rules and organization, and she knew very well the type of festivities the Pucey family put on were most definitely not organized.
It was time for someone to come along and call her boring, as opposed to Astoria.
Olena had been much more pleasant than Daphne had expected. Her mother had complained about her before, but her mother complained about everyone so she wasn't sure why she had taken her mother's opinion into consideration. Olena seemed.. Genuine. Genuine and excited to get to know her as her daughter-in-law, and she had made an effort to make her feel at home. It seemed Adrian's parents weren't planning on moving out for a while and Daphne didn't mind as his home had more than enough room and Olena made her feel feel more comfortable. Olena was also quite patient, and didn't belittle her when she asked a lot of questions about everything and their circle. She actually found her accent charming, and she wondered how often Olena traveled home to the Ukraine.
Replacing Olena as the next Mrs. Pucey of the family was another matter. Daphne was not nearly as bubbly and flashy as her, and she carried herself much more audaciously than Daphne was taught too. Not to mention her style was.. Very revealing. Her own mother definitely wasn't the most modest, but she still stuck to the guidelines of appropriate.
Surely if Daphne wasn't the best at being traditional and proper, she could excel at this role?
No, apparently not. It seemed she wouldn't be good at anything.
She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. She smiled slightly, thinking about how it annoyed her mother to have her hair down all the time. It was her little weak show of "rebellion".
She definitely was never rebellious enough for this to be within her element.
Adrian had been gone all day, as he had been the day before. He had given her space which she appreciated, and she had spent the past couple of days with his mother. He went to bed much later than her, but she had woken up to him next to her. However, she had put a pillow between them, which he had not tried to move. Even with the pillow between them it was still a very intimate feeling to be sleeping in the same bed as a man. She didn't want to admit to herself that she liked it quite a bit, and Adrian was definitely not a hard man to look at as soon as she woke up.
They hadn't had sex, but she knew that would have to change soon seeing that was the only way for their marriage bonds to set in properly.
She hoped he would be there before she had to go down to join the party his family was putting on tonight, though knowing her luck he wouldn't be.
Later in the evening, Daphne recognized that he would in fact not be there in time to accompany her downstairs into the loud groups of mostly strangers.
Daphne let out a frustrated breath and turned to look at herself in the mirror, biting her lip in discomfort at the unfamiliar look of her. The dress was incredibly short as well as sleeveless and covered in flashy, sequined beading. It was definitely a party outfit, though nothing suited for the parties she had attended. She did her hair neatly, much similarly to how Astoria would do hers, just to feel a bit more like herself. She examined her dark makeup once more before leaving Adrian's bedroom to find Olena waiting for her.
"Oh it is very good, very good!" She exclaimed, the long beaded tassels on her dress bouncing as she clapped happily. "Beautiful girl, yes. Now come, We have to go down. Adrian will come whenever he decides," she continued, rolling her eyes at the comment about her son as she dragged Daphne towards the doors that separated the section of the house that remained untouched by the party goers. "Impossible to control him."
Once they were entering the actual crowd of people, Daphne realized she was actually dressed quite modestly in contrast to some of these women. These women were completely unfamiliar to her. Instead of fake smiles they had incredibly suggestive looks on their faces as they came much too close to the men around them, drinking and laughing on the upper level of the grand room of the mansion. Daphne was suddenly deafened by the suffocatingly loud sounds of the music and mingling.
The amount of noise was something out of her father's nightmares.
Her eyes scanned the array of people, taking in more and more as she tried to focus her ears on her husband's mother next to her. The atmosphere of everything was so out of her comfort level that she imagined her face looked absolutely pitiful in how unprepared she was.
Daphne tried her best to greet some of the people Olena was presenting her to with grace and her wits about her, but she was sure she was doing a shit job, and she was unable to comprehend barely any of the words being said to her. She almost stumbled back in shock when both the men and women she met actually touched her, grabbed her to kiss her face, laughing and nodding appreciatively as they looked her up and down. She watched in alarm as Olena herself touched and got much too close to men who were not her husband, being far too enthusiastic towards them.
She found herself eventually separated from Olena and then she truly felt completely out of place, lost. She realized that as the evening grew later, everything only got louder, the overwhelming atmosphere thicker.
She had not been groomed for this lifestyle.
Oh, why had she had to make such silly little mistakes to be thrown to the other side of the pure-blood world? If only she had kept her head down and done exactly what she was meant to she could be like her sister, bored, but at least in her comfort zone.
When she made her way down the stairs hoping to find it a bit less cramped and loud on the wide floor below, she realized she had been extremely wrong. Younger witches and wizards replaced the older of the floor above, and the only underlying aura from moments before was now dense in the air.
Sex.
Sex now accompanied most of the usual senses she recognized from the pure-blood events she was used to. Money, power, pride, elitism were to be expected, but this form of lust was not a quality that she was used to being so forward in such a public display.
Everyone was so close to each other, dancing freely against each other with no certain steps or proper movement, and the women pressed themselves against the men shamelessly as smirks and sultriness danced across their faces.
Daphne was staring at a woman dancing between two men when she felt a hand on the small of her back, causing her to whirl around and spot the faintly familiar offender: Terence Higgs.
She breathed a sigh of relief. Finally someone she remembered from Hogwarts.
"Daphne Greengrass," he grinned before giving her an apologetic frown. "I say Greengrass because you definitely aren't filling your role as a Pucey very well, I'm afraid."
"Yes well," she replied, attempting to make her voice loud enough for him to hear, grimacing as she glanced around them. "Forgive me, but I was not prepared for such.. Ridiculousness."
"Ridiculousness," he repeated, laughing. "Oh, love. I'm sure you grew up walking with books atop your head, some would find that ridiculous. Well, you at least look as if you grew up that way right now."
Daphne scowled, disregarding his comment. "You're Adrian's friend, right?"
"Adrian has a lot of friends," he replied, giving her a knowing look. "Though most of which are not from our years at Hogwarts you will find."
She nodded, looking around at all the people again that she didn't barely recognize any of. "I wasn't aware the pure-blood world was this large around here," she commented.
"It isn't," he replied simply, examining the people attending as well.
"What?" She asked, giving him a suspicious look.
"Come on, Greengrass. You know what your stick-in-everyone's-arse side says about us," he told her, amused. "I could probably find Tracey Davis for you if you'd like. I've seen her around here a couple of times."
Daphne was distracted from his mention of her friend when her eyes caught a man pouring the contents of a small vial of an odd colored potion into an eager girl's mouth before kissing her eagerly.
"Right. That's another thing. Don't take anything from anyone, especially the muggle drugs, especially from Adrian's friends."
"Muggle drugs," she repeated, looking up at him with distaste in her mouth. "Yes, I've heard that your lot is attracted to muggle drugs."
"My lot? You mean your husband?"
Daphne stared at him for a while, letting that sink in before she shook her head. What had she been put into? She noticed a group of men eyeing her, all of them in darker dress than the rest, all of them hungry looking.
"Ukrainians. More of Adrian's friends. Definitely take nothing from them."
Daphne took a step closer to Terence, feeling put off by their stares.
Terence laughed and moved their position so he was standing between her and the onlooking men, much to Daphne's appreciation. "I wouldn't worry too much, pet. Adrian may seem laid back, but he does not take kindly to his friends acting.. Unfriend-like. You're well protected."
Daphne nodded in response, though she was a bit doubtful. She couldn't picture Adrian being at all combative or aggressive.
"The women you may have to worry about," Terence said pointedly just as a gorgeous redhead walked passed her line of sight, her heavily made-up eyes traveling down Daphne's form, looking unimpressed and a bit angry. Her hips swung as she walked, and she tossed her hair behind her as she snorted at Daphne and met with a group of women.
"No fake formalities here, doll. You may not realize this, but Pucey is quite a sought after name in this community, and the girls are angry. You being so.. Out of place is not helping your case. You're not really showing yourself as worthy, I have to be honest."
"Worthy?" She demanded. "Oh and acting like a whore would make me worthy I suppose?"
What on earth? She was a Greengrass for fuck's sake, she barely recognized any of these women glaring at her! Who were they to deem her unworthy when they were nobodies?
Terence tsked, his eyes dancing in his amusement. "It's more than that. Besides, weren't you thrown over to this side because you were deemed a whore by yours? They have expectations just as you, but they have to work to stand out, be desirable. You're.. Very attractive, don't get me wrong, but you're stiff. You're also too skinny, and you look as if you're disgusted by everyone here."
"Because I am," she said flatly.
"Exactly! Work on that. I'm not sure what favor the Puceys were doing your parents-"
"Favor!" She exclaimed, extremely offended now. "Are you joking?"
"Yes, yes. Your blood is good, I get it. But if you fit, you can get away with only decent blood occasionally. Blood is important, but there are definitely other things to be considered, and you simply don't fit."
Daphne felt herself visibly tire and her shoulders fall, feeling defeated. She was never good enough for anything or anyone it seemed, even this absolute nonsense.
"Aw, don't do that," he said, grimacing. "I'm sorry. You'll get it. Like I said, you're gorgeous. Besides, Adrian needed someone to slow him down. Just lighten up, alright?"
Daphne pressed her lips together, nodding. "It seems to require absolutely no skill to 'fit' when it comes to these women. It can't be very hard. I was prepared for much less.. Glamorous."
"Glamorous," he mused. "Perhaps it looks that way, though not so glamorous when you find a loved one on the ground dead from their own addiction becoming out of control. Not such a glamorous sight, I'll tell you that much."
Daphne swallowed, comprehending his words as a dark feeling fell over her. She wondered how some of these people functioned outside of this setting, some seemed so chaotic, she couldn't imagine them doing anything else.
Well, wasn't that what everyone sneered about them in her own circle? That this was all they knew how to do?
Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped slightly when two girls kissed each other in a show for the men watching them and she turned her head away, scandalized.
Terence began to laugh at her, grabbing a glass of champagne from one of the servants that passed them as he pulled something from his pocket. "I'll go and try to find your friend for you, alright?" He tossed something small and white into his mouth, following it with a large drink from the glass he had just picked up before stopping, holding his hand out to offer her what he had just swallowed.
Daphne gave him a hard look, remembering his advice. Terence winked at her and walked away, disappearing into the mass of people. She wished him back, feeling incredibly vulnerable once more as she was left alone.
This was certainly her payback for calling Astoria boring for so many years.
She felt light hands slide up her back and a small girl walked around her, short black hair bouncing above her shoulders as she beamed at her.
Why was everyone so touchy here? She was sure she had been touched in this night more than she ever had in her whole life.
"Hello, gorgeous," she purred, resting her hands on Daphne's shoulders as she looked her up and down. "You're so tense! Aren't you Adrian's new wife? Oh, you must be so nervous!"
Daphne assessed the girl, allowing her hands on her as she tried to decide if she was being malicious or not. "I'm not really used to.. This type of setting," she told her, watching her tilt her head back and forth in her curiousness.
The girl giggled, tugging a strand of hair from Daphne's updo before twisting it in her finger next to Daphne's face. "Don't worry, I understand! Don't pay any attention to the girls giving you nasty looks. They're just so jealous!"
She watched the girl cautiously, taking in the wild look in her eye.
"I can help you loosen up," she told her, her voice light and innocent.
She pulled away from her, turning to grab something before returning with a small glass. "Here. Take a shot," she urged her, offering her the small glass of liquid.
"What is it," Daphne said suspiciously, eyeing it.
"It's only alcohol!" She insisted, nodding. "Trust me."
"Daphne." She recognized her old friend's concerned voice and she turned to find Tracey approaching them. "Don't drink that."
The girl in front of her pouted, tossing the liquid back down her throat herself. "Half-blood, oh silly half-blood. I was only helping her," she cooed before running a hand up Tracey's arm and smirking. "Do you need help?"
"No, I don't. Thanks," Tracey quipped before pulling away from the girls hand to hug Daphne.
Daphne hugged her back tightly, relieved to see her friend after such a long time. They had gone their separate ways after Hogwarts, as with everything from the war had been messy, and they weren't from the same circle. Of course they weren't; Tracey was not a pure-blood.
"You look good," Tracey told her, fighting the giggle that escaped her anyway.
Daphne gave her a dull look, crossing her arms before taking in Tracey's own revealing outfit. "And you look like the rest of these sluts."
Tracey scowled playfully. "Don't be in a bad mood, Daph. I have missed you," she told her, the last of the sentence coming out sincere and with a small amount of emotion.
Daphne sighed and nodded. "I missed you too, and you have no idea how relieved I am to see you," she murmured, though her words were lost in the booming loudness of the room.
Daphne's head throbbed as she realized the volume of the environment again and she felt herself go a bit dizzy, her focus fading from Tracey who faintly informed her she'd be right back as she left to dance with a man she didn't recognize.
Too much, too fast.
She felt an arm snake around her shoulders and she jumped away, her senses snapping back to her. "No, no more touching!" She exclaimed, fed up from all of the grabbing.
Adrian held up his hands in surrender, stepping away from her.
She practically sobbed at the sight of her husband, moving towards him and grabbing his arm to move it back behind her shoulders. "No, you can touch me, and make sure nobody else does."
"I'm really feeling the love tonight, beautiful."
"You're late!" She cried, glaring at him half heartedly as she was too relieved to give him a proper angry reaction.
"I'm sorry, dove. There was a situation with your cute little group of friends. Why are you down here? Why did you leave my mother?" He grimaced, tightening his arm around her shoulders as he scanned the people around them.
"I lost her. I came down here because I thought it would be quieter," she explained before scowling around them. "I was wrong."
"Here. Eat something. You look ready to pass out," he told her, pushing some sort of pastry in her mouth after grabbing it from a tray.
Daphne chewed it after shoving his hand away, swallowing it cautiously.
"As if I'm going to give you anything like that," he snorted. "You already can't handle simply being here."
"Someone just attempted to give me something suspicious," she told him, nodding towards the direction of the girl irritably. "Forgive me for being worried."
"Ah. Yes, that's my friend. Better not take anything she gives you."
Daphne glared fiercely at him. "Everyone is your friend it seems."
"Not everyone," he said evenly, looking around the room. "Did anyone else try anything with you?"
"No. I saw Terence Higgs."
Adrian paused, assessing her face. "Did you take anything from him?"
"No," she said, irritable that this was such a common occurrence to him. "He told me not to take anything from anyone. Especially your beloved friends."
Adrian smirked, nodding in appreciation. "Good man," he said, satisfied.
"This is terrible," she grit out after taking in her surroundings again, feeling herself become emotional now that Adrian was there.
"This," he said, motioning in front of him. "Is yours. This is your home. This is your future, Mrs. Pucey."
Daphne stilled, letting that sink in. This was her life now, this would be where she would raise their children, this is what she would have to deal with constantly, this is what she would have to host herself, and attend other people's as well.
"I.. I'm not," she said slowly, pressing a palm to her forehead. "Adrian your parents should have not allowed me to be your wife."
Adrian took her hand from her forehead, pulling her closer to him. "Debatable. You look quite good next to me, I believe. Just relax. It's your first night of all of this, and I should have been here. Besides, what's done is done. We're married and that won't change. Let's just make the best of it. I'm friends with Malfoy, and I have been to some of your own events. I know this isn't what you're used to."
"At least I know I'm handling this better than Astoria would," she grumbled, trying not to show him how much she appreciated his words, appreciated him as a whole really, despite the situation she was upset with.
"Right. Astoria. I need to talk to you about her, love," he told her, taking a small glass from the same table the girl had gotten hers from, draining it.
Edric watched his Pensieve late in the night, his eyes tired as he solemnly watched the memories of his mother.
"Mother," Daphne exclaimed running to her mother, very young, tears spilling from her eyes.
Edric watched from the corner of the family library as he sat with his book, a bit out of sight.
"What is it, Daphne?" Freya asked her, looking up from her own book to frown at her daughter's tears.
"Uncle.. He touched me here," she told her, her voice shaky, touching her stomach to show her where before wiping her eyes with one hand. "He said that I was ugly, and that no one would want to touch me unless I ate less."
"Then eat less, darling. You shouldn't question your uncle," Freya said stiffly, looking at Daphne's stomach where her hand had been, her face slightly hard.
Daphne's tears resumed and her shoulders shook. "But.. But mother do you think I'm ugly?"
"No," Freya said smoothly. "You're not ugly to me, but you still should take into consideration the weight you have gained, and if you're ugly to one man I'd imagine you're ugly to others."
Edric looked away from his sister as she began to cry freely now, nodding obediently to her mother before excusing herself after Freya had told her to stop crying so much and to be stronger than that.
Freya was still for a while before tears gathered in her own green eyes that matched her daughter's as she stared at the spot Daphne had left. Edric watched his mother carefully, concern and alarm in his eyes as she began crying to herself.
"I'm sorry," she expressed softly to no one, her voice broken.
The Pensieve changed scenes to the next memory Edric had added, the view changing to Edric standing frozen still outside, his father dragging his sister away from him.
His eyes were filling with tears and his body shook as his wide eyes followed his father's retreating figure.
"Mum," he croaked, desperation in his voice as his mother came into view.
Freya's expression was incredibly cold as she walked to follow her husband, her steps calm. She didn't look at her son as he watched her with pleading eyes.
"Leave, Edric. Don't come back. You aren't wanted," she told him, her voice completely void of emotion, still not looking at him as she left to her husband, leaving Edric there to cry alone.
Edric stood up straight as the memory ended, closing his eyes as old wounds broke open from the memory. He shouldn't be looking at these, he was only torturing himself. His mother had shocked him in that moment. He knew she could be cold, but he had believed her to love him more than that. He hadn't left yet, hadn't fully decided, but his mother had already decided she didn't want him anymore before he could change his mind.
She wouldn't even look at him.
He didn't know which reaction hurt him more from the women of his family. Astoria's, his mother's, and now Daphne's. They all haunted him, buried themselves deep into his mind to burden him with guilt. He had affected his family so much from who he had chosen to be in love with, Astoria especially. Had he not have left, perhaps she wouldn't have ended up with Malfoy, someone terribly unsuited for the Astoria he remembered.
But she wasn't the Astoria he remembered.
She had changed, that was evident in the photo he had seen of her next to her new husband after she had been married to Malfoy. Her face had been polite, her appearance extremely perfect, unreal looking as she held Malfoy's arm. His sister was beautiful and everything she was meant to be, but her eyes were not filled with the same life he remembered, and she herself was not anything he thought she would grow up to be.
He rubbed a hand over his face tiredly before pulling a new memory from his head, not wishing to go to bed. He would wake his wife if he did and she would see his emotion, and he was much too tired of being the reason for the unhappiness of the women in his life.
