Aww you guys are seriously so awesome for giving me so much feedback on the last chapter. I was feeling so warm inside! Seriously. I love you all. I'm sorry I'm late again! I'm almost done moving, so hopefully it will be easier for me to get these chapters out. I know some of you were disappointed Hermione wasn't there, and she actually was supposed to be there from right when I started this story and planned out this scene, but I just recently decided to pull her out because I felt like her extreme, over the top (well, obviously it would be appropriate) reaction would distract from the reactions from the characters who I feel are more relevant. I'm sorry! Lol, either way there would still be a convenient loophole for Aldrich not to go to prison, so that wasn't really the reason. Oh my God, Stroke. That typo you were laughing at literally took me five minutes to figure out what the problem was (can you tell why I often make so many typos, lmao yikes). I also figured you'd be pretty disappointed in Astoria back from when you made a comment like "if they can be civil" and I was like "lol..". Guys, you've got to ease up on Ophelia a bit hahaha, I hope you were more pleased at Astoria letting out her emotions than actually hurting Ophelia. What Astoria said was extreme and unnecessary, but both her and her father took out their anger on the wrong people in the last chapter. I would also like to say that Astoria really doesn't feel THAT strongly towards muggle-borns, and that her feelings lean more towards what she told Hermione in the earlier chapters, but she was really aiming to hurt Ophelia in her outrage. My guest reviewer (I'll try not to nag you to pick a name other than "guest", buuut I must suggest it) hit the nail right on the head with her comments about Astoria and how she reacts to her father. If she did recognize the memory of being tortured by Aldrich (she doesn't), then yes she would likely justify it by her failure to do as she was told. I'm not done with the Freya memories, no! I'm glad you're interested in her character, as she is one of my favorite characters of mine. Thank you so so so much for four hundred reviews. I feel like I was JUST thanking you for three hundred! Ugh, you're all so amazing.
I don't own anything from Harry Potter.
Draco ignored Granger as she called for him after frantically returning to the group of them, her rush of words incoherent and unimportant to him as he briskly left the room, starting on the stairs before cursing impatiently and apparating, Granger's near shriek of his name changing volume as he switched locations of the Manor so abruptly.
Draco found Astoria sitting on the floor of his bedroom, her back against the side of his bed with her knees pulled up to her chest. She was humming to herself, her eyes tightly shut as she gently rocked herself. Draco wasn't sure his heart could sink lower than it had been before entering the room, but seeing his wife so openly broken immediately after seeing her tortured into unconsciousness by her own father made his whole being feel lower than the Earth.
She heard him as he took a step towards her, her eyes opening to meet his before she looked away, shaking her head. "I-I'm sorry, Draco. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it that far. I know it made us look horrible.. I'll fix it it. I'll do something. I'm sorry," she rushed out, her voice breaking more than once. "I lost my temper.. H-He.. H-" Astoria closed her eyes again fiercely, covering her mouth with her hand as she began to shake her head over and over.
He walked towards her, sinking to the ground as he was unable to bring himself to tower over her and dominate her personal space in her vulnerable state, crawling the small remaining length of distance between them. Astoria went obediently still as he approached, frozen in her movements before he gently took her into his arms, slowly shifting her into his lap. She allowed it, her body completely tense as she held her breath before she began apologizing again, seeming fearful of what he was doing as if he would hurt her. "I can never listen properly," she whimpered.
"Relax, love," he murmured when he settled her in his lap, rubbing her arms as he tried to calm her. "I'm not angry with you."
"I almost.. He.. D-Draco," she forced out the words that seemed to be caught in her throat, bracing her hands on the side of her face.
He could see her struggling to reject the fact that she had just come face to face with her brother who she intentionally kept from her mind as much as she could, attempting to remove it and him from her memory all together. The emotions he felt from her through their bonds felt differently now, the burning of her anger was gone, and instead he felt the strangling sadness she was working to reject.
"Edric. Your brother. I know," he murmured and she sucked in a breath at his words, leaning away from him slightly as she shook her head once more.
"D-Don't say that. I don't have-"
"Astoria. You're upset about your brother. You're upset about losing him, and you're upset about seeing him again now. It's alright. You're allowed to be upset about your family and losing a member of it," he told her firmly, his chest aching as she recoiled from him, feeling guilty for hurting her with what he was telling her, but feeling it was necessary.
He remembered the memory of his own mother learning of her sister being disowned, seeing her break down in the Great Hall, sneered at by his father but still defended by another. She had gotten a chance to mourn her sibling being thrust from the family, a sister who she loved, but still didn't have the close relationship his wife seemed to have with her brother. Being denied that basic right to mourn over something or someone that had been lost, at least for a small while, was not justified or necessary in order to act accordingly for appearances later on. There had been no reason for Astoria, a child, to be told she wasn't allowed to be upset over the fact that she would never see her older brother again, no reason to be tortured mercilessly for being human.
She was physically trying to remove herself from his lap now. Not very successfully, as she seemed completely overwhelmed, unsure of what to do with herself or how to react. She wasn't breathing again, and the choked sounds coming from her throat as her chin quivered and her eyes threatened to spill over constricted his own breathing as well. He dragged her back into his lap properly, pulling her wrists from her face gently before running a hand down the side of her warmed face, caressing it and he found his hand trembling as he watched her struggle. A woman with such a face, such a will to please and be wanted did not deserve to suffer the way she had, his sweet Astoria.
"Breathe," he urged her. "It's okay to breathe, it's okay to cry. It's okay to feel."
She tore her lip biting into it as she fought his words and herself as a tear dripped from where it had gathered in her eye, racing down her face and off of her chin. He closed his eyes when blood formed on her pale pink mouth, shivering in his own suffering at seeing his wife like this. He leaned forward, kissing her eyes which closed themselves as he approached them, feeling another tear escape from where it had pooled after it was pushed at the motion of her closing her eyes for his gesture.
"It's okay to cry," he murmured, pulling back slightly from her face.
Astoria broke apart in his arms then, a defeated sob leaving her mouth as she hung her head, causing his hand to go past her head which led to him sliding it down her back, moving it up and down gently. He noticed her shaking then, and not only shaking with her cries. She was trembling in fear, and her body was tensing in anticipation as she expressed her emotions. He tried to control his fury at this, afraid she may feel it and misinterpret it, and he swallowed the bile in his throat before carefully guiding her head to his chest.
"I'm not going to be angry with you, sweetheart. It's okay. I'm telling you it's okay. Forget what anyone else has told you. You're with me, and no one else is here," he said slowly, fighting to keep his words soothing when his sentences progressed as he thought of the cause of her fear.
She wrapped her arms around his neck slowly, pressing her face into his neck as she wept. He held her tighter, beginning to rock her the same way she had been rocking herself, trying to hum one of the same melodies he had heard her hum. Perhaps he didn't know the best way to handle a situation like this, but he wanted to provide her some of the comforts that she had always been forced to provide herself. He wished he had taken more time to know her aside from rummaging through her head with no real emotional investments in what was there, wished he hadn't been so extremely cold to her in situations that he could have handled much better. She was his wife, his family, and Merlin knows he didn't have much of one. He had been nervous to truly care for her in his own insecurities of being hurt as a result, but she still was patient and kept trying. It was true that she didn't have any other choice but to keep trying or else she would be alone, but the circumstances they had been given ever since they were born were not her fault, and he couldn't continue to fault her for trying to make the best out of things. All of her words to that girl, the hard truth of what it was to be one of them, a woman specifically, rang horribly true to him. He didn't want Astoria in the slightest when they had been married, had found her incredibly boring though he knew he still would have scoffed at her had she not been the mundane, perfect pure-blood young woman his wife was meant to be. He had made it a special challenge with his mates to try and soil the women from his community, had made it a game as he never cared of their reputations that would be tarnished or their parents they would have to face. No, he had never tried to run off with a mudblood for the thrill of it, but he had always held an animosity towards the women of his world simply for doing what they were taught to do just as he had always done.
"W-Why didn't h-he love me enough? Why w-weren't we e-enough?" She cried into his chest, barely understandable through her tears as well as being muffled by his skin. "I'm never enough." She sneered out the last words, and they were ground out of her throat as if she meant to burn herself with them. The pure and raw self-loathing mixed with her sorrows in her voice stunned him with striking pain and familiarity.
"You are enough, Astoria," he told her sadly. "You're enough for me."
She didn't answer as she wept, clinging closer to him. He moved his arms to support her as he slowly lifted her off of the floor, settling them onto the bed instead as he moved to stroke her hair after pulling it down. He pressed his lips to the places of her he could reach on her face and head, comforting her with the little he had to offer as he allowed her to finally mourn properly, naturally.
"I don't want to love him anymore," she whimpered, a tremor rolling through her, vibrating her in his arms. "He isn't mine anymore."
Draco said nothing as he pressed another kiss to her temple, unable to find an appropriate response to that. He wasn't hers, and he wouldn't want to love him either if he were her. He didn't want her to have to keep loving someone who would never be in her life again.
"H-He couldn't even.." She trailed off and Draco heard the fresh wave of sobs building in her throat before she swallowed them down to speak. "He couldn't even t-tell me that he l-loved me."
Yes, the idiot couldn't even find his voice to tell his hysterical sister that he loved her as she was crying her own love out to him and asking him if he loved her back. He couldn't bring himself to be fair towards him, not with his witch in his arms shattered this way.
"He definitely doesn't n-now after what I s-said to her."
"She shouldn't have been here," Draco said stiffly. "And I doubt he was aware that she was. I can't believe him to be that foolish."
Astoria's weeping was beginning to calm and Draco shifted to stroke her arms with his fingertips. "You certainly did not hold back on her, I will say. Where were you when I was trying to effectively hurt Potter and his friends at school? Perhaps I actually would have accomplished something. Women truly are crueler than men with their words."
"I don't want to be cruel," she whispered, childlike hiccups in result of her heavy sobbing jerking her body in his arms. "I wish I wasn't."
"You're not cruel. You just have the ability to be."
She pressed her face back into him, crying on and off in small spurts for some time as he continued to hold her, kissing her, caressing her, humming for her, and giving her someone to cling to as he waited patiently for her to run out of tears.
"Your insults were always very bad," she muttered, pulling back from his now sticky skin a bit to press her hands against her eyes, rubbing them.
"Coming for my throat now, are you?"
Astoria pulled back to look at him and he assessed her red, puffy eyes and stained cheeks, brushing his thumb over the tip of her perfect reddened nose before touching the dried blood on her swollen lip, frowning at the small harm she had inflicted upon herself.
What type of evil did someone have to be in order to intentionally harm her?
Apparently the type of evil he was, as he had intentionally hurt her himself.
"I'm sorry, Astoria," he told her softly, forcing himself to hold her gaze though he wanted to look away in his discomfort and shame.
He wasn't sure what he was apologizing for more out of everything his two words stood for. Her abuse, her abandonment, her upbringing until now, or the things he was accounted for such as his attitude towards her, his temper he had shown her that he was surely to always have, his selfish desire not to get attached to her in order to protect himself, the way he had made her feel less than enough just as he had always felt and struggled with. He didn't want to be the closed off person he was to her, he didn't want either of them to deal with that loneliness anymore. He had to try more for the sake of both of them, and for the sake of their children that would have to grow up in the same world they were forced to.
Surprise and warmth colored her eyes as she watched his before her eyes fell to her hand that was moving to grab his, pressing it against her cheek. "It's not your fault," she told him, her weak voice somehow still firm. "It's no one's fault."
"It's everyone's fault. That's the mess of it all." Draco rubbed his thumb against her cheek as she pushed it into his hand, watching her in remorse. "You're so beautiful."
"You're being really nice," she replied timidly. "When I didn't listen to you and put us in danger."
"I've gotten used to your lack of listening skills."
Astoria's expression darkened after she spoke her words, her gaze becoming unfocused. "Are.. They still here?"
"Well, I'd say if they were intelligent then they wouldn't be, but we've already seen that they aren't, so I'm not sure. I didn't say anything to them."
"What do you mean? You didn't come up to me for a long time.. Surely something was said.."
Draco shook his head, figuring he shouldn't inform her that a room full of people witnessed her trauma, the trauma that she didn't even seem to acknowledge herself.
"Miss Granger is wishing for Master's attention sir," his house-elf announced, having popped itself in the room. "Yippy knows Master hates when Yippy intrudes, but Miss Granger won't stop insisting."
"Tell her to fuck off. My wife's distress is more important than their useless investigation," Draco snapped.
"The bad wizards have covered Master's manor in their magic, sir. Miss Granger's friend has been hurt trying to to disappear, sir, but not to worry, sir. The bad wizards will not be able to break Master's wards. Yippy is positive."
Both him and his wife went still and Astoria grabbed his face wildly, searching his eyes. "Draco-"
"And why was I not informed of this immediately? Why were the wards not set off?" He demanded, moving Astoria off of his lap gently to stand, walking towards the door. "Astoria stay in here. I will come back up to you in a moment." Draco didn't want to leave her there, but he definitely couldn't bring her with him should her brother and his wife still be there, or bring her in front of all of the pitiful glances from those who witnessed the memory.
"Malfoy. You can't just leave when I-"
"I can do whatever I bloody well please, Granger. It's my fucking house," he sneered as he rejoined the rest of the people in his home. "Tell me what's going on."
"It seems an Anti-Disapparition Jinx has been placed over the Manor. Aiken has been hurt trying to disapparate. We can't-"
"That shouldn't be possible," Draco said dismissively. "Perhaps your Auror is just an idiot."
"Well by all means then," Granger said coolly. "You attempt disapparating from the property, but for the time being we can't leave. So-"
Draco laughed loudly. "You'll be leaving my house either in one piece or several. Absolutely not will I be allowing you to stay here. My wards have not been set off, there obviously has been a mistake on your end."
"They obviously got around your wards, Malfoy," Granger hissed. "Don't you understand? They've trapped us, and eventually they will find their way in."
"They won't be finding their way in. Anyway, if they're here isn't that good for you? You wanted to find them. Go get them," he said dully, though he could feel the fear building inside of him.
"That's exactly what they're aiming for! They are baiting us! Who knows how many are out there, or perhaps there aren't any and they are attempting to draw all of our major Aurors in and trap-"
"You're informing me that you're so incredibly unprepared that you can't handle an Anti-Apparition Jink?" He demanded, stepping towards her in disbelief. "Do you understand how completely worthless your whole team of idiots are?"
"We are just witches and wizards the same as you, Malfoy, we aren't superhuman. Besides, I agree that-"
"Obviously we have seen that you people are nothing special. No need to remind me."
"If you would stop interrupting me that would-"
"No," he said simply. "I don't think I will."
"When will you grow up? Honestly, we aren't at Hogwarts anymore, and we are in danger. Collectively."
"No, but you are in my home, and I'm rather unhappy about it.." His words slowed near the end as his gaze moved through the room, falling on Astoria's disowned brother and his wife.
They both looked a mess, quite unsurprisingly, and Daphne was still trying to collect herself from her own length of tears. Adrian was beside her rubbing her back comfortingly, looking haunted himself. Theodore was no longer in the room, and Draco was grateful he didn't have to see Nott's face at the moment, a small piece of him wondering if he would have been the better comfort for his wife.
".. Harry and Ron are off with the important Aurors out of country working with the Ministries of some of the suspected origins of some of these new Death Eaters," Granger rambled on bitterly, drawing his attention back in.
"Aw, upset your boyfriends don't find you skilled enough to take you with them on the real work and instead leave you here to babysit us?" He asked mockingly, earning a fierce glare from her.
"Just agree to stay in the Manor and cooperate. Don't cause any trouble while we are working through this, don't try to contact the Death Eaters and make any deals with them, don't-"
"Make any deals with them?" Draco asked coldly. "Do you not understand where my family stood with the Dark Lord?"
"-Don't cause trouble with the rest of the people in the Manor. I came in here and everyone is in tears and upset. I left you alone for five minutes, and-"
"You're blaming me for that?" Draco scoffed. "Classic, Granger. Yes, everything is my fault. Every crying child in the world, every rainy day. It's all me. Let's ignore the fact that you decided it was a good plan to bring the woman who caused her brother to be disowned to-"
"I had no idea that's who she was! I wasn't even aware that the Greengrass family had a son! If I had then I wouldn't have brought her, even I know that isn't appropriate, Malfoy."
"Oh, so you actually have a small amount of sense? I never would have gathered. Apparently your prestigious psychologist does not know appropriate from inappropriate. Odd considering her profession."
"You knew about this, Novalie?" Granger asked, turning to her accusingly. "I certainly hope not. Our goal is not to antagonize."
"I knew who she was, Hermione. As did the Ministry. The Ministry did not mind her coming in contact with the Greengrass girls, actually, but I did inform her that she would not see the girls specifically. However, we were caught by surprise," Eld answered smoothly, nodding her head.
"Caught by surprise? You still could have told me!" Granger shook her head irritably. "How incredibly insensitive for both women. Even I know that!"
"When will you learn that pure-blood women only have interest in themselves, Granger? Acting if they are on your side or not. They are only really ever on their side."
"It was not my intention to hurt anyone," Eld said, frowning. "But yes I acknowledge that it was insensitive, and I apologize to you, Ophelia, and I will apologize to Astoria when she comes down."
"She should not have been involved at all," Edric said coldly, not looking at anyone as he spoke. "But you're right, appearing right in front of my sisters' face was not appropriate for Ophelia to do."
Granger glanced at Edric before shaking her head. "I will continue this with you when the more pressing matters have been solved, Novalie, but I'm very unhappy. All of you please just.. Behave while we figure this out," she expressed, her voice tense as she gave them all a final once over before leaving the room to join her coworkers.
"Don't call us your sisters," Daphne said quietly after Granger left, her tear stained face staring forward stoically. "We are not your family. You made that perfectly clear."
"Daphne," Edric started, his voice regretful. "I didn't-"
"Don't address me!" She cried, looking at him as tears began gathering in her eyes once more. "Don't speak to me, don't even look at me. You have no right, not after what you have caused. You left me, you left Astoria, you left mother, and because of you I lost both of my siblings. Was it worth it? Did you enjoy seeing our sister pay for your choice to abandon us? We trusted you, believed your promises. You let us down."
"I know," he replied, closing his eyes. "I know, and I'm sorry. I will never stop feeling sorry."
"Sorry doesn't fix anything," Daphne choked out. "Sorry doesn't fix my family, sorry doesn't take back what we just saw. Astoria paid for your girlfriend's life with her own, and I c-can't believe.. I can't believe I didn't know.."
"Don't blame yourself for not suspecting something so unspeakable, so utterly revolting and unforgivable from a man who dares to call himself a father," Joseph spat. "There is no excuse, blood traitor in the family or not."
"Yeah, you can't really blame Edric for that, dove," Pucey said, looking uneasy as he tried to soothe her.
"I can blame him for whatever I please," Daphne said, pushing away from her husband, wiping her eyes with the heel of her palm furiously. "Had he been able to keep his dick to himself things would be so much different, so much better."
"Daphne," Edric's wife started, the sound of her weak and broken voice matching the appearance of her face. "Edric loves both of you. What happened to Astoria.. That.."
Draco had to be fair and give credit to the girl. It was certainly a wonder how she still had concern for these girls, especially Astoria, after how she had been treated by her in front of strangers who couldn't care less about her life.
"He loves you more. Obviously," Daphne said flatly. "After my sister just destroyed you one would think that you wouldn't go poking at me."
Edric shook his head, pulling his wife closer to his side protectively. "Please let her be, Daphne. The fault of the mess is mine, not hers. Aside from the fact that she came here despite what I've told her, she is not responsible for what happened to our family. I do not love her more, but you saw the position I was in, and I never would have expected that result." Edric's eyes clouded in regret and anger. "Our father never lost his temper that way, never hurt any of us that way."
"Yes, well. You really figured out how to push him over the edge. Good work," Daphne snapped. "I want to see her now, Draco."
"Don't talk about what we saw, Daphne," Draco said levelly. "Astoria doesn't seem to.. Acknowledge it. Doesn't seem to acknowledge quite a bit, actually."
"Don't pretend to care for her, Malfoy," Edric told him, his eyes flashing. "Not after some of the things you've done, some of the things I've had the misfortune of learning about."
"The things I've done?" Draco laughed incredulously, narrowing his eyes at him, wondering how he could possibly know anything about their marriage. "You say that to me just after my wife was sobbing to me that you couldn't even tell her that you loved her back? After she was wondering why she wasn't good enough for you?"
He cringed, rubbing a hand over his face as he looked away from him. "I don't know why I couldn't tell her I loved her back that night," he said, plain hatred for himself in his face and tone. "I don't know."
"Explain what you mean, Draco. It sounds something like disassociation, what you're saying about Astoria. I don't know if you all realize the psychological damage-"
"I think we all realize it." Draco looked Eld up and down, irritated at the thoughtful look on her face.
"I know we are all stunned emotionally at the moment," Joseph said slowly. "But we've also been all captured in this home together, and I hate to wonder if my son was right. I don't think we are in danger right this moment, but i do believe we will be, and once we are it will all come very quickly. We need to be prepared, as we all know how useful those Aurors are by now."
"I don't care if they are in the Manor right this moment," Daphne said, pulling completely from Adrian's grasp. "I'm going to see my sister before I think of anything else."
