Hi! There was the beeeest thunder/lightning storm last night. It was amazing. However, it has been disgustingly hot the past couple of days and oh my god. It's awful, and it makes me have terrible anxiety. I'm dreading the summer so much. Anyway, I'm sorry about the last chapter before I edited some of the dialogue. Usually I do leave some floating dialogue, but when I looked back I noticed that it definitely needed to be fixed. Thank you for letting me know! Questions: Ophelia and Edric's baby is dead, nothing significant with Goyle he just wasn't a character I added (Crabbe is dead) and the Parkinsons were lightly touched on, yes the Pensieve does take memories, and awesome observations about Draco! Love it! I knowww you guys want Hermione around to make a fuss, and I'll bring her around for some of it, but there is only so much Hermione fuss I can stand writing hahaha. A couple things! So, I think (maybe) that I want to make a sort of "extras" story for this where each chapter is a different character and their POV with some scenes from their lives that weren't added in this story (so one chapter for each character included, but several different scenes). Just to expand on some of them, and just for those of you who care because I could definitely expand more on these characters, but I don't need a million chapter story. If I do end up writing that and you don't want to read it that is perfectly fine and won't take a way from the sequel. The sequel will not skip straight to the children at Hogwarts just in case you were wondering, and the sequel will feature multiple POVs from different children (sorry to those of you only interested in Scorpius, hopefully you still like me!). Also, don't expect a whole lot from the children of the Golden Trio. I know you're all eager for certain scenes to come about in this story, but we will get there just be a liiittle patient! 3 As always, thank you so much for reading and being a part of my story. You're all lovely!
I don't own anything from Harry Potter.
Joseph had gotten up and left the room before Draco could properly comprehend his surroundings once the Pensieve had retracted its hold on them, the rest of the room completely stunned into silence aside from Joseph's abrupt exit. It was absolutely no wonder Nero Zabini had been killed for his knowledge. If it were his own wife holding such a scandal being threatened then he would most likely have to consider doing the same. The images of the muggle and his mother-in-law were a bit too foreign for him to process properly. Muggles were an unfamiliar species all together, not to mention muggles in such a different country from his own. The Nott scandal had not been one that Draco had paid a lot of his attention to when it came to the details, and he wasn't sure how all of that situation related. However, seeing the woman come so close to taking her own life disturbed him to no end.
The pure-blood women, their pure-blood women, were known to occasionally off themselves when they couldn't handle their roles or the loneliness of their lives, but actually seeing a woman attempt such an act was another matter entirely. Draco remembered fearing for his own mother at times when everything was quiet when he come home from Hogwarts, and he found his mother so lonely with herself, her beautiful face occasionally haunted with their family's demons. Though it was useless to worry. His mother would never take herself from him, leaving him only with his father. Not to mention the fact that if Narcissa Malfoy wanted to die, Narcissa Malfoy would die, her son worrying about her or not.
Draco wondered for a moment whether Joseph was upset at the fact his old friend nearly killed herself in result of something he did, or if he was upset at the fact his old friend seemingly fucked a muggle. He was sure it was probably a bit of both if even a fraction of the Joseph in his youth still remained.
It seemed Aldrich Greengrass was at least useful for something.
The woman was a blood traitor, yes, but he couldn't imagine ever allowing a woman to stand before him and throw herself off of a castle right in front of his face, ending her own life. He would likely even step in to save Granger from such a fate, mudblood or not.
Death and horrible deeds had always existed in his world, and he had always known they occurred, but he only was able to admit to himself how little he could stomach witnessing such things in recent years when he had been involved with the Dark Lord.
Besides his mother, who he had seen be tossed about and poorly treated physically by his father since he was a boy, but he had always tried not to look when his mother was abused. At least his father never hurt his mother for sport, as some men enjoyed, but in his irrational anger and intoxication. At least his father loved his mother, and his mother him. She deserved better, but what she had was better than nothing at all.
Draco's attention was pulled back to the room when Rhys finally collected himself to stand and follow after his old friend. Draco's eyes followed his form until it was out of sight and his gaze slid to Daphne, empathy for her falling over him for the girl that was just forced to witness her mother in her worst state, and Draco knew what it was to see a mother so near to the ground.
He was relieved Astoria wasn't here to witness it.
Perhaps it would be better for her brother's wife to see what happens to her kind when they try to take from the pure-blood world, as apparently it seemed she didn't quite understand what exactly they were capable of. There was a price to pay for more freedom than they were allowed, there was always a price.
"I never thought she could break like that," Daphne whispered to the silent men, watching the ground with wide eyes. "I never thought she was so.. Human. She's always been so stern with how we acted, yet.. There she was.. A blood traitor of all things."
Adrian slowly shook his head. "She left him, the muggle. Had Nott said nothing things would have gone much, much differently." Pucey had his own horrified look on his face, and Draco was sure the scene stung him in more ways than just sympathizing with his wife.
"I think Nott realized that," Draco pointed out, nodding to the empty spot where Joseph had been. "Either that or he's just so repulsed by muggles that he's off vomiting."
Draco held the pure-blood beliefs, yes, but he was not nearly as disgusted by the outsiders as some were. Joseph Nott was one of the original Death Eaters, and had always been a much better one than Draco could ever be.
Daphne shook her head, her face becoming hard as she fought her tears. "He shouldn't dare disrespect my mother like that. He could have prevented everything, even her finding that.. Muggle in the first place. It was his job to look after her, and he was too busy playing dress up to pay attention to her." Daphne cut off for a moment to gather her words through her emotions. "I love my mother. I don't want either of you.. Don't say anything to insult her. She isn't a blood traitor anymore. She deserves respect."
Draco knew Daphne was speaking more to him than her own husband, as Pucey was not likely to sit there and sneer at her mother's actions as a teenager, and he adjusted himself in his seat in irritation. There he was feeling bad for the woman and she still was thinking of him in that way, as if he had no conscience or awareness whatsoever.
"Your mother and who she slept with is no concern of mine. As long as my wife is a pure-blood then our children will be. Your mother is your father's business, not mine."
Draco rolled his eyes Pucey's hard, warning gaze as he responded to his wife's words, making sure he wouldn't offend her further.
"How could she do that..? How could she be so foolish.. A muggle," Daphne went on, horror thick in her tone. "Surely my father knows.. And he still kept her? How? And I'm scorned for sleeping with Draco one time."
"It seems as though your father cares more about the appearance of upholding our values rather than actually upholding them, dove," Adrian murmured.
"And it seems I've believed some of those appearances," Daphne nearly spit. "Obviously he doesn't follow his own tropes. Torturing my sister.. My mother.. Making her listen to that. Astoria has only ever done exactly what he told her to do, has only ever done what she needed to make him proud. Why wasn't I tortured?"
"Why wouldn't he simply force your brother to stay? He was more than capable. Obviously he isn't above murder," Draco asked.
"My father," Daphne started after chuckling coldly. "Has his own little code of fairness. Always providing people with 'choices'. You heard what he said to Edric. He told him that he could stay or leave with the girl. Obviously he expected Edric to choose to stay, but he didn't. My father doesn't like when he doesn't have control, and he certainly didn't expect to lose control. But still. He gave Edric a choice and Edric made one, and he is one to keep his word."
"Seems more like he has 'mummy didn't love me as a child' syndrome," Pucey scoffed, stopping to look at the Pensieve. "Lovely. Another one. Hopefully a happy story this time."
Draco fully doubted that the memory would be anything close to happy based on the majority of what he had been shown up to that point.
"Why are you incapable of being a decent child?" A woman, Mrs. Greengrass presumably based on the home in the scene, asked the small boy who stood before her. "Your role is simple. Can you truly do nothing right?"
"I'm sorry, mother," the little boy, appearing to be six or seven, told her sadly, his eyes staring up at her tearfully. "I am trying.. It was so loud, and everyone was too close.. Please, mummy.."
The child, Aldrich Greengrass, was a sweet, vulnerable looking boy with handsome features and striking large and icy blue eyes. He looked up at the beautiful, cold woman with frightened but adoring eyes as she scolded him, his small hands twisting together in his stress.
"Loud?" She demanded, grabbing his face with her hand roughly causing his lower lip to wobble with emotion. "You are useless to us when all you do is cringe and flinch about as if you're retarded! You're an embarrassment, and we are growing tired of being patient with you. Do you understand?" The woman lowered herself to kneel beside her son while he stared back at her, his light eyes begging for forgiveness. "No one. Likes you. And nobody ever will, not truly." She jerked his face closer, her eyes searching his with disdain. "But I don't care about truly. You will make people like you on the surface. You will be a decent heir, or we will make another and be rid of you."
"Yes, mother," he choked, tears streaming down his pitiful face. "I promise I'll do better. Please forgive me.. I love you."
"Oh, yes. You will do better," she replied without emotion, standing slowly before calling the house-elf. "Bring him to his room," she commanded. "Show him what loud really means, and don't let him be free of it. Not until he stops having a fit about it. Do silence his room, however, as I do not want to hear it."
"Not that," Aldrich sobbed. "Not that, mummy. I'm sorry.. I'm so sorry.."
"You're truly an ungrateful thing. That is what will help you behave properly. Do you know what parents normally do when they breed children with such unfortunate.. disabilities?" She asked, eyeing him with disgust. "They rid themselves of them, or at the very least have another to provide a distraction for their failure."
Aldrich fell forward to wrap his arms around his mother's legs, resting his cheek against them mournfully as he clung to her. "I am grateful. Please believe me. Please don't make me go to my room for that.. Can't I stay with you? I'll be good."
The woman placed two fingers against the boy's head, pushing him away from her slowly. "Aldrich," she spoke softly, warningly.
The child broke into helpless, quiet cries, moving his arms to hug them to himself instead, holding himself as he followed the house-elf out of the room obediently.
Astoria sat rigidly on Draco's bed, twisting her hands in her lap in stress and uncertainty, her brother's face not leaving her mind. Anger rushed through her once more at the thought of that woman in her home, mocking her with her presence and her plain, lackluster appearance. What did Edric see in her? She wasn't a powerful witch, that much was obvious as she did nothing to stop Astoria when she had advanced on her, did nothing when she drew her wand.
Just as he did nothing.
So the woman he had ruined her family for, abandoned her for, wasn't even important to him enough to actually step in and defend from his oh so cruel sister.
Astoria pulled her legs up on the bed, wrapping her arms around them, ignoring the way her dress protested at the position. She didn't want to think about this, it hurt her to think about it, and she had this terrible anxious feeling pressing at her chest and constricting her breathing. Draco had said it was alright, he had been so kind to her. Why had he been so kind? She wasn't a good wife, and she had almost gotten herself arrested. She still may be in trouble with the Aurors if that horrific Eld woman decided to report her for attempting to assault her colleague. Still, he had been incredibly sweet to her on a matter that most husbands would not have any patience for. She didn't know why, she didn't know what she did to make him treat her in such a way, but she was both grateful and reluctant of his comforting, as even though he was sweet he had still pushed her where she didn't want to go. He had made her emotionally react, made her accept her feelings when all she ever wanted to do was avoid them, and she had avoided them until she married Draco. She closed her eyes, pushing herself from the thoughts at hand, clearing her mind as best as she could.
"Astoria."
Astoria pressed her face into her knees, a lump forming in her throat at his voice. This was why she didn't allow herself to think of him. He became too real, too haunting to her. He didn't deserve to be so important to her. He didn't deserve to exist in her heart anymore.
"Tori."
That nickname. That nickname her siblings gave her, so irritating and silly. Her mother constantly mocked it, and Astoria never cared for it herself but still internally found it endearing when select individuals used it.
The air in the room shifted and Astoria froze, listening carefully as she felt someone near her. She didn't raise her head when a hand rested hesitantly on her arm that was wrapped around her legs, afraid to look. The touch was definitely not Draco's, and it was far too familiar to be anyone other than the person she was terrified of facing.
"Please look at me," his voice begged her softly, a fragility to it that she didn't remember it ever having.
Astoria finally raised her head, slowly meeting her brother's eyes again, trying to form ice in her expression towards him. He needed to know she didn't need him, she never needed him. She hadn't even thought of him for all these years. He was nothing, and he deserved to know. How dare he come to her here in her husband's bedroom to confront her. Her eyes followed him coldly as he lowered himself on the bed to sit beside her. She wanted to move away from him, move to grab her wand, do something to get him out of her sight and space but she couldn't move, couldn't even breathe.
"Astoria," he said her name again, sending shards of pain through her chest. This was real. He was real. Why was he doing this to her? Hadn't he done enough to her? "Are you alright?"
Are you alright?
She stared at him, shocked he would act such a ridiculous and absurd question. Was she alright? What did that mean?
"Am I alright?" She demanded, her eyes already brimming with tears as she bit out the words to him. She hadn't planned on saying anything to him, he didn't deserve her efforts, but the question was too much to ignore, too stupid to ignore. "You're asking me if I'm alright? After.. after everything. Everything that you left me with. After you left me." Astoria cut off, wiping her tears furiously as she forced herself to continue. "You left me.. How could you leave me? I thought that family was important to you. I thought.. I thought that you were my best friend. You chose some girl at school over me, over everyone. I begged you to stay.. I-I asked you if you loved me and you said nothing.. You did nothing. Everything.. changed when you left, and then I was alone, and everything was darker.. No, I'm not alright. I'm not. I'm tired, and now you're here.. As if you have a right. As if you have a right to come back. You have no right to come back, no right to try to come and speak to now. You lost me. No. You didn't lose me, actually. You gave me away. You abandoned us, and now you've come back." She stopped, bitterness washing over her as she pushed away from him. "Oh wait, you're not back for us. You came to rescue your mudblood. Silly me. I suppose you're here to tell me how horrible I am for making her cry then, yes? Don't worry, my husband saved her because you weren't man enough to even do that."
He was silent for a long time, and she couldn't meet his eyes. She wanted him to leave. Why was he there? So he wouldn't stay when she wanted him to but now that she wanted him gone he wouldn't leave? Did he live to torture her?
"I do love you, Astoria," he told her, his voice thick with emotion and Astoria clenched her teeth together, turning her face farther away from him. "I love you so much more than you think I do. I'm sorry that I left you. I didn't.. I didn't know what to do."
"You don't," she whimpered back, not bothering with her tears at that point. "You don't, Edric. Don't say that. Not now. Not when you weren't there."
"You're right. I wasn't there. I wasn't there when you got your wand, I wasn't there when you started school, I wasn't there when you were started performing magic, I wasn't there when Nott erased your memories and fucked with your heart, I wasn't there during the war to make sure you were safe, I wasn't there when you were married off.. I wasn't there when you needed me, and it kills me to know that. It has killed me every day since I left, Astoria. I swear there wasn't a day where I didn't think of all of you, I swear there wasn't a day I didn't hate myself for the mess I made. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. You have to know that, and you have to know how much I love you." Edric was crying himself now, and his voice broke horribly through his words.
She hated him. Truly hated him.
Astoria was left to break down once again, and the same panicked feeling overwhelmed her as she did. She didn't want to cry over him again, shouldn't cry over him again. Why was she crying again?
"You're shaking," he said despairingly, and she cried out in protest when she was drawn into his arms, attempting to wriggle free.
Absolutely not.
He ignored her attempts to escape his grasp, tucking her under his chin.
"Let me go! This isn't right! If father knew.."
Edric stiffened at her words, only holding her tighter instead of releasing her as she had so desperately hoped. "Father isn't here, and none of this is right, Tori. None of it."
Astoria went limp in his arms, glaring fiercely through her tears. "You can't just come into my own home and manhandle me," she bit out, giving up on fighting him. "You have no right."
He laughed sadly and she looked up at him incredulously at the sound. "There is nothing funny about this. Nothing at all. You're a blood traitor, and you're not my bro-"
"I just missed you."
She bit into the inside of her cheek hard, her glare pulling into sadness in her emotion at his words. "I didn't miss you," she whispered, hating him more for feeling so familiar and good after all of these years, after what he did to her.
He still felt like home.
"Yes you did," he told her firmly, squeezing her tighter.
Astoria began to weep in his arms, wrapping her arms around him miserably. She would be in so much trouble for this.. Why wasn't Draco putting a stop to this? Where was he? If the community knew, if her father knew..
But she didn't want to let him go. He was still her brother no matter how much she tried to erase him. Everything about him was nearly the same as she remembered. His voice was a bit matured, but his scent, the type of clothing, the way he felt as he held her. Nothing had changed, while at the same time everything had changed. She felt like a child again, holding onto him this way, and even more so as she wet his clothes with her tears and sniffling. It was the most pitiful sight, she was sure, and she could practically hear her mother's mocking in her head. She should be showing him the woman she had become all without his help, but instead she was showing him the child she had remained ever since he had left, almost halted in time at his start of absence.
"This doesn't change things," she murmured into his chest after a length of quiet, the sounds of his breathing giving her something to focus on. "You still aren't my brother."
"I'll always be your brother, but accept me as your brother again just for the moment. I'm the boss, if you remember."
"I'm seventeen. I don't think it's a matter of who is the 'boss' anymore."
"Seventeen? Is that supposed to convince me of your mature age? You're still a child, Tori. You still look like-"
"I'm old enough to be someone's wife, as well as old enough to participate in what marriage entails," she cut him off shortly. "Everyone is constantly treating me as if I'm a child, and-"
"Please. Never imply sex with Malfoy again," he replied, disgust heavy in his tone. "You're a baby, and he's worthless."
"I'm not a baby," she argued quietly. "I've done more things than you know."
"Yes," he agreed gravely. "And I don't think I want to know. I believe I know more than I can handle as it is."
Astoria stopped, worry trickling through her as she remembered his words. "How did you know about Theodore..? Has it gotten out? Who told you? I only kissed him, I didn't do anything further. I didn't mean-"
"It hasn't gotten out," he interrupted her darkly. "And if it had it would be unlikely for me to know before others anyway. Things are not as they used to be."
"Who?"
"How could you go to him, Astoria? How foolish can you be? You know how men handle these matters, how any man would handle something like that. You cheated on your husband, prick or not, you did, and I cannot believe Malfoy acts as if he's somewhat fond of you after that. Well, actually I can I suppose."
"He is fond of me," she insisted bitterly. "He isn't so terrible."
"Isn't so terrible?" He demanded. "He branded you with dark magic, Astoria. Couldn't you have been the one to end up with Pucey? Daphne is much better at-"
"Don't insult me with.. Adrian. Is that who has been telling you these things? I can't.. How dare he," she demanded, pulling back as she shook her head in disbelief. "Does Daphne know about this?"
"I never said it was Pucey."
"You're not denying it either," she snapped. "I can't believe he would do this. Does he not realize the repercussions? My sister is married to a blood traitor. Can this family fall under any more shame?"
Edric said nothing and Astoria pulled back more, wiping her eyes. "I can't believe you were spying on me through my own brother-in-law. As if I'm any of your business."
"You are my business. I practically raised you for fu-"
"Yes! You raised me and then you left!" She cried. "You left so now I'm not your business anymore."
"Stop being difficult. I'm here. You let me touch you already. You might as well stop being a brat and let us get on with it."
"A brat," she repeated. "I'm not being a brat. I'm being realistic, and I'm thinking ahead. Something you never learned how to do when you decided to start sneaking around with a mudblood."
"Astoria," he told her, his voice level. "I know you are talented with your sharp tongue, but please filter yourself for the time being."
"And why should I? What did you do to deserve that from me?"
"Nothing, but when do you imagine will be the next time we get a chance to be alone to speak together? The next time you will be enough of a mess to allow me near you? I want the proper goodbye that I never gave you."
