Summary: Astoria treasured everyone's birthdays for obvious reasons. It was something Daphne had forgotten when she learned a hard truth.

Rated: T

Genre: Tragedy

Warning Tag: Reference Chronic Illness; Terminal Illness; Character Death; Language; Grieving

Competition/Challenge Block:
Written For: Monthly Challenges for All (Year 3); Hogwarts (Term 14); Houses Competition (Year 7)

Houses: Slytherin - Muggle Studies; Standard - [First Line]

Hogwarts: Ravenclaw; A.8 - Magical Theory #1: Write about a character putting themself in harm's way to protect someone they love. (Restriction: it cannot be James and Lily protecting Harry from Voldemort.)

MC4A: Trope Bingo (1C-Beware the Nice Ones); Ship War; Chimera; Link; Star (Pear-Shaped); Fence (Machismo); ICs (Short Jog (Y); The Story Goes On (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon (Y); Lunar Era (Y); Slytherin MCx2; Ravenclaw MCx2; Old Shoes (Y); Not the Mama

Word Count: 1,808

Beta: Aurora, Shy

Author's Note: "Thea" is Aunt in Greek. I have the Greengrass' as Greek.

My Sister's Keeper

Today marked the last day that she would see her sister alive, but Daphne didn't know this yet. She had plans to go on vacation to celebrate her birthday with Tracey and would be gone for a week. It wasn't the best of timing, but her sister insisted she not worry about her and to enjoy her life and time with Tracey. She was selfless like that. She seemed to be in good health for the time being, giving Daphne that peace of mind needed to leave for the short time. Regardless of all the assurance, she still had her doubts.

"Are you sure you don't want us to stay?" Daphne asked Astoria, taking her hands in hers.

Astoria looked better than she had last week; she had more color to her cheeks and face and was lively and alert again. It was great to see after she contracted bronchitis that bordered on pneumonia six weeks ago. Daphne was delighted to see her on the mend from it all, she was a fighter despite the setbacks her poor health threw at her, and she admired her younger sister for it.

"Don't be silly, Daphne. I would feel horrible having you delay your birthday plans," Astoria stated, weakly squeezing her hands. "I promise you I am feeling one-hundred precent better. Draco still has the mediwitch here on full-time, and you know as well as I do he will ensure the best care for my health."

"Naturally. You really did pick a good one," Daphne said, lightly tapping her sister's nose. "Alright. But the second I hear something you know I will be back here at the drop of a hat, no questions asked. And if I find out that things were kept from me, your husband will feel my wrath."

Astoria laughed at that, resulting in her going into a coughing fit. Daphne supplied her with the fresh glass of water that she took once the fit subsided.

"Thank you," she said, taking a generous sip of it.

Daphne bit at her nails, thinking over her plans yet again. "Astoria, I want you to be really honest with me. Look me in the eye and tell me you are okay with me leaving."

The atmosphere in the room shifted, yet she waited for Astoria to respond. Daphne watched as she took a deep breath before looking straight at her. "I am certain. You deserve to have fun. I'd even ask you to drag Draco along if I knew he wouldn't spend it worrying about me."

Daphne smiled at that, giving her hand another gentle squeeze before getting to her feet. "Well, I need to finish packing. We are leaving tomorrow. I will leave a two-way mirror for Draco to contact me for emergencies only." She leaned in and gave a kiss to Astoria's forehead. "Love you, sister. I am so happy you are feeling better."

"Bring me a souvenir and a postcard."

Two days after Daphne's birthday, she heard the chime from her mirror. It's match was left with Draco, and she made sure he knew it was only meant for emergencies. Despite the late hour where she was, Daphne leapt for it immediately and activated the mirror.

"Draco? What is it? What happened?" she blurted, clutching the frame of the mirror tightly in her hands. "Please tell me Astoria is okay?"

The silence followed, but she could see Draco's perfect mask he wore so well was shattered right before her. His eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed, the stains from tears still lingered on his face, his hair disheveled, his skin more pale than she remembered. All of it pointed to Astoria passing away, and she could feel the punch to her heart immediately.

"Draco…"

"It… the bronchitis got worse… It turned to pneumonia. She… she stopped breathing in the night and… We couldn't save her…" his voice was coarse, barely audible she had to turn her head to hear properly.

Five years trickled by, each year got just a little bit easier for her, but it barely budged for the small family Astoria left behind. Daphne did her very best to be there for her nephew and brother-in-law, taking Scorpius on vacations and dragging his father along on occasions to get them out of their stuffy mansion. She helped them maintain the orchards Astoria started on the property and care for the cygnets her swans hatched at the pond each year. She knew Draco was terrible at showing his appreciation for her and Tracey's company, the three often bickered whenever they were in each other's presence about the silliest things like they always had done, but he gave his thanks by extending dinner invitations, and even the occasional luncheon or brunch. She loved the extra time to spend with Scoprius after all.

In fact, it was her birthday, and she decided to take Scorpius out for the day with her to have some fun when she noticed he looked a bit bleak that morning.

Daphne took a bite of her ice cream in a cup, letting the sweetness assault her taste buds. The strawberry chocolate swirl was a weakness of hers as the two sat outside from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor.

"Mm, delicious. How is yours?"

Daphne looked across the table at Scorpius who pushed his dark chocolate chip mint ice cream around in his own cup, looking distraught.

"Hey, is everything alright?" she asked, reaching her hand out for his. He pulled away from her.

"My father set you up to take me out of the house, didn't you?"

Daphne looked confused at the question. "What? No, no. I wanted to celebrate my birthday with my nephew. Why would Draco set me up toa take you out?"

"So I won't sulk or watch him wallow in sadness… which is really hard not to do, even after all of this time without Mother," he quietly explained.

"Oh, Scorpius," she said, taking a heavy breath. "I know it will be your mother's anniversary in a couple of days—"

"Couple of days?" Scorpius questioned, confused. "She passed away on this day five years ago, Thea. You don't remember?"

"What?"

Daphne knew exactly where Draco would be in the manor. She didn't waste any time bringing Scorpius back to rip into her brother-in-law. Barging into the office, she honed in on Draco, eyes filled with fury.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy you lying, slimy son of a bitch!" she shrieked, closing the distance between them.

He looked up from whatever he was doing, startled by the sudden outburst.

"How dare you lie to me when I specifically told you not to!" Daphne continued, slamming a hand hard on his desk. "Are you happy now? Because I found out anyway, and it is much, much worse than it would've been if you simply manned up and told me then! I cannot wait to hear your sorry excuse as to why!"

He leaned back into the chair, she could see him puzzling out what she was talking about. She was quickly growing impatient by his silence, tapping her fingers hard on the desk.

"Well?"

"Astoria had me swear to not tell you." His voice was barely above a whisper.

Daphne let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. "Oh, please. My sister is ridiculously selfless, but you will not convince me by saying her last wish was to not tell me exactly when she died!"

Draco folded his hands together, keeping his gaze away from her. "I don't know what else you want me to say. It was what she—"

"Cut the crap, Malfoy!" Daphne snapped, voice wavering some. "You had no right to lie and withhold this from me! She was my sister, and that status outweighs yours by far! Claiming that your deep, devoted, almost disgusting loyalty towards her prevented you from telling me the truth? How dare you!"

"Mother didn't want to tarnish your birthday, Thea," Scorpius said from behind her.

Daphne turned to face her nephew, trying to calm her wrath before speaking to him. "You said you didn't know?"

"I honestly didn't," Scorpius admitted, "but knowing how she was and how much she loved you, I can take a good guess to say that she wanted to protect you from ruining your birthday every year because of her passing on it. She took everyone's birthday very seriously, knowing how important they were to her, for obvious reasons. Father doesn't deserve this outrage, Thea. He was honoring Mother by protecting your happiness from this. And, despite your strange relationship with Father, he does care about you. Maybe even love you, but just a little bit," Scorpius added, trying to cut the tension some.

Daphne was left speechless, as was Draco. All of the fire in her was instantly quenched by her nephew's words, and she found herself wrapping her arms around Scorpius and pulling him into a well needed hug. She closed her eyes to hold back the sting of tears welling in them.

"You are right," she whispered, voice watery. "Since when did you get so philosophical?"

She pulled back to look at Scorpius, quickly rubbing a hand over her eyes to dry unshed tears. Scorpius offered her a handkerchief from his robes pocket that she gratefully accepted before shrugging.

"Well, I am my mother's son," he said.

Draco had moved toward them during their exchange, now standing beside Daphne. She looked his way, unsurprised at his near-perfect stoic expression even after she blew up at him.

"You certainly are, Starlight," she said, using the nickname that Astoria used to use.

He smiled sheepishly and averted his gaze.

Daphne turned to her brother-in-law, feeling a little bit embarrassed about going off on him.

"I am sorry I went unhinged on you, but you can't say you didn't deserve it," she said, giving him a nudge with her arm. "You're lucky you have such a wise young man here. Astoria would be proud of how he handled himself."

"Yeah…" Draco said, running a hand through his hair. "I know I am proud of him."

Scorpius was starting to turn pink from all the compliments, shuffling his weight around on his feet. "I mean… I did learn from the best."

"And he's humble, unlike someone I know," Daphne joked, smirking at Draco.

He rolled his eyes at the comment, clearing his throat. "It is still your birthday, Daph. How may I make this up to you?"

"Hmm," she said, tapping her fingers on her cheek. "A shopping spree for Tracey and I in Paris will suffice, I think."

Scorpius laughed while Draco groaned as the three left the office.

It wasn't explicitly said out loud, but Daphne did forgive her brother-in-law for withholding such sensitive information, and was still secretly admiring just how pure her sister still was even on her deathbed.