Disclaimer- This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by J. K. Rowling. I do not claim any ownership over any characters or the world of Harry Potter. The story I tell here is not part of J.K. Rowling's story canon (which is far better than anything I could write). I'm only borrowing some of her characters to practice fiction writing. The fanfiction story of The Greengrass Boy is for entertainment only, I will make no money off of it, and is not part of the official story line.
Premise: Canon until about a year before the Cursed Child. In canon, Astoria Greengrass dies due to the blood malediction in August 2019. The events of the Cursed Child start about a year later. What if her sister had discovered Nott's time turners and decided to do something about her sister's death before then? Her plan? Interrogate the most vile dark lord in a century in search of a cure.
Rating: PG13. Implied and/or non-graphic: sex, violence, and torture. Some bad language (British slang).
Pairings: None for a good bit of the story. Daphne has a blood malediction which makes a relationship ill-advised. I'm considering Harry/Luna towards the end of the story, though I normally favor H/Hr (which won't work here for reasons which will become clearer). No harem, no slash.
Photo: The Three Ages of Woman (1905) by Gustav Klimt
Cross-posted on ao3 under the same username.
The Greengrass Boy
Chapter One
"You are going to do what?" Daphne Greengrass asked in disbelief, staring hard at the man she despised most in this world.
This was not the conversation she thought she'd be having with her brother in law, three weeks following her sister's death. She had accepted his invitation to visit Malfoy Manor expecting to discuss Scorpius' care, not time travel.
It was obvious Draco Malfoy had become a physical wreck since her sister's passing and Scorpius returning to Hogwarts. His eyes were dull, shrunken and surrounded with dark rings. His appearance was gaunt, jaundiced and unshaven. His hair was wild and unwashed. His clothes were disheveled and stained. He hadn't showered or eaten in days.
Despite her emotional tone of voice, it did not truly come from the heart, though part of her wished she could unleash her anger on him. As always, she was careful to keep her heartbeat steady, her emotions regulated, safe behind her constant Occlumency barriers. While it pleased her that her nephew's father was in extreme pain, she was careful not to give too much attention to the sensation. She wished him a lifetime of misery, but she wished to be there to see him suffer every moment of it.
"I have a time turner. A true time turner. Nott created it." He repeated himself as he fidgeted with some papers before signing in several places and pushing them toward his sister in law. "I'm designating you as Scorpius' legal and magical guardian. Don't let my parents raise him to be a blood supremacist."
She understood his concerns, though she didn't let that understanding show on her impassive face. Draco's parents were still very much supremacists, which she thought amusing considering their betrayal of Voldemort. Despite Voldemort's fall, and Granger seizing control of the Ministry with Harry Potter's support, blood supremacy was still rife in society.
Potter was no longer loved as the Boy Who Lived. He was now feared as the Man Who Conquered, the Dark Lord's equal. But he was finding that personal power did not equate to the power to change hearts and minds. Even he and Granger's appeals to people's better angels fell flat in the face of pureblood, and even halfblood, self-interest.
Daphne didn't bother to keep the contempt from her voice as she ignored the papers resting before her. "So Theo Nott has a time turner. Your plan is to do what, exactly? Travel through time and not murder my sister?"
Draco flinched as he dropped his eyes. "I'm good at potions. If I have the extra time, I can become a master and maybe find a cure. I can save her."
Tears were welling up in his eyes. She didn't let it affect her, as she kept her face a blank mask and her emotions calm even if her thoughts were critical. She knew Draco well. His tears were of self-pity, not true remorse. In the end, Draco was always about Draco. He knew he was killing her sister, even as he enjoyed life, magic, and family with her.
Both intense emotion and magic triggered the malediction cursing the Greengrass women. Astoria wanted to live life and love, despite her curse. Malfoy was happy to help her, despite knowing he was accelerating her death all the while. Now that the chickens had come home to roost, he wept crocodile tears.
Fortunately, as long as Daphne controlled her heart rate and didn't let her emotions flood her system with hormones, her own curse wouldn't trigger. She had made a different choice than Astoria and had set about mastering the Mind Arts from an early age which had proven tremendously beneficial in controlling her emotions.
"I am a potions master, Draco. And a master of Runes and Arithmancy," she said, her voice filled with scorn. She didn't bother to mention her expertise in curse breaking, or near mastery of Astronomy and Herbology. As the wanded arts posed great risks to the Greengrass women, Daphne had focused her considerable drive and intellect on the comparatively more esoteric magics. While Draco wasn't stupid, he fell well short of her. "There is no amount of time which would enable you to match my knowledge and skill. If I haven't been able to find a cure, what makes you think you can?"
Draco looked as if he were near a breakdown as he hunched behind his desk in Malfoy Manor. "I have to do something!" he cried desperately. This time tears did flow.
She contemplated him impassively. Theodore Nott was a bit of a genius. It was barely possible he had managed to improve a time turner. Her sister was dead. She couldn't undo that. Not without a true time turner, at least. She resolved to consider the possibility what Draco was saying was true, as an intellectual exercise. She had no other options, really.
In truth, she was just as distressed as Draco appeared. More, perhaps. She just couldn't allow herself to experience the emotion.
Something occurred to her as she turned over the possibility in her mind. There was one resource she could learn from which was not available to her now, but would be in the past. A wizard who was the most recognized expert in the Dark Arts in more than a century.
Voldemort. If Granger's biography on the war and Potter's life was accurate, including those details she'd tried to gloss over but which were obvious to anyone with any significant expertise in curses or the Dark Arts, she knew how to access that knowledge with little risk to herself.
"Do you have the time turner? I should inspect it before you do something foolish and irrevocable." She allowed the smallest hint of compassion to enter her voice. Draco was a fool. He was easily manipulated if one used even a small bit of positive feedback.
Not that she cared, but she suspected he didn't get a lot of love during his childhood. Lucius was a cruel father, imposing unreasonably high expectations on his only child and punishing him ruthlessly when he fell short. Narcissa was only a little better. She loved her son, but she was a distant mother, fixing her focus on ensuring her family's place in society. Neither showered him with unconditional love, though in Narcissa's case Daphne thought it was only because she lacked the ability to fully express herself.
It was how Astoria attracted him. Her sister was nothing but happy and energetic, always looking at the positive side of life, even as her life slipped away with increasing rapidity. She'd been a golden soul.
In her more honest moments, Daphne would concede that Astoria was easy to love and didn't blame Draco for being attracted to her warm and accepting spirit. She did blame him for giving into his baser desires and not protecting her sister. That would have required Draco to sacrifice his own happiness, something he'd never do even though he'd acted the part of a reluctant lover.
Draco nodded jerkily, as he stood and more stumbled than walked toward a portrait. A distant ancestor looked at him with great concern, as he swung it to one side revealing a wall safe. He made no effort to conceal how to enter the safe, so Daphne made sure to note the combination and password, as well as the location he smeared his blood after biting his thumb.
He retrieved an intricate gold and platinum hourglass, with the glittering sands cased in exceptionally fine crystal. When he placed it on the desk, she expanded her senses to contemplate the heavily enchanted object. It did appear to be a time turner of some sort. An exceptionally powerful one at that.
Interested despite herself, it was some minutes before she allowed herself to speak. "Where are the notes and plans for this device? Surely there is something I can use to check the arithmancy and rune work before you decide to use it and maybe kill yourself traipsing through time."
Draco collapsed into his high back chair as his shoulders slumped with relief. He must have thought there was a chance I'd try to stop him, she mused.
Of course he was right. He couldn't be trusted with this opportunity. He lacked the intelligence, knowledge, drive and ruthlessness necessary to succeed.
She was a much better choice.
"Nott has them, as well as the prototype," he sighed, obviously relieved.
A prototype. Of course there'd be another of these things. She adjusted her plans.
"I'll keep this for further inspection," she announced, taking the time turner. Her tone was decisive, brooking no dispute. He stayed his objection due to force of habit. Not even a Malfoy would look forward to challenging the Ice Queen if she wanted something. "You can put off your trip for a few days. Make an appointment for us to visit Nott. If only for Scorpius' sake, I want to inspect the prototype and his notes to make sure the theory is sound and it's in working order before you potentially kill yourself. In the meantime, go visit your son. This might be the last time you see him."
That actually wasn't the case but he needed to think she was onboard with his insane plan. He had been a poor Slytherin. To this day she didn't know why he'd been sorted into the house of cunning. He was far better suited to Gryffindor.
He nodded again in relief. "It'll take a few days. Nott is a bit squirrelly and loses track of time." His tone betrayed no recognition as to the unintentional hilarity of his statement.
"Good. In the meantime, update your estate plan." She picked up the guardianship papers he'd pushed toward her and tossed them into the study's fireplace. They caught quickly and were reduced to ash in moments.
Seeing the look of disbelief in his eyes, she smiled lopsidedly. "You didn't consider all the variables. I have the same blood malediction as Torie and my nephew is only thirteen. You need to re-write them. I'll accept primary guardianship but you'll need an alternate, just in case. I suggest Potter. He's strong enough to put off your parents, and Scorpius and his son Albus are good friends. They'll accept him if anything happens to me."
Draco's eyes lit with sorrowful understanding. "I'm sorry. I didn't think," he mumbled, embarrassed. "You don't exhibit any of the symptoms and I sometimes forget."
She looked down her nose imperiously at him. "I made different decisions than Torie, Draco. Decisions I wish she made."
Draco collapsed back into his chair, face etched in grief. "I know, I know," he whispered, his hand pulling at his hair anxiously. "I told her I loved her, that it was alright if the Malfoy line ended with me. She didn't have to give birth to Scorpius. She insisted. Said she wanted to be a mother, that she wanted a child with me." He looked wretched, which Daphne thought was pathetic. It was all for show, as far as she was concerned. "I shouldn't have listened."
"No, you shouldn't have," she agreed with detached venom as she stood. "But maybe you can set matters right. Set up the meeting with Nott. Get your affairs in order."
She wrapped her shawl around the time turner as she left via floo. She was more than capable of disapparating, but the significant draw on her magic would risk triggering her curse.
The next several days passed in a whirlwind of activity and preparation. If this turned out to be a hoax, she would be incredibly embarrassed. But the more she looked over the time turner, the more she thought it might actually work as advertised.
She emptied a significant portion of her personal Gringotts vault into a messenger bag. It was enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm. The money, and a dozen ancient, unique books, all went into the bag. She really didn't need anything else. It could all be replaced.
She updated her own Will, leaving everything to Scorpius. She made sure the original was left on file with Gringotts with only an authenticated copy being provided to the Ministry.
It was a sad fact of life that greedy, malevolent goblins were more trustworthy than the Ministry. Even though the personal integrity of Granger and Potter was beyond reproach, the body itself was corrupt.
As the eldest daughter of the former Head of House Greengrass, who had died without sons, she'd inherited the headship for her lifetime. Under the normal course her uncle would take up the headship after her passing. That would be a disaster for the family as he didn't possess an ounce of the business acumen she and her father had shared. Though young, Scorpius was more intelligent than Gareth. The family fortune was less likely to suffer under his eventual stewardship.
She knew her uncle, Gareth Greengrass, would challenge her Will, but the Malfoy wealth and influence continued unabated. She had little doubt that Lucius would act to ensure that his grandson's material interests were protected. Astoria's son would have every advantage she could provide him, assuming she failed. Which she thought likely.
She re-read the biography written by Granger one more time, fixing the pertinent details in her mind. It was widely considered the most authoritative work on the Second Blood War, even if she attempted to obfuscate the horcrux issue so as not to inspire others to become insane would-be dark lords.
She didn't dare bring a copy back with her. The Ministry frowned on time travel and so obvious a piece of evidence would have her strapped to an Unspeakable's dissection table in very short order.
She carefully researched past generations of her family tree. If she was going to be able to approach her father and gain his trust, proving she was a Greengrass with a documented pedigree would be helpful. Otherwise, her overprotective father would be unlikely to allow her access to his children. Too many charlatans had attempted to worm their way into the confidences, and vaults, of the family, under the guise of having a cure.
Thankfully, the Greengrasses were fairly prolific and there were a multitude of cadet branches to which could serve her needs. Inserting herself into a cadet branch would be a far more believable explanation of her family connection and interest than being a time traveling daughter.
Though she was bringing a fair amount of gold back with her, it would not be sufficient over the long term. She spent a lot of time memorizing quidditch scores and the results of various dueling circuits to ensure short term gains. For the long term, she'd be investing in muggle businesses like Apple, Microsoft and M&T Bank. Unlike other purebloods, the Greengrasses would take every opportunity to make money, whether in the muggle or wizarding worlds.
And her father would be far more likely to trust if she didn't have her hand out. A true Greengrass was expected to make money and spend it only reluctantly.
She doubted Draco had made half the preparations she had. He was a fool.