Book 4: Astoria Greengrass and the Curse of Quennell Park
Song rec: "Overgrown" by Mountains of the Moon
It had been twenty minutes since the explosion. Adam and Estelle Greengrass were now the only ones still in the house, but that did not begin to cover the effort it had taken to persuade everyone else to leave. After helping to fight the fire and do preliminary searches, the whole family waited on their toes outside for the safe return of Astoria, Adam and Estelle. Her parents sought for her with everything they had. Bubble-Head Charms to prevent smoke inhalation. More conjured water to douse the self-feeding fires. Amplified voices to call for their daughter. Since everyone had pitched in to fight the high fires, Adam and Estelle decided it was finally safe enough to go further in. They were so desperate for their child. Astoria was likely injured, burned, and unconscious. She could not answer them. But she couldn't be gone. Adam and Estelle no longer considered the fate of their home after the explosion. After all of their preparations for ensuring its safekeeping during their exile, it was the last thing that mattered. Faunus, Adam's brother and best friend, had been murdered right in front of them. They had retrieved his body. Renshaw, Gracie, and her grandfather, all utterly defenceless, would have to be found dead by Muggle police God knew how many days later. Thalie, Helvetius, Artemis, and Erez were outside with horrendous burns. Sofronia had been permanently blinded. But Astoria. Their little Astoria could not be dead.
"Why isn't it working?" Estelle sobbed as the many spells they were casting failed to reveal and retrieve their daughter. "Adam, do it again."
He prayed all the incantations he knew that could possibly bring Astoria to him. They did nothing, and Estelle kept trying.
"Accio Astoria."
"Accio Astoria."
The Summoning Charm did not work on human beings, but Estelle didn't care. She wailed for her child over the crackling of their suffering house. Adam did not want to say this in front of his wife, nor did he want to accept it himself, but if they were to be serious about their task, he simply had to… Stepping as far as he could possibly go into the burning hallway, he wept, "Accio Astoria's body."
Adam didn't want the spell to work at all. But if Astoria was dead — God forbid — he would never leave her here to burn… alone in a house full of dead Death Eaters.
What a horrible thing, he thought. What a horrible father I am to think that.
Even with spells as grand as his wife's, they could not fully dissipate the fires that ate the walls and ceiling. They had been unsafe for quite some time where they stood, calling for Astoria senselessly where magic had failed.
"We should have stopped her!" Estelle erupted in the fury of loss. "Why didn't we stop her?"
"Estelle, please," Adam cried, and he grabbed his wife so that he would not lose her in the cursed fire, too.
"Adam… No, we have to keep looking! Our daughter, Adam!"
But Estelle could not sense any of her daughter's thoughts with Legilimency. The smoke, darkness, fire, and tears all obstructed their sight. It was hot and hellish, and they bore it for longer than was safe or reasonable. In the end, Astoria was gone, and they had to get out of the house for their poor Daphne's sake. Out in the garden, they silently pondered how long it would take a house so grand to burn through. The burning of Dark magic looked like such a small wound from the outside. That had been the place. That had been the place their daughter had died in pieces.
If Astoria had not recklessly tried to save Adamina…
Adam couldn't decide if his thoughts about Adamina were evil or human. Perhaps evil and human were the same thing. He was so grateful to have his niece safe with them. But why did his daughter have to die in her place? Why did this have to happen?
Because he wanted to stay and have Astoria take "the real O.W.L.s" in Britain so he could see her results and yell at her. That was the reason. He had been concerned about subjects Astoria didn't even like, as though her image depended on it. How stupid. Nothing mattered except the lives of his family. He was selfish and stubborn, having refused to accept the threat that everyone — and his own beloved wife — had told him about. He had sent his owl safely along after it had delivered her test scores. And he had let his family die over his own pride.
Astoria… Faunus… everyone… I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry.
Rhiannon Clarke was still in denial. The second Adam and Estelle had emerged from the house, she began running alongside it, trying to Summon Astoria at the top of her lungs. It did nothing, and Estelle eventually went up and embraced Rhiannon. Daphne cried and held Adam so hard that she hurt him, but he took the pain he thought he deserved. All he could do now was get the rest of them out of this forsaken country.
It took a long time for him to focus enough to make the announcement to his family. His daughter had died. How could he go on?
But he had to. He had to get everyone to safety. So he revealed the first Secret — the first location to which they would Apparate or Side-Along. He kept going to save his family because it was the only thing he felt he was good for anymore.
His dear Daphne and his grieving sister-in-law, Elly, both received disabling Splinches in the Apparition. He blamed himself for those, too. If Astoria had died a Legilimens, maybe she could hear his thoughts easier in Heaven. Maybe one day, her spirit would simply walk up to him, know everything, and say, "I forgive you, Father."