Oh, Mother tell my baby sister not to do what I have done. – Lauren O' Connell, House of the Rising Sun
It wasn't fucking fair.
Daphne lived alone in her sweeping glamorous flat, she drank champagne and wore expensive shoes and her hair always looked lovely.
But Astoria was the one getting married. She had always been the lucky one, too young to understand when Hogwarts had turned on itself during Daphne's seventh year. Astoria was the one who flitted happily about Europe while Daphne was left to deal with the shattered post-war world.
It was the duty of the firstborn. To take care of the family and add prestige onto the already notable Greengrass name. And despite her many shortcomings Daphne knew she was responsible, responsible enough to handle that.
Responsible for her parents, those two fools. Astoria adored their mother and father but Daphne looked down her aristocratic nose at them. Her mother was content to toddle around Greengrass Hall and attend to her housewifely duties.
Once upon a time, Daphne wanted that life, wanted a husband and children and just to be happy.
But then the war had crashed through those daydreams, leaving Daphne to see how silly she had been in the harsh light of reality. The rude awakening had made everything incredibly simple for everyone though.
No one asked what you were going to do after Hogwarts, or what you wanted to get on your N.E.W.T.s, those questions were ridiculous when you thought about the people that were dying and fighting all around you. But after that, when it was time to start rebuilding, Daphne found herself lost. She was too old to stay safe and undecided in Hogwarts but what the fuck was she supposed to do out there in the real world.
Before the war they had been at the top of the food chain, floating in a glittering bubble of safety. They were safe. And then no one was safe, Daphne felt like she had been robbed of her innocence, hadn't they all had everything snatched away?
She knew she was bitter and hated it
She consoled herself that she had remained relatively normal. Pansy had shut herself up in her drafty mansion and rumor had it that Millicent Bulstrode was trying to sleep her way around the Ministry. At least she wasn't doing that badly.
And really her life wasn't that awful. Sure, sometimes she couldn't sleep because of soul-crushing anxiety about her future but Daphne could live with that. Her flat was luxurious and everyone always told her that she looked beautiful when she went out.
She went out alone mostly (but no one had to know that).
Her mother fretted that she was getting too skinny but Daphne couldn't really bring herself to care. Maybe she would become light enough to just float away.
Most of the time Daphne just wished that she had someone.
At school she and Pansy had been almost inseparable (sure Pansy had been a huge bitch, but wasn't every girl at Hogwarts?). Slytherin House was a tight knit one, something that took most people by surprise, there was always people to count on, like a kind of family (the rest of the school had hated them so its not like there had been options). That was something that the war had stolen from her, all of her housemates had scattered like leaves in the October wind.
Fuck the loneliness; she was too young for this.
Most days she was bored out of her mind, so she went to parties (even after the Second War people still thought there was something to celebrate) and lost herself in the glittering crowds. She would dance with handsome strangers, flirting with them until the early morning but she took a small amount of cruel pride in disappointing them.
Eventually she went to enough parties that her mother put her in charge of throwing one at Greengrass Hall, Daphne suspected that it was a ploy in order to spend time together but did it anyways.
The party had been a huge success and then her mother fluttering, useless friends had all begged her to plan their parties.
During these parties it wouldn't be unusual for Daphne to see Blaise or Draco or even Millicent, but there was one person whom she really hated seeing.
Theodore Nott had a certain talent for flustering Daphne who prided herself on being rather collected. They had dated, on and off during their time at Hogwarts but Theodore had a quiet fascination with Dark magic that repulsed Daphne even as it drew her in. She kept Theodore's secret (didn't want that news getting out to all the new zealous Aurors) and kept her distance. It was all for the best and Theodore didn't seem to care that much anyways (his apathy used to kill her).
It embarrassed her that she still had a weak spot for an old flame so she tried her best to shove those feelings into the deep recesses of her heart where she could try to forget about them.
It was rare that she even ran into him, thank Merlin.
So Daphne pretended that she wasn't jealous of Astoria and that she wasn't still in love with Theodore Nott and that she didn't miss her best friend. She planned parties and galas and charity balls, glittering events all of them.
She had managed to survive, but she was so lonely.