SEASONS OF LOVE

By: throughtheroses


"Measure your life in love,

Seasons of love."

-Jonathan Larson


CHAPTER ONE: The End of an Era

"Maledictus" was what they called it, a blood curse on the Greengrass family. Astoria wasn't its first victim. The curse had stolen the lives of her great-aunt, great-great-aunt, great-great-great-great-aunts, all of them tragic waifs who withered and died like so many cut flowers.

Rumor had it that the blood curse originated some time in the seventeenth century. A beautiful young Seer named Menodora Greengrass had rejected one of her many suitors after learning about his preference for Dark Magic. And in retaliation, he laid down a curse to take her life and that of anyone like her in the family line forevermore.

Every girl with the Greengrass Maledictus was a born Seer just like Menodora, naturally talented at Divination and gifted with prophetic visions. But such was the curse that what should have been a blessing would actually weaken them all from the inside out, until they could live no more.


The family had learned that Astoria Greengrass was the newest target when she was only four years old.

She had been having vivid nightmares for two weeks about the stately Greengrass Manor burning down. Each morning, she awoke weakened, unable to roam and play with her two older siblings the way she usually did. At night, she cried and pleaded with her parents to let her stay up, so that she wouldn't have to see the horrible fire again, only to fall asleep from exhaustion and wake up the next day even more exhausted. It got so bad that she collapsed, unconscious, in the middle of an afternoon tea party with Daphne.

All five Greengrasses Flooed with her to St. Mungo's and waited anxiously for the Healers to begin the examination.

Astoria woke up in tears, inconsolable. "Where are we? What about the fire?"

"It was just a nightmare, darling," soothed her mother, Cressida, stroking her daughter's bangs back from her hot forehead. "We're at St. Mungo's."

"But Tibby is trapped! The fire is going to get her!" wailed little Astoria, referring to their kind, elderly house-elf. "We need to go home! Please!"

Her parents exchanged a long look but said nothing, despite their younger daughter's frantic sobbing. Daphne, who was seven, suggested, "Why don't you Floo home to check, Papa?"

Their father, Evaristus, made a "hmm" noise. "I can't see what harm it would do," he said finally. "I'll be right back."

He wasn't.

Astoria had been right - their house was on fire due to a magical cooking mishap, and Tibby was too weakened by smoke inhalation to Apparate past the flames. Evaristus barely got to her in time to rescue her, not to mention saving the estate.

The Healer's voice was careful as he later addressed the family: "Your daughter has the Sight. And... there is something else that we detected. A Maledictus. Her body is prone to periods of weakness and will become permanently weaker over time. She will most likely die before her twenty-fifth birthday. I'm sorry."


Astoria didn't really know what that meant. All she knew was that her life changed forever in that moment. She wasn't allowed to run around or ride the family's winged horses the way her siblings did, for fear of overexertion and stress. She had all the toys and clothes a little girl could ask for, but she wasn't allowed to be free anymore.

Except with Daphne. Daphne took protecting her very seriously, but they always had fun together. They played elaborate games of make believe where Astoria was a princess and Daphne the dragon tasked with guarding her tower, or Astoria the mermaid and Daphne the grindylow, or that they were Muggles, or two students at Hogwarts who were Sorted into Slytherin like every member of their family had been for generations. They imagined entire worlds and made up silly stories about the people who lived in them, wrote plays and acted them out with their brother, and never tired of tea parties. And unlike the rest of the family, Daphne was fascinated at the little flashes of the future that Astoria occasionally glimpsed instead of just being sad or horrified by any reminder of her curse.

The two sisters needed one another more and more as the years passed. Each girl was the only one who could make the other feel... normal.


Daphne had always felt different in some unmistakable way.

It was hard to define what was so different about her when you just looked at her, because what she was wasn't the problem exactly. It was, as Daphne understood it, more about what she wasn't that made all the difference.

Daphne wasn't graceful or delicate. She wasn't lady-like. She spoke too loudly, too bluntly. She took up space. She wasn't neat or orderly. She wasn't what her mother wanted in a daughter and she was what her father wanted in a son, much to her older brother Valerian's dismay.

So, maybe it was a little bit about what she was, then.

The only person who saw her differences and accepted her was her sweet little sister, Astoria.

Astoria was always different too, from what Daphne could gather. Their mother acted like Astoria was some beautiful tragedy, which from a certain perspective Daphne could understand. She was everything Phillipa Greengrass wanted in a daughter: small, sweet, beautiful, neat, and soft-spoken.

But, the thing was… Astoria was destined to die, and no one in the family could ever forget it.


Most children were happy when they received their letter, but not Daphne. She cried. All she felt as she looked at that thick envelope with her name written in fancy green ink was sadness and resigned disappointment, because, truth be told…

Daphne didn't want to go to Hogwarts.


The day that Daphne got her Hogwarts letter, Astoria cried as well. These tears were also sad, because she knew she was going to lose her sister.

It had been alright when their older brother, Valerian, had left for Hogwarts two years before and became the latest Slytherin in the family. He came home beaming on his school breaks, excitedly telling them all about the teachers and Quidditch matches and Slytherin winning the House Cup ("And this makes six years in a row!"). Daphne and Astoria drank it all in, genuinely happy for him and secretly filing details away for their pretend games together. And then he would leave for another term and they would give him big hugs and wish him the best at school. They loved Valerian. It was just that he was a boy, and he had never been as close to them as they were with each other.

This was different.

The difference was Daphne and Astoria needed each other.

Like a flower needs the sun and the earth needs the rain, these sisters were connected in a fundamental, intrinsic way. To say they were inseparable was an understatement. They relied on each other for affection, companionship, understanding, everything. To be apart, to them, seemed like the end of the world, like their parents were taking away their stability and safety, upending their whole lives.

And Daphne did not want that.

It seemed so simple to Daphne. It was so simple that she had trouble understanding why her parents didn't understand.

Daphne should just not go to Hogwarts.

Now, just to be clear, Daphne wanted to go to Hogwarts, she just didn't want to go without Astoria.

And when she explained this to her mother and father, they both looked at her very seriously and gave her no choice. Daphne had to go to school, and that's final.

And that, right there, confused her to no end.

Ever since Astoria came home from St. Mungo's, changed and entirely more fragile, Daphne was told that she must take care of her sweet little sister.

"Daphne dearest, look after your sister for Mummy," her mother would say as she sank elegantly onto her chaise longue.

"You do such a good job with Astoria, darling. Keep up the good work," her father would say as he patted her head before slipping into his study to get some more work done.

So, in Daphne's young mind, she believed that her parents understood what she did for her sister and what Astoria did for her in return.

But now… she didn't think her parents understood anything at all.


"Come along now, dearest, we don't want to be late for your fitting!" Cressida Greengrass enthused to her sour-looking daughter, her silky green robes shimmering as she strode briskly down the crowded street. Daphne pouted deeply in displeasure, but she couldn't help it. She hated fittings.

She would have crossed her arms and stomped her feet, simply out of spite (her mother hated it when she acted "childishly"), but she was holding Astoria's little hand and she really didn't want her to get lost in Diagon Alley. She glanced over at her sister and saw her flushed cheeks and labored breaths. Her mother's pace was just too much for her sickly sister.

"Mum! Mummy! Astoria's tired! Slow down!" Daphne shouted urgently. She pulled Astoria to a stop beside her and looked her over.

Cressida spun around on her heel and bent to fuss over her smallest child. She smoothed her thin, elegant hands over Astoria's slight shoulders and fixed the pink hair bow tied at the back of her light brown curls.

"Cressida, darling, it's alright. Astoria can sit down at Madam Malkin's while Daphne is getting fitted," Evaristus said calmly from behind them. Daphne shot her father a look after he said this, but he didn't notice. He was too busy cleaning his glasses on his robes.

Daphne felt a rush of incredible irritation at her parents. For all their rules and restrictions for "the good of Astoria's health" it still never occurred to them that maybe the simple exertion of walking too quickly for too long would exhaust her more than a ride on a broomstick would. It was as if they believed that Astoria's condition was settled and dealt with a long time ago, and that they didn't have to consider it anymore.

"Oh! You're right, dear! Goodness, is that the time? We must hurry! A Greengrass is never late! Come, Daphne! Hurry now!" Her mother seized her hand and pulled Daphne away from Astoria and through the crowded street.

"Mum! Stop!"

"No, Daphne! I will not be embarrassed because you are late! Punctuality is important!" Cressida was unstoppable when she got like this — Daphne knew from personal experience.

Frantically twisting around, Daphne searched for her sister in the crowd and saw that Valerian had taken Astoria's hand and was walking with her at a much more reasonable pace. Good, that meant her sister would be safe.

Daphne allowed her mother to drag her along until they reached the storefront, where she took her opportunity to rip her hand out of Cressida's own. "Let go!" she shouted in agitation.

Cressida bent down with a focused, unpleasant expression and began to primp and fuss with Daphne's clothes and hair. "You will behave while you're in there, do you understand me? Behave. Madam Malkin is a dear friend and you will be a good girl for her."

Anger thrummed under Daphne's skin until she felt as though she would explode. Her lips curled back into a snarl, but before she could growl don't touch me, she was unceremoniously pushed into the store and, consequently, in front of an audience.

"Oh, Madam Malkin! We're here! And just in time!" her mother announced in her most beautiful socialite voice.

The familiar figure of Madam Malkin rushed to the front of the store in a billowing cloud of mauve robes. "Ah, Cressida! My shining star! I'm so happy to see you!"

Daphne felt the moment when the other customers recognized her mother. All eyes turned and locked in on her perfectly styled blonde hair and clothes, her elegant figure and perfect posture, and of course, her winning smile. The whispers started:

"It's Cressida Selwyn!"

"No, it's Greengrass now. She hasn't been a Selwyn for at least fifteen years."

"Merlin's beard! She's more beautiful in person! The camera doesn't do her justice!"

"She hasn't changed at all!"

"I wonder if she'll ever come out of retirement."

More and more people gawked at her mother, Cressida Greengrass, née Selwyn, one of the most iconic and influential models of wizarding kind. The tall, willowy woman had graced the cover of every single wizarding magazine, domestic and foreign, and was voted Most Beautiful Witch seven times in a row by Witch Weekly. She had been the muse for several wizarding fashion designers and photographers, and Madam Malkin was the first to see her full potential. Honestly, you would be hard pressed to find anyone (except for maybe Harry Potter) that was more famous and well regarded as her mother. Daphne saw her soak up the attention like a sponge and wished, not for the first time, that she looked more like her mother.

Daphne was just herself, though. Tall, but not graceful, with dark brown hair and a face that took after her father's. All she had from her mother were her clear blue eyes, but that didn't add up to much when they were hidden behind a pair of plain, practical glasses.

Madam Malkin and her mother kissed each other's cheeks in greeting and smiled at one another. "So, my dear, I hear that one of your children needs a fitting?"

"Yes! This is my elder daughter, Daphne. She's getting her very first set of Hogwarts robes today!" Her mother gripped her tightly by the shoulders as she said this, as if holding her still would keep her from misbehaving.

Now Daphne felt the eyes on her, looking her over and knowing they all found her lacking when they compared her to her mother. She itched all over and looked down at her feet.

"How delightful! Why, I remember fitting the young Mr. Valerian for his robes not too long ago. Such a sweet boy. Now come dear, up on the platform! Yes, yes. Very good."

The appointment passed by Daphne in a blur of fabric, pins, and a flying measuring tape. She felt so alone as her mother stepped away to greet her adoring public, leaving her daughter on the platform by herself.

Daphne perked up when the rest of her family joined them in the store. Astoria waved happily at her with a sweet smile. Valerian waved in his awkward boy way and ushered Astoria over to a chair to rest her tired body.

But it wasn't long until they too were swarmed by their mother's fans. They couldn't get enough of Cressida's beautiful porcelain doll of a daughter or her golden son. The resemblance between the three was obvious, their fine-boned beauty connecting them in a way that was totally out of reach for Daphne.

But, that was okay… She didn't really want to be under such intense scrutiny anyway.

Evaristus walked over to stand next to her on the platform and smiled proudly. "You look so beautiful in those robes, darling. You'll look even better when they're silver and green!" He smiled warmly at her and chatted away about something he read about in one of his periodicals as the assistants fluttered around her. She talked back to him, telling him what she thought, and he called her a bright girl.

It was relaxing, comforting to have her father there, and when one of the seamstresses stuck her with a pin, Evaristus barked at them, "Be careful with my daughter!"

After that, everything else went smoothly from that point onward. The family, however, had to wait for about ten minutes after the appointment was finished to allow Cressida enough time to finish signing all of her autographs.

"Alright," she said brightly, more radiant than ever, "on to the pet store, dearest!"


The Magical Menagerie shop was unlike anything Astoria had ever seen before. It was packed wall-to-wall with cages of small animals of every kind, so many that Astoria didn't even have names for them all. It was a little overwhelming to go into the crowded store with all the hooting, croaking, hissing, and meowing emanating from the stacked labyrinthine cages. And there were so many tall people all over too, parents and students and other shoppers. How did they fit so many people and animals into such a small space? Astoria clung to Daphne's hand as her family navigated the store, trying to be brave after the heavy exertion of the day.

Daphne squeezed her hand back and gave her a reassuring smile. "It's okay. Look! There's a bunny over there."

The two girls ran ahead of their parents toward one of the cages, which did in fact contain a snowy white bunny. "It's so cute!" sighed Astoria, looking at its little paws and long ears. Then there was a popping sound, and the bunny transfigured itself into a shiny black top hat! "Oh!"

"That's amazing. Maybe not the best pet, though..." Daphne was laughing, not startled at all. As always, Astoria took comfort in her sister's strength, and soon found herself giggling as well.

Their brother Valerian came to stand with them. He was tall and skinny at thirteen, the only Greengrass child to inherit their mother's blond hair. "Of course not," he said importantly. "All the good students at Hogwarts have owls."

Was that true? If it was, Astoria didn't want to believe it. She liked owls enough, but she had always pictured taking a cat to Hogwarts, something cute and cuddly. But if it would jeopardize her academic performance... She bit her lip, worried for the future.

Daphne rolled her eyes, nonplussed. "Why should I get my own owl when I could just borrow yours?"

That made Valerian pout. "You can't borrow Hyacinthus! He's very sensitive."

"Now, now, son," said their father, putting a hand on Valerian's shoulder. "We all know that you would share your owl with Daphne if she needed one."

"Yes, Father," Valerian said petulantly.

Their mother was looking at a different cage nearby. "Maybe you could get a Puffskein, Daphne dearest. They're such darling little things."

Astoria found her voice. "But the school supply list said that students can only bring a cat, a toad, or an owl..." She and Daphne had looked at the list together so many times that Astoria basically had it memorized, even the book titles and robe labeling recommendations. Her sister's school preparations were exciting, but they also gave her a sinking feeling in her stomach. More than anything, she wished she could be going to Hogwarts too.

"Oh, yes," said their mother. "That does sound familiar. Dumbledore is such a stickler for the oddest things."

"Our poor Daphne won't even be able to bring her broom to school!" agreed their father, shaking his head. "She's been flying since before she could walk. But then again, I suppose not everyone has been raised with the same... advantages as we have." He lowered his voice, leaning in closer to his family. "Muggle-borns. You know."

"The poor dears," concurred Cressida with a sympathetic sigh. "We are all so fortunate to be in the Sacred-Twenty Eight! Most others would give anything to be in the Greengrass family. In fact, did you hear that just the other day—"

With their parents' attention otherwise occupied, Daphne gave a tug to Astoria's hand and whispered, "Come on. Let's go look for the cat section before Mummy's fans realize she's here."

The two sisters exchanged a conspiratorial grin as they ducked around a corner and out of sight of their family, even though they ended up in the reptile aisle. They followed the maze around a little more under the glassy eyes of lizards and snakes, and thankfully it wasn't long before they found the wall of felines. The first one they saw was a Kneazle-cat hybrid, which was somewhat cute but not quite what Daphne was looking for. But right next to it...

"Kittens!" exclaimed both girls, clutching at each other excitedly.

Astoria rushed right up to the cage, where there were two adorable long-haired kittens: one white and dainty and the other a plush brown tabby with some patches of white and orange. The white cat looked up at her through big blue eyes, so much like her own, and mewled in the highest little voice. Astoria's heart melted.

"You have to get the white one!" she told Daphne, unable to take her eyes away as it rolled over and curled into a ball. "Look how sweet it is!"

"But I like the other cat," said her sister, poking a finger through the cage bars. "Here, kitty, kitty..."

A saleswoman appeared next to them. "How sweet. Two girl kittens for two girls. Do you want to try holding them?"

"Yes!" they both practically sang, and soon they were each holding their preferred kitten.

Astoria couldn't believe how soft and fluffy the white kitten was as she carefully picked it up. It relaxed in her arms at once, which made her so happy that she nuzzled her cheek against the purring cat. She knew in that moment exactly what her favorite dolls and toys couldn't provide for her, and she didn't know how she could possibly wait until she was eleven to get her own cat. She never wanted to let go of this one.

Daphne had the brown tabby straight out in front of her and was giggling delightedly. "You're just like a pumpkin, aren't you, you round little thing?" The cat made an adorable sound almost like a quack in response, and the girls erupted in giggles.

Then their parents and Valerian were right behind them. "Look at that, Cressida," said their father proudly. "Daphne seems to have found a Dumbledore-approved pet all on her own."

"Do you want this cat, dearest?" their mother asked with a smile.

'Yes, please!' Astoria wanted to say, sad that she wouldn't have the chance. It was Daphne's big shopping day, not hers.

"Definitely!" laughed Daphne, cuddling the cat closer and wrapping her arms around it. "I'm going to name her Pumpkin!"

"Pumpkin?" echoed their mother in barely veiled distaste. "Why not something more elegant, like Artemis? Or maybe even Penelope?"

"No, she's a Pumpkin," said Daphne definitively.

The saleswoman said, "Pumpkin is a perfectly nice name for this kitten. But what about the other one?"

"The other one?" mused Evaristus, peering around through his wire-rimmed glasses until his eyes fell on his youngest child. "Oh yes, Astoria. Why are you holding a cat?"

She panicked a little, wondering what to say or how to explain the situation. "I..."

Daphne came to her rescue. "Papa, isn't that white kitten perfect for Astoria? Can she get one too?"

"Please?" It practically burst straight out of Astoria's heart, the urgent desperation to have a companion now that Daphne was going away to school. Otherwise, she would be left alone... and that thought was unbearable.

"Hmm, I suppose that Astoria doesn't have to be eleven to get her first pet," said their father, looking to his wife for confirmation. "What do you think, Cressida?"

Their mother turned her famous smile on her younger daughter. "I think Astoria has found a darling little kitty cat. What do you want to name her, my sweet girl?"

Astoria considered it for a moment. Even though it was a very important decision, the perfect answer came to her almost immediately. "Whimsy," she said, scratching the tiny cat behind its ears.

"How charming," smiled her mother, before addressing the saleswoman. "Thank you for your assistance."

The saleswoman acknowledged her with a nod. "Of course, ma'am. I'm glad your daughters are taking these two. It would have been such a shame to separate them."