Hello, lovelies! So, this chapter is a different POV. I hope you all don't mind. I really wanted some character development for Adrian and Daphne. Don't worry, I'll get to Draco/Astoria (and Theo, of course as you're all eager) soon, but I really want to give attention to a lot of my characters, as I have a lot in mind for them. Anyway, tell me what you think of these two and if you like them! I'm sorry my author's notes are long sometimes (I saw someone complaining about that on another fic), but I really like interacting with you guys and making it more personal. You're free to skip my notes if you wish! Again, tell me what you think and I will love you so, so much (seriously, it encourages me more than anything). Happy reading!

I don't own anything from Harry Potter.

"Are you not giving me my own bedroom?" Daphne asked her new husband, scowling as she looked around the bedroom he had led her to, his own.

"Now why would I do that? You're my wife," he replied, stripping himself of his jacket and tossing it on a chair in the corner carelessly.

Daphne studied his broad, well worked chest that spread up into even better, strong shoulders. She bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt to not bite her lip at her attraction to him. Shit, she couldn't deny how gorgeous he was, and she was traditionally girlish when it came to attractive men. He was a contrast to the men she had grown up closer to knowing who were attractive in a darker, more looming way. Adrian's debonair was much more on the lighter side of their aristocratic world and oozed sex appeal and a more playful charm.

"Well, don't you want your space?"

"I've married you. I might as well get used to having less space, lovely."

"But.. Why? This mansion is huge. There is nothing keeping you from continuing on with your life and pretending as if I don't exist," Daphne muttered, reaching over to hold onto her arm as she looked around the room, overwhelmed at how quickly her settings had changed.

"Right, but then I'd feel absolute shit," Adrian said, grimacing. "Would be miserable for you if I just left you to yourself, wouldn't it?"

"I don't see why you care," Daphne told him, confused.

"Fuck, are you always this depressing? Yeah, I care if my wife jumps off the balcony in result of years of loneliness and neglect," he snorted, shaking his head incredulously while scowling. "As long as I've known your lot, it's still a bit shocking how you think."

"How sweet of you," she said dryly, moving to sit on his bed, the scent of rich cologne filling her nose.

"I'm very sweet, thank you for noticing! Now, let's get you some food, shall we?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Shhh. Quiet, sweetheart. Don't fight it. We'll eat some food and talk about our feelings. It will be great." Adrian rang a small bell and a cleanly dressed servant entered the room, taking Adrian's food order.

"Why not just get a house-elf..?" Daphne asked, squinting at the retrieving servant.

"Ugly little things. Spoil the look we are going for," he said, waving a hand. "I'm so sorry. I'd take you out on a honeymoon, but your sister has got us chained down."

"Yes, well. She often gets what she wants."

He squinted at her, adjusting his sleeves. "And how do you feel about that, lovely?"

Daphne was quiet for a moment, thinking his question over. She hadn't really been asked that before and it had caught her off guard, despite his less than serious tone. "I.. Don't know. I can't tell if I'd rather be in her place. It just seems like she's so much more sure of herself than I am, even though she never had friends or much of any life at all. She's just.. A puppet. Almost lifeless. But then why is she so much more held together than I am?"

Adrian paused and looked up at her. "So.. You're actually telling me how you feel," he said slowly, frowning in consideration. "Alright."

She shook her head. "Right. Nevermind," she said quietly, annoyed at herself for actually responding to his sarcastic question.

"No no, it's good," he said, waving his hand in a motion that indicated her to keep going as he moved to sit next to her. "Tell me how you feel, my dear."

Daphne glared at him, scooting away. "No. Forget I said anything."

"Aw, come on, baby. I'm your husband now. Plus, it will make sex easier if we get along. I don't know, reluctant sex has never really turned me on. Just something about it being.. Rape. Eh. Doesn't do it for me. Neither does crying. Never been interested in screwing a crying woman."

Daphne made a disgusted noise and pushed even further away from him, pressing up against his pillows. Adrian squinted at her for a while before taking the food from the servant and pushing it towards her. "Eat. Really. You said you weren't anorexic so prove it."

She looked at the food and wrinkled her noise, turning her face away from the incredibly intoxicating smell. She was definitely very hungry. "It doesn't make someone anorexic to not want to eat things that are so fattening. Nothing about that is healthy."

"Who cares? Eat because it tastes good. It's almost like you can.. Not be completely miserable all the time, hope you know."

Daphne didn't move.

"Aren't you trained in your little bred-to-be-wives classes to do as I say, or?" He asked, pursing his lips.

"I've also been "trained" not to eat food like that," she quipped, pushing her nose away further.

"Look. I won't force you to eat. Probably won't force you to do anything really, but honestly, who are you trying to keep so thin for? Nobody here cares if you eat some food, Daphne. Nobody here cares if they can't count every rib in your body. Actually, it's a bit sad, and makes me feel terrible that someone actually made you feel you should look that way. Especially now that you're my wife," he told her clearly, his voice changing to a more serious tone.

Daphne faltered, her stiff shoulders relaxing slightly, caught off guard by his words again. "You didn't want to marry me."

"No, I didn't want to get married period. As for you specifically: I have nothing to complain about. You're fucking gorgeous, don't have much to complain about there. You're a bit bitchy, and you have a stick up your arse, but eh. We'll get it out."

She turned to narrow her eyes at him at the last bit, but could feel herself softening after he complimented her.

"No, I didn't want to get married," he repeated. "But I'm not going to punish you for it. You didn't want to get married either. Actually, you didn't want to marry me specifically. So I should be the one pouting."

Daphne watched him quietly, searching his eyes to find the sincerity there. He had nice eyes, hazel. They went very well with his dark features. Daphne picked up the plate after a while of hesitating and began to eat the yorkshire puddings on it, closing her eyes to enjoy them. She had intended only to humor him, but she wasn't sure she wanted to stop.

Adrian clapped his hands together. "That's a girl. That barely took any convincing! You aren't as hardheaded as I had originally thought. Now, let's go back to where you were telling me about your feelings."

"Do you want me to eat or do you want me to talk?" She huffed, scowling up at him as she cut into another piece.

"Well, there is this particularly useful talent. It's called multitasking, dunno if you've heard of it, but it's rather life changing once you've gotten the hang of it."

Oh, how she wanted to stab him with her fork.

"Why not tell me your feelings while I try to enjoy myself."

Adrian smirked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Oh yeah? So you are enjoying yourself? Man, I'm already a fantastic husband. Hmm.. Feelings. Yeah, can't think of much to say about that. My parents are fine, my upbringing was fine. Didn't have an uncle that touched my dick as a kid or anything dark like that."

Daphne's hold on her fork tightened at the last comment but she didn't change her expression. "Your side of the pure-blood world isn't as stiff as ours," she offered him, nodding.

"Absolutely not," he snorted. "Whenever I have to attend your type of events I feel my soul die a bit, actually. As much as I complain about my parents' expectations, they dull a bit in comparison. You're lucky I rescued you, though our events get old after a while too."

"I thought all you did was party, Pucey."

"You can't call me Pucey. You're a Pucey, my treacle." Adrian grinned at her, his teeth ridiculously perfect in a way that annoyed her. "Yes and no. I like traveling to different parties, explore other parts of the world."

"There can't be too many to experience, seeing as the pure-blood world is growing smaller and smaller," she muttered, already halfway through the food that was on her plate.

"I never said anything about only attending purely pure-blood parties."

Daphne glanced up at him before shaking her head, wondering how she was ever married to him, quality name or not.

"Come now, darling. It's a big world out there! I enjoy experiencing it."

"It seems you've only gotten more annoying since Hogwarts."

"I'd say I've only grown more charming since Hogwarts actually."

"She wasn't always like that," she said, changing the subject back to a previous.

"What?"

"Astoria. She wasn't always like that."

"Ah. We are going back to the feelings. Could have connected that a bit better, but that's alright I've caught on well enough. Go on."

"It was unsettling.. Like a switch. She was this bratty thing. Well, I'd still say she's a brat, but not the same kind of brat. She was wild, and would always pull her hair down, mess up her clothes, not sit still in classes. Then.. It was just different. She turned off when-" Daphne broke off, swallowing her words.

"That was a rather odd end of a statement. You'll have to explain that last bit better, dove. Can't read women that well. Not a Legilimens either."

"When Edric left," she finished quietly, clearing her throat. The name felt weird slipping past her lips, she couldn't remember the last time she said it. They didn't talk about him, it.

Shouldn't talk about it.

"The disowned one," Adrian confirmed.

Daphne's eyebrows came together, surprised he recognized the name, especially being from a family that was less close to hers than others. "You'd be shocked to know I actually pay more attention to these things than most men my age. Quite scandalous some tales are."

"Yes, well. We shouldn't talk about it."

"When was the last time you did?"

"Never," she said firmly, fighting the sadness that was creeping up on her.

"Seems like you ought to let it out then, dove. He was your brother. I'm an only child, so I don't know how all that sibling bond shit feels, but I imagine it's fucked to lose a brother," he told her, studying her carefully.

Daphne pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth as emotion caught in her throat, struggling to keep her composure. "Yes it's.. Fucked to lose a brother, Adrian," she replied quietly.

She felt her chest tighten and she shifted uncomfortably where she sat. This topic sent alarm bells off in her mind, warning her to go back to her usual thoughts, the ones she was comfortable with.

The ones that didn't make her feel.

Adrian waited while watching her patiently, expectantly. She was surprised she had gone this far, but no one had ever prodded at her like this before, and he didn't seem to have ill intent. He was infuriating, but she didn't remember him ever being cruel, and he was different then the other ones. Much different than the man her sister had married, and much different than the man Daphne would have married had she been up to par, she was sure.

"Do you miss him?" He asked when she didn't go on.

"I miss everyone," she said finally after a few moments, her voice breaking which made her lower her head more to hide her face, staring at her plate. "Everything was so different before that happened. Everything changed in an instant."

Adrian moved her plate away, causing her to take note of its emptiness, and moved closer to her, pulling her so she was in a more comfortable place on the bed closer to him. She stared down, feeling the words and explanations bubbling in her throat. She wanted to talk to him, share her thoughts; the thoughts she had never offered to anyone as she had never been asked. She shouldn't, she wouldn't.

Actually, she would.

"I wasn't there to know what happened. We were at a gathering, a gathering near a muggle populated area. I can't remember what it was exactly now, but I remember finding my family gone eventually, and I ended up being taken back to the Parkinson's to stay there for the night. I got home the next day and he was gone, and the whole house felt off. I could tell something was wrong. My mother told me he'd been disowned, as bluntly as she tells anyone anything, and that I was never to mention him again, and then she just walked away from me. Left me in the room alone. I was so shocked.. It came out of no where, my brother was such a good son. He was a proper heir. It was one of those moments where everything kind of slips away and your senses are dulled. It wouldn't sink in completely at first. I went to Astoria and she was.. A mess, but also eerily put together. She was never put together, especially in the privacy of our home where my mother didn't bother fussing with her. She was so tired looking, and her face was just.. She had look haunted. She wasn't very responsive, and she wasn't crying or acting in any way I was used to her acting. I was crying, I was so upset. We were so close to our brother, especially Astoria. I was crying a lot when I went to her. She wouldn't face me the whole time I was trying to get her to talk to me until finally she turned around and told me that we weren't to cry over blood traitors in the most terrible tone I had ever heard her use. It was incredibly harsh for an eight year old. I stopped crying in surprise, she had never spoken to me that way, and she left me in the room alone like my mother had. I had never felt more alone than at that moment, it was as if I had lost everyone all at once. Then.. life went on. It was as if he never existed. Except at the same time it didn't, because everything was different," Daphne stopped as her formerly calm voice began to waver, and she wouldn't look at Adrian to see his reaction. "Everything was different. My mother is quite cut off and always has been, yes, but she used to have much softer moments. She'd have.. Motherly moments. Not after Edric left. Astoria was completely different, as I said. Once she stopped being a shaky resemblance of a corpse she just became this quiet, overly obedient child that only cared about all of the things our parents nag at us to care about. She began to truly rival me, and it wasn't long before she was the proper daughter, and I was the one that fell behind. I was an afterthought, as I remain now. Still, I kept trying to keep that older sister role, scolding her and lecturing her though we both knew she was the one who ought to have done that to me. She was father's favorite. I resented her much more when I was younger for that. Mother didn't have a favorite, as it's hard to see who she cares for. She loved him though, Edric. She definitely loved him, and how she told me.. That he was gone. It was just so cold and uncaring, as if she wasn't talking about losing her only son. Her son.."

She was crying now, all of her old emotions and insecurities catching up to her, sinking into her heart and digging their claws into it. This was a very bad idea. She didn't know how to handle all of this. She saw Adrian rub a hand over his face, his eyes mournful and serious, sympathetic. He reached out and put a hand on her back gently, urging her forward. She trembled while she hesitated for a moment before giving into him and moving into his arms that he offered her. He pulled her against him so she was mostly in his lap as he wrapped his sure arms around her firmly, quiet. She was stiff for quite awhile before she relaxed against him, allowing herself to sob against his shoulder, effectively ruining his shirt.

She should be embarrassed, she should definitely embarrassed. She also should be horrified at herself for telling him all that she did, for bothering him with nonsense she shouldn't be mentioning in the first place.

Oddly, she wasn't any of it. She felt.. So relieved. So relieved to have said everything out loud.

So relieved to have been listened to.

He had listened to her, and he had cared. She had seen that he cared, and he hadn't mocked her. She had always been mocked for complaining about her sister, probably rightly so as she was quite whiny, but he hadn't. Plus, he was warm. Very, very warm. She felt good in his arms, and she didn't feel judged.

She didn't feel insecure.

She was completely confused how this man she barely knew could make her feel better than she had in so long in only hours of being around him. Men weren't supposed to act like this, this wasn't a husband and wife situation in their world. She had never prepared herself for a situation like this, but it was so much less horrible than it could have been.

"You won't be an afterthought to me, Daphne." His deep and sincere voice vibrated in his chest, low and honest, and his words relaxed her to her core.

She felt terrible for complaining about him now, terrible for acting like such an idiot about it, as well as bitter that her mother had been right, as she always was. She knew she was being a spoiled idiot the whole time she was making a scene of it, but she was just prideful in that her sister had something to do with her marriage along with the fact a family like the Puceys would never have been considered for perfect Astoria just on the fact her father did not view them in the same respect, as many of the families she had grown up closer to didn't.

"I don't even know what he did. I mean, I have my guesses, but I never asked. Of course no one ever told me," she said softly, calm now. Wrong, she had asked Astoria when she was crying and begging for her to respond to her, but she hadn't offered an explanation.

"Would you like to know?" He asked, his voice thoughtful.

Daphne considered this, sitting up to wipe her eyes and to look up at him as she sniffled. She was sure she looked absolutely ridiculous and had mascara all over her reddened cheeks, and her eyes probably looked madly green as they always did when the whites of her eyes were tarnished.

A right mess she was, blubbering into a man's shoulder.

What would her mother say?

"Okay," she said weakly, not sure if she wanted to know. It would make his betrayal real. She had to know though, she couldn't go her whole life without knowing. There were a lot of things she didn't know about her own family, and she was tired of being out of the loop.

Though, she wasn't sure the loop was somewhere she wanted to be either.

"I have to say it wasn't really talked about as it usually is when someone is disowned like that, especially from a family such as yours, so congratulations on having a thoroughly terrifying father," he started, and the corners of Daphne's lips came up in amusement.

Ah, yes. Terrifying he was, indeed.

"I met her though; the Muggle-born girl your brother married. She's a psychologist, a bit ironic really, considering. She had the Greengrass name. It was quite obvious she didn't resemble any woman who would be married to a Greengrass or anyone of status. I know there are other Greengrass members out there, but she was working for fuck's sake. I know I'd definitely never catch you working. She was reluctant to tell me the name of the man she was married to, but I got it out of her, as I get a lot of things out of people. It's a talent of mine."

Daphne's face twisted in disgust as revulsion climbed up her throat. She had known it would be something terrible, obviously as her father's only son would not be disowned for anything small, but hearing out loud was not something she was properly prepared for. "A mudblood is openly sporting the Greengrass name?" She demanded, spitting the words in disgust.

She couldn't believe Edric. He had always been well behaved and up to father's standards. He had never shown any signs of giving the family name away to some unworthy girl, to allow himself disowned from such an important family.

"Unfortunately so, love."

Daphne scoffed in disbelief. "She did nothing to earn that, she doesn't deserve our name."

"Your old name," Adrian corrected. "Don't worry, I'll give you time to adjust, but just a reminder. Your name is Pucey now, you'll get used to it. Anyway, some might say she might have had to have been something pretty special. It's much more common for women of our world to be stolen by the outside, but to take an heir and have him give up everything for her? That's pretty significant."

"Give up everything for her," Daphne repeated, a cold chill covering her and her eyes became unfocused. "Give up everything and ruin our family, ruin my sister, my mother. Me. For her. Yes, she must be something pretty fucking special."

It was his fault, his fault that they had been broken.

"Your resentment is understandable," he said, nodding and smoothing her hair gently. "I'm surprised you're staying as calm as you are actually. Not bad. Your temper is average."

She laughed shortly. "Perhaps you should direct me to this girl," she said slowly, her voice emotionless.

"Now, now. Let's not go that far. We have Aurors on our tails right now, forget that? We can't set them us by harming any Muggle-borns, can we? No, that would be a horrible idea. I don't fancy prison, and I'm sure you don't either. You're much to pretty for that. Besides, I don't approve of that level of violence. I'll have to control you in that way, apologies," he said, his voice scolding.

Daphne let out a long breath and closed her eyes, calming her anger. It was over, he was over. He was nothing now, no one to concern herself with, as he was her brother no longer. She would never see him again, and could go back to pretending he didn't exist. She may have missed him, but it was obvious they were not worth enough to him.