So! For the question about pregnant Astoria: I truly don't know about that. I may, or may not. If it falls in line with what happens in the story and how my ideas come into play then yes, but I'm very picky about pregnancy/babies in fanfiction. I get bored immediately when a couple becomes too happily ever after (that doesn't mean this fic won't have a good ending for Drastoria, it just means I won't continue writing long after they reach it), and I hate when it becomes too fluffy and "aw the baby". Speaking of, that is kind of the thing with all of these extra storylines. If I do chapter after chapter of plain Drastoria, well one it wouldn't really explain all of the elements of the story I want to portray, and two I would just get to contentment quicker and then the story would end. Oh, and I hate to disappoint anyone imagining Edric having a secret hobby of collecting muggle objects, but it was as simple as his response to Ophelia. Besides that, he's pretty clueless on the muggle world, and not too interested at that point actually. I also have nooo idea how many chapters this story is going to be. I hope you guys don't mind that it's getting kind of long.. As for Edric's POV: we will get there! Don't worry! Also, Theo will show up in due time. I'm also really glad you guys seem to like how Draco sees Astoria. Most of you like Adrian (except for one hahaha) as well as Olena, which is great. By the way, I'm glad to know at least one of you read on the mobile app. I think my story looks much better that way (and all stories on this site..). Please leave me your thoughts on this chapter, and thank you for keeping with my story for so many chapters! I just finished my World Religions final and I'm so relieved that it's over (though the class was thoroughly interesting). What finals do you all have?
I don't own anything from Harry Potter.
Daphne stalked into the Manor impatiently, narrowing her eyes at Draco who was talking with Blaise as if nothing was off, as if he hadn't blocked her from her own damn sister when she needed her more than anyone.
Draco raised an eyebrow at her expression. "A bit of gratitude would be appropriate," he drawled.
"Gratitude?" She hissed. "And for what do you think I owe you gratitude, Malfoy?"
"I can think of a couple things, but let's start with allowing you back into my home. I certainly don't have to, and I can take the privilege away at any moment. I am not fond of your attitude at the moment I must confess."
"Are you truly serious? She's seventeen years old and she has never been away from me this long!"
"She doesn't need you, Daphne. You must stop believing you can attempt to parent a girl more capable than you."
Draco's comment shouldn't have stung, but it did ever so slightly. After all, she knew Astoria never needed her advices or scoldings though still she had given them to her to attempt to pretend otherwise. She set her jaw, not showing Draco that his comment had any affect.
"She does need me, just as I need her. Don't you dare try and take her away from me again," she told him, walking passed him and towards the stairs.
"Was that a threat? No, no. Absolutely not, Greengrass. You will wait until she comes down here. I will not have you in my bedroom."
Daphne ignored him and rushed up the steps, hearing him mutter angrily from below and seemingly get up from his seat and she sped up, searching for the master bedroom. She knocked and called for her sister, glancing behind her to see if Malfoy had caught up with her before Astoria opened the door, her face lighting up before her features curled into a grimace as her eyes ran down Daphne's body.
"What are you wearing..?" She asked incredulously, distaste in her voice.
Ah, she had missed her.
Daphne pushed into the room, closing the door and locking it before pulling her small sister into a tight embrace, closing her eyes at the familiarity. She hadn't realized how much she had missed her in her desire to see her just for her sake. She truly needed her just as much. She frowned when she noticed her sister even smaller in her arms, pulling back to assess her worriedly.
"I love you," her sister said, her voice wavering, interrupting Daphne's inspection.
She looked to her little sister's eyes, finding them bright with tears. "I'm sorry that I didn't stop you.. At Hogwarts," she whispered. "I'm sorry that I didn't put you before my own endeavors."
Daphne felt her face draw into a confused expression before she understood. She was referring to when Daphne had given up her innocence to Astoria's now husband. She gave Astoria a dull look.
"You may be manipulative, Astoria, but you're my sister. I've known you since you were born. Your tricks don't work on me. You think you're the reason I did what I did?"
"No.. But I still feel I should have done something."
"You played the game. I can't fault you for that," Daphne responded, smiling sadly.
"The game shouldn't include family. I need you," she said, her voice small and childlike as she buried her face into Daphne.
Daphne felt both warmed and saddened by her sister, seeing how badly it must have been for her while Daphne had been blocked from her and she had been isolated. She kissed Astoria's head and held her for awhile, both of them quiet.
"Which side of the bed is Draco's?" Daphne asked her when she finally decided to break the silence, smirking.
Astoria pulled back and blinked at her before motioning to the bed. "The right side. Closest to the balcony."
Daphne walked over to the bed which was neatly made with dark bedding, ripping back the blankets to crawl into Draco's side smugly after kicking off her shoes. "He was following me. I guess he decided to let us be."
"He's not going to be happy about this," Astoria warned, but her eyes were bright with amusement as she joined her in the bed.
"He can go screw himself," Daphne muttered, snuggling close to her sister before she became serious, studying the circles under her eyes before her eyes moved down to the purplish marks on her neck that showed evidence of a lover and his mouth being particularly savage. "What happened, Astoria?"
"Wait. Can't we talk about what you're wearing first?"
"Astoria," Daphne said firmly before touching the circles under her sister's eyes. It was rare Astoria looked less than her flawless, doll-like appearance.
"I made a terrible mistake, Daphne."
"You look good in my clothing," Edric commented when Ophelia put on his cloak after class as they came to their usual spot to work, having remembered it this time.
Her steps stuttered as she was caught off guard by such a statement. "Oh. Um.. Thank you," she managed, a blush creeping up her cheeks as she ducked her head and turned from him, going to find a comfortable place to sit in the grass.
"Your mother was quite angry with you," he commented, sitting near her but not too close as he usually did.
Her head snapped up to look at him, searching his face. "Did you hear?"
"Mmm."
Her face fell and she closed her eyes, ashamed that anyone had witnessed her act so spoiled and terrible towards her own mother. Especially him.
"Oh," she said quietly.
"You feel guilty," he observed.
"Yes. Of course I feel guilty! I was horrible."
"You had reason to be upset, but yes it seems you hurt your mother," he reasoned thoughtfully.
"I don't know what came over me," she sighed, letting her curls fall over the side of her face to help hide her from him. "I never talk like that."
"Perhaps I'm a bad influence."
She frowned, suddenly recalling the rest of her mother's comments. She now felt even more embarrassed, thinking of how her mother accused her of having some sort of relationship with him, and insisting she had made the comment about Charlotte out of some sort of plot to get Edric for herself. Apparently they both seemed to think he had some sort of hold on her life.
They had spent quite a bit of accumulated time together..
"She doesn't seem to like me, does she? Or my mother. I'm sure my mother will be crushed to know a muggle referred to her as a 'soulless creature'," he went on.
"I'm sorry for that. I'm sure your mother is a lovely woman," she said, frowning at him referring to her mother as a 'muggle'. She wasn't sure if that was meant as something degrading to him.
Of course it was.
"No, not to most," he said simply. "I have to admit, I've never had a woman's mother discourage their daughter towards having a relationship with me."
"I'm sure you haven't," she grumbled, remembering her mother's words shortly after they had encountered the Greengrass family at the bookshop.
"That boy, Ophelia," her mother had said, not looking at her as she stared straight forward at the dinner table before Ophelia went to bed. "Please don't."
"Anyway," Ophelia told Edric, going on before he replied, breaking her thoughts away from the memory. "She has no reason to be worrying about that anyway. She thinks I was jealous of Charlotte because of you. Which isn't true. You don't have to do with anything."
"Wasn't it you who claimed honesty was the best policy?" He asked, raising an eyebrow though still his eyes were trained on his work as they usually were.
She stared at him, surprised by her partner once again. "I-I'm not sure what you're implying, Edric."
He looked up to meet her eyes and her breath caught at the sight of his light eyes that held an almost playful look. "You and I both know that you know exactly what I'm implying, love."
"Oi!" Came Violet's loud voice as she approached them and Ophelia jumped just as she began to heat up in embarrassment, glancing between Violet and Edric's grimacing face as he eyed Violet with irritation.
"So nice to see you too, Greengrass," she snorted, scowling back at him. "Ophelia, you were supposed to skip extra studies tonight to come to play games with the rest of us in the common room."
Oh, right. She had forgotten about that.
Edric stood, brushing himself off. "Very well. I won't oppose. Though next time it isn't necessary to make your presence known in such an obnoxious manner."
"He doesn't like when girls make a bunch of noise apparently, Vy," she told her friend, rolling her eyes as she stood.
"Not entirely true," he said lightly before looking to her and down her figure. "It's fine when I intend on a girl making noise." He picked up his things and nodded to the both of them, his expression back to polite and neutral. "Goodnight."
Oh, if Ophelia wasn't red before..
Violet coughed out a shocked and elated laugh. "Umm!" She exclaimed to her, her face bright with excitement.
"Let's go to the common room," Ophelia mumbled, moving around her friend to head towards the castle.
"What's going on with that, Ophelia? Have you been holding out on me? Did Edric Greengrass, pure-blood extraordinaire, just imply something sexual to a muggle-born?" The gleeful sound in her friend's voice caused her to have to hold back a groan of humiliation.
"I don't think that's what he was meaning."
"You liar. You know that's exactly what he was meaning!"
She did, and she didn't know what that meant.
Actually, she could picture him in the Slytherin Common Room now, laughing with his mates and sneering about how he had toyed with a muggle-born and had made her think he wanted her. No, not a muggle-born. She was sure he didn't use that term.
A mudblood.
"How many of them do you suppose will go on to murder people one day?" Violet mused at their house table in the Great Hall, tilting her head at the Slytherins.
Ophelia rolled her eyes. "Violet, don't be so stereotypical."
"Ophelia, don't be so naive," Violet quipped back, rolling her eyes in return. "You'd be amazed how many murders go unreported in the wizarding world. I've heard it's much harder to get away with that sort of thing in the muggle world, but if you knew the magical world better, especially when it comes to the side that practices dark magic, you'd know it's not stereotypical. Well, I mean it is a bit seeing as there are other houses that produce witches and wizards that practice dark magic, but it isn't as known. Besides, not all magic folks go to Hogwarts either. The world is a large place. However! You'd be shocked to know about some of the things that go on in those pure-blood families."
"Too bad you weren't actually sorted into Slytherin. You're awfully fascinated with them."
"You should be too seeing as you have something going on with our infamous Greengrass Head Boy," she purred to her, her eyebrows raising suggestively.
"Will you hush," Ophelia growled, glancing around them. "You're far too much at times."
"Don't worry," Violet sang. "Families like his are too uppity to get their hands dirty. But! It is a bit suspicious how the Greengrass family is always remaining in the same spot as far as status in their world goes. Other families go up and down a bit over time, scandals here and there, but they-" Violet broke off, raising her hand to move it in a straight line through the air. "-never falter from one of the top." She stopped to give Ophelia a smug look before she wobbled her hand a bit. "Well, I suppose things may get a bit rickety with you catching Edric's eye. You should catch his father's eye while you're at it. Have you seen the man? Ugh. Illegally alluring."
The Astronomy teacher was fussing about, taking forever to start the class as usual when Ophelia stood slightly stiffly next to her absurdly attractive partner who absurdly had to flirt with her so inappropriately and confusingly the last time she had seen him. She stepped back a bit when a Slytherin boy near the front of the room narrowed his eyes at her, his lip curling into a cruel smirk as he eyed her with an intimidating amount of hatred, as if he wanted to hurt her there in the middle of class.
"How many of them do you suppose will go on to murder people one day?"
"Are you scared?" Edric's voice came beside her, glancing up at the boy ahead of them before looking back down dismissively.
"Well," she started with an attempt at humor in her tone as she tried to lighten her own mood. "Violet was just talking about how many murderers come out of your house."
"I see. Shouldn't you be scared of me then? Seeing as I'm an ever so frightening Slytherin?" He mocked her in a lighthearted manner.
"I don't know, Edric have you ever murdered somebody?" She asked, a slightly dramatic tone to her voice.
"I recall advising you that it were best not to ask questions you are not prepared to accept either answer for."
She would have laughed, but the solemn tone to his voice stopped her, changing her mood completely as an odd warning chill ran down her spine.
"Never knew a mudblood would be so mournful over a pure-blood's property being destroyed," Blaise said, quirking an eyebrow slightly.
The Aurors had only just left them, and Granger had gone on and on to Astoria and Daphne about how much she had read about the history of the Krat mansion and how it was such a shame it had been destroyed. He didn't find it too out of character, Granger had always seemed to care about silly shit, and he knew that it had been quite the ordeal when the Krat property had been destroyed.
Astoria was sitting beside him now, seeming content that she had been allowed some interaction at last. Adrian had joined them as well eventually when he had come to collect his wife, but the Aurors had popped in for a surprise visit and had forced both of them to stay.
Draco examined Astoria's neck, irritable at the glamour charms that covered the evidence of his lips claiming her skin. Though he knew she was not raised to appear in front of others in such a state, it still irked him that she had concealed them.
Joseph Nott entered his home, joining the younger crowd of adults. He had been at the Manor more often now that his son had not been allowed so that he could chat about things that related to them seeing as they had been followers of the Dark Lord together. He heavily eyed the Pensieve each time he came, seemingly very apprehensive of it.
Draco took the disillusionment charm off of the Pensieve now that the Aurors had gone just because it amused him that the former Death Eater he had used to be so wary of and intimidated by was so apparently nervous of one of Draco's possessions.
"Mr. Nott," Blaise said slowly, pulling his eyes from his wand that he was studying in his boredom before smirking at Joseph. "Did you destroy the Kratt Mansion? You'd have the reason to, no?"
Draco saw both Astoria and Joseph visibly freeze when the Pensieve began to fill the room with its secrets.
Freya Krat was on the floor of the Hogwarts hallways, parchment and books surrounding her. Her face looked visibly more tired than usual, and her robes were a slight mess. Rhys Pucey came to drop his books down beside her, sinking down the wall next to her.
"I believe the teachers are trying to kill us, Freya," he groaned, though his pile of books were significantly smaller than hers.
"If you believe you're near death then you can imagine how I'm holding up, Pucey."
"You bring that upon yourself. I'd rather die than take on that much schoolwork. For what anyway? You're just going to get married after school," he said, grimacing at all of her papers scattered around her.
Freya pressed her lips together at her friend's comment when Joseph Nott stopped before them, spotting them as he was passing. His eyes wandered over Freya's books, stopping on one before he dropped his head back, cursing loudly.
Freya raised an eyebrow at him, assessing the look of him. "I suppose you have your project ready for tomorrow?" She asked him, her tone indicating that she knew very well the answer already.
"Freya.." Joseph said slowly, a sheepish look crossing his features as he stepped towards her.
She narrowed her eyes. "No."
His face fell and he groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. "Come on, please? I'm begging here."
She stared at him, her expression unamused.
"Please my beautiful, brilliant, indescribable, irreplaceable-"
"Please stop before I vomit," she interrupted dryly.
Joseph groaned again, cursing once more as he rubbed his temples in stress.
"… Fine."
A triumphant smirk spread across Joseph's face at Freya's response, seeming to expect this answer. "Great. Thanks, love," he told her before his eyes caught a group of passing Slytherins, the group including Lucius Malfoy, and left to join them.
"Apparently followers of the great Dark Lord don't need education or decent magical ability to conquer," Rhys snorted. "I cannot believe you agreed to do that. Do mine?"
Freya glared fiercely at him and Rhys held up his hands. "I'm just saying. I'd argue I'm the better friend, but fine. If you want to play favorites."
Narcissa sighed as she sat with them on the floor, unloading her own assignments. "This is miserable, isn't it?"
"The professor will be able to tell your handwriting anyway," Rhys grumbled, not acknowledging the witch that had joined them.
Freya took one of his own papers that was filled with notes, holding her wand over it for a few moments before hovering her wand over a page of her own, her handwriting morphing into his.
"Oh, fuck you," he responded bitterly, snatching the paper away.
"Yes, I'm very talented, I know. Recognize me while you can before I become nothing more than a wife."
"Do you not want to get married, Freya?" Narcissa asked, covering her yawn as she opened one of her books.
"Yes, I do actually. The sooner I strip myself of my last name the better," Freya muttered quietly, her hand moving quickly over her assignments.
"Aren't you proud of your family name?" Narcissa responded, tilting her head curiously.
"No."
"Well. You ought to be. I mean, you come from a very good line of pure-bloods, and not to mention how long your family's home has been around. It's beautiful. Aren't you ever jealous your brother gets to keep it and not you?"
Freya laughed coldly. "Not soon enough can I get out of that fucking place, Black."
Draco moved to get more comfortable as the memory shifted, used to longer streams of them by now.
Freya stood in front of the incredibly large, castle-like mansion. She was no longer in her Hogwarts uniform as she stared at the property with an eerie calmness before she raised her wand, blowing the doors back and off before entering, pointing her wand at several furniture items and windows, destroying everything in her path.
She came to a large cellar of wine, staring at it coldly before throwing a wave of magic forward, every bottle in the incredibly grand room shattering and shards of glass bit into the girl's pretty skin, flawing her face. Blood now dripped from the seemingly unfazed witch as she continued to make her way through the impossibly large home as she was impressively destructive. Her well tailored dress was now torn and singed, covered in debris from the ruins she left in her path.
She stopped in front of a small closet, watching it for a while as an odd expression entered her formerly emotionless eyes before she opened the door slowly, quietly as if she weren't trying give away her location. She stared inside for a moment before practically throwing her wand towards the closet, the closet erupting in on itself at the blow.
Her chest was heaving now and her eyes danced with a slight madness as she went up the stairs, traveling down the long halls before entering a bedroom that changed her whole demeanor completely, causing her shoulders to sag and her face to fall into vulnerability as she looked around the room. She walked slowly to the bed that looked as if it hadn't been touched in years, sitting on the edge of it in silence for several moments.
"Mama," she said softly, closing her eyes and opening her mouth again as to say something else but only a strangled sound came out.
Freya trembled slightly before reaching down to pick up an item that poked out from under the bed, finding an empty bottle of alcohol. Freya's eyes clouded and she stood slowly before throwing the bottle at the white vanity across the room. She pointed her wand at the bed as she backed out of the bedroom, fire spreading from her wand to coat the furniture before it spread to the walls. She continued backing out of the home while spreading flames across its halls, her face now stone.
Freya stopped to assess her work once she was out of the building as the large mansion burned before aiding the areas that were crumbling, helping them to collapse in on themselves, determined to turn the home into rubble and ash. Her face lost its composure again as she angrily threw her magic relentlessly at the falling home before stopping finally, stumbling back as she began to laugh, tears streaming down her bloodied, dirtied face.
Draco could not see the reactions of the people in the room around him, slightly aggravated that the Pensieve was again presenting them with something new before they could fully comprehend what they had just seen.
Freya arrived at a small mansion, her eyes examining the front of it. She was no longer a bloodied and tattered mess, but completely put together as a polite smile was stretched across her face as she waited for the owner of the house to answer the door.
She nodded to the man who greeted her, requesting his permission to enter his home before she stepped inside, following him.
"Auror Yirt, is it?" She asked him pleasantly, glancing around the home. "Lovely house."
"Yes.." He said slowly. "Thank you, Miss.. Krat, if I'm not mistaken."
"You're not mistaken," she said, her voice coated in honey. "Though fortunately only for about twenty-four hours longer."
"Ah.. Well. Congratulations!" He said awkwardly, looking at her with confusion. "You look well."
"Well, I'm certainly breathing, aren't I?" She responded pleasantly.
He shifted uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm sorry, but what can I do for you, Miss Krat?"
"I was just remembering the day we met, you see. When you were called in result of my mother's death. You questioned me, do you remember?"
"I do," he said slowly, watching her with guarded eyes.
"Yes, and I was covered in bruises. My drunk father and my brother watched on as I answered your questions, only eleven, immediately after learning my mother was dead. Oh, I apologize by the way for how much of a mess I was. Hopefully you can understand. If I had been a good child, I would have been much more polite and offered you tea! Don't worry, I was properly punished for my poor manners. Moving along.. Everything was a bit suspicious, wasn't it? Especially when my mother's body was not examined before the case was closed.. Hmm.. You must have been very confident in my father's story, and mine I suppose."
"I'm very sorry, Miss Krat, but it was a clear suicide. I wish-"
"This is a rather luxurious home, Mr. Yirt. I had no idea Auror's made so much money," she observed, giving him a rather impressed look.
"Well, I suppose it's-"
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Yirt. I don't mean to bother you, but I came to you because I was wondering how much money the lack of my mother's justice was worth to you?"
The man stared at her, opening his mouth to respond before stopping again, shaking his head slightly.
"Oh no worries, Mr. Yirt. Money gets to the best of us, doesn't it? Many decent people have taken bribes. Yes, money is something powerful isn't it? However what most people do not realize, and unfortunately for you, is that one cannot keep their money in death."
"M-Miss Krat, I-"
"Avada Kedavra."
The words were spoken calmly as Freya's wand raised smoothly, her eyes following the man's body as it fell, his eyes going dull as the light escaped them.
Freya's face didn't change as she raised the body into the air, walking slowly up his floors to the top and through what seemed to be his bedroom to its balcony before dropping the dead man to the stone below. The body smacked hard against the ground, hitting it head first.
She left the balcony and went to search the house until she found his stores of liquor. She plucked two bottles from the cabinet and poured the contents down the drain of his sink before searching his office for one of his Auror reports. She moved her wand over one of them, pulling a piece of parchment from her robes before changing the handwriting that was upon it to his, returning to the balcony to place the bottles near the bed. She left the suicide note on the edge of the bed, walking back towards the railings of the balcony.
"I'm very sorry, Mr. Yirt, but it was a clear suicide," she said softly to the body below.
The Manor was silent when the Pensieve retracted its images, and his wife next to him was completely frozen in shock. He heard Daphne make a sound in attempt to speak, but his attention was taken by Blaise who began to rise from his seat slowly.
"Well, isn't this interesting," he said carefully, his voice dark in its need for revenge against Draco's wife. "I suppose all family's have to be exposed for something at some point."
Astoria's head snapped to him, panic filling her clouded eyes.
"Blaise," Draco said slowly, warningly as his friend stood, unsure if he should raise his wand to him.
Before he realized, the room was replaced again with a different scene.
Freya placed a newspaper slowly in front of her husband who was sitting at his desk in his study, his attention on other documents.
"Good evening, Freya," he said calmly, not looking at the newspaper she had placed in front of him.
"Did you do this?" She asked him, her voice slightly strained.
He looked over his reading glasses at her before turning his attention to the paper, which headlined Nero Zabini's death.
"You ought not ask questions you don't fancy either answer to, my dear."
"Did you?" She asked again, watching him.
He turned back to his work, quiet for a moment as he considered. "No."
"Who? Don't tell me it was Evelyn. I'm not stupid."
He stopped before looking up at her eyes again, tilting his head slightly as his lips switched upwards only barely. "Why, you did, darling," he told her, his voice smooth. "With your inability to keep your highly intolerable acts a secret. Though, if you want to be technical I suppose it was our son who did it really."
Freya stood still, her face filling with shock and emotion at the mention of her son. Her body trembled slightly and her eyes moved from his to stare forward, her chest rising noticeably in her panicked breaths as she struggled to keep her stance.
"They have a young son. Only four," she managed, still not looking at him.
"Hopefully he will grow up to be more like his mother, as she knows how to keep her mouth shut."
"He hadn't told anyone anything."
"I won't tolerate being blackmailed, my love. You know that."
Freya struggled to keep her composure as she spoke the next words, her lips barely moving.
"Our son.. Is only eleven."
"Perfectly capable boy. I don't like to get my hands dirty, Freya. You know that."
The study replaced itself with a garden party, recognizable families cluttering the gardens. Freya glanced at Evelyn Zabini with her small son Blaise, Evelyn's eyes low to the ground as people whispered around her.
"Poison? How obvious! If you're going to murder your husband for his belongings at least be more intelligent about it! Does she have no shame?"
Aldrich's eyes met with Evelyn's and he nodded to her, his eyes holding a cold kindness. Evelyn returned his gesture slowly before turning to the woman who came to speak with her, her beautiful face twisting into a confident and sultry expression as opposed to the solemn one she had been wearing just before as she conversed with woman smoothly.
Edric Greengrass stood stiffly beside his mother, holding his two year old sister in his arms as he stared straight forward, his face holding a haunted expression as everyone moved around him and his sister giggled happily in his arms.
Draco's head spun as the room cleared, his mind racing at everything that had come to pass. He didn't look to see anyone else's expression as his gaze was unfocused, but he imagined their faces were just as dumbfounded as his.
"I believe that was a threat, Mr. Zabini," Joseph's voice came through his teeth stiffly. "It would be wise to take it seriously."