The Insides of Emptiness

by SilentFrenzy

In the harsh pure-blood society it is imperative that everyone play their cards carefully in order to end up on the top, but what does getting to the top entail? Is anything left of these witches and wizards once they've achieved their goals, and can they maintain them? Drastoria. Draco Malfoy/Astoria Greengrass. Adrian Pucey/Daphne Greengrass. OC/OC. Not Cursed Child Compliant.

61. Chapter 61

Hi! Sooooooooo yeah.. It's been forever! I feel like an asshole, and I'm so so so sorry it has taken me this long to update! There has just been so much in the way with personal issues, traveling and being busy constantly, copious amounts of homework, aaand everything else that could possibly suck up my time and keep me from updating for forever. Lol, no I'm not dead, and I am not at all at risk at killing myself. Though I do struggle with depression, and to update what I said previously (as I saw a psychiatrist to be more thorough than my regular doctor) I have ADHD, Bipolar II, minor OCD, PTSD, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. It may seem a bit personal to share this, but I'm not really embarrassed or anything? Let me just tell you, once you get out of the headspace of a story and the world you created it is extremely hard to get back into it, BUT! I said I would finish and I definitely mean that (I literally never finish any projects I start so this is exciting), and I'm into the headspace groove of it again! I'm sorry to have worried anyone with my mentions of depression, but don't worry. I'm actually doing pretty well lately! I also just went to Canada for a few days, which was really fun aside from the fact that the driving there was horrendous and other drivers are perfectly fine with hitting you if you don't get out of their way when they cut you off, lol. It's getting so cold so fast! Which I love, but I'm nervous about the roads getting icy soon. Umm I feel like I had more to say but I'm already rambling. Oh, and sorry about my ellipses, I started doing it a long time ago because I thought it looked better while texting and now it's just a habit, maybe I'll change them in editing when I go through and make a note of all the typos/mistakes in every chapter which I plan to do soon (because yikes). I cringed several times while rereading my chapters. Well, if you're still interested in this story that is, happy reading!

I don't own anything from Harry Potter.

Astoria froze as her blood ran cold, feeling it physically drain from her face as the sound of her father's voice reached her senses before the sight of him did. She hadn't seen her father in months, yet at the worst possible time he decided to grace their presence.

Just everyone's luck.

There it was again. That ringing in Astoria's ears that never failed to silence all of the other happenings around her. Her fear of what was to come in result of the man she lived for nearly all of her life showing up in the middle of such chaos was crushing her, not to mention the heavy amount of sheepishness settling over her and doubling seeing as she had just very openly and childishly attacked her sister in front of the whole room of people including Granger. Her temper had been something her father had chided her on before, and still she had yet to correct it properly. However, the circumstances did offer a bit of explanation as to why she had been acting out.

No excuses.

No, her father was never open to excuses or explanations, and though she was having a hard time processing what was going on in the Manor she was sure her father was unfaltering at the sight of his son. That was what her family was meant to be good at. A family of flawless actors and actresses, playing their roles to perfection.

She attempted to swallow and clear her thoughts enough to focus on the blurred scene ahead of her as she noticed the all too familiar nagging, immature feeling of affection and desire to please her father just as though she was still a little girl that yearned for his praise. He would be angry with her, wouldn't he? More than angry at the fact she was unable to control this mess in her own home, more than angry with the scene she had caused with Daphne in front of witnesses, not to mention how angry he would be if he knew that she had had an exchange with Edric.

That she had cried in his arms.

"You're shaking, love." Astoria jumped a bit where she sat at the soft voice against her ear but found herself held down to her seat securely by her husband whose concerned voice had startled her, keeping her from noticeably jerking in her seat.

Her eyes flicked over to Draco's cool ones and found a softness there, a softness that calmed her just the smallest amount, calmed her enough to be able to successfully swallow and look back over to focus on her father who was speaking to Granger with ease and his usual and effortless, polite charm. Astoria had always admired her father's ability to somehow dominate an entire room of people with his presence even as he was so reserved and careful, reverent in a way. With such ease her father demanded respect and always seemed to receive it without fail.

Except from Draco, obviously.

Astoria dug her fingers into Draco's thigh where her hand was resting, channeling her nerves into the force of the action. He didn't wince or pull away, but instead brushed his lips against her temple, surprising her again with his care for her as he put aside the fact that he was angry with her only minutes earlier. Astoria pulled herself away from his security once she saw the slight raise of her father's hand towards her, indicating that she was to greet him finally. She felt her husband tense, his grip on her tightening when she went to stand and she glanced down at him with a slightly panicked look, fearing that he may make a scene at her attempting to go to her father. Draco reluctantly loosened his hold and she finished standing before walking to Aldrich much more gracefully than she had predicted herself able to manage. She didn't feel him in her head yet, she didn't have to completely panic yet.

"Father," she breathed when she approached him, reaching up to kiss his cheek, studying his false smile as she pulled back and feeling her stomach flip as she recognized the lack of warmth for her in his face.

She had disappointed him.

"Astoria," he replied, his eyes moving to assess the state of her before moving his hand to tell Daphne that she was meant to come to him. "It is good to see you, love."

Astoria pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth to contain her nerves as her sister came over to them, looking a mess once again after Astoria had cursed her.

He had yet to look directly at his son.

But he knew he was there, of course he did. Though she knew as concerned with appearances as her father was he would not acknowledge his disowned son in a room full of onlookers. She silently willed Granger not to be stupid enough to bring it up, for no one to be stupid enough to bring it up.

"Your wife told me that you were traveling, Mr. Greengrass," Granger sighed. "But I suppose it's alright that you're here seeing as I've been told you work with the Ministry often."

"I was traveling, correct, and when I came home my wife was missing," her father replied smoothly, looking over at her mother for a moment. "Naturally, I was very concerned considering the state of the wizarding world at the moment."

"I'm terribly sorry to worry you, sweetheart," Freya told him, frowning apologetically. "It wasn't possible for me to be home for your return, as you have come to find out."

"Yes. As I have come to find out," Aldrich confirmed, his tone softer than before as he watched his wife's eyes for a few moments before turning back to Granger.

Astoria tried to ignore her dread at her father's dismissive demeanor with her. He wasn't a cuddly man, but there was a notable difference in his usual behavior towards her and the behavior he was displaying to her then, a behavior he often had towards Daphne. She knew he had good reason to be acting abnormally, but she couldn't avoid the childlike desire for approval from the man as she had had that desire for so long.

She felt Draco's hand on her arm as he came up beside her to curtly greet her father. Formally, politely, but not warmly whatsoever. Draco never was talented at putting on a false friendly face. She was pleased to see that he did not embarrass her and their name by forgetting his manners, however. She watched her father's eyes linger for a moment on Daphne's disheveled appearance and inwardly cringed, slightly averting her gaze away from her family in shame at what she had done to her sister. Draco's hold on her firmed slightly as he felt her shift in her discomfort, attempting to soothe her through the smallest of pressures. It helped immensely, and somehow she felt her anxiety levels dip down considerably as a calm wave washed over her. She looked up at Draco from the corner of her eyes, not shifting her head as she looked at his controlled expression.

She had to stop living for her father.

She wasn't a Greengrass anymore. She was a Malfoy, and it was about time she began acting as one. After all, she was raised to one day marry into another family where her loyalties would shift. It was clear Draco cared for her, she could see that much more clearly now. She had argued with him so much about building a relationship with her, always feeling as if he had been the reluctant one of the two of them. He was reluctant, quite obviously, but she was not innocent on the matter of making their relationship difficult. She had not truly let go of her act, had not let her film of falseness fall for him, not completely. Then again, she hadn't let her film of falseness fall even for herself. She had concocted this fabricated, simple upbringing in her head approaching her marriage, but had been forced to accept the cold truths of herself and past in the recent times with her husband, unable to ignore or forget them any longer no matter how uncomfortable they made her. No, she couldn't live for her father anymore. She had to live for Draco now, their child now.

She would always strive for her father's approval, but she had to stop allowing him to control her head, overwhelming her thought process and decisions. She had always felt as though she adored her father, loved him more than her mother, but truly she was not sure if that were the case. She did love her father, she did, but her obsession with pleasing him only came from her desperation of needing his approval. She feared him, but only had little real affection for him. She didn't want to live attempting to please out of fear and desperation any longer. She wanted to live to please a man who she cared for out of love, not nerves. She wasn't afraid of Draco, and Draco allowed her to be human far more than her father or her mother ever did, more than most of the witches and wizards in their community actually. She was lucky, and she was ungrateful seeing as she had to keep reminding herself of her luck. Draco didn't want her perfection. Perfection was the reason he had resented her in the first place, perfection he thought she had, perfection she pretended to have, thought she had herself as well. He wanted her loyalty, her respect. After all Draco was just like her, wasn't he? He had grown up trying desperately to please a father that was quite hard to love. She wouldn't pretend that Lucius Malfoy as respectable as her own father, and she knew her father held a much different mentality to her father-in-law, but in the end both Draco and herself lived stiffly and falsely out of fear, fear of rejection from the person they were taught mattered most; the man of the house. Draco had told her she was replaceable, had tried to act as much many times, but Astoria could easily see through it. She had made Draco feel replaceable, not good enough for her. She had always seen herself as the one dehumanized, the trophy, but she was beginning to truly understand that she had seen him as simply her trophy as well, her reward for her efforts towards perfection. She had made him insecure just as he had made her insecure, and that was no way for either of them to live, not to mention unnecessary seeing as they could easily choose to care for each other sincerely and not simply choose to be miserable for the rest of their lives by refusing. She had been working for his affections, even manipulating him as well while using his vulnerability for her to her advantage. Out of unintentional habit or not there was no excuse for that behavior. She hadn't been working for his affections out of care for him, but care for herself in wanting his love and attention, not because she wanted him to feel hers.

She was selfish.

At least Draco never tried to act innocent, or even let himself believe himself innocent. Perhaps she had scolded herself for misbehaving, but she only took responsibility at surface level. She had been so stuck on the fear of herself being lonely that she didn't take much time on the fact that he was just as lonely, if not more so. Still she had been stuck on being ultimately devoted to her father, a man who did not need her full devotion instead of her husband who did need her, wanted her. She had accepted she was horrible at being a wife, not for the reasons she had been scolding herself for up until then, but for not truly caring about the man she was bound to and only caring about their silly rules and obsession with appearances. The same silly rules and obsession with appearances that stole the heart from her family.

Impressions were important, yes, but family had to start coming first. If she couldn't stop the cycle of their world she could at least make it less empty and miserable. She had been miserable her entire life. Not because her brother ran away from them all, but because of what he ran away from. He only left her alone in her misery, but she would have been miserable all the same. Half of her hated being a pureblood.

Half of her hated the events, the dancing, the small talk, the fake smiles, the tight hairstyles she always wore, being polite to everyone she didn't care for, the obnoxious, sugary way she presented herself to guests, the uncomfortable outfits, the expectations, lying to herself that all she wanted was to be a good wife, making herself believe she only wanted a simple and proper life, being bored all the time. Everything was always so incredibly boring. A part of her strongly hated everything about what she had told herself she was, what she convinced everyone she was. If she truly was the perfect and proper wife she had always been so confident she would be at heart and that was who she truly wanted to be then she would be exactly that. Obviously the way she had been acting as a wife to Draco and her frequent outbursts had only proven that she was not completely what everyone thought her to be, who she was supposed to be according to their stupid rules and pointless expectations. Half of her was the same, whiny and stubborn little brat she was before everything changed in her family.

And Draco still wanted her for it.

But half of her was still that boring and reserved self, and she had separated the two halves for so long, forgotten the first half for so long, that she had no idea how to balance the two now that the other was coming into play. No idea how to mature the one she had forgotten, leading her to childish and temperamental mistakes such as harming her sister far more than harmless sibling squabble. She was broken, as they all were broken.

It wasn't her fault, it wasn't her parents' fault, it wasn't her brother's fault. It was everyone's fault, not that placing blame ever got anyone anywhere, ever changed any facts or heartbreaks. No, she was still broken, and she had to stop pretending she wasn't if she wanted to piece herself together. She didn't want to be eternally angry like her mother, but she didn't want to purely be Mrs. Malfoy like Narcissa either. She only wanted to be who she was, she only wanted Draco to be who he was, and she wanted them to love each other for who they were.

Oh, to live in a perfect world.

"Draco," her father mused, breaking her from her own realizations at him addressing her husband behind her. "Where is your potions room?"

A flow of relief moved through her at the thought of them being separated and relieving some of the tension in the space around them and she fought the urge to pull Draco back when he offered to show him to the room where he had already directed him.

"No need," Aldrich said dismissively as he turned to make his way to the room, and Astoria wondered if that was really where he was going, though she did suppose that if they were to be risking a confrontation with the threat that had trapped them in the home there were most likely several potions that could be of use. However, she only knew how to make poisons, as that was all that was taught to her by her father, so she didn't really know what would be useful in their situation. She was horrid at Potions after all, as everyone now new thanks to Draco.

"Do you want to follow your husband, Mrs. Greengrass?" Granger asked, watching her father retreat. "I'm wondering if you could help us actually, I think-"

"If my husband wanted me to follow him I would be doing just that," her mother quipped, walking past Granger towards the back area of the Manor where the rest of the aurors were preparing themselves. "Come along then. Pleased to see you finally suspect I just may be more useful than a rock."

Yes, unless her father directed them to follow; they were not to follow.

"Don't think this could get much worse for you and your mudblood," Astoria heard Theodore say, a cold amusement in his tone. "Though I can't say I'm the smallest bit sorry for you and your foolish leech of a bride."

"Nott, why the fuck-" Adrian started as Astoria shifted her attention to the scene, the target of Theodore's taunts cutting him off.

"Now, please don't take this as a threat, Nott," Edric said calmly, his voice falsely polite over the underlining dangerous anger. "At this point I have no reason whatsoever to attempt to avoid any scene, so I would suggest not to push me to make one by opening your mouth about my wife only once more."

"At least wait until he comes up with something somewhat clever and the smallest bit original," his wife scoffed, shaking her head and acting unimpressed with Theodore's jabs, but Astoria noticed her hand slip over Edric's leg in a warning fashion.

Theodore laughed loudly, sitting up, his eyes flashing with hostility. "Am I supposed to be scared of a washed up, disowned blood traitor who hasn't come in contact with any real magic since he decided to throw his pride as well as his balls to a worthless-"

"I didn't say whether or not you should fear me, but if you would like me to show you why you shouldn't feel so incredibly threatening simply because you murdered a few unsuspecting muggles and muggle-borns who never had a chance due to the fact that they knew nothing of the advanced dark magic that you do then I would be more than pleased to do so," Edric said smoothly, his head tilting slightly as he didn't attempt to incline himself forward as Theodore had, his calm smile growing slightly as he watched him. "From what I have seen of you and Draco I do not believe you are as well equipped in the arts as you believe yourself to be."

Astoria's jaw tensed as she tried to shake the infuriating and inappropriate twinge of pride for her former sibling and she moved her eyes to glance at Draco's face, expecting him to speak up when Theodore visibly bristled as he tried to hold onto his condescendingly amused expression, his body tensing as if he were preparing himself to draw his wand.

Disowned or not, it was foolish to attempt to be condescending towards a Greengrass, as Theodore just appeared silly in comparison.

Draco looked as though he had no interest in halting the potential fight, and Astoria turned her head towards him along with her gaze to give him a more pointed look.

"Did you need something? You have a mouth," Draco drawled to her.

Astoria inhaled deeply, irritated at his response and glanced back over at the two before looking up at him again.

"Who would you bet on, love? Your boyfriend or the blood traitor? I'm deciding whether or not I should allow them to fight in my home," Draco mused.

"Draco," she protested quietly. "Please. This is the last thing we need to happen."

"I believe I asked you a question," Draco replied, still watching the scene thoughtfully. "I have allowed enough of your insolence for one night."

Astoria exhaled through her nose slowly, fighting herself on a noticeably frustrated expression. This was the last conversation she wanted to be having, and she was slightly hurt that her husband was forcing her to acknowledge Edric even more than she already had, especially while her father was in their home.

"Naturally," Astoria said slowly, struggling with her word choice. "Considering the family one of them was raised by is the same family who raised and taught me magic, I-"

"Nott, your love sees you too weak to defeat a simple blood traitor," Draco said loudly, the amused curl to his lips becoming even more blatant before he clicked his tongue mockingly. "Shame when the woman you're obsessed with doesn't believe in you."

Astoria winced at the several looks thrown her way, one being of the man she just favorably acknowledged whose eyes flickered with slight surprise and the smallest amount of smugness before the smugness in his face became more apparent when Theodore faltered as his pride was hit before he gave her a cold acknowledgment.

"Yes, well I have to admit that I don't particularly care for any pathetic little blood traitors having faith in me when it comes to their fellow kind. Not surprising whatsoever, she would have left with him if she were able according to what we have all witnessed. I'm beginning to realize that things worked out in my favor considering what is coming to light."

She couldn't control her hurt response to his insult, imagining she looked as though she had just been struck by the man, immediately looking away from him in both shame and pain as the man who had so fiercely claimed to love her, who she greatly damaged her marriage for, inflicted such a harsh blow.

"Truly classy of you to insult my wife in her own home," Draco said softly, coldly as he seemed to be angry for her instead of for himself at his property being insulted, instead of being angry at her for being wounded by another man's opinion of her, the same man she had greatly disrespected him with as well as humiliated his pride. "Especially seeing as she has no obligation to allow you to stay, nor do I."

Astoria noted his word choice in the way he awarded her with the concept that it was her home and she also had control over who was allowed to be in it, making her breath catch slightly at his public respect towards her, as even such a simple thing meant a great deal to her.

"Does it make you feel good, Nott," Edric chuckled, his voice slow and steady. "Does it make you feel good to degrade women who have caused you no harm? Or rather, does it make you feel even better to degrade the woman you took advantage of and selfishly used for your own pleasure? The woman you potentially ruined forever had Malfoy decided to be as merciful as most men in this community?"

"It makes him feel wonderful," Draco sneered, his temper visibly flaring now, a much different approach to anger than Edric had. "His poor little pride has been insulted so much by Astoria that humiliating her gives him the sickest sense of satisfaction."

"Attempting to piss off as many people as you possibly can in all of three minutes, son?" Joseph Nott asked his son tensely, eyeing the two men who had their eyes trained coldly on Theodore.

"What do you know. Nott is a fucking arsehole. What else is new," Adrian interrupted as Astoria regained her composure and attempted to brush of Theodore's claim that he was lucky that he had lost her, grateful for Adrian's interjection. "Now, I believe there are more pressing matters than sending Nott to Mungo's, my dear brother. How do you plan on saving you and your wife from the big bad daddy Greengrass? Memory charm? Threats? Or, if you're really daring, I'd say you should off him."

Astoria gave Adrian a withering look, shaking her head. "It's not appropriate to joke about murdering my father openly like this. He is still your father-in-law. Respect is necessary."

"Who said I was - oi! Love! I was joking!" Adrian called out to Daphne who had stiffly gotten up, striding towards the direction her father had gone, ignoring her husband's protests, disapparating when Adrian stood and attempted to follow.

"Where is she going?" Edric said slowly. "Is her room that way?"

Astoria stared after her, tilting her head in wonder as she shook her head. She couldn't possibly be so foolish as to follow father while he quite purposely left to be alone? It was a known, unspoken rule to not follow him unless he directed you to do so. Given the attitude she was displaying as she exited the room she especially should not be going anywhere near Aldrich.

"Ah.. What am I meant to do in this situation exactly? Follow her? Join her in what seems to be a confrontation?"

"No," both Astoria and Edric said in unison.

"Would rather you keep your distance from Greengrass," Rhys said, shaking his head as if he wanted nothing to do with any of this. "We can fetch you a new wife if she really is going to pick a fight with him."

She turned and looked at Rhys sharply. "You can't possibly see my sister as someone so disposable? She is much more than Adrian deserves. Besides, my father wouldn't harm either of us like that to where you should be fearing for her to that sort of extent."

An odd silence fell over the room in a way that made Astoria highly uncomfortable, her breath catching as she became still, not wanting her breaths to cut through the disturbing quietness.

"Don't take him seriously, Tor," Adrian finally spoke, his normal lighthearted tone sounding off. "Mum loves Daphne too much, I'll be sure to tell her he said that and he'll pay for it. Besides, pretty sure you'll be the only one harming my wife tonight."

Astoria frowned, shaking her head as she shook off her guilt at him mentioning the attack of her sister. She had a bad habit of taking things too far. She sighed, looking back to Draco, supposing they could only wait until she came back down.

Aldrich slowly paced the Manor's Potions room, his jaw tense as he counted his steps in the back of his mind, attempting to clear his head enough to think everything over carefully to choose the best way he should deal with the issues at hand. Feeling his wife react to the sight of their son had hit him much harder than anything had hit him in quite a while from her. Fear, fear above everything, fear of him. The fear he had lived for, indulged in and enjoyed in his power over her, but it wasn't fear for herself that she felt. Fear only for their son that she had foolishly let go. She had no right to have fear for him, it was her doing that he was in this situation in the first place, her doing that Aldrich had lost him, and her doing that he had harmed their youngest in his loss of temper. Their son was a boy at the time, it was not terribly shocking that he would act like an idiot and believe he wanted some useless girl who had absolutely no depth to her, not compared to his own mother who the simple girl held no comparison to. Just as the muggle who his wife felt she had loved as a girl held no comparison to himself, but still she had believed it was real. For as intelligent as she was, she was a pathetic idiot at times, just as his son was.

It was frustrating to Aldrich discovering his new response to his wife's pain and fear that came from being married to him. It used to thrill him, drive him, and now it all came with something different. It began when he had tortured Astoria purely to punish Freya in his own unimaginable anger, and instead he gained no satisfaction from torturing Freya to that point. Using her own painful past and mixing it with an excruciating present had been especially cruel of him, and hurting his own child in such a way was not something he fancied looking back on. He had always thought himself low, but he had never disgusted himself the way he had after he had realized what he had done, not truly. Not until he came back to the scene, his son forever gone, and his wife more broken than he had ever witnessed her. More broken than she had been on the Astronomy tower as she tried to fight her grief of finding Astoria the way he had left her after listening to her suffer. A sweet, innocent girl who had little patience for their world which had amused him. She had been similar to her mother in a way, and he had ripped that out of her, furious that she held more loyalty for her brother than the rest of her family, had more love for her brother than the rest of her family, than for him. So much more that she would request to leave with him. A bit unfair of Aldrich, yes, to expect a small child to love her father more than the boy who fathered her much more at that point than he had ever attempted.

Well, he had certainly gotten what he had been envious of, hadn't he?

He had made her into the devoted, obedient child he had wanted her to be. Had her service him more as a loyal assistant than a daughter, had taken her youth away from her to the point he doubted she could remember much of it it all, not when he had abused her head space as often as he did and as carelessly, not to mention the psychological damage she must have given everything, given everything that he had done.

He had enjoyed his wife for her pain, but it was all rooted in pain he did not create until he inflicted his own damage on her, but all of Astoria's pain was from him, and she didn't even know she was in pain. He had hollowed her out too much, made her love him too much. She didn't love him, he only wanted to believe she did, just as she wanted to make herself believe she did. He had to have at least one child who wouldn't leave him as his son had, had to have one child prefer him over his wife in the way Daphne didn't. He wanted something different than what he was given as a child, but he was not capable of acting properly. He only destroyed, he didn't mend.

Still, him being aware of these facts or not, he would not change. He would shut it off, himself off, and he would continue to be Aldrich Greengrass, the man no one truly liked, but always respected. He demanded that much.

Now he would kill his son, and everything will have been for nothing.

He believed himself more furious and disappointed in Edric than when he had chosen to leave. His son was smarter than this, any child of his was smarter than this. Edric was the loving Greengrass male was he not? According to his wife? Yes, the loving man who betrayed his family only to return and prove how truly little it all mattered to him.

Aldrich froze when he heard the footsteps from down the hall, his more personal feelings shutting off as his boiling rage claimed the throne in his emotions as his eyes flashed. He had excused himself for good reason, and by then he knew his anger's limits. He was certainly at them. He listened to the door click behind him, considering the all around mood of the person entering. He had his strengths as a Legilimens, but he was not one to have the thoughts of others running about his senses at all times as natural ones did. He turned slowly, his vulnerability completely dissolved now as he looked at his eldest daughter with a cold, impatient expression. She was upset, and upset at him as far as he could tell, her eyes accusing and angry.

Definitely not a look his children had ever dared to give him, at least not directly.

"If you have a problem," he said carefully, his tone soft as he fought to stay calm at the nerve of her insolence. "You should be well aware you should wait until I am prepared to give you my time and attention."

"Time and attention," Daphne scoffed shrilly, causing his eyes to twitch at the sound. "And when have you ever graced me with that? Well, aside from when you were making sure I was well aware of what a failure I was. Not even then really, as you always made mother the messenger. Couldn't even bear to speak to me even to degrade me."

"If you are here to pout and whine about how I never spent quality bonding time with you then I must say this is not nearly an appropriate time for such nonsense. I do not degrade my own children. Watch your mouth and the words that you choose to spill out of it carefully, otherwise keep it shut. I do not know what made you-"

"You don't degrade your children," Daphne repeated, shaking her head as she looked away from him and laughed without humor. "Right. You just use the torture curse as punishment or ignore them all together."

He never did figure out how to properly control his family's old penseive. What a foolish decision to allow Draco to have his fun with it.

Aldrich watched her with an indifferent expression, the shame he had underneath the surface for his actions buried deep at the moment in his fury towards the girl in front of him.

"You claim I use the torture curse as a punishment, but also claim you are the one who is ignored. Are you implying you would prefer that I stop ignoring you and instead give you the other accusation you have presented me with?"

"I don't care what you do," she bit back, her voice shaking now. "It doesn't matter anymore. I can't believe I cared to kill myself trying to please you when it is clear you don't deserve any of our efforts, you don't deserve any of the respect that we give you. You make all these claims about the importance of family, shame the way other families abuse their children, and yet you are no different. Worse, actually. You are sadistic, and the mental abuse you have inflicted.. What you have done to your wife-"

"Sadistic," he interrupted her, counting the ticks from the clock in the hall as he kept himself as calm as he could manage. "Try not to use words you do not understand, my child, or I may have to provide you with an experience to help you understand the term."

Daphne laughed loudly at him, covering her mouth to laugh against her hand, becoming slightly hysterical as tears began to spill from her eyes. "You're really good at threatening people aren't you? Especially your own family members. I never believed that you were very affectionate towards us, but I don't know how I ever believed you actually cared about us, that you actually loved us."

Aldrich's breath halted at her wards, his eyes going in and out of focus on the tears that were rolling down her face as his fury was quieted for a moment at her words. He had never been confronted with the idea that he didn't love his children.

"Maybe because you were denied love from your own parents," she grit out, wiping her eyes with her wrist furiously. "Maybe it's because you have never known love, but to give what you received to your own children is shameful."

A strong chill ran through him at the mention of his parents, hundreds of memories of them running through his head at once as he thought of the possibilities of which she had seen.

"All of us just wanted the smallest amount of love from you, of attention. Astoria fought for it, I tried to fight for it," she broke off, her voice breaking enough to make her unintelligible for a moment before she resumed. "I got tired of trying to please you for it, but disappointing you didn't do much either. I should have expected as much after you wouldn't even pay me any mind when I came to you as a child when Roderick molested me, as I couldn't go to mother seeing that she completely shuts off towards him. You don't even care enough for me to protect our family's pride when it comes to such mistreatment towards your daughter, and we all know how you are about your pride. I must truly be worthless to you, Astoria must truly be worthless to you as you have practically enslaved her and ripped her spirit from her, and Edric must have truly been worthless to you as you let him go. Unable to avoid your little choice game it was you who allowed him to leave, the actual father to the two of us. The man who actually loved us. You may pride yourself on letting everyone make their own choices, but don't you dare try to believe you gave Astoria, an eight year old, a choice when you gave her three seconds to finish crying over the man who had raised her up to that point being left behind as you dragged her away from him, you being a stranger to her compared to him. You knew she wouldn't be able to stop, but you watched her struggle to do so anyway, struggle to live up to your impossible and cruel expectations of us. You knew her 'choice' and you intended for it to happen so it would fall in nicely with your sweet little revenge of making your wife live through her past trauma through your own child. Yes, let's not forget your wife in this review of your relationships with your family you claim to care so much about. But she isn't worthless to you like we are, is she? She's your entertainment. Your personal slave to pleasure your sadistic, twisted methods of torment and punishment. You hate loud, don't you father? Did Astoria's screaming annoy you when you hurt her? Did that just get on your nerves? Or were you distracted with your triumph when you completely wrecked my mother? She knows how to be happy, I have now seen her happy, you could have chosen to make her happy. You could have chosen to make us all happy, but you didn't. You wanted all of us to be as miserable and lonely as you."

"Are you finished?" He asked her quietly, his voice steady despite the pounding of his senses, his emotions attempting to drag him in several different directions as he desperately tried to cut them off and send them back to where they belonged in the very back of his mind.

"Yes," she replied shakily, attempting to pull back her shoulders in a show of pride, the pride he attempted to instill in his children that she had always struggled with. "I'm finished. Finished with loathing myself for not being enough, finished with these games, finished with being a Greengrass." She spit their family's name out, sneering at it as if it was something filthy and poisonous before narrowing her eyes as she stared straight into his intently. "Finished with you."

He braced himself for his explosive anger at her disrespect to not only him, but their entire family, his pride for his family name being what he had always been taught so harshly to live for. Strangely, his senses only hummed numbly, and the dull ringing in his ears distracted him from his daughter's uneven that came from her crying. He watched her quietly, his eyes not truly looking at her as he waited for his mind to direct him how to respond in the most appropriate way he could imagine until she walked back a couple of steps, looking past him as fresh tears dripped from her face before her back hit the door and she put her hand on the handle of it to leave.

"Stop," he ordered her calmly. "I'm not finished."

Daphne froze, her nerve very clearly faded in comparison to what it had been, her courage only short lived in her spout of passionate emotion as fear filled her eyes and he watched her very visibly tremble before her deep green eyes moved back to his, looking at him as if he were a snake preparing to strike at her.

"Come here," he told her, surprised at his feeling of being stung by the fact she looked so afraid of him, as if he would physically harm her.

She hesitated, looking as though she was struggling to decide if she should keep up her brave insolence or listen to his commands, looking slightly stubborn before walking back over to him, her posture not at all confident. She looked down at his feet when she got closer to him, chewing at her cheek, a habit that more than irritated him. She looked defeated, though he hadn't done anything to her yet.

Well, he supposed he had done everything to her, to all of them.

Never had any of his children looked at him with the hatred Daphne had shown him, even his son who he had erased from the family all together. Fitting, he supposed, as Daphne had the exact eyes as the woman he was so used to looking at him with such loathing, and at the same time incredibly unfitting as Daphne had been the most openly affectionate child towards him in the obvious sense. Astoria had been a prickly child before he had turned her into something more pliant, and then only more devoted than anything, but his eldest daughter was the only one to have looked at him with pure love and adoration in her eyes, not only out of his children, but out of everyone he had ever had a relationship with.

He moved to retract a vial from his pocket and his moving elicited a violent flinch from her, her flinching hard enough that her eyes squeezed shut and her face jerked away from him. He paused, slightly stunned by this. Freya had flinched many times around him, but that was due to her upbringing, not in her experience with him as he had never beat her, and she never flinched as strongly as his daughter just had. Daphne had never experienced abuse as her mother did, no reason to have a natural, physical reaction to a man's hand being raised. In fact, he had intentionally allowed her to marry into a family he couldn't tolerate simply on the knowledge that she would not be severely mistreated, in near certainty she would never experience being hit by a man. No, her reaction was purely out of her fear towards him.

Solely him.

"Give me the memory. Of your uncle," he said, his voice quiet as he took her hand and put the vial into it.

"Does it matter now?" She ground out, thankfully for his own sanity not ripping her hand away from his touch.

"I wouldn't be telling you to do it if it didn't."

He waited, looking beside her as she complied and handed the vial back to him silently, her body still rigid and the air around her remaining terrified. He pocketed the memory before moving his hand to the side of her face, attempting to ignore her cringing away from it as he held it, pressing his palm against her cheek gently as he focused on gracing her mind and emotions, calming her and removing enough of her fear to display his own memory to her as well as openly allowing her to physically feel his emotions from the scene of the past he was giving to her.

Freya snapped at three year old Daphne, the tone of her voice strained and ever so slightly panicked as she watched her daughter walk around her father's office desk after she had been clever enough to drag a chair to the door to reach the handle to Aldrich's office, a room he didn't typically allow anyone in unless on the rare occasions he directed them to be. Daphne ignored her mother and grabbed onto her father's pants roughly, tugging on them impatiently as she looked up at him expectantly, attempting to pull herself up onto his legs when he looked down at her over his glasses. Freya started forward at this, going to grab her daughter as worry radiated off of her.

"Leave her," he told his wife smoothly, setting down his work to help his child onto his lap. "And I would appreciate it if you would stop insulting me by fearing for my own childrens' safety around me." He stopped to look at her, the nagging of their younger daughter's crying in the distance irritating his ears. "You, however, are excused."

Daphne squirmed in his lap as she made herself comfortable before scowling at his attention on her mother instead of her, reaching up to pat his cheek. Aldrich took her small hand from his cheek and held it in his, looking down at her once Freya closed the door. "You're not supposed to be in here when I'm working, love," he lightly scolded her, kissing her hand.

"I know," she agreed, dramatically solemn in her childishly pronounced words. "Everyone is looking at the baby."

"So you're bothering me because you're not getting enough attention from everyone else?" He asked, settling her more comfortably on his lap as he adjusted his papers so he could work around her.

"Because I love you," she told him happily, smiling up at him sweetly with warm eyes.

Aldrich paused to look back down at her, tucking her fine blonde hairs behind her ears as he studied her affectionately, his expression uncharacteristically soft. "I love you more, darling," he told her sincerely, kissing the top of her head.

Daphne beamed and squinted at his eyes. "I want blue."

"Blame your mother as you received your eyes from her," he told her, adjusting his glasses before picking up his quill, squinting back at her slightly. "As well as your fierceness. Now allow me to work if you insist on sitting with me."

Aldrich dropped his hand from his daughter's face when he ended the memory, watching her without an expression. "Now go," he told her, his tone still not mocking or cold despite the way she had acted out. Even his wife hadn't ever dared to speak to him in such a way despite what she had gone through being married to him as she was too fearful of the repercussions, and yet it seemed Daphne was facing none.

His undecided feelings fell clearly on remorse when he watched Daphne's eyes cloud with nothing but sorrowful mourning, the bitter anger and disrespect completely left behind as her mostly silent tears fell into a gentle, heartbroken weeping as she slowly walked back and away from him, carefully opening the door as if it were thin glass. He didn't move as he watched her close the door behind her, holding the handle in a way that it barely made a sound when she quietly closed it just as they had been raised to make such little noise to accommodate him and his strict preferences.

The accommodation he had always demanded, but had never offered to any of them.

Draco watched Daphne return looking even more of a mess than she had been previously which only confirmed that she most likely had in fact went to confront her father. He examined her carefully, his body tense as he prepared for her to have a similar punishment to what he had witnessed of his wife as she had quite the furious look on her face when going upstairs, appearing to have little control of her temper. Daphne definitely had a disrespectful mouth when she was feeling nasty. He watched Freya lurch forward, examining Daphne in bewilderment and concern, shaking her head in disbelief at her.

"What exactly are you playing at?" She breathed. "Are you hurt?"

"Why would she be hurt? Father's punishments are worse than that," Astoria said, shaking her head at Daphne as well. "You continue to prove my claim that you are impulsive. I didn't realize that my curse would turn you mental."

Draco clenched his jaw at his wife's words, his hatred for the man uncomfortably burning again.

"Sad a simple outburst from her daughter makes Freya Krat of all people visibly unhinged," Joseph stated coldly, eyeing all three of the women with disapproving eyes.

"Sorry, but I don't recall requesting for your commentary, Nott," she hissed, her eyes flashing furiously as she threw a look back at him before looking at Daphne again. "Speak!"

"I'm fine," she said quietly, her voice lacking her usual sureness as she pulled away from her mother to go to Pucey who was waiting for her impatiently, his eyes nervous and full of worry. "He did nothing to me."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Freya snapped, turning as her eyes followed her daughter who allowed her husband to pull her to him. "You don't look fine do you, you idiot? What's next? Do you fancy offering yourself up to your father's mercies as well, Edric? Perhaps introduce your wife to him and invite him over to her muggle mother's home for Christmas? He may have done 'nothing' to you for the moment, but don't assume you get to throw a tantrum at him and not have him react."

"I wish you wouldn't do that to me, treacle," Adrian told her stiffly, examining her with care. "As if we don't have enough to worry about without you picking fights with your father who just encountered his disowned son in front of a room full of witnesses, highly doubtful he is in the best mood as it is without you poking at him."

"Your father who just encountered his disowned son in front of a room full of witnesses," Freya hissed fiercely at her, repeating Pucey's words before pushing her fingers against her temples and shaking her head again. "Why do all of my children do this to me? Can't there be peace?"

"Would you relax," Rhys groaned. "You are only making things worse. I don't know why women think-"

"I didn't ask for your input either, Rhys," Freya growled, eyeing him angrily. "I may respond to my children however I please, everyone else can mind their own."

"Mummy, I understand you are losing your shit because your husband is a sociopath, but if you could give Daphne a bit of space while she calms down I think that would help. You have a habit of being overwhelming and over the top," Adrian said, his voice attempting to be lighthearted through his irritation for the woman as he rubbed his wife's arms.

"Psychopath is closer. A sociopath is much different," Edric's wife offered gently, for once not receiving any sneering response from any of them.

"Psychopath," Adrian corrected himself, giving Freya a pointed look.

"She wouldn't need to calm down if you were capable of keeping a better hold on her," Freya said shortly, though seeming to back down just a bit.
"So sorry," Adrian said, feigning sincerity. "I forgot her leash and matching collar at home."

"It's alright, Adrian. I'm sure Greengrass will lend you Freya's," Joseph said icily, smiling falsely at Freya.

"My, aren't you two hilarious," Freya cooed. "You must teach me your wit."

The room quieted as they turned their attention to Granger as she came into the room, not bothering to attempt to figure out what was going as she had always made an effort to so so previously.

"So, I believe the best choice is for Draco to help us to the edge of the property so we can carefully-"

"No," Astoria interrupted her, frowning before she repeated herself again in a firmer tone. "No. He won't be taking that risk with you."

"Yes," Granger said slowly, giving her an odd look. "He will be, Astoria, and-"

"No," she said again, her voice simple and cold as she directed a challenging look towards Granger. "He won't, and if you attempt to force it I will be sure to file a claim when all of this is over that you, an auror meant to protect us, used my husband as a shield because you were too cowardly to do your job properly, and I can assure you that you will lose that job should I choose to do that, Harry Potter's pretty sidekick and muggle-born poster child or not."

Draco was torn between being angry with Astoria for speaking for him and attempting to protect him as opposed to the other way around, nearly announcing that she found him incapable of completing such a task safely and between feeling pride and satisfaction in the way she confidently stood her ground against the twit after weeks of being spoken down to and humiliated as she was pitied by Granger like a helpless child.

"I do not think it is appropriate to threaten me, Astoria," Granger said, taking a step back as she looked back at his wife with a slightly stunned and offended expression. "Draco did agree to do this, and he won't be doing anything more. It was his idea."

"It seems you're rather selective when it comes to listening to what Draco says, seeing as he has asked you more than once not to use his name. I find it inappropriate for you to be acting childish and forcing him to help you with your own work, when if you had done your job properly instead of wasting your time prying into our lives we wouldn't be in this mess now would we? I've been patient, but now you are putting my family at risk with your foolishness, and I will not tolerate it."

Draco snorted loudly, shaking his head. "Now you're finished with the bitch, but not the dozens of times I directed you to be. You truly only do what is in your own interests," he told her coolly. "I'm more than capable of walking our brave protectors to the edge of my property where hopefully we will never have to see any of them again once they step off of it."

"You know if anything happens to us there will be no one left to help all of you, Malfoy," Granger ground out at him, her temper seeming to flare in response to the both of them being against her.

"And who exactly has been helping us up until now?" Theodore scoffed, looking her up and down with distaste. "And yet so many say your kind is worth keeping around, odd seeing that all of you in this Manor seem to be completely useless, a negative actually. I believe I'm only convinced my side was correct the more I'm surrounded by you, which seems counteractive to your manipulative goals, doesn't it?"

"By 'your kind' I truly hope you are referring to the aurors, Nott," Edric said kindly. "For your own sake."

"How wise to say such things during such a conflict, as well as in front of two women who would love nothing more than to detain you as it is obviously becoming more and more apparent that you are a danger to the wizarding world. The difference between the two of us and you, Nott-"

"Excuse me, Granger, but," Ophelia interrupted, her eyebrows coming together in a scowl as she regarded the auror with disapproval. "I don't actually know you at all. Assuming we have the same thoughts solely on the fact we have non-magic parents, well parents for you at least as you certainly seem like the regular, middle-class girl with over protective parents who are most likely doctors or some other decently paying job, is a bit of a stretch don't you think? I'm nearly positive that at least once in your life you have referred to the type of neighborhood I come from and my actual 'people' very negatively with your parents who warned you not to wonder off into the wrong part of town where good girls like you ought not to be going. Which makes you a bit of a hypocrite in the way you scold and talk down to all of these grown adults for looking down on others themselves just as I'm sure you have yourself on the community you find dodgy. Just some thoughts for you to consider. I get it. I have a hard time being fair to them too. Anyway, no actually. I don't wish to detain him, and I don't believe it is becoming apparent that he is a danger to the wizarding world. Based on what I have sifted through of you and your aurors' notes, which have an exorbitant amount of useless information, I am decently confident that he has done nothing to warrant being arrested. Apparently when you attended Hogwarts you never experienced a prejudiced pure-blood before seeing as so much of your notes contain basic common talk among them. Whether I find him offensive and someone I would never want to be around again or not does not mean he doesn't have rights, just as everyone with a differing opinion than anyone else has their rights."

"You know," Edric mused dully, giving her a side-look. "It would have been perfectly alright to ignore your pointless morals just in this one instance."

"And to think I thought you were completely worthless," Theodore cooed mockingly. "Turns out you're only mildly w-"

"Well. It's a bit hypocritical of you to tell me not to assume and then proceed to assume yourself," Granger replied hotly, though her expression slightly sheepish.

"You're right," Ophelia offered her fairly. "So I'm wrong then? About your parents and your 'look both ways' upbringing?"

"I'm not entirely sure why you feel so confident that Theodore is harmless," Granger said, shamelessly changing the subject to the point where it was almost comical and Draco shook his head, surprised he had found himself in support of the girl who stole his wife's brother away, though also irritated along with the brother himself at the fact that she was defending Nott.

"That's not what I said," Ophelia replied impatiently. "Though I suppose you are a child so it's hard to do your job properly while putting aside your personal, emotional reactions on what and who you are working with, but really with the field you're in you will have to work on that, and I'm not only talking about the Notts because I've noticed you like to play marriage counselor. Judge them when you are out of the work setting like the rest of us."

Granger watched her for a bit before sighing, surely disappointed that she couldn't even get the other muggle-born to be her ally.

Truly unlikable, that one. Not much had changed since Hogwarts.

"Mrs. Greengrass, your husband wanted to join us, didn't he?" She asked Freya, adjusting her auror robes, moving on from the disagreement.

"As did I," Freya said, her eyes narrowing slightly before her eyelids fluttered in irritation. "And I planned to before Aldrich arrived."

"Well. I don't know what his presence has to do with your own intentions, but I wouldn't have allowed it anyway, as I've only accepted your husband due to the fact he often works with the Ministry. We can't be responsible for anything that happens to you due to us allowing your aid. Malfoy wasn't going to do anything more than show us the safest part of the property to step off of, that is all, but it seems we have come to a bit of an issue with your daughter."

"Issues with my daughter? Sounds like a common occurrence in my life," Freya quipped. "If you're waiting for me to go and fetch my husband you may as well let the breath you're holding out, as I will be doing no such thing."

"Mrs. Greengrass," Granger breathed, pinching her nose. "I would like to get on with it as quickly as possible, I do not have very experienced aurors with me and-"

"Really? Seemed like seasoned professionals to me," Draco snorted.

"-they are likely to soon lose their nerve."

Astoria was watching him with an upset expression, her face almost expectant, expecting him to listen to her and the pitiful face she was wearing in order to guilt him into letting her have her way and staying inside with her.

"Well, then we must be getting on with it, yes?" Aldrich watched Granger have another start at his entrance as he stood only feet from her, watching her with his normal condescendingly thoughtful expression. "We don't have much confidence to spare if we expect to be successful."

Draco pressed his teeth together firmly in his irritation at the man for making Astoria tense so significantly beside him, her stress levels raising dramatically, though Aldrich did not look to any of his children.

Freya regained her usual expression and posture that she displayed around her husband, her dull and annoyed expression at being left behind fading.

"Oh," Granger said as she inhaled deeply after being startled, smoothing down her robes and picking up her composure. "Well good. I agree. Did you make anything useful?"

"And why would I waste my time making anything that wasn't?"

"Right," she said, pursing her lips as she watched him expectantly, waiting for him to present her with his useful creations, scowling slightly when he didn't make any move to do so. "Did you make anything legal?"

"It wouldn't be wise of me to be brewing illegal potions given the circumstances of my position and yours now would it, darling girl?"

"So no, no you have nothing legal is what you're saying," Granger replied flatly before shaking her head. "Nevermind. I'm prepared to let it go at this point if it helps us finally get out of this before I go mental in this house"

"I never confirmed or denied anything, but it is wonderful to hear that you are prepared to bend some rules seeing as it would be much more helpful to have those who are adequately equipped to duel dark wizards properly come along with us, those who are in no danger of losing their nerve."

Draco watched Freya blink before a slow, triumphant smirk spread across her face, excitement dancing in her eyes. He had never seen a woman so thrilled at the thought go fighting before. Well, aside from his aunt.

"I don't know if it is appropriate for a former Death Eater to be aiding us against fighting more Death Eaters," Granger replied, glancing at Joseph. "I do not have enough trust for that."

Freya snorted loudly as she stood from her seat. "Don't be absurd in giving Joseph any praise by assuming Aldrich meant him," she scoffed, her eyes still glowing.

Granger blinked, looking at her for a moment before she looked back to Aldrich. "You're not worried about putting your wife in danger?"

"I have no reason to worry seeing as my wife is more capable than I in such a situation. You are fortunate to have her assistance," Aldrich replied kindly, surprisingly in a sincere tone and not mocking his wife in the way that Draco would only assume a pure-blood male would ever say those words.

Granger scowled in surprise and interest. "Oh, that is rather humble of you. I still don't approve of the idea."

"Noted," he replied in a neutral tone before looking to his wife who walked over while retying her tight and high ponytail, smiling at Granger.

"I'm somewhat surprised you would admit to your wife being more powerful than you, Mr. Greengrass," she continued slowly, a look of suspicion crossing her features. "I'm not sure-"

"I admitted nothing of the sort," he chuckled. "Dueling is not nearly all that magic has to offer, nor does it hold the only path to being powerful, but I do believe in giving credit where it is due. What is the point of having a quality witch with impressive talents if she isn't allowed to own them?"

"Miss Granger, I know it's hard to believe I'm capable of having more talents than knowing the latest trends in designer robes, but I also do a bit of magic as well here and there. Imagine that," Freya told her, her tone overly laced with honey in a way that revealed her shred of resentment beneath her tone, her face changing ever so slightly into a more sincerely warm expression when Aldrich rested his gaze on her before she continued more thoughtfully. "My children are at risk, darling, and we have just discovered that now my grandchild is also at risk. I have to be honest when I say I don't have much interest in your cause as a whole, but I do fully intend on taking care of my own whether or not I am given permission from you. With all due respect, you have no grounds to tell me I am unable to leave the property if I wish to do so. I am not under arrest. I am sure you would rather I cooperate and join you and your plans rather than going out on my own."

Granger opened her mouth before pressing her lips together, considering this while appearing slightly frustrated. "Well if you are not going to listen to your husband or I-"

"She listens to me just fine," Aldrich mused. "And I support everything she is saying entirely. No rules or advices matter once one's family is at risk."

What a joke of a man. Draco had to refrain from snorting out loud as he drew his wife closer to him, choosing to not be offended at the fact that Astoria seemed to have enough confidence in her mother to not appear worried for her as opposed to how she dropped her sweet and innocent act towards Granger just to protest him simply guiding them to their fate.

The auror let out an aggravated, nearly childish sound in her irritations at her lack of control of the whole situation and Aldrich raised his eyebrow slightly at her, assessing the rest of her body critically, putting his judgement of her immaturity on display and Draco let out a breathy and quiet snicker at the scene. "I do hope you are alright, Ms. Granger, as it was you who was requesting me in your urgency to move forward with things."

"Yes, I suppose I was," Granger said, her expression firmer before she looked over to Draco coolly. "Though there is a slight issue in that I am being threatened by your youngest child due to Malfoy knowing his property the best, naturally, and it would be of much help if-"

"We have all been to the Malfoy grounds more times than we would care to mention," Aldrich said dismissively. "It would be in the girls' favor to not be left with too little of protection." He paused, glancing at both Astoria and Daphne. "Especially since apparently one of them is carrying my grandchild."

"Yes, I'm sure Astoria would feel so much safer with her capable and gentle husband around to keep her and her child safe as Malfoy surely would never put his unborn child at risk by allowing her to be under any unnecessary stress or harm," Theodore came mockingly.

Draco's eyes narrowed slightly and his lips twitched as they reached up into a cold smile, looking over to the Notts where Joseph was giving his son a murderous look of warning, Astoria tensing beside him.

Aldrich blinked, turning his head slightly to regard Theodore. "Quite a few implications I am gathering from that. I do hope you plan on elaborating further."

Draco felt a new wave of hatred for Nott as he physically felt his wife's fear of her infidelity being revealed to her father in consequence of his petty comments. "Not much to elaborate on, I can assure you of that," Draco drawled dismissively. "Nott has had a hard time with the fact he always comes second to me. Nothing more. Nothing more to him at all I'm afraid." Draco tsked, kissing Astoria's knuckles as he watched Theodore with a blank expression, treating the matter if it truly was nothing.

Astoria's father moved his gaze over to them for a moment before looking to Joseph in mocking amusement. "Interesting choice of focus for your heir, no? I am certainly intrigued to see how the Nott family name progresses throughout the coming years."

"Mmm. My son unfortunately picked up a few of his mother's traits," Joseph said, his tone sounding very similar to his own father's when Draco knew he had pushed him too far. "I'll have to agree, Granger. I'm not sitting around doing nothing whether you fear me being one of them or not."

"Daddy," Adrian started, his face covered in a hurt expression. "Why aren't you standing up to protect your baby boy?"

Draco felt his Astoria relax beside him as the attention was removed from the three of them and a few of the other aurors came into the room as Granger continued to weakly argue. Astoria's eyes moved up to find his as she looked at him with gratitude, the warmth in her expression glowing through her cool colored eyes, as if she had expected him to let Nott unintentionally set her father on her. No, it was their business, and he knew too well what it was like to have one's father so deeply and mercilessly ashamed of you. His wife didn't deserve that after all she had done to keep her father pleased with her. As much as it infuriated him how devoted of a daughter she was he still did not wish her to lose her spot as the glory child simply from the jealous idiot being unable to control himself and being too thoughtless to realize the repercussions of his sarcastic side comments. As much as Nott claimed to love Astoria it seemed as though he was set on keeping her miserable with how he insisted on infuriating the main men in her life capable of causing her real harm.

"I hope they will be alright," Daphne said quietly after they left, watching the ground.

"All of them, dove? 'Cause I can think of a few I could do without, quite sure my father will be fine as he weasels his way out of everything, and considering the look on your face when you went upstairs to-"

"Do you speak just to hear your own voice? Because believe me when I say that nobody else is interested in your unnecessary prattle," Edric said, his tone prickled with irritation as he made a presence of himself again once his father had gone, reminding Draco of his existence after being so unnoticeable in his silence with Aldrich in the room. "They will be fine. Perhaps no one will be waiting for them at all. They are only taking extra precaution."

To Draco's shock Daphne nodded slowly to her brother's words instead of snapping at him as she had been responding to him thus far, ignoring his short words to her husband who was squinting at his wife's lack of defenses. "I would have to disagree with you there, Eddy, I know several people who just love to hear my voice as well as myself, thank you kindly. Zabini really just going to hole himself up? Splitting up never ended up well."

"Considering certain Manor guests are present at the moment I would say it is understandable," Theodore said, examining Edric distastefully.

"Right. You. You want Greengrass to murder you, yeah? Is that why you're serving up you and your mummy's transgressions on a platter for him to examine?"

"No, he wants Astoria to suffer as he is a pathetic child who makes himself believe he is more morally sound than everyone else to the point it blinds him to the fact he is destroying her," Edric said before Draco could interject himself, his pleasant but threatening tone resembling his father's even more so now, but it was clear his temper was not as polished.

"That wasn't my intention, though it's so incredibly interesting you feel it your place to mention anyone destroying-"

"Nothing is ever your intention," Adrian snorted in disgust, pleasing Draco in the rare moments Pucey decided to drop his carefree act and treat things seriously. "That excuse doesn't change shit."

Draco noticed his wife shift beside him uncomfortably and he glanced at her face, taking in the resentful look she was giving the wall as she stared off, her eyes unfocused. "There is no reason to be speaking of Astoria as if she isn't in the room," he told them coolly. "Especially seeing as this is her manor. Why don't you do all of us a favor and run along to your carrier of chaos, Nott?"

From his peripheral vision Draco could see Astoria's lips twitch as she glanced down at her lap, fighting a smile at what he assumed his words that awarded her ownership of their home together.

"Yes, where is Novalie?" Ophelia asked, looking towards the stairs. "She fancies causing problems yet doesn't wish to be a part of them, does she?"

"They're all like that," Astoria sniffed, sitting up straighter "That pure-blood community's behaviors are questionable at best, and Eld-"

"Novalie Eld," Edric interrupted her, recognition covering his features as Astoria pressed her lips together tightly in annoyance at being cut off by the man she was pretending didn't exist. "The mad one who murdered her parents."

"I wouldn't think that the Ministry would hire-"

"Oh, of course the Ministry would never dare hire anyone who doesn't have a heart of gold and a flawless background full of charities. My mistake, love," Edric told his wife dully before she could finish.

"I never heard of such an incident," Astoria said dismissively, as if if she didn't know about something it meant it didn't happen at all. "And I am decently aware of that community."

"Obviously not as aware as you seem to think. Perhaps it is time for you to reevaluate your supposed knowledge, as being egotistical leads to error. You aren't good at everything, and you don't know everything either."

"She is and does in her world," Daphne snorted, smirking mockingly when Astoria puffed up slightly in offense.

"I certainly know more than both of you, the disgraces of the family, yet somehow I still find myself being the one who is lectured on how to act," she quipped, smoothing her hands over her lap, attempting to fix her expression into an unbothered one. "I agree the silly woman is mad seeing as she threatened me."

"Who would ever dream of doing such a thing," Adrian said gravely, shaking his head slowly.

"While your words may be intended to be taken as sarcasm, yes, who would ever dream of doing such a thing?" Astoria confirmed seriously, though looking up at Draco with a bit of lightheartedness in her eyes for a moment before looking towards Nott when he began speaking.

"She didn't kill her parents," Nott said, his eyes still trained on Edric as he twisted the ends of his wand between his fingers. "It was set up to appear that way. You should be familiar with concept of framing someone, yes?"

Edric gave him an amused, doubtful expression. "If you believe her and her tales then you're even more foolish than I previously perceived, and that was quite foolish if you were curious. Knowing you from an infant I can't say that you have surpassed any of my low expectations on what you might bring to your family name."

"I suppose that's better than not reaching expectations at all, or really going the opposite direction from them for that matter," Theodore replied lazily. "Or even failing at keeping the family name."

"Edric, please let him be," Ophelia sighed, resting her forehead against her fingertips as her elbows rested on her knees. "The bickering is counterproductive, as well as making me anxious."

"A mad, murderous woman that knowingly brought my wife into such a negative situation remaining in the same environment as us is making me anxious."

"Plenty of things make you anxious, Edric, and I don't believe that to be a very prominent concern for the time being."

"Please, do go on about my supposed anxieties that curiously seem to often relate to you. I am quite intrigued to hear about them."

"Perhaps she could be dangerous if that is true.." Daphne said, interrupting their squabble as she frowned at the floor, considering the idea. "She seems quite ill fitting to this whole scenario, and has only been a negative impact. She is inside the wards which would make sense for Malfoy's wards to have not been properly set off."

"Nott. Where is your girlfriend now," Draco said slowly, narrowing his eyes as he considered Daphne's words, sitting up even straighter.
"You couldn't possibly believe that woman is any sort of threat," Astoria muttered, looking up at the ceiling impatiently. "No need to give her even a shred of credit beyond being an irritating pest."

"Quiet, Astoria," Draco told her shortly, looking at Nott expectantly and attempting to ignore the small fragment of a suspicion that led him to believe Astoria to be jealous of the girl due to Nott's show of favoring her.

"She's harmless, Malfoy. Didn't know you were low enough to take advice from a blood traitor of our own circle, no matter how much you despise me."

"Seeing as no one has heard of the girl but him, and seeing as he was raised in a family who makes it their focus in life to make everyone's business their own, as well as seeing you seem to fancy the twit I don't see who else's advice I should be inclined to follow."

"No idea where she is. I'm not her keeper."

"Come off it, Nott. You're sharing a room with the bitch. Go get her. Whistle for her even," Pucey said, waving a hand impatiently.

"Wait! Yes, she is the one who slit her parents' wrists," Astoria chimed, nodding. "Yes, I do faintly remember that."

"Imagine that. It seems I'm correct," Edric told Astoria who narrowed her eyes ever so slightly while still not meeting his gaze, apparently set on the idea that she was ignoring him even though she had already somewhat interacted with him, which Draco would allow seeing as he himself was interacting with him.

Not that he could see himself punishing her for interacting with him either way. There were some matters he didn't see it his place to intrude much on unless their reputation was fiercely being threatened, and with everything considered they were already treading several dangerous waters in terms of risky behavior when it came to being exposed and dropping down the latter. Actually, he couldn't see himself punishing her much at all really. He had let her get away with so much even at the beginning of their marriage, and now his love for her even more so blinded him to the subject of keeping her in check or reminding her of her supposed place.

Draco stunned himself at his own thoughts, his eyes becoming unfocused from the scene in the room as he stilled, going over his last thought again.

His love for her.

So he was thinking himself in love with her now, was he?

Draco looked down at Astoria's small body next to him, their legs touching as she now traced patterns into his thigh with her forefinger, discreetly distracting herself as she still held her formal and appropriate posture, not noticing his change in demeanor as she listened to the others speaking, unaware of his sudden shock at his apparent strong feelings for her.

It was unfortunate for him seeing that he doubted she returned his love, but yes. He did believe himself in love with her. He had all the reason to with how much he now knew about her and her past, had been directly inside her head so many times, and all the while growing even softer towards her than the start. She was the perfect wife for him, not only in terms of social standards, but in every sense when it came to working well with his personality. She was simplistic and quiet on the surface to where she didn't turn him off by being obnoxious or irritating, but had depth to her that made her not at all simple to where she bored him or became comparable to other girls. It was hard to believe he had once seen her as a replica of any other decently behaved pure-blood girl. He had attempted to resent her in the beginning, immediately at their marriage confirmation, watching her so stiff and mournful as she finished filling out the papers and rode home with him, the way she had come to him so timidly and fearful when he hadn't sent for her to sleep with him to confirm their marriage. Pliant and eager to please, nothing special, something he had always knew he would receive in a woman. Seeing her in such a way was foreign to him now, and he wasn't able to connect to that mindset at all anymore. He didn't understand how he had been so cold and dismissive towards a girl who had done nothing wrong to him and had been so determined to please him. It would have taken so little effort on his part to simply put the smallest amount of energy into calming her in any way at all those first nights, any shred of kindness or warmth would have been merciful.

Instead he was stubborn and shut off, had abused her of all things. Of all the things that he hated most looking back on his life was the abuse his mother had suffered at the temper of his father, and it was his father who had set him in his own temper to go home and viciously harm Astoria, sweet Astoria who only pleaded with him and apologized, her delicate hands stupidly gentle on top of his as he had crushed her throat in his fist, never fighting or harming him. Not even a scratch or a dig from her nails. Then of course she had wanted to heal him after his strong and hypocritical reaction, just as he had been hypocritical being so angry with her for being so set on pleasing her father. Hadn't he lived for his father just the same? And that was with Lucius lacking the manipulation and conniving talents that Aldrich Greengrass possessed. Not that his father wasn't intimidating in his own right, but he was much more transparent than his father-in-law. He had no right to treat her so poorly for the habits he had similar of, and the habits he expected from his own children. Surely he would want his children, the child inside Astoria now, to be as fiercely loyal as Astoria was, would he not?

He should have given up on attempting to avoid having such a strong attachment to the girl the moment he wanted her to sleep in his bed with him the night he had taken her innocence, the second he had woken from a real night of sleep next to her frustratingly angelic face. The face that made him disgusted at the idea of bringing pain to it.

No, that weren't completely true. Under the correct circumstances he quite enjoyed her writhing in pain beneath his mercy, that face beautifully painted in her torment before her sweet gratitude replaced it, her big eyes the most expressive in their thanks, feeding the more sadistic side of him perfectly.

But she wasn't an angel whatsoever, that had only been proven further as time went on, the innocence she wore on her features a lie. She was flawed and had nasty bits about her as well as her own demons that only made the sweet and delicate parts of her more pronounced, only made her so much more favorable to him. She was not nearly as boring as she portrayed herself or made herself believe. He had been turned off by her at the notion she was dull, shallow. If she were boring and lacked depth, what was he next to her? He lived for nothing before her, was drained by and finished with their world that sucked the life out of them all, and now he only wished to live for her, to protect her from all of her fears and anything or anyone that may harm her, any part of her. She was becoming quite aware of this as well, as she had been acknowledging it more and more verbally as well as noticeably taking advantage of it, gracing him ever so slightly with her manipulation talents. It was obvious she was aware of her advantages period, seeing as how she had gotten the upper hand in the small fight with her sister by playing on her fragile features, taking opportunity from the sympathy people could easily award her, taking opportunity from how people underestimated her.

His clever little snake.

Though she was still honest with him, surprisingly enough considering her upbringing of secrets and deceptions, and seemed to hold no maliciousness when taking hold of his weakness towards her. She only drew out his affections to feed her desire for them in her search for contentment, a life purpose, and for that he couldn't fault her or attempt to change her actions. He didn't want to change her anymore. She had been altered enough, and he only wanted her to continue to feel comfortable enough to show pieces of her stubborn and fiery personality that had been buried deep within her for too long.

Draco was rudely yanked from his rambling thoughts and realizations when a small, shocked yelp was heard from his sister-in-law. He felt Astoria's frozen body beside him, feeling her intense fear rise and he quickly made a go at his wand while his free hand reached for the first piece of his wife he could touch as his vision began to blur and darken just as he was taking in Astoria's frantic and searching eyes, appearing unable to see herself while his senses dulled just as he pushed his energy towards his legs to lift him up. He fully panicked when he found himself unable to stand, his body heavy and unresponsive just before his vision fell into complete blindness, barely comprehending the feeling of his wife's body slumping against his own beside him as the loud sounds around the two of them also sounding their own alarm faded and everything went blank.

---

Adrian felt himself grimace as he pulled himself out of the thick fog over his senses, struggling to figure out how to make them all function properly.

There was a reason he preferred muggle drugs over their own brewed versions.

He groaned, reaching for his face to rub his hands over it only to realize himself bound, uncomfortably so. He stilled, his stomach sinking into the floor as he blinked wildly in attempt to get his vision together, only barely making out shapes in the dark space as he remembered the scene he had just previously been in and it was most certainly not his usual circumstances in which he passed out from intoxication. The violent and deafening hum of his sudden panic was clearing the haze of the potion that had handicapped him, and in that moment he didn't care where he was, who had done this, or what they had done to him. He only cared about his wife, where she was, and if she were alright. He didn't call out her name as his voice was stuck in his throat as every possible, horrible conclusion was flooding his head all at once, images of her being hurt and violated in every disgusting manner he had learned humans capable of turning his blood cold. He found the dark wizards that surrounded his wife as she grew up cruel and disgusting at best, and her sister's display of dark magic had angered him, but dark wizards and witches came in many shapes and sizes, and the civilized and classy pure-bloods were nothing compared to the savageness that magic folk had the capability of possessing and that many did possess.

His eyes began to focus on the forms beside him as his mind screamed at his senses to come back to attention, the bile rising in his throat halting as he was relieved to find Daphne right beside him. Unconscious, but right beside him where she belonged, where he needed her.

He assessed her as carefully as he could in the light provided by the weak torch on the wall to the left of him, attempting to move forward enough to touch her only to find them bound in such a way that they were only just out of reach of each other, almost mockingly so.

The sons of bitches.

He grit his teeth, swallowing the thick lump of dread rising in his throat as he struggled to make out the rest of the room, noticing Zabini there as well even though he had not been with them downstairs. Thankfully his mother had went along with his father and the rest of them, squawking about how she wouldn't cower with the children while the rest of them were acting as parents, though Adrian knew his mother didn't want Rhys to be separated from her. If he were in danger she would want to be in danger with him, refusing to be split up only to never see him again.

Though apparently those who had remained in the Manor had been the ones in danger.

Astoria was within reach of her sister and he noticed the women bound considerably less carefully, their arms not pulled behind their backs like the rest of them. What a shock there. At least Daphne would be able to have access to physical contact with someone. Draco was even further from Astoria, and Nott was closer to Edric, Edric's wife missing, his wife being the only one aside from the Eld woman missing if he was sorting everyone out correctly under the fog still clearing from his head.

Fuck.

Well, they would be short one level-headed wizard when everyone was conscious, and seeing as Greengrass was more promising than Malfoy, Nott, or Zabini in terms of having any decent ideas on how to get them out of this predicament he was inclined to assume they were screwed, especially so seeing as it was blatantly obvious why Ophelia was the only one missing.

He looked back down at his wife, observing her hair that was falling in a mess over her gorgeous face as she must have been roughly bound up on the ground by their captors while he shivered slightly as the ideas of what they would do to the muggle-born skipped through his head. He could recall several stories of different violent and twisted, almost always heavily perverted stories on what dark and malicious wizards would do to muggle-born women, as well as any woman they saw fit to abuse, but particularly the most vile stories involved the muggle-borns. He narrowed his eyes at how disheveled Daphne's clothing was, her dress hiked up to her waist enough to where the curve of her arse was revealed, the front of her dress that was meant to cover her chest twisted to the side of her, the seams and design of the dress not at all lining up where they were meant to line up in a way that would take more fussing with to cause than only carelessly binding her ankles and wrists to attach to the chains that led to a base in the ground.

If they had so much as groped his wife.

Adrian tasted the blood that went down his sore throat after biting into his cheek as his vision went slightly red, running his tongue along the wound as he forced himself to keep a hold of his temper. As he had already mentally noted, they would already be short a level-headed member of the group once Greengrass woke up to find his muggle-born wife missing while they were at the mercy of Death Eaters. Daphne was beside him and appeared unharmed aside from a few scrapes from being being dragged about on the cold stone as she was having herself secured into her bindings, and from what he could tell, what he had to force himself to believe, she hadn't been raped. He had to keep that in mind. It could be worse. They could have taken all of the women away and taken advantage of, in their eyes, free and very valuable pussy. Seeing as though they had a very personal vendetta against them specifically, they had all the more reason to do so and taunt them with it. Violating their women would be the ultimate blow, especially to the ancients in a social sense. Adrian had the strange urge to almost whimper in his desperation to hold Daphne, the urge only growing more and more as the possibilities of their fate pounded at his head and nerves, needing to feel her safe in his grasp even though at the moment he was about as capable of protecting her as the bloody rock on the ground nearby.

Instead of quickly trying to come up with a solution or looking for routes and possibilities of exits, Adrian only found himself staring at his wife as his pulse sounded loudly in his ears until the sounds of the other men cursing as they awoke from their unconsciousness in their uncomfortable state broke his focus.

"Didn't take long," Adrian told Zabini and Nott, his tone hollow which was mismatched to his lighthearted statement. "Knew you two got into some frowned upon activities more than Malfoy."

"What the fuck," Zabini snarled loudly, jerking his wrists against the chains that locked his arms behind his back. "All of you together couldn't figure out how to avoid this? Are you fucking joking? And you were supposedly a Death Eater, Nott?"

"You are in no position to be complaining about our lack of success when you were pouting in your room the entire time, Zabini," Nott snorted, looking down to assess the state of himself carefully as he adjusted his position while grimacing in discomfort, the calmest of the three of them.

"Your girlfriend is missing, Nott," Adrian told him, narrowing his eyes. "Wonder why that could be."

"So I am noticing," Nott said, glancing around. "Don't understand how she is my responsibility. She is not my wife nor is she even as much as my girlfriend. Hell, we aren't even fucking."

"Because she was in your room while arranging our captures."

Nott rolled his eyes, the prick, shaking his head. "A reaching assumption simply due to the fact she isn't present, especially seeing as-"

"Due to many facts actually."

"-she is not the only woman missing."

"The only other woman missing is the mudblood. It should be obvious why she isn't here. We are here to be set up as the next murderers of this sort of enslaved pure-blood soldier uprising bullshit. She doesn't fit into our adorable little group. Not quite sure why you and Malfoy are here either. Don't fit into the narrative they're attempting to push, seeing as both of you were Death Eaters."

"And do we know who they is yet," Zabini grit out, still fussing with his bound arms.

"Right, well obviously the mudblood has been gang raped and passed around the lot of them by now, perhaps by their dogs as well should they have them, which I suppose is the consequence of sporting a name that is falsely yours. Highly doubtful she is still alive if they are finished being entertained by her. Seems the wreckage brought to your wife's family as well as Astoria's torture was all for nothing, not that it was for anything adequate in the first place, but now it was surely for nothing."

Adrian winced at his words of what they may do to the girl and the hideous scene they painted in his head, turning his face away in his aversion to the subject.

"What, Pucey? Not a topic you fancy? I'm capable of paying attention to rumors as well, you realize. Did you really abandon that poor girl to be raped by your lot of friends? No wonder her story ended the way it did. They still your friends? Or were you too preoccupied with yourself and your carefree lifestyle to pay attention to who they were?"

"I've heard you described as charming, such a gentleman, but yet all you seem to be is this piece of shit who brings nothing but bullshit to people's lives, including the ones you claim to care about."

"Ah, so no. You didn't care enough to pay attention to who they were," Nott tsked, watching him with pity. "Or worse. They are still your friends, that it? Now, Pucey. You aren't that much of an idiot. You knew full well what was likely to happen, yet you left her intoxicated and defenseless anyway. My, and you call me a fucking arsehole."

Both of them were distracted by their go at each other when Zabini violently thrashed around in a sort of fit in his frustrations of being imprisoned and unable to move, his eyes wild when he finally stilled from his loud scene, looking between both of them. "Do you two not fucking realize," he said slowly, his voice shaky in his fury and discomfort. "That we have been captured by people whose identities remain unknown, bound to the point we can barely move a few inches, and locked away in an unknown location where no one knows where we have gone and no one will be able to find us on time to avoid whatever pleasant activities that our captors have planned for us? Hmm? Do you realize this? If not then I just fucking spelt it out for you. So if you two would kindly stop your juvenile arguing for just a moment and consider how exactly we plan on surviving this, that would be lovely."

"The bondage kink is not for you, Zabini, just a bit of advice when choosing your future partner," Adrian said blandly, looking back down at Daphne in concern, more guilt and shame filling him as Zabini's words reminded him again that he had zero idea on how to get her out of there.

Adrian glanced up towards the source of the strangled sound across from him and found Greengrass sitting up, his eyes scanning the room back and forth helplessly before falling onto a point in front of him, his shoulders rising and falling dramatically as his breathing was labored in his despairing.

"Nott. Keep your kind and sensitive comments to yourself," Adrian ordered quietly, hoping that even Nott would find the least bit of sympathy for a man in such a circumstance, no matter who his spouse. Whatever Nott had to say on the matter Adrian was sure Edric had thought up on his own and worse, but still confirmation of the likelihood of all that could happen to the girl was not at all helpful, and they needed him to be at least somewhat composed to be of use. He realized the best course of action in calming the man down would be to let him alone to calm himself down, as it seemed Adrian's strengths were in comforting women, not to mention that Greengrass was not particularly fond of him. Aside from that he really wasn't sure there was anything comforting to be said at all. He had little belief that the man's wife would come out of this alive and if she did she would be close to death either physically or in her spirit.

His attention was immediately drawn away from the couple when Daphne stirred, a soft sound of pain coming from her lips as she struggled to open her eyes. Adrian jerked against the chains as he impulsively went to reach for her, the cruel desperation of needing her to be pressed against him making his whole body stiff and uncomfortable, so much to the point it was physically painful and created an incredible pressure against his chest as he felt trapped even more so then seeing her realize their state.

He stopped himself before speaking too quickly in order to control his tone, not wanting to overwhelm her or worsen her reaction. He was the husband. He was the one meant to keep it together and stay calm. He winced when she let out a shuddering breath in discomfort, her eyes filling with horror and her body freezing when she realized the situation.

"I'm beside you, love. You're fine," he told her gently, swallowing hard in attempt to swallow the frantic and angry edge that threatened to completely coat his tone of voice. "Do you feel alright aside from the potion wearing off? Do you feel anything more than scrapes or some bruising?"

Her head jerked up to look at him and she attempted to crawl forward to him, her arms that were locked in front of her allowing her to get up onto her palms on the ground, before making a sound of surprised protest when she was unable to go further, collapsing as her actions were tripped up by her chained ankle. She stared down at it and her shoulders began to look like her brother's in how they moved, her chest rising and falling dramatically.

"Daphne," he said firmly, fearing she would make herself hyperventilate. "It will be alright, sweetheart. Focus here, yeah? Are you hurt?"

She shook her head roughly, her eyes fighting tears as she looked back to him hesitantly as if she were fearing him, her green eyes large and more vivid even in the dim light against her reddening eyes. Painful regret went through his chest at the sight of her worried expression that covered the one of immense fear, worried he would be angry and resentful towards her. That was his own doing, making his wife feel responsible for him being captured, as if she had any fucking control over it. She was the one entitled to anger as he was the one meant to be responsible for keeping her safe, and in that he had failed her.

He opened his mouth to reassure her he was not upset at her as her pitiful expression faltered and slightly composed itself as her sister had woken up beside her silently along with her husband who was searching the room with a slightly glazed expression, her eyes brimming with tears as her stiffened body trembled. Daphne moved over to her, thankfully within reach as Adrian had expected, dipping down next to her where she was still mostly laying on the ground, likely still too weak to sit up, though the girls didn't seem as though they were in an easy position to sit up completely with how they were chained anyway. She was murmuring quietly to her fear stricken sister now, the instinct to act as the protective older sibling seeming to force her to gather herself together almost instantly, calming her much more adequately than he had.

"Has there been anyone?" Malfoy's voice was flat and stoic as he spoke, looking down at his wife balled onto the floor next to Adrian's own who was slightly over the top of her, raising herself higher with her arms as she comforted her quietly.

"No. You recognize this.. Dungeon? Popular in your lot, no? Any personal family flair to these wonderful decorations?"

"No," Draco said coolly, his eyes focusing on him as his face moved into a slight sneering expression. "I do not recognize the dungeon, Pucey."

"Could be fucking anywhere," Zabini spat. "Could be a muggle location for all we know."

"Quite sure muggles use something called electricity, Zabini. Those are lanterns."

Zabini more blatantly threw him a sneering look than Malfoy had, eyeing him in disgust. "Well excuse me then for not knowing such things to assist me in my observations. Good thing I suppose, was about to mourn the loss of our mudblood to aid us with her abundant knowledge on such matters. Lovely we have you to fill us in."

"Ophelia is gone?" Daphne asked, looking up from her sister and around the enclosed space, her tone almost worried as well as hesitant before she settled her gaze on her brother, watching him carefully, a light amount of sympathy crossing her expression as his previously empty eyes flashed murderously at Zabini's mocking words.

"Now is not the time for all of your wonderfully witty banter," Malfoy said through his teeth, his jaw clicking as he closed his eyes impatiently. "Do any of you feel clear headed enough for any wandless magic, though I sincerely doubt none of you are capable of even the simplest of spells considering."

"We would have to be exceptionally impressive with our magical capabilities to perform anything of real use since I'm quite sure our clever captors would have thought that far seeing as they clearly broke through your brilliant wards," Adrian said dryly. "Then again it seems they had an inside source to help them in."

"Edric," Daphne said slowly, glancing at Adrian before looking back to her brother cautiously. "I know you know creative wandless magic. Beyond the obvious spells, spells they wouldn't necessarily expect." She looked at the ground for a moment when he didn't reply, but Adrian could see him falter slightly at his sister addressing him so kindly, a contrast to how she had been previously. "You can't help her if you shut down. She may only just be in a separate cell among many other muggle-borns they have picked up along the way. Don't assume the worst yet."

Greengrass closed his eyes, his posture dipping slightly in a defeated way. He was quiet for several moments before breathing slowly out of his nose. "All of you need to stop speaking of any profound ideas you have. Assume they are listening to us."

"Then how exactly are we to plan with each other on how we will get out of this?" Nott asked, his tone unimpressed.

Edric said nothing, watching Nott coldly as he was clearly demonstrating what he expected the rest of them to do and Nott snorted, shaking his head. "Solid help you are, truly a waste that you were kicked out of our world."

It was solid, and it also quite obvious that they shouldn't be voicing whatever ideas they may come up with openly in a foreign environment when they had no clue what spells were placed on the room or if their captors were right outside the closed entranced listening to them, perhaps a guard right at the door able to hear through a simple eavesdropping spell. They were left with no choice but to rely on their own ideas to act on themselves, with no organization or run throughs with each other whatsoever, and Adrian most definitely knew nothing on Legilimency to find out what the others were planning.

They were fucked.

Astoria expressed his emotions for him when she whimpered hopelessly, Malfoy closing his eyes himself after flinching considerably hard at the sound while shaking slightly. Adrian couldn't tell if his reaction was was due to anger or anguish, but he was guessing it was a strong amount of both if he was feeling anything like Adrian. Daphne adjusted herself carefully to loop her connected arms over the top of her sister's head so she could hold her against her as she struggled to control her own tears that had pooled in her eyes, Astoria softly crying as soon as her face was safely pressed into Daphne's chest to muffle the sounds.

No, they were royally fucked.