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She was captured because of her parents, her sister, her friends, everyone, and everything she knew, except herself, ironically that was what made the girl in the summer chamber special. That and the fact her sister was a vicious brat willing to sell her out to keep her own life.
Draco didn't want to think about what Daphne said before Voldemort killed her, he didn't, couldn't let himself believe that Astoria was there because of her ties to him, no, she was a bargaining chip, something to hold over Lord Greengrass's head, a polítical hostage. that was all. Draco could still remember Daphne's screams as she was subjected to the Cruciatus.
"And what do you have to offer that I don't already have? tell me why shouldn't I kill you right now for failing to control those pesky insurgents in Hogwarts" Voldemort laughed pointing his wand at the blond beauty queen and getting ready for another round.
"Wait, please, don't use it again...I got something...my sister, Astoria she...She's very pretty, my father has her hidden away, she's his favorite daughter" Daphne begged "let me go and I’ll bring her for you, even Draco likes her!! maybe you can use her to get to my father"
Typical Daphne always thinking everything was about sex, but unlucky for him, Voldemort didn't miss the way Draco winced when Astoria's name was brought up. Nor did his aunt Bellatrix who up until then had been quite giddy about his supposed relationship with Pansy.
"Is that so? well then, Avery why don't you bring little sister Greengrass here for us to interrogate" Voldemort sneered looking from Daphne to Draco " I'm sure lord Greengrass will be much more accommodating in his duties when he realizes he's quickly running out of Heirs" There were a few mocking laughs around the room loudest were the ones from Martha Avery and Jamie Rowle "If he isn't I'm sure Draco would love to have the girl for target practice"
Then Daphne was dead.
The night Avery and Rowle brought her in and threw her at Lord Greengrass's feet, battered and bruised, Draco felt as though he'd been hit hard in the chest, Astoria looked to be in pain, and the look of betrayal she shot her father almost made some grown death eaters shudder. Astoria Greengrass was a sheltered child unlike her older more sultry sister, but that didn't mean she didn't know what her father's business was about. Or Draco's.
She was wearing a delicate dress and shimmering green slippers, her hair tied up in a braid that complimented her face, despite the blood on her clothes Draco could almost imagine her at home taking tea by herself before Avery and Rowle barged in, sitting in Lord Greengrass's room and pretending Daphne and her father were just a bit late. Trying to get up, Astoria stumbled and spit some blood before looking around the room, her eyes conveying a message as they locked with Draco's and continued to survey his mother, father, and accolades. in one glance, she told him all he needed to know: we-act-like-strangers she seemed to say.
It was good fortune alone the fact that Astoria's father indeed did hold her in higher regard than her sister, becoming an even stronger follower of Voldemort to spare his only remaining offspring, so it was good that the dark lord never actually got around to torturing her himself. Because if he'd seen her die, that might have finally sent Draco towards insanity.
It didn't mean she was spared the horrors, but at least as the hostage daughter of a loyal death eater, she got slightly better treatment than the rest of the prisoners that came their way. Bellatrix kept Astoria in the summer chamber, an actual bedroom that was used for guests in Malfoy Mannor, she was given very little food or water, beaten and cursed every few days but at least Astoria was clothed properly and spared the constant vigilance of the most sadistic death eaters.
the Averys laughingly dubbed the girl "little mermaid" because no matter the number of curses she was subjected to, the girl refused to beg, or scream, mute as a mermaid on land, she never talked to anybody except her father, who was allowed to visit some times. Draco hated to hear things like that, maybe knowing that she didn't scream was what got to him the most because he knew Astoria's favorite spell was the silencing charm. If she was being silent it was taking magic. So it was almost a relief to hear that Astoria's fragile health finally gave in, making her too weak to get up from the bed. Or be of any amusement to Avery and Rowle.
when he first snuck away from the death eaters chambers to visit her, Astoria cried. Draco held her tight against him and yeah she cried too. She was the one thing he wanted to protect the most in that bloody war, gentle Astoria, soft and witty, always saying what she thought about him or finding ways to surprise him. "And I can't even hold you" He whispered into her hair.
"But you want to" Astoria muttered trying not to sob more "That’s enough for me, I can cope, I'm stronger than father thinks"
"The dark lord would kill you, if he knew how important you are for me, he would do it to punish me, he might even force me to torture you myself" he confessed voicing his fears, holding her tighter "I'm sorry I let you get hurt, I'm so sorry Astoria, this is all my fault"
"No, don't say that, it was my Daphne's fault for what she did, besides, I know they've done worse to you," Astoria said tracing the dark mark on his arm "I cannot even begin to imagine the price you paid for this, but the death eaters that Crucio me like to gloat about what the dark lord does"
"the funny thing is that I wanted this, I've wanted it all my life, I chose this, I was offered a choice and this is where it got me"
"A choice between what exactly? the dark mark or death? your family or exile? What kind of choice is no choice at all? besides, we both know that if my body were healthy enough to endure the ritual without dying, I would have been forced to take the mark too"
"NO" Draco hissed, outraged "if it comes to choosing between letting you take the mark and death, make no mistake I would rather kill you myself"
"You would have me die?" Astoria said unable to believe her ears "Why?"
"It's better to die being yourself than live as the monsters the dark lord wants us all to be, trust me," Draco told her burrowing his face in her hair "I was fine, I thought I could endure this all before they captured you I could, but I'm a monster Astie, I Crucio and Imperius and laugh when other people feel pain, worse, I'm even more of a monster because I might end up killing the only girl who believes I'm not a terrible human being "
"I ..... I..,." How could Astoria deny what was true? How could she tell him he wasn't a monster when she knew it was a lie? When she knew that she'd have done anything to stop falling in love with him if she'd had a choice, instead Astoria told the truth "I think I can deal with the monster, I hate him and I hate the part of myself that can't stop loving him, but in the end, we are who we are and I'm Astoria Greengrass, I'm fifteen, I like tea, flower arrangements and I have blue eyes, I'm also in love with a boy named Draco Malfoy, he's seventeen, he likes quidditch and magic origami, he has blond hair and he is as much a part of me as the blood in my veins is...I cannot change those facts even if I wanted to"
"I wish I could kill them all for what they are doing to you, I want to Avada Avery and Rowle so badly, my little ironic mess of a lover, my pretty Astoria" Draco raised his head from her hair and looked into her eyes "You are mine right?"
"Yes, I'm yours" Astoria replied nodding and pulling him down for a kiss.
The days passed more hurried after that, with Astoria too sick to get up in front of Avery and Rowle and Draco suffering the mistreatment of other death eaters on his own, the worst days were when she himself heard him scream, close to him, a few chambers to the left, Astoria wasted away, too weak to even muster the force to cry, relying only on House-elves' sneaky visits to keep her faith and body alive.
So that's how the hourglass made its presence known... until he gave Astoria the heart slowing potion he'd managed to brew hazardously in his own bedroom so that even Avery and Rowle left her for dead... while Bellatrix and Ianthe Nott got the kicks out of practicing their imperius and crucios on him ... until Voldemort got bored of his death eater's antics ...until Potter was captured...and escaped...
Until he returned to Hogwarts to face whatever needed to be faced, an hour after sneaking in one lingering kiss to her feverish forehead and making a deathbed promise that he wouldn't die as long as she lived.
Later, much later, Harry Potter would ask Draco why, why he'd lied and not identified him in front of Bellatrix, and Draco would look away and mutter the name of someone locked away in the confines of Malfoy Mannor as an explanation, the name of a beautiful, broken girl running a high fever and as close to death as a witch without healers could get. And Harry would look at Draco and still not understand why the name Astoria Greengrass made all the difference to the Malfoy heir.
In the end, she survived, her father got to her right in time to make sure the Greengrass bloodline didn't end with her, Lord Hyperion apparated his daughter to St Mungo's while everyone else was busy fighting the battle of Hogwarts, cunning as only a first-generation Slytherin could be, Astoria's father chose his timing carefully, giving up nothing and everything at the same time, for the sake of his only remaining daughter, fighting off wards and unsavory death traps to get Astoria the help she needed.
So while Draco faced his worse fears in Hogwarts, confronting enemies and friends, flinging curses, and narrowly escaping death by magical fire, Astoria fought for her life in St Mungo's emergency quarters, with scars in her arms and legs, unhealed internal organs and a body on the brink of starvation, magical surgery saved her life but had her father brought her in one minute later, she would have joined Spica Malfoy as one of the Ghosts that haunted the Malfoy ancestral home.
Draco came to know about it only after Voldemort's final defeat when he returned to Malfoy Manor only to discover that Astoria was gone, he would have been devastated had he not seen the ashes from the floo network scattered all over the room, and following the trail straight to St Mungos not caring for his own injuries, Draco ran as fast as his legs could carry him until he forced a team of Medi witches to tell him where she was.
He found her in a private room (as befitting a pureblood heiress) propped up in a bed being fed potion after potion, she looked like hell, but then again so did he. And then she looked up.
And it was the beginning of things all over again...
Because she smiled
and he smiled
and while the world passed them by Astoria extended her fragile arm in his direction and asked "Fancy a second chance Draco?"
And Draco took her hand and squeezing her fingers he replied " I do... If there is a chance to be had, I'll take it with both hands" then he looked into her hopeful blue eyes and asked the question back to her "and what about you Astoria?"
"I think we've both survived death too many times to throw away a second chance" She replied with a trembling nod, squeezing his hand right back "Only this time we'll make better choices"
Those words marked the ending of a tragedy and the beginning of the love story neither thought they'd ever get to live.