She || Drastoria

11 - The Curse

summer, nineteen ninety five
* eight years earlier *

"A blood curse?!"

Lyra's mouth gaped open as her best friend dropped her deepest and darkest secret.

"My ancestor of many generations ago pissed off a dark wizard, it seemed," Astoria shrugged. "No one knows why, just that it has randomly resurfaced in me."

"But, what does it mean?" Lyra asked, her eyes wide with morbid fascination.

"It means I'm not destined for old age," a flicker of a smile at her lips - ironic, of course, "some would say it's a gift, but it really isn't, Ly. It's scary and..." she tailed away as that familiar trickle of fear crept around her heart, "lonely."

A hand slipped into hers, Astoria smiled gratefully up at her dearest friend who squeezed it lovingly, thankful she had her to confide in.

"You won't be lonely, Torie," Lyra assured her, "you'll have me. And my parents. And Benji. We'll all look after you, you know that?"

Astoria nodded, tears spilling down her face.

"Oh, Torie. Is there really nothing...?"

Astoria shook her head. It's not, of course, like her parents hadn't tried to find a way, a cure or anything that could stop the curse from carrying out its deadly deed.

But the magic was far too superior, too dark to undo. No one really understood the reasons behind it or why it had happened to Astoria and not Daphne.

When it transpired that there was no stopping it, Astoria's parents distanced their love from her, barely being able to look at their youngest daughter anymore. Whether from guilt or simply self preservation, Astoria was never sure.

They forbade their daughters to tell anyone outside the family, claiming it would destroy Astoria's quality of life if people found out. And so they did not, with Astoria more than happy not to see the same look of pain and desolation that filled her parents' faces whenever she walked into a room.

But when, after witnessing the tragic untimely demise of fellow student, Cedric Diggory, and with the deep discussion of death that followed afterwards, she finally felt it was time she confided in Lyra.

Astoria was relieved that it only seemed to cement their friendship further rather than push her away. And more than that, Lyra, who loved to put a positive spin on anything, somehow made her feel less tragic about it all.

"Aren't we all counting the days in a way, though?" She mused, not unkindly. "I mean, look at poor Cedric - this morning he woke up thinking he had his whole life ahead of him, and now... what I mean to say is, if we all live every day like it's our last, give the best we have got in the moment and don't plan for the future, then it isn't a life wasted, wouldn't you agree?"

Lyra's words struck something in Astoria, her curse finally becoming something that no longer defined her or controlled her. So, she stuck two fingers up it and said 'fuck you, curse, you may have taken my future but you can't take my now'.

Even after tragedy struck, she carried on, taking Lyra's words with her in her heart as each morning she woke up, gave the best to life that she could give, and never, ever looked to the future.