She || Drastoria

14 - Forget-Me-Not

A/N: Just a warning that this chapter contains scenes that some readers may find upsetting.

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summer, nineteen ninety seven
* six years earlier *

She was frightened, Astoria could see it on her face.

"I need to go back early," Lyra confessed, her blue eyes large and fearful behind her glasses. "My parents are worried. Now that Dumbledore is dead..."

"But you'll be safe here!" Astoria implored, selfishly so because she couldn't bear the thought of spending a single day at Hogwarts without her best friend. "I'll look after you. It doesn't matter that you're a Muggle-born, Professor McGonagall wouldn't let anything happen."

But Lyra just shook her head, her bunches swinging wildly from side to side. "It's bad, Torie, surely you must see that? Benji sent me an owl this morning, begging me to come home. He- he wants you to come too. Say you will, oh please, Torie."

"I can't," Astoria said, torn between being with her best friend and attending the funeral of the man who had encouraged her to pursue the Healer path ("I see a kindness in you that is very rare, Miss Greengrass. You have a potential to help people and heal them. Use it wisely."), "I need to stay, I need to say goodbye to him."

Lyra tearfully nodded, understanding. And, after making Astoria promise that she would join her at her parents' house straight after the funeral, they hugged one another fiercely goodbye.

Astoria would never forget that hug.

Two days later, she hopped off the train in Kings Cross, confused as to why Lyra's parents weren't there to greet her like they had arranged.

And, even though she was only fifteen, Astoria jumped into a taxi and gave her best friend's address, promising the driver payment on arrival.

The taxi driver, being a Muggle, couldn't see the eiree glow of the green skull hovering above the modest townhouse that he pulled up in front of.

He also couldn't understand why the girl in the back seat had gone a sickly pale colour as she stared out of the window, unmoving.

"This it, doll?" He asked loudly, sensing that her hearing wasn't quite there.

Astoria nodded numbly as she shakily opened the door and stepped out into the unnaturally cold July afternoon.

"I'll just wait here for the fare, then." The taxi driver called after her as she walked up the path to the front door. "Don't dally, mind, the meter's still running."

The front door was already open, hanging off its hinges, in fact.

She slipped inside, her heart racing against her ribs. She knew she should stop, turn around and go home.

But this place had been her home for the past three summers. It was the place she'd felt love and happiness, where no one looked at her with pity in their eyes. It was the place she loved more than Hogwarts itself because it was where her best friend lived.

Beautiful Lyra who didn't let arseholes like Draco Malfoy get her down even though his constant use of verbal abuse against her made her feel as though she never really truly belonged in the wizarding world.

The place was ransacked, unrecognisable from the neat, yet sometimes chaotic sight that had greeted her in the past. No scent of home cooked pancakes wafting from the kitchen, no sounds of running feet as Benji ran down the stairs to throw his arms around her in his usual excitable fashion.