Astoria → Draco Malfoy

CHAPTER ONE

"If I'm dead to you why are you at the wake?"

Packing her trunk, Astoria was overwhelmed by one feeling and one feeling alone: nostalgia. As she folded her clothes, she recalled the excitement she had felt the very first time she had prepared to go to Hogwarts, the rush of joy as she had packed her entire life into one meagre trunk, the thrill as she piled spell books higher than she could see. When Astoria had first packed her trunk to go to Hogwarts, her sister Daphne had been right beside her and today was no different.

After the war, with no family left to turn to, Astoria and Daphne had made their house feel more like home. Gone were the enslaved house elves, the books containing dark magic, the bars on the windows. Although her family were nowhere near as bad as the rest of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, the Greengrass family still had to uphold the values instilled in them.

During the war, Astoria's home had become a place of gathering for Death Eaters and during those times, she hadn't been able to leave her room. Astoria had resided in her room for weeks on end, for every holiday or break between terms she had stayed in one place. Although confinement to her room had made Astoria a far more competent witch than she had ever imagined, she still wished she could have had freedom, or at least the false sense of freedom Daphne was provided with.

Though Astoria had been evacuated during the final battle, she had still seen more darkness than she even knew existed. Professor McGonagall had done her best to avoid students being harmed but Astoria was one of the few who had not been so lucky. A deep scar across the length of her forearm was a constant reminder of everything she had been through, everything she had seen, everything that would one day be in the history books.

"It will fade." Her sister Daphne whispered quietly, taking Astoria's arm in her hand and tracing the scar with her dainty fingers.

"I know." Astoria knew it was true, scars didn't last forever, but she couldn't stop herself from looking at it whenever she felt moments of anxiety; the thought of returning to Hogwarts was enough to cause one of those moments.

"We're going to be okay. People will forgive us, and we will forgive them." Daphne took her hand, squeezing it gently. "It's just another, normal year."

Astoria knew it wasn't, but it was likely best to pretend it simply was. Nothing would be the same at Hogwarts, the majority of Slytherins had chosen the wrong side and it wasn't something Astoria thought the other students would forget any time soon. Students had died and they were responsible.

A loud thump brought Astoria's attention back to her packing. "Daphne be careful with my books." She called to her sister who had dropped a large pile of textbooks on the floor around her. Astoria kneeled on the floor beside her and began to collect the books into a pile, before wordlessly casting a spell to lift them into her trunk.

"Who's going back this year?" Astoria asked, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

Daphne paused before answering, as though searching for the names within her mind. "Not many people. Theodore, Luna, Hannah, Draco, Millicent, Hermione. I think that's about it from my year."

Astoria wasn't surprised how few students were returning, if she had experienced what some of them had, she would never look back. She knew there would be a similar amount in her year who would return, very few students were keen to return to the place that caused them such harm. "I assume Luna and Ginny will come back, but who even knows anymore?" Astoria wouldn't have been surprised if she was all alone when she returned.

"It will be strange having you in my year. You're too young to be finishing Hogwarts in only a few months!" Daphne sat beside her sister on the bed.

"I'm hardly too young! I'm of the exact age most students are when they finish Hogwarts." Astoria retorted in a matter-of-fact manner.