Sweets: The Tale of Astoria Greengrass

A New World Coming

Astoria Greengrass stood looking out at the Great Hall, or what remained of it. The dead were piled on the sides and in surrounding corridors. The living were resting, celebrating, or guarding the Death Eaters they had rounded up, her parents among them.

She took part in this battle. Not a large part, like Draco Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov, or even the Dark Lord himself. But she still played a part. She helped Slughorn find and bring reinforcements to the battle after Harry Potter had "died."

She helped fight her own parents. She survived several skirmishes and she was not entirely sure if some of the curses she had fired had killed or not. She did not want to know if they did.

Astoria dreamed about that morning most nights. Even if her dreams were about something else entirely, it always managed to slip in, like it had that morning. She sat up in her bed and stared out at the gardens beyond the tall windows. Her bare feet tapped the cold hardwood floor gingerly before completely stepping down.

She stepped into the small alcove created by the tall windows, and placed her pale fingers against the glass. She could remember when she was small and she played in the gardens all day. That was before she was diagnosed with her illness. She remembered that day well.

It started with a cough.

Astoria was five years old and had severe coughing fits and a disturbingly high fever for a week. Finally afraid, Waldorf and Queenie took their youngest daughter to the pediatric Healer's office in St. Mungo's. Astoria had fuzzy memories of many tests- lots of spells cast on her and potions and the like.

What she remembered crystal-clear was Healer Prewett's grave face as he pulled her parents aside, leaving her and Daphne to sit outside the office, waiting and attempting to eavesdrop. She remembered listening at the door, but no sound coming through. Then the Healer opened the door and pulled just her in.

"Astoria, there is a curse in your family," he said. "It's genetic- often skips a few generations like it did for your mother. You are very sick. You might be able to live a normal life if you eat healthy, if you take the right potions and don't over-exert yourself. But there will be things that you cannot do if you want to not risk your health."

"Like what?" Astoria asked.

"The main thing is children," Healer Prewett said. "It would shorten your lifespan dramatically if you had children."

At the time, that hadn't been a big deal. Adulthood seemed impossibly far away, and children was the last thing on her mind. The more pressing matter was that she could not play Quidditch or Quodpot or participate in Dueling Club because they would drain her energy too much. She couldn't play like she used to.

As she'd gotten older, as she'd had a few boyfriends, she began to think about it more. Even the very act of making the baby would take a toll on her. At least she had an excuse for abstinence every time her boyfriends tried pushing her into things she just didn't want to do.

Her stomach grumbled. She turned away from the window, grabbed her wand off the nightstand, and padded softly down the stairs as to not wake her family. She wished she'd remembered to put on her bathrobe. It was chilly and drafty in the manor when it wasn't being maintained for the benefit of her mother's parties. Astoria also got colder because of her frail body.

She stepped into the kitchen. The house-elf, Rhys, appeared.

"Mistress Astoria," Rhys said with a bow. "How may I assist you?"

"Hello, Rhys," Astoria said with a smile. "Could I have a mug of tea, please? And maybe an omelette, if it wouldn't trouble you too much."

"Not at all, Mistress Astoria," Rhys said. "No trouble at all for Rhys's mistress."

"Thank you," Astoria said. She then walked out to the breakfast nook. The walls were painted gold so that the light hit it perfectly when the sun rose. It was a little after sunrise, so it did not have quite the same effect, but Astoria still thought it a pretty room. She opened the French doors to let the warm summer air heat up the house. She inhaled the scent of her mother's roses and peonies, feeling like she was a secure pureblood girl again.

She would never be that girl again, not now.

Astoria would never again believe muggles and muggle-borns to be inferior to her. After all, her best friend was a muggle-born. And she could never pretend that she hadn't always had some fascination with the muggles, even if she did at one point believe herself superior to them. She thought of her stash of muggle objects hidden under her window-seat and in her trunk.

That girl had disappeared a long time ago.

With a crack Rhys appeared in the breakfast nook. He set down the tea mug filled to the brim and steaming.

"Mistress's omelette will come out in a few more minutes," he promised before he disappeared. Astoria lamented that she could not thank him, but pressed her hands around the mug, warming her hands.

In exactly one week she would go back to Hogwarts. She would be in the house of disgrace- Slytherin. Astoria could honestly say that she never had expected that day to come. It would be an interesting year, that was for sure. There were too many scars for everything to go back to how it was.

Take her family, for example. Her father was in Azkaban, her mother under house arrest until Astoria graduated, then off to Azkaban with her father, and her sister only managing a desk job in the Ministry while the rest of her classmates were Aurors and other such high-ranking individuals. Even Draco Malfoy was in a higher position because his mother had saved Potter, or something like that!

Astoria supposed it was just how life was. Nothing lasts forever.

AN: This is the first in a story detailing Astoria's life after the Wizarding War with flashbacks to her childhood. I hope you'll continue to read about her. Astoria fascinates me in Cursed Child because why would such an angel marry him? It's a question that drew me to first Dramione, and now Drastoria. I'd like to write more about this mystery witch. I hope you will as well.