fearless || d.m. x a.g.

01 - on a balcony in summer air (then)

1989

—

Eyes wide, Astoria stares up at her older sister from her spot on the floor of the Greengrass Manor.

She'd always wished she shared her sister's eyes. Even though her own brown eyes shone bright as she looked up at Daphne, she longed for the twinkling gray irises that Astoria swore became blue when her sister looked back at her. To Astoria, Daphne's eyes shone like the silver that lined the clouds that sat in serenity on the vast blue sky above the park they liked to play at. They were like the little Scottish fold kittens that padded on the cobblestone outside their home, peering in to observe the glimpses of life inside the Greengrass Manor. With just two years between the sisters, Astoria liked to convince herself the strangers on the street saw them as twins. But at just seven years old, she already knows they don't even look related.

Priscilla Greengrass gently brushes through Daphne's dirty blonde hair that matches her own, and like on many mornings before today, Astoria wishes she didn't inherit her father's dark hair. In fact, she wishes she didn't resemble her father in any way. Her mother sets the hairbrush down on the bureau and strings her hands through Daphne's hair, weaving braids on either side of her head.

"Mother, can you give me braids just like Daphne's?" Astoria sits up straighter, watching closely at where her mother secures the first baby blue ribbon at the end of her older daughter's hair.

"I already brushed your hair earlier, Astoria dear." Priscilla uses her fingers to comb through the other half of Daphne's hair.

Astoria shifts to sit with her calves beneath her as she replies, "But I want my hair to look just like my sister's."

"Daphne gets special braids today because it's her birthday; you know that. Plus, you'll be in your room the whole party, so nobody would see your braids anyways." She places her arm on Astoria's shoulder, but the gesture is no comfort to the young girl.

Quickly, Astoria gets up and retreats off to her own room. Just before she exits her sister's, Daphne extends her arm out, brushing it against the younger girl's hand.

She pulls out the dolls that sit neatly on her shelf; her uncle gifted her a set of the four Hogwarts founders on her own birthday five months ago. Her family members certainly expected her to favor Salazar Slytherin and the small woolen snake that came in the same box, but Astoria personally doesn't see the point of buying the whole set if she's just going to neglect most of it. She holds up Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff next to each other, and like on many days before this, finds their complexion to carry an eerily similar resemblance to the two Greengrass sisters.

As she brushes through Helga's unruly hair, she hears Daphne's guests begin to enter the manor. Astoria can't wait to make her own friends when she starts school, because all of her and her sisters' friends are just the children of those their parents have connections with. She frequently heard talk of the Sacred Twenty-Eight and preserving the magical bloodlines that have been kept pure for so long. Both Daphne and Astoria grew used to seeing the Malfoys and the Notts, the Parkinsons and the Bulstrodes. Unfortunately for Astoria, even though she longed to meet other children on her own, none of these families had children the same age as her. Everyone she knew was Daphne's age, and while two years is no big difference, she knows she will always be seen as Daphne's younger sister.

It doesn't seem fair to Astoria that she isn't allowed downstairs at Daphne's party. Sisters are friends too, aren't they? But as Mordred Greengrass stated over and over during the past few nights at dinner, Astoria was just going to get in the way and be a bother. It's always the same thing, no matter what she does differently; Daphne is polite and well-behaved, while Astoria is an inconvenience. So, she resolves to keep herself busy here, no matter how much more she'd like to be downstairs in the company of her peers.