Astoria → Draco Malfoy

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

"magic's not here no more"

When she opened her eyes, she saw her father in all his glory, "how lovely to see you again Astoria..."

She raised her wand, "what do you want? Just let us live! Take your punishment!"

"Punishment?" He scoffed, "I deserved none of that, not for following my Dark Lord. I deserved the glory, that is what we were promised when we joined his ranks, that will not end with him. Do you really think Grindelwald's ideals ended when he was imprisoned?" Her father shook his head at her, "we continue to fight for blood purity, to rid ourselves of those mudbloods."

"Millicent was a pure blood." The girl who had died only a few hours ago, likely at his hands, was nothing more than a casualty of war, one he likely did not wish to inflict.

"She was in the way," he sneered at her, "Millicent was in the bedroom of a mudbloods, she made a mistake and it cost her her life."

"She did nothing wrong!" Astoria protested, the life of someone she knew had been snatched, and to her father, it meant nothing.

Adrian Greengrass shook his head at his daughter, "you will never understand Astoria, you were always too naive. Now, drop your wand Astoria."

But she couldn't, instead Astoria clutched her wand tighter, wishing she could find the strength to say the words she needed to, but her father had something over her, he knew exactly how to keep her wrapped around his finger.

"What have you done?" She glanced around the room she was in, searching for clues as to her location but it was futile. All she could see was a dim lit table in the corner of the small room. "What do you even want?"

"Drop the wand."

Astoria shook her head, "tell me what you want. Leave us alone, please!" She pleaded with her father, "please, just go..."

"Expelliarmus," he called out, catching her wand with his hand. "You were never going to use this against me anyway Astoria, not you."

"Where's Draco?"

"Mr Malfoy?" He raised his eyebrows, "he is not with us."

Her heart sank in her chest, "don't lie to me! You took him!"

"Why would I take Draco Malfoy, when he is nothing to me? Think Astoria, I wouldn't do something without a purpose." He laughed at her naivete, she truly hadn't grown up, she was still the child he remembered from all those years ago.

"Where is he then?" She ran her eyes around the room, "if he isn't here, where is he?"

Adrian twirled her wand in his hands, "how should I know where the boy is? I have not seen or heard from that traitor Lucius since we broke out."

"You haven't?" She said, taken aback.

"I assume that man took his son, he always spoke so weakly about reuniting with his family, taking them somewhere safe...." He scoffed at the idea, as though it were beneath him. "I would not run, I am here to reunite my family and make a name for us,  not run from our destiny.

"You threatened to kill Daphne," she reminded him, "that doesn't seem like you wanted to reunite us..."

"I would never, ever hurt her in that way."

"But" she thought back to that night, "you threatened to, you threatened her life in front of your own daughter."

"I needed to scare you Astoria, I knew you were weak, you wouldn't join me without risk. And look," he nodded at her, "my risk paid off... Here you are now, before me."