If I Lose Myself

Chapter Seventeen: Astoria

If I Lose Myself

by EMPG22HoPe

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Chapter Seventeen: Astoria

April 1997

A great illness...

It's much worse than any kind of illness, child...

But it is dark, dark magic, I presume...

Very dark magic that not even the Dark Lord could have possibly conjured...

Old, dark magic...

And the Seer... the Seer who spoke of Cassandra's second child!

It is most commonly told that a female Greengrass is dangerous among the family...

The Seer... the things she's seen...

It was on a bleak Saturday afternoon when a certain witch gave a great gasp from a bed within the hospital wing. Its occupant, Astoria Greengrass, wretched and heaved large breaths after bolting awake at last from where she laid. Her eyes swept the space, feeling feverish as she fumbled for something in her clean, white robes. Memories of the time before darkness consumed her came flashing before her eyes.

The pensieve... Cassiopeia and Hyperion Greengrass... Aunt Cressida...

"Astoria!" came the loud cry of a familiar blonde Astoria had not even realized was beside her.

Daphne rubbed the sleep off her eyes furtively as she scrambled to sit on the side of the younger Greengrass's bed. "Oh, thank Merlin you're alright! I thought we'd lost you and—oh, Astoria!"

Astoria was pushed back by the great force to which Daphne had entrapped her in a tight and sobbing hug. She patted the blonde's back carefully, shushing her gently before Daphne finally pulled away; tears streaming down her bright, green eyes.

"How long have I been away?" Astoria croaked weakly, feeling her throat close up in dryness.

Daphne hurried to take the empty goblet on Astoria's bedside table, muttered a quick Aguamenti before offering it to her. As Astoria took large, grateful gulps of the water, Daphne answered her.

"It's been a month, actually! You woke up just in time. It's Easter in two weeks' time. Mum and dad wants us to come home, especially you. Mum was livid you hadn't been sent to St. Mungo's like that Katie Bell girl. She was worried sick!" Daphne's reply came in rapid-fire words, as if bursting with all the information of a single month to explode. "Mum and dad came, of course, but they're back at home. They just visited you last week and brought you some sweets! Dad's even thinking we shouldn't attend Hogwarts next year with all that's been happening—"

"Alright, slow down, Daph. I'm alright now, see?" Astoria jested softly, now being able to speak her normal, though weary, voice as she offered a little smile. "I don't know what's happened, though. Could you please tell me? One minute I was with Professor Dumbledore, just leaving Aunt Cress's pensieve memory when I suddenly blacked out."

"Oh, it was dreadful!" Daphne said tearfully as she wiped away her wet cheeks with a hanky. "When Dumbledore brought you here a month ago, you were green all over. You were producing symptoms of both dragon pox and Spattergroit! You had purple pustules all over your face and your skin had green and purple rashes! We thought, oh goodness." Daphne sobbed some more before she went on breathlessly. "We thought you were done for! But mercy, you've only had those symptoms for a week. Professor Snape and Madame Pomfrey's potions worked like a charm, but you weren't waking up. I thought, I really thought we lost you..."