Light in the Darkness

Chapter Fifteen

The Greengrasses did not show up to the Bulstrode's party the following weekend. 

In the days after the exposure of their secret, the house had been very quiet indeed.

Her family was utterly beside themselves. Her father was tense and flustered, her mother moping and distraught, Daphne dazed and distracted.

Astoria however, was, in a sense, indifferent. A calmness floating about her, two polar emotions finding a middle ground of tranquility.

Initially, all she could feel was light as a feather and bright as the summer sky. Draco was no longer engaged. He wouldn't have to marry someone he didn't want to, he wouldn't be trapped. And, he didn't tell her secret.

And, she was quite enjoying the breezy feeling on her left ring finger after her mother had finally removed the ring.

However, the more pessimistic, or, perhaps just mature side of her was torn up in shreds of worry. Worry for her sister. Who would want to marry Daphne now; surely Theodore Nott's sight was set elsewhere after the revelations. Yet, a sense of relief came with this worrisome repercussion too; Daphne wouldn't marry him -- wouldn't have to marry him -- for he wouldn't marry her. It was an arrangement Astoria could live with, even if her sister could not.

She and Daphne could live in the Greengrass estate for the rest of their days. Perhaps not what Daphne found comforting, but enticing nonetheless to Astoria.

Then again, without Daphne's marriage, they would have no protection from the Augury except their pureblood status, and that excuse was wearing dangerously thin in recent days, in light of recent events. . . .

Astoria wasn't sure of the Augury's climate pertaining to their situation. After all, her family never had any dealings with them, so how could she anticipate their reaction? She assumed they didn't care either way. Why would they? They had no affiliation, so no need for concern.

The only reaction she was concerned about, however, was Draco's.

She didn't know what he was thinking about her. Not that it mattered anyway, she reminded herself. Her very short lived saga with Draco Malfoy was over. Engaged to Pansy or not, she was still dying, and he was still a pureblood who probably didn't want his bloodline crossed with a cursed girl's.

And so, too tired and too resigned to sort out her many battling emotions, she let them simmer off to the side and let the calm indifference roll in.

That was until, of course, her mother informed her they'd be going to the Flint's party the next Sunday evening.

"What?"

"You heard me, get dressed."

"Mum -- NO! We can't -- we can't show up there like everything is normal, especially with the whole Pans --"

"We already missed last week's, and if we're not there, it'll only look that much worse!" Her mother's temper fell as fast as it had risen.

They were both quiet for a moment. "What about the Parkinsons. . . ."

"What about them?"

"Well, considering I'm the reason Pansy is no longer --" She sighed, not finishing with the word 'engaged'.

Her mother took in a deep breath. "We will keep to ourselves. Avoid confrontation completely. Lord knows that's the last thing we need." Her mother was already standing and leaving the room by the time her last words were muttered.

Astoria sat there, feeling all the indifference she'd built concave, her insides writhing and squirming with a stampede of anxiety.