Daphne was the perfect pureblood daughter. Lord and Lady Greengrass were truly lucky. She took to the teachings about tradition, standings, her line and why it was important to be pure like a dragon to fire. Even as a little girl she seemed to want to follow the pureblood rules perfectly, spent hours dressing up in order to look like a perfect pureblood heiress, practiced with her eloquence tutor without complaining, and proudly identified with the believes of the SOW party. Well, there was only one thing that could have made her parents prouder of their firstborn child: if they would have been blessed with an heir instead of an heiress. Naturally, the family line could continue with Daphne and there were still multiple possibilities for an appropriate match, but no high standing pureblood family would marry their firstborn heir to the Greengrass heiress with the intention of taking on the Greengrass name. And due to the low birth rate second heirs, or “spares” were not as common as they used to.
Then of course, only a year after the birth of Daphne, the Greengrass family was blessed with a second child and despite their hopes for a male heir, it was another girl. While the family was thanking Merlin that their second born was not cursed with the Fade, the disappointment of her being a girl was still palpable. Astoria grew up in the shadows of her sister. While Daphne was outspoken, took to the teachings and her heiress training with aplomb, Astoria was shy, dare say meek, listened to her tutors but preferred sitting next to a window daydreaming. Astoria knew that as soon as her parents found a match, which they found appropriate she would be betrothed and married off. She would be helping her family by creating close connections to another good, traditional, dark pureblood family but realistically speaking she was a means to an end.
While her parents spent time preparing Daphne for overtaking the Greengrass estate at some point and knowing that Daphne would live her life in the same manor as themselves, the Greengrass ancestry home, Astoria was taught that while she would be married into another line, it was important that she would always remember that she was born a Greengrass and improving the standing of the Greengrasses was her main concern. Important information she gathered should be passed along to Daphne, her marital match would be for connections and not for something silly as love and during her schooling she was to impress her professors and peers, but never outshine her sisters achievements in any way, as it would throw a bad light on the Greengrass heiress.
By the time Astoria was 10 and her sister attended her first year at Hogwarts she had given up hope that this year would mean her parents gave her more attention, as she was the only daughter home. She still used to daydream about her future but did not dare think of any of her dreams becoming a reality. Astoria did enjoy not having her sister close, while she loved her dearly, Astoria always felt like a disappointment next to her perfect sister, so this time apart could have helped to improve her self-esteem. Instead she carefully collected her sisters letters and the regular reports about her schooling to learn about which people to avoid next year, whom to be friendly with, and not to forget to know in which subjects she was allowed to be good and how far along her studies should be to make her family proud but not bring shame by knowing better than Daphne. On the one hand she was looking forward to joining her sister in Hogwarts, be sorted into Slytherin, and escaping the manor she had never really felt at home, but on the other hand she was scared about what was to come once she started school. What if her masks were not as perfect as they should? There were so many different students at Hogwarts, what if she found people she genuinely liked, but she was not allowed to be friends with? She couldn’t really be her true self, she was supposed to make her family proud, she was a Greengrass she was not supposed to think of her own happiness, but what was best for her family. She could only hope that whoever she was betrothed to would be a good match and she would still be allowed to dream and maybe even show part of her true self when in private.
A year later she did join her sister at Hogwarts, got sorted into Slytherin, managed to start a tentative friendship with the girls in her dorm even if she found their personalities a bit dull and did her best to stay in the background and not bring shame on her family. She had weekly meetings with her sister, in which she reported every bit of information she could gather from her fellow first years, which might be of importance. Every time she stepped into the common room or joined their house table, she felt watched. Secretly jealous she watched the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff table, at which some students seemed to be truly themselves, sticking out of a crowd but at the same time content and dare she even think happy for not fitting the norm? Astoria tried not to think too much about it and instead carefully observed the boys in Slytherin and wondered if her future betrothed would be one of them. Astoria started daydreaming about some of them but kept carefully quiet about her desires. She knew it would not be her choice in the end, so why set herself up for disappointment? Still there was a certain blond second year that took up a place of prominence in her daydreams.
At the start of her second year, her friends having filled up a whole carriage and her having to take a different one instead, it happened to be Draco Malfoy, Rigel Black and Pansy Parkinson that joined her in the carriage from Hogsmeade station to Hogwarts. Not only was she scared of the invisible horses in front of the carriage without her friends there, the boy that she silently hoped to be betrothed to was sitting next to her and noticed that she feared thestrals. Could it be that he had paid her more attention than she thought? Could it be that he would like to be matched with her? She remembered that he did not get along with her sister, but from what she observed of his friendship with Parkinson and Black he was open to some quirkiness and was protective of his friends. Would he be as protective of his wife, even if it was an arranged marriage? Could he accept her for whom she was? Astoria allowed herself a slither of hope and at the time Valentine’s day came around she gathered her courage together and wrote him a note. He continued to ignore her. She returned further into her shell.
After another summer of intense training in what was expected of her as the second daughter Astoria started her third year expecting to be betrothed by next summer. She had accepted it. Had known her whole life that this is what would happen eventually. Her secret glances to the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw table got less and less frequent. Then the announcement about the tournament came. There would be students from abroad. Muggleborns and Halfbloods. Here at Hogwarts. Close enough to interact. She knew she would not be able to interact with them, her sister would know the second she talked to them and report back to their parents. Still she secretly began to wonder if muggleborns and halfbloods also lived as restricted in social norms and rules as the purebloods. Were their schools similar to Hogwarts? Naturally, her tutors had taught her that those with less pure blood were worth less, not as civilized, sometimes even carried unknown diseases. But were those beliefs completely true? Surely there had to be at least some decent people that were not purebloods. That night, the rest of the girls in her dorms already fast asleep, she lay awake, staring at the ceiling and wondered, would it be better if she wouldn’t be a pureblood? Sure, she could not attend Hogwarts in that case, would not be accepted in the circles she had spent her life in, but would she be allowed to live her life like she wanted? Choose whom to marry? Choose her friends and interests? Almost scared about the direction her thoughts had wandered she fell asleep, dreaming about a life as a half blood.
And then it happened. Her head of house, Severus Snape, entered one of her afternoon classes, requested her presence at the Headmasters office and she was told quite bluntly “Your sister Daphne is a half blood. She will have to leave Hogwarts, so best say your goodbyes.” She could see her sister crying in a chair, shaking her head, not believing what she had learned in the last hour, muttering about wanting to wake up from this nightmare. Astoria blinked and her thoughts raced. What did this mean for her? Was her father her father? Would she become the Greengrass heiress, having to live at the Greengrass manor with her parents, suddenly having to undergo the heiress training her sister had already completed? Living under even more restrictions? Or... dare she hope it… was she less than a pureblood, too? Could this be the beginning of a life of being herself? Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the flames in the fireplace turn green and Lord and Lady Greengrass stepped out of the fire, dressed immaculate for an unscheduled, important meeting with the headmaster of their daughters. In that moment Astoria knew, the next minutes would change her future, there was no turning back. She did not know if the changes would be for the better or worse, but nothing would be the same as it was. The days of Astoria Greengrass, second born daughter of Lord and Lady Greengrass were over.