Always, Astoria

Epilogue I

      Astoria Greengrass Malfoy never realized how much she enjoyed sunlight until it became a rarity for her. To feel anything on her skin besides her own filth, and scabs would be a small blessing. She knew how many bricks lined the walls of her cell, what the bars tasted like that kept her secluded, and how those clothed demons smelt of mist as they swayed past her night by night. She knew what their demonic kisses felt like, pure ecstasy for her. At this point, she even knew what her own blood tasted like, smelt like, felt like as it dribbled down her skin.

The demonic kiss of a dementor, she knew what that felt like as well. The memory of that day in court still makes her mouth kick up at the side when the Minister made the decree.

"Bloody, idiots." Astoria thought to herself when she heard the court ruling. The Minister of Magic declared for Astoria's soul to be surrendered to the ministry, and as punishment for her crimes she would spend her days rotting in Azkaban.

Her dementors kiss was showed off like a circus act. The cage that encased her became a slab of metal, her cuffs were instantly bolted down to the metal table, the bars surrounded her to form a square shape. No entrance or exit to be seen unless one had the ability to fly. The top of the cage was exposed, and the veil to the dementors was lifted. She braced herself for what the kiss would feel like, if it would cause her pain, or if it would send her into a permanent state of psychosis.

What did it feel like to be soulless?

The world believed her to be soulless, sometimes Astoria believed the lie as well, but no person without a soul could feel love, and she had felt more love in her life than most could only dream.

As the dementor floated down to greet her, she greeted it with a serpent's smile. The smile that once fooled hundreds to believe she was proud to be the Dark Lord's precious one. The smile that invited the kiss of death. The smile she wanted plastered all over the papers to show the world, she would not exit this bloody world kicking or screaming for her life, rather she went out as she entered, bound and fearless.

She knew the moment they caught her attempting to flee the country that she would no longer know what it felt like to be free again.

Freedom was for people like Hermione Granger and Harry Potter, it's a pity they're both rotting in the ground. The thought of her knife slicing through Potter's tender skin by her hand and her wand being the one to end Granger's pathetic life sent an unholy sensation through her body.

Astoria had survived it all—they hadn't. They hadn't a quarter of the strength she earned. Pathetic. Both of them, for thinking they could defeat Voldemort so young and inexperienced.

As Astoria clutched the bars of the cage to glance around the courtroom, she was only looking for two people, and they were not present. She said a silent prayer to Merlin that Pansy and Theodore Nott escaped from Britain. She instructed them to head across the Atlantic, to the United States. Americans were dim-witted and refused to aid the British Ministry when the Dark Lord was at large. The American Ministry would have no reason to stop a couple travelling with a newborn.

A newborn, her newborn, her daughter, Priscilla. She was no longer in England, the farther she was from Astoria and Draco the better.

That is what Astoria told herself every morning, noon, and night. It always felt like a lie she was trying to make herself believe, but she had no other choice. Pansy would be the mother Astoria could not be, and Theo would be the father Draco was not able to be.

Draco Malfoy, heir to the Malfoy estate, esteemed member of the Death Eater high council, and Astoria's husband. The day Astoria was captured at the docks, was also the day she was ripped from Draco's arms. She could smell the sea breeze, taste the freedom on her tongue, but she felt him push her from his grasp to give her a running start to the apparition point. Astoria refused to leave him; she promised him she would never. The instant she felt him leave her grasp she whirled on the circle of auror's that cocooned them. Astoria and Draco fought for their lives, for their daughters' life, but it was not enough.