the blood curse: a drastoria fanfiction

a broken heart pt. II

"rowling said that pansy parkinson did not end up marrying draco malfoy because rowling always hated her. she said, 'she's every girl who ever teased me at school ... I loathe her." 
                               - an interview with j.k. rowling

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It was the next morning, and Pansy woke Astoria up as usual. The sleepy girl noticed that Pansy's eyes were red and watery, so she tried to stay out of her friend's way. However, Pansy sought her out at breakfast.

"We broke up."

Astoria put her fork down. "Oh, Pansy... I'm so sorry," she said, comforting her friend.

"I broke up with him," Pansy continued, casting a forlorn look towards the blond boy eating at the opposite end of the Slytherin table. "Because of you."

Astoria swallowed her eggs quickly and looked at her friend. "Wait, what?"

"He's always around you. He follows you everywhere and practically ignores me whenever you're in the room. And he tried to kiss you, Astoria! I can't be with him if he's secretly in love with my best friend," Pansy said, looking even more miserable.

"Let me explain," Astoria protested, growing more and more uncomfortable by the minute.

"You don't need to, Astoria. I always knew you liked him, but I'd never have guessed he actually liked you back," she spat, starting to collect her things and leave the Great Hall.

"Wait!" Astoria said, picking up her bag and following her friend. As soon as the doors to the Great Hall were closed behind them, Astoria grabbed her friend's shoulder. "Please, just let me talk for five minutes. Then you never have to speak to me again, I promise."

Pansy nodded slightly, avoiding Astoria's eyes.

"Draco keeps following me because he thinks I'm sick and wants to help me. I kept telling him nothing was wrong and to stop following me but he wouldn't. That's also why he tried to kiss me, actually," Astoria admitted guiltily. "He thought that I'd tell him anything if he kissed me because I've always liked him." She'd never outright told Pansy that she liked Draco before, and the atmosphere grew more awkward with every word. "I wouldn't let him because you guys were dating and I'd never do that to you. Please believe me, Pansy. You know I'd never intentionally hurt you."

Pansy sighed. "Just stay away from me for a little while, Astoria. I need space. But be happy we're still friends... that'll change if I see you with Draco, I promise."

Astoria sighed in relief. "I don't want to be near him either -"

"Just go!" Pansy shrieked, and Astoria immediately left feeling even more awful than before. She'd gotten Draco off her back but almost lost a friend in the process.

Lost in her thoughts, Astoria didn't even realize where she was going until she arrived.

Opening the doors to the library, the girl stepped cautiously inside and looked around. She was alone. She could finally work on her homework with no distractions. Taking out her wand, she started to practice a charm she'd learned that day. However, she soon grew tired of that and moved on to researching blood curses.

The first blood curse, otherwise known as the Sitherslippings curse (named for the family it was inflicted on) started with a feud between Damascus Dark and Francine Sitherslippings. Dramascus wished to punish Francine for not wanting to marry him, so he devised a new spell that bears much resemblance to the modern blood curse: a fatal, slowly moving curse that slowly saps all the energy out of the victim, eventually rendering them weak and useless, before they die. The curse popped up every few generations.