Astoria Greengrass, 1993
After attending her dream school, Hogwarts, Astoria though she had the best life she could ever imagine. She loved her school and she loved the fact that she was a witch.
Raised in a pureblood, snob family, she was taught not to approach muggle borns, but evetually she did. Her best (and only) friend, Meryl, happened to be a so called mudblood.
When she first saw Harry Potter, she immediately fell in love with him. (Along with tons of other ladies, the Chosen One was quite the deal). For the first time traveling to Hogwarts, one the train, she looked at Harry through a compartment door, and then walked away with a blush on her face. She just couldn't stop smiling.
Of course, she had heard tons of stories about him and how he survived You Know Who's attack, but she didn't think Potter could attract her.
She knew no one back then, only her sister, Daphne. They were on good terms to say, but they really weren't that close.
While most parts of the Hogwarts Express had simple compartments, the Slytherins had a whole car. Since Daphne was a Slytherin, she thought she would just join her sister and hang out with the snakes a little. Unfortunately, when she looked around, she found no one to talk to. She did see some people, though. The most markable fellow was a platinum blond boy, who had the most students sitting around him. He had two guys sitting close to him, and a girl opposite to him, but the others were just surrounding them and listening to them. Daphne told Astoria a lot about those people. The guy, Draco Malfoy was the most arrogant and sarcastic guy she'd ever met. His closest friends were Crabbe and Goyle and the brown haired girl was Daphne's friend, Pansy Parkinson.
She started looking for her sister and found her talking to two guys she didn't know.
After realizing she had nothing to do with Slytherin since she hadn't been sorted yet, she left the Slytherin car, thinking it was dumb of her to go there in the first place. She walked into one of the empty-looking compartments, not noticing the small figure hiding behind the door.
"Are you sure you want to sit here?" Asked a thin voice.
"Who are you?" Asked Astoria.
"Are you going to hurt me?"
"Why on bloody Earth would I hurt you?"
A girl stepped out of her hiding place, with black short hair and icy blue eyes.
"I get hurt a lot" she said. Astoria couldn't help but feel sorry. The girl seemed fragile and vulnerable, like she was about to break in two.
"I'm Astoria. Greengrass. And I'm not going to hurt you, that's for sure."
"Really?"
"Look, if you don't want to share a compartment, I can just go away" said Astoria as she started to walk out, but the black haired girl stopped her.
"Wait. I think I need some company. Plus, I have loads of non wizard sweets with me which I probably shouldn't eat all alone. I'm Meryl. Meryl Lowell."
And that's how they became friends. Even though Meryl was not at all a pureblood, Astoria needed friends so she didn't care about others' opinions. She had never met a muggle born before, and she was quite disappointed, in a good way, of course. Her parents always described them as disgusting creatures, but Meryl was just a scared little girl, who needed someone to talk to. And she was no different from Astoria.
The journey was awkward and strange. They didn't really talk, only stared a lot and ate both Meryl's sweets and the magical foods Astoria bought on the train. But suddenly, the train stopped.
"What? We are not there yet" said Astoria.
Meryl was just staring out the window.
After a few seconds, everything went dark and cold.
"A-Astoria..." said a scared-to-death Meryl.
Astoria glanced at the girl and she took her hand.
"I'm scared" cried out Meryl.
"Me too" admitted Astoria.
They were shaking in silence. Astoria felt cold not only in the compartment but on the inside as well. She saw something move in the corridor. After a dark figure walked by the door, Astoria carefully stuck her head out of the compartment.
She saw a mass of black, which was darker than shadows and the night sky. It opened one of the doors and stood there for long seconds.
Then all of a sudden, something shiny hit her eyes and as she blinked, the dark mass was gone.
"That was creepy" she said, and felt warmth spreading through her body. She then noticed they were still holding hands, carefully taking her hand away.
"I thought death came to take us away" said Meryl and sat down.
"I had similar thoughts. I'm gonna check what's going on. You should eat something, you're very pale" said Astoria and stepped to the corridor.
She turned left and bumped into someone.
"Oh thank Merlin, Tori. I thought something happened to you" said her sister, Daphne.
"Daph, what was this?" She asked as she looked up to her sister's eyes. While Astoria's eyes were light blue and her hair was brownish and blondish, her sister was obviously blonde and had darker, greenish blue eyes. Other than their eyes and hair, they almost looked like twins.
"That was a dementor, I think. Don't worry. It's gone now." Answered Daphne and they pulled into a hug. "Okay, that's all I wanted to see. Meet you at Hogwarts." And with that, the blonde dissapeared.
"Daphne!" Astoria heard a boy's voice, and turned to see who it was.
"Oh. You're not Daphne. She's taller" said the boy as he reached Astoria, and they stood quite close to each other.
She recognised him.
"You're Draco." She spilled but realised it was a mistake, because the boy shoot a killer look to her with his icy grey eyes.
"I'm Malfoy to you. But who are you, wearing my classmate's face?" He asked looking around.
"I'm Astoria Greengrass. Her sister" she said and was a bit afraid to look into the boy's eyes.
"Astoria?"
"Astoria."
"Well then, where's your sister?" He asked.
"She was just heading back to the Slytherin compartments. Why are you looking for her?"
"She owes me a chocolate frog." He said with an infamous Malfoy-smirk and turned around. "Good luck with the sorting, Greengrass" he said above his shoulder.
"Thanks." She said, and raised a brow. She thought Malfoy was pure evil?
The sorting ceremony
Astoria walked into the Great Hall with her new friend, Meryl who was a bit wet. She had fallen into the lake, but only half of her body, since Astoria managed to catch her in time.
They walked up to a three-legged chair with an old looking hat on it. Astoria knew really well what it was. The Sorting Hat.
She was almost sure she would get sorted to Slytherin, because all her family members were Slytherins, and she had some of the house's traits. But when her name was called, she took her seat on the chair and McGonagall put the old hat on her head...
"Oh, so you think I am going to sort you to Slytherin."
"Probably." She whispered.
"If I want to be honest, you could find your place in all of the houses. But you have only one house you belong to. So..."
"Wait."
"What? Do you not want to hear which house do you belong to?"
"No, I want to."
"HUFFLEPUFF."
"What?" She shouted.
Then she awkwardly looked around, and the first thing she saw was her sister's face.
"I'm sorry." She mouthed, but Daphne's face was blank. She showed exactly no emotion.
She walked to the long table with full of unfamiliar people who were staring her up and down while clapping to her. She let out a small grin and took a place next to a girl, and introduced herself.
"I'm Astoria." She said, and held out her hand.
"I'm Hannah." She smiled warmly and shook the girl's hand.
But when Astoria peeked over to the Slytherin table, she saw not only her sister glarig at her, but almost the whole table.
"Why are they staring?" Asked Hannah.
"My sister, Daphne is a Slytherin. I guess they thought I was going to get sorted to their house."
"Heey, don't be sad. There's a reason you weren't sorted to the snakes" said Hannah, patting her back.
"Ugh, my sister is there too. They are not all snakes. Well not all of them" said Astoria and watched as Meryl sat under the Sorting Hat too.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" Yelled the hat, and Meryl let out a smile to Astoria as she sat down next to her.
"At least I have someone I know here." She said, and they smiled as the Sorting Ceremony finished.
Then they heard a speech from Dumbledore, about dementors surrounding Hogwarts. Astoria secretly peeked at Harry Potter. She saw his face, and she could tell he was not happy about the dementors.
"You heard about Potter's accident?" Asked Hannah.
"No, what happened?"
"He fainted because of the dementor that got up to the Hogwarts Express."
"Oh, well that's strange." She said, and found it curious that the boy who lived fainted because of a dementor, when he survived Lord Voldemort.
A few days after the Sorting Ceremony
"Potions? What's that?" Asked Meryl.
"Well, it's like Chemistry in the muggle world" said Astoria. No matter how hard her parents hated muggles, she found out a thing or two about them and found them kind of interesting.
"Really? It must be interesting." Said Meryl and her eyes lit up.
They were talking about sweet nothings when Astoria bumped into someone. She didn't realize who the person was until she was frozen by grey eyes. It was the first time they met after the Sorting Ceremony.
"Oh. It's you. Greengrass" said the platinum blond boy.
"Hello, Malfoy" said Astoria as Meryl hid behind her back. But unfortunately, Malfoy noticed her.
"Why Hufflepuff, huh? And befriending mudbloods. I guess I misprised you. Have fun with the mudbloods and blood traitors" he said with a grin, makig eye contact with Meryl, which scared her to death, then going away.
"He is so rude" said Meryl. "And scary."
"You're so afraid of everything" said Astoria laughing.
"So you're not gonna abandon me because I'm not pureblood?" Asked Meryl.
"There's no way I'm doing that. You're my friend now."
"Thank you" said Meryl, and they walked into the potions room where they were welcomed by the most scary man on Earth, Severus Snape.
Needless to say, Meryl was scared to death, regardless of how interested she was in the subject.
The Great Hall, after Potter fell off his broom because of the dementors
"Oh, Potter is such a coward. And he calls himself the boy who lived. I'm starting to think the whole thing with You Know Who is just some kind of a joke, he would never be able to defeat him."
"Oh just shut it, Malfoy. We all know you're just jealous." Said Astoria, bravely looking at Malfoy. At his face, but not directly into his eyes. Those eyes were too cold for her gaze.
"Greengrass. The blood traitor." Said Malfoy with a grin. "How is your sister handling you?... I still can't understand."
"She's family. But you know I'm glad I didn't get to Slytherin. At Hufflepuff I get as much food as I want." She said, and walked to the Hufflepuff long table.
"And you can become even more fat."
"EVEN?!" Shouted Astoria and took her wand out.
"Tori! Be a good girl." Yelled Daphne quickly, as she took her sister's hand.
"Yeah, Greengrass, be a good girl." Laughed Malfoy.
"Daph! He has just told me that I'm fat!"
"But don't use magic on him. He's more experienced." Said Daphne rolling her eyes. That was somethig she did a lot recently.
Daphne both wanted to protect her sister and stay loyal to Slytherin, so she was always stuck in between.
"Okay. But then ask him to be nicer to me."
"Like he would listen to me."
"Ah, Greengrasses. I'll leave you two arguing. Daphne, come sit with us when you're finished." He said and winked at the blonde girl.
"Daph, I can't believe you're friends with him. Can't you see he's the bad guy and Harry's the good guy?"
"Oh, sis', you're so loved up with Harry you would believe anything good about him. But me... I can't really tell. He seems like a nice guy. Too bad he's a Gryffindor."
"Yeah so you would rather hang with the evil Malfoy?"
"He's not that bad. And you're hanging around with the batty mudblood Lowell."
"Meryl? Why would she be batty?"
"She just is."
"She's better than Luna Lovegood."
"True." They both laughed and then parted their ways.
"Hey Tori." Astoria stopped and looked back at her sister.
"I think you belong to Hufflepuff for a reason and you shouldn't be ashamed of your house."
"Tell that to mom and dad too please." She responded with a sad smile.