A/N - Written because I am a gigantic nerd, and I am pretty much addicted to writing "list-fic" about characters that have little-to-no screen time in the actual books. Also, the title comes from the Jason Mraz song "I'm Yours."
Our Name is Our Virtue
(Twenty True Facts about Asteria Hippolyta Greengrass)
20. Asteria is the youngest of the three children born to Hyperion and Fidelia Greengrass. Her brother, Nicodemus, is the oldest and the heir to the Greengrass estate. Daphne is three years younger than their brother and is their mother's pet. At two years younger than Daphne, Asteria is the baby of the family. When she's twelve, she does the math and realizes that she was conceived on Valentine's Day – which sounds romantic only until she remembers that her parents sleep in separate bedrooms.
She might be an accident, but Asteria doesn't mind all that much. She knows that even though Nick is the oldest and the only boy, she is her father's favorite child.
-
19. The Greengrasses made their fortune raising winged horses approximately three generations before her birth. They keep beautiful Aethonans, gigantic Abraxans, and incredibly fast Granians, and her father teaches her and her siblings to ride their horses long before he even shows them a broomstick. Asteria has been riding and caring for the family horses since she was seven years old, has placed first in several very prestigious competitions, and some of her absolute favorite memories of her father are when he accompanied her on rides across the grounds of Green Lawn – even though he would only let her ride the Aethonans because of their "gentle temperament."
However, she loves the Granians best because of the absolute rush she gets from riding them in secret.
-
18. Fidelia Warrington-Greengrass was always in one state or another about her youngest daughter's looks. Asteria's dark hair was never short of tangles and split ends (unlike Daphne), her skin was always freckled and burned from her time outdoors (unlike Daphne), and her clothes are always muddy or torn (unlike Daphne). Even when Asteria dresses nicely for a charity function or a party, her mother always finds a way to compare her "ugly duckling" to the "beautiful swan" that is her older sister.
The one time Fidelia does not complain about Asteria's looks is at Daphne's funeral, but secretly, all Asteria wants her mother to do is criticize her appearance.
-
17. She knew Draco Malfoy was up to something when he asked her for a lock of her hair, but she gave it to him anyways. He claimed it was for his Potions assignment, and that he was testing a line of beautification potions and how they reacted to different types of hair. She saw right through it – unlike his father, Draco was a terrible liar – but he was collecting locks of hair from other girls in the Common Room and all she really wanted to do was get back to working on her Charms essay.
When she found out what he was really doing – turning his goons into girls while he figured out a way to murder the Headmaster – Asteria cried like a baby in Daphne's bed until it was time for Professor Dumbledore's funeral.
-
16. Her brother's full name is "Nicodemus Demetrius Greengrass." Her sister's name is "Daphne Laurel Greengrass." Growing up, Asteria was always jealous that her siblings had halfway "normal" names – or at least ones that they could comfortably shorten into "Nick" and "Daph" (and as much as Daphne hated it, "Finny"). She positively hated her first name, despised her middle name, and swore up and down for years that she would never, ever, saddle her hypothetical children with a mouthful of a name like her parents had done with her.
Unfortunately, she forgets this promise the moment she holds her newborn son in her arms and the only name she can think of that fits this boy, with his bright and shining future laid out before him, is "Scorpius Hyperion."
-
15. Asteria didn't want to be in Slytherin. When he put the Sorting Hat on her head, she hoped the hat would see something more in her than her family line – some bravery, intelligence, or work ethic that would put her anywhere else. She tries to embrace Slytherin once she's there, but she always somewhat resents being placed in the House known for producing more evil witches and wizards in half a century than all the othe Houses combined.
Asteria knows she's more than that.
-
14. She's an absolute sucker for badly written romance novels, particularly the Enchanted Encounters series by Fifi LaFolle. They're really just awful, with bad euphemisms, terrible characterization, flimsy plots, and almost violently purple prose filling the pages from cover to cover, and she feels embarrassed just purchasing them.
They're complete rubbish, all of them, and she knows it…but they're horribly addictive rubbish and she can't seem to stop reading them.
-
13. She knew – even as she completed the certification course, even as she handed in her (rather prestigious) résumé, even as she sat down for her interview with the head of the Office of Magical Law – that the job would go to Audrey Davies, the only other girl enrolled in the course. It didn't matter how high her grades were, or how good her references were, or how well-versed she was in Magical Law. All anyone sees is Slytherin, and to some people that is as good as a Mark on her arm. It took her absolute ages to find a place that would accept her and her degree, Slytherin or not, and even then the pay and the hours in her early days in the legal department of Obscurus Books were positively terrible – never mind that as time wore on, she grew to love her occupation.
When Audrey leaves the Ministry to work at a private firm, Asteria is the first choice for a replacement. She never felt as much satisfaction as she did when she turned the Ministry down.
-
12. She loves her sister dearly, but when the summer months came and she was finished with Hogwarts for the year, Daphne was prone to disappearing for hours at a time. She'd go out for a ride one afternoon and the horse would return without her, and their parents would be out of their minds with worry until she came back, dirty and disheveled and with no idea as to where he had been. The longest she ever went missing was in the summer before Asteria's first year, and Daphne's ten-day disappearance in 1994 may have been the result of amnesia, a nervous breakdown, or according to her brother, a giant alien wasp.
Personally, Asteria likes the giant alien wasp option the best, but she's pretty sure Daphne just fell and hit her head.
-
11. She doesn't actually like jewelry all that much. Besides the fact that they serve no real purpose, bracelets feel awkward on her wrists, she never pierced her ears, and most necklaces are often too tight and make her feel like she's being strangled. Even when she is going somewhere fancy, she never wears jewelry.
The only exception to this is the engagement ring – and later, the wedding ring – that she wears on her left hand.
-
10. When she met Audrey on the Hogwarts Express and found out that her new friend was a Muggleborn, she was filled with an instant revulsion that she couldn't help. All her life, she had been taught that Muggles and their ilk were the lowest of the low; that they bred like vermin and were carrying diseases that could not be cured. As much as Asteria liked Audrey before, she couldn't put that image of a leprosy-ridden Muggle ingrained into her thoughts behind her and she told Audrey that she could not be seen "consorting with a Mudblood."
Sometimes, especially when she realizes how often their lives have crossed paths, Asteria wishes she had the courage to apologize.
-
9. Thanks to her father, Asteria is a positively, wholeheartedly, unrelentingly rabid Chudley Cannons fan. She makes Draco go to every game, and she sits right on the edge of their private box and screams at the players and the referees like a raving lunatic. Draco, who is a fan of every team but the Cannons, spends his time hiding from Ron and Hermione Weasley, who also have a private box, while Asteria just keeps drawing attention to their location with her screaming of "NO! THAT IS NOT OFF-SIDES! WHERE ARE YOUR EYES, MAN? THE SNITCH IS RIGHT UNDER YOUR BLOODY NOSE!!"
One of the benefits out of Scorpius and Rose marrying was that Asteria and Ron started to go to games together. They take their children with them to every match they can, but whenever Scorpius or Rose are unable to go, they wind up leaving with Draco and Hermione in tow. Poor Draco and Hermione have suffered through countless games with the two of them jumping up and down in their seats and screaming their heads off every five seconds, but at least it has allowed both of them to be civil with one another for longer lengths of time – thus preparing everyone for Christmas Dinner.
-
8. Her first kiss is when she's thirteen, after a game of Truth or Consequences played in the Slytherin Common Room results in her being dragged away from copying her Transfiguration notes in a corner and into the arms of sixth-year Blaise Zabini, much to her confusion.
It wasn't all that good – it was far too wet, for one thing, and Blaise used more tongue than she would have liked – but as far as first kisses go, it wasn't half as bad as it could have been.
-
7. Asteria is the reason behind her brother failing his first Apparition test, and Nick had to take the test three more times that summer before he finally passed with full marks and was given his Apparition License.
Though to be fair, Daphne is the one that started it.
-
6. After Pansy's hysterical outburst and McGonagall's orders to evacuate the school, Daphne took Asteria by the hand and practically dragged her up to the seventh floor where everyone else was leaving from. When the time came for them to go, Daphne pushed her through the portrait hole to Hogsmeade and turned back before Asteria even realized her sister was missing. While Asteria worried herself sick in the Hog's Head waiting for any sort of news to come down from the castle, Daphne – her brave, bold, foolish sister – died fighting alongside the Order of the Phoenix.
Deep down, she blames herself. She could have held on tighter to Daphne's hand.
-
5. Her penmanship is absolutely horrendous, which has sometimes resulted in people thinking her name is "Astoria" because she wrote an e that looked more like an o. Even though her birth certificate spells her first name as "Asteria", nearly half the memos, messages, and paychecks she's received from her various places of employment are sent to her under the name "Astoria H. Greengrass" and later, "Astoria H.G. Malfoy."
She's sure that it's probably rather illegal – having different names on various important documents – but it's far too much paperwork to get everything fixed, and when it comes down to it, nobody seems to notice the difference.
-
4. It comes as a surprise to most people who know her, but she actually likes Pansy Parkinson quite a lot. She is smart, she is funny, she is a great shopping companion, and she is possibly the only person Asteria can be a catty little bitch with and not be judged for it.
Even though she's married to a Muggleborn, Asteria counts Pansy as one of her closest friends.
-
3. She didn't have to forgive him; she could have just as easily turned him away when he approached her at Daphne's funeral. She could have had her brother escort him out of the house, or had her father replace the wards around Green Lawn, or never replied to any of his letters. She could have spurred Draco's continued affections or just avoided him until he got the hint and went away like she hoped he would.
But then she tries to imagine what her life would be like without Draco Malfoy in it, and she knows that although it might have been easier, she wouldn't trade the life she leads now for anything in the world.
-
2. Whenever she is introduced to new people or forced to converse with others at social gatherings, in her head she always categorizes people according to their blood purity.
She carries the shame that accompanies it until she dies.
-
1. When her daughter, Ursula, writes home during her first year at Hogwarts, she tells stories about her classes, her dormitory, and the new friend she made after a particularly disastrous attempt at a Calming Draught in her Potions class. Her name is Molly, Ursula writes, and not only is she is the first person in her family to be in Slytherin, but she is the sharpest person Ursula has ever met, and when the Christmas holidays arrive Ursula wants their families to meet. When Ursula steps off the train and rushes into Asteria's arms, only to point out her new best friend standing in the crowd of Weasleys, Audrey Davies (now Weasley, apparently) looks just as shocked as Asteria feels when her daughter drags her over to where Asteria and Ursula are standing.
But she holds out her hand for Audrey to shake and gives her the brightest smile she can muster in the hopes that Audrey will take it, because this time, she's going to make it right.