Astoria nodded at his question but quickly stopped herself when he went on. "It's not supposed to be love. It can be, but it's supposed to be about preserving the pureblood ways and keeping strong families strong." Shouldn't he have known this stuff? Everyone knew about the pureblood ways, even the people from the less strong family ties.
"She... she cares about her life." It was not entirely true that she would be disowned, but it wouldn't be appreciated if she backed out of an arranged marriage. Well, unless she found a good pureblood match on her own that her parents approved of.
"Desperate?" Astoria's eyes popped a little. "You really don't know.." She cut herself off and shook her head. "It doesn't matter. She can't really get out of it now."