Backstory: Astoria and Augustus Who: Astoria Greengrass and Augustus Pye When: April 2000. It's hard to determine the time of the day. Everything feels the same in there. Where: Two adjourning cells in Azkaban. Rating: PG Warnings: Possibly language. Summary: Astoria’s initiation into prison doesn’t involve dropped soap.
He wasn't sure how long he'd been laying there. Time seemed to pass differently in this place where seconds could stretch into hours and days turned into years. He'd been drifting in and out of a sleep that didn't provide any rest, grateful for the monotony. While cold and damp it meant that at least there were no dementors around. Or guards. Augustus wasn't entirely sure which was worse.
He exhaled slowly and tried to ignore the pain in his back. Truth be told, in this depressing place he hadn't felt like doing his katas – he hadn't like doing anything to attract attention after the beating that earned him the last time – and no his back was paying the price for it. He moved, very slowly and deliberately, attempting to shift into a more comfortable position. And then he heard it. A tiny sound, almost impossible to make out but it was there nevertheless. The rustling of clothes. Another person's breathing – something Augustus hadn't heard since his old 'neighbour' died in his cell. Had it been a month ago? Or a week? Or only a couple of days?
Fact was, Augustus wasn't alone anymore and to his own surprise the thought awakened him from his apathy. He pushed himself into a sitting position, then slumped against the wall that separated the cells.
"Hello?" He called, his voice hoarse and rough with neglect. And yet, he wasn't alone anymore. There was another human being within reach. Perhaps he wasn't going to go insane from loneliness, after all.
Astoria Greengrass didn't understand how she had ended up in Azkaban. Hadn't the Greengrasses supported the Dark Lord's endeavours all along? Hadn't her family always done what was required of them? Her father was even a Death Eater, and a loyal one at that. So why was she, who had never spoken against the Dark Lord and even defended him to any of the dissenters, in Azkaban along with the rest of the rebels and criminals?
But there she was, in a cold, ugly, filthy cell, ripped away from her family. It was her worst nightmare: not being in a jail cell with no hope of a proper manicure, but being all alone.
...or maybe not alone. The whisper from the other side of the wall caught her attention, and she quickly scrambled in its direction. "H-hello? Daphne?"
He could honestly say that he'd never been so glad to hear another voice in his life. Even if that voice called him "Daphne". He'd certainly been called worse.
"No, my name is Augustus. Gus." He found himself smiling in the darkness, elated by the fact that he wasn't alone any more. The last time he'd spoken to another person, hadn't been a good memory as it involved the wards and the time before that, he'd been begging the previous inhabitant of the cell the girl occupied now, not to die. Compared to this, the current situation was pure bliss.
"What's your name?" He whispered, eager to learn every bit about the person who had just become the centre of his universe. "How long have you been here?"
“A-Astoria,” came the reply, still scared and thin. “I just - they just...” They’d just tossed her in here, was what she’d wanted to say, but she was trying too hard not to cry to get the words out. This was one situation where throwing a tantrum wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. “I want to go home.”
He had the greatest urge to hug this Astoria person. In his mind a very vague picture of a young girl or even child formed. They had no chance of catching the barest glimpse of each other, so imagination was all he had to provide a face for the voice
"I want to go home, too." Gus admitted. "What's your home like?"
At the moment Astoria did feel like a child. This was worse than the time she’d been six and she’d lost her mother in Diagon Alley. The stark terror of never seeing her mother again and being doomed to be a street urchin for the rest of her life hadn’t been as bad as knowing that she was never going to see her family again and was doomed to die forgotten and alone in a filthy cell surrounded by Dementors, Deatheaters and Mudbloods.
“It’s beautiful,” she said, sniffling a little despite her best attempts not to cry. She’d never been very good at the not-crying part. “It’s big and gorgeous and it has lots hiding places and secret passageways and it’s surrounded by rolling hills and woods.”
Compassion had always been one of his greatest weaknesses and Gus felt his throat constrict at the sound of her broken voice. It was evident she was trying not to cry and it was just as evident that she failed. He felt his heart breaking in sympathy and his eyes moistened up. Gus almost immediately felt shabby for focusing on Astoria's pain to distract him from his own. What kind of person was he, anyway? He swallowed against the lump in his throat and bit his bottom lip.
"It sounds like a very special place." Gus said, feeling like a prat for stating the obvious. Then again, she could have described the overflowing loo at St.Mungo's and that, too, would sound like a special place in comparison to this.
"Uhm...we're going to get out of here. Eventually." He hoped they'd even get out of there alive.
Of course they weren’t going to get out of there alive - at least not unless they were going somewhere worse. Astoria had deliberately paid little attention to the rumours and discussions about the darker side of the Dark Lord’s regime, but even so, she hadn’t been able to escape hearing about what he did to people who displeased him. The Death Eaters were eager to make sure everyone knew that.
But...hadn’t her father been a Death Eater too? And a very loyal one, one who risked his life to bring about the Dark Lord’s victory? So he’d shown a moment of bad judgement. Perhaps he could still get back into his good graces?
Astoria probably should have known better than to hope, but hope was all she had at the moment. “Do you really think so?”
No, of course he didn't. Not really.
Gus sighed wearily ran a hand over his face, trying to be fully awake for the first time since he got there. It was refreshing in a way not to shy away from reality for once. He realized he'd become so detached that he might as well have turned out like that poor sod a couple of cells down the hall, who kept talking to shadows each day.
"I think, no matter what, we have to wait and make sure there's enough of us left to save." He tried to get into a more comfortable position but it was a moot point. "So who is Daphne? And why would you think she's here?"
Normally Astoria wouldn’t be holding a conversation with someone until she’d deemed them worthy, but these were hardly normal circumstances. Besides, conversation kept her distracted, so she wouldn’t think too much about those mysterious scratching noises in the corner.
“My sister. Sh-she got taken too.” Another sudden, forlorn burst of hope. “Have you seen her? Talked to her?”
"No. I haven't really seen anyone lately." Then, realizing how disheartening that sounded, Gus was quick to correct himself. "Of course that's a good thing. Not seeing her here, means she's somewhere else." He rolled his eyes. Evidently this was an instance where is famed Ravenclaw brain failed to impress. "Which is a good thing, too. Not being here." Merlin, he'd really forgotten how to hold a simple conversation!
“....what?” Perhaps Astoria might’ve been able to follow those mental contortions when she was alert, but in her current state she had no idea what he was talking about.
Merlin, was that how he usually talked, or was that what happened to people who had been exposed to Dementors too long? Was that how she was going to turn out? “How long have you been here?”
"Eh..." Gus bit hit bottom lip and flinched. She was right, he sounded like a complete prat. "A couple of days." He paused and thought about this. Could have been weeks, too. "I think." He corrected himself, suddenly ashamed of himself. So this was what had become of his famed intellect. Barely able to string a sentence together. His temper flared at that and Gus promised himself to fight for every shred of sanity he had left. And the girl was the key to his sanity. Which, admittedly, was somehow frightening all by itself.
"No, you're right. I was a bit confusing before. I've been evading thinking of before. Of life before I got thrown into this place." He sighed. "After some time it feels like you've been here forever and everything before was a dream. But it wasn't." He said, trying to convince Astoria as much as himself. I was a Healer before. I'm from Galway. Facts no one could take away from him.
“But it isn’t,” Astoria insisted fiercely. She hadn’t been there long enough to think in such terms, but she was afraid that she might be, if she stayed there as long as he had - however long it was. She didn’t want to end up like him, reduced to some rambling mess that didn’t make sense even in his own head. But if she could bring him back...maybe there could be hope for her, too. At least one of them had to be sane. “It’s not just a dream. I was just there. It was raining today.”
How ironic. She’d always complained about the rain, but right now she’d give anything to see it again.
Rain. That sounded nice. He closed his eyes and tried to recall the feeling of raindrops landing on his face but all his mind came up with, was the all-too familiar feeling of tears. Gus recalled those only too well.
"Thank you." He whispered, not entirely sure what exactly he referred to. For being there. For existing. Something like that. "Astoria, what's Diagon Alley like now? Did they build up the place where Fortescue's had his ice cream parlour? Flourish and Blott's is still there, right?" He couldn't ask about St.Mungo's. Not yet.
Astoria tried to think. This was frightening; already the details were slipping her mind. She desperately cast about to hold onto her memories. “Yes, it’s still there, but no ice cream parlour yet.” She sighed, wistful. “I wish I had ice cream now. Pear and Jasmine. That was my favourite.”
"Pear and Jasmine? What sort of combination is that? Of course peppermint is disgusting. Or tomato. I think Fortescue's had tomato-ice at some point." Gus grinned as he tried to recall each detail of the parlour. The patterns on the wall, Fortescue himself and of course the massive amounts of ice cream.
"Okay, so what else is left there?"
“At least you never had the salmon.” Despite the situation, Astoria had to smile, albeit wanly, at the memory of happier times. “Emily tricked me into it. Said it was rose blossom.” She sniffled a little, starting to miss the ice cream parlour as well. “There’s not much left now. Menagerie’s gone, although it’s just as well. It always did smell awful.”