Fic: Enter Astoria, With Her Hair About Her Ears
Author: Nomsy
Link: Archive of Our Own
I truly believe this fic is an underappreciated classic of the Cursed Child fandom. Honestly, I wouldn’t even read the rest of my rec post, it’s a waste of time, go read the fic. It is perfect and beautiful and deserves so much fandom love.
In case my glowing recommendation isn’t enough for you, I’ll tell you why this fic is perfect, and I will try to avoid spoilers.
This fic takes the few things we know about Astoria Greengrass Malfoy - her background, her age, her sister, her illness - and builds a compelling, believable original character. One of J.K. Rowling’s strengths as a writer was to make deeply flawed, sometimes frustrating characters. I think it’s one of her strengths that translated less well to the stage, because we don’t have the same chances to see the flaws of characters in the subtle ways of literature.
Enter Astoria embraces the flaws a character might have, if she was born in a high-class, bigoted society but was casually excluded from it for an illness she has had since birth. We meet an Astoria who is sickly, and attractive, who finds herself mostly alone but for her sister. Thus Astoria becomes an observer of the society she should be a part of by right. She doesn’t care about anyone except for her sister, who is treated with more nuance and care than most Daphne fics. Astoria is a Slytherin, and she is embodies many of the flaws of Slytherin house, cruel and cunning and superior. Daphne becomes Astoria’s moral compass, a hard task for a teenager who is subject to the scrutiny of the bigoted and harsh pureblood world Astoria carelessly avoids. It might not even have been a big deal, if they hadn’t been so unlucky as to be at Hogwarts the same years as Harry Potter, and had the wizarding wars crash into their lives.
And then Draco enters the fic. If anything, the story shines all the more for bluntly treating Draco as the deeply flawed character he is. Draco is cowardly and selfish and all the things Draco is in the Harry Potter world… and he loves Astoria, in his awkward, sweet way. Watching their romance unfold is a pleasure. It’s even amusing at times.
Astoria grows up in this fic, from an isolated child to an adult, with friends and desires and love, real love. This is the only fic I found in the fandom that cuts to the heart of how she and Draco went from not planning for children to having Scorpius. It’s perfect, really, you should check it out.
If all that hasn’t convinced you, this fic has one of my favorite lines: “She can’t believe she’s turned into a sappy mother who thinks her son is the greatest child in the world. Though obviously, Scorpius really is the greatest child in the world.”
Instant classic.
This fic is a one-shot, and I found it by digging and digging and digging in the Draco/Astoria tag on Archive of Our Own. It should be a fandom classic, an ode to everything we know about Astoria and everything Astoria could have been. Instead it’s been quietly unknown, posted the very early days after the publication of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, with (at the time of writing) only 730 hits. Give it love. It deserves it.
