ACT: ONE
CHAPTER ii: ' house of murphy! '

Asteria knew how much stress her father was under since making his few and far meetings with the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black. Nerves riddled him left, right and centre every time she'd glimpsed him through the agape door of his study. It was odd. Gordon Murphy was not a man of many emotions. In actuality, the only emotion she'd really seen on him was anger, but not at her directly.

Gordon wasn't ideal father material. Asteria had realised that when she was just five years old and her older half-sister had mistakenly let the family dog into his office after playing in the mucky fields with the horses. Muddy footprints and paw prints marred almost every surface, including precious documents from their father's work at the Ministry. But Gordon hadn't chastised her as a father should have. No, instead Asteria watched her mother scream at him in fury for whatever it was he had said and did to leave Leto balling her eyes out, tears and snot running down her reddened face. Her sister never liked being around him after that and she'd never told Asteria what words had caused such an intense dislike for their father.

The second time she realised Gordon wasn't a good father was when she'd found out he used the Killing Curse on their dog a year after the office incident. Apparently, a wild fox had bitten him and gave him rabies, leaving only one option: to put him down. But try telling that to a six year old girl who just wants a cuddle from her fluffy dog. She'd realised in her later years that it had been a mercy for the dog, however, her father didn't have to go about it the way he did. He didn't have to use an Unforgivable Curse in front of his six year old daughter. He didn't have to "play God" and ruin everything as she'd overheard her mother say from time to time.

Her mother never liked Leto or Asteria near him too often. Phaedra didn't like the idea of him poisoning their minds without whatever plagued his own and she had been a Malfoy before she became a Murphy, so anything she didn't like, was easy to diminish. She cared for Leto as if she was her own, protecting her from her father who loathed the very sight of her. Apparently she reminded him all too much of his first wife. That's why she always got a rougher hand than Asteria.

Asteria was his golden girl, picture perfect and obedient. She had yet to face the cruel end of her father's rage and she had no intentions of facing it any time soon. Perhaps, that's why when he announced she'd be marrying Sirius Black, a renown and extremely intimidating deatheater, she didn't voice any objection. She might have feared marrying an almost stranger with a cruel reputation but she feared her father more.

Leto and Phaedra weren't all too happy with the news either. As the eldest daughter, Leto should have been married off well before Asteria. She was upset that their father didn't see her as good enough to preposition her to the Black family as a potential wife. Phaedra was enraged he'd made the deal without even consulting her first; instead he waited until he'd sealed the deal to inform her. She was also pissed that he'd basically shamed Leto for all the other families to see: no one would want to accept her into their family. It rose too many questions why she wasn't good enough for the Black's. If she wasn't good enough for them, why would she be good enough for another wizarding family? It was an insult to them to offer them a lesser option than the other offered to the Black's.

Gordon's actions bred many rumours. Leto Murphy is barren. Leto Murphy is a blood-traitor. Leto Murphy lost her magic and is now a squib living in the muggle world. He never even blinked nor stopped to dismiss such gossip and correct them. His silence only led to Leto's even more public embarrassment. A journalist from the Daily Prophet visiting the Ministry had seen him in the elevator and asked him to go on record to set the rumours straight. He told her he wouldn't gamble with a silver galleon when he had a gold one guaranteed to profit.

The words had shook the entire Wizarding World and Leto refused to leave her room for months on end. Phaedra and Asteria were the only ones to see her during that time but neither was able to convince to leave the confinements of her bedchamber. Even then, those visits were limited for the first month, Leto didn't even want to see her sister because she was a constant reminder of what she wasn't — the perfect daughter. In the end, she had came to her senses, knowing that it wasn't Asteria's fault. It was Gordon Murphy's and so snapped the final cord of love she had left for her father.

Leto's refusal to even speak with her father worked out well when Gordon announced to his wife and Asteria that the Black family would be expecting them (not Leto) for a formal introduction of Sirius and Asteria's engagement. It would be a strict black tie event with only the most elite families and Ministry officials being on the guest list. The first big event Asteria would have to attend without her loyal sister by her side. Normally, Leto would be the voice of the two at parties like this one, linking arms with her quieter half and make the night endurable by whispering snide remarks about all the pompous gits.

Asteria felt lost staring at herself in the mirror as she put in her second dangly earring, knowing Leto would be dearly missed tonight. Asteria would be forced to mingle with the serpents on her own and finally meet her official fiancé for the first time since their marriage had been announced. Fear and anxiety swarmed like hurricanes in her stomach, battling against her flesh as if fighting for air to sooth their pain.

As a child and throughout her teens, she'd be taught in the home lessons her father had graciously arranged for her that she was expected to be a respected wife; a placid smiling empty shell of a wife and mother. Her tutors kindly taught her all the neat little tricks for being patient and obedient and completely dependent on her future husband. They wanted her to be a shiny object that popped out cute, little pureblood children to continue the family name. What a load of bullshit.

Her mother, however, had a few lessons of her own. Let men think they run the family and run the world behind their backs. Phaedra taught Asteria the things she wished someone would have taught her growing up and what she had learned from being married to her father. "Be patient and pick your battles. Always agree with your husband in the public eye and manipulate him behind closed doors. Let them think you're weak so they never expect you are their equal." Asteria planned on putting every one of her mother's tips to good use in her own marriage.

"The red lip suits you," a Scottish voice sank deep into the soil of silence in her bedroom, belonging to a tight faced woman by the door. Asteria shifted her gaze in the mirror to the reflection of her sister walking towards her. Leto stopped just behind Asteria and tucked a small piece of her hair that had fallen from it's place back behind her ear. "Have you put on weight, though?"

Asteria rolled her eyes at Leto's playful jab. A sisterly banter that had regularly gotten them into bother in their youth with their nannies who were nothing short of appalled by the language coming off the twelve and sixteen year old. "I'm skinnier than you, bitch."

Leto gasped in mock horror, placing a manicured hand over her gaping mouth in a over-dramatic manner. "Asteria Murphy, you will speak like a lady when you address another pureblood unless you wish to embarrass yourself and your entire family name by behaving so barbarically."

"Piss off," Asteria waved her off, fighting an amused smile on her lips.

The elder laughed moving over to the king sized bed and plopping herself down on it. "On a more serious note, can I have your room when you move out?"

A pillow lifted itself up from beside the headboard and smacked an unsuspecting Leto in the back of her head, messing up her neat curls and causing a scowl to replace her grin. Asteria's face brightened by a proud giddiness, her finger twitched by her side as the pillow fell back down. "Mother has direct orders to make sure you never make it through the door once I leave." She titled her head with a taunting pout, "Sorry."

It was Leto's turn to roll her eyes at her dramatic sister — it must run in their blood. She sighed at the revelation and tried fixing her hair out of her face before she spoke again, "So how's the nerves?"

"You remember how you felt getting back on a horse after you fell and broke your leg?" Asteria asked, waiting for Leto's nod before she continued, "Like that but times it by the amount of nerves mum felt when she thought you were pregnant in sixth year."

Leto paled and her eyes widened with dread. "Merlin's beard, really?" The younger sister sighed and nodded, moving over to where Leto sat and falling down on the bed beside her. As soon as she did, Leto wrapped her arms around her and pulled her in for a tight hug. "I'm so fucking sorry, 'tia. I wish there was something I could do."

Helplessness was something Leto had a lot of experience with. She was helpless when her father dished out cruel punishments for the smallest of mistakes. She was helpless against the rumours about her when the entire wizarding world thought she was either infertile, a traitor or a squib. And she was helpless when her sister was forced into a marriage she didn't want at the unfair age of eighteen. But experience didn't make it any easier to deal with the foul emotion.

Asteria noticed the look on her sister's face and shook her head. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Lucius promised to stay by my side all night."

A scoff of disbelief fled Leto's mouth, annoyance taking priority over her worry at the sound of their cousin. "And you believe that prick?"

"You know," she began, "it'd be great if your could be a little less you now and again."

"But then I'd be boring like you," Leto smirked before glancing at her watch, her expression falling at the time and standing up with a heavy sigh. "You should go downstairs now before Gordon has an aneurysm." She watched her sister's face pale at the realisation she'd actually have to join the party and meet the man she was supposed to marry in less than a fortnight. "Need me to walk you to the stairs?"

Asteria blew out an amused puff of air from her nose. Leave it to Leto to use sarcasm to show how much she cared for her sister. But then again, she wasn't much better. "If you do, I'm pushing you down them."

"There's my little spitfire shadow," Leto teased before moving to make her leave back to her room where she'd spend the night while the rest of her family were downstairs dressed to the nines and drinking celebratory champagne in the name of the marriage that had publicly disgraced her for the rest of her life. Asteria watched her go, her nerves getting more frantic and apparent with every step that her sister took in the opposite direction. When she reached the door, she held up her hand and spun back around with another one of her devilish smirk. "Make sure you show Mr. Sirius Black that spitfire. You're not gonna be some dumb housewife."

Asteria smiled weakly, glad that her sister was actually capable of showing compassion when she wanted to. "Thanks, Leto."

"Don't mention it or I'll break your arm before your wedding."

When she'd disappeared, Asteria forced her feet into her heels and took heavy steps in the direction of the party. She made it to the bottom of the stairwell before her legs fought back for control and stopped her from taking another step. Her mind might have known that it was her duty and responsibility to walk in that room full of "posh twats" in the wise words of her sister but she was having trouble convincing her body to man up and join the bloody party already.

Her cold hands wrung together in front of her, briefly smoothing her palms over her dress for any potential wrinkles — which she quickly scolded herself. The dress was ruched, of course there was wrinkles, that was the whole point of the design. While she was busy standing in front of the stairs like an idiot rebuking her actions in her head, movement from the side of her eye caught her attention.

Her head titled towards the door a waitress was holding open for a number of trays to float through, giving the perfect view of the kitchens where the head chef kicking one of their house elves harshly and spitting cruel profanities from his lips as he did.

As the chef moved away, going into the other room to shout some more profanities at the other house elves, the waitress let the door close and moved towards the room the guests were in with the tray of appetisers following closely behind. Asteria waited until the waitress had left in the direction she definitely should have moved in before walking over to the kitchen door and tilling it open slightly. The house elf that had been shouted at was still standing in place, eyes staring despondently into space. Asteria felt her heart crack at the sight.

"Hey, Ditzy." Asteria whispered, hoping the other kitchen occupants wouldn't pay her too much mind.

Said house elf snapped her eyes towards her and jumped at the chance to approach her. "Mistress Asteria! What can Ditzy do for her kind Mistress?"

"What did Chef Alfonso say to you?" She inquired, noting the way Ditzy's face fell into a shameful frown.

"Ditzy forgot to add salt to the soup, Mistress Asteria. Ditzy must punish herself at midnight until dawn for such a foolish mistake."

Asteria mirrored her frown, her mind already coming up with possible ways she could reverse the order for Ditzy to punish herself. It confused the house elves when she tried to tell them to forget about a previous order, especially a punishment. They didn't like going against orders and when given two contradicting ones; so Asteria had learned to correct their punishments: fix the mistake so there was no need for any repercussion. "Where's the soup?"

Ditzy turned and pointed towards the two large silver pots on the cookers on the left side of the kitchens. It was rather easy to spot, after finding it Asteria whispered, "Accio salt" under her breath. A salt shaker quickly found itself flying towards it's summoner and Asteria handed it to Ditzy. "Go put the salt in and then you won't need to punish yourself."

The house elf beamed at her and nodded frantically, "Ditzy is thankful for Asteria. Ditzy is not that bright and can't think that smart herself."

Asteria sighed. "You are bright. Your eyes shine brighter than mine, now go before the chef comes back."

With a final thankful, Ditzy rushed towards the pots and Asteria felt defeat wash over her at the sight of Ditzy emptying the shaker into one pot and forgetting about the other two — then realising she'd ran out of salt and picked up the next best thing: Soda powder and pouring an ungodly amount in the other two pots. But there was nothing else Asteria could do for the dense house elf. The soup was already saltier than the ocean at this point. There was a reason why Ditzy was named Ditzy and Asteria always felt her heart fill with pity at the amount of times she'd seen her being punished.

Feeling as if she had wasted five minutes of her time and risking her father's anger at being late for Ditzy of all reasons, Asteria had quickly made her first appearance at her engagement party. Thankfully, she was able to step inside without too many pairs of eyes snapping towards her and one of the first pairs that did was her cousin who joined her side with his own fiancée.

"Have you seen my cousin yet?" Narcissa asked after their second glass of champagne — well, her second, Asteria was only pretending to drink hers. She hated the taste of the fizzy bubbles more than Leto hated their father.

"No, I haven't." Asteria lied behind her glass. She'd seen him speaking with her father and a couple other men in suits a while ago and turned her back before she could make eye contact that would require her to finally say hello to him.

"Well, don't you think you should go say hi to your new hubby?" Lucius nudged her encouragingly, smirking at the vicious glare she hit him with.

"Come on," Narcissa coached gently, linking her arm in a death grip around her cousin-in-law's arm. "I'll introduce you since your parents are doing such a bad joke of it."

Asteria looked over her shoulder as Narcissa dragged her through the ocean of suits and dresses, and silently asked Lucius for help to which the bastard just laughed and turned his back on her. Leto was right, he was a prick. Left to fend for herself against the fang baring snakes, Asteria found her heart preparing to give itself a heart attack as a last resort to get out of meeting Sirius. Unfortunately, she didn' think it was working fast enough as Sirius' face came into view.

"Sirius!" Narcissa called with her signature smile that managed to defrost even the coldest of people.

Sirius tore his sharp gaze from his mother's face to see his cousin approaching with his fiancée in tow. Asteria hadn't really seen him since school and even then, their interactions were the bare minimal "awkwardly making eye contact in the corridors," the same way every student with two fully functioning eyes did with their peers. Everything about him was a warm brown; his eyes, his hair, his barely distinguishable freckles. He suited the beard, she determined after a moment's discussion in her head.

Asteria bit the insides of her cheeks as Narcissa and her stopped in front of him and Walburga Black — her future mother-in-law. Salazar, she felt old at the reality that she would have in-laws soon. Walburga's gaze seemed to weigh more than Sirius'. He just looked bored of everything while Walburga was eyeing her up like she was critiquing an item at the clothing store in an attempt to find any potential flaws. It would have been enough to make any feel small and shrink into themselves but not Asteria. Her skin was much thicker than Walburga could pierce and she only stood taller in the intimidating woman's presence.

"Asteria, how wonderful to finally meet the woman marrying my son." Walburga's voice slithered between them, almost inciting that it had been Asteria's fault they hadn't met sooner.

"It's an honour to be a tool in unifying our two great household, Walburga." That was exactly what she was. A tool. She was being used as a bloody tool by her father and the Black's to further their influence and power in the world.

Sirius' face hardened at her words. By the sounds of it, he had been correct in assuming she'd just be another sheep in the flock, willing to forsake any original morals or ideologies for the sake of their bias and prejudice families. What a splendid marriage this would turn out to be.

"Yes, well my part in this union is done. It is now your duty to make sure this alliance stands and lasts lifetimes to come." Asteria didn't miss the jab Walburga added in about children, 'lifetimes to come', children to bare and harmony to sustain. The older woman quirked her head in curiosity. "Do you remember my Sirius from Hogwarts?"

"Aye," Asteria suddenly became aware of her thick accent and cringed in her own head at how "un-posh" she had sounded compared to Walburga's polite English accent. Merlin, as if she hadn't embarrassed herself already, just leave it to her accent to royally fuck her over. "But we only ever had one class together."

"We did?" Sirius inquired, arching his eyebrows at her.

His first words to her and he was questioning if she was telling the truth as if she would lie to him just for the sake of it. Asteria felt her grip tighten on the champagne glass, quickly letting it relax as soon as she had realised what she was doing. She didn't need beady eyed Walburga catching her slightest slip up. "Defence Against the Dark Arts."

A dark humour grew in Sirius' eyes at the irony. The spells they learned in that class weren't the ones they needed — not when their families were the thing they'd have to duel. They would have needed much more complex spells to break their familia bonds to the Dark Arts.

"Well, isn't that interesting." Narcissa spoke up from beside Asteria, watching with a small grin at the staring contest the intended couple had found themselves locked in. "Walburga, I think mother was looking for you, why don't we go find her, hmm?"

Asteria felt her insides twist and turn frantically, uncomfortably, at the sight of Narcissa shooting her a quick wink as she pulled Walburga away, leaving her alone in the dreaded company of a deatheater. What the fuck were they supposed to talk about? The wedding? 'Oh, Sirius, what do you think of lilacs for the wedding instead of the boring old calla lilies everyone else seems to adore?' That wasn't likely.

Meanwhile Sirius watched with unamused eyes at the actions of his cousin. He didn't particularly want to be left alone with the person he was meant to marry either. In fact, he'd rather spend the rest of the evening speaking to Gordon Murphy and his condescending speeches about the other guests and how beneath him they all are. Well, maybe that was a stretch. Gordon Murphy wasn't exactly the type of company people actively sought out. Asteria, at the very least, from the three sentences he's heard her speak, seemed to be a little more endurable than her father. But then again, he didn't want to speak too soon...

Be it the work of the fates taking pity on the two trench deep in an unbearable silence, or mere coincidence, Phaedra's voice cut through the room, loud and soft all at once, "If you could all move to the dining room, dinner is about to be served."

"Shall we find our seats together?" Sirius asked, bitterly rolling his eyes internally at how polite he was trying to be. Just when he thought he couldn't hate being the good little son of the Black family anymore, he'd been forced to go and play the perfect little husband. Luck just wasn't on his side — not after he'd left the sides of his loyal Marauders.

She nodded solemnly, not happy with the reminder she'd be seated next to him for the rest of the dreadful evening. This was going to be a long night.

They moved to the next room together and found their seats with ease at the middle of the unnaturally long table, lined with placemats with the guests names written in gold script hovering about the chairs and fading into thin air as soon as the person took their seat. After the last guest had taken their seat, the starter meal appeared in front of everyone: creamy vegetable soup. Also known as Asteria's favourite but she had no intentions of eating any tonight after Ditzy's ditzy actions.

Everyone had pleased smiles at the delicious scent of the soup and eagerly digged in, Sirius included. But before he could grab his spoon, a soft hand landed on top of his and his gaze travelled up the arm to Asteria who was shaking her head subtly. His first thought was she was telling him it was poisoned until he saw the pained looks of disgust on everyone's faces at the first sip of the soup and the faint ghost of a smile on Asteria's face. Their bowls remained untouched as everyone else did their best to keep their facial expressions neutral as ate the horribly bitter soup starter.

Sirius, despite his dislike of surprises, (the last one he had actually enjoyed being the time James, Remus and Peter had surprised him with a leather jacket on his birthday that he had cherished more than any of his expensive robes his parents adored on him), found himself eager to find out what other surprises Asteria had in store for him. So long as they were harmless...