Chapter 781: Side Story — Betsy Greengrass
I am Betsy Greengrass.
The eldest daughter of the Greengrass family.
From the day I was born, I was a pure-blood noble.
I hated Muggle-borns.
I also hated pure-blood wizards.
The former always looked terrified whenever they saw me.
As for the latter...
They disgusted me.
They were all insane.
Rotting away in ballrooms and banquets, pretending to be elegant while hiding filth underneath.
Their polished appearances only made the ugliness beneath more obvious.
I hated them.
Not jokingly.
Not casually.
I truly hated almost everyone.
Including the Dark Lord who ruled the British wizarding world more than ten years ago.
I still remembered watching my parents kneel before him.
Watching them kiss the hem of his robes.
Watching them reverently offer their arms to receive the Dark Mark.
It made me sick.
"Control your expression, Betsy."
My mother had warned me softly.
"If you cannot defeat him, then at least learn to admire him."
"We must protect our interests."
"We must preserve the dignity of pure-bloods."
The dignity of pure-bloods?
Did she mean kneeling on the floor and kissing someone's robes?
Little Betsy felt nauseated.
But she obeyed.
She stood gracefully behind her mother.
Then she heard her mother say respectfully,
"My Lord, may my daughter become your servant in the future."
At the time, the Dark Lord was at the height of his power.
He merely nodded indifferently.
"Let the children grow up first."
"The Dark Mark can wait."
Betsy secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
At least she had escaped.
For now.
That night, however, everything changed.
Her parents suddenly collapsed onto the floor.
They rolled around in agony, screaming and begging for mercy.
"My Lord!"
"Please spare us!"
"My Lord!"
Little Betsy stood there helplessly.
She wanted to help.
She tried.
But she couldn't do anything.
Fortunately, after a long while, they recovered.
The next morning, her father grabbed her shoulders.
Something she would never forget.
"Something has happened to the Dark Lord."
"Betsy."
"Take your sisters and leave immediately."
"Let the house-elves take you away."
"Hide."
"If you see news in the Daily Prophet about our manor being auctioned, then come back."
"If you don't see it..."
"Assume your mother and I are dead."
"Never come back."
And just like that, Betsy, Daphne, and little Astoria were taken away.
The house-elves brought them into the Muggle world.
They hid everywhere.
Abandoned buildings.
Basements.
Sometimes even sewers.
Astoria was very young back then.
Those years of hiding left scars on her.
Even now, she was timid and easily frightened.
Eventually, they saw the news.
The Greengrass Manor was being auctioned.
Only then did they return home.
Later, Betsy learned the truth.
Her parents had surrendered enormous portions of the family's wealth.
They had claimed to be victims of the Imperius Curse.
That was how they escaped punishment.
Even the family manor had nearly been lost.
After that, Betsy became even more confused.
What was right?
What was wrong?
Or perhaps...
Only power mattered.
Yes.
If she became powerful enough, nobody could force her to do anything ever again.
She met Darren when she was sixteen.
At the time, she had just become a Slytherin prefect.
Because she rejected Draco Malfoy's invitation at a dance, he spent weeks finding fault with her.
One day, he even deliberately tripped her in front of everyone.
Betsy endured her anger.
She planned to return to Slytherin later and teach Malfoy a proper lesson.
Then Darren appeared.
The little fool started talking about equality, life, and all kinds of naïve ideals.
None of it moved her.
It only made her think:
This kid is ridiculously innocent.
Still...
His theories were interesting.
Interesting enough that she wanted to become friends with him.
Then the unbelievable happened.
He rejected her.
Rejected her!
The friendship of the eldest daughter of the Greengrass family!
What kind of lunatic turned that down?
Hmph.
He was definitely just some wild child raised in the Muggle world.
Fine.
She decided to give him another chance.
Then—
everything changed.
A sudden attack.
A Death Curse.
The green light shot straight toward her.
And Darren stepped in front of her.
His body fell into her arms.
Betsy froze.
She held him tightly.
Then she immediately drew her wand and aimed at the attacker.
After dealing with the attacker, she didn't even dare look down.
It was a Death Curse.
Nobody survived a Death Curse.
He was dead.
A Muggle-born first-year had died protecting her.
And worse...
He was the first person who had ever tried to protect her without wanting anything in return.
The feeling was indescribable.
Then—
he opened his eyes.
Betsy was stunned.
He was alive?
After being hit by the Killing Curse?
What kind of monster was this kid?
Her first thought was honestly simple.
Take him back to the family laboratory.
Dissect him.
Study him.
Figure out how he survived.
If they could reproduce it, the Greengrass family would never fear the Killing Curse again.
But when she looked into those innocent eyes...
She gave up.
Grinding her teeth, she pointed at him and said coldly,
"Listen carefully, little brat."
"As your future senior, I'm giving you some advice."
"Never tell anyone about this."
"Especially not the part where you survived a Killing Curse."
"Forget it ever happened."
"Understand?"
That's right.
She was only saying this because she was his senior.
Nothing else.
Definitely not because she was worried.
Then she handed him thirty thousand Galleons.
Money for saving her life.
Although...
The moment she gave him the card, her toes nearly curled from embarrassment.
Too little.
It was ridiculously little.
What could thirty thousand Galleons even do?
Unfortunately, it was all her savings.
If she wanted more, she would have to explain everything to her parents.
And then they would start investigating Darren.
So this was all she could give.
Hopefully the brat would learn his lesson.
Saving people wasn't profitable.
It could get him killed.
When Betsy returned home, she interrogated the attacker.
The truth wasn't surprising.
Over the years, she had offended plenty of pure-blood families.
The attacker was simply one of the sons of those families.
They wanted to humiliate her.
The Killing Curse had been deliberate.
They wanted the heiress of the Greengrass family to fail publicly.
What a pity.
Their plan was ruined by a first-year brat.
Betsy laughed viciously.
To celebrate, she dragged those idiots out and beat them half to death.
Then she stole their money.
All of it.
She deposited everything into the vault where Darren's compensation money was stored.
That way, when the brat eventually withdrew the money, there would be even more waiting for him.
But when she checked later...
The money was already gone.
The little brat was fast.
Curious, she investigated further.
Had Darren taken the money himself?
The answer surprised her.
No.
The money had been withdrawn by a healer from St. Mungo's.
St. Mungo's?
A healer?
Betsy frowned.
Had something happened to him?
Was it because of the Killing Curse?
Concerned despite herself, she went to St. Mungo's to investigate.
She wanted to know which ward the brat had been admitted to.
Then she overheard two healers talking.
Apparently, some little kid had anonymously donated a large amount of money to the Longbottom family.
The Longbottoms.
The moment she heard that name, Betsy remembered something.
The little brat.
Standing outside the Longbottom ward.
Secretly peeking through the door.
Back then, she thought he was merely curious.
Now she finally understood.
He wasn't curious.
He had donated her money.
To the Longbottoms.
A Death Eater family's money.
Given to Aurors.
A mouse feeding a cat.
This little fool actually dared to do something like that.
And to make matters worse—
he had donated it under the name Betsy Greengrass.
If her parents found out...
They would probably die from anger.