Hello everyone! So this is a continuation of Lightning and Misguided, my other two Draco/Astoria One-shots, however this will be multi-chaptered, nothing too extensive, about 5 chapters I think. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Constructive criticism is welcome as well as reviews!

Astoria was newly 16, and her 5th year at Hogwarts had started a few months ago. Hogwarts, a place she normally felt safe in, a place she thought she could seek out for shelter, had now become the last place she wanted to be in. There was only one thing for keeping her, one reason she begged her parents to let her come back. He needed someone with him. He needed there to be someone to help him and to keep him as sane as was possible.

Astoria needed to stay and try and save what was left of Draco Malfoy. She thought back on when they had met right before the start of her 4th year. Her mother had asked him to keep an eye on her, but she realized now that it was she keeping an eye on him. At this very moment he was sitting in the Slytherin common rooms on one of the couches just staring into the fire roaring away. She was sitting at a large wooden table behind him with a book out, gazing up every now and then to watch him.

She knew that he knew she was staring at him. When he didn't think she was paying attention he would give her a side-long glance out of the corner of his eye. She wanted to reach out to him, to say something, anything that would help, but at the moment there were other students in the room. She didn't want to risk setting him off in front of other people. She didn't want to risk accidentally ruining his reputation more than it already was.

It was another twenty minutes before all of the students had made their way out of the common room to go upstairs for dinner. Daphne and Blaise had hesitated for a few moments seeing that neither Draco nor Astoria were making any move to leave with the rest of them. Of course Daphne was afraid for her sister's freedom, while Blaise did just not want to leave in case Astoria pissed Draco off and he were to miss it. Daphne had pulled him out with her though, and he had gone willingly.

When the door clicked shut, Astoria put her book down, not bothering to save her place. She wasn't even reading it anyways. When her chair scoffed against the stone floor of the common room, and Draco knew she was getting up, he took off out the door without even acknowledging her.

They wouldn't be alone with each other for another two weeks.

`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`.

Astoria hadn't even realized she'd been intruding on something important until she realized she had three wands pointed at her.

She had been rushing to class, having woken up late when she rounded the corner. There in a secluded alcove of the school she happened upon Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and Seamus Finnegan. They all looked up immediately and glowered at her. Sensing that they had mistaken her hurriedness as trying to spy on them, she took a step back before they took their wands out and had them pointed at her.

"Are you spying on us now?" The Weasley girl asked an icy tone in her voice.

"No!" Astoria yelped, "I'm just late for class, I didn't even know you were there."

"She's friends with Malfoy." Seamus said, egging the red head on.

"Hardly," Astoria scoffed, "I'm guilty by association now?"

"You're guilty because you're guilty." Ginny hissed out at her.

Astoria had finally had enough. She straightened her back and walked up to the group, not even bothering to pull her own wand out, "And here I thought you weren't the ones who were supposed to jump to conclusions. You know nothing about me, yet just because I'm in Slytherin you're going to automatically assume that I'm a bad person? My family has stayed out of this war. We have nothing to do with it." Astoria frowned at them.

Ginny's wand waivered, and she and the other two were lowering them when Draco rounded the corner and mistook what he saw. What he thought he saw was Astoria being threatened by the three Gryffindors, which was sort of what was happening anyways, but there was really no need for anyone to do anything rash. He thought about pulling his own wand on them, but hesitated. He didn't need to give them an incentive to hurt him, so instead he settled for getting Astoria's attention.

"Astoria!" he called stomping up to her.

Ginny let her wand fall to her side, but she, and the others, kept it gripped tight just in case.

Astoria looked behind her to see the blond marching up to them. He really did have shit timing she decided. She frowned and let out an annoyed sigh, "What do you want Draco?" she asked, trying to steel her voice and make it look like she didn't care that he was there, that she didn't care he had come to help her.

"I could ask you the same." He muttered, "Let's go." He said grabbing on to her upper arm and he started pulling her away from the group.

"Hey! That hurts let me go!" Astoria yelled at him, struggling against his hold.

When he didn't make any move to let go of her, Neville decided to open his mouth, "She said to let her go Malfoy."

Draco looked up in surprise at the 7th year Gryffindor. Since when had he ever talked back to him? He hadn't remembered him ever getting any kind of courage. He slit his eyes at the taller boy, "This is none of your business Longbottom."

"Well if you're doing something against her will it is!" Neville shouted back.

Astoria looked panicked between the two of them, if she didn't do something now, they were going to end up trying to kill each other right in the middle of the hallway, "It's okay." She said quickly, "I appreciate it, but I can handle him myself." She felt bad for having embarrassed the teen clutching her arm, but it was the only thing she could do to keep them apart at the moment.

When Neville gave her a curt nod, and lowered his wand, Astoria turned back to Draco, "Let's go. Now." She nearly growled at him.

Astoria let Draco drag her down the hallway until her found an empty classroom and dragged her in there. Astoria broke free of his clutch and sat down in one of the seats irritated, while Draco turned around, and with a quick flick of his wand, locked the door.

"What was that all about!" He yelled as soon as he turned back to face her.

"I could ask you the same bloody thing!" Astoria yelled back, "I can handle myself just fine okay? Nothing was going to happen!"

"They were pointing their wands at you Astoria, what did you do!" He yelled again.

"I didn't do anything! I told you that already! Merlin, Draco. You can't just ignore me for weeks and then suddenly swoop in and try to save me from non-existent danger!"

Draco faltered in whatever he was going to say next. He set his mouth in a frown before he said anything, "I was only trying to help."

Astoria felt her blood boil at the statement, "Only trying to help?" She asked, her voice cracking, "I don't need your help Draco. If you wanted to help, you wouldn't have ignored me every time I've tried to talk to you in the past month. If you wanted to help, you wouldn't have taken the fact that I've given up everything to try and help you for granted!" She heaved in a deep breath, "If you want to help me, then just stay away!" Astoria grabbed her bag, and left a very confused Draco Malfoy in the room.

`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`.

It was only a few days after that little incident that the students of Hogwarts had been let go for Christmas vacation. Astoria had been more than happy to be returning home to her family. She had been thinking about her fight with Draco to much in the past days, and the distraction was a much needed reprieve from her thoughts.

Her mother had met them at the station, and they had all gone home together, safe and sound. They did things that normal families did on vacations, talked about how school was going, if any of the girls had found boyfriends in which Astoria teased Daphne about Blaise Zabini. Her mother however seemed rather pleased with Daphne's choice in men. Daphne had not been as nice about the teasing though when she turned it back on Astoria.

"Well at least it's not Malfoy." She sneered at her sister.

Astoria nearly dropped the fork she was eat her fruit with, and she could hear her mother gasp from beside her. It was an unsaid rule between the mother and daughter that Astoria should stay away from Draco, especially since it seemed that his family was falling out of favor with the Voldemort. Astoria looked up at her older sister with the iciest look she could conjure before her mother turned her well-mannered fury on her.

"Astoria I think I've made it clear that I don't approve of you spending time with that boy. I know he's a very attractive thing, but that is no reason to ignore my rules."

"We're not together mum!" Astoria was quick to defend.

"You're together all the time," Daphne countered, "And alone too."

Astoria had had it with her sister by then, "Merlin Daph, I was only teasing about Blaise! You're only saying things like this because you're angry!"

If there was one thing no one could say about Daphne Greengrass, it was that she was a bad sister. Actually the elder Greengrass was fiercer when it came to protecting her sister then the Weasleys were with any of their siblings. Astoria could tell she had hurt her sister's feeling as soon as she had spoken, and she felt guilty about it already.

"I'm saying it because he is dangerous to be around Astoria!" Daphne said evenly, Astoria averted her eyes away from the elder, "Look at me!" Daphne yelled when Astoria broke eye contact, hesitantly the other girl did, "I don't know what your feelings for him are, but you are my sister and I refuse to let you get hurt because of him."

Astoria could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. She wasn't used to Daphne yelling at her like this. She felt ashamed of herself more than anything. Astoria scooted her chair back from the table, and stood to leave, "I understand. I'm sorry." She said quietly before rushing out of the dining room in fear of her mother and sister seeing her cry.

Daphne looked over to her mother, "I… I didn't mean to make her cry mum."

"It's not your fault Daphne. Your sister is just emotional right now. I'm sure she's confused about what's going on," She smiled serenely as she looked up to her eldest daughter, "Perhaps a little guidance from her sister would help?"

Daphne nodded and pushed her own chair out to follow Astoria up to her room. When she got there, she knocked softly on the door before letting herself in. She frowned when she saw Astoria face down on the canopied four poster bed in the middle of the room. Quietly, Daphne padded over to her and eased herself on the mattress beside her.

"I… I don't know what it is exactly that's going on between you and Draco, Astoria. I'm not going to pretend that I do either, but I want you to be safe. You know that right?"

Astoria brought her face up from the midnight blue comforter to look at her sister, tears staining her red face, "It's easy for you Daphne." She said, trying to keep from sobbing, "You're in love with a boy that not everybody hates." And with that the younger Greengrass crawled under her blankets, trying to escape her sister's sight.

Daphne looked down at the lump on the bed in shock, had she just said she was in love with Draco Malfoy? Pulling back the covers of the bed, Daphne crawled in next to her sister. Whenever Astoria was younger and she would be scared by the thunder storms, Daphne would always sleep with her, hopefully it worked the same now.

Astoria let out another strained cry and cuddled up to her sister who wrapped her arms around the shaken up girl. The two of them laid there until dinner.

`.`.`.`.`.`.`.

Meanwhile, miles away Draco's Christmas vacation wasn't any better. In fact it was worse. Currently there were 20 of the most elite Death Eaters in his living room with Voldemort at the head of the table. Draco had been excluded from this meeting; he had immediately left and taken refuge up in his spacious room. Almost as soon as he'd gotten up there his thoughts had turned to the troublesome 5th year that had somehow wormed her way into his life.

He found himself comparing her to the other woman in his life. Where Pansy was annoyingly outspoken, Astoria knew when to keep her mouth shut. Where Pansy was overly touchy with him, Astoria knew when not to go near him. She was better than Pansy he realized, maybe if she had been but a year or two older; he would have noticed her sooner. Perhaps he wouldn't have had to deal with Pansy at all had Astoria been older.

It wasn't fair to the Greengrass girl though, if she had been a part of his group, he would have ruined her. Her reputation wasn't falling apart at the seams like his was. Although, she had mentioned that none of her previous friends talked to her anymore because of her association with him. It didn't matter how he tried to avoid her at all costs, he had already ruined her.

In a burst of frustration he kicked the nearest thing to him, which happened to be a chair. On its way down to the floor it caught itself on a desk lamp and that crashed on the floor as well. Only moments later, there was a soft knock at the door.

"Come in." He replied gruffly leaning down to pick the chair up off of the floor.

"Draco?" His mother shut the door behind her as she walked into his room, "I heard a noise and…" She saw the lamp and chair on the floor, "What happened?"

"Nothing," Draco murmured, "I tripped."

Narcissa frowned at her son, gently grabbing his arm; she led him over to the edge of the bed where they both sat down. Taking his hand in her own, Narcissa looked Draco over. He looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep in the past couple of days which wasn't surprising.

"Won't you tell your mother what's wrong?" She asked looking him in the eyes.

"It's nothing mother," Draco answered automatically, "Just school…" He muttered the last part.

"School," Narcissa started, "Or people at school?"

Draco tensed under her touch, and she knew she had gotten it right. Now she just needed to know who it was causing her son distress, "Draco, if there's something bad happening at school you know you can tell me right?" she asked smoothly, trying to calm him.

"It's nothing." He said again, and Narcissa didn't miss the far-off longing look that came over his face for a few seconds.

"Draco," Narcissa started calmly, "I know that the past couple of years have been hard for you. But I am your mother, and you cannot hide anything from me. I have been lenient before now, but I am demanding you tell me what has gotten into you lately."

Draco looked at his mother in surprise. He had been expecting her to just leave it at that and leave his room like she normally did. He didn't think he could remember the last time his mother had gotten angry with him. He was ashamed when he felt the familiar stinging centered on his eyes and he knew he was about to cry.

Narcissa frowned at her son and pulled him into a hug, soothingly playing with his hair as he cried into her shoulder, "Shh, Love. It's okay. It'll be okay."

"I'm useless." Draco muttered through his cries.

"No you aren't Draco." Narcissa said quietly, hugging her son closer to her.

"I've ruined her." Narcissa paused for a moment, before continuing to comfort her son.

Ruined her? Is that why he was so upset recently? Narcissa couldn't think of anyone he would be talking about, he hadn't mentioned any girls from school. Then the past year came flying back to her. He meant Astoria Greengrass. He had talked about her a lot last year, normally things about what a little girl she was. It was endearing the way he talked about her, like she was a younger sibling he never had the chance to have. Now she realized what it had been from the start, a budding infatuation.

"Draco, you've done no such thing." Narcissa cooed to her son, trying to calm him down.

"You don't even know what I'm talking about." He said in typical teenage angst fashion.

Narcissa smiled at her only child, slowly she stood, keeping her hand on his shoulder, "When you're a parent, Love, you know everything." She gave his shoulder a final pat and left the 17 year old alone in his room.

Okay. So about the lamp. I feel like wizards have things like lamps and things like that only they're enchanted to work with magic, so instead of having a sink hooked up to water, they just kind of enchant the sink to use water, and the lamp uses magic light instead them paying an electricity bill. So yeah…

Reviews are loved! And I'm open to questions too!