The Sweet Taste of Dragon Balls
"Ms. Greengrass!" a voice called, pulling Astoria out of her conversation with Luna Lovegood. "Ms. Greengrass!" Professor Slughorn was beckoning her toward where he stood. She said goodbye to Luna and approached the man.
"Good, good. Would you please assist Mr. McLaggen to the Infirmary. I would take him myself, but seeing as it's my party, that would be rude to my other guests." He said in a rush. Astoria noticed the handsome Gryffindor slumped over behind a curtain a few feet away.
"Sure, Professor. I would love to." She said as the man walked away. Now, she just had to tell Blaise, her date, and find out what was wrong with McLaggen. Lifting the sheer fabric, she noticed a puddle of vomit next to him. Eww! She thought. "C'mon, McLaggen. I'm going to help you."
Astoria helped him to his feet and then began walking away. When she spotted Zabini, she told him she was bored and going back to the dorm. He rolled his eyes and turned back to the Ravenclaw girl he was talking to. Some wonderful date this was, the brunette girl thought. She'd left the Gryffindor leaning against a wall several feet away, but he wasn't there when she returned.
Figuring he'd gone to the Hospital Wing, she headed that direction. Soon, Astoria heard the sound of someone puking and hurried to it. Sure enough, it was Cormac expelling the contents of his stomach behind a suit of armor. "Oh, dear!"
Once he stopped for a minute the young fourth year pulled him with her to the Infirmary. They weren't very far away. The Nurse was already moving around because she had another patient: Terry Boot had apparently been trying to do a tricky stunt on his broom for a girl, but that's a different story. Anyway, Madam Pomfrey told him to lie down on one of the beds while she helped Terry.
In between one of his bouts of vomiting, Astoria asked him a question. "So what's making you throw up so badly? Was it food poisoning? I heard that some of Slughorn's food was rotten." She shied away when he vomited into the bucket that Madam had sat right next to her.
"No, it wasn't food poisoning," he answered after a moment. "It was some food. Then Potter told me what it was." He sneered.
He could be a Slytherin, she thought, watching him sneer at her like that. "Well what was it then? Whatever you ate?"
McLaggen mumbled his answer, so Astoria asked him to repeat it. "Dragon balls."
And she burst out laughing. "I'm sure those were delicious!" Cormac only glared at her, his face turning pink. "But there weren't any dragon balls there. There was dragon tartare, but not dragon balls. He was probably just joking." She giggled.
After that he miraculously stopped throwing up. "You know. Greengrass, for a Slytherin, you aren't that bad. You're actually nice to be around." He said smiling at her.
"Thanks? I suppose. And for a Gryffindor, you aren't that obnoxious," she smiled back at him.
"What? Us, obnoxious? Never! It's you Slytherins that are obnoxious!"
"As if! You all are the ones that walk around thinking you're so great just because you have Harry Potter on your Quidditch team!"
"You people strut around the castle like you own it! And you snobbishness!" Cormac scoffed.
"That is only Malfoy who thinks he owns the castle! But even he's not like that anymore." She sighed and looked down at her hands folded in her lap. "And not all of us are snobs or bullies to everyone. I happen to like quite a few people from different Houses. And I'm kind to the House elves when I visit the Kitchens. I doubt even you do that, McLaggen."
"Fine, so you're not like the others." He said it just as Madam Pomfrey came to check him over.
"Alright, McLaggen. You're fine you can go." The woman said, all but shoving them out the doors.
"Well," he said back in her direction as she shut the doors and locked them. "I suppose we should return to Slughorn's party. But I don't know what I'll do since I'm fairly certain my date ditched me." He frowned and Astoria recalled Hermione Granger running away from him earlier that night.
"I don't have my date either. He sort of left me for another girl. Maybe we could hang out together. As... acquaintances. Or friends?" She looked up at his green eyes and saw his smile in them when he answered yes. "Good." She responded, grinning back.
.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.
Slughorn's Christmas Party ended an hour later, and the Gryffindor and Slytherin were still talking and laughing. Shortly after they had re-arrived at the party, a waiter had come up and offered them dragon tartare and they both just laughed and the man who turned and walked away, figuring the students were drunk.
AS the guests dissipated, Astoria looked up at Cormac. "Will you escort me back to my common room, Mr. I-am-supposed-to-be-chivalrous?" she arced her eyebrow and referred to the description of his house.
"Of course, Miss." He bowed down and kissed her hand, causing her to giggle.
They walked down the corridors and staircases, arm-in-arm, all the way to the entrance of the Slytherin common room. She tried to calm herself down from the last joke they'd shared, by leaning against the wall next to the hidden door.
"Well, I leave you here, Ms. Greengrass. See you around." Cormac winked and turned to walk away, but couldn't get much further than that.
"Uh-oh!" he heard the fourth year say. Her blue eyes were aimed at the ceiling. "Mistletoe." They both froze and watched each other's reaction. Astoria's blue eyes met his green ones and she whispered, "It's the only way you can leave. Kiss me, Cormac."
The brave Gryffindor lurched forward, took her face between his palms, and pressed his lips upon hers. They didn't stop there. Her tongue eased her lips open so that he could taste her. She tasted like strawberries and honey he grinned as he pulled away to let the girl breathe.
"You taste like honey and strawberries, Astoria." He smiled and walked away from her.
"Yeah? Well you taste like dragon balls!" the petite Slytherin shouted at his back. Even 20 minutes after she'd climbed into bed, she still couldn't wipe the grin off her face.