Lucky Dip

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

Looking up from a piece of torn parchment and quill poised, Astoria gave her husband a confused look. Slowly she nodded. "Of course I am, Draco. Why?"

"Well, it's not exactly the best way to choose our son's name, is it?" Draco replied, with a slight shrug. "I mean, it's so… Muggle." His nose curled slightly.

"It was your idea!" Astoria cried exasperated, as she continued to write.

"Yes, well," Draco began uncomfortably. "I didn't actually think you'd agree with it, Astoria."

Astoria's frustrated look fell away into an amused one. "Well, clearly, you thought wrong," she smirked, as the blond man scowled at her. "Besides, this is probably the only way I may be allowed some input on our son's name."

It was Draco's turn to look annoyed. "I let you have plenty of input, Story –" he began, before being cut off by his wife's sarcastic drawl.

"Oh, yes, I forgot –"

" – it's not my fault that you keep slamming down my suggestions." He continued, interrupting his wife like she had him.

"Suggestions?" Astoria snorted, pushing some brunette locks behind her ear. "There's a plural now, is there? Funny, I've only been hearing the one – and it's a dreadful suggestion at that. If anything, it's you who's been slamming down my suggestions, Draco."

"Because you're suggestions are bloody awful. I mean, come on? Why on earth do you want to ruin our son's life by naming him something like Nathaniel or Edward or… or… or Benjamin?"

"They're classic names, Draco. Traditional. Besides, after the names we've been gifted with, I'd have thought you of all people would want to go for something a bit normal."

"But my name for our son is normal!"

"You want to name him Scorpius Lucius, Draco," Astoria cried, her face taking on another bewildered look. "That's not normal. Have you got enough '-us' going on there, or should we add in something like Augustus as well?"

Draco paused, and contemplated what his wife had said. "That's not actually a bad idea," he began slowly. "Nice one, Story –"

"Draco!" Astoria groaned, through gritted teeth.

"Okay, okay, we won't add in Augustus –"

"Look," Astoria bit out, irritated by how difficult her husband was being. "Can we just get this over and done with? And don't forget our deal: If one of my names gets picked, then we'll use your father's name as the middle and, as unlikely as it considering it's outnumbered ten to one, if Scorpius is picked then we use my father's middle name."

"And no Lucius?" Draco drawled, his tone expressing his disappointment.

"Yes, that's right: No Lucius. Does that sound fair?" Draco grumbled his agreement, knowing that he had to give somewhere, or else he'd probably be hexed by his incredibly pregnant and incredibly hormonal wife. Astoria let out a mew of triumph. "Good."

"Pass me my drink, Story," he asked suddenly, indicating to a spot slightly behind.

"You could get it yourself, you know," Astoria hissed, not noticing her husband's silver eyes glint as she began to turn. "I'm the one eight months pregnant here."

With some difficulty, Astoria fumbled for Draco's tumbler of firewhiskey. She could sense her husband moving slightly, but thought nothing of it; he always struggled to make himself comfortable on the particular sofa they were sitting on. Upon turning back, he was finally still, somewhat comfortable and his face unusually stoic.

"Thanks," Draco murmured as Astoria passed him his drink, and he took a sip. He closed his eyes in contentment as he felt the pleasant burn at the back of his throat.

"You're welcome," Astoria replied, shifting as she felt the baby kick. "Now, can we please get on with this? I want to get to bed at some point."

Draco gave a nod of consent, and they both looked down at the black bowler hat, which was perched on the coffee table in front of them. Inside were various bits of parchment, about eleven in all, folded up into neat little squares.

"Are all the names in there?"

"Yes."

The brunette witch let out a frustrated groan, and glanced at her husband. "I still can't believe we're choosing our son's name by a lucky dip, Draco." Most of all, she still couldn't believe that her husband had actually suggested the idea.

"Well, if you had just agreed –" Draco began, giving his wife a pointed look.

"I am not about to let you have your way, Draco. You can't walk all over me like you did with those brainless oafs you called friends back at school," Astoria snarled, green eyes burning emeralds as her temper flared for a second.

Draco winced. The sooner she had this baby, the better. He was sick and tired of walking on eggs shells around his wife. Yes, he could be a difficult man, but half of the time – oh, alright, ninety percent of the time – he had hardly done anything wrong.

"And remember the other rule, Story," he said, hastily moving on from his wife's outburst, and pretending that it hadn't occurred. "No matter what comes out of the hat, whether it be Nathaniel, or Oscar or Edward," a sneer curled his lips at these names before disappearing, "or Scorpius, that will be the final name, right?"

"Right," she agreed, nodding her head in affirmation.

"No retakes or best of threes or anything like that, okay?"

"Yes, Draco, I know. We've both made that very clear."

"Do you promise?" Draco urged.

"Yes, I promise." Astoria huffed her annoyance, and silently wondered what Draco was trying to get at.

"Good." A small smirk flickered on Draco's lips, before he indicated to the hat in front of them, full of folded up pieces of parchment. "Would you care to do the honours?"

Without replying, Astoria leaned forward and placed a small feminine hand into hat and began to rummage.

One second…

Two seconds…

Three…

"Okay, I've got one," she finally muttered, pulling her hand out of the hat, fingers clamped around one of the folded up squares. She looked at her husband. "Are you ready?" All Draco could do in answer, was nod.

With thin and delicate fingers, Astoria carefully unfolded the parchment. Her eyes scanned the name quickly before widening slightly, and all the young Mrs Malfoy could do was stare.

Well?" Draco began slowly, finally breaking the silent. "What does it say?"

Green eyes still wide with shock, all Astoria could murmur was, "I don't believe it."

Slowly the paper floated out of her hand and fell open to the floor. Unable to get a response from his wife, Draco bent over to see that it clearly read 'Scorpius' in his wife's curved writing.

"Guess that's that then," Draco exclaimed smirking slightly, all the while trying to remain calm and collected, though inside he was elated. "Scorpius Hyperion it is."

Astoria didn't reply but kept her lips tightly pursed, unable to bring herself to speak. She could practically feel her husband's victory radiating off of him in waves.

Oh well, she thought as she pulled out the rest of the names, so as to put them in the bin. I guess Scorpius Hyperion isn't exactly a bad name. Better than Scorpius Lucius, that's for sure. Hang on –

As she had made to get up, one of the pieces in her hand fell to the floor, lying on the plush, cream carpet partially open. As she had attempted to bend down, something written on the square of parchment caught her eye, and immediately Astoria felt suspicion crawling up her spine. She quickly opened the other squares, and frowned in confusion and then anger at what she saw.

"Draco," she began slowly, trying to keep her voice calm. "Why do all these pieces of parchment say Scorpius on them?"

Still basking in his underhand victory, Draco hadn't noticed his wife's movements, or when the atmosphere around her had changed. He had noticed it now however, as she shot him an accusatory glare, which made him inwardly flinch.

"Ex – excuse me?" he spluttered, trying to act innocently. "What – what do you mean?"

"I think you know exactly what I mean, Mr Malfoy." Astoria hissed, looking far from impressed. "Did you, by any chance, bewitch the pieces of paper to Scorpius when I wasn't looking?"

"No…" Draco replied, averting his grey orbs from her gaze and sliding out the 'o' sound.

"I'll take that as a yes, then." Astoria huffed. "What I don't get is when did you do it?" She gasped as realisation hit her, and then silently berated herself as a small spark of pride ignited at her husband's sneakiness. No. Now was not the time to be proud of him; he had double-crossed her after all. "You changed them when I turned to pass you your drink, didn't you?"

Draco shrugged, a small smirk playing at his face. He knew he should've been looking slightly guilty but he couldn't help but feel pleased; he had finally outwitted his wife. "Perhaps."

"That was hardly fair now, was it?"

"I'm a Slytherin," Draco countered quickly. "I don't play fair."

Astoria spluttered for a second, annoyed at Draco's lack of remorse. Taking a deep breath, she became calm again and sent her husband a pointed look. "I'm demanding a retake."

It was Draco's turn to spur out protests. "You can't do that, Story," he cried, his cool façade slowly slipping away. "You clearly promised no retakes, no matter what the outcome was!"

"Yes, but that was before –"

"As a Ravenclaw, you should have been smart enough to realise that I would've probably tried and pulled something like that." Draco quipped, giving his wife a pointed look. "I'm actually slightly disappointed that you didn't."

"You had this planned all along, didn't you?" Astoria deduced, as she thought back to Draco's suggestion, his eagerness to do it, and then his slight hesitation as it came closer to the pair of them actually participating in the lucky dip. "You used psychology against me."

"Pretty much," Draco answered honestly, pleased that his wife hadn't lost all her brains. "But don't feel too downhearted: at least you get to use your father's name. Technically it's still a fifty-fifty input."

"We're having a retake." Astoria's voice broached no argument, though Draco ignored this and defiantly disagreed with her.

"No we're not, Story. Scorpius Hyperion won it, fair and square!"

Astoria scoffed. "Hardly! We're having a retake, Draco."

"But you promised!" Astoria rolled her eyes at Draco's petulant and childish tone. It was times like this that she questioned her sanity of when she had agreed to marry the prat.

"I promised under the pretence that this would be a fair way of doing it, Draco," she stated. "You're trick changed all that." She relaxed her face, and gave him the one look that she knew was his undoing. "Please?

"Fine!" Draco huffed, hating the fact that he came undone immediately. "If it's going to shut you and your morals up then we'll have a bloody retake."

"Do you mean it?" Astoria was beaming, and he had to fight down a roll of his eyes.

Damn women and their bloody hormones.

"Yes," he spat, though his bite lacked the usual venom.

A soft smile continued to play on her face as she leant over and placed a small kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Draco," she breathed, waving her wand so as to correct all the names and place them back in the hat. "You ready for round two?" Draco gave a reluctant nod. Okay, here goes nothing…"

Once more, Astoria dipped her hand into the bowler hat and rummaged. Draco watched her silently, secretly eager to find out what their son was going to be called. In all honesty, though he would dare not tell his wife this, he really didn't mind any of the names that Astoria had picked out, he just preferred Scorpius more. Surely there was no harm in wanting to have your child be given the name that you liked the most?

Astoria had finally picked out a name. Taken a deep breath, and shooting a look at her husband, she unfolded the paper and read the name. Her face remained impassive.

"Well? What's the little sprog going to be called?" Draco demanded as the seconds ticked by, and his wife hadn't said anything. Slowly her eyes widened in disbelief as reality hit her.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Draco smiled.

Authors Note: Wow, it's been a long time since I've written anything. I'm thinking of starting a Rose/Scorpius story soon, but at the moment I'm probably going to be doing a couple of oneshots so as to get back into writing before I delve into a large project.

I really hope you enjoyed it! I tried to make Astoria and Draco realistic, whilst trying to keep in mind Draco's reformation after the war. Plus he is with his wife, so he'd probably be a bit more relaxed and comfortable around her too. I think I got the balance right though.

Please let me know with a review, and any constructive criticism would also be appreciated!

Thank you,

VictoriaGreengrass