My first attempt at a Draco/Astoria. Hate it if you must.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. There's really no need to rub it in my face.
They had first interacted with each other at one of those fancy dinner parties, strictly limited to pureblooded families, of course. She was fresh out of Hogwarts at 18, and he was working for the Ministry at the Department of International Magical Cooperation at 20. There was polite conversation that surrounded them, and they took no notice to each other until Draco had spotted her from across the room.
A pretty girl with a glass of wine as her only company, Draco thought with a leer. Looks easy enough. As he strode over to where she sat, Astoria felt exposed and uncomfortable to her surroundings. She fingered with the skirt of her short, navy blue dress that showed too much skin for her liking. Astoria never really acquired the taste or interest for upper-class socializing groups and dinners, and she was not planning to begin liking them now.
"Care to dance?" inquired a smooth voice from above. She glanced up to see Draco Malfoy in his crisp, black suit and the small smirk he wore upon his face.
Attempting to not roll her eyes, she said, "I honestly don't care to dance with you, Malfoy."
"Scared already, eh, Greengrass?"
"Oh yes, Draco, terrified," Astoria drawled sarcastically before taking another sip of her wine.
"Oh, c'mon Astoria. One dance isn't going to kill you," he replied while occupying the seat that was next to her.
"Says you, Draco. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to tell my parents that I'm turning in early because a certain blond haired git won't leave me alone," she said haughtily as she stalked away. He watched her in amusement.
He liked it when they played hard to get anyways.
The second time they spoke to each other was at Daphne Greengrass's engagement party with Blaise Zabini. Astoria's mother was making subtle set-ups with several bachelors in hopes of having another engagement party for her second daughter, which Astoria found extremely irksome.
"My work in the Ministry is much appreciated you know," said the man who was currently boring Astoria. "They nicknamed me—"
"Excuse me, Miss Greengrass, but you never accepted my invitation the last time we met. Would you care to dance?" Draco intervened.
"Why, I would be delighted!" Astoria exclaimed with a fake smile. She took his outstretched hand and quickly left the unentertaining Ministry worker (she hadn't even bothered to learn his name).
"You realize you should be thanking me for what I just did," Draco pointed out with another smirk.
"Whatever for?" Astoria asked dumbly in reply.
"Astoria, darling, I just rescued you from dying of extreme boredom."
She put on another fake smile and said through gritted teeth, "Call me darling again and I'll hex your bollocks off. Is that clear, sweetheart?"
"Crystal," he replied airily as he spun her in a neat twirl.
"As annoying as you are, I must say that you are quite the dancer," she concluded with one of her rare smiles.
"I'm quite impressed. I didn't even realize that you had the ability to bestow a compliment! I must thank my mother for all the dance lessons in our kitchen," Draco murmured in her ear. Astoria stiffened and inhaled deeply, only to smell his rich cologne filling her nostrils. She felt his lips gently brush along her earlobe and she let out another breath shakily. Draco smirked as he dipped her and planted another kiss on her neck.
"Will you stop that?" she growled quietly.
"Make me," he commanded softly. Astoria frowned and wrenched away from his arms, once again walking away from the handsome wizard.
As fond as he was of the chase, Draco was starting to feel slightly annoyed.
They saw each other again at the bar. It could have been the typical cliché story of how a man met a sad, drinking woman and took advantage of her. Unfortunately Astoria and Draco did not really have a "typical cliché" relationship.
She was downing another shot of Firewhiskey, and it wasn't because she was sad, she was just bored. She didn't have a boyfriend to attend to, work was strictly limited to the office, and all of her friends were off doing wonderful things without her.
Well, perhaps she was mourning a little bit about her "life."
"Fancy meeting you here, Greengrass," a voice said behind her while wrapping an arm around her waist.
"Lemme go, Draco," Astoria slurred slightly. She tried to pry away from him, but he held on tight.
"Merlin, Tori, how much have you had to drink?" he asked, somewhat worriedly.
"Don't call me Tori," she grunted. As she stood to go, she felt dizzy right away. If it wasn't for Draco's arm around her, she would have been sprawled on the ground by now.
"C'mon, Greengrass, I'm going to get you back to your flat."
"Ugh, I can take care of myself, Malfoy!" she spat.
"Damn it, Astoria, why are you so fucking stubborn! Just let me help you for once," he said grabbing her wrist. She tried wrenching away once again, only to be disappointed when Draco held on tight. "Why are you so damn afraid?"
"I'm not afraid!" Astoria yelled. Draco rolled his eyes and Disapparted to Astoria's apartment (which he learned only because of his nonchalant interrogation of Daphne).
He dug around Astoria's purse and fished out the keys. As he stepped inside, he led her to her bedroom and carefully laid her body onto the bed. He watched her for a few moments before stepping out of the room, preparing to leave.
"Wait," he heard her call. He entered the room to see her standing up, using the bedpost for balance. Draco raised his eyebrow curiously, and was astonished when Astoria threw her arms around his neck and planted her lips on his. He tasted the lingering alcohol on her lips and carefully wrapped his arms around her waist.
I shouldn't being doing this, Draco thought bitterly. She's drunk.
But she's sober enough to call you back and snog you senseless, another part of his brain thought.
He felt his tongue involuntarily slide against her bottom lip. She shivered slightly in his arms and willingly opened her mouth for him to explore. Draco breathed deeply and wrapped his arms tighter around her. He felt Astoria's hands finger his hair teasingly and he bent over slightly to get a better angle of her lips. Astoria jumped up slightly and wrapped her legs around Draco's waist. Draco emitted a guttural moan from the back of his throat and let one of his hands wander along Astoria's thigh. Her skirt had been ridden up even more than before, and Draco once again laid her on the bed along with himself.
"We should stop," Draco whispered on her neck.
"We should, it doesn't mean that we will," Astoria smirked while flipping her on top of his body. He growled slightly and began to attack her jaw line with small, hot kisses and listened to her groan.
The rest of the night was fantastic.
"Should we have really done that?" Draco murmured against her skin the morning.
"Does it really matter, Draco? We already did it anyways. Too late to go back on it, wouldn't you agree?" she replied wittily. He rolled his eyes and planted a kiss on her shoulder. Astoria let out a satisfied sigh and turned over to face Draco. He gave her an uncharacteristic smile and kissed her gently on her lips, in which she responded enthusiastically.
"So what now?" Astoria asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Do we pretend this never happened, or…" she trailed off uncertainly.
He smiled at her insecurity and wrapped an arm around her waist and said, "I think we should start dating. Unless you want your mother to keep setting you up with random prats, that's up to you."
She smiled in return. "Why not? It's not like we're going to end up getting married."
They get married in four and a half years, and Astoria gave birth to Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy in six.
Opinions? Reviews? I think it was too cliché and fluffy. But hey, what can you do, right? Especially when it was a first attempt at a new pairing :P
Review, please! :D
Love lovezz,
Kick