Astoria sat up in her bed and looked at the enchanted pocket watch that lay on the side table. 11:57. She perched expectantly at the end of the bed and her heartbeat quickened at the thought that everyone in the entire castle was asleep except for her and Draco. She knew it was nonsense, of course; if not the house elves, then Harry Potter would be roaming the corridors. But it was still thrilling deep in her stomach.
11:59. Her eyes glued themselves to the watch, waiting for 12:00. The secondhand moved with infuriating ease, but as soon as it hit midnight her eyes were on the door.
It didn't open, but then, she hadn't been expecting it to. Instead, a silver glow shone through the crack under the door, and seeped under it. The tendril of mist thickened and congealed into a cloud, which formed… into a massive reptile. It was a crocodile, life-size and fearsome.
But Astoria wasn't afraid. Well—afraid that someone would wake up and catch her. But she even let it slither on to the low bed, which looked near impossible, but the crocodile could float if it wanted to. In fact, as she watched, it seemed to swim through the darkness.
It's massive jaw didn't stir, but in Draco's voice the crocodile began whispering rather embarrassing things in her ear. She blushed immediately; she knew Draco wouldn't say these kind of things out loud... to her face. He was hiding behind his bloody Patronus and teasing her like there was no tomorrow! It almost made her mad. But then his seductive whisper faltered and he broke into whispers of barely contained laughter. The misty reptile dispersed, Draco's chuckles dissipating as well.
Astoria grabbed her wand from under her pillow. A mischievous grin that simply couldn't be contained went unseen in the darkness. Summoning a set of rather naughty moments between herself and Draco—which made her blush even more—she whispered, "Expecto patronum." A silver osprey—or what would be a silver osprey when fully formed—glided under the door smoothly, and after a moment even the telltale glow was gone.
Draco would have quite an earful himself.
Theoretically, he could have gone to sleep at a decent hour and woken up before midnight, but Draco couldn't get to sleep in the first place. Zabini and Nott were asleep, luckily—Crabbe and Goyle might have been great hulking boulders for all they moved. He wasn't worried about those two.
As the clock approached twelve, Draco wondered what Astoria was expecting to hear. Surely not a sappy "I love you to the ends of the earth" type speech? If she knew him at all, she wouldn't be surprised at what he'd cooked up.
11:59. The tip of his blackthorn wand glowed in preparation for the spell, as he closed his eyes with a smirk, reliving last Saturday night. There had been nothing against-the-rules about it. The common room qualified as part of the dormitories, so no curfew was broken. It was a perfectly acceptable place to be at any hour. The fact that no one else was there at that particular hour of the morning had nothing to do with it.
Draco had to shake himself partway out of the moment to cast the spell, though it had already made him grin the way Slytherins do when they've done something not technically against the rules. "Expecto patronum." He really only mouthed it; if Blaise, or worse Nott, caught him doing this and figured out what exactly he was doing, he would be in deep trouble. He'd never hear the end of it.
The crocodile bled from the tip of his wand without a sound, drifting down the hall and up the stairs. And then down other stairs and down another hall. Draco grinned. The creature knew what to say and would say it just as Draco would were he there himself. This would be wonderful—he was only disappointed he wouldn't get to see her face.
The moment having passed, Draco felt immediately exhausted. He shouldn't have stayed up. He'd woken up way too early besides. But tomorrow was Saturday; he could sleep in as much as he wanted. He fell back onto his pillow, then froze, hoping nobody'd woken up. Nott mumbled something and rolled over. Draco rolled his eyes at himself. Nothing but a girl could make him act like this. Nobody but Astoria.
Only when he thought somebody'd turned the lights on did Draco open his eyes again. He barely stifled a thoroughly alarmed sound. It was Astoria's Patronus, an osprey. He blinked. He hadn't expected retaliation. He sat up, shivering as his torso passed through the bird. It fluttered back to perch in front of him, and he vaguely wondered if he should be scared.
Upon it speaking, he blinked again. He had never heard Astoria talk like that. It was kind of hot. Kind of a lot. Was this what she considered revenge? All it did was make him grin madly. Her blatantly suggestive comments were even worse than his. …He could get used to this.
She, too, broke into a fit of muffled giggling, however. It kind of ruined the moment for Draco. But he was too busy wondering how in the world he had found a girl that would put up with this juvenile crap.