Pureblood Poisons
For the 2nd annual Can You Write a Romance? Challenge by .Destiny
Xenobiotic- The general term that is used for a foreign substance taken into the body typically, a poison.
I had flipped through herbology books, potions books, everything I could think before I came across the passage with the word xenobiotic.
I was looking through material for a lecture on Potions because I was planning on taking a career in healing. I needed to find out more about the lecture topic, today we were covering toxicology.
After all we needed to make sure we knew what dosages not to put patients on (lethal doses) and we needed to know more about the poisons to create antidotes and remedies for them all.
I sighed and gathered my things for the day like my article on Toxicology, a notebook, quills, and a small sketch pad. I loved to draw things and I always carried a sketch pad so I could draw but unfortunately I haven't found inspiration to draw lately...
I headed to the kitchen where I ate a light breakfast and responded to the mail I received from my owl called Emma. Magazine, letter from Mom (the daily "how is your love life and when am I getting grandkids?" talk), and finally a letter from Pansy.
Since the war things had changed and Pansy soon became a kinder soul and we became very close over a short period of time. She was like a sister to me. She was even asking me to be her maid of honor at her and Draco's wedding.
Yeah, I was excited for the day because I would finally be close to Lucius. Well, technically we would only be connected by Pansy but that was plenty for me. I didn't dare ask for more.
Lucius was arrogant, proud, considerate, and was a brilliant thinker without a doubt. He was someone that I respected and admired. Of course I think he doesn't notice me. He probably notices Daphne and Pansy but never me because I wasn't even good enough to be his son's wife.
Every time I would go over to his place with Pansy I would lose myself, every aspect of myself, in his grey eyes and white blond hair. I was addicted to him. He was my xenobiotic poison and he was slowly corrupting me.
Every time Pansy mentioned something about the wedding or fixing Malfoy Manor I jumped through flaming hoops to get myself invited so I could have the chance to see him. He was old enough to be my father and I wanted him.
Was it really that wrong? Of course as a born Slytherin I didn't think it was as horrible as some remarkable crimes that past Slytherins had done. Besides all purebloods were related somehow if our society approved of what was incest marriages then surely this wasn't that bad right?
Except for the fact that he was married, I had to breathe a little, as I felt the sharp pain in my chest return. I hated that he was married. Yes, affairs in our world were more sinful then our marriages...
I felt the happy mood I had woken up in slowly drain away, which was a shame since it even survived through the three hour research. I checked the clock again. I still had a few hours until class. I set the magazine and the letter from Mum away and turned to the last letter.
I grabbed my letter and opened it. I read it and soon I was shaking. Was she kidding? Was this a cruel joke?
I ran to the living room grabbing the Floo Powder and yelling Malfoy Manor.
Pansy was staying here with her fiancée until after the wedding where she and Draco would stay at their new house. Now... Where was Pansy's room? Oh yes! Third floor, fifth door on the right.
I raced up the main stairs as my thoughts were consuming in my head. Could she be telling the truth? Was something I had been wanting since my seventeenth birthday be coming true? Was she absolutely sure? Was Narcissa gone? Was my Lucius-?
I felt my body collide with another poor soul. I stopped and I could feel a blush color my cheeks. I looked down not making eye contact.
"I am so sorry! I didn't mean to run into you. I wasn't paying attention." I didn't look up. I didn't want to know who it was I had publicly embarrassed myself to.
"It's fine Miss Greengrass." A familiar voice soothed me.
Lucius….I forced myself to look up and stare at the man who I had dreamed about, who I loved, and who would never notice me. After all, the word xenobiotic has the root xeno. He would always be foreign, the meaning of the root xeno, to me; he was in another world compared to me after all I was just a girl younger than his son and Pansy's closest friend of recent times. I felt so lost after the war and I felt like everything I had been told was dreadfully destroyed. I wasn't able to speak to anyone the weeks that followed but Lucius was stronger than me appearing in the Daily Prophet showing his strength by attending a dinner party the next week!
"Oh, Lucius, I am sorry to have bumped into you." I told him and I moved to the side of the staircase.
I watched him raise a fine blond eyebrow at me and I realized what I did. I had called him by his first name. While he said I could, I knew he never thought I would. I took a step up the stairs after a moment of him not saying a word else.
"Nothing is amiss Astoria, no harm done. Pansy has been waiting for you." He called and I turned back around.
"Did she tell you?" He asked as I opened my mouth to speak.
"Is it true?" I asked leaning against the banister.
"Yes, it's the truth Narcissa left and I am soon to be divorced." He told me and I could see the pain in his grey eyes. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. She left a god of Slytherin, a man devoted to her. Of course recently she seemed to blame him for the war and had seemed cold and distant.
"I'm sorry." I told him and it was the truth.
"It's okay. Honestly, I would rather be having a divorce than be in a loveless marriage." Lucius told me. I agreed with him I mean I wouldn't want to be living a lie. Pretending everything was right and wearing an indifferent mask all the time.
I told him I did and as I told him the part about the mask he seemed to look at me with a different set of eyes.
"You are very wise for your age Astoria. Very wise, indeed. Pansy and Draco are lucky to have a wise friend in the future." Lucius complimented me.
"Thank you and I believe you will have someone that loves you even more than Narcissa ever did come into your life. I actually promise it." I told him and I slowly turned around and climbed up the stairs. I took a leap of faith with that but maybe one day I could tell him. Maybe. It definitely seemed possible.
"I'll hold you to your word Astoria." With that and a wink of his steel eyes he vanished down the stairs.
I slowly put my hand over my heart and smiled. That went extremely well.
"Congrats Astoria, now come on to my room, I have things to talk to you about." Pansy called and smirked when she saw my shocked and slightly horrified expression.
"What you thought you could find that from me?" She asked as I raced up the stairs and came to stop at her side. "Who would have thought that Lucius would be your corruption, your poison?" She whispered in my ear.
"Pansy!" I cried out indignant. I can't believe she knew. I couldn't believe she had listened to the conversation. Actually, I could believe that. She was the gossip queen of the Slytherins but the fact that she overheard us!
"Hey what can I say? As a soon to be Malfoy I need to know what goes on and by the way. I think you have a fair shot with him. Good luck." She told me. "Now that I have had a bit of fun I think I don't need you anymore. Besides isn't the study group for that Potions class of yours the hospital is making you take starting now?"
I glanced at the clock in the hallway and paled. Oh I was going to be late! I waved goodbye to her and I walked into the Floo fireplace she had in her room.
"Sorry I am late!" I called to the people in the rec room of the hospital; the class we were all taking was in the hospital itself.
"Finally Astoria come on! We are just talking about xenobiotic poisons and ones we are personally familiar with." A girl by the name of Alice called to me.
Who would have thought that Lucius would be your corruption, your poison?
I wanted to groan. How would I get through Potions without thinking of Lucius?
Pansy you will get an earful when I am done with you…
R and R!