like belladonna

by Wandering princess

His Godfather would have compared her to that plant if he where alive, Astoria, quiet and pretty but as deadly as hemlock, maybe this was why Draco married her, someone like her shouldn't be left to her own devices, who knew the havoc she might raise.. a small Drastoria drabble in which we get a peek behind the story of the Astoria and Draco's "expected" and "arranged" marriage

On the outside Astoria Greengrass was a sweetheart, unlike her haughty older sister Daphne, Astoria was one of those few pureblood girls that seemed to care about muggles and half breeds, she was a beautiful thing, easy to love, whose perfect doe eyes had a evoked forgotten memories of a younger sibling or a daughter, with perfect manners and an excessively polite demeanor, it was easy to overlook her when faced with her older sister

When Draco Malfoy asked her to marry him, people assumed it was because of her submissve and compliant personality, so similar to his mother's, but Astoria had a type of charm that was attractive to all, the way Malfoy smiled when she passed also made the public also assume that the Slytherin prince had fallen inlove.

Yes Astoria seemed like a fresh bloom in a garden withered in winter, she often liked to use her money to distribute food and clothing to war survivors, reading stories to children and trasfiguring toys for every orphan she met, reminding them that family was important, she even supported the reconstruction of Hogwarts by convincing her future husband to donate one of Malfoy's properties to serve as a storage house.

And even dough she was a pureblood, the lady Astoria was just so focused on helping others that it was hard for the people not to love her…

But Astoria Greengrass was much more than a angel of mercy, Draco Malfoy knew it since the very first time she had adressed him respectfully as "Milord Malfoy" the night on Daphne's twenty first birthday, it amused him how only he could see the tiny threads Astoria tied around people with her well thought kindness act, was he the only one that saw her tiny smiles whenever a person did exactly what she wanted witout realizing she was a tiny puppeteer?

Her charm was like poison, a weapon of subtle manipulation that had Draco grinning behind his mask of impassive detachment. She made them all dance to her tune, in fact she was so good at using charity acts as a form of manipulation that she made them WANT to dance to her tune, but never did she use her influence for unkind acts, oh she was a snake, ambitious and cunning to the core, but a kind hearted one, that made her an oddity in his world.

But Draco saw trough that, and it infuriated her, around him she could not weave a web of deceptive pretenses, he seemed to know when she was being honest and when she was not, which eventually led to making her intrigued by him, Draco Malfoy, the cobra to her garden snake, a man that saw right trough her masks with the same deadly accuracy in which she saw trough his.

This is why Draco married her.

Why he made up his mind to have the demure and dutiful Greengrass girl, who was as manipulative as she was good hearted, Draco figured that if he wanted to avoid ever getting tangled in the strings of her puppet show, he had to keep an eye on her beautiful form twenty four seven and the only way he could do that was by marrying her before she became the next national threat to wizarding Britain.

And thus Astoria accepted his suit, like any pureblood lady would, promising to keep her puppet strings on his line of sight in exchage for his heart, all while continuing on her personal campaign of making Muggleborns and half breeds love her…and love her they did and by loving her, they also began to love Draco, because how could the kind and gentle Miss Astoria marry someone who was evil? No he must be better than everyone says..he chose family over Voldemort in the war..Miss Astoria loves him, he can't be that bad.

And Astoria did love him, she loved his darkness and his light, the way he saw her for who she was instead of who he wanted her to be, she loved his smiles and his frowns, the way his eyes darkened in desire when they were alone and the warmth of his tone when he whispered his worries in her ear

And Draco, Draco just loved Astoria because of her whole being.

But of course on the outside theirs remained the picture perfect arranged marriage of two purebloods, the pretty and submissive wife tied to her proud and icy husband.

Except of course only Scorpius saw his parents as what they really where, a delicate illusion of masks that they only took off in the presence of their beloved son

His father might be hard, controlled and deadly, but his mother was beauty and charm tinged with poison, which sometimes made for a ugly weapon…when it came to protecting their son, Draco was a snake and his wife was Belladonna

AN: For those who do not know Belladonna is a pretty berry plant with lovely flowers that is also known as Deadly Nightshade in the western hemisphere of the world, its very poisonous but you wouldn't know it by looking at it

I hope you like my first Drastoria drabble, I've always imagined that Draco must have married someone very kind but cunning, so in my head Astoria is like a JK Rowling version of Margaery Tyrell