"Astoria! Hurry up!"

A small groan left Astoria Greengrass's lips as she slowly threw the covers off of her large king-sized bed. After realizing what she had to do today, she moaned much more loudly, but not so loud that her mother could hear, for if she had Astoria would surely get a good scolding. Today was the day for yet another stuck-up party. As if Pansy's hadn't been bad enough, this time there was going to be even more purebloods showing up to harass her about petty and useless things, often comparing her with her sister. Ususally it was about finding a husband. As if mother didn't do that enough!

"Coming!" She hollered downstairs, trying to sound at least somewhat pleasant. Or at least as pleasant as her damping mood would allow. She had every right to be a bit angry, instead of just standing off to the side and watching everyone else be sociably acceptable, she was expected to walk around to everyone she had a sliver of knowledge about, and hand out invitations to Daphne's wedding. And of course, she would have to smile, and be cheerful, and to look as though she was having the greatest time of her life.
She greatly disliked 'fake' people, in fact, she would often times make fun of them with her friends when she was in Hogwarts. The only thing she disliked more were hypocrites.

"Hurry, hurry, stand right there and wait for the guests to arrive! Astoria, did you take a fall asleep again?" Her mother ordered, dressed in expensive silk, one of her favorite dresses. Her hair was up in a sleek bun, not a single follicle out of place. Her mouth was a thin line, eyes sharply narrowed at her "unruly" daughter.

"Of course not, I was getting ready," She said as she lied through her teeth. She did as mother had told her, and stood were mother had pointed out.

"Astoria, we need to get you a new gown, green just isn't your color, I'm afraid." Said Daphne skeptically, as she stood by her side, slightly taller than her younger sister. Daphne was in a blue gown, greatly accenting her almost platinum blonde hair, which was elegantly brushed to the side, the bottoms curled slightly.

"I'll get a new one tomorrow," She lied for the second time that day. The gown she had on now was exaclty like the one she wore for Pansy's party, only green instead of gold. It flowed lightly down her shoulders, going into a deep V-neck in the front and the back. Her hair was down this time, natural waves flowing down her back, while her bangs were swooped to the side, something that her mother greatly despised.

"Besides, you were the one who told me to wear Slytherin colors." I retorted.

"Shh, they're coming!" She hissed back, snapping in front my face with her frail, skinny fingers.

As if on cue, hundreds of people all dressed properly in their nicest attire came shuffling inside their large mansion, some straight to the kitchen for one of biggest buffets Astoria has ever seen in her life, and others led the way into the ballroom.
She smiled brightly, and went to hug and greet everyone she recognized, thankful for her natural gift of being able to keep a conversation going for hours.
Gazing around behind the person she was currently greeting's shoulder, she saw something that quite surprised her. Never had she thought that that woman would come to such a big event so soon after such a crisis.

"Huh," She muttered lighlty, making sure her voice was low enough so only herself could hear her. She stared at the aging yet still beautiful woman, dressed in a black, rather expensive looking gown, with a black long-sleeved cardigan.

"Narcissa Malfoy, what a pleasant surprise."

Personally, she quite liked Narcissa, her mother used to be close friends with her in fact. Of course, that changed dramatically after the events the preceded during and after the war. Her mother had shunned Narcissa out of her life after all of that chaos. Astoria guessed that her mother would not be happy about Narcissa showing up at one of the most important before-wedding events of her daughter's life. Astoria knew she had to get to Narcissa before her mother did, or else Narcissa would be practically kicked out of the party.

I made my way toward Narcissa, every once in a while glancing at my mother to be sure she wasn't doing the same. To my delighted surprise, my mother stayed a rather long distance away from her old friend.
Narcissa satyed off to the side, an invitation clutched in her frail hands. At least Daphne got to her! Daphne shared the same gift as Astoria, though the conversation almost always involved gossip when it came to her older sister.

She smiled as she saw what was keeping everyone away from pestering Narcissa. Close to her side, almost protectively, stood Draco Malfoy. He was dressed like he was in Pansy's party, his attire looking like all of the other men's, only much more expensive than some. He stood ready to glare a death match with anyone who came near. Not as affective as Lucius, but it worked nonetheless.
Like a sixth sense, his eyes darted over to my direction, but quickly softened as he recognized me.

"Hello Narcissa," I said, genuinly pleased for once at this bloody party.

"Astoria, it's so good to see you again!" She replied with a friendly embrace.

I couldn't help but smile behind Narcissa's shoulder when she saw Draco glare at my mother, who was glaring at both Narcissa and myself.

"It's been a while." I said to the older woman, the only one of my mother's old friends I actually felt comfortable with.

"Far too long," She said in an exasperated tone.

"Oh, this is my son Draco, Draco this is Astoria, the youngest of the Greengrasses." She said while stepping away for Draco.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," He said with his signature smirk as we pretended that this was the very first time we met, obviously not wanting to explain to his mother that we already knew eachother, most likely to avoid admitting what he had done to Pansy, which I had easily picked up from Daphne.

"The pleasure is all mine, Mister Malfoy." I said with a smirk of my own. Of course I would go along with it, I would never admit it out loud, but honestly, he's probably going to be the only way I survive such a drabby party.

Again.

"Well, I suppose I should at least try to smooth things over with your mother." Narcissa said, and I couldn't help but admire her. Instead of simply avoiding my mother, she decides to confront her. As expected of Narcissa Malfoy. Because, really, I owe her more than I could ever repay.

I watched her stride toward my mother, not necessarily too fast, but that was very much so understandable.

As soon as she left Draco immediately grab my wrist, and my attention, and looked around as though to make sure noone was around.

"Okay, is there anywhere we could go, alone, where nobody would really care to find us?" He asked in quite a rushed tone.

"Ooh, Mister Malfoy, how sudden!" Of course he was far too serious to be joking around, but I just couldn't miss such an opportunity.
He glared at me, but he couldn't hide a small smile.
All of a sudden, his glare flicked from me to straight forward, his serious grey eyes intensifying. I followed his gaze, and quickly caught on.

"Oh." I said dumbly, staring at Pansy Parkinson who was striding over with almost every girl who was in Slytherin with Draco. I knew her gang was big but honestly? Was she really that great? Pansy, Millicent Bullstrode,Tracy Davis, and even Daphne, were scrolling around, most likely looking for Draco. I couldn't help but smirk at Pansy, whose face looked just about as desperate as what she felt.

"Here, follow me." I said as I took the cuff of his jacket and pulled him closely behind me, the perfect destination already in my mind. I led him through one of the hallways from the ball and turned a corner. After a little more walking I made sure noone saw us, and led him through to my father's study. Obviously nobody else was inside but us, and the atmosphere was calm and peaceful once again.

My father's study was pretty much like a rather large library, books lined the room in high shelves, going almost every direction. The walls, like most of the mansion, were a natural golden color, leading down to slightly darker tiled floors. It was as though they lived in a palace, and they practically did. All that was missing was a surrounding moat with alligators to gaurd them.

Now that they were alone and seperated from the rest of the world, or so it seemed, she led him much more slowly into a smaller room connected to the library. It was much smaller, the walls were a darker gold, and the floor was carpeted in a warm red color, and the fireplace lightly crackled as Draco went and sat on one of the couches my dad had just for my sister and myself, though Daphne didn't care about anything my father ever did for her. I, on the other hand, savored everything that was my father's, for I was very much was what one considered as a "Daddy's Girl".

"I miss this place..." I muttered, reminiscing about how I used to deem this as my natural haven, the one place I could go to in order to escape all my problems. I would go here all the time, and sometimes i would sit on the couch, and sometimes I would read the stories my father used to read to me, and sometimes I would still feel the warmth of my father as he would hug me and talk to me and always make me feel good about myself whenever my self esteem faltered. Usually due to Daphne.

Or, at least I used to.

"So I'm guessing you were in Slytherin, correct?" Draco said coolly, breaking the silence that had come over us.

A wave a guilt washed over me, for I had completely forgotten about him.

"Yeah, two years your junior." I said plainly.

"Thanks, by the way." He said after a nod of his head.

"Yeah."

I couldn't help but give a little laugh before gazing over at him and saying most likely what he was thinking.

"You need to get her to realize that you're not interested."

"I know.." he said as he shook his head.

After a little bit of silence he looked up at me and stared at me straight in the eye. His gaze was serious and magnetizing. I could see why anyone in their right mind would stay as far away as possible. I must not be in my right mind, because I couldn't make myself pull away.

"Would you-"

"No." I quickly interrupted.

"But-"

"No." There was no way I was going to pretend to be his girlfriend just to make Pansy uninterested.

"...Please?"

Okay, that hit me. Draco Malfoy would never say please unless he was really really desperate.

"Can't you get someone else to do it?" Now it was my turn to plead, which I was definitely not used to.

"Like who?"

"I don't know, it's not my problem."

"But if you don't, then I'll have to go back out there and confront her. She's not going to listen, mother will get angry, and I'll have to spend the rest of the night dancing away with Pansy Parkinson."

"That still doesn't make it my problem." The more he explained, the guiltier I felt. But I was in Slytherin, and it's not like it would kill him or anything. Just what's left of his reputation.

"What are you talking about, of course it's your problem."

"How?"

"If I'm off with Pansy, then who are you going to talk to the rest of the evening?"

"I'll find someone!"

"Well sure, but, they're not going to be as great as me," he said this as though he were talking to a five year old, and I half-expected him to say "duuh" afterwards.

"You are so full of yourself." And beleive me, he was. Or was he kidding?
He gave me an almost confused look and I realized something for the first time- this man was rediculously difficult to read. I had no idea how he felt, nor did I even know if he cared about dancing with Pansy. Most others were like an open book for me, and he was so shut down to any emotion whatsoever. But, then again, so am I. Or at least, I think I am.

Soon we had identical looks of confusion on our face, we looked at eachother straight in the eye, and endured deep concentration in finding even a hint of emotion in the other.

"So.." I'd had enough, and the silence was broken.

"Tell me about yourself."