Hi! Here is the second chapter. Thank you for the couple of reviews on the first chapter. I really appreciate the feedback!
I don't own anything from Harry Potter.
Astoria let herself cry for as long as she possibly could. She hoped that if she were to cry long enough she would run out of tears and not lose control again. While her cries finally began to subside, she found herself staring at her ring while sniffling and wiping her nose on her arm.
Very unladylike.
She studied the ring, rotating her hand so the diamonds would catch in the light. The ring had a very ageless look with a large, oval diamond in the middle with dozens of small diamonds surrounding it. The band was rose gold with intricate designs and most likely hours worth of detail and craftsmanship; a cursive "Malfoy" engraved into the bottom. It was a glorious piece of jewelry and she wondered what it would be like to receive it if she weren't so used to expensive things. She thought of how a common woman might feel when presented with it. A common woman who had to work and struggle her whole life for everything she owned to have a ring like this on her finger. Astoria decided she wished she could know how that would feel. Though it was a gorgeous ring, she was almost numb to extravagant things by now. She wanted to appreciate it for the sake of the jewelry maker who put so much effort and soul into crafting it.
She sighed and sat up, rubbing at her eyes roughly and smearing her mascara across her skin. She was a mess. Her eyes wandered around the large room, "her room", finding all of her things from her actual room at her family's home. She frowned and tried to reassure herself by thinking of how her mother had been given her own room as well but still slept with her father in their shared bedroom. However, her parents were lucky and their relationship was decent. A lot of pureblood wives lived in their own rooms only to encounter their husbands to produce offspring while their husbands traded out different whores in the master bedroom they were supposed to share every night. Astoria felt her face grow hot with anger and shame. She did not want disgusting, low life women to come into her home and into her bed and have sex with her husband.
Astoria placed a hand on her forehead, overwhelmed and surprised with her reaction to the thought. She had never really processed the idea of something like that happening to her marriage, and she never imagined how she would feel. It was very quite common, infidelity, but she never thought of it happening to her.
Why would it not?
Draco didn't care about her. He didn't know anything about her and he didn't care to. She can't even remember him looking at her until she cried in front of his face tonight. Ever.
They may not have been in the same year at school, as she was a couple years younger than him, but she was always around him. She watched him as they were growing up at every pureblood event; ate at all the same tables and danced with him at every dance. She shared the Common Room with him from when she attended Hogwarts starting his third year and sat near him at every meal in the Great Hall. She was nearly always with him as they grew up.
Yet he never looked at her.
He was aware of which girls were the top contenders for his hand, and he knew one of them was her. If he had no interest of even looking at her growing up, fully aware she could possibly be his wife for the rest of his life, why would he be interested in having a relationship with her now? Why would he care for her enough to respect her title and not sleep with other women in the bed meant to be hers? Especially now, when he seemed so closed off and emotionless. Growing up he had a spirit about him, maybe a particularly nasty one but something was there. Astoria was doubtful that his changes in personality had affected his sex drive by much. He nearly slept with the entire female student body at Hogwarts. He had even slept with her sister.
He had slept with her sister.
He had intentionally taken her sister's virginity in one of the most degrading ways. Daphne had let him, wanted him. This was when being cruel was a sport to him, and he and his friends would laugh and mock all of the girls of high status that they manipulated into ruining themselves and their futures for them. He had ruined her sister just to prove he could, and he did that to about half of the other girls that his parents decided were in line to marry him. He must have owled his parents shamelessly about what he and Daphne had done immediately because Lucius Malfoy had owled Astoria's father straight away to inform him of what a disgraceful daughter he had. Her parents had been so ashamed and embarrassed, so angry at their daughter for messing up the only duty she had. To be a proper woman. Daphne had cried for hours upon hours and slept in Astoria's bed for days, not wanting to be alone. She was terrified to go home for the holidays, afraid of what their father might to do her. Astoria loved and respected her father but he was a brutal man in his worst moods and Daphne had humiliated him. Astoria had wept for her older sister, afraid and heartbroken for her as well.
But she had allowed it to happen.
She knew where Daphne was going that evening, she knew that Draco had seduced and manipulated her into believing it was a good idea, she knew what they were going to do, she knew it would ruin her. She could have reported to the prefects that there were students out too late, she could have threatened Daphne to owl her parents, she could have followed her, she could have done so much to stop her from doing what she did. She didn't. She hadn't even said a word to talk her out of it.
She didn't want to.
That night she had sat upright in her bed staring at the wall ahead of her and waited for her sister to return. She had refused to move, to do anything to stop Daphne, knowing that if she did then her sister would still have a very good chance to take the spot she wanted as Mrs. Malfoy. She chose herself over protecting her sister and her family's image.
Well, here she was. Mrs. Malfoy. She had gotten what she had so desperately wanted. She deserved this feeling of fear; this feeling of creeping emptiness.
Astoria froze, her heart sinking. Sex. She had to have sex tonight. Astoria bit into her tongue hard. She didn't want to start crying again. She had only processed so little of the outcome of this marriage before this day that everything was overwhelming her. She had to present her untouched body to this cold and uncaring man who had slept with so many women that he himself had probably lost count years ago. He most likely wouldn't be gentle with her and she doubted she would be able to have time to breathe before he sent her back to her room, used and sore.
Astoria took a shuddering breath after sitting still for a few minutes and stood from the bed, going to the bathroom to wash and prepare herself in the most suitable way possible for. To please him. She didn't have a choice. This was her duty.
Draco was staring at a letter when he heard the girl knock on his door. His eyes narrowed at it slightly. Was this not what these girls were taught not to do? Wasn't she not meant to come and bother him until she was called? This was supposed to be the girl most suited for him and the most obedient?
Maybe she wasn't as boring as he so thought.
Draco flicked his wand and the doors swung open as he went back to looking at his letter. He heard her come into the room slowly and quietly but she didn't speak once she was close enough. Apparently she was waiting to be spoken to.
"You've already come here to bother me without being called so you might as well continue with your poor manners and tell me what you want," Draco said calmly, moving his eyes to look into hers.
He watched the girl frown at the floor and swallow, looking very uncomfortable. "I'm sorry.. It's just getting late and I don't know how much longer I will be able to stay up."
"Are you not meant to stay up as late as I so please you to?"
Draco listened to her inhale sharply and he imagined her physically biting her tongue. He was curious now. He wanted to see if he could get a rise out of her. He shouldn't be able to if she was as perfect as she had always set herself out to be, should he?
"Maybe you're just as useless as your sister," he told her, watching her reaction carefully. If he was meant to be married to her, he might as well know her temper.
Astoria's eyes flashed with surprise and anger, but her emotional reaction quickly turned into something wounded. Draco almost felt sorry for the girl, it was as if he had kicked a small dog.
Almost.
He had no reason to feel sorry for this girl. She had no dirty work as he did. She never had to deal with the Dark Lord, she never dealt with the repercussions of disappointing him, she never had to fight in the war, she didn't have to deal with any of the aftermath of losing the war. Her whole life was simple and all she had to do was sit pretty and wait for a rich husband so she could keep her mouth shut and spend his money for the rest of her spoiled days.
His eyes had darkened now slightly with bitterness as he watched her struggle to find an appropriate response to him. Her voice was shaky when she spoke again, and he wondered if she might cry for a second time that night.
"I'm sorry. I only wondered if you wanted me here.. Before you went to sleep yourself to.. Cons-"
"I'm not going to fuck you now. Go to bed," he interrupted her, waving his hand dismissively.
Astoria blinked up at him in confusion, stepping towards him. She was so small and fragile looking. He noticed her sheer white nightgown draped nicely over her pale body. Virgin white.
"Well.. Why?" She asked him, scowling at what seemed to be herself.
"I don't want to fuck you, you don't want me to fuck you, and I'm busy. Later."
He watched her stand there for a while, most likely trying to decide if she was upset at being unwanted or relieved that she didn't have to go through with having sex with him that night. She met his eyes and nodded slowly, murmuring apologies about bothering him and left as quietly as she had come in. As she left, he let his eyes trail down the back of her frame. She had a lovely body but he did not want to have sex with an unwilling girl. Perhaps she could lie to herself that she was willing, but he knew that having sex with him was the last thing she wanted to do that night and he wasn't in the mood to accommodate a crying virgin.
Which he would accommodate for.
He may not have feelings for the girl but she was his wife. He had never treated a woman badly in that sense and he wouldn't start with his wife. He may not care enough to make being married to him easy for her, but he didn't want to torture her either.