Astoria merely stood in the doorway, staring at her unexpected guest. In his defense, Draco looked terrible and didn't seem to realize that it was her flat. Regardless, she crossed her arms over her chest in a bemused fashion. Their last encounter hadn't been the greatest... no, it was worse than that. He had been downright rude. She honestly didn't feel like she owed politeness to him.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. She looked over her shoulder at her bed. She just wanted to go there so badly. The moment she rid herself of the pest, she knew that was exactly where she was going to go. She didn't even know if she would bother putting pajamas on.
"I didn't know you lived here," Draco replied. His tone was lower than last time she had spoken to him. He sounded absolutely miserable, and Astoria couldn't help but get some pleasure out of it. Draco continued by pushing some of his dripping wet white blonde hair out of his eyes. "I just knocked on doors until someone answered. Well, and avoided certain doors..." he paused. "Some dimwit flooded their flat and it leaked into mine while I was sleeping. When I say flooded their flat, I'm fairly certain his girlfriend broke up with him and thought it would be a good idea to treat his flat as an aquarium considering the amount of water that had collapsed down on me, as well as fish."
"I thought I noticed a smell. Didn't know if it was out of the ordinary, though," she replied with a snarky tone. She had such a long day, and the last thing was a sob story from one of the top 3 people who had angered her in the past month.
Draco crinkled his nose, and Astoria was rather surprised that he didn't retort. She had a handful of good responses just off of the top of her head to what she had said. He must need something.
"Look, I need somewhere to crash tonight," he finally admitted after a few long, awkward seconds. Astoria's skeptical raised eyebrow did not go unnoticed by him. "What?"
"Last I recall, you repeatedly told me about some girlfriend. Can't you stay with her? What about your parents? Any friends?" she asked.
Draco's cheeks flushed. "Pansy is visiting Switzerland with her family. If I go home, my parents will try to get me to move home."
"It's really not my problem," Astoria insisted. She stood there and said nothing. She figured she was doing him a courtesy by not shutting the door on his face. She kind of expected him to move, but when she didn't, she sighed. "You don't have enough money for a hotel?"
"You think any decent hotel will let me in looking like this?" he responded. The emphasis on 'decent' made Astoria smirk. Something she understood. Regardless, she was famous in her family for holding a good grudge. She looked at the clock to see that it was past the middle of the night. She sighed, and knew she was going to regret her next decision. She moved out of the way and said, "Fine. You're sleeping on the couch, though. Don't leave wet marks all over the floor, will you?"
Although his facial expression drastically changed at her words, he did not thank her. Astoria wasn't expecting any such generosity, even if she had just opened her home to him.
"You opted for the bachelor unit?" he sneered, looking around.
"What, you chose the four bedroom for yourself? Switch up the bedroom every now and then to feel like you're staying at an imaginary friend's house?" Astoria retorted. She swore to herself in that moment that she really wasn't a mean person. She wasn't about to be friendly to someone who couldn't return the favour, possibly even if he had a wand pressed into his throat.
"At least I could afford such luxuries," he replied, clearly unfazed by her tone. "Bathroom in the same spot in the poorer units?"
Astoria growled, but clenched her teeth. She had enough bickering for one night. She merely nodded.
"Be quiet, I'm going to bed. I expect you to be out first thing in the morning," she said, angrily. She waited until he passed her, and then wandered over to her elevated area that held her bed. She stripped down out of her clothes. Her desire to sleep naked was obviously ruined by her unexpected guest, so she went into her dresser and pulled out a baggy sweater and a pair of flannel pajama bottoms. Astoria climbed under the blankets and closed her eyes. She practically sank into her bed, and she felt so comfortable, but she couldn't sleep. She had a stranger in her home, and it bothered her. She could hardly even sleep when someone she knew was in the room, never mind someone she had only formally met once.
When Astoria heard the bathroom door open, she clenched her eyes shut in an effort to seem like she was sleeping. To his credit, he was being rather quiet. She could hear him putting a lot of effort into closing the door as softly as possible. She heard the quiet patter of bare feet against her hardwood floors, and then nothing. She could feel her heart pounding. The more the minutes stretched out, the more she realized that she had been completely foolish. She didn't know anything about Draco Malfoy. She had seen him grow up due to being older than her, and he had made a rather big name for himself by being Harry Potter's least favourite person. Not to mention the unpleasant taste in people's mouths when speaking the Malfoy name due to what his father had done. Trying to be as quiet as possible, she grabbed her wand from her bedside table and placed it under her pillow. She knew that it was pointless because if he wanted to attack her while she was passed out sleeping, she would hardly have time to grab her wand and think of a counter-curse in time. The wand being there comforted her, though, and after a while she was actually able to fall asleep.
Astoria woke to the smell of coffee. She sat straight up in bed, not knowing why she could smell coffee. She had initially thought that perhaps she had spent the night at someone else's house. She stretched, and then she remembered. She looked over and saw Draco Malfoy sitting at her dining room table. She instantly grabbed her sheets to cover herself, even though she wasn't wearing anything provocative. Without saying a word, she tore herself out of bed and ran to the bathroom. She didn't let anyone see her first thing in the morning. It was one of the reasons why she had asked him to be out before she woke up in the morning.
She took the longest shower she could manage without turning into a prune with the hopes that by the time she exited her bathroom that he would be gone. She dressed herself for work, and left her dark hair wet and around her shoulders. She closed her eyes as she opened the door and hoped he would be gone. Instead, he still just sat there. The first thing she noticed (after him still being there) was the fact that he had poured her a cup of coffee as well.
"I thought I asked you to be gone before I woke up?" she said, although her tone clearly indicated it was much too early to argue.
"Just drink it," he insisted.
"I'll take that as a thank-you for allowing you to stay overnight, although I'm not sure how I feel about being offered my own coffee," she stated, simply. She resigned to the seat next to him and sipped out of her coffee. She didn't have the heart to tell him that it tasted rubbish. She wasn't sure what he had added to it, but it didn't have nearly as much sugar or milk that she would prefer.
Luckily, Draco had the decency to leave both on the table so it was within reach for her. As she fixed her beverage, she thought it only polite to make small talk.
"So how is your girlfriend going to feel about you staying the night at another girl's flat?" Astoria mused. When she looked up from fixing her drink, she saw that Draco didn't really think it was funny.
An awkward moment passed before Draco put his mug on the table.
"She trusts me," he replied, simply. "Do you work at the Ministry?"
"I do," she said. Although he didn't really seem overly invested in the conversation, he was doing a better job at it than he had done last time they had spoken, and for that she was grateful. "You must, as well. Most people who live here work at the Ministry."
"I actually work at St. Mungo's," he answered her implied question. "A healer."
Astoria couldn't help but think that the award for the most unexpected career path for anyone she knew definitely went to Draco. She could feel her eyes go wide in surprise, and she tried to hide it by taking a sip out of her now-empty mug.
"Well, here I thought you'd be doing something Ministry related."
"After what's happened in the past, I don't think that the new Ministry would particularly care for a Malfoy, would they?" he replied. He looked down at his watch. "Speaking of which, if I don't leave now I'll be late for work."
He stood up and went to leave. Astoria collected their mugs and went to go put them in her kitchen. When she didn't hear the door close, she looked up to see Draco still standing there. That surprised her, as well. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but instead he nodded curtly and left. And here she was expecting a 'thank you.' She supposed the morning politeness was his version of apologizing, and she realized that she was fine with that.
