Written for smutty_claus livejournal. Thanks to my beta, drcjsnider. I spell it "Astoria" because my recipient for the fest requested that spelling.

December 30th

Caught somewhere between waking and dreaming, Draco felt her nearby. She had smoothed back his hair and whispered words of comfort to him. He could smell her perfume in the air, sandalwood and vanilla, and he was certain he had heard her move around their bedroom. She was there, he was knew of it.

Draco opened his eyes and look across the bed. He was honestly shocked to see it empty.

"Good, you're finally awake."

He snapped his head around so fast he cracked his neck in the process. Grimacing, he bit his lip so as not to whimper at the pain.

"Draco, relax," Astoria cried, hovering over him with her wand. His entire neck felt very warm as she whispered the charm, the pain and tension receding with the heat. "You have to be careful."

"You're here," was all he could say.

"Yes." She sat down again the chair beside his bed. "Scorpius had to be somewhere, he'll be back soon but he didn't want to leave you alone."

He pushed himself up into a sitting position. Now that he had her here, he hardly knew where to start.

"Are you hungry?" she asked.

He shook his head. "The house-elf has the weekend off."

"Have you already forgotten I can cook?" she said lightly before frowning. "Sorry."

"No, I hadn't forgotten." He may not have a clue what to do but he was certain he didn't want her spending her time in the kitchen.

Astoria nodded, her hands clasped in her lap. She'd leave soon if he didn't do something, he could see her thinking of an excuse.

"Thank you for coming," he tried.

"The hospital called me."

"Right."

"I was a bit surprised when they told me what had happened," she said, pursing her lips as she looked at him.

It must have been a side-effect medicine they had shoved down his throat at St. Mungo's because Draco had no idea why he blurted out, "I asked him if you left him because he fucked like he played Quidditch."

She reacted exactly as he expected, shaking her head, rolling her eyes, and sighing, the corner of her mouth tipping ever-so-slightly upwards. "That is really none of your business, Draco."

Blinking, he recoiled from her words in surprise. "It's not? I'm sorry, is it rude of me to wonder when my wife runs around fucking other men? Would it be impertinent of me to inquire when she might shut her legs and come home?"

Astoria gave a cold laugh. "You really do have some nerve."

"Because I don't like seeing you with other men?"

"Because you think there are two sets of rules: one for you and one for me," she snarled and Draco felt himself go cold. "Because you didn't even try to hide what you've done. Because seventeen years ago, I sat you down and offered to have an open marriage and you refused, feeding me some line about how you simply didn't want anyone but me."

Her eyes shining with unshed tears and her mouth in a tight line, she gave him a sideways glance. "I'm not quite as blind as you hoped."

The day he had always expected had finally come, eighteen years late.

Draco swallowed thickly, feeling as if his heart had lodged itself in his throat. "I didn't think you were blind at all."

"So how many were there?"

He stared at her, some part of his mind still rebelling against telling her. As if he just denied it, this whole thing would go away.

"You still think you can get out of this, don't you? I've told you I know and yet, you think that if you just have enough time-"

"One," he admitted. "Just one."

Her face crumpled at this and she turned away from him quickly. Facing away from him, she braced herself on the chair as she stood. "How touching."

"Astoria," he groped for something to say but only hollow cliches came to mind.

She paused by the doorway. "You should be more careful about where you leave your Pensieves. Unless you want people to find them."

He shook his head. "I destroyed it years ago. I did."

Draco was certain he saw genuine surprise flicker in her eyes. In the distance, the chime of the Floo announced Scorpius' arrival home.

"Well," she said crisply, her face once more an impassive mask. "I'm sure these past few weeks have given you enough memories for a new one."

December 31st

"There's a line?" Rose said, standing at the foot of her staircase, looking up at Roxy, Lily, and Hugo as they stood outside the one and only toilet at the Burrow. She didn't have to go, she was just so determined not to check for any messages from Scorpius that she'd been filling time however she could. In the past two hours she had listened to her Uncle Percy go on about the dangers of lax cauldron standards, prevented James from using a gnome as a cheap cat toy, and helped her grandmother make hot buttered rum for everyone. With two more hours to go until midnight, she was tempted to suggest some grand prank to her Uncle George just to pass the time.

"Not for me," her brother said, bounding down the steps as he made a beeline for the front door.

"Classy."

Lily had apparently had enough of waiting as well. Banging on the door with her tiny fists, she yelled, "Al! Lysander! If you don't get out of there now I'm going to hex your bollocks off!"

There was no response. Not even a snicker.

Cupping her mouth, Rose called. "Stand back, Lils, I know how to open this."

As she had intended, the door soon opened. Scowling as he pulled his shirt over his jeans, Al stepped out of the loo followed by rather content-looking Lysander.

"Gross! Get a room you two," Lily said, before slamming the door behind her.

"Would if there were any free," Al grumbled as he passed her on the steps.

Roxy gave her a small smile. "And my parents always wondered why I refused to bring anyone to family gatherings."

"Yeah," Rose said, biting her lip. She had fully intended to wait until Scorpius told her but, she reasoned that it had already been two days and with the holidays it might be two more until she saw him again. "Say, I saw you with Scorpius Malfoy the other day at the Leaky..."

Her cousin raised a brow in response, seemingly unwilling to offer an explanation as she had hoped.

"I was wondering... why?"

"It's private."

"Private like a date, private?" She knew it hadn't been but for the life of her she couldn't figure out why they had been meeting.

"I don't think Lorcan would appreciate that much."

Rose felt her face grow hot. She had forgotten. Lorcan and Roxy had been together since Hogwarts but he'd spent the past several months underwater studying Mer culture. He wasn't due to surface until February.

"And private as in, not my secret to tell."

"Sorry."

Roxy gave her a keen look, her large dark eyes seeming to go right through. "Maybe you should ask Scorpius."

"Maybe," was all she could muster. Turning, she walked down the stairs and contemplated heading right out the door and Apparating home. Only her fear of running into Hugo as he wrote his name in the snow kept her inside. Falling onto the couch, she laid her head back and stared out the window at the night sky.

She hoped that Scorpius wasn't spending tonight by himself. She had Owled him, inviting him to come join her but he hadn't answered. Rose didn't know if he was still angry or if he just had other plans.

"What are you doing here?" her dad asked.

Rose sat up, expecting him to be talking to her and instead finding that he was talking to someone at the door.

"I invited him," she yelled as she spotted Scorpius. She ran over to them, nearly pushing her dad aside as she grabbed Scorpius' arm and pulled him over the threshold.

Behind her dad, she could see her mother and Uncle George watching her.

"He's my guest." Scorpius smiled at her and she took his hand. "And my boyfriend."

"Blimey, I need another drink," her dad muttered, heading back towards the kitchen.

"You're lucky I didn't know that before I hired you," her Uncle George said, wagging his finger in Scorpius' face. "We don't believe in nepotism at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes."

Rose looked at her boyfriend, mouth agape. "Is he joking?"

"I start Monday morning in the Hogsmeade branch."

"What about The Daily Word?"

He shook his head, his mouth turning up in a wry grin. "It's done."

"No, Scorpius, you can't give up on that-"

"I'm not. Roxy mentioned that iher boyfriend/i was interested in reviving The Quibbler once he's back on dry land." He gave her hand a small squeeze. "I'm going to help him bring it into the twenty-first century."

"I'm sorry," she said haltingly. "I've been horrid."

"You really have," he agreed, smiling widely and Rose felt as if her heart would overflow "But you were right, I did have to grow up."

"Still..."

Scorpius gave her a quick peck on the lips. "You can make it up to me later."

Looping her arms around his neck, she kissed him again. "I will."

"Save it for midnight, you too," Hugo said, breezing into the house.

"Learn how to spell 'auld lang syne.' And how to aim!" Scorpius called after him.

Technically, he was trespassing. If caught, he could claim that he had come to look for his wife. However, as his wife likely had no interest in being married to him any longer, he didn't pin his hopes on that excuse working.

And that was assuming she was here at all.

He had spent the past two hours trying to find Astoria with little luck. Both her parents and her sister said they didn't know where she was and made it clear that even if they did, they weren't inclined to tell him. Scorpius hadn't known either. Though he was a possibility, Draco had a feeling that Wood wouldn't be able to help him on that score and that had been his only comfort.

The sound of the wireless seemed to beckon him forward and he followed it down the corridor. At the end he found an empty music room, with one piano in the center and Astoria sitting in front of it.

Draco knocked on the open door and Astoria jumped in her seat. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you."

"We've nothing more to say to each other," she told him, her back to him as she dumped a stack of music books on the bench next to her.

"You've nothing more to say to me, I know that." Having a feeling she might curse him if he tried to Transfigure one of her books, he moved a chair closer with the flick of his wand. As it stood, she'd likely curse him even if he didn't but he wanted to have his say first. "But I've something to tell you."

Astoria stared at the piano in front of her and he took it as a good sign that she didn't leave or tell him to do so. Finally, she shifted on the bench so she was sitting facing him, an expectant look on her face.

"There is nothing going on between myself and Gabrielle." His wife's mouth twisted as he said her name and he hurried on. "Or me and anyone else. You've been the only woman in my life for the past seventeen years."

"I want to believe you, Draco, I do. But I can't."

Draco was ready for that response. "I'll take Veritaserum."

She was unmoved. He could have just announced his intention to part his hair on the right for all the interest she showed."You're an Occlumens. You can get around that."

"The Unbreakable Vow then." It wasn't without risk, of course, but that was part of the appeal for him. She would know he was serious. "You'll have the truth and some insurance for the future."

"That's insane," she snapped, green eyes flashing. "Even for you."

Strange as it was, her response gave him some hope. Wondering how soon they could find a witness able to perform the oath, he stated firmly, "I'd do it."

"Maybe you would," she said, looking away. "But I would never agree to it so it's an empty gesture."

He deflated at that, The Unbreakable Vow had been the best grand gesture he could think of and she had shot it down in less than a minute. "Pensieves? I'll make you a Pensieve for every second of the past month, the past seventeen years if you like. I'll even give you all the ones I've already made."

"You have others?"

"Of you. Of Scorpius and my parents as well, but most of them are of you."

"Pensieves of me? Pensieves of me doing what?" Draco couldn't tell if she was baffled, annoyed, or both.

"Well, me, mostly."

Astoria colored at that.

"I have our first time together." Two days before the wedding, she had shown up on a broom outside his window, insisting that he take her to bed so they could know just how much of a disaster their marriage would be. "Our honeymoon. The night Scorpius was conceived. That trip to Tahiti we took when Scorpius left for Hogwarts. That day five months ago when I came home from work to find you... pleasuring yourself."

"You did not save that," she scoffed.

"It's one of my favorites, actually." Even without a Pensieve, it still would have burned itself in his memory; her completely nude as she knelt on their bed, a dildo pumping between her thighs while she touched herself, and the sly grin that had spread across her face when she saw him in the doorway.

Glancing away, Astoria shook her head and gave a small laugh. When she turned towards him, however, he could see that she was crying. "Did you love her?"

Draco shook his head, he wanted to give a firm denial but he could no longer remember what sort of things he had told Gabrielle in the memories he had once kept. Astoria would probably know better than he. His lips barely moved and his voice wasn't more than a whisper as he confessed, "I thought I did at the time."

He hadn't known what the word meant. As a young man he knew what it meant to love his parents, his only family and sole source of comfort and protection for the first twenty-something years of his life. After a few months, once Scorpius showed signs of doing more than sleeping and eating, he discovered what it meant to love a child.

Having a partner, someone who was his best friend and his lover, had taken him longer.

When he was a teenager, he had just assumed he loved Pansy because she loved him, had sex with him, and was a friend. When he met Gabrielle, he thought it was love because he couldn't get enough of her, because the feelings she roused in him were unlike any he had ever felt before. Feelings that he could now see had been more about what she represented – status and the possibility for a new future – than who she was. If his father hadn't taken him aside and told Draco that another scandal on the Malfoy name would surely kill his ailing mother, he would have continued with the affair until it had inevitably ended in disaster. At the time he had been too selfish and too filled with self-pity to do anything but.

With Astoria it had been different. In the span of a few months, he broke it off with Gabrielle and had to deal with the deaths of his mother and then his father. Astoria became his port in the storm and much more. He remembered sitting in the garden as Scorpius toddled around, watching her laugh at something he had said and being struck by how much he wanted to always make her that happy.

"I know I love you," he told her, taking her hand. "I have for a long time and I will for the rest of my life."

She looked down at their hands. "Everything's been so awful at work and when I heard that she was coming back, that you had specifically asked for her, I just couldn't take it anymore." Her shoulders shook and her voice broke as she admitted, "I couldn't spend the next several weeks wondering every time you had to stay late at the office. I had to get out."

It was too damn awkward trying to hold her while sitting across from her, so Draco pushed the chair back and knelt down before her. "Sorry isn't enough but I am sorry. I would do anything for you to believe me."

She kissed him, suddenly and sweetly and he nearly fell over from the shock of it. Draco held his balance, however, threading his fingers in her soft hair as she deepened the kiss. With her tongue sliding against his and her hands fisted in his shirt, he felt as if he were waking from a long, fitful sleep.

Astoria nudged him backwards and he complied, trying to keep his mouth on hers until they had to break off the kiss so they could move to the floor without her falling on top. Draco sat on the floor and Astoria straddled him, her skirt bunched up around her thighs and her body pressed against his. He felt as if he were on fire, what little restraint he had was gone as his mouth sought every inch of exposed skin and his hands roamed from her hips to her arse, holding her against him.

He moaned as she rolled her hips, responding in kind until they were grinding against each other, while he tried to remove the fuzzy v-neck jumper she wore and undo her bra at the same time. Any finesse or self-control he had gained over the past three decades had disappeared and he was fifteen again and desperate to get to the sex part of the equation any way possible.

She took mercy on him, pushing him back so she could take off her jumper and half-unhooked bra. He wasn't sure if it was his audible sigh of relief or the way his attentions immediately shifted to her breasts but she laughed.

Her laughter soon turned to sighs of her own as he took turns licking and sucking on each breast, his cock hard as she rocked against him.

"It's been a month," he gasped, as she nipped at his neck and then ran her tongue over the mark. Her kissing him, half-dressed, her hair down, her cheeks pink, and sighs pouring from her full lips as she rubbed against him was killing his ability to form coherent sentences.

Luckily, she somehow understood. Kneeling over him, she undid his flies and pulled down his trousers and pants. Every bit as impatient as he was, she didn't even bother taking off her knickers, she just pulled the fabric aside before lowering herself onto him. She licked her lips as he filled her and Draco was amazed he didn't come right then and there.

"God, Astoria," he moaned. Their coupling was quick and frantic. Her need matching his own, she came first, crying out as her cunt pulsed and tightened around him, bringing him with her. He came with a grunt, his thrusts hard and fast as he drove into her.

He fell back onto the floor and she followed, resting her head on his shoulder. Draco was grateful that she didn't immediately pull away, that they were still connected.

Dimly, he became aware of cheering coming from the radio and a familiar song being played. "It's midnight."

Astoria looked up at him with a smile and kissed him gently. "Happy New Years, love."

The End