Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

A/N: I'm trying to get the Christmas Party chapter up by Christmas Eve, so there might be a few this week. No promises, though. Also, before you ask, yes, I am aware the Ernie is a Pureblood.

Seven: The Café

Astoria had never realized how much paperwork being a portkey termini actually entailed, and, as she was the youngest and the newest member in her office, much of this work was delegated to her. In fact, three weeks had passed and she hadn't done any fieldwork at all. This was just as well, because that seemed more difficult than filling out endless papers with items, locations, and destinations was mundane. However, she'd also found that there was a very nice girl who worked in the office who was in a very similar situation as she was, except that she was a muggleborn and needed the galleons that she earned. This girl's name was Michele Jones, and she started to grow on Astoria almost immediately.

So, on this Thursday morning, when Astoria had gone in late to work because she had slept in and forgotten to tell Poppi to wake he up, she was pleased to see that Michele had already gotten the both of them tea from The Leaky Cauldron. "You're in bright and early," Michele joked, handing a steaming cup to Astoria. She took it gratefully, but didn't cross into their cubicle yet.

"How's my in-tray?" she asked, examining Michele's face to see if she could discern the answer. Astoria's own face immediately dropped when she saw the sympathetic look she was receiving. Michele laughed.

"I don't think you want to see it. There's just three folders but one of them's huge. I don't know what kind of event it must be for, but I'm happy it didn't land in my tray."

Astoria finally took her seat next to Michele and looked at the in-tray. She groaned. That one would be keeping her here into the night, unless Michele was kind enough to help her when she finished all of her things. The manila folder was absolutely huge; much bigger than Astoria had anticipated. There were at least fifty pieces of parchment in there, which meant there were at least fifty portkeys to organize and arrange. She too wondered what kind of event would call for that many portkeys. Maybe it had something to do with sports, or some Society. "I'll be working through break," she sighed, as she took a long sip of her tea.

"Don't say that!" squealed a voice that Astoria knew all too well. She looked up to see her sister prancing through the door, a broad smile on her face. "I brought chocolate," Daphne announced, putting the offering onto their desk before she could be kicked out for intruding.

Astoria took a piece gratefully. "What are you even doing here, Daphie? Don't you have something better to be doing?" Daphne had taken to coming in and bothering Astoria at work. She insisted that it was not only her sister, but also their father and Blaise who she 'visited', but Astoria wasn't convinced. Daphne saw Blaise everyday, and their father never mentioned her coming in to see him when he came home from work, usually much later than Astoria, who generally worked from nine to five.

"No," said Daphne, after a moment, "I don't have anything better to be doing. Mummy told me not to bother you at work anymore, but I have such an interesting story it just can't wait." She saw the look on Astoria's face. "No really! I promise you'll like it. So, guess what Blaise did last night." Astoria hesitated. There was a very high probability that she didn't want to know what Daphne and Blaise had gotten up to the night before, so it was only due to her affection for her sister that she asked what they had done. "Oh, not me," Daphne went on, a twinkle in her eye. "I just stayed at home like the good housewife that I am." Astoria and Michele both tried to hide their laughter: Astoria by stuffing her mouth with chocolate and Michele by snorting into her tea. "Anyway," said Daphne, pretending not to notice, "Blaise went out for drinks with his friends. You know, Draco Malfoy and Gregory Goyle, of course?" Astoria nodded, annoyed, and Michele just shrugged, apathetic.

"Well, they went to the Harried Hare, and apparently Draco Malfoy got into a fight with a fellow named Ernie MacSomething. It wasn't pretty. Curses flying all across the room, poor old Katerina needing Blaise and Gregory to help sort out the fight." She stopped, waiting for Astoria or Michele to react in some way. Astoria was only thoughtful, at least at first.

"What did they fight over?" she asked, after a moment. Daphne beamed. Apparently this was a question that she had been waiting to be asked, because she delved into detail immediately.

"Well, this Ernie fellow was a muggleborn, and so he wasn't too fond of Draco, calling him a Death Eater and all that. Draco got into a fury and ended up shooting a curse at Ernie-or," she put a finger to her lip, clearly in thought, "-or maybe Ernie cast a curse at Draco, first. Either way, they ended up getting into a huge shouting match, and then shot some curses at each other."

"How odd," murmured Astoria, truthfully. She was a little concerned. "Did either of them get hurt?"

"Oh no," Daphne said, "No one was hurt too badly, though I believe that Ernie's eye got blackened in the chaos. Anyway, do you want to go out to tea later today? I'm meeting Tracey." Astoria shook her head.

"No, I really can't, I have a lot of work to do and-"

"Skive off, then!" Daphne was impatient. She didn't seem to understand that Astoria's job was just that: a job. She didn't have to work for money, of course, but she had to do all her work unless she wanted to get fired. As boring as it had turned out to be, she still enjoyed having something to do during the day, and she quite enjoyed being around Michele. Besides, it had turned out to be a wonderful excuse for turning down similar invitations from Daphne.

"I told you, I really can't," Astoria said, flatly. "This isn't like school, where you can skip a class without any real consequences, Daphne. You know that I would love nothing more than to go out with you and Tracey, but unfortunately I have to work, lest I get fired. Father put himself out on a limb to get this job for me, and I'm not going to make him look like a fool in front of the whole Department of Magical Transportation."

"Fine," Daphne said curtly, snatching up her bag of chocolate bars. "I guess I'll go out to tea all by myself." Astoria had opened her mouth to point out that she wouldn't be all by herself because she'd be with Tracey, but Daphne had already stalked out of the room. It was just as well, as Astoria really needed to get to work.

She decided to work on the two smaller folders first, as each of them only had two pieces of parchment in them. They went by very quickly, and it was only about forty-five minutes later that she looked at the third folder, opening it carefully. When she saw the name that was written there, she became unreasonably nervous; these days, anything to do with Draco made her feel that way.

Client: Narcissa Malfoy

Event: Holdiay Party

Number of Portkeys Requested: 52

Number of Portkeys Granted: 52

Additional Details: Requests that invitations are portkeys

"This is unbelievable," said Astoria, turning to Michele in exasperation. The other girl looked up from her work. "Fifty-two," she said, "They've requested fifty-two portkeys for a party."

Michele laughed. "How many did they get?"

"It's the Malfoys," Astoria explained, and Michele raised her eyebrows, clearly not quite undertsanding just how much sway they had in society. "Michele, they got all of them."

Michele dropped her quill, blotting ink all over the paper she was working on. "You're definitely coming out to tea with me," she said, and continued before Astoria could protest. "You're not going sit and do fifty-two straight applications. It's not healthy. You'll probably go mad by the time you're finished." Astoria shook her head.

"Probably, but I'd like to go home by seven or eight o'clock. How am I supposed to do that if I take half an hour off for break?"

Michele, it seemed, was not going to be swayed. "You absolutely can't do that. It's not fair. I'll help you finish, if you want, but you are not staying here into the night to fill out portkey applications for some stupid party."

Suddenly, another voice rang out in the room. "Surely you're not talking about our party." Astoria ducked under the partition so that Draco couldn't see her, though she knew it was only a matter of time until she would have to talk to him. She knew it was silly for her to be the embarrassed one, as he was the one who had offended, but she just couldn't deal with the awkwardness that would occur between them.

"Are you Narcissa Malfoy?" asked Michele, sarcastically. Astoria felt some foreign, hot emotion bubble up in her when she heard the slight inflection of flirtation in Michele's voice. She was sure that if she hadn't had her schooling in America, Michele would not be so inclined to flirt with an ex-Death Eater.

"Not quite," Draco replied. Astoria assumed that he didn't know Michele, as she seriously doubted that he would flirt back with a muggleborn. Then again, maybe she was just imagining things because-well, maybe she was just imagining things. "I'm her son," Draco continued, "And I have a few things I need to discuss about the Christmas Party."

"Well, you'll have to ask Astoria," Michele continued. "It's her file."

Astoria knew that it was not logical to blame Michele for admitting that she was there, as Michele had not yet been clued in to Astoria and Draco's past. Not that they had a past. But whatever had happened to them previously, Michele didn't know about it. Even so, she couldn't help but feel angry toward her friend, though she did have the courtesy to feel a little bad about. She sat up in her chair, cheeks burning red.

"Hello, Draco," she said, after a very heavy pause. Astoria looked at Michele, who was currently looking from one to the other. She could apparently tell that there was some kind of tension there.

"Hello, Astoria," Draco said, after another moment. "Er, I've just brought these invitations. Mother said that I could just give them to you, and then they'd be fixed into portkeys and you could just send them out?" She could tell that he didn't know what to think about her being here, and that he clearly had not expected her to be employed by the Department of Magical Transportation.

"I'll just take them," she said, holding her hand out over the partition. When he gave them to here, their skin brushed, and Astoria blushed furiously. She had butterflies in her stomach; it was foolish, though. Like Daphne had told her, she didn't know anything about Draco, and he had probably done things which would absolutely horrify her.

Draco was still standing there awkwardly. "Do you need me to help you with anything else?" Astoria was using her professional voice. She hoped Draco wouldn't be offended, but she really did need him to go. After all, she did have fifty-two papers to fill out, and fifty-two invitations to charm. It wasn't too difficult, but it would take a lot of tedious work.

He shook his head. "I'll just be going, then. See you around, Astoria," he said in a skeptical voice.

"See you-wait!" she said, just as he was walking out the door. "Can I ask you something?" He looked a little startled, but otherwise Astoria could not read Draco's expression.

"This might be a little personal, but are you alright?" Draco was staring at her blankly. She realized that it had been stupid not to preface that sentence by telling him that she knew about his fight at the Harried Hare. She blushed even more. "I mean, from your... duel." She figured that was a better word than brawl.

Draco looked just as confused as he had before. "You did get into a fight, didn't you? That's what Daphne said." Astoria regretted bringing this up, but it was too late to turn back now. "She said that you went out to the Hare with Blaise and Gregory Goyle, and that you and Ernie Something-or-Other shot some hexes at each other."

Suddenly, Draco started laughing, shaking his head. "Honestly, Astoria, you know better than to believe everything you hear. I didn't get into a fight with Ernie, he just shot a curse at me and Katerina kicked him out. People talk, remember?" Then it was Draco's turn to blush, and his cheeks turned pink. "You know, I'd really ought to be going. I have... things to do." With that, he practically ran out of the room.

"What was that about?" Michele asked, leaning forward on her elbows, eyes opened wide with interest.

"I dont' want to talk about it," Astoria said, her voice deadpan. Michele looked annoyed. "Look, I'll go out for tea with you and tell you then. Right now I have to cry over charming fifty-two invitations."

Astoria looked morosely at the pile of gilded envelopes before her. It wasn't just the mountain of work that was troubling her, despite what she had told Michele. No, it was something that Draco had said. "People talk." She felt like she had let people talking get between her and Draco. They had had a great friendship, and suddenly she'd allowed her sister to convince her that Draco was bad news. Maybe he was, but Astoria had enough sense to keep out of any romantic relationship with a Malfoy. Didn't she? Then she had remembered what he had said at Daphne's party, and how she had been a triviality to him. It was all very confusing

Sighing, she picked up the first envelope. She was pleased to see that Narcissa Malfoy had at least alphabetized them all. "Alright, Sir & Mrs. Bulstrode," she said under her breath, mostly to herself, "I can do this."

She continued working steadily until just before it was time to go to tea; Michele, who had grown up in America, took it earlier than most. However, it wasn't the excursion which broke Astoria out of the trance of her work. It was the address of the envelope that she was reading. She'd just read the first line mechanically, then charmed it, and then almost moved on. Then, however, she had picked it up quickly and reread the name to whom it was addressed. Mr. & Mrs. Greengrass.

Her parents would be thrilled. They had never been invited to the Malfoy Manor before, as they weren't well acquainted and of slightly lower social stature. This aside, Astoria couldn't figure out why they had been invited. Surely it wasn't because of her? No, of course not. She was being egotistical. It must have been because Daphne had married Blaise, and because Blaise and Draco were such good friends, the connection between the Malfoys and the Greengrasses had become such that they were now worthy of an invitation.


Astoria looked around nervously. She had never been in a muggle café before, and it absolutely terrified her. There was no logical reason for it. She was safely with Michele, and she had her wand, and she was almost positive that muggles didn't routinely break out into brawls like many of her former schoolmates had led her to believe.

"Are you sure this is safe?" she asked, taking a sip of what Michele had called a "cappuccino." Michele laughed at her.

"Honestly, everything's fine. Muggle London isn't that different than our London, except for the obvious," she said. Astoria was about to say that Michele should keep her voice down, but then she realized that what Michele was saying didn't give anything away about wizards. She must have been very used to speaking that way, by now.

"And it's very safe, the hotel I'm staying at is just around the corner?"

"Why are you staying there?" Astoria asked, again. She couldn't understand why anyone would stay in a muggle hotel when they could have a room in The Leaky Cauldron or some other wizarding establishment. Surely they'd choose the more sanitary option.

"Well, I'm looking for an apartment, but until I find one I figured I'd just stay in a hotel. My parents are over in America, so it's not like I could stay with them and apparate or floo in, like you do." Astoria shook her head. She was quite enjoying her cappuccino.

"No, I mean, why are you staying in Muggle London, and not ours? There are tons of rooms you could get, and I'm sure I could think of a place for you to stay if The Leaky Cauldron was full-" Michele started laughing again. Astoria was starting to get sick of that, and she hoped that Michele would not continue to be so patronizing as they worked together.

"It's cheaper, it's cleaner, and it's more luxurious," Michele said, much to Astoria's surprise. She almost couldn't believe it.

"How is that possible? If they don't have magic, I mean," Astoria asked.

Michele shrugged. "You know, even though they don't use magic, in a lot of ways it wouldn't be unfair for muggles to think that wizards are backwards; still living in little cottages, adhering to some very outdated rules." Michele was, Astoria noticed, diplomatic enough not to mention that it was really just the upperclass Purebloods like the Greengrasses who clung-no, held-onto those rules. Because they were just and proper, of course.