AN:I know I've said a million times that I'll try to keep up my schedule, and try to update every month. Evidently I'm not very good at keeping up with schedules. Again I really want to thank everyone who left a review, I hope you all know that I love hearing what you think, no matter what it is that you think of my writing.

I hope this chapter answers to at least a few of your expectations. I tried to show a little of almost everyone in this chapter as it is, in a way, my way of wishing happy holidays to everyone. I really can't reveal anything about the chapter itself without ruining it, so here you go! Chapter 7!

Oh and for all of you who wonder, the chapter is a poor reference to the fact that everyone tries to find out who sent the letter. I apologize, my imagination was running low.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter


His mother knew something.

But Draco wouldn't give up this easily. There was no need to reveal his relationship with Astoria to his mother. His mother would overreact, one way or another. Lucius would certainly be against his son having anything to do with the daughter of Michael and Eirene Greengrass. Their blood wasn't pure enough for Lucius, Draco knew that.

"Well," Draco said, "there's not much to say about Astoria, the younger sister. She's a little over a year younger than me. She's in Slytherin. That's all I know about her." Narcissa frowned.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I was never really friends with Daphne much less her younger sister. Besides, she was – still is, I suppose – a bit of an odd bird, shall we say. She's not like other Slytherins. At least if you believe what Theodore says."

"And is Theodore Nott involved with her?" Narcissa asked innocently. White hot rage coursed through Draco's body at the thought.

"No," he said a little too sharply. He could see his mother noticing it. He cursed himself in his mind. He had to come up with a distraction. Something to keep his mother's mind off of Astoria.

"I'm sure she's lovely," Narcissa said carefully. There was an edge to her voice that Draco didn't like. He could already sense a 'but' coming. But it never did. For some obscure reason Narcissa left it at that. Draco couldn't understand why.

"Mother, what..."

"Michael and your father used to know each other. They weren't friends, but they were acquaintances. Michael was never that interested in blood purity, not as much as he should have. But I think he did a fine job pretending. I suppose some people still believe that he became a Death Eater." Narcissa stared in to the distance as Draco's mind whirled. Astoria's father wasn't a Death Eater? He didn't know if that or the fact that his father knew Mr. Greengrass was more surprising.

"You must have kept in touch since he was at that dinner party," Draco said. He didn't want to be too obvious but he was desperate to know more.

"No, we didn't. After the first war Michael more or less disappeared from the pureblood circles. As far as I know that dinner party was the first he'd attended in years. He looked a little lost," Narcissa sounded amused. Sometimes Draco wondered if he was as cold as his parents. Michael Greengrass had, after all, lost his wife and had had to raise his daughters on his own. Draco felt a surprising amount of sympathy towards the eldest Greengrass. The bloke couldn't have had an easy life.

"Mother, was there a reason you asked me to come here?" asked Draco. He wanted his mother to get to the point if there was one. This obviously hadn't been about Astoria since his mother had disregarded the subject of her so easily.

"I just want to know how you are doing. You're my son and I worry sometimes." There was an affectionate smile on Narcissa's face that almost hid the calculating look in her eyes. Almost. Draco knew his mother and in that moment he realised that there was something his mother wasn't telling him.


Astoria stared at the letter Emma had given her. It hadn't taken a lot to get Emma to give the letter to her. Emma had made all sorts of excuses, ranging from wanting Astoria to be happy to saying that Astoria had been lying to everyone which was (according to Emma) disrespectful. And then Emma, perhaps sensing that Astoria already knew, confessed that she had indeed also been interested in John. It took every ounce of Astoria's self-control not to hit the younger Slytherin with a spell or the nearest object but when Emma finally handed her the letter all other thoughts vanished from Astoria's head. The letter was a disappointment. Astoria had no idea who could have written it. The handwriting was delicate and careful but there wasn't much of it. The letter consisted of a hand-drawn Greengrass family tree. An arrow was pointed at Dione and at the other end was a text that read 'half-blood'. Very subtle.

Astoria stared at it in disbelief.

"This is it?" she asked, "You told everyone that my grandmother was a half-blood based on some letter that doesn't even have the name of the person who sent it. Do you consider this a reliable source of information?" The last question was aimed at Grace who looked at the letter incredulously. Grace shook her head.

"Not really. How do we know you didn't write this yourself?" Astoria frowned a little. Why hadn't she thought to ask that herself?

"Because I still have the envelope," Emma said. Astoria and Grace exchanged a glance before looking at Emma expectantly. Emma did a little nod and almost ran towards the dormitories.

"Is this too easy?" Astoria asked. Grace nodded.

"Whoever sent this must've been pretty confident that we wouldn't recognize the handwriting," she said. Emma returned a minute later with the envelope. It offered no significant clues. Astoria could see that the person who wrote Emma's name on to the envelope had also written the letter but that was it. There was nothing more to do. She couldn't say who'd sent it. But thank goodness she had friends who could.

The next morning, right after breakfast, Astoria put the letter and the envelope together in to an even bigger envelope and wrote a note.

I have no idea who sent this to Emma so I put my faith in you. Besides, it's not as if you would ever have something better to do than to help your best friend.

Sincerely,

Astoria G.

She wrote the name on to the envelope and gave it to her owl Gwen.

"We're going to find out who told everyone. Theodore will find it out for us, won't he?" Her owl did not reply.


Gwen was waiting in Theodore's kitchen when he went to get breakfast. He stared at the little owl for a while, as if he was trying to figure out if he should throw something at it, before he noticed the letter on the table. He opened it and read Astoria's note. It was typical really. Why couldn't people ever solve their own problems? But Theodore could understand why Astoria was upset even though it wasn't exactly news that her blood wasn't the purest. Theodore would have been outraged too if someone had gone behind his back and told people things about his family. The only difference was that his family's secrets were never this small. Things only took a turn for the worse when Theodore looked at the letter that had been sent to Emma. He didn't know the writer either. But he could have sworn that he'd seen that writing somewhere before. On an invite or some other letter he'd received. At least that narrowed it down. The person they were looking for was a pureblood.


Draco was determined to find out what his mother wasn't telling him. So determined that he voluntarily went to Malfoy manor to help his parents sort out the books his mother had mentioned. It was a tedious job and Draco could see that his father hated it too. Lucius hadn't said a word to Draco after his initial 'hello'. Draco had expected nothing more but knowing that the father he had looked up to for so long didn't have anything to say to his own son hurt a little.

Draco's thoughts drifted to Mr. Greengrass who, it seemed, had once known Draco's own parents and perhaps even liked them. Draco nearly smiled as he compared his father to Mr. Greengrass. After the war, Draco's father had drawn away from his wife and son while Mr. Greengrass had grown a sudden interest in his younger daughter's life. Draco knew it was stupid but he felt glad that Mr. Greengrass had realised that Astoria was worth all the attention in the world. What on earth are you thinking? Draco chastised himself. He hadn't seen Astoria in a while. He hadn't sent her letters. He had no right to think of her that way. He had no right to think of her at all.

Draco's thoughts were brought to an end by an owl tapping its beak furiously against the library window. Lucius was outraged and tried to get the owl to leave but Draco rushed to the window, recognizing Theodore's owl. Theodore had sent him a letter, asking to meet him at Draco's apartment later that day for something important. In the past few months Draco hadn't seen much of Theodore. Rumours said that Theodore had left the country for a three week holiday in Belgium but Draco had trouble believing that. People like Theodore didn't just go on holidays. They had reasons and motives. In Theodore's absence Draco had found himself having a drink with Blaise Zabini which was at least as odd as Theodore going to Belgium. Draco had felt slightly disgusted after hearing that Blaise and Pansy were involved but he'd told Blaise good luck, because he was going to need lots of it to survive someone like Parkinson. Blaise had, to Draco's surprise, made no questions about Astoria. He'd only inquired if Draco knew how Astoria's sister Daphne was doing. Draco had to admit that Blaise had to be either a fool or a genius to even ask of news about his ex-girlfriend while in a relationship with Pansy Parkinson. Maybe the poor bloke had already had enough of Pansy.

Draco turned the letter over in his hands as contemplated on what might be so important that Theodore needed to meet him in person and this urgently. The thought of Astoria flashed across Draco's mind but he pushed it away, very aware that the chances of this being about Astoria were small.

"I heard you were talking about Michael Greengrass yesterday. Has he done something?" Lucius suddenly asked. Draco jumped a little in surprise. Surely his father wasn't able to read minds?

"No, although I heard that he was attacked at St. Mungo's yesterday. They even called his younger daughter from Hogwarts to visit him," Narcissa said. She glanced at Draco at the mention of Astoria but Draco only raised an eyebrow as if he had never known of the girl's existence.

"His younger daughter? How many daughters does Greengrass have?" Lucius asked. Draco couldn't believe what was happening. Were his parents working on this together?

"Two," Draco answered with an irritated tone. Lucius cast him a curious look but soon turned back to examine one of the books.


Astoria couldn't shake off the feeling that someone was staring at her. Surprisingly enough, she was right. Almost every time she turned around, some little girl or boy would turn the other way but not before Astoria saw their cheeks getting redder as they blushed. It was horrible. Grace was getting her fair share of it too. People actually gaped at her sometimes. Although, Astoria noticed, the people gaping were mostly boys. Which wasn't that surprising when you took Grace's looks in to consideration.

"You know," Grace said as they retired to the dormitories early, "I have this feeling that people are looking at us." Grace's voice was laced with so much sarcasm that Astoria grinned.

"I know. It's almost as if something had happened," she said, her smile fading a little. Grace shrugged.

"People have broken up with their boyfriends before, you know. Not everyone marries their first real boyfriend," she said. Astoria gave Grace a half-hearted glare. She was too tired to talk about John or any other boy for that matter.

Grace was about to say something, her mouth was already open but she shut it as they entered the dormitory and noticed that they weren't alone. Apparently it wasn't that early after all.

"Hey Jen," Grace greeted the blonde girl who sat on her bed, opposite to where Astoria's bed was. Astoria had a faint recollection of hearing the name Jen and it being associated with this blonde stranger but she couldn't place the memory. It was a little embarrassing since Jen had been there from the very first day Astoria entered Hogwarts. But, Astoria reminded herself, she'd hardly known anyone in her dormitory before the past few years.

"Hey," Jen answered. Her gaze lingered on Astoria long enough to make Astoria a little uncomfortable before turning back to Grace, "How's your day been?"

"Oh, quite well thanks," Grace said and Astoria marveled at the politeness between the girls. It wasn't very Slytherin of them.

"And you?" Astoria was so deep in her thoughts that she nearly missed Jen's question so instead of answering with a 'fine thank you' she said something extremely witty like,

"I – eh – what – I – yes?"

Grace snorted and turned to Jen: "She's had a rough day. Broke up with her boyfriend, the poor thing." Jen turned to look at Astoria.

"I heard about that. Why'd you do it? I thought John was in love with you?" Astoria didn't want to tell Jen that that didn't matter. John could have been in love with her, but if she wasn't in love with him, she had no obligations to keep him around.

"Problems. You know, I think we just started dating at such a difficult time and now that the war is over and everything's okay, the spell's gone. So to speak," Astoria lied. She and John had started dating briefly after the war, that was true. But it had never been about the war really. She could still remember walking to Diagon Alley for her first date with John and turning to glance at every blond man just in case it was Draco. She'd later realised of course that Draco had probably had much more important things to do, such as standing in front of the entire Wizengamont on trial.

How they had gone from their first date in a cafe to writing to each other all the time, Astoria had no idea. And now that she recalled all those early memories, she felt a little unhappy. Perhaps there had been something there after all. But as Jen suggested that all girls from their dormitory should go together to Hogsmeade when they had the chance, Astoria realised that it wasn't unnatural to be sad after leaving your boyfriend. She ought to be sorry for that.


Draco spent hours at the manor with his parents without finding out anything. His mother said nothing more of Michael Greengrass or his daughters and neither did Lucius. Draco was sure that his mother had figured out what he was trying. After all, she was his mother and knew him better than anyone. Almost better than anyone, Draco thought to himself as he let out a deep breath and rested on the couch of his flat. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable couch but Draco didn't want to risk falling asleep on his ever so comfortable bed when Theodore might be behind the door any second. Sure enough, as Draco felt his eyes closing and his mind drifting towards sleep, a knock sounded from the door. Draco almost smiled. Almost.

He was too cautious to let Theodore in without answering some questions but as usual, Theodore knew every answer. When Draco opened the door he found Theodore smiling an oddly happy and an extremely out of character smile. The shock must have been evident on his face because soon Theodore laughed at him. This didn't do much to dissolve the shock but Draco let Theodore in.

"Tea? I'm afraid I'm not going to offer you any alcohol since I'm not sure of your mental stability," Draco offered. Theodore nodded. The smile still hadn't left his face.

"What is wrong with you?" Draco asked. The smile was beginning to disturb him, especially when Theodore's smile only grew after his question.

"It's funny, Astoria asked the same." The words had the effect Theodore had been hoping for: Draco's head snapped towards him and his eyes flew open.

"Well that's an interesting reaction," Theodore noted before launching in to the story of how Daphne had told him of her father's accident and how Astoria had confided in him. Theodore was very much aware that Astoria hadn't really given him permission to spread the story but whether Astoria liked it or not, Draco was needed for this. And Theodore did understand that as a bonus, it could bring Astoria and Draco back together.

After Theodore was done Draco stared at him for a good while. To others it may have seemed as if Draco hadn't understood a word Theodore had said but Theodore was good at reading people and therefore knew that that wasn't true. He could see Draco thinking and for a moment he thought he saw the same boy he'd gone to Hogwarts with, the one whose father hadn't been sent to Azkaban yet, the one who hadn't got the Dark Mark. But the look on Draco's face was gone quickly and it was replaced by a sneer.

"Why should I care? Didn't everyone already know that her blood wasn't pure?" Draco said. Theodore merely raised his eyebrows. Draco was being more annoying than usual.

"Sure. That's true. But I just wanted to know if you were the one who sent the letter," he said. Draco looked appalled.

"YOU THINK THAT I - " Draco held a frightening resemblance to his father when he yelled but his appearance turned back to normal as he calmed, "You think that I would do that? That's pathetic Theodore. No one would be that obvious." Theodore gave Draco a moment to calm down before correcting him.

"Well it's not that obvious, is it? We have no idea who sent the letter. But I think it's someone pureblood, someone we know. And as much as I hate to think of it, I wanted to ask you if you have any letters sent by Daphne or Michael Greengrass?"

"You think Astoria's family would turn on her like that?" Theodore shrugged.

"Wouldn't be the first time, would it?" he said. Draco nodded and glanced towards his bedroom.

"I don't have any letters from Daphne but I do still have that one from Michael Greengrass," said Draco and started towards his bedroom. Theodore rolled his eyes and got up to get himself some tea. He took his wand from his pocket to float the tea pot off the stove and as he raised his hand, it brushed against a piece of parchment. He pushed it aside and guided the tea pot safely to the table before giving the piece of parchment a quick look and turning back to look at the pot. He turned back to the parchment so quickly that the metallic tea pot nearly tumbled off the table. The writing on it was familiar. Too familiar. Theodore retrieved the letter that had been sent to Emma from his pocket and placed it next to the letter on Draco's table.

Everything matched. The soft curve of the letters were identical. Theodore's breath nearly got caught in his throat as he took the folded piece of parchment from the table and opened it to see who had sent it. It was like someone would have dropped a block of ice to the bottom of his stomach. This couldn't be. Surely there was a mistake. Yet, it was somehow absurd enough that Theodore knew he couldn't be imagining it.

"What is it?" Draco asked as he exited his bedroom and saw Theodore staring at the two letters. Draco had the letters sent by Michael Greengrass in his hand but he placed them to the small table right next to the bedroom door before approaching the kitchen area.

"Theodore?" he asked. Theodore looked up from the letters and for the first time in years Draco had the feeling that something had rendered Theodore speechless. Draco frowned and approached Theodore who handed him one of the two letters. Draco hadn't seen this one before and as he looked at the hand-drawn family tree he was about to say how ridiculous the letter was. That was before he took a closer look at the names. There was something familiar about them. Not the names themselves, of course, but the way they were written. The handwriting.

Draco sat down on to the same chair Theodore had occupied only a moment ago and sighed.

"This has got to be a joke," he said mostly to himself. He didn't look up to see Theodore's face as Theodore handed Draco the other letter. Draco looked over it and nodded. There was no mistaking it. The handwriting was the same. And as Draco read through the letter, all the way to his mother's signature at the bottom he understood his mother's sudden interest in Astoria. Narcissa hadn't only just found out. She'd known about Astoria all along. And for some, unnatural, obscure reason Narcissa had sent the letter with Astoria's family tree to Emma Travers.

Thank you for reading and happy holidays! There will be a small jump between this and the next chapter. The next chapter will take place at least a few months after this one and we get to see everyone's reactions. Tell me what you thought by reviewing.