Thank you Mp422 for being my beta, and for supporting my crazy ideas! I love you! And to everyone who reads this story.

Chapter 10

A few days after the, surprisingly, successful party at Granger's house, he had received yet another visit from the Greengrass sisters. Why they kept coming, he didn't know. It was always tedious and just plain boring to sit around his living room listening to idle gossip and how grand the ministry galas had been.
"How come we didn't see you at the gala? Now that you're back we thought for sure we'd get a chance to meet you there."
"I'm not particularly fond of that kind of events." He saw Astoria frowning while her sister fought to keep the smile in place.
"How are you going to find a proper wife if you don't leave your home from time to time, darling?" Ah, so that's what they wanted. What a bloody joke. He just shrugged.
"I don't intend to find one." There, you can stop this ridiculous visits now. It was Astoria who answered, sounding quite affronted.
"But you are the last member of the Malfoy bloodline, surely you can't just let such an old family die with you!" It would have been so much better for him if his father had saved him the trouble.
"Whith animals, when a pure breed presents hereditary bad tendencies, like biting or madness, the breeders decide to discontinue the line." or mix it with new blood...No, Draco, no. "Why not do that with our species?" Astoria made a sniffing sound, looking indignant.
"Because humans are not the same as kneazles." He smirked at her and relaxed against his couch.
"Aren't we?"
When Daphne just remembered they had another commitment he was more than happy to walk them to the door, then proceeded to pour himself a generous glass of firewhiskey. They were still in his property, the silly bints, and what was worst, they were pointing at Granger like she couldn't see them and making snobbish faces at her. He took his drink with him and went outside to give the girls a piece of his mind, they weren't just daft but also deaf apparently, because they didn't hear him.
"Seriously, he's so weird now, I can't even recognize him, and living next to the most famous crazy cat lady of the wizarding world is not going to help him much."
"I don't know what you were thinking, sister, it was obvious since our first visit."
"I was thinking about his bank account, and he's better looking than any of the other candidates. I guess we could look for someone outside the country."
He made a rasping sound that in turn made them squeal, and he wasn't sure, but he thought he heard a snort coming from Granger's garden.
"Ladies. Can I help you find your way out of my property?" The both shook their heads nervously, Daphne took Astoria by the arm and they disappeared in an instant. "Thank bloody Merlin!" Now he was sure Granger was giggling. He turned around and she was leaning on the once white picket fence that probably used to divide their properties, but now only stud in patches on the border between the two. She was smiling timidly at him and he gave her his trademark smirk before closing the distance a little bit more.
"You're not that weird."
"You're not that crazy."
"And I don't have cats"
That caused both of them to burst into a silly fit of laughter. When they had calmed down he sighed and took a sip from his drink. He took in her appearance, it wasn't her typical comfy sweater and old trousers, but a nice long sleeved, cashmere dress, long brown boots, and matching wool tights and scarf. He pointed at her with the same hand that was holding his drink making the ice tinkle.
"You look nice. What's the occasion?" She looked down like she was just realizing the same thing, then started playing with the hem of her dress jittery.
"Oh, yeah, Ginny has the day off so she invited Pansy, Luna, and I for lunch. Muggle restaurant, of course." So Red had been true to her word when she said she wanted to be included to that bizarre friendship. He had to give it to her, she could have asked just Granger and Lovegood, but she was nice enough to invite Pansy. Maybe Ronald Weasley was the black sheep and the rest weren't that bad.
"That's nice, I'm sure you'll all have fun." He smiled at her and he pretended his heart didn't make some cheesy jump of joy when her smile reached her eyes.
"Oh, I can't wait. Do you want to come?" He pretended to consider the idea.
"Let's see, me surrounded by four gossip hungry women...yeah, I don't think so. But thanks anyway." She laughed at that and punched him in the arm.
"We are not gossip hungry!"
"You call that a punch? I know you can do better than that. "
"Ahhh, yeah" the dreamy face she made while remembering the time she almost broke his nose in third year caused mixed feelings to surface. But endearment won against irritation and he ended up just shaking his head unable to suppress a lopsided grin. Mrs. Potter arrived at that moment, raising an eyebrow at them, a thing he chose to ignore.
"Malfoy"
"Potter" she smiled at that, like a lovesick fool, obviously still excited about her not so new surname. Then she turned to greet her friend and they both did that squeaking girly sound while they hugged each other. Girls are so strange. He send his regards to the other two witches and went back home.
She bought him some cheesecake that afternoon, and told him Pansy would come to visit him the next day. He knew she would, no matter how much he hopped to spend that day alone. He went to bed, trying not to think about the next day, and opting to remember the way today's dress flattered Granger's complexion.
He had managed three consecutive hours of sleep when the nightmares invaded him and he woke up drenched in sweat. He tried drinking more firewhiskey but it didn't calm his nerves, just increased the fury accumulating in his gut when his shaking hands poured half the bottle on his pajama bottoms. A smoke, maybe a smoke would calm him down. He practically ran out, slamming the door, his fingers were still shaking, his lips were shaking, all of him was, really. It made it hard for him to turn on the cigarette but he achieved it. He took one drag, three, seven, but his nerves wouldn't relax.
"FUCK!" he choked between the smoke and the scream and ended up coughing like crazy, them almost had a heart attack when he felt a hand on his back. Granger was there wrapped in a blanket to protect herself from the cold. It was indeed very cold, and he was wearing sweaty pajamas, also damped with firewhiskey. She must have realized that too because she sat next to him and wrapped the blanket around both of them.
"What's wrong?" She looked so bloody concerned, and for some reason it felt wrong.
"Nothing." She glared at him, clearly not believing him. "Nothing you should be worrying about."
"Right." she sounded so prim, it reminded him of his school days. "What was the nightmare about?" He gave her a dejected smile.
"Nothing...everything. You know bits and pieces of everything you hated, loved, feared…" She nodded understandingly and then her hand was clasping his, and he could hear his heart banging against his ribcage and everything he was trying not to feel came crashing down and his eyes hurt for the effort he was making to stop the tears from falling and looking like a whimpering fool in front of her.
"Do you have them often?" When he denied it his voice sounded so pathetic it made him cringe.
"I..I think it's because of the date." She kept silent, waiting for him to continue, her thumb playing with his knuckles. "It's her birthday." She holded him a little tighter.
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah...me too." They stayed like that for a while. When she broke the silence he almost jumped.
"There you are" She was pointing at the sky with her free hand. He looked up and easily found the constellation he was named after. "I always loved astronomy, you know. It was the one thing I knew that I didn't have to learn after knowing about the wizarding world. My father used to take me camping, and we would fall asleep looking at the stars and he would give me a candy, without my mother's permission for sure, for each constellation I could find."
"My mother would tell me the story of the noble and most ancient House of Black, naming the stars and the things my ancestors had achieved that earned them the right to be named after something that would shine centuries after we were gone." She stood up abruptly, wrapped the blanket securely around him and sprinted toward her house. He lighted another cigarette, remembering everything he could about his ancestors. She came before he had reached the fifteenth century, with a new blanket and two pillows. She spread the blanket on the grass, threw the pillows over it and extended her hand towards him. "What are you doing?"
"We are having a contest. The one that names the most wins." He took her hand and played along. They laid on the blanket and used the other one to keep eachother warm and started counting. Her hand found his again. When it was obvious it'll be a tie, she asked him to tell her about his mother's family so he pointed at one star and told her what the relative with that given name had done. The last thing he remembered before sleep claimed him was that her fingers were playing with his knuckles, while her other hand played with his hair in a soothing manner, and feeling like a complete idiot wishing upon a star that she'd remain in his life forever. If his nightmares weren't so present in his mind he might have been able to convince himself he deserved to wish for even more than that.