A/N: Based on my head-canon that at one point in her life, Astoria Greengrass worked at Honeydukes. Also, a HUGE thanks to all my lovely betas!

Betas: CupCakeyyy, Fire of Eden Red Rose Aurora, VanillaAshes

Title: Sweets from Honeydukes

Summary: Draco goes to buy some sweets at Honeydukes and meets Astoria Greengrass.

WC: 887

Genre: Romance

Characters: Draco M., Astoria G.

The bell rang softly as Draco Malfoy walked into Honeydukes on one unusually sunny afternoon in April. The shop was quiet, barely anyone in sight, which was normal for a day like this. After all, it was a Wednesday afternoon, all the students from Hogwarts were in classes, and he supposed people preferred to spend the day out in the sun, rather than locked up in little shops.

"Coming!" a small voice called from somewhere back in the shop.

Draco walked through the shop quietly, looking through the various sweets presented to him: chocolate frogs, jelly slugs, sugar quills. They were the sweets of his childhood, a childhood that had ended far too soon.

Candy was everywhere. He could taste the flavour in the air, the discreet aftertaste of sweet, and there was the smell of burnt sugar in the air. It definitely wasn't something he was used to.

"All right, here I am!"

A small brunette appeared from behind the counter. Her hair was pulled into a messy ponytail with stray strands flying around her face. She was a little flushed too, cheeks just barely rosy.

"So, what's the occasion?" she asked, coming around the counter to meet him.

"Is there really a need for one?" he replied with a slightly bitter tone.

Her lips lifted into a quirky smile, completely ignoring his rude tone. "Well, I do admit that you don't need a reason to buy sweets, but maybe you have something in mind?"

He sighed but his mood was already slightly better. Her cheerful attitude was catching. "It's my mother's birthday."

"Oh, that's lovely!" she exclaimed. "Do you know what she likes? Or maybe you would like to try our brand new strawberry kisses-"

"Just some fudge, please," he cut her off, just wanting to get done with it and out of this overly sweet shop.

She seemed completely unfazed by his rudeness. "Of course! We've got some good Traditional Fudge, or maybe you'll prefer something a tad more daring with our Mystery Ingredient Fudge? It's really good. I have some all the time! It's one of my favourites, you see?"

"Traditional," he said.

"All right, if you'll just follow me."

He let her babble on about some new sweet she was busy working on and that she was sure was going to be very popular for next Halloween while he silently followed her through the shop. She was effortlessly cheerful despite Draco's coldness, and he had to admit he was warming up to her.

Finally, a good ten minutes later, she was wrapping up the fudge for him in a nice green and pink box with extra ribbons.

"Here you go!" she exclaimed. "Are you sure you don't want anything else?"

"No, thank you," he said, already moving towards the door. But before he pushed open the door, he paused and turned around, his hand on the door knob. Something about her face was familiar, but he couldn't seem to be able to place her. "Excuse me, but don't I know you?"

"Well," she started, smiling, "you do, but you won't remember me. I'm Astoria Greengrass."

"Greengrass," Draco mused. "Daphne's sister?"

Daphne had been the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Ice Queen of Slytherin, never uttering a single word that wasn't anything other than what etiquette prescribed. You would barely have guessed bubbly laughing Astoria Greengrass was her sister.

She nodded vigorously.

"Wow." Draco blinked, slightly taken aback. "You're nothing like her."

"So I've been told!"

"And you work at Honeydukes?"

She nodded again. "Mother and Father kicked me out after I finished school so I had to find a job. And I love sweets, so I figured why not Honeydukes? I'm also the trolley witch for when all the students go home. It's a lot of fun."

"They kicked you out?" Draco asked, surprised and somewhat appalled. What could she have done that deserved to be kicked out?

"Well, they didn't exactly kick me out but they made me understand I had to get married and stop being pro-Muggle if I wanted to stay, so I left," she explained. It was clear that the question had made her uncomfortable as she was fiddling with her hair.

"Oh."

"Yep. Right. Sorry to have bothered you with all that. You know, the pro-Muggle stuff and all that, and you're Draco Malfoy, so you probably don't-" she rambled on.

But he cut her off. "No, no. I've revisited my ways completely. I'm not… against Muggles anymore."

This time it was her who looked surprised. "Oh, I'm sorry! I just assumed and – Oh my Merlin- How horrible of me-"

"It's fine," Draco reassured her and nodded his head slightly in lieu of a goodbye before starting to head back out of the door. This Astoria Greengrass girl intrigued him a lot, but he wasn't going to say anything. He'd learnt his lesson – rather painfully – with her sister a very long time ago.

"Wait!" He turned around as he heard her voice call after him.

Astoria blushed prettily and twisted her apron in her hands. "This might be a little forward, but I'll be at the Three Broomsticks in an hour, if you'd like to meet up?"

He smiled and she blushed even harder. "I'd like that."

Maybe he would be a little luckier with this Greengrass.

A/N: Written for the Slytherin challenge from The Houses Challenge

FOR HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Aquatic Studies: Task #3: Write about a connexion between two unexpected people.