Chapter Seven
Summer
0o0
The August heat was sweltering in the attic bedroom of Astoria's aunt's house and no matter what she did, nothing seemed to be able to beat back the balmy temperature. All four windows had been thrust open to a nonexistent breeze for days. Astoria had even removed the screens in a pointless bid to allow the air to move more freely but it would not do. It was nearly noon and the day only promised to grow hotter as the dew on the grass outside turned steadily into a vaporous steam. Theodore Nott was sitting on Astoria's bedroom floor rolling a glass tumbler full of ice and soda water across his forehead.
"Hell on Earth," he muttered, pulling his shirt away from his sticky back again.
Astoria was sitting in the window seat that looked out over the garden but she turned to face your friend. "Why don't you take your shoes off or something, then? You're still in long pants and a sweater."
Theo scoffed and continued to roll the glass of ice over his neck. Apparently, Theodore considered his summer dress code to be the same as his winter one and anyone who wore lighter fabrics for comfort's sake alone was silly and beneath him. Astoria wondered if his toes had ever seen sunlight.
"It must have been hotter than this in Turkey, at least," said Theo, referencing the vacation with Aston Mendel that Astoria had just returned from. "Weren't you practically in the desert?"
"It was hotter but it was also drier," recalled Astoria longingly. "It was always windy and Aston was only there to promote his book so we were near the coast. One of his old friends had a flying carpet!"
"Really?" asked Theo. "I thought those were illegal."
"Not in Turkey," said Astoria, grinning. "I didn't see a single broomstick the whole time I was there. You can nap on those carpets, they're so comfortable! I sat on one with Aston and two foreign businessmen to watch the sunset one night."
Theo rolled his eyes as though he found the idea of lounging about with grown businessmen to be vaguely classless and trivial. "I'm hungry," he decided at last. "Can't we go downstairs? It's cooler there and your aunt had a tray of tea sandwiches out."
Over the past few weeks, Belladonna had relented at last and she now allowed Theo to visit Astoria during the day. Still, Belladonna was never particularly keen to talk to Theodore, preferring instead to watch his every graceless move with a mixture of unimpressed pity and amusement. This alone made Astoria feel awkward, but she also knew for a fact that her aunt was expecting company that morning and that was more than enough motive for Astoria to want to stay barricaded in her room until dinner.
"Can't," argued Astoria. "There are people down there."
"Well, there's people up here!" cried Theo irritably. "And they're hot and starving!"
"She's hosting the ladies of St. Mungo's auxiliary meeting today," said Astoria warningly. "You want to talk about Hell on Earth..."
"They'll probably be out in the garden trying to catch a breeze," Theodore reasoned. "Come on! Just one sandwich and we can come right back up here to your sauna of depression."
This was a fairly apt description of Astoria's bedroom these days. Astoria had spent most of June at home with Daphne in Tidenham, reading books by the river and gossiping. It had been nice to have her sister all to herself again and they had spent hours in Astoria's bed trying on various nail polishes and laughing about teachers.
Then, it had been off to Turkey for two glorious weeks of sunshine and wonder. Astoria had worn nothing but linen and silk. Aston had let her try spiced wine with him in the villa that he had rented and he had not been offended when she complained that it tasted like chutney. Aston had also introduced her to his adult friends by her full name without sending her to bed early to be rid of her—a kind of dignity that she rarely ever received at home.
When Astoria had returned to England, full to bursting with stories and with an aching sunburn across her face, she had been surprised to find that her aunt's house elf Wobbles was waiting at her father's house to help her unpack her things.
"It's not one of Wobbles days, is it?" Astoria had asked her sister suspiciously.
"No," Daphne admitted, her voice calculated and somber. "Belladonna finally let my mum have her full time."
This had struck Astoria as immediately ominous. House elves were very loyal to their owners; not to mention extremely expensive to acquire. If Belladonna had parted with hers, it must have been for a very good reason. Because of this warning, Astoria was not at all surprised when, two or three days later, she learned that she would be finishing the summer at her aunt's house.
As far as Astoria was concerned, Belladonna had levied a faithful servant to pay for Astoria's imprisonment and to cap it all off she had replaced Wobbles with a new, crotchety old elf named Bonky who regularly spied on Astoria and made reports to Belladonna behind her back.
"Fine," said Astoria, who was sweating through her sundress, "but if they are all in the sitting room, I'm staying on the stairs."
The moment they left the attic, the temperature began to drop considerably and by the time they had reached the first floor even Astoria was forced to admit that the air was much more comfortable to exist in down below.
The patio doors that lead off the formal living room were open and the murmur of four or five voices coming from the veranda under the apple tree confirmed that Belladonna had taken her lunch outside.
On the low coffee table near the couch, Astoria spied the tray of half eaten tea sandwiches. Sitting in one of the armchairs by himself and snooping nosily through an ornamental snuffbox, however, was a less expected fixture: Draco Malfoy
Draco looked up when Astoria and Theodore reached the bottom of the stairs and jumped, blushing guiltily as though they had caught him in the act of doing something obscene.
"Draco?" remarked Astoria in surprise.
"I didn't know you were here," shot Draco guiltily. "Theo," he added stiffly, putting the snuffbox back down on the table.
Theo clearly seemed to think Malfoy counted as an unexpected invader but Astoria continued down the stairs. Perhaps Draco had tagged along with his mother thinking that Astoria wouldn't be at home? A chance to snoop about and set eyes on Belladonna?
"What are you doing here?" asked Astoria skeptically, moving into the living room room. "Have you joined the charity league too? I didn't know they were taking teenage boys."
Draco sneered halfheartedly, clearly still thrown by their sudden and unexpected arrival. "Mother's outside with the rest of them having tea."
"Do you always go to tea with your mum and then sit inside while they plan fundraisers?" asked Theo slyly, taking an egg salad sandwich off the tray on the table.
"No," sneered Draco, narrowing his eyes.
Belladonna appeared in the patio doorway. "Oh good, Astoria, you've come down," she said, taking in the sight of her niece with surprise. Despite the years that separated them—not to mention the slightly imperious way that Belladonna stood—Astoria could realistically see how a person might be able to draw a resemblance between herself and her aunt. "It had just occurred to me that Draco was sitting in here alone. I was going to send for you."
Astoria reached for the plate of sandwiches, not at all happy with the idea that Belladonna thought Draco was impressive enough to warrant intentionally foisting her niece upon.
Belladonna clucked her tongue and her eyes wandered toward Theo, who was attempting to eat without dropping egg anywhere and failing spectacularly.
"I'll be outside then," she went on. "The gardens do look lovely today, don't they?"
"Yes," agreed Astoria challengingly, feeling more and more like an ungrateful brat the longer her aunt dithered about looking pleased with herself. "Four of your husbands have put green thumbs into the soil, after all." Astoria lowered her voice. "Other parts too, maybe…"
"Nonsense, darling," shot Belladonna without missing a beat, a new chill marking her voice as dangerous. "You know the roses prefer thin soil. What a terrible place to bury a body."
Theo choked on his eggs.
"No more than one sandwich, Astoria," Belladonna admonished as a final afterthought before disappearing back out into the yard, "and stick to the cucumber. They're less fattening."
Theo opened his mouth the second she was gone.
"Yes, yes!" snapped Astoria crossly, beating him to the chase. "We can't bury any husbands in the yard because the rose beds aren't deep enough! Such comedy!" Astoria threw herself onto the couch moodily. "Isn't the Widow Lestrange just a barrel of chuckles this morning?"
"I'm sure she wasn't serious," Theodore amended, not wishing to rile Astoria up.
"Like hell she wasn't," muttered Astoria. "That's just the sort of thing she would do only later, when the plant bloomed, she'd probably also send the flower cuttings to his grieving family."
Malfoy seemed genuinely impressed with the creativeness of this idea but Theo had looked away from her. Astoria knew that he thought her mood swings regarding her aunt were trifling and a little embarrassing, but she couldn't help herself. Theodore shoved the plate of sandwiches at her, provoking Astoria further.
"Oh no," she muttered crossly. "I don't dare!"
"She'll never know if you have two, Astoria," argued Theo reasonably.
Astoria picked up a monogrammed cigarette case off the table near the lamp and the snuffbox and trilled: "Imagine what would happen if I let myself get fat? Her entire world would combust!"
Astoria flipped opened the case and took out one of the French cigarettes that her aunt liked to offer her gentleman friends after dinner parties and pocketed it. She had started doing this lately, relishing in the fact that she was not allowed and that plenty of responsible people found the habit disgusting. Mostly, though, she dropped them out her window into the garden untouched; a silent middle finger.
"You smoke now, do you?" said Theo, finding this idea almost as hilarious as he did pathetic.
"So what if I do?" Astoria challenged. "She wants to make jokes about knocking people off and burying them in the yard? The least she can do is let me smoke through her stand up routine." Astoria got back to her feet.
"Are we going back upstairs?" asked Theo, scooping up some ice from underneath the platter of deviled eggs in preparation. Draco had risen too, causing Theo to frown at him. "Are you sure you can leave? You don't want to make your mother to come looking for you, do you?"
"You can see the gardens from my room, as well," Astoria snapped, irritated with Theo for his lack of support. "He'll be able to see if his mother comes in."
Astoria's room was still stiflingly hot when they returned and the ice Theodore had left in his seltzer on the floor had almost completely melted.
"How do you sleep up here?" Theo moaned, sprawling back out on his back on the carpet again.
Malfoy stood awkwardly. The only place to sit was on Astoria's bed and there were two or three pairs of stockings that she had tried on and discarded already on it. Draco hesitated and then sat on a bare patch of duvet cover, eyeing her laundry covertly like a spy in a foreign court. "Did you sack the house elf?" he asked rudely.
"No," replied Astoria tersely. "My aunt gave our old one to my father and I don't let the new one in here."
"Why not?" asked Theo from the ground. "I've been meaning to ask you the same thing. I was starting to wonder if you were becoming a hoarder."
"Because the new elf spies on me and reports everything I say or do back to my aunt," said Astoria intensely, crossing to the open window seat.
"Do you live with your aunt, then?" asked Malfoy, looking around with poorly disguised interest.
"Only sometimes," said Astoria, staring hard at Malfoy. He looked slightly more unsure of himself then she was accustomed to seeing him and there was something a little self conscious about the distance he was keeping between himself and Astoria's pillows.
"You're taller," observed Astoria, noticing for the first time that he had grown several inches.
"I suppose," said Malfoy lazily.
"Theo is too," said Astoria with a smirk, looking at her spidery friend. "He looks terribly funny when he crosses his legs now."
"Why's that?" asked Theodore hotly.
"Because you kind of sit like a lady," said Astoria, grinning mischievously, wanting to forget her bad mood and replace it with something else entirely.
"I can't say I've ever noticed that, Nott," drawled Draco, glancing in Theodore's direction. "Do people tell you regularly that you look like a lady?"
"I said he sits like a lady," Astoria clarified, trying not to grin at how offended Theo was beginning to look.
"Well I'm glad that distinction has been made clear," Theo grumbled.
"Oh, don't!" said Astoria, laughing. She leaned her head back against the wall so that she could feel the sun. "I didn't mean anything by it, Theo. It's one of my favorite things about you, actually. I find it charming."
"I'm glad that I manage to charm you with my femininity," muttered Theo resentfully.
"It's more like repressed elegance, really," argued Astoria, "not femininity." Malfoy made a skeptical noise so Astoria went on. "It's one of the things about you that always strikes me."
Theo's expression had turned to one of near embarrassment at the word elegance.
"That's what always strikes you about me?" he asked dubiously, "that I sit like an elegant woman?"
Astoria giggled so genuinely that Theo stopped just short of anger.
"What do you notice first about Malfoy, then?" Theodore asked, clearly hoping that Astoria had noticed something equally as shameful about Draco.
"The first thing I notice about Malfoy?" mused Astoria, basking in the sunlight and thinking. "Malfoy uses a soap I like sometimes. I occasionally catch myself thinking he smells nice."
The sour look that Malfoy had been fixing to make got stuck halfway and for the briefest of seconds, there was something little-boyish about his eyes as he took in her words.
"Oh, that's fair!" said Theo bitterly. "My ice is melting again. Hang on, I'm going for more."
Theo strode across the room and dumped his warm seltzer over the window frame that Astoria's head was resting on. When Theo shut the door behind him, Malfoy seemed to remember himself and sneered.
Astoria pointed at him slyly, "There's also that."
"What?" demanded Malfoy, prickling.
"The sneering thing."
"What does that mean?" returned Draco defensively.
"That you have hilarious facial expressions," said Astoria, goading him on. She held up her hand so that she could keep a tally on her fingers. A small breeze was finally beginning to stir her hair. "You've got the sneer that you use when you don't know what else to do with your face. Then there's the one you use when you really do think something is disgusting. You also sneer when you don't think something is disgusting, but you want to disguise that fact—probably because you think the thing in question is trivial or embarrassing."
"I don't do that," said Draco sharply, a pink flush creeping up his neck.
"Yes, you do," laughed Astoria. "If there was a jar of jam at breakfast that you really liked, you would sit down and sneer at it even if you ate the whole thing."
Draco looked a little disconcerted by this. Astoria gazed out across the lawn, noticing as she did so that the leaves were finally stirring in the trees. The sight of the treetops reminded her of a question she had been mulling over all summer. "Draco," Astoria began softly, still staring at the far off forest, "what do you think that thing we saw during detention was?"
"I don't know," Draco shrugged but Astoria could tell that even remembering the thing in the forest put him on edge."Those woods are mad. Everyone knows that."
"Do you think Harry really faced You Know Who last June?" Astoria continued quietly. "If he did, then the thing we saw could have been—"
Draco made a loud sound of disgust. "If Potter had fought the Dark Lord, he wouldn't be alive."
Astoria badly wanted to believe this, but there were niggling little details that were gnawing at her. "Apparently it's really hard to catch a unicorn."
"What does it matter how fast they are?" Draco scoffed. "Wizards have wands."
"Yeah," agreed Astoria, "but unicorns are really magical. It's almost impossible to snare one—I didn't realize that. It requires really powerful dark magic."
This seemed to give Malfoy pause but he held his ground. "The Dark Lord was vanquished," he scoffed.
"Maybe," Astoria muttered. "That thing we saw was drinking blood."
"Whatever book you've been reading," started Malfoy scornfully, "throw it away. Or better yet, give it back to Theodore. I'm sure it belongs to him."
"Unicorn blood can keep a person alive, even if they're on the brink of death," Astoria added worriedly. "Did you ever tell your father about that thing we saw?"
"Of course I did," scoffed Malfoy, seeming to think that this much was obvious.
"Did he ask you a lot of questions about it?"Astoria pressed.
"Naturally," Draco shrugged.
"And you didn't get the sense that, I don't know," Astoria began delicately, afraid of pressing too hard, "maybe he thought there was a connection?"
Draco pushed air out of his nose and narrowed his eyes at her. Astoria was stepping dangerously close to a world of details that Draco tended to keep private. Perhaps she should not have pried for Lucius's opinion?
"You mean did my father seem suspicious that Quirrell's meltdown was connected to that thing we saw in the forest?" jeered Draco. "No, not particularly."
They were silent for a moment. Astoria attempted to will herself into seeing the matter as Draco did.
"Say the Dark Lord is still alive and he's trying to rise again," Draco snapped, shifting on her bed irritably. "There have been people who have thought that for years. Are you telling me that you actually think Potter fought him and won?" Draco's face twitched bitterly. "The boy who lived—again?
"I don't know," murmured Astoria truthfully. "He managed it once already, didn't he?"
"Blind luck, if you ask me!" declared Draco resentfully, getting up and crossing toward the window that Astoria was sitting in to gaze out at the same trees.
"His luck is on point then," said Astoria wryly.
The bedroom door creaked open and Astoria turned to look, thinking that it must be Theo returning. Instead, she spotted the tiny and hunched form of her new house elf, Bonky.
"Out!" Astoria yelled, channeling all the rage of her attic imprisonment into her voice as she whirled around sharply.
"My mistress is wishing me to check on her ungrateful niece to see if she is needing anything. My mistress is never anything but selfless in this regard."
"Your mistress is having lunch and hasn't asked you to do anything," snapped Astoria coldly. "You heard me, out!"
Draco glanced at the elf disparagingly. "You can bring up one of the sandwiches from the living room," he called over his shoulder.
"No, you can't Bonky!" said Astoria, contradicting this order. "Get your own sandwiches, Malfoy, the thing is a creep. Don't you come back here!"
"A shadow on the heart of my mistress," Bonky muttered. "A blight against the name of a woman so good, so magnanimous, so benevolent! Mistress is saddled with such a contemptible girl!"
Astoria grabbed a wad of tissue paper out of a shoebox on her dresser, balled it up and beamed it at Bonky, forcing him to scuttle out to door to avoid being hit.
Draco looked askance at her before fingering the side of one Astoria's journals that had been hidden underneath the tissue.
"Little freak," Astoria muttered to herself. "He's got a picture of my aunt where he sleeps. I keep avoiding the kitchen because I'm afraid I'll walk in and catch him wanking over it."
Draco stopped discretely fidgeting with one of her perfume bottles and made a sound of gleeful disgust.
"Of course, that's the effect my aunt likes to have on the entire male species," Astoria went on, "you know, before she's contemplating whether or not they'll fit under her rose garden, so maybe it amuses her."
Draco snorted, toying with a string of false pearls hanging from a jewelry stand. Astoria wished he would stop touching things because it was starting to put her teeth on edge.
Theo reappeared clutching a new drink, panting from his walk up the attic steps.
"That house elf of yours nearly tripped me on the stairs," said Theo almost accusingly. "He's crouching out there on the landing."
"Of course he is," said Astoria.
"It looked like everyone was getting ready to come in from the garden, by the way," said Theodore meaningfully.
Draco was casually touching a shirt that Astoria had draped across her bureau but he stopped immediately when it became obvious that Theo was watching him intently.
0o0
Astoria received her Hogwarts letter and her new book list about a week later while she and Belladonna were eating breakfast in the sitting room.
This official letter had come with one from her sister as well. Astoria was anxious to finish off her yogurt and fruit in order to return to the attic to read the second note in peace, but the sight of the Hogwarts crest seemed to rouse Belladonna out of a sleepy silence.
"I was thinking you might go with Bonky into Diagon Alley later in the week," Belladonna mused over the rim of her tea cup.
"I'm not letting Bonky take me anywhere," insisted Astoria flatly, privately stung that her aunt would shunt her off so easily, even if she would never admit it.
"My dear, is it your avowed goal in life to be difficult, or do you simply come by the trait naturally?" sighed Belladonna, exasperated. "My mornings are all engaged this week, so unless you would prefer to do your shopping at night alongside the kitchen staff from the Leaky Cauldron, I'm afraid Bonky is your next best option."
"If you send me with that elf, only one of us is coming back!" growled Astoria threateningly.
"You'd rather run away?" asked her aunt, sounding perfectly unconcerned. "What, pray tell, do you imagine you would do with yourself on the streets?"
"Oh, no," clarified Astoria, realizing that her aunt had misunderstood. "I'd come back."
"You would strangle our poor Bonky down an alleyway and be done with him, then?" asked Belladonna, her lips pressing thin with amusement.
Astoria made a face. "Why can't I just go with Theo and his father? Maybe if I wrote to ask now I still could?"
"Nonsense!" said Belladonna dismissively. "I'm sure Mr. Nott has not accompanied his son shopping since the poor boy learned how to count out change for himself."
Astoria had not thought of this, but now that Belladonna mentioned it, this seemed like exactly the type of thing that Theodore's father might be guilty of.
"Can I go with Daphne, then?" Astoria suggested in a pleading tone. "I went alone with her last year. She doesn't like to misbehave, she won't want to do anything other than buy books!"
Belladonna looked as though she was resisting the urge to roll her eyes; a good sign, as she did not immediately shoot the idea down.
"We can go early and I'll be back in time for a late lunch," said Astoria, grasping at blind hope. "I'll even bring Daphne here so that we can all eat together!"
Belladonna was not overly charitable towards Daphne, but Astoria knew that her aunt would recognize what was hidden in this offer. I'll eat a whole meal with you and be I'll very civil because I won't want to upset my sister.
Belladonna continued to balk at this plan, but eventually (perhaps because Astoria continued to beg past the point of endurance) she gave up and told Astoria to write to her sister and fix a solid date.
This Astoria did, the moment she thought it was acceptable to excuse herself from breakfast. Tossing her Hogwarts letter onto the floor next to a heap of discarded dresses, Astoria climbed into bed and opened the envelope that was addressed from Daphne.
Dear Astoria,
The past few weeks have been very dull without you. Mum and I passed some time gardening and last week we went for dinner in London. Father has been absent quite a lot lately, and mum thinks it's because he is working on getting signed on retainer because of the new patent case (she thinks it has something to do with Mr. Mclaggen's fever restoration potions). If so, that will make mum very happy. Other than this, I have nothing new to report.
-Daphne
Astoria got up, trailing her blanket behind her to fetch a quill, anxious to write back.
0o0
On the following Wednesday, Astoria met her sister outside Florean Fortesque's ice cream parlor at nine o'clock in morning, elated to be free of the attic and Bonky for the first time in weeks. It had been less then a month since Astoria had seen her sister, but already, Daphne seemed changed.
Less prone to paleness than Astoria, Daphne a healthy glow about her. Her cheeks and shoulders were brown and pricked with a constellation of new freckles.
"Astoria!" Daphne cried out when she spotted her. They fell into a hug. Daphne was as short and stocky as she had always been but when their bodies pressed together, Astoria became of another change as well.
"You've got boobs!" declared Astoria laughingly, standing back to take in her sister's full profile.
Daphne went very red. "Don't even mention them," she begged somberly. "I can't fit into any of my robes anymore!"
"Who cares about the robes?" said Astoria, chuckling at her sister's discomfort.
"I do," moaned Daphne. "I look even fatter than I was before!"
"That's ridiculous," said Astoria shortly, wanting to curb the idea before it took root in Daphne's psyche. Daphne had never been a small girl, but there was certainly nothing overly plump about her. Astoria firmly blamed Daphne's lack of male interest on her shyness and not her figure.
"You have boobs and you still fit into your robes," muttered Daphne accusingly as they turned to walk down the street.
The day began to work its charms on both of them however, and Daphne's dark mood soon passed. It was beautifully sunny and there was the first crisp warning of fall in the air. They stopped at Eylopes Emporium to buy treats for Daphne's owl. On the way out, Astoria purchased two candy apples from a street vendor and they wandered over to a bench to eat them and consult their school lists.
"There are a lot of Lockhart books here, aren't there?" Daphne commented, scanning the page of new required reading.
"Mhmm," said Astoria slyly. "I bet the new Defense teacher's a middle aged witch with a dozen cats."
Daphne smiled tightly and for a wild moment, Astoria wondered if this discomfort was out of solidarity for crazy cat women everywhere. Then, a pair of familiar voices made her glance across the street. It was was Fred and George, and they were both waving enthusiastically.
"Oh no," moaned Daphne, who was not particularly cunning when it came to hiding her feelings.
"Astoria!" beamed George, crossing the cobblestones, grinning from ear to ear. "Try writing to us once in a while, we thought you had died!"
Astoria laughed but Daphne made a noise of discomfort because Fred was pushing onto the bench next to her.
"Speaking of people who have disappeared on us," said Fred, "have you seen Harry anywhere? He was supposed to come out at the Leaky Cauldron, only mum reckons he must have gone a grate too far."
"No," said Astoria, scanning the street. "We've only just got here. Maybe he came out at Gringotts? That happens sometimes doesn't it?"
"I've never come out there," admitted George doubtfully. "Hopefully he hasn't turned up anyplace dodgy."
"Oh look," murmured Daphne who had been searching the street as well. "It's Draco."
Sure enough, crossing the road several feet away was Draco Malfoy. He was trailing behind an elegantly dressed and very unimpressed looking man that, even from a distance, Astoria took to be his father.
"Oh yeah," said George, wrinkling his nose as though he had just found something stuck to his shoe. "Look at that."
"That must be Lucius?" asked Astoria, voicing the obvious.
"Must be," said Fred, scratching his jaw as both Malfoys turned down the bend. "Looks like they're headed for Nocturne Alley. Dad will think that's interesting."
"Why?" asked Astoria, wondering why Mr. Weasley should care what Lucius Malfoy did with his time.
"They're drafting a new Muggle Protection Act at work," explained George darkly. "Dad reckons some of the old families won't be too happy about it."
This sentence made Astoria feel slightly uncomfortable for reasons that she could not quite string into words. She was relieved when Fred spoke again. "
"Speaking of Malfoy, Harry reckons Draco sent his house elf to bother him at his Aunt and Uncle's this summer."
"What?" asked Astoria, immediately skeptical of this theory. "Aren't Harry's aunt and uncle muggles? Sending an elf there would be risky, wouldn't it?"
"I dunno," George shrugged. "From what I hear, that Malfoy kid has really got it in for Harry and its not everybody who has a house elf these days, is it?"
Astoria thought about this, privately feeling that no matter how much Draco loathed Harry, he would still have known better than to send a magical servant into a Muggle residence.
"I saw him about a week ago, you know," said Astoria lightly. "He didn't mention it. Seems like the sort of thing he would brag about, too. I bet it was someone else."
"Who else would be dumb enough to sick the family help on a teenage boy?" wondered George ponderously.
"You saw Malfoy?" asked Daphne, sounding oddly wary.
"Yeah," said Astoria. "My aunt had a garden thing for the women who do the St. Mungo's charity league and he showed up with his mother. Thankfully, I already had Theo over or I would have been stuck alone with him."
"Oh," said Daphne, frowning.
"There's Lee," said Fred, standing up. Lee Jordan had just appeared near the white marble entrance of Gringotts bank and was standing on tip toe. "If you see Harry, point him toward the bank. I think dad went to look for him there."
"Alright," agreed Astoria, waving them off. Daphne sighed with relief the moment the twins had wandered off toward Quality Quidditch Supplies.
"They're not so bad, you know," said Astoria, feeling a little annoyed by her sister's lack of interest in her friendships.
Daphne wanted to buy a new quill so they wandered into the stationary shop but Astoria continued to press her case.
"The twins are actually quite a lot of fun and they happen to be nice to each other," she insisted. "None of that Slytherin nonsense about always having to come out on top of everyone else."
"Those Weasleys are bad news," returned Daphne darkly.
"Who would have thought we shared any opinions, Greengrass?" a drawling voice suddenly joined in with theirs.
Draco must have finished with his jaunt down Nocturne Alley because he was standing by a rack displaying parchments of various thicknesses and looking smug. Daphne stopped dead in her tracks, a deer caught in headlights.
"Lovely as always, Draco," remarked Astoria sarcastically. She turned back toward her sister. "Those 'Weasleys' happen to be hilarious. I don't like all of your friends, you know, but you don't hear me complaining about them."
"Tracy and Flora don't like you either," muttered Daphne sulkily. "And Pansy straight up hates you."
Malfoy turned toward Daphne with interest, although he did not look entirely surprised to hear her say so.
"Who cares?" Astoria tossed out unconcernedly. "Pansy only hates me because she's a dull fake with no sense of fun. Who has time for that?"
Draco raised an eyebrow but did nothing to counter this opinion.
"She's alright once you get to know her," said Daphne softly. "You shouldn't go out of your way to instigate her so much, Astoria. You'd be horrified if you heard half of the things she says about you."
"What does Pansy say about her?" asked Malfoy at once, obviously intrigued.
Astoria thought for certain that Daphne would clam up but to Astoria's surprise and admiration, Daphne squared her shoulders. "That Astoria's a rogue trouble maker with no proper feeling and that if you actually look at her up close, she's really quite hideous."
"There's hope for you yet, Daph," exclaimed Astoria, laughing out loud at the look of surprise on Malfoy's face. "Did she really say all of that in front of you?"
"Some of it," admitted Daphne. "Not the hideous part. I overheard her saying that to Blaise Zabini. She was trying to get him to admit that you were ugly."
"What did he say?" asked Malfoy, suffering from a stab of annoyance.
"He said he thought Astoria was uncommonly good looking, actually," said Daphne, peered at Draco with a bizarre keenness.
"I'm sure she loved that," Astoria chuckled, still impressed by her sister's underemployed gall.
"No, she didn't," admitted Daphne. "She told him that you would prove her right someday because you'll probably turn out to be a desperate, promiscuous mess. Then, Blaise said that he sincerely hoped she would turn out to be right on all accounts."
Astoria was laughing so hard it hurt. "Zabini, bless him!"
"Oh yes, because that's such a compliment," snapped Draco, but before he could say more, the look of indignation suddenly vanished from his face. He turned to stare over Astoria's shoulder. Behind her, Astoria heard the bell chime to announce someone else entering the shop.
"Have you finished, Draco?" asked a cold, clear voice. Astoria turned and found herself looking into a set of eyes very similar to Draco's, but somehow more restrained. Lucius Malfoy's calm gaze passed from his son to Astoria, and then her sister. The bell tinkled again and a man in a velvet waistcoat came up behind Mr. Malfoy, sweating profusely.
"I'll be about my business quickly then, Lucius, shall I?" said the man in the waistcoat, displaying a heavy German accent as he mopped his wet face with a monogrammed handkerchief.
"Would you?" drawled Mr. Malfoy disinterestedly. "I'd like to be on our way back to the Ministry as soon as possible."
The man bustled by and Astoria gave him a wide berth, not wishing to brush up against his clammy body.
"Were you going to introduce me to your friends, Draco?" asked Mr. Malfoy, his attention having barely wavered.
Draco introduced them in a rush, not bothering to point out that they were not strictly friends, "This is Astoria Greengrass and her sister Daphne."
Lucius's pale eyes did not change in expression, but Astoria got the impression that their names meant enough to Mr. Malfoy for him to form a keen idea as to who they were.
"You'll be George Greengrass's daughters, then?" said Lucius, his gaze switching from Astoria to Daphne. "You're the product of his second marriage, I presume?" he asked and Daphne nodded nervously, the courage she had only just found stripped away again in the face of such unexpected intensity.
"Ah," observed Mr. Malfoy lazily, looking across the shop with perfect indifference. "I see Mr. Oblanski has made a bungle of his purchases again."
Assuming that Mr. Oblanski must be the exceedingly sweaty man in the waistcoat, Astoria followed Mr. Malfoy's gaze.
A single glance was all it took to confirm that he had indeed made a bungle of himself. Standing in a reel of cascading parchment, Mr. Oblanski fumbled against the shopkeeper who was actively trying to extricate him. "Tell me, where does one find such a man, I wonder?" mused Malfoy coolly, making no move to cross the shop or help his charge.
"I don't know," responded Astoria lightly, glancing at Mr. Oblanski slyly, determined not to show fear, "but I suspect it would have to be damp."
Draco's eyes darted toward Astoria, but Lucius raised an appraising eyebrow, slightly entertained by this notion. Perhaps in a bid for more time, Lucius continued. "Would you believe then, that the Bulgarian Secretary assures me that Mr. Oblanski's wife is a reputed beauty? I believe he called Mr. Oblanski himself a 'lady killer.'"
Lucius spoke mockingly in general but Astoria snapped up the bait. This, after all, was a game that living with Belladonna Lestrange had taught her to play well.
"Perhaps the Bulgarian Secretary forgot to mention that he had been acquitted?" she tried brightly.
Mr. Malfoy let out a soft sound of amusement. Across the shop, Mr. Oblanski had finally managed to untangle himself. He was now attempting to count out change.
"I expect you to be ready when we are finished, Draco," said Mr. Malfoy, at last going to the aid of his foreign charge.
"So that's your father, then?" asked Astoria the moment he was gone. She could certainly see now what model Draco was imitating when he tried to be imposing. "You look alike, but if first impressions are anything to go on, I think your father might have a better sense of humor than you do."
0o0
On the morning of September first, Astoria was finally forced to let Bonky into the attic in order to help her pack. Astoria had meant to do the bulk of her organizing the night before, but she had somehow ended up reading late into the night instead, only to awake long past dawn in a haze of panic.
Having overslept, Astoria was now running beyond late, struggling to gather her final, sprawling personal items. Following a heated exchanged of words with Belladonna and a near breakdown over a missing sweater, both Astoria and her aunt managed to make it to the train station on time.
"Have a lovely term, darling," said Belladonna, looking as though she meant it as she passed over the croissant Astoria had not had time to eat for breakfast.
Astoria had hardly been on the train for more then thirty seconds before it started to move underneath her. Pulling her cumbersome trunk along, she set off down the aisle in search of familiar faces. After passing through the first few cars, she spotted Theodore sitting in a compartment with Millicent Bulstrode. Astoria pushed in here with a stumble, sending Millicent's cat hissing into the overhead.
"Lady grace," shot Theo with a smirk, moving his stack of Lockhart books onto the floor so that she had room to sit. Millicent, as always, stared at her morosely and said nothing, so Astoria took this for a sign of welcome and unwrapped the croissant she had been holding.
"Have you started reading that," said Astoria through a mouthful of bread, gesturing towards the gleaming front of Holidays with Hags.
"Yeah," moaned Theodore in ecstasy. "They're all perfectly, dazzlingly awful! What a load of hogwash!"
"I know!" agreed Astoria with a grin. "I started Voyages with Vampires last night and nearly sent you a midnight letter but I was laughing too hard. What do you think this says about the new teacher?"
"Witch," declared Theodore immediately. "Probably middle aged and bitter. I expect you'll hate her."
"The teacher isn't a witch," insisted Millicent defensively, speaking in front of Astoria for the second time ever.
"Maybe not," Astoria shrugged, not wishing to offend Millicent and cause her to fall silent again.
Theo shook his head and stuck to his guns. "No man made up that book list," he said seriously. "I expect Lockhart took more time to be photographed for the cover of those than he did writing them."
Millicent blinked dolefully. "Lockhart is the new professor."
"He nearly is, isn't he?" cried Theodore, gleefully missing the point.
"No," corrected Millicent monosyllabically, "he literally is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
The grin slid right off Theodore's face. "Dumbledore hired Lockhart?"
"It was in the paper yesterday next to a picture of him and Potter shaking hands," said Millicent, expressing no trace of an opinion on the matter.
Theo made a retching sound. "Well, he must have been hard up for other options! Dumbledore has to know that Lockhart's not half the genius he says he is. Dumbledore's an odd man, certainly, but I don't think he's stupid."
Astoria did not respond to this because she was busy laughing.
"Lockhart just sold a complete set of his books to every underage wizard in England!" she cackled. "He's not just a liar, he's a crook!"
After a moment, even Theo seemed to find the humor in this and they passed an hour or so abusing Lockhart, whom neither of them had ever met but already had every confidence would turn out to be utterly despicable.
Around noon, after the lunch trolley had made its rounds past their compartment, Astoria got up and went in search of Daphne. Theodore seemed to think it was more than likely that Daphne would be with Pansy, so he reclaimed Holidays with Hags from the train floor and waved her off without offering to accompany her.
The aisle was nearly deserted and oddly hushed. If it weren't for the steady chugging of the train's engine, it would have been nearly silent. Astoria was able to pick her way across the cars easily enough until she ran into Neville, who was on all fours, poking about into a corner and sniffling.
"Trevor!" he called out hopefully as Astoria drew near. When he turned to look at her, his face fell. "I've lost my toad!"
Astoria looked down bewildered, lifting her feet to make certain she had not trod on it. "Have you checked under your luggage?" she asked, taking pity on Neville once she was certain that she had not killed Trevor by accident.
"Yes," said Neville, his lip trembling. "Somehow I always manage to lose him, no matter what I do!"
Before Astoria could even process the stress inherent in this statement, a compartment door to the left slid open and a toad leaped over the threshold. It landed fatly in the hall before a freckled hand streaked out and caught it.
"Trevor!" yelled Neville, scrambling to his feet. Fred Weasley straightened up and held the toad out to Neville, who took it gratefully.
"Blimey, Neville, you ought to have a cage for that thing," Fred admonished, wiping his hands on his pants.
"I already have one," admitted Neville sadly.
"Listen," said Fred, leaning closer. "You two haven't seen Ron or Harry, have you?"
Astoria and Neville both shook their heads.
Fred frowned. "They were supposed to come through the barrier at the platform behind George and I. We waited until the train started to move but they still hadn't come through and we had to give up. I think they must have missed the train."
"Really?" asked Astoria, who had imagined this nightmarish possibility several times and still did not know how it was to be solved. "How do you get to school if you miss the train?"
"They must let you use the floo network or something but it's bound to mean trouble," said Fred. "The last thing we need is to lose points before term even starts."
"Do you mind?" came a cold, drawling voice from behind Fred. "You're blocking the aisle."
Fred tucked back into the doorway to reveal Draco, Crabbe and Goyle.
"Why are you losing points for before term starts, Weasley?" asked Draco nosily.
"Never you mind, Malfoy," shot Fred roughly. "You just move it along."
Draco sneered and pushed past him.
"Speaking of losing points," said Fred, lowering his voice, "you should come along and see what George and I made over the summer."
It had been on Astoria's mind to follow Malfoy, as she imagined he might know where Daphne was, but at these words she paused, intrigued.
Draco seemed to have heard just enough of this conversation to turn sour, because he shot Astoria an accusatory look when she turned to follow Fred into his compartment and shut the door firmly behind her.
George looked up when she entered and grinned. Next to him, Astoria imagined that Lee Jordan was doing the same thing, only his head was completely invisible, and she could not be entirely certain.
Seeing that she was taken aback by this optical illusion, Lee Jordan let out a roaring laugh and reached up to tug an invisible hat off of his invisible head. The moment the hat parted ways with his hair, Lee's face flickered back into sight.
"Pretty neat, right?" asked Lee, enjoying the look of recovering surprise on Astoria's face. "Its the hat. It's got an illusionment charm on it!"
"It's not just the hats either," insisted George, leaping to his feet in order to pull down his trunk. "We've got gloves and some of mum's knit sweaters all keyed up to make you vanish as well. Fred and I even tried the spell out on a pair of old footie pajamas. Of course, they didn't fit either of us anymore and we couldn't really see the use of making someone's toddler vanish."
"Bit of a bad joke," Fred conceded. "We don't want anyone confusing our products with kidnap."
Astoria agreed with this bit of wisdom and lifted up one of the sweaters George was handing her. "I can still see it."
"You've got to press the brass button we've sewed into the sleeve," explained Fred, flipping the cuff over and pointing the switch out to her. "You can't have them on all the time or else the spell wears off too quickly.
Astoria pressed the brass button, which looked as though it had once belonged on a smart sports coat, and watched as the sweater vanished.
"So, are they jokes or assassin uniforms?" she wondered.
"Jokes," said Fred, pressing the button again, causing the sweater to reappear. "You know, pop a hat on and all your friends watch your head disappear? I suppose if you had a whole outfit you could do a healthy bit of sneaking around, though. Mind, you'd have to cover your face with one of the scarves and that might get a bit awkward."
Astoria was impressed. "I think you might have two whole separate markets on your hands. Imagine if you tried this charm on anything with a hood? You could call it a temporary invisibility cloak."
"We toyed with that idea," exclaimed George, warming to her optimism, "but the spell only lasts an hour or two."
"So what?" shrugged Astoria. "As long as you tell people that when you sell them, you'll still have interested parties. Think of how much you could do with two hours of being invisible?"
"We'd have to stop using second hand fabric," muttered Fred, taking her idea seriously.
"So charge the price of a new cloak into the cost," said Astoria. "It's like a two for one deal, isn't it? Two hours of invisibility and then a brand new winter cloak! I'll buy one."
"Yeah," said George, obviously attracted to this notion. "You know, that's not a half bad idea..."
"We'd need start up money to buy the cloaks," said Fred uncomfortably, cutting his brother off.
"So, we take bets again this year," suggested Astoria with a shrug. "I'll play bookie again. Then we can use that profit to make more profit off the invisible cloaks."
Fred looked as though he was sorely tempted to kiss her. "You'd be alright with that?" he pressed gratefully.
"Of course," Astoria scoffed, sitting down. "Although, I've been thinking about how we handled our bets last time and I think there's room for improvement. We should be doing research on the teams before they play. You know, talking to the captains and stuff. We could offer more intelligent odds on the matches if we were informed."
"Marry me," said Lee in a dreamy, offhand voice.
George laughed and gave Lee a shove before turning to Astoria. "That would be great in theory, only Fred and I already play for a house team. The captains aren't going to tell us anything. They'll think we're cheating."
"Well, I don't play," said Astoria slowly. "I'm a girl and I've never shown any interest in flying. I also spend more time mingling with the other houses than most people usually do. People might talk to me. I've even got a sister in Slytherin, so I can do some snooping there. That whole House likes to break the rules when they think they can get away with it."
"You've also an admirer on the Slytherin team," added Fred slyly. "George and I heard old Miles Bletchley talking about you with his buddy Warrington on the other side of the train. What a troll!"
"Feel free to use that connection for all it's worth," added George with a chuckle, "but if you start to date the tosser, we're firing you."
The compartment door slid open again to reveal Neville again, still clutching his toad. Hermione Granger followed him in, and she looked worried.
"Still no sign of them?" Hermione asked, wringing her robes anxiously. A small girl with vivid red hair was peeking over Hermione's shoulder.
"Nope," said George. "No one's seen them. They must have missed the train."
"Don't worry, Ginny," added Fred, speaking to the small red-headed girl who was beginning to show alarming signs of wanting to cry. "They're with mum and dad. They'll get to Hogwarts all right."
0o0
By the time they had reached the great hall for the start of term feast, however, there were still no signs or Ron or Harry and even the twins began worry.
"I didn't think they'd would be so late that they would miss the sorting," whispered Fred as Professor Mcgonagall cleared the stool and hat away. "Ron wanted to see Ginny get sorted. I wish we knew what was keeping them."
As if on cue, Katie Bell hurried toward them from the Hufflepuff table wearing a repressed smirk. "Found out where your brother is," she breathed to Fred. "He's in Snape's office."
"What?" asked Fred, glancing at the staff table, noticing that it was indeed missing its potions professor. "Why?"
"I've had it from Ernie Macmillan, who heard it from McGonagall in the entrance hall. He and Harry did miss the train, only instead of waiting around for your parents, they stole a flying car and flew here."
George whooped ecstatically. "They flew the Ford Anglia here?"
"Yes," said Katie and her smirk was no longer hidden. "Apparently they crash landed right into the Whomping Willow and knocked a few limbs off. Snape found them outside and he's livid."
Lee whistled. "Epic!"
"They must have planned it, the lousy gits!" complained Fred in annoyance. "They should have told us! If George or I were driving, we never would have hit the willow!"
0o0
Ah, Belladonna. I sort of hate to admit it, but I really, really enjoy her. I'm sure in real life I wouldn't be half so taken with Belladonna (she is sort of truly villainous) but as a character, she really cracks me up.
I imagine that Belladonna and Astoria have a very interesting relationship. I believe that Belladonna truly loves her niece (despite being selfish and calculatingly ambitious) and I like the way that Belladonna serves to pull out some of the darker, more resentful, parts of Astoria's nature that she does not show very often at Hogwarts. Both women are rather similar too, although neither of them seem likely to admit it.
In any case the next chapter will introduce the 'Chamber of Secrets' and get that ball rolling. I love hearing what you think, so drop me a review!