AN: Written for the semi finals for QL with the prompt, overwrite, 2,015 words and "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star." – Friedrich Nietzsch.

I'm actually surprised I got the word count to be honest and is probably one of the longest things I've written. Anyway, this is the first time in a long time I've written Draco so I hope I did him justice.

Word count: 2,063

New Beginnings

This was where he should be. Even if there was that nagging voice inside his head that told him he shouldn't be. He wanted to come and he had just as much right as anyone else.

He saw the article in the Daily Prophet about the war memorial which had prompted him to actually go to it. He didn't know why he chose to come to the memorial – as if anyone would want him there. But still he came. Though he stood mostly towards the back. Of course, it still didn't stop most of the whispers he heard.

"You see him? That's the Malfoy boy, avoid him. Don't go near him. Don't even look at him."

"Don't trust the Malfoys – any of them. They're bad news – especially that one."

He'd made some bad choices in his life. But if he was being honest – he wouldn't do any of them differently. He's not proud of those decisions – but they kept his family safe and that was more important to him than trying to do what was right in other people's eyes. They don't know what it was like, constantly being watched by Voldemort. Watching as death eaters came and went as freely as they chose from his house, mocking and judging him and his family.

He almost left until he saw a familiar face in the crowd. He barely knew her but they're not strangers. He knew her from Hogwarts; saw her around the common room and the library a few times. She was Daphne's younger sister.

"What brings you here?" she asked, walking towards him.

"At the time it seemed like a good idea," he gestured around him, at the other wizards and witches milling about. "Now, I'm not so sure."

"Forget about them," Astoria told him.

"Easier for you to say," Draco countered. "It's not you they're whispering about."

"Since when do you care what others say about you?" she questioned.

He didn't know how to answer that question. He didn't use to care what people said about him and couldn't exactly pinpoint when that changed. One minute, his life was fine. The next, his family was looked down upon and even mocked by the death eaters.

One minute, his life was fine and in the next, it was turned upside down.

"You have to show them you're not the person they think you are," Astoria stated, pulling him from his thoughts. "It's going to take a lot of work. But I don't peg you as the type to run from a challenge."

Draco glanced up at her. "I'm not."

Maybe she was right. He wanted to prove that he was more than just the Malfoy name. That he was more than the rumors, more than what his actions this past year said he was. Wasn't that why he chose to show up at this memorial in the first place? The start of something new?

"You've already taken the first step; you just have to continue with it."

It was refreshing to actually have a conversation with another person without them judging him or cowering in fear. Astoria did neither. There was no pity in her eyes, just concern which he didn't understand.

"You hardly know me, why do you care so much?" he asked her.

"I've heard rumors at Hogwarts," Astoria admitted. "Most of them were terrible. Some of which I didn't believe. But even if they were true, I know you're more than that."

He titled his head. "But—"he started, but she cut him off.

"I don't care about your past. I only care about the man you can be now."

He recognized the familiar scrawl that stared up at him from the envelope he held in his hand. He scoffed as he dropped the letter onto the table in front of him. He'd received many letters from Pansy and others he'd gone to school with over the past few weeks – months even, but he hadn't responded to any of them.

He didn't want to be tied to the person he was in Hogwarts and that involved cutting ties with all of his older friends. If he wanted a new life, this is what he had to do.

He picked up the envelope once more and walked across the room to the fireplace, tossing it into the blaze. Along with all the other ones.

"Are you alright?"

He startled a bit before realizing who it was. He glanced around to see Astoria leaning against the doorframe.

"Fine…just another letter."

"And I take it you've burned it along with the rest of them?" Astoria said. "You're not even going to read them?"

Draco shook his head. "The past is in the past for a reason…The person I was back in Hogwarts, who I was when I was friends with them isn't who I want to be now going forward."

Astoria pushed away from the doorframe and watched further into the room. She smiled. "I'm glad to hear that then."

"You seem to have way too much faith in me," Draco admitted.

She shrugged. "I just tell it like it is…you've done nothing but show how much you want to change and you're continuing to want to turn your life around."

Draco sighed and walked over to take a seat on the couch. "You're the reason for me becoming a better person," he told her. "I don't think I'd be able to stick to this without you."

Well, I'm glad," she replied, smiling, settling down next to him.

"Draco."

He turned his head in the direction of the voice to see Astoria standing in the doorway. He forced a smile, but he also knew that she can see right through it. She always did.

"Since when are you the one to hide away?" she questioned.

He ran a hand through his hair. "This family dinner was a disaster."

Astoria smiled and walked further into the room. "I don't know. I found it kind of hilarious."

Draco had invited his parents over for dinner to share the news of his engagement. His parents hadn't taken the news that he and Astoria were engaged very well. Under any other circumstances his parents wouldn't have made a scene, but his father was fine to voice their distaste of the marriage.

"My father probably wanted me to marry Pansy," Draco said. "Or that's what he kept saying all throughout my sixth and seventh year."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it, dear," Astoria said coming to stand behind him. "I thought you said you were done trying to please your father?"

Draco nodded. "Honestly, I'm not sure what I bother anymore."

"Draco, I need to talk to you," Astoria said, walking through their bedroom door.

He turned his head to glance at her. "Is something wrong?"

Astoria shook her head. "No, no, it's nothing like that." She walked further into the room and took a seat on the edge of the bed.

Draco turned around from where he was looking at the window to face his wife. "What is it?"

"I'm pregnant."

He couldn't keep the smile off his face. "Our child isn't going to be raised the same way we were."

"So we agree on that?" Astoria asked.

Draco nodded. From this moment, he'd vowed that he'd raise his child differently than how he was raised. He wasn't going to force the beliefs he was raised with onto his child.

He and Astoria decided to invite his mother and father over for a family dinner to tell them the good news. It had started out nice but hadn't exactly stayed that way.

"Our child is not going to be raised like we were," Astoria said, firmly after his father had gone on about the perfect heir. "I'm not going to shove all these stupid, pathetic views down his or her throat."

He knew that as soon as his father heard that, he wasn't going to agree. But Draco didn't care. He wanted a better life for his child, and he would make damn sure that happened. He didn't want his son growing up blinded by prejudices.

"Lucius let it go," his mother said as his father turned on his heel and left. Narcissa quickly followed after him after sharing an apology with Draco and Astoria.

"Well I can't say I'm surprised," Astoria said. She glanced over at Draco and smiled.

Draco wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry about my father."

"What said I was?" Astoria questioned. "I don't give a damn how much of a child he acts. It's not going to change my mind of how I want to raise my child."

There was a moment of silence between the two of them before Astoria spoke again. "I guess this means family dinners will be awkward and tense from now on."

Draco raised his eyebrow. "You still want to have family dinners after that?"

"I'm sure your mother will insist," Astoria said, glancing over at him. "And she's a nice woman, even if her husband can act like a child at times."

It was his son's first year at Hogwarts and he was walking towards Kings Cross station for the first time in nineteen years. It felt weird to be heading towards Platform nine and three quarters through the crowds of muggles milling about for the first time since he was seventeen.

Astoria and Scorpius ran through the brick wall and Draco quickly followed them. Seeing the Hogwarts Express again brought back both good and unwanted memories. He could remember how excited he'd been at eleven when he boarded the train for the first time and how dreadful it had been when he had boarded the train for the last time.

But mostly he avoided memoires of his last two years at Hogwarts. He didn't want that for Scorpius – he wanted his son to look back on his Hogwarts years and have them bring a smile to his face.

His son's voice pulled him from his thoughts. "But what if I'm not in Slytherin?"

Draco knelt down in front of his son and placed both hands on his shoulders. "It doesn't matter, whatever house you end up in, it won't change a thing."

"We'll still be proud of you no matter what house you're going to be in," Astoria said from behind Draco.

"Won't grandfather be upset?"

"Don't you worry what my father has to say about it," Draco told him. "You don't have to please him and you sure don't have to earn his respect."

Scorpius smiled. "Okay."

Draco squeezed his shoulders. "We'll still love you even if you're not in Slytherin."

Besides, it'd be a good change for a Malfoy to not be in Slytherin, Draco thought as he straighten up and stood in front of his son.

That was when he saw a familiar group of people out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see none other than Potter, Weasley and Granger. He'd say he was surprised that Granger and Weasley ended up married but then he'd be lying. He saw that coming for a while now.

His gaze met Potter's and the two of them shared a curt nod before Draco turned away.

He turned back towards Scorpius. "See them?" he asked, nodding towards the Potter's and the Weasley's.

Scorpius took a quick look and nodded.

"Be nice to them; show them that you're not like the stereotypes you've heard," Draco said. "Make better choices at school than I did."

Scorpius nodded again.

Draco sighed. He knew he did his son a favor – it would better to be friends or at least be civil with the Weasley clan, than to be an enemy. Hopefully his son's life can be easier than his was.

He shared a glance with Astoria. All of this is because of her. Draco wanting to turn his life around was because of her. She's the one who pushed him to make a difference even when he felt like giving him. She gave him assurance when he felt lost.

She changed his life for the better and he couldn't image what his life would have been like without him.

Over the past few years, he'd learn something he wouldn't soon forget. Things can change in a blink of an eye – sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better.