The nice thing about birthdays is that you get to set the schedule.

That was the way it worked in my family, anyway. It meant that I could sleep in and take a long shower and get ready slowly without being 'late' - in fact, when I pushed open the door separating my flat from the rest of my brother's house, my niece and nephew immediately threw themselves at me with enough enthusiasm that all three of us almost tumbled down the stairs. With the two of them trying to talk over each other, it was a little difficult to distinguish what they were saying, but from what I could gather, they were very proud of helping my brother Brendon and his wife Addison with my cake, which was very nearly ready.

"Alec, Jo," my sister-in-law called. "Stop trying to knock your aunt down the stairs and let her in."

"But Mum -"

I slid inside and pushed the door shut behind me. "Did I hear you say you'd been helping?" I asked, kneeling down. "What's in my cake?"

That set them both off again.

"Vanilla and chocolate -"

"Auntie Tori I helped measure the sugar -"

"And I helped with the mixing -"

"And -"

I looked over at my brother and Addison. "Hey, guys."

Addison had flour on her nose. "Happy birthday, Astoria," she said, drawing me into a hug. "They were very insistent about making you a cake," she said, lowering her voice. "There's one from the bakery down the block if it turns out poorly, though."

I giggled. "I'm sure it's great. Thanks."

When we pulled apart, I crossed the kitchen to where my brother was leaning against the fridge. He looked like he was barely holding back a laugh, and from close up, I could see that he had flour on his temple - it was just less obvious on his much paler skin. "Jo and Alec are almost as excited as they are for their birthdays. Why don't they care about ours anywhere near as much as this?" He hugged me. "Happy birthday, at any rate."

After that, it was a whirlwind kind of day - my three year old niece and seven year old nephew had boundless energy, and my brother's family was definitely who I wanted to spend the day with. The four of them had been a safehouse that I don't think I'd believed existed in that first year after the war. That didn't make me okay, of course - I wasn't - but I felt like I was getting better, which was really what mattered.

Just before nine, Addison finally corralled Alec and Jo into heading upstairs for met. "I probably won't be back down," she said as they clambered up the stairs. "I hope you had a nice day."

I hugged her again. "I did. Thanks."

As she disappeared upstairs, my brother collapsed into one of their armchairs and pointed his wand in the vague direction of the kitchen. "Where the fuck do they get their energy?" he asked as two bottles floated into the room.

I grabbed one and took a very long swig. "I have no idea." I studied him for a moment. "Thanks," I told him. "I had a really good day."

He grinned and took a much more restrained sip. "I'm glad. Do you have any plans for this evening?"

I felt my face start to get warm. "I - yeah. Kind of. I think I might be getting a drink with Draco Malfoy." My brother's eyebrows shot up. "What?" I asked, feeling a little self-conscious. Brendon had been working with Draco Malfoy to track down dark wizards since I'd still been in school - it was the only reason I started talking to him in the first place - but I was still a little anxious about whether Brendon would judge me for my choice in acquaintances. Coworkers were coworkers. Socializing with a former Death Eater was a very different matter.

Brendon shook his head. One corner of his mouth kept twitching upward, which made me feel a little better. Even if he was trying not to laugh, laughing wasn't judging, at least not in a bad way. "Nothing."

"No, seriously, what?"

He was still trying to hold back a smile. "He's recovered quickly. He sent me a message earlier today to say that he was under the weather and wanted to reschedule our meeting tomorrow."

I felt my face start to get hot. "Well, I didn't ask him to do that."

"I'm sure you didn't." There wasn't any sarcasm in his voice, which somehow didn't help at all.

"I didn't even tell him it was my birthday. He said you mentioned it and asked if I wanted to do something in the morning or after I was done with family stuff, it's not my fault he's -"

"Astoria." I stopped talking. "Draco Malfoy is a grown man who is capable of making his own decisions. If he thinks hanging out with his friend on her birthday is worth faking sick for, that's on him. I don't particularly care, anyway - it'll just be fun to needle him about it next time he does something to annoy me."

His use of the word 'friend' made me wince, even though it was probably more accurate than 'acquaintances' at this point. Acquaintances didn't give each other birthday presents or go to the effort to charm pieces of paper so they could talk to you whenever you wanted.

Accuracy was not my first priority, though.

"I didn't ask him," I said. "He asked."

My brother shrugged. "Astoria, if you want to get drinks with Draco Malfoy, get drinks with Draco Malfoy. If he asks you to come over, though, he's not being an ass - I told him to lay low when I owled him back today. We've heard about a couple of threats that I'm not sure are just talk."

Sure enough, when I retreated back to my flat half an hour, I found a note waiting on the piece of parchment Draco had given me.

Astoria, I'm really sorry to do this, but do you have any other bars you like? I want to avoid anywhere I've been to recently - long story. It's not a big deal if you don't, though, we can go there if you prefer.

I grabbed my quill off the table and scribbled back,

Are you sure it's not a big deal? It sounded like it was when my brother mentioned it.

It took another minute or two for words to appear.

Oh. I didn't think he'd bring it up.

There was another pause.

Okay, I guess it's kind of a big deal. But just tell me where. I can make it work.

I put my quill on the paper.

Well, if it's kind of a big deal, why don't I just come over?

His reply was almost immediate, and his handwriting was messier than it usually was.

Well, it's your birthday, though. When I said we could do something, sitting here isn't really what I had in mind.

I sighed.

Okay. I'm just going to come over, though.

I folded the piece of paper, slid it away from me, and ignored the faint glow that indicated that he'd sent another message.

He yanked open his door when I knocked on it about fifteen minutes later, looking more than a little annoyed. "Did you read anything I wrote after you said you were coming over?"

"Nope." He stepped back to let me inside and followed me down the hallway to his living room. "What was it?"

He leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms. "A lot of stuff about it being fine and to just tell me where you wanted to go." He wasn't even bothering to hide his irritation, which seemed entirely overblown - it would have been clear that he wasn't changing our plans of his own volition even if my brother hadn't said anything. His flat was only a little cooler than the air outside, presumably to accommodate the as-lightweight-as-possible-without-showing-his-dark-mark long-sleeved shirt he had on, and he'd both gotten a haircut and shaved since I'd seen him a few days before.

Not that I would have minded making this our plan in the first place. We'd had drinks often enough here before - this was far from the first time that he'd been told to "lie low" since we'd started getting drinks together earlier in the year, and I couldn't imagine I'd ever given any indication that it bothered me, since it didn't. The idea that blood purists hated the work he was doing with my brother and the Aurors enough to try to kill him - and that he'd changed enough to keep doing it anyway - made me feel much more comfortable with our acquaintanceship.

I kicked my shoes off as he said, "Astoria, this is really not what I meant when I said we could do something for your birthday."

"This is fine." I curled up on one end of his couch. I liked his couch. It was very soft. "Get me a drink, though."

He sighed and disappeared down the hallway. When he returned with a bottle and a bottle opener, he didn't immediately hand them over. "Are you sure? We can figure something out - I'm sorry this bullshit came up."

"Yes." I reached my hand out. "For fuck's sake, we've had drinks here before loads of times. I'd rather you not get murdered in front of me."

He finally handed them over and collapsed onto the other side of the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table. "And to think, I never knew you cared."

"Well, it's just that it would be inconvenient for me to be a witness to a murder. Not how I want to spend my birthday at all."

"Of course." He picked his bottle up from the table and clinked it against mine. "Well, then, happy birthday, Astoria. Such as it is. What'd you all end up doing today?"

We finished our drinks at about the same time, and he got to his feet. "Do you want another?" I hesitated. "It's fine if you don't - I'm just offering."

"No - I actually do, it's just that I'd already had one before I came over and I can't walk home like I usually do. I don't want to risk splinching myself or anything." I handed over my empty bottle.

"I was planning on getting you home, if you wanted - it's fine if you'd prefer not, just offering it as -"

I cut him off. "Then yes, if you don't mind."

"Nah. It's your birthday."

When I stretched, I noticed a small red box near the base of his table lamp. "What's that?" I asked when he came back into the room.

He followed my gaze. "Nothing," he said. His voice was calm, but his cheeks were starting to flush. When I narrowed my eyes at him, he sighed. "I couldn't find the book I'd gotten you, and I felt weird meeting you for your birthday without having something to give you, so I picked something else up."

"You gave the book to me on Thursday."

"Yeah, I realized that after I'd gotten the something else. I was debating whether I should just give it to you anyway or - I dunno, hang onto it for Christmas or something, I guess." His delivery was relaxed and the explanation sounded fairly reasonable. I still wasn't entirely sure that I believed him, though, especially since the most logical thing to do if he'd actually forgotten was probably just to buy another copy of the book rather than get something completely different. "I - do you want it? I was a little worried that it might make you feel weird or like I was going overboard, but I really did just forget."

I would give him this: he was very good at delivering what I was fairly certain was a lie in a very calm way. I wasn't sure whether or not I was comfortable with how steady his tone was, though the tinge of red on his cheeks was definitely working against him. And, in fairness, blushing was warranted here - he had gone completely overboard, especially given that he'd only heard about my birthday because my brother had mentioned it offhand when they'd been chatting about their weekend plans. He'd have gone completely overboard even if his acknowledgment of my birthday had ended on Thursday, and it hadn't.

None of which, of course, did anything to dispel the suspicion I'd been harboring for the past few days that he wanted very badly to kiss me. It suddenly occurred to me that part of his insistence that we go somewhere might have had something to do with not being comfortable trying to kiss me here, in his space. I wasn't positive that he had had any plans to kiss me in the first place, of course, but if he had, they'd probably gone out the window as soon as I'd showed up at his flat.

I wasn't sure whether that made me feel disappointed or relieved. On one hand, I had come to genuinely like him, and sometimes his smile gave me butterflies in my stomach. On the other hand, the issue with kissing anyone was that kissing eventually led to more than kissing. I was fine with that in theory, but in practice, the idea of taking my clothes off made me feel incredibly uncomfortable.

I didn't want anyone to see the scars on my arms, and I definitely didn't want anyone to see the fresh cuts on them.

But I left all of that unsaid and just shrugged. "Sure, if you don't mind doing way too much to celebrate my birthday."

If I hadn't been watching for the sigh of relief, I probably wouldn't have noticed it. "I mean, I can't really give it to anyone else, and who knows - by Christmas you might be pissed off at me, and then I'll be stuck with it." That made me laugh. When I reached for it, though, he said, "No - just wait until you get home. It's not a big deal."

He'd used that exact phrase when he'd given me the book and the parchment on Thursday, which was starting to make me feel like it was, in fact, a big deal.

"Okay. Thanks, though."

He shrugged. He did not say "it's not a big deal" again, though - maybe he'd realized he'd overused the phrase.

I was finishing my second bottle when I glanced at the clock. "Should I get going soon? I know that I don't have work tomorrow, but you do."

"Nah, it's fine. I'd decided to take tomorrow off awhile ago - September and October can tend to be pretty busy, so I wanted to take a little time to relax before that. That's part of why I said it was fine if we were out late."

It was certainly true that my brother tended to be busier in the fall, but either Draco Malfoy's definition of "awhile" bore no resemblance to most people's definitions of the word or he was lying to me. Lying seemed more likely, though I didn't call him on it - I'd asked him to see what he'd say, not challenge him on his answer.

"Oh. That's convenient."

Now his cheeks were reddening a little again, though I'm not sure I would have noticed if I hadn't been paying attention. "Yeah, the timing worked out really well. So, you'd said you liked the book? How far have you gotten in it?"

The next time I looked at the clock, it was almost 2am. He'd long since switched to water, and I was definitely far too drunk to Apparate. "I should get going," I said, trying to cover my yawn.

He followed my eyes and swore. "I'm glad I have tomorrow off. Otherwise I'd be really tempted to call out."

I giggled and nudged him with my foot. He jumped a little. "I feel like that goes better when the person you're rescheduling on doesn't know that you're doing it because you were out getting drunk with a girl."

"In drinking, technically," he said. "And I'm not drunk."

"Sorry - doesn't know that you were in your flat getting a girl very drunk."

He rolled his eyes. "Congratulations - I think that's the worst way you could possibly put what's happening here." He brushed his fingers against my foot, and I felt a spark pass between us. "Let me up - I'm going to get you some water before we go."

When I'd finished drinking the water, I shoved the glass at him. "Happy?"

"Exceedingly." He held his hand out to help me up. When I took it, I felt another spark jump between us. At this point, I was too drunk to be sure of whether he reacted, too, though I thought he did.

To my slight surprise, he walked me all the way down to my door after we'd Apparated. "I'm sorry again," he said. There were already a few small drops of sweat gathering at his hairline in the warm summer air. "'Come drink with me in my flat for your birthday' really wasn't what I meant on Thursday."

I shrugged and threw my arms around him. "It was fun," I said into his shoulder. He was slow to return the hug, but when he did, it was not perfunctory. "Thanks for having me. And for Apparating me home."

"Sure," he said as we pulled apart. "No problem. Er - happy birthday. Again. Don't forget to drink more water before you go to sleep."

After I'd closed the door behind me, I tore the red paper off the small box. When I opened it, I found a pair of very pretty golden griffin earrings - they were mostly stationary, but I could see one twitching its tail, and the other one let out a yawn. When it opened its eyes, I could see a tiny red gem inside. The note underneath them read, "You keep joking about how you're half-Gryffindor half-Ravenclaw, so I got you a half-lion half-eagle. Happy birthday."

I heard a faint crack before I could decide whether I should go back out to thank him.

"Well, fuck," I said to the empty room. I had no idea how much he'd spent on these, but they had to have been expensive; it took real skill to get details as minute as the ones I could see even in the dim light. It didn't feel like there were strings attached to it - for someone who'd apparently gone into at least one fairly high-end jewelery store to look for something he thought I'd like, he'd seemed to want to talk about it at little as possible.

I was entirely too drunk to think about things like this in anything approaching a rational way, so I just trudged over the the parchment, ignored the five or six messages telling me not to worry about it and that he'd meet me at the bar we usually got drinks at, and scribbled, Thanks - the earrings are really pretty. Surprised you could bear the shame of buying anything with a lion on it - you've really grown as a person.

He responded a few minutes later, which surprised me a little - I'd wondered whether he'd ignore it. Half lion. Are you trying to destroy my reputation? Glad you like them, though. And drink some water, seriously - if you don't think you need it, remember that you hugged me and didn't call me a Death Eater once. Night.

I sighed and sat back, scrutinizing the earrings again. "What the fuck," I muttered.

Then I put them in my ears.

A/N: so this is a new one after a long time of not writing one. I was inspired by having other shit to do and by combining them into one collection rather than separate one-shots. draco is very crafty, much subtle, salazar slytherin is 10/10 rolling in his grave thinking "damnit we taught you to be cunning what's wrong with you"

reviews are always super appreciated. thanks for reading!