~twelve~
It was indeed a long and arduous night for the young Malfoy. He tried to take his mind off the events of the day in the early evening by immersing himself in music, listening to newly released albums and reading the NME. But to no avail. His mind kept wandering back to wondering what might transpire at the luncheon at the manor the next day. Or worse still; picturing Hermione crying alone somewhere after he had shouted her down earlier.
When it came to bedtime, Draco found it impossible to settle, and he spent many hours tossing and turning in his comfy bed. He finally had given up in the early hours of the morning and headed back into the lounge for a cup of tea, which rapidly turned into several glasses of firewhisky.
He had eventually passed out and woke groggily at nearly eleven am, as a shaft of bright, morning sunlight sliced through the gap in his curtains and onto his face. He could hear the sounds of Loxey pottering around in the shop and there was a delicious smell of fresh coffee and warm pastries wafting up the stairs.
With a gruff moan, he staggered to his feet and stretched with a yawn, his body complaining at having slept at an awkward angle on the sofa. He grabbed his wand from the lamp table nearby and accioed a glass from the kitchen side, filling it with water using a quick aguamenti, gulping the cold liquid down greedily.
He sighed as his mind began to tease him with the remembrance of yesterday's trying events and made his way to the small bathroom to try to freshen up in preparation for the forthcoming luncheon.
A dose of hangover potion and a long, hot shower soon had Draco feeling more like himself, but he still felt tired and achy as he dressed in some ripped jeans and a polo top. Fastening the laces on his well-worn baseball boots, his immediate thought was to go to the manor earlier than necessary and then head to his old room to dress in something more appropriate. But as he moved to stand in front of the long mirror that hung on the back of the bedroom door and began fixing his hair, a germ of a thought began to develop in his mind.
What if he didn't bother changing? Why did he feel the need to continue to conform to those ridiculous pureblood expectations when that simply wasn't who he was anymore? It was lunch with his parents and his girlfriend, for crying out loud! If he couldn't relax and be himself at his own childhood home, then where could he?
He then started to wonder what Astoria would make of him dressed in such a casual way. When he thought about it some more, he realised that the majority of time that they'd spent together was out on formally arranged dates, where he had made an effort to dress up more smartly.
The first time that they'd slept together was back at her apartment that she shared with her sister in a wizarding part of London, after a dinner date at a very fancy restaurant that always had a resident pianist, where the clientele usually ended the night with a little dance.
Having Astoria pressed against him that night had certainly awakened a hint of something inside him that he hadn't felt in quite some time. Not since… well not since Hermione's kiss. He was so relieved at the sensation that he had acted on it immediately, holding Astoria tightly and kissing her passionately.
The next day he had of course dressed in his smart suit again, before heading home. She'd never actually been here, to his little flat. She'd always just persuaded him to come back home with her after their many rendezvous, rather than the other way around.
He sighed with a hint of regret when he thought of the first time he had slept with Astoria. It had been good - well it was bound to be after all those months! But he felt a spark of guilt inside when he recalled how he had still had a certain curly-haired muggleborn in the corner of his mind when he had been pressing Astoria into the mattress of her lavishly huge, four poster bed. If he was being totally honest with himself, he would have to admit that she had never been far from his mind at every sexual encounter between himself and Astoria since.
Nevertheless, he convinced himself that the lingering image of her in his mind at those times was just a force of habit rather than anything else, and was sure that given more time she would fade away, allowing him to concentrate his attention more completely on his girlfriend.
Draco headed down the stairs and into the shop, his stomach grumbling loudly at the delicious smells that greeted him.
The shop had a few customers perusing the LP's at the front of the store, and Loxey was levitating a tray of mugs and plates away to the rear of the shop to get them washed. It seemed the shop had already had a few customers call in for a bite to eat. Upon checking the till roll, Draco was pleased to see that a few music purchases had already been made, along with an order for a magically refurbished record player.
"Master Draco, sir!" came Loxey's warm greeting when he caught sight of him pouring a coffee from the jug on the little stove. "You is wanting to be leaving soon, on account of the Mistress' luncheon!"
Draco smiled at the little elf and lazily glanced at his watch.
"Nah. I've got loads of time, Loxey. Don't you worry about me."
Loxey paused and blinked with puzzlement as his large eyes ranged over Draco's appearance.
"You is certain you is not wishing for Loxey to fetch you some robes from the manor? Loxey can apparate and return with great speed…"
"No! No, don't trouble yourself, Loxey," Draco interjected. "I'm perfectly happy to stay as I am."
The elf blinked again with a now bemused expression. He then gave a little bob of his head to demonstrate his acknowledgement, before returning to his work in the shop.
Draco made a point of sticking around in the shop for as long as possible, before taking a short stroll along Diagon Alley. He wanted to pick up some flowers from the sweet little flower pedlar who could always be found with her wooden cart which was always strewn with the most colourful and fragrant blooms, on the corner opposite Gringotts. The flowers were a gift for Astoria and his mother, of course. He may have decided to make a statement with his clothing choice that day, but there were some habits and gentlemanly behaviours that he would have been loathed to shed, no matter what the circumstances.
He then took himself back to the shop, calling out a farewell to Loxey, as he made his way up the stairs and towards the floo in his flat.
As the green flames in the manor fireplace died down and he stepped through into the manor's reception room, Draco took a deep breath to steady himself.
"Relax," he told himself calmly. "You're going to get this misunderstanding all ironed out, so you can get on with building your relationship with Astoria."
He was determined to channel his thoughts towards Astoria and to push all thoughts of Hermione out of his mind, as the prospect of potentially falling once more down that rabbit hole of loss and longing for her filled him with dread. He held his head high and made his way assertively through the manor towards the drawing room off the small dining room, where his parents usually greeted their luncheon guests.
As he approached the ornate drawing room, the doors to the room were already ajar, and he caught a glimpse of the back of Astoria. She was standing near to the window, looking out over the grounds. She was wearing royal blue dress robes, consisting of a slim fitting pencil skirt and a three quarter length sleeve jacket. However, most unusually, she had styled her long brown hair into glossy, bouncy curls, something that she had never done before, and it caused Draco to stumble slightly and pause in his tracks at the similarity to Hermione.
He took a breath and shook his head at his own reaction.
"Don't be a dick, Malfoy," he chided himself, assertively entering the room unannounced and striding over to her. He grabbed her with uncharacteristic determination, turning her and pressing her back into the bay window as he urgently attempted to kiss the thought of Hermione out of his mind.
Astoria squeaked with alarm, gripping his shoulders and pushing him back off her with a sharp breath, her wide eyes showing her shock at being handled in such a way.
"Draco!" she said with complaint, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand and gesturing across the room with wide eyes. "Not here."
Draco turned slightly to see his father casually reclining in the armchair by the fire, his eyebrows raised and a most bemused smirk across his mouth.
"Good afternoon, Draco," he said with a sly tone. "Come now, let the poor girl breathe, won't you?"
Draco took a step away from Astoria, who was now smoothing out the non-existent crumples from her clothes and tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
He nodded towards his father and ushered Astoria forwards towards the seating area with open arms, so that they could all sit together and await his mother's arrival.
Astoria however remained stock still. Draco looked at her with confusion before clocking her gaze. She was eying his appearance uncomfortably with a slightly furrowed brow as she took in every detail of his clothing, from the casual jacket and up-turned up collar of his polo shirt, to the small rips on the knees of his jeans and the scuff marks on his Converse.
"Draco," she whispered. "Aren't you going to get changed?"
He looked down at his clothes before looking her dead in the face with a smile.
"Nope. This is me!" he cheerfully announced, not failing to notice the seemingly forced nature of her smile as she nodded in response. The pair then walked over to sit in the armchairs that were arranged by the fire to join his father, Draco recognising the look of pure distaste on his father's face as he too took in his son's appearance. Astoria continued to side-eye Draco every few steps, maintaining her broad smile that didn't appear to connect with the eyes.
"So Draco, what news do you bring home?" Lucius asked with fake interest as he leant forwards to send some fresh sparks into the dying fire, causing it to spark up with life once more.
"Well, father, I am pleased to say that I have something rather special and important to announce over lunch. I'd much rather share it when mother is present, if it's all the same to you."
Lucius' eyebrows quirked minutely with interest at his son's announcement and Draco could sense Astoria's head had turned sharply towards him, wondering what this big news could be.
At that moment and with a rustle of her diaphanous gown, the Malfoy matriarch entered, her eyes immediately searching the room for her son and locking on him with an adoring smile.
Draco stood up to greet her as she walked hastily forwards with her arms held out, embracing him with warm affection as soon as she was near.
"Darling!" she cooed, standing back to look at him. Draco braced himself for the look of distaste he thought he might receive at his choice of clothing, but found none. His mother seemed to completely overlook his clothes and beamed at him broadly.
"Mother," he replied, kissing her on both cheeks. "You look lovely."
"I've missed you, so much," his mother whispered, before going to link his arm.
"Oh, just a second," he said, stepping back and rummaging inside his jacket pocket. He quickly produced two perfectly miniature bunches of flowers, that he then proceeded to return to original size with a flick of his wand.
"For you," he said, presenting the beautiful posy of Lily of the Valley to his mother, and then returning to Astoria to give her her own. The posies were small and simple, hand tied with an elegant, creamy ribbon.
"Oh," came Astoria's surprised response. "How… sweet."
"I bought them from the little pedlar witch who's always outside Gringotts," Draco explained as his mother approached the fireplace. Narcissa was busy burying her face in the delicate posy and relishing its pleasant fragrance. Draco couldn't help but compare his mother's reaction to that of his girlfriend at the news of where the flowers had come from.
She seemed to visibly shrink away from the posy, lifting it carefully at something akin to arm's length and placing it delicately down on the side table. He watched as she subtly wiped her hands on the side of her skirt. Draco shook his head as his father and Astoria rose from their seats and the group made their way through to the dining room.
He told himself that it was just the events of the day before that had sown seeds of doubt in his mind about Astoria, and that he must have been imagining all these little negative nuances that he had never noticed before.
The table was set for a simple two course luncheon as the four took their seats. Narcissa instantly began to make pleasant conversation with Astoria, asking her about her work and interests, as the house elves served bowls of cold cucumber soup. Lucius maintained a bored expression throughout and Draco put in a huge amount of effort to listen attentively to Astoria's chatter about her clothes and her interior design plans for her apartment.
As the main courses were brought out, Lucius turned his attention to Draco.
"So Narcissa, Draco tells me that he has some rather special news to share with us all."
His mother's eyes widened and sparkled with interest as she turned towards her son.
"Draco? Are you keeping secrets from us?"
"Well... maybe…" he replied taking a purposefully long swig of his water and eying Astoria carefully. She was shuffling uncomfortably in her chair. Narcissa looked swiftly between Draco and Astoria, clearly trying to second guess that it was something to do with their relationship.
"Astoria? Do you have something to do with this?"
"No. Unfortunately, not," she replied. "I'm as eager to discover the news as yourself."
Draco set his glass down softly and began to regale his parents and Astoria with the news of his secret pursuit of his independent study and its successful reception at the presentation the day before. Astoria's eyes were blown wide with interest, and Draco noticed that she kept glancing with a smile towards his father, who managed to maintain a much more indifferent expression.
"So that explains why you kept coming here and hiding yourself away in the library for all those hours earlier this year!" Narcissa exclaimed with a clap of her hands. "Oh Draco! You clever, clever boy!"
Draco flushed slightly at his mother's praise, looking down at his plate.
"Yes!" Astoria cried out with a triumphant smile. "This is wonderful news Draco!"
"Indeed." Lucius agreed, taking a sip of his own drink with a wry smirk.
"Draco, we are so proud of your achievement," his mother continued to gush. "Such a selfless pursuit, to endeavour with your studies in the face of adversity in order to help all those people."
"Oh Draco. I'm so happy! What you've done is amazing!" Astoria announced, reaching out and taking hold of his hand across the table.
Draco felt a warm affection towards her as she beamed at him with. It reassured him to see how happy she was for him and restored his faith in his affection for her.
"And of course, you can pursue this line of work now, instead of relying on that music shop that you've been ploughing all your energy into all these months!" she continued, removing her hand and returning to her meal with a smile.
Draco placed his knife and fork down and stared at her, trying to read her response more fully. Narcissa, sensing her son's reaction paused, eying him with care.
"Sorry?"
"Your muggle music shop." Astoria continued, oblivious to Draco's rapidly cooling demeanour at her side. "Surely you can put that all behind you now?"
Draco chewed and swallowed his poached chicken in purposeful silence, glancing at his father who was maintaining a closed and indifferent expression as he sliced his food with precision. He knew that the conversation was heading in the direction of Astoria's feelings about his shop and business.
He could see how from what she had said just now made it seem like she wasn't keen on him running Vinyl Resting Place as his main line of business, but she hadn't actually admitted that. Theo had made out that she outright loathed the idea, and that there was some bigger plan including marriage on the horizon.
He weighed the situation up swiftly in his mind. He decided to keep his cards close to his chest in order to tease out as much information as possible. That way he could be sure to get this misunderstanding that Theo had had all set right.
"I suppose I could do that, yes." Draco suggested noncommittally. "The potion that I have patented could turn over a good profit once it hits full scale manufacture and is distributed widely, and then I could continue to pursue healership research, if I wanted to"
Astoria sighed with satisfaction and smiled at him.
"I think it sounds perfect, Draco. You are so gifted, I think you could achieve anything you want to!"
"Thank you, Astoria." he said with a small smile in return.
"Of course, our Draco has always had a wide reaching range of talents and interests, haven't you dear?" Narcissa chimed in. "I do believe that he would make a huge success of any venture he embarked upon, whether that be healership research or retail business. There was a time that I was convinced that he would end up playing Quidditch professionally, such was his passion and flare for it as a young teenager. But of course, his father was keen to guide him towards something more becoming, weren't you dear?"
Astoria giggled and took a sip of her water.
"Much as I enjoyed the sport myself in my youth, becoming a Quidditch player is simply not an appropriate career path for an heir of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, Narcissa," Lucius answered matter-of-factly. "Far too crass."
"Is that so, father?" Draco queried. "And what about running a muggle music retail business? How would that serve the Sacred Twenty-Eight?"
Lucius chewed his chicken carefully as he stared at Draco with hard eyes, considering his answer, but was beaten to a response by Miss Greengrass.
"Well that would be a big no, of course! I would think even the Quidditch idea would be preferable to that." she stated pointedly. "Oh, Draco," she continued, as though the floodgates to her true feelings had been blown open, "you must be so relieved that you now have such a lucrative and acceptable path to follow. Of course, Lucius and my father had already arranged for father to be all ready to step in and get you a foot in the door of Greengrass Estates, should you need some help in finding something more becoming. But... look! You've done it all by yourself!"
Draco closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath in through his nose. So there it was. Theo had been right all along. Astoria had just been playing along, acting as though him owning the shop didn't matter to her, when really she had just been biding her time.
"Lucius?" Narcissa hissed across the table. "Have you been meddling in Draco's affairs behind my back?"
Astoria's eyes widened at the realisation of her faux pas and she looked across at Lucius with apologetic eyes.
"My dear, Castor Greengrass and I had a discussion about the mutual benefits of Draco and Astoria's union many months ago when it was first proposed. Of course I had a vested interest in it. Draco was going down a path that I simply couldn't allow to go unchecked."
"You couldn't allow it?" Draco asked with an icy tone.
Astoria took hold of Draco's hand again in an attempt to calm the situation.
"Well look, Draco, there's no harm done now is there? Now that you've secured a future in healer research and your potion is about to take off, there's little point in us discussing the inappropriateness of your shop or the offer to work for my father's business now, is there?"
"Actually, that couldn't be further from the truth," he continued coolly, snatching his hand away from hers. "You see, I also have a second piece of exciting news to share."
Astoria's eyes widened and she glanced around the table in confusion.
"Oh?" Narcissa asked calmly. "And what might that be?"
"Well earlier this month, I made a little trip to Hogsmeade to look at a property there."
"A property?" Astoria asked. "You mean, a house?" she said with interest.
"I mean a shop."
Astoria swiftly placed down her cutlery with a clatter and gaped at Draco wide eyed.
"You mean..?"
"Vinyl Resting Place is branching out. I put in an offer there and then and had it accepted. I received news this week that everything had gone through and the keys will be owled over to me next week. So, you see, my muggle music shop is a little more than just an idea. I am committed to pursue it to its fullest."
"And your healership work?" Lucius asked with disbelief.
"Just a little sideline that worked out far better than I could have imagined. It's not something that I intend to pursue further."
Astoria sat staring from Draco to Lucius and back again and the look of horror on her face was not lost him.
"But you said… just now, you said…" she stammered, her voice getting louder and higher in pitch.
"I am quite aware of what I said, Astoria!" Draco snapped. "I said that I could pursue healership research if I wanted to. But you see, that fact of the matter is that I don't want to. I wanted to finish my independent study as it was the right thing to do, knowing that I was about to hit on something really significant that would help so many people. But that's it."
"Draco, don't be a fool." Lucius replied. "You do realise how lucrative your potion sales could be, do you not?" There will be so many horribly desperate people who will want to get their hands on it, that you could get away with pricing the potion extremely profitably. So much so, that you would have no need to pursue any wider income, through your muggle… thing."
Draco stared open-mouthed at his father's crassness. He stood up swiftly, throwing his napkin down on the table with anger. Narcissa visibly jumped at the loud scraping noise his chair made.
"You really are something else, aren't you father? Do you not realise, that most of those 'horribly desperate' people that you mentioned find themselves in need of my potion as a result of their torture and abuse during the war?! Many of them are your own fucking victims!"
Narcissa and Astoria gasped and Draco looked apologetically over at his mother.
"I'm sorry mother, but it had to be said. Father, you are out of your mind if you think for one second that I intend to make any kind of financial gain from my research or from the production of my potion. I fully intend to plough every single knut that I make when I sell the patent, back into the healership research department at St Mungo's. It's the very least I can do."
Narcissa couldn't help but give her son a small smile, her eyes twinkling with pride.
Draco then turned his attention to Astoria.
"Astoria, you know I refused to believe Theo when he told me everything that you'd said to him in the shop yesterday."
"Theo?" Astoria repeated with confusion. "You mean the shop boy?"
"Yes I mean the shop boy. You know, the one you went spilling your guts to about the little plan between you and your father and my father?"
Lucius rolled his eyes with disappointment at Astoria's slip up.
"You see, he's not just some shop boy who you thought you were doing a favour by recommending he look for another job. That was Theodore Nott. My best friend? Name ring a bell?"
Astoria's eyes widened with horror as she indeed recognised the name.
"I… I…" she stammered.
"He told me everything, and you know what? I argued with him! I stuck up for you and told him how supportive you'd been! I assured him that he'd misunderstood you. God's Astoria, I really thought our relationship was going somewhere. If only you knew what I've forfeited …" he trailed off as he once again remembered the incident with Hermione. He took a deep, calming breath and turned to his mother.
"Mother, thank you for the invitation to the luncheon. I'm sorry it turned out this way. Goodbye, Astoria," he announced as he turned on his heel and stormed out of the dining room with fierce determination to escape. Taking the stairs two at a time, he instinctively made his way to his old room to seek solace from the afternoon's revelations.