When Draco entered the kitchen he found it in its usual messy whirlwind except that none of the groceries Astoria had purchased that day had actually been cooked.
When Sam had flooed his office, Draco had immediately left his business to come home and clean up Sam's mess. He owned a small broom company operating out of Diagon Alley, following his love of quidditch into business instead of sitting around and currying favour with the Magical Elite like his aristocratic forefathers.
Astoria sitting at the kitchen benchtop her head in her hands, more upset than he'd seen her in a very long time. Since before Sam was born, at least.
He sat next to her and put his arm on her shoulder, "Astoria, Sam told me what happened… what he said. I gave him a right scolding, don't you worry."
Astoria looked up, her face stained with tears and sobbed softly.
.
"I just hadn't thought of him in so long Draco, I feel so guilty... How could I not have thought of him? How does Sam know about him? And how could he have thought I would marry you over pureblood puritanism! Doesn't he know what we went through? The horror and the evil, it still makes me sick."
She gently leaned her head onto Draco's shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist. He leaned in and hugged her, kissing her forehead gently.
"He's ignorant Astoria and we have done that to him, but he's smarter than we give him credit for. He must have heard about Yatin at some point and put, what he thought was two and two together. In fact I'm surprised he hasn't brought it up before."
"I just can't believe he would accuse us getting married to satisfy our pureblood families, it's beyond ridiculous Draco, how could he. We've always made it a point not to indoctrinate him with that garbage."
Draco ran his fingers through Astoria's hair, a habit he'd had since they began dating, he loved the feel of it and it comforted Astoria.
.
"He must have only heard that you didn't marry Yatin, not why."
"I was 15, I couldn't marry anyone."
"I know," he paused, "But you would have. I don't mind saying it dear. I know you loved him first and most, I know how much it hurt you to lose him."
"He was the reason everything changed. I didn't fully understand it until the moment I heard his name on Potterwatch…"
"Of course. And how could I forget that you flatly refused me because I was a pureblood?" Draco chuckled.
"I didn't know you were like me... truly changed by the war."
"I'm glad I convinced you."
They shared a smile, but Astoria's quickly faded.
"I was so upset, Sam's not going to understand and it all came to a head because of that Rose Weasley. Have you heard about the arrangement they've come up with?"
"I can't say I have and I can't say I want to, if this is the result."
"Draco, they're in an open relationship - can you imagine?"
"Well Rose Weasley aside, you have to tell him the truth. Once and for all. Otherwise this will only end poorly."
Astoria sighed and turned her face into Draco's chest
After Sam informed his father that Astoria had locked him out of the kitchen and might need him, he flooed over to Al's house to try and figure out just exactly what had happened.
As he landed in the grate of Al's Bristol flat, he heard a yell and saw Al running back towards his room.
"Bloody give me some notice next time you drop by unannounced Sam, I'm in my bloomin' knickers!"
Sam snorted with laughter, "Well it wouldn't be unannounced if I told you would it," he called out after Al.
"Exactly!" He heard Al's muffled reply through the door of his bedroom.
.
Al finally walked back into the living room, fully clothed thankfully, and planted himself back on the couch.
"So what's going on that's so urgent you had to floo yourself directly into my house without telling me? If it's about Rose I cannot handle any more drama."
Sam grinned, "No, this time it's about my mother."
"Ughhhh" Al groaned as loudly as he could, "Well come into the kitchen then and I'll make us some tea."
As they traipsed down the hallway to Al's kitchen, Sam wondered if maybe Rose wasn't the person for this conversation. She was definitely much better at researching things… and he needed to do some digging.
"Actually Al, do you mind if I use your floo to see if Rose is around?"
"Well you didn't ask to literally arrive in it, so why would you need permission to use it to pop your head into Rose's?"
"You're right." Sam immediately turned back and ignored Al's dripping sarcasm as he called curse words down the hallway.
.
Popping his head into the grate and throwing down some floo powder, Sam said loudly "45 Butt Close, Puddletown". He tried not to snort in any floo powder from laughter (it doesn't end well) but it was incredibly hard not to, when saying Rose's address.
Butt Close? What kind of street name is Butt Close!
When his head arrived in Rose's living room he called out quickly, "Is anybody in at 45 Butt Close? Butt Close, Butt Close, anybody home?"
The sound of something falling heavily to the ground and a door opening quickly followed.
"I'm in, and Sam will you shut up?"
"Only if you come over to Al's for some tea? I just had a bit of a fight with my Mum and could use your perspective."
Sam could hear her footsteps get closer and closer to the living room, "Was it about us? Oh Merlin don't answer that, we'll talk about it when I get over there. I've got some time, I'm not working till later. Now get your head out of my fireplace!"
.
Sam pulled his head back, reeling from the trip and got up from his hands and knees to wait for Rose's arrival. When the green flames licked through the fireplace and Rose stepped out, she came straight over to him and hugged him.
"I'm sorry you had a fight with your Mum, what happened?"
Al's voice interrupted any reply Sam might have had, "Guys, the tea's brewed and I'm ready to give you all the worldly advice you might need!" Al hollered from the kitchen.
.
When they were all finally settled around their respective cups of tea, Sam enlightened them about the fight he and his mother had had. Sam avoided going into detail about exactly what she had said about Rose, he knew it would hurt her.
In any case, what he was most confused about was when he had mentioned her romantic connection with a muggle-born wizard.
Al voiced his memories of it floating around Hogwarts, "Yeah I vaguely remember hearing about this back at school, but it was more the rumour mill than actual fact. People probably just wanted to get a rise out of you. Why would you bring that up?"
"Because she was being a hypocrite," Sam tried to justify, "She was telling me that I was running from the truth and that I had to face what would end up hurting me, but if she broke up with a muggle-born to marry my Dad, she did the exact same thing. She didn't want to disappoint her parents so she did what they wanted."
"Except obviously that's not what happened," Rose chimed in.
Sam averted his eyes awkwardly in embarrassment, "I'll admit, I don't know the full story, because she got really upset and I feel awful about it. My father being a pure-blood wuld have been a perk for both their parents but there must be something more to her high school relationship other than what we heard."
.
"I don't even remember hearing this story - what did you hear?" Rose asked.
Sam shrugged his shoulders, "Just some garbage about how she dumped a muggle-born for my father to keep up 'pureblood' traditions. It was just some offhand comment someone made at school, probably as part of James' gaggle. I just ignored it at the time, people said way worse things to me back then anyway."
"Well I could look into it for you," Rose began, then she paused, "But to be honest I kind of think the best thing to do would be to apologise and talk to your Mum. It was a long time ago and something like who your Mum dated in high school is definitely not going to be in the history books-"
"I know, I know, not everybody's parents were part of one of the biggest love stories of the war," Sam retorted, trying to make light of the situation, but truly just trying to make himself feel better… it wasn't working.
.
"Sam, we don't even know this guys name," Al shrugged, "there's not much to do except ask her what really happened."
Sam sighed, "All of that is a distraction from what we were actually fighting about anyway, which is that she doesn't think Rose and I are going to work out. Some of the things she said were really fucking hurtful."
Rose looked down into her tea cup, wondering if its dregs and leaves would reveal anything as to how they should go about all this - but alas like her mother, she had miserably failed and hated Divination.
"This is all my fault, I put you in this position. The only reason she knows about any of this is because she caught me and Aaliyah kissing-"
"Rose don't," Sam reached his hand over to grab hers. "It's not your fault. She just doesn't understand... And it's none of her business what I do with my romantic life, so she'll just have to deal with it."
"Besides, Sam was bound to disappoint his family eventually, better sooner rather than later," Al grinned mischievously.
Pointing his finger aggressively Sam tried not to smile, "You have and will always be a snot-rag."
They all laughed and slipped into more casual conversation; what they were each getting up that weekend or how things were going at work. Nothing was much resolved, but they were there for each other, and that was what mattered in that moment.