It was weeks before Astoria would see Draco again. She was honestly nervous about seeing him, and despite the fact that she had only seen him in her building the one time he knocked on her door, she seemed to think she'd run into him every time she was in the corridors. There was still just over a year before the prophecy was supposed to come true, but Astoria had yet to come across a terrible prophecy about someone she knew and she didn't know she would react. Astoria wasn't exactly a good liar: it was one of the reasons people occasionally described her as 'mean.' She knew she was rubbish at lying, so she never usually bothered doing so. She usually just said what was on her mind. Then again, 'by the way, I'm an Unspeakable at the Ministry of Magic and I was told of a prophecy that foretold your death,' wasn't something that really slipped off the tongue. Besides, she knew she would probably be worse than fired if she did such a thing.

November brought a rather early snow. Some of the leaves were still on the trees when the flakes came falling from the grey sky. Astoria was bundled in her jacket and scarf. Unlike most people she knew, she actually didn't mind winter. She liked the fashion. Besides, who liked to sweat, really? Unfortunately, she was so pre-occupied with looking at her surroundings that she failed to notice the blonde man approach her until he was only a few feet away. When Astoria did notice, she jumped, almost as if her mind was playing tricks on her. The Ministry didn't receive any further prophecies regarding Draco, so she still only had the small amount of information to work on.

"Hullo," she said in a distracted voice. She didn't slow down, however. She kept walking, her heels making little pin-prick marks in the soft layer of snow that was beginning to blanket the ground. The snow would no doubt melt by the next day.

"Where are you headed?" he asked as he joined her without asking.

"Just to the park," she answered. She didn't want to keep walking with him, and in fact couldn't bring herself to look at him. As horrible as it sounded, she didn't want to maintain any sort of friendship with him – she knew doing so would only be complicated. She didn't want complicated. She wanted boring.

"The park?" he repeated. Even without looking at him, Astoria knew he raised his eyebrows.

"Is there any particular reason you're so interested?" she demanded, harsher than she intended. She stopped walking and turned to him, finally facing him. She looked into his face irritably.

"Well since I ran into you, I was going to ask if you wanted to go for a drink," he stated, almost as if they had any sort of conversation before that wasn't forced or uncomfortable.

"Why would I do that?"

"Make up for letting me stay at your place, of course."

Draco didn't know why he was asking her for a drink. He knew Pansy was waiting for him to come home. From the time, she was probably keeping something warm in the oven. She didn't know when he got off work, though, considering how frequently it changed. He had noticed Astoria from a distance and he had just gone to her.

Astoria opened her mouth, and for a moment he thought she was going to accept. Instead, she closed it again and then shook her head as she stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets.

"Sorry, I'm really busy," she murmured. She turned to walk away, but then looked back at him and added, "Maybe some other time."

The tone of her voice didn't sound promising.

"Don't say I never offered," he replied, although in more of a way like he would never offer again.

She half-smiled at him and then continued on her way. The snow was just beginning to end as she rounded the bend, leaving Draco standing there not sure of why he was still looking in her direction. He shook his head and continued the short journey home. Sure enough, when he walked through the door of his flat, the first thing that greeted him was the smell of food. It was always nice to come home to food. He could, of course, afford to eat out every night, but why bother when his girlfriend would do it? Besides, she knew his favourite foods, and didn't have to deal with waiters.

"Hungry?" Pansy asked. Before he even answered, she flicked her wand and the food came out of the oven and onto the stove.

By the time Draco took his coat off and sat at the table, Pansy placed a plate of food in front of him and sat across from him and smiled adoringly. He dug into the food and ate in almost silence. When he was close to done was when Pansy finally spoke.

"I ran into that Greengrass girl today," she said casually.

"Yeah?" he replied in a disinterested tone.

"She seemed to know who I was."

"You were in school together, Pansy. We were in classes with her sister," Draco explained. He watched Pansy's moves carefully as she took his plate away and into the kitchen. "Besides, she lives nearby. She's probably seen you loads of times."

"This is the first time she ever said 'hi' to me though," Pansy continued. Her voice almost sounded like she was pleading for him to agree with her on something, and he wasn't sure what. Instead of taking a risk on saying something, he merely shrugged.

"Did you say something about me?" she asked.

Draco could hardly believe it – Pansy actually seemed jealous for once. The reason why was beyond him. He shook his head, wanting to get off the subject. Talking about Astoria to Pansy seemed… strange. Astoria was such a minor thing in his life.

"Why are we having this conversation?" he challenged.

Yet again, Pansy had another internal struggle that Draco could almost see. Eventually, she just exhaled.

"Oh, it's nothing."

"When do you head back to work?" he asked.

It was apparently not the question to ask, considering Pansy's face dropped. She wasn't usually like this, and it bothered Draco. Draco had mentioned many more women before, and more frequently. Despite the fact that Draco obviously had to adhere to strict confidentiality rules at work, he sometimes talked of nameless women patients of his to Pansy, and she usually took no notice. Jealousy didn't suit her, and Draco wasn't used to it whatsoever.