Astoria turned away from Draco as he left, then she turned her attention onto the Weasley girl. Astoria wished that she had it in her to say something, to confront her. It wasn't part of who Astoria was, though. She was assertive in a quiet kind of way, a way that didn't involve causing a scene in the middle of the hospital. When Ginny Weasley was out of sight was when Astoria decided to leave. She had to go back to work as she had only left for her lunch break. She went outside before she Disapparated and showed up outside of the Ministry's entrance. Her mind was too busy to even register her journey through the Ministry and to her office. She looked at the files stacked on her desk, neglected, as she focused on the worn-out file in the middle. Astoria had admittedly become obsessive with trying to find out a flaw with the wording of Draco's prophecy, possibly some kind of between-the-lines alternative meaning, but couldn't find one.

Astoria sat down and then carefully placed Draco's file into the top drawer on the right hand side of her desk. All of the other prophecies seemed irrelevant. Most of them were boring anyway, but they had to be filed regardless. The Unspeakable job seemed like it was prestigious from a distance, but rarely did something come to their attention that was truly interesting or dangerous or needed to be investigated. Most investigations were closed fairly quickly anyway, and it was even more rare when they needed to get Aurors involved. Unfortunately, deaths did not require the assistance of Aurors unless there was a specific criminal reason that was laid out. It frustrated her, but she understood. They couldn't waste their resources on prophecies with no instruction. Besides, not all prophecies came to fruition anyway, especially if Unspeakables could figure it out and somehow change what was predicted. This wasn't common, and it was usually weak Seers who created these prophecies; a mixture of dreaming and real prophecy.

It would surprise some people to find out how many people had the Seer gift, but most of it was almost unnoticeable. These people usually had quick reactions or felt like they had experienced something that they had before – something called déjà vu, except it happened frequently. Dreams that seemed to come true. Astoria did not possess any of these qualities, and clearly neither did Draco with his luck.

With Potter heading the Auror office, she doubted that he would worry much about Draco's prophecy, even if they had allegedly started to be on better terms after that last battle at Hogwarts. Potter was a petty thing. Instead, Astoria felt like she had to hold all of this inside of herself with no outside help. She felt lonesome in this respect, and when she spent time with Draco, she somehow managed to feel even more lonely. Her eyes would look over him as if she tried to memorize every feature of him. The way his lip would upturn when he was amused, even if he didn't fully smile. The way his grey eyes seemed to take in every detail. How he seemed unsure under the mask of confidence. The way he looked at her.

She wanted him to stay with her, but his presence was temporary.

Astoria had spent more time in her office trying to make sure that she looked more put-together when she saw Draco later than she cared to admit. She tried to maintain her appearance at all times, but she did a few necessary touch ups that probably weren't necessary at all.

Her office door practically burst open as Simon, her American co-worker, stepped in. She hurriedly stashed the make-up in her desk and flipped her mirror down. She tried to look indifferent to his presence, but felt her face redden somewhat at being caught trying to fixing herself up.

Simon either didn't notice, or he didn't care. He grinned his all-American smile, the smile that met his eyes every time. He seemed genuinely amused at everything and like he was always in a good mood. She didn't know how he could be this way in the job that he had. He always said that he compartmentalized. It was the deepest conversation they had ever had, mainly because Astoria didn't usually chatter while working. It ruined her concentration, and also she found everyone else fairly dull.

"Can I help you?" she asked, irritably.

"Just wanted to give these for you to review," he said as he placed a handful of files on her impeccably neat desk. "It's what Mr. Lerwick told me to do."

Astoria raised an eyebrow. "He wants me to do his job all the sudden?"

Simon shrugged. "I don't know. You seem like the type who would be good at it, I suppose."

"Doesn't it bother you that he asked me to do it?" she asked, trying to bait him.

"Nah," he answered. "One less thing for me to do," he joked.

Astoria tried to find something in his expression that said otherwise, but couldn't find it. He actually did not care. If the situation had been reversed, Astoria would have felt angry. Then again, the two of them weren't similar in any way. She would question Mr. Lerwick's judgement if he had done that.

She sighed in a resigned way. "Well, it's going to have to wait until tomorrow."

"Hot date?"

"Bugger off," Astoria said. "It's five. End of day. I have better things to do than hang around here." She grabbed her bag and left the office. "Lock up after you're done in here, yeah?"

She walked on, and she knew what she said wasn't altogether true. Astoria used to spend a stupid amount of time at work. She used to have nothing going on outside of work, so she made her work her life. She was good at it, and she just wanted to get things done. At least, that's what she told herself. She never wanted to admit to herself that perhaps she never wanted to be alone with her thoughts. Sometimes reading a book at home or meandering around got a little dull. Lately, she began to wonder if her life just was dull. When she thought of her days before Draco and this whole prophecy, she couldn't remember how she spent her time or how she found it fulfilling.

She got to the bar first, and luckily it wasn't overly busy. She clutched her bag with both hands as she looked around. It was dark, but in an intimate way and not in a trashy sort of way. She had been here before, but now she didn't know quite where to sit.

A tall and thin waiter came over to her. He had a natural sort of smile, even though Astoria wasn't typically described as approachable.

"Can I help you, miss?" he asked her as if he felt like she was in the wrong place.

"I'm just going to sit over there," she answered as she pointed.

"Can I bring you something to drink?"

She appreciated that he asked immediately and didn't let her sit at the booth empty handed. She ordered a martini, and was tempted to order something for Draco, but decided against it. She didn't know what type of mood he would be in, and didn't want to assume for him. Maybe he would decide to not drink at all. If he did, maybe he had different drinks for different moods. Astoria knew that she herself did.

The waiter returned with her drink and placed it in front of her delicately. She nodded her approval, and he gave a small curt bow in return. If anything, she had to admit that the waiter read people well. She watched him as he went to the few tables that were occupied. He managed to smile for the people who were friendly, serious with those who seemed as such, and joking with the more outgoing crowd near the front. Astoria felt like he could do better work than being a waiter with that sort of personality type, not that it was any of her business.

Astoria saw Draco come in before he saw her. His eyes cast around the room before they fell on her. She felt a flutter in her stomach and she tried to ignore the sensation. He made his way over to her as he told the waiter what he wanted. He undid the jacket of his blazer as he sat across from her.

"Have you been here long?" he asked. A dark orange drink was placed in front of him, but she couldn't immediately identify what it was. It seemed almost sort of like beer, but not quite.

She shook her head. "Only got here moments before you." She paused and took a sip of her drink. "Seems like you were having quite an interesting day."

He sighed. "You don't know the half of it. I wish I could say it wasn't like this every day, but it feels like it's more days like this than it's not."

He wanted to tell her more about what was going on but was restricted by confidentiality laws. He wanted her advice and he wanted to be able to talk it all over with someone who wasn't directly involved. Astoria had been in the situation enough to know what was going on, but she wasn't involved in the day-to-day operations of Bill Weasley. Draco could hardly speak to anyone at work about it, as most people avoided Draco or Bill, or both. Besides, Seamus Finnigan seemed to have been the only person who actually didn't treat him if he was an absolute idiot. He had no idea years ago in Hogwarts that this would be the case. He had expected his life to be a whole lot different.

Sitting across from Astoria, though, felt normal. His job, his situation with Bill, his past, it all seemed irrelevant in this moment. He watched as she would grin, something he never saw her do regularly. Her amusement typically came from her eyes. He didn't know what he was saying that captured her interest, but every word of hers seemed to peak his. It was all mundane, regular life stuff, but now it seemed fascinating. There was nothing in the way to actually speak to her and get to know her. He admittedly worried before that perhaps they would have nothing in common, and that it was the situations that attracted them to one another, but it wasn't the case at all.

They didn't stay long at the bar. It had begun to fill up, and the place began to get louder. Neither of them cared for the crowd, so they went back to their apartment building and to Astoria's flat. The casualness of him hanging up his jacket, taking off his shoes, and sitting on her couch as she made them tea was a much needed break from the real world.

Astoria brought them the tea and he took the cups from her and placed them on the coffee table. She sat next to him, and he rubbed his thumb against her cheek. His hand lowered to the back of her neck, and then he leaned in and kissed her. Even her lips felt familiar, even though they had been only explored by him once. This time there was no rush, it was just the two of them, alone in her flat, with nothing to take him from that moment, nothing from running into his mind but the feel of her and the need to be closer to her. Even Nora's abuse didn't swim to the surface, it just floated in the background where somehow it was kept at bay. He didn't grab at her clothes, and she didn't try to rush him either.

After a few minutes, Draco pulled away and looked at her. He lightly pushed her hair away from her face. He knew that he had never been shown real love in his life, and therefore he didn't know how to give it. Draco had never even been exposed to a healthy relationship. All he knew was sarcasm and the ability to disregard anything that would attach himself to someone. As much as his first instinct was to push away from everything that he was feeling, he let it wash over him. When Astoria smiled, her first true smile since he had met her, he realized he might just be in love with her.