The girl on the bed adjacent to his was staring at him. He could feel it. She had the eyes of a cat, glowing like lanterns in the darkness of the infirmary. At first, Draco had thought that she wanted something, but she did not speak, so he tried to ignore her. Ignoring her had proved futile - the feeling of being watched dug under his skin more than he could bare.

"What are you staring at?" he asked, finally, turning his head to look directly at her. She was young, younger than him, with dark curls and dark freckles across her cheeks. Her face was gaunt and incredibly plain, save her eyes, which were large and luminous in the moonlight.

"What are you in for?" the girl asked. She blinked once, slowly.

Draco scrunched his face. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Astoria Greengrass. Second year," she answered. Her words were slow and her voice was quiet.

"Daphne has a sister?" It was less of a question and more of a statement.

Astoria gave Draco a small smile. It lit up her face like a bright light. Now her resemblance to Daphne was uncanny. "The one who was sorted into Hufflepuff."

A beat of silence and then a loud laugh. "Oh, yes, I remember you! We were laughing about that for weeks." How could he forget? Family of Slytherins, BAM! Hufflepuff. The Greengrasses would never live it down.

Astoria's smile had faded and Draco found himself missing it. She looked as sad as one of those cursed Muggle paintings in Borgin & Burkes. "You better be quiet," she whispered. "We'll get yelled at."

"You're the one that started it." Draco turned away from Astoria and leaned into his pillows. "Didn't your mother ever tell you that staring isn't polite."

"You never answered my question."

Draco turned his head to look at her. "I was attacked by a hippogriff. Vicious beast it was, I'm lucky I made it out alive. Dumbledore made a mistake when he made that big oaf Hagrid the Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Wouldn't be his first." Here he took a moment to look as wounded as possible for Astoria. "What are you in for?"

Astoria took her eyes of Draco. "I fainted," she said. "So they're sending me to St. Mungo's until I get better."

Draco sneered. "They're sending you to St. Mungo's for fainting?"

Astoria shrugged thin shoulders. The cloth dangled off of her, appearing two-sizes too big. "Good night, Draco." She curled under a pile of three blankets that seemed mountainous compared to her small frame. "I hope that your arm heals," she added, sounding sincere.

That night Draco dreamt of cat eyes, skeletons and young woman in a white dress with dark curls.

This is my first Harry Potter fanfiction and my first fanfic in over a year. It was not beta'd through and I'm not entirely happy with it, but I love the idea and this is the best I could do atm. I love this pairing and I plan on writing a lot more, so this fic may stay a one shot, or it may be added to (so you might want to put it on alert if you liked it).

If you liked it, please leave a review telling me why. If you did not like it, please leave a review telling me why. If you think I should add a trigger warning, please tell me (I didn't add one because I didn't think it really needed one). If I made any grammatical errors, please tell me.

Also, I'm not using Jade Olivia for my head-canon of what Astoria looks like. Miss Olivia is drop-dead gorgeous. My Astoria is pretty average.

(86, eyes, "No Cars Go" by Arcade Fire)