"Pouting again, Draco?" The curtain hissed along the railing and like a nightmare, Astoria Greengrass stood above him with a ghastly green bejewelled flower in her hair.

"Get out!" Draco turned on his side away from her, covering his bare chest with his blanket. "This is the boy dormitory!"

"And it's Saturday nine o'clock, Draco, darling."

Draco winced. "Yeah, shouldn't you be in bed? Your own bed, Astoria, sweetheart."

"What are you reading?" she grabbed his book from his hands before he could react. "You don't look like the reading type-"

He sat up and tried to get the book off her. She dodged him expertly, flipping the book over to see the title, her thumb keeping his place.

"Dark Artifacts and their Twisted Shelves." She looked at him with an amused expression on her face. "If you were going to read anything I would've guessed a Divination book."

Draco sighed. "Go away, Greengrass." He flopped back down and turned away from her hoping that would be the end of it. "And give me back my book for Merlin's sake."

Astoria touched his shoulder. "That's weird. I expected more insults, maybe a bed thrown across the room, I wouldn't mind a duel either, it's a bit boring around here. Where are all the other boys?"

"Quidditch practice," Draco muttered into his pillow.

"I think quidditch is a bit over-rated, don't you? The mud, the sludge, the sweat, no one wants that. My brother, he's an absolute cutie, he's starting Hogwarts in two years and he is obsessed with it. Mother will only let him have a toy broom, the real ones are far too dangerous and expensive-"

"Are you trying to bore me out of bed?"

"Rude much, Draco?" She pushed his shoulder playfully. "Personally, I would love to go flying but my parents would never let me, it's a no girls allowed situation apparently." Astoria turned to the back of the book reading the blurb. "This sounds boring, no offence. Chapter twenty-two is about polishing, buffing."

"Are you just going to stand there all day?"

"Why do you ask?"

"So I can prepare myself… maybe find a piece of rope."

Astoria laughed. "Funny, Draco, suicide is the perfect way to impress me."

A second passed and he felt his blanket ruffle. He suddenly felt her breath on his neck.

"What are you doing?" Draco pulled away from her, outraged. But too stunned jump out of bed into the cold. That kind of contact Draco had only recently stopped dreaming about.

"I was cold." She said like the answer was obvious. "I don't have anywhere else to be or anything else to do so I'll play by your rules and say we studied and can now make a feather vanish and reappear."

Draco's heart pounded, her dress was low cut, tight and silky. Her chest looked like it was about to explode out of it. She was way too close to him for comfort.

"Here's your book." She handed him the hardback. And she smelt exactly like that letter. Like she just took a bath in a flower explosion.

Blush crept onto Draco's pale face, Astoria kept looking at his exposed skin. He couldn't read the expression on her face. She propped her head up on her hand and looked him directly in the eye.

"You haven't told me anything about you." She stated. And he wanted it to remain that way, simple and uncomplicated.

"Don't you have friends or someone else's personal life you can nose around in?"

She looked away from him to the pillow. Draco didn't know if it was their closeness or the fact that they were alone that made him say, "Sorry."

Astoria looked back up at him, expecting more.

"I didn't mean it like that. I just… haven't spoken to anyone properly in a long time."

Astoria found his hand under the blanket and held it. He let her.

"My friends are either in foreign countries married and expecting their first child or waiting to be married off to another pureblood. Their parents wouldn't let them come back to Hogwarts," Astoria said a note of sadness in her voice. "I haven't spoken to anyone properly in a while either."

"And you chose me?" he said.

She shrugged. "You have nice eyes and everyone else refuses to let me be a part of their friend group, believe me, I've tried. My mother says I'm too forward, but I think it's something else something I don't want to change. You're really warm." She giggled like it was the funniest thing in the world.

"Were you expecting my bed to have icicles?"

Astoria shifted, letting go of his hand. She pulled about five sheets of parchment out from under her. "I didn't think you slept on parchment."

"I work best when I'm stressed." He grabbed them and threw them onto the floor.

Astoria reached up and rubbed her fingers against the stubble on his jawline. "Is not shaving getting to you?"

He didn't reply instead he put his head on his pillow and shut his eyes.

"Draco?" Astoria said softly, after about a minute of sweet silence.

"Hmmm?" he murmured, trying to ignore the fact a nice-looking girl was in his bed. It felt like a very good dream. Draco tried to bring his focus back to reality. This was the girl who grabbed his face and told him he would get permanent lines and wrote him a letter on pink Hippogriff stationary. He was suddenly turned off.

"If you want me to leave I will."

"Maybe you should've asked permission before you got into my bed," Draco said into his pillow. "With me in it," he added for effect.

"I'm going to take that as 'you can stay, Astoria, sweetheart.'" Astoria said, her leg brushing against his. "You're owl's cute by the way. He-"

"She." Draco corrected, his eyes opening again.

"She," Astoria raised her eyebrows at him. "Is almost as warm as you."

"Blair has better feathers than me," Draco grunted, Astoria had caught him on a good day. "Did you feed my owl, Astoria?"

Astoria's eyes were practically sparkling now. "Astoria. You called me by my first name seriously. I have to tell the entire school."

"Did you bribe my owl, Greengrass?"
"Yes, Malfoy, I did. She likes dead mice. I'm guessing you do too, my darling sweet Draco."

"I don't and I don't like hippogriffs either."

Astoria blinked. "Hippogriffs?"
"On your stationary, there was a hippogriff on the envelope."

"Let me guess you eat sunshine and rainbows for breakfast?"

"Surely you know the story about me and the stupid beast. It's school legend now."
"It's not school legend if I haven't heard it. What about the time you dressed up like a dementor to scare the crap out of Harry Potter?"
Draco winced, feeling a rush of embarrassment. That was at the top of his list of most stupid and immature things he had done at Hogwarts.

"Tell me about the hippogriff." Astoria beamed. "I enjoy a good story."

"It resulted in this scar…" he trailed off. Draco had almost brought that arm out from under the covers. How could he forget? That warped scar... was going to inform anyone who saw it... be a part of him forever.

Astoria, like she could read his mind, grabbed his left arm under the covers and felt a long it. Draco was about to push her away when she stopped.

"Here?" She pressed her fingers into the raised skin. It wasn't the dark mark.

"Yeah," he nodded, pulling his arm away from her.

"Go on then." Astoria urged him. "I'll be here listening." She put her head on his chest. She was listening to the quick thump of his heartbeat. For some reason, he liked it and decided to let her stay there. More pillow for him, he reasoned with himself.

Astoria laughed in all the right places. Except when he told her what the hippogriff did after he called the thing a 'great, ugly, brute.'

She yawned into the back of her hand. "If the professor had taken more safety measures such as telling his students: don't insult the bloody hippogriff it can understand English-"

"I think it understood the tone but fair point."

"And put the creature on a leash." Astoria went on like this for the next five minutes until she finally let it go and sunk back down on top of his chest, inhaling him. Draco smiled to himself.

He started telling her about his father and the legal troubles until he heard her breathing in deeper and longer. He shifted to look at her properly, her eyes were shut and her mouth was slightly open. Draco frowned not because he had sent her to sleep but at the fact she clearly she felt comfortable enough to not only get into his bed but to sleep with him. And not in the way Draco would've prefered.

No one else at Hogwarts could happily be in Astoria's position, he thought, as he watched Astoria's chest rise and fall. The rest of the Slytherin boys in the dorm drew their curtains, he knew it was because of him. They were stupid, they thought the curtains would stop a wand. They didn't talk to Draco when he was in the dorm either, they only risked that in public.

Draco sighed, he twisted a lock of soft brown hair around his fingers. He decided to leave her sleep, what harm would it do? Plus he could finally read his book. Her breaths were becoming soft snores now. Draco relaxed and grabbed his book careful not to brush too hard against her.

Draco's eyes flicked to that ridiculous green flower. His morning was not going to be polluted by that abomination. He gently loosened the clip, he didn't think she would mind that much. He pulled it away and a small section of hair shorter than even his own was revealed. Draco bit his lip and quickly put the clip back.

His hands started shaking, his mind was whirling with images and imaginings of how that happened. A death eater pulling her, screaming, away from her family. A death eater cutting off a section for a polyjuice potion. A death eater forcing the hair down her throat like rope-

He scowled to himself. Snap out of it. Magic, Draco, remember that thing? Magic. If any of those scenarios had actually happened she would've used magic to grow that part of her hair back to the same length as the rest of it. It was probably just a terrible style choice or an excuse to wear her ugly flowers and feathers.

Unless it was done intentionally by magic or a potion.

He would not ask her though. Somethings were better not knowing.

Draco sighed again, he could hear the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. He grabbed his wand from under his pillow almost twisting his arm in the process, just to keep her asleep. He moved his wand shutting the curtains then he cast a selection of soundproof charms, his favourites, they couldn't hear Astoria's breathing and he didn't have to listen to their conversations.

He put his wand back to its spot and tried to focus on the words in his book. What felt like an hour later, Draco was drifting to sleep. The words on the page in front of him were becoming cloud-like blurs. He was jolted away from the warm dozy sensation by a:

"No, please, I'm- I'm… please. Don't touch me."

Astoria.

Every muscle in her body was tense it sounded like she was actually talking to him. It took Draco a second to realise that she was having a nightmare not coming to her senses and pushing him away.

"Astoria," he grabbed her shoulders, her skin was tacky and covered with a hot spreading red rash that covered her chest and arms like a burn. "Astoria, wake up!" he shook her harder. Draco started to panic, her features were scrunched in pain. He had never heard someone this distressed in their sleep and it was never his job to help people period, he couldn't call a teacher.

"No, let go of me! I- I hate you!" She shouted. Astoria twisted like she trying to loosen his grip on her.

"Astoria, please, wake up. You're dreaming. It's me, Draco." He sounded manic in his own ears.

"Leave me alone." She cried finally, tears streaming down her red cheeks. Her makeup had clumped together and was flaking around her nose. Her eyes fluttered open. She was scanning her surroundings desperately. Draco knew he couldn't help her, but he still tried.

"You're in the boy's dorm." He said quickly. "You fell asleep-"

She pushed herself away from him and wrapped her arms tight around her chest, panting for breath.

"It's okay." Draco didn't dare try to touch. "You're safe. It was only a nightmare." He held up his hands making himself as vulnerable as possible.

Her eyes darted to the disfigured dark mark on his left forearm. Draco put his arm down but it was too late, Astoria's face was now turning purple with anger.

"Why did you let me fall asleep!?" she shouted. "Why didn't you wake me up!? How hard is that!? Don't look at me like that!"

"Like what?" Draco snapped, feeling his own temper bubbling.

"LIKE I'M A FREAK!" she exploded. "AN IDIOT!"

"Astoria, calm down! I'm not looking at you like that-" but it was too late she jumped off the bed and ran, abandoning her textbook and her heels.

Draco exhaled heavily as the curtain fell back into place. The anger that was there just seconds ago was gone in its place was confusion and a weird sense of loneliness he didn't understand.

He didn't know how but he fucked everything up again. He raked his hands through his hair. Everything was always his fault, everything he touched turned to dirt or he was the dirt depending on which way you looked at it. He touched his bare chest, it shone with Astoria's sweat. He didn't grimace at it. Instead, he got up ignoring the stares from the other boys in the dorm, he pulled on some clothes, grabbed her textbook and shoes.

He sat in an armchair in the common room and waited. She didn't show up.