Nine Months

It was Astoria Malfoy's nine-month wedding anniversary with her husband, Draco Malfoy. She wanted something special, since she knew their wedding was slowly plummeting. She didn't know how she felt about Draco yet, since their wedding was arranged, but she didn't want to see it end so soon. Her mother and father's wedding started much like her own, but they had found peace in the following years. They never were like some of her friend's parents, they didn't even share a room, but Astoria felt different than that. Daphne, her sister, was like that, but that didn't mean she had to be like that. She wanted her children to have a better home life than she, Daphne, and Ian had.

So, she had the house elves prepare a romantic dinner for her and Draco. Astoria had bought new fancy, expensive dress robes. She had pulled her hair up in an elegant bun, which the guys at Hogwarts had liked. She had a small amount of makeup on, and elegant glass slippers.

Astoria told Draco to dress up nice for dinner, and that it would be a celebration of sorts.

Later that night, Astoria and Draco sat down to the nice dinner that the house elves had prepared. They had red wine, and gold china to dine with.

"This is fancy, Astoria. What is the occasion?" Draco asked quizzically as he downed his glass of wine, and it magically filled back up.

"Well, Draco, what happened nine months ago today?" Astoria asked with a small sip of her wine.

"Hmm… nine months ago you said?" Draco looked confused, and Astoria blew out an exasperated sigh. She held up her left hand, and shook her ring finger.

"Oh… that." Draco said, and he took another drink.

"Oh that!" Astoria snapped, and she put her hand down. "Somehow I thought you'd be different!"

"Different?" Draco asked confused.

"You're just like any other man… well any other Slytherin man." She spat out the word Slytherin.

"You were a Slytherin!" Draco pointed out, confusion and anger written on his face.

"Very smart, Draco!" Astoria said in a little child voice.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you are like any other Slytherin man! You don't care about me, not at all. You married me, because you needed a wife, and Pansy wouldn't have you!" Astoria felt anger and sorrow well up inside of her.

"Don't bring Pansy into this!"

"That's right, because you care so much about her. You don't want me to vocally trash her!" Astoria felt tears prick her eyes; she didn't expect any of this to happen.

"No, because she has nothing to do with this, and there's no reason to fight about her." Draco told her.

"Because you love her." Astoria mumbled.

"What was that, Astoria?" Draco asked her.

"Nothing."

"No, that was something. Tell me."

"You can't order me around, I'm a human. I'm not your slave, no matter what your father told you! Me, Narcissa, and any other woman deserves more respect than you or your father pays!" She snapped. "You will not be sexist with me! No matter what you think!"

"My parents don't need to be involved in this either!" Draco snapped.

"Fine, my mother too, and Daphne. We don't get any of the respect we deserve. Because you guys are just too high and mighty on your thrones!" Astoria wiped at her eyes. "I just wanted tonight to be special. I wanted to have a relationship my parents didn't have. My whole life, I vowed to never be like my parents." Astoria stood up.

"Night Draco." Her and Draco had shared a room off and on since their wedding night. She had wanted tonight to be special, and then they would have ended up sleeping together. They hadn't shared a room in two months, and she knew Draco's needs, and knew that he would most likely cave in soon, and come looking for her. "You can sleep in your room tonight." Astoria told him as she left the room, and went upstairs.

She went into her room, and into the bathroom to wash up before bed. When she left the bathroom an hour later, she glanced back at the blue potion sitting on the counter.

She would be a mother.

-finished-

A/N- I know you can't necessarily call this a love story, it does involve a shipment in the Harry Potter series, and so it's fine. I never thought Draco would have a good relationship with his wife until WAY later on, like when Scorpius is going to school. Any who, you know the guidelines to REVIEW! So, go ahead.