Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 4

"One Slick Witch please." Portia called out to Tom the bartender in the Leaky Cauldron. She quickly turned towards me, "Do you want your usual? My treat tonight." I simply nodded. "And a Bertie Bott Drop," Tom nodded his acquiescence at the order and started pouring various liquor bottles together in preparation of our shots.

"So why exactly are you paying for my drinks?" I asked curiously at her unusual behavior. Portia was famously stingy when it came to money.

"To celebrate your engagement of course! Getting engaged is suppose to be a once in a lifetime event. And I'm hoping karma sits up and takes notice of my good deed. Greg and I have been together for four years now and never has he even approached the topic of marriage with me."

I gave her a sympathetic look just as Tom set in front of us two shot glasses filled to the brim with alcohol. Without a hesitation Portia and I gently tapped our glasses on the counter, in perfect synchronization, and then tossed back the liquor, letting in burn down our throats. Portia quickly looked around and found an empty booth, "Hey Tom can you send eight shoots to that booth over there, and just keep putting our drinks on my tab."

He nodded and we both headed towards the empty booth. After we settled into the booth Portia leaned in conspiratorially towards me and whispered, "So let's see it."

"See what?"

"Come one, after Draco visited yesterday I saw you slip a velvet box into your pocket. He totally gave you the engagement ring. I didn't interrogate you yesterday about it because I know how hush-hush you're trying to keep this. So I decided to pester you about it when you weren't at work"

Knowing it was futile to play dumb with her; I quickly slipped the box out of my purse and set it in the middle of the table.

"So how does it look like?" She excitedly asked.

"I have no idea."

"You haven't even looked at it yet?"

"No…" I was interrupted by Hannah Abbott coming over with our shots. Portia snatched the box from the table before Hannah could spot it.

"Here you go," she said as she placed the tray on our table, "Enjoy."

"Thanks," I gave her a small smile.

Once Hannah had left Portia set the box back onto the tabletop. "Astoria…" She paused hesitantly, "Why haven't you looked at your engagement ring yet?" Her face was void of the almost always omnipresent humor. Her voice was quiet and serious. I could only assume that she'd finally realized how much I really dreaded this whole situation that I found myself in.

Shrugging I took one of the Bertie Bott Drops off the tray and quickly downed it, skipping the ritual of tapping the glass on the table which usually preceded the act. "I have been hoping that if I acted sarcastic and unpleasant enough, that Draco would dislike me so much that he'd call off the engagement or, well, convince his mother to call off the engagement. You know everyone says that Narcissa Malfoy would never deny anything to her precious Draco. But it's starting to look like that's not going to happen."

Portia worried her lower lip as she listened to me. Once I stopped she hesitantly began to speak, "Then why don't you call it off? Why sit around and wait for him to do it? You're independent Astoria. You have a good job and you're completely self-sufficient. Why do you not just break the engagement yourself?"

I had thought about refusing to marry Draco; it wasn't as if it had never crossed my mind, but if I wanted to remain on good terms with my family breaking the engagement wasn't an option. Portia wasn't from a pure-blooded family. She was from a wizarding family and had been sorted into Slytherin but her family was a well-to-do middle class family. There were moments where we felt that societal divide between us. She just couldn't understand some of the customs and traditions that made up the pure-blood class.

"If I refused him then my family would disown me. And even though I might bitch at times about my mother and her nagging, I still love her. Not marrying him would not be worth the problems that it would cause."

Portia nodded her head, although I could tell that she didn't quite understand where I was coming from. "Since you're not willing to break off the engagement, then maybe it's time for you to accept it." She pushed the box towards me from its position on the tabletop.

Ignoring the gesture, I took another shot and downed it quickly followed by the last of my shots. Portia caught the attention of Hannah Abbott and pointed towards the tray indicating that we needed refills. I felt the alcohol begin to warm my stomach and slowly my head began to feel light-headed.

I took the box from where it sat and with a sigh, I opened it. I was shocked to see that the ring was not overtly ornate or overwrought. The diamond was about two carats by my approximation and looked flawless. The band was made of white gold, and the diamond shone brightly as the light reflected off its surface. I'd expected something a lot more ostentatious, being that it was an antique engagement ring from one of the oldest and richest pure-blood families in England, but the ring was elegant in its simplicity.

"Let me see," Portia interrupted my thoughts, and I passed the box over to her.

"Pretty! I'm shocked that it isn't some five carat canary yellow diamond or something ever more crazy."

"That's exactly what I was thinking." We both laughed at the idea of me walking around wearing some huge pink or yellow diamond.

As the night progressed and I became drunker, the evening didn't seem as bad as it had earlier. Portia was doing an excellent job of distracting me and the liquor had picked up my spirits. I'd always been a happy drunk.

Portia paused during one of our conversations, "The night looks like it just got a little more interesting." Her eyes were locked on something over my shoulder and I turned my head and spotted Draco and Theo Nott standing in the doorway, peering around for an empty booth.

Portia quickly surveyed the bar and noted that there were none available. Raising an eyebrow towards me she whispered, "Should we invite them to sit with us?"

My eyes were still glued on the figure of my fiancé, after a couple of seconds his roaming gaze landed upon me and I saw a smirk begin to grow as he leaned towards Theo and whispered something. I turned back towards my best friend, beginning to giggle, "Oops I've been spotted, I should've paid more attention to McGonagall then I could blend into the background like those octopi."

"What in Merlin's name are you talking about?" Portia incredulously asked.

"You know those octopi that can change colors like its background to hide and they change shape to look like other animals." My face lit up as I continued to think about octopi. "They're so cool! I love them."

Portia simply laughed at me but she was interrupted by the presence of Draco and Theo.

"Who do you love?" Draco asked curiously. "Because if it's me, that's completely understandable. I'm irresistible after all."

I smiled up at him with a huge grin, "Octopi!"

He slowly raised an eyebrow, "Let me get this straight. You're at a bar on a Friday night and you're talking about how much you love octopi?"

I giddily clapped my hands, "Have you seen an octopus. They're so ace. The way they move and they're just so cute!"

Theo smiled at my enthusiasm and turned towards Draco, "Your future wife is enamored with a rather bizarre looking cephalopod. I don't think this foreshadows great happiness in your upcoming nuptials. You can legitimately be called many things, both positive and negative; however you share no similarities physically with an octopus."

Portia and I burst into laughter at this comment while Draco merely grinned as he slid into the seat next to me. Theo followed his lead and sat down next to Portia.

"Hey! Where are your manners? Shouldn't you ask permission before barging into our booth," I pouted at Draco. I pushed him, trying to dislodge him from the seat, but there seemed to be very little strength in my push so I dissolved into a fit of giggles.

Draco looked at me questioningly before turning back to Portia trying to hide the smile that was trying to break out across his face, "Exactly how much did she have to drink?" He motioned towards me.

Portia tapped the side of her head pensively as she tried to remember, "Probably too many would be my guess."

We all laughed and I quickly snatched the glass of firewhiskey that Draco had been nursing and raised it into the air, as if to give a toast, "Huzzah!" I cheered out and lowered the glass to my lips ready to take a sip, but Draco snatched it right back from me before I had the opportunity to taste the amber liquid.

"Merlin!" Draco exclaimed as he drank some of his firewhiskey, "And I'm to be married to this woman."

Portia grinned, "You could do far worse, like that bint Parkinson."

Theo snorted into his drink, "I second that comment. I've been warning Draco about Pansy for years."

Draco shrugged nonchalantly, "She's an easy shag."

"Whenever she's around you're insufferable mate," Theo threw in.

I'd curiously been sitting back and listening to the conversation. The day in Madame Malkin's with my sister and mother flashed back into my mind. My sister had warned me that Draco most likely was going to take Pansy as a mistress.

Curious, I quickly cut in. "What do you mean," I inquisitively asked.

"Draco, when he was: younger, immature, arrogant, stubborn, ambitious, pig-headed, self-centered, vain, conceited, self-applauding..."

Draco bitterly cut him off, "You can stop now with the adjectives, fucking wanker."

Theo simply smiled, "The truth stings, doesn't it? Okay anyway when Draco entered Hogwarts he believed that surrounding yourself with lesser intelligent sycophants was an excellent idea which would pay off in the future. Pansy being one of his posse along with the infamously daft Crabbe and Goyle."

Everyone in the group turned toward Draco to see what his reaction was and he merely shrugged.

Theo went on to continue his story, "However once Draco matured slightly, he began to realize that surrounding yourself with idiots leads to bad life decisions because you don't have anyone around you to tell you that you're fucking up your life; either because they don't realize it themselves or they're too scared to confront you."

"Silly Draco," I hiccupped, "I had something really clever to say here but it's disappeared."

Portia leaned towards me over the table and patted my arm, "It's okay Astoria, in your state it probably wasn't very clever and you're better off not remembering what it was. Remember the octopi."

"Octopi!" I cheered. I frantically looked around for an alcoholic beverage to down in celebration of the wonderful cephalopod but I could only find 17 empty shot glasses. Theo and Draco were protectively guarding their firewhiskeys from me and I knew it was futile to try and steal Draco's drink again.

Draco quickly downed the rest of his drink and got up. "I think I need to take Astoria home before she finds more alcohol."

"Oh don't worry about it, I'll take her home." Portia interrupted.

Draco merely waved her off, "Don't worry about it. And I'll have Tom put all of the drinks you both had tonight on my tab."

Portia looked like she was about to argue but then thought better of it, "I've never been one to argue with free drinks."

Draco stood by the booth waiting for me to slide out but I found that I was having a lot of issues trying to get my body to move. Portia tried to hold back a laugh as she watched the scene unfold in front of her and Theo looked highly entertained.

"Are you going to hurry up or not?" Draco exasperatedly asked me as he grew more and more impatient.

I slumped over sideways, so I was now lying across the entire side of the booth, "I can't move. The world is like spinning around and around and around and around…"

"Okay stop. I get the point. You're dizzy." Draco took my arms and pulled me out of the booth. He then managed, after awhile, to position me onto his back. I sluggishly put my arms around his neck and felt my eyes slowly shutting as exhaustion began to wash over me.

Draco quickly repositioned me so that he was carrying me piggyback style. Theo had moved out of the booth and Portia had followed. As Draco turned to leave Portia interrupted him, "Don't forget her purse."

He turned to look back at the booth and then at Portia, "Does it look like I have any free hands?" Portia giggled at this and fetched my purse. She then looked curiously at Draco wondering how he'd be able to hold it. Suddenly a huge smile spread across her face and she put the purse around his neck. "There. Perfect."

Draco rolled his eyes, "It seems like I'm just a sitting target for humiliation tonight. Bye Theo I'll owl you about next week. And bye…"

"Portia." She finished for him with a grin. "Have fun you two." She approached the two of us and yelled near my ear, "Bye Astoria!"

"Mmmh," I hummed back and I tightened my grip on Draco.

Draco let out a deep sigh and went up towards the bar to let Tom know to add Portia's tab onto his. Leading us outside into the cold air, he stopped suddenly and looked around Diagon Alley. "Okay Greengrass, where do you live?"

"Mmm."

"Mmm is not an acceptable answer. You're fucking heavy so hurry up." Although I barely had enough energy to move, I found within me enough energy to slap him over the head for his comment. "Ouch! Okay, okay left or right. I remember being told you lived in Diagon Alley."

Lazily I blinked as I looked around taking in my surroundings, "Left." I muttered. As Draco turned left I suddenly got the sneaking suspicion that my apartment was actually on the right. "Oh no it's to the right."

Draco, who had never been known for his patience began to curse under his breath. He quickly repositioned me and looked up and down the street. "This is ridiculous," He mumbled and before I realized what was going on I felt us apparate out of the street.

I felt us land somewhere but I couldn't open my eyes. He began to move again and I nuzzled my head into the crook of Draco's shoulder. His scent wafted up towards me and I couldn't help but discreetly sniff his neck. There was a lingering smell of firewhiskey but I also smelt an alluring mix of sandalwood and a small hint of lemongrass. I breathed in deeply and felt myself melt into his shoulder. "You smell good," I barely whispered.

I felt Draco suddenly halt, "What did you just say?" But I never answered him because I had passed out.

A/N: Oh this chapter reminded me of my Christmas Break lol! I want to quickly thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter! You are all amazing and I love to hear all your feedback. Oh also you all should check out videos of octopi camouflaging themselves and of mimic octopi. It's insane! And super cool. So if anyone has any questions, comments, criticisms, or random thoughts please share them with me! Also one last comment, have any of you other authors noticed that the spellchecker on Microsoft Word and the spellchecker on doesn't always agree on whether or not you spelled a word correctly? Odd... one would think that we English speakers would have decided whether it was spelled like: hiccupped or hiccuped without contradicting sources telling us different things.

2/2/15 A/N: Hello everyone! I've decided to revisit this story after a 2.5 year hiatus. I'm going through and cleaning up my writing in the meantime before I start writing some new chapters. This chapter has been re-edited.