Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 6

I woke up from my nap encompassed in warmth and a tantalizing smell. Slowly I opened my eyes, and I was met with the sight of Draco's neck. Confused I cautiously looked around me taking in my surroundings. Draco and I were both lying on our sides facing each other. It appeared as if during my nap we had also somehow gotten quite close and I had ended up with my head tucked underneath his chin, my nose touching his collarbone. It brought me a little comfort to notice that Draco had haphazardly thrown his arm over my waist while he slept.

I could just imagine the humiliation I would have endured if I'd been the only one coping a feel while we both slept. Not wanting to disturb Draco's sleep, I remained in the position I had woken up in. There are much worse situations to find yourself in than cuddling with a half naked Draco Malfoy who smelled delicious.

I quickly stole a glance at Draco's face, and was surprised by how peaceful he looked. Usually he wore a smirk or a glower but in sleep his face was completely devoid of any emotion besides serenity. Suddenly I was flooded by the desire to touch his face, to reassure myself that this was real and not a dream; but after Draco had woken up earlier on my behalf, I really couldn't bring myself to do anything that might wake him up now.

As I peered at the face of my soon to be husband, I began realized that for the first time dread did not engulf me at the thought of sharing the rest of my life with this man. In the beginning, I had merely agreed to the engagement because I hadn't wanted to anger my family. I'm not saying that I'm falling in love with him. Merlin knows I'd never give the wanker another reason for his ego to expand, but I was coming to consider Draco a friend. If in the end this marriage brought me a lifelong friend I'd be receiving more than I ever thought I'd get out of my nuptials to the Malfoy heir.

And at this point there was no point in denying that he wasn't painful on the eyes. My mind flashed back to the arranged marriage between Honora Chevalier and Guy Bulstrode. The Chevaliers had arranged the marriage because of the Bulstrode's vast fortune without considering the fact that Guy looked exactly like a huge-lipped toad. Rumor also had it that he also sounded like a toad in bed… poor Honora. Compared to her I'd hit the jackpot, well unless Draco made llama sounds whilst in the throes of passion but for some reason I highly doubted that.

While I was lost in thought, Draco had begun to stir. Not wanting him to catch me staring at him I lowered my eyes and put a little distance between the two of us. There was no reason to invite the barrage of teasing that our current position would incite if he woke up to discover how close we had been. As I moved slowly away, his eyes fluttered open and I caught sight of his grey eyes, languid from just waking up.

Blinking several times, he then removed his arm from around my waist and begun to stretch his arms over his head. The comforter had fallen to around the level of his boxer's waistband and so I got a clear view of the muscles in his bare chest as they moved through the stretch. I could feel my cheeks begin to burn with the tell-tale signs of a blush spreading across my face.

Draco looked over and once his gaze landed on my cheeks a slow smirk began spread across his face, "Enjoying the view."

Disgruntled, I rolled my eyes, "I've seen better. Did you see Harry Potter's spread in Witch Weekly after he beat you out for most eligible bachelor in the U.K.? Merlin those abs were fine. Auror training must really be paying off."

Draco's smirk immediate turned into the grimace and with a huff he climbed out of bed. "Obviously your taste is lacking."

I smiled cheekily at him, "Is that a tone of jealousy that I hear in your voice Draco? What's wrong? Do you want me to only extol your virtues?"

"Considering that you're my future wife, yes, that would be preferable." He grabbed a t-shirt out of his chest of drawers and sat back down on the side of the bed as he slipped it on.

"Oh Draco!" I pronounced in a melodramatic tone, "You're so dashing with your quicksilver locks and your piercing grey eyes that seem to penetrate right through me." I barely could resist bursting out into laughter as I tried to find more over-the-top descriptions that I'd read in Daphne's romance novel collection. "I bet your love muscle is as every bit as a striking as your appearance."

Draco spun around to face me with a stunned look, "Did you just say love muscle?" He asked in utter disbelief.

Bursting out into torrential laughter I nodded my head, "Yes your love muscle also known as your man meat, your third leg, your little bald monk, or as Portia loves to refer to it, your magic wand."

"Astoria, you've been reading too many romance novels. But you'll be glad to hear that my magic wand is 10 inches long and it's definitely wooden."

My cheeks burned even redder at his comment and I suddenly wanted to duck underneath the comforter. I really should not start thinking about specific parts of Draco's anatomy for my own sanity.

"Awwe don't be shy Astoria, here see for yourself." I quickly shielded my eyes and Draco laughed at my reaction. I suddenly felt something poke my arm, and I curiously peeked over my hands and caught a glance at Draco's innocent looking wand.

"Oh."

Draco's laughter intensified at my chagrinned response. "The look on your face was priceless!"

"Shut up," I petulantly replied, ashamed at my reaction.

"You're the one who started it, referring to my love muscle."

Coming up with no clever reply, I decided not to grace Draco with a comment and instead I continued to lie down on his bed looking up at the ceiling. My thoughts began traveling back to what I had been thinking about before Draco had woken up. I suddenly felt extremely curious as to Draco's opinion on our engagement.

"Hey can I ask you a question?" I asked him as I got up from my previous position and faced him.

He turned towards me curiously, surprised at the shift from my teasing tone I'd used previously to my more serious tone that I'd used to ask the question, "What is it?"

"I was thinking about our engagement while you were asleep and I was wondering why you decided to go through with it."

"Really?" He asked confused. "Isn't it obvious? Isn't it the same reason why you're not fighting it?"

My bewilderment increased and I shook my head, "I don't know. The reason why I decided to go through with it was because I didn't think it was worth creating a rift in my family and becoming ostracized or even disowned. Also I thought that you'd cancel the engagement if I was a big enough bitch to you."

"Well that definitely wasn't why I didn't argue with the engagement."

"Because…" I trailed off waiting for him to continue.

"Because I always expected that I'd have an arranged marriage so it didn't come as a shock when my mum decided it was time that I got married and chose someone for me to marry. I think she was semi-scared that Pansy would purposely end up getting pregnant or something so that she could trap me into marrying her.

I actually consider myself lucky because I'd resigned myself to the fact that whoever was chosen I'd end up with. So I kept on hoping that Mum wouldn't arrange me with someone like Agatha Flint, who I swear has troll blood in her."

I laughed at his rather accurate portrayal of poor Agatha. "You consider yourself lucky to be arranged to marry me?" I said mirthfully, "Draco Malfoy you totally think that I'm pretty."

"Psh," he replied hastily, "I never said pretty. I just meant you didn't look like a troll. At best you're average."

I leaned towards him on the bed, "I don't believe you. Average doesn't equate lucky. Is it my shimmering eyes?" I asked while theatrically fluttering my eyelashes.

"You look like you're having a seizure." He deadpanned.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, "It must be my luscious lips!" I exaggeratedly pouted my lips.

I was about to extol the virtues of my well-shaped ears (hey you never know what guys find attractive) when suddenly Draco leaned towards me and broke my train of thought with a kiss. Bewildered I sat there on his bed frozen unable to quite grasp what was happening. Before I could even begin kissing him back he pulled away from me sporting a lopsided grin.

"There, that shut you up." And with all of the arrogant swagger he possessed Draco got off the bed and walked out of his room, leaving me behind, as I tried to comprehend what the fuck had just happened.

A/N: I'm so so so so sorry for how long it took to get this chapter written. I hope you all will forgive me. This chapter was a lot of fun to write and I really hope you all had fun reading it. I also noticed some horrible grammar in Chapter 5, so I went back and fixed the corrections today. I really need a beta... Anyway I hope you all have an amazing summer vacation! I just graduated today from undergrad so I'm ready to get my summer started before law school starts up in August. Which means I should update much more often for the next couple of months.

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.