Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 8

"Well it's obvious that Pansy isn't in charge of the guest list to her own birthday party." I nonchalantly set the invitation that I had received by owl next to my breakfast plate. I had agreed to meet up with my sister early in the morning to have breakfast at the family estate, before we both went on a shopping excursion to Diagon Alley to find dress robes to wear for my upcoming signing ceremony.

"What do you mean? I thought Pansy and you were cordial with each other." Daphne replied.

"It seems that is no longer the case. She made it quite clear at the Puddlemere game that I'm merely a nuisance and she will continue fawning all over Draco whether or not he's engaged."

"Well you've got the ring so in the end it doesn't matter… well unless Draco takes her as mistress."

"I don't think he would." After Draco and I talked after the Pansy confrontation, I was beginning to feel like I could trust Draco. Obviously I had been lusting after him for awhile, but I was discovering that I was slowly becoming emotionally attached as well.

Daphne's head snapped up and an impish grin spread across her face, "You should go."

Puzzled at her meaning, I asked her to elaborate.

"I mean you should go to Pansy's party."

"You've gone absolutely mad. Why would I do such a thing? I can't stand the slag. I would probably become physically ill if I had to spend an entire evening watching people fawn all over her."

"It's a perfect opportunity to get under her skin. Imagine if you were her and you were chasing after an engaged man, wouldn't it make you boil with rage if that engaged man's fiancée turned up to your birthday party?"

Understanding dawned on me, "No way, I can't do something like that. It seems so…"

"Brilliant," she quickly interrupted, "And of course you can, you were personally invited and I'm going. Plus I wouldn't be surprised if Draco was also going. You have every right to be there, and if she didn't want you there she should have taken a closer look at the guest list."

The more I thought about Daphne's idea, the more I was beginning to like it.

Which is how I found myself standing with Draco at the top of the staircase overlooking the gardens on the Parkinson estate a week later. As Draco and I descended the staircase, he leaned toward me and whispered close to my ear, "I'm glad you decided to come."

"Shut up. You're only saying that because Theo and you have a bet on whether Pansy or I will be the first to throw a drink in the other's face."

"Remember Astoria, I have three galleons on you so make me proud."

We had reached the bottom of the staircase and were beginning to make the rounds to greet all of our friends, "Don't you have better things to spend your money on?"

My sister seemed to materialize behind us, "What she actually means Draco is that your money would be better spent on buying stuff for her."

I turned around and grinned at my sister, "See, she understands." My sister winked at me before disappearing into a crowd of her old Hogwarts friends.

Draco raised an eyebrow, "You seem spoiled enough as it is. I got you a Quidditch jersey just last week."

"Yes because obviously I come off as the type of person who dreams of receiving Quidditch jerseys."

"It's not my fault that your education was thoroughly lacking when you were growing up. You know I foresee you wearing that jersey a lot. Especially since I've decided to invest in season tickets next season."

"Does that mean I'm going to have to learn the name of that red ball?"

Draco's face became ashen as the extent of my lack of Quidditch knowledge became apparent. "Woman! What did you do during the Hogwarts' Quidditch games? Because obviously you weren't paying attention."

"Oh well Portia and I tended to gossip about who were the hottest players in the match."

"I hope you always chose me." Draco gruffly replied.

"It depended." I replied honestly.

"Excuse me?"

Cheerily, I threw a lopsided grin in his direction, "I believe honesty is the most important ingredient to a healthy marriage dear."

"You're such a prat."

In retaliation I gave him a swift peck on the lips. A mischievous gleam flickered in Draco's gaze but before he could say or do anything the sound of someone clearing their throat assailed us. Turning around I came face to face with a very angry looking Pansy.

Without hesitation Pansy spat out, "What is she doing here?"

Before Draco could reply I cut in, "Oh did you forget Pansy?" my tone was saccharine, "You invited me. Thank you so much for the invitation."

Pansy narrowed her eyes at me and then turned her attention to Draco. "Dracooooooo," she whined.

Draco nonchalantly shrugged, "Don't look at me. Why send her an invitation if you didn't want her to come?"

Pansy huffed in reply and quickly turned on her heels and stormed away while draining the contents of her glass.

"Remember, you need to be the first one to throw a drink in her face."

"Oh shut up you. I wouldn't do such a thing to someone and especially not on their birthday."

"You say that now, but I know you have it in you. Do me proud!"

It was obvious throughout the night that Pansy was committed to drink all the alcohol she could lay her hands on. After a few hours she was stumbling around the party making quite a spectacle of herself. I was reminded of the drunken parties the Slytherins use to hold in the common room after a Quidditch victory. Back then we had been young and alcohol had been so novel to us that everyone always got immensely drunk and did stupid things.

After Draco and I had drifted off into different groups of friends to talk and catch up, Pansy had begun openly trying to flirt and paw at Draco. He didn't encourage or discourage her and seemed rather neutral about the whole thing. It was interesting because I began to notice that the jealousy that had plagued me just a week ago had almost completely vanished. Our conversation from the night after the Puddlmere game had eased most of my doubts.

However, as the night wore on and Pansy was getting drunker, she was also getting bolder and it was starting to wear on my patience. I was standing next to Draco and Allison Nott, Theo's younger sister, when we heard Pansy yowl, "Dracoooooo!"

I spotted her sloshing her way towards us with another cup filled with what I guessed was more firewhiskey. As she passed next to one of the large reflecting pools which dotted the Parkinson's tea garden, an idea flashed into my mind.

As she wailed out, "Dracoooo!" again I made the snap decision to do it. Considering I worked for the Department for the Advancement of Magic and made spells as a living, Charms had always been my strong suit, and I had a special knack for wandless magic. As the thought of what I was about to do passed through my mind I couldn't help but muffle a giggle. Draco turned curiously towards me, ready to ask what was so funny; but before he could, I'd cast a wordless and wandless shoving charm which resulted in Pansy falling into the reflecting pool.

To everyone besides Draco and I, it seemed as if Pansy had accidentally fallen in the reflecting pool due to her drunken state. Laughter broke out across the crowd as Pansy got up and out of the pool soaking wet. A group of her friends rushed to her side to try and help her towards the house.

Allison Nott was beside herself with laughter, "Merlin! She really needs to cut back on the drinking, but that was hilarious! I guess that means the party is over." She bemoaned.

Flora Carrow giggled, "That reminded me of Sixth Year when Pansy got so piss drunk after the Hufflepuff game and she took Imogen's bet that she could get the giant squid to give her a kiss. Don't you remember Allison?"

Allison's laughter renewed itself at the memory, "I do! And then she rushed into the water yelling, 'Squidy, come here squidy.' She spent like ten minutes doing that until she stopped and asked everyone that was watching on the shore, 'Do squids even have mouths?'"

I couldn't help but laugh at the story and even Draco chuckled at the memory. He then turned to me with a knowing smirk, "Let's get out of here."

I merely nodded my head in response and then said goodbye to Allison and Flora. Draco linked arms with me and then we side-apparated to my apartment.

As soon as we arrived, Draco turned towards me with a massive grin, "So you won't throw a drink in her face but you've got no problem shoving her into a fountain?"

I tried to school my face into looking innocent, "I have no idea what you mean."

"Please," Draco smiled, "That little giggle of yours a split second before she went flying in was a dead giveaway."

"I have no idea what on earth you're referring to." Looking up at him I tried desperately to keep a smile from breaking free, but I felt my resistance slipping and my lips began to curve upward in a grin.

He leaned in closer to me and his voice became husky, "You minx, I can't believe you didn't just throw a drink in her face so that I could win three galleons."

I titled my head slightly and whispered back, "As if I'd let you make a profit of me. This should be a life lesson for you; don't make bets regarding me because I'll never cooperate."

Draco's gaze flickered from my eyes to my lips. After a heady pause, he lowered his lips and I was engulfed.

A/N: As once said by Monty Python, "I'm not dead yet!" Yes dear readers I am alive and relatively well. I've received a lot of reviews about how I couldn't abandon An Arranged State and whatnot and I feel the need to explain that I have no plans to abandon this story. The reason why there was such a long delay was because I started my first semester of law school in August and it destroyed my time.

2/3/15 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.