A/N 1: We've met tiny, insecure Astoria and still kind of short, insolent, 13-year-old Astoria. This time we meet taller than Daphne, 19-year-old Astoria. BTW, my profile has some info about "my" Astoria, in case you're curious :)

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You guys make me so happy and this chapter is dedicated to all of you!


Scenario Three: The Ministry Reception

"You need to find yourself a wizard. Mum and Dad are starting to worry, you know," said Daphne as she took a sip of her pumpkin juice.

Astoria glared at her sister. "They know what my priorities are."

"What priorities? You finished school last year and you still don't have a boyfriend. You just stay home with your books and Mr. Winterbottom. Did you know that cats don't really love their owners?"

Astoria didn't reply, just turned red while she fumed in anger.

"You've probably never even been kissed!"

"Yes, I have!"

"It doesn't count if he was aiming for your cheek and you turned your head at the wrong moment." Daphne snorted into her drink.

"It wasn't an accident!" she protested.

"Oh, sure," her sister snickered.

Astoria shook with fury. Her fingers were tightly grasping the wand in her pocket and she had to fight the urge to hex the hell out of her sister.

"If you must know, I have no intention of becoming a slag like you." There, she said it!

Daphne didn't even flinch. Slytherins (or former Slytherins, in this case) were always so hard to faze.

"I'm not a slag. You're just a prude."

"I'm not a prude!"

"Yeah? Prove it."

"What?!"

"Astoria, darling. We're at a Ministry reception to commemorate the third anniversary of the end of the War," Daphne spoke very slowly, as if Astoria were a child and not nineteen years old and a full head taller than her. "The place is full of attractive, well-dressed wizards. Mum and Dad aren't blood fanatics so you have a large choice of men. Pick one and get him to kiss you. If there's tongue involved, more points to you."

Astoria blanched and asked, "How do I do that?!"

"Put those Ravenclaw brains of yours to work," Daphne said condescendingly and drank what was left of her pumpkin juice. "I must remind you that Theo is off limits, though. I don't share."

Astoria didn't even hear the last part. She had known for a very long time how to block disgusting mental images of Daphne and her on-off boyfriend Theodore Nott.

Although Theodore and Daphne were Hogwarts sweethearts and had begun dating when they were fourteen, they often broke things off and went out with other people, only to get back together again after a month or so. No one understood it, not even other Slytherins who were used to something called 'Slytherin romance' which completely baffled people of other Houses.

Astoria was entirely skeptical of this and she wouldn't believe in the existence of this so-called 'Slytherin romance' until she witnessed it with her own eyes. She felt the Slytherins had made it all up to make themselves feel special and give their boys a Casanova reputation.

But back to her sister and Theodore, Daphne just had to mention 'Theo' and Astoria would immediately switch off, but this time she also switched off because there were other things to think about.

The younger Greengrass panicked. What could she do? She had always wanted to prove Daphne wrong and one-up her, but she didn't have the courage to walk up to some random wizard and ask him to kiss her! Merlin's balls, where was Stephen Cornfoot when you needed him?!

Sure, that kiss they had shared had been quite disastrous because she had no idea he was gay and thought he was aiming for a romantic kiss, but perhaps if she told him what was going on he would agree to kiss her in public just to provoke Daphne, someone he had always disliked.

Her hopes were dashed when she at last spotted Stephen with Ernie Macmillan in a conversation that oozed unresolved sexual tension.

Astoria glanced at her sister, who had a very self-satisfied look on her face, and got angry again. For Circe's sake! She had to get that stupid smug smile off of Daphne's face or she would go mad!

Just then a wizard walked by them.

"Hello, Daphne," he greeted, holding up his glass of Firewhiskey in a salute.

"Hello, Draco," she said politely.

Things had become tense between the two former Slytherins during Umbridge's reign of terror at Hogwarts and then when he became a Death Eater, but that was water under the bridge and they were back to being civil with each other.

Noticing his curious gaze, she added, "This is my sister –"

Astoria wasn't sure what came over her but all of a sudden she found herself attached to his lips, kissing him passionately and twining her fingers in his silky hair.

She heard the sound of glass breaking and felt tiny droplets of something land on her left foot but didn't let go of him, smiling into the kiss when he tentatively wrapped his arms around her.

Glass shattered again and that was starting to become really quite odd, but she ignored it.

Ah, so this was what a kiss should be like; she almost sighed, wishing it would never end but air soon became a necessity and she pulled away to stare into a pair of very confused and slightly lustful grey eyes.

"Um, hi," she said stupidly, blushing to the roots of her hair. "I'm Astoria."

Draco had also turned lightly pink and he glanced at Daphne. Her open mouth and wide green eyes, not to mention the hand she held up as if a glass were supposed to be there, told him that this wasn't how the youngest Greengrass usually greeted wizards.

He turned to the pretty, blue-eyed blonde in front of him and asked, "Can I…owl you sometime?"

"Er, yeah. Sure." She went even redder but grinned lopsidedly at him.

He had a stupid smile of his own plastered on his face which only disappeared later in the evening when that blasted Potter asked him if he had been hit with a Cheering Charm or something.

The idiotic smile was replaced by his usual smirk. "Wouldn't you like to know," he said mysteriously before walking away.

Harry just shook his head, thinking that Malfoy had finally lost it.


A/N 2: I know a lot of people love a confident, strutting, sneering and sex-exuding Draco (I do too lol) but I think that after the War he became somewhat unsure and quite shy around witches. With the former Death Eater stigma not many witches would be interested in him and Astoria's sudden kiss would have been a total shock for him.