Disclaimer: JKR owns all recognizable characters.

Warning: Some steamy situations.

Dose of Your Own

By: OurLoveIsForever

Chapter Twenty: Mess

During the Final Battle at Hogwarts, I had left with everyone else for a reason. Sure, I had friends in other Houses, some of which had remained to fight, but I knew that I wasn't a fighter and would serve only to get in the way. That's not to mention that anyone who had green and silver on their ties was targeted. I wouldn't stick my neck out so blatantly. No, self-preservation was at the forefront of my mind.

Now, I was doing the exact opposite of what I had done before. I could barely tell if it was my desire for everything to end or my almost inherent stupidity.

Perhaps it was both.

Slowly, I slipped my hand over the back of my head, flattening flyaway hairs after I had just dried the locks with my wand. The room was warm and moist from the escaping heat of the shower I had just taken. The mixture between the sweet citrus of the body wash potion combined with the violet of the hair potion that Narcissa had given me the night before.

Tomorrow, we were to leave for Greengrass Manor. While I sat before the mirror, my hands folded in my lap, I realized simply how much I dreaded it. Although Draco was coming with, I knew that the worst was still possible and more than likely. I sighed, placing my head in my hands.

"I don't know what I'm doing." I muttered, angrily.

"Well, the prudent thing to do would be get some rest. It's well past midnight." Draco's voice said behind me. I looked to the mirror to see him leaning on the end of the bed. "I've been wondering since Demidov's visit how you knew."

I smirked, looking down at the spread of make- up, lotions and perfumes in front of me. Bottles of differing form and color gleamed in the dim light. Lady Malfoy had been adamant that I had to go in well prepared as the fiancée of her son. I thought she had been joking, but it appeared she most certainly was not. As for how I knew those aspects and secrets to Demidov… "Laura O'Malley sent me a letter with some useful information."

'I hope this intelligence reaches you in time to be somewhat useful. Word travels fast in the Ministry as you well know. I thought that you might need this.'

The letter had the blackmail that I needed. I had hastily sent a reply the same evening thanking her for her speed.

Draco shook his head. "You're evil."

"I didn't know." I responded dryly, shaking my head.

"Demidov has sent a letter detailing some certain aspects." I turned slightly to watch him as he walked toward me. I felt that strange nagging feeling in my lower abdomen once more, but I fought to ignore it. Now was certainly not the time for that. "We are to be out of that house by midnight tomorrow night otherwise the worst will be assumed and an Auror team will be sent in. If Carrow and Crabbe are there, we are to attempt escape as quickly as possible."

I almost snorted. "So basically: don't be stupid."

"Or don't be a Gryffindor." Draco shrugged. I shivered when his hand slid over my shoulder. "Nott is not in a pleasant mood."

"Just when is Nott ever in a good mood anymore?" I retorted, acting as if I was unaware of his hand on shoulder.

He leaned down slowly, his eyes holding mine in the reflection. I breathed in slowly, closing my eyes when his lips came in contact with the crook of my neck. "This is bloody ridiculous."

"Which part?" I said thickly. "Because I find it 'bloody ridiculous' that you can't seem to go five minutes without kissing me."

"No, that I can understand." He responded, sliding his hands down my arms. I shivered slightly, leaning back into him. "Normally, I run from danger, not into it."

"I'll attribute it to maturity."

"I'll attribute it to a lack of sanity." He murmured, into my skin. "Or a lack of any manner of thought process at all."

"You finally admit to being insane." I quipped quietly, my breath catching as his hands slipped from my arms to my sides. His fingers slid along my sides over the smooth silk of the pajamas provided by Narcissa once again. I heaved a breath when his right hand finally rested at the crook of my hip and my abdomen. His breath was hot in my left ear.

"Doesn't make sense…"

I turned my face to him, looking at him through my lashes, bringing my left hand up to the side of his face. A small smirk pulled at the corner of my lips. "No, it doesn't." His lips landed on mine with a fierceness and ferocity that I had never tasted before. He pulled back quickly.

"I don't want you to hate me, Astoria." He whispered huskily. "If we do this, we're in it for the long haul." I watched him with lust covered eyes, feeling with all of my being that I was in the right place, that I was ready. I did want Draco Malfoy for the rest of my life. It was an odd feeling, something that I can hardly relate. I was in love with Draco Malfoy. "I don't want casual sex with you. If we do this, you're mine."

I turned to face him as I stood up. He was only a few feet away, his knuckles white as he clutched onto the footboard of the bed. "I think I was yours when you said 'who the hell are you?'" I murmured, easing forward. "But for that, I can't see this—"

I found I couldn't speak further when his hand came to place a thumb and forefinger under my chin bringing my lips to his so sweetly that I was speechless. Our lips moved together, growing with intensity at every passing second. I felt complete, as if, in some strange almost romantic sense, he was the rest of 'me'. In the cynical sense of my personality, such things were impossible, but I knew otherwise. Draco Malfoy was my soul-mate. The only way I could explain was the that we fit each other, the way we balanced was perfect in every sense. His arms were wrapped around me like a metal coil, holding as if I would disappear if he were to release.

Clutching to his white button shirt, I felt the heat of his hand on the bare skin of my lower back as he pushed the shirt up a bit. I sighed into the kiss, seemingly renewing his fervor. His lips moved from my mouth as I gasped in what air I could. The kisses were everywhere, near my ears, along my jaw-line, down my neck and nearing my collarbone. I shivered with every touch. I was no longer in control. We moved toward the bed in tandem, not thinking of our movements. I fell into the mattress before he moved atop me, his hands trailing up my body until they rested on either side of my head. I gazed up at him through glazed eyes.

"I bloody love you." It seemed as though he didn't mean to say that when his eyes widened a bit. I allowed a smirk to come over my face. My arms snaked around his shoulders to wrap around his neck.

"Then kiss me, you great idiot!" He mouth rushed down to take my mouth again.

Somehow, I had been wise enough to wear a bra with my pajamas upon staying in Malfoy Manor again. His hot hands eased the shirt off with ease as I did the same to him. My hands trailing over his bare pale chest.

"Did you have to wear a bra?" He muttered thickly, glaring at me as he tried to get the blasted thing off.

I nearly laughed. "You're a wizard. Figure it out!" His eyes rolled as he placed two kisses just above the fabric on my chest. It felt wonderful as he laid between my legs, one hand on my side, the other moving down my hip. His mouth moved back to mine. We were fighting for control, for dominance, neither giving into the other.

A knock on the door nearly sent me over the edge. I clambered backward, closing my legs tightly together in the process. I had no idea where my shirt had disappeared to in the fray. Draco immediately threw a sheet at me, a ghost of a wily smirk on his face. I glared, irritated. He leaned back against the head board, running a hand through his hair.

"Oh, honestly, do you think that will do anything?"

"At least I won't look a mess." He snapped, crossing his arms over his pale chest.

"You do look a mess, Draco!" I spat as the door opened.

If there was ever a time that I wished for the ground to simply open underneath and swallow me whole, it was when Theodore Timothy Nott stepped through that door, his eyes raking over the scene in front of him. I felt my face heating up quicker than if I had been set ablaze when his green met my blue. His mouth opened and shut in the effort to form a coherent thought, but he was failing at even forming vowels.

"Nott." Draco nodded in acknowledgement of his presence, taking on an almost curt air. "This must be a bit of a shock for you, but women are a very different from men. They have these things called breasts and v—"

In a quick and fluid motion, Nott brought his wand out, pointing it directly at the man cracking the wise. His face was set with an irate air. "If another word comes out of that damnable mouth of yours, I swear on Merlin's beard you will not be producing heirs." If possible, Draco became paler.

I didn't move for fear of that sheet coverage slipping away to bare all for the man standing in the door. His eyes darted to me, to Draco, and back again as if he were confused as to exactly what had happened. Finally, I had reached my limit after nearly thirty seconds of silence. "Listen, Theo, if you are going to just stand there, then go away. Otherwise, say your peace or curse Malfoy, or whatever it is you're contemplating." Draco gave me a withering look.

Nott stared at me momentarily, his gaze snapping out of some strange trance-like state, before he nodded, catching my eyes with his again. "I just wanted to make sure that you were ready for tomorrow."

"I am." I said with finality, as if it sealed the deal. "And as much as I love you, I would like to get a shirt on."

"So go ahead. I need to have a word with Malfoy anyway."

My eyes narrowed at him as we exchanged a silent argument. He wasn't going to move. I swore under my breath as I threw the sheet down, seemingly not bothering either of the males present. After all, it was only my bra. It was hardly something they hadn't seen before. Nott kept an apathetic façade as I swung my legs off the edge of the bed to look for my top.

"Draco," he said, quietly. "You know my thoughts on this."

"And I will repeat to you the same answer as I have a hundred times: you are not her keeper." Draco hissed. "I have done nothing to warrant your suspicion, Nott."

Nott made a disbelieving sound, leaning in the jamb of the door, his arms crossed over his chest. "Draco, I know you. I know how you are. I won't allow you to play her. She's too important for that."

I finally found my shirt, slung over the chair beside the bed. My fingers rested on the fabric when Draco growled in heated anger. He was standing the next moment beside the bed. "You think I don't know that, Theo? You really think me that stupid? When have you ever known me to—" Draco stopped, turning to look at me. His gaze was the most sincere that I had ever seen. He looked at a loss, almost unsure of what he wanted or needed to say to prove his intentions.

I didn't need the proof.

Our overprotective best friend did.

"I love her, Theo." He smirked a bit as if he had declared 'checkmate'. I wasn't sure if I appreciated those words being used to declare a 'win' over my best mate.

Nott stared at him for a long moment, reading his eyes. If Draco wanted, he could bare his soul for the man in doubt. I wondered if that was what he was doing at that moment, working that odd power that Draco held with his eyes. After a moment, Theo sighed, running his hand through his hair. He shrugged. "Do what you will." He turned and disappeared down the hallway. He had finally accepted it once and for all.

Draco didn't move. "Damn nosey, meddling, snake-arsed bastard." He shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest.

I busied myself with pulling the shirt back over my head. "Bitter?"

"Of course I am! He's always been like that, sticking to the shadows and only popping in when it is inconvenient. Woe to the observer!" He smirked slightly, watching as I straightened my bottoms. "Well, my dear fiancée, I will see you in the morning." He began to head for the door but stopped only feet away. "If the worst should happen…"

"You should know: any means to achieve the ends." I answered slowly. "Don't hesitate to escape."

He nodded, moving out of the room.

With his presence gone, I fell onto the bed. My arms came up to cover my eyes. In hours I would be within my old home. There was no telling what would happen or if our risk would be fruitful. I wasn't even sure why I was taking such a leap of faith. Faith was not becoming of a Slytherin rebel. We lived by the facts, cold and hard, indifferent. Difference came, I found, when you had something to live for. I wanted to end the threat and if I was the one that could bring about the capture of those that threatened my family then so be it. I would take any step it took to ensure that they were safe.

Crazy as it sounded, and if someone had told me months prior that I would be head over heels in love with Draco Malfoy, I would not have believed them. Why? Because for intents and purposes, Draco Malfoy was an Order of Merlin prick. I knew that. He had not changed by simply being in love with me. If anything, I found I got more of his attitude, but that didn't change anything.

I was still in love with him.

Loony? Sure, but I've known that for years. The moment I was stuffed into Slytherin I had known that my life would be wild. I never expected this.