It took more than a few days for Draco to feel even the smallest bit comfortable with his new living situation. For one thing, he didn't think he'd ever been in a smaller dwelling in his life - he was sure even house elves got bigger accommodations than this. However, Astoria merely said that she "liked the cosy atmosphere" and that "besides, it was very cheap". Draco didn't doubt it.

Secondly, Draco found that he had many muggle contraptions to deal with, very few of which he had any notion of how to use. He did, of course, use magic as often as he could, but even here he ran into problems; after all, a wizard could only do spells if he knew them, and Draco had simply never learned any of the ones for household chores. When had he needed to? And with no spell books to hand, he found himself for the first (and he very much hoped the last) time, completely at the mercy of the muggle world.

The need to rely on muggle technology had become evident on only the second morning in Astoria's home, when he had decided, in frustration, to use Incendio to make himself some toast and had almost set the entire kitchen on fire. Astoria had not been particularly happy with him for this, complaining about her deposit and that he'd almost "set off the fire alarm", whatever that was. After throwing out the char-grilled toast, she had insisted on showing him how to use the toaster, which like most muggle technology he had used so far was not complicated, but achingly slow. Draco also found the he could not help but jump whenever the toast popped out of the toaster, no matter how often he used it. He pretended not to see Astoria hiding a smile whenever this happened.

Another new aspect to his life was, of course, the muggle clothing he had to wear. Astoria had again ended up leading the way on this; the Ministry had given him a few items to wear, but after walking downstairs on the forth day to a laugh half way between a howl and a snort he had decided that these might not be the best choice (his outfit had consisted of some bulky boots, a multi-coloured t-shirt and a small red pair of very uncomfortable, tight shorts which Astoria later informed him were in fact a form of muggle swimwear). After going back upstairs and changing back into his robes with Astoria's laughter still ringing in his ears, he stomped back downstairs, declaring muggle clothing "ridiculous" and that he "wouldn't be setting a foot outside this dump anyway so it doesn't matter".

Astoria's laughter quietened down at this and Draco half expected her to get angry with him, but although her face looked rather set she said, "You're right, some muggle clothes are pretty ridiculous. Then again, you never met my Great Aunt Enid; there was this robe she used to wear that looked like she'd dyed a haystack red and then stuck her head through it."

Despite himself, Draco couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"Anyway, I think even I could do better than that. If all those clothes at least fit, let me just check the sizes and I'll go buy you some slightly less bizarre clothes this afternoon. No promises though; as you can see, I'm not the most stylish myself," she said, gesturing at her own clothing which consisted of a pair of olive green trousers and an overlarge, hairy white jumper with the silhouette of some kind of odd horse-looking creature across the front.

Draco verbally agreed with her, but secretly he felt that Astoria's slightly wild blonde curls somehow made the otherwise ugly jumper work.

That afternoon, Astoria came back with three large bags full of clothes. Draco stared as she placed the bags on the tiny dining table in the corner of the living room apprehensively, but said nothing.

"Don't worry, I'll get the money I spent back from the Ministry," said Astoria after a few moments, before walking into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea.

Draco didn't know her well enough to be sure whether this was meant sarcastically or not, but nevertheless did feel slightly chastised for not having considered this at all.

The clothes themselves, as it turned out, were actually quite inoffensive, for muggle clothes. The majority of them were in dark or pastel shades, and there was a mix of button-up shirts and plain, slightly tight t-shirts (although unlike the swimming shorts, these were actually quite comfortable), as well as a few jumpers and jackets. The trousers were mostly in dark blue or black and of a slightly rough material Astoria called 'denim', although there were also a few in more familiar materials. To Draco's embarrassment, there was also a selection of underwear in the bag - he packed these away quickly and without comment.

The next morning, Draco came down to a slightly different reception. Astoria was in the kitchen, putting bread into the toaster and making herself a coffee with a rather noisy and complicated machine which Draco had so far avoided using. Draco walked over to the cupboard, taking out a glass before opening the fridge to find the orange juice. As he poured himself a glass, Astoria looked over to him.

"Ah, morning Draco-oh," she said, taking in his attire.

He had chosen to wear a pair of dark 'jeans', as well as a navy blue shirt, and had rolled the sleeves up, as it was a fairly warm autumn day.

"Oh? Well that's better than what you said yesterday, so I take it you approve?" said Draco.

"Much better than Speedos," said Astoria with a playful smile.

"Well...I suppose I have you to thank for the, er, better choice in clothing..." said Draco awkwardly. Unless he was trying to win favour with someone important, he rarely said thank you. He wanted to look away from her, but was finding it quite difficult to do so.

"You're welcome," said Astoria sincerely, and she didn't look away either. Astoria's eyes seemed to glitter in the pale morning light. The tiny kitchen suddenly felt even smaller than usual.

POP!

This time, both of them jumped when the toast popped out of the toaster.


A/N: I'm sorry it's taken me longer than I said! Quite honestly I was being a bit optimistic thinking I could come back from a 10 day holiday and get a chapter out immediately, and it's kinda hard to write after a day at work so there was no hope from Tuesday onwards.

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter! This one went off in a slightly different direction than I had in mind. I actually had another small 'event' planned to occur in this chapter, but then Astoria and Draco just seemed to want to have this little moment in the kitchen and who was I to stop them?

Also, yes, I totally made Draco wear red Speedos. You're welcome.

And in case you're wondering the 'horse-like animals' were, of course, llamas. I'm not sure why but I just don't feel like a pureblood wizard from the UK would know what a llama is.

If you have any other questions about what happened in this or other chapters, any predictions, or comments on this chapter, please let me know! I would love to hear what you think!