Astoria looked up and down at her body in her floor length mirror, tilting side to side to evaluate herself in the gown she was wearing, making sure it fit her to her liking. The dress was silk and black, simple but still stunning. It seemed modest enough until she turned around and the entire length of her back was exposed almost down to her tailbone and the pearls she wore draped over her back rather than her chest. She frowned as she observed her pale back in the mirror, wishing she could cover it up. She had never worn dresses like it before. But before she hadn't been a taken woman, a prize to be shown off. A trophy wife.

She examined her face in the mirror next, taking in her familiar light freckles, natural eyes, and mouth. They wouldn't do. She went to her bathroom to take a closer look and frowned, grabbing her makeup from the counter. She covered her freckles and added some shadow to her eyes, creating a much more sultry effect than she had naturally. She went over her lips with a blood red color and stood back, staring at herself. She never wore much more than mascara. The woman looking back at her seemed foreign to her, older and much more daring, a woman who sought to be the center of attention, which Astoria never was. She wanted to take it all off and put on a dress that was much less attention grabbing, but she couldn't. She was not Miss Greengrass anymore. She had to be Mrs. Malfoy now. A Malfoy wife didn't fade into the background with plain modesty.

Astoria finished pinning her hair into a neat and perfected updo and sighed. She knew people would look at her tonight much differently that night than anyone had ever looked at her before. She would be under everyone's judging gazes and not as a young, polite daughter of a well respected, pure-blood man, but the trophy wife of Draco Malfoy.

She closed her eyes and fought off her desires to shrink back into the child that grew up in her parents home, working to make them proud instead of a wife about to be shown off like an accessory. Every woman she knew had to go through similar, she chided herself. She shouldn't be a coward. She shouldn't be ungrateful that she had achieved a name of such status.

Her mind flashed to watching Pansy Parkinson drunk in Astoria's family gardens at fifteen, Astoria nearly thirteen, in the lap of a random pure-blood boy during one of her family's parties, snogging each other senseless. The couple had at least been sensible to make sure they were obscured from view because they knew better than to be acting like that in the first place. They knew they had to have their "rebel moments" in secret, and until then they had been doing a relatively decent job aside from being seen by her.

Unfortunately for them, Astoria was going to change that.

She had walked into her home to find Narcissa, aware of her father's watchful gaze on her, convincing her she should see the new flowers she had arranged herself in her gardens that she loved. Narcissa had finally come with her after a bit of convincing, and Astoria had acted shocked and scandalized to see Pansy sloppily drunk in a random boy's lap, her mouth practically glued to him while Narcissa made a loud sound of disgust, turning Astoria away so she wouldn't be exposed to such a scene.

Yes, she had wanted her title. She would accept her prize and stop being such a child about it. Her father would be disappointed in her for acting as immature as she was. She nodded to herself in the mirror and left her bedroom to meet Draco who was dressed in a black, smooth suit. She waited patiently while he looked her up and down, his eyes not lending any hints to his thoughts. She took his arm when he offered it, making herself breathe evenly.

Her eyes scanned the Flint mansion, seeing so many faces she was used to seeing mingling in the barely lit ballroom. A familiar sense of aristocracy hung heavily in the air and a wave of relieved confidence washed over her as she surprisingly felt comfortable. Her eyes flashed with triumph and she stood taller next to her husband. She was in her element.

She felt almost every set of eyes in the room fall on her, assessing her, judging her. She followed Draco's lead, unfazed by the looks.

This was what she had been prepared for. This was what she was good at.

She began to mingle when she was spoken to with ease and charm, her words confident and practiced. She felt so grateful she could do things right again and she also felt a new sense of identity, a shift in the way she normally answered questions. She felt that she was a Malfoy wife then. She hadn't felt the change in her, but she knew she had adjusted to meet the standards of her new role. The fear she had felt in the previous days was temporarily gone. She knew the hum of sounds surrounding her, the cluster of voices she was so attuned to, and the familiar environment she had grown up in helped her comfort immensely, though she was quite sure her confidence would falter once she returned to her new home and the deafening silence.

She switched dancing partners and found herself in Theodore Nott's sure arms. She smiled politely at him, knowing that she couldn't be accused of doing anything wrong by dancing with different men as she was expected to. Not reasonably, anyway.

"Well well, Mrs. Malfoy. I don't know if Blaise can call you a child bride any longer," he told her, his voice low and flirtatious. His eyes stayed on hers, however, which she could not say for the other men her age and much older that she had danced with who had no shame in raking their eyes over her figure as much as they liked.

"You look very handsome as well, Theodore," she replied to him, making sure she didn't seem too friendly as eyes were still watching her.

"We never got to speak after a piece of my wardrobe went missing. Well. Alone that is. You did call me ridiculous between then and now."

"Ah, yes. I'm sorry to say that your coat is long gone. I also didn't call you ridiculous. I said that I thought your idea was ridiculous. I do apologize for insulting you, though. I can promise that is never my intention."

"Don't worry about it, love. I like a woman to keep me on my toes," he told her, winking.

The things men were allowed to get away with that women would never.

"I can't say I'm shocked about my coat. I hope he wasn't too hard on you. Though I can't say I blame him for his jealousy," he continued when she hadn't responded, spinning her slowly. She felt his eyes on her exposed back and there was almost a pause in their movement before he brought her back around in his arms. "You are absolutely something to hold on tight to."

Astoria felt her face flush and she tried to keep her expression neutral as she let him lead her. "He wasn't hard on me, but he had every reason to be. I don't know what came over me. It was entirely inappropriate."

"I hope whatever it was comes over you again."

She fought the urge to huff at him in exasperation. She had gone to Hogwarts with him for years and he had never pursued her. She was sure he only wanted her then because she was Draco's. Men were horridly simple creatures at times.

"I didn't expect you to handle your first night out as a married woman so well based on the way I found you yesterday. I have to say, I don't think any of these girls in attendance here would look as in place as you do right now actually," Theodore mused on. "Though I'm sure you would look just as well with my name attached to you."

"People have a habit of underestimating me," she replied, smiling and ignoring the second half of his words.

"Does that bother you?"

"No. There is a lot of advantage in being more or different than what people expect you to be," she said softly, looking around at all of the people she knew so much about. Secrets that could destroy some of them. All of them.

They switched partners once more before he could say anything else and she was finally in the arms of her husband. Draco pressed her body close to his and he held her much more intimately than her dancing partners before him. "Were you enjoying Nott, my dear wife?" he murmured after leaning in close to her face, his lips brushing against her ear. There was no trace of malice or suspicion, his tone merely pleasant. It only made him seem all the more intimidating.

"Was that who that was?" She asked him, feigning curiousness in a poor attempt at humor.

He pulled back slightly and somehow a touch of amusement graced his eyes but he didn't reply, his eyes moving from her to roam the room. She danced with him quietly for a few minutes, appreciating how well and easily he moved as well as how strong and sure his hands felt on her. He guided her in such an expert way that she didn't even have to pay attention to her own movements. She took in the hum of sounds around her, focusing on other couples' words, listening.

Before she could make out many comprehensible sentences, Draco had released her, leaving her alone on the side of the ballroom. She was confused and looked around. The song hadn't ended yet.

A hand slid up her back and Astoria jumped, spinning around to find her grinning sister dressed in a simple but gorgeous silver gown, her straight blonde hair gathered nicely atop her head. Emotion flooded through her and she pulled her into a tight embrace, taking in her familiar warmth and smell.

"Why are you here?" Astoria breathed out the words, suddenly worried for her sister. "Please tell me you didn't sneak away."

"You know I snuck away," Daphne said, pulling away and rolling her eyes. "Why are you here looking like that?" Her sister eyed her up and down. "Fuck, I hate you. I was at least hoping you'd resemble just slightly a five year old trying on her mother's heels for the first time, but here you are. Looking perfect. Mind screwing up occasionally, Tori?" Her bitter tone only slightly reached her eyes and Astoria smiled sadly.

"I'm so happy to see you," she told her, not addressing her other comments. "I just don't want you to get into trouble."

"Oh please. It's fine. They won't even know. Besides, it's the Flints for Merlin's sake. As if anything remotely exciting would happen at their place. If you weren't here I'd actually find it a blessing that I'm not supposed to be in attendance."

"I wouldn't refer to danger as mere excitement, but yes, I know. Theodore, Blaise, and Draco were contemplating this to be a trap set up by the family if you can believe it."

Daphne snorted louder than Astoria had yesterday. "I swear to you, Astoria. Men know nothing besides what will be in bed with them when they go to sleep at night."

Before Astoria could ask about their parents and where they were staying, Draco had returned again with Blaise while a few others began to mingle close by, attempting to listen in on some interesting conversation they could gossip about later.

Draco watched Astoria with her sister as he approached carefully, seeing her in a different light than he had the days prior.

This was the woman his parents had arranged him to.

She was a perfect Malfoy wife and his resentment burned at the sight of the confidence and effortlessness she had shown in the past couple of hours and how falsely perfect and practiced she was. His attraction grew as well, as he was raised to desire women like her, to find them the most worthy of him. He watched her as he stopped in front of her, seeing how genuinely happy she was to see her sister. It was rare to see much real love in public among their community.

"Odd you aren't in some female clump like most of the girls here. I'm sure someone could arrange for a playpen," Blaise told Astoria, nodding to Daphne.

"It's hard to have friends when you're raised as a child to see every girl within five years of you as your competition," Daphne told him.

"You have many friends, Greengrass. I'm talking about the infant," Blaise replied, sipping his drink.

Daphne smiled, her eyes holding an odd expression. "I did, didn't I? And we can see which one of us made it out on top, can't we?"

Draco heard some of the older adults around them chuckle at her comment and nod to Astoria, regarding her admirably. One of them nudged their young daughter, repeating the lesson to them. Family name before friends and pleasure. Draco's mind thought back to Daphne's words from years before.

"Astoria told me that it may be best to just listen to my own desires for once and live for myself. She's so uptight and boring that she'd never suggest a thing like that. So I figure if she of all people thinks I should do what I want for once I had better just give in," Daphne had told him when she had met him in that abandoned classroom just before he had taken her against the wall, not caring about what she was saying in the slightest. He had left her there immediately after he was finished, allowing her regrets to sink in as she walked shamefully to her dorm after realizing what a huge mistake she had made.

Draco felt his face smirk as he went over Daphne's words about what her sister had told her. His seemingly innocent wife really had been in the game to win. Encouraging her sister's downfall? Snake.

Draco glanced around the dimly lit room, taking in all of the bitter looks of jealousy directed at his wife from the girls that had lost to her. Pathetic. Their existences were pathetic, poor excuses for living. This was all they had cared about and all their lives had ever consisted of. Status.

Status that wasn't even theirs. Status that was given to them when they achieved a husband as long as they impressed the right people. He was meant to respect these spoiled leeches? He was meant to respect the leech that was his wife?

Strangely, he did feel a respect for her, watching her then. She surprisingly wasn't cocky as a lot of girls in their community would be or flashing herself about in triumph. She only looked confident and regal, uncaring of the nasty looks she was getting from her peers. She didn't need to fling her prize in the faces of the girls who loathed her. She just was his wife, and that was all she needed to be in order to show them who the winner was, no longer a petty schoolgirl.

Though he doubted she ever was simply a petty schoolgirl.

She was intelligent and cunning. He could recognize that then. She knew what their life was and accepted it without wanting her cake and to eat it too as so many other girls had in her place. She didn't seem mean spirited, but she was willing to do what she needed to do to obtain her goals. Out of the other possible girls that had been looked at for his hand, he decided that Astoria had been the best choice.

Draco watched Daphne next to her sister closely. She didn't look at her with the same jealousy the other girls did, but there was still something there, something he couldn't quite read.

"I have to go actually, Tori. I'm only willing to push father to a certain point," Daphne told her, shaking her head. "He should be pleased I came. Maybe I will find some divorced fifty year old man here in need of a bride to take me off of his hands."

"Daphne," Astoria said flatly. "We are the Greengrass girls. A marriage like that is meant for an off the grid pure-blood whose family is hoping-"

"I'm a Greengrass girl, Mrs. Malfoy, and thank you, I'm well aware of how our world works. No need to speak to me as if I have no sense," Daphne cut her sister off, snapping irritably.

"No, I'm speaking to you as if you have less sense than I. Which has been proven to be true countless times before," Astoria replied calmly and Daphne gave her a withering look.

"Got it. No embarrassing daddy more than I already have and try to live up to the all too perfect you. I'll make sure to write that down. I have to leave."

He watched his wife ignore her sister's sarcasm and lean forward to hug her tightly before kissing her on her cheeks. "I want to see you again soon, but I shouldn't. So don't make it happen. Just know I want it to," Astoria told her, scowling.

Daphne waved her off, turning to leave when Draco caught the emotion in her eyes as she did. He imagined that she must have been quite miserable, stuck with her disappointed parents as they were in hiding from the uprising Death Eaters while her little sister was married off.

"We should be leaving as well. I grow tired of these things quite quickly," Draco said to Astoria indifferently. He could not stand hours of more pointless small talk about things he didn't care about, around people he didn't care about.

Astoria nodded, frowning. "Okay," she said reluctantly.

"I apologize that you don't have all night to soak up the glory and envious glances, princess," he told her, his voice cold. Perhaps she did care about the attention.

"It's not that, Draco. I just don't act as well around you when we are alone," she told him softly, honestly.

He watched her, studying her expression carefully. He couldn't argue with her there, as she was quite the mess around him when they were alone. He preferred the less rehearsed and less practiced mess that was her when they were alone to how she was in a social environment, he decided. He offered his arm to her silently, choosing not to respond to her comment. They spoke to the Flint family and a few others with their goodbyes before excusing themselves. He took her back to the manor, bringing her to his dark bedroom.

"You made a rather convincing Malfoy tonight," he told her, taking the side of her face into his palm. He rested his thumb on her colored lips. "But you aren't one properly yet."

Draco slowly smeared the offending red from her lips across her unflawed face, ruining the time she had taken on it, watching all of the sureness and confidence leave her light blue eyes.

"Take this mess off of your face," he told her, his voice soft. "I don't like it."

She didn't need the dark makeup. She didn't need the false illusion to match herself to every other woman he'd come to know. It masked her refreshing purity and sincerity with something wrong, fake. He didn't move from the spot he was standing in when she nodded nervously and left to remove it, waiting there for her until she came back to him shyly, her scent of lavender and cleanliness settling over him. He pulled her body against his, reaching behind her to trail his hand down her spine, barely touching her skin. He felt her tremble under his touch.

It was unusual for him to be touching a girl in such an intimate way and have her not be touching him back eagerly in the process. Even the virgins he had in the past would try to mask their inexperience with enthusiasm and distasteful sounds of approval. But Astoria was still, allowing him to touch her as he pleased, waiting to see and take in how everything felt for the first time.

She looked away from him when his hand brushed the zipper of her dress and Draco paused, watching her face.

"No. Look at me."

Astoria moved her clear eyes back to his face reluctantly and he dragged her zipper down as slowly as he could, letting the anticipation grow within her. He pushed the dress off of her shoulders and let it drop to pool at her feet, her breasts uncovered and bare to him. Her incredibly pale skin glowed under the light of the moon that was peering in through his balcony doors as he took in her body, looking at it differently than he had before. He wanted her in that moment, to get lost in her, forget all of his demons, and drown himself in the girl. His wife.

Astoria watched Draco's cool grey eyes, waiting quietly while he undressed her, the silence of the room loud in her ears. She saw something change in them. There was a hunger there. A hunger and longing for her as he took in her body. She let herself breathe as calmness washed over her. He wasn't going to hurt her. Not in this way. He took her hair down from its secure style, dropping the pins carelessly as he watched her blonde curls fall. She tilted her head back for him slightly when his face came down to kiss her, his lips gentler than the first time she had felt them. She kissed him back without hesitating that time, wrapping her arms around his neck timidly. His scent filled her nose as she let him completely take over her senses. His scent was dark and cool and he smelt of pine, eucalyptus, and rich cologne. It dizzied her slightly.

She felt her body fully relax as she lost herself in his deep kiss, her lips parting on their own accord for his tongue that slid over her bottom lip. Draco lifted her into his arms and carried her easily to the bed, not breaking his mouth from hers as he laid her down onto it. She shivered at the chilled bedding against her warmed skin and breathed deeply as more of his scent surrounded her, embraced her. She felt his cool hands at her waist and looked down at them as he gently pulled her thin lace underwear down past her knees and off of her completely, tossing them aside. Instinctively, Astoria closed her thighs together tightly, how vulnerable she was to him sinking in.

"No. Part them."

Astoria wanted to die at his commanding words and she looked at him with begging eyes, her eyes pleading with him not to force her to bare herself to him in such a way. Unsurprisingly, his eyes didn't change and neither did the set of his mouth. She clenched her jaw and forced herself to relax her thighs, parting them just enough to satisfy him as his eyes seemed to drink her in. She felt a warmth rush through her as he looked at her with such desire, her yearning for his approval being satisfied finally. He began to undress himself, not taking his eyes from her. She had the urge to look away, to give him his privacy, but remembered his order to look at him and she made herself watch him expose himself to her. Oddly, when he removed his belt and had it bunched in his hand she squirmed slightly and he stopped for a moment, cocking an eyebrow at her.

"Perhaps another time." His voice was dark and filled with amusement and she felt herself flush hotter than she thought imaginable and he dropped the belt. He couldn't possibly mean…

Astoria swallowed and pushed the thought from her mind, focusing on his sculpted features. She wouldn't allow herself to look below his waist directly but she could tell from her peripheral vision that she ought to be very nervous about how small she was.

He moved towards her and rested his hands on each of her ankles, sliding his hands up until he reached the tops of her thighs. He pushed them further apart slowly and a choking sound escaped her throat as he stared down at the most intimate and private part of her.

"Better."

His hands brushed between her thighs and he used his finger to trace dangerously close to where her thigh met her pelvis. Her breath caught as she watched him dip his head down and run his lips along where his finger had been.

Astoria couldn't stand it anymore and she threw her arms over her eyes, much too nervous and self conscious to stand watching him. He stopped moving again and she mentally cursed. He didn't move until she finally dropped her arms down and looked at him again to find his eyes staring into hers, waiting. He resumed the touch of his lips against the inside of her thighs and began planting slow, open mouthed kisses on them when they shifted slightly as her body began to respond and relax again to him. Her eyes closed in pleasure this time and he allowed it, not stopping and her back arched slightly, her thighs shifting a second time. She felt a deep need growing in her, gnawing at her from between her legs. A soft whimper came from her when she felt him sucking right at the base of her thigh, right beside the spot that was telling her she needed him so desperately and she felt the evidence of her desire escape there. She squirmed, both embarrassed and lustful. He caught her thighs again and prevented her from closing them, not pausing from his activities.

He teased her that way for what felt like an eternity before his mouth moved up from between her thighs to her naval, kissing slowly up her stomach and across her breasts before running his lips across her collarbones, sucking and nipping his teeth harshly over her skin before moving to her neck to repeat the attentions.

When his lips were finally on hers again they were much harder, hungrier. Astoria kissed him back with a need she had never known, her arms sliding up his smooth back. Her fingers were light against his skin and she felt him shudder under her hands. She was surprised and pleased that she had brought such a raw reaction from him with her touch.

When he finally slid inside her there was no pain where she had fully expected there to be, only slight discomfort at the unfamiliar feeling as he was slow and stopped for a while, waiting for her to adjust to him. He ran his lips up and down her jawline and kissed behind her ear before moving again once the discomfort had gone. Affection for him coursed through her and her eyes filled slightly with emotion. She had never expected him to be gentle and so attentive to her.

She couldn't think as she was absolutely consumed by him in the next moments. He was everywhere, so close. So unbelievably close, and all she needed was for him to be closer - to give her more of him. She needed more, as much as was possible.

More than was possible.

She was dully aware of the sounds of pleasure and need coming from her mouth and she was sure if she wasn't lost to so many new feelings and emotions she would be embarrassed at herself. But she was lost in them, and she didn't care about being embarrassed as she dug her fingers into his flesh every time he rocked back into her again and again, consuming her more. Owning her.

Her sounds cut off in a stuttering breath filled noise as she reached her peak, her thoughts and senses exploding around her. She was vaguely aware of his movements slowing as she swam in her pleasure, his body lightly convulsing as he kissed her neck greedily before shifting off of her to lay beside her. She could feel her pulse strongly from a place in her body she couldn't pinpoint exactly as the feelings she had experienced so intensely faded and she heard herself breathing loudly, too loudly for what she normally liked. Astoria waited a few moments to try to catch her breath before attempting to slide off of his bed. She was sure he wanted her out and to go to her own bedroom before she fell asleep in his.

Draco's hand caught her arm and pulled her back down next to him as he pulled the blankets back and over them. "Go to sleep, Astoria," he murmured, turning over on his side, his strong and scarred back facing her.

Astoria settled down beside him with surprised, tired eyes, more affection bubbling in her throat as she rested her head against his pillow, watching his back. She tried to analyze and replay what all had just happened as she studied the scars, but sleep took her only seconds after laying her head down.