Aftermath
A - Aftermath
Astoria wasn't naive—she hoped she wasn't—at least not in this area. Behind her overbearing parents’ backs, she had had her own experiences and considered this a familiar dance.
After a hazy and passionate night came the embarrassing realization. Astoria had never been one to stay around. Usually, she was up before her partner and out the door even before the sun had risen.
Of course, she thought, this time would be the same, too—the same dance, the same room, the same feelings and acts. But she knew something was off as she felt the warm sunlight on her shoulders.
Astoria cursed herself mentally. She had overslept.
Astoria kept her eyes closed and tried to read the situation. She was still naked under the soft white blanket that was very precariously draped along her chest. The morning sound of birds chirping slipped through the half-open window behind her, letting in a rare summer breeze.
Most of all, she strained her ears to feel the soft breaths of a man beside her. Well, who was supposed to be next to her, If he hadn't woken up yet. When she couldn't detect anything, she slowly opened her eyes and scanned the room.
Apart from intricate cornices along the ceiling and window alcoves, the room was surprisingly plain. There were doors to her left and windows to her right, revealing a simple green pasture in the countryside. The light curtains on the windowsill and poster bed swayed in the breeze, casting shallow shadows across the polished dark wooden floor. A simple wooden desk stood in a corner of the room, its surface littered with books and ink-stained letters. The wall across it was decorated with full-wall shelves bulging with dusty books.
Astoria silently prayed that she would be able to get out of this situation without getting noticed by him. Usually, the nameless men she attached herself to were people she didn’t know and never ended up knowing. She took extreme measures to avoid running into wizards of her circle, by visiting muggle clubs or sketchy areas which were often avoided by people her mother would call “pleasant company”.
But last night, she had messed up completely.
Despite the dizzying haze of her mind, the reason for her mortification spelled itself out very clearly. Draco Malfoy: the youngest person to ever be a death eater, the sole heir to the extravagant Malfoy fortune, the number one bachelor on her mothers ‘blacklist’, and the one person with whom she somehow kept making eye contact in social galas. Despite her extreme measures to avoid him, she had landed herself in Draco Malfoys bed.
Astoria was truly done for. If he blabbed of this to any of his friends, she would be eternally cast out from society, as her sister would have said. Her parents’ livid faces painted themselves very vividly in Astoria's mind. On the other hand, Malfoy didn’t seem like someone who would do that, although only her alcohol-addled mind had made the judgments. He was quite pleasant last evening, his charm and sense of humor won her over to accept his invitation to his flat. That and the obvious amount of alcohol they both consumed.
She was rather surprised to find Draco Malfoy in a sketchy bar on the outskirts of town, a new one that she had always wanted to explore. Even after their brutal fall from grace, someone like him was expected to be somewhere more posh, somewhere more elegant and high-end; like the new pub in Diagonalley.
A door squeaked. Astoria frantically jerked into a sleeping position and tried to level her breathing to make it look like she was still asleep. The bed creaked as she did so, which probably gave her away immediately.
Light footsteps headed towards the bed and stopped. With her eyes shut and internally begging him to leave for work or whatever it was that he did, Astoria measured that he was standing near the bed. She had always thought that she was an incredible actress at social events, as she kept her face as neutral as possible. But her mother and sister would beg to differ.
The mattress dipped on one side and some sort of fabric was tossed near her arms.
“Do you normally eat breakfast?” Draco Malfoy’s voice carried out in the silence that followed.
She started panicking. How should she act? How cool could she play it off?
Astoria settled on acting like he waked her up. She pretended to yawn and stretched. Overdoing the arm movements and pulling up the blanket to provide a bit of modesty.
“hmm? What were you saying?” she mumbled as she sat up, squinting her eyes as if she was still full of sleep.
Through her squinting eyes, she made out the unmistakable characteristics of Draco Malfoy: soft blonde hair that looked almost white in the sunlight, a pale pointed face, his stormy grey eyes full of secrets, and his signature smirk, which seemed to mock Astoria even now.
“I’ll have some food ready if you’d like to eat” Draco answered.
He tried to play it down but failed to hide the small smirk that tugged his lips. It was so obvious that he saw straight through her.
“Yes, that’ll be great, thank you,” she said as he turned to walk out of the room.
Now that he knew, she hoped he would let her ridiculous one-woman show slide, but that was not how Draco Malfoy did things.
“You’d be a great actress if you could keep that up in social events” he added, before he passed the doorframe.
Despite the urge to roll her eyes at the fact that he just had to point it out, she couldn't stop the way her lips turned slightly up.
“What gave it away?” she asked as she slipped into the oversized shirt he gave her.
After locating her short pants, which she had worn under her dress yesterday, and retrieving her other belongings, she treaded carefully into the kitchen.
Draco Malfoy stood with his back towards her in a simple white shirt and sweatpants, hunched over a stove.
Stained glass windows along the wall colored the green pastures outside of it. The dark wooden furniture gave the rather small room a cozy atmosphere. A rectangular table was placed in the middle of the kitchen, plates, and utensils laying neatly on its surface. Astoria sat down as Draco placed a plate of omelets on the tabletop.
“Oh, absolutely nothing” he replied to her inquiry from the bedroom, his voice dripping in sarcasm, “you would be a wonderful actress”.
Astoria just rolled her eyes at that; it wasn't a big secret that she wore her emotions openly. She was constantly reminded by her sister.
“Do you always pretend to be asleep?” he asked casually, as he reached up into the cupboard for something.
“Well, I usually sneak out before they are awake” she answered truthfully.
“You must be way better at sneaking out then, considering your amazing acting skills”
“Oh, I'm quite the expert actually”
“Lots of experience?”
She grew a bit hot at his implications, “As if you’ve never had a one-night stand before”
“I never do one-night stands”
“Well, you've done your first with me” she replied sarcastically.
The rest of the food was served at that moment and Astoria dug in as Draco sat down. She was too hungry for any manners.
It surprised her that the food was rather good. Who would have thought that Draco Malfoy could cook?
“This wasn't just a one-night stand” Draco continued the conversation, “we met last night and you’re still here”
“I don't know about you but I don't go around sleeping with random women unless Im actually interested in getting to know them” he added between bites, cheeks tinted pink and looking everywhere except her.
Astoria was surprised. She would be lying if she said that he wasn't attractive or interesting. He was, she had proof of that from last night. It’s just that the thought that he would want to know her had crossed her mind before. Last evening had been an alcohol-infused blur and she couldn't recollect any memories of feelings from her sister's classmate apart from physical attraction. It didn't matter that Astoria had started to develop a bit of interest in him, since last evening. Under normal circumstances, she would stutter and softly reject his advances. It's what she should do, considering his reputation and rumors. But as she sat across him, watching the multicolored sunlight hit his soft blond hair, she suppressed an irrational urge to reach out and run her hands through it. Maybe it was the leftover alcohol in her system, or maybe the fact that she hadn’t been with a guy since she graduated. Or maybe she was just glad that he had reached out to her first; an excuse to let her potential feelings for him grow. Whatever the reason, Astoria suddenly felt bolder.
“Well?” she asked him, a smile tugging at her lips.
“hmm?” Draco looked up from his plate. Brown eyes met gray as she watched him study her. Soft pink still dusted his usually pale cheeks.
“Aren't you going to ask me if I'm free today?” Astoria retorted, there was no going back now.
A triumphant smirk played on his lips, registering her implications, “Are you free today?”.
“Well, it depends on what you have in mind” she smiled.
Astoria knew that this was exactly the kind of bold and reckless behavior that would get her in trouble. But a part of her didn’t care. As she listened to him explain the details of their date, she had a feeling that she would not regret it.
She didn't know it then, but her instincts were correct. This man, with his soft platinum blond hair and alluring smile, would become someone very special to her. This really was just the beginning.