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Tweak says, "Shaka, when the walls fell."

Astoria Greengrass (starmaiden) wrote in wished,
@ 2009-11-23 11:53:00

Entry tags:

!1997: 11, !complete, astoria greengrass, draco malfoy

Who: Astoria & Draco
What: Celebrating a victory of sorts & making things obvious
Where: Hogwarts Courtyard
When: After the Quidditch game
Rating/Warning: TBA

Astoria stood in the center in the small offshoot of courtyard that she and Draco had gone to last time, away from the immediate prying eyes of anyone coming and going inside the castle. She didn't usually attend Quidditch matches unless Draco was playing, she didn't really get the appeal of the sport, but even she had had to admit that today's match had been exciting and she'd found herself cheering and yelling encouragements and booing Gryffindor just like many of her housemates. She thought, although it was hard to tell with how little she watched the sport, that Draco had played much better today as well. Or, she admitted to herself, she might be just a little bit more then biased.

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	starmaiden 2009-11-25 01:39 am UTC (link)
	She gave him a thoughtful glance. "Do I dare ask why it is exactly that Vaisey has the job? That was rather... unexpected of you." Mostly because she never imagined Draco would have wanted to let someone else be in charge of him once he'd made it to the top of the team. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dracowished 2009-11-25 01:44 am UTC (link)
	Draco's small smile did fade, then. He frowned just barely, staring down for a moment and then looking back up to her. "It's complicated," He said, and hoped she'd stop at that. Somehow he had that faint dizzying memory, though, that said that wasn't the likeliest thing to happen. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

starmaiden
2009-11-25 02:00 am UTC (link)

She arched a brow at him, looking faintly amused. "When isn't it, Draco? We don't exactly exist in simple times." She saw the look on his face and frowned faintly. "You don't have to tell me, of course. But I wish you would."

She shrugged, and evidently deciding that she'd leave it up to him, reached behind herself on the bench and pulled out a slender wrapped package. "This is for you." Her skin pinked slightly, and it wasn't all from the cold. "It's a..." her other hand fluttered faintly. "victory gift. For winning."

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	dracowished 2009-11-25 02:41 am UTC (link)
	"It's - " Draco might have actually started to answer her, something in that plaintive note to her voice and her frown that made him more apt to it. But then she distracted him, and he quickly snapped his traitorous mouth closed and stared at the present instead. "A gift?" He asked, a bit dumbly, reaching for it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	starmaiden 2009-11-25 10:34 am UTC (link)
	She smiled at him, waving it at him teasingly. "Oh, no, you don't get to just stop talking that easily. You were saying? I know it's not going to be something ridiculous like Vaisey deserving it more or that." She put the package in his hands though, wrapped in a dark shimmery pewter paper, and a simple green ribbon. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

dracowished
2009-11-25 08:49 pm UTC (link)

Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead looked down at his hands, fingers making short works of the paper wrapping. But he did look sidelong at her, then gave another tight shouldered shrug.

"There are a lot of things I'm pushed to that I don't have a choice in. Quidditch I do, and I decided I didn't want the position any longer." It was, perhaps, more honest than he'd been with anyone in the last two years.

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starmaiden
2009-11-26 01:48 am UTC (link)

She watched him unwrap the present, biting her bottom lip nervously without even really realizing it, as she'd tried very hard to come up with something clever, but not too silly. What did you get a young man who pretty much had everything he wanted? She still wasn't sure she wasn't being too clever.

Inside the wrapping was a slim, flat, rectangular gift box. Once Draco opened it, wrapped in silver tissue paper, was a pair of green and black striped arm warmers, that would leave his fingers free, but cover his arms from elbow to palm. They would, coincidentally, cover up a certain mark as well.

"Well, I can certainly understand that. Sometimes, putting so much pressure on something you love doing takes all the fun out of it. Did it help then, make flying more enjoyable again?"

She motioned to the gloves and smiled crookedly. "Charmed to be liquid-proof. And self-warming. I thought they'd look quite smart, and no more potion accidents." There were some questions Astoria wasn't quite brave, or stupid enough, to ask.

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dracowished
2009-11-27 01:30 am UTC (link)

"It did help," Draco admitted. "I had a better time flying today than I've had in ... years, maybe. I don't remember. Quidditch hasn't been that important to me since..."

He trailed off, not willing to finish that aloud, and instead looked at the arm warmers, picking one of them up and turning it over in his hands before he put it back in the box. They were thoughtful, really, perhaps too much so. He wondered how much she had figured out on her own about his potions accident. About what he'd been trying to cover.

"Thank you," He said, but it sounded a little distant.

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starmaiden
2009-11-27 07:18 am UTC (link)

She frowned slightly. He didn't like them. She had thought they would be nice, but it was like he had drawn a wall around himself suddenly. It was maddening, to see him opening up to her, letting her thing that maybe, just maybe, there was a tiny chance that he really liked her... and then he'd go all quiet and withdrawn.

"Hmmph." She leaned over, sudden and impulsive and tapped him lightly on the nose. "Stop that. I don't like it."

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	dracowished 2009-11-28 01:48 am UTC (link)
	Draco's eyes went almost comically wide, and he wasn't at all sure what to do or say for a moment. Eventually, he looked at her, torn in a look that was half confused and annoyed, and half highly amused. "Did you, Miss Greengrass, just actually swat my nose like I was a puppy?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

starmaiden
2009-11-28 01:51 am UTC (link)

She cocked her head to the side and nodded firmly at him. "I tapped your nose. That was no swat. Because you're doing that thing where I do or say something that is perfectly normal and you clam up like you just saw a vampire or something. I don't like it. If I do something silly, just say so, don't get all distant. I'm not going to HEX you for it, so tapped your nose." She grinned suddenly, mischievously. "Worked, didn't it?"

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dracowished
2009-11-28 01:53 am UTC (link)

Those dual expressions warred on his face for another moment, but it seemed that after the battle amused did win out. He swallowed, but then couldn't keep a sort of half smile off of his lips where they twitched up into it. "I suppose it did," he said, measured, then shook his head.

"You are an odd one, do you know that? Most Slytherin girls would be happy enough that I'm even sitting here with them. They wouldn't actually expect me to be involved in the conversation as well."

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starmaiden
2009-11-28 01:55 am UTC (link)

She sniffed a little. "Most Slytherin girls are ninnies. Don't get me wrong, I am... thrilled you even pay any attention to me, and I make a goose of myself when you're not around to roll your eyes at me because of it," she admitted, with surprising honesty, "But I have high standards, and I'm not going to waste the time you do give me with sighing over you dreamily and looking vacant." She grinned, flushing a little. "I do that when you're NOT looking."

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	dracowished 2009-11-28 02:03 am UTC (link)
	"Good to know," Draco answered, and then he sighed, looking down at the arm warmers again and then back to her with a small sort of shrug. She was being embarrassingly honest, he could at least tel her a bit of it, couldn't he? He was likely losing his mind, but it was easier to trust her than it should be. "You mentioned my potions accident...." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

starmaiden
2009-11-28 02:18 am UTC (link)

She flushed and shrugged, not sure if she should have told him that. She had a tendency to just tell him whatever was on her mind, and it was getting dangerous.

She looked back at him and then at the arm warmers, and nodded. "Yes. You had to wear the bandages and people asked all sorts of dumb questions. I thought that... " She stopped, pursed her lips shut for a moment and looked at him.

For a moment, she looked... scared. If she was wrong... or if she was right, it was a huge risk. A huge, stupid risk, possibly, if he wasn't what she thought he was, if he really didn't care about her at all. It was... She hoped, suddenly, fervently, that she was at least right about that.

"I thought that.. in case you had any more... accidents, That you haven't ever had in seven years of being brilliant at potions. Or wanted to.... avoid having people... you know.. uhm.. inspect you for scars or something. From the accident," she said, finally, hesitating and looking at him intently. Merlin, please let him get it. She didn't know if she wanted to be right or wrong, but really, it wasn't an entirely out there sort of supposition to make. Everyone knew his father's view on things, and Draco was very like his father. It made more sense then a potions accident. Really, she'd seen how good he was in class, who could believe he'd have an accident?

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dracowished
2009-11-28 02:22 am UTC (link)

Draco's teeth ground together for a moment while she spoke. It was clear she'd figured it out. It was dangerous that she'd figured it out, and if she had then who else hadn't been fooled? At least if they'd noticed or guessed, they'd known enough not to say it to his face, but she...

And he should have been angry, or insulted. He should have at least been able to feign those things. Instead he grit his teeth again, but then after a moment's hesitation, unbuttoned the cuff of his left sleeve - pushed the fabric up enough for her to see. The scars from the accident were gone now, thanks to Snape's salve. All that marred his skin now was His Mark.

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starmaiden
2009-11-28 02:28 am UTC (link)

She stared at it for a moment, the undeniable proof of her half-baked suspicions on front of her and her stomach sank like a stone and for a wild moment, she wanted to run, run away and never look back, because this was bigger then she was, bigger then anything she'd ever said or did, or wanted. She shuddered, once, hard, to rid herself of the impulse and then she looked up at him, into his grey eyes for a long moment.

She was a creature of impulses, and they weren't always the right ones, but so far, they had stood her in good stead. She reached out then, and her fingers slid, slowly, over his arm, around the mark, but not quite touching it. Not that she wouldn't, she just wasn't sure how they worked and she didn't want to hurt him. Her fingers slid down to his hand and twined her fingers with his, squeezing and then she leaned up suddenly and kissed him, boldly and not quite as chastely as she probably should have. When she pulled back, it was only enough so she could see his expression. "I'm so sorry, Draco. Does it hurt?"

That was all. Did it hurt. Not, what sort of monster was he, or what had he been thinking, or was he going to go on a wild bender and kill her now. She just wanted to know if he was in pain.

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