Astoria → Draco Malfoy

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Blaise stood up, "so for Transfiguration, we can each do a chapter, I guess Pansy can just about do that."

"Fuck off, at least I can spell."

"It-" he stood up, "was one time."

"Still, the rest of us haven't had it happen." Draco smiled at Blaise, teasing him.

"Fuck off ferret boy." That wiped the smile off his face at once.

"Theo and I are going to the Herbology classroom," Astoria took Theo's hand, "up we get." She pulled him to his feet, "we can charm Professor Sprout into letting us in."

"Watch out, I'll pull out my puppy dog eyes," Theo began to bat his eyelids, "she won't be able to resist."

"If only we had your puppy dog eyes when people were getting petrified years ago," Astoria said, "they would have woken up just to see the beauty for themselves."

With a smile, the duo made their way out of the common room. "You know, Draco told me." Theo said abruptly as they walked out of the castle towards the greenhouses.

"Oh," she stopped in her tracks, "he did?" Astoria raised her brows, "what about?"

Theo smiled at her, she had taken the bait, "well, he started with how he apologised, as he should have bear in mind," he added the last part quickly.
"And?" She prompted him continue.

"He said you two are quite close now, some might say. You know, he hasn't even told me or Blaise about some of the stuff he told you..." Theo trailed off, "I'm glad he has. We all need someone we can talk to sometimes."
"Do you have someone?" She pressed him. Theo had only ever really had those in Slytherin to support him, and a lot of those students were gone now. He only really had a few people left.

"I think so," Theo nodded, "Blaise and I talk a lot, and I talk to Draco, even if he doesn't talk to me," he shook his head, "but anyway, Draco doesn't really talk to anyone."

"Did he ever?" Astoria had only ever really known Draco as a closed off person, as someone who could've be cracked open, even with a key. She had never known any different.

Theo paused before he answered, but he almost didn't need to, "not really. He's not the kind of person that opens up, and usually, that seems to work for him, but he struggled last year, and the year before. So it's just nice that you two talk sometimes."

Astoria felt her heart pitter-patter, a warm glow erupting inside of her, "so do you approve of our friendship?"

"Of course I do, I would even approve if it became a bit more..." he winked at her, "if you both wanted it to."

"Not that I need our approval, but thank you anyway."

Astoria didn't say anything else until they reached the greenhouse, "go and woo Professor Sprout for me now, pretty please." She batted her eyelashes at him dramatically.

Theo was off immediately, heading straight towards his target. He spoke to Professor Sprout for a few short moments before returning. "Easy, I just pretended I was going to cry," he wiped a droplet from his face, "because I am simply so far behind in Herbology. And now, we have three sweet hours of access."

"You think three will be enough?" She made her way into the greenhouse, setting up some plants for inspection.

Theo followed suit, mimicking her setup, "I already know what a Mandrake is, so I would say I am doing quite well."

"Theo, Mandrakes are not even on the NEWT syllabus, they're from years ago." She rolled her eyes as she opened up her textbook.

He sighed, "let me just shake that out of my memory, that is clearly taking up too much important space." He shook his head, "much better, I have so much space to learn now."

"Get sorting then," she handed him a pile of seeds, "which seed is which?"
"Astoria, they're all just seeds, they aren't any different that was a trick question, and I win." He took a bow, dropping the seeds onto the workspace.

She took a step back, "Merlin it really is bad. How did they even let you onto NEWT level Herbology Mr every seed is the same."

"I seduced Professor Sprout, obviously," he shook his hips and Astoria couldn't help but pry her eyes away.

"Stop it." She hit him playfully, "we really have a lot of work to do."
Astoria stepped towards the workbench, "read this page about seed properties, and then sort all of these different," she made sure to exaggerate the last word, "seeds, into their categories."

"Easy, no problem." He looked at the textbook for a brief moment, "maybe not so easy. Why are the pictures so small?"

Astoria sighed, taking out her wand, "Engorgio," she pointed at the textbook, watching as it doubled in size, "that better?" She pushed it back into his hands.

"Thank you." He took the textbook, staring at each picture carefully, before picking up a seed and moving it into a new pile.

It was peculiar to watch him, he was like a kid in a candy store, trialling all of the new flavours, doing his research on each one before he took his first bite. Astoria felt like a mother in that moment, watching over him as made his first big decision.

"Okay, I'm done." He pushed the piles towards her, "how did I do?"

Astoria picked up each seed, carefully comparing it with the textbook pictures. "Good job Theo, now," she mixed up the seeds, closing the textbook. "Now you just have to be able to do it from memory."

"Shit, well," he paused, "it was good while it lasted."

"Read the textbook a few more times, then I'll quiz you. And then, we could go and see if Hermione's free for a lesson tonight?"

Theo lit up, "well that makes Herbology a lot less crappy."

And so, with a smile on his face, Theo read the pages on seed classification for the next hour while Astoria tried to draw diagrams of the seeds, as well as their fully evolved state. The hour passed by slowly but knowing that they would both soon be working on their Patronus, and hopefully getting even closer to mastering it made the time go faster.

"Can we go now?" Theo closed the textbook, "I know too much about seeds now, how they look, their magical properties, their evolutions, their beige colour. Okay, that last one I don't know about. They're just beige."

"We can go," she picked up her notes, sliding them inside of the textbook.
"Ready?"

Astoria nodded, "ready."