Astoria → Draco Malfoy

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

She rolled her eyes, "Terego, Scourgify, Terego, Scourgify." Astoria repeated the cleaning spells as many times as she could. "Merlin it's still a mess, maybe Dippy can help."

"Dippy?" He asked her.

"Our house elf....Dippy!" She called down the stairs, taking a step back as Dippy appeared before her. "Could you help us out here?"

"Oh of course Miss Greengrass, Dippy is excellent at cleaning!" She turned to see Theo, "who are you, Master?"

"Theodore Nott," he reached out his hand, shaking hers lightly, "lovely dress."

"Why thank you Master Nott! Miss Greengrass made it for me!" She gave a small twirl.

"I didn't know you sewed," he raised his brow, watching as Dippy made her way around the room clearing the mess.

She blushed lightly, "I haven't for a while, but now that I'm back home, I might as well make Dippy some more dresses."

"Oh Dippy would love that!" She twirled in her dress, "Dippy loves her dresses!" Dippy smiled as she thought to the small rail in her basement with her few dresses neatly placed on it.

"I could do some more colours, how's-"

Theo cut her off, "green sounds great."

"Excellent idea Master Nott!" She nodded at him, taking a step out of the room, "everything is all clean now!"

"Merlin!" Astoria exclaimed, "that looks so much better."

"Dippy will go and make lunch now!"

"And I will paint my room-"

"-green by any chance?"

Theo nodded, "just a subtle Slytherin green."

"I'll go see how Daphne is doing...." She left Theo to his messy painting and made her way back to her sister. "You've made progress," she smiled as she looked up at the now painted walls, three in a deep grey with one in none other than Slytherin green.

"That one is mostly to please Theo," Daphne nodded at the green wall, "but I put some bookshelves to cover it up a bit." She led Astoria around the room, "so we have a chair here for him to read by the window, and then on the windowsill, I put some self-watering plants... you know, because he won't be here to water them all the time like you said."

"Oh you did it!" Astoria sat herself on the bed, looking up at the wooden board hovering above it. "You made him the stars I suggested!" Above her, the Draco constellation was painted onto the frame of the bed, each star charmed to glow at all times. "It looks perfect, just like my one!"

"And then I think we could just put a few of Dippy's paintings up..." She motioned to the blank spaces on the wall.

"You always were better at the creative side of things," Astoria shook her head Daphne, "this is far better than what I could have made."

"The ideas were yours-"

"-but you're the one who made them come true!"

Her cheeks pinked, "I suppose I did." After a moment, she spoke again, "should we go and check in on everyone else?"

Astoria nodded, "Draco's room is done I suppose...we should see if they need some help."

"Especially Blaise..." said Daphne as they made their way towards his room.

"Ah, welcome in." He said as they entered, "do you like what I've done with the place?"

Both the sisters nodded.

Blaise had painted the room a dark green, highlighting it with accents of gold. A golden throw was sprawled across the bed, his dark green curtains held together with a golden rope.

"Green and gold..." Daphne nodded, as she glanced over the room.

"Green and gold," he repeated to her, "the two finest colours."

"Very fine indeed," Theo said as he entered the room, "I would say mine is better, more Slytherin pride, but still..."

"Bore off mate, yours is going to look like the colour of the Slug-Vomiting Charm Draco used in second year!"

"Hey!" He protested; brows furrowed. "Still better than yours!"

"Come see mine now!" Pansy called from her room, "it has a lot less vomit colour than the boys'."

And it was true, when everyone stepped inside, there was no green anywhere. Instead, the walls were painted a deep purple, with golden leaves trailing each wall and crawling up onto the ceiling. Her bed was draped with a lilac canopy, golden stars dotted across it.

"Now this," said Astoria, "this is much better."

"Agreed." Daphne nodded her head, "this is my cup of tea."

"It's not very Slytherin."

"Well," Pansy said, "neither are we anymore!"

Blaise raised a hand to his mouth, "I will always be a Slytherin Pansy, always."

"You can take the boy out of Slytherin," Theo began.

"- but you can't take the Slytherin out of the boy."

"Exactly! Now, does everyone want to see my Slytherin palace?" He took Pansy and Blaise's hands, leading them back out of the room and towards his. "Come on Astoria, Daphne!" He called out to them, causing them to rush behind him. "Everyone must see my Slytherin palace."

"Is-is your bed on the floor?" Pansy asked with raised brows, "who sleeps on the floor?"

Theo looked down the circular mattress placed in the corner of the room, "the best people...obviously!"

"I suppose it makes people pay more attention to the floor, so they can see your snake rug..." Daphne nodded down at the black snake sprawled across a black rug in the centre of the room.

Theo's broom hovered in the air above the bed, hanging from small silver chains, "also I had to make room for the broom."

"Ahh."

"Of course."

"So you see, it's much better than everyone else's." He smiled, looking through his door as the other rooms. "Much better."

"So now what?" Pansy asked the group, "lunch time?"

"Let's go and see what Dippy's made us, and then maybe we can ask her to do some paintings for us." Astoria suggested, "or we could do some cleaning downstairs..."

Immediately Theo responded, "not cleaning."

"I agree!"

"Me too!"

"So, no cleaning, just lunch?"

"Let's go and eat lunch in our new home!"