Astoria → Draco Malfoy

CHAPTER SIX

"How about Gryffindor sucks?" Draco suggested bleakly.

"Merlin, do none of you have any creativity!" Exclaimed Daphne as she began to shake the spray paint.

"Nope or the hat would have put me in Ravenclaw," Astoria smirked at her sister.

"With your parents?" Draco scoffed, "unlikely."

"Touché."

"Right. Anyone got any good ideas?" Daphne asked. She began to pace up and down in front of the wall, "It has to be intelligent; it has to be creative; it has to be-"

"Merlin, you're not done yet?" Blaise butted in, seemingly appearing from nowhere.

"How were you so quick?" Astoria questioned.

"I left Theo to do the last one," he turned his attention back to the bare wall, "Theo isn't smart enough to need anything too great. Just write 'Gryffindor sucks' and move on."

"That's what I said, didn't work though." Draco shook his head lightly at Blaise. "She didn't think it was creative enough."

"Well, I think it's fine." Blaise snatched the can of spray paint from Daphne's hand.

"Hey!"

"Not my fault you're so slow." He said as he began writing on the wall as big as he possibly could.

Daphne shook her head as she watched Blaise struggle to use the spray paint. "Well, I am certainly not going to be proud of this anymore, where is the creativity?"

"I didn't think you would be too proud of it before; you know with the whole vandalism aspect of it all..." Astoria trailed off.

Her sister sighed deeply, "vandalism is okay if it's for revenge, have I taught you nothing Astoria?"

"It also helps that we're Slytherins, so we're expected to be evil anyway," added Draco.

By the time Blaise had finished, Theo had returned with an evil grin on his face. "I told you all this was a good idea! Merlin Blaise, what's a 'Grfindor'?" He looked up at the poorly written graffiti on the wall.

Blaise flushed a light pink. "Hey, it's not my fault, you should have been there to supervise."

"I didn't exactly think someone your big age would need help spelling!"

"Well, we aren't all that smart Theo! No need to attack me, it's not exactly my fault anyway. You wanted to do this stupid plan!" Blaise retorted.

Theo groaned audibly. "Stupid? This is NOT a stupid plan. McGonagall will hate it and that is what counts!" He shouted so loudly Astoria thought the glass windows might shatter.

"McGonagall will hate what?" They all turned to see a rather irritated Professor McGonagall stood at the end of the corridor.

"Oh Fudge."

"Oh, fudge indeed Miss Green-"

Pansy cut her off, appearing at the end of the corridor with a peachy face. "Hey! McGonagall is on her way up!"

"McGonagall is very much already here Miss Parkinson. Now, what on earth are you doing outside my office?" She spoke with a light-hearted smile, but Astoria could tell she was worried. A group of Slytherins hanging around outside the Headmistresses Office was already suspicious but the children of notorious death eaters, now that was almost certainly criminal.

Theo smiled devilishly, "nothing at all Headmistress, nothing at all."

Headmistress McGonagall was not naive enough to fall for his Slytherin tricks, she had done that far too many times before. Instead, she took a few steps forward towards the Slytherin group, and with that, she had her answer. "What on earth is a Grfindor?"

Theo and Blaise chuckled. "Not sure Miss, perhaps it would be worth asking your favourite house? That might help."

"Which one of you two did this?" She placed her hands firmly on her hips.

"And why would you assume it was one of us?"

"Well Mr Nott, I am glad to say that the Greengrass siblings and Mr Malfoy are each at least aware of how to spell the other Hogwarts houses. I do wish I could say the same for you two."

Blaise and Theo looked down at the floor, but Astoria could still see their faces flushing pink. "Well..."

"Mr Nott and Mr Zabini, both of you will receive two Saturday's detentions with Professor Slughorn," she nodded at them, staring down at them through her glasses, "as for the rest of you, one Sunday should be enough."

Pansy looked over at the group and smiled, McGonagall had said nothing about her.

"Miss Parkinson that includes you too."

"Merlin! That's not fair, all I did was act as a lookout!" She exclaimed with frustration.

Astoria rolled her eyes, "and a bad one at that."

All of you were involved and therefore all of you will be punished. I hope to not have to hand out any more detentions this year for you! I cannot believe my first detention as Headmistress is on the first night." She shook her head lightly. "What would Albus think of me?" Nobody said a word, they simply watched on as a small teardrop fell from her eye. "Anyway," she wiped it away hastily, "off to your common rooms everybody!" She left the corridor at once, likely returning to the Great Hall.

"Two Sundays?" Blaise exclaimed as soon as she was out of earshot. "I can't believe this!

"Serves you right for being unable to spell," Daphne retorted, earning a light giggle from Pansy and her sister.

"Well, she didn't take the spray paint so there's always next time." Theo shot a smirk at Astoria.

"I don't think I fancy joining for the next time. This will be my first detention ever thanks to you guys!"

"It was your idea to do graffiti," Draco added.

"Right, let's go I want to go to sleep."

Everyone followed closely behind Pansy as they made their way down to the dungeons. "Has it always been this cold down here?" Astoria questioned, wrapping her arms around her body for warmth.

Blaise and Theo nodded. "You need to eat more bread, that would get some meat on your bones!" Theo smiled, revealing a bread roll he had seemingly stored in his pocket.

Blaise looked at him with a sign. "Another one?"

"I need my energy levels up!"

"Merlin," Draco said as they arrived at the common room door. He walked straight in then disappeared into the boy's dormitory.

"Plenty of other foods would do that for you, you do know that?" Daphne stated in a matter-of-fact manner.

"Well," Theo threw himself down onto the leather sofa, "none of them would be quite so delicious now, would they?"

"He's not wrong," Astoria grabbed her sister's shoulder, giving them a shake as she smiled at Theo. "Anyway, I'm going to bed, I don't know about you lot, but I have had one hell of a day!"

Daphne and Pansy murmured in agreement, leading the way into their dormitory. "Night boys," they muttered on their way out. As soon as the trio entered their dormitory, they each collapsed on their beds and without another word, they were off to sleep.