Malfoy's Moon

love potions

The sun forgets to rise in January, suppressing earth of its warmth.

And in its absence, the water of lakes frosts over, and the air treasures the trickles of snowflakes that drift above the surface of the earth.

The cold can be startlingly beautiful.

That first breakfast of January, she had entered the Great Hall earlier than usual with a thin glass vile, holding a dark liquid with an alluring aroma. She had held it tightly in her fist and had moved across the hall towards the Slytherin table, which was empty as it was early in the morning. She had uncorked the bottle with slightly trembling hands and let the liquid trickle into a certain someone's morning pumpkin juice.

She didn't care what Crouch said. She was not going to force herself into making Malfoy fall for her naturally, not when she could try artificially.

And if this failed, she would be completely and inexplicably lost because Crouch had given her a mission that would be impossible to fulfill otherwise. She was sure of it, positive that there was absolutely no way to lure Malfoy with love. The idea of it, the mere thought of it, was ridiculous, so ridiculous she would've laughed.

But nothing about a situation that rested on the shoulders of the wizarding world was amusing.

Students began filling the Great Hall, their noisy talk echoing against the walls. She forces herself to look casual and focus on her breakfast as Pansy, Blaise, Theo, Adrian, and Malfoy settle in their seats.

The first several minutes pass by with nothing eventful happening. Astra joins in on conversation, keeping her eyes off him.

But then he finally, finally, raises his glass, pressing the rim to his lips.

"Oi, Theo, hope you and Pansy had fun," a Slytherin fifth shouts, which makes Malfoy pause before drinking the pumpkin juice.

Adrian makes a high-pitched sputtering noise as he gags on his bagel.

Pansy's cheeks flush up in the heat.

"I – what?" Theo says, looking furious.

"I meant in the train..." The fifth year says, sneering.

Still choking on his breakfast, Adrian snatches the glass of juice from Malfoy's hands and glugging the drink down in one gulp, some of it dampening his shirt.

Astra's heart nearly stops, dropping down towards some pitiful place she can't reach, not even if she used every ounce of her bleeding courage. It takes every bit of energy to not knock the glass out of his hands, even though every pore in her body is screaming to do so.

"What the hell, Adrian?" Malfoy says, incensed as he forces the now empty glass out of Adrian's grasp.

"Sorry, mate," Adrian says, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Then, he screws his face up, apparently displeased. "Tastes disgusting, that drink."

As the conversation carries on, she can see Adrian's eyes flickering towards her more than once, more than he's probably done this entire week.

Adrian drank the love potion meant for Malfoy.

Oh God, no.

Purely working upon her traitorous numbness, she stands as breakfast comes to an end and hurries out of the Great Hall.

Her eyes blurred with haste and throat-tightening horror, she chances a glance behind her only to see Adrian following her, several feet behind.

"Hey, Astra! Come on, I wanted to talk to you."

Turning forwards, she's unexpectedly slams into someone. She takes a dazed step backwards, blinking in what seemed to be more fear, if that was possible.

"Oi, what are you doing with her?" Adrian says thickly from behind her. "Astra, come with me."

She takes a couple of hurried steps away from him and her gaze falls on Malfoy.

"Do something," She says, her voice drained with desperation.

For a moment, Malfoy just stands there, eyebrows drawn together in apparent confusion, blinking in uncertainty as he looks back and forth between Adrian and Astra.

Adrian moves closer, face contorted in an angry expression. "Get away from her, Malfoy, she's mine –"

"Please –"

The next second, Malfoy dives into her already parted lips, ripping the breath out of her lungs.

She falls slack in his grip, which only causes him to press harder into her. Every cell of hers susurrating with raw petrification, his fingers wrap around her neck, his thumbs joining together at the center of her throat.

Every nerve is insensate, unfeeling, and yet she can feel everything, everything that is so enigmatic and unfamiliar. The feel of his cold, ringed hands and the rock of his hips against her, slamming her into the wall, and his lips against hers, and the brush of his soft platinum-blonde hair against her eyelids, stirring something in her stomach.

All with astounding pressure, pressure that could only be described by the intensity of lightening making harsh contact with the earth.

All with some sort of desperation she never thought possible as their lips collide against each other with electric force.

Adrian's footsteps finally retreat at the sight of Astra and Malfoy together, disappearing drunkenly in another corridor.

She and Malfoy tear apart, him stumbling several steps back, eyes slightly widening.

"Don't you dare expect me to do a favor like this again," Malfoy hisses in a deadly whisper, spitting as he backs away from her, as though to keep as much distance between her and him.

She felt completely weak in his grasp before, but now the sudden lack of pressure causes a crashing sense of reality to rain down upon her, and her fiery rage is back. "I never – I never told you to do this, you should've never even –"

"Shut it, Hawkings," Malfoy shouts, his jaw tensing. "Just stop talking for one second."

"No, I'm sick of your constant acting like this is all my fault –"

"It is all your fault, all of it!" He roars, thudding his fist on the wall. He stiffens for a second and for a moment, she thinks he's going to slam her into the wall again, but he merely raises his voice. "This is your fault for doing this to me and you – you absolutely disgust me."

"Just leave," she says, her eyes staring into his. What did she ever expect to find in them, if it wasn't something cold and soulless? "Get out of here, Malfoy."

With a low curse under his breath, he turns on his heel, his blonde hair disheveled from the back, black suit merging with the shadows of the darkening corridors.

She leans back against the wall, closing her eyes tightly, and cries.

a/n: your first little dose of spice, hope you enjoyed ;)

part 2 of malfoy being bipolar again LOL