As You Are // D.M.

WINE STAINS

Armena Riddle-Lestrange 

"Ginny said it was awful" Blaise chuckled gulping down his red wine.

"It was absolutely disastrous!" I buried my face into my hands, "clearly, not on his end but on mine."

"What even happened?" Pansy asked curiously.

Blaise always came over every Thursday night after work. The three of us made it our tradition to always catch each other up after work. Blaise worked in the Department of Magical Games and Sports, go figure. He more specifically worked in the British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters on level seven of the Ministry. He worked closely with other Ministries on setting up for the Quidditch World Cup and other various Quidditch games. It helped having him in there, he would always give Pansy and I his extra tickets for games. I would never go though, considering the Malfoy's had a box right night to the Ministry's section. Blaise and Pansy made sure that after Azkaban, that I would get back to normal life as soon as possible. So I guess that's how our weekly meeting nights began. He would always come here while Potter would head to the pub to meet with friends. I personally thought Blaise enjoyed hanging out with us, especially after the birth of his daughter it was a nice stress relief for him.

I let out a series of groans and picked up my glass of wine off of the coffee table. I curled my legs under me, bringing the large wine glass to my lips.

"Well—'' I thought back, "I totally ogled him, like i'm pretty sure I was drooling. You can ask Ginny, I think I was drooling. He didn't say one word to me the entire time. Oh and that's not the worst part. The one word that he did say to me was "do I know you?" I took a big sip of my wine, I was in full hysteria at this point. "Do I know you! Really? That's all you're going to say to me?"

"Well, Armena he doesn't know you..." Blaise muttered, which earned a sharp glare from Pansy.

I ignored them and kept on with my ramblings, trying to tell them everything that I could remember.

"Potter kept having to repeat himself because I was so lost. Just by looking at him I had everyone completely blacked everyone out. Guys, I stared at him; I ogled the love of my fucking life. They are going to fire me and send me back to Azkaban. Can they send me back to Azkaban for that? Am I going back to Azkaban for oogling Draco fucking Malfoy" I let out a long breath.

"Woah woah what, Armena—" Blaise shook his head.

"Yeah wait" Pansy leaned forward, "You just said the love of your life."

"No I didn't" I protested, furrowing my brow.

I looked down at the crimson wine in my glass, feeling the same color red rise to my cheeks. I knew that I had just let it slip that I still loved Draco Malfoy. Fuck.

"Yeah, you did" Blaise narrowed his dark eyes at me.

"Fuck! Fine, alright! I love him, there— I said it. Are you two happy now. Is it really not that obvious?" I tilted my head looking at my two friends.

"I mean, I kinda always assumed you moved on after... well you know after he married Astoria," Pansy says, kicking off her shoes to snuggle into the couch.

"You all had to know, even Potter knows" I mutter.

"I mean we really don't talk about him. You know when Pansy labeled him as the "D-word" we kinda started avoiding it at all costs" Blaise sighed, leaning back into the chair.

I swirled around the wine in my glass, letting it hypnotize me. It was true, we tried out best to not talk about Draco Malfoy. They would avoid the subject with me and I wouldn't bring it up to them. I didn't even know that I still loved Draco Malfoy, I think I just got used to the feeling that it didn't hurt anymore knowing I couldn't have him. That was until he came into my view for the first time in five years.