Astoria → Draco Malfoy

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

"are there still beautiful things?"

Astoria let him kiss her. It was short, it was sweet, but just as quickly as it had happened, it was over.

He pulled away slowly, "I wanted to do that last time." He smiled at her.
"I-" She didn't know what to say. "I ought to go to bed," she looked out at the barely setting sun.

"Astoria, it's barely-"

But she didn't hear him, before he had even finished his sentence, she had fled. She threw herself on her bed as soon as she entered the room, groaning loudly. "Fuck."

"Astoria," Pansy looked over at her, "what's wrong?" She came to sit on her bed, Daphne quickly following suit.

Quickly, she thought of a lie, "Theo really is going to fail his NEWTS." She rubbed her eyes, "he is just impossible"

"Merlin aren't we all, I can't see myself passing anything this year!"

"And" Daphne sighed, "we are already a year behind."

"I am not- and I mean not, repeating another year." Pansy growled, "revision time anyone?" She asked them, getting up and heading toward her trunk, "Daphne take Charms," she handed her a book, "Astoria, you can have Potions. And I will do Defence Against the Dark Arts- then we teach each other. Well, Astoria can teach me. And Daphne, you can deal with Transfiguration on your own." Everyone nodded.

"Sounds like a plan, especially while we don't have the map." It felt good to be free of it, even if just for a little while.

And so, the trio got stuck into their books, reading until they could barely keep their eyes open.

When Astoria awoke the next morning, she had almost entirely forgotten about the kiss last night, instead her brain contained the entirety of Sixth Year Potions. She felt as though she was overflowing with information.
"Morning everyone," she smiled as she walked into the common room.
A chorus of good mornings called back to her.

"Join us for some revision today boys?" Pansy asked them, packing up her bag with textbooks. "You might have forgotten, but we do have our NEWTs this year still."

"Merlin, might as well," Blaise stood up, "Theo grab my books," he instructed him.

Draco called out, "and mine!"

"Fuck it's like I'm a house elf." He rolled his eyes as he carried out the pile of books in his arms. "Take your bloody books," he shoved each book at its rightful owner. "So now, how are we going about this?"

"I've had a great idea," Daphne suggested, perching on the edge of the sofa, "everyone read a chapter of the textbook, then we all teach each other? It worked for us three last night, we did it for different subjects too."

Blaise shook his head, "no way Daphne. I'm not having Pansy or Theo try and explain the Draught of the Living Dead to me."

"At least we can bloody spell it," Pansy stuck her tongue out at him.
"Well, that's what works for us, so come up with a better solution or shut it." Daphne barked at him, tucking her hair behind her ears.

Everyone paused. "How about we pair up by subjects, so we have, Charms, Potions, Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Herbology. Everyone does Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, so scrap them." Draco began scrawling on some parchment, "so Blaise, Pansy, me and Daphne do Transfiguration. And then Theo and Astoria do Herbology. Potions..." he paused for a moment, "that needs a group effort I think."

"So I'm stuck with Theo?" Astoria asked with a smile.

"Best friends reunited again!" Theo gave her a high five.