Astoria → Draco Malfoy

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

"gave a warning sign"

Astoria was more than happy when she arrived home to find it exactly how she had left it. When she arrived home late in the evening with Daphne by her side, it felt almost right to be home again.

"Miss Greengrass!" Dippy called out once she saw the two sisters, "Dippy has made cottage pie, please come eat!"

The sisters smiled upon seeing their house elf, whom they hadn't seen since they had left for their final year. "Thank you Dippy!" Astoria smiled, making her way into the dining room and taking her usual seat at the table.

Daphne sat opposite her, "please join us Dippy!" She patted the seat beside her,  "we haven't seen you in so long."

"Oh no," Dippy said, shying away. "Dippy would never wish to intrude, Dippy will eat in the basement as always!" She shook her head, her little dress flowing as she moved. "Dippy will set the table now!" With a wave of her hand, a lavish set up for two appeared on the table before the sisters. "Let me bring some wine." She clicked her fingers, vanishing momentarily before returning with a fresh bottle.

"How lovely." Daphne smiled as Dippy poured the sisters a glass of the expensive wine, "would you like some?"

"Never Miss Greengrass!" She shook her head wildly, "Dippy cannot drink wine!"

"Sorry!"

"Do not apologise - Dippy should have told you. Bad Dippy!" She shook her head, shutting her eyes. "Dippy must go, Dippy has made a fool of her mistress."

In an instant, she was gone, leaving just the Greengrass sisters sat in their dining room. "It's good to be back," said Astoria, tucking into her meal. "It's been a while."

"It's still weird you know. To be back in this empty house." Although they had spent the last summer in the house just the two of them, they had needed the time alone to heal, but now, it felt strange.

Astoria nodded at her sister, the house was massive, yet almost entirely unused, it felt wasteful. "It's so quiet..."

Even with the two sisters and Dippy, the house was almost entirely silent in the worst of ways. "It needs some life back into it, how about we paint it?" Daphne nodded up to the black and grey walls, "it's so dark in here..."

"We could get Dippy to help, she's always been very creative." Astoria thought back to all the paintings that Dippy had done over the last summer when she had been freed. She had spent hours in the basement painting away. "Do you think she would want a better room?"

Daphne shook her head almost immediately, "you know how much she loves the basement, but we could make it a bit more homely for her?"

"And maybe we could get everyone to help: Blaise, Pansy and Theo?"

"What about Draco?" Daphne asked her sister.

"No, he'll be too busy with the trial, I think he'll want to spend his time with his mother. We can ask him, but I don't know if he would..." She shook her head.

"Perfect! Let's get them all over, and make this place look less like death."

Astoria smiled as she took another bite of her meal, "you know. I've been thinking about this. Theo, Pansy and Blaise have no one at home, I was thinking we could ask them to move in..."

"Astoria that's a great idea!" Daphne nodded eagerly at the suggestion, "we have so many empty rooms, it would make the house feel  so much less empty!"

"We could maybe even have a spare room made up for Draco, if he ever wanted to stay somewhere else." Although Draco still had his mother at home, Astoria knew the atmosphere could still be difficult. She took a sip of her wine, "still it will be nice to have some people filling up the spare rooms."