they were just kids [draco malfoy]

Year 2 - 10

Astrid had taken no more than 3 steps stepping off the train when she felt both her parents wrap her in a loving embrace. She couldn't help but let out a childish giggle. She had missed them.

Not all children went home for Christmas but most did. Some to travel, some to attend some glamorous events, and some, like Astrid, just to be home.

Daphne had told Astrid all about the annual Christmas ball that was always held at the Malfoy Manor. By Daphne's description (which Astrid believed to be false) it was a gigantic, breathtakingly glamorous estate which during holidays was always booming with energy, luxurious guests (in other words, purebloods), decorated elegantly and to the highest standards. Daphne especially liked the rug they had in the foyer and she gushed about how Narcissa Malfoy always knew how to host the best parties. Astrid, though, couldn't imagine Malfoy living in anything more than a dark and gloomy place. 

After she had waved her friends goodbye and discreetly showed Malfoy a not very lady-like finger she moved on with her parents and they made their way to their car.

Her parents kept asking her questions of how she had been and what she had done for the 3 and a half months she had been gone and she told them all about it, carefully leaving out the parts they shouldn't know, like the getting drunk on Halloween night or how she and Malfoy constantly bullied one another. Her mother didn't like Astrid getting into mischief so she was careful not to mention it, except for a few smaller things that her dad laughed at while her mum tried to hide her smile. As mother always said, at least one of the parents has to be the strict one and apparently Eric Ninomae would never be fit for that role. Astrid loved watching her parents bicker about some small things only to end up both laughing about it. Sometimes she watched them and wondered if they still acted the same way as they had when they first fell in love. She believed they did. If this wasn't how you acted when you were in love then she couldn't imagine how wonderful the act would actually be.

Astrid had started wondering more often what falling in love would feel like.

"What else is new?" her father added enthusiastically, "there just must be something you're not telling us, little one. I can feel it."

"I'm not that little anymore, dad," she said crossing her arms. She didn't want others to keep regarding her as a small child. "You should stop calling me that."

"Never," he said, and Astrid shook her head. Secretly, she loved the nickname. But dad was the only person she would ever let call her that.

Astrid sat there and thought for a second. She knew she was forgetting something. She felt it. And then it hit her.

"Oh," she exclaimed, "I almost forgot to tell you. Apparently, I can talk with snakes."

There was silence in the car and Astrid furrowed her eyebrows confused as to what was wrong. Her mother turned around in her seat looking at her daughter excitedly.

"I didn't know magical people could talk to animals," she gushed and then turned to Eric who she noticed looked quite distraught. "This is pretty amazing. Why didn't you tell me you could do that?"

Eric ignored her question, his eyes never leaving the road ahead. 

"You're a parselmouth?" he asked lowly and Astrid scratched the back of her neck confused.

"Yea... is that bad?"

Both girls in the car were watching Eric with curiosity.

"Yea, no, I'm just," he spoke as he put on a smile, "surprised..."

"But isn't it like a congenital thing?" Astrid was confused. The response had been weird.

"It is," he said with a low chuckle. Without looking he reached back his hand to ruffle Astrid's hair. "I just thought the ability had become extinct."