they were just kids [draco malfoy]

Year 3 - 33

Valentine's day was coming up and Astrid had been thinking about it a lot. But not in the same way most people thought about it. Astrid was a little anxious.

She had been thinking about that deal she and Malfoy made a year ago and she was wondering if it still applied. They had agreed on gifting one another a gift. It was a competition of sort and she was worried maybe the lad had forgotten. She didn't want to get him a gift only for him to laugh in her face for doing such a thing.

Although something at the back of her head told her he wouldn't stand out of a competition. Especially with her. Besides, she had figured if he was to not bring a gift, it would only make him look more stupid. Plus, it would be a great opportunity to tease him about how she had won and he was a sissy for being so scared to lose that he didn't even participate.

At least that was what she told herself to calm down. 

Astrid had her gift down and figured out and she knew it was brilliant. Possibly her brightest idea yet. And it had taken a ton of time to perfect it with a lot of help from Rosier. Astrid had anticipated it to be a ton of work on itself to convince Rosier to help, but all she had had to do was agree to willingly try out 3 of the girl's experiments and inventions. It was a risky call but a risk she was willing to take.

As she and the whole of her friend group set foot into Hogsmeade, the girl was already looking ahead to a perfectly relaxing day to look and maybe find a little something she could add to the gift. It was 12th of February, just two days until the event and the girl was in a weird mixture of anxiousness and excitement. The two emotions being so similar it was hard to tell one apart from the other.

"So," Daphne started excitedly as she scooted out of Blaise's embrace and looked between Draco and Astrid, "do the two of you already have your gifts or do we have to make sure to keep you separate while you go on and buy them?"

"What gifts?" Pansy who had been clutching onto Draco's side questioned, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"Valentine day gifts, of course," Daphne spoke making Pansy widen her eyes in complete shock. "The two agreed to partake in a competition. I still have the picture by the way," she turns away from Pansy and looks once more between the silent Astrid and Draco. "So?"

Astrid looked at Malfoy to search his face for an answer. Upon seeing the self-assured smirk, the girl had easily gotten it.

"I can't believe you think I'd get my gift from Hogsmeade," Draco spoke shooting a single glance Astrid's way. "As I said. The history behind it is what's important. You cannot get something of that sort here."

Though she would never say it out loud, Astrid agreed. What the two were playing at couldn't just be a simple storebought gift. It had to have something a little bit more... interesting.

"So you've got yours already?"

"Oh, I've had mine for a while."

Astrid hated to admit she was positively intrigued.

"What about you, Ash?"

The girl let a smirk spread across her face too.

"I've got myself covered."

Draco looked at Ninomae one eyebrow raised. He was positive he would win, but he was still curious as to what the girl had planned to give him. Draco Malfoy was looking forward to Valentine's day and the thought scared him.

Upon arriving, the group separated, like they usually did. Rosier, as always, headed straight to Zonko's, Tracey, quite surprisingly, trudging along as she mumbled some insults under her breath. Daphne was for all things fancy and shiny; the girl pulled Pansy along with her, knowing that they had similar interests in mind (the raven-haired girl had left Draco's side rather reluctantly). Astrid grabbed Millicent along with her to go to Honeydukes first, where Astrid was to look for some additional sweets to the gift she had planned. That was what they did before hastily going and finding Daphne and Pansy. Blaise and Theo had walked into Honeydukes, for once, being polite with Astrid and asking her if she knew any specific sweets Daphne could like, to which Astrid had shaken her head and pointed at a jewellery store across the street. "Blaise, you've known her since you were babies. You should know the keywords are 'shiny' and 'expensive'. It's really that easy." To which Zabini had growled that he already had the 'special' gift and he had just hoped for an addition. Draco and his two goons had disappeared to only-God-knows where.