Draco Malfoy was pissed off.

He found it unnerving that Potter was sniffing around Astrid. He wanted to know what he wanted with her. And knowing Potter, it was nothing good.

He was desperate to go to Astrid, to see if she was okay, but he was too ashamed. He couldn't bear to see the disappointment in her eyes whenever she discovered something new about him.

And not only that, he felt confused.

He had never thought of her as anything but a Muggle before: a completely separate entity to the world he occupied in Hogwarts. It had been easy, back when he could compartmentalise these two aspects of his life separately. But now they were mixed and everything felt in disarray.

He was confused by his hatred of Mudbloods, and what that made Astrid to him. He had needed space from her to sort out his head. But the longer he stayed away from her, the more he missed her.

He tried to distract himself with Pansy, but the girl irked the hell out of him, and all he could think about when he was with her, was the Muggle. Pansy just wasn't Astrid.

And there was also the issue with the cabinet. It was difficult to go in and fix it when he was avoiding the girl that lived there. Getting desperate, he had recruited an oblivious Pansy to help him smuggle in a cursed necklace that he had come across in Borgin and Burke's.

Now he had it, it was the case of just trying to work out how he was going to get it into Dumbledore's hands without it tracing back to him. He was desperate to talk to Astrid about it, itched to see her again. Actually, what he wanted more than anything was to take her in his arms, and to tell her how sorry he was.

He had been a damned fool.

Practically running to get to the seventh floor, he hoped she would be there. It was late Saturday afternoon and he was hoping to catch her before they they all went down to dinner. He suddenly couldn't bare to have to sit through another meal trying not to stare at her tortured, beautiful face from across the hall.

But when he arrived, she was nowhere to be found. The cabinet sat lonely and untouched in the middle of the room, giving him shivers. He had noticed that Astrid hadn't moved her bedding back next to it. He didn't blame her.

Deciding she must have gone for a walk among the grounds, he went off to see if he could find her. He passed the Golden Trio on the way through the Entrance Hall and was pleased to see that Astrid wasn't among them. He couldn't help but give Potter a filthy look as he walked by.

Standing at the open great oak doors, he tried to think where Astrid might want to go, when he spotted a figure leaning against the beech tree over on the bank by the lake. He narrowed his eyes and found his heart fluttering when he realised it was Astrid, and she appeared to be reading a book.

Almost running, he headed straight for her, reminding him of the times he would cross the playground to join her by the swings.

But as he neared he realised something. Unlike all those times in the playground, Astrid was no longer alone. The tree which had been hiding the second figure from where he had stood at the oak doors, had slowly moved from his view to reveal... Blaise Zabini?!

Draco stopped in his tracks. Astrid was laughing at something Blaise was saying. He swallowed, feeling his heart twist horribly. He hadn't seen Astrid laugh like that in ages.

He watched as she looked up at Blaise with adoring eyes, and a huge lump appeared in his throat as he thought how beautiful she looked when she smiled.

But it wasn't him she was smiling at like that right now. It was Blaise.

Turning on the spot, Draco forlornly headed back to the castle, feeling a heaviness so huge, that he knew he would not be able to face dinner tonight. In fact, he didn't think as though it was possible that he could ever feel hungry again.

...

I had a surprisingly wonderful afternoon with Blaise. In fact, it was the first time I had felt happy since arriving here at the castle.

I tried not to let my mind wander to the white-blond haired Slytherin, one who made my heart squeeze painfully in my chest.

"Potter's broom was in pieces," Blaise drawled amusedly as he regaled hilarious tales of Harry Potter to me, "I would have felt sorry for him if it wasn't for the fact that he had showed it off something rotten to us in the first year. And first years aren't even allowed their own brooms. How the hell he gets away with it, I'll never understand."

"Well, you've certainly cheered me up," I grinned at him, as we returned back to the castle's Entrance Hall, "thank you for the company, Blaise."

"No, thank you, Astrid," he smiled, flashing perfect white teeth as his beautiful black eyes twinkled at me "I wouldn't mind doing this again."

I felt a flutter in my stomach. I looked down bashfully, feeling ridiculously pleased.

"That would be nice," I murmured, feeling a heat rise to my cheeks.

"I'll catch you later, then?" Blaise said silkily, seemingly reluctant to leave as we hovered outside the doors to the Great Hall.

"For sure," I smiled, choosing to make the first move to part as I stepped inside for dinner, "I'll look forward to it."

I was still grinning when I sat down beside Susan at the Hufflepuff table.

"Well, something's certainly cheered you up," she smiled at me before taking a huge bite of ham and pineapple pizza.

I leant forward, helping myself to what looked liked ham and mushroom pizza, but given this strange world and their weird choice of juices, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was in fact human flesh and bat wings pizza.

"I just spent a lovely afternoon with Blaise," I grinned, swallowing a mouthful of pizza.

"Zabini?" Susan gasped, "but he's a Slytherin!"

"Well, Harry Potter's a Gryffindor and he's a tosser," I shrugged. "So houses mean zilch."

"But- but Harry's the Chosen One!" Susan said incredulously, her mouth gaping open.

"Let's just say I haven't had a good experience with the Boy Who Lived," I said snarkily, glaring over at the Gryffindor table, "it turns out he's not everyone's cup of tea."

"Wow, you know what?" Susan said looking at me in some kind of awe, "I don't know why you're in Hufflepuff, because you girl, just sounded more Slytherin than Draco Malfoy."

At the mention of his name, I couldn't help but glance up at the Slytherin table. But the white-blond haired boy was nowhere to be seen.

And despite my pleasant afternoon with Blaise, I couldn't help but notice the heaviness of my heart when I realised just how much I missed Draco.