She || Drastoria

33 - Double Date

With Scorpius away, the Manor was unbearably quiet. His absence was felt in every room Astoria wandered into, causing the heaviness she felt from missing him to never leave.

The sadness, coupled with the cold, dark English weather was doing nothing for Astoria's health, although whenever Draco would tentatively broach the subject of returning to New Zealand at least until Christmas, Astoria would remain defiant and firm.

"I'm not leaving the country without Scorp," she would say adamantly, making it clear there was no changing her mind.

Despite her deteriorating health, Astoria made sure to get outside at least once a day, accompanying her husband on a short walk through the grounds, no matter what the weather.

They had little in the way of a social life, with Draco discouraging anything which was likely to tire Astoria out. But visitors were often frequent. They even had a visit from Draco's parents, with neither Lucius nor Narcissa addressing Astoria's health once. All their enquiries were after Scorpius and whether they could be permitted to see him over the Christmas holiday.

"We'll see," Draco said stiffly, his answer non-committal.

Daphne, possibly their most frequent visitor, would often pop by with a packet of hers and Astoria's favourite childhood biscuits. And, over a pot of afternoon tea, the two sisters would sit and reminisce about the early days whilst munching their way through jam sandwich creams.

"So, I hear our Scorpy has found a friend in Potter's kid," Daphne smirked as she expertly split her biscuit in two halves. "That must dreadfully please Draco."

Astoria glanced over her shoulder to the window where outside Draco was teaching Daphne's six year old son, Makas, to ride a broomstick.

"He's just happy that Scorp's happy," she said half-truthfully. When Scorpius first wrote home informing them of his newfound best friend, Draco had not taken it at all well.

"Why a Potter, of all people?!" He had ranted, completely seeming to forget the fact that he himself had tried to befriend a Potter on his first day of Hogwarts too. "I knew we should have sent him to Durmstrang."

But over time, he had come around, especially as it meant that Scorpius was no longer lonely. For their son wrote to them every week, his letters full of stories surrounding his new friendship with Harry Potter's son. He talked about little else, his adoration of Albus Potter clear to all.

"Well, I'm just glad that Hope didn't go there," Daphne said, wrinkling her nose in clear disapproval of her sister's choice of school. "Durmstrang is really shaping out to be the school for her. I just wish our parents had had the foresight to have put us there too."

Now it was Astoria's turn to wrinkle her nose. "Well, I'm glad I went to Hogwarts. They looked after me well."

"Sister, they locked us in a cage when a battle was taking place over our heads."

"They were trying to protect us knowing that if we went to battle we would be fighting against our own parents."

It was a subject they disagreed on a lot.

And there was Blaise who occasionally turned up with gift bags of goodies for Astoria and whisky for Draco and himself to share. And on his last visit he even brought round a 'friend' who was, much to both Astoria and Draco's surprise, former Ravenclaw, Cho Chang.

It was the first time Astoria had ever seen Blaise look smitten.

So, the visitors would come to them, but very rarely would Draco and Astoria leave the confines of the Malfoy estate, day trips anywhere proving too exhausting for the ailing Lady of the Manor.