Sweets: The Tale of Astoria Greengrass

Scorpius

Hallow's Eve, 2004

Astoria and Draco lay in the gardens behind Malfoy Manor. Still carefully maintained by Narcissa as she aged, they were more exquisite than ever. The stars shone above them. Astoria felt comfortably small in the night sky's presence. It was as if seeing the world with the lights turned off put everything into perspective.

"Look," Draco said. "Scorpius is in the sky."

Astoria reached her hand out to the star, and he took her hand, guiding it to the constellation, then tracing its outline. Astoria smiled, loving nights like these. Puffy clouds illuminated turquoise by the full moon drifted by.

All was idyllic in their own slice of paradise.

Astoria furrowed her brow as she stared at the constellation. She slowly dropped her hand away.

"I like the name," she said softly. "Scorpius."

Draco said nothing, but she could feel him stiffen beside her.

"Narcissa would like it, it fits with the Black naming tradition," Astoria continued. "And I always thought Hyperion would be a dignified middle name."

"I wish you wouldn't talk about things like that," Draco said.

"Like what?" Astoria asked all-too-innocently.

Draco sat up, and looked down at her. "Things like about babies and what we'd name them."

"Why not?" Astoria smiled as she sat up. Her smile faltered a little as she saw his expression. Intense, with both love and fear, she knew she shouldn't have asked.

The trouble had started the week before.

Astoria had decided to take Draco's room from his childhood and paint the walls and ceiling with a glowing, colorful star pattern, instead of the gloomy black walls. It wasn't that Astoria had done some renovations that had made him angry— he was usually supportive of her attempts to brighten up Malfoy Manor.

It was the mobile she'd drilled into the ceiling.

All week after the huge fight, there had been tense dinners, longer hours at the Department of Magical Creatures for Astoria and for Draco in his study filled with dark artifacts and notes on alchemy. Astoria had tried the best she could to try to make things right again between them— but tonight was supposed to help.

"Why not?" Draco repeated. "Tori, we both know you can't have children."

"It's not like I'm sterile," Astoria said, with a defensive shrug. She picked up grass and started shredding it in her fingers.

"You know what I mean."

Astoria avoided Draco's sharp gray eyes. "We don't know that it would kill me."

"It would hurt you, would take years off of your life, we both know that," Draco said. He took her hands. "We can't risk you having a baby."

Astoria bit her lip, and met his eyes. "What if I want a baby?"

Draco was silent a moment. "Has Mother been talking to you again? Or Father? Because I don't care about the bloodlines or any of that! I ought to be the last Malfoy— Astoria, could you even see me as a father?"

"Of course," Astoria said. "I believe you'd be a wonderful father."

"I'm a mess, Tori," Draco said with a bitter laugh. "What makes you think I could raise a child, teach them the difference between right and wrong? I'd make a mess out of it as much as my father did."

"Draco." Astoria caressed his face, and he leaned in ever so slightly to her touch. "You're not your father. And I'm not Narcissa. And Scorpius would take the best from you. You've got more light than you ever seem to see."

"You see more light than anyone," Draco said, a smile curling onto his face. "You've always had more faith in me. I could only hope to live up to it."

"But it's not just about being a father, is it?" Astoria pressed on. "What's really going on?"

He wrapped his hand around her wrist as her hand lingered on his face, and his eyes flicked down. Astoria saw then how tired he was, from all the nightmares that had never gone away.

"I can't lose you," he said finally. "I've lost so much. Merlin, I can't lose you, too, Astoria."

Astoria smiled sadly. "I was always going to go before you, Draco Malfoy. You knew that."

"But I wanted us to have more time," Draco said. His eyes flicked upward so they met, gray to brown.

"It would never have been enough," Astoria said. "But just. . . Listen to me."

He didn't move or speak, those gray eyes as amazed by her as if she had a lightning scar on her forehead. Astoria sighed.

"I know how lonely it is, to be Draco Malfoy," Astoria said. "And I keep thinking, that if we had a child, I could leave someone, a piece of me with you. Then you wouldn't be alone when I died. I'm not destined for old age, you know."

Draco took it all in. The couple sat beneath the stars, letting the night absorb all that had been said.

"Is this what you really want?" Draco asked.

"Yes." Astoria's voice was a cloud-like whisper, a breath of necessity.

"Then maybe we should try for a baby," Draco said. "A Scorpius Hyperion."

"Then you like the name, too?" Astoria asked.

A smirk curled on the edge of his lips. "It feels right."

Astoria embraced him, a grin on her face. She practically tackled him, throwing him onto the grass. The lovers lay there, finally in agreement. The future was all written out in front of them in the night sky.