Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to J.K. Rowling.

1. Malfoys Marry Pure-Bloods

"Draco, I'm leaving you."

Draco looked up from his cup of tea to stare at Astoria, who was sitting opposite him at their usual table in the far corner of Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop.

He was briefly distracted from staring at his fiancée when he caught another glimpse of Harry Potter, who was sitting at a table on the other side of the room with Ginevra Weasley.

Apart from Potter and his girlfriend, there was only a group of teenagers in the room. The teenagers were sitting at a table to Draco's left and apparently trying to build some sort of card house with Exploding Snap cards.

Draco struggled to suppress a sneer of disapproval. He had never had the time nor the inclination to take part in such pointless games during his teenage years.

After a few moments, he went back to staring at Potter and his girlfriend.

Even though Draco had read many an article in Pansy and Millicent's copies of Witch Weekly magazine about the so-called 'perfect couple', the two of them looked far from perfect as they sat in silence at their table, both of them looking around the room and at the windows and the door, and definitely not at each other.

Draco wondered why Potter even bothered to drink tea at Madam Puddifoot's, as he had noticed that he always looked rather glum whenever he happened to be here at the same time as him.

Not that the Tea Shop was Draco's first choice of place to go for a drink, either. But, unlike Potter, he wasn't exactly welcome at the Three Broomsticks or at the Hog's Head, so he didn't really have much choice. It wasn't as though The Chosen One was as limited as Draco in his choices of places to go.

On the other hand, Potter also looked miserable every time their paths crossed at the Ministry, or in Diagon Alley, or at various Quidditch matches, which made Draco wonder if Potter simply looked glum everywhere he went.

Unless Potter only looked upset when he caught sight of Draco, which would probably be a more logical explanation.

Astoria coughed discreetly, which reminded Draco that he had more important issues to focus on than Harry Potter.

With an apologetic shrug, he turned his attention back to her. "You're leaving me?" he asked her slowly, just in case he had misheard.

She nodded solemnly.

He knew that if there was ever a perfect moment to panic, then this would be it.

She couldn't leave him. If she left him, then their engagement would be off, which would mean that the wedding would also be off, and who knew what that would lead to.

Marrying a pure-blood from a wealthy wizarding family was one of the fundamental rules of being a Malfoy. The rules had never officially been written down anywhere, but before he had even learned how to talk, Draco already knew Rule Number One off by heart.

If he broke the pure-blood wedding rule, then anything could happen. What if his family disowned him? Disinherited him? What if other pure-blood families also turned their backs on him?

And why was the idea not terrifying him as much as it should?

Draco continued to stare at Astoria, wondering what he could possibly have done over the past few months to cause her to make such a drastic decision.

Okay, they had been forced to spend a lot of time apart recently, because they had both been so busy at work, and Astoria had stopped speaking to him for several days last week when he returned home late from work because he had been too busy arguing with Potter to notice the time. The fact that these petty arguments with Potter happened at least once a month hadn't done much to help Draco's case.

But apart from that, as far as he was concerned, they had had a nice day.

Draco had been the one to suggest this particular visit to Hogsmeade, and the two of them had spent the afternoon strolling happily around the shops, trying on designer robes, talking about Quidditch and gossiping about their friends.

They had even discussed the possibility of moving to Hogsmeade after the wedding, as Draco had always been rather fond of the village, and he was keen to escape the unfriendly stares and whispers from the majority of the witches and wizards in London.

The purpose of the trip had mainly been to persuade Astoria that it would be a good idea to set up home here, but apparently, Draco had failed miserably in his task, as it looked like she had now decided that she wasn't going to live with him in Hogsmeade, or anywhere else in the wizarding world, for that matter.

"But…why?" he asked her, still feeling utterly confused.

"You don't love me," she told him, her tone of voice sounding more matter-of-fact than upset or angry.

"Yes, I do," he responded automatically.

Of course he loved her. Even though he wasn't enough of a Hufflepuff to admit it out loud, Astoria Greengrass had been one of the closest friends that he had ever had. She had stayed by his side in the months that followed the war, supporting him through some of the most difficult moments of his adult life. She had held his hand during his family's trials at the Ministry of Magic, she had nodded sympathetically when he confided in her about his past, and she had also told him a few home truths, trying her best to get him to see that maybe, just maybe, everything hadn't always been Harry Potter's fault at Hogwarts.

Now, five years after the war, she was here to share the happier moments of his life, and he hers. Surprisingly, Draco had discovered that the two of them had a lot in common, and he actually enjoyed spending time with her.

Astoria made him laugh and smile, and she even laughed at a few of his jokes and insults. She usually tolerated his sneers and sarcastic comments, and she simply sighed and told him to grow up when she was there to witness some of his more childish moments, such as the glares between him and Weasley when they walked past each other in Diagon Alley or the arguments between Draco and his father.

Draco had even accepted the unfortunate fact that she was an avid Chudley Cannons fan. If that wasn't love, then he didn't know what was.

"You don't love me in a romantic way," she explained.

Draco took a slow sip of his tea. "Does it matter?" he asked her with a frown.

To Draco, it seemed rather unfair to use a lack of romantic love as the main excuse to break off a pure-blood engagement.

After all, it had never mattered to any of the other pure-blood families he knew. For them, marriage was all about making a connection with a family of equal status and continuing the family name by producing an heir.

For the Malfoys, Draco's marriage was also about finding a partner whose parents hadn't been involved with the Death Eaters during the war, in the hope that a close link with a family who had fought on the 'right' side would lead to some sort of redemption for them, or at least an escape from the constant insults in the Daily Prophet.

The words 'love' and 'romance' had never been mentioned when making plans for the wedding, and Draco had never thought to bring them up in conversation. He simply felt grateful that at the very least, he and Astoria were friends, as the word 'friendship' rarely came up in pure-blood conversations about marriage, either.

"Well, I'm starting to think that maybe it does matter," Astoria sighed. "I've been thinking about it for a while, and most of my half-blood and Muggle-born friends-don't sneer at me like that, Draco-seem to think that romantic love is important in their relationships; it seems to make them happy, and I've decided that I want to see if it makes me happy, too. Besides, I can't help thinking that there's somebody else for you…"

"There's no other woman," Draco felt it necessary to inform her, just in case she was suspicious that he had been loving somebody else in a romantic way behind her back.

He had other female friends of course, like Pansy and Millicent and Daphne and Tracey, but none as close as Astoria, and he couldn't imagine a relationship or a marriage with any other woman.

For some reason, Astoria smiled. "I know that there's no other woman, Draco." She leaned forward slightly, stared at him intently and raised her eyebrows, as though waiting for him to respond.

"Is there another man?" he asked her, wondering if she had already found somebody else to provide her with the romance that had apparently been lacking in her life.

"No, there's no other man, not yet…not for me, anyway." Again she raised her eyebrows at him. "I feel like you need some time to work a few things out, Draco…"

Draco folded his arms sulkily, annoyed that she was looking at him as though she knew something that he didn't.

"Don't sulk, Draco," muttered Astoria. It was a line that she used a lot, mainly after Draco's arguments with his father, but she usually told him to stop sulking with a roll of her eyes and an affectionate grin. Now, there was a hint of sadness in her words, as though she were saying the line for the last time. As though somebody else would be sitting in tea shops with him in the near future and trying in vain to stop him from sulking when he didn't get his own way. Somebody very different to her.

"So, it's really over?" Draco asked her, even though he already knew the answer.

She nodded.

"Are we still going to be friends?" he mumbled, trying to ignore the proud Slytherin in his head, who was now metaphorically glaring at him in disgust for making such a Hufflepuff comment. He had to check though, because the thought of losing her as a friend was a lot more terrifying than the thought of losing her as a fiancée.

"Of course," she replied with a grin.

Eventually, they finished their tea and stood up to leave.

Before Draco could head towards the door, Astoria stopped him and held her arms out, silently asking for a hug.

Noticing that her eyes were now filled with tears, Draco started to suspect that perhaps she wasn't as relaxed about this new situation as she had tried to appear, or perhaps she would begin to panic slightly about her future when she went home and she had some time to think about her decision.

Again, Draco wondered why he wasn't feeling his own rush of sadness, or anger, or disappointment. But then, it had taken him several denial-filled months after the Battle of Hogwarts before the shock and the enormity of what had happened had finally hit him, so maybe he was going to experience yet another delayed reaction to a dramatic moment in his life.

Draco walked towards her and she wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight.

Draco hugged her back, hoping more than anything that he wasn't being watched by anybody through the window. It was bad enough that Nott and Zabini constantly mocked him for his regular visits to Madam Puddifoot's, but things would only get worse if it got out that he also gave Hufflepuff-like hugs in the middle of said tea shop. Anyway, he was certain that there was some sort of Malfoys-don't-hug rule somewhere in the unwritten Malfoy Rule Book.

So, that was it, just like that. After several years of drinking tea and discussing the future, he was now no longer marrying a pure-blood.

After so much planning and preparation, the whole thing seemed rather abrupt and sudden.

For the past few years, Draco had tried his best to rebuild his life, picking up the pieces as though they were scattered Exploding Snap cards and trying to repair them and build them up into a more organised and steady card house.

But today, it was almost as if Astoria had suddenly removed one of the Exploding Snap cards from the bottom of the house, and now that one of the most important cards had been removed from his life, the already unsteady house was wobbling precariously, unsure as to what direction it should move in or what would happen next.

"You know," Astoria suddenly whispered in Draco's ear, making him jump, "the whole time we've been here, Harry Potter hasn't taken his eyes off you."