[HP Spring Fling 2011] Astoria's Experimental Potion - A gift for slumber
Title: Astoria's Experimental Potion
Author: vane_nt
Recipient: slumber
Pairing(s): Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy
Rating: PG-13 (just because of some brief references to off-screen sexual acts)
Word Count: 1382
Warnings: None
Summary: Even though Draco ignores her warnings, a reluctant Astoria tries to give him what he wants.
Author's Notes: "Harry Potter" belongs to J.K. Rowling and her legal licensees.
Dear Slumber, I've made a conscious effort to incorporate several of your likes into this story. I hope you will approve the result!
ASTORIA'S EXPERIMENTAL POTION
"We're not losing to them again! You've got to do something about it!" An exasperated Draco said.
"We" meant the Falmouth Falcons, the Quidditch team the Malfoys had bought the previous year. "Them" meant the Holyhead Harpies, the Quidditch team that had defeated the Falcons in every single match they had played since Draco had become the latter's manager. "You" meant Astoria, who had never played a professional Quidditch match in her life.
"If I were you, I'd try not to speak so loud," she said. "Unless you want to give Skeeter something to write about," she added, tilting her head towards a nearby table.
"She never writes about Quidditch," Draco pointed out, although his voice sounded considerably softer than before. "And I think you're just trying to change subjects."
He was partially right. Astoria had agreed to meet him at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour that day because she wanted to spend a nice afternoon taking ice cream in the company of her fiancé. However, looking at the melted content in Draco's cup, Astoria realised that he didn't think people went to ice cream shops to take ice cream. Apparently, he thought that the Parlour was just one more good place to pester her again with the annoying pleas that he had been repeating for weeks in a row. Of course Astoria wanted to change subjects, even though her cautionary words about Rita Skeeter's presence in the Parlour were valid advice.
"So, what are you going to do?" Draco insisted.
"I'm going to finish my ice cream."
"Astoria, please!"
She sighed and added:
"And I'll try to help you."
"Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you!" Draco said with a wide smile, while he caressed her left hand.
"I'm sure you do."
It must have been the cynicism in her voice that made Draco's smile give place to an embarrassed grimace.
~x~x~
"Have you seen this?"
Astoria grabbed the Daily Prophet issue her sister had just dropped on the sofa's arm. One of the headlines caught her eyes:
Malfoy Heir in Despair Over Upcoming Quidditch Match
She was not surprised to find out that the article had been penned by Rita Skeeter. Not that she wouldn't have been able to recognise Skeeter's style anyway.
The article had been clearly based on what its author had overheard at the Parlour. It contained a lot of speculation, although a couple of true pieces of information had been added for good measure. At least one of those facts had to do with Astoria: she worked in her family's experimental potion-making laboratory, and Skeeter stressed this while wondering exactly how a potioneer would be able to solve the problems of a Quidditch team.
"Why has she written that?" Daphne asked.
Astoria told her what had happened the previous day.
"I see. Draco is a bit careless sometimes, isn't he?" Daphne pointed out.
Astoria nodded vigorously. She knew that her sister wasn't just referring to what Draco had said out loud in a public place. She had already told Daphne about Draco's plans involving undetectable performance-enhancing potions that he expected her to brew for his Quidditch team. Daphne's opinion on the matter was identical to Astoria's: that would be a dangerous move. Their family's business was called Grengrass Experimental Potions for a reason. They dealt with potions that weren't ready for commercial release. Not that they would ever be allowed to release a commercial version of an illegal type of potion, like the one Draco had requested.
Yet, Astoria wasn't really concerned about the illegality of performance-enhancing potions for Quidditch players. Those products were supposed to be untraceable anyway, and she had great confidence in her ability to achieve this result. What worried her was the possibility that the potion either wouldn't work as expected, or simply wouldn't produce any effect on the players. She had tried to open Draco's eyes to this issue. She had repeated countless times that most of the products that she, her sister and their mother worked so hard to develop proved useless and had to be discarded eventually. That kind of frustration was intrinsic to their business. Even so, Draco kept on urging her to try. He claimed to be aware of the risks, and swore that he was ready to accept the outcome of her experiment, whatever it might be.
Astoria was sceptical about Draco's ability to handle frustration well, but decided to give him the benefit of doubt.
~x~x~
As soon as Draco climbed off her and rolled over to his side of the bed, Astoria sat down and reached for her bag. She took out of it a thick book on rare potion ingredients. Using her pillow as a cushion, she leant against the headboard and opened the book on her lap.
"Hey! I'm still here," Draco said, sounding rather aggravated.
Astoria let out a sigh. He should have already got used to her post-sex habits.
"You aren't jealous of a book, are you?"
"Of course not. It's just that you act as if you were alone, while your future husband is here, by your side, hoping that you'll have the decency to pretend that he's as important to you as these silly books that you always read after-"
"What if I told my future husband that this book contains a list of ingredients that I could use to brew a certain potion?"
Draco smiled and said cheerfully:
"Your future husband will not disturb you anymore. Enjoy your wonderful book, my love. I'm going to sleep now."
"Thank Merlin!"
"Hey, I heard that!"
~x~x~
"I'd like to remind you all that this is an experimental potion. Surely you're aware of-"
"Yes, yes, they all are aware of everything they need to. Now, love, could you please give us that bottle?"
There still were several facts Astoria would have liked to stress: she had only had the time to test the potion for detectability; Draco hadn't given her the time to test it for performance enhancement; she had used an obscure recipe; she had been unable to find any written records on its efficiency; no one should be surprised if it wouldn't improve their performance in any way.
But she wasn't going to argue with Draco in front of his players. They were all adults after all. Or, as Draco would put it, they were in an all-Slytherin dressing room. Astoria failed to see how this was a guarantee that they knew what they were doing. Yet, at that point it didn't matter. So, she handed the bottle over to Draco, who handed it over to Pucey.
When Montague emptied the bottle and gave it back to Astoria, Draco asked:
"What are you going to do with it now?"
"I'm going to attach it to my robe," Astoria answered as she transfigured the bottle into a silver brooch.
Having nothing left to do in that dressing room, she wished the team luck and apparated away.
~x~x~
Astoria was happy.
The Golden Snitch hadn't been caught yet, but that didn't make any difference anymore. The Falcons had already scored sixteen goals in less than five minutes. Warrington, Montague and Pucey had never played so well. The Harpies looked completely lost in the pitch. Weasley wandered around aimlessly, whereas Jones just stared at the opponents.
That obscure recipe was well worth trying after all. It worked!
The man sitting by Astoria's side seemed undecided between collapsing or pulling all his hair out.
"Astoria, what does it mean? What's going on?!"
It was obvious that from Draco's point of view, her experiment had been a huge failure. But Astoria would never agree with him. Didn't he want a performance-enhancing potion? That was exactly what his players had drunk. Other than what she had feared, the potion was definitely not ineffective.
It wasn't her fault that Draco had ignored her suggestion to save the potion for a future match. It wasn't her fault that Draco had chosen to expose his players to a product that hadn't been fully tested. Consequently, it wasn't her fault that the Falcons had scored sixteen own goals--and that they celebrated each of those as if they hadn't done anything wrong.
"I told you it was an experimental potion, Draco."
Don't forget to leave a comment for our writer! :-D ( Comment Policy)
Author: vane_nt
Recipient: slumber
Pairing(s): Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy
Rating: PG-13 (just because of some brief references to off-screen sexual acts)
Word Count: 1382
Warnings: None
Summary: Even though Draco ignores her warnings, a reluctant Astoria tries to give him what he wants.
Author's Notes: "Harry Potter" belongs to J.K. Rowling and her legal licensees.
Dear Slumber, I've made a conscious effort to incorporate several of your likes into this story. I hope you will approve the result!
ASTORIA'S EXPERIMENTAL POTION
"We're not losing to them again! You've got to do something about it!" An exasperated Draco said.
"We" meant the Falmouth Falcons, the Quidditch team the Malfoys had bought the previous year. "Them" meant the Holyhead Harpies, the Quidditch team that had defeated the Falcons in every single match they had played since Draco had become the latter's manager. "You" meant Astoria, who had never played a professional Quidditch match in her life.
"If I were you, I'd try not to speak so loud," she said. "Unless you want to give Skeeter something to write about," she added, tilting her head towards a nearby table.
"She never writes about Quidditch," Draco pointed out, although his voice sounded considerably softer than before. "And I think you're just trying to change subjects."
He was partially right. Astoria had agreed to meet him at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour that day because she wanted to spend a nice afternoon taking ice cream in the company of her fiancé. However, looking at the melted content in Draco's cup, Astoria realised that he didn't think people went to ice cream shops to take ice cream. Apparently, he thought that the Parlour was just one more good place to pester her again with the annoying pleas that he had been repeating for weeks in a row. Of course Astoria wanted to change subjects, even though her cautionary words about Rita Skeeter's presence in the Parlour were valid advice.
"So, what are you going to do?" Draco insisted.
"I'm going to finish my ice cream."
"Astoria, please!"
She sighed and added:
"And I'll try to help you."
"Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you!" Draco said with a wide smile, while he caressed her left hand.
"I'm sure you do."
It must have been the cynicism in her voice that made Draco's smile give place to an embarrassed grimace.
~x~x~
"Have you seen this?"
Astoria grabbed the Daily Prophet issue her sister had just dropped on the sofa's arm. One of the headlines caught her eyes:
Malfoy Heir in Despair Over Upcoming Quidditch Match
She was not surprised to find out that the article had been penned by Rita Skeeter. Not that she wouldn't have been able to recognise Skeeter's style anyway.
The article had been clearly based on what its author had overheard at the Parlour. It contained a lot of speculation, although a couple of true pieces of information had been added for good measure. At least one of those facts had to do with Astoria: she worked in her family's experimental potion-making laboratory, and Skeeter stressed this while wondering exactly how a potioneer would be able to solve the problems of a Quidditch team.
"Why has she written that?" Daphne asked.
Astoria told her what had happened the previous day.
"I see. Draco is a bit careless sometimes, isn't he?" Daphne pointed out.
Astoria nodded vigorously. She knew that her sister wasn't just referring to what Draco had said out loud in a public place. She had already told Daphne about Draco's plans involving undetectable performance-enhancing potions that he expected her to brew for his Quidditch team. Daphne's opinion on the matter was identical to Astoria's: that would be a dangerous move. Their family's business was called Grengrass Experimental Potions for a reason. They dealt with potions that weren't ready for commercial release. Not that they would ever be allowed to release a commercial version of an illegal type of potion, like the one Draco had requested.
Yet, Astoria wasn't really concerned about the illegality of performance-enhancing potions for Quidditch players. Those products were supposed to be untraceable anyway, and she had great confidence in her ability to achieve this result. What worried her was the possibility that the potion either wouldn't work as expected, or simply wouldn't produce any effect on the players. She had tried to open Draco's eyes to this issue. She had repeated countless times that most of the products that she, her sister and their mother worked so hard to develop proved useless and had to be discarded eventually. That kind of frustration was intrinsic to their business. Even so, Draco kept on urging her to try. He claimed to be aware of the risks, and swore that he was ready to accept the outcome of her experiment, whatever it might be.
Astoria was sceptical about Draco's ability to handle frustration well, but decided to give him the benefit of doubt.
~x~x~
As soon as Draco climbed off her and rolled over to his side of the bed, Astoria sat down and reached for her bag. She took out of it a thick book on rare potion ingredients. Using her pillow as a cushion, she leant against the headboard and opened the book on her lap.
"Hey! I'm still here," Draco said, sounding rather aggravated.
Astoria let out a sigh. He should have already got used to her post-sex habits.
"You aren't jealous of a book, are you?"
"Of course not. It's just that you act as if you were alone, while your future husband is here, by your side, hoping that you'll have the decency to pretend that he's as important to you as these silly books that you always read after-"
"What if I told my future husband that this book contains a list of ingredients that I could use to brew a certain potion?"
Draco smiled and said cheerfully:
"Your future husband will not disturb you anymore. Enjoy your wonderful book, my love. I'm going to sleep now."
"Thank Merlin!"
"Hey, I heard that!"
~x~x~
"I'd like to remind you all that this is an experimental potion. Surely you're aware of-"
"Yes, yes, they all are aware of everything they need to. Now, love, could you please give us that bottle?"
There still were several facts Astoria would have liked to stress: she had only had the time to test the potion for detectability; Draco hadn't given her the time to test it for performance enhancement; she had used an obscure recipe; she had been unable to find any written records on its efficiency; no one should be surprised if it wouldn't improve their performance in any way.
But she wasn't going to argue with Draco in front of his players. They were all adults after all. Or, as Draco would put it, they were in an all-Slytherin dressing room. Astoria failed to see how this was a guarantee that they knew what they were doing. Yet, at that point it didn't matter. So, she handed the bottle over to Draco, who handed it over to Pucey.
When Montague emptied the bottle and gave it back to Astoria, Draco asked:
"What are you going to do with it now?"
"I'm going to attach it to my robe," Astoria answered as she transfigured the bottle into a silver brooch.
Having nothing left to do in that dressing room, she wished the team luck and apparated away.
~x~x~
Astoria was happy.
The Golden Snitch hadn't been caught yet, but that didn't make any difference anymore. The Falcons had already scored sixteen goals in less than five minutes. Warrington, Montague and Pucey had never played so well. The Harpies looked completely lost in the pitch. Weasley wandered around aimlessly, whereas Jones just stared at the opponents.
That obscure recipe was well worth trying after all. It worked!
The man sitting by Astoria's side seemed undecided between collapsing or pulling all his hair out.
"Astoria, what does it mean? What's going on?!"
It was obvious that from Draco's point of view, her experiment had been a huge failure. But Astoria would never agree with him. Didn't he want a performance-enhancing potion? That was exactly what his players had drunk. Other than what she had feared, the potion was definitely not ineffective.
It wasn't her fault that Draco had ignored her suggestion to save the potion for a future match. It wasn't her fault that Draco had chosen to expose his players to a product that hadn't been fully tested. Consequently, it wasn't her fault that the Falcons had scored sixteen own goals--and that they celebrated each of those as if they hadn't done anything wrong.
"I told you it was an experimental potion, Draco."
Don't forget to leave a comment for our writer! :-D ( Comment Policy)