"Draco," Astoria whispered.

"Mmm," Draco murmured in reply, staring up at the ceiling. There was a crack up there he had never noticed. Perhaps he should get it fixed before it started leaking.

"Daphne and Blaise's wedding is next week," said Astoria.

"Mmm," he murmured again, wondering what spell one would use to fix such a crack.

"I was thinking you could be my plus-one."

Draco rolled over so that he was facing her. "I don't want to go to your sister's wedding, Astoria."

Astoria pouted. "Please."

"No," he said, rolling back onto his back. "I need to stay here. Do some repairs around the house. This place is a dump, surely you've noticed.

"Please," she whispered again, her mouth closer to his ear this time.

She was so close. So close that all he had to do was turn his head slightly to the left and they'd be kissing. And he wanted to. He wanted to kiss her. Badly. How could he not? She was beautiful. She cared about him. She was lying in his bed, whispering things in his ear. But he didn't know how she'd react to him kissing her. What if that's not what she wanted? What if she got angry and left? He couldn't deal with her leaving. Ever since that night of the garden party, two weeks before, she'd stayed with him every night. They hadn't done anything. Just slept. But it made him feel better. It made the nightmares a little more bearable when he woke up to her beautiful face and comforting words.

"Fine," he replied. "I'll be your plus-one."

Astoria wished Draco would kiss her. Sometimes it seemed like he was about to, but then he never did.

"Try to control your alcohol consumption at the reception," Astoria whispered, as she and Draco entered the Greengrass mansion on the day of the wedding.

"I can't make any promises," replied Draco. "But I'll try."

For her, he would try.

"You go find a seat. I have to go help Daphne get ready."

"I can't believe you're abandoning me during the entire ceremony," said Draco.

"I'm Daphne's maid of honor, Draco. I don't have a choice. Besides, your mother's here. You can sit with her."

Draco sighed loudly. "Great."

After she walked away, he stood there in the foyer for a minute, looking around. The house reminded him a lot of Malfoy Manor, a place he tried to avoid at all costs these days. It had the same sort of ambiance, haughty and grand, with oriental rugs and ornate chandeliers. The whole place was almost certainly designed to remind visitors just how wealthy the people who lived there were.

He sighed again, and then went to find a seat.

After the ceremony had ended and the reception had begun, Daphne approached Draco and Astoria.

"Sorry I didn't send you an invitation, Draco," she said, the expression on her face suggesting she wasn't really sorry. "But you haven't exactly been around."

Draco knew that all his old friends from school thought he had gone crazy. None of them wanted anything to do with him, which was fine with him. He knew that Daphne wasn't pleased that Astoria had brought him to her wedding.

Astoria, on the other hand, didn't seem to realize this. She just smiled brightly and said, "I'm going to go get something to drink. You two catch up."

After Astoria had disappeared, Daphne turned to Draco. Her hands were on her hips, her expression furious, and she looked much too scary for someone wearing a white gown and a tiara.

"Are you sleeping with her?" she demanded.

Draco rolled his eyes. "I don't really see how that's any of your business."

"Of course it's my business. She's my little sister."

Draco didn't say anything.

"You can't use my sister, Draco!" Daphne snapped. "You can't use her like you used me. "

"I'm not using her!" he shot back.

She laughed bitterly. "Good one, Draco. As if you've ever not used a girl."

"Astoria is different," he replied quietly.

Daphne lifted an eyebrow. "Different?"

"She makes me feel…normal." He paused, staring over Daphne's shoulder to where Astoria was standing. "And it's nice to feel normal, Daphne. I haven't felt normal since I was 15 years old."

Pansy Parkinson had attended the wedding with Marcus Flint. Personally, Astoria had always found Marcus Flint repulsive. She couldn't figure out why Pansy would be with someone like him. Pansy wasn't exactly a great beauty herself, but she was nowhere near as ugly as Marcus was. He looked and smelled like a troll, and his intelligence level was probably pretty similar to one as well.

At one point during the night, Astoria overheard Pansy and her sister talking. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but she'd heard them say her name and she'd stopped to listen.

"I can't believe Astoria is sleeping with Draco Malfoy," Daphne was saying. "I thought she was smarter than that. Smarter than you…. Smarter than me."

Astoria looked angry. She was marching in his direction, a wild look in her eye, like he'd done something wrong and she'd found out. But what had he done wrong? He hadn't had a thing to drink all night, so it couldn't be that.

"Did you sleep with my sister?" she demanded.

Draco looked around, a couple people had stopped to listen, not so inconspicuously peering at them over the tops of their champagne glasses.

He grabbed Astoria's arm and pulled her into an empty room, away from nosy guests.

"Well?" she asked. She looked eerily like her sister in that moment, with her hands on her hips and her brow furrowed.

"I , er …Yes, but … It was a long time ago." He stumbled over his words, desperately wishing he could just go home, or least get a drink.

"You slept with my sister!" she shrieked. "And you didn't tell me?"

"Aha," a frumpy looking man in one of the painting behind him cackled. "You're in trouble now, boy!"

"I didn't think it mattered," Draco replied, glaring at the portrait. "Like I said, it was a long time ago. Besides, everyone slept with Daphne."

As soon as those words came out of his mouth, he regretted them.

Astoria's eyes narrowed. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? You basically calling my sister a whore."

The man in the portrait was looking back in the forth between them, a gleeful expression on his pudgy face.

"No, I just… Look, I'm sorry, okay. I' sorry I didn't tell you. I'm sorry about what I said about Daphne. I'm sorry."

Astoria tried to keep a small smile from creeping across her face, but failed miserably. "I think you just apologized more in five seconds than the rest of your life combined."

"I really am sorry," he said.

"I know," she replied. "But I overreacted. I mean, you had no reason to tell me. It's not like I'm your girlfriend or anything."

"Right," he said. "Yeah, definitely not my girlfriend."

Astoria suddenly felt awkward. She shifted uncomfortably, tugging at the collar of her robes, wondering if someone had turned up the heat. "Erm, we should…we should get back to the party."

"Right," he agreed. "The party."

Daphne and Pansy stood together, watching Draco and Astoria.

Astoria was in the middle of a story, a funny one judging by the way she was waving her hands around animatedly and giggling. Draco was listening to her intently, obviously taking in every word.

"You know," said Pansy, "he never feigned that much interest with us. Most of the time when I talked, I felt like he was looking right through me. I guess he's gotten better at pretending to listen."

Daphne took a sip of her drink. "I don't think he's pretending," she said, watching as Draco reached out, brushing a stray lock of air off her sister's forehead. "The way he looks at her… it looks real."

Pansy tilted her head, studying the two of them. "Perhaps you're right," she murmured.

Draco's nightmares hadn't gone away. During the day, he was much better, thanks to Astoria's continued support. But at night, when he was asleep, he was still plagued with horrible dreams filled with images of his past, reminding him of every mistake he'd ever made, every cowardly thing he'd ever done.

That night, after he and Astoria returned from the wedding, was no different. He awoke with a start, tangled up in his sheets, sweat rolling down his face.

"Draco?" Astoria whispered. "Are you alright?"

He took a deep breath, trying to get the image of a dead Charity Burbage out of his head.

"Draco?"

He tried to respond, but all that came out of his mouth was a strangled sob.

She moved closer to him, resting her head on his chest, and he immediately felt a little better, running his fingers through her thick curls.

"Draco," she murmured. "It's going to be okay. I promise. The war is over. Voldemort's dead. He's never coming back. You'll never be forced to do anything for him again." She paused, tilting her head up so she was looking him straight in the eye. "You need to put it behind you."

He brushed a lock of her out her face, running his fingers across her soft cheek.

"It's too hard," he said, his breath ragged. "It's too hard to put it behind me."

"I know," she mumbled sleepily. "But I'm going to help you."

She closed her eyes, her head still resting against his chest, and soon he could hear her steadily breathing. He wondered what she dreamed about. He hoped her dreams were happy. The idea of her being plagued by nightmares like his made him shudder.

Draco remembered how upset he'd been when Astoria had told him that the random man in the bar had called him a coward, how convinced he had been that it was the truth. Because it had been. He had been a coward. He'd followed Voldemort's orders because he wasn't brave enough to stand up to him, to risk his life like so many others. But he now realized that bravery wasn't something that some people were born with and others were not. Bravery was something that anyone could have. He could stop being a coward. He could turn his life around. He could stop letting his nightmares and memories consume him. He could stop living in the past and start living in the future.

Yes, he decided, he would stop being a coward. Which meant facing all his fears, including his fear of rejection. He hadn't kissed Astoria yet because he was afraid that it wasn't what she wanted, that it would upset her, that she would run away.

So as he leaned into to kiss her, he pushed these worries aside. Because the risk was worth it. And he would never know how she felt until he tried.

Astoria kissed Draco back enthusiastically.

Thank Merlin he'd finally gotten a clue.

Draco stared up at the crack in the ceiling. Today, he thought, I am really going to fix that.

When Astoria Greengrass was a little girl, she used to dream about marrying Draco Malfoy. About walking down the aisle and seeing him up in front, staring at her like she was the only girl in the world. About saying "I do" and snogging him in front of everybody. About dancing with him, having him hold her in his arms and never let go.

And now all of that was finally coming true.

And the best part was: It was a hundred times better than she ever could have possibly imagined.

Draco Malfoy was happy. He had stopped drinking, stopped looking for an escape from the present, stopped shutting himself out from the world. His nightmares were becoming more and more infrequent. All because of Astoria and her love. He wasn't completely better, but he was making progress. Slowly but surely.

She was healing him.

So that's that. Thank you to everybody who read and reviewed!