The Real Estate Business

Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does, bless her.

Summary - Draco Malfoy and Astoria Greengrass were happy, engaged, and looking to buy a house, that was until they met the real estate agent.

Author note: Please ignore the fact that I totally ignored the fact that the Greengrass sisters attended Hogwarts at the same time as Draco Malfoy and would probably know all about who his enemies were. It's just meaningless fanfiction after all.

01

'Well, this does indeed look like a peaceful neighbourhood, don't you think Draco?'

Draco Malfoy and girlfriend of nearly three years Astoria Greengrass were house hunting in the southern parts of London, very desperate to get out of the fire-trap that had been their apartment complex for nearly twelve months now. The house that they were approaching was far and beyond anything he, Draco, ever expected himself to live in during his life-time. The falling out he had had with his parents since the war had changed him a lot, and this small little suburban house which could easily fit into the dungeons of the Mansion he grew up in, was now something he could only hope to call a home.

He let a smile spread across his face - he had learned to look at life a little differently, being with Astoria was a chance to start a new life, one that didn't involve him bullying others or believing himself to be superior to everyone around him. When he looked again at the small house they approached, he saw a cosy, family home, one that might be safe in case they ever thought of having children.

The house was a typical English suburban house, red brick with white panelled windows and glazed tiled roofing to match. Draco attempted to be open minded about it all, though there wasn't very much leg room to give some magic charm about it, but now that he thought about it, it was a house on the magical market, so it was likely to have some secrets installed somewhere.

'Are you sure you couldn't have just done this without me?' Draco asked as they stopped by a row of neatly kept agapanthus at the neighbour's yard.

'Definitely not,' Astoria said, 'we need to make this decision as a couple, Draco, that's what couples do.'

'But you're so much better at this than I am,' Draco said, 'and I'm sure that whatever you would pick, would be perfect, and I would not complain-'

'Stop being a prat about it, and man up,' she said, tugging at the collar of his shirt, 'you have a stake in this relationship as well, it must be a unanimous decision between us.'

'I just get the feeling that we'll disagree,' Draco said, 'we usually do more often than not with these sorts of things.'

'Well, for big decisions like these,' she said, fumbling with the lock on the small white gate, 'one of us, if not both of us, need to make room for some leeway for one reason or another. I'm sure we can manage.'

'Alright then,' Draco said with a sigh as Astoria finally unhinged the lock on the gate.

'Remember,' she said into his ear as they wandered onto the small path leading up to the front door, 'be nice to our agent, won't you? I asked for quite a few favours at work to get this one, from what I've heard, she's meant to be the best there is-'

'She?' Draco asked in a tone of discontent, his upper lip immediately curling.

His girlfriend threw him a filthy look; but she needn't remind him, for Draco himself suddenly became irate at himself – that was a trait he'd acquired from his father, to disregard the idea that a woman could take on important jobs had always been a part of his upbringing. It was these sorts of things that he was trying to eliminate from his lifestyle, to make himself a better person – the one thing it was doing, was reaffirming his fears of ever turning back to living a life of fear whilst He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was still in power.

'Sorry,' Draco said apologetically, as Astoria knocked on the door and a faint, far-away voice yelled "come in!"

Astoria opened the door and lead the way over the threshold and into a nice little hallway; just to the right was a staircase that led upstairs, to the left an opened doorway into a lounge-room and sitting area and ahead the narrow hallway a door was ajar leading to what looked like the kitchen. Footsteps could be heard bouncing off the walls, before a young woman with silky red hair appeared and approached them, smiling broadly at them.

First and foremost, Draco was far too busy looking her up and down to recognise who she was; she wore very business-like attire, a black business blazer and short business skirt were accompanied well with a white blouse and painfully tall white striped black stilettos. As she approached, she was pinning her silky red hair up into a knot while she juggled with a clipboard underneath her arm - it was at this point she spotted Draco and stopped dead in her tracks.

'Hello there,' Astoria said, stepping forward with her hand outstretched - she was of course oblivious to her identity and clearly approved of her such excellent first impressions.

However, by this stage Draco had finally managed to bring it upon himself to look at the girl's face, and when he recognised who she was his face had gone a stone-white.

'You must be Astoria,' Ginny Weasley said, smiling and putting her poker-face on to shake hands, 'my name is Ginny,' Ginny turned to face Draco and pointed to him, 'but you knew that already, didn't you Mr Malfoy?'

'Oh,' Astoria said as she spotted the awkward look on her boyfriend's face. 'You two... know each other?'

Slowly, regrettably, Draco nodded his head.

There was a very long pause, where both Draco and Ginny glared at one another. As of the end of the war, there were no more real quarrels between he and Harry Potter's gang, they had accepted the fact that he had defected before He-Who-Could-Not-Be-Named had been defeated, and had therefore, along with his parents, been pardoned.

There was still a little bit of tension between them though, after all he – Draco – had for many years bullied them at every opportunity; Ginny was a peculiar case, because being a year lower she received far less attention from him than perhaps those in his year. However, the whole "being poor" innuendo had been his reoccurring joke to all the Weasley's he'd come across, and he had the feeling that he'd bumped into her often enough that she was perhaps as unhappy with him as anyone else.

However, irony worked in mysterious ways, because little did she know, she earned far more money a year than he did now – and by quite a lot.

The last time Draco had had a moment like this, had been Harry Potter himself at the Ministry of Magic – they had, eventually, shook hands very briefly and departed without many words – but he feared Ginny might hex him before he was out of her sight if she had her way.

It was at this point that Astoria, still oblivious of their past, turned to face her boyfriend and crossed her arms.

'Another ex-girlfriend, Draco?' she said to him through gritted teeth, making him turn an awful scarlet, 'what was your excuse with this one?'

'Merlin no,' Ginny said, looking disgusted; she was trying to regather herself, it wasn't professional of her to put personal emotions before a sale, she needed this to work for her jobs sake.

'It's nothing like that darling,' Draco said to his girlfriend, Ginny tried to keep a straight face at these words, 'this is a Weas- Ginny Weasley-'

'Oh, Weasley?' Astoria said as she turned to face Ginny, who nodded, 'you fought in the Great War with Draco?'

'Not with,' Ginny said matter-of-factly.

'But not against, either,' Draco said quickly, 'well, not directly at least...'

'We all know what happened,' Astoria said sternly, waving an airy hand at her boyfriend, 'but you,' she said to Ginny, 'you're the girl dating Harry Potter, are you not?'

Ginny clicked her tongue in annoyance.

'You should never take what Rita Skeeter writes literally,' she said, unfolding her arms and beginning to write with her quill on the clipboard.

'Wait, what are you writing?' Draco asked suddenly before turning to his girlfriend, 'why is she writing already? It's something negative, isn't it?'

'So, you and Harry aren't dating?' Astoria asked Ginny, ignoring Draco.

'Not entirely,' Ginny said with a shrug, 'he's busy with the Ministry rounding up stray Death Eaters,' at this point Ginny looked up at Draco with narrowed eyes, 'and I'm busy with Real Estate, so we are on temporary hiatus.

'But we're not here to talk about my lack of a love life,' Ginny said, clearing her throat and pointing to her clipboard, 'are you going to be able to put aside our differences for an hour or so and buy a house, Malfoy?'

Both girls turned to look at Draco, who looked flustered.

'Umm…' Draco stumbled for words whilst Astoria rolled her eyes.

'That is a yes,' Astoria said after Draco cleared his throat.

'Excellent,' Ginny said, 'this way then.'

And she led them into the lounge-room first, where she began to talk about the up-sides and down-sides of the house. Draco watched her, attempting to keep a straight face whilst on the inside, his lip was curling. His eyes naturally wandered over her body, noting in particularly that her curves were far superior to his girlfriends, and he had to wonder to himself why he had not noticed that during their time at school.

They went from room to room, with mostly the two girls chatting merrily to one another about the house, with Draco only occasionally asking stern questions of importance here and there, and Ginny answering them with sufficient professionalism.

Eventually the three of them were standing outside in the back garden, having finished the tour, and Ginny was carefully explaining all the legal jargon that came with the property.

'It all seems so lovely, and in good order,' Astoria said, once Ginny was through with the formalities and had asked the ultimate question of whether they were ready to sign a binding contract.

'It is,' Draco said in agreement, he was pacing the back garden impatiently, willing to sign right now, but at the same time unsure considering their current financial complications.

'This is the part where I excuse myself, and let the two of you talk,' Ginny said to them, smiling happily and handing Astoria the binding contract with all the information they had just spent collaborating. 'I'll be inside preparing the rest of the paperwork.'

Draco watched Ginny like a hawk as she walked toward the house, her hips were swinging rather seductively; whether it was because she knew he was looking or not, he didn't know, but at least Astoria was busying herself with the contract and didn't spot what Draco was staring at.

'What do you think?' she asked him eventually, looking up.

'Very nice,' Draco said, he was still staring at the door where Ginny had disappeared, but all Astoria could see was him looking at the house with a big stupid grin.

'I think so too, Draco,' she said, pulling him out of his reverie and forcing him to look around, 'what do you think? Are we ready to sign?'

'Right now?' Draco asked with a sigh.

'Well, we don't have to of course,' Astoria said, nodding, 'particularly in our current financial position.'

'Is there a time limit?' Draco asked.

Astoria pondered over the contract some more. 'No, I don't think so,' she said, 'the seller has not put any deadline for a sale, but because it is a binding contract, someone else can sign before us and effectively lock us out of giving any offers.'

Draco bit his lip and stared off into blank space. Money was very tight – he was still looking for a job that his father could not deny him out of influence, and Astoria was working part-time in a low-wage sales department while she studied for her dream job. They could not ask for a loan from the bank, and the money that they would have to pay out for the house would leave them deprived of many essentials for several weeks.

'Let's not wait too long then,' Draco said finally, taking his girlfriend's hand and walking her back toward the house.

'That's fine,' Ginny said, after Astoria had explained that they needed a little longer to think about it, and that they would let her know by owl before the end of the week when they can sign. 'You understand though, of course, that if another buyer comes forward and is prepared to sign, there isn't much I can do for you?'

'We understand,' Astoria said with a nod, handing Ginny back the contract, 'thank you. Fingers crossed, we shall all meet back in a mere few days, and we will be ready to sign.'

Ginny nodded and began to write some more details.

'I can also explain to the seller your situation,' Ginny told her, 'and they may be willing for you to sign, and pay monthly increments instead of all at once.'

Astoria looked sideways at Draco, who was surveying Ginny intently.

'We will have to talk about it,' Draco said to her, nodding.

'Absolutely,' Ginny said with a smile and fiddled around in her handbag for a moment.

'When you're ready,' she said, handing Astoria a card with her details on it, 'send an Owl to me directly, not through the agency, that way I can help process things quicker. And whenever you're ready, I'll be ready too, alright?'

'You're brilliant,' Astoria said, moving forward to hug her.

Ginny hugged her back, giving Draco a look as she did. He had stayed relatively quiet through most of the tour, he supposed everyone in the Wizarding World knew by now that he had had a fall-out with his parents, and that money was no longer a formality.

'You could have been nicer to her,' Astoria said with a hiss at her boyfriend once they were back outside and walking along the street.

'I'm sorry you had to see me like that,' Draco said in response, 'but there is just so much history-'

'With Harry Potter, not her,' Astoria said pointedly.

'Might as well be with her, she's Potter's girlfriend,' Draco said whilst pointing his thumb over his shoulder, 'and besides, the whole Weasley family hate mine, so it's all added drama.'

Astoria sighed as they turned into a narrow alley nearby to apparate.

'Just please try to be civil at least next time we see her,' said Astoria pleadingly as they held hands; 'I actually like this house.'

'Me too,' Draco said, and he nodded and promised as they turned on the spot and disapparated.