time regained

"I've been holding onto it, barely resisting using it, even though I would sell my soul for another minute with astoria."                          - draco malfoy (cursed child)

It was dinner. Draco had left, saying goodbye to every member of the Slytherin table but Astoria. Pointedly avoiding her attempts at eye contact, he had marched out of the Great Hall, despite his teachers' protests.

He hadn't come back.

"What have you done?" Pansy hissed, looking at Astoria.

"I didn't mean to do anything! He was practically asking to be slapped in the face!" Astoria defended.

Blaise sighed and set down his fork. "I know mate, but he doesn't see it that way. You embarrassed him in the Great Hall, slapped him, and then didn't come crawling back with apologies. So he left, tail between his legs. And he'll never come back."

"I want my boyfriend back!" Pansy wailed, looking absolutely miserable.

"I'll do something," Astoria said quickly, looking around. Draco wanted her to apologize, so he must have left a way to contact him. "I'm going up to his dorm," she announced. "He must've left something, right?"

Her friends shrugged dejectedly, decidedly unconfident in her abilities. Sighing, she left the Great Hall.

Soon, she found herself in front of the 7th year boys' dormitories. She pushed on the door tentatively to discover that there was no one inside and there were no anti-girl charms anywhere. Quickly, she made her way over to Draco's bed, which was easy to spot since it was the only one without a trunk in front of it.

He'd left nothing. She searched for what must've been an hour, missing Potions, but there was nothing left to find. Sweaty and tired and deciding to skip the afternoon's classes and sleep instead, Astoria exited the boys' dormitory and entered the girls'. She flopped down on her bed and heard a small crunch.

Frowning, she looked under her pillow. Sure enough, there was a small object there that consisted of many overlapping oval shapes with an hourglass in the center. Unintelligible scrawl filled the side of the contraption, which was strung on a chain and seemed to be able to be worn as a necklace. Astoria gasped as she realized what she was holding.

A time turner.

A time turner.

She screamed - luckily there was no one around to hear her. Eagerly, she read the small note that had come with it.

You know what to do. Small aside: You were wrong, as usual. I do care about you. 

              Malfoy

•

Astoria stood in the middle of the Girls' Dormitory with the time turner around her neck. She was about to start turning the hourglass in the center when -

"Astoria!" Pansy and Blaise said as they burst into the Girls' Dormitory looking extremely relieved.

"What's in your hands?" Blaise asked, looking at the time turner suspiciously.

"It's a time turner. It's how Draco wanted me to get him back to Hogwarts - by not hitting him in the first place. I need to stop my past self."

Her friends looked understandably alarmed. "Um, how are you going to do that?"

"I don't know," Astoria admitted.

"Maybe you can stop your past self from even talking to Hermione in the first place," Blaise suggested.

Astoria shook her head. "No. I think that was the right thing to do."

Pansy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Point is that we're coming with you."

Blaise nodded enthusiastically. "And there's no stopping us, so don't even try," he said warningly, looking pointedly at Astoria's open mouth, which had been ready to argue. He took her arm and Pansy took his, and then the trio was suddenly thrown to the ground with a loud pop.

•

"Are we here?" Pansy asked nervously, looking around at the still-empty Girls' Dormitory. Astoria looked at the clock on the wall.

"Yes. Everyone's at breakfast." she made a move towards the door only to be stopped by Blaise. "What?" she said, turning to him irritably.

"Don't you know anything about time travel?" he sighed dramatically.

"No," Astoria admitted.

Blaise rolled his eyes. "You can't be seen by anyone else, except for us of course."

"What happens if I am?"

"I don't know, the world explodes? Point is, the rules are there for a reason. Don't break them."

"You're starting to sound like Granger," Astoria said in a perfect imitation of Malfoy. Her friends laughed as she cast concealment charms on them and herself. "That should be good for now. Let's go."

"Nice magic!" Pansy said, something like jealousy in her voice. Astoria smiled and tried to stop her shoulders from sagging. The charm had taken a lot out of her. 

"When we get into the Great Hall, stay as still as possible. Someone might get suspicious if they see a portion of the wall moving," Astoria ordered, and together the three walked out of the Slytherin dormitories.

Soon they found themselves in front of the door to the Great Hall. They managed to slip inside with a group of incoming Ravenclaws and found a good place to sit and wait for the drama to unfold.

"Who said we were ever friends?" Astoria's past self was saying, and the concealed version of the girl could feel Pansy stiffen. 

It didn't take long. Harry Potter and his friends walked into the Great Hall, and Draco started teasing them. Blaise and Pansy whistled as they saw Past Astoria's face of rage.

"I didn't know you had such a temper," Pansy said appreciatively. Astoria shrugged.

"Wait, this is too confusing," Blaise cut in. "Can we call your past self Tori? Because I'm not going to know who you guys are referring to otherwise."

"I hate that nickname," Astoria said, wrinkling her nose. Tori had been what Malfoy had called her mockingly when she was little. "Just call me Greengrass." 

"Fine," Pansy said, her eyes trained on Draco. 

Blaise smirked. "Past Pansy might get angry if she catches you eyeing her boyfriend." 

"Just because you can't get Daphne to give you the time of day doesn't mean I don't get to look at my boyfriend," Pansy replied coolly. "Especially when this might be the last time I see him until the Christmas Ball." 

Astoria winced, but she tried to put her hurt feelings aside. Pansy was right, after all. This was their only chance to get Draco back. 

"Hermione!" Greengrass said, suddenly standing up. Astoria noted with satisfaction the look of fury on Draco's face. 

"Is that what my hair looks like?" Astoria asked, wrinkling her nose. 

"Focus!" Pansy hissed. "What do we do?" 

"Body-bind," Blaise said. 

"No! I don't want to collapse in front of all of Hogwarts!" Astoria snapped. 

"Put your pride aside for a minute and let me save my boyfriend!" Pansy said angrily. She pointed her wand at Greengrass and muttered the incantation, but nothing happened. 

"Look, it's not working," Astoria said, feeling very relieved. "I'll just follow them out." 

"What will you do?" Blaise asked. 

"I'll figure something out. Stay here." Ignoring her friends' protests and hoping the students would be distracted enough not to notice a section of the wall rippling, she edged along the side of the room and followed Draco and Greengrass out. 

By the time she managed to find what hallway they'd gone into, Draco was already ranting. If Astoria forgot what he was saying, she could see how attractive he looked. 

Stop it. He's an arrogant git and you hate him. 

"You don't deserve to be in Slytherin," Draco said, finishing his tangent.

Greengrass took a deep breath, preparing herself. "Have you ever considered that maybe I don't want to be in Slytherin?" As her past self continued to talk, Astoria tried to come up with a plan.

Suddenly, she got one. Transfiguring herself to the best of her ability into Professor McGonagall (and feeling as if she'd dumped a pile of bricks on herself) she undid the Concealment Charm on herself and stepped into view. Greengrass and Draco gasped. By this point, Draco had his wand out, about to cast the Silencing Charm on Greengrass.

"Don't you both have classes, Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Greengrass?" Astoria said in her best impression of the Headmistress. It worked because the two looked mortified. "I'll see you in Transfiguration," she said before walking briskly around the corner.

Transfiguring herself back to her normal state, Astoria redid the Concealment Charm as Draco and Greengrass parted ways without saying anything else, animosity rolling off of them in waves. 

•

"Has anything changed?" Pansy asked as soon as they landed back in the Girls' Dormitory at the exact time that they'd left.

Astoria pursed her lips. "Only one way to find out." Slipping Draco's note into her pocket, she followed her friends into the Boys' dormitory.

Draco's trunk sat in front of his bed.

"Oh, thank God," Blaise said.