Hi again. This is a fun challenge. Lets see.. Harry x Astoria x Cormac :)
"Who's that with Mclaggen?" Harry asked Hermione. She almost didn't hear him, as she was chatting with Padma.
"Um?" she asked and looked in the direction Harry had pointed. "Don't tell me you don't recognize Malfoy's ex?" she asked skeptically.
Of course, Harry thought. He was sure he recognized her from somewhere. Astoria Greengrass and Cormac Mclaggen? Now that was an odd pair if he ever heard of one, but in a strange way it made sense once you looked at them. Harry felt an unsettling heat inside when he first laid eyes in them, and he couldn't help but think, wow. Because they were definitely one of, if not the best looking couple he'd seen. They looked almost too good to be in a party like this, in a sleazy basement club where the bottles the drinks where coming from had a question mark on the label. But still, they were there by the bar, drinking and talking, occasionally laughing with equally perfect set of smiles.
Astoria suddenly leaned in and grabbed Cormac's ass and Harry's heart almost beat out of his chest.
He spent so much time looking and wondering about them that when he turned around Hermione had gone, and so had Padma and Ron and anyone else he knew. He started walking around trying to find them, but the lights were so low and the place so packed it was difficult just to move. After a couple of minutes Harry had lost all sense of direction and decided to just find the nearest toilet and hope to run into someone there.
"Harry," someone said and grabbed his arm and he sighed with relief.
"Hey, where-" he cut himself off when he was greeted by not less than two pairs of green eyes, and how had he never noticed that both Astoria and Cormac had green eyes?
Cormac smiled at him, tall, strong, and with just the right amount of boyish charm. He slowly let go of Harry's arm. "Harry Potter! I haven't seen you in forever, how are you?"
Harry wanted to answer, but then he looked at Astoria and his mouth stopped working. She was also tall, maybe as much as Harry, and she had a slight smirk but her eyes were kind. "Hi." She waved.
"I, uh," Harry croaked before clearing his throat. "I'm good, how are you?" He looked at Astoria. "Hi."
"Are you here with Granger?" Cormac asked.
Harry nodded. "I was, but I got lost I think," he chuckled awkwardly.
Cormac smirked too. "Come with us."
The three of them found some of stools and a small table in a corner, and Harry had no idea how to act. He felt oddly welcome and intimidated at the same time, and it wasn't just because he knew Cormac from when they were dumb teenagers; he didn't know a single thing about Astoria except that she was into blondes, which for some reason bummed him out.
Cormac and Astoria asked about Harry's life and job as a ministry employee, and in turn Harry learnt a lot about them too, like the fact that Astoria was heading her family's export company or that Cormac was inspired by Harry to become an auror. They talked very individually about themselves, so Harry got the impression they hadn't been together for long.
"So Harry," Astoria said swirling her drink around. "What is someone like you doing in a place like this?"
Harry shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure. I think it was the birthday of one of Ron's friends from work and he told us to meet here, but they were all already sloshed when we arrived."
Astoria and Cormac nodded with a knowing smile. Harry felt daring.
"What are people like you doing here?" he asked.
They shared a look that made Harry's chest tight.
"In a weird way, we like it here," Cormac said.
"We used to come with Draco all the time," Astoria added.
We? Maybe Harry had heard wrong, or Astoria misspoke. He couldn't imagine Cormac and Malfoy being friends.
"Oh, so that's how you two got together?" Harry asked Astoria before looking at Cormac. "You were friends with Malfoy?"
Again, Cormac and Astoria shared a look that both confused and excited Harry.
Cormac adjusted the collar of his shirt. Harry had no idea collarbones could be so alluring. "The three of us were… closer than friends."
Harry felt stuck in place, as if his seat had suddenly started to melt and trapped him in, so all he could do was stare at the two sets of green eyes that were boring into him. His mind rambled with the words for a second, and just when he feared he couldn't look any more like a gaping idiot, a flood of images started invading him and he was pretty sure he started blushing all over.
"I'll get him another drink," Astoria said and left, squeezing Harry's shoulder as she passed him. That made him react.
"You mean…" he started, not sure how the sentence would turn out. "You mean you and Malfoy…"
Cormac nodded, and despite his cool he did have the decency to get some color in his cheeks. "Astoria and Draco liked to experiment. They bumped into me one night here- this club is full of swingers and non-monogamous people, I think you haven’t noticed- and we all dated for a while. Lately, though, things weren't working out all that well and Draco broke up with us."
Harry had no idea what to say. It wasn't as though he had never heard of such a thing; hell, he'd fantasized of such a thing, but he had never imagined that someone like Astoria or Cormac, or even Malfoy would be into that.
It suddenly occurred to Harry that there was a reason they were sharing this information with him, and it certainly wasn't just to make small talk.
Cormac smiled, more warmly this time, and Harry's heart was definitely stuck in his throat now.
"Here you go. " Astoria returned with a drink and sat next to Harry. "I saw Granger, Weasley, and a couple more of your friends by the bar. Do you want to go with them?"
Harry swallowed. He already knew his answer before Astoria had even finished speaking, and just the fact that she asked this made Harry more sure of his decision.
"Not really." He took the drink off her hand. "If you two don't mind of course," he added just in the off chance that he was reading the situation wrong.
Astoria beamed at him while Cormac leaned forward, taking a closer look at Harry's drink.
"Hey, this is the expensive stuff. How come you never buy this for me?"
Astoria grabbed Cormac's chin and kissed him in a way that made Harry think that he wouldn't mind trading for the cheap drink. "Maybe at the end of the night, darling."
A slightly uncomfortable silence followed and for a split second Harry worried about what he was getting himself into.
"Did you notice we've all got green eyes?" Cormac asked with a goofy smile.
Harry and Astoria laughed.
