The Pureblood Sisterhood: The Beginning
Author's Note: Hermione Granger is Hermione Nott. Voldemort was defeated by James and Lily, both who survived. Italics are flashbacks, Bold are quotes from the movies/books.
Hermione Nott, Daphne Greengrass, Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode have been best friends their whole lives. When asked about their summer on the first day of class, they tell the class about how a pair of pants changed their lives.
"Welcome to Life. In this class, we will discuss various aspects that are important in life: relationships, both romantic and non-romantic, growing up, and what happens after you graduate from this school. Today, we're just going to get to know a little bit about each other. When I call your name, you're going to go up to the front of the room, tell us your name, house, and what you did this summer." Professor Cady instructed. She looked down at her roaster and said, "Ron Weasley."
Ron stood up and walked up to the front of the room and stood there awkwardly before beginning, "I'm Ron Weasley and I'm in Gryffindor. My summer wasn't any different from the others; I spent it with my family at The Burrow, played quidditch, and hung out with Harry."
"Thank you Mr. Weasley," Professor Cady smiled and called up the next person. That was the pattern, through all of the seventh years, except for the four female Slytherins.
"Okay, Ms. Nott, I believe it's your turn." Professor Cady said.
Hermione smiled and began walking up to the front of the classroom, her three best friends following her lead.
"No doubt spent the summer throwing daddy's money around." Ron muttered. Seeing Harry's hard glare, he looked away and muttered, "Sorry, forgot."
"I believe I just called Ms. Nott's name."
"Our summers were interconnected. We need to all be up here together to explain them." Hermione explained politely.
"Okay, go ahead."
"Okay so we're all in Slytherin. I'm Hermione Nott."
"I'm Daphne Greengrass."
"Millicent Bulstrode."
"Pansy Parkinson."
"Who wants to starts?" Hermione asked as the girls looked between them. Seeing the looks they gave her, she continued, laughing along with the other girls, "I'd like to think that fate had a hand in what happened this summer, that it was the Pants destiny to find us. Where they came from and why they chose us… well, that will always be a mystery. But perhaps that was part of their miracle, that they sensed in that moment how much we needed them, how much we needed some little bit of flash to hold onto when it seemed like everything we believed in was about to slip away." Hermione paused when Daphne elbowed her. She looked over at her and nodded, "But, wait a minute, I'm getting ahead of myself. The word friends doesn't seem to stretch big enough to describe how we feel about one another; we forget where one of us starts and the other one stops. We'd been a foursome for as long as I could remember."
"In fact, we were a foursome before we were actually born. Our mothers met at a prenatal aerobics class." Daphne picked up.
"They really didn't have anything in common… except their due dates." Pansy continued.
"First out of the gate was Pansy. The rest of us followed within the week." Millicent smiled at the other three.
"Pansy liked to take charge. And you know what? Sometimes, that worked in our favor." Daphne picked up, wrapping an arm around Pansy's shoulder while Pansy stuck her tongue out at her.
"And that's how it always was with us: Give and take, but mostly give. We were there for each other to understand the things no one else in the world could. There were some things we would never make sense of, and we were there for those, too. We were there for the things we couldn't face alone or the ones we didn't want to face at all. Together, it was as if we formed one, single, complete person."Hermione smiled as Daphne and Millicent wrapped an arm around her and she returned the gesture.
"Wild, unstoppable Pansy."Millicent smirked at the other dark haired girl.
"Shy and Beautiful Hermione." Daphne smiled softly at Hermione.
"Daphne, the rebel." Pansy laughed.
"And, Millicent, the writer." Hermione smiled.
"W were 16 and had never been apart, and all that was about to change." The four girls said together.
"You see, for the first in our lives, we were being separated for the three months called summer." Pansy continued, ever the dramatic one.
"I was going to Italy with my family and my boyfriend's family." Hermione smiled.
"I was going to Spain to stay with my grandparents." Pansy tagged on.
"I was going to France with my mother." Millicent continued.
"And I was staying in England, all alone, completely abandoned by my so-called best friends." Daphne concluded, laughing, her best friends joining her after their various comments on how much of a drama queen she was.
"We snuck out to Muggle London and happened upon this thrift store, as if by fate." Hermione continued, giving Daphne a pointed look.
"It was not fate, or destiny, or whatever you want to call it; it was a coincidence." Daphne replied, returning the look.
"I always interpret coincidences as little clues to our destiny."
"Of course you do."
"ANY WAY, we found this store and went in to look around for some cheap, cute things." Millicent steered the conversation away from the fate verses coincidence conversation the four girls were used to.
"I can't believe you guys are leaving me this summer. You do realize that my mother might be dead by the time you get back? Because if I have to spend a long time with that woman by myself and she starts in on the 'Hermione has had a steady boyfriend for the past five years, why haven't you?' I may just go through with the murder I've been planning in my head for the past five years. Why do you and Potter have to be perfect, Mia?" Daphne grumbled as the four girls walked into the store.
"Don't wallow," Pansy replied. Seeing Daphne about to argue that she wasn't, Pansy tagged on, "You're wallowing."
"Stop worrying! We will all be a floo-call away. If you need a murder intervention we can very easily floo home." Hermione laughed
"You have yet to deny the abandonment charge." Daphne replied.
"We can all floo to your house in, like, two seconds if you need us, Daph." Millicent replied.
"This is abandonment, nothing more, nothing less! I hate you all!" Daphne replied.
"You are such a drama queen." Pansy replied, shaking her head while looking through the dress rack.
Hermione looked over and saw Daphne perusing the piercings section. She shook her head and grabbed Millicent.
"Pierce Alert!" she whispered.
Millicent began her walked toward Daphne, grabbing a pair of jeans on the way.
"Nah-ah, young lady! No more piercings for you!" she exclaimed, pulling Daphne away from the piercings and into the dressing room area, thrusting the jeans into her hands and pulling the curtain to the dressing room stall shut, exchanging a high five with Hermione as she and Pansy joined her.
"Oh my God, those look great on you!" Pansy exclaimed as Daphne came out of the stall, the other two quickly agreeing with her.
"I don't know—" Daphne started to say.
"Daph, you are crazy. Those pants are in love with you. They want you for your body and your mind." Hermione replied, voicing what the other girls were thinking.
"You try them on then." Daphne replied taking them off and pushing the smaller girl into the stall, taking out the pants she had been wearing them and putting them back on.
"But I don't wear jeans." Hermione replied.
"Yeah. Or bikinis or miniskirts, or anything else that might actually show that you have a shape."
"I do not." Hermione muttered, causing the girls to roll their eyes.
"Why won't you just admit that they looked good on you?" Pansy asked.
"Because I'm wallowing in self pity." Daphne quipped.
When Hermione came out, the other three girls' jaws dropped.
"Aye dios mio, Mia, you have a BODY! Hermione Nott has a body! When did this happen!" Daphne exclaimed, laughing.
"Shh!" Hermione blushed. The three continued to comment on her figure, causing Hermione to blush and go back into the stall, "Stop it! I do not!"
"Does Harry know about this body?" Pansy asked, getting the jeans thrown in her face as Hermione reemerged from the room with her flowing white skirt back in place.
Pansy rolled her eyes before beginning to change. Her jaw dropped in shock, they fit the tall girl just as perfectly as they fit her two shorter friends.
"This is getting kind of weird." She said, taking them off and holding them out to Millicent.
"My butt has specific requirements for pants and those definitely don't have them." The slightly bigger girl said.
"You have to, we all did." Hermione argued back.
"Fine." Millicent sighed, beginning to change. The pants fit her perfectly as well, "This is too weird."
They girls shared a shocked look before buying them and leaving the store.
"I could tell the Pants hadn't come into our lives because of tragedy. They'd just witnessed one of those regular but painful life transitions. That, it turns out, is the way of the Pants." Hermione continued the story.
The girls giggled, trying to be quite as they walked into the old room over Wiz-robics, where their mothers first met. They set out the various junk foods and candles in the middle of the circle they had made.
"We are gathered here today to celebrate a magical gift that has been given to us—" Hermione began.
"So why did we have to pay for them?" Daphne quipped, cutting off Hermione.
"TONIGHT, one the eve of our separation, magic has come to us in a pair of pants, and I am proposing that we share them equally and that, this summer, they travel among us and they'll link us in hearts and spirits, even though we're far apart from each other. I think that tonight, we're the sisters of these pantalones." Hermione continued.
"Sisters of the Pant?" Daphne raised an eyebrow.
"Yes!" Millicent agreed quickly.
"We need rules; every sisterhood has rules." Pansy continued excitedly.
"Okay, Rule #1: Each sister is going to keep the pants for…" Hermione started.
"A week." Daphne supplied, "Mia should be first because Italy is the furthest away."
"No picking your nose when wearing the Pants. You can causally scratch while really picking a little." Pansy continued.
"Thanks for the allowance." Hermione replied sarcastically.
"When sending the Pants, we'll write a letter detailing the most exciting thing that happened while wearing them." Millicent continued.
"And what if nothing exciting happens?" Daphne replied.
"It will; it has to!" Hermione insisted.
"No, I really doubt it." Was Daphne response.
"And when it does," Hermione looked pointedly at Daphne before continuing, "and we reunite, we will document it on the pants themselves."
"Any removal of the pants must be done by the wearer herself." Millicent supplied. When Pansy gave her a mock look of offence, she replied, "Yes, you!"
"We will never, ever wash these pants." Pansy continued.
"Why?"
"What? Are you gonna wash the magic out of the Pants?"
"The magic's not sanitary."
"No double-cuffing the Pants at the bottom, it's tacky; the 80s are over." Daphne put in.
"You know what else is tacky? Tucking in your shirt while wearing a belt at the same time." Millicent added.
"I did that ONCE!" Hermione exclaimed, trying to defend herself.
"You can never say you look fat while wearing the Pants, you can't even think it!" Pansy added to the list.
"That's nine." Hermione informed the others.
"So, we need one more." Daphne muttered.
"Okay, pants equal love." Millicent said, smiling softly.
"Love your sisters, love yourself." Hermione continued.
"To the Pants," Pansy raised her can of soda.
"And the Sisterhood," Millicent continued, repeating the motion.
"And this summer," Daphne did the same.
"And the rest of our lives." Hermione's soda found its way to the others
"Together and apart." The girls finished the toast.
"It would be easy to say that the Pants changed everything this summer. But looking back now, I feel like our lives changed because they had to; and that the real magic of the pants was in bearing witness to all of this, and in somehow holding us together when it felt like nothing would ever be the same again, some things never would be." Hermione began to wrap up.
"But we know now that no matter how far we traveled on our separate paths," Daphne began.
"Somehow we would always find our way back to each other." Pansy continued.
"And with that, we could get through anything." Millicent smiled at the other three girls.
"Still, the Pants promised us there was time, nothing would be lost. There was all year if we needed it. We had all the way until next summer, when we would take out the Traveling Pants and, together or apart, begin again."
"To us, who we were and who we are, and who we will be." Pansy wrapped an arm around Hermione.
"To the Pants." Millicent draped an arm across Daphne's shoulders.
"And the Sisterhood." Daphne wrapped her arms around Millicent and Hermione.
"And this moment, and the rest of our lives." Hermione draped her arms around Daphne and Pansy.
"Together and apart." The girls finished together, circling up and hugging each other tightly as the bell rang, signaling the end of class.
