Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
Written for;
Love In Motion - PansyDaphne
Roald Dahl - 147. Show Room - Write about Pansy Parkinson
Writing Club, Showtime - Act 2, Prompt 22 - Regret
Writing Club, Character Appreciation - Daphne Greengrass
100 Ways To Say 'I love you' - 16. "It's okay. I couldn't sleep anyway."
Are You Crazy Enough - 206. Loneliness
Friends Challenge - S2, Ep11 - The Lesbian Wedding - Write Femslash.
Beta'd by my Wonder Woman, Amber
Whatever You Need
She'd never known how isolating loneliness could be until she was the one suffering it. Climbing as quietly as she could from her bed, Pansy left the girls dorm and silently made her way down to the Slytherin common room.
While once it had been a home for her, she'd never wanted to leave Hogwarts as much as she did at that moment. Post-war life was more different than she could have ever imagined.
Of course, she'd been under the impression that the Dark Lord couldn't possibly lose to a teenage boy, so that had coloured her vision of it, but she wondered how long she'd been walking around with such rose tinted glasses on.
She'd had dreams of strutting around the school, Head Girl, so popular that all the girls would be clamouring to be amongst her chosen few, Draco on her arm; everything would have been so perfect.
Instead, Draco had decided against returning. He'd been lucky enough to have a choice in the matter. With both of her parents in prison, and their home being held in auction to pay their fines for War Crimes, Pansy had nothing.
She found, now that she was on the other side, that she regretted a lot of what she'd done. She regretted thinking herself above everyone else, sitting so high in the sky was lonely, and it only made the fall that much greater when her feet were knocked from beneath her.
She regretted pointing Potter out in the hall, if only because it was what many people remembered of her. Nobody remembered that she'd been one of the students fighting to protect her younger counterparts, when stray spells headed their way. Nobody remembered that she'd lost both of her parents; yes it was their own fault but that didn't make it sting any less.
Nobody remembered that she'd lost just as much as everyone else.
"You okay?"
Pansy looked up sharply to see Daphne standing at the bottom of the stairs to the girls dorm. She nodded automatically.
"Sorry if I woke you."
"It's okay. I couldn't sleep anyway."
"There's a lot of that going around," Pansy muttered, shifting her feet from the sofa when Daphne rounded it to sit down beside her.
"You're not alone, you know," Daphne offered. "I know it must feel like that, but… I'm still here. So are Tracy and Milli. You just need to stop pushing us away."
"You don't want to be associated with me," Pansy snapped.
"That should be our choice, I think," Daphne retorted. "We're Slytherins. We stick together. Beyond that, we're your friends, Pansy."
A tear dropped onto Pansy's cheek, and she batted it away, irritated. She hated showing weakness, even in front of her friends. Perhaps especially in front of her friends.
Daphne wrapped her arms around Pansy, pulling her close. She waited patiently for Pansy to relax against her, before she pushed gently so they were both lying down on the too small sofa.
"We've… I've missed you," she whispered, pressing a kiss to Pansy's hairline.
Pansy pulled back enough to meet Daphne's gaze. There was a soft look in her eyes, and cautiously, Pansy pressed their lips together in a chaste kiss before pulling back.
The reprimand, the shouting, that she expected, didn't come. Instead, Daphne raised a hand slowly and put it behind Pansy's head, pulling her in for another kiss.
"You can always come to me, Pansy. For whatever you need. Okay?"
"Okay."