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QLFC, Round One: Write about someone making a mountain out of a molehole. Extra prompts (colour) cream, (word) insufferable, (word) expectations.
i.
It's only because of her father's intervention that her name is Pansy S. Parkinson. S as in Sarina, for her late mother, or so he says. In reality, it's because his new wife (twenty years younger, blonde and with truly repulsive highlights that Pansy, even at age twelve, hates) wanted full alliteration, and he couldn't give in to all her demands this one time. After all, everyone knows the Parkinsons are nobility, not some common street scum.
The new wife is gone by October. Pansy forgets her name by November.
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ii.
"Maybe the S stands for selfish," Daphne Greengrass says, the corner of her mouth turned up into a smirk. Around them, people dance, the ballroom of the cream-coloured, elegantly decorated, Greengrass manor filled with laughter and noise.
Pansy takes a bite of the cherry she fished out of her drink, and with a single dainty motion, spills the rest of her mocktail onto Daphne's white dress.
"Whoops."
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iii.
Pansy almost forgets sometimes that no matter how dark her family gets, there are always families who've dived even further into the darkness.
Wife number seven has iron-straight black hair and perfume so strong it makes Pansy gag. Her name is Isadora Avery, and this time, Pansy knows it's permanent. The Parkinson family is not getting away unscathed this time, and her father knows it, and yet he brings this woman into their house regardless, even dotes on her.
"Your daughter," Isadora says one day, sipping from a wine glass that Pansy doesn't recognize. "I mean no offence, my dear, but she doesn't seem to be the kind of woman who can live up to the Dark Lord's expectations."
Her father nods slowly at her words, barely listening, barely caring. "Yes, well, the Dark Lord can always use another Pureblood housewife, my love. I'm sure even Pansy is enough for that."
Isadora laughs, rich and slow, and Pansy? Pansy shatters at the thought of being doomed to being nothing more than another useless, forgotten wife.
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iv.
Here's the thing about it all. Pansy is insufferable and a bitch and the kind of girl who plots all day and simmers in her rage at night. She's her mother's daughter on the best of days, and her mother was a cold-hearted monster even in her kindest moments.
Pansy does what she always does: she plots.
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v.
The Hat is no fool. It sees her for who she really is, rips through her walls and stares into the parts of her soul that she never wanted anyone to see.
"Pansy Parkinson," the Hat asks, "how old were you when you let your need for revenge consume you?"
Eight, Pansy wants to say. Eight, when my mother died and my father forgot about me.
She doesn't say anything though. She just sits there in stony silence and the Hat reads her mind and throws her into the dungeon with all the other children who were too selfish to let themselves be forgotten.
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vi.
Things are simple when you're callous. Slytherin is easy when you're vicious.
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vii.
She meets Harry Potter in the flesh in early September. His hair is unkempt and his smile is too lopsided and he doesn't flinch when she taps him on the shoulder until he sees the colour of her tie.
"You're lost, aren't you?" Pansy says, and it comes out like less of a question and more of an interrogation. She's not good at this; cruelty falls much easier off her tongue.
He hesitates, lost but cautious of her, and she tugs on his heartstring like one would pull a puppet's strings and makes him doubt himself.
"It's because I'm a Slytherin, isn't it? I'm surprised. I would have expected more from a member of the Potter family, but I guess I was wrong. My mistake."
His face falls at the mention of his surname. "I'm sorry," he says, and to his credit, he seems to mean it. That surprises her more than it should. "Most Slytherins so far have seemed to hate me for what happened with Voldemort."
Pansy freezes, flinching at the name, and Potter still looks confused. "Your class is down this hallway and then to the left," she tells him, trying to keep her voice composed, "but a word of advice: you're no better than those you judge if all you see is house colours."
When Potter begins his walk to class, Pansy slumps against the corridor wall and buries her face in her lap. The so-called saviour is a lost child and knowing that makes it hurt more than she ever expected.
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viii.
Potter is her main goal, but she continues: she plops down at Hermione Granger's library table for weeks until the girl looks at her cautiously, and asks in a whispered tone about genealogy. Avoiding the matron's strict eyes, she teaches the girl about Pureblood family trees until she knows enough to insult anyone who hisses Mudblood.
"You're not as mean as you seem," Hermione tells her in November after she throws Marcus Flint's secrets back at him. "Why are you doing this, Pansy? Why aren't you like the rest of your house?"
"I'm just like the rest of my house, Granger." Pansy leans lower into her Charms homework, lets the words hang in the air. "I'm doing this because I want things too. There's more to cunning then cruelty. You know that, right?"
Hermione has ink on her fingernails and on the tip of her nose, and she doesn't seem surprised that Pansy has her own agenda. "Yes," she says, "I do know that."
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She introduces herself to Neville Longbottom on the first day she meets him, says good morning every day and doesn't roll her eyes at the explosions he causes during every Potions lesson. His name is an old one, but his clumsiness is odd and his meekness caused by nurture, not nature.
Pansy plants her seeds, lets them grow.
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They meet in Charms class, under Professor Flitwick's cheerful demeanour. Hannah Abott is friendly and doesn't seem to care about her family name, so Pansy writes her father and shares the expensive chocolates her owl delivers.
"Are you trying to bribe Hannah?" Susan Bones asks.
"For Merlin's sake." Pansy leans forward. "It's true, isn't? Gryffindor gets away with everything and no one cares about how egotistical the Ravenclaws can be, or how even Hufflepuff thinks the Slytherins are scum. But as soon as you get sorted into the house of snakes, it's all over. Everyone hates you and even your attempts at friendship are called a bribe. Do you ever think, Bones, that you might just be a bad person?"
Susan doesn't respond, but Pansy can see the cogs in her mind turning and she never makes another comment again.
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There are Slytherins who disagree with her process, her ambition, her goals. There are Slytherins who cut up her clothing and throw her family name back at her and spread lies about her in dark corners, and Pansy notes down every one of their names.
This is not about blood, or maybe it is, but not the kind they're thinking about. The S in her name has always been more likely to stand for spite than stupidity.
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ix.
Fifty-one weeks, one Dark Lord in Hogwarts, and ten acquaintances later, a miracle happens.
She's boarding the train when Harry corners her, shadows in her eyes and the saddest smile she's ever seen and says, "I'm sorry for misjudging you." Behind him, Granger waves and the Weasley boy watches with clenched teeth but says nothing.
Everything changes after that.
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x.
Isadora Avery is ruthless but being away at Hogwarts had let Pansy forget to what extent until she is cornered immediately upon her arrival.
"My step-daughter, a blood traitor! Imagine, Pansy, how ashamed your father and I were upon hearing the news. The same year the glorious Dark Lord returns, your stupidity and ignorance threaten to undo everything we've worked so hard for."
Pansy comes closer. Her father watches silently, holding her trunk.
"Do you remember what you both said when I was nine? 'Pansy doesn't seem to be the kind of woman who can live up to the Dark Lord's expectations. But the Dark Lord can always use another Pureblood housewife. I'm sure even Pansy is enough for that.'"
Isadora falls silent. When she finally speaks, her voice is filled to the brim with disgust. "You did all of this, put our family in danger and disgraced our ancestors over a comment your father and I made four years ago? You are a fool, we should have disowned you back then! How dare you not want to do what the Dark Lord wishes? Our Lord wants the next generation of Pureblood children, and you are a foolish, naive girl who has gotten in over her head — "
"I'm not naive!" Pansy snarls. "I hope he holds what I've done over your head. I hope you rot."
That's when her father speaks, and it all escalates.
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xi.
When they speak of Pansy Parkinson, they do it in hushed tones. They say the Dark Lord ordered her own father to purify the family tree and the man tried to kill her in cold blood. They say she killed him herself and then fought in the Battle of Hogwarts and captured her own step-mother.
They say that after Isadora Avery's trial, that Pansy visited her in Azkaban and said, "I did this all because I hated you."
They say Pansy Parkinson turned a molehill into a mountain and lived her best life out of spite.