House : Slytherin
Category : Drabble
Prompt : [Pairing type] Slytherin/Hufflepuff
Word Count : 477
.oOo.
After the war, Susan Bones couldn't sleep. She couldn't close her eyes without seeing all the horrors she had witnessed. Not that keeping them open them changed anything. She could still hear the screams echoing in her ears, still taste the bitter tang of her own blood on her tongue, still feel the pain where the Cruciatus had seeped into her bones.
So, at night, she drifted through the corridors, scouring them for some kind of solace. In third year, when boy troubles had left her sleepless, she would climb up to the Astronomy Tower and gaze out. It felt like an eternity ago. Now, that place held too many horrible memories. Aside from Dumbledore, more than one student had let themselves fall from it last year, when everything felt like too much. Truth be told, Susan wasn't sure she could trust herself not to do the same.
One such night, her feet led her to the Owlery. She had only visited it a few times in her years at Hogwarts, not being especially close to her parents and never having owned an owl, but for some reason she felt compelled to enter it. When she arrived, she noticed a figure hidden in the shadows. Almost instinctively, she pulled out her wand.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" she hissed.
She heard a low laugh in response. "Relax, Bones. Just me." A dull light emerged from the darkness, revealing a familiar face.
"Parkinson?"
"Yours truly. I'll be on my way. You wouldn't want to sully yourself with my presence." Pansy began to walk away.
"No!" Susan exclaimed a little too quickly. "I - Uh - If you want… You were here first."
Pansy's expression was impenetrable. She cocked her head to one side, seeming to take the other girl in, before making her way back towards her. "So, Bones, what brings you here?"
"Nightmares. You? Oh - and call me Susan."
"Well, Susan, it's mostly the way the blood stains the ground in the dungeons. It really seeped into the stone, and it's not all that pleasant."
Susan grimaced. "Fair point." The pair were silent for a few moments, and the Hufflepuff began to fidget.
"Relax. You're making me nervous, Puff."
"Oh - uh - sorry!"
"Are you scared of me or something?"
"I - uh - "
"I get it. I'm a big scary Slytherin. No morals. I torture first years for fun. Heard it all before."
Susan seemed confused. "I - uh - you don't do that, right? Because that's not what I meant. It wasn't an oh-Merlin-she's-going-to-murder-me kind of scared, more like a bloody-hell-she's-hot-what-do-I-do kind of scared."
Pansy began to laugh. "Seriously?"
"I mean - come on! Your legs go on forever. And I couldn't walk two feet in shoes that high."
"You could borrow them, if you want. Practice." Pansy paused. "The shoes, not the legs."
"I'd like that," Susan said, and she allowed herself the smallest of smiles.