Pansy and Hermione
An unexpected love story between Hogwarts' finest ladies.
7th year at Hogwarts (I know, forget the fact that she wasn't THERE for her 7th year)
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
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I stepped off the Hogwarts express onto the platform leading to the carriages up to the castle. There was a crowd and all I could see over the tops of their heads was Hagrid calling "Fris' years! O'er here" and 50 short students looking up at the half-giant, stunned. I turned to look for where Harry and Ron were and found that they had gone ahead without me.
Rolling my eyes, I called after them, "Guys! Aren't you forgetting someone?" and I ran after them. It was a cloudy, yet hot, afternoon. Almost like being in an oven.
"Sorry Hermione. We'd thought you'd gone ahead without us to do Head Girl responsibilities." Ron said, not looking at me. Ronald was jealous that I'd be spending all of my time with the Head Boy, and assumed that he was going to be from Slytherin House.
However, to be perfectly honest I was glad he and I would be spending less time together. The past summer he had tried everything to get me in the sack, which made me feel less and less like he was the "one". In fact, I'd been trying to avoid him as much as possible.
"No, but I do have a meeting after the feast." He looked up at me. "So, don't wait up for me guys!" I smiled and got into a carriage with Luna and Ginny, the latter welcoming Harry to come sit with her.
"Where am I going to sit?" Ron complained. "Hermione can you scoot over?"
"No I can't, sorry." Harry gave me a questioning look but I chose to ignore it.
"Harry, could I sit on your lap so Ronald can have a seat?" Ginny asked innocently.
"NO!!" Ron bellowed all of a sudden, scaring the horse to a hasty start to the castle, leaving Ron behind.
We all looked back at him as he ran after us a couple paces then gave up and watched us go. I turned back around in my seat and smiled to myself. The less I see of him, the better. I felt Harry's eyes on me but I didn't look up. I knew what he'd say, "He's been our best friend forever!" "We need you to be loyal to your friends." and of course, "Girls are so fickle!".
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back on my seat. I listened to the conversation that Luna was having with Ginny and Harry about whether or not Thorny Shnarkles exist or not, and I was glad that my eyes were closed when I heard Harry and Ginny making out in front of me. That was more awkward then I needed it to be.
The welcome feast went by as normally as it could seeing that Dumbeldor had been replaced by Professor McGonagal, so it was she who told the 1st years about the hat, it was she who waved her wand and the food appeared and it was she that, with another swipe of her wand cleared it just as easily.
Even though the same events happened, it all seemed tainted by the fact that it wasn't Dumbeldor's eyes twinkling at them from the Headmaster's seat, and that it wasn't his voice they were hearing a hearty welcome from. At the end of the feast McGonagal announced everyone was dismissed except for the head boy and girl.
Harry and Ron hung back to see who the head boy was but McGonagal shooed them along to bed and she followed them out to make sure everyone had found their houses prefects.
Once the room had cleared out of all the students there were two people sitting at the Slytherin Table. Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. They looked like they were having a serious conversation that seemed to be getting more and more heated.
"I don't belong to you, Draco!" I heard Pansy hiss. She stood up and began to stomp off but Draco caught her by the arm.
"According to my FATHER," he pulled her close to him, "YOU DO!"
"Your "father" is a good for nothing DEATH eater!" She screamed at him trying to fight him off, but he kept his grip around her arms.
"How DARE you say that about my father!" His eyes got narrow and he grabbed her chin with one hand and her arms with another and began to kiss her roughly on the mouth. She struggled hard to get away but he was over-powering her, oblivious to the fact that I was sitting just a few feet away.
Memories of the summer's events flowed into my mind and I felt sick with anger. "HEY!" I stood up and yelled.
They both jumped away. "Get off of her!" I said a little louder, realizing, as if for the first time, just who I was talking to. Pansy took this opportunity to grab her bag and run to the door, at the door of the grand hall she turned back and looked at me as if unable to say something. Giving up she turned and almost smacked into Mcgonagal on her way out.
"Well, now. I must say I am most proud of both of you." the headmistress said. I was still glaring at Draco who had sat back down at the table to finish his pumpkin juice. "Is something the matter, Miss Granger?" she asked looking from me to Draco and back to me again.
After a long pause of weighing the possible outcomes that telling her what I had seen would bring about, I decided against it. "No, nothing." I muttered looking away from the blonde boy.
"Good, because this year is all about teamwork. You will need it in order to get anything done as heads of your houses." She went on to explain that every night it would be our job to patrol the corridors from after dinner until 8:00pm. "You were chosen for this job, because we think you'll be able to handle this and school so we expect you to get your homework done, No Excuses!" She looked stern as usual.
We were to patrol around common room entrances so we split them up. I would take Gryffindor and Hufflepuff and he would take Slytherin and Ravenclaw. "Get a good rest tonight, you start patrolling on Monday. Have a good night." She walked out of the grand hall through a special teachers entrance leaving me alone with Draco. A creep. That would probably rape me if he could. I grabbed my stuff and walked stiffly all the way back to the common room.
The next day classes started. There was a new Potions teacher (Professor Diggle), a new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher (Professor Mcgall) and a new Charms teacher (Professor Tweed). Professor Diggle was a plump man with a thick neck and small eyes.
He started out our Potions class by telling jokes, which no one laughed at. Seeing that as a queue to start teaching us something, he told us to stand up. Moans were echoed around the room but Professor Diggle just smiled and pulled out his wand.
"Numeroblada." He said and out from his wand shot black numbers that floated in the air above our heads. We all stared up and watched as one number landed over each of our heads. "Now, find the someone with your number and they will be your lab partners for the rest of the year."
Chatter filled the room as people either started complaining or calling our their number to find the other one quicker. My number was 7 and as I looked around I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and Pansy was standing in front of me. I looked up and saw that her number was 7 too.
I waited for her to say something. After what happened the night previously I wasn't sure where we stood.
"Thanks for...the other night." She said avoiding my eyes. I nodded, a half smile on my face.
"No problem." I said and then sat down and looked at my desk. She looked at me and I looked back, she smiled. I hesitated, wasn't this the Slytherin princess? Sworn to hate all Mudbloods? I smiled back, curious as to what this meant. She sat down next to me and Professor Diggle wrote down our number and our names saying he would have a seating assignment next class.
I pondered what this would mean for the rest of the day. When I tried to pay attention to what the teacher was saying my mind instantly went back to her smile, her shiny black hair, and her sorrowful eyes. At dinner Harry and Ron decided to ask what was wrong.
"Nothing," I responded, out of habit. I don't know why I didn't share this incredible news about a Slytherin being nice to me. I know they'd have wanted to know, but something told me not to ruin the smile we had shared.
"Ok, well. Are you done?" Ron asked, eagerly. "Want to take a walk by the forbidden forest?"
"Sorry, Ron. I have to do my rounds after dinner." I said glad that I didn't have to lie. "See you guys in a couple hours." I walked out of the grand hall, not looking back as Pansy had done.
Dodging Ron became what I focused on for the next couple weeks. Every time he asked me to be alone with him I always thought up a reason not to go, or at the very least, not to be alone with him. The only bad part to this tactic was that I never got to spend time with Harry, Ginny or Luna. I was always going off to Heads meetings or meetings with Mcgonagal. It was a good thing that Ginny and my room were right across the hall and I could go and talk to her whenever I wanted.
One Friday night, I was about to leave the grand hall to do my rounds when Ron came up behind me.
"Sorry, Ron. I have to do my rounds now." I said not looking at his face.
"I never see you anymore, Hermione." He said, shakily. I looked up at his face. It was red and he looked as though he had been crying or screaming. I looked back at the table and saw half the table was staring at us, thoroughly interested in what was happening. I looked back at Ron. "Do you love me anymore?" He demanded.
"I...I-uh..." I stammered. For once I was speechless. "Why would you say that?"
"Well," he lowered his voice, "we don't get...intimate...like we used to Hermione."
I stared at him in disbelief. "Well, I wonder why that is Ronald." I snapped at him. Looking at the table again I could tell that Ron had talked to each and every one of them about this "problem" of his.
"Why is it then?"
"I never wanted to have sex with you in the first place!" I heard a gasp from the table but I didn't look back at them.
"Hermione!"
"I only did it because for once in my life I felt like the "pretty girl". For once I felt that someone could love me for me and still think that I was beautiful and sexy. For the first time I felt like someone needed me, and YOU took advantage of that!" I yelled at him. He took a step back, his eyes big.
"How can you say that in front of all these people?" He asked, defensively.
"You're the one who dragged them into this, Ronald." I said through gritted teeth.
"Well, then. As far as I'm concerned, We're OVER." He said glaring at me.
I felt the tears coming up from inside me. He had been my best friend since school began, right up until we started dating. Then everything had just fallen apart. "Ffine!" I stammered.
I ran from the hall as I heard him say, "Fine." a horrible conclusion to a strained relationship.
I wandered the halls long after 8 o'clock. I didn't want to go where I knew I'd be near Ron. I was somewhere in between the library and the dungeon, I was walking by torchlight. I felt sad that he and I had ended so badly. I never wanted to lose a friendship, but at the same time I couldn't stand staying with him. I felt liberated and free. I had no restrictions, no rules telling me whom I should and should not talk to. Sighing, I turned a corner just in time to see something move up ahead.
A kid running around the castle after hours, no doubt. "Stop." I called down the hall. When nothing happened I started checking each of the classrooms on the side of the hall. I came across our potions class and I knew the student must be a Slytherin to be all the way down here in the dungeons. I opened the door and found Pansy rummaging through one of the supplies cabinets. I cleared my throat and she jumped and turned around.
"What are you doing down here, Pansy?" I asked.
"I wanted to get some work done on that project Professor Diggle assigned." she answered rather sheepishly.
"Really?" I asked, not believing her. I looked at the ingredients that she had taken out and realized they were only the ingredients he had said to work with. "Oh." i said stupidly.
There was an awkward silence between them and Pansy got up and sat on one of the desks. "So," she said, offering the desk next to hers. "What was that stuff at dinner about?"
At first I didn't know what she meant. But of course, she could have been there. The hall was empty of most of the students but some had stayed later to finish talking and eating. "Oh, uh... friend problems." I sat next to her. Accidentally so close to her that our arms brushed against each other. I blushed...but why?
"Sounded like he was more than a friend."
"Well, yeah, I guess." I swallowed. "He was my friend and then he asked me out and I thought "why not?". But then things happened and it went bad."
"Aw. That sounds like a bad situation." She said looking into my eyes.
"Yeah. The bad part is, I only ever thought of him as a friend. So now I'm losing a really good friend."
We talked for what seemed like an eternity. When I finally looked at my watch it was about 3 am.
"Wow. It's 3 in the morning!" I exclaimed. She yawned and got up from the table.
"Wow, time flies when you're having fun." She looked into my eyes when she said this.
"Yeah, maybe we can do it again, sometime soon." I smiled, "I know, why don't we go to hogsmede together tomorrow?"
She agreed and we decided to meet underneath the tall clock tower the following day at 1pm.
"Ok, see you there." I said as I turned to leave. I was half way out the door when I felt a hand gently pull me back and around. Pansy was looking straight into my eyes and slowly she leaned forward and gave me a sweet kiss on the mouth. She whispered in my ear: "Yes, you will." and then seemed to float out of the room, leaving me standing there stone solid, staring at nothing.
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