Pansy slowly made her way through the Great Hall in silence. Somewhere off to her right she spotted a flash of blindingly white hair and ducked. She knew he was looking for her and she would do just about anything to make sure he didn't find her. It wasn't very difficult in the crowd she was pushing her way through. The Yule Ball had been a highly anticipated event since they had announced they would be having it, but she found it to be no more than a nuisance.
Everyone around her seemed so happy. They were dancing and singing and generally behaving as most immature teenagers did. They were all having fun. Pansy fought off the urge to laugh as her eyes lingered on a group of students sitting at a table by themselves. "Everyone, but the Patel twins." She muttered softly.
The beautiful Patel twins of Hogwarts were everything that everyone always talked about. They were said to be two of the prettiest girls in the school. They had even been asked to go to do dance by the two male members of the Golden Trio. Of course, one of the boys was madly and passionately in love with his best friend and didn't even realize it while the other one had yet to take his eyes of Cho Chang. Both girls were miserable. Only one of them had danced all night and…well…she had gotten her feet trampled on.
"Poor Parvati." Pansy snickered as she began to walk again, sure that Draco Malfoy had yet to spot her. Eventually, he would give up and preoccupy himself with making fun of first years. Yes, he was a very mature, deep individual.
Pansy paused somewhere near the punch bowl to listen to one of the many shallow conversations surrounding her. This particular one took place between Lililth Wilcox, a sixth year Ravenclaw, and Kellian Musacosh, a seventh year Durmstrang boy who spoke barely any English and had spent the entire trip to Hogwarts running around with Viktor Krum.
"Do you like Divinations? I just love it. I like to read people." Lililth spoke in a very high-pitched tone that grated on Pansy's nerves. "Professor Trelawney says I have the sight! Can you imagine?"
Pansy snorted. Absolutely not. There was no possible way that anyone that thick would be given the sight. Professor Trelawney was a crackpot.
A little known fact about Pansy was that her grandmother had been blessed/cursed with visions. She was an extremely powerful seer, which in the end had driven her into madness. Well, that and the fact that her husband had continuously beaten her. Unfortunate as it was, Pansy had inherited her grandmother's…talent. It was something she loathed and despised. She had also hid it from almost everyone she knew. That wasn't hard considering the fact that she only had four true friends: Terrence Higgs, Adrian Pucey, Miles Bletchley, and Marcus Flint. Although, anyone who dared to tell them they were her best friends would die a horrible painful death.
Ever since Pansy was very young she had played the role of a sweet, extremely thick Draco-worshipper. Her parents were both very loyal Death Eaters. While there were some Death Eaters who were decent parents, her's were not among them. In fact, her father had inherited her grandfather's joy for hurting people. His favorite pastime was torturing Pansy to see how far he could push her before she broke. Her mother was different. She tended to avoid Pansy. Anytime she did spend with her daughter, she spent critiquing every little flaw.
Needless to say, Pansy was a little damaged. She had grown to hate her parents as well as the Death Eaters. If she had ever voiced this opinion, she would've been forfeiting her life. Therefore, she had pretended to be someone else. She played the part that they wanted her to play and fell all over Draco Malfoy, which is the one person who her father had always intended for her to marry.
Pansy shuttered at the thought. "Ruddy git." Draco was annoying to say the very least. He was oblivious, condescending, self-righteous, self-centered, and…well…she could barely tolerate his existence. The only reason he could still draw breath was because Pansy found herself very fond of Narcissa Malfoy and, well, you could say a lot about the woman, but she loved her son.
No one other than her four friends knew the real Pansy and even they didn't know everything. People only knew what she let them see. It was hard, but it was something she had found necessary. She had always hoped upon hope that when the day came the Death Eaters wouldn't want her. She knew rationally that wasn't going to happen. She would be first in line to get the dark mark, but what else was she supposed to do? Run? Running was taking the coward's way out and that was something Pansy would never lower herself to do.
"It must be hard." Kellian grunted with an understanding expression.
Lililth gushed loudly. "It's such…such an honor to have so much responsibility. I mean…I can tell what is going to happen to people before it happens. It's really amazing how I handle it all."
"And she has so much humility about the whole thing." Pansy muttered softly.
There was a low chuckle from behind her and Pansy winced. Someone had heard her. Praying with every fiber of her being, she turned to see who the unknown person was. Standing not two feet away was no other than Harry Potter, holding two glasses of punch. His green eyes sparkled as they locked with her's. He frowned suddenly. "Parkinson?"
Pansy's eyes widened. "Gotta run."
At that she turned and began to quickly try and escape. She had intended on retrieving her eighth glass of punch, especially considering one of her more generous friends had decided to spike it a few moments ago, but she would rather drink acid than have a conversation with Potty.
Pansy was in such a rush to escape that she ran directly into Blaise Zabini, Draco's best friend and confidant. She groaned as he turned to stare at her. "We were just looking for you." He sounded rather upset. Apparently Draco was ruining the ball for him. How was he supposed to stand over to the side and make what he assumed to be devastatingly handsome facial expressions if he was looking for Pansy?
At that thought, Pansy rolled her eyes. She was almost certain that his looks would be lost on all of the girls from Beauxbaton. Who could look handsome standing next to Cedric Diggory? "Oh…okay. I have to pee." She gave him her best 'I'm as dumb as a door' expression before trying to run.
Blaise's reflexes must've been heightened by his extreme annoyance because he reached out and grabbed the back of her dress with super speed and began to drag her across the Great Hall. "It can wait." He mumbled as he forced his way through couple after couple.
"NO!" Pansy suddenly hissed as she planted her feet on the ballroom floor and refused to move another inch.
Standing among the many dancing couples who were swaying slowly to the romantic music, Blaise stared at her in shock. After a second, he pulled roughly at her robes again. She still didn't budge. "Pansy…Pansy…come on. I'm taking you to Draco. "
"I said no. I don't want to go to Draco." Pansy insisted as she crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at the boy.
Blaise frowned. "Pansy, surely you can…" He winced as he looked around at the couples that were all staring at them. "hold it until we find Draco. He can show you to the loo."
Pansy felt her face burn red in embarrassment. She glared at Blaise, her strange, but beautiful golden eyes boring into his blue through the dim light. She felt her anger surface as her perfectly controlled mask slipped away. "I would rather crawl on my hands and knees over burning hot coal in the lowest circle of hell than spend the rest of the night standing beside Draco while he attempts to bait Potty and Weasel into a fight that he is bound to lose before running off and telling his dear old daddy about how the little boys are all mean to him."
Blaise looked completely dumbstruck. His mouth was ajar and his eyes were burning with confusion. "But…but…but…" He shook his head. "But…"
Pansy couldn't move or speak. In fact, she was even having trouble breathing at the moment. She had spent her entire life hiding behind the perfect persona and now…in one night she had ruined it all. Everyone was staring at her. She was almost positive the music was no longer playing, but that could've been the shock she had fallen into.
"You LOVE Draco." Blaise said, in a quite humorous tone. He was actually trying to convince her.
Pansy laughed a rather strange maniacal laugh, snapping from her daze. "Are you out of your ruddy mind? I loathe his very existence. I HATE him. In fact, I have spent the majority of my life finding new and interesting ways to poison, trip, attack, and torment him. WHO did you THINK used obliviate to make him forget his name and think he was madly and passionately in love with you time after time?"
"Pansy, luv, time to go lay down." Terry Higgs said as he moved to loop his arm through her's and led her off the dance floor. Her friends knew how she felt about keeping up her act and now…well, now it was over. There was no going back.
"Why? She's the most interesting things that's happened all night." Ron Weasley announced as he stood to his feet, trying to get a better view.
Padma Patel snorted as she scowled at the boy. "You got that right. All we've done is sit here!"
Ron frowned. "'eh! No one's making you!"
"Well!" Padma Patel huffed as she glared at him. "Alright then." At that, she turned and stomped away.
Pansy looked to Terry with a frown. "I…I don't know what happened. I think it's the idea of Draco having to help me to the bathroom and then the idea that he might…might…"
"Assist you?" Adrian Pucey questioned with a bright grin. "He might offer to assist you."
"He thinks you're that dense." Miles Bletchley replied with a frown.
Terry laughed loudly. "Not anymore."
Pansy looked from Terry, to Adrian, to Miles, and back to Terry. "It's over…my entire life is over."
"Well THAT is for certain." Blaise's voice boomed around them. Pansy winced as she turned to face the irate boy. Draco was standing at his side, but he was obviously still in shock. In fact, he looked downright horrified. "All this time…all this time you have been PRETENDING to be someone else. We have spent YEARS tolerating your annoying…"
"Yeah, annoying." Draco echoed slowly.
"Giggly." Blaise raged on.
Draco nodded his head dumbly. "Giggly, for sure."
"Obsessive." Blaise continued with little regard to his friend's quickly deteriorating mental status.
"Obsessive." Draco actually sounded rather tearful then.
"Thick." Blaise screamed. His voice hitting a note that caused Pansy's ears to hurt. Draco only nodded this time while mouthing the word and pointing to Blaise. "insanity and now…we find out that you've been LYING!"
"Lying." Draco added.
Blaise rolled his eyes. "Malfoy, stop helping me!"
Draco nodded. "Right then."
"Do you have ANYTHING to say?" Blaise questioned as he glared at her with anger that even she wasn't capable of matching right now.
Pansy shrugged her shoulders. "Not particularly."
Blaise glared even harder. "Why?"
"Because you all deserved it." Pansy replied in a bitter tone. "You deserved every minute of it."
"FOR WHAT?" Blaise exclaimed. "For treating you like you were stupid? You pretended to BE stupid!"
Pansy stomped toward Blaise with force. She glared venom at him as her eyes burned deeply into his. "How about for how you treated me when I was younger? You know, before I acted like I was stupid! What about then?" She paused to catch a breath. "Did you know that every time Draco said something to his father that I got more time in the dungeons with mine? That he left more marks…that he cut deeper! Did you know that every time either of you say ANYTHING about me…"
"It isn't our fault that your father is a psychopath!" Blaise yelled in outrage. He froze suddenly. "Wait a minute…what?"
"Your father what?" Draco asked in shock.
Pansy laughed. "Oh, you didn't know about his favorite hobby? Where did you THINK that the scars came from?"
"I thought…I thought you…fell." Draco muttered slowly.
Pansy rolled her eyes. "I fell and cut my neck?" She reached up and pointed to the large gash across her throat.
Draco frowned deeply. "That ruddy bastard."
"That's what we keep saying." Terry muttered.
There was silence for a moment and then suddenly, "Wow. Harry…they've gotten more interesting than us." Ron snorted in amazement.
Potty smirked. "Good. Maybe people will leave us alone for a while."
Pansy frowned deeply as she looked around. "I…I think I'm to go change into something…" She looked down at the hideous pink robes her mother had sent her to wear. "prettier."
Terry snorted. "Like the dress you had bought to wear?"
Pansy nodded. "Yeah, that one."
"Why did you wear that one if you had bought something else?" Gregory Goyle questioned with a knowing twinkle in his blue eyes.
Pansy smiled. "Because I was going with Draco and I figured I might as well look as dreadful as possible."
Draco looked to Blaise. "She HATES me."
Blaise nodded. "Yes, I did get that."
At that, Pansy turned and left the Great Hall headed toward the dungeons. She was halfway there when she realized that the entire student body not only knew she wasn't stupid or in love with Draco, but also knew about her rather horrid relationship with her father.
"Fabulous. So much for privacy." Pansy muttered as she walked toward the portrait of Salazar Slytherin. "Just let me in. If you don't then I'll find a way to have you placed in front of the Gryffindor common room."
Slytherin shuttered. "You are truly evil."
Pansy snorted. "You don't know the half of it. Just ask Blaise and Draco."
