Author's Note: Written for dexstarr's Sapphic Stocking on hpsapphicappeal. The request that I filled was Bellatrix/Pansy.
)O(
Bellatrix was irritated, though not altogether surprised, when she walked into the dining room of Malfoy Manor and found a young woman sitting idly at the table, examining her fingernails. The woman (scarcely more than a girl, really; perhaps seventeen) looked up at Bellatrix, and regarded her with an utterly casual expression.
"Who are you?" Bellatrix demanded.
"Pansy Parkinson. Friend of Draco's." She stood up and faced her, shoulders back and feet apart. Bellatrix hadn't seen such confidence in a young woman since her own teenage years, and she instinctively drew herself up taller so that she could still tower over the younger girl.
"And you?" said Pansy, eyeing Bellatrix with none of the respect that she deserved from a girl so young, "Bellatrix Lestrange, isn't it? You're Draco's aunt, are you? Narcissa Malfoy's sister?"
"Obviously."
"You don't look like her."
"You've got quite a mouth on you, for such a little girl." Bellatrix could feel the weight of her wand at her hip and her fingers itched to draw it, if only to give the girl a good fright. "And my looks and my sister's are not your place to comment on."
"Not even if I told you that I think you're an awful lot better looking than her?"
Bellatrix felt a flush rise in her cheeks. Did no one teach young ladies discipline anymore? And was the girl blind? Anyone could see that Narcissa was more beautiful, after Azkaban. Bellatrix was proud to shed her beauty, but she didn't appreciate being lied to about her looks.
"Especially not if," she said through gritted teeth, and she had her hand around her wand before she could stop herself. Narcissa would be annoyed at her for turning on a guest – one of Draco's friends, particularly – but this Pansy Parkinson deserved it.
Pansy didn't look impressed when she lifted her wand. In fact, she smiled.
"I'd be flattered to be on the receiving end of a curse from you. I've heard wonderful things about your skills."
"Sweet-talk might work on my sister, but it won't do you any good with me."
"Good. I'd really like to know what it's like being tortured by the famous Bellatrix Lestrange." Pansy stepped forward so she was practically nose-to-nose with Bellatrix and smiled. "Come on, give it a go."
Bellatrix clenched her hand around her wand. It was taking all of her self-control not to do anything to the girl, but she didn't want to give her the satisfaction. Pansy watched for a moment, then stepped back and raised one eyebrow.
"No? Nothing? I feel that I've been misled about your personality. I was told that you handed out Cruciatus curses like candy, and here you are, not indulging me. Even after I complimented your looks – which are excellent, by the way," she added. "I've always been quite fond of the 'prison pallor' look. But still, no torture. I wonder..." She lifted one hand and put it quite brazenly on Bellatrix's shoulder, meeting her eyes directly, "just how much you'd let me get away with."
)O(
Fin