A/N: I own nothing.
This is a fic for Battle of Hogwarts Challenge on Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges.
The prompt was: Write about a Slytherin reminiscing about Fred Weasley during the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts.
I wrote it with date/month/year form.
Fred's death is taken from Rowling's book directly. It is marked with # book quote #.
Memories about Lion
For years now Pansy Parkinson has been the Slytherin Princess, but now it was of no use. Where there were petty fights about house pride, now is fighting for life. She is seventeen, of age in Wizarding World but it doesn't matter. She knows she made a mistake by choosing Voldemort's side over Fred's.
The Battle has passed. She is now in a Ministry Cell waiting for her trial. She remembers him. How he used to sneak into Hogwarts to be with her in her sixth year. He laughed with her. He was her chance that she chose to ignore in favour of few promises. It is all gone now, though. He is gone. He died. She saw it and she did nothing about it.
A lonely tear falls down her cheek as her mind flies back to her memories of him.
First memory
15.7.1996.
She was walking down the street when she saw that big sign, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. She should have known that it wouldn't do her any good to enter, but she did anyway.
It was colourful to say the least. Wherever she looked she would see children and adults alike browsing through the shelves. Instead of turning away like any respectable Pureblood at that time would, she entered forward to look around.
As she was looking at a potion that changes ones skin to green, his voice came from behind.
"What is a respectable, good looking Slytherin like you, Miss Parkinson, doing here of all places?"
Turning around and seeing that it was Fred Weasley of all people, whom she secretly liked, she said:
"I am merely looking at your products, Mr. Weasley. After all, a respectable Slytherin needs to know what those arrogant Gryffindors will use on her."
"That is true Miss. So, what will you buy?"
"What is offered?" she asked even though all silver bells were ringing warning in her head.
"We have…" he starts reciting some of the products that they have and finishes with, "… and a good looking Gryffindor Twin."
She played along, even though she knew that she shouldn't:
"So, George Weasley is for sale?"
With that sentence she knew that she was in for an interesting year
End of memory
More tears joined the first as that memory went forcefully at the back of her mind but another came forward instead of that one.
Second memory
28.8.1996.
She was at the back of the shop waiting for him. This would probably be the last time that she would see him before the first Hogsmeade visit. Suddenly she felt someone's arm wrapping around her and a hand coming to her mouth, and then, she felt a kind of pull before everything around her changed.
When the apparition finished using the moment she turned around and slapped the person that was behind her.
Her hand never landed because it was stopped by the offender's. After her hand was stopped, in a matter of seconds, she was pulled by that hand forward while the other hand went up and threw the mask away revealing none other but Fred Weasley.
Before Fred could even attempt to kiss her she hissed:
"Fred Gideon Weasley, you better have an explanation for this or I will castrate you, permanently!"
Confident, Fred mocked:
"You wouldn't, you like me too much."
She made a very unladylike snort and pulled him in for a kiss that turned into a snog session.
End of memory
Now she was openly crying knowing he would never be able to do that again and her mind went to the last time she saw him before the Battle.
Second memory
20.6.1997.
It was supposed to be a nice visit from Fred before she went home for holydays, but it wasn't. It started as usual but halfway Fred mentioned war, the one topic they were avoiding before.
"Do you still believe that Voldemort is right?"
"Fred…" she started knowing where this would lead.
"We cannot skirt around this anymore Pans…"
"But why not? Why can't we…"
"Please Pansy, I need to know…"
"You need to know what?"
"I need to know where this will lead. Pansy, I think…"
"You think what? That you are in love? Isn't love supposed to be unconditional? Isn't it that what all Gryffindors believe?"
"You think that we are stupid!? We may believe in love, but we aren't stupid. If you think that you won't be safe if you change your side, maybe…"
"Fred this isn't about my safety!"
"Then what?"
"It's what I believe!" Pansy said harshly with air of finality around her.
Whatever Fred wanted to say died. He got up and said instead:
"Very well."
He left. He left without turning back, without waiting for her reply, without knowing that her belief was weak and that the only thing he needed to say was 'I love you'.
End of memory
Her sobs echoed around the hall as she remembered how he died.
Second memory
She just came into corridor and stopped, seeing him standing there and fighting.
#"Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"
"You're joking, Perce!" shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.
"You actually are joking, Perce… I don't think I've heard you joke since you were –"
The air exploded. They had been grouped together, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and Percy, the two Death Eaters at their feet, one Stunned, the other Transfigured; and in that fragment of a moment, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, the world was rent apart, Harry felt himself flying through the air, and all he could do was hold as tightly as possible to that thin stick of wood that was his one and only weapon, and shield his head in his arms. He heard the screams and yells of his companions without a hope of knowing what had happened to them.
Then the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness: He was half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack. Cold air told him that the side of the castle had been blown away, and hot stickiness on his cheek told him that he was bleeding copiously. Then he heard a terrible cry that pulled at his insides, that expressed agony of a kind neither flame nor curse could cause, and he stood up, swaying, more frightened than he had been that day, more frightened, perhaps, than he had been in his life…
And Hermione was struggling to her feet in the wreckage, and three redheaded men were grouped on the ground where the wall had blasted apart. Harry grabbed Hermione's hand as they staggered and stumbled over stone and wood.
"No – no – no!" someone was shouting. "No! Fred! No!"#
But Pansy's shout went unheard and the man she loved died.
End of memory
.
.
.
She has calmed since for it has been two hours. Currently, two guards are leading her towards the courtroom, not knowing that, whatever the decision is, she will die by her own hand before the end of this day.
The End