Pansy knew that all those years at Hogwarts, Draco was fascinated with Harry Potter. She was quite certain that a lot of it was sexual, but she knew better than to say anything to him. Their relationship was too tenuous. Then the end of war happened, and almost everything that they knew was set on its head.
"No, Pansy. I refuse to be another one of Potter's projects," Draco snarled.
"Projects? Have you mistaken him for Hermione?" Pansy raised her eyebrow.
"No, I know you are some sort of project, I just know it." Draco's indignation was evident in the way his nostrils flared and his breath hitched. "When the bloody hell did you start calling her 'Hermione'?"
"I'm not a project. I'm his girlfriend; his lover," she replied bluntly.
"He must be making you feel obligated! He's forcing you to blow him for your freedom!" Draco's shriek hit the upper registers, forcing Pansy to wince.
"I've never understood the concept of forcing someone to blow you. Unless they are under iImperio/i, they still have teeth, don't they?" Pansy grinned evilly. "I know I do."
"Just bloody go away, will you? I can't deal with this anymore."
Pansy left Draco at the Manor, never even getting to ask him if he wanted to work with Harry on his new warding business.
Harry greeted her with a kiss as she returned. "Hello, love. Did he agree?"
"No, he thinks you have me iImperioed/i to be your love slave." She shrugged.
Harry started sniggering.
"Oh, what Gryffindorish bit of idiocy has you laughing now?"
Harry opened his mouth, closed it again, considered his audience then opened it again and started singing.
"On the first day of Christmas, my true love Imperioused me! He made me go out and buy him a tree!"
Pansy stared at him incredulously. He started to sing a second verse when she said, "Oh, no. No, no, no! Love can only take you so far."
"If you want me to stop singing, you need to do better than that," Harry challenged.
Pansy nodded, then took a running leap at him. Harry caught her as she jumped into his arms and began kissing him.
His hands were kneading her bum while she did her best to keep him from even thinking a possible next verse.
"Put me down, Potter. I need to get my mouth on you."
Harry took a deep breath. "You don't have to, Pans."
She bared her teeth at him in a feral smile. "Oh, I know I don't. But I want to." She slid to the floor down the front of his body and undid his fly. She backed him into the wall and raised up on her knees. She eased the zipper down and eased him out of his trousers.
Pansy ran her tongue around the head of Harry's member, making him groan. She knew how to make him lose himself, and she used every bit of that to make him come.
The sight of Pansy licking her lips after made Harry slide down the wall. After he caught his breath he said, "I don't know what Draco said to make you do that, but I'm going to hope he does it again."
Pansy jokingly punched his shoulder lightly. "Don't forget I have teeth, Potter."
"As if I could."
The next time Draco saw Pansy, she was dressed as a rather sexy elf accompanying Harry as Saint Nicholas giving gifts to the children in the pediatric ward in St. Mungo's. Narcissa pointed them out as they walked by, leading a rather eclectic group including Ron and Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, Adrian Pucey, Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbott.
"I can't see what she sees in him. How can he really want her? She wanted to turn him over to the Dark Lord!" Again, Draco forgot how loud and girlishly he could shriek.
Narcissa did not know whether to be amused or dismayed, but when she saw Pansy take a deep breath and turn toward them, she moved into an alcove.
"You know, Draco, I'm trying to decide if you are more jealous of me being with Potter or him being with me." Pansy was backing Draco up toward the lifts. "Stop the childish drama!" She poked him with her wand right in the sternum. "I'm not letting anyone ruin this holiday season, do you understand me?" Another poke, this one dangerously close to the family jewels. "Grow up, or I will hex you bald!"
Draco stood there, his hands defensively placed on his hair, watching Pansy stalk away. He couldn't understand the scene: Hermione grinned and patted Pansy on the shoulder, the young men in the group flirted and teased and even Ginny Weasley slung an arm around Pansy's waist. He felt unexpectedly bereft when the group walked away without him. He almost jumped out of his skin when his mother unexpectedly took his arm.
"Draco, darling, you really need to rethink this strategy of alienating those that are trying to reach out to you," she said.
"Muuuum."
"No, dear, truly." Narcissa patted his shoulder then kissed his head. "Let's go home. You may want to think about writing Mr. Potter and his lovely fianceé a letter, maybe asking what they were originally offering."
Draco looked at his mother, not quite believing what he was hearing.
"Oh, dearest, I'm far more like Andromeda than Bellatrix. But I do like the finer things in life. Your father offered that."
"Harry," said Pansy, "Does everyone remember that scene in the Great Hall?"
Harry turned to look at Pansy, not knowing what to say. He knew everyone certainly did remember the scene, but most people realized a scared spoiled girl was not going to make the best choices.
Pansy's eyes started to well up with tears. Harry put his arms around her, and whispered, "Everyone does remember, love, but if I don't care, most of them know not to say anything. Draco is just his own bit of insanity."
Hermione cleared her throat, making the pair look at her. "If we can forgive Ronald for abandoning us in the snow to go have Christmas dinner with his family, we can forgive you for saying something stupid. You've certainly showed that you don't always think like that, and we all consider you a good friend."
The tears fell freely from Pansy's eyes as she threw her arms around her former nemesis. Hermione Granger had been willing to take her in when her family disavowed her for her actions in the Great Hall. She helped her study and take her N.E.W.T.s and she vouched for her to get a position in the ministry as one of Kingsley's assistants, bringing her into close proximity with the Auror trainees. She saw Harry in the hall one day and asked him to forgive her in front of quite a few people. He did. But her past didn't always go quietly.
"It's just that it's Draco, and well, you know!" Pansy said.
Ron, of all people, nodded. "Yeah, I know. If Hermione said something horrible to me, I would take it to heart. Even if I knew she didn't mean it."
The group finished their rounds, all of them cheered up and ready to distribute toys and good cheer to all the children and their families in the ward.
Draco was pacing in his room, wondering how his missive would be taken. He had just asked Pansy to give him a chance to explain. He couldn't decide if he was waiting anxiously for a good answer or a bad one.
Harry and Pansy were both startled by the large eagle owl that arrived at their flat the morning after they had delivered the gifts to the children at the hospital.
Once Pansy had freed the missive from the bird and given it some bacon, she opened the letter and turned to Harry. "It's from Draco. He wants a chance to explain himself."
"What do you want to do?" Harry asked.
Pansy perused his face. "You mean that, don't you?"
"I'm secure enough in our relationship to deal with your issues with your ex-boyfriend. And I'm not quite sure I'm done dealing with my issues with your ex-boyfriend. What better than giving him a chance? 'Tis the season, right?"
Pansy nodded, penned a quick response on the back of Draco's note, and sent it back with the bacon-sated owl.
Narcissa and Draco were sitting at the dinner table when the owl returned and presented the note.
Draco opened it and took a deep breath. "They are willing to meet with me, Mum."
"That is wonderful, dear!" Narcissa truly looked delighted. "Be certain to go with an open mind."
Draco looked down, then realized his mother wasn't criticizing, rather she was trying to get him to think about the meeting. "Yes, I believe I will."
The morning of the Solstice dawned, finding Pansy and Harry quietly celebrating the change of seasons. Harry enjoyed the peacefulness and magical aspect of the day, considering it to be the more spiritual day than Christmas, because he had not been allowed to do anything more than observe the crass commercialism the Dursleys indulged in.
"I know we need to settle things with Draco, Pans, but I hope he doesn't ruin our day."
Very few people know that Harry and Pansy truly started dating once she invited him to her Solstice celebration the year she apologized.
"He won't, love. I know that he and I left things rather up in the air, but I love you very much and I won't let anyone ruin that. And if anyone knows I said that, I will kill you."
"That dichotomy is one of the reasons I love you, you know. I believe you meant both those statements equally," Harry responded with a chuckle.
Pansy wrapped her arms around him, grinning when she felt him start to stir against her lower body. "I don't think we have the time."
"You don't have the time for what, Pansy?" asked Draco from the doorway.
"Taking care of Harry's hard-on, what do you think?"
Draco, quite used to Pansy's bluntness, shocked Harry with his answer. "Only if I get to watch."
Knowing that Draco probably meant it, Pansy looked up at Harry questioningly. They both knew that half of Harry's fascination with Draco was sexual.
Harry took a deep breath. "In the bedroom, not in the kitchen."
Pansy walked up the stairs, holding Harry by the hand, and looking over her shoulder at Draco. She was certain that for as much as the two knew her thoughts and feelings, they did not know that her dearest fantasy was to be sandwiched between them.
She led him straight to the bed, and tapped him on the chest, so he obediently took off his shirt. She went to work on the fly of his jeans, while Draco looked around and settled himself on a cushy chair in the corner of the room.
He glanced around and thought the room looked far more comfortable and stylish than he would have expected from the combination of Harry and Pansy, but they really seemed to mesh well. iWhat the bloody hell am I doing here? I'll never fit in with them,/i he thought, then looked up. Harry was lying on his back, his muscles moving while Pansy rode him, completely uninhibited. "I wish I was on that bed."
"Then join us," said Harry in a guttural voice.
Draco startled, he didn't realize he had spoken out loud. "Pans?"
"You heard the man, Draco. Get your pasty arse over here, now!"
Caught up in the moment, Draco moved up onto the bed, cupping Pansy's breasts from behind. His hands were playing around Harry's, both of them manipulating the woman between them. Draco leaned around and kissed Pansy on the side of the mouth, and Harry surged upward and kissed her as well, but when Draco went to move away, he cupped Draco's head with his hand.
"Don't pull away again, Draco. This feels right, doesn't it?"
Pansy held her breath.
Draco froze, then his breath hissed out the word: "Yes!"
With the decision made, Draco threw himself into their lovemaking wholeheartedly. He gently pushed Pansy forward, making Harry go flat on the bed, and whispered a lubrication spell, gently making sure that Pansy's rear entrance was ready. He placed himself behind her, positioning himself to enter her.
"Don't make me wait, Draco. You know how I am about my prezzies."
Draco chuckled then surged forward.
Pansy gasped, she could feel both of them so fully this way. The boys found a rhythm right away, driving her higher and higher until finally she just shattered.
She collapsed onto Harry, then was pulled sideways by Draco, so that they weren't crushing him.
"Did we finally settle all of the past?" asked Harry.
"No," said Pansy.
"Not at all," said Draco. "But it is a start."