Disclaimer: NONE OF THE CHARACTERS PORTRAYED HERE ARE MINE, THEY BELONG TO JKR, only the story is mine.

I wish to thank SHARPTOOTH for allowing me to continue his story "HARRY POTTER AND DESTINY'S SHADOW" with the focus not being on the usual main character's but on some of the lesser known ones namely Colin Creevey and Pansy Parkinson.

Before you read this story, I recommend that you read Harry Potter and Destinies Shadow.

This story isn't going to have a lot of action, it is more a story of healing and love.

This is my first attempt at writing in a long time, please be merciful on me in your reviews. I hope you enjoy it.

Characters involved in the story:

Collin Creevey

Pansy Parkinson

Narcissa Black (Malfoy)

Harry Potter

Madame Pomfrey (head medi-witch at St Mungos wizard hospital)

Boudie the House Elf

Detrich Hoffman (Teacher of the blind)

Chapter #1

Six months after the final battle between Harry Potter and Voldimort:

The wizard world was still reeling from the war, everyone seemed to be in a state of unbelief that the war was finally over, that Riddle was dead, that his followers were either dead or in Azkaban prison, and that there was finally a lasting peace.

Hogwarts school had been extensively damaged due the number of powerful curses that were hurled at it by the death eaters as well as boulders that were thrown at it by the giants, approximately half of the students and teachers that took part in the defence of the school were either dead or wounded. Approximately a week after the last of the dead had been buried, repairs toe venerated school had begun.

The remaining followers of Voldemort, realising that they were defeated, went on a last killing rampage throughout Britain and around the world, slaughtering anyone who wasn't a pureblood, the killings weren't restricted to the wizarding world, they included defenceless Muggles.

Madame Pomfrey and the medical staff at St Mungos wizard hospital were almost overwhelmed by the number of causalities that came flooding in during and after that battle. The mortally wounded were given potions to control pain and put in a different ward than those who had a chance of being helped. Pansy, Colin and Narcissa were in the hospital wing that was for the fighters that had been moderately wounded, waiting to get Colin's broken bones attended to. While they waited, Colin and Pansy never relinquished their hold on each other. Narcissa, as she sat near them, wondered at the strange twist of fate that had left her alive while her husband and son were dead. Narcissa knew that their deaths were deserved but it still hurt, Draco's death more that her husbands. Draco hadn't been born evil like Lucius, but when he took Voldemort's mark, she knew he was doomed… and the confirmation on how far he'd really gone over to the dark side was when he had forced her to sexual things to Pansy while he inflicted physical abuse on her at the same time. Draco had done things to Pansy and her that would have done the Dark Lord proud, he had been completely insane and he had almost completely destroyed them. Now, as Narcissa looked at the two young lovers before her, she knew that if there were enough people like these two around, then maybe there was still some hope for her world.

Pansy, as she clung to Colin's hands, reflected just how much her life had changed in the last year, a year ago, she had been a beautiful, arrogant pureblood Slytherin, who lived for the day that she would take the dark mark, serve the Dark Lord and be wedded to Draco Malfoy. Now she was a blind, scarred, humbled pureblood who had fallen completely, head over heels in love with of all people, Colin Creevey, a muggleborn and worse yet… a Gryffindor. Pansy, moreover, couldn't, at times just couldn't get her head around the idea that he had actually fallen in love with her. In the past she had made it a personal mission in life to torment and belittle him, and he had still been able to see the real her and to love her. Pansy could still remember the first time he had kissed her and how she had responded with all that she had and knew that come what may, they would always be together.

Colin stayed in the hospital for about 2 days. Then due to bed shortages, he was deemed well enough to be discharged, as he had a small two bedroom flat in Diagon Alley. He told them they were more than welcome to live there with him. Colin was going to give Narcissa and Pansy the bedrooms while he slept on the couch, but Nacissa insisted that the take one room as he was still recouping from his injuries and that she would take the couch. Later that night Colin was roused from a deep sleep by the sound of whimpering and thrashing bed sheets coming from Pansy's room. Colin got up and stood by her door and listened to what was going on. From what it sounded like, she was having a bad dream. All of a sudden she let out a wail of pure terror. Colin burst into her room and ran to her bedside. She was sitting bolt upright, her sightless eyes were wide open, tears streaming down her cheeks and she was reaching out with her arms. Colin wrapped his arms around her and started softly crooning and gently rocking. When he'd wrapped his arms around her, she had clutched onto him sobbing inconsolably, he kissed the top of her head and started slowly stroking her hair.

After about 10 minutes she seemed to calm down but didn't let go of him, he just sat and quietly held her protectively in his arms. She said "please don't leave me tonight, please… I just need you to hold me, I always feel safe in your arms." Colin crawled in beside her and pulled the covers up… she cuddled up to him and he draped and arm around her and after a few minutes they both fell asleep. The next morning found them still cuddled together sound asleep, until the odour of grilling sausages and eggs invaded their nostrils causing their stomachs to rumble. Colin, holding Pansies hand, led her to the kitchen area and found a house elf preparing breakfast. The house elf, noting their presence, said "good morning sir and miss, "I am Boudie, the house elf belonging to the noble house of Malfoy. Mistress Narcissa has instructed me to do your bidding and that I am to consider myself yours. Mistress Narcissa also instructed me to tell you that she had to go out for awhile, but she would return in a few hours."

Colin and Pansy wolfed down the sausages and eggs and then after asking for two cups of tea, went out on the little balcony. After a few minutes Colin asked Pansy about her nightmare. Pansy hesitated and then told him about reliving the horror that she endured at the hands of Draco, as she spoke it seemed that the floodgates opened wide and it all spilled out. When she was done, Colin just sat there in a daze, unable to believe that so much cruelty could be inflicted on a human being by another. The only thing he could think to do was put his arms around her and just hold onto her as tight as he could and promise her that no one was ever, ever going to hurt her again. They stood together for along time just feeling the warmth of the sunshine and the peace they felt being in each others arms.

(From HARRY POTTER AND DESTINY'S SHADOW) Whatever had landed on him moved. He struggled to turn over and saw that it was Pansy. He grasped her with his good hand, and saw her clench her teeth.

"Tell me where," she whispered to him. He looked at her confusedly, and then realized that she had grabbed his wand which had fallen next to him. He looked up and saw the Death Eater approaching with his wand out. "About six feet ahead of you, and just a hair to the left," he hissed in her ear. "Hurry, he's about to strike." The Death Eater raised his wand. "Ava…" "Avada Kedavra!" screamed Pansy, her head thrown back, fury etched across her face. A beam of brilliant green light burst from the wand and struck the Death Eater full in the chest. His expression of shock was still on his face as he struck the ground with a dull thud.

Narcissa returned a short time later and went out on the balcony to sit with them, after a bit she turned to Colin and told him how much she appreciated him taking her and Pansy in. She said "being a former member of Slytherin house and the spouse of a Death Eater isn't very popular right now." She had a hard time believing that, when no one would give her the time of day he, a Gryffindor, had taken them in and had offered them protection. Colin told her that he'd made peace with the past and said the only direction to go now is forward and that meant forgiving those who had wronged him… "Besides," he grinned, "if hadn't been for a certain little hellion from Slytherin house, I wouldn't be here." Narccisa asked him what he meant, Colin went on to relate how, while he was wounded during the Battle for Hogwarts, she had defended him against a Death Eater who'd been about to kill them. He said "you should have seen her, she looked like a one of those fierce Celtic Warrior Queens when she killed that Death Eater, "kinda sexy," he quipped. Pansy blushed as Narcissa laughed.

Narcissa, after a moments hesitation, told the two why she'd been away. She said that over the past ten years she had been transferring galleons from the Malfoy vault to a private account in preparation for the time when she would leave Lucius. She said that theirs had been a hate filled relationship rife with physical and emotional abuse, that she had only stuck with him because of Draco. She said that the idea had been that when Draco was old enough to leave home, she was going to leave her husband and live on her own. Narcissa said that the other day, she'd just purchased a small estate near Cardiff, Wales, and had set up strong wards and enchantments to prevent the discovery of her haven. Narcissa said that if they wanted, they could consider it theirs. Both Colin and Pansy were surprised to say the least, and after a moment of consultation, agreed to move there with her. Colin said that he was going to keep his flat, as he might need a place to work on stories (he is a freelance journalist). Narcissa set up a floo network between the flat and their new home, and after checking to make sure the spell was done correctly, they and Boudie, flooed to the estate.

The estate was located near a small village of Clawddoch, to the Muggles there it looked like a dilapidated old building and if any of them decided to get a closer look, they would suddenly become very hungry and decide to go get some thing to eat. The estate had 10 rooms, a master bedroom and four smaller ones. There was a study, a fair size kitchen, and three bathrooms. The estate itself was situated on 20 acres that was surrounded on one side by a forest and on the other by a large hedge.

There was also a fairly large outdoor pool. Colin was just awed by the beauty of the place and proceeded to describe it to Pansy in vivid detail so she could get some idea of the place that they would live in.

Colin, at dinner one day, told Narcissa and Pansy about a Muggle system of assisting the blind with being able to live a more independent life, he went on to explain about Braille being a way for the blind to be able to read. Colin explained how it consisted of a series of raised bumps on paper, each series of dot represented a letter of the alphabet. Colin said that when Pansy had perfected it, she would be able to read books and also be able to write letters. Colin then went on to talk about getting what was referred by the Muggles as a 'seeing eye dog' except in their case it would be dog/cooshie mix that would fill that role.

Narcissa and Pansy were amazed by what Colin had told them as there was nothing like that in the wizarding world, and Pansy readily agreed to learn how to read using Braille and to get her seeing eye cooshie.

The next day Colin and Pansy went to Diagon Alley too, they entered the Eyelops Owl Emporium. They asked the clerk on duty there if they had any dog/cooshies, the clerk said they only had one and led them to the back. In a kennel was solid black Alsatian (German Sheppard) the dog looked them with intent interest, especially Pansy. Colin led Pansy to the door, the dog also approached the door. Pansy put her hand on the door, the dog touched her hand with his nose. Pansy felt a warm glow and said we'll take him. Colin bought the dog as well as a leash, dog bed and food, then apparated them back to his flat where they flooed to the estate.

When they got back to the estate they set up the dog bed in Pansy's room and then they all sat down to have lunch, Colin asked Pansy what she was going to name the dog, she said that as the dog was all black, she would name him Shadow, when she said the name, the dog perked up his ears and then moved toward her and licked her hand; Colin laughed and said "well I guess that settles the name issue, doesn't it?"

Later that day, Colin, using a public internet service located a local public library, did a yahoo search for any schools nearby that taught Braille and or trained the blind to work with seeing eye dogs and found that the nearest school was located in London. When Colin told her this Pansy became agitated and was adamant that she did not want to go there, she didn't want to get separated from Colin. After much discussion, it was decided to hire a tutor that specialised in both fields. There was one problem, they couldn't hire a Muggle as there would be no way for him to pass through the wards placed around the estate.

Colin decided to contact Harry Potter to see if he knew of anyone in the wizard world who could teach Pansy Braille and how to use the cooshie as a seeing eye dog.

Colin sent an owl to Harry requesting to speak to him, and received a return owl saying that he would be very happy to meet with him when he and Ginny got back from their vacation in a week.

The next week passed by with Colin and Pansy taking long walks, talking about their individual pasts, families and how things had changed. Pansy talked about her cold parents who'd not cared about anything except serving the Dark Lord and their expectations for her future. There had never been a time that there had been any kind of love shown to her, where as Colin's family had been the exact opposite of hers, full of love and respect for each other. They both spoke of getting married and one day and having a family. The only cloud that appeared was when Pansy thought about making love to Colin. As much as she wanted to, when she did think about it, she would start to shake and start getting flashbacks of what Draco had done to her; the mere thought of it would leave her feeling like a leper and she would often wonder if Colin would actually want to have anything to do with her in that regard, after all she was damaged goods.

When she finally brought up the topic with him, he had emphatically told her that he found her very desirable but that he had been raised to believe only in sex within the bonds of marriage, but due to her fears that he was willing to wait on her as long as she needed to heal. Colin went on to say that as far as being "damaged goods" he said to her, "we're all damaged goods honey, going through a war like we had, has damaged us all, the loss of innocence being the first casualty." Pansy would weep and hold onto him and tell him how much she loved him, that she really wanted him, but that the emotional scars were very deep and she didn't know how long it would be before she would be able to enter into a physically intimate relationship with him. Colin would just hold her and "shush" her and then tenderly kiss all her troubled thoughts away, all the while telling her over and over again that he loved her with all of his heart.

Colin had modified an old Dragon 15 broom to carry him, Pansy and Shadow. The broom had been once been used for carrying produce to market a hundred years ago. It wasn't fast but had been built for strength and stability. He had put a seat and seatbelt as well as handle bars on the rear seat for Pansy and a round cage to put Shadow in.

The one thing they really enjoyed was going on a picnic, they would pack a lunch and, taking Shadow, fly out towards the forest area of the property and spend a quiet time together talking or sometime just falling asleep in each others arms, while Shadow kept watch over them.

Finally Colin got an owl from Harry saying he was back and would be willing to meet him after classes the next day. Colin, as he wanted to surprise Pansy, hadn't told her about going to see Harry so told her he was going out for awhile and would be back soon.

Colin arrived at Hogwarts and was totally amazed at how much of the school had been reconstructed, the walls had all been repaired and the repair work was now concentrated on the inner buildings of the school. Colin found Harry in his office and after the usual pleasantries were dispensed with, Colin brought up the reason for the visit. Harry was totally blown away with the revelation on the extent of Colin's devotion to Pansy, and when Colin asked him if he knew anyone who would be willing to come to the estate and give Pansy private lessons on how to read and write using Braille as well as teaching her how to train Shadow to be a seeing eye dog he was frankly amazed. Harry said that he would look into it right away and get back to him as soon as possible.

Later that night, Colin again heard Pansy cry out in terror and had rushed into her room, he'd found her stumbling around in her room but noted that Shadow had been 'herding' her away from objects like stools or chairs that could have caused her to fall and hurt herself. Pansy had, when Colin folded her into his arms, asked him to again stay with her for the night and again Colin had crawled into bed with her and had comforted her.

When Pansy had calmed down, she had told him it was the same bloody nightmare, and that she was starting to wonder if it would they would ever stop or would she be haunted by them for the rest of her life. Colin had pulled her into the crook of his arms and had held onto her for dear life, telling her that no one would ever, ever harm her in any way again so long as he had breath and a wand.

While they were holding each other, Colin, out of the blue, said "there is something I'd like to ask you,"

Pansy said "What?"

Colin hesitated, let out a breath and asked her "would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

Pansy gasped and said "what did you say?"

Colin said "would you, Pansy Parkinson do me the honour of being my bonded wife, in other words, would you marry me?"

Pansy looked over at him with her mouth open, then the tears started again, only this time they were tears of joy and love and she exclaimed "oh sweet Lord yes, a thousand times yes, Colin I'd love to be your wife!"

Colin was overwhelmed by the emotions that filled him to overflowing, he grabbed her and crushed her to his chest and then started kissing her like there was no tomorrow. Colin said that as soon as he could afford it, he would get her an engagement ring, Pansy just hugged him closer and whispered, "a ring doesn't matter love, you just gave me your heart and that's enough for me.

The next morning they both told Narcissa and were both crushed in her tearful embrace, she said she was so happy for them and again marvelled at the power of true love to look beyond that past and to create a new future.