A/N: My Rowling, I actually managed to upload a chapter according to a schedule. Times are changing! I've got the majority of this fic all planned out, and everything is blossoming nicely. *cackles* Pay attention to the flowers, my pretties, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the world of JK Rowling, I just manipulate everything in ways that amuse me. This goes for the whole fanfic!

/Flashback - 19 years ago/

"Now Pansy, darling, it's very important that you make a good impression today, alright? Your new friends will be very important men someday," Mrs. Parkinson crooned to the young girl that stood before her.

"Will I be important too, mummy?" The girl asked, clinging to her mother's knees. Mrs. Parkinson gently pried her daughter off of her, pointing to a set of French doors leading into the playroom.

"With luck, you'll be hanging on their arms as they rise to the top," the woman replied mysteriously, giving her daughter a little shove in the direction of the doors. The girl huffed and stomped over to the playroom, throwing the door open and stalking inside.

"My name is Pansy Parkinson and I'm important too!" she announced to the occupants of the room, who had frozen in place at her dramatic entrance, toys still in their hands. After a brief moment of silence, the boys put their toys down and stood up, walking towards her. The blonde extended his hand to her, looking far too professional for a three year old, and she took it hesitantly.

"I'm Draco Malfoy," he said, stepping aside so his dark-haired friend could introduce himself as Blaise Zabini. After he too had shaken hands with the girl, both stepped away from her.

"We don't like you," Blaise declared bluntly, and Draco nodded his head in confirmation.

"You need to leave," the blonde added, and the two boys moved forward as one to lightly push the girl out of the room, closing the door after her. Pansy's mouth fell open in shock, tears filling her eyes as she sat down in front of the door, staring at the wood separating her from the boys. This was unfair! She wanted to be important too, and she was! Nonetheless, she didn't make a single sound, even though she felt like screaming at them in her fury, as a little voice in her head told her to keep quiet. After several minutes one of the doors opened and the dark-haired boy stuck his head out, looking down at her in surprise.

"What are you doing down there?" he inquired curiously.

"Waiting," Pansy replied haughtily, though the effect was somewhat ruined by her sniffling and wiping her nose with her sleeve.

"You're not crying," he pointed out. "The others always cried." Without another word, he helped her to her feet and welcomed her back into the playroom, and for the trio of three year olds, friendship was as simple as that.

/Flashback - 11 years ago/

"Don't be ridiculous, Blaise. The Parkinson line has always been Slytherin. If anyone's going to wind up in Hufflepuff, it's you!" Pansy huffed, glaring at one of her best friends.

"The Zabini line goes back at least five generations further than the Parkinson line!" Blaise scoffed, flicking imaginary lint from his plain black robes and positively preening at his oh-so-impressive lineage.

"I reckon both of you are whiny enough to end up in Gryffindor, and I'll be the only one left in Slytherin," Draco said, smirking haughtily before he was swatted on the arm by Pansy. Their bickering continued for most of the train ride, ending only when the boys left the compartment to change. Pansy changed into the plain school uniform, letting her mind wander. All jokes aside, she knew that they would all make it into Slytherin. All three were manipulative and cunning, but above all, they looked after one another. They would be together no matter what. As if on cue, Draco and Blaise entered the compartment, Blaise stopping to ruffle her hair as he passed.

"You look lovely, Flower," Draco commented, adding insult to injury by using their trademark nickname for her. She stuck her tongue out at them playfully before taking a seat between them, resting her head on Blaise's shoulder and stretching her legs across Draco's lap. Biting the inside of her cheek, she hesitated, not wanting to voice the concerns she'd been having for months. Draco sighed, tapping her on the knee.

"What's wrong, Pans? You've been worried about something for weeks now."

"Mother says things will be different at Hogwarts. That people don't like us, especially if… when we're Sorted as Slytherins," she began, biting her bottom lip nervously.

"Things will be different," Blaise agreed, stroking her hair to calm her, "but we are different too, Flower. We are darker, wealthier, and purer than almost everyone. People judge us based on our families, you know that."

"Outside of Hogwarts people look up to our families for our titles and for our money, but here people will consider us Dark, and not to be trusted, thanks to our parents' involvement with You-Know-Who," Draco added. "In all likelihood, we will be ostracized from the majority of the school. But father has told me of the loyalty of Slytherin House; we will make friends of our own, and should all else fail, we will always have each other."

"We will protect each other no matter what, Pans," Blaise agreed, helping her to her feet as the trained slowed to a stop. "Stay strong when needed, protect your heart, and we will be free to be ourselves inside our House."

With that, the trio exited their compartment, gathering with the other first year students and sailing to Hogwarts in a small boat with Theodore Nott, an acquaintance of theirs, joining them. After a brief altercation between Draco and Harry Potter, which Blaise would tease him about incessantly in the coming weeks, the three Sorted into Slytherin, to no one's surprise, and began their journey through Hogwarts together trimmed in green and silver.

/Flashback - 6 years ago/

"Pansy? Pansy? Flower, snap out of it!"

Pansy blinked once, and then several more times, her jaw still hanging open in shock as her mind tried to process what she had just witnessed.

"I…ahh…er…" she choked, shaking her head to try to remove the image that seemed to be stuck in front of her eyes, following her no matter where she looked. Taking a moment to collect herself, she settled on a single question. "How long?" she asked, her voice shaky. Her two best friends approached her hesitantly, her keen gaze noting that they were holding hands but trying to hide that little fact.

"We got together over Yule," Blaise admitted, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand, a sheepish expression on his face.

"But we've always felt this way for one another," Draco finished, and Blaise gave him a look of such utter adoration that Pansy felt as if she were intruding all over again. Clearing her throat awkwardly, their gazes finally left one another's as they refocused on her. "We're so sorry you had to find out this way, love," Draco added, stepping forward to lay a hand on her cheek.

Pansy leaned into his touch almost unconsciously, the gesture having calmed her many times over their many years of friendship. Her love for her best friends, and love them she did, was purely platonic. They were her older brothers, her protectors, her best friends. That said, she couldn't help but feel that for the first time she was separate from them, that she had lost some of their affection for her. Reading the pain in her eyes, Draco chuckled softly.

"Don't worry your pretty little head, Pans," he murmured, stroking her cheek lightly. "Our love for one another in no way changes the love we hold for you. You will always be our best friend." Unable to contain her relief and joy at his words, she threw herself at him, tears leaking from her eyes as she hugged him tightly.

"I'm so happy for the both of you," she mumbled into his shirt, and he caught every word.

"A flower for our Flower?" Blaise said, chuckling at the pun as he picked up one of the dozens of red roses the new couple had been using to celebrate their Valentine's Day. With a wave of his wand, the flower's petals turned a pale pink, and he offered it to Pansy, who hugged him in turn.

"We'll make sure to lock up from now on, alright?" Draco said with a sly grin, refusing to meet her eyes. Pansy chuckled, until she paused and took a moment to actually look at the couple for the first time without shock veiling the scene before her. Clapping a hand over her hands, she groaned as she blindly stumbled backwards, trying to find the exit.

"For Merlin's sake Blaise, put on some trousers!"

/Flashback - 6 months ago/

The door to Pansy's private rooms at Malfoy Manor flew open, causing her to wake up with a jolt, on her feet with her wand in hand in an instant. Draco and Blaise had barged in, Draco hastily closing the door again and pacing in front of it while Blaise rummaged through her belongings, shrinking important objects and items of clothing and tossing them into a trunk without pausing even once to leer at her as he pawed through the drawer of her undergarments. Hmm, this was serious.

"What's going on?" she asked, keeping her voice quiet. Blaise had finished packing, the trunk presumably shrunken down and in his pocket, and he was now pacing by the windows overlooking the gardens, waiting for something.

"Some of the lower Death Eaters have been planning on moving up in the new order," Draco explained through gritted teeth. "They want to knock off expendable heirs and take their places in the Dark Court."

"But you two aren't expendable, so what's the problem?" she asked, mumbling and confused from her sleep-jumbled thoughts.

"You are," Blaise drawled, as if the thought of one of his best friends being the target for murder was something to be expected. Unfortunately for them, it was. While Draco and Blaise were immune to these fatal cloak and dagger games due to their money and lineage, Pansy was one of the biggest targets, mainly due to her close relationship with the Malfoy and Zabini heirs. Still, underneath his façade of nonchalance, Pansy knew that fury lay just beneath the surface, and despite the chills running down her spine at the thought of being hunted, her heart warmed as she, for the umpteenth time in her life, thanked the gods for bestowing upon her such amazing friends.

Her heartfelt thoughts were interrupted by the sound of splintering wood followed by a loud bang as the door to her chambers was blasted open. Draco and Blaise dove towards her instantly, shield charms being cast and melding together into one, protecting all three of them. A group of cloaked figures wearing masks stormed into the room, and at once the fighting began. For every one that Pansy Stunned, Draco and Blaise had each taken out three. Pausing as the flood of intruders funnelled in through the door, she noticed that Draco and Blaise weren't casting Stunning Spells or other varieties of spells to incapacitate their enemies as she was, and she merely watched as the Killing Curse spilled easily from their lips, sighing. Throughout their years of friendship, Draco and Blaise had done the best they could to shield Pansy from the true dangers of their world, killing twice as many so she wouldn't have to, and while she appreciated the gesture, she knew that their chivalry couldn't protect her forever. The sudden silence in the room broke through her reverie and she noticed that their enemies had all been defeated. She watched her two friends wade through the sea of fallen men and women, killing any that Pansy had Stunned.

"Why do you have to do that?" she asked with a grimace.

"If they try to kill you once, don't give them a chance to do it again!" Blaise said cheerfully, tossing her a cloak. She put it on quickly, and walked across the room to Draco at his gesture, watching as he pulled on a sconce, revealing a secret passageway. Draco entered first, scouting ahead, while Blaise took position at the back of the group, ensuring no stragglers would sneak up on them. It saddened her that she was so used to this arrangement, not only due to their typical Slytherin protectiveness of females, but of the fact that she needed to be protected at all. Hadn't the Dark Lord promised to make things better?

"Go on, Pans," Draco said, handing her a tin of Floo powder and gesturing to an Untraceable fireplace at the end of the corridor.

"What about you?" she inquired suspiciously, panic rising in her chest at the thought of them leaving her.

"We have to stay here, Flower," Blaise said, his eyes sad. "We'll clean up this mess and come and collect you when it's safe, alright?"

Feeling the devastation begin to wash over her in waves, Pansy sealed off her heart, being brave for them, and stepped into the flames, disappearing into the green fire.

~ARBAON~ARBAON~ARBAON~

Pansy bit back a sob, her body trembling as she remembered the last time she had seen her best friends. From the moment she had decided to search for them, she had been plagued with memories of their time together, which had only served to fuel the growing flame inside of her. She would find them, or she would die trying. She stood in the centre of her room at Malfoy Manor, her eyes taking in everything from the sconce that revealed the secret passageway to the small stuffed dragon on her bed, a present from them from the first day they met. Wrapping her arms around herself and hugging herself tightly, she took a look at herself in the floor length mirror. She was dressed in a snug black shirt and pants, which were tucked into black dragon-hide boots, a gift from her friends. She had also wrapped herself in a black cloak, and now she drew her hood over her head and headed to the bedroom windows. Stealthily, she climbed down the lattice outside her window, taking care to avoid the thorns of the pink roses that wound their way through it, and landed silently in a crouch. Running faster than she ever had in her life, she darted through the labyrinth of hedges that separated the Manor from the gates, and the wards that stopped beyond them. She reached the gate, shocked that she had not been stopped, and waved her wand in a complicated movement, allowing her to pass through the wrought iron bars. Stifling a sob of relief, she turned on her heel and disapparated into the night, reappearing in a narrow alleyway of Knockturn Alley.

It was at this moment that Pansy stopped, leaning against a wall hidden in shadows, and wondered what to do next. She hadn't really considered where to go, only that she needed to leave, and didn't know who to turn to. All of her friends and allies were either missing, or back where she had just escaped from, either zealously following the Dark Lord or feeling as trapped as she had. Kicking herself for her own stupidity, she decided to move to Diagon Alley where she might find someone, anyone to help her. Just as she was about to step out of her hiding spot, she heard the quiet scuffle of approaching footsteps. Flattening herself against the wall, one hand on her concealed wand, she observed a hooded figure moving through the alley. Dismissing it as a beggar, Pansy almost walked away from them before she noticed the tell-tale brown, bushy hair of someone she never thought she'd see again, peeking out from under its hood.

"Granger?" she hissed, and the figure whirled around, her hood falling back with the sudden motion. The girl's eyes widened before she drew her wand, pointing it and Pansy's chest. With a lot more effort than expected given that she wanted to do nothing else but hex the girl for being daft enough to walk through Knockturn Alley at night alone, Pansy raised her arms into the air, keeping her wand in her pocket as a sign of peace. Surprised but still wary, Hermione lowered her wand but kept it in her hand.

"Parkinson?" she asked, her voice tired and a lot less proud than Pansy had remembered it being in school. "What are you doing here?"

"I need your…help," she admitted through gritted teeth, the mere thought of needing the mudblood for anything almost more than she could bear. The girl's eyes widened.

"What could I possibly do for you?" Hermione asked, her voice harsh.

"I've just escaped, I can't take it anymore. I need to find Draco and Blaise, and I have nowhere to go and no one to help me," it all came out in a rush, the aristocratic mask devoid of emotion failing her for the first time in her life. She didn't know why she was telling Granger the truth, why she was telling her anything, as help from the girl seemed highly unlikely. She was known as an elite member of the Dark Court, supposedly a blind follower of Voldemort's reign, and what reason had Pansy given her to believe that that wasn't true? Still, her desperate situation was causing her to throw caution to the winds, for if she didn't get help soon she'd be dead anyway.

"What?!" Granger squawked, and Pansy bit back a hiss of warning. Had the mudblood no common sense? There were spies everywhere! "Why should I trust you? You've always followed Voldemort!" she added suspiciously, raising her wand back to Pansy's chest.

Fortunately for her, Pansy had grown used to searching the shadows, and without a second thought she leaped towards the girl, pinning her to the ground and crying out in pain as the girl's hex grazed her side. Leaping back onto her feet, wand in hand, she squared off against the Death Eater that had been attempting to sneak up on them. Without a second thought, she uttered the Killing Curse with more venom than she thought herself capable of, and the Death Eater slumped to the alley, dead.

"You…you killed him," Hermione said in shock, shakily getting back on her feet. "You… saved me?"

"No thanks to your yelling, Granger," she couldn't help but saying, glaring at the girl who had the grace to blush. "I would have thought that years on the run would have taught you something to dilute your blind Gryffindor bravery. Do you trust me now?"

"Not particularly," the girl admitted, and Pansy couldn't help the smirk that appeared on her face. "Why did you kill him?"

"If they try to kill you once, don't give them a chance to do it again," she recited grimly, thinking of her friends, and Hermione nodded.

"I still don't trust you, Parkinson," she said sternly, "But there are ways of learning of your loyalty. I will take you to a safe house if you agree to be submitted to an inquiry when we arrive. We can't take any chances." Pansy nodded, expecting nothing less.

"I suppose I'll need to take an oath before you take me there?" she asked, knowing full well how such situations worked, and Hermione nodded, pointing her wand at her. Quicker than lightning Pansy's own wand was in her hand, and Hermione sighed.

"I just want to do some detection charms to see if you're being tracked, alright? Now come on, the longer we stay here the riskier it is for all of us." Knowing that the girl was right, Pansy lowered her wand. The charms came up clean and the oath was taken quickly, but they hadn't left yet and Pansy was worried about being found. Hermione sensed her concern.

"I'm sorry, it's just that my allies aren't going to respond very well to my bringing you here. They can be a bit…rash," she explained.

"Weasley still as excitable as ever?" she inquired, and both the girls shared a quiet laugh, surprising them both.

"You might say that. Would you mind if I disguised you? It would make it easier to keep them calm enough to explain your situation without them jumping to conclusions." Nodding her consent, she allowed the former Gryffindor to cast some charms on her, changing her chin-length chestnut hair to a longer, curlier blonde and her eyes from brown to violet. Satisfied, the girl lowered her wand, entwining their arms in preparation to apparate them. Once again, she hesitated.

"What is it now, Granger?" she asked harshly, her patience wearing thing. It's like the girl wasn't even aware of the dangers closing in on them with every passing moment!

"Call me Hermione, if you don't mind. It will make things a lot easier if we're not at one another's throats the whole time. And I was just thinking that we should give you a different name. Any ideas?"

Grang- Hermione, she corrected herself, trying to get accustomed to being on friendly terms with the girl- had a good point, and it only took one glance at her index finger, which had been pricked by one of the thorns on the rose bush during her escape, to decide on one.

"Call me Rose."

And off they go! Thanks to all who read, and please review! Yes, I'm talking to you. You have no idea how happy your one review makes an author! Chapter two shall be up in a week, unless I'm persuaded to update earlier… hinthint.