Title – A Girl and Her Wolf
Author – Ms.WritingFantasy
Disclaimer – The character in this belong to J. K. Rowling, not me.
Summary - After the fall of the Dark Lord, Pansy's seventh year at Hogwarts is going terrible. On top of the way everyone has been treating the Slytherin's, the werewolf is the DADA teacher again, and he's got an infuriating smile.
A/N – Alright, I wasn't exactly sure if I was clear on what the future pairings would be if I do turn this into a romance down the line. It would most likely be RL/PP. Yeah I know, weird, but oh well. When the story is finished you'll understand why it would be that way. Anyway, enjoy Chapter 2.
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The train ride went slowly. At first Draco and Pansy had shared a pleasant sort of quiet chatter amongst the two of them, but soon they lapsed into silence as people began arriving just to peak their heads into the compartment just to get a look at the Death Eater's children. Draco bowed his head slightly and stared out the window, even though it was far to dark outside to see anything, all the while pretending not to notice every time someone would stick their head into the compartment, only to pull it back out just as quickly again as if they were afraid they would catch a disease.
After the twenty-seventh time that someone did the routine stick their head in pull it right back out maneuver, Pansy had had enough. She stood up and, to Draco's horror, slammed open the compartment door and bellowed out into the hallway.
"Just leave us alone would you!?"
"Pansy, are you mad!?" Draco asked jumping up and grabbing her by the arm. "Shut the door and sit back down." It was more of a desperate plead than a command.
"No! I can't stand the way they look at us! The next one that dares-"
"Ms. Parkinson is there something wrong?" A hoarse voiced asked.
Pansy turned to the voice. Her cold metal-like blue eyes met tired but warm blue ones that belonged to a certain werewolf. Her stomach turned with disgust. She could practically feel Draco's frantic heart beat as he clung to her arm.
"No. Everything's fine. That's why I'm out here screaming at the top of my lungs." Pansy growled acidly.
The corner werewolf's mouth twitched up into a slight smile. It wasn't enough of a smile to actually be called a smile, but it was something. It was…a half smile. Only a half smile. Just like he was only a half breed. Even more so with his lycanthropy. Pansy glared at him. She was so absorbed with her glaring that she hadn't realized that people were beginning to come out of their compartments and openly stare. Draco tugged slightly at Pansy's arm, trying to pull her back into their compartment, but Pansy shook him off.
"Well, I suppose I'm too old to understand your generation's fads, but please try to keep your screaming to a reasonable volume. If you do decide there is a problem, I'll be sleeping in this compartment." He said pointing at the one behind him, and with that, he disappeared into the compartment and shut the door.
Draco grabbed Pansy's hand; this time, she allowed herself to be led back into the compartment. When he had shut the door and had taken his seat across from her, he grabbed Pansy's hand again.
"Please. Please don't ever do that again." Draco said rubbing his thumb gently across Pansy's knuckles. "I know it's hard to take the stares, and I know it'll be hard walking down the halls as they whisper about us, but causing a scene won't make them stop. It will just give them even more of a reason to stare and whisper. We just have to keep our heads low and this will all blow over."
Pansy pulled her hand away from Draco's.
"I think we should get our robes on." She replied quietly.
Draco sighed. "Alright" He said after a moment of silence. "…I'll step out while you're dressing."
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When the train finally pulled to as stop, Pansy and Draco searched for an empty carriage to no avail. They ended up sitting with two fourth year Ravenclaws and a second year Hufflepuff. The Ravenclaws had eyed them suspiciously and the Hufflepuff turned a sickly green color.
The normally short ride took an eternity as Pansy and Draco tried to look everywhere except at the three younger students.
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Arriving at the Great Hall, Pansy and Draco took a seat at Slytherin table. The long majestic table was barren except for Pansy, Draco, one sixth year, three fifth years, five fourth years, two third years, and seven second years. Out of the fifty-three new first years, only two had been sorted into Slytherin. One of them, a girl, had started crying.
The motley crew huddled together as the Feast went on. The first year girl had stopped crying once a fifth year boy started doing tricks for her. Pretty soon all twenty-two Slytherins were marveling at the fifth teen year olds skill. He made bubbles shoot out of the end of his wand. He managed to turn his hair green. He even was able to turn a roll into a small turtle. The Slytherin's rejoiced with the small amount of pride that the fifth year had brought them.
As the fifth year finished up another trick, a cupcake came flying from the neighboring table and grazed the side of his head, covering his right cheek in chocolate icing. The pastry continued on and hit the third year girl across from him in the face. Most of the icing had ended up on the fifth year's face but the girl still screamed and wiped her face.
The fifth year's jaw had dropped and he was staring straight ahead stunned. The first year girl had started crying again. He quickly smiled; Pansy could tell it was forced. He ran his finger across his cheek and popped it into his mouth.
"Mmm. It's good you should try some!" He ran his finger across his cheek again but this time poked the tip of her nose, leaving a dab of chocolate on it.
It was a very improper thing to do, but it never-the-less made the first year girl smile through her tears.
Aside from those two and a few people asking their friends what had happened, the Great Hall was silent. At the staff table, Professor McGonagall stood up.
"Ms. Weasley, kindly keep your food at your table. Ten points from Gryffindor and you'll be serving detention with me on Saturday."
All eyes turned to the red head at the Gryffindor table. She was openly smiling, as were many of the people she was sitting with.
"Yes ma'am." Ginny said, he grin never wavering.
Soon after the hall was filled with its normal excited back to school chatter.
"Stupid Gryffindors." Pansy heard Draco mutter under his breath.
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After the Feast, Draco and Pansy lead the other twenty students down to the common room. It was strange having only twenty-two people in the House. They barely filled up half the common room, especially since they stayed huddled together by the fire instead of spreading out around the common room.
They just spent most the night talking and exchanging pleasantries. It was amazing how you could spend so many years together but never really know each other. The fifth year that had been performing in the Great Hall, Venin Maltov, continued to entertain some of the younger students.
Pansy yawned as Draco leaned over and whispered to her:
"You realize that we're the only seventh years, don't you?"
Pansy nodded sadly. "Yes, it's depressing how small our house is."
"At least it'll be easy to watch out for everyone." Draco sighed deeply, the fire light making him look even more tired.
"I think everyone is already getting fond of each other."
Right as the words left Pansy's mouth, Opal Stefanova, the first year girl that had cried after the sorting, scooted closer to Pansy.
With large blue eyes she stared up through her wavy brown bangs at Pansy.
"Where do we sleep?" She asked.
"Oh," Pansy frowned. ", I forgot all about showing around the first years-um-year." Pansy stood up and brushed the front of her robes off in an elegant manner.
"I'm going to bed too after I show her the dorms." Pansy said to Draco.
He nodded. "Night."
She turned toward the rest of the group.
"I take it everybody else can find the girl's dorms."
There was a chorus of "Yeses", "Mhmms", and a few nodding heads.
"Good. Goodnight then everyone." Pansy said.
"Goodnight everyone!" Opal waved.
Pansy walked over to the stair case entrance that led down deeper into the dungeons. With a flick of her wand hand, she motioned for Opal to follow her. The stair case was chilly especially after sitting in front of the fire surrounded by people, but Pansy had taken it so many times that she got an odd "at home" feeling from walking down it again that warmer her heart. The stairs were short and after several echoed steps Pansy and Opal reached an old well worn door.
Pansy opened it and stepped in, but stopped in her tracks as soon as she was inside the room.
"What's wrong?" Opal asked peaking around Pansy's taller figure.
The younger girl let out a gasp.
"It's beautiful!" She exclaimed running to the nearest bed and throwing herself onto it. The younger girl laughed as she bounced up and down on the great black comforter and buried her face into the emerald green pillow case.
"What's wrong?" Opal asked after a few minutes had gone by.
Pansy was still standing by the door.
"This…this used to be a hallway." Pansy said almost fearfully.
"What?" Opal asked, he blue eyes widening slightly from curiosity.
"This door," Pansy pointed behind her. ", used to lead to a hallway, and that hallway was lined with doors that led to all the dorm rooms."
"Well, since there aren't as many people this year, maybe the dorms changed like the moving stair cases." Opal offered.
"Maybe." Pansy said, frowning. She sighed suddenly. "Sorry, it's not that important."
"It's alright." Opal assured her.
She was now sitting on the end of the bed, but was still managing to bounce some how.
"You really should stop. You don't even know if that's your bed or not." Pansy snapped.
"W-what do you mean?" Opal stopped bouncing at Pansy's angry tone.
"Unless that is your trunk under your feet, you're bouncing on someone else's bed and putting your shoes all over someone else's trunk."
"Oh…" Opal said eyeing the trunk under her feet. "It's not mine."
She got off the bed and began to smooth out the wrinkles and fluff the smothered pillow. She even brushed off the top of the trunk, even though her shoes had been clean.
Pansy sighed through her nose and proceeded to her bed; it was fifth away from the door on the left side. She opened her trunk and pulled out her night clothes.
"Look, my bed's across from yours!" Opal said excitedly, all signs of her somberness just moments before had vanished.
"Wonderful." Pansy said dryly as she took off her robe and school clothes and replaced them with her night clothes.
Opening her trunk again, she took out a crushed velvet drawstring bag and put her folded school clothes and robe inside. Holding the bag by the strings she shut her trunk and climbed into her bed. She pulled open the mouth of the bag and reached inside. What she pulled out was a hair brush.
Slowly she pulled the brush through her hair a few times. She grabbed a strand in between her fingers and pulled in down to its greatest length. It almost reached her shoulders. During the passed several months she had been too consumed with the war to really care about things such as her hair, and thus it had gotten away with not being cut. Even after the war was over, she had to help her parents keep up the Imperious Curse façade. That accompanied with a good chunk of their fortune had made it fairly easy to have everything they had done in the war pushed aside and forgotten.
When everything had been taken care of, she had intended to cut her hair back into a bob, but her mother had forbidden it, saying,
"You're practically a woman now. You should be growing your hair out and learning how to properly apply make-up. What man is going to want to marry a woman that has short hair and applies make-up like a little boy?"
Pansy hadn't responded, but she had taken great offence. Later that night, Pansy had found the drawstring bag on her bed. It had been filled with make-up and lotion and hair products and other things that Pansy frankly didn't know what to do with, but the less than subtle hint that her mother had left her was upsetting. She had packed it simply because if she knew that if she didn't, her mother would send it to her via owl soon after.
Perhaps she would cut her hair now that she was away from home. If she started growing it in late winter, say February, then it would be slightly passed her shoulders by the time her mother saw her for graduation.
"Pansy?"
Pansy blinked, coming out of her thoughts. She wondered vaguely if she had been staring off into nothing.
"Yes?" She sighed, looking at Opal.
"I'm sorry."
Pansy frowned. "For what?" She turned her nose up slightly in an arrogant manner, a habit she had when she was confused.
"At the sorting…when I cried. I'm sorry."
Pansy lowered her nose slightly. "It's alright."
Opal crawled onto the bed and sat down in front of Pansy.
"No, it's not alright. I listened to what my family had told me without questioning any of it. They told me that people in Slytherin were all evil and crazy and that they wanted to kill everyone. My older brother told me that anyone that gets into Slytherin ought to be hexed into Oblivion and that he didn't know what he would have done if he had gotten sorted into Slytherin. But, none of you are like that! You all are nice, and we weren't even doing anything when the red-headed girl threw that cupcake. I'm glad I'm in Slytherin!" Opal said smiling.
Pansy gazed at the young girl for a full minute. Her chest tightened painfully as she remembered how proud she had been when she had first been sorted into Slytherin. When it had been a blessing not a curse and now Opal sat in front of her. No stress lined her face. Just naïve pride and hope. Maybe that's what Slytherin needed. A new start. People that had hope and could spread that hope to other people, because as Opal sat in front of her with such determined pride and hope, Pansy felt that everything was going to get better; maybe not tomorrow or in a week or even in a year, but one day, things were going to get better.
Pansy smiled. "Thank you, Opal. Slytherin is proud to have you, too."
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I hope you liked it!
Thank you everyone who reviewed the first chapter!
Sincerely,
Ms.WritingFantasy