Oh ho! Updated! Yes, I am on quite a roll. First, Woman Scorned, then this. Two updates within a week. Hurrah and enjoy. Comment + criticize if you wish! With love, Makbee.
Disclaimer: yeah yeah, characters don't belong to me. Only the story. Let's get on with it.
Pansy was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Sleep had eluded her and she was guessing it was close to midnight already. She tossed and turned and shut her eyes tight, trying once again to join the rest of inhabitants of the castle in their deep slumber. But it was of no use.
She was thinking about Aurelius, and had been ever since she had lain down in her bed. Pansy had never had it this bad for a guy, mostly because there were not a lot great options in her house. And she would be damned if she ever considered any guy in the other three houses.
She had a crush once. It was Draco Malfoy. She still blushed every time she even thought about it.
They were in their third year when it started, these feelings of unbidden hopes that one day Draco would look at her as something special, other than that girl who was just one of the guys. She had helped him finish a potions essay. He was so grateful when he saw his grade that he spun her around their common room and kissed her on a cheek. She was doomed the minute he did.
But nothing ever happened. He never looked at her the way he did with other girls, like Astoria. She was only thirteen so she thought that she had pretty much grown into a lady. And if Draco didn't notice her then, he would never notice her. But puberty had lain low until she turned 16. Even then she hadn't noticed much of a difference with how she looked. Having a good head on her shoulders, she reasoned that it was a waste of time pining away for Draco and gave up. It was a lost cause.
She laughed at that faint memory and closed her eyes as sleep finally claimed her.
Pansy was startled awake the following morning. She was currently half asleep and grumbling. The sun's rays had slowly peeped over the curtained window in her room and bore down on her unopened eyes fiercely, as if to object to the coldness that engulfed the previous night.
But that wasn't the reason for her groggy state. A hand on her shoulder was roughly shaking her awake.
"Uhm," she complained. "Go away." She turned over to ignore the intruder.
"Woman, get up. It's nearly ten." The voice was rude and incessant. It was Draco. Of course, who else could be that uncouth?
When she showed no signs of complying with his demand, he hopped on her bed and lay down beside her.
She rolled over to face him. How inappropriate, she fumed!
"Malfoy, you are in a lady's bedroom! And in her bed! Shove off!" She tried to push him off.
"I've been in the bedrooms of plenty of girls," he retorted. "And their beds." He winked at her.
"GIRLS, Malfoy, not LADIES," she reprimanded. It was true! Those girls he had been with had no signs of having any kind of lady-like behavior. She on the other hand had class and a bloodline that was very reputable.
He ignored her last comment and crossed his arms behind his head.
"How is your bed so much more comfortable than mine?" he wondered out loud.
"Because I'm a lady," she murmured, closing her eyes to go back to sleep.
Her efforts to get him out of her bed were futile so she resigned to his presence. She was so sleepy.
He turned to lay on his stomach, wrapping an arm around Pansy. He placed his lips near her ear. "Pansy, you're so lazy. Get up right now," he demanded, again.
Their current position troubled her not at all. Other girls may have swooned at such intimacy, but not Pansy. It was an intimacy she was familiar with, Draco being a close friend and all. It meant only the familiarity they had with each other.
"Mmf. It's Saturday. Go back to bed, Malfoly," was her staunch reply.
He sighed with defeat and stood up.
"Fine. I guess you don't want to play quidditch with the rest of us," he said.
She immediately sat up.
"Quidditch? Really? Wait, you haven't played with us in months! Oh, you were dumped. Okay, okay I'm up," she said, with haste.
Draco became a bit upset with her "getting dumped" statement. He was about to say something when he realized Pansy had emerged from the cover of her comforter.
"Pansy," he said slowly, "what is that you're wearing?"
Pansy looked down on her short, cleavage revealing, apparently semi-transparent nightgown. Her cheeks blushed profusely. And an angry expression settled on her face.
"Malfoy, you pervert! Get out this instance!" She grabbed her blanket and tried to cover herself. And then tried to shove him out of her room.
He laughed. "Are you trying to seduce me Pansy?"
"You vile idiot. I'm not stupid or desperate enough to want you! Get out so I can get dressed!"
He held his hands up in defeat and started towards the door. "Just get dressed and meet us at the field," he said nonchalantly, as if he didn't witness her indecency.
The audacity of this snake, she thought angrily.
With a clunk, her door shut. She hurriedly scanned her room for anything that resembled clean clothing.
Ten minutes later, she was in a pair of jeans and a green sweater, rushing down the stairway to meet the guys.
Noontime found them all lying on the grass, exhausted from their game and content with just watching the sky. Their muscles were sore, their heartbeats slowing down to a regular rhythm.
"By Salazar, this is the life," exclaimed Nott.
Crabbe and Goyle merely nodded in consent.
"I wouldn't mind getting something to eat," said Blaise Zabini, as his stomach gurgled in agreement.
"Must be around lunchtime, anyways," concluded Draco.
Pansy bolted upright. "Oh bloody hell! What time is it?"
"'Bout quarter after noon I take it," guessed Nott. "Why?"
Pansy started gathering her things rather quickly. "I, uh, I'm supposed to meet someone," she carefully explained.
Nott sat up and started laughing. "What you mean to say is you have to go meet Aurelius so you can go on that date with him!"
She threw him an ungracious look.
Zabini joined in. "Will you let us know how it goes? I mean, what if he tries to kiss you?" he said, with humor in his voice. "It's not like you have gal pals to gossip with anyways!"
"Oh, will you guys shut up," she exclaimed.
"Pansy, why don't you just cancel it?" asked Draco. "After all it's been a while since we ALL spent a day together."
"Draco, that's your fault. You're the one that disappears when you've got a new girlfriend. Whereas I spend time with these loons ever weekend," Pansy said.
"She's got a point, mate," offered Zabini.
Pansy stuck her tongue out at Malfoy. "See? Why don't you guys have some quality "man-time" together," she offered.
Draco was about to protest, but Pansy was already running off the field.
"Hrm. Never seen her so excited about a guy," observed Nott as he watched her retreating figure.
"Egads, can you even imagine her having a boyfriend?" asked Zabini.
"Hardly," said Draco who lay back down on the grass.
"But she has become very attractive, so I guess it's kinda inevitable," Goyle said, finally speaking up.
"Are you serious?" asked Draco. "Pansy?"
"Well, you have to admit, she's not exactly the plain and ordinary that she used to be," added Nott. "She's more feminine now."
Zabini nodded his head. "You probably haven't noticed it like we have, Malfoy. You being absent all the time."
"So what you're saying is that you all have a crush on Pansy?" demanded Draco.
"No, nothing like that. More like an appreciation," explained Nott.
"Think about it," chirped Zabini. "Which girl in our house would you say is the most suitable as wife material?"
"Pansy, of course," replied Goyle.
"There are plenty of other prospects," argued Draco.
"No, Goyle is right Malfoy," said Nott. Draco stared at him stupidly for just admitting that Goyle was actually right about something.
Nott shook his head to say that he knew what he just said. "Just think about it." He held up his hand and started counting off her qualities. "Good bloodline, traditional pure-blooded ideals, carries herself well, doesn't sleep around, always has an air of dignity," listed Nott.
"She's the kind of girl you can actually introduce to our parents," added Zabini.
"Well if that's the case, then why haven't any of you asked her out?" inquired Draco, raising an eyebrow.
They were all silent for a moment. Goyle and Crabbe looked down and all of a sudden found their hands interesting.
Nott averted his eyes from Draco and started scratching the back of his neck. Zabini lay back down and closed his eyes.
What in Salazar's name is wrong with them, thought Draco.
Then, Crabbe finally spit it out. "Because we think you might, kind of, like her? Just a little?"
Draco had to process what Crabbe had just said. It just seemed so ridiculous that he thought his hearing must be off.
He looked at them, with an incredulous expression plastered on his face. "Have you all gone mental? Did you all get brainwashed while I was away?" he accused. "Or am I just missing something here?"
"Ahh, what our compatriot is trying to say is that, uh. . . Hmm, well how would you put it, Nott?" stammered Blaise.
"You like Pansy, plain and simple," stated Nott, crossing his arms.
A general nod of heads followed the statement.
"And you came to that stupid conclusion how? The fact that I date and mess around with other girls?" Draco replied sarcastically.
Theodore let out a sigh. "Oh, you can fool Pansy with all that. But don't insult our intelligence!"
Goyle inclined his head to the side. "Or maybe he doesn't know he likes Pansy," he said.
Blaise sat up and his eyes started dancing. "That would explain a lot."
"Don't you think I would know if I liked a girl or not?" countered Draco. What in blazes was going on here? "How could you idiots even think that about me?"
"Well, it's nothing to be insulted about," reasoned Crabbe. "Pansy's a classy girl!"
"Well, first of all Malfoy, you took her to the Yule Ball," said Blaise.
"So what? She wanted to go so I asked her to go with me."
"But you could have asked other girls," said Goyle. "Any girl in our house would have said yes, but you asked Pansy."
"You probably would have gotten more action than that quick kiss on the cheek she gave you," added Theodore. "And that one kiss made your face turn pink!"
"It did not!" shouted Draco.
"Okay, this would work out better if you didn't interrupt us. Just hear us out," said Theodore.
Draco "hpmhed", but seemed resigned to follow.
"Where was I? Oh, yeah. So one kiss from Pansy made you all mushy," continued Theodore.
"And how about that time when you tore up Wolf's letter to Pansy?" said Blaise.
"It was a lesson! If he wanted to confess his feelings to her, he should have the courage to at least give the letter himself!"
"I thought you were going to stay quiet during all this?" reminded Blaise.
Draco threw up his hands.
"Oh! And you treat her better than any other girl," Crabbe said.
"Yeah, you insult all the other girls, even the ones you're dating. You're pretty ruthless with what you say to them, but not what you say to Pansy," stated Theodore.
Draco gave up with the whole "silent" bit. "Because she's one of us! I thought that would be obvious!"
"No, you always treat her better than the girl you're dating. And that is unnatural," reasoned Blaise.
"Okay, remember that time when we were all eating supper? And Astoria asked if you could walk her back to the common room? But you scoffed at her and told her she had two perfectly working feet?"
"So?"
Theodore picked up the story, suddenly remembering the incident. "Yeah! So she leaves the table. Then Pansy gets up to leave for the library to do some homework. But she's carrying so many books that some of them topple to the floor."
"Who should come to her rescue but you, Malfoy?" finished Blaise.
"If I'm correct, he picked up her books and told her how careless she was. Then he proceeded to carry all her books and escorted her to the library," said Theodore.
"He stayed with her 'til she was finished too!" added Crabbe.
Draco scowled at him. "You're grasping at straws," he commented dryly.
"A lot of little straws turn into one big haystack, Malfoy," said Theodore.
"What DO you do on your free time? Talk about me?" he accused.
"No, it was just becoming increasingly obvious," replied Blaise.
"Just accept it and stop being in denial!" barked Theodore.
Draco sat in silence for a while. Then he got up and adjusted his sweater. "I've come to a conclusion," he announced firmly.
They looked up at him and waited.
"You. Have. All. Gone. Insane." And with that he trotted off back towards the castle.
"He has always been rather stubborn," mumbled Crabbe. They all murmured in agreement.