Hell Tastes Sweet

Chapter Two

The day Pansy had been dreading had finally come and now she found herself back on platform 9 ¾ getting ready to board, for the sixth time, the Hogwarts Express that would take all the students back to their more or less beloved school.

Pansy's position as school prefect had been renewed and she was now looking for the prefects' compartment where, she was more than sure, would find Draco Malfoy. She had learnt through a fellow Slytherin that he had also kept his prefect role even after what had happened with Umbridge.

'If this is going to be my luck this year I should leave right now…' thought the girl seeing that Draco was indeed inside the compartment sitting next to the window. By himself. She was not ready yet to face him.

Pansy tried to be as quiet as possible with the stupid hope he would not realise she was there. Of course, the minute she opened the sliding door, Draco turned his head towards it.

"Ah…it's you…for a minute I thought it was that little filthy mudblood…" the blond said.

Pansy took a second to look at him, he looked bigger and a lot more manly than the last time she'd seen him, it was almost unbelievable he had changed so much in only eight weeks. It wasn't only that now, at sixteen, he had definitely left all trace of childhood behind him and had become a young man. He was, of course as handsome as ever but now his ice blue eyes were different. He still had that arrogant look that made you think he always knew something you didn't but there was also something else.

Hurt. He had that hurt look. Like a wild beast that has been wounded but has survived. Pansy remembered something she had read somewhere, it said that there was nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal because it knew that, no matter what, it would survive. This knowledge would make Draco an even more dangerous enemy and Pansy knew that this was definitely not good news for her and her romantic aspiration to have a normal relationship with him.

"Well, sit down, will you? I know I'm good looking but, honestly, you shouldn't stare at me like that…you're making it too easy for me…I may get bored…" said Draco so suddenly that it startled Pansy as though she had been waken up with a bucket of cold water.

"Yes…sorry…I mean…" Pansy stuttered.

"Oh…just shut up…will you…" Draco said turning his head back to the window. Then his face turned stony and Pansy leant to see the reason of such change.

Harry Potter had arrived to the platform with the Weasleys and the Grangers. Pansy saw the group meeting a few of the other students, including that stupid Longbottom boy, looking all happy to see one another.

Half scared, half curious, Pansy looked back at Draco. His eyes were fixed on Potter and if he could have killed the bespectacled boy just by looking at him, Harry would have fallen dead on the platform in that precise instant.

Afraid of giving any reason for Draco to make her pay for his anger, Pansy decided to sit down quietly opposite Draco and busied herself rearranging her hair using the window's reflection as mirror.

Then, someone opened the door and made Draco stop staring at Potter.

"Goyle, Crabbe…what's up?" Draco said trying to sound as overconfident as usual.

"Just wanted to tell you we'll be right outside, you know…in case you need us…" Crabbe said.

"Why would I need you?" Draco asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Well…we've seen Potter and his friends arrive…and…well…last year…oh well…it doesn't matter…sorry…" Goyle said.

"Well…you must know that this summer I've trained really hard with some of my parents' friends and I must assure you I'm more than prepared to handle Saint Potter and his group of fanatics…" Draco said with his trademark smirk.

"Alright…well, we'll be waiting for you anyway…" Crabbe said leaving the compartment.

"What did you mean by that?" Pansy asked hoping she didn't sound as scared as she was.

"You'll see…you'll see…" said Draco enigmatically. He looked as though as he wanted to add something else but the compartment's door opened again this time to let Hermoine Granger and Ronald Weasley in closely followed by the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff's prefects.

"Oh look who's here…looking much better since last time we had the misfortune of seeing you…" Hermoine said sitting down as far from Draco and Pansy as it was possible in the small compartment.

"Yeah…although that is not saying much…considering I actually think we did him a favour turning him into a human slug…" Ron snorted copying his fellow Gryffindor's behaviour.

The other four prefects laughed at this comment causing Draco's fury to increase dangerously. Pansy looked at him and tried to make him understand that, since they were outnumbered, it would probably end up badly for him.

Then, surprising everyone in the compartment, including herself, Draco limited himself to say:

"Laugh while you can Weasley…soon you and the mudbloods will have nothing left to laugh about…."

Ron was about to reply when the door opened again and both Head Boy and Girl stepped in each with a piece of parchment looking ready to start the meeting.

Pansy sighed heavily, relieved that the confrontation had been avoided, well, postponed. She was more than sure that this coming year things would take a turn for the worse. She didn't know what but, something was about to change drastically. She just hoped that she would find herself in the side of the victor for she was not ready to live a much different life to the one she was used to.

Somehow, they managed to get off the train and reach the school without a fight, probably because right after the meeting Potter had come to pick his friends up and had miraculously convinced Ron that Draco was not worth it.

Pansy expected Draco to look awfully hurt by this but he just smirked causing Pansy's suspicions that Draco was up to something, to increase.

Of course, Draco was always conjuring against someone, sometimes just for the fun of it, in the case of Potter, because of the deep hatred he felt towards the Gryffindor boy. This time though, it looked different and something about Draco's attitude made her think that it was not one of his usual pranks. This time, things were a lot more serious and she feared that Draco had got into something a lot bigger and entirely scarier.

She was considering what it could be when she heard the object of her thoughts whispering to her ear:

"I'll see you tonight, usual place, usual time…."

Then, in one of his rare shows of affection, he kissed her neck and quickly stroked her hair causing an electric wave through her spine and an alarming increase of her heartbeat.

'Oh my goodness…I'm still in love with him…' Pansy thought knowing that, this year, would be an exact copy of last.

Pansy, with a heavy heart, walked towards the Slytherin table and sat down next to two of her friends, getting ready for Dumbledore's speech that would officially open the school year.

To be continued…

A/N: Ok, third chapter online…still quite short but I'll try to make them longer…I hope I'm keeping things as faithful to the book as possible…in any case, since we don't know much about Pansy I'm having to make a lot of things up! As usual, I hope you're enjoying this…and thanks for the reviews!!!