Summer had felt like nothing much different to Pansy. She and Daphne had stayed together throughout, gone between both their houses, and hadn't spent a week apart. Some might say it was asking for an argument of disastrous proportions to stay together all the time, but friendships between pureblood contacts this genuine were very rare. When they'd first met, Pansy wasn't sure she was going to like Daph, even if she did know she was going to befriend her. Now, though? Now they linked arms everywhere they went, told each other everything and trusted that in doing so their secrets were safe. Secretly, they didn't like Millicent. Secretly, they speculated about Blaise and why he wasn't friendlier. The world didn't have to know.
Of course, every other element from Hogwarts was missing, so she had at least noticed the change. She hadn't seen Draco, for example, except for a handful of parties they'd invited each other to or met each other at. They'd written to one another, though. It was interesting to write to Draco Malfoy. He was different on the page to how he was in person.
'Do you think you'll get married?' Daphne asked her distantly one day as they were sitting in the dormitory, helpfully alone. 'You and Draco?'
She shrugged, smoothing her hair back behind her ears. It had grown out of the bob somewhat now. She was trying to get it long and thick like that Ravenclaw girl from the year above – Cho Chang, was it? She felt that'd be more suited to her as she grew up. 'He'll marry one of us, I expect. We're quite a tight-knit year for Slytherin, according to my mother.'
'Yes. I wouldn't disagree with her there,' Daphne agreed, slipping over to sit beside Pansy on her bed. 'Will you plait my hair?'
Pansy reached up to oblige her, taking advantage of the quiet to turn over the marriage question in her head. She'd taken it into account before, of course, but that had all been internal – for somebody else to suggest it made it another thing entirely. Of course, Daphne was a little biased, but this wasn't something they'd ever talked about. She'd said it all by herself.
'Daph,' she said, hoping that her friend would assume her voice sounded odd simply because she was concentrating. The truth, that she was shaken at the thought, was embarrassing even to share with her closest friend. 'What made you think of that?'
She shrugged – the tiniest gesture she could, presumably so as not to disturb the plaiting. 'I don't know. You talk to him a lot. I know we're young, but… these things can be set early on, can't they? Not long before we're seventeen, and then Lucius and Narcissa will probably start looking for suggestions. I know my parents already have.'
'Then you think it's possible?'
'Absolutely,' Daphne confirmed. 'You have a kind of… well. I don't know how to describe it. You seem quite intimate with him, in a way. Nobody else seems to be able to talk to him like you do.'
Pansy considered that. It was true, really. Draco's main friends were Crabbe and Goyle, of course, and nobody would dispute it, but aside from her she didn't really know of anybody who he really talked to. Of course, there were always people. He was a popular student and he'd never want for company. On a personal level, though, there was really only her. 'I suppose you're right.'
'Would you, if you had the opportunity?'
'Yes,' she said thoughtfully. 'I would marry him, yes.'
Daphne smiled and leaned her head back slightly to make Pansy's task a little easier. 'That'd be nice. Bridesmaid?'
'Bridesmaid,' she agreed.
'It's strange thinking about leaving Hogwarts already.'
Pansy laughed, patting her shoulder and turning back to face forward again once she'd finished her plait. 'It is, actually. I don't know that I want to.'
'I don't know what I want at all.'
'No?'
'You know. For work. I'm not all that good at anything, really.'
'There's plenty of time to work that out. You probably won't have to work anyway, after you marry.'
'I want to, though,' she said, as though that was obvious. It wasn't – not to Pansy, anyhow. Why would anybody want to work? 'And we have to choose our third-year subjects at the end of this year.'
Pansy tutted and tugged her hair out of the plait to redo it, unsatisfied with the result. 'Just choose what you think you'll enjoy, and it'll lead to something you enjoy. Doesn't that make sense?'
'I suppose it does.'
'I want to take Divination and Arithmancy. Care of Magical Creatures, too, I think,' Pansy told her distractedly. This time she'd do a much better plait, she'd decided – one of those that started right at the top of the head, rather than the usual sort that looked like somebody had gotten bored of their ponytail halfway through the day. In fairness, that was probably what Daphne had done, but it'd look better this way.
Daphne was far less distracted. 'I could take those, too – then we could help each other, or…'
'Well, do they sound interesting to you?'
Pansy couldn't see her friend's face at the moment, naturally, but she imagined the thoughtful expression in quite close detail; how she blinked in fast flutters as if she was thinking so hard she'd forgotten to keep the right pace, and how her whole face tightened up. 'Remind me what Arithmancy is, please.'
'It's divining through numeric values,' Pansy said smartly. This year she was keen to prove to everybody that it wasn't just Granger who had an ounce of intelligence in her, although she planned to show it far more attractively than that buck-toothed, frizzy-haired creature did. 'You can work out who you're compatible with and who you're not compatible with from your name. That kind of thing.'
'That does sound interesting,' she said, turning her head slightly over her shoulder. 'Are you finished yet?'
'This kind is harder. One minute.'
'It does sound interesting, though,' she repeated. 'I think I'd like that. Maybe I will just take those.'
'They're the best of the options, I think. Wouldn't want to take Ancient Runes or Muggle Studies.'
'Where exactly is Muggle Studies going to get anybody in life?'
Pansy smirked triumphantly as she finished plaiting the hair and fastened it with a neat finish. Excellent. 'Well, exactly. Finished.' She kissed Daphne's shoulder fondly and then settled against it, trying not to be too much of a weight. Daphne didn't seem to mind, and eventually turned so they could face one another to talk more easily. 'I'm glad we're so similar. It's like we're on the same wavelength, though I hate that phrase.'
'Yes,' Daphne agreed. 'It's very useful. When we leave here we're going to have to make sure we still have plenty of time for each other.'
'Lots of future planning today,' Pansy teased, but really she saw it as a positive thing. Planning was an ambitious person's best ally, after all – and ambition was a Slytherin's best ally.
