Chapter Seven: Beloved Friends
Pansy Parkinson woke early as usual the next morning. Draco hadn't returned to the Slytherin dorms before she had retired to her room the previous evening. He had been avoiding her too long and she'd had about enough of it. Pansy knew Draco was trying to alienate himself from the rest of the house so that if worse came to worse they could claim 'plausible deniability' for anything that Draco had been associated with. The truth was that she didn't care what the others did; she would always be loyal to Draco. Friendship in Slytherin was just as real to the as it was to the Gryffindorks or the Huffelpufflets.
Sliding off her bed she showered quickly, dressed for the day and headed to Draco's room. The boys were all soundly sleeping until the blond haired girl came in. It was a Hogsmeade weekend and as far as she was concerned the less people in the school the better for Draco to do whatever he was sneaking around doing.
"Rise and shine boys!" She said as she entered. "You have three minutes to get up before I start hexing people!" She said in a scolding tone that sounded almost motherly.
Vincent and Gregory groaned and stumbled out of their bed heading for the washroom. Blaise on the other threw a pillow at the obnoxious blond with the loud mouth. It smacked her in the face. She pulled out her wand.
"Blaise Zambini you lazy prat! Up now before I …"
"I'm not descent!" he interrupted,"you'll have to get out or turn around at the very least, "He said indignantly. Pansy grinned maliciously then gracefully turned away. Blaise ran for the bathroom with his sheet around him. After she heard the door shut, Pansy turned to Draco's bed. He had the curtains drawn but she opened them and hopped up on his bed.
A sleepy Draco felt the weight shift on his bed. He cracked an eye open to confirm his suspicions. Damn morning people! He thought angrily.
"Damn morning people! What time is it anyway?" Draco grumbled as he sat up to cast a tempus. Pansy shrieked and he nearly fell off the mattress.
"Holy Hera! What happened to you! You look like…like…well I don't know exactly. But it's ghastly!" She said backing away from the frightening sight in front of her. "You're in your school uniform! What is with you boys this year anyway!? Blaise going o'natural and you ultra conservative. Honestly, you boys act like you've never heard of sleepwear!"
"Love you too Pans. I had a rough night," He said dryly as he successfully cast the tempus. "Six thirty-four! You came in here to wake us up at Six thirty-four in the morning on a Saturday. Are you mad woman!?" He screeched. Rolling her eyes Pansy chose to ignore the question. She shut the curtains on Draco's bed and put up a silencing spell to give them privacy.
"Don't you woman me Draco Lucius Malfoy. You look like shit, now sit up and tell me what on earth happened to you. You're still in your day clothes from yesterday, you've been crying, don't deny it! And you must have been out all night because I stayed up very late waiting for you! Just look at the dark circles under my eyes! Start talking before I get irritated."
Draco sighed heavily and studied the pseudo angry girl in front of him. They had been friends for so long that it hurt to keep things from her. She was loyal to a fault, but she owned it, and nobody could take that away from Pansy Parkinson. If he could trust no one else during these times he knew he could still trust her. She was 'secret keeper' material. I need to tell her that sometime.
"Love, I've had the most mind altering twenty-four hours of my life and I would love to tell you but I'm afraid you might die from shock." Pansy squeaked with glee. She loved gossip and the sounded promising.
"Tell me, tell me, tell me!" She begged. Draco sat a little straighter. Putting up a second spell and a ward of his own on the curtains.
"I apologize for keeping you up so late worrying over me, but unfortunately it couldn't be helped. I had an encounter with Potter yesterday, well two encounters actually, and as a result of those encounters, the fates have put me in a very precarious position." He said trying to sound as dignified as he could at such a ridiculous hour in the morning. Pansy's face went pale at hearing Potter's name, so he continued quickly, lest she have a meltdown.
"I've come to an arrangement with Potter." Pansy gasped, "We are going to see the old coot today to see if we can get the torque off my arm and if there's a way to save Mother." He finished.
She sat there a moment as if she needed to process the information that she'd been given. Slowly, she brought her hands to her face, covering her mouth and began to cry.
"I…I'm…so hap-py to hear…that.." She sobbed. Draco rolled his eyes at her dramatics but appreciated her reaction all the same. He pulled Pansy's hands away from her face, wrapping her in a warm embrace. He felt a swell in his heart for he just then and counted himself lucky to have such a wonderful friend.
He kissed her lightly on the temple while rubbing small circles on her back. "Shhh, there's no need to cry Pans." He whispered.
"I'm so glad you are going to ask for help, I've been so anxious about this whole thing and you and the house and now you're going to Dumbledore and he'll fix this and then everything can be back to normal." She rambled.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, love." He laughed, "Potter doesn't know for sure if there is anything that can be done. We are just going to have a 'fool's hope' for now. And I seriously doubt things will be normal anytime soon. Potter has a lot to do before he kills 'Voldiewort' but I think we have a chance." Pansy nodded pulling away from him to regain her composure.
Draco recalled Potter's expression when he looked at the book.
"Turn to chapter Thirteen." Harry did and his eyes grew wide almost immediately. That confirmed it for Draco. If muggle-raised Potter knew the word Horcrux than it had to be associated with the Dark Lord. Potter looked up at Draco who gave a slight nod.
"I thought so. For the record I figured that out myself. It is not something the Death Eaters are aware of. I have a book I'll need to get you called Creative Destruction. It has some of the most powerful methods of destruction you can imagine. I'm sure we can find a potion in there to destroy the Voldemort's Horcrux. If we're lucky a spell but don't get your hope up."
Harry gaped at Malfoy for a small eternity. They shared a common knowledge about the Dark Lords weakness and he called Him by his name?! This was pivotal for them. Potter checked his pocket watch, cursing the hour and told him to meet outside Dumbledore's office right after breakfast, when the rest of the students would be leaving for Hogsmeade. That way anyone who might be keeping tabs wouldn't notice them both missing at the same time. Sly for Gryffindor really.
Pansy straightened herself and took a few deep breaths. "Okay, if we are going to do this I need all the details. What kind of terms we are making with the Golden boy and his faithful team of goody-goodies. I don't want us getting gimped in the end, or left out of something important because we don't have Gryffindor Halos." She said with a slightly conviction.
Draco opened his mouth to stop her but she kept on talking about all sorts of plans that she seemed to conjure in head on the spot. After several minutes of this he finally interrupted her.
"Just a minute Pans. I think I've missed something here. I'm going to talk to the Headmaster. What does that have to do with 'terms and halos' and whatever else you have in mind?" He asked. Pansy gave him a strange look then patted him on the hand.
"Draco darling you have been so busy with your secret projects that you've failed to see what is going on in your own house." Draco looked at her with his head cocked to the side.
"Enlighten me then, please."
"With pleasure, darling. Now, as you know there are already those in our house who have prematurely jumped into the Dark Lord's pocket, thinking they will be seen as valued and useful," both rolled their eyes at that, "Well that being said, there are plenty of true Slytherins that are just waiting to see what is behind door number two. You're going to open that door for them, Draco. They already look to you and mimic you. Especially the younger students that don't have such…ah, close familial relations with Him." She smiled at him. Draco looked at her skeptically and shook his blonde head.
"Pansy my dear, you have cracked. It's all the stress I've put you through this year. I'm so sorry. I'll ask Professor Snape for a relaxing potion for you."
"I most certainly have not cracked you prat! I mean it! You have no idea how they are looking at you right now. They will follow you lead if you give them the option Draco." Draco still looked at her as if she had
grown another head. Pansy move closer and grabbed his hand in hers. "Please let me do this for you?" She said, giving him the sad quivering lip face that she had mastered. With another tired sigh he shook his head.
"I trust you to be tactful when you are weeding out the second option seekers?" He questioned.
"Of course I will! You seem to forget we were both put into the cunning and ambitious house for our natural talents." She winked at him. "Now I will start making a list today and I should have everyone 'weeded out', as you so elegantly put it, in a matter of days." She kissed his forehead once before opening the curtains and hopping off of his bed." Draco watched her practicality skip out of the dorm.
Well, I'm awake now, he thought. I suppose I should get an early breakfast before I'm inducted into the Goldenboy's Gallant Gryffindor Group, or G4 as he mentally nicknamed it. So sad that I have the time to nickname something like that.
With that final thought he began to prepare himself for what promised to be on hell of a day.
