Hell Tastes Sweet

Chapter Six

Pansy had no recollection of how she had reached her bedroom. All she knew is that she was now laying in a foetal position on her bed, all the curtains around it drawn as to prevent anyone from peeking inside.

She had not even stopped to hear the entire conversation, she didn't need to, didn't want to hear it. She was absolutely certain that the Death Eater that had gone down was Draco. Her Draco. And knowing this was killing her. An excruciating pain was irradiating from her heart reaching her entire body. Breathing itself was no longer a priority. She needed to get rid of the pain that was slowly driving her insane.

She must have cried herself to sleep because she opened her eyes hearing her roommates' racket that announced a new day had started.

"Come on Pansy…wake up, you'll be late!" she heard Sonia's voice calling from outside the curtains.

Pansy tried to reply but her throat refused to make any sound. It was so dry that unless she got some water, Pansy thought it would be impossible to utter a single word.

"Pansy? Are you alright?" Sonia insisted not hearing a reply.

Pansy, fearing that the girl would poke her head through the curtains, decided to get up and try to dash to the bathroom hoping to attract as little attention as possible.

Her attempt, naturally, failed and Sonia, seeing Pansy come out of her bed fully dressed, grabbed her by one of her arms and turned her around.

"What the…" Sonia started but, looking at Pansy's face, particularly Pansy's extremely swollen, puffy eyes, said "What happened? Has Malfoy ditched you?."

Pansy would have laughed if Sonia's comment had not brought back all the pain from the previous night. 'Ditched? No, he went and got himself killed not giving a toss about me nor my feelings' Pansy wanted to say but, instead, she just managed to nod.

"You mustn't blame yourself…Malfoy is way too sexy and popular to be with a girl for too long…you'll get over it…" Sonia said making Pansy smile weakly.

'If that is the way you want to help me, you're doing a very poor job at it…' Pansy thought, then finally trusting her throat to produce some sound, she said:

"Yeah…sure…" then, removing her arm off Sonia's grasp, she turned around and made it to the bathroom.

She didn't really feel like going to any of the lessons but, knowing that it would look suspicious if she didn't, she decided to make it to the Great Hall and behave as normally as possible.

She was about to start eating when she saw Professor Snape get up from the staff table and walk towards her.

"Miss Parkinson, come to my office as soon as you've finished your breakfast…" he said and, not waiting for an answer kept walking to the Great Hall's main door.

Pansy almost suffocated herself with the piece of toast she was eating. This could only mean one thing. They wanted to confirm that Draco was dead.

Pansy dropped the toast and drank some pumpkin juice as quickly as possible then, grabbing her bag, walked as fast as she could without running trying to catch up with Snape.

"Professor…professor…" Pansy said now almost running seeing the black back of the Slytherin House's head.

"Miss Parkinson, I thought I had been quite clear that you were to come to my office AFTER breakfast" Professor Snape said not even bothering to hide his surprise at seeing her already there.

"But I…I've finished…I…" Pansy stuttered like she always did when she was nervous.

"Oh…never mind…we've got to go somewhere else anyway…follow me…" Professor Snape said impatiently reassuming to walk.

Pansy followed him shocked when she saw they were leaving the dungeon's entrance behind and started to climb the marble stairs behind Professor Snape.

Finally they stopped in front of a statue and Snape muttered something that was not loud enough for her to hear it. Whatever it was, it caused the statue to move up and reveal some steps.

"Go on…follow me…" Professor Snape said while climbing the steps that had replaced the statue.

Pansy was puzzled, she had never been to that area of the castle and was about to ask where they were when Snape, turning round, said:

"Professor Dumbledore is waiting for you in his office, just through that door…."

Pansy followed the finger that was pointing an ancient looking door. Finally, Pansy managed to ask:

"What have I done?."

Professor Snape snorted and said:

"Nothing, yet…."

"Then, why…" Pansy insisted.

"You'll see…now, go inside…" Snape said obviously beginning to get annoyed.

Pansy, fearing Snape's fury like almost everyone in the school, didn't say anything else and knocked on the door.

"Come in" Pansy heard Professor Dumbledore's voice say.

Pansy entered the room and was shocked to see Harry, Hermoine and Ron there.

"Oh, take a seat Miss Parkinson…" Dumbledore said conjuring a chair out of nothing.

Pansy sat down and, before she could say anything, Dumbledore said:

"I hear from Mr Potter here present that you had a very…peculiar reaction…when you heard the Death Eaters had suffered a loss when they managed to free the prisoners we had secured in Azkaban…is there something you'd like to share with us, Miss Parkinson?."

Pansy's shocked increased when she heard this. She should have known better than to think the trio would have left it alone. She thought of lying but she knew better than to try to lie to Dumbledore. In any case, she didn't know what else to do so she said:

"I don't know what you're talking about…."

"She's lying…" Hermoine said accusingly.

"I know…Miss Parkinson…I know Mr Malfoy has been missing since the night before Halloween. I also happen to know that you and Mr Malfoy have been…involved in an intimate liaison…I find it hard to believe you cannot tell us where he is…" Dumbledore said matter-of-factly.

To be continued…

A/N: Thanks for all your reviews!! I hope I'll keep this up to your standards…I've decided to keep the chapters short so I can update more frequently. Thanks again, you're great!