Draco's POV
"I CANNOT BELIEVE POTTER SAID THAT TO YOU!" yelled Draco. Pansy had just finished telling Draco what had happened with Harry. Obviously he was far less than happy. No one treated Pansy that way, especially not Potter. He was about to start giving a very vivid description of what he was going to do to Potter when Pansy interrupted him.
"Draco, please leave him alone. I know he deserves everything you were going to do to him but I just want to forget about him. Please Draco… please." Draco had never been able to say no to Pansy so he ended up promising not to do anything to Potter. Pansy started talking again. "Draco, I don't want Potter to find me. Can I please come stay here with you for a while? He'll never think about coming here." "I hope", she added to herself.
He was nodding even before she had finished the sentence. "Of course you can stay Pansy, now, how would you like it if I flooed Blaise to tell him to come here? I'll tell him all you've said to me so you won't have to repeat it. I promise that we are not going to do anything to Potter if those are your wishes.
Pansy nodded, grateful that Draco was taking over. She felt a lot calmer now with his support. Now that she was calmer though she noticed some strange things about Draco. He had dark bags under his eyes and when he stood up he looked a little shaky. He looked very different from the confident and arrogant Draco she knew.
He realised Pansy was looking at him strangely and decided to ask her about it. "Pansy, is something wrong? You're looking at me strangely." He saw her shake her head and then she finally told him what he was looking at.
"Draco, are you feeling okay? You just look very tired… and kind of sick. You have dark bags under your eyes and you look a little shaky when standing up. You know you can tell me anything right? What's happening to you?"
He sighed. He should have known that he couldn't be able to hide from Pansy. "I had an argument with Granger. We haven't seen each other in a week", he told Pansy. He saw Pansy looking confused and explained further. "Remember what the Ministry wrote in the booklets? You can't stay away from your spouse for longer than three days without starting to feel the symptoms of exhaustion. I've been sleeping for very long periods but it makes no difference. After the three days you're allowed to spend apart it will be as if you haven't slept at all even if you sleep for, say a day. It's not a very nice feeling, let me tell you that.
Pansy had been listening intently to what her best friend had been saying. She would have never imagined the exhaustion symptoms to be this harsh. No wonder Draco looked like that. She stood up and walked over to Draco. "You can't keep going on like this, it's not healthy. I know that talking to Granger is the last thing you want to do but you have to. You'll only hurt yourself if you keep going on like this. Send Granger a letter and tell her that you want to talk about what happened. Make it clear that you'll still angry, don't want her to think that she can walk all over you. If she accepts your offer, which I'm pretty sure she will because she's probably as bad as you, invite her to dinner. During this dinner I suggest you form some sort of friendship or at least a truce. If you're going to be married you cannot keep arguing like this. Do as I said Draco and you won't be disappointed…you'll see."
Draco nodded and said, "I'll do as you said. I hope you're right and it works. Now excuse me while I floo Blaise. I promise we won't do anything to Potter but I don't promise we won't have fun insulting him now so if you don't want to listen you'd better plug your ears!", he said before leaving the room. Pansy laughed and at that moment she knew that things were going to be fine as long as she had her friends. That didn't mean she had forgiven Harry and that she wasn't incredibly mad at him though. She still didn't want to see him. "No one calls Pansy Parkinson pathetic... no one", she thought.
Harry's POV
Meanwhile, Harry was at Grimmauld's Place drinking his guilt away. He knew he shouldn't have said those things to Pansy. Just because he was feeling miserable didn't mean he could make others feel that way. He had tried contacting her to apologise but to no avail. She didn't answer her phone and she didn't open when he went knocking at her house. "She's probably not living there so that I won't have any chances of finding her", he thought.
He hadn't seen Pansy in three days and so was starting to feel the symptoms of exhaustion. He didn't blame her for not wanting to see him. He had said a lot of mean things that he shouldn't have said. Things had been going better for him. Even though he and Pansy still argued a little over the wedding they had been developing a better relationship. He could say that they had been friends. Now he had ruined everything and he had no idea how he could fix it.
Hermione's POV
She was still confused about the letter she had received from Draco. He had been very vague so she wasn't sure about what he meant. She had been very surprised and confused when she had received a letter from Draco and had become even more confused after she read its content.
Granger,
I am still very angry about what you said and we're still doing what I said for the wedding but we can't keep avoiding each other… I'm tired and I can't take it anymore. That is why I am inviting you for dinner tomorrow at 8:30. I'd better see you then or else…
Draco M.
"What exactly is he inviting me to dinner for?" she thought. She knew she was supposed to be the one trying to get Draco to talk to her again but she got terribly embarrassed and decided that she'd rather die of exhaustion than admitting she was wrong to Malfoy.
Deciding to give Draco a chance, she wrote back to him, accepting his invitation to dinner. She was still unsure about it though. She didn't know that much about Malfoy but one thing was for sure. He would never apologise if he knew it wasn't his fault. Sometimes he didn't even apologise if it was his fault. "He must be really tired if he's actually willing to take the first step for our 'reconciliation'."
Even though she had been too embarrassed to contact Malfoy she had still felt guilty for what she had said and she fully planned to apologise to him as soon as she saw him. She had acted as if she knew Malfoy when the truth was that she didn't know him at all. She knew that the war had changed him a lot. He wasn't the Malfoy she had known at Hogwarts anymore. He was a completely different person. That thought made her resolve to apologise even stronger.
"Tomorrow, I'll make sure my apology is convincing enough and hopefully I'll stop feeling so tired."
Blaise's POV
"I have to admit she isn't so bad", he thought. He had been spending quite some time with Ginny Weasley. Most of the times they discussed wedding plans but sometimes, when they got too tired of discussing the wedding or when they were feeling a bit bitter because of the Marriage Law, they spent their time together talking and getting to know each other better.
Blaise had to admit, now that he knew the Weasley girl better, that a lot of his knowledge about her had been false. His mother had probably invented all that stuff so that he wouldn't try to get to know her… because she was a Weasley.
One of the most shocking things he learned was that she and Potter had never truly liked each other above friendship. She told him that for her Potter was like a brother and that Potter felt the same way about her. After the war everyone had thought they would date and so they decided to give the press what they wanted. On a day when Ginny was in a good mood, she told him about how she and Potter decided to fake date to give the press something to talk about and about how they agreed that if they met someone they truly like they'd break off the fake dating.
Apparently, today she was in another one of her good moods because she had begun talking and laughing with him for almost an hour. Suddenly, he saw her turn serious. "Listen Blaise, since we've decided to get married two months from now and that's quite close I think you should meet my family. In simpler words my mum has been driving me crazy with asking me when I'm going to introduce you to them. What would you say to dinner at my house tomorrow?" she finished.
"Oh boy…" he thought. He really hadn't been expecting this and he wasn't really looking forward to it. He had no doubts that the Weasleys hadn't heard very good things about him especially from their children. Dinner was sure to be a very weird affair. He also wasn't looking forward to the talk he was bound to get from her father. "Isn't that what fathers do when their daughter introduces them to her fiancé?" he thought. "They give them a talk about wanting the best for their daughter and about doing whatever it takes to be sure they get it."
He really didn't want to go to any dinner with any Weasley but he couldn't really say no could he? Cursing the Ministry for putting him in this situation he gave a tiny nod. Looking up at her he said, "I'd love to meet your family. I'm sure it's going to be a lovely experience!" He hoped Ginny hadn't noticed the sarcasm laced with his words. He didn't think so with the way she was smiling at him. He hated the fact that he was happy that she was smiling at him. It's not as if he cared whether she smiled or cried.
"Thanks so much", he heard her saying. "I'd better go tell my mum so she can prepare. I'll see you tomorrow then. Will you be able to come around at about eight o'clock?" At his nod her smile grew even wider. "Great!" And with that she apparated away.
"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" he thought.
Author's Note: What do you think? Was it worth the wait? Review and tell me what you think xx
