"Good morning." A half awake Pansy murmured politely to her parents as she took her seat at the dining table, rubbing her eyes as she awaited to be served breakfast. Naturally her parents didn't bother to look up from their separate early morning editions of the Daily Prophet but they both grumbled an audible "Morning Pansy" in response. She ate her toast when it arrived in the usual silence, drank her apple juice and went back upstairs to dress. She knew that she should've worried more that her parents ignored her a significant amount more than they interacted with her, but she struggled to care.
Smiling profusely at the outfit already picked out for her, a retro style baby pink dress with a sheer cardigan and black pumps to match, Pansy started to get ready. By eleven o'clock she was completely ready with nothing to do. Her boyfriend had to work; her best friend would undoubtedly be hung-over from the night before. (Pansy was blessed with the gift of not getting a headache after drinking.) She perused the family library for a while, hoping to kill some time, but found no interest in any of the books she picked up and felt a little too hot staying in the stuffy room.
"Why don't you go and try to find a job, Miss Pansy?" asked Libby as she stared down at the dreadfully bored girl who had taken to the sofa, lounging about with both arms hanging down. "Even if it's only temporary, it would at least give you something to do." The house elf squeaked, returning to dusting the various ornaments on the fireplace.
She didn't respond for a while, thinking over what Libby had said. Suddenly she stood up. "You'd better stop cleaning that, Libby." The house elf stepped away in response. "I'm not going to go and find a job." Libby's shoulders fell a little for she felt disappointed in herself. "I'm going to do some shopping for a while, suss out the good places I could work." She would probably do nothing other than shopping instead but when Libby stepped back seemingly satisfied with her suggestion, Pansy decided not to tell her the truth.
Libby offered to escort her out of the house so that she could disapparate, but Pansy needed to collect a few things first so did it alone. When she arrived in Diagon Alley, it was no surprise that it was crammed full of people. A lot of these people were those she recognised from her school year and the year below, presumably having nothing else to do quite like herself. Effortlessly, she managed to glide through the crowds of people to get into different shops.
She went into Flourish & Blotts, passing a stand of textbooks to arrive at the books for general interest. Checking through a selection of romance novels for witches, Pansy realised that she had read and reread all of those books, so left that shop pretty quickly. Next door was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. She had been in there on many occasions, to get her school uniform, her formal robes for the Yule Ball, and whenever her mother treated her to a new dress for her birthday. A mauve robe wearing woman looked up from her copy of Witch Weekly at the customer, smiling pleasantly at the face she recognised. "Pansy Parkinson," Madam Malkin pushed up her glasses when she spoke, "how nice to see you again." Pansy bowed her head as a response, spotting a new collection which she would certainly browse very soon. "We just have a customer being fit, so feel free to look around in the meantime." That was the signal she was waiting for. Walking, not running, Pansy started to make her way towards the newest of all the displays in store. She ran a finger over the fabric of a floor length lilac gown, returning to it once she finished looking through everything else. Just as she picked it off the hanger in preparation to try on, a voice was heard that bellowed across the peaceful shop. "Merlin's beard!" The voice, Pansy knew it was female, shouted as she came out of the dressing room. Said girl dropped all of her shopping bags and it was no clumsy incident, she was genuinely in shock. Pansy turned to see the girl and felt sick immediately, recognising her. Astoria Greengrass stood before her. She looked fat, ugly and common, Pansy thought. Except she was the most radiantly beautiful girl Pansy had ever seen, her big blue doe eyes working perfectly against her flowing blonde hair. She was skinnier than Pansy, but not too skinny that it made her look ill. She wore a lovely floral blouse and skirt, accessorising perfectly with various jewels that looked outstandingly expensive. Pansy had spent so long analysing the other girl that when she appeared inches before her face she almost gasped out in shock. "I can't believe you are here Pansy and you are alright." Astoria stared at the other girl before her hands started shaking. She soon became a quivering wreck, muttering endlessly to herself so fast that Pansy could not understand a single word she was saying. Even Madam Malkin and the dress fitter didn't disclose the fact they were listening in with all their might, both wondering what had happened to the girl. Astoria's hands found the sides of Pansy's face as though she was examining her but instead she started to hurt the girl, still not letting go. "Astoria! Astoria pull yourself together," the authoritative girl inside Pansy started to come out, "pull yourself together and let go of me. Now!" Still the girl shook away, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, eyes unable to focus on anything in particular. Madam Malkin whispered to her assistant to call a Healer if Astoria didn't recover soon. Pansy repeated her command, including a notion about having to go to the Hospital and eventually the panic attack she was having subsided.The blonde took a moment to catch her breath although it came out fast and short rather than long and deep as she intended. "You're... you're..." Pansy thought that Astoria would've collapsed at that moment for she had never seen the girl in such a mess before. In an attempt to comfort her, she took hold of the fragile girl's hands and that seemed to soothe her enough to string a sentence together. "Are you alright Pansy?"
This was a ridiculous question considering what just happened, but Pansy replied normally all the same. "Yes Astoria. I'm perfectly fine." She gave a shrug of her shoulders to the two others in the shop. "What's the matter with you though?"
Now Astoria began to weep. It was no full on crying episode but a few tears forced themselves out of her eyes, staining her perfectly made up cheeks as they went down her face. "Pansy," she took a final exhale of breath, "we thought you were dead." She left it a while to let the information absorb. Noticing the complete blank expression on Pansy's face, Astoria had to elaborate. "After the War ended, Draco," Pansy tried not to scowl at her referring to him so casually, "received an owl explaining in detail how you had died in order to rescue him during the battle. It included a picture that I've seen." Astoria couldn't help but shed tears again, obviously remembering how gruesome the image was. "You were lying helplessly among some rubble with blood all over your face." Pansy would've been thankful that the people in the shop went back to work if she wasn't so indulged in the conversation, both hands covering her mouth as she tried not to scream.
Although Pansy desperately wished she was joking, Astoria wasn't. She hadn't finished the tale, either. "Apparently after a few days he was sent a copy of the Daily Prophet with an obituary of yours in it. His mother investigated and found no evidence that you still existed, so he believed it. He started courting me a few weeks ago because his parents wanted him to move on from you."
Now both girls cried in the middle of the shop, completely oblivious to the new people surrounding them or the public setting. Everything made sense to Pansy now. She knew why he hadn't made contact with him in all this time. She had been moving on with her own life, jealous of Astoria and angry with him, when he had gone through unnecessary hell for no reason. Pansy's mouth and brain weren't co-operating, she still couldn't speak.
"You didn't plant it, did you? The letter and the story?" Astoria didn't know the other girl too well, she didn't know whether she was happy with him or wanted to escape. A furious headshake was the only response she got. "Right, of course not" said Astoria with a furrowed brow. "It's not that I'm accusing you of anything, but clearly somebody did this to hurt the both of you." Now that Astoria had her reasonable head on, Pansy should've contributed to the conversation in a sensible manner but she didn't quite know how.
"I have to go, I have to go, I'm sorry." Pansy had plucked up the courage to reply to her. She needed to go and see Draco and tell him she was alive and never let him go. But she was stood in front of his current girlfriend, a girl that had done no wrong, a girl potentially more right for him than she ever was. "No matter what happens, Astoria, he needs to know the truth." She was referring to whether whom he would chose once the options were set out on the table. Instead of getting violent or upset (both would've been completely acceptable in Pansy's eyes), the blonde extended her arms and embraced the smaller girl for a while. She let her go long enough for Pansy to disapparate.
She re-appeared outside of the gates of Malfoy Manor. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she pushed open the iron clad gates, not in her right mind enough to notice that the security gates had been left open in the first place. She darted up the path towards the door, wondering what to do then. Should she knock? No, someone other than Draco could answer and that would confuse the situation even more. She spotted an open window around the corner on the bottom floor and managed to pull it open just enough to climb through. Landing in the dining room, she barely had time to gawp at the extensiveness of it all because she scrambled across the floor and into the main hallway, not wanting to stay in one place for too long in case she was caught.
With some knowledge remaining of different locations in the house, Pansy managed to navigate herself to the staircase. She ran up as fast as she possibly could without looking back for a second. But once she reached the top she didn't quite know where to go next. Not only were the corridors in Malfoy Manor never ending, none of the closed doors gave any indication they were the one she was looking for. Whenever she went to the Manor they would stay in one of the entertaining rooms downstairs, or they'd go outside if the weather was nice. She hid in an alcove for a minute, narrowly missing a house elf walking past on their duties. She turned another corner, practically turning a full circle, when she noticed light spilling out from a door slightly ajar. Gulping, she strode towards the door and slowly opened it.
Inside was the boy she'd been looking for, sat at a dark wooden desk with his back to her. She didn't speak for a while because she was at a loss of what to say, but she had always wondered what the inside of Draco Malfoy bedroom looked like. It was exactly as she could've imagined. A large four poster bed dominated the west wall of the room, the bedding slytherin colours. She continued to look around not knowing that he saw her in a small mirror on his desk. Pansy turned to stone in the doorway when he stood and turned towards her.
He was a little dishevelled, the buttons on his shirt done up the wrong way at the bottom, his hair unusually untamed. Dark circles were visible under his heavy eyes. Pansy wondered when the last time he slept was. "Hi." She didn't want to cry but her voice immediately fell weak as soon as she spoke. Very slowly he started to walk towards her, obviously cautious. "Draco, look," She didn't have time to explain the horrific situation. He caught her by the wrists and slammed her against the side of the wall. Nails dug into her skin, her head began to hurt from the force of the wall colliding with her. He stared at her face without blinking, barely breathing, and not letting go. "Draco you are hurting me," she pleaded, knowing too well that she didn't quite have the energy to push him away, nor did she want to. Sure, he was out of his mind and causing her pain, but she hadn't been so close in over a year. She could smell his signature natural scent and began melting into him again before he lifted her from the wall only to slam her back into it again. "Draco!" If she had her arms free, she would've slapped him in the face.
"Pansy Parkinson is dead" hissed a clearly demented Draco. "Whoever you are, show yourself now so I can kill you for playing such a cruel trick." Empty space filled his eyes, showing no remorse. He took a hand away from her wrist to retrieve the wand from his pocket, long enough for her to place said hand on his check in an attempt for him to look at her. He slapped her hand away and fully let go, not watching her sink down to the floor in despair. Pansy was tired but wasn't ready to give up on him.
He marched over to the bedside cabinet (Pansy noted it matched the rest of his furniture and almost smiled) and took out something from it. He came back down to Pansy and threw the pieces at her. They were crumpled, tear stained and frayed, but she recognised them to be the picture Astoria had described, the letter and the fake newspaper article. "Tell me those aren't real then," he spat in fury, leaning back against the frame of his bed as she read over, not leaving clear any precise detail. "If you are Pansy, explain those to me then." He truly struck a nerve there because she couldn't. She didn't understand what had happened, who it was that took that picture and went through all that effort.
She discarded them to her left and rose to her feet again, walking over to him leaving no distance in between so that he couldn't escape. She refused to let him stare at the floor by holding onto both sides of his face. "Draco listen to me please. I didn't die, I don't know who made up that article and took that picture. I did come looking for you during the Battle. Some stranger, the one who took the picture, brought me home and I don't know who that was. I waited for you to come for me like you promised but obviously you were grieving instead. Only today did I run into Astoria and she told me the truth." He started to pull away from her in disbelief and she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck in her own desperation for him to know. "It's me, it's me I promise."
She racked her brain to try and find a way to prove to him that it was her. Then a thought came to mind, one thing that nobody else in the world knew, and she said it no matter how embarrassed it would make her. "Fifth year, we were abusing prefect duties by not actually doing them and decided to take a bath together in the prefect bathroom. I showed up in my bathing suit and you assumed that we, eh, weren't wearing bathing suits." The stern expression on her face never faltered no matter how amusing reliving that situation was for her. Now he had all the evidence in front of him that she was fine and alive.
"P-Pansy..." he stuttered and amid all the confusion swirling through his brain, he knew what he had to do. She nodded in response, giving him the smallest of smiles. He returned this smile with something a lot better. Wrapping his arms tightly around her waist, he crashed his lips onto hers with a hungry passion that told her he never wished to let her go again. They fought for control in the haze of their forgotten lust. Her hands found their way to the buttons of his shirt and he moaned into her mouth. Even Pansy had to admit that she didn't want to go too far. She pulled away gently, placing a few kisses on his cheeks, nose and forehead before settling against his face. A faint smirk appeared on his lips, for he still knew how he managed to make the butterflies in her stomach somersault. The smirk disappeared quickly enough. "When I find out who did this to you, to us, I swear," he clenched his fists and to stop him from getting angry she ran her thumb over his lips.
She perched her hands on his shoulders so that she could reach up and look straight into his eyes. "We'll sort it out, I promise. I'm sure there's some sort of magic that detects traces, fingerprints and things like that."
He seemed annoyed for not coming up with that first. "Hmm, you would be the one with the smart answer, Pansy" said Draco sarcastically with a quick eye roll.
She chuckled a little with amusement. "You must be feeling better my love, you are already making remarks." They shared a smile, hearts mending a little. Guilt came back to Pansy, though. She saw only a snippet of pain from him and knew that it wouldn't have been the worst of it. If she swallowed her pride and arrived a while back, they'd have been fine. Heck, they'd probably have been planning a wedding. "I should've come sooner," admitted Pansy. "I could've saved you all this trouble. I was playing the damsel in distress when you needed me most." He wrapped his arms around the petite girl, kissing the top of her head in a protective sort of way that required no further explanation. Well, anyone other than Pansy would've been satisfied with that. "You can be angry with me for being such a traditionalist. I ruined everything."
He sighed, knowing that she wouldn't give it up. "Pans, you are impossible." He meant it as a compliment, which was good, for she took it as one. "There's only one person to blame for this and it certainly isn't you." He had a little wait until my father hears about this moment inside his head, and then had a better thought. "Although," he stuck out his bottom lip and sighed a little, "I do feel a little bad, still. You'll have to make it up to me."
She punched him in the shoulder then tilted her head up to kiss him. She kissed him again and again and again. They were utterly clueless as to what had happened and what was yet to come. All they knew was that they had each other again, so all other problems felt very, very small.