A/N Well, if it hasn't been a hot minute since I updated! Apologies, this week life has granted me my motivation to paint once more (I'm a watercolourist - and fan artist, by trade - check out my Facebook page 'The Water Falcon', if you're interested at all) and so my creative energies have been invested in that, but that doesn't at all mean that my stories are going to suffer in any way!

Velvet & Lace

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Chapter Fourteen | Portus

They moved with haste. Pansy's heart was hammering against her ribs as though it were a wild, caged creature and she dimly felt Regulus wrap his fingers around the spot just below her elbow, and he ushered her, his hand unmoving, into the bedroom Narcissa had pointed to.

"Everything is going to be alright," Regulus muttered as he approached the bookshelves. The third book on the second shelf was leather bound and dark blue, and as Regulus pulled the tomb forward, once you were aware of the fact it was used to open a passageway, the lack of dust on the majority of the cover, was blatantly obvious.

The passage appeared instantaneously, and Pansy watched as a number of wooden panels on the wall just beneath the shelves slid aside, revealing a dark, rectangular hole, just wide enough for one person to go through at once. Regulus turned to face her and Pansy's breath hitched as he reached forward and trailed his fingertips gently down the side of her face, she still felt fear but also...something else.

"You ready?" Regulus asked, and Pansy nodded curtly, knowing that ready was the only way she could afford to be at present. Regulus shot her a small smile before offering his hand to her, a hand which she took eagerly, and held tightly, their fingers interlaced, as they stepped into the secret passageway.

The walk to the kitchens was short, Pansy rationally knew, but felt lengthy. The panel had returned itself to normal after she had stepped inside, which had plunged them into pure darkness and so they relied on the light from Regulus's wand to guide their way.

The Malfoy kitchens were large and about as grand as kitchens could possibly get. The brightness that poured in through the expansive windows forced Pansy to stop and thrust an arm in front of her eyes. Pansy had visited these kitchens many times, although more so when she was a child and Draco would pester the various house elves for food. There were several elves milling around when Regulus and Pansy appeared from inside a tall, full-length cupboard.

"Huh, that's clever," Regulus muttered as they closed the door behind them and skirted around the elves, none of whom acknowledged the pair other than to offer a well-practised bow, before exiting Malfoy Manor through the back door and, for the second time that day, his hand still in hers despite the passageway now behind them, stepped out into the grounds of the Manor.

Glancing upwards, Pansy let out a sigh through her nose, her throat felt suddenly dry at the sight, and her legs seemed suddenly noodly. The sky above, which she had been under less than a few hours previous, which had been brilliant, blue and cloudless, was darkening and the brightness that had caused her eyes to almost hurt when they emerged from the tunnel, was vastly disappearing. The view was harrowing but also strangely captivating, as though the swirling patterns of the clouds held some kind of hypnotic prowess. She gripped Regulus's hand tighter still as they began to make their way across the vast grounds. They strode with purpose and with one goal in mind; get to the weak spot in the Malfoy's wards.

The peacock barn, Pansy knew, lay on the Southernmost edge of the grounds, and was reachable by skirting around a few of the decorative gardens, which, in Pansy's time, held a multitude of flowers and shrubs and were one of Narcissa's pride and joy. Back now, however, Pansy soon realised, they had not been yet converted into the botanical masterpieces she was used to, and they lay, tidy but empty, as though waiting for instruction. Even in their current predicament, it bothered Pansy, who made a mental note to remind Narcissa to fill the flower beds.

14 Years Earlier & 6 Years Later

"Na-Nass-Na-issa?"

The older woman smiled down at Pansy with a fondness Pansy, even at such a young age rare witnessed from even her own mother. "Yes, Pansy?"

"You should be pretty flowers in this bit of the garden."

"Do you know, Pansy, I used to have a friend who told me the exact same thing."

"Oh. Is your friend not here now?"

"No, she's moved away for a while."

"Oh," Pansy repeated. "Are you sad."

Narcissa smiled down at the little girl once more. "No, I'm not sad, because I know I'll see her again."

Nodding, Pansy felt satisfied with Narcissa's answer. Narcissa was always kind to her when she visited Draco, and Pansy definitely didn't want Narcissa to feel sad about anything, and certainly not about missing friends. "I hope you see your friend really," she elongated the word, "soon."

"I'm sure I will. Pansy?"

"Yes?"

"Would you like to help me choose some flowers for the beds?"

Pansy giggled and then nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! We'll put all the flowers to bed because they're sleepy!" she screamed with laughter at her own joke. "Oh! Let's choose lots of pansies!"

"I think we're close now," Regulus muttered and Pansy nodded in response.

"We are, can you see the side of the barn? Behind that tree?"

"Oh, yeah. Thank Merlin!"

Pansy was already able to feel the thrum of powerful magic of the wards. The charms were ancient, a few of them, Pansy guessed, probably dating back to some of the earliest Malfoys. Thankfully though, Regulus, wand pointed upwards from his spare hand, was able to locate the weak spot which enabled them to step through without much difficulty.

Once free of the wards, Pansy turned and snorted at the fact she was greeted with a view of fields and trees, with no buildings in her line of sight whatsoever. The magic of the wards felt much fainted on this side, and had Pansy not just walked through it, she knew she probably wouldn't have felt it at all.

"Okay," Regulus began, rummaging in his pocket for the portkey, "Agh!"

Pansy's face whirled to him, "What's wrong?"

Regulus had wrenched his hand free from Pansy's, and was holding his left forearm with his right hand, he pulled his sleeve up to his elbow and Pansy looked down to see the snake of Regulus's dark mark wriggle, its mouth snapping menacingly. Pansy had never seen the Mark during a summon, but she was fairly certain that's exactly what she was looking at.

"You're being called."

Regulus's eyes darkened. "Let's get you to the lake house quickly."

Pansy nodded, and held out her hand to grab onto the pocket watch that Regulus had pulled out and was now holding outwards, she grabbed onto the cool metal and met Regulus's eyes with her own. Nodding once, she held his gaze and waited for him to activate the object.

Regulus tapped the pocketwatch twice and murmured "Portus," and Pansy had little time for thought as she was jolted as though by a giant hook, and they were whooshed through the air and landed, seconds later, by a large lake. The house, which was really more of a log cabin, itself just to Pansy's left, looked a few decades old, but nice enough. Pansy breathed a sigh of relief at the sight.

"C'mon," Regulus said, his demeanor hurried and his brow furrowed as he offered his hand to her once more, which Pansy took without question, and the pair walked towards the house.

There were a number of enchantments guarding the property, but as Narcissa had predicted, they were nothing Regulus couldn't handle and within minutes, they were walking in the front door.

"Thank you," Pansy said, her voice suddenly uncharacteristically small.

Regulus smiled at her words, which instantly turned into a grimace. "He's summoning you again?" Pansy asked, her eyes wide, if there was one thing she could guarantee she did know about Voldemort, it was that he didn't take too kindly to being kept waiting.

Not bothering to speak a response, Pansy gasped as Regulus, who had been regarding her with his intense, dark brown eyes, placed his palms on each side of her face and gently brought his lips to hers. It was soft and hard all at once and lit a flame within Pansy that she didn't want to go out, but then it was over and she hated every millisecond that he was pulling away from her with an intensity she'd rarely felt with anything else.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," he whispered.

And then he was gone in a moment and a crack of apparition and Pansy's breathing was suddenly raspy as her eyes pooled with tears of uncertainty. She wanted to scream and shout and tantrum her way out of the mess that was the screaming truth that she was somehow in a time that wasn't hers, with a man that shouldn't be hers, considering she knew he was dead around the time she was born, but that she wanted more than she had ever wanted anything, or anyone.

In one swift movement, she dove her hand into her pocket and found the curved, metal of the Time-Turner, and wrenched it upwards, where she allowed it to swing on its chain whilst she glared.

"Why did you bring me here?!" She demanded, her voice beginning to choke. "Why do you want me to be with him?!" Pansy let out a scream that started, much to a weird feeling of relief, the reaction her body needed to cry, and cry she did, her tears erupting from her in sobs. "IT'S BEEN TWO DAYS," Pansy screamed at the Turner, her mind was alight with guilt and fear and the unwavering knowledge that, were she able to, and if she knew that the second she tried he wouldn't hex her into submission for even attempting it, she would march right back to Malfoy Manor and take whatever punishment he would surely obtain for his lateness. Pansy blanched with a sudden wave of nausea at the realisation of how much she now cared for this should-be stranger. She once more rounded on the Time-Turner. It wasn't normal, it simply wasn't normal, and yet it felt so infuriatingly like the most natural and normal thing in the world that Pansy even cursed herself for daring to question the normality of something that she knew was right. "WHY DO I FEEL LIKE THIS AFTER TWO FUCKING DAYS?!"