Chapter Twenty-One

Malfoy had no idea how he was going to do this. What on earth was he going to say to her? Now that he thought about it, Pansy must have been around the Whomping Willow somewhere, so that she could watch the action go down. She would have seen the whole thing. Maybe when she saw it was going bad though she'd left. But how far into the fiasco did she see? He was probably going to have to do some fishing for facts with her. Even if she hadn't seen the whole spectacle, how was he going to convince her that he didn't like Hermione and was still a pureblood fanatic? He most certainly wasn't a fanatic, of course; the pureblood extremism shown at the Whomping Willow by his peers was enough to quell any doubts he had been harboring. He could always attempt a memory charm on her, but that seemed a little conspicuous to him. He could tell her it was just a game he was playing, to see if he could trick the mudblood into liking him, but that seemed risky. What if Pansy told someone? No, that plan was way too risky. But, as he could think of no other real option (throwing her to the whomping willow himself wasn't really an option) he would have to try it. He entered the grand Hall and headed across to the Slytherin table. Most of the people had already eaten and left, but Malfoy could see Pansy sitting at the end of the table by herself, fists clenching and unclenching as she viciously stirred her soup. He took a deep breath, mustered up his courage and sat down beside her.

"Hey," he said. Pansy didn't look up from her meal. He leant in close to her.

"So, you found out my secret, did you?" She paused, and put down her fork. Before she could speak he butted in,

"It's brilliant, isn't it?" This threw her off guard. She narrowed her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you get it? It was all a trick. I've been trying to see if I could win the mudblood's affections for a joke. It was working, until that little stunt you decided to pull with the Whomping willow." This was a test to see how much Pansy had seen.

"What? What do you mean? I saw you two up there, snogging your bloody guts out-" oh. So she saw that. Malfoy thought fast.

"But did you see what happened next?" He asked, hoping to get an opening here for his lie.

"NO!" she cried indignantly, drawing the stares of several Ravenclaws from the neighbouring table.

"No," she hissed again, "I decided to leave you to your filthy mudblood. I hope you catch a disease or something!"

"Well, you missed the best bit," he said. "I couldn't keep up the act, and I burst out laughing. I told her exactly what had been happening, and she slapped me and stalked off! Can you believe it?" Pansy eyed him suspiciously, and then a smile slowly cracked across her piggy features.

"Seriously? She slapped you?"

"YES!" he cried. "And it really HURT!"

Pansy laughed out loud. Malfoy saw out of the corner of his eye Hermione entering the room, walking quickly over to her friends at Gryffindor table. Undoubtedly she would give them some excuse about a Herbology essay or something and her friends would just accept it.

"So you're not going to be hanging out in the library anymore?" Pansy asked, dipping back into her soup. Malfoy hesitated.

"Well, I'll probably have to stay there for a little while, you know, because of study and stuff, and Professor Binns keeps on giving me extra work…"

Pansy eyed him dubiously.

"But I'll be hanging out in Slytherin more often now." He rushed on, "Now that I don't have to keep up the bookworm act anymore, that is." Pansy nodded. This seemed good enough for her. She finished her meal, and with a smile at Malfoy and a touch of the arm headed out of the Hall to Slytherin house.

"See you there?" she called back at him.

"Of course, as soon as I'm done." He said, smiling until the entrance doors closed behind her. He then pushed back his chair, picked up his satchel and a thick piece of buttered bread and wound his way out of the dining room. He caught the eye of Hermione and winked at her just before pushing open the doors and heading straight up to the library to wait. Hook, line and sinker.