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Velvet & Lace
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Chapter Thirty-Seven | Horcrux
Pansy could scarcely remember a time she'd wished to see someone more, and also less. And so when he appeared, looking more sombre than she'd ever seen, the next day, the day before her stupid birth, she didn't know whether to run to him, or from him.
In the end though, she opted for the former. Tears already streaming down her face by the time her face crashed into his chest.
She didn't speak, and neither did he. Pansy supposed they didn't need to, she knew she, at least, was conveyed anything and everything, she possibly could.
She just hoped he knew.
She hoped he knew everything.
"Baby, I-"
"Don't." She cut him off, simply not ready to hear whatever he had to say. "Can we go for a walk?"
He squeezed her tighter before interlacing his fingers with hers. Bringing her hand to his mouth, he brushed his lips over her knuckles. "Of course we can."
They walked, hand in hand, mostly in silence, taking the same route they had - towards the collection of ponds, the morning after Pansy had arrived in the past. She'd felt something for him then, she'd known. Of course in part thanks to the troublesome artifact that was the Time-Turner, but Pansy knew it hadn't created the feelings, only amplified them. The feelings she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, were real and raw and painful and incredible all at once.
The stopped at the same bench, in front of the same pond Pansy had pushed Regulus into, and he'd, in turn, summoned her to join him.
"I have something for you," he said, pulling a small black box from the breast pocket of his shirt. Pansy liked that shirt, it was purple with brown buttons and made him look, if possible, more handsome. She smiled at the sight of him, with his tousled hair and dopey smile that, when he smiled at her, met his eyes.
"Oh?"
He handed her the box. Whilst looking inside, she took in a sharp intake of breath. Dangling on an intricate silver chain was an equally intricate silver cabin-shaped charm.
"Turn it over," she heard him say. And she did.
Taking another deep breath, Pansy saw the word Everything engraved on the back.
It was perfect.
"It's...perfect."
He took the necklace from her, and placed it delicately around her neck.
The lake house.
Gods, how she wished they could go back to the uncertainty that was their time at the lake house.
"You're perfect," he breathed somewhere close to her right ear.
Her reply wasn't spoken, instead she pressed her lips against his. "I want you," she breathed, her mouth still touching his.
And he relented.
"Huh," Regulus said, surrounded by bit of splintered wood.
"I guess that explains how this bench isn't here in the nineties," Pansy observed, still straddling him.
They walked back to the Manor shortly afterwards, and, once joined by Narcissa, it was time for the conversations Pansy wanted nothing more than to not have to be a part of.
To begin with, at least, he explained how Voldemort had wanted, most randomly, to borrow Kreacher the afternoon before.
"Your elf?" Narcissa asked, "whatever for?"
"It's pretty sick, actually," Regulus said. "Said the Dark Lord took him to some fucking cave and made him drink something that gave him awful stomach pains and see terrible visions. Then he left him there, probably to die," he added bitterly. "I'm sure it's only because house elves can disapparate places wizards can't he was able to leave."
"What in the world," Narcissa breathed, "but for what purpose?"
"To hide a locket," Regulus replied dryly with a shrug.
A wave of understanding washed over Pansy. They'd all learned what Voldemort had done, with the pieces of himself he'd extracted from his own soul. What ones were left, albeit partly destroyed, had been displayed at the Ministry for any to see. They were to go down in history. Lord Voldemort's destroyed-
"Horcruxes," Pansy whispered, her voice ragged. "It's a horcrux."