1998

Pansy and her friends only listened to Muggle music that summer. It was hypocritical, probably disrespectful, and difficult to understand at first glance. But the only alternative was an oppressive silence engulfing the venerable Greengrass residence, because Wizarding music had been ruined for them.

When he was in school, Dmitri Rookwood had played the guitar and wanted to become as famous as the Weird Sisters one day. That was before he became a Death Eater and murdered two people at the Battle of Hogwarts; he would have taken out more had the Aurors not gotten to him first. So the music he used to blast in the common room was out. Then there were the pop songs Millicent had liked-also not to be played. Not to mention the old stuff that years ago, Narcissa had confessed to Draco that the Black sisters once knew every word to. Because Bellatrix Lestrange was one person, but Bellatrix Black had been someone else before that part of her died forever. Theo and Pansy had used the radio to obscure their conversations from the Carrow twins' ears. Wizarding rock songs also served as a distraction when they had to treat injuries inflicted by the older set of Carrows, and in Theo's case, his own father as well. Pansy wasn't sure if she could ever listen to some of them again.

After the Battle of Hogwarts, the six of them hid out in the Greengrass house-Astoria was the only one who willingly went to Wizarding areas because she had long since stopped caring about what anyone thought of her. A terminal diagnosis can embolden a person like that.

She and Blaise were the ones who kept them supplied with Muggle music. Astoria had solicited mixtapes from Hufflepuffs and some random Ilvermorny pen pal of hers while Blaise had amassed quite the secret collection over the years. Pansy reckoned many of them were probably acquired through the "Wingardium Leviosa-discount."

Astoria was back to top form with her scheming, and apparently writing to everyone and his brother given the amount of owls that were arriving. She didn't really get going until after the Malfoy trials, though. Merlin, that had been an ordeal. In an unexpected twist, Draco had voluntarily taken Veritaserum to get the testimony over with as quickly as possible. The front page of the Prophet was dedicated to Malfoy drama, intra-family and otherwise, for a few days. Pansy understood why he opted for the truth potion-it was far better to be in a numb, relaxed state for all of that. She made sure he didn't have a chance to see the newspaper, especially the column that implied that Narcissa was trading sexual favours to Shacklebolt to secure their release. Or the letter to the editor that called for his execution.

When he somehow escaped conviction, he Flooed back to the house and didn't say a thing; just slammed the door to his and Astoria's room and didn't come out for a week. Pansy also understood that behaviour-there were some days where she couldn't get out of bed at all, and if she did it would be to pace around the house in the middle of the night. Theo had tried to come into her room to check on her once, and her startled display of accidental magic had nearly cost him an eye.

She had been so angry at Draco after the Easter holidays, because she thought maybe if he would have been there, Avery wouldn't have done what he did to her. Deep down she knew it wouldn't have mattered, but he felt guilty and she let him blame himself for awhile. The hostilities thawed after the battle, although they hadn't really talked much. He still knew Pansy the best out of any of them, so of course he was the one to find her, having already been sitting in the running shower fully-clothed for almost an hour. He stepped in and sat next to her underneath the cold water, letting her rest her head against his shoulder.

Despite the rumours she knew had gone around the school, he had never made her do anything she didn't want to do. They had awkwardly fumbled through it together, before they broke it off during his disastrous sixth year. Then she got up to all sorts of things with several other Slytherin boys to make him jealous, but it hadn't worked because he had more important things on his mind than her. It gave her quite a reputation, while he became more and more withdrawn. Now they were both broken, but at least they were friends again.

"I got an owl from my dad today," she said to him later, wrapped in layers of blankets like armour. "He's transferred a load of gold into my account so the Ministry can't seize it from him, and washed his hands of me. So now that's the other parent, finally giving up."

"I always wanted a sister," he said to her. "Can't say much about my own parents, but you've got me."

"Alright. But I'm not changing my name to Pansy Malfoy, although you're more than welcome to become a Parkinson. I would love to see Lucius's face," she replied, and they both broke into laughter.

A few minutes later, Astoria came through the doorway, sliding on the wood floors. She was wearing sunglasses, one of her mother's jeweled tiaras, and Draco's old Quidditch robes with a stereo propped on her shoulder. "AND I WOULD WALK FIVE HUNDRED MILES AND I WOULD WALK FIVE HUNDRED MORE," she sang at the top of her lungs.

"I hate this song," Draco and Pansy said simultaneously, but didn't do anything to stop her.

Pansy was sure people on either side would be horrified to see a pureblood Slytherin behaving like this right now-right after the war-but maybe that was the point. The Greengrass sisters were both eager to defy societal norms, but Astoria especially. Pansy suspected it was part of some larger plan of hers, but sometimes she didn't even want to know what was going on in that girl's head.

Astoria subjected her to a passionate explanation soon enough, after Pansy asked who all those letters she was furiously writing were being sent to. Turns out she was communicating with the most popular Slytherins in each year.

"Our House is long overdue for a bit of teenage defiance," Astoria declared. "It's likely that the most fervent supporters who aren't dead or in Azkaban won't send their children back this year. And even for those who do-well, Dumbledore told Slughorn who told Tracey who told me that none of the Death Eaters besides Snape were able to cast a Patronus. Not even the ones with children, Pansy. We have reasons to rebel against pureblood culture, don't you think?."

"I suppose."

"We were taught not to question things, right? So it's no wonder when we get to school and everyone else says Slytherins are all evil and treat us like we're destined to be criminals-we don't question it. And at least the other Houses had McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick-who did we have? Such fine examples of leadership as Snape, Alecto, Amycus, and Umbridge. The best option we had was Slughorn and he was too busy socialising with pureblood parents that he didn't see how they were failing their own children." Astoria threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

She continued, "So we settle for apologies and excuses like 'oh Draco, sorry I lost my temper, here's a new broomstick' as if that will fucking make up for it. But you know what, at least Lucius and Narcissa came through in the eleventh hour-"

"-but what about everyone else?" Pansy finished. She did agree with that point.

"Wait and see, Pansy. It's going to be quite the summer for Slytherin House."

Astoria was right, of course. Ariadne Vaisey had announced to her parents over dinner that she was dead-set on becoming an Auror and no one was going to stop her before legging it upstairs and throwing herself and her school trunk out the window where a few Slytherin alumni were waiting to cast Cushioning Charms and Side-Along her out of there. The Runcorn siblings had staged a similar but more public scene at the Quidditch World Cup, although they didn't run away and instead continued to raise hell in their own home. Flint's younger brother had been forced to choose between Marcus and their parents and was now living at Marcus's flat.

Then thirteen-year-old Essie Rowle turned up at the Greengrass estate, face stained with tears but resolute. Theo was so incensed after hearing her story that he punched the wall and looked at his mangled hand with horror before immediately Flooing to his new mentor's house. He returned with Williamson a few hours later to collect Essie and take her to her temporary carers. When the girl was told that they were a married Muggle-born couple, she didn't bat an eye and stated that anything was better than where she had just left. Word spread after that incident, and the handful of Slytherin adults who had followed Slughorn into the battle to assist the Light side created an informal network to ensure that all the current students had somewhere to go, if necessary, before school started.

Pansy thought the concepts of redemption and atonement were overrated and unattainable. But defiance did have a particular appeal.