A.N. It's been a while... and it was crazy time... Thank You for all Your support and reviews, it really helped me:D Hope You won't be disappointed:)
Even seeing the dark coffin being lowered deep into the tomb, Harry still couldn't believe what had transpired a few days before. Ever since Ginny's screaming had alarmed him and Ron and they had run out of the interrogation room to face terrified Draco, everything appeared to be one big nightmare he wished he could have wake up from. Harry knew that for the rest of his life he would not forget the scene they found when they had appeared in Malfoy Manor the smell of blood floating in the air, Draco's cries when, despite their orders, he had rushed forward to help disorientated and bloody Hermione and the emptiness in Pansy's eyes when he had knelt beside her to see how badly she had been hurt. She had been bruised, bleeding from the wounds scarring her clear skin, but what had disturbed him the most were her eyes, entirely empty, as if her will of life have evaporated from her.
"Pansy?" he asked gently reaching for her hand, but she did not react, only more firmly tightened her arms around the man lying across her knees. His condition Harry did not have to check, the knife sticking out grotesquely from Greg's chest left no doubt that nothing could be done for him.
"I'm so sorry Pansy" he tried to break through the wall she had built, but it looked like he couldn't find the right words.
And she remained silent, she remained silent when Ron and he gently took Greg's body out of her arms when they transported her to St. Mungos where her wounds were dressed, and even when horrified Narcissa ran up to her in the hallway to hug her. Pansy was silent and her eyes remained hollow.
It was Hermione who, as soon as the healers reassured her about the child's condition, told them all details of how they had been attacked, how Pansy tried to protect her and finally how Greg died.
"It was seconds! Fractions of seconds! Greg held her by the neck, but she had a knife and hit him the very moment Pansy cast the spell! Seconds!" Hermione couldn't stop shaking, even in Draco's arms, remembering the nightmare they had experienced
Harry gritted his teeth, staring at the mourners. The Aurors were all standing with cloudy faces, after all failure had a bitter taste. Greg's death was proof of their failure, they failed to protect him. Worse, had it not been for the magic of Malfoy Manor and Greg, both Hermione and her child and Pansy would have died.
Harry knew how much Arthur felt his defeat because he himself felt as if he was the biggest failure of all time. He failed Greg, who he had promised to protect Pansy, he failed Blaise, who had been warning him with his dying breath, he failed spectacularly! So what that Serena was dead, struck by Pansy's curse, so what that they had the knife that the other victims had been killed with, if they still didn't know who the main perpetrator was! Neville's interrogation didn't produce anything, Hermione couldn't say anything about him, and Pansy was silent. In the end, Harry allowed himself to sneak a glance at her motionless figure. She stared only at the coffin.
"I need to talk to you." Draco indicated to Harry the door to the room across the hall.
Harry hesitated gazing at the door to Pansy's bedroom in front of which he had been staying since they returned from the graveyard. Pansy disappeared behind them without a word, but he would rather not leave in case she needed him.
"We'll leave the door open. You'll hear her if she needs you" Draco said. "Come on!"
Harry went into the room without a word and sat down in an armchair from which he had a perfect view of the corridor.
"Harry, when Hermione fell asleep, I checked the wards around Malfoy Manor." Draco sat across from him. "They are fine."
Harry looked at him with no understanding.
"You're wrong, Serena got here," he stated, "she must've broken the wards! That's what the Aurors claimed after checking everything!"
Draco stubbornly twisted his head. "No. They're wrong, the wards are still intact."
Harry frowned. "Maybe she used some kind of black magic" he suggested.
Malfoy laughed bitterly " You're forgetting who put them around this house. My father may have been the biggest bastard under the sun, but he was also a devilishly capable wizard. No one, not even Voldemort himself would have been able to break his wards. Aurors don't know anything about that kind of spells."
"So how did she get here?" Harry asked, although he had a feeling he already knew the answer.
"The only way possible, she was brought in by someone who has access to the house." Draco rubbed his forehead with a tired gesture.
"Draco, who can enter Malfoy Manor unobstructed?"
"That's the problem." Draco looked him straight in the eye. "The only person outside of our trustworthy comrades-in-arms is Pansy."
Harry frozen.
Serena's partner was one of them? Off course! Blaise final words! He was talking about betrayal, warning him to not believe. How could he not understand it?!
"You need to strengthen the security," he said after a while.
"I already did." Draco got up and walked up to the window. "Now only me, Hermione, mom, Pansy and you can turn up at Malfoy Manor. Everyone else will be stopped.."
"Thank you for your trust," Harry said
Draco shrugged his shoulders. "It has nothing to do with trust. Pansy is my family, and you... I see the way you look at her. " Draco grinned mockingly at Harry's surprise. "You wouldn't hurt her. "
Harry nearly fell asleep when he felt the door behind his back move. He jumped on his feet.
"Pansy?" he asked, but there was no response.
He pressed the door a bit and took a tentative step into the room. The darkness in the room was dispelled by the moonlight coming in through a huge window. In its silvery glow, Harry saw a figure lying on the bed. Pansy was lying rolled up in a ball turned away from him still dressed in a black dress which she wore for the funeral. For a moment Harry remained unsure what to do when in the silence of the room a choked whine was heard. Pansy was crying. Harry went into the bedroom without a word and closed the door quietly. He came to bed and sat on the edge, his weight dipping the mattress down. Pansy didn't move and Harry thought it was a good sign. At least she didn't tell him to get out. He reached out his hand towards her back but hesitated. He didn't want to frighten her. Instead, he reached for the cover lying down and wrapped it gently around her trembling figure.
"This was the second time that he'd saved me."
He heard her whisper quietly, he waited unwilling to interrupt her now when she seemed to be ready to let him in.
" First time was during the war. "
She turned on her back and looked straight at him.
"The older Death Eaters liked… they liked to play with young girls. They usually vanished somewhere for months, and afterwards only a few came back alive."
Harry clamped his mouth shut, he was starting to understand everything and it filled him with horror.
"The only rule they followed was that they did not touch the wife of another Death Eater, it was dictated by their honor" she snorted "Honor? Can you believe it? The same honor that made my father try to sell me to the highest bidder!"
Harry nodded his head. Now had all the answers, Millicent and Crabbe, Pansy and Greg, he wondered how much more of such marriages had been made. He preferred not to even think about the fate of those girls who had no friends to protect them. Draco had been a spy at the time, Blaise had been officially neutral, and unofficially helped Draco to pass on information. If it hadn't been for Greg, Pansy would have shared the fate of those girls!
"He saved me from them back then, and I didn't manage to save him, not then and not now!"
"Shhhhh, it wasn't your fault" he reassured her rubbing her arm. "It wasn't your fault. He saved you and Hermione, he was a hero."
Pansy gave him a trembling smile " Yes, he was, he was my friend and my hero."
Hope You like it, please let me know:)