"Weasel? again?" Draco demanded as she stepped through into the back room. One glance at her dress seemed to have told him everything.
He spared a second glance for her face, his pale blue eyes serious and searching, and she smiled. Reassured, he snorted and shook his head, turning back to the cauldron.
"What in Salazar's name were you thinking?" A pained expression crossed his face as he added a couple of drops of a dark purple liquid to the concoction before stirring three strokes clockwise and then another five anti-clockwise.
"Hello to you too," she muttered as she collapsed ungracefully into the armchair in the corner.
"You don't deserve a greeting if you've gone slinking back to that Crettin, and if you've lost all your faculties then a lack of salutation is the least of your problems,"
"He's not a Crettin..."
"He's an uncouth, uncultured, blithering idiot! Oblivious swine! Hades knows why Shacklebolt promoted him to head,"
"I see someone's not bitter..." she smirked
"Bitter? What on earth could I have to be bitter about?" He snapped, throwing a glare at her before returning his attention to the potion brewing in front of him.
"Certainly not over your lost game of chess with him last week?"
"That has absolutely nothing to do with it, and you know it!" he retorted, turning back to the bubbling brew.
She slouched, feeling her heart thud in her throat like she was running late for an appointment, or racing towards a finish line. She swallowed. What was happening to her? It couldn't have anything to do with seeing Ron, could it?
That night... that whole week, in fact, had been one of the worst she had ever experienced for so many reasons, and it was certainly not one that she was in any rush to repeat. So she was at a loss to explain what had happened. One minute she was fully in control of herself, the next she wanted to press herself against his skin, and drink him in. She shook her head and blushed. Even now, she could taste his lips on hers, and her body longed for more.
Her eyes drifted to Draco, as she waited for him to finish. She could understand Molly being annoyed with how she had left Ronald. No note, no explanation, nothing. However, if she had told them the real reason, she would have been sucked into a bottomless pit of Weasley's, and the control over her own body would have been forfeit.
Her eyes followed the lean lines of Draco in his shirt, as the material disappeared into his trousers. Her gaze lingered on his tight backside as the fabric pulled taut as he moved. She wondered what it would feel like to smack and kneed it.
She physically jumped as she realised what she was thinking, her cheeks blazing with the heat of a thousand suns. What the fuck was wrong with her?
"You alright?" He asked, glancing back at her. She nodded wordlessly before looking away. She and Draco had never had that sort of relationship, nor would they as Draco's tastes were of a more masculine flavour. She was just admiring, there was nothing wrong with that.
Sighing, she tried to convince herself that everything was good even as the hormones raged in her system. After some mental arithmetic, she knew that it was nowhere near that time of the month, so there was no reason that she should be so close to ripping her best friends clothes off.
She blamed Ron. Maybe he was a Crettin after all!
Finally, he finished the potion, bottled and labelled it before turning his full attention to her.
"So, tell me everything, Little Stepmother?" He asked kindly, but with a teasing twinkle in his eye.
"Using that name for me doesn't endear me," She sneered
"All the others are so… dramatic," He said with a roll of his eyes. "Tittle-my-fancy? Bouncing Bet? Heartsease?"
"That one," She smiled, trying to ignore how he moistened his lips with his tongue.
"So tell me everything, my heartsease," He purred, and she smiled.
"I can't," She said regretfully. "It's not my tale to tell," She shrugged, her thoughts going to Neville. His strong jaw and warm eyes watching her like a cat stalking birds. His intensity made her breath catch in her throat, that raw and unfettered power. She wondered how he would look after a few decent meals and a good nights sleep. Her mind rushed to the thought of him in bed…
"Pansy!" Draco shouted.
"Huh?" She blinked at him. "What? No need to shout! I'm only here!"
"Physically maybe… Where did you just go?" He asked
"Nowhere," She said with a frown. Maybe she was just tired…
"I was asking you why you were here, you don't normally visit me at work." He asked, the suspicious look still on his face.
"I wanted to know how much you would charge for a Wolfsbane potion if someone could provide most of the ingredients?" She asked. Draco straightened, his pale face a blank mask as his eyes narrowed in confusion.
"Dumbledore's delight? If this is your way of telling me you're a werewolf, I demand you leave, come back in and try again,"
"It's not me!" she tutted.
"Then, who?" He asked, leaning forward again. "The Pansy, I know, wouldn't come to see little old me, about something like this unless it was important,"
"It is important, it's for a patient,"
"How many patients do you have?" He crossed his arms over his chest, "You've never come in for one of them before… what's special about this one?"
"I'm not hearing a price…" Pansy said avoiding the question as she avoided looking at his cherub's bow lips.
"well… which ingredients are we talking about?"
"All of them except the Venomous Tentacular leaves and the Acromantular venom."
"So the important ingredients then," He said with a raised eyebrow. He shook his head and stood, pacing as he worked the cost. "The street cost is about seventy Galleons, but the quality is variable, so the Vervain isn't gathered specifically at Midsummer, and they use any old Bloodroot, not the kingroots." He said thoughtfully, he fell quiet again.
She watched as his mind worked on the problem, wondering what the outcome would be.
"If I could get everything and I mean everything except the leaves and venom, I could go as low as fifty-five galleons, and if it was for you, I wouldn't be able to accept less than forty." He blushed at this. Pansy knew he hated taking money from her knowing she had so little. His parents had the forethought to set up a trust fund which Draco couldn't touch until his twenty-first birthday.
"So if it was for a friend, I could say fifty?" She asked; hopefully, He narrowed his eyes but nodded.
"On average, moons around the quarter days would be slightly higher, but only because the recipe would need to be adjusted to take into account the solar shifts."
She nodded, understanding now, just why Augusta has started selling her furniture, 4000 galleons was no small sum. She could purchase her whole flat for less.
"Thank you, Draco,"
"Not so fast. I do have certain conditions,"
"But of course," she nodded.
"Firstly, I would need to know who the potion was for as there may be underlying health problems that could affect the potency. I would need to see where the herbs are grown and have full access to them to collect when I need them. Obviously, they would only be used for the… friends potion," He paused.
"I will relay it to my friend, and I will come back to you." She smiled. She needed to go, it felt like fire ants were crawling and biting their way up her arms.
"Please be careful, my heartsease," He said, reaching to grab her hand.
There was a time she would have retorted, saying that she always was… She cringed inwardly. She wasn't able to say that any more.