Story Notes!
Hi everyone... here we are... I'm so sorry this is a week late. I do try to keep to some sort of regular posting schedule on these stories, but sometimes real life gets in the way and this has been one of those weeks. From now on, all things permitting, this story is going to be posted every other Saturday and I apologise again for being almost a week late with this update!
Thank you to champagneandliterature for being such an amazing, patient writing partner, I couldn't write this story without your input and help.
So without further ado, here we are! No warnings are needed for this chapter, (I don't think,) if you've made it so far, this chapter should be fine!
Pansy.
Transmarina Cottage appeared to be bursting at the seams with people. Pansy followed Ron in from the garden, blinking as her eyes adjusted from the blinding sunlight outside to the muted daylight of the lounge. The sea breeze blew in through the open patio doors, and she held her arms out to let the cool air blow across her overheated skin. Blaise passed her and Ron glasses of iced water, and Pansy took hers, downed it in one, then wiped her mouth gratefully.
"Hot out there, is it?" Blaise cocked an amused brow as he refilled her glass.
"It is," she confirmed, narrowing her eyes teasingly. "Unbearably so when you're working in it. Not that you'd know about that, considering you've spent the morning sunbathing. The food doesn't grow itself, you know, you could have given us a hand!"
"I'm well aware of that," Blaise said with a smirk. "But you've chased me out of your garden almost as many times as I've chased you out of my kitchen in the past. You grow it, I cook it, remember? Besides, my talents are currently needed elsewhere. I wasn't just sunbathing. I was plotting to save the world."
Pansy nodded, trying to hide her smile. "I see. Is that why you've called us all together for this mysterious meeting then?" her smile faltered as Blaise indicated the centuries old stone Pensieve that was currently sitting on the coffee table. "Okay," she sighed. "Fine. What mad scheme have you cooked up this time?" She blew a stream of air up over her sweaty forehead then cast yet another cooling charm over herself and Ron. She generally loved the hot weather, but this current heatwave was proving too much even for her, especially since it had kicked up yet another notch over the last five days to what were now record breaking temperatures.
"Thanks," Ron muttered, looking flushed and distinctly uncomfortable. He'd made no secret of how much he was struggling with the heat himself. "I redid the cooling charm on the chickens and the rabbits, even on the owls too, since they all looked like they were wilting."
"Thank you." Pansy turned to him with a smile, "this heatwave needs to break soon. I've never done so much watering in my life!"
"Me neither." Ron finished his drink, set the glass down on the table, then stared uneasily at the Pensieve. Pansy wanted to move closer to comfort him, to press into him, and to encourage him to wrap her up in his strong arms, but it was too hot even for that. She reluctantly settled for taking his hand instead. "The garden is incredibly productive right now, though," he said as if trying to cheer them both up. "The last few days particularly, it's like everything has suddenly put on a huge growth spurt. It must be the sea air."
Draco muttered something that Pansy missed, but Blaise pointedly cleared his throat, cutting off any further remarks that Draco might make. Pansy stared at them both in confusion, but Blaise merely set the glass vials that contained copies of Antonin Dolohov's memories down beside the Pensieve then poured another glass of water. Lost in thought, Pansy watched him hand it to Theo, who had just strolled in looking agitated.
Pansy sighed with dismay. Theo swept his usually cheerful eyes around the room, jolted at the sight of Harry, then briefly met her gaze. He connected with her for less than a second before turning hastily away, but Pansy had already seen the truth. Theo always turned to illegal substances when he was feeling unsettled, and today was clearly a bad day. His glazed over eyes never lied, he was currently as high as a kite.
Pansy sighed heavily. There had been a distinctly odd atmosphere in the cottage over the last few days, and she didn't fully understand what was going on. Draco had tried to talk to her about it, but she had felt so guilty for unwittingly destabilizing Harry and Ginny's relationship even further that she had been unable to listen. Seeing how the current situation was affecting Theo, however, she resolved to ask Draco to explain things again.
She knew that the kiss she had shared with Ron had unintentionally evoked their elemental bonding and had, in turn, caused the ever present, semi sentient elemental magic to increase the pressure it was applying to everybody else. According to Draco, having one fused element and three unfused ones made the magic more wild and uncontrolled than ever, which was why Pansy now felt at least partially responsible for the chaos that was playing out around her.
A lot had happened in the five days since her, and Ron's unexpected bonding and the pair of them seemed to be the only ones who were immune to the discontent that was bubbling all around them.
Ginny and Harry were constantly giving each other forlorn glances, and Pansy had found Ginny crying in the kitchen on three consecutive days. The first two times, Pansy had respected Ginny's plea for space, but this morning she had felt compelled to step in and at least try to help. When Pansy had asked what was wrong, Ginny had merely shaken her head and sighed. "I just don't think I can fight it anymore," she'd said. Then, just as she'd been about to elaborate, they had been disturbed by Harry, and Ginny had fled like a frightened rabbit.
Blaise had been on edge for days too. He was never usually snappy, but lately, Pansy had found him biting her head off rather more so than usual. She was particularly worried about Theo, though. He had been home as little as possible, and when she'd seen him at work she had formed a suspicion that his current appearance had just confirmed. His eyes held that red-rimmed, unfocused look that told her he was falling spectacularly back into the clutches of his old demons.
Hermione had been quieter than usual as well, and they'd barely seen Draco in days. Things had to be serious for Draco to willingly spend more time than was absolutely necessary at Malfoy Manor, he was obviously keen to keep out of Hermione's way.
Shaking her head, Pansy sighed. All of this tension combined with the intense, apparently neverending heatwave and the severe lack of rain was becoming a serious problem. She locked eyes with Blaise again and felt his restlessness inside her own heart. She touched his arm as he sat, apparently lost in thought beside the Pensieve. "What's up sweetie?" she asked, "you look worried."
Blaise sighed, gazed hopelessly at Ron, then shook his head. "I'm concerned about this," he admitted, gesturing loosely around the room. "The eight of us purposely haven't been all together since the night I brought Hermione here. Since she was unconscious then, I hardly figure that occasion counts. The elemental pull is getting ridiculous. It's affecting all of us. I don't know if I can-" he broke off to glance at Ginny then closed his eyes as if the very sight of her caused him intense pain. He inhaled deeply. "I'm trying, alright?"
"To resist Ginny?" Ron breathed.
Blaise nodded. "I'm sorry. For whatever may or may not happen when we all go into the Pensieve together."
Pansy looked around sadly. Out of all of them, Blaise and Draco understood elemental magic the best. Magical theory had always been their area of specialty, and although Pansy vaguely understood how unstable unbonded elemental magic was supposed to be, she hadn't realized just how powerful it was until she had pushed Ron away and then almost lost her mind directly afterwards. Trying to fight her destiny had proved to be extremely dangerous. If the magic was affecting the others in the same way, their own eventual bondings were surely inevitable.
She watched Blaise glance around and saw the way his gaze was almost constantly drawn to Ginny. Even from a relative distance, Pansy couldn't miss the heat in both of their eyes. It burned like Fiendfyre as they stared at each other. "For what it's worth, she's feeling it too," Ron said unexpectedly. "And Harry. He's miserable, and Harry is always exceptionally cranky when he's upset."
Pansy blinked. Well, that explained Harry's current propensity towards angry outbursts then. She moved her startled gaze onto Theo, who was sitting as far away from Harry as he possibly could. She could tell from the set of Theo's shoulders that he didn't want to be here. Since Draco hadn't given him a choice in the matter, he was clearly taking the route of detached defiance. Both he and Harry seemed intent on ignoring each other completely.
Then there was Draco and Hermione, who were both sitting stiffly at opposite ends of the sofa, also tensely ignoring each other….
Pansy gave a frustrated huff. She knew Draco, Blaise, and Theo so well that they felt more like extensions of herself than separate people, and seeing them all like this now made her feel deeply uneasy. The tension was building up far too high, Something had to give, and it had to give soon. She knew that when it broke, it would be explosive, but she was also sure that once everything settled down, the others would all start to feel the way she did now. Kissing Ron had caused her lifetime of erratic, unbalanced power to finally right itself, and she wanted the others to experience that for themselves.
Right now, though, that seemed to be a long way from happening. And this afternoon, despite Blaise's misgivings, Draco wanted to take all eight of them together into the Pensieve to look at the memories she had helped to gather. Pansy frowned, turned away from Blaise and looked up at Ron instead. "Do you mind seeing these memories, knowing how we obtained them?" she asked.
In reply, Ron leaned down to kiss her softly. "I won't pretend to be comfortable with what you were doing at the time, particularly with Dolohov of all people, don't forget he was the one who almost murdered Hermione a few years back, but I'm not going to be the only one who doesn't see at first hand what's going on." Pansy nodded, leaning into him despite the heat. "But," Ron continued, cupping her face in his hand, "this goes both ways. Are you comfortable with me seeing them?"
Pansy stared down at her feet as she scuffed her bare, tanned toes across the carpet. Why did he always put her on the spot like this? She bit back one of her trademark brush offs and decided to tell the truth. "No," she admitted. "Not in the slightest. But like you said, you need to see what's going on as well. If you can bear to watch, then I'll just put my big girl pants on and deal with my own misgivings."
"Draco," Blaise said, and Pansy looked up to see his chocolate brown eyes gazing almost pleadingly at her as he spoke, "are you absolutely sure about this?"
Draco nodded grimly. "Yes. They all need to know how things stand. We also need to share information freely between ourselves, so yes, I'm sure. We can't carry on like this," he glanced over at Theo in obvious concern. "Also, if us doing this together works as a catalyst for something else, well, I'd say that's long overdue. Wouldn't you?"
"Fine," Blaise still looked unconvinced.
"Blaise," Draco said, giving him a significant look, "we've got you, alright?"
Blaise nodded slowly, took a deep breath, uncorked one of the vials, paused, apparently thought better of it, and recapped it instead. He summoned some paper and a pen then started to draw a circle onto a sheet of paper. "Before we dive in and potentially set the fireworks off, let me explain what we know so far," he said, motioning everyone to gather around.
Bracing herself, Pansy pulled Ron forwards. "This is how we stand in Death Eater meetings," Blaise explained. The Dark Lord is at the head of the circle here. Draco stands here," Blaise drew smaller circles to represent each person and put their initials inside their circle. "With Bellatrix and Antonin. Next, we have, in this order, Amycus Carrow, Hephaestus Mulciber, Waldon McNair, Thorfinn Rowle, Pansy, Alecto Carrow, Augustus Rookwood, Jasper Avery, Theo, Goyle senior, Rodolphus Lestrange, Thoronus Nott, Victor Crabbe, Rabastan Lestrange, Greg Goyle junior, Corban Yaxley, Joe Selwyn, Tamar Travers, and then myself."
Blaise paused to take a sip of water then continued writing. "We know our own motives, of course, and we also know that most of this inner group are wholly committed to the cause. They live and breathe the Death Eater lifestyle and ideals, and we are therefore certain that most of this entire inner circle are nearly as irredeemable as the Dark Lord himself. But, there are a few we're not so sure about." He looked up, and his whole body jolted as he locked eyes with Ginny. From the rapid rise and fall of both of their chests, Pansy could see that Ginny was finding their close proximity just as tricky as Blaise was. Pansy watched Ginny switch her eyes to Harry, sigh, close her eyes, then wipe away a tear.
Harry took off his glasses to wipe his own eyes, and Pansy was saddened to see him look so utterly defeated. She was surprised by the deep flash of empathy she felt for him. Since she had kissed Ron, she had been finding herself acutely aware of not only Ron's feelings but of Harry's, Ginny's, and Hermione's feelings as well.
Becoming more aware of Ron and Ginny wasn't much of a surprise. Pansy had formed an instant though unexpected friendship with both of them the day they'd arrived at Transmarina Cottage. Away from the politics of Hogwarts, they had all formed an easy alliance and now that she was bonded with Ron, this just felt like a natural progression of that. The same hadn't quite happened with Hermione just yet, but Pansy was trying, and after all Hermione had been through, it was understandable that she would be wary of Pansy and the hideous brand she bore on her arm.
The one Pansy found hardest to get along with was Harry. She couldn't help feeling irritated by him, and she knew the feeling was mutual. They had hated each other in the past, but they had both grown up enough to look past that now. The main reason Pansy struggled with Harry wasn't actually his fault in the slightest. Despite knowing it was deeply unfair, Pansy partially blamed him for the current state of her life. She couldn't help feeling that if he'd destroyed Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts as he was supposed to, then things would be very different now. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to drop her lingering resentment that he hadn't held his spell for a split second longer or used something stronger than an Expelliarmus.
She rolled her eyes, but her feelings towards Harry softened as she watched him. He was clearly distraught by how things appeared to be ending with Ginny, and he also appeared to be unable to stop his eyes from darting to Theo, who was studiously ignoring him. Pansy's heart ached for him. The grudge she had been holding for so long finally fell away. At least he'd tried to end Voldemort. Pansy knew that if she had found herself in Harry's position, self preservation would have kicked in, and she would have run away without a second thought. As for the soft spell he'd used, well, she couldn't really blame him for that now either. She'd killed two people with an Avada Kedavra in the past, purely because her own life had depended on it, and it still haunted her to this day.
As she watched Harry, her very last, lingering vestiges of animosity fell away. Was this another effect of the elemental magic? Harry was Ron's lifelong best friend, after all. Draco had said that their newly formed bonds would be on an unconscious level and that as they all bonded in tighter together, they would become more aware of each other. Was this just more proof that he was right?
Blaise's voice broke through her scattered thoughts, and she snapped back to reality. "We think that Dolohov and Rowle are working together, though to do what, we're not sure. We also have a hunch that the Lestrange brothers might be involved with their cause behind Bellatrix's back, and very possibly Selwyn is in on it too. If we're right, and if we could join forces with them, we would almost double our numbers in one fell swoop. There is one more group that we're investigating, though, and Hermione, I'm sorry for bringing this up now, but it's rather important," Blaise looked up at Hermione kindly, "we think that Fenrir Greyback and his two snatchers Scabior and Parkinson, who is a distant cousin of Pansy's, are at war with another rogue group," he said, pointing out yet more dots on the page. "We believe that McNair, Avery, Mulciber, and possibly Travers were the group that kidnapped and held you in an effort to get back at Greyback. I'm sorry to ask, but do those names sound familiar?"
Hermione blinked wide doe eyes and looked as if she would have bolted out of the room had she been able. "I really am sorry to ask you this," Blaise added, softening his voice and looking at her with added sympathy.
"I don't know who any of them were, I'm afraid," Hermione admitted quietly. "They were careful not to use each other's names around me. I think there were four of them, though. I was blindfolded most of the time, and when I wasn't they wore masks-" she broke off with a shiver. Pansy's eyes widened as she glanced at Draco. Despite the still overwhelming heat, the lethal expression on his face chilled her to the bone.
"Do you think you would recognize their voices?" Draco asked in a carefully measured tone.
Hermione hesitantly met his eyes. "Maybe, yes," she admitted.
Pansy's gaze flicked over to Blaise, who had just clenched his fists as Ginny put a comforting hand on Hermione's arm. "So, those are the reasons we needed to get into Antonin's mind," Blaise said, shaking his head as if to clear it. "None of us have seen these memories yet, except for Theo, so if you want to see firsthand what's going on, now's the time. I don't know exactly what you'll see, but Theo assures me there's nothing awful in there. You'll have to enter the pensieve at your own risk."
Blaise uncapped both vials, tipped the misty white thoughts into the stone bowl then prodded them with his wand. The memories started to move, swirling gently at first then speeding up until they were whirling around like a miniature tornado. Draco approached the basin first. He leaned over and pitched forwards out of sight. Theo followed without saying a word, then Ginny and Harry dove in still holding onto each other's hands. Blaise waited, eyeing Hermione with concern. "You don't have to come if you'd rather-" he began, but Hermione stood up determinedly and vanished a second later. Finally, Blaise plunged into the mist himself, and after one last look at Ron, who nodded his encouragement, Pansy followed.
She landed in a log cabin in the middle of a pine forest. Antonin Dolohov was seated at a scrubbed wooden table opposite Thorfinn Rowle, Rabastan Lestrange, and Joe Selwyn. "Theo, Pansy, well done," Blaise murmured. A map of Malfoy Manor and its surrounding gardens was spread out on the table. The sound quality of the memory was terrible though, and the visual clarity of it kept wavering in and out of focus.
"Why's the vision so hazy?" Harry asked. "When I've been in memories before, they've been as clear as watching real life."
"Remember what Dolohov was doing at the time this memory was taken," Draco said. "These thoughts are not freely given, this is about as good as they get."
Harry frowned at Draco's implications. Pansy gripped Ron's hand tightly, but he didn't seem fazed. He had clearly prepared himself for what he was going to see.
"It drifts in and out of focus a lot," Theo admitted, "because for Legilimency to be perfect, you have to keep perfect eye contact. It's hard to do that when one of you is invisible, and the other is mid fuck."
"Thanks for that graphic image, Theo," Draco grimaced as they turned their attention back to the hazy memory in front of them. The conversation was difficult to make out, and Antonin's strong accent made things harder still, but Pansy managed to catch enough to understand that they were planning to free a batch of prisoners from the dungeons.
"We'll get Rod to distract Bella. Finn, you can keep Malfoy out of the way," Antonin was saying.
"How?" Thorfinn asked with a frown.
"Slip him fake information on an old order safehouse. Tell him we think Granger's there. That will get him, Nott, and Zabini out of the way, at least. I can distract Pansy-"
"I'm sure you can-"
"Meaning what, Bass?" Antonin spun around to glare at Rabastan, who merely grinned and raised his eyebrows.
"I think we all know what he means," Thorfinn said with a smirk. "And I like your ideas, mate. Malfoy won't want the Dark Lord to know they're still looking for Granger, so it's the perfect double cross, but if you're busy fucking little Pansy to give her a cast iron alibi, who's actually going to let the prisoners out?" Rowle asked.
"Must you be so crude?" Antonin snapped. There was a moment of interference. The vision broke, then the sound cut off completely. "Use… alibi…. we'll work…. in a moment…. all….. of us-"
Their words kept fizzling in and out of focus. Still, Pansy didn't miss the way Thorfinn, Joe, and Rabastan intently studied the map and continued to tease Antonin about his apparent infatuation with her.
"How many are there?" Thorfinn asked, and Pansy focused back on the stuttered conversation.
"Six." The vision was getting shakier again. She flushed as she remembered the reasons why. "Up here….. grounds….. outside….. free…." was all Pansy could make out before everything faded to black.
"Hold tight," Theo said, "this is where he, well, you can figure out what happened here, it comes back, there's about thirty seconds more." As Theo finished talking, the vision returned.
"Along here….. mind the lookouts…... apparate away."
"He'll go nuts." Rabastan asserted. "Malfoy'll go fucking bananas when he finds out."
"Which is why we mustn't be seen!" Antonin exclaimed. "Disillusionment spells all around, and make sure you all have alibis that will stand up to torture. Draco and Bella's torture at that," he finished dramatically as the vision faded, and all of a sudden, Pansy found herself propelled back out of the Pensieve, landing in an undignified heap on the lounge floor of Transmarina Cottage.
It was most unfortunate indeed, she thought as she struggled to pull breath back into her winded lungs, that Ginny had landed directly in Blaise's lap.
Time seemed to stand still as Ginny and Blaise stared at each other, both apparently unable to move. Ron let go of Pansy's hand and moved to Harry's side at the exact same moment that Hermione did. Harry sank down onto the sofa while Ron perched on the arm, and Hermione sat down on the seat beside him.
Nobody moved for a long time. The tension in the room was unbearable. "Do it," Harry breathed eventually. He adjusted his glasses then turned to look at Theo, who said nothing but didn't turn away this time either. The electric charge in the air grew more intense until it became physically uncomfortable. "Gin, I love you, I always will, but we can't carry on like this. It's destroying us all. I know what you want, and you have my blessing for it. Blaise, look after her please." Blaise nodded, looking aghast as Harry stood up. Tears welled in Pansy's eyes while Hermione spoke desperately to Harry and tugged on his hand in a blatant attempt to change his mind. "I'm going down to the cove," Harry said thickly, shaking Hermione off. "Theo, Ginny, I'll wait by the rocks. Whichever one of you comes to find me, I'll understand."
Pansy held her breath. Tears were streaming down Ginny's cheeks as she watched Harry cross the room. "Babes," she whispered, sounding utterly wretched, "thank you." Harry nodded once then let the door fall closed behind him. Blaise reached out and gently, tentatively wiped the tears from Ginny's eyes with the pad of his thumb.
Ginny flinched at his gentle touch, and as Pansy watched, a faint golden glow surrounded them both. Pansy startled as Theo abruptly stood up, grabbed an unopened bottle of firewhisky, and stalked out after Harry. Ginny sat up and turned her face to Blaise. They both hesitated, then slowly, tentatively leaned towards each other. The moment their lips touched, the golden light flashed blindingly and a shower of sparks surrounded them both.
Ron looked shell shocked as he watched his sister melt into Blaise's arms. Their kiss deepened, and the walls of the cottage pulsed briefly with a flash of white light. Pansy blinked as the temperature of the breeze blowing in through the patio doors abruptly dropped by about ten degrees.
Finally, Ginny pulled back to break the kiss. She stood up, offering a hand out to Blaise, blushing deeply as she looked around at the others in the room. Blaise inclined his head towards the door, and Ginny nodded, then they both left without a word.
"Right then," Draco said once they had gone. He scooped the long forgotten memories out of the Pensieve with his wand and replaced them into their vials before snapping the lids on tightly. "I guess we'll talk about the memories later." He grimaced. "Six prisoners escaping, Dolohov's worried about facing my torture, and my chief strategist has just walked off to fuck your little sister, Weasley." Draco threw his hands into the air in abject frustration. His stormy eyes flashed fire, and Hermione instinctively shrank away from him into the sofa.
"Draco," Pansy growled warningly, "get a grip. You're freaking Hermione out." She frowned in disapproval as Draco spun furiously on her, making Ron step defensively to her side. Pansy held up a hand to Ron while she lifted a challenging brow to Draco. She rolled her eyes, holding firm in the face of his tantrum. She was the only person who would ever stare him down when he was in a mood like this and he knew it. "Get. A. Grip," she demanded as he loomed over her with his power crackling menacingly. "Take your broom and go flying." Ron's eyes widened in alarm as Draco stepped forwards, but Pansy held her ground. "Now, Draco Lucius."
At the mention of his father's name Draco visibly sagged. He exhaled heavily and dropped his shoulders. "Sorry, Pans," he said at length. He turned to Hermione, who was still watching him apprehensively from the sofa. "I'm sorry." Hermione nodded, and Draco turned away, grabbed his firebolt from the corner of the room, then strode out through the patio doors. "I won't be long. The weather's finally breaking. There's a thunderstorm brewing," he announced as he kicked off into the air.