"You ever notice the way he looks at her?" - Mattie to Wayne between shifts.
There were reasons for Pansy's high security measures. Three bodyguards who watched her home around the clock. Reinforced windows and doors. Expensive wards placed all over her property. They all had a purpose.
To keep the Brotherhood of the Chosen far, far away.
She worried that venturing from her home on this trip to Diagon Alley was a bad idea, one that even gained some merit when she ran into Harry Potter's wife, Ginny. The sight of that flaming red hair nearly had her running for the Apparation Point, and worse, Neville Longbottom stood just behind Ginny, cleaning up the mess they all made.
Someone The Brotherhood loved almost as much as Harry.
Pansy wasn't nuts. She understood the religious sect for what it really was. A cult. Fanaticism at its worse. But that rational understanding did little to ease the terror and hurts of three attempts on her life and a long standing stream of hate mail and vindictive letters.
Seeing Neville made her reach out automatically for Mattie, for protection, because Pansy was no good with a wand. Especially when it came to defense. But when he grabbed her by the shoulders and put his lips over hers, the surprise froze her in place. Then a lot of things happened at once.
One, she knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, who her dream lover was.
Two, there was a ghost in her mind trying to possess her, one named Stella.
And three, that she loved her husband more than life itself, and wanted nothing more than to be with him. And finally, finally, after 50 long years consummate their marriage.
The overload of complicated emotions, some hers, some not, finally got her to move away. Pushing on Neville Longbottom's sturdy shoulders and pulling her face away from his desperate attentions. "Mattie! Help!" she managed to scream, even as he continued to kiss her face and jaw line, clearly having lost his damn mind.
She watched her bodyguard jump into action, the Black Ash wand twirled through the air and a loud bang separated Pansy's body from Neville's. Knocked into yet another shelf, Pansy managed to roll onto her side and come up on her hands and knees. Wobbly and gasping for breath.
She looked up.
Ginny was just as fast as Mattie, her wand coming out and pointing with precision.
The ruckus caused the owner of the shop and several other customers to rush to their aisle. "Now, I don't want any trouble," Matt said calmly, fearless and steady. "Your friend attacked my charge, I broke them apart in defense. We are going to leave now."
"Attacked?" Ginny scoffed. "I hardly call that an attack. What you did was an attack."
"And does your friend go around kissing other women who clearly don't want to be kissed?" Matt shot back quickly. "No? I didn't think so. Lower your wand."
"Do not tell me what to do."
It became crystal clear to Pansy that Ginny, even years after the war, was more than capable with her wand and just as steady as Matt. Unblinking, the two of them held their wands at the ready and pointed directly at each other.
"Mattie," she groaned as she rose to her feet for the second time. "Lower your wand, let's get out of here before anyone else gets involved."
The Brotherhood did not need anymore of a reason to harass her.
A taut silence followed her words and she wondered if Mattie would let it go, her cranky mood in need of an outlet. Oh God. Just what she needed. Another incident because Mattie needed a damn cigarette! "Mattie! Now!"
With a nasty snarl her bodyguard turned and grabbed her arm, leading them past the group of onlookers and a knocked out Neville Longbottom. Being dragged by didn't stop her from seeing the large knot forming on his forehead which in turn turned her stomach sour in an instant.
Ten weeks and two days since the last incident, and if one of those fanatics from the Brotherhood found out that she attacked Ginny Potter and Neville Longbottom…
The hate mail might stop, but only because they would start hunting her in earnest.