After dinner, Pansy and Percy made their way down Diagon Alley to go dancing at the Wild Wand. The street lamps cast a bright glow against the darkening sky, and she caught their reflection in a shop window they passed. Smiling at the sight, she leaned further into Percy, and his arm tightened around her shoulder. She was engulfed by his scent and his nearness, and she wished she could crawl inside his shirt and cocoon herself into his body. Being with him brought her a sense of lightness she was unaccustomed to, not unlike floating buoyant in the gentle waves at a tropical beach.

When they entered the club, the beat of Muggle dance music and pulsing purple and blue lights assaulted her senses. "What is love, baby don't hurt me" flashed through the air, swirling around them, settling into her bones and lifting her up high. A sense of anticipation skittered through her and settled in her chest, waiting impatiently for fulfillment.

They ordered a Firewhiskey, neat, for Percy, and a glass of water for Pansy — she wanted to experience tonight without the haze of alcohol — and settled onto a low sofa near the bar. The midnight blue velvet was soft against Pansy's legs, and the planes of Percy's body were hard against her side.

The loud music discouraged serious conversation, and they watched bodies bounce on the dance floor while chatting about inconsequential things: their plans for the weekend (an evening with friends tomorrow night for her, a row on the Thames and Sunday dinner with family for him) and their favorite subjects in school (transfiguration for her, arithmancy for him — though it would have been history, had Professor Binns not been so boring).

Percy had nearly finished his drink when several figures loomed tall in front of them.

"Pansy! I didn't know you'd be here tonight." It was Tracey Davis, with Blaise, Draco, and Astoria next to her. Pansy's gaze immediately sought her best friend's: Draco was staring at her and Percy, his brows furrowed.

Pansy had known she was likely to run into someone she knew here tonight, but she hadn't expected Draco to be here; she'd thought he was at Daphne's tonight. She extracted herself from Percy's side and stood, while Blaise remarked, "Didn't know you were dating someone new, Pans." He turned to Percy with a lazy nod. "A Weasley, I presume?"

Percy had risen by this time, and stood by her side, taller than all of them. He held his hand out. "Percy Weasley," he introduced himself.

None of her friends were forthcoming with their own names, and Pansy jumped in, eyes flashing in warning at her friends, to introduce them. "Percy, this is Tracey Davis, Blaise Zabini, Astoria Greengrass, and Draco Malfoy. We were all in the same year together at Hogwarts."

"Nice to meet you," Percy said, giving them his bland smile — the one Pansy hated.

"Percy and I work together at the Wizengamot," Pansy told them. "He's the assistant to the Undersecretary to the Minister." She shifted toward him and wrapped her arm around his waist, making it clear to him and her friends that they were, indeed, on a date and that she wasn't ashamed of that fact.

Draco looked intently at Pansy, not willing to question her here in front of Percy, but clearly wanting an explanation at some point in the future. Then his eyes shifted to the ginger wizard by her side. "Nice to meet you, Percy," he drawled, his face impassive.

Tracey nodded. "Yes, nice to meet you." She turned to Pansy. "Good to see you, love, we'll catch up later."

"Sorry about my friends," Pansy said as they walked away. Their behavior annoyed her, but she hadn't expected anything different.

"No problem," he breezed. "I'm well aware of what most of your house thinks of my family. Including you, when you first met me." He pinched her side with a smirk.

"Hey! I apologized!"

"You did." He tickled her, which she flinched away from with a giggle, and then his smirk spread out into the sweet smile she loved. "Wanna dance?" He held out his hand.

"I'd love to."

Percy pulled her close on the dance floor, "One more time" pulsing loudly through the room. He kept his hands on her bum while she danced against him, and she ran her hands across his chest to the beat of the music. Her mind shut down, and her body took over, lost in the sounds around her and singularly attuned to the movements of the tall, trim man pressed against her.

By the time a new song started, his lips were on her neck and her hands rested in the back pockets of his denims. She spoke loudly into his ear, over the repeated chorus of "Please don't go." "I thought you weren't comfortable with public displays of affection."

"I don't mind it here. Half the people around us are doing the same."

"So here's fine, but not the file room?" She was partly teasing, and partly serious.

He rolled his eyes without answering her and then captured her lips and engaged in a very public display of affection with an open mouthed kiss, which she sank into with pleasure. She felt as buzzed from the music and the lights and Percy's body against hers as she would have with a martini in her. Every trace of his lips along her jaw, every push of his hips into her belly, every trail of his hands on her back sent shivers of want through her.

The floor became more crowded, people pressing in on every side, and after a bit, Tracey pushed her way through the surrounding bodies, followed by Blaise, yelling "Who let the dogs out!" Pansy glanced at her date in hesitation; he nodded with a smile, signaling his ease with her friends joining them. She let him go and turned to Tracey, bumping their hips together while they sang. After dancing several songs with Tracey and Blaise — Draco and Astoria were nowhere to be seen — Percy yelled, "I'm hot. Come with me to get some fresh air?"

Pansy gave her friend a kiss on the cheek and a squeeze of her hand, winked at Blaise, and followed Percy off the dance floor. They sidled up to the bar for waters. Pansy's clothes were starting to stick to her, and while she fanned herself, Percy pulled out his wand and aimed a cooling charm at them both. Blissfully fresh air settled over her, and she sighed in relief and aimed a drying charm at her clothes.

"I rather liked your dress sticking to you," Percy said into her ear.

She laughed and shifted closer to him, running her hand up the placket of his shirt. She was keen to get him home and see what he looked like with it off. Before she could ask if he was ready to leave, though, he broke into a wide grin, looking over her shoulder.

"Ginny!" he yelled past her.

Pansy turned around, and Ginny Weasley was standing there. The moment the other witch saw Pansy's face, her eyes widened in surprise.

Oh shite.

Ginny glanced back and forth between Pansy and her brother a couple of times before her entire countenance crumpled into an angry glower. "Percy. I didn't know you were here." Her words were forced, tight.

He looked confused by his sister's hostility and tried to introduce Pansy to Ginny, but she interrupted. "I know Pansy Parkinson, Percy. What are you doing here with her?"

Percy furrowed his brows and, with his next words, stepped right into the giant pile of shite Pansy had created two years ago between herself and any friend of Harry Potter's, at the start of the Battle. "We're on a date," he replied, his voice rising at the end, questioning Ginny's belligerent inquiry.

The redheaded witch rolled her eyes. "I can see that, unfortunately. Why?"

He took hold of Pansy's hand, which she tried to tug away, but he didn't let her. "Ginny, I know your houses didn't get along at Hogwarts, but the war is over. We've moved past it. Pansy and I work together," he added. He squeezed her hand, in a gesture she knew was meant to be reassuring but instead made shame well up inside her.

She wanted to escape, maybe make an excuse to use the loo and then sneak away. Ginny would surely tell Percy that Pansy had tried to hand Harry over to Voldemort during the Battle, and Pansy didn't know if she could bear seeing the look of disappointment in Percy's eyes. She knew she didn't want to listen to his subsequent inevitable rejection.

She attempted to tug her hand free of his grip, but he held her tighter. She tried to catch his eye, to let him know silently that she wanted to leave, but he didn't notice; his gaze remained focused on his sister. Pansy looked between them, and they could have been twins were it not for the age difference. Both their eyes were blazing. Ginny's lips were compressed into a thin line, while Percy's jaw clenched.

"Do you have any idea how she acted to us in school? Any idea what she tried to do to Harry?"

Knots formed in Pansy's stomach, and the refrain of Cher singing "Do you believe in life after love?" mocked her, its upbeat melody a bitter contrast to the situation playing out in front of her.

Percy frowned. "It's in the past, Ginny. People grow up."

Ginny broke the stare-off with her brother and turned to Pansy, her eyes flashing like fire. "I don't know what you did to convince Percy you're a worthwhile human being, but clearly he doesn't know who you really are."

She turned back to her brother. "Ask her to tell you what happened in the Great Hall before the Battle started, Percy. Have a nice night." The redhead stormed away into the crowd, and Pansy stood there, unsure what to do next, while Percy kept hold of her hand. She couldn't respond with a sarcastic or snarky comeback about his own sister to him, and regardless, everything Ginny said had been justified.

Percy started to speak, but Pansy interrupted him. "Percy, I'm sorry. We should probably talk, but I don't want to do it here." She waved her hands to the frolicking people around them.

He shook his head. "Pansy, whatever Ginny's upset about, it's in the past. I know none of the Slytherins stayed to fight in the Battle. What's done is done. I know you now, and I don't care what happened in the battle. I don't even want to know. It doesn't matter anymore." He was clearly troubled by his sister's reaction, but his eyes were gentle, regarding her with nothing but trust and sincerity.

"But—" she started to protest, but he cut her off with a shake of his head.

"I don't want to hear it. It doesn't matter." He took her other hand, holding them both up to his chest. "Let's get out of here."

The plaintive peal of "Look at the stars and how they shine for you… " followed them out of the club's entry. The street felt very quiet when the doors closed behind them.

"Percy, I don't think—"

"Shhh," he interrupted. He slanted his lips over hers, gently probing until she yielded to him. His hands ran up her ribcage, brushing the sides of her breasts as he'd done in the file room. She wanted more than just tender grazing touches, even though she knew that, after the encounter with Ginny, she and Percy needed to talk, and that Percy, despite his claims of leaving the past alone, would likely want to move on from her. His fingers continued to brush along her sides, and she whispered his name into his mouth on a sigh, pressing closer against him.

A sudden burst of voices sounded as the club's doors opened, and "They were all yellow" bled from the entry. A group of wizards stumbled onto the street, wolf whistling at her and Percy as they passed by. Their voices faded as they made their way down the sidewalk, and Percy finally pulled away, his lips swollen and his blue eyes dark under the dim street lamps.

"Come back to my flat?" he asked.

She wanted to. Merlin, she wanted to.

"I haven't known you long," he said after a moment, when she didn't answer, "but I haven't yet seen you back down from anything. Don't let my sister get in the way of this." He motioned between them. "I'll deal with Ginny. If our relationship survived me believing Harry was a nutter while I worked with Fudge, it'll survive me dating someone she doesn't like."

Pansy supposed that Percy's actions hadn't been so terribly different from her own, and that thought gave her the push she needed. She breathed, "Okay. Your flat sounds nice."

His lips curled into a grin, which she couldn't help but return, despite the nervous roiling in her belly. "It's a nice night," he said. "Let's walk?"

She wrapped her arm in his, and they set off down the street, anticipation palpable and thick between them.