Hell Tastes Sweet

Chapter Sixteen

It had to be some sort of nightmare, things were just going from bad to worse…

"Professor…surely you don't believe a word of what Zabini said, do you?" Pansy asked just refusing to believe that the whole thing was actually happening to her.

"Well…to be honest, he did sound pretty convincing…" the professor replied.

Pansy looked at him in the eye and then she saw it. It was useless to argue. Professor Snape had already made up his mind about the whole incident.

Getting desperate, Pansy said:

"Granger and Weasley were there…they actually rescued me…."

She then saw some unidentified feeling flashing across the Slytherin House's. He started sacking his head making his black, greasy locks to move with it.

"Miss Parkinson…there is no need to get Granger and Weasley involved…those two have their egos big enough as it is…I'm sure they have enough praise as it is being friends with Mr-I'm-so-famous-Harry-Potter…."

"But it's true…they were there…" Pansy said feeling like she was about to cry.

"Miss Parkinson…drop the act…I'm not about to punish you…although I really should give you some detention so you learn not to lie…but…at it is…I feel quite magnanimous and I will not pursue the truth. Let's just leave things like they are…I will talk to Mr Zabini as to calm him down…I'll give him my word you will not bother him any more…this is what we are going to do…now, you have a common room to go back to…and, Miss Parkinson, be careful with who you liaise with…being seen with Granger and Weasley is not going to do much for your reputation."

With this, the professor got up from his seat and, walking towards his office's door, opened and made a gesture that Pansy interpreted as: get the hell out of here before I change my mind.

Pansy walked to her common room in some sort of trance. She was just in some sort of denial mood. She refused to believe what had just happened.

Snape didn't believe her. Zabini had overtaken her and Snape had bought his version entirely. Draco was not there. 'Oh my…Draco!' thought Pansy. What if any of this got to the blond Slytherin?

Learning from the lesson, she made up her mind to write to Draco that very same night. She had to tell him her version of the facts. At this point she really thought Blaise was enough of a bastard to write to Draco himself.

Alas, Pansy didn't foresee what she was about to face in the common room. As soon as she stepped in, she sensed that something wasn't quite right.

To start with, everyone in the room stopped doing whatever they were doing at the time to clearly stare at her.

Some boys started laughing at her…some girls were looking at her with their eyes full of pity…but what it was worse…some of them were plainly hostile.

One of them was Millicent Bulstrode. The sturdy girl walked towards her, stopping a few centimetres from her.

"You whore…you not only had to fool around Draco but now you also want Blaise…really what makes you think you're so special as to get the best looking guys in the school? You look pretty ordinary to me…" Millicent spat at her.

Pansy was too stunned to say anything back. She was thinking of something to say when she saw her group of faithful friends come to the rescue.

"Come on Pansy…let's go to the dormitory…" Sonia said and Pansy followed without arguing.

Public scorn was something so new to Pansy that she still didn't know how to cope with it.

"Pansy…before we make any assumptions…I'd like to hear your side of the story…" Sonia said as soon as they got to the dorm.

Pansy let out an audible sigh. She started with a very shaky voice, to describe the events that made her end up in the hospital wing.

When she finished, she looked at the group of five girls looking at her. She felt very grateful to see that not only they had believed her but they shared the anger she herself felt.

"I can't believe the bastard!! He told everyone you tried to attack him after he rejected you…he said he didn't find you attractive…he also said that he was not about to take Draco's leftovers…" Sonia said shaking her head.

The girls said argued what to do next to get revenge. Not really caring…Pansy decided to go to bed and rest till the others went to bed…she had every intention to sneak out to send an owl to Draco.

Later on that night, while coming back from the owlery, she saw a group of students sneaking out of the Gryffindor tower. Among them, Pansy recognised two red heads that had to belong to the Weasley siblings. Next to them she saw Hermoine's bushy head. Walking ahead of them Pansy saw Harry Potter talking to Neville Longbottom.

Making up her mind, she walked towards the group.

"Granger…."

Hermoine stopped on her tracks and turned around slowly.

"Parkinson…what on earth are you doing here?" Hermoine whispered looking around as if half expecting to find Professor Snape with them.

"Where are you going?" Pansy asked.

"We…we are…" Hermoine started saying.

"We're going to our D.A. meeting…don't bother reporting us, we have Professor Dumbledore's blessing for this…" Harry said challengingly.

"I wasn't going to report you…" Pansy said.

"Really? And, what makes you think we're going to believe you?" Weasley asked.

"I'm not expecting you to believe me…I need to ask you a favour…" Pansy asked looking at Hermoine in the eye.

"What is it?" Hermoine asked.

"Do you remember you promised to me to teach me some self defence moves?" Pansy asked.

"Sure…" Hermoine said getting a few funny looks from her fellow Gryffindors.

"Well…I would rather join your group instead…I need to learn to defend myself from a lot more than only Blaise…I have a very bad feeling and I'm going to need to know how to fight back…if the occasion calls for it…."

A/N: True to my word…there you go another chapter!! I hope you are still enjoying this…we're going to see some action soon…just bear with me!

Take care, Sanae.