Heaven Tastes Sweeter
Chapter Three
The morning of the last day of October was a very wet one, the dark grey clouds that covered the sky didn't even allow one to imagine that somewhere beyond that thick layer, there was a sun shining.
Pansy's humour was very much according to the weather. As every morning, she ran to the Great Hall not so much because she was hungry and wanted to get her breakfast but because she hoped that today, unlike the rest of the days she'd been back to school, she would finally get a word from Draco telling her he was alright, or even better, that he was coming back.
Predictably enough, other than a short note from her mum wishing her a Happy Halloween, there was nothing else for her and, as usual, a strong feeling of disappointment crept up from her stomach to take possession of her throat preventing her from eating properly.
"Pansy…you really should eat something…I've never mentioned it earlier but…you've lost lots of weight recently…" Sonia's worried voice reached her inside her little world and making her realise that she was indeed just playing with the food without actually eating any of it.
"I'm not hungry…really…" Pansy replied obviously not convincing Sonia very much.
"Well…at least eat some of the scrambled egg…you need the proteins!!" Sonia insisted.
"Sonia…you sound like my mum!" Pansy said pretending to be annoyed…
"Speaking of whom, what did you ask her to send you for the party?" Sonia asked.
"What do you mean?" Pansy asked completely flabbergast.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten?" Sonia said with dismay.
"I honestly don't know what you're on about…" Pansy repeated while thinking, really hard, in a vain attempt at trying to remember anything important enough to make Sonia look that worried.
"Pansy…we were meant to ask our parents for sweets and stuff for the party!" Sonia said sounding really disappointed.
"Ah! I knew there was something…" Pansy said with a touch of misery in her voice, suddenly remembering…and feeling even worse because of Sonia's distressed face.
"Pansy!! Oh well, do you think if you send an owl now you'll get anything before seven?" Sonia asked.
"I don't know but it's worth to try…" Pansy said thoughtfully.
"Well…what are you waiting for? Get moving then!" Sonia said sounding less disappointed now and returning to her usual bossy self.
Pansy ran obediently to send the owl hoping she would make it to her first lesson on time.
She never made it to the classroom though, instead, she found Hermione in one of the corridors.
"Pansy…we've been looking for you…we're about to have a special meeting so, if you please, follow me…" the Head Girl said.
"Alright…but, what's going on?" Pansy said while walking alongside a very worried looking Hermione.
"I'm not sure …but it must be important if Dumbledore asked for us to be exempted from our morning lessons." Hermione replied.
Pansy didn't add anything else. She was now looking as worried as Hermione.
"Alright, now that we're all gathered here," Dumbledore started once everyone of the Hogwarts defence group was there in one of the unused classrooms, "we've had confirmation that Voldemort has been sighted somewhere up north. This fact, and some other information I'm not allowed to discuss with you now, is leading us to believe that Voldemort's headquarters are located there. You all now how important it is for us to strike first…before they've had time to organise themselves, so for this reason, I've been requested by the Ministry to select a few of you that will help the Aurors and the other members of the Ministry to prepare a mission…"
"We're ready!" Harry exclaimed making Dumbledore smile.
"Harry…I know you're ready but…this is only the first battle of this war…I will not be including you in the list of students…" Dumbledore announced provoking sudden rush of concerned whispering among the students.
"What? Why not?" Harry asked sounding surprised and hurt.
"Harry…I need you for something else…you know what it is, don't you?" Dumbledore asked trying to sooth the upset young man.
Harry was obviously dying to say something else but, with a visible effort, refrained himself from doing so and simply nodded.
"Alright then, the list of students who will be sent to the Ministry to help will be sent to your common rooms tomorrow night…now, Harry you've got my permission to have one your training sessions instead of going back to your lessons…I will now go to my office to meditate…" Dumbledore said getting up leaving the students alone.
During the session, Harry seemed a bit more nervous than usual, so much that at some point Hermione had to ask him to take a break and relax before he got someone seriously injured.
Pansy kept practicing her hexes and, although she was particularly gifted with the cutting ones, it was the ones that immobilised the opponent that truly interested her.
She kept concentrating and, in order to be as harmful as possible, she kept thinking that the mannequin that they were using to practice had the face of the most disgusting guy on earth: Blaise Zabini.
At dinnertime, and after having had an extraordinarily tiring day, Pansy didn't want anything else but to have a long relaxing bath and the comfort of her soft bed. However, the small parcel containing some sweets and a bottle of butter beer, courtesy of her mum, reminded her that she would get none of the two.
She had a party to attend, and what a party!
The entire Slytherin common room was a mess. People were dancing, eating, drinking or otherwise entertaining themselves.
Sonia was dancing with a fellow seventh year and looked like she was having the time of her life.
Pansy was just sitting on one of the black leather couches not really knowing what to do when Theodore approached her and, extending his had said:
"Would you fancy a dance?"
Pansy looked up and said nodded not very enthusiastically. It was only a dance, she thought trying to fight the guilt, it's not as if she were going to go off and kiss him!
After some songs, Pansy was exhausted but was also starting to feel much happier.
"I'm so thirsty!!" Pansy exclaimed still laughing at a joke that Theodore had just told her while dancing.
"I'll get something for you…don't move from here!" Theodore said leaving here there but coming back only a few seconds after with two glasses.
"Here…drink this…" Theodore said. Pansy did as instructed but, as the liquid almost burned her mouth and throat, she stared coughing quite violently.
"Theodore! What on earth is this?" Pansy said desperately gasping for air.
"It's firewhisky…one of the boys got his older brother to send it to him…do you like it?" Theodore asked with nonchalance.
"Not really…it's burning my mouth!" Pansy complained.
"It's only the first sips…keep drinking it and you'll see…" Theodore assured her.
Unfortunately for Pansy, she did just that…only that, the combination of not having eaten much during the day and not being used to alcohol proved fatal and, after only a couple of glasses, her head was spinning so much that she had to beg Theodore to stop and sit down.
Pansy was too drunk to realise that Theodore had kept an arm around her shoulders and, as they were sitting down, Theodore bent down towards her face and, before she could say anything, started kissing her.
Pansy did have the faint impression that what they were doing was wrong but…for some unknown reason, she started kissing him back…only that in Pansy's alcohol-induced confusion, it wasn't Theodore she was kissing…in her mind, she was kissing Draco.
Oh…she had missed his kisses so much…
Suddenly, a bang and a shout made Theodore stop kissing her. Pansy lifted her head feeling, all at the same time, embarrassment, confusion, disgust and…fear.
Embarrassment given the fact that she had never kissed anyone in a room full of people.
Confusion since her head was still spinning because of the alcohol.
Disgust because looking up, only a few centimetres from her, Theodore was there reminding her that it was him who had kissed her and not Draco.
And fear…because the bang and the shout had come from the person who occupied her thoughts for most of the day.
Draco Malfoy was standing there, in the middle of the Slytherin common room looking at her with a disgusted expression on his face.
To be continued…
A/N: There you go…this is an slightly longer chapter than I'm used to write but…I needed the extra length!
I will definitely upload the next chapter within the next 24 hours so, stay tuned! Ah…thanks for the reviews!! I can't believe I already have six of them!!
Love from your Sanae.