Heaven Tastes Sweeter
Chapter Four
Everything stood still for an eternity. Pansy kept staring at Draco not even daring to breath fearing he would disappear if she did as much as inhale. Then, something clicked inside Pansy's head making her realise that it wasn't an illusion…that Draco was there and that he had seen her kissing another guy.
At the same instant, a still speechless Draco, turned around and started running towards the door.
Pansy got up immediately to follow him, only that her head hadn't stopped spinning: Theodore had to grab her by one of her arms to prevent her from falling face-first on the floor.
"Let go!" Pansy shouted on the top of her lungs, making a very big mistake, for the combined effort of shouting and getting up caused her a wave of nausea and the typical acidic flavour that came to one's mouth just before one was about to be sick.
So, instead of going after Draco as she had planned, she had to run to the bathroom with Sonia following close by in case Pansy needed her.
This was the first time Pansy had been this sick and, even though it was the last thing she wanted, the girl was grateful that her body had decided that enough was enough: Pansy fainted right next to the WC.
The morning after, Pansy opened her eyes and found herself half dressed on top of her bed with the worst headache she had ever experienced.
But the pain in the head was nothing compared to that in her heart as she remembered the previous night's horrifying episode.
Pansy tried to get up a bit too fast and, regretfully, found out that the nausea was still there so, very reluctantly, she went back to a laying position.
"Pansy? Are you awake?" Sonia's voice sounded through the heavy curtains that concealed the bed.
"Yes…I'm here…" Pansy whispered back.
"Ah…you really want to see this…" Sonia said opening the curtains and letting the early morning's sunlight in, causing Pansy to wince at the unwanted extra light.
"What is it? And will you please keep your voice down? My head is killing me…" Pansy whispered again.
"Sure…you've got to get up though…it's in the common room's notice board" Sonia said talking with a voice a bit lower now, even so, to Pansy, it still sounded like a thunder.
Pansy, with a titanic effort, managed to get up from bed and make herself half-decent so that she could go downstairs.
On the notice board, she saw a note from Professor Snape listing two names. Among those, Pansy saw her own written with Snape's small handwriting.
These two people, were to attend a meeting after breakfast where they would be informed of the task that would be assigned to each of them.
Pansy stood there disbelievingly, of all people, they had picked her for this very important mission?
At it was, Pansy couldn't care a iota about the mission…her only mission now, was to find Draco and try to explain what had happened the previous night. Before the mess that she had in her head became any messier for if it did, Pansy was seeing herself locked up in St Mungus' psychiatric ward.
"Where is Draco?" Pansy asked Sonia as soon as they were back to their dorm's room.
"I don't know…no one has seen him since last night…maybe he's left again…" Sonia said realising instantly that that, was definitely not the right thing to say, "I mean…maybe he had things to do and will come back soon…".
The harm was already done. Pansy had never felt more miserable in her entire life and, given her previous two years in Hogwarts, that was saying something!
"I need to see him…I need to see him so badly…" Pansy said feeling that she was about to cry again.
"No sweetie…you need a shower, some fresh clothes and you need to go to that meeting…" Sonia said doing what she did best: giving orders.
Pansy followed her best friend's instructions with a heavy heart. Unless she could speak to Draco soon, she knew she could kiss goodbye, rather literally it occurred to her, any possible relationship with the gorgeous blonde.
She went to the Great Hall to see if she could get some breakfast and, after playing with her food for a while, Pansy decided that, before the meeting started, she would go around the castle and look for Draco.
Pansy had to quit the fruitless search when she realised she only had a few minutes to get to the classroom where the meeting was to be held.
On her way there, she found the other Slytherin, a nice looking girl called Sally-Anne Perks.
"I wonder what the mission requires…" Sally-Anne said sounding very much as afraid as Pansy herself.
"We'll soon find out" Pansy replied hoping she sounded as nice as she intended.
They did.
Inside the classroom and waiting for them, there were Professor Dumbledore, Arthur Weasley with an unknown young woman, their old DADA teacher Remus Lupin and, sitting close by, the trio with the other students who had been selected for the mission.
Harry still looked a bit upset for having been excluded but, he had apparently come to terms with Dumbledore's decision.
Finally, Dumbledore started speaking:
"Hello everybody, I realise that asking for the help of you students may seem as a bit of a drastic measure but, believe me when I say that these times are calling for quite a few drastic measures. The mission we're sending you to is pretty simple…we'll be staging some sort of excursion to the forest where Voldemort has been seen. You, my dear students, will be there with two Aurors pretending to be teachers. If everything goes as planned, we hope we'll be able to allure some of Voldemort's supporters and, with a bit of luck, capture one of them. We will then try to find the Dark Lord's hiding place".
Dumbledore concluded the explanation to find that every one of the students was staring at him as if he had suddenly sprouted a new head.
"Professor…are you… suggesting that we…that we act as some sort of…b..bait?" even Hermione had difficulties expressing what was in everyone's heads.
"Yes my dear…that is exactly what we're going to do…but do not fret Miss Granger…you will be protected by other Aurors that will be watching over you at all times…and, if the worst comes to the worst, then you'll have to use everything you've learnt in these last six years..." Dumbledore replied finally confirming to Pansy that the old man was totally nuts.
"And, how are we supposed to attract Voldemort's supporters?" Hermione said still sounding quite shaken.
"We have spread the rumour that Harry himself will be in this excursion…" Arthur Weasley replied not sounding convinced of the whole thing either.
"Of course, he won't be…we cannot afford to show our real potential in this first mission…" Dumbledore concluded.
The rest of the meeting's time was spent discussing the mission, they were to go to their rooms and get changed since the young woman, whose name was Tonks, and Lupin would be taking them to the Ministry in just two hours' time.
Pansy was finally leaving, accompanied by her fellow Slytherin Sally-Anne when she saw an unmistakable blond head waiting outside.
Her heart skipped a beat.
"Draco! I…" Pansy managed to say but something in the young man's eyes made her heart skip another beat and Pansy feared it would actually stop beating.
"I didn't come here to see you…I'm here because I need to speak to Potter" Draco said with an voice as cold as his ice-grey eyes, turning round and starting to follow Harry who, oddly enough, seemed to be actually waiting for him.
"Draco…I…I need to speak to you…" Pansy repeated a bit more desperately.
The blond turned round briefly and said:
"I don't want you to speak to me ever again…".
With this, Draco re-started walking alongside Harry, leaving Pansy standing there with her heart reaching down to her feet.
To be continued…
A/N: As promised…here you go another chapter…more coming soon!