Heaven Tastes Sweeter
Chapter Five
Pansy somehow made it to her room, Sally-Anne had literally dragged her all the way there, pulling her by her arm so hard that it should have made Pansy scream but, all the Slytherin prefect could feel was a terrible sorrow radiating from deep inside her.
'I don't want you to speak to me ever again'
Those words kept repeating themselves inside her head. Without realising it, Pansy started crying silent tears.
"Pansy…come on, we have to get ready…" Sally-Anne said to no avail. Pansy was simply not listening to her.
"PANSY!!" Sally-Anne half shouted while grabbing the shocked girl's shoulders.
Finally, seeing that Pansy was not reacting, Sally-Anne decided to slap her and this, ultimately, seemed to make her respond.
"Sally-Anne!" Pansy said with a high pitched voice, looking both surprised and hurt and moving her hand to cover the cheek her classmate had just hit.
"I'm terribly sorry Pansy but…you just wouldn't listen!!" replied Sally-Anne looking positively astonished with her own behaviour.
Pansy looked at her for a couple of seconds, then remembered her own shock hearing Draco's words and her reaction. She felt sorry for Sally-Anne...
"It's not you who should be sorry Sally-Anne…I…I let myself be controlled by…I must have freaked you out…" Pansy said getting annoyed with herself for being unable to articulate a complete sentence.
"Don't worry about it…now, we had better get changed before they come and pick us up…" Sally-Anne said looking a bit relieved.
The two girls, having changed into their own clothes, Pansy wearing a very expensive looking set of robes and Sally-Anne wearing a much cheaper one but that looked a lot more practical, were now waiting in their common room when Lupin showed up to take them to the meeting point.
There, the rest of the 'expedition' was already waiting for them. Among them, and this confused the dark haired Slytherin, there was a boy that at first Pansy recognised as Harry Potter but, looking a bit more carefully one could see the trick, the boy infact, was a Ravenclaw made up as the Gryffindor hero.
"I see it works…you thought I was Potter, don't you?" the boy asked both Pansy and Sally-Anne who clearly had had the same thought as her fellow Slytherin.
"Yes…it does…good trick…" Sally-Anne replied for the two of them.
"Right…we should be going…" the clear voice of the school Head Girl interrupted the conversation.
Pansy looked at Hermione's clothes…very obviously muggle…Pansy was horrified of the idea of wearing a pair of trousers…specially those blue ones called jeans. How could anyone be comfortable with that kind of hard fabric, she wondered.
And that top…it just couldn't look any more artificial. Little did Pansy know about the advantages of polyester…warm, light and easy to take care of.
Pansy looked down at her own robes…made of the finest velvet…they were definitely nice and, as her mother would have said in better times, very agreeable for a girl of her class.
Pansy told herself off for being so conceited. She guessed that some habits were hard to get rid of.
Only five minutes later than expected the group gathered on the far side of the school grounds, near Hagrid's hut.
"What are those for?" Hermione asked with an unusually shaky voice.
"They're broomsticks…what do you think they're for?" Ron said happy to be the one in control of the situation for once.
"Professor...are we supposed to get there…flying?" Hermione asked apprehensively.
"Yes, of course…how else did you want to get there?" Lupin replied looking every bit as amused as Ron.
"No way…I'm not doing it…I hate flying…can't we get there somehow else?" Hermione said clearly panicking.
"No…sorry…" Tonks said not even bothering to hide her wide smile.
"Oh…ok…" Hermione replied looking downcast.
"I'll fly right next to you…you'll be fine…" Ron said now looking a bit more prepared to be altruistic with his very frightened girlfriend.
"If it helps…I don't really like flying very much either…" Lupin said offering a sympathetic smile.
"Neither do I…" said Pansy whispering almost as if talking only to herself.
No one replied to her comment. Instead everyone in the group prepared themselves for the ride, which would last for just under two hours.
"Finally!!!" Hermione shouted feeling incredibly relieved of being off that diabolic instrument of suffering called broomstick.
"Oh…what a pity, I was beginning to enjoy myself…" said Ron teasingly getting the glare he was fishing for from his girlfriend.
"Hey…I was joking!" Ron laughed putting his hands up.
"Stupid!" Hermione said with a hiss but with a badly concealed smile.
This intimate exchange made Pansy very envious. She had so badly wanted to have that sort of complicity with Draco and now…because of her idiotic behaviour she had ruined every chance she'd ever had.
Remembering Draco, Pansy gathered all her courage and said with the smallest voice:
"Hermione…have you seen…have you seen Draco?"
Something in the Gryffindor's face changed to look both worried and…for some reason, angry.
"Yes…Malfoy left with Harry…he said he needed to talk to him…Harry agreed to hear him out but I have no idea what happened next…" Hermione said sounding a bit harsh.
"Awfully nice of Harry…if it was me…I would have never accepted to speak to that…" Ron said and would have probably added a very colourful swear word had it not been because Hermione issued him a silent warning.
"Oh…I wonder what Draco had to tell Harry…" Pansy said choosing to ignore Ron's tone of voice.
"So do I…" Hermione replied before turning round to follow the two adults and the rest of the group.
At a prudent distance, a set of eyes were fixed on the short-ish, black haired, bespectacled boy talking happily to the man at the front of the group.
"This is interesting…the rumours were true…our Lord will be ecstatic…Harry Potter has made a mistake…it's time our Lord kills that little bastard…"
"You bet, this time, he won't get any more lucky escapes…" his partner replied.
To be continued…
A/N: Get ready for some action! The next chapters will definitely be action-packed!
As usual a HUGE thanks to the reviewers…you're great!