Heaven Tastes Sweeter

Chapter Thirteen

Pansy opened her eyes slowly, fearing that her very last memories had just been a trick of her mind. A very sick trick. She was terrified to find herself still in the castle, with that freak still threatening her to do the unspeakable to her.

Alas, she found herself unable to see anything. A too bright light invaded her eyes preventing her from seeing anything. Pansy was too scared to think the obvious, that when eyes are shut for a while, they need some time to get accustomed to light.

"Madam Pomfrey…Madam Pomfrey, I think she's waking up!" a glorious sound reached Pansy's ears. She recognised that voice. She would distinguish the voice amidst a thousand others.

Draco Malfoy was there. For some totally unknown reason he was there. Then, suddenly her still sleepy brain made out Draco's words. 'Madam Pomfrey?' the girl thought to herself.

'But this means I'm at Hogwarts…it's impossible…' her trail of incoherent words was suddenly interrupted by Draco's voice.

"Pansy? Pansy, can you hear me?" Pansy had a very hard time trying to find an occasion when anyone had talked to her like that. His voice was filled with apprehension and…love…Pansy was about to get lost in her thoughts again when something in her brain made her react.

She had to say something.

Her mouth started moving, slowly, she tried to form the word 'yes'. Not hearing herself she realised she had failed her first attempt.

She tried again.

This time, a very raspy sound, hardly recognisable as her voice, came out her throat. It was so weak that she was afraid Draco wouldn't hear her. She tried once more trying to speak more loudly.

"Yes" Pansy finally managed to say. Her voice was very broken and the effort sent her to a fit of coughs.

She didn't hear Madam Pomfrey approaching her bed nor she heard Draco demanding for a glass of water to be brought immediately.

"Shh…my love, it's ok…you've been so sick but, now you're going to be fine…you'll be on your feet in no time, you'll see…" Draco kept saying while pushing her up so he could rub her back slowly.

For some reason she didn't know, his gesture, instead of soothing her, was making her wince.

"Auch…" Pansy said trying to make Draco stop. Pansy opened her eyes again, this time even more slowly and, after a huge effort, managed to get Draco's face into focus.

"Mr Malfoy, remember the cut!" Madam Pomfrey said making Pansy lift her eyes to bring her into her vision range.

Draco withdrew his hand immediately making Pansy fall back onto her pillow.

"I'm sorry…I forgot…" Draco said looking positively mortified.

"It's ok…" Pansy said with her still raspy voice, not adding anything else simply because she didn't have the energy to do so.

"Well, Mr Malfoy…remember your promise…now she's awake, so you go and have a shower and get changed…I won't have your stench invading my infirmary any longer…" Madam Pomfrey said screwing up her small nose as if trying to make her point even clearer.

Draco looked at the old healer witch as if trying to find something to say that would convince Madam Pomfrey to let him stay. He decided against it since it was obvious the lady wouldn't take anymore nonsense from him. Then, Draco turned round and bent to kiss Pansy's forehead, then, as he was rising, he said:

"I'll be back in no time…you just stay awake, promise?"

"Sure…" Pansy replied finding the whole exchange almost funny.

Draco smiled with one of his rare, true smiles. Then he got up from his chair and started walking towards the door. He opened it, turned round one more time to look at her, then walked out the room closing the door behind him.

"Oh by the love of Merlin! I thought I'd have to kick him out! Would you believe it…ever since you were brought to me, Mr Malfoy has refused to leave your side…he's even slept right here…on this very chair, every one of the four nights you've been fighting the fever…" Madam Pomfrey said as if it were the most incomprehensible thing ever done.

Pansy looked at the old woman completely astonished, the Slytherin couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"Excuse me…what did you just say?" Pansy managed to say. The water she had been drinking was finally clearing her throat and she was able to speak whole sentences.

"The man just wouldn't leave, I even threatened him to turn him into a frog…he just said that if I did, he would stay anyway…the cheek of him! Anyway, I managed to convince him to promise that the minute you opened your eyes, he would go to have a shower and get something to eat…he's only been eating scraps of food…Miss Parkinson, if you hadn't woken up now, I feared Mr Malfoy would get sick too!"

"I…I'm sorry…but Draco's very stubborn…" Pansy tried to justify him but a warm sensation was beginning to overflow her heart filling every bit of her battered body.

"You needn't telling me…never seen a man more committed in my life…well, maybe Mr Potter and Mr Weasley when Miss Granger was petrified during their second year…but…Mr Malfoy must be a really good friend of yours Miss Parkinson…" Madam Pomfrey said. During their conversation, the old witch had been checking Pansy's wounds and her temperature.

"Madam Pomfrey…I really hope we're a tad more than that…" Pansy confessed feeling herself blush because of the boldness of her admission.

Madam Pomfrey looked at her disbelievingly, then she shook her head making some of the grey tendrils come out of her tightly made bun. Then she just turned round to go back to her office, maybe to get some other medicine draught for Pansy to take, muttering to herself something that sounded very close to 'These youngsters!'

Suddenly, the infirmary's door opened to let Draco in. His still drenched hair was getting the top of his shirt wet and, for the first time in her life, Pansy saw Draco not perfectly groomed.

Pansy found that this wild look of his was even sexier. She admonished herself for her 'improper' thoughts.

"Mr Malfoy I thought that we had a promise!" Madam Pomfrey, on her way back from her office, exclaimed finding Draco back to the infirmary.

"I've had a shower and I've changed…" he said pointing at his wet hair, "So, I have kept my promise…now, Madam Pomfrey…I have…I have a rather pressing matter I'd like to discuss with Pansy here so, I would be most grateful if you could…er…leave us alone for a bit…" Draco said using all the charm he could muster.

"That would be most inappropriate Mr Malfoy…" Madam Pomfrey started saying.

"Madam Pomfrey, with all due respect, you surely don't think I'm about to jump on Pansy and do…Merlin knows what…now, do you?" Draco asked and, without giving her time to reply, he added, "What kind of cruel beast do you think I am? She's sick…I don't think she'd be able to stand up by herself…let alone, you know…"

Pansy could see that he was clearly enjoying seeing Madam Pomfrey getting all flustered by the meaning of his words.

"Er…I guess not…er…you have five minutes! Not one more, understood?" to her credit Madam Pomfrey had recovered quite fast.

After making sure that the old woman had indeed left them alone, Draco sat down on the chair where, according to Madam Pomfrey, had slept the previous four nights.

"How are you feeling?" Draco asked taking one of her pale hands with one of his equally white ones.

"I'm…I don't know…better, I think…relieved…and, very grateful…" Pansy said damning herself for not being able to string a sentence together but, again, in front of Draco she had never been able to use her brain.

"I'm the one that should be grateful…my pride, my stupid pride, prevented me from listening to my own judgement…I know you wouldn't cheat on me…and, it's not only because you love me…well, I hope you still do…" Draco said, looking up into her eyes as if trying to find an answer to his question there. He did, so he carried on "I'm glad…well, as I was saying, I can't believe I could think you'd be able to cheat on me…and I should have given you the chance to speak…I don't know, I thought that you had forgotten me or something…and I so desperately wanted to give you something…that's why when I came back to Hogwarts I went looking for you first…"

"It's ok…I'm here now…" Pansy said hating to see the hurt look back on those ice-blue eyes and finding it shocking that, for the first time Draco was actually having her same inability to form coherent sentences.

"I know…but, Terry thought you had been killed…it almost drove me crazy! I didn't want to believe it…I had to give you this…and you couldn't be dead…you just couldn't…" Draco explained shaking his head as if trying to get rid of that thought.

"Draco, what do you have there?" Pansy said pointing out at what he was clutching in his free hand, half because she was truly curious, half because she hoped that the change of topic would free him from that troubled look he had.

"Ah…yes…of course, well, Mother gave me this a long time ago…it's been passed from one Malfoy generation to the next for hundreds of years…we Malfoy men are supposed to give this to the woman we wish to spend the rest of our lives with…" Draco said finally opening his hand revealing what was inside it.

"Oh my…" Pansy managed to say, before adding, "Draco, are you…I mean…you…"

"Yes…I'm sorry, I should probably do this properly…" Draco said getting up and, without letting go of her hand, he got down on one knee.

"Would you, Pansy Parkinson, do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

Something weird was happening to Pansy's eyes because suddenly she couldn't see him properly anymore. She realised she was crying.

Still on his knee, Draco said "Pansy…I'm sorry…I just…you don't need to give me an answer now…"

"NO! I…mean…YES…Yes Draco…oh yes!" Pansy started saying with an almost hysterical laugh.

"Yes? Is that a 'Yes, Draco I'll marry you' or…" Draco said almost insecurely.

"Yes Draco Malfoy, I'll be your wife!" Pansy shouted causing Madam Pomfrey to come out of her office.

Seeing the whole scene made the old woman stop, smile and, shaking her head, turned to head back to the office. Because of this she didn't see Pansy weakly pulling Draco towards her so the young man would kiss her. She also missed the moment when Draco put the silver and emerald ring, the Slytherin colours, on Pansy's left hand.

The old witch decided to extend the five minutes…to at least another five more…

To be continued…

A/N: Alright…this was a very, very sugary, fluff-filled chapter…I just felt that the situation was a bit too dramatic and you guys have been asking me for more D/P interaction so…I hope this makes you happy!

Also, you'll see this chapter is slightly longer than the rest…it's a very pathetic way to ask you for your forgiveness for not having updated for over a week…the only excuse I have is that I've been far too busy trying to rebuilt the whole of my laptop's files…nasty business let me tell you!

Thank you for the support you give me!

Yours, Sanae.