Heaven Tastes Sweeter
Chapter Fourteen
The news of their engagement, as with every other piece of gossip in the school, spread so fast within the Hogwarts students that, by the time Pansy was able to go downstairs to the Great Hall, every one of her friends ran to meet her at the entrance.
"Oh…Pansy…we've heard!" one of them said opening an uncontrolled tide of questions. They also kept asking her after the ring, demanding that she would repeat Draco's proposal word by word.
Pansy felt a bit more than overwhelmed by the whole thing and was about to collapse when Draco, finally noticing her arrival, walked towards her obviously coming to the much needed rescue.
"Pansy…you should have told me they were releasing you today…I'd have gone to pick you up…" he said getting hold of one of her hands.
"Draco…I told you that I wanted you to get back to the school…you've already missed so many lessons…" Pansy replied while Draco was walking her to her usual seat at the Slytherin table.
Her group of friends followed the couple but, for once in their lives, decided to give them some privacy.
"You know I've been taking extra lessons with Mother for all the time I've been gone…" Draco said.
"I know…but we're supposed to take our NEWT's this year…every lesson is extremely important…" Pansy said getting serious.
Draco started laughing out loud but stopped seeing the annoyed look on his fiancée's face.
"Sorry…is just that it's very funny seeing you all serious about your studies…you didn't pay so much attention to them before…" Draco said immediately regretting it.
"You think that, because I didn't get marks like yours or Hermione's, then I'm stupid?" Pansy said, then realising what she had said, added, "Sorry…I…I guess it was a totally out of character thing to say…"
"No…it's ok…Pansy, I actually think now that it's better that my future wife will have the guts to tell me what she thinks…if I wanted a dumb girl, I wouldn't have picked you…I'd take someone like Bulstrode…" Draco said making Pansy smile.
She was so happy. Things were almost back to normal…no, even better than normal. This is exactly what Pansy had dreamt of for her entire life. She, Draco, laughing, talking like equals and a very rosy future waiting for them both.
Then, three people approaching them cut short her daydreaming.
"Malfoy…we need to do you-know-what, you-know-where…" Hermione Granger said as soon as she reached their seats.
"Alright. I'll be there in a sec" Draco said getting suddenly very serious.
"Ok" Hermione said walking away followed by Potter and Weasley.
"Draco, where do you have to go?" Pansy asked, half knowing the answer.
"Can't tell you…I'll be back soon…" Draco said getting up. Bending down to her, Draco gave her a quick peck and left her there.
A very short lived dream indeed. Pansy thought almost bitterly. The Slytherins' murmuring made her pay attention to the table.
"I heard they have a plan…" one of the sixth years said.
"What? Is Malfoy going to help…you know…the Gryffindors?" one of the fourth year asked full of disbelief.
"I think so…" the sixth year one replied.
Pansy decided she had heard enough. Excusing herself with Sonia and her friends, Pansy got up from the table and started walking to the entrance with every intention of following Draco wherever he was going.
The small problem is that, she didn't have a clue where Draco had gone to.
She found herself standing at the bottom of the main staircase without any precise idea of where to go.
"Pansy? What are you doing here?" Draco's voice asked her from behind making her startle.
Turning round, the girl saw Draco with the famous trio, closely followed by Ginny Weasley, Terry Boot and Neville Longbottom.
"I…I…" Pansy stuttered then, taking a deep breath, decided to start again, "I wanted to see where you were going…" the girl said deciding that in this case, the truth was all she had.
"I told you I couldn't tell you…" Draco started saying.
"Yes…but I've had enough of being told what to do, of being kept in the dark of everything…I think that after what I've been through I deserve to be informed of EVERYTHING that involves the Dark Lord and freaks like Blaise…" Pansy said finding her voice increasing its tone to the shouting level.
Everyone just stared at her too shocked for words.
"She's right…we need to bring her back to the group and inform her of the plan…" Hermione said being, not surprisingly, the first one to react.
"No…I don't think that's a very good idea…" Draco said shocking and, at the same time, upsetting Pansy.
"Why not?" Pansy said feeling she was about to cry.
"Yes, why not Draco?" Harry asked obviously curious.
"I…I don't want her getting involved in this…" Draco said.
"What? Draco…in case you haven't noticed…I am already involved! Just by being here with you…I got kidnapped because they wanted to use me as a bait…to lure you in so the Dark Lord could kill YOU…" Pansy said regretting it instantly.
Draco looked at her with a hurt expression in his eyes.
"Draco…come on, I'm ready to fight if I need to…I just want to know what you are going to do…you just told me you want a woman that can tell you the truth…well, I also want a man who will tell me everything too…" Pansy said, then added, "Please, Draco, trust me…"
"It's not a question of trust Pansy…I just don't want anything to happen to you…I men anything else…" Draco said.
Everyone stared at him. Like if they were finally realising what Pansy had already noticed. Draco had changed a lot. He no longer was a spoilt little rich brat. He was a man. Probably as mature as Harry or more.
And it was the bespectacled wizard that said:
"Malfoy, hopefully, if your plan works, none of them will have to get too involved. Only you and me…"
"We should probably get going…Professor Dumbledore has been waiting for us for more than five minutes now…" Ron Weasley said speaking for the first time.
"Right…let's go then…" Harry said not giving Draco the opportunity to say anything.
Pansy looked at him and, thankfully, didn't find anger in his eyes. Only concern and, something else…fear? No, it was more like some uncertain feeling that was clouding those, otherwise beautiful blue eyes.
Pansy decided to ignore it and started walking upstairs following the group. Draco shook his head briefly before going after her.
They reached the Headmaster's office and, after saying the password, the old staircase came down.
Professor Dumbledore wasn't there by himself. Arthur Weasley, the current Minister of Magic, was also there with a few other wizards among whom Pansy only recognised Professor Snape, Professor MacGonnagall and Professor Lupin.
"Oh…at last…where were you?" The head of Gryffindor said seeing them arriving with a considerable delay.
"I'm sorry…I delayed them…" Pansy said feeling a bit beset by the presence of so many powerful wizards.
"Let's not waste any more time…Harry…the time has come..." Professor Dumbledore said, then he added, "Take a seat everyone…"
The students sat down on the chairs that their Headmaster had magically conjured for them and Pansy, seating herself next to Draco, set herself to pay attention.
"Voldemort has made his move…he's already striking a few villages. He's started with the least important targets but, we fear he'll move fast and we've got to stop him before he does…" Dumbledore said.
"The Prime Minister of the muggle government has told me that the situation is getting out of hand for him. The muggles are noticing too many weird things happening and there will be strikes on them too if we don't do something soon…panic is increasing and we all know what muggles do when they panic…" Arthur Weasley said looking worried.
"Dad, is there any casualty yet?" Ron Weasley asked.
"No…not yet but that's because we've been lucky and people has actually paid attention to our leaflets…and, like Professor Dumbledore has said, they're attacking unimportant targets…we think they're just warming up…" Arthur replied looking first at his son and then moving around the room to check everyone's reaction.
"Well, I asked you to come here because I want you to warn your fellow students. We'll be organising our counterattack and, I want to know that my school will be ready for the battle…I know I can fully rely on Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw but, how about Slytherin?" Dumbledore asked.
Professor Snape was about to reply when Draco stood up and did it for him:
"They'll be ready…I'll see to it personally…"
"Very well then. We all now what to do…now, dear students, go back to the Great Hall, and start organising everything…"
"Consider it done..." Harry said urging everyone out of the room.
When the students had left, Professor Dumbledore said:
"We will win this war…"
"Why are so sure Professor?" Professor Lupin asked.
The old professor swept the room with his gaze and, smiling, said:
"Because it has happened…the four houses are united. This union will win us the war…"
To be continued…
A/N: Sorry for the delay…again L ! I wrote this chapter about six or seven times…It took me ages to get it the way I wanted it…it was really difficult because, as you can see, they are now off to fight…and I needed the transition between the fluffy scene to the more violent ones to be as smooth as possible…anyway, enough with the rant…I'm off to finish this poor fic!
Ah, Thank you for your continued support…I can't believe the amount of problems I've been having while writing this fic…but rest assured that I'll finish it very soon… I hate having unfinished things…