Heaven Tastes Sweeter
Chapter Sixteen
With Draco nowhere to be seen, Pansy thought that her fiancé had somehow disappeared. She had hesitated for a few seconds only, Draco hadn't had enough of a head start to vanish just like that.
Pansy had just increased her speed, going from a light trot to a fast run, when she heard a familiar voice calling her name out.
"Miss Parkinson! Stop at once!"
Oh no! Now she'd done it…Pansy turned round to come face to face with Mr Filch. The caretaker started speaking without giving her a chance to do so.
"War or no war, the school rules still apply!"
"Yes but…" Pansy started saying, sounding as apologetic as possible.
"'Yes but' nothing, Miss Parkinson…are the rules not clear enough? NO MORE RUNNING IN THE CORRIDORS! Understood!" the caretaker said, attracting some other students' attention with his shouting.
"Yes, I'm sorry…" Pansy said silently damning the caretaker and his overzealous attitude towards the school rules.
"Is there any problem Mr Filch?" Pansy heard Professor Snape's voice coming from behind her back.
"Miss Parkinson here, seems to think that the 'no running' rule doesn't apply to her…I was about to punish her Professor" Mr Filch said a lot less arrogantly now that he was speaking to a professor.
"Mr Filch, maybe Miss Parkinson was in a bit of a rush for a reason…I think you can let it pass for this once, can't you?" Professor Snape said shocking everyone, including Mr Filch with his unusually indulgent attitude.
"Yes but…" Mr Filch started saying.
"Alright then…Miss Parkinson, you may go, a bit more slowly this time…and Mr Filch, the matter is settled so, I don't wish to keep you…you have a great deal to do, I'm sure…" Professor Snape said looking at the caretaker as if daring him to challenge his orders.
"Yes, yes…thank you Professor…" Mr Filch said looking at Pansy with a gaze full of contempt.
"Thank you Professor" Pansy dared to say once the caretaker had gone.
"What for?" Professor Snape said turning round and walking away followed by his willowing black cape.
Pansy stood there for a second and, realising that now she would have very little hope to find Draco, the Slytherin took another second to decide where to go from there.
"The astronomy tower" she said and, by the weird looks from the other bypassing students, the girl realised she had spoken the words aloud.
'Great! They already knew I was crazy, now they must think I've totally lost my marbles' Pansy thought while walking up the staircase that led to the tower.
Opening the door, the girl realised that it was a lot darker than she thought it was. Looking at her watch, Pansy was shocked to find that it was almost dinnertime. The day had truly flown by…even though the morning felt like ages away.
She was so mesmerised by her thoughts that Pansy didn't even notice that another person was already there.
"It took you a while to get here…I thought this would be the first place where you'd look"
"Draco!" Pansy exclaimed shocked to find him there. It was well true that when you were looking for something you rarely found it. You'd just have to look for something else, and then you'd probably end up finding what you had been looking for in the first place.
Pansy looked at Draco a bit more closely. He looked very troubled.
"Draco…" she repeated, this time with a softer tone of voice.
"Come here…" Draco said extending his right hand towards her.
She didn't need to be told twice.
The couple fused in a tight embrace and then, Pansy noticed that Draco was trembling.
Pushing softly away from him but not far enough to break the embrace up, Pansy looked up at Draco's silvery eyes.
"Draco…you're shivering…" Pansy said with a very small voice.
"I know…shush…" Draco replied while lowering his head towards her.
They kissed. Their proper kiss since Draco had asked her to become his wife and the urgency of the kiss told Pansy that Draco had no intention to go anywhere anytime soon.
Pansy's last coherent thought was that they were in the open, it was getting cold and she was afraid to be seen. Somewhere in her brain a devilish little voice told her to shut up.
She did. She stopped thinking and let herself feel.
Almost an hour later, the two of them were resting on Draco's robe. Draco had covered their bodies with hers and was playing with her hair.
With her head resting on his left shoulder, Pansy stared at the now dark sky trying to remember anything from the star chart they had studied for the last seven years.
"Pansy" she heard Draco's voice whispering.
"Yes" Pansy replied expectantly. Hopefully Draco would tell her everything now. Maybe he would bare his soul to her once more. Maybe.
"I'm getting cold and we're late for dinner" he said instead.
Pansy couldn't help it and start laughing softly.
"What?" Draco said no longer whispering.
"Nothing…you're right, I'm getting cold too…" Pansy said still smiling.
"Ok then, let's get dressed then…" Draco said and Pansy thought she could hear an slightly embarrassed tone in his voice.
Pansy chuckled again.
They were indeed very late for dinner but Pansy felt so happy that she didn't care too much about it. She just grabbed an apple and started nibbling it doing her best to ignore everyone's comments, specially the ones referred to her quite intense blush. She felt very lucky that they had, for some miraculous reason, avoided detention for being late for dinner.
After dinner, everyone was pretty much ready to go to bed. The day's excitement had been quite draining and all that the students really wanted to do was to go to bed and get some sleep.
Pansy herself started yawning so obviously that Draco, after laughing at her, said:
"Come on, go to bed! We've got a busy day ahead tomorrow…"
Pansy only managed a nod in between yawns so, she got up from the couch and, after walking with Draco to the start of the dual staircases that, respectively, led to the boys' and girls' dormitories, they kissed each other goodnight and went to bed.
Pansy was brushing her hair before getting in it when she suddenly, as if she had woken up from a dream, she remembered that she hadn't spoken to Draco.
"Dammit! I let him distract me again!" the girl said.
"Speaking to yourself doesn't say much about your mental health…" Sonia said entering the room the two of them shared.
"Sorry! I just…" Pansy stated saying.
"Oh forget about it and tell me…how did he distract you so…" Sonia asked winking quite provocatively.
"I'm not telling you about that!" Pansy said trying to sound as serious as possible.
"Oh, you're not fun!" Sonia said sounding disappointed.
Pansy was about to say something else when Sonia, suddenly sobered up and said:
"Pansy, I'm scared…"
"Oh Sonia…it'll be fine…" Pansy said walking towards her friend to hug her, "It'll be fine" she repeated once more. More to convince herself than anything else.
Pansy felt Sonia pushing away from their hug.
"I've never told anyone about this…" Sonia started.
"About what?" Pansy asked rather surprised for she had always believed she knew everything about her friend Sonia.
"Do you remember Edgar? The one that chased you around two summers ago when you came to stay with us?" Sonia asked.
"Oh yes…how can I forget! You got so mad at me because you thought I wanted to steal him from you!" Pansy said smirking.
"He's one of them now…" Sonia said sounding very sad.
"One of what?" Pansy asked. She knew the answer already but she felt she needed to ask anyway.
"A Death Eater. He joined a year ago…before we learnt the whole truth about you-know-who…" Sonia explained finally seating on her bed.
"Oh Sonia…I'm so sorry…" Pansy said hugging her friend's shoulders with her arm.
"Don't tell anybody…please…" Sonia said looking at her worriedly.
"Of course not silly…is there any hope that, you know…he could…come back…" Pansy asked again knowing the answer.
"No…once you join it's impossible to leave…you-know-who doesn't let anyone leave…you know that…" Sonia said.
"Well, that's not true…" Pansy said.
"What's not true?" Sonia asked.
"Draco left…he was marked as a Death Eater but he's not serving the Dark Lord anymore…" Pansy said.
"Yeah, but that's different…Draco had a very powerful reason to leave…Edgar doesn't…" Sonia said.
"You still care about him a lot, don't you?" Pansy asked.
"Yes…I love him…you know that…" Sonia admitted.
"Then there's still hope…now, let us get some sleep…" Pansy said getting up from Sonia's bed to walk to her own.
They both fell asleep in no time and the morning after came far too quickly.
"What's all that noise?" Pansy heard Sonia say sleepily.
"Oh! That's right! The list! They've posted the list!" Pansy said jumping out of bed.
Without waiting to see if Sonia did likewise, Pansy grabbed a soft wool, dark grey cardigan and pulled it on the top of her sleeping gown.
The girl found a large number of students already crowded around the message board.
"I've been put in your group" Pansy heard Gregory Goyle say but, just as she had registered that information, Draco appeared in front of them and said:
"Yes, I asked Professor Snape to put him with you and Sonia so he could protect you".
"Protect me?" Pansy asked incredulous.
"Yes…please, I'll be much more relaxed if I know he's with you…he may not be as strong as you are with magic but he's physically stronger than you…that may come very handy…" Draco said.
"But what about you?" Pansy asked not wanting to concede that he did have a point there.
"I'll be with Potter, you know that…" Draco said looking like he was running out of patience.
"Ah yes, the suicide mission…" Pansy said sarcastically.
"No…I'm not going to get killed, I have every intention to make it out of it alive, thank you very much…" Draco said almost angrily.
"Sorry Draco, I didn't mean to…" Pansy said regretfully.
"So, I've been put with you Pansy and this gorilla here, huh!" Sonia's providential intervention managed to break the tension up.
"Hey! Who are you calling gorilla?" Goyle said offended.
"You, of course…" Sonia said sticking her tongue out in a very childish manner that made everyone laugh out loud, including the bystanders near the group.
"Okay guys…we've got plenty of work to do…we'll practice our spells and our duelling and we'll inspect the entire castle to make sure we're ready to face anything…" Draco announced interrupting their laughter.
"Sure…" everyone said beginning to follow Draco out of the room.
To be continued…
A/N: Thanks for your reviews and continued support !Three more chapters and the Epilogue and it'll be over!
Take care, Sanae.