Heaven Tastes Sweeter
Chapter Twenty
By the time Harry got to Hogwarts, things there had calmed down significantly. During the flight Harry had not allowed himself to think of what he had just done. He kept himself busy trying to shortlist the things that needed to be done most urgently.
One thing was clear, most of the Death Eaters had been under the Imperius curse. Harry thought that it was odd that they hadn't imagined it before, now, however, it was a little too late to consider things such as this, specially since they still had to deal with the Death Eaters that had been fighting willingly. Those were the most dangerous ones….among them could be the one that would become the next Dark Lord…
The scenario the bespectacled Gryffindor found at his school was simply grotesque. There were wounded all over the place, some of them looking bad enough for Harry to finally realize that Draco was probably just one more of the casualties this war had caused.
"NOO! Pansy! Don't do it!" Harry heard a very familiar voice shout.
Straining his eyes to see in the dark, he saw Hermione standing near a furious looking Pansy. The Slytherin was pointing at someone with her wand, ready to throw a curse, and judging by the sheer rage in her expression, it could only be an unforgivable.
A few others were standing nearby, too afraid to intervene. Harry recognised only a few faces, among them, that of Professor Lupin. He, too, seemed hesitant about what to do.
"He's not going to get away now!" Pansy shouted back with her voice full of venom without breaking eye contact with her target.
Looking beyond the wand, Harry saw one of the Death Eaters looking positively frightened. The expelled, ex-Slytherin Blaise Zabini.
"Pansy! Don't do it! We've won!" Harry shouted suddenly bringing all the attention to him.
"Harry! Oh…Harry!" Hermione shouted while running towards him.
The Head Girl just rammed onto him almost causing Harry to fall backwards on his bum.
Everyone just burst out a scream of sheer joy.
"Hey…easy there!" Harry said trying to sound angry but, to be honest, it just felt so good being able to hug one of his dearest friends again!
"Is it true? Have we…I mean…have you…" Hermione started saying pulling away from Harry just far enough to be able to look up at him, stammering in a quite un-Hermione manner.
"Yes, we have…and yes, I have…he's gone Hermione…" Harry said looking at her brown eyes that were suddenly filling themselves with tears.
"Where is Ron?" Harry asked not seeing his read haired friend anywhere.
"He's been wounded…he's in the infirmary now…I think he'll be fine though…" Hermione replied and from her almost relaxed tone, he convinced himself that Ron would be okay.
"And Ginny?" Harry was almost too afraid to ask.
"She's fine, the last time I've seen her she was helping Professor McGonagall…we've trained her well Harry…" Hermione said almost conversationally.
Suddenly, Harry remembered Pansy and, quite reluctantly, the Gryffindor freed himself from Hermione's embrace and directed his attention at Pansy whose wand was still pointing at Blaise.
"Pansy…it's over…really…Blaise, give it up…there is no point for you to keep fighting…your Lord is dead…" Harry said with a deadpan voice, the truth is that the Gryffindor was beginning to feel the exhaustion creep up and claim possession of his body. He knew that he had to convey his dreadful message to Pansy as soon as possible before he just collapsed on the ground.
Pansy allowed herself to be distracted for one second, just long enough for Blaise to try to make it to his wand, that had obviously been thrown away by a disarming charm.
Hermione realised that and, almost lazily, the witch threw a bonding charm at the young Death Eater. Deciding to leave him there to deal with him later. Much later.
Harry heard his friend sigh quite loudly at the same time that Pansy used a rather vicious sounding word.
"Pansy…I…I need to tell you something…" Harry started, absolutely hating himself for having volunteered to come here.
"Pansy…" The Gryffindor said a bit more loudly.
Pansy turned around to look at him and, suddenly she seemed to realise that something wasn't right.
"Where is Draco?" Pansy asked and everyone, detecting the fear in her tone, stopped their cheerful celebration.
Harry took a couple of steps towards her but her taking a step backwards made Harry stop.
"Pansy…his plan was brilliant…it worked…but…unfortunately…" Harry started not really knowing how to say it.
"NOO! Don't say it! I don't want to hear it!" Pansy screamed putting her right hand up as if trying to physically block his words, and even though it was so dark, Harry saw that her already pale skin was getting alarmingly translucent.
"I'm sorry Pansy…" Harry said feeling incredibly saddened. Everyone who had stopped celebrating the victory felt that same misery too.
Suddenly Pansy shook as if something had hit her frontally and, she just collapsed on the ground.
Harry ran towards her trying to grasp her before her head hit the soil. He only managed to slow down the fall enough so the girl wouldn't hurt herself.
Harry looked at her face and, even unconscious as she was, the girl had a horribly pained grimace on it.
Hermione and Professor Lupin came running to where they were. Hermione's tears of joy had now become tears of sorrow.
Someone else started running towards them, they were some Slytherins who had heard the whole exchange.
"Is he…I mean, is Draco…" one of them asked.
"Yes…unfortunately Draco's been killed" Harry confirmed still holding Pansy in his arms.
"But how?" another Slytherin asked while holding one a fellow Slytherin girl who was now crying.
"Voldemort threw the killing curse at him. Draco had drawn Voldemort's attention to himself so I could kill him…" Harry explained then, looking at the DADA professor and pointing at Pansy, added, "we need to take her to the infirmary…"
"Sure…I'll take care of that…" Remus Lupin said taking Pansy in his arms. The girl was rather light so the professor had no problems carrying her all the way to the school's infirmary wing.
Harry was about to start organising the students, more to busy himself with something than anything else, when a very familiar sight appeared in front of him.
"Harry…I've heard what you've done tonight...and I've never been more proud of you in my whole life…you, once more, have saved us all…"
"No…that's not true…I didn't do it alone…" Harry said almost angrily interrupting Hogwarts' Head Master.
"Oh…I also know about Mr Malfoy…"
"Professor, we still have plenty to do…where are all the Death Eaters? Has any of them run away?" Harry said interrupting the old professor again. Harry really wasn't in the mood for one of the professor's speeches…however heartfelt they were.
"Yes…I have already seen to it. All the members of the faculty are gathering and disarming all the Death Eaters, whether they seem to surrender easily or not. We'll have to wait till they can be interrogated to sort them out. Till them we're locking them up in some of the classrooms. I've also organised for the older students to start treating the wounded and the transfer of those who need more serious medical attention to St Mungo…" the professor said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
"Good…then, what can I do to help?" Harry asked.
"Nothing…you need to get some rest…" the professor answered and, seeing that Harry was about to interrupt him again, he lifted his wrinkled hand and added, "no Harry…you've faced the most terrible enemy ever. You've succeeded where I would have not. It's just and necessary that you get some rest…and I will entrust Miss Granger here with the task of ensuring you do go to your dormitory immediately…"
With that, the Head Master patted Harry's shoulder, making it clear that there would be no room for any negotiations.
"Well done Harry…" he said turning to head back inside the school.
The following hours were, to say the least, chaotic. The whole school was busy either moving the wounded, counting the unavoidable casualties, having to lock up the Death Eaters. There was a great deal to clean up too. Debris was everywhere and they had decided to make a huge bonfire with all the wood resulting from furniture and other things that were beyond repair.
Harry decided to obey the Head Master and after finding Hagrid to exchange a few words while the big man was busy thanking the forest's creatures and trying to bring Grawp back into some sort of control, the Gryffindor followed Hermione back to their common room.
There Harry found Ginny who was also taking a short break seating on the plush couch with her two brothers, the twins Fred and George.
"HARRY!" the youngest Weasley sprang up from the couch to, almost literally, her boyfriend's neck.
Oblivious to his mild discomfort, Ginny started kissing him there, right in front of everybody causing a few breaks of laughter, coming mainly from the twins.
"Come on Ginny…give him a break…he needs to rest…" Hermione interceded and Harry silently thanked her for it.
Reluctantly Ginny let her boyfriend go and Harry took that chance to excuse himself and, after giving Ginny a quick peck, almost running, he went back to his dormitory.
Throwing himself on the bed, not even bothering to take his clothes off, he merely kicked his shoes off and staring at the ceiling, allowed himself, for the first time, time to think.
The first thing that came to his head was Pansy's reaction. He really hoped she could bring herself to, eventually, deal with the deep sorrow Draco's death had caused to her.
It had pained Harry to lose Draco. After all, Harry had allowed himself to think that the two young men could actually become friends. Harry didn't even want to imagine what it was for Pansy. The poor girl worshipped Draco. She had to be every bit as devastated as he was when Sirius had died. Probably even more so.
It was rather odd…Draco had been his nemesis for so long that to think of him as a friend was very difficult.
With that thought, and with Voldemort not even crossing his mind, Harry closed his eyes and fell in a deep, dreamless sleep.
§ § §
When she opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that it was already daytime. The weak winter sunlight invaded her dormitory.
The fact that she was in her dormitory with her nightie on was so confusing…then, she searched for the last memory she had regretting it instantly. It was of her in the middle of the school grounds…learning that…
"Oh Draco!" Pansy wanted to shout but the dryness of her throat and the knot that was currently tying it, prevented any sound from coming out of her mouth.
Suddenly all the pain came back, flooding her heart and causing a white hot pain radiating from it to reach every part of her body. Pansy tried to cry but, somehow her body refused to do that too. It was as if the pain was blocking everything else.
All she could feel was pain. The deepest, and more lacerating pain she had ever felt in her entire life. Not even the Cruciatus curse came close to it.
"Pansy? You're awake?" a voice breached through the pain and somehow managed to register somewhere in her brain.
She turned her head to look in the direction from which the voice had come from and, there, sitting on a chair nearby, it was Sonia.
"Pansy…" she started.
"What am I doing here?" Pansy finally managed to say her voice sounding so strained that she feared her vocal chords would shatter.
"Well…you were taken to the infirmary and…well…Pansy…Madame Pomfrey had you checked to see if…well…if you had any wounds anywhere…she took good care to give you a quite thorough check…Professor Lupin insisted, you see…" Sonia said rambling and Pansy knew her friend well enough to know that this mean that something else was very wrong here.
"What's wrong Sonia…" Pansy spoke again this time sounding almost aggressive.
"Oh Pansy…is just that I don't know if this will be good news or what…after…oh…" Sonia interrupted herself again clearly trying to swallow the knot that was tying her throat.
"Sonia…" Pansy warned. Her nervous system wasn't up to anymore strain and she was ready to do something really stupid if her non-existent patience was challenged any further.
Sonia went to take her friend's hand and, with the smallest voice, looking at her straight in the eye, she said:
"Pansy…you're about four weeks pregnant…"
Pansy thought that her sanity had finally abandoned her. This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not…
Sonia seemed to be assessing her reaction but the girl had a lot of difficulty reading it because Pansy simply appeared too flabbergasted to articulate any kind of response.
Finally, after what had seemed an eternity, Sonia saw Pansy brining her hands to her tummy.
"Oh sweet Merlin…" Sonia heard Pansy say.
"Pansy?" Sonia asked tentatively.
"Draco's here now…no one will be able to take him away from me…" Pansy said and Sonia started seriously fearing for Pansy's mental health.
"Pansy…sweetie…" Sonia started saying but had to, once more, interrupt herself seeing her friend's mouth stretch to form a small smile.
"Sonia…I don't think I'll ever be okay again...but, you've just given me a reason to carry on living…fifty percent of Draco is here…inside me…he'll live on…does it make any sense to you?" Pansy said her voice sounding definitely odd but not insane.
Sonia smiled and nodded…she understood indeed. Thankfully Pansy had taken the news the best possible way and Sonia couldn't be happier. Well, she could, if only Draco had been there…the picture would have been perfect.
"Don't worry…I'll take care of you…" Sonia heard Pansy muttering to herself while stroking her stomach lovingly.
Maybe it was true that there was hope. Voldemort was dead, his ashes had been spread all over the British Channel, just to make sure that the Dark Lord didn't find, somehow, a way to come back from his ashes.
The Death Eaters were being sorted into those who were guilty and those who had merely been under the Imperius curse. Those who were guilty were being sent back to Azkaban which surveillance was now in charge of the aurors. Blaise Zabini was one of the Death Eaters sent to Azkaban and Sonia was only glad to see he'd be paying for all his crimes. She made a mental note to tell Pansy.
The Dementors had been banned and sent into a magically created containment area specially prepared for them in the North Pole, where they could not cause anymore harm.
There was still plenty to do but, everyone knew that sooner or later, things would be brought back to normal and everyone would be able to enjoy the peace that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had brought to the Magic world.
Families were doing their utmost efforts to deal with the losses the war had caused and Arthur Weasley's government were being extremely supportive of everyone, including the highly distressed muggle Prime Minister.
Pansy, after discussing it with her parents, with Mrs Malfoy and Professor Dumbledore, had decided to stay in Hogwarts and take the NEWT's but, for the time being, her pregnancy was to be kept a secret from everyone. Her parents had taken the news pretty badly at first but, given the circumstances, they decided to be happy about it. Mrs Malfoy had cried with happiness knowing that, after all, the Malfoys would have at least more one generation to bear their surname. Pansy and Narcissa had made a point to be very close both having lost the man of their lives gave the two women a very strong bond.
The Magic world was preparing itself for the first Voldemort-free, really peaceful Christmas holidays and Pansy hoped that this newfound peace, and the baby she was carrying could help her to eventually, heal her shattered heart.
Time. That was what she needed, what the entire Magic world needed.
Time to heal.
To be concluded…
A/N: Don't worry! I'm already writing the epilogue. I hope I'll be able to put it up either tonight or tomorrow…