When she woke the next morning, her whole body ached. It felt like every time she moved, a thousand pound anvil was being dropped carelessly onto her. It hurt worse than the pain the night before, which was astounding, since that was already painful enough.
She looked over to the clock, expecting it to be early since her mother had not wakened her yet. But it was nearly ten, and she could've hopped from bed in shock if she wasn't in so much pain.
Slowly, she pulled herself from the bed to be met by an elf standing before her, holding a vial of electric blue liquid shakily in his hands. Pansy assumed this was for the pain given graciously by her mother and took it, downing it rapidly to avoid the taste.
It took a moment to settle in, but she felt her body refresh and rejuvenate. Still the slightest of tinges in her as she walked, but nothing she couldn't ignore.
After carefully cleaning up and applying the needed makeup, she leaned against her vanity counter, sighing. It had all happened so fast, and it wasn't supposed to. She detested Senus, but obviously something about him had made her mother want to invite him to come by. Hopefully he wouldn't and just write a letter stating he wasn't interested. Even if her mother was to be mad, it was better than Senus Yitel.
Her mother's words had stung her deep, especially one line.
"When a man hits you, offer him ice and a cold brandy."
It made her wonder what experience her mother had with being hit. Her father had been a fairly gentle man, never the one to hurt his wife despite how much he had loathed her. Perhaps she had been previously married. It was not uncommon for a woman to be married twice if she was widowed. Her mother had never said a word about it though.
She picked out a dress, one of her least favorite but among her mother's favorites. After slipping it on, she sat down for a moment, wishing painfully that she had Millicent here. She felt like crying, but wouldn't will herself to do so. She had to be strong. For her own sake.
Deciding she was hungrier than anything, she walked downstairs and into the kitchen, seeing it empty without even the paper sitting on the table.
"Mother?" She called out as a house elf brought her breakfast and heated it magically with his fingers.
"Pansy, do come in the parlor!" Responded her mother, and Pansy sighed, heading into it, well aware of her hunger.
When she walked in, she saw that Regina was not alone. Senus was with her.
"Ah, Pansy, good morning," he greeted, a smile on his features, acting like nothing had happened.
She remained silent, finding herself speechless. She was scared of him.
"Certainly you're hungry," Senus continued, seemingly oblivious to the fear that was showing in her eyes.
She nodded quickly, taking a step back.
"I… I'll go eat breakfast," she suggested, leaving the room before anyone could reply and heading back into the kitchen where she sat down, her hunger having left her.
Instead of Senus, Regina entered the room, seating herself at the table next to her.
"I need to speak with you, Pansy," she began, folding her hands carefully in her lap. It made Pansy want to scowl, had she not known better.
"Yes?" She urged her on, cutting up the breakfast carefully.
"I have arranged an engagement between you and Senus. I see it only fit. You will have a check-up at St. Mungo's later this afternoon," Regina explained, causing Pansy to drop her fork.
"An engagement?" She sputtered eyes wide. "I can't get married!"
"Did you not realize the purpose of this whole dating idea?" Regina snapped back, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
"Of course… Why do I have a checkup today? I recently had one at the end of term," Pansy said, sighing in defeat. There was no way she could avoid it. She was going to be married in a few short months to one man she hated.
"A pregnancy test," Regina replied softly, and Pansy gasped.
Pregnancy? She hadn't even thought of that! The idea of carrying Senus's child due to his disgusting male needs made her shudder, closing her eyes and wishing this would all just be a sick, sick nightmare.
"Be ready at noon," Regina replied, standing up abruptly and leaving the room.
Pansy sighed, finishing her breakfast even though after every bite, she felt like taking another one would surely kill her. Maybe that was what she was hoping for. When finished, she left and went upstairs, glad to see that Senus had left the Manor.
For an hour, she busied herself with pacing the room and thinking of impossible ways to get out of the engagement. Each seemed as unlikely as the next. There was absolutely no way to get him out of her life.
"Mistress? Your mother asks your presence in the parlor," an elf squeaked from the doorway.
Pansy nodded, checking her appearance before heading gracefully downstairs to see that Senus was once more, at the Manor. Her face fell but she tried to pick it up immediately, to no avail.
"Ready?" Senus asked innocently, proffering his arm.
"Yes," Pansy responded quietly, accepting the arm purely not to be rude and apparating the moment he did to St. Mungo's.
After having a short chat with the receptionist while waiting for her appointment, Pansy entered one of the long, bright rooms and lay out on a bed. She knew pregnancy tests were terribly easy to perform in the wizarding world, if only one had the proper ability.
It was possible to learn a skill that allowed one to lay their hands on the stomach of a woman and tell if she was or was not pregnant. The common nurse did not acquire this, only people who were serious doctors.
A tall, slightly plump woman walked over, a smile plastered on her features as she adjusted her gloves.
"Afternoon, Ms. Parkinson," she greeted, nodding to Senus as well, who was seated in the chair beside the bed.
The nurse set straight to work, lifting Pansy's robes and laying her hands on Pansy's stomach. Her eyes changed an odd shade of violet and then after about two minutes, she pulled her hands away.
Nervously, Pansy adjusted her robes and looked to the nurse for answers.
"There are no signs of growth, nor any signs that there will be any. You're not pregnant," the nurse told her and Pansy couldn't help but smile. She wasn't going to be a mother. Not yet.
Senus didn't seem all too disappointed. She imagined he was just thinking that she would continue to be skinny until their wedding. He probably wouldn't want an impregnated woman in a wedding dress.
They left the room without a word spoken to each other until Senus turned to Pansy.
"I've heard there's an exquisite café just added to Diagon Alley. Let us go and have a drink," Senus said once they reached the front office.
Knowing better than to object, Pansy nodded, forcing herself to smile as she apparated to Diagon Alley, meeting with Senus there.
They walked in complete silence down to the café. Well, it wasn't complete silence, seeing as Senus was greeting particularly dark looking figures on the street as they went.
When they finally reached it, Pansy had to admit it looked like a nice place, though crowded.
They walked in, hearing a lot of noise from people talking, laughing, and other assorted activities in the café.
A very large group of men were seated in the center, all drinking what looked to be firewhiskey and eating small amounts of food, making a good amount of the racket. Pansy didn't look at them, not wanting to make Senus angry or jealous or anything of the sort.
Luckily, they managed to get a table. Unfortunately, it was placed near the bathrooms. Oh well, no odd smell or noises reached their noses and ears, so they didn't much mind.
Senus ordered them both a drink without even a glance at the menu, springing into conversation with Pansy, who pretended to be listening.
"I really ought to have a tutor teach you the art of Arithmancy, it's quite fascinating. It gives you the ability to know more than half the people you know," Senus carried on, Pansy catching bits and pieces of what he was saying as she tried to keep her gaze on him. It kept drifting to the windows, but his voice slightly altered to be louder brought her quickly back to attention.
The group of men were getting even louder as they were brought more drinks, Pansy only seeing the back of some heads for a split second before she looked back to Senus, who was growing impatient with her wandering eyes.
"Pansy? Are you listening to me?" Senus asked impatiently.
"PANSY?"
She turned, hearing her name in a tone that sounded full of shock and disbelief. Right there before her, seeming to have been heading to the bathroom was Blaise Zabini, an old school friend. He looked even more handsome than she remembered.
It took her a second to remember why he was looking at her like that. She had been transformed into what was expected of her.
"You know this man?" Senus asked, breaking the stare between the two.
"School friends," Pansy explained, standing up. "Blaise! Err… Good to see you."
He just stared for a moment before pulling her into a bonebreaking hug and letting her go seconds later.
"I can't believe it's really you! The nose and the hair and the outfit…" Blaise carried on, scanning her new appearance several times.
"Hey, Malfoy! Goyle! Nott! Look who's here!" He called loudly towards that center table.
"Who is it?" Goyle called back, squinting his eyes to see who it was that Blaise was yelling about.
"Just come over here, you stupid logs!"
Pansy felt a blush rushing to her cheeks. They didn't even recognize her. It occurred to her that Blaise may not have known who she was if Senus had not been saying her name as he walked by.
All of the men from the group, which was quite a crowd, walked over to Blaise, carrying assorted alcoholic drinks.
Malfoy was the first to see it.
"Parkinson?" He merely gasped, his silver-blue eyes wide with awe.
She nodded. A few of the men that she didn't recognize let out impolite catcalls and the ones she did just stood there a bit shocked.
"Senus Yitel," Senus said, breaking the silence and shaking Blaise's hand.
"Blaise Zabini," he responded, letting go of the tight grip.
"Did we interrupt some sort of date?" Nott asked, without the slightest bit of worry if he actually had or not.
"No."
"Yes."
Pansy looked to Senus, who had responded with a yes immediately. Had they been on a date?
Some of the guys exchanged looks.
"She's
my fiancé," Senus explained haughtily.
"Oh, now I see
it," Nott responded, muttering something to Draco who smirked on
queue.
Senus glanced at his watch. Pansy had a feeling that he didn't want to leave, but he'd mentioned having to go to work later. And she didn't mind one bit. A chance to catch up with her friends was all she wanted at that moment.
"I've got to go to work," Senus grumbled bitterly.
"Bye," Pansy replied eagerly, unable to stop a little smile on her face as Senus muttered a goodbye and apparated on the spot.
She was nearly tackled by hugging guys, which would have been out of character for them if they weren't half drunk.
"Come on, sit with us!" Blaise encouraged, pulling Pansy towards the table and scooting in a chair between him and Draco.
"Another whiskey!" Nott called to the waitress, and Pansy was relieved. A whiskey sounded very good at that moment.
"So what happened?" Draco asked, turning to Pansy and taking a swig of his giant mug of alcohol.
"My mother," Pansy began, and the Hogwarts graduates shared a knowing look. "She wanted to make me suitable for a husband, you know, saying I wasn't pretty enough to get any of the rich ones. So she spent a week trying to make me into her. And then I was set up on three dates. Mother just recently engaged me to Senus. This morning, actually."
The men around the table listened attentively as she told them of the first two, a laugh resounding from the growing-drunker table as she told them of how she had rid of her second date.
"Aren't you just the little Bachelorette then?" Blaise asked once she'd finished. She had left out the raping bit, having a feeling that they would hunt and tar Senus if they knew about it, then he'd kill her.
She smiled at him. It may have been because she thought it was funny, or maybe because she'd downed two drinks while explaining the dates. They hadn't noticed.
"Let's go somewhere," Draco suggested, standing up and tossing a bag of galleons on the table. Pansy realized she didn't have any money with her. Draco tossed her a knowing look and threw a few more coins on the table before looking towards the door.
The others paid and they walked out into the streets of Diagon Alley, all a bit tipsy if not drunk.
"Where to?" Blaise asked, slurring his words a bit as he did, smiling a little goofy.
"We could go to my home," Draco replied, to much approval of the crowd. Pansy supposed he owned his own mansion since he'd graduated. His parents had so many summer homes, they could've just handed him over one. He'd always been rather spoilt.
They all agreed to go to Draco's manor, apparating on their own except for Pansy, who had to co-apparate with Draco seeing as she didn't know where the manor was and he couldn't quite recall his address.
When they got there, they drank quite a bit more. It wasn't long before they were all drunk, piled inside Draco's parlor except for about half of the group which had gone back to their wives or fiancés before they got too drunk.
She wasn't surprised that Draco didn't even have a girlfriend. He didn't like anybody unless he knew them very well. And if he didn't know them, they were just a one-night-stand and that's all he'd do with them.
"Let's play the Drinking Game!" Theodore Nott exclaimed in a slurry tone, holding up his bottle of firewhisky.
Several of the men in the room grunted and shouted in agreement, but then took a large gulp and stared around.
"What is the Drinking Game, anyway?" Goyle asked, much to the agreement of the men who had shouted.
"It's when you drink a lot," Theodore said, a goofy smile on his lips.
"Isn't that what we're doing?" Draco asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"I always thought it was when you're home; trying to convince your wife you haven't had a sip all night. Quite a game," Blaise chipped in, downing a good half of the bottle in his hand.
They'd spent many a night like this at Hogwarts. Pansy had usually not participated, not wanting to drink the alcohol. She'd only done it about three times over the course of seven years. But by the looks of things, the guys had a lot more than that.
"I always figured it was to see who'd pass out first," one of the unidentified males suggested, and the figures in the room looked around.
"Sounds good to me," Draco chipped in, and nods of agreement trailed across the heavy couches.
Pansy wasn't uncomfortable, being with all these guys. It was how it had been at school whenever the girls she had hung with didn't feel like taking part in games that could damage their hairstyle of break a nail, literally. She'd always been one of the tomboys at school.
"We could do the wife bit, 'cept all we've got is Pansy, so she can be our wife," Blaise said, wobbling slightly on his feet.
"She's prettier than mine," one of the men said, and a hearty laugh spread through the room, except for Pansy, who was blushing.
"To Pansy!" Blaise held up his bottle, leaning against a chair for support.
"To Pansy!"
They drank. And drank. And drank. Pansy wasn't aware of what time it was and quite frankly, it hadn't crossed her mind at all. She felt like she was just a carefree kid again, having a good time with her friends.
After enough drinking, Pansy was among the first to drift asleep sitting up, slowly falling to where her head was in Draco's lap, but he fell asleep a bit later with his head resting on the back of the couch.
Pansy woke that next morning with a beating pain her head. She definitely had a hangover, because the snoring in the room was amplified and she felt her head spinning. Whatever she was laying on was rather comfortable though.
By this time, her mother would have woken her up. And at that thought, she sat up straight in an instant, realizing that the comfortable pillow had been Draco's legs.
"Oh Merlin…" She muttered, standing up and avoiding sleeping lumps. Her mother was going to kill her. It was morning, sunlight was pouring in through the windows. What was Senus going to do?
Scared out of her mind, she looked around for her shoes, seeing one perched beside Draco's foot. She leant down to get it, coming up and smacking her shoulder into Draco's knee.
"Ow!" She whined, and Draco woke with a start.
He looked different. His hair was a mess from sleeping like that and his eyes tired. She'd never seen him just when he woke up, and she sort of liked it.
"Pansy?" He muttered, clutching his blonde head against the throbbing pain.
"I've got to go. Mother's going to kill me," Pansy said quietly, aware of the pain he would receive if she were to speak any louder.
He let out a stream of obscenities, standing up also and clutching his back, realizing he'd slept with her other shoe in between him and his back.
"Here," he muttered, handing her the shoe and brushing hair from his face.
"Thanks," she said quietly again, slipping on the shoe and straightening out her robes.
"Owl me to let me know if you're dead or not," Draco said, stretching.
"I can't. My owl got taken away. You can owl me though," Pansy told him.
"All right. Bye," he said, waving slightly just as she apparated with a quiet pop.
She arrived home in the blink of an eye, throwing open the door and quietly trying to maneuver her way upstairs. The staircase seemed a lot longer when she was trying to get up it as fast as she could.
Her hand clasped the door handle when she reached her room, but the door was opened by a force from the other side.
It was her mother. And she looked ready to kill. Her hands were on her hips and her lips pursed together. Her eyes were narrowed and what could be seen of them was a blazing anger.
"Mother," Pansy began, but she was slapped. Again.
She clutched her face lightly, looking fearfully to her mother who pulled Pansy by the wrist into the room.
"Explain to me why you can desert your fiancé and spend the night at some man's house with a dozen other men there?" Regina snapped, her voice making Pansy's head hurt even more.
"It wasn't like that. They're my friends!" Pansy insisted, but her mother refused to hear of it.
"You made Mr. Yitel very angry. He is waiting in the parlor," she continued, seeing Pansy wincing against the tone. "Oh please, take this you foolish girl."
She handed a vial to her daughter, who accepted it and downed it in a second, her head feeling much better.
"Go and apologize to Senus," Regina ordered, giving Pansy a rough push out the door again.
Pansy nodded, hurrying downstairs into the parlor. What was Senus going to do to her? Rape her again? Chills were rushing up and down her body as the thoughts returned.
She walked in, seeing Senus sitting in one of the giant armchairs, tapping his foot against the floor impatiently. When he saw her, he stood up quickly, approaching her with a malicious expression.
"Senus, I'm so-…"
Another slap. This was getting to be really annoying.
"You have disrespected me. You have disrespected everything I have provided you with and will provide you with. Because you've got a hefty sum of money in that bank account of yours, I'm not going to drop you, but you are going to learn a lesson. Right here. To your knees," he ordered.
She quietly obeyed, her eyes shut tightly in fear.
He pulled out his wand, waving it once and muttering something. A cloth appeared at his feet.
"Shine my shoes," he ordered, and Pansy hurried to do so. It wasn't very good, since she had certainly never shined shoes before, but it was done. "You are only worthy to shine the shoes on my feet. You do not deserve any more privileges. That will make up for your sins, though I forbid you to see those fools."
Pansy bit back a tear. At least all she had to do was shine his shoes.
"On your feet," he barked and she stood up immediately. "I will be by tomorrow to pick you up for the fitting."
"Fitting?"
"The fitting of your wedding dress. Our wedding is going to be private. Small and private," he explained, a smirk falling onto his lips. "Now, do go and wash the filth off of you."
She nodded simply. He leaned it and kissed her shortly on her lips before leaving the room.
She fell to her knees again, wrapping her arms around her legs and sobbing into her knees. She was doomed.
