Wow! Chapter four after like….ages. hope you're still reading.. will revise the first few chaps…
Chapter 4
Pansy woke up next to Draco. Disgusted, she climbed out of bed and winced as she was hit by pain all over her body. Bumps, bruises and sores were occupying spaces hitherto undiscovered by Pansy. Gods, what had she done last night? Not Draco, certainly(she paled at the thought). Then she remembered the Death Eaters.
Cursing inwardly, she made her way out the door, checking first to see if the coast was clear. As luck would have it, a gaggle of her favourite Slytherin juniors picked that moment to turn the corner. She tried to duck back in as the annoying voices of Marion and Suzeanne rang out, "Pansy dahling!"
Foiled. She quickly removed her cloak and gloves so that she would look relatively normal. "Did you want something?" she asked, exuding superior snobbery.
One of their brows furrowed prettily. "I've been looking for you," she simpered. "The Hogsmeade Skive is on today. You are coming, aren't you? It's darling Andrew's first time organizing one. It's going to be our first too. We're so excited!"
Who was Andrew again?
"See you there!" sang Marion or Suzeanne gaily.
Pansy rolled her eyes and walked away. She could hear them whispering behind her though.
"Gosh did you see those bruises? She's so battered!"
"She just came out of Draco's room, didn't she?"
"Disgusting, they are. At it like rabbits!"
"I heard he brought these special whips home from Durmstrang."
"Like to try them, wouldn't you?"
Argh.
The Hogsmeade Skive was a Slytherin tradition going back generations. Slytherins were just too good and cool to hang out at boring old Hogsmeade during the visits, so they didn't. It was all very secretive and elaborate, done completely with Portkeys all the way to a house or some other comfy, exclusively Slytherin location. Also very illegal – drink, drugs and sex abounded. Just what Pansy needed(well maybe not sex).
The students were assembled in the courtyard before the trip, but this time they were in for a nasty surprise. Professor McGonagall was making the usual "be safe and don't kill each other" speech when Pansy arrived, cleaned up and magically debruised.
Suddenly, something caught her attention.
"..because in the interest of student safety, inter house relationships must be fostered. The pairings of this Hogsmeade trip will, therefore, be between students of different houses."
The effect was electric. They were being forced to tag around with students from some other house all day? The student body exploded into furious chatter. A couple of girls were crying. McGonagall continued, "As we would not dream of using magic on you to make you stay together, we shall have to rely on the honour system. However, if anybody returns or is found without their assigned partners, they will be given a week of detention."
Marion had pretended to faint from shock. McGonagall, having now to shout over the din, began to read the names of the partners.
"…Bones. Parkinson, Granger."
Pansy felt her good mood begin to sink. This wasn't happening. Hermione Granger! Only the most ridiculously spectacular know-it-all who had ever existed! She saw Draco smirking at her, and gave him the finger. He began to laugh.
"Malfoy, Weasley."
He stopped laughing. Ron Weasley swore, very loudly. McGonagall glared at him.
"That's Ginevra Weasley, Weasley and I'll thank you to watch your tongue."
Pansy felt vindicated, slightly. But oh gods… not her!
An hour later.
Pansy hurried through the streets of Hogsmeade. It had taken an age, but she'd finally lost Goody Granger. Now, where had the bimbo twins said the Portkey was? Pansy concentrated. Madame Pernelle's Peculiarities. The doorknob. She turned the correct corner smiling grimly. She could already see it. She was so close..
"What do you think you're doing?"
A very angry head of large hair now stood in her way, glaring. Pansy goggled, then swore.
"You've got to be fucking joking," she muttered.
"I'm serious Granger, I'm not in the mood, now get out of my way," she growled.
"No!" Hermione said defiantly. Pansy was surprised(but only slightly) at her bravado.
"You think I don't know what you're up to? Where all you Slytherins disappear off to almost every Hogsmeade trip? Well not today, Parkinson. I'm not losing my House Points just because you can't be arsed to…" Hermione continued shrilly.
Pansy had ceased listening, because she could anxiously see the Portkey already glowing brightly behind Hermione. She desperately tried to push past but was shoved back by the Gryffindor. That hurt!
"How you were selected to be a responsible Prefect, I really don't know.." she was saying. The doorknob began to fade.
"Oh, spare me!" snapped Pansy. The Portkey faded further. She was running out of time!
The shrill indignities continued, and the Portkey's magic window of time steadily decreased further and further as Pansy watched helplessly until eventually, unstoppably, it disappeared completely.
Pansy screamed. Hermione recoiled, and Pansy glared. "Happy?"
Hermione stuttered. "W-well you shouldn't.."
But Pansy had already used her wand to draw a circle on a nearby wall. She placed her wand-hand on it. "Andrew?" she barked. The effeminate voice Hermione recognized vaguely as Andrew Cale's filtered through the circle.
"Pansy dearest, wherever have you been?"
"I ran into some Mudblood trouble," said Pansy, taking a perverse pleasure in Hermione's anger. "Is there an alternative Portkey near me?"
"Hmm….yes. You'll need to rush though. It's going in about one minute."
"Where?"
"Rooftop of Zonko's. I don't remember what it is."
"I'm there. Finite incantatem."
She closed the circle. Hermione had regained some of her composure and was already poised to give Pansy a piece of her mind. Pansy cut in first. "No. I've had a shit of a week, and don't even try to ask about it or I'll hex you into next Thursday. Don't think I can't. I need to get out of here and you're not going to stand in my way."
On her way out of the alley, she turned and added, "By the way, give me that Prefect shit again when you've stopped making out with Weasley in our bathroom."
Hermione turned as red as her boyfriend. "That was one time!" she hissed.
"See if the teachers think that'll help your Head Girl campaign, hmm?"
Pansy smirked Draco-esquely at the horrified speechless girl before her and strode out of the alley.
A few seconds later, Hermione snapped out of her daze. "Oh shit!" she thought uncharacteristically. God, where had she gone? She struggled to remember, and it came to her. Zonko's! Hermione took off running.
She arrived at the rooftop, panting heavily, and saw Pansy cursing at the air (presumably she'd missed her Portkey). Hermione was relieved then perplexed and shocked to see Ginny bound and gagged on the floor. "Oh my God," she exclaimed, running over. As she magically untied and checked on Ginny, a chair began to glow just behind her. Pansy reacted instantly, rushing towards it. 'Strange,' thought the detached part of Hermione. 'It's very late, isn't it?'
Pansy's eyes gleamed as she grabbed the chair and began to dematerialize. "See you later, Mudblood!" she called gleefully.
Hermione shook her head. That was the last straw. Disposing of the last of Ginny's bonds, she hurried towards the Portkey and disappeared, ignoring Ginny's screams. This was personal.
In fact, Ginny, who had been left there by none other than Draco Malfoy before his own vanishing, was screaming, "That's the wrong Portkey!"
But her seniors were gone, and their Portkey was fading. Ginny was dumbfounded, and started to panic. Should she get help? Would she get into trouble? What if they were getting trapped in some hell dimension where demons would feast on their insides? The Portkey was almost completely gone!
She could only hope she was doing the right thing as she closed her eyes and touched the Portkey one second before it stopped glowing altogether.
Ginny felt the familiar sensation of a litter of rabbits in heat cavorting around in her stomach and her brain being stretched in ten different directions that she always felt during teleportation.
When the colours and images had stopped swirling, she went through her usual process of post-Portkey travel stock taking. She was standing in a very plush, grand place resembling a temple. To her left, Pansy and Hermione were arguing. Red velvet cushions everywhere. Grecian looking urns on pedestals. Pink and red fountains. Blue skies up above(ah, so this wasn't exactly in the same world). And men. Multitudes of young, toga clad, extraordinarily hot young men seemed to be the main inhabitants of whatever this place was. They were tall, built, beautiful and barely dressed. They swarmed her immediately, perhaps a hundred of them, twittering excitedly, sniffing at her, playing with her clothes and staring at her like children with a new toy. Inching backwards slowly, she jumped when one of them touched her, which caused a further fascination with her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Hermione hiding comically behind Pansy from similar molestations. They were still verbally sparring, of course.
Ginny's attention was brought back to herself when without warning, one of them, a drop dead gorgeous brunette stepped in and kissed her full on the lips. Her brows shot up, then her head began to feel light and a pleasant, relaxing tingle began to spread through her body. Her knees felt weak. 'I should lie down,' she thought drowsily. She felt herself being supported from the back by strong arms. The warm lips kept probing gently.
Her body fell limp. Ginny realized she couldn't move. Alarm bells began ringing in her mind. She couldn't breathe, either. 'What…what's going on..' she thought slowly, helplessly. She started to lose consciousness. 'What a…..stupid…way to..die..' she thought, hearing herself getting more and more distant from the world.
Just as her eyes began to roll backwards, she was vaguely aware of being released. Her mind registered pain as she fell onto the ground.
"..and don't pretend you don't understand me!" finished Pansy.
"She's breathing," announced Hermione, thankfully.
Pansy, in the meantime, had begun threatening another of the beautiful creatures, who had turned hostile.
Ginny let herself be enveloped by the darkness, and passed out.
When she opened her eyes, the three girls were in a dark place. It looked like a store room. Broken amphoras, spoiled settees and the like were piled around them. A small, dilapidated fountain stood sadly in one corner.
"Hallo, Gin," said Hermione kindly.
"Where are we?" she asked, still groggy.
"Well," Hermione said, pointedly glaring at Pansy, "Thanks to Parkinson here, we caught a bad Portkey and ended up in some strange party realm. You were poisoned by one of those things. I think they're called dryads. Oh, and she pissed off the resident god and now we've all been imprisoned until further notice."
"Oh. Good."
"Will you not be so counter productive, Granger?" hissed Pansy.
"Excuse me for breathing but it's not exactly my fault that we're stuck in some other universe with no way of getting home, is it?" Hermione retorted, her voice getting higher.
"Oh shut up. If you hadn't stopped me in the first place we wouldn't even be here."
"If YOU would actually follow the rules once in a while.."
"Prefect's bathroom!"
"I'm never going to get my Order of Merlin. No tertiary education. No Daily Prophet editor offer."
A few minutes of bickering passed until Ginny, still weak and tired, raised her wand and muttered, "Silencio."
The pair went from fighting to lip synching. At the same time, they realized what was happening and turned to look at Ginny.
"You're really annoying." She whispered hoarsely. "Haven't you got a single way of going home?"
They simultaneously began lip synching again and Ginny waved them shut.
"Hermione first," she said, lifting the spells.
"No," said Hermione sadly. "Everything I've come up with wouldn't work. I just don't have anything strong enough to go across realms."
"I see." Ginny said calmly. "Pansy?"
"Don't call me that."
"I'm sorry."
Pansy was quiet for a moment. Then she seemed to get annoyed, but she nodded. Hermione looked at her in surprise. "It's an absolute last resort. And you must never, ever utter a word about this to anyone, do you understand?"
"Okay. What do we have to do?"
Pansy sighed. "I'll need Granger's wand. Not yours. You're much too weak."
Ginny nodded.
Silently, Pansy sat directly across from Hermione and cast a circle. She instructed Hermione to hold out her hands, wand out. They joined hands.
"Close your eyes," said Pansy. "Focus your mind."
Pansy began to speak in a strange mix of Latin and Parseltongue.
Ginny listened and tried to understand(she could remember a little Parseltongue from her earlier days).
"In the name of Hecate, of the furies, of the three who are one, of my own power as a daughter of Merlin. By the nameless gods, the ones who were before us, by Aphrodite and by Perseus. Hear me. Aid me. I invoke my right to call upon he who is tied to me by the bond of troth for help. I call. Come. I call. Come. Come to me."
Hermione could feel power surging through her fingertips, flowing throughout her body. It was strange and intense, and felt very ancient, like no magic she had ever performed before. It was a little scary, and quite exhilarating. The pressure built, coursing through the room in waves growing huger in size. Hermione began to feel crackling along her skin. Suddenly, they let out the power. It shot out of the circle, a message being sent out of that world in a massive ball of magical energy.
Hermione and Pansy collapsed backwards, exhausted.
"It worked," said Pansy, slightly relieved. They were all breathing shortly. "He's coming. It'll take an hour or two."
"Who's coming?"
"Help."
Hermione looked down and bit her lip. She came to a decision.
"Look, Parkinson. I mean," she paused. "Thank you." She said in a small voice.
"Sure, whatever."
Ginny had almost fully recovered from the dryad poison and was sitting up.
"Granger?"
"Yes?"
"Look. We're not friends, okay? I'm supposed to be pissed or stoned right now. Thanks to you, I'm neither."
Hermione thought for a moment. "The fountain." She said, making it sound like a eureka.
"What?" Pansy looked at her as if she'd gone barmy.
"The fountain. The stuff that flows from it..it's wine. I saw some of the..things..drinking it just now. I could smell it too."
"But it's broken," said Ginny.
"Well," said Hermione, more cheerful now that she wasn't going to miss her N.E.W.T.s, "Are you a witch or aren't you?"
She inspected it, then spent a few minutes casting Transfiguring spells on it until, miraculously, it began to run. Rich red wine poured from its many tiers and terraces. Hermione smiled self satisfactorily.
"Cups?" she said happily.
Pansy raised an eyebrow. "Not bad," she admitted, taking a cup. "Now all we need is some weed."
Shyly, Ginny produced some from her pocket.
"Ginny Weasley!" said Hermione, scandalized.
Ginny shrugged.
Some time later, the three girls were falling all over each other with laughter, drunk as lords.
"And I mixed it with some stuff from the kitchens, so the next day when he woke up, he had mini purple dinosaurs in his hair!"
Hermione and Ginny shrieked in laughter. Tears were spilling out of their eyes.
"You mean like Barney," said Hermione, giggling.
"What..haha..what's Barney?" said Pansy, laughing uncontrollably.
"I wish I'd do that to one of my boyfriends," said Ginny, while staring at the wonders of her own hand as it swished around.
"That's the best thing," said Pansy, quite intoxicated, while Hermione took another swig of wine. "Malfoy and I aren't dating. We're not even sleeping together!" she cried, laughing til her stomach hurt.
They burst into laughter again. They pretty much found anything hilarious at this point.
"In fact," Pansy continued as if the punchline to the funniest joke in the world was coming up. "We hate each other's guts! Haha! We're only pretending so that we don't piss off our parents!"
She was rolling on the ground now, banging it with her fist, quite oblivious to the sudden silence and sobriety that had greeted this statement.
Luckily, or not, a portal opened up at that very moment, and a furious Draco Malfoy stepped through, cursing everything under the sun.
"Malfoy!" exclaimed the Gryffindors at the same time, getting up.
"Oh, you too then?" he snarled. He looked down. "What the hell's wrong with her?"
"She's..sort of…drunk.." said Hermione, resisting the urge to giggle.
"Yeah. And high, too." Added Ginny.
"Gods damn it!" said Draco. "Ugh. I should just leave the two of you here. Ah!" he jumped as a sudden jab shot through his body. That was not what Pansy had requested. He rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. Bloody stupid magic. It's not like she even knows her name now anyway."
He hauled the still giggling Pansy to her feet bodily and dragged her towards the portal. "Come on then!" he growled at the other two.
They walked through the gateway and came out back in Hogsmeade, inside one of the horseless carriages by which the students could break away from their assigned partners and go back to school. Pansy was asleep on Draco's shoulder. Hermione and Ginny were silent and awkward.
"Alright you two," said Draco, pointing. "Piss off. Remember I saved your lives today. If you tell anyone, especially Potty bloody Potter, I will hunt you down and wring your necks with my bare hands. Do you understand?"
Ginny slapped him across the face, then, hard. "I was going to thank you," she said angrily. She took Hermione's arm and they left to rejoin their friends.
Draco was left with his cheek and pride smarting. Beside him, Pansy made a funny sound and snuggled further into his neck. "Oh get off, you hag." He said, trying to push her off. But it didn't bring him as much satisfaction as usual.
'Damn.' He thought as the carriage began to move.
That's it. Please review. Please! I actually planned some of the rest of it. This is a first!