Devils in the Dark

Chapter II

Pansy entered the Transfiguration room, banged her bag down onto a table, and plopped herself in the seat next to Vincent Crabbe. She may hide her feelings from other people, but he wasn't other people. He was one of the few people she actually trusted. It was far too exhausting to keep up some false facade in front of everyone, and he knew more than anyone else how much she liked Draco and how much Draco screwed her over - repeatedly. There wasn't any point in trying to maintain any semblance of dignity, therefore, since she had lost it a long time ago.

So screw self-respect, damn it!

"Bad mood?" Crabbe asked quietly, without looking at her, the smallest hint of a smile on his face. Hearing no response, he continued, "I'm assuming you heard about Melissa?"

Pansy pursed her lips, and then relaxed them into a neutral position. Malfoy was no reason for her to make it obvious that she was in a bad mood, and she certainly wasn't going to lose face because of him. She ignored the fact that Crabbe probably knew her better than anyone else and saw through any act she would put up, such as pretending it didn't bother her that it felt like a deeper betrayal than any other, to have Draco going for the girl who had cheated on her brother. Fortunately, not a word of sympathy or pity, not a word of mockery was uttered by him, and she would always be in his debt for that. It was the one response that could have made her feel better.

"This year will be your hardest year in school so far. As you know, you will be taking your OWLs this year, which will then determine what you do as a career and may either expand or crush your hopes and aspirations. There's no reason why most people here shouldn't get an OWL." Pansy glared at McGonagall. There had been emphasis on the word 'most' followed by a subtle glance at Crabbe and Goyle. "Today, you will be learning the Vanishing spell. Although not as difficult as some others, it will be one of the hardest spells that you will have to know for OWLs."

"Stupid bitch." Pansy muttered. She got no response from Crabbe, but instead, heard some giggling from behind, where Daphne sat on the left of Blaise, flirting blatantly with him. Sally-Ann sat on his right, vying for his attention. It was a simultaneously disgusting and amusing picture, and Pansy wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Half an hour later, few people were having success with vanishing the snails, and Pansy, normally decent at Transfiguration, was failing miserably too (although, admittedly, she was trying far less than other people). If she wasn't hissing venomous words about Melissa, poor Vincent was listening to her hiss venomous words about Draco and how loyalty is a dying virtue.

"And guess who was flirting with me? It was the most pathetic thing ever! Those disgusting Gryffindors, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and a couple of them from the year above." Pansy didn't hear anything else that Daphne said because her heart was hammering too loudly. Her chest was beginning to hurt the way throbbing headaches hurt – each throb hurting more than the last, and all the time, the only thing she could think of was how to hurt someone, anyone, as much as he'd hurt her. Again. How could he do that to her? He knew she was friends with Daphne, so was it out of spite? But he'd been the one to break her heart, and damn it, she was going to make him pay. Another person added to her list of people to torture and torment for putting her through so much shit!

"Pansy, don't!" Crabbe suddenly grabbed her hand, surprising Pansy, until she realised that she had been about to automatically utter the vanishing spell at her snail, and in the foul mood she had been in, it would have probably gone up in flames (it had happened once in Charms, a few years ago. Flitwick still hadn't forgiven her for that!).

"And what is going on here? Why are you not practising the spell, Miss Parkinson? Is there a reason as to why Crabbe is holding your hand…or is he trying to show you the hand movements?" McGonagall had suddenly swooped down on Crabbe holding Pansy's hand. There was a hint of spite when she had mentioned Crabbe, as she knew that Crabbe struggled with Transfiguration.

"Oh, how lovely to know teachers don't judge students by the house they are in. I'm assuming that's why you sympathise so much with Longbottom but criticise us, and never give us any house points?"

"Ten points from Slytherin, Miss Parkinson, for insubordination."

"And no answer to my question, I suppose? But I suppose you can't really admit that you're as biased as the stupid Gryffindors, for all your self-righteousness, can you?" If the room had been quiet before, it had gone deadly silent now, and out of the corner of her eye, Pansy was satisfied to notice Draco looking at her with narrowed eyes.

"Detention with me, Miss Parkinson, for the whole of this week." And without answering Pansy's question, McGonagall turned round and walked back to the front of the room.

"Perfect start to a week." Pansy muttered, partially to herself and partially to Crabby, who gave a small smile, before struggling with the Vanishing Spell again, for the rest of the lesson.

"What was that about, Pansy?" Millicent asked her under her breath, as they were leaving the classroom, with McGonagall looking murderously at them. Clearly she hadn't had a good day either.

"Bad day." She wasn't in the mood to discuss it, and thankfully, Millicent knew better than to continue on with this conversation, and instead, turned to discussing the numerous different ways that Pansy could abuse her power as a Prefect. You had to set the tone as to what kind of a prefect you would be in the first few days, as they were always the most memorable to people, and Pansy was quite stubborn about being a corrupt, scheming one. And one that broke the rules….there was NO WAY in HELL that Pansy would be goody-two-shoes like Granger.

"You, boy. Yes, the one with the glasses and the bad hairstyle. Carry my bag for me. Unless you want a…detention…" Pansy gave the scared boy a glare, before calling to the one next to him to carry Millicent's books. "And off to lunch we go. Maybe I'll drown myself in any soup there is."

Millicent gave Pansy a small smile. "You'd never do that. Unless for revenge. But I'm sure there's better ways of getting revenge."

Pansy nodded thoughtfully. Millicent was right. Screw suicide, she wanted revenge, and it was about time people stopped screwing around with her.

"Millicent, I think we're going to have fun." An appreciative look was shared between Pansy and Millicent. They were certainly going to have some fun.

Author's note: I hope you enjoyed that. I've rewritten it, replacing some original characters with ones that have been mentioned in passing in the books. I hope it's a bit better – I've tried to pad it out, although I thought this chapter was not too bad, in comparison to chapter I, which I have rewritten.