Despite being weak and recovering from a traumatic ordeal, Hermione was soon bored with her bed rest. It might have been easier to deal with if what had happened to her had been an accident, but as it was someone had deliberately set out to kill her. And not just some random stranger, someone she had thought was becoming a friend.
Try as she might, Hermione just couldn't forget about Pansy, and the fact her father had tasked her with sorting out her punishment. While she was resting, dozens of different ideas for punishment ran through her head, but she just couldn't settle on one. Truth be told, without actually speaking to Pansy and knowing exactly what the other girl had been thinking, Hermione was struggling to come up with the perfect punishment.
Once the idea of actually talking to Pansy entered her head, Hermione decided it was what she was going to do before making any decisions. Convincing her father was a different matter, and in the end she only persuaded him to allow her to visit Pansy, by agreeing to have Draco by her side the entire time. As for when they visited Pansy, Voldemort was reluctant to set an actual date and instead promised they could go on a day Hermione was feeling rested.
Almost a week after she woke up, Hermione was feeling ready to confront Pansy, so Voldemort contacted Lucius and Draco. While Hermione and Draco were talking with Pansy, Voldemort had decided to speak to the older Parkinsons with Lucius. He'd admitted to Hermione that he'd been pre-occupied when he'd confronted the Parkinsons, and therefore hadn't pushed to find out just how involved the parents had been, but that was going to change, and he was going to find out what, if anything, Pansy's parents knew of her actions.
Arriving at the small house Voldemort had locked the Parkinsons in, Hermione took a few moments to gather herself and recover from the journey before Voldemort led the way into the house. Mr Parkinson appeared within seconds of the group entering the house, and Voldemort ordered him to send Pansy to the front room, where Hermione and Draco would talk to her, while bringing his wife to the kitchen.
"Just give me a yell if you need anything," Voldemort said to his daughter as Parkinson hurried off to find his wife and daughter.
"We'll be just fine," Hermione assured her father as she and Draco headed into the front room.
"Are you sure you're up for this?" Draco checked, giving Hermione a concerned look as they sat down on the sofa.
"Yes, I'm up for this," Hermione confirmed with a steely nod. "But if you think I need help, feel free to step in with the questioning. But don't fuss. I don't want Pansy to know how weak I still am."
Hearing footsteps outside of the room, Hermione sat up straight, and she couldn't help but smirk as Pansy entered the room and visibly blanched at the sight of Hermione. For a moment, Hermione was tempted to spring to her feet and tear the other girls eyes out for what she had done to her, but she kept her cool. Firstly, she wasn't sure she could manage to physically attack Pansy, or at least not without giving away how weak she still was, and secondly she knew that it would unnerve Pansy more if she remained calm and collected.
"Surprise," Hermione crowed. "Sit down, Pansy," she ordered when the other girl hovered in the doorway. "Now," she barked when Pansy glanced back over her shoulder as if she expected one of her parents to come and give her some support.
"Or would you rather join your parents in the kitchen with our fathers?" Draco questioned. "Because I'm sure The Dark Lord would love to see you again now he isn't pre-occupied with his daughter being in a coma."
Slowly Pansy entered the room and perched on the armchair opposite the sofa where Hermione and Draco were sitting. For a while no-one said anything, and Hermione felt rather smug at the fear she could see growing in the other girl's eyes.
"So Pansy, why don't you tell us why," Hermione eventually said.
"Why what?" Pansy asked in a stammering voice.
"Why try and kill me?" Hermione asked. "I saw that first day we were properly introduced that you didn't like me. But is dislike really an excuse to try and kill me?"
"What difference does it make?" Pansy whispered.
"It makes a difference to me," Hermione hissed. "What have I ever done to you that would make you want to get rid of me? I've only ever tried to be my friend."
"Crap," Pansy snorted, showing some of her old fire as her fear briefly vanished. "You never wanted to be my friend, you just wanted to be worshipped. You strode in here and expected everyone to fall at your feet. Well I for one, wasn't going to bow down to you."
"I didn't expect anyone to fall at my feet," Hermione said softly. "All I wanted was the chance to make true friends, friends who knew who I was."
"You mean people who were too scared not to like you," Pansy scoffed. "You don't really think the others like you, do you? They're just too scared to admit that you're still the insufferably little know-it-all you've always been. Your father doesn't change the fact you're a dull, boring little bookworm, who isn't even pretty."
"That is enough, Pansy," Draco snarled, jumping in before Hermione could say anything. "You're so wrong, you know. We do all like Hermione. It's true we gave her a chance because of who her father is, but we all quickly found ourselves liking her. Maybe if you'd given her a chance, you would have liked her as well."
"I don't think so," Pansy snorted. "Not when she took everything from me."
"What did I take from you?" Hermione asked with a confused frown. Pansy said nothing, but her eyes flicked to the side of Hermione, and she turned to face her boyfriend. "Draco?" she questioned. "I took Draco from you?"
"What the hell? I was never yours, Pansy," Draco insisted. "We were friends, that was all we ever were, and all we were ever going to be."
"No, we were going to be so much more," Pansy said with a shake of her head. "We were going to be married. I was going to be your wife."
"The marriage contract our fathers had been discussing," Draco scoffed. His father had told him about the idea that he'd been discussing with Parkinson after it was revealed that pansy was behind Hermione's attack. "That would never have worked, Pansy. I never would have agreed to marry you. I cared about you as a friend, but I've never loved you, and I would never have agreed to marry someone I didn't love."
"You don't know that," Pansy argued. "You can say that now, while you're under her spell, but if she wasn't here, things could have been different."
"And is that what you were hoping?" Hermione asked. "That if I wasn't here, you could get your claws into Draco? Did you seriously expect him to fall into your bed if I'd died? If he didn't want you before, why would he want you now? Or were you planning on taking advantage of his grief? Were you going to seduce a grieving wizard?"
"I...I...I don't know," Pansy admitted as both Hermione and Draco glared at her.
"Nice to know you had such a solid plan," Hermione snorted. "And did you consider my father in all of this? Did it never occur to you that he would turn the world upside down to find out who had killed me?"
"Maybe she planned for someone else to take the fall," Draco suggested when Pansy opened and closed her mouth, without a word emerging.
"You mean like Harry and Ron?" Hermione asked. She knew Draco's opinions on Pansy's involvement in her first attack in the light of her confession regarding the second one, and while she wasn't convinced, she was willing to press and find out the truth. "She might have set them up as the fall guys the first time, but not the second. Using a family heirloom would only ever lead back to her."
"Or her parents," Draco said with a sly smile. "Maybe they were her fall guys this time."
"No," Pansy spat. "I didn't want my parents to get the blame. I never thought the bracelet would be traced."
"I see she didn't deny setting up Potter and Weasley," Hermione mused. "Maybe you were right, Draco. She was behind the first attack as well."
"I was not," Pansy denied, not sounding that convincing. "I wasn't even down in Hogsmeade that weekend."
"No, you were ill," Draco said with a snort. "After making a big fuss of going in the first place. I don't know why we didn't see it earlier. you'd no sooner started to change your ways when Hermione was attacked. And let's not forget the similarities of the two attacks. Both were done remotely, rather than face to face. You know the more I think about it, the less I believe Potter and Weasley were behind the first attack. It's far too subtle for them. They would have just confronted Hermione and tried to hex her."
"After already knowing that didn't work?" Pansy scoffed. "They knew she couldn't be hurt via spells and hexes."
"But why would they think poisoning would work?" Hermione asked. "As far as they knew, I was protected from all forms of aggressive magic."
"You were only protected from spells thrown at you by wands," Pansy argued. "They knew that. They knew you were vulnerable from other forms of attack."
"You seem to know a lot about it, Pansy," Draco remarked. "Do you honestly expect us to believe you overheard all of this? Even Potter and Weasley aren't that stupid to have talked about all this when someone can overhear them. Even if you refuse to admit it, I think it's clear you were involved in what happened in Hogsmeade."
"I wasn't," Pansy protested feebly.
"I'm with Draco on this one, you were involved," Hermione decided with a decisive nod. "No doubt you roped Harry and Ron into your plan, probably to get them to take the fall for you, but you were involved, probably even the instigator."
"But you can't prove it, can you?" Pansy sneered.
"I don't need to prove it, Pansy," Hermione chuckled darkly. "You're at my mercy. Whatever happens to you now, happens at my say so. I don't need to know everything you've done to me, Pansy. I know enough."
"So what, you're going to kill me now?" Pansy asked in a quivering voice.
"I haven't decided yet," Hermione answered with a shrug. "But there's no rush, you're not going anywhere. Nor are your parents."
"If they're still alive," Draco remarked casually.
"What do you mean, if they're still alive?" Pansy squealed, jumping to her feet.
"You're not going anywhere, Pansy," Hermione said as Draco jumped to stop Pansy from running from the room.
"What have you done to my parents?" Pansy screamed, wriggling in Draco's firm grasp.
"Nothing," Hermione replied with a shrug. "But how safe they are will depend on what they've told my father. I can't say he won't have lashed out if they've admitted knowing what you were up to."
"But they didn't know," Pansy protested "They didn't know."
"Then they'll suffer for their incompetence as parents," Hermione said as she got to her feet and crossed over to where Draco was still holding onto Pansy. Grabbing hold of Pansy's chin, she got right into the raven haired witches' face. "Just remember that anything that happens to them is because of you. This is all your fault, Pansy."
"What will happen to them?" Pansy asked as tears began to fall down her face. "What will happen to me?"
"As I said, I don't know yet," Hermione replied with a smirk. "I want to make the right choice. But I promise you, Pansy, whatever does happen to you will be no less than you deserve."
"Enjoy waiting to find out your fate, Pans," Draco hissed before letting Pansy go and roughly pushing her away, causing her to fall back onto the sofa he and Hermione had been sitting on.
As she fell onto the sofa, Pansy began to sob in earnest. Merrily waving her goodbye, Hermione and Draco sauntered from the front room. The second they were out of the front room, and out of Pansy's sight, Hermione sagged against Draco and allowed him to support her weight.
"I want to go home now," she whispered. "I've got some serious decisions to be making."
Leaving Hermione beside the front door, Draco poked his head into the kitchen to let Voldemort and Lucius know that Hermione was ready to go. As he delivered the message, he noted that both the Parkinsons were still intact, even if Mrs Parkinson was still crying and Mr Parkinson looked as though he'd shed a few tears himself. Clearly they hadn't know about Pansy's plans, they'd just been neglectful and hadn't seen the hatred burning in their daughter. But it was something they would pay for, possibly with their lives.