Karma
This was her Karma
Hermione had learned very quickly to keep her head down as she walked down the halls of Hogwarts. It had been 3 months since her return to the one place she hoped never to return to. She had memorized the concrete floors of Hogwarts during her first few weeks back. It didn't take long for her to realise that keeping her head down was the only way she was going survive.
A rowdy 6th year Gryffindor on her first day back had taught her that lesson.
She had been walking down the staircase following the welcoming feast on her first day when she had felt a hard push into her back. She tumbled down the remaining stairs landing hard on her back. Her head pounding after hitting the concrete slab with a sickening thud.
She had looked up delirious with pain at the burly looking boy she briefly recognised as a Gryffindor a year below her before he had stomped hard on her collarbone sending her back onto the ground.
Deatheater whore he had whispered viciously
Hermione had spent the following four days in the hospital wing nursing her wounds drifting in and out of her consciousness.
And so it had continued, each day much of the same routine. She woke up alone in her room and dragged herself to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Headmaster Mc Gonagall had thought it best she have her own separate boarding in order to avoid unnecessary conflict. Nonetheless, she forced herself each day into the shower and into clothes that never seemed to fit her anymore. She had grown accustomed to walking to the kitchens and eating alone in her solace.
Walking to and fro from class had become a warzone. Dodging students and avoiding their gazes she had learned to quickly duck into dark corners and empty classes to avoid the ire of her classmates.
She didn't know how much longer she could do it.
The verbal abuse.
The threat in the dark.
The silence from her professors.
Hermione had felt the walls of Hogwarts closing in on her.
"So let me get this straight, you can't even go to Hogsmeade for a Butterbeer?"
Pansy Parkinson had insisted on visiting her every chance she got.
When Hermione had first received the letter from Blaise's fiancée begging her to allow her to visit Hermione's first reaction was to say no.
She had grown used to her solitude, any visit from a friendly face would leave her shattered.
She had written back immediately advising Pansy not to visit.
She had shown up the next week.
And the week after.
And so it had continued.
Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zambini were the power couple of the century. That's what the headline in the Prophet had declared for weeks after they had announced their engagement. Blaise the silent businessman with the handsome smile and Pansy the quick witted litigator who was the epitome of aristocracy.
They were a force to be reckoned with.
They were also the only two people who remembered who she used to be.
And still held hope that person existed somewhere inside of her.
Pansy had initially begged to join her legal team stating there was no one who cared more than she did and therefore she couldn't lose.
And she did care.
For that reason alone Hermione had refused to allow her to represent her. Believing that she would end up in Azkaban and knowing no matter how much she would argue otherwise, Pansy would blame herself.
Hermione squinted in the warm sunlight whilst pulling her winter cloak around her.
"I can't leave the school grounds without permission from Mc Gonagall" she replied.
As usual Pansy had insisted on taking a walk around the black lake stating the clean winter air would do wonders for their skin tone. Hermione just figured she was trying to get her away from the school crowds, either way Hermione was grateful.
After all, the black lake was rather special to them.
Pansy never came empty handed. Generous to a fault, each week she returned to Hogwarts with endless shopping bags full of new bedsheets, winter coats, winter scarves and so forth.
Her logic being if she was forced to be a prisoner within the castle walls, at least she could do it in style.
Pansy scowled at said the castle in the distant "absolutely ridiculous that they won't even allow you to return home for Christmas. What do they think you are going to do?" Hermione remained silent knowing it would be best to allow her friend to vent on the unfairness of the situation. The injustice she felt on Hermione's behalf.
"Seriously though" she continued "I can't believe those good for nothing professors stood by and did nothing while those gutless twerps did THAT to your hair!" she pointed at her anger
Hermione ran her hand through her short locks subconsciously.
She had initially tried her best to fix what she could but the damage had been done.
One afternoon while in Potions one of the Slytherin students had taken a pair of magical scissors and cut her hair without her knowledge.
Hermione had been on her way to the kitchens the next morning before she caught sight of her reflection in the portrait glass and had gasped in silent horror.
One half of her curly locks had been chopped diagonally well above her shoulders while the other half lay limp against her back.
Pansy had spent a few hours layering and cutting her hair evenly spluttering curses under her breath the entire time.
Hermione's long locks now were replaced with a short bob of curls cut above her shoulder.
"And just the fact they don't allow you to have a wand without a professor present is absolutely barbaric! How are you able to defend yourself against these delinquents if you don't have your wand?"
Hermione stopped in her tracks turning to face her friend. A small smile on her face.
It still amazed her how much Pansy cared.
Despite everything.
She never stopped.
Hermione wished she deserved it.
"It's okay Pansy, I get my wand back after I have completed the year in Hogwarts" she replied reassuringly eager to avoid another one of Pansy's tirades.
But Pansy wasn't finished.
"I am sure Potter is just frothing at the mouth at the thought of what his followers are doing in his name! The whole thing just makes me sick"
Hermione flinched at the mention of her ex-best friend.
"Pansy its fine, let it go" she pleaded.
Pansy's glare took on an icy tone.
"Don't you think you have suffered enough?"
Hermione smiled sadly at her friend.
"That's not how Karma works"
Pansy Parkinson was a clever girl.
Her mother had always told her cleverness was an attribute that was never needed in a woman. For men only desired wealth and beauty. Cleverness and intellect were qualities that were wasted on women.
But Pansy knew otherwise.
Cleverness had kept her head above water during Hogwarts.
Had kept her alive during the war.
And cleverness had ensured that she was always one step ahead of the game.
Post-war politics had made her the master of the game.
But despite how well she played the game, Pansy Parkinson was unable to save Hermione from her current predicament.
"Blaise you didn't see the state she was in! I mean her hair! She looked positively ghastly before I showed up!" she exclaimed loudly flopping down onto the small two seater couch in Blaise's office staring dejectedly at the ceiling huffing in frustration.
Blaise eyed his fiancée sympathetically.
"I wish there was more we could do" he responded leaning back in his own chair to stare at the ceiling in frustration.
"And the fact Draco didn't even bother to come and visit her at all, I mean Blaise what the hell" she scoffed.
Blaise looked at her carefully before avoiding her gaze.
Pansy sensing his avoidance pounced like a cat.
"What aren't you telling me Blaise?" she asked sitting up and looking at her fiancé cautiously.
Blaise was never a good liar.
He knew how to be manipulative.
How to get what he wanted.
He was a Slytherin after all.
But lying had never been his strong point.
Especially when it came to lying to her.
"Nothing Pansy, it's none of my business" he responded getting up from his desk moving to the door quickly. If he could get to the door and somehow..
"Wait a second Zambini. You better tell me right now what you think is supposedly none of your business" she demanded her hands on her hips blocking his view of his only escape.
"Pansy please, can we for once not get involved. It's between Hermione and Draco" he replied diplomatically.
Not get involved? Pansy Parkinson had long since concluded that Hermione Granger was her person. Sure she had Blaise who she loved deeply and Draco who was her oldest friend. Hermione however was a different story. She had taken under her wing and had become the person she called her closest friend.
Hermione who had never judged her.
Hermione who had found her clinging for her life at the bottom of the ice cold waters of the Black Lake.
Hermione who had risked it all to dive head first and fully clothed- into ice water in order to save her.
She had breathed life back into her.
And wanted nothing in return.
Pansy Parkinson was involved in all things that started and ended with Hermione Granger.
"He's just going through some things at the moment." Blaise replied hesitantly.
But Pansy was like a dog with a bone. She wasn't letting go.
"Okay you know what, I have been patient Blaise. I was patient when he didn't visit her in Azkaban. I was patient when he refused to allow me to represent her. I was even patient when he demanded we keep our distance in order to preserve her image. But enough is enough! He has been dodging my letters and avoiding me at events. Tell me what is going on!"
Blaise had been pushed into a corner.
Maintain the confidence of his friend or push his fiancé over the edge.
Blaise sighed defeated.
"Look I don't know much, I just know he has been out a few times with Astoria Greengrass" he said carefully eyeing Pansy's reaction.
For which he wasn't disappointed.
Pansy exploded.
"WOW! I mean WOW! I want to say I'm surprised but I'm not! Nothing Draco Malfoy does surprises me!" she yelled angrily
"Pansy. We don't know what it means if it means anything at all" he responded playing devil's advocate.
Pansy however was not taking the bait.
"Is he going to tell Hermione?" she asked staring at him as if the answer was written on his head.
"He doesn't know if there is anything to tell her"
Pansy laughed loudly walking over to the office window overlooking the Zambini manor grounds. Snow had begun to fall for the evening covering the long green hedges like small Christmas trees.
Christmas was around the corner.
"I feel sorry for her" she replied quietly staring out the window.
"Hermione is a strong girl. She has been through hell and back" he reassured her coming to stand behind her his hands on her shoulders comforting her.
Pansy shook her head.
"Not Hermione, Astoria" she replied.
Blaise furrowed his brow in confusion.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
It was Pansy's turn to smile sadly at the reflection of her fiancé in the window. His hand on her shoulder. They were the picture perfect image of power.
Yet Pansy never felt so powerless.
"Astoria will realise eventually what the rest of us figured out a long time ago. That Draco Malfoy isn't capable of loving anyone that isn't Hermione Granger. And for that, I feel sorry for her."
Pansy had seen what Karma had done to Hermione Granger.
Hermione the quiet bookworm who had once cared for nothing but her friend's elf-rights, and getting straights O's on her exams. It was hard to believe that same Hermione Granger had woken up one morning and condemned tens of witches and wizards to their death in the name of saving the man she loved.
She was a now a walking ghost of who she once was.
Many believed Draco had walked away unscathed.
But Pansy knew the truth.
It had been Draco's Karma all along.
To be in love with the ghost of a girl he could never have.
