A week. An entire bloody week. Maybe Satan was just another fairy tale. Though, looking back, did she really expect a fallen angel to answer her call? Right, maybe she just needed to take a rest. Maybe see Madam Pomfrey after the sorting ceremony tonight. She still had a good four hours. Maybe she'd give that rest thing a try.

It wasn't a smooth sleep like she so desperately needed, but there was one result when she woke up as the train pulled into the station. A small black card with a wisp of smoke dancing across one side. She knew, just knew, it would be from him. She gathered her things as quickly as she could, boarded the first carriage she came to, which was thankfully empty, and sent a stinging hex to the invisible thestral she knew would be tethered there. The hex had done its job and the carriage was forced into action up the path to Hogwarts before anyone else could interrupt her private moment. She held the card to her chest, took a deep breath, then turned it over in her hand. At first it was blank, but then the wisp of smoke began making its way to the side of the card she stared at.

I regret to say, my dear, that your soul was never yours to gambol with. I can not accept your deal. See this as a second chance and seek your vengeance no further. Live free.

A single tear slid down her cheek but she quickly wiped it away realizing that she was in front of the massive castle doors. She took a deep breath and held it in her chest a moment, building her strength and confidence in the lies she knew she'd be about to tell. With a deep exhale she entered the castle, turned to the great hall, and sat herself at the very end of her house table, furthest from the professors and closest to the doors. She wasn't sure, after all, how long she could contain her current feeling of hatred and self pity. Not long, she wagered. She waited nearly ten minutes, almost ready to make a run for it, before all the professors filtered in and took their seats at the head of the great hall. She didn't look at any of them. She didn't want to see the questions burning in their eyes. She didn't want to be forced to explain. Her grief was her own. Not long after, the students also took seats as they awaited the arrival of the first years.

Foolish children. She thought. This place will only bring you pain through the disguise of adventure.

She felt tears burning behind her eyes and blinked, controlling her breath and shoving the pain down. It took her so long to regain control that she had completely missed the sorting, not that she cared.

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As to his promise, Pansy received a note delivered by Severus's majestic owl with a tidbit of new information regarding her sister. It was...distressing to say the least. She would be in pain when they saw her. That was her big clue. Everyone in the fifth, sixth and seventh years had reasons to mourn, and some even younger! She crumbled the note for the hundredth time as she sat staring out of the window of the train watching the world go by. Her only clues thus far were that she would be hurting and angry, she was less than a year younger than Pansy, she would not likely be in the same house, and if her mother knew what she was doing at all, she would not carry the family resemblance to herself or to Severus. Wonderful. To be fair, if her search managed to stay within the walls of Hogwarts, the list was indeed quite a bit shorter than it could have been, but still. She wasn't on the best of terms with any of the girls at school, and much less so with any of the girls in other houses. It wouldn't stop her though. She had gotten her new beginning even if no one knew it yet. They would. She was a leader now, not some mindless little girl whose only worry was if her shoes matched her dress or whose life to ruin with gossip. She couldn't care less for the bleating idiots she suddenly saw them all as. Funny how that works. Only two weeks as a pack leader, pretty much doing nothing but running through the manor grounds with her pack mates, and spending her more human hours searching for clues that led to her sister, but already she was better than the mindless people who simply had no clue.

No one outside the pack knew the difference. Not even pissed off Draco Malfoy. But as she sat in the center of Slytherin house table scanning the other sixth and seventh year girls, they would certainly notice. The feast was starting and Draco was trying his best to slither into the seat next to her. He was going to try to sweet talk her again, and as he opened his mouth, she put her hand up to shut him up. She didn't even spare him a glance. The thing that went noticed, though, was that Draco did indeed stop his pointless advance. Poor thing even looked confused as to why he was obeying. The entire table turned their heads; all but the first years who didn't know better. Pansy had authority now, and now everyone knew it. There was a sudden shift in loyalties happening that very second that made Draco angry and more confused. Draco muttered and cursed angrily and went back to the first years where he might still gain some allegiances.

There was a small, nearly unnoticeable ruckus at the other end of the hall, which Pansy heard with her new and better sense of hearing. She searched for the source and only saw the flash of a cloak billowing away from the hall. She looked to the professors. Some of them hadn't noticed, but one did, the only one that mattered right then. Severus lifted his chin in the direction of the exit and Pansy knew that if he were able right then, he'd be investigating for himself. Pansy gathered her things and followed the cloak from the hall. She'd lost sight of it, but she strained her ears and heard the faint footsteps over head along the many many stairs and she followed.