Hello, hello dear readers! Yes, I'm back from my studies abroad! I know you've waited patiently all summer for this update and I do apologize. However, I would also like to thank you for all the new reviews! They really do keep me motivated in writing this. Such kind words that I have no choice but to keep writing more! Thank you!
Disclaimer: the story is mine, but almost all the characters are not. I make no profit in writing this, blah, blah, blah. On with the show!
Pansy wrenched her lips from her ex-boyfriend's and unconsciously wiped them with the back of her hand. She took a step back but their eyes were locked, neither one wanting to be the first to look away. Pansy gathered what was left of her resolve and took the initiative.
"Er. .um. . ," she stammered. What great words of intellect, she thought to herself.
Draco was leering, the one corner of his mouth pulled up in the trademark smirk. Oh, he was clearly having a field day. Curse him!
Well. This was just peachy, thought Pansy. Careful, masterful planning was just tossed out the door, and why? Because she couldn't resist the insufferable, stuck-up Draco Malfoy! She was quite disgusted with herself. But a little bit satisfied as well. She had forgotten the spark that was hidden in his kisses.
But what Pansy didn't know was that, and Violet could attest to this, when he kissed other girls, that spark just didn't exist. Certainly the ever-so-dull Violet never felt it. Had she stepped back and thought about it for even a minute, Violet would have found his kisses cold and selfish, without real feelings. But of course she was too enraptured to just be the girl he was actually kissing so she never thought to analyze it.
Draco had felt it as well. He always thought that that's what you felt when you kissed a girl. But he was wrong because it wasn't present when he was with Violet. And before her, there were a few random girls. None of them had delivered that sensation that Pansy did when she kissed him. Pansy was the first girl he had ever kissed, so it was only natural for him to assume that such a feeling would always persist when he kissed other girls. Wrong!
It never occurred to him that such feelings existed in those kisses because feelings for Pansy existed. He wasn't one to analyze, let alone think about, "love" and "emotions" on his spare time. He had more urgent matters to occupy his mind like what kind of snide insults he should throw at Potter, etc.
Thus, Draco Malfoy had to learn such a lesson by losing Pansy Parkinson.
His arms reached out for her but she took another step back.
"Well, Malfoy, you've succeeded in proving that you still have me. Is that what you wanted? To put me in my place and show that I still wanted you?" she demanded.
Draco was slightly startled. "Pansy, you're making assumptions," he said in a low voice. He didn't even know where to start. He had never, ever had to have conversations that went something like 'I have feelings for you'.
She huffed. "I'm not wrong. I know you well enough. You just wanted to rub it in my face about how I said I was over you, but clearly am not."
"No, that's—" Draco didn't get to finish.
"But I am you know! You caught me off-guard is all," she insisted, sticking her chin out. "I came here thinking you had something important to tell me, but it turns out you were wasting my time and playing these stupid mind games! Ugh, being your friend has absolutely no merit, you know that!" Ha! She told him!
She started for the door, but he wasn't going to let her leave it at that. He grabbed her hand and pulled her in his embrace.
"You talk too much you know that, Parkinson?"
She opened her mouth to protest, but that was exactly what Draco was hoping for. Once again, he clamped his lips over hers and kissed her deeply. If there was any more resistance in Pansy's part, her actions didn't betray it. She stood there and gave as good as she got.
Pansy walked out of that closet in a drunken stupor. Drunk off of his kisses, his scent, his voice. She had pulled away from him, afraid that she had once again fallen back into that pit known as Draco Malfoy. He calmly watched her retreat and made no move of protest. Now that she thought about it, he had an odd look on his face. He looked as if he had a great big secret that no one in the world knew about or could ever hope to find out.
Intoxicating and infuriating! He must have really gone mad. That or he was just being Draco Malfoy, taking everything and anyone he wanted, and she was just reading too much into his actions.
She was thinking and recollecting, her mind so occupied that she did not see Violet, a big emotional wreck these days, running up to meet her halfway down the hall.
Pansy was disgusted at what she saw: a tear-stained face complete with ruined make-up and puffy eyes. Don't Slytherins have any pride anymore?!
"P-Pansy," hiccupped Violet, "I want to talk to you. Do you think you have a few m-m-minutes?"
Pansy wanted to punch the blubbering girl in the face. A sickening display of weakness for the entire school to see! Really, this was too much.
"Violet, I really haven't the time for this." Or the stomach for it, for that matter.
"No, p-p-please! I-I just don't know w-what to d-do about it all. Draco left me!" Fresh tears started streaming down the girl's pallid face.
"Get over it, then," Pansy said curtly. Like how you got over it? her conscience asked.
Well, I sure as heck didn't let the whole school know how vulnerable I was, she mentally retorted.
"I-I don't know how, and when Draco dumped you, you were so strong and you never cried."
Pansy sighed. Salazar, she wasn't a charity for crying out loud. What to do, what to do, she mused. Best to just let the sop hear the harsh truth of it all.
"Listen, Violet. First of all, have some pride! You can't walk around looking like the hot mess that you are right now. Who wants to look at that! It's revolting. Second, after you fix yourself up, find another bloody man. The school's full of them in case you weren't aware, and some of them have little or no standards."
Violet looked like she was about to cry and protest, but Pansy wouldn't let her interrupt.
"If you've got to cry, at least do it away from the eyes of others. Slytherins do have a reputation. It wouldn't help if every girl Draco uses goes around looking like a heartbroken Gryffindor. And finally, accept the fact that you meant nothing to him. That way you can bloody move on."
Pansy didn't even make sure the words sunk in, for as soon as she finished her short, abrasive lecture, she started walking away.
"You're jealous 'cause he left you and got with me!" Violet said accusingly.
Pansy stopped. She slowly turned around to face the little tart. The fire in her eyes was enough to incinerate the other girl where she stood. She accused Pansy of being jealous! Of her, of all people! Oh it would have been laughable had it not been insulting at the same time!
"Violet, do not, I repeat, do NOT start something you can't possibly hope to finish. I didn't rise to where I am now because I let timid little upstarts like you talk to me in such a way," Pansy threatened dangerously.
Violet should have cowered and stopped talking right then and there, but the thought that she might have hit Pansy's sore spot emboldened her to keep going.
"And you're mad because after we broke up, he didn't come back to you!"
Pansy started laughing. It was a soft kind of laugh that eventually grew into a loud mocking one. Merlin's beard, she thought. This one was such an idiot!
Pansy's laughter only enraged the emotionally unstable girl. She came after Pansy, arms extended. Pansy, who had sobered up from her hysterical laughing at this point, merely rolled her eyes, stepped away and extended her right leg out to the side. Not only did Violet miss Pansy, but she tripped and fell flat on her back.
Pansy heaved a sigh of boredom. She stood over Violet and looked down on her.
"Violet, if I was mad right now, I'd stomp on your face 'til you finally became pretty. As it is, you've commandeered more than enough of my time. Get over him and get over yourself." Pansy was about to walk away but decided to grace the girl with one last piece of advice. "Next time, at least have the brains to remember that you are a witch, and you have a wand. Idiot."
Pansy reached the common room and was exhausted. She found her little drones cozied up by the fireplace and joined them. She flopped down on the green velvet sofa near Aurelia.
Aurelia broke the silence that had come down on them the minute Pansy stalked in the room.
"So, what did the illustrious Draco want?"
Pansy didn't reply. Instead she closed her eyes, not feigning sleep but letting them know that she was in no mood to play twenty-one questions.
They got the hint and resumed their previous conversations, but still cast furtive glances towards Pansy and each other. They were dying for gossip. It was the honey that kept the hive together. What matters if it was about the Queen Bee herself?
Daphne was descending the staircase that lead to the girls' dormitory when she caught sight of Pansy.
"Pans, your damn owl brought this letter. I think it's from your parents," said Daphne as she handed it to her friend, who by now was massaging her temples.
Pansy grabbed it and ripped it open slowly, making sure there were no prying eyes. Devastating family news was nothing but leverage around here. When she was sure no one was paying attention to her, she started scanning it.
It was her mum, with news about more marriage offers. Whoopee, thought Pansy as she scanned a list of names she hardly recognized. Then, as dramatically as Mrs. Parkinson could (that was her mum, all theatrics), she announced on the last sentence of the letter that Draco Malfoy had also sent her an offer.
Pansy had to re-read that last line. Her head was spinning. Was this his idea of a joke? But no, something like this no pureblooded Slytherin would joke about. Is this what he was trying to get at in the stuffy closet?
Pansy folded the letter and slipped it in her pocket. Merlin, she thought. This imbecile was driving her crazy! Months ago, this letter would have excited her. It would have fulfilled her dreams. But now? Now she wasn't so sure. She was still hurt dammit! She was in the midst of revenge! She hadn't even gotten the chance to witness her plans bear fruit. What in the world was going on in that mind of his?
Just then, the doors to the common room opened and in walked the devil himself. He was walking with Nott and was flanked by his two ogre bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle.
He stopped in his tracks and glanced around the room, searching for someone. Pansy had a gut feeling he was looking for her and made it a point to stare at the rug on the floor. She felt the sudden urge to laugh. You can bet she spent her first and second years in this school trying to get Draco Malfoy to notice her. It was ironic.
Now here she was, trying desperately to avoid eye contact with him. By staring at a rug. It really was pathetic on her part. She felt his piercing gaze on her and knew there was no point. She looked up to meet his eyes.
When her eyes finally met his, he made a point to shout her name across the common room.
"Pansy!!! Catch!!" He hurled something small and silver towards her way. She easily caught the object which, upon inspection turned out to be her ring. The ring he had given her years ago. The ring she had thrown away had now been thrown back to her.
It took a lot to embarrass Pansy Parkinson, but a room full of her peers who had witnessed the scene (noting that he had used her first name and not her last) and were now intently staring at her did the trick. She felt her cheeks color and her temper rise.
She stood up and yelled at him. "Draco Malfoy, you are unbearable!"
He smirked at her and yelled right back. "Pansy Parkinson Malfoy!! It's inevitable!!"
And with that he went up to the boys' dormitory, laughing as he did.