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Part Two | Pain & Fire

Thirty-Two. Good People

It took Draco a long minute of staring at the comatose body of Alecto Carrow before he reacted, his pale face remaining utterly deadpan throughout.

"Right," Draco began, blinking twice, "this complicates things."

"It does a bit," Theo replied, before clearing his throat and stepping over - and slightly on top of, Alecto's arm, leaving a grubby mark upon the inside of her elbow, and made his way towards the couch.

Draco, Pansy and Neville slowly followed suit, settling themselves in their usual positions, until only Ginny and Luna remained upright. The former, Pansy observed, was looking almost exclusively at the floor by her feet, whilst the latter wandered, seemingly aimlessly, around the small living room, examining various points with a serene expression on her face. She stopped just beneath the blue picture of the cupcakes that Pansy and Draco despised so much, yet it had transpired after several attempts at the beginning of term that the eyesore was magically stuck to the wall.

"This is nice," Luna observed, enthusiastically.

"Thanks," Draco replied dryly, as he exchanged a look with Pansy, who bit back her sudden desire to laugh. She knew exactly what Draco's look meant, a very definite what the actual fuck, was present, hanging in the very air between them as Luna left her position by the painting, and made her way back towards Ginny.

Draco took out his wand and brandished it towards the far corner of the room, near the door, where a pair of magically shrunken armchairs suddenly jumped up and grew to their intended size and, at Draco's bidding, floated magically towards the small group. Pansy realised, only slightly too late, it had actually been entirely rude of her and Draco not to offer their seats to the two other girls first. Oops.

Ginny didn't move, and simply watched the chairs settle themselves on the carpet closeby with a scrutinising expression. Luna, on the other hand, offered Draco a wide smile and a chipper, "Thanks!" before settling herself into the nearest armchair.

"It isn't cursed, Weasley," Draco stated.

Pansy noticed Ginny's nostrils flaring slightly, before the redheaded witch gave Draco a curt nod and took the seat next to Luna. Her movements were stilted and her demeanor was entirely untrusting, but she remained silent, something Pansy realised she was glad of.

"Well," Theo said brightly with a single clap of his hands as he looked at each of the faces present in turn, "this is nice."

Both Ginny and Draco snorted in unison at Theo's words, before, after realising so, they exchanged a brief look of something that wasn't quite understanding, but perhaps a slight shift towards being somewhere slightly closer to comfortable current events.

"You're really on our side?" Ginny asked suddenly, and Pansy noticed that whilst her voice remained steady, she was ringing her hands together, whilst her eyes appeared wider than they should.

Pansy expected Draco to reply in a derisive tone and shoot something sarcastic, in a drawl that was wholly inappropriate given the circumstances, but for once he seemed intent on being as straight with Ginevra Weasley as the girl surely needed at that moment. "Yeah," he replied, his gaze refusing to leave Ginny's, as though he were intent on staring the truth into her, "I'm on your side."

"But you have the mark?"

"Yes."

"Your father?"

"Is a piece of shit."

Ginny swallowed at Draco's words. "And your mother?"

"Is a fucking angel."

It took a long minute for Ginny to reply, and no one spoke in the time it took her to nod. "I wouldn't even think of believing any of you," her fierce brown eyes swept across Draco, to Theo and eventually, to Pansy, "if I hadn't just witnessed you both," she nodded first at Pansy, and then at Theo, "stun her," she nodded a third time, towards Alecto's unconscious frame, "and you," she nodded for a fourth and final time at Neville, "hadn't vouched for them."

"I know it's a lot to take in," Neville said, his voice soft, "but they're good people."

"Not sure I'd go that far, Nev," Theo suddenly remarked as he thumped Neville on the back, chuckling, "I've certainly never been called a good person before, have either of you?" he glanced first at Pansy and then Draco.

"Can't say I have, mate," Draco replied with a snort.

Pansy shot Theo, and then Neville, a brief smile. "Of course, it's the first thing that comes to mind when anyone thinks of me."

Her words earned her a collective snigger from around the small group.

"What about her?" Ginny asked, looking over at Alecto.

"Don't worry about her, we'll sort it...she won't remember finding you."

Ginny's eyes narrowed. "H-how?"

"Just...trust," Draco said the word as though barely believing it himself, "us."

It took a few seconds before Ginny bowed her head, and seemed to give in to Draco's words.

"Convinced yet, Weasley?" Theo asked.

"I am," Luna piped up brightly. "I think we have just as many, if not more, reasons to trust them than not now." She spoke directly to Ginny, turning her head to face the redhead, who gave another brief nod.

"I...I think so," Ginny stated. "I trust you," she said, looking at Neville, "I always have."

Pansy felt Neville gently ease his fingers into the spaces between her own. "Good," he replied, and Pansy felt him give her hand a tight squeeze before he continued. "Unfortunately, there's something else I need to tell you both."

To her credit, Ginny sat for the entirety of Neville's explanation of not only the ways in which the Slytherins were thwarting the Carrows, but of the fact they now had information on some of the immediate plans of not just the Carrows and the new permission from Snape that they had the right to kill Neville should they wish to, in January. Not to mention to very definite plans now in place for the remaining five Slytherins to take the mark, two as early as the very next month.

Both Ginny and Luna remained silent long after Neville had finished speaking. Ginny's eyes were wider still and she had the distinct look of one not entirely certain if they were on the edge of a vomiting fit. Luna's expression, in stark contrast to Ginny's, remained nonplussed, the same serene, almost a smile yet entirely not a smile etched upon her doe-like delicate features.

It was Ginny who spoke first. "You're leaving, aren't you?"

Pansy swivelled her head to watch Neville's reaction. He didn't blink, nor look away from her face when he stated a very simple, yet fim, "Yes."

Not missing the way Ginny's eyes flickered momentarily between Neville and Pansy's clasped together hands. "Are you going because of the Carrows' kill order?"

"No," Neville answered.

Ginny's expression was unreadable. "Our plans-"

"Haven't changed," Neville stated, his voice steady. "All the plans for all the meetings are done, for the next five months."

Ginny's eyes widened again. "The next five months?"

"I'm not prepared to leave without knowing you have everything you need to continue the DA, and you do. All the books we found are in there, I've marked all the pages you'll need for the more advanced spells, I tried every one of them and was able to cast it on my third or fourth go. Get as many of them mastered as you can, after that it's just a case of keeping everyone's regular defense and attacking spells up the scratch, and to be honest, most of them are pretty good now."

Ginny nodded, whilst Pansy wondered fleetingly what 'D.A.' stood for, she'd known that Neville championed their resistance, but he'd never spoke of it to her in any detail.

"I get it, although more so because of the fact we know the Carrows are going to literally kill you. You could've just stayed, you know, where we stay," her eyes flashed between the present Slytherins, clearly unwilling to reveal too much of where the students had been practising? Staying? Living? Pansy didn't know, "but I know you couldn't stay there for months on end."

Beside Pansy, Neville's head shook. "It's not feasible. And, I want to help them," he squeezed Pansy's hand tighter. "They need to be away from Death Eaters, even," Neville's eyes briefly hovered over Alecto, "really stupid ones. They'll stop at nothing, way more than now, to find me if they think I'm hiding in the castle. I need to actually leave."

"I'm terribly sorry your life has been threatened in this way, Neville." Luna offered out of the blue.

"Thanks, Luna."

The blonde shot him a wide, and what Pansy assumed was supposed to be supportive, smile, and said no more.

It took her awhile before she spoke again, but eventually Ginny did. "I'm not going to pretend I like this."

"I don't expect you to," Neville replied. "I know you probably feel I'm abandoning you, all of you," Pansy felt his shoulders slump slightly beside her, "and a big part of me feels like that, too."

Running the pad of her thumb up and down the back of Neville's hand, Pansy couldn't help but feel an awkward sense that she was intruding on something private, something intimate - not in the sense that she and Neville were, but she could see now that Neville and Ginny were clearly a team, an important team, a team that she supposed she were responsible for breaking up.

"If I'm honest," Ginny began, "it's hard not to...but," she took a deep breath, "if it were Luna," she briefly glanced at the blonde beside her, "I'd do the same thing."

Pansy's mind immediately pictured the scene in the empty classroom where Neville had positioned himself between Pansy and Alecto, and Ginny had done the same for Luna. Knew it.

"If, for some bizarre reason, I found out she'd been shortlisted to receive the dark mark, whilst I had an actual target on my back, yeah. I think I would," she paused, clearly taking stock of the weight of the situation. "What about if X happens? Will you come back?"

Neville shifted slightly. "Yes, of course. In a heartbeat. I'll have the coin, and I'll get a message to Aberforth about what to do if I need to return. I'll listen, as well, I have a small portable I can take. I'll listen as often as I can, hopefully on the same time every day."

"X?" Draco interjected, voicing the shared confusion of Pansy, Theo and himself.

Ginny regarded him somewhat coolly, before a quick glance at Neville, who nodded, and said, "X is the possibility that Harry needs us all to fight.

"If you'd have told me before the start of this year that I'd be in bed with Neville Longbottom, celebrating the fact that Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood are on board with you running away with me and my group of heathen Slytherins, I'd have asked to have a drag of whatever you'd been smoking," Pansy stated, later that same day as she lay in Neville's arms, her back flush with his front as they contemplated the events of the day.

Neville chuckled, the sound reverberating through his chest and into Pansy's back, and it made her hum quietly, despite the impending truth that came with their meeting with Ginny and Luna: they were leaving. It was now as official as it could be.

Dipping his head low, Pansy felt him place a soft kiss on the side of her neck, making her hum turn into something a little less like a hum and a little more like a moan.

"I could listen to you make those noises all day," Neville whispered, hovering just above Pansy's neck.

"Then do that," Pansy instructed, reaching her hand back to graze the side of Neville's thigh, a movement which elicited a throaty groan from the Gryffindor.

"I can't," he said eventually, "you know I need to go."

"I'm afraid I know no such thing," Pansy countered. "In fact, I don't think you need to go anywhere."

It was the biggest lie they both knew she could tell in that moment, and it made Neville emit a small laugh before, using his arm, he lifted Pansy's head around, enabling him to meet her lips with his own. "I gotta go," he said between kisses.

It was Pansy's turn to groan, though this time not in pleasure as she let out an exaggerated whine of disapproval when Neville began to detangle himself from her. Since it was so close to the Christmas holidays, with the train due to depart from Hogsmeade station in just two days time, Pansy and Neville had agreed that Neville spend the remainder of that time with his friends, explaining as much as he could. Ginny and Luna having promised to keep the real reasons for his departure to themselves, why he would be leaving. It was important to him that he return to wherever they were staying that night. Something that Pansy definitely understood, but entirely disliked.

She propped herself up using her elbows and watched him dress, smirking to herself as she examined his, as Daphne called it, kneazle tail running down from his belly button, southwards.

"Hey, my face is up here, you know," Neville said, jokingly, and Pansy smirked again.

"I know exactly where your face is Neville, thank you very much," Pansy replied, not moving her eyes from the spot at the base of her boyfriend's stomach.

He snorted a laugh and, much to Pansy's annoyance, brought a t shirt down over his head, concealing the line of hair that was the centre of her entertainment.

"Spoil sport," she huffed, and pouted as he leant down and brought his face close to hers, gracing her with a far quicker peck than she would have liked, before standing straight again, shooting her a quick, "Love you," and exiting Pansy's bedroom

Slumping back against her pillows, Pansy swallowed. She knew that Draco had wanted to have one last occlumency session with her before they made their escape, but the desire to find him to start simply wasn't within her. It wasn't the occlumency itself now, Pansy having gotten rather effective at keeping Draco out of her mind, that put her off, that she tired of. It was the mental exhaustion she tended to feel afterwards. They also had the still unconscious Death Eater they'd felt no rush to waken to deal with.

Supposing she ought to find her roommate, Pansy propped herself up once more, surprised when a small rap on her bedroom door interrupted her thoughts. Must've forgotten something, Pansy mused and, with a sly smile, pulled the duvet from herself, revealing her naked self to her slightly chilly bedroom, and, putting on the most sultry voice she could, said, "Forget something?"

The door opened and revealed, not Neville, as Pansy had assumed, but Millicent, who had began to say something akin to, "Sorry for barging in-" when her words stopped dead in their tracks as a very naked Pansy squealed, hurriedly throwing her duvet back over herself. Merlin fuck!

Pansy coughed and mumbled a brief, "Thought you were Neville," before summoning some nearby clothes, which she then put on, with great difficulty, under the cover.

"That's alright," Millicent replied as she stepped into the bedroom and made her way towards the seat at Pansy's dressing table. "I still live with Daph and Blaise, and I see both of them in various states of nakedness on a regular basis."

"They aren't exactly fans of subtlety," Pansy agreed, and, finally having reached a level of decency, pulled the cover back and positioned herself atop the bedclothes. "How are you?"

At her question, Pansy watched Millicent's shoulders drop slightly. She didn't reply.

"Mills?"

Pretending to examine some of the items atop Pansy's dressing table, Millicent was barely audible. "Hmm?"

"What's wrong? Is it Theo?"

"No," Millicent mumbled, "Theo is...he's great."

"But you aren't great?"

Millicent turned back to face Pansy and the bed, and Pansy watched the way she swallowed, clearly not wishing to share whatever was bothering her.

"Mills?" Pansy said for the second time, "is it about the plan? About leaving?"

Again, the other girl didn't reply, but this time she did incline her head slowly, nodding slowly.

"Are you worried?" Pansy asked before internally scolding herself. Of course she's fucking worried.

"Aren't you?"

"Of course," Pansy replied, "Yeah I'm...I'm really worried."

"Aren't you scared about what they're going to do to your parents when you disappear?"

Pansy snorted in response and then immediately regretted doing so. For when you hate your parents it can be easy to forget that others don't, and just like Daphne and very unlike Pansy, Millicent was close to her parents. Extremely close. And Pansy realised it was something she hadn't considered, especially since she knew that Daphne's mum would hopefully go into hiding. Feeling all of a sudden entirely guilt ridden that she hadn't considered what would happen to Millicent's parents, Pansy sighed.

"I don't care about what they do to mine," Pansy admitted, "but I don't want anything to happen to yours."

"Me neither. Pans what if they're killed? Or tortured?"

The possibility was probably higher than either of them would admit, Pansy knew. But the possibility of Millicent going home and being prepped to take the mark seemed worse. "They'd want you to be safe," she offered. It was entirely the truth she knew, but probably not what Millicent neither needed nor wanted to hear in that moment. What, exactly, Pansy could tell her friend that wasn't an outright lie, she didn't know.

"You're still coming though, right? Mills, they'd want you to be safe."

"I...yeah, I am, I just...this is hard. Theo tries but he just doesn't get it. He doesn't understand how I can't be completely okay with not getting on the train."

"I'm sorry," Pansy admitted honestly. "Could you try and get a message to them once you've left Hogsmeade?"

"I don't want to, I mean, I do...of course I do, but if it were found, they'd definitely be punished."

"You could try, make sure to say to destroy it or something."

"It's not just that," Millicent said, and Pansy noted the way her eyes filled with tears. "They'll never understand because they've already chosen his side. I love them so much, but they're on his side, and," her voice had cracked and was barely louder than a whisper, "if I'm not...what if they want nothing more to do with me...ever."