MY SWEET CASSABANANA

Chapter 3

Her mother was about to ask what she was planning to wear exactly, when Nicholas appeared in the fireplace wearing his usual business attire and a gray lab coat.

Like Pansy's mother, Nicholas's hair was also autumn brown. He was nine years past her mother's senior but still a kid at heart. Working with beauty products held her mother's beauty considerably over the years. She didn't appear to be a day over thirty, but being a specialist in the field of outer beauty often made her worry about little extra details such as the proper hair color and cuticles maintenance. But those things were minor. They were going to be new parents, and that was major.

And her daughter taking this disastrous trip with that loathsome Malfoy boy, that was also major.

Nicholas removed his lab jacket and tossed it over the back of the dining chair. A house elf appeared promptly with his dinner plate piping hot and a chocolate pastry beside it. He listened to the dispute of his wife as she tries again to talk reason into her daughter's head. Nicholas used his fork and knife to slice his lamb into little chewable pieces. He did this with his potatoes and carrots as well. "Pansy, darling what your mother is wanting to know and what she is obviously too modest to say is. We want to know if you're going to have, well. . . sex with this Draco fellow, since you're staying overnight with him regardless of his reputation with other women."

"Nick!" his wife scolded him.

Nicholas simply smiled at them both with a sparkle in his eye.

"That's none of your business father," Pansy said. "You shouldn't talk and chew, it's a hideous habit."

"No my darling; a man who gets his kicks out of breaking young girls hearts; now that's a hideous habit."

"I have no idea, where you two have gotten these wild ideas about Draco. They are only rumors!"

"Rumors are they?" asked her mother. "Then why is it that your Draco accepted an invitation to that whoresome wizarding magazine, where he all but gave every shameless detail of several acquaintances he's had the pleasure of knowing on more than a business level," she said giving a nod and seeking a little extra support from her husband. "—as he so proudly put it. Why, they even title the story—"

"Draco the Virgin Assassinator. . .yes, yes I know mother must you always bring that to the surface."

Nicholas seemed to find this very funny. "Lucius wasn't happy with that bit I can assure you. We haven't been able to get him to a decent card game since that tabloid hit the bookstores." when he stopped laughing long enough to get the words out, Nick took a sip from his wine glass. "Really Pansy dear, do you really want to get tied up with a fellow like that. If you're seeking a bow, I know of a nice lad that works at the factory, has a promising future!"

"No thank you father," she retarded "and I am perfectly capable of finding my own man." Pansy glared at him and fought the urge to make him the target for all her frustration she was having at the moment about going through with the trip.

"Perhaps she's doing drugs." He whisper to her mother as if she wasn't sitting right in front of them.

"FATHER!"

"Nicholas please this is no time for jokes darling."

"who's joking? I'm not joking. There's been talk about it everywhere you know. If you ignore your kids it makes them do drugs."

"But we don't ignore her! We don't ignore you do we darling?"

"No mother."

"Aaa. . . Then it's because we don't ignore her enough. It's either one way or the other, I forget which is which. You know kids today you practically need a manual to understand what their thinking or feeling half the time."

With a sigh, Pansy stood and walked over to the china cabinet where her mother had laid the entire new line of nail-grooming supplies. She kicked off her pricey black heels and stood on the lush carpet completely barefoot. Opening a large silver box, she lifted the folding panels inside one at a time. And took out a shiny bristle paint brushe. Next, she took out a clear crystal soaking bowl that began to instantly fill with pink lavender bubbles and a soothing fragrance of vanilla rose.

Nicholas might have been joking about what would happen tomorrow night, but her mother knew good and well that Pansy planned to have sex with Draco Malfoy. She also knew that her daughter wasn't a virgin anymore. Draco had seen to that years ago when she was barely fifteen. But Virginity wasn't really the issue.

She studied the array of polishes sitting so neatly in the fancy collection, as if it held all the answers for her. Her mother came up behind her. "French, didn't you say?"

"French," Pansy repeated. "Mother, I know how you may feel about him, but it's the chance I've been waiting for. I've been in dreaming of Draco for as long as I could remember, you know that. But I never told him because I didn't want to jinx it. I didn't want him to think I was being too pushy or too desperate. You see, he's got some pretty deep scars from when he was going through all that stuff back then with You-know-who- and all. I just know he needs somebody so much, and I plan to be the one. I want to marry him."

"Marry?" Her mother dropped the crystal soaking bowl, which shattered on the dinning room floor. Sparkling bits of glass rolled everywhere.

"Mother, your bowl! You spent a fortune designing this bowl." Pansy dropped to her knees and pulled out her wand.

"Watch your bare feet with the glass!" Mrs. Lowderseid gazed at the broken glass on the floor and knew it was a very bad sign. Of course the bowl was made of pure crystal. But she owned another one just like it for twenty-one years now. It was a gift to her and her first husband shortly after Pansy was born. She had taken them both to a craftsmen who was very skilled in charming objects. He helped her to design an entire line of identical bowls like this one, some smaller, some larger. In time she made him a very rich man as more and more women began to place special orders for other crystal bowls that would fill with specialized perfumes and fragrances that suited each client's taste. But this one, this one was an original to its twin and it had always been the first and only one of its kind; she never leant the pair to anyone, or let them out of her possession.

Pansy never knew the history of the crystal bowl. She knew how her daughter felt about placing too much faith in objects or trinkets as a sign of luck or destiny.

But all the same there it was shattered into pieces after twenty-one years. And now her little girl had her eyes set on a wizard who could ensure that she was well cared for all of her life. Not that her daughter needed it, but the idea of it was comforting. She should be thrilled for her, but the bad feeling wouldn't go away. He was not the right man for her baby. Merlin help them both, but as a mother she could just feel it.

"Don't go to Italy with Draco, darling." Her mother started picking up the fragments of her twenty-one year old heirloom. "It will be a mistake."

"Oh, Mother." Pansy was still on her knees and together they began to use their wands to vanquish the shattered pieces of crystal. The bowl would mend but the magic was lost forever. "It's not a mistake. I know how you feel about having relations before marriage. It's the only reason you dislike him so badly. But I know what I'm doing this time."

Her mother knew that her daughter wouldn't all of a sudden listen to her and turn down this opportunity. Pansy might still live at home on their estate with them, but she was plenty wealthy in her own right and had received her own vaults in Gringotts the day she turned eleven; from her father, her true father.

And in addition to the savings that she and Nicholas had established for her. She could afford to vacation in Italy a thousand times over with no help from Draco, or the Malfoy's. she could afford to move out and begin a life of her own, without her mother always nagging her. She surely didn't have to bother her time with writing for the Daily Prophet at that miserably small desk they called an office. Pansy could easily buy her way into the company and have the position of her dreams. But her little girl was not a little girl any longer. And as a mother she should be honored to have a child with dreams and ambitious goals that she wanted to achieve on her very own and not just have them handed to her. But there was one thing she knew above all else. Pansy would go on this business trip with the Malfoy boy whether if her mother wanted her to or not. Simply because Pansy had never taken the time to try and love anyone else. For her there was no one meant for her, other than this Draco.

Harry stayed up late that night, just reading as much as he could about electronics, digital programming, software upgrades anything he thought would be useful just in case Pansy drilled him. He hadn't learned much about computers over the past few years, to be honest he hadn't learned much of anything other than they were used for playing games and finding dates.

He really wanted to push his play into plan, plus, he really, really wanted to impress her. So he was doing his best to follow along in the books but they would often venture away from the discussion of computers and start on about a thing called a PC. He overed it a few times and had a hunch this PC thing was along the same line as a computer and just as good as the real thing.

At least he could remember the basics about them now. The screen, a keyboard used for typing, mouse pad and the power buttons. He let out a deep breath of aggravation. Lately his fantasies about Ginny had become sort of mixed up with his ideas of having sex with Pansy.

Why were relationships were so damned complicated. With journalism it was strictly up, front and direct; well at least when he published a story it was that way. He loved that the moment he began his articles he knew how to start, conclude and finish the piece. With witches it wasn't that way, you could never tell just how the story would end. Ginny—was a perfect example. He thought their relationship would last a lifetime, but it was the name Potter she loved, not necessarily the wizard. Once she established a name for herself and his faded into the background as just a reporter, she was suddenly to high-class to belong to just one man.

After they both land there journalism jobs, she even began to dress different. The outfits she wore were super fitted and with cute intern flared skirts that skimmed a little too high above her knees. They were a violation of dress code, but she wore them anyhow.

Over time the outfit's loss their business jackets and the skirts grew a bit shorter, minus the intern flare.

Of course Parkinson's attire wasn't too far from the sort that Ginny wore. Actually now that he thought about it, most of witches working at The Daily Prophet had a thing for miniskirts. Harry was never a man to lack confidence unless it centered on a girl. Then he couldn't even formulate up a smooth enough line to ask them out for a simple cup of morning coffee.

And every time he thought he'd worked up the courage to ask Parkinson out for coffee, he'd walk into the office where she was typing away and she'd look so together that he'd lose his nerve. One look at her perfect-fingernails, her perfect-makeup, and the perfect way her hair flowed and he'd realize that she was just another perfect Ginny. Plus she would never go out with a guy like him. Harry was like most wizards if not worse; he had zero fashion-sense.

During one humiliating conversation when she tried to give him some advice about his taste in clothing, he started to tell her how he grew up wearing most of his cousin's Dudley's second hand clothes. Suddenly she saw him as a nerd in addition to being unusually lame. He was unusual but not lame. He could change that about himself, but didn't really want to. Being himself paid exceedingly well. Being different was what he was best suited for. All the best women he had ever known were a bit strange also; Hermione, Molly, Luna. He assumed after all those years of being in love with Ginny that he would marry her, and when they fell apart he stuck to lame and just working.

He had taken on a leading story Untold Mysterious of the Leprechauns, that's when Parkinson was hired on as his underwriting reporter. It wasn't the first time he seen her obviously. He began to analyze the strong attraction he was having towards her and decided it was totally based on the laws of rebounding after his dump with Ginny. Parkinson came in totally beautiful, new to the firm; but it wasn't just that, it was something different about her that made her stand out from the other female reporters there and he'd driven himself crazy in the past year and half just trying to figure out what it was that made him feel so deeply nuts about her. Whatever it was, he was sure it had more to do with his own hidden loneliness than anything else.

Plus he couldn't help believing that under that perfectly polished exterior of her was a entirely new world of excitement. To take a chance on her was risky; he had always been fascinated with anything risky or hazardous to his health.

But apparently when it came to Draco, there was no sense of riskiness for her. She was just like the other women who had leap into a chance to go swinging all over London with him and then leap into his bed, a suite with an romantic view and then dumped like yesterday's article.

He flipped another page in the computer manual. A year ago, Harry had convinced Malfoy to come in for an interview. He'd promised him the leading headline in New & Famous Wizards Tomorrow; after that they had started hanging out quite a few times together. It wasn't long before Draco had gotten him so drunk one night, that he began confessing his love for Parkinson to him. Well this was all new to Draco and when Malfoy had proposed the plan of arranging a sort of crash date and explained how he would work it all out, Harry walked off.

But three months later and here he sits, not a day closer to knowing her as a real person.

He'd almost been sick to his stomach the last time they hung out together, and following morning after kicking up the town with Draco. He even said he'd never do it again, but last night, after a few rounds of spiked mead, followed with a few shots of of fire whiskey; the alcohol took over, again. And once again Harry turned into the classic love sick drunken pup.

Draco started giving him weird ideas of their same old plan to get him sagged by Pansy—he said that if he just listen to him, and went along with his way of doing things with women; the hoax trip, the pretend business meeting; Harry would be home free. Pansy deep down was a pushover and she would be devastated in the end and he, Harry would be this great guy left hanging around, just waiting to pick up all those shatter pieces of her broken heart. Draco said she would look at him from that day on in a different way.

"Come on, You'll be sort of like a hero mate!" laughed Draco. he was drunk too and smiling as he downed the last bit of his brew.

Harry thought about it. He simply didn't have the heart for those sort of emotional games, but perhaps he should, the more he thought on it that night, the more he wished he was like Draco. If he had been then maybe Ginny wouldn't have found it so easy to feed him lie after lie. Maybe he would have been a better man at beating her at her own little sex games with his heart. . . .

"Oh God, I can't believe I'm considering this." Harry groaned and dropped his head into his hands like a load of dead weight. He didn't want to drink anything else for a really long time. He knew it Draco was no good. A big phony for the ladies, a low down snake in the grass and he was as poisonous as a snake could get, that's what he was. He looked at women as a sport; a chess game where no rules applied and he was trying to turn him into that same sort of monster.

"Listen pal, you've got to calm down, they're just dames. You can't marry'em, they're just for fun! Just leave everything—up—to—me. Okay."

Harry had a lot more to lose than his nice guy reputation for agreeing to go along with Draco's plan. But everything was blurry and the mind just doesn't negotiate well when it's intoxicated. But he did go along, even after the effects of the alcohol blew over the next day. It was confirmed; he was lonely, hurt, and desperate and maybe, just maybe deep down he really did crave Draco's power over women.