Title: The Well 13/?
Author: eidheann
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~1000 (~9,500 total)
Summary: Where there is a wish...
Warnings: angst.
A/N: Many thanks for the comments and support.

Seven o'clock struck and found Draco and Pansy silent in sitting room. They had been sitting there, each focused on their own thoughts as Lippy anxiously offered tea, wine and fruit in an effort to break the leaden silence. Then the door chimed and everyone moved at once, as if the room itself released the breath it was holding. Lippy popped away, and Pansy and Draco looked to the door, waiting.

"Draco, I'm sorry." Pansy murmured quickly. He glanced toward her warily and her hands fidgeted uselessly at her robe. "For everything. You're right, and I had no place saying those things, especially when you have been trying to help me." He gave a slight nod before the door opened and Theo's entrance cut off any further conversation.

Theo looked... not well. He had always been thin, but now he appeared stressed and lank in a way Draco felt echo in his own bones. Draco approached, his hand out, and led him into the room, stopping at the couch where Pansy was still sitting. Her expression was pained and her gaze seemed locked on her knees. Draco all but turned and shoved Theo into the seat beside her.

"Thank you for accepting this invitation. We obviously have much to discuss, but I believe Pansy has some things to tell you first." Draco watched her hands tighten in her robe and gave her a faint but genuine smile when she looked up at him. Theo simply looked between the two of them, his face painfully open in it's confusion. Draco simply stepped back, two steps, enough to give them the illusion of privacy while still providing Pansy the promised support.

She looked to Theo, and her eyes filled with tears. "I'm so sorry. I should have told you but I was scared."

"Scared, of what?" Theo's voice was ragged. "You could tell me anything. I thought you knew that! I love you. I thought..."

"I... I thought I was in the way." Theo grabbed her hands in a frantic grip and she held on just as tightly. "I had just found out..."

Theo's attention wavered briefly to where Draco was standing, staring at the swirls of the rug and trying to pretend he wasn't witnessing his friends' pain. "It's the betrothal, then?" His voice sounded weary and hopeless.

"No, no. I... It has nothing to do with Draco, except he was there when I went a bit mad."

"Then what is it? What did I do? Why did you leave me, and why didn't you tell me anything first?"

Pansy looked to Draco, who gave what he hoped was an encouraging nod. She had Theo's hands in a death grip, he could tell by the whiteness of both sets of knuckles. "I'm pregnant. I'm sorry. I panicked, I thought we were in the way and you wouldn't want me... us."

Theo erupted from the couch and stared down at Pansy, his face a mask of shock. "Pregnant? You didn't tell me? You got pregnant and thought getting engaged to Draco was a better option?"

"Theo-"

"No-" Draco and Pansy spoke at the same time and he looked between them, tears beginning to run down his face. Pansy continued, "I wasn't thinking clearly. You're finishing up your Mastery, and you're always so busy... I thought it was for the best. I only thought about it being visible and... I knew that Draco would help me. He didn't know I hadn't told you. He didn't even have the chance to tell his mother before I notified the Prophet. I think she's going to murder me as soon as the baby is born." Her hesitant smile begged Theo to return it at her weak joke.

"How-" he cleared his throat when his voice broke. "How long?"

"About three months, I think."

Theo nodded before collapsing back beside Pansy. She leaned over him, holding him as he cried. Draco broke in, "Tomorrow, I'll be sending an owl to the Prophet, informing them that they've obviously been the victim of a prank. Panse and I are friends, but have no interest in getting married as she is quite happily in love with Theodore Nott."

The looked up at him and shook his head. "Tell them it was made a mistake on the name. It should be announcing the engagement of Pansy Parkinson to Theodore Nott instead."

Pansy started bawling and Draco beat a hasty retreat, shutting the door behind him with a sigh. It was done. He had fixed Pansy's relationship and she could go off and be blissfully happy with her Theo and her baby and her engagement. He was happy for her, he was. He was also blindingly jealous, so very tired of being alone, of pining after someone who he had never been good enough for. Pansy had been correct, he spent a large part of his childhood trying to get Harry's attention. When they had become friends, it should have been enough for him. When they became lovers, those brief weeks, he should have known it would never last. He had never been good enough for Harry and Harry had never really wanted him.

Except now... He fingered the letter that was still in his pocket. Harry, Potter evidently did want him. For something. To talk. Draco could go. He could get answers, ask him why. Or he could be told the same lies and simply punch him in his lying face. Either held the opportunity for closure. Before he could tell himself all the reasons why seeing Potter again was a bad idea, he turned with a pop, appearing on the still-familiar doorstep of 12 Grimmauld Place. He rang the bell and pulled himself straight, clinging tightly to the Malfoy mask, remembering how Potter had always hated it.

The door opened with a creak, and bright green eyes in a relieved face shone out at him. "Draco... You came."