"God damn it," Pansy hissed as her palm gets punctured up once again from the vampiric vegetation in the Hogwarts greenhouses. She chucks the offending plant and it hits the glass plane with a satisfying thump. She takes this time to wrap her fresh wound with a bandage, another addition to the growing collection of injuries on her hands. Pansy Parkinson got off easy and even she could admit that much. The Winzengamot all agreed that her only crime during the war was being such a goddamn bitch and the last time they checked that wasn't a crime. That and her being a death eater thing, but that was overruled since she never took it willingly, not after her own father imperiused her into submitting.
Still, she had her father's crimes to answer to and so she was allowed to rejoin society on the condition that she took care of the whopping 50,000 galleon fine they slapped on the Parkinson household and one year in service of the Wizarding community.
She decided to do the smart thing and hit two birds with one stone by coming back for her 8th year and serving her time doing shit jobs for the school—which are technically detentions if she ever saw one. She walks over to pick up the plant that she just threw and it violently thrashes against her grip, trying to get away from her. Somehow she didn't think that de-fanging sentient flora was what she wouldve ended up doing to make up for "war crimes". She was actually hoping for something mundane like cleaning trophy cases or dusting up broom closets, not getting her fingers chewed off on a daily basis.
"You should put them under sunlight. They go to sleep and you can de-fang them safely," a voice trying to be brave spoke out from behind her. She hadn't even notice someone come in, not that anyone ever comes this way at this time of day. Pansy looks back to see the tall figure of the resident Gryffindor coward—or not so coward anymore, it turns out. He looked at her with trepidation, fear and bravery swirling behind his eyes.
"What are you in for?" She raises her eyebrow at him before dropping the hideous cabbage on her potting tray and carried it towards the spot in the room where the sun hits the tables directly, scorching the wood. She watched the once violent plant cease its thrashing and lay still like how plants should be. She keeps de-fanging.
"I'm not," he stammers, "I'm not here for detention. I just like volunteering here,"
"On purpose?" Pansy makes a face at him.
He blushes and mumbles something about loving Herbology or whatever and shuffles on to his workstation where he was growing an array of flora Pansy had no intention of learning. So she doesn't ask if only to spare herself the conversation. Pansy was barely listening as she finishes de-fanging the vampiric plant and plops a fresh on in its place. She hated to admit it but the Gryffindor really helped her out with that one. Her long bony fingers now featured a smorgasbord of bandages from all the plant related injuries she's sustained. She frowns and sits at the edge of the table behind her and produces a cigarette and lights it up. She takes a deep breath in, letting the nicotine swirl around her insides, calming her nerves.
"You can't smoke in here!" Neville Longbottom gapes at her, completely gobsmacked.
"Why not?" She challenges him, but it amused her how he berates her.
"This is literally the most flammable room in the entire school, save for the library," he gapes at her as if she committed a war crime—which, she couldn't stress enough, she didn't.
"Would you lighten up, Longbottom," Pansy rolls her eyes and stalks towards him, "You literally beheaded a snake and you're afraid of a little cigarette?" She reaches his desk and hovers over him, his lips tighten as he turns back to his plants and fusses over them, "What are you growing anyway?"
Now she's done it. Neville Longbottom's face lights up at the opportunity to explain to her that the new hybrid he was working on was a modified Alihotsy tree (also known as the Hyena tree) known to induce uncontrollable laughter. He then explained that he was trying to cross it with Hellebore, a popular plant used in the Draught of Peace.
"And if I get it right, he'd be able to create the perfect plant to induce happiness and reduce anxiety," He finishes in one breath.
Pansy gives him a funny look, "You're shitting me, Longbottom. You're basically describing some sort of euphoria drug that I may or may to be interested in,"
He blinks at her as if registering her words the his face scrunches in horror, "No, NO! It's to help people going through post-traumatic stress disorder from the war and—"
Pansy grins at him, "So would it be possible—"
"NO, you're not allowed to smoke it!" Neville is hyperventilating at this point having realized what he had just created, "That is not what I made this for!" He looks crestfallen. Pansy blows a smoke ring at him before walking away with an eyebrow up at him.
"I mean it, Parkinson," Neville glares at her retreating back.
"Sure, whatever you say, Longbottom," she calls back to him in a sing-song manner, "Just so you know. This is the first time you've done anything remotely interesting to me,"
The Gryffindor gapes at her, trying to come up with a retort but the sound of the clock tower gave them both pause as it signaled supper being served at the great hall. It also meant that Pansy's community service a la detention was done for the day and she was free to go. As if on cue, Professor Sprout comes strolling in to check on Pansy's progress and sign her hours off for her. Then she hovers over Longbottom and coos at the plant he was cultivating.
"How are you doing here, my boy?" She claps him on the back as she peers on his sprouts.
Neville glances at the grinning Slytherin who wiggles her eyebrows at him and she stifles a laugh on her way out of the greenhouse. He feels weak in his stomach, "It's great professor," he manages to say but somehow he could not accept what he had basically just created.
"How are the greenhouses, darling," Daphne's melodious tones greeted Pansy as she unceremoniously dumped her things on the empty space on the table before taking a seat across her.
"Divine," the Slytherin princess quips sarcastically, then she hold up her hands to her, "I may or may not have fingers left by the end of the year. How did you two fare?"
"Amazing," Theodore Nott speaks up almost too pleased with himself, "I think madame Pince is about to lose more hair over me. I haven't been sorting books as much as I've just been stuffing them back in random places. The library is in pure chaos. I wonder if Granger will notice and if she'll absolutely lose it,"
"Theodore, you're supposed to be doing your time not adding more to it," Daphne admonishes.
"Oh come off it Daph, you're just so full of it since all you do is plan school balls and events with Professor McGonagal," Pansy said dryly as she spies the spread on the table. It was quite the spread indeed, too bad that the Slytherin Princess can't seem to keep any food down. She settles for a plain slice of toast, "And I can't believe you both just get to sort books and plan balls like how is that a punishment?"
"Honestly, Pansy. You should be eating better. Cigarettes and toast," Greengrass clucks her tongue before popping in a green grape through her cherry red lips, "And also, it's not my fault that I am incredible at transfigurations. I'm the perfect fit to work on these events. And not to mention, I'm the only one with taste in this entire school."
"Speaking of taste. Everything tastes like sandpaper," Pansy grimaces as she nibbles on her toast, "Anyway, why are you even here, Daph? You barely attend any classes,"
Daphne Greengrass was a weird addition to Pansy's social life as they never really spent that much time together during their first seven years. Pansy mainly hung out with Draco, Blaise and Theo only because her…affinity for being a complete bitch drove any potential girl friends away. Pansy looked even more striking now, growing more into her skin and features and if you mix that with her 'winning personality', she was the perfect picture of an intimidating and unapproachable witch. Daphne joined much later in their group when she started dating Blaise in the summer after fourth year. Daphne was the only girl Pansy had been able to tolerate.
Daphne flicks her long ponytail off of her shoulder and rolls her eyes, "As you both know my idiotic sister dropped out of school so she can start planning her wedding with her beau and I said, Astoria those two things aren't mutually exclusive you know? Like why are you being such a dumb bitch over this? Finish your schooling and be a wife? Like do you really want to end up like mother, completely helpless and enslaved to her husband because she's good at nothing other than being a wife?"
The older Greengrass sister took a deep breath to calm herself down. It was well known among their group of friends that Mrs. Greengrass was in a loveless marriage and they fact that she had allowed herself to completely rely on her husband for her finances and riches made her all the more a slave to him, "The point is, I can't be around that energy right now. I swear, she's just as vapid as my mother"
"Can't believe that bastard is getting married before I am. I'm going miss our dumb blonde this year," Theo says thoughtfully as he eats a spoonful of mashed potatoes.
"And our hot Italian," Pansy quips as she discards her toast, completely giving up on getting any food down for dinner.
Daphne sighs as her eyes glosses over, her thoughts going completely to her beloved who was now galavanting around Italy doing merlin knows what for his family, "My very, very hot Italian"
Theo makes a gagging sound and Daphne shoots him a warning look. He raises his hands in surrender and grins at her, as he gives her a side hug, "Aren't you glad you have us, two broke bitches to give you company while you're trapped here in Britain?"
Pansy laughs. Sure, her and Theo were rich in their own right, but the Malfoys and Zabinis were wealthy. Ridiculously, disgustingly wealthy fueled by generations and generations before them. They could decide one day to never work another day in their life and they'd have enough to keep the next 20 generations of Malfoys and Zabini's well-funded. Naturally, those two did not see the point in coming back for an 8th year and instead jumped their focus on continuing their families' legacy. Meanwhile people like her and Theo? Well they needed to get a degree so they can do wage slave things and get a job. Sure they were rich, but she was smart enough to know that her kind of wealth would disappear if she didn't step up to keep it.
"Speak for yourself, Theodore," Pansy drawled in jest then, "God it's almost 8. I still need to finish my potions essay"
"Morgana, do have even time to breathe" Daphne muses as she watches Pansy Parkinson fuss over her things.
The Slytherin princess rolls her eyes, "Tell me about it. It's bad enough that I got assigned the greenhouse for community service, but McGonagal making me Head Girl? It's torture. She says it's supposed to help me build character, and see the bigger picture in life besides my own needs. I thought community service was supposed to build character. This is like, redundant character building!"
"Only you would complain about becoming head girl," Theo drawls, "Most people would be ecstatic,"
"Yes well most people are idiots who get orgasms from having more responsibilities," Pansy she tells Theo pointedly.
"How lovely," Theo grins at her, "Our head girl, everybody,"
"Shut up, Theo," Pansy tries to hide a smile
"Oh you love me,"
"Not lately," Pansy laughs and with that she leaves the two Slytherins to their leisure dinner. She however had to march her ass up to the library if she wanted to get any work done.