Hey everyone! This is the first story that hasn't been thought of for a competition that I've written in a while. It was written for the following challenges on the following forums (please feel free to drop and join them they've got a lot of fun prompts and events):
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry:
Drama: Task 4 Downton Abbey - Write about a drastic change in a family's dynamic
Party Crashers: Guest (character) Pansy Parkinson
Gaming Grove: Empath (emotion) panic
Wicked Webs: Pansy/Starlight and (relationship type) strangers
Camping Trip: Step 2- Pitchings tent (character) Pansy Parkinson
Movie Madness: Iron 2 - Write about someone feeling desperate.
Hogwarts Library: (emotion) desperation
Monthly Challenges For All:
Link Maker: Same Fandom (Harry Potter), 1,076 words
Summer Bingo: 3D (dust) 1,076 words
I hope you all enjoy Starlit Rescue.
It had been a long time since Pansy had felt fear like she was feeling now. The sort of fear that pumps through like a fire that wants to eat everything inside of you and leave nothing but a husk of the person you once were. It was this fear that had made her suggest handing Potter over to the dark lord and if there were a dark lord here and now she'd hand them whoever they wanted. But there wasn't one.
No. She had been chosen to reject everything that her family believed in. She had been convinced after the Battle as everyone was calling it now that her parents and their friends were wrong. So very wrong. She had chosen to get a job among the Muggles and she had chosen one that was suited to her skills.
But nothing could have prepared her for this. The chaos around her reminded her of the Battle of Hogwarts. Her leading the younger Slytherins out of the castle through one of the hidden passages she's sure only the Weasley twins knew about. But this was much different than that was. Then she'd been convinced that she was going to survive. Now she was pretty sure that no one was going to get out of this alive.
"Agent Parkinson," the voice of her superior cut through her fear-filled mind, making her head snap in the direction of Director Raynor's voice.
"Ma'am," she answered her boss, knowing if her parents could see her now they'd be disappointed in their daughter for showing a Muggle this much respect.
"If I don't make it out of this—"
"Don't speak like that, ma'am," Pansy said, feeling a bravery that she was pretty sure she was faking at the moment. "We're going to get out of this. All of us."
"But if I don't," she said, reaching a hand with a small slip of paper in it. "Get in contact with this man and—"
Pansy sees the jet of familiar green light streaking towards Raynor before the dark-haired woman does. She jerks her boss out of the way and watches dumbstruck as the wall behind the woman explodes showering them in drywall and brick.
"Why hello, Pansy," the familiar voice of her father says as the masked man walks out of the thick billowing cloud of drywall particles and dust.
Pansy blinked back tears as her father brought his wand up to train on her and her boss. Never in a million years would she have thought her death would come at the hands of the man who'd once vowed to protect her with his life. But staring down the wand at her scowling father she knew that those days were long gone. That had gone out the window when she chose to listen to Potter and his friends. When she chose to live among the Muggles and take a job with them. But she never thought it would be him that was the one responsible for her death.
"Father," she said pleadingly, looking up at him with a mixture of sadness and pity in her dark eyes.
"Shut up!" he snarled at her. "I have no daughter."
"Close your eyes," a female voice calls over the din of death and destruction.
Pansy doesn't know why but she trusts what the voice says and closes her eyes. She can hear her father's cold cruel laughter as the killing curse starts to slip from his tongue. But then there is a bright light. She's sure that if she hadn't listened to the voice she would be blind right now. And when the light begins to fade she hears the thud of something heavy hitting the floor nearby.
"You can open your eyes," the voice says. Pansy can tell the person is around her age. She doesn't know how she knows this for sure but she can tell.
Her eyes blink open and sees the person for the first time. As her eyes adjust to the room returning to its former light she sees the figure of a blonde woman among the floating debris and blots of dark spots that litter her vision. Her eyes show genuine concern for Pansy and Raynor. Pansy hasn't seen this sort of concern since before she chose her path in the Muggle world.
Pansy looks around her and finds that the place is a mess. Walls are missing chunks and there are a lot of white-shrouded bodies on the floor. She then turns her attention to the spot where her father had been standing minutes ago threatening to kill her and Raynor.
"I'm sorry about your—"
Pansy stops the woman's apology short not wanting to be rude but wanting it known that she had been disowned by this terrorist that she had once called father. "Don't worry about it," she said, hiding the hitch in her voice. "He wouldn't have been sorry about anyone here losing their lives. After all in his own words, 'I have no daughter'."
The woman looks ready to argue the point but once more Pansy stops her before she can speak. "No offense—" she stops short not knowing the woman's name.
"Starlight," the blonde replied with a smile, holding her hand out for Pansy to shake.
"Pansy," Pansy said in way of introduction. "No offense, Starlight. But I was basically disowned by this man and his wife before I started my new life here. And before you ask I don't really think I want to relive that at the moment."
"I understand," Starlight said, looking like she truly did understand how Pansy felt. "But if you want to talk about it." She held a slip of paper with writing on it.
Pansy assumed that it was just the number of a telephone helpline but took the slip all the same and pocketed it. "Thank you," she said, attempting a trembling smile as she watched the wo—no Starlight take flight.
It wasn't until later on that night when everything finally hit her that Pansy took out the slip of paper and actually looked at what it said. She blinked tears out of her eyes as she read the tidy scrawl upon the white slip.
I'm sorry for your loss. If you ever want to talk I'm always ready to listen,
Annie January.
Underneath this was a phone number that Pansy dialed. She held her breath as the phone rang and then Annie picked up.
I hope you all enjoyed Starlit Rescue as much as I enjoyed writing it. This is my first time writing for The Boys Fandom and I hope I did a good job of it.
