"I didn't see Parkinson on the list of victims in the article." Potter was frantically tearing into his trunk, getting strange looks from his friends. Also from the girls in her own compartment, not that he knew that.
"Well, they never claimed to have captured any of the death eaters." Ron grunted, shoving an entire chocolate frog in his mouth before continuing. "Parkinson probably paid off the Ministry and the Prophet to not report it."
"Perseus Parkinson, dead at ninety nine after tragedy strikes at the World Cup. No body was recovered after the Parkinson's tent's expansion charms unraveled in the chaos. We at The Prophet send our…blah blah blah…great loss of a long lived Lord…blah blah blah…Private entombment on grounds of Parkinson family's ancient castle seat. Parkinson lives in a castle? He is survived by his wife, Poppy Parkinson, thirty. His two last living daughters, Pansy Parkinson, fourteen, and Primrose Parkinson, eight…We wish to support the Parkinson family in this trying time and ask readers to send any condolences or gifts through Shafiq and Burke Law Offices." Potter finished reading the small article they had written about her father with a confused frown.
"His wife is thirty?" Granger snatched the paper to look over the sentences Potter skimmed over. Gryffindor's face was turning green the longer she read, her disgust plain on her face. "If Parkinson is our age, her mother would have only been sixteen when she was born and that age gap! That can't be legal!"
"She is younger than my parents." Potter looked out the window, deep in thought.
"Well, you saw him at the match before he fell ill." Weasley chewed loudly, smacking his lips and licking up the slime from the jelly slugs. "Like I said, it's all nice and pretty 'cause Parkinson paid them off. How could there be no body? Probably not even dead."
"There's a follow up article about expansion charms unraveling." Granger noted absently, her brown hair getting frizzier the more she read. "Fascinating. It says here when the charm fails, the occupants should be pushed out of the expanded space. If they're not they can vanish into non-existence! That must be why they never found a body, if Parkinson was telling the truth he was probably in bed when the fires started."
"Well, she got out but left her father behind?" Potter looked back at his friends with a furrowed brow. "Fred and George said she had her sister over her shoulder and was running with everyone else."
"That asshole." Mellie looked ready to go through the wall to smash some lions but Luna's hand on her arm held her back.
"Can I sit with you guys?" Longbottom entered soaking wet, dragging his trunk behind him. A toad's head was poking out of his sodden robe pocket, croaking.
"Cor, what happened to you?" Weasley eyed him with a curled lip while Potter helped him lift his trunk up onto the rails.
"Ran into the twins on my way back to the loo." Longbottom looked miserable and his shoes made a wet suction sound in the few steps he took into the compartment. "The Patils and Lavender threw out my trunk because of the smell."
"Scourgify." Granger waved her wand, scrub brushes attacked the defenseless wizard while they rubbed him raw. Green soap bubbles exploded everywhere with Potter and Weasley jumping away in fright. "Oh, don't be such a baby. Focillo!"
A blast of air blew all of the sudsy bubbles off her housemate, splashing harmlessly against the seat and window. Longbottom's irritated skin was red and shiny from the heat, his robes were stiff with white smears from the soap. If anything, he looked even more miserable than when he was soaked but there was a small wobbly smile on his face.
"Thanks, Hermione." He coughed magical green bubbles and turned even redder in embarrassment.
"Your welcome, Neville." Granger preened, looking pleased at the result of her spells.
"Oh." Longbottom looked at the discarded paper with a small frown. "Did you go to the cup?"
"Yeah!" The redhead sat back with a pleased, smug smile. "Top box too!"
"For the first and last time, Weasley." Malfoy stood in the open door with a sneer, sniffing around himself with his pointy nose. "Must be the mudblood musk."
"Ha!" Goyle clapped the blond on the shoulder, sharing a hardy laugh with Crabbe.
"How dare you!" Weasley jumped up with his wand out, along with Potter while the other two looked like they wanted to disappear into their seats.
"Thinking of entering your name, Weasley?" Malfoy did not look the least bit intimidated by their rage or their wands, resolute in egging them on. "Would be nice to finally have a couple of galleons to rub together. Saw you and your blood traitor family crawling on the floor for some leprechaun gold at the match."
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Potter's bright green eyes were practically glowing with the way he was trying to kill the Slytherins with his gaze.
"Just wanted to see if Saint Potter was going to enter the tournament." Malfoy never looked more like his father, the way his voice lowered and oozed satisfaction. "Could help your friend's family move into a bigger hovel."
"What tournament?" Granger couldn't help but ask curiously, flinching away from the very pointed disgusted sneer she got from the Slytherin trio.
"Though I suppose, your father's in enough trouble, eh Weasley?" Malfoy laughed with his friends, looking ready to move on. "How about you Longbottom? Saw your uncle at the match, sure he would have told you? No, too bad. Luckily, my-"
"What are you doing?" Fawley barked from behind them, a furious scowl on his face as he looked over the group blocking the corridor. "Causing a commotion again? Can't say I'm surprised. Move along!"
"Who are you to tell me-" Malfoy sneered, glancing once at his badge before he was cut off.
"I said move along!" Fawley shooed them away as if they were cats. "The Lady Parkinson doesn't need people crowding the corridors outside her compartment!"
"Fine." It shocked Pansy and her friends the way Slytherins backed down so quickly, slinking away and pausing only for a minute outside their own compartment. The door was locked and the shades down to ensure privacy.
"Urgh, Lady Parkinson." Weasley sneered after slamming the door in the head boy's scowling face. "Why is every-"
"Her Lord Father died." Longbottom cut off the ginger with a little frown, obviously confused by his dorm mate's vitriol.
"Ron." Granger chastised her friend when Weasley opened his mouth to continue on his tirade.
"So, were you at the Cup, Neville?" Potter cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable.
"No, my Gran gave the tickets to Uncle Algie but he's not a fan of quidditch and I don't like heights." He hunched down in his seat in embarrassment. "We only went for the ceremonies and the annual Lord meeting."
"Lord meeting?" Granger asked curiously, her eyes lighting up at the prospect of new knowledge.
"Yeah, all the old families get together once a year outside of the Wizengamot." Longbottom huffed, twisting the fabric of his robes in his hands. "It's really boring but Gran said that I needed to be there as heir."
"There's Lords?" Potter glanced at Weasley, who was steadily turning more and more red.
"It's old titles left over from before the statue of secrecy was implemented." Longbottom tilted his head to the side, watching his dorm mate in confusion. "Your father never claimed his title, however your regent should have brought you. I never asked because well…"
"Urgh, as if Harry would ever want to-" Weasley sneered at Longbottom but the timid wizard raised his hand, cutting him off.
"Just because your family has been shunned from the gatherings and seats removed from the Wizengamot doesn't mean you need to spout such nonsense." Longbottom turned away from the other wizard's anger to Potter. "It really is boring but it's important for you to keep in contact with the other houses."
"What are you talking about?" Weasley demanded, tugging on Longbottom's stiff robes furiously. "We're blood traitors and proud! The Weasleys don't have a seat on the Wizengamot."
"Yeah, the Weasleys aren't Lords but they were an old family who had a seat until the Blacks accused them of killing their heir, Sirius." Longbottom leaned away from the redhead's feral snarl. "Then, the whole…Malfoy thing."
"What is he talking about, Ron?" Potter asked, more demanded and looking impatient.
"Look, I'm sorry for bringing up old feuds but Harry really should know all this." Longbottom ripped himself away from the stupefied ginger, taking a seat beside a curious Granger.
"I don't know what kind of bullshite you're spouting about my family!" Weasley shouted, Potter leapt from his seat to hold him back.
"It's not bullshite it's well known history!" Longbottom snapped back, his face turning red in agitation. "Everyone knows that the Blacks have hated the Weasleys since 1853 when Phineas accused them of killing his older brother Sirius! If you never bothered to learn your own history, don't take it out on me!"
"So, the Malfoys hate the Weasleys because of a murder over a century ago?" Granger asked, ignoring the struggle of her two best friends.
"No, the Weasleys lost their seat at the Wizengamot and were blacklisted by the Lords for never trying to make restitution or amends." Longbottom explained with much more patience than Pansy would have. "The Malfoys followed house Black's lead but didn't ignite a blood feud until Abraxas' betrothed was stolen by Septimus Weasley. There was a big scandal since the alliance was well known and the wedding was already being planned for after her graduation."
"How could he possibly have stolen a witch?" Granger asked, looking oddly offended and raising a hand towards her friends to keep them quiet. Potter was sitting on Weasley's back with his arms twisted behind him.
"Well, she you..know…got pregnant." Longbottom flushed, pointedly looking away from where Weasley was flopping around like a fish. "It wasn't uncommon for a matched couple to…you know but they were always warned to be discreet. So, Septimus married Cedrella and caused a huge scandal since her grandfather grieved his brother his entire life. To find out a daughter of house Black would…well, my grandfather told me that they summoned my family to organize a hunt."
"Why would they call your family?" Potter asked stupidly, in Pansy's opinion. Did the boy not even research the families of the Wizarding world? His own grandmother was a Black after all.
"Well, my great grandmother was Calidora Black, Cedrella's sister. So, it was expected that they would answer the call of family." He shrugged, not looking the least bit concerned about the well known history of his family. "Your family was called too, Harry."
"My family?" Potter's eyes widened and he sat back heavily, still holding down his friend even though he stopped struggling.
"Yeah, your grandmother was Cedrella's cousin so…didn't you look at your family tree?"
"No, I didn't even know what my parents looked like until I got to Hogwarts." His whispered confession appeared to drain the last of Weasley's anger.
"So, you're all related?" Granger leaned forward eagerly, pulling out a roll of parchment to take notes.
"Well, nearly everyone is related if you look back far enough." Longbottom leaned away from the witch and her notes.
"What is the hunt?' Granger's fingers were already splattered with ink and she didn't even look up to ask her question.
"Well, the Longbottoms haven't called a hunt in centuries…" He squirmed, looking a little hesitant. "Not since….1465 when they wiped out Lord White and his family for aiding the muggles and getting their heir killed in battle."
"Woah, so the Blacks wanted your family to wipe out the Weasleys?" Potter looked nauseous at the thought, his bright eyes probably seeing his meek roommate in a whole new light.
"No, the Malfoys and the Blacks worked together to completely bankrupt the entire family after disowning Cedrella and promising Abraxas' heir a Black daughter. Then Arcturus ended up buying out the Weasley's ancestral lands after sabotaging their farms." Longbottom looked relieved to not be spouting anymore of his family's history.
"Parkinson talked about Cedrella and Ron's mum at the game when he accused her father of being a death eater." Potter said absently, keeping a strong hold on the ginger's shoulders when he started wiggling.
"Lord Perseus was too old to have been involved with the war." Longbottom rebutted firmly, scratching his chin in thought. "Although he was rumored to have been involved with Grindelwald, nothing was ever proven. However, the wizards in the Parkinson family always disappear in odd occurrences. He had five sons but only his heir was ever given a funeral after his family was killed in an attack on Diagon Alley."
"Weird, he's so old!" Granger shivered in disgust, Pansy couldn't blame her. "Is it normal for there to be such a large age gap in wizarding marriages?"
"Lord Perseus didn't remarry until he was in his eighties, I think?" He leaned forward to lower his voice. "It was a bit of a scandal, him taking his great niece out of school and no one knew what happened to her for years."
"His niece?" Granger exclaimed so loudly that Pansy and her friends probably would have heard her even without the charm.
She sneered, rolling her eyes at the naivete of the Gryffindors. Incest was strong in the wizarding world since magic protected most families. In fact, a lot of them didn't even understand that they were killing themselves by marrying each other's cousins and siblings. Mellie's parents were siblings, Sally's were cousins, even though Luna's father was a bastard and her mother was disowned did not change the fact that they were half siblings.
"It's still pretty normal, it's hard to find anyone you're not related to." Longbottom shrugged, raising a brow at Granger's indignation. "It was only a scandal because Posey Parkinson had fallen down the stairs and Poppy never returned from the funeral. There was no announcement or public bonding."
"What about my mum?" Weasley looked ill and Potter finally moved off his back once it became clear he wasn't about to throw another fit.
"Well, I know Lord Fawley was bragging about how your father's wages are still being garnished for the broken betrothal." He cringed at the uncomprehending look on the ginger's stupid face. "The Prewitts never officially disowned their daughter when she got pregnant in her final year but the Lord and Lady will still leave the room when her name is brought up."
"They're still alive?" Weasley's eyes rolled up in head in a dead faint.
"Did he faint?" Luna asked absently, pressing her face up against the wall to see Potter and Granger crowding the confused redhead.
"How could Weasley not have known that?" Millie guffawed, looking far too amused by Longbottom's miniature history lesson.
"Do you think he knows House Abbott's history?" Hannah asked with a dreamy sigh, her eyes never leaving the awkward boy she fancied. "I could listen to him talk about anything for hours."
"Gross." Pansy squealed, throwing a handkerchief at her friend, forcing Hannah to look away for the first time since he entered. "You've got some drool, Mrs. Longbottom."
"Oh, yes that does have a nice sound to it, doesn't it?" Hannah missed the obvious sarcasm and the others snickering at her making cow eyes at the boy. She sounded it out slowly, great affection dripping from each letter. "Mrs. Hannah Longbottom. No! Wait, Lady Hannah Longbottom. Maybe I should invite him to the Hall? Hardly any Gryffindors ever show up except Sally."
"I would like to keep it that way, you dizzy twat!" Sally threw her own handkerchief at the dazed Hufflepuff. "Imagine Pav and Lav coming? Godric forbid, Granger or the ginger git twins? No, I can accept the little lions but like hell am I putting up with their constant drama."
"I can understand why you don't like the Gryffindor Gossips but you never explained why you don't like Granger." Pansy couldn't help but ask curiously, there was a lot of venom in her tone whenever the book worm was brought up.
"Shall we start with first year?" Sally puffed up angrily, sitting forward and completely ignoring the quiet chatter they could still hear from the compartment next to them. "Okay, she never casts a silencing spell on her bed and proceeds to read out loud all night. When we ask her to be quiet, turn out the light, cast a fucking silencing charm she lectures us about the laurels of studying! It was three in the morning! She still does it!"
"Tracy Davis sleep walks and talks." Millie offered in solidarity, reaching over to pat her knee. "Sometimes she just winds up in our beds, asking about the price of chicken livers."
"That's disturbing but that was only one reason I hate Granger!" Sally quickly brought focus back on her rant. "In the first year she went through our trunks and tried to confiscate books that weren't on the reading list and reported our uniforms to our head of house! Apparently, Lavender said something about her hair so she took it out on all the girls in the dorm. Poor Sally Anne didn't even come back the next year and it was probably thanks to Granger! Everyone knew the girl couldn't even afford second hand books, she was always using the library's copies. Then to have our professor scold her for wearing old uniforms from the sixties that were too small? Yeah, she's probably being homeschooled now!"
"Well, maybe she just didn't know how to make friends?" Susan rebutted with a furrowed brow, deep in thought. "Remember she was always butting into conversations and just sitting with people in the library because she didn't have any friends until…Halloween, right? There was some rumor about a troll."
"Oh, the troll!" Sally threw herself back into the seat with a mew of disgust. "Lavender opened her stupid mouth and Granger gushed about those idiots jumping on the back of a troll and teaching Weasley a spell for days! Did you know she actually cursed Longbottom first year? Left him at the foot of the stairs all night long with his face in the ancient shag rug! Could have suffocated if Angelina Johnson hadn't forgotten her book in the common room!"
"I just thought she was slightly annoying because of all those schedules and organized charts she kept trying to draw up for meetings in the Hall. It really didn't help when she tried to exclude an entire house from joining us." Pansy shook her head, stifling her laughter as her friends continued rants.
"That's another thing! Because I'm her roommate she tried to give me revision schedules!" Sally waved her arms towards Granger in the other compartment who had picked up a book while the boys talked to each other quietly. "Like I'm not already in the top ten and best friends with the number one swats of all swattiness! As if I need any help on my exams, she even schedules bathroom breaks."
"She does sound like a very organized individual." Luna hummed, swaying in her seat behind her magazine. "Very closed minded though, the wrackspurts can't find a way in."
"Close minded, exactly!" Sally nodded, absently patting Luna on the knee in commiseration. "Godric forbid that a pureblood has an opinion, even though she's the only muggleborn in the dorm! You should have heard her last year, snapping at everyone over any little thing! Urgh, she spent days asking me about your schedule, like I would know! We were rarely in the same class. Then she was muttering about how unfair it was that you had a vault of magical artifacts while she had to earn a necklace? OH, did she get a time turner too? That bitch!"
The next few hours passed easily after Hannah released her spell on the compartment wall. When they started playing chess, Pansy grew tired of Weasley's shouted commands quickly. Sally kept finding more things that annoyed her about Granger, after a while she started to worry that she was projecting just a bit. While the spell was up she noticed that her friend's eyes rarely strayed from her fellow Gryffindor. Interesting.
"You want to come meet Justin?" Susan asked once they entered the Hogsmeade Station, not really giving her an option to decline by grasping her wrist to drag her along.
Justin Finch-Fletchley was a cute boy with an old money look. His hair style was one that all the aristocrats still wore, his robes were made of fine material and freshly pressed. He even bent over and kissed her hand chastely, like a gentleman. However, he was fourteen and she was far too old mentally to process the weird looks he was sending her. Why couldn't Regulus Black have lived? She was sure he would be very dashing in his thirties, probably a thriving aristocrat but mostly likely a shut-in with his house elf. He might have had a dark past and even darker future but like all girls she told herself, she could fix him.
"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Lady Pansy." If the smirk was anything to go, Justin was definitely sure of himself.
"Merry meet." She smiled politely, just large enough to enhance her dimples and dipping down into an elegant curtsy. He seemed surprised by it for whatever reason but he offered his arm just the same.
"So, congratulations on making top marks again." Justin ignored his friend who was giving him a double thumbs up just to her side like she couldn't see. "My own parents had me down for Eton, it certainly was a surprise to get into an even more exclusive school."
"I've been down since birth." Pansy sighed, he was more arrogant than Malfoy. How was that possible?
"Have you ever heard of Eton?" Justin asked with an innocent smile but his tone was condescending as if he expected her to know nothing of the muggle world. She was saved by the most unexpected source.
"What's this?" Malfoy had casually pushed Justin away, into the muddy street.
Students stopped to stare while Crabbe and Goyle kicked his bag, scattering his belongings. Her eyes widened when Crabbe picked up a magazine with a centerfold that unraveled itself, showing off a very naked woman. The laughter started with a whisper and soon echoed through the trees, everyone could see the Hufflepuff frantically trying to repack his bag which had even more magazines and parchment spilling out.
"Hey this looks like you, Parkinson!" Goyle called out, showing off a piece of parchment that was hand drawn. She was quick with her wand, summoning it to her hand before he could show it off to his friends.
"What the fuck?" Pansy whispered seeing herself smiling from the parchment, except she was naked. The body was extremely exaggerated, while she figured she would be generously curvy one day, she was only fourteen but the face was all her. With a quick spell, she summoned all of the loose sheets of parchment to find many girls in their year drawn the same. "Prick!"
Pansy quickly stormed away, her face red. She threw the portraits into the air and quickly set them all on fire with her wand. How gross! The urge to disinfect herself was strong but she still had a carriage ride and the welcoming feast to get through until she could go to her dorm. A large horned owl swooped low, drawing her attention. It landed gracefully on her shoulder, holding out it's leg with a scroll.
MINISTRY OF MAGIC
ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS
This is to certify that the candidate named below completed the Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations, conducted by the Wizarding Examination Authority, and obtained the following results.
Candidate: Pansy Parkinson
Examination Period: August 1994
Grading Scale
(O) Outstanding
(E) Exceeds Expectations
(A) Acceptable
(P) Poor
(D) Dreadful
(T) Troll
Astronomy E
History of Magic O
Muggle Studies O
"You didn't say you took your O.W.L.s!" Padma exclaimed loudly, ripping the parchment from her stunned hands. Millie was close behind, her knuckles bruised and bloody with a feral smile on her face. Looking past her other friends rushing towards her, she could see Justin staggering against an equally bloody Ernie Macmillian.
"What did you do with all the pictures?" Susan demanded, arms crossed over her chest with a furious scowl on her face. The group stood in the middle of the dirt road, other students were giving them a wide berth, especially the group of Hufflepuff boys.
"Burnt." She answered shortly, vaguely waving her hand towards the scattered ash that surrounded her.
"Good, I can't believe that Justin and Ernie would do such a thing!" Hannah huffed angrily before her scowl melted at the sight of the parchment in Padma's hand. "Are those your results? Ace, Pans! Two years early and you got smashing grades! Knew you were the Swottiest swot that ever did swot!"
"Oi, Parkinson!" Malfoy pushed his way past his giggling housemates who had stolen Justin's magazine collection. "Sorry you had to see such a repulsive scene. Just goes to show that breeding really is everything."
"Don't bother, Malfoy." Susan didn't let her get a word in, a dark scowl still on her face while she kept her eyes on Ernie's retreating back. "It's all my fault. I thought since his father was a Baron then he would have some actual manners. Instead, I pushed my friend into the arms of a pervert! She was just too polite to say no."
"It's fine, Susan." Pansy huffed, patting her shoulder and trying to not show her indignation on her face. "My soulmate was obviously born too soon. Dead and crazy before we could ever meet."
"Your soulmate?" Malfoy choked out, eliciting laughter from her friends.
"Poor tragic Regulus Black." Luna sighed whimsically, her large blue eyes looking right through the pale boy. "My mother loved him well and grieved him until her death."
"Shush, Pans is just using him as an excuse to not date." Sally waved her hand dismissively, rolling her eyes at Pansy who sneered back at her.
"Obviously, it's just a tragic fate." Pansy crossed her arms defensively, she should never have shared her little crush on a dead man. It was just easier because he was a tragic hero, no one knew him really and his sacrifice would not be celebrated. Not to mention thirteen year old Anthony Goldstein trying to kiss her under the mistletoe last year had been icky. "Top of his class and everything I've read about him says he had that dark, brooding thing going on."
"My cousin?" Draco asked incredulously, staring at her like she had grown another head. "My dead cousin?"
"Well, the Blacks are ridiculously beautiful, it's not my fault." Pansy pouted prettily, batting her eyelashes. Malfoy swallowed hard, shoving his hands deep into his robe pockets. "Every girl wants a man who would burn the world for her."
"Now, that we can agree on." Sally spoke over Susan and Hannah's furious exclamations.
"Um, excuse me." Padma stomped her foot, waving her O.W.L. results around with a snap. "Can someone explain why I was not informed you took your O.W.L.s and kicked their arses!"
"I know, I-"
"A swot." Millie bellowed over Pansy with a grin. "Can we talk about the way the muggleborn's nose crunched? I doubt Madame Pomfrey will be able to get it straight again."
"I think you knocked out one of Ernie's teeth." Luna pointed to a particular blood splatter with a tooth in the middle of it.
"He shouldn't have gotten in the way." Millie studied her bloodied knuckles nonchalantly, that feral grin on her face.
"You took your O.W.L.s?" Malfoy edged closer to Pansy once she had snatched her results back, he leaned far too close to her. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck when he whistled, impressed.