Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (challenges & assignments)

Auction: Day 16, Auction 4 - (dialogue) 'I'm here and I'm staying, [Name]. It's not up for discussion.'

A4 Religious Studies - Task 6 - Write about someone who keeps to themselves.

W/C: 2,210

Summary: Pansy was adrift in life after Hogwarts, until Florean Fortescue takes pity on her and gives her a job. One day an old Slytherin housemate turns up in the shop, but doesn't remember who she. That doesn't stop Florean from interfering.

A/N: The usual warnings of unchecked. Deadlines. You know the drill.

Happy As I Am

Pansy took a seat in the quiet ice cream parlour for her break. Florean smiled at her, always looking proud of her like she was his own daughter. Florean, to be fair, had been better to her than her own father. When she'd left Hogwarts with no N.E.W.T.s (thank you, You-Know-Who) and decided to not bother going back to re-do her final year, Pansy had been left adrift from life.

People she thought were friends were long gone (dead in the Battle of Hogwarts or refusing to associate with her because she no longer wanted to follow the life her parents had set out for her) and her family were now in Azkaban. She didn't need to work thanks to some money left to her from a distant family member, but she was bored. When she started appearing in Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour every lunchtime, when she would crave to be near people, even if they did whisper behind her back, he took pity on Pansy.

"You have two choices; take my job offer, be a useful member of society, or continue to feel sorry for yourself and get fat on my ice creams. What's it to be?" he asked, holding an apron out to her.

"I've never had a job before," she said.

"It's about time you did, isn't it?"

"Aren't you worried that people will stop coming in if they see me behind the counter?" she asked, still not taking the apron.

Florean took a seat opposite her. "Did you kill anybody?" Pansy shook her head. "Use an Unforgivable curse?"

"Please," Pansy cried, "he's only a first-year."

"It's you or him," Alecto Carrow sneered.

"Use me," she sniffed, bracing herself.

"So be it – CRUCIO!"

Pansy shook her head at the question and to rid herself of the memory. "I was a bully though. I have a habit of letting my mouth run off with mean comments," she admitted.

Florean nodded. "Do you apologise?"

"Not always, no."

Florean held the apron across the table. "Maybe you can learn that as you learn the job too."

It wasn't a suggestion. "Okay."

"That's the spirit!" he cheered.

And so Pansy found herself with her first job and actually enjoying it. She'd been there six months, people still came into the parlour knowing she was there, and it gave her a purpose to be out. She managed to remain polite, for the most part, and she tried to enjoy her lot in life.

It was a bit lonely though, even if she did purposely keep to herself, avoiding any situations that might put her in the path of old classmates.

"You won't make any new friends if you hide yourself in here or your home," Florean said. He always had this habit of making comments like he knew what was going through her head.

"I'm happy as I am, Old Man," she said sweetly. Florean laughed, waving a hand dismissively at her comment. "Besides, I have you now."

The doorbell above the door rang before he could reply. Pansy looked to see a tall man walk in with a broad build. He barely looked at her, his eyes on the ice cream options already. She frowned, trying to place his face. She silently willed him to look back at her, but all she got was a head of dark hair.

"Afternoon, Marcus. Not seen you in a while," Florean greeted the man.

"I've been in Devon help some family with their children," he said quietly, eyes still searching the various flavours. "What's the green one?"

"Peppermint and walnut. Why don't you try the raspberry sorbet." Florean pointed to a red ice cream sitting at the front of the cabinet. "It's my most recent flavour and is good if you're a bit thirsty too."

The man turned to Pansy, an easy smile on his face. "It's not selling well, is it?"

"Don't ask her, she's biased because she hates fruit flavoured anything. Would it kill you to eat some kind of fruit, Pansy?" Florean teased. "I'll tell you what, Marcus. You keep that one company on her lunch break and I'll send over your favourite. For free. Deal?"

"Thanks, Florean," Pansy muttered sarcastically.

"I'd say I'm getting the better end of the deal," Marcus said as he sat down heavily in the seat opposite her by the window.

"I don't need pity company. Just leave me alone," Pansy said bitterly.

The truth was, she remembered who he was; Marcus Flint, her first crush when she arrived at Hogwarts. He was kind to her when she got lost in her first week, the first real act of kindness she'd known, and Pansy had latched on to it. Marcus had never really looked twice at her after that, but she'd never forgotten it. And to be fair, he was a few years ahead of her, why would he even look at her?

Now he was sat in front of her, after years of not seeing him, looking like ageing was suiting him well, with flecks of grey starting to come into his hair, with laughter lines around his dark blue eyes, and muscles like he was used to manual labour rather than using magic. Pansy's first crush was rapidly becoming her first adult crush and she didn't want it. People always ended up disappointed in her and she would despair if he was another one.

"You seem so damn familiar," Marcus said, not leaving the table and ignoring her comment to be left alone.

Pansy shook her head, laughing. Of course he couldn't remember her. It was mildly better than being avoided; it still stung. "You have no idea who I am, do you?"

Marcus gave her an odd smile. "Sorry, am I being rude? I'm terrible with faces and names. Honestly, I'm lucky if I can get my nieces and nephews' names right."

Pansy narrowed her eyes, weighing up how much she believed his story. "It doesn't matter. You don't have to waste your time with me," she said, shooting Florean a dirty look. "The Old Man keeps shoving his nose in where it's not wanted."

"I do it out of love, Pansy," he said cheerfully, pointing his wand at the ice cream scoop.

"You do it because you're a busybody with nothing better to do!" she said sharply, but with a small smile to Marcus so he knew that she wasn't really being hard on Florean. "I love him really," she whispered.

"Of course you do!" Florean cheered.

"Bat ears!" she snapped.

"Are you family of Florean's?"

"Merlin, no!" Florean said.

"I'd have put him in an early grave if we were," Pansy added, not offended in the slightest by Florean's no. "He took pity on me and gave me a job."

Marcus leant an elbow on the table, staring at her with a smile. Pansy scowled in return, trying to suppress the butterflies in stomach. "I do know you, right?"

She sighed. "Hogwarts. You were a fifth-year when I started. You once help me find my way around the school when I got lost."

"Oh," he said dragging out the word. "Sorry. I can place your face around the school, but honestly, one too many Bludgers to the head playing Quidditch over the years and my memory's really crap now."

Pansy shrugged, watching his bowl of ice cream come over to the table. "Doesn't matter."

Marcus waited until the ice cream bowl had settled, digging his spoon. "How about I make it up to and take you to dinner tonight?"

"No," Pansy said much quicker than she was expecting. "I don't do going on out."

"Nonsense, Marcus," Florean spoke up. "She'll go."

"It's settled then." Marcus gave her a wink, raising his ice cream-filled spoon like he was raising a glass. "I'll pick you up at seven, yeah?"

"Excuse you both, I'm not an object to be decided on, thank you very much," Pansy snapped, standing up to get back to her job.

"Is eight better?" Marcus asked her retreating back.

"I like steak," she replied.

XXXXXX

By half past seven, Pansy was ready to go, but didn't want to turn up at the restaurant too early. She checked herself in the mirror one more time, pulling at her thick fringe in case it started to curl in awkward directions, as it was prone to do. She pulled a face at herself, wishing she didn't feel so nervous, with the butterflies in her stomach going wild and feeling like she should drink a whole bottle of Firewhisky before she went. She still couldn't understand why he'd offered to take her to dinner because he'd forgotten who she was.

She glanced at the photo hung by the mirror, an old sepia one of her grandmother. She sat in a rocking chair by a window, holding Pansy as a baby. That was the only time she'd met her grandmother, as she died less than a year later from Dragon Pox. Sometimes she wondered if life would've been easier had she been around while Pansy grew up. The photo grandmother rocked in the chair and sometimes looked up with a proud smile on her face. Always a proud look.

A knock at Pansy's door pulled her out of that particular thought pattern she often fell into when looking at the photo.

"Hello?" she called through the door.

"Hi, love," Marcus' voice, already ingrained in her memory, called back, "it's Marcus. Florean gave me your address."

"We're meant to be meeting at the restaurant," she called back, peeking through the peephole.

Marcus had his head down, looking at the bag he was holding. "I know, but I heard you when you said you don't do going out, so I thought I would bring the steak to you instead."

Pansy looked around at her flat. It wasn't messy, it never was, that would require owning more than the bare essentials. She existed there instead of living. The last thing she needed was Marcus feeling sorry for her, especially if this became an actual friendship.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Can't we just meet at the restaurant, like we arranged?"

Marcus' laugh could be heard through the wood. "Florean said you would say that."

Pansy sighed heavily, leaning her forehead on the door. She really didn't need another person judging her, and he would if he saw how empty of things her flat was.

"I don't know," she said quietly.

"I'm here and I'm staying, Pansy. It's not up for discussion," he said firmly.

Pansy lifted her head and scowled at the door. "I beg your pardon," she snapped, looking through the peephole.

"Wait, I didn't mean it like that." Marcus lifted his head, looking straight at the peephole. "I meant it in that I'm not going anywhere. I've got food and wine and I fully intend to be good company for you."

Pansy bit at her bottom lip to stop herself from saying something mean. "Florean's been telling you more than he should, hasn't he? After I left work, right?"

When she'd continued her shift, Marcus had stuck around for most of the afternoon, catching up with Florean, talking to her a little; explaining that after he'd left Hogwarts he'd kept his head down for a quiet life, hating the stigma that always came with being a Slytherin. That she definitely understood. And Marcus had stayed after she'd finished her shift too. It would appear more talking had happened between the two men.

"Look, I would've asked you to dinner anyway. You have the most beautiful eyes and I knew the moment I looked in them that I wanted to take you out, with or without Florean's interference." Pansy moved to the mirror to look at her eyes, not really seeing what Marcus meant. They were big and round and a blue-green colour that made her feel very generic. "The only reason I stayed all afternoon was so I could try and get to know you, to remember who you were in school… I really am sorry I can't remember, but I wasn't a big fan of Hogwarts as it is."

Pansy went back to the door and opened. Marcus smiled brightly at her, a hint of relief in his features. "My eyes are boring. There's nothing nice about the colour," she said sullenly.

Marcus frowned, tilting his head. "That's not true. They've got the most divine ring of dark green around the pupil, and when you aren't scowling, I feel like you're ready to take on anything the world will throw at you, which I think you already do."

"I'm a disgrace to the Wizarding community," she added, nearly biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself from smiling at his kind words.

"Aren't all Slytherins though," Marcus replied. He held the wine out to her, an expensive bottle of wine. "Let's have dinner and we can see who feels more sorry for themselves and the way the Wizarding community has treated us?"

Pansy wanted to shut the door, not let Marcus cross over the threshold, and continue to hide a way from everyone. Instead, she took the wine and pushed the door open further. "Okay," she said with a tiny smile.