Try as she did, Pansy failed to encounter her newest fascination during the next week. She frequently passed his chamber doors, hoping for a chance meeting, an extra layer of perfume and lip gloss, and extra care spent charming her uniform to flatter her figure just so. She'd even returned to the Prefect's bath to spend extra time luxuriating in the bath oils and skin softening tonics she used to enjoy.
While the target of her efforts had yet to have the opportunity to observe them, others seemed to take note. She felt her classmates' eyes linger longer than they had for some time and heard mumblings of gossip.
"What's up with you?" Millicent Bulstrude asked her one evening as she returned from the Prefect bathroom in her night clothes with her hair wrapped in a Slytherin green towel to match her silk pajamas. "You have been really going for it these days."
Pansy smirked. "I'm moving on from Draco. I think it is time to find someone more mature."
Millicent gasped. "How did Draco take the breakup?"
"I wouldn't know. He is a clueless arse." She huffed.
"You haven't told him?" Millicent giggled.
"No. He doesn't deserve it. He will figure it out eventually. He hasn't spoken to me in days." She snorted as she placed her things into her trunk.
"So Zacharias didn't work out either?"
She shrugged. "I am sure he could, but after further consideration, I think I can do better."
"Of course you can, Pansy. You can have any boy in this school. Who's the lucky one?"
"It's more fun if I don't tell," she winked. She was after no boy this time.
Millicent laughed. "Well, you look great, but.." she paused as her lips tightened. "Is it only for fun, right, Pansy?
She stiffened. "What do you mean?"
"You know?" She mumbled.
Pansy raised a brow. "Know what?"
"The other girls have all been whispering." She sighed. "Harper said the boys even have a bet on which of us will be the first."
Pansy narrowed her eyes. "To get pregnant, you mean?"
Millicent nodded and sighed again. "It's repulsive, really."
Pansy sat at the edge of her bed and echoed the sigh. "Yeah. I know," she mumbled, her mind on the note from her father in her desk drawer.
"But you aren't really going through with it, are you?"
Her throat tightened. "I might not have a choice. My father wishes it of me."
Her eyes widened. "I'm so sorry." She rushed over and embraced her. "I had no idea." She pulled away. "Is that why you and Draco have been fighting?"
Pansy nodded, refusing to let the tears fill her eyes as they stung in protest. "He won't do it, but he's told all the guys they need to stay away from me too."
"That's hardly fair."
"So here we are…"
"I promise not to judge, Pansy. No matter what." Millicent embraced her again.
"Thanks." Pansy returned the hug as she silently considered if that promise would hold up to the scandalous plot she had devised.
Milicent pulled away and smiled. "In other news, did you hear about Longbottom?"
"Why would I care about him?"
"Because he, the loony Ravenclaw and the Weasley wench got caught trying to break into the Headmaster's office. Can you believe it?"
Pansy huffed. Those three idiots dared to go against Snape? "I'll bet Snape was furious. Did he torture them himself, or let the Carrows do it for him?"
"They are going to the Forbidden Forest tonight as some sort of detention, I guess. Maybe the werewolves will see to their punishment." Millicent shrugged. "I've heard the centaurs have been plotting to kidnap students in retaliation for the tighter restrictions placed by the Ministry."
"I'm sure the Oaf will be with them so I doubt that. Besides, can't imagine those three fetching much of a ransom." Pansy laughed as she crawled into bed.
Millicent giggled. "Yeah. But it doesn't seem like much of a punishment."
"I am sure Headmaster Snape has his reasons." She suppressed a sneer. Hopefully fulfilling Impleo with Weasley or Lovegood wasn't one of them.
"If only Longbottom wasn't such a Gryffindor." Millicent sighed.
"What's that, now?"
"I mean, I'd give him a go, wouldn't you?" She snickered.
Pansy snorted. "Yeah, I suppose. He's certainly not hard to look at these days."
"He's not the one you're after, is he?" Millicent giggled.
"No! Never." Pansy scoffed. Although it certainly would stick it to Draco if he were. "That's enough of that conversation." She stretched her arms overhead. "Good night."
Severus heard the soft sobs as he approached his chambers that evening. His teeth ground as he steeled his mental walls and followed the sounds past his doorway, deeper into the Hogwarts dungeons.
"Get up, Pansy," he sighed as he found the witch sitting against the wall behind one of the suits of armor, knees drawn to her chest, shoulders shaking.
She stared up at him, wiping her tear-streaked face.
He offered a hand which she accepted, her warm palm in his chilled one, pulling herself up beside him.
The scent of bergamot and sandalwood overtook his nose. "It is past curfew and you are not on duty tonight."
"I know. But the common room is no place for tears." She dusted off her skirt and straightened her tie.
"Neither is the corridor. Come." He led her down the hall to his chambers, and hand at the back of her arm, the warmth of her apparent in the cool corridor. As they stepped into the office and came to a stop at the dark wooden desk, he pushed away the visions of the erotic dream from the week prior. He hadn't slept a wink since,
He leaned against the desk with his arms across his chest, facing the witch sitting in the chair before him. "Why the tears?"
Pansy started at the sudden break of silence as her reddened eyes widened to look at him. She audibly swallowed, took a deep breath and pulled her shoulders back, the fear and sadness instantly replaced with something more potent. "I received this from my father today." She pulled something from the pocket of her skirt and handed it to him before wiping the moisture from her cheeks.
He unfolded the parchment and read.
I have compiled a list of interested candidates for your Impleo. I have personally vetted them and their bloodlines. Some are even willing to offer a generous dowry and marriage in order to formalize a pureblood heir. I will take your opinion into consideration.
A list of names, most familiar to him but some not, most several years her senior, all pureblood, concluded the correspondence.
"I see," he replied as he folded the letter with a curl of his lip. So that was how it was going to be. Even Ms. Parkinson was not immune from the horrors of all this. He should have suspected knowing her parents.
"An arranged marriage? What is this, 1898?" She hissed as she pulled the letter back.
"It is not that unusual. Certainly you are aware of others." He resisted the urge to smile. Something almost pleasant jumped in his chest as he observed her discomfort. He could not help himself.
"Maybe for my parents' generation. This is all because of the stupidImpleoedict. Draco gets offered a place at the Dark Lord's table, and I've been reduced to nothing but a broodmare. Fucking Dark Lord and his antiquated ideals."
"Best mind your tongue, Ms Parkinson." He leaned toward her as his eyes darted from side to side. "You never know who might be listening."
A blush touched her porcelain features briefly as she nodded, eyes to the floor. "Yes, of course, Sir. I meant nothing against the Dark Lord."
"I will assume it was nothing more than an emotional outburst. And Mr Malfoy is exaggerating his importance as he has been known to do." His jaw tightened as he took in the almost imperceptible shift of emotions beneath her cold demeanor. Her ideals were not wholly tainted by Death Eater influences. Interesting, as she hid it so well most of the time.
He placed a hand on her shoulder, thumb brushing her collarbone. "Do not lower yourself, Pansy. You are a Slytherin, a Prefect, member of the Sacred Twenty Eight, and a very talented witch in your own right. I pity anyone who underestimates you." He let his hand rest on her a moment longer. It had been far too long since he'd had physical contact with anyone that he now found it difficult to end it.
She smiled, and her body softened beneath his touch. "Thank you, Professor."
He pulled his hand away, flashes of his vulgar dreams in his mind. "Now go to bed."
She held up the letter as she stood and moved toward the exit. "I didn't see your name on this list." She winked before closing the door behind her.
He stared after her, a groan stuck in his chest. He could certainly expect more salacious dreams if he ever found sleep again.
Pansy leaned outside Professor Snape's door and sighed as she rubbed her temples. Perhaps he was softening toward her. He was not one to dole out compliments, and she'd received several in succession. She could still feel the warmth of his hand upon her shoulder and yet a not unpleasant shiver passed through her. She suppressed a groan. She was supposed to be seducing him, not the other way around.
She forced herself to move from the entryway of the Headmaster's chambers as she considered her next move. She was a Slytherin, a Prefect, and member of Sacred Twenty Eight, and a very talented witch in her own right. Headmaster Severus Snape would do well not to underestimate her. The next time she encountered him, she would make sure the Headmaster noticed her other assets as well. Next time they crossed paths, she would be in control.
As she sat through a lecture on the risks of Muggle infiltration into the magical world and the danger of muggle-borns possessing magic, she plotted her next move. She would need to catch the Headmaster off guard. Was that even possible? It was Snape after all. Everyone suspected he used Legilimency on the students and with the tools of Headmaster at his disposal, there was likely not much he didn't know about the happenings of Hogwarts.
Pansy tapped her fingers on her desk. No more coyness and innuendo; she would just have to be bold; make her intentions clear. She would set herself out on a silver platter for the taking of the Headmaster. But how? She certainly couldn't walk into the Headmaster's Office wearing nothing but lingerie under her robes, could she? She chewed her lower lip as she daydreamed of just such an encounter. Literally stripping before him probably was not a wise move, but if he truly possessed legilimency skills, maybe she didn't need to. She'd had enough indecent thoughts alone in her bed recently to make even a lewd man blush.
"Pay attention, Parkinson!" Professor Alecto Carrow slapped a hand on Pansy's desk. "This is important."
"Of course it is, Professor," Pansy mumbled as she clenched her teeth, holding back the urge to add a snarky comment about how she was only here because it was compulsory; a professor as incompetent as she could not have students any other way.
As luck would have it, Pansy had an opportunity to test her legilimency theory in the great hall that evening at dinner. She selected a seat nearest the head table, nodding to the Headmaster as she sat. Taking small, deliberate bites of her dinner, she watched Professor Snape, attempting to catch his eye, ignoring the chattering of her housemates around her. She slowly chewed as she pulled upon her own fantasies and personal experiences to design a lustful scene.
They met in the potions store room after curfew but not to sort ingredients as she had done in years past. Headmaster Snape, dressed in his usual frock coat and robes, locked the door behind them and turned as the silencing charm fell over them. With her back against the sliding ladder, she dragged her wand down the front of her school robe, the buttons falling free to reveal a lacy Slytherin green bodysuit with a plunging neckline and nothing else. Without a word, he reached for her and ran his fingers down her flanks, a look of appreciation in his dark gaze, lust in his eyes.
She dropped her robes into a puddle at her feet as she climbed the first rung of the ladder with a wicked smile. She ran her wand down the line of buttons of the headmaster's frock coat exposing his skin to her. Tracing her fingertips over his sinewy chest, she hummed her approval as he stepped closer.
As she was about to mentally undress her long-time professor and imagine his hidden assets, their eyes met across the great hall. She smiled, running the images through her thoughts as she slipped a fresh strawberry from her pudding into her mouth, its sweet juices coating her tongue.
She reached for his belt, loosening it as he took hold of either breast, massaging through the rough lace sending tingles to her core. She dipped her hand into the front of his trousers and traced her fingers over his growing flesh before stretching against the ladder and flicking her wand to evanesce away her lingerie looking down at her own nude form.
As she was about to take her fantasy to the next stage, the Headmaster appeared to clear his throat and look away from her stare. She continued to play out visions of his long fingers toying with her nipples and caressing down her flanks as she watched the dark wizard stand from the head table and excuse himself.
Severus Snape left the great hall as his long black robes billowed in his wake, and Pansy giggled. Millicent glanced over at her with her brows raised as Goyle twisted his face in a more confused state than usual.
"What's up?" Millicent asked.
"Sorry. It's nothing. Just lost in my thoughts." And from the looks of it, she was not the only one.