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Pansy's back ached. She wanted to move, to stretch it, but she could feel her mother glaring at her from across the room and so instead she had to sit stock still on a stool with Theo's had rested upon his shoulder. How he had been able to stand for this long, she didn't know, but her mother had informed them both that it was a necessary evil in order to get their engagement portrait done. Pansy had wanted to point out just how dated it was to get a portrait painted nowadays, but she decided against that, deciding just to leave her mother to it. The less that she upset her mother, the less likely that she was to poke around in their relationship and in Pansy's personal life.
Pansy knew that her mother wasn't stupid. She would know that there was someone else in Pansy's life, but as long as she played along and did exactly as she was told, her mother wouldn't want to know the name of the man that Pansy was seeing. She wouldn't want to be complicit in a scandal, nor would she want to know anything about Theo's personal life. This was a marriage of convenience for both their families and it would continue both their bloodlines and that was all that Verbena Parkinson cared about.
"And finished." The painter, Dean Thomas, a friend of Neville's announced as he turned the portrait around to face the couple. Pansy had to avoid eye contact with him. She hadn't told any of Neville's friends about her relationship with either Neville or Theo, and she knew that the man would be judging her, and quite rightly so. "I'll send my bill by owl." Dean said as he stood up when no-one spoke.
"Thank you. It looks great." Theo strode across the living room and clasped Dean's hand with his own. A warmth filled Pansy's chest, one that she didn't think that she would be able to explain if anyone asked her about it. They lived in a different world now. Dean was a Gryffindor, and a half-blood at that, and once upon a time he would have been the exact person that she and Theo would have made fun of.
Dean seemed to appreciate the change as well, his expression softening as he shook Theo's hand. "If you need anything else, let me know.
"We'll be in touch." Pansy's mother's tone was clipped, but that was just the way that she spoke to everyone, especially lately.
"Thanks Dean." Pansy said quietly as she decided that she should finally be allowed to move from the stool. She stretched out as she stood up and let out a small noise as she cracked her back. The look she got from her mother when she straightened up again was not exactly a nice one, but she tried to shake it off.
She dismissed herself when the ex-Gryffindor left and headed through to the kitchen, not particularly caring if Theo followed her or not. Now that their portrait sitting was over, he was free to go after all. He did however follow after her and stood leaning against the doorframe. Pansy could see him out of the corner of her eye as she got herself a glass of water.
"Can I help you?" She asked without bothering to turn around. They didn't spend time together in her house for a reason - and that reason was her mother - so if he wanted to talk to her then this really wasn't the place to do that. She did also enjoy winding him up though, and she wasn't going to miss out on the chance to do that now.
"Just wondering if we could have a chat? My place, tonight?" Pansy had to appreciate the way that he worded it. If her mother had been listening in then there was a chance that sheight just have been fooled into thinking that there actually was something going on between them.
"Sure." Pansy nodded as she glanced over her shoulder at him and gave him a small smile. She wanted to know that he was okay, but she also knew that he probably wouldn't want to go into detail while in the Parkinson home.
Theo had wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head in the next moment. She wasn't used to such from him, but she wasn't going to question or refuse it either. It all bode well with them having to spend the rest of their life together, after all.
"I'll see you later." He said softly before he left the kitchen. A few moments later Pansy heard the pop of him apparating away. She shook her head slightly as she picked up her glass again and took a sip. She wasn't going to let herself obsess over what he needed to talk about, but at the same time she knew that it was going to be a niggling worry at the back of her mind until she went round there.
Keeping herself busy for the remainder of the afternoon was her new plan, though she didn't exactly know what to keep herself busy with as she finished off her glass of water and then headed back through to the living room. Her mother was still in there, waving her wand as she fixed the portrait to the wall. Pansy stared up at the painting of herself for a moment, watching as the renderings of herself and her fiancé avoided eye contact with each other.
Pansy chewed on her lip for a moment before she looked away, only to be met with her mother's gaze, her mother who didn't look at all pleased that she wasn't still with Theo, or at least that was what Pansy assumed was the problem. She glanced away before she had the chance to crumble under her mother's stern gaze. She hated the power that her mother still had over her, but she also knew that her mother had been her idol while she was growing up. She had always wanted to be as intimidating as Verbena Parkinson and she realised now that that was probably the main reason that she had never thought to question the whole arranged marriage thing earlier. Her mother and father were in one, which meant that she was the product of one, so they couldn't all be bad, could they?
"Pansy." Her mother's voice was dry - she had never really been a warm person, but that had never bothered Pansy before. She was the sort of person that didn't need to be coddled after all and she knew that was because she had been brought up in such a way. "You've been plotting something with him." It wasn't a question but a statement that Pansy knew that she couldn't argue with. "Whatever it is, it better not besmirch either of our family names."
"It won't." Pansy said quietly. She fully intended to live a double life; one that the papers and the other purebloods that her mother was so concerned about upsetting would see, and another that she would actually be able to enjoy with the love of her life there by her side. She didn't care about much else, not even that her mother was starting to cotton on to the fact that she had gone into this engagement a little too easily. "We're getting married and we will provide an heir." She added as she turned away to cast her eyes out the window and into the grounds. She wanted to reassure her mother that she wasn't going to ruin all of her plans, but she also wished that her mother would actually care about her own daughter's happiness every once in a while.
The room fell silent and without looking Pansy knew that her mother had in fact left now. The atmosphere had completely changed, almost as if all of the air had returned to the room. A wave of relief washed over Pansy. Her mother knew that her marriage to Theo wasn't going to be a conventional one - or at least she had her suspicions - but she hadn't pressed her. Pansy couldn't help but be glad that her mother wasn't going to ask her any more questions, but then she supposed that her mother would much rather have her hands clean if a scandal were going to come of this.
Pansy rested her forehead against the glass and let the coolness of it run down her spine. The last week or so was starting to catch up with her and she could feel herself starting to spiral. But there wasn't time for that. She didn't have time to feel sorry for herself, not when she was all too aware that both Neville and Theo had it much worse than her and they were both counting on her to keep it together.
She pulled in a deep breath as she will herself to pull herself back together and then pushed herself away from the window. Busy. She needed to keep busy and for that she needed to head on out to the small greenhouse she had at the end of the garden. It wasn't anything like Neville's, but it was a good place to spend a couple of hours when she didn't want to have to think.