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Daphne's fingers were almost bright red but Pansy knew that if she brought it up then her best friend, as stubborn as she was, would reiterate that she was not at all cold. Pansy knew that this was utter bullshit - it was freezing out there and Pansy herself was so cold she could no longer feel her toes, but Daphne was adamant that they were going for a walk and Pansy couldn't bring herself to say that she wanted to turn back. They needed to get as far away from Daphne's house as possible so that she could properly tell Pansy about everything that had happened with Adrian yesterday without anyone listening in.
So far neither of them had said anything. Pansy was too scared to ask if it had gone that badly. She knew that Adrian was no Theo, that he hadn't been in their friend group so they didn't even know him that well, but the fact that he hadn't made that big an impression on Pansy told her that he couldn't be that bad a person, right?
“Daffy?” Pansy had to break the silence - it was killing her. She needed to at least know that her best friend was okay even if she was still scared about the life that she was about to embark on. She would have to be an idiot to not be at least a little scared about where life was about to take her.
“He’s nice. I hate him because he’s nice.” Daphne gave a soft sigh. Pansy had tried to call her the night before but she hadn’t answered and Pansy had realised that she must have been exhausted. “I want to hate him because he’s terrible. I want to hate him but I like him.”
“That’s a good thing though?” Pansy didn’t want to point out that it wasn’t that long ago that Daphne was hoping that she would end up married to Theo - who was probably the nicest person that they knew. There couldn’t be anything wrong wth being married to another genuinely nice guy, could there?
“Yeah, I guess so. I just… I... I guess I just wanted a reason to resent him going into this. I wanted a reason to be angry at him but as much as he doesn’t want to be forced into this relationship with me, he said he’s going to support me, that’s he gong to support my baby.” Daphne continued to walk, not even looking at Pansy as she walked, but Pansy didn’t mind. She knew that Daphne was dealing with a lot - they both were. “We’ll raise the baby as if it’s his, our parents have already arranged all the paperwork so there’s not even any wriggle room for us to have our own contracts drawn up. I guess whatever we agree on above what they’ve had arranged for us will just be on good faith.”
“You can be annoyed at them then? For taking all of the control out of your hands.” Pansy suggested. She knew how much it had meant to Daphne to be able to blame someone for the shitty way in which she was being treated. Part of her said that Daphne only had herself to blame but she told that voice in the back of her head to shut up. She wasn’t going to be the person who slut-shamed her best friend.
“Yeah, I guess so.” She whispered and Pansy reached to take her hand, to try to offer her some sort of comfort though Pansy had a feeling that Daphne wasn't going to be all that susceptible to comfort. She wanted to be angry and Pansy was aware that the only way that she could help just then was to maybe let her be mad at her. Pansy didn't think that she could do that though, she had this need to be liked and that extended to her best friend. "I just…" Daphne shook her head as she trailed off. She coughed to clear her throat before she started again. "I draw the line at taking his name though. There is nothing on this earth that will make me be Mrs Pucey. What even is a Pucey?"
"Isn't Puce a colour?" Pansy asked, sort of glad of the slight change of subject but also wondering why exactly they had changed to talk about something so trivial.
"Oh, you could be right… maybe I should take it, smush it with my own. We could be the Pucegrasses." She managed a laugh, though it was hollow. Pansy didn't join her, the sound had made her stomach twist in a way that made her want to throw up.
"I don't think I could get used to that, and I think the colour green suits you." Pansy told her, giving her hand a small squeeze. The two of them fell into silence as they continued to walk and Pansy wondered if she could somehow steer her friend back towards the house somehow without her noticing. Pansy could be sneaky when she wanted to be and she was hoping that Daphne wasn’t perceptive enough today to notice what she was doing.
“You’re right. I was born a Greengrass and I’ll die a Greengrass.” Daphne hummed, her fingers squeezing Pansy’s hand back after they’d been walking for a little while. It seemed that the girl hadn’t realised where Pansy was taking them. “The baby will be a Pucey though. Its entire life is already mapped out… I… I have no say in my baby’s future, except I might be able to name it.”
Pansy knew exactly what it was like to have your life mapped out for you, it was exactly why they were in this awful situation in the first place. She had hoped that they wouldn’t force their own children into anything like this but it seemed that Daphne didn’t have a choice in that either. Pansy felt sick but she knew that she couldn’t say anything. Daphne was upset enough and she couldn’t be the one to make matters so much worse. None of this was fair on Daphne, let alone her unborn child.
She didn’t know what to say, whether she should comfort Daphne more, though she’d been doing a terrible job of that so far, or if she should maybe distract her with a different topic. She opted for the latter, hoping that she could at least say or do something that would stop Daphne from going into a spiral, even though her best friend was completely entitled to spiral, but she didn’t think that it was at all going to help but to go into that spiral, especially not out here in the freezing cold.
“Do you have any names picked out?” She asked softly, deciding that this was the best way to distract Daphne as they made their way back to the house. It was perhaps the only part of her life, of the baby's life that she was going to have any sort of control of and even though she knew that Daphne wasn't exactly excited to be parent, she knew that that was likely to change the more that she got to know the child that was growing in her belly.
"I'm kinda convinced that it's a boy so I guess I've only really thought of boys' names... I like the name Ares, and the name Zephyr has a ring to it, don't you think?" She hummed and Pansy couldn't help but smile at the look that had appeared in Daphne's eye. It wasn't one that Pansy had seen there before but it was one that told her that in the long run, Daphne was going to be okay.
"Not at all names I expected you to like." Pansy admitted. They were ones that went with pureblood tradition and she had thought that they were above that, that they were going to start breaking down expectations and traditions, but it didn't matter. It felt right and that was what mattered, that things felt right for Daphne and her baby. If things felt right then maybe they would have a chance to feel safe and it wouldn't at all matter that their lives had been mapped out for them.
"And what names did you expect me to like?" Daphne asked, an eyebrow raised in bemusement. "Or more to the point, what names have you had chosen for my child from the moment you found out I was pregnant?"
Pansy laughed at that and shook her head feverently. "I swear to you, I haven't had any names picked out. I don't even have names for my own children picked out." She told her, though she knew that that was exactly true. She had entertained the thought of having a child, a son with Neville and she had considered naming that child after Neville (though something a little more modern with the same meaning would probably be better if she were to attempt to modernise her life) but that was going to be shelved for now. She couldn't begin to entertain thoughts of a child with her beloved when she first had to carry the heir for the Nott lineage.
She was at least safe in the knowledge that when the time came to name her and Theo's child it was going to be a mutual decision and she wasn't going to be forced into naming them after a star system like she would have had her family tried to force her into a marriage with Draco. There was nothing wrong with those sorts of names, but she wanted to have the chance to choose a name because she liked it, not because she was being forced into using it.
"Well then you can safely brainstorm with me in case this little wriggler is a girl. I won't feel as if I'm stealing a name from you then." Daphne said softly as Pansy opened up the front door, glad that they had made it back to the warmth and glad that they had made it back in better spirits. Daphne certainly seemed better prepared to face the world - and better prepared to face her mother.
The Greengrass matriarch was out for the afternoon, something about tea with the ladies, Pansy had only been half-listening when her own mother had told them where they were going. There was something stomach turning about a group of vile women having lunch together, no doubt plotting more ways to screw up the lives of the children that they supposedly only loved.Pansy couldn't remember the last time she had felt as if her mother loved her, let alone the last time that she had heard her say it, and somehow she suspected that Daphne felt the same way. Her mother had not only sold her but had sold her unborn child as well.
"Hot chocolate?" Pansy suggested as the pair of them headed straight for the kitchen, ignoring the house elf who had appeared as soon as they had stepped foot inside. It wasn't that Pansy didn't like house elves, it was that the Greengrass' was particularly annoying. Usually Daphne ordered him to stay in his room but it was too late now. He'd heard the words 'hot chocolate' and he had disapparated ahead of them.
"Sounds perfect." Daphne smiled though she changed their course and lead them into the living room and suddenly Pansy understood better just why she had allowed for the house elf to go ahead of them - she wanted to be by the fire. Pansy couldn't and wouldn't blame her for that one - they were both frozen solid and she didn't think that could be good for Daphne at all.
The two of them settled down beside the fire, Daphne lying on the fluffiest rug that you could have ever imagined, her head on Pansy's lap. Pansy carded her fingers through her best friend's hair. She knew that she was incredibly lucky to have her best friend back in her life, even if the circumstances for her return weren't the best.