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"Pansy, I'm telling you, with all that we've put Granger through, you might as well just give up," Blaise said, flipping a page of his book as he talked to his best friend.
"But she's so pretty, not to mention everything she is and does is perfect! I can't just not try!" Pansy groaned, laying her head back onto Blaise's lap.
"Well you could always try.. y'know.. being a nice person?" Blaise suggested, still not looking up from his book.
"That's a brilliant idea, babes! I'll just get better and then woo her with my brilliant romantics!" She said, sitting up and rushing to scribble some stuff down on some spare parchment.
(The parchment)
ℌ𝔬𝔴 𝔱𝔬 𝔴𝔬𝔬 ℌ𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔢
-𝔅𝔢 𝔑𝔦𝔠𝔢 𝔱𝔬 ℌ𝔢𝔯
-ℌ𝔢𝔩𝔭 𝔥𝔢𝔯 𝔴𝔥𝔢𝔫 𝔰𝔥𝔢 𝔫𝔢𝔢𝔡𝔰 𝔦𝔱
_____
"Harry, I'm just saying, Regulus needs to be careful, and Pandora as well, those potions experiments can be dangerous," Hermione said, not looking up from her parchment.
"Yeah, they should, but they're fine so far, are they not?" Harry countered, not looking up from his game of checkers he was playing with Ron that his dad, James, had gotten him for his birthday.
Hermione sighed.
"Well, just tell them I would like for them to be more careful," she said.
"Who?" Ginny said, sitting down and grabbing a piece of toast.
"Regulus and Pandora," Ron replied without a second thought.
"With their experiments? Yeah they probably should be careful," Ginny agreed, spreading some jam on her toast.
"Who? Mum and Reg?" Luna asked, sitting down beside her girlfriend.
Ginny nodded, not wanting to talk through her mouthful of toast.
_____
"Pansy, don't break your quill," Draco said, pointing out the fact her knuckles were white, she was clutching her quill so hard.
"What? Oh, yeah," she said, loosening her grip on it and setting it down on the table.
"Care to tell me why you were aggressively holding your quill and staring at Granger and Weasley?" Draco asked, closing his book and looking at her with his eyebrow quirked.
"Nothing, Dray, it's fine," she replied, looking at her list she made that was crumpled up in her fist.
"I'll be back," she said suddenly, not giving Draco a chance to ask her where she was going, and walking towards Hermione and Ron.
"Hey, Granger," she said, stopping in front of the two.
"Parkinson," she replied cooly, not knowing why the Slytherin girl wanted to talk.
"Sorry to bother you, just needed some help with McGonagall's homework, I don't wanna fail my O.W.L.s," Pansy continued.
It wasn't a lie, she did need help with her transfiguration homework but she really just wanted to get Hermione's attention at that moment.
"Oh," Hermione said taken aback. "Well we can set up a time sometime tonight if you'd like."
"Yeah, sounds good, just send me a note," Pansy said, smiling.
"Oh," Hermione said, an idea striking her. She pulled what appeared to be a galleon out of her bag and handed it to Pansy. "This isn't a real galleon, it'll burn when I put a date on this one." Hermione held up an identical fake galleon.
"Alright, I'll make sure to keep this on me," Pansy said. "Thanks, Granger."
"Anytime, Parkinson," Hermione said, smiling at her. Pansy quickly turned away, face red as a cherry, and picked up her bag from her and Draco's table before heading off to lunch.
_____
"Harry, did you really find a way to get your iPod to work?" Hermione asked, astonished. Electronics weren't supposed to work at Hogwarts.
"Yeah, the charms are really old and easy to bypass," Harry replied quickly.
"Can you help me, then? It would help me a lot to be able to just text my parents instead of owling them," she asked.
"Yeah, just hand me your phone," he replied, Hermione immediately digging her phone out of her bag and handing it to Harry.
"I'm not even gonna ask," Ron said, sitting down beside Hermione. "Any idea why Parkinson was acting odd earlier?"
Hermione shook her head.
"No but she just wants help with her homework, there's nothing wrong with that," she replied.
"Yeah well, just be careful, Hermione," Ron said, taking a bite of his cookie he'd had.
"Yeah I will Ron, don't worry. And speaking of, I need to give her the time," she continued, pulling the fake galleon out of her pocket and transfiguring it to send the message to Pansy.
_____
Pansy just felt a burning sensation in her pocket and remembered the fake galleon.
This must be what she meant by burning, she thought. She picked it up and glanced at it.
Alright, seven thirty it is, Pansy said. She sent a note flying across the Great Hall at dinner to let Hermione know she got her message.
𝔊𝔬𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔫𝔬𝔱𝔢, 𝔪𝔢𝔢𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔞𝔱 𝔰𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔱𝔶
-𝔓𝔞𝔫𝔰𝔶
Hermione did get the note and sent one back.
𝒢𝓇ℯ𝒶𝓉, 𝓈ℴ ℐ 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓈ℯℯ 𝓎ℴ𝓊 𝒶𝓉 𝓈ℯ𝓋ℯ𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓇𝓉𝓎
-ℋℯ𝓇𝓂𝒾ℴ𝓃ℯ
𝒫.𝓈. 𝓎ℴ𝓊𝓇 𝒽𝒶𝓃𝒹𝓌𝓇𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃ℊ 𝒾𝓈 𝓇ℯ𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓅𝓇ℯ𝓉𝓉𝓎 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌ℯ 𝒸ℴ𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓉ℯ𝓍𝓉 𝒾𝒻 𝓎ℴ𝓊 𝓀𝓃ℴ𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶 𝒸ℯ𝓁𝓁 𝓅𝒽ℴ𝓃ℯ 𝒾𝓈.
𝓂𝓎 𝓃𝓊𝓂𝒷ℯ𝓇 𝒾𝓈 ______
-ℋℯ𝓇𝓂𝒾ℴ𝓃ℯ
_____
Pansy glanced around nervously. She'd never been to the Room of Requirement.
"Parkinson," Hermione greeted, coming up behind her, walking past the wall three times and allowing a door to appear.
"You okay?" Hermione asked, opening the door and gesturing for Pansy to walk inside.
"Yeah, I'm okay, I've just never been here," she replied, walking into the room.
Hermione quirked an eyebrow.
"And I don't know what a cell phone is nor do I have one," she said, sitting down on the sofa.
"Mhm, so I'll help with your homework first and then I'll help you learn how to work a phone and then we can buy you one during break, okay?" Hermione said, figuring it wouldn't hurt to help Pansy.
"Thanks for the offer, Granger. Sounds good," Pansy said, smiling before getting her essay out.
"Also, call me Hermione. If I'm gonna help tutor you, might as well be on a first name basis," Hermione said.
"Only if you call me Pansy," the other girl replied.
"Alright then, Pansy," Hermione said. "Now about this homework?"
_____
"So what's up with you and that Weasley?" Pansy said as Hermione showed her how to use social media.
"We broke up a while back, we're just for different people," Hermione replied. "Why?"
"Nothing, just curious, you just haven't been very lovey-dovey for a while so I figured I'd ask," Pansy went on.
"Yeah, that's fair," Hermione said. "Now, click this and we can take a picture to post."
_____
"We're on a first name basis!" Pansy said to Blaise, squealing as she ran into the common room.
"Oh? Who are we talking about? Granger?" He asked, looking up. She'd come up with the plan two weeks ago, he was expecting this to take a bit longer.
At least a month.
"And you'll never guess what else," she said, collapsing and laying her head on his lap as he flipped through his book.
"What else?" He said, holding in a laugh.
"Her and Weasley broke up!"
"Bullshit!" Theodore said, popping his head up as Blaise looked at her shocked.
"No fucking way," he said, a grin popping onto his face.
"We've got chances, babes!" She said, an identical grin on her face.
"That we do," he said as they high-fived.
"Do you know if Longbottom is single?" Theodore asked her.
She nodded.
"He is. Better jump in, though, I hear Hannah Abbott wants to ask him out," she said. Theodore immediately sprinted out of the common room, followed by laughter from Pansy and Blaise.
_____
"Did you hear Nott asked Neville out?" Hermione said as soon as she walked into the Room of Requirement.
Pansy looked up and grinned.
"What'd Longbottom say? I was the one who put Theo on the trip last night," she replied, grinning.
"One, he said yes, you should've heard the rants he'd been on. And two, why'd Nott even want to ask him out?"
"God, the rants Theo's been on are the main things I've heard from ranters in my house, and I'm one of the ranters, mind you," Pansy said, exhaling quickly.
"Oh? What do you rant about?" Hermione asked sitting down on the sofa beside Pansy.
"Homework. Draco refuses to help me," Pansy said, rolling her eyes in an exaggerated manner.
"Ah, well what'd you tell Nott to get him to run up to Neville and just ask him while he wheezed for air?" Hermione asked, looking as if she was trying to hold in her laugh at the image.
"I told him Abbott was planning on asking Longbottom out," Pansy replied. "Which is true, my dealer is her best friend."
"You got some? My dealer is Neville but he's out, the plants haven't finished growing yet," Hermione asked.
"Obviously, I carry it everywhere to prevent getting in trouble," Pansy replied, pulling a bag of marijuana out of her bag with some rolls.
_____
"You're high as fuck, what were you and Granger doing?"
"Smoking. Duh."
"Granger smokes?"
"Yep."
"Who's her dealer? I know yours is Zacharias."
"Neville. She said his plant's gotta finish growing. He's a big supplier around here," Pansy said, collapsing on the sofa, her head in Blaise's lap like usual.
"Well- wait- Neville? Since when have you not called him Longbottom?" Blaise asked.
"I don't know, I'm high as a kite."
"And where's that saying from?"
"Muggle saying."
"You're hopelessly in love, aren't you?"
"Absolutely."
_____
"Okay but men are a lot better than women to me, 'Mione," Harry said, Ron nodding in agreement.
"Nah, women are but I will say, men are good," Hermione replied.
"True," Ron agreed, nodding and fist bumping the curly brunette.
"Women are better, babes," Pansy said, plopping down at the table beside Hermione.
"Pansy, what are you doing?" Hermione said, fighting back a laugh.
"Draco is sick, Theo is shagging Neville or something of that nature and Blaise is studying in the library and he said I distract him," Pansy said, rolling her eyes.
"Do you just.. not have friends-?" Harry asked before being cut off by Hermione giving him a sharp look.
"The library, you said?" Ron asked quickly, not waiting on Pansy to respond before running off.
"Ah," Pansy said, knowingly. "He'll end up happy, Blaise talks more about him than anything."
"Oh?" Harry said quirking up his eyebrow.
"Yeah, it's almost non stop. Sometimes I think he can be a seer," she said before snatching a sandwich off of Hermione's plate and taking a bite of it.
"Really, Pans?"
"What d'you mean, 'Mione?" She said, smirking before taking another bite.
"Oh my Merlin, you're crazy, Pans," Hermione said, smiling and shaking her head as she turned back to her book.
"God, you're like Blaise with the books."
"It's 'Mione, what do you expect?" Harry said, laughing.
"True, true," Pansy replied, taking another bite of her sandwich.
_____
"Pansy!!" Blaise called out, running up to Pansy in the courtyard.
"What?" Pansy asked as he stopped beside her. She was sitting beside Hermione and laying her head on the curly haired girl's shoulder, looking over and reading with Hermione.
"You'll never guess!" He said, sitting down quickly.
"Ron ask you out?"
"How'd you know?"
"The moment I said you were in the library, he ran off to the library."
"Oh."
"Yeah. Well, how'd he ask? I need to know, babes!"
_____
"Pansy, your phone's come in! The owl just delivered it to the window as I was about to leave!" Hermione said, pulling a box out of her purse and handing it to Pansy.
"Dope! Thanks, 'Mione. Oh! Reminds me, I've got a Christmas present for you. Since you're leaving tomorrow, I wanted to give this to you!" Pansy replied, pulling a small box out of her bag and handing it to Hermione.
Hermione opened the box and was met with a beautiful bracelet. It looked like it was a personalized bracelet, too! Hermione loved it!
"Thank you, Pans! I love it!" She said, leaning over and hugging the other.
"I got a matching one," Pansy said and explained. "If you ever need help, just tap this charm with your wand and say the name of whoever you need."
"That's amazing! Oh! I meant to tell you, James and Regulus, Harry's parents, invited Ron, Ginny, Neville, Seamus, Dean and I and said we could invite one person each. Ron invited Blaise, duh, Neville invited Theo, Harry insisted on Malfoy coming and Luna is Harry's half-sister and they all live together so Ginny didn't invite anyone and I decided to invite you," Hermione said.
"I know this is last minute, I didn't mean to leave it that late, but yeah."
"I'd better go get packed, then, I wasn't planning on going home, my parents are away in Germany for business," Pansy said, standing up and stretching.
"I'll come help, it's the least I could do to help," Hermione said.
"I can't let you know the password," Pansy said.
"The passwords get changed every so often, don't they? Including after Christmas, and I can cover my ears if you want," Hermione reasoned.
Pansy caved.
"As long as you let me give you a Slytherin tie to help you blend," Pansy said.
"Well, that's fair, but what about my jumper? It's red on the edges."
"I've got a jumper in here somewhere," Pansy said digging into her bag for the two items.
Five minutes later, Pansy and Hermione were leaving the Room of Requirement with Hermione disguised as a Slytherin.
_____
"Bye, Harry," Draco said as Harry left the room.
"Bye Dray! See you tomorrow!" Harry called back, closing the door.
He knew Draco was sick and he decided to come help his boyfriend, though nobody knew it yet.
He intended to keep it that way but came face to face with Pansy and Hermione who were coming into the dungeons.
"Oh, Harry, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked him.
"Oh, 'Mione, hi, just visiting with Ron and Zabini. Ron refused to leave last night and I wanted to make sure he was okay."
"Now, I happened to have seen Weasley and Blaise walking around less than ten minutes ago. You sure you were here for them?" Pansy asked, knowing why he was truly down there.
The two weren't very inconspicuous.
Hermione just turned and looked at him, hurt he'd lied to her.
"Sorry, I have to keep that a secret. I've sworn it," Harry said, making a crossing motion over his chest.
"Okay but I want an explanation later, Harry," Hermione said.
"Wait why are you down here and in a Slytherin uniform?"
"Helping Pansy pack, she's not packed yet."
"Oh okay, have fun you two!" Harry said before taking off down the hallway.
_____
"And that's the last thing!" Hermione said, collapsing on Pansy's bed.
"I've got booze. Want some?" Pansy asked, popping open one of her bottles of firewhiskey.
"Absolutely," Hermione said grabbing a bottle, opening it and taking a swig.
"Good shit, this is," Pansy said, sitting down beside Hermione with her bottle, drinking from it slowly.
_____
"Come on, Pans, it's time to go!" Blaise said, shaking her awake.
"I'm up, I'm up!" She said, groaning as she sat up and stretched.
Hermione was laying beside her, with her arm over her legs, still sleeping.
"Why's Granger in your bed?"
"We were drinking after we finished packing and we must've fell asleep."
"Okay then, babes. Now come on, get her up so we can get her stuff and go," Theo said, levitating Pansy's trunk after appearing out of nowhere.
_____
The moment Regulus and James apparated the group to the Potter estate, Euphemia, Fleamont, Lily and Pandora ran out to greet them.
"Harry, I swear you've grown 5 centimetres since I've seen you last!" Euphemia said, hugging her grandson.
"Missed you, too, Grandma," Harry said, hugging her back. She let go and immediately pulled Luna into a hug.
"Hey, baby, you've also grown a bit since I've seen you!" She cooed at Luna, hugging her tighter.
"Hey, Grandma," Luna said dreamily, having the dazed off look Pandora has more often than not.
"Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, nice to see you three again?" Euphemia said, smiling and beckoning them all into a hug.
"And you five, I haven't met you five yet!"
"Seamus Finnigan, Mrs. Potter!" Seamus said, being pulled into a tight hug.
"Don't call me that, just call me Effie!" She said warmly, letting go of the short boy.
"Dean Thomas," Dean said, also being pulled into a hug.
"Theodore Nott, but everyone calls me Theo!" He said, being the one to pull Effie into a hug.
"Pansy Parkinson, and may I say, Effie, you look not a day over 25," Pansy said, winking and laughing as she hugged Effie who was laughing hard.
"Reminds me of Marlene, she never fails to tell me that when I see her," Euphemia said, wiping her eyes that had welled with tears of laughter.
"Blaise Zabini, ma'am," he said, accepting her hug and squeezing her back as she hugged him.
"Draco Malfoy.." Draco said, head down, feeling out of place, but Effie just raised his head and gave him a hug, which he reciprocated.
"So you'd be Cissy's boy, correct?" Regulus asked.
Draco nodded.
"Tell her I said hi, then, she hasn't answered my owls in a while."
"I think father put the owls on strike, Aunt Bella went crazy and started pulling all the feathers out of them."
"Sounds about right," Regulus said, nodding.
_____
"Effie is so nice, and her food is so good!" Pansy said, collapsing on Hermione's bed.
The Potter estate was moderately sized compared to Malfoy Manor, the estate being twelve bedrooms, three being taken by James and Regulus, Effie and Monty, and Lily and Pandora.
Another one was Sirius and Remus' room, they'd be there soon after the teens.
One room was Peter, Barty and Evan's.
Room six was for Marlene and Dorcas.
Room seven was for Mary.
Two more being taken up by Harry and Luna, leaving the other three rooms for the rest of them to split.
Draco was bunking with Harry and Ginny was bunking with Luna.
Seamus and Dean snagged a room. Blaise, Ron, Theo and Neville took another and then Pansy and Hermione took the last room.
_____
Pansy woke up in a cold sweat.
She just had one of her nightmares and they were never a fun time.
She needed physical touch.
She needed to snap out of the headspace.
Without any further thought, she immediately got up and laid down in Hermione's bed.
"Pansy?"
"Sorry to wake you.. I just had one of my nightmares and the only way I can get out of the mindset is physical contact..," Pansy said, panicking at being caught.
Hermione just nodded.
"Harry used to have those, too," she said. "Come on, Pans, you look really shook up."
Pansh wasted no time crawling into Hermione's open arms, falling asleep almost the moment her head hit the pillow.
_____
Hermione yawned as she stretched and sat up. She looked over and Pansy wasn't in bed.
She just shrugged it off and got dressed for the day before being met at the door by Pansy.
"You're awake! Morning, anyways, I brought you your coffee, I went to the Starbucks with Harry, Neville and Theo," Pansy explained, holding out the Peppermint Mocha for Hermione.
"Oh, my favorite! Thank you, babes!" She said, taking a sip of the warm drink.
"Just what I needed. Now c'mon, I'm sure Effie's up now. Sirius and Remus should be here today," Hermione went on, leading Pansy down the stairs.
"Who's Sirius?"
"Regulus' brother, James' best friend," Hermione said as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Who, Padfoot?" James asked as he and Regulus walked down, James energetic and Regulus looking exhausted.
"Yeah. You okay, Reg?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah I'm good, 'Mione. Thanks for the concern, I'm just tired," he replied with a yawn.
"Want some coffee?" Hermione said, offering some of her coffee to Regulus.
"What kind?"
"Peppermint Mocha."
Regulus was a slut for the Peppermint Mocha.
He immediately grabbed the cup and took a long gulp from it.
Refilling the cup, he handed it back to Hermione.
"Thanks 'Mione, you're a lifesaver."
"Anytime, Reg," she replied.
_____
Hermione was staring.
Not at just anyone.
But Pansy Parkinson.
She looked so pretty under the string lights around the walls.
Hermione couldn't think of anything but kissing her.
Trying to push the thoughts down, she kept acting normal through the days, but never being able to truly take her mind away from the other girl.
_____
Pansy acted as if she didn't notice.
But she saw the longing looks Hermione gave her.
She was so happy!
Maybe she had a chance with the beautiful brunette after all!
_____
Hermione couldn't hold it back any longer come New Year's Eve.
Pansy was looking ethereal under the moonlight as they counted down to midnight.
The moment it struck midnight, Hermione snatched Pansy around and kissed her, Pansy in slight shock but eventually kissing back softly.
The world seemed to stop for hours.
But the world could wait.