Chapter Text
“I’m back.”
Ten-year old Pansy Parkinson called out as she entered her home with her mother. She carried a stuffed bag in each hand, while her mother carried even more with her. She wasn’t expecting a response, but-
“Welcome back.”
Her father stepped out, pushing up his spectacles. Even in the house, he was wearing a collared shirt and a necktie. Pansy’s eyes widened, and she dropped her bags before rushing to envelop him in a crushing hug.
“Father! You’re home!”
Father and daughter giggled, and the father ruffled her hair. Pansy’s mother moved forward.
“Dear? You’re back already?”
“I got lucky today.” Mr. Parkinson smiled, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “A patient cancelled, so I was able to head home early today. Pansy, I’m really sorry I couldn’t go to Diagon Alley with you.”
“It’s okay! I know you’re busy, Father! Look, look, it’s my new wand!”
Pansy dived into her bag and rustled through one, then the other before emerging with a long thin box. She opened it up and pulled out a wand.
“Unicorn hair, eight inches, cedar.” She tried to mimic Ollivander’s affected speaking before breaking out into a giggle. She then began to wave the wand around-
“Pansy!” Her father’s tone was sharp. “You can’t wave a wand around carelessly!”
“A-ah, I’m sorry, Father.”
“Your mother and I haven’t had the time to teach you about wands and magic thoroughly.” Father shook his head. “I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s okay.” Pansy nodded. “I’ll learn fast, Father, I promise.”
“That’s my girl.” Her father gave her another hug. “You’re leaving on the Hogwarts Express in a week, right? I think I’ll be able to see you off. And maybe this week I can show you a little magic. I can teach you how to make sparks from your wand. Like fireworks.”
“Fireworks? Can you really do that?”
Her father reached into his clothes and pulled out his own wand.
“Making sparks in the house is dangerous.” He warned. “But-“
*Poof*
A puff of white smoke emerged from the wand. Then it formed into the shape of a sailing ship. The ship sailed through the air, around Pansy’s face. She giggled and tried to catch the ship with her hands, but it disappeared into nothing before she could.
“That was incredible, Father!”
Her father smiled at her before looking at Pansy’s mother. She smiled right back.
“I’ll make something now.” She had finished pulling objects and boxes from the bags and headed to the kitchen. “It’ll be nice for the three of us to eat together for a change. Dear, can you help Pansy put away her books and supplies?”
“Of course.”
A short while later, the three of them sat down to a potato and beef casserole. Pansy took a bite, then let out a delighted squeal and laughed in joy. She followed it up by taking a sip of water, before looking at what her father was drinking.
“Father? Is that beer?”
Her father nodded, looking at the glass mug.
“Dear.” Her mother frowned. “I have some proper dragon’s ale if you’d like instead of that stuff.”
“It’s one thing the Muggles get right.” Her father smiles. “It goes down smoother. After the number of drinking trips my coworkers have taken me on, I’ll admit I’ve gotten used to it.”
Her mother’s frown didn’t go away, and Pansy’s father focused on his daughter.
“I know it’s been quite some time since you’ve been able to go to Diagon Alley, Pansy. Did you see anything interesting?”
“Oh, yes!” Pansy nodded. “The wand shop was very interesting, and the textbooks look way more interesting than the Muggle ones. Oh, right! Mother, do you remember what happened to that one man?”
“Oh, goodness, that was dreadful.” Her mother nodded. “I wonder how that book slipped into the store. A man picked up a book from the shelf, opened it up, and it turned out it was cursed! He vanished in a puff of red smoke. I heard someone saying that he somehow ended up inside the pages of the book.”
“What a careless person.” Mr. Parkinson took another drink from his beer. “Probably another Muggle-born. They don’t understand the dangers and end up causing problems for the rest of us.”
“That’s true. Still, I hope he’ll be alright and learn his lesson. The staff had to call an Auror to dispose of the book. I’m sure they had to treat him at St. Mungo-“
Mrs. Parkinson suddenly stopped speaking. A chill fell over the room.
Every child learns that there are certain words you are not supposed to say. For Pansy Parkinson, there were two additional ones. Her mother had just said one of them.
“I-I’m sorry, dear.”
“It’s okay.” It was clear from Mr. Parkinson’s tone that it was not okay. “Just a slip of the tongue. I know I don’t like hearing-“
“Father?”
Pansy spoke up. There was a question she had pondered for much of her life. Her parents had told her that she could wait to hear the answer when she was older. But now she was older. She had her first wand, that meant something, right?
“Father, you’re a doctor, right? You save people’s lives.”
“Yes.” Her father nodded. “Yes, yes, I do.”
“But why do you work in a Muggle hospital instead of at St. Mungo’s?”
Her parents looked at each other. Then her mother turned to Pansy.
“I think you should get ready for bed, Pansy. You have a big day tomorrow-“
“Dear.” Her father finished the last of the beer. “I think it’s time. She should hear it.”
“Are you sure?”
Her father gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
“No. I’m not. But people might ask about it when she’s at Hogwarts. Now's probably the best time.”
He turned to his daughter.
“It’s very simple, Pansy. Working at a Muggle hospital pays a great deal more.”
“Do you like your job?”
The bitter smile widened.
“Jobs aren’t meant to be fun, Pansy. They’re something you have to do. To get money. And…I still need more money.”
“Because of Grandfather?”
That was the other word that was never to be said in her home. Would her father get mad at her? But he just nodded, though Pansy noted how he flinched.
“It’s okay, Pansy. Yes, it’s because of your grandfather. My father.”
Pansy had never met her grandfather. But as much her father hated talking about him, she knew a few details.
“He did bad things?”
“He ruined the family. He borrowed a lot of money and never paid it back. And even now, decades later, paying it back is very difficult. But it’ll be finished soon, and then we can truly build up the family again.”
That part sounded good at least. But there was something Pansy wanted to make sure about.
“Do you want to work at St. Mungo’s? In a Wizard hospital?”
“Pansy.” Her mother cut in. “Your father can answer that later-“
“Yes.”
Her father put an elbow on the table. Her father prized good manners. Good manners meant that you weren’t supposed to put elbows on the table.
“It’s disgusting. To work with syringe and scalpel instead of a wand. And the Muggles themselves? Do you know how many times I have to operate because they beat each other up? Or because they stab each other?
They’re barbarians. Clever barbarians, I'll admit that. We should pay more attention to their inventions. Arthur Weasley isn’t wrong about that. But he does it because he’s fascinated about them. They’re practically children in his eyes.
They’re children alright. Children with weapons that can destroy the world. Children who know no decency or morality. They’re dangerous and we do nothing about them.
And every year, more and more of them send their children to Hogwarts. They go to our schools, while knowing nothing of its history and culture. Why should we let them in? How are Muggles so arrogant as to take from something they never contributed towards?
But they have money. And so I have to dirty my hands every single day.”
He looked at one of his hands and glowered, before looking over at Pansy.
“I’m sorry, Pansy. Your father drank a little too much beer.”
He stood up.
“I think I’ll have time tomorrow to teach you, Pansy. You can tell me what you would like me to show you then. Have a good night.”
Pansy wished him a good night. Even as he left his room, he had never loosened or removed his tie. After he left, she turned to Mother.
“Mother? Is Father right about Muggles? Are they dangerous?”
Her mother nodded.
“I know you’re around Muggles at your state school.” She said quietly. “And some of them are good people. I get along with some of them at my work.
But Muggles are dangerous. You’ve done a very good job keeping your secret from them over these years. If they ever, ever knew what we were, they would harm us. Maybe not your schoolmates, but their parents definitely would.”
Pansy frowned. Keeping that secret had been hard. And in her years at school, she had almost always kept to herself. But she was a good girl.
Her parents worked hard. They had a hard life. She couldn’t make things more difficult for them. So she stayed quiet.
Pansy Parkinson stirred from her bed. It was the middle of the night.
“Toilet.” She murmured and sleepily got up. A little while later, she was returning from the bathroom when she heard a noise from the living room. No, two noises. They were her mother and father.
“Are you serious, dear?”
“Lucena, I don’t have a choice. It’s a city councilman. He has a condition. If I do this right, it’ll be a huge feather in my cap. The hospital chief will give me a promotion, maybe head surgeon-“
“We’re all supposed to go to Kings Crossing tomorrow, to see Pansy off. She was so excited to know that you were coming.”
“I KNOW THAT, ALRIGHT?!”
As Pansy peeked into the living room, her father was slouched in an armchair. Her mother sat in a sofa, just a few feet from him.
“I know that.” He said again resignedly. Then he looked up and saw Pansy.
“Pansy? Did I wake you up?”
Pansy shook her head. Her mother got up and went to her side.
“You have a big day ahead of you, Pansy. You've been practicing hard with your father over the past few days. You should get some rest-“
“No. Dear, I want to talk to Pansy. This is important. Maybe the most important thing I can tell her right now.”
Her mother looked back at her husband and nodded before stepping back. Pansy walked forward and sat down on the sofa, in the spot her mother had been sitting at. It was still warm.
“Father?” She asked. “Are you not coming with us tomorrow?”
“I’m sorry.” Her father shook his head. “It’s important business. I have to leave in an hour, and the surgery and preparation will take several hours. But there’s something I need to tell you. I was going to do this when we were at the Hogwarts Express, but…”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“Pansy. You know that our family has been magic for a long time.”
“About 200 years, right?”
“Closer to 250. To be a Parkinson is to be proud of magic. And its power. Once, we were one of the most successful and important families in the Wizarding World. But your…”
He hesitated. And Pansy realized what word he was struggling to say.
“Grandfather?”
“Your grandfather, my father ruined everything. He was stupid, he was arrogant, he was obsessed with foolish dreams and never thought of the consequences.”
“What sort of dreams?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Her father shook his head. “But everything was ruined when he died. I grew up in a small room, shared with other Muggle children. Their fathers were coal miners. I can still recall the dust, the smell, and the disgusting food.”
This was a part of her father’s past that he had never told her.
“I worked. I studied. And I worked some more. And in a few years, I’ll erase the last of my father’s debts and make sure money isn’t a problem. But…”
His face fell.
“Pansy. There’s another reason I hate working in a Muggle hospital.”
“What is it?”
“It’s shameful.”
“But you save lives!” Pansy all but shouted. “You help people. How is that shameful?”
“Because I work with Muggles. No, what’s worse is that I work for Muggles. I should be in St. Mungo’s. I should be helping my own kind, instead of saving Muggles from their own baseness and stupidity.
And now I’m going to go help one of the most important Muggles in this town.”
Pansy didn’t understand why it was shameful. Was helping people, even Muggles, really that bad? But her father continued before she could ask more questions.
“I can rebuild the family finances in my lifetime. But I cannot rebuild the family’s status. Pansy…only you can do it.”
“How?”
“By making friends. By making friends with the right people. I chose to focus on my career, and so was never able to make the right friends with the right wizards. They’ll speak to me as a fellow pureblood, but they look down on me. And it’s far too late for me to change that.
They might look down on you too, Pansy. But that’s okay. By being close to the right people, you can make the Parkinsons respected again. And you have a golden opportunity. Do you remember the Malfoy girl?”
Pansy blinked. She remembered. Her family had visited the Malfoy manor once. It was for some formal party, where she had to wear a pretty dress but wasn't allowed to have any fun.
The Malfoy girl was the only thing at the party she remembered. She had looked like a princess. Long blonde hair, a green ribbon attached to the back of her head, and a gorgeous silver dress. She had looked at Pansy, and Pansy out of instinct had bowed to her. That was it. They never spoke to each other.
“She’ll be joining Hogwarts this year. You’ll be in the same year. Pansy.”
His father stared at her, eyes blazing.
“I am sure you will be a Slytherin, just as I was, your mother was, and she will be. You must be friends with her. Agree with whatever she says. Do whatever she want. You must help her in any way possible. If we can gain the friendship of the Malfoys, then no one will look down on the Parkinsons. Do you understand?”
“I…”
She was shocked. There was nothing bad, of course, about making friends with people. And on top of that, her father wanted her to do it.
But something felt wrong about it. All of it. So she hesitated.
“Pansy.”
Her father without asking repeated the question. And this time, Pansy nodded.
“Good girl.” He said and then hugged her. “Thank you.”
She loved her father. He may have been ashamed of his work, but she was not. If he wanted to be proud of his name, then she should be too. If he wanted to make friends with the Malfoy family, then she should too.
And if he said that Muggles were different and worse than wizards, then surely she should feel the same way as well.