London Café - Pansy's Hideaway

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy apparated away from Hogsmeade, ending up somewhere in London. She glanced around for a second, rearranging her things in her arms before she turned and started down the street, attempting to look as inconspicuous as possible. A girl like Pansy walking alone through London at night wasn't ideal in the least, but what was there to do about it but keep going? Things began to look familiar as she wandered along, following turn after turn until she arrived on a street she hadn't seen since she was eight. Sighing with a faint smile of old memories stretching across her lips, she moved down the sidewalk past rows of doors. She moved along the white fronts with columns on their porches, looking longingly at the doors and front steps, but continuing past them. Only one or two still had their front lights on. She turned left when confronted with the dark brick building at the end of the street. She glanced at their doors as well, counting them as she passed in the shadows.



Around another corner, she slipped down an old alley. It was darker in here, and though the term 'alley' would make most people nervous, she had been here before, and she didn't ever feel threatened. Even though it was the middle of the night, it was familiar, and her destination wasn't far. There seemed to be a few people hanging out in the dark at the opposite end, but she stepped toward a double door with the light still on inside, restaurant signs sitting out front with the day's specials scrawled on in chalk. The door was cracked, so she pushed it open, looking around inside for someone.



Behind the long counter, an elderly woman was scrubbing a pot, cursing violently. Pansy smiled a little, walking up to her and trying to do so noisily, wary of taking her by surprise. It didn't work. Apparently the woman had deafened in her age, and she looked up at Pansy with a start. "Che cazzo fai!? Child!! Don't you know better than to sneak up on a woman like myself at such an hour! I'd have killed you, and ti sta bene, serves you right! What time is it anyway, mamma mia, two in the morning. The hell you doing in my cafe at this time?" While ranting, she had put down the pot and wiped her hands off, coming around to the other side of the counter to look at her. "Che bello, is it you? Little Pansy?" She laughed joyfully, reaching out and cupping Pansy's cheeks in her hands. "What are you doing here? Where is your family, eh?"

Pansy had been scared at first, all the shouting at her, but her smile returned once the woman recognized her. "Yeah, it's me, Mama Oresta. I'm alone though. Do you think... I know I haven't spoken to you in a long time, or come by, or anything, but do you think, maybe is there somewhere I could stay for a little while?" She put on her best innocent face, though it wasn't wholly on purpose. She was desperate, and this was her plan, though she hadn't gone so far as to tell the woman to eventually expect her to show up when she ran away. But, as expected, the woman smiled at her. "Of course, of course, I have a room and a bed for you, it is not much but it will do while you tell me what the hell you are doing on your own in London at this time of night! Mamma mia, child! Why are you here?" Pansy yawned, and readjusted her things in her arms. "Can't we talk about it in the morning, Mama? I can explain it all then, I promise." The woman agreed, and led her toward the back of the cafe, shooing her up a flight of stairs.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Finally settled into a makeshift bedroom after having helped the old woman put a bed together, Pansy sank down onto the it and dropped her bags on the floor. She sighed and looked around before resting her face in her hands for a moment. She quickly got up, busying herself with putting her things in different places so that she wouldn't get upset thinking about how she had finally really ran away. For now, she was just trying to make it a bit more homey. She rearranged a few of the stacks of books on the floor, making better paths across the room. She attempted to form something like furniture with some of them, at least creating shelves of space for her to keep different things of her own.



She looked around, finally somewhat satisfied with the result. The curtains on the high window over the bed were still open, and she stood up on the bed to reach up for them, tugging the old floral fabric together to close herself in. There was a large cork board on the wall behind the bed, half-filled with some different things the old woman had stuck there, but most of the space was occupied with empty tacks pressed into the cork. She figured she may as well put it to good use, and opened up her school bag to dig through, hoping to find some things to hang up.

She found a few things, a small Slytherin flag, a postcard or two from different places or from Hogsmeade, a silly picture of herself and Dee eating ice cream cones by the lake. Then she found a picture that made her stop and stare, sinking back into the bed and holding onto it with shaky fingers. It was one of her and Draco, from the start of the year on the Hogwarts Express. Back before all their fighting, and the violence, and the Death Eaters and all the shit they had put up with and made it through over the past months. His head was in her lap and he was talking to someone just out of sight, and she was looking down at him, her fingers playing in his hair. Mountains rolled past outside the window. Just as Pansy was about to make herself stop looking at it and hang it up somewhere to the side, Draco stopped talking to whoever he had been having a conversation with. Only for a moment, but still, there it was. He looked up at her, smiled a real genuine smile like he never gave to anyone else, and then turned back to continue what he was saying. A smug look had come over Pansy's face as she grasped a strand of his hair, holding it between her fingers and letting it fall back into place.



She could hardly look at it for very long, tears threatening to form and spill from her eyes the more she watched it, seeing him just talking, then looking up at her with a real smile, and talking some more. She wasn't sure who had taken it, most likely Scorpius, but she was thankful that the picture existed. A snapshot of their most innocent times this entire year, hers to keep forever even as she was far away from him, for good.

She hung it up in a top corner of the cork board, returning to her bag to find a few other pictures. One of her and Scorpius making faces at the camera as they ran from angry house elves in the kitchen, with stacks of chocolate chip pancakes in their hands. One of Draco and the rest of the Quidditch team goofing off in the common room after a win. One of her holding Toby, Draco shying away and looking quite repulsed on the couch behind her. One of her parents, smiling and waving at her, Daddy in his usual practical clothes, Mother in a hideous magenta gown. One of her and Blaise, apparently doing a late night of studying judging by the looks on their faces and the pile of books in front of them on the table. One of her and Max in the lounge, his tail wagging as he licked her face, knocking her to the floor. She bit her lip, putting that one by the picture of her and Draco, her two favorite boys in the world, the two she'd left behind at Hogwarts. Marco had agreed to take care of Max for a while unless Draco wanted him, just until Pansy could send for him once she found a place where she was allowed to keep a dog.

Eventually she grew tired and turned out the lights, collapsing in a physically, mentally, and emotionally drained heap on her little bed. She didn't have to change, already having been in her pajamas from where she had been in Draco's bed before leaving Hogwarts. She groaned and pulled a blanket up over her, shutting her eyes and falling asleep.

[Albus Severus Potter]

Is this the part where Al shows up?

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

TO RIDE OFF INTO THE SUNSET ON PONIES?!

[Albus Severus Potter]

WHY OF COURSE!

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Then yes, this is totally the part where Al shows up and wakes her and is like Pansy come on let's go be happy together forever with our horses and sunsets. <3

[Albus Severus Potter]

Well excuse me while he packs his bags and saddles up. <3

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Perfect <3

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

A few days had passed by now. The first few, Mama Oresta had let Pansy settle in, doing whatever she pleased and letting her keep to herself mostly, except for meal times. Then she was expected to join the woman downstairs to eat, and to explain herself. What she'd been up to for the past years, why she'd run away, what she planned to do now. Pansy told her everything, from the fights to the making up, to falling in love and to her parents letting her know that they had chosen her match. She told her how she had planned this out for over a year now, and finally the moment had come for her to leave. Draco deserved a life as good as he could have it, and she had to remove herself from that picture in order for it to happen. She wouldn't allow herself to be married off to some boy her parents picked, and she couldn't let Draco try and 'save her' from it by stealing her away and marrying her himself. It would only get him disowned as well, and then where would they be? No, this way was better.

The old woman kept Pansy busy for the next few days after that, waitressing, cooking, and cleaning in the café downstairs. It wasn't too bad, it kept her mind off of things, mostly just keeping it from wandering to Draco, trying to figure out what he would be doing at that time of day, things that just made her sad to think on. And she learned to cook too, which she figured would be an important skill to have once she set out completely on her own. She made alright tips, better from some customers than others so long as she put up with a little rambunctiousness from certain young men, or knew when to play the 'poor little lost working girl' card to kindly wealthy women. She made enough to pay the small amount Mama charged for rent, and to start saving up some money for herself. She had enough clothes and didn't have to buy food yet, since she and Mama generally ate leftovers from the café, so all seemed to be working well.

After one particularly long night of working and dealing with that one certain group of boys who always came by on Friday nights, and merlin had they been feeling full of themselves tonight, Pansy was lying on her bed, staring up at the pictures on her cork board. She had written to Marco, asking him to go through her trunk in her dormitory if they hadn't cleared it out and sent it home yet, hoping he could find her some more pictures and things to hang up. He'd been true to his promise to send as many as he could, an envelope stuffed full arrived the next day. She sorted through them well into the hours of the morning after receiving them, hanging them up with a laugh or a tear, whatever emotion they happened to invoke. She kept all the ones of herself and Draco together, up in that corner, where she would only look if she already felt sad missing him.

She tugged the elastic from her hair and let the ponytail loose, tossing the band across the room without care. She sighed and rested her arm across her face, closing her eyes and wishing she was sleepy. Tired, of course. Completely exhausted. But her body refused to let her fall asleep. She groaned and sat up, moving carefully through the stacks of books still arranged precariously in her floor, and slipped out the door of her bedroom to go down to the café. It was well after midnight by now, so she was cautious not to wake Mama Oresta on her way down. Heading to the freezer, she dug around in the back and found the little pint of minty ice cream that Mama had bought specially for her. Grabbing a spoon, she took it to a table in the corner and sat down, putting her feet up on the chair across from her. She only managed a few bites before something compelled her to pull out some parchment and search for a pen.

She had just remembered she promised Draco she would write to him once she was settled and safe to let him know she was alright, and she hadn't done that yet. She'd not exactly been looking forward to it. With a sigh, she sat her spoon aside and began to write, sealing it up when she was finished and sending it off with the raven that Mama kept. After that, she put her snack away and went up to bed, though sleep did not reach her for hours. Her mind was wandering elsewhere, following the raven back to Hogwarts. She wondered if Draco was lying in his bed awake as well, or if by now he had gone elsewhere. Maybe he had been summoned home. If she had a chosen husband, perhaps his parents had chosen him a wife by now as well. Perhaps Draco was already at home, meeting the girl, lying in his room with her arm across his chest. Pansy felt like there was a fire slicing through her chest, and she curled up in a little ball, begging to fall asleep and silence her mind. And to think, she had been doing so well keeping him from her mind until now.


Draco,
I'm fine. The plans I told you I made long ago have gone
flawlessly. I have somewhere to stay, a bedroom of my
own, as many books as I care for, and as much food as
I need. Please, as I asked before, please don't come
looking for me. You've got to stay at Hogwarts and finish
the year, or stay at home and do whatever it is your
parents have planned for you, whichever the case may be.
I will always love you, Draco, but I can't hold you back like
I know I would if I were still there. Promise me you'll try
and be happy, whatever happens. I'll be doing the same.
Send Max my love, and thank Marco again for taking care
of him for me. Let him know I'll send for him as soon as
I can. Take care of yourself.
I'll see you again someday, I swear. Just not yet.
xx Pansy

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco woke up the next morning and realized that his arms weren't holding Pansy's familiar warmth. He opened his eyes and blinked around the room, looking to see if maybe she had snuck away to go to the bathroom, waiting for her to reappear and crawl back under the blankets so they didn't have to get up yet but after a few moments he noticed that the bathroom lights were off and it was too early for her to have gone anywhere else. Sitting up he looked around his room and then noticed the envelope on the pillow. He skimmed her note and his eyebrows shot up before turning into a frown and he leaned back against the headboard. She knew and she had still left? He had gotten a similar letter himself from his parents telling him the good news but he had thought she would be happy, not running away from him. She didn't want to be married off like this? That line in particular stung more than any other, especially given that she ended it with 'I love you'. And how did she expect him to do what his parents wanted if she was off hiding in some undisclosed location? Getting up he pulled on his robes over his boxers and tucked the letter into his pocket, slipping from his room into hers and checking her bed to see if she had left any signs of where she was going. He couldn't believe she was actually gone, not when they were so close to finally getting everything they had wanted.

He didn't see anything that would tell him where she was but he had found a letter that had fallen out of her robes when he moved them. Apparently her parents had been far more evasive than his, not detailing anything to her. He couldn't really blame her anymore for running away, at least based on this letter. Though he did wish that she had talked to him about it or at least asked him questions about his own match. Looking around he noticed that Max wasn't up here which meant she had probably taken him- no wait his bed was still here and so was his leash which meant that the poor dog was probably just as confused as he was. Walking back down to the common room he sat down in a chair by the fire, pulling both letters out again and looking at them. Where could she have gone?

As the next days passed Draco found out that Marco had possession of Max and he collected the dog from him and started quiet inquiries as to Pansy's whereabouts. A few days later a letter from Leo arrived for him asking how Pansy had taken the news. He debated not replying or sending back false information but he knew that Leo would know the second he lied to him and jeopardizing his chances both with Pansy and of finding her was not in his best interest so he wrote back to Leo explaining everything that had happened and asked for a list of potential places where Pansy might be. By that evening Leo had put a list in his hands with almost twenty places that Pansy might be hiding out in and wishing him the best of luck finding her and reminding him that if he did find her and she didn't come with him that he had better let Leo know so he could bring her home himself.

Just as he got back to Hogwarts, disheartened by the seventh failure in a row he saw a raven waiting at the bottom of the grand stairs. It fluttered over to him as he walked and he pulled the scroll from its foot, absently stroking it as he unrolled it, curious who would send him something by raven. Reading the letter he let out a sigh, he knew she didn't want him looking for her but she needed to know the truth before she made that choice. Slipping the note into his pocket with the other two he headed downstairs, ready to look at Leo's list again and plan out his next attempt at finding her.

After trying five more of the places he finally stopped at a little cafe in back london owned by a woman called Mama Oresta who Pansy had known when she was a little girl. He walked in and asked the little old lady behind the counter if she had seen Pansy, pulling out a photo of them from school to show her in case she didn't remember her from all that time ago. The old lady barely glanced at the photo before she shook her head. After getting extremely curt answers to all his questions Draco couldn't help but feel a little suspicious. Draco thanked her and asked if before he left he could have a cup of coffee. As she turned around to brew it he leaned over the counter a little and noticed a book lying behind it with a familiar royal blue binding. Checking that the old lady wasn't turning around any time soon he leaned over a little further and spotted the title, scrawled in gold and part of the upper binding nicked the same way it had been since he gave Pansy that book two christmases ago and she had dropped it against the table leg in her excitement to hug him and thank him. While Mama's back was still turned to him he saw a little staircase that he assumed lead up to the apartments above and asked her politely where the bathrooms were. Ignoring her directions he quickly snuck up the stairs and into the hallway that was lined with doors, some open and a few closed.

He glanced into all the open rooms but found them deserted or used as makeshift storage rooms. Towards the end there were a few closed doors and he noticed that one of them had a scrap of parchment stuck to it with the initials PP on it in Pansy's familiar writing. Excited to have found her at last he raised his hand to knock but hesitated at the last moment. He knew she didn't want to see him but he also knew that she didn't know the full truth of the letter her parents had sent her and that he needed to make her understand. He let his hand fall against the door and waited for her to answer.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Weeks had passed since she had arrived in London in Mama's cafe. She helped out down in the cafe sometimes, but read for hours and hours up in her little 'bedroom' most of the time. She had also started working a little bit here and there in the nearby shops next to the cafe, working here one day, there another, wherever they needed her. This evening though, she hadn't been needed anywhere. All was quiet, and so she could sneak away to her room, lock the door, and curl up on her bed with some books. Her cork board had been filled up more than before, having procured more photos and things from Marco who had gotten rather good at sneaking up into the girls dormitories and finding them for her, or getting him to fetch them from her room at home from time to time when she knew her mother would be gone and her father busy, so that he would not need to let them know he was sneaking to her house and into her room to send her things from it. Marco had proven himself an indispensable and incredibly loyal and helpful friend, sending her anything she might have needed or wanted. Her little wall above her bed was utterly filled now with photos, moving and waving, laughing, smiling, images of herself with her friends, or scenes of home or Hogwarts or vacations, pictures of Draco, Max, her father.

A knock brought her attention out of her book, which she had been deeply concentrated on reading. She glanced at the door, checked the time, and turned her eyes back to her book again. "I'm not hungry, Mama," she called out, figuring it was about time that Mama would ask her whether she wanted dinner or not, and what she'd like to eat if she did. Another knock came after that, and she sighed, getting up. She tossed the book moodily onto her bed and picked her way carefully across her room, knocking over a pile of books and swearing loudly and angrily. She was tired of living in the maze of precarious stacks. She reached for the doorknob and wrenched it open, ready to delve into a miniature battle with the old woman, to insist that she simply wasn't hungry and didn't want anything for dinner no matter what the woman said.

But that was not Mama Oresta on the other side of the door. That tall blonde was the last person she had expected, her her lips parted to speak though no sound came out for the longest time as she stared at him, dumbstruck.

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco couldn't help but smirk when he heard her swearing inside and the thunk of books hitting the ground, certain that if her letter had been anything to go by she was probably sleeping on a pile of books instead of a mattress by now. He was still smirking when she wrench the door open though that soon changed into a grin at her slack-jawed expression. After waiting for what felt like an hour he stood up straight and pushed the door open a little further, "Hello to you too, can I come in?" He didn't really wait for her to reply, walking into the room, taking in the masses of books and wall of photographs. His eyes quickly picked up the corner of photos of them, giving him hope that maybe this wasn't in vain. Sitting down on the edge of her bed he patted the spot next to him, "So do you want to tell my exactly why you ran away?"

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

It was as if Pansy's feet had been cemented to the spot. She didn't move as Draco smiled at her, spoke, pushed the door open and came into her room, sitting on her bed as if it were the most normal thing. Her eyes followed him but her expression didn't change, utterly shocked beyond doing anything other than standing there, looking at him like an idiot. Finally she regained control of herself and pushed the door shut, turning her body to face him across the room, the fallen stack of books blocking her path to him. She tore her eyes from his face, and they wandered the room restlessly, unsure what else to look at. Nothing else seemed as appealing to look at as his face had, but she wouldn't let herself look at him again. Her voice was soft when she finally spoke.

"I told you not to come." She crossed her arms, but it was shy, defensive, not angry. It was as if she were trying to hide behind them, protect herself in some strange way. She took a few steps forward, but stopped when her toe bumped a fallen book, not crossing the threshold they had created between herself and her... well, her ex-boyfriend, as she figured it was now. That hurt to think. Why the hell had he come here? She told him not to, she had even picked a place where she had thought, falsely apparently, that he could not find her. He was supposed to be back home or at Hogwarts, meeting up with his future bride to be, being a perfect gentleman no matter who she was, because that was what his parents expected of him, and whatever they expected was what he would do. What he would have to do. "I told you not to come looking for me."

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco leaned back against the wall, noticing that she wasn't looking at him, and in fact seemed to be addressing a set of history books on a shelf to his right. "I know what you told me to do but you couldn't have honestly expected me to listen. Now why did you leave? Just tell me, I want to hear it from you." He had to be sure that she didn't know, that he hadn't come here with futile hopes, though her evasive behavior was making him start to wonder if she had been told and couldn't deal with it so she had run using false pretenses to cover up what she didn't want to tell him.

Refocusing on her he noticed she was still standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed around her middle, eyes falling anywhere but on him. Her tone hadn't been angry, more a sort of tired voice. He wondered if that was disappointment in him finding her or resignation at having to break some sort of sad truth to him.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy's eyes returned to his when he said he wanted to hear it from her. Her eyebrows pressed together as she found herself a little confused. "The letter I left you was from me, it says what I would say now were I in the mood for repeating myself." She tried to keep annoyance out of her voice, but it was just that she didn't like having to say it too much, to say that he ought to go marry whoever it was he was supposed to while she figured something else out way away from everyone, and away from her parents and everything she used to know. She swallowed, glancing at the floor again. After a second, she stepped over the cascade of books and settled onto the bed next to him, but not close enough for them to be touching.

"I left for the same reasons I always told you I was going to, ever since fifth year or whenever it was that I told you I was going to run away. I must have told you about a hundred times." She stopped, feeling a prickling in the corners of her eyes where tears were threatening to form. She didn't want to cry in front of him, not over this again. She'd shed enough tears when it came to arranged marriages and telling him to be happy with whatever his parents decided for him, that she'd figure out something else on her own. She couldn't speak the words again, or at least, she didn't want to.

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco noticed she sat a little way away from him but turned his body so he faced her, knee brushing against hers. "I read your letter but you're missing key bits of information, things that I could have told you if you had talked to me before you left that would have meant you could have been at Hogwarts these past three weeks and I wouldn't have had to run around looking for you." He reached between them and took her hand, "I found the letter in your pocket, the one from your parents. Didn't it ever occur to you that there might be a reason your father of all people thought you would be happy with the match they made? You know that his standards were almost as high as yours."

He noticed she still wasn't look at him, her gaze focused on his hand holding hers which was hanging limply between them. His other hand reached up and slipped under her chin, forcing her meet his gaze. "Do you know why I've been looking for you for almost three weeks now?"

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

"It was supposed to be easier," Pansy insisted, shifting a little so his knee was no longer touching hers. The contact between them was just enough that she wanted to fling herself into his arms, and she didn't like that desperate feeling. "Leaving without having to tell you goodbye, the note was meant to simplify things..." Her voice faded weakly. She looked at him as he took her hand, listening to what he had to say. She simply shrugged and looked away again, talking as she stared at her lap. "Daddy always thinks I'll be happy with what he picks. And I am. But it's like Toby. I was perfectly thrilled with my ferret, despite the fact that I had been asking for a dog. Not what I wanted, but what Daddy picked, and it was suitable and made me happy. I'm sure whoever he picked is suitable, but... I can't."

She reluctantly looked up at him again when he put his fingers under her chin. Her eyes tried to read his expression, but couldn't. He looked oddly happy but mingled with a bit of confusion, which didn't help her riddle out much of anything. She was most likely too uncomfortable and upset at the moment to figure it out no matter how glaring of a fact anything might have been. "Because you're a complete idiot who doesn't listen to me?" Her expression didn't change, remaining one of discomfort, worry, dislike of him being here against her wishes, mingled with a little heartbreak at seeing him again, having her hand in his and his fingertips on her chin, having him so close but so very damn far away.

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco laughed when she called him a complete idiot, "I think this is the one case where you'll be glad that I didn't listen to you." He really wanted to lean over and kiss the confused and slightly annoyed expression right off her face but he knew that unless she found out the whole truth behind this there was no way he could do that without getting slapped. "I've actually been in touch with your father since you ran off, he was the one who suggested I might find you here, and trust me when I tell you that for once you'll be glad about what he chose for you."

His fingers moved from under her chin and slipped into his pocket, pulling out a little black box where she couldn't see it, "Pansy, for once our parents did something right, something I hope you want as much as I do." He let go of her hand and lifted the box between them, "I'm the one your parents chose." He flipped the box open and showed her the ring nestled in black velvet, "Will you come back with me?"

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy had already begun to shake her head slightly, parting her lips to give him some smartass retort about 'how the hell could he know if what her father picked would make her happy'. Sure she might be happy but it wasn't what she really wanted and that just wasn't quite what she was willing to settle for anymore. She didn't want anymore Toby situations. She fell silent though, as he fumbled with something quickly and started talking again. His words echoed through her head a thousand times. 'I'm the one your parents chose.' She couldn't believe it. Her hands started shaking and tears fell unnoticed from her eyes as she glanced from Draco's face to the ring and to his face again. "What?" She felt stupid for it, but that seemed to be the only thing she could manage to say. Looking at the ring again, she recognized it as one that Narcissa had frequently worn. So it was true then, they had both their families blessings.

Pansy looked up at him again with full intentions of properly answering him, but once her eyes settled on his again, all was forgotten. Tears were streaming down her cheeks by now and all she could do was fling her arms around his neck and hold onto him as if she would never detach herself again. There would never be a need.

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco dropped the ring on the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her tightly, pulling her close so she almost sitting in his lap and buried his face in her hair. He didn't need her to say anything to know what everything was going to be okay now, better than okay. Everything was perfect because as long as they had their parents' blessing nothing could come between them. He kissed the side of her head and ran his hand over her back, "You have no idea how awful it was, realizing you had gone and knowing that if I didn't find you I would have lost you forever."

He debated pulling back several times but instead just held her close, taking in the smell of her shampoo and the warmth of her body held against him. He had felt lost without her, his only focus on finding her and bringing her back to him. Finally he pulled back and smiled at her, leaning forwards to give her a gentle kiss, "I love you Pansy, so much." reaching down he groped around in the blankets until he pulled the ring from the box holding it up, "This is yours now."

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy clung to him desperately, her face buried in his shoulder as she tried to stop crying, but to no avail. The tears would not stop but she couldn't decide what sort they were. Shock and happiness she supposed. "I thought... I thought we were being separated, I thought it was the end. I had to leave, and... thank you for being a complete idiot and coming to find me, Draco." She tightened her arms around him, holding on for a few more moments until he leaned back, smiling down at her while she attempted a matching smile through her tears. Her eyes followed his wandering hand across her blankets, searching for the box he must have dropped when she hugged him so quickly.

She stared at the ring for a moment, admiring it more closely than she ever had before. She had glimpsed it on Narcissa's hand before, had pretended that maybe one day she would wear it when she married Draco. Of course those were the silly dreams of a fourteen year old, and once she'd grown a little, she realized that and gave up on the thought. But she had always loved how it looked, the green and white, the flower shapes of it and how elegant it had seemed on Mrs. Malfoy's hand. Her stomach did about a hundred thousand backflips, realizing it was still going to be on a Mrs. Malfoy's hand, but this Mrs. Malfoy would be herself. Her voice had seemed to leave her, rendering her speechless as she lifted her hand, torn between reaching for the ring to put it on herself, or just extending her hand to let Draco put it onto her finger. She couldn't believe it. She had woken up this morning hiding in an old library, trying to figure out her next place to move, figuring she'd never see Draco until several years down the road when he was married and happy and potentially even a father, while she was still Pansy who traveled, Pansy with her old dog Max. And tonight it seemed that she would go to sleep, back with the boy that she loved, with a promise of marriage in the proper amount of time. A total turn around that she wouldn't have even dreamed would happen. Not in a million years.

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco made the choice for her, taking her hand in his and slipping the ring onto her finger, holding her fingers in his and just staring at the jewels as they caught the light. He hadn't ever even dreamt of this day happening, knowing that he was going to be married off to someone and that the choice was out of his hands so daydreaming did no one any good at all. Now though he knew that this was all he had ever really wanted, to be engaged to not only the girl he loved but also his best friend, someone he knew he could aways trust to tell him the truth and support him.

Leaning forwards he kissed her again, his fingers entwining with hers, other hand slipping around her waist to hold her securely now fully on his lap. He heard a knocking sound and the door opening, pulling back he saw Mama's face, a look of shock plastered to it, and put an appropriate look of apology on his own, hoping she wouldn't be too upset that he had snuck up here behind her back.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy watched, elated, as he slipped the ring onto her finger. It was a tiny bit too big, but not so large that it would slip off by accident. She stared at it for a moment, looking at it on her hand in some degree of disbelief. Part of her felt like she ought to take it off, to give it back to Mrs. Malfoy, like she shouldn't be wearing it. But the other part of her never wanted to take it off again. The ring declared her as Draco's, officially, forever. She was distracted from the ring as his lips landed on hers, and she closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around his neck again and pulling her legs up onto the bed, slipping forward so that her folded knees rested over his lap, allowing them to sit closer, his arms holding her near him.

The knock took her by surprise, though she should have been expecting it. It was the knock she had thought Draco's was, Mama coming up to inquire about dinner. She had let herself in, the door unlocked from where she had opened it for Draco. Turning, Pansy gave her an almost guilty look as Mama saw her and Draco's arms wrapped around each other, having caught them in the middle of quite a happy kiss. The woman's look of shock faded after a moment, a knowing sort of grin spreading on her face. "Che cazzo fai, Pansy! I suppose you are not too upset that the boy has found you then, eh? I did not tell him you were here, if that matters at all. I think not by the looks of things. Merlin's beard, child." She crossed her arms, and Pansy moved her arms from around Draco, turning to simply sit beside him again, though she did slip her hand into his, weaving her fingers in the spaces between his own. "Anyway, I still ask you about dinner. And you, will you be staying for dinner too?" She asked, indicating that the question was about Draco. Pansy nodded, telling her that they would both be eating and that she'd likely be going back home soon, getting out of the woman's hair. She nodded, a halfhearted smile on her face. "I was nearly getting used to having you here, but I know your father will be pleased to have you back again, cara mia. Come down in twenty to eat if you care to disentangle yourself again." With that she excused herself, shutting the door behind her and leaving Pansy and Draco to themselves again. Pansy grabbed her wand, locked the door with a quick charm, and sat it aside once again.

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco smiled when Pansy laced her fingers through his, squeezing a little and nodding when they both agreed to stay for dinner. He was even happier when Pansy said she would be leaving soon. Even though he had known that she was obviously coming back with him now just hearing her say it made it all the better. When she flicked the lock on the door he chuckled and wrapped his arm around her, leaning his head against hers. He had missed her so much while she was gone, spending almost all of his free time looking for her or contacting the people on the list that Leo had given him. The time that wasn't spent pursuing her was spent running with Max or talking to Marco, pressing the italian to give him some sort of information. When he reveled nothing useful Draco had gone to see everyone else in Slytherin that Pansy talked to, even resorting to Astoria to see if they had heard her mention anywhere or anyone that might help him find her.

After a moment or two of silent thought he pulled back and looked at her, a smirk playing over his lips. "So that was a yes wasn't it?" He knew it was but he wanted to hear her say it. They were getting married. Eventually, no need to rush it like their parents wanted, they would stand up together and say their vows, binding themselves to each other forever.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy closed her eyes as they sat there with their heads together, breathing deeply and re-remembering everything about him as if it hadn't been three weeks since she'd last seen him. The way he smelled, the warmth that always seemed to come off him and soak into her, the way his hair felt as she moved her head, brushing her nose through it with a soft laugh. She'd never really thought she'd get to be so close to him again like this. She had set as much in her memory as she could, figuring on not getting to see him for a couple of years, that is if she was lucky and got to see him sooner than would be expected. But now she realized that her memory hadn't done him justice at all. Nothing would compare to how he really was, and now she wouldn't have to settle for the second-best version of him that her memory had attempted to create and store.

Pansy opened her eyes, looking up at him with wide, happy eyes as he smirked at her. She grinned back, tiny tears sneaking into her eyes once again. "Of course it was." She knew it was nothing immediate, and most likely not even within the summer or the next year, but it would happen. They had gotten what they had dreamed about, but what they had banked on never being allowed to have. They would have each other for a while longer, quite a while in fact, as forever did tend to last a long time. "Yes, Draco, though you didn't exactly ask me a question, just told me the ring was mine." She smirked back at him, glancing down at her hand for a moment, then looking at him again, the same ecstatic smile on her face.

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