Potter and Parkinson
I’m sure this has been done before, but I absolutely live for pansy/Harry friendship
- Pansy and Harry become friends even before Drarry happens - it’s eighth year, and of course all the returning students are grouped in one big dorm because house unity and all that - Harry can’t sleep. The nightmares are too much, and he doesn’t want to bother his roommate *cough*draco*cough* because he’s his ex-rival for merlin’s sake and that’s just /awkward/ - so he sits by the hearth in the common room, where everything is usually purple and gray but right now the fire is roaring and everything is bathed in a wonderful orange light - and he doesn’t notice Parkinson sitting in the love seat to his left until she shifts and drawls out a scathing “well if it isn’t the boy who just won’t die” - and of course Harry jumps, wand out and pointed at Pansy’s throat in half a second - she stares at it and pushes it away in silence - there’s the expected “nightmare?” “Yeah. You?” “Same as you, what do you expect” exchange then comfortable silence - eventually they fall asleep where they are - in the morning, pansy’s gone and Harry’s late for breakfast - neither of them say anything about it, but she nevertheless slips him an extra hot coffee as she leaves the great hall - it happens again that night - this time, they talk about it - “what’s it like to die?” - he starts. He’s never told anyone about that. Ever. - and that’s how he finds out that Pansy is a legilimens - “why don’t you look for yourself?” - “I’m not a barbarian, Potter” - so he tells her. And she listens. - she asks why he didn’t tell Weasley and Granger - “they worry too much” - and she gets it - the next night, she tells him why she doesn’t boast about her legilimency - “My Death Eater family loved to exploit it. When old Voldy came back, he forced me to use it to find out his victim’s fears and weaknesses. I was a puppet. I didn’t ask for that.” - “None of us did.” - they meet like this every night, when the nightmares are too much or the insomnia sets in - she explains that sleeping was too much like passing out from Crucio - He talks about how weird it feels since Draco started ignoring him - they talk about Draco a lot - “he wasn’t always that way. You should’ve seen him as a child, when his father would be away on business. I’d never met anyone more in love with life.” - they don’t talk for the rest of that night - he notices the slytherin Trio has mostly broken up - Pansy, surprisingly, hangs out with Luna during the day - Harry asks about it - Pansy shrugs “she doesn’t dwell on the past” - One day Hermione and Ron don’t show up for breakfast - Pansy takes the seat next to Harry, “ she snuck into his room last night after you went to bed. Kicked Blaise out and everything.” - They talk about life after hogwarts - “you don’t want to be an auror anymore, then? Thought saving people gave you a hard on, Potty” - he laughs for the first time in a long while - “it gets boring after the first couple hundred times, I guess” - “well, Mcgonagall obviously wants you for the DADA position” - “maybe” - they walk together to herbology - Draco gawks as they enter the greenhouse - Pansy offers a small smile - Draco turns away - Harry sulks - Ron and Hermione show up a minute later, Hermione blushing and Ron raising an eyebrow at Harry, but he doesn’t say anything when Pansy whispers something in Harry’s ear that makes him grin wide - It’s the middle of the year, and Harry and Pansy have established a sort of routine - they meet every night, sometimes to talk, sometimes to take walks around the castle, sometimes just to sit in each other’s presence until they fall asleep - in the morning, whoever wakes first brings up two mugs from breakfast, if it’s Pansy she brings cocoa, while Harry brings coffee - Harry asks why Pansy always wears extra layers, or uses far more blankets than normal - he mentions that Malfoy does it, too - “Draco never told you?” “I never asked” - it’s a side effect of the Cruciatus and Imperio Curses - Harry thinks he understands - He pats her hand, and she wonders why he’s so warm - he shrugs. He’s always been like that. - maybe it’s because of his mother’s love, he jokes - she just looks at him. “Perhaps you’re right about something for once, Potty.” - the next morning, Draco wakes early to find them snuggled together in front of the dying embers, Pansy leaning into Harry, extra blankets discarded on the floor - he can’t help the tight, smoldering feeling in his chest as he walks to breakfast - it’s Saturday, so there’s no class, but Blaise still leaves a mug of coffee and a cup of cocoa on the coffee table in the common room for when they wake, warming charms cast to keep the drinks steaming - when they wake up, it’s not awkward at all. Just comfortable. - like sharing a bed with your sibling - they enjoy their arrangement, and Pansy takes advantage of Harry’s warmth constantly - eighth years are allowed to leave the grounds at any point, so long as they obey curfew - Harry and Pansy visit Hogsmeade together shortly after Christmas break - while out for lunch, they run into Draco - Pansy invites him along - Harry and Draco start talking and don’t stop - Pansy is torn; she hates being a third wheel, but she thinks she ships the two more - she excuses herself, claiming exhaustion, and finds a quaint book shop near the edge of the village - There, she runs into a distressed Granger - turns out, Granger broke it off with Weasley - Pansy is surprisingly good at comforting others, and shares her unexpected love of books with Hermione - but while Hermione adores nonfiction, Pansy reads fiction. Thus, a friendship grows - their day at the book store marks the start of a new relationship - she tells Harry about her impromptu date with hermione - “on a first name basis now, are you? I feel betrayed.” - “oh shut it, Potty.” - she’s blushing and they both know it - in retaliation, she asks about Draco, and now it’s Harry’s turn to bloom red - when Harry asks Draco out in the Great Hall a few weeks later, Pansy stands and screams from the other end of the table “IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME YOU PINING PRICK” - Harry and Draco both turn red, scurrying out of the hall, hand in hand - Pansy high-fives Luna, who giggles the whole time - Harry does the same thing when Hermione asks out Pansy, but instead he’s screaming “SAY YES ALREADY PANS, YOU BLOODY WUSS” - Ron gazes at them sadly, but Blaise distracts him with a comforting hand on his lower back and offers some treacle tart - Pansy and Harry’s nightly meetings start happening less and less, but they’re still closer than ever - when Draco and Harry have their first fight, Pansy knows, cuddling with Harry in front of the fireplace like they used to - Hermione is super understanding, bless her heart - She still draws a mustache and monocle on Harry in revenge for stealing her girlfriend, though - she wakes Draco early to see it - He takes pictures of his exbutkindofstill-best friend and boyfriend cuddling - he won’t admit it, but his heart melts just a little as they wake, untangling from each other, bleary eyes and bed heads - Harry and Draco don’t fight as much after that (but neither of them mind so much on the mornings after they do because Harry and pansy’s friendship is so precious) - drarry and pansmione have a double wedding - Ron and Blaise are Best Men, Luna and Ginny Maids of Honor - Harry gets the DADA job, but always floos home at the end of the day to be with Draco and the kids -pansy works in hogsmeade, running the bookstore where she first comforted hermione, now minister of magic - Draco is a wonderful homemaker, who works from home co-editing the Quibbler with Luna - even after marriage and families, Pansy and Harry have slumber parties, just the two of them in the living room while Draco and hermione take the kids out - they cuddle and talk about everything - in the mornings, pansy always wakes first, since Harry is usually up late grading papers - but now, she makes two coffees for Harry and hermione, a cocoa for her, and a tea for Draco - Harry and Pansy still spend nights by the fire, but sometimes they’re joined by their spouses, Ron and Blaise, and Ginny and Luna - Sometimes Pansy and Draco’s skin still turn to ice - sometimes hermione and Harry still wake up in the middle of the night for no solid reason - but they’re surrounded by the ones they love - the war is over - pansy’s legilimency fades with age, and she’s happy to only have to live in her own head for once - Harry and Draco learn to be in love with life, and with each other - Hermione and Ron are no longer a ‘what if’ - and while Draco’s scars never completely fade away, Harry assures him they make him even more beautiful - While Pansy will never stop being cold, Hermione is there with cocoa and and blankets and her warm embrace - while Harry and Hermione never eat as much as they used to, too accustomed to those days in that wretched tent, running from the enemy, starving in the forest, Draco and Pansy are there to hold them and kiss them and remind them that it’s better now. It’s okay now. - and suddenly it wasn’t just Pansy and Harry with late night talks and cuddles on the couch - it was everyone else, too - it was warm, and safe, and home - and it wasn’t perfect - but it was good.
