“Maybe there’s more to me than what meets the eye.” (x)
Their friendship started first. It was hard to avoid talking to someone when you were stuck in that person’s dress shop, Hermione found. When she’d been told that Pansy would be designing Ginny’s wedding and bridesmaids dresses, Hermione hadn’t been too fond of the idea of having to socialise with the witch who had been a constant pain in her teenage years. Assurance from Ginny that Pansy had changed and was actually tolerable, was what made Hermione agree to come into the boutique with fellow bridesmaid, Luna.
Even without an eye for fashion, Hermione could appreciate how beautiful Pansy’s dresses were. And it seemed everyone else did too; why else would she have a boutique in the middle of Diagon Alley? It was that complement that Hermione paid her that was the start of their conversations whenever she needed to come into the shop with Ginny and Luna.
And Hermione found as the weeks carried on leading closer into the last couple of months before the wedding, that she didn’t want to stop coming into Pansy’s boutique. Because Pansy was funny; and not the normal type of funny, but dry, and sarcastic, and the things she said made Hermione burst into laughter on plenty of occasions. Not only that, but she held conversation easily, taking the lead when Hermione faltered in what to talk about, meaning that whenever Ginny or Luna were getting fitted by the other shop assistant, there was not a second of silence between Hermione and Pansy.
She found herself looking forward to the days they had to go into the shop, and only a few weeks after she’d told Pansy herself that she thought them to be friends, she started to realise that maybe...maybe this felt more than friendship. And it scared the hell out of her. Because this was Pansy Parkinson; funny, and nice, and talented, beautiful Pansy Parkinson, and she was just Hermione. Boring, plain Hermione, who felt like she might as well be wearing a hessian sack when she stood next to Pansy who just...shone. It didn’t bother her that she had developed a crush on another girl -- she liked Pansy because she was her, her gender was irrelevant, and Hermione was above such thinking. She started to blush more around her, fidget slightly, and she caught Pansy do the same; fix her own clothes more often than not, brush her hair back, stand closer to Hermione whenever it was possible.
But it all came to a head the day Hermione visited the boutique alone. “Ginny wanted me to see if my dress fits properly,” she’d told Pansy when she came in. The dress was stunning, and she didn’t think she was even worthy of putting it on; she didn’t even know how to get it on in the first place. But she managed, and called Pansy back to the dressing room like she’d been told to do when she closed the curtain in the first place. She watched as Pansy’s eyes widened slightly, and her lips parted as she took in her appearance, and Hermione didn’t think she’d ever blushed so quickly in her life. “Does it look okay?” she’d asked hesitantly, and Pansy had taken a few seconds to answer.
“You look beautiful,” was all she replied. Not, the dress looks beautiful, but you; and it made Hermione’s heart soar. Pansy had come forward to start adjusting the dress to find its perfect fit, and her hands brushed around Hermione’s waist.
Hermione bit her bottom lip, forcing herself to do something. Speak. Take a chance, for once. “Come out with me,” she said, her voice barely a whisper, but it made Pansy’s hands stop in their tracks, coming to rest on her hips. “Please...”
Pansy looked surprised at the question, and couldn’t find her words at first, and Hermione panicked; had she taken all the wrong signals? “You really want that?” Pansy asked. “I didn’t think you...”
“Maybe there’s more to me than what meets the eye?” Hermione breathed, her heart racing, waiting for the rejection that she’d been positive was going to come.
“Okay,” Pansy nodded, and her hands dropped from Hermione’s hips. “Yes,” she agreed, and her lips curled into the same damn smile that had made Hermione fall for her in the first place.
