Nothing will convince me that Pansy Parkinson isn't a lesbian.
As for those two, I think Pansy and Parvati would make a good couple. They are extroverted, popular in their house, beautiful, and have strong personalities.
In the book Philosopher's Stone, a flying lesson scene implies that Pansy and Parvati knew each other before Hogwarts. - I like to think they were friends and, being from rival houses, they drifted apart (also because Pansy became close to Draco and shared his prejudices).
They both love to gossip, and I believe Pansy loves divination and it's her favorite subject. I imagine those two playing Tarot cards.
I think Parvati would be good for Pansy and help her overcome her prejudices and accept her sexuality.
I imagine the two of them reuniting after Hogwarts, both working at the Daily Prophet and rekindling the friendship they once had, overcoming the Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry. Until they realize they're in love and make it work.
For Sapphic September 2019 Day 5: “Please” from @rockmarina‘s prompt list.
Teen | 1,635 words | EWE, Eighth Year, Potions Class, Teasing, Pre-Relationship, A character is outed
(AO3 | My other Sapphic September 2019 works: AO3 | Tumblr)
Boredom in Potions
Parvati was carefully lowering the heat under her cauldron in small increments when a commotion across the room caught her attention. She only looked away for a moment, just long enough to see it was Pansy and Daphne causing a fuss.
That moment was all it took. When she turned back to her potion it had turned the colour of sour milk, and smelled even worse. With Slughorn snoring at his desk, and Hermione getting touchier and touchier about helping other people the closer they got to the N.E.W.T.s, she sighed in defeat and vanished the ruined potion.
With nothing left to do, she sat on her stool and rested her elbow on the desk. She propped her chin on her palm, turning her attention across the room to where Pansy and Daphne were still bickering. If she had to be stuck there until the end of class with nothing to do, at least there was entertainment.
It wasn’t often the Slytherins fought amongst themselves, but it was always amusing when they did. The only time they dropped their dignified airs was when they fought. Not right away, they usually managed to still look dignified at the beginning at least, stony voices and small gestures, but it seemed Pansy and Daphne had moved beyond that already.
Daphne was holding a large, scrunched up piece of parchment while Pansy tried to snatch it from her hand. Over the summer, Daphne had shot up to match even Ron in height, but Pansy hadn’t grown at all. In fact, Parvati was fairly sure she was shorter than Harry.
“I swear if you don’t give it back I will make your life hell!” Pansy hissed loudly, lurching forward to try and snatch the parchment again.
Daphne easily held it out of her reach, scoffing as she did so.
“Oh please, you don’t have anything new on me,” she said, sounding delighted. “You’ve been too busy lately to pay attention, and now I see why. My, my, my, Pansy, how unexpected.”
Draco turned around and hissed at them to shut up, but Daphne ignored him completely. Arms held up high, she pulled the parchment taut and looked over it.
Parvati tilted her head to try and see but the angle was all wrong. She’d seen Pansy doodling on parchment a lot since the year had started, but she’d never managed to see much. When they were paired in Defence, Pansy had been halfway through drawing a realistic portrait of Millicent when she’d noticed Parvati looking and hidden it away, and Parvati hadn’t managed to get a glimpse of anything else since.
“It’s not bad really,” Daphne mused. “Though you’ve flattered her by changing the shape of her nose a little. Lovely study of her hands. Well, I assume they’re her hands since she’s all over this. Are those her lips too? Gosh, darling, how transparent of you.”
In the most undignified manner Parvati had ever seen of her, Pansy jumped up to try and snatch the parchment away from Daphne.
Parvati looked over to Millicent, wondering if Pansy was drawing her again. It didn’t seem likely, Millicent had a lovely cute nose. One of the only attractive features of her face, in Parvati’s opinion. No need to flatter her with making it look nicer than it already was.
“What do you want for it then?” Pansy snapped, drawing another aggravated hiss out of Draco.
It seemed to bring Pansy’s awareness back to the room. She glanced around, her cheeks flushing pink. Parvati looked down at her textbook before Pansy noticed her looking.
She could just as easily have let Pansy know she’d seen her very undignified behaviour. The result would surely have been even more amusing.
But she was intrigued now. She wanted to know who Pansy had been drawing that would cause such a reaction.
It sounded like prime gossip. Beyond that, she couldn’t deny she was curious about the implications. Pansy hadn’t reacted that terribly when she’d caught Pansy looking at her sketch of Millicent, but now she’d drawn someone and was throwing an absolute fit about it being seen.
If it had been a sketch of a boy the meaning would be obvious, so it was just as obvious now.
And Parvati was kicking herself for not noticing sooner.
After a whispered exchange too quiet to hear, there was a loud clatter that drew Parvati’s attention back.
Draco had stepped away from his cauldron and snatched the parchment from Daphne. In the process, he seemed to have knocked over two jars on their table.
Pansy stood motionless, staring at him with open horror as he scanned the parchment. One of his eyebrows climbed to his hairline. He turned the parchment over and scanned the other side. When he finally looked at Pansy, she looked defeated and he looked delighted.
“Draco, give it back,” she tried.
Beside her, Daphne kept looking between them. She didn’t look delighted like Draco. In fact, she looked guilty and Parvati perked up. For all Daphne had been teasing her, she hadn’t shown the thing about either. Would Draco?
“I don’t think I will,” he said slowly, turning the parchment over again. “You made me spoil my potion.”
“Come on, give it back,” Daphne said, reaching for it herself.
Draco pulled away and smirked at her. “Oh? Don’t start something you can’t finish, Daphne.”
Pansy gripped the edge of the desk and looked alarmingly like she was about to cry. It was an utterly foreign expression on her face, and Parvati was riveted.
“Draco...Draco, please don’t,” she said with a hitch in her voice.
Parvati almost choked on her inhale. She didn’t think she’d ever heard Pansy say please before. Ever. It suddenly made those implications a certainty. She had a crush on whoever it was she’d been drawing.
“Too late,” Draco sneered.
The fear on Pansy’s face morphed into anger.
“I will ruin you!” she hissed. “I will tell everyone that you—”
“Don’t care, he already knows,” Draco said, turning and walking across the room.
He caught Parvati’s eye and walked right over to her table. When he dropped the parchment on the table in front of her, she frowned up at him for a moment, then looked down at it when he returned to his table with an ugly smirk on his face.
Across the room, Pansy made a low sound, but she stayed where she was.
Parvati looked over the parchment slowly. It looked like Pansy had been sketching on it for a couple of days. There were small studies of her face from different angles. One of them was from two days ago, when she’d been so bored in History of Magic she’d tried out an elaborate hairstyle. She was shocked she hadn’t noticed Pansy staring at her. She had to have been to capture it so clearly.
The attention to detail was rather breathtaking. She’d never seen enough of that sketch of Millicent to really form an opinion, but Pansy’s drawing was beautiful. In the spaces around sketches of her head and neck, there were hands in various gestures. She turned the parchment over and scanned the other side.
In the top right corner there was a sketch of her lips and chin. Taking up the rest of the parchment was an unfinished sketch of Parvati standing over her cauldron.
The page slid out of focus as Parvati considered the meaning of it.
The fact it was her should have no bearing on the conclusion she’d already come to.
She wondered if she should be annoyed, or repulsed. She probably should. Pansy wasn’t exactly the nicest girl in their year.
But, despite herself, she liked it. They were beautiful drawings and the attention to detail was very flattering.
And she wasn’t sure the attention really was unwanted, even if Pansy could be a right cow at times. She wasn’t so bad now, really.
Parvati turned and looked across the room.
Pansy was gone.
It took a moment for that to sink in. How upset she must have been to actually leave class and risk detention.
Parvati got up and moved across the room. When she reached Daphne and Pansy’s table, she held the parchment out wordlessly.
Daphne gave her a searching look, then took it from her and folded it carefully.
“You’re a shit friend,” Parvati muttered.
“I wasn’t going to show anyone,” Daphne said, glaring at the back of Draco’s head. “I just wanted to tease her a bit. I didn’t think it was that serious until she reacted so badly. We both messed up our potions early on. She wasn’t talking to me. I was bored.”
Parvati shook her head at her excuses and walked back over to her table. She collected her things and left the classroom. She didn’t much care if Slughorn woke up and realised she was gone. Gryffindor was already dead last in house points after Harry’s latest round of mucking about after curfew without his bloody cloak.
Anyway, she had a decent idea of where Pansy would run off to, and the least she could do was let her know she wasn’t angry or repulsed. She could very well understand how Pansy felt, since she certainly didn’t appear open about where her tastes lay. Parvati had been herself for years, but she could still remember a time she’d been scared to let people know. She would never have thought Pansy was scared of anything, but then, she’d also thought she’d never say please either.
For a class she’d mucked up, it certainly had been enlightening.
And maybe, if Pansy didn’t hex her on sight out of defensiveness or embarrassment, she might offer to sit and let Pansy take her time drawing her.
Perhaps at Hogsmeade.
End.
If you enjoyed reading this, please consider reblogging to signal boost it and/or leaving a kudos/comment on AO3 =)
If you can just stop loving her then you never really loved her at all. Love doesn't work that way. If you ever truly love someone, then it never goes away. It can become something else. There are all different sorts of love. It can even become hate- a thin line and all that- and, really, hate is just another kind of caring.
I was tagged by @whimsicaldragonette to post my top 5 fanfics on ao3 and bottom 5 by kudos.
Because I recently dumped a whole lot of drabble collection fics on there, I’m not gonna count them cos there are 36(all different ships) and most have zero kudos lol so yeah, gonna omit them for the bottom 5.
For reference, I have 122 works currently on AO3 over a few fandoms, but all my top and bottom fics are for Harry Potter.
I’m also gonna include date posted because that is often relevant when looking at top kudos.
Top 5: (all of which are Drarry)
1. Making Malfoy Blush: 1585 kudos, posted May 30th-June 2nd 2016. This is #1 in the Making Malfoy Blush series
Malfoy walks in on Harry in the showers after Quidditch and is surprisingly flustered. Spying the chance to embarrass him, Harry teases him at every opportunity to bring that blush back.
It's all harmless winks and lip biting, and maybe a few heated looks; until it's a kiss, and then another, and then Harry realises he never wants to stop.
If only Malfoy was as clear about what he wants.
2. Restraint: 1319 kudos, posted July 6th- August 27th 2016
Someone casts the Imperius curse on Draco Malfoy, and whatever the instructions may be, Harry finds himself an unwilling target. The encounter leaves him torn between pleasure and revulsion. As they fight in the aftermath, a tense game begins. Harry fights to convince Malfoy, and himself, that he was not affected by that initial encounter, or any of those following it.
Faced with a series of escalating encounters, Harry must come to terms with desiring things he never thought he could, things he wishes he didn’t respond to. They each use signs of arousal as weapons against each other in a mad struggle to finally shame the other into backing down for good.
But it’s only after the game is over that Harry starts to understand.
3. Newspaper Shield: 732 kudos, posted June 7th 2016. This is #2 in the Making Malfoy Blush series.
Their relationship is still new when Harry sits down at the Slytherin table for breakfast.
4. Potter’s Insatiable Cock: 685 kudos, posted March 30th 2017.
Potter comes out, and starts frequenting gay wizarding clubs. Only, he can't seem to find anyone to hold his interest, much to Draco's ongoing amusement, until one night, things become clearer, and he has a proposition for Draco.
Basically: Harry Potter is a virgin, and he wants Draco to rid him of his virginity.
5. TIE: Clouding the Senses: 682 kudos, posted August 7th-October 10th 2016.
As everyone returns to Hogwarts for a final eighth year, some people are coping better with the aftermath of the war than others. After encountering a very drunk Draco Malfoy one night, Harry realises that maybe those that lost loved ones aren’t the only ones trying to escape the war. Blaise Zabini seems to think Harry can help Malfoy, that the Slytherin might actually listen to him. Harry is not so sure. Dependence is a tricky thing, and one addiction can quickly shift to another.
5. TIE: Into the Snake Pit: 682 kudos, posted July 20th 2016. This is #5 in the Making Malfoy Blush series.
After practising potions late at night, Draco offers to let Harry stay the night...on a couch in the Slytherin common room.
Until super recently, all the early MMB ficlets were actually in spots 3, 4 and 5, I’m kind of really happy to see some of my longer works staring to take those spots, since I worked so much harder on them than <1k ficlets.
Bottom 5: (all are F/F Harry Potter ships)
(omitting all my prompted drabble fics, and omitting the 2 ficlets I posted in the last 4 days)
5. Everything’s a Competition: 44 kudos, Pansy/Parvati, posted September 16th 2016, a spin-off from my Drarry fic Restraint (which is probably the only reason it got this many kudos).
Pansy and Parvati sneak back to the dorms while the other eighth year students are at a party.
4. A Light Dusting of Flour: 29 kudos, Ginny/Pansy, posted July 21st 2016
Ginny is making scones, until Pansy walks in.
3. Chocolates for Breakfast: 22 kudos, Ginny/Pansy, posted Feb 15th 2017.
Pansy gets Ginny chocolates for Valentine's day, but isn't amused to realise they're becoming her breakfast.
2. Day Off: 21 kudos, Pansy/Parvati, posted October 31st 2016
Pansy's day off doesn't go as planned.
1. Ulterior Motives: 18 kudos, Pansy/Parvati, posted December 4th 2016
Parvati asks Pansy for help studying Charms.
I’m gonna tag @dracomysunshinechild, @jadepresley, @phaytesworld, @michaelssw0rd and I know I know more writers than that but my brain is failing me. Anyone else, feel free to do it if you want to.
Also feel free to ignore if you like. It’s never fun analysing the bottom 5 fics, that’s for sure. My only solace is that they are rarepairs in a very large fandom, and F/F rarepair at that lol so low reader response is only to be expected.
I challenged myself to write something every day for this, and I managed to do it!! Only cheated once by substituting an older prompt from a previous day!
If you enjoy any of these, I’d love to hear about it in a comment on AO3 if you have the time =)
Day 1: First Meeting (gone right or gone wrong) or “You’re an idiot, why do I love you?”
Hermione/Pansy (Pansmione)
Breakfast Smoothies (301 words, Teen)
Summary: Pansy tries to make Hermione breakfast in bed. It doesn't go as planned.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 2: Best Friends to Lovers or Enemies to Lovers
Ginny/Luna (Linny)
Waiting for so Long (1,210 words, Teen)
Summary: Ginny has been living with Luna for years, and has been in love with her for years.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 3: “Come back to bed.” or “Why did you have to leave me all alone?”
Cho/Fleur (Delachang)
Nothing More Beautiful (1,097 words, Teen)
Summary: When dating someone as sophisticated and confident as Fleur, Cho can't help but feel horribly aware of her own lack of experience.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 4: Pirate!AU or “Look, I might be evil but even I have standards.”
Hermione/Pansy
Standards (701 words, Teen)
Summary: It may be truth or dare with a penalty for dodging dares, but Pansy still has standards.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 5: Soulmate!AU or Autumn
Luna/Pansy (Lunsy)
Childhood Games (805 words, General Audiences)
Summary: Luna always has a way of knowing just what Pansy needs.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 6: Fanon Pairing or “Everyone keeps telling me you’re the bad guy.”
Hermione/Pansy
Night Flight (389 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: Pansy and Hermione stay up drinking one night and Pansy gets a brilliant idea.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 7: Witch!AU or Cat
Pansy/Parvati (Parvansy)
Latest Aquisition (348 words, General Audiences)
Summary: Pansy has a soft spot for strays.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 8: Sunlight or Prank War
Cho/Fleur
Pancakes (298 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: It's the morning after their wedding, and Cho doesn't want to waste it in bed.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 9: Holding Hands or “I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without you.”
Hermione/Pansy
Bringing Work Home (1056 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: Hermione is the Head of the Wizengamot, Pansy is a social commentator. They have an agreement not to talk politics at home, but almost always do anyway.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 10: OT3 or “Make a wish”
Hermione/Pansy/Tracey
A Tough Day (817 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: Hermione has a tough day and work, and Pansy and Tracey figure out how best to help her wind down and let it go.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 11: Spy!AU or Kryptonite
Hermione/Pansy
Wanting Out (1220 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: Pansy is a spy for the order and Hermione is her handler.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 12: First Time or First Dance
Cho/Fleur
Cutting In (385 words, General Audiences)
Summary: Fleur could not take the person she wanted to the Yule Ball, but she won’t let that stop her from a getting a dance from her.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 13: Reincarnation!AU or Immortal!AU
Hermione/Pansy
Need More Tea (916 words, General Audiences)
Summary: Hermione has a surprise for Pansy, Pansy's reaction is unexpected.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 14: Proposal Gone Wrongor Hot Chocolate
Hermione/Pansy
Hot Chocolate (792 words, General Audiences)
Summary: Pansy has been pining from afar, but now she's finally making a move.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 15: Star-Crossed Lovers orHolding your dead lover’s body
Hermione/Pansy
It’s Only Goodbybe for Now (1,241 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: It's sixth-year and Dumbledore announces the closing of Hogwarts in the face of a rapidly escalating war. Hermione goes to find Pansy.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 16: Street Magic!AUor “I think I picked up your coffee by mistake.”
Hermione/Pansy
Another Kind of Magic (357 words, General Audiences)
Summary: On an outing to a muggle market, Pansy's attention is caught by someone performing street magic.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 17: Prom!AU or“She’s missing, not dead.”
Pansy/Reader’s Choice (Unnamed in fic, tagged as Padma on AO3)
Nothing Is Certain (715 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: It's been three weeks since Pansy's wife has gone missing.(Pansy's wife is unnamed within fic so the reader can imagine it is whoever they like)
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 18: Political!AU orRoyalty!AU
Fleur/Cho
Persuasion (259 words, Mature)
Summary: Princess Fleur as been sent to finalise a treaty with Empress Cho.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 19: Prideor Coming Out
Ginny/Pansy (Ginsy)
Ready? (1037 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: Ginny takes Pansy over to the Burrow with the intention of finally revealing they've been in a relationship for years and are now engaged, only to lose her nerve and flee to her old room to try and build up her courage again.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 20: Fake Dating or Fake Married
Ginny/Tonks
More Than Just Maintaining Cover (1,440 words, Mature)
Summary: Tonks and Ginny frequently go undercover as a couple, but they've never had to sell it like this before.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 21: Your Very First Sapphic OTP or Hurt/Comfort
Ginny/Luna
How Convenient (548 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: The twins' birthday is hard every year, but every year, Luna makes it a little more bearable.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 22: Moving In Together or Adopting a Child
Fleur/Tonks (Flonks)
Settling In (532 words, General Audiences)
Summary: It's the big day, but Tonks sleeps through most of the moving.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 23: “Is that mistletoe?” or“Why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance?”
Hermione/Pansy
Traps and Revelations (594 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: Pansy has been enjoying watching others get trapped under misteltoe by Blaise's spells, until she's the one trapped and she finds out she doesn't know as much as she thought she did about how the spell works.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 24: For Sapphic September Day 24 using Day 5 prompt: SoulmateAU
Hermione/Pansy
A Rock Big Enough for Two (621 words, General Audiences)
Summary: Hermione has been waiting for so long to find her soulmate, but she'd given up hope of discovering them at Hogwarts after so many years.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 25: Halloween or “We’ll get through this together.”
Lavender/Parvati (Parvender)
No Monsters Here (262 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: Parvati finds Lavender in a pool of blood during the Battle of Hogwarts and manages to find a working floo to take her to St. Mungo's.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 26: Demons&Angels!AUor Apocalypse!AU
Ginny/Luna
Don’t Ever Forget (357 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: The war never got to a point of winners and losers, the nightmarish creatures Voldemort drew to his side grew beyond his control until it was no longer about 'us' and 'them', but about everyone just trying to survive.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 27: Blind Date or Prison!AU
Hermione/Pansy
If They Only Knew (660 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: Hermione and Pansy's friends set them up on a blind date.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 28: Gold or Dreams
Ginny/Luna
Don’t Lose the Dream (449 words, General Audiences)
Summary: Luna loves to tell Ginny about her strange dreams, and Ginny loves to hear them, even if they are often nonsensical.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 29: “You’ve always felt like home.”or Road Trip
Fleur/Tonks
Loving the Clumsy (276 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: Tonks has a rather extreme potions accident, Fleur takes it in her stride.
(AO3 | Tumblr)
Day 30: Wedding or Disney!AU
Ginny/Pansy
A Race Just to Ask (277 words, Teen and Up)
Summary: Ginny plans to propose to Pansy at Angelina and George's wedding. Ron has some news that puts a rush on things.
For Femslash February 2019 Day 25, using the prompt from this list, ‘Split’.
Teen | 851 words | EWE, Eighth Year, Hurt/Comfort(ish), Pre-Relationship
(AO3 Link | My Other FemslashFeb2019 works: AO3 | Tumblr)
As soon as she found a moment, Parvati slipped away from the others. She went straight to her dormitory to fetch a face cloth, and then to the bathroom to wet it. By the time she tentatively opened the door to Pansy’s dormitory, she was feeling less sure of her actions.
Seeing Pansy’s still bleeding split lip strengthened her resolve all over again.
“You can piss right off!” Pansy hissed.
Parvati ignored her, closing the door behind her and crossing the room. When she reached out for Pansy, there was a brief struggle as Pansy tried to ward her off.
“Would you just stop fighting for five bloody minutes?” Parvati hissed. “You’re still bleeding.”
“I’ll go to the hospital wing,” Pansy spat, slapping her hand away again.
With a scoff, Parvati shook her head. “We both know you won’t. Stay still and let me help you or I’ll tie you to your bloody chair and still do it anyway!”
For a moment, Pansy stuck her chin up a bit like she was going to keep fighting her, but then she sagged and Parvati moved in. Even though she was cross with her, she made sure to be gentle as she tilted Pansy’s chin up with one hand and started dabbing away the blood with the wet cloth.
Pansy didn’t say anything, she kept her eyes firmly off to the side of the room. There were questions hanging in the air between them. Parvati was aching to know what had happened since the moment Pansy had walked through the eighth-year common room with a bleeding lip. But she knew better than to bother trying.
By breakfast tomorrow word would have surely spread anyway. Someone would brag about hitting Pansy, and then they’d get reported. There were more people on the side of second chances than that of misguided revenge.
“I can do this myself,” Pansy finally muttered.
Parvati ignored her and kept gently cleaning away the blood to reveal the split in her lip. Once it was clean she pulled out her wand and healed it carefully. She wasn’t the best at healing spells, but it was better than leaving Pansy to her own devices.
“I’m not always fighting.”
Parvati scoffed and still didn’t say anything. Pansy was more talkative in silence. Maybe Parvati wouldn’t have to wait for the rumours after all.
“Why are you even helping me?”
“You know why,” Parvati murmured back, feeling her face heat up a bit. Damn party games.
Pansy was silent as Parvati brushed her thumb over her healed lip to check it. All done, but she didn’t want to step away from her.
“Still?” Pansy asked very quietly.
Parvati shrugged. It was still embarrassing that Pansy knew she was interested and had declared it ridiculous and never mentioned it again since that awful eighth-year party. But what was she supposed to do? Just ignore her and not help? She was too drawn to her. She was in too deep already. Pansy was just too damn fascinating and Parvati couldn’t keep away.
Not wanting to be holding a sodden and bloodied cloth any longer, but not ready to leave yet, Parvati banished the cloth and stowed her wand back in the pocket of her robes.
Pansy stared at her for a bit longer before raising a hand to rub at her newly healed lip.
“What if I deserved this?” she asked.
“You didn’t, or you would have made a big fuss about it and tried to look like the victim,” Parvati scoffed. “That was always the way you lot did things before.”
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
It was getting a little awkward to stay in the room with her, but she was being so oddly chatty that Parvati couldn’t bring herself to leave. It was the first time she’d addressed Parvati’s interest in her beyond calling it ridiculous.
“Not for anything I actually care to know about,” she replied.
Pansy looked away. An awkward tension hung between them and Parvati decided that was enough for one day.
“Lovely chat,” she said, turning to leave.
Pansy reached out and touched her shoulder. “Wait.”
“What?” Parvati asked, folding her arms. Pansy was just as likely to give her shit about something as to say something pleasant. Normally Parvati liked not knowing, but now she’d rather retreat. She’d once again shoved her interest in Pansy’s face when it wasn’t wanted. No matter how many times she told herself she was going to keep a lid on it, something like this happened and she gave it all away again.
Pansy stared at her awkwardly and then made an annoyed sound. “You make everything so difficult,” she huffed.
Before Parvati could gather her thoughts enough to respond to that, Pansy leaned into her space and kissed her softly.
“Thanks for healing me,” Pansy murmured, still so close Parvati thought she might kiss her again.
But she didn’t. Without waiting for a reply, Pansy moved around her and left her own dormitory.
Parvati stared ahead for a few moments and then touched her lips. That was unexpected.
For Femslash February 2019 Day 10, using the prompt from this list, ‘Waiting’.
Pansy/Parvati (Parvansy) | Teen & Up | 1,511 words | EWE, Post Hogwarts, Established Relationship, Waiting, Adoption, Emotional, Happy Ending
(AO3 Link | My Other FemslashFeb2019 works: AO3 | Tumblr)
“If you don’t stop pacing and sit down, I’ll bind your bloody legs together,” Pansy hissed.
Parvati snorted. “Sure, because your nerves never effect your magic.”
A direct challenge could not be ignored, but before Pansy could grab her wand from the coffee table, Parvati sat down beside her on the sofa with a loud sigh.
“We should have heard by now,” she said weakly.
Pansy counted to ten. She felt the same, but one of them had to keep a cool head. All things considered, she couldn’t believe it was on her to be calm about this.
“Nonsense,” she said. “They said around four, not exactly four. It’s only quarter past. Something might have come up that has nothing to do with—”
“If this falls through, I don’t think I can try again,” Parvati whispered covering her face with her hands.
Pansy’s stomach dropped. “No. You can’t cry. If you cry then I’ll cry, and who the bloody hell will talk to Meryl if we’re both blubbering messes? Pull yourself together!”
With a slight shudder, Parvati sniffed and straightened her back. She wiped at her eyes but she wasn’t crying. Not yet. Pansy forced herself to breathe evenly. Crisis averted.
Parvati cleared her throat and shifted the vase of flowers on the table a little to the left. It put it off-centre, but then she just pushed it back. When she looked at Pansy again, she seemed to have recovered.
“I love you so much, you know that right?” she said softly.
The dropping sensation in Pansy’s belly turned into a twisting one instead. Four years and she still wasn’t used to these open declarations.
“I know you could have done without all this,” Parvati continued. “I wouldn’t have pushed you, so I can’t...that you’ve been working so hard to make this happen for me...I can’t...”
Heat rushed to Pansy’s face. Bloody buggering hell. She was about to start crying if Parvati went on like that again.
“Where the bloody hell is Meryl?” she hissed, shuffling a little closer to Parvati on the sofa, taking one of her hands and refusing to look at her. She’d cry. Big ugly tears. Four years hadn’t cured her of that reaction every time Parvati got emotional about how much she loved her. “Who misses an appointment by over fifteen minutes? No manners! No professionalism!”
“The waiting is murder,” Parvati moaned, sagging sideways until her head rested on Pansy’s shoulder. “I thought the last two times were bad, this is just...and the fact you’re still trying so hard to make it happen when you don’t even really want—”
“It’s not that I don’t want it,” Pansy interrupted. Really, Parvati was so dramatic about everything and yet everyone called Pansy the dramatic one. “It’s just that it’s not something I spent a lot of time thinking about like you have. I’m not against it. I just could have waited longer. But you, love, you’ve wanted this for years. And who the hell am I to deny you anything? After everything you’ve...oh, damn you, I will not cry!”
She pressed the heel of her free hand to one of her eyes. A tear still slipped free of the other one but she hastily wiped it away.
Really, Meryl could floo in at any moment and Pansy would not cry in front of her. Not even if it all fell through again. Parvati was the only one she’d let see her cry, and usually the only bloody reason she ever cried in the first place.
Parvati sniffed loudly and Pansy considered pushing her off the couch to derail her maudlin train of thought. But then she might hit the coffee table, and that would knock over the vase and then there would be water and flowers everywhere and Meryl couldn’t see that.
The waiting really was torture.
“Maybe I should floo the office and see what the delay is,” she said slowly. “It really would be better to know now instead of continuing to wait like this.”
But she’d barely thought of actually moving when the fireplace chimed. Parvati went rigid against her and Pansy scrambled for her wand to open the gate.
With a bright flare of green, Meryl stepped through the grate.
“I’m so sorry for the delay, ladies. There was an urgent case requiring a few of us to put our heads together!” she said, dusting off her robes and starting to rifle through a satchel.
Parvati’s hand become a sharply clawed thing in Pansy’s, but the pain kept her calm and focused.
“I hope who ever it was is okay,” she said politely, even though she wanted to vault over the coffee table and tear the bag from Meryl’s hands to find the document herself. Bloody hell, that would be a memory worth preserving in a Pensieve.
“Oh, the poor little tyke will be soon, already on his way to a temporary placement,” Meryl said, still digging in her satchel before pulling a folder free with a triumphant flourish. “Right then, I won’t waste time.”
Parvati made a weak sound and Pansy had to bite her lip hard not to do the same.
Meryl looked at them, smiling warmly. “They signed everything.”
With a soft inhale, Parvati lifted a hand to her mouth.
“Everything?” Pansy asked, past caring that her voice was wobbling. “No missing sections? No arguments to the terms? The complete forfeit of parental rights?”
“Yes, dear. Now, we’ve been through this a few times, so I’ll save you the time and not repeat everything I would normally say at this point. But I will just say that since I obtained your signatures first, this document was official as of about an hour ago when they signed it and I sent a copy through to be archived.”
Parvati gasped and then sobbed, shaking her head when she failed to speak.
Meryl didn’t seem surprised, and placed the folder on the coffee table. Pansy stared at it but couldn’t bear to touch it in case it wasn’t true.
“Since I know you’re more than prepared from our meeting last week, all that remains is to pick a time.”
“Now!” Parvati gasped. “We’re ready now!”
Pansy swallowed down a sob from all that Parvati’s voice gave away. She was all naked emotion. Joy but still fear of things changing. It wouldn’t be the first time things had changed at the last minute. But if everything was signed properly, the chances of that were now negligible.
“What she means is, we’re ready and the soonest time suits us,” she said carefully, her own voice wobbling.
Meryl smiled at them. “How does eight tomorrow morning sound? If the room is the same as I last saw it, I know you are ready tonight, but lets give you tonight to let it sink in, we wouldn’t want to overwhelm him too terribly on his first day with you.”
Parvati said something but it was incomprehensible through her sobbing. Pansy’s vision was getting rather blurry, but she managed to nod and agree without too much difficulty.
“Congratulations, dears,” Meryl said as she shouldered her satchel again. “I’m so happy for you, but I’ll leave you to celebrate. Do owl me if you have any questions, I’ll be on call for you all night if you need me, otherwise I’ll see you tomorrow morning, bright and early.”
The next few moments were a blur. Pansy was sure she said more, but then Meryl was gone in another flare of green and Parvati’s arms were trying to choke the life out of her.
“We’re going to be mums!” Parvati wailed.
Pansy’s lip wobbled. Two failures, she hadn’t really expected this one to go through. She couldn’t break Parvati’s grip on her, so they both nearly fell off the couch when she leaned over to grab the folder.
It was hard with read with blurry eyes, and no amount of wiping at them made a difference, because sod it all, she couldn’t have stopped herself from crying right now if her life depended on it. Not with the way Parvati was, not while knowing how much it meant to her to finally succeed in adopting a child. Not with the feeling blossoming in her own chest after she’d fought so hard to not get too invested in the idea after two failures.
In the end, she’d thought she might hate this moment and change her mind about everything, but that couldn’t be more different than the feeling trying to burst out of her chest.
But still, flicking through the pages, all the signature lines bore ridiculous flourishes that she could see even through such blurry eyes. Any lingering doubts faded away. It was real. It was really happening.
The folder fell from her hands and she gave up on any lingering scraps of self control she had.
“We’re going to be mums!” she cried, turning properly in Parvati’s death grip until she could press her face to her hair and let it soak up her tears.
