Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Pansy found Hermione outside, just like she knew she would. Under the thin awning in front of the restaurant, staring out towards the street.
“I love the sound of rain on cobblestone.” Pansy began.
Hermione turned her head in surprise as Pansy cast an Impervius over both of them.
“Thanks.”
They both stood in silence waiting for..something.
“You didn’t have to come out here, I was just taking a min- ” Hermione started.
“- I’m surprised you lasted as long as you did,” Pansy smirked. She was giving Hermione an opening. Hermione scoffed with a small smile, “I promised Nev I’d be on my best behaviour.”
Pansy chuckled, “I made Draco promise the same.”
“That was him on his best behaviour?” Hermione barked a laugh
“That was him trying.” They both rolled their eyes.
They fell into a silence again. Pansy wouldn’t call herself a brave woman, but she did know how to play her cards right. In this moment she knew it was best to just wait. And it paid off as Hermione filled the silence. “I thought you only cast an Impervius? Is there a heating charm as well?”
“A little something I came up with,” Pansy replied. “I can’t stand being cold and wet.”
“I thought you liked the rain?”
“I do.” sniffed Pansy, “From indoors. I don’t mind being cold or wet but it’s being both that horrendous.”
“So how are you managing this?” Hermione asked gesturing around her own body. “ What charms did you combine, It’s working so well. It’s not too hot and I can feel it head to toe.”
“Goodness, do I know something the great Hermione Granger doesn’t?” joked Pansy.
“Wounds the ego really.” Hermione smiled and a certain easiness finally settled between them.
The two women observed each other head-on. They were seeing a new side of the other. Pansy saw how the woman in front of her differed greatly from the girl she knew in school. And wasn’t that exactly what Pansy hoped to prove about herself? That she’d changed, done the hard work of atonement, and gone through the growing pains of regret and penitence?
“I should head back” started Pansy. “It won’t do to keep Neville waiting. Besides, who knows what kind of trouble those two will get into.”
“I’ll see you in there,” Hermione replied. “I’ll need a few more minutes.”
Pansy was serious about Neville. She knew he was it for her. She was long past trying to deny herself the goodness life had to offer for fear of it being taken away. She was trying not to be that girl anymore, the one afraid that something good happening to someone else meant that it had been taken from her. That it came at the price of her not having it.
Pansy made her way to the front door of the restaurant, daintily stepping over a small shallow puddle.
If she was going to take this seriously (which, too late she already had), then she had to jump with both feet into the possibility that Hermione Granger might someday become her friend. And as her first act of friendship toward Hermione, Pansy bravely gave her a morsel of honesty, a small secret. It was all she could manage really.
“For what it’s worth,” Pansy said, gripping the door handle, “He was really nervous about tonight. I practically had to drag him out of his flat.” she opened the door.
“Yeah Nev said he hoped tonight would go well, I won’t ruin anything for him.”
Pansy looked back at her with a quirked eyebrow. “You make him nervous. You have ever since eighth year you know.”
Then she was gone.
Hermione stood outside eyes wide with two realizations as the cold seeped in, no longer held at bay by Pansy’s charm.
Firstly, they hadn’t been talking about Neville at all.
Secondly, Draco Malfoy might have told someone about their one and only kiss.