The beginning
Pansy Parkinson was born on a cold January night with a red moon. Sybill Trelawney, the seer brought especially for the solemn occasion, had barely entered the room when she announced in a ghostly voice that the baby girl with the flower name would be the best and worst thing that would ever happen to the House of Parkinson. Malcolm Parkinson, Pansy’s father, heard the prophecy with utter horror and blamed the cold and deceiving creature he was forced to call "wife" for bringing misfortune to his family. He had wed Camille Bouchard in a desperate attempt to introduce new magic into his family and increase his chances of siring an heir. Pureblood families in the British Islands had begun to suffer the effects of centuries of endogamous marriages and consider new marriage prospects outside their usual circle. Malcolm in particular was so afraid of being "the last Parkinson" that he didn't think it twice when she met the alluring Camille. Once he realized that the French witch had manipulated him to get what she wanted, a fool to save face, he tried to annul his marriage but his father stopped him. He told him that “there was no point of having one of the purest magical bloods in Britain if he couldn’t pass it to the next generation. Camille could be a liar and schemer but her pedigree was impeccable. He had made his choice and had to face the music”. Malcolm tried to console himself thinking that everything would be better once he sired his heir and secured his family line. However, that night, when he finally hold his baby daughter in his arms, he felt that the whole world was laughing at him. There she was, the future of the Parkinson House, but all he felt was a complete disappointment.
Pansy's mother, on the other hand, was glad that the birth of the Parkinson heir would put an end to her “marital obligations”. Camille Bouchard was a beautiful and ambitious witch. She was born into one of the most ancient and noble families in Wizarding France. However, as it happened to many ancient pureblood families before, previous generations had taken their good fortune for granted and squandered the family vaults. Her parents, Etienne and Genevieve Bouchard tried their best to get back on their feet while concealing the truth, but once their friends and acquaintances heard about their financial problems, they turned their backs on them. None of them liked the smell of failure. They had no other option but to start selling their most valuable possessions and properties to pay back their creditors. Camille refused to admit defeat and fall into oblivion with other second-grade wizards and witches. She had a plan. She convinced her parents to let her visit some distant relatives in Britain instead of spending the summer with them in the French countryside. She told them that she wanted to visit the British Isles to find some peace and solitude, but her real intention was to find a suitable husband in Wizarding Britain before news of their current situation crossed the channel and ruin her marriage prospects as it happened back home. She didn’t entertain any romantic notions anymore. Gone were her youthful dreams of sweet kisses and twilight sunsets. She attended every social event she was invited to find a “cover-up”, a British wizard close to her age with enough wealth and social connections to silence even her most bitter detractor in France. Her marriage to Malcolm Parkinson worked as expected. Once her friends and acquaintances in France heard the good news, they welcomed her back into their fold as if nothing had happened. Her father was able to find the investors he needed to save their potion factory and rebuild his family fortune practically from scratch. However, there were things she didn’t consider when making her plan. Her unorthodox methods for finding and securing a husband hurt many people. She was able to mend things with her parents but the wizard she married despised her with passion. The only reason her husband tolerated her was his desire to father an heir. He didn’t care for her at all. He made that clear every time he meet her. She bore the news with aplomb, thinking that there were still many things worth living for. She didn't need her husband to be happy. She could find happiness on her own. She just needed to give him his precious heir first. She never imagined that she would need six long years to fulfill her part of the bargain, or that the child they both desperately wanted to end their miserable marriage would be "cursed". When Tippy, her personal elf, told her about the prophecy, she started to laugh. She scared the little creature with her strange reaction. He thought that her mistress had lost her mind and asked her if he should call for a healer. She told him that it was not necessary and dismissed him. Camille stood up and looked at her baby daughter sleeping in her crib. She felt nothing. She could only think of how much she had sacrificed for her. She had everything she ever wanted, money, social status, and prestige, but years in a loveless marriage had left her bitter and resentful. She tried to console herself that night with the thought that, for the first time, Malcolm Parkinson felt just as miserable as she did.
Malcolm and Camille never told Pansy about the prophecy or the circumstances of her birth, but she grew up feeling that something was wrong with her. She tried very hard to please her parents, but nothing she did was good enough for them. They always find some fault in her, and if she fixed whatever was bothering them, they always find something new to criticize her for. However, that was not the worst part. They used her shortcomings, real or imaginary, to hurt each other. Pansy tried to make herself small when that happened. She realized that it was better not to say anything when they argue because anything she said could be used to escalate things. She became an expert at playing dead. She didn’t even flinch when they informed her at the age of seven that in a couple of years they were going to send her to a boarding school to complete her magical education. She nodded and leave the room discreetly while her parents started arguing about the best school for her. His father wanted to educate her in Great Britain but her mother insisted on educating her in France. They argued viciously for days. Her mother got tired of fighting and agreed to send her to a British wizarding school if her father promise her that she would master all the social skills expected of a pure-blooded French witch before attending the school of his choice. His father humored her mother. He thought that it was a harmless request. However, he was grossly mistaken. Her mother announced a couple of days later that she was making all the necessary arrangements to send their daughter to live in France with her parents, “the only place where she could actually learn to behave like a French pureblood witch". Malcolm couldn’t do anything to stop his wife. He was magically bound to keep his promise.
His daughter had to spend the next five years in France under the care of her grandparents.
Etienne and Genevieve decided not to question the strange arrangement and welcomed her granddaughter with open arms. They noticed immediately that she was a quiet clever little thing, desperate for love and affection, and made sure to provide her all the respite and reassurance that she craved. Pansy blossomed under their care. She followed them everywhere asking millions of questions at the same time. The elderly couple could barely keep up with her sometimes, but both of them found great joy and pleasure in her company.
She loved living with her grandparents and wished she could stay with the unconventional couple in France forever. She cried bitterly when she received her letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She told her grandparents that she was afraid that nobody would like her at her new school. Her grandmother laughed. She told her not to be silly and that everybody would adore her. Her grandfather reminded her that she has the heir to one of the oldest and most powerful wizarding families in Europe and that she could conquer anything she set her mind to. Pansy tried to hold to the kind words of her grandparents but her first impression of Britain after so many years living abroad was less than favorable. The same could be said about her new school. She was looking for a seat on the Hogwarts Express when she met an awful redheaded boy that made fun of her turned-up nose. She pulled out her wand to teach him a lesson but another boy stepped in and hexed him for her. The boy in question gave her a friendly smile and told her not to take the words of a commoner seriously. Pansy mumbled some grateful words and asked him for his name. He laughed and told her that he hoped she had not forgotten all her acquaintances in Britain. Pansy looked at him in confusion and realized that she was talking to Draco Malfoy, the son of one of her father's friends. She apologized for her terrible oversight. However, he did not seem to be offended. He looked rather amused. He told her to forget about it and invited her to join him and his friends in their train compartment. She accepted the offer and followed him a bit nervous. Once they reached the train compartment, he introduced her to his friends, Lucien Bole, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle. She looked at the boys, expecting the same exaggerated reaction she got whenever she revealed her family names but to her delight, none of them bat an eye when they found out who she was. She realized that all of them came from prominent magical families like hers. However, it was clear that Draco Malfoy was the leader of the group. He decided what to do or say next.
Pansy never met someone like Draco before. Pureblood children were not supposed to be heard or seen. However, he refused to vanish into the background. His self-assured persona made a huge impact on her eleven-year-old self. Pansy was too young and naive at that point to realize that she was mistaking arrogance and good manners for something else. She felt extremely flattered every time he treated her with deference and decided when the Hogwarts Express reached the final stop that she didn’t want to be parted from him. She tried to not lose sight of him during the last part of her travel, and, when Professor McGonagall called her name to decide her house affiliation, she asked the Sorting Hat to put her in the same house that Draco Malfoy had been sorted minutes before. The Sorting Hat tried to reason with her. He told her that she shouldn't let a foolish boy determine such an important decision in her life, but she told the Sorting Hat to mind its own business and threatened to cut him to pieces if he didn't comply with her request. The Sorting Hat burst into laughter and replied that if she was willing to go to such lengths to get what she wanted, she might be a true Slytherin House after all. Pansy did not find his response amusing at all but smiled when he finally screamed Slytherin. She did not care that the students from other houses started booing her. She stood up and joined the House of Green and Silver proudly. Later that day, she sent letters to her parents to report on her first day at school. She didn't expect to get a reply from any of them. She sent them letters more out of obligation than anything else and was genuinely surprised when she received a note from both of them a couple of days later. Pansy read their letter with apprehension and discovered they were absolutely ecstatic. Her father congratulated her on being sorted into Slytherin House and encouraged her to cultivate her friendship with “the Malfoy boy” further. Her mother echoed her father's sentiment on the matter and added that she should be careful about who she associated with from now on because the connections she made now were going to play an important role in her future. She admitted that the Malfoys were a complicated and snobbish family but “befriending their only son was the smartest move”.
Pansy felt strange for a couple of days. She was not used to having the attention of her parents, let alone their approval. However, things took an ugly turn when she realized that the boy that had charmed her with his confident and polite manners was a vain and spoiled brat that hated not being the center of attention. He spent most of his free time tormenting the people that had crossed him. He was an expert at holding grudges. From his perspective, you were his friend, his enemy, or, worse, someone not worthy of his time. Her first instinct was to put as much distance as possible between the two of them but she was more afraid of disrupting the fragile truce established between their parents than anything else. She weighed her options and decided to make things work. She studied Draco Malfoy carefully and molded herself into his perfect half. If he was the spoiled prince of Slytherin, she was the bitchy princess that rule the house of Green and Silver with him. If he was mean to those who wronged him, she was wickedly cruel. They were the perfect couple. Some days she would wake up hating the person that she had become and tried to escape from his toxic orbit, but she always ended up going back to him. Her grandparents hated seeing her bending over backward to please a silly boy and proposed to her parents to send her to the Beauxbatons Academy for one year or two. They refused their petition. Fearful of causing further friction, Pansy did her best to convince her grandparents that she was happy in Britain and that every little display of affection on Draco’s part, no matter how small, was ineffable proof that he cared for her. It didn't matter that he barely noticed all the effort she made to please him or he took her “devotion” for granted. She kept smiling and pretending everything was okay until she met someone that turned her world upside-down.