Pansy meant Slytherins. "The hell I can' t," she snapped.
Pansy shook her head, but there was nothing but earnestness in her expression. "I'm serious. Some things, you don't muck about with. It's not done. He'll be cross with himself if either of us stays here tonight."
Hermione sniffled loudly. She had had a gutful of stubborn Slytherins, but a part of her knew Pansy was being correct, rather than vindictive.
There was some sort of Slytherin code. Thou shalt not cry in public, thou shalt not date Hufflepuffs, and the like.
"I'm not doing this to be difficult. It's what he'd prefer. I'll check in on him before breakfast. After that, he's all yours."
Feeling numb, Hermione stroked the hair off Draco's forehead, not caring that Pansy watched. It was good that he slept, if only because Hermione didn' t know how else to help him. She felt useless. "I' ll come and find you first thing in the morning," she told him. Her voice caught at the end. "I promise."
After she had a very long talk with Harry.
And made some very firm plans.
"Come on, I'll show you out," Pansy said, softly.
With effort, Hermione tore her eyes away from her sleeping husband, and followed Pansy out of the room. It was a sombre procession. The door clicked shut behind them.
"You and I need to stop running into each other like this, Granger," Pansy remarked, dryly. It was as about as tastefully humorous as was possible, given the situation.
They walked quickly down the corridor, arriving once more in the Slytherin Common Room. Pansy pushed open the doors and Hermione stared for a moment, out into the darkness of the lower ground hallway.
There was a steadily building pressure at the back of her throat, the product of suppressing her tears. Pansy, in contrast, was very collected. Hermione knew she had been close to crying earlier, but the girl's nose wasn't even red.
"How long have you felt this way about him?" Hermione asked.
"Since I was ten," Pansy replied, without any embarrassment. "Don' t give me that sceptical look, Granger. I know exactly what he is most of the time. And I also think you know that what he is sometimes isn' t always something to complain about. We would have been good together."
Hermione was almost inclined to agree.
Pansy sighed. It was a dainty noise. "Narcissa was a bitch and really screwed up as far as mothering went, but she did have a way about her." She fingered the brass handle of the Common Room doors. "He gets his grace from her, you know. And those cheekbones, of course."
"Thank you, Pansy," Hermione said. It just needed to be said.
The other girl shrugged. "Don't look so depressed. There are only a few of us left at school now and we're all leaving for good tomorrow. I doubt things can get much worse."
**
Pansy made her way back to her own room. It was in the middle of the corridor and the nearest to the lounge area. She really was going to miss it. The placement of the room and the acoustics of the dungeon meant that she often - unwittingly, of course - overheard common room conversation.
She placed her hand on the knob to turn it, and was startled when the door swung open from the inside.
"Is he back, then? Did you tell him? What did Granger have to say?" Goyle asked, impatiently. There was a fair sized depression on the edge of the mattress from where he had been sitting and waiting for her. They had been doing that most of the night, given that Draco was supposed to have returned to Hogwarts by eleven o'clock the previous evening.
Pansy frowned, pushed past him and didn't speak until the door was shut. "Lower your voice! They're back, yes. Turns out we didn't need to break the news to him. Professor Snape did it himself."
Goyle shifted his considerable weight from right foot to left foot. "How is he?"
"Could be better," Pansy sighed. "He's a bit ill at the moment, which is expected given the news." She kicked off her bedroom slippers and sat on the bed.
There was a yellow, stuffed elephant lying in between two, cream-coloured cushions with brocade piping. She grabbed the elephant and hugged it to her.
There was a very pregnant pause.
"Seeing as it' s done now, you should try and get some sleep. It' s past sunrise."
She didn't immediately reply, but continued to worry the elephant's ears between her fingers. "Did you see Blaise yesterday?"