Fic "Choices" R-NC17 PP/RW Chapter 4
Title: Choices
Author: nancyhartigan
Rating: R - NC17
Pairing: PP/RW, GW/BZ, PP/DM, HG/RL,
Summary: Sometimes ultimate power is making your own decisions.
Warnings (if any): Future Character Death / sex / language / violence / adult situations
Disclaimer: If I had a penny every time I wished they were mine…but alas, no they belong to JK Rowling. It’s probably for the best because with that kind of money I might do something stupid like live in luxury or something!
Notes: Want to send a big thanks to my betas (yes, I need more than one!) moonshdw00, rouri, socaligrljen, and silvermoonstar! Without you I wouldn’t even post this!
Never again! Was the first thing that popped into her mind when she woke up the next morning, I refuse to be scared of him any longer! The night before had been a bad one, so bad in fact that Pansy had taken 3 showers to try and take away the feeling of dirtiness that surrounded her. The showers didn’t work because she still felt dirty. Pansy looks around and is relieved to see that there is no one else there to see her this way. They must all be at breakfast already, she thinks. Her neck hurts and she walks over to the vanity knowing already what she is going to find. Picking up a hand mirror she stands in front of the vanity lifting up her hair. Her fears were correct she could see the black and blue skin just under her hairline where Goyle had manhandled her when she had tried to refuse. That Bastard is going to pay! She thought of how exactly she would do this on her way to take her fourth shower since last night’s activities.
***
It was Sunday and the Gryffindor common room was filled with students planning on having a lazy day, which is exactly what Ron wanted to do. Unfortunately Hermione had different ideas. “Come on Ron, we have to study for the potions exam! You’ve skived it off all weekend!”
Ron groaned inwardly, “Let it go already, Hermione! I’ve hardly skived it off considering you’ve made us study both Friday and Saturday night! Give it a rest, and let’s just go get some breakfast; I’m starved!”
“Ron is right, ‘Mione. We need to have a day where we don’t have to think about anything”, Harry chimed in and then added with a lopsided grin, “Except maybe for Quidditch.”
“Ha! I completely agree, mate!” laughed Ron.
Hermione rolled her eyes at this last statement, “If you two want to fail don’t come crying to me…Quidditch, one track minds, I swear!”
Ron walked up and casually threw a friendly arm around her. “Don’t worry I’m sure we won’t have time to cry to you with the constant nagging you’ll be doing!” he said playfully.
Hermione had to smile at that, but playfully punched him in the stomach anyway. She loved Ron, and these little moments of playfulness always made her day. She knew that he didn’t feel the same way about her yet, but she told her self that would change as they got older; at least she hoped it would. Just as quickly as he put his arm around her it was gone. “Great, let’s get some breakfast.” He said and the three of them were out the portrait hole and off to the Great Hall.
***
Lavender watched them from her chair in front of the fire. She always watched when Ron was around. Parvati made fun of her quite often about her “obsession” with the red headed Gryffindor. “Why do you even like him? The twins are better looking than him, and there are two of them! Or is it because it’s not so much him, but the fact that you want to take what Hermione wants?” Lavender could hear her friend now in her head, but whenever the subject was brought up she never bothered to answer Parvati, she didn’t have to. She wanted Ron Weasley and that was what she planned on getting. GAH! How could he even touch that wallflower? She thought as she watched Ron throw his arm over Hermione’s shoulder. She has to be using sex to keep him around. Lavender knew this was wrong as soon as she thought it. No one would want to touch that bucktoothed, frizzy head know-it-all. She probably didn’t even get kissed by Viktor Krum during the Yule Ball in fourth year. Just looking at her made Lavender sick, and it especially bothered her how close she was to Ron.
***
The Golden Trio were at the bottom of the stairs close to the Great Hall when Ron spotted Pansy, once again by herself. He couldn’t help but notice that she was alone an awful lot lately; that was weird for her. He also noticed how unhappy she looked, and then he saw one of the most intriguing things he had ever seen. Just before Pansy walked into the Great Hall she stopped herself, as if to gain composure; and Ron watched as she forced herself to wipe her face of anything but a haughty expression, squared her shoulder and walked into the hall as if her former self was never there. Ron had never seen anyone look as fragile as she did the moment before she put on her facade, and for some reason it really bothered him to see her that way. He suddenly felt someone bump him in the back, “Why did you stop? I thought you were starved?” Hermione chided. Ron didn’t realize that he had stopped at the bottom of the stairs until Hermione bumped into him.
“I am, let’s go.” Ron said as he started again for the Great Hall. He didn’t think that either Harry or Hermione knew that he had been staring at Parkinson, and he would prefer to keep it that way.
When they sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall Ron did the weirdest thing; he sat opposite of the usual side that they all sat on together. Harry and Hermione thought this was weird, and when Harry asked what was up Ron replied with a grin, “Nothing except the scones are on this side of the table!” Hermione and Harry looked at each other for a second and then shrugged as they took their normal seats and started grabbing various items from the table and placed them on the plates.
During breakfast, Ron kept looking over at the Slytherin table. He couldn’t help but watch Parkinson as she sat there. Her façade hadn’t changed since she walked into the hall. He did notice that she was very quiet and wasn’t really speaking to anyone. Ron also noticed that Goyle, Crabbe and Malfoy were huddled together laughing and whispering while throwing occasional looks over at Parkinson. Ron didn’t understand what made Parkinson so interesting lately; he chocked it up to her acting out of character.
Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, sat at the head table watching his students as he did every morning. Hardly anything ever escaped his notice, and today was no different. Dumbledore found it amusing that young Ron Weasley was sitting opposite of Hermione and Harry. That is different indeed, Dumbledore thought. He soon realized why young Weasley had done this; it seemed that Ron was watching the Slytherin table quite intently. It took him a moment, but he suddenly realized that it wasn’t that Ron was keeping an eye on Malfoy as he first thought, but that Ron watching the same girl that Albus himself had been paying attention to since the end of last year, Pansy Parkinson.