RP: A New Beginning? More Like the Beginning of the End.
Date: 19 May 1998
Characters: Pansy Parkinson
Location: Streets of Hogsmeade
Status: Private
Summary: Pansy waits for news.
Completion: Complete
Pansy was tired. No, not tired; Pansy was exhausted. She'd been having trouble falling asleep last night, and then they'd been evacuated. One would think that they would have had a better plan in place for evacuating the students. Instead of being sent home, they'd been sent to Hogsmeade and made to wait. Wait for what, Pansy wasn't certain. Some parents came to retrieve their children as the night went on and news went out about what was happening at Hogwarts, but there was no sign of hers. Not that she had expected there to be. She just hoped they were safe at home, instead of up at the castle.
She'd spent most of the night huddled on the pavement with her sister, eyes riveted toward Hogwarts and listening to snatches of news on a wireless that some old woman had brought out of her house. For the first time in her life, Pansy hoped that no one would notice her there, comforting Violet and trying to answer her questions as best she could. Not that it was easy. Pansy didn't have any answers.
And then the news came. Potter was dead. It didn't matter that people were gathering to go up to the castle and fight, if Potter were dead, surely it would be all over. He was supposed to be some Chosen One, right? That's what the Prophet had called him the summer before sixth year, before they'd started to call him Undesirable Number 1. If the Chosen One had failed, then how was anyone supposed to succeed?
Pansy had never felt dread and relief all at once. It was odd and exhausting. Violet had started to cry beside her, but Pansy had sat there with her back straight, continuing to stare at the sky. She didn't cry in front of anyone. Crying was a sign of weakness, and though there were times that she'd wanted to start bawling in the middle of class, or break down right in the corridors, she'd kept it in until she was alone. She'd do that now.
She wasn't altogether sure what they should do next, so they had stayed there on the pavement, waiting for someone to tell them it was safe to go back. Or safe to go home. Safe to go anywhere at all. And she had thought, and tried to figure out how she was supposed to go on doing the things she'd been made to do the past eight months. Perhaps she wouldn't have to. Perhaps the Dark Lord would make her do something that didn't involve torture and violence. Perhaps she would go mad like Draco's aunt Bellatrix, and it wouldn't matter anymore.
They waited so long that it felt like forever had passed them by. So long that every thing turned on it's head, and the Dark Lord was the one who was dead instead of Potter. When she heard that, Pansy couldn't hold it in any longer. The tears came right there in the middle of Hogsmeade, with people celebrating and shouting all around her. There it was again, that same odd mixture of dread and relief.
She wouldn't have to live that life anymore. Things would get back to normal now. They would get a new Minister who would make sure that everyone was treated like equals, Hogwarts would go back to being a school instead of a training ground for the next generation of Death Eaters, the mudbloods would be released from prison, and everyone would live happily ever after.
Except for her. There wasn't going to be any normal or happily ever after for Pansy. Not when her parents were the ones where were going to be wanted now. If they weren't already on their way to a cell in Azkaban. She still wasn't sure what she was supposed to do next. So she sat there on the pavement, in the midst of all the revelers, clinging to her sister. And Pansy waited.
Characters: Pansy Parkinson
Location: Streets of Hogsmeade
Status: Private
Summary: Pansy waits for news.
Completion: Complete
Pansy was tired. No, not tired; Pansy was exhausted. She'd been having trouble falling asleep last night, and then they'd been evacuated. One would think that they would have had a better plan in place for evacuating the students. Instead of being sent home, they'd been sent to Hogsmeade and made to wait. Wait for what, Pansy wasn't certain. Some parents came to retrieve their children as the night went on and news went out about what was happening at Hogwarts, but there was no sign of hers. Not that she had expected there to be. She just hoped they were safe at home, instead of up at the castle.
She'd spent most of the night huddled on the pavement with her sister, eyes riveted toward Hogwarts and listening to snatches of news on a wireless that some old woman had brought out of her house. For the first time in her life, Pansy hoped that no one would notice her there, comforting Violet and trying to answer her questions as best she could. Not that it was easy. Pansy didn't have any answers.
And then the news came. Potter was dead. It didn't matter that people were gathering to go up to the castle and fight, if Potter were dead, surely it would be all over. He was supposed to be some Chosen One, right? That's what the Prophet had called him the summer before sixth year, before they'd started to call him Undesirable Number 1. If the Chosen One had failed, then how was anyone supposed to succeed?
Pansy had never felt dread and relief all at once. It was odd and exhausting. Violet had started to cry beside her, but Pansy had sat there with her back straight, continuing to stare at the sky. She didn't cry in front of anyone. Crying was a sign of weakness, and though there were times that she'd wanted to start bawling in the middle of class, or break down right in the corridors, she'd kept it in until she was alone. She'd do that now.
She wasn't altogether sure what they should do next, so they had stayed there on the pavement, waiting for someone to tell them it was safe to go back. Or safe to go home. Safe to go anywhere at all. And she had thought, and tried to figure out how she was supposed to go on doing the things she'd been made to do the past eight months. Perhaps she wouldn't have to. Perhaps the Dark Lord would make her do something that didn't involve torture and violence. Perhaps she would go mad like Draco's aunt Bellatrix, and it wouldn't matter anymore.
They waited so long that it felt like forever had passed them by. So long that every thing turned on it's head, and the Dark Lord was the one who was dead instead of Potter. When she heard that, Pansy couldn't hold it in any longer. The tears came right there in the middle of Hogsmeade, with people celebrating and shouting all around her. There it was again, that same odd mixture of dread and relief.
She wouldn't have to live that life anymore. Things would get back to normal now. They would get a new Minister who would make sure that everyone was treated like equals, Hogwarts would go back to being a school instead of a training ground for the next generation of Death Eaters, the mudbloods would be released from prison, and everyone would live happily ever after.
Except for her. There wasn't going to be any normal or happily ever after for Pansy. Not when her parents were the ones where were going to be wanted now. If they weren't already on their way to a cell in Azkaban. She still wasn't sure what she was supposed to do next. So she sat there on the pavement, in the midst of all the revelers, clinging to her sister. And Pansy waited.