Title: Fade And Drift
Rating: PG
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy
Warnings: None
Notes: For
teaandhoney.
Prompt: life didn't turn out quite the way their parents had planned for them when they were both children A character study on Pansy and Draco.
Summary: They both fade and drift.
Things aren't what their parents expected or really wanted for them when they grew up. They grew up too fast, thanks to the War. Everyone had thought they would end up together, married, with kids of their own one day, make their parents happy. Things just don't work out like you plan them though.
Draco just looks tired most days, weary in a way that sleep can't fix, bone deep. Pansy meets him every morning at their favorite coffee shop and they go over their own plans for the day and catch up on any news they might have from the previous day.
Pansy stirs her coffee and nibbles at a muffin, not really tasting it. She's tired this morning too and Draco looks even worse than usual. He's no longer the elegant, smooth boy he once was. He's haggard now, thin, rough around the edges, but he's still Draco. Just as cutting as he ever was.
Draco looks at her with cold eyes and she wants nothing more than to go back to their school days, the young ones where they were happy and ignorant of the harsh ways of the world. Especially Draco because he's changed too much and not at all for the better.
His hand presses against his left forearm and she knows the Mark still aches, though it's really only in Draco's head since the Dark Lord is dead and gone, thanks to Harry Potter. Of course. Some things never change, she thinks with a bitter smile.
Things didn't turn out the way she'd planned either. She always thought she'd end up with Draco or at least some other pure blood wizard, marry him, and have two children - a boy and a girl. Everything would be fine and happy and life would be normal. There's none of that now.
She's not happy, single, no kids, and her parents aren't proud, they're dead. She can't seem to catch her breath and her chest hurts from trying. Nothing ever goes right these days and she's still too proud to ask anyone for help, even if it is Draco because she knows that Draco can't even help himself now, much less her.
Life didn't turn out the way Draco wanted either. Nothing did. Not since his family made their allegiance to the Dark Lord clear while he was still in school and everything just went upside down and nothing made any sense anymore to him. Everything fell into chaos and he was left holding the bag as it were.
They do the best they can for each other. They meet for coffee every morning and share any news that will bring even the slightest of smiles to the other's face, just to see it since a smile is a very rare sight these days from anyone. Things are bleak after the sense of victory wears off after a war. This one lasted longer because it was the true end, but everything fades in time.
Even they fade with time and the more time that goes by, the more they fade and drift away, not at all like their parents planned for them.