Chapter 24

"I'm telling you, Pansy! You're missing out! The DA could really use some Slytherin Representation, and I'm sure if you joined, so many other Slytherins would too!"

Rolling her eyes, not for the first time since this conversation had started all the way back at the beginning of the train ride, Pansy Parkinson just shakes her head, directing a mirthless smile in Susan Bones' direction.

"Alternatively, they could ostracize me for being a traitor and a suck up. Both of which would be things that would be true if I joined an organization called 'Dumbledore's Army'."

Susan waves a hand airily, launching into yet another phase of her… incessant attempts to get Pansy to sign up to Hogwarts' latest and 'best' school club. Tuning her out for a moment, Pansy instead ponders how exactly she got here. Her, a Slytherin, sitting in a cabin with Susan, a Hufflepuff, forced to listen to the red head natter on and on.

She supposed it could be traced back quite a ways. Why, one could blame it on that new friend of Draco's that he'd made last year, that… Dudley Dursley fellow. Before, it'd been Draco and Pansy, with Crabbe and Goyle as Draco's tagalongs. Suddenly, it'd become Draco and Dudley, and while Pansy didn't think for a second that Dudley Dursley was trying to compete with her for Draco's hand in marriage, there was no denying that the boy's sudden appearance had dramatically altered the dynamic.

Especially when he'd started bringing that mudblood witch Granger around and had somehow talked Draco into thinking it was his idea. It wasn't like there was no room for Pansy in Draco's inner circle anymore… just no room for her in Draco's cabin on the Hogwarts Express, apparently. Being relegated to finding her own cabin was a crushing blow last year on the way home from Hogwarts… THIS year, Pansy hadn't even tried.

Amusingly enough, unbeknownst to Pansy, she very well could have sat with Draco and Dudley on the way from Hogwarts back to the station this year. Seeing how Crabbe and Goyle were off being 'entertained' by a moral-less, fully corrupted Hermione Granger, there were plenty of seats in Draco and Dudley's cabin. As it was, Pansy hadn't even tried, and so the two boys were left to chat among themselves.

Pansy, meanwhile, was 'stuck' with Susan Bones. The Hufflepuff witch had been with her best friend Hannah Abbott when they'd stumbled upon Pansy all alone in her cabin. Upon seeing the unwelcoming look on the Slytherin Witch's face, one would think they would have moved along… but no, Susan had always been tenacious. Sending Hannah on ahead, the red-haired witch had slipped into Pansy's cabin and sat down right then and there.

To be fair to Susan, they were probably the closest thing to a friendship that currently existed between a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff. That wasn't to say they WERE friends, because they weren't, at least not in Pansy's opinion. But they were… forced acquaintances, after a fashion. House Bones and House Parkinson ran in the same political circles, and with the Wizarding World being as small and tight-knit as it was, Pansy and Susan had run into each other at holiday parties and get-togethers over the years more than once.

When you were a kid at one of those things, especially a young witch, you wanted to band together, to avoid any… incidents. No matter how stately and proper an old wizard might look, you did NOT ever accept his invitation to look at his collection of rare books. Pansy had never had to learn that the hard way, she wasn't some Ravenclaw, but she'd heard about a few incidents over the years all the same… involving girls who were in fact now Ravenclaws, at that.

And no one was ever punished for it either, because that was just the way the world was. So yes, Pansy and Susan were acquaintances, and had known each other for quite some time, long before arriving at Hogwarts. It helped, of course, that they weren't in adversarial houses. Slytherin could technically be considered to be in an adversarial relationship with ALL of the Hogwarts Houses, but in truth the real bad blood only existed between them and Gryffindor.

They looked down on Hufflepuffs for being lemmings and too friendly by half, and the compete with Ravenclaws to be the best academically… but it was Gryffindor that House Slytherin treated like their mortal enemies. Or as much of a mortal enemy as one can be when all those involved are school age.

Which had made it all the more mind boggling to Pansy to see Draco spending so much time around that Gryffindor Mudblood last year. Still, it wasn't her place to question it. House Malfoy was prestigious and powerful enough that they could DO things like that. Her, on the other hand…

Raising a hand and stopping Susan in her tracks, Pansy shakes her head. She hasn't even really been listening all that closely to Susan's sales pitch for the last however long, but she can guess.

"I'm not joining Dumbledore's Army, Susan, and that's final."

But of course, it wasn't final in Susan's opinion.

"But why not?! The DA was formed to protect each other, Pansy! And sure, it's chalk full of Gryffindors, but there are just as many Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws as well!"

As earnest as Susan is, Pansy still detects the fib in the red head's voice, rolling her eyes.

"You mean there are as many Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws COMBINED as there are Gryffindors… IF that."

Susan blushes prettily at being called out and for a moment, Pansy finds herself once again comparing their bodies. It's something that the Parkinson witch has been doing more and more with her peers over the last year, as she's grown up and grown out, so to speak. Pansy's developing feminine figure is nothing to scoff out, by her estimation.

With a raven-haired pixie cut, a cute face, and a developing hourglass body, Pansy knows she's cute already, and is going to be downright smoking hot in another year or two. Draco won't know what hit him once she grows fully into her own, she figures. It'll be like taking candy from a baby, getting his eyes on her and keeping them there… or so she hopes.

However, when she compares herself to girls like Susan Bones, Pansy can admit to feeling just a kernel of doubt. Its not that Pansy herself is unattractive or anything like that… merely that bitches like Susan Bones have ALL the luck. The crimson-haired Hufflepuff Witch has also sprouted up and outwards in the past year, but where Pansy has made respectable gains in all the right areas, Susan has gone ahead and doubled those gains at least.

She has the biggest titties of their year, easily, and more than that, her blue eyes, red hair, and freckled face give her this cute, adorable girl-next-door look even with her… bimboish body. The damn witch has the best of both worlds! It isn't fair, not by Pansy's estimation. It's not fair by a LONG shot.

"W-Well… that may be true, but at least the DA was started by a Ravenclaw, right? That's gotta count for something!"

Raising an eyebrow, Pansy snorts derisively.

"Sure. It shows that a Ravenclaw like Professor Lockhart knows exactly how to convince a whole bunch of Gryffindors and a handful of Hufflepuffs to join his club. Just name it after the most famous Gryffindor Wizard of all time."

It's Susan's turn to roll her eyes at that, shaking her head as she smiles.

"Oh, come on, I think Headmaster Dumbledore rates as bit more than a Gryffindor Wizard. Still, he's definitely getting on in the years, there's no doubt about that! That's why wizards like Professor Lockhart are the future, Pansy! And by signing up now, you can be PART of that future! You can help us fight off the Dark Creatures that prey upon the Hogwarts Population! Like what those dirty centaurs did to that poor girl…"

Pansy sighs. Because honestly? There is a note of… appeal to Susan's argument. The red head has managed to hit upon the two greatest positives to joining up with this… Dumbledore's Army. One, the club had been founded by Professor Gilderoy Lockhart. Even before becoming their Hogwarts Professor last year, Gilderoy Lockhart was someone who every witch their age knew.

As Susan swoons over him, going on and on about how handsome and powerful and dashing he is, Pansy… can't really bring herself to disagree, admittedly. Indeed, Pansy Parkinson owns every single one of Professor Lockhart's books… and had owned them even before they'd become a mandatory part of the school reading this year.

She'd read them all back to back and spent several nights staring dreamily at his winking magical portrait on the back cover of each. Sometimes… sometimes Pansy was daring enough to lay out all of the books on her bed, propped up so that the small portraits of Gilderoy were all watching her. Then, she'd take off her clothes, lie back on her bed… and play with herself.

On top of that, the handsome, studly, stunningly powerful man had featured in a number of her wet dreams. Hers and a good number of other young witches, if Susan's gushing was anything to go off of. To be fair, Lockhart was… he really could be the next Albus Dumbledore. He was charismatic, affable, but most importantly of all, incredibly powerful and accomplished.

All of the things he'd done in his books spoke of a very powerful wizard capable of incredible feats of heroics. More than that, he'd shown those same heroic qualities this year in creating the DA and teaching the students of Hogwarts how to defend themselves from Dark Creatures and the like.

The thing was, Pansy was supposed to be a member of a Dark Family. Technically, they didn't distinguish Noble Houses in that way any longer. There wasn't any such thing as 'Dark' and 'Light' families in actual politics and hadn't been for many years. But the stigma was still there. No one would dare say it to their faces, but certainly, Houses like Black and Malfoy and even Parkinson were still regarded as Dark.

For all that they'd pushed into the light, for all that they were respectable members of society, their pasts were still quite… mired in controversy and what your average moronic wizard might try to call 'evil' or 'over the line'. Pansy had been raised on this understanding as well. That she might not be allowed to be a Dark Witch publicly, but that she would always be one by nurture and by training.

This was all to say… was she not Gilderoy's enemy? Was not all of Slytherin? When Dumbledore's Army had first been made, the Professor hadn't invited a single one of their House. Maybe if he had, they would have joined up… or maybe not, it was still called DUMBLEDORE's Army, and no Slytherin wanted to be associated with that sort of thing.

All the same, as handsome and attractive as Pansy found Professor Lockhart to be, she had to be practical and pragmatic. He and his DA… they weren't for a witch like her. Her job was to get in close to Draco and get him to marry her before they both graduated from Hogwarts. Securing that political alliance, securing her house's future by tying herself to the Malfoys… that was Pansy's purpose in this life.

By comparison, Susan Bones got to engage in frivolous nonsense that Pansy could ever only dream of. In the end, it's easy enough to shut the red head down, even as Susan tries again and again throughout the ride back home. She's persistent if nothing else, but Pansy already has her eye on the prize. And she knows if she takes her eye off that prize for even a second, she might just end up losing it… rather, losing him.

Susan and her bodacious bod is a good example of the sort of competition Pansy is working against. Indeed, even with all the work Pansy puts into her appearance on a daily basis, girls like Susan still manage to outshine her completely.

It cannot stand… and Pansy aims to make sure it doesn't. One way or another, she knows she's going to marry Draco Malfoy.

As the train pulls into the station, the unlikely duo say their goodbyes and the pair of young ladies make their way off to their respective family members. Seeing Susan approaching Dame Amelia Bones, Director of the DMLE, with an 'Auntie Amelia!' is a stark reminder that the other girl is protected from the consequences of her actions by her in with the law. Pansy, meanwhile, or any other Slytherin for that matter, would likely be the first thrown in Azkaban if anyone in the Ministry decided Professor Lockhart's club was the start of some uprising or something.

Best to stay clear of such things… and always keep her eye on the prize.

-x-X-x-

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