And Then He Was Gone

Uninvited Guests

"There are two kinds of guests; the uninvited, but welcomed, and then there's your best friend (run far away)."

~Ashley LeeAnn Fredrick

The pair ended up with something eatable, and let's just leave it at that. Charlie had gone to get the door when it rang and Pansy heard the scream of Ginny Weasley a moment later as she threw herself onto her brother.

"Charlie!" Ginny screamed when he opened the door. "What on Earth are you doing here?!"

"Long story, love," he replied setting her back down. "Harry, good to see you mate," he said pulling the mildly surprised man into a one armed hug.

"You too, Charlie," Harry replied pulling away. "Ron and Hermione should be along any minute, Pansy," he called over the Weasley's shoulder.

"Oh yea," the young women remarked sarcastically coming to the doorway, "I'm overjoyed."

"You know, this is going to be harder to do with Charlie here," he muttered in her ear after he had greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.

"We'll fill him in then, Harry," she sighed pulling him into a hug. "He's my friend as well."

"I thought Slytherins didn't have friends?" he smirked as Ginny bombarded Pansy with a hug.

"Haha, Harry," she scoffed the old drawl showing slightly in her voice.

"Pansy, you are aware that we're not leaving until we get some straight answers?" Ginny said pulling away from the girl.

"Then I guess you'll never be leaving," she said heading back to the kitchen. "I didn't want you to come in the first place," she replied coldly as the group followed her.

"You damn Slytherins are so insufferable," Ginny snapped sinking into a chair.

"It comes naturally," Pansy smirked raising one eyebrow in her direction.

"I swear, Snape must teach you all how to do that," Harry said sitting next to Ginny.

"Snape's really not that bad you know," she said starting to put dishes on the table with the help of Charlie.

"Now don't go changing our minds about thing's we've already decided on," Charlie butt in setting a few plates on the table. "Zabini, Malfoy, and you already did that once."

"Maybe you just have wrong opinions," she said.

"Opinions can't be wrong if they're opinions," Ginny pointed out from her place.

"I suppose you're right, Gin," she replied and made her way to the door as it rang once again.

"Harry and Gin here?" Ron asked as soon as she opened the door.

"Nice to see you too, Ron." She smirked rolling her eyes.

"Ignore him, he forgets his...no wait, he doesn't have manners," Hermione said stepping into the flat.

"Charlie, what in bloody blazes are you doing here?" Ron asked as they walked into the kitchen. "I thought maybe you hadn't shown up!"

"Sorry about that, little brother," Charlie said sheepishly, "I got preoccupied," and he sent a teasing glare Pansy's way.

"Oh sod off, you're the one who found me," she pointed out taking her place at the table among the others.

"It looks...err...well it looks like food, Pans," Ron put in staring at the meal.

"One more word, Weasley, and I'll make sure you and Granger never reproduce," she sneered in his direction.

The meal passed by with them talking about recent engagements in their life. It was uncanny, Pansy thought, how alike they all were. Bloody sodding Gryffindors, always have to have a good time. But she enjoyed their company and put up with their Slytherin jokes, and they endured her Gryffindor comments. But by the time the last bit of food had been popped into Ron's mouth the conversation turned to slightly different topics.

"Harry," Ginny said having the courage to be the first one to tread on the dangerous waters, "Heard anything?"

"Not a word," he replied catching on. "Seems he's gone without a trace."

"Serves him right," Ron put in (not quite knowing it was a sensitive subject). "I don't care what he did; those damn Slytherins deserve everything they get."

"One of those damn Slytherins is sitting right here, Weasley," Pansy said clearly disgusted at the turn of subject.

"Look, Pansy," Ginny sighed. "No games anymore. Just tell us what is wrong. Did Malfoy do something that night to make you be the way you are? Did he say something?"

Harry shared a knowing look with her and Pansy sighed keeping her mouth shut.

"It doesn't just have to do with him, does it?" Hermione asked. Damn her observing nature. "It's about him."

"Why the hell are we talking about bloody Malfoy?" Charlie asked clueless as to the conversation around him.

"Malfoy disappeared five years ago Charlie, the same night Voldemort was destroyed, months after Zabini died fighting for your cause," she spat. "I guess I just haven't been the same since. It only has to do with the fact that I lost the only two Slytherins who ever understood what we did."

"It was your cause too," Harry put in.

"I think I'm the only Slytherin left who isn't dead or in Azkaban from our year. Everyone, but us three, turned to Voldemort," she said pushing her plate aside and resting her elbows on the table. "And now the only two who understood my motives are gone. You try continuing on with life the same. But at least I continued on."

"Hogwarts only closed briefly to find new staff," Hermione put in understanding her friend.

"Because the old staff couldn't comprehend with the fact that Dumbledore died," she said.

"Yea, well, just because you Slytherins didn't like him doesn't mean the rest of the wizarding world didn't. He was a great man," Ron put in.

"He was, why do think Snape would've sided with him otherwise?" she asked her tone rising. "Snape was the one who recruited us, told us what was important. We respected our Head so much that we threw away everything that was important to us to help you."

"Threw away everything that was important to help us? We had to let you!" Ron practically shouted standing. Hermione grabbed his arm and pulled him roughly back into his seat.

"Our house hated us when we didn't become Death Eaters. Dumbledore had to move us to different rooms! Our families cut us off, and we threw away all the beliefs we'd been raised with," she countered back at him.

"Oh help us, we're no longer accepted by our evil Voldemort supporting families. We no longer have access to all the money we willed off of people and most of all, our entire house hates us. Whatever are we to do?!" Ron shrieked in poor imitation. Pansy's face started burning, but before she could say anything Charlie stood up.

"Enough!" he shouted looking at the both of them. "Stop it both of you. Ron, shut up and shove your policies up your arse. So what, Slytherins didn't turn out to be so heartless after all, get over it! And Pansy, it was your choice all those years ago to leave everything important to you behind to fight for a better cause. But you can't honestly tell me you didn't like it when people finally accepted you? That you didn't enjoy fighting for something you knew was right? For defying your family and Voldemort?"

"That's not the point, Charlie...." she started.

"It is the point! I don't know what you five are on about, but I don't care. You want to find Malfoy, go ahead. I'd love to shake the bloak's hand after what he did that night. You know the reason some of you are standing here today is because of him. Because of his sly tactics and his forceful plans. I understand that Harry was the hero of the night, but think for just one bloody moment about what Malfoy did, what Zabini did, what Pansy did," he said and slowly sank back into his seat.

"Malfoy did help us a great deal. He knew how their mind's worked and how they acted. He helped loads, and I don't know if we could have done any of it without him," Hermione said after a few minutes of silence.

"And Zabini made a great spy," Ginny put in. "Without his information we would've been clueless as to what to do next. What happened to him was awful. I'd give nearly anything to hear him stand and speak at an order meeting again."

"And Pansy helped us loads too," Harry said looking at the girl on the end of the table who had decided to bow her head to hide emotions she wasn't suppose to have. "She was a key part in a lot of those plans. She knew who was in, who was out. She dealt with a lot of people and got more information then we could've hoped for. Her and Malfoy were geniuses at coming up with good plans. Not to mention all the Death Eaters she took care of the night."

Pansy looked up, tears stinging her eyes. Don't cry, she thought. Slytherins don't cry. "And now they're both gone; I might as well be to," she sighed to the group. "You guys have been great; don't get me wrong, you have. It took you awhile to accept us, to accept me, but you did. And I know that we still stuck together and we didn't really trust you, but that's just the way Slytherins are," she said quietly. "You have to understand that I really miss them. And nothing will bring them back. Zabini was such a brilliant person you can't even comprehend it. He always knew what to do, and he was very protective." She smiled in remembrance. "And who knows what happened to Malfoy. He's probably dead; it's been five years. But I was so insanely proud of him for turning against his father."

"You know Pansy," Ginny said looking a bit embarrassed. "I always just thought you were this stupid, nasty, squealing-for-Malfoy's-attention girl. How did you ever change so much?"

"Pureblood girls are raised to pick the best of the small choices and go for them, all out. I had to be stupid; it supposedly made them think I needed them. And of course I was mean and sadistic, I still am a bit. I never even really liked him all those years. I always thought he was a stuck-up manipulative little git who just did what his father said. But things changed when he changed. I wasn't afraid to be who I really was anymore. The more he became himself the more I became mine." Pansy looked at her fingernails as though she really didn't want to talk about this subject, but she knew they wouldn't drop it.

"How much do you really want to find him?" Harry asked.

Pansy glanced at him and could tell he was filled with guilt and sympathy for her. "Harry, don't feel sorry for me," she sighed grasping his hand in hers. "He made a choice, I made a choice."

"That's not what I asked," Harry persisted.

"I want to KNOW that he's dead. That the reason he didn't come back was because he's gone. I don't want to be told any different," she sighed.

"Wait a bloody moment," Charlie put in for the first time. "You fell for that bloody git didn't you?"

"He changed, Charlie," Pansy said knowing she wouldn't be able to hide it any longer. "He changed and I fell for him," she said restating his words. "I didn't want to, I still wish I hadn't."

"I'll be," Ron muttered sinking into his chair in shock. "I didn't see that coming."

"That's why you've been like this. You miss him," Hermione put in.

"Him," Ginny said realization dawning on her. "That's who you always talked about. On the anniversary every time I come to see you you're just sitting there think of him. If only I'd have known it was Malfoy!"

"Then we have to find him," Hermione squealed. "We have to know why he didn't come back for you."

"Unless he just chose not to," Ron said thinking logically. "Malfoy's don't possess feelings; he probably really didn't care about you."

"I don't know Ron," Pansy sighed.

"Did you love him?" Charlie practically whispered.

"Love; what is it, Charlie? Some stupid scandal they made up for marriage proposals and the sell of roses," she scoffed.

"If love doesn't exist, Pansy, then tell me why I'm with this thick-headed nitwit next to me," Hermione said thrusting her thumb in Ron's direction.

"Oy," he shouted. But Hermione just laughed and bent over and kissed him.

"Love exists, Pansy," she said pulling away. "Believe me when I say that."

"If it exists then how come my parents weren't in love?" she responded.

"Because your parents chose the best prospect of purebloods that they could tolerate. You can't force yourself to fall in love with someone. It happens, you can't control it. You can't help who you fall in love with."

"But how do know you're in love, Granger?"

"Tell me how you felt about him," she said. Charlie cleared the dishes off the table with a flick of his wand and the party settled back for a look into the past.