Omnia Mors Perimit

She moved in front of the mirror and tugged on her skirt. "How d'you like it, Mil?"

"I'd say you've got better underwear than this."

"This is no underwear, dummy!"

"You're not telling me that you intend to wear this in public, are you?" Millicent shook her head and ate another cookie. "If Snape sees you like this, you'll be in detentions for the rest of term."

"He's such a square. And so are you, incidentally!"

"Love you too, bitch," Millicent giggled and stretched out on her bed, munching yet another cookie. "But seriously - you're not going to show yourself like that to anyone, right? I can see your navel, for Merlin's sake."

"This has cost a fortune!"

"They've tricked you, Panse. So little fabric cannot cost that much. And I don't believe either that dear old Malfoy will be too impressed, since that's what you're playing at. You look like a common slut, ya know?"

Pansy swallowed and took one more look at herself. The crux was that she had bought a miniskirt, which she had shortened some more, and which showed her legs very favourably. She knew she had great legs, long and trim and promising, and those school uniform skirts did them no justice. "Listen, Mil, I know you haven't got a clue about fashion, but if you want to take a look in only one of those mags, you'll see that this is the latest rage."

"Obviously, it's outrageous, and if you want to signal that you'd do anything for money, this is certainly the right outfit. But just as surely, Malfoy would get the wrong end of the stick. Just in case he should ever get the notion of touching you, you wouldn't want him to give you fifty bucks afterwards, right?"

"It's not that bad, is it?"

"The money's not wasted, Panse. You've got yourself a very pretty belt there. Trust me, Malfoy's more in for subtlety."

"What would you know about it, anyway?!"

"About seducing guys? Nothing, admittedly. But I've got eyes to see and brains to think, and I don't think I've ever seen his mum parading around like a prostitute. Maybe you should start contemplating to lure him in with your personality."

"Personality!" Pansy snorted and slouched down next to her friend. "Who needs personality with legs like these?!"

They both giggled and Millicent offered her a cookie. Pansy declined; she was on constant diet, practically since their third year. And for what? She did look good, she was slim and fit, and she invested ample of time and money in her appearance. But had Draco ever risked a second look at her? She couldn't deceive herself - he had not. Her breasts and hair had grown, her shirts and skirts had shrunk, she had perfect skin and perfect teeth and her aunt had shown her some marvellous spells for extra-long lashes, but nothing had ever done the job. He took as much interest in her as she took in Greg Goyle - they were good for hanging out and having a laugh and that was it.

"I've overheard Blaise talking to Ivor, Panse. He's said you were looking terrific."

"Yeah, so what?"

"So what?! He's the most handsome bloke in the entire school, you cow. All right, all right, I know he's not Draco Malfoy, but perhaps you should widen your scope. I mean, what can go wrong? Either you find out that you can have a good time with someone else, or maybe Malfoy gets a little jealous at least. Go to Hogsmeade with Blaise and make sure Malfoy sees you together."

Millicent was getting sick with the whole subject. She couldn't remember a time when Pansy hadn't had a huge crush on their house mate Malfoy, and during the last years, she had done pretty much everything to raise his attention. She was clearly obsessed with that boy, who was undoubtedly good-looking, cool and clever and what else have you got, still Millicent was unable to grasp the extent of her best friend's infatuation. Everything she ever said was how he had looked at this girl, how he had smiled at that girl, what it could possibly mean, how he had talked to her, and if he would like her better in this blouse or that. It was unnerving, really, but Millicent liked her too much to be sincerely pissed off.

As far as she could tell, Pansy had as much chances with him as Hufflepuff to win the Quidditch cup, but she didn't have the heart to tell her that. Normally, Millicent was very direct and outspoken; she made no bones about stuff. But she was very fond of her room mate and she knew that honesty in that particular quarter wouldn't cure Pansy but only render her unhappy and depressed. On the plus side - Malfoy didn't show interest in any other girl either, and if he wasn't gay, Pansy might be lucky by default after all.

"Who do you think is the best-looking girl in school, Mil?"

This one groaned. "I am, Panse. I've heard the natural type is in this year."

"No, seriously!"

Millicent threw a cushion at her and cried, "Thank you very much, Miss!"

"Oh, come on, Mil!"

"You truly want my honest opinion?"

"Yeah. You mustn't say I was because I knew you'd be lying anyway."

"You know I never flatter you, Panse, and what's the point of this anyway?"

"Just give me an honest answer, okay?"

"Okay... Let me see. Obviously, the Patil sisters do look great." Despite Pansy's whimpers, Millicent went on relentlessly, "Juliet Montague's quite pretty, too. Oh, and Cho Chang, of course."

"Oh please! I've heard she's dating Potter!"

"Yeah, her beauty decreases next to him, but on her own she's looking fine. Then there's the Weasley chick -"

"Oh for heaven's sake, Mil!"

"What? You said you wanted an honest answer, and she does look good, even you must admit that. What are you fussing about, eh? She won't snatch Malfoy away from you."

Absent-mindedly, Pansy reached out for the cookies and nibbled on one. "So, that would make the Patil twins, Chang and Montague... I've tried it with tanning charms, but I look shitty like that. Dying my hair blond like Montague isn't an option either, I've tried it... It's such a shame, I got a feeling that Draco likes blondes..."

"You've dyed your hair, silly?! When?!"

"My aunt did it for me when I visited her. Forget it, it looked crappy. I could try red like Ginger Head though..."

"Take an advice from a friend and don't. Your hair is beautiful as it is. Why do you want to look like some other girl in the first place? I haven't heard that Malfoy had asked out any of them either."

Pansy knew that Millicent was right, but she couldn't help herself. She wanted him so much, she would have given her right arm to get him. She would have dyed her hair to any colour he liked, in short: she would have cut off her thumbs if he had asked for them. Valentine's Day was approaching and she so dearly wished to go to Hogsmeade with Draco on their own. But he hadn't asked her yet, and there was no sign that he was about to. She had no taste to go with Blaise either, even though he was good-looking, he could never match Draco in her opinion, and he was so full of himself that she sometimes wondered how he could walk upright.

She wasn't the brightest star in the evening sky; as a matter of fact, Millicent was ten times smarter, and when this one suggested the jealousy trick, Pansy would deem it a good idea to give it half a try. She arranged it, with her room mate's help, that Blaise indeed did ask her to go to Hogsmeade together in front of Draco. She giggled and simpered and replied that she felt very flattered, but that she was already engaged to go with her girlfriends. However, Draco didn't flinch; neither did he show any trace of upset about Blaise's proposal, nor the remotest sign of relief about her refusal. She would have believed that he hadn't even registered the whole scene, if he hadn't joked about it later that evening.

"Oi Malf, I don't mean to flatter you, but I hope you're not otherwise engaged and still join your friends to go to Hogsmeade together?"

"Oh Greg, that is so sweet of you! Did I blush now? Oh, I'm sure I must have!"

Millicent suppressed a smile, Pansy bit down the tears that shot to her eyes and escaped to their dorm. Her room mate followed her slowly. "Panse, will you please calm down and stop sobbing?!"

"He made me look like an idiot!"

"No, Panse, he didn't. You've managed that by yourself. Oh, Blaise, how sweet of you," she cried, imitating her with a mock voice. "This is so flattering! I'm soooo sorry, but I really, really can't!"

"You said I ought to make him jealous!"

"I certainly didn't tell you to prance and coo around like this. Blaise is no fool and neither is Malfoy. You were so bloody obvious!"

In a very filthy mood and deadly unhappy, Pansy, together with Millicent and a group of other Slytherin girls, set out to Hogsmeade some days later. Draco would go later with his mates, and if she was particularly lucky, they would meet in the Three Broomsticks, but that was by no means safe. The Montague sisters wanted to buy new robes at Twilfitt and Tatting's, Millicent wanted books and sweets from Honeydukes, Maxine Bletchley meant to buy a present for her father's birthday, but Pansy was indifferent about all that. Her sole object was seeing Draco and consequently, she gave a damn about Honeydukes and Twilfitt and Tatting's and the rest, where he wouldn't appear anyway.

On their way, they crossed the path of Gryffindor's Golden Boy Potter, in the company of Ravenclaw's Chang. Oh god, even that total loser could get a date, going out with Pretty Chick Chang. This was all so bloody unfair!

"Potter and Chang! Urgh, Chang, I don't think much of your taste! At least Diggory was good-looking!"

The other girls were laughing, only Millicent said under her breath, "Give it a rest, Panse. She's practically a widow, damn it!"

"A widow who's smugly consoling herself with that prat, right," Pansy muttered stubbornly, but much more quiet. "But they match perfectly, don't they? She's a stupid cow and he's a stupid arse!"

Juliet Montague gave a shrill giggle. "Careful, Parkinson. You're turning yellow with envy."

The other girls laughed even harder while they went on, and Pansy snapped, "Envious? Me? Because of what! I'd rather be dead than go out with Potter!"

"Yeah, well, who'd want to date Potter. But maybe Malfoy would ask you out, too, if you were just half as pretty as Chang, eh?"

"Oh, shut up, Montague," Millicent hissed. "You think you're oh-so-pretty, and still, I don't see you having a date for today either. Clearly one's got to be a bit daft when one wants to get a boyfriend in this wretched place."

Juliet curled her rose petal lips to a subtle smile. "I wholeheartedly second that."

"You do, don't you?" Millicent grinned and exchanged some challenging glances with Montague.

This was one of the reasons why Pansy loved her friend so much. She'd always stand up for her, and she did it in a way that would draw the attention away from Pansy, like now. Everyone was giggling, some more jokes were cracked on Potter and Chang and they arrived in the village without further disturbances.

"You should try the Prickly Pastries, Panse. Chocolate's a famous remedy for depression," Millicent said after they had entered Honeydukes, and shoved a praline into her friend's mouth.

"Is that the reason for your chocolate addiction, Mil? You suffer from depression?"

"Certainly not. I enjoy good food and the pleasant side-effect that it spares me the attention of any of those total gits that you lot crave for."

It should perhaps be mentioned that Millicent was, as people say, a 'big' girl, in every possible meaning of that term. For once, she was really tall - six feet one to be precise - and she had inherited the sturdy figure of her mother and grandmother. One of her favourite jokes was that she should join the House Team, because the other players would be too intimidated to play if they were facing the danger to collide with her. She was heavy-built, with big bones, a strong jaw and mighty hands and feet; there were only two reasons why no one had ever insinuated that she had troll or giant blood - she was a Slytherin and must therefore be a pureblood, and people were too scared to dare getting trouble with her.

She wasn't upset about her looks; if a guy should ever like her, she wanted him to do so because of herself, not because she was a pretty doll. Paradoxically, this concept didn't interfere with her old friendship with Pansy. Ever since their first day in school together, those two girls who couldn't be more different, had been deeply attached to each other. Pansy had been spoilt and cute, with her shiny dark brown hair and her little nose, her parents' only child and sole concern. She was superficial and girlish, rather half-witted, but easy-going. Millicent was the total opposite; the only sister of four elder brothers who had given her such a hard time as a child that she had adopted a cynical sense of humour and a thick skin; she was clever, a good student and a sort of tomboy.

"You reckon we'll encounter him later on?" Pansy asked very quietly, with an almost imploring expression.

Good-humouredly, Millicent patted her shoulder and answered in the same low voice, "I don't know, Panse, but what I do know is that it hardly matters. You see him every goddamned day in school. Don't worry. One day, he'll discover your true value, and if he does not, he's such a silly twig that he doesn't deserve you in the first place."

"You mean it?"

"Sure. And in that case, upon my word, I'll crash all his bones for you."

They hugged and Millicent ushered her to try some more of the delicious candies. Pansy's hopes weren't entirely let down that day. Around noon, the girls went to the Three Broomsticks for lunch, and not five minutes later, Malfoy and his pals arrived, too. It turned out that they had spent half of the morning at the Hogsmeade section of Quality Quidditch Supplies, had lost Crabbe and Goyle after swiftly popping into Honeydukes (Pansy cursed her bad luck for not having stayed there longer), and dawdled around for the rest. Now they were hungry and in a chatty mood, heartily laughing about the story of Potter and Chang, complaining about Filch's latest harassment, and Pansy's heart was rising once again.

"Madam Rosmerta must have been a hot chick in her days," Crabbe mumbled with a leer at the bar.

"For heaven's sake, Crabbe, are you so desperate for a date that you consider middle-aged witches by now?"

"I merely said that she must have looked good then."

"She's still looking good," Millicent said expertly.

"Yeah, and if you take one look at the mother of Malfoy here," Damian Montague said and beckoned at Draco, "you see that a forty year-old witch can be a hundred times prettier than every teenager."

Draco turned even paler than usually. "Watch your tongue, Montague, or -"

"Keep your wig on, Malfoy. That was a bloody compliment!"

"Keep your 'compliments' to yourself, pal!"

"But your mum does look lovely," Pansy said and nodded eagerly.

"I'd be proud if someone paid a compliment to my mum," Crabbe uttered and took a big sip of butterbeer. "All I ever hear is that she looks like a troll!"

"She does look as a troll, Vince, it runs in the family."

Draco groaned. "Look, I'd be thankful if you just shut up, all of you. If you want to gush about someone's mother, why don't you pick Zabini's mum."

"Hey!"

"Your mum's a real looker, too, Zabini!"

"Oh, cut it out, man!"

"I still think that Mrs Malfoy is the prettiest witch that -"

"Panse, give it a rest," Millicent whispered and stumped on her friend's foot underneath the table. "This is ridiculous!"

"Have you ever contemplated that there's more to witches than how they look?" Goyle said with an earnest face, reaping enormous laughter from everyone expect Millicent. This one nodded and gave him a smile.

"Exactly."

Juliet Montague giggled snidely. "There's hope speaking, Bullface!"

"Leave her alone, Montague. If she's not spending two hours in front of the mirror each morning like yourself, that says something for her," Draco drawled languidly.

Pansy goggled at her crush. He liked girls who did not spend hours in front of the mirror?! Could he be fancying Millicent after all?! No! No, it couldn't be! Still, she watched her closely for the rest of their stay in the pub, counting each of Draco's gazes. In the end, she was more or less satisfied - there wasn't much of a clue that Draco - her Draco - was in love with her room mate. Unfortunately, there was no sign that he was in love with herself either. But that could be worked on.