A Blooming Friendship

A Blooming Friendship

***

Loyalties are always questioned in times of war. Who supports who is always a question, but knowing your friends is much more important. Amongst the players in the Death Eater camp, knowing who was on your side was vital amidst the back stabbers and the spies that were trying to claw their way into the Inner Circle.

Pansy was very glad that she was so close to her friends. They had been facing adversity and prejudice together since their first year of Hogwarts. Without the closeness that had bloomed on their very first morning there, she doubted she would have managed to last this long in the war torn world. They might have gone slightly different paths, but they were still close to each other.

She couldn't help but smile to herself as she remembered the first morning of her Hogwarts career. It had been something, that was for sure. The incidents on the first morning after waking up in the green and silver canopied beds in their Slytherin dormitory had cemented the friendships that she now cherished above all else.

It had been amusing, to say the least...

~~~

Pansy woke up at the crack of dawn. This was unusual for the eleven-year-old who normally awoke when the house elf brought her breakfast in bed around nine. She was initially startled by the rich green velvet above her head. Her bed was pink; why had her mother redecorated overnight?

Then, suddenly, she remembered. She was at Hogwarts. Finally. She was going to get to learn real magic, and become a true witch, rather than just randomly blowing things up like she had been for the last couple of months during temper tantrums. Her mother had explained that her power was growing, and manifesting itself when she displayed too much negative energy.

Her father had guffawed, said that she was just showing signs of magic, and that her mother had been reading too many of those newfangled magical theory books. She had been ecstatic. Then, finally, her letter from Hogwarts had arrived. Her whole life, she'd been hearing from her older cousins how fun Hogwarts was - now she was going there herself.

For a while, she had worried that her father would send her off to Durmstrang. After all, he hated Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But family tradition had won over personal distaste in current personnel; Parkinsons had been attending the prestigious school for ages.And now here she was, lying awake in her dormitory on her first full day at Hogwarts. She had, much to her delight, been Sorted into Slytherin. Both her parents had been Slytherins, and she had been terrified she would end up in Hufflepuff, or, Merlin forbid, Gryffindor. She never would have lived it down if she had been placed in any house other than Slytherin or possibly Ravenclaw.
The only thing she was nervous about was her housemates.

She had, of course, met them all before. Her father threw lavish parties whom the pure-bloods he deemed worthy attended, and the other five first year Slytherins had all attended them, at one time or another, with their parents.

She knew Draco Malfoy the best of all of them. He was a sarcastic, sometimes malicious, spoiled brat. He looked up to his father, and Pansy could see that one day he would turn out just like the cold, calculatingly cruel man she had seen with her own father. She could, however, stand to spend time around him. She had in the past, after all. Malfoy Manor and Parkinson Estate weren't very far away from one another, and their mothers had been friendly. That was not to say that Narcissa Malfoy and Esmerelda Parkinson were friends. They had once been close, but as the time came for the two women to win over potential husbands, they had turned snippy with one another. Esmerelda became jealous of the thinner, more attractive Narcissa. Narcissa had won over Lucius Malfoy, which made Esmerelda's match to Meleagrant Parkinson pale in comparison. The women remained on speaking terms for purely societal reasons, as far as their children could tell.

In Pansy's eyes, the other two male Slytherins, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, weren't even worth considering. They were large, thuggish, and, all in all, thicker than a stone wall. They didn't even seem to possess separate personalities. She knew their mothers were cousins, which explained their close resemblance. But she had only talked to them once or twice over the years. Perhaps they had hidden levels that did not consist of being Malfoy's goons; anything was possible.

The Slytherin girls, on the other hand, were not as familiar to her as Malfoy and his cronies.

She took a quick glance to the bed to her right. Millicent Bulstrode was snoring there; her mud colored hair frizzing around her bulldog face. Her parents weren't as... involved in the 'business,' as Meleagrant Parkinson was wont to call it. Therefore, Pansy hadn't seen very much of the girl before, though she did seem to recall playing with her a few times as a child. She had seemed like an utterly likeable character during their brief conversation last night, despite her large and brutish appearance. She was intelligent, Pansy could tell that right off. She was also a Slytherin through and through, judging by her sly remarks during dinner the night before. Pansy was positive that she didn't want to be on the girl's bad side.

She now looked across the room at the other bed. Blaise Zabini was fast asleep, with her long black hair only slightly dishevelled around her angelic face. Pansy was slightly jealous of the girl already, because she was almost positive that Blaise would turn out prettier than she would. Pansy's own blonde haired, blue-eyed appearance paled in comparison to Blaise's exotic features.

The Zabini family was more involved in the darker side of things than the Bulstrodes, but Pansy had never spent much time with Blaise. Her mother was more likely to spend time with Dumbledore himself than with Andais Zabini. Pansy had never heard the full story, but something had happened between her mother and Blaise's during school that had left a deep rift between the two women. Pansy had tried to come up with what it was, but had been puzzled. They hadn't even been in the same year, so there was no apparent reason that any deep emotional fissures could be formed.

Blaise was clutching a fuzzy blue stuffed bat. Millicent had burst into laughter when the smaller girl had unpacked the toy the night before, immediately making comments about security blankets and other such nonsense. Blaise had simply turned to the troll-like girl, and informed her that if she treasured her tongue where it was, then she had better still it. The pure ferocity in her voice had shocked Pansy.

Millicent had gaped at Blaise, apparently as shocked as Pansy, though for a different reason. Who was this little girl to tell her off? Especially over a stuffed animal? No one outside of her own family had ever spoken to her in such a tone, and she wasn't quite sure on how to handle it.

Blaise had been nonplussed about the entire incident, and had continued to chatter pleasantly with Pansy as though she had not just threatened bodily harm on her new roommate. When Millicent had gotten over her shock, she had tried to include her as well.

A sound broke Pansy's reverie. She looked back at Millicent's bed to see the girl sitting up, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"Morning," Pansy said nervously. She wanted her dorm mates to like her, and she wasn't sure if Millicent was a morning person.

"Morn'n'," Millicent mumbled in return. She stretched, and after a few moments, managed to look more awake. "What are we supposed to do today?"

Pansy shrugged as she climbed out of the huge bed. Did tiny first year girls really need such mammoth beds? "I don't really know. I assume they tell us at breakfast."

Millicent nodded in agreement. "That makes sense." She paused, and looked over at the sleeping girl across that room. "Should we wake her up so she isn't late for breakfast?"

"Probably," Pansy replied. They crossed the large stone room, and stood on either side of the bed located on that side. "How will we do this?"

Millicent grinned suddenly. "I once heard that you're supposed to throw cold water on people to wake them up."

Pansy grinned back. That sounded like a fine idea. Even though she had not been the one slighted last night, revenge was always fun to implement. The only problem...

"Where do we get cold water?"

Millicent pointed to the opposite side of the room, near the door, where a convenient nook housed a sink and mirror. A jug and three glasses sat on a nearby table.

It only took a few minutes to fill the pitcher, and reconvene at Blaise's bed. The girl was still fast asleep. The two Slytherins snickered as Pansy said, "Okay, now!"

Millicent then unceremoniously dumped the jug's entire contents on the slumbering girl's head.
Blaise sat up in a flash, sputtering and shrieking. Even as she was shaking her sopping wet hair from her eyes, she grabbed her wand from the bedside table, and yelled out a curse.

Millicent and Pansy immediately grew small rosebushes from the top of their heads. The rosebushes had replaced their hair completely, with bits of bare scalp showing through the gaps of leaves, stems, and large, bright red cabbage roses.

"Ack! What'd you do that for?" shrieked Pansy. "I didn't even do anything!"

Blaise gave her a look of disbelief.

Her attention, however, was soon focused on Millicent, who had been yelling out an impressive list of expletives. Now, though, she turned to Blaise. "I'm going to kill you."

With that, Millicent leapt at the smaller girl.

Pansy watched on in a stupor as Millicent began to throttle Blaise. Blaise began to make a squeaking sound as she vainly hit and kicked at the much larger girl. Thorned branches were swinging wildly around Millicent's head and she was losing her rose petals at an alarming rate. Pansy fingered a blossom atop her own head, and wondered if the roses were actually part of her, or if they were just unconnected flowers sitting on her head. She gave an experimental tug on the rose she had been touching, and it came free with only a pinching feeling. Must not be part of her, then.

She turned her attention back to the fight before her. Blaise was still fighting back valiantly. She began to dig her fingers into Millicent's hands, obviously trying to pry them off her throat. There was nothing she could do against the larger girl, though; she had no hope of winning.

Just then, Millicent shrieked and dropped Blaise, clutching her eye.

Blaise scampered off the bed, and wisely got as much distance between herself and the wailing Millicent as possible.

Pansy approached Millicent warily, wondering what could possibly be wrong with her. She soon realized. The girl's eye was bloody and swollen, as though she had been hit with something. Pansy's eyes fell on the rosebush blossoming on her head. The branches had been tossing wildly during her murder attempt; maybe one of them had caught her in the eye. Pansy flinched at the thought, seeing how large the thorns were.

"Millicent?" Pansy ventured. She got no verbal response, but Millicent raised her head higher looked at her with her good eye.

"Did one of your branches catch you in the eye?"

Millicent nodded mournfully.

"I think we should go to the hospital wing," Pansy declared. Blaise, still on the other side of the room, nodded in agreement.

"She could probably fix what I did," offered Blaise, motioning towards the shrubbery sprouting from their skulls.

"Umm...where is the hospital wing?" Millicent asked, her voice slightly scratchy from yelling. She was still clutching her injured eye, but she climbed off Blaise's bed and made her way to her own side of the room. When she got to her trunk she began to pull her robes out of its depths.

"I haven't the slightest idea," replied Pansy. She also found her robes, and then stared at them, puzzled at how to get them on without snagging them on her rosebush. "Where did you learn that spell, Blaise?"

Blaise looked proud. "My mum. She thinks its important for a girl to know as many curses as possible, because she says the teachers here don't go into the really good ones until sixth or seventh year."

"Wow!" Pansy said, impressed. "My mum's usually too busy to teach me any spells. Says that's what school is for."

Millicent nodded. "My dad's taught me a few, but says he's gonna teach me more when I'm older and have more experience with basic spells."

Just then Pansy got her robe caught in her rosebush.

"Eep," she spluttered, trying to untangle herself from the black material. This, of course, only made the situation worse, as Pansy couldn't see the back of her head, and also, the thorns on the rosebush pricked her with every move.

"Here, I'll help," Blaise offered, after snickering at the girl for a minute. She carefully managed to untangle the robe from the bush, only pricking herself twice in the process. The two girls then assisted Millicent. When all three finished getting dressed- Blaise taking the longest because she still had normal hair to dry and brush- they made their way to the common room.

The common room was large, filled with plush, rich looking furniture in predominately green and silver upholstery. However, there was enough black thrown in to make it look gothic rather than Christmassy. Despite the early hour, they found it occupied.

Draco Malfoy was sleeping on one of the plusher couches near the fire. Blaise shot them a questioning glance, obviously wondering why the sole heir of the Malfoy fortune was sleeping on the common room couch. Pansy and Millicent shrugged.
They began to make their way to the entrance when Blaise tripped over the edge of a large rug. She fell against a small table that was displaying a pewter bust of Salazar Slytherin, sending the bust clattering to the stone floor.

"Ow..." said Blaise, rubbing her ankle.
"Aargh," screamed Draco, woken by the rather loud sound of pewter hitting stone. He managed to roll off the couch in his surprise, and hit the hard stone floor with a thump.

Pansy and Millicent looked at each other, semi-shocked at the burst of activity, then exploded into laughter at the scowling Draco and the grumbling Blaise.

"I think I sprained my ankle," Blaise said, her first legible, printable sentence since her ungainly tumble into the table.

Draco climbed to his feet, holding his left arm. It had taken the brunt of his fall off the couch, and seemed to hurt a lot. He then looked over at the three girls near the entrance. One was clutching her ankle, looking otherwise normal. One had a rosebush sprouting from her head, and looked otherwise normal. One had a rosebush sprouting from her head, had a hand clamped over one eye, and looked like a mountain troll.

"What are you doing?" he finally demanded, deciding a vague question was best in situations like this.

"Going to the hospital wing, what does it look like?" snapped the girl he identified as Blaise Zabini. Several witty remarks came to mind in response to this question, but alas, he was unable to choose one before another question was shot at him. "Why were you sleeping in the common room?"

She just had to ask that, didn't she? Draco decided that a convincing lie was too much trouble to come up with this early in the morning, and went with the truth. "Crabbe and Goyle snore."

It was the understatement of the century. It had sounded like the Hogwarts Express had been making a non-stop round trip around their dorm. Draco was almost positive that there was a bear somewhere in the recent lineage of both Goyle and Crabbe. It had only taken three hours in his own bed before he had attempted to plug his ears with the pillow. That hadn't worked in the slightest.

Finally, around three in the morning, he had given up on going to sleep in his own bed. He had dressed and gone down the hall to the common room. He had settled on the most comfortable couch, and had watched the flames lick across the magically enhanced logs; they never turned to charcoal, no matter how long the flames worked at them. He had, evidently, fallen asleep, only to be woken by a clumsy girl.

He decided it was only fair that he got to ask another question of them. "How did you two end up as a gardener's dream?"

Blaise blushed, as Millicent growled, "Blaise isn't the happiest camper in the morning."

"Well, you shouldn't have dumped cold water on me I'd have gotten up eventually."

"Yeah, right."

"And you're one to talk. You tried to kill me."

"You deserved it." Millicent motioned towards her hair, or rather, the lack thereof.

"Maybe we should just get to the hospital wing," Pansy broke in. She turned to Draco. "Do you know where that is?"

Draco shook his head. "I was just about to ask you."

He was developing quite a bruise on his arm. He was no great fan of pain, and he knew that the school Matron would be able to fix his arm in a matter of seconds.

They all looked at each other for a minute. Blaise, who had been helped to her feet, or rather foot, by Millicent, finally made a decision. "Let's just go up to the Great Hall, and ask someone there."

"NO!" yelled Draco, Pansy, and Millicent in unison.

Blaise looked mollified at the boisterous reaction to her suggestion. Then she took into account Pansy and Millicent's appearance, and she understood immediately. She was with Draco on this one; she didn't want to be seen with them either.

"Sooo,"Pansy said, "what exactly are we going to do?"

There was a long silence during which the four Slytherins wracked their devious little minds trying to come up with a plan.

"Blaise has the least embarrassing injury," Millicent ventured. Three heads swivelled to appraise the girl, who was hopping on one foot, braced against the wall to keep her balance.

"She could go ask someone where the hospital wing is," Pansy added.

"And then we could sneak after her," Millicent said. They had a plan.

"How am I supposed to get to the hospital wing if you two are following me? Or even to whoever I'm supposed to ask?" Blaise interrupted.

The three female Slytherins looked at the silent boy standing next to them.

Draco looked like he wanted to protest, then he seemed to think the plan over. "Okay, I'll help you to..." he trailed off. "Who are we going to ask, anyway?"

An answer blossomed unbidden in the minds of all four. There was someone they were supposed to ask questions of. They did know how to get to said person's office. The question was, did they really want to start off their first day at Hogwarts like that?
Unfortunately, due to lack of better options, they agreed that this was the only way they could get to the hospital wing with minimal knowledge of what had occurred so far this morning.
A few minutes later, Blaise and Draco found themselves standing in front of Professor Severus Snape's office. They looked at each other, silently daring the other to be the one to knock.

"Well, go ahead," Draco said finally.

"Me? Why can't you?" Blaise replied with a toss of her hair.

"You're the hurt one," hissed Draco.

"You know him, though," Blaise shot back.

"You-"

"You-"

It was very likely that the two eleven year olds would have stood outside the door arguing for a good long time when the problem solved itself.

Professor Severus Snape opened his office door and glared down at the bickering children.

"Do you need something?" he demanded disdainfully, before noticing the silver and green accents on their Hogwarts uniforms.

"We need to know where the hospital wing is," Draco announced. One good thing that came from being Lucius Malfoy's son, besides money, looks, and prestige, was the ability to sound commanding even when faced with a foe such as a Severus Snape.

Snape, though privately impressed by the lack of apprehension on the faces of the young Slytherins before him, decided that they needed to show him the proper level of fear that he, as their leader, should command.

"What business, exactly, does two first years have in the hospital wing?"

Blaise responded this time, sensing that Malfoy's fearlessness and derisive attitude would not be the proper response this time. She played her trump card instead, and gave a small whimper of pain, leaning a little heavier into Draco "It's my ankle, sir."

One thing every son or daughter of a true Slytherin learned was to never give more information than requested. That was a show of weakness, and it also showed weakness to be forced to ask many questions to learn the necessary facts. Professor Snape knew this, of course, and would only ask one or two more questions before giving in.

Professor Snape looked at the two for a moment before finally asking, "What did you do to it?"

"I sprained it," Blaise promptly responded. Perfect. He couldn't ask anymore about it without looking like an idiot. Now, to go in for the kill. "Where is the hospital wing?" Professor Snape looked reluctant to answer the question, though he was again impressed with the young Slytherin. If she was any indication, he had some true Slytherins on his hand this year. He gave the two instructions on how to get to the hospital wing, and informed them that they had better not be late for breakfast.

With that, they made their way down the hall, Blaise hopping and limping along, until they met up with Pansy and Millicent, who were just out of sight of the professor's office.

"That was amazing," Millicent congratulated her, and they then made their way to the hospital wing. Surprisingly, they made the trek without incident, or even running into any other students.

They met Madam Pomfrey, who clucked her tongue at the troupe. "Now dearies, how did you manage all this before seven?"

None of the Slytherins answered, instead staring stoically at the wall until Madam Pomfrey gave up on her inquiries.

"Fine," sighed Madam Pomfrey, whose years of experience told her that she was beating a dead horse. "Now, let's see what we can do about those rosebushes."

Half an hour later, Pansy, Millicent, Blaise, and Draco left the hospital wing, with not a limp, bruise, or petal between them. They found the Great Hall in record time, and were helping themselves to a grand breakfast as the other Slytherins made their way up.

And so began the Hogwarts career of the four Slytherins.

~~~

Pansy met up with Millicent in the crowd of black-robed wizards and witches. She smiled at her, and Millicent muttered the word 'rosebush' under her breath. Seemed like Pansy hadn't been the only one reminiscing about more innocent times. Draco's pale head was visible near the front ranks, where he served below his father in the Inner Circle. Blaise had been hit with a particularly nasty curse on her last mission, and was not going to be able to fight in the battle.

With great trepidation, Pansy and Millicent both pulled up the dark masks that would keep their identity hidden. The greatest battle of the war was to be fought today, and they were part of it. Neither woman knew whether the dark side or the good would win, but they would not be alone.

That was all that mattered.

***Fin.