Adjudication

Adjudication: To settle judiciously. Forgive thyself, for love is a complicated thing. The trio's seventh year finds Ron desperately worried for Harry's fate, hopelessly pining for Hermione's attentions, and slowly coming to terms with his family, himself, and his eventual place in the world. Escaping an unexpected life-threatening situation through wit and resourcefulness, Ron will learn one event can change everything; this, combined with the unexpected attentions of absolutely the

A murder in prison, a bird in the hand; Ron as an Auror, Pansy's last stand. Herbology, Bog Myrtle, breathtaking Blaise;

Bind her, and chain her, and suck out her soul; Hark, be not hasty! The story's not told! Verbena and vanity, stubborness, sin; with one falling snowflake, the wicked shall win. Ron/Pansy.

Grief howling forth, the ying ripped from its yang; a death wish, depression, locks click, cell doors clang. A cave, crazy dreams, a blizzard, Ron whinges; from black the grey rises, and body heat singes. Ron/Pansy.

Unfinished business, a mystery at hand; ten years post-Hogwarts, Ron takes a stand. By day Pansy's vibrant, at night enigmatic; Ron can't help what he wants; the results may be tragic. A duvet, a nightdress, a light on the table; a lion, a viper, a faery-like tale. Ron/Pansy.

Taffies and yo-yos and textbooks and gossip; wheeling and dealing and Catherine the moppet. Teasing and luring, reeling carefully in; Pansy and Ron can't help but sin. Ron/Pansy.

Bubbles and loofahs and steam rising high; lavender, peppermint, the back of her thigh. Blaise reappears, Pansy the Banshee; Colin comes through with old photos entrancing.

* Only until this cigarette is ended, A little moment at the end of all, While on the floor the quiet ashes fall, And in the firelight to a lance extended, Bizarrely with the jazzing music blended, The broken shadow dances on the wall, I will permit my memory to recall The vision of you, by all my dreams attended. * And then adieu, -- farewell! -- the dream is done. Yours is a face of which I can forget. The colour and the features, every one, The words not ever, and the smiles not yet; But in your day this moment is the sun, upon a hill, after the sun has set.

Her biceps quiver and she tumbles backward as the leg comes free from the bed's frame. The sheet around her head cushions her fall, but the sharpened iron where the leg has torn free scrapes the flesh under her eye. She closes her eyes just in time and turns her head. Ignoring the pain, she scrambles to her feet, her chest heaving breathlessly, and she tears the sheet from her head, the piece of iron still in hand, and she yanks up her hospital gown and clenches its folds in her teeth and with both hands she raises the iron bar and plunges it into her gut. She does it again, and she smiles through her watery, unseeing gaze, and she whispers, "Draco?" Her heavens hang with black.

Ron, Harry and Hermione work feverishly to make sense of Pansy's puzzling clues, and they unexpectedly receive help from a sly former instructor! Ron makes a huge mistake -- is the investigation dead in the water?

In which Ron and Pansy get their comeuppance and Draco takes out a full page advertisement in the Daily Prophet.