Author:
kiertorataRecipient:
too_dle_ooTitle: A Bit of Inter-House Unity
Pairing: Ron Weasley/Pansy Parkinson
Request/Prompt Used: "humour and fluff, please, as Pansy gets to know all the other Gryffindor pals"
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1197
Summary: After the war, everyone else seems to get the whole inter-house unity thing except Harry.
Notes: Sorry for the slight Harry-bashing. I can't help but make fun of his emotional skills sometimes. :D Thanks for
lenapinewoods for the beta!
It was a cosy Tuesday afternoon. The eight-year Gryffindors were sprawled across the common room floor and armchairs, absorbed in books, homework and various other activities. Harry was in the middle of a casual game of Exploding Snap with Seamus.
He looked up from his cards to see Ron walking towards them. Ron was followed closely by someone Harry wasn’t used to seeing in the Gryffindor common room.
“Pansy’s going to sit with us for a bit,” Ron said. “If that’s alright.”
He sat down on one end of a half-vacant loveseat. Dean, who was working on a charcoal sketch scooted over to one side, barely looking up. To Harry’s complete horror, Pansy squeezed in next to Ron, nearly sitting on his lap.
“Exploding Snap and books,” Pansy observed. “How cute. I always imagined Gryffindors spent all their spare time heroically wrestling each other.”
“If you’re trying to be polite, you’re not doing a very good job,” Lavender said, rolling her eyes.
“I’m not trying to be polite. I’m trying to politely insult you. There’s a difference,” Pansy said, smiling charmingly. Lavender giggled.
Harry could no longer keep himself from talking.
“What’s Parkinson doing here?” he said, motioning with his hands at the mentioned culprit.
“I was invited,” Pansy said. She leaned against Ron’s shoulder and smiled sweetly, clearly enjoying herself.
Harry narrowed his eyes. His cards lay on the floor forgotten. Seamus seemed glad at the interruption.
“So do you think Hufflepuff will beat Slytherin in the match on Friday?” Seamus said.
“Not a chance,” Pansy said. “Hufflepuff’s Keeper is rubbish. And they don’t know how to play in the rain.”
“But their chasers are good,” Seamus said. “And it might not rain on Friday.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Pansy said. “Of course it will rain.”
“Will you sit with me at the match?” Ron said to Pansy.
“Of course, darling,” Pansy cooed.
“Darling?” Harry nearly choked. “You tried to sell me over to Voldemort! You don’t have the right to call my best mate ‘darling’!”
“Get over yourself, Potter,” Pansy said. “War’s over. No-one cares about that old stuff anymore.”
“Convenient for you to say,” Harry said icily.
“We need to forget about house rivalries and start rebuilding the wizarding world together,” Pansy said. It sounded like she had memorized McGonagall’s Start-of-Term speech, and Harry didn’t trust her. “It starts with everybody just forgetting the bloody war and showing some inter-house unity. Isn’t that right, darling?” She nudged Ron.
“Rebuilding the world together,” Ron echoed. “Inter-house unity.” His eyes were fixed somewhere around Pansy’s cleavage, which happened to be enormous.
Hermione snorted.
“It’s nice to see he pays as much attention to what you say as to what his friends say,” Hermione said, shaking her head in amusement. She didn’t seem particularly bothered by the new development in Ron’s love life.
“I’m off to study with Padma,” Hermione said and picked up her bag.
“Bye, Granger,” Pansy said.
“Bye, Parkinson.”
Harry’s face was a display of utter disbelief at the exchange. Did anyone else just see what I saw? it said. But all his friends acted like things were completely normal.
Seamus kept grinning like a mad dog. Dean didn’t look up from his sketch. Lavender and Parvati were poring over a tarot card book by the fireplace. Neville was curled up in an armchair with some Ravenclaw girl Harry didn’t know, looking only slightly more self-conscious than he usually did. Harry was pretty sure it had to do with the girl, not Parkinson, though.
Pansy slid her hand down Ron’s thigh. Very slowly her fingers trailed the seam of Ron’s trousers and came to rest somewhere short of Ron’s knee, between his legs. Ron had the decency to blush purple at the gesture while looking simultaneously smug.
Harry felt queasy.
“So how did all this come about?” Seamus asked. Lavender and Parvati be damned, everyone knew that Seamus was the true gossip queen of Gryffindor. His eyes gleamed at the prospect of juicy information.
“Well, you know,” Ron said with an air of mystery. “We were paired off for that inter-house study partner thing. And…things happened.”
“Things happened?” Seamus said, smirking.
Ron blushed. Harry watched his hand find Pansy’s. Pansy’s fingers, her nails a glossy red, curled around his.
“Pansy,” Parvati said. “You want to come up to the dorm for a moment? I want to show you that article we talked about in Divination.”
“I’ll be back soon, honey,” Pansy said and planted a kiss on Ron’s lips.
“Get a room, guys,” Dean said, still not looking up.
Pansy got up off the loveseat and followed Lavender and Parvati up the stairs into the eight-year girls’ dormitory. The door closed behind them and soon all that was heard down in the common room was muffled giggles and girlish chatter.
“Ron,” Harry said in a hushed voice the moment Pansy was gone. “Do you remember sixth year, when you ate those chocolate cauldrons from Romilda Vane and you weren’t really yourself-”
“I have no idea what you’re going on about,” Ron stopped him. “But if you’re trying to imply that Pansy somehow drugged me, I suggest you stop talking.”
Harry almost did, for a moment. But he couldn’t hold his tongue for long.
“So, do you think there’s any chance you and Hermione could get together?” he tried. “I kind of thought there was always something going on there-”
“What? No! Hermione and I aren’t like that, mate. It would be too weird, like dating a sister.”
“How about Lavender?” Harry said. “Lavender and you were good together, sort of.”
“Harry,” Ron said. “I love you, but if you don’t shut up right now, I swear I will hit you.”
He looked so earnest that Harry couldn’t help but give in.
“Why her?” Harry said, defeated.
“I like her,” Ron said simply. “She’s really funny when you get to know her. And incredibly hot, if you haven’t noticed. And she regrets what happened last year, you know.”
“Okay,” Harry said, not really believing him.
“And,” Ron leaned in, looking at Harry in a conspiring manner, “she does this wicked thing with her-”
“With my what?” Pansy said. She stood behind him looking amused.
“Oh. You’re back,” Ron said slightly sheepishly.
“Yes,” Pansy said. “You want to go to Slytherin? I think I’ve reached my limit of Gryffindors for the day.”
“Can I spend the night?” Ron said. He sounded hopeful.
“Maybe,” Pansy said.
“I look forward to hearing all about Ron staying in the Slytherin dorm,” Seamus smirked.
“Who says he hasn’t already slept in the Slytherin dorm?” Pansy said, smiling wickedly. She winked at Seamus in a scandalous manner, which set Seamus into a loud cackle.
Harry groaned. This display of inter-house friendliness was just getting to be too much. He turned back to his Exploding Snap cards and tried to distract himself by shuffling them. A defective card exploded at his touch and Harry pushed the deck away, annoyed.
“Come on,” Pansy said. She grabbed Ron by the elbow and started pulling him towards the door.
“Well, see you,” Ron said, waving awkwardly on the way out. “Later. Or tomorrow.”