The day that Harry had been waiting years for had finally come. He’d turned eighteen only a little over a month ago, and that meant that this year at Hogwarts, he and all of his friends would be placed into their new dormitories.
It was still quite the unusual turn of events for how this all began. In the wake of the First Wizarding War after the Dark Lord Voldemort was killed by Harry’s dad, James Potter, the magical population in Britain was at its lowest point since the witch trials in the 17th century. In fact, due to how widespread the war had been, the global population of witches and wizards was quite low. Birth rates picked back up after the war, but it would take many generations to undo the damage that had been done.
And so, in order to expedite the process a bit, researchers at the British Ministry of Magic rediscovered a source of ancient magic that had been used only in times of great need like this. They’d found records that a golden orb of ancient magic had helped the population bounce back after the witch trials, and though it took some years to find it again, the researchers managed to find it and activate it.
At first, no one understood what exactly the orb had done. But then Albus Dumbledore arrived at the Ministry from Hogwarts and explained the changes that’d affected the castle. Apparently, the golden orb had activated a wellspring of ancient magic that laid underneath Hogwarts itself, causing it to change.
Those educated on the subject knew that Hogwarts was more than it appeared. The castle practically had a will and personality of its own; rooms could appear and disappear randomly, defences would be automatically erected at the first sign of danger, and strange curiosities seemed to be around every corner.
It was, perhaps, to no surprise then that the castle tried to accommodate the needs of the people within its walls and the population of Britain at large.
Harry felt nervously excited as he seated himself down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. His best friends sat down across from him, already looking to the main doors where the first-year students were entering. Professor McGonagall led in the latest cohort.
“Twenty two!” Hermione exclaimed brightly as she counted them all. “That’s better than last year!”
“Still not as good as the group we got four years ago,” Ron pointed out.
Ah yes, the odd year that they’d received forty-six students. The press had hoped that it had been a sign that Britain’s population was doing better than the Ministry reports claimed it was, but it quickly became clear that it was just an unusual year.
“Guess it’s time for us to do our part to fix things,” Harry said. He gave the two of them a smirk. “Though, I figure that the two of you already got yourselves sorted out.”
Hermione rolled her eyes at him, but Ron grinned.
“We’re already talking about what’ll happen after Hogwarts,” Ron told Harry. “Hermione thinks that she can manage a pregnancy while she’s doing her mastery.”
“Given the fact that you’ll have your own room together, maybe it won’t take that long to happen,” Harry joked.
“Harry James Potter,” Hermione scowled at him. “I will not be one of those pregnant women at Hogwarts who has to deal with the incessant immature jokes from second and third years.”
“Not even with the incentives the Ministry is offering?” Harry asked. “You’d get four-hundred galleons each just for Hermione getting pregnant this year, and then another fifty galleons a month for the first two years after Hermione gave birth. They’d probably even waive most of the fees for your mastery.”
“They’ll do that anyways if I get pregnant during it,” Hermione replied. “And we’ll still get two-hundred galleons each if I get pregnant within two years of graduating. And if Ron’s enthusiasm is anything to go by, I doubt I’ll make it more than a couple months after graduating before I get pregnant.”
“The Weasley genes never fail,” Ron laughed.
Harry chuckled along with him. Honestly, he was happy for his best friends. The fact that they’d found each other before this year showed that not everyone had to rely on how ancient magic had changed Hogwarts.
By the time the first years were all sorted and the feast got underway, the undercurrent of excitement that’d been simmering up to this point started to boil over. Speculation ran rampant as to how things would change this year and what new couples would end up forming.
Once the meal came to an end, Headmaster Dumbledore slowly stood up from his chair and made his way around the head table to the podium. He stood there, his eyes scanning over the students for a moment. Almost instinctively, everyone began to quiet down so that the headmaster could speak.
“Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts,” Dumbledore smiled warmly. “It does my heart well to see so many new students joining us. Our world has suffered terribly from dark forces. They have left behind irreparable stains that cannot be undone, but we can build anew and look towards a brighter tomorrow. The way to do this, of course, is through magic.
“Magic surrounds us all. It gives life to the things around us and invites whimsy and specialness even in the oddest of places. Our faith in it is what will give us the chance to grow. In your smiling faces today, I see the future of our country. The future of magic itself.
“As always, those of you who have turned eighteen by the start of this term will be assigned your own private dormitories to share with your soulmate. Hogwarts was built upon sacred grounds, a place where magic convenes and empowers all around it. It understands us, even if we may not always understand it, and it finds the deeper connections between people that go beyond the surface-level features that may initially attract you to someone else. Magic understands what it is that each one of us needs, and it provides us the guidance we need to find it.
“Your Head of House will be around to deliver you the location of your new dormitory. As is tradition, you shall all leave the Great Hall one house at a time. First, we will begin with Gryffindor.”
Professor McGonagall came down from the head table with a stack of envelopes in her hands. When she got to Harry, she handed him an envelope with his name written in elegant green script.
Harry cracked open the seal and read what was within.
“Sixth floor, portrait of Irene Smith,” Harry read. “Password: Mugwort.”
“Oh, that’s right by my Ancient Runes classroom,” Hermione perked up as she cracked open her own envelope. “Sixth floor, portrait of Septimus Weasley.”
She gasped loudly and looked up to Ron, who was holding his opened envelope in his hands. He turned it around for her to see that his new dormitory was the same as hers.
“Yes!” Hermione exclaimed, throwing her arms around him tightly.
Harry smiled at them, but he was quickly distracted as he looked around to see the others in his year. Lavender and Parvati were both looking back at him from further down the table. They held up their fingers to show that they were on the fourth floor, so Harry just shook his head and held up six fingers.
“We should get going,” Hermione said as she quickly stood up from the table. Ron looked utterly clueless as to what she was hinting at, but Harry knew that it would only be a matter of minutes before they were exploring every inch of their new bed together.
The entire walk up to the sixth floor was both familiar and odd. Hermione was pulling Ron along by his hand, and it only took until they reached the fourth floor that Ron finally realised that he was in for a good night with his girlfriend. They took the Grant Staircase up the way they would to the seventh floor where the Gryffindor Common Room was, but they stopped short one floor and entered onto the sixth floor.
Since his room was on the way, Hermione showed Harry the way to his new dormitory and then quickly pulled Ron away as they hurried off to their own room. It was a bittersweet feeling knowing that he wasn’t going to be living with them anymore, but he was quite excited to see who was his soulmate.
Ever since the soulmate program had begun, there hadn’t been a single couple that hadn’t worked out. Such a thing had been written off as an anomaly at first, but as the years went on and no couple ever broke up, people truly began to understand that the ancient magic beneath Hogwarts truly was capable of identifying perfect couples.
As he spoke the password, the portrait door swung open, revealing a rather cosy living room. It wasn’t particularly big. There was a small sofa, a couple chairs, and two desks set up in here as well. There was a small fireplace by the sofa and two doors along the far wall. Harry opened the one on the western wall and saw the bathroom within. It had a nice shower, a separate bathtub, a large counter space, and a tiny water closet. He backed out of there and headed for the other door.
Harry hadn’t quite known what to expect, but his bedroom beat out anything that he could’ve imagined. Two large wardrobes flanked a massive four-posted bed. There was a thick rug on the floor to keep the morning chill from bothering him as he climbed out of bed, and there were two small nooks where shoes or slippers could be placed. A large window dominated the eastern wall, showing off the horizon over the Forbidden Forest where the sun would rise each morning.
His trunk already sat at the foot of the bed, along with another brown trunk. It was probably a Hufflepuff that he was matched up with then, he assumed based on the colour.
That left him with a few options: Susan, Megan, Hannah, Leanne. They were all quite pretty in their own right, but Harry knew that physical attractiveness was only a part of what made someone so compatible. There was their personality to consider too and their intangible nature that ancient magic was somehow able to analyse.
Harry slowly made his way back to the main room and plopped down on one of the plush armchairs within. His heart was beating fast as he waited and waited for whoever was going to show up.
It took nearly fifteen minutes, but eventually, the portrait door swung open again.
Harry quickly sat up, trying to smooth out his robes before his soulmate stepped inside.
The first thing he saw was his soulmate’s dark hair. It was straight and silky smooth, sitting just past her shoulders. She was slim and of average height for the women at Hogwarts. Harry frowned as he tried to figure out who it was, but then she turned and her house crest flashed at him.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Harry exclaimed as he leapt to his feet. He was already itching to draw his wand.
“Potter?” Pansy Parkinson exclaimed in sheer surprise. She froze just past the threshold to their room, her pale-green eyes locking onto his vibrant ones. “Of all people, I have to be matched up with you?”
Harry felt a flare of annoyance shoot up within his chest. “Believe me, I’m not any happier to be shacked up with some stuck-up, prejudiced bitch.”
“Fuck off,” Pansy snapped, her nostrils flaring. “I’d rather have nothing to do with you.”
“Seems we’re in agreement then.”
In an instant, Pansy stormed out of the room, leaving Harry all alone.
PAGE BREAK
“Sooooo… how’s it going in paradise?”
Harry snorted into the flames. “Well, seeing as I’m living alone, not well.”
Sirius Black’s cheery face grinned back at Harry through the flames in his fireplace. “Don’t tell me she’s playing hard to get.”
“I think Hogwarts messed up somehow,” Harry admitted. “I mean, I’ve known Pansy my whole life. Every stupid ball or celebration that me, dad, and mum got invited to always had those pure-blooded twats there—no offence. Pansy loved nothing more than running her own little court where she lorded over the other girls and tried to dictate what the boys could and couldn’t do.”
“You would be surprised as to how many little girls are like that,” Sirius commented.
Harry continued on like he hadn’t heard him. “And then when we got older, she kept acting so stuck up. Obviously, the traditional pure-blood families don’t have anywhere near as much power in the government as they once did, but she acts like a princess that needs to be waited on. She even dated Draco Malfoy of all people for a summer.”
“Yeah, that’s a point against her, I’m afraid,” Sirius grimaced. “Did she break it off with him or did he?”
“She did, from what I heard,” Harry amended quickly. “But still, she chose to kiss a Malfoy of all people.”
“Expectations can make people do odd things. I mean, look at my cousin. She married Draco’s dad just because her parents and her entire extended family expected her to marry someone of proper blood, and from what I can tell, she seems miserable living with him,” Sirius argued gently. “Maybe she’s changed.”
“Not likely,” Harry muttered. “It’s been three weeks and I’ve not heard a single word from her.”
“Have you tried to talk to her?” Sirius asked.
“Of course not,” Harry replied, almost looking offended. “I already told you that—”
“Yeah, yeah. She’s a stuck-up bitch,” Sirius finished for him. “And let me guess, she thinks that you’re a goody-goody who has come to tear down all of her family’s traditions and replace them with some - nonsense.”
“Well, I haven’t actually spoken to her, so I don’t know,” Harry said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right.”
Sirius sighed. “This is the problem with the two of you. You haven’t given each other a proper chance. Yeah, you saw her over the years that you grew up together, but do you really know the woman that she is today? Or are you just seeing her as that annoying brat when you were kids?”
“No way, I’m…”
Damn it. Maybe Sirius had a point.
Harry still remembered the night when he was eight or nine and he was forced to dance with Pansy at some Ministry gala event or something like that. They were both dressed up in fine robes and put front and centre on the ballroom floor as countless adults watched on and cooed at how cute they were. Pansy stepped on his foot first, so he stepped back on hers. Then she said something about his dad being pathetic, and Harry stomped on her foot so hard that she ran off and cried. He’d gotten away with an excuse that he’d accidentally stepped on her foot, but he never forgot her malicious words.
But she was just a child then and so was he. Was that a grudge really worth holding onto a decade later?
“I can see that you’re finally using your brain for once,” Sirius joked.
“Shut up,” Harry scowled at him. “It doesn’t matter. Pansy’s still being difficult.”
“That’s life,” Sirius told him. “No two people are ever truly on the same page at the exact same time; it always takes a bit of compromise to come to an agreement. Maybe if you take the first step, Pansy will meet you halfway.”
“Or she’ll see that as a sign of weakness,” Harry argued.
“Maybe,” Sirius replied, and Harry could practically hear his shrug through the fire call. “Or she’ll think that you’re so mature and decide that you're worthy of having your brains snogged out.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “Like that’ll happen.”
“You’ll never know until you try,” Sirius replied. “Besides… oh, your parents are here.”
Suddenly, Sirius’ face disappeared from the flames and was replaced by Harry’s dad, James. Especially now that he was older, Harry kept getting told that he looked like the spitting image of his dad, except for his eyes.
“I hear you’re having trouble in the love department,” James said as he wiggled his eyes up and down.
Before Harry could respond, his dad’s face suddenly disappeared and was replaced by his mum’s. Her long red hair mixed in with the fire perfectly.
“I know that Pansy hasn’t always been easy to deal with, but you haven’t either,” Lily told Harry pointedly. “Maybe it’s time to give her a fresh start.”
“Or maybe it’s time to throw myself from the Astronomy Tower,” Harry retorted.
Lily glared at him hard enough through the flames that Harry raised his hands.
“Okay, sorry,” Harry said. “That was a bit much.”
“You think?” Lily asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
And then she disappeared from view again as his dad took centre stage.
“Look, you just need to put the old Potter charm on her, okay?” James told his son. “A cheeky smile and a wink or two is all you need. After all, your mum fell for me so fast—”
“As if!” Lily shouted from the background.
“—that she had no choice but to become my wife. Maybe Pansy will be different than you remember her.”
“Maybe,” Harry replied noncommittally.
“Just remember, us Potters have a habit of breaking convention,” James grinned. “If you’re the first person to decide that Hogwarts hasn’t found your soulmate, then you’re just adding another fun fact to our family’s history. Good luck!”
Harry waved goodbye as the connection ended. But as soon as the flames flickered away, he let out a big sigh and fell onto his back.
Every single other pairing had truly fallen in love by now. It was nearly the end of September, and the Daily Prophet and several other papers had already begun to report on Harry and Pansy’s turmoil. They were the first ever soulmate couple at Hogwarts to not actually become a couple, and with Harry’s family name, that made for quite the hot story in the press.
Maybe his dad and godfather were right and he was just giving Pansy a hard time based on how he remembered her. Surely she couldn’t be all that bad. After all, the only real words that they’d spoken to each other this year had come when they’d first found out that they were apparently soulmates.
Harry forced himself to his feet, intent on finding Pansy to at least try to talk this out. Maybe they would find some common ground… or they would realise that they simply weren’t meant for each other. Either way, living in limbo like this wasn’t doing either of them any good.
So, Harry left his dormitory and hurried down to the dungeons. Pansy had moved back into an empty room all by herself from what he’d heard, but given that it was still early in the morning, he might be able to catch her before she left for breakfast.
As he passed by the main floor, he saw all of the students hurrying to breakfast. He worried that he might’ve missed Pansy but decided that he ought to check the dungeons nonetheless.
Darkness was only broken by torchlight down below. Harry knew exactly where the Slytherin Common Room was thanks to the Marauders’ Map, and so he hurried down to that corridor where the entrance could be found. However, upon reaching it, he found the entrance sealed up.
Sighing, Harry nestled himself in a cosy alcove and waited for a minute for the entrance to open, but it never did. Instead, all he perceived were the sounds of students heading up to breakfast.
But then, he heard a distant shout.
It sounded like a young student, someone yelling at something or someone. Harry wasn’t quite sure as to what was going on, so he remained where he was. Only a few seconds later, the door opened and a flood of students left, including Pansy.
She stood in the midst of a group of slightly younger students, appearing utterly bored. But the moment she stepped out past the threshold, there was another shout from further down the corridor. All of the Slytherins turned to look to see what was going on, but when nothing became immediately apparent, everyone left.
Everyone except for Pansy.
She stood with her back to Harry, staring down the dark corridor. Another shout rang out, and Pansy drew her wand.
“What am I doing?” She muttered to herself as she stalked down the corridor.
Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise. Why was she bothering with something like this? It was probably a couple of young Slytherins having an impromptu duel early in the morning, not exactly the type of thing she needed to bother herself with.
Quietly, Harry followed behind her, keeping his distance so that he didn’t accidentally alert her to his presence.
Eventually, Pansy rounded a corner and came to a stop. Harry too had to stop at the corner prior to hers and listened carefully.
“What are you three doing?” Pansy’s domineering tone rang out, demanding an answer.
“This pest said that we’re good for nothing,” a younger voice spoke up.
“Yeah, she said that we’re just like He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named,” another one said. “She said that we’d be better off dead.”
“So you decided to duel her?” Pansy asked, almost amused.
“Yeah,” the two boys called out.
“And what’s your name?” Pansy asked.
There was a couple moment’s hesitation before the answer came. “Elene.”
“Well, Elene,” Pansy drew her name out slowly. “Why are you tormenting these two poor lads?”
“Because they deserve it!” The girl shouted. “His dad killed my dad!”
Silence was all that followed her statement. Harry peered around the corner carefully and found Pansy standing still, looking like she was chewing on something. He couldn’t see the two boys or the girl, but there was no way of getting any closer without Pansy spotting him. As much as he wanted to try to talk to her about everything, he knew well enough that this wasn’t the time for it.
Finally, Pansy spoke. “Did he have anything to do with it?” She asked, presumably gesturing at one of the boys.
“N-no,” the girl hesitated. “But I heard him saying that He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named should’ve won! He said that… mudbloods and blood traitors don’t deserve to be here.”
“Is that true?” Pansy’s sharp, icy tone came out strong.
There was no response, which was answer enough.
“Apologise,” Pansy said plainly.
“What?” One of the boys said.
“You heard me,” Pansy said more forcefully this time. “Voldemort is dead. He didn’t stand for anything good, even for us pure-bloods. Apologise to her right now, and if I dare catch you saying anything against muggleborns or half-bloods, I promise you that you’ll wish you’d never come to Hogwarts.”
The apology didn’t come quickly. The two boys tried to nitpick and argue with Pansy over any little thing that their minds could come up with, but they were eventually forced to concede when Pansy made it clear that their blubbering would win no sympathy from her.
Harry had to duck into an alcove to hide from the two Slytherin boys who went running past. He hid behind a small statue, listening carefully as their footsteps disappeared.
“You don’t need to listen to what I have to say, but I hope you do,” Pansy began. “There are plenty of tossers who’ll do or say anything to try to upset you. You need to let their words go.”
“Why?” The younger girl demanded. “They’re being mean. They should stop!”
“Yes, they should,” Pansy admitted. “But do you really think that you can be the person to change every mean person’s minds?”
“I’d like to be,” the girl replied.
Harry heard Pansy’s breath hitch just the slightest bit.
“If you do that, you’d have to argue and fight with everyone who thinks like them,” Pansy pointed out.
“That’s okay,” the girl told her. “I don’t care how hard it is or how long it takes. I’ll teach them to be better.”
“Maybe you will,” Pansy admitted after a beat of silence. “But don’t ever come fighting a duel down in the dungeons again. It’s too easy to ambush you down here. If you really have to fight someone, insist on it being on your territory or at least neutral ground. I don’t want to come around here again and find you with broken bones or anything worse, okay?”
“Okay,” the younger girl agreed. “Can I go now then?”
Pansy must’ve nodded, because Harry didn’t hear anything. Then, a moment later, he saw the young girl come skipping past him, bearing a Gryffindor crest on her robes.
When had Pansy ever been nice to a Gryffindor? Honestly, Harry tried hard to remember, but he never really spent much time around Pansy at Hogwarts. They tended to avoid each other entirely given their mutual animosity towards one another. Harry had plenty of reasons to dislike her, and, well, he supposed Pansy had some reasons to dislike him too. His dad and Sirius had tried to convince him to take up their pranking mantle years ago, and he’d turned Pansy’s hair neon green for an entire week before his spell had worn off. If only Neville hadn’t admitted that Harry bragged about doing it, he would’ve gotten away without any punishment.
That wasn’t the only thing he’d done to annoy Pansy over the years either. There was the taunting—especially when she was dating Draco—the snide comments before Quidditch matches, and the rare teasing prank. But it wasn’t like Pansy didn’t give as good as she got. She had a barbed tongue and a clever mind for disrupting people’s daily lives.
But neither of them had done anything to the other for at least a couple of years now. By the time they matured, they simply decided to avoid one another. Harry gave up his juvenile pranking and Pansy stopped with those obnoxious, inflammatory quips in the corridors.
They were different people now.
When Pansy finally rounded the corner, Harry stepped out from the alcove.
“Can we talk?” He asked.
Pansy looked none too thrilled to see Harry there. Her demeanour was all wrong, and she had her nose upturned like there was a bad smell, but at least she wasn’t just walking away. Harry decided to speak before she could think twice and decide that it was better to tell him off just for standing in front of her.
“I saw what you did back there, heard what you said,” Harry began.
“So what? You’re spying on me now?” Pansy demanded to know.
Harry held up his hands in surrender. “No, I was just trying to come talk to you when you went off to go deal with those kids.”
“Then talk, Potter,” Pansy said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m already late to breakfast as it is.”
“I don’t want to fight with you anymore,” Harry told her plainly. “And I want to get to know you better.”
Pansy snorted loudly. “Let me guess, your dad asked you to do this.”
“No,” Harry frowned in confusion. “Why would he?”
“Haven’t you heard about what’s been going on at the Ministry? He’s being lambasted over the fact that his son is the one fucking up this program and stalling Britain’s repopulation goals.”
“He hadn’t mentioned anything like that to me,” Harry said. Why hadn’t his dad told him about what was going on? Harry had seen the articles talking about him and Pansy, but he didn’t know that it was affecting his dad at work too.
Pansy seemed surprised at that. “Well, then why do you really want to talk with me?”
“I already told you,” Harry replied.
“You seriously just want to talk?” Pansy asked sceptically. “Why? You can’t really believe that we’re soulmates, can you? Whatever stupid magic Hogwarts uses obviously made a mistake.”
“Maybe it did,” Harry admitted. “But wouldn’t you rather give it a shot and see what happens?”
Pansy’s suspicions only seemed to grow from there. “Are you just trying to shag me?”
“No,” Harry replied instantly. Though, looking at her now, he supposed that he wouldn’t be opposed to the idea entirely. He still wasn’t sure if she’d changed as much as his godfather suggested she may have, but she was quite pretty. “I’m trying to get to know you.”
“So you can get my guard down,” Pansy narrowed her eyes at him.
“Merlin, do you have to make this so difficult?” Harry groaned. “All I want is a bit of your time. We can meet up in our room during the break before supper on days when we have time and spend like twenty minutes talking to each other about whatever. Is that too much to ask for?”
Pansy was quiet for several moments. Harry imagined that she was just coming up with some creative way to turn him down, but to his surprise, she eventually gave a tentative nod.
“Fine,” she said quickly. “I’ll be there tonight. But I swear if this is some stupid prank or anything other than what you told me, you’ll regret it.”
PAGE BREAK
And so, the weeks followed as the two of them steadily got to know one another. It wasn’t easy, especially at first since they had a lot of baggage to unpack about their history together. There were little incidents which Pansy brought up that Harry couldn’t even remember, and the same was true for some stories that Harry brought up. But, given the fact that Pansy only stormed out of their room three times and Harry only did it once, he felt like things were going well.
The first early-winter snows started to fall before Harry realised that Pansy was actually hanging around their room more. At first, they’d kept their talks relatively brief to prevent things from getting too heated, but now they were regularly having hour-long conversations about anything and everything.
As it turned out, Pansy was a massive fan of the Wimbourne Wasps Quidditch team. She revelled the day that they beat the Chudley Cannons, who Harry had been made to support by Ron. She also had quite the penchant for astronomy and had dreams of joining the Unspeakable researchers at the Ministry of Magic to uncover just how much astronomy could influence things and events.
But what truly surprised Harry was to hear her finally talk about how much she hated the prejudice against muggleborns and half-bloods.
While it was indeed true that she didn’t like how ignorant or disrespectful some of them could be towards magical traditions that’d lasted for hundreds of years, she actually argued that it was a failing of Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic that was the cause of this. They tried to teach those ingrained in magical culture all about the muggle world in order to prevent or minimise any prejudices and open peoples’ eyes to a different way of living, but they didn’t do the same for those just joining the magical world. She hoped that one day, there’d be a Magical Studies class just as there was a Muggle Studies one.
It was things like that which helped Harry realise that she wasn’t as bad as he may have initially feared she was. She even admitted that she only dated Draco to anger her parents—which still wasn’t enough to stop him from teasing her over the fact that she still kissed him.
Pansy too seemed to come to a better understanding of him as a person. She was still quick with a quip whenever he did or said something stupid or amusing, but her barbs were a lot less harsh now. Plus, she even admitted that he was a pretty good Seeker, which did a lot to make him forget some of their earlier arguments.
Harry was sitting by the fireplace, staring blankly down at the book on his lap. He’d been staring at the same page for nearly ten minutes now without moving. Pansy was sat down at one of the desks, fiddling away with one of her telescopes. She liked to keep them very clean and adjusted them every single day.
This was the third day this week that she’d come back to their room after they’d already gone and had supper. The first day, she’d said that the dungeons were too chilly for her to work in, but he was beginning to suspect that something else was afoot.
He closed his book loudly and turned to face Pansy.
“Why are you here?” He asked.
“Why are any of us?” Pansy replied sarcastically.
Harry ignored her poor attempt at a philosophical retort. “It’s Friday night. Don’t you usually hang out with Daphne, Millicent, and Tracey tonight?”
“How perceptive of you,” Pansy said, still fiddling with her telescope.
“So?”
“So what?”
Harry bit back a groan. Even if she was more pleasant to be around, she still loved getting a rise out of him.
“Why are you here instead of with them?”
“Because I need to have my telescopes prepared for tomorrow night,” Pansy answered finally.
“And you couldn’t have done that tomorrow afternoon?” Harry asked. “Didn’t you say that you were already done with McGonagall's essay?”
Pansy didn’t respond right away. She kept polishing one of the lenses of her telescope.
Suddenly, Harry’s lips spread into a grin. “Don’t tell me. You’ve finally come to enjoy my company so much that you’d rather spend time with me than your friends.”
Pansy snorted quietly. “As if, Potter.”
If she was going to be evasive and snarky with him, then it was time for him to get under her skin a bit too.
“Or maybe you’ve finally fallen in love with me just like Hogwarts’ magic believed you would,” Harry teased her, chuckling aloud.
He paused then, expecting another sarcastic reply, but nothing came. A few seconds of silence passed, and Harry frowned.
“Wait, do you actually…” he stopped himself from finishing his sentence. Pansy still wasn’t looking back at him, but her hands had stopped moving. She was sitting frozen, slightly hunched over her telescope, barely even breathing.
Merlin, had he screwed this up again?
“Pansy, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Harry told her quickly.
“You haven’t,” Pansy replied. She quickly started packing up her cleaning supplies into the bag beside her chair. “It’s late, I should get going.”
Harry was on his feet before she was, and he intercepted her before she could take more than a couple steps away from her desk. “Please don’t go. Talk to me.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” she replied, staring down so that Harry couldn’t look into her eyes. “Like you said, I can do this tomorrow.”
She went to step around him, but Harry’s hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. She didn’t try to pull away, but neither did she look up at him either.
“When I first found out that I was being paired with you, I was miserable,” Harry began. “But everyone around me told me to give it a shot, and I’m so glad I did. I’ve loved getting to know you, Pansy, and somewhere in the middle of that, I realised that maybe Hogwarts wasn’t wrong for putting us together. You’re a lot more brilliant and kind than I ever gave you credit for. And I… I think I’m falling for you. No, I already have fallen for you.”
Pansy’s breathing hitched at his words. “If you’re having me on,” she warned him quietly.
“Would I do this if I was?” Harry asked her.
“Do what?” Pansy asked as she finally looked up at him.
Harry closed the gap between their faces and kissed Pansy. She gasped in surprise, inadvertently shaping her lips perfectly to meet Harry’s kiss. She was stiff for a second, but then her body relaxed and she melted into the kiss.
As they pulled apart, Pansy stared deeply into Harry’s eyes. “You’re a bloody prat, you know that, right?”
“I figured you wouldn’t mind it as much if I was your bloody prat,” Harry said, emphasising the last few words.
Suddenly, Pansy walked back over to her desk and set her telescope and bag back down on it before walking over to his bedroom door. She opened it and paused at the threshold, glancing back at him.
“Are you just going to stand there like an idiot?” She asked him with a raised eyebrow.
Harry came racing after her, only to trip over his own two feet and fall face first onto his bed.
Pansy snorted loudly. “Gryffindors,” she muttered.
Before Harry could get a reply out, a heavy chill ran across his body as all of his clothes vanished. He turned to complain only to find Pansy in the exact same state as him except for a smug smile on her lips.
“Do you even know that I tried to get you into bed earlier this week?” Pansy asked him as she walked over to his bed. She gave a perfunctory examination of the bedsheets before deciding that they were clean enough for her to climb on.
Harry tried to think back but it was hard to get his mind to focus on anything other than Pansy’s long legs, perky breasts, and that cutely annoying smirk of hers. “I, uhh…”
Pansy reclined back at the top of his bread, spreading her legs wide open to show off her pink pussy. She popped a couple fingers into her mouth and coated them in saliva before she brought them back down to her core and started rubbing around her clit. “You were showing me that wand movement and I asked you to stand behind me and move my arm for me so that I could do it too. Did you really not notice me rubbing my ass against you?”
Harry’s cheeks turned a tinge pink in embarrassment. “I thought you were nervous and kept shifting your footing around.”
“Men,” Pansy shook her head. As she silently laughed, her breasts bounced on her chest. Her fingers started moving up and down her slit now, and Harry couldn’t draw his eyes away from her movements. Then, she ever so slowly pushed one digit just barely inside of her pussy. “I was trying to get you to make a move. Turns out that all I had to do was look a bit pathetic so that your heroic instincts would kick in.”
“You weren’t being pathetic,” Harry argued. “You were showing real emotions.”
“And that’s all it took? Well, can you tell what I’m feeling right now?”
“Lust.”
“Exactly,” Pansy grinned.
She slipped a second finger inside of her and let out a sweet moan. Harry knew that he’d probably wasted precious time just by sitting idly by and doing nothing but watch, so he finally climbed all the way up onto the bed and crawled over towards Pansy. He was just about to go down on her when she suddenly sat up and then fell forwards onto her hand and knee—her second hand was still busy playing with herself. Her face smacked right against his crotch, and his rapidly hardening cock pushed a strand of hair away from her face.
Pansy opened her mouth and engulfed his cock. The wet heat of it made Harry groan, but it only got better as Pansy sucked on him softly, sealing her lips firmly around his shaft. Her lips stroked his cock as she worked her way halfway down his length before she started to pull back.
After a few more movements, Pansy started to set up a steady rhythm of bobbing her head back and forth. She looked so gorgeous as she sucked his cock, her pale-green eyes staring up into his. He could just barely see her hand moving as she plunged her two fingers inside of her pussy.
As she grew more comfortable with his cock, Pansy’s tongue started flicking back and forth along the underside of his shaft. She sucked harder, hollowing out her cheeks and making more sounds of pleasure escape past his lips.
Even sucking his cock, Pansy somehow managed to look smug. She seemed immensely pleased with herself every time Harry let out any noise, and her plump lips curved into a smile around his cock.
“If you keep this up, I won’t last long,” Harry warned her.
Slowly, she pulled her head back until her pouty lips were just barely touching the tip of his cock. She gave it a little kiss and then sat back on her heels.
“There’s only one hole I intend for you to cum inside tonight,” she said, her eyes flaring up with excitement. She flopped onto her back again and spread her legs, showing just how much more wet her pussy had gotten in the past couple of minutes. Her juices had flowed out of her core and onto her thighs. She was ready and waiting for him.
Suddenly, Harry pounced atop Pansy, and her hands went straight for his cock. She grabbed his thick shaft and lined the tip up with sopping-wet pussy. Her eyes were just begging him to push inside of her.
He couldn’t hold back; he pushed himself deep inside of her pussy. Her walls stretched to adjust to his size while the two of them moaned in simultaneous pleasure. Her core felt like it was perfectly crafted just for him: a tight, wet, hot pussy that needed to be completed by filling it to the brim with his cock.
The magic that’d decided to pair the two of them together made so much more sense now. This connection was unlike anything else that Harry had ever experienced in his life. It felt like the air around him was humming with positive energy, enthusiastically approving of their joined form. Everything felt electric; there was a build up in the air, and all that was needed to set it off was a single spark.
“This feels even better than I imagined,” Pansy moaned.
Harry agreed with her, but he couldn’t form any words at the moment. Instead, he let his body respond by thrusting deeper into her. He was rewarded with a sweet mewl, and thus started Harry’s turn to make Pansy let out some beautiful noises.
Pansy’s pussy was nice and snug around Harry’s cock as he thrust into her. She was so slick inside that he had no problem moving quickly back and forth inside of her, and he made sure that every thrust went nice and deep, exactly the way that he and Pansy seemed to like it best. Her arms and legs quickly wrapped themselves around his body, unwilling to let him go anywhere until they’d both gotten their fill.
Feeling her breath against his face, Harry leaned down and kissed Pansy again. He really wished that he knew how nice it felt to kiss her—he would’ve tried to build up their connection much sooner if he had. Kissing her only made fucking her feel all the greater.
“I’m so so close,” Pansy whimpered as her nails dug into Harry’s back. “Don’t you dare stop.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Harry groaned as Pansy’s pussy squeezed his cock extra hard. She felt too good to ever stop fucking.
His hips slammed forward harder and faster, pushing his core muscles to their limits. He leaned down and kissed her again, literally feeling her breath shooting out from her lungs when he thrust deep inside of her.
They shared the perfect moment when the world truly came alive. Pansy’s kissing became more desperate, and then it suddenly stopped as she shrieked in pure ecstasy. Her pussy gushed around his cock, spraying fluids down his thighs as she came hard. Her walls clamped down hard around his cock, and that was what set him off. He came deep inside of Pansy’s pussy, filling her to the brim with his thick seed. He kept bucking his hips against her as he forced out every last drop.
Harry nearly passed out from the pleasure of it all. His vision swam and the edges blurred, but he remained conscious if only to live out the final moments of bliss before his orgasm finally subsided.
Now that he was utterly spent, Harry pulled out of Pansy and rolled over onto his back right beside her. Instantly, she curled up against his side, fighting to catch her breath.
“Just imagine if we’d liked each other from the start,” Harry joked breathlessly. “We’ve wasted so much time.”
“Well, we’ll just have to make up for that, won’t we?” Pansy smiled against his bare chest. “It would make for a good news article if you got me pregnant before the end of the school year. We have a duty to repopulate Britain, after all.”