As You Are // D.M.

THE PEAK

Song: Sweat by Zayn 

Armena Riddle-Lestrange 

I taped up my final box, earning a judgmental glare from Pansy. She gave me a pout, stomping her feet on the wooden floor of my room. The week moved by quickly, almost too quickly making it bittersweet. I had packed up my things in a matter of days and was finally moving out after ten years. It would be hard not to see Pansy and Potter every single day. I had gotten so used to their company and constant playful bickering. 

I think I was most melancholy about leaving all of the memories that I made here behind. 

This was the very apartment that Pansy brought me to broken and damaged after my time in Azkaban. She had set me down into her tub and poured warm water down my back, scrubbing off the dirt and healing the bruises on my spine from the stone floor of my cell. She took care of me when I was a broken raven, my wings tattered and ripped to shreds. She slept in bed with me for weeks, holding me when I woke up screaming from the nightmares. She never asked any questions and she didn't poke or prod. To this day she has never said anything, she just let me heal in my own way. 

She was a different Pansy than I met all those years ago, when I first walked into our dormitory in Slytherin. She wasn't the same harsh mouthed and judgmental girl. There were still bits of her old self in there, but I understood her on a deeper level.

"Don't go" she whined, her rich brown eyes glassy.

I bit my cheek as I looked away. I couldn't possibly meet her eyes now, I was never good at goodbyes. In fact, the only goodbye that I had ever made were quick and painful ones. Similar to the one all those years ago, where the result of my emotions ended up with Fiendfyre engulfing my childhood and family home.

"Pans... " I sighed, placing my palms on the tops of my thighs as I kneeled on the floor. "Please don't do this, I will still see you everyday."

"Still" she whined, stomping her feet again slightly. "It feels like—"

I couldn't even let her finish that sentence. I couldn't let her utter those words that I knew were on the tip of her tongue.

"This is different than last time," I hissed. "It's not the same and you know it."

"It feels the same" she sighed, "except this time there's no long table discussions and midnight meetings in the shadows."

I sighed and stood up, facing the raven haired witch in front of me. I folded my arms over my chest and raised a brow at her.

"Since when did you become so emotional?" the corners of my lips pulling up.

"I'm always emotional, I just have to be strong for you" she waved her arm, shooing me away. 

Pansy wiped the corners of her eyes with her jumper sleeve, letting out a sniffle. I shook my head and pulled her in close to me. She wrapped her arms around me tightly, letting out muffled cries as her tears pooled at my collar bone. Draco and Potter stuck their heads around the corner investigating what was going on. Potter looked concerned, his brows furrowing together as he watched his wife sob. While Draco held back a laugh, shaking his head violently. I rolled my eyes at the two boys reactions, throwing up a middle finger at Draco.

"Pansy, darling?" I cooed, rubbing the back of her head. "I am only five minutes away, it's not like I am dying."

No, I wasn't dying. I wasn't sacrificing my life this time to save everyone from the wrath of my father.

"Pansy?" I glanced towards Potter and Draco, with wide eyes.

I jerked my head to Potter and then to Pansy, trying to get the dark haired wizard to do something with his sobbing wife. Potter walked up to us and placed a hand on Pansy's back.