when they became villains [draco malfoy] {book 2}

Year 7 - 200

It had snowed again. A white coat settled over the grounds, over the school, over the students and professors, covering them all as one in a thick layer of sad despair. Like tears, snowflakes descended to the ground with wet thuds. They beat against the window under which Pansy was laying, melting the second they touched the glass.

It was cold there in the Hospital Wing bed in which she lay. She had awoken there that morning, momentarily perplexed until the events of the previous evening had begun rolling over her like an avalanche. It wasn't just a layer of snow covering her, Pansy felt like she had been buried underneath it. Still and helpless, she could not see the sun from where she lay.

But who could anymore?

* * * 

Dinner that night was a dim one. Most students had skipped both breakfast and lunch, dreading the return to the room where they had all watched a schoolmate die, but by dinnertime, their empty stomachs had betrayed them. People did not talk. Barley could they even eat. Though their eyes, all as one, watched the table by which sat the individuals most affected.

Pansy could feel them staring at the back of her head all through dinner, and she knew her friends could feel it too. Yet, for the first time in their lives, nobody cared about how they appeared to the general public. None of them tried to hide the utter emptiness within them at the loss of a close friend. 

Tracey did not eat. All throughout dinner she just sat, silent tears running down her cheeks, as she grumbled about how she had said there was no point in her coming to get some food. Too nauseous themselves, no one tried to convince her to eat. Theo hadn't shown up at all.

Though even more, pressing was the absence of Astrid by their side. All of them knew that in the past months she and Rosier had grown closer. Much closer. Now, she was the only one not showing any signs of grief - empty-faced she sat further down the table from them, avoiding speaking to them at any cost. She had not returned to the dorm. She had ignored them in the hallways. She had decided to sit so far away. Too burdened by their own grief, nobody had decided to check in on her. Even Draco, Pansy noted, was sitting ashen-faced, pushing the potatoes from one side of his plate to the other and glancing her way time from time to only grow even sadder.

Better than anyone Pansy understood what it meant to be abandoned by friends, even if it was deserved. Though Astrid had done nothing wrong - why Tracey had accused her, Pansy could still not comprehend.

Nobody noticed, or perhaps they simply did not care when Pansy got up from her seat to stalk to the further end of the dining table. She slid in the space on the bench next to Astrid, affectionately bumping her shoulder against the other's. She sat, and only then, with a sudden rush of isolation realized how many empty spaces had been left around where Astrid was.

"What do you want, Parkinson?" it was that cold tone of voice that Pansy had not anticipated.

She turned toward Astrid, eyes already watering. Tears had been pooling in them the entire day.

"I don't want anything-"

"Why are you here?" again Astrid demanded coldly and Pansy had to take a moment to think about what she had done wrong. Did the girl cope better when left alone?

Two years ago Astrid had pulled Pansy out of a deep slump by practically forcing them to hang out together. Without her, maybe until this day Pansy would've been all alone. That wasn't something she'd easily forget, or just look over. 

"I want to be there for you because-"

"No, that's not a real reason," Astrid groaned and Pansy had to scoot back a little. "Nobody is ever there for another person unless they need something. Now tell me what it is that you want so I can tell you 'no' and you can piss off."