The Most Impossible Soulbond

Face To Face

Pansy was sitting on her bed, her back rested against the wall behind her, staring blankly ahead at nothing in particular.

That treacherous, optimistic little flicker of hope beyond hope within had been snuffed out with unprecedented violence. Her life was over in an instant. How was she supposed to look her friends in the eye? How could she bear to show her face in public again? How could she ever return to Hogwarts?

And all because Potter could not stay out of trouble just once.

"Can you shut up for a minute?! I am trying to explain myself to the Weasleys here! And Hermione."

"If I get my hands on you, Potter, I swear to –"

"Seriously, can you just not talk?! Are you capable of just keeping your mouth shut for five minutes or is yapping all you can do?!"

Her mouth was left agape in shock. Pansy was sure she had heard it right and Potter had just implied that she was talking too much. Such blatant falsehoods on top of all the trouble he was causing her! And he was completely ignoring the breakdown she was having for the weasels and Granger?!

There was a hurried knock on her door and her father and mother were coming in, not waiting for nor needing her permission to enter. They joined her on her bed, sitting on either side of her and both appeared unable to come up with anything to say.

"We knew this would happen at some point, sweetheart," her father finally broke the uncomfortable silence, his voice low. "It...is not the worst thing. I am coming to terms with it. He may be a half-blood and I may have wished for you to marry into a strong, pureblooded family, but...but the Potter name still carries weight."

"A lot of it has to do with the Boy-Who-Lived and his accomplishments as an infant," her mother said stiffly, making Pansy scoff.

"I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!" she despaired, pulling her knees up, resting her elbows on them before cradling her head in her hands.

"This would have been a fantastic match, had he been a pureblood," her father mused, then gently pulled her into his side. "It is what it is, however. This is not the worst that could have happened. The initial blow will be painful, being removed from the Sacred Twenty-Eight will sting aplenty, but we can still work with this, sweetheart."

"He doesn't want you to use the Potter name for your, and I quote, 'pureblood agenda'," she told him, with air quotes and everything.

"How – oh, I see." Her mother winced. "This...bond still is a bit queer."

"Trust me, mother. It is even worse than it may look from the outside. The privacy of my thoughts is nonexistent anymore."

"Well, that certainly makes it more difficult to soften the fallout." Her father sighed. "In the end, you are married into his family. My hands are bound if he does not allow me to use the Potter name politically." He pressed a kiss on her head. "We will have to see what can be done. And...are you able to communicate with him...through this bond?" her father asked her hesitantly.

"Yes. It is like...I am actively thinking and Potter can hear it."

"Then please tell him that a talk is long overdue."

"Ugh. Fine." Pansy tried to listen in on Potter, raising a brow when she heard voices from his own conversation, sounding as if they were echoing from somewhere very far away.

"...got to be a way! He's just a boy and that – that family is horrid!" That was the shrill voice of an older woman. The Weasleys' mother perhaps? She'd show her a horrid family alright.