YOUNG GODS ⚡️P. PARKINSON

1| ONE

PANSY hated her name.

She wondered what was going on in her parents brains at the time, naming their daughter Pansy. I mean, they had opened a dictionary before, right?

"Look at it, just look!" She complained to her mother, almost daily now.

pan•sy

/panzē/

1. a popular cultivated viola with flowers in rich colors, with both summer- and -winter-flowering variaties.

2. an effeminate or homosexual man
informal

"Well what am I looking at?" Would always be her mother's quick, exasperated response.

"Mum, out of all the names in the world, you pick Pansy."

"And?"

"And it's almost as bad as Sirius. Actually, I think it is worse than the name Sirius! And don't get me started on my last name..."

"Parkinson?"

Pansy cringed and lay her head on the cold wooden desk.

Mrs. Parkinson sighed. She was used to this. And then, surprisingly, laughed. (Which Pansy was not used to.)

She sat up and looked at her mother in confusion.

"What's so funny?"

"You." Was the reply.

Upon realizing that her daughter was still quite confused, Mrs. Parkinson decided to tell one of her very rare-but-enjoyable stories/lectures/pieces of advice.

She tucked a strand of her midnight dark hair behind an ear before speaking.

"You know Pansy, you're more like you're me than you are your father. Yeah, you've got the black hair, soft gray eyes, we both worry about the little things too..."

"But it's not a small matter, mum!" Pansy whined."Think of my future! Who's ever going to fall in love with me when my name means feminine man and-and nervous system disease?!"

"Lots of people will, Pansy. Because when you find someone who actually, truly loves you then I doubt your name will be an issue. So stop worrying about it, okay? Worry about other things, like your N.E.W.T.S and turning seventeen."

At the mention of her seventeenth birthday, Pansy lit up. All stress and nervousness seemingly pushed aside.

"So," Her mother said, to change the topic."Was it roses he gave you or orchids?"

"Mum!"

The older woman laughed at her daughter's sudden self-consciousness, wondering what even caused her to think about such silly things in the first place.