Heartchains

Chapter 15

"Voila." Pansy said, "Your nails are finished." She looked down at the ruby red nails she had just finished painting. Pansy had taken the liberty of adding gold swirls to them, after feeling as though the plain red was just a bit bland.  The charm she used to make them dance was a charm she had made herself. She could not find any books in the library on the topic, and seeing as all her friends (all two that is) had the same results, she decided to curate her own. Cieo Cendo, pronounced 'see-o send-o' , was a charm she had created in her fourth or fifth year after getting fed up with the 'Motus' charm with which her friends used to make their drawings dance. It just didn't work the same on nails. She had even tried using charmed nail paint, charmed to move with the picture but it didn't do what she wished it to do, which is one of Pansy's biggest pet peeves. 

The young lady the nails were attached to, the one and only Hermione Granger, softly took in a sharp breath. 

"They're beautiful." She whispered, barely audible. "Oh, Pansy," Hermione picked up her head and looked Pansy in the eyes. "Thank you."

"No problem." Pansy replied, swallowing hard. 

"How long should I wait for them to dry?" Hermione asked. 

"Oh, not long, just a few more seconds, I suppose," Pansy replied. With a wave of her hands, her bag started packing itself, the nail polishes went back into the bag and it snapped shut. She got up, putting the bag back into her chest. 

She sat down on top of the chest by her bed, facing Hermione, who was still sitting at the table in the middle of their shared dorm room. 

"The charm I used is 'Cieo Cendo'." Hermione opened her mouth and Pansy smiled slightly. "I know you've never heard of it, because I created it."

"You... made this?" Hermione asked, watching the golden swirls dance across her fingers. They moved across each finger as if the red was an ocean and the gold, the waves.  

"Yeah," Pansy said, feeling her face grow hot. "I made it in my fourth year. I got tired of the 'motus' charm. The movements aren't as fluid and they don't move as one." 

Hermione nodded, seeming to truly understand the nonsense that was Pansy's brain. 

Pansy shifted, trying to make herself more comfortable on the wooden chest. Sure, she could go back and sit down across from Hermione once more, but she doubted she'd be able to stand sitting so close to Hermione with nothing else to occupy her mind other that her intoxicating beauty. Pansy didn't want to admit it to herself, but she was developing some sort of an infatuation with her roommate. Merlin, if she had been told this a mere year ago, she'd have sneered and turned away. However, upon thinking back, Pansy had always felt some sort of, well, emotion towards Granger. Even all the way back in first year, when she had said something about the ceilings of the Great Hall being charmed to look like the night sky, Pansy had felt a tug on her stomach which she tossed aside as excitement. Now, she knew what that feeling was, but she was yet to allow herself to acknowledge it. 

"Pansy?" Hermione asked, her eyes crinkling with a smile. "Earth to Pansy?"

"Earth to Pansy?" She said back, arching an eyebrow.

"It's a muggle expression." Granger explained. "It's what you say to someone who's drifting off into a daydream."

If Pansy thought she was blushing before, she was most likely scarlet now. The light coming through the window was not helping her hide it, either. 

"Hold on, what time is it?" Pansy asked, scanning the room, trying to find that muggle clock. 

"5:28" Hermione answered, pointing to glowing number-box that was hidden behind her head.

Lovely, Hermione would be due down to eat breakfast with her friends in twelve minutes. And Pansy would be left alone again. 

Instead of hopping up to get ready, as she normally did, however, Hermione stayed sitting down at the table. 

She then said something Pansy was not expecting at all.

"Would you like to join me?"