Pansy, I need to know that you won't tell anyone about this. Who: Pansy & Tracey What: Confessions in a clothing shop. Where: Parkinson's Fine Fashions, Diagon Alley. When: Afternoon of Saturday, 24th of May.
Pansy shook her head, her hand flying out to rearrange the long green robes on the rack as she glared at the sales girl. "No, Sarah! The robes on the racks should be ordered by colour and the size. Not in order of how good they look on you." She rolled her eyes and stalked away from the idiotic sales girl, heels clipping on the marble floor. Unfortunately, she only managed to get about five feet away before her stomach roiled in protest. "Urgh..." Pansy stopped still; her left hand rubbed over her stomach as she used her wand to summon over the cup of ginger tea she'd made moments before. Ginger was one of the few things she'd discovered helped and she spent most of her day drinking ginger tea or ginger ale and eating ginger snaps. It was really getting quite ridiculous. As she sipped away, she heard the pleasant jingling of the bell over the door. Maybe that's Tracey?" Pansy thought, and she glanced over to see.
It was indeed Tracey, who'd gone back to being tetchy and nervous about her upcoming hideaway. Seamus had eased some of her concerns the night before, after the meeting with the Shacklebolts, but in the cold light of day, all the fears came rushing back again. Still, the plans had been set in motion, and all Tracey could do now was try to prepare herself as best she could. That included telling her best friends what was really going on with her.
"Pansy!" Tracey threw out her arms to hug her friend, then peered down and sniffed at the cup of tea in Pansy's hand. "Ginger? Really?"
Pansy smiled as Tracey wrapped her arms around her in a hug. Holding her tea out of the way, she hugged her friend with one arm before pulling back. "Ginger is apparently the only thing I've found that calms by stomach. So for me its been a lot of ginger snaps, ginger tea, ginger ale." She sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's getting a bit redundant. I have a feeling I'm going to hate Ginger by the end of the week." Still, she had a small smile on her face as she asked, "So how are you, Tracey?"
Tracey wrinkled her nose and pulled away. "I hope I never get pregnant," she announced. "I don't know how you manage it." As if Pansy still had a choice about it. Tracey tucked her arm around her friend's companiably and started leading her to the stairs to the offices. "I have to tell you something really important."
Pansy laughed. Tracey never wanted to get pregnant, and Pansy often wished she'd never gotten pregnant. "Important?" She allowed herself to be led up the stairs, "Sounds interesting." Pansy averted her eyes from the closed door of Draco's office and continued down the hall to her own office. "Sit sit!" She said, gesturing towards the comfortable armchair in front of her desk. As she slid into her own seat behind it she said, "Well? What's the important thing you need to tell me?"
Tracey settled down, setting her handbag to the side. She placed both hands on the arm of the chair and leaned forward slightly, much more serious than she usually was. "Pansy, I need to know that you won't tell anyone about this. Not your parents, not Draco, not anyone." Although Tracey knew that when it came down to it Pansy was on her side, she also knew what a gossip her friend tended to be. This was important enough that Pansy would know not to gossip about it, but Tracey wasn't taking any chances.
Pansy leaned forward, her eyes intent. It wasn't often that Tracey was this serious; her being this way was a definite sign. "I swear to you, Tracey, that I will not tell anyone about what you're about to tell me. I swear-" She paused, searching for something to swear on that would make Tracey believe her. Normally she would swear on her custom Jimmy Choos, but this seemed a bit more serious than that. Her hand came to rest on the unnoticeable curve of her belly and she finished, "-I swear on my unborn child." Hopefully, that was what Tracey needed to hear.
Tracey blinked. Swearing on spawn wasn't what she would have wanted, but she did know the power of firstborns. It was the best Pansy could possibly offer her, and she accepted it as such. "Oh, Merlin." She fell back against the armchair, not even sure where to start. "Pansy, I am in so much trouble." Her voice was a hushed whisper. "The Death Eaters were making me help them, and I've just sold them out to the other side, and now I'm going to have to go into hiding."
"What?" Pansy exclaimed in a harsh whisper. For a moment, she couldn't speak. Her entire mind boggled with what Tracey had just told her. Finally, she decided to make sense of the whole thing by starting at the beginning. "The Death Eaters were making you help them? How, Tracey?" She herself felt grateful that no one had approached her as of yet. A bit surprising, considering that her brother had died for their cause, but not entirely so. The Parkinson's had always tried their best to remain clean of such associations.
"Just doing...things." Tracey grimaced. "Uncle Walden made me h-harbour him, and...Greyback..." Merlin, she was starting to shake just remembering it. She rushed on. "And Auntie Alecto is trying to teach me to properly curse people, and that's why you can't tell anyone, Pansy. I don't want to do it, but they were making me. I had to go for help."
"I understand. If I had been in your situation..." That was something Pansy didn't want to imagine. "Well, I probably would have done the same thing. In getting help." At that, she took a few more sips of her ginger tea. Carefully, she asked, "What sort of help are you getting, exactly?"
Tracey nodded, relieved that Pansy saw it her way. "Well, they're going to make it so that the Death Eaters can't summon me any time they want to now, and they're going to hide me so I can't be found." She looked forlorn. "No more going out to bars, Pansy. No more shopping, no more going to spas. You must visit, because I'll tell you where I'll be. You have to come see me and bring me new clothes and shoes."
Pansy was both worried at what the Death Eaters might do, and relieved that she was at least getting help. Softly, she replied, "That's true. But at least you'll be alive, Tracey. And I promise to bring you clothes and shoes and all the latest gossip."
Tracey smiled wanly in thanks. "Good, because I'd waste away in there. I could go out of the country for shopping trips, perhaps. The Death Eaters wouldn't know where to look for me in Denmark. But it'd still be awfully wearing, even if I'll be with--" She broke off, then grimaced and continued. "That's the other thing. I'll be living with Finnigan. Can you imagine what Charlotte's going to say if she finds out?"
Now that made Pansy quirk an eyebrow. "Finnigan? Interesting. Never pinned you as the 'living with a man' type." Shifting in her seat, Pansy leaned back, trying to make herself comfortable. "The key to that would be not letting Charlotte find out. Because if she does... well then you're shopping opportunities will definitely be cut short. It's hard to shop without money, after all."
"Don't say that," Tracey moaned. "I don't know what I'd do if I got cut off, and it's not exactly something I can hide from Charlotte. She's already met him once and hates him, and it'll probably be obvious at the safehouse that he lives in it. I wouldn't be able to meet her anywhere else once I disappear, so she'd have to go there to see me, and...well, maybe I just won't invite her over. I just won't see her ever again. And you know, Finnigan and I are going to be all right, I think, as long as we don't drive each other spare."
Pansy watched quietly as Tracey spilled out all her worries. "Charlotte might be a bit suspicious if she suddenly stops seeing you," Pansy replied slowly. Trying to come up with some idea to help Tracey, she suggested, "Perhaps you could pretend to be angry with her over something? You usually are... maybe that way she wouldn't be suspicious if you stop talking to her." As for the subject of Tracey and Seamus, Pansy really didn't have any suggestions. She'd been trying her best not to think about things like relationships and love lately, since she'd decided it was all a bunch of rubbish.
"This is true," Tracey said thoughtfully. "And we did have an awful row at Mungo's, so perhaps she wouldn't want to talk to me either. I never talk to her unless she sends for me anyway. If she decides that she does want to talk to me...well, perhaps everything will be over by then." She could only hope that this was going to be a short war. She didn't know how she'd manage to get through a prolonged one.
"That's the way to think," Pansy said with a smile. "Now, I'm not sure how long you have before you're supposed to go into hiding. But before you do, I think there's one thing you simply have to do." She leaned forward over the desk, her smile widening into a grin. "Shopping."
Tracey slowly grinned back. "That's exactly why I wanted to meet you here." After all, if she was going to be stuck in the wilds of Potatoland for Salazar knew how long, she had to stock up on new clothes and hope they don't go out of style too soon. "Did you get anything new in?"
"Just got a shipment in last night!" Pansy stood up, smiling. "And I happen to have put aside two gorgeous pairs of shoes, three purses and several robes that I think you"ll love!"
Tracey jumped to her feet. The promise of new things always cheered her up, and to have shoes, handbags and robes was definitely something to look forward to. "Brilliant! Let me see. Where did you put them? Show me!"
Pansy laughed as she slipped around her desk and towards the door. "Hid them in a special area of the stock room, just for you darling. Let's go see."