RP: Pansy and Harry Who: Pansy, Harry Where: Diagon Alley When: Monday October 21, 2005 Summary: Pansy and Harry go shopping
Pansy was surprised at how punctual Pot- Harry was. She'd have to keep telling herself that now they were using first names. This was going to be a disaster; she just knew it. Still, they had no choice but to move forward.
"Let's get things straight. We're both godparents and we're not going to make Draco look bad, which means I have two weeks to turn you into a pureblood, or at least a Potter. Let's start with your clothes. Draco said something about your hair refusing to be cut, so we'll cast a spell to make it longer for the occasion, make it nice and shiny, before tying it up," she explained. "Now, clothes. You can pick the colour, but nothing so cliche as red. Red looks horrible on men."
Harry had shown up right on time, knowing he’d never hear the end of it if he didn’t. He thought starting things on the right foot might make the afternoon easier. Somehow he knew it would end in disaster though. Although no matter what happened it couldn’t go worse than Saturday had at Malfoy Manor. He pushed those thoughts aside though, he wasn’t going to think about that now when he had an afternoon with a different Slytherin ahead of him. Harry doubted Pansy would be as forgiving, or keep quiet, about any slips the way he prayed Malfoy was.
He frowned when she told him he needed to spell his hair longer. “Why does my hair have to grow and be tied back. Regulus commented I should wear my hair long too.” Why did they all obsess over clothes and hair? “Can’t we just trim it a little bit?” He was almost positive he would hate having long hair.
When she asked him about color Harry chuckled at her denying him red. He hadn’t exactly planned on it but her denying it to him was amusing. “Why don’t you just pick?” He didn’t rightly care. “I tend to just wear black, blue or green. Women seem to like putting me in green.”
"Because that's how purebloods wear it. More importantly, because your hair looks like a mess, so unless you know how to style it to look presentable, we're making it long. Don't worry, we're not doing it today. There's a spell I can cast the morning of the Christening, and your hair will be back to normal when you go home." She thought that was understood, but Potter didn't seem to understand the basics of magic at times.
"That's because green looks very good on you. It brings out your eyes. I'm thinking a dark shade of green. I'll have to bring swatches to Narcissa to make sure that it's not the same shade as anything they were." At this point, she was mostly thinking aloud. "We need to colour coordinate. I'm pretty sure that Narcissa will wear green too. Regulus indicated that he's partial to light greys, almost silver to match his eyes. Draco would go for blues as does Lucius. I'll wear red, then." She didn't dislike the colour, no matter what games they played in school. In fact, it looked divine on her, and it would say a lot more than another colour.
"Do you have any style in mind? I'm thinking something simple, considering that you're Harry Potter. You don't need anything too overdone, but you should have snakes, something small, maybe in the buttons," she said.
Harry sighed as Pansy kept commenting on his hair. He knew he could trim it, but within ten seconds it always seemed to look windblown. “Is this one of those situations I’m supposed to just smile and say yes dear?” For one day he could handle it, besides he did believe that by giving in on a few small things it was easier to get people to see your way when you did argue. It had just taken him a long time to learn that.
Harry felt his eyes glaze over a bit as Pansy began talking about colours, and commenting on what everyone else would be wearing as well. He had no interest in this. He did raise an eyebrow when Pansy said she’d wear red. “Gold trim my for myself and silver trim for you?” he questioned. He knew what statement she was making with him in green and her in red.
Chuckling he said, “My plan for the robes was to wear whatever you picked out. It seemed safest.” Plus, he really didn’t care about clothing. When she commented on putting snakes on the buttons he paused. “Why snakes on the buttons? I understand my wearing green and you wearing red but isn’t adding snakes to it going a bit over board?”
"Very good, Darling," she said with a real smile, something that had never happened in any of her previous interactions with this man. "Besides, I'm not asking to change your hairstyle forever. People would stop recognising you for one, and you couldn't possibly want to be anonymous, just another pureblood walking around. It's so much easier to keep your haircut and have people recognise you on instant." And now, the smile was not as real.
Pansy hadn't thought about the trimmings, but why not. She was standing next to Potter at the Christening of Draco's child, with no mother. They might as well go for broke. "Sure, if you like. We'll see what they can make for us."
She could admit that his plan was the safest and the fastest. "I wasn't thinking about the Slytherins. I was thinking about the Blacks. They favoured snakes from what I know, even more so than most, since they had the oldest line. Regulus will be there. I would say their crest, but it would be rude without his permission. I thought a few snakes on the buttons would be noticeable to those who know where to look without being too much."
Harry raised an eyebrow at Pansy calling him darling, he could also tell when her smile became forced again. He did want that though he wasn’t sure Pansy would believe it. Or she’d think she was pissing on her and other Slytherins. “I like my hair,” he just said simply with a shrug.
There, he had given input on their robes. He was being helpful, and pleasant. Hopefully they would be done soon.
He nodded when she commented about snakes and the Blacks. “That makes sense then. Are you putting something on your robes to represent the Malfoy family?” There really was a lot more going into Scorpius’s Christening than he had expected. “Are we sure the snakes won’t upset Regulus?” Merlin he did need his hand to be held while he tried to navigate pure blood politics. “Why are you trying so hard to help me? Just for Scorpius or another reason?”
"And it would have nothing to do with the fact that makes you immediately recognisable?" she asked. "You're either a liar or a fool, or maybe both, but that has nothing to do with me, so feel free to keep it as you like."
She shook her head. "No, I'm wearing my family's crest, but then we do have snakes in there too. There's also no need to tie me to Draco. You are a different matter." If Regulus had a problem with snakes, he could suck it up as far as she was concerned, but instead she smiled. "Of course not. It'd be stupid not to."
Pansy blinked at the last question. "I'm not helping you. I'm helping Draco. You do something stupid and it will reflect on him. The way you look reflects on him. Everything you say reflects on him. It's not for Scorpius. It's for Draco. He is and always will be my best friend. If we can make you a better wizard in the process, then it's even better."
He glanced over at Pansy as she spoke. “The scar doesn’t disappear, the way my hair looks is how my father’s was. It's something we have in common and I like the idea of having a piece of him wherever I go. My father’s hair, my mother’s eyes, two things I have of them that can’t be taken away. I could try harder to change my hair, but that is the main reason I don’t. Perhaps that makes me a fool, but I do my best not to be a liar.” He hadn’t needed to tell her that, and he knew it, but he was trying to not just be civil but get along. Someone had to take the first step.
“Is this all going to make more sense once I read that book?” Harry asked her. He really did not understand their world, which was of course part of the problem. Still, Pansy seemed willing to explain at least some things and he was going to take advantage of that.
He could understand that reasoning, hell he could respect that reasoning. “I understand. I respect your devotion and loyalty to him.”
"You are a fool, but there's a reason for it, so I guess you can be forgiven." She looked at the hair again. Pansy didn't apologise, but she could find her own way to make up for missteps. "I guess we can see how we can tame it without making it longer. That is going to require a few session and patience if it truly doesn't stay styled. Of course, it could be simply that you magic it not to be styled. It's not like you need a wand to cast magic."
Pansy shrugged. "I wouldn't know for sure. I think you might get a better grasp, but how much? I don't know. Some things are natural to us. We don't explain them, because it's unthinkable that anyone else wouldn't know." She smiled at him. If he supported Draco, she would play nice. "Come on, let's find these robes and then we can have lunch."
Shopping for the robes had taken longer than Harry had wanted to take, but he had smiled and played nice. It was much easier to say ‘yes dear’ and try on what she wanted him to than argue. Though he still didn’t understand why the first, second, third, or well any of the ones he had tried on hadn’t been quite right. Then he had stood there while she tried on and been even more confused about what had been wrong with the robes Pansy tried on. They were done now though and heading to lunch.
As they walked Harry saw the cover for the newest edition of Witch Weekly, and while normally he didn’t read the magazine he was surprised to see a coming out announcement for Flint. Especially after his conversation with Malfoy on Saturday. Which really, needed to never happen again.
“So I’m sure I am once again going to sound like a fool,” Harry said as he turned to Pansy, “But I thought you and your friends liked to keep things like that a secret.” He tilted his head towards the magazine cover as he spoke.
Pansy looked at the magazine and sighed, but got a copy. She needed to know what was inside to help with the eventual problems. She couldn't believe this was happening. The Flints would be furious and Marcus would be in danger once again. She'd have to owl him when she got home.
"We do, until someone is stupid enough to be caught shagging. Completely with photographic proof." She was still convinced that Marcus had been set up. "And Dan was raised as a Muggle so what else do you expect from him? This is exactly why I have a problem with Muggleborns. I don't care how powerful and smart they are. They come in and change our society. They slowly turn us into Muggles. Sooner or later there will be nothing left of our culture."
It was clear from the look on Pansy’s face she hadn’t been expecting this article. He remembered Malfoy’s comments about photos as well. He had heard her comments on not wanting to be muggle with magic before, and part of him understood it.
“Can I ask what is probably a stupid question and we both acknowledge I’m not trying to be insulting when I ask it?” Harry said, wondering if that sentence had even made sense once he asked it. “Hogwarts has Muggle Studies for those who want to learn more about Muggles. Why doesn’t it have some type of class for those raised in the muggle world, either muggle-born or people like me who through circumstances grew up there, about wizarding culture?” It was something he had been thinking about lately, he just hadn’t spoken to anyone about it.
"How many years of Defence do we have? Seven, especially if you want to be an Auror. Do you think they are even remotely good enough to be one? Or that it was what you learned in class that helped you defeat the Dark Lord?" She answered her own question before he could. "Of course not."
She shook her head as she put the magazine away. "You can't learn in school things that we know from birth, but it's more than the lack of knowledge of our world. The problem is their knowledge of the Muggle one and then they come here and want to introduce things from the Muggle world, like the Muggle clothes that you insisted in wearing. They contaminate our society. It's one thing to know a little about the Muggles to survive if you need to be there like someone who takes Muggle studies would know. It's another to think of all the Muggle things as normal. Unless you want to take these Muggleborns away from the Muggle world at birth, I don't see a solution. They will always destroy us simply by existing."
“They want something familiar, same as you want your traditions and culture,” Harry told her, not trying to offend her. “You don’t think it would help make them feel more at ease, help them embrace things if they were taught more about it?” He did have things he liked from the muggle world. Clothes were one of them, but he was fine wearing them at home, or when he went out in the muggle world and wearing robes when he was in the wizarding world.
“I’m not even saying everyone would want to learn. I just don’t understand why it isn’t a choice.” He looked over at her, “I know you think I’m a fool, most if not all of time.” It seemed every Slytherin did. “But I am trying to understand. Doesn’t that count for something? Couldn’t it count for something if children who don’t know anything try and learn more about our culture?”
Pansy shrugged. "I don't know and I don't care to be honest. I don't care if they feel embraced. In fact, I'll be happier if they feel unwelcome and leave. I don't want them to learn to be like us, because they can never be. Just like you can never be one of us." No matter what alliances were formed, she'd always have more in common with Ron Weasley than Harry Potter.
"They can't learn what we are and I don't want them to pollute our society with what they are. If lack of classes means that they go back into the Muggle world then it's for the best." It was that simple as far as she was concerned. "Unless you are truly suggesting that we take them away at birth, which might be kinder anyway, but that's not my decision or yours to make."
“I wasn’t suggesting that,” Harry told her. He wouldn’t suggest they just take someone from their family. He also knew that most muggle borns would never just leave, just like he wouldn’t. He had been about to ask why even bother showing him anything then if he’d ever fit in but he already knew the answer. To not make Malfoy look like a fool since he had been picked to be Scorpius’s godfather.
He also knew Pansy wasn’t the type to see the need for compromise unless it suited her. Right now this was all theoretical discussion so it wouldn’t suit her. So he changed the topic. “We’ve gotten robes, discussed the Christening gift. What else is there after we get lunch?” And why were they getting lunch again? She didn’t like him, didn’t want to spend time with him, but insisted they get lunch. It still didn’t make any sense to him.