"His name was Tom."

Draco looked up from filling his glass, "What?"

Pansy tipped back the bottle in her hands and managed three gulps before she started coughing.

"You deserve that," Draco said, "Only a moron tries to chug champagne."

Pansy wiped her mouth. "It burns-" she choked out.

Draco rolled his eyes and sipped the very nice champagne Mother had gotten for them, leaning back on the couch he was sharing with Pansy in the sitting area in her bedroom.

"Draco! His name was Tom. Tom Marvolo Riddle," Pansy held up the book her mother had sent her about the wars. "No wonder he changed it to Voldemort." She gulped more champagne.

Draco skimmed over the page, his eyebrows rising, "An anagram? Oh, that is so tacky."

Pansy snorted and fell to another coughing fit.

Draco smirked.

"fuck you," Pansy said after another weak cough.

Draco picked up a glass from the table and offered it to her.

Pansy pointedly tipped the bottle up for another swallow, more successfully this time.

"If you want to get drunk that badly, I can get the fire whiskey," Draco said putting the glass back.

"Champagne first," Pansy said, "It's new years, you're meant to have champagne on new years."

"Not the way you're drinking it," Draco said, taking a sip and enjoying the bubbles on his tongue.

Pansy picked up her book again, "Can you imagine if he hadn't picked a new name?" She put on a snotty voice, "Hello I'm Tom, I like murder and blood supremacy, it gets me off."

Draco laughed.

Pansy grinned and flipped to the next page, "Fucking fuck-"

"What-?"

"-Tom was a half-blood," Pansy said

Draco blinked, "That's not- Wouldn't the papers have said something?"

Pansy dropped the book between them and tapped on the page, "See! His father was a fucking muggle!"

Draco read the section and then reread it.

"The papers are too busy beating off to Potter and his lot. Besides this sort of thing would have made it look like any wizard could go off their fucking rocker. It would completely ruin the evil pure-blood rhetoric they have going on," Pansy took another drink of champagne, and shoved the book onto the floor.

"Merlin," Draco sighed, leaning back.

"Do you think it's his fault?" Pansy asked.

"The war? I'm pretty sure it was," Draco said.

Pansy kicked at him, managing by sheer luck to clip him with her heel.

Draco batted her foot away with a glare.

"I meant-" Pansy took a deep breath, "I meant ruining it- Slytherin loyalty. Before him maybe it was loyalty, and he ruined it. He's why it's obedience now."

Draco took a rather larger sip of champagne and topped up his glass.

"Parents and Deatheaters and upper years all telling us to be loyal when they meant obedient, stupid and obedient," Pansy muttered, "It's too late for us to fix it. Isn't it? I mean, I could tell the younger years that loyalty means- should mean being loyal to those that are loyal to you but- but they wouldn't listen because it's me, the bint that tried to hand Potter over to the dark- to Tom."

"You're getting maudlin," Draco said, pulling the bottle away from Pansy and giving her his glass. He filled up a fresh glass for himself and set the bottle on the far side of the table. "Tell me about your sleepover again," He said.

Pansy narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"It's interesting," Draco insisted.

Pansy glare began to falter despite her best efforts. She took a huge swallow of champagne. "We must have walked around half of London and visited tons of salons and spas and shops selling all sorts of cosmetics, machines and perfumes too, and we went and had a manicure- OH! I think I have everything-" she shot to her feet, finishing the last of the glass and shoving it on the table as she hurried over to her crowded vanity.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked.

"I promised you a manicure for christmas!" Pansy shouted back and nearly lost her balance. She caught herself on the vanity and giggled. "What colour polish do you want?" she asked.

Draco lifted his glass to his lips, "Blue."

"Really?!" Pansy said excitedly, "I thought for sure you'd tell me to fuck off!"

"I can always take it off before we go back, can't I?" Draco said.

Pansy walked back more carefully, hands full of nail files and clippers, and things he didn't recognise in the least, and a bottle of lacquer.

Draco took the little bottle from her and looked at it, it was closer to a blueish teal, but he quite liked it.

Pansy leaned over to grab the bottle of champagne and refilled her glass, taking a drink before grabbing his hand. "Here, I'll- Right," she tossed the clippers away, "Should've known your nails would be neat as fuck already."

Draco grinned faintly, "Merlin, you swear like a sailor when you're pissed."

"You love it," Pansy said, starting to file his nails one at a time, squinting at them as she wavered slightly.

Draco prompted, "So you got a manicure-?"

"-and pedicure and it was wonderful..." Pansy sighed, relaxing into an easy smile, "And we went back to Jenna's house because her parents are both muggle and have a massive tele-vision for watching movies on."

"The moving pictures as long as a play," Draco said.

Pansy dropped the file and took some sort of cream and put it on his cuticles and then used a strange tool to push his cuticles down. "They are as long as a play but the camera moves too, and there's music, and it's actually interesting. We watched Jen and Mel's favourite movie, it's called Clueless and-" she cleaned his hands, pausing to have more champagne, before shaking the nail lacquer and slowly unscrewing the top, "-its where all the, whatever and gag me with a spoon and- it's called, um, valley girl talk or something-fuck," she wavered and brushed polish up the side of his thumb.

"We can do this tomorrow, you know?" Draco said.

"Shut up," Pansy said, wiping the smear of polish off onto the couch. She pressed Draco's hand flat onto the couch cushion and lifted the little brush again, her hand moving back and forth like a pendulum. Pansy frowned and abruptly sat on the floor, resting her forearm and wrist on the couch to keep it steady. "Anyway, it was so funny. I would've watched three more times but it was late, and we could barely keep our eyes open. When I have my own place, I'm going to have a tele-vision of my own and watch all sorts of movies. It's sooo much better than reading books, and you're not in a stuffy theatre so you can just lay about and eat ice cream in your pants if you want."

Pansy rested her cheek on her arm, "Pour me more champagne?"

Draco poured a small amount into Pansy's glass and passed it down to her. She took a sip and set it on the floor.

"Why did we always make fun of hufflepuffs?" Pansy asked abruptly, colouring his nails in slow, sleepy strokes, "They're wonderful, aren't they? So nice and supportive. Lovegood and Longbottom too, they're not proper hufflepuffs, but they feel like ones."

"Jenna and Melanie didn't feel much like hufflepuffs," Draco said.

"Eat shit," Pansy murmured half-heartedly, "Not every hufflepuff is nauseatingly nice. They're supportive and hard-working and bitchy in just the right sort of way."

"What exactly is the right sort of way to be bitchy?" Draco asked.

Pansy rolled her eyes, "The sort where they're only bitchy when they like you. You should know."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco asked.

"The more you like someone, the more insufferable you are," Pansy said.

Draco paused with his glass halfway to his mouth, "I am not."

Pansy dissolved into giggles.

Draco huffed in annoyance. He took a sip of champagne and asked, knowing he could get an honest answer out of her at this stage of drunk, "Pansy. Do you still hate that I like Potter?"

"You're idiots." Pansy said flatly. She put the nail lacquer away, "I need to put a top coat on..." she fumbled for her wand, and Draco quickly snatched it away.

"No casting when pissed. Unless you want to end up with green hair for a week- again," Draco said.

"Summon it for me. Accio diamond clear topcoat," Pansy held out a hand towards the vanity.

Draco sighed and used Pansy's wand to summon the bottle, catching it out of the air so Pansy wouldn't have the chance to drop it. He shook the bottle like he had seen her do and opened it for her, handing her the brush.

"You better not have smudged my work," Pansy said, and what would have normally been threatening came out pouty.

"Of course not," Draco said setting his hands back down on the cushions.

Pansy started putting on the top coat with a yawn.

Draco tried again, "Pansy, what do you think about Potter and I?"

Pansy hummed under her breath, eyes half closed as she worked. He was starting to think she wasn't going to answer at all when she said, "I still hate it."

"oh."

"Not as much though, which is annoying," Pansy said, "Potter's a prat but... you make each other happy. So even if it doesn't work out, it's probably worth the trouble just for that."

Pansy sat up and slowly put the brush back into the bottle and twisted it closed, "I have to charm it impermeable."

"I do not want you casting anywhere near me right now," Draco said.

"I can do it," Pansy said, "I can. I've cast it hundreds of times, and it's harmless if I mess it up. I messed it up a lot before I finished the charm properly."

Draco hesitated.

"I can do it," Pansy said firmly.

Against his better judgement, Draco gingerly gave Pansy her wand and held his hands as far away from his body as possible.

Pansy took a deep breath and went very still, then cast the charm perfectly, hiccuped, tossed her wand on the couch and laid her head back on the cushions. "Is it midnight?" she asked with her eyes closed.

Draco opened his pocket watch, his blue-green nails vivid against the gold case, it was still a half an hour to. "Yes, just now," he lied.

"Happy new year, Draco," Pansy smiled, "I think this one might be okay."

"Happy New year, Pans." Draco stood, taking Pansy arm and pulling her up, "Let's get you to bed now."

Pansy grumbled at him.

Draco sighed, "You always do this you know. You're far more of a lightweight than you think you are."

"Am not," Pansy said, "Just late and tired."

Draco led her over to her bed, already turned down and let Pansy collapse onto the sheets. She had already shucked her shoes hours ago. Draco considered trying to help her out of her dress but it was done up by buttons instead of a zipper, and frankly, he couldn't be bothered.

Draco pulled the sheets and comforter up, leaving a glass of water and a headache potion by her bed for the morning. Draco took the last half-empty bottle of champagne and his glass back to his own rooms.

Draco got ready for bed, leaving his pocket watch out and open on his bed so he could see the time. As it ticked closer to midnight, he splashed just a swallow of champagne into the bottom of the glass. He watched the minute hand land on midnight and lifted his glass in a sarcastic salute before finishing it off and then heading to the bathroom. He had just finished his teeth cleaning charm when he felt someone come through the manor's wards.

A shiver of dread raced down his spine.

Draco slammed out of his room, running down the hall, the steps and into the entryway, his wand held tight in his hand. Kipper was already at the door, being stubbornly helpful, and pulled it open for Draco as he approached.

But there was no mob, no angry mother, or rogue auror. It was just Potter, breathing heavily like he had run the whole way, his hair sticking up in every direction.

Draco slowly lowered his wand.

Potter smiled, "Hey."