Disclaimer: JKR has finally admitted that she plagiarized HP from me!! Ha! Nah, just kidding, don't kill me! JKR is amazing and HP is all hers.

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Blaise

He stalked towards the slumped figure on the ground. It took a while before he realized that the figure was female, and whoever it was was bleeding profusely into the carpet. 

Damn, but the bloodstains were going to be hard to remove, even with Scorgify.

He prodded the figure gingerly with his foot. It groaned and turned over to reveal the broken and bloody features of a classmate he hadn't seen since he'd graduated from Hogwarts years ago - Astoria Greengrass.

He immediately shot an identification and illusion dispelling spell at her immobile form. When he had confirmed her identity, he relaxed a little. He remembered giving her access to his flat when he had moved out of his mother's manor in 7th year. She had, and still was, on a cruise around the world with her new beau, and he had had no reason to stay in his empty and ostentatious ancestral home. 

They had been dating on and off in 7th year, until she broke up with him to escape with her family to France. Her family had preferred to be neutral in the war, and the times had become dangerous for neutral people, because no one could protect them. You were either light and under the protection of the Order of the Pheonix, or you were dark and being crucio-ed by the Dark Lord almost every day with no way to escape. If you were neutral, and the Dark Lord found you, you would be dead.

He had joined the Dark Lord halfway through 7th year. Astoria had run with her family not long after he had been recruited. She had been scared when he came back from meetings convulsing and shaking, retching from the more violent ones. She hadn't known what to do, and she'd eventually left. 

Now why was she back? And what had happened to her? He'd always thought she was still in France.

He sighed. Why were both Pansy and Astoria showing up again after so long? And one after another, too... could the two's reappearance in his life be connected in some way? He shook his head to remove the outrageous conspiracy theory that his mind had cooked up. There was no way they were targetting him, he hadn't done anything! He hadn't wanted anything to do with either of them again, if he was honest with himself. He had been happy to put them behind him, but now they were here again, and he was at a loss as to how to respond.

He supposed he could begin by healing Astoria until she woke up and told him what the hell was going on. He levitated her to his most heavily warded bedroom... he still wasn't ruling out that she was here for nefarious purposes. He hadn't seen her in so long, and being a Deatheater had given him a constant suspicion of everyone around him. Deatheaters were loyal to the Dark Lord only, and any one of his comrades would sell him out in a heartbeat if they knew any dirt on him.

And he really didn't know Astoria anymore. He wasn't even sure if he had ever truly known her. Their relationship in 7th year had been a distraction from the heartbreak he felt every time he saw Pansy, or even thought of her, and he suspected that similarly, Astoria had been using their relationship for an ulterior motive. They had never been passionate with one another in private, and their relationship had been more friendly than romantic when no one was looking. It had been an unspoken understanding between them, and there were certain boundaries that they never crossed even though they were supposedly "dating". 

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Draco

Hermione whooped, unbridled joy stretching her wan face into a smile that glowed.

He smiled a little too. 

Soon they were running down the corridor again, as fast as they could.

Hermione confunded and stunned guards silently with flicks of her wand as they rushed out, her bushy hair flying like a chocolate cloud around her head. She looked alive, spots of colours in her cheeks, fire dancing in her eyes. She looked in her element. She looked like some sort of vengeful goddess, invincible and powerful. He couldn't help but feel in awe of her as he did his best to catch up to her.

With a sinking feeling in his gut, he realised that his strength was waning. He was stumbling as he ran, gulping down air that wasn't going to his lungs... dark spots flashed and flew around in his vision, making him dizzy. He tried to swallow, but couldn't. No, no, he couldn't go down now... not when they were so close to freedom. 

He crashed haphazardly into a wall and came to a sudden stop. 

"Hermione." He croaked. "I can't anymore..."

"What do you mean you can't? Of course you can!" Her voice was vaguely hysterical, but so far away...

With some effort he somehow managed to stay conscious. "Go... go on your own. This is as far as I can go." He said in what he hoped wasn't a croaky whisper. "I don't want to hold you back. Go and get help."

He dimly heard a choked sob as his sight failed him. The last things he felt before he fell unconscious were cool palms cupping his face, and the light press of lips against his forehead.

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Pansy

She couldn't fall asleep. She had drunk every last drop of Dreamless Sleep in her house and she couldn't fall asleep. She toyed with the small vial in her hands. Maybe... no. Not yet.

After she had seen Draco. Maybe then. 

She replaced the vial in a drawer of her bedside table.

She had completely emptied her vault. 

Pansy Parkinson had finally used the last of her family fortune.

Half the money had gone to the Ministry, for "war restoration". She snorted. More like to sooth the angry crowds who were like vultures hunting for revenge. Nevermind that most of the family, save for her, was dead. Nevermind that she had suffered enough. The crowds demanded more, the crowds craved punishment, the crowds desired to hurt, to destroy, like they had been hurt in the months and years of the Wizarding War. The people of Wizarding Britain knew no mercy when it came to those which they perceived as Dark wizards. And because Voldemort was dead the punishment laid on his servants. Pansy snorted again, sniffing a little in her derision. Like the Death Eaters knew that much dark magic to begin with. No, the Dark Lord was a power hoarder. He did not share his knowledge, as knowledge was power.

A quarter of the Parkinson fortune had been stolen by the Lestranges, who had fled the country as soon as they could, like the good-for-nothing cowards they were. Her parents had trusted them, and she hadn't. She had sealed the family vault from their greedy hands as soon as she was of age. It had not been soon enough. The gold was lost and it would never be returned.

A quarter of what meagre little remained went to Astoria Greengrass, for helping her secure Draco.

The rest she had spent on Dreamless Sleep. To be fair, the price had skyrocketed after the war due to increasing demand. 

But she hadn't been able to sleep. She needed it. And then she needed it so much she always had one on her, wherever she went, just to make her feel better, less shaky, calmer.

She opened the drawer on her bedside table and gripped the new vial in her hand. Yes,  this would solve all her problems... and it was the last solution, the last... everything. Maybe now... her fingers itched to unplug the vial and throw the potion down her throat as quickly as possible, to swallow, to feel the no doubt terrible tasting potion slide down her throat with the consistency of treacle and glue, to feel good again, calm, serene, just... good again.

She swallowed tightly. No, she would resist temptation tonight.

She would see Draco first, and then she would see about the draught in the palm of her shaking, sweating hand.

A/N: Happy Christmas Eve! 

Anyway, surprise, surprise! A new chapter! I know it's not in the old first-person narrative, but this part just sounded better in the third person. I hope you guys don't mind. (Also I haven't updated in so long that it seems tacky now to write in first-person POVs all the time... I'm sorry if you really liked the old format, and I hope you don't mind this one)

Thanks for reading, and for staying with this story despite its sporadic updates! <3

What do you think Pansy is up to now? And what's in that vial? Guess in the comments down below!!