Author's Note: Draco and Pansy are seven years old in this story.


"Draco, play dolls with me," Pansy demanded.

"No," Draco said firmly. "Dolls are boring. Dolls are for girls."

They had been having this argument for several minutes now, but neither was yet willing to admit defeat.

Pansy, however, had finally had enough. It was now clear to her that Draco's determination was equal to hers.

However, there was more than one way to win an argument.

Pansy began to scream as loudly as possible.

Draco immediately covered up his ears with his hands, but it did little to help. He could still hear Pansy with painful clarity.

"Draco is being mean to me!" Pansy screamed. Then, for good measure, she began to cry as well.

It did not take long for Pansy's screaming and crying to get results.

Draco was too busy trying to protect his eardrums to notice that his and Pansy's parents were quickly approaching them.

Pansy, on the other hand, had no problem with noticing them.

Pansy paused in her screaming and crying just long enough to send a smirk in Draco's direction. Then, she began to scream and cry once again, acting as if she did not see the adults approaching them.

"Draco is being a bully!" she screamed through her "tragic" sobs.

"There, there, Pansy, dear," her mother spoke soothingly. "Calm down now. We're here. We're here to make everything better."

"What exactly did Draco do?" her father then asked gently.

"I did nothing," Draco insisted, his ears now uncovered. "She's the one being mean. I'm lucky that my ears are still working."

"You know better than to speak to Pansy's parents like that, Draco," Lucius spoke.

"Yes, Father," Draco replied. "I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson."

"That's all right, Draco," Mrs. Parkinson smiled sweetly. "Okay, Pansy, tell us your side of the story."

"Draco won't pay dolls with me," Pansy whined. "He said that dolls were boring and only for girls."

Lucius had to resist the temptation to roll his eyes. Pansy had screamed about this.

Lucius then noticed that Pansy's parents were fussing over her, as if she had truly suffered something horrible.

Before he could help himself, Lucius did roll his eyes.

Fortunately, no one noticed, as everyone's attention was focused on Pansy.

"Well, sweetie, you can't expect Draco to enjoy the same things that you do," Mr. Parkinson spoke gently.

"But we're always doing what he wants," Pansy complained. "I want to do what I want for once. It's only fair."

"Well, it's not my fault that Quidditch is better than dolls," Draco spoke up.

"Perhaps to you, Draco, dear," Narcissa said soothingly, "but Pansy has different interests from you. And it is only fair that you do some of the things that she likes, especially since she does do many of the things that you enjoy."

"But does it have to be dolls," Draco whined.

"We could do tea party instead," Pansy suggested.

"I need a moment to think about this," Draco said in his most serious voice.

"That's fine with me," Pansy smirked, "just as long as we do one of those activities."

"And next time, you two can play Quidditch again," Lucius spoke up. "Does that sound fair?"

Lucius gave himself a lot of credit for keeping the annoyance out of his voice. He just wanted to resolve this situation as quickly as possible without losing his sanity.

"Yes, Father," Draco said.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy," Pansy said. "So, what is it going to be, Draco, dolls or tea party?"

She didn't even try to hide the smugness on her face.

"Tea party I guess," Draco sighed as he was a long-suffering soul. "Can we use real tea, Mother? There's no reason for me to be both miserable and thirsty."

"Of course, Draco," Narcissa smiled, ruffling her son's hair fondly. "I'll get Dobby to get it for you right now."