A/N: This story was written for hp_drizzle's 2019 Drizzle Fest! I was lucky enough to claim the prompt of a good friend of mine, GaeligeRua. I wrote this story over the summer and it was revealed on AO3 with the rest of the collection at the beginning of September. This story was a lot of fun for me to write once I figured out exactly what I wanted to do with it.
Be sure to check out the rest of the collection on AO3 by searching for Drizzle Fest. There were some great works submitted this year and fingers crossed I'll feel drawn to participate again next year.
Thank you to SquarePeg72 for alpha reading this story!
Let me know what you think and I'll catch you with my next story!
Love always,
~starr
Pansy looked around at her surroundings and shook her head. Where the hell was she and how was she expected to get back? The last thing she could remember was preparing to apparate from Greenwich Park back to her flat because it had started to rain. And now she was Merlin knows where.
She pushed herself up off the ground and dusted herself off. It wasn't going to do her any damn good to just sit here on the ground. She could hear rolls of thunder in the distance, the storm she tried to apparate away from had seemed to follow her to wherever it was she was now. Her focus now had to be finding shelter because the last thing she wanted was to be caught out in the rain.
"Here goes nothing," she mumbled to herself as she made a mad dash for the building she could see just up ahead of her. There was a faint light flowing in the window, so maybe there was someone there who would be willing to let her in. She didn't need to add breaking and entering to her perfectly spotless record.
Pansy scoffed at herself as the thought even crossed her mind. Breaking and entering was probably one of the least of her concerns to show up on her record, knowing exactly how much of a pain in the arse she was in her younger years. Headmistress McGonagall was probably thrilled to see her finally leave Hogwarts, even though she'd never admit it.
As she neared the house, Pansy took a deep breath, and as she did so, she heard a clap of thunder behind her, causing her to run onto the front porch. She looked at the door and sighed. All she could do was that no one she knew was on the other side of the door. Reaching forward, she gently rapped her knuckles against the door.
After a few moments of awkward silence, the door slowly creaked open and much to her dismay; Pansy was met with a very familiar face standing opposite her. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."
"Hello to you too, Pansy," Harry replied, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned up against the door. "Can I help you?"
She opened her mouth to reply but snapped it shut quickly before she said something she was going to regret. Painting a forced smile on her face, she reached up and tucked a stray stand strand of hair behind her ear. "Can I hide out here for a little bit? At least until the storm passes?"
Harry furrowed his brow as he looked her up and down. Her clothes were disheveled and dirty; obviously, she didn't plan to end up in Weston Green this evening. Something had gone very wrong, and he was curious to find out exactly what that was. Usually, the all great and wonderful Pansy Parkinson knew precisely what she was doing, and things always seemed to go her way.
"Well?" Pansy insisted, taking a step closer to the door. "The rain is about to start any second now, and I'd rather not be caught out in it."
Harry stepped aside and ushered her in the door. "C' mon, Parkinson. It'd be rude to leave you out in the rain."
"Thanks," she mumbled as she made her way past him into the house. It was small, but a feeling of home resonated with her as she walked from the foyer into the sitting room. Moving photos filled the walls of memories from their school days, and Pansy winced as she watched a few of the images run away from her. It was quickly becoming ever more apparent that she had not been the nicest person to Potter and his friends in the past. "You've got a lovely home."
Harry followed her into the sitting room and watched as she looked over the images that covered his walls. He shook his head as he watched a few of the pictures scurried away from her. It wasn't like she was going to do anything to them. She was having a bit of rotten luck tonight, and all she really needed was a friend. And that was exactly what he planned on being for her tonight.
"Can I get you a cup of tea or something?" Harry asked, nervously carding a hand through his hair as he leaned up against the wall opposite of where she was standing.
"Tea would be lovely," Pansy replied, smiling timidly. "You've got a lot of pictures in here."
Harry tossed his head back slightly with a laugh and nodded. "Yeah, that would be Hermione's doing. I'll be right back."
He made his way quickly into the kitchen to make quick work of the tea. "Accio teapot."
While she waited for him to return with the tea, Pansy's eyes continued to scan over the wall of photos. It didn't surprise her at all that this had been Hermione's idea. She was always fiddling with that silly Muggle camera.
"I wonder how much convincing it took to get her to allow him to enchant the photos," she mumbled to herself. Spinning around on her heels, Pansy made her way over to the couch and collapsed back into it. With a heavy sigh of relief, she tucked her legs beneath her and scrubbed her hands over her face.
"Everything alright?"
His voice caught her off guard, and she peaked at him through her fingers. His goofy grin brought a smile to her face as she lowered her hands. She shook her head and readjusted her legs before one of them fell asleep. "I'm fine. Just thinking about how crazy today has been."
Harry nodded his head and joined her on the couch. He placed the tray on the coffee table and poured each of them a cup of tea. With a smile, he offered one to Pansy, which she took happily.
"Thanks," she mumbled, lifting the warm cup to her lips. The scent of oolong filled her nose as she took a sip. The warmth of the drink flooded through her body, and she felt herself relax for the first time all afternoon. She collapsed back into the couch with a sigh and rested her cup against her knee.
"You're welcome, Pansy," Harry replied, leaning back against the couch as he took a sip of his tea. "So do you want to talk about what happened today or just sit here in awkward silence until you decide you're ready to get out of here?"
"It doesn't have to be an awkward silence," Pansy laughed, reaching up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Let me just say, this wasn't my plan for this evening."
Harry tossed his head back with a laugh. "Well, I figured that much. No one apparates to Weston Green unless they live here."
"You live in Weston Green?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as she furrowed her brow. "I thought this place looked familiar. There are some great pubs out here."
"Yeah there are, but I don't think you were trying to get a pub if you ended up at my house," he replied, nodding his head. "So, what did happen?"
Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward and placed the teacup on the table and folded her hands into her lap as she turned to face Harry. His moppy head of hair and slightly crooked smile put her mind at ease at just how embarrassing this entire situation had become.
"This morning I made my way over to Greenwich Park to spend some time with nature -"
Harry's snort interrupted her train of thought, and she narrowed her eyes in his general direction and stuck her tongue out at him momentarily.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," she continued, rolling her eyes. "I was hanging out in the park for most of the afternoon, and as I was getting ready to apparate back to my flat, a storm appeared out of nowhere."
"You didn't notice a shift in the air temperature? Usually, storms are pretty predictable and easy not to get caught out in," Harry said, taking another sip of tea before leaning forward to place it on the table.
"Where would I have learned about stuff like air temperature? My only interaction with Muggles for most of my life was limited to the Muggle-borns who attended Hogwarts," she replied, pursing her lips briefly before crossing her arms over her chest. "Besides, it wasn't like a normal storm."
"What do you mean?"
"There was a growl of thunder and then a bright flash of lightning. So I figured that it was getting ready to rain which meant I needed to get headed home. I prepared myself to apparate, and when I opened my eyes I wasn't in my flat…" she said, her voice trailing off at the end of her sentence.
"You were in the open field across from my house," Harry replied, filling in the blanks of her evening. "It sounds like you've had a rough afternoon."
Pansy thought about it for a second and shrugged. "I mean it started out okay, and now I guess it's not so bad right now."
"Oh yeah? Why's that?" Harry asked, reaching forward to pick up his tea.
"I get to reconnect with an old friend that I haven't seen in a while," she said.
Harry nodded his head slowly as he took a sip of tea, allowing his mind to comprehend what she had just called him. After their time at Hogwarts, the last thing he would have thought he was to Pansy Parkinson was a friend. In fact, he wouldn't have even called himself her acquaintance. Just a person she barely noticed during their school years and probably hated just for his name alone.
"What's that face for?" she asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.
"I just never thought I'd hear the one and only Pansy Parkinson call me an old friend," Harry replied, shaking his head as he returned the cup back to the table once more.
"I'll admit, I wasn't the nicest person in the world to you during school, but the war changed my outlook on life and made me realize how much of a bitch I had been for most of my life," she said. "So I guess I should apologize for that time of my life."
"It's water under the bridge now; we can just move past it."
"Really?"
Her eyes lit up at the chance to be given a chance to fix things with someone from her past. This could be the small opening of a door that she had been looking for the last few years. It's a chance to start over.
"Absolutely," he replied, nodding his head.
"Thanks, Potter," Pansy said, leaning forward to hug him.
Just as the two embraced, a loud crash of thunder roared up and caused them both to jump, bumping their faces into one another. Their lips met for a split second before they both pulled away, shocked by the connection they felt.
"Whoa," Pansy mumbled, nervously knotting her fingers into a fist in her lap as she avoided looking at him.
"Yeah, whoa," Harry replied, carding a hand through his hair as he glanced out the window behind the couch. He could see her cheeks flush out of the corner of his eye. "It looks like the storm is getting a lot worse. You might want to stay here tonight. Travel of any kind might be unsafe."
Pansy looked out the window and slowly nodded her head. "It looks like you might be right. You don't mind, do you?"
"Not at all," Harry replied. "Oddly enough, I had a weird feeling that my spare room might be needed tonight when I woke up this morning, so it's all set up."
"Talk about a coincidence," Pansy replied with a laugh.
"A coincidence indeed," Harry said, pushing himself up off the couch. He turned to her and extended a hand to help her up off the couch. "Can I show you to your room for the evening?"
She smiled and took his hand. "That would be lovely. Thank you, Potter. For everything."
Harry nodded his head and led her towards the stairs. The pair disappeared up the stairs, and he showed her to her room. With a smile and a quick hug goodnight, they each retired to their own rooms for the night left to dream about that accidentally coincidental kiss.