Pansy came home from Gregory's flat feeling a bit better about things in general. Yes, her life was not going just exactly as smoothly as it might have been, but matters were, on the whole, looking up. Circumstances have smoothed over with Tracey a little and Gregory seems to need my help with his pet project, so perhaps the situation with Cormac McLaggen would be best dissolved, she thought, as she stripped off her clothes from the day. Our personal relationship is, anyway. There's no need to prolong the agony.



She pulled open a drawer and took out a nightgown, pondering the right way to go about telling him. The black silk sild over her head and down her body, and she pulled on the matching wrap. I don't suppose I really have to tell him anything, really, she mused, summoning the magical contract from the bookcases that lined the far wall of her bedroom. She twisted her hair up into a bun, then ran her fingers lightly over the parchment, sighing. "Nothing to be done about it, old girl," she said to herself softly. "Best be quick about it."

She pointed her wand at the pages and muttered the spell that would set it on fire.

Nothing happened.

Pansy frowned, looked at her wand, shook it a couple of times, peered at it closely, and pointed it at the parchment again, this time clearly enunciating the spell.

All at once, the room began spinning wildly and the colors of her bedroom blurred together in a whirling vortex. Pansy's eyes grew wide and she yelped a bit, before arriving in an entirely new place, falling on her arse with a resounding thump.

She winced, and started to stand when the room spun again and Cormac McLaggen himself popped in front of her, appearing in a whirl of color.

Pansy closed her eyes and shook her head. This is a nightmare. This is just another nightmare, and when I open my eyes, he won't be standing there.

She opened her eyes, and much to her dismay, he was looking down at her with an ambivalent expression on his face. Merlin,she thought. Does life have to be so cruel?

From out of nowhere, a piece of parchment popped into the air between them. Cormac snatched it from its place and read:

Dear Sir or Madam,

As of 8:43 this evening, our records show that you tried to alter a magically binding contract without the assistance of the goblin that drew it up for you. Should you try to change, destroy or otherwise tamper with this contract, it will result in disciplinary action. This room is provided for your mediation convenience, and when terms are settled, you will be magically delivered back to your previous locations.

Sincerely,

Slagathor Narlak
Gringotts, Magical Contract Division

Cormac handed the parchment to Pansy. "Good evening, Miss Parkinson. I guess I don't have to ask what you've been doing this evening." He was dressed in his suit and tie, as he had been unceremoniously yanked from a working dinner with some members from his department. "I don't suppose we can do this at another time?" he asked.

"I didn't bring you here, and I don't need to do anything with you at another time." She crossed her arms over her chest, a little irritated at being caught, yet again, in her nightclothes by Cormac. "Feel free to leave whenever you'd like," she offered.

"And what makes you think I didn't try Apparating the moment I realized what was going on? While I may no longer be 'worth your time', I'm not completely stupid. I can't leave." It smarted a little, seeing Pansy standing in front of him in a frilly little night dress and knowing she wanted nothing to do with him, and yet he was not happy with her accusing him of something that hadn't happened.

Pansy blinked stupidly at his words. "Can't leave?" she asked. She tried to Apparate, but had no luck. She shook her head. "I- I was trying to make this easier for both of us. I didn't want you to have to be involved with me anymore; professionally or otherwise. I didn't know that this would happen," she finished softly.

What? "You didn't want me to have to be involved with you anymore?" he asked, his face softening. "What if I still want to be involved with you? Especially otherwise?" Merlin, I have turned into a simpering woman.

"You can't - I mean, you had-" She frowned and pouted at the same time. "I don't understand. You said that you didn't care what I believed. You went back to your bedroom, with her. You can't stand here and tell me that-" She stopped for several seconds and found her poise before continuing. "I seem to be unable to form coherent thoughts. I regret that you had to come here. I don't know what can be done about getting you back to wherever you were."

Cormac sighed deeply and ran his hands through his hair. "I know you thought I'd slept with her. I hadn't. I told you that. So no, at the time I didn't care what you thought. It seemed to me that your mind was made up; what was I supposed to do? Chase after a woman who wanted to hex me in hopes that you'd listen?"

"I don't need to be chased, and I wouldn't have hexed you. Much. Not that you stayed around long enough to find out," she said forcefully, her voice rising.

Cormac laughed. "So you're saying you would have reacted kindly to me accusing you, threatening you, and insulting you? And what was the point of me sticking around any longer? Your mind was made up."

Pansy was beginning to get irritated. "Fine," she began. "But what if the tables had been turned? What would you have thought if you'd come invited into my bedroom and found, oh, I dunno, Michael Corner in my bed with me? Hm? How would that have been?" she growled, glaring at him.

He stopped laughing as he considered the question she had asked him. "Corner and you in bed? Together?" His eyes narrowed. "That's not funny."

"No? You don't think so?" Pansy circled him, staring daggers. "Then, after coming to talk to you, all sleep-tousled and sexy, I shout at you, and then go back into my bedroom, and curl up next to him? Michael, with his pretty blue eyes and sweet face." She stepped closer to him. "Am I getting amusing yet?"

"Oh." He had the good sense to look chagrined. "I hadn't thought of it that way. I'm-I'm sorry. I was a bit caught up in you not believing me." He looked at Pansy, really looked at her for the first time since he'd been forced into this room. He noticed the dark circles under her eyes and the way she had her arms wrapped around her middle. Did I do that? He cringed.

"Yeah, 'Oh,'" she replied. "Believing you is really beside the point. It doesn't feel so great, does it? Thinking to yourself, 'what might she be doing with him?' or 'Is she kissing him?' 'Is she-'

Cormac frowned. "Stop talking about Corner."

Pansy stopped abruptly, and walked up to him, her face close to his. "Or maybe I'm wrong," she conceded, her lips inches from his. "Maybe you don't care at all."

He looked down at his shoes. "I care, Pansy," he said quietly. "I think I might care too much."

"You have a very funny way of showing it," she replied ascerbically. She paused, sighing, and muttered under her breath, "But then, of course, I suppose I do too." Frowning, at him, she shook her head. "I'm sor-" She stopped, and started again. "I apol-" She sighed and looked at him. "I don't suppose you understand what I'm trying to say?"

"I think I do," he said. "I'm not sure what to say." He averted his gaze, lost in thought.

She nodded stoically. "I see." She turned away from him. You see? Stupid girl, this is what happens when you become attatched to someone," her father's voice hissed in her ear, this is what happens when you're weak. Pansy leaned up against the table in the middle of the room and shouted, "We've finished! Done! Can you let us out now? Everything is resolved!"

Nothing happened.

"Nothing's been resolved, Pansy." He took a few deep breaths and loosened his tie. "I think I-" he paused. "I think I f-fancy you." Gods, I actually meant that.

Pansy turned around and looked at him, staring hard, wide eyed. She blinked a few times, and her face softened; the crafted mask was gone momentarily as she moved to him. Brushing his hair off of his forehead, she asked, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," he said, smiling and pulling her into his chest. "Are you alright with that?"

She nodded, leaning into him, inhaling the scent of him, before replying, "I might be." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck and enjoying the feeling of his hands on the small of her back. When she intensified the kiss, pressing her body into his, the room began to spin, the colors viciously swirling, a vortex with them at its center.

When it stopped, Cormac stopped Pansy from falling and she smiled up at him.

"Thank you."

'You're welcome' was what he would have said if he hadn't been momentarily speechless. "Damn Goblins," came out of his mouth when he regained his ability to vocalize.

Cormac and Pansy found themselves wrapped around each other, standing next to the table at which he had been sitting with his business associates before being summonned by the contract. The conversation had stopped completely and all eyes were on them.

Pansy closed her eyes and set her jaw, pulling her dressing gown closer to her. "This day just keeps getting better."

{Summary: Pansy learns what happens when you try to destroy a magical contract. Cormac learns a little about himself that he didn't know before.}