this takes place after Pansy's scene with Michael.

Theodore walked through the center of London. His thoughts were on Tracey and what happened last night. She had went for her usual lunch with Pansy and came home mad at him. He had even slept in the goddamn blue room where she had put his clothes. He was, whether he admitted it out loud or not, hurt. He was frustrated, too. He wasn't used to feeling this way. A year and a half between Tracey and Su. Years between Anna and Su. It wasn't normal for him. He wasn't used to falling for women this fast. In fact, he had come to the conclusion he had never loved a woman as much as he loved Tracey. Her every move was perfection to him.

He kicked at a random can on the street, his head decked low to stare at his feet. What the hell am I going to do? He got to a corner and looked up, deciding where to go. Across the street he saw Pansy herself. She was talking to someone; he knew he was a wizard, but had no clue what his name was.

Theo quickened his pace and crossed the street, jay walking but not caring, to where the witch stood. The other wizard had already vanished. "Hello," he said calmly from behind her.

Pansy turned around quickly, and the smile that had been on her lips vanished, and was replaced with the placid mask that she wore so much of the time. Her eyes narrowed and she involuntarily took a step back, raising her chin a fraction of an inch. "Theodore." She took a deep breath. "You shouldn't sneak up on witches like that. You'll get hexed one day."

"I can protect myself," he said slowly. "Do you have time to talk?" He had to force himself to be calm and polite. Just seeing her face made him want to shudder with disgust and guilt. It wasn't that she was ugly -- in fact, she was beautiful and she very well knew it. It had to do with Tracey. Everything came back to Tracey. Clearing his throat, he added, "Please."

Pansy's back straigtened even more than it already was; she tossed her hair behind her shoulder, shaking her head. "I don't." She didn't want that to happen again, and although her resolve was firm, she didn't care to push it. Just being in his presence made her feel uncomfortable, as if her most current mistake was here, mocking her.

"Perhaps some other time," she added, beginning to walk away, but knowing full well that some other time would never come, at least not for her.

Theo sighed. "Please Pansy. I'm asking you as... a former classmate or whatever the hell. I just need to bloody ask you something. Just one thing. I'll be short, I promise. Hell, we can talk right here if you want." He had never felt so desperate before. It was the strangest thing.

She sighed, irritated. "What? What is it? Make it quick."

"Did you... say something to Tracey yesterday during your lunch about our... one night stand?"

That captured her attention. She turned her head to look up at him and frowned. "I may have. Why? What does it matter to you what Tracey and I talk about? It's not like we're going to spread nasty rumours about you. In fact, I didn't plan on saying anything to anyone, but we were having a bit of a confession time yesterday, and, I don't know, I felt as if I needed to get that one off my chest, so to speak." He looked stricken at these words, and her frown intensified as she repeated her question. "Why?"

He reigned in his temper. It wasn't her fault after all. He knew it wasn't. It was his. "I didn't want her to find out from anyone but me. I'm not sure you are aware, but we are living together now." Surprised by his own calm and even tone, he continued, "The truth is we are more than living together. Fuck, Pansy, I know it wasn't your fault. How the hell could you have known that I didn't want you to tell her? You couldn't. It's mine." He was talking to himself now. Guilt-ridden and in pain, he said slowly, "Do you remember exactly what you said? She's pissed at me and it's bloody frustrating when all I want to do is make her happy."

Pansy was in a bit of shock at all the information that had just come out of his mouth. "You? You're the man she's been making cryptic comments about for a month?" Pansy felt a little lightheaded. "You're living together?" she asked in disbelief. The colors on the street swirled around in her vision and she looked around wildly. "I need to sit down."

She walked carefully over to a bench outside of the restaurant that she and Michael had just had breakfast in. No,no, no, no, no. How can everything be looking up one minute and shot all to hell the next? she thought.

She looked up at Theo, her mind reeling. "I think I told her that apart from a one off with you, I've been a bit of a nun lately," she said. "And that I felt horrid about the whole thing. That school relationships were best left there, and we shouldn't try to resurrect the dead."

She closed her eyes. "How long, Theo? How long have you been with her? Of all the people in this world that I wouldn't--" She opened her eyes and glared at him. "Say something. And I'd make it good, if I were you. I think I'm about to be very angry."

"You're angry?" He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and trying to reign his anger again. "I had no way of knowing this would happen. We have been on one fucking disastrous date then a second when I got a fucking hard-on hugging her. It was ridiculous and embarrassing. I had no way of knowing this shit would come back to bite me in the ass."

"You were on a date with her, and then the same night, you ran into me after it didn't go as you planned and then released your frustrations? " She struggled to keep her voice calm, and fingered her wand reflexively. "I think that makes you a right bastard, Theodore. Not to me. To her. You'd deserve it if she chucked you out with yesterday's garbage, if she hasn't already." Her voice shook with barely controlled anger. "Tracey is my oldest girlfriend. My only girlfriend." She looked up at the sky and clenched her jaw. "I wondered what was wrong with her after lunch yesterday.

She shook her head and pointed her wand at him. "What are you going to do to fix this, Theodore? Think quickly. My patience has near reached it's end.

He looked at her. "Put down the damned wand. It's fucking broad daylight and out in the open. You hex me, you'll be charged." He paused. "Fuck! I didn't come running to you. I went for a drink. You were there. I saw you, I talked to you, then things just happened or do you not recall correctly?" He sighed. "I will fix this. I can't risk loosing her. I won't loose her. Even if I don't deserve her."

"It would be worth it," she hissed. "It would so be worth it to put a stinging hex where you wouldn't be able to fuck anything for a year." She pocketed her wand. "And no, you complete waste of air, you most certainly don't deserve her, and obviously I don't either." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "This won't be the end, of it, you know. Even if we both apologize and she, by some fucking miracle, forgives us, she'll be hurt, and she'll put on a happy face. I know it. I'm the one that taught her how to do it."

She shook her head in disgust. "I love her. But I really, really, loathe you."

Theo sighed. "I know. And how do you not deserve her? You had no fucking idea it was me she saw those two times? You were oblivious. Certainly she won't hold it against you." He paused. "I'm a different story. Bloody hell."

"We'll see," Pansy replied. "You'd better fix things with her, you complete, fucking arse. You will make her happy; and I mean fluffy bunnies and Hufflepuff bloody rainbows, or I will have you dealt with. Understand?" She cast one last hate-filled glare over her shoulder at her former housemate and lover, and Apparated away.

{Summary: Pansy finds out that Tracey and Theo are a couple, and that Tracey is upset that Theo slept with Pansy. She yells at Theo a bit, and there is namecalling.}