The Marriage Paradox

Chapter 1

Harry Potter awoke feeling like he had just had a wonderful dream.

There was a girl in it, he was sure of that, he just couldn't seem to remember who exactly the girl was.

Good dreams for him were a bit rare nowadays what with the recent loss of his beloved godfather Sirius in the Department of Mysteries so it was a shame he couldn't really remember it.

However he realized with a start, he had another good thing to look forward to.

Today was his birthday. That meant he was now 16.

Since he'd be spending it at the Dursleys there would be little fanfare, but hey you didn't turn 16 everyday and he'd received a few presents from various people for him to open that morning.

So caught up in that thinking that it wasn't until he was just about to get out of bed to go open his presents that he realized he was not in his normal bed.

That realization was alarming enough, but then he realized he was not in fact alone in it either.

Someone was in this bed, breathing in and out lightly and probably still asleep.

With trepidation, he tried to roll over and look at who they were.

When he saw who it was, he let out a scream, which instantly awakened her, only making the situation 10 times worse in the process.

She let out a scream of her own and she then tried to back away from him out of the bed...only to stop when she realized that she was currently not at all dressed.

Fortunately for both of them, he hadn't really seen anything.

He occasionally slept in the nude himself so being naked for him in a bed usually wasn't too big a deal...unless he found himself waking up in bed with an equally naked girl that you didn't remember getting into bed with.

"What in Merlin is going on?" None other than Pansy Parkinson demanded angrily as she tried to gather up one of the blankets to cover herself with as she tried to get as far away from him as possible.

"I could ask you the same thing!" He insisted, "I don't remember anything so it has have been something you did."

Pansy looked at him coldly and said, "if this is your way of trying to get away with attempting to kidnap and rape me against my will you've got another thing coming."

"Rape you?" He asked, rather aghast, "why in Merlin's name would I want to rape you? Even if was a rapist you can bet I could find someone nicer and better looking than you to rape."

"Oh is that supposed to make me feel better?" Pansy argued, now only more angry.

All right, he thought to himself, try to think things through. Let's figure out just what's going on. Arguing with her isn't going to help anything.

Pansy clearly didn't know what was going on either and even if she was just a very good actor she'd have no reason to do something like this.

She and him were pretty much enemies. She was always cozying up to that Draco and he and Ron were always disgusted by it.

The rumor was that they were actually betrothed to each other...and well he was pretty sure that something like this might be grounds to break a betrothal if it was ever found out.

That led to another awful thought.

"We didn't...you know...do anything?" He questioned her.

"I would certainly hope not," She replied, as if disgusted by even the idea.

"Good," He said.

That didn't mean they hadn't, but...surely they would be able to tell afterwards if they had, right?

After another moment of silence however he noticed something else, and this was most alarming of all. It just about nearly made him faint on the spot.

As if to show that it could in fact get much, much worse.

"Um, Parkinson," He slowly managed to say, "look at your hand."

She looked at what he was getting at and exclaimed, "you have got to be kidding me!"

A wedding ring currently was on her finger, appearing very ornate and likely expensive.

On his own finger was a less ornate, but also likely expensive ring.

He was married? He thought to himself, to Pansy Parkinson no less? Please tell me this is a dream, let it be a very awful, very messed up dream."

Correction. More like the worst nightmare ever.

Harry tried slapping himself in hopes of waking up but instead all he got was a hurt cheek.

Pansy noticed what he was doing and commented, "if you're trying to slap yourself in the hopes that I won't do it to you, you're sadly mistaken."

"I'm trying to wake up!" He yelled at her.

"Well it's obviously not working," She snapped at him.

"It was better trying it than have this all turn out to be real," Harry pointed out.

"Don't worry, I'm still trying to convince myself it's not," Pansy confided, "let's just say waking up to find myself married to you is just as unrealistic as you can get."

He really needed to get out of here and figure out just what was going on, he thought.

"I'm getting dressed," He informed her, "so don't look."

"Oh, don't worry, I won't have any problem with that," Pansy insisted, "who'd ever want to see you naked?"

He managed to find some of his clothes currently laying on the floor beside his bed and then went to go look around.

It appeared to be some sort of house as far as he could tell. It had a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room, a kitchen and dining room, and a room with a jacuzzi and pool table.

He finally opened the front door and stepped outside to find out exactly where they were and found that they were right on a beach, his currently bare feet slipping into soft white sand.

In the other direction as he turned around to look past the house, there appeared to be a tropical jungle, various coconut palms nearby and many other trees that he didn't recognize further in.

Of course, he'd never actually been anywhere tropical, basing his knowledge off of pictures he'd seen, but it certainly looked like this was somewhere tropical, perhaps even an island.

There had to be other people around here somewhere though, people that he could then use to contact someone such as Dumbledore who could figure out just what was going on.

He was just about to see if he should maybe walk along the beach for awhile to see if he could maybe spot someone when he heard Pansy call out to him.

"Potter," She called, still sounding quite unhappy as she strode towards him, now fully dressed in a lime green dress.

"I'm just trying to figure out where we are," He admitted.

"I already figured that out," She told him as she held up a poster with a picture of the house they had been in.

"St. Angelou's," He read, "a tropical private island paradise fit for the couple who want to get away from it all."

Pansy seemed to already know exactly where that was.

"If this is some sort of sick and elaborate prank on someone's part they certainly did their homework," Pansy confided, "I've always wanted to go here for my honeymoon."

He let that sink in for a moment before asking, "who would do something like that though?"

She frowned and said, "I don't know, but I'm going to find out and strangle them first chance I get."

Personally he was having similar ideas, but he was curious how she now figured a third-party must have done this to them.

"You don't think I did this anymore?" He asked her.

"No, I figure that would only be punishing yourself just as it would me now that I think about it," Pansy claimed, "the reason why this island is so sought after is because it's so isolated, out in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific with no communication with the outside world."

"We're the only ones here?" He questioned.

"Not exactly, I know there is at least a staff member who works here," She answered as she then called, "house elf, come here."

Immediately in popped a small female house elf dressed in a black pillow case and a small white bib tied around her middle as if to emulate a maid's uniform but not actually be wearing any real clothes.

"Mistress Potter is calling for Tipsy?" The house elf asked.

"It's Parkinson actually," Pansy told her, unwillingly to accept that name.

"Youse is married to Master Potter though," Tipsy declared.

"Did we really get married Tipsy?" Harry questioned.

She nodded and said, "last night. You even have the marriage glow around you."

"Marriage glow?" He inquired.

"It's just something that is cast on a couple when they get married," Pansy explained, seeming to recognize what that was, "it's normally invisible except with the right spell or certain creatures that can see it such as house elves."

"Any way to fake it or put it on somebody without actually getting married?" He asked.

Pansy shook her head and said, "the only way would be if we actually did get married and we both actually gave consent to it."

"I'd never have consented to marrying you though," Harry insisted.

"Likewise," She agreed, "which only makes things more perplexing. Tipsy, did you see us at all...last night?"

Tipsy nodded and said, "You was very happy to be here and get married Master and Mistress Potter."

"We were?" He questioned, "like you actually saw us last night and we were happy to be married?"

The elf nodded.

"You'd think I'd remember something as big as I don't know say, getting married," Pansy commented.

He had to agree. Even if he was drunk, and he'd have to be really, really drunk to marry Pansy Parkinson and then go on their honeymoon he'd still remember something.

"Imperious curse?" She suggested.

He shook his head and said, "I can fight off the Imperious curse. Maybe for a minute or two if they were really good, but there's no way it would work on me for that long."

As they tried to come up with other ideas, many of them unlikely even if you disregarded the reason for anyone doing to this to them, Tipsy asked, "would Master and Mistress Potter like something to eat?"

"Stop calling me that," Pansy chided her before slowly saying, "yes bring me some pumpkin juice if you have it."

While he wasn't particularly in the mood for anything other than a heavy dose of sanity, he asked Tipsy for one as well. Perhaps it might help clear his head a bit.

Tipsy popped out to go get them.

"So someone evidently got control of our bodies or impersonated us somehow, got us married, bought a honeymoon vacation to here then had us travel here, got us naked in bed, and then all so we would wake up and find ourselves in the state we're now in," Harry surmised.

"That about sums it up," She agreed, "which begs the question how long a space of time even transpired that neither of us can remember?"

"We'll ask Tipsy what the date is when she gets back," He suggested, "I know that today was at least supposed to be July 31st since that's my birthday."

She snorted a bit before saying, "worst birthday ever then."

After that came another pause as they still tried to work things out.

Pansy then slowly said, it obviously again on her mind, "we really didn't..."

"After everything that's apparently happened I can't say I would be surprised," He answered for her.

"Well there's only one way to find out," Pansy replied, getting her wand out.

She waved it over her...well lower lady bits and then said, sounding relieved, "nope I'm still a virgin so we definitely didn't do it."

There was that at least, he thought to himself, although he was surprised Pansy was still a virgin. He would have thought surely she and Malfoy would have at some point.

At that moment, Tipsy popped back in carrying two pumpkin juices for each of them which they took gratefully although he found himself almost wishing he had gotten something a little stronger.

He'd never tried alcohol but this sounded like a really good time to need some.

Then again he really wanted his wits about him at the moment so he could try and figure this out still.

As they sipped their drinks (which admittedly were rather good and which he guessed was kept in a refrigerated food storage shed somewhere on the island) he asked Tipsy, "do you know what the date is?"

"Of course," Tipsy answered, "August 1."

So that meant only one day had gone by. Not a lot of time for whoever had done this to them, but he supposed certainly doable if they'd really hurried and used fast transportation.

He had however missed his birthday, which only meant that someone was being extra cruel in making him have no recollection of his birthday and evidently have him spend it marrying Pansy Parkinson.

"So how do we even get off this island?" He asked Tipsy.

Tipsy shook her head and said, "you can't, not until the boat comes when your honeymoon is up."

"When is our honeymoon over?" Pansy queried.

"Youse paid for a whole month," Tipsy replied.

"A month!" Pansy exclaimed, "I can't spend an entire month on this island alone with Potter."

"Tell me about it," Harry agreed, trying to imagine how that was even doable.

A month, he thought, what kind of torture was this? Even Voldemort wasn't this cruel. He would at least have killed him within a few days of torture once he tired of him or his mind finally broke.

This was just beyond cruel and inhuman.

"Is there anyway to send any messages or communicate with anyone at all?" He demanded.

Again, Tipsy shook her head.

"What about in the event of an emergency, surely there must be some sort of thing we can do in the event of that?" Pansy prodded.

Tipsy thought for a moment before saying, "well if Tipsy were to die, my master who owns the island would know and come here."

Surprisingly Pansy declared, "well we aren't killing you over this."

"You wouldn't?" Harry questioned her.

"I'm not that heartless," Pansy insisted simply.

Tipsy seemed totally unconcerned by them thinking about killing her and instead suggested, "would youse like Tipsy to make breakfast now?"

Pansy seemed to think for a moment before deciding upon a breakfast of cinnamon french toast, which he did not object to.

After Tipsy had popped out again to make it, he opted to walk along the beach and try to figure things out while she headed back inside.

However even as he thought, he still couldn't manage to make sense of things.

The only things he did know was that he was evidently now married to Pansy Parkinson and would be trapped on their honeymoon with her for the next month.

For the first time in his life he found himself actually wishing that Voldemort would show up and kill him to put him out of his misery.

Yet as if in stark contrast to his dread over how he was going to manage to survive, he couldn't help but note that the island was totally gorgeous, just about as nice a place for a honeymoon as you could get...minus the part that they were totally isolated and away from everything.

By the time he got back, Pansy was already eating breakfast at the kitchen and he hastened to start eating himself.

Breakfast was a difficult affair with neither of them really saying anything, but finally as she was just finishing Pansy said, "so what are we going to do then?"

"Well try and see if we can last an entire month without killing each other for one," He suggested, "and maybe try and figure out what in Merlin's name is going on at the same time.

She didn't seem to have a problem with that.

"Agreed," Pansy said, "I think maybe if you stay out of my way and I stay out of your way as much as possible we just might make it."

With that out of the way, he figured if he was going to be trapped on a tropical honeymoon island he might as well enjoy himself as best as he could and perhaps try to forget about all the other stuff.

After he got done eating he found some clothes in the dresser that were clearly his even though they were brand new.

Among them he found a swimsuit which he put on and then went out onto the beach and decided to go play in the water and in the sand.

He had to admit it was fun, having never had the chance to go to the beach before, the Dursleys never having taken him with them.

The sand was warm and so was the water, just about the perfect temperature.

When it came time for lunch, he called for Tipsy who then found out what he wanted and then brought it to him.

Eventually though he began to feel in pain.

He hadn't noticed because he'd never had to worry about getting sunburnt, but he certainly was now, his torso, arms, and legs clearly badly burnt.

No longer wishing to stay outside and get more burnt, he headed inside to see if maybe he could find some way to relieve the pain.

Pansy was currently sitting in the bed reading a book, but glanced up when he saw him come in.

He began to search around looking for maybe something that might help him when she questioned, "what are you looking for?"

"Something for this sunburn," He admitted, "I forgot to put on lotion."

Pansy winced as she saw his red skin before telling him, "I could probably fix that for you."

"Really?" He questioned in surprise, "how?"

"Using magic," She answered as she got out her wand.

"Won't the Ministry know you're using underage magic?" Harry pointed out.

"Well first of all I already used magic earlier remember and even if they can detect it when we're outside of Britain, I'm evidently married now which means that rule no longer applies to me," Pansy observed, "I figured I might as well get at least some benefits out of this crazy scenario I find myself in. What do you think I've been doing since you left this morning? Using magic of course."

It certainly made sense at least and made him wish he had thought of that.

Even the book she was holding was clearly a spellbook, he realized.

Pansy went over to him and held up her wand and carefully waved it over his body.

He watched with amazement as the burns slowly faded away.

She put a hand on his chest just to make sure his sunburn was totally gone but then realized just what she was doing and pulled away.

"There good as new," She remarked.

"Thanks," He said gratefully, "so where did you even learn that spell anyway?"

"I was taking a healing internship at St. Mungo's over the summer," Pansy admitted.

"You want to be a healer?" He asked her to his surprise.

He'd never have guessed healing would be Pansy's thing, if anything more like the opposite.

She shrugged and said, "I don't know, maybe."

Noting that she didn't seem inclined to talk more and quite honestly neither did he, he headed out again...after he'd gotten some sunblock on this time.

Careful exploring soon led to him finding a shed not far from the house where there was several beach items he could use including a boogie board, some snorkels and scuba gear, and even a large supply of gillyweed."

He smiled, remembering when he'd last used this during the 2nd task of the Triwizard Tournament.

It wasn't particularly a pleasant experience, but he was still happy to be able to see the gillyweed and recognize it nonetheless.

On a whim, he took some gillyweed with him but first opted to try out some magic.

Well if he wasn't married and the Ministry could somehow manage to track him even outside of Britain the Dursleys would be getting an awful lot of letters right about now.

With any luck they would be sitting down to dinner and the owls would drop the letters into the food and decide to perch on his Aunt's head.

He used various spells for hours, not because he wanted to practice any particular spell but because of the novelty of it.

At least he got some perks out of this. He could even use magic outside of school even before Ron and Hermione could.

That got to him. What would they say or think when they found out?

He imagined how that conversation would go.

"Hey guys, guess what I did over the summer?" He imagined himself saying, "married Pansy Parkinson!"

Yeah that would go over real well, he thought. They'd probably think he'd lost his mind not that he could blame them.

When it got too dark to see very well, he opted to use the gillyweed and do a bit of nighttime underwater exploration, using his wand to keep the water around him lit up.

Admittedly it was rather fascinating being underwater. Much more fascinating than the murky Black Lake at Hogwarts anyway, with many tropical fish swimming around close enough that he could almost reach out and touch them.

Once he thought he saw a mermaid for a moment but when he glanced back whatever he had thought he saw was gone.

Finally however he reluctantly emerged from the water, already tired after a long and tiring day.

Up until now he had pretty much been trying to avoid the much more dire and serious situation he was really in, but he knew he'd have to face Pansy again at some point and try to work things out with her.

That was going to be fun, meaning absolutely no fun at all.

Yet he found her sooner than expected, standing there waiting on the beach with a scowl on her face.

"Where did you go?" She demanded angrily.

"I was just doing some underwater exploring," He tried to tell her.

"I looked everywhere and couldn't find you," Pansy insisted, sounding upset, "I was worried something might have happened."

That stopped him.

"You were worried about me?" He asked, rather surprised.

She blinked before admitting, "well I couldn't have you die on me on our first full day of marriage now could I?"

If this was meant to be a touching moment, he managed to mess it all up with his next couple of questions.

"Wouldn't that be better for you then? Being able to inherit all my money if I died?" Harry pointed out.

She looked insulted as she insisted, "I'm not a moneygrubber."

Pansy turned around and he suddenly felt a bit guilty, guilty enough to apologize.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that you would do something like that," He told her.

She looked back at him for a long moment before saying, "I accept your apology. I guess it's just been a long stressful day for both of us."

"True," He agreed.

They headed back to the house in silence before she asked, "so how was the water?"

"Perfect," Harry admitted.

"I'll have to do some swimming tomorrow then," She declared.

"I can stay in the house then if you'd like?" He suggested.

"I'd say there's enough beach for both of us," Pansy pointed out, showing she was willing to share and compromise just a little bit.

Once they got inside however he figured that her hospitality towards sharing did not include sharing a bed...not that he would have accepted if she had.

After finding some extra blankets, he opted to sleep on the couch in the living room, the irony of it even on his first day of marriage causing him to chuckle.

That usually didn't bode well for a marriage.

"What are you laughing about?" She questioned.

"Just the fact that I'm sleeping on the couch on our honeymoon," He answered her.

She gave him an odd look, clearly not getting the joke before retiring to bed.

He tried to get some sleep to, but now with no magic to do or fish to see, his mind was now focusing on his situation and upon Pansy.

The first thing he thought of was that the most obvious solution to this whole problem was simply to just get a divorce, preferably a secret one so no one would ever find out.

It would really be best for Pansy as well. If Voldemort were to find out he was married...well...that just might put her in unnecessary danger.

Besides he was sure that would be what she would want as well.

After awhile, his thoughts then shifted to what he knew of Pansy and he could come up with very little. She had been with Malfoy, she was a Slytherin...according to Ron those two things alone just about made her evil incarnate, but he was starting to think otherwise.

Not that she was actually nice or anything, just nicer than he had originally thought.

At least she had been worried about him and not wished him dead...which he supposed was something considering a truly evil person would probably simply kill him in order to try and inherit all of his money.

It wasn't something he could hide him being rich, just about everyone knew about it even if he never flaunted it or even talked about it in front of anyone.

Just how rich he wasn't sure, but he assumed that it was enough money to last him for awhile.

Pansy on the other hand he had no idea whether she was wealthy or not but judging from the state of the clothes she usually wore she was probably more in the category of the latter.

What else did he know about her, he thought.

Well she was pretty he supposed now that he thought about it. Not like drop dead gorgeous can't stop staring kind of pretty, but attractive at least. If she wasn't Malfoy wouldn't be interested in her he reasoned, but then again he wasn't entirely sure Malfoy wasn't secretly gay.

He tried to think of anything else he knew about her but came up blank. No doubt she knew way more about him than he did her, thanks to all that boy-who-lived garbage and Malfoy likely talking trash about him to her.

Finally he managed to stop thinking about such things and get some sleep.

The next few days were spent in an awkward silence and avoidance between each him and Pansy, trying to stay out of each others' way as much as possible and mostly succeeding.

One evening however it began to rain, forcing both of them indoors.

He opted to try out the jacuzzi, but after getting there he realized he'd forgotten his wand in his pants so he could cast a bubble bath spell.

Of course he'd deny it if anyone asked, but he did enjoy a good bubble bath and the jacuzzi was probably designed to handle it.

Yet when he got back, he found Pansy already in the water and evidently she'd had the same idea he had because there were already plenty of bubbles floating at the top of the water.

While he could have simply left, his stuff was still lying nearby...and he had gotten there first.

Besides it was plenty big enough for both of them, if she didn't like it then she could leave.

So he tentatively got into the water.

"I was here first," He claimed, pointing at his stuff.

She looked over before nodding and made no other comment, tipping her head back so she could relax a bit.

Deciding it was then safe, he tried to relax a bit himself...despite the fact that having Pansy there in such close proximity to him was having pretty much the opposite effect of relaxing.

Finally however she decided to say, "you know maybe we need to talk."

"Maybe we should," He was forced to agree.

"So how do you want to handle this whole marriage thing?" Pansy asked him.

"Well I figured that we could just get a divorce," Harry suggested.

Pansy frowned and said, "I'd like to say it could be that easy but I'm afraid it's a bit more complicated than that. My father will be...displeased if and when he finds out and he probably will find out."

"I'd imagine he would be pretty angry finding out his 16 year old daughter went and secretly got herself married and disappeared for a month," He guessed.

"Oh no, he'll probably be happy about that, I was talking about the divorce," Pansy informed him.

"Why would he ever be happy about that?" He questioned.

"Since it's to you," Pansy admitted, "my parents are a bit old fashioned in that they want to marry me off to the richest, most powerful guy they can find. Unfortunately you're just about as high up there as you can get."

He let this digest as a thought occurred to him.

"Is that why you and Malfoy...?"

"Yes," Pansy admitted, "he's just below you I'd say as far as potential matches would be concerned when it came to my parents. I'd imagine however that once this whole incident is discovered...well I'd imagine that the Malfoys would break it off."

"I'm sorry," He tried to say.

"It's okay, to be honest I've always hated that little prick," She confessed.

That certainly caught him by surprise.

His shock must have been noticed because she decided to explain, "what? Me cozying up to him and all that? It was just an act. In truth I can barely stand him."

"Why would you act like you like someone you really hate?" He asked her.

She didn't seem eager to reply but told him hesitantly, "since my parents wished it so. They can be very...strict.

"Like beat you?" He asked.

That at least he understood.

"Probably disown me actually," She answered.

"That's just messed up," Harry insisted angrily.

She shrugged and said, "that's the reality of things. As long as I marry well though they'll treat me well."

Now he was starting to realize things might not be so easy after all.

"So why are you telling me all this?" He asked her.

She probably didn't go around telling people all this.

"I'd rather not be giving out secrets like this, and to you no less no offense," Pansy replied, "but I figure it's necessary in order for you to understand my dilemma."

He tried to think before saying, "well maybe we could secretly get divorced so no one would ever know anything happened. Besides we didn't consummate it so I'm guessing it would be a lot easier."

She nodded and said, "that would be preferable but I doubt we'd be able to keep it a secret for long. My parents would question why I've been missing for a month for example. It would get out, but I think in the end it might turn out to not be too bad. I'd likely lose the marriage contract with Draco, but I never wanted it anyway and I'd still be valuable enough for my parents to find someone else, likely with lower social and economic status, but probably not too low."

While he couldn't really understand all the upperclass wizard politics, she didn't seem too displeased which he supposed was good.

After all, she at least got away from having to marry Malfoy. He'd be pretty happy too if he got away with having to marry him."

Another thought came to mind.

"Would there be a divorce settlement?" He questioned.

"I'm not going to just take your money and take advantage of you like that," Pansy insisted, "like I said before I'm not a moneygrubber, besides I wouldn't get it anyway. Right about now the Ministry is clamoring so much to gain your favor they'd do anything for you."

He thought about that. While his regard for Wizard aristocracy and the Ministry fell, his respect for Pansy rose.

They both continued to languish in the water a bit with him halfway tempted to try and learn more about some of the wizard customs she was brought up with but he ultimately decided against it.

Instead he apologized.

"I'm sorry anyway about all this," He told her.

"It's not your fault," Pansy answered, "and besides if anything you got me away from Malfoy. I'm not sure just who else my parents will find for me, but they are bound to be better than him."

"There's that at least," Harry replied, "and next time maybe marry someone you don't hate."

"I don't hate you," Pansy answered him, "a lot of that was an act for Malfoy and for what it's worth I've always thought you were rather nice and a bit cute."

Talk about out there.

"Wow, Pansy Parkinson thinks I'm nice and cute, the sky must be falling," Harry observed.

Pansy laughed at that and almost beyond his control, he found himself liking her laugh, it was warm and melodic and caused her entire face to light up.

It actually made her look...well...better.

There were other words for it he knew, but even in his head he wasn't willing to admit what those words were.

"So who do you think you might get together with after this is over?" Pansy asked him.

He sighed and said, "really no one in particular comes to mind."

"Surely Malfoy isn't right and you aren't just gay?" She suggested.

"Funnily enough I've always speculated the same thing about him," He admitted.

She laughed again at that, reminding him again of what he thought of her laugh.

"Honestly I think he is," Pansy confided, "most of the time I think he just keeps me around just for show just so it appears he isn't."

"Well you can do better than him," He commented.

"You think so?" She asked.

"Yes," Harry answered.

He neglected to mention that that really wasn't saying much.

"You really don't know me though," Pansy pointed out as she pushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes.

Such an action combined with what she said somehow made her seem...human? Vulnerable?

He really wasn't sure just what the word was.

"I suppose you're right," He was forced to admit, "but I can tell I might have already misjudged you."

"Most people tend to misjudge me, not that I usually give them any reason to believe otherwise," Pansy added.

While true, he suddenly realized Pansy had actually been acting much the way she had merely for survival. If her parents were really that cruel enough to disown their own daughter if she wouldn't marry the guy they wanted her to...well...he really couldn't blame her.

He decided to switch the conversation to happier things.

"Well at least we have this honeymoon island to enjoy," He remarked.

"That we do," She agreed.

He decided to tell her about all the colorful fish he had seen earlier that day...which then led to a conversation about just what she had been doing.

It should have felt weird that he and Pansy were having an actually decent conversation...but oddly enough it wasn't. If this was the real Pansy, he was forced to admit she was actually rather smart and easy to talk to once they had the more difficult conversation taken care of.

Finally however she commented, "I'm sorry you missed your birthday and had the next day turn out like it did."

"Don't worry about it," Harry answered, "I really haven't gotten the chance to celebrate most of my birthdays."

What with always being at the Dursleys every year for his birthday that was no surprise. At least his 11th had been pretty good, having found out he was a wizard and spent the day in Diagon Alley with Hagrid.

"Well maybe we could do something tomorrow to make up for it," She suggested.

He gave her an odd look and asked, "are you sure you could stand spending a day with me?"

"Only if you could with me," Pansy reminded him.

After thinking about it, he said, "all right, I guess we can do something."

With that settled they talked for a bit more before they both retired to bed.

As he tried to get some sleep that night, he was feeling actually a lot better about things in general. Some things of course, like learning Pansy's parents were pretty much jerks wasn't all that great, but she at least didn't seem to upset anymore and at least they were talking and not avoiding each other.

He supposed it was at least a start.

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