Chapter Text
“I can’t believe people buy this Divination shite,” Pansy muttered under her breath, fumbling through her makeup bag.
“Excuse me,” Lavender said from behind her, annoyance in her voice. “Divination is very real.”
“Right.” Pansy quirked an eyebrow in the mirror, staring at the blonde lounging on the bed. Her eyes trailed down to where the short hem of the pink dress skimmed Lavender’s rich brown thighs, following the woman’s curves, before snapping back up.
‘Obviously what we are doing today is not real Divination,” Lavender added, her plump lips pressed into a line. Pansy bit back a sarcastic comment, finishing the wings on her eyeliner. As she debated putting on additional concealer to hide the dark bags under her eyes, painfully obvious dotting her pale skin, when she heard the woman behind her sigh softly.
“Okay,” Pansy said seriously as she twisted around in her seat to face her partner in crime. “You remember the plan?”
“Of course,” Lavender replied with an eye roll. “We don’t have to do a recap each time, you know. We run the same scam each time, it's fairly straightforward.”
“I just don’t want a repeat of the Vegas job,” Pansy sing-songed as she turned back to the mirror, applying her mascara.
“That was just as much your fault as mine. You were the one who just had to go to that dreadful show, which delayed the whole thing,” came the cheeky retort. Pansy rolled her eyes, but kept her mouth shut.
“It doesn’t matter whose fault it was. Just humor me, tell me the plan,” Pansy said, the anxiety she always felt before a job making her chest tighten. “Please?” She stuck her bottom lip out a bit into what she knew was a cute pout.
“You know I hate it when you do that,” Lavender laughed, throwing her pillow at her. Pansy dodged it with a chuckle. “But fine, for you we can go over it. I’ll tell him that love is set in the stars - that he’ll meet his true love at the marina very soon, with a white ribbon in her hair,” Lavender said, holding the ribbon up and catching Pansy’s eyes in the mirror. “Do you want help putting it in? Or can you do it?”
“Help please,” she said, applying the pink lipstick. Lavender moved behind her, leaning over her to grab the brush from the vanity. Her arm brushed Pansy’s shoulder and Pansy’s breath hitched at the contact. “I set up a yacht showing for him with our contact,” she said, trying for an even tone as she focused on applying her third coat of lipstick instead of the heat pooling in her cheeks.
“I still don't think we needed to bring a third into the job,” Lavender said as she gathered half of Pansy’s short dark bob back. Her hands were delicate as they moved through her hair.
“Blaise is very trustworthy,” Pansy scoffed. “I’ve known him since we were children. Besides, I told him the take will be smaller than what we anticipate, so he’ll get a smaller cut.”
“You’re brilliant,” Lavender laughed, light and sweet. Pansy’s heart flipped.
“Finally recognizing it,” she managed to reply, hoping her voice didn’t betray her feelings. “So, I’ll show up, a vision in white, and sweep him off his feet.”
“Better you than me,” Lavender muttered, tying Pansy’s hair back with the white ribbon. “There you go.”
“How about a thank you, Pansy? You're so nice for being the one who has to deal with the dicks, Pansy?”
“Literally and figuratively,” Lavender added quietly as she plopped back down on the bed. They chuckled together, easing her nerves slightly.
“This will be a quick job,” Pansy said. “I’ll do a simple seduction, ask for lots of gifts, then we’ll split in a few weeks. Anything you want that we won’t sell?”
“No,” Lavender said, shaking her head. “But you can’t get another handbag,” she added quickly, the stern tone a surprise.
“And why not?” Pansy swiveled around, pushing her lips out in an attempt to pout rather than laugh.
“Pansy we live on the road, we are carting around far too many handbags,” the woman admonished, gesturing towards the closet.
“We won’t live on the road forever,” Pansy whined. “Someday we will settle down.” She left the together on the tip of her tongue unsaid, the secret hope she’d been holding onto for months.
“Oh, are you planning to marry one of these men then? Live in a mansion filled to the brim of handbags?”
“Maybe I should if you’re telling me I can’t get any more!” Pansy teased. “But of course not. After all this, I want to settle down with someone I actually love, who actually loves me. If that even exists.” She turned back to the mirror to avoid Lavender’s eyes, fluffing her bangs. After a beat of silence, she added, “You are the worst.”
“You love me though,” Lavender laughed, flopping back on the bed. Pansy swallowed roughly, wishing that she knew exactly how much she loved her. She looked down at her hands.
When she looked up, she was staring out at the busy marina. Pansy stood on the dock, waiting for Blaise. She glanced at her wristwatch, a token from an elderly oil heir three scams ago. The face was scratched, marring the numbers.
“Bugger,” she muttered, trying to wipe it with the hem of her too-short skirt. It was unlike Blaise to be late, especially with something like this. She groaned, hoping he’d arrive soon, worried that any tardiness would cost them the entire job before it even really got started.
“Wait!” a voice yelled, drawing Pansy’s attention. She spotted a figure running down the dock, towards her. “Wait!”
“Lavender?” she muttered to herself, recognizing the pink designer dress and bouncing blonde coils. As she came closer, Lavender’s cheeks were flushed crimson and her face drawn in a serious expression. “What’s wrong?” Pansy asked, looking around frantically. “We’re going to blow our cover. If he spots you here with me, he’ll know it was a setup.”
“I - I don’t care,” Lavender panted, brushing the hair out of her face. “I don’t care about the job!”
“Are you okay?” Pansy asked, taking a tentative step closer. “What happened?”
“I just couldn’t sit alone in our hotel room, waiting, knowing what you’d be doing with this geezer,” Lavender said, her plump lips twisting into a frown that looked wrong on her usually cheerful face. “I’ve been thinking about what you said this morning, about settling down. Well, it turns out I want someone I actually love too.”
“What are you saying?” Pansy asked roughly, her voice catching in her throat. Lavender bit her lip, staring in Pansy’s eyes, searching for the answer to some unspoken question. “Lavender?” Pansy prompted gently.
“That I love you. I don’t know when it happened exactly. Sometimes I think it happened the moment I laid eyes on you, but I just didn’t realize it right away. But it’s always been you, Pansy. You’re the first thing I think about before I even open my eyes in the morning, and the last person I want to talk to at night. You’re the only one I want to be with. You’re the one I’m meant for.”
“And? Is love written in the stars?” Pansy drawled with a forced smirk, hoping her exterior didn’t reflect the internal panic overwhelming her.
“I don’t really care,” Lavender breathed in a sultry tone Pansy had never heard before. Her eyes dropped to Pansy’s mouth. Pansy’s heart was beating hard, faster and faster. They came closer together and Pansy felt like she couldn’t breathe.
Then, just before their lips met, Pansy woke up.
Disoriented, she sat up to find she was not in her hotel room in America, with a partner in crime and a closet full of handbags. She was somewhere entirely different. Pansy blinked a few times to adjust to the dark and her surroundings became familiar. She was in her professor quarters in Hogwarts, alone.
“What the fuck?” Pansy muttered, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes. “What the fuck ? Again?” she groaned, laying back onto the bed.
Tonight was the fifth night in a row she’d dreamt of her coworker, each more vivid than the last. Worse, each more intimate than the last. She reached over to the book she’d been reading just before falling asleep, about a pair of con artists working their way through America. She threw it across the room.
“Last time I ever read a Muggle book,” she grumbled, cursing the Muggleborn friend who’d given it to her. “Try new things, Pansy,” she mocked. “I promise, it’s good, Pansy.” She scoffed before burying her face into her pillow. “You’d think a legendary swot would be better at picking books.” The silence stretched out and Pansy replayed her dream again, lingering on the dock where dream-Lavender confessed her feelings. She scoffed at herself.
“Why is this happening to me?” Pansy asked the empty room, muffled by the pillow. Her heart rate finally evened out and she closed her eyes, desperate to avoid any more dreams of Lavender Brown.