I'm not sure if I'll be finishing this or abandoning it, but here's a chapter I wrote over a year ago

Pansy was there when Ron came down the steps the next morning just before breakfast. He sat wordlessly on the couch beside her, and she curled on her side to look at him. Ron looked tired. Dark circles were beneath his eyes, and he slumped in his seat. But his eyes were as bright blue as usual, and his smile was still brilliant.

"He's doing better." He said before she could even ask. Pansy sighed in relief, then Younger rolled her eyes. This was ridiculous, they shouldn't be tip-toeing around Harry's emotions. He could take it.

I'm pretty sure last night covered that he could not, in fact, take it, Older argued.

Excuse me, who's idea was it to tell Dumbledore about Sirius in the first place? Younger retorted.

Both of ours! We're the same person! Now stop speaking directly to me, it might hurt the melding.

And perhaps Older was right, because Pansy could feel the light seam that had begun to be sown tugging at the stitches. She resisted the urge to pick at it like an irritating scab and tried to concentrate on what Ron was saying while the Common Room filled up with all of the Gryffindors that were going down to breakfast soon. Eventually, Harry and Sally showed up, and the four of them headed down to breakfast together.

When they got down there, Pansy spotted the twins, sitting with a Percy with his head in a book, waving at them from further down the table.

"We haven't sat with them for a while," Sally commented, a funny little smile on her face. It was then that Pansy noticed the sweaters the twins were wearing. They were the same ones Sally had spent all her time knitting before winter break. Pansy gave her a suspicious look but Sally was already off, forcing Pansy to just go along with them and give an apologetic smile to Ron and Harry.

Sally slid in between the twins, grinning at both of them widely.

"Hey, how are you?" Sally asked.

"Oh absolutely amazing," Fred said.

"Fantastic."

"Astounding!"

"Tired." Percy took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. He had the same dark circles as Ron, Pansy noted.

"What's wrong?" Pansy asked. Though if the well-worn textbook in his hands was any indication, then she knew exactly what was bothering him.

"This Ancient Runes exam is going to murder me," He banged at the book in frustration, looking as close as she ever thought he would come to just flinging the book off of the table.

"Been studying these past few days he has, barely sleeping," George commented. Pansy hummed and nodded, and before Percy could do a thing she snatched the textbook from in front of him. He let out an offended "Hey!" as she closed it and slipped it into her satchel.

"I'll give you this back tomorrow, if you get enough sleep." She stared at Percy defiantly, throwing back her shoulders and straightening her spine just like her mother had taught her. For good measure, she gave him the stare that every pureblood mother passed down to her daughter, and Percy suitably backed down, casting his eyes away and muttering under his breath.

Pansy smiled at patted at his hand. "Sorry Percy," she said, not meaning it at all. "Just looking out for you." And that Pansy meant. Because any Slytherin worth their scales could see that Percy could be useful, very useful. He was driven and ambitious and smart. And maybe, just maybe, if she could keep him on the right side of the war the entire time, everyone would have a better chance. It also didn't hurt that he seemed to genuinely like her.

Was I ever this soft when I was your age? Older scoffed.

Oh, be quiet.

TOF

Harry looked down the table as Pansy put her hand on top of Percy's and smiled so sweetly. She never smiled at him like that, and he wondered why until the familiar feeling of guilt welled up. Harry pushed it down, something he was becoming better at ever since his outburst the day before.

For some reason, he thought that after Ron and he became friends with them they'd stop talking with the girls so much. Harry could understand why they spent so much time with them at first. Fred, George, and Percy were some of the only Gryffindors that were always nice to the two of them. But he thought...he thought that once they became friends with him and Ron they just wouldn't need them anymore.

Apparently, they did, he thought as she watched Percy say something that made Pansy laugh. When she laughed, really laughed, her joy would start slowly. Her eyes would lighten first, and then the edges of her mouth would tilt up. Her cheeks would round out as the smile stretched, and then her laughter would just build up and explode out of her. He liked the way her shoulders shook just the tiniest bit when she laughed, enough to lightly jiggle her hair. Pansy was always so ladylike, and so serious if she wasn't being sarcastic, but watching her laugh was like watching a wild light.

Harry didn't make her laugh that much, but Percy and Fred and George made her laugh all the time.

"Pansy and Sally spend a lot of time with your brothers, yeah?"

Ron was sitting across from him, stuffing his face full of eggs and bacon. He gulped it down before speaking because Hermione and Pansy had finally managed to train him. And Sally? Sally just scared him. It was always the quiet ones.

"Yeah, twins have been talking about them coming over for the summer." Ron shrugged and went back to eating, but Harry was quiet again. Ron would get to go home to his big loving family and Pansy and Sally, but Harry was just going home to the stupid Dursleys. Life was simply amazing.

TOF

"Okay, now let's do fifth year," Pansy said.

Pansy, Sally, and Blaise had spent the last two hours in the library compiling all the information they could with how things were supposed to play out for the next few years, and how they actually were.

Last night had scared Pansy, more than she really cared to admit. Never, ever had she thought that finding out about godfather so soon would have such a disastrous effect on Harry. She refused to ever put that look on his face again.

But what was more interesting is that as far as Pansy was concerned, that was a relatively small ripple. She knew Pettigrew was instrumental to Voldemort's revival, but what would he do now? Was it a fixed moment in time, and Voldemort would rise in their fourth year no matter what? Or was it more fluid? Did they permanently stop it? But he still had his backup plan and the backup to his backup plan. If Voldemort could get to a rat on the run to revive him, what would he be able to do in the hands of someone like say, Lucius?

"I think you're worrying about this too much Pans," Blaise declared. He had abandoned his journal long ago, choosing instead to tip his chair back and stare at the ceiling. He let his chair fall back to the ground with a quiet clatter.

"We can't undo what we've already done, and anyway wasn't the point of you coming back to make things different?"

Pansy glared. Then sighed. She held up the piece of parchment she'd been making a list on of everything that was already radically different.

"But just look at this. I'm in Gryffindor. Hermione's in Slytherin. Hermione's athletic and likes flying for Merlin's sake. Back in the old timeline, she'd rather get splinched than go up on a broom!" She slammed it down, determined to prove her point. Sally rolled her eyes.

"Pansy, regardless of whether you had followed the exact same script to a letter from the time you landed here, things would still be different. I told you before you can't just slide into time. Things are going to change that you had absolutely no hand in because by coming back it shook things up." Sally explained. "Things like fundamental personality traits, likes and dislikes, whether someone wears glasses or not, etc."

"So, because I came back, Hermione is in Slytherin and likes to fly." Pansy rose a skeptical eyebrow, and Sally shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, you just convinced her to go into Slytherin, I'm pretty sure. The flying thing on the other hand, yes, that was probably because you came back.

"Hmm," Blaise hummed. He had a hand on his chin and was stroking it thoughtfully. "Sounds more like the multiverse theory to me."

At Pansy and Sallys astounded looks, Blaise crossed his arms defensively.

"My older self apparently loved muggle sci-fi shows and I wanted to watch a few myself." He snapped. Pansy shuddered. X-Files may not come out for a couple of years, but Older had tons of memories of Blaise sitting in front of the telly like a zombie, watching reruns.

"This isn't a different universe," Sally said. "We're still in our own timeline. The Moirai really don't like it when we try to go to another possibility. They prefer when we stay in our own. But I think they find the ripples...amusing."

Blaise's eyes widened, and he looked not unlike a little kid on Christmas. "So it's real?"

"Okay, that's enough." Pansy interrupted. She started gathering up the notes and books they had been working on. They were going to be late to the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff match and Pansy wanted good seats.

Blaise pouted at her, his full lower lip sticking out to epic proportions. Pansy leaned over and flicked it, then smirked as he glared.

"Come on, let's go." She demanded. Sally and Blaise rolled their eyes but still smiled at her as they gathered their own things and slung their bags over their shoulders.

The three of them exited the library in an unhurried fashion after they realized that the match had not yet started. It was the last day of March, and there was still quite a distinct chill in the air. Once they got outside, Blaise cast a series of warming charms over all of them. The three made their way up into the stands where the Slytherins were for some reason situated next to the Gryffindors.

Not that Pansy minded. It meant she got to sit near all of her favorite people. Pansy settled down next to Hermione.

"Pansy, I was wondering when you would make it," Hermione said, leaning over to give her a hug. Draco, who sat on Hermione's other side, smiled and nodded at her but didn't take his eyes off of the game that was just about to start.

"I'm glad you're here. Draco's been driving me mad with all of his Quidditch talk." Hermione complained with an affectionate roll of her eyes.

"But you play Quidditch." Pansy pointed out, calling back to her mind the image of Pansy sitting up on her broom in the first game. She still wore that green ribbon Theo gave her at every game. She said it was her good luck charm.

"There's a difference between liking it and being obsessed with it." Hermione countered. True to form, Draco hadn't been paying attention to a word they said, all of his attention focused on the action above.

Pansy examined Hermione as they sat there. Hermione, the first time around, hadn't been the most obviously pretty of girls when she was younger. She wore her uniform perfectly true to code if a bit baggy. Her teeth were bucked and her hair was a wild frizzy mess that looked like it'd never seen a bottle of product.

Apparently, the girls of Slytherin had gotten to her. Her teeth were still bucked, but her uniform fit her nicely. Her hair was still wild, but now it was an explosion of curls instead of a heap of frizz. They also seemed to be curing her of her nervous habits. There was no evidence of her biting at her lips or her nails.

She looked nice, and Pansy approved, but from the look of the book tucked into Hermione's robes that she thought no one could see that still hadn't changed the essence of who Hermione was.

The match went surprisingly quick, lasting a grand total of about five minutes before Harry caught the snitch.

"Well," Draco sounded disappointed, "I was certainly hoping for a bit more than that."

Pansy didn't leave her seat for a moment, even as everyone else around her began to move. She remembered this game, she did. But she remembered it being a whole lot more eventful than that. She knew that she would drive herself positively insane by wondering at all that she's changed, but she didn't allow herself to stop thinking about it till she saw Crabbe and Goyle sitting down a ways and it clicked.

Ah, yes, at the last game those two and Ron had gotten into a muggle style fistfight. She grinned. Well, not everything she changed was necessarily bad.

TOF

"Pansy, Pansy wake up."

Pansy groaned and pressed her face deeper into her pillow. Even in her tired state, she could tell this was an unholy time of morning to be awake. But there was only one person permitted to get past the wards set on her bed curtains, so she blearily turned and opened one eye to see Sally there, a bright smile on her face that Pansy just wanted to smack off.

"Come on, we need to wrap the twins presents," Sally said. The curtains were pushed further open and soon the two beds were connected. Pansy sat up, accepting that her precious beauty rest was being cut short. With a lazy swish of her wrist, the inside of the beds was illuminated

Sally had three presents, one for each of the twins individually and one they could share. The one they could share was a complete and comprehensive book on funny potions, while they got George a new wand holster and Fred a broom grooming kit (his was always in disarray).

They spent the next half hour wrapping them fastidiously before Pansy felt she had to say something.

"Sally..." Her breath caught in her throat, and the only thing she could do was hold up Fred's present. The smile on Sally's face fell away.

"I know."

"I just don't want you to get hurt," Pansy said. Even in her new house, she was a Slytherin, and she saw. She saw the faintest of blushes and the extra bright smiles. Pansy knew what that meant. In her experience it never turned out well for her, so she vowed to never feel that way again until the world was out of danger. But with Sally...

It might end in tragedy.

"I saw, in my mind, when you were aging...your kids."

"The Moirai said they would give them back to me, even if they didn't look the same." Sally had a set, but hopeful look to her face as she continued wrapping the presents.

"The father?"

"He was a bastard. We were about to divorce when I was taken back here." Sally shrugged.

Sally hadn't told Pansy a lot about the life she led before she was sent here. She knew that she had lasted up until her fifth year here before she was erased and reborn over in America. After that, Pansy didn't know much. Sally didn't like to talk about it. She didn't mind. At this point, Sally had basically been born three different times, maybe even four considering her time with the Moirai.

"I can taste how much you've changed time. Maybe they won't die, maybe they won't..." Sally grimaced but set her shoulders resolutely, "I just won't let them die."

"Sally..."

"They're not going to die, and I'm going to make sure of it."

Nothing else was said, but Sally was back into a bright mood by the time they handed the twins their presents at breakfast that morning. They were in public, so Pansy's training allowed her no more than a proper pat on each of their shoulders, but Sally enveloped both of the twins with hugs. Personally, Pansy thought they returned the hugs with more enthusiasm than was strictly proper.

TOF

Harry was racing through the halls. The castle itself seemed to sense his urgency.

He had to tell the others, he had to. Harry had known Snape was up to something, and following Spane and Quirrell into the woods had just confirmed it.

Pansy, Hermione, and the others would be disappointed, he just knew it. They loved Snape, no matter how many times Harry had attempted to tell them how evil he was. But this would keep them safe, and it would keep the Stone safe as well. Who knew what Snape wanted to do with it?

He reached the portrait entrance, but before he could say the password the door swung open on its own volition. Pansy was standing there, and for a moment, he felt pinned because her dark blue eyes were burning at him.

"Harry, where have you been? I was just about to start looking for you." She took his hand and dragged him into the room, setting her on the small couch next to her.

For a moment, Harry had forgotten what he was going to say. but when he did he spilled the whole story to Sally, Pansy, and Ron. When he was done, Ron was looking at him with a serious expression and seemed ready to fight.

But Pansy and Sally both looked contemplative. Harry braced himself, but Pansy just placed a hand on his knee.

"I'm not going to say I don't believe you," she said with an expression on her face that said she very much didn't, "But I feel like we need to get a little more proof."

"What kind of proof? Snape's an evil git, what more do you need?" Ron said, banging his fist down on the table and making Sally jump. Pansy rolled her eyes at him and Ron hurriedly took his fist back, the tips of his ears reddening.

"I mean that the idea of Snape trying to undermine Dumbledore is simply ridiculous. Perhaps we should speak to someone who spends more time around him." Pansy smiled, and Harry already knew where this was going.

"I guess it's time for a trip to the dungeons."