A Crazy Little Thing - Dramione

Ch. 9

Hermione's POV

"Alright, up on the pedestal," Pansy said as she gestured towards to the raised platform on the floor.

I stepped up, watching her as she gathered a few things from the desk against the wall. A tape measure suddenly flew out of the top drawer and began wrapping itself around various parts of my body.

Within a minute or two, nearly every single one of my measurements had been taken, and I watched as Pansy hummed to herself and began looking at the different fabrics on the back wall. The entire room was set up as if she actually made the clothes there herself; there were multiple mannequins of different sizes in different phases of clothes being put together. I noticed a small sewing machine in the back and I raised an eyebrow.

"Pansy, do you make these clothes by hand?" I asked, still looking around as I noticed that nothing was moving by magic.

She gave me a small smile. "You would pick up on that. Certain clothes, yes, I pride myself in making by hand."

Gesturing towards the different mannequins, she continued. "I have a few witches who have personally employed me as their designer, and so I craft their clothes by hand. The only bit of magic that goes into it is the measuring."

"Why only the measuring?" I asked out of curiosity.

"When measuring by hand, one can always make mistakes," She explained. "When measuring with magic, there's never a mistake and I can always ensure that the clothes fit perfectly. The mannequins are for each customer I have that employs me personally; once they are measured, the mannequins are changed to fit them."

"That's brilliant," I said quietly. Then I had a realization. "Pansy, I didn't employ you..."

She immediately held up a hand, cutting me off. "No, you didn't. I decided that this first round of clothes, I will do for free. It's sort of a...personal matter to me."

I stared at her. She was watching me quietly, with absolutely no trace of the haughty woman I knew from school at all. But she shifted her weight after a few quiet moments and said, "Don't get used to this, Granger. I'm also doing it for Draco."

I shook my head and gave her a smile. "Don't worry, this is odd to me as well."

Pansy only nodded in response and gestured towards the fabrics. "Why don't you pick out a few colors for me to work with?"

After a few minutes of us going over colors and her suggesting a few radical ones that I never would have considered, she began sketching a few designs and asked for my input here and there.

I took a small moment of silence to ask quietly, "Pansy, why are you doing this for me?"

She paused and then sighed, setting her sketchbook down and looking down at the floor. I saw a small smile cross her face before she began to speak. "I didn't return for my last year of Hogwarts. Instead, I went to study design and fashion. I moved to America for a year and a half. In the first month of me being there, I met Brian."

She sighed and her gaze went to the ceiling. "Brian was studying at the same institute that I was, only he was going for architecture. We had a class together and hit it off pretty well. He was a muggle, which of course was frowned upon by my parents but I couldn't help liking him. He was funny, smart, and could always put a smile on my face, even on my worst days.

"He pursued me, asking me out on dates and the like. It was nice to feel wanted like that, by someone who didn't know who I was. Here, it was expected for me to marry another pureblood and continue the bloodlines. My mother went berserk when I told her that I was somewhat seeing a muggle. We officially started dating about three months in to my stay. I knew I loved him after five months of us being together. After ten months, we even talked about getting married. All that time, I kept my magic to myself."