Don't you ever doubt this love of mine
You're the only one for me

You give me hope
You give me reason
You give me something to believe in
Forever faithfully
Your love amazes me
Outfit @pansy  @melanie  @charlotteburke  @fernando   @rembrandt  @genevieve

It was here and Daniel was shocked that he hadn't gone into a panic attack. He was getting married. Not just married, married to the one person he actually loved that wasn't a family member. A woman who not only put up with his anti-social tendencies and his love of Dragons. She loved him, she was giving him a child, and he couldn't be more lucky if he took a dose of liquid luck every single day. She was his blessing and she was worth every single moment of agony when he was around people who annoyed him. 

Donna Parkinson had had the event of the year. It had been huge and it hadn't been what he wanted at all. His bride needed to shine and they didn't need anything else extra. His sister Gen had done the decorations, and he had picked the date and the tux and done his part. Then he had found out that he was going to be a father, and it made things even better when he stopped and thought about it. He didn't need to have anything other than the witch that was currently in his arms. They were dancing and he couldn't stop smiling down at her. He was totally lost to her and those perfect eyes of her. 

He knew he would always be lost to her, and there was nothing that would change it. He liked to say that fate had given him a gift for being so patient and waiting on looking for love. Hell, he had not even been looking for love when they had met back up in the Ministry. He had only gone because Gen had made him promise to be more social and to stop avoiding people as if they had dragon pox or something.  Leaning his head back from his wife he smiled down at her. "Happy, Lady Burke?"

wedding dress

As a little girl, Pansy had often imagined her wedding day. It would be grand, of course, because the joining of two august families such as Parkinson and Malfoy were bound to be. She'd wear a demure and yet fashionable dress, outshining every single bride of the season and the union would be the talk to the society circles for a long, long time. Such a silly little chit, she had been. Now, all of that dazzling glamour that she had once desired more than almost anything felt as fake as leprechaun's gold and it wouldn't have made her happy. Being Lady Malfoy wouldn't have given her what she wanted, would only have made her miserable in a different way than being Signora Auditore had - but for a much longer time, seeing that Draco was hale and healthy still. She'd have missed her chance to grow as a person, to shed the skin of child and become a woman she could be proud of. Pansy wouldn't have done half the things she did, wouldn't have known much of what she knew and she definitely wouldn't be where she was now. And that, that she wouldn't trade for the world.

And, of course, there was Daniel. Someone that she had never expected, never even wanted to find. Love had been something for children and peasants, in her opinion, the opium of those who didn't have a higher calling to occupy themselves with. And yet, out of nowhere, Daniel came and shattered all of her absolute notions, leaving her reeling and weak at the knees, unsure of what was happening or whether she wanted it to continue. Pansy...well, she took the metaphorical leap of faith and allowed herself to enjoy it, to let go. Because of that she lost her heart but gained something infinitely more precious, something worth more than gold. Now she was married again but this time it mattered. It mattered because she wanted it, because she could call the man she loved her husband and the woman she had always been close to sister. Because her family was growing, expanding, in more ways than one. Because there was a life growing inside her even if few people knew and that...that mattered. All of this mattered.

Compared to her first wedding and to the wedding she had always imagined she'd have, this one was tiny, really. Just their family, not even their friends. Genevieve had taken care of the decoration and Pansy had bullied Blaise into helping her with designs and Donna into making her dress. Her mother had teamed up with Lady Stella to make sure everything would come out perfectly and...here they were. She was a Burke, now, second time she cast off her maiden name but this time- this time she didn't feel like this as an end. It was a beginning, in more ways than one.

Answering Daniel's smile with a half smirk of her own, Pansy let her sharp nails dig on his shoulders as they spun together for the last turns of the song. "Very much so, Lord Burke. Everything went off perfectly," and she knew she had more than a few people to thank for that, really. "Are you happy?"

Love was a silly notion that only school children got the chance to take. It was something that had been in Daniel’s brain since he was young and something that didn’t really ever seem to be possible for him, he just wasn’t made for love. He never really dated and when he did he sought his pleasure and easily, often tossing the woman aside or seeking things another way, but it never lasted. Mainly because it was a complication that he could not afford. It was something that he could not find himself in, and then Gen had her troubles. He promised her he would be social, that he would not give into the ways that he was used to, and thanks to that he now had Pansy.

He never thought that the woman would give him a second look, she was his sister’s best friend after all, and he was just the distant Dragon Keeping Death Eater brother. He was secretly a child on the inside and she knew that, she loved him because of it, and it blew him away. She loved him and it blew him away when he thought about it. Pansy Parkinson loved him, though she would be forever a Burke now (because he wasn’t letting her go.) She was having his baby, a child of their own. Something that he never thought would happen, she was more than too good for him, but Merlin help him he adored that woman.

The wedding was a small affair but Daniel hadn’t wanted to make a fuss, he just wanted her to be his wife. If it wouldn’t have pissed off his mother they would have just gone away to somewhere sunny and tropical and gotten married there on a beach. It was about them not anyone else. He leaned in and gave her a lingering sweet kiss as the next song began to play, but he didn’t let her go, he merely guided her off the floor and kept her in his arms. ”I am happier than I could have imagined. I am a very lucky man, you did choose me after all.”

---

words:365

Despite all her teasing, Pansy didn't quite know how to dance. Oh, she knew all the steps and could follow them with decent enough grace and accuracy. However, such endeavours were never her forte and she had absolutely loathed them as a child and even as a teenager. The memory of the Yule Ball back in fourth year was still one she'd rather forget, for more than one reason. Indeed, the entire year had been a mess and a half but dancing had made it worse. However, for the wedding, she had gone to her mother and the music room of their estate to practise at the very least the dance she and Daniel would have to share, to make sure everything would be perfect. Pansy didn't know why she was so insistent with perfection in this - well, that wasn't the complete truth. She knew why, very well, but it was hard not just find other reasons to explain it. Daniel...he deserved better than her deflections and avoidance, she knew. He didn't mind, bless his heart, but she did. Now, after all was said and done, she minded it. So yes, she wanted this to be perfect because it was his first wedding - and if it depended on her, only one. It was going to be special for her and she wanted to make it special.

It was for her too, a very good memory full of happiness and hazy perfection to replace all the bad ones she had associated to this. She had been drunk, last time, though it had not shown. Frederico had not danced and therefore she had been forced to sit by his side all night - a small blessing. This, though- being spun in Daniel's arms as if she had half her age and none of her baggage, it almost felt like a dream. Like what a silly girl with no care in the world and no delusions of grandeur would have dreamt of. Maybe she shouldn't have been so critical of the stupid, low placed girls in her year for their mediocre aspirations and dreams. Sometimes...sometimes having wealth and power and prestige was not everything. Sometimes, it was not worth giving up something like this. Of course, in the end Pansy still prevailed because she had it all. Sacrifices had been made, more than she could count, but what was battle without it? She clawed her way to this place, earned every inch of what she had today, and in a way it tasted much sweeter than it would have if she had been handed it. Sure, Pansy likely wouldn't have cared if it had but- things worked for the best, no matter how disgustingly cliche it sounded.

Speaking of disgustingly cliche, her smile softened a fraction as they moved away from the dance floor, slightly breathless. Maybe it was the exercise, maybe it was the way Daniel looked at her. Well, definitely the second one. His hand burnt her skin through the silk and lace of her dress, reassuringly so. Whilst her mother had gasped scandalously at her dress, tutting disapprovingly at the show of skin and the high slits on the skirts, she knew that Daniel had approved. "Who else would I choose, you silly man? You were mine before either of us even knew it," she tutted, playfully, looking around at the small party. Perfect, yes.

tags

outfit