Chapter Text
Three years later...
It had been a cold day in Paris and Pansy had overslept.
No, not overslept, that would imply a slightly frantic morning where perhaps her lipstick ended up rushed and her hair a little mussed. Whereas the morning the that first of the tendrils had appeared to begin their steady pull back towards home Pansy had been in a state of practical hibernation, refusing to be roused by several alarms, a floo call or even the thumping at the door to the shared entrance to the apartments.
Poisoned by her enemies, or if your were inclined to be slightly more specific, slipped a sleeping draught by an over zealous assistant.
In the rush to get ready it had seemed almost inconsequential that her meeting had to be moved. It was hardly an inconvenience when you had an assistant, nightmare that she was, to handle these sort of things, breakfast became lunch with all the difficulty of breathing, the only slight hitch being the additional, unavoidable guest of one to what Pansy had initially planned to be a very serious business meeting where she definitely wasn't going to get trashed on mimosa's at 11am like she had last time.
Still, it was fine, she would get through it, she'd just have to be careful to keep her tone cool and polite. Not distant enough to burn any bridges, but aloof enough that whichever poor soul had been dug up as the latest offering to the tragedy that was her love life could wriggle themselves back off the hook. Merlin knew Julian was a delight, an absolute dream of an investor, but he was more than a little prone to any and all attempts at arranging children, grandchildren and passing strangers into the most delightful and amusing pairs. Though she'd humour the old man Pansy had little time for it.
She'd gone into lunch with a plan, it had been a good plan, and it might have worked had he not walked into the room