InsaneJournal

FAMILY:

Marcus Parkinson: Father, born 1954, Imprisoned in Azkaban for crimes as a Death Eater - life sentence
Primrose Parkinson (nee Travers): Mother, Deceased, 1949-1987
Klara Parkinson (nee Schmidt): Step-Mother, born 1969, former model
Markus Parksinon: Brother, born 1992, student at Durmstrang
(?) Travers: Grandfather, dob?, the Death Eater who killed Marlene McKinnon, killed in the Battle of Hogwarts

Marcus Parkinson was a low-level Death Eater who could never quite make it into the Inner Circle. Primrose Travers was the spinster daughter of one of the Dark Lord's highest lieutenants. Marcus saw an opportunity to better his standing in the Dark Lord's eye, and set about wooing Primrose. They married in January of 1979, and nine months later Pansy was brought into the world. Marcus was disappointed not to have a son, but his father-in-law doted on the baby so Marcus went along with things in hopes of Travers putting in a good word for him with the Dark Lord. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending how you look at it, by the time the Dark Lord was defeated in 1981 Marcus still hadn't been granted that privilege.

Travers was sent to Azkaban for his crimes as a Death Eater, but Marcus got away with claiming he was Imperious'd. It was a claim his wife substantiated, and they even managed to claim most of the Travers fortune for their daughter. Marcus spent the next few years playing the devoted husband and father to the public, and working his way up in the Ministry's transportation department. He wanted a son, but Primrose proved disappointing in that area. She miscarried twice, and in 1987 died while giving birth to a stillborn son.

For her part, Pansy grew up largely ignored by her parents, unless it was for her father to tell her how useless she was and her only value to him was to marry well. After her mother died, Pansy tried to get closer to her father by taking care of him. She was only eight, but already older than her years. She molded herself into the perfect, obedient daughter. By the time she left for Hogwarts, she had a handle on most day-to-day necessities for running a household, and the determination to improve their family standings by marrying Draco Malfoy.

By the time Pansy left for Hogwarts, she had one clear goal for her future: become Mrs. Malfoy. She did everything in her power to make Draco see it that way as well. She paid attention to his likes and dislikes, and molded herself into what she believed would be his perfect mate. She made sure to never show him up in classes, to always provide a shoulder to lean on if needed, to support him in whatever he chose to do without a thought of what she might like. She did this willingly and with the end goal of being his wife and living in luxury and high status for the rest of her life. So what if she'd rather have been out on the Quidditch Pitch than in the stands cheering for Draco. Proper pureblood wives did not play Quidditch.

Things had home only got worse too. Her father remarried in her first year, and in her second her step-mother gave birth to a baby boy. It might has well have meant that Pansy was never born, as her father ignored her completely in favor of his new family. Her step-mother made no steps to hide how much she hated Pansy's presence in their lives, and this only made Pansy more determined than ever to marry Draco and show her father she had worth.

However, life didn't work out the way she wanted. Sure, she and Draco were nearly inseparable at Hogwarts for the first five years, but things started to change in sixth year. She knew from her father that Draco had some sort of mission from the Dark Lord, and she was determined to support Draco in whatever he needed to do. She had no desire to be a Death Eater herself, but had no qualms about being a Death Eater's wife, and fully believed that the Dark Lord would win this silly little war. But Draco had little time for her that year, and things didn't change over their seventh year. Pansy tried not to let that bother her, obviously they would continue on where they'd left off once they left Hogwarts and the Dark Lord was in power.

Once again, reality failed to live up to her expectations. Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord, her grandfather was killed, her father in prison, and Draco not interested in picking up where they'd left off. There was no money in the Parkinson vaults, and her stepmother and half-brother had disappeared back to Germany before her father's trial was even finished. All Pansy was left with was a run-down estate and a House Elf, and then just the House Elf when the Ministry took the estate and most of the family heirlooms, though there weren't many, as recompense for her father's and grandfather's war crimes. There was just enough money left to set herself up with a small apartment, but for the first time in ehr life she was faced with the fact that if she wanted to be able to keep that apartment, let alone feed herself, she was going to have to get a job.

Figuring all she had to do was find something to get her through Draco's self-imposed exile, she settled for the first place to offer employment: a small advertising firm run by two brothers in their seventies. She walked into their office almost on accident, and they hired her without even asking her name. She thought it might have had something to do with the too-small robe she'd been wearing, but she wasn't going to question her good luck. She started out doing menial office work, which mostly meant she spent her days ignoring owls and painting her nails while her House Elf did the filing. Howard and Dean Vector never complained. Neither did Pansy; they paid her very generously claiming just having her in the office brightened things up. The firm, Vector's Advertising, was small and almost failing; they hadn't had a big account in almost a dozen years.

Then one day about six months into her employment, a big wig from Ogden's Firewhiskey walked in the door. Both of the Vector brothers had forgotten the meeting, and had taken a long lunch; Pansy was the only one left in the office. Sensing that if this man walked out the door with an unfavorable impression of Vector's she would be out of a job, Pansy bullshitted her way to her first account. Though secretly thrilled with her success, she still saw her job as just a stopover until Draco was ready to marry her. She enjoyed it, was good at it, but it was just a job. And then Draco did come out of his exile, but he didn't ask her to marry him. He didn't even seem interested in dating her again, and soon after that he was dating Astoria Greengrass! Needless to say, Pansy did not take it well. There was a scene, or rather several, where Pansy finally let out years of emotional repression. There might even have been hexing involved. And the gall of Draco Malfoy, to insist that he wanted to stay friends after throwing her over for a Greengrass. It was beyond insulting. And to have Narcissa Malfoy tell her after everything had calmed down that she'd never considered Pansy a good enough bride for Draco only made it worse; she'd always thought she and Narcissa had a lot in common. To know she'd been so wrong, about so many things, was humiliating.

To the rest of the world, Pansy affected a cool, detached demeanor whenever Draco and Astoria came up in conversation; she wouldn't give anyone the satisfaction of knowing that her heart was shattered. She had nothing, and no one, and how was she ever going to show her face in public again? Everyone knew that Pansy had been planning her wedding to Draco; she only mentioned it to everyone she met. It hadn't matter that Draco had never asked her, had never planned on asking her, it had been HER plan. So she affected a detached facade, and to anyone who brought it up she insisted it had been her decision to break things off for good with Draco; while secretly plotting her revenge. He was a dear friend, but it would never have worked between them, that sort of thing.

With nothing else in her life but her job, she actually started putting effort in. And she was good at it. She had a knack for knowing what would sell to the public, and more importantly how to sell it. She took companies from the bottom and raised them to the top of their field, decimating competition along the way. Within a year, the Vector brothers had made her a full partner; they thought it was their idea but Pansy may have helped them along. They'd been coasting for years and owed her their renewed reputation as the best, the least they could do was make it worth her while. She used the money from her signing bonus to purchase a spacious flat in Notting Hill. It was a Muggle area, but with the proper wards one would never know that.