Parvati Prevails

Chapter Five: Nasty Notes

Have you ever

Wondered why it is we fall in love

Can you tell me

Do you know what it is you're looking for

Why do we need

Can you tell me why I care

How is it that we hear

That voice that says I want you there

Lavender woke up just long enough to tell Parvati to shut up, and that they would go and shop for her dinner party at Malfoy Manor later, then promptly fell asleep again. Parvati calmed down and drifted off into one of her shopping fantasy dreams.

The other Gryffindor girls weren't too happy, as they all had difficulty getting back to sleep and the situation didn't improve the next morning when a barn owl woke them all up early with a gift box for Parvati.

'Can't you just tell that boyfriend of yours to back off?' snapped Delphinium irritably. 'Isn't this a bit much?'

'It's not from Draco!' gasped Parvati.

'What wrong?' asked Lavender curiously. Parvati handed over the attached card, and Lavender read it out loud, 'You are a stuck-up little bitch who deserves to die. Stay away from Draco Malfoy. Oh my god...'

'See!' cried Parvati, waving her arms about helplessly. 'I told you! It's Blaise! She wants to kill me! Look what's inside-'

Hermione, Lavender and Delphinium peered into the gift box and saw a dozen long-stemmed roses identical to the ones Draco often sent Parvati, except these flowers had all been garishly sliced and snipped to pieces, the blood-red petals lying torn and in disarray.

'This is disgusting,' sniffed Hermione, hugging herself.

'What do I do?'

To Parvati's great surprise, the first words that came out of Hermione's lips were not 'tell a teacher', but, 'ignore it. It's just someone's idea of a sick joke.'

'But Hermione, this is really scary!' said Lavender.

'If it gets serious, we'll go to Professor McGonagall.'

'What kind of serious are we talking about here?' asked Parvati nervously.

'Let me think about it,' said Hermione decisively, pulling on her bathrobe. 'Don't worry. We won't let anyone hurt you.'

'Well, you better not be lying,' muttered Parvati, staring at the decapitated, thorny roses. 'For your sake and mine.'

Parvati went down to the Great Hall with Delphinium, because she didn't want to be alone and the others had all left early. Just as she sat down to eat, Parvati felt something tugging at her skirt and shrieked, thinking it was someone trying to murder her discreetly from underneath the table or something. Everyone watched her curiously.

'Erm...' she explained awkwardly, 'I had a vision...there was a...um, moose trying to attack me.'

The Gryffindors turned back to their meals, they were all used to Parvati's "visions".

Parvati seized the opportunity to look under the table while the others were all busy eating and almost screamed out loud again.

'Harry!' she hissed. 'What the hell are you doing down there?'

'Shhh!!!' whispered Harry. 'Sorry about that. Can you come down?'

'What? Why?'

'Just do it. Don't let anyone see you.'

Parvati peered around desperately, but everyone was occupied with their food. Damn nutritional goodness. This is insane, she thought, trying to inconspicuously slide off her seat and onto the ground.

When Parvati's eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness she realised with a start that the whole entire DA was sitting under the table. Indeed, they were so squished that some of the students were practically sitting on top of each other. Lavender, who was uncomfortably close to Ron, gave her a wink. Parvati ignored it and wondered how she could have failed to notice this many people absent from breakfast.

'And this couldn't wait until tonight?'

'It's urgent,' explained Harry. 'I called an emergency meeting.'

'You mean you crawled under all the tables and fetched everyone?'

'Not the Slytherin table, ew,' said Ron, shuddering.

'Stop being so discriminating, Ron,' snapped Hermione from Parvati's left somewhere.

'What? Would you like to go crawling around underneath the Slytherins?'

'I wouldn't mind,' shrugged Parvati.

'That's because you're a little bit slutty,' Lavender pointed out. Ron snickered, and Lavender looked unreasonably pleased. Parvati was inclined to agree, though.

'What?' said Harry, who didn't get it.

'This is stupid,' Zacharias Smith called out.

'You're stupid,' Seamus retorted.

'Wow, that was an impressive comeback, Finnegan. Did you come up with it all by yourself, or did Thomas throw that one at you during one of your lovers' spats?'

'Hey!' cried Dean and Ginny at the same time.

Parvati rolled her eyes and wondered why she was surrounded by idiots. Then she remembered that she might not be around them for much longer and felt miserable.

'Can everyone just please shut up?!' hissed Hermione loudly. 'Our group co-operation skills are pathetic. We can't even call an emergency meeting without getting into trivial argument! How can we call ourselves Dumbledore's Army when we're always fighting with each other?'

'We're practising for the real thing,' said Zacharias.

Padma cleared her throat politely. 'What is this emergency meeting about, anyway?'

'One of us is in grave danger,' said Harry.

'Let me guess...' said Zacharias. 'You-Know-Who is still after you?'

'No!' snapped Harry. 'I mean, yes! But I'm not talking about me right now.'

'Who is it?' asked Padma.

'Who else, but the only one of us who's dating a Slytherin, of course,' Ron told them disdainfully.

Everyone looked at Ginny curiously.

'I'm going out with Dean!' she cried exasperatedly.

'Yeah, but you're really just covering up for Dean and Seamus, aren't you?'

'Shut the hell up, Zacharias!' exclaimed Parvati heatedly.

'This is hopeless,' sighed Hermione. 'We have to go to class. Everyone, let's just meet at the usual place tonight at eight, alright?'

Parvati found it difficult to concentrate in lessons. Er...more than usual, that is. She kept jumping at inappropriate intervals whenever she heard people saying things that sounded vaguely like the killing curse. Not a lot of things sound like 'Avada Kedavra', at least not the kind of things you're likely to hear all the time, but Parvati's imagination must have been playing tricks on her.

'I've a dark card,' said Lavender while they were reading cards in Divination.

Parvati leapt under the table, simultaneously banging into the low wooden edge with her forehead. Lavender peered down from her chair in a bewildered way while Parvati rubbed the sore spot and glared at her with watery eyes.

'Avocado!' exclaimed Dean at lunchtime.

Parvati dived behind a baffled Seamus.

'-I hate Avocado,' Dean finished.

'Oh...' said Parvati awkwardly. 'Erm, your tag is out, Seamus.' She patted him comfortingly on the back and quickly made an exit. Seamus and Dean stared after her.

'Aardvarks,' said Professor McGonagall in class.

Parvati jerked suddenly in her seat.

'Everyone please come to the front and choose an Aardvark to work with.'

'You really have got to relax,' said Lavender reproachfully.

'How can I relax,' Parvati demanded, 'when someone in the school is out to get me?'

It was a relief to get back into the silence of the dormitories after dinner. Unfortunately, as Parvati and Lavender entered their room, the latter spotted a visitor.

'It's another owl,' she untied the letter and handed it to Parvati fearfully. 'It's for you.'

Parvati cringed and was afraid to open it.

'Might as well get it over and done with.'

She tore the envelope with trembling fingers, as if it might hold a curse or Bubotuber pus inside, which, come to think of it, was very likely. Luckily, (or not-so-luckily, depending on how you look at it) there was only a slip of paper.

You won't get away with this.

They brought the note along to the DA meeting. Hermione took it away and promised to return with answers.

'Do you really think she'll figure it out?' asked Parvati, biting on her perfectly manicured nails-such a rare sign that Lavender grew nervous.

'Of course,' said Ron airily. 'Hermione's a genius with this kind of thing.'

Everyone was worried about Parvati. They asked her if she was alright, in that I'm-So-Sorry-But-So-Glad-I'm-Not-You kind of way. She could hardly blame them. Except Zacharias, who wasn't at all sorry or sympathetic, and was exceedingly pissed off declaring that they were all wasting his time.

'You called a meeting for this? That's why we're all here? To discuss Parvati's love life?'

'Poor Aimee,' Parvati hissed to Lavender later on when they were back in the Gryffindor common room. She was referring to Hannah Abbot's friend from Hufflepuff. 'Why on earth is she dating Zacharias?'

'I don't know. I suppose Zacharias isn't so bad, if you like snarky blonds,' Lavender shrugged, amused. 'Sounds a bit like your boyfriend.'

Parvati bristled. 'I did not just hear you say that! At least Draco's nice to me.'

Lavender grinned. 'Aimee doesn't seem to mind much.'

Parvati shook her head sadly. 'Good luck to her.'

'It does seem strange though, doesn't it?'

'That someone could actually like Zacharias? Yes, it's weird, very weird.'

'No, I meant you and Draco.'

Parvati tensed. 'What? What's so strange?'

Lavender carried on blindly. 'Well. You know.'

'No, I don't know. What?'

'It's just odd, that's all. I mean, he's never shown any interest in you before. And why a Gryffindor? It's not like you were friends or something.'

'Yeah. And?'

'Well. It seems kind of...sudden.'

'Uhuh.'

'Parvati?'

'I think I'll go to bed now. It's late, isn't it?'

'Um, well not really-'

'Night, Lav,' Parvati turned and climbed up the staircase to the girls' dormitories, leaving Lavender sitting alone by the fire. She decided that perhaps it would be wiser not to head up to bed quite yet, and was just picking up her Sorcellerie magazine (Va Va Vert was the new season's look) when Ron and Hermione entered the room.

Lavender watched them carefully, hidden behind her magazine. An elegant witch in stunning green robes kept up a sly pout on the front cover. They were arguing with each other in unintelligible whispers-which wasn't such a rare sight, after all, except that Hermione seemed even more upset than usual. Ron's eyes were downcast, long cinnamon lashes cast funny-looking shadows down his cheek in the firelight. Lavender wondered if they had discovered something about the threatening notes. Surely that wouldn't be unreasonable; she was Parvati's best friend and had a right to know who was frightening her with those horrible threats.

'Don't be spineless, Ron,' Hermione was hissing, as Lavender approached-neither of them had seen her coming yet, 'he needs to know, before anyone else finds out, don't you see?'

It suddenly occurred to Lavender that she didn't like Ron and Hermione spending all those cosy hours in the library researching together. Ron didn't even like libraries, she was sure Hermione must have roped him into helping her against his own will. She did like to get her own way, that one.

'Hermione, I just don't-oh...Hey Lavender,' said Ron uneasily, as he noticed her sudden presence.

'Have you found out anything about who sent the note, yet?' Lavender asked them in a low voice.

'Nothing yet,' said Hermione. 'I'll see you in the morning, Ron.'

She turned and disappeared up the stairs and into the girls' dormitory.

'Are you okay?' asked Lavender worriedly, seeing the look on Ron's face. He looked miserably downcast.

'Yeah, I'm fine. I've got to talk to Harry. See you later.'

It was the second time that night she had been walked out on. As she returned to her chair by the fire, she couldn't help but feel slightly depressed. Her black and white cat Nuelle placed her ermine paws on Lavender's lap and looked up at her meaningfully.

'I know it's hopeless,' Lavender muttered. 'Does everyone have to keep reminding me?'

Nuelle purred.