Padma Patil, Death Eater

Padma Patil swung around at the sound of a twig snapping behind her. Seeing only a harmless Snidget, she exhaled slowly and continued walking. The Forbidden Forest was an intimidating place, and she was beginning to wish that she had never agreed to come here.

"The clearing should be just up here," she murmured, wishing that her wand could provide more light.

"Should it, dear? I rather fancy you made a wrong turn just a little ways back." Padma whirled to face a sinister woman standing right beside her.

"Did--did I?" Padma stuttered, fully aware that this was the woman she had come to meet. It was all so like a dream--she couldn't be here now, meeting with a killer of innocents, bartering her life in exchange for the life of someone who symbolized goodness and light. "Are you--are you Bellatrix Lestrange?"

The woman's heavy-lidded eyes were as cold as her voice. "It would be wise, my dear, to use no names. The woods are alive with spies." Spies...these were spies that Padma had always considered friends before now. But she nodded. "Madam, it is truly an honor--,"

"Silence, if you please. I will do the talking for now."

The woman's voice began to change, and Padma was no longer aware if it was in the same tongue, or even if the Death Eater was using her lips to speak. But the message was crystal clear.

"You are Padma Patil, a sixth-year student at this Institution. Your sister, Parvati, is now within our power. Upon arriving at school, you became aware that she was missing. You were then contacted by my master.

"My master has returned, and achieved his full abilities once again. He has not yet begun his second Reign of Terror, but it is fast approaching. The only thing needed to complete his rise is the life of the paltry meddler in magic, Harry Potter.

"You are admired and known within the school. You possess talent--oh, yes, you possess talent. Although overshadowed by that filthy Mudblood Miss Granger, you have potential to become one of the most highly skilled witches of this day and age, as does your sister. Of course, you are also recognized as the most attractive student in your year, are you not? And a supreme actress, if we are not mistaken.

"We must have Harry Potter delivered to us. Our current supporters in the school are not of the likes he associates with. You can change that.

"Befriend Harry Potter. Use any means you like. But make sure you can control him. Await further communication from us. For now, we shall be observing your progress. If, within a few short weeks, you are not having an effect on the Potter boy, we may find it necessary to request that Parvati, or yourself, pay us another little visit. Are we understood?"

Padma swallowed. "My sister?" she asked, hardly daring to breathe.

"Ah. The little Patil girl? She will be returned to her dormitory as soon as you arrive. But remember, we have our ways of ensuring you keep your promises. If you could, here is our little agreement. The terms are exactly those which I have stated to you. Sign your name here, if you please, Padma."

"I have no quill pen with me; could you perhaps lend me one?"

The dark-haired woman laughed, sending chills along Padma's spine. "Ah, my dear, you have much to learn. Ink is hardly binding. Your name should be signed in blood." With that, she flashed a knife, and before Padma realized what was going on, her finger was slit open. She quickly signed, Padma Patil, and ran out of the forest, back to the castle where she had had allies until now. Now, in the most deadly game of wizard's chess she could imagine, in which she was but a pawn, they were her powerful enemies. Harry and Ron played a real game of chess, she realized, in their first year. The guilt washed fresh over her, and, as she stumbled over Luna Lovegood on her way up to her dormitory, she burst out crying.

"I hate Potions," Ron vowed as the trio made their way to the dungeons.

"Well, look on the bright side," Hermione pointed out. "We used to have double Potions with the Slytherins, and now we have it with the Ravenclaws. I think it's a decided improvement," she added, looking around. "See? Terry Boot and Padma Patil instead of Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson."

"Ah, but no one is replacing Snape," Ron growled. "You know what? I'm going to mess up one of my potions this year, make it a poison, and when he tries to test it, a tragic farewell to our Potions Master."

"Ron!" Hermione never could get used to Ron criticizing a teacher who wasn't a criminal. "You wouldn't! What if Professor Umbridge came back?"

Ron's mouth dropped open in horror. "That old hag! But I'll bet she wouldn't come here again for all the galleons the Ministry could give her. Too many horsies," he sniggered.

Hermione was caught between disparagement and amusement when they arrived at the Potions dungeon, and found an unpleasant surprise. In an unpleasant burst of Muggle technique, Snape had assigned each student to a seat.

Harry noticed, with the same apathy he had shown for everything all summer, that he was sitting beside Padma Patil. He hadn't really spoken to her since the Yule Ball in Fourth Year, when he and Ron had neglected her and Parvati, and then at an ill-fated association to teach fellow pupils defense skills, which had nearly gotten both of them expelled. It came as a shock when she began acting as though they had been intimate friends for years.

"Harry! How was your summer?"

He couldn't think of anything to say. "Er...it was ok...I just sort of fooled around at my house...watched the news...y'know. Er...How was yours?" He was remembering that he had stopped seeing Cho Chang, and also that Padma was arguably the most handsome girl at Hogwarts.

"Potter!" Snape's voice rang through the dungeon. "That's five points from Gryffindor." Harry sighed and caught Neville's eye. Neville was trying to make a sympathetic face, which looked uncannily like his mimble plant. Neville was unfortunately going through a stage that reminded Harry of the curse Hermione had placed upon Marietta Edgecombe the year earlier, and Anthony Goldstein, who had the misfortune to be sitting next to the walking disaster, was sending him disgusted looks.

Hermione was sending him a sympathetic look too, but Ron was sending a dirty look at the back of Snape's head. In spite of himself, Harry smiled. Some things never changed.

"Today," Snape announced, with an all too familiar curl of his lip, "we will be studying one of the more...unimportant aspects of potion-making, but one the Headmaster insists you learn, as they may be on your NEWT levels. Love potions."

A mad giggling from individuals such as Lavender Brown and Lisa Turpin set in. Harry idly noticed that Parvati Patil, usually in the thick of giggling fits, was subdued.

"Now, in order to test these potions, you shall have to use them upon your partners, whom I have hand-picked for the occasion. If it is done correctly, the effects should be temporary only. It is strictly against school rules to use them at any other time on any other student, animal, or teacher for desired results. Chance of suspension rests as one of the heavier consequences. "

Ron, who had the good fortune to be sitting next to Terry Boot, sent Harry a horrified look. Reactions were the same all over the room, excepting perhaps his table. Padma was a good-looking girl, and he was now a hero once more. He foresaw a pleasant Potions class, a new experience. Padma foresaw a chance to save her life.

"Now, we come to the most important part of the potions...the powdered spruce bark, peeled at midnight on the Full Boar Moon. This is the most important part of the potion. You must add exactly the right amount, or the effects will last a longer or shorter period of time. Today you shall need only one ounce. An interesting fact, a time delayer, when added to the potion in the right sequence between the bark, will let the first part of the spell take place, but when you think it has gone, it will return within twenty-four hours."

Padma had never listened in Potions class before--why bother, when she could brew easily without any effort? But when she heard this, she knew it was the opportunity she had been waiting for. She took almost half a cauldron of the spruce root unhindered. Snape would think it bloody brilliant for Potter to be caught in a love spell for a few weeks. She put in one ounce, and then added her time delayer--boomslang skin. She only had enough to delay it for one hour, by her calculations, because that was the amount needed for the Polyjuice Potion she had been considering to trap Harry. But it was all right. One ounce, Snape told them, would last for a few hours. Without hesitation, she dumped in the rest of her powdered bark. It was roughly 200 times what was needed. More than enough.

Around the room, people were concentrating hard to achieve the desired deep blue color and silky texture. Harry was surprised to find himself mixing this one well. Neville's, naturally, was hovering on the border between butter yellow and sea green, and Ron's remained obstinately purple. Hermione was already exchanging potions with Lisa Turpin--a giggler, yes, but a good worker.

Padma had her potion ready. The dark blue seemed to pull him in. Maybe this was just what he needed to fill the empty spot Sirius had left behind. And if not, he could always try a Cheering Charm.

Snape had taken the precaution of a boundary splitting down the double desks, and a good thing too. Harry felt a strange longing to fall down and kiss Padma's feet, but when he tried he ran into invisible hot bricks. Padma watched him, a helpless feeling in the pit of her stomach again. This boy was someone she had known for years, and liked, in a rather distant way. He wasn't the sharpest tool, but he meant well. And he was such a force of good....Pulling herself away from her thoughts, she downed the Love Potion, ran into the bricks, came to her senses, and drained the antidote. Harry had left his untouched, and was still gazing at her with those moonstruck eyes. She hastily exchanged the antidote for a bit more potion, just in case. He still followed her every move, but she doubted he knew what she'd done.

Padma avoided his gaze to observe other reactions. Anthony Goldstein no longer seemed repelled by Neville's acne. As a matter of fact, he seemed to be magnetically attracted to it. Neville botched Potions in the most interesting ways. This was a frightening image, so she continued to scout the room. All in all, Harry's reaction was one of the better ones. After observing Ron and Terry trying to get over some nasty side effects, Padma asked to leave class early. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

Hermione was giggling along with the rest of the girls as they walked down the corridor. Ron was disgusted. "Honestly, Hermione, it's not like he really likes you! And you were supposed to give the potion to Lisa!"

"Well, it was her idea to switch with them. And he's a wicked good kisser!" She burst out giggling again. "And after they drank the antidote, he asked me to see him at Hogsmeade!"

"I swear, Terry Boot! Snape must really hate me this year. Probably something to do with Mum's burning the meatloaf the one night he came over for dinner. How'd you make off, Harry?"

Harry stared dreamily at Parvati. "She's not near so good as her sister, but not bad, do you think? Padma and I are going to be seeing each other, too."

Ron goggled at Harry. "You're going with Padma? Is she feeling ok?"

Harry looked insulted. "She asked me. And that was after her Love Potion wore off, too...I made mine a little weak. So of course I lost about half my points."

Ron groaned. "It's just my luck," he complained. "All summer long I hang around hearing 'you're not old enough' and 'you're not in the Order, dear,' and now when I come to school you both hook up and I'm left sitting next to Terry Boot."

"What's so bad about Terry Boot?" asked Hermione.

Ron scowled. "Harry gets Padma, the least Snape could have done is sit me by Parvati!"

"Ron, it's not about meeting up with people, it's a very complex potion! And did you hear what he was saying about the time delay factor? If someone had a bit of boomslang skin or powdered Sphynx hair--"

"Oh, shut up, Hermione. Very well for you to say, now you're hooked up with that--that--" Ron struggled, trying to find the right words to express his distaste.

"You mean poor Michael Corner?"

"He dated Ginny! And then he--well, y'know, Cho..." Ron trailed off as he glanced at Harry. Harry was still enamored with thoughts of Padma, and paid no attention.

"Look, Ron, I never said I'd go with him. He's a perfectly nice boy, but I said I'd see. And what I said at the Yule Ball still holds true. Next time, ask me before someone else!" Hermione stormed off to Charms.

"Ask her--ask her--Well, I would if Snape sat me by you!" Ron yelled at her disappearing back. "Harry, mate, dye think that means she likes me?"

Harry disentangled himself from thoughts of Padma at the little tea place in Hogsmeade where he had sat with Cho the previous year before answering. "Well, you've been fighting as long as I've known you."

"Right." Ron looked crestfallen. "I hate coming back to school!"

Professor McGonagall brushed by him impatiently. "Oh, really, Weasley, how do you think the teachers feel about it?"

Harry and Ron stared after her.

The next classes passed in a dream for Harry--all he was doing was carving the initials HP+PP into the various tables. So dinner came as a relief from the endless sitting and dreaming. At least he could eat and still pay full attention to his object of admiration at the Ravenclaw table.

"So, Harry, shouldn't the potion be wearing off now?" Hermione asked. "It's been a while...."

Harry jerked himself back into the real world, and the sight of Hermione's and Ron's faces finished off the spell. Or so he thought.

"I--I--what have I been thinking?" Harry asked worriedly. "I can't go to Hogsmeade with Padma. Not so soon after Cho, and, and," he could not bring himself to say Sirius's name.

"Well, chuck 'er, then," said Ron, swallowing an enormous mouthful of pudding.

"Ron!" Hermione said, shocked. "She cares for Harry! He can't do that!"

"Well, if he doesn't bloody want to go to Hogsmeade with her, he has to!"

"He could at least tell her nicely!"

"I'll be nice," said Harry, getting up to walk over to Padma. How could he have been stupid enough to fall for the Love Potion tricks?

"Padma?" he asked, feeling as though he were being forced to bathe in undiluted bubotuber pus. He had never been skilled at impressing girls.

"Harry, what's up? Wouldn't you like to sit down?" Padma asked, knowing full well that the spell had worn off. It would be back in an hour.

"I--I--no. Look, Padma, I'm really sorry...I just think that I was still under the spell of the potion when we agreed to see each other. I--" he fumbled for a phrase he had read in a psychology book after Cho left him. "I don't feel like I'm ready for that big a commitment. I'm sorry. You're smart, you're funny, you're really nice, and of course you're beautiful. But I can't. I just can't."

"Oh," she put just the right note of hurt into her voice. "Oh, well, that's ok, Harry. I guess I'll see you around."

Was that some sort of universal breaking up phrase? Harry wondered as he trudged off towards the common room, suddenly not hungry anymore.