Rating:
PG-13
House:
Astronomy Tower
Ships:
Blaise Zabini/Parvati Patil
Characters:
Parvati Patil
Genres:
Friendship Romance
Era:
The Harry Potter at Hogwarts Years
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix Half-Blood Prince
Stats:
Published: 01/30/2006
Updated: 01/30/2006
Words: 3,469
Chapters: 1
Hits: 894

An Unusual Friendship...

Fasiris Fay

Story Summary:
An unusual friendship forms between two lesser-known characters...

Chapter 01

Posted:
01/30/2006
Hits:
894


An unusual friendship...

My third year started off as uneventfully as usual. The students were sorted. Dumbledore had given his speech and the feast had been gobbled up.

I had resumed chatting with Lavender as if we had just seen each other yesterday, and not two months ago. We chatted about how handsome Harry was getting (except Lavender thought Ron was better) and we chatted about whether Hermione would finally brush her hair; we chatted about how greasy professor Snape's hair was; we chatted about what we would do if our hair was the length of professor Dumbledore's...we chatted about everything.

But we never chatted about me. Lavender was like that. Kind of selfish, but didn't ever know it. She always talked about herself, her aspirations, her dreams, her desires, her future, and her life. I never really got to say anything about me.

One day, a few months later, as I was making my way down to lunch and deciding that today I would Lavender to shut up and let me talk for once I bumped into someone rather hard, causing them to drop a pile of books.

Everyone called me clumsy and I knew I was.

I immediately bent down and helped this boy pick up his books, while saying sorry a hundred times over and over.

"It's no problem," said the boy, looking up from the book he was dusting. He was in the same year as me and had grey-blue eyes and tousled sandy brown hair. He wasn't wearing his robes I noticed when my eyes skimmed to his chest to see what house he was in. Maybe if I had known what house he was in I would have never talked to him. For some reason, he looked a bit familiar. But then again, I saw the same people at school everyday. They all looked familiar.

"Where are you going with so many books?" I asked him, picking up some more books off the ground. "No one reads that much, well except for Hermione Granger." He had about a dozen or so books.

The boy cracked a tiny smile. "I was just returning these to the library before the holidays."

I smiled at him, pushing my black hair behind my ear. "Here, I'll help you." So I took half the books in my arms.

He just stared at me for a second, as if trying to figure out why I was doing this. But then he picked up the rest of the books and we walked to the library together.

Since the library was a distance away we started talking. I asked him about which books he had read out of the pile, and he told me only half of them. That got us started on our favourite books and our favourite parts. I found out that we had a lot in common,

After we returned the books to the library, I found a book I had been waiting to be returned to the library for so long and had wanted to read.

But since it was almost the Christmas holidays, we weren't allowed to take any new books out.

"Darn it!" I said after I realised it.

"What's wrong?" said the boy, heaping the books on the table in front of him.

"I've wanted to read this for so long," I explained. "But now I have to wait two weeks until school starts again."

He half smiled. "So read it now. There are no more classes today."

"Great idea!" I said, plunking my bag down on the table. I'm no Hermione Granger, so I don't exactly worship books, but I do like a good book and I do like to read for fun, something Lavender constantly makes fun of me for.

I sat down at the table as the boy and opened the book. "You're going to sit here and read it?" he said.

I nodded. "Why?"

"I thought you'd go to the Great Hall to eat or something. I feel bad for having kept you," he said.

I waved my hand at him. "Nonsense, here have a marmalade sandwich." I handed him one. I had snuck it earlier during breakfast because I knew that I always got hungry during Divination and always snuck my food while professor Trelawney was predicting Harry's death every other class.

"Oops," I said, noticing there was a bite in it. I ripped off the piece with the bite and stuff it in my mouth and then gave him the rest.

Then I picked up the book and opened my bag to get another sandwich. After all the times I had snuck food into Trelawny's class, I was an expert even in the library with Madam Pince's beady eyes.

If I had not picked up my book to read and nibbled on my sandwich, I would have noticed that the boy was looking at the sandwich in his hand and back to me every few seconds, as if not believing that I had just given him a sandwich.

After the bell rang to sound the end of lunch, I picked up my bags and ran to my classes, after saying a hurried good bye to the boy.

The next day school was over for the year and wouldn't resume until the New Year. I was pretty bored, because Lavender had gone home for the holidays, as did most people.

Aunt Tara, who lived with us, was having a baby and I didn't want to be home to see her puke every morning, no thanks. Padma, however, missed Mum and Dad and begged me to come with her but for once, I stood my ground. Everyone was a bit surprised at me, because we normally stick together. But ever since we got to Hogwarts and were sorted into different houses, we've become a bit more independent.

We'll still be best friends forever, but really she had her own friends and I had mine. Well actually one friend, Lavender.

I sat in the courtyard reading one of my old magazines about the top five books of the century and was having a great time when I heard someone sneak up on me and say, "Hi."

I shrieked so that birds in the nearest tree flew off into the grey sky. I wiped a snowflake off my nose and blinked.

It was the boy. I hadn't known he was staying for the holidays as well.

"Hi," I said, "don't do that again."

"Sorry." He took a seat beside me.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"Blaise Zabini," he said. "You?"

"Parvati Patil," I answered. "What house are you in?"

"Slytherin," he answered, looking down, as if he was ashamed.

I nearly screamed again. He was a Slytherin?! Why didn't he tell me? Of course he didn't know that I despised Slytherins.

But then again, he was kind of nice and a bit cute too. Now I remembered why he looked familiar. I had seen him standing off the side of Malfoy's group before, but hadn't really paid much attention to him.

He looked so sad and forlorn, expecting me to freak out about the fact that he was a Slytherin, just like I had been going to do.

Instead I couldn't help but want to befriend him, maybe only for the reason that he looked like he could use a friend.

"Are you going to go away now?" he said, his grey eyes poring into mine.

Since I loved acting and had always wanted to do something dramatic and different, I said, "Of course not, Blaise! Why would I? I'm just staring at the snow? Isn't it beautiful?"

I then pulled him up with me and stuck out my tongue with the beautiful white snow falling down on my face and tongue.

I giggled with pure joy. "Don't you just love snow?"

He wiped a snowflake from my nose and half smiled. "I didn't before, but I do now."

From that day on, we became the best of friends. For those two weeks that hardly anyone was at school, we laughed and played and talked from when the sun rose until the sun set.

It was so much fun to have someone to talk to and have them listen to me for once. Blaise was a great friend, even though he was a guy. But since I knew what it was like to always be the one listening, I made sure that our communication was two sided and that sometimes I talked while he listened and others he talked while I listened.

Of course I couldn't talk to him about getting my period or ask him if he had the right nail polish I needed, but he was great anyways.

We would sit outside and read books aloud to another, sometimes inventing funny voices and accents for the characters.

When the holidays finished, Blaise told me that he couldn't be friends with me in public in front of his Slytherins because they would make fun of him and maybe even bug me.

I knew the same thing was true with the Gryffindors so I also kept our friendship quiet.

On the first day back, with the school buzzing with conversation, I was sad that maybe we wouldn't talk to one another anymore.

While we were waiting outside for Potions to start, I saw Malfoy and his gang walk up to Harry and insult him: as usual.

Blaise was part of the group and I saw him trying to look intimidating, but I could see right through him. But I played along with the whole thing, even consoling Harry after class started that Malfoy and his whole gang were prats.

That evening, after dinner, I met Blaise under a stairwell and we laughed the whole thing off. He seemed to think it was pretty funny that I stood there smiling the whole time. I told him that I would do better acting next time.

And so our friendship grew stronger and stronger, year after year.

As the years went by, Blaise changed from a skinny 13 year old into a mature and handsome 17 year old. He had gotten taller and become manlier, in terms of his muscles and body. His voice was also deeper, but his humour and good wit the same.

I had also changed, although I was nowhere as tall as Blaise, something he constantly bugged me about. My dark brown skin had lightened up a bit to a lighter brown and my frizzy, thick mane of black hair became silkier and shinier and I finally let it grow down my back.

Our friendship remained a secret over the years but the joy we received from each other never was. Whenever I got my exam results back, the first person I owled was Blaise. When I measured myself and found that I had grown an inch taller, I told Blaise. When Lavender and Ron got together, I laughed about the absurdity of it with Blaise. When Blaise got sick from eating the poisonous berries in the courtyard, I nursed him back to health. When I got more O.W.L.'s than Padma for the first time in my life, I celebrated with Blaise.

We were always talking and laughing together, even though I never knew it. The first day we met became our private joke. But then, everything was our private joke.

As the years went by, I felt as if our friendship was turning into something more, but I was always scared to let whatever it was that was blossoming inside of us, ruin our wonderful friendship.

I would always get mad at Blaise for little things. For not meeting me in the courtyard at night. For forgetting I had a test in Divination. For insulting my friends with his friends. For not noticing I had lost some weight. For not giving me his Potions notes.

I got mad at him often, but he never ever once got mad at me. He would always apologise and try to make it up to me right away, and I would frown for a minute and then smile and forgive him. I could never stay mad often, whenever he gave me his puppy dog eyes.

The day of Graduation came at last. Our seven years of hard work was finally going to be paid off with this one moment we had been waiting for. Our diplomas.

Blaise had been named Head Boy, when Draco disappeared from the school in Sixth Year. Hermione was Head Girl and they both had to give a speech in the ceremony that was held in the beautifully decorated Great hall.

Blaise had been really nervous before the speech and I had snuck into the back room, while Hermione gave her speech to give him a pep talk. He looked great in his silvery robes and his hair, for once neatly combed.

"You'll do great!" I told. "Don't ever doubt yourself."

"You think so?" he asked me, his eyebrows bunched up in the centre, looking worried.

I laughed and slapped his muscular arm. "Of course, you big prat. Why would I tell you otherwise? You're capable of doing this. That's why you got to be Head Boy this year."

He smiled at me. "Thanks, Parvati. It means a lot to me."

I smiled and started to open to door and sneak back into the Great Hall, when Blaise said, "Hey Paro?" He called me Paro after I told him it was my mother's annoying nickname for me and he had laughed his head off at it, but called me that ever since.

I turned. "Yeah?"

"You'll be listening, right?" he said.

"Of course! Now knock 'em dead!" I said, quickly giving him a hug as I heard Hermione end her speech and heard people clapping. We didn't hug much in our friendship, so I knew he would know I meant it.

I quickly snuck back in between my parents and sister as Blaise got up. I flashed him a smile as he looked around at the audience.

Everyone quieted and Blaise began. "Everyone says that Hogwarts is one of the best magical schools in the world. And I would have to agree. But not just because we have superb teachers, a wonderful Headmistress, or a variety of classrooms and subjects. But because of the students that make Hogwarts unique. Because we came here every day, from September to June, for seven years to learn magic, but we learned far more than that. We learned how to work together as a whole school, not as separate houses. We learned unity, something that no one could ever steal from us. And we learned how to be friends, good friends, bad friends, and best friends. Because friendship is something you can take with you for your whole life, it's a very important skill. Something that I never knew the true value of until someone befriended me. "

I stared aghast at Blaise. Oh no. Don't tell me he was going to tell the whole school our story.

"That day I found out the being a friend is the greatest gift you can give someone. One day, in third year, I was sick of my life and wanted to end it. It was usual; not having any friends, being bossed around by the Slytherin king, and feeling like no one understood me, my parents out to me, etc. So on the last day of school, before the winter holidays, I decided I would do it. It was the best time, as everyone would be out of the school and no one would notice my absence when they came back from holidays. So I cleaned my room and was heading down to the library to return all the books I had had from the first day that I had forgotten to return."

Tears had welled up in my eyes when I heard Blaise talk like that. I had never heard him say any of those things to me before.

He was now looking at me. "And so I bumped into someone, a girl in fact. She helped me pick up my books and talked to me, like we knew each other. At first I was confused, because I was a Slytherin and she a Gryffindor, but later I realised I hadn't been wearing my robes, so she didn't know my house. Then she even sat down with me in the library and handed me a marmalade sandwich, with a bite in it." He smiled at me and everyone laughed.

"The next day, I was planning on killing myself because I was still very miserable. But I met the girl outside, staying at school for the holidays. I told her that I was from Slytherin, but she didn't seem to mind. I couldn't believe it. Then she grabbed my hand and pointed to the snow that was falling so heavily and asked me if I didn't love snow. I hadn't paused to appreciate it until someone had pointed it out to me. And that second, I realised I didn't want to die, just yet. And so this girl helped me from doing the unspeakable. Because she gave me the gift of her friendship and I was saved.

"Today is not just a day to be proud of ourselves and our accomplishments, but also thank those who helped us along the way. If this girl hadn't picked up my books that day, then I wouldn't be here today. So thank you, Parvati, thank you for picking up my books."

Everyone gasped all around us, everyone who was wondering who the 'girl' was and everyone who couldn't believe that this handsome, successful Head Boy had been so depressed.

But I couldn't care less, because I had tears in my eyes and I could see Blaise had tears in his eyes too.

Padma was nudging me on the side and everyone was turning to look at me, but I couldn't lose the connection I had with Blaise.

After that everyone just clapped and we all adjourned to the courtyard to say good-bye to each other.

Everyone kept saying, "Bye Parvati! Keep owling me!" I nodded and smiled but kept walking, looking for Blaise.

He was standing in the corner, with his parents and younger brother who was starting Hogwarts next year. His mother and father looked really proud of him and his Mum was dabbing her eyes.

"Is that her?" his Mum said, after noticing me standing there.

I felt myself get nervous.

"Yeah, Mum. Parvati, meet my Mum," said Blaise, taking my hand and pulling me over.

I smiled at Mrs. Zabini.

"Thank you so much for saving my son's life," she said, hugging me.

After a few minutes of thanks from his parents and brother, his family left to talk to the Parkinsons and I stood there with Blaise.

We stood there quietly, while everyone around us said 'bye' and 'have a good summer' to us.

"Good speech," I finally managed to say to him. "It was wonderful."

He smiled that smile I remembered so well from the first day as well. "I meant every word of it."

"Marmalade sandwich?" said a house elf from the kitchens with a platter atop its small head.

I laughed and do did Blaise as well. "Sure," he said, taking one and splitting it with me.

"Parvati," he said, after he had finished eating, "I know we've been friends for awhile and I was wondering...well you don't have to...but of course, if you don't mind..."

"Blaise!" I said. "Spit it out." He had this awful habit that drove me nuts. Whenever he wanted to ask me something, like help or to go to Hogsmeade with him, he would stutter and ramble, when he was as smooth as a cat with everyone else.

He smiled and then said, "Right. Sorry."

He then got on his knees and took out a ring with a gorgeous sapphire. "Will you marry me?"

"A sapphire?" I said, in awe and surprise.

"Yeah," he said, looking sheepish. "I knew diamonds are a girl's best friend but I thought sapphire would be more original and I thought it'd be better..."

This time I didn't even say anything. I pulled him to his feet and kissed him right there. "Of course I'll marry, you big prat! Who else would I marry? You're my best friend!"

Blaise had never looked happier. He slipped the ring on my finger and then kissed me.

After two seconds I felt something falling, so we broke apart and I looked up to see snow.

Snow in June? I looked again and saw that it was only white confetti.

Blaise and I laughed and then kissed again, only stopping when it started to rain.