Chain

Padma Patil knows she shouldn't even be listening to the drabble that's drifting across the table.

"My jiisan sent me a new mahou charm the other day."

Uzume is her name, if Padma remembers correctly. The young Japanese girl had transferred from the Kyoto Fujutsu Center last year. Very popular at Hogwarts because of all the asian magic she knows, and also because of her cute, petite frame that seems to drive all the young men crazy.

Much to Padma's dismay, Uzume already has volunteers to try out the spell. 'The silly prats don't even know what it's for,' she thinks sourly.

"It's all quite simple, really," Uzume prattles on in her sing-song voice. "The charm is used for revealing the red silk thread that the god Gekka-o ties around the feet of soul-mates."

Padma chokes slightly on her pumpkin juice at that, warranting unwanted concern from Uzume.

"Are you alright, Padma-san?" Uzume's name slip doesn't go unnoticed; the whole idea of Uzume showing respect to someone makes Padma feel slightly more friendly.

"I'm fine, Uzume. So please, continue with you explanation. I'm waiting to be enlightened about this charm you've acquired."

The asian seems to visibly shine at Padma's encouragement, and quickly resumes her speech.

"It's a genzuru charm; basically, a simple revealing spell. The thing is, if someone else casts it on you, everyone can see what's revealed. But if you do the spell on yourself, only you can see the thread."

As the explanation continues, Padma leans back slightly and tries to memorize the wand movements that Uzume keeps rushing through in an effort to teach all the conversation latecomers.

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It's almost two now, and Padma has been up all night debating whether or not to cast Uzume's charm. She's partially curious, and partially terrified that her soul-mate will turn out to be Ronald Weasley. Foregoing terror for curiosity, Padma flicks her wand in an intricate dance around her ankle and mutters "genzuru" under her breath. She can taste the old-world magic in the word, and it burns like still-hot ashes on the roof of her mouth.

The weak light filtering through the windows reveals the crimson thread, loosely tied around her ankle, that trails out of the room.

Grateful that prefects really have no curfew, Padma slips through Ravenclaw house and out into the main hallway. The thread is on a few of the moving staircases, and she has trouble following it. The whole things takes her about twenty minutes she figures, but she continues on and eventually finds herself slinking by the drowsing Fat Lady into Gryffindor house.

Padma freezes; Ron's in Gryffindor and now she's stranding in the unusually silent Gryffindor common room. She almost turns around to head for the door, but then realizes that the thread leads up into the girls' dormitory.

"Odd, but I suppose a look wouldn't hurt anything," Padma remarks to herself in an attempt to quash her initial shock.

The flight of stairs seems to go on forever, and when she reaches the door the thread slips under, Padma lets out a shaky sigh of relief.

She flinches when the heavy wooden door creaks in protest against her small push; now is not the time to be waking up brash Gryffindors.

Her stomach lurches with recognition at this room.

Even in the pathetic moonlight, Padma can clearly see the shining crimson thread dangling from her twin Parvati's ankle.

Padma's chest snaps in two with the force of her heart coming to a complete stop.

And suddenly, the silk thread feels like a wrought-iron chain wrapped around her neck.