Tales from the Ravenclaw Common Room

Padma Patil

Holidays were the only times she and her sister could be twins.

At school they were in different classes with different schedules, classes, friends, and dorms. Padma barely felt Parvati's presence at Hogwarts. She had her Ravenclaw friends, and Parvati had her Gryffindor friends. When Padma got a 110% on an exam, or Parvati saw something in Divination, it the other was not with whom they shared the good news. And in part, Padma was still saddened by this. She recalled the happy days of childhood that she and Parvati had spent together, studying together, whispering secrets long after bedtime, facing all of life's troubles together. Together, that was the key. Now they weren't together, and after four and a half years not being together, it still hurt.

And now they were losing the holidays. It wasn't as if a few weeks or months out of the year could make up for being 24 hours/day, 365 days/year best friends, but at least it had been something. Padma had never invited friends over during the holidays or gone over to a friend's house because that would mean excluding Parvati, but apparantly Parvati did not have such qualms. Over Christmas of their fifth year, Parvati invited her best friend, Lavander Brown, to stay.

Padma watched with growing dread as she Lavander and Parvati dragged Lavander's things up the stairs to Parvati's room, laughing and giggling the whole time. If there was one noise Padma detested, it was mindless giggling. With a resigned sigh, Padma trailed up the stairs with them and headed for the solitude of her own room.

When they were eight, the girls had petitioned for their own room. Their brother was grown and no longer needed his room, so why not give it to Padma or Parvati? In the end, Padma had been the one to move to Arjun's room. The girls both had gotten to decorate their rooms. Parvati had chosen pale pink with silver swirls moving through the paint, and Padma had chosen to line the walls with wooden bookshelves and paint the ceiling dark blue with stars. "That's my girls," their father had said, "Padma's a regular bookworm, and Parvati's as sweet as an angel."

Now Padma stared up at the ceiling, identifying the constellations Leo, Aquarius, and Orion, while wondering where everything had changed. She and Parvati had begun the same, and even as they had slowly grown apart they had still been best friends, but now it seemed as if they would never be able to regain the old closeness that they had once shared.

At dinner that night, Padma just pushed the food around on the plate while having to listen to Lavender's ridiculous claims about the Sight.

"And Professor Trewlawney can tell that Parvati and I have the true Sight," Lavender explained eagerly, "because we're just so good at Divination."

The Patil parents smiled, pleased that Parvati had finally found a subject in which to excel, but Padma rolled her eyes. Divination! Everyone knew that true seers were very rare, and Professor Sibyl Trelawney was definitely not one of them. But when she tried to explain this to Parvati, she had only gotten angry.

"You don't understand Padma," she'd snapped. "You don't have the Sight. You're just jealous that I'm better than you at a subject."

It wasn't until that angry comment that Padma realized just how hard it must have been for Parvati. All the twins' lives they had been told that Padma was the brains and talent, and Parvati was the sweet and good girl. "Padma'll make a great witch someday," their father used to brag to his colleagues.

"What about me Daddy?" Parvati asked once.

"You princess?" their father had asked surprised. "Why, you'll be a wonderful, perfect little wife and mother for a lucky family."

And that was the way the sisters had always worked out. Padma read and studied, and Parvati played. At school, Parvati had always been the center of attention and the most popular girl in school, but she'd always pulled her sister up the social ladder with her.

"So, do you take Divination?" Lavander asked Padma politely.

"Um, no," Padma said, fighting the impulse to add that it was a stupid class, "I take Ancient Runes and Arithmancy."

"Oh right, you're a Ravenclaw, aren't you?" Lavender asked. "I hear it's awfully dull there," she added conversationally.

"It's fine," Padma snapped. She glared at her twin. "I guess I'm just so dull that I don't notice. Will you excuse me? I have to go do some homework." Without waiting for an answer, Padma stormed upstairs. Behind her, she could hear her mother say, "That's our Padma. She's such a good little student."

In her room, Padma threw the pillows against the wall. How dare she! She could just imagine the kinds of horrible things that Parvati said about her in the Gryffindor Common Room. Gossiping about how horribly dull and uninteresting and nerdish she was. That was probably why Lavender got the invitation -- because Parvati was tired to being twins with a Ravenclaw.

Late that night, Padma was awoken by a light knock on the door, followed by a quick whisper, "Padma? Are you awake?"

Padma lay silent and closed her eyes. The door opened slightly and in slipped Parvati. She tiptoed across the room and sat on the edge of Padma's large four poster bed, identical to Parvati's.

"Are you awake?" Still Padma was silent. "I just, you know, wanted to talk to you. I got the feeling you were mad at me. Padma, please don't me mad at me. I don't know what I did -- but I'm sorry, okay? Okay Padma? I know you're not sleeping."

"S'okay," Padma whispered.

Parvati nodded slightly. She got up to leave, then changed her mind and crawled into bed next to her sister. Just like old times, she began the same old way. Maybe things could never be exactly the same as before, and maybe the occurrance of fights would become more often, but as long as they had each other, they could always capture at least for a short while the magic of their childhood twinness.

"Tell me something you'll never tell anyone else . . . "