What Once Was Lost

They had known each other forever, it seemed.

The Parkinsons and the Patils had been friends in their school days, but somewhere along the way, their paths had changed. Perhaps, though, it was only their children who had changed. All the same, before Hogwarts split them into three separate Houses, it was Parvati, Padma, and Pansy. They had laughed at the time, at the initials, and even more at how easily it rolled off the tongue.

Yet, Hogwarts had come between them, at least, at first.

Padma and Parvati were still as close as it was possible for them to be, being as different as they were. Padma had always been the one with the thirst for knowledge that knew no end, and Parvati had been the Seer, the one with the dreams of things that had been right. Yet somehow, with the careless toss of the relentless, the cunning Pansy, it had split their families in two.

None of them ever allowed each other to forget it. There were sneers and insults thrown like hexes off their wands every time they were to meet. They had forgotten what it was like to be around each other. They had forgotten what it was like to be friends.

Especially Pansy and Parvati, the ones with the most to forget.

Parvati forced herself to forget the time she had discovered how a cousin of Pansy's had hexed her face to look as it did, and how she had held her as she cried over it. As no one knew what he had done -- even he was clueless -- so it couldn't be undone. Pansy had sworn she *would* find out a way to undo it, and Parvati believed her. She knew her friend would stop at nothing to make sure it was done. It was accepted fact.

She was cunning and determination, the base qualities beneath the Slytherin choosing, before it had all gone dark.

Pansy forced herself to forget that time when they had ran off without Padma, and had encountered a pair kissing, thinking they were secluded. Their first reaction was to look at each other with mutual disgust and flee the scene. Then, later that day, she had still been thinking about it. They were ten, they would go off to Hogwarts the next year, and Parvati had said edgily once that everything would change then.

It was that she was remembering when Parvati leaned over and kissed her. It was the kiss of children who had never kissed before, and much more chaste than the kiss they had seen earlier that day. Then she had pulled away, knotted her hands in her lap, mumbling something about there would be another chance for that, and she was curious about how it was. What was the big deal anyway?

Afterwards, the entire incident was left to be forgotten, but she was bravery and determination, that same determination that had bound their childhoods together until they were split apart.

Parvati stood up for her friends, and dealt with the insults with flashing eyes filled with anger, and Pansy sneered and simpered up to Draco Malfoy, whose family would provide her own with the necessary power when the Dark Lord was to return. It was understood that she would go to Voldemort's side, just as it was understood that Parvati would rather die by her own hand than to join that one.

The paths were chosen, leaving them to be like different sides to the same coin.

Until they were fifth years, and paired together for a pre-OWLs project in astronomy. Parvati, who would have chosen Lavender, was livid and had ranted and raved about the whole mess for days on end. Pansy, meanwhile, had passed it off as something of no consequence, and accepted things while trying to find a way to turn it to her advantage, as was her wont.

For all of that, it was easy to fall back into old patterns, once they began.

Even after the project was done, Parvati would make her excuses to her dormmates, and slip off to the Astronomy Tower. Pansy would smile and simper and assure Draco that it was something that one of the Professors had required of her. Then she would assure him that she'd be back soon, and make promises that he had every intention of taking her up on, as was expected of her.

'Prime actress, you are,' would be Parvati's only comment on that. Pansy would snort, because it was true.

Then, it was true of both of them. Parvati hid her talent for more things than her natural ability in Divination behind that and the typical girltalk. Of makeover spells and charms that would hold your hair just right, and what was the best and most fashionable robes at the time. Pansy's sneer and simpering up to the Malfoys were an equal to that, and once together, they dropped all the facades and became who they were under those masks.

It was almost too easy.

Also too easy was the way they came together.

It was the dark moon, and Parvati was sitting staring at the stars when there was another precence in the room. It was an expected one, and she smiled, but she didn't look behind her.

'Why do you always wear it like this?' Pansy asked as she pulled the hair loose of its plait.

'Because,' she answered softly.

'That's no answer.'

'Ah, but it is,' she responded, a grin spreading on her face as she peered up at the constellations overhead. 'It's a beginning, anyway.'

'Try giving me the entire answer?'

'Because it's easier to deal with like this,' she responded after a moment. 'In the braid and I don't have to mess with it the rest of the day. It's easy and it's out of the way, and it doesn't require any of the advanced charms that Lavender uses on her own hair.'

'Oh,' was her only response. There was silence for a few minutes more, then 'Parvati, there's something I've been thinking about.'

'Oh, so you *can* think, then?'

There was a gentle hit on her shoulder and Parvati could not help but giggle.

'Do take me seriously, will you?'

'Ask, then.'

'Have you ever... you know...' she stopped for a moment, then continued, 'kissed someone.'

'Well, of course I have,' came the playful voice, and when she turned her head, the loosened hair fell over one eye and somehow enhanced the mischievous expression. 'You *know* I have.'

'Oh. *That*. Not that. You know what I mean.'

'Oh, have I kissed one of the wizards yet?' she stopped for a minute, thought about it. 'No, not yet. Seamus keeps offering, as though by offering continually, I'll allow him. I haven't yet, but I might. I don't know. You?'

'Yes.'

'Draco, then.'

There was a nod; Parvati couldn't have seen it, there was no way she had eyes in back of her head just yet, but she knew it was there all the same.

'How was it?'

'Messy,' she laughed, and Parvati took a moment to readjust herself to that particular laugh. It had been a long time since she'd heard it. 'It wasn't very good, to be honest.'

'I was better then?' she asked in a voice that was both teasing and satisfied.

'Remind me?'

Then she did. Parvati had whirled around and was leaning over her, that long dark hair a shield from anyone who might happen by. There, under the starlight, Parvati Patil kissed Pansy Parkinson for the first time since they were ten and more on the same side. Slowly, she was hovering over her, holding herself up while kissing her, to avoid their bodies making too much contact. Then she gave it up, and felt a coiling deep within, a tension that started building. Finally she pulled away, and pulled her hair out of her face.

'So? Still better?'

'Uhm,' and Pansy swept her tongue across her lips, and smiled. It was a rare thing, and took away a bit of the look that hex had given her so long ago. 'Yes, actually.'

'Good.'

With that, they went back to their mostly silent companionship. There never was a need for much words. Parvati knew that Pansy would still do as she commanded, as she wished, and that no word from her lips would change her way. Pansy knew that Parvati would still be the stubborn Gryffindor, would still take up for people less pure, less worthy than herself, and would be on the wrong side entirely. This was accepted fact, and nothing would change it. Not yet, anyway.

It wasn't love. It was getting back what once was lost.

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