Into The Night

Parvati Patil was tired. It had been months since she had managed a good night's sleep. It just seemed to be so difficult to get through the night these days. The horrible images flashed through her mind whenever she closed her eyes. She couldn't tell if it was courage or sheer stubbornness that drove her back to her bed each night instead of the to medical wing seeking some kind of remedy for her insomnia.

It had been five months since the attack, it had happened almost right after the end of the previous school year. They had only been home a few weeks and their OWL marks hadn't even arrived yet. She had been permitted to invite Lavender over for a sleepover since her sister had been invited to spend the night at one of her friend's house. Their parents were concerned with Padma being away from the house for so long, but were reassured she could handle herself if anything happened. Besides, what were the chances Voldemort would attack? Neither of her friend's parents did anything particularly important. They weren't anyone remarkable, they were librarians for the ICW, why would anyone take an interest in them?

Noone stopped to think someone would take an interest in the Patil's, or their houseguests. An hour after Lavender had arrived, as they sat in Parvati's room gossiping about what now seemed to be some trivial detail or other when the candles in her room suddenly flickered and then they both felt the entire house begin to shake. And then the screaming began.

Rushing downstairs, they saw a dreadful sight, her parents trying to fend off the worst thing in the world, an attack by Death Eaters. At least they fit the description Harry had told them about from when he faced them in the third task from over a year ago.

Shaking off the initial panicky shock that the situation, they both drew their wands and started to join her parents when her father shouted for them to run, to get away. Parvati hesitated for an instant, and she was certain that it was this hesitation that would always haunter, but she hesitated for an instant before turning to run for the fireplace.

She had only taken two steps when she caught a flash of light out of the corner of her eye, heard the sudden gasp of air, a sharp scream, and felt Lavender's body slipping to the ground, dead. She froze; she stood their looking at the body of her best friend, another sister she could always confide in, someone who was the embodiment of absolute trust, gone, lying lifeless on the kitchen floor.

Her parents were being hard pressed to defend themselves, the Death Eaters were closing in now, sensing victory approaching. Her mother gave her a violent shake and dragged her to the fireplace, shoved her inside and sent her away to safety. Even now, Parvati could only vaguely remember where that was, but she remembered sitting there for hours, numb from shock at what had happened.

She knew that eventually she had a breakdown, and cried profuse amounts of tears for her friend, but what she remembered most was feeling numb, disbelieving what had happened. It was several days before they could go home again. When they got there, the OWL results had arrived, but they seemed trivially insignificant at that point

How do you balance something as inconsequential as a test against a human life?

Padma, it turned out, had been equally traumatized, but for her it was out of not being there to help defend her home and not so much for the loss of a friend and classmate.

The funeral had been simple, an ordinary casket held Lavender's body while mourners filed past. Most everyone from Gryffindor had come, at least from their year and the ones in front and behind them. Even Fred and George Weasley were well behaved, which Parvati found hysterically ironic. But it was Harry that seemed the most haunted by the funeral. He seemed to take it as a personal affront that Lavender had died. Parvati had heard rumors that something had happened to Harry at the end of the previous year, but she hadn't really paid them much heed. When wasn't something happening to Harry?

When school started up again, it was difficult to go back to the tower, to that lonesome dormitory she shared now only with Hermione, who she was friendly with, but she would never claim as a close friend. Fortunately she was too busy being a prefect to bother Parvati much.

Even though she had gotten an O on her Divination OWL, she couldn't bring herself to continue with the class, it just seemed so pointless. It hadn't exactly predicted anything of an attack for that night, it wouldn't bring Lavender back, it wouldn't stop others from dying. It wouldn't take the pain away. Needless to say, she and Lavender had been the only Gryffindors to do well on the exam, so that was one less section Trelawney had to worry about, though she was saddened to be loosing her star pupils.

Even though they now had what seemed to be a competent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Harry had continued with DA, which had now been renamed 'The Old Crowd', for everyone who had survived Umbridge's rule. She attended these meetings vigorously, always making sure to ask as many questions as she could think to ask. She paid extra attention in her other classes as well, making excellent use of her time in charms and transfiguration, even managing to stay afloat in potions which she had somehow managed to keep as a subject.

But the pain kept coming, over and over again, it still hurt her to close her eyes at night and pretend it was ok to sleep. Sometimes she would sneak down to the kitchens to kip a mug of hot tea, or chew on a peppermint leaf to try and calm her nerves. Somewhere along the way, exhaustion would set in and she would catch a few restless moments of sleep before the sun rose again and a new day began.

One night, she was pleasantly up late working on a particularly difficult piece of charms homework. Professor Flitwick had said it was normally seventh year work, but since everyone was doing so extraordinarily well in the class, he was giving them the assignment as a test of their capabilities. He wanted everyone to write three parchments lengths on the Disillusionment Charm. She was engrossed in her work that she almost didn't notice the shadow that overtook her until it covered the entire table.

When she looked up, she couldn't believe what she saw standing there. Harry Potter's head, and both his hands, each of them holding a steaming hot cup of tea.

"I saw you working late and thought you might want something to drink," he said.

"Harry, I don't mean to be rude, but where's the rest of your body?" Parvati asked

"Oh! Sorry." He seemed almost embarrassed by her question, he seemed to shrug his shoulders, and then she caught the faint outline of shimmering fabric fall from beneath his head as his body reappeared.

"Invisibility cloak?" Parvati asked him in a knowing fashion.

"My dad's, he left it with Dumbledore before he and my mum died. Got it as a Christmas present first year." Harry said by way of an explanation.

"Well I suppose that's how you get into so much mischief around here," Parvati said, an almost forced smile upon her lips.

"I suppose. That the homework for Charms class that Flitwick assigned today?" Harry asked, putting one of the cups of tea down in front of Parvati even though she hadn't said she wanted one. Nonetheless, she nodded her head in appreciation for it as she took a sip.

"Yes, it sounds like a remarkable spell don't you think?" she asked him.

"Sure, if you like having an egg smashed on your head," Harry murmured under his breath.

"What's that?" she inquired.

"I had the spell cast on me summer before last," Harry had almost a sheepish look on his face as he said this. "It's a bit of a long story," he added at the end when he saw what must have seemed like a look of confusion on her face.

"Alright," she said slowly, after seeming to ponder this for a moment. "Are you ok Harry? You seem different this year, and I can't quite put a finger on what it is that's changed."

"What do you mean?" Harry said; shifting himself in his seat so that his body was facing the fireplace while his head was facing her.

"Well, it's like you've gone from overly moody and temperamental, shouting at everyone for the smallest little thing to being overly studious and apprehensive that anything could happen at any moment. It's seriously creepy sometimes. You're worse then Moody." Parvati said, momentarily forgetting that she knew it wasn't Alastor Moody that had taught them Defense in their fourth year.

"I guess it's just everything that's happened. I mean, Cedric dying, Voldemort coming back, nearly getting killed by Dementors and then almost getting expelled..." Harry started to explain but Parvati interrupted him.

"What do you mean nearly getting expelled? When did this happen?" she asked him, suddenly very attentive, her charms homework totally forgotten on the table in front of them.

"Well, that was around the time I had that charm cast on me. Someone, who I won't name, but used to work for the Minister of Magic, and has a penchant for wearing pink cardigan sweaters decided I was some kind of subversive threat to Fudge and decided to set a couple of dementors on me. They decided either the dementors would get me, or if I survived, it would be grounds to get me expelled," Harry said, hoping he wouldn't have to actually name the person who did all this.

Fortunately, Parvati was quick on the uptake, "Wait, you mean that fat cow Umbridge tried to get you expelled?" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, she also almost got my cousin Dudley, not that he'd be that great a loss. Fortunately Dumbledore got them to give me a hearing, I managed to convince them of what really happened and well, here I am." Harry said, his eyes downcast, looking at the carpet.

"What's wrong Harry?" she asked him as she reached out her hand across the table.

Subconsciously taking her hand, he looked up and asked her what she meant by that.

"Harry, I don't need to be a seer to know there's more to the story then that. I understand if you don't want to tell me, but maybe it would help?" Parvati's voice was a friendly whisper.

Harry simply sat there in silence for several minutes, "Honestly? I've tried talking about it Parvati, and it's nothing personal, it's just, I think I might be talked out on the subject if you know what I mean."

Parvati could only nod her head, she had the same feeling when it came to discussing what had happened over the summer. Yes, she was still dealing with it, but she could talk until she turned blue in the face, it still wouldn't bring Lavender back.

"Did you know he was my godfather?" Harry said, his voice was a whisper on the air. Parvati barely heard him.

"Who was your godfather?" she whispered back.

"Sirius Black. His funeral was the day before the attack on your house. That's why I looked so numb at Lavender's funeral." He said.

"Wait, you mean the crazed madman who was out to get you a couple of years ago?" Parvati could feel her eyes bulging out of her eye-sockets at this revelation.

"Well, it wasn't quite exactly like that." Harry said, and Parvati could see a mixture of grief, sadness and what almost looked like strange contentment on his face. Harry then proceeded to explain his relation to Sirius over the last few years as well as how he had died.

Parvati felt like she had been physically punched in the stomach when Harry finished his story. She was certain there was more to it then what he was sharing, but decided that it would be too tactless for her to ask more questions of him now.

She felt herself move like she was possessed, only she knew she was acting of her own volition. She moved from her chair and walked around the table to where Harry was sitting, took his hand in hers and dragged him to the sofa and sat down in it, pulling him down next to her.

She proceeded to wrap her arms around his neck and then began to cry on his shoulders. Suddenly she could feel all the pain and anguish she had been feeling all these months begin to flow out of her as she unleashed her emotions onto Harry's warm shoulder. After a while she became aware that Harry was using her shoulder for the exact same purpose, she felt his body heave as a shudder passed through him, the emotions draining themselves out by the bucketful.

Eventually, their emotional turmoil faded from both of them, and they simply sat there, holding onto each other, their arms wrapped around the other's body.

They leaned back into the sofa, their heads resting on the cushions. They looked into each other's eyes and knew they didn't have to say another word. Their wounds would never be fully healed, but after tonight, perhaps they wouldn't hurt quite as much.

Parvati felt the fingers of Harry's hand slip in between those on her hand that was sitting between their laps. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and she felt her other hand reach out for his free hand and she repeated the gesture as their fingers met and interlaced themselves, duplicating what had just happened moments ago.

They stayed seated like that for what seemed an eternity. Eventually, as the fire began to fade, they felt their own eyelids begin to close as well. They stood as one, never letting go of each other's hands and walked back to the table where they were obliged to momentarily un-entangle themselves from one another so that they could gather up Parvati's homework, which she had resigned herself to finishing the following day.

Collecting the last of her things, she held her hand out for Harry's, which he offered without so much as a thought and they slowly walked to the stairs that led to the dorms, their interwoven hands gently swaying between them. When they reached the landing where the stairs split to lead to each of their own separate dormitories, they paused, looked each other in the eye and let themselves be drawn into one another.

Their lips met and then Parvati felt Harry's free hand wrap around her waist and pull her into him. It was a bliss Parvati could not have ever imagined feeling, let alone now after so many months of suffering. It was a gentle, graceful movement, that felt entirely right to Parvati, and she draped her free arm around Harry's neck, letting her fingers play with the edges of his ruffled hair.

When they separated, they knew they had found in each other something solid; someone real, and someone that would help them get through the night. They smiled and blushed at one another, and repeatedly bid good night to one another, not caring what sleep would bring them, because they knew their dreams were waiting for them when they awoke