Her Own True Love

Parvati reviewed the Divination instructions once more, then began the preparations for the Seeing Sleep. She pulled the bed curtains closed and reached under her pillow for the small bottle of potion. Gently swirling the open bottle, she whispered the incantation: "You who are my own true love, reveal thyself tonight." One swallow emptied the vial, leaving a lingering aroma of cooking sherry.

Sleep came immediately and ended abruptly.

It was Hagrid. Hagrid! She had been standing beside him while he worked with a length of rope. He seemed to be offering a harness to her. What did it portend? Was she bound to Hagrid? That couldn't be! She recalled everything she had learned from Divination and lay awake for hours, trying to decipher the meaning.

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"The inner eye is not ready to speak," she announced in the morning, getting a disdainful look from Hermione and a sympathetic one from Lavender. Parvati was in a daze and wouldn't have made it to breakfast without their help.

She had just sat down when a Slytherin approached her seat. He was the weedy boy whose name she could never remember. "Miss Patil--Parvati? You dropped this."

"Thank you." She gazed into his kind, warm eyes until Malfoy's sharp voice interrupted.

"Come on, Nott!"

Classes were a disaster. When she tried to stop replaying the dream, so that she could pay attention to the professors, her thoughts went to Nott's eyes. She kept glancing toward him in Herbology.

The last class of the day, Dark Arts, required all her concentration. She had just repelled a hex from Lavender when Snape ordered, "Switch partners."

Everyone began moving about and someone pushed Parvati. Suddenly Nott was standing in her place, blocking Malfoy's silent spell and casting one of his own. She saw Malfoy stumble backward and glare at Nott. He had tried to hex her without warning!

"There's too much confusion here." Snape spoke so softly Parvati could barely hear. "Mr. Malfoy, partner Smith. Mr. Nott, take Miss Patil."

Parvati blushed and turned to smile at Nott.

"Spring fever, Mr. Nott?" Snape hissed. "Miss Patil has stunned you without raising her wand."

Completely embarrassed, Parvati sparred with Nott--then fled as soon as class was dismissed. She strode directly to Hagrid's, but arrived with no idea what to do or say. Hagrid sat just as he had in the dream, working with a length of rope.

"Hello, Parvati," he greeted. "Haven't seen much of you this year."

She muttered an excuse and asked, "What are you making?"

"Halter. Use it to lead some of the creatures. Have to make 'em to fit. It's just a rope and a bunch of knots. This one is called a Fiodor knot." He held up the rope to show her.

"Fiodor knot?" she asked softly. It sounded familiar. "Fiodor knot?" Then, loudly, "Theodore Nott!"

Hagrid looked past her, toward the castle. "Well, so it is!"

Parvati looked up to see her own true love coming down the hill.