Title: polarizing
Summary: Parvati is staring at her, disgust plastered all over her face. Belatedly, she realizes her mask has fallen off. "I could say the same to you." / —- twins and perspective
Forum: QLFC, Beater One, Chudley Cannons, [1369 words]
Prompts: (dialogue) "What are you doing here?", (expression) disgust, P: Padma Patil, Potage's cauldron Shop in Diagon Alley, Puffskein, Potions book
Padma Patil walks into Potage's Cauldron Shop happy that she is almost done with her school shopping. Her new puffskein, nameless as of now, sits in her bag, purring a little at random intervals.
"Hello!" she says as soon as she sees Madam Potage behind the counter. The woman gives her a small smile.
"Your sister came by a few hours ago. I was wondering where you were! This is the first year I've ever seen one of you without the other."
Padma sighs. "We're — not getting along very well right now. I'm sure it'll pass, but Parvati has always been a little stubborn."
"Oh," Madam Potage says quietly, her eyes running across the girl's face. "Does it — does it have much to do with the war?"
"I'd rather not say, Madam," Padma gives her a pointed look.
"Of course, of course. I'm afraid I might have overstepped my boundaries. I beg your pardon. What kind of cauldron will you be needing?"
After she takes out her fur-covered Potion's book and finds the ideal cauldron, Padma steps out with a quick goodbye to the shop's patron. She doesn't smile when she waves. Madam Potage has just reminded her of somebody she wants to forget. Someone whose name is Parvati and whom she has not seen nor talked to for four months.
Padma Apparates into her room and drops her things on her bed. The puffskein squeaks at its treatment,wiggling its way out of her bag. Padma reaches down and helps it out. It climbs to some remote corner of her room as she flips onto the bedding.
She stares at the ceiling and puts her hands under her head, observing the glossy black paint that covers all of her surroundings. Then she closes her eyes and sighs. That trip had not ended on a good note.
"Does it have much to do with the war?"
Oh, that woman does not know. But Padma does. Her conflict with her sister not only has to do with the war, it is the war. It is a reflection of the war that they are both fighting. On opposite ends.
Padma is very angry at fate for this game it is playing. For separating two twin sisters to this degree. Getting sorted into different houses she could deal with. This, however, is pushing it much too far. Now it is not a matter of silly house rivalries, of points and grades and friends. Now it's war. And war is more a matter of whose blood spills first. Of who loses their head first.
Padma is not Parvati. She is not a Gryffindor, she is not brave. She is a Ravenclaw who believes in strategy. So she doesn't have much honor. She wants Parvati to fail. She wants Parvati to lose. She wants herself to win.
Maybe she should consider herself a terrible person for it, but she doesn't care. Good and evil are staples she wants to break. She's not fighting for a right cause or a wrong one. She's fighting for the one that will save her head. She's not a Slytherin, but self-preservation often comes side-by-side with logic.
Lord Voldemort is going to win this war. Purebloods are going to win. Padma isn't deceived by the game the Dark Lord is playing — she knows that he doesn't believe in blood purity, and she knows that it's just his rallying factor. But she does respect the fact that he is intelligent enough to create a following based on a lie.
He's a true leader. Not a moral one, but still a leader —
Padma's thought process gets disturbed as someone throws open her door. She sits up and sees her boyfriend (more like friend with benefits, but — no, let's go with boyfriend) Blaise Zabini dressed in his black robes. She's about to speak when he starts rambling.
"The Dark Lord called, Padma," he taps the black tatoo on his forearm.
"I'm to put out a conference at the Leaky Cauldron and you're to join me. He wants to see if you're worthy. This could be it — this could be your marking — hurry up, I'll be waiting on the front steps," he says without taking a breath in between his words. Blaise is gone before she can ask questions. The door slams shut behind him.
She jumps up and goes to her closet immediately. Five minutes later she is dressed with her wand in her hand, walking outside and finding Blaise. He grabs her hand reassuringly before whispering in her ear, his mask unpleasantly scraping against the side of her head.
"Shoot to stun. It's a public mission."
With that said, he Apparates them out of Zabini Manor and to the dusky streets of Diagon Alley.
When the two masked black-robed figures show up in the middle of the public place, people start running. Padma and Blaise have no problem walking up into the Leaky Cauldron. The place is empty save for a few old men sitting in a corner, who are frozen in fear, and Tom, who looks out of his wits. Padma doesn't feel bad for him. She leads Blaise up the steps to one of the parlours.
They are all open except for one. It is locked with an old-style lock and charms, but Padma is too impatient to undo them. Right now she wants to take these people and destroy them so she can get her mark and confirm her place on the winning side of this war. She blasts it open. There are no charms to repel the violence. Ten open-mouthed faces look back at her.
The group of conspirators aren't members of the Order of the Phoenix. In fact, by the looks of it, they are Hogwarts students. All of them. They reach for their wands. But Blaise and Padma hold their own and have the advantage. Eight of the students drop like flies. She stuns Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Lavender Brown, and Anthony Goldstein before moving on to her last victim.
She stops in her tracks. "What are you doing here?"
Parvati is staring at her, disgust plastered all over her face. Belatedly, she realizes her mask has fallen off. "I could say the same to you."
Padma can see Blaise in the corner of her eye, his wand pointed towards her sister. She knows he won't cast unless Parvati instigates him.
"I'm trying to stop this terribly planned meeting. You all really do not know how to form a rebellion, do you?"
"At least we're trying to fight back. You just up and joined the bad guys, didn't you? Do you have no standards, Padma?"
"I stand for the side that will win. You stand for the side that will lose. Your petty words won't count for much when you lose your head after the war ends, sister."
"Don't call me your sister. I don't know you, traitor. I thought I did but I don't."
"You're acting like a fool. You are a fool! Bloody Gryffindor. Preaching your righteousness like Dumbledore once did. He's dead. Your group of fighters? Soon to be dead."
"Better dead for the right thing than alive for the wrong."
"That's where you are wrong, where you have always been wrong. Forget right and wrong. Do the successful thing."
"You have no standards."
"No. I have all of them," Padma decides that the conversation is over right then and there. "Stun her," she says, and the words are directed at Blaise.
They torture all of the prisoners and then let them go, except for one. Parvati Patil's fate lies in the hands of her sister. It will lie there until the war ends, when Padma wins, when Avada Kedavra is whispered and one of the twins shrivels away.
Padma is not a good person. She doesn't care.
— "In this life, we have to make many choices. Some are very important choices. Some are not. Many of our choices are between good and evil. The choices we make, however, determine to a large extent our happiness or our unhappiness, because we have to live with the consequences of our choices." — James E. Faust