For Dear Dark Destiny's 3rd Annual Can You Write A Romance Competition with the pairing Parvati Patil/Viktor Krum and the word (to be used at least thrice within the fic) grow (and variations of it).

A Book By Its Cover

By silver-nightstorm

Summary: When they met, they had both judged the other by their appearance.

XX

When you're born with a sister, you're automatically given a role. You're either 'the pretty one' or 'the smart one'. Usually, this decision is made for you when you're much too young to know which one you truly are. Unluckily enough for Parvati, Padma learned to read when she was eleven months old, the day before her older sister did. Everyone in the family swears Parvati has bigger eyes though.

They're identical twins.

Sometimes, a person will grow into their role. As the pretty one, Parvati was expected to, well, look pretty. Padma could look however she wanted as long as she always had her nose in a book or had a witty comeback. As Parvati grew older, she discovered that she, more often than not, had those witty comebacks. She would rather have her nose in a book. But she had no choice. Every morning, she had to comb out her long hair until it shone, she had to pretend to be curious about makeup and take her mother's kohl. She had to look nice.

She grew up learning how to deceive people. She grew up learning to be 'the pretty one'.

When she arrived at Hogwarts, she sat on that stool after the hat hollered "RAVENCLAW!" for Padma. Parvati knew she was smarter than Padma. She knew that. So when the hat whispered in her ear that she had, surprisingly, turned into the perfect Slytherin, she knew what she had to do.

The hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" and she slid onto the bench next to the most airheaded girl she had ever met. Parvati Patil had just chosen her perfect 'best friend' in Lavender Brown (Padma, of course, chose 'Sue Li' – the perfect friend for 'the smart one'). Lavender Brown was the perfect friend for 'the pretty one'.

XX

Over the years, she fell into a pattern. Boy-crazy, fashion-obsessed, she was expected to fangirl over every boy she saw. If Lavender acknowledged one as 'kinda cute', she was expected to immediately gush. A prime example was Viktor Krum.

When she first saw him, she thought he was rather... ugly for a famous person. She had seen him play Quidditch, after all. He was graceful on a broom, of that there was no doubt, but he walked... oddly. And he had a hooked nose that could almost rival Severus Snape's.

But Parvati still fangirled over Viktor Krum when he was at Hogwarts during her Fourth year. It was expected of her, after all. She was the 'boy-crazy pretty twin', the one loved Divination and who was best friends with boy-crazy Lavender Brown. When Krum left to return to Bulgaria, she hardly gave him a second thought.

XX

But a fact that many students in the 1998 Graduating Class of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry didn't know was that the third ranked student of the class was the one, the only, Parvati Patil. She beat out all the Ravenclaws in the school. She beat out her supposedly 'smart' sister. The only ones above her were Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. But… she was still 'the pretty one'. And nothing could change that.

XX

The door of the shop opened and a bell tinkled over Parvati's head. She looked up from the robes she was hemming to smile at the person entering only to grin in confusion.

"Did you get lost?" she said wryly. "Very, very lost?" She gestured to the ladies robes around the room.

Viktor Krum, twenty-seven years old, Flying Instructor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, grinned and ruffled his hair embarrassed. "Hogsmeade is strange," he said. "I've been looking for the Quidditch supply shop for ages."

"It's next door," smiled Parvati, "but the entrance makes it look like it's this shop." Parvati gestured around here. "It's not," she added helpfully.

Viktor smiled and walked out of the shop, waving over his head.

XX

The door opened again the next day at the same time and Parvati was with a customer. She called, "One minute!" over her shoulder and grabbed a few more straight pins. It wasn't until she noticed the slack-jawed expression of her customer that she turned around to see Viktor Krum standing in her doorway with flowers.

She straightened up and fixed her robes and smoothed her hair by habit. He smiled at her. "I recognized you yesterday, you accompanied Harry to the Yule Ball, correct?"

"Yes," she smiled. "And you've lost your accent."

"Not completely," he said, and then held the flowers out to her. "Thank you for telling me where to go yesterday. Really appreciate it."

"Not a problem," Parvati said, her voice growing soft and shy. She blushed as she accepted the flowers. "But this isn't necessary…"

"No, it is. I had been vandering for hours before you told me vhere to go," he said. "I'd like to treat you to dinner as vell."

"You really don't…"

"I insist."

"… Sure, then."

XX

When they first met each other, neither of the two had appreciated the other. Parvati had judged Krum by his appearance. Krum has judged Parvati by her appearance. And now, now they each knew each other for who they truly were.

Parvati knew of Viktor's insecurities and his hopes and his dreams. She knew how much he loved teaching, she knew how much he disliked his accent because of all the attention it drew. She knew he was proud of his nose because it had been passed down through his family for generations.

Viktor knew of Parvati's insecurities and her hopes and her dreams. He knew that she was actually much smarter than her younger sister, but she truly loved fashion. He knew that she was very self-conscious. He knew that she desperately wanted to be more than her looks. He knew that she should have been a Slytherin, but really wanted Ravenclaw, but ended up in Gryffindor.

Their love grew as they grew.

XX

Really random, hope you like it!