a/n: for the seven challenges competition (to write a fic about an under-appreciated pairing from the same house and same year) and the school subjects competition (astronomy/romance).

i don't own hp. this is un-beta'd so please excuse mistakes :3 i haven't written trio-era in a while so i hope this is okay :)

Theirs is not a love story, for Padma is too scared to love Terry. When you love people, they get hurt, or they leave you, simple as. That's the way she has always noted it to be and that's the way it will remain. And so she will not love Terry. She couldn't bear it if he ever left.

.

The halls of Hogwarts are cold. Padma pulls her jacket around herself tightly, shivering slightly at the draught that hits her as she makes her way through the castle. She can't even begin to describe the change between her time there in sixth year and how it is now, in her seventh year. It's not that the castle has changed physically, because it looks almost exactly the same, but it's the feel. It's the cold that fills her as she makes her way through the castle, that makes her turn her head every now and again to check she's not being followed. Being caught by the Carrows is not something she wants to happen. It's not something anyone wants to happen. God knows she has enough to deal with.

She hurries back to the Ravenclaw tower, holding the supplies she stole from the hospital wing, ready to try and heal Terry. A reluctant smile crosses her face. He was stupid, but he yelled about Harry escaping Gringotts on the back of a dragon and she's glad that he did that. Even though the consequences were something Padma wished she had never seen. She couldn't bear to watch them beat him.

Terry is sitting on an armchair and Padma tosses him off it and onto the floor so she can try and tend his wounds properly.

"That was stupid, Terry," she says, wiping his brow, trying to get his bloodied face clean, deciding not to risk a trip down to the hospital wing.

"Spare me the lecture, Padma," he sighs, wincing slightly as her cloth brushes over a tender area. "I know I shouldn't have yelled about Harry, but I just wanted to show them, you know?"

Padma laughs, slightly, and carries on cleaning his wound, trying to expel every part of her that is even a little bit squeamish. Madam Pomfrey would be more than happy to help out, but she knows that walking the corridors at night in a school ruled by the Carrows is perhaps not the smartest thing to do.

"You shouldn't have done something that got you beaten up," she tells him. "But I think it was brave. I wouldn't have been able to do anything like that."

Terry looks up at her and smiles, before putting his head back down, knowing that Padma will yell at him for moving his head when she's trying her best to help him after the beating he received. He's seen her help others before when the Carrows have beaten them, and although she's tender with them, she doesn't take kindly to people flinching beneath her touch and ruining the job.

"Hey, you've done more than enough," he replies. "You're braver than you think,"

"Just shut up and let me work," she says, her face turning red from the compliment he's given her. She drops her cloth just for an excuse to hide her face for a moment and pretends that it's not blatantly obvious that she has a crush on Terry.

The sacrifice Terry made to get that information out is wonderful, Padma thinks. He says that she's brave but she knows she's not. But it doesn't really matter—Terry has enough courage for the both of them.

Not that there is a both of them, at all. Besides, it's not the right time to fall in love. Besides, Padma won't let herself fall in love. She won't. She can't bear the pain that will inevitably follow.

.

"Terry, you've got to stop aggravating the Carrows," Padma approaches him one day. "You can't carry on like this,"

"Like what?" Terry asks, turning around, an accusing look on his face. "Do you want me to just act like I'm the Carrows' biggest fan?"

"No, but I'd like it if you took your own health into account," Padma fires back. After a moment of anger, she relents, the expression on her face softening slightly. "They're only going to hurt you,"

"I'm not just standing back and letting them do what they want," Terry says, angry.

"Terry, I don't want you to get hurt,"

Terry walks closer to Padma, so close that she seems to stop breathing. "People have to make sacrifices. And this is hardly one. I'm going to be okay,"

"Terry, you don't understand," Padma says, stepping back, not sure if she can continue being so close to him. "I don't want you to get hurt,"

You're my everything, she says in her mind. If you get hurt I don't know how I'd live.

But she can't say that because she's not supposed to fall in love. She can't.

.

The war is something Padma never wants to think about again. Knowing that so many people died, that people were wounded and hurt—not just physically, but mentally too—knowing that all of that happened is terrible.

They have won the war. And Padma just wants to move on.

But it's only the morning after the war and people still need time. No one will ever really move on from the war, she knows that. There will always be stories told, twisted so they aren't quite as sad, or scary, or terrible. There will always be memorials and funerals and photographs and diaries. There will always be reminders.

It's not fair because all she wants to do is forget and they won't let her do that. The world won't let her forget about the war because it is all around her, everything that she can see is the war, and Voldemort's death won't change that.

She helps with the wounded, knowing that she can't just sit around and do nothing when she is perfectly capable of helping out. But her eyes are always looking out, searching for Terry, hoping to spot him and be able to tell him how glad she is that he's okay. But it's scaring her, because she hasn't seen him since the Battle started. Maybe… maybe he didn't make it out alive.

Her breathing becomes faster and rushed, as though she needs to get as much air into her lungs as she can as quickly as possible or she'll die. He's going to be okay, she tells herself, but she doesn't believe it, not really.

She has to sit down for a moment, her head between her knees. Trying to calm herself down, she thinks of all her happy memories with Terry. She thinks of what she would say if he were alive.

Terry, I'm in love with you. I've tried to hide it but I can't. And the war is over and I just want to be with you. I don't know if you feel the same, but I hope you do. Terry, you're my everything.

She hears someone sit down beside her and she sits up, hoping it's not someone she doesn't want to talk to. But then she sees him and her heartbeat increases and a smile crosses her face.

"Terry," she whispers. "You made it,"

Terry smiles back. "Of course I did. I'm me,"

Padma leans onto Terry's shoulder, taking in the scenes around her. The dried tears, the dried blood. And she hates that the war has caused such devastation. But she also sees the good that it has caused. Families reuniting. People finally opening up to each other. And she looks up at Terry, trying to get out the words she'd rehearsed in her head.

She opens her mouth, ready to speak, but Terry cuts in first.

"I know," he replies. "And I feel the same,"

And they don't kiss. They simply sit there, watching people try to put themselves back together, and knowing that they can do the same. They have time to be together, but for now they are content to just sit and watch.

Padma can't imagine anything better.

.

And so maybe theirs is a love story, with sacrifice and drama, war and hurt. Or maybe it is not, for it is not a story, it is their reality.

But when they lie beside each other, under the stars, they know that it is love, that it is real, that they are together.

"You're my everything," Padma whispers to Terry.

And it's going to be alright.

a/n: please don't favourite without reviewing :)