The Gryffindor Test
Chapter 1
Padma Patil was fond of her quiet life. She had a small flat, an enjoyable job, no pets, sane hobbies, and that was the way she liked it. She passed her days in comfortable routine. Unlike some she knew, Padma had never needed too much excitement or thrill to be happy. She was simply content with a good book, and the world was happy to leave her at it.
Except on Sunday nights, that was. Ever since she and her sister, Parvati, had left for boarding school at the age of eleven and were promptly sorted into different houses, they had made an agreement to meet every Sunday night to catch up. They were twins, and so had always been closer than most sisters were, but at the same time, they were nothing alike. This was why Padma had not been surprised when her sister had been sorted to brash, outgoing Gryffindor, while she had been directed to studious, dedicated Ravenclaw. Their parents had always remarked that if they didn't look so similar, no one would know they were related.
Nevertheless, the twins were as close as could be. Their opposite personalities caused friction between them, but they loved each other. This was what had continued their Sunday tradition until even now, 5 years after their graduation from Hogwarts.
Padma was bustling around her small flat, straightening up her already neat belongings in preparation of Parvati's visit. They occasionally held their girls' night at Parvati's flat, but her giggling roommates made it hard for Padma to really talk to her sister. Padma wasn't shy, per se, but she certainly preferred the peace of her flat to Parvati's busy and boisterous home.
Upon hearing the knocking on her front door, Padma paced to the door, expecting her sister for just another normal evening. What she got instead upon pulling open the door was her sister's ear to ear grin. Parvati immediately threw her arms around her surprised sister's neck, announcing in an excited yell "I'm getting married!"
This, Padma thought, was not another ordinary visit.
After sitting Parvati on the couch and providing her with some tea to calm her twin down, Padma settled in to absorb the details.
From Parvati's chattering, Padma concluded that last night, Fred Weasley, her boyfriend of the past year had asked her to marry him over dinner, and Parvati had, of course, ecstatically accepted.
Padma couldn't say she was surprised. She'd met the Weasley twins a few times, and had certainly heard enough stories about their antics from her sister. They seemed like exactly the kind of people Parvati liked to surround herself with.
Padma didn't know that much about the actual Weasley family, mostly just whatever she gathered from Parvati's stories from Gryffindor house and the little interaction she'd had with them when they'd all been in the DA. Not to forget (though she tried to) the terrible blind date her sister had set her up for, for the Yule Ball. Ron Weasley had been a horrible date, and she'd had a dismal time until she'd ditched him to hang out with some of her Ravenclaw classmates.
But now, it appeared Padma was going to get to know them all much better. Parvati seemed eager for her help in planning the wedding that was to be held at the Weasley home in half a year. Padma was easily the more organized of the two, a fact Parvati seemed eager to take advantage of even if Padma, to quote her sister, 'Had no eye', whatever that meant.
Padma was surprised, however, that her sister was getting married so soon. They were only 23, and had just started their careers. When she posed this question to Parvati, the girl in question waved her off, stating "The right time only depends on our love." This then launched a tirade in which Parvati had to swear up and down that she was not knocked up.
Padma stepped up to the Weasley home's (or 'Burrow' as the name apparently was) front door for the first time. Her sister at her side gave her a reassuring smile then knocked on the small door. This was the first time visiting the lopsided house for Padma, but Parvati was in apparent ease at the sight of the building.
The door was pulled open and revealed an overflowing kitchen. Parvati had invited her along for Saturday morning brunch, which she had mentioned was when the whole Weasley family gathered. Padma had not, however, anticipated that the place would be crawling with red heads, including all their spouses and children. After receiving warm hugs and words of welcome from Mrs. Weasley, they were ushered to seats and told that the meal would be ready soon, and when asked, that no, Mrs. Weasley didn't need any help serving.
Padma found herself separated from her sister, who had attached herself to her fiancé's side in less than a second of arriving. In the bustle she soon found herself seated between a little silver haired girl colouring a picture, and a Weasley, who she assumed was Charlie. He was having a loud conversation with who she thought was Bill, who was on his other side.
Padma sat quietly for a few minutes, feeling as though she was drowning in the chaos and noise around her. She glanced around and recognized Ron and Hermione Granger sitting together, as well as Ginny and Harry Potter. Parvati had mentioned to her that the two couples had gotten together after the war and had not parted since. She also noticed a silver haired woman feeding a toddler. It took Padma a moment to realize this was Fleur Delacour from the Triwizard Tournament. Well, that was Fleur Weasley now wasn't it?
In all the hustle and bustle, it was easy to notice the only other quiet spot at the table. Directly across from her sat another Weasley, with horn-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, reading the newspaper. He seemed to be ignoring the noise and interruptions with a practiced ease, calmly flicking pages. She recognized him as Percy Weasley, who worked in the Department of Mysteries with her, though in a different room than she was.
She had been accepted into the Unspeakable position straight out of Hogwarts. They had been impressed by her grades and thirst for solving the mysteries of the universe, which seemed a common trait among the Unspeakables. She had very quickly become comfortable with her coworkers in The Time Room, many of whom were fellow former Ravenclaws, and found the work constantly fascinating and challenging. Some days she was hands on working with Sands of Time or all sorts of Enchanted Clocks, and others she had weeks of working theoretical equations. She loved the variance of her work.
Shortly after she started working there, Percy Weasley had transferred from another department, and had found a niche in The Planet Room. Unspeakables tended not to interact with people from different rooms than them, so Padma had never spoken to the bespeckled Weasley, but she did know who he was.
She watched owlishly as one of the crayons of the little girl sitting beside her sailed across the table and bounced off his pale forehead. Percy didn't even blink, and continued to read his paper.
Before she could think on this out of place Weasley any more, Mrs. Weasley's feast arranged itself on the table and a wild battle seemed to commence where everyone seemed to simultaneously inhale as much food as possible, except she and Percy that is, and her sister and Fred as well, who seemed much more interested in sucking each other's mouths off than eating at the moment.
After the initial frenzy died down a bit, Padma served herself some eggs and toast, noticing that Percy continued to read his paper. As she munched on her toast, Padma watched as some scrambled eggs flew at him and landed in his curly dark red hair. Percy immediately snapped his paper down, surprising Padma, and glared directly at a too innocent looking George Weasley. He brushed the food out of his hair and started to serve himself some breakfast.
Padma was still rather shell-shocked by the amount of noise she was experiencing. Compared to her silent flat and peaceful workplace, Padma was feeling very discomforted. She and Parvati had no other siblings, so their childhood home had never been like this either.
Weasleys tossed toast to each other across the table, there were many simultaneous boisterous conversations and arguments, and everyone seemed to talk over each other. Padma shrunk in on herself a bit, as some thrown bacon almost clipped her nose.
As she glanced about warily, watching for anymore flying food, she noticed Percy glance at her with a confused expression, but before she could say anything, he returned to his food, arranging his newspaper so he could read while eating.
Soon, small groups left the boisterous table for other Saturday activities. Padma couldn't leave, as she'd promised Parvati they could start discussing the wedding preparations.
Soon enough though, the table was cleared, and the Weasleys left all moved to the sitting room. Padma sat herself beside Parvati and convinced the girl to detach herself from her ginger fiancé so they could start the wedding prep. Parvati wanted a full Indian wedding, so the work was cut out for them. As well, the rest of the family seemed quite excited to see what the wedding would be like.
Beside the actual ceremony and reception details, there was also the guest list that had to immediately be attended to. Relatives from both the Weasley and Patil sides would be travelling to the first Weasley wedding since Bill and Fleur's and the end of the war.
Padma started to prepare a list of everything they would have to plan, order, and shop for. She glanced up to ask if Parvati had started the search for a wedding dress or if she would wear traditional Indian clothes, only to see her sister once against joined at the face to her soon to be husband.
Padma grimaced and made a note to ask Parvati about the issue later. Padma hoped that 'planning the wedding together' was not becoming 'get Padma to do everything'. There was only so much effort she could put into something she found rather uninteresting.
Since Parvati was occupied and there was not much more she could do, she wondered if she shouldn't just go home. Parvati might not be so happy if she did though.
"Tea, Miss Patil?" interrupted her thoughts. A teacup was held up in front of her by Percy, who had a similar cup in his other hand. She took the cup, thanking him demurely.
"Do you mind terribly if I have a seat?" Percy asked, gesturing to the seat next to her. Padma was mildly surprised by the show of manners, but agreed nonetheless.
He lowered himself elegantly onto the squashy chair and took a sip of his tea, as Padma watched him. She didn't know what to make of this out of place Weasley.
He glanced at her questioningly when he noticed her gaze upon him, and she took the opportunity to strike up a conversation.
"You're an Unspeakable at the ministry, aren't you?" she inquired.
He glanced at her sharply, but still answered politely. "Yes, but as the name implies, I cannot speak of it." She took his imperious tone as indication that he did not get what she was trying to say, so she tried to clear the air.
"I'm sorry if you misunderstood, I don't mean to enquire about your job. I know the secrecy it entails. I'm an unspeakable as well, and I thought I'd seen you around as well."
He seemed surprised by her mild and not mocking response. With such a rowdy family she couldn't say she blamed him.
"You're an Unspeakable as well? I had no idea, I don't believe I've seen you around."
Padma glanced about to see if anyone was paying attention to them. It was not forbidden to talk about their general goings-ons with other Unspeakables, but doing such with normal folk was definitely not encouraged.
Seeing that everyone else was occupied, she responded. "I'm in The Time Room, and rarely leave it when I'm at the ministry, so I can't say I'm surprised you've not seen me."
He nodded, glancing around himself for eavesdroppers. "I'm the same, located in The Room of Planets. The work is so fascinating I'm rarely tempted to leave."
She smiled gently, "oh I agree entirely. I've spent days missing my breaks because I was too enraptured in my current research to bother keeping track of mundane things like lunchtimes."
For the first time that day, Padma saw him show some excitement. "I frequently do the same! It's pleasant to be in a department that does not look down on that kind of dedication." He frowned then, as if remembering an incident of the sort.
Padma didn't quite know what to say to that. She'd only ever been located in the one department. Instead, she directed the conversation away from such pessimistic thoughts. "It is a lovely place to work. I'm thankful everyday I can express my enthusiasm for my field in such a way."
He nodded again, and started to say something when a tiny fluffy object collided with his jumper covered chest. He picked up the pink fluffy thing, which turned out to be an animal of some sort. The little silver haired girl who had sat beside me previously ran up to us. She stopped in front of Percy and gave a watery smile. "May I have Maurice back, Uncle Percy?"
He held out what must be Maurice seriously. "You should be more careful with your pets, Victoire."
The little girl stomped her foot. "Teddy threw him! C'était son faute!" She yelled, and ran back to where she had come from, presumably to give this Teddy a piece of her mind. Percy shook his head a bit.
"Your family certainly is… active." Padma noted carefully.
He glanced at her, "yes, that's certainly one way of putting it." He gave a small eye roll and she had to hold back a giggle at his dry comments.
Parvati apparently chose that moment to detach herself. "C'mon sis, weren't we supposed to go to a flower shop?"
Padma gave an eye roll of her own at her sister's attentiveness.
"Have fun shopping, girls," Fred added with a grin, which earned him a kiss from Parvati. "Perce, you want to have 3 on 3 Quidditch match while they're gone?"
Percy regarded Fred seriously; he pushed his glasses up his nose. "Thank you Fred, but I have some other business to attend to this evening, and should be taking my leave. Good afternoon."
He turned to Parvati and Padma, "Good afternoon, ladies."
They greeted him back and he left swiftly after, his mother stopping him to fuss over him before he could leave the house.
Padma gathered her things as Parvati gave her fiancé a rather involved goodbye kiss. After checking her watch twice, Padma huffed in frustration and towed her twin by her elbow out of the room.