Assignment #6 - Muggle Cultures: Cherry Blossom Season; Task #2 Write about Padma Patil. Written for the forum Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments).
To most people within Hogwarts, Padma Patil is just like her sibling Parvati—with the only difference being that she is in Ravenclaw while her sister resides in Gryffindor.
Padma spent most of her early life alongside Parvati, growing up with her. They are identical twins, siblings, sisters – and everything that implies. They fight with each other, argue, voices raised high. Padma strikes with words, finding flaws and weaknesses and driving forward with precision, lashing out and cutting deep. In return, Parvati gives as good as she can, fighting back, because she knows Padma and knows her flaws just as well – and so she attacks with her own words.
Here's the thing, though – they get to Hogwarts, and suddenly Padma is bereft of a sister who is always there. Despite all their fighting and arguments, their petty and momentary hatred for one another, they're still siblings, still identical twins, still family. It's difficult – and Padma struggles, because Parvati is within reach, but also out of reach. They so rarely have free time to themselves to just be sisters.
Their first year passes them by like that – adjusting to living in different rooms, in different houses; to not seeing each other as often. They're still close, but… something shifts. Padma's never been able to name what it was.
Second year brings excitement for the new school year, knowing that Parvati is still her sister, still her twin, and that they will fight and scream at each other, but they will love each other and remain close in spite of it all. Perhaps it took a few arguments and shouting at home to figure that out, but they figured it out in the end, and that's what matters. Except, then people are being petrified and Padma is terrified – of what might happen to her sister, of what might happen to her, of what might happen to her friends. The fear is a horrible thing, it sinks into her bones, casts a constant shadow over her, ties darkness down into her bones. In second year, Padma seeks Parvati out, keeps her friends close, and sometimes she spends the night in her Ravenclaw dorm room with Parvati beside her, and sometimes she's in Parvati's Gryffindor dorm room. They make it out alive, but they both learn fear. They're only twelve years old.
Third year? Padma learns how to walk without fear, to walk without checking behind her, to creep around corners, hand-in-hand with others, gripping tight, because you never know who's next. The dementors are there, mind-numbing and depressing as they are. However, Padma has friends, has her sister, and she keeps amongst them, tugging her happiness tight to her breast. She is content, happy even, at Hogwarts. Despite the dementors creeping around the corner, the shadows that they all jump at after the past school year – Hogwarts is an amazing place to be. Surrounded by friendships, and with a sister who she fights less with and works alongside now instead; where else would she want to be? They're safe at Hogwarts, for the most part. She trusts in the authority there, in Dumbledore, in her teachers. She finds laughter with her friends, comfort with Parvati.
Fourth year comes with a loss of Quidditch and the Triwizard Tournament. Padma lets herself get caught up in the excitement, in cheering, shouting until she's hoarse for the Hogwarts' champions. It's so easy, to find herself smiling among friends, to find herself pressing a quill down on parchment, etching letter after letting for classwork, to stand beside Parvati and feel nothing but love and be grateful for all she has.
There's a ball, finding a date—and she ends up caught in a whirlwind of gossiping with those from Hogwarts, from other schools. Finding a date wears down on her, so she giggles and spins as she learns to dance with her housemates. She spins and spins and pretends that her dark skin doesn't mark her as different, that people don't call her Parvati, that people forget that Padma is Parvati II, but someone entirely different. Parvati asks for a favour, and Padma can do naught but agree. After all, it takes away the worry over finding someone, of considering how she isn't pretty or kind or gentle enough for anyone to ask, of letting her insecurities run rampant – although, she has a feeling they will do that anyway. Padma puts it all out of mind, focusses on her makeup, on her hair, on her dress, on her heels, and studiously ignores the saree carefully folded up in her trunk. She sees Parvati at the ball, and sees the lack of saree, and they are twins in every way, she supposes. She flicks her plait over her shoulder and leaves her date behind; her friends are in sight and they are laughing, she could be too.
And then everything comes to a horrific end with Cedric Diggory's dead body appearing before a crowd of students and teachers and families. Padma squeezes her twin's hand, heart caught in her throat, and can't look away from Cedric's dead eyes until Parvati tugs her out of the stands. Padma knows she'll always remember his blank gaze.
When fifth year arrives, Padma pulls on her robes, tightens her tie, and stares Professor Umbridge down. Her first year taught her how to adjust. Her second year taught her fear. Her third year taught her how to recover after fear. Her fourth year taught her that safety isn't ever certain.
Padma doesn't necessarily know whether or not You-Know-Who is back, and in the end, it doesn't come down to whether he is or he is not. It comes down to the fact that Padma has stood, for years and years and barely any time at all, beside her friends and her sister and she has gripped their hands, squeezing tight, and reminded herself that she is still alive – that this is still happiness. She knows, now, that there is something to be fearful of out in the world and knows that she needs to be able to protect herself.
So when a quiet whispers calls people out to Hogsmeade, Padma goes. She goes hand-in-hand with Parvati, refusing to let go, and grouped amongst friends and people she knows by face, if not by name. She goes – and she goes because a face pale in death haunts her, because she remembers that the only way to fight Dementors was to lean on the happiness she felt.
There are days when Padma feels like crying, like screaming, like picking a fight with her sister and shouting until her throat is hoarse. There are also days when Padma wonders whether she should get out of bed, whether she should shove her blankets off and place her bare feet on the cold stones of Hogwarts. But there are days when she gets up and smiles at her dormmates, when she doesn't reach for someone else's hand but a book or a quill or a paintbrush.
It's not easy, but then again, it's never been easy. Padma's had a relatively normal life, a peaceful one, but that doesn't mean everything's been easy. She has had her struggles, and will continue to have them. But in fifth year? In fifth year, she decides that she wants to try, that she wants to defend herself, defend others.
To most people within Hogwarts, Padma Patil is just like her sibling Parvati. And you know what? For all that Padma detests being considered her sister, hates people not considering her as an individual, she doesn't mind it. How can she? The people who matter know that she is Padma, know her for her faults, her strengths, her struggles, her happiness. More importantly, Padma knows who she is.
She's Padma Patil.
Honestly, this ended up being a told story rather than a shown story, and wasn't like anything I wanted in the end. But, whatever, I wrote it and it's about Padma Parvati. It's more of a character study, but only for the first five years more than anything else.