The door to the fifth year Gryffindor girls' dormitory flew open, as
Parvati Patil burst through and collapsed onto the middle bed, crying. The
deep red curtains around the four poster remained open; she didn't give
them a second thought. She lay face down, her body shaking with each
painful sob. 'How could I?' she thought. 'My best friend! What have I
done?' A sudden thud on the bed caused her to look up. Through her blurred
vision, she could make out the familiar outline of her cat, Iballal.
Parvati's tears stopped as Iballal rubbed her grey fur against her face.
Taking a shaky breath, Parvati knelt up in the middle of her bed and picked
up her cat, settling her in her lap. 'Oh Iballal,' she sighed through
shallow sobs, absent mindedly stroking her cat's head, 'What have I done?
What have I done...'
'She's my best friend,' she thought, 'the best friend I could have asked for... aside from Padma, of course.' But Lavender was a different type of friend; not a friend by default. 'And now I've ruined it all, five years of friendship gone because of my stupidity...' Padma hugged her cat closer, thinking back to her first year at Hogwarts.
*******
I was so excited going through the barrier at Platform 9 3/4. It was twenty to eleven on September the first, 1991. Of course I'd been there before with Pabesh... in fact my first time on the platform was when I was almost one; Padma and I were born in the middle of Pabesh's second term at Hogwarts. But it had been such a long time since I'd been on that platform, four years to be exact, not since Pabesh's final year. It hadn't changed at all, it was exactly how I remembered it, although nothing looked quite as big as it had done when I was seven. I could still remember the smell, a mixture of train stations, cats and owls. I'm not sure if you can smell toads. The noise was immense... students were running all around the platform, shouting for their friends. I noticed a group of about four children chattering away, looking both excited and nervous at the same time, probably first years too. I turned to Padma, who came running through the barrier right behind me, and grinned. I received an identical grin back. We had been so excited the night before that we hardly slept! What house would we be in? Who would we meet? What would the castle be like? Mum had to come into our room at two in the morning to tell us to calm down. Eventually we had drifted off to sleep, into dreams of sorting hats and spells.
Pabesh had even apparated home from India where he's working for their Ministry of Magic to see us off to Hogwarts. He works in the charms department, like my father, although father's worked is based here in England, as he's one of the International Charm Checkers. He said he was owed a few days holiday, so had come back to help us with our trip to Diagon Alley. My father is so busy at work, so mother was glad of the help. Pabesh was very interested in the new-style Hogwarts robes, which had been introduced two years after he left. But it was our wands that Padma and I were most interested in. We knew that the wand chooses its owner, and were quite curious to see why one wand would choose one of us over the other. We wanted to see our magical differences. Both our wands turned out to be cedar, with a unicorn tail hair inside, although Padma's was an inch longer. Hers was particularly suited to potions, mine to charms. I wasn't surprised... as children I was always interested in Pabesh's charm work, while Padma would be content with playing with her 'Potions for Primary Wizards' set for hours.
I had insisted on carrying my wand; I wouldn't let mother pack it in my trunk. I was so excited to finally have one! I spent hours at home just looking at it. Pabesh had bought us both cats as a present. Mine, Iballal, had soft grey fur, while Padma's, Kali, was sleek and black. They were both inside travel cages for the journey, and were busy watching the activity on the platform.
Our trunks were loaded onto a compartment at the very back of the train, and all the animals were put into the next one. There were only ten minutes left until the train set off, so we all walked towards one of the doors. My father hugged us first, telling us to 'Be good, and make sure you study hard!' my mother was quite tearful; our leaving for Hogwarts meant there would be no more children at home- until the holidays, at least. She made us promise to owl her as soon as we could. Then, using both hands, Pabesh ruffled our hair. I wasn't impressed; I had spent about half an hour getting it into a nice, neat plait that ran almost all the way down my back. Padma wasn't best pleased either. 'Pabesh!' she scolded. 'Don't worry you two!' he smiled, bringing out his wand and charming our hair back into tight braids. 'Have fun!' he winked, as we got onto the train.
Most of the compartments were full as we walked down the aisle of the train. We were almost knocked flying by a set of twins chasing someone shouting about a tarantula, when suddenly Padma grabbed my arm. 'Ooh!' she squealed, 'Ooh Parvati! Look!' She was pointing to a compartment on our right. Inside sat a boy with scruffy black hair and round glasses. 'You don't suppose...' 'Harry Potter!' I finished, not so much reading her thoughts, but amazed that I was actually standing five feet away from The- Boy-Who-Lived! If the first few minutes on the Express were anything to go by, Hogwarts was going to be fantastic!
Just then the door to the next compartment slid open, and a tall, thin girl with a chin-length blonde bob stepped out into the aisle. I recognised her from when we had loaded our trunks into the back of the train. 'Hi, I'm Lavender, and this is Sally-Anne.' She indicated a girl with brown curly hair sitting in the compartment. 'Do you want to sit with us?'
'She's my best friend,' she thought, 'the best friend I could have asked for... aside from Padma, of course.' But Lavender was a different type of friend; not a friend by default. 'And now I've ruined it all, five years of friendship gone because of my stupidity...' Padma hugged her cat closer, thinking back to her first year at Hogwarts.
*******
I was so excited going through the barrier at Platform 9 3/4. It was twenty to eleven on September the first, 1991. Of course I'd been there before with Pabesh... in fact my first time on the platform was when I was almost one; Padma and I were born in the middle of Pabesh's second term at Hogwarts. But it had been such a long time since I'd been on that platform, four years to be exact, not since Pabesh's final year. It hadn't changed at all, it was exactly how I remembered it, although nothing looked quite as big as it had done when I was seven. I could still remember the smell, a mixture of train stations, cats and owls. I'm not sure if you can smell toads. The noise was immense... students were running all around the platform, shouting for their friends. I noticed a group of about four children chattering away, looking both excited and nervous at the same time, probably first years too. I turned to Padma, who came running through the barrier right behind me, and grinned. I received an identical grin back. We had been so excited the night before that we hardly slept! What house would we be in? Who would we meet? What would the castle be like? Mum had to come into our room at two in the morning to tell us to calm down. Eventually we had drifted off to sleep, into dreams of sorting hats and spells.
Pabesh had even apparated home from India where he's working for their Ministry of Magic to see us off to Hogwarts. He works in the charms department, like my father, although father's worked is based here in England, as he's one of the International Charm Checkers. He said he was owed a few days holiday, so had come back to help us with our trip to Diagon Alley. My father is so busy at work, so mother was glad of the help. Pabesh was very interested in the new-style Hogwarts robes, which had been introduced two years after he left. But it was our wands that Padma and I were most interested in. We knew that the wand chooses its owner, and were quite curious to see why one wand would choose one of us over the other. We wanted to see our magical differences. Both our wands turned out to be cedar, with a unicorn tail hair inside, although Padma's was an inch longer. Hers was particularly suited to potions, mine to charms. I wasn't surprised... as children I was always interested in Pabesh's charm work, while Padma would be content with playing with her 'Potions for Primary Wizards' set for hours.
I had insisted on carrying my wand; I wouldn't let mother pack it in my trunk. I was so excited to finally have one! I spent hours at home just looking at it. Pabesh had bought us both cats as a present. Mine, Iballal, had soft grey fur, while Padma's, Kali, was sleek and black. They were both inside travel cages for the journey, and were busy watching the activity on the platform.
Our trunks were loaded onto a compartment at the very back of the train, and all the animals were put into the next one. There were only ten minutes left until the train set off, so we all walked towards one of the doors. My father hugged us first, telling us to 'Be good, and make sure you study hard!' my mother was quite tearful; our leaving for Hogwarts meant there would be no more children at home- until the holidays, at least. She made us promise to owl her as soon as we could. Then, using both hands, Pabesh ruffled our hair. I wasn't impressed; I had spent about half an hour getting it into a nice, neat plait that ran almost all the way down my back. Padma wasn't best pleased either. 'Pabesh!' she scolded. 'Don't worry you two!' he smiled, bringing out his wand and charming our hair back into tight braids. 'Have fun!' he winked, as we got onto the train.
Most of the compartments were full as we walked down the aisle of the train. We were almost knocked flying by a set of twins chasing someone shouting about a tarantula, when suddenly Padma grabbed my arm. 'Ooh!' she squealed, 'Ooh Parvati! Look!' She was pointing to a compartment on our right. Inside sat a boy with scruffy black hair and round glasses. 'You don't suppose...' 'Harry Potter!' I finished, not so much reading her thoughts, but amazed that I was actually standing five feet away from The- Boy-Who-Lived! If the first few minutes on the Express were anything to go by, Hogwarts was going to be fantastic!
Just then the door to the next compartment slid open, and a tall, thin girl with a chin-length blonde bob stepped out into the aisle. I recognised her from when we had loaded our trunks into the back of the train. 'Hi, I'm Lavender, and this is Sally-Anne.' She indicated a girl with brown curly hair sitting in the compartment. 'Do you want to sit with us?'