For the Most in a Month Competition and the Magical World Tour Challenge ("You can't change what's already happened. I wish you could, but you can't.")
Parvati lingers outside the hospital wing. Lavender is in there. Her precious, beautiful Lavender is suffering all alone, and Parvati can't bring herself to go to her bedside.
"It's my fault," she says. "I was supposed to have her back. I looked away for just a moment, and-"
Padma grips her by the shoulders. "It was war, Parvati. You can't blame yourself for war."
"But I should have protected her," Parvati insists, her voice small and cracking.
"You can't change what's already happened," Padma says firmly. "I wish you could, but you can't. Lavender was attacked, and that isn't your fault. Now, you have to ask yourself, are you going to let that guilt keep eating away at you, or are you going to step and go hold the girl you love?"
Parvati scowls. She hates that her sister is so logical. Maybe it would be easier if Padma would blame her too. But she knows that would never happen.
She hangs her head, ashamed by her moment of hesitation. "I-"
"No excuses," Padma says gently, pulling her into a hug. "Stop blaming yourself. There was a war going on. You had to survive. If the tables were turned, would you want her out here, beating herself up over something she couldn't have prevented?"
Parvati swallows dryly. She wants to say that tables weren't turned, that there's no point in thinking of that impossibility. There is only now. There is only Lavender, laying in bed, her skin ripped and clawed.
"Go to her," Padma says. "She needs you."
Parvati takes a deep breath. Her legs seem to be made of lead, but, somehow, she manages to take a step forward.
She walks past the beds, her heart sinking. So many faces, both familiar and unknown, lie in pain as healers and volunteers tend to them as best they can.
She comes to a stop by Lavender's bed. She's wide awake seems to be alert. When she sees Parvati, she smiles. "Never knew the angel of death would take the form of the girl I love," she says quietly.
Parvati kneels beside her. "You're not dying," she whispers, taking Lavender gently by the hand.
Lavender smiles, but the action seems to pain her. "I feel like I am."
"I'm sorry. I should have stopped him."
Lavender waves a dismissive hand. "You had your own fight. You got to me, in the end. You told me goodbye."
"I thought I lost you."
"Me, too," Lavender sighs. "Don't blame yourself. You can't change it."
"Padma told me the same," Parvati says.
Lavender chuckles. "She always was a clever girl."
Parvati bites her lip. There's so much that she wants to say, but the words refuse to come. She rests her head on Lavender's pillow, brushing her fingers through her girlfriend's hair. "Are you in pain?"
"Wonderful pain potion. It only hurts if I move."
Parvati swallows. She wants to beg for forgiveness, but she knows that Lavender will tell her that there's nothing to forgive.
Lavender takes her hand. "Will you stay with me?"
"Of course. I'm never leaving you again."