We were both young when I first saw you…
September 1991
"Goodbye Dean." Susan Thomas said to her eldest son as she ushered him onto the train. "Be good at school and please don't get into any trouble."
"Bye Dean" Dean's step-father, Gary said, clapping Dean on the back. Dean just nodded at both of them, not knowing if he would be able to speak around the lump in his throat. He didn't want to go to this boarding school for wizards, he wanted to stay at home with his family, and go to his normal school where he didn't have to get his head around the fact that he was a wizard. Some old guy called Albus Dumbledore had come to their house during the holidays to explain that Dean was a wizard with magical powers. Dean had thought that It was an epic trick being played on him by his friends and had laughed himself silly as the old guy sat there and blinked at him, eventually telling Dean that he wasn't joking and performing a spell to make the family dog perform a couple of backflips. Dean had sobered up after that, listening to everything that the old man had to say to him.
He glanced at the scarlet steam engine and wondered if Dumbledore hadn't called at his door that night in August if he would be at school with his friends right now.
He placed one foot on the train and hitched a smile onto his face, waving back at his mother, Gary and his half-sisters, Rose, Martha and Amelia, who were all crying quietly. The four of them were very close. Dean blew a kiss to them before stepping onto the train and closing the door as the train left the station.
He found a window and waved at his family until the train rounded a corner and they were lost from his view. Dean turned to face the daunting hallways of the train. He knew no one at all, being from a non-magical family and all. As he walked past the carriages he saw people who were evidently not in their first year at the school and others who either looked a little lost or those like him, who didn't know what the hell was going on. His eyes fell on a pair of identical girls, twins by the looks of it, who looked just as confused and lost as he did. He took a deep breath and walked over to them.
"Hi, I'm Dean, Dean Thomas." He said, mustering up all his courage. He had never been good at talking to anyone.
"Padma." Said the first girl, shaking his outstretched hand,
"And you are?" Dean asked politely to the second girl.
"Parvati" she said quietly, "Parvati Patil."
"Are you guys, Moogles or whatever, too?" Dean asked the two girls.
"Muggles?" said Padma "No, we're not, but we don't really know anyone here."
"Join the club." Dean said, scuffing his shoes on the carpet of the train.
"Hey, maybe we could hang out together!" Padma said brightly, "Well, if you don't know anyone and I only know Parvati and Parvati only knows me, then we'll be able to know each other!"
"Really?" Dean said, his eyes lighting up.
"Yeah!" Parvati agreed, "Come on Dom! Let's find a carriage."
"Uh, it's Dean" Dean corrected and Parvati looked apologetic.
"Sorry." She mumbled and Dean waved it off.
"It's okay, let's find a carriage shall we?" Parvati smiled and held out her hand for Dean to take, he smiled back and took it, following after Padma who was navigating their way down the corridor looking for an empty carriage.
"So you guys have three younger sisters and two younger brothers?" Dean said disbelievingly quite a few hours later. Padma nodded.
"Mum and Dad weren't expecting to get two sets of twins. They wanted to have a boy really bad and they kept getting girls and then they got twin boys." Parvati explained. "What about you, do you have any siblings?"
"Three sisters" Dean said "Rose, Martha and Amelia. We're pretty close, but I wish I had a brother."
"No you don't." Padma said "They're pains in the butt, aren't they Parvati?"
"They have their moments." Parvati responded.
"So what do you know about Hogwarts?" Dean asked eagerly, wanting to know more about the place that he was going to board at for the next seven years.
"Not a lot" Parvati said, equally as excited as Dean "But we know a bit about how it works."
"There are four houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin and you don't want to be in Slytherin, trust me." Padma said
"There's not a witch or wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin." Parvati said dramatically. "Gryffindor is the best, our whole family has been in Gryffindor."
"Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are okay I guess, but Gryffindor is my first choice" said Padma. Dean nodded slowly, taking in all the information that he had just been bombarded with.
"Do they have football matches?" He asked eagerly, thinking of the West Ham Football team back home, he hoped they did, he didn't think he could survive if there wasn't some form of sport.
"Football?" Padma questioned.
"It's that game where they kick the ball around." Parvati said to her sister before turning to Dean "No football, but they have Quidditch."
"What's that?" Dean asked, confused.
"It's the wizarding equivalent of football. But it's cooler than football, it's played on broomsticks and you fly around trying to score goals. It's pretty brutal, but no one's died in years."
"Someone will vanish occasionally," said Padma.
"But they'll turn up in a month or two" said Parvati.
"That's nothing like football." Dean laughed, making a mental note to read up on Quidditch, it sounded quite interesting.
"The biggest rivalries are Gryffindor and Slytherin, but Gryffindor hasn't won the cup since Charlie Weasley, he was the best seeker that the team ever had."
"Cup? Charlie Weasley? Seeker?" Dean asked, looking at the twins.
"Oh, the Quidditch cup, it's a reward you get for winning the grand final." Padma explained "and Charlie Weasley was the best seeker that Gryffindor ever had. A seeker is the person who flies around trying to catch the snitch, which is the thing that wins you the game."
"So it doesn't have a time limit?" Dean asked.
"No" Parvati said "I think the longest game was three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so that the players could get some sleep."
"You guys know an awful lot about Quidditch." Dean said
"We've been supporting the Hollyhead Harpies since we were two." Said Padma, and before Dean could question the statement, she added "They're a Quidditch team."
"We've told you about Quidditch, now you tell us about football." Parvati said kindly.
"Patil, Padma" the Woman with her hair in a tight bun announced and Padma stepped out of line from beside Dean and Parvati, leaving the two of them standing together. The hat was placed on Padma's head and a few seconds later it shouted.
"RAVENCLAW"
Dean turned to look at Parvati, who was gaping at her sister. Dean could tell the she thought that Padma would be in Gryffindor. Padma smiled at Dean and Parvati as she walked to the Ravenclaw table before.
"Patil, Parvati" was called.
"Good Luck" Dean said in Parvati's ear as she walked up to be sorted.
"GRYFFINDOR" The hat shouted after a few seconds and like that, Dean knew what house he wanted to be in, Gryffindor, with Parvati. He liked Padma, but Parvati was a lot more friendly and bubbly. He saw Parvati smile at Padma as she walked off in the opposite direction to her twin sister. The smile said I'm fine, are you? And Dean saw Padma smile the same smile right back at her.
Dean watched as more people were called and sorted until.
"Thomas, Dean" Dean found himself stumbling up the stairs towards the stool. He sat down and the woman put the hat on his head, it fell down over his eyes.
"Hmm, difficult" said a voice in his ear, making him start "You're intelligent, oh yes, but you are very brave, and you have a thirst to prove yourself, but where to put you?"
Dean kept his eyes shut tight, hoping the hat would make its decision soon.
"No preferences? Well then, better be Gryffindor!" Dean heard the hat shout the last word to the hall and, breathing a sigh of relief, he took off the hat and walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Parvati.
"We really do have a lot in common don't we?" Parvati said happily "I like you Dean."
"I like you too Parvati."
AN: Written for xBlueEyedAngel's "Milestone Competition" there will be seven oneshotty type chapter thingys in the lives of Parvati Patil and Dean Thomas. Yeeew, Okay, as this doesn't really require an actual plot line the chapters should come up in quick succession, but I now have 7 WIP's well, 6 seeing as it's not my turn to write the chapter of Finally Found You but anyway… I'm trying to break through my writers block for Her Name is Luna and What Brings Us Closer Together is in desperate need of an update.
For any diehard Parvati/Dean shippers here, it would mean a lot if you checked out What Brings Us Closer Together. Because well… it's Parvati/Dean.
Reviews are always valued and appreciated
Until Next Time
~The Original Horcrux~