"Mummy? Will you please tell me a story?" begged the nine year old, who was clearly wide-awake.
"What kind?"
"A fairy tale, like teacher tells us, with magic and bad guys... and princesses. Mum? Will you tell me how you met your princess?"
"My princess?"
She nodded her head. "Mumma."
"Oh... alright." Lavender said with a smile.
"It all started with your Aunt Parvati."
"Aunt Parvati? Huh?" asked the puzzled girl.
"Sssh. I'll tell you."
"Okay..."
"Your aunt was a very nice girl, and grew up to be an even nicer and even prettier woman. She looked just like your Mumma."
"Really?" asked the girl, her mother responding with a nod and a smile.
"She met another pretty woman, named Penelope, but she called her new friend Penny. Penny loved Aunt Parvati. Aunt Parvati loved her. But their parents said it wasn't to be."
"Why?"
"They... didn't think girls should love girls."
"That was stupid!" cried the nine-year-old.
"I think so too." Lavender said, thinking about how wise Rose was for her age, seeing things that it took her grandfather ages to see. "Anyway, your grandparents picked out a man for Aunt Parvati to marry, and Penelope moved away. Your Uncle Seamus was a good man, but Aunt Parvati still loved her Penny."
"The night before she was to marry him, she went outside, to the courtyard. But she wasn't alone."
"Penny?" asked the impatient and excited little girl.
"No... It was--"
"You?"
"No, it was a very wise old man, he's passed now... Dumbledore."
"He told her something very important, something she should never forget. He said it was okay to love Penelope, and that it was meant to be that way. He gave her a beautiful yellow gem, one that seemed to radiate all of creation, all the love f God, and all of Penny's love. It was a symbol of this love, and as long as Aunt Parvati loved Penny, and as long as Penny loved her back, Aunt Parvati would live. Aunt Parvati would not be able to live with out her."
"Your Aunt married Uncle Seamus the next day."
"But... she still loved Penny..." said Rose, wondering why her aunt would do such a foolish thing, something so clearly wrong for her.
"Sssh... Let me tell the story."
"Aunt Parvati gave your Mumma the gem later on, a symbol of a different kind of love, the platonic yet strong love that only exists between twins."
"I met your Mumma one day a few years after your Aunt was married, at a Hogwarts reunion."
"Your Mumma was, and is still a beautiful woman, both inside and out. We fell in love near instantly."
The little girl was already entranced in the tale when a knock came at the door.
Lavender opened it for Padma, who was carrying in heavy presents for the upcoming Christmas holiday, already wrapped with presents and bows. "How are my two favorite girls?"
"Great! Mummy was just telling me a story."
"Which story would this is, love?"
"I'm telling her about how I met you."
"Ah yes... that one. Maybe afterwards I can get an autograph from my favorite characters."
"Of course."
"Mumma's mummy and daddy still didn't think it was okay for girls to love girls."
"Yes... they were very silly." said both mother and child with a nod.
"But Mumma's grandmother had a dream, about Penny and Parvati. She realized making Aunt Parvati marry Uncle Seamus was wrong, and that Penny was the one she was intended for. She knew what power that gem had, and that Mumma shouldn't make the same mistake."
"She was a smart one, my gram," said Padma with a smile. "Parvati brought Penny to our house. She was hungry and lonely, but Parvati soon fixed that. Penny cared as much about me and your mummy as she would about her own sister, that was how much she loved your Aunt Parvati."
"Your granddad still didn't want to listen, he was stubborn and wouldn't take no for an answer. He wasn't happy when Aunt Parvati brought Penny over, and was getting less happy by the moment. In anger, he grabbed the gem away from your Mumma. That same instant, your Aunt fell into a coma and died."
The child was shocked by the repercussions of her grandfather's actions, and held Padma tightly, scared.
"My sister died because my father tried to break the bond between her and Penny." said Padma softly, holding back a tear.
"Your grandfather tried to make your Mumma take the gem back. He didn't want anything to happen to his now only daughter. He loved her, even though he hated the idea of her and me. A father's love for his daughter is strong."
"But your Mumma is a smart woman. She knew it was the love between her sister and Penelope that kept Parvati alive, not the gem. The gem's only power was the power they brought to it. She could wear that rock forever and still die if she could not be with the one she loved."
"So what did he do?"
"He helped. I came from far away, unlike Penelope, hundreds of miles from their house. If it wasn't for Hogwarts, we might never have met. Being that I was from far away, I could pretend. Your grandfather helped me to learn to be man, to walk like one, talk like one, dress like one. We could be together then, if everyone thought I was male."
Rose laughed. "So that's why I called you daddy when I was little."
"Well, that and your mum's detication to making things easy for you to say when you were a tot." said Lavender.
"We married in June, with your grandfather still in the process of teaching me to be a man."
"But he never did finish. He died suddenly, with out warning," said Padma. "And from then on, we were on our own."
"It was about that time your mother found out she was pregnant with you. And everyone knows, when a child is born, at least in our town, he has special duties to perform, and all the attention is on him, and many people will come and offer their congratulations."
"She wasn't done training yet, but she studied hard. Of course, some of being a man is about subtle body language, tone of voice, and a few other tiny things that make all the difference in the world."
"I failed horribly. A man is taught how to handle things very differently from the way a woman is taught. They knew I was doing it all wrong, and that I didn't even look like a man, close up. They were about to do something horrible when Dumbledore came to our town once more," said Lavender.
"He said something brilliant that day. 'True our laws and our culture claim it is wrong for these two women to be wed, but their love for each other, and their child overcomes their gender. This is all that matters. Haven't you wondered how Padma was able to bear this child of Lavender's? Their love is a magic stronger than all others. The Gods of antiquity favor them, and allowed this to happen for their love to spread,' and with that, he left."
"The crowd was stunned, and left us to our own devices. They would not hurt us, not after what Dumbledore had said. They respected him, and respected those to whom he gave his respect. But they did not accept us. They left us to our own devices, and would not speak to us."
"But it was okay, I had my wife, and a daughter: all I needed," Padma finished for her wife with a smile.
Rose was drifting off to sleep. Lavender pulled the covers over her daughter and blew out all the candles, leaving just the small fireplace still lit, but it too would soon burn out.
"Padma?"
"Yes?"
"I love you."
"I know," began Lavender, before being cut off by her wife's soft kiss.