When the Hat calls out "Ravenclaw!" to the expectant Great Hall, Padma can't stop her face from falling, although she does her best to smile and hurry to her new table. It is not that she doesn't want to be in Ravenclaw, it's that she has a sinking feeling her twin won't be.

And sure enough, in a few hollow moments, "Gryffindor!" is proclaimed, and Parvati walks off to the Gryffindor table, looking more than a bit shell-shocked.

It is the first time the twins have ever been separated, and they don't like it one bit.

It does not help, later, that students and professors alike cannot stop themselves from commenting on it.

"Oh, but you're twins, aren't you? Identical twins? Strange..."

"Even twins don't end up in the same House!"

"The Weasley twins did, though, what could have happened?"

And so on and so on, until they both wanted to scream. Hogwarts was meant to be a new beginning, the start of something wonderful, and Padma can only think of how dreadful it is, to turn over in the night and know that her sister is half the castle away. Parvati acts like it's no big deal, but Padma can see the uncertainty in her sister's eyes, the way she nibbles at her bottom lip when she thinks no one is looking. She's just as miserable as Padma is.

It's Padma who ends up going to see Professor Flitwick, nervously wringing her hands as she asks him if there has ever been precedence for Re-Sorting. He is surprised, questions her on what the Hat told her, though it is usually meant a secret.

"Ravenclaw and only Ravenclaw," she admits in an abashed tone. "But-maybe I could be in Gryffindor-if I really worked at it? Y'know?" She peeks up at him shyly through her eyelashes.

"Miss Patil, is this about your sister?" he asks slowly, and she has to confess that it is. "The Sorting Hat is never wrong, my dear," his eyes twinkle at her until she's sure to go mental. "You'll find your place. Just as your sister will find hers."

Parvati discovers a similar answer from Professor McGonagall a few weeks later, and does not take it as kindly as Padma.

"Sod this House and sod every bloody one of you in it!" she says, her wand flashing up and cursing McGonagall's desk with a very obnoxious-looking pig snout. A threat of a week's worth of detention later, and Parvati still has no idea how she's done it. She staggers out the door, ears full of imprecations and the threat of soap, and nearly falls right into her twin.

They both look at each other, blinking for a moment, before they're hugging and crying (although Parvati will never admit it), and Padma thinks that if she could never let go, she wouldn't mind a bit.

"You know," Padma begins, staring into her twin's eyes, so alike yet so different. "Just because we're in different Houses..."

"Doesn't mean we can't spend loads of time together," Parvati finishes, and grins at her. The two link hands and skip down to the main hall, in preparation for wandering about the grounds.

Perhaps they can't turn over in the night and see their other half lying there, or share House points, or wake up in the mornings to their twin's shouted "Get up!"

But perhaps it's not so necessary after all, when you think about it.