Author's Note: This is written for the Love Triangle Challenge

Penelope Clearwater/Theodore Nott/Padma Patil - One falls over the other - Dialogue: "Childish behaviour, is it not?" and "And thus concludes, why I hate you"

Not really, love but, they're all there.

Ignorance and Idiots

Padma Patil tipped her face upwards, allowing the first few rays of summer warm her face, hoping that the warmth would dispel the cold that had settled in her bones. Fourth year was two weeks away from ending, and whilst it had passed far too quickly, as they all did, Padma couldn't bring herself to be anything but grateful. Between the excitement of the Triwizard Tournament, the untimely and horrific death of Cedric Diggory and Harry's claims that Voldemort had returned Padma was more than happy to see the end.

It was odd that summer had come so early to the normally grey skies of Scotland, but the student body wasn't questioning their good luck, instead they flooded into the grounds taking up every bit of available grass space. It looked almost idyllic, the green so bright and the lake taking on a clear blue hue rather than the murky brown it normally was.

Padma stood close to her Gryffindor twin, Parvati, and her friend Lavender but she wasn't really paying them any attention. Being a Ravenclaw herself Padma found that she had little time for the cruel gossip that so captivated the other girls. It seemed that identical twins certainly weren't identical in every sense of the word. Parvati was far gigglier, for one, Padma preferring the academic aspects of life. It made perfect sense that they were sorted differently.

Padma looked down; glancing at the leather bound book in her hands she stroked the spine absentmindedly. Her feet were starting to ache and she longed to sit down, this was time she was supposed to spend with Parvati but she was becoming less and less inclined with every passing second. As Lavender shrieked something that resembled laughter Padma made up her mind, her eyes turned to the scenery scanning the groups of students looking for a suitable distraction. Her eyes settled on a tall blonde Ravenclaw and she smiled.

"Parvati?" she asked, turning away from the grounds and back towards her twin. "Parvati," she urged again, looking at her expectantly. She was still met with no reply, Parvati continued to gossip. Padma huffed at the ignorance her sister was displaying; a frown creased her brow and tugged the corners of her mouth downwards. "I'm going to talk to someone," she proclaimed loudly, spinning on heel.

"Yeah, whatever Padma, see you later," Parvati replied. She didn't even look as she flicked her fingers in Padma's general direction, effectively dismissing her.

Padma huffed again as she stomped off, flattening grass and flowers alike, headed for the lake shore and the Ravenclaw that waited there. Her sister's attitude, and complete disregard for anyone or anything that she didn't find interesting, was something Padma always dreaded about the summer holidays. She would be stuck, isolated from other academically inclined people, for a whole summer, with only Miss Bubblehead over there for company. It promised to be a mind numbing six weeks.

She took a deep breath, stopping just behind her friend. "Penelope?" her voice came out far quieter than she had intended and she worried that the girl hadn't heard her. She didn't want to interrupt this moment of solitude, but Padma wanted her advice and so she coughed, a little louder this time.

"Oh!" the tall, willowy, graceful Ravenclaw jumped at the noise and whirled, her hair a blonde swirl, to face her companion. She beamed as she saw who it was. "Hey Padma!" she greeted, "are you alright?"

The young Ravenclaw smiled in answer, but it was tinged with sadness. Penelope had become something of a mentor to her over the past four years and Padma was very sad that she would be leaving in two short weeks. "Yeah, I'm fine, I was just looking around for something to do and I thought that this might be a good time to ask you about-"

Padma was cut off, the end of her sentence swallowed by the loud whoops and screams of the fourth year Slytherin boys. They were clearly too caught up in their game to care about the racket they made, chasing some sort of magical ball, passing it between them.

"Urgh," she sighed, looking on the idiocy with obvious distaste.

"I know," Penelope agreed, nodding sagely as they watched the group circle round. She turned back to face Padma, "childish behaviour, is it not?"

Padma nodded eagerly in return, happy to prove through her agreement that she was just as mature as her idol. "Anyway," she continued, beaming, "I was wondering if you could help me. I really want to become a prefect next year, and I thought that maybe since you've been a prefect for so long you could give me some tips?" Her voice rose at the end of the question, laced with hope.

"Of course, I'd love to help you Padma. It's so nice to see my little protégée so eager," she laughed. "Maybe we could sit together at dinner tonight and I'll go over all the things that you should and shouldn't do. "Oh," she sighed, reminiscing, "I remember when I was first a prefect. They paired me with Percy Weasley you know, I thought he was so handsome, of course I also got petrified by a Basilisk, but who wants to dwell on that?"

"Hey! Watch out!" came a cry from somewhere behind them.

The rest of the warning, and Penelope's gushing speech, was cut off. The rush of water surrounded Padma and all she could hear was the almighty splash and then muffled silence of water as she, and whoever had crashed into her, were thrown into the murky lake.

Padma kicked furiously, trying to right herself and make it back to the surface. When she broke, she reached out, arms flailing, and grabbed onto the first solid thing she could find. She used this to keep herself afloat whilst furiously scrubbing the water from her eyes with the other hand.

Once she could see again she looked to see what exactly it was she was holding, and came face to face with the rather dashing, and handsome, Theodore Nott. Who was, presumably, the cause of her untimely dip.

"Well, hi there," he purred, flashing a charming smile at her. Padma felt her heart flutter traitorously for a second and blood rushed to her cheeks. Then of course, he had to go and ruin it. "Glad to see I can make you wet so easily."

Padma shoved away from him, treading water on her own and glaring furiously at him. "And thus," she growled, swimming away, "concludes why I hate you."

What did you think?

Much Love! MaryandMerlin x