Our parents still have difficulty telling us apart. In fact, they can't even separate us, even in speech. Padma and Parvati, Parvati and Padma. One without the other is just impossible to think about. Just like those Weasley twins, a couple of years ahead of us. They're always doing everything together, and now everyone just calls them "The Weasley Twins." Not just Fred, not just George. Nobody bothers to tell them apart.
Nobody bothered to tell us apart, too. The Patil twins. Oh, you're Padma? No, you're Parvati… Well, not many bothered to separate us. Until we turned eleven, and the Sorting Hat loomed on that stool in front of us. I was standing beside Padma, the more rational half of us. We were squeezing each other's hand, slightly intimidated by everything around us. The McGonagall lady called out, "Patil, Padma!" and Padma let go of my hand. As she sat down on the stool, our eyes connected. Four brown eyes. One second of eye contact. And the last second of being joined together.
I could hear the Sorting Hat's mutter. "Oh, Padma. So many possibilities…" and here he went off into a string of muttering that only Padma could understand. "...well, then, I just think your wit and sharpness would be honed beautifully in RAVENCLAW!" The hat yelled the last word. A table filled with students with blue and bronze accents on their uniforms exploded into cheering. The hat fell off Padma's head. She looked back at me. And somehow, I knew. Us would become me. Our eyes connected again, but this time, something was definitely different. She wasn't the other twin anymore. She was Padma Emi Patil. And then the McGonagall lady called, "Patil, Parvati!" And I, oh, recklessly courageous Parvati, sat on the stool, with a hope fluttering in my heart that I'd go join Padma, and we'd be together again.
But it was not meant to be. The Hat dropped over my eyes. I felt absolutely nervous as I internally screamed with all my soul, "Please, Hat! Can you put us together?" I heard a sad chuckle in my head. "I'm so sorry, Parvati. You don't belong in Ravenclaw. Your courage would be a wonderful addition to the courageous of GRYFFINDOR!"
"No, no!" I whispered, feeling absolutely miserable. I chanced a glance at Padma. She was looking right at me, shocked. I was probably looking at her the same way before I was prodded off the stool and towards a table full of applauding, red-and-gold accented students.
We weren't together. We were just Padma Emi Patil and just Parvati Bodhi Patil. Red and Blue, Blue and Red. But we were still sisters. Not even Houses could separate us. We still talked to each other in the hallways, studied under the trees at times, and laughed crazily together at breakfast.
But that was at the beginning. Then we found friends in our Houses, and we pushed our other half to the back of our minds. We still talked at home, but we found that we weren't as close as we used to be. Personally, the Hat didn't just separate us. It broke a connection that we'd had for most of our lives.
Even through all of this, we still remembered each other. Because you know what? We're still sisters.