Author's Note: This story is based loosely off my RP site, On Their Own. Link is on my profile. I own one character. Yeah, that's it. Everyone else is owned by JKR or the site members. The characters I use from the site are with permission and with JKR, well, not so much. It's her world, I'm just wasting some time in it. The entire story will take place from either the perspective of Parvati or Lavender.
Summary: Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown have been best friends since their train ride to Hogwarts. Their first six years at school have been marked with odd happenings, explosions, and, of course, cute boys. While they should be worrying about the impending N.E.W.T.'s, other things keep interfering. Carrows, disappearing students and the return of the D.A. make it a year where everyone is praying to come out alive. DH spoilers.
Of Grims and Open Hands
Boarding and Bewilderment
Parvati was miserable. No, miserable did not even begin to describe it. She was absolutely devastated. Her final year at Hogwarts should have been one of joy, and yet, it seemed to only be filled with gloom so far. Her beloved headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, had died last year. Well, he was not her beloved headmaster. She doubted he could have even told the Patil twins apart, since Parvati certainly never spoke with him. Padma probably did only because prefects tended to do that. Even so, Parvati always felt safe around him. He had a great smile that almost made up for his terrible sense of fashion. It had taken Parvati a few years, but she finally decided he only wore silly colours like purple because he was trying to be neutral to all houses and most colours were already taken.
Now she would never see his amusing dress wear ever again. Parvati had attended the funeral last year out of respect, and by the end of it, she had been sobbing. Rita Skeeter seemed to think otherwise about her deceased headmaster. Other than the few mistakes Parvati discovered in Skeeter's articles about Harry, she always felt the journalist had a good head on her shoulders. Parvati, of course, did not believe a word about Harry murdering their headmaster, that was just a rumour. His family lines, however, was an ink jar of a different colour. Maybe there were some secrets about Headmaster Dumbledore that no one seemed to know, but even still, Parvati would miss him.
The next problem that troubled Parvati was that she had almost not returned to Hogwarts! Her parents who never were that overprotective before, suddenly decided she and Padma had to stay home. There had been more tears shed when her father announced his decision. Luckily, Padma, the ever clever girl, told their father that they were 17 and could thus make their own choices in life. Bhanu, the girls' father, had tried to use their age against them and said if they wanted to attend Hogwarts, they would have to find another place to live. In the end, Shanta, their mother, smoothed all of the problems. Parvati and Padma were going to attend Hogwarts for one more final year. If anything major or drastic happened, they were to come home immediately, since they were still allowed to live at home. If either girl wanted to come home on their own, they would be welcomed with open arms. Parvati wanted to tell her parents that the likelihood of her returning to her household of her own free will was highly unlikely.
Finally, Parvati was currently most focused on her lack of a train buddy. There had never been a year Parvati sat alone in a compartment. On her first year, Parvati sat with Padma. Every train ride since then, Parvati sat with Lavender, and they were sometimes accompanied by Padma. Fifth year, Padma became the prefect for Ravenclaw, so she no longer joined the train ride for the beginning of the year. Parvati knew this year would be different though, because she was very intelligent for a Gryffindor. The Muggle-Born Registry forced all muggleborns to register (hence the name) their bloodline, in order to punish those who had 'stolen magic.' What rubbish. Parvati doubted even The Quibbler would print that nonsense. However, Parvati also knew that Hermione was very much muggleborn and if the Ministry truly had fallen like so many had said, then if she registered, she would either be tortured for information for the whereabouts of Harry or killed. Even though the girls never got along well, Parvati would never want her in pain. There were many nights Parvati considered writing her to tell her to be careful, but then she figured Hermione already knew to do so. To remain safe, Hermione would have to flee the country in order to avoid the registry. In other words, it was extremely likely Hermione would not be returning to Hogwarts this year.
During the summer, near the very end, the Patil twins received their letters. When Padma did not receive the Head Girl badge, she figured Hermione would have received it, until she used her intelligence, in addition to Padma's, to decide neither girl was going to be Head Girl. About a week or so later, Parvati realized that if she did not receive the prefect badge for Gryffindor, Lavender must have. Parvati was not jealous in the slightest, of course, but it did mean she was going to be lonely on the train until Lavender finished her prefect meeting. With all of the new procedures Parvati supposed were going to take place, she figured she would be lucky if she saw Lavender at all.
As tradition, though their father was still a bit sore from their decisions, the four Patils entered the platform together, though as inconspicuous as possible. Parvati searched around desperately for someone with whom she could sit until her eyes fell upon the very familiar Lavender Brown. Muffling her squeal of excitement, Parvati kissed her mother and father on the cheek quickly, hurridly said goodbye, deserted her sister, and magicked her trunk to follow her as she tried not to lose Lavender in the crowd. Upon reaching her, Parvati stopped dead in her tracks, which unfortunately caused her trunk to run into her before also following immobile.
"Lav!" Parvati shrieked, ignoring the pain in her ankles. The girls had communicated very often over the summer, but it was so much different seeing her.
Lavender turned around at the familiar sound of her friend shrieking her nickname. The two hugged tightly. They had barely let go when the two began to talk at the same time, drowning each other out:
"You look great!"
"You didn't tell me you got your hair cut!"
"I'm sorry I took so long to return your owl --"
"I'm so glad your parents let you come back, I--"
"And then Padma had to tell all of her friends the news--"
"Had to fight with my mother to come--"
"Congratulations though!"
"Congratulations though!"
The girls stopped talking when they realized they said the same thing. Laughing, Parvati opened her mouth quickly to ask, "Why are you congratulating me for? And why didn't you tell me you got prefect?"
Lavender looked at her friend with a slightly confused look on her face, "I didn't get prefect, you did. I'm sure Padma was surprised. Both of you prefects together? You'll have lots of time to hang out." Lavender finished, replacing the confused look with a slightly jealous one that did not go unnoticed by Parvati.
Parvati was more concerned about the prefect status however, "No, I didn't get it. But if you didn't get it and I didn't get it," Parvati trailed off her sentence, as she began to register what was happening. Lavender noticed at the same time for the girls shouted, "Hermione!" together.
Lavender was the first with a plan, "Let's put our stuff down and then look for her. She couldn't have come back. She should be in hiding." Turning in every direction, she looked for the messy brown hair she had tried so many times to tame without luck.
Parvati nodded and led the way, trying to squeeze between the other friends who had found each other after the entire summer. Though she heard someone shout a greeting to her and Lavender, Parvati ignored all other people until she finally entered an empty compartment. Parvati always liked coming early so she would not have to sit with people she found annoying or odd. After stowing her trunk in the basket and hearing the thunk which meant Lavender did also, Parvati wondered what they could do. Could they really convince Hermione to leave? What if Harry and Ron were here also? Parvati just assumed they would all go in hiding, except for maybe Ron. Looking back at her best friend, Parvati hoped Ron would not return, just so there would not have to be the constant tears from Lavender. Ron had broken her heart, but hopefully the summer did enough to fix it.
"Ready?" Parvati asked. Lavender nodded and the two girls began the search around the train. Once again, there had been a few people who called out their names in greeting, though they waved only and continued their search. Parvati knew that even though they still had about 15 minutes for people to arrive, the gaggle of people on the train was much thinner than last year. There were not even that many people on the platform, delaying until the very last minute, to enjoy the last bit of summer. It seemed that a lot of people had decided returning to Hogwarts this year was a bad idea.
Though the girls saw a few Slytherins upon their travels, they remained lucky to not have any problems until the very last compartment. Sitting in the very back were Millicent Bulstrode, Tracey Davis, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe. When the foursome saw Parvati and Lavender, their conversation stopped immediately. Parvati just could not understand why obviously evil Slytherins like them were not chucked out and forced to fend for themselves.
"And here I thought all the Gryffindors would stay home in fear," said Tracey with a sneer.
"Oh, no, they're too brave, or if you ask me, stupid to realize they should have stayed home," replied Millicent.
Parvati and Lavender rolled their eyes simultaneously and left the compartment. Part of Parvati was worried about what they said. What was really going to happen? Maybe her parents were right; maybe they should have never returned to Hogwarts. Yet Parvati did not regret her decision in the slightest, "Let's just go back to our seats. We can wait there for a while until the train starts moving, then we'll look again for her."
"Great!" said Lavender cheerfully, though Parvati could tell it was forced.
Their walk back to the compartment was silent and it was not until they closed the door and checked to make sure no one had decided to join them that they finally began to talk normally.
Lavender sat back on the seat, propping her feet on the other seat, next to Parvati, "So how was your summer? Did Padma get Head Girl? Did you have any summer romances?"
Parvati knew Lavender knew the answers to all of these questions, but it was good to be able to speak their minds and not worry about whether someone would read their mail, "I've had better. My dad was being such a pain. He almost wouldn't let me go back over the summer to take our exams. I told him that if he wanted me to not live under his roof for the rest of my life, I would have to take my Potions O.W.L. Then he told me I should have studied harder fifth year if I wanted to be in the Potions class, well, sorry. He just did not understand because he didn't have Snape when he was in school. If he did, he would have realized why I did not want to have him again in N.E.W.T. level."
After the battle near the end of the year when Dumbledore was killed, Parvati spent most of her time in the Hospital Wing, not because she was injured, but because she wanted to help those who were. There she had decided that instead of designing dress robes like she had wanted for so many years, she wanted to be a Healer. Madam Pomfrey had talked to Professor McGonagall over the summer, enabling Parvati to re-take her Potions test, which she had failed the last time. She received an E the second time and sent a letter to Professor Slughorn, asking if she could be in his N.E.W.T. class so she could fulfill her dreams. After a lot of correspondence, it was decided she would take the sixth year class and work with Professor Slughorn on seventh year level potions to catch up.
"As for Head Girl," Parvati continued, "No, Padma didn't get it. She wasn't happy, but not really surprised, because we all figured Hermione would get it," The words had come naturally, yet she regretted them one she said it. Hermione could not have come back. There was no way, "And no summer romances either," she said quickly, "What did you do this summer?"
Lavender shrugged, stretching slightly, "Nothing all that exciting. My mother and I got into a few arguments because she wanted me to take more classes this year and I told her there was no way because I want to enjoy my last year here, not take classes I don't need. She wants me to get a Ministry of Magic position and I just have no desire to do so."
Parvati pulled the latest copy of Witch Weekly from her purse and switched sides so Lavender could see the magazine as well. They began to talk about the latest tips, stopping only for a moment when the train started moving. The two looked at each other, both silently wondering if Hermione was aboard the train. Parvati was the first to look away, back at the magazine, and so they continued reading for a few minutes.
The cart lady walked by their compartment, knocking, and asking if they wanted anything to eat. Parvati was too busy re-packing for the third time to eat, so she bought a few Cauldron Cakes and a Pumpkin Juice. Lavender bought some snacks as well, so they set aside the magazine to enjoy the food. When they both finished, Parvati asked, "Do you want to look for Hermione now?"
Lavender shook her head, "I was thinking. Since the train's already moving, we really can't do anything to help her. I think we should just wait until we get to the castle, then we'll see her at the table, if she's there. Because if we can't do anything on the train, no one else can do anything to her either, right? People just don't disappear off trains, after all."
Parvati could not argue with this logic, so she happily agreed, "Alright! I brought my Tarot Cards in my purse, want to do each other's futures?" Professor Trelawney always told them they had to practice if they wanted to perfect the Inner Eye.
"Okay! I'll do you first," Lavender said. Parvati handed her the cards and Lavender began to shuffle them carefully, not wanting to do anything wrong.
The girls spent the rest of the train ride predicting each other's future, which seemed to grow worse which each turn. However, Lavender and Parvati knew there was a war going on, and of course the cards were going to reflect something negative because of it.
As Hogsmeade station came into view and the train began to slow, the girls panicked, since they had forgotten to change into their robes. Not wanting to be late for the feast, they changed from their muggle clothes into the Gryffindor robes and fixed their hair and makeup. When they finally deemed themselves to look presentable, Parvati opened the compartment door.
"Ready?" She asked Lavender.
"Ready," Lavender replied.
Author's Note: End chapter one. This was really difficult for me since I'm not used to writing fanfiction anymore, so I would really appreciate comments and constructive criticism. My goal is to update once a week, maybe more often if I feel inspired. Reviews always help to make me more inspired. :)