It was on a quiet Thursday evening, with dark clouds rolling across the great hall ceiling, that Padma decided the ache was too much. Tables away sat her sister, talking with a few girls from Trelawney's class, discussing the best way to use a crystal ball, though to her it just looked like happy chatter. Padma leaned her head back, her delicate fingers slowly tracing the rim around her goblet of pumpkin juice. She stared up at the purple clouds looming ominously above her, and imagined that she could scent the freshness of the rain that was certainly soon to come. The fingers of her left hand slipped into her robe pocket to pull out a piece of parchment folded into quarters, which she pried her gaze away from the ceiling to open slowly, the rustling sounds of crinkling paper reaching her ears as she found a quill and wrote a note in her small, curved writing. She gently blew on the ink to dry before folding it up again and charming it. The dining hall was only a third full as she drank the rest of her pumpkin juice and swung her legs back over the side of the bench, strolling out of the left side of the room whilst pulling her bag back upon her shoulder. She passed somewhat near the Gryffindor table and gently dropped the note in midair, folded into a delicate pointed design similar to that of a star, and it floated softly towards her sister as she passed by, unnoticed.
She waited in their place, an empty room they'd found back when they were first years, bright eyed and afraid to be apart. They'd explored until they found this place, this cool open room off an old corridor near the astronomy tower. It had a perfect view of the moon most nights, and they had spent hours here, sitting atop fluffy red cushions Parvati had brought from her common room that nobody would miss. They'd stared out at the grass on the grounds, slick with dew and shining in the moonlight, talking about potions class or their childhood, sometimes just doing homework together. Over the past few months this room had become more empty, and sometimes its only guest was Padma, still and shining like a memory in the light that came from the sky, waiting in the window quietly, soft puffs of breath warming the windowsill with its quiet intimacy.
It was there that she stood now, finger pressed against the cool glass, to see the sky toiling in the distance. Soft padded footsteps approached, the sound of Parvati's favorite purple slippers (hidden beneath her robes of course), announcing her arrival. Padma turned to see her enter and smiled.
Parvati smiled back and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, a bit flushed; she must have ran the last few yards to the door, as she was wont to do. She came further into the room before dropping her bag haphazardly on the floor next to a stray desk, then coming towards Padma and looking over her shoulder at the window she had just abandoned looking through. Padma could feel the heat of her sister radiate towards her and touch her cheek, though they were still inches apart. She breathed in her scent and could smell cardamom on her sisters robes, as if she'd been cooking and had spilled the sweet powdered seed down her front only to brush it off and forget, the lingering aroma the only tell of her forgetfulness.
Padma turned her neck then, only to find herself at eye level with her sister's throat, as Parvati was craning to see the moon through the fogged cool glass.
"I miss you," Padma whispered.
Parvati looked down with a small start, eyes seeming to glow from within from the light of a candle Padma had set floating earlier. Her mouth twitched up quickly in a smile that just barely showed the tips of her white teeth, before smoothing down again, still there, just quieter.
"And I you, silly" Parvati said, teasing in her voice but truth below the warm notes. She leaned forward easily and pecked Padma on the tip of her nose, a quick brush on skin. Padma's chest flushed with the warmth of her sister's affection but not warm enough to cover the ache she had been feeling all too often as of late.
"Is that what you called me here for?" Parvati inquired, eyebrows rising slightly as her feet slid from tiptoe to flat stones.
"No, well... sort of...," Padma walked off a bit, finding her way to a chair where she pulled a cushion on top of her lap, and hugged it to her chest. Parvati watched from the window, turning to follow her movements interestedly.
"I've been wanting to talk," she said, and Parvati seemed to understand it was something slightly more serious in nature, and so she followed Padma's suit, sitting on the floor instead of the tassled red cushions they sometimes fought over playfully.
"What's going on?" she asked as she tucked her right foot under her left leg.
"I'm not sure what to say, or how to say it...," Padma began.
"I've been thinking about this for a while and I wasn't sure if I should tell you or not, because it will change things, but I think it might be time."
Parvati smiled reassuringly. "You can tell me anything dear, you know that."
Padma's face alit with a blush unseen in the dark of the room, and even her forehead seemed to rise in temperature, not just her cheeks.
"I miss you...," she said again, and her sister looked at her oddly.
"You've said that."
Padma gave her a look that pleaded with her not to interrupt, and her twin nodded, making a zipper motion over her mouth as they had done as children.
"I miss you," she started again. "And it's more than just missing your company. When I see you in the classroom, my throat hurts. I want to talk to you. I miss sleeping in the same bed, and being near your scent..." She paused, worried she had said too much, heart beating with fear and anxiety, pressing against her throat. Still, she pushed onwards.
"I know that you're busy. And we're in different houses. And... we're siblings, too. You should have your own life and I should want mine, but all I can think is that I want to be next to you. I..." Her throat closed up, and she coughed, trying to clear it. The cool room lowered the temperature of her overheated body, overworked with emotions running amok, and she decided to go for the plunge, finally.
"I love you." She'd said it. And so she did, again. "I love you. And not how I'm supposed to. At all. And I don't know if I should have said that, or not, but you're my best friend, and it's been so hard, to keep it from you, and to figure out what to say, and how to act, I don't know if that's okay, or if I've been acting wei-" Padma, so thoroughly occupied with the words that spilled out her mouth, pooling onto the floor, did not notice that her sister had stood. She did not notice the odd quirking smile on her face, as if she was pleased with herself, but a little sad at the same time. She didn't notice anything much, until suddenly upon her lips was a pumpkin scented finger, from where Parvati had undoubtedly dipped her fingers in her juice earlier that evening. Padma's lips stopped their frenzied movements, her sister's finger shushing her. Parvati's arms wrapped around her, and she bent slightly at the knee, to lean her head upon her sister's chest, quietly.
"So fast..." she whispered in the now quiet room, referring to her beating heart. She stood up again, and gently took Padma's face in both of her soft hands.
"I love you," she whispered as she leaned in. Her right hand traced from the back of her neck down her cheek, to cup her chin softly. She touched their foreheads together, softly.
"I've been waiting," Parvati said. And those were the last words spoken for a while, as she slowly dipped inwards to kiss the corner of Padma's mouth, still open slightly in wonder.