Divination was supposed to hold all the answers.
That's what you'd been told, after all – that if you tried hard enough, you could see the future. See what was to come, and perhaps even change it.
But not even Divination had been able to predict this. Not even Professor Trelawney and her Inner Eye could have seen what would happen to the castle.
Because just as Divination should have held all the answers, Dumbledore was supposed to be immortal. He was never supposed to fall off the Astronomy Tower, broken beyond repair, driving Harry Potter – the only one left who could help them – away from the castle he called home.
And the two of you – all of you – were never supposed to have been driven permanently to the Room that had once helped train you in secret.
Lavender is worried about you – you know this. You know your twin worries just as much as her, if in a different way. You've always been the life of the party, after all, not the one who spends hours thinking.
That's always been Padma's role to play.
But the old roles don't apply in this new world. After all, you were never the most diligent student, either – but now you spend hours training yourself to fight. You were never the most daring, despite the house you were sorted into, but now you join Neville and Dean and Seamus and Lavender when they leave to save those they can.
This world isn't yours, and you need to adapt.
Lavender and Padma are the people you hold on to now. The world isn't one you can recognise anymore, so they're the only certainty you have left.
But even they aren't safe – as much as you want to, you can't hold them close. Each of them holds your heart in different ways, and each breath they take is just a reminder of how easily those breaths can be stolen away.
You love them with all your heart, but you don't know if even that is enough.
You don't know when Lavender walked towards you, but you feel her wrap her arms around you from behind.
"It'll be okay," she whispers. "It will all be okay. Harry, Ron and Hermione will return soon, you know that."
But you know Lavender better than anyone else, and you can hear what her fervid voice is trying to hide.
They'll return, that's true, but how many of you will be here to meet them?
You can't remember the battle, not really. It went by in a haze of fire and light, and you don't know what you did.
How you fought.
Who you killed.
Truth be told, you don't want to know. All you want right now is to forget it all – forget that all of this last year ever happened. You just want to go back to being the person you were, who could never have imagined all that you've seen.
You just want to go back to being innocent.
But no matter how much you want to, you can't. Padma and Lavender have been there for you. Padma may be fine – she's one of the lucky ones, who didn't even scratch herself – but Lavender needs you now.
She took care of you, and you'll do the same.
So you gently wipe the blood off the scars that Greyback left on her face, and wait for her to wake. You know Lavender – you know that when she wakes, you'll have to reassure her that she isn't ugly. Not because that's what she needs to hear, but because it's true.
There's nothing more beautiful to you that the sight of Lavender's beating heart, or the colour of her warm skin, all reassuring you that she's alive.
It's not a return to the past you love, but you're thankful all the same. Thankful that you have Lavender here, instead of dead. Thankful you have someone to love, instead of having to mourn.
The sounds of mourning survivors will haunt you, because you know just how close you came to being one of them.
But you're not, and that's all you need to be happy.
A/N: I hope you guys liked it! As always, please don't forget to review on the way out :)
For the Hunger Games: Fanfic Style Competition, using the word, emotion, pairing, class and genre.
This piece was a experiment in fragmentation. I wanted it to reflect what I felt Parvati's mindset would be, being thrown so out of her comfort zone in rather horrific situations, and forced to adapt in a way that seems unnatural to what we know of her. Not everyone who escaped to the RoR would have dealt with it as well as Neville and Seamus did, and to me, Parvati is one of those people.
I'd love to know what you felt about this, so please do drop a review :)