Disclaimer: World of HP property of JK Rowling.
"Decisions, Decissions... Competition" Prompts: Whisper, "Do you mean it?", tempting.
"The If You Dare Challenge" Prompt: Natural Light (#60)
Natural Light
She was beautiful, but like most teenage girls, Lucy couldn't see it.
All she saw was a mass of unruly, red hair that she could barely tame that fell just to her shoulders, and had to be pinned back from her thin face with clips. Aqua-colored, horn-rimmed glasses, brought attention away from her warm, almond-shaped, cinnamon-colored eyes. And a slender body, that was almost boyish in figure, without very definitive curves was hidden beneath her school robes.
She didn't know how terribly tempting she truly was. Didn't realize that her full and richly pigmented lips were incredibly distracting, especially when she bit into the plump bottom lip with her pearly white teeth.
She didn't realize how her untamable mass of red-hair, actually made Padma's mind wander to her bronze sheets, wondering how the younger witch would look, curled up asleep with nothing but those sheets covering her perfectly pale, and unblemished skin.
"It is unfortunate, Miss Weasley, but the truth is that most of the world only sees beauty that is flashy. It's almost blind to natural beauty, which is what you have in abundance," Padma explained smoothly, bending slightly at the waist so that she could capture the delicate chin, and force those expressive eyes to look at her. "But you are beautiful. For the rest, you shouldn't concern yourself."
Her dark eyes were caught, bewitched by the contrast of her own olive skin with the milky skin her hand was gently wrapped around. For a moment, images of her hands grasping the nude skin of slender hips popped before her eyes, causing her mouth to go dry.
"Easy for you to say, you're stunning," Lucy muttered, while her cheeks blushed apple-red.
Padma couldn't help laughing, straightening and throwing her head back. She didn't notice as Lucy's eyes looked up from her lap and stare at her with a slightly hurt expression, that was quickly replaced with longing for the teacher with the hour-glass figure and long, perfectly straight and shiny black hair that fell to her full hips.
"My dear, when I was your age, I was completely overlooked in favor of my sister Parvati, never mind the fact that we are identical twins. And do you know why? Because while I had my head filled with more concern for my studies to bother with make-up and tight-fitting clothes, my sister spent all her time concerned exclusively in her appearance," Padma explained, looking down at Lucy who blushed in her staring and looked away.
For a moment, the sixteen-year old fidgeted under the stare of her Head of House, as she considered what the older woman had said.
"Do you mean it?" the words came out as a whisper, causing Padma's eyes to be drawn in by those, now moist and plump lips of deep, almost reddish pink.
Padma almost wanted to slap herself, wondering where all her cool, collected and rational characteristics had scattered off to, leaving her vulnerable before the sixteen-year-old, slip of a girl before her.
"Of course, my dear. You're beautiful, and it's something that comes from deep inside you, not something skin deep or that you plaster on your outside," Padma replied gently, reaching out a hand and tucking strands of luscious red hair back.
And from behind those aqua colored glasses, Padma saw the light that was Lucy become bright once more. That alone was worth whatever discomfort she'd felt, or the longing that twanged in her heart, for something that was completely out of her reach.
-FIN-
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