Chapter 2
The following Friday, Padma had just gotten in the door of her flat from work, when she heard a floo call coming from the fireplace in her neat living room.
It was, of course, her sister, calling to discuss wedding details. Parvati had been calling nearly every day to talk about any wedding detail that could be talked about. Some days, Padma felt that Parvati just needed someone to voice her thoughts at, but she listened nonetheless. Padma was quite used to her younger sister's chattiness.
As Parvati finished up her monologue about the types of shoes that the bridesmaids should wear, Padma zoned back in at her sister's request to be at the Weasley breakfast again the next morning.
"Absolutely not, Parvati," Padma stated firmly, "it's much too busy and noisy to get any planning or work done, and you're always attaching yourself to Fred, so you never participate."
'But Padmaaaa," Parvati whined (Parvati was very skilled at whining annoyingly), "that's the only time this weekend I'm free and I can't miss it."
"Why not? Just tell them you'll be there next week."
Parvati looked shocked. Padma would have found it comical if Parvati hadn't been so serious.
"No Padma. You don't understand. No Weasley misses Weasley Saturday Brunches unless they have a life or death reason. Even Charlie portkeys from Romania for them."
Padma was confused, "why are they such a big deal? It's just breakfast."
Parvati again looked dramatically shocked. "Everyone in the Weasley family has been attending brunch together since the end of the war. When everyone nearly lost all of their siblings and parents in one night, they began this so they could see everyone and keep up with everything. Plus it's nice to have a big family meal."
"Well that's good and all Parvati, but I'm not a Weasley or a future Weasley. Plus it's so loud, and I don't even have anything to do there."
"But it's fun! And you had a good time talking to Percy last time, right?"
Padma sometimes forgot how perceptive her sister could be. She had seemed occupied with her fiancé at the time. But Padma had surprisingly enjoyed talking to Percy.
"Yeah, I guess it was nice talking to him. He's not very much like the other Weasleys, is he?"
"If by that you mean that he's boring, then yeah!" Parvati said, rolling her eyes. "But he is still one of them, and I'll always be thankful to him for saving Fred's life in the war. But still, sometimes I can't believe he was a Gryffindor. He seems much more like a Ravenclaw like you."
This stuck with Padma. Nothing Padma had seen about him indicated in any way that Percy had been a Gryffindor. In fact, he seemed much more like the exact opposite of everything Gryffindor. Parvati was right, he would have fit in effortlessly in Ravenclaw.
After enduring a few more minutes of Parvati's whining, Padma eventually agreed to be at the brunch, after extracting an ironclad promise that they'd actually discuss some wedding details this time. She then spent an hour lying on her couch enjoying the silence that she wouldn't have the next day.
The next day dawned crisp and beautiful, but Padma was not having it.
It would be her second Weasley Family Brunch today, and she was seriously starting to miss her normal Saturday ritual. A stack of golden brown French toast, camomile tea, and a murder mystery were a calming time she looked back on with sadness. You really don't know what you have until it's gone, Padma thought uncharacteristically dramatically.
With a dark frown, Padma got ready for another excessively exciting day. How other people could be comfortable in chaos and disorder, Padma would never understand.
After picking up Parvati, Padma once again found herself on the doorstep of the Weasley House, and once again, she was ushered into the haphazard chaos called brunch. This time, Padma was sitting beside Fleur Weasley, who was feeding a strawberry blond toddler and Percy, who was once again reading a newspaper.
Padma observed Percy again, thinking of what her sister had said the other day. He really was nothing like the other Weasleys, or what she'd come to know as the essential Gryffindor traits. He wasn't brash, overconfident, outgoing, or energetic. In actuality, he seemed to embody exactly the traits that were praised in Ravenclaw; quiet, studious, well-spoken, and witty.
She observed him out of the corner of her eye as he flipped through his newspaper, then finished, neatly folded it back up and set it aside.
The food was not served yet, so he took a look around. Padma took this opportunity to turn to him.
"Good morning, Percy." She greeted with a smile.
"Good morning, Miss Patil," Percy replied.
"Padma, please."
He nodded, and then continued, "I've seen you around our department in the Ministry."
Padma was surprised, "oh really? I haven't seen you around. Though I have been very busy with my latest project recently."
"Yes, I believe some of our department and yours will be teaming up soon on a joint project."
Padma raised an eyebrow, "oh? This is the first I've heard of it. How do you know?"
Percy grinned, "I know because I proposed it. It's where my research is taking me, and having someone from your team would be beneficial."
"Hmm," Padma thought out loud, "I wonder who that'll be. It depends on our research loads, but I've never worked with another department before."
Percy's response was interrupted by the sudden appearance of all the food, and the commencement of the ensuing frenzy. Padma flinched away from the sudden noise and disorder unwittingly leaned toward Percy. She turned to him, her next comment dying on her tongue as she noticed that his face much closer to her than she had thought. The moment seemed absurdly stretched out, she memorized his sea blue eyes and the freckles dotting the bridge of his nose, where his glasses were resting. Because she was watching his eyes, she saw him absorbing her own eyes, then quickly flick to her lips and back to her eyes.
Padma was startled by Fleur tapping her shoulder, and the moment ended as she turned back to the others, taking the dish of French Toast that Fleur offered her. She served herself some, and then handed the platter to Percy, who grinned slightly in thanks.
She took some of the other food offered to her, then sat thoughtfully munching her French Toast, as Fleur beside her fed her squealing daughter and Percy was engaged in conversation by Hermione who questioned him on one of the finer points of House Elf Legislature.
She wondered about the strange moment that had passed between her and Percy. She acknowledged that he was handsome, maybe even bordering on gorgeous. His dark copper curly hair, slim build, and beautiful eyes were exactly her type. His personality was growing on her quickly as well. She knew that Parvati and the others found him grating and bossy, but she liked his intelligence and serious demeanor that seemed to reveal a captivating individual underneath.
She then wondered why she seemed to be thinking so much about Percy Weasley lately. Padma wasn't what you could call boy crazy, that was more her sister's area. Padma had only had one boyfriend, and that had been while she was at Hogwarts. Parvati had always been the one gushing over her weekly crush, while Padma had generally been far too busy with school and all to be pining after boys. So the fact that Percy seemed to be invading her thoughts so much was startling.
Padma was once again brought out of her thoughts by disruptions around her. This time, it seemed that brunch was wrapping up. Couples left, and Parvati and Fred moved to the sitting room. Fred went over to talk to George about their business and Parvati sat on the floor, leaning against the couch, spreading her binder full of wedding details out in front of her. Padma went over to sit on the couch behind her, as they began to discuss what was left to plan. Eventually Parvati made her way over to the fireplace to do some floo calls to find out about flowers and cake. Padma was left on the couch, told to flip through a bridesmaid dress catalogue.
As she aimlessly flipped, Percy once more made his way to her, cups of tea for them both in his hands. She thanked him for the tea, wrapping her fingers around the warmth of the mug. Percy took a seat beside her, and struck up a conversation about the new research in the Transfiguration Journal about the untransfiguration time delay that accompanied improperly preformed spells.
Padma realized that this was one of the things she missed most about not being in touch with many of her Ravenclaw friends anymore. Her sister didn't exactly relish this kind of conversation, and while she was at work both she and her work friends were otherwise preoccupied with their work. It was nice to have someone to chat with about something other than small talk and the wedding.
She and Percy got more involved in their discussion, even debating the finer points that they disagreed on. This was how Parvati found them as she returned from her floo calls. Padma looked up at her from her conversation to catch a strange expression on her sister's face that quickly disappeared, replaced by her sister's normal bright smile.
Parvati then dragged Padma up from the couch and to her wedding dress shopping, Padma managed to throw a wave goodbye to Percy, who indulgently returned it, a wry grin on his face, as he returned to his tea.
After a day of perusing wedding dresses, Padma and her sister were collapsed on Padma's couch, too tired from all the running around of the day to do anything other than flop down.
Parvati turned to her sister, "Thanks for helping me so much."
Padma smiled at her little sister. "It's no problem, I think the Weasley family's starting to grow on me."
"That's great!" Parvati replied brightly. "And you seem to be getting along really well with Percy too."
Padma nodded, ignoring what she had been thinking about this subject earlier. "Yeah, he's great to talk to."
Parvati rolled her eyes, "YOU would find Percy cool. He's exactly your type."
Padma was surprised, Parvati's word reflected her earlier thoughts. "What do you mean?"
"Well you both seem to get along well, for two people who get along with like, no one. And you look like you like to talk to each other. Like really like talking together, instead of just putting up with interacting."
"Wow, thanks a bunch Parvati." Padma replied sarcastically. She hadn't thought she was that unsociable.
"I mean it in the best way possible." Her sister said, "It's just like you're perfect matches for each other. He's exactly your type, and you seem to be his."
"Really?" Padma said, thinking about their previous interactions.
Parvati smiled, seeing her sister thinking about what she'd said. Parvati was so happy with Fred, so what if she wanted Padma to be that happy with someone too?
