"It's so hot today," Padma groaned as she loosened her tie and removed her shoes and socks. She and Parvati strode toward the lake, and Padma found herself striding ankle-deep into the water, sighing at the little relief she could manage to find. "Tell me you've noticed how bloody hot it is, Parvati," she added, turning to her sister, whose face was pinched, as though she were concentrating on some other problem. "Are you okay, Parvati?"

"Wha-? Oh, oh, yeah. I'm fine."

"Well, you don't look it," Padma said with a smirk, at once feeling as though she could finally cause her sister to feel uncomfortable and worried that something was not quite right with her. "C'mon, Parvati. Tell me what's got you bothered." She walked up to the bank and sat beside Parvati, who was leaning back and looking out over the lake, staring across the calm waters and, presumably, beyond what was on the opposite bank. "What's the matter?"

"I've been thinking a lot lately," Parvati said quietly, her eyes now fixing on the castle on the distant side of the lake. "If we got with opposite girls, would we be cheating on each other?"

"What?" Padma leant in, daring not kiss her sister, knowing that, even were their conversation unheard, someone might still be watching. "Parvati, we never talked about being exclusive." She paused, seeing the troubled look on the face of the girl who was part sister, part best friend, part girlfriend, and part lover. "I don't know what's got into you, mate, but if you're telling me that you're worried that I won't love you anymore-!"

"That's not it, Padma." Parvati turned and locked her gaze on Padma's eyes. "It's not about whether you'll love me anymore, it's about whether I'd be cheating on you, okay?" She scoffed. "Say Luna and I started seeing each other, even started shagging. Would that be cheating? Or would it be okay?"

Padma considered her fingernails, conscious of Parvati's attentive ear, which would discern anything she could say. She weighed her words carefully, knowing that, even with Parvati's immature behaviour, the Gryffindor loved her and would do anything to be with her. "I think," she said slowly, "that we can't just let ourselves stay with each other." Padma's heart pounded a hole in her chest as she spoke. The blood rushing in her ears, she continued, weighing each word as it came. "It would be bad enough if mum and dad found out we were dykes, Parvati. About the only worse thing, to them, would be if they found out we were together. I want to be with you, but I think both of us have to consider the possibility of seeing other people."

"So, what you're saying is," Parvati said after several seconds, "that you'd be okay if, for example, I slept with Luna?"

"This is the sort of question I should be asking you about Ginny-"

"Would you be okay if I fucked Luna Lovegood?" Parvati demanded seriously, sitting bolt upright and turning to Padma. "Christ, it's a simple enough question, Padma! You'd think you could answer it with a yes or a no!"

Steeling herself for her own answer, Padma nodded. "Yes. I'd be okay if you shagged Luna Lovegood. As long as I can have Ginny Weasley whenever I want."

"Agreed," said Parvati, reclining once again. She turned placidly on her side to face Padma, who remained upright and faced her. "What about if we want to swap?"

"Jesus, Parvati! I'm in an incestuous relationship with my sister, but I'm not entirely unfaithful! No!"

"I'm the arsehole," Parvati said with a chuckle, "but I'll still agree to whatever limits we set."

Padma gave a small, embarrassed smile. Nodding, she hugged her knees and rested her chin on them. "Basically," she said, studying the castle as the bright midday sun filtered through the thin veil of clouds and glistened off the water, "you're okay if we see other people? Even if we never wind up being together in the end?" It was a question about which Padma had worried since the beginning of their relationship, and about which she continually worried. With each passing day, she found herself less concerned with discovery, and more concerned with retaining the one friend in whom she could confide anything. She turned her face and rested her cheek on her knees, smiling tiredly at Parvati, who watched her placidly. Padma recognised the expression on her face, the one of pure passion and love, the one she found so attractive. Rather than arouse her, it caused her to smile. It caused her, for one moment in time, to remain certain that her sister would never leave her, even if they eventually found themselves bound to someone else. "And what if we're seeing someone else?" added Padma. "Do we keep sleeping together?"

Parvati shook her head. "I think it would be a betrayal of trust," she admitted. "If I were seeing Luna, and you were seeing Ginny... I mean, yeah, I'd want to, and I know Luna would probably be okay with it, but Ginny... she's too old-fashioned. That's not a bad thing," added Parvati. "I actually like that about a girl. Someone who's not going to let you shag someone else just because it turns her on. That's a bit of a turn-on, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Padma acceded. She sighed and lie back on the grass. "It's so fucking hot!"

"Let's wade in the lake. C'mon." Parvati rose, rolled up the cuffs of her jeans, and padded down the narrow strip of sand, turning around and beckoning to Padma. "Come on! What're you waiting for?" she said.

Padma smiled, copying her sister and padding down to the water, her legs sighing in relief at the blissfully cool water. "You don't happen to have Flitwick's homework, have you?"

"God, Padma, worried about homework right now?" Parvati spun to face her, smiling and shaking her head. "You know what I like to do to worriers?" When Padma merely arched a brow, Parvati, a mischievous grin spreading on her face, reached down and splashed her. "No homework can save you, Padma! Where's Flitwick when you need him?"

Padma laughed, splashing Parvati back, rushing further out into the lake and turning to find the girl chasing her. "Oh, no, you don't!"

"Oh, yes I do!"

Padma squealed, rushing past Parvati and finding herself back on the beach. They had not taken advantage of the lake since beginning at Hogwarts, which Padma found that she regretted. There had been walks; there were instances when, in moments of confusion, they had courted boys; however, there had never been a genuine use of the lake as it had been intended. For ten minutes and more, Padma found her worries left elsewhere, her mind freed from the rest of the world's weight. She gasped as she felt her backside land on the moist earth just behind the sand. "God, I wish we'd done that ages ago," she remarked, falling back and staring into air as the clouds above began to dissipate. "When did we stop doing that?"

Parvati stopped in wringing out her hair, her face gaining a considerate, faraway expression. "If I'm honest," she returned finally, "it's probably around the time that we started sleeping together."

Nodding, Padma sat up and began wringing out her own hair. "I miss those days."

"I do, too."

"Parvati." They both stopped as Padma held her sister's gaze. "No matter what happens between us, we can't stop being sisters. If we stop seeing each other, or if we end up being together the rest of our lives, the one thing I want is for us to actually be sisters. Like we just acted. Like complete, gits. Like girls. I don't want our romantic relationship to be all we have together."

Lowering her hands and placing them in her lap, Parvati nodded. "I love you, Padma."

"I love you, Parvati." Despite the overwhelming urge to press her lips against Parvati's Padma continued drying her hair, loving, for one moment, the sensation of Scotland's lakewater, as harsh as it was, in her hair, which cooled her head and allowed her to feel as though the rest of her body were enjoying a gentle breeze. "So, Flitwick's homework?"

"Oh. Yeah." There was a distracted tone to Parvati's voice, but she quickly hid it as she recounted the assignment for her. "Twenty inches on Musical Charms, due Monday."

"Monday? Damn!"

"I haven't started it yet, either."

"You haven't started Flitwick's homework?"

"I've been a bit distracted."

"By what?"

"You really want to know?" Parvati said, grinning slightly and flickering her eyes momentarily toward Padma's upper thighs. "Believe me, I meant to start, but... well, being at Hogwarts and everything, it's a bit difficult to get any without asking other girls, eh?"

"You really are hopeless."

"I've been thinking of asking Luna out."

"Wait."

Parvati turned to Padma. "What is it?"

Sighing, Padma shook her head. "Don't tell anyone I told you, but Luna's into Cho Chang."

"Cho? God, isn't that a hot pair."

"Parvati, I'm serious!" Padma sighed, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Luna is attracted to Cho."

"Padma, has anyone ever told you that you need to learn to take things less seriously?" Parvati shook her head. "Listen, if you're not going to provide a better reason than Luna Lovegood being attracted to Cho Chang, you're probably going to hear her screaming from the other side of the castle." Parvati winked, and Padma knew that her sister was hinting at the use of the Room of Requirement. Since Dumbledore's Army had been disbanded the preceding year, they had twice used the Room for their own purposes, though lately they found that they were unable to enter, if for no more reason than the simple fact that the room itself was locked from within.

"What if the Room of Requirement is locked, like it was last time?"

"...and the time before that, and the time before that... Padma, that's what empty classrooms and the second floor bathroom are for!" said Parvati, speaking as though to a simpleton. "If she agrees to go out with me, surely she'll agree to have her sweet, pale arse smacked raw on top of a pile of textbooks. What d'you think?"

"I think you're insufferably horny."

"Perpetually horny, more like. Anyway, if either she or Cho haven't asked each other out by now, I'm pretty sure Luna won't say no. You know how she is. She's strange, but I've always liked strange girls."

Padma nodded, acceding her sister's point. The corner of her mouth went up in an amused grin. "You've got to stop asking me to roleplay as that Muggle girl, though," she said. "I don't mind an occasional fantasy, but when I need to fuck, I'm really not in the mood to bat my eyelashes and deliver some silly line to lick your cunt."

"Okay, now I have to mash for an hour before we meet up and do our homework later."

"An hour?" Padma arched a brow. "Since when does it take you an hour to jill off?"

"Since we started talking about Luna." Parvati wiggled her eyebrows, causing Padma to snort in hysterical laughter. "C'mon, you've dreamt about eating Ginny's twat since you first met her." She paused as Parvati's laughter died. "You reckon she shaves, or does she let it grow wild?"

"Goddammit, Parvati! Stop it! I'll be soaked before we get back!"

"Sorry!"

"I swear, when we get home for the summer holidays, we have to stay locked in your room at least a full day! Twenty-four hours, no interruptions."

"Fucking for a full day? Padma, that's the first time you've spoken sense today. Except for not cheating on each other. Those were nice rules."

They carried their shoes back to the castle, their clothes and hair drying in the mid-summer heat as they returned to the grounds proper. Padma felt some ominous force making itself known at the back of her mind, but she found herself unable to examine the situation more closely. So much had happened during their six years at Hogwarts that it was often difficult to discern a normal day from an unusual one. In their previous year, they had befriended Harry Potter, but it had been necessitated by their hatred of Dolores Umbridge, whose presence at Hogwarts had been pressed on them by the Ministry of Magic; they had witnessed the return of the Heir of Slytherin in their second year; in their fourth year, Padma had felt sick to her stomach when she heard Harry talking about the return of Lord Voldemort, whose power had matched even that of their Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.

What was it with Dumbledore's hand? With its progressively worsening condition, its shriveled, blackened look, as though it had begun rotting away, it was obvious to anyone that he had been cursed, though what curse could cause the slow, steady decay of a human hand was difficult to determine, particularly as it could be so very many things.

"Meet at the library in an hour?"

"Yeah." Padma smiled and bade goodbye to Parvati, whom she watched as she sauntered away, heading toward the seventh floor landing where lay the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. After Parvati had disappeared, Padma headed toward the fifth floor, where her common room was located on the western end. She met few other students, once passing the Grey Lady but only recognising her presence by the chill air surrounding her, which only worsened when her non-corporeal presence passed directly through a living being. "Hello."

"Hello, Padma."

Padma smiled, knocking at the eagle knocker and listening to the riddle. "His mighty crown falls late winter to adorn his head in greater splendour in spring."

"The stag." The door opened, and Padma entered, crossing the common room and paying her housemates no heed as she entered her dormitory and went to her trunk, which lay at the foot of her bed. "Shit." Several letters fell from the trunk, letters which had been authored by some secret admirer, whose identity she had not yet discovered. She studied the hand in which the notes were written, but she could conclude nothing other than what she suspected, which was that they had been written by a female with a very reckless but orderly hand, a female who was shy about making her feelings known, but who spoke of Padma with some familiarity. She had left no clues that Padma could discern, but she was almost certain it was a girl with whom she had spent some time. Despite her conclusions, however, no one sprang to mind, and Padma stowed the letters carefully back into the dog-eared, trashy romance novel written by some Muggle author.

"You dropped one of these." Padma glanced up, feeling the heat in her face when she realised that Sue Li held out one of her admirer's letters. "Who're they from, anyway?"

"No one." The heat increased as Padma tucked the letter into the novel, then the novel into the bottom of her trunk. She was surprised when she realised that she had inadvertently snapped at Sue. "No one," she said, her tone softening. "I'm sorry, Sue. Parvati's driving me mad. She's such a shit, lately. I dunno what's gotten into her."

"Siblings are awful, that way."

"And you're the only girl in your family?" Padma said with a laugh and an incredulous shake of her head. "I still dunno how you deal with all those boys."

"Treat them like dogs."

"I wish it were that easy with my sister." She sighed, procuring a roll of parchment she kept for the purposes of her homework, in addition to a new eagle-feather quill she had not used since Christmas, and a bottle of ink she had yet to start on.

"I meant to ask you." Padma stopped halfway to the door. She turned to Sue, who gazed quizzically at her. "You left class in rather a hurry the other day. I only mention it because I saw you swallow that Puking Pastil. You, Padma Patil, the Ravenclaw prefect, skiving off class."

"Please, don't tell Flitwick."

"Tell Flitwick? Are you mad? We all have those days."

Padma arched a brow. "'Those days?'"

"Padma, you were feeling like shit. If you needed something for the bleeding, all you have to do is ask me."

Padma's expression became a mortified one when she finally recognised that her housemate meant her menstrual cycle, which was not, were it to retain its regularity, expected until the middle of the following week, just before the commencement of exams. She forced herself to laugh, knowing that it sounded fraudulent rather than embarrassed, though Sue seemed appeased. "Thanks, Sue," she said, relieved. "I feel like such an arse, sometimes."

Twenty inches had never been a difficult assignment for Padma, though she often found her mind wandering after she had exceeded twelve inches. Occasionally, she would wake from some daydream as her gaze found a patch of sunlight on the head of a particularly attractive girl, something she found particularly annoying when a redhead wandered into her vision, as it reminded her of Ginny Weasley, a thought which dampened her knickers. After a second such incident in the library an hour after their study had began, Padma glared at Parvati, who ignored her, and measured her parchment, which barely met fifteen inches. "I've still got five more inches."

"When did you grow that?" snickered Parvati, who recoiled playfully as Padma attacked her with a spare roll of parchment. "Oi, mate! Easy, then!"

"You two!"

"Sorry, Madam Pince," said Padma. "I was trying to keep her in line. It won't happen again," she said warningly to Parvati, who smirked, shrugging at her. Madam Pince sniffed at Padma as though not quite believing her, scuttling off to reprimand a first-year who had inadvertently loosed a toad into the restricted section. "You're insufferable."

"Wait 'til exams are over."

"God, Parvati. The Thames isn't this wet." Padma turned her face in the direction of the ceiling, her exasperation mounting.

"Should've taken my advice."

"As though I'd have ever had the chance," snapped Padma. "What with other Ravenclaws in and out of the dormitory. Besides." She lowered her voice until it was a whisper. "You know me. I'd have drenched Morag's bed the minute I came."

"And the Quidditch pitch beyond," added Parvati, stifling a giggle. "Remember that time-?"

"That's it." Padma shut her book huffily, rolled up her parchment, and put it in her bag. "That's it, Parvati Patil. I'm going back to my common room. It's hot in this castle. I'm not in the mood for your attitude. Goodnight."

It took nearly twenty minutes for Padma to relieve what little sexual tension she was able to with her own hands, by which time it was long dark in the castle, and the lamps were lit in Myrtle Warren's bathroom. Despite hating to use the bathroom alone, particularly for her own carnal needs, she had felt that it provided the closest thing to privacy within the vicinity of the library.

As she put the strap of her bag over her shoulder, her eyes fell on the ghost herself, pigtails and all, hovering with her toes three feet above the ground, her hand down the front of her skirt. "I'm sorry!" Myrtle flew backward through the wall of the cubicle, and Padma fell back against the stone wall. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"

"Shit!" The thought of a ghost masturbating whilst watching her masturbate caused Padma to feel faint. "Myrtle! Myrtle, come here!"

"No!"

"Myrtle, just listen, then. I'm sorry. There's nothing to feel embarrassed about. Matter of fact, it's probably been a long time since you've been able to spend time with other girls."

Myrtle's embarrassed face appeared through the wall of the cubicle. "You have no idea," she said, the lust dripping like honey.

"I'm not going to tell anyone," promised Padma. "But, could you promise me one thing?"

"Anything."

Padma nodded. "Just keep this accident between us. And if you give me some privacy, I'll visit you occasionally."