Chapter 3

On Monday, Padma was back to work. She had decided to put the strange situation with Percy and Parvati's thoughts on it out of her thoughts. The whole situation was too confusing, and Padma didn't know what to do about it all.

She was in the Ministry's cafeteria, buying her usual lunch of soup and a sandwich. She was eating lunch at noon today, something she was not used to at all. Usually she would emerge from her work at around 2, when her stomach started growling so loudly she couldn't ignore it any longer. But today, the manager of the Time Room had called her into a meeting, then told her to go to lunch after it was done.

So Padma found herself in the packed and busy Cafeteria, not knowing where to sit. Usually the Cafeteria was quite deserted, and she could find a table in the sun to read at while eating. Today, it seemed like every table was full.

She walked around the room a bit awkwardly, hoping to find a miraculously deserted table. When none appeared, she resigned herself to having to go outside of the ministry and sitting in muggle London to eat.

As she approached the exit, she spotted Percy sitting alone at a small table by the window. She hesitated a moment, then steeled herself, striding to where he was sitting.

"Excuse me Percy," she said, and he looked up from his pasta. Seeing it was Padma standing at his table, he smiled and greeted her.

She returned the greeting, and then asked if she could sit with him, as all the other tables were occupied.

"Of course!" Percy said, clearing his briefcase off the other chair.

She happily sat down and prepared to eat her soup.

After a slightly awkward bout of silence, Padma struck up a conversation about Gringotts' recent soaring stocks, and they once again fell into a happy conversation, chatting amicably.

Soon their conversation veered into their workloads.

"Actually Percy, my recent project is just wrapping up, and my manager approached me this afternoon about working with you on your collaborative project."

"Oh that's excellent," Percy replied, "I was hoping I would be working with one of the better Unspeakables on this project. I've been very fascinated lately with the linear progression of time as it relates to the distribution of magical beings around the world."

Padma smiled at the unexpected compliment. "Well I'm glad to be working on such an interesting project, it seems gripping in a way I haven't experienced yet."

They continued chatting, and soon stood and cleared up their lunch, and walked back to the lowest level of the ministry together.

In all the time that they'd been talking, Padma had found that her thoughts hadn't wandered at all; as was the case with many people she talked to. Talking to Percy was fascinating as he seemed to want to always talk about the same topics as her. He still hadn't brought up the latest Quidditch results or fashion trend, which was refreshing to her, to say the least.

As they stood to part at Padma's office door, Percy lingered a moment.

"Er, Padma," He started, looking discomforted for the first time that she'd seen. He always seemed so sure of himself and confident in both what he said and the way he held himself.

"If you're free, would you like to have dinner with me sometime? I find I rather enjoy talking with you."

Padma smiled brightly, "I like talking to you too Percy, and I'd love to have dinner with you. How about Sunday?"

"Sunday sounds good, so it's a date," He said, and then he suddenly grasped her hand, laying a gentle kiss on the back of it. "I look forward to it." He said looking up at her with his magical eyes.

He then turned to go back to his office, and Padma had to check to see if she hadn't physically melted. She didn't consider herself a big romantic, but even she could admit that that had been pretty darn great.


Like last week, Padma was once again sitting beside Percy at the bustling Weasley Table. When she had been seated, he gave her a friendly grin in greeting, which she returned, and turned back to reading his newspaper, which she supposed, was one of his morning rituals. One, she thought, he had clearly not allowed to be disturbed by the chaos of the Weasley breakfast table.

She observed him flip the page of his newspaper, suddenly very excited for their date tomorrow.

As she sat waiting for the amazing food Mrs. Weasley always prepared, she was unprepared as the wall behind her suddenly exploded.


She could tell she was in a room of Gryffindors and War Heroes, when, upon the wall behind her was blown apart by a Bombarda spell, her first thought was to get to safety, while everyone around her drew their wand and leapt into the fray.

There was a small semi-circle of Death Eaters standing in the back garden, their wands leveled at the Weasley house. Despite the victory of the light side, and the end of the war, it seemed that the remaining Death Eaters were deciding to make a statement.

Padma climbed painfully to her feet, covered with lacerations from the initial explosion. She turned toward the battle behind her, only to see a Death Eater with his wand leveled directly at her, and she hadn't even drawn her wand yet.

As if in slow motion, she could see the green light form at the end of his wand and slice through the air toward her. She was frozen in fear, she couldn't even summon up the thought to close her eyes. In that moment, the thought that she was going to die had barely formed in her mind, when someone jumped in front of her and quickly countered the spell that seemed only inches from them. Padma was shocked to be looking into Percy's wide blue eyes, as he shouted, asking her if she was okay. She snapped out of her daze and hurriedly answered him.

He tucked her behind him and countered another one of the Death Eater's attack, sending a few of his own offensive attacks back.

Amid the rubble of the Burrow's wall and the chaos of the battle, Padma realized that she was not being very useful. Parvati was back to back with Fred, fighting a female Death Eater, and even Fleur has her strawberry blonde baby clutched in her arms while shooting spells at a massive Death Eater. Harry, Hermione, Ron, George, and Bill seemed to be in the middle of the fray, battling at least two Death Eaters each, while Molly was quickly and determinately defending the small children that were huddled behind her, including the silver haired girl and a blue haired boy.

She was at least as capable as the rest of them, she knew far too many incantations and wand movements off by heart, though she hadn't used any practically since she'd been in Dumbledore's Army. She leaned around Percy a bit, though still being shielded by his body and judged the situation. He seemed to be doing well against the Death Eater he was battling. She watched his battling and started assisting him by shielding and blocking the Death Eater's attacks, and sending a few of her own attacks at him. Seeing that she was helping, Percy quickly shot her a grateful smile, and in no time had stunned the attacking Death Eater. Padma sent a spell to tie him up for good measure.

As she finished this, it appeared that the battle was all but won. The majority of the Death Eaters were stunned, full body binded, or tied up, and the few that remained were no match for the remaining Weasleys and family.

Padma turned to Percy, who she also noticed was covered with small cuts like her, and smiled broadly.

Seeing him return her wide smile gave her the sudden urge to wrap him in a hug. That was very unlike her, where she usually preferred her space from other people. But seeing as she had just been nearly killed, Padma gave in, and suddenly wrapped her arms around Percy's torso.

She could feel him stiffen with surprise for a moment, but then recovered and wrapped his arms around her as well. She rested her head on his chest, glad that he had been there in the nick of time to save her, like a Gryffindor Knight In Shining Armour. Her eyes popped open at that thought, though she didn't break their embrace.

Percy hadn't seemed like a Gryffindor at all, until it had been put to the test with this impromptu battle. Why he hadn't been placed into Ravenclaw like her had become abundantly clear in the moment the battle had commenced. She had frozen up at the imminent threat, and he had leapt into action, disregarding the danger he was putting himself into. That she thought, was the true proof that he and the rest of the Weasleys were Gryffindors.

She was brought out of her musings by the fact that she was still wrapped in Percy's arms, and was rather liking it. Her sister's words about them being perfect matches for each other came back to her, and she blushed, drawing back from him, and smiling up at Percy again. He smiled at her in return again, and she had the sudden urge to giggle happily. She once again gave into the un-Padma like urge and laughed lightly in happiness of the triumphant situation. Percy joined in, and soon the whole family was laughing, cheering, and embracing, celebrating their victory.

Percy gestured back toward the house, and Padma fell in step beside him, as she thanked him profusely for saving her, which he waved off with a smile. They meandered back to the Weasley house, as Harry and Ron made arrangements to take the Death Eaters back to the ministry.

Padma was suddenly glad that Parvati had dragged her to the Weasleys' house time and time again. Despite the impromptu battle and danger of the afternoon, she found herself excited for the next week's brunch. It had become a bright day in her otherwise quiet week, which was a nice change from the norm.

And of course, she had gained a new friend (or something more) in Percy. As she walked toward the ramshackle house, cheering redheads all around her and Percy at her side, Padma was suddenly glad that there were so many Gryffindors here to make her life so grand.

The End.