Well here's the next chapter. Thanks for everyone who's been reviewing and favoriting. You guys are the best :) I really, really appreciate it. I have a pretty clear idea of where the rest of this story is going so I just got to get it all down on paper.

As always let me know if there are any mistakes, and as always I own nothing and all these characters are J.K. Rowling's I just borrow them for my amusement sometimes.

It would suffice to say Hermione was slightly nauseated as the healer and the Indian girl walked closer and closer to her down the hall still oblivious to the bushy-haired witch her stood there with her mouth slacked open and her hand glued to the door handle. Hermione's eyes were toward the two, but completely unfocused. She could not handle looking at the woman in front of her, it would make it all too real, yet she found it hard to move and hard to not keep her in the line of sight.

Everything seemed to be happening quickly and yet slowly at the same time. The door to the handle she was holding opened from the other side and a nurse gave a small yelp in surprise to see Hermione standing there. Out of her peripheral vision she saw the healer Parvati was talking to turn a corner leaving Parvati alone still walking down the hall. The nurse apologized and said something that she let herself chuckle to and Hermione stood there like a bloody troll oblivious and yet very aware of what was all going on. She knew the nurse thought she ought to be a patient rather than a visitor judging from the look she gave her as Hermione still stood at the door not going inside, she knew the most beautiful girl in the world had noticed her because she had stopped dead in the hallway, and she knew that the hardest thing would be to look in those beautiful brown eyes like she deserved to.

Hermione swallowed feeling her mouth go dry as she turned to address the girl that she thought she knew so well. The girl she had secretly fantasized about all seventh year, the girl she whispered songs to as she fell asleep, the girl she had teased about divination, and the girl that she had held naked in her arms only a few weeks ago and experienced things she had never in her wildest dreams expected. She was also the girl whose heart she had effectively broken, and the girl who had looked at her with such hate before she left even if Hermione was too much of a wimp to look.

Feeling antsy and disoriented Hermione finally focused her gaze staring at the witch staring at her and was not at all surprised to see the wonderful dark brown skin, the alluring silky long hair, and the magnificent dark eyes. She was stunned, however, to see that she was not the most beautiful girl in the world. That title belonged to her twin sister.

"Padma!" Hermione said surprised. "I er- I thought. . . weren't you doing work in India?"

Padma smiled a smile that was uniquely her own, but still quite like her sister's. Hermione felt what seemed like a punch in the stomach. She was half relieved it had not been Parvati, half severely disappointed. "I'm back for a few weeks visiting my sister," Padma answered. "If you're looking for Parvati, she only had a half day today. . ."

"I'm not looking for her," Hermione answered a little too quickly. She felt her cheeks turn slightly red. "Ministry stuff," she said holding the forms up weakly.

"Oh," Padma answered looking a little disappointed. She shifted awkwardly looking as if she didn't quite know what to say. She did not have the gift of gab like her sister did.

"How is she?"

Padma looked uncomfortable for some reason, and Hermione couldn't help but notice she looked exactly like an uncomfortable Parvati. "She's good."

"Tell her I said. . ." Hermione hesitated not quite knowing what to say, "hi." The cynical audience in Hermione's head laughed heartily and she looked away stupidly.

Padma nodded. "Yeah, okay."

"Okay, I er- better get this stuff done. Nice seeing you."

"Take care Hermione," she said with a smile and walked past her as Hermione finally opened the door to take care of her forms.

x x x

"I have plans for us tonight. We're going on a double date."

Parvati, who had been uncaringly dissecting a piece of pizza with her fork looked up at her friend with a rather annoyed look on her face. She had been successfully sulking for the entire afternoon since the departure of Ginny, and was rather intent on staying in that state for the rest of the night.

"What?" Parvati asked keeping no attempt to hide the disdain in her voice.

"We're going on a double date with Seamus and Dean," Lavender said not noticing, (or rather ignoring) the displeasure in her friend's voice. "And, we're going out to eat so you might want to ditch the Italian cuisine. We're leaving in an hour."

Parvati let her fork clank loudly on her plate as she watched her friend move quickly around the kitchen grabbing a drink and dropping her stuff as she had just walked in the door a few minutes ago. "Lav," she sighed, "I'm really not in the mood tonight. Besides, how can I go anyway? The press have almost left me alone I don't want to give them something to go on."

"The press won't be a problem Parv," Lavender said with a smile stopping in front of her friend and taking the plate away from her. She took a bite of the pizza and dropped the rest in the sink. "We're strictly muggle tonight."

"Don't call me 'Parv' I hate that nickname," Parvati said looking forlornly at where her unfinished comfort food was lying in the dirty sink.

"You don't like any of the names I give you. . . well except 'Vati'" Lavender said as she licked her finger that was smudged with marina sauce. "'Perverti' was my favorite for you though," she said looking nostalgic. "I gave it to you the first night we got drunk together. . . remember, fourth year?"

Parvati sighed, "Yes." She knew exactly where she was going with this. Whenever Lavender wanted to convince her best friend to do something all she had to do was remind her of all the fun times they had had together. Even though Lavender wasn't as sneaky as she thought, Parvati always found it funny how Lavender always brought up old fond memories when she was trying to convince Parvati to go out with her and make new fond memories.

"You also told me you were bi that night. Remember you confessed your little crush on Alicia Spinnet?"

Parvati shook her head wanting to seem annoyed but was rather amused. "I remember quite distinctly you laughed your arse off."

Lavender grinned wickedly. "Only because I was drunk, and you said, and I quote, 'Merlin I'm jealous of her broomstick.'"

"I was jealous of her broomstick."

"Well anyway, I took it well and kept your secret like you wanted me to," Lavender said loyally. "I never once said mean things to you or discouraged you for being who you were. I never once tried to use you when I was going through my experimental stage, and I've always loved you."

Parvati rolled her eyes, but found it hard to disagree. "Yes, Lav, you've been the best friend I've always wanted." She sighed, knowing she was going to have to get ready for a double date soon.

"Hey," Lavender said leveling with her. The guffaw was gone from her voice and she sounded slightly serious as she locked eyes with her best friend. "I know you loved her. . . but I hate how you're shutting yourself in. . . I think it's good if you go out and have some fun. Really I want to see you happy again, Vati."

Parvati sighed and nodded knowing it was inevitable. "So where are we going anyway?"

x x x

When Padma got home to the apartment, she was greeting by Lavender running around the house in a towel shouting questions to Parvati about where her mini skirt was. Parvati came out of her room a second later and tossed it to her. With her tight jeans and a small top, it was evident to Padma that her sister was finally going out tonight, and Padma couldn't help but sigh a little in relief.

"Hey Padma, how was work?" Parvati asked noticing her sister.

"You know that wizard who's only been able to talk in riddles for the past week?" Padma said as the two of them started walking back to their temporary shared room.

"Yeah," Parvati answered as she sat in her vanity and started curling her hair with her wand and a spell.

"Well, he's still speaking in riddles," Padma sighed. "We still can't figure out how he got that way. The healers told him to tell them in a riddle, but no one is apparently very good at riddles. . ."

Parvati snorted appreciatively and Padma smiled. "So going out tonight?" she asked her sister.

Parvati nodded. "Lav convinced me to go double with Seamus and Dean tonight," she finished her hair and tilted her head as she began to put on her earrings. "Sorry I should have told you sooner I hate leaving you here alone."

"Well," Padma smiled a little ruefully. "I ran into Anthony Goldstein the other day and he asked to take me on a date."

Parvati gave her sister an impressed look through the mirror. "Do you like him?"

Padma shrugged. "Well I'm only going to be around for a little while."

"Always thought you two looked cute together," Parvati informed her sister. She grabbed some make-up, but stopped halfway. Really, she had not worn any in awhile. Although Hermione had never asked her not to wear any, she knew her girlfriend had always preferred a more natural look.

As if Padma was reading her mind she said. "I saw her today. . . Hermione came into St. Mungo's."

"What?" Parvati asked surprised knocking over her arrangement of lipsticks.

"She said she had some paperwork from the ministry. I think it had something to do with that muggle we got in last week. . ."

"Well, what did she say?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but was drowned out by a loud Lavender. "Have you seen my sequin's top?" she yelled from the other side of the apartment.

"Lav!" Parvati yelled back annoyed. "No! I- keep track of your own things-"

"I need it! The boys are expecting us there any minute-"

"Use a summoning charm!"

She could hear her friend cursing, but Parvati hardly cared. She looked back at her sister in earnest who said thoughtfully, "Well, I think she thought I was you at first. She looked a bit frazzled. It was kinda awkward really."

"What did she say though?"

"She said she thought I was still in India so I told her-"

"About me, Padma!" Parvati snapped wanting to get to the point. She had the shrewd notion that Lavender would come in at any moment and pull her away.

"She asked me how you were and-"

"Parvati, I'm ready we're leaving now!" Lavender called from her room.

"And?" Parvati said wishing her sister would hurry this story.

"I told her you were doing good, and she told me to tell you she said-"

"Vati, we're leaving. We're already late," Lavender announced walking into the room.

"Shh, this is important-" Parvati shushed her and looked hopefully at her sister. "What did she want to tell me?"

"Hi."

"Hi?"

"Hi."

Lavender rolled her eyes. "As exhilerating as that story is we have to go, Vati," she said grabbing her friend by the arm and pulling her out the bedroom.

"Just hi?" Parvati asked looking behind her for clarification as her sister followed the two of them out of the room.

"That's it,' her sister reassured her and before Parvati could say any more to her sister Lavender pulled her out of the apartment and side-apparated away with her to Seamus' apartment.

They did not stay at the apartment long. They went out to a small cozy restaurant in a small muggle town then out to that movie theater Dean had been telling them about for years. Dinner went by rather slow for Parvati. All she wanted to do was sit and meticulously think about what exactly Hermione meant by saying hi. However, every time she seemed to get quiet Dean would ask her something or engage her in a new conversation. She found herself looking forward to the movie where the only thing she would have to listen to was the big screen which wouldn't bombard her with conversation if she ignored it. It wasn't that she was annoyed at Dean. He was always, and still was, a gentlemen through and through, but she did not feel like being the recipient of his affections. And halfway through the movie, as his arm snaked delicately around her neck, she knew she was probably going to disappoint him tonight. The fact that Lavender stopped giggling halfway through the movie by the intrusion of Seamus' tongue in her mouth did not help.

The four of them made it back to the apartment about a couple hours later after Seamus had insisted that they all go back to their apartment to have some drinks. Which would have been fine if Lavender hadn't stopped asking dumb questions halfway through the movie as Seamus started occupying her mouth, which would have been fine if Parvati wanted to get with Dean tonight as Dean obviously wanted to get with Parvati, which would have been fine if Parvati could just get this other witch out of her mind.

"Lavender," Parvati hissed as the boys went in the kitchen to get drinks for them. "You didn't say anything about drinks."

"Well, I thought that it was implied since their both nice gentlemen. Of course they're gonna ask us to come over to-"

"Please, Lavender don't leave me alone with Dean," Parvati pleaded grabbing her friend's arm.

Lavender rolled her eyes. "C'mon Parvati what's he going to do to you? Not anything you don't want to," Lavender answered it for herself pointedly.

Parvati took her hand off of her friend and sulked. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you with Seamus around," she said more to herself than Lavender. Asking Lavender not to give in to her physical wants (especially when she would be drinking), Parvati knew, was like asking a cat not to chase a rat.

Before Lavender had a chance to respond, the boys had come back in the room carrying glasses and a bottle of firewhisky. Seamus poured Lavender a rather full glass. "I know how much you like you're whisky," he said with a wink.

Lavender let out a flirtatious giggle that let Parvati know she was going to have to leave the apartment by herself if she was going to go home. Between the alcohol and the sex, Lavender obviously, would be spending the night.

Dean took the bottle. "How about you Parvati," he asked as he poured some into a glass, "as much as Lav?"

"No, just a little thank you," Parvati said with a small smile.

"Oh." He looked rather disappointed and poured himself a rather large amount after he handed Parvati her glass.

They started talking about the movie or something. Parvati lost her interest in the conversation as the popular discussion in her mind took over.

Hi? the properly offended part of her asked incredelously, what the hell does that mean?

She probably didn't know what to say, the rational part of her sighed in defeat. Padma caught her off guard and she thought she had to say something. . . She didn't go to the hospital to see me.

But she knew you worked there, a hopeful voice thought. She must have figured she could have run into you. Maybe she wanted to see you.

If she wanted to see you, a shrewd voice countered, she would have seen you already. . .

But, I'm doing the same thing, Parvati thought. I've been going to the ministry to try and see her with an excuse to. . . maybe it's the same thing.

Even if it's the same thing, it's still not love. You heard what Ginny said, the shrewd voice sauntered, you know it's true. . .

"Parvati!" Dean said loudly.

Parvati snapped back to reality and woke from her reverie. Three pairs of eyes were on her. Two were already happily alight already buzzed from the alcohol, but Dean's looked sober and sad despite the fact that he had already downed quite a lot.

"Sorry, I was just thinking. . ." Parvati muttered and took a sip of her drink. "I should probably go soon-"

"No stay!" Seamus objected immediately he took Parvati's glass and filled it to the brim, then took a swig of it straight from the bottle.

Lavender giggled as the alcohol dripped from his chin onto his t-shirt.

"Whoops," he laughed noticing. He set down the bottle and got up from his seat and pulled off his shirt which made Lavender giggle even harder. "Gonna get a new shirt," he said and winked at Lavender as he started walking towards his room in the back of the apartment.

Lavender took the bottle from the table and took a very deep gulp from it before standing up and announcing she was going to help Seamus find a shirt (because he obviously, could not very well pick out a shirt by himself). She took the bottle with her as walked out of the room.

Parvati could have slapped her. She knew this was going to happen, but still had half hope she would return. Dean tried to make small talk as if they were just waiting for their friends to return despite the fact that they had heard the door close, but when they heard the sound of furniture thumping spastically against the wall he decided to give up on that and turned on the television. "And they took the whiskey with them," he said with a sigh as he flipped through the channels.

"Do you watch a lot of television?" Parvati asked. Besides Hermione he was the only wizard she knew that had a television set.

"Not too much, but I like to keep up on West Ham games," he gave her a small smile as if encouraged that she was finally attempting conversation. "They always have some good movies now and then though. Did you like the movie we went to by the way?"

"It was alright," Parvati lied. Truth be told she could barely remember what the movie was about. She had more urgent things on her mind.

"Tell you what," he said handing her the remote. "You find us something nice to watch and I'll scavenge through the kitchen to see what we still have to drink. You know how to work it?"

Parvati nodded remembering Hermione had showed her at her house. Although the buttons were a bit different she was sure she could manage it.

He smiled. "Be right back," he said and left the room.

Parvati sighed and started flipping through the channels. She really felt she ought to leave, but knew Dean would just insist and insist she stayed until she eventually did. She had a feeling she was in for a long night.

She went to the movie section and started flipping through the action movies.

Action movies, she discovered, usually consisted of a plethora of explosions and at least one thorough love scene. Hermione had showed her muggle movies before and although Hermione was not the biggest fan of action movies as she was of documentaries, Parvati need not have seen more than her small action collection to understand that r-rated action movies consisted of at least one decent romping session. Which was fine and great when she was snuggling on the couch with her girlfriend and the partial nudity they were seeing made Parvati eager to see Hermione's nudity, but when she was on a couch of an old friend's apartment it was probably best to stay away from that. But, as she flipped it to a new channel, it went to a rather steamy sex scene that made Parvati sit there awkwardly knowing she should change it yet too mesmerized by the half-naked woman on the screen arousing her on-screen lover to actually change the channel.

"Found something you like?" Dean asked as he came back into the room. He was holding a jug of mead and smirking as he looked at the television.

Parvati felt her face grow very hot very fast. She immediately changed the channel and it landed on a war movie. She looked away awkwardly and set down the remote. Dean chuckled and sat right next to Parvati on the couch. He set down the mead and poured the two of them a glass.

"I think it's really cute when you blush," Dean said handing her a glass.

Parvati caught his eye when he gave her the glass and blushed more despite herself. She shook her head embarrassed.

"I think it's really cute when you get embarrassed," Dean continued taking a sip of his drink.

Parvati sighed. "It's really not. . ."

Dean chuckled. "I've been thinking it's cute for seven years. You can't tell me to stop thinking it now. It's far too embedded."

Parvati gulped and Dean moved closer to her, outstretching a hand to move a strand of hair out of her face. "I've been thinking you're beautiful for seven years too," he said softly.

The movie on the television grew quiet and the apartment was silent except for the whispered dialogue of two soldiers in the midst of battle and the consistent thumping of a headboard hitting a wall from Seamus' room.

"Look at me," Dean asked and before Parvati could think of anything else she looked at him and very much liked what she saw. Dean, Parvati could not deny, was beautiful. He was tall, dark, and handsome. The kind of man girls dream about marrying when they get older. The kind of man Parvati should want to marry because she could tell from his eyes that sparkled with honesty that he would never hurt her or be unfaithful. He was the kind of man that would wait seven years for a chance to dance with the girl of his dreams at a friend's wedding and would beat himself up the next night for ruining it by getting in competition with the former class clown. He was the kind of man that would wait seven years for the opportunity and the courage to tuck a strand of hair behind a girl's ear and feel like the luckiest guy on the planet just because he was looking into her eyes and she was finally looking back.

That was when Parvati actually understood: this was love.

The kind of love that was patient and undemanding. That was everything warm, comfortable, and unselfish.

But, also the kind of love that was terribly unrequited.

Dean moved his hand to Parvati's cheek and she could almost imagine what those talented artist's fingers could do if she would let them. He leaned in and she knew his heart is racing because he has been waiting so long for a single kiss.

"Dean," Parvati said and leaned back putting a hand on his arm to stop him. She saw Dean slump down ever the slightest. Although he was trying his best to not look disappointed, his eyes don't quite meet hers. "I can't."

Dean nodded and looked away like he was thinking very hard about something. After a moment he asked, "Do you love her?" He looked up like he was truly curious about the answer.

She was almost envious of him. The way he had never physically been with the one he loved, but still loved so maturely like he already knew what love entailed and all it meant while Parvati was still learning.

"I'm trying."

"Trying?" he asked incredulously. "What does that mean?"

"Well, we're not exactly on speaking terms right now-"

"So make yourself on speaking terms-"

"It's not that simple," Parvati argued.

"Yes it is!" he said looking at her as if it was the easiest thing in the world. "Do you want to love her?"

"Yes-"

"Then find her. It's late enough she should be home."

"Right now?" Parvati asked feeling panicky.

"Right now," he said with a nod. "If you're really trying, you'll swallow your pride and go."

"You think she'll-"

"Yes."

"What if she-"

"She won't."

"Dean?" she said his name like a question stunned that he was helping her like this after just getting shut down.

He smiled, but it was not his usual smile. He was trying too hard to force his lips to move in an upward curve. It was far from natural and smooth. "She'll let you in," Dean said addressing her worry, "and she won't push you away. She'd be insane if she did Parvati."

Parvati gave him a small smile and stood up ready to leave, albeit a bit nervous. She could feel her hands shaking as he followed suit and walked her to the door.

"You sober enough to apparate or do you need me to get you there?" he asked while opening the door for her.

Parvati shook her head. "I think I can manage it," she assured him taking out her wand. They looked at each other a minute. Dean looked away awkwardly as Parvati blushed.

Finally Dean said, "You better get going."

She nodded. "Thank you Dean," she murmured and she went on her tip-toes to give him a kiss on the cheek.

He closed his eyes and let out a sad chuckle, and when he opened them again she was already gone. He stood alone in the doorway, in the quiet of the apartment except for the occasional sound of gunshots from the movie and the random moans emitting from his roommate's room, and wondered if he had done the right thing. It was clear to him now, that he could not keep seeing Parvati in these casual settings knowing that it was certain she would never be his. He shut the door of the apartment knowing that this was the last he would see of Parvati for a very long time, and wondered rather sadly if she would even notice.