THC

House: Ravenclaw

Class: Head of House

Category: Standard

Prompt(s) chosen: [Negative Pairing] Lavender Brown/ Parvati Patil, [Location] A busy shopping center

Word count: 1324

Notes: Mentions of cheating, unhealthy relationship.

Alone (and it's quiet)

Parvati rolled out of bed, not ready to face the day's agenda. Her apartment was unusually quiet compared to the noise of the coffee machine and dishes clacking together that use to occur. Alone, Parvati wasn't used to living alone. She had grown up with a twin which meant she was never alone. Even when they went their separate ways to start their adult lives, she hadn't been alone. Except for now. There wasn't anyone to share her space with since she walked out the door two weeks ago.

The image was still fresh in her mind. How could it not be? Parvati saw it every night in her nightmares. She never expected to be almost twenty-five and divorced. Well, separated for the moment, but she knew she'd have to get around to sending the divorce papers. Everyone told her she should have known better than to marry Lavender, but Parvati didn't listen. She thought she could change Lavender. Parvati had never been more wrong in her life.

The first red flag, to herself, should have been when she thought that changing someone for a relationship was a could foundation block to said relationship. Lavender had never liked being tied down, a free spirit, and wandered between relationships for years. They started off as just friends, then best friends, then roommates, and then they started dating. Everyone thought it was the perfect love story, what a joke that had been.

Parvati was pathetic for falling in love with Lavender. She should have known that Lavender never loved her back. It was difficult to tell how long Lavender had been unfaithful, but Parvati had to guess it wasn't a recent occurrence. She wanted to beg Lavender to stay, but she knew her wife—ex-wife—wanted to leave the moment she said, "I do". Lavender just liked the stability of what Parvati could provide for her. While Parvati worked as a lawyer, Lavender was out sleeping with people under the guise of "working at home".

Parvati hated that she let Lavender walk all over her. For years, Lavender used the money Parvati earned at her job to cheat. And now everyone knew. It had been difficult to get her parents on board with their relationship and marriage and now she knew that was all in vain. Lavender had played her like she played everyone else.

Unfortunately for Parvati, it was the holiday season, and she couldn't lock herself away in her apartment. The apartment that still had touches of Lavender. She'd have to look into moving once the holidays were over—it couldn't be healthy to stay there anymore—even if it was home.

She had been on her way to her parents' house for dinner and to exchange gifts when she realized that she hadn't wrapped any of them. It had been too much effort to dig the wrapping paper out of the closet that she had thrown all of Lavender's unclaimed items in. She didn't have time to wrap them now, but she hoped she could find some gift bags and tissue paper that would do the trick.

The shopping center was filled to the brim with people and Parvati regretted not wrapping the presents to avoid it. She wandered around until she found a shop that seemed to fit what she needed. She felt suffocated by the amount of people, not to mention all the couples that passed by. It took a while to wait for the aisle to clear up to be able to grab the bags she had been eyeing.

"Excuse me," A voice said to Parvati's right. She hoped that her brain recognized it incorrectly. That it was just her anxiety and that she wasn't faced with reality, "I was here first."

Parvati turned to Lavender and watched the face of the woman she loved turn into a wicked grin, "I don't think you were," and Parvati clutched the bags and walked off.

She heard the unmistakable clack of Lavender's heels on the linoleum floor as she tried to find the tissue paper. Parvati pretended not to notice because she knew Lavender was only doing it to get a reaction. If Parvati had never found out about the cheating, they wouldn't be getting divorced, but now it was more fun for Lavender to antagonize Parvati in other ways.

"I said those were mine," Lavender reached for the sparkly red gift bags. The bags matched her long claw-like nails.

"You don't own them," Parvati spat. She couldn't believe that Lavender decided to pull a stunt like this in a store. "They're clearly in my hands and not yours."

Lavender stepped closer and grabbed onto the handle of one of the bags. She pulled backwards which caused Parvati to tip forward. The bad ripped from the tension and it sent Parvati to the ground.

"Are you kidding me?" Parvati screamed as she stood up. Her dress pants were covered in dust from the disgusting floors. "Seriously, you couldn't just get something else? Do you just exist to ruin everything?"

Lavender's grin faltered. It lost its twinge of mischief as she looked at the ruined bag in her hand. "If you had just given it to me this wouldn't have happened."

"How is this my fault? I grabbed it first therefore they were never yours. It's astonishing how you only think about yourself."

"Well, I've only ever had myself to rely on."

"That's complete bullshit and you know that. Your parents love you despite what you think. That and you always had me. Except you decided that I wasn't enough, and you decided to ruin our relationship."

"It's not like you ever cared about me," Lavender scoffed, "You were always at work."

"That's also a lie. I put so much time and effort into clearing my schedule for you just for you to turn and fill you schedule up by cheating on me."

A group of people had congregated around them. Parvati sighed as she walked to the nearest aisle to set the bags down. She felt bad for not putting them away properly and in any other situation she wouldn't do this, but she needed to leave.

She pushed her way through the store and then through the crowds of people in the shopping center. At first, she couldn't remember which exit led to her car and she ended up walking in the wrong direction. She never looked back, and she didn't care that tears were streaming down her face. So, what if everyone was looking at her? They could learn to mind their own business.

"You didn't need to air out all our dirty laundry in the middle of a store," Lavender said once she had caught up to Parvati.

"You shouldn't have created so much dirty laundry then."

"I can't believe you're blaming me for everything."

"Well, I'm not the one who cheated on my wife, am I?" Parvati pushed the door open and was immediately hit with a blast of cold air. "Stop following me."

But the click of Lavender's heels persisted, "I want the rest of my stuff."

"You know where the apartment is and how to get in," Parvati made her way towards her car, "Get it yourself."

"You didn't change the locks?"

"Too expensive and honestly I do not care."

Parvati unlocked her car. They were approaching from the passenger side, and she didn't know if Lavender would attempt to get into her car. She opened the passenger side and climbed in before she shut the door and locked the car. Lavender rolled her eyes from outside the car and tapped one of her long fingernails against the window. Parvati ignored her and maneuvered her way into the driver's seat.

She started the car and made sure Lavender was a safe distance away before she pulled out of the spot. If Lavender was allowed to run away, then Parvati should be allowed to run away.