Disclaimer; Pansy, Padma, Parvati, Sinistra, Vector, Snape, Pince, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hogwarts - all belonging to Rowling. Boyds mine. Bullies mine, don't really want 'em, may string 'em up later if I can be bothered.
Author's Notes: Rated thus because this three-part story will deal with relationships, f/f with mentions of others. If that disturbs you...I have no clue what you're doing reading my work. Get thee to a...sod only knows. H/Hr archive?
Padma Patil was in the library this time when it started--the harassment that had been essentially constant since the beginning of the year. Contrary to popular school opinion on the nature of bullying at Hogwarts, it wasn't the Slytherins that were tormenting her, but rather treachery from within.
Two Ravenclaw boys were her tormentors, both in the fifth year and obviously so confident about their coming exams that they could take time out of their study schedule to pick on her, calling her names and casting aspersions about her morality based on her skin colour, and no prefects were in sight even if she was one to nark on her fellow students. They had probably known she wouldn't, though, because she knew it was better to suffer a few racial slurs from a pair of boys than garner the resentment of the entire house for being a tattle-tale crybaby.
"Problem with you is that you heathen freaks don't know your place any more, innit?" one of them smirked as he leaned over the table to match his equally irksome friend's posture.
"Paki slut, you think you're too good for us, don't you?" They had to keep their voices down lest Pince descend from on high and smite them, but that didn't stop their malicious little words from squirming into her ears like maggots in a corpse; didn't keep them from jeering and leering and generally disturbing her from her study. "You think you're better than us."
They just wouldn't shut up and let her read! She needed to study, because that Granger cow from Gryffindor had already got the hop on her in both Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, for all that Professor Vector was one who didn't worship the ground that the girl walked on and really did seem to favour instead the students of her own house and Slytherin. Professor Croft, their Runes teacher, didn't seem particularly entranced with Hermione--unlike Professor Flitwick--but that didn't excuse the fact that Padma was coming in second equal with Draco so far in the marks, both of them below the Gryffindor.
"No, I don't think so," she murmured, her voice as exquisitely polite as it could be and her face impassive as she got up and closed her books quietly in preparation to leave. Although it was the middle of December and snow was on the ground, she'd have had better luck studying outside with her arse in the lake for all that she'd managed to read so far today. "I know so."
That was when things began to move a lot faster. One of the boys, Martin Donald, lunged for her over the table while his friend went around to get her, probably to hit her, and a sharp voice called out "Aquilus puniceus!"
Her Latin wasn't spectacular, as she hadn't begun learning it until almost nine, but she knew that had been something aboutturning someone dark red? Purple? Latin was such a stupid language. She would have preferred if they could've learned magic entirely in Sanskrit... now there was a language that made real sense.
William Monier fell over gasping as he indeed turned bright purple, and Martin's looming face disappeared as the boy was whirled around by a tiny feminine hand that appeared on his shoulder. He promptly folded to the floor, his eyes closed, when what Padma knew to be a very sharp knee drove into the most sensitive spot in his trousers. Pansy smiled sweetly at her as the Slytherin gave Martin a kick in the kidney for good luck. "You should consider shutting the fuck up instead of going around insulting people for their ancestry, Mudblood."
"Pansy?" Padma knew she gasped in shock, but she was shocked. She and Pansy hadn't really talked since they were ten, before they'd ever come to Hogwarts. In their first year they had been too busy trying to sort out their new school life, in their second year there'd been all that mess with the Heir of Slytherin and students being petrified all over the place, forcing house Slytherin to go temporarily insular, and their third year... this year they were just too rushed to talk.
The only classes they had together were Runes, Charms and Herbology. Pansy usually partnered with Draco in the last one, and in the first two they were generally expected to work alone, and there had just never been any time. Now Pansy had decided to rescue her?
"Oi, Padma. Pince is coming, we'd better run." With no more explanation than that, Pansy darted forward to grab Padma's sleeve and pull her away from the unconscious boys on the floor, one purple and one simply very red of face. Now Padma could hear the irate librarian's little footsteps, and she followed Pansy without a murmur of complaint as they slipped silently through the stacks in the opposite direction from whence the old woman had come.
After a great deal more running than Padma was comfortable with, Pansy led her into one of the little corridors that Hogwarts was riddled with, and they flattened themselves against the wall. The Slytherin girl peered carefully around the corner, then nodded to indicate that the coast was clear and they hadn't been pursued. Padma began to slide down the stone first, sitting and curling her arms around her knees.
Pansy followed suit quickly enough, crossing her legs and leaning forward with her chin propped on her fist to study her fellow student with both eyebrows slightly raised. "How long have you let them do that to you?"
"A year. Maybe two," Padma shrugged to show her indifference, realising that the last thing she wanted was pity from old friends. "It only really happens when I'm alone. If I'm in a group, they don't bother."
Pansy's tone was incredulous when she answered, her expression aghast. "And you just take it?"
"Parvati's the brave and stupid one, not me. How much studying could I get done with a broken arm? I'd have to go to Pomfrey and tell her that I fell down, it'd be a mess."
"Or you could complain to a teacher and have them intercede for you," Pansy pointed out with typical Pansy logic.
"Can't. They're in my house, I'd never hear the end of it. It'd just be worse."
"Pad, they're Mudbloods. You can't just stand there and let them have a go at you, you have to teach them some respect!"
Padma cracked a wan smile at that, and shook her head. Pansy hadn't changed one bit from when they'd last played together. Parvati had tried to push her more bookish twin around, and Pansy had bitten the misbehaving girl. That had somewhat put an end to the time Pansy spent at the Patils', although Padma'd gone over to Pansy's once or twice after. "What, like you did, with a kick in the bollocks?"
"It'll make a boy fear you, at least. That's almost as good as respect."
"Hah. Slytherin."
"Ravenclaw." It wasn't an insult the way Pansy said it, not like it was when Parvati teased her for her house. There was a hint of uncertainty, and more than enough acceptance. Pansy didn't understand what it meant to be a Ravenclaw, and Padma didn't know what it was like to be a Slytherin. Still, the brunette didn't expect her to.
"Pansy, I didn't...I mean, I didn't ask for them to tease me. I didn't just walk up and say 'Hey! Pick on me, I like it!' because that'd be stupid. They just wanted a victim, and decided it would be me."
"Hey, it's okay..." Pansy patted her shoulder gently, worry looking quite out of place on that usually reserved and cold face. "Pad, they should think twice about going after you now, and if they don't, well, I'll kick 'em again. Harder this time."
She bit her lip viciously as Pansy's words sunk in, as she hugged herself tighter and shook her head. She hadn't let anyone know for a reason, hadn't really wanted anyone to know because the moment they did and they tried to talk about it to her, she'd start blubbing. The tears were already starting to fall, and she scrubbed them away with a sleeve. "M'sorry, you shouldn't have seen it, you shouldn't have been there."
"Don't go dishrag on me, Padma Patil..." Pansy broke off as she realised that Padma was shaking--really sobbing--as muffled as her crying was, and pulled the other girl up to her knees to hug the Ravenclaw carefully. "Okay, dishrag, but don't snot on me please."
Padma had herself under control again only a few minutes later and pulled back, testing Pansy's shoulder to make sure that it was only tear-damp, before she got to her feet. "Thank you, Pansy."
"What're old friends for?" Pansy asked rhetorically, slipping her arm through Padma's before she could bolt away. "And on that note, you're not nicking off just yet. We're going to talk about what you're going to do."
"Do I have to do anything?" she mumbled as Pansy gave her a stern look. She knew she did, realistically. Pansy had saved her for the moment, but Donald and Monier might not take Pansy's object lesson to heart and they'd go after her again, the minute they could. This time they'd really be angry with her...
"Well, you could let them walk all over you, but that'd be stupid."
"Ta ever so."
Pansy ignored the dripping sarcasm and nodded in acceptance of the thanks at face value. "We'll discuss it in a bit if you're not sure now. That aside, what's been happening in y'life?"
"Parvati's bringing her stupid bitch friend home for the holidays again," Padma sighed aloud. Pansy knew the worst of her problems now; she might as well spill the rest while she had someone who cared enough to ask. "It'll be horrible. You?"
"Draco's still being such a fucking child," Pansy sighed herself. "I swear, he's three, not thirteen. He's not even properly out of the girls are yucky stage." There was a long pause, and then Pansy spoke again. "You know...you don't have to stay at home for Christmas."
"I don't?" She knew what Pansy was going to suggest, even though it might've seemed to come out of the blue... well, Pansy might've suggested that she run away from home and join the circus as a trapeze artist, but that wasn't as likely as the other option.
"Come stay with me. Mummy won't mind at all, she's always at me to have more friends. 'Socialise, darling, you've got to socialise,' and all that rot."
The more Padma thought about it, the more sense it made. "Okay."
Pansy raced up to the owlery in a graceful, mature and adult manner (or so she'd have convinced her mother, were the woman there to see her), dragging Padma up just two steps behind. It was a sudden wild urge that had grabbed her when Padma had started sobbing on her shoulder, but it was more and more appealing as she thought it over and she'd made up her mind.
The reason she'd tossed off was true enough, her mother was always trying to get her to win friends and influence people, but there was more to it than that. Millicent, her best friend in Slytherin, was a nice girl, and more intellectual than everyone but their teachers suspected, but there was something lacking in their friendship. They didn't seek each other out after classes, they'd only gossip if they happened to end up in the same room or if they were both bored and couldn't sleep, they didn't stay at each other's house for a night or for the weekend...it was just company when they had nothing better to do.
Padma's openness, once Pansy'd refused to let the Ravenclaw run away and dwell over her wounds alone, had reminded her of how it had once been when they were only anklebiters, when their parents had started taking them around to meet the offspring of their friends. How it had been between them right up until Hogwarts. They hadn't been so close that it had felt wrong for Pansy to sneakily grope the crying girl, and now she was thinking thoughts that would have had her burned for a witch in the Muggle world.
It was Padma's own fault for being beautiful, especially when she cried so prettily without any of the mess and bloodshot eyes that Pansy suffered from herself in that state, but she couldn't let herself indulge in those thoughts any further. First she had to gain back Padma's friendship, and the best way to do that wasn't to try and stick her tongue down Padma's throat.
"Just tell them you've been invited to stay for the hols with me," she commented lightly as she glanced over Padma's shoulder at the scrap of parchment that the other girl had so far written 'Dear Mum,' on. "They shouldn't ask too many questions."
Padma nodded firmly, dipping the quill in the inkpot once more before she scribbled messily 'Going to Pansy's over the break, hope you don't mind.' "I think that'll do."
"Might want to sign your name, although I think they can tell the difference between your writing and your sappy heart-riddled sister's."
"True," Padma said with a giggle, finishing the note off with a 'much love, Padma.' She waved it in the air a few moments to ensure the ink dried, then turned about to go look for a bird, crashing into Pansy as she did so and sending them both tumbling to the floor, the Ravenclaw on top. Pansy looked a little surprised at their closeness, as they were literally nose-to-nose. She could just breathe in and enjoy Padma's scent, the spicy fragrance her clothes had and the violet that came from whatever she washed her hair with--
and Padma could scramble up quickly, and pull Pansy to her feet with a disgusted look. The look wasn't for her, the Slytherin realised a second later, as Padma began pulling feathers out of and brushing dust off of Pansy's robes. She jumped in shock when she could have almost sworn Padma had gone and groped her in retaliation from before. It wasn't Pansy that the other girl was revolted by, simply the state of the floor. "Do those bloody elves even bother to do anything up here?" Padma muttered as she linked arms with Pansy and pushed open the door to the owlery proper, instead of the letter-writing part. "No, they do not."
Pansy had to agree with her on that one. Now she knew why she always borrowed Draco's owl when she had to send a message home, if a bird didn't come from there in the first place. The owlery floor was covered with birdshit, and now she really wondered why it came in at number three on the Best Places To Fuck list, right after the Astronomy Tower and Professor Snape's classrooms.
Living dangerously, fine... Professor Sinistra had only thrown three of the ten people she'd found in her tower over the balcony that year, and Pansy was sure that they would find the mangled pieces of the Gryffindor pair who'd chosen Snape's rooms...eventually. But to roll around in shit? Disgusting.
They'd spent a few more hours just talking sprawled in one of the unused classrooms, catching up on personal history and Padma spilling quite a few useful things that Pansy could use against Granger, thanks to the Indian girl's overly-talkative and not-bright twin, before Padma had started to yawn.
She'd promptly done what any wicked Slytherin would have done: escorted her friend up to the Ravenclaw common room (just incidentally learning the password because Padma hadn't told her to piss off and not overhear), then hugged the girl goodbye and walked away a few steps. The door closed once more, and she sat to wait.
"You still here, Slythie?" a brunette girl asked, peering out around the door which she'd just opened again. The girl had a prefect's badge pinned beneath the Ravenclaw crest on her robes, thin-lensed glasses on over grey eyes that kind of resembled Draco's, and more of a Scottish accent than was usually heard at Hogwarts despite the location. Had to be one of the Boyd girls, and since Nathara had a fetish for dyeing her hair blue and bronze in house pride...
"Shannon."
The girl nodded, slipping out of the Ravenclaw commons to study Pansy more directly.
"I'd like to ask a favour, if I may."
"You've only to name it--and I'll consider." Shannon had the sophistication those properly quick of wit all had, and a way of stating just what she meant instead of what someone could misinterpret to take things how they wanted.
"Two Ravenclaws, fifth-year. Donald and Monier, Mudblood as they come. They've been harassing Padma for over a year now, and you're a prefect so you should do something about it."
"What've they been on at her about?"
"She's not white enough for their liking."
"Oh, I'll deal to them when I next see them." Shannon paused, raised an eyebrow quizzically. "I haven't seen them all evening, though."
"You can't miss them when they do turn up," Pansy smirked wickedly, approving of the Ravenclaw's resolve to do something about the matter. "One's purple and the other one should, I'd imagine, be having a little trouble walking yet."
"I'm pleased to hear it." The prefect contemplated a moment, then nodded. "Right. I'll detail my wee brat of a sister to keep an eye on your friend, and if those boys put so much as a toe out of line she'll rip their legs off and beat them to death with 'em."
"That's a lot more than I'd expect from a Ravenclaw."
"We think she was a tragic case of misSorting and should have been sent to the snakepit."
"Oh." A thought occurred to Pansy then, provoked by something that Shannon had said. "I never told you Padma was my friend."
"I know Slytherins can have many motivations for doing gods only know what, Parkinson, but for what other reason would you have told me about the Mudbloods? I'm a Ravenclaw, not a Gryffindor; two and two isn't complex mathematics."
"That's an excellent point," Pansy murmured, folding her hands behind her back. The Ravenclaw was too clever for her to deal with any further at that time of night. Maybe in the morning, when she could think coherently. "Thank you for your help. I'll take myself and my ignorance and be off now, shall I?"
"If you insist. And if you run into Marcus tonight, tell him that Roger says yes, they've got the pitch for the weekend because the lions are feeble."
"Will do." With that she indeed took herself and her ignorance and departed, smiling back at the prefect's cheery wave before she broke into a run for the Slytherin common room. All things considered, she really should borrow Draco's Adder to send a note to her mother now. It would only be polite to let the woman know about Padma's visit before they just showed up at the train station, and manners were everything.
If you've managed to get this far, do review or email to let me know what you think. I feel ever so odd writing something so...clean and innocent.