Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if that's you.

Author's Note: Traditions are the key to maintaining order in any society. Why would the wizarding community be any different?

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Ravenclaw MC; Gryffindor MC; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent; Quiet Time (Y); Letter of the Day; Two Cakes!; Feeling So Logical [Respectable]; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux; In a Flash
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 11 – Assignment 03
Subject (Task No.): Public Services (Task#1: Write about maintaining order in the wizarding community.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Romance Awareness [D16] (First Words)(Katy Perry "Roar"); Insane House Challenge [109] (Language Barrier); 365 [178] (Heritage); Galleon (Padma Patil)
Space Address (Prompt): n/a
Representation(s): Padma Patil/Harry Potter
Bonus Challenges: Abandoned Ship; Second Verse (Bechdel Test; Not a Lamp; White Dress; Nontraditional; Unwanted Advice; Lovely Coconuts); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Tomorrow's Shade; Larger than Life; Unicorn)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terse; Toad); SN (Rail); FR (Evolution; Satisfaction); O3 (Olivine)
Word Count: 780

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Without Words
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"Don't you think this is a bit..." Padma pursed her lips as she thought of how to phrase it so that it didn't upset her mother Rajani. "Traditional?"

"Is there something wrong with tradition?" Rajani demanded immediately. She stuck her head out of Padma's closet to eye her closely. "Are you ashamed of your heritage now?"

"No, of course not," she denied just as immediately.

Padma shrugged, unable to articulate what was bothering her exactly. It wasn't like she had never expected that her parents would try something like this eventually. It really was traditional for parents to set up dates at the very least for their children, in the hopes that they would exchange matching first words. She supposed that she was just hoping that she could skip all of that, since she hadn't gotten a set of words for her soulmate to say in order to reveal that they were a match.

"Good, because I have arranged for your date to take place at Uncle Ila's restaurant." Rajani grinned in the same satisfied way she had when she had when Parvati had finally fessed up about Lavender being her match. That alone was enough to make Padma suspicious. Had her mother discovered another person without a soulmark? Surely, if they didn't hit it off, her mother would not insist on her marrying whoever this was? "The menu as already been decided. You are having the house specialty."

"Oh, great," she said not the least bit enthused. Was there anything more boring than going on a date and eating curry, which she could eat any time as it was one of the first dishes she learned to make? She didn't like this guy already, even if her mother seemed to love him. She still didn't fight her mother dressing her in a midnight blue shalwar kameez with phoenixes embroidered up the side in varying shades of purple and magenta. Then Rajani brought out her own jewelry box for a few finishing touches such as a nose ring and earrings.

"It will do you well to look your best, biti," Rajani told her as Padma placed the jewelry. "You will thank me later."

She was still not expecting to see Harry Potter sitting at the table where she was supposed to meet her date. Like her, he had taken care to dress in formal Hindu dress. Unlike her, however, he looked uncomfortable in it, lacking the instinctual awareness of how to move so that his dhoti stayed as it was place. He still looked shockingly good in proper clothing. She had always wondered why he never wore it at Hogwarts, not even during casual settings. The Potters had always practiced traditional dressing. Intrigued now, she approached the table.

She had no sooner sat down than Uncle Ila herself carried over their meal. Harry licked his lips nervously after giving a little wave of greeting. Padma returned the wave, already wondering how they were supposed to communicate. Everyone knew that Harry Potter couldn't say a single word, and while Padma knew sign, it was Indian sign language while Harry only knew British Sign Language. This was going to a very long night if they were going to need to write everything out.

Then Harry began to slowly and carefully sign in the language she knew. Before she had really noticed, they had skipped right over any awkwardness that might have existed. It felt like it always had to be around Harry: like she was stronger and simply better than she would ever be alone. Her mother was right. This was a date she wanted to remember looking nice for.

"I have to thank my mother for convincing you to come," Padma signed towards the end of the night. "How did she manage it, anyway?" Harry raised his hands to reply only to lower them immediately. "What's wrong? Oh, gods, did she blackmail you somehow?"

Harry frantically shook his head. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he pushed up the fabric covering his left forearm. In her own familiar handwriting, she read the very simple words over in the Fungi section. She flushed at the implication. It wasn't the worse first words she had seen, but it wasn't very fancy or distinctive. Then her Ravenclaw intelligence finally kicked in as she realized what all those knowing looks from her mother had meant.

Her mother had known about Harry having the first words she had ever said to him on his body.

Padma had been the last to know that she had a soulmate at all.

At least she now knew why she didn't have a set of words.