Chapter 15
Demons
Parvati looked across the table at Padma quizzically as she read the Daily Prophet. Her sister had been reading the front page for at least half an hour now and Parvati couldn't help but wonder if there was something that she couldn't make sense of on there, because Padma was the sort of person to skim through a newspaper in five minutes.
"Interesting story, Pad?" Parvati asked as she adjusted Isaac on her knee. Padma looked up quickly before glancing back down at the paper.
"Yeah," Padma said abruptly, "Most interesting piece of crap that this paper has published in months."
"Oi," Parvati said, "Your son is present."
"He doesn't understand," Padma said, waving it off.
"You'd be surprised," Parvati said disapprovingly, "Do you remember when Rupesh was two and he dropped his crayons and stood there and said 'Ah fuck' because he'd heard dad say it the day before when he dropped the milk on his foot."
Padma laughed at the memory of their little brother, "It's hard to believe that little Rupe is almost fifteen," she reminisced, "How time flies."
"Yeah," Parvati smiled. She didn't think about her other siblings much, they all lived in India whereas Parvati and Padma lived in England. They never really had much contact with them as there was such a large age gap between them and their brothers, Rupesh and Ravi and an even larger one between them and their youngest sister, Pamela, none of them were especially close with each other. They still kept in contact with them though.
"When was the last time we saw Rupesh, Ravi and Pamela?" Padma asked.
"Well for me it was at your wedding," Parvati responded, "But Rupe is in fifth year so I haven't heard from him at all and Ravi and Pamela never wrote to me anyway."
"Ravi writes to me," Padma said thoughtfully, "I got a letter from him a few months ago asking me how girls minds work. He's apparently smitten with a girl in his year. I told him that thirteen was too young to have a girlfriend and he hasn't written back yet. I don't think he liked that too much."
Parvati laughed, "And Pamela?"
"She's five," Padma said, "She doesn't know how to write with a quill yet."
"Yeah I guess," Parvati said, thinking about how much of Pamela's life that she had missed from being in school and then choosing to live with Lavender until she was forced into marrying against her will. She didn't want to do that to her child.
"We should visit," Padma said, "They haven't even met Isaac yet."
"Yeah," Parvati said softly, "Maybe next year?"
Padma smiled sadly at her, knowing her reasoning for not wanting to visit straight away, "You know, If we're lucky, we might be able to get Rupesh and Ravi over for the Christmas holidays."
"Where would they sleep?" Parvati asked, gesturing around the small apartment, "It's hardly big enough for the four of us."
"We'll go back to my place, stupid," Padma said, folding the paper up and lobbing it over towards the garbage bin, which it landed in expertly.
"I dunno," Parvati said, looking around the apartment that had been her home for weeks now, "I want to stay here."
Padma grinned cheekily at her, clearly wanting to make a remark about Parvati being in love with Dean again, but restrained herself when she remembered what that subject had caused last time they had spoken.
"Well I'm going to have to go back to Bristol soon," Padma said, "Terry's not going to stay in Wales forever."
"I'll be fine," Parvati said with a shrug as she got up from her position and placed Isaac on her hip before making her way over to the bin to pick up the newspaper and read through it.
"Parvati, no!" Padma yelled, just as Parvati picked the paper out of the bin and unfolded it. Padma jumped up and snatched it out of her hands and set fire to it with her wand. But it was too late, Parvati had seen what was on the front page. She had seen the disturbing picture that they had placed there, she had seen the scenario and the outcome. Padma managed to pluck Isaac out of Parvati's arms as she became weak at the knees and sunk to the ground, her heart racing at one hundred miles an hour and the blackness at the edges of her vision threatening to overtake her.
"Parvati," Padma said, grabbing her shoulder forcefully and shaking it, "Come on, Par, stay with me, you're okay. It's okay, it's fine."
But Parvati knew that it wasn't fine. Pansy Parkinson was dead, dead as the result of an arranged marriage and Parvati knew that if Dean hadn't stepped in when he did, she would be dead right now, she would've gone the same way as Pansy Parkinson; dead in the house of nightmares with Theodore nowhere to be found. It could've been her.
She felt giddy as more and more of the blackness containing the demons that she had been keeping at bay for so long overtook more and more of her vision. She heard someone screaming in the distance and knew that she had to reach them, but she couldn't. She couldn't get past the hulking figure rushing towards her. She couldn't hell who he was until he had fully advanced on her and it was then that she saw his snakelike eyes and creepy smile, the face that she wouldn't be forgetting in a hurry.
"Parvati!"
Someone was calling her name, she tried to yell back but found that her voice wasn't working. Theodore reached out and slapped her face and she screamed, finally finding her voice. He then waved his wand and conjured a bucket of water out of nowhere and began to tip it all over her. She yelled out in pain as the cold water hit her cuts and bruises.
"Parvati, wake up!"
Parvati's eyes flew open and the screams cut off abruptly as she shut her mouth. She saw Padma standing above her with a bowl from the kitchen, having just doused her sister in water to wake her up. She looked petrified, but that was nothing to how Parvati felt. Padma crouched down next to her, worry etched into her face. Parvati's eyes were open and frightened and as soon as Padma put a comforting hand on her shoulder, Parvati began to cry.
Padma's expression softened as she pulled Parvati into a hug and Parvati buried her face in her sister's shoulder, glad to have a dark place that she knew her demons couldn't come and find her.
"Hey, it's okay." Padma said, "It wasn't real, you're here and nobody is going to hurt you ever again."
"But it happened!" Parvati sobbed, "It still happened and that's the worst part about it all."
"Yeah," Padma said, "It happened, but it's not happening anymore and it will never happen again."
"Y-you can't pr-promise that!" Parvati said, "L-look at wh-what ha-happened to P-Pansy, s-he's d-dead! Th-that could've been me, Padma!"
"Yes, but it wasn't." Padma said, soothingly, stroking Parvati's hair comfortingly, "It wasn't you. You're safe now."
Parvati couldn't find any more words to describe how she was feeling, so she just buried her head back into Padma's shoulder and sobbed. This was short lived however, as at that very moment, Dean burst through the front door, a panicked look on his face.
"Padma, have you seen the paper?" He asked, looking around fearfully for the two girls before his eyes landed on them sitting on the kitchen floor, with Parvati leaning into Padma's shoulder, crying. "Fuck." Dean whispered at the sight, "She saw it didn't she?"
Padma nodded, tears in her eyes, "I tried to hide it but she picked it out of the trash."
Dean ran a hand through his head as he dumped his bag with Theodore Nott seniors files in it onto the ground, "Okay," He said, "Help me get her onto the couch and we'll give her a sleeping potion, she doesn't look like she slept well last night."
"I-I'm fine D-Dean," Parvati tried, "I'm really f-fine."
"Parvati, you need rest," Padma said, helping her up off of the ground and over to the couch and laying her down.
"I'm okay," Parvati insisted, wiping her eyes, "I just – bad memories." She said, cutting herself off in the middle of the sentence.
Dean reached his hand out for her to take, knowing that she had an issue with touching after what had happened. To his surprise she took it in her own and clasped it there, tears leaking out of her eyes as she squeezed them shut. Dean stood up from his couch and without taking his hand out of Parvati's grip, moved over to sit next to her. They sat there like that for a while, their hands intertwined, Parvati staring into the distance as if there was a duel going on somewhere that Padma and Dean couldn't see that she was very interested in.
The silence was eventually broken by a tapping on the window.
The three of them looked up to see a tawny owl sitting on the windowsill, a letter in its' beak. Padma jumped up immediately and let the owl in, with the quick explanation that it was Terry's owl. Dean and Parvati watched as she read the letter and her face drained of colour.
"I've got to go," She whispered hoarsely.
Dean stood up abruptly, his hand still staying in Parvati's grip, "What's happened?" he asked as Padma rushed to the front door, grabbing her handbag and picking up Isaac on the way out.
"I've got to be with him," Padma sobbed as she ran out of the door without a second glance. Dean looked down at Parvati and gave her a quizzical look. Parvati shrugged slightly.
"She'll have to come back and explain," Dean said, gesturing to all of Padma's things that were scattered around the apartment, "She can't just dump all of her stuff on us."
"Dean," Parvati whimpered and all thought of Padma was forgotten as Dean sat back down next to her, both of his hands encasing hers, "Can I trust you to tell me the truth?"
"Of course," Dean said, "You can always count on me, Parvati."
"Do you really believe that I'm safe from him?" she asked.
Dean didn't hesitate, "Of course," Dean said, "He's locked away, for good."
"are you sure?"
"Locked him up myself,"
Parvati's face seemed to relax and her eyes, which had been screwed up as she tried to control her emotions, opened widely again and as Dean looked into them, he could see every emotion that Parvati was feeling. Her eyes, that was where her demons hid. Every demon that had ever plagued her nightmares hid inside her eyes. He could see pain, sadness, suffering, stress; all of the things that he didn't want Parvati to have to suffer through, that he didn't want anyone to have to suffer through.
"Can I hug you?" Dean asked and Parvati nodded. Dean drew her into his arms and hugged her tightly, his chin resting on the top of her head, "Are you okay?"
"No," Parvati said softly.
"What's wrong?" Dean asked, "Talk to me."
"I think that its sick that they keep doing this. Forcing people into marrying people that they don't want to and so far they've had two pretty nasty outcomes, but they keep arranging marriages. They keep doing it. It's like they have no care in the world for the people that they're pairing together, just as long as they have children…. Well they got their fucking wish." Parvati said bitterly, her hands moving over her swollen stomach. At six months pregnant, she had finally decided what she wanted to do with the baby once it came. She would raise it, she would make sure that it didn't become a bad person and she would give it the best upbringing that she possibly could.
"You don't have to keep the baby, you know." Dean said, "You can give it up for adoption."
"No," Parvati said, "I want to keep it, It'll give me something physical to hold onto about what happened, just so I know it's not my imagination making things up."
"But wouldn't that be better?" Dean asked.
"No," Parvati said, shaking her head, "I want to know that it's real. Knowing it actually happened is better than thinking it a figment of your imagination."
"I guess that's fair enough," Dean said, shrugging, "Parvati, I've been meaning to ask you something for ages now and I just haven't got the chance."
"Mmm," she said, her eyelids starting to droop as the rise and fall of Dean's chest gradually rocked her to sleep.
"I was just wondering, because when this baby is born, it's not going to have a father, and I was wondering if you wanted it to have one, because I'd be more than willing to step in as an honorary father."
Parvati's eyes flew open, "You would really do that?" she asked, craning her neck to look up at Dean.
"Of course," Dean said, "Only if you want me to though."
"I would love you to," Parvati said and smiled as a huge smile came across Dean's face, "I feel safe with you." She muttered as she leant back into his chest, "I feel like I'm in a fortress and nobody can ever get to me."
Dean smiled, "I will never let anyone hurt you, Parvati."
"Will you promise to do the same for my baby?" she mumbled, her eyes shut now.
"Of course," Dean said, "I will always protect you and any of your family."
"Thank you," Parvati whispered before her breathing became steady and rhythmic; she was asleep. Dean planted a kiss on her head before moving out from behind her and laying her head down on the pillow, "I will never let any harm befall you," he whispered into her ear, "because no matter what, I will always love you."
AN: This chapter was loosely based off the song Demons by Imagine Dragons. If you haven't listened to Imagine Dragons, go and listen to them right now, they're amazing.
I also have four spots left in my 'Year of Gift Giving' project. If you would like a gift, then all of the information is on my profile underneath the heading 'GIVING BACK IN 2013' I'd love it if you could help me fill up my remaining spots.
I'd love it if you could leave a review :)
DFTBA,
Best Wishes
~The Original Horcrux~