Paronymous: containing the same root or stem, as the words wise and wisdom.

July 12, 1995

Parvati Patil liked to think she was a friendly, amiable sort of person. She liked to think that she could handle herself in any social setting with dignity and poise. And liking to think these things about herself was about the only thing stopping her from pulling out her wand and jinxing Sue Li's pretty little lips to three times their normal size. That, and of course a desire to avoid expulsion.

Parvati focused on the nail brush she was carefully daubing on her long red nails and tried not to listen to the other girls' chatter. She liked her sister's friends. Honestly she did. She and Lavender spent half their time by the lake with Padma and the other Ravenclaw girls. Being social butterflies as they were and with Hermione Granger the only other girl in their dorm, they were practically forced to befriend the Ravenclaws. But there were times when the house differences were very obvious, and it was all Parvati could do to keep a hold on her rather bold temper.

"Look at the evidence," Sue was saying, pulling her sleek black hair back into a tight bun. She pushed her rhinestone-studded glasses up her nose with her index finger and went on in a voice reminiscent of Professor McGonagall. "There's no doubt he's had a traumatic life. Witnessing your parents' murders? Even as an infant that could screw a person up. Just knowing that you were there, that you survived for God knows what reason. And then they say he was neglected as a child –"

"Who says that?" Lisa Turpin interrupted skeptically.

The girls sat about on the Patils' back steps, nail polish bottles and sparkly eye-shadows scattered among the text books and newspapers spread out between them all.

"Hannah Abbott hears it all from Longbottom," Sue said primly, blowing on her sparkly blue nails.

"Hannah isn't much of a gossip," Lisa pointed out, flipping idly through their new Charms book, which she'd brought to show off to the rest, the first to have purchased it as the book lists hadn't arrived yet.

"Not ordinarily, but it's easy to get things out of her if you get her riled up," Sue smirked.

"Half the time I think you belong in Slytherin," Mandy Brocklehurst teased, and Sue made a face at her.

"Anyway," she went on loudly. "He hates his relatives, that's no secret. So he comes here and all of a sudden he's famous. What kid wouldn't love that? Especially with his history?"

"He's famous because someone wants to kill him," Parvati burst out angrily before she could stop herself.

All four of the other girls turned on her.

"Someone wanted to kill him," Sue corrected. "And I expect that just added to the glamor."

Parvati ground her teeth as Sue went on.

"But of course that only lasts so long before it gets old. He had to go get involved in that whole stone business by the end of our first year. There's always something going on around him. And I don't care what they say about hoodwinking the goblet. That's an incredibly powerful magical object! It's much easier to fool an age line. Besides, you saw him – he was loving that tournament, showing off on his broom and saving that little Delecour girl and having Vati on his arm" – she gave Parvati a knowing look here – "and the ministry knew about him speaking Parsletongue and all sorts of other things. What purpose would it possibly serve them to start making things up now?"

"Alright, so if he's making things up, what happened in that maze?" Parvati burst out.

Sue gave her that look that the Ravenclaws sometimes gave her, like she was a slow, but amusing child. It drove her up the wall. "Well, you saw how badly Krum wanted to win, using Crucio. And Potter has five times the fame to keep going. I mean, I'm sure he didn't mean to, but still…."

She trailed off delicately. The others stared at her, wide-eyed. Lisa even put down her book.

"Sue," Mandy gasped. "You don't honestly think that he…."

Sue looked pale but determined. "Well, either Potter got a little carried away in the heat of the moment, or a man who's been dead thirteen years came back, did it for him, and then sent Potter on his way back to school."

Parvati stood up. She couldn't sit here one more second and listen to this. With a swish of her long dark hair, she turned and marched into the house, letting the door snap behind her to her sister's call of, "Vati!"

Fury was bubbling beneath her skin. How could Sue Li just sit there and spew out smug judgments like that as if she knew everything from a few articles in the paper? How could the rest listen to her? They'd been in school with Harry for four years, just like her. How could they even think about believing their classmate had killed a fellow student just because the ministry implied it?

Up in the room she shared with her sister, she threw herself onto her bed and rolled over to look out the window, down at the back steps where Sue was no doubt still holding court. That was the distinct difference between herself and the Ravenclaw girls. She got angry easily while they sat and pondered all the angles. She went with her gut and her heart and they followed their logic and their minds. Usually it didn't matter, but the other thing about Ravenclaws was that they sat around debating current events, so it was impossible to avoid scenes like this when it did matter.

They were just so blind, Parvati thought angrily, rolling over and burying her face in her pillow. Of course the prophet made sense when your only source was the prophet! For being brainiacs, they weren't all that smart. With a sinking feeling, Parvati realized that, outside of the few people who actually knew Harry, most of the school would probably have come to the same conclusion as the brilliant Sue Li. And with an even further plunge of her stomach, she realized that her sister might just be one of them.

Padma was very like Parvati. Until they were eleven, Parvati had barely noticed the differences between her and her sister at all. They were pretty, smart, outgoing, vivacious girls, and until their first year of school, nearly inseparable. Perhaps Padma had always been a bit more studious and cautious, Parvati a bit more restless and reckless. But until they'd been put into different dormitories, different classes, different circles of friends, the similarities had always seemed to outweigh the differences.

Parvati sat up and looked over to her sister's side of the room. It was decked out in Ravenclaw blues and bronze, neat and tidy as always. There was a clear line down the middle where Parvati's clutter of clothes and jewelry began, where red and gold took over. And down in the back garden Padma was still listening to Sue Li denounce their own classmate. What would she be like back at school?

In the four years since Padma had been her one-and-only-very-best friend, suppose the line between messy and neat had widened into a much greater rift? Suppose they fell on opposite sides of this battle?

The room seemed suddenly far too small and hot. Parvatie leapt to her feet and bolted down the stairs. In the kitchen she filled a glass with ice-cold water and leaned against the counter, sipping it and trying to rid her stomach of the heavy wait that had settled there. The back door banged. Padma perched herself at the table and began to braid her hair into a long dark plait.

"Where are the rest?" Parvati asked cautiously, and perhaps a little coolly.

"Lisa and Mandy just remembered they had to be home and I didn't much fancy keeping Sue around if she's bent on talking like that, so I told her you hadn't been feeling well and she'd best go home, too."

"You don't agree with her, then?" Parvati asked, turning to put her glass in the sink.

Padma stopped mid-braid to give her sister an incredulous and offended look. "Of course I don't agree with her! She's being stubborn and stuck-up, and I went to the ball with Ron Weasley last year, and I might not have enjoyed it, but Potter didn't either. Any boy who stares at his feet for an entire dance can't possibly be capable of… well, that."

"Oh, Padma, I should know I can always count on you," Parvati beamed, flying across the kitchen to hug her sister.

Padma gave her a strange look, but Parvati didn't mind in the least. She should have known better than to doubt her sister. They might not be the perfect matching set they looked like on the outside, but down at the core, they were one in the same.

A/N: Perhaps a bit of a stretch with this word, but I was inspired! This chapter is for draco'sfairmaiden who suggested some Patil twins, and as I haven't explored them much, I decided to give it a go! Thank you all so very much for your favorite characters and suggestions! I'll try to give you each what you like :) Keep reviewing! So close to 800!