In the evening, it finally cleared up, and on Tuesday the hot sun burned down from the sky again. Everyone was happy about this, especially as Flying lesson was cancelled today, except for Parvati, who was bothered by the heat. For Lavender's sake, however, she went with the whole Gryffindor class to the lake, where she found herself a shady spot under a tree and watched the others who were already splashing around in the cold water, screaming.
A little further on, she caught sight of Padma, similarly exhausted as herself, sitting in full rig under a large weeping willow, waving a hand fan at the air while her friends broiled unaffected in the sun. Parvati raised her hand and waved at her sister, who nodded back.
And now, of course, she expects me to get up, come over to her and, best of all, swing the fan for her, thought Parvati, who was still angry about Padma's rebuke on Saturday.
She had even given the rat a name—Desideria—but that sister could spoil everything. What annoyed her most, however, was that Padma, as always, was right—Desideria deserved a better fate than being pierced by Crookshank's huge fangs.
Okay, you knew better once again, thought Parvati. But that doesn't make any visitors rain on your blanket now, sis!
She turned her gaze back to the lake, which had just been thrown into wild turbulence by a horde of screaming first-years, and enjoyed the light breezes that occasionally blew in off the water.
After a short while, Hermione, who had only been wading around with her feet in the water, came over to Parvati and, with a book on her knees, kept her company. They watched as Lavender squealed and frolicked in the water with Ron and Harry, unapologetically putting her skimpy bikini through the hardest of tests.
She can almost do without the top by now, thought Parvati, who watched out of the corner of her eye as Hermione's expression froze more and more into ice. But the girl continued to stare bravely into her book and not a word passed her lips.
It wasn't until the three girls were in the dormitory getting changed for dinner and Lavender was lilting in front of the mirror, twisting and turning, that Hermione exploded, "Can't you shut your annoying mouth for once!"
Lavender and Parvati froze in shock; then Lavender slowly turned to Hermione. "What's going on with you?" she asked incredulously.
"Don't you realise how you're getting on everyone's nerves with your super-duper mood?" Hermione's cheeks were bright red and she was panting with anger.
"How is it my fault if you're in a bad mood?" asked Lavender in an affected voice.
"Oh, quite a lot!" With flashing eyes, Hermione went for Lavender, but stopped short of her. "Leave Ron alone!" she said with a dangerous undertone in her voice.
Lavender's jaw dropped, then she straightened and threw her long hair back. "Why should I?" she asked challengingly. "Do you want something from him?"
"No!" hissed Hermione. "But he happens to have been my friend for five years, a very good friend in fact. And I don't want anyone to hurt him!" She was shaking with anger, and Parvati felt sorry for her, more than for her own friend. I told her so! But apparently, she doesn't want it any other way …
"Oh," Lavender made. "Don't you think he can take care of himself? After all, he won't leave me alone either!"
"Because you're driving him completely crazy!" cried Hermione.
"Excuse me?" Lavender was horrified.
"Are you that naive or are you just pretending! You're acting like a slut, totally shameless!" Hermione could no longer control herself and gave Lavender a shove in front of her chest. Parvati took a startled breath; she had never seen Hermione like that before.
"Are you crazy?" Parvati heard Lavender's voice break; she was clearly on the verge of tears now.
"You think you can get away like that anywhere!" hissed Hermione. "Show a bit of skin and the boys will be panting at your feet! A little plucking somebody's heartstrings and you're in Snape's class!"
"That's not true!" Lavender began to cry and Parvati interjected, "Don't you think you're exaggerating a bit?"
"No, I don't think so!" returned Hermione heatedly. "And I'm still wondering what you want there in the first place, Lavender!"
"Why don't you mind your own business," Parvati reprimanded her. "And leave Lavender alone, she doesn't want anything from Ron!"
The diversion worked. "I know that! She just wants to play with him a bit to boost her puny ego. But Ron's too good for that!" Hermione gave Lavender, who was huddled on her bed, crying, a shove on the shoulder. Then she grabbed Lavender's chin and forced the girl to look at her. "If you use him for your pathetic purposes, then God help you," Hermione whispered. "Then you'll really have me to deal with!" She pushed Lavender off her and left the room, slamming the door.
"You're just jealous!" shrieked Lavender, her voice cracking. Then she collapsed on her bed, sobbing. Parvati took her in her arms and it took Lavender quite a while to calm down. "Is my ego really—puny?" she finally panted.
"Nuts!" said Parvati. "Hermione was overreacting a bit. You don't need that at all!"
In her heart, however, she thought somewhat differently. Why else was Lavender flirting so excessively with Ron, even under Hermione's nose, although she had definitely known for days that she cared about Ron? Couldn't she show a little consideration?
They missed dinner and when Hermione returned, they were still sitting arm in arm on the bed; dusk was already falling. "How touching," she purred gloatingly. "Did Lavender-Baby have a good cry with Parvati-Mommy?"
"It's okay now," Parvati said, rolling her eyes.
Hermione took her bag and put a few books in it. Obviously she still wanted to go to the library. "But you know what's always struck me as odd, Lavender?" she asked on her way to the door; her glittering eyes boded no good.
Lavender stared at the ceiling with deliberate indifference.
"That neither your parents nor Dumbledore should have realised that it is of no use at all to you to be able to continue Potions—without Transfiguration! Ever thought about that?"
Lavender and Parvati stared at each other with wide eyes. No, neither of them had thought about that yet!
Hermione rushed out of the room with a big grin, leaving two stunned friends behind. "Um," Parvati finally said. "So—do you think your parents really didn't know that being a Healer also requires Transfiguration?"
"I can't imagine that," Lavender said quietly. "But—then they could have told me straight away … and why should they talk to Dumbledore specially if it's no use anyway?"
"And he definitely knows which OWL's you need for which education," Parvati added shaking her head. "That's really very strange!"
"And Hermione of all people brings it to our notice," Lavender said, smiling sourly.
"She can really think logically," Parvati remarked, which elicited a hollow giggle from Lavender. "And maybe she already has her suspicions …"
Bam! Lavender sat bolt upright. "What do you mean?"
"I have a feeling she knows," Parvati said hesitantly. "That line the other day about you fancy older people … she's not stupid!"
"God, it's getting more and more embarrassing!" Lavender slapped her hands in front of her face and peeked out from between her fingers. "I think I need to go for a flight now! Maybe then I can get something out of this day!" She bent down and pulled her Comet 93 out from under the bed. "Are you coming?"
"Sure!" Enthusiastically, Parvati sat behind Lavender on the broom and wrapped her arms around her friend's waist. "Off we go!"
They pushed off from the floor and flew out through the open window into a balmy summer evening. Parvati wasn't a big fan of broom rides, but she felt so safe behind her friend that she could really enjoy the wind in her hair and the ticklish feeling in her stomach when Lavender did one of her famous swoops over the water.
Mandy's seminar came to her mind, due to start in half an hour, but Parvati didn't find the thought of sitting dutifully in a pleated skirt in a stuffy classroom among the academically inclined Ravenclaws the least bit enticing at the moment. As long as she could have this … besides, Lavender needed her! She realised she couldn't steal away today, and she didn't know herself whether to be angry or happy about it.
After their ride, they invaded the kitchen like hungry wolves and were each served a huge plate of spaghetti carbonara. As they scoffed the pasta down, they reviewed the argument between Lavender and Hermione for at least the third time, and Lavender promised for the umpteenth time to restrain herself concerning Ron.
Then Parvati raised again the question of what Lavender's parents and Dumbledore had been thinking by letting her take Snape's class, even though she wouldn't get anywhere with that subject alone. "Can't you just ask your parents in an innocent way?" she suggested cautiously, which Lavender acknowledged with a snort.
"What? Forget it!" was her short reply. "They'll for sure think of some sort of giving me an earfull about it! You know how they are," she added, and Parvati nodded. She liked Lavender's parents, but she knew that her mother in particular was very strict and had made especially the first years of school difficult for her daughter with her high expectations. It hadn't helped—despite this, or perhaps even because of it, Lavender had stubbornly brought home poorer exam grades year after year. And the sad sight of her OWL certificate had finally made her parents bury their lofty plans of Lavender studying.
Still, they demanded that she pursue a degree that could be used for something. So the friends had always assumed that was why they had so willingly helped Lavender get into Snape's class. "But without Transfiguration! They must have thought of something," Parvati insisted.
"How should I know!" grumbled Lavender curtly, letting a fork full of spaghetti disappear into her mouth. "Did I actually tell you that we have Quidditch training three times a week now?" she abruptly changed the subject, her mouth still full.
And before Parvati knew it, Lavender was in the middle of an animated monologue about the complicated Quidditch rules. So, I'll get to my seminar after all, she thought, sighing inwardly. But the main thing is that we're talking normally again.
They sat in the kitchen for a long time, drinking pumpkin juice and chatting; about their homework, their teacher in Defence Against the Dark Arts, whom they both disliked—and of course about Severus Snape …
But not a word did they talk about why Parvati had kept the encounter with Snape in the corridor from Lavender. Or why she never really listened when Lavender complained about her sister; let alone about how much the underlying enmity between the two of them actually weighed on her mind.
They didn't talk about the fact that her heart ached as often as she thought about the encounter with Padma in the Honey Pot; or about the fact that she hadn't rained on her blanket earlier at the lake and then skipped the seminar as well.
And certainly not about those strange feelings that had settled within her chest since the party last Friday—and just wouldn't leave …
Later, as they lay in bed, Parvati heard Lavender tossing from side to side, occasionally accompanied by a heaving sigh. She obviously had a lot to get over with and could not sleep. In the past, it had taken less than three minutes then for her to crawl under Parvati's blanket, but apparently she now thought everything was passé for Parvati since she had refused to be her "Severus" last week.
"Lavender?" she whispered into the darkness. "Do you still want me to caress you?"
A stifled cry of delight was the answer, and immediately, Lavender was sitting on the edge of her bed. "You really don't mind?" she asked hesitantly.
"Would I ask otherwise?" replied Parvati shortly. "Fifteen minutes, then it's your turn!"
"Okay!" Lavender dropped flat on her stomach and pulled her nightgown up to below her shoulder blades. Parvati, as she had done countless times before, let her fingertips glide over Lavender's slender back, which was almost immediately covered in goose-pimples. Lavender sighed comfortingly, and the slowly deepening breaths revealed how the pent-up tension was gradually falling away from her. I hope she doesn't fall asleep, Parvati thought, already looking forward to the tingling sensation Lavender's long fingernails always caused on her own skin.
It was her back then, who had suggested to Lavender after a few months that they take turns caressing each other after the exhausting school days—just to relax without any ulterior motives—after she could no longer do so with Padma. Even during the holidays, the twins had become too estranged to continue this old habit.
After a while, Parvati's wand vibrated audibly a few times, which propagated through the whole mattress—the quarter of an hour had passed. She gently poked Lavender in the side with it, but she did not react. The girl was fast asleep and Parvati did not have the heart to wake her. Instead, she got up quietly and toddled over to her friend's bed to spend the night among Lavender's numerous plush bunnies and owls.