Who: Lavender and Parvati When: Friday November 21, 1997. (a bit backdated) What: Laughing, lying and liquor Where: Gryffindor Common room/Girl’s Dormitory Rating: G – for girly Status: Complete
Lavender Brown needed to talk to Parvati Patil post-haste, and when the world was as such, it didn't matter who was standing in her way. She had yet to tell her best mate about what had happened in Hogsmeade, and the secret was about ready to burst from her, perhaps in the middle of the Great Hall in front of everyone. She ran up the stairs two at a time, almost screaming the password at the reticent fat lady and leaping into the Common Room, passing the stunned faces of the lower years as she ran toward her dorm room. "Vati!" she called, as she burst through the door.
Parvati sat in an overstuffed chair by the Common Room fireplace. Her fluffy pink slippers thudded softly on the floor as Parvati nervously chewed on the end of her latest sugar quill. She nearly leapt from her skin as she heard her name shouted across the room. She looked up and smiled nervously as her best mate pushed past a few startled second years.
"I need to talk to you. Upstairs!" She said, clearly full of some sort of delicious gossip, the kind they loved best of all. She was all fidgets, obviously desperately impatient.
A wide smile spread across her face and she left her Wooly Wizarding Fashions magazine on the table, the smiling cover model turning this way and that, sporting the newest in wizard knit sweaters. The girl leapt to her feet and ran after her best mate, terribly excited to hear some clearly delicious news.
She grabbed her friend's hand and practically dragged her upstairs, passed the envious eyes of those who weren't being let in on the secret. She gained the door and then shut it behind them, doing a little spin before collapsing backward onto her bed. "Eddie Carmichael kissed me."
Parvati stood there, shocked. She blinked a few times, as if that would help the statement sink in. "Eddie Carmichael....as in tall, sporty and right dead sexy?"
She nodded, stretching luxuriously. "The same."
Parvati leapt over to Lavender's bed, and grabbed the girl by the shoulders. "SPILL IT WOMAN!" she shrieked into her friend's face, her excitement barely contained.
She laughed, forced into a sitting position by her shrieking friend. "Oh Vati, so excitable!" She said with a wink. "Well, I've been flirting with him via journals for awhile, but only in a playful way, because, as you know, all men are worthless scum. Then he came to visit me over Hogsmeade, and we went for a walk, and...he kissed me."
Parvati let go of Lavender and plopped onto her bed with an excited squeal. Her hands beat on the mattress as she flushed hotly. "That's it...? You went to Hogsmeade and he kissed you?" she asked, sure there is more to the story. "I want details!"
"Well, we were talking, and I was just being myself, and then, he just kissed me. It was amazing. But then I slapped him." She said, sheepishly.
Parvati stopped bouncing on the bed and looked at her, her eyes widened. "Oooh....why? Was he a bad kisser?"
"No! No, he was fantastic. But, you know, it was unexpected, and men are evil." She shrugged. "Then I felt badly, and I apologized, and he kissed me again."
Parvati set her hands out in front of her and leaned in, rapt with her friend's story. "Was it the toe-curling, electric, tingling straight to your stomach kind of kiss?" she asked excitedly.
A long, dramatic pause, then: "Better."
Parvati flopped back on the bed, stealing Lavender's pillow to cover her face as she squealed loudly.
She laughed heartily, falling down beside her friend and letting out a long sigh. "It was perfect. Damn him."
Parvati rolled onto her stomach, her eyes sought her friend's. "So did you go out to dinner?"
"No, he had a meeting with someone, though I like to imagine he looked reluctant to go." Another little sigh. "I have no idea what to do now."
"You mean he didn't take you out or anything?!"
"Well, no. I don't think it's like he planned on seducing me." She said, suddenly defensive.
"But...where does that leave you? He just kissed you and left?" she asked, wondering where that left the pair. Parvati, consummately worried for her friend hated to think that she was left hanging.
I don't know. I don't even know what I want. I'm not sure I can do another relationship."
"But Lav...he's so gorgeous! And he seems a bit...dangerous. How old is he? Nineteen? Twenty?!" she asked, hoping to get more details to satisfy her curiosity of the handsome boy.
"God, he is, isn't he?" Sheer mention of the word dangerous and a little shiver went up her spine. "Eighteen. He only graduated last year, right?"
Parvati shook her head as if it would rattle the thoughts back straight in her head. "Oh...right. Bullocks! He's handsome! And who says you need a relationship? Start small...sometimes...snogging is a good place to start!" the girl giggled again impishly.
She giggled as well. "Well, there can't be much snogging since he's graduated." Another pause. "But good Lord almighty, he's hot."
She chuckled, sincerely glad that Lavender was finally happy about something. "So...where did you leave it? Are you going to meet up with him again?"
“I think so. He seems to really like me. It was just his birthday, and I sent him some liquor, so that made him happy."
Parvati rolled her eyes, grinning. "You and liquor, I swear! So what's he like?"
"Well, what's life without some spirits, that's what I always say." She laughed again. "He's funny, and witty, and so damn charming it hurts."
Parvati flopped backward on the bed again. "Argh!" she exclaimed. "Now you and Padma have boyfriends....and here I am....single and snoggless!!"
"I do not have a boyfriend." She said, then paused. "Wait, what?"
Parvati raised her head up off the bed and looked at her. "What...what?"
"Who is Padma dating?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow. Padma dated?
"Ugh. " Parvati said, as she gracefully raised herslf to a seated position again. "Yeah...a couple of fifth year girls told me they saw her and Blaise Zabini snogging at Hogsmeade. I asked her about it and she got all defensive."
"Blaise Zabini?" She said, suddenly sitting upright again. "But...he's Slytherin! And she's DA!"
Parvati nods and sighs. "I know...and I'm worried...he seems nice enough but he's Slytherin!" she shook her head, her face looking worried as usual when Parvati frets over Padma. "I can't argue with her...if I do, she'll just date him to prove how she can prove me wrong. All I can do is keep an eye on him." Parvati nodded to emphasize the point.
She let out a little breath. "He's...I mean...he's Blaise. Is he so bad? He's friends with all of them."
"I know....believe me..." sighed the Gryffindor "And my Ammamma is ill and we can't hear back from our parents. We've both sent owls. "Parvati's face slowly contorted with worry, her large brown eyes reflecting the concern she's held inside the last week.
She was suddenly all concern, putting her hand on her friend's knee. "She's sick? How? What's the matter? Why didn't you tell me before?"
Parvati pulled Lavender's pillow to her chest defensively. "I'm sorry Lavender. I've been a complete prat lately. NEWTS have me thinking a lot...and I didn't want to be blabbing about our family."
"It's completely understandable." She squeezed her knee gently, then put her arm around her. "Can I do anything?"
She shrugged. "I don't know...mum left St. Mungo's to go take care of her, Padma says. Ammamma has been ill before, and mum always seems to make things better...but neither her or daddy have responded to our owls. I'm really worried and I've felt rather lonesome...Padma feels I am overreacting....you were mad at me...Her.....um....." she caught herself before she commented on Hermione's response to her owl. "Her owl....um...has returned with no response."
She suddenly felt a pang of guilt for being so mean to her friend about something ridiculous. "Who's owl?"
"Um....Padma's."
"Yeah, you said that. Why did you say it again?"
She shrugged and forced an innocent face, which her dearest friend could most likely see through. "I dunno...Padma has sent three owls, I have only sent two all with nothing in return."
She cocked a brow, not feeling quite certain with how Parvati was acting, but wanted to tread softly. "Vati? Are you being honest with me?"
She avoided her eyes and lowered her head into the pillow. "Yes..." she answered her friend, as she feigned misunderstanding. "neither Padma or me got a response....and that is very unusual."
She shook her head. "That's not what I meant and you know it, young lady."
Parvati stood up and tossed the pillow back on her roommate's bed again. "I'm just stressed out, Lavender! Please don’t tell anyone about this." she paced the dormitory, hoping to find the answers she sought in the floorboards of their dormitory. "I need a stiff drink or something...a good snogging wouldn't hurt either."
She perked up at that. Finally, something she could do to help. Reaching under her bed, she produced a bottle of scotch identical to the one she had sent Eddie. "Stiff drink, you say?"
Parvati stopped pacing. "Oh Lavender...don't make me have to take points from Gryffindor....we'll get caught!" she said, half wanting to snag the bottle and down it...half wanting to hide it before they got pinched.
She sighed, rolling her eyes and stowing the bottle again. "Lord almight, Prefects are so boring."
Parvati turned to look directly at Lavender, having just realized that she, Parvati Patil scourge of prefects past was just called boring by Lavender Brown. Her brown eyes twinkled fiercely at her mate. "There's a first time for everything, I might as well get pissed in my own dorm!"
She laughed with delight, retrieving the bottle again and holding it high. “That's the spirit! “
Parvati took the bottle in her graceful hands and looked at Lavender a bit unsurely. "Just open and down? Like butterbeeer?"
"My love, my one, my only, this is sixteen year old scotch. Open and down would be like..." She paused, trying to come up with a proper simile. "Like having Eddie Carmichael in bed and not having any foreplay!"
Parvati looked at her friend, still shocked by her bluntness after all this time as she blushed. "So you want me to take the scotch out to dinner?" she giggled.
She rolled her eyes, ever amused by Parvati's easily shocked sensibilities. Opening the bottle, she produced two glasses and poured them each a dram. "You're way past dinner. Now, you've just got to kiss it's neck for awhile."