date: 7 November 1997 characters: Anthony Goldstein & Padma Patil location: Hogwarts, Ravenclaw common room. private/semi-private/public: Semi-private. summary: Unable to shake her ill feelings after DADA, Padma plays with fire. status: Complete.
Every time Padma closed her eyes she pictured the explosive violence of their last Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. She didn't see the events as they unfolded in actions and individuals, however, but the colors of their intentions, the change that had shuddered over seventh year and stirred foul and fair within them. Reds the color of a kettle smoldering above a flame, copper bottom blazing, the bruise purples and blues of tempers that couldn't seem to reach a flaring pitch but rumbled and pulsed, promising danger.
Through everything threaded a trembling, yellow ivory line, a weak color for a weak heart that had stood by, shaking but inactive.
A stab of her wand in the direction of the fire sent a spark flaring to hiss and burn out on the carpet. She watched it die.