Who: Laura and Parvati. When: Friday after school. Where: School, near the owlery. What: Laura gets news from home. Rating: PG
There was little good news to go home these days, but Laura still sent her twice weekly owls to her father, and one to her brother (and occasionally Cassandra) as well. Even though her mother was usually only mentioned for a line or two, it was comforting to keep in contact with others in the world who focused on her existence as much as she did, to be reminded through return owls that they existed.
The longer she was away from home, however, the harder it became to think of enough to fill a scroll of parchment. She had already written about the most recent big event - the Halloween party - earlier this week and had struggled to complete this second letter, but after some toil it was tucked away in the pocket of her coat, ready to send.
As she rounded the corner towards the West Tower where the owlery was located, a blur of tawny brown streaked through the air and shot towards her, shrieking insistently. She recognised her father’s owl and with trembling hands untied the note from the bird’s leg. This wasn’t when he usually wrote. He had responded to her earlier letter already. He wouldn’t, unless-
Several moments later and Laura was still staring at the unfolded letter blankly. Without realising it, she had sunk to a sitting position on the floor, leaning over the note as if it was something precious that needed to be protected.
Parvati was on her way to the owlery with the intent to send a quick owl off to Seamus and another to her parents. She had realised she hadn’t really contacted them much at all since coming back to Hogwarts. Though she knew they cared about her still, Parvati found it a little difficult to really connect with them. Some small part of her mind still whispering on occasion that she was to blame for Padma being gone or rather that she was too much of a reminder (with the sister having been identical) that they now only had one daughter.
Of all the things she expected to see on her way to the owlery, a small figure sitting on the floor was not one of them. Parvati vaguely recollected the girl as being Laura something... Something beginning with ‘M’ maybe? The recognition was mostly in thanks to the Hufflepuff uniform and vaguely remembering her from meal times in the Great Hall. It didn’t look like she was doing good, or that she had really intended to sit on the floor.
“Hello?” she questioned, trying to keep her tone neutral. “Are you alright there?”
At the sound of the other girl’s voice, Laura raised her head slowly, like someone coming out of a dream. But in spite of the recognition of Parvati’s presence, she still wasn’t entirely there. In response she simply stared back up at the Gryffindor.
When Laura didn't say anything as she looked up at her, Parvati was concerned. Generally most people would answer with an 'I'm fine.' or even just a 'Yeah' and trail off. Considering Laura didn’t say either one meant that she definitely wasn’t fine or even just okay. Judging by the letter in the girl’s hand, it couldn’t have been very good news at all. If anything the look on her face reminded her of... well, herself. After the battle, when she had finally managed to comprehend their deaths, Parvati was a broken down ghost of a thing and couldn’t believe that she had lost her sister and best friend in the same instance.
Bringing herself back to the here and now, Parvati wasn’t entirely certain what to do. Especially based off her own experiences, in which she hadn’t wanted to talk with anyone at all. She chewed her lip as she tried to think of what to say and realised she could probably start with getting the girl up off of the cold stone floor.
“Hey, I know you probably don’t want to move at all,” she began in a calm manner. “But how about I walk you to somewhere a bit more comfortable than a stone floor?”
“Okay,” Laura said dully. She made no move to rise to her feet.
On second thought, maybe taking her to the Hospital Wing would be the better idea, Parvati thought to herself, when she saw that Laura made no move to get up at all.
“Come on,” she said soothingly, moving to help Laura to her feet and hoping that she could walk herself (at least with some assistance). Because she’d feel awful if she had to use a hovering charm on her, and she wouldn’t have wanted to unintentionally embarrass her like that.
Once on her feet, Laura proved surprisingly docile and walked wherever Parvati led her. A thousand thoughts were tumbling through her head, all halted with the stumbling block that she could not yet accept. Her mother. Her mother was dying. Every time that notion came close to occurring to her, her mind tripped and she was off on yet another tangent. It was a rather blissful sort of numbness.
However while Parvati took her to Merlin knew where, her mother could have been breathing her last. That idea finally made enough of a dent in Laura’s consciousness that she stopped, locking her feet on the ground. Parvati had been veering her away from the professor’s offices, towards the part of the building where the hospital wing was. She couldn’t - or wouldn’t - quite grasp on why, but for some reason it was terribly important to see a professor. Sprout. Or McGonagall.
“No,” she said.
For the most part the walk to the Hospital Wing wasn’t too bad, so far. Though Parvati had obviously thought too soon, as Laura had suddenly stopped walking and finally spoke up. She blinked at the fact that all she said was no, it was a little confusing. Maybe she had been walking too fast or something?
“I’m sorry?” she questioned, worried that she’d maybe done something wrong. “Is everything alright? Was I walking too fast?”
“No,” said Laura again, this time shaking her head emphatically to lend weight to her statement. It wasn’t that she was agreeing or disagreeing with anything Parvati had said. It was just that Parvati had asked too many questions for her to deal with, and “no” seemed like the easiest thing to say at the moment.
Her hand clenched at her side, making the paper crackle. She glanced down at her fist with an expression of almost surprise, then wordlessly held the letter out to Parvati.
Parvati couldn’t help but feel a little helpless about the situation. Laura wasn’t particularly responsive and she wasn’t quite sure what to do about that. So she was surprised when Laura held a piece of paper out to her. Gingerly taking it from her Parvati turned the paper around and let her eyes scan the words on the page. A small whispered ‘Oh’ escaped her lips as she finally discovered why Laura was feeling the way she was.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. She felt horrible for saying that, if only because she herself had hated hearing those exact same words when she was still at St Mungos’ after the battle.
“Well let’s get you to the Headmistress’ office then, shall we?” she said in a careful manner, not wanting to upset Laura any further. “My original idea had been to take you to the Hospital Wing or somewhere else that was quiet. That’s something I suppose, I’m not particularly fond of anything related to hospitals myself and would rather never see or be in one again.”
There weren’t any bright memories for Parvati that involved hospitals, as it were the only bright spark of her own stay at St Mungos’ the few friends of hers that didn’t push her to talk about Padma and Lavender right away.
Laura didn’t respond as Parvati prattled on, but she didn’t seem to be expected to, so she didn’t mind the talk, allowing it to roll right off her. Soon they were outside the headmistress’s door and she was ushered inside.