WARNING - ANIMAGUS IN CHAPTER. IF YOU DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ!
For the next couple of days, Parvati did not see Draco, except in passing, where she would see an expression on his face that looked like it could be a sort of smile. She was a bit surprised that he did not approach her, but after all, Draco had said that he really didn’t know how to be a friend, so it could be just that. Or it could be just that he had decided she was an annoying string-me-along, and had given up on her. Parvati leaned towards the first, because it was the scenario she preferred. Lavender, who had been horrified at Parvati, (partly because she was horrified anyway, and partly because she and Seamus were growing closer, and she knew Seamus wouldn’t approve) leaned toward the second. Parvati had been wearing her hair down specially, even though it was a pig to brush out every night, and she was daringly wearing a very slightly tinted sparkling pink polish on her nails, rather than the clear polish the school deemed appropriate for students. However, she didn’t seem to get close enough to start a proper conversation, so when they were asked to team up in Potions, she took all her courage in her hands, crossed over from the Gryffindor side of the classroom to the Slytherin side and sat down next to Draco. There was a muffled gasp from the whole classroom. Harry Potter stared at her as if she had gone soft in the head. Ron positively glared. Hermione’s eyes rounded.
Draco closed his mouth hurriedly, hoping nobody had noticed he was the most surprised. Somehow, when Parvati had decided they could be friends, he had assumed it would be a secret thing, to protect her from the sneers and jibes that were sure to be her portion.
Professor Snape was himself startled. He was already in a filthy humor, and now he walked down towards Parvati, his cloak flaring ominously.
“Ms. Patil. This is unprecedented.” His voice was more than usually sarcastic. Parvati muttered, “Yes, sir,” but stood her ground.
Snape’s lips turned up at the very corner again, making shivers run up most people’s spines. His voice was so dry it could have scorched a grindylow. “Magic help you Malfoy. Your perfect marks so far this term are about to be destroyed.” He turned and flicked a wand at the board, splattering words over it in a bad-tempered sort of way. “Your ingredients.” He turned viciously at the muted babble that had started, and snarled, “I realize that Ms. Patil has disregarded the unwritten constitution of this classroom that the Houses should be strictly segregated, but I find that no reason to gossip during my lesson. Any conversation should be strictly related to your cauldrons, and the components to put in them. Have I made myself clear? You may start now.” And now glaring acidly around the now soundless class, he flapped back up to the front of the classroom, where he glowered hulking behind his desk.
Parvati turned to Draco. “I hope I don’t mess things up for you,” she whispered. Draco had a minute to squash the automatic sneer that had risen to his lips. She did look; well, sweet, all anxious and big eyed. He noticed the polish, and approved. He had already noticed the hair. He made himself reach out for his wand instead, before he trusted himself to speak civilly, one eye on Snape. “How could you mess up? All we have to do is follow the directions and watch the timer. Here. Can you mince these juniper roots finely? I will start with the liquids”.
Parvati chopped for a while, watching Draco work. He was very relaxed about his potion. She knew she always looked just as harassed as she felt. It was odd, because she could cook very well, and enjoyed Muggle cooking, especially Indian food, and had always been so good at Potions “ until this year. Her gaze slipped sideways. Draco’s high cheekbones were very handsome, and his hair a wonderful color. Marvelous lips “ and she knew just how marvelous! Slender, competent hands with long fingers, that were not too soft to be attractive, (probably because of the Quidditch) but which had very nice fingernails. Parvati always noticed fingernails, because when she was younger, she had chewed on hers all the time. Now her nails were painted she chewed on her lip instead. Realizing she was doing that just now, she stopped.
Draco said, with some amusement “If you chop those any finer, they will be minced to nothing.”
Parvati looked up at him. He obviously knew she had been watching him, but if anything, he was pleased about it. Blushing, she started to dump the juniper roots into the potion, but Draco stopped her with an exclamation. He fished out the bits that had landed in the potion quickly and hopefully. The potion started to turn red. Draco hurriedly put in some thinly sliced slug, vainly hoping that would counterbalance the juniper roots. The potion turned purple and started to boil and whistle loudly and emit sparks. Parvati was aghast. She looked beyond Snape to the board, where at the very end of the instructions, was written: ‘IMPORTANT. Add the roots five minutes to the second after all other ingredients have been added. Stir twice and turn off the fire.’
Most of the rest of the class were now looking over at them, and their exploding potion. Exploding potions were not rare, but Draco was noted as never making mistakes. Harry was looking grimly pleased, and Ron was openly grinning. Hermione was stirring her perfect potion, and pretending they didn’t exist.
Snape strode triumphantly towards them, his glower replaced by a sort of gratified smirk. He waved his wand over the potion, which disappeared.
“Next time, Ms. Patil, could you read the instructions before you attempt the potion?” he asked in tone so sweet it could have killed a manticore (and was probably why the tank of biksnakers was found dead the next morning).
Parvati felt herself shriveling. Draco stood beside her, his head bowed, and shoulders shaking. “Malfoy!” Snape ground out. “Control yourself! I do not find incompetence remotely funny! You can have detention tonight. Ms. Patil, you can do extra homework, and 10 points from Gryffindor. I doubt another detention would help you and your feeble attempts to master this class. I want you to read this book, and write an essay on ‘The Timing and Apportioning of Ingredients circa 1697 with Particular Reference to Ceasar Guliami and his Work with Defense and Secrecy Solutions’.” He slapped a book down on the desk in front of her.
While Snape strode up to the front, his back straight, and his expression still smirking, Parvati looked at Draco nervously. She had just managed to ruin his Potions record, and also to land him in detention. His mouth was clamped together very tight, and he stared straight ahead, but suddenly she realized Snape was right. Draco wasn’t angry “ he was trying not to laugh. She looked down at the book Snape had given her, which was thin and dry looking, and the funny side struck her. She too, had to bite her cheek hard to stop her own giggles from showing. Slowly, as Snape glared at them, they started to make another batch of Ceasar Guliami’s Woodland Illusion Solution. Parvati tried not to do anything until Draco told her, and this time it worked. She was actually quite thrilled. Snape merely grunted bad temperedly as he went around checking the potions before he let them out of class. He let Parvati and Draco out well after everyone else had left, not entirely pleased that they had managed a perfect brew in the end.
Outside, Draco leant back against the wall, and actually grinned at Parvati. For some reason, she was making him want to laugh a lot, and it was a new sensation that he enjoyed. She bit her lip. “Draco, I am so sorry. I never thought…I just walked over….I should have known I would spoil it for you……..” She stood on the edges of her black court shoes, and looked at him guiltily. She reminded him of an anxious first year called to McGonagall’s office, which he found even funnier.
He flashed her a short but genuine smile. “Don’t worry Parvati! It was worth it just to see your face! You aren’t kidding, your potions are terrible.”
He watched as her face fell, and felt clumsy. For once he had just been stating a fact, not trying to run her down, but she had taken it personally. After all, he didn’t have a good record in the teasing department. “I am sorry about the detention too,” she blurted. “He should have given it to me, not you.” She turned to walk away, and Draco caught up with her. He had not been absolutely sure he wanted to get involved with her, as the thought was rather scary, but now he was horribly afraid that he had blown any chance at friendship.
“The detention wasn’t your fault. It was mine. Besides, the potion was my fault as well, really. You were distracted by my….” He stopped, embarrassed, but after a moment his natural arrogance returned, “handsome and attractive face. I caught you looking, and you got flustered and chucked in the juniper roots. My fault. I could have pretended I didn’t notice.”
She looked at him sideways, “You do realize that is twice you have apologized to me?” she asked, and was rewarded by his quick scowl. This time she didn’t take it seriously and giggled. “You’d better watch out, or it will become a habit.”
As he was still scowling, she swayed sideways as they walked, and bumped into him, knocking him off course for a second, as he had not been expecting anything of the kind. Had it been anyone else, he would have jinxed him or her immediately. Since it was Parvati, and she was smiling, and therefore prettier than usual, and obviously teasing him, he grunted, baffled, sounding a bit like Goyle. He wasn’t sure he liked the way he felt around Parvati “ a little off center, and a little dazzled “ but she just wouldn’t be treated like Pansy, or any of the other girls he had been out with before. He couldn’t ever remember anyone giggling when he frowned, or anybody being so irreverent. He was used to being treated with either the greatest respect or the greatest hatred.
Parvati saw his expression, and wisely stopped teasing him for the moment. If she wanted to be with Draco, she would have to go slowly, she reminded herself. And she didn’t want to lose him. She remembered the last time she really had a crush on somebody. Harry Potter. She had been beyond thrilled when he asked her to the Tri-Wizard Tournament Ball, and had even bullied Padma into going with Ron, who she didn’t particularly like. Parvati had turned down quite a few people, hoping Harry would ask her, had been delighted when he had, and then he had spent the whole evening watching Cho! She had been humiliated and disappointed, and Padma had been furious with her, as Ron was surly and rude and obviously just interested in Hermione. She had been so relieved when the boys from Beauxbatons had come to her rescue. She still wrote to Jean sometimes. Harry, of course, had not had a clue “ probably still didn’t, bless him! She had got over Harry years ago, but it had been difficult. Now she was interested in his arch nemesis. She glanced over at Draco, who was walking along with a curiously blank expression. She stopped impulsively, and he stopped too, looking at her enquiringly.
“Draco, why do you close off all your expression?” she asked, curious. “You never used to when you first came to Hogwarts.” For a moment she thought Draco was not going to answer, but it seemed he was still determined to be on his best behaviour.
“My father was very upset that I showed my feelings in my face so much. He thought it would upset the Dark Lord if I showed any disgust or compassion in my Joining Ceremony. I have been working on schooling my expression for the last couple of years.” He added bitterly, “It has come in useful since he was put into Azkaban. If I walked around looking miserable, people would be able to gloat.” Parvati looked at him, as his face contorted with suppressed anger, and was almost scared, his eyes glittered so. His voice had changed too. It was rougher, but not in a sexy way “ it sounded unkind, more hate filled. She decided it might be wise to calm him a little. She touched his arm, and after starting a little, he looked down at her hand, and his breathing finally slowed to normal.
Parvati chose her words with care. “Draco, I really don’t think people would gloat. Maybe a very few people, but most people feel sorry for you, or scared of you. Losing your father to Azkaban can’t have been easy, and many people do not know whether or not you are a Death Eater.”
Draco was more furious than he could ever have remembered being before. “People feel sorry for me?” he shouted, losing all shreds control. “Is that what you feel? Poor Draco, must cheer him up? Is that what you gossip about? Because if it is, you can get lost! I never want to see you again.”
Parvati gasped. His face was definitely expressive now; he was in a towering rage. She wasn’t scared either, she too, was furious, especially the bit about gossiping, because like anyone else that has a bad habit, Parvati would have been the first to declare (and believe) that she never gossiped. How dare he attack her like this, and completely distort everything? She shouted back:
“If you don’t want people to feel sorry for you, stop lumping yourself around like some kind of miserable crow at a funeral. You never speak to anybody, you isolate yourself and you mope about with a blank expression. I am NOT trying to teach you manners, although it would certainly be nice if you could cultivate some. If you want people to go back to hating you again instead of ignoring you or trying to like you, which may actually be fun, go back to acting like an immature snot-rag, the way you have every other year! Go be a Death Eater. Enjoy torturing people to death. Bring misery on hundreds of lives. Have fun, be my guest “ you can start with me if you want!” Her voice had been rising, and toward the end, it was a pure cry of rage.
Although he had been truly furious to start with, Draco found her shouting at him rather amusing “ until she reached the part about Death Eaters, when he went back to being enraged. He gripped her arm hard above the elbow, bringing her up on her toes toward him so that he could spit the words right in her face. “I am not a Death Eater Parvati. I am not going to be one, either!”
He glared at her, locking gazes with eyes as fiery as his own. Parvati refused to back down. They glared at each other for what seemed a long while. Eventually however, Draco started - however much he tried not to - to see the humour in the situation again. Here he was, clutching Parvati, who was about half his height, and slender to boot, both of them mad as Norwegian Ridgebacks on a bad day. And he had made his decision without knowing it. After having agonized for days, and lost sleep about it, he had blurted it out in a moment of anger without even thinking about it. He was definitely not going to join the Death Eaters. He fought down amusement and relief. As his eyes lost their focused glare, so did hers. Draco found himself looking into grave eyes the color of bittersweet chocolate, and losing an internal battle with himself. He gave a short laugh. And leaned forward.
Parvati reared back almost skittishly. “What are you doing?” she asked. She was suddenly so nervous; her voice almost came out in a neigh. Draco’s own voice was hardly more than a deep gravelly whisper in her ear. “Making up. Isn’t that what friends are supposed to do?” He loosened her arm carefully, showing her that she could run if she chose, and found her lips with his. She didn’t run. In fact, he felt her tremble, and then she reached up on tiptoe to make it easier for him. She tasted of rosewater and lilies. Her velvety eyes closed, leaving her long lashes sweeping her warm dark cheeks. Draco slid his hand into her hair, reveling in the feeling of it, soft, heavy and silken between his fingers. His other hand slipped around her waist to press her closer to him. It was a long kiss, and was indescribable. There was passion in there, but also acceptance, respect and, if not yet love, liking. Draco had never felt this way before. All he knew was that he didn’t want it to stop. Parvati ran her hands up his shoulders. Someone groaned, and he realized it was him. Parvati sighed softly, encouraging him as he took the kiss deeper. She slipped her hands into his hair, smoothing it back from his face, stoking the back of his neck, cupping his face. When things were starting to heat up too much, he stepped back from her. Her bright eyes were now marvel filled. His own felt dreamy. He still couldn’t believe the wonder of it.
As he watched her swollen lips and brilliant eyes, she cupped her hand behind his head and pulled him toward her again. In that instant, something seemed to crack inside him, and Draco was lost. He kissed her wildly, holding her head between his hands. He rained kisses all over her face, and then buried his face in her neck, just holding her tightly for a long time, while Parvati stroked his back again and again, from nape to tailbone.
When Draco looked up, his eyes were fiercely bright, so bright they looked dangerous, although he had not shed tears. Parvati did not move away, and kept stroking his back with her hands until he started to look back more normal. As she saw him regain his normal sneering self, she grinned up at him.
“How about we just skip the friends part, and go straight to the boy and girlfriend part?” she asked. “I don’t kiss all my friends like that you know. At least, not very often!”
Draco looked at her sideways and decided that he was old-fashioned enough to make the decision himself. “You are getting bossy, Patil. I haven’t been asked out by a girl before and I am not going to be this time. I asked you first!”
Parvati gasped in mock horror. “Draco, I’m sorry! I should have told you first thing. I am terribly bossy. I speak before I think, I bulldoze people into doing things and I talk a lot. Most people think I’m an airhead. I think the colour of your nail polish is as important as World Peace. Oh, and I can tell the difference between Tarskein seeds and rat dropping, which is gross. I can’t think of anything else, but I am sure Padma or Lavender could fill you in on the finer details.”
Draco gave a shout of laughter. “Then I guess I will have to talk to Padma or Lavender.” He felt a bit troubled. Perhaps for the first time he was thinking more of someone other than himself. “Parvati, I don’t think I am cut out to be a good boyfriend. You could do a lot better. I don’t even like a lot of your friends. In fact, to be quite honest, I loathe a lot of your friends. Why pick me? I am sure you have a lot of offers.”
Parvati began to walk, and he fell into step beside her. She pursed her lips, considering him. “Its not like I am the first girl to fall for an attractive face!” she joked, and then saw from his face that he wanted a real answer. “I don’t know. I do go out a lot, but I keep usually keep it quite superficial. So far that has been more fun. Maybe I just like the slight sense of danger. Or perhaps I think you are fun to be with when you loosen up a little. And you are really good at kissing. And hey! None of my friends like you either, so we’re even on that!” She tucked her arm through his. “Plus you smell good.” She looked up at him smiling. “And I really mean that.”
He raised his eyebrows at her. Her voice had sounded almost different. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I guess I can tell you. Padma seems to think you are safe enough. I have a very heightened sense of smell. I am an Animagus. I always have been, since I was little. Only I can do different animals “ but they are always black. It used to happen all the time when I was young. In fact I didn’t really have too much control over it then. I really scared my parents when I was a baby once. They left Padma and me alone in our crib, and when they came back, Padma was playing with a black kitten. They just about went berserk looking for me until I changed back, and they worked out what had happened! I am working with McGonagall a bit, but I am not very good at colors. I am sort of getting the hang of it with tigers, at least I can do a sort of lighter gray, but the stripes are still black, and I look very weird as a zebra.” She kicked her toe along the ground gloomily. “McGonagall thinks I am not putting in the work properly, but I really am! I just flat out can’t do colours! It isn’t that I don’t try. In fact, if I wasn’t a twin born to an Animagus father “ who is registered, and himself a twin - I probably wouldn’t be able to do anything at all. Most of my family are registered Animagi, and we also have the Lycanthropy gene from a grandfather.” She paused, looking up at him. “You are the only other person that knows that, apart from Padma and some of the staff. I was in the news a while before we started Hogwarts, and I really can’t let anybody know that was me, so you have to keep it quiet.”
Draco looked at her incredulous, memories coming back. “You mean you were the girl in the Daily Prophet who turned into a Norwegian Ridgeback and caused millions worth in damage, and hundreds of man hours to modify Muggle memories?” He whistled, remembering the front-page spread, that had captured his attention a couple of years before he came to Hogwarts. In fact, that it what started him reading the newspapers.
Parvati winced. “The thing was,” she said, “It was the Ministry who called me in for testing. They asked if I could do anything, and I did loads of different stuff “ all black “ and they asked me if I could do a Norwegian Ridgeback. Well, I tried, and apparently I looked like one, but there is something with a dragon brain that doesn’t fit with human thought, so I got out of control, and sort of ran amuck, until they got in a few stunners. Once I was hit, I turned human again, only I was really ill from the stunners, being only nine at the time, and I was in hospital for a long time. That is the bit they didn’t print." she added bitterly. "The article was all about me smashing things up, but they were the ones that asked me to try a Ridgeback! My parents asked me to keep it a secret from the Ministry then, because the doctors said I was a danger to myself. My mum could see them taking me away from her, and putting me in some medical institution like St. Mungos. So when I was better, they asked me to do some more testing, and I just pretended that I couldn’t do it any more. They thought they had damaged me with the Stunners.
McGonagall wasn’t so easy to fool though, she found out the second day I was here. I really fancied eating some grass, and having a gallop, and so I changed shape and became a horse “ that’s my favorite - only of course there aren’t any horses around Hogwarts. And McGonagall was outside doing her tabby thing. I didn’t recognize her when I looked around to make sure I was safe. I couldn’t see any people around, so I changed back, and then this tabby was suddenly growing in front of me, became McGonagall and I was being dragged to Dumbledore’s. I can tell you I was petrified!”
Draco was fascinated, remembering seeing a black horse galloping across the hills while he did his early morning Quidditch practice. To be honest, he had more than once zoomed down and ‘buzzed’ it, to make it gallop away in fright. He saw from Parvati’s eyes that she was remembering this, and changed the subject hurriedly. “Do all Animagi get cravings for different foodstuffs?” he asked.
Parvati frowned. “No. Other animagi can assume the shape of an animal, but retain their human selves. I get very taken over by the character of the animal I assume, and sometimes, as in the case of the Ridgeback, it consumes me.” For a minute she nearly told him about Crookshanks, and how he recognized her, but it wasn’t her story to tell, so with a tremendous effort, she held it back.
Draco was silent for a few minutes. He was very taken aback. He thought that he had Parvati’s measure. He had her pegged as a bit of an airhead, who was incredibly pretty and loyal to her friends. Now he was finding far more than he had bargained for. In fact, he was beginning to have a slight feeling of inferiority. At their first real meeting, she had promptly kneed him in the balls so badly he was out for the count. Then she showed real strength of character at their second meeting and now she was an Animagus. Draco was not used to feeling second best to anybody, especially not an intimate. After all, for years he had hung out with Crabbe and Goyle. Not exactly challenging material, but very good bodyguards. He struggled with the feeling, knowing it was not exactly fair, but he could not help saying, slightly resentfully, “Well, hearing all this, I am amazed we are together. Maybe you should pair up with the marvelous Harry Potter instead.”
‘Been there, done that,' Parvati thought ruefully. She stopped, and turned to face him. “Draco Malfoy. If you want to continue seeing me, you had better get used to the fact that there are some things I am going to be able to do better than you. I am definitely not Crabbe or Goyle. However, if it makes you feel better, the thing I can do isn’t something I have worked on. In fact, in ancient times I would probably have been put to death as a freak. I can’t fly a broom like you can, and I am definitely the dunce in Potions. I mean, if I had a gift, why couldn’t I have been a Metamorphagus? I like animals, and it is quite fun having a gallop once in a while, but I would really love to be blonde sometimes.”
Draco gaped at her, not really sure what to say in return to that. Blonde for a while? Here was a girl who had more given to her at birth than anyone he knew, just because she was a twin of a twin in a family of Animagi. She was really beautiful anyway and she wanted to be blonde? How flighty was it possible to get? He reverted back to her earlier statement, as that was easier to deal with. “Wait! I’m not getting something. Where do Crabbe and Goyle come in? Did I mention Crabbe and Goyle?”
Parvati shrugged. “Well, they are the only people you used to hang out with, except for Pansy, and she is dead scared of you now.”
Draco looked at her suspiciously. “Well, actually,” he admitted, “You were accurate. I was thinking about Crabbe and Goyle. I thought you might be a Legilimens as well?”
Parvati laughed. “No “ it’s just the famous women’s intuition! I should warn you, as you probably don’t know but Padma is a Seer. She took after my mother “ my mother is a twin too - where I took after our father. Not many people really know, as she manages to keep it very secret. But I don’t have the same gift, although I could probably get by as a high street hack. I don’t know that I would actually like to be a Legilimens either though “ imagine being able to see somebody’s thoughts?” she gave a shudder. Draco flushed.
“Actually it is something I am getting to be quite good at,” he confessed. “I studied Occlumency and Legilimency pretty much all summer, all day every day. There was not much else to do, and there is only so long you can fly in an enclosed space by yourself without being bored. Also Occlumency and Legilimency can be practiced to a certain extent without incurring the ‘Misuse of Underage Magic Laws’. I need a partner though, as I really need the practice. I have too much of the theory.”
They had reached the Great Hall, where everyone was sitting down to lunch. Parvati rose up on her toes, and kissed Draco on the mouth in full view of everyone, practically Petrifying him. “Well, I don’t know if practicing with me is going to help you, or just make you incredibly big headed when you breach my defenses!” she admitted. “Harry Potter would be a good person. He has actually done some Occlumency.” She would have carried on, but suddenly became aware of the silence.
She turned around, to see nearly everybody looking at them, with varying expressions of amazement.