FIC: The Gryffindor Test (Percy Weasley/Padma Patil)
Title: The Gryffindor Test
Author: logicallylivid
Characters: Padma Patil/Percy Weasley
Prompt Number: 166
Word Count: 6207 words
Rating: K+
Warnings: None
Summary: Padma is quite used to her sister’s brash, Gryffindor bravery and all her tales of the hijinks and goings-on in the Gryffindor Common Room. Therefore, she is not at all surprised when Parvati becomes engaged to Fred Weasley. As she makes numerous visits to the Burrow to discuss her sister’s wedding plans, Padma has a chance to get to know Percy Weasley better. Why is it that this sensible, intelligent young man wasn’t sorted into Ravenclaw? What is it about him that makes him a Gryffindor? Padma won’t rest until she has uncovered the answer.
Disclaimer: None
Author’s Notes: Thanks to my lovely beta for being there when I get frustrated and refuse to write, couldn’t have done this without you girl.
The Gryffindor Test
Chapter 1
Padma Patil was fond of her quiet life. She had a small flat, an enjoyable job, no pets, sane hobbies, and that was the way she liked it. She passed her days in comfortable routine. Unlike some she knew, Padma had never needed too much excitement or thrill to be happy. She was simply content with a good book, and the world was happy to leave her at it.
Except on Sunday nights, that was. Ever since she and her sister, Parvati, had left for boarding school at the age of eleven and were promptly sorted into different houses, they had made an agreement to meet every Sunday night to catch up. They were twins, and so had always been closer than most sisters were, but at the same time, they were nothing alike. This was why Padma had not been surprised when her sister had been sorted to brash, outgoing Gryffindor, while she had been directed to studious, dedicated Ravenclaw. Their parents had always remarked that if they didn’t look so similar, no one would know they were related.
Nevertheless, the twins were as close as could be. Their opposite personalities caused friction between them, but they loved each other. This was what had continued their Sunday tradition until even now, 5 years after their graduation from Hogwarts.
Padma was bustling around her small flat, straightening up her already neat belongings in preparation of Parvati’s visit. They occasionally held their girls’ night at Parvati’s flat, but her giggling roommates made it hard for Padma to really talk to her sister. Padma wasn’t shy, per se, but she certainly preferred the peace of her flat to Parvati’s busy and boisterous home.
Upon hearing the knocking on her front door, Padma paced to the door, expecting her sister for just another normal evening. What she got instead upon pulling open the door was her sister’s ear to ear grin. Parvati immediately threw her arms around her surprised sister’s neck, announcing in an excited yell “I’m getting married!”
This, Padma thought, was not another ordinary visit.
After sitting Parvati on the couch and providing her with some tea to calm her twin down, Padma settled in to absorb the details.
From Parvati’s excited chattering, Padma concluded that last night, Fred Weasley, her boyfriend of the past year had asked her to marry him over dinner, and Parvati had, of course, ecstatically accepted.
Padma couldn’t say she was surprised. She’d met the Weasley twins a few times, and had certainly heard enough stories about their antics from her sister. They seemed like exactly the kind of people Parvati liked to surround herself with.
Padma didn’t know that much about the actual Weasley family, mostly just whatever she gathered from Parvati’s stories from Gryffindor house and the little interaction she’d had with them when they’d all been in the DA. Not to forget (though she tried to) the terrible blind date her sister had set her up for, for the Yule Ball. Ron Weasley had been a horrible date, and she’d had a dismal time until she’d ditched him to hang out with some of her Ravenclaw classmates.
But now, it appeared Padma was going to get to know them all much better. Parvati seemed eager for her help in planning the wedding that was to be held at the Weasley home in half a year. Padma was easily the more organized of the two, a fact Parvati seemed eager to take advantage of even if Padma, to quote her sister, ‘Had no eye’, whatever that meant.
Padma was surprised, however, that her sister was getting married so soon. They were only 23, and had just started their careers. When she posed this question to Parvati, the girl in question waved her off, stating “The right time only depends on our love.” This then launched a tirade in which Parvati had to swear up and down that she was not knocked up.
Padma stepped up to the Weasley home’s (or ‘Burrow’ as the name apparently was) front door for the first time. Her sister at her side gave her a reassuring smile then knocked on the small door. This was the first time visiting the lopsided house for Padma, but Parvati was in apparent ease at the sight of the building.
The door was pulled open and revealed an overflowing kitchen. Parvati had invited her along for Saturday morning brunch, which she had mentioned was when the whole Weasley family gathered. Padma had not, however, anticipated that the place would be crawling with red heads, including all their spouses and children. After receiving warm hugs and words of welcome from Mrs. Weasley, they were ushered to seats and told that the meal would be ready soon, and when asked, that no, Mrs. Weasley didn’t need any help serving.
Padma found herself separated from her sister, who had attached herself to her fiancé’s side in less than a second of arriving. In the bustle she soon found herself seated between a little silver haired girl colouring a picture, and a Weasley, who she assumed was Charlie. He was having a loud conversation with who she thought was Bill, who was on his other side.
Padma sat quietly for a few minutes, feeling as though she was drowning in the chaos and noise around her. She glanced around and recognized Ron and Hermione Granger sitting together, as well as Ginny and Harry Potter. Parvati had mentioned to her that the two couples had gotten together after the war and had not parted since. She also noticed a silver haired woman feeding a toddler. It took Padma a moment to realize this was Fleur Delacour from the Triwizard Tournament. Well, that was Fleur Weasley now wasn’t it?
In all the hustle and bustle, it was easy to notice the only other quiet spot at the table. Directly across from her sat another Weasley, with horn-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, reading the newspaper. He seemed to be ignoring the noise and interruptions with a practiced ease, calmly flicking pages. She recognized him as Percy Weasley, who worked in the Department of Mysteries with her, though in a different room than she was.
She had been accepted into the Unspeakable position straight out of Hogwarts. They had been impressed by her grades and thirst for solving the mysteries of the universe, which seemed a common trait among the Unspeakables. She had very quickly become comfortable with her coworkers in The Time Room, many of whom were fellow former Ravenclaws, and found the work constantly fascinating and challenging. Some days she was hands on working with Sands of Time or all sorts of Enchanted Clocks, and others she had weeks of working theoretical equations. She loved the variance of her work.
Shortly after she started working there, Percy Weasley had transferred from another department, and had found a niche in The Planet Room. Unspeakables tended not to interact with people from different rooms than them, so Padma had never spoken to the bespeckled Weasley, but she did know who he was.
She watched owlishly as one of the crayons of the little girl sitting beside her sailed across the table and bounced off his pale forehead. Percy didn’t even blink, and continued to read his paper.
Before she could think on this out of place Weasley any more, Mrs. Weasley’s feast arranged itself on the table and a wild battle seemed to commence where everyone seemed to simultaneously inhale as much food as possible, except she and Percy that is, and her sister and Fred as well, who seemed much more interested in sucking each other’s mouths off than eating at the moment.
After the initial frenzy died down a bit, Padma served herself some eggs and toast, noticing that Percy continued to read his paper. As she munched on her toast, Padma watched as some scrambled eggs flew at him and landed in his curly dark red hair. Percy immediately snapped his paper down, surprising Padma, and glared directly at a too innocent looking George Weasley. He brushed the food out of his hair and started to serve himself some breakfast.
Padma was still rather shell-shocked by the amount of noise she was experiencing. Compared to her silent flat and peaceful workplace, Padma was feeling very discomforted. She and Parvati had no other siblings, so their childhood home had never been like this either.
Weasleys tossed toast to each other across the table, there were many simultaneous boisterous conversations and arguments, and everyone seemed to talk over each other. Padma shrunk in on herself a bit, as some thrown bacon almost clipped her nose.
As she glanced about warily, watching for anymore flying food, she noticed Percy glance at her with a confused expression, but before she could say anything, he returned to his food, arranging his newspaper so he could read while eating.
Soon, small groups left the boisterous table for other Saturday activities. Padma couldn’t leave, as she’d promised Parvati they could start discussing the wedding preparations.
Soon enough though, the table was cleared, and the Weasleys left all moved to the sitting room. Padma sat herself beside Parvati and convinced the girl to detach herself from her ginger fiancé so they could start the wedding prep. Parvati wanted a full Indian wedding, so the work was cut out for them. As well, the rest of the family seemed quite excited to see what the wedding would be like.
Beside the actual ceremony and reception details, there was also the guest list that had to immediately be attended to. Relatives from both the Weasley and Patil sides would be travelling to the first Weasley wedding since Bill and Fleur’s and the end of the war.
Padma started to prepare a list of everything they would have to plan, order, and shop for. She glanced up to ask if Parvati had started the search for a wedding dress or if she would wear traditional Indian clothes, only to see her sister once against joined at the face to her soon to be husband.
Padma grimaced and made a note to ask Parvati about the issue later. Padma hoped that ‘planning the wedding together’ was not becoming ‘get Padma to do everything’. There was only so much effort she could put into something she found rather uninteresting.
Since Parvati was occupied and there was not much more she could do, she wondered if she shouldn’t just go home. Parvati might not be so happy if she did though.
“Tea, Miss Patil?” interrupted her thoughts. A teacup was held up in front of her by Percy, who had a similar cup in his other hand. She took the cup, thanking him demurely.
“Do you mind terribly if I have a seat?” Percy asked, gesturing to the seat next to her. Padma was mildly surprised by the show of manners, but agreed nonetheless.
He lowered himself elegantly onto the squashy chair and took a sip of his tea, as Padma watched him. She didn’t know what to make of this out of place Weasley.
He glanced at her questioningly when he noticed her gaze upon him, and she took the opportunity to strike up a conversation.
“You’re an Unspeakable at the ministry, aren’t you?” she inquired.
He glanced at her sharply, but still answered politely. “Yes, but as the name implies, I cannot speak of it.” She took his imperious tone as indication that he did not get what she was trying to say, so she tried to clear the air.
“I’m sorry if you misunderstood, I don’t mean to enquire about your job. I know the secrecy it entails. I’m an unspeakable as well, and I thought I’d seen you around as well.”
He seemed surprised by her mild and not mocking response. With such a rowdy family she couldn’t say she blamed him.
“You’re an Unspeakable as well? I had no idea, I don’t believe I’ve seen you around.”
Padma glanced about to see if anyone was paying attention to them. It was not forbidden to talk about their general goings-ons with other Unspeakables, but doing such with normal folk was definitely not encouraged.
Seeing that everyone else was occupied, she responded. “I’m in The Time Room, and rarely leave it when I’m at the ministry, so I can’t say I’m surprised you’ve not seen me.”
He nodded, glancing around himself for eavesdroppers. “I’m the same, located in The Room of Planets. The work is so fascinating I’m rarely tempted to leave.”
She smiled gently, “oh I agree entirely. I’ve spent days missing my breaks because I was too enraptured in my current research to bother keeping track of mundane things like lunchtimes.”
For the first time that day, Padma saw him show some excitement. “I frequently do the same! It’s pleasant to be in a department that does not look down on that kind of dedication.” He frowned then, as if remembering an incident of the sort.
Padma didn’t quite know what to say to that. She’d only ever been located in the one department. Instead, she directed the conversation away from such pessimistic thoughts. “It is a lovely place to work. I’m thankful everyday I can express my enthusiasm for my field in such a way.”
He nodded again, and started to say something when a tiny fluffy object collided with his jumper covered chest. He picked up the pink fluffy thing, which turned out to be an animal of some sort. The little silver haired girl who had sat beside me previously ran up to us. She stopped in front of Percy and gave a watery smile. “May I have Maurice back, Uncle Percy?”
He held out what must be Maurice seriously. “You should be more careful with your pets, Victoire.”
The little girl stomped her foot. “Teddy threw him! C’était son faute!” She yelled, and ran back to where she had come from, presumably to give this Teddy a piece of her mind. Percy shook his head a bit.
“Your family certainly is… active.” Padma noted carefully.
He glanced at her, “yes, that’s certainly one way of putting it.” He gave a small eye roll and she had to hold back a giggle at his dry comments.
Parvati apparently chose that moment to detach herself. “C’mon sis, weren’t we supposed to go to a flower shop?”
Padma gave an eye roll of her own at her sister’s attentiveness.
“Have fun shopping, girls,” Fred added with a grin, which earned him a kiss from Parvati. “Perce, you want to have 3 on 3 Quidditch match while they’re gone?”
Percy regarded Fred seriously; he pushed his glasses up his nose. “Thank you Fred, but I have some other business to attend to this evening, and should be taking my leave. Good afternoon.”
He turned to Parvati and Padma, “Good afternoon, ladies.”
They greeted him back and he left swiftly after, his mother stopping him to fuss over him before he could leave the house.
Padma gathered her things as Parvati gave her fiancé a rather involved goodbye kiss. After checking her watch twice, Padma huffed in frustration and towed her twin by her elbow out of the room.
Chapter 2
The following Friday, Padma had just gotten in the door of her flat from work, when she heard a floo call coming from the fireplace in her neat living room.
It was, of course, her sister, calling to discuss wedding details. Parvati had been calling nearly every day to talk about any wedding detail that could be talked about. Some days, Padma felt that Parvati just needed someone to voice her thoughts at, but she listened nonetheless. Padma was quite used to her younger sister’s chattiness.
As Parvati finished up her monologue about the types of shoes that the bridesmaids should wear, Padma zoned back in at her sister’s request to be at the Weasley breakfast again the next morning.
“Absolutely not, Parvati,” Padma stated firmly, “it’s much too busy and noisy to get any planning or work done, and you’re always attaching yourself to Fred, so you never participate.”
‘But Padmaaaa,” Parvati whined (Parvati was very skilled at whining annoyingly), “that’s the only time this weekend I’m free and I can’t miss it.”
“Why not? Just tell them you’ll be there next week.”
Parvati looked shocked. Padma would have found it comical if Parvati hadn’t been so serious.
“No Padma. You don’t understand. No Weasley misses Weasley Saturday Brunches unless they have a life or death reason. Even Charlie portkeys from Romania for them.”
Padma was confused, “why are they such a big deal? It’s just breakfast.”
Parvati again looked dramatically shocked. “Everyone in the Weasley family has been attending brunch together since the end of the war. When everyone nearly lost all of their siblings and parents in one night, they began this so they could see everyone and keep up with everything. Plus it’s nice to have a big family meal.”
“Well that’s good and all Parvati, but I’m not a Weasley or a future Weasley. Plus it’s so loud, and I don’t even have anything to do there.”
“But it’s fun! And you had a good time talking to Percy last time, right?”
Padma sometimes forgot how perceptive her sister could be. She had seemed occupied with her fiancé at the time. But Padma had surprisingly enjoyed talking to Percy.
“Yeah, I guess it was nice talking to him. He’s not very much like the other Weasleys, is he?”
“If by that you mean that he’s boring, then yeah!” Parvati said, rolling her eyes. “But he is still one of them, and I’ll always be thankful to him for saving Fred’s life in the war. But still, sometimes I can’t believe he was a Gryffindor. He seems much more like a Ravenclaw like you.”
This stuck with Padma. Nothing Padma had seen about him indicated in any way that Percy had been a Gryffindor. In fact, he seemed much more like the exact opposite of everything Gryffindor. Parvati was right, he would have fit in effortlessly in Ravenclaw.
After enduring a few more minutes of Parvati’s whining, Padma eventually agreed to be at the brunch, after extracting an ironclad promise that they’d actually discuss some wedding details this time. She then spent an hour lying on her couch enjoying the silence that she wouldn’t have the next day.
The next day dawned crisp and beautiful, but Padma was not having it.
It would be her second Weasley Family Brunch today, and she was seriously starting to miss her normal Saturday ritual. A stack of golden brown French toast, camomile tea, and a murder mystery were a calming time she looked back on with sadness. You really don’t know what you have until it’s gone, Padma thought uncharacteristically dramatically.
With a dark frown, Padma got ready for another excessively exciting day. How other people could be comfortable in chaos and disorder, Padma would never understand.
After picking up Parvati, Padma once again found herself on the doorstep of the Weasley House, and once again, she was ushered into the haphazard chaos called brunch. This time, Padma was sitting beside Fleur Weasley, who was feeding a strawberry blond toddler and Percy, who was once again reading a newspaper.
Padma observed Percy again, thinking of what her sister had said the other day. He really was nothing like the other Weasleys, or what she’d come to know as the essential Gryffindor traits. He wasn’t brash, overconfident, outgoing, or energetic. In actuality, he seemed to embody exactly the traits that were praised in Ravenclaw; quiet, studious, well-spoken, and witty.
She observed him out of the corner of her eye as he flipped through his newspaper, then finished, neatly folded it back up and set it aside.
The food was not served yet, so he took a look around. Padma took this opportunity to turn to him.
“Good morning, Percy.” She greeted with a smile.
“Good morning, Miss Patil,” Percy replied.
“Padma, please.”
He nodded, and then continued, “I’ve seen you around our department in the Ministry recently.”
Padma was surprised, “oh really? I haven’t seen you around. Though I have been very busy with my latest project recently.”
“Yes, I believe some of our department and yours will be teaming up soon on a joint project.”
Padma raised an eyebrow, “oh? This is the first I’ve heard of it. How do you know?”
Percy grinned, “I know because I proposed it. It’s where my research is taking me, and having someone from your team would be beneficial.”
“Hmm,” Padma thought out loud, “I wonder who that’ll be. It depends on our research loads, but I’ve never worked with another department before.”
Percy’s response was interrupted by the sudden appearance of all the food, and the commencement of the ensuing frenzy. Padma flinched away from the sudden noise and disorder unwittingly leaned toward Percy. She turned to him, her next comment dying on her tongue as she noticed that his face much closer to her than she had thought. The moment seemed absurdly stretched out, she memorized his sea blue eyes and the freckles dotting the bridge of his nose, where his glasses were resting. Because she was watching his eyes, she saw him absorbing her own eyes, then quickly flick to her lips and back to her eyes.
Padma was startled by Fleur tapping her shoulder, and the moment ended as she turned back to the others, taking the dish of French Toast that Fleur offered her. She served herself some, and then handed the platter to Percy, who grinned slightly in thanks.
She took some of the other food offered to her, then sat thoughtfully munching her French Toast, as Fleur beside her fed her squealing daughter and Percy was engaged in conversation by Hermione who questioned him on one of the finer points of House Elf Legislature.
She wondered about the strange moment that had passed between her and Percy. She acknowledged that he was handsome, maybe even bordering on gorgeous. His dark copper curly hair, slim build, and beautiful eyes were exactly her type. His personality was growing on her quickly as well. She knew that Parvati and the others found him grating and bossy, but she liked his intelligence and serious demeanor that seemed to reveal a captivating individual underneath.
She then wondered why she seemed to be thinking so much about Percy Weasley lately. Padma wasn’t what you could call boy crazy, that was more her sister’s area. Padma had only had one boyfriend, and that had been while she was at Hogwarts. Parvati had always been the one gushing over her weekly crush, while Padma had generally been far too busy with school and all to be pining after boys. So the fact that Percy seemed to be invading her thoughts so much was startling.
Padma was once again brought out of her thoughts by disruptions around her. This time, it seemed that brunch was wrapping up. Couples left, and Parvati and Fred moved to the sitting room. Fred went over to talk to George about their business and Parvati sat on the floor, leaning against the couch, spreading her binder full of wedding details out in front of her. Padma went over to sit on the couch behind her, as they began to discuss what was left to plan. Eventually Parvati made her way over to the fireplace to do some floo calls to find out about flowers and cake. Padma was left on the couch, told to flip through a bridesmaid dress catalogue.
As she aimlessly flipped, Percy once more made his way to her, cups of tea for them both in his hands. She thanked him for the tea, wrapping her fingers around the warmth of the mug. Percy took a seat beside her, and struck up a conversation about the new research in the Transfiguration Journal about the untransfiguration time delay that accompanied improperly preformed spells.
Padma realized that this was one of the things she missed most about not being in touch with many of her Ravenclaw friends anymore. Her sister didn’t exactly relish this kind of conversation, and while she was at work both she and her work friends were otherwise preoccupied with their work. It was nice to have someone to chat with about something other than small talk and the wedding.
She and Percy got more involved in their discussion, even debating the finer points that they disagreed on. This was how Parvati found them as she returned from her floo calls. Padma looked up at her from her conversation to catch a strange expression on her sister’s face that quickly disappeared, replaced by her sister’s normal bright smile.
Parvati then dragged Padma up from the couch and to her wedding dress shopping, Padma managed to throw a wave goodbye to Percy, who indulgently returned it, a wry grin on his face, as he returned to his tea.
After a day of perusing wedding dresses, Padma and her sister were collapsed on Padma’s couch, too tired from all the running around of the day to do anything other than flop down.
Parvati turned to her sister, “Thanks for helping me so much.”
Padma smiled at her little sister. “It’s no problem, I think the Weasley family’s starting to grow on me.”
“That’s great!” Parvati replied brightly. “And you seem to be getting along really well with Percy too.”
Padma nodded, ignoring what she had been thinking about this subject earlier. “Yeah, he’s great to talk to.”
Parvati rolled her eyes, “YOU would find Percy cool. He’s exactly your type.”
Padma was surprised, Parvati’s word reflected her earlier thoughts. “What do you mean?”
“Well you both seem to get along well, for two people who get along with like, no one. And you look like you like to talk to each other. Like really like talking together, instead of just putting up with interacting.”
“Wow, thanks a bunch Parvati.” Padma replied sarcastically. She hadn’t thought she was that unsociable.
“I mean it in the best way possible.” Her sister said, “It’s just like you’re perfect matches for each other. He’s exactly your type, and you seem to be his.”
“Really?” Padma said, thinking about their previous interactions.
Parvati smiled, seeing her sister thinking about what she’d said. Parvati was so happy with Fred, so what if she wanted Padma to be that happy with someone too?
Chapter 3
On Monday, Padma was back to work. She had decided to put the strange situation with Percy and Parvati’s thoughts on it out of her thoughts. The whole situation was too confusing, and Padma didn’t know what to do about it all.
She was in the Ministry’s cafeteria, buying her usual lunch of soup and a sandwich. She was eating lunch at noon today, something she was not used to at all. Usually she would emerge from her work at around 2, when her stomach started growling so loudly she couldn’t ignore it any longer. But today, the manager of the Time Room had called her into a meeting, then told her to go to lunch after it was done.
So Padma found herself in the packed and busy Cafeteria, not knowing where to sit. Usually the Cafeteria was quite deserted, and she could find a table in the sun to read at while eating. Today, it seemed like every table was full.
She walked around the room a bit awkwardly, hoping to find a miraculously deserted table. When none appeared, she resigned herself to having to go outside of the ministry and sitting in muggle London to eat.
As she approached the exit, she spotted Percy sitting alone at a small table by the window. She hesitated a moment, then steeled herself, striding to where he was sitting.
“Excuse me Percy,” she said, and he looked up from his pasta. Seeing it was Padma standing at his table, he smiled and greeted her.
She returned the greeting, and then asked if she could sit with him, as all the other tables were occupied.
“Of course!” Percy said, clearing his briefcase off the other chair.
She happily sat down and prepared to eat her soup.
After a slightly awkward bout of silence, Padma struck up a conversation about Gringotts’ recent soaring stocks, and they once again fell into a happy conversation, chatting amicably.
Soon their conversation veered into their workloads.
“Actually Percy, my recent project is just wrapping up, and my manager approached me this afternoon about working with you on your collaborative project.”
“Oh that’s excellent,” Percy replied, “I was hoping I would be working with one of the better Unspeakables on this project. I’ve been very fascinated lately with the linear progression of time as it relates to the distribution of magical beings around the world.”
Padma smiled at the unexpected compliment. “Well I’m glad to be working on such an interesting project, it seems gripping in a way I haven’t experienced yet.”
They continued chatting, and soon stood and cleared up their lunch, and walked back to the lowest level of the ministry together.
In all the time that they’d been talking, Padma had found that her thoughts hadn’t wandered at all; as was the case with many people she talked to. Talking to Percy was fascinating as he seemed to want to always talk about the same topics as her. He still hadn’t brought up the latest Quidditch results or fashion trend, which was refreshing to her, to say the least.
As they stood to part at Padma’s office door, Percy lingered a moment.
“Er, Padma,” He started, looking discomforted for the first time that she’d seen. He always seemed so sure of himself and confident in both what he said and the way he held himself.
“If you’re free, would you like to have dinner with me sometime? I find I rather enjoy talking with you.”
Padma smiled brightly, “I like talking to you too Percy, and I’d love to have dinner with you. How about Sunday?”
“Sunday sounds good, so it’s a date,” He said, and then he suddenly grasped her hand, laying a gentle kiss on the back of it. “I look forward to it.” He said looking up at her with his magical eyes.
He then turned to go back to his office, and Padma had to check to see if she hadn’t physically melted. She didn’t consider herself a big romantic, but even she could admit that that had been pretty darn great.
Like last week, Padma was once again sitting beside Percy at the bustling Weasley Table. When she had been seated, he gave her a friendly grin in greeting, which she returned, and turned back to reading his newspaper, which she supposed, was one of his morning rituals. One, she thought, he had clearly not allowed to be disturbed by the chaos of the Weasley breakfast table.
She observed him flip the page of his newspaper, suddenly very excited for their date tomorrow.
As she sat waiting for the amazing food Mrs. Weasley always prepared, she was unprepared as the wall behind her suddenly exploded.
She could tell she was in a room of Gryffindors and War Heroes, when, upon the wall behind her was blown apart by a Bombarda spell, her first thought was to get to safety, while everyone around her drew their wand and leapt into the fray.
There was a small semi-circle of Death Eaters standing in the back garden, their wands leveled at the Weasley house. Despite the victory of the light side, and the end of the war, it seemed that the remaining Death Eaters were deciding to make a statement.
Padma climbed painfully to her feet, covered with lacerations from the initial explosion. She turned toward the battle behind her, only to see a Death Eater with his wand leveled directly at her, and she hadn’t even drawn her wand yet.
As if in slow motion, she could see the green light form at the end of his wand and slice through the air toward her. She was frozen in fear, she couldn’t even summon up the thought to close her eyes. In that moment, the thought that she was going to die had barely formed in her mind, when someone jumped in front of her and quickly countered the spell that seemed only inches from them. Padma was shocked to be looking into Percy’s wide blue eyes, as he shouted, asking her if she was okay. She snapped out of her daze and hurriedly answered him.
He tucked her behind him and countered another one of the Death Eater’s attack, sending a few of his own offensive attacks back.
Amid the rubble of the Burrow’s wall and the chaos of the battle, Padma realized that she was not being very useful. Parvati was back to back with Fred, fighting a female Death Eater, and even Fleur has her strawberry blonde baby clutched in her arms while shooting spells at a massive Death Eater. Harry, Hermione, Ron, George, and Bill seemed to be in the middle of the fray, battling at least two Death Eaters each, while Molly was quickly and determinately defending the small children that were huddled behind her, including the silver haired girl and a blue haired boy.
She was at least as capable as the rest of them, she knew far too many incantations and wand movements off by heart, though she hadn’t used any practically since she’d been in Dumbledore’s Army. She leaned around Percy a bit, though still being shielded by his body and judged the situation. He seemed to be doing well against the Death Eater he was battling. She watched his battling and started assisting him by shielding and blocking the Death Eater’s attacks, and sending a few of her own attacks at him. Seeing that she was helping, Percy quickly shot her a grateful smile, and in no time had stunned the attacking Death Eater. Padma sent a spell to tie him up for good measure.
As she finished this, it appeared that the battle was all but won. The majority of the Death Eaters were stunned, full body binded, or tied up, and the few that remained were no match for the remaining Weasleys and family.
Padma turned to Percy, who she also noticed was covered with small cuts like her, and smiled broadly.
Seeing him return her wide smile gave her the sudden urge to wrap him in a hug. That was very unlike her, where she usually preferred her space from other people. But seeing as she had just been nearly killed, Padma gave in, and suddenly wrapped her arms around Percy’s torso.
She could feel him stiffen with surprise for a moment, but then recovered and wrapped his arms around her as well. She rested her head on his chest, glad that he had been there in the nick of time to save her, like a Gryffindor Knight In Shining Armour. Her eyes popped open at that thought, though she didn’t break their embrace.
Percy hadn’t seemed like a Gryffindor at all, until it had been put to the test with this impromptu battle. Why he hadn’t been placed into Ravenclaw like her had become abundantly clear in the moment the battle had commenced. She had frozen up at the imminent threat, and he had leapt into action, disregarding the danger he was putting himself into. That she thought, was the true proof that he and the rest of the Weasleys were Gryffindors.
She was brought out of her musings by the fact that she was still wrapped in Percy’s arms, and was rather liking it. Her sister’s words about them being perfect matches for each other came back to her, and she blushed, drawing back from him, and smiling up at Percy again. He smiled at her in return again, and she had the sudden urge to giggle happily. She once again gave into the un-Padma like urge and laughed lightly in happiness of the triumphant situation. Percy joined in, and soon the whole family was laughing, cheering, and embracing, celebrating their victory.
Percy gestured back toward the house, and Padma fell in step beside him, as she thanked him profusely for saving her, which he waved off with a smile. They meandered back to the Weasley house, as Harry and Ron made arrangements to take the Death Eaters back to the ministry.
Padma was suddenly glad that Parvati had dragged her to the Weasleys’ house time and time again. Despite the impromptu battle and danger of the afternoon, she found herself excited for the next week’s brunch. It had become a bright day in her otherwise quiet week, which was a nice change from the norm.
And of course, she had gained a new friend (or something more) in Percy. As she walked toward the ramshackle house, cheering redheads all around her and Percy at her side, Padma was suddenly glad that there were so many Gryffindors here to make her life so grand.
Author: logicallylivid
Characters: Padma Patil/Percy Weasley
Prompt Number: 166
Word Count: 6207 words
Rating: K+
Warnings: None
Summary: Padma is quite used to her sister’s brash, Gryffindor bravery and all her tales of the hijinks and goings-on in the Gryffindor Common Room. Therefore, she is not at all surprised when Parvati becomes engaged to Fred Weasley. As she makes numerous visits to the Burrow to discuss her sister’s wedding plans, Padma has a chance to get to know Percy Weasley better. Why is it that this sensible, intelligent young man wasn’t sorted into Ravenclaw? What is it about him that makes him a Gryffindor? Padma won’t rest until she has uncovered the answer.
Disclaimer: None
Author’s Notes: Thanks to my lovely beta for being there when I get frustrated and refuse to write, couldn’t have done this without you girl.
The Gryffindor Test
Chapter 1
Padma Patil was fond of her quiet life. She had a small flat, an enjoyable job, no pets, sane hobbies, and that was the way she liked it. She passed her days in comfortable routine. Unlike some she knew, Padma had never needed too much excitement or thrill to be happy. She was simply content with a good book, and the world was happy to leave her at it.
Except on Sunday nights, that was. Ever since she and her sister, Parvati, had left for boarding school at the age of eleven and were promptly sorted into different houses, they had made an agreement to meet every Sunday night to catch up. They were twins, and so had always been closer than most sisters were, but at the same time, they were nothing alike. This was why Padma had not been surprised when her sister had been sorted to brash, outgoing Gryffindor, while she had been directed to studious, dedicated Ravenclaw. Their parents had always remarked that if they didn’t look so similar, no one would know they were related.
Nevertheless, the twins were as close as could be. Their opposite personalities caused friction between them, but they loved each other. This was what had continued their Sunday tradition until even now, 5 years after their graduation from Hogwarts.
Padma was bustling around her small flat, straightening up her already neat belongings in preparation of Parvati’s visit. They occasionally held their girls’ night at Parvati’s flat, but her giggling roommates made it hard for Padma to really talk to her sister. Padma wasn’t shy, per se, but she certainly preferred the peace of her flat to Parvati’s busy and boisterous home.
Upon hearing the knocking on her front door, Padma paced to the door, expecting her sister for just another normal evening. What she got instead upon pulling open the door was her sister’s ear to ear grin. Parvati immediately threw her arms around her surprised sister’s neck, announcing in an excited yell “I’m getting married!”
This, Padma thought, was not another ordinary visit.
After sitting Parvati on the couch and providing her with some tea to calm her twin down, Padma settled in to absorb the details.
From Parvati’s excited chattering, Padma concluded that last night, Fred Weasley, her boyfriend of the past year had asked her to marry him over dinner, and Parvati had, of course, ecstatically accepted.
Padma couldn’t say she was surprised. She’d met the Weasley twins a few times, and had certainly heard enough stories about their antics from her sister. They seemed like exactly the kind of people Parvati liked to surround herself with.
Padma didn’t know that much about the actual Weasley family, mostly just whatever she gathered from Parvati’s stories from Gryffindor house and the little interaction she’d had with them when they’d all been in the DA. Not to forget (though she tried to) the terrible blind date her sister had set her up for, for the Yule Ball. Ron Weasley had been a horrible date, and she’d had a dismal time until she’d ditched him to hang out with some of her Ravenclaw classmates.
But now, it appeared Padma was going to get to know them all much better. Parvati seemed eager for her help in planning the wedding that was to be held at the Weasley home in half a year. Padma was easily the more organized of the two, a fact Parvati seemed eager to take advantage of even if Padma, to quote her sister, ‘Had no eye’, whatever that meant.
Padma was surprised, however, that her sister was getting married so soon. They were only 23, and had just started their careers. When she posed this question to Parvati, the girl in question waved her off, stating “The right time only depends on our love.” This then launched a tirade in which Parvati had to swear up and down that she was not knocked up.
Padma stepped up to the Weasley home’s (or ‘Burrow’ as the name apparently was) front door for the first time. Her sister at her side gave her a reassuring smile then knocked on the small door. This was the first time visiting the lopsided house for Padma, but Parvati was in apparent ease at the sight of the building.
The door was pulled open and revealed an overflowing kitchen. Parvati had invited her along for Saturday morning brunch, which she had mentioned was when the whole Weasley family gathered. Padma had not, however, anticipated that the place would be crawling with red heads, including all their spouses and children. After receiving warm hugs and words of welcome from Mrs. Weasley, they were ushered to seats and told that the meal would be ready soon, and when asked, that no, Mrs. Weasley didn’t need any help serving.
Padma found herself separated from her sister, who had attached herself to her fiancé’s side in less than a second of arriving. In the bustle she soon found herself seated between a little silver haired girl colouring a picture, and a Weasley, who she assumed was Charlie. He was having a loud conversation with who she thought was Bill, who was on his other side.
Padma sat quietly for a few minutes, feeling as though she was drowning in the chaos and noise around her. She glanced around and recognized Ron and Hermione Granger sitting together, as well as Ginny and Harry Potter. Parvati had mentioned to her that the two couples had gotten together after the war and had not parted since. She also noticed a silver haired woman feeding a toddler. It took Padma a moment to realize this was Fleur Delacour from the Triwizard Tournament. Well, that was Fleur Weasley now wasn’t it?
In all the hustle and bustle, it was easy to notice the only other quiet spot at the table. Directly across from her sat another Weasley, with horn-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, reading the newspaper. He seemed to be ignoring the noise and interruptions with a practiced ease, calmly flicking pages. She recognized him as Percy Weasley, who worked in the Department of Mysteries with her, though in a different room than she was.
She had been accepted into the Unspeakable position straight out of Hogwarts. They had been impressed by her grades and thirst for solving the mysteries of the universe, which seemed a common trait among the Unspeakables. She had very quickly become comfortable with her coworkers in The Time Room, many of whom were fellow former Ravenclaws, and found the work constantly fascinating and challenging. Some days she was hands on working with Sands of Time or all sorts of Enchanted Clocks, and others she had weeks of working theoretical equations. She loved the variance of her work.
Shortly after she started working there, Percy Weasley had transferred from another department, and had found a niche in The Planet Room. Unspeakables tended not to interact with people from different rooms than them, so Padma had never spoken to the bespeckled Weasley, but she did know who he was.
She watched owlishly as one of the crayons of the little girl sitting beside her sailed across the table and bounced off his pale forehead. Percy didn’t even blink, and continued to read his paper.
Before she could think on this out of place Weasley any more, Mrs. Weasley’s feast arranged itself on the table and a wild battle seemed to commence where everyone seemed to simultaneously inhale as much food as possible, except she and Percy that is, and her sister and Fred as well, who seemed much more interested in sucking each other’s mouths off than eating at the moment.
After the initial frenzy died down a bit, Padma served herself some eggs and toast, noticing that Percy continued to read his paper. As she munched on her toast, Padma watched as some scrambled eggs flew at him and landed in his curly dark red hair. Percy immediately snapped his paper down, surprising Padma, and glared directly at a too innocent looking George Weasley. He brushed the food out of his hair and started to serve himself some breakfast.
Padma was still rather shell-shocked by the amount of noise she was experiencing. Compared to her silent flat and peaceful workplace, Padma was feeling very discomforted. She and Parvati had no other siblings, so their childhood home had never been like this either.
Weasleys tossed toast to each other across the table, there were many simultaneous boisterous conversations and arguments, and everyone seemed to talk over each other. Padma shrunk in on herself a bit, as some thrown bacon almost clipped her nose.
As she glanced about warily, watching for anymore flying food, she noticed Percy glance at her with a confused expression, but before she could say anything, he returned to his food, arranging his newspaper so he could read while eating.
Soon, small groups left the boisterous table for other Saturday activities. Padma couldn’t leave, as she’d promised Parvati they could start discussing the wedding preparations.
Soon enough though, the table was cleared, and the Weasleys left all moved to the sitting room. Padma sat herself beside Parvati and convinced the girl to detach herself from her ginger fiancé so they could start the wedding prep. Parvati wanted a full Indian wedding, so the work was cut out for them. As well, the rest of the family seemed quite excited to see what the wedding would be like.
Beside the actual ceremony and reception details, there was also the guest list that had to immediately be attended to. Relatives from both the Weasley and Patil sides would be travelling to the first Weasley wedding since Bill and Fleur’s and the end of the war.
Padma started to prepare a list of everything they would have to plan, order, and shop for. She glanced up to ask if Parvati had started the search for a wedding dress or if she would wear traditional Indian clothes, only to see her sister once against joined at the face to her soon to be husband.
Padma grimaced and made a note to ask Parvati about the issue later. Padma hoped that ‘planning the wedding together’ was not becoming ‘get Padma to do everything’. There was only so much effort she could put into something she found rather uninteresting.
Since Parvati was occupied and there was not much more she could do, she wondered if she shouldn’t just go home. Parvati might not be so happy if she did though.
“Tea, Miss Patil?” interrupted her thoughts. A teacup was held up in front of her by Percy, who had a similar cup in his other hand. She took the cup, thanking him demurely.
“Do you mind terribly if I have a seat?” Percy asked, gesturing to the seat next to her. Padma was mildly surprised by the show of manners, but agreed nonetheless.
He lowered himself elegantly onto the squashy chair and took a sip of his tea, as Padma watched him. She didn’t know what to make of this out of place Weasley.
He glanced at her questioningly when he noticed her gaze upon him, and she took the opportunity to strike up a conversation.
“You’re an Unspeakable at the ministry, aren’t you?” she inquired.
He glanced at her sharply, but still answered politely. “Yes, but as the name implies, I cannot speak of it.” She took his imperious tone as indication that he did not get what she was trying to say, so she tried to clear the air.
“I’m sorry if you misunderstood, I don’t mean to enquire about your job. I know the secrecy it entails. I’m an unspeakable as well, and I thought I’d seen you around as well.”
He seemed surprised by her mild and not mocking response. With such a rowdy family she couldn’t say she blamed him.
“You’re an Unspeakable as well? I had no idea, I don’t believe I’ve seen you around.”
Padma glanced about to see if anyone was paying attention to them. It was not forbidden to talk about their general goings-ons with other Unspeakables, but doing such with normal folk was definitely not encouraged.
Seeing that everyone else was occupied, she responded. “I’m in The Time Room, and rarely leave it when I’m at the ministry, so I can’t say I’m surprised you’ve not seen me.”
He nodded, glancing around himself for eavesdroppers. “I’m the same, located in The Room of Planets. The work is so fascinating I’m rarely tempted to leave.”
She smiled gently, “oh I agree entirely. I’ve spent days missing my breaks because I was too enraptured in my current research to bother keeping track of mundane things like lunchtimes.”
For the first time that day, Padma saw him show some excitement. “I frequently do the same! It’s pleasant to be in a department that does not look down on that kind of dedication.” He frowned then, as if remembering an incident of the sort.
Padma didn’t quite know what to say to that. She’d only ever been located in the one department. Instead, she directed the conversation away from such pessimistic thoughts. “It is a lovely place to work. I’m thankful everyday I can express my enthusiasm for my field in such a way.”
He nodded again, and started to say something when a tiny fluffy object collided with his jumper covered chest. He picked up the pink fluffy thing, which turned out to be an animal of some sort. The little silver haired girl who had sat beside me previously ran up to us. She stopped in front of Percy and gave a watery smile. “May I have Maurice back, Uncle Percy?”
He held out what must be Maurice seriously. “You should be more careful with your pets, Victoire.”
The little girl stomped her foot. “Teddy threw him! C’était son faute!” She yelled, and ran back to where she had come from, presumably to give this Teddy a piece of her mind. Percy shook his head a bit.
“Your family certainly is… active.” Padma noted carefully.
He glanced at her, “yes, that’s certainly one way of putting it.” He gave a small eye roll and she had to hold back a giggle at his dry comments.
Parvati apparently chose that moment to detach herself. “C’mon sis, weren’t we supposed to go to a flower shop?”
Padma gave an eye roll of her own at her sister’s attentiveness.
“Have fun shopping, girls,” Fred added with a grin, which earned him a kiss from Parvati. “Perce, you want to have 3 on 3 Quidditch match while they’re gone?”
Percy regarded Fred seriously; he pushed his glasses up his nose. “Thank you Fred, but I have some other business to attend to this evening, and should be taking my leave. Good afternoon.”
He turned to Parvati and Padma, “Good afternoon, ladies.”
They greeted him back and he left swiftly after, his mother stopping him to fuss over him before he could leave the house.
Padma gathered her things as Parvati gave her fiancé a rather involved goodbye kiss. After checking her watch twice, Padma huffed in frustration and towed her twin by her elbow out of the room.
Chapter 2
The following Friday, Padma had just gotten in the door of her flat from work, when she heard a floo call coming from the fireplace in her neat living room.
It was, of course, her sister, calling to discuss wedding details. Parvati had been calling nearly every day to talk about any wedding detail that could be talked about. Some days, Padma felt that Parvati just needed someone to voice her thoughts at, but she listened nonetheless. Padma was quite used to her younger sister’s chattiness.
As Parvati finished up her monologue about the types of shoes that the bridesmaids should wear, Padma zoned back in at her sister’s request to be at the Weasley breakfast again the next morning.
“Absolutely not, Parvati,” Padma stated firmly, “it’s much too busy and noisy to get any planning or work done, and you’re always attaching yourself to Fred, so you never participate.”
‘But Padmaaaa,” Parvati whined (Parvati was very skilled at whining annoyingly), “that’s the only time this weekend I’m free and I can’t miss it.”
“Why not? Just tell them you’ll be there next week.”
Parvati looked shocked. Padma would have found it comical if Parvati hadn’t been so serious.
“No Padma. You don’t understand. No Weasley misses Weasley Saturday Brunches unless they have a life or death reason. Even Charlie portkeys from Romania for them.”
Padma was confused, “why are they such a big deal? It’s just breakfast.”
Parvati again looked dramatically shocked. “Everyone in the Weasley family has been attending brunch together since the end of the war. When everyone nearly lost all of their siblings and parents in one night, they began this so they could see everyone and keep up with everything. Plus it’s nice to have a big family meal.”
“Well that’s good and all Parvati, but I’m not a Weasley or a future Weasley. Plus it’s so loud, and I don’t even have anything to do there.”
“But it’s fun! And you had a good time talking to Percy last time, right?”
Padma sometimes forgot how perceptive her sister could be. She had seemed occupied with her fiancé at the time. But Padma had surprisingly enjoyed talking to Percy.
“Yeah, I guess it was nice talking to him. He’s not very much like the other Weasleys, is he?”
“If by that you mean that he’s boring, then yeah!” Parvati said, rolling her eyes. “But he is still one of them, and I’ll always be thankful to him for saving Fred’s life in the war. But still, sometimes I can’t believe he was a Gryffindor. He seems much more like a Ravenclaw like you.”
This stuck with Padma. Nothing Padma had seen about him indicated in any way that Percy had been a Gryffindor. In fact, he seemed much more like the exact opposite of everything Gryffindor. Parvati was right, he would have fit in effortlessly in Ravenclaw.
After enduring a few more minutes of Parvati’s whining, Padma eventually agreed to be at the brunch, after extracting an ironclad promise that they’d actually discuss some wedding details this time. She then spent an hour lying on her couch enjoying the silence that she wouldn’t have the next day.
The next day dawned crisp and beautiful, but Padma was not having it.
It would be her second Weasley Family Brunch today, and she was seriously starting to miss her normal Saturday ritual. A stack of golden brown French toast, camomile tea, and a murder mystery were a calming time she looked back on with sadness. You really don’t know what you have until it’s gone, Padma thought uncharacteristically dramatically.
With a dark frown, Padma got ready for another excessively exciting day. How other people could be comfortable in chaos and disorder, Padma would never understand.
After picking up Parvati, Padma once again found herself on the doorstep of the Weasley House, and once again, she was ushered into the haphazard chaos called brunch. This time, Padma was sitting beside Fleur Weasley, who was feeding a strawberry blond toddler and Percy, who was once again reading a newspaper.
Padma observed Percy again, thinking of what her sister had said the other day. He really was nothing like the other Weasleys, or what she’d come to know as the essential Gryffindor traits. He wasn’t brash, overconfident, outgoing, or energetic. In actuality, he seemed to embody exactly the traits that were praised in Ravenclaw; quiet, studious, well-spoken, and witty.
She observed him out of the corner of her eye as he flipped through his newspaper, then finished, neatly folded it back up and set it aside.
The food was not served yet, so he took a look around. Padma took this opportunity to turn to him.
“Good morning, Percy.” She greeted with a smile.
“Good morning, Miss Patil,” Percy replied.
“Padma, please.”
He nodded, and then continued, “I’ve seen you around our department in the Ministry recently.”
Padma was surprised, “oh really? I haven’t seen you around. Though I have been very busy with my latest project recently.”
“Yes, I believe some of our department and yours will be teaming up soon on a joint project.”
Padma raised an eyebrow, “oh? This is the first I’ve heard of it. How do you know?”
Percy grinned, “I know because I proposed it. It’s where my research is taking me, and having someone from your team would be beneficial.”
“Hmm,” Padma thought out loud, “I wonder who that’ll be. It depends on our research loads, but I’ve never worked with another department before.”
Percy’s response was interrupted by the sudden appearance of all the food, and the commencement of the ensuing frenzy. Padma flinched away from the sudden noise and disorder unwittingly leaned toward Percy. She turned to him, her next comment dying on her tongue as she noticed that his face much closer to her than she had thought. The moment seemed absurdly stretched out, she memorized his sea blue eyes and the freckles dotting the bridge of his nose, where his glasses were resting. Because she was watching his eyes, she saw him absorbing her own eyes, then quickly flick to her lips and back to her eyes.
Padma was startled by Fleur tapping her shoulder, and the moment ended as she turned back to the others, taking the dish of French Toast that Fleur offered her. She served herself some, and then handed the platter to Percy, who grinned slightly in thanks.
She took some of the other food offered to her, then sat thoughtfully munching her French Toast, as Fleur beside her fed her squealing daughter and Percy was engaged in conversation by Hermione who questioned him on one of the finer points of House Elf Legislature.
She wondered about the strange moment that had passed between her and Percy. She acknowledged that he was handsome, maybe even bordering on gorgeous. His dark copper curly hair, slim build, and beautiful eyes were exactly her type. His personality was growing on her quickly as well. She knew that Parvati and the others found him grating and bossy, but she liked his intelligence and serious demeanor that seemed to reveal a captivating individual underneath.
She then wondered why she seemed to be thinking so much about Percy Weasley lately. Padma wasn’t what you could call boy crazy, that was more her sister’s area. Padma had only had one boyfriend, and that had been while she was at Hogwarts. Parvati had always been the one gushing over her weekly crush, while Padma had generally been far too busy with school and all to be pining after boys. So the fact that Percy seemed to be invading her thoughts so much was startling.
Padma was once again brought out of her thoughts by disruptions around her. This time, it seemed that brunch was wrapping up. Couples left, and Parvati and Fred moved to the sitting room. Fred went over to talk to George about their business and Parvati sat on the floor, leaning against the couch, spreading her binder full of wedding details out in front of her. Padma went over to sit on the couch behind her, as they began to discuss what was left to plan. Eventually Parvati made her way over to the fireplace to do some floo calls to find out about flowers and cake. Padma was left on the couch, told to flip through a bridesmaid dress catalogue.
As she aimlessly flipped, Percy once more made his way to her, cups of tea for them both in his hands. She thanked him for the tea, wrapping her fingers around the warmth of the mug. Percy took a seat beside her, and struck up a conversation about the new research in the Transfiguration Journal about the untransfiguration time delay that accompanied improperly preformed spells.
Padma realized that this was one of the things she missed most about not being in touch with many of her Ravenclaw friends anymore. Her sister didn’t exactly relish this kind of conversation, and while she was at work both she and her work friends were otherwise preoccupied with their work. It was nice to have someone to chat with about something other than small talk and the wedding.
She and Percy got more involved in their discussion, even debating the finer points that they disagreed on. This was how Parvati found them as she returned from her floo calls. Padma looked up at her from her conversation to catch a strange expression on her sister’s face that quickly disappeared, replaced by her sister’s normal bright smile.
Parvati then dragged Padma up from the couch and to her wedding dress shopping, Padma managed to throw a wave goodbye to Percy, who indulgently returned it, a wry grin on his face, as he returned to his tea.
After a day of perusing wedding dresses, Padma and her sister were collapsed on Padma’s couch, too tired from all the running around of the day to do anything other than flop down.
Parvati turned to her sister, “Thanks for helping me so much.”
Padma smiled at her little sister. “It’s no problem, I think the Weasley family’s starting to grow on me.”
“That’s great!” Parvati replied brightly. “And you seem to be getting along really well with Percy too.”
Padma nodded, ignoring what she had been thinking about this subject earlier. “Yeah, he’s great to talk to.”
Parvati rolled her eyes, “YOU would find Percy cool. He’s exactly your type.”
Padma was surprised, Parvati’s word reflected her earlier thoughts. “What do you mean?”
“Well you both seem to get along well, for two people who get along with like, no one. And you look like you like to talk to each other. Like really like talking together, instead of just putting up with interacting.”
“Wow, thanks a bunch Parvati.” Padma replied sarcastically. She hadn’t thought she was that unsociable.
“I mean it in the best way possible.” Her sister said, “It’s just like you’re perfect matches for each other. He’s exactly your type, and you seem to be his.”
“Really?” Padma said, thinking about their previous interactions.
Parvati smiled, seeing her sister thinking about what she’d said. Parvati was so happy with Fred, so what if she wanted Padma to be that happy with someone too?
Chapter 3
On Monday, Padma was back to work. She had decided to put the strange situation with Percy and Parvati’s thoughts on it out of her thoughts. The whole situation was too confusing, and Padma didn’t know what to do about it all.
She was in the Ministry’s cafeteria, buying her usual lunch of soup and a sandwich. She was eating lunch at noon today, something she was not used to at all. Usually she would emerge from her work at around 2, when her stomach started growling so loudly she couldn’t ignore it any longer. But today, the manager of the Time Room had called her into a meeting, then told her to go to lunch after it was done.
So Padma found herself in the packed and busy Cafeteria, not knowing where to sit. Usually the Cafeteria was quite deserted, and she could find a table in the sun to read at while eating. Today, it seemed like every table was full.
She walked around the room a bit awkwardly, hoping to find a miraculously deserted table. When none appeared, she resigned herself to having to go outside of the ministry and sitting in muggle London to eat.
As she approached the exit, she spotted Percy sitting alone at a small table by the window. She hesitated a moment, then steeled herself, striding to where he was sitting.
“Excuse me Percy,” she said, and he looked up from his pasta. Seeing it was Padma standing at his table, he smiled and greeted her.
She returned the greeting, and then asked if she could sit with him, as all the other tables were occupied.
“Of course!” Percy said, clearing his briefcase off the other chair.
She happily sat down and prepared to eat her soup.
After a slightly awkward bout of silence, Padma struck up a conversation about Gringotts’ recent soaring stocks, and they once again fell into a happy conversation, chatting amicably.
Soon their conversation veered into their workloads.
“Actually Percy, my recent project is just wrapping up, and my manager approached me this afternoon about working with you on your collaborative project.”
“Oh that’s excellent,” Percy replied, “I was hoping I would be working with one of the better Unspeakables on this project. I’ve been very fascinated lately with the linear progression of time as it relates to the distribution of magical beings around the world.”
Padma smiled at the unexpected compliment. “Well I’m glad to be working on such an interesting project, it seems gripping in a way I haven’t experienced yet.”
They continued chatting, and soon stood and cleared up their lunch, and walked back to the lowest level of the ministry together.
In all the time that they’d been talking, Padma had found that her thoughts hadn’t wandered at all; as was the case with many people she talked to. Talking to Percy was fascinating as he seemed to want to always talk about the same topics as her. He still hadn’t brought up the latest Quidditch results or fashion trend, which was refreshing to her, to say the least.
As they stood to part at Padma’s office door, Percy lingered a moment.
“Er, Padma,” He started, looking discomforted for the first time that she’d seen. He always seemed so sure of himself and confident in both what he said and the way he held himself.
“If you’re free, would you like to have dinner with me sometime? I find I rather enjoy talking with you.”
Padma smiled brightly, “I like talking to you too Percy, and I’d love to have dinner with you. How about Sunday?”
“Sunday sounds good, so it’s a date,” He said, and then he suddenly grasped her hand, laying a gentle kiss on the back of it. “I look forward to it.” He said looking up at her with his magical eyes.
He then turned to go back to his office, and Padma had to check to see if she hadn’t physically melted. She didn’t consider herself a big romantic, but even she could admit that that had been pretty darn great.
Like last week, Padma was once again sitting beside Percy at the bustling Weasley Table. When she had been seated, he gave her a friendly grin in greeting, which she returned, and turned back to reading his newspaper, which she supposed, was one of his morning rituals. One, she thought, he had clearly not allowed to be disturbed by the chaos of the Weasley breakfast table.
She observed him flip the page of his newspaper, suddenly very excited for their date tomorrow.
As she sat waiting for the amazing food Mrs. Weasley always prepared, she was unprepared as the wall behind her suddenly exploded.
She could tell she was in a room of Gryffindors and War Heroes, when, upon the wall behind her was blown apart by a Bombarda spell, her first thought was to get to safety, while everyone around her drew their wand and leapt into the fray.
There was a small semi-circle of Death Eaters standing in the back garden, their wands leveled at the Weasley house. Despite the victory of the light side, and the end of the war, it seemed that the remaining Death Eaters were deciding to make a statement.
Padma climbed painfully to her feet, covered with lacerations from the initial explosion. She turned toward the battle behind her, only to see a Death Eater with his wand leveled directly at her, and she hadn’t even drawn her wand yet.
As if in slow motion, she could see the green light form at the end of his wand and slice through the air toward her. She was frozen in fear, she couldn’t even summon up the thought to close her eyes. In that moment, the thought that she was going to die had barely formed in her mind, when someone jumped in front of her and quickly countered the spell that seemed only inches from them. Padma was shocked to be looking into Percy’s wide blue eyes, as he shouted, asking her if she was okay. She snapped out of her daze and hurriedly answered him.
He tucked her behind him and countered another one of the Death Eater’s attack, sending a few of his own offensive attacks back.
Amid the rubble of the Burrow’s wall and the chaos of the battle, Padma realized that she was not being very useful. Parvati was back to back with Fred, fighting a female Death Eater, and even Fleur has her strawberry blonde baby clutched in her arms while shooting spells at a massive Death Eater. Harry, Hermione, Ron, George, and Bill seemed to be in the middle of the fray, battling at least two Death Eaters each, while Molly was quickly and determinately defending the small children that were huddled behind her, including the silver haired girl and a blue haired boy.
She was at least as capable as the rest of them, she knew far too many incantations and wand movements off by heart, though she hadn’t used any practically since she’d been in Dumbledore’s Army. She leaned around Percy a bit, though still being shielded by his body and judged the situation. He seemed to be doing well against the Death Eater he was battling. She watched his battling and started assisting him by shielding and blocking the Death Eater’s attacks, and sending a few of her own attacks at him. Seeing that she was helping, Percy quickly shot her a grateful smile, and in no time had stunned the attacking Death Eater. Padma sent a spell to tie him up for good measure.
As she finished this, it appeared that the battle was all but won. The majority of the Death Eaters were stunned, full body binded, or tied up, and the few that remained were no match for the remaining Weasleys and family.
Padma turned to Percy, who she also noticed was covered with small cuts like her, and smiled broadly.
Seeing him return her wide smile gave her the sudden urge to wrap him in a hug. That was very unlike her, where she usually preferred her space from other people. But seeing as she had just been nearly killed, Padma gave in, and suddenly wrapped her arms around Percy’s torso.
She could feel him stiffen with surprise for a moment, but then recovered and wrapped his arms around her as well. She rested her head on his chest, glad that he had been there in the nick of time to save her, like a Gryffindor Knight In Shining Armour. Her eyes popped open at that thought, though she didn’t break their embrace.
Percy hadn’t seemed like a Gryffindor at all, until it had been put to the test with this impromptu battle. Why he hadn’t been placed into Ravenclaw like her had become abundantly clear in the moment the battle had commenced. She had frozen up at the imminent threat, and he had leapt into action, disregarding the danger he was putting himself into. That she thought, was the true proof that he and the rest of the Weasleys were Gryffindors.
She was brought out of her musings by the fact that she was still wrapped in Percy’s arms, and was rather liking it. Her sister’s words about them being perfect matches for each other came back to her, and she blushed, drawing back from him, and smiling up at Percy again. He smiled at her in return again, and she had the sudden urge to giggle happily. She once again gave into the un-Padma like urge and laughed lightly in happiness of the triumphant situation. Percy joined in, and soon the whole family was laughing, cheering, and embracing, celebrating their victory.
Percy gestured back toward the house, and Padma fell in step beside him, as she thanked him profusely for saving her, which he waved off with a smile. They meandered back to the Weasley house, as Harry and Ron made arrangements to take the Death Eaters back to the ministry.
Padma was suddenly glad that Parvati had dragged her to the Weasleys’ house time and time again. Despite the impromptu battle and danger of the afternoon, she found herself excited for the next week’s brunch. It had become a bright day in her otherwise quiet week, which was a nice change from the norm.
And of course, she had gained a new friend (or something more) in Percy. As she walked toward the ramshackle house, cheering redheads all around her and Percy at her side, Padma was suddenly glad that there were so many Gryffindors here to make her life so grand.