Patil Drabble
by Sinope
Title:
Patil Drabble
Author: Sinope at (no spam!) gmail dot com
Rating:
PG
Pairing:
None (gen)
Summary:
Scents of cardamom and ginger weave through Padma and Parvati's memories.
Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work. No profit was made; no ownership is implied.
She remembers waking up at midnight, sheets sticky with summer humidity, and listening for the breath of her sister, a promise that the night demons had not yet swept her away. They were still young then, England a faraway name of staidness and society; scents of cardamom and ginger weave their way through her memories. Sometimes, when the sharpened teeth of nightmares loomed too strongly in the darkness, she would walk across to her sister's bed and curl up beside her, waiting for the rhythmic breath to calm her until she could close her eyes again.
London takes up most of her early memories, though: damp fog in damper streets, her first sight of snow. She ran outside when it began to fall, that winter, opening her mouth wide to the sleet-gray sky, and coughed through her laughter when a few flakes fell down her throat. She could see her sister up in the window of their flat, watching through the glass and smiling. She remembers running up and down the flights of stairs, trying to bring up a handful of snow before it melted, but she could never quite make it.
Mother used to sit before the fluorescent-lit bathroom mirror just as she had in New Delhi, tracing a line of kohl over her eyelids; their mother had always been the most beautiful woman they knew. She kissed their foreheads before bed, whispering stories about warriors and kings and clever courtesans. In London, she only wore her sari on special occasions, but when she did, tinkling with golten bangels and rustling with secrets, she would laugh like a giddy girl. When she told them about the marriages she had arranged for them - she'd even found suitable wizards! - she conjured up excitement with stories of handsome princes and rose-scented secrets. For weeks, they compared future husbands with each other after bedtime, giggling over a dying flashlight.
Then she received her letter from Hogwarts.
finis.
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