THE END OF October came with cold winds and rainy days. Normally Quidditch would have been in full action, though not this year. Quidditch was removed from Hogwarts, which seemed to bother nearly everyone, especially Ginny.
"I'd be at practice right now if the world wasn't losing its mind." She groans, letting herself fall backwards onto the couch behind her.
"Save the world now, play Quidditch later." Paz says, following Ginny's actions. She ends up sprawled out on the couch, her head laying in Ginny's lap.
Ginny lets out a loud groan of frustration.
"To top my night off, I have detention in an hour."
Paz looks up, "Since when? For who?"
"Alecto." Ginny rolls her eyes.
"What about Alecto?" Neville asks, taking a seat in the chair next to them. Ginny gasps. Paz quickly sits up. "What?"
Neville was sporting a huge gash across the right side of his face and acting as if this was a normal Friday night for him.
"What the bloody hell happened to you?" Paz questions, getting up and examining the cut on his face.
"Amycus and I got in a bit of a row in the corridor just now, nothing that won't heal itself."
Paz and Ginny stared at him in confusion, blood still trickling down the side of his face.
"You bloody idiot." Ginny states, as she crosses her arms against her chest.
"Here," Paz begins, "Hold still a moment, let me try something."
"Episkey." Paz points her wand towards Neville's wound, watching as the cut somewhat heals itself. It stays opened in some areas, though blood stopped flowing out. "Tergeo." The new and dried blood left on his face disappears.
Neville touches his wound, slightly wincing.
"Thanks Paz, that works much better than what I was planning on doing." Neville chuckles.
"What were you planning on doing?" Ginny quirks her eyebrow.
"Puttin' a bandaid on it, I suppose." The two girls laugh at this, Paz plopping back down next to Ginny.
"Some of us should learn better healing spells, Episkey is for small wounds, I'm surprised it worked at all on you."
Neville nods in agreement.
"Luna is familiar with them," Ginny begins, the three continuing to ponder about possibly D.A. members who could help them out. "I'm sure with a bit of research you'd be good at them Paz."
"I'm no help when it comes to things like this," Paz laughs, "what I just did to Neville is my very best."
Ginny eventually set off for detention and Neville headed up to his dormitory to change out of his current outfit, which had several blood stains scattered over all of them. Paz felt slightly out of place in the Gryffindor common room without any Gryffindor's, so she decided to do some of her homework in her own common room.
Leaving through the portrait hole, she stealthily brought herself back to the dungeons, entering the Slytherin house. She took a seat on a large, emerald green chair in an empty corner, and took out her Divination work. As November was approaching, Professor Trelawney had assigned another dream chart for the month.
Paz had felt as if she came up with nearly every dream possible the last two months. For the first week of November the dreams were very basic, like falling down the stairs, being late to Astronomy, her robes catching on fire because she stood too close to a fireplace.
She laughed to herself as she wrote down 'A Professor will be sacked right in front of my eyes' on November 13, imagining one of the Carrows getting kicked off the grounds.
"Which Professor are you wishing that upon?" A voice asks. Paz tilts her head up, locking eyes with Theo.
She ignores him and puts her head down, continuing to write. He sighs, sitting in an identical emerald colored chair opposite of her.
"How is Dumbledore's Army treating you?"
"I don't have a clue what you're talking about."
"I know you do, Paz. You and your pals should be more careful, Snape and the Carrows don't seem too happy you're painting all over the walls."
Paz looks up, glaring at Theo. "I think whoever is painting on the walls is trying to make a statement."
"I completely agree, I think it's quite brave of them," Theo smiles, trying to get Paz to do the same. He was not successful. "Just talk to me, Paz."
Paz continues to write down her dreams for the month, while Theo watches her, waiting for her to say something. He watches the way her hair falls into her face and how she doesn't bother to pull it back because it always ends up in front of her eyes. He notices that once one hand grows too tired to keep writing, she switches her quill to her opposite hand and continues to write.
The way her eyebrows scrunch together when concentrating, the way her light brown eyes look in the dim lighting, the light freckles that are scattered about on her face. He takes it all in, wishing he could turn back time so he could see her face light up with laughter again, watch the way she would school him in Quidditch in Draco's backyard, the look on her face when he would compliment her.
"Stop staring Nott." Paz states bluntly as she finishes up the last few days on her dream chart.
Theo let out a loud, dramatic sigh. Paz rolls her eyes at this.
"What could you possibly want from me? Pansy and Blaise got the message, when will you?"
"Probably never. A life without Paz Parkinson isn't a life worth living." Theo says, earning a blush from Paz despite her attempts to hide it. "I don't care all that much who is on what side, I dont want to lose you, I feel like I already have."
Paz sighs, throwing her Divination work in her bag.
"You haven't lost me, Theo, you're never going to. I'm afraid you're probably stuck with me for the rest of your life," Paz softly laughs. "But right now, our lives are moving in different directions, and you can't be oblivious to that. You can't expect me to drop everything just to give you attention everyday."
"I don't want you to drop everything, I just would like to be a part of your life again. I want to see you happy again."
Theo watches as Paz rubs her eyes, the bags under them larger than usual. Cuts and bruises cover her face and arms and he wishes nothing but to hold her tight and never let anyone hurt her again.
"Theo, I think it's obvious you know how I feel about you, how I've felt about you since I met you. But right now, it's not our time. It may be our time after this war ends, or it may never be out time at all. But right now? I don't think I can handle anything more than I already am."
"But Paz-"
"Please, Theo, not right now." Paz states, grabbing her bag and standing up. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Paz begins towards the girls dormitories. She wasn't able to get far due to someone pulling her arm back, spinning her around. Before she gets a chance to register what is happening, Theo cups her face in his hands and crashes his lips against hers. Paz stays startled for a moment, before finally letting her guard down and giving in, kissing him back.
She feels guilty as she notices the tastes of mint, realizing she shouldn't know this at all. At the end of the day, he was the enemy.
But in that moment, she didn't care. Paz didn't care that the world seemed to be crumbling around her, she didn't care that this boy wouldn't be fighting with her but against her, and she sure as hell didn't care who was watching.
All she cared about was the boy who was kissing her as if the world was ending tomorrow and how softly he held her, wishing she could stay in his arms forever.
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Ginny had missed the D.A. meeting Saturday night without warning anyone, which alarmed everyone. She was never one to miss a meeting, not without telling Paz at least.
Once Sunday afternoon rolls around and there was still no sign of her, Paz could tell something was terribly wrong.
"Neither of you guys have seen Ginny?" She asks Neville and Luna, as the three walk out of the Great Hall after a quick lunch.
"No, I'm getting really worried." Neville sighs, scratching the back of his neck.
"Do you suppose Alecto did something to her?" Paz shudders at the thought of Ginny being in danger.
"She might have kept her in the dungeons all this time," Luna adds in thoughtfully, "Anthony was left in there for two nights once."
Neville and Paz look at each other in fear.
"Suppose we should go break her out?" Luna asks, the other two nodding their heads in agreement.
Watching for the Carrows and Snape, they make their way down to the dungeons, passing by the Slytherin house on the way. There are several different doors leading to several different rooms, though they are all locked up.
Paz has never felt this worried for Ginny in her life. Ginny was one, if not the most, strongest person she knew, along with being her best friend of course. If anything were to happen to her, Paz would never forgive herself for not doing something sooner.
"Alohomora," Neville waves his wand at a door, though the spell does nothing.
"Dissendium." Nothing.
"Portaberto." The door didn't even move one bit.
"Hmm," Luna hums, "Aberto."
The first door finally opens, revealing an empty room. Paz groans in frustration, moving to the next door, while Neville and Luna continue to others. They continue opening and closing the doors, looking for a sign that Ginny alright.
"Merlin.." Neville says as his spell opens the second to last door, "I've found her."
Paz and Luna run over, as Neville stares into the room from the doorway. The two stop directly behind him, unable to process the sight in front of their eyes.
Ginny lay in the middle of the room in a pool of her own blood, seeming to be left for dead. Paz pushes past her friends, immediately falling to Ginny's side, not noticing the cries she is letting out.
"Ginny," Paz mumbles, frantically looking all over her body for wounds, "I'm so sorry."
"This looks like, it looks like a Sectumsempra Paz." Neville says in a panic, "Do you know the counter spell?"
Paz nods, sniffling. "Vulnera Sanentur."
The three watch as some of the surrounding blood seems to enter back into Ginny, the slashes on her body slowly closing as Paz continues to say the incantation and guide her wand over each cut.
Ginny, though, remains still. Luna kneels down and checks her pulse.
"She is breathing, we should bring her back to her room." She says, standing back up. Neville volunteers to carry her, the group of now four quickly leaving the room.
Luna closes the door behind them, then beginning to make the painfully long journey back to the Gryffindor house.
As they pass by the Slytherin house, they hear a voice shout to them from down the hall.
"Hold it right there!"
They turn to see Alecto Carrow, nearly running at them with anger written all over her face. She seems to have just gotten to Ginny's dungeon just as the lot had left.
"I might regret this." Paz sighs.
"Paz, don't do anything stu-"
"Stupefy!" Paz cries out, which results in Alecto Carrow falling backwards and landing rather roughly on the ground. "Now, let's go!"
Ginny remains unconscious in Neville's arms as the lot now breaks out into a run, pushing past other students in the oddly crowded halls. They run up several flights of stairs, eventually reaching the Gryffindor house.
"My heavens, what have you children done to her?" The Fat Lady cries, staring in horror at Ginny.
"Mandrakes!" Neville cries, the Fat Lady immediately swinging her portrait open as they run inside.
Everyone's attention in the Gryffindor common room shifts from what they were doing to Ginny in Neville's arms. Unable to wait any longer, Paz yells for the people sitting on the couch to move, Neville then laying Ginny down there.
"What happened?" Lavender asks, tears falling down her cheeks as she keeps her eyes glued on Ginny.
"We have our suspicions," Paz begins, "Luna, do you have any blood replenishing potions?"
"In my room, I'll go get them. Do you need anything else?" She asks.
"Maybe if you have any Wideye potions or wound cleansing." Neville suggests.
"Hmm, Terry might, he has been experimenting." Luna says, then leaving the common room to fetch the potions, Seamus going with her so he can let her back in afterwards.
Paz pushes stray hairs out of Ginny's face, which was paler than usual. Neville, Lavender and Parvati were also gathered around the two of them, unable to do much until Luna and Seamus returned.
Neville kept his hand on Paz's shoulder, almost as if to assure that everything would be alright and that it wasn't her fault. Paz new it technically wasn't her fault, though, she blamed herself anyways. She couldn't believe she waited so long to go looking for her best friend.
"We've got 'em!" Seamus shouts once returning to the common room, Luna and Terry rushing over to Ginny. The two then slightly open Ginny's mouth, pouring a small swig of Wideye potion in to hopefully wake her up.
After the longest several seconds of Paz's life, Ginny begins to stir, her eventually slowly opening.
"Gin?" Paz says, grabbing a hold of Ginny's hand. Ginny coughs.
"Bloody hell." She groans, as Paz lets out a soft laugh.
"Drink up, Ginny." Terry says, as he holds out a blood-replenishing potion, letting her take sips of it whenever ready.
Paz steps away to let Luna and Terry fix her up. Neville stands next to her. The two wonder what the rest of the year holds for them, and if some won't get out as lucky as Ginny did.
hmm. i feel like i don't talk about or have the students interact with professors enough. also, i've just uploaded a few chapters to my new short story 'downfall'. it's a quick read and i'll be updating it daily :)
hope you are enjoying!
gia