Title: Prodigious
Pairings: Anthony/Parvati, Anthony/Justin (non-slash), Anthony/Padma
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,054
Summary: Anthony defines his love life with vocabulary.
Author's Notes: Written for the Chain Reaction SuperChallenge at rarepair_shorts,

Anthony first considered Parvati during the D.A. meeting in February, when the two of them were partnered up to practice Shielding Charms. Parvati looked like her sister in almost every way except that she wore jewelry—red and gold ones—and had her hair down rather than up. She teased him and there was a lighthearted kind of air about her as she shot spell after spell at him. He was thrown off his feet.

Precipitate. Intransitive verb. To fall headlong; to fall or come suddenly into some condition.

It was times like this when Anthony had the foolish wish be being someone different. He was shy one—the one who liked to memorize words in the dictionary and Transfigure objects in his free time. He was not the kind of person who could walk up to a girl and ask her out. Terry and Mike weren't any help at all, since all they did was take the mickey of him about it. When he had asked Padma—who he thought surely would help him, being a girl and his friend and all that—she had snapped at him for using her as a mole and didn't talk to him for days.

It wasn't until You-Know-Who showed himself to the ministry did Anthony finally work up the nerve. They were in a real war now—logically speaking, who knew what was going to happen next in either of their lives, now? And besides, asking a girl out wasn't any worse than fighting a madman.

He bumped into Parvati sliding out of a compartment on the train home, and she smiled and said "Hi Anthony" as she walked past.

"Erm, Parvaiti?"

She stopped and looked at him. "Yes?"

"I was wondering…I was wondering if you wanted to have an ice cream or something some time during the summer?" He forced himself to make his words audible, rather than blurting it all out at once.

Parvati looked bewildered, then apologetic. His heart sank. "Um, that's really sweet, Anthony, but … I kind of think I'll be busy all summer."

It wasn't an outright rejection, but he was smart enough to know what one was. He smiled weakly to hide the hurt. "Oh—okay. That's fine. Have a good summer, then."

Parvati gave him an awkward smile and continued down the train. Anthony stood there, trying to get a grip on himself. At least she hadn't led him along—had been brave enough to say "no" from the beginning. Still, it didn't help much.

Rejection. Noun. The act of not being accepted or considered.

~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~

Anthony couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed at the sight of Padma and Justin Finch-Fletchley. All they seemed to be doing was studying across from each other, but Anthony could see them playing footsie under the table. Footsie! This was a library, not Madam Paddifoot's!

Justin Finch-Fletchley had been the first to ask her out to Hogsmeade, and from the smiles Padma had given when she got back, it had gone well. Anthony tried to feel happy for her, but that had been near impossible. And now he couldn't seem to look at his friend without wondering why she had changed and why she was with Finch-Fletchley in the first place.

What had happened to Padma, anyway? He didn't notice a change in any of the letters they exchanged over the summer, but she had come back for sixth year all dolled up like his sister Lucinda's Maggie the Make-Up Witch. She not only had her hair down, but seemed to have styled it so it fluffed around her head like a black cloud, and she wore a bright blue choker necklace around her throat. Then there was the flirting. Anthony had always appreciated being fellow Prefect with a girl who didn't waste time giggling and tossing her hair. Now Padma seemed to do so in abundance, drawing attention from the other males in their year.

Titivate. Verb. To dress up.

Terry and Mike thought he was ridiculous to be complaining, but it bothered him. She was less like her and too much…too much like Parvati.

It stunned him when he realized this—that this was what he would've put up with if he had gone out with Parvati. She might have been fun, but she had different conversational abilities than Padma—and he realized he would've gotten tired of it eventually. He secretly thanked Parvati for seeming to realize he was speaking with his hormones rather than his brain—something he promised never to do again.

He didn't want Parvati anymore. He would've happily traded the warped Padma for the Padma he had come to consider as a friend. The real Padma who studied in the library with him and told him stories from her homeland. Who was smart and witty and made him smile when his brain felt like it was going to explode.

Why was Anthony still here, anyway? He could save himself the frustration and just leave if he wanted to.

So why wasn't he?

Justin interrupted their sickening footsie game to head towards the Transfiguration section of the library. Without thinking, Anthony got up and quickly went after him. It didn't take long to find him—he was the only idiot humming "I Put a Spell on You" while pulling books off the shelf.

"Justin."

The Hufflepuff started, nearly dropping the books, and it gave Anthony a childish satisfaction. "Oh! Anthony. Didn't see you there."

Anthony didn't apologize. "Can I have a word?"

"What? Oh, yes. Yes of course," he replied bewilderedly.

Now that Anthony was there and had his attention, he didn't know what to say. He had always prided himself in thinking things through before doing things, but the desire to talk to Finch-Fletchley had been so sudden he hadn't any time.

Impulsive. Adjective. Driving forward. Of or from a sudden inclination to act.

"Anthony?"

He'd have to say something. "Look, you like Padma a lot, don't you?"

Whatever Finch-Fletchley had been expecting, it hadn't been that. "Um, yes. Yes I do."

"Well, I've known her for years, and I…I think there's a few things you should know," he finished lamely. What was he doing? Where was the Ravenclaw intelligence he was so fond of?

"Alright," Justin said slowly.

"First off, she not a fan of chocolate—so don't try wooing her with the whole chocolate and flowers standby," Anthony said, ticking off his finger. "Second, she likes talking about her culture. So…ask her about it once in a while. And third…her favorite books are the Muggle classics—Treasure Island, Ivanhoe, Jane Eyre, that sort of thing." His mind must no longer be in control of his mouth. It was the only explanation to why he would be helping Finch-Fletchley rather than try to make him see why they shouldn't go out.

Justin stood looking at him for a moment, and then said, "I didn't know any of that."

Anthony shrugged. "That's why I'm telling you."

"Well—thanks. I'll keep those in mind." He grinned ridiculously. "You don't happen to have anything else for me?"

He shook his head quickly before his mouth could answer for him. "The rest you have to find out for yourself, I'm afraid."

"Fair enough." He clapped him on the shoulder. "You're a good friend to her, Anthony. Not many male friends would help their female friends out this way."

"I just want to make sure Padma's happy," Anthony said quietly.

Even if it isn't with me.

Where the hell did that come from?

Before he could digest this properly, the Hufflepuff nodded. "I'll try to make her happy, Anthony. I give you my word."

~ + ~ + ~ + ~

Padma's relationship to Justin ended just before Christmas. It was the longest two months of Anthony's life.

He didn't find out until after the holidays though, when she was talking to Su Li on the platform about how Parvati took Padma's break-up worse than she did. It hurt a bit—worse than when Parvati had rejected him—to be told that way. They used to be friends who shared that kind of stuff with each other.

It became even worse when Padma went back to being the girl he knew. When he had seen her at their table in the library, her hair pulled back and her choker gone, he was the happiest he had been in ages.

And being in Ravenclaw, it didn't take long to come to the conclusion that he fancied her.

Not that it helped ease his pain. If anything it made it worse, knowing that she had been there—right in front of him—for years, and it wasn't until some pampered pillock who wouldn't know Calendula from Wolfsbane snatched her right under his nose.

Purblind. Adjective. Wholly blind. Or lacking in vision, insight or understanding.

She started studying Transfiguration and Ancient Runes with him again, as though nothing had changed. But it had, he realized sadly—the fact that he knew he fancied her and didn't have enough balls to do anything about it made all the difference.

At the beginning of May, he returned from the library to find her reading by the fireplace. It was a regular occurrence, but there was a stiffness in her posture that told him something bad had happened.

"Padma—?"

"Justin's going out with Lisa," she said before Anthony could ask.

"Oh." Not sure what to say, he sat across from her. She hadn't mentioned Justin since their break up. After a moment he said, "I'm sorry."

She smiled. "You don't have to pretend—I know you weren't fond of him."

"No," he admitted. "But I don't like seeing you upset."

"I'm not, to be honest." Anthony raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Really, I'm not. I'm just…thinking."

"About what?"

"The fact that Justin and I really didn't have that much in common."

Anthony breathed out slowly, not looking at her. "I thought he made you happy?"

"He did…but not for the reasons you think."

They sat in silence for a few moments, Anthony tearing himself with the same argument he'd had since January. On the one hand, Padma was free now. On the other, what if she didn't feel the same? Parvati's rejection had been hard, but he had a feeling Padma's would be even worse.

Vacillate. Verb. To sway to and fro; waver. Or to show indecision.

"I shouldn't have gone out with him in the first place," Padma said finally. "I don't know why I did."

She glanced at him, and then took a deep breath. "No. That's a lie. I know why I went out with him…. I was trying to make you…notice me as someone datable."

Anthony blinked at her. Wait…what?

"When you asked Parvati out, I knew—I knew that was the kind of girl you wanted. I thought that if I was more like her, you'd…see me."

But I did! I have!

"Padma—"

But his words were interrupted. Namely by Padma pressing her lips against his. He had imagined this almost every night for months now, and for a moment he thought he must be dreaming.

But it felt real. Her mouth had real warmth and there was real movement under his. Her small, real hand was on his chest over his heart and his head felt real lightheadedness. For the first time, none of his memorized vocabulary could describe the feeling. But by the time his brain realized he wasn't kissing back and his hand was levitating towards her head, Padma pulled away.

"I know—logically—you probably didn't want that," she said quietly, but her hands were still clutching his shirt. "But I just wanted to know what that felt like before you tell me I'm wasting my time."

Anthony's mouth opened and closed stupidly. It was the first time he could remember being at a completely loss for words.

"Well…say something," she demanded in a small voice.

"How was it?" he asked croakily. The first and stupidest thing he could come up with.

She looked at him in confusion. "Not…not what I expected."

It could've gone both ways, something in her voice told him it's the one he wanted.

"Excellent."

And he kissed her again. He wanted to spend the next several hundred years doing so.

Prodigious. Adjective. Exciting amazement or wonder. Or extraordinary in bulk, quantity or degree.

A/N: I'd never written Anthony before. I liked writing my version. All definitions are from various dictionaries—mostly online.