L I P S T I C K

Padma Patil was absolutely delighted. She was going to go to Hogsmeade with Parvati.

It was not very often that her twin tore herself far enough away from her friends that they could actually talk and act like they did before they got their letters. And in their fifth year, with the DA craze going around, it was about time that they had a real sister-on-sister chat. So on one of the Hogsmeade weekends, the Patils both went to the village for their first real sister time all school year.

They had so much fun as they went, visiting everywhere that either wanted, with Parvati even enduring Padma's superstitious rituals about the Shrieking Shack that she'd developed two years earlier. Then, they went to the Three Broomsticks for butterbeers and talking, and there was so much to discuss. The twins talked about gossip, and teachers, and of course Dumbledore's Army, and who was in it, and what they were doing, and how they were coming along. It was just like the old days, it was Parvati-and-Padma instead of something like Parvati-and-Lavender or Padma-and-whoeve-relse-was-in-the-library-that-day. It was an honest to God sisters' day, and while Parvati may have been dying to hear from her friend Lavender about the latest news between two completely random people, Padma was happy that she would come and talk with her.

Then things got very, very weird.

A butterbeer apiece later, Parvati started staring at Padma's eyebrow. At first she thought it was because she was staring into space and happened to lock her gaze on her eyebrow, but then she said, "Hey, what's that thing over your eyebrow, that purple smudgy thing?"

Padma lifted a hand to the bright purple smear above her right eyebrow and could feel herself blush. "Some nutter threw their lipstick at me. Must've thought it was funny or something."

Parvati continued to stare. "Why's Pansy Parkinson been throwing her lipstick at you? What've you done?"

The blush on the Ravenclaw's face deepened a little. "Probably because in double Herbology yesterday, I wouldn't let her copy my- wait," she gasped, replaying her twin's words in her head and catching something that she hadn't before. "How'd you know that this was her lipstick? I didn't even know that! It came out of nowhere!"

Now it was Parvati's turn to flush scarlet. "I dunno," she said weakly. "Saw her putting it on and it just stuck, I reckon."

"You watched Pansy Parkinson, Pansy the Slytherin Parkinson, who we hate ever since she moved across the street from us when we were six, put on her lipstick... and then remembered what color it was?" Padma repeated suspiciously. There was something seriously wrong with that sentence. In fact, everything was seriously wrong with that sentence. The only reason that Padma would remember something as trivial as a lipstick color would be if she saw it a lot. Like if she snogged them or something. She'd snogged Terry Boot once and never forgotten the taste of the nasty broccoli or something he'd apparently just eaten. So lipstick would stick in her mind too. But there was no way that Parvati and Pansy... oh, God, that was a frightening thought. Get away from that idea, Padma, she told herself, then focused on her sister.

"Erm, yeah," Parvati said quickly, her face burning a nice reddish color. She suddenly seemed to be in a great hurry. "Well, this has been fun, but I think I hear Lavender calling me somewhere..." she gestured vaguely into a large knot of people, none of whom seemed to resemble the girl in question. "We should do this again! Love you, see you!" And without further ado, Parvati drained the very last of her butterbeer, slammed down the glass, and ran into the crowd. Stunned by the sudden reaction, Padma was left to stew with her thoughts about her twin, snogging, lipstick, broccoli, and what the hell was wrong with the fact that Parvati could identify Pansy's lipstick.

Hahaha... this was fun. For the "Can You Write a Romance?" challenge on the HPFC. I thought it would be fun to write from a third party's point of view. And I was right. This is supposed to be Parvati/Pansy, but it's sort of implied because I felt like this was more fun than my first idea (angst galore) and my second idea (Pansy kissing Parvati to shut her up) combined. Anyways, what do you think? REVIEW!