Harry Potter One Shots

Love Isn't Enough

"Ron, I have to go," Lavender said, pulling away from her boyfriend.

He ignored her, pressing her closer to him with one hand and tangling the other in her long blonde curls so that even if she had wanted to move away she couldn't have.

"Ron I- stop kissing me! I promised I'd meet Parvati, I'll see you later." Lavender wrenched his hand from her hair and exited the sixth year boys dormitories as quickly as she could, straightening her skirt and trying to smooth her curls as she made her way to her own dormitory.

"There you are!" Parvati exclaimed, dropping the book she was reading upon the arrival of Lavender.

"Where else would I be?" Lavender said, rather breathlessly as Parvati was wearing only pyjama shorts and a lacy crimson bra that made her chocolate skin look positively golden and jewelled earrings that set her dark eyes sparkling.

Parvati giggled and kneeled up on the bed, wobbling slightly as the mattress trembled but managing to look sexy anyway.

Lavender stood and stared at her, mouth slightly open.

"Well aren't you going to kiss me?" Parvati asked impatiently.

Lavender blinked and took a seat beside her girlfriend, playing with the hem of her skirt anxiously.

"Yes I- no?"

Parvati folded her arms over her chest, which Lavender was thankful for as she had been finding it hard to stay focused, and raised one thick dark eyebrow expectantly.

"Why not?" Despite her confident tone, there was fear behind the words and Lavender felt a pang of guilt for worrying her girlfriend.

"It feels weird kissing you right after I've kissed him."

"Oh." Parvati frowned. "But we've done it before..."

Lavender sighed and pulled out a loose thread from her skirt rather viciously.

"I can't keep seeing him. Or pretending to see him. It feels wrong, and I don't want to kiss him, I want to kiss you!" She exclaimed, looking beseechingly at the dark haired girl.

Parvati tugged at the elastic holding her braid and ran her long slender fingers through the ends of it, loosening it's tightly woven strands.

Looking at where her thick hair fell into her lap, she said softly, "I know, Lavender, but it's for the best."

Lavender threw her hands up in frustration. The pink sparkly nail polish she had applied only yesterday was already peeling off and the skin under her nails was raw from the nail-biting Parvati so despised.

"I don't think it is. I'm sick of hiding this, Parvati. I love you so much, and if the world has a problem with that, fuck it!"

"Lavender!" Parvati exclaimed in shock. Lavender knew not to swear around her.

"I'm going to break up with him, and if you don't want to be with me afterwards, then- then-" Lavender broke off, not knowing what she was going to say, but the distressed flush colouring her cheeks and the tears falling from her eyes gave Parvati an idea of what she meant.

"It's not as simple as that, Lavender, you know how my family is." Parvati's eyes, dry of tears, were wide and pleading and she was rather pale, though only someone who knew her well would have been able to notice beneath the dark tone of her skin.

And Lavender knew her so well. Knew she loved foot rubs and kisses behind the ear and that she always had orange juice with her breakfast. She was terrified of monkeys but loved butterflies and she wanted to be an Astronomy teacher when she grew up, though her favourite subject was Divination. Despite the fact Parvati hated dresses because they showed too much skin, she loved the sari's and Indian style dress robes her mother bought her and the Bollywood dancing that came with them. She thought Hermione Granger was lovely and wished she'd gotten to know her better when they were younger, but she didn't think much of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Sometimes Lavender thought she knew her girlfriend of six months and best friend of six years better than she knew herself, but what she knew more than anything was that she loved Parvati with all of her heart and never wanted to lose her.

"Your family want an arranged marriage for you, Parvati, I know you don't want that. You'll be of age in less than a year and then you can do whatever you want with your life! You can't let them control you."

"What if I do want that? Someone I can rely on, depend upon for money, safety. And even when I come of age I don't get to make all my own decisions."

Lavender barely heard the last sentence. She was too caught on the first.

"You can rely on me, Parvati. We'll both get jobs - you shouldn't have to depend on anyone for money - and I'll keep you safe. I'll keep you safe," she whispered, and took Parvati's hand in her own.

Lavender's skin was shockingly pale against the coffee and chocolate coloured tones of Parvati's, and their fingers interlaced looked like a ghost holding the hand of a human. As though Lavender wasn't real. And she didn't feel real in this moment, with Parvati, the one person who had always been there, slipping away from her. Lavender gripped her hand tightly and slid closer to her on the bed, leaning up to kiss her gently on the lips. One of Parvati's warm hands cupped the side of Lavender's face as she lowered herself down on the bed so Lavender was on top of her. Like oil spilling across the bedspread, Parvati's long dark hair came free of its braid and swum in black swirls around her head, sliding through Lavender's fingers as she stroked it as carefully as though it were made of paper thin glass. Their lips remained locked together, Parvati's almost naked torso hot through the fabric of Lavender's shirt, but the kiss tasted like salt from the tears both of them were now crying, and there was an awkwardness in the way they moved together.

"Lavender, Lavender- hey." Parvati pushed Lavender's curls back from her tear stained face. "Hey."

"I can't lose you," Lavender sobbed, and pressed her face into Parvati's chest, feeling her heartbeat strong and steady beneath her warm skin.

"You're not going to lose me. We'll always be friends."

"But I don't want to be friends! I want to be your girlfriend, Parvati! I want to kiss you and hold you and be like this with you."

Parvati sat up and held Lavender close to her, and whispered with her lips brushing the other girl's ear, "I want that too. I love you so much. But it just- it can't be."

"You're going to let all of this go for a stupid family tradition," Lavender said in disbelief, her voice muffled amongst the curtain of Parvati's hair.

"I'm not letting anything go - and it's not a stupid tradition. I'm just moving on, and you should as well."

"Moving on. Yeah, that's what it was when you kissed me a minute ago."

Lavender pushed Parvati away from her and stood shakily.

"Lavender, please, you have to understand that this is hard for me too-"

Lavender held up a hand and Parvati broke off, looking miserable.

"I loved you. I gave you everything - I kissed a boy for you, Parvati. A boy. Turns out it was all for nothing," Lavender said, her lip trembling as she held back more tears.

"You loved me? So you don't love me anymore."

"Out of everything I said, you picked up on that." Lavender sighed and tugged on one of her curls. "Yes, I loved you. And I think I still do, very much in fact, but you've ruined everything now so love isn't going to help, is it?"

Parvati clutched her hands to her chest as tears streamed down her cheeks, her long hair flowing down her back and onto the bed she sat upon.

"Sometimes, love isn't enough," Parvati murmured.

A/N

Please comment and add to your library! Thanks so much for reading.

Cate x